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This was not the fituation of the p or * concubines amongst the Jews; thefe feem to have been looked upon as wives, though, in fome refpects, of an inferior rank. They were fo far confidered as wives, that the man who took them had fuch a propriety in them, as to make it a very great offence, if not adultery itself, to violate them; as appears in the cafe of Jacob's concubine Bilbah. Reuben, the eldeft fon of Jacob, had lain with her; and Jacob, Gen. xlix. 4. calls it "going up to his bed and defiling it."

Though the children of the concubine did not inherit as the children of the wife in most cases, yet in one very remarkable one we find they did, and that by the difpofal of GOD Himfelf. Leah and Rachel

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* Dr. Johnson, in his Dictionary, makes a concubine fignify a woman kept in fornication, a whore, "a ftrumpet:" but no fuch meaning of the word wab is to be found in the facred fcriptures. It is greatly owing to fuch interpretations of words which are uled in our tranflation, that we are led to have very falfe conceptions, not only of words, but of whole paffages, in the facred volume.

So the word adultery-inftead of keeping to the unvaried ufe of the Hebrew N we make it fignify every thing which our ideas have annexed to the English term adultery. At this rate, the truth of fcripture can never be fixed, but muft alter with the languages into which it may happen to be translated, or with the ideas which change of times, .or opinions, may affix to certain words in thofe languages.

E 3

are

are called the wives of Jacob; Bilhah and Zilpah were his concubines (as may appear from Gen. xxxv. 22.); yet the children of thefe inherited the land of Canaan equally with the children of the former.

I confefs myself not mafter enough of the fubject to define exactly the difference

-a concu פילגש a teife, and אשה between

bine, in all refpects; neither have I been fortunate enough to meet with so precife a definition in any author, as to warrant a * determination of the queftion. This is

*The authors of the Univ. Hift. (vol. iii. p. 141.) call the wives of the first rank, and the w wives of the fecond rank;" which laft, fay they, "though moft verfions render by the word concubines, "harlots, and profitutes, yet in none of thofe places

of fcripture where the word is ufed, which are

about thirty-fix in number, is any fuch finifter "fenfe implied." However, they state a two-fold difference between thefe and the wives of the first rank. "First-that the latter were taken with the ufual ce"remonies, and the former without. Secondly, with * respect to their authority, and the honour paid to "them and their children."

This is very clear, that the facred tongue, made ufe of by the Holy Ghoft in the fcriptures, makes diftinctions, which amount to demonftration of there being no foundation for confounding the ba with whores or harlots. The words and waba are fometimes used for the fame perfon. See Gen. XXV. 1. 6. (xxx. 4. with xxxv. 22.); but wab and M are never thus ufed.

Calafio defines wab as-Ancilla unita & addiɛta vira abfque fcriptura, i. e. contractu detali & fponfali

bus.

is certain, no mark of difapprobation is fet upon concubinage in the facred fcriptures, though they speak fo feverely against whoredom; which, to me, is an evident and conclufive proof, that there is fome fpecific difference between them. Indeed we find the owner of the concubine called her huf band; the his wife. So the text, Judges xix. 1. a certain Levite took to him abo

uxorem pellicem. Mont.; a wife concubine: and in verfe 3. he is called 'N vir ejus. Mont.; her husband, as we tranflate it. So the Fr. of D. Martin, fon mari. The damfel's father is called, ver. 4. his (the Levite's) inn father-in-law; and ver. 5. the Levite is called nn bis (the damfel's father's) fon-in-law; each of these relations by marriage being expreffed by the word inn. Surely this affords a conclufive proof, that the concubines, in thofe days, were in fome fenfe wives; but, in what sense, it may be very difficult to determine exactly. The root inn fignifies to contract affinity by marriage. Gen. xxxiv. 9. Josh. xxiii. 12. In this laft paffage, the LXX render it by έπιγαμίας παιξιν, to make marriages. So that though we cannot state the precife difference between the wife and

bus.

"An handmaid united and devoted to a man, or husband, without writing-i. e. without any contract for dower or efpoufals."

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the concubine in every particular, yet there ✓ was too great a fimilarity between them, not to be both widely different from what we call a kept mistress, in whom the man claims not a jot more property, than in an horse hired for a day's journey, nor,is more care or concern ufually taken about them, when once the fancy or humour of the keeper leads him to refolve upon dif miffion.

The remedy of this mischief depends on that of the others which have been mentioned; all muft ftand or fall together.

H

CHAP.

1

I

CHA P. III.

Of ADULTERY.

COME now to confider an offence against the pofitive precepts of GOD, which is of the moft malignant kind, that of commerce between the Jexes, where the woman is the wife, confequently the inviolable and unalienable property of another man.

This is truly and properly adultery, and described in the feventh commandment by a word, which, throughout the whole Hebrew fcriptures, is confined to that fingle idea. Hence it is, that it is used, in a figurative fenfe, to denote the turning from God to the worship of idols. GoD calls himself the husband of His church; the church is reprefented under the figure of a spouse or wife; therefore, apoftatizing from JEHOVAH to idols, is called, in a fpiritual fenfe, adultery, If. liv. 5. * Thy

Maker

The words in the original are Twy Thy in the plural number, thy husbands, thy makers; then follows, Jehovah Sabaoth is HIS name. Surely here, as in Eccl. xii. 1. and in many other paffages, the careful reader muft fee a plurality of perfons in Jehovah

openly

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