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the said sessions, and to restore the said certificate; for which entry the clerk of the peace may receive four pence and no

more.

"And be it further enacted, That if any person, by violence or fraud, shall steal and take away, or cause to be stolen or taken away, any person whatsoever, under the age of one and twenty years, with intent to marry the said person in this Commonwealth, or in any other place, such person and persons so stealing and taking away, or causing to be stolen and taken away, shall forfeit his and their whole estate real and personal, one half thereof to the Commonwealth, and the other half to the use of the party so taken away, to be recovered by any suit on behalf of the Commonwealth; or by any action in a court of record, brought by their parent, guardian or overseer, and shall farther suffer strict and close imprisonment, and be kept to hard labour in some house of correction or other public working-house during life; and every person that shall be convicted upon indictment, presentment, or by any due course of law, for aiding or abetting any such violence or fraud, shall be imprisoned, and kept at hard labour (as aforesaid) during the space of seven whole years next after such conviction; and any pretended marriage, that at any time hereafter shall be obtained by any such violence or fraud, is hereby declared null and void.

"And it is further enacted, That where any guardian or overseer shall betray any trust touching any child, by seducing, selling or otherwise wilfully putting such child into the hands or power of any person who shall marry such child, without his or her free consent, such guardian or overseer shall forfeit double the portion which of right did belong to such child, one moiety thereof to go to the Commonwealth, and the other to the child so married as aforesaid, to be recovered by any action, bill, plaint or suit, in any court of record, by the party wronged, or any other person on his or her behalf.

"And it is hereby declared and enacted, That from and after the nine and twentieth day of September, one thousand six hundred fifty and three, the age for a man to consent unto marriage shall be sixteen years, and the age of a woman fourteen years, and not before; and any contract or marriage had or made before the respective ages aforesaid, shall be void and of

none effect.

"And it is further enacted, That the hearing and determining of all matters and controversies touching contracts and marriages, and the lawfulness and unlawfulness thereof; and all exceptions against contracts and marriages, and the distribution of forfeitures within this act, shall

be in the power, and referred to the determination of the justices of peace in each county, city or town corporate, at the general quarter sessions; or of such other persons to hear and determine the same, as the Parliament shall hereafter appoint.

"And be it further enacted, That all and every offence and offences, at any time or times hereafter, committed or done upon or beyond the sea, contrary to the tenor and true intent and meaning of this act, shall and may be tried in any city, town corporate, or county where the person or persons so offending shall be appre hended or attached for the offence or of fences aforesaid.

"And it is also enacted, That where there are small parishes, or places not within any parish, or no usual morning exercise on the Lord's days in the afore said meeting-place, the justices of peace, at their general sessions, or any three or more of them, may unite two or more such parishes, or such places to other parishes, (at their discretions) which shall be accounted one parish, as to the matters only within this act; and one register to serve for such parishes and places so united.

"And be it enacted, That all and every the persons in this act mentioned, may and shall, in their several places, by virtue hereof, put in execution all and every the powers and authorities respectively to them limited by this act, any law, statute, custom or usage to the contrary, notwithstanding. And all register books for marriages, births and burials already past, shall be delivered into the hands of the respective registers appointed by this act, to be kept as records.

"And it is lastly enacted by this present Parliament, and the authority thereof, That this present act shall be in force is Ireland, from and after the first day of December, which shall be in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred fifty and three."

SIR,

London, May 5, 1819.

At this time, when a large pro

portion of the Unitarians in this nation are petitioning their legislators for an alteration in the Marriage Law, (s (so far as concerns themselves as a Dissenting body,) I presume many of their active minds will be employed in considering what form or ceremony will be best adapted to their peculiar

situation and circumstances.

The form adopted by that respec table religious Society called Quakers, appears to me to be at once effective, and consistent with Christian sim plicity and Unitarian principles: on this account I have felt desirous of

communicating it to the Unitarian body, through the medium of the Monthly Repository. It is as follows,

viz.

"The parties intending to join in marriage, are first to declare their intention at the meeting whereof they are members, in terms of the following import, viz. the man, that he intends to take D. E. to be his wife, if the Lord permit: the woman, that she intends to take A. B. to be her husband, if the Lord permit.

"If the parents or the guardians of the parties be present, they are to declare their consent; if absent, a certificate or certificates are to be produced, signifying, that it is with their consent the parties proceed to accomplish their intended marriage; which certificates are to be signed by the parents or guardians, and attested by two witnesses.

6

"It is also usual for the meeting to appoint a few Friends to inquire into the clearness of the parties from other marriage engagements; and if there be issue by a former marriage or marriages, to see that the children's rights be legally secured; likewise to take care that public notice of the said intended marriage be given at the close of a First-day (Sunday) meeting, to which the parties respectively belong, in the following manner: Friends, there is an intention of marriage between A. B. of C., and D. E. of F. If any person have any thing to object, let timely Rolice be given. And the Friends appointed are to make report at a subsequent meeting; when, if no objection arise, liberty is to be granted to the parties to solemnize the marriage.'

"Marriages are to be solemnized at the usual week-day meeting, or at a meeting appointed at some seasonable hour in the forenoon, on some other convenient day, and at the meeting-house to which the woman belongs.

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having declared their intention of taking
draper, and M., his wife,
each other in marriage before the monthly
meeting of Friends, commonly called
Quakers, of
in the

of

A. B. and D. E., after due inquiry and the proceedings of the said deliberate consideration thereof, were allowed by the said meeting, they appearing clear of all others, and having consent of be). Now these are to certify, that for parents (or guardians, as the case may the accomplishing their said marriage, this day of the month, in the year one thousand eight hundred and they, the said A, B. and D. E., appeared at a public assembly of the aforesaid people, in their meeting-house in (or at, as the case may be), and he, the said A. B., taking the said D. E. by the hand, deelared as followeth :

"And the said D. E. did then and there, in the said assembly, declare as followeth

further confirmation thereof, and in tes"And the said A. B. and D. E., as a timony thereunto, did then and there to these presents set their hands.

"A. B.

"D. E.

marriage, have also subscribed our names "We being present at the above-said as witnesses thereunto, the day and year above written."

The foregoing is the whole of the marriage ceremony used in the SoCiety of Friends; but in addition, it is ordered,

"Towards the conclusion of the said meeting the parties are to stand up, and taking each other by the hand, to declare, in an audible and solemn manner, to the following effect : Friends, I take this my friend, D. E., the man first, viz. to be my wife, promising, through Divine agreeable to the following form, be signed "That two registers of all marriages, assistance, to be unto her a loving and faithful husband, until it shall please the ringe, by the parties themselves, and by at a convenient time on the day of marLord by death to separate us; and then three witnesses, and be carefully delivered the woman in like manner: Friends, I take this my friend, A. B., to be my hus- to be preserved in a proper book to be to the next monthly meeting; one of them band, promising, through Divine assis kept for that purpose; and the other to be tance, to be unto him a loving and faithful carried to the quarterly meeting, to be wife, until it shall please the Lord by fixed into a proper book, and indexed. death to separate us.

A certificate, (with a five-shilling

stamp affixed,) in the following form of

This certificate is always given to the

words, is then to be audibly read by some parties married.

VOL. XIV.

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"J. L., of

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our God," and to receive from him direction and support, a place peculiarly adapted to privacy and seclusion from the world, was indeed well fitted for the display of that wonderful and splendid scene.

The word διανυκτερεύω την διανικ Tepeúwy), which is applied to our Saviour on the mountain, the night be fore he made choice of his disciples, (Luke vi. 12,) is very expressive of vigilance and intenseness of miud.

Schleusner, among other explana

"This marriage was solemnized be- tions which he gives of it, has the

tween us,

"A. B.
"D. E."

If any of your readers wish for more particular information than I have given, on this or any other subject connected with the religious discipline of the Society of Friends, they may find it in a work, entitled, "Extracts from the Minutes and Advices of the Yearly Meeting of Friends, held in London from its first Institution." London: printed and sold by W. Phillips, George-yard, Lombard

street.

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Sheffield,

W.

SIR, April 19, 1819. N addition to the remarks which were made in your Repository for last January, [p. 40,] respecting the ancient poreuxα, as to their situation, not only on low grounds, but on hills and mountains, and the religious purposes to which they were devoted, I would observe, that there are many broken remains still to be met with, which may have belonged to edifices of this kind. These structures, open to the heavens, afforded a powerful aid to religious contemplation and prayer. I think it not improbable, that when our Saviour "took his three disciples, Peter, James and John, and brought them up into an high mountain apart, Kät' idiάv, and was transfigured before them, their retreat was to a poreux; and the transfiguration might be presented within its walls. A place consecrated to religious contemplation -a place to which our Lord had, perhaps, often resorted on former oc casions to hold communion with "his Father and our Father, his God and

following:-" Vigilo," "noctem insomnem duco." The last sense is adopted by the late Mr. Wakefield. The whole verse is rendered in the following manner:-" Now in those days he went out into the mountain to pray; and continued awake all night in the house of prayer to God."

With respect to the substitution of autou for Tou or ToU EU, at the close of this verse, the reference should have been made to the Vienna MSS., and not the Cambridge MS., which ends the verse with poreux. [Vide Gries. bach's Greek Testament, apud Notas et varias Lect. in loc.]

SIR,

NATH. PHILIPPS.

Dukinfield, October 12, 1818.

A VERY elegant writer has made

a distinguished Roman to com pliment Plato as "reasoning well" on the immortality of the soul. And notwithstanding the Divine declaration to Adam, that "dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return;" this foud prepossession in favour of immortal life, has been cherished through every succeeding age of his posterity. The advocates of this opi nion have appealed to this universal sentiment of mankind, as an evidence which the voice of nature utters in its favour. The assumption of an indestructible principle, an emanation of the Divine nature being united with our perishable frames, has had, in the deprogress of education, too many lightful excursions into the realms of mind associated with it, to be easily relinquished. The Pagan theology, hero worship, demoniacal possession, the metamorphosis of the poets, the purgatory of the divines, the lighter

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imagery of the Rosicrucians, down to the domestic fairies of our own country, have all had their dominion over popular feeling from this source. With such a host of allies to combat, serious as well as profane, with all our early impressions, our "fond desires, our longings after immortality," the "dying entire," the "perishing whole," is a state to which sentient beings will never bring a perfect acquiescence, until Christianity and philosophy shake hauds, piety and the Divine promises "kiss one another."

The metaphysical arguments brought to the discussion of this important topic, in the present view of it, will be altogether omitted. The Mosaic account of the fall of man, it is presumed, is in perfect accordance with the glad tidings of his restoration by the second Adam. However the learned vary in their opinions on this subject, whether Moses has given us a fragment only of a more perfect history irretrievably lost, or an ancient allegory, the true meaning of which time had obliterated from the account handed down to us, all are agreed that disobedience to a Divine command altered the condition of our first parents. Formed of the dust of the earth, the privilege of paradise, the reward of a perfect obedience appears to have been to "live for ever." This perpetuity of existence, the tree of life possessed the power of continuing, more potent than the fabled power of the goddess, who

“Promised, vainly promised to bestow Immortal life exempt from age and

woe."

Banished the seat of bliss, prevented from "putting forth his hand and taking also of the tree of life," man became mortal, and his doom was, to return to dust. This complete forfeiture of immortality would necessarily become the subject of longing regret to Adam and his immediate descendants. Their wishes, however blighted, would still continue; and the fondness of anticipation lingering over the termination of present existence, would naturally transfer the realization of its hope, to the ideal hereafter of the grave. Heuce all the beautiful illusion by which the first philosophers and poets were trans

ported, still to exhibit that as belonging to our nature, which

"Man's first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree"

had altogether put out of our reach. Upon this total mortality of man the gospel comes

"With new-born day to gladden mortal sight,

And gild the courts of heaven with sacred light."

The perfect obedience of the second Adam has restored to his followers all that was lost by the transgression of the first. Hence the peculiar propriety of his name. Hence all those radiated expressions of triumph; the leading" captivity captive," the " first-born," "the only-begotten," by whom " life and immortality were brought to light," the "captain of our salvation"!

Should this view of the subject prove correct, divesting man of all physical and constitutional claims to immortality, what a lever of incredible power will be afforded to the spreading of Christianity! Much that has been thought ambiguous, will become plain, much understood metaphorically, will appear direct and appropriate forms of expression. Should the natural immortality of man be found as repugnant to sound philosophy, as it is uncountenanced by divine revelation, the importance, the paramount obligation, the infinite advantages of the Christian dispensation are all strengthened and exalted!

To follow this up, Mr. Editor, by illustration, would far exceed the appropriate argument and seriptural limit of your pages. Those who think it deserving of attention, are requested to read their Bible, with this predominant feature of it annexed to the perusal. With this humiliating view of fallen man, "fallen from his high estate," contrast the perfect obedience of our Lord; the advantages he has procured in the Divine promises of future life; and a super-human nature will appear incompatible with his character. Our surprise will be much lessened in finding Paul a Materialist, and the Scriptures, previous to the appearance of Christ, altogether silent on the rewards of a future life. On the retrospective influence over futurity, annexed to the resurrection

of Jesus, we are not favoured with any direct information, except in the appearance of Moses and Elias to him. Perhaps it may be found to be as complete as the prospective assuredly is. The declaration of Dr. Watson, which occurs in his correspondence with Mr. Gibbon, will, on this view, appear equally reputable to the philosopher and divine: "I have no hope of a future existence, except that which is grounded on the truth of Christianity." [Mon. Repos. XIII. 180.]

In submitting these thoughts to the Monthly Repository, I feel considerable reluctance on account of their singularity. On lighter subjects novelty, if attainable, is not devoid of peculiar recommendation; but where the ground has been so often beaten over by the greatest of minds, any new mode of scriptural investigation must necessarily excite, in a considerable degree, hesitation and doubt as to its accuracy. Aware of this disadvantage, and conscious of great inability, compared with the importance of the subject, if I lose my way, where others have gone in perfect safety, or sink where they have soared; mistake is, perhaps, preferable to want of effort, and involuntary error to total inactivity.

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would be perpetuated beyond death, or did they not? I should be greatly obliged to any of your learned correspondents, to throw some light on this, to me, interesting subject. Whichever supposition is adopted, it seems attended with difficulties.

If the Jews believed in the immortality of man, why do we find the subject so seldom, or as some will say, never hinted at in their writings? One would have expected that its importance would so fill their minds, that in writing professedly on religious subjects it would perpetually recur, and be clearly and distinctly stated, as both a motive to obedience and a consolatory ground of hope.

Such, at least, we find to be the effect of this persuasion on the minds of Christians. Scarcely can a page be read, either in the New Testament or in the theological writings of Christians in after ages, without finding the future existence of man either plaiuly stated or implied. How comes it to pass then, if the Jews possessed this belief, that in places innumerable, where we might expect to meet this doctrine, it is passed over in silence? What pious Christian parent, in the affecting situation of Israel blessing his sons, whom he had collected around him in his last hours, would have omitted to mention this grand article of his creed, this reviving hope, which disarms death of its terrors, and is the best consolation to survivors, as it allows them to entertain the hope of a reunion beyond the grave!

We are filled with just admiration at the noble and exalted sentiments of the Jewish writers, respecting the being, perfections and universal dominion of the one true God; but why, when they speak of his moral government of the world, do they not illustrate the doctrine of his providence, by adverting to a future economy of things, where a just retri bution will take place? The Psalmist confessed that his feet had well nigh slipped, when he beheld the prospe rity of the wicked-; and that, for the

that in vain had he washed his hands in innocency, for he was plagued all the day, and chastened every morn ing; and when, at length, having reflected more maturely on the subject, he is able to reconcile these dispen sations with the equity of Divine Providence, it is not by looking forward to another state of being, where the righteous will be rewarded, and the wicked suffer according to their crimes; for he looks no farther than the grave, and considers the sudden destruction and premature end of the ungodly as their punishment.

What fairer opportunity could be afforded for bringing forward to advantage the doctrine of a future state, than in the famous controversy in the book of Job, respecting the Divine purposes in the afflictions of mankind? How is it then, if Job and his three friends believed in this doctrine, that

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