The reader may now look at the assertion of the Puritan, which, by large capitals, he has placed in bold relief, on page 14, and know how to appreciate it. If the terms have not the sense of marriage, they are sometimes used to express the intercourse that pertains to marriage. He may learn too that the author is in error, where he confidently asserts, of this phrase, (p. 11,) "It so embodies the idea of a criminal connexion, as to exclude that of marriage; and that a Hebrew writer would no more use it to express the idea of marriage, than he would use the term adultery." Moses, we see, writing under inspiration, has used these terms in reference to the intercourse of married persons.
7. If we felt disposed, we might put our brother, the Puritan, to some trouble to sustain what he regards as so easy to sustain, the meaning of "the term wife, in these texts." (Chap. 4, par. 3.) He alleges there are "forty-nine cases where the proper term (wife) is used," against seven in which the term widow is found. In reference to this arithmetical criticism, we might say, the primary meaning of the Hebrew word, rendered in these statutes by the word
