Page:Unlawfulmarriage00jane.djvu/143

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A NATURAL LAW.
139

how we learn to know what in regard to marriage is abhorrent to nature.

At the commencement of the human race, it is certain the voice of nature did not forbid the marriage of brothers and sisters; nor did nature abhor such connexions. They were right, and approved by God; and in the circumstances in which the first children of Adam were placed, brothers and sisters felt no repugnance of nature to marry one another.

But, in subsequent times, when the human race had multiplied, so that wives could be found without the family circle, a different state of feeling was produced, and men regarded the marriage of brothers and sisters as unlawful, and contrary to the Divine will. There is now a repugnance to such connexions. They are felt to be incestuous, and are to be abhorred.

How was this change in the views and feelings of men on this subject produced? Was a change wrought by the Creator's hand, in the nature of man, that gave rise to new feelings and new views? or did the great Lawgiver interpose, by an announcement of His will, that such marriages should no longer be contracted,