law, denotes the mutual plighting of troth between a man and woman to marry each other.

Affidavit, signifies an oath in writing, sworn before some person who is authorized to take the same.

Affinity, among Christians, implies a relation contracted by marriage; in contradistinction to consanguinity, or relation by blood.—Affinity does not found any real kindred; it is no more than a kind of fiction, introduced on account of the close relation between husband and wife. It is even said to cease when the cause of it ceases: hence a woman who is not capable of being a witness for her husband's brother during his lifetime, is allowed for a witness when a widow, by reason the affinity is dissolved. Yet with regard to the contracting marriage, affinity is not dissolved by death, though it be in every thing else.

There are several degrees of affinity, wherein marriage was prohibited by the law of Moses: thus, the son could not marry his mother, nor his father's wife (Lev. xviii. 7. et seq.): the brother could not marry his sister, whether she were so by the father only or by the mother only, and much less if she was his sister both by the same father and mother: the grandfather could not marry his grand-daughter, either by his son or daughter. No one could marry the daughter of his father's wife, nor the sister of his father or mother; nor the uncle his niece; nor the aunt her nephew; nor the nephew the wife of his uncle by the father's side. The father-in-law could not marry his daughter-in-law; nor the brother the wife of his brother, while living; nor even after the death of his brother, if he left children. If he left no children, the surviving brother was to raise up children to his deceased brother, by marrying his widow. It was forbidden to marry the mother and the daughter at one time, or the daughter of the mother's son, or the daughter of her daughter, or two sisters together. It is true the patriarchs before the law married their sisters, as Abraham married Sarah, who was his father's daughter by another mother; and two sisters together, as Jacob married Rachel and Leah; and their own sisters by both father and mother, as Seth and Cain. But these cases are not to be proposed as examples: because in some they were authorized by necessity, in others by custom; and the law as yet was not in being. If some other examples may be found, either before or since the law, the Scripture expressly disapproves of them, as Reuben's incest with Bilhah his father's concubine, and the action of Amnon with his sister Tamar; and that of Herod-Antipas, who married Herodias his sister-in-law, his brother Philip's wife, while her husband was yet living.

Affinity is also used to denote conformity or agreement: Thus we say, the affinity of words, the affinity of languages, the affinity of sounds, &c.