"omiffion of that which is a mere form and 66 ceremony, can make no difference in the fight " of God, or in the actual nature of right and "wrong."

To all which it may be replied,

1. If the fituation of the parties be the fame thing as marriage, why do they not marry?

2. If the man choose to have it in his power to dismiss the woman at his pleasure, or to retain her in a state of humiliation and dependance inconfiftent with the rights which marriage would confer upon her, it is not the fame thing.

It is not at any rate the fame thing to the

children.

Again, as to the marriage rite being a mere form, and that alfo variable, the fame may be said of signing and fealing of bonds, wills, deeds of conveyance, and the like, which yet make a great difference in the rights and obligations of the parties concerned in them.

And with refpect to the rite not being appointed in fcripture-the fcriptures forbid fornication; that is, cohabitation without marriage; leaving it to the law of each country to pronounce what is, or what makes, a marriage; in like manner as they forbid thefts, that is, the taking away of another's property, leaving it

to

to the municipal law to fix what makes the thing property, or whose it is, which also, as well as marriage, depends upon arbitrary and mutable forms.

Laying afide the injunctions of fcripture, the plain account of the question feems to be this: It is immoral, because it is pernicious, that men and women should cohabit, without undertaking certain irrevocable obligations, and mutually conferring certain civil rights; if, therefore, the law has annexed these rights and obligations to certain forms, fo that they cannot be fecured or undertaken by any other means, which is the cafe here (for whatever the parties may promise to each other, nothing but the marriage ceremony can make their promise irrevocable), it becomes in the fame degree immoral, that men and women fhould cohabit without the interpofition of thefe forms.

If fornication be criminal, all those incentives which lead to it are acceffaries to the crime, as lafcivious converfation, whether expreffed in obfcene or disguised under modeft phrafes; also wanton fongs, pictures, books; the writing, publishing, and circulating of which, whether out of frolic, or for fome pitiful profit, is productive of fo extenfive a mifchief from fo mean

a tempta

a temptation, that few crimes, within the reach of private wickedness, have more to answer for, or less to plead in their excuse.

Indecent conversation, and by parity of reason all the reft, are forbidden by St. Paul, Eph. iv. 29. "Let no corrupt communication proceed "out of your mouth:" And again, Col. iii. 8. Put off"mouth."

-filthy communication out of your

The invitation, or voluntary admiffion, of impure thoughts, or the fuffering them to get poffeffion of the imagination, falls within the fame description, and is condemned by Chrift, Matt. v. 28. "Whofoever looketh on a woman "to luft after her, hath committed adultery with "her already in his heart." Chrift, by thus enjoining a regulation of the thoughts, ftrikes at the root of the evil.

CHAP.

TH

HE feducer practises the fame ftratagems to draw a woman's perfon into his power, that a fwindler does, to get poffeffion of your goods, or money; yet the law of honour, which abhors deceit, applauds the addrefs of a fuccessful intrigue: fo much is this capricious rule guided by names, and with fuch facility does it accommodate itself to the pleasures and conveniency of higher life!

Seduction is feldom accomplished without fraud; and the fraud is by fo much more criminal than other frauds, as the injury effected by it is greater, continues longer, and less admits of reparation.

This injury is threefold; to the woman, to her family, and to the public.

I.

of

The injury to the woman is made up, the pain the fuffers from shame, of the loss she sustains in her reputation and prospects of mar

riage and of the depravation of her moral principle.

This pain must be extreme, if we may judge

No

of it from thofe barbarous endeavours to conceal their disgrace, to which women, under fuch circumftances, fometimes have recourfe; and if we compare this barbarity with their paffionate fondness for their offspring in other cases. thing but an agony of mind the most infupportable can induce a woman to forget her nature, and the pity which even a stranger would fhew to a helpless and imploring infant. It is true, that all are not urged to this extremity; but if any are, it affords an indica tion of how much all fuffer from the fame cause. What shall we say to the authors of such mifchief?

The lofs which a woman fuftains by the ruin of her reputation almost exceeds computation. Every person's happiness depends in part upon the respect and reception which they meet with in the world; and it is no inconsiderable mortification, even to the firmeft tempers, to be rejected from the fociety of their equals, or received there with neglect and difdain. But this is not all, nor the worst. By a rule of life, which it X

YOL. I.

is