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And first, I insist that these limitations of the conjugal Liberties are placed in the open View of both the Man and his Wife, by the Laws of Nature; so that both of them are furnished with Principles of Reluctance and Aversion, sufficient, if duly listen'd to, and if the Laws of Nature are obeyed, to arm them against any Breaches of those Laws. It is evident in many Cases, too many, had it not pleased God to suffer it to be so, that the Laws of Nature have a much stronger Influence upon us than the Laws of our Maker; and this is especially remarkable in those Cases, where the Laws of Nature seem to give some Latitudes which the Laws of God, and Institutions of his Providence, have thought fit to limit and restrain. For example;
The Laws of Nature dictate the propagation of Kind by the intercourse of Sexes; the Laws of God subsequent to those of Nature, limit and restrain the Particulars of this Propagation, namely, that the Man (by Man there is to be understood Man or Woman) should be allowed but one Woman at a time, that they be bound together by the sacred Bonds of Matrimony indissolvable, after once engaged in, and therefore sacred, and to be inviolably adhered to, and preserved by both Parties.
It is true, that there is a corrupt Principle inbred and indwelling, taking a kind of Possession, too much in Man's Nature, degenerated as it is by the Fall; this corrupt Principle dictates the Propagation of the Kind, that is, as a Law of Nature, but does it without regard to the limitations imposed by Heaven upon the Branches; that is to say, without entring into the Engagements of Matrimony,
