Nuptial Dialogues and Debates Or, An Useful Prospect of the felicities and discomforts of a marry'd life, Incident to all Degrees, from the Throne to the Cottage. Containing, Many great Examples of Love, Piety, Prudence, Justice, and all the excellent Vertues, that largely contribute to the true Happiness of Wedlock. Drawn from the Lives of our own Princes, Nobility, and other Quality, in Prosperity and Adversity. Also the fantastical Humours of all Fops, Coquets, Bullies, Jilts, fond Fools, and Wantons; old Fumblers, barren Ladies, Misers, parsimonious Wives, Ninnies, Sluts and Termagants; drunken Husbands, toaping Gossips, schismatical Precisians, and devout Hypocrites of all sorts. Digested into serious, merry, and satyrical Poems, wherein both Sexes, in all Stations, are reminded of their Duty, and taught how to be happy in a Matrimonial State. In Two Volumes. By the Author of the London Spy [i.e. Edward Ward] |
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| XIV. | Dialogue XIV. Between a pious Clergy-man, and his vertuous Lady.
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 | Nuptial Dialogues and Debates |  |
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Dialogue XIV. Between a pious Clergy-man, and his vertuous Lady.
Wife.Sure, if your sinful Congregation thought
The Doctrine true, which you so long have taught,
They would forsake those Evils they pursue,
And be admonish'd to reform by you!
But still you preach, and pray for them in vain;
For still their wicked Habits they retain.
What means this strange Defect in human Race,
So deaf to Reason, and averse to Grace,
That tho' you teach their Duty ev'ry Day,
Yet all those Heav'nly Laws they disobey,
And shun, without Remorse, the righteous Way?
Husband.
Men are by Nature viciously inclin'd,
And inward Lusts corrupt the feeble Mind:
Sinful Desires with Life it self take Place,
But Vertue and Religion come by Grace;
Gifts which good Heaven does to none reveal,
But those who seek 'em with their utmost Zeal.
The faithful Christian labours to be good,
And checks the vicious Fevers in his Blood,
By Weeping, Fasting, Temperance, and Pray'rs,
And mixes holy Thoughts with worldly Cares;
Is always mindful of the God that gives
That daily Bread by which he moves and lives;
Contemplates calmly on the Things above,
And with an humble Soul seeks Heaven's Love;
Esteems the Riches of a peaceful Mind,
And is a righteous Friend to all Mankind.
And inward Lusts corrupt the feeble Mind:
Sinful Desires with Life it self take Place,
But Vertue and Religion come by Grace;
Gifts which good Heaven does to none reveal,
But those who seek 'em with their utmost Zeal.
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And checks the vicious Fevers in his Blood,
By Weeping, Fasting, Temperance, and Pray'rs,
And mixes holy Thoughts with worldly Cares;
Is always mindful of the God that gives
That daily Bread by which he moves and lives;
Contemplates calmly on the Things above,
And with an humble Soul seeks Heaven's Love;
Esteems the Riches of a peaceful Mind,
And is a righteous Friend to all Mankind.
But most Men are, by worldly hopes, misled
To follow those Delights they ought to dread;
Nurs'd up in Pride and Folly from a Child,
And by their Parents bad Examples spoil'd;
Taught by ill Practices, they shun the Good,
And prove revengeful, treacherous, and lewd,
Perfidious, spiteful, covetous, and base,
Unlearn'd in Faith, intractable to Grace,
Till against both they are by Satan arm'd,
And wicked Nature is too far confirm'd;
Then, deaf to all Instructions, they proceed
In their ill Lives, and no Correction heed;
Thoughtless of Death, and hopeless of Reward,
They throng the Church, without the least Regard
To the blest Office of the sacred Day,
But sleep or gaze, and neither hear nor pray.
So curious Sinners will sometimes repair
To diff'rent Worships they abhor to hear,
Where, wanting Zeal to practise what they see,
They neither lift an Eye, or bend a Knee,
But think the Teacher of the Tribe a Fool,
And turn his honest Words to ridicule.
How therefore can you think that such a Race
Of Vipers, who the sacred Pile disgrace,
Should, by my Pains, their wicked Lives reform,
Whilst Satan hugs them close, and keeps them warm?
No, no, my Dear, the most prevailing Guide
Will scarce conduct them to the righteous side;
Unpolish'd Nature still will bear the sway,
And make such Brutes their sinful Lusts obey;
For those who want good Counsel when they're young,
And due Correction both of Rod and Tongue,
Grow stubborn when they're past their boyish fears,
And will not be reclaim'd at riper Years.
To follow those Delights they ought to dread;
Nurs'd up in Pride and Folly from a Child,
And by their Parents bad Examples spoil'd;
Taught by ill Practices, they shun the Good,
And prove revengeful, treacherous, and lewd,
Perfidious, spiteful, covetous, and base,
Unlearn'd in Faith, intractable to Grace,
Till against both they are by Satan arm'd,
And wicked Nature is too far confirm'd;
Then, deaf to all Instructions, they proceed
In their ill Lives, and no Correction heed;
Thoughtless of Death, and hopeless of Reward,
They throng the Church, without the least Regard
To the blest Office of the sacred Day,
But sleep or gaze, and neither hear nor pray.
So curious Sinners will sometimes repair
To diff'rent Worships they abhor to hear,
Where, wanting Zeal to practise what they see,
They neither lift an Eye, or bend a Knee,
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And turn his honest Words to ridicule.
How therefore can you think that such a Race
Of Vipers, who the sacred Pile disgrace,
Should, by my Pains, their wicked Lives reform,
Whilst Satan hugs them close, and keeps them warm?
No, no, my Dear, the most prevailing Guide
Will scarce conduct them to the righteous side;
Unpolish'd Nature still will bear the sway,
And make such Brutes their sinful Lusts obey;
For those who want good Counsel when they're young,
And due Correction both of Rod and Tongue,
Grow stubborn when they're past their boyish fears,
And will not be reclaim'd at riper Years.
These, like Irrationals, unthinking dwell,
Hope for no Heaven, as they fear no Hell;
But head-long run, like foolish Sheep when lost,
And heedless to their own Destruction post.
Hope for no Heaven, as they fear no Hell;
But head-long run, like foolish Sheep when lost,
And heedless to their own Destruction post.
Wife.
Could they believe a God, and dread his Hate,
Or truly think there was a future State,
From Satan's Bondage sure 'twould set 'em free,
And wake them from their dull Stupidity;
For he that sees beyond the Vale of Death,
And hopes hereafter for eternal Breath,
Who in his Conscience knows he must surmount
The silent Grave, to give a just Account
Of Ills he us'd no Caution to avoid,
And each past Moment that he misemploy'd,
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Must its last Doom, whate'er it is, obey,
To be for ever blest above the Skies,
Or curs'd to everlasting Miseries,
There amongst Imps and Devils to remain,
Where all Redemption must be hop'd in vain.
Sure Thoughts like these would make a Sinner sad,
Comfort the Just, and terrify the Bad;
Give the most harden'd Conscience such a shock,
That the lost Sheep would seek the holy Flock;
Expel the Poyson in his lustful Veins;
And closely hug those Vertues he disdains,
Thro' Hopes of Heav'nly Joys, or Fear of Hellish Pains.
Husband.
The Wise reclaim as soon as well reprov'd,
But stupid Folly's hard to be remov'd;
Right thinking will reform the sinful Mind,
But sordid Ignorance is deaf and blind.
The Obstinate reject all good Advice,
What injures them the most, they're apt to prize,
And, what they ought to value, they despise.
The Fool is always backward to believe,
And hates to credit what he can't conceive;
Will pin no Faith upon his painful Guide,
But, what he does not understand, deride.
Futurity to some does only seem
A Poet's Fiction, or a Prophet's Dream;
And Heav'n and Hell, by Scripture made so plain,
Thought the wild Fancies of some teeming Brain.
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Who war with all good Principles and Rules,
And would be thought too cunning to rely
Upon their holy Guide's Integrity,
Will their own wilful Errors still pursue,
In spite of all the Church can say or do.
Th'unletter'd Dunce no Myst'ry can conceive;
The learned Fool no Scripture will believe:
The doubtful Sceptist will by Reason try
Those Truths beyond the Reach of Reason's Eye:
Th'inebrious Sinner's always drown'd in drink,
And gives himself no leave to hear or think:
Th'am'rous Heathen comes to Church to view
His female Goddess dizen'd in her Pew;
Worships his Madam in her flaming Pride,
And neither minds his Duty or his Guide;
Implores no other Blessings but her Charms,
And thinks there is no Heav'n, but in her Arms.
The neighb'ring Clowns, from mending of a Gap,
Steal into Church to only take a Nap;
And mind no more the Doctrine of the Day,
Than when they're swearing on a Mow of Hay.
The Lasses come to Church to chiefly shew
Whose Pinner sits the best, whose Gown is new;
And think of nothing all the Time they're there,
But those that kiss'd 'em last at Wake or Fair.
And when his Worship's in the Godly Vein
To come to Church, which is but now and then,
He falls asleep ere we have read the Lessons,
And dreams, perhaps, of the next Quarter Sessions;
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Ne'er minds the Priest, but nods the Sermon thro'.
What can we do, or how in order keep
A drowsy Flock of such unthinking Sheep?
How should a Guide their Souls to Heaven steer?
Or how instruct, if they refuse to hear?
Wife.
Since they the Doctrine of their Guide reject,
Their Faults are owing to their own Neglect:
You're just and painful in your past'ral Care,
And cannot in their sinful Suff'rings share;
At the last Judgment you'll be guiltless found;
Tho the Flock's scabby, yet the Shepherd's sound.
Therefore, my Dear, do you incur no Blame,
And I'll still take Example by the same,
That when the Trumpet shall our Ashes raise,
We both in Heav'n may sing eternal Praise.
| Nuptial Dialogues and Debates | |