That a fair and reasonable account of the statements in Leviticus xviii.
not alluding directly to the law of Deut. xxv., and not in any way
indicating the exception there made or to be made to the prohibition of
verse 16, is to be found in this: that all the statements in that chapter
of Leviticus are _prohibitions_, whilst the record in Deuteronomy is a
_permission_ or indeed a _command_; that, therefore, it is perfectly
reasonable and natural that we should not find prohibitions and
relaxations of the law mixed up together. Thus Leviticus keeps to its
prohibitions, verse after verse, with the warnings and denunciation of
penalties proper to its subject; and Deuteronomy deals with its
exceptional relaxation, and the duties and consequences therewith
connected. And it may be just worth while to add that although the 18th
verse of Leviticus xviii. is an exception, it is still in the sense and
application which I have been enforcing, a prohibitory not a permissive
exception; a consideration which not only shows it is in its due place
among the other prohibitions, but also strengthens the view taken in this
letter of its being no more than a prohibition. It _prohibits_ the
taking two sisters simultaneously, even under circumstances which, but
for its existence, would have required such union, and it does not permit
anything as against the laws of the 6th and 16th verses. Were Dr.
M’Caul’s view, and the view of the promoters of the alteration of our law
of marriage correct, we should at least have the anomaly of a permissive
precept foisted in, if I may so say, among the prohibitory sentences of
this chapter, dealing in all else with prohibitions only. For, it is
plain, to read the verse as meaning a man may marry two sisters, if it be
not simultaneously, is a permission upon the previous restriction; whilst
to say a man may _not_ marry two sisters simultaneously, even when the
law of the Levirate would seem to demand it, is a prohibition. The law
of Deuteronomy, therefore, (the law of the Levirate,) being a permission
or command, not a prohibition, makes it no marvel that that injunction is
not found among the prohibitions, whilst that the prohibitional
exceptional decree of the 18th verse of Lev. xviii., should be found
where it is, among the prohibitions, is no marvel either.