Grammer and to the sence and scope of the Canon which plainly intends to aver that all those degrees prohibited in that table are also forbidden by the laws of God A truth so certain that if either self-love or love of gaine did not betray the eye it is a wonder how it should abide a contradiction It is observable that neither statute nor canon speak of an expresse prohibition in Gods law And the Canon purposely distinguisheth the termes prohibited by Gods law and expressed in the Table as justly supposing there may be as strong a prohibition in a sense implyed as verbally expressed Else if our Lawes as is pretended should give allowance which God forbid to any marriages not expresly in terminis forbidden wee should have strange and uncouth mixtures God by Moses expresly forbad the uncovering the nakedness of Father and Mother hee expressed not the nakednesse of Son and Daughter he expresly names the nakednesse of the Fathers wife he expresseth not the nakednesse of the Mothers husband He expresly names the nakednesse of thy Sister he expresseth not the nakedness of thy Brother he expresseth the nakednesse of thy Sons Daughter he expresseth not the nakednesse of thy Daughters Son He expresseth the nakednesse of thy Fathers wives Daughter he expresseth not the Mothers Husbands Sonne he expresseth the Fathers Sister not the Mothers Brother He expresses the Daughter in law not the Son in law So as by this Rule if it should be carried only by meer verball expressions a woman might marry her Son in law the Nephew might marry his great aunt the neece her grea-uncle the Daughter might marry her Mothers husbands Sonne the Grand-mother might marry her Daughters son the Daughter might marry with her Mothers Husband Were these things to be allowed the world would be all Sodome These things therefore are of necessity included in the law by a clere Analogy no lesse then if they had beene expressed But have there been as hee saith precedents of this march I am sory to heare it surely the more the worse and the more need to redresse it the addition of this if neglected would help to strengthen an ill claim Cozens-german he saith have beene allowed to marry What is that to the present case The difference is as much as betwixt a Nephew and an Uncle The Uncle hath too much of the Parents both right and blood to challenge an equall claim with a Cozen. In the shutting up it pitties me to see your worthy Friend driven to this plea and like a drowning man to snatch at so small a twig Being done he saith it ought not to be undone Alas the Canon is peremptory It is incestuous and unlawfull what plea is there for continuance Speak not therfore of either connivence or dispensation This match is only capable of a late but much wished repentance on the Offenders part and a just diremption on the part of the Judges CASE II. Whether it be lawfull for a Man to marry his wives Brothers widow AMongst all the heads of Case Divinity there is no one that yeeldeth more scruples then this of Marriage whether wee regard the qualification of the Persons or the emergency of actions and events It is the lawfulness of this match that you inquire after not the expedience and I must shape my answer accordingly It hath been the wisdom and care of our godly and prudent Predecessors to ordaine a Table of all the prohibited degrees to be publiquely hang'd up in all the severall Churches of this Nation to which all commers might have recourse for satisfaction This Catalogue you have perused and find no exception of the case specified I know no reason therfore why you may not conclude it not unlawfull The question of the Expedience would require another debate doubt less in all cases of this nature it must needs be yeelded that it were more meet and safe since the world yeilds so large a latitude of choice to look further off a wise and good man will not willingly trespasse against the rules of just expedience and will be as carefull to consider what is fit to be done as what is lawfull but that comes not at this time within your inquiry Whiles therfore I give my opinion for the lawfulness of this Marriage with the Relict of the wives brother I doe no whit clash as you suggest with the judgement of Beza and Master Perkins who professe their dislike of such copulations I shal as readily cry them down for unmeet and inconvenient as those that with too much boldnesse come over neere to the Verge of a sinfull conjunction but for the not unlawfulnesse of this match I did upon the first hearing give my affirmative answer and the more I consider of it I am the more confirmed in that resolution That universal rule mentioned by you as laid down by those two worthy Authors must indure a limitation Cujus non licet inire nuptias ejus nec conjugis licet that there is the same degree and force of relation of a third person in the case of Marriage to the husband and to the wife so as proximity of blood in the one should not be a greater bar then the same proximity of alliance in the other Otherwise many more copulations will fall under censure then common practise will condescend unto and that ground of uxor pars quadam viri The wife is as a part of the husband as it holds not in naturall relation at all so not in all conjugall as might be too easily instanced in divers particulars And if there were not som difference in these relations those second persons which are interessed in the Husband or Wife might not come neer to the next in affinity to them For example my Brother may not marry my Sister therefore by this rule he might not marry my Wives Sister and so it should bee unlawfull for two Brothers to marry two Sisters then which nothing is more ordinary or lesse obnoxious to disallowance That generall rule therefore must be restrained necessarily to the first ranke of affinity if we descend lower it holds not For further explanation our Civilians and Canonists are wont to make two kinds or degrees of Affinity the one primary the other secondary In the first is the affinity between the husband and the Cozens of blood to his wife or è cōverse which indeed is justly held no lesse for a barr of marriage then his own naturall consanguinity for that is an affinity contracted upon interest of blood by virtue of that entire union between Man and Wife wherby they both become one flesh The Secondary affinity is that wherein there is another person added moreover to that first kinde now mentioned the affinity arising only from the interest of an affinity formerly contracted not from consanguinity and this is not so binding as either to hinder a marriage to be contracted or being contracted to dissolve it In this rank are the brothers wife and sisters
done to the seedes of Hypericon or St. Johns wort Adde to this the horrible fumigation to this purpose as it followes I conjure thee O thou Creature of Galbanum Sulphur Assa foetida Aristolochium Hypericon and Rue by the †living God by the †true God c. by Jesus Christ c. that thou be for our defence and that thou be made a perpetuall fumigation exorcised †blessed and consecrated to the safety of us and of all faithfull Christians and that thou be a perpetuall punishment to all malignant spirits and a most vehement and infinite fire unto them more than the fire and brimstone of hell is to the infernall spirits there c. But what doe I trouble you with these dreadfull incantations whereof the allowed bookes of Conjuration are full To these I may adde their application of holy water wherein they place not a little confidence which saith Lessius receives the force from the prayers of the Church by the meanes whereof it comes to passe that it is assisted with divine power which as it were rests upon it and joynes with it to the averting of all the infestations of the Devill But faine would I learne where the Church hath any warrant from God to make any such suit where any overture of promise to have it granted what is their prayer with out faith and what is their faith without a word But I leave these men together with their Crosses and Ceremonies and holy reliques wherein they put great trust in these cases to their better informed thoughts God open their eyes that they may see their errors For us what our demeanour should be in case of the appearance or molestation of evill spirits we cannot desire a better patterne than S. Paul his example is our all-sufficient instruction 2 Cor. 12. 7 8. who when the messenger of Satan was sent to buffet him fell presently to his prayers and instantly besought God thrice that it might depart from him Lo he that could command evill spirits out of the bodily possession of others when it comes to his own turne to be buffeted by them betakes himselfe to his prayers to that God whose grace was sufficient for him Verse 9. To them must we still have our recourse if wee thus resist the Devil he shall flee from us Iam. 4. 7. In the Primitive times those that could command needed not to sue therefore fasting and prayers was an higher as a more laborious work to this purpose in the Disciples than their imperative course of ejection but for us we that have no power to bid must pray Pray not to those ill guests that they would depart not to the blessed Virgin or our Angel-Keeper that they would gard us from them but to the great God of heaven who commands them to their chains This is a sure and everlasting remedy this is the onely certaine way to their foile and our deliverance and victory CASE II. How farre a secret pact with evill spirits doth extend and what actions and events must be referred thereunto IT is a question of exceeding great use and necessity for certainly many thousands of honest and well-minded Christians are in this kinde drawne into the snares of Satan unwarily and unwittingly For the determining of it these two grounds must be laid First that there is a double compact with Satan One direct and open wherein Magicians and Witches upon wofull conditions and direfull ceremonies enter into a mutuall covenant with evill spirits The other secret and indirect where in nothing is seen or heard or known to be agreed upon onely by a close implication that is suggested and yeilded to be done which is invisibly seconded by diabolicall operation The second ground is that whatsoever hath not a cause in nature according to Gods ordinary way must be wrought either by good or evill spirits That it cannot bee supposed that good Angels should bee at the command of ignorant or vicious persons of either sexe to concurre with them in superstitious acts done by meanes altogether in themselves ineffectable and unwarrantable and therefore that the Devill hath an unseene hand in these effects which hee marvailously brings about for the winning of credit with the world and for the obliging and engaging of his owne Clients of this kinde there is too lamentably much variety in common experience Take an handfull if you please out of a full sack let the first be that authentick charme of the Gospell of St. John allowed in the parts of the Romish correspondence wherein the first verses of that Divine Gospell are singled out printed in a small roundell and sold to the credulous ignorants with this fond warrant that whosoever carries it about him shall be free from the dangers of the dayes mis-happes The booke and the key the sive and the sheeres for the discovery of the Thiefe The notching of a stick with the number of the warts which wee would have removed the rubbing of them with raw flesh to be buried in a dunghill that they may rot away insensibly therewith or washing the part in moon-shine for that purpose words and characters of no signification or ordinary forme for the curing of diseases in man or beast more than too many whereof we find in Cornelius Agrippa and Paracelsus Formes of words and figures for the stanching of blood for the pulling out of thornes for easing paine for remedying the biting of a mad dog Amulets made up of Reliques with certaine letters and crosses to make him that weares them invulnerable Whistling for a winde wherewith to winnow as it is done in some ignorant parts of the west The use of an holed flint hanged up on the rack or beds head for the prevention of the night-mare in man or beast The judging by the letters of the names of men or women of their fortunes as they call them according to the serious fopperies of Arcandam The seventh Sonne 's laying on of hands for the healing of diseases The putting of a verse out of the Psalmes into the vessell to keep the wine from sowring The repeating of a verse out of Virgil to preserve a man from drunkennesse all that day following Images astronomically framed under certaine constellations 1 to preserve from severall inconveniences as under the signe of the Lion the figure of a Lion made in gold against melancholick fancies dropsie plague fevers which Lessius might well marvell how Cajetan could offer to defend when all the world knowes how little proportion and correspondence there is betwixt those imaginary signes in Heaven and these reall creatures on Earth Judiciary Astrology as it is commonly practised whether for the casting of nativities prediction of voluntary or civill events or the discovery of things stolne or lost for as the naturall Astrology when it keeps it selfe within its due bounds is lawfull and commendable although not without much uncertainty of issue so that other Calculatory or figure casting Astrology
after dismission of a former upon any other cause except for fornication is no less then adultery thereby enforcing that upon a just dismission for fornication a second marriage cannot be branded with adultery Neither will it serve his turne which he would borrow from St. Augustine that upon this negative of our Saviours we may not look to build an affirmative of our own for though it be granted that he who putting away his wife not for fornication marrieth another sinneth yet it followes not that he who having dismissed his wife for fornication marrieth another sinneth not at all A sin it may be though not an adultery For surely if it be a sinne it must be against a commandement and if against any commandement it must be against the seventh and what is the seventh cōmandement but Thou shalt not commit Adultery Besides the Pharisees question Is it lawfull for a man to put away his wife for every cause was not without a plaine implication of liberty to marry another which our Saviour well knowing gives a full answer as well to what he meant as what hee said which had not been perfectly satisfactory if he had only determined that one part concerning dismission and not the other concerning marriage which clause if two other Evangelists expresse not yet it must bee fetcht necessarily from the third since it is a sure irrefragable rule That all four Evangelists make up one perfect Gospell It is therefore a very tottering and unsure ground which our Rhemists build upon as if the Apostle meant to crosse his Lord and master when hee saith The woman which hath an husband is bound by the Law to her husband so long as hee liveth Rom. 7. 2. therfore only death can dissolve the bond of marriage not divorce not adultery not divorce for adultery For how plainly doe the words carry their answer in themselves The woman saith the Apostle that hath an husband but the woman legally divorced for fornication hath no husband S. Paul speakes of a true wife not a divorced harlot hee had no occasion here to look aside at matter of divorce but takes marriage as in its intire right rather desiring to urge for cleering the case of our obligation to the law that the husband being once dead the wife is free to marry again then to intimate the case of her incapacity to marry till he be dead As for that bond therfore which is so much stood upon if it be taken without all relations to the duties of bed and board it is meerly Chimericall nothing but fantasie There are or should bee Bonds of affectation Bonds of mutual respects and reciprocall duties betwixt man and wife and these must hold firme notwithstanding any locall separation neither time nor place may so much as slacken much lesse loose them but where a just divorce intervenes these bonds are chopt in peeces and no more are then if they had never beene And if all relations cease in death as they doe in whatsoever kind surely divorce being as it is no other then a legall death doth utterly cut off as the hebrew term imports all former obligations and respects betwixt the partys so finaly separated The adulterous wife therfore duly divorced being thus dead in law as to her husband the husband stands now as free as if he had never married so as I know not why the Apostle should not as well speake to him as to any other when he saith Neverthelesse to avoid fornication let every man have his own wife 1 Cor. 7. 2. Neither is it otherwise in the case of a chaste wife after her separation from an adulterous husband Mar. 10. 12. In these rights God makes no difference of sexes both may lawfully claim the same immunities which certainly should they be denied to either must needs draw on very great inconveniences For in how hard a condition should the innocent party be hereupon left Either the husband or wife must bee forced to live with an adultrous consort or be tyed to a perpetuall necessity of either doing that which perhaps they cannot do containing or of suffering that which they ought not to endure burning What remedy now can bee expected of so great a mischief Our Romish doctors propose two Reconciliation or Continence Both good where they may be had Reconciliation in case of a seasonable submisse repentance That which is the Apostles charge in case of desertion holds here also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let her be reconciled the more hainous the wrong is the more commendable is the remission Continence after such separation in case of ability so granted for surely this holy disposition is a gift and therefore is not had where it is not bestowed those that place it in our power derogate from the thanks of the giver yea he that gives it tels us all cannot receive it Mar. 19. 11. hee must not only give it but give us power to take it But where the offending party is obstinately vicious the innocent after all endeavors unable to contain without a supply of marriage the case is remedilesse and we know Gods mercy such as that he leaves no man for matter of resolution utterly perplexed Shortly then I doubt not but I may notwithstanding great authorities to the contrary safely resolve that in the case of divorce it is lawful for the innocent person to marry But for that I finde the Church of England hitherto somwhat tender in the point and this practice where it rarely falls generally held though not sinfull yet of ill report and abnoxious to various censures I should therfore earnestly advise and exhort those whom it may concerne carefully and effectually to apply themselves to the fore-mentioned remedies Reconciliation if it be possible to prevent a divorce Holy endeavors of a continued continence if it may be obtain'd to prevent a second marriage after divorce But if these prevail not I dare not lay a load upon any mans conscience which God hath not burdened I dare not ensnare those whom God will have free CASE IV. Whether the authoritie of a Father may reach so farre as to command or compell the Child to dispose of himself in Marriage where hee shall appoint THe extent of a paternal power as we have partly shewed already hath been wont to be very large reaching in som cases by the Civill law to the life of the Child and by the Jewish law to his liberty so as it might seem much more over-ruling in case of Marriage which also seemes to be intimated by the Apostle in that he supposes and gives a power to the parent either to give or keep his virgin And how apt parents are to make use of this awfull authority in matching their children for their own worldly advantage contrary to their affections and disposition we have too lamentable experience every day neither is it easy to set forth the mischievous effects that have followed upon those compelled
into the world for our Redemption and of the glorious resurrection of that Son of God for our justification we shall take off our selves from all worldly cares or delights I see not why it should not be both lawfull and commendable But to say as it is as the Romanists are guilty of too much scruple in this kind so too many of our own are no lesse faulty in a careless disregard of the holiest occasions of restraint which I would to God it did not too palpably appear in the scandalous carnality of many otherwise inoffensive professors It is a common practise which I have long wisht an oportunity to censure that husbands and wives forget one another too soon Scarce are their consorts fully cold ere they are laying for a second match and too few moneths are enow for the consummation of it Let me be bold to say this haste hath in it too much not immodesty only but inhumanity If we look abroad into the world wee shall find not among Gods peculiar people only but even amongst the very Heathens a meet and not niggardly intermission betwixt the decease of the one husband or wife the marriage of another A whole yeer was found little enough for the wife to mourne for her husband departed and so is still amongst the very Chineses though Atheous Pagans And by the civill Lawes a woman marrying within a yeer after her husbands death is counted in famous It was no short time that Abraham though now very old breathed upon the death of Sara the first of wives mentioned as mourned for before he took Keturah and yet the Hebrew doctors observe that there is a short letter in the midst of that word which signifies his mourning to imply say they that his mourning was but moderate I am sure his sonne Isaac Gen. 24. 67. was not comforted concerning the death of that his good mother till three yeers after her decease At which time he brought his Rebecca into that tent which even still retayned the name of Sarahs whereas with us after the profession of the greatest deerenesse the old posie of the deaths-ring tells what we may trust to Dead and forgotten Who can but blush to read that some Heathens were faine to make lawes that the wife might not be allowed to continue her solemne mourning for her husband abve 10 moneths and to see that our women had need of a law to inforce them so to mourn for the space of one In other Reformed Churches there is a determinate time of months set untill the expiration whereof widowes especially the younger are not suffered to marry it were more then requisite that these loose times were here with us curbed with so seasonable a Constitution but it were yet more happy if a due regard of publique honesty Christian modesty could set bounds to our inordinate desires so moderate our affections that the world may see we are led by a better guide then appetite CASE VIII Whether it bee necessary that marriages should be celebrated by a Minister and whither they may bee valid and lawfull without him IT is no marvell if the Church of Rome which holds matrimonie a Sacrament conferring Grace by the very work wrought require an absolute necessity of the Priests hand in so holy an act but for us who though reverently esteeming that sacred institution yet set it in a key lower it admits of too much question whether we neede to stand upon the terms of a Ministers agency in the performance of that solemn action There are those in these wilde times that have held it sufficiently lawful for the parties having agreed upon the bargain before friends and witnesses to betak themselves to bed others have thought this act of conjoyning the married persons in wedlock a fitter act for the Magistrate to undertake And certainely if there were nothing in marriage but meere nature it could not bee amisse that men and women should upon their mutuall agreement couple themselves together after the manner of brute creatures And if there were nothing in mariage but meer civility the Magistrate might be meet to be imployed in this service But now that we Christians know matrimony to be an holy institution of God him selfe which hee not only ordained but actually celebrated betwixt the first Innocent payre and which being for the propagation of an holy seed requires a speciall benediction how can we in reason think any man meet for this office but the man of God set over us in the Lord to derive the blessings of heaven upon our heads From hence therfore have our wholsom lawes taken a just hint to appropriate this service to a lawfull Minister only so as what ever private contract may bee transacted in corners betwixt the parties affected to each other yet the marriage knot cannot be publiquely quit by any other hand then Gods Ministers And herein certainly wee have just cause to bless the wisdom both of the Church and State which hath so regulated these matrimoniall affairs as that they are not only orderly but safely managed For doubtless were not this provision carefully made the world would bee quite over-run with beastliness and horrible confusion And in this point we may well give the Church of Rome her due acknowledge the wise care of her Lateran and Tridentine Councells which have enacted so strict decrees against clandestine Marriages and have taken so severe a course for the reforming of many foul disorders in these matrimoniall proceedings as may be of good use for the Christian world Had they done the like in other cases their light had not gone out in a snuffe As therfore it is generally both decreed and observed not without excellent reason in all Christian Churches that marriages should be solemnized in the publick Congregation of Gods people so it cannot but be requisite that it should be done by him who is ordained to be the mouth of the Congregation to God the mouth of God to the Congregatton And as under the Law the Priest was the man who must conveigh blessings from God to his people so under the Gospell who can be so apt for this divine office as he that serves at the Evangelicall altar And if all our marriages must be according to the Apostles charge made in the Lord who is so meet to pronounce Gods ratification of our marriages as he who is the profest Herald of the Almighty As it is therefore requisite even according to the Roman Constitutions that hee who is betrusted with the Cure of our soules should besides other witnesses be both present active in and at our domestique contracts of matrimony so by the laws both of our Church and Kingdome it is necessary he should have his hand in the publique celebration of them There may then be firme contracts there cannot be lawfull marriages without Gods Ministers CASE IX Whether there bee any necessity or use of thrice publishing the
true wedlock and therfore justly to be branded with a nullity A second my bee the foedity and unnaturalness of the match when the parties incestuously marry within the first collaterall degree of Brothers and Sisters the very mention whereof even nature it self not depraved abhorres so as I cannot but wonder that the Romane Schoole should bee so much divided in this point whiles Bonaventure Richardus and Durand hold such a marriage even by Divine Lawe a nullity contrarily Aquinas Cajetan Thomas de Argentina and others whom Covarruvias recites defend this to be only an impediment by the Canon law and therfore that it may be in the Popes power to dispence with so foul a matrimony Against whom upon better reason Scotus and Dominicus à Soto prove such marriages by the law of nature to be utterly void and null with whom all ingenuons Christians cannot but willingly concurre in their judgments A third may be the horribleness of a crime committed in the way to a wicked match and that of two sorts the one of murther the other of adultery The former when the wife hath conspired with the adulterer to murder her husband with an intent to marry the murtherer or in the like case the husband to murther the wife The latter when a man living in a known adultry with another mans wife contracts matrimony with the adultresse in the life time of her husband A fourth is the indissoluble knot of mariage with a former still surviving husband or wife the force whereof is such as that it frustrates and voideth any supervening matrimony except in the case specified in the foregoing discourse of Divorce during the naturall life of the consorts Many unhappy and perplexed cases have we met withall in this kinde neither doth it seldome fall out that the husband being confidently reported for dead in the warres or in travell abroad the wife after some yeers stay and diligent inquisition finding the rumor strongly verified by credible testimonies and tendred oathes begins to listen to some earnest suitor and bestowes her self in a second marriage not long after which her only true revived husband returnes and challengeth his right in that his lawfull wife pretending the mis-carriâ—ge of letters and messages sent by him in that forced absence In this case what is to be done The woman hath cast her self upon the danger of a Capitall law except shee have expected the time limited by statute or if she escape one of the husbands is to seek for a wife whom both may not enjoy Doubtless the second marriage is by Ecclesiasticall authority to bee pronounced as it is null which indeed never had any true right to be and the first must be content to swallow its own inconveniences A fifth may be a violent enforcement of the match when a woman is upon fear of pain or death compelled to yeeld her self in marriage and is not perswaded but affrighted into the bonds of wedlock surely this is rather a rape then a matrimony and therefore upon utter want of consent a nullity A sixt may be a preceding irremediable impotency or incapacity of marriage duties whether naturall or advantageous whether by way of perpetuall maleficiation or casualty I say preceding for if any such disability be subsequent to the marriage the nullity is avoided But if the persons find in themselves beforehand such remediless incapability of a marriage estate they shall be highly injurious to each other and shall fouly abuse the ordinance of God in their entring into such a condition for it is apparent that the main ends of marriage are herein utterly frustrate which were by Gods appointment the propagation of mankinde and the remedy of incontinency neither of which being attainable in such a defective estate of body justly is such a match pronounced a nullity But here I cannot but take occasion to commend the modesty of the women of our nation amongst whom there are so rare examples of suits in this kind prosecuted in our Ecclesiasticall Consistories it is not to be doubted but there are many defects of this nature to bee found every where yet scarce one in an age offers to complain and call for redresse so as it seems they are willing to smother all secret deficiencies in a bashfull silence whereas those of other warmer regions impatient of the wrongs of their conjugall disappointments fly out into open contestations and fearelesly seeke for those remedies which the lawes provided in such cases will allow them Certainly the merit of this modest temper is so much the greater by how much more it is concealed from the world and those of either sexe that are content to bite in their hidden grievances of this kinde are worthy of double honour from those Consorts whose injurious infirmities they both have not disclosed and suffer in suppressing ADDITIONALS Certain Cases of doubt besides the formerly published having been proposed to me and received a private solution I have thought fit upon the addresse of a second Edition to adjoyn them to their fellows for the satisfaction of any others whom the same Cases may concern CASE I. Whether a Marriage consummate betwixt the Uncle and Neece bee so utterly unlawfull as to merit a sentence of present separation RESOLUTION WHat prodigious Matches have beene of late made and are still continued upon advantage taken of the unsetlednesse of the times I had rather silently lament then openly proclaim to the world Such as are not capable of any Apology call for our blushing and teares but there are some others which dare stand upon the termes of defence Such is this which you have here propounded on the behalf of your friend whom it seemes a mis-learned Advocate would faine bear up in a course altogether unjustifiable that cause must needs be desperately ill that can find no mercenary abettors His offensive marriage with his Neece is hartned by a sophisticall pleader whose wit and skill is so ill bestowed in this case that I wish his fee might be perpetuall silence but when hee hath made use of his best art to so bad a purpose those colours of defence wherewith hee thinks to daub over so soul a cause will prove but water-colours which shall easily be wash'd off by this present confutation It was lawful he saith before the Leviticall Law thus to Match So were worse Marriages then this Let him tell me that Cain and Enoch and Seth married their owne Sisters as Saturne also did by the report of Diodorus Siculus Necessity made it then not unlawfull It is a just rule of law Those things may not be drawne into precedent which have been yeelded upon meer necessity as we use to say Necessity hath no law so it can make none Afterwards as mankinde grew nature it selfe taught men to keep further aloofe from their owne flesh and still remotenesse of distance enlarged it selfe with time Abraham saith hee married his neece Sarah Gen. 11. 29. if at least Sarah