Westminster Confession of 1646: Of Marriage and Divorce

Chapter XXIV. Of Marriage, and Divorce

I. 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, (Gen 2:24; Mat 19:5-6; Pro 2:17).

II. Marriage was ordained for the mutual help of husband and wife, (Gen 2:18); for the increase of mankind with a legitimate issue, and of the Church with an holy seed, (Mal 2:15); and for preventing of uncleanness, (1Co 7:2, 9).

III. It is lawful for all sorts of people to marry, who are able with judgment to give their consent, (Hbr 13:4; 1Ti 4:3; 1Co 7:36-38; Gen 24:57-58). Yet is it the duty of Christians to marry only in the Lord, (1Co 7:39). 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, (Gen 34:14; Exd 34:16; Deu 7:3-4; 1Ki 11:4; Neh 13:25-27; Mal 2:11-12; 2Co 6:14).

IV. Marriage ought not to be within the degrees of consanguinity or affinity forbidden by the Word, (Lev 18; 1Co 5:1; Amo 2:7). 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, (Mar 6:18; Lev 18:24-28). 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, (Lev 20:19-21).

V. Adultery or fornication committed after a contract, being detected before marriage, giveth just occasion to the innocent party to dissolve that contract, (Mat 1:18-20). In the case of adultery after marriage, it is lawful for the innocent party to sue out a divorce, (Mat 5:31-32): and, after the divorce, to marry another, as if the offending party were dead, (Mat 19:9; Rom 7:2-3).

VI. 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, (Mat 19:8-9; 1Co 7:15; Mat 19:6): 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, (Deu 24:1-4).