doctrine which degrades marriage by making it a less holy state, has its foundation in Manicheeism or Gnosticism. It assumes that evil is essentially connected with matter ; that sin has its seat and source in the body; that holiness is attainable only through asceticism and " neglecting of the body ; " that because the " vita angelica " is a higher form of life than that of men here on earth, therefore marriage is a degradation. The doctrine of the Romish Church on this subject, therefore, is thoroughly anti-Christian. It rests on principles derived from the philoso- phy of the heathen. It presupposes that God is not the author of matter ; and that He did not make man pure, when He in- vested him with a body.
2. Throughout the Old Testament Scriptures marriage is rep- resented as the normal state of man. The command to our first parents before the fall was, " Be fruitful, and multiply, and re- plenish the earth." Without marriage the purpose of God in regard to our world could not be carried out; it is, therefore, contradictory to the Scriptures to assume that marriage is less holy, or less acceptable to God than celibacy. To be unmarried, was regarded under the old dispensation as a calamity and a dis- grace. (Judges xi. 37 ; Ps. lxxviii. 63 ; Is. iv. 1 ; xiii. 12.) The highest earthly destiny of a woman, according to the Old Testa- ment Scriptures, which are the word of God, was not to be a nun, but to be the mistress of a family, and a mother of children. (Gen. xxx. 1 ; Ps. cxiii. 9 ; cxxvii. 3 ; cxxviii. 3, 4 ; Prov. xviii. 22 ; xxxi. 10, 28.)
3. The same high estimate of marriage, characterizes the teach- ings of the New Testament. Marriage is declared to be "honour- able in all." (Heb. xiii. 4.) Paul says, " Let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband." (1 Cor. vii. 2.) In 1 Timothy v. 14, he says : " I will, that the younger women marry." In 1 Timothy iv. 3, "forbidding to marry " is included among the doctrines of devils. As the truth comes from the Holy Spirit, so false doctrines, according to the Apostle's mode of thinking, come from Satan, and his agents, the demons ; they are " the seducing spirits " spoken of in the same verse.1 Our Lord more than once (Matt. xix. 5 ; Mark x. 7)
1 Calvin in his comment on this verse says : " Non multo post Apostoli mortem exorti sunt Encratitae (qui nomen sibi a continentia indiderunt) Taciani ; Catbari ; Montanus cum sua secta, et tandem Manichaei, qui ab esu carnium et conjugio abhorrerent, et tanquam res
profanas damnarent Excipiunt [Papistae] se Encratitis et Manichseis esse dissimiles,
quia non simpliciter usum conjugii et carnium interdicunt, sed certis tantum diebus cogunt ad carnis abstinentiam, solos autem monachos et sacerdotes cum monialibus ad votum cce- Ubatus cogunt. Verum haec .... nimis frivola est excusatio. Nam sanctimoniam nihilo- vol. in. 24
870 PART III. Ch. XIX. — THE LAW
quotes and enforces the original law given in Genesis ii. 24, that a man shall " leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh." The same passage is quoted by the Apostle as containing a great and symbolical truth. (Eph. v. 31.) It is thus taught that the marriage relation is the most intimate and sacred that can exist on earth, to which all other human relations must be sacrificed. We accordingly find that from the beginning, with rare exceptions, patriarchs, proph- ets, apostles, confessors, and martyrs, have been married men. If marriage was not a degradation to them, surely it cannot be to monks and priests.
The strongest proof of the sanctity of the marriage relation in the sight of God, is to be found in the fact that both in the Old and in the New Testaments, it is made the symbol of the relation between God and his people. " Thy Maker is thy husband," are the words of God, and contain a world of truth, of grace, and of love. The departure of the people from God, is illustrated by a reference to a wife forsaking her husband ; while God's forbear- ance, tenderness, and love, are compared to those of a faithful husband to his wife. "As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee." (Is. lxii. 5.) In the New Testament, this reference to the marriage relation, to illus- trate the union between Christ and the Church, is frequent and instructive. The Church is called " the Bride, the Lamb's wife." (Rev. xxi. 9.) And the consummation of the work of salvation is set forth as the marriage, or the marriage-supper of the Lamb. (Rev. xix. 7, 9.) In Ephesians v. 22-33, the union between hus- bands and wives, and the duties thence resulting, are set forth as so analogous to the union between Christ and his Church, that in some cases it is hard to determine to which union the language of the Apostle is to be applied. It is a matter of astonishment, in view of all these facts, that marriage has so extensively and persist- ently been regarded as something degrading, and celibacy or per- petual virginity as a special and peculiar virtue. No more strik- ing evidence of the influence of a false philosophy in perverting the minds of even good men, is afforded in the whole history of the Church. Even the Reformers did not escape altogether from its influence. They often speak of marriage as the less of two evils ; not as in itself a good ; and not as the normal and appro- priate state in which men and women should live, as designed
minus in his rebus locant; deinde falsum et adulterinum Dei cultum instituunt: postrenal conscientias alligant necessitate a qua debebant esse libera." Edit. Berlin, 1831.