Selected quad for the lemma: woman_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
woman_n	brother_n	mother_n	sister_n	2,328	5	9.5317	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44419	Golden remains of the ever memorable Mr. John Hales ... with additions from the authours own copy, viz., sermons & miscellanies, also letters and expresses concerning the Synod of Dort (not before printed), from an authentick hand.	Hales, John, 1584-1656.	1673 (1673)	Wing H271; ESTC R3621	409,693	508

require answer I will take up in order as they lie in the Paper And first I find one phrase of speech which is very predominant and runs almost through the veins of the Discourse it is this That Christians loath Christians abhor men women and children cry out against such kind of Marriages But who are those Christians of whom he speaks If he means the better sort of Learned and Iudicious Divines he is certainly deceived for I have shewed already the contrary and let him for any information if he can produce for himself some one Protestant Learned Divine If he mean some of the ordinary sort I answer 't is the fault of their Guides who ought better to have informed them And whereas toward the latter end of the Discourse we are told of a dying woman afflicted in conscience because she had married her Cousin First I ask of what weight the judgment of a silly woman is Secondly I answer that this proves not the thing to be unlawful Now let our Acts be what they will good or bad yet if we do them supposing them to be unlawful we sin It is a Ruled Case amongst the Canonists Conscientia erronea ligat habentem He that doth a good action taking it to be unlawful to him it is unlawful If therefore against her conscience though peradventure mis-informed she married her Cousin she deserved the torment of mind and yet Marriage between Cousin-germans may be lawful enough Wherefore I pray you advise those concerning whom this question is proposed that if they find in themselves any doubt concerning the lawfulness of the action they forbear to attempt it until all scruple be removed But I see that the main foundation of this discourse is laid in these words of Moses You shall not approach to any that is near of kin to uncover her nakedness where by near of kin First and Second Cousins amongst the rest are thought to be meant For answer to which we say That the enumeration of particulars which Moses in that place maketh is a sufficient comment upon those words and those who are reckon'd up expresly together with all others in whom the same reason is found are to be esteemed for near of Kin and besides them no other I say those in whom the same reason is found Because some Degrees there are which are not mentioned by Moses and yet are confessed to be prohibited It is not forbidden a woman to marry her mother's sister's husband yet it is not lawful for the man is forbidden to marry his father's brother's widow Now the samo reason is there betwixt a man his father's brother's widow which is betwixt a woman and her mother's sister's husband and therefore both are understood as alike forbidden though both be not alike expressed But for a full answer to these words I refer the Authour of this Discourse to Francisc. Hottoman a learned Civilian and an earnest Protestant who in his disputation de jure Nuptiarum cap. 6. hath these words Qui vero propinquorum numero sint non cujusque hominis nati sed solius dei judicium est qua de causa eadem lege illos ordine nominatim enumerat ut facile intelligatur quos non enumerat propinquorum numero habendos non esse quoniam ut dici solet quod le ge prohibitoria vetitum non est per missum intelligitur Now the better to work us to a conceit that such marriages are unlawful the examples of the Gentiles are called to help and we are informed that Plutarch a grave Writer tells us of one who was greatly endangered by marrying his Cousin-german certainly it was great want of examples which moved the Gentleman to make choice of this A worse for his purpose he could not easily have found For indeed it is true that Plutarch tells us that some one who or when he tells not was publickly question'd for it but withall he tells us that he was absolved and a Law made that for ever after no man should be question'd for so doing More of these examples were not likely much to prejudice our cause For certainly they that absolved the party and made a Law that no man ever after should be molested on the like occasion in likelihood could do it upon no reason but upon conceit that the accusation was founded upon an errour But what the authority of Plutarch cannot do that peradventure the judgment of St. Ambrose St. Augustine St. Gregory and no less then Ten Councils will effect for all these are brought and urged to discountenance all marriage betwixt near Cousins First for St. Ambrose and St. Austine no marvel if they speak suspiciously concerning this kind of Marriages since they lived at the time when the Law made by Theodosius in prejudice of them was as yet unrepealed Indeed St. Ambrose would make us believe that such Marriages are against the Law of God but in that point he was deceived St. Austine speaks more cautelously concerning this kind of marriages and acknowledging that by the Law of God they were permitted observes that they had been but lately prohibited by humane Authority And as for St. Gregory it is well known that the Bishops of Rome had already began to enlarge their Phylacteries and taken upon them to make Laws fa● more then they needed and now looking bigger then their Fellows All Councils especially in the West were made with some respect to what they had decreed No marvel therefore if so many Councils are brought to cry down Marriages with First and Second Cousins which the Popes had already discountenanced we should rather much have marvelled if any Council had appeared in favour of them All therefore that these Councils have said in this point is in a sort to pass for nothing else but the will of the Bishop of Rome to which how much we are to attribute I leave to the Authour of the Discourse to judge And should we attribute any thing to St. Gregory his greatest Authority makes nothing against our cause For he in his Answer to Austin our English Prelate forbids the Laws onely against First Cousins against Second and Third he hath no quarrel nay his words sound quite contrary Vnde necesse est saith he ut in tertia which is the case vel in quarta generatione Fideles sibi licite Conjungantur So that this Authority of St. Gregory may well enough return to the place where it was taken for any harm it is likely to do The same may be said to St. Ambrose and St. Austine that in the case they may be admitted without any danger For what they say concerns onely First Cousins which falls a Degree short of the case There is yet one reason of some consequence remains For we are informed that it must needs be that Marriage betwixt First Cousins is forbidden because a Degree farther off is forbidden For this purpose we are ask'd Is not thy Father's Brother's Widow farther off then thy

thing more unto the Canon of faith it were necessary it should be confirmed by Miracles Concerning the Lawfulness of Marriages betwixt First Cousins or Cousin-Germans Septemb. 8. 1630. Worthy Sir IT is too great an Honour which you have done me to require my judgment if at least I have any judgment in a matter in which your self both by reason of your skill and degree cannot chuse but over-weigh me yet such as it is since you are pleased to require it lo I present it to you and wish it may be for your service IN Marriages two things are most especially to be considered Conveniency and Affection Conveniency thereby to advance or otherwise settle our Estates to our content Affection because of the singular content we take in the enjoying of what we love Now because these Two are great parties and sway much in the manage of our Temporal Actions by common consent and practise of all men they freely take their course fave onely there where the Publick Laws of God or Men have given them some check and inhibition for the propagation of Mutual Love and Acquaintance among men And for avoiding of Confusion in Bloud God and Men have joyntly enacted that it shall not not be lawful for us to make our commodity or place our affection by way of Marriage within certain Degrees of Propinquity and Kindred but this was with some restraint For as St. Augustine tells us Fuit autem antiquis Patribus religiosa cura num ipsa propinquitas se paulatim propaginum ordinibus dirimens longius abiret propinquitas esse desisteret eam nondum longe positam rursus Matrimonii vinculo Colligare quodammodo revocare fugientem Now the question is How far in the Degrees of Propinquity this restraint doth reach and where we may begin to couple and lock again For the opening of which Quaery let us a little consider in general of all kinds of Propinquity so shall we the better find where we may safely begin All Degrees of Propinquity amongst which Moses may be supposed to seek a Wife are either of Mothers and Daughters or Aunts and Nieces or Sisters and Cousins Now as in the Ascending Line of Mothers I may not marry my Mother so can I not marry my Grandmother nor Great-grandmother and so infinitely upward Insomuch as if Eve were now alive and a Widow no man living could marry her because all men are her sons In the Descending Line of Daughters as I may not marry my daughter so neither my Grandchild nor Great-grandchild and so infinitely downwards Again in the Ascending Line of Aunts I may not marry my next Aunt so nor my Great-Aunt nor her Aunt nor hers and so upwards in infinitum In the Descending Line of Neices as I cannot marry my first Neice so nor my second nor third nor fourth unto the thousandth Generation because I am properly Vncle to them All how far soever distant in Descent As for marriage with Sisters notwithstanding that the immediate sons of Adam because God created onely one Woman were constrained to marry their Sisters yet ever since by General consent of all Nations it hath been counted Incestuous So then all Marriage with Mothers Daughters Neices being expresly prohibited if Moses will marry within his Kindred he must seek his Wife amongst his Cousins Now here is the Question Where he may first adventure to make his choice If we look to ancient Laws of God and Men we shall find that in any Degree whatsoever marriage was permitted beginning even from the First-Cousins or Cousin-germans For if we look into Moses we shall find no restraint imposed upon Cousin-Germans and how ever some have pleaded that there is a Degree farthen off prohibited and therefore by consequence this must be taken for prohibited this as hereafter I shall make plain in the sequel of my Discourse is but a meer mistake And not onely my self whose insight into matters may peradventure not be great but those whose sight is far quicker then mine could see in the Law of God no prejudice to the marriage of Cousin-Germans For not onely Zanchy Calvin Beza Bucer Melancthon in a word all the Divines of the Reformed Churches of whose judgment and learning we have any opinion do grant that First-Cousins may couple any thing in God's Law notwithstanding I must confess my ignorance I know not any of our Reformed Divines that have written that have thought otherwise Indeed Calvin having first acknowledged that the Law of God doth not impeach it yet gives advice in regard of the scandal the Churches might suffer to abstain from Marriage in that Degree and so accordingly the Churches of Geneva of the Palatinate Misnia Thuringia and Saxony have severally by their several Constitutions prohibited it But this toucheth not the case for I perceive the question is of Second Cousins unto whom those Churches which forbid the First Degree expresly give leave for I find it recorded In tertio aequalis lineae gradu permitti possunt conjugia where that those words in tertio gradu deceive you not and make you to think that not Second but Third Cousins are permitted to marry you must understand that Second Cousins are in the Third degree of Kindred and Third Cousins in the Fourth and so forward by the Account of all Lawyers which that you may see and because in my ensuing Discourse I shall have occasion to refer unto it I will set down some part of the Stem so much as shall concern our purpose By this rude Draught you may see that if you count the Degrees of Kindred betwixt Second Cousins you shall find them six Degrees distant by the Civil Law and in the third Degree of the Canon Law For in the Civil Law the Rule is Quot sunt personae tot sunt Gradus stipite dempto Stipitem we call him that stands at the Top and in whom the Cognation first unites who here is my Grandfather But in respect of the Second Cousins here is Great-grandfather If then you begin with Second Cousins and count about till you come to Second Cousins again leaving out the Grandfather you shall find them to be six persons and so distant six Degrees in Kindred Now two Degrees in the Civil Law make but one Degree in the Canon Law where the Rule is that in Linea aequali quoto gradu distant à stipite toto distant inter se By which you see that Second Cousins being in the Third Degree from the Grandfather they are three Degrees distant from each other I have stood a little upon this for this cause that if any one should perchance put you off with the Authority of the Churches which I have mention'd you might not be deceived through the equivocation which seems to lurk in those words in Tertio Gradu But to return to our question of Cousin Germans as there is nothing in the Law of God which forbids marriage betwixt them so