Page:Wedding-ring, fit for the finger, or, The salve of divinity on the sore of humanity (2).pdf/9

 good for a man not to touch a woman." Do all the Scriptures proceed out of the ſame mouth? And do they not all ſpeak the fame truth?—The God of unity will not indite diſcord: and the God of verity cannot aſſert falſhood. If good and evil be contraries, how contrary then are these Scriptures? Either Moſes miſtakes God, or Paul miſtakes Moſes about the point of marriage. To which I ſhall give a double anſwer.

1. There is a public and a private good. In reſpect of one man, it may be good not to touch a woman; but in reſpect of all, "It is not good that man ſhould be alone."

2. Moſes ſpeaks of the ſtate of man created, Paul of the ſtate of man corrupted. Now, that which by inſtitution was a mercy, by corruption may become a miſery; as pure water is tainted by running through a miry channel; or as the ſun beams receive a tincture by ſhining through a coloured glaſs. There is no print of evil in the world, but ſin was the ſtamp that made it. They that ſeek nothing but weal in its commiſſion, will find nothing but wo in the concluſion. Which leads me from the ſolitarineſs of the condition. "Man alone," to the ſuitableneſs of the proviſion, "I will make an help meet for him."

In which you have two parts: 1. The Agent, I will make. 2. The Object, A help.

1. The Agent. I will make. We cannot build a house without tools, but the Trinity is at liberty. To God's omniscience there is nothing impoſſible. We work by hands, but