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Exo_2:1 And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took [to wife] a daughter of Levi.
Ver. 1. And took to wife.] His own aunt. {Exo_6:20 Num_26:59} The law against incest {Lev_18:12} was not yet given, nor the state of Israel settled. But what excuse can there be for that abominable incest of the house of Austria by Papal dispensation? King Philip of Spain was uncle to himself, first cousin to his father, husband to his sister, and father to his wife! {a} And what shall we say of our modern sectaries, whose practising of incest is now avowed publicly in print? They shame not to affirm that those marriages are most lawful that are between persons nearest in blood, brother and sister, father and daughter, mother and son, uncle and niece. The prohibition of degrees in Leviticus is to be understood, say they, of fornication, not of marriage {b} Tamar did not doubt to be her brother Amnon’s wife, but detested the act of fornication, &c. Lo, here, what noonday devils do now, in this unhappy time, walk with open face among us! {c}
{a} Spec. Europ.
{b} See Mr Bayly’s Dissuasion, part 2, and Mr Edwards’s Gangr., part 3.
{c} Little Nonsuch, pp. 5-7.