070. The seventh commandment
QUESTION 70. What is the Seventh Commandment?
ANSWER:The Seventh Commandment is, Thou shalt not commit adultery.
QUESTION 71. What is required in the Seventh Commandment?
ANSWER:The Seventh Commandment requireth the preservation of our own and our neighbour’s chastity, in heart, speech, and behaviour.
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Q. 1. What is chastity?
A. It is an abhorrence of all uncleanness, whether in the body, or in the mind and affections, Job 31:1.
Q. 2. What does this commandment require with reference to such chastity?
A.The preservation of it, both in ourselves, and in our neighbours.
Q. 3. What is the best means for preserving our own and our neighbour’s chastity?
A. The cherishing in our minds and consciences a continual regard, reverence, and awe of the divine Majesty, and a fear of displeasing him, Proverbs 5:20, Proverbs 5:21.
Q. 4. What influence will this have upon the preservation of chastity?
A. It will make us boldly resist all assaults or attacks that may be made upon it; as in the instance of Joseph, when solicited by his master’s wife to lie with her, he refused; and said - “How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” Genesis 39:7-9.
Q. 5. Wherein are we to preserve our own and our neighbour’s chastity?
A.In heart, speech, and behaviour.
Q. 6. How ought we in heart to preserve our own chastity?
A. By resisting the very first emotions of lust in the soul, Proverbs 4:23; by repelling all wanton imaginations, Matthew 5:28; and by essaying both these in the way of praying to God that he would turn away our hearts and eyes from beholding vanity, Psalms 119:37.
Q. 7. How ought we to preserve our neighbour’s chastity in our hearts?
A. Not only by ardently desiring the preservation of it, but by loving one another with a pure heart fervently; 1 Peter 1:22.
Q. 8. How ought we to preserve our own and our neighbours chastity in our speech?.
A. By “letting no corrupt communication proceed out of our mouth, but that which is good, to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearers,” Ephesians 4:29.
Q. 9. How should we do this in our behaviour?
A. By such a uniform modesty in our conduct and deportment, as may evidence that every one of us possesses his vessel, (that is, his body,) in sanctification and honour, 1 Thessalonians 4:4.
Q. 10. Why should we be so careful to preserve our chastity?
A. Because we should study to have our bodies to be the temples of the Holy Ghost, and therefore should keep them free from those pollutions which are so provoking to a holy God, 1 Corinthians 6:19.
Q. 11. What is the ordinary mean of divine appointment for the preservation of chastity?
A. Lawful wedlock or marriage, 1 Corinthians 7:2 - “Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.”
Q. 12. When was marriage first instituted?
A. Before the fall, in paradise, Genesis 2:24.
Q. 13. For what end was it instituted?
A. For the mutual help of husband and wife, Genesis 2:18; for the increase of mankind with a legitimate issue, and of the church with a holy seed, Malachi 2:15; and for preventing of uncleanness,” 1 Corinthians 7:2. 1 1Confession of Faith, chapter 24 § 2.
Q. 14. What is necessary to constitute marriage?
A. The voluntary and mutual consent of both parties, Genesis 24:58, Genesis 24:67.
Q. 15. Who may be lawfully married?
A. “All sorts of people; who are able, with judgment, to give their consent,” Hebrews 13:4 - “Marriage is honourable in all.” 2
2 Confession of Faith, chap 24 § 3.
Q. 16. What is the duty of Christians with reference to marriage?
A. It is to marry “only in the Lord,” 1 Corinthians 7:39.
Q. 17. What is the native import of marrying “only in the Lord”?
A. It plainly imports, that “such as profess the true reformed religion should not marry with infidels, Papists, or other idolaters: neither should such as are godly be unequally yoked, by marrying with such as are notoriously wicked in their life, or maintain damnable heresies.” 3
3 Ibid., § 3, with the scripture proofs.
Q. 18. What is an incestuous marriage?
A. It is that which is within the degrees of consanguinity, or affinity, forbidden in the word, Leviticus 18:6-18.
Q. 19. What is the meaning of the words consanguinity and affinity?
A. CONSANGUINITY is a relation by blood, being between persons descended from the same family: AFFINITY is an alliance by marriage, between persons who were not blood relations before.
Q. 20. What is the general rule for preventing incestuous marriages?
A. The man may not marry any of his wife’s kindred nearer in blood than he may of his own: nor the woman of her husband’s kindred nearer in blood than of her own.” 4
4 Ibid., § 4.
Q. 21. Is it proper to call marriage a HOLY state?
A. No; because they who are without the visible church, such as Heathens, Turks, and Jews, may marry as well as the professed members of it; Hebrews 13:4.
Q. 22. Was marriage instituted to signify the “mystical union that is between Christ and his church,” as the Book of Common Prayer affirms?
A. No; because this borders too near upon making marriage a sacrament, as the Papists do; in as much as an outward visible sign, of divine institution, and a spiritual benefit signified by it, would make it partake of the nature of a sacrament.
Q. 23. Does not the apostle make it a significant sign, when he says, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church?” Ephesians 5:25.
A. He exhorts husbands to have such a love to their wives, as may bear a faint resemblance in some respects, to the love of Christ; but does not make the one a sign significant of the other.
Q. 24. Is not marriage called a great mystery? ver. 32.
A. It is not marriage that is called a great mystery, but the union that is between Christ and the members of his mystical body; as will appear by reading the whole verse, “This is a great mystery; but I speak concerning CHRIST and the CHURCH.”
QUESTION 72. What is forbidden in the Seventh Commandment?
ANSWER:The Seventh Commandment forbiddeth all unchaste thoughts, words, and actions.
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Q. 1 What is forbidden in this commandment under the name of ADULTERY?
A. All sorts of unchastity or uncleanness, of what kind, or in what manner soever committed, Ephesians 5:3.
Q. 2:In what respects may persons be guilty of unchastity or uncleanness?
A. They may be guilty this way, in their thoughts, words, and actions.
Q. 3. When are persons chargeable before God with unchaste thoughts?
A. When lustful desires are entertained and gratified in the mind; and, as it were, acted in the imagination; Proverbs 6:18; Matthew 5:28.
Q. 4. What are the usual incentives to unchaste thoughts?
A. “Lascivious songs, books, pictures, dancings, stage-plays, and the like.” 5
5 Larger Catechism, Quest. 139
Q. 5. What influence have stage-plays upon fomenting unchaste thoughts?
A. They are generally stuffed with such amorous adventures, many of them of a most criminal nature, that they have a native tendency to debauch and defile the mind. If “no corrupt communication” is to “proceed out of our mouth,” according to Ephesians 4:29; neither ought we to listen to it with our ears, as is done by those who attend the profane diversions of the stage.
Q. 6. What is meant by unchaste words?
A. All filthy, obscene, or smutty discourse; than which, nothing can be more grating and disagreeable to modest ears, Ephesians 5:4.
Q. 7. What are the unchaste actions that are forbidden in this commandment?
A. Besides several others, that ought not to be named among Heathens, far less Christians, there are these following: polygamy, unjust divorce, fornication, and adultery, properly so called.
Q. 8. What is POLYGAMY?
A. It is the having more wives or husbands than one at the same time, Malachi 2:14.
Q. 9. Is this a sin contrary to the law of nature?
A. Yes; for it is contrary to the first institution of marriage; God having created but one woman, as a help meet for man; Genesis 2:22-25, compared with Matthew 19:5-6.
Q. 10. Is it a sin prohibited in scripture? A Yes; Leviticus 18:18 - “Thou shalt not take a wife to her sister, to vex her - in her lifetime.”
Q. 11. What is the meaning of taking a wife to her sister?
A. The meaning is, (according to the marginal reading,) Thou shalt not take one wife to another; that is, thou shalt not have more wives than one at a time.
Q. 12 But may not this be a prohibition of incest, namely, of marrying the wife’s sister?.
A. No; because it is said, Thou shalt not do it in her lifetime; whereas it would be incestuous in a man to marry his sister-in-law after his wife’s death, as well as to do it in her lifetime; so that the meaning is, Thou shalt not take another wife to her whom thou hast married, by which means they would become sisters.
Q. 13. Who was the first polygamist we read of in scripture?
A. Lamech, of the posterity of Cain, who had two wives, Genesis 4:19.
Q. 14. Were not several of the godly likewise guilty in this matter, as Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon, and others?
A. Yes; but though these and other bad actions of good men are recorded in scripture, they are not approved of, nor proposed for our imitation; but rather set up as beacons, to prevent our making shipwreck on the same rocks.
Q. 15. Has not God even testified his displeasure at the sin of polygamy, in the godly, though we do not read of his reproving them for it in express words?
A. Yes; he has testified his displeasure in the course of his providence, by the emulations, quarrels, and disturbances, that were thus occasioned in their families; as in the instances of Sarah and Hagar, in Abraham’s family, Genesis 21:10-11; of Leah and Rachel, in Jacob’s, Genesis 30:1, Genesis 30:15; and of Hannah and Peninnah, in Elkanah’s family, 1 Samuel 1:6.
Q. 16. Does not God seem to approve of polygamy, when he says to David, “I gave thee thy master’s wives into thy bosom?” 2 Samuel 12:8.
A. It being the custom of those times, for succeeding kings to take possession of all that belonged to their predecessors, the meaning is, I have made thee king, in room of Saul, and have given thee the property of all that appertained to him: but we do not read of David taking any of Saul’s wives into his bed.
Q. 17. What is an unjust DIVORCE?
A. It is the prosecuting and obtaining a dissolution of marriage, upon other grounds than such as are warranted in the word of God, and by right reason.
Q. 18. What are the grounds upon which a divorce may be sued for, and obtained, according to the word of God and right reason?
A. “Although the corruption of man be such as is apt to study arguments, unduly to put asunder those whom God hath joined together in marriage; yet nothing but adultery, or such wilful desertion, as can no way be remedied by the church, or civil magistrate, is cause sufficient of dissolving the bond of marriage, Matthew 19:8-9; 1 Corinthians 7:15.” 6
6 Confession of Faith, chapter 24 § 6.
Q. 19. Did not Moses suffer the Israelites to put away their wives, upon slighter grounds than that of adultery as may be alleged from Deuteronomy 24:1?
A. Moses, in the text cited, gives no positive command about divorces in such cases; but only, in order to restrain the licentious freedom of the Israelites, in turning off their wives, at their own hand, upon every trivial occasion, he enjoins that none put away his wife, but upon a legal process or a bill of divorce, obtained in the ordinary course of law; which is the true meaning of the place.
Q. 20. Why then does our Lord tell the Pharisees, Matthew 19:8, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives?”
A. The meaning is, Moses, because of the wicked and malicious disposition of the Jews, and in order to prevent a greater evil, namely, the ill usage, or even killing of their hated wives, (if they could not be separated from them) permitted processes of divorce to be legally commenced.
Q. 21. Why is it added, “but from the beginning it was not so?”
A. Because, according to the original institution of marriage, nothing could dissolve it but the death of one of the parties, Matthew 19:6 - “Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What, therefore, God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.”
Q. 22. Is it lawful to marry after a divorce is obtained?
A. “It is lawful for the innocent party to sue out a divorce, and after the divorce, to marry another as if the offending party were dead.” 7
7 Ibid., chapter 24 § 5.
Q. 23. Is the innocent party obliged, from Matthew 5:32, to sue for a divorce?
A. No; divorces are not enjoined as a precept, but allowed as a privilege, which the innocent party may claim, or not, as they please.
Q. 24. What if the adultery be on both sides?
A. In that case the right of divorce seems to be taken away from each of them.
Q. 25. What is FORNICATION?
A. It is uncleanness committed between a man and a woman, both of them being unmarried; as it would seem Shechem and Dinah were, when guilty this way, Genesis 34:2.
Q. 26. Was this esteemed a sin among the Heathens?
A. No they made light of it, (as too many professed Christians have always done ) hence the synod of Jerusalem enjoined the converted Gentiles to “abstain from fornication,” Acts 15:29.
Q. 27. In what lies the evil of this sin?
A. It defiles the body, 1 Corinthians 6:18; stupefies the conscience, Hosea 4:11; and exposes to eternal wrath and damnation, 1 Corinthians 6:9.
Q. 28. What is ADULTERY properly so called?
A. It is uncleanness committed between a man and a woman, either both or one of them at least, in a married relation.
Q. 29. What is it commonly called when both the guilty persons are married?
A. It is called double adultery, as was the case between David and Bathsheba, 2 Samuel 11:3-4.
Q. 30. Whether are the consequences to families worse, when the man is married and the woman free; or when the woman is married and the man free?
A. The consequences to families seem to be worse when the woman is married; because a man’s offspring is thus corrupted, and his inheritance is alienated to a spurious issue.
Q. 31. What are the aggravations of this heinous sin?
A. It is a breach of the marriage oath, Malachi 2:14; an involving of two at once in the same guilt, 1 Corinthians 6:16; and is a crime committed after obtaining the remedy which God has provided against it, chap. 7:2 [1 Corinthians 7:2].
Q. 32. What are the fatal effects of adultery in this life?
A. It consumes the body, Proverbs 5:11; wastes a man’s estate, bringing him “to a piece of bread,” chap. 6:26 [Proverbs 6:26]; and leaves an indelible blot upon his name: “His reproach shall not be wiped away,” ver. 33 [Proverbs 6:33].
Q. 33. What will be the effect of it in the life to come?
A. Eternal wrath and damnation, if rich mercy and grace prevent it not, Ephesians 5:5.
Q. 34. How does God testify his abhorrence of this sin?
A. By declaring that he will reserve the punishment of it, in his own hand, to be inflicted in a very peculiar manner, upon such as are guilty of it, Hebrews 13:4 - “Whore-mongers and adulterers God will judge.”
Q. 35. What are the usual incentives to this and other acts of uncleanness?
A. Drunkenness, Genesis 19:33; “fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness,” Ezekiel 16:49.
Q. 36. What is the evil of idleness?
A. It is a deliberate wasting of precious time, to the manifest detriment both of soul and body, Ecclesiastes 10:18; and is a fit season for temptations to lust, Proverbs 7:7-8.
Q. 37. In what consists the evil of gluttony?
A. It indisposes for all duty, both religious and civil, Proverbs 23:21; and is making a god of our belly, Php 3:19.
Q. 38. What is the evil of drunkenness?
A. It deforms the image of God in the soul, by divesting a man of the right use of his reason; and leaves him defenceless against all temptations, Proverbs 23:29-30.
Q. 39. What are the proper remedies against lust, and all the incentives to it?
A. A serious reflection upon the all-seeing eye of an infinitely holy God, Genesis 39:9; walking “in the Spirit,” which will preserve us from fulfilling “the lusts of the flesh,” Galatians 5:16; keeping a strict watch over our hearts, Proverbs 4:23; studying to shun all occasions of this sin by the external senses, Job 31:1; and fervent prayer to God to be kept from it, and all temptations to it, Psalms 119:37.