And I will make thee swear by the LORD, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell:
Ver. 3. I will make thee swear by the Lord.] Who alone is the proper object of an oath. Isa 65:16 Howbeit, in lawful contracts with an infidel or idolater, we may allow such oaths, whereby they swear by false gods; as those of old, that swore by God and Malcom; and the Turks' great oath now-a-days is, By the immortal God, and by the four hundred prophets, by Mohammed, by his father's soul, by his own children, and by the sword wherewith he is girt, &c. a
That thou shalt not take a wife unto my son, &c.] Lest they should "turn away" his heart "from following God," Deu 7:3-4 as those "foreign wives" did Solomon, Neh 13:26 whom therefore God Almighty punished both in himself and his successor Rehoboam, his only son (that we read of) by so many wives and concubines; and he was none of the wisest, nor happiest: tam auspicata sunt coniugia contra Dei legem contracta, saith the divine chronologer. "Be not unequally yoked," 2Co 6:14 therefore, with any untamed heifer that bears not Christ's yoke. If religion be any other than a cipher, how dare we disregard it in our most important choice? I wish Manoah could speak so loud, saith a reverend divine, b that all our Israelites might hear him. "Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all God's people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines?" Jdg 14:3 What is the reason the Pope will not dispense in Spain or Italy, if a Papist marry a Protestant (yet here they will); but in hope to draw more to them? For they well know what power wives many times get over their husbands, as Jezebel did over Ahab; the hen was suffered to crow, and all went as she would have it. And therefore the Legates in the Council of Trent were blamed for allowing the article of priests' marriage to be disputed, as dangerous, c because it is plain that married priests will turn their affections and love to wife and children; and, by consequence, to their house and country. So that the strict dependence that the clergy hath upon the apostolic See would cease: and to grant marriage to priests would destroy the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and make the Pope to be Bishop of Rome only.
a Turk. Hist., 345.
b Dr Hall
c History of Council of Trent. 680.