ing to Pharisees, who held that a man might put away his wife when he pleased, it was enough to say that such divorces as they were accustomed to, did not dissolve the bonds of marriage, and that the parties remained as much man and wife as they were before. Under the Old Testament, divorce on the ground of adultery, was out of the question, because adultery was pun- ished by death. And, therefore, it was only when Christ was laying down the law of his own kingdom, under which the death penalty for adultery was to be abolished, that it was necessary to make any reference to that crime.
It has been earnestly objected to the doctrine that adultery dissolves the marriage bond, that both parties, the guilty as well the innocent become free, and either may contract a new marriage. If this be so, it is said, that all that a man, who wishes to get rid of his wife, has to do, is to commit that offence. He will then be at liberty to marry whom he chooses. To this it might be a sufficient answer to say that the objection bears rather against the wisdom of the law, than against the fact that it is the law ; or in other words, the objection is against the plain meaning of the words of Christ. But it is to be remem- bered, that adultery is a crime in the sight of man as well as in the sight of God, and as such it ought to be punished. Under the old dispensation it was punished by death ; under the new, it may be punished by imprisonment, or by prohibition of any future marriage. Christ leaves the punishment of this, as of other crimes, to be determined by his disciples in their civil capacity. All He does is to teach what its effects are, " in foro conscien- tiae,'" as to the marriage bond.
Grounds of Divorce.
As already stated, marriage is an indissoluble compact between one man and one woman. It cannot be dissolved by any volun- tary act of repudiation on the part of £he contracting parties ; nor by any act of the Church or State. " Those whom God lias joined together, no man can put asunder." The compact may, however, be dissolved, although by no legitimate act of man. It is dissolved by death. It is dissolved by adultery ; and as Protestants teach, by wilful desertion. In other words, there are certain things which from their nature work a dissolu- tion of the marriage bond. All the legitimate authority the state has in the premises is to take cognizance of the fact that the
394 PART m. Ch. XIX. — THE LAW.
marriage is dissolved ; officially to announce it, and to make suit- able provision for the altered relation of the parties.
Under the preceding head it has already been shown that ac- cording to the plain teaching of our Saviour the marriage bond is annulled by the crime of adultery. The reason of this is, that the parties are no longer one, in the mysterious sense in which the Bible declares a man and his wife to be one.1 The Apostle teaches on this subject the same doctrine that Christ had taught. The seventh chapter of his First Epistle to the Corinthians is devoted to the subject of marriage, in reference to which several questions had been proposed to him.
He first lays down the general principle, founded on the Word of God and the nature of man, that it is best that every man should have his own wife and every wife her own husband ; but in view of the " present (or imminent) distress," he advises his readers not to marry. He writes to the Corinthians as a man would write to an army about to enter on a most unequal conflict in an enemy's country, and for a protracted period. He tells them : ' This is no time for you to think of marriage. You have a right to marry. And in general it is best that all men should marry. But in your circumstances marriage can only lead to embarrassment and increase of suffering.' This limitation of his advice not to marry, to men in the circumstances of those to whom the advice is given, is not only stated in so many words in verse 26, but it is the only way in which Paul can be reconciled with himself or with the general teaching of the Bible. It has already been remarked, that no one of the sacred writers speaks in more exalted terms of marriage than this Apostle. He rep- resents it as a most ennobling spiritual union, which raises a man out of himself and makes him live for another ; a union so ele- vated and refining as to render it a fit symbol of the union be- tween Christ and his Church. Marriage, according to this Apos- tle, does for man in the sphere of nature, what union with Christ does for him in the sphere of grace.
Having thus given it as a matter of advice that it was best, under existing circumstances, for Christians not to marry, he
1 That the word nopvtia, as used in Matthew v. 32, and xix. 9, means xadultery, there can be no reasonable doubt. TLopveia is a general term including all unlawful sexual cohabitation, as Theodoret on Romans i. 29 (edit. Halle, 1771), says, xaXet iropveiav ttjv ov Kara, ya^ov >i- vonivr)v avvovaLav ; whereas Moix«'a is the same offence when committed by a married per- son. For the definite use of the word nopveia, see 1 Corinthians v. 1. Tholuck discusses the meaning of this word as used by Matthew, at great length in his Bergpredigt, 3d «»dit. Hamburg, 1845, pp. 225-230.