Marriage

Of the honor of marriage in regard of the first institution thereof. Great reason there is why marriage should with such honor be solemnized. For it is a most honorable thing. Honorable in the institution, ends, privileges, and mystery thereof. No ordinance was more honorable in the first institution thereof, as is evident by the Author thereof, the Place where it was instituted, the Time when it was instituted, the Persons who were first married, and the Manner of joining them together. 1. The Author and first Institutor of marriage was the Lord God (Gen 2:18,21,22). Could there have been a greater, or any way a more excellent Author? 2. The Place was Paradise; the most fair, glorious, pleasant, honorable, commodious, and every way most excellent place that ever was in this world. Place, though it be but a circumstance, adds much to the honor of a thing. Solemn ordinances are made in honorable places. Thus with us marriages are solemnized in Churches, not in private houses. 3. The Time was the most pure and perfect time that ever was in the world, when no sin or pollution of man had stained it, even the time of man's innocency. Purity adds much to the honor of a thing. 4. The Persons were the most honorable that ever were, even the first father and mother of all mankind, they who had an absolute power and dominion over all creatures, and too whom all were subject. None but they ever had a true monarchy over the whole world. 5. The Manner was with as great deliberation as ever was used in instituting any ordinance. For first the three glorious persons in the Trinity do meet to advise about it. For The Lord God said, (Gen 2:18) and to whom should he speak? not to any created power, but to him that was begotten of himself, that Wonderful, Counselor, etc. In this consultation this ordinance is found to be very needful: [It is not good for man to be alone] thereupon a determination is set down, to make a help meet for man. For the better effecting hereof the Lord proceeds thereto very deliberately, by sundry steps, and degrees. 1. All creatures that lived on the earth, or breathed in the air, are brought before man, to see if a help meet for him might be found among them. 2. Every of them being thoroughly viewed, and found unfit, another creature is made and that out of man's substance and side, and after his image. 3. This excellent creature thus made is by the maker thereof presented to man, to see how he would like it. 4. Man manifesting a good liking to her, she is given to him to be his wife. 5. The inviolable law of the near and firm union of man and wife together is enacted. Let all the forenamed branches concerning the first institution of marriage expressly recorded by the Holy Ghost be well weighed, and we shall easily see that there is no ordinance now in force among the sons of men so honorable in the institution thereof, as this.William Gouge