{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_61143/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_61143","id":"gutenberg_61143","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61143","summary":null,"tags":["Category: British Literature","Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Gender & Sexuality Studies","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Marriage","Women -- Social conditions"],"text":"_BOOKS_ _written by the same Author, and sold by_ _WILLIAM PARKER_, at\n    the _King\u2019s-Head_ in St. _Paul_\u2019s Church-Yard.\n\n  The Christian Religion, as Profess\u2019d by a _DAUGHTER_ of the _Church of\n    England_. The Third Edition.\n\n  Shewing, the due Behaviour of _Women_, the _Vices_ they ought to\n    _Shun_, and the _Virtues_ they ought to _Practice_. A Treatise very\n    necessary, in _this degenerate Age_, to _confirm_ the Ladies in\n    their _Religious Principles_, and to instruct them in what they\n    ought to _believe_ and _practise_, in order to their _Eternal\n    Salvation_.\n\nA _Serious_ _PROPOSAL_ to the _LADIES_ for the Advancement of their\n_true_ and _greatest_ Interest, Part I. The Fourth Edition.\n\nA _Serious_ _PROPOSAL_ to the _LADIES_, Part II. Wherein a Method is\noffered for the _Improvement_ of their _Minds_.\n\n_LETTERS_ concerning the _LOVE_ of _GOD_, between the Author of the\n_Proposal to the Ladies_, and Mr. _John Norris_: Wherein his late\nDiscourse, shewing, that it ought to be intire and exclusive of all\nother Loves, is farther cleared and justified. The second Edition.\n\nAn _ENQUIRY_ after _WIT_: Wherein the trifling Arguing, and impious\nRaillery of the late Earl of _Shaftsbury_, in his Letter concerning\n_Enthusiasm_; and other profane Writers, are fully Answer\u2019d and justly\nExposed. The Second Edition.\n\n_MODERATION_ truly stated: Or a Review of a late Pamphlet, intitled,\n_Moderation a Vertue_. With a Prefatory Discourse to Dr. _D\u2019Avenant_,\nconcerning his late Essays on Peace and War. 4_to_.\n\n\n\n\n                                  SOME\n                              REFLECTIONS\n                                  UPON\n                               MARRIAGE.\n\n\n                           With _ADDITIONS_.\n\n\n                          The FOURTH EDITION.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n                               _LONDON_:\n\n                  Printed for _WILLIAM PARKER_, at the\n              _King_\u2019s _Head_ in St. _Paul_\u2019s Church-Yard.\n\n                               M.DCC.XXX.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n                             ADVERTISEMENT.\n\n\n_These Reflections being made in the Country, where the Book that\noccasion\u2019d them came but late to Hand, the_ Reader _is desir\u2019d to excuse\ntheir Unseasonableness as well as other Faults; and to believe, that\nthey have no other Design than to Correct some Abuses, which are not the\nless because Power and Prescription seem to authorize them. If any is so\nneedlesly curious as to inquire from what Hand they come, they may\nplease to know, that it is not good Manners to ask, since the Title Page\ndoes not tell them: We are all of us sufficiently Vain, and without\ndoubt, the celebrated Name of_ Author, _which most are so fond of, had\nnot been avoided but for very good Reasons: To name but one_; Who will\ncare to pull upon themselves an Hornet\u2019s Nest? _\u2019Tis a very great Fault,\nto regard rather Who it is that speaks, than What is spoken; and either\nto submit to Authority, when we should only yield to Reason; or if\nReason press too hard, to think to ward it off by Personal Objections\nand Reflections. Bold Truths may pass while the Speaker is_ Incognito,\n_but are seldom endur\u2019d when he is known; few Minds being strong enough\nto bear what contradicts their Principles and Practices, without\nrecriminating when they can_. _And though to tell the Truth be the most\nFriendly Office, yet whoever is so hardy as to venture at it, shall be\ncounted an Enemy for so doing._\n\n  The _PREFACE_ in the last Edition being extended to an uncommon\n    Length, is now printed at the latter End, as an _APPENDIX_.\n\n\n\n\n                               _ERRATA._\n\n\n  Page 12. line 15. read _your_; p. 14. l. 5. r. _sufficient_; p. 21. l.\n    10. dele _in that_; p. 97. l. 10. after _oppose_ add _to_; p. 130.\n    1. 6. r. _Adulterer_;\u2014l. 23. r. _humbled_; p. 131. l. 2. for _than_\n    read _as_; p. 156. l. 14. for _was_ r. _is_.\n\n\n\n\n                      _Books Sold by_ W. _PARKER_.\n\n\nArchbishop _Sharp_\u2019s Sermons. 4 Vols.\n\nBishop _Moor_\u2019s Sermons. 2 Vols.\n\nA Collection of above three hundred Receipts in Cookery, Physick, and\nSurgery, for the Use of all good Wives, tender Mothers, and careful\nNurses. By several Hands. The Fourth Edition: To which is added, a\nsecond Part, containing a great Number of excellent Receipts, for\nPreserving and Conserving of Sweet-Meats, _&c._\n\nA Dissertation of the Extreme Folly and Danger of Infidelity; occasioned\nby a late virulent Book, intitled, A Discourse on the Grounds and\nReasons of the Christian Religion. By _Thomas Curteis_, Rector of\n_Wrotham_ in _Kent_. Second Edition. Pr. 2_s._\n\nAn Inquiry whether a general Practice of Virtue tends to the Wealth or\nPoverty, Benefit or Advantage of a People? In which the Pleas offered by\nthe Author of the Fable of the Bees, or, Private Vices, Publick\nBenefits, for the Usefulness of Vice and Roguery, are considered; with\nsome Thoughts concerning a Toleration of Publick Stews. By the late Mr.\n_Bluett_. Pr. 2s. 6d.\n\nThe History of the Life and Sufferings of the Reverend and Learned _John\nWickliff_, D. D. Warden of _Canterbury_ Hall, and Publick Professor of\nDivinity in _Oxford_, and Rector of _Lutterworth_ in _Leicestershire_,\nin the Reign of King _Edward_ III. and _Richard_ the II.; together with\na Collection of Papers relating to the said History, never before\nPrinted. By _John Lewis_, M. A. Minister of _Margate_ in _Kent_.\n\nThe Church Catechism explained for the Use of the Diocese of St.\n_Asaph_. By the Right Reverend Father in God _Will. Beveridge_, D. D.\nlate Bishop of St. _Asaph_. Sixth Edition.\n\nThe Faith and Practice of the Church of _England-Man_. The Ninth\nEdition. Price 4d.\n\nPrinciples of the _Cyprianic_ Age, with Regard to Episcopal Power and\nJurisdiction, asserted and recommended from the genuine Writings of St.\n_Cyprian_ himself, and his Contemporaries.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n                                  SOME\n                              REFLECTIONS\n                                  UPON\n                               MARRIAGE.\n\n\nCuriosity, which is sometimes an Occasion of Good, but more frequently\nof Mischief, by disturbing our own or our Neighbours Repose, having\ninduc\u2019d me to read the Account of an unhappy Marriage, I thought an\nAfternoon would not be quite thrown away in pursuing such _Reflections_\nas it occasion\u2019d. I am far from designing a Satire upon Marriage, as\nsome pretend, either unkindly or ignorantly, through want of\n_Reflection_ in that Sense wherein I use the Word.\n\nOne wou\u2019d have thought that Cardinal _Mazarine_, whose Dignity, Power\nand Riches, render\u2019d him so considerable in the Eyes of all _Europe_;\nand who, like most great Ministers, aim\u2019d at nothing so much as the\naggrandizing himself and his Family, and who wanted no Opportunities of\ndoing it, should have taken his Measures so justly as not to be\ndisappointed: At least, that a Fabrick rais\u2019d with as much Art and Cost,\nfounded in the Oppression, and cemented with the Blood of the People,\nshould not so quickly have tumbled into the Dust after him. But so it\nis, _Providence_, whether we think of it or no, overrules our Actions\nand baffles our best-concerted Projects: So that unless we wilfully shut\nour Eyes, we cannot but discern, that when _Men in_ Power and _Honour_\nleave _GOD_ out of their Schemes, they _have no Understanding_, though\ntheir natural Genius be ever so bright, _but are_ justly _compared to\nthe Beasts that perish_. The _Ignorant_ and _Foolish_ succeed quite as\nwell as the _Worldly-wise_, who _carry nothing away with them when they_\ndie, neither will their Riches and Glory descend as they intended. It is\nonly by generous and worthy Actions that we are rescued from Oblivion,\nor from what is worse, being remembred with Contempt and Execrations: So\nlittle Reason is there to envy any Man\u2019s Wealth and Greatness, but much\nto emulate their Wisdom and Vertue whose Views extend to a more durable\nFelicity.\n\n\u2019Tis natural to well-turn\u2019d Minds, when they hear of any Person eminent\nin Wit and Beauty, adorn\u2019d with Politeness and Address, to wish these\nmay be accompanied and supported by what is more valuable and lasting,\nsolid Sense and real Vertue. One grieves at any Imputation on such an\nengaging Character, and if one cannot always find the favourite Person\nfortunate, one labours for the Consolation of finding them discreet; and\neven where their Conduct is not wholly blameless, Compassion and\nGood-nature will take Place of Censure in a Noble, as well as in a\nChristian Heart. We find out something to excuse, something to regret,\nlamenting that such a Treasure should fall into unworthy Hands,\ninsensible of its Value, unskilful to preserve and improve it: We sigh,\nwe grieve, that any Person capable of being an Ornament to a Family, and\nBlessing to the Age, should only serve as an unhappy Shipwreck to point\nout the Misfortune of an ill Education and unsuitable Marriage, and the\ninexpressible Danger of seeking Consolation and Relief, in any thing but\nInnocence and Vertue.\n\nThey only who have felt it, know the Misery of being forc\u2019d to marry\nwhere they do not love; of being yok\u2019d for Life to a disagreeable Person\nand imperious Temper, where Ignorance and Folly (the Ingredients of a\nCoxcomb, who is the most unsufferable Fool) tyrannizes over Wit and\nSense: To be perpetually contradicted for Contradiction-sake, and bore\ndown by Authority, not by Argument; to be denied one\u2019s most innocent\nDesires, for no other Reason but the absolute Will and Pleasure of a\nLord and Master, whose Follies a Wife, with all her Prudence, cannot\nhide, and whose Commands she cannot but despise at the same Time that\nshe obeys them.\n\nOr, suppose on the other Hand, she has married the Man she loves, heap\u2019d\nupon him the highest Obligations, by putting into his Power the Fortune\nhe coveted, the Beauty he profess\u2019d to adore; how soon are the Tables\nturn\u2019d? It is her Part now to court and fawn; his real or pretended\nPassion soon cools into Indifference, Neglect, or perhaps Aversion. \u2019Tis\nwell if he preserves a decent Civility, takes a little care of\nAppearances, and is willing to conceal his Breach of Faith.\n\nBut shall a Wife retaliate? _GOD_ forbid! no Provocation, though ever so\ngreat, can excuse the Sin, or lessen the Folly: It were indeed a\nrevenging the Injury upon herself in the most terrible Manner. The\n_Italian_ Proverb shews a much better Way, _If you would be revenged of\nyour Enemies, live well_.\n\nDevotion is the proper Remedy, and the only infallible Relief in all\nDistresses; when this is neglected or turn\u2019d into Ridicule, we run, as\nfrom one Wickedness, so from one Misfortune, to another. Unhappy is that\nGrandeur which is too great to be good, and that which sets us at a\nDistance from true Wisdom. Even Bigotry, as contemptible as it is, is\npreferable to profane Wit; for _that_ requires our Pity, but _this_\ndeserves our Abhorrence.\n\nA Woman who seeks Consolation under Domestick Troubles from the Gaieties\nof a Court, from Gallantry, Gaming, rambling in Search of odd\nAdventures, childish, ridiculous and ill-natur\u2019d Amusements, such as we\nfind in the unhappy Madam _M_\u2014\u2014\u2019s _Memoirs_, the common Methods of\ngetting rid of Time, that is, of our very Being, and keeping as much as\nwe can at a Distance from ourselves, will find these are very\ninsignificant Applications; they hardly skin the Wound, and can never\nheal it, they even hurt, they make it fester, and render it almost\nincurable.\n\nWhat an ill Figure does a Woman make, with all the Charms of her Beauty,\nand Sprightliness of her Wit, with all her good Humour and insinuating\nAddress, though she be the best Oeconomist in the World, the most\nentertaining Company, if she remit her Guard, abate in the Severity of\nher Caution, and Strictness of her Vertue? If she neglects those Methods\nwhich are necessary to keep her, not only from a Crime, but from the\nvery Suspicion of one? She justifies the Injury her Husband has done\nher, by publishing to the World, that whatever good Qualities she may\npossess, Discretion, the Mistress of all the rest, is wanting: Though\nshe be really guiltless, she cannot prove her Innocence, the Suspicions\nin her Prejudice are so strong. When she is censur\u2019d, Charity, that\nthinks no Evil, can only be silent; though it believes and hopes the\nbest, it cannot engage in her Defence, nor apologize for irregular\nActions.\n\nAn ill Husband may deprive a Wife of the Comfort and Quiet of her Life,\ngive occasion of exercising her Vertue, try her Patience and Fortitude\nto the utmost, which is all he can do; it is herself only that can\naccomplish her Ruin.\n\nIn vain we seek for Colours to varnish faulty Manners. An Advocate shews\nthe best Side of his Wit, but the worst of his Integrity when he has an\nill Cause to manage: But to what Purpose? He cannot impose on the\nJudicious, his Colouring vanishes before their Eyes, and a good deal of\nMalice, with a very little Sense, will find the Weakness of his\nArguments; so much the more suspected, by how much the more labour\u2019d:\nFor Truth is plain and forcible, depending on her own Strength; she\nrequires no more than to be placed in a proper Light, nor condescends to\nArt or Insinuations, unless in Compassion to the Weakness and Prejudice\nof Mankind. Nor are they less mistaken in regard of Wit, which consists\nnot meerly in saying what is odd and out of the way; Fools do this\npretty often; but Wit consists in expressing good Sense in a surprising,\nyet natural and agreeable Manner.\n\nThere are some Reasons, (for the Laws of _GOD_ and Man allow Divorces in\ncertain Cases) though not many, that authorize a Wife\u2019s leaving her\nHusband, but if any Thing short of absolute Necessity, from\nirreclaimable Vice and Cruelty, prevails with her to break these sacred\nand strongest Bonds, how is she expos\u2019d to Temptations and Injuries,\nContempt, and the just Censure of the World. A Woman of Sense, one\nshou\u2019d think, could take but little Pleasure in the Courtship and\nFlatteries of her Adorers, even when she is single: But for a married\nWoman to admit of Love Addresses, is worse than Folly; it is a Crime so\nridiculous, that I will never believe a Woman of Sense can be guilty of\nit. For what does a Man pretend when he whines and dangles after a\nmarried Woman? Would he have her think he admires her, when he is\ntreating her with the last Contempt? or that he loves her, when he is\ntrying his Arts to gratify his brutal Passion, at the Price of all that\nis dear to her? His fine Speeches have either no Meaning, or a\nreproachful one; he affronts her Understanding as well as her Vertue, if\nhe fancies she cannot discern, or wants Spirit to resent the Insults.\nShe can look on him no otherwise than as the worst of Hypocrites, who\nflatters to betray, and fawns that he may ruin; who is laying Snares to\nentangle her in a Commerce founded on Injustice, and Breach of the most\nsacred Vows, carried on by Dissimulation, Treachery, Lyes, and Deceit,\nattended with Fear and Anxiety, Shame, Remorse, the bitter Stings of\nGuilt, whose fatal Consequences cannot be foreseen, the least of which\nis the blasting of her Honour. And why all this Mischief? Why, because\nhe professes to think her amiable, and with the blackest Treachery takes\nAdvantage of her Weakness, and the too good Opinion she has entertained\nof him, to render her odious! to render her contemptible to himself, as\nwell as to the World.\n\nWho would be that unhappy Person with all her Grandeur, Wit and Beauty,\nwho gave Occasion to these _Reflections_? Who would live so infamously,\nand die so miserably? Whatever Apologies the Interested may invent, what\nthey call Gallantry will find a harsher Name with the Modest and\nDiscreet. Or else Gallantry, under whatever Form, must pass for a\nscandalous Amusement, not to be allow\u2019d among Persons of Vertue and\nHonour. It is indeed ridiculous to talk of harmless Gallantry; there is,\nthere can be no such Thing: For besides the Umbrage and Scandal, a\nChristian must be pure in Heart and Eyes; she who has vow\u2019d her\nAffections to one, and is his Property, cannot without Injustice, and\neven Perjury, parcel them out to more.\n\nIt is in Distempers of the Mind as in those of the Body, a little Care\nand Prudence will prevent what requires a long and difficult Regimen to\ncure: Therefore in both Cases the Aphorism holds; _Resist the\nBeginnings_; be early on our Guard. There was a Time when the most\nabandon\u2019d Sinner would have shrunk with Horror, at what by Degrees\nbecomes familiar, and, as they fancy, natural. The Sap is carry\u2019d on\nagainst Vertue as artfully as against a fortified Town, and the\nApproaches are as methodical: But in this the Case is different, the\nBesieged cannot fly; whereas Vertue is best secured by avoiding the\nEnemy. They are sensible of this, and therefore nothing more common than\nthat silly Maxim, _That Vertue is not Vertue till it has been tried_.\nThis is a Mortar-piece that has done more Execution than all their other\nArts; for Self-confidence is always a Prelude to Destruction. The Wife\nwho listens to Admirers runs into Temptation, and sports upon a\nPrecipice. For, as a noble Lord, who knew the World perfectly well,\ninstructs his Daughter, she may as well play with Fire, as dally with\nGallantry. I can say nothing so well upon this Subject, as what is writ\nby this noble Author, whom therefore I beg leave to transcribe:\n\n\u201cThe _Extravagancies_ of the Age have made _Caution_ more necessary; and\nby the same Reason that the too great Licence of ill Men, hath by\nConsequence in many Things restrained the lawful Liberty of those who\ndid not abuse it, the unjustifiable Freedom of some of your Sex, have\ninvolved the rest in the Penalty of being reduced. And though this\ncannot so alter the Nature of Things, as to make that _Criminal_, which\nin it self is _Indifferent_; yet if it maketh it _dangerous_, that alone\nis insufficient to justify the _Restraint_. A _close Behaviour_ is the\nfittest to receive _Vertue_ for its constant _Guest_, because there, and\nthere only, it can be secure. Proper _Reserves_ are the Outworks, and\nmust never be deserted by those who intend to keep the Place; they keep\noff the Possibility not only of being _taken_, but of being _attempted_;\nand if a Woman seeth Danger at never so remote a Distance, she is for\nthat Time to shorten her _Line_ of _Liberty_: She who will allow her\nself to go to the _utmost Extents_ of every thing that is _lawful_, is\nso very near going further, that those who lie at watch, will begin to\ncount upon her.\n\n\u201cMankind, from the double Temptation of _Vanity_ and _Desire_, is apt to\nturn every thing a _Woman_ doth to the _hopeful Side_; and there are few\nwho dare make an impudent Application, till they discern something which\nthey are willing to take for an _Encouragement_: It is safer therefore\nto prevent such _Forwardness_, than to go about to _cure_ it: It\ngathereth Strength by the first _Allowances_, and claimeth Right from\nhaving been at any Time suffered with Impunity: Therefore nothing is\nwith more Care to be avoided, than such a kind of _Civility_ as may be\nmistaken for _Invitation_.\u201d\n\nIn the Time of Yore a _Knave_ was no more than a Servant, and possibly a\n_Gallant_ might originally denote a well-dress\u2019d Coxcomb, who had\nnothing else to do but to make Parade of his Wit and Cloaths, and\nperhaps of his Valour in Tournament, to gain the general Admiration of\nthe Ladies, and the Honour of openly professing with Respect and\nDistance, his Veneration for some celebrated Beauty, or Woman of Merit.\nBut modern Gallantry is quite a different Business: The Gallant, the\nfine Gentleman in Town, far superior to him upon the Road and all his\nUndergraduates, in carrying on his Plot, in the artful Contrivance of\nhis Design, and Dexterity in executing it, happily combines the Cunning\nof the Fox, and the Audacity of the Tyger. Cruel indeed! for he tears\nthe Fame, worries the Vertue, and compleats the Destruction of his\nunhappy Prey. \u2019Tis well for him that Christianity as yet prevails among\nus, for this obliges its Votaries to forgive the highest Injuries:\nShould the Morality of the honest Heathen, which some are pleas\u2019d to\nprofess, but not to practise, become the Fashion, or the old _English_\nSpirit, which has done and suffered so much for Liberty and Property,\nrevive among us, alas! what would become of the _pretty Fellows_? Would\nthey not run the Risque of being taken for Wolves, or Savages, have a\nPrice set on their Heads, and be exterminated at any rate, that so among\nrational Persons we might be esteem\u2019d a civiliz\u2019d Nation?\n\nThese Destroyers avoided, and better Care taken than usual in Womens\nEducation, Marriage might recover the Dignity and Felicity of its\noriginal Institution; and Men be very happy in a married State, if it be\nnot their own Fault. The great Author of our Being, who does nothing in\nvain, ordained it as the only honourable Way of continuing our Race; as\na Distinction between reasonable Creatures and meer Animals, into which\nwe degrade our selves, by forsaking the Divine Institution. _GOD_\nordained it for a Blessing, not a Curse: We are foolish as well as\nwicked, when that which was appointed for mutual Comfort and Assistance,\nhas quite contrary Effect through our Folly and Perverseness. Marriage\ntherefore, notwithstanding all the loose Talk of the Town, the Satires\nof antient, or modern Pretenders to Wit, will never lose its just Esteem\nfrom the Wise and Good.\n\nThough much may be said against this, or that Match; though the\nRidiculousness of some, the Wickedness of others, and the Imprudence of\ntoo many, may provoke our Wonder, or Scorn, our Indignation or Pity; yet\nMarriage in general is too sacred to be treated with Disrespect, too\nvenerable to be the Subject of Raillery and Buffoonery. None but the\nImpious will pretend to refine on a Divine Institution, or suppose there\nis a better Way for Society and Posterity. Whoever scoffs at this, and\nby odious Representation would possess the married Pair with a frightful\nIdea of each other, as if a Wife is nothing better than a Domestick\nDevil, an Evil he must tolerate for his Conveniency; and an Husband must\nof necessity be a Tyrant or a Dupe; has ill Designs on both, and is\nhimself a dangerous Enemy to the Publick, as well as to private\nFamilies.\n\nBut upon what are the Satires against Marriage grounded? Not upon the\nState it self, if they are just, but upon the ill Choice, or foolish\nConduct of those who are in it? and what has Marriage consider\u2019d in it\nself to do with these? When the Blame is laid where it ought to be, not\nMarriage, but inordinate Passion, Rashness, Humour, Pride, Covetousness,\nInconstancy, unjust Suspicions, unnecessary Severity, and, in a Word, a\nsilly, vicious, imprudent Choice, or Conduct, ought to be arraign\u2019d. For\nwhy should Marriage be exclaim\u2019d against when Men reap the Fruit of\ntheir own Folly? If they will put an unequal Yoke upon their own Necks,\nthey have their Choice, who can they blame for it? If instead of a Help\nand Comfort, their Courtship has procured them a Plague and Disgrace,\nwho may they thank but themselves: A Man can never be under any sort of\nObligation to marry against his Liking, but through some reigning Vice,\nor want of Fortitude.\n\nCould there be no happy Marriages, Arguments against Matrimony might\nhave their Weight with the Reasonable as well as the Licentious. But\nsince the Laws of _GOD_ and Man, founded upon Reason and Experience,\nforbid a Temporary Contract, and engage the married Pair for Life, it is\nnot only possible, but highly probable, and not without many eminent\nInstances, that there are and may be, happy Marriages; provided we act\nreasonably in our Choice and Conduct, acquit our selves like wise Men\nand Christians. So that all we have to say against Matrimony, seems only\nto shew the Levity, or Impiety of our own Minds: It is no more than a\nFlourish of Wit, and how prettily soever we may talk, it is but little\nto the Purpose.\n\nIs it the being tied to _One_ that offends us? Why this ought rather to\nrecommend it to us, and would really do so, were we guided by Reason,\nand not by Humour or brutish Passion. He who does not make Friendship\nthe chief Inducement to his Choice, and prefer it before any other\nConsideration, does not deserve a good Wife, and therefore should not\ncomplain if he goes without one. Now we can never grow weary of our\nFriends; the longer we have had them the more they are endear\u2019d to us;\nand if we have One well assur\u2019d, we need seek no farther, but are\nsufficiently happy in her. The Love of Variety in this and in other\nCases, shews only the ill Temper of our own Mind in that; for instead of\nbeing content with a competent Share of Good, thankfully and chearfully\nenjoying what is afforded us, and patiently bearing with the\nInconveniencies that attend it, we would set up our Rest here, and\nexpect Felicity where it is not to be found.\n\nThe Christian Institution of Marriage provides the best that may be for\nDomestick Quiet and Content, and for the Education of Children; so that\nif we were not under the Tie of Religion, even the Good of Society and\ncivil Duty, would oblige us to what Christianity requires: And since the\nvery best of us are but poor frail Creatures, full of Ignorance and\nInfirmity, so that in Justice we ought to tolerate each other, and\nexercise that Patience towards our Companions to Day, which we shall\ngive them occasion to shew towards us To-morrow; the more we are\naccustom\u2019d to any one\u2019s Conversation, the better shall we understand\ntheir Humour, be more able to comply with their Weakness, and less\noffended at it. For he who would have every one submit to his Humours,\nand will not in his Turn comply with them, (though we should suppose him\nalways in the right, whereas a Man of this Temper very seldom is so) is\nnot fit for a Husband, scarce fit for Society, but ought to be turn\u2019d\nout of the Herd as an unreasonable Creature.\n\nThere may indeed be Inconveniencies in a married Life; but is there any\nCondition without them? And he who lives single, that he may indulge\nLicentiousness and give up himself to the Conduct of wild and ungovern\u2019d\nDesires, (or indeed out of any other Inducement, than the Glory of _GOD_\nand the Good of his Soul, through the Prospect he has of doing more\nGood, or because his Frame and Disposition of Mind are more fit for a\nsingle than a married Life) may rail as he pleases against Matrimony,\nbut can never justify his own Conduct, nor clear it from the Imputation\nof Wickedness and Folly.\n\nBut if Marriage be such a blessed State, how comes it, may you say, that\nthere are so few happy Marriages? Now in answer to this, it is not to be\nwonder\u2019d that so few succeed; we should rather be surpriz\u2019d to find so\nmany do, considering how imprudently Men engage, the Motives they act\nby, and the very strange Conduct they observe throughout.\n\nFor pray, what do Men propose to themselves in Marriage? What\nQualifications do they look after in a Spouse? What will she bring? is\nthe first Enquiry: How many Acres? Or how much ready Coin? Not that this\nis altogether an unnecessary Question, for Marriage without a\nCompetency, that is, not only a bare Subsistence, but even a handsome\nand plentiful provision, according to the Quality and Circumstances of\nthe Parties, is no very comfortable Condition. They who marry for Love,\nas they call it, find Time enough to repent their rash Folly, and are\nnot long in being convinc\u2019d, that whatever fine Speeches might be made\nin the Heat of Passion, there could be no _real Kindness_ between those\nwho can agree to make each other miserable. But tho\u2019 an Estate is to be\nconsider\u2019d, it should not be the _Main_, much less the only\nConsideration; for Happiness does not depend on Wealth; That may be\nwanting, and too often is, where This abounds. He who marries himself to\na Fortune only, must expect no other Satisfaction than that can bring\nhim; but let him not say that Marriage, but that his own covetous or\nprodigal Temper, has made him unhappy. What Joy has that Man in all his\nPlenty, who must either run from home to possess it, contrary to all the\nRules of Justice, to the Laws of _GOD_ and Man, nay, even in Opposition\nto good Nature and good Breeding too, which some Men make more Account\nof than of all the rest; or else be forc\u2019d to share it with a Woman\nwhose Person or Temper is disagreeable, whose Presence is sufficient to\nsour all his Enjoyments, so that if he has any Remains of Religion or\ngood Manners, he must suffer the Uneasiness of a continual Watch, to\nforce himself to a constrain\u2019d Civility?\n\nFew Men have so much Goodness as to bring themselves to a Liking of what\nthey loath\u2019d, meerly because it is their Duty to like; on the contrary,\nwhen they marry with an Indifferency, to please their Friends or\nincrease their Fortune, the Indifferency proceeds to an Aversion, and\nperhaps even the Kindness and Complaisance of the poor abus\u2019d Wife,\nshall only serve to increase it. What follows then? There is no Content\nat home, so it is sought elsewhere, and the Fortune so unjustly got, is\nas carelesly squander\u2019d; the Man takes a Loose, what should hinder him?\nHe has all in his Hands, and Custom has almost taken off that small\nRestraint Reputation us\u2019d to lay. The Wife finds too late what was the\nIdol the Man adored, which her Vanity, perhaps, or it may be the\nCommands and Importunities of Relations, would not let her see before;\nand now he has got That into his Possession, she must make Court to him\nfor a little sorry Alimony out of her own Estate. If Discretion and\nPiety prevail upon her Passions, she sits down quietly contented with\nher Lot, seeks no Consolation in the Multitude of Adorers, since he whom\nonly she desir\u2019d to please, because it was her Duty to do so, will take\nno Delight in her Wit or Beauty: She follows no Diversion to allay her\nGrief, uses no Cordials to support her Spirit, that may sully her Vertue\nor bring a Cloud upon her Reputation; she makes no Appeals to the\nmis-judging Croud, hardly mentions her Misfortunes to her most intimate\nAcquaintance, nor lays a Load on her Husband to ease her self; but\nwould, if it were possible, conceal his Crimes, though her Prudence and\nVertue give him a thousand Reproaches without her Intention or\nKnowledge; and retiring from the World, she seeks a more solid Comfort\nthan it can give her, taking Care to do nothing that Censoriousness, or\neven Malice it self can misconstrue to her Prejudice. Now she puts on\nall her Reserves, and thinks even innocent Liberties scarce allowable in\nher disconsolate State; she has other Business to mind: Nor does she in\nher Retirements reflect so much upon the Hand that administers this\nbitter Cup, as consider what is the best Use she can make of it. And\nthus indeed, Marriage, however unfortunate in other respects, becomes a\nvery great Blessing to her. She might have been exposed to all the\nTemptations of a plentiful Fortune, have given up her self to Sloth and\nLuxury, and gone on at the common rate, even of the better Sort, in\ndoing no Hurt, and as little Good: But now her kind Husband obliges her\nto _Consider_, and gives Opportunity to exercise her Vertue; he makes it\nnecessary to withdraw from those Gaieties and Pleasures of Life, which\ndo more Mischief under the Shew of Innocency, than they could if they\nappear\u2019d attended with a Crime, discomposing and dissolving the Mind,\nand making it uncapable of any manner of Good, to be sure of any thing\nGreat and Excellent. Silence and Solitude, the being forc\u2019d from the\nordinary Entertainments of her Station, may perhaps seem a desolate\nCondition at first, and we may allow her, poor weak Woman! to be\nsomewhat shock\u2019d at it, since even a wise and courageous Man perhaps\nwould not keep his Ground. We would conceal (if we could) for the Honour\nof the Sex, Mens being baffled and dispirited by a smaller matter, were\nnot the Instances too frequent and too notorious.\n\nBut a little Time wears off all the Uneasiness, and puts her in\npossession of Pleasures, which till now she has unkindly been kept a\nStranger to. Affliction, the sincerest Friend, the frankest Monitor, the\nbest Instructor, and indeed, the only useful School that Women are ever\nput to, rouzes her Understanding, opens her Eyes, fixes her Attention,\nand diffuses such a Light, such a Joy into her Mind, as not only Informs\nher better, but Entertains her more than ever her _Ruel_ did, though\ncrouded by the Men of Wit. She now distinguishes between Truth and\nAppearances, between solid and apparent Good; has found out the\nInstability of all earthly Things, and won\u2019t any more be deceived by\nrelying on them; can discern who are the Flatterers of her Fortune, and\nwho the Admirers and Encouragers of her Vertue; accounting it no little\nBlessing to be rid of those Leeches, who hung upon her only for their\nown Advantage. Now sober Thoughts succeed to Hurry and Impertinence, to\nForms and Ceremony; she can secure her Time, and knows how to improve\nit; never truly a happy Woman till she came, in the Eye of the World, to\nbe reckon\u2019d Miserable.\n\nThus the Husband\u2019s Vices may become an Occasion of the Wife\u2019s Vertues,\nand his Neglect do her a more real Good than his Kindness could. But all\ninjur\u2019d Wives don\u2019t behave themselves after this Fashion, nor can their\nHusbands justly expect it. With what Face can he blame her for following\nhis Example, and being as extravagant on the one Hand, as he is on the\nother? Though she cannot justify her Excesses to _GOD_, to the World,\nnor to her Self, yet surely in respect of him they may admit of an\nExcuse. For to all the rest of his Absurdities, (for Vice is always\nunreasonable) he adds one more, who expects that Vertue from another\nwhich he won\u2019t practise himself.\n\nBut suppose a Man does not marry for Money, though for one that does\nnot, perhaps there are thousands that do; suppose he marries for Love,\nan Heroick Action, which makes a mighty Noise in the World, partly\nbecause of its Rarity, and partly in regard of its Extravagancy, what\ndoes his marrying for Love amount to? There\u2019s no great Odds between his\nmarrying for the Love of Money, or for the Love of Beauty; the Man does\nnot act according to Reason in either Case, but is govern\u2019d by irregular\nAppetites. But he loves her Wit perhaps, and this, you\u2019ll say, is more\nSpiritual, more Refin\u2019d: Not at all, if you examine it to the Bottom.\nFor what is that which now a-days passes under the Name of Wit? A bitter\nand ill-natur\u2019d Raillery, a pert Repartee, or a confident talking at\nall; and in such a multitude of Words, it\u2019s Odds if something or other\ndoes not pass that is surprizing, though every Thing that surprizes does\nnot please; some Things being wonder\u2019d at for their Ugliness, as well as\nothers for their Beauty. True Wit, durst one venture to describe it, is\nquite another Thing; it consists in such a Sprightliness of Imagination,\nsuch a Reach and Turn of Thought, so properly express\u2019d, as strikes and\npleases a judicious Taste. For though, as one says of Beauty, _\u2019tis in\nno Face, but in the Lover\u2019s Mind_, so it may be said of some sorts of\nWit, it is not in him that speaks, but in the Imagination of his Hearer;\nyet doubtless there is a true Standard-Wit, which must be allow\u2019d for\nsuch by every one who understands the Terms. I don\u2019t say that they shall\nall _equally_ like it; and it is this Standard-wit that always pleases,\nthe Spurious does so only for a Season.\n\nNow what is it that strikes a judicious Taste? Not that, to be sure,\nwhich injures the Absent, or provokes the Company, which poisons the\nMind under Pretence of entertaining it, proceeding from, or giving\nCountenance to false Notions, to dangerous and immoral Principles. Wit\nindeed is distinct from Judgment, but it is not contrary to it; \u2019tis\nrather its Handmaid, serving to awaken and fix the Attention, that so we\nmay judge rightly. Whatever charms, does so because of its Regularity\nand Proportion; otherwise, though it is Extraordinary and out of the\nWay, it will only be star\u2019d on like a Monster, but can never be lik\u2019d.\nAnd tho\u2019 a Thought is ever so fine and new, ever so well express\u2019d, if\nit suits not with Decorum and good Manners, it is not just and fit, and\ntherefore offends our Reason, and consequently has no real Charms, nor\nwould afford us any Entertainment, if our Taste were not deprav\u2019d.\n\nBut it must not be suppos\u2019d that Womens Wit approaches those Heights\nwhich Men arrive at, or that they indulge those Liberties the other\ntake. Decency lays greater Restraints on them, their Timorousness does\nthem this one, and perhaps this only Piece of Service, it keeps them\nfrom breaking through these Restraints, and following their Masters and\nGuides in many of their daring and masculine Crimes. As the World goes,\nyour Witty Men are usually distinguish\u2019d by the Liberty they take with\nReligion, good Manners, or their Neighbours Reputation: But, _GOD_ be\nthank\u2019d, it is not yet so bad, as that Women should form Cabals to\npropagate Atheism and Irreligion[1]. A Man then cannot hope to find a\nWoman whose Wit is of a Size with his, but when he doats on Wit, it is\nto be imagin\u2019d he makes Choice of that which comes the nearest to his\nown.\n\nFootnote 1:\n\n  _This was wrote in the Beginning of the present Century._\n\nThus, whether it be Wit or Beauty that a Man\u2019s in Love with, there are\nno great Hopes of a lasting Happiness; Beauty, with all the Helps of\nArt, is of no long Date; the more it is help\u2019d, the sooner it decays;\nand he, who only or chiefly chose for Beauty, will in a little Time find\nthe same Reason for another Choice. Nor is that sort of Wit which he\nprefers, of a more sure Tenure; or allowing it to last, it will not\nalways please. For that which has not a real Excellency and Value in it\nself, entertains no longer than that giddy Humour which recommended it\nto us holds; and when we can like on no just, or on very little Ground,\n\u2019tis certain a Dislike will arise, as lightly and as unaccountably. And\nit is not improbable that such a Husband may in a little Time, by ill\nUsage, provoke such a Wife to exercise her Wit, that is, her Spleen on\nhim, and then it is not hard to guess how very agreeable it will be to\nhim.\n\nIn a word, when we have reckon\u2019d up how many look no further than the\nmaking of their Fortune, as they call it; who don\u2019t so much as propose\nto themselves any Satisfaction in the Woman to whom they plight their\nFaith, seeking only to be Masters of her Estate, that so they may have\nMoney enough to indulge all their irregular Appetites; who think they\nare as good as can be expected, if they are but, according to the\nfashionable Term, _Civil Husbands_; when we have taken the Number of\nyour giddy Lovers, who are not more violent in their Passion than they\nare certain to repent of it; when to these you have added such as marry\nwithout any Thought at all, further than that it is the Custom of the\nWorld, what others have done before them, that the Family must be kept\nup, the antient Race preserv\u2019d, and therefore their kind Parents and\nGuardians choose as they think convenient, without ever consulting the\nYoung one\u2019s Inclinations, who must be satisfied, or pretend so at least,\nupon Pain of their Displeasure, and that heavy Consequence of it,\nForfeiture of their Estate: These set aside, I fear there will be but a\nsmall Remainder to marry out of better Considerations; and even amongst\nthe Few that do, not one in a Hundred takes Care to deserve his Choice.\n\nBut do the Women never choose amiss? Are the Men only in Fault? That is\nnot pretended; for he who will be just, must be forced to acknowledge,\nthat neither Sex are always in the right. A Woman, indeed, can\u2019t\nproperly be said to Choose; all that is allow\u2019d her, is to Refuse or\nAccept what is offer\u2019d. And when we have made such reasonable Allowances\nas are due to the Sex, perhaps they may not appear so much in Fault as\none would at first imagine, and a generous Spirit will find more\nOccasion to Pity, than to Reprove. But sure I transgress\u2014\u2014it must not be\nsuppos\u2019d that the Ladies can do amiss! He is but an ill-bred Fellow who\npretends that they need Amendment! They are, no doubt on\u2019t, always in\nthe right, and most of all when they take Pity on distressed Lovers!\nWhatever they _say_ carries an Authority that no Reason can resist, and\nall that they _do_ must needs be Exemplary! This is the Modish Language,\nnor is there a Man of Honour amongst the whole Tribe, that would not\nventure his Life, nay, and his Salvation too, in their Defence, if any\nbut himself attempts to injure them. But I must ask Pardon if I can\u2019t\ncome up to these Heights, nor flatter them with the having no Faults,\nwhich is only a malicious Way of continuing and increasing their\nMistakes.\n\nWomen, it\u2019s true, ought to be treated with Civility; for since a little\nCeremony and out-side Respect is all their Guard, all the Privilege\nthat\u2019s allow\u2019d them, it were barbarous to deprive them of it; and\nbecause I would treat them civilly, I would not express my Civility at\nthe usual rate. I would not, under Pretence of Honouring and paying a\nmighty Deference to the Ladies, call them Fools, or what\u2019s worse, to\ntheir Faces; For what are all the fine Speeches and Submissions that are\nmade, but an abusing them in a well-bred Way? She must be a Fool with a\nWitness, who can believe a Man, Proud and Vain as he is, will lay his\nboasted Authority, the Dignity and Prerogative of his Sex, one Moment at\nher Feet, but in Prospect of taking it up again to more Advantage; he\nmay call himself her Slave a few Days, but it is only in order to make\nher his all the rest of his Life.\n\nIndeed that mistaken Self-Love that reigns in the most of us, both Men\nand Women, that over-good Opinion we have of ourselves, and Desire that\nothers should have of us, makes us swallow every Thing that looks like\nRespect, without examining how wide it is from what it appears to be.\nFor nothing is in Truth a greater Outrage than Flattery and feign\u2019d\nSubmissions; the plain _English_ of which is this, \u201cI have a very mean\nOpinion both of your Understanding and Vertue; you are Weak enough to be\nimpos\u2019d on, and Vain enough to snatch at the Bait I throw; there\u2019s no\nDanger of your finding out my Meaning, or disappointing me of my Ends. I\noffer you _Incense_, \u2019tis true, but you are like to pay for\u2019t, and to\nmake me a Recompence for your Folly, in imagining I would give my self\nthis Trouble, did I not hope, nay, were I not sure, to find my own\nAccount in it. If for nothing else, you\u2019ll serve at least as an Exercise\nof my Wit; and how much soever you swell with my Breath, \u2019tis I deserve\nthe Praise for talking so well on so poor a Subject. We, who make the\nIdols, are the greater Deities; and as we set you up, so it is in our\nPower to reduce you to your first Obscurity, or to somewhat worse, to\nContempt; you are therefore only on your good Behaviour, and are like to\nbe no more than what we please to make you.\u201d This is the Flatterer\u2019s\nLanguage aside, this is the true Sense of his Heart, whatever his\nGrimace may be before the Company.\n\nAnd if this be the true Meaning of honourable Courtship, what is meant\nby that Jargon, that Profusion of Love and Admiration which passes for\nGallantry, when either of the Parties are married? Is it not the utmost\nScurrility, in that it supposes she is, or that he hopes to make her,\nwhat good Manners forbids to name? And since he makes so free with the\nLady\u2019s Honour, can she afford him a civiller Answer, than what her\nFootman may deliver with a Crab-tree? But I correct my self,\u2014\u2014this might\nbe the Air of a haughty _Roman_ Prude; our _British_ Beauties are far\nmore Gentle and Well-bred. And he who has the same Designs upon other\nMens Relations, is sometimes so civil as to bear with the Outrages\noffer\u2019d to his own.\n\nNot but that \u2019tis possible, and sometimes Matter of Fact, to express our\nselves beyond the Truth in Praise of a Person, and yet not be guilty of\nFlattery; but then we must Think what we Say, and Mean what we Profess.\nWe may be so blinded by some Passion or other, especially Love, which in\nCivil and Good-natur\u2019d Persons is apt to exceed, as to believe some\nPersons more deserving than really they are, and to pay them greater\nRespect and Kindness than is in Strictness due to them. But this is not\nthe present Case; for our fine Speech-makers doat too much on themselves\nto have any great Passion for another. Their Eyes are commonly too much\nfix\u2019d on their own Excellencies, to view another\u2019s good Qualities\nthrough a Magnifying-Glass; at least if ever they turn that End of the\nPerspective towards their Neighbours, \u2019tis only in Respect and Reference\nto themselves. They are their own Centres, they find a Disproportion in\nevery Line that does not tend thither, and in the next Visit they make,\nyou shall hear all the fine Things they had said, repeated to the new\nObject, and nothing remembred of the former but her Vanity, or something\nelse as ridiculous, which serves for a Foil, or a Whet to Discourse. For\nlet there be ever so many Wits in the Company, Conversation would\nlanguish, and they would be at a Loss, did not a little Censoriousness\ncome in at a Need to help them.\n\nLet us then treat the Ladies as civilly as may be, but let us not do it\nby Flattering them, but by endeavouring to make them such as may truly\ndeserve our hearty Esteem and Kindness. Men ought really for their own\nSakes, to do what in them lies to make Women Wise and Good, and then it\nmight be hoped they themselves would effectually Study and Practice that\nWisdom and Vertue they recommend to others. But so long as Men, even the\nbest of them, who do not outrage the Women they pretend to adore, have\nbase and unworthy Ends to serve, it is not to be expected that they\nshould consent to such Methods as would certainly disappoint them. They\nwould have their own Relations do well; it is their Interest: but it\nsometimes happens to be for their Turn that another Man\u2019s should not,\nand then their Generosity fails them, and no Man is apter to find Fault\nwith another\u2019s dishonourable Actions, than he who is ready to do, or\nperhaps has done the same himself.\n\nAnd as Men have little Reason to expect Happiness when they marry only\nfor the Love of Money, Wit, or Beauty, as has been already shewn, so\nmuch less can a Woman expect a tolerable Life, when she goes upon these\nConsiderations. Let the Business be carried as prudently as it can be on\nthe Woman\u2019s Side, a reasonable Man can\u2019t deny that she has by much the\nharder Bargain: because she puts her self intirely into her Husband\u2019s\nPower, and if the Matrimonial Yoke be grievous, neither Law nor Custom\nafford her that Redress which a Man obtains. He who has Sovereign Power\ndoes not value the Provocations of a Rebellious Subject; he knows how to\nsubdue him with Ease, and will make himself obey\u2019d: But Patience and\nSubmission are the only Comforts that are left to a poor People, who\ngroan under Tyranny, unless they are Strong enough to break the Yoke, to\nDepose and Abdicate, which, I doubt, would not be allow\u2019d of here. For\nwhatever may be said against Passive-Obedience in another Case, I\nsuppose there\u2019s no Man but likes it very well in this; how much soever\nArbitrary Power may be dislik\u2019d on a Throne, not _Milton_, nor _B. H\u2014_,\nnor any of the Advocates of Resistance, would cry up Liberty to poor\n_Female Slaves_, or plead for the Lawfulness of Resisting a private\nTyranny.\n\nIf there be a Disagreeableness of Humours, this, in my Mind, is harder\nto be born than greater Faults, as being a continual Plague, and for the\nmost Part incurable. Other Vices a Man may grow weary of, or may be\nconvinced of the Evil of them, he may forsake them, or they him, but his\nHumour and Temper are seldom, if ever, put off. Ill-nature sticks to him\nfrom his Youth to his grey Hairs, and a Boy that\u2019s Humorous and Proud,\nmakes a Peevish, Positive, and Insolent Old Man. Now if this be the\nCase, and the Husband be full of Himself, obstinately bent on his own\nWay, with or without Reason, if he be one who must be always Admir\u2019d,\nalways Humour\u2019d, and yet scarce knows what will please him; if he has\nProsperity enough to keep him from considering, and to furnish him with\na Train of Flatterers and obsequious Admirers; and Learning and Sense\nenough to make him a Fop in Perfection; for a Man can never be a\ncompleat Coxcomb, unless he has a considerable Share of these to value\nhimself upon; What can the poor Woman do? The Husband is too Wise to be\nAdvis\u2019d, too Good to be Reform\u2019d, she must follow all his Paces, and\ntread in all his unreasonable Steps, or there is no Peace, no Quiet for\nher; she must Obey with the greatest Exactness, \u2019tis in vain to expect\nany manner of Compliance on his Side, and the more she complies the more\nshe may; his fantastical Humours grow with her Desire to gratify them,\nfor Age increases Opinionatry in some, as well as it does Experience in\nothers. Of such sort of Folks as these it was that _Soloman_ spake, when\nhe said, _Seest thou a Man wise in his own Conceit, there is more hope\nof a Fool than of him_; That is, the profligate Sinner, such a one being\nalways a Fool in _Solomon\u2019s_ Language, is in a fairer Way of being\nconvinc\u2019d of his Folly, and brought to Reason, than the Proud, Conceited\nMan. That Man, indeed, can never be good at Heart, who is full of\nHimself and his own Endowments: Not that it is necessary, because it is\nnot possible (humanly speaking) for one to be totally ignorant of his\nown good Qualities, I had almost said, he _ought_ to have a modest Sense\nof \u2019em, otherwise he can\u2019t be duly thankful, nor make the Use of them\nthat is required, to the Glory of _GOD_, and the Good of Mankind; but he\nviews them in a wrong Light, if he discerns any Thing that may exalt him\nabove his Neighbours, make him over-look their Merit, or treat them with\nNeglect or Contempt. He ought to behold them with Fear and Trembling, as\nTalents which he has freely receiv\u2019d, and for which he is highly\nAccountable, and therefore they should not excite his Pride, but his\nCare and Industry.\n\nAnd if Pride and Self-conceit keep a Man who has some good Qualities,\nand is not so bad as the most of his Neighbours, from growing better, it\nfor certain confirms and hardens the Wicked in his Crimes, it sets him\nup for a Wit, that is, according to modern Acceptation, one who rallies\nall that is serious, a Contemner of the Priests first, and then of the\nDeity Himself. For Penitence and Self-condemnation are what his\nHaughtiness cannot bear, and since his Crimes have brought upon him the\nReproaches of his own Mind, since he will not take the regular Way to be\nrid of them, which is, by Humbling himself, and making his Peace with\nHeaven, he bids Defiance to it, and wou\u2019d, if he could, believe there is\nno future State, no After-retribution, because he has too just Reason to\nfear it.\n\nIf therefore it be a Woman\u2019s hard Fate to meet with a disagreeable\nTemper, and of all others, the Haughty, Imperious, and Self-conceited\nare the most so, she is as unhappy as any Thing in this World can make\nher. For when a Wife\u2019s Temper does not please, if she makes her Husband\nuneasy, he can find Entertainments Abroad; he has a hundred Ways of\nrelieving himself; but neither Prudence nor Duty will allow a Woman to\nfly out: her Business and Entertainment are at home; and tho\u2019 he makes\nit ever so uneasy to her, she must be content, and make her best on\u2019t.\nShe who elects a Monarch for Life, who gives him an Authority, she\ncannot recall, however he misapply it, who puts her Fortune and Person\nentirely in his Power, nay, even the very Desires of her Heart,\naccording to some learned Casuists, so as that it is not lawful to Will\nor Desire any Thing but what he approves and allows, had need be very\nsure that she does not make a Fool her Head, nor a Vicious Man her Guide\nand Pattern; she had best stay till she can meet with one who has the\nGovernment of his own Passions, and has duly regulated his own Desires,\nsince he is to have such an absolute Power over hers. But he who doats\non a Face, he who makes Money his Idol, he who is charm\u2019d with vain and\nempty Wit, gives no such Evidence, either of Wisdom or Goodness, that a\nWoman of any tolerable Sense shou\u2019d care to venture her self to his\nConduct.\n\nIndeed, your fine Gentleman\u2019s Actions are now a-days such, that did not\nCustom and the Dignity of his Sex give Weight and Authority to them, a\nWoman that thinks twice might bless her self, and say, Is this the Lord\nand Master to whom I am to promise Love, Honour and Obedience? What can\nbe the Object of Love but amiable Qualities, the Image of the Deity\nimpress\u2019d upon a generous and godlike Mind, a Mind that is above this\nWorld, to be sure above all the Vices, the Tricks and Baseness of it; a\nMind that is not full of it self, nor contracted to little private\nInterests, but which, in Imitation of that glorious Pattern it\nendeavours to copy after, expands and diffuses it self to its utmost\nCapacity in doing Good. But this fine Gentleman is quite of another\nStrain, he is the Reverse of this in every Instance. He is, I confess,\nvery fond of his own Dear Person, he sees very much in it to admire; his\nAir and Mien, his Words and Actions, every Motion he makes, declare it;\nbut they must have a Judgment of his Size, every whit as shallow, and a\nPartiality as great as his own, who can be of his Mind. How then can I\nLove? And if not Love, much less Honour. Love may arise from Pity, or a\ngenerous Desire to make that Lovely which as yet is not so, when we see\nany hopes of Success in our Endeavours of improving it; but Honour\nsupposes some excellent Qualities already, something worth our Esteem;\nbut, alas! there is nothing more contemptible than this Trifle of a Man,\nthis meer Out-side, whose Mind is as base and mean as his external Pomp\nis glittering. His Office or Title apart, to which some ceremonious\nObservance must be paid for Order\u2019s sake, there\u2019s nothing in him that\ncan command our Respect. Strip him of Equipage and Fortune, and such\nThings as only dazle our Eyes and Imaginations, but don\u2019t in any measure\naffect our Reason, or cause a Reverence in our Hearts, and the poor\nCreature sinks beneath our Notice, because not supported by real Worth.\nAnd if a Woman can neither Love nor Honour, she does ill in promising to\nObey, since she is like to have a crooked Rule to regulate her Actions.\n\nA Meer Obedience, such as is paid only to Authority, and not out of Love\nand a Sense of the Justice and Reasonableness of the Command, will be of\nan uncertain Tenure. As it can\u2019t but be uneasy to the Person who pays\nit, so he who receives it will be sometimes disappointed when he expects\nto find it: For that Woman must be endow\u2019d with a Wisdom and Goodness\nmuch above what we suppose the Sex capable of, I fear much greater than\nany Man can pretend to, who can so constantly conquer her Passions, and\ndivert her self even of Innocent Self-love, as to give up the Cause when\nshe is in the Right, and to submit her inlightned Reason, to the\nimperious Dictates of a blind Will, and wild Imagination, even when she\nclearly perceives the ill Consequences of it, the Imprudence, nay, Folly\nand Madness of such a Conduct.\n\nAnd if a Woman runs such a Risque when she marries prudently, according\nto the Opinion of the World, that is, when she permits her self to be\ndispos\u2019d of to a Man equal to her in Birth, Education and Fortune, and\nas good as the most of his Neighbours, (for if none were to marry, but\nMen of strict Vertue and Honour, I doubt the World would be but thinly\nPeopled) if at the very best her Lot is hard, what can she expect who is\nSold, or any otherwise betray\u2019d into mercenary Hands, to one who is in\nall, or most respects, unequal to her? A Lover who comes upon what is\ncall\u2019d equal Terms, makes no very advantageous Proposal to the Lady he\ncourts, and to whom he seems to be an humble Servant. For under many\nsounding Compliments, Words that have nothing in them, this is his true\nMeaning; He wants one to manage his Family, an House-keeper, one whose\nInterest it will be not to wrong him, and in whom therefore he can put\ngreater Confidence than in any he can hire for Money. One who may breed\nhis Children, taking all the Care and Trouble of their Education, to\npreserve his Name and Family. One whose Beauty, Wit, or good Humour and\nagreeable Conversation, will entertain him at Home when he has been\ncontradicted and disappointed Abroad; who will do him that Justice the\nill-natur\u2019d World denies him; that is, in any one\u2019s Language but his\nown, sooth his Pride and flatter his Vanity, by having always so much\ngood Sense as to be on his Side, to conclude him in the Right, when\nothers are so ignorant, or so rude, as to deny it. Who will not be blind\nto his Merit nor contradict his Will and Pleasure, but make it her\nBusiness, her very Ambition to content him; whose Softness and gentle\nCompliance will calm his Passions, to whom he may safely disclose his\ntroublesome Thoughts, and in her Breast discharge his Cares; whose Duty,\nSubmission and Observance, will heal those Wounds other Peoples\nOpposition or Neglect have given him. In a word, one whom he can\nintirely Govern, and consequently may form her to his Will and Liking,\nwho must be his for Life, and therefore cannot quit his Service, let him\ntreat her how he will.\n\nAnd if this be what every Man expects, the Sum of his violent Love and\nCourtship, when it is put into Sense, and rendred Intelligible, to what\na fine pass does she bring her self who purchases a Lord and Master, not\nonly with her Money, but with what is of greater Value, at the Price of\nher Discretion! Who has not so much as that poor Excuse, Precedent and\nExample; or if she has, they are only such as all the World condemns?\nShe will not find him less a Governor because she was once his Superior,\non the contrary, the Scum of the People are most Tyrannical when they\nget the Power, and treat their Betters with the greatest Insolence. For,\nas the wise Man long since observ\u2019d, A Servant when he Reigns, is one of\nthose Things for which the Earth is disquieted, and which no body is\nable to bear.\n\nIt is the hardest Thing in the World for a Woman to know that a Man is\nnot Mercenary, that he does not act on base and ungenerous Principles,\neven when he is her Equal, because being absolute Master, she and all\nthe Grants he makes her are in his Power, and there have been but too\nmany Instances of Husbands, that by wheedling, or threatning their\nWives, by seeming Kindness, or cruel Usage, have persuaded, or forc\u2019d\nthem out of what has been settled on them. So that the Woman has in\nTruth no Security but the Man\u2019s Honour and Good-nature, a Security that\nin this present Age no wise Person would venture much upon. A Man enters\ninto Articles very readily before Marriage, and so he may, for he\nperforms no more of them afterwards than he thinks fit. A Wife must\nnever dispute with her Husband; his Reasons are now, no doubt on\u2019t,\nbetter than hers, whatever they were before; he is sure to persuade her\nout of her Agreement, and bring her, it must be suppos\u2019d, _Willingly_,\nto give up what she did vainly hope to obtain, and what she thought had\nbeen made sure to her. And if she shews any Refractoriness, there are\nWays enough to humble her; so that by Right or Wrong the Husband gains\nhis Will. For Covenants between Husband and Wife, like Laws in an\nArbitrary Government, are of little Force, the Will of the Sovereign is\nAll in All. Thus it is in Matter of Fact, I will not answer for the\nRight of it; for if the Woman\u2019s Reasons, upon which those Agreements are\ngrounded, are not just and good, why did he consent to them? Was it\nbecause there was no other Way to obtain his Suit, and with an Intention\nto annul them when it shall be in his Power? Where then is his\nSincerity? But if her Reasons are good, where is his Justice in obliging\nher to quit them? He neither way acts like an equitable or honest Man.\n\nBut when a Woman marries unequally and beneath her self, there is almost\nDemonstration that the Man is sordid and unfair; that instead of loving\nher he only loves himself, trapans and ruins her to serve his own Ends.\nFor if he had not a mighty Opinion of himself, (which Temper is like to\nmake an admirable Husband) he would never imagine that his Person and\ngood Qualities could make Compensation for all the Advantages she quits\non his Account. If he had a real Esteem for her, or valued her\nReputation, he would not expose it, nor have her Discretion call\u2019d in\nQuestion for his sake; and if he truly lov\u2019d her, he would not reduce\nher to Straits and a narrow Fortune, nor so much as lessen her way of\nLiving to better his own. For since God has placed different Ranks in\nthe World, put some in a higher, and some in a lower Station, for Order\nand Beauty\u2019s sake, and for many good Reasons; though it is both our\nWisdom and Duty not only to submit with Patience, but to be thankful and\nwell-satisfied, when by his Providence we are brought low, yet there is\nno manner of Reason for us to degrade our selves; on the contrary, much\nwhy we ought not. The better our Lot is in this World, and the more we\nhave of it, the greater is our Leisure to prepare for the next; we have\nthe more Opportunity to exercise that God-like Quality, to taste that\nDivine Pleasure, doing Good to the Bodies and Souls of those beneath us.\nIs it not then ill Manners to Heaven, and an irreligious Contempt of its\nFavours, for a Woman to slight that nobler Employment, to which it has\nassign\u2019d her, and thrust her self down to a meaner Drudgery, to what is\nin the very literal Sense a caring for the Things of the World, a caring\nnot only to Please, but to Maintain a Husband?\n\nAnd a Husband so chosen will not at all abate of his Authority and Right\nto Govern, whatever fair Promises he might make before. She has made him\nher Head, and he thinks himself as well qualified as the Best to act\naccordingly, nor has she given him any such Evidence of her Prudence as\nmay dispose him to make an Act of Grace in her Favour. Besides, great\nObligations are what Superiors cannot bear, they are more than can be\nreturn\u2019d; to acknowledge were only to reproach themselves with\nIngratitude, and therefore the readiest Way is, not to own, but\nover-look them, or rather, as too many do, to repay them with Affronts\nand Injuries.\n\nWhat then is to be done? How must a Man choose, and what Qualities must\nincline a Woman to accept, that so our married Couple may be as happy as\nthat State can make them? This is no hard Question; let the Soul be\nprincipally consider\u2019d, and Regard had in the first place to a good\nUnderstanding, a vertuous Mind; and in all other respects let there be\nas much Equality as may be. If they are good Christians and of suitable\nTempers all will be well; but I should be shrewdly tempted to suspect\ntheir Christianity who marry after any of those Ways we have been\nspeaking of. I dare venture to say, that they don\u2019t act according to the\nPrecepts of the Gospel, they neither shew the Wisdom of the Serpent, nor\nthe Innocency of the Dove; they have neither so much Government of\nthemselves, nor so much Charity for their Neighbours; they neither take\nsuch Care not to scandalize others, nor to avoid Temptations themselves,\nare neither so much above this World, nor so affected with the next, as\nthey would certainly be, did the Christian Religion operate in their\nHearts, did they rightly understand, and sincerely practise it, or acted\n_indeed_ according to the Spirit of the Gospel.\n\nBut it is not enough to enter wisely into this State, Care must be taken\nof our Conduct afterwards. A Woman will not want being admonish\u2019d of her\nDuty; the Custom of the World, Oeconomy, every Thing almost reminds her\nof it. Governors do not often suffer their Subjects to forget Obedience\nthrough their want of demanding it; perhaps Husbands are but too forward\non this Occasion, and claim their Right oftner and more imperiously than\neither Discretion or good Manners will justify, and might have both a\nmore chearful and constant Obedience paid them if they were not so\nrigorous in exacting it. For there is a mutual Stipulation, and Love,\nHonour, and Worship, by which certainly Civility and Respect at least\nare meant, are as much the Woman\u2019s Due, as Love, Honour and Obedience\nare the Man\u2019s. And being the Woman is said to be the weaker Vessel, the\nMan should be more careful not to grieve or offend her. Since her Reason\nis suppos\u2019d to be less, and her Passions stronger than his, he should\nnot give Occasion to call that Supposition in Question by his pettish\nCarriage and needless Provocations. Since he is the _Man_, by which very\nword Custom would have us understand not only greatest Strength of Body,\nbut even greatest Firmness and Force of Mind, he should not play the\n_little Master_ so much as to expect to be cocker\u2019d, nor run over to\nthat Side which the Woman us\u2019d to be rank\u2019d in; for, according to the\nWisdom of the _Italians, Will you? Is spoken to sick Folks_.\n\nIndeed Subjection, according to the common Notion of it, is not over\neasy; none of us, whether Men or Women, but have so good an Opinion of\nour own Conduct, as to believe we are fit, if not to direct others, at\nleast to govern our selves. Nothing but a sound Understanding, and\nGrace, the best Improver of Natural Reason, can correct this Opinion,\ntruly humble us, and heartily reconcile us to Obedience. This bitter Cup\ntherefore ought to be sweetned as much as may be; for Authority may be\npreserv\u2019d and Government kept inviolable, without that nauseous\nOstentation of Power, which serves to no End or Purpose, but to blow up\nthe Pride and Vanity of those who have it, and to exasperate the Spirits\nof such as must truckle under it.\n\nInsolence is never the Effect of Power but in weak and cowardly Spirits,\nwho wanting true _Merit_ and Judgment to support themselves in that\nAdvantageous Ground on which they stand, are ever appealing to their\nAuthority, and making a Shew of it to maintain their Vanity and Pride. A\ntruly great Mind, and such as is fit to Govern, tho\u2019 it may stand on its\nRight with its Equals, and modestly expect what is due to it even from\nits Superiors, yet it never contends with its Inferiors, nor makes use\nof its Superiority but to do them Good. So that considering the just\nDignity of Man, his great Wisdom so conspicuous on all Occasions! the\nGoodness of his Temper, and Reasonableness of all his Commands, which\nmake it a Woman\u2019s Interest as well as Duty to be observant and obedient\nin all Things; that his Prerogative is settled by an undoubted Right and\nthe Prescription of many Ages; it cannot be suppos\u2019d, that he should\nmake frequent and insolent Claims of an Authority so well establish\u2019d\nand us\u2019d with such Moderation, nor give an impartial By-stander (could\nsuch an one be found) any Occasion from thence to suspect that he is\ninwardly conscious of the Badness of his Title; Usurpers being always\nmost desirous of Recognitions, and busy in imposing Oaths, whereas a\nLawful Prince contents himself with the usual Methods and Securities.\n\nAnd since Power does naturally puff up, and he who finds himself\nexalted, seldom fails to think he _ought_ to be so, it is more suitable\nto a Man\u2019s Wisdom and Generosity, to be mindful of his great\nObligations, than to insist on his Rights and Prerogatives. Sweetness of\nTemper and an obliging Carriage are so justly due to a Wife, that a\nHusband who must not be thought to want either Understanding to know\nwhat is fit, nor Goodness to perform it, can\u2019t be suppos\u2019d not to shew\nthem. For setting aside the Hazard of her Person to keep up his Name and\nFamily, with all the Pains and Trouble that attend it, which may well be\nthought great enough to deserve all the Respect and Kindness that may\nbe; setting this aside, though \u2019tis very considerable, a Woman has so\nmuch the Disadvantage in _most_, I was about to say, in _all_ Things,\nthat she makes a Man the greatest Compliment in the World when she\ncondescends to take him _for Better for Worse_. She puts her self\nintirely in his Power, leaves all that is dear to her, her Friends and\nFamily, to espouse his Interests and follow his Fortune, and makes it\nher Business and Duty to please him! What Acknowledgments, what Returns\ncan he make? What Gratitude can be sufficient for such Obligations? She\nshews her good Opinion of him by the great Trust she reposes in him, and\nwhat a Brute must he be who betrays that Trust, or acts any way unworthy\nof it? Ingratitude is one of the basest Vices, and if a Man\u2019s Soul is\nsunk so low as to be guilty of it towards her who has so generously\noblig\u2019d him, and who so intirely depends on him, if he can treat her\ndisrespectfully, who has so fully testified her Esteem of him, she must\nhave a Stock of Vertue which he should blush to discern, if she can pay\nhim that Obedience of which he is so unworthy.\n\nSuperiors indeed are too apt to forget the common Privileges of Mankind;\nthat their Inferiors share with them the greatest Benefits, and are as\ncapable as themselves of enjoying the supreme Good; that though the\nOrder of the World requires an _Outward_ Respect and Obedience from some\nto others, yet the Mind is free, nothing but Reason can oblige it, \u2019tis\nout of the Reach of the most absolute Tyrant. Nor will it ever be well\neither with those who Rule or those in Subjection, even from the Throne\nto every private Family, till those in Authority look on themselves as\nplac\u2019d in that Station for the Good and Improvement of their Subjects,\nand not for their own Sakes; not as the Reward of their Merit, or that\nthey may prosecute their own Desires and fulfil all their Pleasure, but\nas the Representatives of God, whom they ought to imitate in the Justice\nand Equity of their Laws, in doing Good and communicating Blessings to\nall beneath them: By which, and not by following the imperious Dictates\nof their own Will, they become truly Great and Illustrious, and worthily\nfill their Place. And the Governed for their Part, ceasing to envy the\nPomp and Name of Authority, should respect their Governors as placed in\n_GOD_\u2019s stead, and contribute what they can to ease them of their real\nCares, by a chearful and ready Compliance, with their good Endeavours,\nand by affording them the Pleasure of Success in such noble and generous\nDesigns.\n\nFor, upon a due Estimate, Things are pretty equally divided; those in\nSubjection, as they have a less Glorious, so they have an easier Task\nand a less Account to give; Whereas he who Commands, has in a great\nmeasure the Faults of others to answer for as well as his own. \u2019Tis\ntrue, he has the Pleasure of doing more Good than a private Person can,\nand shall receive the Reward of it when Time shall be no more, in\nCompensation for the Hazards he runs, the Difficulties he at present\nencounters, and the large Account he is to make hereafter. Which\nPleasure and Reward are highly desirable, and most worthy our Pursuit;\nbut they are Motives which such as Usurp on their Governors, and make\nthem uneasy in the due Discharge of their Duty, never propose. As for\nthose other little Things that move their Envy and Ambition, they are of\nno Esteem with a just Considerer, nor will such as violently pursue,\nfind their Account in them.\n\nBut how can a Man respect his Wife when he has a contemptible Opinion of\nher and her Sex? When from his own Elevation he looks down on them as\nvoid of Understanding, full of Ignorance and Passion, so that Folly and\na Woman are equivalent Terms with him? Can he think there is any\nGratitude due to her whose utmost Services he exacts as strict Duty?\nBecause she was made to be a Slave to his Will, and has no higher End\nthan to Serve and Obey him? Perhaps we arrogate too much to our selves,\nwhen we say this Material World was made for our Sakes: That its\nGlorious Maker has given us the Use of it is certain; but when we\nsuppose any Thing to be made purely for our Sakes, because we have\nDominion over it, we draw a false Conclusion. As he who should say the\nPeople were made for the Prince who is set over them, would be thought\nto be out of his Senses as well as his Politicks. Yet even allowing that\n_GOD_, who made every Thing in Number, Weight and Measure, who never\nacts but for some great and glorious End, an End agreeable to His\nMajesty; allowing that He created such a Number of Rational Spirits\nmerely to serve their Fellow Creatures, yet how are these Lords and\nMasters help\u2019d by the Contempt they shew of their poor humble Vassals?\nIs it not rather an Hindrance to that Service they expect, as being an\nundeniable and constant Proof how unworthy they are to receive it?\n\nNone of _GOD_\u2019s Creatures, absolutely consider\u2019d, are in their own\nNature contemptible; the meanest Fly, the poorest Insect has its Use and\nVertue. Contempt is scarce a Human Passion, one may venture to say it\nwas not in innocent Man, for till Sin came into the World, there was\nnothing in it to be contemn\u2019d. But Pride, which makes every Thing serve\nits Purposes, wrested this Passion from its only Use, so that instead of\nbeing an Antidote against Sin, it is become a grand Promoter of it,\nnothing making us more worthy of that Contempt we shew, than when, poor,\nweak, dependent Creatures as we are! we look down with Scorn and Disdain\non others.\n\nThere is not a surer Sign of a noble Mind, a Mind very far advanc\u2019d\ntowards Perfection, than the being able to bear Contempt and an unjust\nTreatment from one\u2019s Superiors evenly and patiently. For inward Worth\nand real Excellency are the true Ground of Superiority, and one Person\nis not in reality better than another, but as he is more Wise and Good.\nBut this World being a Place of Trial, and govern\u2019d by general Laws,\njust Retributions being reserv\u2019d for hereafter, Respect and Obedience\nmany times become due for Order\u2019s sake, to those who don\u2019t otherwise\ndeserve them. Now tho\u2019 Humility keeps us from over-valuing our selves or\nviewing our Merit through a false and magnifying _Medium_, yet it does\nnot put out our Eyes, it does not, it ought not to deprive us of that\npleasing Sentiment which attends our Acting as we ought to Act, which\nis, as it were, a Foretaste of Heaven, our present Reward for doing what\nis just and fit. And when a Superior does a mean and unjust thing, as\nall Contempt of one\u2019s Neighbour is, and yet this does not provoke his\nInferiors to refuse that Observance which their Stations in the World\nrequire, they cannot but have an inward Sense of their own real\nSuperiority, the other having no Pretence to it, at the same Time that\nthey pay him an outward Respect and Deference, which is such a flagrant\nTestimony of the sincerest Love of Order, as proves their Souls to be of\nthe highest and noblest Rank.\n\nA Man therefore for his own sake, and to give Evidence that he has a\nRight to those Prerogatives he assumes, should treat Women with a little\nmore Humanity and Regard than is usually paid them. Your whifling Wits\nmay scoff at them, and what then? It matters not, for they rally every\nThing though ever so sacred, and rail at the Women commonly in very good\nCompany. Religion, its Priests, and those its most constant and regular\nProfessors, are the usual Subjects of their manly, mannerly and\nsurprizing Jests. Surprizing indeed! not for the Newness of the Thought,\nthe Brightness of the Fancy, or Nobleness of Expression, but for the\ngood Assurance with which such Thread-bare Jests are again and again\nrepeated. But that your grave Dons, your learned Men, and, which is\nmore, your Men of Sense, as they would be thought, should stoop so low\nas to make Invectives against the Women, forget themselves so much as to\njest with their Slaves, who have neither Liberty, nor Ingenuity to make\nReprizals; that they should waste their Time, and debase their good\nSense, which fits them for the most weighty Affairs, such as are\nsuitable to their profound Wisdom and exalted Understandings! to render\nthose poor Wretches more ridiculous and odious who are already in their\nOpinion sufficiently contemptible, and find no better Exercise of their\nWit and Satire, than such as are not worth their Pains, though it were\npossible to Reform them, this, this indeed may justly be wonder\u2019d at!\n\nI Know not whether or no Women are allow\u2019d to have Souls; if they have,\nperhaps it is not prudent to provoke them too much, lest, silly as they\nare, they at last recriminate, and then what polite and well-bred\nGentleman, though himself is concern\u2019d, can forbear taking that lawful\nPleasure, which all who understand Raillery must taste, when they find\nhis Jests who insolently began to peck at his Neighbour, return\u2019d with\nInterest upon his own Head? And indeed Men are too Humane, too Wise, to\nventure at it, did they not hope for this Effect, and expect the\nPleasure of finding their Wit turn to such Account: For if it be lawful\nto pry into a Secret, this is, without doubt, the whole Design of those\nfine Discourses which have been made against the Women from our great\nFore-Fathers to this present Time! Generous Man has too much Bravery, he\nis too Just and too Good to assault a defenceless Enemy, and if he did\ninveigh against the Women, it was only to do them Service! For since\nneither his Care of their Education, his hearty Endeavours to improve\ntheir Minds, his wholesome Precepts, nor great Example could do them\ngood, as his last and kindest Essay, he resolv\u2019d to try what Contempt\nwould do, and chose rather to expose himself by a seeming Want of\nJustice, Equity, Ingenuity and Good-nature, than suffer Women to remain\nsuch vain and insignificant Creatures as they have hitherto been\nreckon\u2019d; and truly, Women are some Degrees beneath what I have thus far\nthought them, if they do not make the best Use of his Kindness, improve\nthemselves, and, like Christians, return it.\n\nLet us see then what is their Part, what must they do to make the\nMatrimonial Yoke tolerable to themselves as well as pleasing to their\nLords and Masters? That the World is an empty and deceitful Thing, that\nthose Enjoyments which appear\u2019d so desirable at a Distance, which rais\u2019d\nour Hopes and Expectations to such a mighty Pitch, which we so\npassionately coveted, and so eagerly pursued, vanish at our first\nApproach, leaving nothing behind them but the Folly of Delusion, and the\nPain of disappointed Hopes, is a common Outcry; and yet, as common as it\nis, though we complain of being deceiv\u2019d this Instant, we do not fail of\ncontributing to the Cheat the very next. Though in reality it is not the\nWorld that abuses us, \u2019tis we abuse our selves; it is not the Emptiness\nof That, but our own false Judgments, our unreasonable Desires and\nExpectations that torment us; for he who exerts his whole Strength to\nlift a Straw, ought not to complain of the Burden, but of his own\ndisproportionate Endeavour which gives him the Pain he feels. The World\naffords us all the Pleasure a sound Judgment can expect from it, and\nanswers all those Ends and Purposes for which it was design\u2019d; let us\nexpect no more than is reasonable, and then we shall not fail of our\nExpectations.\n\nIt is even so in the Case before us; a Woman who has been taught to\nthink Marriage her only Preferment, the Sum-Total of her Endeavours, the\nCompletion of all her Hopes, that which must settle and make her Happy\nin this World, and very few, in their Youth especially, carry a Thought\nsteadily to a greater Distance; She who has seen a Lover dying at her\nFeet, and can\u2019t therefore imagine that he who professes to receive all\nhis Happiness from her, can have any other Design or Desire than to\nplease her; whose Eyes have been dazled with all the Glitter and Pomp of\na Wedding, and, who hears of nothing but Joy and Congratulation; who is\ntransported with the Pleasure of being out of Pupillage, and Mistress\nnot only of her self, but of a Family too: She who is either so simple\nor so vain, as to take her Lover at his Word, either as to the Praises\nhe gave her, or the Promises he made for himself; in sum, she whose\nExpectation has been rais\u2019d by Courtship, by all the fine Things that\nher Lover, her Governess and Domestick Flatterers say, will find a\nterrible Disappointment when the Hurry is over, and when she comes\ncalmly to consider her Condition, and views it no more under a false\nAppearance, but as it truly is.\n\nI Doubt in such a View it will not appear over-desirable, if she regards\nonly the present State of Things. Hereafter may make amends for what she\nmust be prepar\u2019d to suffer here, then will be her Reward, this is her\nTime of Trial, the Season of exercising and improving her Vertues. A\nWoman that is not Mistress of her Passions, that cannot patiently\nsubmit, even when Reason suffers with her, who does not practise Passive\nObedience to the utmost, will never be acceptable to such an absolute\nSovereign as a Husband. Wisdom ought to Govern without Contradiction,\nbut Strength however will be obeyed. There are but few of those wise\nPersons who can be content to be made yet wiser by Contradiction; the\nmost will have their _Will_, and it is right because it is theirs. Such\nis the Vanity of Human Nature, that nothing pleases like an intire\nSubjection; what Imperfections won\u2019t a Man over-look where this is not\nwanting! Though we live like Brutes, we would have Incense offer\u2019d us,\nthat is only due to Heaven it self, would have an absolute and blind\nObedience paid us by all over whom we pretend Authority. We were not\nmade to Idolize one another, yet the whole Strain of Courtship is little\nless than rank Idolatry: But does a Man intend to give, and not to\nreceive his Share in this Religious Worship? No such matter; Pride and\nVanity, and Self-love have their Designs, and if the Lover is so\ncondescending as to set a Pattern in the Time of his Addresses, he is so\njust as to expect his Wife should strictly Copy after it all the rest of\nher Life.\n\nBut how can a Woman scruple intire Subjection, how can she forbear to\nadmire the Worth and Excellency of the Superior Sex, if she at all\nconsiders it! Have not all the great Actions that have been perform\u2019d in\nthe World been done by Men? Have not they founded Empires and overturn\u2019d\nthem? Do not they make Laws and continually repeal and amend them? Their\nvast Minds lay Kingdoms waste, no Bounds or Measures can be prescrib\u2019d\nto their Desires. War and Peace depend on them; they form Cabals and\nhave the Wisdom and Courage to get over all the Rubs, the petty\nRestraints which Honour and Conscience may lay in the Way of their\ndesired Grandeur. What is it they cannot do? They make Worlds and ruin\nthem, form Systems of universal Nature, and dispute eternally about\nthem; their Pen gives Worth to the most trifling Controversy; nor can a\nFray be inconsiderable if they have drawn their Swords in\u2019t. All that\nthe wise Man pronounces is an Oracle, and every Word the Witty speaks, a\nJest. It is a Woman\u2019s Happiness to hear, admire and praise them,\nespecially if a little Ill-nature keeps them at any time from bellowing\ndue Applauses on each other! And if she aspires no further, she is\nthought to be in her proper Sphere of Action; she is as wise and as good\nas can be expected from her!\n\nShe then who Marries, ought to lay it down for an indisputable Maxim,\nthat her Husband must govern absolutely and intirely, and that she has\nnothing else to do but to Please and Obey. She must not attempt to\ndivide his Authority, or so much as dispute it; to struggle with her\nYoke will only make it gall the more, but must believe him Wise and\nGood, and in all respects the best, at least he must be so to her. She\nwho can\u2019t do this is no way fit to be a Wife, she may set up for that\npeculiar Coronet the antient Fathers talk\u2019d of, but is not qualified to\nreceive that great Reward which attends the eminent Exercise of Humility\nand Self-denial, Patience and Resignation, the Duties that a Wife is\ncall\u2019d to.\n\nBut some refractory Woman perhaps will say, how can this be? Is it\npossible for her to believe him Wise and Good, who by a thousand\nDemonstrations convinces her, and all the World, of the contrary? Did\nthe bare Name of Husband confer Sense on a Man, and the meer being in\nAuthority infallibly qualify him for Government, much might be done. But\nsince a wise Man and a Husband are not Terms convertible, and how loth\nsoever one is to own it, Matter of Fact won\u2019t allow us to deny, that the\nHead many times stands in need of the Inferior\u2019s Brains to manage it,\nshe must beg leave to be excus\u2019d from such high Thoughts of her\nSovereign, and if she submits to his Power, it is not so much Reason as\nNecessity that compels her.\n\nNow of how little Force soever this Objection may be in other respects,\nmethinks it is strong enough to prove the Necessity of a good Education,\nand that Men never mistake their true Interest more than when they\nendeavour to keep Women in Ignorance. Could they indeed deprive them of\ntheir Natural good Sense at the same Time they deny them the true\nImprovement of it, they might compass their End; otherwise Natural Sense\nunassisted may run into a false Track, and serve only to punish him\njustly, who would not allow it to be useful to himself or others. If\nMan\u2019s Authority be justly establish\u2019d, the more Sense a Woman has, the\nmore Reason she will find to submit to it; if according to the Tradition\nof our Fathers, (who having had _Possession_ of the Pen, thought they\nhad also the best _Right_ to it) Womens Understanding is but small, and\nMan\u2019s Partiality adds no Weight to the Observation, ought not the more\nCare to be taken to improve them? How it agrees with the Justice of Men\nwe inquire not, but certainly Heaven is abundantly more Equitable than\nto injoin Women the hardest Task, and give them the least Strength to\nperform it. And if Men, learned, wise and discreet as they are, who\nhave, as is said, all the Advantages of Nature, and without Controversy,\nhave, or may have, all the Assistance of Art, are so far from acquitting\nthemselves as they ought, from living according to that Reason and\nexcellent Understanding they so much boast of, can it be expected that a\nWoman who is reckon\u2019d silly enough in her self, at least comparatively,\nand whom Men take care to make yet more so; can it be expected that she\nshould constantly perform so difficult a Duty as intire Subjection, to\nwhich corrupt Nature is so averse?\n\nIf the great and wise _Cato_, a _Man_, a Man of no ordinary Firmness and\nStrength of Mind, a Man who was esteem\u2019d as an Oracle, and by the\nPhilosophers and great Men of his Nation equal\u2019d even to the Gods\nthemselves; If he, with all his Stoical Principles, was not able to bear\nthe Sight of a triumphant Conqueror, (who perhaps would have insulted,\nand perhaps would not) but out of a Cowardly Fear of an Insult, ran to\nDeath, to secure him from it; can it be thought that an ignorant weak\nWoman should have Patience to bear a continual Outrage and Insolence all\nthe Days of her Life? Unless you will suppose her a _very Ass_, but then\nremember what the _Italians_ say, to quote them once more, since being\n_very_ Husbands they may be presum\u2019d to have some Authority in this\nCase, _An Ass, though slow, if provok\u2019d, will kick_.\n\nWe never observe, or perhaps make Sport, with the ill Effects of a bad\nEducation, till it comes to touch us home in the ill Conduct of a\nSister, a Daughter, or Wife. Then the Women must be blam\u2019d, their Folly\nis exclaim\u2019d against, when all this while it was the wise Man\u2019s Fault,\nwho did not set a better Guard on those, who, according to him, stand in\nso much need of one. A young Gentleman, as a celebrated Author tells us,\nought above all Things to be acquainted with the State of the World, the\nWays and Humours, the Follies, the Cheats, the Faults of the Age he is\nfallen into; he should by degrees be inform\u2019d of the Vice in Fashion,\nand warn\u2019d of the Application and Design of those who will make it their\nBusiness to corrupt him, should be told the Arts they use, and the\nTrains they lay, be prepar\u2019d to be Shock\u2019d by some, and Caress\u2019d by\nothers; warn\u2019d who are like to oppose, who to mislead, who to undermine,\nand who to serve him. He should be instructed how to know and\ndistinguish them, where he should let them see, and when dissemble the\nKnowledge of them and their Aims and Workings. Our Author is much in the\nright, and not to disparage any other Accomplishments which are useful\nin their Kind, this will turn to more Account than any Language or\nPhilosophy, Art or Science, or any other Piece of Good-breeding and fine\nEducation that can be taught him, which are no otherwise excellent than\nas they contribute to this, as this does above all Things to the making\nhim a wise, a vertuous and useful Man.\n\nAnd it is not less necessary that a young Lady should receive the like\nInstructions, whether or no her Temptations be fewer, her Reputation and\nHonour however are to be more nicely preserv\u2019d; they may be ruin\u2019d by a\nlittle Ignorance or Indiscretion, and then though she has kept her\nInnocence, and so is secur\u2019d as to the next World, yet she is in a great\nmeasure lost to this. A Woman cannot be too watchful, too apprehensive\nof her Danger, nor keep at too great a Distance from it, since Man,\nwhose Wisdom and Ingenuity is so much Superior to hers! condescends for\nhis Interest sometimes, and sometimes by way of Diversion, to lay Snares\nfor her. For though all Men are _Virtuosi_, Philosophers and\nPoliticians, in comparison of the ignorant and illiterate Women, yet\nthey don\u2019t all pretend to be Saints, and \u2019tis no great Matter to them,\nif Women, who were born to be their Slaves, be now and then ruin\u2019d for\ntheir Entertainment.\n\nBut according to the rate that young Women are Educated, according to\nthe Way their Time is spent, they are destin\u2019d to Folly and\nImpertinence, to say no worse, and, which is yet more inhuman, they are\nblam\u2019d for that ill Conduct they are not suffer\u2019d to avoid, and\nreproach\u2019d for those Faults they are in a Manner forc\u2019d into; so that if\nHeaven has bestowed any Sense on them, no other Use is made of it, than\nto leave them without Excuse. So much, and no more, of the World is\nshewn them, than serves to weaken and corrupt their Minds, to give them\nwrong Notions, and busy them in mean Pursuits; to disturb, not to\nregulate their Passions; to make them timorous and dependant, and, in a\nWord, fit for nothing else but to act a Farce for the Diversion of their\nGovernors.\n\nEven Men themselves improve no otherwise than according to the Aim they\ntake, and the End they propose; and he whose Designs are but little and\nmean, will be the same himself. Tho\u2019 Ambition, as \u2019tis usually\nunderstood, is a foolish, not to say a base and pitiful Vice, yet the\nAspirings of the Soul after true Glory are so much its Nature, that it\nseems to have forgot it self, and to degenerate, if it can forbear; and\nperhaps the great Secret of Education lies in affecting the Soul with a\nlively Sense of what is truly its Perfection, and exciting the most\nardent Desires after it.\n\nBut, alas! what poor Woman is ever taught that she should have a higher\nDesign than to get her a Husband? Heaven will fall in of course; and if\nshe makes but an Obedient and Dutiful Wife, she cannot miss of it. A\nHusband indeed is thought by both Sexes so very valuable, that scarce a\nMan who can keep himself clean and make a Bow, but thinks he is good\nenough to pretend to any Woman; no matter for the Difference of Birth or\nFortune, a Husband is such a Wonder-working Name as to make an Equality,\nor something more, whenever it is obtain\u2019d.\n\nAnd indeed, were there no other Proof of Masculine Wisdom, and what a\nmuch greater Portion of Ingenuity falls to the Men than to the Women\u2019s\nShare, the Address, the Artifice, and Management of an humble Servant\nwere a sufficient Demonstration. What good Conduct does he shew! what\nPatience exercise! what Subtilty leave untry\u2019d! what Concealment of his\nFaults! what Parade of his Vertues! what Government of his Passions! How\ndeep is his Policy in laying his Designs at so great a Distance, and\nworking them up by such little Accidents! How indefatigable is his\nIndustry, and how constant his Watchfulness not to slip any Opportunity\nthat may in the least contribute to his Design! What a handsome Set of\nDisguises and Pretences is he always furnish\u2019d with! How conceal\u2019d does\nhe lie! how little pretend, till he is sure that his Plot will take! And\nat the same Time that he nourishes the Hope of being Lord and Master,\nappears with all the Modesty and Submission of an humble and\nunpretending Admirer!\n\nCan a Woman then be too much upon her Guard? Can her Prudence and\nForesight, her early Caution, be reckon\u2019d unnecessary Suspicion, or\nill-bred Reserve by any but those whose Designs they prevent, and whose\nInterest it is to declaim against them? It being a certain Maxim with\nthe Men, though Policy or good Breeding won\u2019t allow them to avow it\nalways, that the Women were made for their Sakes and Service, and are in\nall respects their Inferiors, especially in Understanding; so that all\nthe Compliments they make, all the Address and Complaisance they use,\nall the Kindness they profess, all the Service they pretend to pay, has\nno other Meaning, no other End, than to get the poor Woman into their\nPower, to govern her according to their Discretion. This is all pure\nKindness indeed, and therefore no Woman has Reason to be offended with\nit; for, considering how much she is expos\u2019d in her own, and how safe in\ntheir Keeping, \u2019tis the wisest Thing she can do to put her self under\nProtection! And then if they have a tolerable Opinion of her Sense, and\nnot their Vanity, but some better Principle disposes them to do\nsomething out of the Way, and to appear more generous than the rest of\ntheir Sex, they\u2019ll condescend to dictate to her, and impart some of\ntheir Prerogative, Books and Learning. \u2019Tis fit indeed, that she should\nintirely depend on their Choice, and walk with the Crutches they are\npleas\u2019d to lend her; and if she is furnished out with some Notions to\nset her a prating, I should have said, to make her entertaining, and the\nFiddle of the Company, her Tutor\u2019s Time was not ill bestowed: And it\nwere a diverting Scene to see her stript, like the _Jay_, of her\nborrowed Feathers, but he, good Man, has not ill Nature enough to take\nPleasure in it! You may accuse him, perhaps, for giving so much\nEncouragement to a Woman\u2019s Vanity, but your Accusation is groundless,\nVanity being a Disease the Sex will always be guilty of; nor is it a\nReproach to them, since Men of Learning and Sense are over-run with it.\n\nBut there are few Women whose Understandings are worth the Management,\ntheir Estates are much more capable of Improvement. No Woman, much less\na Woman of Fortune, is ever fit to be her own Mistress, and he who has\nnot the Vanity to think what much finer Things he could perform, had he\nthe Management of her Fortune; or so much Partiality and Self-love, as\nto fancy it can\u2019t be better bestow\u2019d than in making his; will yet be so\nhonest and humble, as to think that \u2019tis fit she should take his\nAssistance, as Steward at least. For the good Man aspires no further, he\nwould only take the Trouble of her Affairs off her Hand; and the Sense\nof her Condescension and his great Obligations, will for ever secure him\nagainst acting like a Lord and Master.\n\nThe Steps to Folly, as well as Sin, are gradual, and almost\nimperceptible, and when we are once on the Decline, we go down without\ntaking Notice on\u2019t; were it not for this, one could not account for\nthose strange unequal Marriages we too often see. For there was a Time,\nno doubt, when a Woman could not have bore the very Thought of what she\nhas been afterwards betray\u2019d into; it would have appear\u2019d as shocking to\nher, as it always does to other People; and had a Man been so impolitick\nas to discover the least Intimation of such a Design, he had given her a\nsufficient Antidote against it. This your wise Men are well satisfied\nof, and understand their own Interest too well to let their Design go\nbare-fac\u2019d, for that would effectually put a Bar to their Success. So\ninnocent are they, that they had not the least Thought at first of what\ntheir good Fortune afterwards leads them to! They would draw upon him,\n(if they wear a Sword) or fly in her Face who should let fall the least\nHint that they had such Intentions; and this very Eagerness to avoid the\nSuspicion, is a shrewd Sign that there is Occasion for\u2019t.\n\nBut who shall dare to shew the Lady her Danger, when will it be\nseasonable to give her friendly Notice? If you do it ere she is\nresolv\u2019d, though with all the Friendship and Tenderness imaginable, she\nwill hardly forgive the Affront, or bear the Provocation; you offer her\nan Outrage by entertaining such a Thought, and \u2019tis ten to one if you\nare not afterwards accus\u2019d for putting in her Head what otherwise she\ncould ne\u2019er have dreamt of. And when no direct Proof can be offer\u2019d,\nwhen matter of Prudence is the only Thing in Question, every Body has so\ngood an Opinion of their own Understanding, as to think their own Way\nthe best. And when she has her Innocence and fair Intentions to oppose\nyour Fears and Surmises, and you cannot pretend to wish her better than\nshe does her self, to be more disinterested and diligent in your\nWatchfulness, or to see farther in what so nearly concerns her, what can\nbe done? Her Ruin is commonly too far advanc\u2019d to be prevented, ere you\ncan in Good-breeding reach out a Hand to help her. For if the Train has\ntook, if she is intangled in the Snare, if Love, or rather a blind\nunreasonable Fondness, which usurps the Name of that noble Passion, has\ngain\u2019d on her, Reason and Persuasion may as properly be urg\u2019d to the\nFolks in _Bethlem_, as to her. Tell her of this World, she is got above\nit, and has no Regard to its impertinent Censures; tell her of the next,\nshe laughs at you, and will never be convinc\u2019d that Actions which are\nnot expresly forbid can be Criminal, though they proceed from, and must\nnecessarily be reduc\u2019d to ill Principles, though they give Offence, are\nof ill Example, injure our Reputation, which, next to our Innocence, we\nare obliged, as Christians, to take the greatest Care of; and, in a\nWord, do more Mischief than we can readily imagine. Tell her of her own\nGood, you appear yet more ridiculous, for who can judge of her Happiness\nbut her self? And whilst our Hearts are violently set upon any thing,\nthere is no convincing us that we shall ever be of another Mind. Our\nPassions want no Advocates, they are always furnish\u2019d with plausible\nPretences, and those very Prejudices, which gave rise to this\nunreasonable Passion, will for certain give her Obstinacy enough to\njustify and continue in it. Besides, some are so ill advis\u2019d as to think\nto support one Indiscretion with another; they would not have it thought\nthey have made a false Step, in once giving Countenance to that which is\nnot fit to be continued. Or perhaps the Lady might be willing enough to\nthrow off the Intruder at first, but wanted Courage to get above the\nFear of his Calumnies, and the longer she suffers him to buz about her,\nshe will find it the harder to get rid of his Importunities. By all\nwhich it appears, that she who really intends to be secure, must keep at\nthe greatest Distance from Danger, she must not grant the _least_\nIndulgence, where such ill Uses will be made of it.\n\nAnd since the Case is so, That Woman can never be in Safety who allows a\nMan Opportunity to betray her. Frequent Conversation does for certain\nproduce either Aversion or Liking, and when \u2019tis once come to Liking, it\ndepends on the Man\u2019s Generosity not to improve it farther, and where can\none find an Instance that this is any Security? There are very many\nindeed which shew it is none. How sensible soever a Woman may appear of\nanother\u2019s Indiscretion, if she will tread in the same Steps, though but\nfor a little Way, she gives us no Assurance that she will not fall into\nthe same Folly; she may perhaps intend very well, but she puts it past\nher Power to fulfil her good Intentions. Even those who have forfeited\ntheir Discretion, the most valuable Jewel next to their Vertue, and\nwithout which Vertue it self is but very weak and faint, \u2019tis like, were\nonce as well resolv\u2019d as she; they had the very same Thoughts, they made\nthe same Apologies, and their Resentment would have been every whit as\ngreat against those who could have imagined they should so far forget\nthemselves.\n\nIt were endless to reckon up the divers Stratagems Men use to catch\ntheir Prey, their different Ways of insinuating, which vary with\nCircumstances, and the Lady\u2019s Temper, but how unfairly, how basely\nsoever they proceed, when the Prey is once caught, it passes for lawful\nPrize, and other Men having the same Hopes and Projects, see nothing to\nfind Fault with, but that it was not their own good Fortune. They may\nexclaim against it perhaps in a Lady\u2019s Hearing, but it is only to keep\nthemselves from being suspected, and to give the better Colour to their\nown Designs. Sometimes a Woman is cajol\u2019d, and sometimes hector\u2019d, she\nis seduc\u2019d to love a Man, or aw\u2019d into a Fear of him: He defends her\nHonour against another, or assumes the Power of blasting it himself; was\nwilling to pass for one of no Consequence till he could make himself\nconsiderable at her Cost. He might be admitted at first to be _her\nJest_, but he carries on the Humour so far till he makes her _his_; he\nwill either entertain or serve her as Occasion offers, and some Way or\nother gets himself intrusted with her Fortune, her Fame, or her Soul.\nAllow him but a frequent and free Conversation, and there\u2019s no manner of\nQuestion but that his Ingenuity and Application, will, at one Time or\nother, get the Ascendant over her.\n\nAnd generally the more humble and undesigning a Man appears, the more\nimprobable it looks that he should dare to pretend, the greater Caution\nshould be us\u2019d against him. A bold Address and good Assurance may\nsometimes, but does not always, take. To a Woman of Sense an artificial\nModesty and Humility is a thousand times more dangerous, for he only\ndraws back to receive the more Encouragement, and she regards not what\nAdvances she makes towards him, who seems to understand himself and the\nWorld so well as to be incapable of making an ill Use of them. Would it\nnot be unreasonable, and a Piece of Ill-breeding, to be shy of him who\nhas no Pretensions, or only such as are Just and Modest? What Hurt in a\nVisit? Or what if Visits grow a little more frequent? The Man has so\nmuch Discernment, as to relish her Wit and Humour, and can she do less\nthan be Partial to him who is so just to her? He strives to please and\nto render himself agreeable, or necessary, perhaps, and whoever will\nmake it his Business, may find Ways enough to do it. For they know but\nlittle of Human Nature, they never consulted their own Hearts, who are\nnot sensible what Advances a well-manag\u2019d Flattery makes, especially\nfrom a Person of whose Wit and Sense one has a good Opinion. His Wit at\nfirst recommends his Flatteries, and these, in Requital, set off his\nWit; and she who has been us\u2019d to this high-season\u2019d Diet, will scarce\never relish another Conversation.\n\nHaving got thus far, to be sure he is not wanting to his good Fortune,\nbut drives on to an Intimacy, or what they are pleas\u2019d, now a-days,\nthough very unjustly, to call a Friendship; all is safe under this\nsacred Character, which sets them above little Aims and mean Designs. A\nCharacter that must be conducted with the nicest Honour, allows the\ngreatest Trusts, leads to the highest Improvements, is attended with the\npurest Pleasures and most rational Satisfaction. And what if the\nmalicious World, envious of his Happiness, should take Offence at it,\nsince he has taken all due Precautions, such unjust and ill-natur\u2019d\nCensures are not to be regarded; for his Part the Distance that is\nbetween them checks all aspiring Desires, but her Conversation is what\nhe must not, cannot want: Life is insipid, and not to be endur\u2019d without\nit; and he is too much the Lady\u2019s Friend, has too just a Value for her,\nto entertain a Thought to her Disadvantage.\n\nNow if once it is come to this, _GOD_ help the poor Woman! for not much\nService can be done her by any of her Friends on Earth. That Pretender,\nto be sure, will be the Darling, he will worm out every other Person,\nthough ever so kind and disinterested. For tho\u2019 true Friends will\nendeavour to please in order to serve, their Complaisance never goes so\nfar as to prove injurious; the beloved Fault is what they chiefly strike\nat, and this the Flatterer always sooths; so that at last he becomes the\nmost acceptable Company, and they who are conscious of their own\nIntegrity, are not apt to bear such an unjust Distinction, nor is it by\nthis Time to any Purpose to remonstrate the Danger of such an Intimacy.\nWhen a Man, and for certain much more when a Woman, is fallen into this\nToil, that is, when either have been so unwary and indiscreet as to let\nanother find out by what Artifices he may manage their Self-love, and\ndraw it over to his Party, \u2019tis too late for anyone who is really their\nFriend, to break the Snare and disabuse them.\n\nNeither Sex cares to deny themselves that which pleases, especially when\nthey think they may innocently indulge it; and nothing pleases more than\nthe being Admir\u2019d and Humour\u2019d. We may be told of the Danger, and shewn\nthe Fall of others, but though their Misfortunes are ever so often or so\nlively represented to us, we are all so well assur\u2019d of our own good\nConduct, as to believe it will bring us safe off those Rocks on which\nothers have been Shipwreck\u2019d. We suppose it in our Power to shorten the\nLine of our Liberty whenever we think fit, not considering that the\nfarther we run, we shall be the more unwilling to retreat, and unable to\njudge when a Retreat is necessary. A Woman does not know that she is\nmore than half lost when she admits of these Suggestions; that those\nArguments she brings for continuing a Man\u2019s Conversation, prove only\nthat she ought to have quitted it sooner; that Liking insensibly\nconverts to Love, and that when she admits a Man to be her Friend, \u2019tis\nhis Fault if he does not make himself her Husband.\n\nAnd if Men, even the Modestest and the Best, are only in pursuit of\ntheir own Designs, when they pretend to do the Lady Service; if the\nHonour they would seem to do her, tends only to lead her into an\nimprudent, and therefore a dishonourable Action; and they have all that\ngood Opinion of themselves as to take every thing for Encouragement, so\nthat she who goes beyond a bare Civility, though she meant no more than\nRespect, will find it interpreted a Favour, and made ill Use of, (for\nFavours, how innocent soever, never turn to a Lady\u2019s Advantage) what\nShadow of a Pretence can a Woman have for admitting an Intimacy with a\nMan, whose Principles are known to be Loose, and his Practices\nLicentious? can she expect to be safe with him who has ruin\u2019d others,\nand by the very same Methods he takes with her? If an Intimacy with a\nMan of a fair Character gives Offence, with a Man of an ill one, \u2019tis\ndoubly and trebly scandalous. And suppose neither her Fortune nor Beauty\ncan tempt him, he has his ill-natur\u2019d Pleasure in destroying that Vertue\nhe will not practise, or if that can\u2019t be done, in blasting the\nReputation of it at least, and in making the World believe he has made a\nConquest, though he has found a Foil.\n\nIf the Man be the Woman\u2019s Inferior, besides all the Dangers formerly\nmention\u2019d, and those just now taken Notice of, she gives such a\nCountenance to his Vices, as renders her in great measure, Partaker in\nthem; and, it can scarce be thought in such Circumstances, a Woman could\nlike the Man if she were not reconcil\u2019d to his Faults. Is he her Equal,\nand no unsuitable Match, if his Designs are fair, why don\u2019t they Marry,\nsince they are so well pleas\u2019d with each other\u2019s Conversation, which in\nthis State only can be frequently and safely allow\u2019d? Is he her Better,\nand she hopes, by catching him, to make her Fortune, alas! the poor\nWoman is neither acquainted with the World nor her self; she neither\nknows her own Weakness, nor his Treachery, and though he gives her ever\nso much Encouragement to this vain Hope, \u2019tis only in order to\naccomplish her Ruin. To be sure the more Freedom she allows, the more\nshe lessens his Esteem, and that\u2019s not likely to increase a real, though\nit may a pretended Kindness; she ought to fly, if she would have him\npursue, the strictest Vertue and Reserve being the only Way to secure\nhim.\n\nReligion and Reputation are so sure a Guard, such a Security to poor\ndefenceless Woman, that whenever a Man has ill Designs on her, he is\nsure to make a Breach into one or both of these, by endeavouring either\nto corrupt her Principles, to make her less strict in Devotion, or to\nlessen her Value of a fair Reputation, and would persuade her, that less\nthan she imagines will secure her as to the next World, and that not\nmuch Regard is to be given to the Censures of this. Or if this be too\nbold at first, and will not pass with her, he has another Way to make\neven her Love to Vertue contribute to its Ruin, by persuading her it\nnever shines as it ought, unless it is expos\u2019d, and that she has no\nReason to boast of her Vertue unless she has try\u2019d it. An Opinion of the\nworst Consequence that may be, and the most mischievous to a Woman,\nbecause it is calculated to feed her Vanity, and tends indeed to her\nutter Ruin. For, can it be fit to rush into Temptations, when we are\ntaught every Day to pray against them? If the Trials of our Vertue\nrender it illustrious, \u2019tis such Trials as Heaven is pleas\u2019d to send us,\nnot those of our own seeking. It holds true of both Sexes, that next to\nthe Divine Grace a modest Distrust of themselves is their best Security,\nnone being so often and so shamefully foil\u2019d, as those who depend most\non their own Strength and Resolution.\n\nAs to the Opinion of the World, tho\u2019 one cannot say \u2019tis always just,\nyet generally it has a Foundation, great Regard is to be paid to it, and\nvery good Use to be made of it. Others _may_ be in Fault for passing\ntheir Censures, but we certainly _are_ so, if we give them any the least\njust Occasion. And since Reputation is not only one of the Rewards of\nVertue, that which always ought, and generally does attend it, but also\na Guard against Evil, an Inducement to Good, and a great Instrument in\nthe Hand of the Wife to promote the common Cause of Vertue; the being\nProdigal of the one, looks as if we set no great Value on the other, and\nshe who abandons her good Name, is not like to preserve her Innocence.\n\nA Woman therefore can never have too nice a Sense of Honour, provided\nshe does not prefer it before her Duty; she can never be too careful to\nsecure her Character, not only from the Suspicion of a Crime, but even\nfrom the Shadow of an Indiscretion. \u2019Tis well worth her while to\nrenounce the most Entertaining, and, what some perhaps, will call the\nmost Improving Company, rather than give the World a just Occasion of\nSuspicion or Censure. For besides the Injury that is done Religion,\nwhich enjoins us to avoid the very Appearance of Evil, and to do nothing\nbut what is of good Report, she puts her self too much in a Man\u2019s Power,\nwho will run such a Risque for his Conversation, and expresses such a\nValue for him, as cannot fail of being made use of to do her a Mischief.\n\nPreserve your Distance then, keep out of the Reach of Danger, fly if you\nwould be safe, be sure to be always on the Reserve, not such as is\nMorose and Affected, but Modest and Discreet, your Caution cannot be too\ngreat, nor your Foresight reach too far; there\u2019s nothing, or what is\nnext to nothing, a little Amusement and entertaining Conversation, lost\nby this, but all is hazarded by the other. A Man understands his own\nMerit too well to lose his Time in a Woman\u2019s Company, were it not to\ndivert himself at her Cost, to turn her into a Jest, or something worse.\nAnd where-ever you see great Assiduities, when a Man insinuates into the\nDiversions and Humours of the Lady, liking and admiring whatever she\ndoes, though at the same Time he seems to keep a due Distance, or rather\nexceeds in the profoundest Respect; Respect being all he dare at present\npretend to: when a more than ordinary Deference is paid; when something\nparticular appears in the Look and Address, and such an Obsequiousness\nin every Action, as nothing could engage a Man to, who never forgets the\nSuperiority of his Sex, but a Hope to be observ\u2019d in his Turn: Then,\nwhatever the Inequality be, and how sensible soever he seems to be of\nit, the Man has for certain his Engines at work, the Mine is ready to be\nsprung on the first Opportunity, and \u2019tis well if it be not too late to\nprevent the poor Lady\u2019s Ruin.\n\nTo wind up this Matter; If a Woman were duly principled, and taught to\nknow the World, especially the true Sentiments that Men have of her, and\nthe Traps they lay for her under so many gilded Compliments, and such a\nseemingly great Respect, that Disgrace would be prevented which is\nbrought upon too many Families; Women would Marry more discreetly, and\ndemean themselves better in a married State, than some People say they\ndo. The Foundation, indeed, ought to be laid deep and strong, she should\nbe made a good Christian, and understand why she is so, and then she\nwill be every thing else that is Good. Men need keep no Spies on a\nWoman\u2019s Conduct, need have no Fear of her Vertue, or so much as of her\nPrudence and Caution, were but a due Sense of true Honour and Vertue\nawaken\u2019d in her; were her Reason excited and prepared to consider the\nSophistry of those Temptations which would persuade her from her Duty;\nand were she put in a way to know that it is both her Wisdom and\nInterest to observe it: she would then duly examine and weigh all the\nCircumstances, the Good and Evil of a married State, and not be\nsurprized with unforeseen Inconveniencies, and either never consent to\nbe a Wife, or make a good one when she does. This would shew her what\nHuman Nature _is_, as well as what it _ought_ to be, and teach her not\nonly what she may justly expect, but what she must be content with;\nwould enable her to cure some Faults, and patiently to suffer what she\ncannot cure.\n\nIndeed nothing can assure Obedience, and render it what it ought to be,\nbut the Conscience of Duty, the paying it for GOD\u2019S sake. Superiors\ndon\u2019t rightly understand their own Interest when they attempt to put out\ntheir Subjects Eyes to keep them Obedient. A blind Obedience is what a\nRational Creature should never pay, nor would such an one receive it,\ndid he rightly understand its Nature. For Human Actions are no otherwise\nvaluable, than as they are conformable to Reason; but a blind Obedience\nis an Obeying _without Reason_, for ought we know, _against it_. _GOD_\nhimself does not require our Obedience at this rate; he lays before us\nthe Goodness and Reasonableness of his Laws, and were there any thing in\nthem whose Equity we could not readily comprehend, yet we have this\nclear and sufficient Reason, on which, to found our Obedience, that\nnothing but what\u2019s just and fit, can be enjoin\u2019d by a Just, a Wise, and\nGracious _GOD_; but this is a Reason will never hold in respect of Mens\nCommands, unless they can prove themselves Infallible, and consequently\nImpeccable too.\n\nIt is therefore very much a Man\u2019s Interest, that Women should be good\nChristians; for in this, as in every other Instance, he who does his\nDuty, finds his own Account in it. Duty and true Interest are one and\nthe same Thing, and he who thinks otherwise is to be pitied for being so\nmuch in the Wrong: But what can be more the Duty of the Head, than to\ninstruct and improve those who are under Government? She will freely\nleave him the quiet Dominion of this World, whose Thoughts and\nExpectations are plac\u2019d on the next. A Prospect of Heaven, and that\nonly, will cure that Ambition which all generous Minds are fill\u2019d with,\nnot by taking it away, but by placing it on a right Object. She will\ndiscern a Time when her Sex shall be no Bar to the best Employments, the\nhighest Honour; a Time when that Distinction, now so much us\u2019d to her\nPrejudice, shall be no more; but, provided she is not wanting to her\nself, her Soul shall shine as bright as the greatest Heroe\u2019s. This is a\ntrue, and indeed, the only Consolation; this makes her a sufficient\nCompensation for all the Neglect and Contempt the ill-grounded Customs\nof the World throw on her; for all the Injuries brutal Power may do her,\nand is a sufficient Cordial to support her Spirits, be her Lot in this\nWorld what it may.\n\nBut some sage Persons may, perhaps object, that were Women allow\u2019d to\nimprove themselves, and not, amongst other Discouragements, driven back\nby the wise Jests and Scoffs that are put upon a Woman of Sense or\nLearning, a Philosophical Lady, as she is call\u2019d by way of Ridicule;\nthey would be too wise, and too good for the Men: I grant it, for\nvicious and foolish Men. Nor is it to be wonder\u2019d that He is afraid he\nshould not be able to Govern them were their Understandings improv\u2019d,\nwho is resolv\u2019d not to take too much Pains with his own. But these, \u2019tis\nto be hoped, are no very considerable Number, the Foolish at least; and\ntherefore this is so far from being an Argument against Womens\nImprovement, that it is a strong one for it, if we do but suppose the\nMen to be as capable of Improvement as the Women; but much more, if,\naccording to Tradition, we believe they have greater Capacities. This,\nif any thing, would stir them up to be what they ought, and not permit\nthem to waste their Time and abuse their Faculties in the Service of\ntheir irregular Appetites and unreasonable Desires, and so let poor\ncontemptible Women, who have been their Slaves, excel them in all that\nis truly excellent. This would make them Blush at employing an immortal\nMind no better than in making Provision for the Flesh to fulfil the\nLusts thereof, since Women, by a wiser Conduct, have brought themselves\nto such a Reach of Thought, to such Exactness of Judgment, such\nClearness and Strength of Reasoning, such Purity and Elevation of Mind,\nsuch Command of their Passions, such Regularity of Will and Affection,\nand, in a Word, to such a Pitch of Perfection, as the Human Soul is\ncapable of attaining in this Life by the Grace of _GOD_; such true\nWisdom, such real Greatness, as though it does not qualify them to make\na Noise in this World, to found or overturn Empires, yet it qualifies\nthem for what is infinitely better, a Kingdom that cannot be mov\u2019d, an\nincorruptible Crown of Glory.\n\nBesides, it were ridiculous to suppose, that a Woman, were she ever so\nmuch improv\u2019d, could come near the topping Genius of the Men, and\ntherefore why should they envy or discourage her? Strength of Mind goes\nalong with Strength of Body, and \u2019tis only for some odd Accidents which\nPhilosophers have not yet thought worth while to enquire into, that the\nsturdiest Porter is not the wisest Man! As therefore the Men have the\nPower in their Hands, so there\u2019s no Dispute of their having the Brains\nto manage it! Can we suppose there is such a Thing as good Judgment and\nSense upon Earth, if it is not to be found among them: Do not they,\ngenerally speaking, do all the great Actions and considerable Business\nof this World, and leave that of the next to the Women? Their Subtlety\nin forming Cabals and laying deep Designs, their Courage and Conduct in\nbreaking through all Tyes, sacred and civil, to effect them, not only\nadvances them to the Post of Honour, and keeps them securely in it for\ntwenty or thirty Years, but gets them a Name, and conveys it down to\nPosterity for some Hundreds; and who would look any further? Justice and\nInjustice are administred by their Hands, Courts and Schools are fill\u2019d\nwith these Sages; \u2019tis Men who dispute for Truth, as well as Men who\nargue against it: Histories are writ by them; they recount each other\u2019s\ngreat Exploits, and have always done so. All famous Arts have their\nOriginal from Men, even from the Invention of Guns, to the Mystery of\ngood Eating. And to shew that nothing is beneath their Care, any more\nthan above their Reach, they have brought _Gaming_ to an Art and\nScience, and a more Profitable and Honourable one too, than any of those\nthat us\u2019d to be call\u2019d _Liberal_! Indeed, what is it they can\u2019t perform,\nwhen they attempt it? The Strength of their Brains shall be every whit\nas conspicuous at their Cups, as in a Senate-House, and, when they\nplease, they can make it pass for as sure a Mark of Wisdom, to drink\ndeep, as to reason profoundly; a greater Proof of Courage, and\nconsequently of Understanding, to dare the Vengeance of Heaven it self,\nthan to stand the Raillery of some of the worst of their Fellow\nCreatures!\n\nAgain, it may be said, If a Wife\u2019s Case be as it is here represented, it\nis not good for a Woman to marry, and so there\u2019s an End of Human Race.\nBut this is no fair Consequence, for all that can justly be inferr\u2019d\nfrom hence, is, that a Woman has no mighty Obligations to the Man who\nmakes Love to her; she has no Reason to be fond of being a Wife, or to\nreckon it a Piece of Preferment when she is taken to be a Man\u2019s\nUpper-Servant; it is no Advantage to her in this World; if rightly\nmanag\u2019d it may prove one as to the next. For she who marries purely to\ndo good, to educate Souls for Heaven, who can be so truly mortified as\nto lay aside her own Will and Desires, to pay such an intire Submission\nfor Life, to one whom she cannot be sure will always deserve it, does\ncertainly perform a more Heroick Action, than all the famous Masculine\nHeroes can boast of, she suffers a continual Martyrdom to bring Glory to\n_GOD_, and Benefit to Mankind; which Consideration, indeed, may carry\nher through all Difficulties, I know not what else can, and engage her\nto Love him who proves perhaps so much worse than a Brute, as to make\nthis Condition yet more grievous than it needed to be. She has need of a\nstrong Reason, of a truly Christian and well-temper\u2019d Spirit, of all the\nAssistance the best Education can give her, and ought to have some good\nAssurance of her own Firmness and Vertue, who ventures on such a Trial;\nand for this Reason \u2019tis less to be wonder\u2019d at that Women marry off in\nhaste, for perhaps if they took Time to consider and reflect upon it,\nthey seldom would marry.\n\nTo conclude. Perhaps I\u2019ve said more than most Men will thank me for; I\ncannot help it, for how much soever I may be their Friend and humble\nServant, I am more a Friend to Truth. Truth is strong, and some time or\nother will prevail; nor is it for their Honour, and therefore one would\nthink not for their Interest, to be partial to themselves and unjust to\nothers. They may fancy I have made some Discoveries, which, like _Arcana\nImperii_, ought to be kept secret; but, in good earnest, I do them more\nHonour than to suppose their lawful Prerogatives need any mean Arts to\nsupport them. If they have usurp\u2019d, I love Justice too much to wish\nSuccess and Continuance to Usurpations, which, though submitted to out\nof Prudence, and for Quietness sake, yet leave everybody free to regain\ntheir lawful Right whenever they have Power and Opportunity. I don\u2019t say\nthat Tyranny _ought_, but we find in _Fact_, that it provokes the\nOppress\u2019d to throw off even a lawful Yoke that fits too heavy: And if he\nwho is freely elected, after all his fair Promises, and the fine Hopes\nhe rais\u2019d, proves a Tyrant, the Consideration that he was one\u2019s own\nChoice, will not render one more Submissive and Patient, but I fear,\nmore Refractory. For though it is very unreasonable, yet we see \u2019tis the\nCourse of the World, not only to return Injury for Injury, but Crime for\nCrime; both Parties indeed are Guilty, but the Aggressors have a double\nGuilt, they have not only their own, but their Neighbour\u2019s Ruin to\nanswer for.\n\nAs to the Female Reader, I hope she will allow I\u2019ve endeavoured to do\nher Justice; not betray\u2019d her Cause as her Advocates usually do, under\nPretence of defending it. A Practice too mean for any to be guilty of\nwho have the least Sense of Honour, and who do any more than meerly\npretend to it. I think I have held the Balance even, and not being\nconscious of Partiality, I ask no Pardon for it. To plead for the\nOppress\u2019d, and to defend the Weak, seem\u2019d to me a generous Undertaking;\nfor though it may be secure, \u2019tis not always Honourable, to run over to\nthe strongest Party. And if she infers from what has been said, that\nMarriage is a very happy State for Men, if they think fit to make it so;\nthat they govern the World, they have Prescription on their Side; Women\nare too weak to dispute it with them, therefore they, as all other\nGovernors, are most, if not only, accountable for what\u2019s amiss; for\nwhether other Governments in their Original, were or were not confer\u2019d\naccording to the Merit of the Person, yet certainly in this Case, if\nHeaven has appointed the Man to govern, it has Qualified him for it: So\nfar I agree with her: But if she goes on to infer, that therefore, if a\nMan has not these Qualifications, where is his Right? That if he\nmisemploys, he abuses it? And if he abuses, according to modern\nDeduction, he forfeits it, I must leave her there. A peaceable Woman,\nindeed, will not carry it so far, she will neither question her\nHusband\u2019s Right, nor his Fitness to govern, but how? Not as an absolute\nLord and Master, with an arbitrary and tyrannical Sway, but as Reason\ngoverns and conducts a Man, by proposing what is just and fit. And the\nMan who acts according to that Wisdom he assumes, who would have that\nSuperiority he pretends to, acknowledged just, will receive no Injury by\nany thing that has been offered here. A Woman will value Him the more\nwho is so wise and good, when she discerns how much he excels the rest\nof his noble Sex; the less he requires, the more will he merit that\nEsteem and Deference, which those who are so forward to exact, seem\nconscious they don\u2019t deserve. So then the Man\u2019s Prerogative is not at\nall infring\u2019d, whilst the Woman\u2019s Privileges are secured; and if any\nWoman think her self injur\u2019d, she has a Remedy in reserve, which few Men\nwill envy, or endeavour to rob her of, the Exercise and Improvement of\nher Vertue Here, and the Reward of it Hereafter.\n\nWhen I made these Reflections, I was of Opinion, that the Case of\nmarried Women, in comparison of that of their Husbands, was not a little\nhard and unequal. But as the World now goes, I am apt to think, that a\nHusband is in no desirable Situation; his Honour is in his Wife\u2019s\nkeeping, and what Man of Honour can be satisfied with the Conduct which\nthe Licentiousness of the Age not only permits, but would endeavour to\nauthorize as a Part of good Breeding? And what makes his Case the worse,\nhe must dissemble his Uneasiness, stifle his Resentments, and not dare\nto take the proper Methods of preventing and curing the Disorder.\n\nSo great is our Corruption, that such as pretend to make a true Estimate\nof Human Life, and very freely Satirize both Sexes for lesser Crimes,\nare not asham\u2019d to recommend this, prescribing a known Sin as a Cure for\nwhat is not absolutely unlawful in it self, though very pernicious in\nits Consequences, when carried to Excess.\n\nNot that I would in any manner apologize for Gaming, which, when carried\nto Excess, is ruinous to both Sexes, especially to Women; who, when\ngiven to this Vice, disregard their Husbands, and Oeconomy, neglect the\nEducation of their Children, spend their Fortunes as much as they can,\nand, which is not the least Inconveniency, when they lose to Men more\nthan they are able to pay, they give their Creditor Opportunity to make\ninsolent Demands. But sure, any Husband, who is not sunk to the lowest\nDegree of Infamy, had rather his Wife should waste his Money at\n_Quadrille_, than Intrigue with a _Colonel_. _If Sin you must_ (says an\nadmirable Author, whose Panegyricks are Satires, and his Satires\nPanegyricks)\n\n                \u2014\u2014_take Nature for your Guide,\n            Love has some soft Excuse to sooth your Pride._\n\nCan we read this excellent Advice of this very moral Satirist, without\nremembring what the _Psalmist_ says of some of his Cotemporaries; _When\nthou sawest a Thief thou consentedst unto him, and hast been Partaker\nwith the Adultery_? For, sure of all other Thieves he is the most\ncriminal, who (under Pretence of Friendship, perhaps) robs a Man of his\nmost valued Effects, deprives him of his Honour, and of the Quiet and\nComfort of his Life.\n\nNature and Love, as they, injuriously to both, miscall their brutal\nAppetite, are very different from what our Author would represent them.\nVariety by no Means answers the End of Nature in providing for\nPosterity. And enough has been said, to shew, that such Professions of\nLove are most abusive, and the Effect of their Passion the most\noutrageous Injury that Hatred can produce: A Woman is never so\neffectually _humble_, as the Scripture elegantly expresses it, than when\na Man obtains his Desires. And if she consents, she renders her self\ndespicable in his Eyes as well as in the Eyes of others. Thus the\n_English_ Muse very truly sings:\n\n            \u201c_That wretched She, who yields to guilty Joys,\n            \u201cA Man may_ Pity, _but he_ MUST Despise.\u201d\n\nWhoever makes a true Estimate of Christianity, who does not profess it,\nbecause as yet, \u2019tis the Religion of his Country, or for his Interest,\nor some such worthy Motive; but upon full Conviction of its Divine\nAuthority, which he cannot want if he examines impartially, as a Matter\nof this Consequence deserves; such a Man will find Christianity requires\nthe strictest Purity of Heart and Imagination, since in the thickest\nDarkness our Thoughts, as well as our Actions, are manifest to our\nJudge; and, that whoever looks upon a Woman to Lust after her, has\ncommitted Adultery with her already in his Heart.\n\n             _Horses and Bulls, and all the brutal Kind, }\n           Range o\u2019er the Field, to no one She confin\u2019d, }\n           They know not Love, for Love is in the Mind.  }\n           These following Nature are exempt from Blame,\n           Unconscious or of Guilt, Remorse and Shame._\n\n             _But Man, unhappy Man! puts out his Light,\n           Reason forsakes, to follow Appetite.\n           Sinks down to Brute, and labours but in vain, }\n           To be like them, without Remorse or Shame;    }\n           To Guilt, inevitably follows Pain.            }\n           No Deeds of Darkness are conceal\u2019d by Night, }\n           He sees Who dwells in everlasting Light,     }\n           And ev\u2019ry Thought is open to His Sight._     }\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n                               APPENDIX.\n\n\nThe _Reflector_, who hopes _Reflector_ is not bad _English_, (now\n_Governor_ is happily of the Feminine Gender) guarded against Curiosity\nin vain: For a certain ingenuous Gentleman, as she is inform\u2019d, had the\nGood-nature to own these Reflections, so far, as to affirm that he had\nthe Original _MS._ in his Closet, a Proof she is not able to produce;\nand so to make himself responsible for all their Faults, for which, she\nreturns him all due Acknowledgment. However, the Generality being of\nOpinion, that a Man would have had more Prudence and Manners than to\nhave Publish\u2019d such unseasonable Truths, or to have betray\u2019d the _Arcana\nImperii_ of his Sex; she humbly confesses, that the Contrivance and\nExecution of this Design, which is unfortunately accus\u2019d of being so\ndestructive to the Government, (of the Men, I mean) is intirely her own.\nShe neither advis\u2019d with Friends, nor turn\u2019d over antient or modern\nAuthors, nor prudently submitted to the Correction of such as are, or\nsuch as _think_ they are good Judges, but with an _English_ Spirit and\nGenius, set out upon the Forlorn Hope, meaning no Hurt to any body, nor\ndesigning any thing but the publick Good, and to retrieve, if possible,\nthe Native Liberty, the Rights and Privileges of the Subject.\n\nFar be it from her to stir up Sedition of any sort: none can abhor it\nmore; and she heartily wishes, that our Masters would pay their Civil\nand Ecclesiastical Governors the same Submission, which they themselves\nexact from their Domestick Subjects. Nor can she imagine how she any way\nundermines the Masculine Empire, or blows the Trumpet of Rebellion to\nthe Moiety of Mankind. Is it by exhorting Women, not to expect to have\ntheir own Will in any thing, but to be intirely Submissive, when once\nthey have made Choice of a Lord and Master, though he happen not to be\nso wise, so kind, or even so just a Governor as was expected? She did\nnot, indeed, advise them to think his Folly Wisdom, nor his Brutality,\nthat Love and Worship he promised in his Matrimonial Oath; for this\nrequired a Flight of Wit and Sense much above her poor Ability, and\nproper only to Masculine Understandings. However, she did not in any\nmanner prompt them to Resist, or to Abdicate the Perjur\u2019d Spouse, though\nthe Laws of _GOD_, and the Land, make Special Provision for it, in a\nCase, wherein, as is to be fear\u2019d, few Men can truly plead Not Guilty.\n\n\u2019Tis true, through want of Learning, and of that Superior Genius which\nMen, as Men, lay claim to, she was ignorant of the _Natural Inferiority_\nof our Sex, which our Masters lay down as a Self-evident and Fundamental\nTruth. She saw nothing in the Reason of Things, to make this either a\nPrinciple or a Conclusion, but much to the contrary; it being Sedition\nat least, if not Treason, to assert it in this Reign. For if by the\nNatural Superiority of their Sex, they mean, that _every_ Man is by\nNature superior to _every_ Woman, which is the obvious Meaning, and that\nwhich must be stuck to if they would speak Sense, it would be a Sin in\n_any_ Woman, to have Dominion over _any_ Man, and the greatest Queen\nought not to command, but to obey, her Footman: because no Municipal\nLaws can supersede or change the Law of Nature: So that if the Dominion\nof the Men be such, the _Salique Law_, as unjust as _English Men_ have\never thought it, ought to take Place over all the Earth, and the most\nglorious Reigns in the _English_, _Danish_, _Castilian_, and other\nAnnals, were wicked Violations of the Law of Nature!\n\nIf they mean that _some_ Men are superior to _some_ Women, this is no\ngreat Discovery; had they turn\u2019d the Tables, they might have seen that\n_some_ Women are superior to _some_ Men. Or had they been pleased to\nremember their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, they might have known,\nthat _One_ Woman is superior to _All_ the Men in these Nations, or else\nthey have sworn to very little Purpose. And it must not be suppos\u2019d,\nthat their Reason and Religion would suffer them to take Oaths, contrary\nto the Law of Nature and Reason of Things.\n\nBy all which it appears, that our Reflector\u2019s Ignorance is very\npitiable; it may be her Misfortune, but not her Crime, especially since\nshe is willing to be better inform\u2019d, and hopes she shall never be so\nobstinate as to shut her Eyes against the Light of Truth, which is not\nto be charg\u2019d with Novelty, how late soever we may be bless\u2019d with the\nDiscovery. Nor can Error, be it as antient as it may, ever plead\nPrescription against Truth. And since the only way to remove all Doubts,\nto answer all Objections, and to give the Mind entire Satisfaction, is\nnot by _Affirming_, but by _Proving_, so that every one may see with\ntheir _own_ Eyes, and judge according to the best of their _own_\nUnderstandings; she hopes it is no Presumption to insist on this Natural\nRight of Judging for her self, and the rather, because by quitting it,\nwe give up all the Means of Rational Conviction. Allow us then as many\nGlasses as you please to help our Sight, and as many good Arguments as\nyou can afford to convince our Understandings: But don\u2019t exact of us, we\nbeseech you, to affirm that we see such Things as are only the Discovery\nof Men who have quicker Senses; or, that we understand, and know what we\nhave by Hear-say only; for to be so excessively Complaisant, is neither\nto see nor to understand.\n\nThat the Custom of the World, has put Women, generally speaking, into a\nState of Subjection, is not denied; but the Right can no more be prov\u2019d\nfrom the Fact, than the Predominancy of Vice can justify it. A certain\ngreat Man, has endeavour\u2019d to prove, by Reasons not contemptible, that\nin the Original State of Things the Woman was the Superior, and that her\nSubjection to the Man is an Effect of the Fall, and the Punishment of\nher Sin: And, that ingenious Theorist Mr. _Whiston_, asserts, That\nbefore the Fall there was a greater Equality between the two Sexes.\nHowever this be, \u2019tis certainly no Arrogance in a Woman to conclude,\nthat she was made for the Service of _GOD_, and that this is her End.\nBecause _GOD_ made all Things for Himself, and a rational Mind is too\nnoble a Being to be made for the Sake and Service of any Creature. The\nService she at any Time becomes oblig\u2019d to pay to a Man, is only a\nBusiness by the Bye, just as it may be any Man\u2019s Business and Duty to\nkeep Hogs; he was not Made for this, but if he Hires himself out to such\nan Employment, he ought conscientiously to perform it. Nor can any thing\nbe concluded to the contrary from St. _Paul_\u2019s Argument, 1 _Cor._ xi.\nfor he argues only for Decency and Order, according to the present\nCustom and State of Things: Taking his Words strictly and literally,\nthey prove too much, in that, _Praying and Prophecying in the Church_\nare allow\u2019d the Women, provided they do it with their Head cover\u2019d as\nwell as the Men; and no Inequality can be inferr\u2019d from hence, neither\nfrom the Gradation the Apostle there uses, that _the Head of every Man\nis Christ, and that the Head of the Woman is the Man, and the Head of\nChrist is_ _GOD_; it being evident from the Form of Baptism, that there\nis no natural Inferiority among the Divine Persons, but that they are in\nall Things Coequal. The Apostle, indeed, adds, that _the Man is the\nGlory of_ _GOD_, _and the Woman the Glory of the Man_, _&c._ But what\ndoes he infer from hence? He says not a Word of Inequality, or natural\nInferiority; but concludes, that a Woman ought to cover her Head, and a\nMan ought not to cover his, and _that even Nature it self teaches_ us,\nthat _if a Man have long Hair it is a Shame unto him_. Whatever the\nApostle\u2019s Argument proves in this Place, nothing can be plainer, than\nthat there is much more said against the present Fashion of Mens wearing\nlong Hair, than for that Supremacy they lay claim to. For by all that\nappears in the Text, it is not so much a Law of Nature, that Women\nshould obey Men, as that Men should not wear long Hair. Now how can a\nChristian Nation allow Fashions contrary to the Law of Nature, forbidden\nby an Apostle, and declared by him to be a Shame to Men? Or if Custom\nmay make an Alteration in one Case, it may in another, but what then\nbecomes of the Nature and Reason of Things? Besides, the Conclusion the\nApostle draws from his Argument concerning Women, _viz._ that they\n_should have Power on their Heads because of the Angels_, is so very\nobscure a Text, that that ingenious Paraphrast, who pleads so much for\nthe _Natural Subjection_ of Women, ingenuously confesses, that he does\nnot understand it. Probably it refers to some Custom among the\n_Corinthians_, which being well known to them, the Apostle only hints at\nit, but which we are ignorant of, and therefore apt to mistake him. \u2019Tis\nlike, that the false Apostle whom St. _Paul_ writes against, had _led\nCaptive_ some of their rich and powerful, but _silly Women_, who having\nas mean an Opinion of the Reason _GOD_ had given them, as any Deceiver\ncould desire, did not, like the noble-minded _Bereans, search the\nScriptures whether those things were so_, but lazily took up with having\nMens Persons in admiration, and follow\u2019d their Leaders blindfold, the\ncertain Rout to Destruction. And it is also probable, that the same\ncunning Seducer imploy\u2019d these Women to carry on his own Designs, and\nputting them upon what he might not think fit to appear in himself, made\nthem guilty of indecent Behaviour in the Church of _Corinth_. And\ntherefore St. _Paul_ thought it necessary to reprove them so severely,\nin order to humble them; but this being done, he takes care in the\nConclusion to set the Matter on a right Foot, placing the two Sexes on a\nLevel, to keep Men, as much as might be, from taking those Advantages\nwhich People who have Strength in their Hands, are apt to assume over\nthose who can\u2019t contend with them. For, says he, _Nevertheless_, or\nnotwithstanding the former Argument, _the Man is not without the Woman,\nnor the Woman without the Man, but all Things of_ _GOD_. The Relation\nbetween the two Sexes is mutual, and the Dependance reciprocal, both of\nthem depending intirely upon _GOD_, and upon Him only; which, one would\nthink, is no great Argument of the natural Inferiority of either Sex.\n\nOur _Reflector_ is of Opinion, that Disputes of this kind, extending to\nHuman Nature in general, and not peculiar to those to whom the Word of\n_GOD_ has been reveal\u2019d, ought to be decided by Natural Reason only.\nAnd, that the Holy Scripture should not be interested in the present\nControversy, in which it determines nothing, any more than it does\nbetween the _Copernican_ and _Ptolomean_ Systems. The Design of those\nHoly Books being to make us excellent Moralists and perfect Christians,\nnot great Philosophers; and being writ for the Vulgar as well as for the\nLearned, they are accommodated to the common way of Speech and the Usage\nof the World; in which we have but a short Probation, so that it matters\nnot much what Part we act, whether of Governing or Obeying, provided we\nperform it well with respect to the World to come.\n\nOne does not wonder, indeed, that when an Adversary is drove to a\nNonplus, and Reason declares against him, he flies to Authority,\nespecially to Divine, which is infallible, and therefore ought not to be\ndisputed. But Scripture is not always on their Side who make Parade of\nit, and through their Skill in Languages, and the Tricks of the Schools,\nwrest it from its genuine Sense to their own Inventions. And supposing,\nnot granting, that it were apparently to the Womens Disadvantage, no\nfair and generous Adversary but would be asham\u2019d to urge this Advantage:\nBecause Women, without their own Fault, are kept in Ignorance of the\nOriginal, wanting Languages and other Helps to Criticise on the Sacred\nText, of which, they know no more, than Men are pleas\u2019d to impart in\ntheir Translations. In short, they shew their Desire to maintain their\nHypotheses, but by no means their Reverence to the Sacred Oracles, who\nengage them in such Disputes. And therefore, the Blame be theirs, who\nhave unnecessarily introduc\u2019d them in the present Subject, and who, by\nsaying, that the _Reflections_ were not agreeable to Scripture, oblige\nthe Reflector to shew, that those who affirm it must either mistake her\nMeaning, or the Sense of Holy Scripture, or both, if they think what\nthey say, and do not find fault meerly because they resolve to do so.\nFor, had she ever writ any thing contrary to those sacred Truths, she\nwould be the first in pronouncing its Condemnation.\n\nBut what says the Holy Scripture? It speaks of Women as in a State of\nSubjection, and so it does of the _Jews_ and _Christians_, when under\nthe Dominion of the _Chaldeans_ and _Romans_, requiring of the one as\nwell as of the other, a quiet Submission to them under whose Power they\nliv\u2019d. But will any one say, that these had a _Natural Superiority_ and\nRight to Dominion? that they had a superior Understanding, or any\nPre-eminence, except what their greater Strength acquir\u2019d? Or, that the\nother were subjected to their Adversaries for any other Reason but the\nPunishment of their Sins, and, in order to their Reformation? Or for the\nExercise of their Vertue, and because the Order of the World and the\nGood of Society requir\u2019d it?\n\nIf Mankind had never Sin\u2019d, Reason would always have been obeyed, there\nwould have been no Struggle for Dominion, and Brutal Power would not\nhave prevail\u2019d. But in the lapsed State of Mankind, and now, that Men\nwill not be guided by their Reason but by their Appetites, and do not\nwhat they _ought_ but what they _can_, the Reason, or that which stands\nfor it, the Will and Pleasure of the Governor, is to be the Reason of\nthose who will not be guided by their own, and must take Place for\nOrder\u2019s sake, although it should not be conformable to right Reason. Nor\ncan there be any Society great or little, from Empires down to private\nFamilies, without a last Resort, to determine the Affairs of that\nSociety by an irresistable Sentence. Now unless this Supremacy be fix\u2019d\nsomewhere, there will be a perpetual Contention about it, such is the\nLove of Dominion, and let the Reason of Things be what it may, those who\nhave least Force or Cunning to supply it, will have the Disadvantage. So\nthat since Women are acknowledged to have least Bodily Strength, their\nbeing commanded to Obey is in pure Kindness to them, and for their Quiet\nand Security, as well as for the Exercise of their Vertue. But does it\nfollow, that Domestick Governors have more Sense than their Subjects,\nany more than that other Governors have? We do not find that any Man\nthinks the worse of his own Understanding, because another has superior\nPower; or concludes himself less capable of a Post of Honour and\nAuthority, because he is not prefer\u2019d to it. How much Time would lie on\nMens Hands, how empty would the Places of Concourse be, and how silent\nmost Companies, did Men forbear to censure their Governors, that is, in\neffect, to think themselves wiser. Indeed, Government would be much more\ndesirable than it is, did it invest the Possessor with a superior\nUnderstanding as well as Power. And if meer Power gives a Right to Rule,\nthere can be no such Thing as Usurpation; but a Highway-Man, so long as\nhe has Strength to force, has also a Right to require our Obedience.\n\nAgain, if absolute Sovereignty be not necessary in a State, how comes it\nto be so in a Family? Or if in a Family why not in a State; since no\nReason can be alledged for the one that will not hold more strongly for\nthe other? If the Authority of the Husband, so far as it extends, is\nsacred and inalienable, why not that of the Prince? The Domestick\nSovereign is without Dispute elected, and the Stipulations and Contract\nare mutual; is it not then partial in Men to the last Degree, to contend\nfor, and practise that Arbitrary Dominion in their Families, which they\nabhor and exclaim against in the State? For if Arbitrary Power is evil\nin it self, and an improper Method of Governing Rational and Free\nAgents, it ought not to be practis\u2019d any where; nor is it less, but\nrather more mischievous in Families than in Kingdoms, by how much\n100,000 Tyrants are worse than one. What though a Husband can\u2019t deprive\na Wife of Life without being responsible to the Law, he may, however, do\nwhat is much more grievous to a generous Mind, render Life miserable,\nfor which she has no Redress, scarce Pity, which is afforded to every\nother Complainant, it being thought a Wife\u2019s Duty to suffer every thing\nwithout Complaint. If _all Men are born Free_, how is it that all Women\nare born Slaves? As they must be, if the being subjected to the\n_inconstant, uncertain, unknown, arbitrary Will_ of Men, be the _perfect\nCondition of Slavery_? And, if the Essence of Freedom consists, as our\nMasters say it does, in having a _standing Rule to live by_? And why is\nSlavery so much condemn\u2019d and strove against in one Case, and so highly\napplauded, and held so necessary and so sacred in another?\n\n\u2019Tis true, that _GOD_ told _Eve_ after the Fall, that _her Husband\nshould Rule over her_: And so it is, that he told _Esau_ by the Mouth of\n_Isaac_ his Father, that he should _serve_ his _younger Brother_, and\nshould in Time, and when he was strong enough to do it, _break the Yoke\nfrom off his Neck_. Now, why one Text should be a Command any more than\nthe other, and not both of them be Predictions only; or why the former\nshould prove _Adam_\u2019s Natural Right to Rule, and much less every Man\u2019s,\nany more than the latter is a Proof of _Jacob_\u2019s Right to Rule, and of\n_Esau_\u2019s to Rebel, one is yet to learn? The Text in both Cases\nforetelling what would be; but neither of them determining what _ought_\nto be.\n\nBut the Scripture commands _Wives_ to _submit themselves to their own\nHusbands_. True; for which St. _Paul_ gives a Mystical Reason (_Eph._ v.\n22, _&c._) and St. _Peter_, a Prudential and Charitable one (1 _Pet._\niii.) but neither of them derive that Subjection from the Law of Nature.\nNay, St. _Paul_, as if he foresaw and meant to prevent this Plea, giving\nDirections for their Conduct to Women in general, 1 _Tim._ ii. when he\ncomes to speak of _Subjection_, he changes his Phrase from _Women_,\nwhich denotes the whole Sex, to _Woman_, which in the New Testament is\nappropriated to a Wife.\n\nAs for his not suffering Women to speak in the Church, no sober Person\nthat I know of pretends to it. That learned Paraphrast, indeed, who lays\nso much Stress on the _Natural Subjection_, provided this Prerogative be\nsecur\u2019d, is willing to give up the other. For he endeavours to prove,\nthat Inspir\u2019d Women, as well as Men, us\u2019d to speak in the Church, and\nthat St. _Paul_ does not forbid it, but only takes care that the Women\nshould signify their Subjection by wearing a Veil. But the Apostle is\nhis own best Expositor, let us therefore compare his Precepts with his\nPractice, for he was all of a Piece, and did not contradict himself. Now\nby this Comparison we find, that though he forbids Women to teach in the\nChurch, and this for several Prudential Reasons, like those he\nintroduces with an _I give my Opinion, and now speak I, not the Lord_,\nand not because of any Law of Nature, or positive Divine Precept, for\nthat the Words _they are commanded_ (1 _Cor._ xiv. 24.) are not in the\nOriginal, appears from the _Italick_ Character, yet he did not found\nthis Prohibition on any suppos\u2019d want of Understanding in Woman, or of\nAbility to teach; neither does he confine them at all Times to _learn in\nSilence_. For the eloquent _Apollos_, who was himself a Teacher, was\ninstructed by _Priscilla_, as well as by her Husband _Aquila_, and was\nimprov\u2019d by them both in the Christian Faith. Nor does St. _Paul_ blame\nher for this, or suppose that she _usurp\u2019d Authority over_ that great\n_Man_; so far from this, that as she is always honourably mention\u2019d in\nHoly Scripture, so our Apostle, in his Salutations, _Rom._ xvi. places\nher in the Front, even before her Husband, giving to her, as well as to\nhim, the Noble Title of, _his Helper in Christ Jesus_, and of one _to\nwhom all the Churches of the_ Gentiles had great Obligations.\n\nBut, it will be said perhaps, that in 1 _Tim._ ii. 13, _&c._ St. _Paul_\nargues for the Woman\u2019s Subjection from the Reason of Things. To this I\nanswer, that it must be confess\u2019d, that this (according to the vulgar\nInterpretation) is a very obscure Place, and I should be glad to see a\nNatural, and not a Forc\u2019d Interpretation given of it by those who take\nit Literally: Whereas if it be taken Allegorically, with respect to the\nMystical Union between Christ and his Church, to which St. _Paul_\nfrequently accommodates the Matrimonial Relation, the Difficulties\nvanish. For the Earthly _Adam_\u2019s being _form\u2019d_ before _Eve_, seems as\nlittle to prove her Natural Subjection to him, as the living Creatures,\nFishes, Birds and Beasts being form\u2019d before them both, proves that\nMankind must be subject to these Animals. Nor can the Apostle mean that\n_Eve_ only sinned; or that she only was _Deceiv\u2019d_, for if _Adam_ sinn\u2019d\nwilfully and knowingly, he became the greater Transgressor. But it is\nvery true, that the Second _Adam_, the Man Christ Jesus, _was first\nform\u2019d_, and then his Spouse the Church. He was not in any respect\n_Deceiv\u2019d_, nor does she pretend to Infallibility. And from this second\n_Adam_, promis\u2019d to _Eve_ in the Day of our first Parents Transgression,\nand from Him only, do all their Race, Men as well as Women, derive their\nHopes of Salvation. Nor is it promis\u2019d to either Sex on any other Terms\nbesides Perseverance in _Faith, Charity, Holiness and Sobriety_.\n\nIf the Learned will not admit of this Interpretation, I know not how to\ncontend with them. For Sense is a Portion that _GOD_ Himself has been\npleased to distribute to both Sexes with an impartial Hand, but Learning\nis what Men have engross\u2019d to themselves, and one can\u2019t but admire their\ngreat Improvements! For, after doubting whether there was such a Thing\nas Truth, and after many hundred Years Disputes about it, in the last\nCentury an extraordinary Genius arose, (whom yet, some are pleased to\ncall a Visionary) enquir\u2019d after it, and laid down the best Method of\nfinding it. Not to the general Liking of the Men of Letters, perhaps,\nbecause it was wrote in a vulgar Language, and was so natural and easy\nas to debase Truth to common Understandings, shewing too plainly, that\nLearning and true Knowledge are two very different Things. \u201cFor it often\nhappens (says that Author) that Women and Children acknowledge the\nFalsehood of those Prejudices we contend with, because they do not dare\nto judge without Examination, and they bring all the Attention they are\ncapable of to what they read. Whereas on the contrary, the Learned\ncontinue wedded to their own Opinions, because they will not take the\nTrouble of examining what is contrary to their receiv\u2019d Doctrines.\u201d\n\nSciences, indeed, have been invented and taught long ago, and, as Men\ngrew better advis\u2019d, new modelled. So that it is become a considerable\nPiece of Learning to give an Account of the Rise and Progress of the\nSciences, and of the various Opinions of Men concerning them. But\nCertainty and Demonstration are much pretended to in this present Age,\nand being obtain\u2019d in many Things, \u2019tis hoped Men will never Dispute\nthem away in that which is of greatest Importance, the Way of Salvation.\nAnd because there is not any thing more certain than what is delivered\nin the Oracles of _GOD_, we come now to consider what they offer in\nFavour of our Sex.\n\nLet it be premis\u2019d, (according to the Reasoning of a very ingenious\nPerson in a like Case) that one Text for us, is more to be regarded than\nmany against us. Because that _One_ being different from what Custom has\nestablished, ought to be taken with Philosophical Strictness; whereas\nthe _Many_ being express\u2019d according to the vulgar Mode of Speech, ought\nto have no greater Stress laid on them, than that evident Condescension\nwill bear. One Place then were sufficient, but we have many Instances\nwherein Holy Scripture considers Women very differently from what they\nappear in the common Prejudices of Mankind.\n\nThe World will hardly allow a Woman to say any thing well, unless, as\nshe borrows it from Men, or as assisted by them: But _GOD_ Himself\nallows that the Daughters of _Zelophehad spake right_, and passes their\nRequest into a Law. Considering how much the Tyranny, shall I say, or\nthe superior Force of Men, keeps Women from Acting in the World, or\ndoing any thing considerable, and remembring withal the Conciseness of\nthe Sacred Story, no small Part of it is bestow\u2019d in transmitting the\nHistory of Women, famous in their Generations: Two of the Canonical\nBooks, bearing the Names of those great Women whose Vertues and Actions\nare there recorded. _Ruth_ being call\u2019d from among the _Gentiles_ to be\nan Ancestor of the Messiah, and _Esther_ being rais\u2019d up by _GOD_ to be\nthe great Instrument of the Deliverance and Prosperity of the _Jewish_\nChurch.\n\nThe Character of _Isaac_, though one of the most blameless Men taken\nNotice of in the Old Testament, must give Place to _Rebecca_\u2019s, whose\nAffections are more reasonably plac\u2019d than his, her Favourite Son being\nthe same who was _GOD_\u2019s Favourite. Nor was the Blessing bestow\u2019d\naccording to his, but to her Desire; so that if you will not allow, that\nher Command to _Jacob_ superseded _Isaac_\u2019s to _Esau_, his Desire to\ngive the Blessing to this Son, being evidently an Effect of his\nPartiality; you must at least grant, that she paid greater Deference to\nthe Divine Revelation, and for this Reason, at least, had a Right to\noppose her Husband\u2019s Design; which, it seems, _Isaac_ was sensible of,\nwhen upon his Disappointment, he _trembled so exceedingly_. And so much\nNotice is taken even of _Rebecca_\u2019s Nurse, that we have an Account where\nshe died, and where she was buried.\n\n_GOD_ is pleas\u2019d to Record it among His Favours to the ingrateful\n_Jews_, that He sent before them His Servants _Moses_, _Aaron_, and\nMIRIAM; who was also a Prophetess, and instructed the Women how to bear\ntheir Part with _Moses_ in his Triumphal Hymn. Is she to be blam\u2019d for\nher Ambition? And is not the High Priest _Aaron_ also, who has his Share\nin the Reproof as well as in the Crime? nor could she have mov\u2019d\nSedition if she had not been a considerable Person, which appears also\nby the Respect the People paid her, in deferring their Journey till she\nwas ready.\n\nWhere shall we find a nobler Piece of Poetry than _Deborah_\u2019s Song? Or a\nbetter and greater Ruler than that renowned Woman, whose Government so\nmuch excell\u2019d that of the former Judges? And though she had a Husband,\nshe her self judged _Israel_, and consequently was his Sovereign, of\nwhom we know no more than the Name. Which Instance, as I humbly suppose,\noverthrows the Pretence of _Natural Inferiority_. For it is not the bare\nRelation of a Fact, by which none ought to be concluded, unless it is\nconformable to a Rule, and to the Reason of Things: But _Deborah_\u2019s\nGovernment was conferr\u2019d on her by _GOD_ Himself. Consequently the\nSovereignty of a Woman is not contrary to the Law of Nature; for the Law\nof Nature is the Law of _GOD_, who cannot contradict Himself; and yet it\nwas _GOD_ who inspir\u2019d and approv\u2019d that great Woman, raising her up to\nJudge and to Deliver His People _Israel_.\n\nNot to insist on the Courage of that valiant Woman, who deliver\u2019d\n_Thebez_ by slaying the Assailant; nor upon the Preference which _GOD_\nthought fit to give to _Sampson_\u2019s Mother, in sending the Angel to her,\nand not to her Husband, whose vulgar Fear she so prudently answer\u2019d, as\nplainly shews her superior Understanding: To pass over _Abigail_\u2019s wise\nConduct, whereby she preserv\u2019d her Family and deserved _David_\u2019s\nAcknowledgments, for restraining him from doing a rash and unjustifiable\nAction; the Holy Penman giving her the Character of a _Woman of good\nUnderstanding_, whilst her Husband has that of a Churlish and Foolish\nPerson, and a Son of _Belial_: To say nothing of the _wise Woman_ (as\nthe Text calls her) of _Tekoah_; or of her of _Abel_, who has the same\nEpithet, and who by her Prudence delivered the City and appeas\u2019d a\ndangerous Rebellion: Nor of the Queen of _Sheba_, whose Journey to hear\nthe Wisdom of _Solomon_, shews her own good Judgment and great Share in\nthat excellent Endowment. _Solomon_ does not think himself too wise to\nbe instructed by his Mother, nor too great to record her Lessons, which,\nif he had followed, he might have spared the Trouble of Repentance, and\nbeen delivered from a great deal of that Vanity he so deeply regrets.\n\nWhat Reason can be assign\u2019d why the Mothers of the Kings of _Judah_, are\nso frequently noted in those very short Accounts that are given of their\nReigns, but the great Respect paid them, or perhaps their Influence on\nthe Government, and Share in the Administration? This is not improbable,\nsince the wicked _Athaliah_ had Power to carry on her Intrigues so far\nas to get Possession of the Throne, and to keep it for some Years.\nNeither was there any Necessity for _Asa_\u2019s removing his Mother (or\nGrandmother) from being Queen, if this were merely Titular, and did not\ncarry Power and Authority along with it. And we find what Influence\n_Jezabel_ had in _Israel_, indeed to her Husband\u2019s and her own\nDestruction.\n\nIt was a _Widow-Woman_ whom _GOD_ made choice of to sustain his Prophet\n_Elijah_ at _Zarephah_. And the History of the _Shunamite_ is a noble\nInstance of the Account that is made of Women in Holy Scripture. For\nwhether it was not the Custom in _Shunem_ for the Husband to dictate, or\nwhether her\u2019s was conscious of her superior Vertue, or whatever was the\nReason, we find it is she who governs, _dwelling_ with great Honour and\nSatisfaction _among her own People_. Which Happiness she understood so\nwell, and was so far from a troublesome Ambition, that she desires no\nRecommendation to _the King or Captain of the Host_, when the Prophet\noffer\u2019d it, being already greater than they could make her. The Text\ncalls her a _Great Woman_, whilst her Husband is hardly taken Notice of,\nand this, no otherwise, than as performing the Office of a Bailiff. It\nis _her_ Piety and Hospitality that are Recorded, _She_ invites the\nProphet to _her House_; who converses with, and is entertained by _her_.\nShe gives her Husband no Account of _her_ Affairs any further, than to\ntell him _her_ Designs, that he may see them executed. And when he\ndesires to know the Reason of her Conduct, all the Answer she affords\nis, _Well_, or, as the Margin has it from the _Hebrew_, _Peace_. Nor can\nthis be thought assuming, since it is no more than what the Prophet\nencourages, for all his Addresses are to _her_, he takes no Notice of\nher Husband. His Benefits are conferr\u2019d on _her_, \u2019tis _she_ and _her\nHousehold_ whom he warns of a Famine, and \u2019tis _she_ who Appeals to the\nKing for the Restitution of _her House_ and _Land_. I would not infer\nfrom hence, that Women, generally speaking, ought to govern in their\nFamilies when they have a Husband; but I think this Instance and Example\nis a sufficient Proof, that if by Custom or Contract, or the Laws of the\nCountry, or Birth-right, (as in the Case of Sovereign Princesses) they\nhave the supreme Authority, it is no Usurpation, nor do they act\ncontrary to Holy Scripture, nor consequently to the Law of Nature. For\nthey are no where, that I know of, forbidden to claim their just Right:\nThe Apostle, \u2019tis true, would not have them _usurp_ Authority, where\nCustom and the Law of the strongest had brought them into Subjection, as\nit has in these Parts of the World. Though in remoter Regions, if\nTravellers rightly inform us, the Succession to the Crown is intail\u2019d on\nthe Female Line.\n\n_GOD_ Himself, who is _no Respecter of Persons, with whom there is\nneither Bond nor Free, Male nor Female, but_ they _are all one in Christ\nJesus_, did not deny Women that Divine Gift the Spirit of Prophecy,\nneither under the _Jewish_ nor Christian Dispensation. We have nam\u2019d two\ngreat Prophetesses already, _Miriam_ and _Deborah_; and besides other\nInstances, _Huldah_ the Prophetess was such an Oracle, that the good\nKing _Josiah_, that great Pattern of Vertue, sends even the High Priest\nhimself to consult her, and to receive Directions from her in the most\narduous Affairs. _It shall come to pass_, saith the Lord, _that I will\npour out my Spirit upon all Flesh, and your Sons and your Daughters\nshall Prophesy_, which was accordingly fulfill\u2019d by the Mission of the\nHoly _Ghost_ on the Day of _Pentecost_, as St. _Peter_ tells us. And,\nbesides others, there is mention of four Daughters of _Philip_, Virgins,\nwho did Prophesy. For, as in the _Old_, so in the _New Testament_, Women\nmake a considerable Figure; the Holy Virgin receiving the greatest\nHonour that Human Nature is capable of, when the Son of _GOD_ vouchsafed\nto be her Son, and to derive his Humanity from her only. And if it is a\ngreater Blessing _to hear the Word of_ _GOD_ _and keep it_, who are more\nconsiderable for their Assiduity in this, than the Female Disciples of\nour LORD? _Mary_ being Exemplary, and receiving a noble Encomium from\nHim, for her Choice of the better Part.\n\nIt would be thought tedious to enumerate all the excellent Women\nmentioned in the _New Testament_, whose humble Penitence and ardent\nLove, as _Magdalen_\u2019s; their lively Faith and holy Importunity, as the\n_Syrophenician_\u2019s; extraordinary Piety and Uprightness, as\n_Elizabeth_\u2019s; Hospitality, Charity and Diligence, as _Martha_\u2019s,\n_Tabitha_\u2019s, _&c._ (see St. _Luke_ viii.); frequent and assiduous\nDevotions and Austerities, as _Anna_\u2019s; Constancy and Courage,\nPerseverance and ardent Zeal, as that of the Holy Women who attended our\nLORD to His Cross, when His Disciples generally forsook, and the most\nCourageous had denied Him; are Recorded for our Example. Their Love was\nstronger than Death, it followed our Saviour into the Grave. And, as a\nReward, both the Angel, and even the LORD Himself, appears first to\nthem, and sends them to preach the great Article of the Resurrection to\nthe very Apostles, who being, as yet, under the Power of the Prejudices\nof their Sex, esteem\u2019d the Holy Womens _Words as idle Tales, and\nbelieved them not_.\n\nSome Men will have it, that the Reason of our LORD\u2019s appearing first to\nthe Women, was, their being least able to keep a Secret; a witty and\nmasculine Remark, and wonderfully Reverent! But not to dispute whether\nthose Women were Blabs or no, there are many Instances in Holy\nScripture, of Women who did not betray the Confidence repos\u2019d in them.\nThus _Rahab_, though formerly an ill Woman, being converted by the\n_Report_ of those Miracles, which, though the _Israelites saw_, yet they\n_believed not in_ _GOD_, _nor put their Trust in his Word_, She\nacknowledges the _GOD_ of Heaven, and, as a Reward of her faithful\nService, in concealing _Joshua_\u2019s Spies, is, with her Family, exempted\nfrom the Ruin of her Country, and also, has the Honour of being named in\nthe _Messiah_\u2019s Genealogy. _Michal_, to save _David_\u2019s Life, exposes her\nself to the Fury of a Jealous and Tyrannical Prince. A Girl was trusted\nby _David_\u2019s grave Counsellors to convey him Intelligence in his Son\u2019s\nRebellion; and when a Lad had found it out, and blab\u2019d it to _Absalom_,\nthe King\u2019s Friends confiding in the Prudence and Fidelity of a Woman,\nwere secur\u2019d by her. When our LORD escaped from the _Jews_, he trusted\nHimself in the Hands of _Martha_ and _Mary_. So does St. _Peter_ with\nanother _Mary_, when the Angel deliver\u2019d him from _Herod_, the Damsel\n_Rhoda_ too, was acquainted with the Secret. More might be said, but one\nwould think here is enough to shew, that whatever other great and wise\nReasons Men may have for despising Women, and keeping them in Ignorance\nand Slavery, it can\u2019t be from their having learnt to do so in Holy\nScripture. The Bible is for, and not against us, and cannot without\ngreat Violence done to it, be urg\u2019d to our Prejudice.\n\nHowever, there are strong and prevalent Reasons which demonstrate the\nSuperiority and Pre-eminence of the Men. For in the first Place, Boys\nhave much Time and Pains, Care and Cost bestow\u2019d on their Education,\nGirls have little or none. The former are early initiated in the\nSciences, are made acquainted with antient and modern Discoveries, they\nstudy Books and Men, have all imaginable Encouragement; not only Fame, a\ndry Reward now a-days, but also Title, Authority, Power, and Riches\nthemselves, which purchase all Things, are the Reward of their\nImprovement. The latter are restrain\u2019d, frown\u2019d upon, and beat, not\n_for_, but _from_ the Muses; Laughter and Ridicule, that never-failing\nScare-Crow, is set up to drive them from the Tree of Knowledge. But if,\nin spite of all Difficulties Nature prevails, and they can\u2019t be kept so\nignorant as their Masters would have them, they are star\u2019d upon as\nMonsters, censur\u2019d, envied, and every way discouraged, or, at the best,\nthey have the Fate the Proverb assigns them, _Vertue is prais\u2019d and\nstarv\u2019d_. And therefore, since the coarsest Materials need the most\nCuring, as every Workman can inform you, and the worst Ground the most\nelaborate Culture, it undeniably follows, that Mens Understandings are\nsuperior to Womens, for, after many Years Study and Experience, they\nbecome wise and learned, and Women are not Born so!\n\nAgain, Men are possessed of all Places of Power, Trust and Profit, they\nmake Laws and exercise the Magistracy, not only the sharpest Sword, but\neven all the Swords and Blunderbusses are theirs, which by the strongest\nLogick in the World, gives them the best Title to every Thing they\nplease to claim as their Prerogative: Who shall contend with them?\nImmemorial Prescription is on their Side in these Parts of the World,\nantient Tradition and modern Usage! Our Fathers, have all along, both\ntaught and practised Superiority over the weaker Sex, and consequently\nWomen are by Nature inferior to Men, as was to be demonstrated. An\nArgument which must be acknowledged unanswerable; for, as well as I love\nmy Sex, I will not pretend a Reply to _such_ Demonstration!\n\nOnly let me beg to be inform\u2019d, to whom we poor Fatherless Maids, and\nWidows who have lost their Masters, owe Subjection? It can\u2019t be to all\nMen in general, unless all Men were agreed to give the same Commands; Do\nwe then fall as Strays, to the first who finds us? By the Maxims of some\nMen, and the Conduct of some Women one would think so. But whoever he be\nthat thus happens to become our Master, if he allows us to be reasonable\nCreatures, and does not meerly Compliment us with that Title, since no\nMan denies our Readiness to use our Tongues, it would tend, I should\nthink, to our Master\u2019s Advantage, and therefore he may please to be\nadvis\u2019d to teach us to improve our Reason. But if Reason is only allow\u2019d\nus by way of Raillery, and the secret Maxim is, that we have none, or\nlittle more than Brutes, \u2019tis the best way to confine us with Chain and\nBlock to the Chimney-Corner, which, probably, might save the Estates of\nsome Families and the Honour of others.\n\nI Do not propose this to prevent a Rebellion, for Women are not so well\nunited as to form an Insurrection. They are for the most part wise\nenough to love their Chains, and to discern how very becomingly they\nfit. They think as humbly of themselves as their Masters can wish, with\nrespect to the other Sex, but in regard to their own, they have a Spice\nof Masculine Ambition; every one would Lead, and none would Follow. Both\nSexes being too apt to Envy, and too backward in Emulating, and take\nmore Delight in detracting from their Neighbour\u2019s Vertue, than in\nimproving their own. And therefore, as to those Women who find\nthemselves born for Slavery, and are so sensible of their own Meanness,\nas to conclude it impossible to attain to any thing excellent, since\nthey are, or ought to be best acquainted with their own Strength and\nGenius, She\u2019s a Fool who would attempt their Deliverance or Improvement.\nNo, let them enjoy the great Honour and Felicity of their tame,\nsubmissive and depending Temper! Let the Men applaud, and let them glory\nin this wonderful Humility! Let them receive the Flatteries and Grimaces\nof the other Sex, live unenvied by their own, and be as much belov\u2019d as\none such Woman can afford to love another! Let them enjoy the Glory of\ntreading in the Footsteps of their Predecessors, and of having the\nPrudence to avoid that audacious Attempt of soaring beyond their Sphere!\nLet them Huswife or Play, Dress, and be pretty entertaining Company! Or,\nwhich is better, relieve the Poor to ease their own Compassions, read\npious Books, say their Prayers, and go to Church, because they have been\ntaught and us\u2019d to do so, without being able to give a better Reason for\ntheir Faith and Practice! Let them not by any means aspire at being\nWomen of Understanding, because no Man can endure a Woman of Superior\nSense, or would treat a reasonable Woman civilly, but that he thinks he\nstands on higher Ground, and, that she is so wise as to make Exceptions\nin his Favour, and to take her Measures by his Directions; they may\npretend to Sense, indeed, since meer Pretences only render one the more\nridiculous! Let them, in short, be what is call\u2019d _very_ Women, for this\nis most acceptable to all sorts of Men; or let them aim at the Title of\n_good devout_ Women, since some Men can bear with this; but let them not\njudge of the Sex by their own Scantling: For the great Author of Nature\nand Fountain of all Perfection, never design\u2019d that the Mean and\nImperfect, but that the most Compleat and Excellent of His Creatures in\nevery Kind, should be the Standard to the rest.\n\nTo conclude; If that GREAT QUEEN who has subdued the Proud, and made the\npretended Invincible more than once fly before her; who has Rescued an\nEmpire, Reduced a Kingdom, Conquer\u2019d Provinces in as little Time almost\nas one can Travel them, and seems to have chain\u2019d Victory to her\nStandard; who disposes of Crowns, gives Laws and Liberty to _Europe_,\nand is the chief Instrument in the Hand of the Almighty, to pull down\nand to set up the great Men of the Earth; who conquers every where for\nothers, and no where for her self but in the Hearts of the Conquer\u2019d,\nwho are of the Number of those who reap the Benefit of her Triumphs;\nwhilst she only reaps for her self the Lawrels of disinterested Glory,\nand the Royal Pleasure of doing Heroically; if this Glory of her own\nSex, and Envy of the other, will not think we need, or does not hold us\nworthy of, the Protection of her ever victorious Arms, and Men have not\nthe Gratitude, for her sake at least, to do Justice to her Sex, who has\nbeen such a universal Benefactress to theirs: Adieu to the Liberties,\nnot of this or that Nation or Region only, but of the Moiety of Mankind!\nTo all the great Things that Women might perform, inspir\u2019d by her\nExample, encouraged by her Smiles, and supported by her Power! To their\nDiscovery of new Worlds for the Exercise of her Goodness, new Sciences\nto publish her Fame, and reducing Nature it self to a Subjection to her\nEmpire! To their destroying those worst of Tyrants Impiety and\nImmorality, which dare to stalk about even in her own Dominions, and to\ndevour Souls almost within View of her Throne, leaving a Stench behind\nthem scarce to be corrected even by the Incense of her Devotions! To the\nWomen\u2019s tracing a new Path to Honour, in which none shall walk but such\nas scorn to Cringe in order to Rise, and who are Proof both against\ngiving and receiving Flattery! In a Word, to those Halcyon, or, if you\nwill, _Millennium_ Days, in which the Wolf and the Lamb shall feed\ntogether, and a Tyrannous Domination, which Nature never meant, shall no\nlonger render useless, if not hurtful, the Industry and Understandings\nof half Mankind!\n\n\n                               __FINIS.__\n\n[Illustration]\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n  _BOOKS lately Printed for, and Sold by_ WILLIAM PARKER _at the_ King\u2019s\n    Head _in St._ Paul\u2019_s_ Church-Yard.\n\n\n                                _FOLIO._\n\nA Compleat History of _England_, to the Death of King _William_ III.\nwith large Notes. Collected by the late Bishop _Kennet_. With the\nEffigies of all the Kings, from the Originals: Engraven by the best\nMasters. 3 Vols.\n\n_Puffendorf_\u2019s Law of Nature and Nations; in eight Books. Done into\n_English_ by _Basil Kennet_, D. D. To which are added, all the large\nNotes by Mr. _Barbeyrac_. The Fourth Edition, carefully corrected.\n\n_Guillim_\u2019s Display of Heraldry: The Sixth Edition, improv\u2019d; with large\nAdditions of many hundred Coats of Arms, under their respective\nBearings; with good Authorities from the _Ashmolean_ Library, Sir\n_George Mackenzie_, _&c._\n\nThe Natural History of _Northamptonshire_; with some Account of the\nAntiquities. To which is annex\u2019d, A Transcript of _Doomsday-Book_, so\nfar as it relates to that County. By _John Moreton_, M. A. Rector of\n_Oxendon_ in the same County, and F. R. S.\n\nThe _Cambridge_ Concordance to the Holy Scriptures: Together with the\nBooks of _Apocrypha_; and the various Readings both of Texts and Margin,\nin a more exact Method than has hitherto been extant. The fifth Edition,\nvery accurately corrected.\n\nThe Works of the famous _Nicholas Machiavel_, Citizen and Secretary of\n_Florence_; newly and faithfully Translated into _English_. The Third\nEdition, carefully corrected.\n\nThe Works of the most exemplary Christian Mr. _William Allen_,\nconsisting of thirteen distinct Tracts on several Subjects. With a\nSermon preached at his Funeral by Bishop _Kidder_: To which is prefix\u2019d,\na Preface concerning the Author and his Writings; by _John Williams_,\nlate Bishop of _Chichester_.\n\n\n                               _QUARTO._\n\nCommon-Place Book to the Bible.\n\n_Littleton_\u2019s Dictionary.\n\nReligion of Nature delineated.\n\n_Tournefort_\u2019s compleat Herbal, 39 Numbers, to be continued. Price 1\n_s._ each.\n\nThe History and Antiquities, Ecclesiastical and Civil, of the Isle of\n_Thanet_ in _Kent_. By _J. Lewis_, M. A.\n\nThe History and Antiquities of the Abby and Church of _Feversham_ in\n_Kent_; of the adjoining Priory of _Davington_ and _Maison-Dieu_ of\n_Ospringe_, and Parish of _Bocton Subtus le Bleyne_, _&c._ By _J.\nLewis_, M. A.\n\n\n                        _OCTAVO_ and _TWELVES_.\n\nAn Answer to the Dissenters Pleas for Separation: Or, an Abridgment of\nthe _London_ Cases. Wherein the Substance of those Books is digested\ninto one short and plain Discourse. The 6th Edition. By _Thomas Bennet_,\nD. D. late Vicar of St. _Giles_\u2019s _Cripplegate_.\n\nBishop _Bull_\u2019s Sermons, with his Life. By Mr. _Nelson_, in 4 Vols.\n\nThe Book of Psalms made fit for the Closet; with Collects and Prayers\nout of the Liturgy of the Church of _England_, _&c._ particularly\nadapted, with Titles to each Psalm.\n\nDr. _Comber_\u2019s short Discourses upon the whole Common-Prayer, designed\nto inform the Judgment, and excite the Devotion of such as daily use the\nsame. The Fourth Edition.\n\nCivil Policy, a Treatise concerning the Nature of Government. Wherein\nthe Reasons of the great Diversity to be observed in the Customs,\nManners, and Usages of Nations, are Historically explained, and Remarks\nmade upon the Changes of our _English_ Constitutions, and the different\nMeasures of our several Kings. By a Doctor of Physick.\n\nBishop _Cumberland_\u2019s _Sanchoniatho\u2019s Ph\u0153nician_ History.\n\n\u2014\u2014 _Origines Gentium Antiquisitione_: Or, Attempts for Discovering the\nTimes of the first Planting of Nations. In several Tracts.\n\n  _N. B._ These two Pieces of Bishop _Cumberland_\u2019s, contain a\n    Confutation of the new Notion of Chronology advanced by Sir _Isaac\n    Newton_.\n\n_Drelincourt_\u2019s Christian\u2019s Defence against the Fears of Death; with\nseasonable Directions how to prepare our selves to Die well. The 12th\nEdition.\n\nA Defence of Diocesan Episcopacy, in Answer to a Book of Dr. _David\nClarkson_, lately published, intituled _Primitive Episcopacy_. By _H.\nMaurice_, D. D. The Second Edition.\n\nSir _John Floyer_\u2019s Treatise of the Asthma. 3d Edit.\n\nThe Frauds of the _Romish_ Monks and Priests, set forth in eight\nLetters. The 5th Edition. With Observations on a Journey to _Naples_:\nWherein the Frauds of the _Romish_ Monks and Priests are further\ndiscovered. Lately written by a Gentleman in his Journey to _Italy_, and\npublished for the Benefit of the Publick. 2 Vols.\n\nThe Gentleman instructed in the Conduct of a virtuous and happy Life. In\nThree Parts. Written for the Instruction of a young Nobleman. To which\nis added: A Word to the Ladies. By way of Supplement to the First Part.\n\nThe Gardeners and Florists Dictionary: Or, A compleat System of\nHorticulture. In 2 Vols. By _Philip Miller_, Gardener of the Botanick\nGarden at _Chelsea_.\n\nThe genuine Use and Necessity of the two Sacraments: Namely, Baptism and\nthe Lord\u2019s Supper; with our Obligations frequently to receive the\nlatter.\n\nThe History of _England_, faithfully extracted from authentick Records,\napproved Manuscripts, and the most celebrated Histories of this Kingdom,\nin all Languages, whether Ecclesiastical or Civil, with the Effiges of\nthe Kings and Queens. 5th Edition. 2 Vols.\n\n_Olyff_\u2019s Practical Exposition on the Church Catechism. 2 Vols.\n\nLawfulness of Infant Baptism improv\u2019d from Scripture: With the Right\nthat the Infants of Christian Parents have to be Baptized. Wherein also\nMr. _Gale_s Reflections on Dr. _Wall_\u2019s History of Infant Baptism are\nexamined and refuted, so far as they came in the Way of this Discourse;\nand all the Objections and Arguments of other Antip\u00e6dobaptists, that are\nof any Weight, are taken off. By the Rev. Mr. _Owen_, Vicar of _Iford_\nin _Sussex_.\n\nBishop _Potter_\u2019s Discourse of Church Government; wherein the Rights of\nthe Church, and the Supremacy of Christian Princes are vindicated and\nadjusted. Third Edition.\n\nPious Communicant: Containing whatever is necessary to persuade and\nprepare us for that and all other Duties of Devotion, and prevent all\nScruples concerning them, _&c._\n\nFather _Quesnel_\u2019s Moral Reflections upon every Verse of the New\nTestament, in order to make the Reading of it more profitable, and the\nMeditation more easy. In four Vols.\n\n  _N. B._ Those Gentlemen that have the First and Second Volumes, are\n    desired speedily to send for the Third and Fourth, otherwise they\n    will find it difficult to compleat them, there not being so many\n    Printed of the two last as of the former Volumes.\n\nReflections upon Learning; wherein is shewn the Insufficiency thereof,\nin its several Particulars, in order to evince the Usefulness and\nNecessity of Revelation. The sixth Edition. By a Gentleman.\n\nThe Scripture Doctrine of Christ\u2019s Divinity: or, The adorable Nature,\nvoluntary Subjection, and necessary Supremacy of the Son of God,\nconsider\u2019d: In six Sermons; preach\u2019d on several Occasions. By _Sam.\nJohnson_, M. A. Vicar of _Great Torrington_, Rector of _Little\nTorrington_.\n\n  Where may be had _Gratis_, a _Catalogue_ of _Books_ (being Part of the\n    Stock of two Booksellers who have lately left off Trade) which are\n    to be sold very cheap unbound till _Michaelmas_ next, the Prices\n    printed in the Catalogue afterward, at the former Prices.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                          TRANSCRIBER\u2019S NOTES\n\n\n 1. P. 89, changed \u201cdefin\u2019d\u201d to \u201cdestin\u2019d\u201d.\n 2. All spelling errors were left uncorrected.\n 3. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.","title":"Some Reflections Upon Marriage.: With additions.","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":32447}