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Whosoever will
be married, before all Things, it is necessary that he hold
the conjugal Faith;
Which Faith, except every one do keep whole and undefiled,
without
doubt, he shall be scolded at everlastingly:
And the conjugal Faith is this, that there were two rational
Beings created,
both equal, yet one superior to the other;
And the Inferior shall bear Rule over the Superior.
The Man is superior to the Woman, and the Woman inferior to
the Man,
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Yet both are equal, and the Woman shall govern the Man.
The Woman is commanded to obey the Man, and the Man ought to
obey
the Woman:
And yet they are not two Obedients, but one Obedient;
For there is one Dominion nominal of the Husband, and another
Dominion
real of the Wife:
And yet there are not two Dominions but one
Dominion.
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Moreover, as we are compelled, by the Christian Verity, to
acknowledge
that Wives must submit themselves to their
Husbands, and be
subject to them in all Things;
So we are forbidden, by the conjugal Faith, to say, they shall
be at all
influenced by their Wills, or pay any Regard to
their
Commands.
The Man was not created for the Woman but the Woman for the
Man, yet
the Man shall be the Slave of the Woman, and the
Woman
the Tyrant of the Man:
So that as aforesaid, the Subjection of the Superior to the
Inferior, is to be
believed.
He, therefore, that will be married, must thus think of the
Woman and the
Man.
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Furthermore, it is necessary, to submissive Matrimony, that he
also believe
the infallibility of the Wife;
For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess, that the
Wife is fallible
and infallible,
Perfectly fallible and perfectly infallible of erring Soul,
and an unerring Mind
Subsisting;
Fallible as touching her human Nature, and infallible as
touching her female
Sex;
Who, although be fallible and infallible, yet she is not two
but one Woman,
Who submitted to Lawfull marriage, to acquire unlawful
Dominion, and promised religiously to obey, that she might
rule in Injustice and Folly.
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This is the conjugal Faith, which, except a Man believe
faithfully, he cannot
be married.
Tyranny to the Wife, Slavery to the Husband, and ruin to the
Family.
As it was in the Beginning, is now, and ever shall be, to the
End of the
World. Amen.
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