Solomon, Prov. xxx. 21, 23, testifies to be a good and a necessary law, by granting it that a hated woman' (for so the Hebrew word signifies rather than 'odious,' though it come all to one) that 'a hated woman when she is married, is a thing that the earth cannot bear.' What follows then, but that the charitable law must remedy what nature cannot undergo?' pp. 99, 100.

The opening of chap. ix. of this book is, perhaps, the most remarkable part of his whole reasoning. It shows indeed the difficulty of making the worse appear the better cause, in this instance. We recollect no equal display of dignified quibbling:

And to entertain a little their overweening arrogance,' he is speaking of our Lord's reply to the Pharisees on this subject, Mark x., as best befitted, and to amaze them yet further, because they thought it no hard matter to fulfil the law, ne draws them up to that unseparable institution, which God ordained in the beginning before the fall, when man and woman were both perfect, and could have no cause to separate: just as, in the same chapter, he stands not to contend with the arrogant young man, who boasted his observance of the whole law, whether he had indeed kept it or not, but screws him up higher to a task of that perfection, which no man is bound to imitate. And in like manner, that pattern of the first institution he set before the opinionative Pharisees, to dazzle them, and not to bind us. For this is a solid rule, that every command, given with a reason, binds our obedience no otherwise than that reason holds. Of this sort was that command in Eden, Therefore shall a man cleave to his wife, and they shall be one flesh;' which we see is no absolute command, but with an inference, 'therefore:' the reason then must first be considered, that our obedience be not misobedience. The first is, for it is not single, because the wife is to the husband flesh of his flesh,' as in the verse going before. But this reason cannot be sufficient of itself; for why then should he for his wife leave his father and mother, with whom he is far more flesh of flesh, and bone of bone,' as being made of their substance? And besides, it can be but a sorry and ignoble society of life, whose inseparable injunction depends merely upon flesh and bones. Therefore we must look higher, since Christ himself recalls us to the beginning; and we shall find that the primitive reason of never divorcing, was that sacred and not vain promise of God to remedy man's loneliness, by making him a meet help for him,' though not now in perfection, as at first, yet still in proportion as things now are.To make a meet help is the only cause,' he goes on to assert, that gives authority to this command of not divorcing to be a command. And it might be further added, that if the true definition of a wife were asked at good earnest, this clause of being 'a meet help' would show itself so necessary and so essential, in that demonstrative argument, that it might be logically concluded; therefore she who naturally and perpetually is no meet help' can be no wife; which clearly takes away the difficulty of dismissing such a one.' p. 102-104.

According to the same lax mode of interpreta

tion, whom God hath joined together,' only describes a married pair, when their minds are fitly disposed and enabled to maintain a cheerful conversation to the solace and love of each other;" p. 127, and the term 'fornication,' in the exceptive clause of Matt. v. 32, &c., will include 'such things as give open suspicion of adulterising, as the wilful haunting of feasts, and invitations with men not of her near kindred, the lying forth of her house, without probable cause, the frequenting of theatres against her husband's mind." p. 136.

We are not acquainted with the writings of any modern advocate of these notions who is also a believer in Christianity. The great name of Milton, however, will ever confer a degree of interest on his sentiments generally; while we with pleasure reflect, how little it weighs, in England, in point of authority on the subject of divorce:-a proof of the predominance of sound moral feeling on that topic in this country. Let us retain our English household virtues, and the springs of virtuous life and life eternal will be still untouched. But modern infidelity, with its characteristic indifference to all our real good, has spun similar theories to those of Milton on the subject of marriage, even in this land of Bibles ; and we cannot forget that the political reign of that abortion of the human mind in France was distinguished for its numerous and most profligate divorces. Infidelity has recently reared its head amongst us; and is ever likely to reason and act in this way. The idea of marriage, and all its engagements, being mere matters of private right and private feeling, rather than of express and irrepealable law between God and man, is perhaps natural to us; but it is not a Christian sentiment: and because all classes of society are warmly interested in reprobating it, we shall venture a little deeper into the topics of marriage and divorce.

We are advocates for adverting at once to revelation, upon every subject on which it professedly treats; and few are the moral duties that are more copiously, or more definitely, exhibited in Scripture, than those of the marriage state. Few are the needful remedies for worse evil, that, in our judgment, are more clearly prescribed in Scripture, than the unhappy one of divorce. The divine Saviour, in referring to the original institution of marriage, calls his heavenly Father, as Chrysostom long ago remarked, the Maker of all holy matches.' He professes to republish the primitive law of the institution; he defines it as embracing only two persons, They twain shall be one flesh;' he restores the woman to her station of equality, as to the nature and duration of the tie; while he shows that it binds equally both parties from all others, and through the whole of life. The apostolical epistles dwell upon its purposes, honors, and duties. The earliest and most distinguished of the Christian teachers had commandments' from 'the Lord' on the topic (1 Cor. vii. 10, 11), which he distinguishes from his own warmest recommendations. He endeavours to illustrate the most profound Christian doctrines by a figurative use of the institution and its duties; which he presses, in detail, as

amongst the most important parts of Christian practice.

·

As a system of morals Christianity must be held to be decidedly friendly to marriage. It attributes expressly all the most abominable vices of the heathen world to forsaking' its wholesome provisions, while, externally, it exhibits some of its most beneficial influences in society, in the changes it has produced in the condition of women, wherever it has spread. Unhallowed affections fly before it. They are not merely represented as impolitic, inconvenient, and ruinous, in their temporal consequences, which they are; but plainly declared to exclude men from the kingdom of God, 1 Cor. vi. 9, Gal. v. 19, Heb. xiii. 4. Other systems of religion transfer the impurities of human passion and lust to another world-Christianity brings down heavenly purity into all our earthly affections and passions. It interposes a positive command in all ordinary situations of society: 'Let every man have his own wife, let every woman have her own husband.' 'I will that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.'

The few texts in St. Paul's writings, which, when isolated from their connexion, have been supposed to express a general preference for celibacy, far from inculcating any such sentiment, will be seen, when duly compared with their context, to establish the very opposite doctrine. They state, in effect, that when marriage may be to the highest degree imprudent, from circumstantial considerations, it is not in all cases sinful; in some cases it may be advisable, and in others even a duty, 1 Cor. vii. 9. In circumstances of avayêŋ,' distress,' tribulation, (compare Luke xxi. 23,) such in some instances, as had not been equalled in the history of the world, and never shall be exceeded; when all the powers of the state were arrayed in open hostility against the Christian cause; when a false philosophy instigated,and its most able, and most amiable disciples, as the younger Pliny and others, watched inquisitorially over the execution of a deliberate attempt to extirpate Christianity from the earth; and when its advocates and professors (for all the professors of primitive Christianity were its open advocates in some intelligible way) not only were compelled to meet in cells and caves of the earth' in that character, but had no certain dwelling-place as individuals; then, indeed, wrote the apostle, 'I suppose-it is good, for the present distress, for a [single] man so to be.' But even then he adds, Art thou bound to a wife? seek not to be loosed.' Fear not, despair not. 'If thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned.' Let this doctrine be contrasted with the too common speculation of parents for the splendid misery of their children, in either persuading or compel ling them into matches for the mere love of money; let it be compared with the undue severity with which what are called imprudent marriages, of which we are not the advocates, are ordinarily visited by parents, amongst whom adultery is a fashionable gaiety, especially if committed

with the lower orders,' and fornication a mere peccadillo; let it even be taken as a test of the antichristian application and effect of that part of our marriage law which respects the royal family; and the recent unhappy agitation of these topics may yield some ultimate good.

The clear and definite limitations of divorce in the Christian Scriptures occur but infrequently, for the best of all reasons—sincere and discreet Christians can very rarely be interested in them. It is a moral question, upon which no man need seek to be experimentally informed; and the Gospel would teach us to be simple concerning that which is evil.' But our great Master more than once delivers a formal judgment on the topic: and the apostle Paul enlarges and confirms the spirit of the Saviour's rule.

The great duties of marriage, common to both parties, are fidelity, the cultivation of love and peace, the joint pursuit of God's glory in the order of the family, and the education of children. All the individual duties of a husband are comprehended, by inspired wisdom, under one great admonition, Husbands, love your wives;' on the proofs of which, however, the New Testament is not silent: while those of a wife are contained in another, 'Let the wife see that she reverence her husband.' These duties supply the best view of the nature of the tie. In point of fact, they can never be fully exercised by one party, without the concurrence of the other. So far, then, there is an essential reciprocity in them: they impart rights to each; from both they command corresponding duties. Christianity knows nothing of human rights that are not thus connected with duty. Without meaning to afford to either a justification for individual negligence on this ground—or to give at once, even to the innocent party, all the power and right of punishing the guilty-clear it is, that revelation regards marriage as a mutual interchange of rights and privileges. Does it grant a husband peculiar, and almost absolute authority? It demands of him a peculiar and equivalent protection of the gentler sex. Does it give him the ruling arm? It also describes him as the moral head of his family, particularly of his wife (Eph. v. 23); and requires from him spiritual and moral wisdom, spiritual and moral conduct, accordingly. On the other hand, has Christianity conferred on woman privileges unknown to her in the ancient world, and even amongst God's chosen people? She is exhorted also to an intelligent submission and obedience, and to exhibit an unreserved devotion to the wants and comforts of man, never before required, and fully equal to the protection she claims. They are formed to develope each other's excellencies-to bear with, and to win away each other's faults: The man is not without the woman,' not himself-not the man that God made, ere he would rest from his works-says this unimpeachable authority; 'nor the woman without the mau, in the Lord.' Only such views of the institution can give us a correct idea of its rupture.

The same divine system clearly regards marriage as a constant interchange of duties. It

knows nothing of the modern fashion of separation; it allows no sanction, as we think, to the modern laws of partial divorce. The consideration of these subjects will necessarily lead to the only legitimate cause of divorce the Scriptures acknowledge. Separation by mutual consent, as it is called, is nothing less (and how, in point of bad faith, could it be more!) than two accountable human beings undertaking privately to contradict and renounce what they had sworn publicly, in the name of God, to do and perform. Apart from its being wholly opposed to the general obligation of lawful vows, it holds up a man and woman to the world, it sends them into the world, as neither married nor unmarried both and neither. 'Joined together' of God, or in obedience to a law under which he has placed them, and separated by the inconveniences of keeping it! The express determination of Scripture anticipates the awful moral evils to which such a monstrous system leads. 'I wish not myself any other advocate, nor you any other adversary,' says the devout bishop Hall, to a friend who inclined to a separation, than St. Paul who never gave, I speak boldly, a direct precept, if not in this.' Should the remaining part of our quotation grate a little ungraciously on a delicate ear, let the substantial interests of religion and virtue, and the possible prevention of such mischiefs in other ranks, as have lately stared upon us from a throne, be our apology. His express charge whereupon I insisted is, 'defraud not one another; except with consent, for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer: and then come again together, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.' Every word, if you weigh it well, opposes your part, and pleads for mine. By consent of all divines, ancient and modern, defrauding' is refraining from matrimonial conversation. See what a word the Spirit of God hath chosen for this abstinence-never taken but in ill part! But there is no fraud in consent,' as Chrysostom, Athanasius, Theophylact, expound it:' true. Therefore St. Paul adds, unless with consent;' that I may omit to say, that in saying, ' unless with consent,' he implies, both that there may be a defrauding without it, and with a consent a defrauding, but not unlawful. But see what he adds for a time.' Consent cannot make this defrauding lawful, except it be temporary: no defrauding without consent; no consent for a perpetuity. How long then, and wherefore? Not for every cause; not for any length of time: but only for a while, and for devotion, ut vacetis, &c. Mark how the apostle adds, ‘that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer.' It is a solemn exercise which the apostle here intends, such as is joined with fasting and external humiliation; wherein all 'earthly comforts must be forborne. 'But what if a man list to task himself continually?' No: Let them meet together again, saith the apostle; not as a toleration, but a charge. But what if they can both live safely thus severed? This is more than they can undertake there is danger, saith our apostle, in this abstinence, lest Satan tempt you for your incontinence.' What can be more plain? Bishop

Hall's Epistles, decad, v. ep. 9.; Works, vol. vii.

p.

249.

The application of these remarks to our present legal practice with regard to divorce is plainly this. The apostolic rule will include 'a prohibition of the divorce à thoro et mensâ, except in cases of adultery. It sanctions no partial divorces. There is but one scriptural cause for any divorce, and then it is to be a complete one. By our ecclesiastical law (Can. 107) it is enjoined, that in all sentences pronounced only for divorce and separation à thoro et mensâ, there shall be a caution and restraint inserted in the act of the said sentences, that the parties so separated shall live chastely and continently; neither shall they, during each other's life, contract matrimony with another person. And, for the better observation of this last clause, the said sentences of divorce shall not be pronounced, until the party or parties requiring the same have given good and sufficient caution and security into the court, that they will not any way break or transgress the said restraint or prohibition. We are not acquainted with the kind of caution or security which is found to satisfy the learned judges of this court in such cases, but St. Paul would not have taken any. He estimated human nature, it would seem, according to a different rule; and would not believe that even devout Christians could offer such security. He would prevent the crime of adultery, by removing the temptations to it. His language is not, Meet again when ye are-but lest ye be tempted.

Permanent separation of every kind is advowtry, our old English word for adultery. It is contrary to vow. 'God will contempne advouterers and whorekeepers,' says an old version of Heb. xiii. 4, now before us. So again Wicliffe's translation of Matt. xv. 19, is, 'Of the herte gon out yvel thoughtis, mansieyngis, avoutries, &c. And of Mark x. 11. Whoevere leevith his wife, and weddith another, he doth avoutrie.' We vow, in marriage, Forsaking all other to keep to the object of our choice, so long as we both do live.' To take another is a final and irrevocable breach of this vow; but not to keep to the espoused object is also a breach of it: it proves and encourages alienated affection; it is the harbinger of all that is evil in the violation of this tie. Look at its consequences again in this way; the Jewish law of divorce, upon which the Christian system was introduced as an improvement, when it sent the wife away, provided for her freedom. When she is departed out of the house' of her husband,' she may go,' said Moses, and become another man's wife.' It particularly provided, that the repudiating husband was never afterwards to reclaim her; Deut. xxiv. 4. This was a moral and merciful system, compared with which all articles of separation are both impure and cruel. They send away' a wife, but they keep her bound; they expose her to second attachments, which she cannot lawfully entertain; they suspend over her a husband's power, while they deprive her of his protection and his smile.

6

6

In the spirit of these remarks, we apprehend, the Christian legislator pronounced the repudiation of a husband or wife unlawful, except for a previous violation of the marriage vow. No basis of Christian morals can be more firm or orthodox than the sermon on the Mount; and here stands conspicuously the simple and unequivocal rule, 'Whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, Toovela, [except for whoredom, Campbell] causeth her to commit adultery; and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, committeth adultery.' The same doctrine was inculcated in reply to the question of the Pharisees on this point, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? He answered and said, What did Moses command you? And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and put her away. And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept: but from the beginning of the creation God made them [a] male and [a] female.'-'And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter, and he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.' The exceptive clause is not hete added; but it is clear, on a comparison with the passage in St. Matthew, that it may be safely understood.

2. May not the Christian moralist ask, why should we have one kind of law upon this subject for the rich, and another, or rather no law at all, in the vast majority of cases, for other classes? for a real divorce is unattainable by our law in its ordinary course. It must be an ex post facto law, made for each specific case, and by application in the first instance, at an enormous cost, to the highest court of appeal in the Country: at once, in all instances of its occurrence, attesting the imperfect and crude state in which the subject is left in the statute-book, and precluding, by the expensive manner of proceeding necessary, the greater portion of the people from availing themselves of it. Is this a compliment that our legislators pay the middle and lower classes, supposing the crime, so conspicuous among themselves, never to desolate these walks of life! We are quite sure that the affections and fire-side feelings of these classes deserve as much protection as those of the higher orders. Let the same courts and course of law, we suggest, which are now appealed to in all cases to prove the fact of adultery, pronounce in all cases, where it is sought for, the Scriptural remedy of divorce to poor or rich, forthwith; and without additional expense. We believe, in conclusion, that Dr. Paley is mistaken when he says, 'the law of this country, in conformity to our Saviour's injunction, confines the dissolution of the marriage contract to the single case of adultery in the wife,' for all the remedies for this evil, such as they are, regard adultery in husband or wife, as equally a ground of divorce; but we fully and heartily join in his enquiry, Whether a law might not be framed, directing the fortune of the adulteress to descend as in case of her natural death: VOL. VII.-PART 2.

reserving a certain proportion of the produce of it, by way of annuity, for her subsistence (such annuity in no case to exceed a certain sum), and also so far suspending the estate in the hands of the heir, as to preserve the inheritance to any children she might bear to a second marriage, in case there was none to succeed in the place of their mother by the first, and whether such a law would not render female virtue in higher life less vincible, as well as the seducers of that virtue less urgent in their suit? I would recommend this,' continues he, 'to the deliberation of those who are willing to attempt the reformation of this important but most incorrigible class of the community. A passion for splendor, for expensive amusements and distinctions, is commonly found in that description of women who would become the subjects of such a law, not less inordinate than their other appetites. A severity of the kind proposed applies immediately to that passion. And there is no room for any complaint of injustice, since the provisions above stated, with others which might be contrived, confine the punishment, so far as it is possible, to the person of the offender; suffering the estate to remain to the heir, or within the family of the ancestor from whom it came, or to attend the appointments of his will.'

DIURETIC, adj. Aprikos. Having the power to provoke urine.

emollient vegetables, that relax the urinary passages: such as relax ought to be tried before such as force

Diureticks are decoctions, emulsions, and oils of

and stimulate. Those emollients ought to be taken in open air, to hinder them from perspiring, and on empty stomachs.

Arbuthnot.

Graceful as John, she moderates the reins, And whistles sweet her diuretick strains. Young.

DIURETIC, DIURETICUS, AcovoηTuоs; from dovonois, a discharge of urine. That which, when taken internally, augments the flow of urine from the kidneys. It is obvious that such an effect will be produced by any substance capable of stimulating the secreting vessels of the kidneys. All the saline diuretics seem to act in this manner. They are received into the circulation; and, passing off with the urine, stimulate the vessels, and increase the quantity secreted. Murray, in his Elements of Materia Medica, classes the super-tartrate of potassa, or cream of tartar, and nitrate of potassa, or nitre, the muriate of ammonia, or crude sal-ammoniac, potassa, and the acetate of potassa, or kali acetatum, among the saline diuretics; and selects the following from the vegetable kingdom:-scilla maritima, digita

lis purpurea, nicotiana tabacum, solanum dulcamara, lactuca virosa, colchicum autumnale, gratiola officinalis, spartium scoparium, juniperus communis, copaifera officinalis, pinus balsamea, and pinus larix; and the lytta vesicatoria from the animal kingdom. The principal articles included by Dr. Cullen, in his catalogue of diuretics, are dulcamara, digitalis, scilla; some of the alliaceæ and siliquosæ; the balsams and resins; cantharides, and the diuretic salts.

DIURNAL, n. s. & adj. DIURNALLY, adv. DIURNE', adj.

Lat. diurnalis; from dies, a day. See DAY. A jour 2 B

The diurnal and annual revolution of the sun have been, from the beginning of nature, constant, regular, and universally observable by all mankind. Locke.

Why does he order the diurnal hours To leave earth's other part, and rise in ours? Prior. In my former I represented that the diurnal rotations of the planets could not be derived from gravity, but required a divine arm to impress them.

Sir Isaac Newton. Letters to Bentley.

As we make the enquiries, we shall diurnally communicate them to the publick. Tatler.

You with soft breath attune the vernal gale, When breezy evening broods the listening vale; Or wake the loud tumultuous sounds, that dwell In echo's many-toned diurnal shell. Darwin. Latin, diuturnitus.

DIUTU'RNITY, n. s.

Length of duration.

Such a coming, as it might be said thai that generation should not pass till it was fulfilled, they needed not suppose of such diuturnity.

Browne's Vulgar Errours. DIVULGE', v. a. I Fr. divulguer; Span. DIVULGER, n. s. and Port, divulgar; Lat. and Ital. divulgare; dis and vulgo, to spread a report, from vulgus; Gr Toλog, the common people. To publish; make universally known; proclaim.

Men are better contented to have their commendations suppressed, than the contrary much divulged. Hooker.

I will pluck the veil of modesty from the so seeming mistress Page, and divulge Page himself for a secure and wilful Acteon.

Shakspeare. Merry Wives of Windsor.

I think not any thing in my letters could tend so much to my reproach, as the odious divulging of them did to the infamy of the divulgers. K. Charles.

This is true glory and renown, when God, Looking on the earth, with approbation marks The just man, and divulges him through heaven To all his angels, who with true applause Recount his praises. Milton's Paradise Lost.

These answers, in the silent night received, The king himself divulged, the land believed.

Dryden's Eneid. The cabinets of the sick, and the closets of the dead, have been ransacked to publish private letters, and divulge to all mankind the most secret sentiments of friendship. Pope.

DIVUʼLSION, n. s. Lat. divulsio. The act of plucking away.

DIXAN, a large town of Tigré, Abyssinia, on the side of Taranta, under the government of the Baharnegash. It is built on the top of a conical hill: a deep valley surrounds it like a trench, and the road winds spirally up the hill. The houses are flat-roofed and without chimneys. Dixan is the seat of a considerable trade in slaves. The other commodities most common here are tobacco, black pepper, white cloths, looking glasses, snuff, spirits, and large beads. It was formerly a fief under Axum. The priests are very active in the disgraceful traffic in slaves.

ĎIXCOVE, a British African fort, in the country of Ahantah, on the Gold Coast. It stands at the entrance of a small cove, which will admit vessels of thirty or forty tons at high water. The channel is narrow but safe, and the situation strong. It is forty miles south-west of Cape Coast Castle.

DIXMUYDEN, a town of West Flanders, in the kingdom of the Netherlands, situated in the tract called the Freye Lande, on the river Yperlee. The trade has of late declined; but there is still a great yearly horse-fair in the month of June, and the place is noted for its butter and cheese. The sea came at one time up to the walls, forming a small harbour. Here are salt refineries, soap works, and breweries. The great church is a fine building. Eleven miles south of Ostend, and twenty-four east of Dunkirk.

DIʼZEN, v. a. (Corrupted from dight.) To dress; to deck; to rig out. A low word.

Your ladyship lifts up the sash to be seen; For sure I had dizened you out like a queen.

Swift.

DIZIER (St.), a town of France, in the department of Upper Marne, and ci-devant province of Champagne, seated on the Marne, at the place where it becomes navigable by boats, seventeen miles south-east of Vitri le François,

and 157 east of Paris. The road between these two towns, being levelled and planted with trees, is one of the finest walks in France. St. Dizier is famous for boat-building, and contains 5900 inhabitants. It was formerly a strong fortress, being remarkable for a siege which it sustained in 1544, for six weeks against the emperor Charles V. A sharp action took place here between the French and allies on the 27th of January 1814, and again on the 26th of March of the same year.

DIZUK, a district of the province of Mekran, Persia, forming part of the country of Baloochistan. Within its precincts are seven or eight villages, designated by the general term Dizuk, though each has also a distinct name. It is governed by a chief, who receives a tenth of the produce, in wheat and dates. His revenues are computed at 60,000 or 70,000 rupees, or from £8000 to £9000 yearly.

having a swimming or whirling sensation in the

Browne's Vulgar Errours.

the adjective. Dizzard, says Johnson, is a blockhead; a fool.