You wives, be subject to your own husbands, and have them in esteem, and serve them with fear and love, as holy Sarah honoured Abraham. For she could not endure to call him by his name, but called him lord, when she said, "My lord is old." [Genesis 18:12, 1 Peter 3:6] In like manner, you husbands, love your own wives as your own members, as partners in life, and fellow-helpers for the procreation of children. For says He, "Rejoice with the wife of your youth. [Proverbs 5:18] Let her conversation be to you as a loving hind, and a pleasant foal; let her alone guide you, and be with you at all times: for if you are every way encompassed with her friendship, you will be happy in her society." Love them therefore as your own members, as your very bodies [Ephesians 5:28]; for so it is written, "The Lord has testified between you and between the wife of your youth; and she is your partner, and another has not made her: and she is the remains of your spirit;" and, "Take heed to your spirit, and do not forsake the wife of your youth."
"Let your fountain be blessed," etc. Maintain such temperance with the woman you married in your youth, even in old age, that by faithful chastity you may rightly gain a blessing in your offspring. "A loving doe, a graceful fawn." Let her always be your beloved spouse, who, like a doe that avoids serpents, shuns harlots and drives them away from her home. Let a son be born from her, and he himself be a very strict lover of chastity.
[AD 380] Apostolic Constitutions on Proverbs 5:18