are his brothers and sisters; and they are still the uncles and aunts of his children. Were it otherwise, were the affinity established by marriage dissolved by the death of a wife, there would exist, on the ground of relationship, no bar to his marriage with her daughter, or with her mother; but the first is expressly forbidden, (Levit. 18:17;) and the second was declared to be wicked and punishable with death. See Levit. 20:14.
If the Jews, by abusing the law of divorce, repudiated their wives frequently and for trifling causes, or, contrary to the original design of marriage, multiplied their wives, their unwise and sinful practices did not change the prohibitions of the Levitical law, nor alter the affinity created by marriage. The perplexities that may have arisen from their folly in interpreting the law in regard to themselves, are not to be brought forward to obscure its obvious meaning in application to Christians, to whom polygamy has been plainly interdicted, and who are permitted to divorce their wives for one cause only. The true question is, What does the law say to us? not What does it say to the ancient Hebrews?
