erat hoc, quod vir duos sorores duceret. The vilest deeds which the old Arabs did^ in the time of their ignorance, was this, that a man married two sisters.
The Church of Christ has always viewed incest as an heinous and detestable crime. Under the dispensation of the Old Testament, the enormity of this sin was deeply impressed upon the public mind, and always punished by cutting off, or excommunicating the offenders, and, in some instances, by death.
The law was plain and absolute. No excuse or paliation would be admitted. — When John reproved Herod for taking the wife of his brother Philip, he expressed the prevailing sentiment of the Jews, as well as the direct langutJge ef the law of God. If Philip were then alive, which is not certain, (for Herod had two sons named Philip; one was called Philip Herod, the other Philip Jntipater^) it would have been adultery. But he was guilty of a more * Verissimum est inter Herodis magnl fiiios, qui novem fuere, duos appellatos fume PhiliTip^s : ted horom alteruni, qui natns erat ex Simoni; Pontificis filia, dictum fuiase Fhilippum Eerodern; qiiomodo et iste de quo baec narratur bistori3i Anfipalf.r imi Anilpts Hti odes dicehatuiv; atquP isto fiddimento Philippum hunc rninorrm distinctum ab altero rur.jore, qui Trachouitides fuit Tetrarcha. GnoTius,
