Orson Pratt

“ But there is still an additional sense wherein the husband and wife become one. They become one flesh in their children. The flesh of both father and mother becomes amalgamated in one in each of their offspring. Here is a union of the flesh of the father with that of the mother, that can never be separated—a union of the flesh of two in one body—a union as perfect as that of Adam’s rib before it was extracted from his body—a union that no power but death can dissolve—a union that will be eternal after the resurrection. Hence the husband and wife become one flesh in their children eternally. ”

“ Can we then, for one moment, suppose that God is pleased with the multiplication of the wicked? Does it please God to have the wicked marry, when, in so doing, they only increase the number who must be cast into hell? Far be it from us to impute such wickedness to God. ”

“ Who then cannot perceive that God makes a very great distinction between the wicked and the righteous in regard to marriage and the multiplication of the human species? Those blessings were originally intended for the righteous, and for the righteous only, but the wicked have stepped forward to their own condemnation, and claimed the privileges of the righteous; bringing temporal and eternal judgments upon their generations. Hence, that which is a blessing to the righteous, will prove a cursing to the wicked. ”

“ Now a man that will cause his own wife which is, by marriage, his own flesh, to commit adultery, will be considered as an adulterer himself, and will be judged and condemned with adulterers; for in him is the greater sin, because he compelled his own flesh to commit adultery, by putting her away. ”

“ God is angry and displeased with wicked men and nations, as well as with the fallen angels, and though he suffers them to marry and to multiply, yet he will bring them to judgment for these things; and will punish them for bringing posterity into the world in all their corruption and wickedness: he will punish them with a double punishment, not only for their own evil deeds, but because they have taughttheir children the same. Their children must suffer as well as they, because their parents ventured to marry in unrighteousness. ”

“ Having once married in unrighteousness, and brought eternal ruin and misery upon their seed, the Lord will no longer suffer them to enlarge their dominions of wickedness, and entail unhappiness and wretchedness upon immortal souls. They have forfeited all right to wives or the law of increase, by their abuses of these things here in this life.
When Noah and his sons were building the ark, all the nations of the earth were marrying and giving in marriage, but their marriages were all illegal, and they only multiplied their posterity to be cut off and to perish out of the earth. ”

“ Who can, with the word of God before them, believe that the wicked ought to multiply upon the earth and raise up candidates for the devil’s kingdom? No person can believe this, who believes the Bible. ”

“ Jesus here vindicates the sacredness and perpetuity of the marriage covenant. He shows that the husband and wife are no more twain, but one flesh. What are we to understand by two becoming one flesh? Does it mean that the male and female lost their identity as persons? ”

“ Israel, then, because of righteousness, was considered worthy to be blessed with an increase of children, to be multiplied exceedingly, and become as the sands upon the sea shore innumerable; but they were considered worthy of this blessing only on conditions of righteousness: for if they turned away from the Lord, they would be no better qualified to save their children, than other nations. ”

“ Because of their wickedness. If granted this privilege, they would teach their offspring the same wicked, malicious principles by which they themselves are governed; they would teach them to fight against God, and against every thing else that was good, and great, and glorious. This would not only make all their offspring miserable, but it would greatly enlarge the dominions of darkness; and to prevent all these great calamities and evils, God has wisely ordained to withhold marriage and increase of posterity entirely from them. ”

“ By the sacred covenant of marriage, the woman freely and voluntarily gives herself to the husband; she no longer is her own, neither does she belong to her parents, or to any one else; she has surrendered herself wholly to her husband; she is his helpmate; his wife; his property; his flesh, just as much as the flesh of his own body is his: hence, Paul says, “So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh ”

“ And to prevent the earth from being overrun with this evil race, and corrupting Israel with their abominable practices, it was necessary to utterly destroy every soul that breathed. Instead of the Lord’s considering these nations fit to marry, he did not consider them worthy to live, or their children either, therefore he destroyed them, and gave their land to his people, and promised them on conditions of righeousness, that he would greatly bless their land, and increase their flocks and herds, and their riches and substance. ”

“ But in the second case, if he marry another when he is not under transgression, through the consent of his first wife, and under the Divine sanction, and by Divine appointment and authority, as the holy Patriarchs and Prophets did, he does not commit adultery. Neither Jesus nor his apostles ever represented a person to be an adulterous man for marrying two wives and living with them, as had been practised by holy men in all previous ages. Such a practice was never condemned. ”

“ The nations who formerly inhabited the land of Canaan were unworthy of the ordinance of marriage or of posterity, because their children beheld the wicked examples of their parents, and became worse and worse, until their iniquity was full, when the Lord, in order to put a stop to their unlawful marriages, and the multiplication of evil doers, was compelled to destroy husbands, and wives, and children, to the number of many millions. ”

“ Some may pretend to say that if it be considered adultery to marry another, after having unlawfully divorced a wife, then it would be considered adultery to marry another without a divorce, having two or more at the same time. ”

“ God did not sanction their marriages, neither was he pleased with them or their children. Noah and his sons were the only persons worthy of wives or children; they alone had a divine right to marry; and they alone had any legal claim on the Lord in behalf of their children. ”

“ Indeed, Jesus prays to the Father to make all his disciples one, even as they were one. Therefore because a man becomes one flesh with one wife, it does not prevent him from becoming one flesh with a second. When Jacob became one flesh with Leah, it did not prevent him from marrying Rachael, and Bilhah, and Zilpah, and from becoming one flesh with each of them. ”

“ The most of the people in the days of the Patriarchs had turned away form the true God to the worship of idols, consequently the marriages of all such were unauthorized, and their illegitimate children were multiplied upon the earth to curse the earth with the idolatry of their fathers. ”

“ He has suffered the wicked to marry, according to human laws and human authority, in order that mankind might not become extinct, the same as he suffered the children of Jacob to sell their younger brother to the Ishmaelites, in order that they might not become extinct by the famine. There are many things that God permits, because of the hardness of the hearts of mankind, that they will be condemned for in the day of judgment. ”

“ Thus we can see what the design of the Lord is in regard to the seed of the wicked: they are to utterly perish out of the earth. Not so with the righteous; God has promised that they shall not only inherit the earth in this life, but they shall “dwell therein forever.” ”

“ Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” (Gen. ii., 23, 24.) The woman therefore, by creation, was originally part of Man; the marriage ordinance being instituted to restore to man that part which was taken from him, without which he could not be perfect. When the bone or rib, taken from him, was restored in the form of a female and wife, he could, with all propriety, say that they were one flesh. ”

“ In the first case, a man, before he marries another, is under great transgression, having unlawfully put away his wife and caused her to commit adultery. While under this great transgression, God will not suffer him to be made one flesh with another ”

“ God is certainly not pleased with their increase, or else He would not prepare slaughter for their children, to prevent them from filling the world with cities; if he were pleased with their increase, the more cities they filled, the better. ”

“ IN a former part of this treatise, it was shown that adulterers forfeited their lives in ancient times, the reason was because they were not considered worthy of wives or children to perpetuate their names among the righteous: and being unworthy of these blessings, they were unworthy of life; hence they were commanded to be destroyed that they might not transfer their wicked examples to a rising generation. And God was so displeased with adulterers that he prohibited their posterity from the enjoyment of the blessings of his people. ”

“ They and their children in all their generations are preparing themselves for the society of the fallen angels; and with them they will dwell, and like them they will be placed in a condition where they can no more be permitted to multiply. ”

“ Indeed, we know, that if the Jewish nation kept their law in relation to the childless dead, there must have been thousands of polygamists among them when Christianity was introduced into their midst. ”

“ Before this law could take effect, it was necessary that the immortal bodies of the first pair should be formed in a different manner from that of the mortal bodies of their offspring. The first pair being formed by the immediate agency of the Almighty, all others could be formed through the general and fixed laws of generation. ”

“ Because by their wickedness, they not only bring damnation upon themselves, but upon their children also. The children seeing the wicked practices of their parents, would be very likely to follow their evil footsteps. ”