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INTRODUCTION.


The design of the Puritan's pamphlet is to vindicate the lawfulness of a marriage between a man and his deceased wife's sister. It was prepared and published in opposition to an Act of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, by which, in accordance with their Confession of Faith, and, as they believed, in accordance with the sacred Scriptures, they affirmed the decision of one of their Presbyteries, who had deposed a member for the sin of contracting such a marriage.

It was distributed widely among the members of the Presbyterian Church: and, as the question of the lawfulness of such a marriage had, by appeal, come up before the General Synod of the Reformed Dutch Church, and had, by that Synod, been sent down to all their Classes,