are able to make us wife unto falvation * 2 Tim. iii. 15. it must be because they contain the law and the gospel; for no man can be wife unto falvation without the knowledge of these. They certainly contain both the gospel was preached unto ABRAHAM, Gal. iii. 8; to the ISRAELITES under the Old Teftament, as well as to us under the New Teftament. Heb.

iv. 2. We have the fame Spirit of faith, 2 Cor. iv. 13. and doubtlefs the fame object of faith, 1 Cor. x. 4. Numb. xxi. 9. with John iii. 14, 15. Wherefore it is

not to be conceived, that GOD should leave the heirs of falvation in a state of ignorance touching the original institution of marriage, or of the meaning of thofe pofitive laws which were to enforce it (and this after the giving of the law for 1500 years together) any more under the Old Teftament than under the New Teftament. It must be as necessary for a few, in order to be wife unto falvation, to know GOD's mind and will on these interesting and important subjects, as for a

* The Apofle adds-διὰ πίςεως τῆς ἐν Χρισῷ Ἰησοῦ -through faith which is in CHRIST JESUS, i. e. believing Him to be the MESSIAH. For want of believing which, the apoftate Jews were not made wife unto falvation by the fcriptures of the Old Tef

tament.

Chriftian.

.

Chriftian. Each must be judged by the fame law-each faved, though under different difpenfations of it, by the fame gospel.

As little probable is it, that He should allow His own beloved children to fly in the face of His authority, and live in the breach of His pofitive law, for fo long a period, without the leaft check or reproof, when part of His gracious covenant runs in these words, Pf. lxxxix. 30. If his children forfake my LAW, and walk not in my JUDGMENTS; if they break my STATUTES, and keep not my COMMANDMENTS; then will I vifit their offences with the rod, and their fin with fcourges. There are inftances enough of this for other things -witness DAVID'S broken bones, Pf. li. 8. for his adultery with BATHSHEBA, and murder of URIAH. But where is there one inftance of it for polygamy? Wherein did GoD ever punish it? DAVID died as really a Chriftian believer as St. PAUL did; witness his last words, 2 Sam. xxiii. 5; and yet, amidst all the explicit confeffions he made in the most folemn hours of his repentance, he does not once bewail the polygamy he lived in; nay, almost the last act of his life was an act of polygamy, in taking ABISHAG the Shunamite to lie in his boJom, his wife BATHSHEBA being then

living.

i.

living. For though it be faid, 1 Kings 4. that he knew her not; yet it plainly appears, by what SOLOMON faid, 1 Kings ii. 22, 23. that he was fo betrothed or efpoufed to DAVID, as to be looked upon as his wife. Accordingly the belonged to the crown; was to be at the difpofal of the fucceffor; and therefore ADONIJAH, who was elder than SOLOMON, by asking for ABISHAG, the late king's widow, to wife, is treated as having a treasonable design against the crown itself, and is put to death as a traitor.

Is it then conceivable that polygamy, allowed of God uninterruptedly through fo many ages and generations with impunity and even approbation, fhould all of a fudden start up into a mortal fin, by the feventh commandment's receiving a conftruction which it never before had -which was never before given to the words in which it was conceived? How could our lives and properties be fecure, if time could alter the meaning of our penal ftatutes?-who will draw the line, and fay how much or how little time is neceffary to effect this? But if such can be the cafe with the moral law of GOD, then was the Pfalmift mistaken in calling it perfect (Pf. xix. 7.) for it is changeable, Then

is it lefs to be depended on than the laws of the Medes and Perfians. Efth. i. 19.lefs facred than the decree of an earthly monarch. Efth. viii. 8. Dan. vi. 15. If this be the cafe, what man can have any fecurity for his peace ?-In order therefore to avoid fomething worse than abJurdity, we muft conclude, that the original inftitution of marriage, and the feventh commandment of the decalogue, mean neither more nor lefs, where Chriftians are concerned, than where the Jews were -or, in other words, they mean precifely one and the fame thing under the New Teftament as under the Old Testament.

By taking texts here and there in the New Testament, and detaching them from their reference to and connection with the Old Testament, many berefies have arifen; as Arianifm, Socinianifm, and perhaps most others. Ye do err, not knowing the fcriptures. So with regard to marriage -becaufe CHRIST faid-Some make themfelves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's Jake: be that is able to receive it, let him receive it (Matt. xix. 12.); and St. PAUL, 1 Cor. vii. 1. and in other parts of that chapter, fpeaks in favour of a fingle life, with respect to the then diftreffed ftate of

*

the church (ver. 26.) there were multitudes of people, in the early ages of Christianity, who took these things in a wrong fenfe, and found out that "marriage "was a carnal thing, and forbidden by "the New Testament, as unbecoming "the purity of that difpenfation:" little reflecting, that the command of increase and multiply, and the inftitution of marriage as the means thereof, were the difpenfations of GOD Himself to our fir parents when they were in a state of perfect innocence, and therefore could not be incompatible therewith.

That venerable man John Trapp, on 1 Cor. vii. 8. fays-" The blemish will never be wiped off fome of the an

*There arofe in the church from antient times, "fects of heretics, who condemned wine, and the "ufe of animal food, and marriage; and not only

beretics, but the orthodox alfo, ran into extrava"gant notions of the fame kind, crying up celibacy

and a folitary life beyond measure, together with 66 rigid and uncommanded aufterities and macera❝tions of the body. (Fortin, Rem. vol. i. 278.) "Chrift therefore, as we may conjecture, was pre"fent at a marriage-feaft, and honoured it with the "miracle of turning water into wine, that it fhould "ftand in the gospel as a confutation of these foolish

errors, and a warning to thofe who had ears to "bear, not to be deluded by fuch fanatics. St. "John, who records this miracle, lived to fee these

falfe doctrines adopted and propagated." Ib.