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appearance of religion in their families, it abated in the rest of their conversation, and they grew entirely careless, living as it were without God in the world. The decay of family-worship, like a gangrene in the religious body, spread itself from one limb to another, till it affected the vitals, and proved mortal. In a word, it destroyed the sense of duty and religion in their whole lives.

Now, as sin entered in by this breach, so it made way. for every other folly; it ruined theis temper, made them apt to quarrel and snarl on the least occasion,-removed all that sweetness of conversation and harmony of affection that was between them before,-and, in short, the house became destitute, not of religion only, but of every pleasant thing.

It happened, after some time, this gentleman had an intimate friend, who lived in the country, and who had lately married a wife that unhappily brought him almost into the same difficulty, though from a different occasion; for she was a profane, irreligious person, from her original ;—a mocker and despiser of all that was good, and who did her utmost to discourage her husband (who was a good man) in all his measures for the religious government of himself, or of his family.

be resisted, and he

He had had a great quarrel with his wife about her own conduct, and her reproaching him for his religion; and she had said some such shocking things to him, that almost conquered his resolutions in the matter of his duty, almost the same temptation offering to him as had been the case of the other person mentioned before. But his sense of duty returned upon him too strongly to mastered all the difficulties that were before him; resolved, that let the devil and a perverse woman do their utmost, he would not live without the worship and service of God in his house and so he went on with his duty in spite of all his wife's clamour, made his whole house submit to it, and condemn her for opposing it, as we shall hear more parti cularly presently.

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This good man coming to town, and meeting with his old friend, of whom we have been speaking, and both being intimate Christians as well as acquaintance, it was not long before they began to converse about religious affairs, both being also too full of their respective family grievances, to be long together before they unbosomed themselves to one another, which produced the following discourse.

Says the citizen to his friend, Well, old friend, I hear you have been married since we met last, and I must give you joy. I hope it is to your satisfaction.

Friend. Truly, my good friend, I am married, but I cannot say it is much to my satisfaction, for I am disappointed in the main happiness of a married state.

Citizen. I am very sorry to hear you have a bad wife. Fr. Nay, I cannot say I have a bad wife neither, in the common acceptation of the word.

Cit. Well, I am very sorry then, be it how it will, that you are disappointed.

Fr. Truly, upon a farther reflection, I ought not to have said I am disappointed neither, for it needs explanation.

Cit. Pray explain it then, for you amuse me now; it looks as if you had only a mind I should inquire farther into the particulars.

Fr. Truly, I ought to be ashamed of the particulars, and yet I cannot say but I have longed a great while to unbosom my sorrows to some body, and I know no friend I can 1rust better than yourself.

Cit. Be free with me then.

Fr. I know not where to begin, for my grief is very great.

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Cit. You are willing to speak, and yet loth to begin, as you would have me screw it out of you. Prithee what have you got for a wife? Is she a drunkard, a whore, a scold, or what is she?

Fr. None of them all.

Cit. Shall I be free with you then? Are not your wife's faults to be found on your side? Are you sure she would

not alter, if you could mend her husband? For I must own, many of us that find such fault with our wives, make sometimes a very unhappy mistake, viz. we forget that they have bad husbands.

Fr. I won't defend my part of the charge, and. perhaps you know your own part to be just; if you do, pray reprove me when you have reformed yourself; but at present my case is too sad to be jested with.

Cit. You must describe it a little, or how can a friend give you comfort or counsel?

Fr. Why, in short, my wife is sober, virtuous, peaceable. You see I oppose the heads of her character to your suggestion of drunken, immodest, turbulent, &c. She is housewifely, frugal, quiet, mannerly, tender, kind, and hus all the qualifications needful to make her a comfortable relation. But

Cit. I can see but one thing you have left out, and that is, religious.

Fr. You have said it all in a word; she is perfectly void of any sense of, or concern about God, or her soul, or the souls of any that belong to her.

Cit. Nay, if she is unconcerned about herself, you can't expect she should be concerned for any one else.

Fr. No, indeed, she is so far from it, that my heart trembles to think what will become of my poor children when they grow up; for I have one already, and another coming.

Cit. It is a sad disappointment, indeed; but had you any apprehensions of it before you married?

Fr. There, indeed, you touch me to the soul; there's the blot with which I reproach myself, and which gives me no peace. I read my sin in my punishment. I looked another way, I troubled not my thoughts about religion,-I looked at the money, I went for it, and I had it; and now I feel the curse that came with it.

Cit. Why, though you did look at the money, sure there are women of fortune that have the blessing of a reli

gious education: they are not all atheists that have money; nor are all the religious women beggars. Certainly you were in great haste, and looked little before you in your choice.

Fr. Indeed I ran into the devil's mouth; I singled out a family where nothing was to be expected; a house where, I may say, without breach of charity, God had not been within the doors for some ages. I tell you, I ought to say I am not disappointed.

Cit. You ought, indeed, to blame your own conduct; for I know nothing more uncomfortable, than for a man, that knows any thing of religion, to be matched to a woman that has no notion of her duty.

Fr. Blame my conduct! Do you carry it no farther? Without doubt, I committed the greatest sin of its kind that I was capable of; and most justly provoked God to make that relation, which ought to have been my comfort and blessing, be my snare, my temptation, and, at best, my constant affliction.

Cit. It is, indeed, against the express rule which the apostle lays down-" Be not unequally yoked." I believe, for a man or woman that is religiously inclined, to marry a person of no religion, or to marry a person of different principles in religion from themselves, is positively forbidden

in that text.

Fr. Alas! It is not only against the apostle's rule, but it is against all the rules of religion, of nature, and of common sense. What communication can there be between God and Belial?

Cit. It was the reason given in scripture why God commanded the Israelites not to give their daughters to the heathen, nor take their daughters to wife, lest "they should be drawn in to serve their gods, and to forsake the Lord their God." Judges i.

Fr. Nor has it failed to be a curse to all the families that ever I have heard of, that practised it; the scripture is full of it, particularly in Solomon in Ahab; and once in a

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whole nation, as in the case of the Midianitish woman. And all this I knew.

Cit. Well, but I hope you have not married an idolater. Your wife is not an heathen, is she?

Fr. But I think she is worse; for she despises all worship, whether of the false gods, or of the true. She has no sense of any religion at all, other than to make a mock at it, to make all serious things her sport, and to banter those that dare not do so too.

Cit. That's a dreadful case, indeed! I beseech you, does she not go to church? Where was she bred? Is she a Protestant?

Fr. Yes, yes, she goes to church, and is a Protestant, such a kind of Protestant' as this age is too full of. I think she had as good be a Papist, for then she would make some profession, and might, in time, be brought over to right principles; but as she is, I think there is more hopes of a heathen, for he worships something, but she neither fears God or devil.

Cit. But you say she goes to church; what does she do there?

Fr. Do there! why, stare about her, or sleep, or furnish herself to banter the infirmities of the minister. I never heard her talk a word of what she hears, except it be to ridicule and expose it. The unhappy wit she is mistress of, and which she might make a much better use of, exerts itself this way; and when she can no longer run down religion itself, revealed or natural, then the failings, slips, and mistakes of the professors of religion employ her tongue; which makes my house a temple of the devil to me, where I can hear nothing but abuses upon God, the worship and servants of God, and every thing that is good, till I am made to abhor the conversation of my own family.

Cit. And no question, it is a great obstruction to you in the way of your own duty, or a temptation to you wholly to neglect it.

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