tcen-Raging for women, they are be te to me as borfes; every one neighed er his neighbour's wife. Jer. v. 8. This is what the HOLY SPIRIT speaks by DAVID-Be ye not like to horse or mule, which have no understanding-and again, concerning Dormitantius and his fellows-Conftrain their jaw-bones with a "bit and a bridle, left they approach unto "thee." Pf. xxxii. 9.

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The reader has here a fample of the fpirit of thofe times with regard to marriage, particularly of the clergy; likewise of the candour, fairness, and good manners, with which those were treated, who dared, like Vigilantius, to ftep forth in the cause of fcripture, common fenfe, and truth, against fuperftition, folly, and error; also of the ridiculous abuse and perverfion of fcripture, in order to maintain the reigning fuperftition. Laftly, we may obferve; in what Jerome fays, about "the bishops

refufing to ordain deacons unless their "wives were with child," &c. that a little lying and fcandal was esteemed of fingular ufe. See before, vol. i. p. 303. n.

It fhould feem that the feverity with regard to fecond marriages was afterwards relaxed, as to the laity at leaft; but a third was prohibited by feveral councils; and the emperor Leo, in the 9th century, published an edict, fubjecting those who

married

married thrice, to the penalties which had been decreed against them by the antient councils. However, this emperor was fairly caught in his own fnare; for when he wanted to revoke that edict in his own cafe, the clergy would not fuffer it...

The emperor Leo, who reigned at Conftantinople, married four times, for which the then, Patriarch excommunicated him. He begged to be restored, but in vain; upon which he depofed Nicolaus Myfticus, who had excommunicated him, from the patriarchate, confined him to a monaftry, and placed one Enthymius Syncellus in his room. This occafioned a fchifm in the church, fome of the clergy fiding with Nicolaus, fome with Enthymius. Though Enthymius reftored Leo to the communion of the faithful, yet he refolutely oppofed him, when, by the advice of the fenate, he was about to publish an edict, declaring it lawful to marry a fourth time. Nor would the clergy fuffer the emperor to revoke his former edict against thofe who married thrice. See Ant. Univ. Hift. vol. xvii. p. 79.

By all this we may learn, how early the. mystery of iniquity began to work, in a combination of church and ftate, against the prerogative of Heaven, with refpect to. marriage, by men taking upon themselves to decide upon the lawfulness or unlawfulness of marriages, either independently on the fcriptures, or in total oppofition to them; VOL. II, likewife

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likewise to misinterpret and misapply them to justify their proceedings.

But to return to the primitive Chriftians. Had these people attended properly to the fcriptures, instead of the workings of their own imaginations, they would not have been led into a difparagement of marriage, either when entered into in one or more inftances. As to marriage itself, it was instituted when man stood in the likeness and image of GOD, in a state of much higher purity and holiness than any can now know on this fide heaven; therefore it must have been in all respects confiftent with fuch a ftate. One of the two perfons recorded in fcripture to have been tranflated into heaven, that he should not fee death (Heb. xi. 5.) was a married man; nor did he keep himfelf" from the honourable and undefiled

bed;" for it is faid, Gen. v. 22. And ENOCH walked with GOD, after he begat Methusaleh, 300 years, and begat fons and daughters.

As to fecond marriages, the calling them adultery and whoredom," was a monstrous fuperftition, amounting to a denial of the fcriptures, which abfolutely allowed them as lawful and good, even on the woman's fide. Thus Paul, in allufion to the law of Mofes, Rom. vii. 3. So then if while her bufband liveth fhe be married to another man, fhe fhall be called an adulterefs; but if her buf

band

band be dead, he is free from that law, fo that she is no adulterefs, though he be married to another man. And again-The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom he will, &c. 2 Cor. vi. 14. Comp. 1 Tim. v. 14.

So that we fee what little dependence is to be placed on primitive fathers and Chriftians, or indeed on any thing else but the written word of GOD itfelf-compared with itself-explained by itself. The truth we come at by these means is fure and ftedfaft, and may fafely be relied upon, though all the world should agree to think otherwife.

Dr. Cave, who, as was observed, has endeavoured to foften the * abfurdities of thefe

*The farther we fearch, the more will the number of their abfurdities increase upon us: witness fome of the fathers and moralifts, mentioned by Atha nafius Vincentius, in his Notes on Theoph. Aletheus ; who held, that, "Scortatio cum propriâ uxore com"mitti poteft, cum non liberorum quærendorum "caufâ, fed ad explendam libidinem, vel cum præg"nante aut lactante res habetur." "That a man "may be faid to commit whoredom with his own wife, when he hath intercourfe with her, not for "the fake of having children, but to fatisfy his de. fires, or when he is with child, or gives fuck.' If this be the cafe, how is marriage any remedy against fornication? and what becomes of the apostle's -If they cannot contain, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn? 1 Cor. vii. 9. How can a (K 2

man

thefe good folks as much as poffible, fays, ' p. 90. "Though the fathers and antient "councils were thus fevere in this cafe

(of fecond marriages) yet the rigour of "their cenfure will be much abated, if "what fome tell us be true, that of many "their paffages are not levelled against fucceffive marriages, but against having "two wives at the fame time; for, as a "learned man has obferved, there were "three forts of digamy: 1. A man's hav"ing two wives at once: 2. When, the "former wife being dead, he married a fecond time: 3. When a man on flight "caufe put away his wife by a bill of di

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vorce, and married another." With regard to this laft, it certainly could not be inveighed against too feverely; for it is contrary to the very inftitution of marriage, that a man fhould put away his wife for any caufe, except for fornication; as CHRIST proves to the multitudes, Matt. v. 32. and to the Pharifees, Matt. xix. 4, 5, 6.

man burn the less for having a wife, if he is to have no access to her for many months together, or indeed, on fuch principles, not at all, after fhe has done breeding? Yet fuch was the wisdom of Ambrofe, Jerom, Origen, and others, who, in fuch inftances, by becoming wifer and holier than the fcriptures, were the inftruments of Satan, to enfnare the confciences of those who had folly enough to believe what they faid. Comp. 1 Cor. vii. 5.