fin and shame with a fum of money. Whatever be the cause, moft certain it is, that the crime of adultery daily increases amongst us, infomuch, that one would think many of the British ladies, once famed for their modefty, chastity, and fobriety, either never red their Bibles at all, or elfe only that edition of it, which was printed by the company of Stationers, in the reign of Charles the First (and for which Archbishop Laud fined them feverely in the ftar-chamber) wherein they printed the feventh commandment without the word not, so that it stood, Thou shalt commit adultery.

But if in reading the Hebrew Bible we reftrain the word adultery in the feventh commandment, to the married woman only, and to the man who defiles her, do we not leave the man, who, having one wife, takes another, out of its reach? I answer-It

is

was originally derived from the doctrine of indulgences; concerning which, Tetzel and his affociates, when defcribing the benefit of indulgences, and the neceffity of purchafing them, a little before the Reformation, thus exprefs themfelves:-"The efficacy of indul"gencies is fo great, that the moft heinous fins,

even if one fhould violate the mother of GOD, "would be remitted and expiated by them, and the "perfon freed both from punishment and guilt. For "twelve-pence you may redeem the foul of your fa"ther out of purgatory."

*The wife, holy, uniform, and connected scheme of God's moral government, with respect to the com

merce

is not for us to judge in this matter, but by the rule of GOD's word; if that brings fuch a cafe within the reach of the feventh commandment, or of any one interpretation of it which is to be found in the book of that law, then fuch a man is condemned if otherwife, he is free For where there is no law, there is no tranfgref fion. Rom. iv. 15. And fin is not imputed (Enλoyital, reckoned, charged, brought to account) where there is no law. Rom. v. 13.

By the book of the law, I mean the pentateuch, or five books of Mofes, delivered by GOD himself to that eminent fervant

*

merce of the fexes, has two principal ends in view. The one, to prevent all confufion of iffue-the other, to fecure the female fex from that which muft lead to it. Therefore a woman's going from one man to another is in all cafes made a capital offence, and punishable with death. On the other hand, no man could take a woman and then for fake her. This, being apparently the fource of adultery and proftitution, is pofitively forbidden. The law which forbids this, though conceived in general terms, without any limitation or exception, muft, in fome cafes, fail of the provifion it has made for the above purposes, without the allowance of polygamy; as, where the man taking the woman was married before. It is therefore neceffary for us to enter deeply into this question ; which I fhall endeavour in the next chapter, not on the precarious footing of popular prejudice and vulgar opinion, concluding that we are wifer than the inhabitants of more extenfive parts of the globe, but on the firm bafis of divine revelation, concluding that GoD is wifer than man.

Matt. v. 33.

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and

and prophet of the MOST HIGH, and by him committed to writing, and delivered to the people. To the book of this law the great apoftle of the Gentiles evidently refers, Gal. iii. 10. where he fays, Curfed is every one, that continueth not in all things which, are written in the BOOK OF THE LAW, to do them. Our LORD's forerunner, John the Baptift, declared the law was given by Mofes, John i. 17. There is therefore no law but that which was given by GoD to Mofes, nor was any new law enacted after the canon of the Pentateuch was closed by the death of Mofes. The diftinction and difference of moral good and evil were then unalterably fixed, and the nature of both invariably to remain the fame. What God doeth, it shall be for ever; nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it that men should fear before Him, Eccl. iii. 14.

As I am fully perfuaded, on the most mature deliberation, that taking from God's law in fome points, and adding to it in others, are the chief caufes of the evil complained of, with regard to the ruin of one fex, by the luft, cruelty, treachery, and perfidy of the other; I fhall examine the fubject before us the more freely: not fuppofing that polygamy, being made felony by that fanguinary ftatute 1 Jac. I. c. 11. is therefore finful in the fight of GOD, any

more

more than that adultery is innocent before Him, or one jot the more fo, because our ftatute-book has ordained no punishment for it whatsoever. Nor does its being looked upon with deteftation and abhorrence in this part of the world, any more prove the unlawfulness of polygamy in the fight of GOD, than the approbation and practice of it in other more extenfive parts of the globe, can prove its lawfulness. * All must stand or fall by GoD's own revelation of His own will, in His own law. To fuppofe that His law can be different in different parts of the world, which he bath

* The pride and felf-importance, so natural to fallen man, are the true reasons why people of all climes and countries are apt to imagine themfelves in the right, and all others who differ from them in the wrong. The Turk defpifes the Chriftian because he is not a polygamist, the Chriftian in his turn abhors the Turk because he is-what fhall decide between them? Custom, ufage, prejudice of education, national belief, municipal laws-have as much to plead on one fide as on the other: these may say—

Non noftrum inter vos tantas componere lites.

The only decifive appeal which can be made, muft be to the Hebrew fcriptures, unless we are to fuppofe that the Great Moral Governor of the universe had no mind or will concerning the matter, or that he left his church and people in the dark for four thou-, fand years together, touching an affair of such infinite confequence. As for imagining that he left the adjuftment of marriage to the days of the New Teftament (which is a popular notion amongst us) having fuffered

F 4

bath made, and upholds with the word of His power; or that His one uniform jurisdiction doth not equally and invariably extend over all His reasonable creatures; is to think of Him as the poor idolatrous, ignorant Syrians did-The LORD is God of the bills, but he is not the God of the vallies. 1 Kings xx. 28.

Near akin to this, is the fuppofition that God can change his mind, and be of one mind in the Old Testament, and of another in the New Testament; if so, He may now have changed His mind again, and neither of thefe books contain a fingle fyllable which can be depended upon; fo that after all the pains we can take to acquaint ourselves with the divine mind and will, we may be as utter strangers to them as the favages in America are.-But when we fearch the indelible records of truth, we find that the attribute of unchangeableness fhines,

fuffered the Jews to live in ignorance and error concerning it for fo many preceding ages-this is as falfe in point of fact, as if it were faid, that they lived without any revelation at all. As furely as the writings of Mofes contain the law of GOD, fo furely was the law of marriage adjufted and fettled in the minutest particular. Among other reafons why this muft neceffarily have been the cafe, is that very conclusive one, which arifes from the dependence of the lawfulnefs of the if on the lawfulness of the marriage, and of courfe the prefervation of true genealogy throughout the whole Jewish difpenfation; a matter in which our deareft and eternal intereft is concerned.