Page:Unlawfulmarriage00jane.djvu/176

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172
UNLAWFUL MARRIAGE.

position of man and woman, husband and wife, in our day, and their relative position under the Hebrew commonwealth. Because the two sexes stand on an equal footing in the eye of the law and in general usage, it is natural, though not correct, to regard them as having stood on the same ground in respect to Hebrew law and custom." (P. 26, Appendix.)

Is this in point? Had Omicron been called upon to frame an excuse for the conduct of the Jews in violating their law, this might be introduced with some plausibility. But, in debating the question, Whether it is now lawful for a Christian man, living under the light of the new dispensation, to marry his deceased wife's sister, what has it to do with the question? Are we to shut our eyes against the light of Christianity, and placing ourselves under the obscurity of the old dispensation, and viewing ourselves as citizens of "the Hebrew commonwealth," to interpret the law as a civil or judicial law, and thus ascertain our duty? Are we to look at this subject with Jewish, and not with Christian eyes? How unreasonable! The law laid down in the eighteenth chapter of Leviticus, is a law,