There is an expreffion in ver. 22. which may be jusly confidered as an infallible key to the. Apoftle's whole meaning. That is, that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together till now. Now, it is plain, that the creation, which groaneth and travaileth is that very creature who waiteth for the manifeflation of the fons of God; and fhall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the fons of God. Whatever part of the creation, therefore, fuffers under any kind or degree of imperfection, may be justly confidered as groaning and travailing in pain, and by confe. quence as candidates for redemption and immortality. Now, no part of the creation is exempted from the bondage of corruption; so no part fhall be excluded from the univerful deliverance; fo that whatever fuffers by the fall, fhall be reftored into the glorious liberty of the fons of God.

42. I fhall now give you a plain paraphrafe of the paffage. "The ftruggles and diftreffes of the vifible creation are strong indications of an univerfal degeneracy, from which they feem to labour and figh for deliverance, and which they fhall certainly obtain at the glorious appearance of their great Redeemer, who fhall come with his angels, to triumph over fin and death, to repair the ruins of fallen nature, and eftablish the kingdom of God upon this very earth, in which his will fhall be done as it is in heaven. For the vanity and mifery under which they now groan, was not the effect of any tranfgreffion of their own, but was brought upon them by our first parents, but under a certain hope of redemption, by the all-fufficient merits of our Lord Jefus Chrift, who is their Saviour as well as ours; when he fhall have accomplifhed the number of his elect, and begun to establish his kingdom: then fhall the whole vifible creation be reftored and be partakers of the bleffings and glories of the kingdom of God. At prefent we fee the whole creation subject to vanity and death, from which, like a woman in travail, it labours to be delivered, but has not ftrength to bring forth,

nor

nor can hope for deliverance till the great Redeemer fhall reftore whatever has been decayed."

43. That the Brue-Creation are intereffed in this great event, is attefted by many prophecies of the Old Testament. Thus, Ifa. xi. 6, 7, 8, 9, fpeaking of the peaceful and glori ous reign of the Mefliah, illuftrates it in a particular manner, by the harmony that shall be restored through the whole animal creation. "The wolf alfo fhall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard fhall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child fhall lead them. And the cow and the bear fhall feed, their young-ones fhall lie down together, and the lion shall eat ftraw like the ox. And the fucking child fhall play on the hole of the afp, and the weaned child fhall put his hand on the cockatrice den: they fhall not hurt nor deftroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth fhall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the fea." So again, chap. lxv. 25, "The wolf and the lamb fhall feed together, and the lion fhall eat ftraw like the bullock, and duft fhall be the serpent's meat; they fhall not hurt nor defiroy in all my holy mountain, faith the Lord." The Prophet Hofea foretels the fame thing, chap. ii. 18, "In that day will I make a covenant for them with the beafts of the field, and the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground, who fhall lose the malignity, which was employed to fcourge and punish their rebellious lord; all the enmity of the creatures fhall ceafe; the difcordant motions of the elements fhall be entirely fwallowed up in univerfal harmony, peace and love. And the glory of the Lord fhall endure for ever: the Lord fhall rejoice in his works, Pfal. civ. 51.

VOL. VI.

4 L

An

An Anfwer to Mr. Madan's Treatife on Polygamy and Marriage: in a Series of Letters to the Rev. J. Welley: by J. Benfon.

20.

B

[Continued from page 602.]

UT Mr. Madan fays, "As to the divorces which Mofes Mr. permitted, (Vol. 2. p. 23.) it was a mere toleration to avoid worse confequences, if thofe hard hearted Jews had been forced to keep their hated wives. It was no repeal, or even suspension of God's pofitive law, but only operated as an exemption from the cenfure of the magiftrate." And as to Deut. xxiv. 1--4, he observes in a note on P. 87. Vol. 1, "That the custom of putting away wives, is in that place, neither approved by Mofes, nor plainly condemned, but left, as it were, indifferent. And the obfervation of our Saviour, that this permiffion was given by Mofes, because of the hardness of their hearts, fufficiently makes it appear, that the Mofaical indulgence, doth not amount to an approbation, but fignifies only a bare toleration, or connivance, exempting from civil punishment." Now apply these observations to Polygamy, and you have, at once, a true reason why it was connived at under that imperfect difpenfation, and alfo a fufficient answer to every argument Mr. Madan has brought from the Old Teftament in favour of it. "It was only tolerated to avoid worse consequences, if that fickle and lewd people had been confined to one wife each. There was no repeal or even fufpenfion of God's law from the beginning, whereby one male was bound to one female; but only by an exception from the cenfure of the magiftrate." And as to Deut. xxi. 15, &c. the "custom of marrying more wives than one, is in that place neither approved by Mofes, nor plainly condemned, but left, as it were, indifferent." And the obfervation of our Saviour, refpecting Divorce, which is equally true of Poly

gamy,

gamy, "That this permiffion was given by Mofes, because of the hardness of their hearts, fufficiently intimates that the Mofaical indulgence doth not amount to an approbation, but fignifies only a bare toleration, exempting from civil punishment."

21. And now let Mr. Madan take the fide he likes best. Let him either give up his whole argument from the law of Mofes, in favour of Polygamy, and allow us to believe (as he fays of Divorce, Vol. 2. P. 12, "That thefe are things peculiar to the Jews at that time, and cannot concern us, because as we live under the general law against Polygamy, delivered, Gen. ii. 24, which equally binds all mankind, it is most assuredly unlawful for us to marry more wives than one." Or let him allow us to plead for Circumcifion and Divorce on the fame footing. To this dilemina we tie him down, and defy him to avoid one fide or the other of it. As to example, though I reverence in many things, the character of Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon, and fome other Polygamists, mentioned in the Old Teftament; and though I believe the two former of them Abraham and Jacob, were both led into Polygamy undefignedly, when they intended nothing lefs, Abraham by his unthinking wife, through her over eager defire of a child, and Jacob by his crafty and idolatrous father-in-law, Laban, in whofe country Polygamy feems to have been customary, and who wished to have both his daughters married to this profperous man; and though I think, they were all influenced by a defire of multiplying the holy feed, which rendered their cafe fomewhat excufeable; yet I believe they are not wholly to be defended in thus deviating from the original law of marriage; any more than fome of them are to be defended in deviating from the original law of truth, decency and love, in their equivocating, lying, acting the madman, or curfing their enemies, of which one might give feveral inftances. But we have caufe to be thankful that we live under a better difpenfation, attended

with clearer light and greater privileges, and pregnant with brighter examples, and may wonder Mr. Madan, a Preacher of the gospel of Chrift, should be fo little acquainted with that ceconomy, of which he is a minifter, as not to know, that though the law made nothing perfect, yet the bringing in of a better hope did: and that gospel purity is by no means to be measured by Jewish attainments. What is it to us what Jacob, David or Solomon did under their twilight difpenfation? So far as they did right, it is our duty to follow them; but wherein they did wrong they are no examples to us.

22. As to the inftances Mr. Madan produces of God's bleling fome of these after-marriages, as much as the firft, and the fecond women, being fome of them, chofen to be the ancestors of Chrift, if this argument proves any thing, it will prove too much: it will prove the lawfulness of inceft, adultery and murder; for it may be faid on this gronnd, Judah's inceft with his daughter Tamar, was fo owned and approved by God, that fhe brought forth twins in confequence of that act, one of whom was the Ancestor of Chrift; and David's taking Bathfhebah, though attended with the murder of Uriah, was fo countenanced and bleffed by God, that he was chofen in preference to all David's wives to be the mother of Solomon, both an eminent type and progenitor of Chrift, and also, fave in the matter of Polygamy, the wifeft King that ever lived, fo that there would be no end of this way of arguing. It might be carried any length. Allowing then Mr. Madan to make the beft of this argument, it will only prove, that those who in that fhadowy difpenfation, influenced by cuftom (to which unhappy Lamech had given birth) practifed it, did not knowingly and wilfully commit fin, and therefore not rejected by God. But it will never prove, that it is equally excufeable, and may be practifed with as little blame under a clearer and more perfect difpenfation, wherein the law of Marriage, that was from the beginning, being fully explained by Chrift, is better underflood.

23. Inafmuch