16. Yet he added, “But such
shall have tribulation of the flesh, but I spare you:”2053
in this
manner exhorting unto
virginity, and continual continence, so as
some little to alarm also from
marriage, with all modesty, not as
from a matter
evil and
unlawful, but as from one burdensome and
troublesome. For it is one thing to incur
dishonor of the
flesh,
and another to have
tribulation of the
flesh: the one is
matter of
crime to do, the other of
labor to
suffer, which for the
most part men refuse not even for the most
honorable duties. But
for the having of
marriage, now at this time, wherein there is no
service done unto
Christ about to come through descent of
flesh by
the begetting of the
family itself, to take upon one to bear that
tribulation of the
flesh, which the
Apostle foretells to such as
shall be
married, would be extremely foolish, did not incontinent
persons
fear, lest, through the
temptation of
Satan, they should
fall into
damnable sins. But whereas he says that he spares them,
who he saith will have
tribulation of the
flesh, there suggests
itself to me in the mean while no sounder interpretation, than that
he was
unwilling to open, and unfold in words, this self-same
tribulation of the
flesh which he fore-
announced to those who
choose
marriage, in suspicions of
jealousy of
married life, in the
begetting and
nurture of
children, in
fears and sorrows of
childlessness. For how very few, after they have bound themselves
with the bonds of marriage, are not drawn and driven to and fro by
these feelings? And this we ought not to exaggerate, lest we spare
not the very persons, who the Apostle thought were to be
spared.
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
