us in bed, and after accompanying with our wives, and upon
many other occasions, which it would be too long now to set
down. And this is our doctrine concerning God and his
worship, and is the same that the law appoints for our
practice.

25. But, then, what are our laws about marriage? That law
owns no other mixture of sexes but that which nature hath
appointed, of a man with his wife, and that this be used only
for the procreation of children. But it abhors the mixture of a
male with a male; and if any one do that, death is its
punishment. It commands us also, when we marry, not to
have regard to portion, nor to take a woman by violence, nor
to persuade her deceitfully and knavishly; but to demand her
in marriage of him who hath power to dispose of her, and is
fit to give her away by the nearness of his kindred; for, says
the Scripture, "A woman is inferior to her husband in all
things." (23) Let her, therefore, be obedient to him; not so
that he should abuse her, but that she may acknowledge her
duty to her husband; for God hath given the authority to the
husband. A husband, therefore, is to lie only with his wife
whom he hath married; but to have to do with another man's
wife is a wicked thing, which, if any one ventures upon, death
is inevitably his punishment: no more can he avoid the same
who forces a virgin betrothed to another man, or entices
another man's wife. The law, moreover, enjoins us to bring
up all our offspring, and forbids women to cause abortion of
what is begotten, or to destroy it afterward; and if any woman
appears to have so done, she will be a murderer of her child,
by destroying a living creature, and diminishing human kind;