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POSITIVE LAWS are those which depend upon a revelation of the will of the Lawgiver, without which, they cannot be known or produce an obligation. They are revealed precepts, which become binding, in consequence of their promulgation. - All laws enacted in civil society are positive. Before the passing and publication of such laws, there can be no transgression, either in respect to the duties enjoined or conduct prohibited. The POSITIVE LAWS OF GOD are, some of them moral in their nature and universally binding, but which could not be investigated without an express revelation; others are peculiar in their object and scope, intended to serve some temporary purpose in the dispensation of the Church , and as such, are binding upon a particular people alone and for a limited time.

It has been considered a subject worthy of discussion, whether any positive law, derived from the immediate revelation of God, can ever become universally binding upon all men? Those, who wish minutely to examine this question, will be gratified by consulting what Puffendorf, Barbeyrac, Grotius, Wolfius, Cudworth and Mosheim, have written upon this subject. All agree, that, as the authority

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is the same, so, if the promulgation be universal, the positive law will also become universal, and must of course be as binding, as any that are most strictly denominated moral or natural.

Without specifying other laws of this description; let it suffice to observe, it is unanimously admitted, that the LAW OF MARRIAGE is a positive moral law, and one that has actually become universal. It was the first positive law imposed upon Adam, whilst in a state of rectitude, and in Paradise. It was communicated by him to his children, and well known during the antediluvian period. By Noah and his sons it was afterwards handed down to their posterity; and through all the ramifications of the human family, has been always recognised, and is at this day received and acknowledged by every nation in the world.

The general propensities of nature would prompt to a sexual intercourse, but interesting and serious questions arise, which could never be decided by the light of nature. A positive law of God was necessary to determine, whatever relates to the institution of marriage, whatever respects those who