Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
B03480
|
Four tracts. I. A short discourse about divorce and its causes, fornication and adultery. II. A charge to judges, juries and witnesses concerning oaths. III. About infant baptism. IV. A letter to a lady, who hath forsaken [t]he Protestant religion for the Romish. / By J. Gailhard, Gent.
|
Gailhard, J. (Jean)
|
1699
(1699)
|
Wing G121A; ESTC R202025
|
118,480
|
174
|
Point in hand were Additions posterior to the Original without naming any Author for it An Adulteress doth quite destroy the End of Marriage for God said (a) Gen. 2.18 It is not Good for Man to be alone I will make him a Help-meet for him Thus a Wife is given a Man to be a Help unto him but an Adulteress is a Scourge and not a Help vers 23 And Adam said in the Spirit of God This is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh The Husband cannot say of an Adulteress she is Bone of my Bones but she is Bone of another man's Bones and Flesh of other man's Flesh And what shall we say to what is contained in the latter end of the following Verse vers 24 They shall be One Flesh seeing she makes her self One Flesh with another or others than her Husband whereby we plainly see the Ends of the Institution of Matrimony are wholly destroyed And as Man is to leave Father and Mother so near Natural Relations and cleave unto his Wife and they Two to be One Flesh so is the Wife to leave Father and Mother and every other Relation whatsoever and cleave unto her Husband that she may become One Flesh with him as he with her otherwise the End of the Matrimonial Bond is not Answered but made Void In Scripture Four Things are required as necessary in Marriage of those who are under the Bond of it First That Husband and Wife should Love One another to the height of Dearness which is represented by the Love (b) Ephes 5.22.23 23.25 between Christ and his Church Secondly They ought to Live together unless the Calling of God requireth otherwise for a time Now a Wife that runneth after other Flesh c 1 Cor. 7 5. may not be said to Live with her Husband but rather to depart from him in which Case she is not Divorced but goes away her self and in some Cases happeneth sometime a Circumstance material to the Point of Divorce namely when the Unbelieving Wife doth depart from the Believing Husband and breaks thus the Matrimonial Bond in such cases saith St. Paul (d) v. 15. A Brother or Sister is not under bondage Thirdly They ought not to Defraud one another of Conjugal Benevolence for neither Husband or Wife have Power of their own Body but mutually each of other's as (e) v. 3 4 5. expressed in the same Chapter therefore they may not Dispose of their Body upon others Fourthly That the Husband doth behave him self as the Head and Preserver of the Body and the Wife must submit and be subject unto her own Husband as her Head as the Church is subject unto Christ as in the fore-quoted (f) Ephes 15. place These Duties married people must observe as being the revealed Will of God and when they are Broken the Conjugal Bond is thereby much shaken but wholly Dissolved only in the case of Adultery and the offended Party hath cause if he pleaseth to Sue for a Divorce which may not justly be deny'd at least a suitable Punishment which though the Party desired not yet I think the Laws should Condemn the Offender to Indeed 't is the Duty of the Supream Power and Magistrates under them to consider of how great Consequence this matter is for a well-regulated Government as 't is certainly the Ground of all Government For what is a Kingdom but a Collection of several Shires or Provinces and these Shires of Cities and Towns and these Towns consist of Houses inhabited by Families and these Families composed of Husbands and Wives of Parents and Children Masters and Servants whereof Husband and Wife are the Spring and Foundation So that whosoever will have a well-regulated Nation he must begin with Families whereof Husbands and Wives are the Heads which is to Build upon a sure and good Foundation or else 't is in vain to look for pure Streams when the Spring is corrupt Adulterers and Adulteresses will Propagate a Spurious Brood stained with Vices derived from the corrupt Blood of their Parents for too often on the Bad Side the Proverb proves true Like Father like Son Like Mother like Daughter in some Families we see such Stains as the Ill Names and Bad Courses of Parents do hinder and ruin the Fortune of Children 'T is then palpable how Superiour Powers are concerned to make good Laws and Rules and to see they are Observed whereby the Disorders which happen in Families to the Prejudice of Conjugal Duties be Restrained and Punished Such good Orders will bring out at least in some good measure Men and Women good in every Relation better Parents better Children better Husbands better Wives better Masters better Servants better Princes and better Subjects The Importance of this Truth hath been so well known by Popes that where Popery is Predominant they have Ingrossed unto themselves almost the whole Power relating to Matrimony with their Dispensing with Forbidden Degrees of Consanguinity and Affinity and with starting new ones of their own Invention still reserving for themselves a Dispensing Power for Money wherein Princes of their Perswasion suffered themselves to be Fooled by them having first by Fraudulent Suggestions gotten the Imperial Power into their own Hands and afterwards by Force drawn to themselves the whole Authority of Judging and Determining in Matrimonial Causes as in most other matters Somewhat before we said how the Civil Law is for us now we must briefly shew it Some of the first Christian Emperours as well as some Heathen before to Justinian and after being sensible of the Necessity of Preventing Abuses in this matter by the Advice of able and wise Judges made Laws to grant Divorces for certain Causes Such among others * Cod. Theod Tom. 1 â—it 16. De repudi fol. 310. were Theodosius and Valentinian Only Three Causes are given for which a Wife may Sue for a Divorce and are therein named If her Husband be a Murtherer a Poisoner or a Destroyer of Sepulchres but she might not Sue tho he were a Drunkard a Gamester or Adulterer but the Husband might if she were an Adulteress a Poysoner or a Baud Si maecham vel medicamentariam vel Conciliatricem Fol. 313. are the words Further Sané si Divorâ—ium prior maritus c. If the Husband first hath desired a Divorce and Accused the Wife of a great Crime as Adultery let him Prosecute her according to Law and obtain Vengeance that is Divorce and enjoy the Portion and Downy for so I take it to be the meaning of suam recipiat largitionem and preseÌ„ntly must be free to marry another He upon that account not only may Sue for a Divorce which ought to be Granted but also to retain the Portion and Dowry and so leave her to the wide World without Maintainance and also marry another Nay if 't was only upon the Account of Ill Nature and Manners and not for Crimes Two Years after he may marry another Si vero
the sight of God whose Law makes no Distinction of Sexes the Sin be equally Damnable yet as to Penalties Laws are made to put a Difference a greater Curb ought to lye upon the Woman as the weakest Vessel and so sometimes more apt to miscarry in Matrimonial Duties but chiefly because that greater Inconveniences are brought into Families thorough Woman's Failing in this then of Man's As to Men there is a great Difference and this Sin is attended with more dangerous Consequences on the Wife 's than on the Husband's side if a man gets a Child by an Harlot that Child shall not succeed in the Estate but if the Wife hath a Child by a stranger then strange Blood is brought into the Family to Defraud and Rob the true Heirs of their Right This Corruption of Blood appears too much in some great Families when the Pure Blood is stained with Base and Vile Hence it may be that we see many who go for Sons of Great and Wise Men who want common Sense and Reason either out of some Natural Cause or of some Particular Judgment of God to Punish the Unfaithfulness of some Wives or Neglect and want of Care in Husbands to prevent their Wives miscarriages in that kind We see our Laws have in the Case of Life and Death made a Difference in the Punishment to be inflicted If the Husband kills his Wife he is to be Hanged when if the Wife killeth her Husband she is to be Burned the Husband is the Head and the Offence against the Head is more severely to be Punished and as 't is so in matter of Life so it ought to be in point of Honour And the common Opinion and Experience of the World teaches how let the Husband be as Naught Debauched and Profligate as can be if the Wife be but Honest and Vertuous her Husband's miscarriage will not Reflect upon her but the miscarriages of the Wife are imputed to the Husband because 't is his Duty and Interest and hath Right by all Lawful and Reasonable Courses to hinder it Now what this Lawful Course is here I say it After a Husband hath given his Wife gentle and repeated Warnings to mind her of her Duty as to avoid the Company of such Persons as he hath cause to suspect and which he doth not like and the Wife doth not mend but goes on in her way and contrary to that which every honest woman will do she holds Corespondence with such as her Husband dislikes she having so far forgotten her Honour and Duty he ought to mind his and Remedies to reclaim her proving useless he may Sue for a Divorce which was the Antient way yet not upon so slight Grounds as practised of Old but upon such as God's Word allows of namely the the case of Adultery Julius Caesar upon putting away his Wife would say Caesar's House must be free from Suspicion as from Guilt So a man ought to provide for both his Capacities the one according to the Rank and Station he is in which he is to keep up and not to neglect else he will make himself Contemptible and lay Stains upon his Family the other is as a Christian he ought to purge his House of Wickedness to remove Evil out of it the Head of a Family is in Honour and Conscience bound to restrain in 't all Evil Courses whether of Servants Children or Wife or else he Sinneth in suffering that Evil which he can and 't is his Duty to prevent and will pass for a Man void of all sense of Honour and who cares not a Straw for his Reputation Such a Man ought to be ashamed to live thô I am not for making good Solomon's Saying (h) Prov. 6.34 Jealousie is the Rage of a Man in the day of Vengeance he will not spare Yet I would have him to avoid the other Extreme Insensibleness when he is so nearly concerned and this agreeth with what saith the Wise Man (i) chap. 5.15 16 17 18. Drink Waters out of thine own Cistern and running Waters out of thine own Well c. Let them be only thine own and not the Stranger 's with thee And that this is spoken of Husband and Wife who without Roving abroad ought to be only one for another In the next Verse he addeth Let thy Fountain be Blessed and Rejoice with the Wife of thy Youth This matter is so Copious and out of Scripture and Reason so much can be said of it that 't is almost unexhaustible therefore I intend as much as I am able to restrain it within Bounds and in Order thereunto I say after a Husband hath try'd all Fair Means to no Purpose and he seeth the Disease is beyond Remedy and finds how nothing can Prevail then they who will not do Just Things out of Love to Virtue must feel Punishment inflicted upon them a Divorce Sued for and obtained Some Divines assign several just Causes as they think to break a Marriage and others do Differ from them about it but only Two I will bring which generally are agreed upon The First When Matrimony is Unlawfully Contracted that is within Degrees forbidden by the Law of God as may be between Brother and Sister or the like then indeed such a Marriage is ipso facto void and null But here I intend not to speak of such a kind of Marriage concerning which the Church of Rome hath often and doth commit gross and intolerable Abuses in a Dispensing way with that which God hath Forbidden but my Design is to speak of a Marriage Lawfully Contracted whether there be any just Grounds out of God's Word to break it off For Marriage hath a Relation to 't and to the Good of Conscience in as much as it is a Divine Institution from the Beginning of the World Also it hath a Prospect towards the Laws of the Land wherein the Parties do live as Members of the Politick Body and the warrant from the Word is what I intend chiefly if not only to insist upon for all Municipal Laws are good only as they agree with and are not contrary to that Infallible Rule of Justice and Equity which when they Deviate from are not to be Valued There is indeed upon some Accounts a great Difference as St. Paul expresses (k) 1 Cor. 11.7 8 9. it between the Man and the Woman whereof the Excellency is on Man's side however that Prerogative of the Husband over the Wife hath sometimes been abused as by the Jews so by other Nations who would not suffer their Wives to recede specially in publick from that Obedience they owed the Husband for fear the Husband's Prerogative should thereby be Wounded upon this Ground Queen Vashti (l) Esther 1. for refusing to come to King Ahasuerus when Commanded by reason of the ill Example given thereby to the Ladies of Persia and Media by the Counsel of Memucan was Divorced but this was done by a Reason of State and not according to any