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
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
by any contrary examples to those Laws we must inquire for our pattern and rule not what either this or that Saint hath done but what the LORD hath revealed and enjoyned in this word and hath either commanded or forbidden Christ calls us to the first Institution in Paradise not to what the Patriarchs did who by being conversant with the Pagans were in divers matters corrupted with their errours and vices whereby they also corrupted this holy Ordinance of lawful marriage in particular by their illegal copulations in several instances besides what there might be further in that of extraordinary either Typical or other dispensation under the administration of Grace neither doth Christ refer the determination of this case to the toleration granted in Moses's time because of the hardness of the heart of the Israelites Malachi being one of the last Prophets under the Old Testament administration let it now be considered what Testimony he doth bring in towards the true stating of this case as to the matter of right He doth put together several Arguments all which do witness against Polygamy or Divorce Jehovah Aelohim in the first Institution of holy marriage did make one he brought and joyned together but one Adam and one Eve into and in this honourable state of conjugal conjunction when yet all other spirits were his also when there was an abundance of the spirit in him the Prophet doth refer to the Primitive Creation of man and woman and to the Original Ordaining of lawful Matrimony between two one man and one woman when yet there was no want of Spirit in the Creator which he could have breathed into many but he afformed but one Eve into a Wife for Adam Hence comes the excelling Seed a Seed of Aelohim other Seed is not issue generation or off-spring worthy of so glorious a Maker when it is begotten and brought forth of promiscuous and of wandring lust by nefarious copulation so that by instinct of Nature such so born of Polygamy or of divorce have a mark of contempt put upon them the LORD seeks an holy Seed a Seed of Aelohim a Seed of Acceptation with him a Seed whom he will bless which in those other ways would not neither could be so expected for this cause therefore made he one not ten or twenty or an hundred or a thousand for one man at once no more but one Adam and one Eve were to be Matrimonized into one flesh thus was the primitive Law of lawful coupling had Jehovah's will been such he could have brought more women to one Adam yet one Eve must be the Mother of all living of all mankind descending from her Loyns he could have inspired more women Power was not wanting but his holy righteous Will and Pleasure was not to have many Wives joyned at one and the same time to one and the same man Further Jehovah is a witness of the Matrimonial Promise made in his presence with invocation of his Name Lawful Matrimony rightfully contracted is the Covenant of Aelohim he is Surety on both sides undertaker for both recording the contract and testifying against the violation of it ranking Ploygamists amongst the Adulterers he is ready to bring in evidence against and to execute judgements upon Marriage-breakers Covenant-violaters of the conjugal Promise such are treacherous and unfaithful who do divorce and put away one and take another or who take one to another and do multiply Wives Jehovah's Name was interposed in the first Marriage the very companionship and confederateship of the first Wife doth confirm this Truth The weightiness of the forementioned Reason the Holiness of the intent the greatness of the end why but one woman for one man doth inforce this even that he might seek a Seed of Aelohim such a Seed would he find an holy Posterity born in lawful Wedlock in chaste conjunction according to his Ordination and Institution all other Seed is illegitimate Seed perverting of the Order and Ordinance of holy Marriage and therefore he doth brand such Seed with disgrace Observe further what a solemn strict charge the LORD here doth give unto his people bidding them to take good heed unto their Spirit in this Matter once and a second time to look well to it as they would answer it at that last day of Judgement It is as much as your Souls and your Salvation is worth now that you are brought under the conviction of your guilt though the word be in the Passive Voice be thou kept yet the force and use of it hath somewhat in it reciprocal and reflex It will be a vanity here in any to pretend a law for Divorce for the putting away of a lawful Wife For AElohim doth hate such putting away the very word and phrase of it relating to the present matter is odious to him and the words of that permission by Moses which are a consequent disgrace following upon a foregoing Transgression do imply and intimate it and Christ doth plead against it It is violence and injuriousness done to the Wife and to the Marriage-covenant and unto Jehovah's Law do not think to cloak and to cover it with such palliation by Moses's sufferance of it in your hard hearted Forefathers it is an heinous crime the place doth speak of the matter of Fact what was done not of the matter of Right what ought to be done For Pollution is said to follow upon it Jehovah doth threaten not to accept of the persons or services of such Polygamists and Divorcers The Bond of Mattimony is perpetual and indissolvable till death sancited and established by the infallible authority of the unchangeable Jehovah The Wife is the one half part of the man and he cannot lawfully have any more half parts at one and the same time it is against both Scripture and Nature The Prophet Malachi doth prosecute his argumentation from the nearness of Christ's coming in the flesh in that day though Aelohim have hitherto tolerated your evil manners yet now the nearer you are come to the New Testament glorious ministration of Grace it behoves you to conform the more to the commands of the LORD Jesus Christ and so it doth under the present providence much concern the people of this age to abstain from the like provocations now that Christ is about to appear the second time without sin unto Salvation Otherwise the LORD will avenge himself on those who do abuse his long-suffering God doth not therefore approve though he did a while forbear the execution of vengeance upon every Polygamist and Divorcer their murmuring contradicting words did even tire and weary Jehovah Let the Reader now collate and compare the New Testament and observe the well concordant harmony and agreeing oneness of this with the old Those right words of Christ are very forcible Whosoever putteth away his wife except it be for fornication in which case it was to be death and marrieth
another the former being alive committeth adultery and he who marrieth her so put way committeth adultery so that it seems evident that for a man to marry another the former being alive is adultery and how could putting away of one be pretended if marrying of many were warranted The conjunction of a Man with his Wife is the highest and chiefest conjunction it is above and beyond and doth exceed and excel the conjunction of Parents and of Children with each other which yet has a very close tie by the bond of Nature yet must this yield to the former so that conjugal conjunction is by much the nearer and greater and this is the Reason of the highest and closest conjunction that it be individuous such as may not be divided or cut in pieces whilst both remain alive it is a being glewed together into one it is not said simply the man and the woman shall cleave or be glewed but in composition and conjunction they shall cleave unto or adheringly be glewed together unto each other which is one great end of their Marriage Union and Conjunction and their conjugal communion and fellowship which words seeing they do not go before but do follow that which Christ had said from the beginning of the Creation God made them Male and Female for this cause shall a man leave his Father and Mother and shall cleave to his Wife it must therefore of necessity obtain that force which the Reason of the sequel doth express and require that therefore which went before that God made but one woman to be a Wife at one and the same time to one man the consequent reason doth require that the conjunction of two only of one man and of one woman be understood for thus is it brought in illatively or by way of causal rational inference It is against Nature to abscind or to cut off one part from another where the two parts make one for this is the Nature of two parts that from the union of them both together the health and safety of the whole doth depend it is not a promiscuous conjunction of many but of two only between themselves so that Christ's reasoning is strongly and clearly convincing inferring the perpetual unlawfulness of putting away from the nearness of Union between the two married persons only one man and one woman together Christ did not make or prescribe any new Law in this case but he doth revive those material causes which the Jews had wrested and wryed perverted crookned quite off from and contrary to the primeve Rule and he doth reduce and he doth call back those Marriage cases to the first Institution From the beginning of the Creation saith he it was not so as you have corrupted it and from that first ordination he skilfully proveth and sheweth that holy Marriage is the lawful conjunction of but two only one man and one woman between two such he appointed the conjugal Union he did not say the man shall glewedly cleave to his Wives in the plural but to his Wife in the singular number that particular Eve whom he himself had built and formed and brought and joyned to the man Adam that which to them was thus only said and they shall be in one flesh is by way of additional explication declared in the New Testament by Christ to have this meaning and they two shall be unto one flesh Christ doth refer that expression in Genesis they two or both of them were naked unto the foregoing sentence and they two shall be unto one flesh and for the greater emphasis sake he doth add the Article they two or these same two and doth repeat it therefore they are no more two but one flesh that therefore which doth follow upon this what God hath joyned the word what doth touch or concern these two one man and one woman If the Jews do object that the practice was anciently otherwise among the Fathers which Moses himself did afterwards tolerate Christ doth answer to this from the beginning of the creation it was not so contrary examples of men ought not to prescribe to the primitive Institution by the adored Almighties However the God of patience did bear with some things for a time which were dissentaneous from the first Institution yet now Christ hath restored them to their primitive order however somewhat was indulged to the peoples perverse froward manners a while yet Christ doth bring men back to the first declared determined leading commanding Will of God unto that which first and in it self in its own nature was pleasing and acceptable to him and unto this all his Marriage-Offices and Cases must be referred that an end may be put unto all strifes of disputation about them It is emphatical and very significant which Christ doth here say from the beginning that is to say then at the first Creation when Jehovah Aelohim did accommodate his Institutes these Matrimonial appointments not to the depraved judgements and corrupt affections of lustful men but according to the very true Nature of what is just equal and right then God made this conjugal Union and Conjunction to be only between two one man and one woman which is also judged to be the meaning of those words and he said referring them to the Creator of Adam and of Eve and to the Instituter of Marriage the Lawgiver himself saying so not Adam for although Adam may seem to fix and to establish the Law because what he did was by the afflation inspiring and instinct of the Spirit of God yet God himself was he to whom the Authority and Right did belong and he was the Author of this Institution and Law and the Speaker of these words it was Jehovah's Law by the Ministery of Adam There were but two yoke-fellows conjoyned at the first not more Eves to one Adam nor more Adams to one Eve and the same reason still holds for all their Posterity the whole race of Mankind God yoked one man and one woman together they are but two that can fitly and well yoke together they are to draw heavenward together that they may be Heirs together of the Grace of Life and their prayers may not be hindered thus it was appointed by Christ the Head-Captain of all the Hosts of his Creation he conjugated one man and one woman by inviolable Ordination by the way of Creation For this cause or for the sake of this here is the force of Christ's argument therefore these two have the Reason of Parts to put them or divorce them asunder one from another is very wicked an heinous crime and besides Nature for this is the reason the consideration the cause the state the order the frame the nature of two parts that the whole doth depend upon their mutual Union He at the first created Male and Female and gave but one Eve to one Adam therefore from the beginning he appointed Monogamy between two married ones by an Union undissolveable