what you do, illustrious Statia, in this par ticular. It must be a great crime to hinder the regular propagation of a fpecies, which God hath declared to be under his particular infpection and bleffing, and by circumcifion and baptism, hath made the fpecial object of divine attention and care. Away then with all thoughts of a virgin life, whatever becomes of me. As God hath appointed matrimony and baptifm, let it be your pious endeavour to bare fons and daughters, that may be related to God, their Father; to Jefus, their Redeemer, and first born in the family; and to all the excellent, who are to enjoy, through him, the bleffings of the glorious world above. Marry, then, illuftrious Statia, marry, and let the bleffing of Abraham come upon us gentiles. Oppofe not the gospel covenant; that covenant which was made with that patriarch; but mind the comfortable promifes; I will circumcife thy beart, and the heart of thy feed. I will pour out my Spirit upon thy feed, and my blessing upon thine offspring. The feed of the righteous is bleed. They are the feed of the bleed of the Lord, and their offspring with them. Such is the magna charta of our existence and future happiness; and as infants defcending from Abraham, in the line of election, to the end of the world, have as good a right and claim as we to the bleffings of this co

venant,

venant, and immenfe promife, I will be a God unto thee, and to thy feed after thee, in their generations; it must be a great crime, to deprive children of this intailed, heavenly inheritance, by our refolving to live in a ftate of virginity. In my opinion, it is a fin greater than murder. What is murder, but forcing one from his post against the will of providence; and if the virgin hinders a being or beings from coming on the poft, against the will of providence, must she not be culpable; and muft fhe not be doubly criminal, if the being or beings the hinders from coming on the ftage, or into this first ftate, were to be a part of the perpetual generations, who have a right to the inheritance, the bleffing, and were to be heirs according to the promise made to Abraham? Ponder, illuftrious Statia, on the important point. Confider what it is to die a maid, when you may, in a regular way, pruduce heirs to that inestimable bleffing of life and favour, which the munificence of the Most High was pleafed freely to beftow, and which the great Chriftian mediator, agent, and negociator, republifhed, confirmed, and fealed with his blood. Marry then in regard to the gospel, and let it be the fine employment of your life, to open gradually the treafures of revelation to the understandings of the little chriftians you produce.

Of celibacy and

This I am fure your holy religion requires from you: and if from the facred oracles we turn to the book of nature, is it not in this volume written, that there muft be a malignity in the hearts of those mortals, who can remain unconcerned at the deftruction and extirpation of the rest of mankind; and who want even fo much good will as is requifite to propagate a creature, (in a regular and hallowed way) tho' they received their own being from the meer benevolence of their divine Mafter? What do you fay, illuftrious Statia? Shall it be a fucceffion, as you are an upright Christian? And may I hope to have the high honour of fharing in the mutual fatisfaction that muft attend the difcharge of fo momentous a duty? (2)

§. 15. All

(2) If fucceffion be the main thing, and to prevent the extirpation of the reft of mankind by junction, why marriage. may it not be carried on as well without marriage, as

in that confined way? 1 anfwer, that as the author and founder of marriage, was the Antient of Days, God himself, and at the creation, he appointed the inflitution: as Chrift, who was vefted with authority to abrogate any laws, or fuperfede any cuftom, in which were found any Alaw or obliquity, or had not an intrinfic goodness and rectitude in them, confirmed the ordinance, by reforming the abufes that had crept into it, and restoring it to its original boundary: As he gave a fanction to this amicable covenant, and ftatuted that men fhould maintain the dignity of the conjugal ftate,

and

ley's an

§. 15. All the fmiles fat on the face of Mifs HenStatia, while I was haranguing in this de- wer. vout manner, and her countenance became

a

and by virtue of this primordial and most intimate bond of fociety, convey down the race of mankind, and maintain its fucceffion to the final diffolution; it is not therefore to be neglected or difregarded. We must not dare to follow our fancies, and in unhallowed mixtures, or an illegal method, have any pofterity. As the great God appointed and bleffed this inftitution only, for the continuance of mankind, the race is not to be preserved in another way. We must marry in the Lord, to promote his glory, as the apofile fays, 1 Cor. vii. 39. The earth is not to be replenished by licentious junction, or the promiscuous ufe of women. Dreadful hereafter muft be the cafe of all who flight an inftitution of God.

I am fenfible, the libertine who depreciates and vilifies the dignity of the married state, wili laugh at this affertion: The fop and debauchee will hifs it, and ftill do their best to render wedlock the fubject of contempt and ridicule. The Roman clergy will likewife decry it, and injuriously treat it as an impediment to devotion, a cramp upon the spiritual ferving of God, and call it an inftrument of pollution and defilement, in refpect of their heavenly celibacy. ;

But as God thought marriage was fuitable to a paradifaical state, and the scriptures declare it honourable in all: as this is the way appointed by heaven to people the earth; and the inflitution is necessary, in the reason and nature of things, confidering the circumftances in which mankind is placed; to prevent confufion, and promote the general happiness; as the bond of fociety, and the foundation of all human government; fure I am, the rake and the mass-prieft, muft be in a dreadful situation at the feffions of righteoufnefs; when the one is charged with libertinifm and gallantries, with mad-. nefs

E

a conftellation of wonders. When I had done, this beauty faid, I thank you, Sir, for the information you have given me. I am

a

nefs and folly, and with all the evils and mischief they have done by illicit gratification, contrary to reason, and in direct oppofition to the inflitutes of God; and when the other, the miferable mass-priests, are called to an account, for vilifying the honour and dignity of the married ftate, and for ftriving to seduce mankind into the folitary retirements of celibacy, in violation of the laws of God; and more especially of the primary law or ordinance of heaven. Wretched priests! Your institutions are breaches in revealed religion, trefpaffes upon the common rights of nature, and fuch oppreffive yokes as it is not able to bear. Your celibacy has not a grain of piety in it. It is policy and impiety.

- Hear me then, ye libertines and mass-priests: I call upon you of the first row, ye rakes of genius, to confider what you are doing, and in time, turn from your iniquities Be no longer profligate and licentious, blind to your true interest and happiness, but become virtuous and honourable lovers, and in regard to the advantages of this folemn inftitution, called wedlock, as well to the general state of the world, as to individuals, marry in the Lord; fo will you avoid that dreadful fen-. tence, Fornicators and adulterers God will judge, that is, punifh; and in this life, you may make things very agreeable, if you please; though it is in the heavenly world alone, where there fhall be all joy and no forrow. Let there be true beauty and gracefulness in the mind and manners, and these with difcretion, and other things in your power, will furnish a fund of hap pinefs commenfurate with your lives. It is poffible, I am fure, to make marriage productive of as much happiness as falls to our share in this lower hemisphere; as the nature of man can reach to in his present con

dition.