The gold[n] book of christen matrimony most necessary [and] profitable for all the[m], that…The golde[n] boke of christen matrimonye moost necessary [and] profitable for all the[m], that…

This consent, is that overgyuyng & grant ¹of thy heart, when unto thy chosen spouse thou promisest and givest thy self over in wedlock and in the highest love & fellowship that may be under God. In the love and consenting of harlots there is also an earnest favour of y• one love toward the other, but that is carnal and wicked, therefore doth the devil knit that whorish and unthrifty knot. The consenting into marriage springeth out of gods ordinance and leaneth unto honest. For an ordinate and pure love is it that she beareth toward her chosen, by him her desire to remain with mind body and good (according to the word of the Lord) ⟨p. xvi⟩to serve him, to show her truth plight unto him, to suffer well and woo with hy• yke as it followeth also in the description. That unto their end they dwell still together, and spend their life in the equal partaking of all such things as God sendeth. Therefore is it God himself that knitteth the knot of marriage. And whorish, carnal, and affectionate will, springeth of vicious lust and vanity, & hath not respect to the glory and ordinance of God, but unto beauty or to other like transitory things. And as soon as the same faileth, or if he once mislike her or see a fairer, than faileth the will and marriage also. But the will of lawful marriage (as I said afore) considereth the ordinance of God, regardeth honesty, and continueth in love, even in adversity as well as in prosperity. Herein also differeth the consenting in marriage from natural inclination. A natural thing is it that two parsons which are of like kind and complexion, of like nature and dispocisiō, of like manner and occupying, should bear more will the one toward the other, than they do that have no mutual fellowship herein. Yet is not this will comparable to consenting into marriage.

This consent, is that ouergyuyng & graunt ¹of thy harte, whan vnto thy chosen spouse thou promisest and gyuest thy selfe ouer in wedlocke and in the hyghest loue & felawshyp that maye be vnder God. In the loue and consentynge of harlots there is also an earnest fauoure of y• one loue towarde the other, but that is carnall and wycked, therfore doth the dyuell knyt that whorishe and vnthrifty knot. The consentyng into mariage spryngeth out of gods ordinaunce and leaneth vnto honeste. For an ordinate and pure loue is it that she beareth towarde her chosen, by hym her desyre to remayne withe mynde bodye and good (accordynge to the worde of the Lorde)