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That our great Creator, as appears, from the fecond chapter of Genefis, in order to fit the first woman for being a wife to Adam, formed her not out of the earth, but out of Adam's own flesh, fo that he was truly a part of his flesh before the became his wife; and when the Almighty presented her to him, Adam faid, this is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh, a phrase used for kindred, as is evident from Genefis xxix. 14. Judges ix. 2. 2d Samuel v. 1. and xix. 12, 13. 1ft Chron. xi. 1.

That God, by making at firft but one pair, from whom all mankind was to defcend, declared that it was his fovereign will, and righteous appointment, that the next marriage should be be between brother and fifter.-Had there been any impurity in such marriages, we may be very certain, that infinite power, directed by unerring wifdom and goodness, would never have inftituted marriage at firft between perfons of the fame flesh, and, by the original conftitution of the human race, made marriage betwixt brother and fifter necessary, when he could as easily have made two or more pairs, at first, as one; which would have prevented the neceffity for marriage between brother and fifter, and between perfons of the fame flesh.

That till the time of Abraham, which was about two thoufand years after the creation, the Scripture gives us no particular account of intermarriages, only, in general, Gen. vi. 2, &c. that the fons of God took wives of the daughters of men; that is, as it is generally understood, the offspring of Seth took wives of the apoftate race of Cain, which was fo difpleafing to God, that it seems to be reprefented as one reason of his bringing the flood upon them.

That the first marriages after the deluge, of which we have any particular account, are thofe of Abraham, who married Sarah his fifter, his own father's daughter, Genefis xx. 12. of Nahor, the brother of Abraham, who married Milcah, his brother Haran's daughter, Genefis xi. 29; of Ifaac, Abraham's fon, who married Rebecca, the grand-daughter of Milcah, Genefis xxiv. 15, &c.; of Efau, Ifaac's fon, who having, to the great grief of his pious parents, taken two wives of the defcendants of Canaan, Genefis xxvi. 34, 35married afterwards, in order to pleafe his grieved parents, Mahalath, the daughter of his uncle Ifhmael, Genefis xxviii. 8, 9; of Jacob, Efau's brother, who married Leah and Rachel, the daughters of Laban, his uncle by the mother's fide, and in this fulfilled the command of his father, Genefis xxix. 10, &c.; of Judah, the fon of Jacob, who married a Canaanite,

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haanite, Genefis xxxviii. 1, 2. and in whofe time it was cuftomary for a man to marry his brother's widow, if the brother had died without children, Genefis xxxviii. 7-II; sof Jofeph, the brother of Judah, who, by the King of Egypt's order, married Afenah, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, Genefis xli. 45; of Amram, the fon of Kohath, 'who married Jochebed, his father's fifter, Exod. vi. 20. and Numb. xxvi. 58, 59; and of Mofes, the fon of Amram, who mar ried Zipporah, the daughter of Reual, or Jethro, priest of Midian, Exod. ii. 15, 21; but this marriage with a woman not of his kindred, produced trouble afterwards, Numb. xii. I, and Exod. iv. 25, 26. And, on the whole, it is plain, he observes, that fome of the beft of God's people, not only married their kindred, but recommended the fame practice to their children: and that those who married their near kindred, had the bleffings of God more confpicuously on their offspring, than those who married remotely.

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Inquiring into the ftate of the cafe under the Mofaic Difpenfation, our Author intimates, that the laws which have for fome ages been taken for prohibitions of marriages between near kindred, are contained in the first twenty verfes of the eighteenth chapter of Leviticus; and that the punishments, which were to be inflicted on the grofs and notorious breakers of thofe laws, are, in the twentieth chapter of the fame book, from the tenth to the twenty fecond. verse, annexed to each particular precept..

In order to fix the true meaning of thefe laws, he enters upon the explanation of the Hebrew words, rendered in our version near of kin, uncover the nakedness, and wife.

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He begins with the phrafe uncover the nakedness, and finds the wordy, nakedness, put in many places for the fecret parts, as in Genefis ix. 20-23; and xxviii. 42; and used for the weak or unguarded parts of a country, as in Genefis xlii. 9; and for uncleanness, filthinefs, indecency, as in Deut. xxiii. 14, and xxiv. 1; for whoredom and adultery, Ezek. xvi. 35-38; for disgrace, Ifaiah xlvii. 1, 3; Hab. iii. 4, 5. Lam. i, 8, 9, ¦

And having examined the holy Scriptures with all the care and impartiality he was capable of, he ventures to affirm, that the phrase uncover the nakedness, is never once used in Scripture for marriage, nor yet for the lawful ufe of the marriagebed: but that a phrase, quite contrary to it, is there used in that fenfe, namely, fpreading a fkirt or garment over a woman, and covering her nakedness, as in Ruth iii. 9. Jer. iii. 14. compared with Ezek. xvi. 8; whence he concludes, that the REV. Aug. 1756. N expreffion,

expreffion, uncover the nakedness, as introduced in the above. Mofaic laws, can only be understood to be a prohibition of the act of uncleanness, and of every thing incentive of it.

As to what is meant by 8, tranflated near of kin. The word N, tranflated kindred, faith Dr. Willet on this text, fignifieth properly a remainder, because the kindred is, tanquam aliquid carnis, as a part or remnant of one's flesh; but Mr. Ainswerth, in his note on it, affirms it fignifieth flesh, and for proof of it cites Pfal. lxxiii. 26. Prov. v. II. and xi. 17. fignifies alfo flesh, and is used for kindred, Genefis xxix. 14. On the whole, fays our Author, it is plain, that the phrafe muft mean, one who is flesh of the fame flesh. And hence he thus paraphrafes Lev. xviii. 6. None of you, namely, no man, fhall come near any woman defcended from the fame flesh, to do any action, or ufe any freedom, fuch as may be a temptation to him to commit adultery or fornication with her.' And infinuates, that this may be extended to any woman whatsoever, all the offspring of our firft parents being the fame flesh and blood.

As to the word, wife; it fignifies in Hebrew, a woman, whether married or unmarried, and it is from the context and connection, that we must judge when it is used for a man's wife, and when for a fingle woman. Our Author, therefore, views and compares Lev. xviii. 8, 14, 15, 16, 20, and Lev. xx. 10, 11, 20, 21. in order to determine how this word is to be understood in these verses. He, in the first place, collates the twentieth verfe of the eighteenth chapter, with the tenth verfe of the twentieth, and fuppofes that it will be admitted, even by those who differ from him in the main point, that the word wife, in these places, denotes a woman whofe hufband is alive; otherwife this must be a prohibition ⚫ of marrying a widow-woman, plainly contrary to the doctrine of St. Paul, as well as to the opinion and practice of Christians in general: and next he collates verfes 8, 14, 15, 16. of chapter xviii. with verfes 11, 20, and 21, of chapter xx. obferving, upon verfe 14, that the words translated, fhe is thy aunt, might as well have been rendered, he is thy father's brother's wife, as noted in the margin of some of our old Bibles, tho' it is omitted in the tranflation now in use and remarking farther, on all the above verfes of the eighteenth chapter, compared with the eleventh and twentieth verfes of chapter xx. that the Verb, joined with wife, or nakedness, being placed in the Prefent Tenfe, it is thy father's nakedness, he is thy father's brother's wife, &c. fhews, that the meaning is, that the wives, there spoken of, were fuch as,

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had their husbands, there mentioned, then alive, when the crime is supposed to be committed upon them; for after their deaths, it cannot be properly faid, it is, but only it was their nakedness, as the Apoftle argues, 1 Cor. vii. 4, 29. On the twenty-firft verfe of chapter xx. he adds, that the word there tranflated an unclean thing, fignifies; as the margin of our Bible obferves, a feparation; and that therefore the whole verfe may be thus expreffed, If a man take his brother's wife, to commit lewdness with her, he hath thereby made a feparation betwixt her and her husband, and done that wicked thing, which the law I gave you, chap. xviii. 16, was principally intended to prevent; they fhall therefore, for fuch their wickedness, be put to death, and not fuffered to have a child, by fuch an unlawful and detestable act. So that, hence it is plain, the word wife muft, in propriety, be taken here for a woman whofe husband is living; for how elfe could it be a separation betwixt her and her husband or how could the man thereby uncover his brother's nakednefs, fince the woman's nakedness was his brother's no longer than whilst he lived? and if it is unreasonable to understand the word wife, in the twentieth verfe of chapter xx. for a wis dow woman, as is above fhewn, and is in itself very evidents it is also unreasonable to take it, in that fenfe, in any of thofe other texts here examined. And hence arifes another good argument to prove, that the phrase uncover the nakedness, in these laws, when used for carnal knowlege, muft mean adultery or fornication with near kindred, and not marriages with

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In confidering the Import of verfes feventeen and eighteen, of Genefis chap. xviii. our Author admits, that it is probable those texts, Genefis xviii. 17. and Genefis xx. 14. do both relate to the fame thing, not only because all the difference be twixt them is, that the one mentions the mother firft, and adds the grand-daughter, whilft the other mentions the daughter firft, and omits the grand-daughter; but alfo because the heinous nature of the crime is prohibited, in both places, by the fame word, which is tranflated it is wickedness, word which no where occurs, either in the faid eighteenth or twentieth chapters, but only in these two places, the word

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, in the seventeenth verfe of the twentieth chapter, rendered it is a wicked thing, being of a much milder fignificati But then, adds he, it is very evident, that the marrying a mother and her daughter, or grand-daughter, of a daughter and her mother fucceffively, one after the death of the other, which is generally understood to be meant, cannot be the

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thing here prohibited. For it cannot be a greater crime for a man to marry his mother in law, or daughter in law, than it would be to marry his own mother. But it is plain, the crime here prohibited is a greater one, it being fet forth by a more emphatical word, as a high and extraordinary wickedness and the punishment to be inflicted for the breach of it, is the most severe of any mentioned in the Levitical law, viz. burning with fire; and that not only the man and woman, whọ might be fuppofed to be guilty of this fin after the mother or daughter's death, but he and they, that is the man, together `with the mother and her daughter, or grand-daughter: which demonftrates, that the punishment was to be inflicted for fomething done by them whilft they were all living. And having remarked, concerning the fourteenth verfe of the twentieth chapter, that the word there rendered wife, is the very fame with what is rendered woman in the 17th, 18th, and 19th verfes of the 18th chapter, and in the 18th verfe of the 20th chapter; adds, that there is as good reafon to tranflate it woman alfo in this 14th verfe, and therefore thinks this 14th verse should be read thus, if a man take a woman and her mother, &c. viz. o uncover their nakedness, that is, to debauch them. For the words, to take a woman, may as well fignify to take her to debauch her, as to take her to wife; fee Genefis xxxiv. 2. Upon the whole, he obferves, as to the 17th verfe of the 18th chapter, and the 14th verse of the 20th chapter, when collated together, that they allude to, and prohibit the Ifraelites from complying with a custom prevailing among fome heathen nations, and, probably, at that time even amongst the Canaanites, with whom the Jews dwelt, of qualifying themfelves for the priesthood, by lying with their mothers, daugh'ters, and fifters. See Bishop Jer. Taylor, Duct. Dubit. b. ii. chap. 2. fect. 23. p. 224. and Mr. Jurieu, General Hift. P. 212. For he who debauches his mother and fifter, debauches a woman and her daughter; and he who debauches his mother and his daughter, debauches a woman and her grand-daughter. And fince to be a priest, was to be a man of great dignity, for the priests were nobles and privy-counsellors in those countries; (fee Mr. Chandler's Defence of the prime-ministry and character of Jofeph, p. 403, 419, 421, 422, and 424;) it is no unreasonable conjecture to fuppofe, that people afpired after grandeur then, as well as in latter times; and that, there fore, not only the man himself might defire it, but his mother, fifter, and daughter, might permit that to be done, which not only qualified him for preferment, but was a cause of their own advancement alfo. The temptation, therefore,

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