A Dissertation on the Marriage of a Man with his Sister-in-Law

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DISSERTATION

ON

Section I: Marriage

MARRIAGE is a divine institution constituting an union between one man and one woman. It was ordained for obtaining a legitimate increase of the human family; for providing mutual help and comfort; and for preventing uncleanness.

To the adorable Creator it necessarily and exclusively appertained to determine in what way, or by what means, he would introduce mankind into existsence. An immediate act of omnipotence, might have produced every individual, without any direct relation or natural subordination to any other. But it pleased him, that all should spring from one source, and thus be all of one blood. To accom- this mysterious purpose, it became indispensably requisite to ascertain the manner in which a legitimate generation should proceed; and establish that rule for its attainment, which would redound most to his glory, and be productive of the greatest happiness and dignity of the human race. These high and interesting ends have been attained by the institution of marriage.

An ordinance replete with such benefits, could never have been investigated by man, or rendered efficient by human authority. None but the blessed Maker and Governor of the world, was competent to devise an adequate expedient for forming new and endearing relations; to impress a prevailing bias in its favour; or enforce universal submission.

Marriage is a benevolent institution; benign in its principles, beneficial in its consequences, and the source of blessings and comforts, when rightly improved, which cannot, by any other means, be possibly realised. It insures a pure offspring and raises families; it alleviates cares and protects from temptations; it produces an affectionate commun- ion and affords contentment and happiness, without the collision of separate interests.

It is an acceptable institution and universally adopted. The sacred ordinance has forever remained in force, and been received with veneration and gratitude. In every age and in all nations it has prevailed, and will continue to the end of the world. Both sexes have cheerfully submitted to it; they always have and always will be "marrying and giving in marriage."

It is as honourable as it is benevolent and acceptable. The propagation of mankind, and the first principles of society are hereby established upon a respectable and virtuous basis; and human nature is dignified by the prohibition of promiscuous and unlawful cohabitation.

God honours marriage. "The Lord God said it is not good that the man should be alone, I will make him a help meet for him—and the rib which the Lord had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man—so God created man in his own image, male and female created he them; and God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth," Gen. ii. Gen. i. The divine Redeemer honoured marriage with his presence, and crowned it with his approbation and benediction, by a beginning of miracles in Cana of Galilee, where he manifested his glory, John. ii.—In his discourses upon the sublime doctrines and sacred precepts of his kingdom, he frequently condescended to notice marriage as an ordinance of the highest importance to mankind, and to the interests of religion in the world. He confirmed its divine origin; defended its purity; and by establishing the perpetual obligation of the moral law and explaining its extent, he retained, in their full authority and force, the precepts against incest and adultery.

The Church honours marriage. Under the dispensation of the Old Testament, the institution was venerated and every violation of it severely punished. Under the New Testament, marriage is declared "to be honourable in all, and the bed undefiled, while whoremongers and adulterers God will judge," Heb. xiii. 4. The Apostles expressly recognise the ordinance; they enforce the laws by which it is pro- tected; and often inculcate the reciprocal duties of man and wife, as essential to the welfare of society and the honour of religion.

The world has always honoured marriage, and considered it as the fountain of social comfort and prosperity. All the civilized governments on earth, both ancient and modern, have taken it under their immediate protection. They have made it a prominent article in their civil codes, and enacted laws to ascertain with precision what constituted a lawful marriage, and what determined a legitimate offspring. Even the most barbarous nations have received the institution, and were never without some laws, which, although not written, were well known and defined by maxims and customs, whereby the interests of husband and wife were rendered secure, and it became criminal for strangers to interrupt or violate them.

But among the properties essential to marriage, the creation of an union, whereby two persons, who were previously strangers, become one, is the most singular. As this is the source of affinity, and the basis upon which our conclusions in the discussion of the present question principally depend, it claims particular attention.

Two extremes are here to be avoided. The union, whatever it may be, must not be so far exaggerated, as to absorb personal identity, or change the moral responsibility of the individuals. The former involves a contradiction, and the latter is equally absurd. But on the other part, it must not be reduced to a mere metaphorical term, expressive of nothing more than a community of affections, cares, and interests, or at most, a federal compact.

Mankind are united by many different bonds. They all partake of the same nature, and thus far they are all one. In societies connections are formed of every description, and an union, as far as it respects the objects of such associations, is thereby produced. By covenants also, persons unite in various ways, and for different purposes. But there is no union effected by any or all of these, that can produce such an essential change, or fix a source of new relations similar to that which marriage creates.

Civilians, who view marriage simply as it respects society and affects the rights of citizens, content themselves with considering it as only a civil contract; and define it to be "a covenant made between a man and a woman, in which they mutually promise cohabitation, and a continual care to promote the comfort and happiness of each other." This may be proper and sufficient for civilians; yet religion gives a more exalted view of the institution. It admits such a covenant, but inculcates something more than by any covenant can be effected, while it predicates an union, so complete, that those who were formerly two are now no longer twain but one.

The sacred scriptures, from whence we derive our only infallible information respecting divine ordinances, teach us:

That the union produced by marriage is not merely nominal, but real and perfect. It constitutes what unerring wisdom denominates, without reserve, to be one, and designates it by the strongest terms language can express. "This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh, there- shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh," Gen. ii. 23, 24. Again, "they twain shall be one flesh," Matt. xix. 5. And again, "so ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife, loveth himself—they two shall be one flesh," Eph. v. 28, 31. If these terms have any meaning, worthy of divine inspiration, they indicate that, consistent with distinct personal identity, and individual responsibility, there is, if not a physical, still at least a moral union produced. And whether, in a certain respect, both are not comprehended, we, most assuredly, are not competent to decide. That it is an union which constitutes a root or centre of new relations and kindred. The parties stand no longer separate, but their mutual relatives, as it regards the married persons, are completely blended and consolidated. That it is an union which renders the communion of bodies legitimate and honourable; or, as the Apostle delicately expresses it, "The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband; and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife," 1 Cor. vii. 4.—Nulla arctior amicitia quam mariti et uxoris, quae communionem requirit affectuum, corporis, prolis, vitae denique totius.—Eadem locutio de communione corporis usurpatur a Paulo, ubi de scorto agit, 1 Cor. vi. 16. Sed nimirum qui scorto se miscet, ea utitur pro uxore. That it is a mysterious union.—There is a mystery in all the works and institutions of God. The means and subordinate ends, which he in his infinite wisdom adopts to accomplish his vast designs, cannot by finite minds be fully comprehended. This is exemplified, with respect to the article now before us, in the fifth chapter of the epistle to the Ephesians. The Apostle in his exhortation to husbands and wives to fulfil their reciprocal duties, exhibits the union produced by marriage, as a type of the union of Christ with his church; and closes the subject with a solemn inference: this is a great mystery. Some refer this mystery wholly to marriage. But the words which immediately follow, ascertain the object to which he primarily alludes; "I speak concerning Christ and the church."

The union between Christ and the Church is mysterious. It comprehends something which is covered or hidden, as the term signifies. It is known to exist, and his people glory in it, as an inestimable benefit of the covenant of grace, and the highest honor that can be conferred upon creatures. But what the essential nature and extent of this union are, or what it fully comprises, is to them a great mystery.

Every believer is united to Christ. This is no metaphor; nor is it merely an union by covenant, by mutual affection, or common interest. It is actual and real. As the branches are really united to the vine, and the members are really united to the head, so all the children of God are really united to their Saviour.—The reality of this union with Christ, is the basis upon which his representation of them as their surety, and the imputation of his righteousness to them for their justification, necessarily rest.—Upon this also their spiritual life, their sanctification, and perseverance in grace, wholly depend.

There is as truly and essentially an union between the last Adam and every one of his redeemed family, as there is between the first Adam and all his posterity; but it is not produced in the same way. The bond of union with the first Adam is natural propagation, the bond of union with the last, is his Spirit. "The last Adam is a quickening spirit," 1 Cor. xv. 45. The spirit of Christ dwells and abides in all believers. This makes them alive, and constitutes them one with him. "He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit."—"I will put my spirit within you," Ezek. xxxvi. 37.—"If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his," Rom. viii. 9.—"Ye are the temple of God, and the spirit of God dwelleth in you," 1 Cor. iii. 16.— "The spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you," 1 Pet. iv. 14.—"We live in the spirit," Gal. v. 25.—This our precious Jesus himself confirms, in his intercession, John xvii. 21. 23. "That they all may be one, as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us. I in them, and thou in me, that they also may be made perfect in one." Receiving his spirit, and quickened by his divine influence, they become united to Christ; they receive the gift of faith, Eph. ii. 1. 8: they believe and adore, they love and obey. Thus "Christ liveth in them, and the life they live in the flesh, they live by the faith of the Son of God," Gal. ii. 20. "Their life is hid with Christ in God," Colos. iii. 3.

As the union of the Son of God, the second person in the holy Trinity, to our human nature, "God manifest in the flesh," is pronounced the " great mystery of godliness," 1 Tim. iii. 15: so his union to his church, by which every living member is made one with the living head, is another mystery, and with propriety is also called great. This is the mystery which distinguishes the living from the dead; which draws the line of separation between real and merely nominal christians; which determines the relation upon which the christian religion is founded, and fixes the essential criterion wherein it differs from the religion of nature.

The example of the apostle, in the passage before us, must suggest an apology for this digression. But what has been mentioned is not wholly foreign to our subject. Let those who are acquainted with the style of scripture, and are capable of estimating the analogy which subsists between a type and its antitype, determine; whether, admitting that the apostle calls the latter a great mystery, he does not thereby imply that the former, in a certain degree, is mysterious also.

What then is marriage? It is a divine institution which honours and dignifies, defends and consoles the human family—which raises men above the brutes, and preserves them from pernicious passions—provides for the identity, education and prosperity of every succeeding generation—divides the cares, increases the comforts, and cements society by the most precious and perpetual ties.—And, what distinguishes this institution from all others, is, that it produces an union, whereby two persons become ONE—not merely as to legitimate commerce, but one in regard to themselves, and the new relations thereby formed with others. God pronounces them one. Men account them one. They consider themselves to be one. So completely are they one, that the respective relatives and families are constituted equally near of kin to both husband and wife.

Hail wedded love, mysterious law, true source Of human offspring, sole propriety In Paradise, of all things common else; By thee adult'rous lust was driv'n from men, Among the bestial herds to range; by thee Founded in reason, loyal, just and pure, Relations dear, and all the charities Of father, son, and brother, first were known. Perpetual fountain of domestic sweets, Whose bed is undefil'd and chaste pronounc'd.

"The law of marriage is positive. No general principle can of itself, establish with a binding force upon the conscience, the doctrine that the conjugal union is, in all cases, to subsist between one man and one woman only; and, with the exception of conjugal infidelity, is to last during the joint lives of the parties. Nothing but a divine institution could subject them to this condition: nothing but a divine revelation communicated the knowledge of it." In every question, therefore, which regards the parties who may lawfully marry, no maxims or customs sanctioned among men, nor any dispensations of civil or ecclesiastical governments, can ever be admitted. The divine law has fixed the standard, and must decide the inquiry. God himself is the judge. "To the law and to the testimony" is the only appeal.

An institution so venerable in its origin, so interesting in its consequences and valuable to the human family, has an imperious claim upon the pro- tection of society, and the care of the church. Every good citizen, every sincere christian, and every faithful minister of the gospel, must esteem it his duty, to prevent an ofdinance, recommended by such high considerations, from being prostrated and defiled.— To prevent its pollution by prohibited cohabitation, is the object of this dissertation. But previous to an immediate inquiry upon that subject, it will be expedient to refer to the principles of affinity, and contemplate the evil of incest; to mark the distinctions of laws, and illustrate the manner in which moral precepts are introduced into the Mosaic code.

Section II: Affinity

A RELATION is the respect or connection which two or more things have to each other. When the term is applied to kindred, it denotes the connection which subsists between persons, in consequence of their mutual respect to the same family. A degree in the relation of kinsmen, expresses the interval by which the proximity or remoteness of such a relation is ascertained. The degree is computed agreeably to the respective steps, by which a removal is made from a common ancestor, and is calculated conformably to what is called the lineal, or the collateral branches. There are two sources of kindred or relation. One is denominated consanguinity, the other affinity.

Consanguinity refers to a relation in blood; or a relation produced by descent from the same progenitor. The lineal descent is that which subsists between persons descending in a direct line from parents to their children downwards; or ascending from parents to grand parents upwards, in both directions in infinitum. The collateral line differs from the direct, in that the relatives do not descend the one from the other. The primary degrees in these comprise, brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, nephews and nieces. Collateral kinsmen spring from one common ancestor, who is the stirps or stipes, the root or stock, from whence those relations have branched; but they do not immediately depend the one upon the other. The nearness or distance of relation in the collateral line is therefore calculated by the degrees or interval between them and their same progenitor. This forms what is called by civilians the "vinculum personarum ab codem stipite descendentium." The scale or steps agreeably to which the degrees of relation are computed, are too well known to need any reference or enumeration.

Affinity is a relation produced by marriage. It originates in the union which God has established between husband and wife; and refers primarily to the degree of kindred contracted by the husband to the relatives of his wife, and by the wife to those of her husband. In this sense it is distinguished from consanguinity or relation by blood. The term affinity is derived from the two latin words ad to, and finis an end or boundary; because two families by intermarriage, not only approach to, but come within the boundaries of each other. Agreeably to the maxim in law; quod duae cognationes per nuptias copulantur, et altera ad alterius cognationis finem accedit.

The properties of affinity are obvious. An attention to them will illustrate the subject.

1. Affinity constitutes a real relation. It is not merely nominal, or a matter of courtesy, but a relation firm, legal and perfect. It is recognised by God in his law, as such, and the nearness of kin, or degree of relation, as it respects the husband and wife, is as sacred in affinity as in consanguinity. If this be not the result of marriage, the union is nothing, it is a word without any meaning. Upon this principle, affinity enters into the list of prohibitions as fully and expressly as consanguinity, and without any line of difference between them.

To this property sufficient attention appears not to have been generally bestowed. The very statement of the question, which has become popular and is always adopted: whether a man may marry the sister of his deceased wife? is a proof that the principle of affinity is not well understood, or, at least, not duly appreciated. Whether the question be thus worded with a design to hide the whole truth, or only through inadvertency, it is certainly calculated to mislead the public mind, and insinuate, that the woman in question was near of kin to the deceased wife, but that she sustains no relation at all to the husband; which is most assuredly false, for she is very near of kin to him. It is true she is not related to him in blood, and so the step mother, daughter in law, and uncle's wife are not related in blood, yet they are related in affinity, they bare near of kin, they are prohibited relatives.—It is true, she is the sister of the deceased wife, but it is also true that she is the sister of the husband. As with other relatives, so here, there are sisters by blood, and sisters by affinity; both are really sisters, and they are both, by the divine law established and declared to be such. The husband is therefore nearly related to that woman. She is not only the sister of the deceased wife, but she is also in truth his sister. The law of God has constituted her his sister. The question then ought to be stated; "whether it be lawful for a man to marry his sister, by whatever principle or bond she may have become his sister?" but such an honest and candid phraseology would anticipate a denial too prompt and speedy to please those who are interested or prejudiced in favour of a contrary decision.

2. Affinity is extensive. It creates the same kindred between the husband and all the relations by consanguinity or affinity of his wife, and between the wife and all the relations by consanguinity or affinity of her husband. In consequence of this, the parents of the husband are brought into the relation of parents to the wife, and her parents are so to him. His brothers and sisters are become the brothers and sisters of his wife, and her brothers and sisters are his, and thus all the branches mutually in the direct and collateral line. Hence it is, that all who are prohibited by consanguinity in the direct line downwards or upwards, and all in the collateral line, as brothers or sisters, uncles or aunts, nephews or nieces, are equally forbidden in affinity, upon both sides. With none of these may either of the married parties, after the death of the other, cohabit or marry, any more than with the same relatives in blood. The man therefore who marries the sister of his deceased wife is as much guilty of incest, as if he had married his own sister by blood: for the sister of the deceased wife has, by his antecedent marriage, become his own sister, and is declared to be such by the law of God.

"The marriage of a wife's sister is, in the eyes of God, the very same with the marriage of one's own sister. When a man marries a woman, 'they are no more twain,' says God, 'but one flesh:' how? not literally for their persons are as distinct as ever. Not with respect to their blood relations: they were that before their marriage. But yet by this marriage, they are made one flesh. The flesh of the husband and wife being thus identified, they stand in the same relation to each other's sisters and brothers as to their own: i. e. as to the lawfulness of connubial intercourse. So that it is quite as agreeable to the divine law for a man to marry his own sister, as to marry a sister of his wife."

"By marriage the husband and wife are one person in law. Upon this principle of an union of person in husband and wife, depend almost all the legal rights, duties and disabilities, that either of them acquire by the marriage.—The same degrees by affinity are prohibited. Affinity always arises by the marriage of one of the parties so related. As a husband is related by affinity to all the consanguinei of his wife, and, vice versa the wife to all the husband's consanguinei: for the husband and wife being considered one flesh, those who are related to the one by blood, are related to the other by affinity. Therefore a man after his wife's death cannot marry her sister, aunt, or niece." Whether the prohibited degrees be computed by

the scale of the canon or the civil law, the result is the same. Every man of common understanding will confess, that the sister of a wife is, at least, one degree nearer to the husband, than the aunt, and two degrees nearer than the niece. If God forbids him to marry the aunt or niece, because they are too near of kin, it is beyond all dispute, that he forbids him to marry the sister, who is much nearer of kin than either of the former.

3. The relation produced by marriage is peculiar. It affects the husband and wife alone, and does not, as such, create any new relations between their respective relatives; agreeably to the adage, affinis mei affinis non est affinis meus.

4. As the relation created by marriage arises from the union established by God himself, and is therefore real and legal, so it is permanent and indissoluble. The nearness of kin which affinity has formed will never cease. The death of either of the parties cannot cancel the kindred, or cause any change in the degree of relation. This duration proceeds from the very principle of affinity, as well as from the express declaration of the divine law, and it is consonant with the universal consent and language of all nations. The step-mother remains a mother, after the death of the father, as much as in his life time; the wife of a son, after his decease, is still a daughter; the sister of a wife, continues to be a sister, after the death of the wife, exactly as she was before; the wife of the uncle, after his death, is still an aunt, and will be so as long as she lives. All these are sacred and forbidden in marriage. The degrees of kindred are unalterable. They remain in their whole extent, the same they were before. Such persons may never be approached for cohabitation. The maxim admits of no controversy: any person with whom, at any time, it would have been incest to cohabit, will forever remain forbidden. No circumstance can obliterate the relation. Every marriage with such is always incest.

How men of discernment and candour can permit themselves to hesitate in the case of a sister by affinity, when they admit the relation and prohibition to extend to others by affinity, is truly astonishing. To assert that the sister may be exempted, when those who are more distant, are acknowledged to be too near of kin, can never be sustained by any rational argument.—It will be seen, when we explain the law of prohibitions, that it avails nothing to search for ambiguity in the letter of the precept; it is explicit, intelligible and decisive. Had even the divine law been altogether silent upon that particular case, and the sister in law not mentioned at all, it would still be sufficiently and fully implied. The question is unequivocally determined by the principle of affinity.

Section III: Incest

INCEST is an unnatural and criminal cohabitation of persons within prohibited degrees of kindred.

God forbids incest and has mercifully implanted in the human heart an abhorrence of this crime, and thereby banished every sexual propensity toward those who are near of kin. Were it not for this; was that propensity felt or indulged in the familiar intercourse of domestic life, it would prove injurious to virtue, and dangerous to the welfare and happiness of the community.

Incest is condemned by the whole world. The estimate of its criminality appears to be independent upon custom, education or profession. The mind revolts at the transaction, as contrary to all order in society; and pronounces it to be indecent and filthy—infamous and wicked—an offence which cruelly invades the sacred recesses of families and endangers the purity of the most protected members.

It is a crime not only punishable in civil society; but a sin which will bring down the judgments of God upon any land, where it is tolerated and practised—that very sin which served to fill the cup of the Amorites, and render them obnoxious to extermination.

Incest is a disgrace to marriage and pollutes the institution. The incestuous parties are forbidden to enter into that holy state. They are not, they cannot be married. The form, with respect to them, is void. It is no marriage. Their cohabitation is a continual fornication, with the aggravated guilt of prohibited commerce. What is wicked in the first instance cannot by repetition become innocent. What is accursed of God in the commencement can never become less criminal or obtain the divine approbation and blessing, by habitual indulgence.

"In order to preserve chastity in families, and between persons of different sexes brought up and living together in a state of unreserved intimacy, it is necessary by every method possible, to inculcate an abhorrence of incestuous conjunctions; which abhorrence can only be upheld by the absolute rep- robation of all commerce of the sexes between near relations. Upon this principle the marriage, as well as other cohabitation of brothers and sisters of lineal kindred, and of all, who usually live in the same family, may be said to be forbidden by the law of nature. Restrictions which extend to remoter degrees of kindred than what this reason makes it necessary to prohibit from intermarriage, are founded in the authority of the positive law which ordains them.—The Levitical law, from which the rule of the Roman law differs very little, prohibits marriage between relations within three degrees of kindred; computing the generations not from, but through the common ancestor, and accounting affinity the same as consanguinity."

If incest be a transgression, there must be a principle to which it refers; there must be a law which fixes the standard and designates the crime; for where there is no law, there is no transgression. The principle to which it refers is the nearness of kindred substising between the incestuous persons. The law which establishes the prohibi- tion, and ascertains the degree of kindred, agreeably to which the crime is to be estimated, is the Law of God. The universal acknowledgment of this principle and law, will be sufficiently ascertained, by observing how incest has always been viewed by the Heathen, by Christians, and by Civil Governments.