¶Of wedlock.¶Of wedlocke.

¶Of wedlock.

¶Of wedlocke.

Matrimony or wedlock is a state or a degree ordained of god & an office where in the husband serveth the wife & the wife the husband. It was ordained for a remedy & to increase the world / and for the man to help the woman and the woman the man with all love and kinds / and not to signify any promise ⟨image 91⟩that ever I heard or read of in the scripture.¹ Therefore ought it not to be called a sacrament. It hath a promise that we sin not in that state / if a man receive his wife as a gift given to him of God / and the wife her husband like wise: as all manner meats and drinks have a promise that we sin not / if we use them measurably with thanks giving. If they call matrimony a sacrament because the scripture useth the similitude of matrimony to express the marriage or wedlock that is between us and christ (For as a woman though she be never so pore / yet when she is married / is as rich as her husband: even so we when we repent and believe the promises of God in Christ / though we be never so pore sinners / yet are as rich as Christ / all his merits are ours with all that he hath) If for that cause they call it a sacrament: so will I mustard seed / leaven / a net / keys / bred / water and a thousand other things which Christ and the prophets and all the scripture use / to express the kingdom of heaven and Gods word with all. They praise wedlock with their mouth / and say it is an holy ²thing / as it is verily: but had lever be sanctified with an whore / than to come with in the sanctuary

MAtrimonie or wedlocke is a state or a degree ordined of god & an office where in ye husbāde serveth ye wife & ye wife ye husbōde. It was ordined for a remedy & to encrease the worlde / and for the man to helpe the woman and the woman the mā with all love and kyndes / and not to signifie any promise ⟨image 91⟩