giflators who have patronized receptacles of proftitution ought to have foreseen this effect, as well as confidered, that whatever facilitates fornication, diminishes marriages. And as to the ufual apology for this relaxed difcipline, the danger of greater enormities if access to proftitutes were too ftrictly watched and prohibited, it will be time enough to look to that, when the laws and the magiftrates have done their utmoft. The greateft vigilance of both will do no more, than oppofe fome bounds and fome difficulties to this intercourfe. And after all, thefe pretended fears are without foundation in experience. The men are in all respects the inost virtuous, in countries where the women are most chafte.

There is a fpecies of cohabitation, diftinguishable, no doubt, from vagrant concubinage, and which by reafon of its refemblance to marriage may be thought to participate of the fanctity and innocence of eftate; I mean the cafe of kept miftreffes, under the favourable circumftance of mutual fidelity. This cafe I have heard defended by fome fuch apology as the following:

"That the marriage rite being different in dif«ferent countries, and in the fame country amongst "different fects, and with fome, fcarce any thing; " and moreover, not being prefcribed or even men"tioned in fcripture, can be accounted of only as "a form and ceremony of human invention: that

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confequently, if a man and woman betroth and "confine themselves to each other, their inter"course must be the fame, as to all moral purposes, as if they were legally married: for the addition "or omiffion of that which is a mere form and ce"remony 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?

P

2. If

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

3. 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 faid of figning 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 theft, that is, the taking away of another's property, leaving it to the municipal law to fix what makes the thing property, or whofe it is, which alfo, as well as marriage, depends on 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 fhould cohabit, without undertaking certain irrevocable obligations, and mutually conferring certain civil rights; if, therefore, the law has annexed thefe 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 promife to each other, nothing but the marriage ceremony can make their promife 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 thofe incentives which lead to it are acceffaries to the crime, as laf

civious

eivious conversation, whether expreffed in obfcene or disguised under modeft phrafes; alfo 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 mischief from fo mean a temptation, that few crimes, within the reach of private wickednefs, have more to answer for, or lefs to plead in excufe.

Indecent converfation, and by parity of reafon all the reft, are forbidden by St. Paul, Eph. iv. 29. "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of "your mouth:" Again, Col. iii. 8. "Put offfilthy communication out of your mouth."

The invitation, or voluntary admiffion, of impure thoughts, or the fuffering them to get poffeffion of the imagination, falls within the fame defcription, 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.

СНА Р. III.

SEDUCTION.

TH

HE feducer practifes 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 fuccefsful 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 lefs admits of reparation.

This injury is three-fold; to the woman, to her family, and to the public.

1. The injury to the woman is made up, of the pain fhe fuffers from fhame, of the lofs fhe fuftains in her reputation and profpects of marriage, and of the depravation of her moral principle.

This pain must be extreme, if we may judge of it from thofe barbarous endeavours to conceal their difgrace to which women, under fuch circumftances, fometimes have recourfe; and if we compare this barbarity with their paffionate fondness for their offspring in other cafes. Nothing but an agony of mind the moft infupportable can induce a woman to forget her nature, and the pity which even a ftranger would fhow to a helplefs and imploring infant. It is true, that all are not urged to this extremity; but if any are, it affords an indication of how much all fuffer from the fame caufe. What fhall we fay to the authors of fuch mischief?

The

The lofs which a woman fuftains by the ruin of her reputation almoft exceeds computation. Every perfon's happiness depends in part upon the refpect and reception which they meet with in the world; and it is no inconfiderable mortification even to the firmeft tempers to be rejected from the fociety of their equals, or received there with neglect and dif-‚. dain. But this is not all, nor the worft. By a rule of life, which it is not easy to blame, and which it is impoffible to alter, a woman loses with her chastity the chance of marrying at all, or in any manner equal to the hopes the had been accustomed to entertain. Now marriage, whatever it be to a man, is that, from which every woman expects her chief happiness. And this is ftill more true in low life, of which condition the women are, who are most expofed to folicitations of this fort. Add to this, that where a woman's maintenance depends upon her character, as it does in a great meature, with thofe who are to fupport themselves by fervice, little fometimes is left to the forfaken fufferer, but to ftarve for want of employment, or to have recourfe to proftitution for food and raiment.

As a woman collects her virtue to this point, the lofs of her chastity is generally the destruction of her moral principle; and this confequence is to be apprehended, whether the criminal intercourfe is difcovered or not.

2. The injury to the family may be understood, by the application of that infallible rule, " of doing "to others what we would that others fhould do re unto us." Let a father, or a brother fay, for what they would fuffer this injury in a daughter or a fifter; and whether any, or even a total lofs of fortune would create equal affliction and diftrefs. And when they reflect upon this, let them diftinguifh, if they can, between a robbery committed upon their property by fraud or forgery, and the ruin of their happiness by the treachery of a feducer.