the Levitical statutes as determining the limits of marriages;—2. That he believed them to be binding on all men;—and 3. That he asserts they were so regarded by the Primitive Christians.
Grotius says, "The next question is about all the degrees of affinity, and the degrees of consanguinity in the collateral line; those especially which are particularly mentioned in the xviiith of Leviticus. For granting that those prohibitions were not derived from the mere law of nature, yet do they plainly appear to have their sanction from an express order of the Divine Will: nor is this such an order as obliges the Jews only, but all mankind; as seems to be very fairly collected from those words of God to Moses, "Defile not yourselves in any of these things; for in all these the nations are defiled, which I cast out before you." Again, "Ye shall not commit any of these abominations: neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth with you: for all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled."[1]
- ↑ De Jure Belli ac Pacis, lib. ii. chap. 5. sect. 13. J. Barbeyrae's Trans.
