ing their wives to other people, and of course the married women going from their own bufbands to other men.

That

this

the introduction of the word "IAION, must affect, and materially, the meaning of the word EXETO, and make alfo the word dvdpa to be taken in an exclufive fenfe-as thus-Let every (wife) retain, poffefs (i. e. keep to, as we fay) the man or husband appropriated to her exclufively of all other men.

Thus both parts of the verfe are in the strictest analogy with the divine law, and equally contribute to reprobate the breach of it by community of women," which was a Gentile-cuftom.

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I

As for the conclufion against polygamy, which is drawn from the word wife, as well as the word hufband, being in the fingular number, it will not hold; for the fcriptures plainly fhew us, that wife must frequently be understood in a diftributive fenfe. A remarkable passage of this fort is in 1 Tim. iii. 12. Let the deacons be the husbands of ONE WIFE-pas gurainès avapes.-But can any body fuppofe, that there was to be but one wife amongst them all? So in the tenth commandment-Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's WIFE-This (like ox, ass, house, servant) must be taken in a diftributive fenfe, and mean any married woman or women whatsoever. So Exod. xxi. 33, 34. If a man dig a pit, and not cover it, and an ox or an afs fall therein-the owner of the pit fhall make it good, &c. Are not pits, and oxen, and affes, to be here understood? So in the text, the word wife means any woman or women who may be mar ried to the man.

The word husband must be understood in an exclufive fenfe, because the whole Bible fhews that a woman could have but one husband-here well expreffed by the dior ardpa. In fhort, this fcrips ture, like all others, must be interpreted according

to

this was the cafe in Corinth, may well be taken for granted, when we confider

to the analogy of the faith, by taking a view of the divine law in all its parts, and not by confining ourselves to mere literal conftruction of a single word-or text-or paffage; for, by this means, we might be brought into all the errors of the church of Rome, or into all the herefies that have been invented; not one of which is without fome text of scripture for its fupport, which being wrefted from all the reft, has been wrefted from its meaning, and made to fignify juft what the fancies of men have applied it to. It is very truly obferved by an antient writer," Turpe eft tota lege non infpecta, val "perlecta, de lege judicare." "To judge of the

law, without reading over and examining the whole, is fhameful." He proceeds-" Ita turpe "etiam theologo textum originalem in fcriptura fa66 cra non infpicere, aut illum ftudio præterire, &

tamen fcripturam explicare velle." "So it is "fhameful in a theologift not to infpect the original text in the facred fcripture, or purposely to pass "it by, and yet pretend to explain the fcripture." The interpretation which the Rhemifts give to this 1 Cor. vii. 2. is by no means to be despised-I will here fet it down; for

Fas eft & ab hofte doceri.

;

"Let every one have, keep, or use his own wife, " to whom he was married before his converfion "for the Apostle here answereth to the first quef"tion of the Corinthians, which was not-whether "it were lawful to marry? but-whether they were 66 not bound, upon their converfion, to abftain "from the company of their wives married before

in their infidelity? as fome did perfuade them. they ought to be." This would feem a good expofition of the place, if the Apostle had not fo exprefsly treated this point in the following verfe.

that

---

that there were fo many fources from which fuch practices were fo eafily derived. The Corinthians were a people lewd and debauched to a proverb* Xopbialen, to Corinthianize, or play the Corinthian, was a phrafe which expreffed a man's being abominable:-add to this the fondness of the Greeks for the maxims of the divine PLATO, as he was called, one of which. was-xovas μEv yuvainas, κοινες δε είναι παιδας, that "women and "children ought to be common :"-add to this the fect of the Gnoftics, thofe early beretics, who held "a community of

66

women, and that all marriage was "of the devil;"-thefe fpread their

I

errors

* See 1 Cor. vi. 11. former part. Strabo writes, that there was at Corinth a temple of Venus, fo rich, that it maintained above a thousand harlots facred to her fervice, ispodλus Tarpas, which were confecrated both by men and women to that goddess. See the advantage and neceffity of the Christian revelation, by J. Leland, D. D. vol. i. p. 174. Others fay, that the number of proftitutes in honour of Venus at Corinth was 2000. See Lett. of Jews to Voltaire, vol. ii. p. 53.

Strabo, Geog. lib. xii. fpeaking of the temple of the moon in Comana of Cappadocia, where all manner of the most horrid impurities were committed, as parts of religious worship, calls it-" a little CORINTH."

t Among the errors of the famous Manes or Manichæus, in the third century, this principle is found he taught, that "all marriage is of the

errors far and wide among the Chriftian churches:—and laftly-the horrid prac tice of men's lending their wives to others, was even a fort of law in Greece; this originated firft in Sparta, that famous city of Peloponnefus, on the edge of which Corinth ftood; from thence it fpread itfelf into the reft of the cities of Greece, Corinth, no doubt, as well as others. The following account of this vile cuftom is to be found in Plutarch's life of the celebrated Spartan law-giver Lycurgus. "He (Lycurgus) next bethought him"felf how to prevent that wild and "womanish paffion of jealoufy, by mak

ing it a matter of reputation, not only "to banish from matrimony all violence

"devil, invented by him to tie the fouls to the "flesh, and to retard their return to heaven." See Fortin's Remarks, vol. ii. p. 50.

*Grotius, fpeaking of the Jewish divorces, faith "Quod et hodie ufurpant Mahumetifta, & olim "Græci ac Latini tanta licentia, ut & uxores ad

66

tempus utendas aliis darent Lacones & Cato." Which the Mahometans often practice at this day, and formerly the Greeks and Latins, with fuch licentioufness, that they could grant the use of their wives to other's for a GIVEN TIME. This was the cafe among the Lacedemonians, and Cato alfo 'did the fame." I thus tranflate, or rather paraphrafe, the latter part of Grotius' words, otherwife they do not fo well answer to the general words Græci & Latini. See Grot. De Verit. lib. ii. § 13.

" and

and diforder, but alfo to allow men "the freedom of imparting the use of "their wives to deferving perfons, that "fo they might have children by them. "And he laughed at those who think "the violation of the marriage-bed fuch an insupportable affront, that they revenge it by murders and cruel wars. Lycurgus thought a man not to be blam"ed, who, being in years, and having

a young wife, should recommend fome "virtuous handfome young man, that "fhe might have a child by him, who

might inherit the good qualities of "fuch a father, and this child the good 66 man loves as tenderly as if he was his "own getting.-On the other hand, a

૪.

worthy man, who was in love with a "married woman upon account of her modefty, and well-favouredness of her children, might, without formality, beg of her husband a night's lodging; "that he might, like flips of a fine tree

planted in a goodly garden, have chil"dren of a good race, and well related. "For Lycurgus was of opinion, that "children were not fo much the pro

priety of their parents, as of the whole "Commonwealth; and therefore he would "not have them begotten by the firft

"6 comers,