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Дир

A

TREATISE

Concerning

MARRIAGE.

M

ARRIAGE is an Ordinance of God, inftituted in Paradife in the Time of our firft Parents, for their comfortable Abiding here, and leaving Pofterity after them; and Men and Women have been the more happy therein, as they have had Regard to the Counsel of God, and his providential Hand, in choofing fuch as feared the Lord, and were true Worshippers of him, and avoiding those who were Idolaters, and fuch as feared not the true God.

And that in fuch their Caution, their Proceeding was agreeable to the A 2 Law

Law of God in the Heart, is very apparent; for when the Will and Mind of God was committed to Writing, and promulgated to Ifrael, his peculiar People, Deuter. vii. 3, 4. Ipeaking of the Nations who inhabited the promised Land, he said,

Neither halt thou make Mar"riages with them; thy Daughter "thou shalt not give unto his Son, "nor his Daughter fhalt thou take "unto thy Son. Because," said the Lord, "THEY WILL TURN AWAY THY SON FROM FOLLOWING ME."

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Now if this be the Confequence of fuch mixt Marriages, then fuch Marriages are ftill unlawful; and the Law in Force that forbids them. But that the Confequence of fuch Marriages is still the fame, I appeal not only to the Witness of God in all, but alfo unto found Reason and true Experience.

Moreover, the Prohibition aforefaid was not intended against these Seven Nations only, but had a more general

general Extent; for the Ifraelites were not allowed to take them Wives of the Daughters of Ashdod, of Ammon, or of Moab; and, for the fame Reafon, not of any other People that were not circumcifed, and made Partakers of the true Worship of God.

This appears from the Words of Nehemiah, Chap. xiii. 23, 24, 25. "In those Days," faid he, "alfo "faw I Jews that had married Wives "of Afhdod, of Ammon, and of "Moab; and their Children fpake "half in the Speech of Ashdod, and "could not speak in the Jews Lan

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guage. And I contended with "them, and made them renew their "Covenant with the Lord, faying, "Ye fhall not give your Daughters "unto their Sons; nor take their

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Daughters unto your Sons." Adding, ver. 26, 27. "Did not Solomon,

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King of Ifrael, fin by these Things? "Yet among many Nations was "there no King like him, who was "beloved of his God: Nevertheless,

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" even him did ftrange Women caufe "to fin. Shall we then, faid he, "hearken unto you to do all this

great Evil, to tranfgrefs against "our God, in marrying ftrange "Wives?"

Thus, in fhort, we fee how fuch Marriages are against the written Law of God, and the Practice of his faithful People.

But long before this Law was delivered in Writing, the holy Patriarchs, and fuch as feared and worshipped the true God, fhewed a Diflike of fuch mixt Marriages, from the Sense of the Law written in their Hearts. And fo long as they kept in the true Faith, and at a lawful Distance from fuch as were not Partakers thereof with them (which for fome Time they did) the Lord was with them, and bleffed them, and made them inftrumental in his Hand for the withholding his Wrath from being presently poured out upon the

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old World. But when they had generally departed from his Covenant, and from the Example of the Righteous, even in this particular Cafe, mark what followed.

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"It came to pafs, when Men began to multiply on the Face of "the Earth, and Daughters were "born unto them, that the Sons of "God faw the Daughters of Men, "that they were fair; and they took "them Wives of all that they chofe," Gen. vi. 1, 2. That is, they made no Distinction upon the Account of Faith and Religion: But to whomfoever their fleshly Minds inclined, them they took to Wife, (like the dishonourable and unchriftian Practice of fome in our Day,) fuch who were known and diftinguished from the Children of God, by the Name of the Children of Men, being, in the main of their Converfation, without a godlike or religious Mark : And, it is faid, "God faw that the "Wickedness of Man was great in A 4 "the

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