it is very certain, that these things are wholly of human invention, and therefore not only various in different parts of the world, but alfo in the fame country. We have amongst us Jews, Papifts, Quakers; all these obferve an outward form or ceremony different from each other. As for the church of England, we have differed from ourselves; for the fame ceremony which would have conftituted a legal marriage before the 26th of the late King George II. will not do it now, unless certain circumstances, introduced and infifted upon by act of parliament, be observed.

But the all-wife Legiflator of the universe hath not left His divine inftitutions on fo vague, fo precarious, fo uncertain a footing. But fee, faid He to Mofes, that thou make all things according to the pattern fhewn thee in the mount. Heb. viii. 5. We find every particular, down to the very pins in the tabernacle, every rite and ceremony, even to the minuteft circumftance, exactly delineated and revealed. But we find no marriage-fervice, or religious ceremony of an * outward kind, fo much as mentioned.

* As for the manner of celebrating marriage, Mofes has left no direction about it. We do not find it accompanied with any religious ceremony, fuch as going to the Tabernacle or Temple, offering facrifices, or even that it was performed by or before a priest. See Ant. Univ. Hift. vol. iii. p. 145.

The business of marriage was left as at first ordained, to the one fimple act of union. A conclufive proof this, that nothing else is of divine institution; confequently, that nothing else is effential to constitute a marriage in the fight of GoD, but that this is.

Should the Reader retain the least doubt of the truth of what has been faid, or be under any difficulty in understanding what is meant by thofe words-They shall be one flesh, we may refer to a very clear explanation of the matter, not only by reviewing St. Paul's words, I Cor. vi. 15, 16. but alfo by confidering more minutely what is meant by thofe paffages mentioned before, from the law of Mofes; but as the texts are not cited at length, I will here set them down as they ftand in the places referred to.

Exod. xxii. 16, 17.

If a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall furely endow her to be his wife. If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins.

By this paffage, as from many others in the facred fcriptures, it appears, that fathers, during the minority of their daughters, as in every other inftance (fee Numb. XXX. 3, 4, 5.) fo in the business of contracting marriage, had a negative in their

own

own power: therefore if a woman being in her father's houfe in her youth, i. e. being under age, as we term it, betrothed or ef poufed herself to a man, the former by * verba de futuro, the latter by verba de præfenti, as the civilians fpeak; both which were held fo facred, that defiling either a betrothed or efpoufed woman was a fpecies of adultery, and to be punished with death: -yet if the father withheld his confent, neither the betrothing nor efpoufals, nor any contract arising from them, could be carried into execution. But in the paffage before us, matters were gone too far to be recalled. The man had not only enticed the maid, but had actually lain with her ; and therefore GOD commands that he fhall SURELY endow her nesh th fibi in uxorem. Mont. for his wife. For now the primary inftitution took place, they shall be one flesh; and what God had joined together (by pronouncing them one flesh) man could not put afunder. Therefore the 17th verfe doth not fay" If the father utterly refufe to

* Spoufals de futuro are a mutual promife, or covenant of marriage, to be had afterwards; as when the man faith to the woman—“ I will take thee to

my wife;" and fhe then anfwereth, "I will take "thee to my husband."-Efpoufsals de præfenti are a mutual promife or contract of prefent matrimony; as when the man doth fay to the woman-" I do take thee to my wife," -and fhe then anfwereth-"I do take thee to my hufband." 2 Burn 16.

give

give her unto him, fuch marriage fhall be null and void; but though the father utterly refufe to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins. Which is but explanatory of what goes before, he shall furely endow her to be his wife, by paying the dower, into the hands of the father after the marriage, as he ought to have done, and was usually done, before-hand. is fuppofed to be a dowry or portion which the husband paid into the hands of the bride, or her father, as a kind of purchase of her perfon. This is, to this day, the practice of several eaftern nations; and this was not to be

with

So N is often rendered, as in Judg. xiii. 16. Ifa. x. 22. Lam. iii. 32. & al. freq.; and fo it ought to be understood here, in order to make this verfe confiftent with the preceding, where it is faid— M', endowing he fhall endow her, &c. as well as to avoid the very great difficulty of fuppofing that fuch an action as enticing the maid, lying with her, and then leaving her on the father's refufal, was of no higher confequence than paying a small sum of money; for the DD, or filver paid, amounted to very little, and rather feems to be payable as an acknowledgment of the contract, than any thing else. See Nold. Heb. Part. DN, N° 13. tranflated by quamvis-although-where the reader will find many au

thorities.

+ See Parkhurft's Heb. Lex. fub voc .

Tacitus L. de Mor. Germ. mentions fuch a cuftom among the Germans. Dotem non uxor marito, fed uxori maritus offert, interfunt parentes & propinqui, ac munera probant: In hæc munera uxor

accipitur,

withheld because the husband had married the woman either without or against the father's confent. In fhort, the man was not to take advantage of his own wrong. But, though the father refused or not, the dowry must be paid according to law.

Having feen what was to be done where a man enticed a maid, and took actual poffeffion of her, against the father's confent; let us next fee what was to be done when a man took a maid, without even the father's knowledge; not by a feduction or enticement, but on a fudden and unexpected interview, by meeting her without any previous intent.

Deut. xxii. 28, 29.

If a man find a damfel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her

and

accipitur, hoc maximum vinculum, hæc arcana facra, hoc conjugales Deos arbitrantur. "The wife doth "not bring a dower to the husband, but the husband "to the wife; the parents and relations are present, "and approve the gifts. On thefe gifts the wife

is accepted; this is the chiefett bond: these are "facred mysteries, with which they think the Gods " are married." This was called among the Romans -coëmptio nuptialis, and was reciprocal, as well on the woman's fide as on the man's. To this Virg. Georg. I. 31. feems to allude:

1.

Teque fibi generum Tethys emat omnibus undis.

* The word n feems here to be rightly rendered by lay hold on her-Prendra Fr.-take her.-The Jewish doctors conftrue this into that fort of violence

and