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§. XXVII.

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Argument will still proceed, that, in Deities irreconcilable, there can be no myftical wherein both Conforts can partake, which m utterly invalidate fuch Marriages, fo far as th are myftical, or as they depend on thofe t are fo.

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The fame Apostle urges: And, what agr a And the Agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols? T the Temple of Greek fo; Tisousxalateris va en A God and Idols. Aay; The word oufalabeos in the Difputs between the Pyrrhonians and Academicks, a Stoicks, fignifies the affent which is given the parlaria, that is to thofe firft Opinion which we are apt to entertain concerning the goodness or evilness of things upon their fu appearance before we have throughly confidered th them. Thence it is not unfitly drawn, to fig nifie the Matrimonial Affent alfo that was then t given to the Matrimonial Stipulations which were then propofed by way of Questions, ac cording to the Form prescribed by the Roman Law then in ufe. The force therefore of the Apostle's Argument feems to lye in this, that the Soul that has received the Supreme Being for her Head and Husband, as fhe was fuppo fed to have done in the myftical part of Chri ftian Matrimony, ought not for fhame to give her affent to a Rival fo odious as an Idol would be, or rather the Devil who was supposed to poffefs the Idol, as fhe muft do by marrying one who had Communion with him, 1 Cor. x. 21. The rather, because the antecedent poffeffion of the true God had given him a right that could not leave her at liberty for any new difpofal of her felf of the like nature. The rather, because this way of Reasoning fuppofes the like pof feffion of Perfons devoted to the worship of evil Spirits by the evil Spirits adored by them

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there is by the Supreme Being in his own culium. This is plainly fuppofed, that as abitation of the true God in the Members the true Peculium, makes fuch Members mples of the fupreme Being by which they e inhabited, fo alfo that the worshippers of ls were themfelves idea, (that is the poftle's word for Temples of Idols, 1 Cor. i. 10.) as poffeffed by the Idols, who were e Deities of the Temples frequented by them. he name Idol here is not taken for the age, but for the Archetypal Damon which as reprefented by the Image. That was the e rival Deity oppofed here to the God of e true Peculium. The confent therefore to Marriage with an Unbeliever, was fo far inrpretatively a confent to be poffeffed by the eity of the unbelieving Conforts, as the Marage was to make them one Body and one lefh, in order to the communicating in the ame Family Sacra. For this would make hem both one Temple, fo that the Deities adoed by each of them would fo far be intitled o poffefs them both, as both of them had a greed by their Matrimonial Contract to make one Temple. Thus the foederally boly Confort, as confenting to make one Temple with an Idolater poffeffed by the Idol owned by it, muft alfo, by neceffary confequence, confent to be a Temple to the Idol. Thus the true God and the Idol would be ouraos, (fo those Deities were called, who were by mutual confent fup. pofed to agree to be worshipped in the fame Temple) which the Apoftle fuppofes could never hope for a ratification by the God of the true Peculium. This Reasoning illustrates the former Arguments also.

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§. XXVIII. It follows: For ye are the Temple of the Our being Tem- living God: As God hath faid, I will dwell in ples of the true God, as under- them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, Stood in that and they shall be my People. In the Greek Age, made a Ὑμεῖς τὸ ναὸς Θεῖ ἔσε ζῶν, καθὼς εἶπεν ὁ Θεὸς, Matrimonial ὅτι ἐνοικήσω ἐν αὐτοῖς, καὶ ἐμπεριπατήσω· καὶ ἔσομαι Union with αὐτῇ Θεὸς, καὶ αὐτοὶ ἔσονταί μοι λαός. There words those who were have a double relation: As they connect with not Temples impoffible. thofe that go before, or with those that fol low after. As they connect with those which went before, they contain a proof of that Propofition on which the Apostle's Reafon ing had been grounded, That the Members of the true Peculium were indeed Temples of the true God, as his Argument fuppofed. This God He calls the living God, according to p the received Language of the Old Teftament, i in oppofition to the Idols who are fuppofed, in the fame Language, to be Nothings, Va nities, to have no action of Life, nor vital t Principle to have Eyes that did not fee, and t Ears that did not hear, and Feet that could not d go, nor to have any Breath in their Mouths, is This was truly the fenfe of St. Paul, that an Idol was indeed nothing in the World, 1 Cor. viii. x. 4. X. 19. Not but that evil Spirits were permitted by God to interpofe in the name of their Archetypal Deities, but because these were not really the Beings to whom the Worfhip was defigned in the opinion of the Heathen Worshippers. They were nothing of what their Worshippers took them for, who thought them good, though finite Beings. This living God is faid voer, as ox is frequently in the Old Teftament taken for the Temple of God, and as St. Paul himself calls the Church of God his Houfe. He is alfo faid to walk in them, which is an Expreffion fignifying his care of his own

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ople. So he is faid to walk in the midst of e Camp of Ifrael, to deliver them, Deut. xxiii. So his care of the Seven Churches of Afia defcribed by his walking in the midst of the ven golden Candlefticks, Rev. ii. 1. The Mephor may be taken from the Watchmen going out the City, Cant. iii. 3. v.7. Or from the

on among the Athenians perambulating the lears of the Furifdiction of their City, which ight have been antient, and common to them ith many Eaftern Cities, as it is certain may other of their Cuftoms were. So Homer conerning the Patronage of Apollo over Cylla Ος κύλλαν ἀμφιβεβήκεις. Only this Expreffion f walking in the midst of them, feems more mphatical for fignifying God's nearness and ntimacy to his Peculium above that of the Pa rons of other Nations, a thing particularly bferved in the Scriptures as a Prerogative of he true Peculium, and boafted of accordingly, Deut. iv. 7. xxx. 14. Pfal. lxxv. I. cxix. 151. And this does more favour his inhabiting them. This was alfo owned of the Supreme Being in the Philofophical Religion of the Platonifts by Porphyry and Hierocles, that he inhabited good Men like Temples. Nay, one of thofe Oracles from whence they took these Notions of their Philofophical Religion, tells us, that he delights in fuch Temples as much as in Heaven it felf: Ευσεβέσιν ἢ βρο]οῖς γάνυμαι τόσον ὅσον ὀλύμποῳ. Yet however far the Chriftians believed the Gods to be, that were worshipped by the Heathens from their Worshippers; they notwithstanding believed the Devils who perfonated their Gods, and who really received their Worship, to be as near to their Worshippers as their Admirers themselves pretended. They fuppose those Devils to poffefs them, and accordingly exor

§. XXIX.

cifed them from them, before they thought them pure enough to receive the holy Baptif mal Spirit. This was the fenfe of the Church in the earliest Ages after the Apoftles. Nor does it seem herein different from the fenfe of the Apostles themselves. The Scriptures them felves fpeak of their firft Converfions as immediately from the power of Satan to God. And all thofe places, which suppose those who are out of the true Peculium to be in darkness, must consequently fuppofe them under the power of the Rulers of the Darkness of this World, Eph. vi. 12. who can be no others than Devils. This Reafoning therefore muft neceffarily make God and the Devil joint Inhabitants in thofe Marriages which are contracted with Conforts out of the Peculium. Which being impoffible, proves confequently the nullity and invalidity of fuch Marriages, according to the true defign of the Apoftle, arguing from the ef fential incongruity of the things here pretended to be united in this myftical Unity.

I now therefore proceed to confider thefe Our being Tem- fame Words in relation to the Sequel in these ples obliges us words: Wherefore come out from among them, to feparate from fuch Mar- and be ye feparate, faith the Lord, and touch riages as null not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.

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The Greek thus; Διὸ ξέλθετε εκ μέσα αυτόν, κ ἀφορίπητε, λέξι κύριΘ, καὶ ἀκαθάρτε μὴ ἅπληθε κἀγὼ εἰσδέξομαι ὑμᾶς. Here the Reafoning is from the Holiness of the God inhabiting in them, to fhew the confequent duty of Holiness in the Peculium, if they would behave themselves an Swerably to the Favour received by them. From God's walking in the midst of his People, it is inferred, that they ought alfo to come out from the midft of whatever is offenfive to him. By the Reasoning already mentioned, that he might See

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