Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/71

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CHAP. III.

Of the End and Reason of Matrimony, and that there is a needful Modesty and Decency requisite even between a Man and his Wife after Marriage, the Breaches of which make the first Branch of Matrimonial Whoredom.

 

HE Ends and Reason of Matrimony are assigned by our Church in the Office, or Introduction to the Office for marrying such Persons as may be lawfully join'd together; if I repeat them, I hope no Reproof can lie against me there; the most modest Virgin submits to be told, that the Reason of joining her self to a Man, is principally for the Procreation of Children; 'tis the Law of Generation given both to the Man and to the Woman at first; 'tis twisted with their very Natures, and placed among the first Principles of Life; and 'tis also the Law of God, given to Man imperatively at the same time that he joined to it his Blessing, Gen. i. 28. And GOD blessed them, and GOD said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the Earth.

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