Page:Vindicationoflaw00hath.djvu/49

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
ON SCRIPTURAL PRINCIPLES.
41

uncle to the grandfather, from the grandfather to the father, from the father to A. B., making three degrees.

Let us then show how the degrees are dealt with by examples.

In the first degree we find mother and son dealt with by verse 7, then this is extended to the case of affinity, viz. a step-mother, by verse 8, then to the wife's mother by verse 17 (though that verse supposes the mother to have been first taken as wife). The case of a father and his son's wife is specified in verse 15. But there is no express mention of the case of father and daughter; for verse 17, though it would, perhaps, involve this case, is clearly directed to the case of a step-father and step-daughter.

As to the relationship in the second degree, or that of A. B.'s grandparents and his brother and sister respectively, the case of grandfather and granddaughter is dealt with in ver. 10. In verse 17 the prohibition is extended to the wife's granddaughter. There is no mention of the converse prohibition of marriage between grandson and grandmother, or between a husband and his wife's grandmother. The case of brother and sister, either of the whole or half blood, is provided for by verse 9, which seems indeed to include the case mentioned in verse 11; a point not unworthy of notice, as the prohibition is extended to the brother's wife by verse 16; and there is no direct