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| Arguments Drawn Even from Heathenish Laws to Discountenance Marriage with Unbelievers. The Happiness of Union Between Partners in the Faith Enlarged on in Conclusion.
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Chapter
VIII.—Arguments Drawn Even from Heathenish Laws to Discountenance
Marriage with Unbelievers. The Happiness of Union Between
Partners in the Faith Enlarged on in Conclusion.
Let us further inquire, as if we were in very deed
inquisitors of divine sentences, whether they be lawfully (thus condemned).
Even among the nations, do not all the strictest lords and most
tenacious of discipline interdict their own slaves from marrying out of
their own house?—in order, of course, that they may not run into
lascivious excess, desert their duties, purvey their lords’ goods
to strangers. Yet, further, have not (the nations) decided that
such women as have, after their lords’489
| 489 Oehler refers us
to Tac., Ann., xii. 53, and the notes on that passage.
(Consult especially Orelli’s edition.) |
formal warning, persisted in intercourse with other men’s slaves,
may be claimed as slaves? Shall earthly disciplines be held more
strict than heavenly prescripts; so that Gentile women, if
united to strangers, lose their liberty; ours conjoin to
themselves the devil’s slaves, and continue in their (former)
position? Forsooth, they will deny that any formal warning has
been given them by the Lord through His own apostle!490
| 490 The translator
inclines to think that Tertullian, desiring to keep up the parallelism
of the last-mentioned case, in which (see note 1) the
slave’s master had to give the “warning,”
means by “domino” here, not “the Lord,”
who on his hypothesis is the woman’s Master, not the
slave’s, but the “lord” of the
“unbeliever,” i.e., the devil: so that the meaning
would be (with a bitter irony, especially if we compare the end of the
last chapter, where “the Evil One” is said to
“procure” these marriages, so far is he from
“condemning” them): “Forsooth, they”
(i.e., the Christian women) “will deny that a formal warning has
been given them by the lord:” (of the unbelievers, i.e.,
the Evil One) “through an apostle of his!” If the
other interpretation be correct, the reference will be to c. ii.
above. |
What am I to fasten on as the cause of this
madness, except the weakness of faith, ever prone to the concupiscences
of worldly491
joys?—which,
indeed, is chiefly found among the wealthier; for the more any is rich,
and inflated with the name of “matron,” the more capacious
house does she require for her burdens, as it were a field wherein
ambition may run its course. To such the churches look
paltry. A rich man is a difficult thing (to find) in the house of
God;492
| 492 Matt. xix. 23, 24; Mark x. 23, 24; Luke
xviii. 24, 25; 1 Cor. i. 26, 27. | and if such an one is (found there),
difficult (is it to find such) unmarried. What, then, are they to
do? Whence but from the devil are they to seek a husband apt for
maintaining their sedan, and their mules, and their hair-curlers of
outlandish stature? A Christian, even although rich, would
perhaps not afford (all) these. Set before yourself, I beg of
you, the examples of Gentiles. Most Gentile women, noble in
extraction and wealthy in property, unite themselves indiscriminately
with the ignoble and the mean, sought out for themselves for luxurious,
or mutilated for licentious, purposes. Some take up with their
own freedmen and slaves, despising public opinion, provided they may
but have (husbands) from whom to fear no impediment to their own
liberty. To a Christian believer it is irksome to wed a believer
inferior to herself in estate, destined as she will be to have her
wealth augmented in the person of a poor husband! For if it is
“the poor,” not the rich, “whose are the kingdoms of
the heavens,”493
| 493 Matt. v. 3; but Tertullian has omitted
“spiritu,” which he inserts in de Pa., c. xi., where
he refers to the same passage. In Luke vi. 20 there is no τῷ
πνεύματι. | the rich will find
more in the poor (than she brings him, or than she would in the
rich). She will be dowered with an ampler dowry from the goods of
him who is rich in God. Let her be on an equality with him on
earth, who in the heavens will perhaps not be so. Is there need
for doubt, and inquiry, and repeated deliberation, whether he whom God
has entrusted with His own property494
is fit for dotal
endowments?495
| 495 Invecta. Comp.
de Pa., c. xiii. ad init. | Whence are we
to find (words) enough fully to tell the happiness of that marriage
which the Church cements, and the oblation confirms, and the
benediction signs and seals; (which) angels carry back the news of (to
heaven), (which) the Father holds for ratified? For even on earth
children496
do not rightly and
lawfully wed without their fathers’ consent. What kind of
yoke is that of two believers, (partakers) of one hope, one
desire,497
| 497 Comp. de Or., c.
v. ad fin.; de Pa., c. ix. ad fin.; ad
Ux., i. c. v. ad init. | one discipline, one and the same
service? Both (are) brethren, both fellow servants, no difference
of spirit or of flesh; nay, (they are) truly “two in one
flesh.”498
| 498 Gen. ii. 24; Matt. xix. 5; Mark x. 8; Eph.
v. 31. | Where the flesh
is one, one is the spirit too. Together they pray, together
prostrate themselves, together perform their fasts; mutually teaching,
mutually exhorting,499
mutually
sustaining. Equally (are they) both (found) in the Church of God;
equally at the banquet of God; equally in straits, in persecutions, in
refreshments. Neither hides (ought) from the other; neither shuns
the other; neither is troublesome to the other. The sick is
visited, the indigent relieved, with freedom. Alms (are given)
without (danger of ensuing) torment; sacrifices (attended) without
scruple; daily diligence (discharged) without impediment: (there
is) no stealthy signing, no trembling greeting, no mute
benediction. Between the two echo psalms and hymns;500
and they mutually challenge each other which
shall better chant to their Lord. Such things when Christ sees
and hears, He joys. To these He sends His own peace.501
Where two (are), there withal (is) He
Himself.502
Where He (is),
there the Evil One is not.
These are the things which that utterance of
the apostle has, beneath its
brevity, left to be understood by us. These things, if need shall
be, suggest to your own mind. By these turn yourself away from
the examples of some. To marry otherwise is, to believers,
not “lawful;” is not “expedient.”503
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