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

 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 not tending 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. I Cor. vii. 2. ' Never- theless, to avoid fornication, let every one have his own wife,' &c Man needed no such phy- sic when lie was in perfect health.-- Temptations may break nature's best fence, and lay its para- dise waste; but a single life is a prison of un- ruly 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 feel 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 women, excused them thus, " Without them, mankind would fails from the earth