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fidel? and, What agreement bath the Temple of God with Idols? 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15, 16. Plainly he fuppofes these things to be the cafe of them who are unequally yoked, ver. 14. No doubt the fame cafe spoken of 1 Cor. vii. of marrying out of the Peculium: But of this more hereafter. And the Reafoning holds for it, which the Apostle makes use of in the fame cafe. For as in Chriftian Marriages, the Head of the Woman is the Man, and the Head of the Man is Chrift, and the Head of Chrift is God; fo for the fame Reafon in the Marriage of an Infidel, the Head is Belial. Becaufe in both cafes, the Union with the Deity was, as I have thewn, Matrimonial. Hence appears the force of the Apoftle's Reafoning, and withal that the confequence is folid, That, in cafe one of the Peculium married an Infidel, there would be indeed a novevia between Chrift and Belial. For nowvavia, on his Principles, is with the Head, Col. ii. 19. And in fuch Marriages, the notion of a Head to fuch a married couple agrees both to Chrift and Belial. This fhews the abJurdity of fuch Marriages, and withal the nullity of them, that they fuppofed a Communion between them who were indeed incapable of any Communion. This might have poffibly been the cafe of the Midianitish Women, that they who married them were married to them according to the custom of the Midianites: For they are faid to have been joined to Baal Peor, Numb. xxv. 3. Pf. cv. 28. The word used by the lxxii. is, then, the fame which is used commonly by the Heathens for their initia or Myfteries. Their Symbols for their Myfteries, related generally to Marriage: But none more fo than thefe of Priapus, who is generally taken for the fame Deity with the Midianitish

Baal

Baal Peor. He might therefore well be taken for a God of Matrimony. The cafe might otherwise have been, that they prostituted their Maids in their Temples, into which none of another Nation might have accefs without initiation to the Deities to whom their Temples were devoted. Herodotus mentions this as a peculiar custom of the Syrians, that they did not think these Proftitutions inconfiftent with the facredness of their Temples. And the Worship of Succoth Benoth to another Syrian Deity, al- Vid. Selden, de luded to in the Book of Baruch, was of a not Diis Syr. unlike nature. But the wickednefs of Zimri and Cozbi was in Zimri's own Tent, not in a Temple. I therefore rather incline to believe, that the Ceremonies of Midianitish Marriages were here alluded to, which would be of more univerfal confequence as to the cafe of contracting foreign Alliances. There were indeed lefs noble Degrees of Marriage wherein Religion was lefs concerned. Among the Romans Confarreation was the most honourable Degree of all, as it had most of Religion in it. Ufus and Coemptio were lefs ceremonious, if they had indeed any Religion in them. Concubinate might be with Slaves, and was by God himself allowed the Ifraelites. But Slaves were reckoned of the Family, and therefore of the Nation of their Patrons. They were not therefore aliens in the Eye of the Jewish Law, whatever their Extraction was. The fame was the cafe of Profelytes; and Foreigners might, on those terms, be admitted as Wives to Jews. So Rabab was to Salmon, and Ruth to Boaz. The Profelytifm made them holy themselves, and therefore no way prejudicial to the holiness of the Seed that should proceed from them. And this was indeed no more than what was in rea

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S. XIV.

Dinah denied till he was Cir

to Shechem

cumcifed.

fon to be expected from them, if they would, by their Marriage, pafs into the Sacra of their Husbands, on the Principles now mentioned. The Marriages with Foreigners, forbidden in the Scriptures, were of the Foreigners ftill perfifting in their foreign Religions, and of Marriages as diftinct from Concubinate: And of fuch Wives and fuch Marriages, there could be no ufe without an Act of Communion with another, and that an unlawful, Religion. And this indeed had been a Concord between the Temple of God and Idols. Yet it was generally the cafe of Legal Marriages with Foreigners. It certainly polluteth the holiness of the Seed to be defcended from one Parent at least, who in the very Act of Marriage avowedly communicated with the Devil.

So agreeable was this Prohibition of Foreign Marriages to the Notions and Reafonings of that Age, from the nature of a Holy Seed. So it appears, it was underftood by the practice of those who were moft obfervant of their Duties, from the first complete Conftitution of a Holy Seed. That firft complete Conftitution began from the third Patriarch Jacob: His Seed were all holy. From Abraham none was fo but Ifaac, not Ishmael, nor the Sons by Keturah. From Ifaac none but Jacob, not Efau, though of the fame Mother, and of the fame Birth. From that time, the firft inftance was a famous one in the cafe of the Shechemites; and in that the Sons of Jacob are very pofitive in denying Marriages with the Uncircumcifed. We cannot, fay they, do this thing, to give our Sifter to one that is Uncircumcifed; for that were a Reproach unto us. But in this will we confent unto you: If ye will be as we be, that every Male of you be circumcifed. Then will we give

our

our Daughters to you, and we will take your Daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one People. But if ye will not hearken unto us, to be circumcifed, then will we take our Daughter, and we will be gone, Gen. xxxiv. 14, 15, 16, 17. The reproach here fpoken of, is plainly that which belonged to Perfons uncircumcifed. So, when the Ifraelites were circumcifed by Fofhua who had not been circumcifed in the Wilderness, God tells him, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you, Jofh. v. 9. For it was indeed a reproach to them, to have fo long neglected the performance of the Condition of a Covenant fo very beneficial to them, and fo much boafted of above what other Nations could pretend. The Word is on, tranflated by the Greek Interpreters, "Oved in one place, and 'Ovidius in the other. It properly denotes the charge of an Adverfary in a Legal Court. So the fame Word is joined with neiris, 1 Sam. xxv. 39. Ος ἔκεινε ἢ κρίσιν τὸ ὀνειδισμό με Proper ly of an w, or did, of a legal forinfic Accufer. So the Latin Word Calumnia is ufed, S. Luke iii. 14. Neq; calumniam faciatis, answering the Greek, und unoparlhosle. As the calumnia fifci Fudaici fublata, in Nerva's Coins, fignifies the legal Actions that were granted by Vefpafian against the Jews, to force them to pay their Tribute to the Temple of Peace at Rome, which had formerly been paid. to God's Temple at Jerufalem. Thus therefore this Hebrew Word will fignifie the legal Action granted to the Devil, the accufer of the Brethren, against the Members of the Peculium, for violations of the Covenant on their part. Thus the Devil is faid to ftand at the right hand of Fofbua, the Son of Jozedek, as an Accufer,

D. 4

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Zach.

Zach. iii. I. I am apt to think, for this very Reafon, that fome of his Sons were concerned in this guilt of marrying foreign Wives, Rev. x. 18. This was very fitly reprefented by the fil thy Garments wherein Fofhua does thus appear, Zach. iii. 3. as being a defilement of the Priesthood in those who were guilty of it, Neh. xiii. 29. And the taking away the filthy Garments from Fofhua, Zach. iii. 4. is a very proper Prophetick Symbol of the expiation of that Pollution, by their putting away the Wives, and Children alfo, that were born of those impure Marriages, and their Sin offering for having contracted them, Ezr. x. 19. But this was ra ther a difhonour to the Family than the Perfon of Fofhuah. But in regard of the Alliances contracted by thofe Marriages to the whole Fami ly, and the Patriarchal Right of Heads of Fa milies in thofe times, either for hindering fuch Marriages at firft, or for diffolving them afterwards, it might involve in the Guilt others, befides those who had perfonally contracted them Efpecially fuch a. Perfon as Joshua, who was a Head of the polluted Family. So S. Fuftin Martyr, makes this the cafe of Foshua. Only he mistakes it, as if it had been the cafe of Joshua bimfelf, which was only the cafe of fome of his Patriarchal Family. 'Inous enervó λεγόμενο υπό το προφήτε ἱερος, νωρα ἱμάτια φάνη φορῶς διὰ τὸ γωαῖκα πόρω ελέχθαι εἰληφέναι aurov. Dialog. cum Tryph. p. 344. I have elfewhere obferved, that the Piaculum contracted by thefe unholy Marriages, is called wogveld. So wogveia is ufed by S. Juftin himself, p. 361. So alfo it is imprecated as a Curfe against wicked Men, that Satan fhould ftand at their right band, Pf. cix. 6. that is, fhould have this liberty granted him of accufing them. This Action

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