"Even in the New Testament (he says) the lawfullness of a man's marrying a second time is left to be proved by inference from the permission given to a widow (Rom. vii.,) to take a second husband." There are other cases in which it is equally necessary to assume the principle that what is unlawful to the man is unlawful to the woman in similar relations. Thus the tenth commandment is addressed particularly to the man, and forbids him to covet his neighboue's wife; but surely it is equally sinful in a woman to covet her neighbour's husband. Let this principle be applied to the marriage law in Leviticus, which is just an exposition of the fifth, seventh, and tenth commandments. It is forbidden, as we have already seen (Lev. xviii. 16, and xx. 21) to a woman to be united to two brothers in succession; it is therefore unlawful for a man to be married to two sisters in succession. Nor is it possible to set aside the force of this argument, so plain and simple, by the assertion that in many respects the woman differs from the man. It may be true that the man is stronger than the woman; that he is the head of the woman, that inheritances are entailed upon the man rather than the woman (as they are on the elder rather than the younger son); that in ancient times the choice of a woman in forming marriage alliances was held of little account; that adultery may be a more aggravated sin in a woman than in a man. But none of these things affect the principle that what is forbidden to a man is forbidden to a woman in similar relations. A man may not marry his mother; who would venture to argue from such differences as those mentioned, that a woman might marry her father? When, therefore, two brothers may not marry the same woman, why should it be argued from such differences that two sisters might be married to the same man?
It will now, I trust, be sufficiently apparent that it was the intention of the Divine Lawgiver to forbid marriage with a wife's sister, and on the same principle, with a man's own daughter, grandmother, or niece, although none of these relatives are expressly prohibited. If all who are near of kin are prohibited, and "near of kin" applies, as have seen it does, to relatives by marriage as well as by blood, a man is not at liberty to marry a wife's sister, who is very near of kin by marriage. If, when marriage is forbidden between relatives of a certain degree of nearness, it is unlawful between relatives of an equal degree of nearness; then as it is forbidden to a woman to be married to two brothers in succession, it is unlawful to a man to be married to two sisters in succession. If, when maniage is forbidden between relatives of a certain degree, it is still more plainly unlawful between persons more closely related; it is unlawful for a man to marry his wife's sister, who is more nearly related to him than his father's sister. If that which is forbidden to a man is forbidden to a woman in similar relation, a woman may not
