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| Of the Apostle's Meaning in 1 Cor. VII. 12-14. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter II.—Of the
Apostle’s Meaning in 1 Cor. VII.
12–14.
Therefore, when in these days a certain woman
removed her marriage from the pale of the Church, and united herself to
a Gentile, and when I remembered that this had in days gone by been
done by others: wondering at either their own waywardness or else
the double-dealing444
444
Prævaricationem. Comp. de Pæn., c. iii.:
“Dissimulator et prævaricator perspicaciæ
suæ (Deus) non est.” | of their advisers, in
that there is no scripture which holds forth a licence of this
deed,—“I wonder,” said I, “whether they flatter
themselves on the ground of that passage of the first (Epistle) to the
Corinthians, where it is written: If any of the brethren has an
unbelieving wife, and she consents to the matrimony, let him not
dismiss her; similarly, let not a believing woman, married to an
unbeliever, if she finds her husband agreeable (to their continued
union), dismiss him: for the unbelieving husband is sanctified by
the believing wife, and the unbelieving wife by the believing husband;
else were your children unclean.”445
It may be that, by understanding generally this monition
regarding married believers, they think that licence is granted
(thereby) to marry even unbelievers. God forbid that he
who thus interprets (the passage) be wittingly ensnaring
himself! But it is manifest that this scripture points to those
believers who may have been found by the grace of God in (the
state of) Gentile matrimony; according to the words themselves:
“If,” it says, “any believer has an
unbelieving wife;” it does not say, “takes an
unbelieving wife.” It shows that it is the duty of one who,
already living in marriage with an unbelieving woman,446
has presently been by the grace of God converted, to continue with his
wife; for this reason, to be sure, in order that no one, after
attaining to faith, should think that he must turn away from a
woman447 who is now in some sense an
“alien” and “stranger.”448
Accordingly he subjoins withal a reason, that “we are called
in peace unto the Lord God;” and that “the
unbeliever may, through the use of matrimony, be gained by the
believer.”449 The very
closing sentence of the period confirms (the supposition) that this is
thus to be understood. “As each,” it says, “is
called by the Lord, so let him persevere.”450
450 1 Cor. vii. 17, inexactly given, like the two preceding
citations. | But it is Gentiles who
“are called,” I take it, not believers. But if
he had been pronouncing absolutely, (in the words under
discussion,) touching the marriage of believers merely, (then) had he
(virtually) given to saints a permission to marry promiscuously.
If, however, he had given such a permission, he would never have
subjoined a declaration so diverse from and contrary to his own
permission, saying: “The woman, when her husband is dead,
is free: let her marry whom she wishes, only in the
Lord.”451 Here, at all
events, there is no need for reconsidering; for what there might
have been reconsideration about, the Spirit has oracularly
declared. For fear we should make an ill use of what he says,
“Let her marry whom she wishes,” he has added, “only
in the Lord,” that is, in the name of the Lord, which is,
undoubtedly, “to a Christian.” That “Holy
Spirit,”452
452 i.e., St. Paul, who, as
inspired by the Holy Spirit, is regarded by Tertullian as merged, so to
speak, in the Spirit. | therefore, who
prefers that widows and unmarried women should persevere in their
integrity, who exhorts us to a copy453
453 “Exemplum,”
a rarer use of the word, but found in Cic. The reference is to
1 Cor. vii. 7. | of himself,
prescribes no other manner of repeating marriage except “in the
Lord:” to this condition alone does he concede the
foregoing454 of continence.
“Only,” he says, “in the Lord:” he has
added to his law a weight—“only.” Utter
that word with what tone and manner you may, it is weighty: it
both bids and advises; both enjoins and exhorts; both asks and
threatens. It is a concise,455
455 Districta (? =dis-stricta, “doubly strict”). | brief sentence;
and by its own very brevity, eloquent. Thus is the divine voice
wont (to speak), that you may instantly understand, instantly
observe. For who but could understand that the apostle foresaw
many dangers and wounds to faith in marriages of this kind, which he
prohibits? and that he took precaution, in the first place, against the
defilement of holy flesh in Gentile flesh? At this point some one
says, “What, then, is the difference between him who is chosen by
the Lord to Himself in (the state of) Gentile marriage, and him who was
of old (that is, before marriage) a believer, that they should not be
equally cautious for their flesh?—whereas the one is kept from
marriage with an unbeliever, the other bidden to continue in it.
Why, if we are defiled by a Gentile, is not the one disjoined, just as
the other is not bound?” I will answer, if the Spirit give
(me ability); alleging, before all (other arguments), that the Lord
holds it more pleasing that matrimony should not be contracted, than
that it should at all be dissolved: in short, divorce He
prohibits, except for the cause of fornication; but continence He
commends. Let the one, therefore, have the necessity of
continuing; the other, further, even the power of not marrying.
Secondly, if, according to the Scripture, they who shall be
“apprehended”456 by the faith in (the
state of) Gentile marriage are not defiled (thereby) for this reason,
that, together with themselves, others457 also
are sanctified: without doubt, they who have been sanctified
before marriage, if they commingle themselves with
“strange flesh,”458 cannot sanctify that
(flesh) in (union with) which they were not
“apprehended.” The grace of God, moreover, sanctifies
that which it finds. Thus, what has not been able to be
sanctified is unclean; what is unclean has no part with the holy,
unless to defile and slay it by its own (nature).E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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