The Westminster Confession of Faith:
Chapter 24
Chapter 24. Of Marriage and Divorce.
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; Prov
2:17; Mat 19:5-6.
2. Marriage was ordained for the mutual help of husband
and wife;a for the increase of mankind with a legitimate
issue, and of the Church with an holy seed;b and for
preventing of uncleanness.c
a. Gen 2:18. •
b. Mal 2:15. • c. 1 Cor 7:2, 9.
3. It is lawful for all sorts of people to marry who
are able with judgment to give their consent.a Yet it is the
duty of Christians to marry only in the Lord.b 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.c
a. Gen 24:57-58; 1
Cor 7:36-38; Heb 13:4; 1 Tim 4:3. • b. 1 Cor 7:39. • c.
Gen 34:14; Exod 34:16; Deut 7:3-4; 1 Kings 11:4; Neh 13:25-27; Mal
2:11-12; 2 Cor 6:14.
4. Marriage ought not to be within the degrees of
consanguinity or affinity forbidden in the Word;a 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.b 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.c
a. Lev 18
throughout; Amos 2:7; 1 Cor 5:1. • b. Lev 18:24-28; Mark
6:18. • c. Lev 20:19-21.
5. Adultery or fornication, committed after a contract,
being detected before marriage, giveth just occasion to the innocent
party to dissolve that contract.a In the case of adultery
after marriage, it is lawful for the innocent party to sue out a
divorce,b and after the divorce to marry another, as if the
offending party were dead.c
a. Mat 1:18-20. •
b. Mat 5:31-32. • c. Mat 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;a 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.b
a. Mat 19:6, 8-9; 1
Cor 7:15. • b. Deut 24:1-4.
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