Clericus; [Gunn, Alexander]. Reasons in Favour of The Erasure of the Law which Forbids a Man To Marry his Deceased Wife's Sister: in A Second Letter to a Clergyman of the Reformed Dutch Church. New-York: Published by G. and C. Carvill, 108 Broadway. Elliott & Palmer, print. corner Nassau and Pine sts, 1827. [12244]
Self-wraps, untrimmed edges, some old stains in the top margin of the wrappers and on some pages, 9 x 5 3/4 inches, 37 pages with footnotes, a few pencil marks in the margins. Good. Pamphlet.
The Westminster Confession forbade the marriage of a man and his deceased wife's sister as an incest. Chapter 24, section 4, includes "the man may not marry any of his wife's kindred, nearer in blood than he may of his own, nor the woman of her husband's kindred, nearer in blood than of her own."
One Mr. M'Crimmon of the Presbytery of Fayetteville, was suspended from the communion of the church for doing this very thing. Thus began an exchange of letters in print over the outrage.
Our author labors to show that the Confession on this point is in error, and quotes at length the argument of his opponent, the Bible, and other men such as Philip Doddridge, who argue that the Mosaic Law in its entirety is abolished in Christ.
In pencil below "Clericus" on the title page is the name Alexander Gunn, D.D. WorldCat confirms him as the author, referencing the Library of Congress.
Alexander Gunn, D.D. (1785-1829), b. Digby, Nova Scotia. He was "a distinguished member of the Reformed Dutch Church...He graduated from Columbia College in 1805, and prepared for the ministry under Dr. Henry Kollock of Princeton, and Dr. John Rodgers of New York. In 1809 he was licensed by the Presbytery of New York, and the same year took charge of the Church at Bloomingdale...An accomplished gentleman, amiable, prudent, and a peace- maker, he was also noted for his conscientious piety and entire devotion to his work. His talents as a writer and preacher were of a very high order. Imaginative and cultivated, with good taste, ample learning, and fine abilities, he was among the most popular pulpit orators of New York. He wielded a powerful pen as a theological writer, and took a conspicuous part in some of the exciting controversies of his time." - M'Clintock & Strong, The Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature (1880).
