but by death or Adultery and therefore also prohibited Digamy and Polygamy there is express mention made of two only and of no more in this Marriage-conjunction one man and two or more Wives cannot be one flesh for the flesh of one is not the flesh of another and the flesh of man is divided between two or more Wives neither can this closest Union be between more than two the man cannot give himself alike unto more than unto one in this case those two who before the Matrimonial Covenant were naturally two are now in the sense of God's Law morally one conjugally one no man therefore may separate them or unjoyn or unyoke or disunite them Man is without an Article neither the Husband nor the Wife neither their civil Judge nor pleading Counseller not Moses himself not Aaron by right in case of death the man is free and in case of Adultery the guilty person when known and convicted and legally sentenced for this crime ought to be put to death Antichristian infusions and popish mixtures have much corrupted the Laws in this case in the English Government for if the woman become an adulteress and be proved so to be all and the only and the utmost remedy the wronged Husband can come at is to sue out freely a Divorce in the Spiritual Court as is suited to a corrupt heart a Divorce from Bed and from Board allowing a lustful liberty to marry another whereas this word of our LORD is express that Whosoever shall put away his wife except for fornication in which case her life ought to go for it by the holy just good Law of Christ and shall marry another the former still alive through the sinful indulgence of Humane Laws committeth adultery and who so marrieth her which is put away her former Husband still living doth commit adultery it is adultery both in the one and in the other if whilst they are both alive they take another the man another woman or the woman another man to which other Scriptures do accord The woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth but if the husband be dead she is loosed from the law of her husband So then if while her husband liveth she be marryed to another man she shall be called an adulteress that is her proper right name in this case but if her husband be dead she is free from that law so that she is no adulteress though she be married to another man she may marry to whom she will only in the LORD The Matrimonial Bond brought her under the Husband to which living Husband she is bound by the Law and she is not made empty of this obligation not set loose and free from this conjugal tye till his death for if before his death during his life time she yoke her self to another there is a Divine Oracle a direct answer given forth from the LORD himself which should be so received as from him and accordingly should Civil and Ecclesiastical Judges pronounce a sentence when such a one upon sufficient witness is accused to them and found guilty by them but whatever men do judge of it that Oracle or Answer which Christ doth return from the propitiatory covering or Mercy Seat for Christ's Judicial Laws and Sentences and Judgements according to those Laws have mercy in their design towards his Covenant People it is this her true right Name is she is an Adulteress and should be proceeded against as such The same is applicable unto the Husband if he on his part do marry another woman whilst his former Wife is still alive for the Husband is bound by the Law of Marriage as long as his Wife liveth but if his Wife be dead he is at liberty to be married to whom he will only in the LORD They are Christ's own sayings Whosoever there is no man excepted neither King nor Minister nor People shall foresakingly put away his Wife thereby seeking to unloose or to dissolve the Marriage Knot the Matrimonial Bond and marry another committeth adultery against her he doth adulterate or act adulterously in and upon her to whom he is new married and against her whom he first married whom he hath forsaken and if a woman let her be what she will Queen or any meaner woman subject shall put away her Husband hereby indeavouring to give her self a loose from the conjugal tie and be married to another she committeth Adultery the same guilt on the mans part as on the womans and on the womans part as on the mans and they cause one another to commit Adultery by this unjust Divorce and he that doth marry such a divorced woman is thereby an adulterer and she who doth marry such a divorced man is thereby an adulteress So that if Polygamists and Divorcers will stand to this Scripture-judgement it is unlawful for the man to marry another woman his former Wife being alive and also for the woman to marry another man her former Husband being alive as also for either of them to divorce the other an Article were altogether required to be put to man if any certain individual were noted Man for the Humane kind let him be what man soever he will Moses or any man not any one of all mankind has rightful Authority to dissolve that Matrimonial Bond between Husband and Wife of which Bond God himself is the Author even the head Captain of Creation when at the beginning he conjoyned but one Male and one Female the man is to continue as inseparably with his Wife as with another part of the same flesh of his own flesh God united two into one this must not be altered it ought still to continue as it was established at the first it is utterly unlawful to do otherwise the prime Law at the Creation must obtain the Marriage Union may not be violated Husband and Wife are to cherish and sustain to assist and comfort one another as if they were members of one and the same flesh and body no man that is in his right wits and sober sences ever hated his own flesh but nourisheth it he will not rend and tear his own flesh from himself Let Paul's judgement upon the case be now weighed in the Scripture-balance he was written unto about it and he doth expresly declare concerning married ones that every man is to have his own proper Wife and every woman her own proper Husband and how could this be if Polygamy were allowable and warrantable for if every man must have her that is properly his own and no other mans and as exclusive of all other women who are not so properly his own and if every woman must have him who is properly her own and no other woman as shutting out all other men who are not so properly her own then Marriage must be between one man and one woman and between two such only If one man had
solicitude and of deadly slavery To consult the Devils Oracles in doubtful cases is Apostacy from and denying of the true God and to resort for divining unto one that hath a Familiar is a seeking to and a worshipping of the Devil So is Sorcery and Necromancy where the Devil is sought unto in the form of some dead man the Devil appeared in the likeness of Samuel it was not the true Samuel but mere illusion of Satan for God had refused to answer Saul by Prophets such as Samuel was Saul is said to have died for his Transgression principally in that he sought and asked counsel of a familiar spirit Sooth-saying by the flying and noise of Birds is also condemned usually the care of persons in this case is to avoid the seeing or the hearing of such kind of ominous signs which would signifie nothing as to good or evil in themselves in this matter were it not for the consent of the observer they have no force efficacy or operativeness at all this way were it not for the superstitious conceits of the mind when it is diligently bended and intentively turned to them whereby divers things do befal divers men according to the diversity of their thoughts and imaginations Of the like Nature is divination by looking into the entrails of Beasts so did the King of Babel who consulted with Idols and looked into the Liver so is star-gazing charms mumbling of words for such an end casting of Figures for this purpose and the like There should not be any found among us that useth witchcraft or is a regarder of times or a marker of the flying of Fowls or a Sorcerer or a Charmer or that consulteth with Spirits or a Sooth-sayer or that asketh counsel of the dead To a seeking unto these the holy Spirit doth oppose a Prophet as the only lawful Minister of God to know his Will by To ascribe such a special foreknowledge or foretellingness indicated by the positure of Stars which might rule over the consciences and wills of voluntary Agents is contrary to that Soveraign Authority which the LORD doth exercise over the wills of men bowing and bending moving and directing them which way he pleaseth and therefore such a power is not to be arrogated by any mere Creatures Angels themselves whether good or bad have not such an innate Light in them as of themselves to know future particular contingents before hand neither can the intellect of man so foreknow Astrologers therefore not having their pretended prescience and prognosticating skill either by Divine Revelation or by Natural Causalities they have it by diabolical suggestion That knowledge of determinate future things which any really have by Divine Revelation is Prophesie and not Divination Such prying curiosity as has neither Scripture or Nature to bottom upon is experienced and bewrayed to be the common disease of the vain itching mind of fallen unquiet man from hence has sprung this troublesome question about Judiciary Astrologers who would bind men to fatal Stars as if the body of man were composed and fashioned according to the twelve Signs of Heaven as if the Moon had dominion in man's body under the twelve Zodiacal Constellations placing Aries in the Head and Face Taurus in the Neck and Throat Gemini in the Arms and Shoulders and from thence running through the other Signs into the other parts of the body even to the very soles of the Feet which they ascribe to Pisces Did the Authority of Christ and of his Word take more sensible hold of mens hearts they would tremble more and not dare to adventure upon those prohibited evils which the LORD hath so dreadfully threatned with such sore judgements that the soul which turneth it self unto Diviners and Prognosticators shall be cut off from the midst of his people Man or Woman when there is in them a familiar Spirit or that is a Wizard they shall be surely put to death they shall stone them with stones their bloods shall be upon them their death shall be upon their own head their own sin is the just cause of it and the Statute Law of England doth make many of those practices to be Felony which yet are commonly used in this Nation In the day when the LORD will honour himself by reviving of his Judicial Laws and by raising up of such as Josiah was a None-such for reformation in this kind to put those Laws in due execution when these evils are espied out one such Example in such an age of speculative and practical Atheism and Infidelity may be a more forcible argument with some than ten Scriptural reasons now are The certain knowledge of future particular contingents is that by which the true God is differenced distinguished from Idols The LORD doth nippingly touch and sharply check the vanity of this Art and the cheatingness of its Arrists and the ignorance and credulity of those who do yield themselves to be deluded thereby He doth sttaitly charge and sorely threaten such confident boasters of their Astrological skill In the Apostles time when the Doctrine of the Gospel did more obtain and prevail these black Arts were condemned and the Books that treated of them were burnt Those kind of evil practitioners are described by a Syriack word and so is the word in Chaldee and Samaritan too which doth designate and denote not only such Magicians as are plainly and evidently given to diabolical arts but also to such arts of Inchantment of Jugling deceiving by slight conveyance deluding the eye-sight with Legerdemain such curious illusory Arts which though to the ignorant and vulgar may seem to be otherwise yet really are wicked Artifices such are the feigned devices of Planetaries and Casters of Nativities and the Constitutions of some of the Christian Emperours have ordered that such Books of such Astrologers should be burned A large Volume might be quickly written on this subject matter but if the Word of the LORD be not submitted unto Who am I that I should think to silence these Adversaries by the force of my reasoning with them I therefore leave it with the LORD to plead his own cause in his own way in his own time If I have Instanced in some evil Arts which the Reader may apprehend do not so properly belong to Judiciary Astrology let him consider that this black Art doth spread it self wide and far and besides when I was upon this I was willing to bring in my Testimony against all that evil which sought for some protection from Judiciary Astrology and had some ways a Relation to it I now proceed to the Scripture discovery The Darkness Evening and Night were divided more generally before as to Time Place and Nature from the Light Morning and Day in their created Beings and successive courses and now they were further specially distinguished and pointed out by the Heavenly Luminaries Time was not first measured by the Sun for there was
ten or twenty an hundred or a thousand Wives for where will you set the bounds of restraint if once you allow more than one at once there could not be an equal distribution neither would there be enough to suffice for every man who cannot contain to have one and so the remedy by Marriage would not reach to all men which yet doth belong to all as the disease of of proneness to Fornication is general to all and the like inconvenience and mischief would unavoidably follow if one woman might have ten twenty an hundred or a thousand Husbands Whereas the LORD in the way of his providence doth bring forth and breed up near about an equal number of men and of women of Males and of Females in all Nations of the inhabited Earth Where there is but one Wife allowed by the LORD to one man yet even in that case there are seasons when he would have the man forbear to know his Wise by Seed of Copulation as when her monthly sickness is upon her or when the Wife is known to be with Child thereby to evidence and to manifest purity of mind and chastity of body and mortification of inordinate lusts or when for a time they consentingly so agree for higher and holier ends that they may be the better at leisure for fasting and prayer How can this be where so many Wives call upon the Husband at once and so all the year long wandring lusts in their unbounded desire are belluine and bruitish impetuous and unsatisfied how could burning be cured and how could this afford a sufficient help against temptation to uncleanness It is only one Wife at once that is the proper the legitimate Wife no other woman at that time is so and it is only one man at once that is the proper the legitimate Husband no other man at that time is so The man hath not the authority or right of his own body but the Wife and how can this interest and propriety be preserved where many women do at one and the same time challenge such a pretended Right for but one can have it at once when the man doth give his body to another Wife or to more Wives the first who is the only lawful Wife has that benevolence which is a due debt owing only to her given and derived to another or to more and so she is wronged and suffereth loss she is injuriously defrauded of her Right which her Husband doth detain or take way from her and doth dispose of it to one or more besides who have no lawful claim to it When men are so much believers and so far Christians as to tremble at the word of Jehovah Aelohim and to feel their hearts to stand in awe of it and to find their judgements and wills throughly to submit to his Authority who gave it they will then acknowledge a forceabless in these Scripture-argumentations against those two heinous crimes and scandalous sins of Polygamy and of Divorce where God hath coupled an Husband and a Wife they must so remain joyned till the same God do disâ—joyn them by death That Doctrine which our LORD Jesus Christ did preach is expresly against Divorces however a contrary practice had much and long obtained which did put the Disciples upon asking of Christ of the same matter it was so great and so weighty a cause Whatever Moses said by way of permission about giving a Writing of Divorcement and so to put away a Wife yet this was no original Saying or Precept from our LORD Christ spake otherwise As in another instance in this Nation about Usury the same Laws of men that do tolerate the vice of Usury suffering a certain sum of gain yearly for the loan of a hundred pound yet doth withal condemn it as a thing unlawful The woman is of the man and must still be subject unto him as her head what man can dispense rightfully with the subordination and subjection of the body to the head and under it or sever the head from the body to make them depart from one another till death do part them When therefore Reader thou meerest any where with any Laws in the Scriptures that do relate to divorces and puttings away of a Wife look upon them as Permissions by Moses not as Precepts from Jehovah understand me not from Jehovah as they are Divorces but only a Law by consequenr upon a supposition If they were resolved to put away a Wife then this or that was to follow upon it if the case of the blind-minded and hard-hearted Husbands were such that they would be and were divorced from their Wives when such a fould matter came to pass then the LORD appointed that if another man had married the divorced woman or if that later man were dead that then she was not to return to her former Husband because she had defiled her self by and with another man the first great cause whereof was from her first Husband who thrust her out upon this temptation the first Divorce was unjust and the second Marriage was unlawful the first Husband being still alive and sin was thereby brought upon the Land which was punishable for this guilt for not only were the guilty persons themselves the man and the women liable and obnoxious to judgement for this crime but all the inhabitants also who knew it and suffered it if they did not in their places appear against it This shameful consequent was on purpose to deter them from the other sinful Antecedent And therefore that expression in Deuteronomy before cited in the Margin should not be rendred imperatively let him write her a Bill of Divorcement and give it in her hand and send her out of his house as if Jehovah Aelohim gave his Direction and Command that this man was in Duty or by any lawful rightful allowance to deal thus with her in this case But it expresseth what the man had done and would do the three first verses of that twenty fourth Chapter do declare the hard hearted mans purpose and practice it is the fourth Verse that doth open the mind of our LORD that if the man was resolvedly set upon such a sinful course that then it was not lawful for him to take her again which doth plainly shew Jehovah's utter dislike of that illegal Divorcement they were irregular miscarriages the LORD gave no countenance to such licentious practices We do not read of any express law and direct command of Aelohim for the jealously-suspitious unhumane Husband so to deal with his Wife Aelohim in this case doth hate that word put her away the man cannot lawfully break that Covenant which the LORD was called in to witness that he made with the woman when he took her first in Marriage nothing can justly loose the Matrimonial Bond but death or a case of adultery which was a capital crime and to be punished with death by the Judges One such