would the love then blaze forth! The faults are there, but they are not
imprinted. The prickles, the acrid rind, the bitterness or sourness, are
transformed into the ripe fruit, and the foreknowledge of this gives the
name and virtue of the ripe fruit to the fruit yet green on the bough.


Ib. p. 447.

The causers and founders of matrimony are chiefly God's commandments,
&c. It is a state instituted by God himself, visited by Christ in
person, and presented with a glorious present; for God said, 'It is
not good that the man should be alone': therefore the wife should be a
help to the husband, to the end that human generations may be
increased, and children nurtured to God's honour, and to the profit of
people and countries; also to keep our bodies in sanctification.

(Add) and in mutual reverence, our spirits in a state of love and
tenderness; and our imaginations pure and tranquil.

In a word, matrimony not only preserveth human generations so that the
same remain continually, but it preserveth the generations human.


Ib. p. 450.

In the synod at Leipzig the lawyers concluded that secret contractors
should be punished with banishment and be disinherited. Whereupon
(said Luther) I sent them word that I would not allow thereof, it were
too gross a proceeding, &c. But nevertheless I hold it fitting, that
those which in such sort do secretly contract themselves, ought