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any lawful Hindrance or Impediment why they should not be lawfully joyned together, they should then declare it, protesting against even the Validity of the Marriage, in case they fail.
I Require and charge you both, (as ye will answer at the dreadful Day of Judgment, when the Secrets of all Hearts shall be disclosed) that if either of you know any Impediment, why ye may not be lawfully joyned together in Matrimony, ye do now confess it. For be ye well assured, that so many as are coupled together otherwise than God's Word doth allow, are not joyned together by God, neither is their Matrimony lawful.
Hereupon the Minister giving them time to answer, they are Silent; that is to say, they declare no Impediment, which is a tacit declaring that they know of none; and yet, at the same time, they know that in Conscience they have settled their Love and Affection upon another Person; and the Man or Woman they now marry they cannot love, and ought not on that Account to marry, because they Promise what they know they shall not perform.
How many times also does the Secret come out afterwards, either unawares by themselves, or in delirious Fits, extremities of Distempers, Dreams, talking in the Sleep, and such other Ways, which prove however fatal to the Peace of the Family, yet unavoidable?
Such Persons have great Reason to be sure that they do not talk in their Sleep; for what the Mind bears such a Weight of upon it, which indeed it is not equal to, and is not possible to be supported, though by a vigilant guarding theTongue
