is not destroyed even by the act of adultery, of which divorce is neither the proper penalty nor the necessary consequence, and which, however common in the practice of men, was not in the beginning, is an acknowledged deviation from the law of marriage, and originated in circumstances of remote and impenetrable obscurity. The first authentic law of divorce is a law remedial and restrictive of a prevailing abuse; a reluctant concession to the hardness of the Jewish heart; a permission granted without any approbation for the prevention of greater evils. The fluctuating and uncertain rules which betray the human origin of divorce are especially manifest in the laws of Greece; and however introduced into those of Rome, it was not for a long period adopted into practice, and in the profligacy of the declining empire its facility and extension were made to demonstrate by the most perfect experiment, that "the liberty of divorce does not contribute to happiness and virtue." Under any interpretation the Christian scheme restricts the licence of divorce to one single cause, throwing all the blame of the consequences upon the man who divorces his wife for any other cause; authorizing the practice only by vitiating the effects; requiring clear proof of the adultery, if that be the meaning of the clause of exception; insisting upon the innocence of the accuser, and permitting the man only to marry after the divorce without incurring the guilt of adultery. There are however difficulties in the ordinary interpretation which it is hardly possible to overcome; and it has been argued upon primitive authorities, that adultery is not meant in the clause of exception;

that it is not necessary to understand that clause in the texts in which it is not expressly inserted, or to limit by the interpolation the general indissolubility of marriage; and that it is more agreeable to the Hellenistic and primitive use of the word; to the occasion, scope, and context of our Lord's discourse with the pharisees; to the other texts which contain the rule without the exception; and to the doctrine of Saint Paul, and his reference to the authority of our Lord; to understand the permissive principle of separation, particularly of the prohibited marriage with aliens, and generally not of a fault subsequent to the marriage, but of an impediment precluding the marriage, and to allow the dissolution of no contract which is not originally invalid. In tracing the Christian doctrine of divorce through several periods, it appears, that before the time of Constantine alien marriages were prohibited and null; the general indissolubility of marriage was maintained; the clause of exception was applied with the most scrupulous moderation, and was gradually perplexed by inadequate versions; and that if the separation of the parties was allowed, they were required to remain in singleness and a condition for reunion; and that adultery was held to be the consequence of marriage after separation, or, in the judgment of the monogamists, of any marriage succeeding the first. In the second period the prohibition of divorce was relaxed under the authority of the emperors and the accommodating compliances of the Church, which nevertheless did not abandon the indissolubility of marriage; and even in the third period that doctrine was retained in the Latin Church. The causes of

divorce, which had been originally multiplied by the emperors, were eventually made to comprehend offences which had not the faintest or remotest reference to matrimonial sin, and which no human ingenuity can deduce from the clause of exception.

The indissolubility of marriage is and ever has been a main principle of the English law, which permits the separation of the parties only for cruelty and adultery, and places the latter cause under various restrictions. The troubled period of the Reformation offers an equivocal argument and example of a more relaxed rule, which was not however brought into full operation before the reign of Charles II. when Parliament first assumed the right of dissolving marriage, and created the bad precedent, which, with the dangerous facility of all laws of divorce, has been carried beyond the original intention, and under which the general law of the country is suspended in favour of individuals, and a practice is introduced, embarrassed with inextricable difficulties, marked by the grossest contradictions and anomalies in its rules and principles, and liable to all the objections of private, partial, and ex-postfacto law.

Private acts of separation are in fact privations of conjugal and parental duty, are distinct anomalies in the ordinary practice of divorce, and are contrary to the rule of marriage delivered by our Lord, and to the engagements contracted by the individual. These acts are opposed by the law of England, which in its ancient principles acknowledges no separate maintenance, and in practice allows them to be super

seded by a suit for the restitution of conjugal rights, and puts on them a construction unfavourable to the husband, binding him to the full measure of his bond, and barring him of the remedy which he seeks under the worst of injuries. The validity which they are occasionally allowed to possess, confessedly rests on precedents, not principles, of law, and they are justified by no necessity, and rejected by the general policy of the law.

The doctrine of marriage, contemplated as a divine institution, has been also contrasted with the pràctical effects of admitting the merely civil contract of marriage, which has been shewn to produce uncertainty in the obligation, and to facilitate the practice of divorce.

The main principle which it has been attempted to sustain, and the whole argument which has been constructed upon that principle, have been made to rest on the authority of the Scriptures interpreted in conformity with themselves by the collation of text with text, and in correspondence with primitive comments and expositions: and the constant object of the discussion has been to exhibit, in deference to the divine authority, a simple and harmonious doctrine of marriage, adultery, and divorce, and by the removal of exceptions founded in inveterate misapprehension to rescue marriage from the character of a civil contract to the dignity of a divine institution; and, in subservience to the terms of that institution, to uphold its religious ratification, to restrain the impediments which preclude the contract, to enforce the reciprocal obligations which belong to the re. lation, to insist upon the sinful and criminal character

of adultery, and to sustain the indissoluble perpetuity of the matrimonial union.

In this attempt there are no doubt many errors and deficiencies, which wisdom may correct and candour will excuse; there may have been more boldness in encountering objections than address in removing them; more presumption in exposing the defects of the law than skill in suggesting the proper remedies. But it is hoped, that nothing is asserted in prejudice of moral virtue or religious truth; that the temerity of private opinion, and the revival of obsolete interpretations, have not been pressed beyond the occasion; that no offence has been gratuitously given to individuals; and that in the opposition which has been occasionally offered to great names, there has been no neglect of the deference which is due to the authority of argument. The question which has been debated is a question of vital importance, intimately associated with private happiness and with public virtue; and however the indiscretion or incapacity of the writer may fail to establish the theory which has been proposed, there is a hope that new attention may be drawn to the doctrine and law of marriage, adultery, and divorce, and that better abilities may be engaged in illustration and defence of the holiness, the duty, and the permanence of that relation, which, originating in the divine institution, and ever supported by the divine benediction, has been made, at all times and in all nations, in every age and condition of life, the great means of promoting the knowledge and virtue of individuals, the peace of families, the social affection of kindred, and the civil order of nations, and