man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry. But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. For there are some eunuchs that are so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs that are made eunuchs of men; and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it,

let him receive it."

t Matt. xix. 3-12.

CHAPTER I.

THE DIVINE INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE.

THE principal sources of theological truth are the plain assertions of the Scriptures, understood in connexion with the context, and with the scope and object of the writer: unavoidable and necessary inferences from one or more texts of Scripture, judiciously interpreted and collated; and the doctrine universally held by the primitive Church, in uninterrupted tradition from the Apostles.

In the distinct and marked difference which prevails between the supposed doctrine of the Law, and the avowed doctrine of the Church of England, concerning the nature of marriage, it is satisfactory to know that the doctrine of the Church is supported by all the authority and proof of which theological proposition is susceptible; and that the Scriptures and primitive antiquity agree, in vindication of the assertions of the Liturgy, that marriage is "God's holy ordinance," that it was "instituted by God," and that the " Almighty God at the beginning did create our first parents, Adam and Eve, and did sanctify and join them together in marriage." There is the same authority in favour of the more distant and less distinct allusions of the Homily, to this institution of matrimony, ordained by God, and to God, the author of marriage".

In the brief history of the creation it is expressly recorded, that after Adam was put in possession of paradise, and invested with authority over other creatures, the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him". This is the record of the divine purpose concerning the institution of marriage: it seemed not good to the Divine wisdom that the man should be alone, without society, and without the means, which the other animals possessed, for the continuance of his kind: and it seemed good to the same wisdom, that there should be provided an help, meet and suitable for him, an auxiliary which was required in the nurture and education of his children, in the management of domestic affairs, in the communication of reason, and the exercise of piety; a faithful and consolatory associate and partner of evil and of good, connected with him in the closest and most indissoluble union of conjugal fidelity and affection. In execution of this divine purpose of mercy, the Lord God made the woman, and he brought her unto the man: and when he had thus made them male and female, or a male and a female", appropriating one man to one woman, by a law, which in the course of providence has never failed, God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Thus, in

b Gen. ii. 18. in loc.

Gen. ii. 22.

"Gen. i. 27. Ainsworth

the words of an ancient father of the Church, God not only formed the woman, but united her with the man, according to the law which still remains ; he conducted her to the man, and himself became the bridegroom, (at once the paranymph and the priest,) and in giving her away he added his blessing as a portion to the marriage. God, her builder, says Ainsworth in the quaint language of his day, was also her bringer, and so her conjoiner in her marriage with the man". When the woman was thus introduced to him, Adam instantly exclaimed, This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of manf.

The history of this part of the divine institution of marriage, both in the design and in the effect, is of obvious and easy interpretation. There is more difficulty in appropriating the words which follow Adam's acknowledgment of his intimate union with Eve, and which contain the primitive law of marriage: Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. These words have been variously applied; to Adam, in conjunction with the words immediately preceding, and to Moses, as a casual remark of the historian in recording the institution of marriage: and as both Adam and Moses

← Theophylact. gı yaμev. apud Gerhard, Tractat. de Conjugio, sec. 44. Ainsworth in Gen. ii. 22.

f Gen. ii. 23. See Gerhard, s. 44. who records the strange conceit of Rabbi Abraham Ben Esra, that the Hebrew words imply the divine presence with the married pair, and the withdrawing of that presence, on their disobedience.

• Gen. ii. 24.

were divinely inspired, the words in this application may be primarily referred to God, and shewn to possess a divine force and authority". The greatest of all commentators has, however, ascertained and defined their meaning and exclusive appropriation: He who made them at the beginning, made them male and female; and said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave unto his wife; and they two shall be one flesh1. In dependence upon this divine comment, it has been suggested, that the twenty-third verse should be read in a parenthesis; and thus the law of marriage will be brought into immediate connexion with the formation of the woman, and her introduction to the man, which is only interrupted by the eager and passionate epithalamium of Adam.

Thus, says Gerhard in the recapitulation of his argument, we have seen how God consulted, as it were, concerning the formation of woman, and the institution of marriage; how he gave effect to his counsel and decree; how he formed the woman as it were with his own hands; how, having formed her, he conducted her to Adam in Paradise; how he himself united the first pair; how he blessed them when they were united; how he delivered the law of marriage: and the result of the argument is, that God was the author and primary cause of marriage1.

The sentiments of the Jewish Church concerning

h See the Commentators in Poole's Synops.

Matt. xix. 4, 5.

* Gerhard, s. 45.

1 Ibid. s. 48.