4. There is this further, that
in that very debt which married persons pay one to another, even if
they demand it with somewhat too great intemperance and
incontinence, yet they owe faith alike one to another. Unto which
faith the Apostle allows so great right, as to call it “power,”
saying, “The woman hath not power of her own body, but the man;
again in like manner also the man hath not power of his own body,
but the woman.”1943
But the violation of this
faith is
called
adultery, when either by instigation of one’s own
lust, or
by consent of
lust of another, there is sexual intercourse on
either side with another against the
marriage compact: and thus
faith is broken, which, even in things that are of the body, and
mean, is a great good of the
soul: and therefore it is certain that
it ought to be preferred even to the
health of the body, wherein
even this
life of ours is contained. For, although a little
chaff
in comparison of much
gold is almost nothing; yet
faith, when it is
kept pure in a matter of
chaff, as in
gold, is not therefore less
because it is kept in a lesser matter. But when
faith is employed
to
commit sin, it were
strange that we should have to call it
faith; however of what
kind soever it be, if also the
deed be done
against it, it is the worse done;
save when it is on this account
abandoned, that there may be a return unto true and
lawful faith,
that is, that
sin may be amended, by correction of perverseness of
the will. As if any, being unable alone to
rob a man, should find a
partner in his
iniquity, and make an
agreement with him to do it
together, and to divide the
spoil; and, after the
crime hath been
committed, should take off the whole to himself alone. That other
grieves and complains that
faith hath not been kept with him, but
in his very complaint he ought to consider, that he himself rather
ought to have kept
faith with human society in a good
life,
and not to make
unjust spoil of a man, if he feels with how
great
injustice it hath
failed to be kept with himself in a
fellowship of
sin. Forsooth the former, being faithless in both
instances, must assuredly be judged the more
wicked. But, if he had
been displeased at what they had done
ill, and had been on this
account
unwilling to divide the
spoil with his partner in
crime, in
order that it might be restored to the man, from whom it had been
taken, not even a faithless man would call him faithless. Thus a
woman, if, having broken her
marriage faith, she keep
faith with
her
adulterer, is certainly
evil: but, if not even with her
adulterer, worse. Further, if she
repent her of her
sin, and
returning to
marriage chastity,
renounce all adulterous compacts
and resolutions, I
count it strange if even the adulterer himself
will think her one who breaks faith.
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
