Judges 14

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. XIV.—It is dangerous to be guided by the eye in the choice of our marriage companions: but it is needful and proper to submit ourselves to the authority of parents, who are over us in the Lord, as their property and parts of themselves. And nothing ought they to object to so urgently, as to children’s marrying with such as seem irreligious. God often indeed carries on his great purposes by means which cannot be justified in us; for when people are wandering out of God’s way they have reason to expect dangers, and even devils, to meet with and oppose them. It is glorious when great exploits are attended with great humility; and highly becoming when persons keep up 1. 1. In an affecting remembrance of what God has done for them, and cheerfully allow their parents a share of what they acquire by their labour. And it is prudent to amuse ourselves and others at cheerful entertainments with something instructive and useful. God often brings the sweetest mercies out of the severest trials: but the treacherous pretences of affection speedily issue in dislike and mischief. Secrets, once trusted out of our own breasts, seldom continue long such. Rush marriages often issue in sudden separations: and if women’s affections once stray from their husbands, their persons will soon follow. Nor are any more apt to defile the bed than false pretenders to friendship