SAN FRANCISCO: PUBLISHED BY MICHAEL FLOOD, 428 KEARNY ST. 1864. MATRIMONY, one of the institutions of God himself from the beginning of the world, for the preservation of the human race, created after his own image and likeness, was to bear the stamp of the divine goodness, which the Supreme Architect had impressed on all his works; "and God saw all the things that he had made, and they were very good." (Gen. c. 15, v. 31); and being designed, as we learn from the great Apostle, to symbolize that admirable union which was to be effected in the fullness of time, by the infinite charity of God, of the divine and human nature in the Person of the Eternal Word, incarnate; and of the Eternal Word incarnate, Jesus Christ, with all the members of the human race, engrafted in Him by the grace of regeneration, namely the Church; it was necessary that it should have also the stamp of unity and perpetuity, grounded on charity and love, superior even to that which man owes to his progenitors: "For this cause, thus speaks the above cited Apostle (Eph. c. 5, vv. 31, 32), shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh: This is a great sacrament; but I speak in Christ and in the Church." Hence Matrimony, from the very beginning of creation, was a sacred sign, although not a 66 a sacrament, a dignity which was reserved for the time of the Christian Dispensation; it was a sacred sign of the most sacred and admirable union of Jesus Christ with his Church, and of the grace which was to be conferred by Christian marriage under the new dispensation. As the ancient sacrifices had no virtue of their own, but through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which they promised and of which they were a figure; they were as shadow of the good things to come" (Heb. c. 10, v. 1), as St. Paul says, so also matrimony amongst our forefathers was a figure of the Christian marriage, and of the grace which was to be annexed to the same by our Lord Jesus Christ, in order that those engaged in the matrimonial state, under the perfect law of the gospel, which is a law of charity, might more fully represent the union of Christ with the Church, and raise up their children in the love and fear of God, and obedience to Jesus Christ. Hence, matrimony can be considered under two different aspects as a contract, and as a sacrament. As a contract established by God himself from the beginning; and as a sacrament of the new law, established by Jesus Christ-these two qualities being inseparable in the Christian marriage, since it is the same matrimonial contract, established by God from the beginning, which our divine Saviour raised to the dignity of a sacrament for all those who have received the Christian baptism. On the knowledge of the matrimonial contract greatly depends the right understanding of the same as a sacrament-the object we have in view by these few lines, for the benefit of our Catholic friends. Although matrimony, as we shall see, is a mutually onerous contract between man and woman; and on this account it might be as well called patrimony as matrimony, which means-the duty both of father and mother (Patris vel Matris munus)—still as it is much more onerous and laborious to the woman, to whom it belongs to conceive, bring forth, and train up her offspring, it is for this reason called, more appropriately, "matrimony." It is likewise called "wedlock" (conjugium), from the conjugal union of man and wife, united, as it were, by a common yoke, and mutually bound to each other. Matrimony can be defined thus: "The conjugal and legitimate union of man and woman, which is to last during life." The word "union" expresses the mutual tie and obligation by which the man and woman are bound to each other; that of "conjugal" indicates the peculiar character of this union, binding their own persons to each other, which distinguishes the matrimonial contract from all others; "legitimate," this word not only means that said union is honest and lawful, but also that it is to be contracted under certain laws; the words "which is to last during life," express the indissolubility of the tie which binds husband and wife. Matrimony is a natural contract established by God from the beginning of creation; hence we read in the first chapter of the book of Genesis (vv. 27, 28), that "God created man to his own image male and female he created them;" and again, "God blessed them, saying, increase and multiply," which words by no means imply a precept for all to marry, as some erroneously interpret them, as we shall see hereafter; but they merely express the object of matrimony, the propagation of the human race, for which purpose he |