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CHA P. III.

OBSERVATIONS on Chap. I. about MAR¬ RIAGE, as a DIVINE INSTITUTION.

"HAT Marriage is a Divine Institution,

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is not controverted; but it is not likely to be easily fettled about the mode, or in other words, in what it confifts. Madan fays that the very effence of marriage "fimply confifts in the union of the man "and woman as one + body:" and the nature of the union is before defined to be mere "perfonal knowledge of each other." So the Reverend Abettor of Polygamy makes marriage to consist in its folemnization, bond, and notoriety, barely in carnal knowledge; an idea at which even Libertinifm itself reddens! The author will prove for me what I have faid: "I cannot fuppofe that the "matrimonial fervice, in our church, or any "other, can make the parties more one flesh "in the fight of God, fuppofing them to "have been united," that is by carnal knowledge, "than the burial fervice can make

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"the corpfe over which it is read more dead "than it was * before." We are told that the command, “be fruitful and multiply," was to be carried into execution in "the way of God's own appointment." There is no neceffity to be reminded of this, nor does it tend any thing to the main question. But I think it worth notice, that though there is not on record any ceremonial of Adam and Eve's conjugal union, yet we are not to conclude that there was none. vious to the confummation of their marriage, God gave Eve to Adam for a wife: this conveys to me an idea of fomething formal, folemn, and notorious. If He only barely pronounced them husband and wife, the neceffity of a formulary is evidently deducible; because it was most certainly before. perfonal knowledge: befides, Infinite Wisdom cannot be fuppofed to do any thing in vain, or unworthy our imitation; therefore we fee here a fufficient apology for the folemnity of our marriage service, where the priest reprefents the Deity folemnly joining the man and woman, and without which union, agree

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able

able to the first pattern of marriage, they cannot be one flesh in the way of God's own appointment. Suppofing marriage, in all its conftituent parts, to take in what is called the confummation, confifting in perfonal knowledge; yet, at moft, it can but be called a fecondary requifite.

As I would not omit any thing very material either for or against me, fo here I will obferve, that if there is inability, incapacity, or impotency in either party to confummate, the law allows a divorce; because a great national object, population, would be otherwife loft fight of, as alfo the primary command, be fruitful and multiply." But this, though upon a fuperficial view it may feem to favour, by no means proves, what Madan advances. From a most impartial confideration of the whole matter, I am led to advance this as a luminous truth: "In"crease and multiply" is the law of God and Nature; but as God has not revealed a form, the mode by which this fhall be carried into execution, with the greatest advantage to fociety, is the rational Law of Man,

founded

founded on the firft example of the marriage ordinance. But Madan fuppofes, that if

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they (the man and the woman) have not "been united," in his way, "they are not one flesh in the fight of God by any

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tue in the words of the fervice:" Yet, after much learning, wit, and ingenuity, which he seems anxious to difsplay; after many pompous quotations to defend a favourite Hypothefis, and much dependence on human authority, which but lately had been defpifed; after a laborious argumentation, that has left the fubject darker than it was before, bewildered by his own fophiftry, he makes most unlooked for conceffions, which tumble down the whole fabric of his reasoning; or, in other words, he unsays all that he had faid before. "Some fervice ❝ or ceremony is expedient," fays § Mr. Madan, very justly, "for many good and laud"able purposes:" and alfo further obferves, that human ordinances "have excellent ufe; and herein he comprehends that of marriage. To which I readily affent, not only because. it falls in with my way of thinking, but

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because

because confonant to truth. Then, as the Divine Law affords no marriage ceremony, and as fome ceremony or fervice is expedient, as is admitted, for many good purposes, such as the public recognition of the mutual engagements of the parties, tracing genealogies, fettling questions about inheritances, and many other laudable ends of fociety and religion, in a fecurity of the duties of marriage, and the education of youth; we ought to fubmit to the ordinance of man for the Lord's fake, (1 Peter, ii. 13.) And this humble demeanour is more incumbent ftill upon us, if that ordinance is not repugnant to, or inconfiftent with, the law of God. Among all civilized nations, antient and modern, fome rites and ceremonies have always been used in marriage; this univerfality points to the antiquity, and the neceffity of them.

BEFORE I Conclude this chapter, I have to observe that marriage is a contract of a civil and religious nature, publicly recognized, between a man and a woman, by which they folemnly engage to live together

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