6 lines
16 KiB
HTML
6 lines
16 KiB
HTML
|
<p>We have here the law concerning the solemn trial of a wife whose husband was jealous of her. Observe,</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p class="tab-1">I. What was the case supposed: That a man had some reason to suspect his wife to have committed adultery, <a class="bibleref" title="Luke.5.12-Luke.5.14" href="/passage/?search=Luke.5.12-Luke.5.14">Luke 5:12-14</a>. Here, 1. The sin of adultery is justly represented as an exceedingly sinful sin; it is going aside from God and virtue, and the good way, <a class="bibleref" title="Prov.2.17" href="/passage/?search=Prov.2.17">Prov. 2:17</a>. It is committing a trespass against the husband, robbing him of his honour, alienating his right, introducing a spurious breed into his family to share with his children in his estate, and violating her covenant with him. It is being defiled; for nothing pollutes the mind and conscience more than this sin does. 2. It is supposed to be a sin which great care is taken by the sinners to conceal, which there is no witness of. <i>The eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Job.24.15" href="/passage/?search=Job.24.15">Job 24:15</a>. And the adulteress takes her opportunity when <i>the good man is not at home</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Prov.7.19" href="/passage/?search=Prov.7.19">Prov. 7:19</a>. It would not covet to be secret if it were not shameful; and the devil who draws sinners to this sin teaches them how to cover it. 3. The <i>spirit of jealousy</i> is supposed to come upon the husband, of which Solomon says, It is the <i>rage of a man</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Prov.6.34" href="/passage/?search=Prov.6.34">Prov. 6:34</a>), and that it is <i>cruel as the grave</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Song.8.6" href="/passage/?search=Song.8.6">Song 8:6</a>. 4. “Yet” (say the Jewish writers) “he must make it appear that he has some just cause for the suspicion.” The rule they give is, “If the husband have said unto his wife before witnesses, ‘Be not thou in secret with such a man;’ and, notwithstanding that admonition, it is afterwards proved that she was in secret with that man, though her father or her brother, then he may compel her to drink the bitter water.” But the law here does not tie him to that particular method of proving the just cause of his suspicion; it might be otherwise proved. In case it could be proved that she had committed adultery, she was to be put to death (<a class="bibleref" title="Lev.20.10" href="/passage/?search=Lev.20.10">Lev. 20:10</a>); but, if it was uncertain, then this law took place. Hence, (1.) Let all wives be admonished not to give any the least occasion for the suspicion of their chastity; it is not enough that they abstain from the evil of uncleanness, but they must abstain from all appearance of it, from every thing that looks like it, or leads to it, or may give the least umbrage to jealousy; for <i>how great a matter</i> may a <i>little fire kindle</i>! (2.) Let all husbands be admonished not to entertain any causeless or unjust suspicions of their wives. If charity in general, much more conjugal affection, teaches to <i>think no evil</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="1Cor.13.5" href="/passage/?search=1Cor.13.5">1 Cor. 13:5</a>. It is the happiness of the virtuous woman that <i>the heart of her husband does safely trust in her</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Prov.31.11" href="/passage/?search=Prov.31.11">Prov. 31:11</a>.</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p class="tab-1">II. What was the course prescribed in this case, that, if the suspected wife was innocent, she might not continue under the reproach and uneasiness of her husband’s jealousy, and, if guilty, her sin might find her out, and others might hear, and fear, and take warning.</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p class="tab-1">1. The process of the trial must be thus:—(1.) Her husband must <i>bring her to the priest</i>, with the witnesses that could prove the ground of his suspicion, and desire that she might be put upon her trial. The Jews say that the priest was first to endeavour to persuade her to confess the truth, saying to this purport, “Dear daughter, perhaps thou wast overtaken by drinking wine, or wast carried away by the heat of youth or the examples of bad neighbours; come, confess the truth, for the sake of his great name which is described in the most sacred ceremony, and do not let it be blotted out with the bitter water.” If she confessed, saying, “I am defiled,” she was not put to death, but was divorced and lost her dowry; if she said, “I am pure,” then they proceeded. (2.) He must bring a coarse offering of barley-meal, without oil or frankincense, agreeably to the present afflicted state of his family; for a great affliction it was either to have cause to be jealous or to be jealous without cause. It is an <i>offering of memorial</i>, to signify that what was to be done was intended as a religious appeal to the omniscience and justice of God. (3.) The priest was to prepare the water of jealousy, the holy water out of the laver at which the priests were to wash when they ministered; this must be brought in an <i>earthen vessel</i>, containing (they say) about a pint; and it must be an <i>earthen</i> vessel, because the coarser and plainer every thing was the more agreeable it was to the occasion. <i>Dust</i> must be put into the water, to signify the reproach she lay under, and the shame she ought to take to herself, putting her mouth in the dust; but dust from <i>the floor of the tabernacle</i>, to put an honour upon every thing that pertained to the place God had chosen to put his name there, and to keep up in the people a reverence for it; see <a class="bibleref" title="John.8.6" href="/passage/?search=John.8.6">John 8:6</a>. (4.) The woman was to be <i>set before the Lord</i>, at the east gate of the temple-court (say the Jews), and her head was to be uncovered, in token of her sorrowful condition; and there she stood for a spectacle to the world, that other women might learn not to do <i>after her lewdness</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.23.48" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.23.48">Ezek. 23:48</a>. Only the Jews say, “Her own servants were not to be present, that she might not seem vile in their sight, who were to give honour to her; her husband also must be dismissed.” (5.) The priest was to adjure her to tell the truth, and to denounce the curse of God against her if she were guilty, and to declare what would be the effect of her drinking the water of jealousy, <a class="bibleref" title="Luke.5.19-Luke.5.22" href="/passage/?search=Luke.5.19-Luke.5.22">Luke 5:19-22</a>. He must assure her that, if she were innocent, the water would do her no harm, <a class="bibleref" title="Luke.5.19" href="/passage/?search=Luke.5.19">Luke 5:19</a>. None need fear the curse of the law if they have not broken the commands of the law. But, if she were guilty, this water would be poison to her, it would make her <i>belly to swell and her thigh to rot</i>, and she should be a curse or abomination among her people, <a class="bibleref" title="Luke.5.21,Luke.5.22" href="/passage/?search=Luke.5.21,Luke.5.22"><span class="bibleref" title="Luke.5.21">Luke 5:21</span>; <span class="bibleref" title="Luke.5.22">22</span></a>. To this she must say, <i>Amen</i>, as Israel must do to the curses pronounced on mount Ebal, <a class="bibleref" title="Deut.27.15-Deut.27.26" href="/passage/?search=Deut.27.15-Deut.27.26">Deut. 27:15-26</a>. Some think the <i>Amen</i>, being doubled, respects both parts of the adjuration, both that which freed her if innocent and that which condemned her if guilty. No woman, if she were guilty, could say <i>Amen</i> to this adjuration, and drink the water upon it, unless she disbelieved the truth of God or defied his justice, and had come to such a pitch of impudence and hard-heartedness
|
|||
|
|
<p class="tab-1">2. From the whole we may learn, (1.) That secret sins are known to God, and sometimes are strangely brought to light in this life; however, there is a day coming when God will, by Jesus Christ, as here by the priest, judge the <i>secrets of men according to the gospel</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Rom.2.16" href="/passage/?search=Rom.2.16">Rom. 2:16</a>. (2.) That, in particular, <i>Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge</i>. The violation of conjugal faith and chastity is highly provoking to the God of heaven, and sooner or later it will be reckoned for. Though we have not now the waters of jealousy to be a sensible terror to the unclean, yet we have a word from God which ought to be as great a terror, that if <i>any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="1Cor.3.17" href="/passage/?search=1Cor.3.17">1 Cor. 3:17</a>. (3.) That God will find out some way or other to clear the innocency of the innocent, and to bring forth their righteousness as the light. (4.) That to <i>the pure all things are pure</i>, but <i>to the defiled nothing</i> is so, <a class="bibleref" title="Titus.1.15" href="/passage/?search=Titus.1.15">Titus 1:15</a>. The same word is to some a <i>savour of life unto life, to others a savour of death unto death</i>, like those waters of jealousy, according as they receive it; the same providence is for good to some and for hurt to others, <a class="bibleref" title="Jer.24.5,Jer.24.8,Jer.24.9" href="/passage/?search=Jer.24.5,Jer.24.8,Jer.24.9"><span class="bibleref" title="Jer.24.5">Jer. 24:5</span>; <span class="bibleref" title="Jer.24.8">8</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Jer.24.9">9</span></a>. And, whatsoever it is intended for, it <i>shall not return void</i>.</p>
|