said to be the great mystery of godliness (1 Tim. iii. 16) ; and anything obscure or enigmatical is called a mystery (Rev. xvii. 5) ; thus the mystery of the seven candlesticks is their secret meaning. If, therefore, Paul says that marriage is a great mys- tery in the sense that no one can fully understand what is meant when God says that husband and wife are one, or even in the sense that marriage has a sacred import, that it is a symbol of a great religious truth, this is what all Protestants admit and what is clearly taught in Scripture. Paul had himself just set forth mar- riage as the great analogue of the mystical union of Christ and the Church. (3.) Admitting still further that marriage was prop- erly called " sacramentum," that would prove nothing to the pur- pose. That Latin word had not the sense attached to it by Ro- manists until long after the apostolic age. It has not that sense even in the Vulgate. In 1 Timothy iii. 16, the manifestation of God in the flesh is declared to be the " great mystery of godli- ness," which the Vulgate translates " magnum pietatis sacramen- tum ; *' but Romanists do not hold that the incarnation is a sacra- ment in the ecclesiastical sense of that term. The Latin Church, however, having gradually come to attach to the word the idea of a divinely appointed rite or ceremony, which signifies, contains, and conveys grace, and finding, as the words were understood, marriage declared in Ephesians v. 32 to be a " sacramentum," it came to teach that it was a sacrament in the same sense as baptism and the Lord's Supper.
Romanists then teach that marriage is a sacrament not merely because it is the sign or symbol of the union of Christ and his Church. The Roman Catechism says,1 (1). That no one should doubt " quod scilicet viri, et mulieris conjunctio, cujus Deus auctor est, sanctissimi illius vinculi, quo Christus dominus cum Ecclesia conjungitur, sacramentum, id est, sacrum signum sit." If this were all, no Protestant could object. (2). But Romanists teach that marriage is a sacrament because it not only signifies but also confers grace. The ceremony, including the consent of the par- ties, the benediction, and the intention of the priest, renders the bride and groom holy. It sanctifies them. " Ex opere operato," it transforms mere natural human love into that holy spiritual affection which renders their union a fit emblem of the union of Christ and the Church. On this point the Council of Trent says : 2 " Gratiam, vero, quaB naturalem ilium amorem perficeret,
1 n. viii. qusest. 15; Streitwolf, vol. i. pp. 455, 456.
2 Sess. xxiv. : Ibid. vol. i. p. 89.
400 PART m. Ch. XIX. — the law.
et indissolubilem unitatem confirmaret, conjugesque sanctificaret, ipse Christus, venerabilium sacramentorum institutor, atque per* fector, sua nobis passione promeruit." It would be a great bless- ing if this were so. Facts, however, prove that the sacramental efficacy of matrimony no more so sanctifies husbands and wives as to make their mutual love like the holy love of Christ for his Church, than baptism confers (to those not opposing an obstacle) all the benefits, subjective and objective, of the redemption of Christ. If the sacramentarian theory were true, all Christians would be perfect and Christendom would be paradisiacal.
Marriage between Christians, according to Romanists, is in- dissoluble. Neither adultery nor desertion justifies divorce. Death alone can sever the bond. It is not to be inferred from this, however, that marriage is a more sacred institution among Romanists than among Protestants. Any departure from Scrip- tural rules is sure to work evil. The denial that adultery de- stroys the marriage bond, leads naturally, and in fact has led, not only to render that crime more frequent, but also to un- scriptural devices to remedy the injustice of forcing a husband or wife to maintain the conjugal relation with a guilty partner. One of these devices is the multiplication of the causes of separa- tion " a mensa et thoro " ; and another still more unscriptural, is the multiplying the reasons which render marriage null and void "ab initio." No less than sixteen causes which render mar- riages null are enumerated by Romish theologians.1
The causes which justify separation without divorce, are vows, adultery, apostasy, and crimes. Under the last head they include cruelty and prodigality. If the parties had not been baptized, divorce "a vinculo" was allowed when one of the partners became a Romanist and the other refused to, and also for any serious crime. The whole matter is in the hands of the Church, which claims the right of making and unmaking impedi- ments' to marriage at pleasure. " Si quis dixerit Ecclesiam non potuisse constituere impedimenta, matrimonium dirimentia, vel in iis constituendis errasse ; anathema sit." 2 At one period the
1 These sixteen causes are expressed in the following lines: — "Error, conditio, votum, cognatio, crimen, Cultus disparitas, vis, ordo, ligamen, honestas, Amens, affinis, si clandestinus et impos, Si mulier sit rapta, loco nee reddita tuto ; Si impubes, ni forte potentia suppleat annos : H«ec socianda vetant connubia, facta retractant." — Dens, Theologin Moralis et Dogmatica, De Matrimonio, N. 70, edit Dublin, 1832, vol. vii. p, 194. a Council of Trent, Sess. xxiv. canon 4: Streitwolf, vol. i. p. 90.