Exposition

God in this commandment enjoins and sanctions the preservation of chastity and marriage, and hence authorizes marriage itself; for whenever God forbids anything, he at the same time commands and authorizes the observance of that which is opposite thereto. God, now, in this commandment forbids adultery, which is a violation of conjugal fidelity. When God singles out adultery as the most shocking and debasing vice of all the sins which are repugnant to chastity, he at the same time prohibits and condemns all wandering and wanton lusts, whether they be found in married or unmarried persons, and prohibits all other sins and vices contrary to chastity, together with their causes, occasions, effects, antecedents, consequents, &c. And, on the other hand, he enjoins all those virtues which contribute to chastity.

The reasons of this are these:

1. When one thing is specified, all those are understood which are closely allied or connected with it. Therefore, when adultery is prohibited, as the most shocking and debasing form of lust, we are to understand all other forms of lust as forbidden at the same time.

2. Where the cause is condemned, there the effect is also condemned; and where the effect is condemned, there the cause is condemned. Hence the antecedents as well as the consequents of adultery are here forbidden and condemned.

3. The design of this commandment is the preservation of chastity amongst men, and the guarding of marriage, or keeping it holy. Whatever, therefore, tends to the preservation of chastity, and the protection of marriage, is enjoined by this commandment, whilst that which is opposed thereto is forbidden. There are three virtues which we may speak of under the seventh commandment: chastity, modesty and temperance.

I. CHASTITY, in general, is a virtue contributing to the purity of body and soul, agreeing with the will of God, and shunning all lusts prohibited by God, all unlawful intercourse and inordinate copulation in connection with all the desires, causes, effects, suspicions, occasions, &c., which may lead thereto, whether in holy wedlock or in a single life. The term chastity comes, according to some, from the Greek xazw, which means to adorn, because it is an ornament, both of the whole man, and also of all the other graces or virtues. The name has, therefore, been given to this virtue by way of pre-eminence, inasmuch as it is one of the principal virtues which constitute the image of God, according as it is said, God is chaste, and will be called upon by those who are of a chaste mind, and has regard to such prayers.

Chastity is of two kinds: one of single life; the other of holy wedlock. The former is a virtue shunning all wanton lusts without marriage. Conjugal chastity is to preserve in holy wedlock the order instituted by the wonderful counsel and wisdom of God.

The causes of chastity are,

1. The command of God, “This is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication; that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor.” “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” (1 Thes. 4:3, 4. Heb. 12:14.)

2. The preservation of the image of God.

3. A desire to avoid defacing or marring the image of God, and the union between Christ and the church, of which Paul speaks when he says, “Flee from fornication. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.” (1 Cor. 6:15.)

4. Rewards and punishments.

We may mention as being in opposition to chastity, a dissembled chastity, an impure single life, whoredom, concubinage, incest, adultery, and all wanton and hateful lusts, in connection with their causes, occasions and effects.

All the various species of lust may be referred to these three classes:

The first class or kind are those which are contrary to nature, and from the devil such as are even contrary to this our corrupt nature, not only because they corrupt and spoil it of conformity with God, but also because this our corrupt nature shrinks from them and abhors them. The lusts of which the apostle Paul speaks in the first chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, are of this class, as the confounding of sexes, also abuses of the female sex. The magistrate should punish these heinous sins and abominable transgressions with extraordinary punishments. Incest is greatly opposed to this our corrupt nature, although examples of it occurred in our first parents. These examples, however, were of necessity, or by a divine dispensation, and are therefore, to be regarded as exceptions to the general rule.

The second class of lusts are those which proceed from this our corrupt nature; as fornication committed by such as are unmarried, adulteries by persons that are both married, and intercourse between such as are married and unmarried. If a married person have connection with another person that is unmarried, it is simple adultery. But if one married person have intercourse with another person that is married, it is a double adultery; for he violates his own marriage, and also that of the other person, fornication takes place when those that are unmarried have connection with each other. Magistrates ought by virtue of their office to punish severely fornication and adultery. God appointed and required capital punishment to be inflicted upon adulterers. And although he did not appoint death as the punishment of fornicators; yet, when he frequently declared in his word that no whore should be found among his people, he signified that it should be punished according to its heinousness and aggravated nature. There are other lusts which are committed by this our corrupt nature with an evil conscience; such as those evil desires to which we give indulgence, or with which we are delighted, and which we do not study and endeavor to avoid, which, although they are not punished by civil power, are nevertheless joined with an evil conscience, and punished by God.

The third class of lusts are the corrupt inclinations, to which good men give no indulgence, but which they resist, and from which they cut off all occasions, so that their consciences are not troubled, because they call upon God, seek the grace of resistance, and have in their hearts the testimony that their sins are graciously forgiven them. Marriage was instituted after the fall as a remedy against these sins. It is therefore said, in view of these inclinations, “It is better to marry than to burn.” (1 Cor. 7:9.) Yet Paul does not in these words approve of such marriages as are premature, injurious to the state, entered into before a suitable age, or which are against good customs and manners.

II. MODESTY, or shamefacedness, is a virtue abhorring all uncleanness, joined with shame, grief and sadness, either on account of past impurity, or on account of fear of future uncleanness; having also a desire and purpose to avoid not only uncleanness itself, but everything that might lead to it. It is called by the Greeks aiowq, which means bashfulness or shame, which Aristotle defines to be a fear of disgrace. This virtue is necessary for chastity, as a help, a cause, effect, consequent and sign of chastity.

The extremes, or vices which are repugnant to modesty, are:

1. Immodesty, or imprudence, which makes light of impurity.

2. Stupidity, or unrefined and perverse bashfulness, when anyone is ashamed of that of which he ought not to be ashamed, as of a thing proper and becoming which calls for no shame.

3. Obscenity and scurrility.

III. TEMPERANCE is a virtue observing such limits as are becoming to nature, propriety, sound reason and the order of persons, places and tunes, according to the law of nature in things pertaining to the body; as meat, drink, &c. This is the mother and nurse of all the other virtues, and is the cause of chastity without which there can be no chastity; for without temperance we cannot be chaste. “Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.” “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess.” “Let us walk honestly as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.” (Luke 21:34. Eph. 5:18. Rom. 13:13, 14.)

The extremes of temperance are:
1. Intemperance in meat and drink, gormandizing, gluttony, drunkenness, inebriation; which signifies properly not the excess itself of drinking, but the nausea and reeling of the head, which are felt the day following.

2. Luxury, which is too much prodigality and profusion in food, clothing, equipage, &c.

3. Hurtful temperance, or too great abstinence, and such as does not agree with our nature, as the temperance of hermits and superstitious fasts.