Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/341

 tainly a just Rule for us to state a Christian Regimen or Government from; they are a good Standard to measure Decency and the Laws of good Order by: They were certainly formed upon the most perfect Model of Justice and Equity, perfectly suited to the Nature of the Thing, and are binding in Decency, if they are not absolutely so in Conscience, and under the usual Penalties, as the rest of Law at that time was.

of the sacred Constitutions of the Jewish State were enjoyn'd upon the severest Penalty, generally of Death; being cut off from the Congregation of the, &c. and amongst those Things to which those Severities were annexed, those which respected Uncleanness, and natural or accidental Pollutions, were some of the chief, such as having the Disease of the Leprosy, Issues of Blood, nay, even eating leavened Bread in the seven Days of the Passover; counterfeiting the sacred Oil and the sacred Perfume, were punished with Death, that Soul was to be cut off, &c. the Reason was, because it was a despising the Legislator. But when he comes to enjoyn the needful Purifications, and the particular Uncleannesses which were to be purg'd by washings and separations, as also for the eating of Blood, the Reasons are given in plain Words; speaks them himself, I have separated you from other People that ye should be mine, and ye shall be holy unto me; as in Exodus, chap. xii. and Leviticus, chap. xv. and xvii. and several other Places.

if these legal Purifications were appointed only that the People might be a more exactly clean and sanctified People, than the other Nations about them, the Reason holds,