57
Here my reconsideration of this subject ends. My original conviction was that, according to the context and the grammatical construction [1] of Lev. xviii. 18, supported by the most ancient version in existence, marriage with a deceased wife's sister was lawful. I have found, on farther consideration, that the sense of the Hebrew words, which I believed to be true, is that received by the Jewish nation, by the Church Universal, Eastern and Western, for more than 1,500 years; that, notwithstanding the jealousy excited by the Reformation between Romanists and Reformed, all the great Biblical scholars on both sides were, for fifty years after Luther's first efforts, unanimous in their approval of the ancient interpretation; that the greatest Hebrew scholars on both sides, since the new interpretation was introduced, have rejected and still reject it, and adhere to antiquity; that the objections made against the ancient interpretation, even conceding the principles on which the objectors argue, are inconclusive; that, therefore, there is nothing to shake, but grave reasons from antiquity and authority to confirm, the conviction expressed at the Meeting of the clergy of the Archdeaconry of London, that marriage with a deceased wife's sister is lawful according to the Word of God. To other authority I attach comparatively little weight. When God has spoken, man's wisdom is to "lay his hand upon his mouth, and proceed no farther." That in this case God has spoken clearly and unambiguously in Lev. xviii. 18, is not my solitary conviction, but that of the Church for the first 1,500 years, and that of many grave and sufficient authorities for the last three centuries. You will not, then, condemn me as presumptuous if I still continue to think that, according to the Word of God, marriage with a deceased wife's sister is lawful. I even venture to hope that your opinions may be modified by antiquity so venerable and authority so
- ↑ See Postscript.
