Quesnel: Moral Reflections on the Gospels Vol 1

CHAPTER XIX. 287
tion of eternal happiness, draw us after him ! How
free and ready is he to distribute his favours ! Here
are no delays, excuses, or denials—he heals imme-
diately : but what pains must one take, to draw from
the hands of man a small alms, a kindness, or even
a debt itself I
" 3. % The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting
him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man
to put away his wife for every cause ?"
They who have once declared against the truth
are seldom reconciled, but seek all occasions to be-
tray it. Hypocrisy is generally of the party : a pre-
tended love of truth serves often as a veil to cover
the hatred which they bear it, and the persecution
which they raise against it.
" 4. And he answered and said unto them. Have
ye not read, that he which made them at the be-
ginning, made them male and female;"
In this answer, Jesus Christ shows that marriage
is indissoluble, First, By divine institution, and the
order settled at the creation. To answer a case of
conscience well, in the spirit, and after the example
of Christ, we must not regard that which the cor-
ruption of manners, or the remissness of men has
introduced—but we must look back to the original
will, design, and institution of God. Christ knows
not what it is to accommodate his morality to the
times, or to the inclinations of men. What was
done at the beginning, is that which God has judged
most worthy of his glory, most profitable for man,
and most agreeable to nature.
" 5. And said, For this cause shall a man leave
father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and
they twain shall be one flesh ?"