Selected quad for the lemma: church_n
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A02534
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Epistles the first volume: Containing II. decads. By Ioseph Hall; Epistles. Vol. 1
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Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656.
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1608
(1608)
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STC 12661.7; ESTC S103637
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49,336
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198
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wish himself rather a desolate Hermite or a close prisoner Euery euill we see doth either vexe or infect vs. Your retirednesse auoids this yet so as it equally escapes all the euills of Solitarinesse You are full of friends whose society intermixed with your closenes makes you to want little of publique The Desert is too wilde the City too populous the Country is only fit for rest I knowe there want not som obscure corners so haunted with dulness that as they yield no outward vnquietnes so no inward coÌ„tentment Yours is none of those but such as striues rather with the pleasure of it to require the solitarinesse The Court is for honour the City for gain the Country for quietnesse A blessing that neede not in the iudgement of the wisest yield to the other two Yea how many haue we knowen that hauing nothing but a cote of thatch to hide theÌ„ froÌ„ heauen yet haue pittied the carefull pomp of the mighty How much more may those which haue full hands and quiet hearts pitty them both I do not so much praise you in this as wonder at you I know many vpon whom the conscience of their wants forces a necessary obscurity who if they can steale a vertue out of necessity it is well but I no where knowe so excellent parts shrouded in such willing secrecie The worlde knowes you and wants you and yet you are voluÌ„tarily hid Loue your self stil make much of this shadow vntill our coÌ„mon mother call you forth to her necessary seruice charge you to neglect your selfe to pleasure her Which once don you know where to finde Peace Whether others applaud you I am sure you shall your self and I shall still magnifie you and what I can imitate you TO Mr. IOHN WHITING EP. 3. An Apologeticall discourse of the Mariage of Ecclesiasticall persons I Knowe not whether this quarrell bee worthy of an answer or rather of a silent scorne or if an answere whether merry or serious I doe not willingly suffer my penne to wade into questions Yet this argument seemes shallowe enough for an Epistle If I free not this Truth let me be punished with a diuorce Som idle table-talk cals vs to plead for our wiues Perhaps som gallants grudge vs one who can be coÌ„tent to allow theÌ„selues more If they thought vviues curses they would afford theÌ„ vs. Our mariage is censured I speak boldly of none but them which neuer knew to liue chastly in mariage who neuer knew Gratians true distinction of Virginitie What care we for their ceÌ„sure where God approues But some perhaps maintain it out of iudgemeÌ„t Bid them make much of that which Paul tells them is a doctrine of Diuels Were it not for this opinioÌ„ the church of Rome would want one euideÌ„t braÌ„d of her Antichristianisme Let their shauelings speak for theÌ„selues vpon whom their vnlawfull Vow hath forced a wilfull impossible necessity I leaue them to scan the olde rule of In turpi voto muta decretum if they had not rather Cautè si non castè Euen moderate Papists will graunt vs free because not bound by vow no not so farre as those olde Germans pro posse et nosse Or what care wee if they grant it not while wee holde vs firme to that sure rule of Basil the great He that forbids what God inioynes or inioynes what God forbids let him bee accursed I passe not what I heare men or Angels say while I hear God say Let him be the husband of one wife That one word shal coÌ„firme me against the barking of all impure mouths He that made mariage saies it is honorable what care wee for the dishonour of those that corrupt it yea that which Nature noteth with shame God mentions with honour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. with the title of opus castuÌ„ Paphnutius of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chastity But if God should be iudge of this controuersie it were soone at an end who in the time euen of that legall strictnesse allowed wedlocke to the ministers of his sanctuarie Let Cardinall Panormitan be heard speake Continencie saith he in Clergie men is neither of the substance of their order or appointed by any law of GOD. And Gratian out of Augustine yet more Their mariage sayth hee is neither forbidden by legall nor Euangelicall nor Apostolike authoritie God neuer imposed this law of CoÌ„tinence who then The Church As if a good spouse would gainesay what her husband willeth But how well Heare O ye Papists the iudgement of your owne Cardinall and confesse your mouths stopped But I beleeue saith hee it were for the good and safetie of many soules and would be an whole some law that those which would might marrie For that as experience teacheth vs a contrarie effect followes vpon that lawe of Continencie since at this day they liue not spiritually neither are cleane but are defiled with vnlawfull copulation to their great sinne whereas with their owne wife it might bee chastitie Is this a Cardinall thinke you or an Huguenot But if this red hat bee not worthie of respect Let a Pope himself speake out of Peters Chaire Pius the second as learned as hath sitte in that roome this thousande yeares Marriage sayth hee vpon great reason was taken from the Clergie but vpon greater reason is to bee restored What neede wee other iudge How iust this law is you see see now how ancient For some doctrines haue nothing to plead for them but Time Age hath beene an old refuge for Falshood Tertullians rule is true That which is first is truest What the auncient Iewish Prelates did Moses is cleare what did the Apostles Doth not Paul tell vs that both the rest of the Apostles and the brethren of the Lord and Cephas had wiues and which is more carried them still along in their trauells For that childish elusion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who canne abide but to laugh at Doth not Clemens of Alexandria a father not of more antiquitie then credit tell vs that Peter Philip and Paul himselfe were maried and this last tho vnlikest how is it confirmed by Ignatius in his Epistle to the Philadelphians Yea their owne Cardinall learned Caietane doth both auouch and euince it This was their practice what was their Constitution Looke in these Canons which the Romish Church fathers vpon the Apostles and Franciscus â—urrian their lesuite sweates to defend it in a whole volume There you finde Canon 5. enacted that no Bishoppe Presbyter Deacon shall forsake his wife 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in pretence of religion vpon paine of deposition It would moue laughter to see how the Iesuites gnaw vpon this bone and suck-in nothing but the blood of their owne iawes while the sixt Generall Councell auerres and proclaimes this sense truely Apostolicall in spight of all contradiction Follow the times now and descende lower
what did the ages succeeding Search recordes What-euer some palpably-foysted Epistles of Popes insinuate they married without scruple of any contrarie iniunction Many of those ancients admired virginitie but imposed it not Amongst the rest Origen tho himselfe a wilfull Eunuch is faine to perswade the sonnes of Clergie men not to bee proud of their Parentage After this when the fathers of the Nicene Councell went about to enact a law of Continency Socrates the Historian expresses it thus It seemed good sayth hee to the Bishoppes to bring in a new law into the Church It was then newe and they but would haue brought it in therefore before it was not where we know how Paphnutius himselfe a Virgin famous for holinesse famous for miracles rising 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cryed loud that they ought not to lay this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heauie yoke vpon men of the Church His Arguments wan assent Hee spake and preuailed So this libertie was still continued and confirmed If this bee not plaine enough Holy Athanasius a witnesse past exception shall serue for a thousand histories till his age Many Bishoppes sayth hee haue not married and contrarily Monkes haue beene fathers of children as contrarily you see Bishoppes the fathers of children and Monkes that haue not sought posteritie Would you yet haue instances of the former and the next age Here you haue Numidicus the Martyr a maried Presbyter Cheremon of Nilus a married Bishoppe Demetrianus Bishop of Antioch whose sonne Domnus succeeded Paulus Samosatenus Philoâ—omus and Phileas BB. of the Thmuites Gabinius brother of Eutychianus BB. of Rome The father of Nazianzen Basil and the other Gregorie Hilarius and that good Spiridion Bishop of Cyprus of whom Sozomen giues so direct testimony To omit others what shold I speake of many Bishoppes of Rome whose sonnes not spurious as now a-dayes but as Pope Vrban himselfe witnesses lawfully begot in wedlocke followed their fathers in the Pontificall chaire The reason whereof that Pope himself ingenuously rendereth for that mariage was euery where lawfull to the Clergy before the prohibition which must needes bee late and in the Easterne Church to this day is allowed What need we more testimonies or more exaÌ„ples What euer Heliodorus Bishop of Trica a man fitter for a wanton loue-storie then a Church controuersie brought into the Church of Thessalia Socrates thus flatly writes of those Bishoppes of his time For many of them in the place and function of Bishops beget children of their lawful wiues This was practiced see what was decreed in that sixt general CouÌ„cel of Constantinople to this purpose to the confusion of all replyers If any Protestant Church in Christendome can make a more peremptory more full and absolute more cautelous decree for the mariage of Ecclesiastical persons let mee bee condemned as faithlesse A place I grant miserably handled by our aduersaries and because they cannot blemish it enough indignely torne out of the Councels What dare not impudency doe Against all evidences of Greeke Copies against their owne Gratian against pleas of antiquity This is the readiest way Whom they cannot answer to burn what they cannot shift off to blot out and to cut the knot which they cannot vntie The Romanists of the next age were somewhat more equall who seeing themselues pressed with so flat a decree confirmed by authoritie of Emperours as would abide no deniall began to distinguish vpon the point limiting this libertie onely to the Easterne Church and granting that all the Clergy of the East might marry not theirs So Pope Steuen the second freely confesses The tradition saith hee of the Easterne Churches is otherwise then that of the Roman Church For their Priests Deacons or Subdeacons are maryed but in this Church or the Western no one of the Clergie froÌ„ the Subdeacon to the Bishop hath leaue to mary Liberally but not enough and if he yield this why not more shall that bee lawefull in the East which in the West is not Do the Gospels or laws of equity alter according to the foure corners of the world doth God make differeÌ„ce betwixt Greece EnglaÌ„d If it be lawefull why not every where if vnlawful why is it done any where So then you see we differ not from the Church in this but from the Romish Church But this sacred councel doth not only vniuersally approue this practice with paine of deposition to the gainsayers but auouches it for a decree Apostolical Iudge now whether this one authority be not enough to weigh down an hundred pety Conuenticles and many legions if ther had beene many of priuate coÌ„tradictions Thus for seauen hundred yeares you finde nothing but open freedom All the scuffling arose in the eight age wherein yet this violent imposition found many learned aduersaries durst not be obtruded at once Lo eueÌ„ then Gregorie the third writing to the BBs. of Bauaria giues this disiunct charge Let none keep an harlot or a coÌ„cubine but either let him liue chastly or marrie a wife whom it shall not be lawfull for him to forsake According to that rule of Clerks cited from Isidore and renued in the Councell of Mentz to the perpetual shame of our iuggling aduersaries Nothing can argue guiltines so much as vniust expurgations Isidore sayth Let them containe or let them marie but one They cite him Let them containe and leaue out the rest somewhat worse theÌ„ the Diuell cited scripture But I might haue spared al this labor of writing could I perswade whosoeuer either doubts or denies this to reade-ouer that one Epistle which Huldericus BB. of Auspurge wrote learnedly and vehemently to Pope Nicolas the first in this subiect which if it do not answer all cauils satisfie all Readers and conuince all not wilfull aduersaries let mee bee cast in so iust a cause There you shal see how iust how expedient how ancient this liberty is together with the feeble and iniurious grounds of forced continencie Reade it and see whether you can desire a better aduocate After him so strongly did he plead so happily for two hundred years more this freedom stil blessed those parts yet not without extreme opposition Histories are witnesses of the busie not vnlearned coÌ„bats of those times in this argument But now when the body of Antichristianisme began to be complete and to stand vp in his absolute shape after a thousand yeares from Christ this libertie which before wauered vnder Nicolas 1. now by the hands of Leo 9. Nicolas 2. and that brand of hell Gregorie 7. was vtterly ruined wiues debarred single life vrged A good turne for whoremaisters saith Auentine who now for one wife might haue six hundred Bed-fellowes But how approued of the better sort appeares besides that the Churches did ring of him ech-where for Antichrist in that at the Councell of Wormes the French and