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-dealing107    “Jam hinc,” i.e., apparently from the time of Christ’s advent.    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.”108    Matt. xix. 5, 6.    1 Cor. vii. 12–14, in sense, not verbatim.  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,109    1 Cor. vii.    Mulieris. 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 woman110    Matt. x. 23; perhaps confused with xxiii. 34.    Femina. who is now in some sense an “alien” and “stranger.”111    Comp. de Idol., c. xxiii., and the note there on “se negant.”    Comp. Eph. ii. 12, 19.  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.”112    i.e., in martyrdom, on the ground of that open confession.    Comp. 1 Cor. vii. 15, 16 and Phil. iii. 8, in Vulg., for the word “lucrifieri.”  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.”113    Non obest.    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.”114    Phil. iii. 13, 14.    1 Cor. vii. 39, not verbatim.  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,”115    Laqueum = βρόχον (1 Cor. vii. 35), “a noose,” “lasso” (“snare,” Eng. ver.). “Laqueo trahuntur inviti” (Bengel).    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 copy116    See note 13.    “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 foregoing117    Detrimenta. 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,118    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”119    Comp. Phil. iii. 12, and c. vii. ad init. by the faith in (the state of) Gentile marriage are not defiled (thereby) for this reason, that, together with themselves, others120    See 1 Cor. vii. 14. also are sanctified:  without doubt, they who have been sanctified before marriage, if they commingle themselves with “strange flesh,”121    Comp. Jude 7, and above, “an alien and stranger,” with the reference there. 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).

CAPUT II.

Igitur cum quaedam istis diebus nuptias suas de Ecclesia tolleret, id est, gentili conjungeretur, idque ab aliis retro factum recordarer, miratus aut ipsarum petulantiam aut consiliariorum praevaricationem, quod nulla scriptura ejus facti licentiam profert. Numquid, 1290B inquam, de illo capitulo sibi blandiuntur primae ad Corinthios (1 Cor., VII, 12-14), ubi scriptum est: Si quis frater infidelem habet uxorem, et illa matrimonio consentit, ne dimittat eam; similiter mulier fidelis, infideli nupta, si consentaneum maritum experitur, ne dimiserit eum; sanctificatur enim infidelis vir a fideli uxore et infidelis uxor a fideli marito; caeterum immundi essent filii vestri. Hanc monitionem fors de fidelibus junctis simpliciter intelligendo putent etiam infidelibus nubere licere 1291A . Qui ita interpretatur, absit ut sciens se circumscribat. Caeterum manifestum est scripturam istam eos fideles designare, qui in matrimonio gentili inventi a Dei gratia fuerint, secundum verba ipsa: Si quis, inquit, fidelis uxorem habet infidelem. Non dicit: «uxorem ducit infidelem.» Ostendit jam in matrimonio agentem mulieris infidelis, mox gratia Dei conversum, perseverare cum uxore debere, scilicet propterea, ne quis fidem consecutus putaret sibi devertendum esse ab aliena jam et extranea quodammodo foemina. Adeo et rationem subjicit, in pace nos vocari a Domino , et posse infidelem a fideli per usum matrimonii lucrifieri. Ipsa etiam clausula hoc ita intelligendum esse confirmat, ut quisque, ait, vocatur a Domino ita perseveret (I Cor. VII, 15-17). Vocantur 1291B autem gentiles, opinor, non fideles. Quod si de fideli ante matrimonium pronuntiasset absolute, permiserat sanctis vulgo nubere; si vero permiserat, nunquam tam diversam atque contrariam permissui suo pronuntiationem subdidisset, dicens: Mulier defuncto viro libera est: cui vult nubat, tantum in Domino. Hic certe nihil retractandum est; nam de quo retractari potuisset, Apostolus cecinit: ne quod ait, cui velit nubat, male uteremur, adjecit, tantum in Domino, id est in nomine Domini, quod est indubitate, christiano. Ille igitur apostolus sanctus, qui viduas et innuptas integritati perseverare mavult, qui nos ad exemplum sui hortatur, nullam aliam formam repetundarum nuptiarum nisi in Domino praescribit, huic soli conditioni continentiae detrimenta 1291C concedit: Tantum, inquit , in Domino. Adjecit pondus legi suae tantum. Quo sono et modo enuntiaveris dictum istud, onerosum est; et jubet et suadet, et praecipit, et hortatur , et rogat et comminatur; 1292A districta , expedita sententia est et ipsa sui brevitate facunda. Sic solet divina vox, ut statim intelligas, statim observes . Quis enim non intelligere possit pericula multa et vulnera fidei in hujusmodi nuptiis, quas prohibet, Apostolum providisse, et primo quidem carnis sanctae in carne gentili inquinamentum praecavisse? Hoc loco dicet aliquis: Quid ergo refert inter eum qui in matrimonio gentilis a Domino allegitur, et olim, id est ante nuptias fidelem, ut non proinde carni suae caveant, cum alter a nuptiis infidelis arceatur, alter in iis perseverare jubeatur? Cur si a gentili inquinamur, non ille disjungitur, quemadmodum iste non obligatur? Respondebo: Si spiritus dederit, ante omnia allegans Dominum magis ratum habere matrimonium non contrahi, quam 1292B omnino disjungi: denique divortium prohibet, nisi stupri caussa, continentiam vero commendat. Habet igitur ille perseverandi necessitatem, hic porro etiam non nubendi potestatem. Tunc si secundum Scripturam qui in matrimonio gentili a fide deprehenduntur, propterea non inquinantur, quia cum ipsis alii quoque sanctificantur: sine dubio isti, qui ante nuptias sanctificati sunt, si extraneae carni commisceantur, sanctificare eam non possunt, in qua non sunt deprehensi. Dei autem gratia illud sanctificat, quod invenit. Ita quod sanctificari non potuit, immundum est; quod immundum est, cum sancto non habet partem, nisi ut de suo inquinet et occidat.