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
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
A TREATISE OF MARRIAGE WITH A Defence of the 32th Article of Religion of the Church of England VIZ. Bishops Priests and Deacons are not commanded by God's Law either to Vow the state of single life or to abstain from Marriage therefore it is lawful for them as for all other men to marry at their own discretion as they shall judge the same to serve better to godliness Heb. 13.6 Marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled But Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge 1 Tim. 3.2 A Bishop then must be blameless the husband of one wife 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theophylact. on Tit. 1.6 London Printed by J. D. and are to be sold by R. Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul's Church-yard 1673. To the Worshipful Robert Raworth Esq SIR THe Argument of this small Treatise is so great that I presume I need not Apologize for it 'T is Marriage the Ordinance and Institution of God himself that which the Church of Rome holds a Sacrament and the Church of England with other Reformed Churches a Mystery 'T is that which our Blessed Lord and Saviour Emmanuel honoured by being born though of a Virgin yet of one that was married to a Husband by his presence at and by working his first Miracle of turning water into Wine at the Celebration of a Marriage at Cana in Galilee 'T is that which the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures honours by comparing therein the joys of Heaven to a Marriage-Feast and by making the Bosom of Abraham a married person and the Father of the Faithful the Receptacle of all Saints in Heaven whether they were married or single on earth 'T is a subject of which that great Scholar Erasmus hath written namely both de Laudibus and de Institutione Matrimonii as has also Ludovicus Vives de Conjugii Origine utilitate 'T is that which the zealous Martyr Dr. Taylor blessed God for and in commendation of which that Saint of the Lord which one calls that Angel of God Mr. Bradford who when he was in Prison and there being some hopes of his deliverance and freedom being asked what he would do in case he should be released Answered he would marry being I question not of that holy Bishop Paphnutius his mind who at the Council of Nice declar'd That the society of man and wife was a holy chastity 'T is the shame of this Generation that so many men and women live in common as if they understood that noted saying All things are common amongst Friends of a Community of Women and of Wives also as of other goods My wish therefore is and it shall be my prayer that the uncleanness and filthiness of this age may not be punished with a Deluge of Popery I mean by God's giving us over to Spiritual Adultery or the Idolatry of the Church of Rome And now having mentioned that Church give me leave to say that she is justly branded with the name of The Mother of Fornications and those too Corporal as well as Spiritual What other Church in the world allows of publick Stews and Brothel-houses where but amongst her Sons was it pleaded in their excuse that they are as necessary as a Pump in a ship and a Sink in a house to keep all clean And although they would make us believe that their Church is pure and clean yea both Militant and Triumphant in their holy Societies of Monks and Nuns that these are like the Nazarites whiter than the snow Yet if we may give credit to their own Authors such as Polydore Virgil Book 7. cap. 5. de Inventoribus rerum speaking of their Orders of Monks he saith That it were behoveful that those dregs of men were cut off and burnt and that with their filth they should no longer defile God's service And N. de Clemangis a Doctor of Paris who in his Book de Corrupto statu Ecclesiae c. 21. saith of the Nuns Shame forbiddeth me to speak of them lest I should mention a company of Virgins dedicated to God but stewed deceitful impudent Whores with their Fornications and Incestuous works For what I pray are Nunneries now adays but the execrable Brothel-houses of Venus the Harbours of wanton young Women where they satisfie their lust that now the vailing of a Nun is all one as if you prostituted her openly to be a whore So he I say if we may believe these and other their own Authors our Church who hath none of these Convents for single persons and who allows of the married life of the Clergy is more holy and honorable than Rome And I doubt not but our Ministers though married multitudes of them will present themselves and their modest chaste and pious Consorts with innumerable others of their Congregations as chaste Virgins to Christ And whereas the Papists tell us there are three special Crowns in Heaven one for them that overcome the World another for them that overcome the Flesh and a third for them that overcome the Devil If so I dare promise many of our Doctors though married to each of them three Crowns in Heaven far beyond the Popes Triple Crown on Earth namely to our Learned and Laborious Doctors who by their Writings overcome the Devil to our married Doctors who by their chaste Wedlock overcome the Flesh to our couragious Doctors who are ready if God call them to Martyrdom to ascend to Heaven like Elijah in a fiery Chariot and so overcome the world I say to these I dare promise three Crowns in Heaven besides a fourth to them and their Religious Modest and Chaste Consorts viz. The Crown of Righteousness which is laid up in Heaven for all them that love the appearance of Jesus Christ Sir Although neither the subject I treat on in the following Discourse viz. Marriage nor the Church of England her Doctrine in the 32 Article of Religion which I defend allowing persons in holy Orders to marry need any Apology yet I humbly beg your pardon for any weakness or miscarriage you may find in my manner of treating of these things And I humbly present this small Piece to you coming into the World from as it were under your roof and beg your excuse at least if not your Approbation and Patronage of it If any of our Romish Adversaries should quarrel the Doctrine of our Church on this occasion you have such Learned Friends and Acquaintance and those who have opportunities advantages and courage sufficient to defend their chaste Mother the Church of England and their own chaste Wives against the greatest Goliah amongst the Romish Philistines Sir I humbly thank you for your favours to me and your care of the welfare of our Society and shall according as my duty binds me pray for you and for your good your pious charitable Consort that God would crown you with all the blessings of this and the other World Sir I have one thing more to intreat of you both which I am confident
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-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
else I dye It may further be considered that if yet good Parents have divers towardly Children yet if they have one prophane person as Esau it may break your hearts more than all the rest can comfort you Like as in the Natural body there is more grief by the aking of some one part though but a tooth than ease and comfort in all the rest that are found and well And this consideration though it ought not to make us judge Children no blessings or not the gift of God or to be lightly esteemed yet may it put us upon being as earnest for to have our Children to be born again as to be born at first to have them Gods Children by Grace as ours by nature and to have his Image and likeness on their Souls as ours on their bodies When the Parents are in Covenant with God and endeavour their utmost to educate their Children in the fear of God it usually follows that their labour is not in vain in the Lord. The Israelites the holy Scriptures tell us their Sons and their Daughters which they had born unto God they sacrified unto Devils Psal 106. 37. Which in a Spiritual sense we do saith one if we either neglect instructing them or praying to God for them or walking exemplarily as we ought before them or correcting them duly or any such means as by which the seeds of Grace may grow and prosper in them Rob. Ess p. 532 533. CHAP. VIII Of Adultery and Fornication c. ALL sin is accounted filthiness and uncleanness and compared to the filthiest things Scum Mire Vomit but this sin is signanter call'd the fin of Uncleanness 't is caled also Abomination Ezek. 22.11 and Neighing Jer. 5.8 These sins are usually secret sins and therefore most frequently committed pleasing sins stollen waters are sweet and bread eaten in secret and men are prone to forget these sins the Whore wipes her mouth and thinks all well 'T is observed that the Sacrifice which was offer'd for the woman suspected of Adultery was call'd an Offering of Memorial because it was not offer'd to put away sin but to bring it to mind or to remembrance if it was committed Adultery by God's Law was punished with death either as the Rabbins say by strangling or they were to be thrust thorough with a Javelin as Phineas executed Zimry or Cosby or they were to be stoned with stones if the Damsel that was defiled was betrothed see Deut. 22.23 24. or else by burning with fire if she that played the Whore was a Priests Daughter and in her Fathers house Lev. 21.19 One expounds this of hot Lead poured into her mouth This punishment was called Combustio animae this punishment they say was used in after-times in imitation too of Gods punishing with Lightning whereby the outward parts are not hurt and the inward burnt up as in the example of Nadab and Abihu If any wonder at what was said before viz. that the punishment of her that was betrothed in case she was defiled or vitiated that it was greater by God's Law than of her that was married Grotius gives this Reason Because she was not in her husbands custody as stealing a sheep out of the field was punished more severely than stealing a sheep out of the fold Another Author gives these Reasons 1. Because she gave away her Virginity which her husband most esteemed 2. She brake her promise in so doing Deut. 22.23 3. She wrought folly in her Fathers house Deut. 22.19 4. She was not only dishonest to her husband in her first love but dishonoured also her first-born whose honour and priviledge amongst the Jews was very great and you must not say her punishment should be less because she was not another mans wife for she is called a neighbours wife Deut. 22.24 and therefore she is said v. 22. to be married to an husband as if the party were her husband before If so we know God accounts Idolatry commited by his people Advltery although the Church is but as it were espoused and betrothed to him here and the wedding and wedding-supper to be in Heaven Amongst the Nations in some Countrys Adultery was punished by the loss of both eyes in some by death Amongst the Egyptians by cutting off the nose if he vitiated a free woman In some Country illi virilia execantur The which also saith Alexander ab Alexandro was used amongst the Romans The same Author Gen. D. l. 4. c. 1. tells us The Partbians punish no crime more grievously that Opilius Macrinus condemned such to be burnt with fire and that amongst the Arabians and other Nations Adultery was always punished capitally That divers Philosophers have accounted Adultery a greater crime than Perjury In the Christian Church of old those that admitted such to Communion who had fallen after Baptism excepted those who were guilty of Adultery Murther and Idolatry Many and great are the threats against such sinners in the holy Scripture disgrace and dishonour is threatned to their name wasting and consumption to their bodies and estates a dart shall strike through their liver Lust is lodged in the Liver and there it is especially punished Whoremongers and Adulterers especially God will judge Hebr. 13.4 Neither Fornicators nor Idolaters c. shall inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.9 Dr. Heylin our Historiographer writing of them any divisions in Hungary into Romanists Lutherans Calvinists Yet saith he all these different parties do agree in this to punish Adultery and Fornication with no less a punishment than death the Father forcing his Daughter the Husband his wife and the Brother his Sister to the place of Execution H. G. p. 542. King James in his Advice to the Prince with much zeal dehorts him from this sin of Uncleanness p. 74. c. Hear God saith this English Solomon this King-Preacher commanding by the mouth of St. Paul to abstain from Fornication declaring that the Fornicator shall not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven and by the mouth of St. John reckoning out Fornication amongst other grievous sins that debars the Committers amongst Dogs and Swine from entry into that spiritual and heavenly Jerusalem And because saith he sibbest examples touches us nearest consider the difference of success that God granted in the Marriages of the King my Grandfather and me your own Father the reward of his incontinency proceeding from his evil Education being the sudden death at one time of two pleasant young Princes and a Daughter only born to succeed him whom he had never the hap so much as once to see or bless before his death leaving a double curse behind him to the Land both a Woman of Sex and a new born Babe of age to Reign over them And as for the blessing God hath bestowed on me in granting me both a greater Continency and the fruits following thereupon you self and sib folks to you are praise be God sufficient witnesses And page 81. Have the King my Grandfathers example
before your eyes who by his Adultery bred the wreck of his lawful Daughter and Heir in begetting that Bastard who unnaturally rebelled and procured the ruine of his own Sovereign and Sister And this brings to mind that excellent Captain-General Gideon who had by his Wives Threescore and ten Sons and by his Concubine but one viz. Abimelech and he slew all these Threescore and ten Sons except Joash who escaped his hands Judg. chap. 8 9. 'T is a sin to beget a Bastard and a shame to be born one 'T is noted on Job 31. 10. where Job saith Let my wife grind unto another man and let others bow down upon her the Septuagint render the last words Let my children be abased Jeptha though a valiant and a gallant and good man yet is recorded the base Son of Gilead Judg. 11.1 'T is a reproach to be thus born in Scripture-Heraldry notwithstanding I have been told that William the Conquerer King of England did use to stile himself Gulielmus Bastardus Rex Angliae c. God forbad a Bastard to enter into the Congregation of the Lord to bear any Office until the tenth Generation Deut. 23.3 Yet that such persons may not be discouraged let them know we have one example though but one and that is the example of Jeptha a Judge and a valiant man and one eminent for his Faith Hebr. 11.32 ranked amongst David Samuel and the Prophets 'T is a blot to be base born but this may be taken away in a great measure by good Education And then saith one this should be no more a blot unto them than if they wanted a hand or a leg and as we blame not the stollen seed when it is sowen and groweth up but those who stole the seed so we should not blame the Child begotten out of Marriage if he follow not his Fathers footsteps but only his Father who begat him There hath been saith he profitable men in the Church who have been basely born as Lumbard Gratian and Petrus Comestor the Sons of one Whore and Darius Nothus among the Persian Kings and Hercules Weem 3 Vol. p. 145. I know the Jews stood upon their Pantofles and took it in great dudgion that our Saviour should tell them they did not act like the Children of Abraham they retort presently John 8.1 We are not born of fornication Yet I should disswade from casting such an ones birth into his dish or into his teeth because never in his power to help it And I should exhort such who are so base born to endeavour to be born again and then they are truly Noble and Honorable the Sons of God and Co-heirs with Jeptha the Saint of the Lord. CHAP. IX Of Second Marriages and of the Qualifications of Ministers or Priests Wives OF old they were accounted Bigamists or Digamists who had two Wives not only at one and the same time but successively one after another and such were enjoyned Penance by the Council of Laodicea and Neo-Caesarea and by the latter Council a Presbyter was forbidden to be present at the Wedding-feast lest he should seem to consent to such Marriage and Bigamists were not received to the Communion without prayer and fasting and repentance first enjoyned and exercised And by the ancient Canons Bigamists were not to be admitted to holy Orders Concil Andegavense Can. 11. Concil Romanum an 467. Can. 2. Concil Arelatense 3. Decr. 2. Concil Hispalense 2. Cap. 4. and the same is forbidden in the Apostolical Canons Can. 17. And by the same Canons such as otherwise might be capable of being Bishops Presbyters and Deacons are made incapable of being such if they married a Widow or a Whore or one that was cast out by her own Husband aut aliquam de iis quae publicis spectaculis mancipantur Can. 18. or one that was a notorious frequenter of the Spectacles in that time By the Law of God the High Priest was not to marry a Widow or a divorced Woman or prophane or an Harlot But he shall take saith the holy Text a Virgin of his own people to wife Lev. 21.14 Another Priest was forbidden to take a Wife that was a Whore or prophane or any woman put away from her husband Lev. 21.7 but was not forbidden to marry a Widow If the woman was not a Daughter of Israel or had married to one that it was not lawful for her to marry or had beeen defiled by constraint or unwillingly or had been suspected of Whoredom by her Husband though she had not been put to drink the water of Jealousie yet by the Law according to Matrimony the Priest might not lawfully marry with her The Priests of the old Law were not forbidden except only the High Priest a special type of Christ to marry a Widow The High Priest was not to marry a Widow but a Virgin 't is thought that so he might have her first love and 2. lest she should prove with child and bring in a strange seed into the Priesthood provided against Lev. 21.15 Again he must not marry a divorced woman because it was conjectured she was put away for some miscarriage or misdemeanor 3. He must not marry one defiled either voluntarily or violently such a blot must not lie on his wife lest it stain his Function The Law allows the High Priest to marry but a Virgin Because saith one she may be more easily guided and ruled and won to frame her self to duty and obedience And in Ezek. 44.22 he was allowed to marry the Widow of a Priest for it may be presumed that such an one hath been already trained to Modesty to Sobriety to a chaste and sweet Behaviour beseeming the wife of a Priest Now although the Ministers of the New Testament are not prohibited but expresly allowed to marry yet must their wives be grave not slanderers sober faithful in all things and he that is in holy Orders must be sure to order and rule his own house well having his children in subjection with all gravity 1 Tim. 3.4 11. This care being had they being married saith my Author shall be as holy and honorable in their Function as the Priests of the Old Testament who being married were said to have the Crown of God upon their heads and to offer the bread of God and to be after a special manner holy And where 't is said 1 Tim. 3.2 Tit. 1.16 that a Bishop must be the husband of one wife c. the meaning must be that he must not be married to two wives at once according to the custom of the Jews nor have a Concubine together with a lawful wife accordng to the practice of the Gentiles or he might not marry a second woman after he had put away the first without any lawful cause But it seems to be very improbable that the Apostle should seclude from the Calling of a Bishop or Presbyter one that married a second wife after the death of his former Observe it is
advanced to the Bishoprick Gregory the Great was Grandchild to Foelix Pope of Rome who was Pope 590. and he is said to have cancell'd his Decree against Priests Marriages upon the finding of 600 Infants skulls in a fish-pond Pope Adrian II. was Son to Bishop Tallerus had a Daughter by his Wife Stephania both which were killed after he was Pope which was an 863. Christopher Patriarch of Jerusalem about the year 900. had children viz. two Sons and two Daughters In Armenia the Secular Priests are all enjoyned to marry else they must not be admitted to the Priesthood Neque permittitur aliquis Sacerdotium assumere qui uxorem non duxit Berchard p. 95. The Prebendaries of Cathedrals out of which number they choose their Bishop are not allowed to marry In Biscay they allow not any Priest to live in their Villages except â—he bring his Concubine with him conceiving it impossible for them to keep their wives unto themseves if the Curate hath not a woman of his own D. H. G. p. 256. At the Council of Trent the Emperor and Duke of Parma made instance to the Pope and said it would be of great moment to grant that Priests that are separated because they are married may be reconciled and retain their wives and that hereafter where there is not a sufficient number of Priests married men of good life and fame may be admitted to the Priesthood Vid. History of the Council of Trent p. 813. And we find in the History of that Council that the more common Opinion was the Marriage of Priests might be dispensed withal 'T is true that this was thought by some dangerous because that married Priests would turn their affections and love to their wives and children and by consequence to their house and Country so that the strict dependance which the Clergy hath on the Apostolick See would cease and to grant Marriage to Priests would destroy the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy and make the Pope to be Bishop of Rome only Council of Trent p. 680. Yea the famous saying of Pope Pius II. was then in the mouth of many That Priests were by the Occidental Church forbid to marry for good reason but there was stronger reason to restore Marriage to them again The two great Reasons urged at the Council were Scandal given by incontinent Priests and want of continent persons fit to exercise the Ministry Hist of C. Trent p. 679 806. It was in the same Council alledged that the Constitution of the Church forbidding to marry might be taken away by the Pope or in case the Constitution remain still the Pope may dispense with it They alledged the examples of those who have been dispensed with and the use of Antiquity that if a Priest did marry the Marriage was good but the man was separated from the Ministry C. T. p. 679. And whereas as some thought that persons who were bound to Continency by solemn Vow could not be dispensed withal by the Pope others maintain'd that the Pope might dispense with these also and marvelled at those who granting the dispensation of simple Vows did deny that of Solemn as if it were not most clear that every Solemnization is de Jure positivo They brought places out of S. Austin by which it doth manifestly appear that in his time some Monks did marry and howsoever it was thought they offended in it yet the Marriage was lawful and St. Austine reprehendeth those who did separate them And as for Marriage of Priests Innocent II. was the first that ordained there should be a nullity in the Marriage This Pope sate in the Sea 1130. Innocent III. who bore a heavy hand over our King John and Interdicted the Kingdom for six years together was the terrible man against Priests Marriages Whereupon we have these Verses by an Oxford man Prisciana Regula penitus cassatur Sacerdos per hic haec olim declinatur Nunc per hic solum articulatur Cum per nostrum praesulem hec amo veatur Prid. Intro to Histri 123. Old Priscians Rule henceforth must hold no more 'T was hic haec Sacerdos heretofore But now poor Hic must lie alone perforce For his dear Haec our Prelate doth divorce This Pope Innocent was Pope first an 1198. If we may credit History divers Popes have had their Concubines Sixtus IV. provided for his Concubine Tiresia shooes covered with Pearl builded Stews at Rome which brought him 2000 Duckets yearly in-come he granted the Cardinal S. Lucia the use of unnatural lusts for three months in the year June July and August Innocent the eight a Genoway he had divers base children Vid. B. Prid. Hist and gave a great dowry to his Daughter Theodorina 'T is said of him Octo Nocens pueros genuit totidemque puellas Hunc merito poteris dicere Roma Patrem Eight Lads and twice four Girls Nocens got And might not Rome him Father term why not Pope Alexander the sixth heaped all upon his Bastards and carnally used his own Daughter Lucretia Hence those Verses Hic jacet in Tumulo Lucretia nomine sed re Thais Alexandri filia sponsa nurus Lucrece by name here liâ—s but Thais in life Pope Alexander's Child Spouse and sons wife This Pope entred on the Popedom an 1492. Paul the third prostituted his Sister Julia Fornesia to Alexander the Sixth that he might be made Cardinal committed incest with his own Daughter Constantia and poysoned her husband Bosius Sforsia to enjoy her the more freely he became Pope 1534. B. Prid. Hist p. 145. Yet I shall grant 1. That single life is in some respects to be preferred as most free ordinarily from trouble and care and in times of persecution and to unfixed persons as to their habitations affording better opportunity to serve God or to suffer for him and fewer and lesser temptations to deny him 2. I grant that those who have made a vow of Celibacy before or at their entrance into the Ministry or on some other occasion if they have they have the gift of Continency are bound to keep it 3. That 't is possible some Votaries of both Sexes may be free from the gross vices and crimes charged on most of our Votaries in the days of K. H. 8. at the dissolution of Abbeys 4. That in Colledges for training up youth in Learning it is expedient that those that are Tutors and Readers to youth be during such their employment single 5. That Presbyters or Priests at times of extraordinary Humiliation and at times of more solemn Celebration of the Lord's Supper shall do well to observe the old Canons that forbid the society of their Wives for a time But then I assert and avow with the Author to the Hebrews chap. 13.4 1. That Marriage is honorable among all men and therefore among persons in holy Orders and the bed undefiled And therefore 2. That the society of a Clergy-man with his wife whether he was married to her before his Ordination or after is