Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/109

[ 95 ]

 

CHAP. IV.

Of the absolute Necessity of a mutual Affection before Matrimony, in order to the Happiness of a married State, and of the Scandal of marrying without it.

 

ARRIAGE is a state of Union, and the strictest of its Kind that can not only be found, but that can be conceived of among Men. Adam emphatically expresses it, when God brought the Woman to him; This is now Bone of my Bone, and Flesh of my Flesh, Gen. xi. 23. and again, verse 24. and they shall be one Flesh.

So solemn the Institution, so simple the Construction, so fast the Bond, so loose the Persons bound! It would be much too serious for the reading of these Times to enter into a Dissertation upon the solemn Engagement, and upon the Weight and Significance of the Obligation on both Sides, how firm the Bond, how indissolvible the mutual Ties, and how important to the Felicity of Life it is that they should be religiously observed.

I know too well who I am talking to, and at what Time of Day; how the Subordina-tion