PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

Polygamy. 211
they may be likely to form and bring up families of
tlleir o\vn, upon wh~th the increase and succession of
the human species in a great degree depend; this is
less provided for, and less practicable, wnere twenty
or thirty children a.re to be supported by the attention
and fOI"tunes of one t~lther, than if they were
divided into five or six farnilies, to each of which
were as~igned the industry a;;d inheritance ryf tw'J
parents.
. 'Vherher simultaneous ?olygamy was permitted
by the Jaw of Moses, seem& tloubrful:· bllt \\~tlether
permitted or not, it was ct:Ttainly p!·actised by the
Jewish . patriarch~, both befote that Iaw~ aJld under
it. The permission, if there was any, might be l;ke
that of di\~orce, " for the hardness of th~ir heart,"
in condescension to their established indulgences,
:father than fron} tIle general rectitude or propriety
of the thing itself. The state of manners in Judea
had probably undergone a r~formation in this respect
before the time of ClJrist, for in the New Testament
\\~e meet vlith no trace
.
or lnention of" anv such
~
practice being tJierated. -
For \\1hich -r(~ason, and because it was likewise ferbidden
anl()n~st the Greeks and Romans, we cannot
expect to find any e~:press law upon the subject
in the Chr{stian code. The words of Christ,t l\iatt.
xix. 9. may be construed by an easJ! implication to
prohibit polygamy; for, if "whoever putteth away
his 'sife, and 1110rrieth anc.!her, commiteth adultery,"
he who marrieth another witbout putting away the
first is no less guilty of adultery; because the adultery
d~es not consi~t in the repudiation of the first
wife (for, however unjust or crud that may be, it is
not adultery) but in entering into a second mar,.
riage during the legal existence and obligation of the
first. The sever,,1 passages in St. Paul's writjng~,
. which speak of marriage, dways suppose it to signify
• S ee D tut. XVII. .. 17 • XXI .,,, •••.,.
t "I say unto you~ \Vhoso('vrr shall put :l\vay his Wife, etrept it h~ fot
forJ)iC'atin'i: and ,haJJ nla!'r~ anothe:, cnmnlit:('.h adultery"