{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/wikisource_Thelyphthora_Volume_3_Chapter_14/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/wikisource_Thelyphthora_Volume_3_Chapter_14","id":"wikisource_Thelyphthora_Volume_3_Chapter_14","license":"Public Domain / CC-BY-SA (see source)","rights_basis":"wikisource_site_inclusion_policy","source":"wikisource","source_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Thelyphthora/Volume_3/Chapter_14","summary":null,"tags":["Pages_using_ppoem_with_custom_stanza_classes","Subpages"],"text":"INTRODUCTION TO CHAP. XIV.\n\nMR. Locke, b. ii. c. 33, \"Of the association of ideas,\" observes, that\u2014\"Some of our ideas have a natural correspondence and connexion one with another: it is the office and excellency of our reason to trace these, and hold them together in that union and correspondence which is founded in their peculiar beings.\n\n\"Besides this, there is another connexion of ideas, wholly owing to chance or custom: ideas, that in themselves are not at all of kin, come to be so united in some men's minds, that 'tis very hard to separate them: they always keep company, and the one no sooner comes into the understanding, but its associate appears with it; and if they are more than two, the whole gang, always inseparable, shew themselves together.\n\n\"This connexion in our minds, of ideas in themselves loose, and independent of one another, is of so great force to set us awry in our actions, as well moral as natural, passions, reasonings, and notions themselves, that perhaps there is not any one thing that deserves more to be looked after. Thus the ideas of goblins and sprights have really no more to do with darkness than light; yet let but a foolish maid inculcate these often on the mind of a child, and raise them there together, possibly he shall never be able to separate them again so long as he lives, but darkness shall ever afterwards bring with it those frightful ideas.\n\n\"Some such wrong combinations of ideas will be found to establish the irreconcileable opposition between different sects of philosophy and religion; for we cannot imagine every one of their followers to impose wilfully on himself, and knowingly refuse truth offered by plain reason. That therefore which captivates their reasons, and leads men of sincerity blindfold from common sense, will, when examined, be found to be what we are speaking of: some independent ideas are, by education, custom, and the constant din of their party, so coupled in their minds, that they always appear there together, and they can no more separate them in their thoughts, than if they were but one idea; and they operate as if they were so.\n\n\"This gives sense to jargon, demonstration to absurdities, and consistency to nonsense, and is the foundation of the greatest, I had almost said of all the errors in the world: or, if it does not reach so far, is at least the most dangerous one, since, so far as it obtains, it hinders men from seeing and examining the confusion of two different ideas, which a customary connexion of them in their minds hath to them in effect made but one, and cannot but fill men's heads with false views, and their reasonings with false consequences.\"\n\nOn the principles of this great man, many things are to be accounted for, which otherwise are unaccountable. When one looks (for instance) into the ordinance of the Creator, by which the human species is to be propagated and preserved\u2014when we consider the simple ground of union, as represented Gen. ii. 24, and the consequence drawn from it by the great interpreter of the law\u2014Matt. xix. 5, 6\u2014we must ascribe the independent ideas, which, by long custom and usage, have united themselves in the minds of men concerning marriage, to their having been inculcated from early infancy, by others, who themselves have come by them in the same way; and thus having been delivered over, since their coinage in the church of Rome, from generation to generation, they stand in the public opinion as so many absolute and demonstrable truths: whereas, not a single trace of them is to be found in the Bible; neither religious persons, nor religious outward ceremonies, have any more to do with the essence or validity of the marriage-union in God's sight, than darkness has to do with sprights and goblins, or the sign of the cross, or godfathers and godmothers, have to do with the ordinance of baptism.\u2014The necessity of an outward contract does not therefore arise from any command of God, so as to make the union null and void, or sinful, without it; but from causes of the most disgraceful nature, and which are owing to the dreadful departure of mankind from truth and justice, and from that reverence and obedience to the Creator's appointments, which it was once the honour and happiness, and must be for ever the duty, of man to pay them.\n\nCHAP. XIV.\n\nOf the true Origin and Necessity of Marriage-Ceremony.\n\nTHE invention of marriage-ceremonies, is as great a proof of the depravity and corruption of human nature, as the invention of written bonds and obligations under hand and seal; they alike prove, that they are the effects of that necessity, which mankind laboured under, to secure themselves against the villainy, treachery, and deceit of one another. Was the world what it ought to be, no obligation, beside that of conscience, would be necessary for the security of men, with regard to any kind of bargains which they could make with each other. The man who lent another a sum of money, though without any other witnesses to the transaction than the parties themselves, would be perfectly secure, perhaps more so than he is now, with a bond duly stamped, and sealed, and delivered by the hand of the obligor, in the presence of witnesses.\u2014If we ask whence arose those voluminous securities, known in our law by the names of marriage-settlements, mortgage-deeds, and specialties of various kinds? it may be answered, \"From men's being afraid to trust one another without them.\"\nThe very same principle first gave birth to outward marriage-ceremony; the simple institution of Heaven would have been as sufficient to have bound the parties to each other at this hour, as it was in the days of innocence, had not the corruption of human nature destroyed the influences of justice, mercy, and truth within the human soul. The adventitious circumstances of human ceremony, on this account, became necessary; and, as the world increased, and villainy of all kinds increased, the means of security against it has at all times exercised the invention of legislature, and employed the vigilance of the executive power, in order to obviate the mischievous effects of it.\n\nBut what a strange thing would it be to hear, that a bond, on paper, stamped with a stamp of such a value, and sealed and delivered in the presence of witnesses, and not the sum of money lent, raised the duty in the obligor's conscience to pay it? and what a conscience must that man have, who looks upon an outward security as the only reason for acknowledging a just debt? yet this is the language of mankind with respect to marriage; the debt of justice, arising from the command of God, is all easily set aside, and nothing is looked upon as obligatory but the outward bond. To say, that this is less a mere civil contract than the other, is saying what is not true, and is the great advantage which has been taken of men's understandings in the business of marriage, to the no small emolument of those that have taken it, and to the distress and destruction of millions that have suffered by it.\n\nAgain, let us suppose the whole body of attorneys, conveyancers, &c. banding together to persuade mankind, that the doctrine of conveyances by lease and release, by way of mortgage, and this farther strengthened by levying fines and suffering recoveries, in cases of intailed estates, came from heaven; and that no man was obliged in conscience to be answerable for a sum of money which he had borrowed, unless he employed a conveyancer, and set his hand and seal to sixty large skins of parchment; and that if he borrowed money without this, and dared to pay it, he would be damned\u2014we should here see a lively emblem of what churchmen have taught us upon the subject of marriage-ceremony:\u2014as the lawyers would place the sole obligation of payment in their wax and parchment, and in the chicane of their art, and not in the command of Heaven \"to render to all their due;\" so churchmen have placed the whole marriage-obligation in an outward ceremony, and not in the command of God, \"they shall be one flesh\"\u2014they have let loose all obligation whatsoever arising from this command, insomuch that it is under pain and peril of damnation, that a man dares persist in it, unless the priest accounts him rectus in curia, and can bring him to sign and seal by an outward ceremony; which, under certain circumstances, is impossible, because human laws have made it so.\n\nNow, what a bond, or mortgage, is by way of security for money, that a marriage-ceremony is, by way of security with regard to marriage: and as a man who lends another a sum of money has a right to demand a proper security for the repayment of the debt, principal and interest; so has every woman a right to demand the security of such ceremony as the laws of her country have ordained, with respect to the man who has seduced her\u2014God has in effect commanded it, Exod. xxii. 16. and therefore the severest penalty ought to be inflicted on the man who refuses it. The woman who delivers her person into the possession of a man, without the ceremony first performed, does not act a cautious, proper, or wise part; any more than the man who lends a large sum of money without the due execution of the bond or mortgage-deeds; but he who can take an undue advantage, in either case, must be a villain in grain. In the money-affair, he would be thought so, and treated as such\u2014a court of justice would be open to the injured, and redress afforded; but in the other case, though a villainy attended with irreparable mischief, the very law itself, as it now stands, bars all redress, consigns the wretched female to destruction, and leaves the man, to ruin as many more women as he can deceive.\n\nAll this is owing to our following the Popish plan, which has been so much set forth at large in the former part of this volume; owing to this it is, that we make marriage-ceremony what it is not, and do not make marriage itself what it really is.\n\nOur lawyers can well distinguish between that which raises the debt or obligation, and that which is the security for the payment of the one, or for the performance of the other.\n\nOur casuists would find little difficulty in determining, that a man is equally bound in conscience to pay a sum of money which he has borrowed, whether the lender has taken a written security for it, or whether he has not; or whether the money was lent before an hundred witnesses, or only when the lender and borrower were alone in private.\n\nNow, let what has been said be taken all together, and let none charge the author with depreciating those securities which men take of one another for the payment of money; let none say he wants to diminish the public revenue by what he has said on the subject of bonds, and other deeds, which carry stamps; or that he means to lessen the obligation on people to pay their debts, because he contends that in foro conscienti\u00e6, and as in the sight of the Judge of all, a man would be as much obliged to pay what he owes, without any bond or mortgage as with it; what he has said on this subject, tends to prove, that if men were what they ought to be, and what the divine law requires them to be, every man's word would be as good as his bond; but that, as things are, it must be allowed, that most men's bonds are better than their words.\n\nUltima C\u00e6lestum terras astr\u00e6a reliquit\u2014\u2014\u2014\n\nTherefore, in all cases it is prudential, because in most necessary, that the creditor should have something more substantial to depend upon, than the bare word of the debtor; and the lender be secured against the borrower by something of more notoriety than can possibly arise from a private transaction, or verbal agreement merely between themselves.\n\nWhat is here said, I mean to apply to marriage-ceremony, by whomsoever, or howsoever, or wheresoever administered. Like all other securities, it tends to the ascertaining of property; to the protection of the honest and undesigning, against the machinations of treachery and deceit; and answers too many valuable purposes to society in general, not to be inforced by the severest laws.\n\nBut, as in all other contracts, different nations have different modes of making them, so it is with respect to marriage-ceremony. As we find no trace of such a thing in the scriptures, unless the payment of the \u05de\u05d4\u05e8\u2014or dowry of 50 shekels to the father of the damsel\u2014may be so called, we cannot, on any divine authority, say, there was any fixed or determinate form whatsoever; and even this payment of the dower was omitted in the case of concubines, who are also called wives, but certainly appear to have been of an inferior rank, though as lawful wives as those who were endowed. This was the case in the Christian church, so late as the time of Constantine: see before vol. i. p. 32. n.\u2014and this vol. p. 30.\n\nWere we to search the whole history of the world, we should hardly find many inhabitants of it, without some marriage-ceremony or other, and this, because nature itself, as now circumstanced, seems to point out a necessity for some outward recognition of so important a contract; for, as the corruption of human nature is to be found in all the naturally-engendered offspring of fallen Adam, so the dire effects of it have made it necessary to guard against them by some means or other.\n\nAs to the Jews\u2014\"There were, according to the Talmudists, three ways of betrothing. 1. By a written contract. 2. By a verbal agreement, accompanied with a piece of money. 3. By the parties coming together, and living as man and wife; which last they could not properly call betrothing, for it was marriage itself.\"\u2014See Alex. Hist. of Wom. vol. ii. p. 193.\n\nAs for their ceremonies on the espousals or marriage (the payment of the dowry excepted) they are entirely of human invention, and I do not imagine that they are pretended to be otherwise\u2014nor do I suppose that a Jew would venture to talk of them as of higher authority.\n\nThe Roman Christians learned, from their Heathen predecessors, to impose on the credulity of mankind, and to make their priests the grand engines of that imposition. Numa Pompilius, the second king of the Romans, in order to divert his subjects from the pursuits of ambition and violence of arms, multiplied ceremonies in religion, and gained a reverence and sanction to them, by giving out that he received them nightly from the goddess Egeria; by whose direction also he instituted Flamines, (priests or arch-priests) vestal virgins, (a sort of nuns) the Salian priests, and Pontifex Maximus (or heathen Pope.)\u2014So the Roman Christians invented, first Christian priests, then a Pontifex Maximus, or Pope, who, with the assistance of his Flamines or arch-priests, invented rites and ceremonies, all which were pretended to be jure divino; among the rest, marriage-ceremonies; afterwards, these were turned into the form of a sacrament, and pretended to be divinely instituted by Jesus Christ; which is just as true, as that Numa had his rites and ceremonies from the goddess Egeria.\n\nI have little occasion to dwell any longer on this part of the subject in this place, because the first contrivance, and subsequent progression and increase, of sacerdotal knavery and imposition, through a long succession of many ages, has been fully manifested, to the discerning and attentive reader's observation, in the former parts of these volumes, but especially in the first chapter of this.\n\nIn a series of letters written from Constantinople, by M. de Guys, of the academy of Marseilles, to M. Bourlat de Montredon at Paris\u2014which were translated and published in London anno 1772\u2014there is a most curious account of some people, who are inhabitants of the island of Mitylene, which tends to shew, that there may be some respect for marriage-ceremony, where there is none for the sacred obligation of marriage.\n\nThe title of the book is \"A Sentimental Journey through Greece\"\u2014and, in one of the letters, of which the narrative is composed, M. de Guys relates a very extraordinary custom among the Mitylenians\u2014\"Now let me inform you,\" says he, \"of a custom subsisting at this day in the same island. About three days journey from the capital, is a small town, where every stranger, when he arrives, is compelled to marry one of the women, even though his stay should be for one night only. They generally present a maiden to him, whom he must take for his wife; but if he should prove to be a man of any property or importance, he has the choice of several to select one. Travellers of an inferior rank have no choice, but must absolutely put up with the lady offered to them, who, in that case, is generally the oldest and plainest in the province. A priest then appears, who performs the marriage-ceremonies with great solemnity; a nuptial-feast is prepared, and the new-married couple pass the night together. The husband may depart, if he pleases, the next morning. If he has any money or valuable effects, and chuses to make his ephemeral wife any present, it is received, and indeed expected; but if he does not, he may proceed on his journey without molestation. The lady thinks herself sufficiently obliged to him for having delivered her from the reproach of virginity, which it is ignominious to retain, or to give to one of the province. It is necessary, for the preservation of the lady's honour, that her first marriage should be with a stranger. It is of no consequence whether he remains with her, or ever returns. At the expiration of a year, she may contract a new marriage with any man that presents himself, and should the former husband appear, he would have no legal claim whatever upon her. The fact is, that a lady cannot marry to advantage, until she has lain with a stranger. This custom is said to be of the most antient date. The only alteration which the teachers of the Christian religion have been able to effect among these people, in the above particular, is, that the cohabitation shall be preceded by a marriage according to the forms of the church now established there. By this compromise, the priest, the bride, and all parties quiet the scruples of their conscience.\"\n\n\"This custom is no less curious than well attested.\"\n\nWhen we meet with such an instance as the above\u2014that of the Troglodytes, mentioned Thelyph. vol. i. 213. n.\u2014and numberless others which might be mentioned\u2014what a chim\u00e6ra is that of the philosophers, who contend for a religion of nature, or principle of morality common to all mankind, mores communes naturali rationi consentanei, as Grotius speaks! Cicero observed very truly, that, \"there is nothing so strange, which has not been maintained by philosophers;\" and, among the rest, the \u03ba\u03bf\u03b9\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9 \u03b5\u03bd\u03bd\u03bf\u03b9\u03b1\u03b9, or primary and innate principles, or notions, which are so accurately discussed and refuted in the first book of Mr. Locke's Essay on Human Understanding.\n\nSome few savage nations, which we meet with accounts of, seem, if we believe the relations which authors have given us, to have little, if any, notion of marriage-ceremony; among these may be reckoned the inhabitants of the island of Otaheite, who are said \"to pursue incontinent gratifications, wherever inclination leads them; but when a woman becomes pregnant, the father of her child thereby becomes her husband.\" Alex. Hist. of Wom. vol. ii. p. 187.\n\nThese savages, and we Christians, are much upon the same establishment, as to \"the pursuit of incontinent gratifications, wherever inclination leads them\"\u2014but as to the consequences of this, with regard to the women, the females at Otaheite have vastly the advantage of ours; for the Christian women, on their becoming pregnant, if not secured verbo sacerdotis, are treated with a degree of barbarity and inhumanity, which we may suppose the savages would be ashamed of.\n\nThe only object among us, is to secure a parish from the expence of what we call a bastard\u2014therefore, if a female be pregnant\u2014which is frequently the consequence of men's \"being at liberty to pursue incontinent gratifications wherever inclination leads them\"\u2014she is persuaded by certain tyrants, called parish-officers, by the gentle eloquence of being threatened with bridewell or starving, to go before a magistrate, and to swear the child she goes with, to the father of it; this being done, a warrant goes forth to apprehend the said father, and if he is caught, he is to find security to indemnify the parish, to appear at the next quarter-sessions, or must go to gaol; but no part of his recognizance engages for any amends or security to the woman, or to have any thing to do with the child, farther than to save the parish harmless from any burden it may bring upon it. If the fellow runs away, which is a common case, the poor female, after a month from her lying-in, becomes an object of one of the most severe and brutal statutes that could well be penned, viz. 7. Jac. c. 4. \u00a7 7. \"Every lewd woman which shall have any bastard, which may be chargeable to the parish, the justices of the peace shall commit such lewd woman to the house of correction, there to be punished and set on work, during the term of one whole year.\"\u2014The readings on this clause, as cited by Burn from Dalton, are worth attending to.\u2014\"Shall commit such lewd woman]\u2014But such punishment shall not be, until after that the woman is delivered of her child; neither are the justices to meddle with the woman, until the child be born, and she strong again.\"\u2014i.\u00a0e. till (as we say) her month is up.\n\n\"Also it seemeth, that such bastard-child is not to be sent with the mother to the house of correction, but rather that the child should remain in the town where it was born, (or settled with the mother) and there to be relieved by the work of the mother, or by relief from the reputed father: and yet the common opinion and practice is otherwise, viz. to send the child with the mother to the house of correction; and this may also seem reasonable, where the child sucketh on the mother.\" Dalt. c. 11.\n\n\"But it seemeth much the best, to commit the mother only, and not the child, but leave it to her choice whether she will take it with her, and if she will not, then to send it to its lawful place of settlement.\"\n\nI am clearly of Doctor Burn's opinion, that \"it seemeth much best (i.\u00a0e. most politic) to commit the mother only, and not the child\"\u2014because it relieves the parish from its burden much sooner, than by suffering it to go with its mother to the house of correction, from whence, being preserved by the breast and attention of its poor mother, it may return again, and then it may be chargeable to the parish; whereas, if it be torn from the mother's breast at the tender age of one month, and be committed to the custody of a certain species of she-wolf, called a parish-nurse, unless it should have the constitution of Romulus and Remus put together, the parish will soon be rid of its incumbrance. These sage and pious matrons commonly supply the place of the mother's milk, with as little nutriment as they can, with any tolerable hopes of steering clear of a coroner's inquest, or of not diminishing their own scanty stipend too much, administer. Others of them are very public-spirited, and have too much care for the welfare of the parish, to suffer an incumbrance upon it longer than needs must, and they usually adapt their care of the child accordingly.\n\nBut suppose the wretched mother, influenced by the natural feelings of maternal tenderness, takes with her her poor infant, to be a sharer in the cold and filth of a prison, and for a whole year is to endure the stripes of her punishment, inflicted by the unrelenting hand of a sour gaoler; suppose her set to some laborious work, and at the same time to nourish her child, and to have no recruit for her exhausted strength, but the scanty provision of the gaol-allowance of bread and water; in what a condition must she be?\u2014to what state of constitution may she be reduced?\u2014but, which is still worse, what are the probable consequences of her being shut up, for a whole twelvemonth together, with common whores and thieves, but that all the remains of decency, modesty, and of the comparative innocence which she carried with her, should all be obliterated, and she should become, on her return to her parish, a common pest and nuisance, and fit for nothing but to be exterminated from the face of the earth?\n\nI question not but the terror of this statute has occasioned many a child-murder, and wonder not, that, fourteen years afterwards, the legislature should be compelled to pass a law in hopes of putting a stop to it\u2014viz. 21 Jac. I. c. 27. the preamble of which clearly confirms what I am now saying\u2014\"Whereas many lewd women that have been delivered of bastard-children, to avoid their shame, and to escape punishment, do secretly bury, or conceal the death of their children; and after, if the child be found dead, the said women do alledge, that the said child was born dead; whereas it falleth out sometimes (although hardly it is to be proved) that the said child or children were murdered by the said women, their lewd mothers, or by their assent or procurement\u2014For the preventing therefore, &c.\"\n\nNow, what would have become of such a woman under the divine law?\u2014She would have been deemed the man's wife, and as such he must have maintained and cohabited with her\u2014and so it would be among the Jews to this day.\u2014So it was once by the law of France\u2014so it is now by the laws of Switzerland (see vol. ii. 335, 1st edit.\u2014297, 2d edit.)\u2014and so it is (to our shame be it spoken) among the savages of the island of Otaheite!\n\nBy the way, we must not forget, that while the poor creature has so much done by the civil power for the correction of her body, it is by no means improbable, but, on due presentment by the right trusty and well-beloved the churchwardens, the spiritual court may think it worth their while to do something pro salute anim\u00e6, \"for the good of her soul.\"\u2014See the case of Ann Jenkinson, Thelyph. vol. i. p. 67, n. If these two modes of punishment were steadily and uniformly applied, it might be of prodigious service to parishes, in easing them from the burden of lewd women and bastard children, as furnishing a very strong inducement to the mothers to cut their infants throats, rather than run the risque of so much shame and misery; the consequence of which would probably be, that the hangman would ease the parish of the burden of the mother.\n\nAnno 1780.\u2014At Nottingham, a poor girl of a neighbouring village was libelled, in the spiritual court, for fornication; the case was, that, some time before, she had had a child that was born a bastard; she was sentenced by the court to do penance\u2014in order to this, she was to pay down a sum of money, which she had not, my informant saw her weeping bitterly under this piece of oppression; however, by the help of a friend's charity, she was at last enabled to pay the exaction, and so was delivered from the jaws of excommunication.\n\nIt should seem, from the conversation which I had with the gentleman who related the above to me, that the poor people in the northern distant counties are dreadfully scourged and harrassed with these oppressive exactions, it being the constant custom, in many parts, to punish the unhappy victims with these spiritual extortions of money, besides exposing the delinquents to the contempt and scorn of the whole parish, by setting them publicly in the church in a white sheet.\u2014My friend asked some of those whom he was conversing with on the subject, if people did not complain of it as a great oppression and hardship? \"O no,\" said one, \"we like it much, for we should have so many bastards to keep, as to be quite over-run with them, if it was not for this.\"\u2014How far this observation might hold, I can't say; but I am afraid, that, from a certain concatenation between cause and effect, such proceedings are a means of lessening the charge of parishes with respect to bastards, more by increasing the number of murders, than by any thing else. See before vol. ii. 347, n. 1st edit.\u2014p. 307, n. 2d edit. concerning this relic of Popery.\n\nI am acquainted with a certain magistrate, who, in cases of this sort, makes the best enquiry he can of the parish officers concerning the character of the woman; and if, from what they say, and from other circumstances, he has reason to think, that her situation is owing to the seduction of the man, and that she has had no concerns with any other, he always perswades a public marriage; he even inforces his arguments from the scriptures which have been so often mentioned, and scruples not to declare, \"that, as in God's sight, the woman is already the man's wife,\" and therefore to conjure him, as he shall answer it at the day of judgment, to make her so according to the laws of his country In several instances, conviction has been wrought, the parties have been married, and the magistrate has, on enquiry after them, had the satisfaction to hear, in several instances, that they go on well, and seem perfectly contented. How much for the honour of God, and for the good of the kingdom in general, would it be, if magistrates (as in Israel) had a power, in all cases, to inforce such arguments on the refractory, by the coercive power of a wholesome law made for the purpose!\n\nOne case I cannot help mentioning, as it tends to illustrate what has been said on the evil tendency of the marriage-act.\n\nA young fellow, who had been sworn to as the father of a child, with which a young woman was then pregnant, and who was within a little of her time, being brought by a warrant before the said magistrate, was interrogated concerning a point which the girl had mentioned during the time of her examination, which was, whether he had not promised her marriage? The man owned he had\u2014the magistrate then inforced, by every argument he could think of, the duty and necessity which the man was under to fulfil his promise. The man, after some little hesitation, owned himself convinced, and consented to marry the girl as the next morning. The magistrate was not a little pleased, to hope, that here was another female likely to be saved from ruin, another poor infant from the infamy and disadvantages of bastardy;\u2014but a check was put to it all, for, as by the marriage-act three Sundays must intervene for the asking of banns, the man's good intent could not be carried into execution without a licence\u2014now a marriage by licence comes to above forty shillings, including the church fees\u2014the poor fellow, by keeping out of the way for a time, had thrown himself out of work, the poor girl had been turned out of her service, and had been living on the little pittance which had come to her for wages, and on the disposal of part of her cloaths, till she applied to the parish; so that, between them, they could not raise a fifth part of the money. The magistrate having, on like occasions, applied himself to the parish officers with success, recommended it to those then present to be at the expence of the wedding; one of them seemed inclined to it, but his surly partner interrupted all compliance, by entering his protest against it\u2014\"Noa\u2014noa\u2014we'll do no more vor un, an't please your worship, we ha' been at expences enow aready\u2014what wi' hunting ater the mon, and coming backwards and vorwards about zwearing the child, and one thing or wother, it has cost the parish as good as ten shillings, and we'll do no more vor un.\"\u2014All remonstrance was in vain, the honest farmer's\u2014\"we'll do no more vor un,\" prevailed with his partner, and there ended all hope of the speedy marriage, which had been proposed and assented to. The magistrate, therefore, finding the young man without sureties to answer for his appearance, and the impossibility of persuading either of the officers to do that kindness, or \"any more vor un\"\u2014and that he could as soon have repealed the marriage-act, or have reconciled it to scripture, common sense, or true policy\u2014made use of his discretion, and committed the young man to prison, till the three Sundays should be passed, and the banns published; with an order to the gaoler, to deliver him, on the Monday following the last day of publishing the banns, to the custody of the constable of the parish to which the parties belonged, that the said constable should convey him to the parish church at the appointed hour, see them married, and then discharge his prisoner.\n\nThis obligation to send the young man, to live near three weeks among the inhabitants of a common prison, might have been attended with consequences of the worst kind to the prisoner; who could be looked upon as no other than a victim to a cruel and unnatural law, and whose only crime, for which he was confined, was, that he could neither contract three weeks into the space of twenty-four hours, nor produce between forty and fifty shillings, to pay for doing an act of retributive justice to his fellow-creature, in the most expeditious manner.\n\nHowever, the parties were married, and there was an end\u2014the young man turns out a good husband, and the woman a good wife; but there can be little doubt, that there are many cases of this sort, which do not end quite so well; for of all experiments which can be tried for the corruption of the common people, none have been found so thoroughly to succeed, as that of sending them into a gaol; and to be laid under a necessity of doing this, merely because a man's power of doing a right thing is to be suspended for a length of time, beyond his desire and intention to do it, is a sort of practical solecism, unjustifiable in itself, irreconcileable to common justice, inconsistent with sound policy, and a most painful task imposed on the humanity and feelings of the magistrate\u2014add to this, one good reason, among others, for the repeal of a law, which may occasion these things to happen every day.\n\nThe more merciful Romish ritual says\u2014\"Publicationibus factis tribus diebus festis;\" and our own ritual (which follows the Romish pretty closely) till superseded by the marriage-act, said\u2014\"three Sundays or holy days\"\u2014so that, by possibility, a few days might determine the matter:\u2014but now the interval between the marriage-ceremony and the contract is so far protracted, and so far out of the reach of the poorer sort to shorten by the enormous expence of licences, as to form, in many cases, a very inconvenient, in not a few, a very dangerous delay\u2014and is surely well worthy the very serious consideration of the legislative powers.\n\n'Till an alteration be made, we certainly are far behind, in point of policy and humanity, as well as in conformity to the divine law, the savages of Otaheite, and perhaps many others\u2014who, not having the law, do by nature the things contained in the law. Rom ii. 14.\n\nThough the Otaheiteans, and we, differ in what has been before mentioned, yet we wonderfully agree in certain other particulars. Dr. Alex. Hist. Wom. vol. i. p. 286, says\u2014\"As polygamy is not allowed among them\" (there we agree) \"they have a society among them called Arreoy, in which, to satisfy the lust of variety, every woman is common to every man.\"\u2014And have we no such societies? what are our brothels, what are our public streets after dark? what, many assemblies of men and women, of more oftensible decency perhaps, but really and truly so many arreoys?\u2014\u2014\u2014\"And when any of these women happens to have a child, it is smothered in the moment of its birth, that it not interrupt the pleasures of its infamous mother;\"\u2014Children are rarely murdered by their mothers, among us, merely from this principle; but if from fear, shame, or the dread of severe punishment, women are terrified into the murder of their children, it amounts much to the same, with respect to the children; and if we take into the account the numbers destroyed by causing abortion, an art which it does not appear that the savages have as yet acquired, and those which are destroyed either in the birth, or after\u2014many of which murders are never discovered, perhaps more than are discovered\u2014it is hardly to be doubted, but this island equals at least, if not exceeds, in numbers of murdered infants, the island of Otaheite. Their Arreoy seems to be confined within a much smaller compass than ours; for as to the liberty our men enjoy, to ruin as many women as they can, it is unconfined and unlimited throughout the kingdom.\u2014\u2014\u2014\"but in this juncture, should nature revolt at so horrid a deed, even then the mother is not allowed to save the child,\u2014This, I confess, goes beyond us; and yet, the taking a young infant from the mother's breast, and committing it to the care of a parish-nurse, on sending the mother to be punished in the house of correction, is not without some affinity to this practice.\u2014\u2014\u2014\"unless she can find a man who will patronize it as a father;\"\u2014This brings the matter into somewhat like a parallel again, as many children among us have been murdered through the desertion of the pregnant woman by the father of the child.\u2014\u2014\u2014\"in which case, the man is considered as having appropriated the woman to himself, and he is accordingly extruded from this hopeful society.\"\n\nThis particular has already been sufficiently observed upon, and the advantage of the Otaheitean pregnant women, above that of the European, pointed out.\n\nTo attempt a recapitulation of all the marriage-ceremonies of the different nations of mankind, would be a work far exceeding the limits as well as the intention of this volume; but whatever they may be, as to matter or manner, they are doubtless of human contrivance, and therefore ought only to be looked upon as the several modes of establishing a civil-contract, not only between the parties, but with respect to the society where their lot may happen to be cast.\n\nDr. Alex. Hist. Wom. vol. ii. p. 207, observes as follows:\u2014\"In the prosecution of our enquiry, we have scarcely discovered among other primitive nations\" (besides the Jews, which he had mentioned before, as having no religious marriage-ceremonial revealed to them) \"we have scarcely discovered any of them even pretending that marriage (i.\u00a0e. marriage-ceremony) was the institution of their gods; but of their first legislators, as Menes in Egypt, and Cecrops in Greece; nor have we found, even among the Jews themselves, that either prophet or priest were concerned in the celebration of marriage, though they managed every thing that was considered as sacred, or of divine institution: the same was the case among other primitive nations; they had priests to whom the celebration of every holy rite was committed; but their magistrates, and the relations of the contracting parties, were the only people who concerned themselves about marriage; a strong presumption, that it was not considered in any other light than as a civil-contract.\"\n\nThere is, however, with regard to the Jews, no reason to talk of \"strong presumption,\" for the light itself is not more clear and evident, than that, throughout the whole law of Moses, there is not the least hint or trace of nuptial ceremony of a religious kind, or the interference of any minister of religion in the matter\u2014therefore the throwing marriage into the hands of Christian churchmen (and by what means and by what degrees that has been done clearly appears from the foregoing evidence) and pretending that a ceremonial to be administered by priests\u2014jure divino, was necessary and essential to make marriages valid as in God's sight\u2014and that all who came together, and lived together, without it, lived in \"a state of whoredom and fornication\"\u2014is also more than a strong presumption, for it amounts to demonstration, that Christian churchmen have been the greatest, and most errant and complete set of knaves, that ever infested the earth. None but such could, for their own profit and interest, have misinterpreted, perplexed, and confounded, as they have done, the holy and simple ordinance of God with respect to marriage, and then throw the dust of priestly rites and ceremonies into the eyes of the laity, to prevent a discovery of their imposture.\u2014How all this originated, how it has been carried on, and how it stands at this hour, has been fully declared.\n\nOne should hardly think, that such a contempt poured on the Hebrew fcriptures, in which the whole mind and will of Jehovah stands written, as with a sun-beam, touching those wise and beneficent regulations, which He was pleased to ordain with respect to the commerce of the sexes, could admit of aggravation; but this matter leaves no sort of doubt, when we find the impostors placing the great reviver, interpreter, and defender of the law of Jehovah, at the head of their faction, and representing Him as instituting a new ordinance of marriage, appropriated to Christians\u2014this upon the foundation of a new law; and thus rendering null and void the fixed and unalterable decrees of Eternal Wisdom\u2014on the important and interesting subject of marriage.\n\nLet those who think I carry this matter too far, first read their Bible, then let them take Du Pin's history of Ecclesiastical Writers, &c. or, if they do not care to read over so voluminous a work, let them consider well the preceding extracts from it; let them then compare the whole of our system, with what they find there upon the subject, and if, after all this, they do not agree with me, then let them take for their motto\u2014Non persuadebis, etiamsi persuaseris.\n\nIn the foregoing long detail of evidence, we have often met with the word Church, which is the English translation of the Greek \u03b5\u03ba\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03b9\u03b1, and of the Latin Ecclesia; these seem derived from the Greek \u1f10\u03ba\u03ba\u03b1\u03bb\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd to call out, and denote the church of God, or an assembly or society of men, called out of mankind by the word of God; these are, through sanctification of the spirit, and belief of the truth, (2 Thess. ii. 13.) united to God and to each other, by the threefold cord of faith, hope, and love. They have One Lord\u2014One Faith\u2014One Baptism. See Eph. iv. 5. All the members of this society, however distressed, distinguished, or dissipated over the face of the earth, form, in a collective sense, the holy Catholic church; and where only two or three of them meet together in the name of their common Lord, He is in the midst of them. Matt. xviii. 20. Therefore there are as many churches on earth, as there are such societies thus meeting together\u2014but these, as well as the individuals which compose them, though many, form but one Body, of which Christ is the Head. Eph. i. 22, 23.\n\nFor my own part, I doubt not but there are members of this church among all sects and parties of professing Christians, and it dilates my heart with a transport of joy, to think how many thousands, now divided from each other from various causes of separation, as to place, situation, and other unavoidable circumstances incident to the present state of things\u2014perhaps divided by the narrowness of a party, or the prejudices and bigotry of sectarian zeal, which, like impassable gulphs, stand between them\u2014shall one day meet together, and join with one heart and one voice, in the united praises of their glorious Head, and blush to think, that they have suffered any outward distinctions to influence or lessen that inward affection, which, with respect to each other, ought to have been a transcript of the Redeemer's love to them. See John xiii. 34.\n\nSuch is the church-militant on earth, which, with that triumphant in Heaven, makes but one family (Eph. iii. 5.) which consists of the redeemed out of every nation, kindred, people, and tongue. (Rev. vii. 9.) This, in a comparative view, is styled\u2014a little flock, Luke xii. 32; but, when all shall be gathered together, will appear to be a great multitude which no man can number.\n\nAfter all this, it must surely appear to the diligent reviser of the former part of this volume, that the word Church is to be understood very differently, in those extracts from the annals of Popery, which so long detained his patience in the perusal of them.\n\nThere, this ill-understood and much-abused word Church, denotes a set of people, described by the apostle, Acts xx. 30. as grievous wolves, entering in and not sparing the flock\u2014speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them.\u2014We have seen how early this mystery of iniquity began to work\u2014how, under the name of the church, a kingdom of this world was erected, and its throne filled with the man of sin, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. 2 Thess. ii. 4. We have seen, how, in consequence of this, and in order to support this same church, the minds of men should be filled with such ideas as were best suited to maintain its dominion, not only over the people, but even over the kings of the earth.\u2014Hence false traditions took place of the written scriptures\u2014legends, full of lying miracles and wonders, supplanted the records of divine truth\u2014laws of councils, synods, and Popes, were substituted for the laws of Heaven\u2014the love of power supplanted the humble spirit of the gospel\u2014ambition and pride drave out lowliness and meekness\u2014an iron sceptre, wielded by the hand of tyranny, succeeded to the mild and gentle reign of Christian liberty\u2014adamantine chains of ignorance and superstition were forged for the reason and understanding of mankind\u2014the easy yoke of Christ was laid aside, and the intolerable burden of church-power crushed all who refused to submit to it.\n\nSuch being the form and government of this worldly kingdom, its ministers, who were to carry it on, must be suitable to the nature of it. Hence arose, in the shape, and under the venerable names of cardinals, archbishops, bishops, priests, deans, canons, prebendaries, &c. &c. as many Lords over God's heritage as the wit of man could invent, or the power of the Pope create; riches and worldly grandeur gave them pre-eminence, and every means to advance these were devised and employed. Among the rest, the ordinance of marriage was framed anew; its antient and simple dispensation afforded no revenue, added no importance to churchmen; where it was divinely forbidden, no dispensation from man could authorize it; where it was divinely allowed, no licence from man could add to its perfection and obligation:\u2014this was found necessary, therefore, to be changed; the thing itself must be destroyed, and framed anew; its nature and essence must no longer remain upon the Creator's institution, but depend on certain rites and ceremonies of man's invention\u2014these were to be supposed to be co\u00ebval with the dispensation of the gospel, and the laws of Jehovah, by which it had been regulated and settled from the beginning, were deemed antiquated and laid aside. We have seen the degrees by which this was effected, from the first introduction of clerical benediction, to the total invalidation, not only of the divine law, but of all civil contract, by the council of Trent\u2014we have seen what mischiefs have been produced to the world, more especially to the female sex, by these papal inventions; and happy would it be for millions, did we also see, that nothing can obviate these mischiefs, but returning to that from whence we are fallen\u2014the holy, wise, beneficent, and salutary laws of Heaven.\n\nThe way to do this, is to restore to the civil power that which has been evidently taken from it; to suffer no longer a system to remain, which hides from the eyes of mankind the real and true nature and obligation of the divine ordinance. The civil magistrate ought to have the sole jurisdiction over civil contracts, in this as well as in all other cases\u2014and surely a way might easily be found, by which this might be brought to pass, so as to answer every good end that can possibly accrue from the present mode of marriage, and defeat those mischievous ends which are the infallible consequences of the present system; above all, that anti-scriptural and destructive notion, that men are under no obligation to that retributive justice which God has commanded, unless bound upon them by the word of a priest. On such occasions, the access to the magistrate should be facilitated as much as possible, and his power, like that of the magistrates in Israel, should instantly compel such an observance of it, as they would have done in the like case. See before vol. ii. p. 73. 1st. edit.\u2014p. 67. 2d edit. This would rid the world of all the mischief which now accrues from the difficulties laid in the way of marriage, by ecclesiastical contrivance, and by the false policy of the marriage-act.\n\nOne would think, that in such a country as this, when we are driven to such a state of depopulation, as to make laws to invite foreigners to navigate our ships, and find ourselves obliged to allow our merchants three fourths of foreign seamen, in order to carry on our trade, (See 20 G. III. c. 20.) all the causes of depopulation should be well considered, and as many of them removed as possible; that marriage, so far from being clogged with difficulties and impediments which are solely the inventions of men, should be facilitated and encouraged, by being restored to its antient footing, as it appears to have been ordained, instituted, and regulated, by the great Lord of Heaven and Earth.\n\nThis would also, as has been already shewn at large, greatly destroy that destroyer of so many\u2014public prostitution.\u2014It would rescue multitudes of breeding women from that fatal obstacle to population, the promiscuous intercourse of the sexes\u2014it would be a means of eradicating that dreadful disease, which is the baneful consequence of it, and which, in different ways, robs us of so many people.\n\nBy recommending a restitution of the divine law, I am recommending no new invention, no Utopian scheme, no medicine for our sad and mournful state of constitution, but what has been tried and found to succeed; there is not an ingredient in it, but what has been thoroughly weighed and prepared by unerring wisdom.\u2014Let us only take a view of its effects on Israel of old, who were as the sands on the sea shore, and as the stars of heaven for multitude.\u2014The plan which they pursued was of God\u2014from whence the plan which we are pursuing is derived, or by whom devised, I should imagine the reader can be at no loss to determine, after having attentively red, and considered, the contents of this, and of the two preceding volumes.\n\nFrom the foregoing evidence it also appears, from whence we derive our oppressive and unjustifiable notions of divorce a vinculo matrimonii\u2014of permitting men to forsake women entirely, if not married to them with every given requisite of some human form, though such requisites, or the reasons of annulling marriages, which are wholly grounded on those requisites, so far from having scripture-warrant, directly oppose the mind of God as revealed in the scriptures upon the subject.\n\nWe may farther be instructed, whence is derived the depriving men of that most important privilege of divorce in case of the wife's adultery, and forbidding them to marry others during the adulteress's life, unless set free by human authority; this at so enormous an expence as few can afford.\u2014Thus is a man placed in a most cruel situation, either to share his wife with others, and be liable to the maintenance of other men's children; or, if he separates himself from her, he is reduced to all the temptations and mischiefs of a celibacy which is imposed on him by the sole tyranny of human authority, without any power whatsoever of flying to that redress, which is graciously and gratuitously afforded him by the God of nature. We have seen the dreadful consequences which attended the celibacy of the clergy\u2014we are astonished at the wickedness of those canons which enjoined it\u2014we wonder, that, to this hour, it should be continued in the Romish church\u2014we approve, and justly, in the highest terms, the banishment of it from among the Protestants\u2014how is it that we do not see, that our continuing to follow the Popish canons relative to divorce, is productive of a sort of factitious celibacy, with respect to men who cannot afford divorces on the footing on which the Pope placed them, and on which we have in effect continued them, only with having increased the expence an hundred fold, and by this having placed them so much further out of the reach of the injured\u2014how is it, I say, that we cannot see, that this sort of celibacy is attended with all the mischiefs of the other, and, without doubt, as great an incentive to adultery and whoredom, and, in consequence, to the ruin of women both married and unmarried? What difference can it possibly make to a man, whether he be left a wretched prey to his passions, because he has taken orders\u2014or because his wife is become no wife to him, and he is forbidden to take another, but on impossible terms?\n\nWe have had also laid open before us, in the preceding long testimony, the insult put on the ordinance of Heaven by the several canons which were made for preventing clandestine marriages, and making them null and void\u2014a matter which was so far from being unanimously agreed upon, even at the Popish council of Trent, that Cardinal Varmiense absented himself the day on which the voices were to be collected for the decree; and no less than fifty-three others of the council gave their voices against it\u2014\"for, that, marriage being a divine, not an human ordinance, could not be dissolved by any power of man.\u201d\u2014See before vol. ii. p. 39. 2d. edit. n.\u2014p. 41. 1st. edit. n.\n\nBy what art of logic can it be made out, that this is not as good a reason against our \"act for preventing clandestine marriages,\" as it was against the proceedings of the council of Trent? Or how can the influence of that great man, who brought in the marriage-act, and who, by dint of the weight of that influence, carried it through all its stages in parliament, create a more scriptural sanction of that law, than the influence of the Pope over the members of the council of Trent, could justify passing the decree for preventing, and making void, clandestine marriages?\n\nWe likewise may see the power assumed to vacate marriages, which are had and solemnized before a certain time of life, which is arbitrarily fixed to the age of 21 years in both parties, unless had by consent of parents and guardians. A Pope of Rome could fix the age of the man at 30, and of the woman at 25: we are more moderate\u2014but where doth God make such marriages void?\n\nThe law, antecedently to the marriage-act, stood thus, viz.\n\n\"From the age of seven to the age of twelve as to the woman, and of fourteen as to the man, they cannot contract matrimony de pr\u00e6senti, but only de futuro.\n\n\"A man, so soon as he hath accomplished the age of fourteen years, and a woman, so soon as she shall have accomplished the age of twelve years, may contract true and lawful matrimony.\n\n\"But by can. 100\u2014no children, under the age of 21 years complete, shall contract themselves without the consent of their parents or guardians, and governors, if their parents be deceased.\"\u2014It is to be observed, that here is nothing said of vacating actual marriage. See Burn's Eccl. Law, tit. Marriage, \u00a7 2.\n\nBy 25 of Hen. VIII. c. 21, power is given to the archbishop of Canterbury, to grant faculties, dispensations, and licences\u2014as the Pope had done before. This Papal power is reserved by the marriage-act to the archbishop, who, by virtue thereof, can license persons to marry at any time or place; which marriages, without such licence, would be void to all intents and purposes whatsoever! So that now, all that glorious and beneficent plan, which was ordained of God, for regulating the commerce of the sexes, and more especially for the preservation and protection of the female sex, is set aside, and we are to consider the validity of the divine ordinance of marriage, in all cases, as dependent on the laws of men, and in very many cases, as narrowed into the compass of an archbishop's licence!\u2014Deo non obstante.\n\nThus have we been brought to a thorough acquaintance with the whole doctrine of marriage, as it is in deed and in truth the ordinance of God, and as it is now in deed and in truth a creature of the state, or rather a sort of creature of Popish extraction, yet of the amphibious kind, partaking partly of ecclesiastical law, partly of the civil municipal law, but hardly a trace remaining of its antient conformity to the law of Heaven.\n\nThe effects and consequences of all this have been clearly pointed out, and laid before the public\u2014ocular demonstration proves their truth, and every day's experience brings in its evidence for the necessity of reformation.\n\nLastly, and upon the whole\u2014It does appear, that Christian churchmen have imitated the apostate Jews. The cause these had to serve was the subversion of Christianity; therefore, when \"they got the New Testament into their hands, and saw the evidences it was built upon, they turned Masorites, Rabbies, Expounders, Scribes, &c. patched up Talmuds, Mishnas, Cabbalas, &c. and at last set up that outrageous impostor Mahomet; all to facilitate their main plot.\"\u2014See Hutch. Abr. p. 205.\n\nSo when the others had framed a plan to establish a worldly kingdom, and to wield a sceptre of despotism over their subjects the laity\u2014when they saw the evidences against their whole plan, which were contained in the sacred writings\u2014they turned Commentators, Expositors, Traditionists, &c. patched up Bulls, Decrees, Canons, Synodal Determinations, &c. and set up that outrageous impostor the Pope, to facilitate their main plot against the liberties and properties, the understandings and consciences of mankind.\n\nWhereas, in truth and in fact\u2014\n\nThe whole of Jehovah's institutions was renewed to the Israelites at mount Sinai, minutely described and recorded in the law committed to their custody, and ordered to be preserved as a sacred depositum for the benefit of all nations\u2014the long succession of prophets confirmed its stability and importance\u2014and the whole of the New Testament refers us to no other foundation for the truth and obligation of all its precepts.\n\nIt follows then, that, as Jehovah created man upon the earth\u2014commanded the increase and propagation of the human species\u2014ordained the means of it\u2014circumscribed those means, by positive statutes, as to His infinite wisdom seemed good\u2014no man or men, of any description or character whatsoever, hath or have any power or authority whatsoever, to add to, diminish, change, or alter, one single statute relative to marriage, as to who may or who may not intermarry\u2014what does or does not constitute it as valid and obligatory in the sight of God, either with respect to the parties themselves, the lawfulness or unlawfulness of their issue, or any circumstance whatsoever concerning the divine ordinance delivered in the revelation of God's mind and will, and recorded in the book of the law.\n\nMuch less, if possible, have they any power or authority to forbid marriage where God hath allowed it\u2014to make that criminal which he hath made lawful\u2014that null and void which he hath established\u2014that infamous which he hath made honourable.\n\nWhat abundant reason then hath God to complain of the Christians, as he did of the Jews\u2014Ezek. v. 6.\u2014They have refused my judgments, and my statutes, they have not walked in them? And again\u2014Amos ii. 4.\u2014They have despised the law of Jehovah, and have not kept his commandments, and their lyes caused them to err, after the which their fathers have walked.\n\nMany other remarks might be made from the foregoing long detail of incontestible evidence, which probably have not escaped the intelligent reader's observation; I do not at all wish they should, as each of them must tend to discover the frauds and fallacies which have been made use of, to wean the minds of people from the great and only standard of all truth, and to conciliate a reverence and esteem for the traditions and inventions of men; thus to emancipate them from the commandments of God, and to bring them into that worse than \u00c6gyptian bondage, a blind submission and subjugation of their understandings to the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. Eph. iv. 14.\n\nThe undeniable proofs of this, are too glaring to be denied, with the least pretence to fairness; and afford a very useful caution, against believing things to be true, because they make a part of a popular system, or of a national religion. We have seen how many forgeries and lyes have grown into credit and reverence, merely from their introduction by men in power, and their having acquired consequence by length of time. We have seen how the coercive terror of capital punishment has been made use of to inforce a veneration for falshood, and the terrors of heresy and schism brandished at the heads of those, who have dared to oppose scripture to human tradition. We have seen laws of God annihilated, and laws of men put in their place. We have seen Christianity made incompatible with the statutes of Heaven, and the statutes of Heaven repealed by Popish canons, and acts of parliament. All this, and much more, ejusdem farin\u00e6, we have seen.\u2014I leave it to the common sense and reason of every judicious and observant person to determine\u2014what we still see.\u2014And to Him, who is alone the supreme disposer of all events\u2014whose ways are not our ways, and whose thoughts are not our thoughts\u2014do I most humbly, submissively, and unreservedly, leave whatever shall be seen hereafter: most assuredly believing, as most fully persuaded, let appearances be what they may to the eye of human wisdom, that a time will come, when the kingdoms of this world\u2014however now divided by human policy\u2014deceived by ecclesiastical contrivance\u2014imposed on by priestcraft\u2014misled by folly\u2014or blinded by superstition\u2014will become the kingdoms of Jehovah and His Christ\u2014and that the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea. See Is. xi. 9. Rev. xi. 15. Then will the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, be found in exact harmony with each other\u2014and the burden of both be\u2014Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty!\u2014just and true are thy ways, thou King of Saints! Rev. xv. 3.\n\nReferences:","title":"Thelyphthora/Volume 3/Chapter 14","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":10768}