And if after all, the danger of being caft into Hell, can make no Impreffions upon us; or make us forbear what our Mafter faith, will be the undoing of us, moft certainly we know not what that Punishment is,and will not know it, nor indeed do we believe it. I confefs, I would have you do what Chrift fays is neceflàry, upon a Principle of Love; but if your Tempers are fo ftubborn, that Love cannot melt you into a chearful Compliance with your Mafters Will, you have reafon to fright your felves with the danger of that Fire which fhall never be quenched. In a word, do any thing to fave your felves from this untoward Generation. Sins as dear as the right Eye, as precious as the right Hand, will fall and die, if they be brought to feel that Fire; I mean, by attentive Thinking, and Meditation. I doubt not, but the unhappy Creatures, to whose share the future Torment falls, wifh, and will wish, that they had pluckt out their right Eye, and cut off their right Hand, rather than have come into that place of Torment. Oh! how they will curfe the Day, the Time, the Place, when and where they committed their Lewdness and Impurities; nay, the Eye that deceived them into thofe Lufts; and the Hand that tempted them to Sin; and would God be so kind, as to free them from the Prifon they groan in, upon condition that they should pluck out both their Eyes, and cut off both their Hands,they would thank him for the Favour,and think their Judge wonderfully Merciful, to agree to fuch foft and reasonable Terms. The prefent Satisfaction is the Lime-twig, that keeps People under the power of Sin, and Satan. But were that Hell, we fpeak of, fet out in its native Colours, and compared with that Satisfaction, you would fcorn it, as much as you do the most loathfome Animals. To enjoy the prefent Satisfaction of Sin, and yet to escape Hell, are things inconfiftent, and in Divinity impoffible; therefore that Satisfaction must be quitted; or if Death should arrest you in that Satisfaction, the other will certainly take place: All which makes our Saviour's Difcourfe here very rational and equitable; if thy right Eye offend thee, pluck it out, &c. SER. SERMON XXVII. St. Matth. Ch. v. Ver.,31 32. It hath been faid, whosoever shall put away his Wife, let him give her a Writing of Divorcement. But I say unto you, that whofoever fhall put away his Wife, Saving for the cause of Fornication, caufes her to commit Adultery; and whosoever Marries her that is Divorced, commits Adultery. W HEN Chrift, the Son of Righteoufnefs appeared in this Vale of Mifery, the World was fo corrupt, that the attempt to reform, &c. would have frighted the wifeft, the most valiant, any Society of Men, any Man, but him, who had Omnipotence to back him. To fay nothing of the Heathen Nations, who had been fuffered to walk in their own ways, and therefore no wonder if they funk into all the dreadful Vices mentioned, Rom. i. The Jems, to whom pertained the Adoption, and the Glory, and the Covenant, and the Promifes, and the giving of the Law, whose were the Fathers, and of whom Chrift came after the L 3 Flesh; Flesh; and of whom one would have expected a Purity anfwerable to their Mercies and Encouragement: Thefe though they had made a fhift to renounce Idolatry, yet had fo vitiated and polluted all the Articles of Divinity, and all the Rules of Morality, that it required a strength greater than that of Hercules, to purge that Augaan Stable. You have feen already their various Violations of things Sacred, and Divine; and the ill favoured Interpretations they put upon the Law against Murther, and the other against Adultery. The fame Liberty, or Licentioufnefs they practifed or made ufe of in the matter of Divorces, or putting away their Wives; and in doing fo they grounded themselves upon a Text of the Law of Mofes, Deut. xxiv. 1, 2. Where Mofes permits Men in certain cafes to feparate themfelves from their Wives; and in order thereunto,to give them in a Bill to certi fie that Separation, or a Writing of Divorcement; which Text our Saviour alledges, and admits of, doth not deny that fuch a thing was permitted under the Law, but partly to fhew, that they wilfully deprived and perverted the Senfe and Defign of that Law; and partly to intimate, that his Doctrine, and the Bleffings which came along with it, required greater Strictnefs and Severity of Life. He proves, that the Lawfulness of Divorcements, which they extended to Caufes and Cafes of their own making, was to be restrained only to Fornication, and Adultery; and whoever took greater Liberty in Divorcing himself, wonld would involve himself in very great Evils, and Mischiefs. It hath been faid, Whofover shall put away his Wife, let him give her a Writing of Divorcement. But I fay unto you, that whofoever Shall put away his Wife, faving in the cafe of Fornication, caufes her to commit Adultery; and whofoever Marries her which is Divorced, commits Adultery. This is no Contradiction to the Law of Mofes, but raifing an imperfect into a more perfect Law, which became him who was the end of the Law; for the Law made nothing perfect, but the bringingin of a better hope did. To treat of thefe Words to your Edification, I fhall I. Enquire into the Nature of the Law of Mofes, concerning Divorcements. II. Why Chrift forbids,and abolishes Divorcements in the Jewish Senfe. III. Why Fornication, or Adultery is a juft Caufe of Divorcement; and whether that be the fole and only caufe, that juftifies fuch a Separation. IV. Whether the Woman hath an equal Right; and in cafe of the Husband's Adultery, may Divorce her felf from her Husband, as well as as the Husband from the Wife, in cafe the fault lies in her. V. Whether this Divorcement may be made by their own Authority, without the Advice and order of the Magistrate. VI. Whether after fuch a Divorce, the innocent Party,or both Parties may Marry again. VII. How L 4 |