Page:Unlawfulmarriage00jane.djvu/59

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PURITAN'S PRINCIPLES.
55

nature,' and not, 'Thus saith the Lord, speaking through a repealed code.' So that our opponents are, in truth, as much without scriptural prohibitions as we are."

The following quotation from the close of his first chapter (p. 6) is ample proof of the second point: "It will be shown in the sequel, that these statutes in Levit. xviii. do not prohibit marriage at all. And of course they do not prohibit marriage between brother and sister. So that, at any rate, the dreaded alternative must take its course. And these statutes, repealed or unrepealed, cannot help them to find an inspired and written prohibition against the marriage of a sister. The argument of our opponents is,—That if the marriage of a wife's sister is not prohibited to us, in this chapter, then the marriage of our sisters is nowhere prohibited in the Bible. And we answer,—If the marriage of our sisters is prohibited nowhere else, it is prohibited nowhere in the Bible. For it surely is not prohibited here, as we shall show. And we totally deny, that it is self-evident that such an express prohibition is, and must be, found in the Bible."