Chapter III.--Remarks on Some of the "Dangers and Wounds" Referred to in the Preceding Chapter.
If these things are so, it is certain that believers contracting marriages with Gentiles are guilty of fornication, [459] and are to be excluded from all communication with the brotherhood, in accordance with the letter of the apostle, who says that "with persons of that kind there is to be no taking of food even." [460] Or shall we "in that day" [461] produce (our) marriage certificates before the Lord's tribunal, and allege that a marriage such as He Himself has forbidden has been duly contracted? What is prohibited (in the passage just referred to) is not "adultery;" it is not "fornication." The admission of a strange man (to your couch) less violates "the temple of God," [462] less commingles "the members of Christ" with the members of an adulteress. [463] So far as I know, "we are not our own, but bought with a price;" [464] and what kind of price? The blood of God. [465] In hurting this flesh of ours, therefore, we hurt Him directly. [466] What did that man mean who said that "to wed a stranger' was indeed a sin, but a very small one?" whereas in other cases (setting aside the injury done to the flesh which pertains to the Lord) every voluntary sin against the Lord is great. For, in as far as there was a power of avoiding it, in so far is it burdened with the charge of contumacy.
Let us now recount the other dangers or wounds (as I have said) to faith, foreseen by the apostle; most grievous not to the flesh merely, but likewise to the spirit too. For who would doubt that faith undergoes a daily process of obliteration by unbelieving intercourse? "Evil confabulations corrupt good morals;" [467] how much more fellowship of life, and indivisible intimacy! Any and every believing woman must of necessity obey God. And how can she serve two lords [468] --the Lord, and her husband--a Gentile to boot? For in obeying a Gentile she will carry out Gentile practices,--personal attractiveness, dressing of the head, worldly [469] elegancies, baser blandishments, the very secrets even of matrimony tainted: not, as among the saints, where the duties of the sex are discharged with honour (shown) to the very necessity (which makes them incumbent), with modesty and temperance, as beneath the eyes of God.
[459] Comp. de Pa., c. xii. (mid.), and the note there.
[460] Comp. 1 Cor. v. 11.
[461] The translator has ventured to read "die illo" here, instead of Oehler's "de illo."
[462] 1 Cor. iii. 16, comp. vi. 19.
[463] 1 Cor. vi. 15.
[464] 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20.
[465] See the last reference, and Acts xx. 28, where the mss. vary between Theou and Kuriou.
[466] De proximo. Comp. de Pa., cc. v. and vii. "Deo de proximo amicus;" "de proximo in Deum peccat."
[467] Comp. b. i. c. viii. sub. fin., where Tertullian quotes the same passage, but renders it somewhat differently.
[468] Comp. Matt. vi. 24; Luke xvi. 13.
[469] Sæculares.
Chapter IV.--Of the Hindrances Which an Unbelieving Husband Puts in His Wife's Way.
But let her see to (the question) how she discharges her duties to her husband. To the Lord, at all events, she is unable to give satisfaction according to the requirements of discipline; having at her side a servant of the devil, his lord's agent for hindering the pursuits and duties of believers: so that if a station [470] is to be kept, the husband at daybreak makes an appointment with his wife to meet him at the baths; if there are fasts to be observed, the husband that same day holds a convivial banquet; if a charitable expedition has to be made, never is family business more urgent. For who would suffer his wife, for the sake of visiting the brethren, to go round from street to street to other men's, and indeed to all the poorer, cottages? Who will willingly bear her being taken from his side by nocturnal convocations, if need so be? Who, finally, will without anxiety endure her absence all the night long at the paschal solemnities? Who will, without some suspicion of his own, dismiss her to attend that Lord's Supper which they defame? Who will suffer her to creep into prison to kiss a martyr's bonds? nay, truly, to meet any one of the brethren to exchange the kiss? to offer water for the saints' feet? [471] to snatch (somewhat for them) from her food, from her cup? to yearn (after them)? to have (them) in her mind? If a pilgrim brother arrive, what hospitality for him in an alien home? If bounty is to be distributed to any, the granaries, the storehouses, are foreclosed.
[470] For the meaning of "statio," see de Or., c. xix.
[471] 1 Tim. v. 10.