Jacob Jones Janeway

“ Is it probable the Church on which God has shed such light, by his written word, on every other point of doctrine and duty, has received none on this deeply interesting subject? Is she, in this particular, left in the same condition as the heathen, without any inspired written rule to mark the degrees in which marriage is not allowed? Can brothers and sisters now marry without violating any written law against such connexions? Now we do not say, what our brother imputes to us, "that it is self-evident that such an express prohibition is, and must be, found in the Bible," (p. 6;) ”

“ If blood be the only reason of the law, where is the limit to be drawn? We answer both by saying, The law prescribes the limit. He adds, "If my wife's sister be to me in this respect as my own sister by blood, then why does she not stand in just the same relation to my own brother? A singular question! With the same propriety might Omicron ask, If, by marriage, I and my wife are so intimately related as to be one flesh, why does she not stand in just the same relation to my own brother? Because she is not married to him. ”

“ Were the public mind deeply impressed with the truth we have labored to establish, it would tend much to preserve the purity of domestic life; render the intercourse of a wife's sister in her family, at all times and in all circumstances, easy and pleasant, free from suspicion and embarrassment; and preserve her and her brother-in-law from the temptations to which human nature, in its present fallen condition, is too liable. It would make a sister's house like that of an own brother. ”

“ Is not the prohibition perpetual too in regard to a father's wife? in regard to an aunt, the wife of a father's brother? in regard to a son's wife? Can any form of marriage cover the iniquity of intercourse between such near relations? Is not sexual commerce forever forbidden between a man and such females, as well when they are widows, as while their husbands are living? Do not these statutes prohibit even the thought of such intimacy, under any circumstances?
8. The Puritan asks, Why the term marriage was not used, if the Lawgiver intended by these statutes to prohibit marriage? ”

“ He who formed man, instituted marriage for the propagation of our race, and constituted the nature of things; He alone has knowledge and wisdom sufficient to determine the limits of marriage.
It is not for us to determine à priori what Infinite Wisdom ought to do; but when we know what God has taught on one important subject, we may humbly and reverently infer He has not left us without instruction, on a kindred subject of similar importance to our purity and happiness. Look at the moral law. Mankind were not wholly ignorant of their duty. ”

“ But the Puritan will perhaps say, I was speaking of "the marriage of one's own sister." Be it so; and does not "the voice of nature teach" that the marriage of a man with his mother, or with his aunt, or with his son's daughter, or with his daughter's daughter, is now to be reprobated; and that there are reasons why such marriages should be forbidden by the laws of the land, "on grounds of high expediency?" Assisted by "the light of inspiration," can you find any difficulty in reading out of the book of nature a law against such marriages? ”

“ On the contrary, I assert that he has most severely and pointedly condemned such marriages; for that alone, Thou shalt not approach to any who is near of kin, certainly includes this species of relation; for what is so near to a man as his wife? are they not one flesh? By the wife, therefore, her sister becomes nearly related to the husband. For as he may not marry the mother of his wife, or the daughter of his wife, so, for the same reason that he may not take the mother or the daughter, he may not take the sister of his wife; yea, no more than he may take his own sister by blood. ”

“ Shall we say, This statute, enacted by infinite wisdom, which perfectly knows the nature of man, and all his relations, and how to promote the purity of domestic life, as well as good morals in the community, cannot bind us, because it has not received the sanction of heathen legislators, who had no better guide than natural reason, unaided by divine revelation, and darkened and misled by corrupt and sensual passions? ”

“ The law, we have seen, is one law. All its prohibitions rest on the same basis; all have the same object in view; and all are enforced by the same spiritual punishment. Why then should a part of this one and the same law be regarded as founded in nature, and another part be considered as only positive? The inability of jurists to discover by the deductions of their own reason the whole extent of the law of nature, is no sufficient reason for not admitting the whole of this Levitical law to be a natural law, founded in nature. ”

“ The Reformed Church in Holland has established by her canons, 'that no man may marry his sister-in-law, and no woman may marry her brother-in-law,' and has never deviated from that rule. The Reformed Dutch Church in America, which is the same with the Church in Holland, has adopted the same canons, corresponds with that Church, and is esteemed and beloved by it, as a valuable portion of the same Church, and is bound by the most sacred obligations to transmit unimpaired to posterity the precious treasure with which she is intrusted. ”

“ Will it be said, If this marriage were sinful, the prohibition would have been delivered in plainer terms? The assumption is unfounded, and does not accord with facts. Polygamy was always sinful, and yet the terms in which the law prohibited it were not so plain as to convince the ancient Hebrews of its unlawful nature. The supreme Lawgiver always legislates with infinite wisdom, but not always as human wisdom would dictate.
To rest the decision of an important question in morals, on so slight and seeming an implication of a single phrase in a single text, would be hazardous indeed. ”

“ May he marry his mother after his father's decease, and thus render sexual intercourse with her who bare him and brought him into the world lawful and honorable? Nature abhors the idea; the divine statute prohibits forever all such unnatural commerce between a parent and her child, as peremptorily when his father is dead, as while he is living. ”

“ Marriage, in whatever way contracted, cannot hide their vileness, nor render such illicit commerce between the sexes as comes within the limits set to our liberty, honorable. It is vile, odious in the sight of God, though covered by the mantle of marriage. It is like whited sepulchres, "beautiful outward, but within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness." ”

“ But what is this law of nature but the law of God, the Author of nature? Distinct from the Creator's law there is no law of nature. Some parts of the laws of God are mutable, and others immutable. The Decalogue is a moral and natural law; natural, because it is founded in the natural relations that subsist between us and the Creator, and between us and our fellow-creatures. This law requires us to love God; and we cannot conceive this obligation should ever cease, or that the contrary should ever "be allowed or commanded." We are required to love our neighbor, not excepting our enemies ”

“ Indeed, the Puritan has in fact yielded the reference of these statutes to marriage, in the character (so often referred to) which he gives to sexual intercourse between relations designated in the Levitical law; for, if it were at any time lawful for them to marry, their intercourse might be denominated fornication or adultery, but it could not be called incest; because incest is the crime of cohabiting or sexual commerce between persons so nearly related, that their marriage is declared to be unlawful. ”

“ As the death of a husband must produce on affinity the same effect as the death of a wife, a man may, after the death of the husband, marry his brother's wife;—his father's brother's wife;—his daughter-in-law;—and his step-mother!—although these marriages are all expressly forbidden by the Divine law. ”

“ The repeated revelations of the Divine will, given at various periods of the world, will justify the belief, that God has left none of his creatures to collect the knowledge of duty, merely from the contemplation of the nature of things; but has revealed and announced a law of moral duty and of marriage, corresponding with the nature of things established by Himself, and which of course He knows most perfectly. ”

“ And since the multiplication of the human race, affirms our brother, "God could not either allow or command it." We dislike this language; it savors of irreverence. Suppose Noah and his wife alone had been saved from the destructive deluge, and they had begotten children after the flood, would it not have been again lawful for brothers and sisters to marry? ”

“ Now, let the reader search through the Puritan's pamphlet to find, if he can, where he shows, in God's inspired word, is contained a prohibition against the marriage of brother and sister. We cannot find it. He makes no attempt to discover such a prohibition. He only shows we are not destitute of scriptural intimation in regard to marriage: "We are not wholly without scripture intimations of duty on this subject. Against the marriage of parents and children God's will is intimated, in that a man shall leave his father and mother when he cleaves to his wife." ”

“ For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law, are a law unto themselves; which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing, or else excusing one another. ”

“ All the statutes refer to marriage; and as those which prohibit sexual intercourse between parents and children, brothers and sisters, uncles and nieces, prohibit, at the same time, all attempts to sanctify such intercourse by marriage; so it is with the prohibitions that respect a brother's wife, and a wife's husband. All are near of kin, and may not be approached. God has forbidden it by his law.
9. But the Puritan objects, (p. 8, 3d par.) "In our view, the fact that God commanded a man to marry a brother's widow, proves that there is no immorality in such marriages." ”

“ Every man is my kinsman according to the flesh. Why? Because we are all descended from the same common pair, have the same blood flowing in our veins, and partake of the same nature. "God," says an inspired writer, "hath made of one blood all the nations of the earth, for to dwell on all the face of the earth." ”

“ The Puritan willingly calls on writers who occupy ground so entirely different from the ground on which he stands, to assist him in opening a wide door for the marriage of a man with his deceased wife's sister, to pass from a state of dishonor to a state of honor. ”