ATTEN. This carriage of his to her was enough to break her heart.
WISE. It was enough to do it indeed, yea, it did effectually do it. It killed her in time, yea, it was all the time a killing of her. She would oftentimes, when she sat by herself, thus mournfully bewail her condition:—'Woe is me that I sojourn in Meshech,' and 'that I dwell in the tents of Kedar! My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace.' O 'what shall be given unto thee,' thou 'deceitful tongue?' 'or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue?' (Psa 120). I am a woman grieved in spirit, my husband has bought me and sold me for his lusts. It was not me, but my money that he wanted; O that he had had it, so I had had my liberty! This she said, not of contempt of his person, but of his conditions,[37] and because she saw that, by his hypocritical tongue, he had brought her not only almost to beggary, but robbed her of the Word of God.
ATTEN. It is a deadly thing, I see, to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. If this woman had had a good husband, how happily might they have lived together! Such an one would have prayed for her, taught her, and also would have encouraged her in the faith and ways of God; but now, poor creature, instead of this there is nothing but the quite contrary.
WISE. It is a deadly thing indeed, and therefore, by the Word of God, his people are forbid to be joined in marriage with them. 'Be ye not,' saith it, 'unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?' (2 Cor 6:14-16). There can be no agreement where such matches are made; even God himself hath declared the contrary from the beginning of the world. 'I,' says he, 'will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed' (Gen 3:15). Therefore he saith in another place they can mix no better than iron and clay (Dan 2:43). I say they cannot agree, they cannot be one, and therefore they should be aware at first, and not lightly receive such into their affections. God has often made such matches bitter, especially to his own. Such matches are, as God said of Eli's sons that were spared, to consume the eyes and to grieve the heart. O! the wailing and lamentation that they have made that have been thus yoked, especially if they were such as would be so yoked against their light and good counsel to the contrary.
ATTEN. Alas! he deluded her with his tongue, and feigned reformation.
WISE. Well, well, she should have gone more warily to work. What if she had acquainted some of her best, most knowing, and godly friends therewith? What if she had engaged a godly minister or two to have talked with Mr. Badman? Also, what if she had laid wait round about him, to espy if he was not otherwise behind her back than he was before her face? And besides I verily think—since in the multitude of counsellors there is safety—that if she had acquainted the congregation with it, and desired them to spend some time in prayer to God about it, and if she must have had him, to have received him as to his godliness upon the judgment of others, rather than her own—she knowing them to be godly and judicious and unbiased men—she had had more peace all her life after, than to trust to her own poor, raw, womanish judgment as she did. Love is blind, and will see nothing amiss where others may see a hundred faults. Therefore I say she should not have trusted to her own thoughts in the matter of his goodness.
As to his person, there she was fittest to judge, because she was to be the person pleased, but as to his godliness, there the Word was the fittest judge, and they that could best understand it, because God was therein to be pleased. I wish that all young maidens will take heed of being beguiled with flattering words, with feigning and lying speeches, and take the best way to preserve themselves from being bought and sold by wicked men as she was, lest they repent with her, when, as to this, repentance will do them no good, but for their unadvisedness go sorrowing to their graves.
ATTEN. Well things are past with this poor woman and cannot be called back, let others beware by her misfortunes, lest they also fall into her distress.
WISE. That is the thing that I say, let them take heed, lest for their unadvisedness they smart, as this poor woman has done. And ah! methinks, that they that yet are single persons, and that are tempted to marry to such as Mr. Badman, would, to inform and warn themselves in this matter before they entangle themselves, but go to some that already are in the snare, and ask them how it is with them, as to the suitable or unsuitableness of their marriage, and desire their advice. Surely they would ring such a peal in their ears about the unequality, unsuitableness, disadvantages, and disquietments, and sins that attend such marriages, that would make them beware as long as they live. But the bird in the air knows not the notes of the bird in the snare until she comes thither herself. Besides, to make up such marriages, Satan and carnal reason, and lust, or at least inconsiderateness, has the chiefest hand; and where these things bear sway, designs, though never so destructive, will go headlong on; and therefore I fear that but little warning will be taken by young girls at Mr. Badman's wife's affliction.
ATTEN. But are there no dissuasive arguments to lay before such, to prevent their future misery?