--------------------- C O N T E N T S OF V O L U M E I. ---------------------- DEDICATION, -- -- -- -- -- -- page vii PREFACE, -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- xi INTRODUCTION, -- -- -- -- -- -- I C H A P. I. Of MARRIAGE as a DIVINE INSTITUTION, 18 C H A P. II. Of WHOREDOM and FORNICATION, 45 C H A P. III. Of ADULTERY, -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 57 C H A P. IV. Of POLYGAMY, -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 74 CHRIST not the GIVER of a New Law -- 320
iv
E R R A T A. Page 31. 1.6. note, for uneta read uncta
104. 1. the last, note, dele specifically.
105. 1. 3. note, for gravitant, read gravant.
134. for I Kings Xix. read xviii
142. 1. 5. for Jer. iv. 44. read xliv. 4.
154. 1. 23. for 1 Cor. vii. read vi.
225. the last note, last line but one, for must
be, read seems to be.
270. 1. 17. for Gen. iii. 7. read Gen. iii. 6.
360. 1. 21. for it can, read it must.
384. 1. 11. for Grenequius read Barbeyrac.
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T O T H E
P R E S I D E N T S,
V I C E - P R E S I D E N T S,
A N D O T H E R
G O V E R N O R S
Of those well-intended Charities, and beneficent Institutions The Asylum--- Misericordia --- Magdalene---and Lock- Hospital. THE AUTHOR of the following Treatise cannot fix on a more proper patronage for work of this kind, than that of those noble and honorable persons, whose compassion on the miseries of the female sex, has led them to institute public charities for its preservation and relief. As our laws are at the present framed, women are exposed to seduction, prostitution, and ruin, almost without control; --- they
viii D E D I C A T I O N.
--- they seem to be looked upon as lawful prey to the lust, treachery, cruelty, and mean artifices of licentious and profligate men, who can seduce and then abandon them at their will.
That a want of good government among us in those respects, is one source of all those evils, which your disinterested and humane endeavours are intended to prevent or remedy, is surely apparent on the slightest consideration. A system of laws which leaves the horrid crime of adultery not only out of the list of its capital punishments, but even exempts it, as a public offence, from any animadversion whatsoever in our courts of criminal judicature, must be attended with all those mischiefs that arise from the encouragement which impunity affords to vice. The same may also be observed, with respect to the defenceless state, in which the weaker sex in general is left against the stronger; so that any man may seduce,
3 and
D E D I C A T I O N. ix
and abandon at his pleasure, the unhappy and deluded objects of his brutal appetite.
To exhibit a system far different from this--- to set forth the divine law as the contrivance of infinate wisdom, for the security, peace, preservation, and protection of the female sex, is the purpose of the following pages.--- Were this to be made the basis of our municipal laws, it would prove an adequate remedy for all those mischiefs, which, in comparitvely few instances, can now only find a partial palliation, from benevolence like yours, but which must, in general, be still the portion of those, whom GOD'S law was formed to protect. Many of you, my LORDS and GENTLEMEN, are members of the LEGISLATURE; and if, from what shall be said on the matters treated in this book, they should become the subjects of your ferious consideration in your legislative capacity, the author will gain one desirable end of his labours.
x D E D I C A T I O N. This surely must be allowed -- that, in point of fact, the alarming increase of female prostitution and ruin, calls loudly for some remedy: the self-evidence of this, is the very foundation of those benevolent designs which distinguish the several public charities to which you so generously contribute. Let the Government adopt the system of heavenly wisdom, which adorns the pages of the SACRED VOLUME, and it will find a remedy in its own hands--- what that system is, it has been the author's most ferious endeavour to enquire, and to recommend it to all, but more especially to the consideration of those, whose care, expence, and vigilance, for the good of their fellow-creatures, has occasioned them the trouble of this address from Their most humble servant, And ardent well-wisher to their good designs, THE AUTHOR.
(Continued)
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