PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

196
CHAP1--eR If.
FORNICATION.
TI-IE first and. great mischief, and by coosaquence
the guilt, of promiscuous concubinage, consists
in its tendency to diminish marri;1ges, and thereby
to defeat the several beneficial purposes enumerated
in the preceding Chapter.
Promiscuous concubinage discourages marriage by
abating the chief temptation to it. The luale part
of the species \viII not lJndertake the incumbrance,
expense) and restraint of married life, if they can
gratify their passions at a cheaper price: and they
will undertake any thing, rather than not gratify
thel11.
The reader wiil learn to comprehend the magnitude
of this mischief, by attending to the importance
and variety of the uses to which marriage is subservient;
and by recollecting withal, that the malignity
and moral quality of each crime is not to be estimated
by the particular effect of one offence, or of one
person's vifending, but by the general tendency and
consequence of crimes of the same nature. The lib.
ertine may not be conscious that these irregularities
hinder his 0\V11 marriage, froln which he is deterred,
. he may allege, by different considerations; much
less does he perceive how hi! indulgences can hinder
other men from marrying: but what will he say
would be the consequence, if the same licentious ..
ness \vere universal? or what should hinder its becoming
universal, if it be innocent or allowable in
hinl?
2. Fornication supposes prostitution; and prosti ..
tution brings and leaves the victims of it to almost
cert~in misery. it is no small quantity of misery in
the aggregate, which. between want, disease, and in­
~l1lt:- is suff~rcd by those outcasts of human society~