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| Marriage Lawful, But Not Polygamy.
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Chapter II.—Marriage Lawful, But Not Polygamy.
We do not indeed forbid the union of man and
woman, blest by God as the seminary of the human race, and devised for
the replenishment of the earth351
and the furnishing of
the world,352
and therefore
permitted, yet singly. For Adam was the one husband of Eve, and
Eve his one wife, one woman, one rib.353
We
grant,354
that among our ancestors, and the patriarchs
themselves, it was lawful355
| 355 “Fas,”
strictly divine law, opp. to “jus,” human
law; thus “lawful,” as opp. to
“legal.” | not only to marry,
but even to multiply wives.356
| 356 Plurifariam matrimoniis
uti. The neut. pl. “matrimonia” is sometimes
used for “wives.” Comp. c. v. ad fin.
and de Pæn., c. xii. ad fin. | There were
concubines, too, (in those days.) But although the Church did
come in figuratively in the synagogue, yet (to interpret simply) it was
necessary to institute (certain things) which should afterward deserve
to be either lopped off or modified. For the Law was (in due
time) to supervene. (Nor was that enough:) for it was meet
that causes for making up the deficiencies of the Law should have
forerun (Him who was to supply those deficiencies). And so to the
Law presently had to succeed the Word357
| 357 Sermo, i.e., probably
the personal Word. Comp. de Or., c. i. ad init. | of God
introducing the spiritual circumcision.358
| 358 Rom. ii. 28, 29; Phil. iii. 3; Col. ii.
11. |
Therefore, by means of the wide licence of those days, materials for
subsequent emendations were furnished beforehand, of which materials
the Lord by His Gospel, and then the apostle in the last days of the
(Jewish) age,359
| 359 Sæculi.
The meaning here seems clearly to be, as in the text, “the Jewish
age” or dispensation; as in the passages referred
to—1 Cor. x.
11, where it is τὰ τέλη
τῶν αἰώνων; and
Heb. ix. 26, where again it is τῶν
αἰώνων, the Jewish and all
preceding ages being intended. | either cut off the
redundancies or regulated the disorders.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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