with their married sister-their former affection is not interrupted by the introduction of a new relative. This is proper. It is consistent with the most rigid rules of morality. It is founded upon the indisputable presumption, that the sister of the wife is now also become the sister of the husband, and he is her brother. No suspicion of indecency can arise in her mind, nor any imputation of indelicacy upon the part of the public. She may come, remain, or go, in all the safety of innocency, under the broad shield of the divine law, and the universal consent and approbation of society. But let it be once adopted, let practice establish the detestable principle, that the sister, after the death of the wife, may become not at all related to the husband; that she may be to him a stranger, and as much the legitimate object of marriage as any other woman, and her frequent and familiar visits must cease. She can no more come to his house, or be oftener seen in the company of her brother in law, than she may frequent the house or be familiar in the company of any other married man, The affectionate intercourse of the sisters is at an end.

As it respects himself and the unhappy victim of his incestuous cohabitation-is it not indecent to persuade her to an act, which could she have foreseen, would, from principles of delicacy, have prevented the familiar intercourse, in which, as a sister, she had innocently indulged ?-Nay, is it not cruel, to render the woman, who had placed confidence in him as a brother, a partaker with him, in the fearful risks and alarming consequences of such a connection? Is there not an ample choice among strangers? Is it not one of the great objects of marriage to enlarge the domestic circle, and cement families by new relations? And is not that great end frustrated, by the contracted, indelicate, and indecent selection of a sister in law? Habita est ratio rectissima charitatis, ut non in paucitate coarctaretur, sed latius atque numeriosius propinquitatibus crebris vinculum sociale diffunderetur. Aug. de civit. 15,

16.

1

"Let us study the beautiful and the venerable, as well as what is true and just, in actions, and pursue every thing which shall, as such, approve itself to our consciences; every thing in which there shall be virtue and praise. Let us always, in this view, en

deavour to keep the moral sense uncorrupted, and pray that God would preserve the delicacy of our minds in this respect, that a holy sensibility of soul may warn and alarm us to guard against every distant appearance of evil."*

* Doddridge.

SECTION VII.

OFFENCE.

"WOE unto the world because of offences! but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh.”—“ Am I my brother's keeper," was the reply of a murderer; and to a certain degree, it is the language of every unregenerate heart. What do the wicked know of the Church of God, or what do they care for offending the members of the Church? But to all who profess the Christian religion, and especially to those who are renewed in the spirit of their minds, and devoted to the service of the Redeemer, the wo pronounced by him is full of meaning, and suggests very serious reflections.

An OFFENCE is the displeasure, disgust, or scandal which arises in consequence of the improper and sinful conduct of others. This, in some instances, it is acknowledged may be improperly excited, and offences taken where there is no just cause for an

offence. It was thus when the Pharisees, through unbelief and malice, were offended at our Lord; and such may also possibly happen, when persons, of contracted information, are grieved at transactions, with the principles and consequences of which, they are wholly unacquainted.

But all offences are not of this description. Those against which the divine Saviour denounces a wo, are corrupt opinions and evil practices which are injurious and afflictive, discouraging and ensnaring to his people. Considering the depravity of mankind, and the innumerable temptations which abound, it is morally impossible, but that, under the divine permission, such things will happen; yet, however light the sinner may esteem the transgression, he may rest assured that awful punishment awaits the man, whoever he may be, whose rash and pernicious conduct proves an occasion to pervert others, to grieve them, or draw them into sin.

The marriage of a sister in law is an evil of this class. It grieves and offends the Church of Christ. It will not avail to boast, that "in our enlightened age, it is proper to break the fetters of inveterate