CONCERNING MARRIAGE: How God made them Male and Female in the beginning, and how he joined them together, before they were driven from God into the Earth, and then the manner of Marriage before the Law, and then the Marriage in the Law, and the Marriage amongst the Christians in the Primitive times; And the Marriage of the Apostate Christians, and Jews and Gentiles, where hardness of heart was, there men put a sunder: But where God joins together, let none put a sunder, that is as it was in the beginning before man was driven from God into the Earth, out of the defiled Bed in the Dominion, in the unity with all Saints, so not to be hid from them.  
NOw the reprovable Marriages are such as Herod's, that John Baptist reproved, and such are spoken of in Genesis, when the Sons of God saw the Daughters of men that they were fair, they took unto them Wives of all sorts, which was in the coveting desires that grieved the Spirit of God, so their minds was rebuked that run after all sorts, that grieved the Spirit of God, that went from Gods joining; So this was the rebukable Marriage, Gen. 6.2. So let your Conversation be without covetousness.  
And the manner of isaack's taking a wife, Chap. 24.67. and Chap. 38. People was present when he took a wife, and Rebekahs' friends blessed her and said, be thou Mother of Thousands; and Isaac took her into his Mother's Tent, and there took her to Wife. At the marriage of Jacob, Laban gathered together all the men of the place (and so there was people) Gen. 29.22. So the manner of marrying in the Law, Exod. 21. Thou shalt not take thee a wife that is a whore, or a woman that is put away from her Husband, that was the Law of the Priests, Levit. 21. Ye shall not make Marriages with the Heathen, nor give your Daughters nor Sons to them, nor serve their Gods, but shall follow me saith the Lord, he that joins together, Deut. 7.3. And Joshua said they should not make marriages with the Heathen, lest they were snares to them, and as traps, Joshua 23.12. And the wife of the dead shall not marry a stranger, and the Elders of the City was to speak to him that did marry the woman, the wife of him that was dead, and he and she should come before the Elders, and so you see there were people present, Deut. 25.9. At Boaz and Ruth all the People and Elders that were in the Gates were witnesses, and said, we are witnesses; And there you may see what was the words the man said, and the woman said to them, Ruth 4. The Lord make the woman like Rachel and Leah, which two did build the House of Israel, and the woman blessed the Lord likewise; And David sent his servants to Abigail, and communed with her to take her to wife, and she came with five Damsels, and became his wife, 1 Sam. 25.39.42.  

A Virtuous Woman is a Crown to her Husband.  
HEar is something also which was spoken concerning marrying in the Primitive times, by the Saints and Servants of God, who were passed from death to life, and so from the sin that defiles the Bed; Christ saith, Mat. 19.9. Whosoever shall put away his wife except it be for Fornication, and marrieth another, committeth Adultery, and whosoever marrieth her that is put away committeth Adultery. There was a marriage in Canaan, and Jesus his Mother and his Disciples were called to it; So you may see there were people present as witnesses; things were not done in a corner nor in a hole, John 2. While a woman's Husband lives, if she marries she is called an Adulteress, but when her Husband is dead, she is free from the Law if she marry to another man, Rom. 7.3. And in 1 Cor. 7. The state of Marriage may be seen; Let not the wife depart from the Husband, for the unbelieving Husband is sanctified through the believing wife, and the unbelieving wife through the believing Husband, else were your Children unholy, but now are they clean; for what dost thou know but thou mayest save thy wife, or the wife may save her husband? Therefore you may see there was much in that; and this was spoken further than the Law, which saith in Nehemiah, they might departed if they were joined to the Heathens, Nehe. 13. The Apostle saith, be not unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath Believers with Infidels, 1 Cor. 6. And Husbands love your Wives, and Wives submit to your Husbands as it is fit in the Lord, for no man hates his own flesh, and in 1 Tim. 4.3. The Apostle speaks of them that are gotten up in the Apostasy which did and have forbidden to marry, chap. 5. the Apostle speaks of the state of right marriage, and Heb. 13.4. He saith, Marriage is honourable in all, and the Bed that is undefiled; But whoremongers and adulterers God will judge, and in 1 Pet. 3.1.2.7. Wives be in subjection to your own Husbands, that if any obey not the Word, they also may without the Word, be won by the conversation of the Wives, while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear; likewise Husbands dwell with your Wives according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife as to the weaker Vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered; and husbands love your wives, and wives love your husbands, as Christ loves the Church, and the Church loves Christ.  
And if any friends go together in the Power of the Lord, or find a necessity thereunto to join in marriage, that after the thing hath been made known between themselves, before any thing be concluded, it be declared to Friends who are able, in the Wisdom and Power of God to see and feel into it: & if they see the thing in the light and power to stand, it may be declared to friends in the meeting or Meetings, to which the parties do belong, towards the end thereof as they are moved, by the parties themselves, or some other friends as they are moved, both of the parties being then present, that it may be by friends felt and seen in the light, and enquiry may be made touching any other engagement, to stop scandals, and things kept sweet, so that you take time in it, and you may be clear, and feel it as it was in the beginning, that no hardness of heart get up; But if the parties who are first acquainted with such a marriage, or any friend or friends have any thing against it, and if any thing be resolved otherwise, that then the matter be laid before friends the next General meeting that may be appointed, to consider of things relating to friends, and there to be seen into and ended; If in convenient time after the thing is declared nothing appear against it by the parties who are first acquainted with such a marriage, nor by any Friend or Friends; and after things are all sweet and clear, and Friends have unity with it, they may as they are moved, declare it in the end of the General Meeting to which the parties do belong, before the departure of Friends, or as they are moved, they may declare it in the mid-time of the Market, on the Market-day in the next Market-town, to such parties outward dwelling as they are moved, or they may not as their freedom is by the Parties themselves, or such other as the Parties do see fit as they are moved; then after a convenient time, and the thing be seen, felt, and had unity with, and an Assembly about twelve Friends met together, they may speak their Testimony (that all may take notice who are the persons) as they are moved, how the Lord hath joined them together in Marriage, and then a Certificate by Friends then present may be given of the Day, Month, and Year, that it may be recorded, and as they are moved, they may declare it to the Magistrate, and they will, or they may not; And that those things that cannot be owned by all Friends, & have unity with all in the Power and Spirit of God, may not be recorded, and Unrighteousness, and Filthiness, Fornication, Whoredom, and Adultery may be shut out, that the witness of God in all Friends may in that which is done be answered, and Righteousness, and Purity, and Holiness, that all things may be done in the Power, Life, Truth, and Wisdom of the Lord God, and in Unity, and you preserved in Unity, that you may serve God in a New life, and one heart, and holy Seed, and glorify him in your Souls, Bodies, and Spirit which are his, that your Conversation may be ordered a right, that you may see the Salvation of God, and know the marriage that is sanctified by the Word, that you may be the peculiar people, the holy Royal Seed and Generation; And that nothing be recorded for Money in these things, but freely, a free people and in love serve one another; For the Jews went together after they came out of Egypt, that had been brought out by the Power of God, after hardness of heart got up into them, than Moses gave them a bill of Divorcement to put a sunder, and this was because of the hardness of their hearts. And the Heathen went together like beasts, and the Apostate Christians since the days of the Apostles, have done the same, whose hardness of heart hath showed itself each to other; But in the beginning it was not so before man was driven into the Earth from God; So Friends that be redeemed out of the Earth comes to know it as it was in the beginning again; and how God created the Male & the Female, and joined together which no man can put a sunder (& so are redeemed from the Jews marriages, and the Gentiles marriages, and the Apostate Christians marriages) and whom God joins together let no man put a sunder; But who comes together as it was in the beginning, comes over the Jews, Gentiles, and Apostate Christians, and that is the Marriage that is honourable, and there the Bed is that is undefiled; therefore whom God joins together, that is with his Power which was before the fall which defiles the Bed, and that is it that all should feel the thing in the Power: And you that go together may tell it to them that be in the Power of God, that they may know it before it be in the General Meeting, that Friends may have public notice of it abroad, that all may witness the thing and have unity with it; and if any are moved to publish it in the Market, to judge the Jews and the Gentiles, and Apostate Christians, their marriages which be not in the Power of God, they may, who know it to be as it was in the beginning, the true Marriage; God made them Male and Female, the honourable Marriage, which is the Bed undefiled, which was before the fall, whom God joins together let no man put a sunder; and that you be a Royal seed, a peculiar people zealous of good works, and to know God joining together, which is over and above men's putting a sunder.  
In the beginning God made them Male & Female, not Males & Females, as it was after in the fall where men had many wives, so who knows the Marriage in the Restauration, knows it as it was in the beginning Male and Female, Gods making, and Gods joining, and that is in the dominion an honourable state, and renewed in the Image of God, out of the Whore mongers, Adulterers, and Fornicators state, whom God doth judge, which defiles the Bed, over which God sets his Seed in judgement Seat, which hath the honourable marriage and undefiled Bed.   
7th. Month 1659. G. F.   
THE END.  

LONDON. Printed, for Thomas Simmons, at the Sign of the Bull and Mouth, near Aldersgate, 1661.