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pressly or by implication, but that, according to Leviticus xvlii. 18 concerning the translation of which there is not the least uncertainty), such marriage is plainly allowed. I confess that when I entered upon this enquiry I had not an idea that the case of those who wish a change in the present marriage law was so strong. I had thought that the opinions of grave and learned students of the Bible were more equally divided, and that as authorities were pretty evenly balanced, they who had contracted such marriages must bear the inconveniences arising from doubtful interpretation. But I do not think so now, confirmed by the testimony of antiquity and the judgment of the most considerable interpreters at the Reformation, and since the Reformation, I now believe there is no reasonable room for doubt—that there is no verse in the Bible of which the interpretation is more sure than that of Leviticus xviii. 18; and I think it is a case of great hardship that they should, by the civil law, be punished as tradsgressors, whose marriage, according to Divine law, is permitted and valid; and harder still, that the children of such marriage, legitimate in the sight of the Inffallible Judge, should be visited with civil disabilities."
