We may feel that because our technology is superior to that of previous generations, so our morality must have evolved to be superior too. We or our friends may want to embrace some of the acts these authors claim God forbids. In our hearts, we are convinced our sexuality is ours alone. Asking some of us to purify our hearts to live by the standards of these authors would be like asking us to burn down our own homes.

Language changes. So do we – and so do those we love and need to love. In an attempt to manage change, we may get stuck. This essay is an invitation to enlarge our frame of reference – to “purify the words of the tribe” (Stephane Mallarme, 1842–1898) – and more – to seek the One who can purify our hearts. Hang on!

Between 1596 and 1599 Shakespeare wrote Henry IV, Part 2. In one scene, Master Fang confronts Falstaff: Sir John, I arrest you at the suit of Mistress Quickly. When Falstaff demeans Mistress Quickly, she tartly excoriates him as: a bastardly rogue, a honey-suckle villain, a honey-seed rogue, a honey-seed, a man-queller, and a woman-queller and a hemp-seed! And bawdy Falstaff replies: You scullion! You rampallian! You fustilarian! I’ll tickle your catastrophe!

We sense the energy of these words – but, beyond that they don’t communicate much more than the snap crackle pop of a curse (see Attachment 1 for some definitions).

1n 1643, about a half a century after Henry IV, Parliament appointed 151 scholars as the architects of the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms. Ten lords, twenty community leaders and 121 churchmen went to work. After completing the Confession and Shorter Catechism, they compiled the Larger Catechism – approved April 14, 1648 – nearly three years and ten months after they had begun. Here is a sample of their work – a description of what is forbidden by: “You shall not commit adultery.”

Q. 139 What are the sins forbidden in the seventh commandment? A. The sins forbidden in the seventh commandment, besides the neglect of the duties required, [780] are:

· adultery,

· fornication,[781]

· rape,

· incest,[782]

· sodomy, and all unnatural lusts;[783]

· all unclean imaginations, thoughts, purposes, and affections;[784]

· all corrupt or filthy communications, or listening thereunto;[785]

· wanton looks,[786]

· impudent or light behavior, immodest apparel;[787]

· prohibiting of lawful,[788] and

· dispensing with unlawful marriages;[789]

· allowing, tolerating, keeping of stews, and resorting to them;[790]

· entangling vows of single life, [791]

· undue delay of marriage,[792]

· having more wives or husbands than one at the same time;[793]

· unjust divorce, [794] or desertion; [795]

· idleness, gluttony, drunkenness, [796]

· unchaste company; [797]

· lascivious songs, books, pictures, dancings, stage plays;[798] and

· all other provocations to, or acts of uncleanness, either in ourselves or others.[799]

· (see the attachment if you would like to reference the King James Bible verses noted by these footnotes).

Think of the energy behind these words! Think of the purity of heart needed! What if Mary and Joseph had not taken to heart such convictions? How would Jesus have come into our world? What do the words from the Catechism do in your heart?

Like portions of Shakespeare, some of these words from the Larger Catechism do not communicate. Here are two words – “dispensing” and “stews” – that have changed significantly. When the authors outlawed “dispensing with unlawful marriages,” they meant – not “doing away with unlawful marriages” – but “giving official sanction to them”– giving unlawful marriages a “dispensation.” The authors were using Scriptural authority to protest marriages approved by mere human authority – marriages God has forbidden. Secondly, we wonder: “What’s wrong with a ‘stew’?” In Henry IV, Part 2, Falstaff goes to the “stews” to take a wife. Stews had been regulated in parts of greater London since 1161. “Stews” were houses of prostitution – some had hot tubs. To someone from Shakespeare’s era the phrase, “dispensing” with “stews,” would mean that select houses of prostitution had official sanction. See how language can change!

There is more than changing vocabulary that arrests our hearts and minds with this Catechism. Let’s follow that pull and take a look at why these words are so provocative.

First, we could focus on areas of agreement between what we legislate and what these authors taught. We still understand many of their prohibitions – like: rape, incest, polygamy and polyandry. The University of Montana (as of 8/12) requires that students who want to resister for a second semester of classes must watch seven videos and pass a quiz. The passing threshold? – 100%! The videos explain Montana law relating to rape, sexual assault, the legal definition of consent, sexual predators, and ways to reduce the risk of being assaulted.

Beyond areas where our culture agrees with the authors, we might raise questions about the morality taught by them. Why did they list “undue delay of marriage?” What do they mean by “unjust divorce” and more?

And, comparing our culture with these standards, we see that, like language, morality has changed. For example, in the US, the number of babies born to unmarried mothers increased eight-fold from 1960 to 2008. We naturally wonder: “How could the authors even consider such a broad attempt toward public morality? Didn’t they know that ‘stews’ – even by another name – and other violations of their standards would continue?”

Some of us would go further by contradicting the authors – by rejecting biblical morality. “Why should we be bound by the traditions of an ancient semi-nomadic desert people?” Or, more pertinent to this essay: “Why give credence to the ethics of 151 men who lived in the Puritan era?”

We may raise questions like these because we have never encountered people who hold such clear standards. Or we may want to disengage – to deny – to defy what they wrote – because the authors raise high standards. We may feel that because our technology is superior to that of previous generations, so our morality must have evolved to be superior too. We or our friends may want to embrace some of the acts these authors claim God forbids. In our hearts, we are convinced our sexuality is ours alone. Asking some of us to purify our hearts to live by the standards of these authors would be like asking us to burn down our own homes.

But, these authors would respond: “You live in a self-directed culture that is blind. You may not smell smoke yet, but your house is already on fire. Leave!”

These worldly saints were well-educated people. The most common word in their writings was “joy.” They dressed well, sang loudly, danced and worked hard. They liked sex (in marriage) and sports (just not on Sundays!).

Still, it is difficult for us to hear the voices respected in another era. Even the call: “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17) – with the understanding that these authors of the Catechism are that kind of iron – may not be enough.

We would do well to humbly ask: What if these authors had a better sense of what makes life work than we do? What if they were not simply spouting “puritanical” ideas –- but understood more of the character of God than we do? What about making a priority of giving God pleasure in the way we handle our sexuality?

As we become willing to discuss these questions, we may hear these authors. They knew what Scripture said and did not compromise that reality. And, they knew what life was like. In Calvin’s Geneva, the three most common violations of the law were fornication, adultery and theft – in that order.

A pastor I heard preaching about Advent gave me his notes: I read recently in a book on the history of the development of Christmas in America that in the late 1600s the Puritans strongly resisted the celebration of Christmas. That seemed strange to me until I realized that in England the celebration of the holiday had brought with it all kinds of wild partying and drinking and sexual promiscuity.

The same pattern was being repeated in the colonies, and the Puritans resisted it for good reason.

One historical proof of how things really were in the early days of our nation can be gleaned from a survey of births in the colonies at that time. More than 60% of the babies born were born seven months or less after their parents’ weddings.

As we more clearly see their failures and ours, we may also understand their and our desperate need for Christ.

They saw their need for Christ. They asked: Q. 95. Of what use is the moral law to all men? A. The moral law is of use to all men,

• to inform them of the holy nature and the will of God, and of their duty, binding them to walk accordingly;
• to convince them of their disability to keep it, and of the sinful pollution of their nature, hearts, and lives:
• to humble them in the sense of their sin and misery, and thereby help them to a clearer sight of the need they have of Christ, and of the perfection of his obedience.

So, we come to Christ. Did Jesus tell the woman taken in adultery, “Sin no more and I won’t condemn you?” No, that is backwards. He told her the opposite: “Neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin (John 8:11). Let’s begin with Jesus – not the law. That is not to neglect the law – the moral law shows us the unchanging character of our Lord. But beginning with Jesus shows that we must completely depend upon his mercy.

Vos wrote: “The imperative (what God commands) rests on the indicative (what God has done –- for example, securing redemption for sinners like us on the cross –- that indicative is the Grandest Deed of all) and the order is not reversible.” Got it? “The imperative rests on the indicative and the order is not reversible.” Our inexorable drive for self-justification tries to get at life backwards. Naturally, we foolishly focus upon principles—laws –- standards – which we are convinced will help us navigate through life. For some, perhaps especially young competitors, those disciplines are alluring because they appear to give an edge. Others pursue promised intimacies. But, the life and the connections we crave are not found through temporary performance or false intimacies. We and this world are broken. We must fail – to some extent – due to our own inadequacies – due to those of others – due to the nature of our present world – or due to the larger challenges we may take on – where we knowingly risk significant failure.Imperatives minus The Indicative equals impossibility.

But, The Indicative is real. In the cross of Jesus, we find the culmination of God’s focused intensity over time upon us. We rest there – and there find the energy we need to love and live. Instead of responding to failure by redoubling our efforts or by attempting to withdraw, let’s rejoice in the coming of Christ. He is the One who connects us. In him, we find there is a Redeemer. We come before him, like the adulteress, caught in our own sin. And like her, in him, Christian, we find lasting hope and the power we need. He has defeated the enemies of our souls. The promise is: The God of peacewill soon crush Satan under your feet (Romans 16:20).

Soon we will hear him speak these words: I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.  Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.  But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death (Revelation 21:6-8).

Steve Bostrom, a Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church in America, lives in Helena, MT, and regularly writes “Essays into the Lively Lexicon” in which he explores the meaning of words to guide us along in life. If you would like to receive these essays, you can contact Steve directly.

PS From time to time spell check has its own built in humor. A young woman once wrote a long letter to me as her pastor. As she wrote about sexual purity, she attempted to quote the Larger Catechism’s phrase: “The duties required in the Seventh commandment are: Marriage by those who have not the gift of continence…” However, what she wrote was: “Marriage by those who have not the gift of contingency!”

Attachment: “Stew, Dispensation”

Terms of contempt from Shakespeare:

• A honey-suckle (homicidal) villain, a honey-seed (homicide) rogue, a man-queller (man killer) , and a woman-queller (woman killer) and
• A hemp-seed! The “hempseed” can refer to the hemp used to make ropes and in this case would mean “someone who deserves to be hanged”  However, it can also refer to something homemade, or roughly made in a country fashion – so it can refer to someone unsophisticated.
• Scullion –  “low-ranking domestic servant who performs menial kitchen tasks,” late 15c., perhaps from Middle French escouillon “a swab, cloth.”
• Rampallian – obsolete – A term of contempt; probably it means a “rampant (wild) or wanton woman; a good-for-nothing scoundrel, wretch,” origin unknown.
• Fustilarian – obsolete – A “low fellow, a stinkard; a scoundrel,” origin unknown.
• I’ll tickle your catastrophe  – “catastrophe” simply meant – ‘conclusion, end-point’. Shakespeare here means I’ll  “smack your end-point – i.e. your behind.”

Footnotes for 1611 King James Bible verses cited to support the understanding held by the authors of the Seventh Commandment in the Larger Catechism:

[780] Proverbs 5:7. Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.

[781] Hebrews 13:4. Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. Galatians 5:19. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness.

[782] 2 Samuel 13:14. Howbeit he would not hearken unto her voice: but, being stronger than she, forced her, and lay with her. 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.

[783] Romans 1:24, 26-27. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves…. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. Leviticus 20:15-16. And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast. And if a woman approach unto any beast, and lie down thereto, thou shalt kill the woman, and the beast: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

[784] Matthew 5:28. But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Matthew 15:19. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. Colossians 3:5. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

[785] Ephesians 5:3-4. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. Proverbs 7:5, 21-22. That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words…. With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him. He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks.

[786] Isaiah 3:16. Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet. 2 Peter 2:14. Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children.

[787] Proverbs 7:10, 13. And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtle of heart…. So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him….

[788] 1 Timothy 4:3. Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.

[789] Leviticus 18:1-21. Mark 6:18. For John had said unto Herod, It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother’s wife. 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.

[790] 1 Kings 15:12. And he took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made. 2 Kings 23:7. And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove. Deuteronomy 23:17-18. There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel. Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the LORD thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the LORD thy God. Leviticus 19:29. Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore; lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness. Jeremiah 5:7. How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses. Proverbs 7:24-27. Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths. For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her. Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.

[791] Matthew 19:10-11. His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry. But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given.

[792] 1 Corinthians 7:7-9. For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that. I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn. Genesis 38:26. And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath been more righteous than I; because that I gave her not to Shelah my son. And he knew her again no more.

[793] Malachi 2:14-15. Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. Matthew 19:5. And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?

[794] Malachi 2:16. For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously. Matthew 5:32. 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.

[795] 1 Corinthians 7:12-13. But to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away. And the woman which hath an husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him.

[796] Ezekiel 16:49. Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. Proverbs 23:30-33. They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.

[797] Genesis 39:19. And it came to pass, when his master heard the words of his wife, which she spake unto him, saying, After this manner did thy servant to me; that his wrath was kindled. Proverbs 5:8. Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house.

[798] Ephesians 5:4. Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. Ezekiel 23:14-16. And that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion, Girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity: And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea. Isaiah 23:15-17. And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot. Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered. And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth. Isaiah 3:16. Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet. Mark 6:22. And when the daughter of the said Herodias came in, and danced, and pleased Herod and them that sat with him, the king said unto the damsel, Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee. Romans 13:13. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. 1 Peter 4:3. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries.

[799] 2 Kings 9:30. And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window. Jeremiah 4:30. And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life. Ezekiel 23:40. And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to come from far, unto whom a messenger was sent; and, lo, they came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments.