Note 661 — Chapter XII · OBLIGATORY CIVIL MARRIAGE IN THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES (continued 2)
Reading edition
"The greatest good the Land got by this Match, was a general leave to marry Cousin Germans, formerly prohibited by the Crown, and hereafter permitted by the Co[=m]on Law. A door of lawfull liberty, left open by God in Scripture; shut by the Pope for his privat profit; opend again by the King, first, for his own admittance ... and then for the service of such Subjects as would follow him."—Fuller, English Worthies (London, 1840), II, 352; Sewall's Letter-Book, in 6 Mass. Hist. Coll., I, 369. Compare his letter of Feb., 1603/4, in op. cit., 290-93.