Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/139

 1. the Laws of the Land forbid it, and make it criminal.

2. both the Man and the Woman bind themselves against it by mutual Agreement, and marry positively upon that Condition,

First, Laws of the Land. Every Law is, as I may say, of our own making: Every Man is bound by the Laws of his Country, he is bound to the Obligation, that is, to obey and subject himself to them; and he consents in the making to submit to the Punishment in Case of a Breach of these Laws: The Parliament is a true Representative of the whole Country; every Subject is present at the making every Law that passes, though not personally, yet he is present representatively in his Representative, and actually makes every Law that passes; he consents to it, and submits, or promises to submit to it; and this makes his Punishment just and rational too, if he breaks the Law, because he first yielded to be governed by it.

the Laws of our Country are of two Kinds in this Case; the Common or Statute Law, and the Divine Law, which we call Conscience; the first makes what we call Constitution, and is founded upon what our Legislature supposed to be the meaning and design of the Laws of ; for the legislative Authority of our Country never are intended to contradict either the Law of Nature or the Divine Law.

then the Laws of our Country enjoin it.