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(II Samuel xii. 8.) It is clear, not only from the histories of David and Solomon and Joash (II Chronicles xxiv. 3), and of the Patriarchs Abraham and Jacob, but from the passage referred to in Exodus xxi. 9–11, and Deuteronomy xxi. 15–17. that polygamy was recognized by the law of Moses and by the Jews. When, therefore, a man was forbidden to marry a second sister during the lifetime of the first, it could not be polygamy that was condemned, but individual domestic peace that was to be preserved. The note of the learned Wesleyan, Dr. Adam Clarke, expresses not only the sentiments of Wesley, but the common sense of the passage: "Thou shalt not marry two sisters at the same time, as Jacob did Rachel and Leah; but there is nothing in this law that rendered it illegal to marry a sister-in-law, when her sister was dead. Therefore the the text says, 'Thou shalt not take her in her lifetime, to vex her,' alluding, probably, to the cause of the jealousies which subsisted between Leah and Rachel, and by which the family peace was so much disturbed." Dr. T. Scott, our Church Commentator, interprets the verse as forbidding "the marrying of two sisters together. This conduct in Jacob proved a source of vexation both to Leah and Rachel; who were more jealous of each other than of the handmaidens whom they willingly gave to their husband's" But as all parties are agreed that a man's marrying two sisters at the same time was forbidden by Moses, we need not multiply authorities on the point, though a score of them might be adduced.
But the chief point in the remaining part of the argument turns on the last phrase of the passage, the restriction or limitation, "in her life time." The Churchman's Magazine writer says (page 5) "such a mode of reasoning is in general highly dangerous and uncertain—to conclude that things are sanctioned or approved by law, if the are only not expressly forbidden! For example, I say to a servant whom I have detected in theft, 'As long as you are in my employ never steal again.' May he justly conclude
