NUPTIAE SACRE; OR, AN INQUIRY INTO THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE OF MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. ADDRESSED TO THE TWO HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT. FIRST PUBLISHED, WITHOUT A NAME, IN 1801, AND NOW ACKNOWLEDGED PREFACE. THE following Treatise was first published in 1801. It appeared without a name; but the writer was not long undiscovered; and, as it contains a discussion of some of those passages of Scripture which have been recently brought into debate, repeated applications have been made to me for it. Having only my own copy, and not knowing where to procure another, I have therefore complied with the solicitation to reprint it. The circumstances which first induced me to enter into this question are stated in the opening, and towards the conclusion, of the pamphlet. Though not essential to the argument, they occupy but a small space; they serve to excuse my interference with a public debate; and they will convey to the reader the impressions which, at the moment, were made on society by the subject itself. It is only necessary to add, that the Prelate, so often mentioned in the course of this discussion, was DR. HORSLEY, then Bishop of Rochester. I had the honour of some acquaintance with him before the dispute arose; and I must always look back, with pleasure, to those early opportunities of meeting him which were kindly afforded to me by the late Archbishop of Canterbury, at Lord Auckland's residence near Bromley. It is a still greater satisfaction to my mind to state, that, after the first emotions occasioned by the discussion, he desired to see me again, and that the interview took place at the house of our common friend, the late Dean of Westminster. |