in every thing to preserve " marriage honourable, and the bed undefiled." [1]
The great superiority of the sacrament of matrimony to those marriages which took place before or after the Law, we may learn from the following considerations The Gentiles, it is true, looked upon marriage as something sacred, and therefore considered promiscuous intercourse to be inconsistent with the law of nature: they also held that fornication, adultery, and other licentious excesses should be repressed by legal sanctions; but their marriages had nothing whatever of the nature of a sacrament. Amongst the Jews the laws of marriage were observed with more religious fidelity, and their marriages, no doubt, were more holy. Having received the promise that in the seed of Abraham all nations should be blessed, [2] it was justly deemed a matter of great piety amongst them to beget children, the off spring of a chosen people, from whom, as to his human nature, Christ our Lord and Saviour was to descend; but their marriage also wanted the true nature of a Sacrament. Of this it is a fur ther confirmation, that whether we consider the law of nature after the fall of Adam, or the law given to Moses, we at once perceive that marriage had fallen from its primitive excellence and sanctity. Under the Law of Moses we find that many of the Patriarchs had several wives at the same time, and, should a cause exist, it was subsequently permitted to dismiss one's wife, having given her a bill of divorce; [3] both of which abuses have been removed by the Gospel dispensation, and marriage restored to its primitive state.
That polygamy is opposed to the nature of marriage is shown by our Lord in these words: " For this cause a man shall leave father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and they two shall be in one flesh. Therefore," continues the Redeemer, " now they are not two but one flesh." [4] The Patriarchs, who, by the permission of God, had a plurality of wives, are not on that account to be condemned: the words of the Redeemer, however, clearly show that marriage was instituted by God as the union of two only; and this he again expressly declares when he says: " Whoever shall dismiss his wife, and shall marry another, doth commit adultery, and he that shall marry her that is dismissed, committeth adultery." [5] If a plurality of wives be lawful, we can discover no more reason why he who marries a second wife whilst he retains the first should be said to be guilty of adultery, than he who, having dismissed the first, takes to himself a second. Hence, if an infidel, in accordance with the laws and customs of his country, has married several wives, the Church commands him, when converted to the faith, to look upon the first alone as his lawful wife, and to separate from the others
That marriage cannot be dissolved by divorce is easily proved from the same testimony of our Lord: if by a bill of divorce
