In the exposition of this commandment, the pastor has occasion for extreme caution and prudence, and should treat with great delicacy a subject which requires brevity rather than copiousness of exposition; for there is great reason to apprehend, that by detailing too diffusely the variety of ways in which men depart from the observance of this law, he may perhaps light upon those things, which, instead of extinguishing, serve rather to inflame corrupt passion. As however the precept contains many things which cannot be passed over in silence, the pastor will explain them in their proper order and place.
This commandment, then, resolves itself into two heads; the one expressed, which prohibits adultery; the other implied, which inculcates purity of mind and body. [1] To begin with the prohibitory part of the commandment, adultery is the defilement of the lawful bed, whether it be one's own or another's: if a married man have criminal intercourse with an unmarried woman, he violates the integrity of his marriage bed; and if an unmarried man have intercourse with a married woman, he defiles the sanctity of the marriage bed of another.
But that every species of licentiousness and every violation of chastity are included in this prohibition of adultery, is proved by the concurrent testimonies of St. Augustine and St. Ambrose, [2] and that such is the spirit of the commandment is an inference borne out by the authority of the Old as well as of the New Testament. In the writings of Moses, besides adultery, other sins against chastity are punished: the book of Genesis records the judgment of Judah against his daughter-in-law: [3] " that there should be no harlot amongst the daughters of Israel," is an excellent law of Moses, found in Deuteronomy: [4] "Take heed to keep thyself, my son, from all fornication," [5] is the exhortation of Tobias to his son; and in Ecclesiasticus we read: " Be ashamed of looking upon a harlot." [6] In the Gospel, too, Christ the Lord says: "From the heart came forth adulteries and fornications, which defile a man;" [7] and the Apostle Paul expresses his detestation of this crime frequently, and in the strongest terms: " This," says he, " is the will of God, your sanctification; that you should abstain from fornication:" [8] " Fly fornication:" [9] "Keep not company with fornicators." [10] " Fornication, and all uncleanness and covetousness, let it not so much as be named among you, as becometh saints:"" " Neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor liers
- ↑ Vide 32. q. 4. c. meretrices; item ibid, multa alia capita; item Amb. de Abra ham, c. 4. Hier. contr. Jovin. lib. 1. et2. item in cap. 5. epist ad Gal. ad ilia verba, manifest, autem; item in c. 5. ad Ephes. ad ha?c yerba, viri! diligite; Aug. de bono conjug. c. 16 et lib. 22. contra Faust, cap. 47, 48. item in quasi. Deut. q. 37. ad cap 23. iterum Amb. in serm. de St. Joan, qui sic incip. diximus superiore Dominica est, 65. item. Greg, in moral, lib. 12. c. 21. D. Thorn. 1. 2. q. 100. a. 5. et 2. 2. q. 122. a. 6.
- ↑ Amb. lib. 1. officior. 1. c. 50, in fine. Aug. quaes. 71. super Exod.
- ↑ Gen. xxxviii. 14.
- ↑ Deut. xxiii. 17.
- ↑ Tob. iv. 13.
- ↑ Eccl. xli. 35.
- ↑ Matt. xvi. 19.
- ↑ 1 Thess. iv. 3
- ↑ 1 Cor. vi. 18.
- ↑ 1 Cor. v. 9.
