Second printing, from the year 1536.
Although I have often preached and written about the marital state and life before, I will now, in honor of the wedding, also speak a little about it; because it is also one of the most necessary things to be preached in Christianity and all Christians should know. For it is also the meanest and yet the most
The most noble estate, through which all other estates exist and are preserved. Therefore also the holy apostles write and admonish diligently about it in their epistles. But we now take before us the short saying which is written in the epistle to the Hebrews in the thirteenth chapter.
Hebr. 13, 4.
Marriage shall be kept honest among all, and the marriage bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.
2. Here he does not teach the pagans as a philosopher, but the baptized Christians how they should regard and keep the marriage state: That they should not hold it in such low esteem, nor treat it lightly and shamefully, as the heathen do, and as the blind world always does, and as has hitherto been done in Christendom, when all praise has forcibly gone to virginity, and the marriage state has been made quite worthless in comparison; as if all the world had been brought to chastity by it, so that at last everything is filled with shameful fornication; but that they should learn to honor and praise it as a Christian, blessed state, and so keep themselves in it, that there be no harlotry or knavery among them. Which two he calls keeping the marriage state honest and the marriage bed pure. Therefore, let us see what these words mean and what they can do.
The first thing to be learned from this state (as well as from all other states) is that everyone should know and be certain that the marriage state is ordered and established by God. This is almost the highest art in married life, that one learns to regard this state according to its highest honor; namely, that it is God's foundation and has God's word; although it seems as if it were easy, and everyone lets himself think that he can do it himself and does not need a master to do it. For who does not know that the marriage state is from God?
is instituted in Paradise, and also confirmed outside of Paradise? as Moses indicates in 1. Book 1. 2. and 9. I have also often read it and well learn it; but it is such an art, which I do not yet know and do not have to be ashamed of, although I am an old doctor, to learn it daily. The words are soon learned that it is a state instituted by God; but this is the art, of which I say that one should take it for certain and undoubtedly, and that everyone should regard the marriage state in himself and in others everywhere as being thus created, ordered, skillful, and, as one says, bestowed by God. For the mad world, and indeed also clever reason, does not seriously believe it to be so, but thinks that it happens accidentally and by chance that one is granted this or that; just as otherwise, apart from marriage, two of them come together.
(4) That is why marriage has been made into such a jiggery-pokery and talked about so frivolously everywhere. This makes them think and judge only according to their outward nature and appearance. For if you look at them, the two (conjugal and whore life) are very close to each other, and one looks so almost like the other that there is no difference because of being present or being present. Therefore, it is not so easy to distinguish between the conjugal and the whore life.
from fornication, that a husband is sure of it and can say: This woman God has given me to stay with her; likewise, a wife can say: This man God has given me, with him I shall live in bed and at table etc.
(5) I would like to see this imagined above all things, that people praise their marital status and make it as good as they can. It has even been corrupted by the spiritless monks and sophists of the pope, who looked at it only from the outside, according to its outward nature and works, and considered it no different from any other lewd life; especially because they themselves were accustomed to the same life, even drowned in it, so that they could neither think nor speak anything honest or chaste about it; in addition, the holiest among them weighed down the consciences of the spouses with their ties and cords, as they should keep to the marital duty.
(6) A Christian should know how to distinguish marriage from illegitimate life far and wide. By what? By God's word. For God has attached His word to the marriage state, when He says Genesis 1:27, 28: "God created male and female, and gave Eve to Adam, and blessed them, and said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply. Item Genesis 2:18, 24: "It is not good that a man should be alone; I will make him a helpmeet to cleave to him. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and cleave unto his wife, and shall be two in one flesh"; item Matth. 19, 6: "What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder." This is the jewel that makes the marriage state honorable, as a divine work and foundation. Without this word the marital state would also be an indecent life and not a marital state. Therefore, this is the most noble thing in the marriage state, that one can see the word shining in it.
7. take an example in the same thing: when I see a robber or a murderer cut off a man's head, the work is to be regarded as the same as that which the prince or judge does.
makes one's neck be cut off. That is why they preached to the people here as if it were a dangerous office and made it so horrible that they could not practice it with a good conscience; so that they made the secular sword so blunt and rusty that people were terrified of the blood to judge. I myself have seen and known many fine, honorable men, when they were to sit in judgment and pronounce a sentence of blood, that they fled from it and went elsewhere, so that they would not be there nor make themselves partakers of the atrocious work. This and other errors are all due to the fact that we regard the states and works so merely in themselves, without God's word. For if a murderer cuts off a man's head, he does not do right by it; for he has neither command nor God's word about it, yes, he does it against God's word and commandment, which is: "Thou shalt not kill. Therefore his murder is darkness, hell and death. But if the prince or judge kills one, there is God's word and command with him. There you do not wield the sword, but God; there the sword shines as in the hand of an angel, yes, in the hand of God, through the word, which commands to punish the wicked, to protect and defend the pious. And just as a robber sins when he murders, as he is forbidden to do so: so the judge sins when he does not kill, who is commanded to kill, Rom. 13, 4.
(8) Likewise, if a thief break into another man's house, and steal his garment, or any other thing from him, it is very like this work, if the magistrate, or the city servant, go about, and fine or distrain a citizen; and yet there is a great difference between the two. The judge does it justly, as he should take it, and has holy and God's fists. For God's word speaks to him: You shall punish injustice, promote and administer justice. But the thief has neither command nor right to take from another what is his; indeed, God has forbidden him: Thou shalt not steal. Therefore he has vain devilish, cursed fists, so that he grabs.
(9) So also that their two, man and woman, are with each other in the lewd life, which seems to be even like the conjugal life.
For they clothe one another, walk and work with one another, and are so like married couples in bed and at table that reason cannot separate them. But in the conjugal life God is with his word, blessing and sanctifying it, saying, "When you live with your wife and go to bed and table with her, it is not a life like that of whores and boys together, but a holy and godly life, as ordered and ordained by himself, just as the other life of whoredom is forbidden by him, as here in this epistle and in the Ten Commandments: Thou shalt not commit adultery, nor covet thy neighbor's wife.
(10) Therefore, I say, to speak of marriage in a Christian way is to glory in the fact that God's word is attached to it, and written on every husband, that he may look upon it as if it were the only one, and none else on earth; and that no king in his adornment, nor the sun in his eyes, may shine and shine more beautifully. For here you have the word by which God promises and gives you this woman or this man, saying: This shall be your husband, this shall be your wife, this pleases me well, and all the angels and creatures have joy and delight in it.
(11) Oh, if God would have everyone walk in such a spirit that he could say from the heart: That I sit and live here with my spouse, I am sure that it is pleasing to God, because He Himself has established and ordered it, and through His word has called me such. For such a word comforts the spouses and gives them a good conscience. But those who live together out of wedlock cannot have such a good conscience, for they do not have the word of God; indeed, they act against the same word, and are together not in the name of God but in the name of the devil.
12 This would be the quite golden art, which few of them can do, and I cannot yet do it either, as I would like to. For we still cling to the old habit of not looking at the word, but only at the work. It is true that our flesh is full of evil desires that tempt us to sin, but we do not have to follow them, nor do we have to follow this state.
But if you keep and consider the word of God, that this estate may be blessed and adorned, it will keep you well, and again comfort you, and make it a holy and spiritual estate. For it does him violence and injustice that they have called it a worldly estate. But others, of the pope, the monks and nuns, must be called spiritual; perhaps because the devil, their god and founder, is also a spirit, by whom they are conceived and made. For where is there a word or letter in Scripture that a monk should wear a black or white cap, lead such an order, eat this or that etc.? But of the marriage state it is written soon at the beginning of the Scripture that God created a male and female, and gave them together, commanding them to be fruitful, to beget children etc.
(13) Therefore, because this estate has the Word, and is set in the Word as a monstrance, that it may be sanctified in it and by it, it is to be held in great honor and for a divine order; so that every husband or wife may be sure and certain that he is in a right spiritual estate, pleasing to God, because it is not found apart from marriage, but in marriage, according to God's Word, blessing and order.
14 This sermon is not only necessary for the sake of your conscience, so that you may not feel guilty about marrying your wife or your husband, for God created and ordained it and is pleased with it, but it also serves against the devil. For those who look at the married state from the outside and are not yet in it, think that it is a life in which one has only pleasure and good days. But such have never tasted nor experienced what God's word is and what power God's blessing has, seeking only, according to their lewd thoughts, to atone for their lust and have good days in it; but afterwards, when they come in and find otherwise, they know not how to enter into it, because they neither see nor respect God's word in it. But if you look at the state rightly, as God's word is
If the light shines over your wife's veil or your husband's hat, the devil will certainly come to you on all sides and make enough temptation: first, with displeasure and weariness, that you will not remain one with your spouse long, that the pleasure and tickling will well pass you by and be turned to displeasure. For he cannot suffer husbands and wives to remain friendly and one with each other.
(15) Therefore God also suffers such rutting when bride and bridegroom are together, thinking: I must put a cap on the fool. For if this were not the case, people could never be brought into married life. Thus the devil is an enemy of the state, as he is of all God's words and works, hindering and interfering where he can, so that man and woman are often troubled with each other, and then become impatient and bitter toward each other, so that their desire is turned into unwillingness, their joy into anger and sorrow. Just as those who do not have such grace to look at God's word and believe experience this every day.
16 Therefore the Scripture says, Sir. 25:1, 2, that there are three good things that are pleasing to God and to man: that brethren should be one with one another, that neighbors should love one another, and that husband and wife should be at ease with one another. Why does Scripture praise these three things so highly? Because it is a strange bird that brothers are at peace and remain one in the same estate; likewise, that neighbors live friendly with one another, that one may trust the other and take care of the best for him; and that husbands and wives live together in love and harmony. Whoever looks at these things from the outside thinks, "Is it such a great art to be kind to one's neighbor, to love one's spouse, and for brothers to be one with one another? Shouldn't brothers be one, who would want to be one? Yes, you can see that when they have a little good to share, how easily one hands over the other, and becomes murderously hostile before he would let him have anything. So quarrels and fights often arise among sisters over a morsel of bread or a drink. It is also often the case among neighbors that one of them
The other proves all unfaithfulness and wickedness for the sake of a small thing, that perhaps one shooed a chicken to the other etc. etc. So man and woman can disagree with no one more easily than with themselves, and the one can say it with a word (spoken roughly or jokingly), so that it goes through the other's heart and cannot be forgotten, and afterwards they both draw poison and gall in their hearts against each other. The reason is that Satan has no desire where there is peace or unity etc. If then they are not one, what joy or good can there be?
Therefore, one should be prepared against the same devil, who is hostile to this state and does not want peace or unity, so that one resists him with God's word and strikes back, and always says against it: "Let the devil's temptation be what it will; nevertheless, this is a divine state and God has placed me in it. If everything does not work out as it should, patientia (patience) is necessary. I should not and will not therefore throw away the position or despise it, for the position is not evil for that reason, even if things do not always go right in it. Everything cannot be as pure as if the doves had chosen it. That is why people say of married couples who get along well with each other, "That is a beautiful marriage," as if to say, "It is a special grace and rarely turns out so well.
(18) And it is no wonder that two husbands and wives do not love each other. For they do not see and respect how their status is conceived and understood in God's word. For if they could see this, how they were surrounded by such bright light and sunshine, they would not be angry as soon as they saw it, whether it was not all sugar; but they would think that God had mixed it in this way, and had put a salt in the roast, so that God's word would taste all the better to them. Therefore, if anger and displeasure arise, they can all the more easily quench it and let it go, thinking: "Here I have God's word, so that God has adorned and blessed this estate for me; I would rather have that than to have such a treasure spoiled for me by unwillingness or otherwise, and to have my spouse, given to me by God, spoiled.
19 This is one of the ways in which the devil tries to cause all kinds of discord and disunity in the marriage state, so that one becomes hostile to the other. Then a hell and the devil even becomes out of it, that he laughs into his fist. For do not think that the devil or the world take pleasure or delight where there is love and harmony: but it pleases God and the Holy Spirit, who laughs and is happy about it. Therefore St. Paul and Peter, when it happens that married couples are at odds, exhort them to reunite and reconcile with each other, so that their prayer will not be hindered etc. For the dear apostles have seen how the devil sows his seed among spouses, that it is very seldom, even among Christians, without anger and displeasure, and they want to comfort and satisfy the people again with the word.
20 But this is how it is: He who is out of wedlock thinks, when he comes in, that he will always laugh and be in good spirits, and never speak anything that should be annoying to another. You will leave that alone. You think it is such a thing that happens by chance or comes from your thoughts. No, it is called God's state and order, therefore it must be challenged by the devil; that he who enters the marriage state goes into a right cloister, which is full of challenge. Now choose one according to your desire, however pious, however rich, however beautiful, however kind she may be, and you will have enough trouble to keep conjugal love and friendship. For it is not in your hands, and you have a strong enemy in your house, whose name is the devil, who from the heart does not like to see things done right; but that would be his delight and string play, that man and woman would purr and grumble without ceasing, throwing chairs, benches and tables over each other; that he would laugh in his fist. For he would like and drives with all his might (as a destroyer of divine work and order) that no marital state would remain on earth, nor that anything good would come of it. Therefore, you must not look at the married life as it is full of temptation and sorrow, but according to the word, so that it is adorned and restrained. The
This will turn your bitter wormwood into honey and your sorrow into joy again.
(21) After that, on the other hand, he will also accuse you of lewdness and forbidden lust. For you will not be so chaste (unless you have special grace from God), and you will never love your wife so much that other thoughts will not occur to you from time to time, as if another were more beautiful or more lovely than yours. Likewise, your wife will never love you so much that she may not like another one better. God protect me, you say, should I not love my wife? Should I be tired of my husband? Yes, God protect me, too. But see if you are already chaste, nevertheless you will feel such thoughts, aroused by your flesh or blown in by the devil, in your heart, and especially if you want to be a Christian.
22. therefore you must again be equipped with the word of God. God's word (which says to you: This is your flesh and your bone, given and assigned to you by God), by which it is adorned, as in purple and gold and precious stones, above all the earth, so that you may not choose or see a better one. So thou canst resist the devil, and resist the presumptuous, and resist the devil, that thou mayest not prefer any to be or to please thee better than thine, though it be dreadful, unpleasant, strange, and unkind to look upon. Otherwise, if you follow your thoughts and the devil's temptations (which make all others more beautiful and lovely to you than yours), you have already spoiled such treasure and adornment for yourself, along with the divine blessing and good pleasure, that afterward nothing but such cries of lamentation go up on both sides: "Did the devil lead me to this or to that! that she should arrive at this and that, all those who advised and helped me to do it! If only I had this one or that one, she is so finely kind and charming etc. And so evil desire will strike, as the poets write, that love will rage and rage.
(23) Therefore let every man take heed that he abide in the word, and after the same look upon his spouse, as in the fairest array wherein God hath clothed her. If thou shalt
and reflect yourself in it at all times, then your bed, your table, your chamber, your house, and everything about your wife will become pure solid gold. For therefore thou hearest that God Himself saith unto thee, Thou shalt be this wife's husband; and thou, wife, shalt cleave unto this thy husband: so hath God ordained. If thou thus look upon thy marriage estate, and esteem it so precious and worthy, no other wife shall please thee so well as thine. For the word will not suffer, though it seem to thee that another is the most gracious and beautiful in words and deeds; yet in thine eyes she is as black as coal, and smeared with the devil's dung. For there you do not find that adornment which is the Word of God. Yours, however, is the most beautiful and lovely to you, as God Himself has adorned you with His dear Word.
(24) But, as I have said, it is the highest art to look upon this estate according to God's word, which alone makes both the estate and the spouses lovely, and takes away all unkindness, anger and impatience, and other temptations. And if anything of this kind is stirred up, it must nevertheless sink and disappear as in a deep sea. For the word is a powerful and holy thing, and makes all other things holy where it is known and apprehended. But the defect is that we cannot always have it before our eyes, and often let ourselves be in haste, so that we forget it. And it would be good if we (when we feel challenged) would quickly return to the word before we let ourselves overcome the challenge. For it is not to be thought that we should feel and have no temptation. For the devil does not let up; where he sees that we cling to God's word, he seeks all kinds of causes, means and ways to tear it out of our eyes and make us look and gape elsewhere. When he has accomplished this, he has soon embittered the heart of both with unwillingness or impatience and inflamed it with disorderly lust, so that then any man or woman seems to you to be more beautiful, more friendly, more pious, or otherwise more pleasing than your own spouse. Hence it comes that one finds many such fools.
The most beautiful and pious wives are seen hanging on to disgraceful, indecent, nasty brats and sacks. All this makes them ignorant of the Word and regard their state as nothing other than a lewd life.
(25) For this reason the flesh is also shrewd, and the excess is born and planted in us (so that we soon grow weary of what God has given us, even if we have all that is on earth); it does not cease because we live, unless you cling to God's word. So the devil helps to do this, who blinds people so that they do not see what a wonderful treasure they have in the word, which paints and assigns to every man his husband or wife, adorns, blesses and sanctifies them in the most glorious way, so that they have no reason to look for another, so that they should desire his. For whoever does this has already broken the marriage, as Christ says Matth. 5, 28.
26 The holy apostle also wants to teach this here, as he exhorts the Christians to learn to regard their marriage state according to God's word, and therefore to hold it dear and valuable, and the bed pure and undefiled. For this, he says, is what God wants from you. But if you want to do better and differently (as the pope did with his dear clergymen), he will not let you go unpunished. In this way the pagans and papists know nothing at all to preach about this state; indeed, a carnal and worldly state is respected among them, and they have made it despised and hostile, so that it has had to stink against the falsely praised spiritual state, and no one has been able to have any comfort or joy in his married state, which would be most necessary to the conscience.
(27) Now that the apostle says here, Let married life be honest, and let the marriage bed be kept pure, he sets these two things against the very temptations mentioned above, namely, that our flesh is full of harmful lusts, and that both wantonness and wantonness are great in us. It follows, then, that wantonness chases me here, and wantonness there.
throws pleasure elsewhere. And this is not to be understood here that the beds and cloths are washed clean; but these impurities and stains in the marriage bed are nothing else (as he himself subsequently indicates) than fornication and adultery. These are the true stains that defile, stain, and defile the marriage bed. For those who live a lewd life apart from this state, as fornicators, consider this state to be nothing; but both despise and defile the word of God and the state, no matter how piously they present themselves before the world. Similarly, those who are married do not keep it, but break it against God's commandment and order. And, in sum, all those who regard married life as if it were a state of affairs that happens by chance, they desecrate it. For they do not see that married couples are bound by the Word of God, they cannot look upon a woman or a man clothed and adorned with the Word of God. Therefore it is not an honest estate to them, but put it to all shame. For they put up with their shamefully lewd life more than the godly and honest life. He warns them here to take care and live in such a way that the marriage state is kept glorious and in all honor, as God's foundation and order; namely, that they leave the whore life and enter into the marriage life. Afterwards, when they have come into it, take good care and keep the bed clean, undefiled, that is, that the wife may be devoted to her husband, and the husband may be satisfied with his wife. If not, then the beautiful ornament (God's word) is defiled with the devil's filth, and the bed is stained and (would have said) trespassed.
28. therefore, if the devil comes to you with pride and excess, that you may be wise, and take hold of God's word, and think, God made me a man, and put me in this estate; this he gave into my arms, that she should be mine etc. If you do this, it will be all the easier for you to keep your bed clean. For the word shall make thee fearful and aweful, yea, disgusted and afraid of others, and shall adorn thy spouse, that though she be hideous and
Even if she is hostile, impatient and stubborn, she will still be dearer and more pleasing to you for the sake of the word than another adorned with vain gold. So a precious veil is around a marriage veil, and so a well-decorated hat around a marriage hat, who can consider it and look at it. This means that the marriage state is honored and praised, and the marriage bed is kept pure. For there is no honor, nor adornment, nor beauty, nor purity above the word of God.
29 On the other hand, there are some clever ones who seek their extractions so that they do not become married and finally even drown in fornication; they pretend: Nevertheless much evil is done in marriage, and much is sinned against within it through anger, impatience, evil desire etc. No one denies that it is not so pure without sin. But again, give me some divine state that is without sin. In that way I would never have to preach a sermon, nor serve a servant or a maid; the authorities would never have to use the sword, nor a nobleman to ride a horse. Not yet, dear Squire! We will never be so pure here in this life that we would do any good work without sin. This article must stand: I believe the forgiveness of sins. And must say daily in the Our Father: Forgive us our trespasses etc.
(30) Therefore do not make me an exodus with this state: sin to one, sin to another; if thou wilt put one state into sin, put the other also into it; but if thou wilt pull one out, pull the other also out. I will never have preached a sermon, nor will I preach a sermon without sin; I will remain a sinner, and will keep the article, forgiveness of sins, and not deny it. If they are sometimes angry with one another, that is sin and wrong; but on the other hand the forgiveness of sins is so much the greater if they remain alone in it and do not go out, and live in the state to which God has called them. For though he may not depart without sin, yet God's word is so great that for its sake the state is also pure and holy. Otherwise I will say more. If you want to see after that how we all came from Adam
are born in sins, then the whole marriage state (even if it is right and well kept) is sinful and impure; just as with the heathen and unbelievers (who do not have God's word) all life and deeds are sinful and condemnable before God.
(31) Therefore, it should be noted here that he speaks of the marriage state in this way, and speaks from the mouth of God that it should be honest and pure and be called among Christians (if only adultery and fornication are avoided). For if one were to consider the case of Adä and our nature, he would not be pure and honest before God. For such carnal lust and other sinful inclinations would not have existed in paradise, nor would any man have been allowed to shun or be ashamed of another, nor to cover or adorn himself, but man and woman would have held themselves together without evil desire and lust, and would have conceived and given birth to children easily and without effort or worry, just as one breaks an apple from a tree. But now it is so, that neither man nor woman comes together with the other without the shameful heat. Therefore Psalm 51:7 says, "Behold, I am begotten of sinful seed, and my mother conceived me in sins." And all the saints who have been in wedlock must confess that they could not have been subjected to such unwholesomeness, that even Christ himself therefore did not want to be born naturally of man and woman, but chose a virgin as his mother, and sanctified her flesh and blood for this purpose, so that his birth would be a pure holy birth.
But now he says here that God will thus grace this estate, that though it be unclean by nature, yet it shall not be unclean among them that are Christians and have faith; but shall henceforth be called a pure marriage bed, not of itself, nor of our nature, but because God covereth it with his grace, and will not impute natural sin or uncleanness (planted in us by the devil). Therefore, go to and purify this estate with his word, so that it now becomes a divine holy estate: not so that he takes away the oestrus or bridal love or forbids conjugal works (as, indeed, such are not done without sin), as
The Pope's doctrine considered this state unclean and taught that one could not serve God and be married; but that is called cleansed, that God cleanses him by grace and does not impute sin (which is in nature). Just as he Acts 10, 15. to Petro: "What I have cleansed, do not make unclean." That which was otherwise unclean and forbidden becomes clean and holy only through God's words. So also here: because God makes this state pure with His word and calls it a chaste holy state, we should also consider it pure. But that it may be known that such purity does not come by nature, but by grace alone, which covers and wipes out natural impurity and sin; just as He does with all original sin in those who have been baptized and believe that through the Savior Christ they have forgiveness of sin and become children of eternal life. For although the same original sin still remains in the flesh, and is stirred up as long as we live on earth, yet we are called pure and holy (if we are Christians), because he makes the cross over it, and gives his Holy Spirit to it, who begins to sweep out sin, and always continues to do so, even unto death. So we are not without sin, and yet we have the verdict from heaven, spoken by the mouth of God, that we are now pure and holy, because we are covered and surrounded by the beautiful heaven of grace (which is Christ with his purity, righteousness and holiness spread over us), and through baptism we are incorporated into him and cling to him with faith.
(33) In the same way (I say) he does in the marriage state: although sin and evil desire run along, of which even the saints are not without, yet he covers his mantle over the spouses and pronounces them pure by his word. This is the beautiful covering laid over the bridal bed or marriage bed, so that it may be adorned and called a beautiful, pure, undefiled bed. Therefore, the apostle admonishes those who are in a position to think that because God speaks them pure and spreads such a covering over them, they should recognize this and be grateful for it, and see to it that their marriage bed, thus cleansed, washed and adorned by God, does not look like a beautiful, pure, undefiled bed.
who defile and stain with adultery or fornication.
34 Secondly, he not only pronounced the marriage bed clean, but also kept the marriage honest. This covers sinful lust and other infirmities even more, so that it not only means pure, but also honest and delicious, from God's word and command, which is further described above. This means not only that the bride and bridegroom are laid in bed and covered, but also that they are most beautifully adorned and most honestly led to the church. For here he puts on them his adornment (which is much more beautiful than any piece of gold, pearl or precious stone), namely, the fourth commandment: You shall honor your father and mother etc., which also means to honor the marriage state. Item, the sixth: Thou shalt not commit adultery etc. That he may command thee to cleave unto thy spouse, and to be content therewith; and that he may promise thee, when thou doest it, that it shall not be called sin, but a blessed estate, and that it shall be pleasing in his sight. Likewise Genesis 2 confirms and binds him so hard and fast, that he also abolishes the righteousness and authority of parents, or ever diminishes by this estate, when he says v. 24: "Therefore shall a man leave father and mother, and cleave to his wife." Item, soon after the fall he blesses them again, promises them the seed of the woman, and clothes and adorns them himself.
And we see for ourselves how God keeps this wretched flesh and blood (born and living in sins) in glory, that He blesses and makes fruitful forever, that nevertheless all saints also come from the marriage state and all life springs from it. Therefore also to the first mother Eve the name is given, which is called "living one" or "a mother of the living ones". And how could he praise him more highly than by calling him pure and holy in the New Testament? Therefore, we too should honor and glorify this status, and not do as the unclean swine do, thinking or speaking of it in any other way than of
their shameful fornication and adultery. These are disgraceful unfaithful people, who make their own nest, and, as swine, take pleasure in digging in the dung with their unclean trunks and rolling in their own shame. Christians, however, should keep this state honest and beautiful, as they see that God Himself does, and if there is anything unclean in it, cover and adorn it; just as God does not count sin and unclean by nature as sin, but puts a cover over it and makes it beautiful and honest.
(36) Neither shall we do likewise as the hostile wretches, who can reproach and rebuke this dear estate with hostility, saying that there is much unpleasantness, strife, toil and labor in it, and say: God save me from this estate; he that taketh a wife getteth a devil. These, on the other hand, are the poisonous dogs, who defile this dear estate with their blasphemous mouths and bite it with their poisonous teeth (just as those swine defile it with their trunks). For the devil always finds a great pretense against this estate, because he sees in it both the original sin, and also the misfortune, toil and labor that is laid upon it. He can make use of these two and would like to spoil and even ruin the married life of everyone. Therefore, we must exalt and praise this state all the more, honor, adorn and adorn it all the more; as we have heard that God Himself does. Let the devil, through his swine and his dogs, ravish and blaspheme, and take for reward what their God, the devil, will give them. But learn to look at it and hold it in such a way that it is cleansed and sanctified by God's word and honored as His work; and whoever is in it, take comfort in it and thank God that it is so pleasing to him, that he covers the bed or blanket over it, and that he adorns and praises it so gloriously and beautifully.
Let this be said in honor of the wedding and the married state. May God grant us grace to believe and live this way, amen.