ying 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; if any one, therefore, proceeds to such
fornication or murder, he cannot be clean. Moreover, the law enjoins,
that after the man and wife have lain together in a regular way, they
shall bathe themselves; for there is a defilement contracted thereby,
both in soul and body, as if they had gone into another country; for
indeed the soul, by being united to the body, is subject to miseries,
and is not freed therefrom again but by death; on which account the law
requires this purification to be entirely performed.

26. Nay, indeed, the law does not permit us to make festivals at the
births of our children, and thereby afford occasion of drinking to
excess; but it ordains that the very beginning of our education should
be immediately directed to sobriety. It also commands us to bring those
children up in le