diced imaginations, is making the word of GOD to mean any thing and every thing which fancy may invent; and rendering it, inftead of a fure word of prophecy, to the which we do well to take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, 2 Pet. i. 19. a fort of ignis fatuus, by no means to be depended on for a director and. guide, in fo awful a concern as therein is proposed to every man to whom that word fhall come.

The only fhadow of excufe for fuch an interpretation, or rather corruption of the paffages above mentioned, is the being able to produce fome pofitive law against a man's having more wives than one at a time; and then, in order to make GOD's laws agree together, it may be thought reasonable to reftrain the indefinite expreffion if a man, in Exodus and Deuteronomy, to unmarried men only. But as the firft is impoffible, the Second is without, and indeed against, all authority from the law of GOD; for that it allowed polygamy, is juft as clear as that it allowed marriage. Therefore the confequence is, that the expreffion in queftion being general, without limitation or exception with respect to the fituation of the man, it must in fome cafes command polygamy, and therefore make it a duty. VOL. I. This

T

This confequence must be allowed, if we let fcripture speak for itself; it could not be avoided by any other means than a man's refraining entirely from the other fex, or, if he married, contenting himfelf with one wife. If a man went farther than this, he must take the confequence. But as GOD would not fuffer a whore of the daughters of Ifrael, fo he made thefe laws to prevent their being exposed to prostitution by men's taking them, and then putting them away. This was just as likely to be the cafe where married men were concerned, as where others were; therefore positively forbidden as to both alike.

That there were fome ingredients in thefe laws, of the ceremonial, local, or temporary kind, as the payment of the fifty fhekels to the father, we do not deny; but that the morality of these laws muft furvive as long as morality itself exifts, is as clear, as that expofing a woman to prostitution and ruin muft at all times be equally hateful in the fight of GOD, and therefore at all times equally provided against by these humane and falutary laws.

In confirmation of what is here faid, I would lay it down as a rule in all cases, that wherever a moral intendment appears

to

to be involved in the words of a ritual, ceremonial, or local and temporary inftitution, there, though the letter of the law itself can have no place amongst us, yet the Spirit and moral intention must survive as long as the world endures. For inftance, it is written, Deut. xxv. 4. Thou fhalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. By this we must fuppofe, that it was the custom in those days, and in that part of the world, to lay the fbeaves on the floor, and to get the corn out by the treading or trampling of oxen.

We

get the corn out of the fheaves by thresh ing with flails; therefore the letter of the law above mentioned has nothing to do with us. But the Spirit of this law being of a moral nature, and to teach us, that those who labour in the word and doctrine are to live of their labours, for that the labourer is worthy of his reward-this law is itself quoted by St. Paul, 1 Cor. ix. 9. 1 Tim. v. 18. as a proof that they who preach the gospel fhould live of the gospel. 1 Cor. ix. 14. From whence, as from other instances which might be mentioned, I infer, that though a law itself, or fome part of it, may have vanished as to the letter, yet it may, or rather must, furvive as to the Spirit of it.

Shall we say that we must construe the words

T 2

words-if any man-to mean unmarried men only, becaufe, though GOD's laws do not forbid polygamy, yet ours do? To imagine that our laws are to controul the laws of GOD, is a blafphemous arrogance, in comparison of which Cardinal Wolfey's -EGO ET REX MEUS-is humility itself in the very abftra&t. The law of the land is fuch, that a married Englishman cannot publicly and openly marry the virgin he has feduced or taken; he cannot obey the letter therefore of thefe laws of God, as the Jews could have done; but he can and ought to make them the law of his conscience; and if he has taken a virgin, &c. he can, according to the Spirit of thefe laws, maintain, protect, and provide for her, and, if he furvives his prefent engagement, marry her publicly in preference to all other women upon earth.-Thus would one great end of this law be answered, and millions be preferved from destruction. If indeed the woman is profligate enough to forfake the man, and voluntarily unite herself with another, fhe is guilty of tranfgreffing thefe laws of GOD, as in other cafes of adultery: for, the fame reafon which is given why the man fhall not put her away all his days, viz. because be hath bumbled her, goes to what is also faid of the woman-she shall be his wife—she

certainly

certainly therefore is his wife in God's fight, and whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent. Prov. vi. 29.

I fome time ago met with two fermons, which were preached, and afterwards printed, on occafion of paffing the marriage-act. The learned author, speaking of polygamy, expreffes himself as follows: "We find likewife in thofe early times, "and afterwards, that polygamy was partly "indulged, but only upon certain typi"cal occafions, and then only among the "patriarchs and fome of the kings, who "were all exprefs types of CHRIST in "their several marriages; and in this

66

66

respect they each typified and prefigured CHRIST's marrying the Jewish "church, and the feveral churches of "the Heathen nations, which, under the gofpel, were all defigned to make but one church or one poufe; therefore, "under the gospel, polygamy ceases, and but one wife is allowed."

66

If this author will examine his Bible a little more closely, he will find himself mistaken both in his premises, and in his conclufion. In the first place, it cannot be true that "polygamy was partly indulged,

only upon fome typical occafions, and "then only among the patriarchs and "fome of the kings."-This appears from the law, Deut, xxi. 15. which was

T 3

enacted