"they think is becom of judgment and tafte in other 66 men, that they can hope to be heard without "laughter. And if this were all, perhaps it were a compliable matter. But when we remember this

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our liturgy, where we found it, whence we had it, "and yet where we left it, ftill ferving to all the "abominations of the antichriftian temple, it may "be wonder'd how we can demur, whether it "fhould be abolish'd or no, and not rather fear "we have highly offended in ufing it fo long. It "has indeed bin pretended to be more antient than "the mafs, but fo little prov'd, that wheras other "corrupt liturgies have had fuch a feeming anti

quity, that their publifhers have ventur'd to afcribe them either to St. PETER, St. JAMES, St. "MARK, or at leaft to CHRYSOSTOM, or BASIL,

ours has bin never able to find either age or au"thor allowable on whom to father thofe things "which therin are leaft offenfive, except the two "creeds." I fhall conclude my account of his books concerning religious controverfies with this remarkable account of his reading in the councils and fathers of the church. "Som years, fays he, "I had spent in the ftories of thofe Greec and "Roman exploits, wherin I found many things "both nobly don and worthily spoken: when "coming in the method of time to that age wherin "the church had obtain'd a Chriftian emperor, I

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fo prepar'd my felf as being now to read examples "of wisdom and goodness among thofe who were foremost in the church, not elsewhere to "be parallel'd. But to the amazement of what I expected, readers, I found it quite contrary; << excepting in fom very few, nothing but ambition,

cor

corruption, contention, combuftion: infomuch "that I could not but love the hiftorian SOCRATES, "who in the proem to his fifth book profeffes, he

was fain to intermix affairs of ftate, for that it "would be else an extreme annoyance to hear in a "continu'd difcourfe the endlefs brabbles and coun"terplottings of the bifhops. Finding therfore "the most of their actions in particular to be weak and yet turbulent, full of ftrife and yet flat of fpirit, and the fum of their best councils there "collected to be most commonly in queftions either “ trivial and vain, or else of fhort and easy decifion, without that great bustle which they made: "I concluded that if their fingle ambition and ignorance was fuch, then certainly united in a "council it would be much more; and if the com

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pendious recital of what they there did was fo " tedious and unprofitable, then surely to fit out "the whole extent of their tattle in a dozen vo "lumes, would be a lofs of time irrecoverable. "Befides that which I had read of St. MARTIN, "who for his laft fixteen years could never be per"fuaded to be at any council of the bifhops; and "GREGORY NAZIANZEN betook him to the fame

refolution, affirming to PROCOPIUS that of any "council or meeting of bishops he never faw good "end, nor any remedy therby of evil in the church, "but rather an increase: for, fays he, their con"tentions and defire of lording no tongue is able " to exprefs."

In the year 1643 he chang'd his condition, and was marry'd to MARY the daughter of RICHARD POWEL of Forresthill in Oxfordshire, a juftice of the peace,

and a man of good figure in that country. But whether it was that this young woman, accustom'd to a large and jovial family, could not live in a philofophical retirement; or that she was not perfectly fatisfy'd with the perfon of her husband; or laftly, that, because her relations were all addicted to the royal intereft, his democratical principles were disagreable to her humor (nor is it impoffible that the father repented of his match upon the profpect of fom fuccefs on the king's fide, who then had his headquarters at Oxford) or whatever were the reafon, 'tis certain that after he injoy'd her company at London about a month, fhe was invited by her friends to spend the rest of the fummer in the country; to which he confented, on condition of her return by Michaelmas. Yet he faw her not at the time appointed, and, after receiving feveral of his letters without fending him any anfwer, fhe did at length pofitively refufe to com, difmiffing his meffenger with contemt. This ufage incens'd him to that degree, that he thought it against his honor and repofe to own her any longer for his wife. He made that time however as eafy to himself as he might, fomtimes by keeping a gaudy day with his friends, and at other times in converfation with the lady MARGARET LEE, daughter to the earl of Marlborough, whofe fprightly wit and good fenfe drew frequent visits from him, and for whom he had a fingular efteem, which he has left recorded by a fonnet in her praise among his other occafional poems. He thought it now high time to justify by proper arguments the firm resolution he had taken of never receiving his wife

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back again; and therfore in the year 1644 he publish'd his Doctrin and disciplin of divorce, which he dedicated to the parlament and to the affembly of divines, that as they were busy then about the general reformation of the kingdom, they might alfo take this particular cafe of domeftic liberty into their confideration: for he thought all the boafted freedom of public judicatures fignify'd little, if in the mean while one must be oblig'd to indure a kind of fervitude at home below the dignity of a man. "What thing, fays he, is more infti"tuted to the folace and delight of man than "marriage? And yet the misinterpreting of fom fcriptures directed mainly against the abusers of "the law for divorce given by MOSES, has chang'd "the bleffing of matrimony not-feldom into a fami"liar and cohabiting mischief; at least, into a droop

ing and difconfolat houfhold captivity, without "refuge or redemtion. So ungovern'd and fo "wild a race dos fuperftition run us, from one

extreme of abus'd liberty into the other of " unmerciful reftraint! Tho God in the first or"daining of marriage taught us to what end he "did it (the words exprefly implying the apt and

chearful converfation of man with woman, to "comfort and refresh him of the evil of a folitary "life; not mentioning the purpofe of generation "till afterwards, as being but a fecondary end in

dignity tho not in neceffity) yet now if any two "be but once handed in the church, and have "tasted in any fort the nuptial bed, let them find "themselves never fo mistaken in their difpofitions "thro any error, concealment, or misadventure;

" that

that thro their different tempers, thoughts, and "conftitutions, they can neither be to one another "a remedy against loneliness, nor live in any union

or contentment all their days: yet they fhall (fo "they be but found futably weapon'd to the leaft poffibility of fenfual enjoyment) be made in spite "of antipathy to fadg together, and combine, as

they may, to their unspeakable wearifomness, and "despair of all fociable delight, in the ordinance "which God establish'd to that very end." Then he largely fhews all the unjuft fanctions concerning marriage to be owing to the fuperftition of fom antient fathers, and to the defign of promoting the gain or authority of the clergy, as they make a part of the canon law: for the Greecs, the Romans, and all civiliz❜d nations, did not only allow of divorce upon mutual averfion or confent; but in many other cafes, befides the violation of the nuptial bed, there was a feparation made on the petition of one party, tho the other fhould not be willing. His purpose, in fhort, is to fhew that there are other fufficient reafons for divorce befides adultery; and that to prohibit any fort of divorce but fuch as are excepted by Moses, is unjust and against the reason of the law in handling which heads he has, besides his arguments from reason, had always a due care to explain thofe paffages of fcripture which are thought to contradict his opinion. The grand pofition he maintains is, That Indifpofition, unfitness, or contrary humors, proceding from any unchangeable caufe in nature, hindring and always likely to binder the main ends and benefits of conjugal fociety (that is to fay, peace and delight) are greater reasons of

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divorce