Page:Wedding-ring, fit for the finger, or, The salve of divinity on the sore of humanity (2).pdf/7

 They would pick the lock that wants the key, and pluck the fruit that do not plant the tree. The Hebrews have a ſaying, That he is not a man that hath not a wife. Though they climb too high a bough yet it is to be feared that ſuch fleſh is full of imperfection, that is nottending to propagation: Though man alone, may be good, yet "It is not good that man ſhould be alone." Which leads me from the Subject to the Predicate "It is not good."

Now, it is not good that man ſhould be in a ſingle condition on a threefold conſideration.

1. In reſpect of ſin, which would not elſe be prevented: Marriage is like water, to quench the ſparks of luſt's fire 1 Cor. vii. 2. "Nevertheless, to avoid fornication let every one have his own wife," &c. Man needed no ſuch phyſick when he was in perfect health.

Temptations may break nature's beſt fence, and lay it's paradiſe waſte; but a ſingle life is a priſon of unruly deſires, which is daily attempted to be broken open. Some indeed, force themſelves to a ſingle life merely to avoid the charges of a married ſtate; they chooſe rather to live in their own ſenſuality, than extinguiſh thoſe flames with an allowed remedy: "It is better to marry than to burn;" to be lawfully coupled, than to be luſtfully scorched. It is beſt to feed theſe flames with ordinate fuel.

2. It is not good in reſpect of mankind, which then would not be propagated. The Roman Historian, relating the raviſhing of the Sabine woman, excuſed them thus, “Without them, mankind would fall from the earth, and