A09377:169
Christian economyChristian oeconomie
Christian economy: or, A short survey of the right manner of erecting and ordering a family according to the scriptures. First written in Latin by the author M. W. Perkins, and now set forth in the vulgar tongue, for more common use and benefit, by Tho. Pickering Bachelor of Divinity.Christian oeconomie: or, A short survey of the right manner of erecting and ordering a familie according to the scriptures. First written in Latine by the author M. W. Perkins, and now set forth in the vulgar tongue, for more common vse and benefit, by Tho. Pickering Bachelar of Diuinitie.
London: printed by Felix Kyngston, 1609
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
An accidental mark of a person fit for marriage, is that, which belongeth not to the being, but to the well being, that is, to the holiness and purity of that estate. And of this sort, there be three that are the principal.
An accidentall marke of a person fit for mariage, is that, which belongeth not to the being, but to the well being, that is, to the holines and puritie of that estate. And of this sort, there be three that are the principall.
The first is parity or equality, in regard of Christian religion; For in marriage, there is a special care to be had, that believers be matched with believers, and Christians with Christians; not believers with Infidels, or Christians with Pagans. For the former sort are only and always to be made and kept, and the latter to be avoided, yea inhibited by positive laws and constitutions, the breach whereof in such cases is severely to be punished. The neglect of this point was one principal cause of the destruction of the old world ⟨p. 60⟩by the flood. Gen. 6. 2. The sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair, and they took them wives of all that they liked. Abraham observed it in the marriage of Isaac his son, and for that purpose took an oath of his servant. Gen. 24. 3. I will make thee swear by the Lord God of heaven, and God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son, of the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell. And in imitation of that holy example, Isaac also gives a charge unto Jacob his son, that he should not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan, Gen. 28. 1. Afterward there was an express law of God given by Moses, touching the Gentiles that lived in that land. Exod. 34. 15. Beware that thou make not a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, &c. vers. 16. And take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods; and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods. And the same law was urged by Ezra the Priest in his time.