Christian Marriage Indissoluble: A Plain Sermon Preached at Archbishop Tenison's chapel, on the fifth Sunday after Trinity, 1857 — Edition Insights

From Exegesis to Alarm

The sermon’s opening paragraphs establish a tight link between Bible reading and political urgency. Cowan quotes Malachi’s reproof of priests who fail to teach, then pivots to the divorce bill. His language sharpens: the bill would let a guilty party “perpetuate that guilt in company with the first partner in it” and call it “Holy Matrimony.” The rhetorical escalation is deliberate—from calm exposition to a cry of alarm.

Notably, Cowan does not dwell on the Pharisees’ question in Matthew. He treats the passage as settled authority and moves to its application. The pace quickens as he introduces the bill’s specifics, using repetition (“Yea, and even more”) to heighten tension. The congregation is addressed directly, with the preacher assuming shared knowledge of the legislative context.

The Argument from Church Practice

Cowan counters a potential objection: that divorce has been tolerated for three hundred years through private acts of Parliament. He calls this a “relic of Popery,” comparing it to the Church of Rome’s practice of granting dispensations for a fee. The analogy is pointed: both systems allow the wealthy to bypass divine law.

He insists that a private act is not a precedent for a general law. The tone becomes sardonic when he dismisses the idea that past sin justifies future sin: “unless it be a good plea for continuing in sin, and plunging deeper into it, that we have already sinned.” The paragraph builds to a warning: a general law would make “the Word of God… of none effect,” and Cowan cites Prussia’s example as a cautionary tale, though he does not elaborate.

A Closing Plea and a Shift in Register

The sermon’s final paragraphs change register. Cowan acknowledges that his hearers might think he has “taken up your time unprofitably,” and he expresses regret that he cannot speak more often of “our common salvation.” This self-deprecating turn softens the earlier polemic, reminding the audience of the preacher’s pastoral role.

Yet the urgency does not dissipate. He frames the divorce bill as a threat to the very fabric of Christian marriage, and his closing words return to the image of God’s judgment: those who “would not see” are left to “grope in foul darkness.” The sermon ends not with a resolution but with a stark choice, leaving the congregation to act on the warning.

Cowan’s sermon is a specimen of mid-Victorian pulpit oratory, blending close scriptural reading with immediate political commentary. Readers should note how the preacher’s voice shifts—from exegete to alarmist to pastor—within a single discourse. The text is also valuable for its documentary record of Anglican responses to the 1857 divorce debate, revealing the rhetorical strategies used to defend marital indissolubility as both divine ordinance and social necessity.