Commentary on the Gospels and Acts, Commentary 1 · Chapter 5 · Verse 31 – Verse 32
Verse 31. It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, &c.]
This Moses permitted, as a Law-maker, not as a Prophet, as a civil Magistrate, not as a man of God: meerly for the hardnesse of the mens hearts, and for the relief of the women, who else might have been misused & mischiefed by their unmannerly and unnatural husbands, Mal. 2. 13. Those hard-hearted Jews caused their wives (when they should have been chearfull in Gods service) to cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out: So that he regarded not the offering any more. A number of such Nabals there are now-adaies, that tyrannize over, and trample upon their wives, as if they were not their fellows, butMal. 2. 15. their foot-stools, not their companions and copesmates, but their slaves and vassals: Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter unto them, Col. 3. 16. He saith not (as it might seem he should with respect to the former verse) Rule over them, and shew your authority over those that are bound to submit unto you. But, love them, that their subjection may be free and ingenuous. Live not, as Lamech, like lions in your houses, Quarrelsome, austere, discourteous, violent, with high words and hard blows, such are fitter to live in Bedlam, then in a civil society. The Apostle requires, That all bitternesse be put away, all, and in all persons:foreign P…, …. conjug. how much more in married couples? The Heathens when they sacrificed at their marriage feasts, used to cast the gall of the beast sacrificed out of doors. Vipera virus ob veneratio…em nuptiarum … 7evomit: Et tu duritiem animi, tu feritatem, tu crudelitatem ob unionis rev…rentiam non d…ponis? saith Basil. I confesse it were better be married to a quartan ague, then to a bad wife (so… uxor mala, & non nifi … saith Simonides) for there be two good daies for one bad with the one, not one with the other. But that should have been looked to afore-hand. A hard adventure it is to yoke ones self with any untamed… … p. 199. heifer, that beareth not the yoke of Christ. And as grace, so good nature, a courteous disposition, is a thing to be especially looked at in a wife, which Eleazar Abrahams servant understood, and therefore singled out as a token of a meet mate for his sonne, Let her offer me drink, and my Camels also, saith he. ButGen. …4. 13. what if it prove otherwise, and men by leaping unadvisedly into the marriage estate, have drawn much misery upon themselves?…. Quid si pro conjugio conjurgium contraxerint? Varro answereth,Qui …, … sibi … praesta…: qui tolerat, ipse se meliorē redait. Uxoris vitium aut tollendum aut tolerandum est. A wives faults must be either cured or covered: mended, if we can; made the best of, if we cannot. If the first, she is made better: if the second, we.Idem. ibid.
(Conjugium humanae divina Academia vitae est.)
Ovid de art. imperat: Aurelij vox est, …, …, ….And hence it cometh to passe, that
Quae modo pugnârant, jungant sua rostra columbae:
Quarum blanditias verba que , murmur habet.
As on the other side, where this meeknesse of wisdome is not made use of by married folk, they are together in the house no otherwise then as two poisons in the stomack, as live Eels in the pot, as two spanniels in a chain: their houses are more like kennels of hounds, then families of Christians; or as so many fencingschools, wherein the two sexes seem to have met together, for nothing, but to play their prizes, and to try masteries. Job was not more weary of his boils, then they are of their bed-fellows: cursing their wedding-day as much, as he did his birth-day; andLeo …, …, …. thirsting after a divorce, as he did after death: Which, because it cannot be had, their lives prove like the sojourning of Israel in Marah, where almost nothing could be heard but murmuring and mourning, conjuring and complaining.
Verse 32. Saving for the caeuse of fornication.]
Taken in the… de originibus. largest sense for adultery also. Adulterium est quasi ad alterum, aut alterius locum. This sinne strikes at the very sinew, heart and life of the marriage-knot, and … it. Further, it directly fights against humane society (which the Law mainly respects) and was therefore to be punished with death, as a most notorious theft. Master (lay they) this woman was taken in adulery, in foreign.the very act. In the very theft, saith the originall, to intimate,Joh. … 4. belike, the great … that is in adultery, whiles the childe of a stranger carries away the goods or lands of the family. … may any … from our Saviours words to that woman, ver. 11. (N … ) that … is not to be …; … more then he may, that inheritances are not to be …, … (who was no …) would not divide them, Luk 12. 14. The marriage-bed is honourable, and should be kept inviolable: … and the purity of posterity cannot otherwise … amongst men; which is well … by … to be the reason why adultery is named in the Commandment, under it all … being forbidden; when yet other … are more …, as Sodomy and bestiality.
Causeth her to commit …]
… it is God that both maketh and … the bonds or wedlock; which is therefore called, The Covenant of God, Prov. 2. 17 … are either, 1. …, as when a man tieth himself by vow to God, to … such a sinne, or doe such a duty. 2. …, … man and man, as in our common contracts, bargains and …. Or, 3. Mixt, that are made partly with God, and partly with man. And of this sort is the Marriage-Covenant: the parties … tie themselves first to God, and then to one another. Hence it is that the knot is indissoluble, and cannot be undone or recalled at the pleasure of the parties that make it, because there is a third person ingaged in the businesse, and that is God, to whom the bond is made; and if afterward they break, he will take the forfeiture. This David understood, and therefore upon his adultery, cried out, Against thee, thee only (that is, chiefly) have I …, and done this evil in thy sight, Psal. 51. 4. A sin it is against the father, whose Covenant is broken; against the son, … members are made the members of an harlot, and against the holy Ghost, whose temple is defiled, 1 Cor. 5.