C ONFESIÓN DE FE DE W ESTMINSTER

CAPÍTULO XXIV
Del matrimonio y del divorcio

I. El matrimonio ha de ser entre un hombre y una mujer: ni es lícito a ningún hombre tener más de una mujer, ni a ninguna mujer tener más de un marido, al mismo tiempo.[1]  

[1]    Génesis 2:24. Por tanto, dejará el hombre a su padre y a su madre, y se unirá a su mujer, y serán una sola carne. Mateo 19:5-6. y dijo: ¿Por esto dejará el hombre padre y madre, y se unirá a su mujer, y los dos serán una sola carne? Así que no son ya más dos, sino una sola carne. Por tanto, lo que Dios juntó, no lo separe el hombre. Proverbios 2:17. la cual abandona la guía de su juventud, y se olvida del pacto de su Dios.

II. El matrimonio fue ordenado para la ayuda mutua de marido y mujer,[2]    para el aumento de la humanidad con descendencia legítima, y ​​de la iglesia con una simiente santa;[3]    y para prevenir la inmundicia.[4]  

[2]    Génesis 2:18. Y dijo Jehová Dios: No es bueno que el hombre esté solo; Le haré ayuda idónea para él.

[3]    Malaquías 2:15. ¿Y no hizo uno? Sin embargo, tenía el residuo del espíritu. ¿Y por qué uno? Para que pueda buscar una simiente piadosa. Por tanto, ten cuidado con tu espíritu, y no permitas que ninguno actúe traidoramente contra la esposa de su juventud.

[4]    1 Corintios 7:2, 9. Sin embargo, para evitar la fornicación, que cada hombre tenga su propia mujer, y que cada mujer tenga su propio marido... Pero si no pueden contenerse, cásense; porque es mejor casarse que quemarse.

tercero Es lícito casarse con toda clase de personas, que pueden con juicio dar su consentimiento.[5]    Sin embargo, es deber de los cristianos casarse sólo en el Señor.[6]    Y, por lo tanto, los que profesan la verdadera religión reformada no deben casarse con infieles, papistas u otros idólatras: ni los piadosos deben unirse en yugo desigual, casándose con los que son notoriamente malvados en su vida, o mantienen herejías condenables. .[7]  

[5]    Hebreos 13:4. Honroso sea en todos el matrimonio, y el lecho sin mancilla; pero a los fornicarios ya los adúlteros los juzgará Dios. 1 Timoteo 4:3. Prohibiendo casarse, y mandando abstenerse de las comidas que Dios ha creado para ser recibidas con acción de gracias por los que creen y conocen la verdad. 1 Corintios 7:36-38.Pero si alguno piensa que se comporta deshonestamente con su virgen, si ella pasa la flor de su edad, y tiene necesidad de exigirlo, que haga lo que quiera, no peca: que se casen. Sin embargo, el que permanece firme en su corazón, sin tener necesidad, pero tiene poder sobre su propia voluntad, y ha decretado en su corazón que guardará a su virgen, hace bien. Así pues, el que la da en matrimonio hace bien; pero el que no la da en matrimonio, hace mejor. Génesis 24:57. Y ellos dijeron: Llamaremos a la doncella, e indagaremos en su boca.

[6]    1 Corintios 7:39. La mujer está obligada por la ley mientras su marido vive; pero si su marido muriere, ella es libre de casarse con quien quiera; solamente en el Señor.

[7]   Genesis 34:14. And they said unto them, We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one that is uncircumcised; for that were a reproach unto us. Exodus 34:16. And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods. Deuteronomy 7:3-4. Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly. 1 Kings 11:4. For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. Nehemiah 13:25-27. And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves. Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin. Shall we then hearken unto you to do all this great evil, to transgress against our God in marrying strange wives? Malachi 2:11-12. Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god. The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts. 2 Corinthians 6:14. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

IV. Marriage ought not to be within the degrees of consanguinity or affinity forbidden by the Word.[8]   Nor can such incestuous marriages ever be made lawful by any law of man or consent of parties, so as those persons may live together as man and wife.[9]  

[8]   Leviticus 18. 1 Corinthians 5:1. It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife. Amos 2:7. That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy name.

[9]   Mark 6:18. For John had said unto Herod, It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother’s wife. Leviticus 18:24-28. Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you: (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;) That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you.

V. Adultery or fornication committed after a contract, being detected before marriage, giveth just occasion to the innocent party to dissolve that contract.[10]   In the case of adultery after marriage, it is lawful for the innocent party to sue out a divorce:[11]   and, after the divorce, to marry another, as if the offending party were dead.[12]  

[10]   Matthew 1:18-20. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

[11]   Matthew 5:31-32. It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.

[12]   Matthew 19:9. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery. Romans 7:2-3. For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

VI. 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 willful desertion as can no way be remedied by the church, or civil magistrate, is cause sufficient of dissolving the bond of marriage:[13]   wherein, a public and orderly course of proceeding is to be observed; and the persons concerned in it not left to their own wills, and discretion, in their own case.[14]  

[13]   Matthew 19:8-9. He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery. 1 Corinthians 7:15. But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace. Matthew 19:6. Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

[14]   Deuteronomy 24:1-4. When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife. And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife; Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the Lord: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.


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