offended Deity; and then will even the meek and merciful Jesus declare to all those who have obeyed not the truth but have obeyed unrighteousness, I never knew you, Depart from me ye that work imiquity.2

2 Matt. vii. 23.

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LECTURE IV.

CAUSES OF THE INFREQUENCY OF MARRIAGE AMONG THE SLAVES.

(Preached at the Cathedral, Barbados, March 4, 1832.)

HEBREWS xiii. 4.

Marriage is honourable in all.

MARRIAGE is a divine institution, coëval with the creation of man and woman. Have ye not read, says our Saviour, that he which made them at the beginning, made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh.1 From the beginning then-from the first introduction of man and woman, the original parents of the whole human race, 'Matt. xix. 4, 5.

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into the world-marriage was instituted and enjoined by God himself. There can be no error here. It is not an human institution, and therefore subject to the uncertainties and imperfections which accompany every thing that originates from man. God Almighty, of wisdom infinite -whose prospective vigilance nothing can escape-saw that it was good, and gave it his absolute and unqualified

sanction.

It is doubtless, in consequence of this original ordinance of the Almighty, transmitted by tradition through succeeding generations, and retaining a portion of its influence even where all traces of the command have been lost, that marriage, under certain characteristic forms, has been recognized in almost every nation of the earth. Often, indeed, has the

2 The bond of wedlock hath been always more or less esteemed of, as a thing religious and sacred. The title which the very heathens themselves do thereunto oftentimes give, is Holy. Hooker, Book 5.

spirit of the institution been disregarded, and an unauthorized laxity of practice introduced in the dissolution of the engagement, for inadequate reasons, or for nullifying it, by granting to the husband a plurality of subordinate wives or concubines. But with very rare exceptions, and these arising only from circumstances connected with the lowest stage of human degradation, marriage has prevailed among all nations.

I speak, of course, of the general usages of mankind. And it is painful to declare that the slave population in these colonies are to be classed among the exceptions. I should, perhaps, not exceed the truth, if I were to say that they are especially and singularly marked by the absence of those public ceremonies—those outward and ostensible bonds which legalize the marriage state. Among those, the union of the parties is secured by no bond more durable than that which caprice dictates. Mutual inclination, however

temporary and unstable, brings them together, and with a change of feelings the union is dissolved; and their offspring, untaught by example, and wanting the moral influence and authority of the parents, readily acquire the same habits of unrestrained indulgence.

But how, it may be asked, can an intercourse, unhallowed by any religious rite, unsanctioned by any civil form, irregular in its origin, and debasing in its effects, prevail in countries which bear the name of Christian, and where the ministers of the gospel have authority to teach the commandments of God?

It becomes my duty to answer this question, and I entreat your indulgence while I publicly state the causes (and I have not lightly or carelessly investigated the subject) which appear to me to have operated most influentially in diminishing marriages among your slaves, and in encouraging among them polygamy, or mutual separation at pleasure. On such