Page:Unlawfulmarriage00jane.djvu/183

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UNLAWFUL MARRIAGE.
179

    her husband and her daughter, it must dissolve the affinity between him and all her kindred. What follows?
    1. A man marries a woman; and by his marriage he sustains affinity to all her kindred. Her mother becomes his mother-in-law; her father his father-in-law; her sons and daughters his step-sons and step-daughters; her uncles and aunts his uncles and aunts. She dies; and, according to the doctrine of the Supreme Court, all these relations, which had subsisted till the moment of her last breath, cease. The husband survives, and her blood kindred survive; but the relation which bound them together has vanished with her breath. Her mother and father were his mother and father-in-law, but they are so no longer. Her brothers and sisters were his brothers and sisters-in-law, but they are so no longer. Her sons and daughters were his step-sons and daughters, but they are so no longer. These endearing ties may have subsisted long, and strengthened with revolving years; but by her death, they have all been dissolved in a moment, and all these survivors are sundered apart, as if they had never been united. How revolting to common sense!
    2. Let us see what marriages become lawful by this doctrine.
    A man may marry his deceased wife's sister, her daughter, and her mother; although these marriages are prohibited by the law of God. See Levit. 18:17, 18, and chap. 20:14.
    As the death of a husband must produce on affinity