Instruction to the Newly Married People of the Heathen Congregation

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Instruction

To be used by the Introduction of newly married people in our Heathen Congregations

Marriage is an Ordinance of God, whch. he himself hath instituted and blessed it. The Lord created in the beginning not only the man, but likewise the woman also after his own image.

Then God with his own hand had formed our first parents and joined them together himself, he then likewise gave them his blessing and said unto them: "Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the Earth.["]

After God had finished the Creation and saw every thing He had made and behold it was very good.

Consequently the Union of our first Parents, was a Sanctified situation whch. God himself had instituted and blessed, and they both lived in the enjoyment of these Blessings, so long, as they continued to bear the image of God in divine simplicity and innocence.

But when our first Parents had disobeyed the Commandments of the Lord, and were fallen off from him their depravity appeared with regard to their union also.

Thro’ the fall and disobedience of our first parents, sin came into the World, whch. thoroughly corrupted Soul and Body, hence we are sinful Creatures by Nature, and are not able to live in that innocence in our married state as our first Parents before they fell by sin.

But our Lord Jesus Christ, who was God revealed in the flesh, hath thro’ his holy life, innocent suffering and death, Blood and Atonement purchased grace for us and liberty from sin, so that, when we become Children of God thro’ faith in him, and obtain forgiveness of our Sins, we at the same time are endowed with the Grace and Power in the married state to live a life well pleasing unto God.

When God has thus joined a Man and a Woman together, they are according to the word of God, no more two, but one flesh and therefore no Man shall put them assunder.

The married state is then chiefly an ordinance of God, according to whch. a husband has his own wife, and is to live with her in peace and love, begets Children with her and gives them a rational education. Provided the Parents are Children of God, the following is still to be considered respecting the married state.

1.) The Husband and Wife when they both have faithful and obedient hearts to our Saviour, and suffer themselves to be led, taught and ruled by the holy Spirit who dwells within them; they soon in the beginning after their marriage ought to Unite themselves to be of one mind — and are resolved upon, to live in their marriage state a Godly Life before their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and thro’ his grace to continue in obedience of the truth, and thro’ the Sanctifying merits of Jesus and the influence of the Spirit, to be rendered chaste in Soul and Body, and to present themselves a living Sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

2.) They take it for granted and lay it as a foundation, that if their married state shall be well pleasing unto God, they must live therein according to the Ordinance of God: that is to say; the Husband must love his Wife but he is the Head of the Wife and she submits to be obedient to him.

These we are taught in holy writ: Wives Submit Yourselves unto your own Husbands, for the husband is the head of the wife Eph. 5, 22

Husbands love your Wives, even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it Eph. 5, 22

3.) They have well to Consider that they both have our Saviour above them, & have to love him above all things, and the love which they bear to each other, does not only proceed from Nature but as a particular fruit of the holy Spirit, proceeding from their faith in the Lord.

4.) They will accordingly, conduct themselves in all things with pure love, that is to say; what they as a married pair have to do with each other, which flows first from the love they have to Jesus Christ, and next from the Love, which they bear to each other.

5.) Since they know that they are unable to do this, in their own power and strength, they interceed with prayer and tears the Lord, not only each for him and herself, but joining each other in fervent prayer, that our Saviour may save and guide them, and preserve them from all evil; support and strengthen them in all good things, and to form them so, as to become well pleasing in his Sight.

6.) This do they in particular, when they, according to the Ordinance of God come together as Man and Wife, that it may be done with prayer in the sight of our Saviour — in the peace of God and with his blessing — and agreeable to his holy Ordinance. Because the scripture says: "Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.["]

7.) And while they both know that notwithstanding all their faithfulness to our Saviour, they still remain poor and miserable Beings, and may easily make mistakes; altho’ our Saviour hath given them Grace, to do his will, yet they know, that they frequently do amiss; they therefore daily purify themselves in the blood of the Lamb, and know that it is out of mere mercy, and for Jesus' sake, that they are made Partakers of so great a Salvation.

Such a couple considers their Children as a Gift of God, who hath blessed them with the fruits of their loins; they are concerned to educate their children to the Joy and Glory of Him who shed his blood for them.

The Holy humanity of Jesus in the Womb of the Virgin Mary, and that she carried him under her heart, and hath born and brought him forth into the world like an other child, makes a blessed impression upon them.

As Jesus used to lay his Hands upon little children and prayed over them, so likewise they recommend their children to our dear Lord from their earliest infancy, and leave never off to pray for them.

And because our Sav. exclaims the Woe over those who ofend one of these little ones that believe in him: they accordingly watch carefully, not only that they themselves may neither speak or do any thing by whch. they might corrupt the tender heart of their Children, but likewise endeavor to preserve them, that they may not be led away to others to Sin.

They are concerned to impress upon the heart of their children from their earliest years; what our dear Savr. had done for them, and to make them acquainted with his word, thereby to accustome [sic] them to a childlike and confidential intercourse and conversation with our Saviour.

They keep their Children to Obedience and give them always something to do for their employment, that they may not engage themselves in anything bad, because idleness teacheth evil; and the same time they ought to remember the Words of the Scriptures, whch. saith: You fathers provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord — & again — Fathers provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

But the Children must by all the earnestness of their parent to preserve them from evil and encouraging them to that whch. is good continually be assured of the love of their Parents; that they may not lose their confidence towards them.

Such a true Christian Couple are a pattern of Christ and his Congregation, whch. he himself hath purchased with his own blood. Acts. 20, 28.

As Christ hath loved his Congregation and given himself up for her, so likewise ought the Husbands to love their Wives as their own bodies, whosoever loveth his Wife loveth himself, for no man ever yet, hated his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church.

For as Christ is the Head of the Church and the Saviour of the Body, so likewise is the Husband the Head of the Wife. And as the Church /: that is all true believers/: is subject to Christ, so let the wives be subject to their own Husbands in every thing.

This hitherto fundamental Principle shall, for the better use and regulation be translated into the proper language of the respective Congregations gathered from the heathen, that the same may be made known to the married Choir on their festival and other suitable opportunitys [sic].

That our dear Brn. and Srs. in our Heathen Congregations may thus be instructed according to the Scripture, and have it deeply impressed upon thus receive a deep impression in their heart, of the true and real & blessing Value of a Christian marriage: and Chiefly never to forget how highly God hath favoured them, in that, he has delivered them from sin with his own blood, adopted them for his Children and made them heirs of eternal Life. His therefore the more necessary that the watch over themselves, that they may not be polluted in Soul or Body.

But whoever forgets to purify himself from his Sins, and his heart becomes indifferent, it then can easily happen, that the Custom of his old habitual sins may again lay hold on him, because in general one Sin followeth another. It must therefore continually be repeated to them, how dearly they were bought and redeemed by our Lord Jesus Christ, from the vain Conversation of their forefathers; and that from the time they became believers in Jesus, their bodies were made Temples of the Holy Ghost within them & therefore the[y ] have to glorify God, both in their Bodies and in their Spirits.

What we pray in our Church Litany:

"Let the Marriage be Honourable among all men, and our bed be undefiled; and that all what married People either say or do, may be done in the name of Jesus so that nothing may take place either in Soul or Body, whereby they might grieve the Holy Ghost.

This point ought particularly to be well observed by our Brn. and Srs. from among the Heathen.

They likewise ought never to forget that they are constantly and everywhere, under the Allseeing of the Lord, to whom the most secret of our actions hearts are revealed, this will teach them in their marriage state, to act with due respect and veneration, and to be preserved from lightmindedness and digression.

When our Brn. & Srs. from the heathen thus conduct themselves in the presence of the Lord, we then do not find it adviseable to appoint them either day or time when they are to unite as Husband and Wife, neither do we give them any Rule with regard to this union so long as the wife serves her Child.

But if one or another require an evangelical advise, such an advice may be given them agreeable to circumstances, however without to make it a positive Law, whereby it chiefly ought to be considered what may prove hurtful to them.

Our Laborers among the Heathen have faithfully to warn their subjects against supperstitious and filthy ideas descending from their Nation with regard to Marriage, that they are not secretly kept by & propogated among our Brn. & Srs. from the heathen.

As for instance among the Greenlanders; there existed the Opinion; that it is a shame for a Wife, to have a child the first year after her Marriage; so likewise that she does not like to have her second child before the third year.

Notwithstanding they have intermixed with each other soon enough.

Such like opinions ought justly to be rooted out from among them and our Brn. & Srs. agreeable to the above mentioned advise to be set to rights -- else we may fear that Onans — Gen: 38, 8, 9, 10 may take place among them, whch. are admonitions to the Lord our God. Other similar Supperstitious opinions existing among heathen Nations; ought thro’ the Grace of God to be removed entirely.

May our dear Lord prepare our Brn. & Srs. from the Heathen, that we may have many such Married people, who may be living monuments for an Example to the World, what the Grace of God can do towards the poorest of mankind.