Accidents > Life and most surprising adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, mariner, who lived eight and twenty years in an uninhabited island on the coast of America, near the mouth of the great river Oroonoque

242 ROBINSON CRUSOE.
tian owns, that whenever any one prehunptuoufly
fins againft God’s command, the Almighty then
withdraws his bleffing from him ; every good man
therefore might certainly to prevent fuch negleft of,
or fin againft God and his commands. I thanked,
the young prieft for expreffing fp great a concern
for us, and defired him to explain tiie particulars of
what he had obferved, that, according to the pa¬
rable of Achariy I might remove the accurfed thing
from among us. "Why then, Sir, faid he, in the
firft place, you have four E.nglifhmen, who have
taken favage women to their wives, by whom they
have feveral children, though none of them are legal¬
ly married, as the law of God and man requires ;
they, I fay, Sir, are no lefs than adulterers, and as
they ftill live in adultery, are liable to the c-urfe of
God. I know, Sir, you may objeft the want of a
priefi:, or clergyman of any kind ; as alfo, pen, ink,
and paper, to write down a contarff of marriage,
and have it figned between them. But neither this,
nor what the Spanifh governor has told you of their
chufing by confent, can be reckoned a marriage,
nor any more than' an agreement to keep them from
quarrelling among themfelves ; for, Sir, the offence
or facramen^t of matrimony (fo he called it) not only
confifts in mutual confent, but in the legal obligation
which compels them to own and acknowledge one
another, to abftain from other perfons, the men to
provide for their wives and children, and the women
to do the fame in like conditions, mutatis mutandis on
their fide : Whereas, Sir, thefe men, upon their
own pleafure, on any occafion, may forfake thofe
women, and marry others, andbydifowningtheir chil¬
dren, fuffer them utterly to perifh. Now, Sir, ad¬
ded he, can God be honoured in fuch an unlawful
liberty as this ? how can a bleffing fucceed the beft
endeavours, if men are allowed to live in fo licenti¬
ous a,way ? I was indeed ftruck with the thing my-
felf.