axim to every precise case before specified,
is supposing the Scriptures to be composed with a minute accuracy and
precision, to which, we know with certainty, the sacred penmen did not
think proper to confine themselves. The descent of mankind from one
common father obliged them, in the first generation, to marry in the
nearest degrees of consanguinity. Instances of a like nature occur among
the patriarchs; and the marriage of a brother's widow was, in certain
cases, not only permitted, but even enjoined as a positive precept,
by the Mosaical law. It is in vain to say that this precept was an
exception to the rule, and an exception confined merely to the Jewish
nation. The inference is still just, that such a marriage can contain
no natural or moral turpitude; otherwise God, who is the author of all
purity, would never, in any case, have enjoined it.]

[Footnote 8: NOTE H, p. 191. Bishop Burnet has given us an account of
the number of bulls requisite for Cranmer's installation. By one bull,
directed to the king, he is, upon the royal nomination, made archbishop
of Canterbury. By a second, directed to himself, he is also made
archbishop. By a third, he is absolved from all censures. A fourth is
directed to the suffragans, requiring them to receive and acknowledge
him as archbishop. A fifth to the dean and chapter, to the same purpose.
A sixth to the clergy of Canterbury. A seventh to all the laity in his
see. An eighth to all that held lands of it. By a ninth he was ordered
to be consecrated, taking the oath that was in the pontifical. By a
tenth the pall was sent him. By an eleventh the archbishop of York and
the bishop of London were required to put it on him. These were so
many devices to draw fees to offices which the popes had erected, and
disposed of for money. It may be worth observing, that Cranmer, before
he took the oath to the pope, made a protestation, that he did not
intend thereby to restrain himself from any thing that he was bound
to, either by his duty to God, the king, or the country; and that he
renounced every thing in it that was contrary to any of these. This was
the invention of some casuist, and not very compatible with that
strict sincerity, and that scrupulous conscience, of which Cranmer made
profession. Collier, vol. ii. in Coll No. 22. Burnet, vol. i. p. 128,
129.]

[Footnote 9: NOTE I, p. 203. Here are the terms in which the king's
minister expressed himself to the pope. "An non, inqua