resented as the essence of marriage ; and monogamy is set forth as its natural and divinely appointed form."
3. Although this original law was partially disregarded in later times, it was never abrogated. Polygamy and divorce were in a measure tolerated under the Mosaic law, yet in all ages among the Hebrews, monogamy was the rule, and polygamy the ex- ception, as it was among other civilized nations of antiquity. Polygamy first appears among the descendants of Cain. (Gen. iv. 19.) Noah and his sons had each but one wife. Abraham had but one wife, until the impatience of Sarah for children led him to take Hagar as a concubine. The same rule of marriage was observed by the prophets as a class. Polygamy was confined in a great measure to kings and princes. There was also an honour- able distinction made between the wife and the concubine. The former retained her preeminence as the head of the family. Nu- merous passages of the Old Testament go to prove that monogamy was considered as the law of marriage, from which plurality of wives was a departure. Throughout the Proverbs, for example, it is the blessing of a good wife, not of wives, that is continually set forth. (Prov. xii. 4 ; xix. 14 ; xxxi. 10 ££.) The apocryphal books contain clear evidence that after the exile monogamy was almost universal among the Jews ; and it may be inferred from such passages as Luke i. 5 ; Acts v. 1, and many others, that the same was true at the time of the advent of Christ.
With regard to the toleration of polygamy under the Mosaic law, it is to be remembered that the seventh commandment be- longs to the same category as the sixth and eighth. These laws are not founded on the essential nature of God, and therefore are not immutable. They are founded on the permanent relations of men in their present state of existence. From this it follows, (1.) That they bind men only in their present state. The laws of property and marriage can have no application, so far as we know, to the future world, where men shall be as angels, neither marrying nor giving in marriage. (2.) These laws being founded on the permanent and natural relations of men, cannot be set aside by human authority, because those relations are not subject to the will or ordinance of men. (3.) They may however be dispensed with by God. He commanded the Israelites to despoil the Egyptians and to dispossess the Canaanites, but this does not prove that one nation may, of its own motion, seize on the inheritance of another people. If God, therefore, at any time and to any people granted permission to practise polygamy, then
882 PART IH. Ch. XIX. — THE LAW.
so long as that permission lasted and for those to whom it was given, polygamy was lawful, and at all other times and for all other persons it was unlawful. This principle is clearly recog- nized in what our Saviour teaches concerning divorce. It was permitted the Jews under the Mosaic law to put away their wives ; as soon as that law was abolished, the right of divorce ceased.
4. Monogamy, however, does not rest exclusively on the orig- inal institution of marriage, or upon the general drift of the Old Testament teaching, but mainly on the clearly revealed will of Christ. His will is the supreme law for all Christians, and rightfully for all men. "When the Pharisees came to Him and asked Him whether a man could lawfully put away his wife, He answered, that marriage as instituted by God was an indis- soluble union between one man and one woman ; and, therefore, that those whom God had joined together no man could put asun- der. This is the doctrine clearly taught in Matthew xix. 4-9 ; Mark x. 4-9 ; Luke xvi. 18 ; Matthew v. 32. In these passages our Lord expressly declares that if a man marries while his first wife is living he commits adultery. The exception which Christ himself makes to this rule, will be considered under the head of divorce.
The Apostle teaches the same doctrine in Romans vii. 2, 3 : " The woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband, so long as he liveth ; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then, if while her hus- band liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress : but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law ; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man." The doctrine of this passage is that marriage is a com- pact between one man and one woman, which can be dissolved only by the death of one of the parties. So in 1 Corinthians vii. 2 : " Let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband," it is taken for granted that, in the Christian Church, a plurality of wives is as much out of the ques- tion as a plurality of husbands. This assumption runs through the whole New Testament. We not only never read of a Chris- tian's having two or more wives ; but whenever the duty of the marriage relation is spoken of, it is always of the husband to his wife, and of the wife to her husband. In the judgment, therefore, of the whole Christian Church, marriage is a covenant between one man and one woman to live together as husband and wife, until separated by death.