DISSENTERS' MARRIAGES.

"You must also take care not to admit of any thing in the celebrating of your marriage, which may be either INCONSISTENT WITH YOUR RELIGION, or contrary to that MODESTY, DECENCY, and SANCTITY, which becomes Christians at all times, and more especially on so sacred and solemn an occasian."-ROMAN RITUAL. Instructions and Exhortations on the Solemnization of Matrimony.

THERE is something so correct, so decent, and so proper in the above exhortation that, although derived from the catholic church, we have not scrupled to place it at the head of this article; and surely, if the corrupt church of Rome has enjoined on her communicants that the consistency of their religious belief, and the decency of their manners, should not be violated in the celebration of their marriages, protestant dissenters may, at least, claim an equal regard for principle, and an equal sense of delicacy.

Upon the grounds both of conscience and of decency, the society by which this Work is conducted have long felt the strongest objections to the marriage ceremony, as performed by the church of England, to which, as dissenters, they are compelled to conform; and they have in consequence used every means in their power to bring their objections before the public and the legislature, that a just and legal remedy might be obtained. Upon the eve, as they trust they may be allowed to feel themselves, of obtaining parliamentary relief, there is no part of their past exertions, in favour of civil and religious liberty, on which they can reflect with more satisfaction than on the efforts they have made (at one time, indeed, singly and alone) to obtain relief in the important particular now under consideration. To submit to the reader the state and history of this question-to exhibit the struggles they have made, and are still making, to obtain for dissenters a legal marriage, without a violation of the rights of conscience, and to excite increased attention among the great body of dissenters to this important subject, are the objects of the present article.

The catholics of England have always regarded it as contrary to their consciences, that they should be compelled, on entering into the marriage state, to submit to a ceremony performed by a church which they esteem to be heretical. But, with the exception of the catholics, the Freethinking Christians for a long time stood alone in their opposition to the marriage ceremony. By exertions shortly to be recorded, they succeeded in bringing the Unitarian body to feel the

question as one strictly connected with the rights of conscience; and they appeal now to dissenters generally, from an anxiety that the importance of this subject should be felt by all who withdraw from the community of the established church.

The Unitarian dissenters object to the marriage ceremony as requiring a subscription to the Trinity; but this, it may be supposed, cannot be felt by the majority of dissenters, who are believers in that doctrine. We may observe, however, that, if the latter fully enter into, and properly appreciate the principles of dissent, they will naturally feel it abhorrent to those principles, that any portion of their fellow dissenters should be compelled to subscribe what they disbelieve, as the condition of enjoying a civil right. But, independant of the objections against subscribing to the doctrine of the Trinity, how is it, we may ask, that dissenters, as such, can submit to a popish service?—for the marriage service is popish! How is it that those censors of public morals, the dissenters, who are the most conspicuous in their labours to suppress indecent publications, can countenance the marriage ceremony? for it is an indecent publication!*

When, indeed, we contemplate the occasion and circumstances of marriage we cannot too strongly deprecate the introduction of anything inconsistent with the strictest principle and the highest delicacy. A Christian man and woman it may be-a youth of pure mind, and a young female of chaste thoughts meet together, exposed to the public view, and surrounded by their family, their friends, and kindred, to vow a solemn engagement to each other, and to enter on a state of delicate and refined communion; and yet, at such a time, by the intervention of the marriage ceremony, the conscience of each is violated, and their modesty put to open shame!

We have described the English marriage ceremony as a popish institution, and protestants should know that the service is derived, in a great measure, from the popish mass book and ritual. In justice, however, to the church of Rome, her marriage ceremony, it must be confessed, is almost entirely free from those impurities which are so offensive in

* It does not at all affect the question of the indelicacy of many parts of the marriage service to urge, that at the time in which they were written they were not esteemed to be indelicate-it is sufficient to say they are so felt Now; and, particularly when read before young females and children, they are extremely revolting.

the English service; the indecency appears to have been introduced by the reformed church, and we confess, if we were compelled by law to submit to either, we should greatly prefer the catholic ceremony, as by far more plain, simple, and pure than that of the established church. The catholics, it is true, hold marriage to be a sacrament; but the reformed church appear to us in substance, and in fact, to avow the same sentiment; this will sufficiently appear by comparing the following extracts from the marriage service of the two churches:

The two churches agree then, it would appear, in attaching to marriage the mystical notions which were introduced in the darker ages; the catholic ritual calling marriage" a sacrament” -a "great sacrament;" the protestant ritual denominating it an "excellent mystery." A sacrament then being a mystery, the two churches meet in perfect concord on this point-the one having its great, the other its excellent mystery.

Turning to the declaration which the man makes on taking his wife, we observe that, in the catholic ritual, it runs thus: "With this ring I thee wed; this gold and "silver I thee give; with my body I thee worship; and with "all my worldly goods I thee endow. In the name of the "Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." This unmeaning jumble of absurdity, falsehood, and orthodoxy appears, in the view of our reformed church, to have approached so near to perfection, that they have adopted the whole into the English ritual, with the exception of the words "this gold and silver I thee give." Still, however, the modern bridegroom finds himself wonderfully perplexed by this part of the ceremony. He does not understand the mummery of the ring; he feels scruples at worshiping his wife; and, so far from endowing her with all his worldly goods, her property generally passes over to himself. This part of the marriage ceremony affords a striking instance of the folly of retaining obsolete forms of expression, and allusions

to obscure customs, as parts of a religious service, when words have changed their meaning, and the customs referred to are no longer known.

This form of declaration in the marriage service is, it may be observed, of very great antiquity, and is supposed to bear reference to customs of still earlier date. From some passages in the ancient scriptures it appears to have been a custom for the man to purchase the woman; this was also the practice among the Romans, as it still is of some modern nations, particularly among the savage tribes.* In the marriage form extant in the Salisbury Manual, a work of great antiquity, the priest is directed, before he proceeds to the marriage, to ask the woman's dowry, that is, the tokens of spousage; this, it appears, was generally paid at the church door, where the greater part of the marriage ceremony was originally performed, and was thence called "Dos ad Ostium Ecclesiæ."-the dowry at the church door.† -See Wheatly, Oxford edition, 1819-p. 408 and 425. The ring, it has been suggested, was the ancient seal or token of covenant, and was consequently given as a pledge for the payment of the dowry contracted to be paid to the woman; hence some light is thrown on the words "with this ring I "thee wed," the term wed signifying covenant. The ring is directed by the rubric to be placed by the man "upon the "fourth finger of the woman's left hand;" this is derived from the direction contained in the Salisbury Manual, which represents that there proceeds from that finger a particular vein to the heart; a very excellent reason no doubt for placing the ring on this finger-only that anatomists have discovered that no such vein exists.

As to the promise which the man makes to worship his wife, there can be little doubt but that originally the term

* See Gen. xxxiv. 11 and 12. "And Shechem said unto her father, and unto her brethren, let me find grace in your eyes; and what ye shall say unto me I will give. Ask me never so much dowry and gift and I will give according as ye shall say unto me: but give me the damsel to wife." In Russia when marriage is proposed the lover, accompanied by a friend, goes to the house of the bride; and says to the mother "shew us your merchandize, we have got money." And among the Abiponians the price of a wife varies from a horse to a bottle of brandy.-See Rees Encyclopedia.

†The marriage at the church door is alluded to by CHAUCER "Thanked be God, that is eterne on live

Husbondes at church dore have I hadde five."-Wife of Bath.

The custom of giving dowry at the church door throws light upon the words in the Romish ritual-" this gold and silver I thee give"-words which were retained in the early reformed liturgies; and, on using which a purse containing silver and gold was given to the bride.Wheatly.

worship signified honour; but the objections to this word in the marriage ceremony are as old as the time of Charles II.; for at the conferences which were held at the Savoy, between the commissioners of the Episcopalians and Presbyterians, for reviewing the liturgy, this word worship was, on the representation of the Presbyterian commissioners, promised to be changed for honour-a promise that has never been fulfilled.*

To trace the original intent and purport of the form of words we have been examining, would answer little purpose, except, indeed, to raise an inference that as a distant and ignorant age employed in their marriage service words which were to them simple, intelligible, and founded on existing customs, so, in the present age of encreased light and knowledge, we ought to exhibit, at least, an equal consistency. And this is a subject, as we think, important to all serious persons of all persuasions; for even the communicant of the church of England must, as we apprehend, feel many difficulties and scruples in joining in the present marriage service. Of the popish origin and character of this service of its obscurity and unfitness to our own times and manners-other instances might be given; of the indelicacy of some parts of this service our sense of what is due to public morals will restrain us from offering evidence; we proceed, therefore, to an examination of the history and laws of marriage.

In tracing the history, and examining the laws of marriage in this country, it appears that the English law regards marriage as a civil contract, upon which principle it is that the holiness of the marriage state, the punishment of adultery, &c. are left entirely to the ecclesiastical law.† Pope Innocent III., it has been said, was the first who ordered the celebration of marriage in the church, before which it was, in England, entirely a civil contract; the ceremony of marriage, if such it might be called, consisting

* See Wheatly and the Papers that passed between the Commissioners, &c. + “Our law (says Blackstone) considers marriage in no other light than as a civil contract. The holiness of the matrimonial state, is left entirely to the ecclesiastical law-the temporal courts not having jurisdiction to consider unlawful marriage as a sin, but merely as a civil inconvenience. The punishment, therefore, or annulling of incestuous or other unscriptural marriages is the province of the spiritual courts, which act pro salute anima. And taking it in this civil light the law treats it as it does all other contracts: allowing it to be good and valid in all cases where the parties, at the time of making it were in the first place willing to contract; secondly, able to contract; and lastly actually did contract, in the proper forms and solemnities required by law."-15 chap. book 1.