Page:Unlawfulmarriage00jane.djvu/109

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RELATE TO MARRIAGE.
105

&c., so often used in these statutes. "And the first position that we shall take is, that they do not prohibit any marriages. Marriage was a familiar word in the vocabulary of Moses; and if that were his meaning, it was quite as pertinent, and as delicate and euphonic, and every way as suitable, as the term here used. And as he has avoided the use of it, and has not used even an accustomed synonyme of it, it is fair to conclude that marriage was not his meaning."

"But our opponents say, that though the term does not necessarily import marriage, it imports sexual intercourse in general, and that includes marriage. And that may be true, unless it can be shown that the term of its own force bears the idea of criminal intercourse. If that can be made appear, then, so far from including, it excludes marriage. Besides, the term, uncover nakedness, is in this series of statutes by parallelisms made equivalent to another term, in which both sodomy and bestiality are forbidden." Pp. 10, 11.

3. In our reply we shall begin with the meaning of the peculiar term, "uncover nakedness,"