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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69646	The Ivdgement of Martin Bucer concerning divorce written to Edward the sixt, in his second book of the Kingdom of Christ, and now Englisht : wherein a late book restoring the doctrine and discipline of divorce is heer confirm'd and justify'd by the authoritie of Martin Bucer to the Parlament of England.; De regno Christi. De coniugio & divortio. English	Bucer, Martin, 1491-1551.; Milton, John, 1608-1674.	1644 (1644)	Wing B5270; ESTC R3964	32,365	42

THE IVDGEMENT OF MARTIN BUCER CONCERNING DIVORCE Writt'n to Edward the sixt in his second Book of the Kingdom of Christ And now Englisht Wherin a late Book restoring the Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce is heer confirm'd and justify'd by the authoritie of MARTIN BUCER To the Parlament of England JOHN 3. 10. Art thou a teacher of Israel and know'st not these things Publisht by Authoritie LONDON Printed by Matthew Simmons 1644. Testimonies of the high approbation which learned men have given of Martin Bucer Simon Grynaeus 1533 AMong all the Germans I give the palm to Bucer for excellence in the Scriptures Melanchton in human learning is wondrous fluent but greater knowledge in the Scripture I attribute to Bucer and speak it unfainedly Iohn Calvin 1539 Martin Bucer a most faithfull Doctor of the Church of Christ besides his rare learning copious knowledge of many things besides his cleernes of wit much reading and other many and various vertues wherein he is almost by none now living excell'd hath few equalls and excells most hath this praise peculiar to himself that none in this age ha●h us'd exacter diligence in the exposition of Scripture And a little beneath Bucer is more large then to be read by over-busied men and too high to be easily understood by unattentive men and of a low capacitie Sir Iohn Cheek Tutor to K. Edw. the sixth 1551 Wee have lost our Master then whom the world scarce held a greater whether we consider his knowledge of true Religion or his integrity and innocence of life or his incessant study of holy things or his matchless labour of promoting piety or his authority and amplitude of teaching or whatever els was praise-worthy and glorious in him Script Anglicana pag. 864. Iohn Sturmius of Strasborrow No man can be ignorant what a great and constant opinion and estimation of Bucer there is in Italy France and England Whence the saying of Quintilian hath oft come to my minde that he hath well profited in Eloquence whom Cicero pleases The same ●ay I of Bucer that he hath made no small progress in Divinitie whom Bucer pleases for in his Volumes which he wrote very many there is the plain impression to be discern'd of many great vertues of diligence of charitie of truth of acutenes of judgment of learning Wherin he hath a certain prop●r kind of writing wherby he doth not only teach the Reader but affects him with the sweetness of his sentences and with the manner of his arguing which is so teaching and so logical that it may be perceiv'd how learnedly he separates probable reasons from necessary how forcibly he confirms what he has to prove how suttly he refutes not with sharpnes but with truth Theodore Beza on the portraiture of M. Bucer This is that countnance of Bucer the mirror of mildnes temper'd with gravitie to whom the C●tie of Strasburgh owes the reformation of her Church Whose singular learning and eminent zeal joyn'd with excellent wisdom both his learned books and public disputations in the general diets of the Empire shall witness to all ages Him the German persecution drove into England where honourably entertain'd by Edward the sixt he was for two years chief professor of Divinity in Cambridge with greatest frequency and applause of all learned and pious men untill his death 1551. Bezae Icones Mr Fox book of Martyrs Vol. 3. p. 763. Bucer what by writing but chiefly by reading and preaching openly wherin being painfull in the Word of GOD he never spar'd himself nor regarded his health brought all men into such an admiration of him that neither his friends could sufficiently praise him nor his enemies in any point find fault with his singular life sincere doctrine A most certain tok'n wherof may be his sumptuous burial at Cambridge solemniz d with so great an assistance of all the Universitie that it was not possible to devise more to the setting out and amplifying of the same Dr Pern the Popish Vicechancelour of Cambridge his adversary Cardinal Pool about the fourth year of Queen Mary intending to reduce the Universitié of Cambridge to Popery again thought no way so effectuall as to cause the bones of Martin Bucer and Paulus Fagius which had been foure years in the grave to be tak'n up and burnt openly with thir Books as knowing that those two worthy men had bin of greatest moment to the reformation of that place from Popery and had left such powerfull seeds of thir doctrine behind them as would never die unless the men themselvs were diggd up and openly condemn'd for heretics by the Universitie it self This was put in execution and Doctor Pern Vicechancelor appointed to preach against Bucer Who among other things laid to his charge the opinions which he held of the marriage of Priests of divorcement and of usury But immediatly after his Sermon or somwhat before as the Book of Martyrs for a truth relates Vol. 3. p. 770. The said Doctor Pern smiting himself on the breast and in manner weeping wisht with all his heart that God would grant his soul might then presently depart and remain with Bucers for he knew his life was such that if any mans soul were worthy of heaven he thought Bucers in special to be most worthy Histor. de Combust Buceri Fagii Acworth the Vniversitie Orator Soon after that Queen Elizabeth came to the crown this condemnation of Bucer and Fagius by the Cardinal and his Doctors was solemnly repeal'd by the Universitie and the memory of those two famous men celebrated in an Oration by Acworth the Universitie Orator which is yet extant in the Book of Mattyrs Vol. 3. p. 773. and in Latin Scripta Anglic. p. 936. Nicolas Carre a learned man Walter Haddon Maister of the Requests to Queen Elizabeth Matthew Parker afterwards Primate of England with other eminent men in their funeral Orations and Sermons expresse abundantly how great a man Martin Bucer was what an incredible losse England sustain'd in his death and that with him dy'd the hope of a perfet reformation for that age Ibid. Iacobus Verheiden of Grave in his Elogies of famous Divines Though the name of Martin Luther be famous yet thou Martin Bucer for piety learning labour care vigilance and writing art not to be held inferior to Luther Bucer was a singular instrument of God so was Luther By the death of this most learned and most faithfull man the Church of Christ sustaind a heavy losse as Calvin witnesteth and they who are studious of Calvin are not ignorant how much he ascribes to Bucer for thus he writes in a Letter to Viretus What a manifold losse be●ell the Church of God in the death o●Bucer as oft as I call to minde I feel my heart almost rent asunder Peter Martyr Epist. to Conradus Hubertus He is dead who hath overcome in many battells of the Lord God lent us for a time this our Father and our Teacher never enough prais'd Death hath

divided me from a most unanimous friend one truly according to mine own heart My minde is over-prest with grief in so much that I have not power to write more I bid thee in Christ farewell and wish thou maist be able to beare the losse of Bucer better then I can beare it Testimonies giv'n by learned men to Paulus Fagius who held the same opinion with Martin Bucer concerning Divorce Paulus Fagius born in the Palatinate became most skilfull in the Hebrew tongue Beeing call'd to the Ministery at Isna he publisht many ancient and profitable Hebrew Books being aided in the expenses by a Senator of that Citie as Origen somtime was by a certain rich man call'd Ambrosius At length invited to Strasburgh he there famously discharg'd the office of a Teacher until the same persecution drove him and Bucer into England where he was preferr'd to a Professors place in Cambridge and soon after died Melchior Adamus writes his life among the famous German Divines Sleidan and Thuanus mention him with honour in their History And Verheiden in his Elogies To the PARLAMENT THE Book which among other great and high points of reformation contains as a principall part thereof this treatise here presented Supreme Court of Parlament was by the famous Author Martin Bucer dedicated to Edward the sixt whose incomparable youth doubtless had brought forth to the Church of England such a glorious manbood bad his life reacht it as would have left in the affairs of religion nothing without an excellent pattern for us now to follow But since the secret purpose of divine appointment hath reserv'd no lesse perhaps then the just half of such a sacred work to be accomplisht in this age and principally as we trust by your succesful wisdom and authority religious Lords and Commons what wonder if I seek no other to whose exactest judgement and revieu I may commend these last and worthiest labours of this renowned teacher whom living all the pious nobility of those reforming times your truest and best imitated ancestors reverenc't and admir'd Nor was be wanting to a recompence as great as was himself when both at many times before and especially among his last sighs and prayers testifying his dear and fatherly affection to the Church and Realm of England he sincerely wisht in the hearing of many devout men that what he had in this his last book written to King Edward concerning discipline might have place in this Kingdom His hope was then that no calamity no confusion or deformity would happen to the Common-wealth but otherwise he fear'd lest in the midst of all this ardency to know God yet by the neglect of discipline our good endeavours would not succeed These remarkable words of so godly and so eminent a man at his death as they are related by a sufficient and well known witnes who heard them and inserted by Thuanus into his grave and serious history so ought they to be chiesly consider'd by that nation for whose sake they were utter'd and more especially by that general Counsel which represents the body of that nation If therfore the book or this part therof for necessary causes be now reviv'd and recommended to the use of this undisciplin'd age it hence appears that these reasons have not err'd in the choyee of a fit patronage for a discourse of such importance But why the whole tractat is not beer brought entire but this matter of divorcement selected in particular to prevent the full speed of some mis-interpreter I hasten to disclose First it will be soon manifest to them who know what wise men should know that the constitution and reformation of a common-wealth if Ezra and Nehemiah did not mis-reform is like a building to begin ord●rly from the foundation therof which is mariage and the family to set right fi●st what ever is amisse therein How can there els grow up a race of warrantable men while the house and home that breeds them is troubl'd and disquieted under a bondage not of Gods constraining with a natureles conste●int if his most righte●us judgements may be our rule but laid upon us impe●iously in the worst and weakest ages of knowledge by a canonicall tyranny of stupid and malicious Monks who having rashly vow'd themselves to a single life which they could not undergoe invented new fetters to throw on matrimony that the world thereby waxing more dissolute they also in a general loosnes might sin with more favor Next there being yet among many such a strange iniquity and perversnes against all necessary divorce while they will needs expound the words of our Saviour not duly by comparing other places as they must doe in the resolving of a hunder'd other Scriptures but by persisting deafely in the abrupt and Papistical way● of a literal apprehension against the direct analogy of sense reason law and Gospel it therfore may well seem more then time to apply the sound and holy persuasions of this Apostolic man to that part in us which is not yet fully dispossest of an error as absurd as most that we deplove in our blindest adversaries and to let his autority and unanswerable reasons be vulgarly known that either his name or the force of his doctrine may work a wholsom effect Lastly I find it cleer to be the authors intention that this point of divorcement should be ●eld and receav'd as a most necessary and prime part of discipline in every Christian government And therfore having reduc't his model of reformation to 14. heads he bestows almost as much time about this one point of divorce as about all the rest which also was the judgement of his heirs and learned friends in Germany best acquainted with his meaning who first publishing this his book by Oporinus at Basil a Citie for learning and constancie in the the true faith honorable among the first added a special note in the title that there the reader should finde the doctrine of Divorce handl'd so solidly and so fully as scars the like in any Writer of that age and with this particular commendation they doubted not to dedicate the book as a most profitable exquisit discours to Christian the 3d a worthy pious King of Denmark as the author himself had done before to our Edward the sixt Yet did not Bucer in that volume only declare what his constant opinion was herein but also in his comment upon Matthew written at Strasburgh divers years before he treats distinctly and copiously the same argument in three severall places touches it also upon the 7. to the Romans promises the same solution more largely upon the 1. to the Corintbians omitting no occasion to weed out this last and deepest mischief of the Canon law sown into the opinions of modern men against the lawes and practice both of Gods chosen people and the best primitive times Wheri● his faithfulnes and powerful evidence prevail'd so farre with all the Church of Strasburgh that they

there should be a perpetual union both in body and spirit where this is not the matrimony is already broke before there be yet any divorce made or second mariage CHAP. XXIX That it is wicked to strain the words of Christ beyond thir purpose This is his third Axiom wherof there needs no explication heer CHAP. XXX That all places of Scripture about the same thing are to be joyn'd and compar'd to avoid Contradictions This be demonstrates at large out of sundry places in the Gospel and principally by that precept against swearing which compar'd with many places of the Law and Prophets is a flat contradiction of them all if we follow superstitiously the letter Then having repeated briefly his fo●re Axioms he thus proceeds These things thus preadmonisht let us enquire what the undoubted meaning is of our Saviours words and enquire according to the rule which is observ'd by all learned and good men in their expositions that praying first to God who is the only opener of our hearts wee may first with fear and reverence consider well the words of our Saviour touching this question Next that wee may compare them with all other places of Scripture treating of this matter to see how they consent with our Saviours words and those of his Apostle CHAP. XXXI This Chapter disputes against Austin and the Papists who deny second mariage ev'n to them who divorce in case of adultery which because it is not controverted among true Protestants but that the innocent person is easily allow'd to marry I spare the translating CHAP. XXXII That a manifest adulteresse ought to be divorc't and cannot lawfully be retain'd in mariage by any true Christian This though be prove sufficiently yet I let passe because this question was not hindl'd in the Doctrine and discipline of divorce to which book I bring so much of this Treatise as runs parallel CHAPTER XXXIII That adultery is to be punisht by death This Chapter also I omitt for the reason last alleg'd CHAP. XXXIV That it is lawfull for a wife to leav an adulterer and to marry another husband This is generally granted and therfore excuses me the writing out CHAP. XXXV Places in the Writings of the Apostle Paul touching divorce explain'd LEt us consider the answers of the Lord giv'n by the Apostle severally Concerning the first which is Rom. 7. 1. Know yet not brethren for I speak to them that know the law c. Ver. 2. The woman is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth Heer it is certain that the holy Ghost had no purpose to determine ought of mariage or divorce but only to bring an example from the common and ordinary law of wedlock to shew that as no covnant holds either party beeing dead so now that wee are not bound to the law but to Christ our Lord seeing that through him wee are dead to sin and to the law and so joyn'd to Christ that wee may bring forth fruit in him from a willing godlines and not by the compulsion of law wherby our sins are more excited and become more violent What therfore the holy Spirit heer speaks of matrimony cannot be extended beyond the general rule Besides it is manifest that the Apostle did allege the law of wedlock as it was deliver'd to the Jews for saith he I speak to them that know the law They knew no law of God but that by Moses which plainly grants divorce for several reasons It cannot therfore be said that the Apostle cited this generall example out of the law to abolish the several exceptions of that law which God himself granted by giving autority to divorce Next when the Apostle brings an example out of Gods law concerning man and wife it must be necessary that wee understand such for man and wife as are so indeed according to the same law of God that is who are so dispos'd as that they are both willing and able to perform the necessary duties of mariage not those who under a false title of mariage keep themselves mutually bound to injuries and disgraces for such twain are nothing lesse then lawfull man and wife The like answer is to be giv'n to all the other places both of the Gospel and the Apostle that what ever exception may be prov'd out of Gods law be not excluded from those places For the Spirit of God doth not condemn things formerly granted and allow'd where there is like cause and reason Hence Ambrose upon that place 1 Cor. 7. 15. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases thus expounds The reverence of mariage is not due to him who abhors the author of mariage nor is that mariage ratify'd which is without devotion to God he sins not therfore who is put away for Gods cause though be joyn himself to another For the dishonor of the Creator dissolves the right of matrimonl to him who is deserted that he be not accus'd though marrying to another The faith of wedlock is not to be kept with him who departs that he might not hear the God of Christians to be the author of wedlock For if Ezra caus'd the mis-beleeving wives and husbands to be divorc't that God might be appeas'd and not effended though they took others of thir own faith how much more shall it be free if the mis-beleever depart to marry one of our own Religion For this is not to be counted matrimony which is against the law of God Two things are heer to be observ'd toward the following discourse which truth it self and the force of Gods word hath drawn from this holy man For those words are very large Matrimony is not ratify'd without devotion to God And the dishonour of the Creator dissolvs the right of matrimony For devotion is farre off and dishonor is done to God by all who persist in any wickednes and hainous crime CHAP. XXXVI That although it seem in the Gospel as if our Saviour granted divorce only for adultery yet in very deed he granted it for other causes also NOw is to be dealt with this question Whether it be lawful to divorce and marry again for other causes besides adultery since our Saviour exprest that only To this question if we retain our principles already laid and must acknowledge it to be a cursed blasphemy if we say that the words of God doe contradict one another of necessity we must confesse that our Lord did grant divorce and mariage after that for other causes besides adultery notwithstanding what he said in Matthew For first they who consider but only that place 1 Cor. 7. which treats of beleevers and misbeleevers matcht together must of force confesse that our Lord granted just divorce and second mariage in the cause of desertion which is other then the cause of fornication And if there be one other cause found lawfull then is it most true that divorce was granted not only for fornication Next it cannot be doubted