their marriage union is a symbol of the union of Christ with his Church, they ought, therefore, to imitate the conduct of Jesus Christ and his Church, in their behaviour to each other. "The husband," says he, "is head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the Church; therefore, as the Church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their husbands in all things. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved his Church...So ought also men to love, their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife, loveth himself; for no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, as also Christ doth the Church; for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones; for this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh. This is a great sacrament; but I speak in Christ, and in his Church," Ephes. v. 23. Now, all this reasoning of the apostle would fall to the ground, and have no effect, if marriage, as a sacrament, did not necessarily require to be indissoluble; like as the sacred union between Christ and his Church, of which Christian marriage is the symbol, can never be dissolved. All this is further confirmed, from the idea the Scripture gives us of the nature of marriage; for there we are assured, that married people are "no longer two, but one flesh;" and this the Holy Ghost declared at the beginning by the mouth of Adam. It is repeated again by Christ, as the grounds of the indissolubility of marriage, and is used by St. Paul for the same purpose; who also declares, that husbands ought "to love their wives as their own bodies;" that in " loving his wife, he loves himself, and cannot hate her without hating his own flesh." All which manifestly shews the indissolubility of marriage from its nature, and from the identity which it

produces among married people, making them one flesh.

Q. 9. How is the indissolubility of marriage established by the law of God?

A. On the most solid testimony of his holy word; for, (1.) This was the original ordinance of God at the beginning, when he instituted marriage in paradise; for, when he presented Eve to our first father Adam, Adam, by inspiration of the Holy Ghost, said, "this now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; wherefore, a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh," Gen. ii. 23. ; which words our blessed Saviour brings to prove the indissolubility of marriage by the law of God, at its first institution; and then he renews the same indissolubility of it among his followers, saying, "what, therefore, God hath joined together, let no man put asunder," Matth. xix. 6. Where he plainly declares, both that the bond of marriage is the work of God, and that no man can break what he has so tied. And when it was objected to him on this occasion, that Moses allowed a man to put away his wife, and marry another, he replied, by declaring, that this was merely permitted to the Jews, by Almighty God, on account of the hardness of their hearts; but immediately assures us, that "from the beginning it was not so," verse 8,; which again proves that marriage, at its original institution, was, by the law of God, indissoluble.

(2.) Jesus Christ being to raise the contract of marriage to the dignity of a sacrament among his followers, in order to enable them to perform the more sublime and exalted duties which his holy re ligion required from married people, and to ordain it has a sign of his indissoluble union with his Church, was pleased to abrogate all permission given to the

Jews of dissolving marriages, and of marrying others while their former partner was alive, and positively pronounces this law, "What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder," Matth. xix. 6. After his public conversation with the Pharisees on this subject, "In the house, again, his disciples asked him concerning the same thing, and he said to them," in these general and unlimited terms, "Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if the wife shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery," verse 10. Which evidently shews, that, by the law of the gospel, the bond of marriage can never be dissolved, but that married people, whosoever they be, though they may live separate from one another's company, yet can never be loosed from the marriage tie; and that if either party, so separated from the other, should presume to marry another person whilst their former partner is in life, it would be no marriage at all before God, but the state of damnable adultery. The same law is more particularly repeated by our Saviour on a distinct occasion; where, after the parable of the unjust steward, and before he began the history of Lazarus and the rich glutton, he interposes this declaration: "Every one that putteth away his wife and marrieth another, committethadultery; and he that marrieth her that is put away from her husband, committeth adultery," Luke xvi. 18. Here we see none are excepted, every one includes all universally; and both parties are in the same case; not only he who puts away his wife, and marries another, but also he who marries her who is put away, are equally guilty of adultery; which shews, to a demonstration, that, in whatever case the separation is made, the bond of marriage still continues undissolved, so that neither party can

marry any other without being guilty of that horrid crime. On this clear text St. Augustine writes thus, "Who are we, then, that we should say, one is guilty of adultery who puts away his wife and marries another; and another who does the same is not guilty of adultery; for seeing the gospel says, every one commits adultery who does this, and consequently all who do it, that is, who putting away his wife marries another, is guilty of adultery; without doubt both are included, both he who, for any other cause besides fornication, puts away his wife, and he who puts her away for the cause of fornication," &c. Lib. 1. De adult. conjug. cap. 9.

(3.) St. Paul, who is doubtless the most infallible interpreter of the doctrine of Jesus Christ, declares the indissolubility of marriage in the strongest terms: "The woman that hath a husband," says he, "whilst her husband liveth, is bound to the law; but if her husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. Wherefore whilst her husband liveth, she shall be called an adulteress, if she be with another man; but if her husband be dead, she is freed from the law of her husband; so that she is not an adulteress, if she be with another man," Rom. vii. 2. See in what express and general terms, without all exception, he declares, that death alone can dissolve the bond of marriage, so as to make it lawful for a married person to marry any other. In the same manner, he declares this to be an express command of God himself," but to them that are married," says he, "not I, but the Lord commandeth, that the wife depart not from her husband; and if she depart, that she remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband. And let not the husband put away his wife," 1 Cor. vii. 10. And a little after he concludes, a woman is bound by the

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law, as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband die, she is at liberty; let her marry to whom she will, only in the Lord," ver. 39. Now what he here lays down, with regard to the wife, is equally binding with regard to the husband, both because the contract is mutual, and the bond of marriage equally the same in both; and because the Apostle aflirms, that if "the wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband; so, in like manner, the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife," 1 Cor. vii. 4.

(4.) Now that the indissolubility of the bond of marriage is the true and genuine interpretation of all the above testimonies of holy writ, and that this is the true sense and meaning of them intended by the Holy Ghost, always has been, and is the doctrine of the Church of Christ, as is designed and declared by her in the great and general Council of Trent, which, laying down the Catholic doctrine concerning marriage, begins with this very point, in these words: "The first father of mankind, declared the perpetual and indissoluble tie of marriage, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, when he said, this now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; wherefore a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall adhere to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh," Sess. xxiv. in princip. and afterwards declares, that this always was, and is taught by the Church of Christ, according to the doctrine of the gospel and the Apostles; and, therefore, pronounces anathema upon all those who shall say she is mistaken in teaching so: "If any one shall say that the Church is mistaken, in having tanght and in teaching, according to the evangelical and apostolical doctrine, that the bond of marriage cannot be dissolved by the adultery of either of the parties, and that both, or even the innocent