Page:Against profane dealing with holy matrimony.djvu/21

 of children, and the like,—is surely as strong when it is pleaded for them, as in the argument which we are now more immediately considering. Besides that they are expressly dispensed with, and even commanded, in the well-known case of raising up seed to a brother.

But none of these pleas, were they multiplied a thousand fold, would argue the prohibition out of the law of God. There it still stands, with the curse of the Canaanites for its sanction: “Thou shalt not marry thy brother's wife, she is thy sister.”

Now I call upon all serious people,—all who in their hearts believe the Bible to be the Word of God,—to reflect on what follows from this verse. (I mean, from this verse alone: for we shall come presently to the question, Whether there is any other Scripture which tells the contrary way.) I say, considering that verse alone, could any true-hearted woman possibly help receiving it, as an undoubted rule of God's law, that “Thou shalt not marry thy sister's husband, he is thy brother?” Must she not receive it as enforced by the same penalty with the other grievous sins there mentioned? To me, I