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[199]
But, then, what are our laws about marriage? That law owns no other
mixture of sexes but that which nature hath appointed, of a man with his
wife, and that this be used only for the procreation of children. But it
abhors the mixture of a male with a male; and if any one do that, death
is its punishment. It commands us also, when we marry, not to have regard
to portion, nor to take a woman by violence, nor to persuade her deceitfully
and knavishly; but to demand her in marriage of him who hath power to dispose
of her, and is fit to give her away by the nearness of his kindred; for,
says the Scripture, "A woman is inferior to her husband in all things."
1
Let her, therefore, be obedient to him; not so that he should abuse her,
but that she may acknowledge her duty to her husband; for God hath given
the authority to the husband. A husband, therefore, is to lie only with
his wife whom he hath married; but to have to do with another man's wife
is a wicked thing, which, if any one ventures upon, death is inevitably
his punishment: no more can he avoid the same who forces a virgin betrothed
to another man, or entices another man's wife. The law, moreover, enjoins
us to bring up all our offspring, and forbids women to cause abortion of
what is begotten, or to destroy it afterward; and if any woman appears
to have so done, she will be a murderer of her child, by destroying a living
creature, and diminishing human kind; if any one, therefore, proceeds to
such fornication or murder, he cannot be clean. Moreover, the law enjoins,
that after the man and wife have lain together in a regular way, they shall
bathe themselves; for there is a defilement contracted thereby, both in
soul and body, as if they had gone into another country; for indeed the
soul, by being united to the body, is subject to miseries, and is not freed
therefrom again but by death; on which account the law requires this purification
to be entirely performed.
1 This text is no where in our present copies of the Old Testament.
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