neither of you being such good friends to our Church and Clergy will deny that is to joyn with me in my prayers for the Tribe of Levi Let thy Urim and thy Thummim be with thy holy One let the sound of Aarons bells be ever heard and the smell of his Pomegranates always perfume the Church of God and let there be found at last of the Tribe of Levi amongst us as of other Tribes twelve thousand sealed ones And that there may never want a supply of able and good men for the work of the Ministry Let the Rod of Aaron I mean the Universities ever flourish and yearly bud blossom and bring forth ripe Almonds Your very much obliged and very humble Servant T.H. July 1. 1673. TO THE READER Courteous Reader Two things I desire to premise First That I do not pretend in this small popular Tract to teach Men Brethren and Fathers of the Church them and their Wives Oeconomicks But yet shall beg leave to transcribe a passage out of Luthers Colloquia Mensalia which I desire our Married Clergy would consider viz. That one cause of the unmarried lives of Priests to wit in the Papacy was that the faults of the Priests wives were offensive so that when the Priests should reprove the wickedness of others then the people would hit them in the teeth again and say why did not they reform their own wicked wives And truly I could wish that I might have cause to say of all the Married Clergy and of all others in the state of Matrimony as confident I am I may say of many Ye have no need that I write unto you of Conjugal love and duties for ye your selves are taught of God to love one another To this purpose it was we advised by a Right Reverend Father of our Church viz. the B. of W. to all such as his Lordship married often to read over the Office of Marriage that so they might the better remember and dâ— their duties each to other And truly I could heartily wish and beg of the Right Reverend thâ— Fathers of our Church that if ever they should revise our Liturgy which even some good men desire that the duties of Man and Wife Parentâ— and Children Masters and Servants might bâ— appointed to be read on the Lords days after the reading of the Commandments out of the Epistle to the Ephesians or Colossians or both The second thing I desire to premise is that I do not present you with a Regular and Scholastical Discourse either of Marriage or of the difference betwixt the Church of England and Rome concerning the Marriage of Priests or persons in holy Orders but offer as to the latter some Collections out of Dr. Field his Fifth Book of the Church Dr. Fulk and Mr. Cartwright their Annotations on the Rhemists Testament on Matth. 8. and on the Epistles to Timothy and Titus Mr. Perkin ' s his Demonstration of the Problem Dr. John and Dr. Francis White concerning this Argument and others together with some of my own observations The truth which is on our Churches side is chiefty maintained and the Church of Rome confuted by the Authority of the holy Scriptures Bishop Hall in his Treatise of the Honour of the Married Clergy page 124. observes that the Church of Rome teaches contradictory to the Holy Scripture The Spirit of God saith he saith that a Bishop may be the husband of one wife the Church of Rome says a Bishop may not be the husband of any wife at all The Spirit of God says Marriage is honorable amongst all men the Church of Rome says Marriage is dishonorable to some The Spirit of God says to avoid fornication let every man have his wife the Church of Rome like a quick-huswife says some Order of men shall not have a wife though to avoid fornication So that as another Author notes amongst them Marriage only and not Fornication is inconsistent with the dignity of a Clergy-man and that Fornication has been allowed to Priests and Fryers in compensation for their restraint from Marriage three or four Whores as part of their spiritual Preferment And probably such foul Positions and Practices made Luther so zealous for Matrimony I took a wife said he therewith to upbraid the Devil and to confound the whoring in Popedom and in contempt of that nasty Letchery in Popedom which is very great and abominable Luth. Col. Mens The same Author tells us that under Pope Julius was exercised an abominable Letchery and Whoring in Rome At the same time saith he was a Cardinal that had a married wife the which being known he was constrained to forsake her but in less than a years space he took her again Now when the Cardinal dyed his wife wept bitterly and said she had an honest husband who contented himself with one woman The Citizens of Rome wondering to hear the same cryed O Sancta Maria for says Luther Chastity in those people is rare Venison And as we have the holy Text on our side so have we the Fifth Canon of the Apostles the testimony of Paphnutius a holy Bishop and with him concurred the whole Council of Nice the Sixth Council of Constantinople Can. 13. and the practice of the Greek Church to this day so far as to justifie the lawfulness of Priests officiating about the holy things of their Function notwithstanding their being married And further to justifie our Church and the practice of our Clergy we have the Concessions of many of our Adversaries as Franciscus a Sancta Clara observes that the Celibacy of Priests is not de Jure divino but by the Law of the Church and that the Pope may dispense therewith and some say doth dispense with the married Clergy in the Greek Church and others in his name 't is said have made Overtures of the like favour to the English Clergy and in case they would be his dutiful and obedient Sons be would be an Indulgent Father to them Lastly It is worth the consideration on our behalf â—n this matter that some of the best men of the Church of Rome such as Espencaeus Aeneas Sylvius Polydore Virgil Erasmus and others have desired that the Law of forced Celibacy might be taken away to prevent the great scandal that is given by the filthy lives of the Clergy Forasmuch then as the English Clergy have had the possession of their wives for above a thousand years after Christ and again have had them restored to them by Law at the Reformation they have no reason to quit their so just and ancient Rights and with one half of themselves and to be contented with Lemans instead of Wives and Nephews in room of Sons I shall dismiss thee Reader when I shall have told thee that the fig-leaves wherewith the Romanists seek to hide the nakedness of their Church in this cause are eafily blown away by Dr. Field of the Church Dr. Francis White his Defence of his Brother Dr. John White by Bishop Hall
of Parts Parentage Beauty Education Portion add that which makes the rest That they are not meer Cyphers in comparison and account namely Let her study to frame and compose her self what may be viz. lawfully to her Husband in conforming her Manners to his And let not the Husband delight to domineer over his Wife or please himself in shewing alwayes his Authority which none but fools will do saith Mr. J. Robinson Nabal was according to his Name a very Fool that was so churlish that neither Wife nor any body else could speak to him It was Abigails wisdom to bear patiently with him as it was the wisdom of Socrates that taught him to bear with his Zantippe her daily home-brawlings and thereby learned him to converse quietly and patiently with unreasonable perverse and peevish persons abroad The Husband should be able alway to guide counsel and direct the Wife to go before her as a man of knowledge His Wife he should use as a Comfort and Helper not saith Sir Walter Rawleigh as a Counsellor When Adam in Innocency he observes and Solomon the wisest of Temporal Princes took counsel of their Wives they both miscarried no such wonder as lamentable then that other men have been so allured to so many inconvenient and wicked practices by the perswasions of their Wives or other beloved Darlings If Adam in the state of perfection and Solomon the Son of David God's chosen Servant and himself a man endowed with the greatest wisdom did both of them disobey their Creator by the instigation and for the love they bear to a Woman It is not so wonderful c. that others have done the like So he CHAP. II. Of the Marriage of Persons in Holy Orders MArriage is honourable amongst all our Saviour graced a Wedding with his presence at Cana in Galilee John 2. and there manifested his Glory by working that Miracle of turning Water into Wine By which those who enter into that state might be put in mind that their sorrows should be turned into joys The Apostle St. Paul Ephes 5.32 makes Marriage a Mystery and to set out the relation and love 'twixt Christ and his Church And lastly 'T is thought Heaven is set out in Scripture by a Marriage-Feast Mat. 22. and the Joys of Heaven represented by the joys of a Wedding Rev. 19. The Nazarites that were whiter than Snow by reason of their vow of Holiness were not defiled by their Marriage Of the Marriage of Priests The High Priest under the Law was not forbidden to Marry onely he must have a Wife so and so qualified Aaron the High Priest the Saint of the Lord a Type of our Lord Christ was Married and the High Priest-hood annexed to his Family and entail'd on his posterity It is made a Character of Antiochus Epiphanes or Epimanes rather that he should not regard Women or desire Women in the Old Testament Dan. 11.37 And 't is made a mark of the Antichrist and branded for a Doctrine of Devils according to our Translators to forbid to Marry in the New Testament 1 Tim. 4.1 3. And as Priests and Prophets under the Law might lawfully marry so might the Holy Apostles and Ministers of our Lord and Saviour under our Gospel St. Peter the first or chief of the Apostles as to a primacy of Order was of this Order himself And St. Paul asserts his right and power to lead about a Wife or Sister as well as Cephas or Peter and other of the Apostles of Christ The Scripture foreseeing saith a Reverend Author the frensie of this Heresie viz. of forbidding marriage to Priests made the Wall higher and stronger of the lawful marriage of the Ministracy for besides the places wherein generally it is without all exception permitted to all Orders of men to Marry it speaketh especially of the lawful use of Marriage in the Ministry It speaks particularly of their Wives likewise of their Children which we remember not to be done in any other estates onely of the Kings it is said That they should not marry many Wives Wherefore the Ministers having not onely the common evidence which all other men have to hold their Wives by but also certain Specialties and special Charters whereby the quiet and peaceable possession of them is warranted it is evident that the Popish Court which impleadeth them and condemneth them for their Wives is a lawless Court So Mr. Cartwright in his Answer to the Rhem. Test Annot. on St. Mat. chap. 8. And amongst the Canons ascribed to the Apostles it is decreed Can. 5. If any Bishop Elder or Deacon under colour of Religion or reverence put away his Wife let him be separate from his Ministry if he abide in that mind let him be deposed This Canon saith the aforesaid Author is of a contrary spirit to you for you sever men from their Wives that sever themselves to the Ministry and it severeth men from the Ministry that sever themselves from their Wives under pretence of the Ministry Again Mr. Perkins in his demonstration of the Problem testifies That the Marriage of the Clergy for the space of 300 years after Christ was a thing alwayes freely allowed without prohibition or vow of perpetual continency Athanasius in his Epistle to Dracontius saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And there are many of the Bishops saith Athanasius that have not married and contrariwise many Monks we see daily become Fathers of Children Again you may observe many Bishops to be Fathers of Children and many Monks that have not sought to see their own Generation for this is lawful and the other is not forbidden but every one as he liketh let him undertake to live And whereas we read saith the Decretal c. 56. That the Sons of Priests have come to the honour of the Papacy we must not understand them to be begotten by Fornication but by lawful Marriage which was lawful for the Priests every where until the time of prohibition and in the East Churches is lawful to this day The singleness of Priest-hood was instituted because of the poverty of the Churches wanting sufficient means to maintain many families of Bishops Priests and Deacons D. 28. c. d. Syr. Pope Siricius about the year 385. forbad Priests Marriage in the Western Church But that Decree had no Universal Admission in the Church until the time of Pope Hildebrand 1007. And 't is observed that Bishops and Priests married in England until Anselms time that is about 1100 years after Christ no Law forbidding them 'T is an observation of Balsamon on the 5th Canon of the Apostles that it was lawful before the 6th Synod in Trullo for the Bishops to marry and have Wives yea after they had received that dignity And for my part I think Arch-Bishop Crammer the Martyr no less a Saint though once or twice married then if he had lived single Arch-Bishop Parker also as I have read was a married Man and our Church since the Reformation never forbad any of her Fathers
or Children to Marry eo nomine or else they could not be Presbyters Priests Bishops or Arch-Bishops It was smartly replyed by Dr. Featley when some had charged it on the Puritans that they were Calvinistae tantum non in Sabbato that their Adversaries were Papistae tantum non in uxoratu Certainly Bishop Mountague of Norwich Bishop Wren and Bishop Cozens were all Canonical Men and yet all Married And Bishop Laud was one of the first that for a while was thought to discountenance Marriage in men of Holy Orders saying That in disposing of Ecclesiastical Preferments he would prefer the single Man before the Married supposing the Abilities of the Persons were otherwise equal But Dr. Heylin that wrote his Life tells us by what means and method he sought to procure other apprehensions of him namely by negotiating not long after a Marriage between Mr. Thomas Turner one of his Chaplains and a Daughter of Windebank his old Friend and he officiated the whole service of their Marriage in his own Chappel at London-House joyning their Hands and giving the Nuptial Benediction and perfecting all other Ecclesiastical Rites which belong to the Solemnization of Matrimony by the Rules of this Church D. H. in his Life p. 212. I acknowledge that the Papists urge against the Marriage of our Clergy the ill manners and lives of their Children I confess I cannot tell of any one of our married Clergyes Wives that can match that Whore who they say was the Mother of Gratian Petrus Cornestor and Peter Lumbard yet doubtless there have been famous men who have been Children of Bishops the Fathers of the Church and of others in Holy Orders Bishop King late of Chichester was the Son of Bishop King sometime Bishop of London Bishop Hall late of Chester was the Son of Bishop Hall Bishop of Norwich whose Works praise him in the Gate And it hath been observed that five Knightly Families descended from Arch-Bishop Sands Arch-Bishop of York One of the greatest blots in our English Bishops Escutcheons in this matter is that Sir Toby Matthews a great Son of the Church of Rome was a Son of Arch-Bishop Matthews of York Let me add for the honour of our Married Clergy that Sir Francis Drake that famous Sea Captain was the Son of a Minister in Devonshire Many at this day have attained to the honour of Knighthood who owe their Estates to Bishops and Arch-Bishops And 't is no abatement to their Honour that the late reverend and renowned Bp. of Chester Bp. Wilkins his Mother was the Daughter of a Minister viz. Mr. John Dod a man famous in his Generation for Piety and a learned Man and who taught that excellent Critick of Christ-Church Mr. Gregory and the great Bishop of Winchester Hebrew It cannot be denyed that most of the Antient Writers cry up the excellency of Virginity and that divers of the Fathers pleading for the singleness of Priests do detract from the due praises of Marriage So Siricius stuck not to say That they that are in the flesh that is saith he in Matrimony cannot please God And Ambrose Offic. Lib. 1. Cap. ult will have the Priests to be pure from Marriage and to be contaminated by Marriage But the blessed Apostle St. Paul a greater than these allows a Bishop to be the Husband of one Wife that is one who liveth chastly with one Wife alone at one time And whereas some would oppose Marriage and Chastity the same Apostle in Titus 2.4 5. teaches us that Wedlock and Chastity are not divorced or separated each from other but may dwell together in the same House and the same Bosom exhorting Titus to teach the young Women to be sober to love their Husbands to love their Children to be discreet chast keepers at home good obedient to their own Husbands That which the Apostle Paul saith in 1 Cor. 7. That 't is good for a man not to touch a Woman is to be interpreted 'T is not expedient viz. that if a man have the gift of continency and with particular respect to the Christian Church in that time of Persecution for the Apostle saith Nevertheless to avoid Fornication let every Man have his own Wife and let every Woman have her own Husband Vers 2. of the same Chapter And Paphnutius a good Man and a Bishop in the Council of Nice though himself a single Person named an honest Matrimonial Conjunction a Godly Chastity The Celibaty or single-Life of the Clergy and others in the Popedom hath hindred much good and given great occasion to abominable sins St. Vlrich Bishop of Auspurgh in an Epistle which he wrote complained of a fearful Spectacle at Rome namely that after Pope Gregory had decreed and confirmed the unmarried kind of Life he intended to fish in a deep Pond at Rome hard by the Monastery of the Nuns the Water of the Pond being let out they found more than six thousand Heads of Children which had been cast into the Pond and drowned these were the fruits of the unmarried life Whereupon Pope Gregory amazed at the sight abolished that Decree concerning the unmarried kind of life but the succeeding Popes decreed the same again And in the Monastry of Neuburgh in Austria where there had been Nuns who were displaced for their ungodly leacherous doings as my Author saith when the Franciscan Fryers who were set therein intending to build digged up twelve great Pots in each Pot was a Carcase of a little Child We are told that the Multitude of Bastards are so great at Rome that they are constrained to build particular Monastries wherein they are brought up and that the Pope is named their Father and that when any great Processions are held in Rome the said Bastards go all before the Pope If the Pope be accounted Father to all the Bastards that may call the Whore of Babylon Mother I suppose he may have as many Children every day in the year as that Countess had at a Birth namely as many as there are dayes in the year Our Histories tell us That John de Crema aâ— Italian Cardinal was sent over from Rome to England with his bigness and bravery to bluster our English Clergy out of their Wives he made 't is said a most gaudy Oration in the commendation of Virginity and on the same Night at London he was caught in Bed with a Harlot See F. H. B. 3. p. 23. But the Cardinal might far sooner and easier be permitted his Concubine or Harlot than the English Clergy their lawful Wives the Pope being Judge We find afterwards that the Clergy paying a Fee or Fine to the Pope were tolerated their Concubines And this custom was so general and thought so justifiable that when one of the Priests pleaded he had no Concubine it was answered strait Habeat si velit solvat pecuniam He may have one if he will let him pay his Money Yea it has of late dayes been maintained That Marriage in a Clergy-Man is a
greater sin than Fornication if not than Adultery and yet their Schoolmen Thomas and Scotus that in other things differ agree in this That the single life of Priests is not by Scripture prohibited but by the Constitutions of the Church What shall we say to these Men that make it a greater sin to break the Law of the Church than the Commandments of God Sure we are 〈◊〉 Scripture prohibits the Marriage of Priests or Ministers of the Church The Apostles were no more enjoyned to forsake their Wives than their Father and Mother House and Land and that saying of our Saviour That whosoever did forsake father or mother or house and land or wife for his sake respected those that were not Apostles as well as them that were 'T is well noted by our Church Historian that Enoch walked with God and begat sons and daughters In which Enoch saith he met the threefold capacity of King Priest and Prophet He made not a Prayer the less for having a child the more and let us be but alike holy with Enoch and let others be more holy with Anselm and Dunstan that opposed the marriage of the Clergy here in England They say of the latter that he took the Devil by the nose how true that is I know not but in this point forbidding to marry being a doctrine of Devils 't is true enough that the Devil led him by the nose If that place be urged 1 Cor. 7.33 where the Apostle saith that he that is married careth for the things of the world how he may please his wife The Historian answers These things are vitia mâ—â—iti not matrimonli uxoris not uxoratus flowing neither from the exercise of marriage but only from the depraved use thereof which by Gods assistance and mans best endeavours may be rectified and amended So he That other saying of the Apostle in the same Chapter Defrand ye not one another except it be with consent for a time that ye may give your selves to fasting and prayer and come together again that Satan tempt you not by reason of your not having the gift of continency doth not justifie the Popish Prohibition of marriage for that Interdiction of the Marriage-bed is voluntary by mutual consent of the parties and temporary only durante bene placito But the Popish Prohibition is impulsive by the power of others and perpetual to continue during their lives F.H.b. 3. p. 22. Wo to them by whom so great offences and scandals come as do daily in the Papacy from the forbidding to marry If marriage be a Sacrament why should the Priest be Interdicted the use of it and if it be uncleanness as the Marcionites and Manichees taught why are the common people the Laity indulged it There were I know the Scripture saith Mat. 19.12 some that made themselves Eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven But our Saviour hath laid upon his Disciples whether Ministers or ordinary Christians no such unnecessary burthen If a man have the gift of continency which is not a common but a proper gift he may receive it but not in Origens sense who allegorized other Scriptures and 't is said took this in a literal sense by the same reason we should cut off our right hands and pluck out our right eyes and dismember our selves and destroy our bodies lest they should be occasions and instruments of sin to us But this way of interpreting those sayings of Christ in the Gospel would be contradictory to God's Law viz. the Sixth Commandment The Apostle Paul saith indeed Mortifie your members which are upon earth which he expounds to be fornication uncleanness evil concupiscence c. But whilst the Church of Rome would compell her Priests and Nuns to be like the Angels of Heaven neither marrying nor giving in marriage 't is too apparent they occasion many to be worse than Beasts and to be delivered over to the unclean Spirit or to be possessed with an unclean Devil It is marked that those who have neglected the remedy of marriage which God hath prescribed have in vain used other means and methods of cure In vain as to the cure of Concupiscence did St. Jerome strike his breast with stones St. Francis embrace and kiss the snow to cool himself and quench this fire of Lust and St. Benedict strip himself naked and lie among the thorns In vain do the Romish Priests and Nuns make Vows os Celibacy or Single-life they Vow that which is not in their power that is to live always single and yet chastely whereas the gift of continency is a proper gift and rarely given If they say they will pray for this gift But where hath God promised to hear such prayers it not being necessary to salvation to live chastely without using the remedy God gave not this gift to those he loved dearly to Moses to Aaron to Samuel to David to Isaiah c. Ignatius and Ambrose tell us that all the Apostles except John were married Philip the Evangelist had four Daughters and Platina in the Life of Cletus the first saith that St. Luke was married and that his wife was in Bithynia 'T is a fond saying an imagination of these mens brains that the Apostles had wives but that after their undertaking the Office of Apostleship they never accompanied with them they may as well say they left for ever all propriety in their children in their houses in their fisher-boats But we see that they did not St. John had his house wherein he entertained the Blessed Virgin Mary after the death of our Saviour Again as to the Vows of Monks and Nuns ordinarily they are made unwillingly or without knowledge of what they do and whether they shall have power to contain Men make their daughters Nuns at twelve years of age and their sons Monks at fourteen when they know not what Concupiscence meaneth and which after kindling burns more violently like cinders covered over with ashes at last break out violently into a flame Witness the unchaste lives of many that are under this Vow of Chastity But if they cannot contain it is better for them to marry than to burn better break an unnecessary and unlawful Vow than the Commandment of God better a Priest or Monk or Nun their Vow notwithstanding marry than to break the Commandments of God and their Vow in Baptism 'T is horrid to think that the Popes forbid marriage and permit or tolerate fornication and adultery in their Priests as a less crime than marriage Again That although a man that hath had two Wives be accounted irregular in the Papacy yet he that hath had divers Concubines is not as Pope Innocent III. declareth If for the strengthning of their unlawful Vows they urge that of the Apostle 1 Tim. 5.11 12. where he saith Refuse the young widows for when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ they will marry having damnation because they have broken their first faith This may be answered from the context
namely that younger widows should marry and guide the house and not be received into the Office of Deaconesses of being servants to the Church to relieve or look to the sick and to succour the poor because such persons if they should make such a promise to the Church to continue in that state all the days of their life would be apt to break it either by being wanton against Christ committing fornication or else would be under the power of their husband and so not be at liberty to serve the Church Now therefore the Apostle concludes that none should be received into the Church as Deaconesses under the age of threescore at which time saith one the Vow of not marrying would be ridiculous Therefore the Pope and his Clergy saith Dr. Fulk admitting other widows or virgins to profess or vow Continency do sin against the express Commandment of the H. Ghost Nor was the want of Monasteries and Monkish and Nunish Rules and Orders in the Apostles times the occasion of this Prohibition or restraint For saith my Author the Incontinency of Nuns and Monks in Cloysters and under all your Rules and Orders hath and doth daily give sufficient proof that Lust will not be kept out by the walls of your Monasteries nor by the Rules and Prescripts of your Orders So then as the experience of some younger widows that had followed after Satan was a sufficient reason to cause the Apostle to refuse all young widows to the Office of Deaconesses so the experience of so many Milch Nuns and filthy Monks and Friers teach us that no young persons are to be admitted to any Vow or Profession of perpetual Continency Let me add here what the said Doctor hath out of Wierus de Praestig Daemon l. 3. cap. 9 11. edit 3. That the Devil helpeth the Nuns in their abominable lusts in divers Nunneries in Germany namely in the Province of Colen where the Devil in the likeness of a Dog was seen to fall upon them in the day time in most beastly manner about the year of our Lord 1558. also in the Nunnery of Nazanth in Colen the Nuns in most filthy manner suffered the same illusion oftentimes in the sight and presence of many anno 1564. The state of the Church saith Gerson Chancellor of Paris is grown altogether bruitist and monstrous and should give an Item to the Overseers to enquire whether the Cloysters of Nuns be not become the Stews of Harlots and who would think saith the Author of the Triumph of Rome over despised Protestancy that so wise a man as Caesarius Branchedorus could so far over-reach as to say that the lusts of whoredom and gluttony and other shameful enormities had gotten such a head that young men did pati muliebria and Priests did facere virilia and that their Nuns did as it were openly profess unchastity and at last that whosoever was noted to be a shameless Adulterer or a wild Ruffian that had lavish'd out all his Patrimony anu pene ventre was sure to betake himself to the Court of Rome as his Sanctuary And again Who could have looked for such language to fall from so grave an Author as Espencaeus that our Ancestors wish'd that our Clerks should turn their wives into their sisters but now our age turns them into Lemmans and Whores and consequently their lawful issue into Bastards And again God hath taken away our sons and the Devil hath given us Nephews and could imagine that so learned and ingenious a â—â—n as Erasmus would so far wrong his neighbours as to say that a number of Monasteries are so degenerated that the Stews are more chaste and sober and modest then they The supplication of Beggars tender'd to King Henry VIII assured him that by virtue of the Sacred Votaries there were a hundred thousand Whores in this our Nation Fryar Menolem in the Pulpit cryed to the Clergy Ye my Masters of the Church do not damn your souls Ye have now Birds in the Cage that chirp to you by night yt know my meaning put them away So the Author of Romes Triumph over despised Protestancy which some say was Bishop Hall Our Church Historian tells us that King Stephen's fury fell most fiercely on the Dean and Canons of Pauls for crossing him in the choice of their Bishop for he sent and took their Focaria's that is Roger Hoveden being Interpreter their Concubines and cast them into the Tower of London where they continued many days not without much scorn and disgrace till at last those Canons ransom'd their liberty at a great rate F. Hist Book 3. p. 27. From these premises I hope we may safely draw this good and honest Conclusion That marriage is not to be prohibited to a whole Order of men within the pale of the Church neither directly nor by consequence and that 't is not expedient to suffer young men and young maids or women to vow Celibacy all their lives It was piously said of Pope Pius the second That for great causes Priests wives were taken from them but that for greater causes they ought to be restored to them again See Platina in the life of the said Pope It is better to marry than to burn saith St. Paul and the Canons of St. Paul's Church aforenamed had much better have had Wives than Focaria's Fire-makers or Concubines How horrible is it that the Church of Rome doth hold That 't is much better and less offence for a Priest to use another mans wife than to marry one of his own after that he hath once accepted and married our dear Mother the holy Church for his wife during life But leaving such Apocryphal Doctrine of the Romish Church I come to the Canon of the holy Scripture 1 Cor. 7.2 To avoid fornication let everyman and therefore Spiritual persons are not exempted have his own wife and every woman and therefore Nuns are not interdicted have her own husband and to avoid fornication it is enjoyned and therefore all persons of both Sexes who have not the gift of Continency are bound to marry nor can any Vow or Oath be vinculum iniquitatis i. e. a Bond of Iniquity and oblige against God's Law which saith Thou shalt not commit Adultery and It is better to marry than to burn Besides if two Oaths be taken and the one contradict the other the first is obligatory and not the second Now all Priests and Nuns in Baptism vowed to keep all God's Commandments and therefore the Seventh not to commit Adultery Those Scriptures Be ye holy for I am holy and Pray continually concern all Christians as well as Priests and Professed persons and therefore if they be interpreted to oblige from marriage they oblige the Laity as well as the Clergy to use the ordinary distinction Besides Aaron and his Sons though married persons were daily both morning and evening to attend upon the Sacrifice and to burn Incense every morning Exod. 30.7 and this Incense was a Type of Prayer
themselves to fasting and prayer and so come together again and this too was to be done by the mutual consent of man and wife Here may be condemned then the Romanists barring persons in holy Orders from Marriage or in case they have been married before from Conjugal fellowship with their wives whilst they live and that whether the wife will or no. We never read that the Apostles so left their wives nor that ever they asked their consent so to do and their saying that the Apostles although they were married yet after they were called to the Apostleship never did accompany with their wives any more is gratis dictum a meer say-so a fancy of their own brain without any good ground or foundation from Scripture or sound Reason or good Authority To the fourth Scripture viz. That 't is good for a man not to touch a woman I answer Good there is taken for expedient and that by reason of the present distress and the danger of persecution in a married state or condition in such times they should meet with troubles To the fifth viz. 2 Tim. 2.4 I say that Souldiers do not use whilst they are engaged in Military imployment to undertake and intangle themselves with merchandize or husbandry c. But this notwithstanding the Apostle Paul did work with his hands to maintain himself that he might not be chargeable to the Church of Corinth because of false Teachers who would have taken advantage if he had been chargeable to that Church And nevertheless the Romanists do allow persons in holy Orders to be Justices of the peace Lord Chancellors Ambassadors of Princes And the Apostle Paul did allow of the Apostle Peter his having a wife and I have been told that Ecclesiasticks wives take on them and off from their husbands the cares of the Houshold and Family so that by Marriage they are freed from worldly cares rather than immerst in them The case is not now with Clergy-men as in the Apostles days then the Church was poor and destitute now she is rich and her Officers are well provided with Houses Glebe and Tythes and necessaries for House-keeping and Hospitality and now a House-keeper especially in times of peace may be as expedient as it was inexpedient in the Apostles time and days of persecution To the sixth viz. Mat. 19.29 I answer That if the times be so that a man cannot be a good Christian or follower of Christ except he leave or forsake his wife house lands c. then he must leave all or deny all these things and relations rather than deny Christ and that this concerns the Laity as well as the Clergy If our Saviour had ever taught any such Doctrine as to part man and wife for the sake of his Religion and as part of his Religion how would the Scribes and Pharisees have replied unto him from his own mouth That which God hath joyned together let not man put asunder Besides it no where appears that the holy Apostles did wholly and perpetually forsake the society of their wives but rather when they were to fly took them with them in case they would accompany them in their travels To the seventh Scripture I say He that hath the gift of Continency may if he sees that Marriage will prove a snare to him and intangle him so in the cares of the world that he shall not be free and able to serve God as he ought I say let not 〈◊〉 marry but this is far from proving that all 〈◊〉 in holy Orders whether they have the gift or not should vow Continency or abstain from Marriage in case of a man 's not being able to contain The blessed Apostle who knew the mind of his and our Lord hath left us a general Rule Notwithstanding to avoid Fornication let every man have his own wife 1 Cor. 7.2 To the eighth Scripture viz. 1 Tim. 5.11 12. I answer That as therefore because younger widows were likely after they had made promises to live to their lives end as Deaconnesses to minister to the Church in attending the sick and weak to change their minds and marry perhaps to Infidel husbands and so be in danger of forsaking their Christian Religion and prove a great scandal to Christianity making it be ill thought of by the world therefore the Apostle Paul would not by any means have these younger widows admitted into such Offices but only such widows as were above threescore years old and so out of the danger of desires of marriage or altering their condition So I could heartily wish that no vow of Single life or Continency might be put upon young persons of either Sex upon pretence of admitting them to any Office or of separating them to any special devotion lest they be tempted to break such their Vows This is the right and best use we can make of this Testimony To the ninth Scripture viz. 1 Cor. 7.34 I say that it doth not condemn Marriage â—â— uncleanness or unholiness but it imports and implies that single persons taken off from the care and sollicitude about the world may more commodiously serve God and having the gift of Continency they may purely serve God with body and soul not being overcome with any temptation to Fornication or Uncleanness Not but that he or she that is married may and ought to be and oft-times are pure chaste and holy both in body and soul Marriage is honourable amongst all and the bed undefiled and the married as well as unmarried may keep their vessel in Sanctification and honour 1 Thess 4.4 To that about Carefulness c. I say That if God call his servants to a married condition he can and will if sought unto give Grace to overcome those lets and bear these persecutions they meet withal so as they may turn to helps and furtherances in the Kingdom of God and to a richer Crown of Glory in the same than the Virgins come unto which because they never wrestled with such mighty temptations cannot wear the like Crown of Victory that they do v. T. C. in loc The last place of Scripture that is alledged is Rev. 14.4 These are they which are not defiled with women for they are Virgins these are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth these were redeemed from amongst men being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb. By Virgins we are to understand all those pure Christians who had kept themselves pure from the Gnosticks Corruptions and Uncleanness or from Idolatry which is Spiritual Fornication and have loyally adhered to Christ the only Bridegroom of the Church 2 Cor. 11.2 By those that are said not to be defiled with women we must not understand those that are not married as if they that were in that state were defiled with women the Scripture reaches the contrary Heb. 13.4 The Marriage-bed is the bed undefiled and Christ is followed wheresoever he goeth not only by the blessed Saints that have led a single
lawful no Adultery no Uncleanness 3. That for a person at his Ordination to make an absolute vow of single life for all his days is a rash and unlawful Vow 4. That if a man have made such a Vow and find he have not nor cannot obtain the gift of Continency in that case he ought to marry 5. That the Marriage of Luther with Katherine Bora on supposition they could not contain was lawful 6. That the Church of Rome sins grievously to put a yoke upon the neck of the Disciples of Christ that officiate in holy things which neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear 7. That the Church of Rome may and ought to reverse and repeal her Laws Canons or Constitutions enjoyning Celibacy on the Clergy so contrary to Scripture the Apostles Canons the Council of Nice and the continued practice of the greatest part of the Christian Church to this day 8. That that Church of Rome's admitting young Youths and Virgins to make and engage in absolute solemn Vows that they will live all their days in Celibacy is a great snare a grievous sin and contrary to the Apostles advice concerning young widows 2 Tim. 5.14 is opposite to the prime blessing Crescite multiplicamini Increase and multiply is a great scandal to Religion is a damage to Kingdoms and States where such are educated idle and useless to the Publick is a weakning to their Countrey a destruction of their Race and Family an occasion of grievous and horrid lusts and wickednesses 9. That Marriage notwithstanding it is lawful to all Ranks Orders and Degrees of men and consequently to men in holy Orders yet it is no Sacrament 10. That the Church of Rome by advancing Matrimony to be a Sacrament lays claim to the Administration of it and to the judging and deciding Matrimonial causes and so brings store of grist to her Mill. And by forbidding Marriage to Priests doth inrich the Church with that which should otherwise be expended on wives and children and keeps the Clergy in a dependance on Rome having no such near relation as wives and children to withdraw their affections from it 11. That to assert that for a man in holy Orders suppose he have made a Vow of Celibacy to marry and to accompany with his wife is worse than Fornication yea than Adultery is an erroneous and dangerous Position contrary to the holy Scriptures to sound Reason to the Ancient Councils and Fathers vid. Austine de Bono viduitatis And if this Book be questioned whether it be his or not see his Epistle to one Bonifacius who had vowed a Monastical retired and single life and yet afterwards did marry his words are these Thy wife hindereth me that I cannot exhort thee to this kind of life without whose consent it is not lawful for thee to contain c. Of this opinion also was Jerome the great Patron of Virginity Ep. 47. de Suspecto contubernio vitando Of the same judgement was Epiphanius Haeres 61. who indeed maketh it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. a thing evil and such as God will judge and punish to forget neglect and not perform a Vow made to God but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. a thing which casteth men into the condemnation of Hell fire and plungeth them in everlasting destruction as to live in Adultery He thinks it better for a man though he have committed a fault in breaking his Vow which he may repent of and be forgiven to marry than by living in continual Adultery to add one sin to another and to plunge himself in endless destruction And 't is an absurd and irrational thing for any man to say that 't is better to burn than to marry because either of his Vow or of the Command of the Church for neither a Vow of our own nor any Command of the Church can make void the Law of God if he cannot contain let him marry and to avoid Fornication let every man have his own wife Our Saviour saith nothing to the contrary when he saith he that can receive it let him receive it We speak only of those who cannot receive it who cannot contain and in such case we must not make void the Laws of God against Adultery and Fornication in seeking to confirm or observe the Laws and Constitutions of the Church In this case Whether it be better to obey God or man judge ye I shall not here go about to shew that the Answers of Bellarmine and others to the Authorities that are brought on our side are but fig-leaves to cover the nakedness of their cause and easily blown away but I shall direct my Reader to Bp. Jewel his Defence of his Apology Dr. Field of the Church B. 5. ch 57. to Mr. Cartwright and Dr. Fulk's Answer to the Rhemist's Testam on Matth. 8. and on 1 Tim. 3.8 to Calixtus de Conjugio Clericorum to Bishop Hall's Honour of the married Clergy Nor shall I go about to answer the particular sayings of some Fathers to the disparagement of Marriage It sufficeth that the Church of England hath the holy Scripture and the Ancient Church on her side the desires of many Learned Worthy men that have been in the Church of Rome the practice of the greatest number of Christian Churches in the world at this day so far as to justifie the lawfulness of married men to be admitted to holy Orders and to officiate in and about holy things notwithstanding their having wives and that the blessing of God is and hath been upon our married Clergy no other Nation excelling them in Learning Piety or the gift of Preaching that saying still holding good notwithstanding their Marriage Stupor mundi Clerus Britannicus If it be objected That this Marriage doth spoil our Charity and Hospitality and proves a temptation to Covetousness I answer That Solomon Eccles 4.7 8. says There is a vanity and dissatisfaction and unprofitableness in heaping up riches even by single persons And 't is observed by a sober and learned Casuist of our own Mr. Capel That single persons and those that have but few children oft-times prove more covetous than those that are married and have many children alledging that the latter are by daily and frequent experiences and layings out habituated to part with money and so a peny comes not as from some others like a drop of blood from their hearts I say further that great things have been done by the married Clergy and other married persons in our days if it were necessary we might instance in particulars It hath been said That Pater Noster built Churches and Our Father pull'd them down but it hath been proved and published to the world that as many and great Acts of Piety and Charity have been done in England since the Reformation of Religion as in the like number of years in times of Popery And whatever is or may be said or pretended to the contrary as if the allowing of the marriage of the Clergy was an impoverishment of the Church and Country and a damage to the Kingdom I dare say they that would remove the married Clergy to bring in the Monks could never be able to recompence the Churches their Countrys and the Kings and Kingdoms damage Who can more earnestly pray for and endeavour the weal of their own King and Country than those who have such great bonds and interests to desire and endeavour it And who is like to be most at home amongst his own people if not he that hath amongst them continually a wife the desire of his eyes and children which he loves as his own eyes FINIS