Page:Tetrachordon - Milton (1645).djvu/17

1

TETRACHORDON,

Expositions upon the foure chiefe places in Scripture which treat of Mariage, or nullities in Mariage.

---

Gen. 1. 27.

So God created Man in his owne image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28. And God blessed them, and God said unto them be fruitfull, &c.

Gen. 2. 18.

And the Lord God said, It is not good that Man should be alone, I will make him a helpe meet for him.

23. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

24. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his Wife, and they shall be one flesh.

Gen. 1. 27.

So God created Man in his owne image.] To be inform'd aright in the whole History of Mariage, that we may know for certain, not by a forc't yoke, but by an impartial definition, what Mariage is, and what is not Mariage; it will undoubtedly be safest, fairest, and most with our obedience, to enquire, as our Saviours direction is, how it was in the beginning. And that we begin so high as Man created after Gods owne Image, there want not earnest causes. For nothing now adayes is more degenerately forgott'n, then the true dignity of man, almost in every respect, but especially in this prime institution of Matrimony, wherein his native pre-eminence ought most to shine. Although if we consider that just and naturall privileges men neither can rightly seek, nor dare fully claime, unless they be ally'd to inward goodnesse, and stedfast knowledge, and that the want of this quells them to a servile sense of their own