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| Weakness of the Pleas Urged in Defence of Second Marriage.
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Chapter XVI.—Weakness
of the Pleas Urged in Defence of Second Marriage.
But I smile when (the plea of) “infirmity of the
flesh” is advanced in opposition (to us: infirmity) which
is (rather) to be called the height of strength. Iteration of
marriage is an affair of strength: to rise again from the ease of
continence to the works of the flesh, is (a thing requiring)
substantial reins. Such “infirmity” is equal, to a third, and a fourth, and even
(perhaps) a seventh marriage; as (being a thing) which increases its
strength as often as its weakness; which will no longer have (the
support of) an apostle’s authority, but of some
Hermogenes—wont to marry more women than he paints. For in
him matter is abundant: whence he presumes that even the soul is
material; and therefore much more (than other men) he has not
the Spirit from God, being no longer even a Psychic, because even his
psychic element is not derived from God’s afflatus! What if
a man allege “indigence,” so as to profess that his flesh
is openly prostituted, and given in marriage for the sake of
maintenance; forgetting that there is to be no careful thought about
food and clothing?684
He has God (to
look to), the Foster-father even of ravens, the Rearer even of
flowers. What if he plead the loneliness of his home? as if one
woman afforded company to a man ever on the eve of flight! He
has, of course, a widow (at hand), whom it will be lawful for him to
take. Not one such wife, but even a plurality, it is permitted to
have. What if a man thinks on posterity, with thoughts like the
eyes of Lot’s wife; so that a man is to make the fact that from
his former marriage he has had no children a reason for repeating
marriage? A Christian, forsooth, will seek heirs, disinherited as
he is from the entire world! He has “brethren;” he
has the Church as his mother. The case is different if men
believe that, at the bar of Christ as well (as of Rome), action is
taken on the principle of the Julian laws; and imagine that the
unmarried and childless cannot receive their portion in full, in
accordance with the testament of God. Let such (as thus think),
then, marry to the very end; that in this confusion of flesh they, like
Sodom and Gomorrah, and the day of the deluge, may be overtaken by the
fated final end of the world. A third saying let them add,
“Let us eat, and drink, and marry, for to-morrow we shall
die;”685
not reflecting that
the “woe” (denounced) “on such as are with child, and
are giving suck,”686
will fall far more
heavily and bitterly in the “universal shaking”687
of the entire world688
than
it did in the devastation of one fraction of Judæa. Let them
accumulate by their iterated marriages fruits right seasonable for the
last times—breasts heaving, and wombs qualmish, and infants
whimpering. Let them prepare for Antichrist (children) upon whom
he may more passionately (than Pharaoh) spend his savagery. He
will lead to them murderous midwives.689
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