marry her sister's husband, since a man may not marry his brother's wife. Any one of these considerations is conclusive against the marriage in question. Their combined force is, in my opinion, resistless.
Although marriage with a deceased wife's sister is the subject chiefly in question, it may be proper to add that, from the considerations advanced, marriage with a wife's aunt or niece may easily be shown to be unlawful. Thus, a man is expressly forbidden to marry his father's brother's wife (Lev. xviii. 14). It follows that a woman is forbidden to marry her mother's sister's husband, which is precisely the same thing as to say that a man may not marry his wife's sister's daughter. Further, if he cannot marry his wife's sister's daughter, he cannot marry his wife's sister's mother, since both relatives are equally distant. So, also, it is unlawful for him to marry his wife's brother's daughter, or his wife's brother's mother; which relatives are equally distant with a wife's sister's mother or daughter, and with a father's brother's wife. In like manner, by an application of the principles laid down, it may be shown generally that, as stated in the Confession of Faith, "a man may not marry any of his wife's relations nearer in blood than he may of his own." Here it is proper to note (as much misconception prevails on the subject), that the Confession does not teach, nor do we hold, that a man is debarred from marrying his wife's relatives by marriage equally with his own relatives by blood. It is only to his wife's relatives by blood that the prohibition is held to extend. A man is not equally related to his wife's relatives by marriage and his wife's relatives by blood, and the instances given in Leviticus do not warrant an extension of the prohibition to both alike. If there had been even a single case in which a man was expressly forbidden to marry a wife's relative by marriage—for example, a wife's uncle's wife—it would have been proper to infer other cases of double affinity. But there is not a single instance of a wife's relatives by marriage being expressly forbidden to the husband, or of the husband's relatives by marriage being forbidden to the wife; hence, we are not warranted to extend the meaning of "near of kin" to any such relative.
In order to place the subject more clearly before the mind, and to exhibit the conclusions arrived at by an examination of the Divine law, I subjoin the common table of forbidden degrees, marking, in Italics, the relatives forbidden, not expressly, but by inference.
| A Man May Not Marry His. | A Woman may Not Marrry Her | ||
| 1. | Grandmother, | 1. | Grandfather, |
| 2. | Grandfathers's wife, | 2. | Grandmother's Husband, |
| 3. | Wife's grandmother | 3. | Husband's grandfather, |
| 4. | Father sister, | 4. | Father's Brother, |
| 5. | Mother's sister. | 5. | Mother's brother, |
| 6. | Father's brother's wife, | 6. | Father's sister's husband, |
