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beonites, though given against his own express command, as he did alfo the like cafe of Perjury in Zedekiah to Nebuchadnezzar. And as keeping of Faith obliges by the Law of Nations, fo particularly of that Faith which is given in Matrimony, which is common to all Nati ons, as well thofe that are not, as those that are of the Peculium. Here therefore, God is obliged by the Rules of his general Providenc to oblige them to keep their Faith formerly given, and ratified by the Religion they then believed true, how falfe foever it was really. This it was that obliged the true God to revenge Affronts offered to the falfe Gods when it was neceffary for the good government of Mankind in general, and to oblige them to the performance of thofe Duties which himself had imposed on them in thofe earlier times of freer communication with Mankind in general, before the election of the Peculium, and before the evil Spirits were permitted to interpofe in the received Religions of other Nations. Footfteps we have hereof, even in the later Hiftories, in the very remarkable Vengeance that followed the robbers of the Delphick Donaries, on the Phoceans and the Galls, and on Cambyfes for his mad attempts on Apis and the Oracle of Jupiter Hammon. Thus therefore God obliged Converts to perform the Faith of their Matrimonial Contracts made by their Heathen. Religions in the ftate of their common Infidelity, according to his own explication of his own Law, in his Revelations to the true Peculium, that their Marriages fhould be for term of Life. This being fo, it must follow farther, that, if God was pleafed, at the Baptifm of the believing Confort, fo far to fanctifie the unbelieving Confort for the fake of the Believer, in

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relation to their common Seed; it must be fo understood, that the Santification extends as far as the Marriage which is thus confecrated by a postnate Act of God in favour of the Believer. If therefore the Marriage laft for Life, and cannot be diffolved, nor defeated, without the confent of the Confort; the Confecration must also be for the fame term of Life, and therefore must affect the following Seed alfo, as well as that of which they were poffeffed, at the time of the Convert's Baptifm. For the Confecration of Marriage, even between Be lievers, is never repeated, but being once validly performed, reaches to the whole Life, becaufe God has ordained that the Marriage fhould do fo too. And the fame Reasoning holds alfo in this cafe of which I am now dif courfing, where both are Infidels, at least in proportion, by the Principles of Christianity. So reafonable it is, that the grace of God should confecrate what it finds, according to the Do&trine of Tertullian, not only as to the Confort. in relation to their common Seed, but as to the Marriage it felf. And foreafonable it is withal, that this Confecration once perfected, fhould laft for Life. The renunciation of the Devil in Baptifm by the convert Confort, being openly owned, is fufficient to clear the living in fuch a Marriage, (when the unbelieving Confort is known to fubmit to it on fuch terms) from any pretence of any Agreement between Chrift and Belial.

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Nor does this Benefit which common Chil S. XLII. dren received for the fake of one fingle Parent, This allowing feem to have been fingular among the Jews, benefit of one but feems rather to have been common to them fingle Parent's with other Nations, when fuch fingle Parents incorporation, were incorporated. The Shechemites were re was received by ceived other Nations.

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ceived fo as to make one Nation, the holy Na tion of the Peculium with the Jews, only on the Circumcifion of their Males, without any other A&t of incorporating their Wives and Children. No mention here of any Sacrifices, or Baptifms, which the Rabbins pretend neceffary for incorporating Women. So Appius Claudius with all his dependent Clients were admitted out of the Sabins into the Romans. So Mu tines the Carthaginian. So the Ancestors of Velleius. No mention in any of these is made but of the Men, when yet there is no doubt but their whole Families, their Wives and Children, were included in the Naturalization. So in Athens, thofe of mixt Extraction were counted Athenians, and capable of their higheft Honours, as is manifeft in the cafe of The miftocles: Yet were reckoned inferior in Nobility, as appears from their diftinct Gymnafium in the Cynofarges. Thence the diftinct Patria of thofe of mixt Extraction. Mneftheus, the Son of Ipbicrates by a Thracian King's Daughter, thought himself more obliged to his Mother, because his Father had done what lay in him to make him a Thracian, but it was his Mothers choice of an Athenian Husband that had intitled him to the more honourable name of an Athenian. So Abimelech reckoned himfelf a Sichemite because his Mother was fo, and by that Plea got their affistance in murthering his Seventy Brethren by one common Father Gideon. So Cyrus was called by the Oracle or as a Perfo-Medus; a Perfian by his Father Cambyfes, and a Mede by his Mo ther Mandane. Multitudes of the like Examples may be given, by which it appears, that the common fue was intitled both to the Fa milies and to the Countries of both their Pa

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rents. Had it not been fo, there had been no reason why the Blafphemer who was born of an Egyptian Father by a Jewish Mother, Lev. xxiv. 11. fhould have chofen rather to follow his Mother, an exile, than have kept to the fettled condition of his Father and his Father's Relations in Egypt. Efpecially in fuch a dif mal Profpect which fo frequently provoked the paternal Ifraelites to Murmurings and Defertions. It was hardly poffible, that Faith I could have been the cause of it in fuch an af fronter of the Tutelar God of his Mother's Na tion. Thus the reafon given by Tertullian, may very well account for the indiffolubleness of thefe Marriages whilft both Conforts were engaged in the ftate of Infidelity, though af terwards one of them fhould be profelyted to the true Peculium. Poffibly it might have been the reafon actually infifted on by the Jews, and received from them, together with the practice of thefe Doctrines, from the very beginnings of our Chriftian Religion, and the infallible Age of the Apoftles. Tertullian is the earliest Chri ftian Latin Writer extant, and fo near that happy Age of the Apostles, that it could not be difficult for him to know the reafon actually infifted on, both by the Jews and Chriftians, at leaft of his own Age. And it was not eafie for any reason of this common Practice, to have. been generally received by both of them then, if it had not been derived from the Doctrine of their common Ancestors of the former Age. Nor was it eafily poffible for it to have been fo derived, if it had not been actually true, according to the admirable Reafonings of this fame Tertullian in his excellent Book de Prafcriptionibus.

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§. XLIII. I now proceed to examine his account of the The Reafoning other cafe, concerning the nullity of Marriages of Tertullian, why Marriages contracted with Infidels by thofe who are al of Believers ready Members of the true Peculium. His reabefore Marriage, fon here is, that when that Member was conwith Unbelie- fecrated by the Grace of God, that Grace did vey no Holi-not find him in poffeffion of his Infidel Confort, nefs to an un- and therefore did not neceffarily extend to the believing Con- Confort he was pleafed to engage with afterfort, explained wards. This fhews the cafe of 100 fuch Conand improved. forts really feparable in their Confecration, becaufe the grace of God, the Author of the Confecration, confecrated the believing Confort a lone before the other was qualified to receive the Confecration, and before there were any inSeparable interefts of both in one common Seed, that made it impoffible for the Believer to inJoy his privilege in that common Seed, unless the demerits of the Unbeliever were paffed by in favour to the Believer. But at the Baptifm of the believing Confort, he was not only fandified in his own Perfon, but fo far alfo fan&tified in relation to his Seed, that he was inabled to qualifie his Seed, fo far as it was his, to be counted holy alfo. This put it perfectly in his power to have a Holy Seed if himself pleafed, that is, if he would confine himself to fuch a Confort as might have the fame right with him for fanctifying their common Iffue. And there is no reason to expect, that God fhould provide Remedies for Inconveniences which Men draw upon themselves by the perverfe and ingrateful ufe of their own free Wills. And there is the lefs reafon to expect it in the cafe for which I am concerned at prefent, becaufe God has been pleased to forbid fuch Mar riages with Perfons unqualified by his own Law for deriving a Holiness to their common Seed.

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