Matt. V. 31, 32. It hath been said, Whosoever shall fut away his ivife, let him give her a icriting of divorcement : hut I say unto you, That ivhosoever shall iput aivay his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery : and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, committeth adultery.
THE laws of men cannot always proceed to the extent that might be wished in the support of truth and virtue. They must sometimes bend to circum- stances, and tolerate evils which they cannot totally prevent. Even under the Theocracy itself this
necessity was felt and admitted. The laws of Moses, as far as they were purely moral, were perfect and in- flexible ; but, as far as they were political, they yielded in a measure to the state and character of the people for whom they were made. The Jews were a hard- hearted and stiff-necked people, and extremely hcen- tious in their manners. They would multiply their wives to any extent that they chose, and put them away on the most frivolous occasions. Moses knew that an absolute prohibition of such practices would only render the men more ferocious, and the women more miserable : and therefore he contented himself with laying some restrictions on the men, that if divorces could not be prevented, they might at least be rendered less frequent, by being made more solemn, more deliberate, more manifest. He limited the per- mission to those instances wherein there was in the woman some moral, natural, or acquired defect, which was the ground of her husband's alienation from her. He then ordered that a writing of divorcement should be drawn up, and in the presence of two witnesses be given to her ; that so, if she were afterwards married to another man, she might be able to prove that she was not living in adultery, because her former mar- riage had been annulled''. This restriction, which was only a permission granted on account of the hard- ness of their hearts, was by the Scribes and Pharisees construed into a command to put away their wives, as soon as ever they ceased to love them : and, under cover of this law, the most licentious and cruel prac- tices almost universally obtained. Our blessed Lord, who came to put all his followers under the authority of the moral law, and to reduce the world to its primeval sanctity, declared, that this license was con- trary to the original institution of marriage ; and that henceforth, as Adam and Eve were formed for each other, and united in marriage, without any latitude allowed to either of them to dissolve the connexion, or to admit any other to a participation of their mu- tual rights, so should every man and woman, when
^ Deut. xxiv. 1.