** the Pagans, few nations were content with "one wife;" and we do not find the apostle making this any bar to church-membership, though he exprefsly does to church offices. See before, p. It can hardly be fuppofed, that if polygamy were finful, that is to fay, an offence against the law of GOD, the great apoftle fhould be fo liberal and fo particular, in his epiftle to the Corinthians, in the condemnation of every other fpecies of illicit commerce between the fexes, and yet omit this in the black catalogue, chap. vi. 9, &c. or that he should not be as zealous for the honour of the law of marriage, and of the feventh commandment, which was evidently to maintain it, as Ezra was for that po

"Formerly the Jews and Greeks were wont to be married "to TWO or THREE, and even MORE wives together."

Stanley, Hift. of Philofophy, Tit. Socrates, p. 53, fays -that the occafion whereupon the Athenians (who from "the time of Cecrops had ftrictly obferved fingle marriage)

allowed bigamy in the time of Socrates, was, that in "the fecond year of the 87th Olympiad, and the 3d of the 88th, Athens was vifited extremely by the peftilence, "which, attended by war and famine, occafioned fo great

fcarcity of men, that they made an edit, for any that "would, to take two wives. Euripides made ufe of this "indulgence, and that Socrates alfo did fo, is attested by

Satyrus the Peripatetic and Hiernonymus the Rhodian, "who recorded the order; to which Athenæus imputes "the filence of the comic poets in this particular, who "omitted no grounds of reproach."

However, it is much to be doubted, whether Cecrops did any more than inftitute marriage itself among the Grecians, who, before his time, lived promifcuoufly, and coupled as their fancy led them. See Ant. Univ. Hift. vol. vi. p. 175.-After all, as CECROPS is fupposed to haye been cotemporary with MOSES, it is not very probable, that we fhould meet with any accounts of him, which can be depended upon.

fitive

;

fitive law of Deut. vii, 3, against the marrying with heathens. Ezra made the Jews put away the wives which they had illegally taken, and even the very children which they had by them How is it that Paul, if polygamy was finful, did not make the Gentile and the fewjh converts put away every wife, but the first, and annul every polygamous contract? Why not fay, that being the busband of one wife was as neceffary to the being a Chriftian, as to be chofen a Bishop or Deacon? for it certainly was, if polygamy be finful. John the Baptift, at the expence of his liberty, and afterwards of his life, honeftly, openly, in words that it was out of the reach of all commentators to fophifticate, or give more than one meaning told Herod, with refpect to Herodias, his brother Philip's wife--It is not lawful for thee to bave her. But how could Paul, with truth, fay to the Ephefians, the Corinthians, or any other people amongst whom he minifteredI have not fhunned to declare unto you, πxoa Tηy Bouλny, ALL (the whole) counsel of GOD -if polygamy were a fin, and he did not as openly and plainly declare against it, as he did against every other fleshly tranfgreffion of GOD's pure and holy law? That he has no were done this, I may fay-res ipfa indicat.

to,

As for taking a text here or there, detaching it from the context, and the context itself from the rest of the Bible; then chufing out a fingle fentence, or word in a fentence, this too without any reference to the original Hebrew or Greek, and because it seems to found that way, to make it a proof of fome opinion we

have been taught to hold; it is that fort of criticism which may make the fcripture prove any thing, and every thing, just as fancy leads, and, in fhort, muft render the fcriptures themselves as vague and indeterminate as the minds of men are.

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Wetstein, Prol. p. 146, fpeaks of "certain "doctors-qui, neglecta connectione contextus facri, fingulas pericopas tanquam fingulas fen"tentias, & quafi totidem aphorifmos confide"rant; ut ita liberius fuæ phantafiæ indulgere, atque quidlibet ex quolibet efficere poffint." "Who neglecting the connection of the ❝ facred context, confider all the feveral ver"fes, as fingle fentences by themselves, and "c as fo many aphorifms, or general maxims, "fo that they may the more freely indulge "their own fancy, and make what they please from what they pleafe."

Whoever has red the hiftory of that renowned worthy, Alderman Whittington, whofe biographer tells us that he was twice Lord Mayor of London, may recollect a circumftance in that great man's life, which affords an exemplification of the aptnefs which poffeffes the human mind, to interpret founds into that particular fenfe which its own prejudices, however imbibed, wish to put upon them. It is faid that Whittington, being an apprentice in the city, left his master with an intent to go into the country. It being about the time of evening, he fat himfelf down fomewhere in the skirts of the his car was caught with the ringing

town;

of

of fix bells, he liftened attentively to them, 'till at last he perfuaded himself that they proclaimed his future greatness in the following founds:

He was fo captivated with the conceit, that he not only imagined the bells * said this to him, but that all who heard them must give their peal the fame interpretation; and, no doubt, under fuch a prepoffeffion, it would have been almost impoffible to have persuaded him to the contrary.

So, when men have been brought up under the prejudices of vulgar opinion and common error, and have their minds fwayed and biaffed by long custom to one certain train of thinking, they have but to meet with a text in fcripture which feems to echo to their fenfe of things, that fenfe will immediately chime in with the found, and both together, almost beyond the power of conviction to the contrary, confirm them ftill more strongly in their fentiments. What these may happen to be, makes very little difference

"We have an homely English proverb, which fays "As the fool thinks, the bell clinks'-A proverb "applicable, in our opinion, to all arguments founded on the found, and arbitrary meaning of words." Lond. Review for 1778, p. 75.

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whether

whether it be tranfubftantiation-praying to faints-worshipping images-the doctrine of purgatory-or, "though polygamy was allowed under the law, it is forbidden under the

:

gospel-or, in fhort, any other popular prejudice they will always act towards fcripture as Whittington did with the bells, till that liberality of mind, which ought to poffefs us, as the privilege of thinking and reasonable beings, opens the way to free enquiry-then, and not till then, we shall be noble like the Bereans, A&ts xvii. 11. who would no longer be led by their own prejudices, or prejudiced by other people's opinions, but received the word of GOD with all readiness of mind, and fearched the fcriptures daily, whether those things (which they heard preached by Paul) were fo. The scriptures which thefe Jews at Berea fearched fo diligently, must have been the scriptures of the Old Teftament; no others, if written, could then have come to their hands; but they compared the New Teftament as preached by Paul, with the Old Teftament of Mofes and the prophets, that they might judge whether the things he declared to them were of divine authority, answerable to former revelations of GOD's mind and will, or not. This is the method which I have endeavoured to obferve throughout this book, and which I moft fincerely recommend to every reader, as well as to every person who wishes to know and to da the will of God. If once we detach the

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