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what he has written on the subject, he has had the honour of coinciding, in fo many points, with the fentiments of this learned, judicious, and excellent Bishop. But, on the other hand, he must exprefs his forrow, that his Lordship was fo far "diftant from his books and papers, otherwise, it is most probable, that he would have produced fome valuable testimonies from the antients, concerning what he hints at as-" little noticed."

Another thing is also to be lamented, which is, that the good Bishop did not proceed to explain what he meant by those great and vifible imminent hazards," mentioned in the laft paragraph.

If fo fmall and inconfiderable a perfon as myself may venture to guefs at the meaning of fo confiderable and great a man as Bishop Burnet, I fhould fuppofe, that his Lordship has here a reference to his obfervation before made, concerning the difference between the ftate of innocency, and that of mankind fince the fall, and to thofe evils which he mentions as the confequences of the latter-which could not exist during the former. Such barrenness, fickness, uncleanness, or crossness of humour." What " great, im"minent, and visible hazards hang over thousands," from thefe caufes, has been obferved

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obferved before, p. 181-184. To vindicate, therefore, the lawfulness of polygamy is, as the world is now constituted, in fuch cafes at least, to act as a good citizen of the world, by vindicating the "na"tural privileges," and neceffary rights of mankind; and it is, at the fame time, to act as a fincere believer of divine revelation, to fet forth, openly and without difguife, that HEAVENLY SYSTEM, by which those rights are established and secured. To vindicate alfo that univerfal law, which had the good of the WHOLE for its object; to shew that its wisdom and beneficence are too VAST to be confined to a fingle people, or a fingle period of particular difpenfation-to free it from that obfcurity which monks and priests, and other enthusiasts and fanatics, have involved it in, to the distress and destruction of millions is a task reserved alone for thofe, who, for the fake of truth, are willing to facrifice their eafe and reputation to the malevolence of ignorance and prejudice.

CHAP.

66

CHAP. V.

CHRIST not the Giver of a new Law.

MOSHEIM, (Eccl. Hift. Maclaine's edition, quarto, vol. i. p. 295) very justly obferves" When once the minifers of the church had departed from "the antient fimplicity of religion, a"bufes were daily multiplied; and fu "perftition drew, from its horrid fecun"dity, an incredible number of abfurdi"ties, which were added to the doctrine " of CHRIST and his apoftles." This is very true, and very strikingly exemplified in that learned and accurate writer's hiftory of the Chriftian church, both with regard to ceremonies and doctrines. Among other abfurdities in point of doctrine, is the notion that CHRIST's miffion up"on earth was to exhibit to mortals a "new law, diftinguished from all others.

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by its unblemished fanctity and perfec"tion." In vol. ii. p. 277. this is represented as one main article of the Socinian creed, and it is to be wished that it never had been adopted but by the immediate followers of Socinus. Yet this

is the language we hear daily, and is at the bottom of that extravagant notion expreffed by Gronovius on Grotius De Jure, tom. i. p. 274, octavo, 1735.—maintained by many learned men, and even adopted as an axiom by the generality of Christians, as much as the Pope's fupremacy and infallibility were before the Reformation-namely, that-" Lex naturæ & veteris fœderis concedunt polyga“miam”—The law of nature, and of the "Old

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* By lex naturæ, or law of nature, I understand here (as Gronovius joins it with the lex veteris fæderis-the law of the old covenant-) that lex non fcripta, or unwritten law, given of GoD to Adam, and from him derived by tradition to the people of GOD till the time of Mofes, when the lex fcripta, or written law, was given by Mofes. See John i. 17. former part, and Rom. v. 13. Both thefe laws are in fubftance one and the fame. The moral obligation of each demanded the fame obedience; the ceremonial inftitutions of both pointed out the fame facrifice and atonement for fin. Neither of these laws forbad polygamy, therefore it was practifed by Abraham-Jacob, and doubtlefs many others who lived under what is called the patriarchal difpenfationas well as by the Jews under the Mofaical difpenfation. As for what is generally understood by the law of nature, the offspring of what is called the light of nature, it is beft defcribed by

Monftrum, horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen ademptum.

Let those who think I carry this matter too far, confult Rom. i. 21, &c. which paffage of holy writ may be looked upon as a fummary of what is faid in the Old Teftament, of the depravity, blindness, VOL. I. ignorance,

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Old Testament, allow polygamy, but it is forbidden Lege CHRISTI" by the law of CHRIST. This appears to be the opinion of Grotius in that place on 'which Gronovius comments: for he fays-" Ex "CHRISTI lege irritum eft conjugium

cum eo qui maritus fit alterius mulieris, "ob jus illud quod CHRISTUS fœminæ "pudicitiam fervanti dedit in maritum." -By the law of CHRIST, a'marriage with a man who is the husband of another woman, is void and of none effect, by reason of the right which CHRIST gave to the woman, who preferves her chastity, over her bufband. Here then CHRIST is fet up to exhibit to mortals a new law, and that,

ignorance, and wickednefs of the fallen human ̈ naThis is abundantly confirmed by all hiftory, and daily experience. Dr. Alexander, Hift. of Wom vol. i. p. 169, fays, very truly-" Man, in that "rude and uncultivated ftate in which he originally

appears in all countries, before he has been form"ed by fociety, and inftructed by experience, is "an animal, differing but little from the wild "beafts that furround him." Here let me once more recommend to the reader's perufal, Dr. LELAND'S Advantage and Neceffity of the Chriftian' Revelation. There he will fee a very authentic account of what MAN is, "though formed by fociety, "and inftructed by experience," without the light of divine revelation. This, not as it refpects the vulgar and illiterate, but those alfo who are handed down to us, as most eminent for wisdom, learning, and philofophy.-THE WORLD BY WISDOM KNEW NOT GOD. I Cor. i. 21. Comp. Job xi. 7, 8.

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