On the 7th Commandment

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Ten Commandments

6th Commandment  ⇐  ⇒  8th Commandment

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“Thou shalt not commit adultery.”

Ex. 20:14

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Order of Contents

Articles  14+
Historical  2
Latin  3


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Articles

1500’s

Bullinger, Henry – 10th Sermon, ‘Of the 3rd Precept of the 2nd Table…  ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery of wedlock;’ Against all intemperance; of Continency’  in The Decades  ed. Thomas Harding  (1549; Cambridge: Parker Society, 1849), vol. 1, 2nd Decade, pp. 393-435

Bucer, Martin – ch. 55, ‘The Ninth Law: Controlling Luxury & Harmful Expenses’  in On the Reign of Christ  tr. Satre & Pauck  in Melanchthon & Bucer  in The Library of Christian Classics, vol. 19  (1550; 1557; London: SCM Press LTD, 1969), bk. 2, pp. 354-57

Calvin, John – 7th Commandment  in Institutes of the Christian Religion  tr. Henry Beveridge  (1559; Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1845), vol. 1, bk. 2, pp. 471-75

Vermigli, Peter Martyr – The Common Places…  (d. 1562; London: Henrie Denham et al., 1583), pt. 2

10. ‘The Seventh Precept: of Not Committing Adultery’ 418

‘Of Matrimony & Concubines’  418
‘Of Polygamy’  420
‘Of Barrenness’  430
‘Whether it be lawful for children to marry without the consent of their parents’  431
‘Of Rapine, or violent taking away’  437
‘Whether Marriage be lawful in persons of sundry religions’  442
‘Of Degrees forbidden in marriage’  447
‘Whether any Dispensation may be made in the degrees of kindred prohibited by God’  453
‘Of Dowries’  454
‘Of Divorcements’  457
‘Whether Matrimony be a Sacrament’  462

11. ‘Of Whoredom, Fornication & Adultery’ 468

‘Of Bastards’  475
‘Of Adultery’  478
‘Of Idleness & other enticements unto wickedness’  479
‘Of the Punishments of Adultery’  482
‘Whether the man or woman do sin more grievously in adultery’  489
‘Of Reconciliation of man and wife after adultery committed’  495
‘Of Wine & Drunkenness’  497
‘Of Dances’  503
‘Of Garments & Apparel’  506
‘Of Counterfeit & False Coloring’  507

Musculus, Wolfgang – Common Places of the Christian Religion  (1560; London, 1563)

7th Commandment  83.a

A consideration of wedlock  83.a
Pureness of Life required by this precept  83.a
Bachelors and widowers  83.a
Wedlock the fountain of man’s life  83.a
This precept defends not whoredom  83.b
What is adultery  83.b
Peter Lombard  83.b
How great care God has of wedlock  84.a
Contemners & Defilers of matrimony  84.a
Heb. 13  84.a
There is no specification set  84.b
The corruption of our flesh  84.b
This law was given to the circumcised people  85.a
Of the transgressions of this law  85.a
Of the transgression of the law we must judge according to the mind of the lawgiver  85.a
1 Thess. 4  85.a
Men do sin by work, word and signs and heart  85.a
With the married  85.a
Lev. 18  85.a
Lev. 20  85.b
With a virgin  85.b
With violence and ravishment, Gen. 34; 2 Sam. 13  85.b
The sole man with the sole woman  85.b
Against pasture (sodomy)  85.b
Of signs and words  85.b
Not only the act, but the will and endeavor also of adultery is forbidden  86.a
The concupiscence of the heart  86.a
Difference to be made between the judgment of God and the judgment of man  86.a
An admonition  86.b
Of the causes of adultery, and all kind of uncleanness  86.b
The first cause is the universal corruption of our flesh, Rom. 7  86.b
The secondary causes  87.a
The stirring up  87.a
Touching  87.a
Filthy reasoning  87.b
Impunity  87.b
Occasion  87.b
Of the grievousness of whoredom and adultery  87.b
The general and special griefs  87.b
To offend against the tables of the Covenant: a Similitude  88.a
The weight by circumstances  88.a
Of the evil of whoredom and adultery  88.a
A common evil which excludes men out of the kingdom of God, 1 Cor. 6  88.a
The fountain of our nature is defiled  88.a
Public honesty is distained  88.a
They do sin against their own bodies, 1 Cor. 6; 1 Thess. 4  88.b
Man is besotted  88.b
A continual desire of sin grafted in them  88.b
A man is made light and unprofitable  88.b
They fall into great dangers, Prov. 6-7  88.b
Two persons are wrapped in sin  89.a
How much evil is done peculiarly to Christian men, 1 Cor. 6  89.a
Of the punishment of forbidden lusts, whoredom, deflowering, incest, ravishment, adultery, sodomy and beastish meddling  89.b
We must not only hear the precepts, but also the penalties  89.b
Two kinds of penalties of sin  89.b
Penalties of adulterers, Lev. 20; Dt. 22; Lex Julia  89.b
Christian princes have weakened the law of adulterers  89.b
Of the penalty of incest  90.a
Of deflowerers of maids, Dt. 22  90.a
Of ravishers  90.a
Of them that sin against nature, Lev. 20  90.a

Ursinus, Zachary – The Sum of Christian Religion: Delivered…  in his Lectures upon the Catechism…  tr. Henrie Parrie  (Oxford, 1587)

Seventh Commandment

1. What Marriage is
2. What are the causes of marriage
3. Whether marriage be a thing indifferent
4. What are the duties of married persons
5. What things are contrary to matrimony

Finch, Henry – 9. Of Chastity  in The Sacred Doctrine of Divinity gathered out of the Word of God…  (Middelburg: 1589), bk. 2

Finch (d. 1625) was an English lawyer and politician.

Beza, Theodore, Anthony Faius & Students – 36. ‘Upon the Seventh Commandment’  in Propositions & Principles of Divinity Propounded & Disputed in the University of Geneva by Certain Students of Divinity there, under Mr. Theodore Beza & Mr. Anthony Faius…  (Edinburgh: Waldegrave, 1591), pp. 89-92

Virel, Matthew – 7th Commandment  in A Learned & Excellent Treatise Containing All the Principal Grounds of Christian Religion  (London, 1594), bk. 2, 1. Of Good Works, 1st Part, Exposition of the Moral Law

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1600’s

Perkins, William – 26. 7th Commandment  in A Golden Chain (Cambridge: Legat, 1600)

Ames, William – ch. 19, ‘Chastity’  in The Marrow of Theology  tr. John D. Eusden  (1623; Baker, 1997), bk. 2, pp. 317-21

Ames (1576-1633) was an English, puritan, congregationalist, minister, philosopher and controversialist.  He spent much time in the Netherlands, and is noted for his involvement in the controversy between the reformed and the Arminians.  Voet highly commended Ames’s Marrow for learning theology.

Wolleb, Johannes – 11. ‘The Virtues and Works Connected with the Seventh Commandment’  in Abridgment of Christian Divinity  (1626) in ed. John Beardslee, Reformed Dogmatics: J. Wollebius, G. Voetius & F. Turretin  (Oxford Univ. Press, 1965), bk. 2, pp. 238-46

Wolleb (1589–1629) was a Swiss reformed theologian.  He was a student of Amandus Polanus.

Leigh, Edward – ch. 8, The Seventh Commandment  in A System or Body of Divinity…  (London, A.M., 1654), bk. 9, pp. 749-57

Turretin, Francis – 18. ‘What is forbidden and what is enjoined by the precept concerning not committing adultery?’  in Institutes of Elenctic Theology, tr. George M. Giger, ed. James Dennison Jr.  (1679–1685; P&R, 1994), vol. 2, 11th Topic, p. 120 ff.


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Historical

On Geneva

Books

Kingdon, Robert M. – Adultery & Divorce in Calvin’s Geneva  in Harvard Historical Studies  (Harvard Univ. Press, 1995)  224 pp.  ToC

eds. Kingdon, Robert M. & John Witte Jr. – Sex, Marriage & Family Life in John Calvin’s Geneva: Courtship, Engagement & Marriage  in Religion, Marriage & Family Series  Pre  (Eerdmans, 2005)  545 pp.  ToC


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Latin Articles

1600’s

Voet, Gisbert

7th Commandment  in Syllabus of Theological Problems  (Utrecht, 1643), pt. 1, section 2, tract 1   Abbr.

Select Theological Disputations  (Utrecht, 1659 / 1667)

vol. 3

88. ‘On Idle Words & Deeds’, pp. 1215-19  [Irregular Numbering]

92. Short Appendix: ‘On Cups of Health & Every Good’  in Select Theological Disputations  (Utrecht, 1659), vol. 3, pp. 1219-27

This is on a then-cultural rite to drink to the health and every good of the king, or magistrate, etc. and relates to lawful drinking and drunkenness.

100. ‘On the Fortieth [Lent] & Bacchanalian Festivals’, pp. 1383-91

vol. 4

23. ‘On the Vanities [Excelsis] of the World, on the Seventh Commandment of the Decalogue, First, of Dances’ 325
24. Second, ‘Of Comedies’  356
25. Another Part  367
26. Third: ‘On Abuses in Food & Feasts’  385
27. Fourth: ‘On Luxury & Vanity in Clothes, Houses & Goods’  403
28. pt. 2  417
29. Fifth: ‘On the Decoration of the Face & Hair’  429
30. pt. 2  444
31. pt. 3  453-93
32. Of Intoxication  493

50. ‘A Syllabus of Questions on the Whole Decalogue’, 7th Commandment

23. ‘On the Vanities [Excelsis] of the World, on the Seventh Commandment of the Decalogue, First, of Dances’ 325
24. Second, ‘Of Comedies’  356
25. Another Part  367
26. Third: ‘On Abuses in Food & Feasts’  385
27. Fourth: ‘On Luxury & Vanity in Clothes, Houses & Goods’  403
28. pt. 2  417
29. Fifth: ‘On the Decoration of the Face & Hair’  429
30. pt. 2  444
31. pt. 3  453-93
32. Of Intoxication  493

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