СНАР. І.

Of MARRIAGE as a Divine Inflitution.

W upon the earth, male

HEN the great and all-wife Creator

und formed

man

and female, He bleffed them, and faid unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth. Gen. i. 28. This command was to be fulfilled in a way of God's own appointment; that is to fay, by the union of the man and woman in perfonal knowledge of each other. This is the only † marriage-ordinance which we find revealed in the facred fcriptures. Wherever this union fhould come to pass, though two distinct and independent perfons before, they now were to become as one. They shall be one flesh, Gen. ii. 24. and fo

*

By this expreffion, I would be understood to mean, that by which the parties become one flesh in GOD's fight, fo as not to be put afunder. See Matth. xix. 5, 6.

* N -as one flesh-is aapna μlav, Gr. Test. The Hebrew prefixed, hath often this fenfe. See Jofh. vii. 5. Lam. i. 17. So the Greek prepofitions, which anfwers to it. Compare 2 Sam. vii. 14. with Heb. i. 5. where the and 5 of the Old Teftament, are rendered by is alepa and is útov in the New Teftament; and clearly evince the names of Father and Son to be œconomical names of office in the covenant of redemption, not defcriptive of an inferiority and fubordination in the perfons of the GODHEAD. Compare Luke i. 35.

Alfo with, and a noun following, denotes fome change of condition, ftate, or quality, and fignifies -to become. Gen. ii. 7. 24. xvii. 4. Exod. iv. 4. & al. freq.

indiffolubly

indiffolubly one, as to be infeparable. What God bath joined together, let not man put asunder. Matt. xix. 6.

That this oneness arose from this act of union, and from the command confequent upon it, that they should be one flesh, is evident from the Apostle's reafoning, 1 Cor. vi. 15, 16. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of CHRIST? Shall I then take the members of CHRIST, and make them the members of anbarlot? God forbid! What, know ye not that he that is JOINED to an harlot is ONE BODY? for two, faith he, shall be ONE

FLESH.

This question of the Apostle's-Know ye not that he that is joined to an harlot is one body? and what follows, being taken together, have a plain reference to what Adam faid, Gen. ii. 24. and feems very fully to determine, not only the ftrictnefs of the marriage-union, but that which constitutes it in the fight of God. In all which there is not the least hint, or most distant allufion, to any outward rite or ceremony administered by any perfon whatsoever; but the whole is made to reft fimply and only in the

* πορν, from πέρνημι, or περναω, to fell. A whore, a woman who prostitutes her body for gain. So the Latin meretrix is from mercor, to earn, get money; and our English word whore, from the German huren (Dutch bueren) to hire. Thus Ovid. lib. i. eleg. 19.

Stat meretrix certo cuivis mercabilis ære,
Et miferas juffo corpore quarit opes.

See Parkhurst's Gr. Lex.

perfonal

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perfonal union of the man and woman. It is this alone which, according to the Apoftle, makes them one flesh.

If

+ It may be prefumed, that in what Adam faid, Gen. ii. 23. he had an immediate reference to her formation out of a part of himself; but that there was also an allufion to the perfonal union of the male and female, in what he says, ver. 24. is clearly proved by the Apostle's argument, 1 Cor. vi. 16; otherwife his citing this paffage of Gen. ii. 24. would have been nothing to the purpose to fhew that this makes them one flesh. The Hebrew up is rendered by the LXX, ПРOMKOAΛΗΘΗΣΕΤΑΙ, προς την γυναίκα ἀur, in Matt. xix. 5. ΠΡΟΣΚΟΛΛΗΘΗΣΕΤΑΙ τη γυναικι ἀν]s. Let the reader compare all this with the Apoftle's ὁ ΚΟΛΛΩΜΕΝΟΣ Τῇ

opy, and it will be very eafy to fee that the fame idea runs through the whole; which is, that those who are thus joined, are one body, and pronounced by GOD-one flesh. This will appear ftill the more evidently, if we confider OUR LORD's expreffion, as represented by the Evangelift, Matt. xix. 6. where he uses the word ETNEZETZEN, hath joined, or yoked together, as the effect of the caufse expreffied by Προσκολληθήσεται. All this will appear ftill more evidently, if, with the accurate Ar. Mont. we tranflate a pan, & adhærebit IN UXORE SUA.

A very candid critic on Thelyphthora, afks," how the "above idea (of noλawμevos) is reconcileable with the "context, in which the fame word is applied to the Lord σε Ὁ κολλώμενος τω κυρίω, He that is JOINED to the Lord," &c.? It is a pleasure to me to give a candid question as candid an answer.

The idea contended for, where xoλλáμevo, is made use of as denoting the union of a man with an harlot, cannot be the fame with that where it denotes the union of the believer in one fpirit with the Lord: the one is evidently a carnal idea, the other as evidently fpiritual; yet the marriageunion is emblematical of the fpiritual union between CHRIST and the believer, as to the ftrictness and indiffolubility of the union itself, and many other particulars, which the reader may find, Eph. v. 22-33. where (v. 31.) the Apoftle quotes Gen. ii. 24. and exprefsly affimilates it to the union of CHRIST with the church, v. 32. Thus

are

If the licentious and temporary union with an harlot, makes a man to become one body, and one flesh with her, we may fuppofe that the fin of fornication receives no small share of its malignity, from the abuse thereby committed of the ordinance of marriage as established by GOD: as entering into it without any intention of abiding by it, but merely to gratify a tranfient luft, and that with a woman who departs from one to another, as gain or evil defire may lead her. lead her. Neverthelefs the Apoftle, on the authority of Gen. ii. 24. fays, that he that is JOINED to an harlot, is one body, and one flesh with her, by being engaged in that ordinance, of which these things are declared, in the paffage referred to, to be the inevitable confequences.

From what has been faid, it appears, that marriage, as inftituted of GOD, fimply confifts (as to the effence of it) in the union of the man and woman as one body; for which

are earthly things made ufe of to teach us heavenly truths; and indeed in this dark and imperfect ftate of mortality, this is the only way by which we can become acquainted with them; they are therefore made use of for this gracious purpose, throughout the whole Bible.

I

The Apostle is fhewing, in this place of 1 Cor. vi. the horrid inconfiftency of believers, who, in a spiritual sense, are joined to the Lord, (compare John xv. 5.) and become one fpirit with him, (fo that their very bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost, ver. 19.) taking those bodies from the fanctified ufe (fee 1 Theff. iv. 4, 5.) to which they ought to be dedicated, and joining them in carnal commerce with an harlot, by which they become one body, and of course one flesh, with her.-This is not glorifying GOD in their bodies, and in their spirit, &c. ver. 20. but a profanation and defilement of both.

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plain

plain and evident reafon, no outward forms or ceremonies of man's invention, can add to or diminish from the effects of this union in the fight of God. What ends these things may serve, as to civil purposes, I shall not difpute: but I cannot fuppofe that the *matrimonial

Our marriage-ceremony, or form of folemnization of matrimony, was fettled by Archbishop Cranmer, and twelve others, in the reign of Ed. VI. i. e. about 232 years ago, or 1548 years after the canon of fcripture was clofed, and is certainly the method by which the civil contract is established among us, provided it be adminif tered agreeably to a fubfequent act of parliament (26 G. II. c. 33.); but how far muft the mind be gone in superftition and prejudice, to fuppofe, that a human ceremony can controul or alter the fixed and determinate laws of Heaven, or have the least influence on what does or does not make the parties one flesh in God's fight! Grot. de Jur. lib. ii. c. 5. § 8. faith-Conjugium naturaliter effe exiftimamus talem cohabitationem maris cum femina, quæ feminam conftituat quafi fub oculis & cuftodia maris. Nam tale confortium & in mutis animantibus quibufdam videre eft. In homine vero, qua animans est utens ratione, ad hoc acceffit fides, qua fe femina mari obftringit. Nec aliud, ut conjugium fubfiftat, natura videtur requirere.

We account marriage to be naturally fuch a cohabitation of the male with the female, as may place the female, as it were, under the eye and cuftody of the male; for fuch a fellowship [or intercourfe] is to be seen among certain brute animals. But as to man, as he is an animal having the ufe of reafon, to this (natural conjunction) has acceded a folemn contract, by which the female binds herfelf to the male. Nor does nature feem to require any thing elfe for the fubfiftence of marriage.

Gronovius notes on part of the above paffage, as follows, viz.

Cuftodia maris.] Videtur addendum, procreationis, & mutui auxilii caufa.

The

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