It is strange that should be a pollution which
was instituted before corruption ; or that impurity:-
which was ordained in the state of innocency ; or
that they should make that to be a sin, which they
make to be a sacrament ; strange stupidity !
But ,a bastard may be laid at the door of chastity,
and a leaden crown set upon a golden head. Bel-
larmine (that mighty atlas of the Papal power)
blows his stinking breath upon it: * Better were
it for a priest to defile himself with many harlots,
than to be married to one wife.' —These children
of the purple whore prefer monasteries before mar-
riages, a concubine before a companion.— They use
too many women for their lusts, to choose any for
their love. — -Their tables are so largely spread that
they cannot feed upon one dish. As for their ex-
alting of a virgin state, it is like him that com-
manded fastings when he had filled his belly. Who
knows not that virginity is a pearl of a sparkling
lustre ? but the one cannot be set up, without the
other be thrown down : No oblation will pacify the
former, but the demolishing of the latter. Though
we find many enemies to the choice of marriage,
yet it is rare to find any enemies to the use of
marriage They would pick the lock that wants
the key, and pluck the fruit that do not plant the
tree. The Hebrews have a saying, that he is
not a man that hath not a wife," Though they
climb too high a bough, yet it is to be feared that
such flesh is full of imperfection, that is, not tending
tp propogation : though man alone may be good,
yet, It is not gpod that man should he alone.
"Heaven is my throne...Isaiah 63"
GOD'S REJECTION OF ALL MATERIAL TEMPLES. There was a time when it could be said that there was a house of God on earth. That was a time of symbols, when as yet the Church of God was in her childhood. She was being taught her A B C, reading her picture-book, for she could not as yet read the Word of God, as it were in letters. She had need to have pictures put before her, patterns of the heavenly things. Even then, the enlightened amongst the Jews knew well that God did not dwell between curtains, and that it was not possible that He could be encompassed in the most holy place within the veil It was only a symbol of His presence. But the time of symbols is now passed altogether. In that moment when the Saviour bowed His head, and said "It is finished! " the veil of the temple was rent in twain, so that the mysteries were laid open. So, one reason why God saith He dwelleth not in temples made with hands, is, because He would have us know that the symbolical worship is ended...
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