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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	church_n	england_n	reform_a	3,931	5	9.9167	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34208	Concubinage and poligamy disprov'd, or, The divine institution of marriage betwixt one man, and one woman only, asserted in answer to a book, writ by John Butler, B.D. for which he was presented as follows : We the grand jury, sworn to enquire for the body of the city of London, on Wednesday, the first day of December, 1697, present one John Butler, for writing and publishing a wicked pamphlet : wherein he maintains concubinage to be lawful, and which may prove very destructive to divers families, if not timely suppress'd.		1698 (1698)	Wing C5714; ESTC R1558	49,472	113

be true You must also know that the Imperial Laws condemn Poligamy Lib. 9. Tit. 9. Leg. 18. Eum qui habet duas Uxores comitatur Infamia i. e. He is counted infamous that hath two Wives Dioclesian made a Law likewise against having of two Wives Cod. Lib. 5. Tit. 5. Leg. 2 And the Christian Emperors Theodosius Arcadius and Honorius would not suffer the Jews that lived in the Roman Empire to have many Wives as may be seen by their Laws Cod. de judaei Leg. So unjustly have you appealed to the Practice of the Antient Christians either Magistrates or Ministers as Patrons of Concubinage You know likewise that St. Hierome condemns Lamech as the first Qui unam costam distraxit in duas who made two Ribs of one Nor can it be unknown to you that Clergy-men committing Adultery were for ever removed from their Ministery Distinct 81. C. 11 12. That the Ancyran Synod imposed Seven Years Pennance upon the Adulterer and that the Council of Neocaesarea Decreed that if a Minister's Wife fell into Adultery he should dismiss her or else leave his Ministry and by the Eliberine Council he was denied for ever the Communion of the Church if he did not dismiss her and that it was likewise Decreed that the Adulterer should not be suffer'd to Marry with the Adultress yet you own that you had just Cause to suspect your Wife and can prove several suspicious Tokens of h●r Vnfaithfulness p. 18. and yet never offer'd to put her away And she accuses you of committing Adultery with her Maid before she left you and yet you took your Maid into her Bed without any Application either to Church or State notwithstanding the depending Controversies betwixt you and your Wife These are suspicious Tokens of an Inordinate Love for which had you but made use of the first and second Remedies prescribed by the Heathens viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abstinence and Time you had been in no danger of the third Remedy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Halter though it had been better you should have had a Mill-stone hang'd about your Neck and been thrown into the middle of the Sea than to have given such Offence as you have done to the Church of God Nor can you be ignorant neither that many satisfying Answers have been given to your Arguments from the Polygamy of the Patriarchs and Jews As 1. That if there had been any Relaxation of the Law of Monogamy instituted by God in Paradice it would have been by a written Law and Express Scripture 2. That if this had been allowed for Procreation it had been most Necessary to be granted unto Adam in the beginning of the World and to Noah in reviving and re-peopling the World And 3. That Polygamy or marrying of many Wives rendered Solomon unfit for Procreation as is evident by his small Posterity And 4. That the Law of Monogamy being revived by Christ and his Apostles and brought back to the first Institution was to take place not for the Time past but for the Time to come as all other positive Laws of Natione do So that though Polygamy might be then tolerated as an Infirmily for a time in those which were newly converted yet it cannot be so now I shall add that if the first institution of Marriage between one Man an● one Woman at a time be once broken there 's no other Limitation to be found in the Scriptures whence it follows that if more be allowed then one a Man may have as many as he pleases So that it will be hard to bring it to a Medium Some perhaps will plead for King Charles II's Number as a Standard and others it may be will be satisfied with no fewer than Solomon and so our Nobility and Gentry if your Project take place should have Kennels of Concubines as now they have of Hounds And what Inconveniences this might occasion you may know by your own Incontinence those Poor Women must loose their Youth and Teeming time without any hopes of having Nature satisfied For being another Mans Property no body else must meddle with them and so they must either burn and languish or commit Whoredom nay perhaps bestiality Their own Stallion for Husband he is not must speedily be either enfeebled or neglect some or all of them as we find in Ahasuerus who did not call for his Beautiful and Beloved Esther in Thirty Days together And the rest of his Concubines were never brought to him except he delighted in any of them and call'd her by Name yet they were shut up and kept close by the Keeper of the Women So that here was a Great Number of Females rendred useless for Propagation besides the Tentations they were exposed to of being base with Eunuchs and their own nearest Relations Now Sir pray consider whether these and the other Reasons that you will meet with in this Book be not much more solid against Concubinage than any that you have advanc'd for it And if your Conscience be convinced be not ashamed to Retract what you have so unadvisedly writ upon this Head St. Augustine who was much a Learneder Divine and better Man than you can pretend to be did not think it unbecoming him to Recant his Errors and to take shame to himself for his Youthful Lusts but Yours can scarcely pass under that denomination who went into your Maids Bed after having Lived Forty Years with a Wife Your Loose Book hath done a World of Mischief in the Nation and therefore it concerns you as you would have the pardon of God and his Church for the same to make your Confession and Recantation as publick as your Crime Which that you may do is the worst that the Author of this Book wishes you Concubinage Disproved c. HAD a Pamphlet of this Nature been writ by an avowed Debauchee or a Play-house Beau it had been no matter of Surprize But to have any thing Printed in Defence of Concubinage by a Batchelor of Divinity and a Minister of the Church of England may Justly astonish us Such a thing might be accounted Natural in a Priest of the Church of Rome the Mother of Harlots and of the Abominations of the Earth but for a Minister of the Reformed Church to do so gross a thing is altogether unsufferable Time was when the Reverend Mr. Johnson was degraded by those that called themselves the Church of England because he maintained the Doctrine of Self-defence against Tyrants or others which is the Instinct of pure Nature There 's much more reason for the Governours of the Church to shew themselves as zealous now in censuring Mr. Butler for writing in defence of Concubinage which is one of the Effects of depraved Nature And this I think they are the more concern'd to do because in his Title-Page he endeavours to make way for his Doctrine by the Authority of his Character It is certain this Author can find nothing either in