not any or let none deal c. others making the preceding word spirit the nominative case that is and let not your spirit deal treacherously c. are waies of change so usual in the Dialect of the Scripture that none that looks into the Original thereof can raise any scruples or difficulties from it Abarbinel having considered and recited Kimchi's Exposition as likewise shewed how the opinion of those who understand that One of Adam is as he supposes to be managed most agreeably to the scope of the words viz. that the first words be taken as an objection to the Prophet that reproved them for their taking strange wives We are all the children of the first man Adam children of one Father and then none can be accounted a strange woman which is that which is said did not one i. e. the holy God at first create one man alone and the residue of the spirit was with him i. e. the rest of the spirits came forth of his loins viz. of that first Adam who was one and then that the other words be the Prophets answer to this purpose Will you make your condition to be equal or like that of the first man Adam when he was alone in the World for he did not seek ought but a Seed of God children that should serve God not following after his concupiscence as ye do and therefore it is meet that ye Take heed to your spirits c. which Exposition how clear it is I will not examine yet seeing that neither Adam nor Abraham are mentioned in the Text thinks the words are capable of another more simple Exposition which he thus gives And not one hath done it viz. not one only among you hath committed this evil So that you may say shall one man sin and wilt thou be wrath with all the Congregation as Num. XVI 22 One man alone among you hath not done this so as that to the rest their spirit is with them i. e. they keep entire their soul and spirit which shall return unto God who gave it And if it were but one alone among you I would ask him what he did seek by this marriage whether he did seek that the children which were born unto him should be a Seed of God this is not possible as long as their mother is the daughter of a strange God And seeing the matter is so that ye have all transgressed not one only of you and seeing that he that so transgresseth in this knows of a truth that his Seed will not be the Seed of God it concerns you that ye take heed to your spirit for there is nothing more precious to a man then his soul and that you keep your spirit that it break not forth after its lusts and then it will not or let it not viz. that spirit deal treacherously with the wife of thy youth Because c. This is a literal Interpretation of his words and this his opinion a learned Christian embraceth but a modern Jew who cites it having considered it prefers another of his own wherein he takes by the One to be meant Israel whom God chose to be to himself One peculiar People among all Nations a People that should dwell alone and not be reckoned among the Nations as Balaam speaks of them Num. XXIII 9 and were therefore to preserve themselves a holy People and to keep their Genealogy and offspring entire not mingled with other Nations nor making marriages with them whereby the holy Seed the Seed of God might be mingled with the daughter of a strange God So that the Prophets reproof here will run thus Did not God make Israel one Nation in the Earth and to him was excellency of spirit i. e. did not God give to Israel that one Nation an excellent spirit above all Nations and what is it that that one seeks or should seek It is a Seed of God a Seed that God hath blessed to take or in taking a wife of the daughters of Israel who are the Seed of God children of the living God and not the daughter of a strange God Therefore take heed to your spirit lest there be made a breach in that high degree and excellency which God hath imparted to you in making you one holy People separate from all other People And this Exposition he confirms by looking back to the 10 th and 11 th verses Have we not all one Father c. which he will have to import That God our God is one and he is our Father who created us to be to him a peculiar People one People of one God and if we take strange wives of the Nations of the Earth we shall deal treacherously every one against his brother and profane the holy Covenant of our Fathers our Seed which is the holiness of the Lord which he loveth There are yet other Expositions ancienter then some of the forementioned which yet because the Author from whom I take them is not yet printed as the others are and in some consideration to the Expositions themselves I put in the last place He tells us that the meaning of the words is said by more perhaps because he names no particular though the words in which he gives it are expresly Aben Ezra's to be That there is not any among you but hath done this that the construction of the words with a supply of what is to be understood may run thus There is not one of you that hath done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cedat according to the Law and his spirit or whose spirit remains to him so as that it hath not been mingled with the daughter of a strange God This Exposition though he approve not of yet it may be observable in regard that it agrees with the usual reading of the LXX or Greek Version which hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which being read without an Interrogation though it is usually read with one would sound And he hath not done that which is good and there is remainder of his spirit where by he seeing it is to be asked who is meant by it it will be the readiest and plainest way to understand any one that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath not done may be meant the same as by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is not that doth i. e. not one that doth good Rom. III. 12 and so then there is not any one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Echad one that hath done good and there is a remainder of his spirit or reading the last words only with an Interrogation and is there any remainder of his spirit i. e. so as that there is a remainder of his spirit or his spirit is entire This being allowed it will be all one with that Jewish Exposition mentioned the one's supply of Cedat according to the Law well answering to the others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good and if so all that I shall at present say is That then this
other or would choose any other place for his worship then Jerusalem he will certainly effect and therefore for the better assurance thereof repeats it for my Name shall be great that which by you a handfull of men is now despised shall be great among the Heathen by all acknowledged as such These words were when spoken spoken of what should after be but by Christs coming into the World were made good so appears it by what he saith in his discourse with the Samaritan Woman who thought of no other pâ—aâ—e where men ought â—o worship God but either the Mountain of the Samaritans mount Garizim or Jerusalem Joh. IV. 21 c. Woman beleive me the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this Mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father And the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth The consideration of which words will give us the true import of these and compared together they illustrate one the other for his saying that God did no longer confine his worship i. e. the outward performance thereof by such rites and ceremonies as were ordained to Jerusalem or any other single place what is that but the verifying of what is here said that his Name should be great among the Nations from the rising of the Sun even to the going down of the same and what he â—aâ—th that the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth not only there but every where sheweth that as his Name should be great and magnified among them by their acknowledging him as Father so what is to be meant by that incense and pure offering which they should offer unto his Name viz. not such as are literally signified by those words and were then to be ordered according to the prescription of the Law but such worship as though expressed by the names of those carnal things under the Law then in continual use and known to all yet is indeed spiritual joining the Soul with the external performances agreeable to the nature of God who is a spirit of which those ordinances of worship under the Law were types and shadows And indeed the change of the place necessarily imports a change of the worship or things offered for expression of it for the incense and other offerings by the Law prescribed were not to be offered any where else but in the Temple at Jerusalem after that was there settled for the place of his worship Deut. XII 13 14 26. Those therefore that he will have in every place to be offered to him are manifestly of another nature though called by those names which then included generally all the external worship of God under the Old Testament while the Jews were Gods peculiar People they now figuratively understood denote the whole spiritual worship of God under the New Testament since the calling of the Gentiles and People of all Nations unto Gods Church the Kingdom of Christ. The incense therefore of the Gentiles converted to Christ and by the Gospell instructed in the true knowledge of God and taught to celebrate his great name and their pure offering are devout prayers Rev. V. 8 holy praises thanksgivings and alms-deeds and works of charity Heb. XIII 15 16. their whole selves Rom. XII 1 Divers of the ancient Christian Fathers look on the words as an express and undoubted Prophecy of the Christians solemn worship of God in the Eucharist or Sacrament of the Lords Supper called the Christian Sacrifice to which how they are appliable is shewed at large by the learned M r Mede in his discourse on these words where he gives to note that under the name of the Christian Sacrifice by the ancient Church was understood not the mere Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ but the whole sacred action or solemn Service of the Church assembled whereof this sacred mystery was a prime and principal part and therefore defines it to be An oblation of thanksgiving and praier to God the Father through Jesus Christ and his Sacrifice commemorated in the creatures of bread and wine wherewith God had been first agnized viz. by them sanctified by being offered and set before him as a present to acknowledge him the Lord and giver of all This whole Service duly performed is as at large he there shews deservedly stiled incense and a pure offering both in respect that it is purely or spiritually offered and in respect of the purity of the conscience and affection of the offerers throughly perswaded of the greatness of God and in respect of Christ whom it signifies and represents who is a Sacrifice without all spot and blemish and by this being offered to his Name in every place he saith the time should come when it should be great magnified and acknowledged as great among and by all Nations though the Jews did now profane it as he makes the connexion by rendring that though which our Translation renders but. But the sense will be much alike in reading but viz. to this purpose the time shall come when from the rising of the Sun c. my Name shall be great among the Gentiles who yet have not true knowledge of me but will when I shall see due time to reveal it to them readily embrace it Mean while it ought to have been so among you and duly magnified by you to whom I have from of old revealed it and given you ordinances and waies of worship by observing of which you should have magnified it but you on the contrary have by despising those ordinances and perverting those waies of worship profaned it When these words were spoken and thence forward as all along before since the giving of the Law till the time of this diffusing the knowledge of God and his Name and this alteration and reformation of his worship here spoken of the Jews had for their direction the Law of Moses and ought duly to have attended to it as they are warned Chap. IV. 4 but they did in all things go so contrary to it as that neither they nor any service they did were acceptable to God So notoriously so obstinately peccant were they both Priest and People that he sees it not sufficient to have once reproved them by reckoning up to them their faults but again repeats them that so they may be sensible how greatly they have offended him how displeasing it is to him that they should continue to do such things having been warned of them and that it is worse then what the Gentiles when he shall call them will do 12 ¶ But ye have profaned it in that ye say The table of the Lord is polluted and the fruit thereof even his meat is contemptible But ye have profaned it viz. my Name so verse 6. they are said to despise
notion of companion and wife of Covenant agrees to either 15 And did not he make one yet had he the residue of the spirit and wherefore one that he might seek a godly seed therefore take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth And did not he make one yet had he the residue Marg. Or excellency of the spirit and wherefore one c. This verse is confessedly difficult It appears so by the several different Expositions that are given of it We shall in the first place take notice of that which seems most agreeable to our Translation in the Text. And did not he i. e. that one God who created all vers 10. make one i. e. one man and one woman made out of the rib of that one man one only pair so that that one man had only one wife though he had the residue of the spirit being the Father of spirits and so could have at his pleasure created more spirits or souls and infused them into more women so that that one man might have had more wives if God had so pleased But now he gave him only one and made only one couple and that for this end that they might in chast wedlock and sincere love and undivided affection propagate a godly seed or holy seed to God whose example therefore ye ought to look on as a perpetual Law set to you and therefore in imitation of that first man take heed you also every one to your spirit that spirit by God infused into you that ye impart and communicate it only to one and that with sincere affection and let none of you deal treacherously against the wife of his youth by despising or relinquishing her or taking any other strange wife with her This seems an easy and very probable Interpretation and the rendring is agreeable to the words without force or violence to any of them or to the construction And it will be confirmed by our Savior's way of arguing against divorce and consequently Polygamy Matt. XIX 4 5 6. Have ye not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female c. by which is well expounded this expression here did not he make one that is one couple which by that relation as he there adds became one flesh and are no more two but one flesh one man as Gen. I. 27 they both together are called and therefore should be of one mind and one spirit also the unity of which they ought faithfully to preserve without dealing treacherously one with the other to the making a division betwixt them or by taking in strangers to corrupt that holy Seed by God required and introduce a spurious unsanctified generation like that by such means brought in Gen. VI. 2 c. But though this seem a plain and good Exposition yet because far different ones are by others given it will be convenient to take notice of some of them at least lest we should be thought to take this because others were not considered In the next place therefore we may take notice of that reading which the ancient Latin Translation gives Nonne unus fecit residuam spiritûs ejus est c. which according to the Doway English Version of it is did not 〈◊〉 make and the residue of the spirit is his or as it may sound and it is the residue of his spirit They that follow this reading wherein one is the nominative case differ in their Expositions for if it be asked what did one make â—ome understand one man and one woman Adam and Eve which was the residue of his spirit of whose spirit whether of the spirit of God or the man this Jerom shews to have been a doubt betwixt Interpreters even in his time If of God then they expound it that God having residue of the same spirit i. e. like in kind and of the same nature to that which he had infused into the man infused it into the woman taken out of him that so they might be of one mind and joined in mutual affection And to the like purpose they that expound it the remainder of the spirit of Adam viz. that into the woman was inspired the like spirit as into him Others by that which he made understand Eve into which he inspired the remainder of the spirit i. e. the like spirit or of the same kind that he had inspired into Adam and then proceed in like manner as the other as to the scope of the words and then he adds what doth one seek but thee Seed of God i. e. for what end did God do so so join them into whom he breath'd the like spirit but for the propagation of a godly seed of men that might serve him which by your taking strange heathenish wives will not be preserved but necessarily adulterated For caution in which kind he infers keep ye then or therefore your spirit i. e. say some of them your wives which are the remainder of your spirit as it were making one soul with you and wrong them not or your affection which from that relation ought to be in you towards them or as others more generally your souls and spirits from committing any such sin by taking strange wives to the wrong of your lawful wives which from your youth you have had or as you love your own soul and spirit take heed of doing so Thus they who follow that rendring A learned man who doth not farther follow it yet if the words be so rendred did not one make thinks this would be the meaning That the one viz. God with whom is the excellency of the spirit yea so great abundance of it that there is still remainder of it with him did make that which is in the end of the foregoing verse said That the wife should be a companion to the man and in covenant joined with him And what in that doth he look after he seeks a Seed of God a divine or godly Seed of which he may be called the Author and Father Therefore take heed to your spirit that you offend not against him with whom is abundance of the spirit and who by that abundance most wisely ordered Matrimony by dealing treacherously with or against your lawful wives This Exposition he sets down but doth not acquiesce in it but gives another which he more approves of which is thus And not one i. e. none doth this to whom there are any remainders of spirit and how should any one do it seeking a Seed of God take heed therefore to your spirit that none deal treacherously c. that the sense may be Thou dealest treacherously against thy wife who is thy companion and joined with thee in covenant None doth this who hath any thing at all of the spirit of God remaining in him and how should any do it who seeks a Seed of God If therefore ye seek
Interpretation is not novel and withal that perhaps there is no reason why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not good should be changed into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a late learned man would have it that so he might have occasion of finding fault with the ordinary reading in the Hebrew This Exposition R. Tanchum having cited rejects for this reason because that fault was not so general as that all may be said to be guilty of it but only some particular persons who are reckoned up in Esdras ch X. 18 c. and Nehem. XIII 28 except they may therefore be all accounted guilty because they did not disapprove it Another Exposition therefore he gives of his own viz. And there is not one who hath done this and hath his spirit remaining to him i. e. but shall certainly perish in his sin Then he asks as by way of derision and what is the end or purpose of any one in doing this doth he thereby seek a holy Seed that shall set it self to obey God therefore it behoveth you to look to your selves as you would save your spirits that you abstain or to keep your souls by abstinence from so doing and that he deal not treacherously the third person being put for the second as in many places it is done i. e. and do not thou or you deal treacherously with the wife of thy or your youth he speaking to them in the second person There being this variety of Expositions irreconcilable between themselves I knew not how better to make way for the Reader to examine them and judge of them and so to enquire after the truth then by thus giving him the chief of them at large and for more facilitating yet the matter it may not be amiss to give the bare signification of the words which are so diversly expounded as they stand in the original Text which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Velo Echad and not one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Asah hath done or made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vsear ruah lo and the remainder or as some will excellency of spirit to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vmah Haechad and why or what one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mebak-kesh seeking or seeketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zera Elohim a Seed of God From the different putting together and construction of these words and distinguishing them and reading them either with or without an interrogation arise these so different senses which when the Reader shall have well considered he shall perhaps find the first which is according to our English Translation in the Text or the last of the Jewish which is R. Tanchum's most easily appliable to the words and according to either of them and indeed of all they will be a forcible argument against either their putting away their legal Israelitish wives or taking with them other strange wives yea more generally against either divorce or Polygamy all treacherous or unfaithfull dealing against the covenant of the Marriage bed which is also farther expressed in the following verse 16 For the Lord the God of Israel saith that he hateth putting away for one covereth violence with his garment saith the Lord of hosts therefore take heed to your spirit that ye deal not treacherously For the Lord God of Israel saith that he hateth putting away or as in the Margin to put away c. In this verse also are several Interpretations and it hath its difficulties of which our Translators give notice by their putting in the Margin as a different rendring of which the first words are capable If he hate her put her away And this marginal reading is agreeable to what most ancient Interpreters to omit modern have it so the Greek and ancient Latin and Arabick If thou hate her put her away and so the ancientest among the Jews the Chalde Paraphrast Yet neither is the other which ours follow in the Text novel they are both mentioned in the Talmud and since that by such Expositors as have followed so as you may perceive they doubted which to prefer though some inclining more to the one others to the other Kimchi following that which the Chalde hath makes no mention of the other Aben Ezra following the other as the truer in his opinion mentions not that R. Salomo only tells us of both without preferring either and so doth Abarbinel and R. Tanchum So that it will be necessary to take some notice of both that so the Reader may at last use his own judgment which he will follow which will be the better done when he shall have likewise considered the following words which are in our Translation rendered for one covereth violence with his garment Concerning the Exposition of which words there is likewise no little difference betwixt Interpreters both concerning the construction of them viz. who or what one it is that is said to cover and what to be covered or which with which is covered the violence with the garment or the garment with violence and concerning the meaning of this expression 1. As to the Construction that which our Translators follow in the Text makes the person spoken of viz. he that doth that wrong to his wife whom he putteth away to be him that covers and violence to be that which he covers and his garment to be that with which he covers it For one say they covereth i. e. He whosoever he be that doth this as Bishop Hall well paraphraseth it covereth violence with his garment so taking the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Al which otherwise signifieth upon or above here to signify the same that usually the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be doth in construction of Verbs i. e. with So do besides some other modern Interpreters some ancient Jews also take it to do as the Chalde Paraphrast and R. Tanchum although the first of these doth not render the former words as ours do but If thou hate her put her away yet in these he so takes the particle as we said to signify with rendring and cover not sin with thy garment That he changeth the person from he to thou his to thy is by the liberty of a Paraphrast that gives the meaning according as he takes the intent to be not of a litteral Interpreter But whereas he puts in not which is not in the Text this Grotius solves by saying that he read it interrogatively And shall or may any so doing cover his iniquity with his garment which may likewise be applied to what R. Tanchum saith who saies that the first words being interpreted when a man hateth his wife let him put her away i. e. it is permitted to him to put her away viz. by a legal Bill of divorce that so another Israelite may marry her in a legal way and he do not deceive her by taking another strange wife unto him the construction of these must be and let him not cover violence with his garment and so a Latin
yet of another of like signification in matter of wedlock that which according to the simplest exposition of the words is by Abimelech said Gen. XX. 16 That Abraham was to Sarah his wife a covering of the eies i. e. saith the Chalde a covering of honor And by like reason that the husband may be said to be to the wife a covering of the eies to keep her from looking after others or others from looking after her may the wife be said to be to the husband a covering of the eies to keep him from looking after any woman but her If this be not enough to prove such accommodation to man and wife of words signifying covering or garment in the language of those times yet if one Eastern language may serve for illustrating and giving testimony to the expressions of another of so nigh affinity to it that they may be accounted almost one and one but a dialect of the other as the Arabick is to the Hebrew so esteemed by the Jewish Writers and therefore usually had recourse to for finding out the use and signification of Hebrew words where any doubt or difficulty occurs then here will the Arabick Tongue help us and teach us to pronounce boldly of such words as signify a garment or covering that they are applied to signify man or wife respectively So saith a learned Grammarian that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hollah which signifies an upper garment or robe is used to denote a wife and so likewise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lebas which answers to the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lebush here used to denote either the husband or wife respectively and he cites a testimony out of the Alcoran it self wherein he that compiled it endeavors very often to imitate Scripture expressions as if God should say to the men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Honna lebas lacom waantom lebas lahonna they i. e. your wives are a garment to you and you are a garment to them And why might not this figurative signification also be allowed anciently to this and like words in the Hebrew Tongue from which the Arabick might borrow it And if by his garment here be understood his wife 't will easily be thought that by violence or wrong may be denoted another strange wife with open injury taken in with or above her The name proper for such a superinducted wife is in the same Arabick language of nigh signification to it which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Darrah which as other Nouns from the same root signifies hurt affliction oppression force and the like as also in the Hebrew Tongue in which such a wife is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tsarah one that afflicteth is enemy to or doth injure and oppress the other Whence in the Law is forbidden to take one wife to another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Litzror to vex her Levit. XVIII 18 Now that the Noun signifying violence or wrong or oppression should in the abstract be taken for one that doth violence or wrong is no marvel it being very usual to put Nouns signifying goodness or badness or the like in the abstract for such as are eminent in those kinds good or bad profitable or hurtfull and so violence for a wife that will certainly do wrong or violence or by taking of which violence or wrong is necessarily done to the former wife with more reason I suppose though much the like then some by violence take to be meant the former wife violently retained and not dismissed that she might be married by another And if garment may be used for a wife then the Verb signifying to cover or put on a garment as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cissah here may by the same reason be well used for the taking a wife And these things being allowed as I know not why they should not be as to the signification of the words then will the meaning which we have given be plain as to the reading of the foregoing words which is the Text of our Translation For the Lord saith he hateth putting away and for a man to take a strange a wrongfull injurious wife above or with his lawfull former wife For the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Al is noted to signify as well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 im i. e. with as over or above the sense will be all one and as to the marginal reading it will well agree with that also thus If he hate her let him put her away he may have some color from the permission of the Law so to do but he doth not that but retaining her though he hates her takes over her or together with her another strange idolatrous injurious wife which is a greater wrong and violence offered to her or but by him another wrongfull wife is taken with or above his former legal wife to fit it to that construction violence covereth c. Another meaning might be according to the same notion given agreeable to that construction let him put her away and cover the wrong towards or against his wife called his garment viz. by a Bill of Divorce so that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Al may signify towards or against The same meaning will be easily applied to such other rendrings as are given and warranted by the scope of the place as coming fully home to it which from the 10t h verse to these inclusively is a reproof of the Jews of that time for their injury done to their lawfull Israelitish wives by either illegally putting them away that they might take the daughters of a strange God or else if they did retain them yet secretly hating them and taking in above them such strange idolatrous wives whom with manifest injury to their former they did shew more affection to and make as it were Mistresses over them And this the Jews think to be all that is meant accounting both divorce and taking more Israelitish wives not to be for all that is said any way prohibited or displeasing to God But to us learning from Christ the true import of the Scriptures it will be more absolutely a prohibition from God both of the one and the other viz. both Divorce and Polygamy which having shewed how hatefull it is to him he concludes with a repetition of his injunction or Caveat given in the foregoing verse Therefore take heed to your spirit that you deal not treacherously take heed to your selves as you love your souls and the preservation of your spirits that ye offend not by indulging to your unbridled lusts in either of these kinds and prevaricate against the sacred tie of Wedlock by God instituted for the joining one to one in an indissoluble knot of affection in legal manner And this till some plainer way be shewn we embrace as the fullest and properest meaning of this verse it being agreeable both to the construction and signification of the words and manifest scope of the place 17 ¶ Ye