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

Of DifJorte. ~17
of personal imbecility; but by Il.O meanfS iLjdulges
the same privilege to mere dislike, to opposition of
huulours and inclinations, to contrariety of taste
and temper, to complaints of coldness, neglect, severity,
peevishness, jealousy; not that these reasons
are trivial, but because such objections may always
be alleged, and are impossible by testimony to be as ...
certaineEli so that to allow implicit credit to them,
, and to dissolve marriages whenever eith~· -party
thought fit to pretend them, would lead in its effect
to all the licentiousness of arbitrary divorces.
Alilton's story is well known. Upon a qltarreJ
with his wife, he p~id his addresses to another woman,
and set forth a public vindication of his conduct,
by attempting to prove, that confirmed dis~e was'
as justa foundation for dissolving the marriage contract,
as adultery; to which position, and to all the
arguments by which it can be supported, the above
conside_ration atfords a sufficient answer. And if a
married pair, in actual and irreconcileable discord,
complain that their happines~ would be better consulted,
by permitting them to determine a connex ..
ion, which has become odious to both, it may be
told them that the same permission, as a general
rule, would produc_e libertinism, dissention, and mis.
ery, amongst thousands, who are 110W virtuous, and
quiet, and happy, in their condition: and it ought to
satisfy them tq reBec t, that when their happiness is
sacrificed to the operation of an unrelenting ru Ie, it
is sacrificed to the happiness of the community.
The scriptures seem to hc}'ve d,a~ the obligation
tighter than the law of nature left it. " Whosoever,"
saith Christ, "shall put away his wife, except it be
for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth
adultery; and whoso marrieth her which is put
away, doth commit adultery." Matt. xix. 9. The
law of Moses, for reasons of local expediency, permitted
the Jewish husband to put away his wife ;
bll~ whether for every cause, or for what causes,