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Chapter XXIV: Of Marriage and Divorce

11/5/2021

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1. Marriage is to be between one man and one woman: neither is it lawful for any man to have more than one wife, nor for any woman to have more than one husband; at the same time.(a)
          (a) Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19:5, 6; Prov. 2:17.

2. Marriage was ordained for the mutual help of husband and wife,(b) for the increase of mankind with a legitimate issue, and of the Church with an holy seed;(c) and for preventing of uncleanness.(d)
          (b) Gen. 2:18.
          (c) Mal. 2:15.
          (d) I Cor. 7:2, 9.

3. It is lawful for all sorts of people to marry, who are able with judgment to give their consent.(e) Yet is it the duty of Christians to marry only in the Lord:(f) and therefore such as profess the true reformed religion should not marry with infidels, papists, or other idolaters: neither should such as are godly be unequally yoked, by marrying with such as are notoriously wicked in their life, or maintain damnable heresies.(g)
          (e) Heb. 13:4; I Tim. 4:3; I Cor. 7:36, 37, 38; Gen. 24:57, 58.
          (f) I Cor. 7:39.
          (g) Gen. 34:14; Exod. 34:16; Deut. 7:3, 4; I Kings 11:4; Neh. 13:25, 26, 27; Mal. 2:11, 12; II Cor. 6:14.

4. Marriage ought not to be within the degrees of consanguinity or affinity forbidden by the Word;(h) nor can such incestuous marriages ever be made lawful by any law of man or consent of parties, so as those persons may live together as man and wife.(i) The man may not marry any of his wife’s kindred nearer in blood than he may of his own; nor the woman of her husband’s kindred nearer in blood than of her own.(k)
          (h) Lev. 18 ch.; I Cor. 5:1; Amos 2:7.
          (i) Mark 6:18; Lev. 18:24, 25, 26, 27, 28.
          (k) Lev. 20:19, 20, 21.

5. Adultery or fornication committed after a contract, being detected before marriage, giveth just occasion to the innocent party to dissolve that contract.(l) In the case of adultery after marriage, it is lawful for the innocent party to sue out a divorce:(m) and, after the divorce, to marry another, as if the offending party were dead.(n)
          (l) Matt. 1:18, 19, 20.
          (m) Matt. 5:31, 32.
          (n) Matt. 19:9; Rom. 7:2, 3.

6. Although the corruption of man be such as is apt to study arguments unduly to put asunder those whom God hath joined together in marriage: yet nothing but adultery, or such wilful desertion as can no way be remedied by the Church or civil magistrate, is cause sufficient of dissolving the bond of marriage:(o) wherein, a public and orderly course of proceeding is to be observed; and the persons concerned in it not left to their own wills and discretion, in their own case.(p)
          (o) Matt. 19:8, 9; I Cor. 7:15; Matt. 19:6.
          (p) Deut. 24:1, 2, 3, 4.
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    For nearly 375 years, the Westminster Confession of Faith has been the standard of Reformed theology around the world. It is right and proper for Reformed Christians to study the Confession our ancestors wrought so many centuries ago.

    Table of Contents

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    Chapter 01
    Chapter 02
    Chapter 03
    Chapter 04
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    Chapter 07
    Chapter 08
    Chapter 09
    Chapter 10
    Chapter 11
    Chapter 12
    Chapter 13
    Chapter 14
    Chapter 15
    Chapter 16
    Chapter 17
    Chapter 18
    Chapter 19
    Chapter 20
    Chapter 21
    Chapter 22
    Chapter 23
    Chapter 24
    Chapter 25
    Chapter 26
    Chapter 27
    Chapter 28
    Chapter 29
    Chapter 30
    Chapter 31
    Chapter 32
    Chapter 33

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