Page:Wedding-ring, fit for the finger, or, The salve of divinity on the sore of humanity (4).pdf/9

 9   Nature makes us creatures, before, grace makes us Christians. If the loins of men had been less fruitful, the death of Christ would have been less suc- cessful. It was a witty question that one put to  him that said, marriage fills the earth, but virginity fills the heavens: How can the heavens be full if the earth be empty? Had Adam lived in innocency without ma- trimony, there would have been no servants of God in the church militant, nor no saints with God in the triumphant. But I will not sink this vessel by the over-burthening of it, nor press this truth to death, by laying too great a load upon its shoulders. There is one knot which I must untie be- fore I make a further progress, 1 Cor. vii. 1. " It is 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 same truth? The God of unity will not indite discord; and the God of verity cannot assert falsehood. If good and evil be contraries, how contrary then are these scriptures? Ei- ther Moses mistakes God, or Paul mis- takes. 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, bnt in respect of all, " so  it is not good that man should be alone." Moses speaks of the State of man created, Paul of the state of man corrupted: now that which by institution was a mercy, may by