and not judgment, dictates the comment. The Corinthians had a very "plain argu"ment" against their fears about married perfons cohabiting together; and if they compared this fcripture, ver. 3, 4, with what Mofes fo pofitively laid down, Exod. xxi. 1o. the polygamifts among them were no more to forfake the company of their wives, fo as to withold the duty of marriage, than thofe who had but one wife were to withdraw themselves from her fociety in the fame respect. That there were there were many many polygamists among the Gentile converts, as well as would overturn it) may be seen from the conceffion he falls into, in his note on Mark x. 11. in the following words" Since to commit adultery is to " violate the bed of another perfon, he that com"mits adultery againft his wife, muft violate her "bed, which no husband can do only by doing "that which an hufband lawfully might do. Since "then a right to polygamy, is a right to marry more "wives than one, he that hath this right, cannot "violate the bed of his first wife, by affuming ano"ther to it. It therefore must be acknowledged, either "that the husband, under CHRIST's inftitution, and by the original law of matrimony, had no "fuch right, or that he that marrieth another "cannot, by that, commit adultery against his first "wife." Here is a fair ISSUE IN LAW joinedand must be tried by THE LAW-for CHRIST made no inflitution whatfoever on the subject of marriage, but only declared, explained, and inforced thofe already made and recorded in the LAW which was given by MOSES. This LAW, like all other RECORDS, is to be tried by ITSELF-taking the WHOLE TOGETHER. R 2 among 12 among the Jewish, there can be but little doubt; for, as * Grotius obfervesInter Paganos paucæ gentes una uxore contentæ fuerunt "Among the Pagans, few "nations were content with one wife;' and we do not find the apostle making this any bar to church-membership, though he exprefly does to church offices. See before, p. 200. It can hardly be fuppofed, that if polygamy were finful, that is to fay, an offence against the law of GOD, the great apostle fhould be fo liberal and fo particular, in his epistle to the Corinthians, in the condemnation of every other fpecies of illicit commerce between the Sexes, and yet omit this in the black catatalogue, chap. vi. 9, &c. or that he .. 66 *De Verit. lib. ii. § 13. So De Jure, lib. ii. cap. 5. 9. he fays- Sed & apud Græcos, CECROPS primus, tefte Athenæo, μiav évi è(eužev, unam fæminam uni marito attribuit: quod tamen "ne Athenis quidem diu obfervatum Socratis & "aliorum exemplo docemur.' But among the Greeks, CECROPs first, as Athenæus witneffeth, allowed one woman to one man; which, nevertheless, was not long obferved, even at ATHENS, as we are taught by the example of SOCRATES and others. παλαι γαρ ειωθεισαν και Έλληνες, και Ιεδαίοι, και δυο και τρισι, καὶ πλειοσι γυναιξί νομῳ γαμε καλα ταυλον συνοικεν. Theodoret-cited by Whitby, on 1 Tim. iii. 2. 66 "The Jews and Greeks were wont to be married to TWO or THREE, and even MORE wives toge"ther." should should not be as zealous for the honour of the law of marriage, and of the Seventh commandment, which was evidently to maintain it, as Ezra was for that positive law of Deut. vii. 3, against the marrying with heathens. Ezra made the Jews put away the wives which they had illegally taken, and even the very children which they had by them; How is it that Paul, if polygamy was finful, did not make the Gentile and the Jewish converts put away every wife but the first, and annul every polygamous contract? Why not fay, that being the husband of one wife was as neceffary to the being a Christian, as to be chofen a Bishop or Deacon? for it certainly was, if polygamy be finful. John the Baptift, at the expence of his liberty, and afterwards of his life, honeftly, openly, in words that it was out of the reach of all commentators to fophifticate, or give more than one meaning to, told Herod, with refpect to Herodias, his brother Philip's wife-It is not lawful for thee to have her. But how could Paul, with truth, fay to the Ephefians, the Corinthians, or any other people amongst whom he ministered-I have not shunned to declare unto you, πασαν την βουλην, ALL (the whole) counsel of GOD-if polygamy were a fin, and he did not as openly and plainly R 3 plainly declare against it, as he did against every other fleshly tranfgreffion of GOD's pure and holy law? That he has no where done this, I may fay-res ipfa indicat. As for taking a text here or there, detaching it from the context, and the context itself from the rest of the Bible; then chufing out a fingle fentence, or word in a fentence, this too without any reference to the original Hebrew or Greek, and because it seems to found that way, to make it a proof of fome opinion we have been taught to hold; it is that fort of criticifm which may make the scripture prove any thing, and every thing, juft as fancy leads, and, in fhort, muft render the fcriptures themfelves as vague and indeterminate as the minds of men are, Whoever has red the history of that renowned worthy, Alderman Whittington, whose biographer tells us that he was twice Lord Mayor of London, may recollect a circumftance in that great man's life, which affords an exemplification of the aptness which poffeffes the human mind, to interpret founds into that particular fenfe which its own prejudices, however imbibed, with to put upon them. It is faid that Whittington, being an apprentice in the city, left his master with an intent to go into the country. It being about the time of evening, he fat himself down somewhere in the skirts of the town; his ear was caught with the ringing of fix bells, he liftened attentively to them, 'till at last he perfuaded himfelf that they proclaimed his future greatness in the following founds: I 2 3 4 5 "Lord Mayor of London." He was fo captivated with the conceit,. that he not only imagined the bells * faid this to him, but that all who heard them muft give their peal the fame interpretation; and, no doubt, under fuch a prepoffeffion, it would have been almost impoffible to have perfuaded him to the contrary. So, when men have been brought up under the prejudices of vulgar opinion and common error, and have their minds fwayed and biaffed by long cuftom to one certain * "We have an homely English proverb, which " fays-As the fool thinks, the bell clinks'"A proverb applicable, in our opinion, to all ar guments founded on the found, and arbitrary « meaning of words." Lond, Review for 1778, page 75. R 4 train |