sexual beings’. As a modern writer put it, ‘The first sexual thought in the universe was God’s, not man’s.’ Ryken also says that the Puritans rightly saw sex as a ‘natural or biological appetite’. Harry Stout says, ‘They were not prudes … For husband and wife sex was important, and Puritan families were routinely large. A spouse could be punished by the authorities for withholding sex from his or her partner.’ Surely this is a right and biblical attitude. We have these longings and, although they