22. BUT as a Daughter is neither to anticipate, nor contradict the Will of her Parent, fo (to hang the balance even) I must say she is not oblig'd to force her own, by Marrying where The cannot love; for a negative voice in the cafe is fure as much the Child's right, as the Parent's. It is true, fhe ought well to examine the grounds of her averfion, and if they prove only Childish and Fanciful, fhould endeavour to correct them by Reason and fober Confideration; if after all fhe cannot leave to hate, I think she should not proceed to Marry. I confefs I fee not how fhe can, without a facrilegious Hypocrify, vow fo folemnly to love where fhe at the inftant actually abhors: and where the Marry'd state is begun with fuch a Perjury, 'tis no wonder to find it continu'd on at the fame rate, that other parts of the Vow be alfo violated; and that the observe the Negative part no more than the Pofitive, and as little forfake others, as the do's heartily cleave to her Husband. I fear this is a confequence whereof there are too many fad inftances now extant; for tho' doubtless, there are fome Virtues which will hold out against all the Temptations their averfions can give, nay, which do at last even Conquer thofe averfions, and render their Duty as eafy as they have kept it fafe; yet we find there are but fome few that do fo; that it is no infeparable property of the Sex, and therefore it is fure too hazardous an

experiment for any of them to venture on.

23. AND if they may not upon the more generous motive of Obedience, much less may they upon the worse inducements of Avarice and Ambition: for a Woman to make a Vow to the Man, and yet intend only to Marry his Fortune or his Title, is the bafeft infincerity, and fuch as in any other kind of civil contracts, would not only have the infamy, but the punishment of a Cheat. Nor will it at all fecure them, that in this 'tis only lyable to God's Tribunal: for that is not like to make the doom lefs, but more heavy, it being, as the Apoftle witneffes, a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God, Hebr. 10. 31. In a word, Marriage is God's Ordinance, and fhould be confider'd as fuch; not made a ftale to any unworthy defign. And it may well be prefum'd one cause why fo few Matches are happy, that they are not built upon a right Fonndation. Some are grounded upon Wealth, fome on Beauty, too fandy bottoms, God knows, to raise any felicity on: whilft in the interim, Virtue and Piety, the only folid Bafis for that Superftructure, are fcarce ever confider'd. Thus God is commonly left out of the confultation. The Lawyers are reforted to, to fecure the Settlements, all forts of Artificers, to make up the Equipage; but he is neither advis'd with as to the motives, nor fcarce fupplicated as to the event of Wedding. Indeed, 'tis a deplorable

fight to fee with what lightnefs and unconcernedness young People go to that weightieft action of their Lives; that a Marriage-day is but a kind of a Bacchanal, a more licens'd avow'd Revel: when, if they duly confider'd it, 'tis the Hinge upon which their future Life moves, which turns them over to a Happy or Miferable being; and therefore ought to be enter'd upon with the greatest Seriousness and Devotion. Our Church advifes excellently in the preface to Matrimony: and I wish they would not only give it the hearing at the time, but make it their study a good while before yea, and their Marriage-vow too; which is fo ftrict and awful a bond, that, methinks, they had need well weigh every branch of it, e're they enter into it; and by the ferventeft Prayers implore that God, who is the witness, to be their affiftant too in it's performance.

I.

HOTH

•AN

SECT. II.

Of Wives.

ND now having conducted the Virgin to the entrance of another State, I muft shift the Scene, and attend her thither alfo. And here fhe is launch'd into a wide Sea, that one relation of a Wife drawing after it many others: for as fhe espouses the Man, fo fhe 'do's his Obligations alfo: and where-ever He by tyes of Nature or Alliance, ows a Reverence or Kindness, she is no less a debtor. Her Marriage is an adoption into his Family, and therefore fhe is to every branch of it to pay what their Stations there do respectively require. To define which more particularly, would be a work of more length than profit. I shall therefore confine the prefent confideration to the relation fhe ftands in to her Husband, (and what is usually con-comitant with that) her Children and her Servants, and fo fhall confider her in the three capacities of a Wife, a Mother, and a Mistress.

2. IN that of a Wife her duty has severa aspects, as it relates, firft to his Perfon, fecondly to his Reputation, thirdly to his Fortune. The first debt to his Perfon is Love, which we find fet as the prime Article in the

Mar

Marriage-vow. And indeed this is the moft effential requifite; without this 'tis only a Bargain and Compact, a Tyranny perhaps on the Man's part, and a Slavery on the Woman's. 'Tis Love only that cements the hearts, and where that Union is wanting, 'tis but a fhadow, a carcafs of Marriage. Therefore as it is very neceffary to bring fome degree of this to this ftate; fo 'tis no lefs to maintain and improve it in it. This is it which facilitates all other duties of Marriage; makes the Yoke fit fo lightly, that it rather pleases than galls. It fhould therefore be the ftudy of Wives to preferve this flame; that, like the Vestal Fire, it may never go out and to that end carefully to guard it from all those things which are naturally apt to exftinguish it; of which kind are all Frowardness and little Perverseness of Humour: all Sullen and Morofe Behaviour, which by taking off from the Delight and Complacency of Conversation, will by degrees wear off the Kindness.

3. BUT of all I know nothing more dangerous than that unhappy paffion of Jealoufy, which tho' 'tis faid to be the Child of Love, yet like the Viper, it's Birth is the certain deftruction of the Parent. As therefore they muft be nicely careful to give their Husbands no colour, nor the leaft umbrage for it; fo fhould they be as refolute to refift all that occurs to themfelves, be fo far from that bufy Curiofity, that

Industry