As to the notion expreffed by commentators, in their apparently mifconceived ideas of this text of MALACHI-that because GOD created but one man and one woman at first, therefore he intended that "no man fhould have more than one "wife at a time ever after," I do humbly conceive, that, if GOD had meant fo, He would fomewhere have faid fo, and not have left it to the wifdom of men to put interpretations on what He was their pleafed * As to putting our conftruction on any acts of Gop, fo as to draw them into precedents, unless clearly inftructed by Him fo to do, it would in many cafes be attended with great mifchiefs-for inftance: Suppose we were to argue for brothers and fifters intermarrying, because this must have been the cafe among the immediate children of Adam and Eve? the creation of only one man and one woman, would at least be as good an argument for inceft, as against polygamy. But it can have no weight in either cafe, becaufe GoD, by a pofitive law, (Lev. xviii. 9.) prohibited the first, and by as pofitive a law (Deut. xxi. 15-17.) allowed the fecond. It pleased GOD, that the whole human nature fhould refide in one common fœderal head, who was to be the common representative of all his subsequent naturally-engendered offspring; and by one woman taken out of himself, to convey that nature which was in him to his own immediate children, and by them to his pofterity, to the end of the world. Let any one read Rom. v. with attention, and confider in what respects Adam was a figure of Him that was to come (ver. 14.) and then it will be feen, that no man who ever was, or will be naturally engendered of the offspring of Adam, can have been, or be in the fame pleased to do; for who hath known the mind of the LORD, and who hath been his counfellor? Rom. xi. 34. Some may argue, that because it was faid-" A man fhall cleave to his wife, not wives, there"fore it is unlawful for a man to have "two or more wives in * fucceffion, and "can only have one fo long as he lives, "because Adam had but one." This fort of conceits is like fuppofing that GOD forbad the wearing cloth, or filk, or linen, becaufe He cloathed our first parents with skins. Gen. iii. 21; or fuppofing, like thofe mad heretics of the Second century, who called themselves Adamites, that Chriftians are to meet together stark naked without any shame, because it is faid (Gen. ii. 25.) ADAM and Eve were naked, and were not ashamed. If we take upon ourselves to interpret this or any act of GoD merely by our imaginations, we take upon us what fame circumftances and fituation that Adam was. Wherefore a precedent against polygamy is no more to be drawn from him, than againft natural generation from Eve's being made out of one of his ribs, or from his own being immediately formed out of the duft of the earth. * There was a time in the Chriftian church, when this was looked upon as only "a more specious and "decorous kind of adultery," and reckoned infamous. The Montanists affirmed fecond marriages to be as fcandalous and finful as fornication. But more of this hereafter. does does not belong to us. We are told, Deut. xxix. 29. SECRET THINGS belong unto the LORD our GOD, but those things which are REVEALED, to us and our children for ever, that we may do all the words of His law. That God might have created 10,000 men, and as many women, is certain. Why He did not, He hath no where told us, any more than why He created only one man and one * woman. This and all things else are to be refolved into His own good pleasure, and the counsel of his own will. Eph. i. 11. Rev. iv. 11. Our attempting to account for any of His holy acts or difpenfations, any farther than the * Milton represents Adam as faying- Creator wife, that peopled higheft heav'n Mankind? We may prefume that GOD made the reft of the animal creation by pairs, the male and femaleComp. Gen. i. 20-25. with Gen. vii. 14-16: therefore, to draw arguments against polygamy (which, by the way, the fcriptures have no where done) from a fimilar creation of the human fpecies, would, if pursued to the utmoft, prove too much, and of course prove nothing. VOL. I. L revelation revelation of His word exprefsly authorizes us, is to be wife above what is written, to involve ourselves in endless mazes of error, till-profeffing ourselves wife, we become fools. Rom. i. 22. GOD's bringing the woman to the manthat folemn denunciation-therefore fhall a man leave father and mother, and cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one fleshform a conclufive argument against divorce; and are exprefsly made use of by CHRIST for that purpofe in His difpute with the Pharifees, Matt. xix. 4, 5; but it is no where, in the whole fcripture, made ufe of as an argument against polygamy. There were, doubtlefs, opportunities enough in the antediluvian, as well as the poftidiluvian world, to have given occafion for it, had any * fuch thing been intended. The *One weighty reafon for the creation of only one man and one woman at firft, may be gathered from Acts xvii. 26. where it is faid-He hath made of ONE BLOOD all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth. Had more men and women than Adam and Eve been created at first, this ftrict affinity of relationship by blood could not have exifted; but this was wifely and graciously contrived, as a reafon for, and cement of, brotherly love-as a means of hiding pride, and boafting of one above. another, with refpect to their original pedigree; fo that none, on this account, fhould defpife or fet at nought The first instance of polygamy which is recorded, we find Gen. iv. 19. And LaMECH took unto him two wives, the name of one was ADAH, the other ZILLAH. Here our commentators think they have found out the fin of polygamy-" It was "one of the degenerate race of Cain," faith one," that firft tranfgreffed the law "of marriage, that two only fhould be 66 one flesh. These are the words of one of the wifeft and beft (Mr. Henry) amongst our English commentators, and nought his brother. This thought is well expreffed in that well-known epitaph: Nobles and heralds, by your leave, Here lie the bones of Matthew Prior, Although, in this corrupt and mixed state of things, civil government is neceffary, therefore outward diftinctions of men are neceffary; for without these no civil polity could exift; yet, in that day, when the governors and governed fhall appear before the Great Governor of all, they will be conftrained to fay, with Jofeph's brethen, Gen. xlii. 11. we are all one man's fons ;-and then will know, however little attention they may give to it now, that God is no respecter of perfons. See Acts x. 34. If these humbling confiderations were improved as they ought, they would furnish us with motives of humility, benevolence, brotherly kindness, long-suffering, mercy, and charity to each other, beyond all the arguments of the wifeft moralifts of Greece and Rome. See Mal. ii. 10. L 2 serve |