making it obligatory.^87 Indeed most clergy of the Church of England were married
though there were a few rare exceptions as witnessed by the words of George Herbert,
“[t[he Country Parson considering that virginity is a higher state than Matrimony, and
that the Ministry requires the best and highest things, is rather unmarried, than
married.”^88
Far more significant was the reversal of the order of the purposes of marriage.
Throughout the history of the Church the primary reason for marriage was
procreation. This order still existed in the Book of Common Prayer (1549): 1.
procreation of children, 2. remedy against sin and to avoid fornication, and 3. mutual
society, help, and comfort.^89 While a cross section of the early Puritan sources reveal
a variation in the order by the time of the Westminster Confession in 1647 they are
standardized that “[m]arriage was ordained for the mutual help of husband and wife,
for the increase of mankind with a legitimate issue, and of the Church with an holy
seed, and for preventing of uncleanness.”^90 Fletcher observes, “[f]ollowing St Paul’s
precepts in 1 Corinthians, there is a notable lack of reference to intercourse being
solely or primarily for the purpose of procreation.”^91 With the clear reversal between
the first and third reasons, mutual companionship became primary. Additionally the
Puritans used the term “due benevolence” to capture this deepening sense of
mutuality within marriage. Gouge asserted, “[d]ue benevolence is one of the most
(^87) Young, “Origin of Newman’s Celibacy,” 16, cf. 18. (^)
(^88) Herbert, Country Parson, ch. 9, 66. Herbert wrote this work in 1632. cf. Taylor,
Holy Living 89 , 82.
James Johnson, “Puritan Thought on Marriage,” 429. cf. Ryken, Worldly Saints,
4790 - 8.
91 Westminster Confession, XXIV:ii. cf. Packer, Quest for Godliness, 261-2.^
Fletcher, ”Protestant Idea of Marriage,” 179. Gouge confirms this principle, “[f]or
though procreation of children Domesticall Duties, 183. be one end of marriage, yet it is not the onely end.”