“The next remark I have to make on this, which is God’s own table of prohibited marriages, is one which it seems to me that no fair mind can deny. Indeed, one is half ashamed to enounce it, it is so obvious: yet the reasoning on the other side appears to be mainly based on the denial of it. It is simply this: that nearness of kin not being affected by sex, what is forbidden to a man is forbidden to a woman in the same degree of kindred or affinity, though it be not set down in words. For instance, in v. 7, a man is forbidden to marry his mother: then, by the same rule, a woman is forbidden to marry her father, though the prohibition is not expressed. Surely it would be fearful paltering with God’s law, not to accept and obey such a plain rule as this. And it is to be observed, that these Canons are all addressed to men only: the woman’s duty and the woman’s sin are left to be inferred in each case: but what should we think of the woman who should therefore account herself left at liberty, so far as the Levitical laws are concerned?
“Now look at v. 16; which, being expressed in such English as we now commonly talk, would run, I suppose, as follows: ‘Thou shalt not marry thy brother’s widow: she is one flesh with thy brother, and is therefore thine own sister.’ Can any other interpretation be put upon it? and if this be the right interpretation, are not marriages with a brother’s widow plainly forbidden among the Canaanitish abominations?” [8]
All this appears to me not only a fair and right explanation, with no unwarrantable deductions or inferences, but one absolutely irrefutable, unless God Himself have marked in some other place a dispensation or exception to be made to it. I know such dispensation or exception is just what is claimed. To deal with such allegation is the very object of my addressing you, and I shall shortly come to that part of my subject. But it may not be amiss here just to call attention to the fact that Dr. M’Caul himself (whom I think I may designate as the most learned and able of the advocates for the change of the law in question) seems to admit that, were there no other Scripture to override the law as thus proclaimed, he should acknowledge the force of this part of the xviii. chapter of Leviticus as conclusive on the unlawfulness of marriage with the deceased wife’s sister; for he says expressly, in his first letter on the subject, addressed to the Rev. W. H. Lyall, “On some points, I think, we agree; as, for instance, that the final appeal in questions relating to marriage must be to the Word of God. . . . I also am convinced that the laws in Leviticus xviii., being a part of the moral law, stand on a totally different footing from circumcision, or the Jewish Sabbaths, or abstinence from meats. Indeed, I believe that this marriage law was given to the Gentile Churches in the famous decree of the Council of Jerusalem. On this ground, I believe that the prohibitions of Leviticus xviii. are binding on all Christians.” That is, he believes, that the general law then given, as being of a moral nature, and intended for all men, was distinctly re-enacted, and re-decreed for the sake of greater perspicuity, by the Christian Church in the Council at Jerusalem. And he goes on—“I agree, further, with those who interpret ‘woman’ or ‘wife’ in these prohibitions as comprehending widowhood, so that these females are prohibited, not only during the lives of their husbands, but absolutely and forever.” And he adds—“And, lastly, I admit that from the prohibited marriages enumerated, compared with other parts of the Divine legislation, others not enumerated may be pronounced unlawful.” [9] Where we may see that, although with a certain reserve, yet the principle of arguing from analogy, and from a case to its converse, in regard to sex, appears to be admitted. And I think I do not misrepresent the whole tone and sense of the two letters of Dr. M’Caul, when I say that I am convinced, but for the 18th verse of the xviii. chapter, he would himself readily have allowed the full weight of Mr. Keble’s statement, and considered these unions to be absolutely prohibited.
But next as to the exception claimed. It is true that there is an exception to the working of the law laid down in verse 16, concerning the brother’s wife, by a positive enactment in Deuteronomy (chap. xxv. v. 5–10), where provision is made for a man “raising up seed unto his brother,” by taking to him his widow to wife, if the brother have died childless, that “the first-born which she beareth” may “succeed in the name of his brother, which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel” (v. 6.) But I feel justified in saying that this alone would have been no difficulty to Dr. M’Caul (nor to any man of his reasoning powers), as to the prevalence of the general law in all cases but the special one excepted, and that but for the 18th verse of the xviii. chapter of Leviticus, our 99th Canon and the table of prohibited degrees would have been almost or quite universally accepted as the true enunciation of the will and law of God in this matter of unlawful marriages.
It is, then, to that particular passage of Holy Scripture that it is necessary to draw attention. And here, my lord, I must take up a word, which I find in your speech before referred to, which seems to me to be emphatically a word “of truth and soberness.” You say, “To over-ride a command, which is distinct and precise, you must have a very clear verse and a very clear interpretation.” [10] Dr. M’Caul quotes these words, with a distinct approval of their statement, though with exactly the converse of their application. “You believe,” he says, “that a very clear verse and a very clear interpretation might over-ride a command, even though it be distinct and precise, and you are right.” He goes on, “Lev. xviii. 16, the verse on which you chiefly rest your Scriptural arguments, is, so far as relates to marriage with a brother’s wife, distinct and precise, and enunciates a command absolutely and without any limitation; and yet it is over-ridden by Deut. xxv. 5.” He means, of course, over-ridden as to the particular case of “a man’s raising up seed unto his brother;” but not so as to sanction the brother taking the brother’s wife in any other contingency. And this we, as well as he, allow and admit, for who shall limit the Almighty’s right, and power to grant or make any special exceptions to His general laws, which He may think fit? But we should have deemed it strange indeed if the whole law enacted in one place were definitely repealed in another, whilst that law was in force among those for whom it was given and designed. But so far we can well go with Dr. M’Caul. He proceeds, where, as I hope presently to shew, we have no need to follow him, and where, indeed, if his view were correct, there would be the total repeal of what is stated as the law in one verse, in the second verse after it. However, to go on,—Dr. M’Caul adds, “And therefore, a fortiori, your inferential prohibition with regard to a wife’s sister may be over-ridden also by a clear verse and a clear interpretation. If weight of authority is to decide, Lev. xviii. 18, is just such a verse, and its interpretation has the required condition. Here, then, the controversy narrows itself into that which is the common and popular view of the matter: whether the inferential prohibition from verse 16 is to over-ride the expressed command of verse 18, or the plain letter of this latter verse to over-ride the inference from the former.” [11] Now, I shall have something further to say presently as to “the expressed command,” and the “plain letter of this latter verse;” but at present let me merely remark, that we have, at any rate, Dr. M’Caul’s admission that between these two verses there is a conflict and an over-riding. In his view even, there is discrepancy. What is, in the one, he tells us, at least inferentially prohibited, is, in the other, expressly commanded; and this, not in a case or manner parallel to the variation between the 16th verse, prohibiting as the general law, and the passage in Deut. xxv. 5, enjoining in the exceptional contingency named, but, on the contrary, in a case of a universal negative met and confronted, two verses afterwards, by a case of a, not exceptional, contradictory affirmative. And the only palliation of such a startling discrepancy in Holy Scripture is, we are to understand, that it is inadmissible to draw the inference from the woman being forbidden to marry two brothers, that the man is forbidden to marry two sisters. Although throughout the restrictions this principle is necessary to prevent the most revolting permissions under the law, and although, but for the 18th verse, no one, we believe, would have dreamed of questioning it in the particular of the man and two sisters, yet here it must be at once ignored, or you have an absolute contradiction of commands, in the same enunciation of law, within two verses. [12] I notice this point expressly, because I think we cannot too strongly entertain the conviction of the unlikelihood of such a thing occurring thus in the word and law of God; and therefore, as a reason for the most careful examination, whether we may not have overlooked the real scope and object of this 18th verse, even if we admit the correctness of the translation and of the sense. Observe, there is a great distinction between the sense and the application. Admitting the sense, I must deny the application, as I shall presently shew. But here let me repeat, if there be but a fairly reasonable account to be given of the existence and application of the 18th verse, without its running us into the difficulty of this over-riding, and collision with itself of God’s law, and if we hereby avoid the gross unlikelihood which I have mentioned, then surely such account and such application ought to commend itself to every candid mind, as at least worthy of the most serious consideration.
My Lord, I venture to think such account and application of the 18th verse there is; and though it has been touched upon by others, and Dr. M’Caul himself came very near it, yet it appears to have been too little dwelt upon by any, and strangely overlooked by him. [13a]
Let me here bring the matter once more to the point of divergence. We have first the general law, “None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him” (v. 6). We have then the general catalogue of prohibitions which come under this head, and form the divine comment on the terms “near of kin:” and these dealing, with cases of affinity, in a majority of the prohibitions expressed, as compared with those of blood relationship (v. 7–17.) All these, moreover, be it observed, put in the statement as commands upon the man, leaving the obligation upon the woman to be inferred. Upon this statement we have Archbishop Parker’s table of degrees, and of the forbidden unions, extending exactly to the parallel cases of all those named;—with the like witness also of the 99th Canon, declaring all such alliances to be incestuous;—and this table required by our law, both of Church and State, to be set up in all Parish Churches. [13b] But we have then the 18th verse making, as is alleged, not merely an exception, but a contradiction to the parallel case of what is forbidden in verse 16 as to the brother’s wife, and permitting the union with a wife’s sister, so that it be not in the lifetime of the former. We thus come to what Dr. M’Caul himself considers to be a case of over-riding, where we must determine whether (to use again his own words) “the inferential prohibition from verse 16 is to over-ride the expressed command of verse 18, or the plain letter of this latter verse to over-ride the inference from the former.” [14]
Now, what I am anxious to see is, whether there is any need to force upon us this over-riding at all. I think not.
To show what I mean, I ask this—Take the prohibition of the brother’s wife first in its plain literal terms, verse 16, and then is there, independently of the 18th verse, any direct exception to it? Certainly there is. When we come to the further explication of the Jewish polity, and God’s designs in reference to it, we find a special provision in the law of the Levirate, (that is, the law of raising up seed to the deceased brother), which will clash with that prohibition; for the brother is required to take his brother’s wife and raise up seed to a house in danger of becoming extinct in Israel. “If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband’s brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband’s brother unto her. And it shall be, that the firstborn which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel. And if the man like not to take his brother’s wife, then let his brother’s wife go up to the gate unto the elders, and say, My husband’s brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel, he will not perform the duty of my husband’s brother. Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak unto him: and if he stand to it, and say, I like not to take her; then shall his brother’s wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and say, So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother’s house. And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him that hath his shoe loosed.” Deut. xxv., 5–10.
In this passage there is, not what I should call a contradiction to the general law, but an exception in a particular case, and for a particular case only. It is no general permission over-riding and making of none effect the general prohibition, but a particular injunction for a special purpose in one defined contingency. If a man’s brother die childless, his brother shall take his wife and raise up seed unto his brother. As it was exactly quoted in the gospel: “Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.” [15]
We have already observed that the authority of Him who gave the prohibitory law is sufficient to give also the permissive, or more than permissive, exception, so that we come into no difficulty as to the one, in such measure, over-riding (to use again the term) the other.