Page:Unlawfulmarriage00jane.djvu/45

Rh Chief Justice Vaughan, who lived in the reign of Charles II, is claimed as favoring the marriage under discussion. His influence, whatever it may be worth, (though even he regarded this law as referring to marriage,) is yielded. It may be proper, however, to let the reader see the grounds of his opinion. The case before him was the marriage of a man with his great-aunt. In deciding that case he gave his opinion incidentally of the lawfulness of the marriage of a man with his deceased wife's sister.

The grounds of his opinion are:

1. An assumption, without proof, that part of the law in Levit. xviii. is judaical positive law, and therefore not binding on Christians.

2. He affirms that such marriages were allowed by the Jewish "Forum" to be lawful.

3. He says, "The clearest way to understand any law is by what was the story and judgment of those people, and the times in which it was practical."

Here the Chief Justice overlooks the fact that the law, to which he refers, has been a practical law in every age of the Church since its enactment, and suffers himself to be guided by the