Page:The ancient interpretation of Leviticus XVIII. 18 - Marriage with a deceased wife's sister is lawful.djvu/48

 great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the Church." Erom this it is inferred that the union between man and wife is mysterious and real as that between Christ and the Church. Now, granting this, it does not follow hence that the wife's kin become the kin of the husband. The Church united to Christ becomes one body with the Lord, and is incorporated into His family—but her kin does not become His kin. As taken from the human race, she has the whole human race, Jews, Mahommedans, and heathen, as her kin, but by virtue of her union with the Heavenly Bridegroom, these her kin do not become His kin, members of His body, His flesh, and His bones. They still remain aliens from Christ and His family, destitute of those rights and privileges to which their kinswoman, the Church, has been admitted, and are in no wise, on account of her union, reckoned as parts of His body or flesh or family; and, therefore (Ps. xlv. 10), the Bride is commanded "to forget her people and her father's house, that the King may desire her beauty." If we are to reason from this analogy—if by marriage the earthly wife's kindred stand in the same position to the earthly husband as the heavenly wife's relations to the heavenly husband—then the earthly wife's kindred remain, notwithstanding her union with a husband, as remote from kindred with the husband as they were before the marriage, and, hence, no inference can be drawn from the brother's wife to the wife's sister or her relations; and, therefore, had the legislation stopped at Lev. xviii. 14, where the last blood-relation is mentioned, an Israelite might have made an inference with regard to blood-relations' wives, as they had become part of the husband's family—but could have made none with regard to wife's blood-relations. But as the former inference might have been doubtful, and the latter improbable, the Divine Legislator did not leave