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What About the Church? Since the creation of the Marriage
Act, there has been
heated debate among the intellectual members of our society about the degree of
separation between God' s laws and civic laws, especially those laws relating to
marriage. Henry Gally believed that God's law and man's law were one and
the same: "All civil laws, which are made for the Good of Society, and are
not contrary to the Law of Nature, are approved of by God, and, in this Sense,
are his Laws."30 Contingent to this belief is a belief that
in order for a marriage to be recognized as binding and legitimate, a couple
must be publicly married according to all the proper forms set forth in the
Marriage Act of 1753. Mr. Henry Stebbing was of a different opinion, as
can be seen in his response to Dr. Gally's "Considerations," entitled
"An Enquiry into the Force and Operation of the Annulling
Clauses." Mr. Stebbing believed that "...for what in the View of
Law is null, in the Views of Religion and Conscience may bind. ... For no Law in
the World can make that which in the Nature of it is a Contract to be no
Contract; or that which in the Nature of it is binding not to be binding."31
Mr. Stebbing believed that it is the conscience and faith of a
couple that truly binds them in the eyes of God, |
not the law of man. But Mr.
Stebbing brings up a point that is important for gentlewomen such as us to
remember. People of our class who are "Members of Society" must
be "bound by the Laws of Society."