fervices over the parties, these cannot add to, nor diminish from their union before God, which, as in His fight, is created by the Almighty fiat-they shall be one flesh. This furely must be as evident, from the whole tenor of the fcripture, as that the pouring water on a perfon, or dipping him in water, in the name of the Blessed Trinity, is the complete divine ordinance of baptifm, though no act is done, or word faid, befides.

There are no where in the Hebrew of the Old Testament, or Greek of the New Teftament, any specific names for married perfons, fuch as the English words bufband and wife -but and n man and woman-So Avup and youn, which also fignify perfons of the male or female sex in general; but when coupled with pronouns poffeffive, as w ber man-es his woman. Ὁ ̓ανηρ σου, thy man- yuvy EαUT8, his woman, they then denote the marriage-relation: but how that relation is entered into, fo as to become indiffoluble on both fides, hath already been shewn; to which we may add some observations on the word by which we tranflate husband, married. See Gen. xx. 3. bya mhyɔ maritata marito. Mont. ; literally, according to our idiom, married to an husband. Ifa. lxii. 4. byan 78781 & terra tua erit maritata. Mont.; and thy land fhall be married. Now by fignifies to have, or take poffeffion, or authority over, as a participal noun-O 'ex-he who bath.

Hence

Hence it fignifies to marry, to take poffeffion of a woman, to have her, as we say. See Deut. xxiv. 1. xxi. 13. In Niph, to be married, taken poffeffion of as a wife. Ifa. lxii. 4. with liv. 1. See Parkhurft's Heb. Lex. y. So Calafio.

·66

Significat dominium, magifterium, domi"natus eft, habuit, poffedit ut dominus, "maritus fuit, rem habuit cum muliere.' "It fignifies dominion, the place or office "of a mafter or governor. "As a verb, "he governed, had, possessed, as a + lord or "mafter, he was married, or, had to do with a woman." By all which, taken together, it appears that this last circumftance is that which brings her into the poffeffion, and reduces her under the dominion of the man, according to that of Gen. iii. 16. latter part. See Deut. xxii. 29, where it is expreffed by

86

Compreffit eam. Mont.; He hath bumbled ber. English translation. Surely this affords an additional and conclufive proof, that a man's taking poffeffion of a woman in the fense above-mentioned, is in the language of fcripture marrying her, or making her n bis woman.

"

This appears alfo from Deut. xxiv. 1, where the word by, according to Pagninus, is used in this fenfe

66

Our English word husband hath this idea, according to Johnson- Hofsband, mafter, Danish; from house and bonda, Runic, a mafter." See Dict.

+ The husband is called, Exod. xxi. 3. mun bya mudieris dominus, Mont. Lord of a woman, Maritus. marg.

כי

כי יקח איש אשה ובעלה

eâ cum coierit & fæminam vir ceperit fi. Pagninus. Mont. Marg.

Here the taking the woman, and lying with ber, moft clearly appears to make her the man's wife, as the rest of the verse and the three following demonftrably fhew.

Bishop Patrick, on this place, obferves, that "the Hebrew Doctors make a difference "between these two: understanding by taking a wife, efpoufing her to be his wife, "and by marrying her, his completing the "contract by lying with her." The former

66

.בעלה the latter by יקח fignified by

.שגל .voc

There is another word which denotes a wife, viz. -from the root -which in Kal. fignifies to lie carnally with a woman. See Deut. xxviii. 30. alfo Pf. xlv. 9. Neh. ii. 6. in both which latter places we have tranflated it Queen; but this it does not fignify, in any other sense, but as the King's wife. Ar. Mont. renders it by conjunx-a yoke-fellow, or wife; GuynaTos-Aquila. See that learned and useful work, Parkhurft's Heb. & Eng. Lex. fub

I should now proceed to confider marriage, or matrimony as it is called, in another point of view, namely under civil confiderations, and, as fuch, an object of human laws: but before this can be done in a proper manner, fome incidental points must be fully underftood and difcuffed. Therefore the fubject of matrimony, as a civil contract controulable. by buman legiflature, must be deferred for a season.

CHAP.

CHA P. II.

Of WHOREDOM and FORNICATION.

the

of all, was pleased to ordain and eftablish the means by which His creatures were to increase and multiply, and replenish the earth, in which primary command His reafonable creatures were equally interested with the brute part of the creation, and in fome refpects, if we confider this world as connected with another, infinitely more, and therefore the command was particularly addreffed to them, Gen. i. 28.—it could not be but that the act, whereby mankind was to be propagated, must be totally innocent in itself: otherwife it could not have been confiftent with the state † of inno

cence

+ We are told, Gen. i. 31. that GOD faw every thing that He had made, and behold it was TN very good. We cannot, confiftently with this account of things, doubt that every endowment of the human nature, whether of body or mind, came under this description; confequently, that thofe defires which were neceffary to lead man to the propagation and continuance of his fpecies, were without any evil whatfoever. evil whatfoever. We cannot fufficiently abhor the folly and blafphemy of Jerome and fome others, who say, that " Adam's defire to know his "wife, was the firft fin which made GOD repent that "He had made man, and was the occafion of turning him "out of Paradife." Coitûs præmium mors-fays Jerome contr. Jovinian.

No inconfiderable difficulty awaited this scheme, which arofe from the queftion-"How then was the world to "be peopled, if not by natural generation?" But this was eafily folved, by imagining that "the earth would "have been fupplied with men, as the heavens are with 66 angels,

cence in which man was when marriage was firft ordained. But that this act, innocent in itself as any other function of the body, might be kept within due bounds of order and decency, and all confufion and diforder avoided; God enacted certain † pofitive laws for this very purpose, to confine within fuch bounds as feemed good to Himself to limit, that natural, but violent paffion, which, for the great purpose of propagating the buman fpecies, was made an infeparable adjunct to the human frame.

Those who imagine that this appetite is in itself finful, either in the defire or act, charge GOD foolishly, as if He could ordain the increase and multiplication of mankind by an að finful in itself: an abfurdity little short of blafphemy! Sin, we are told, on the most infallible authority, is the tranfgreffion of the law, 1 John iii. 4;-and where no law is, there is no tranfgreffion, Rom. iv. 15-when

angels, by the immediate creative power of God, "without the interference of any generation what"foever." See Du Pin's Eccl. Hift. Eng. Tranf. Cent. 5. P. 31, where St. Chryfoftom delivers himself to this effect.

When fuch monftrous opinions can have been maintained by thofe who, in their day, were looked upon as fathers of the church, let it warn thee, Reader, against. fearching for truth any where but in the bleffed word of GOD; dread as much to leave it for an inftant, as a blind man would dread to walk amidft pits and precipices without a guide, or a mariner to fail among rocks and fhoals without a pilot. Remember what the Pfalmift says, Pf. cxix. 105. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

+ Conjunctio maris cum fæminâ, per quam propagatur ` genus humanum, digniffima res eft legum curâ. Grot. de Verit. lib. ii. 13. The conjunction of the male with "the female, by which the human race is propagated, iş "a matter moft worthy the care of laws."

&

therefore

2