The Newhampshire gazetteer — Exeter, N.H., 1791-07-22 00:00:00, page 1

FRIDAY, July 22, 1791.] ^^^^^^^
Newhampfliire
Proverbs xxi. 6. The getting of treasures
(and by more than parity of reason,
the getting of husbands and wives)
by a lying tongue, is a vanity tossed to
and fro of them that seek death.
WHILE the civil law is supposed
to hold forth a redress of all
other injuries, brought about
by filfehood and fraudulent dealing, it
is supposed by some, that a marriage
brought about by the grossest falfehoods,
and even by the most wilful perjury, can
never be difannulled, but by adultery
after marriage : But an illegal marriage,
in the views of both divine and human
laws, is no marriage at all ; but null and
void in the fight of God, and of wife
and just rulers. Hence the great caution
and care in the church of Scotland to
prevent illegal marriages. Thus in the
diredory for celebrating marriage.
«' After solemn charging of the perlons
to be married, before the great God,
who fearcheth all hearts, and to whom
they must give a ftrid account at the latt
day, that if either of there know any
cause, by precontrad, of otherwise, why
they may not lawfully proceed to mar
riage that they new discover it." '-
v Suppose the bride had precontracted
with another, and whs pregnant also
by him, and yet refufe to discover it;
vea, deny both these faffs and tender her
oath for confirmation :, In this case
will nothing but adultery after marri
age warrant her injured man to discard
her, when the truth of fads shall become
evident? A judicious Pagan can^fwer
the query. But let us ask counfcl at
Abel, or cohfult the divine oracles and
so end the matter. A divorced wife was
feat away among the Jews in solemn
form, arid with as good a character as
might be, and (as is presumed) with her
dowry, or part of the estate. She might
become another man's wife, and the
change might turn to her worldly ad
vantage: But no fach priviledge was
allowed by the divine law to the adul
teress. Death was the penalty.. The
waters of jealousy; or a publick execu
tion, must end the relation, /
Joseph, the reputed father of our Lord,
might have forgiven and overlooked rhe
supposed antenuptial fornication of Mar,,
whom, not knowing her pregnancy, he
had espoused; or he might deliver her
up to a publick trial, whether it came
about by force, or her own consent ; or
put her away privily, concealing the pri
vate espousals ; which latter would fcrecn
her from being made a publick example.
He chose the latter, and was happy to
find that he had no occasion ^ven for
this. —Our great lawgiver came not to
destroy the moral law ; one jot, or one
tittle (ball in no wife pass from it. The
sense of his law, or rather explanation of
the law ofMofes, in Mark x. It. 12. &
Luke xvi. 18. is thus, That the patting
away a wife, or eloping from a Qufband,
without a just cause, and marrying ano
ther is committing adultery against the
party put away, or left ; but nothing
is said in those texts of the just causes
for putting away. But we understand
by john viii. 10. that Christ did not
mean to make void the law of Moses,
relating to adultery. Hath no man con
demned thee? (faith he to the woman
taken in adultery) meaning, proved the
faQ for which the law ,condemns, to a
capital puniffi merit ; ffie said, no man,
Lord. Jesus answered, neither do
MR. RANLET,
If you think the following deliberations
•will contribute a mite to the increase of
ufcful knowledge, and promoting human
felicity, especially in the conjugal rela
tion, and for preventing the ruin of
families, you have my consent and fe
queft for infer ting them in your ufeful
paper.
EXETE R, (New-Hamp(hire) Printed and Published. By HENRY RANLET, at Nine Shillings per annum.
MISCELLANY.
2. Antenuptial fornicatation concealed
'or denied, but afterwards difeovered.
Deut.xxii. 23. A man marries a woman
presented to him as achafte virgin ; (as
we know by the consequences) but to his
fad mortification and disappointment, he
;finds her not a maid, what then ? did he
: not take her for better for worser She
has done nothing since to forfeit the re
, lafion. That just ruler, who is always
displeased when truth falls in the streets,
so that equity cannot enter, has decided
the point. She ffiall be brought out
of the door of her father's house, and
stoned with stones; and be no man's
wife. She has forfeited life with all its
comforts. But why this diversity ? be
caufeJhe wroubt folly in Israel, by playing
the whore in her father's hcufe. Surpril
ing! The loss of virtue, peace, and o
ther grieving cbnfequences, we call the
punishment inflicted by the Jewish law
on a woman not betrothed. We are then
obliged in reason to conclude/ that her
I. The illegality of the contrast.
11. Antenuptial fornication.
1. The illegality ofthe marriage con
trast—which will always be the case
when the person married is not free from
all obligation by the divine law, or pre
contrad or promise to marry another ;
or when too near of kin to bear the test
of scripture ; iri all these cases, the ordi
nance of marriage is profaned and abu
sed, and in the light of God is no mar
riage. Thus the Jews taking flrange
wives, being contrary to la% were not
marriages in the fight of their king and
lawgiver; nor might their children be
heirs with the lawful offspring.
The law in Exodus xxii. 16. 17. was
judged a few years ago, by a council at
Stockbridge, to be in full force at this
day. If so, no man, in that case can
lawfully marry another, until by some
providence he be freed from the obli
gation of that law. If a man entice a
maid (as is likely by pfomifing her mar
riage) that is not betrothed, and lie with
her, be Jhall sorely endow her to be his
wife. If her father utterly refuft so
give her unto him, he Jhall pay money ac
cording to the dowry of virgin's : That is,
more or less, according to her quality.
Query, whether the laws of men, that
make a tender of marriage,an exemption
from all charge in supporting their own
factious offspring; or this divine law, be
molt just ? Circumstances may alter cases;
but when consent of parents can be ob
tained, and no special reason against it,
a man is bound by this law. Ask thy
fathers arid th^y will (hew thee, thy ari
tients and they will tell thee, that such
as break the hedge of this law, a serpent
will bite them, they lose their peace,
and do not prosper in their days ; find
much gall mingled with their domeftick
sweets, and are frowned upon in their
children,' which 4 die young, or live to be
a griefbfmind to their illegally married
parents. How many families have been
ruined by not obfefving this divine rule ?
No heneft minister in Scotland would
administer the ordinance of marriage to
any he knew to be under the obligation
of this law ; which takes place, be the
woman pregnant,"or not : And this when
none know it but themselves, and he
that liVeth and feeth them. ; ^ , —
I condemn thee, go, and fin no
more ; as if he had said, if 1 should take
upon me the office of a judge, I must
condemn thee upon proof of the fad, to
the loss of life; for the law is plain.
But I forbear. And as your accusers,
by going out, have seemed to drop the
prosecution, I advise thee to withdraw
thyfelf and fin no more. What then are
the just scripture causes for putting away ?
Answer—not to mention natural nect ffity
which sometimes takes place of laws di
vine as well as human, or natural defeats
which have prevailed over the reason of
our courts, in some instances, the scrip
tures are two viz.
^b^'^%^+
THE
enfaaring the man, her denying and per
haps, with an oath, her youthful lewd
ness; her parents conniving, and per
haps assisting her in her wicked dissimu
lation ; these are the grounds of the se
vere sentence from the God of truth,
who hath said, lie not one to another—
and speak the truth every one to his
neighbour; and will never , connive at
falfehood, in forming the nearest rela
tion of his own institution, Young peo
ple, dare to be true, dare to be honest,
in every step towards marriage ; as it is
for life, and one lie, or only concealing
some one truth, mar all, and be part re
mety. , ta
N. B. This law in full vigour, was
seldom, and perhaps never executed
among the Jews; but answered a very
good end to show the mind of the God
o ' Judgment, to deter from such wicked
hypocrisy, and to secure effedually a just
compensation to the injured duped man.
Fog what would not the parents give to
fettle the matter, to have their daughter
difearded. rather than stoned to death
before their door? Hence the putting
away their wives for antenuptial forni
cation, (without a dowry, and sum of
money being given to the injured man)
became customary among the Jews; and
our great lawgiver appears to approve of
this foftening pra&ice, the rigour of this
law. Matt. v. 32. Whoso puttethaway
his wife, save for (antenuptial) fornica
dation, and marrieth another, commit
teth adultery, &c. Io Matt, xix, 0, That
our Lord means to eftablilh the law in
Deut. xxii. if and on, may seem plain
enough from what has been already said.
But as he that wrote Mr. Pool's anno
tations 2 vol. and even so great a critick
as Mr. Cruder), take fornication in the
two texts just mentioned to be used for
adultery, (never, I presume, considering
that they hereby made our great law
giver to repeal the law Deut. xxii. 13.
and make adultery only a cause of put
ting away, not of death, when he had
just said, one jot or tittle shall in no wife
pass from the law) I therefore add the
Greek word porneia, (fornicaton)
which in those two texts is sometimes
rendered whoredom ; but never adultery,
as I can find, tho' used in the various
parts of fpcech, and branches in those
parts,feveral hundred times in the Greek
bible. .
The Greek word moichos, an adul
terer in all thebranches from that theme,
we find about sixty times in .the Greek
of the old and new testament, and al
ways (as far as 1 can find^ in reference
to the covenant between God, and his
people, or that betwixt husband, and
wife. And it appears to me bold, and
arbitrary to put a different meaning
upon a word in scripture, than is com
monly the sense of it, and may never be
done without apparent reason ; and in
the word before us, the new arbitrary
sense appears to me against reason. Are
any two words more critically distin
guished than these ? Hosea. iv, 13, 14.
Your daughters shall commit whoredom,
and your spouses shall commit adultery.
I will not punish your daughters when
they commit whoredom, nor your
spouses when they , commit adultery.
Though the word adultery in the seventh
commandment, may in the ftri& sense
of Ood's law, include all lower degrees
of unchastity, as the greater includes the
less ; yet fornication or whoredom, as u
sed in the scripture, never include all
the atrocious agravations of the fin of
adultery ; and they are judiciously dif
tinguifheid in all our civil courts, and in
all the Ecclesiastical judicatories in the
church of Scotland. But lam weary of
writing upon so intricate a fubjed ; as
haply others may be of reading.
For the further difeuffion and confir
mation of the fubjed under conficerati
on, I most refer to dodor Whitby, and
dodor Guise, in their writings upon the
Gazetteer.
new testament ; & the learned may con
sult Pool's synopsis, and Steward's col
ledions. If after all any one remain at
a loss, and cannot be fatisfied, let him
apply himfelf to any man, be he a Jew,
Turk, or Pagan, who has a tolerable
measure of com men sense and not divert
ed of natural affedion, and the common
feelings of human nature, and of as
much moral virtue as. may be ordinarily
attained without the help of divine reve
lation—fappofe, him,alfo to have been
himfelf infnared by falfehood, calumny
and the tender of an oath, to father the
spurious, offspring of another—you may
fafely trust him : he will form a right
judgment, and not err ; though he know
neither the scriptures, , nor the power or
authority of God as decilive in this case.
„ P. S. It.may be afted, what can be
said of the mildness of the laws in all
chriftian land', at this day, relative to
adultery ? Answer—in the corrupt ages
of the Jeu ifh church, the law was Hack
ed, and wrong judgment proceeded.
Good laws can never ftard in full force
[Numb. 3 of Volume 6—
without virtue in the people to uphold
them. Is not truth fallen in the streets
of Rhodeifland at this day, so that equi
ty cannot enter ; yea, do they not frame
mifehief and injustice by law? and co
they not openly and resolutely maintain
the wrong ? For the unjust knoweth no
shame.
In the corrupt ages of the Jewish
church, the waters of jealousy had no
effect, for the reason mentioned in Ho
sea iv. 14. The Jews might put away
their wives for adultery, without bring
ing them to a trial ; but the law flood
firm, as being, forever fettled in Heaven.
But as to the mildness of the laws in the
prelent day,! am loath to fay any thing
of my own mind. But a certain Euro
pean writer fays to this effeft, viz. Why
a man is hanged in Great-Britain, for
stealing thirteen pence halfpenny from
his neighbour ; but not so for debauch
ing his wife, I can align no reason but
this, viz. That whereas a man adeems
his wife no more than bone of his bone,
and flefh of his flefh, he esteems his coin
as the very foul of his foul.
PHIL ANTHROPOS.
^ Make no more hafe than good speed
IS advice worth observing.
Haste often makes waste.
Some loose more by their
precipitancy, than they get by
their industry.,; They are in
so great a hurry about one
thing, that they forget other
things and accomplish no
ting : They have a dozen de
signs in their heads at once,
demanding attention, and 1 ke
a numerous litter of pigs;
pushing away one another.
They are busy in collecting ; r
and what they gather with
their hands , they kick away
with their feet. Fervidus is
one of this fort of men. No
man is more busy or does, less
to the purpose. A piece of
ground must be ploughed to'
day. To morrow something
elie must be done. He hires
a plough boy, tackles his team,
drivesithem on the full run,
into the field, has forgothir
The ECONOMIST—No. 4.