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Rh. It was one of those sins which, being deeply imbedded in the customs of the people and institutions of society, was only checked and restrained, and not absolutely forbidden by civil legislation. "The latter says, (p. 29,) "But further, the Mosaic laws, if they did not sanction polygamy, did at least in some instances regulate it, as being a former custom; just as in other cases of old customs, which the Lawgiver did not see fit expressly to prohibit."

Polygamy then was, by the admission of both our opponents, always sinful: "which God," says the Puritan, (p. 20,) "as moral governor, uttering the higher laws of the universe, condemned." The inference, therefore, in favor of this sinful custom, derived from this verse, with more force and plausibility than the inference in favor of the marriage under debate, must be rejected as unsound and inadmissible. The Jew, accustomed to regard polygamy as lawful, did not see this truth: but Christians, who have been taught to regard that Oriental custom as sinful, inconsistent with the original design of the marriage institution, and in opposition to the plainly expressed will of our