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
not said that a Bishop must be such a one as hath been the husband of one wife in time past but he useth the present time both in Timothy and Titus The High Priest himself under the Law might have a wife after his first wife if she was dead if he married a maid which was a figure of Christs Spouse the Church which was to be presented holy and as a chaste Virgin to Christ By the same reason that they may drive Ministers from their wives they may also deprive them of all use of wine and they may deprive Ministers of all use of meat and command them to fast always that they may be fit to pray always as well as alway to abstain from their wives We never read that the Levites that taught in the Synagogues into the place of which our Churches succeed were barred from the company of their wives And consider it may be as necessary to marry the second time as the first and sometime and in some cases perhaps more necessary says Dr. Hamond The wife may dye presently after Marriage and without Children and the second Marriage in that case tending as much to the ends of Matrimony Comfort of life Propagation remedy of Lust as the former can be supposed to do it would then be strange to debar a Bishop or Presbyter in such a condition Chrysostome and Theodoret with divers others plainly and clearly teach this place to be understood as we do that a Bishop should not have two wives at once Erasmus upon the place disliked the then practice of the Church of Rome in forbidding Marriage to Bishops and Priests Admittitur saith he incestus admittitur homicida admittitur pirata admittitur Sodomita sacrilegus parricida denique quis non solus digamus excluditur ab hoc honore qui solus nihil admisit And further considering the times and the ill consequence of the single life amongst their Clergy and Monks he inclines to think they had better much to allow Matrimony to these persons Nunc caelibes habet Mundus quamplurimos castos perpaucos Grotius saith I confess that amongst all Nations second Marriages were less honoured and amongst some these were restrained by punishments And that Tertullian is fierce against second Marriages condemning them as unlawful and interprets this of the Apostle against a Bishops being twice married Notwithstanding which Authorities let the Scripture and right Reason be heard and what hath been premised on this Argument considered and you will have good ground and cause not to call good evil I meann not to condem second Marriages whether in Lay-men or Clergy And if a Bishop may without sin marry a second wife after he has buried his former surely then he may lawfully marry at first If he cannot contain let him marry he sinneth not only let him marry in the Lord an honest grave sober person that may adorn and not blemish his holy Function The Romanists say there are three special Crowns reserved in Heaven one for Martyrs a second for Virgins and a third for Doctors The Virgins overcome the flesh the Martyrs overcome the World and the Doctors overcome the Devil They have no such Crown for married persons but although they have none for them God hath laid up for them a Crown of Righteousness even the like Crown of Righteousness for every one that loves the appearing of Christ the Judge of quick and dead as that Virgin Apostle as most say the Doctor of the Gentiles and eminent Martyr St. Paul 2 Tim. 4.7 8. Virginity saith one is not a Virtue in it self and no more acceptable to God than Marriage is and this he proves Because all Virtues by Repentance may be restored But Virginity cannot be restored and therefore it is not a Virtue Again Because all Virtues in time and place are commanded But Virginity is left free and only Paul gives his advice to it 1 Cor. 7. therefore it is not a Virtue The same Author saith That Virginity is not good in it self but good for another end when a man having the gift of Continency lives a single life that he may be more fit or free to serve God The Papists glossing on the Parable of the Sower say That Virginity bringeth forth an hundred-fold Widowhood seventy fold and Marriage but thirty-fold Great is the difference 'twixt the Ancient Church of God amongst the Jews and the present Church of Rome in this matter there in Psalm 78.63 The Virgins were not given in Marriage or were not praised so the Hebrew signifies But in this Church the Virgins which are not married are most praised Celibacy is made here a state of Perfection or Supererogation and Meritorious but if but one half be true which we find in our Chronicles it had been happy for our Votaries very many of them at least that they had never known their Cells and Cloysters they might have gone as near a way to Heaven out of the World as out of their Monasteries Bale in his Book of the Acts of the Roman Bishops saith That when the Kings Visitors in England in the year 1538. visited the Abbies they found in some of their Styes rather than Religious Houses five in some ten in some twenty Sodomites and Adulterers of which some kept five some seven some twenty Harlots And a later Historian tells us That Barkley Nuns were all with child at once and how Sir Henry Colt caused a Buckstal to be set in the narrowest place of the Marsh from Cheshnut Nunnery to Waltham Abby and therein took the Monks of Waltham as they passed homewards in the night and the next morning he brought and presented them to the King namely to King Hen. 8. who had often seen sweeter but never fatter Venison D.F.H. 6 b. p. 317. And 't is reported that Dr. Smith who disputed at Oxford against Peter Martyr and who had written a Book for the Celibacy of Priests was taken himself at Oxford in the manner or in the very act This is enough to prove That 't is much easier to make an Eloquent Speech or write a Learned Book in Commendation of Single-life and of Chastity in that condition than to live so If you Object the practice and praise of the Monks of Antient times I answer That the Monks of old times and our present Votaries of the Church of Rome are very different 1. They lived single without any Vow of Continency these are Votaries 2. They had Callings and got their bread in the sweat of their brows these live idle most of them and like Drones consume the honey which others have gathered 3. They did not look upon that condition as a state of greater perfection and in it self Meritorious these do 4. Some of them as I take it had wives and these not but esteem it more lawful to have a Concubine than a Wife Those Monks were none of the Popes licensing or founding these are We read of 12000 Monks of Bangor that were destroyed by