Page:Unlawfulmarriage00jane.djvu/184

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180
UNLAWFUL MARRIAGE.

    the same effect as the death of a wife, a man may, after the death of the husband, marry his brother's wife;—his father's brother's wife;—his daughter-in-law;—and his step-mother!—although these marriages are all expressly forbidden by the Divine law. See Levit. 18:8, 14, 15, 16.
    Whither are we going? Of what advantage is the light of Divine revelation to civil Courts, if decisions which draw after them such consequences are to prevail? Has the spirit of the Puritans departed from the Courts of their descendants? "Tell it not in Gath; publish it not in the streets of Askelon!"