…duoutry.
The Seventh Commandment: Adultery and Lust
The Master asks about the commandment against adultery, and the Scholar explains that it forbids not only the act but also lustful thoughts and looks.
Master. What do you think of the commandment not to commit adultery?1 Scholar.2 Indeed, this commandment covers many things. For it forbids not only talking unchastely with a man's wife, or with any other woman, but also touching her—yes, even casting an eye at her wantonness, or looking at her with a lustful gaze; or wooing her by any dishonest means, whether ourselves or through anyone else on our behalf. Finally, every kind of filthy and straying lust is barred here.✦34
Read the original English
Master. The … not commiting aduoutry, what thinkest tho… …
…. Forsothe this com… conteyneth manye thinges For it forbid… not only to talke … mans wy…e, or any other womā vnthastly: bu… also to touche her, yea, or to cast an eye at her wāton…e: o… wyth lustfull looke to beholde her: or by anye … ▪ nest meane to w…oe her▪ … ther our selues, or any other in our behalfe: finally hear in is debarred al kind of … thy, & strayeng lust▪
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.5.28 — But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Notes
- 1 ↩The EEBO-TCP witness is damaged: 'The … not commiting aduoutry, what thinkest tho… …'. The lacuna after 'The' is restored as 'commandment' from the chapter topic, the Scholar's reply about 'this commandment,' and neighboring Decalogue questions; 'thinkest tho…' is restored as 'thinkest thou,' with the lost close rendered as asking the Scholar's sense of that commandment.
- 2 ↩Speaker label is wholly lacunate in the EEBO-TCP witness.
- 3 ↩Lacuna before residual 'nest'; restored as 'dishonest'.
- 4 ↩Lacuna before residual 'thy' restored as 'filthy'.
John Ponet's Short Catechisme (1553) companion
Rule yourself daily, not just on retreat
Chosen Portion turns the mirror into a daily practice — a short reading and examining question each morning before you lead anyone.
Chosen Portion makes the mirror daily: the ruler-formation questions this collection preserves become a two-minute morning examination in the app.
- A daily formation reading drawn from centuries of counsel to those in authority
- One pointed examination question a day — two minutes, before the meetings start
- Track your practice over weeks and watch the examined life become a habit