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as read by their opponents, the case of Herod has a very direct and important bearing on the question, for Mark tells us that John said to Herod, “It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother’s wife.” Now, as Herodias was the niece of her first husband, according to their interpretation of the law of Moses, John, as an upholder of the Levitical law, could not have recognised her as the wife of Philip, for she was not, in their view of the law of Moses, the lawful wife of her uncle. But John did view her as the wife of Philip, and therefore John could not have held their view of Moses’ law.
Let us look for a moment at consanguinity and affinity. We have said that the two are not identical. Affinity is higher, more comprehensive, and diviner than consanguinity. This we may be able to illustrate by a reference to voluntaryism as contrasted with establishments. While establishments are far inferior to voluntaryism, they in a “carnal” state of religion secure a far greater amount of good than voluntaryism does. They prevent the giving with grudging—doling out as if parting with drops of heart-blood; they prevent an empty exchequer in the house of God; they prevent the jealousy, rivalry, and strife of small, struggling congregations contending for existence, and which, instead of cherishing towards each other the spirit of brotherly love, exhibit a spirit more from beneath than from above.
But, in a high state of grace, voluntaryism is by far the lovelier of the two. It acts not by the constraint of external law, but by the impelling power of glowing love. It allows scope for the full expression of adoring gratitude—for enlightened compliance with felt obligation; it affords opportunity for strengthening the graces of the divine life in the soul—of displaying zeal for the glory of God in promoting the highest well-being of fellow-men; it feeds, matures, and beautifies the inner life of the Church.
And so in a worldly, selfish state of society, consanguinity reigns and secures the greatest amount of good, more than affinity can in such a condition of human life. In such a state of society the old proverb will hold true—“ Blood is thicker than water.” And in this we perceive a manifestation of God’s wisdom and goodness. As man descends in the scale of life, he enslaves himself the more to law. This was understood by Moses. He looked abroad on the heathen world, and saw it struggling in vain with the law of its bondage, for by selfishness and idolatry it only sank deeper and deeper into the depths of servitude to self and sin. He felt for Israel, and imposed on it the restraints of a higher law than that of self and sin, that he might retard it in its downward course. But in this he only put on the brake as tight as the mechanism of the descending locomotion could bear, at the same time giving to the Jew a glimpse of a higher and holier state, as he foreshadowed “better things to come.”
In certain states of social life, marriage with the sister of the deceased wife is the necessity of the bereaved father and husband.
