present under the heavy load of a cruel and expensive war, but the
tyrannical custom of a certain nation, and the scrupulous nicety of
a silly queen in not exercising this indispensable duty, whereby the
kingdom might have had an heir, and a controverted succession might
have been avoided. These are the effects of the narrow maxims of
your clergy, 'That one must not do evil that good may come of it.'

"The assertors of this indefeasible right, and jus divinum of
matrimony, do all in their hearts favour the pretenders to married
women; for if the true legal foundation of the married state be once
sapped, and instead thereof tyrannical maxims introduced, what must
follow but elopements instead of secret and peaceable change?

"From all that has been said, one may clearly perceive the absurdity
of the doctrine of this seditious, discontented, hot-headed,
ungifted, unedifying preacher, asserting 'that the grand security of
the matrimonial state, and the pillar upon which it stands, is
founded upon the wife's belief of an absolute unconditional fidelity
to the husband;' by which bold assertion he strikes at the root,
digs the foundation, and removes the basis upon which the happiness
of a married state is built. As for his personal reflections, I
would gladly know who are those 'wanton wives' he speaks of? who are
those ladies of high stations that he so boldly traduces in his
sermon? It is pretty plain who these aspersions are aimed at, for
which he deserves the pillory, or something worse.

"In confirmation of this doctrine of the indispensable duty of
change, I could bring the example of the wisest wives in all ages,
who by these means have preserved their husband's families from ruin
and oblivion by want of posterity; but what has been said is a