of spirits who onely sees and searches the secrets of it and can both convince and punish it Besides well did penitent David know what he said when he cryed out Against thee onely have I sinned Psal. 51. he knew that sinne is a transgression of the law and that none but Gods law can make a sin men may be concerned and injured in our actions but it is God who hath forbidden these wrongs to men that is sinned against in our acts of injustice and uncharitablenesse and who only can inflict the spirituall which is the highest revenge upon offenders The charge of the great Doctor of the Gentiles to his Galatians was Galat. 5. 1. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not intangled againe in the yoak of bondage What yoak of bondage was this but the law of Ceremonies What liberty was this but a freedome from the bondage of that law And certainly if those ordinances which had God for their author have so little power to bind the conscience as that the yoake of their bondage must be shaken off as inconsistent with Christian liberty how much less is it to be indured that we should be the servants of men in being tyed up to sin by their presumptuous impositions The lawes of men therefore doe not ought not cannot bind your conscience as of themselves but if they be just they binde you in conscience to obedience They are the words of the Apostle to his Romans Rom. 13. 5. Wherefore ye must needes be subject not onely for wrath but also for conscience sake However then their particular constitution in themselves put no speciall obligation upon us under paine of sinne and damnation yet in a generall relation to that God who hath commanded us to obey authority their neglect or contempt involves us in a guilt of sin All power is of God that which the supreme authority therefore enjoyns you God enjoyns you by it the charge is mediately his though passing through the hands of men How little is this regarded in these loose times by those lawlesse persons whose practises acknowledge no soveraignty but titular no obedience but arbitrary to whom the strongest laws are as weapons to the Leviathan who esteemes Iron as straw and Brass as rotten wood Job 41. 27. Surely had they not first cast off their obedience to him that is higher than the highest they could not without trembling heare that weighty charge of the great God of Heaven Rom. 13. 1. Let every soule be subject to the higher powers For there is no power but of God and the powers that be are ordained of God 1 Pet. 2. 13. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake and therefore should be convinced in themselves of that awe and duty which they ow to Soveraignty and know and resolve to obey God in men and men for God You see then how requisite it is that you walk in a middle way betwixt that excessive power which flattering Casuists have beene wont to give to Popes Emperours Kings and Princes in their severall jurisdictions and a lawlesse neglect of lawfull authority For the orthodox wise and just moderation whereof these last ages are much indebted to the learned and judicious Chancellour of Paris John Gerson who first so checked that over-flowing errour of the power of humane usurpation which carried the world before it as gave a just hint to succeding times to draw that streame into the right channell in so much as Dominicus à Soto complaines greatly of him as in this little differing from the Lutheran heresie But in the way which they call heresie we worship the God of our Fathers rendring unto Cesar the things that are Cesars and unto God those things that are Gods yeilding our bodyes to Cesar Act. 24. 14. reserving our souls for God tendring to just Lawes our active obedience to unjust passive But in the meane time farre be it from us to draw this knot of our obligation harder closer then authority it self intends it What ever Popes may doe for their Decrees certainly good Princes never meant to lay such weight upon all their lawes as to make every breach of them even in relation to the authority given them by God to be sinfull Their lawes are commonly shut up with a sanction of the penalty imposed upon the violation There is an obedientia bursalis as I remember Gerson calls it an obedience if not of the person yet of the purse which Princes are content to take up withall we have a world of sinnes God knowes upon us in our hourly transgressions of the royall lawes of our maker but woe were us if wee should have so many sins more as we break statutes In penall lawes where scandall or contempt finde no place humane authority is wont to rest satisfied with the mulct paid when the duty is not performed Not that we may wilfully incur the breach of a good law because our hands are upon our purse-strings ready to stake the forfeiture This were utterly to frustrate the end of good lawes which doe therfore impose a mulct that they may not bee broken and were highly injurious to soveraign authority as if it sought for our money not our obedience and cared more for gain then good order then which there cannot be a more base imputation cast upon government As then we are wont to say in relation of our actions to the lawes of God that som things are forbidden because they are sinfull and some things are sinfull because they are forbidden so it holds also in the lawes of men som things are forbidden because they are justly offensive and som other things are only therfore offensive because they are forbidden in the former of these we must yield our careful obedience out of respect even to the duty it self in the latter out of respect to the will of the law-giver yet so as that if our own important occasions shall enforce us to transgress a penall law without any affront of authority or scandall to others our submission to the penalty frees us from a sinfull disodedience CASE VII Whether Tithes bee a lawfull maintenance for Ministers under the Gospel and whether men bee bound to pay them accordingly AS the question of Mine and Thine hath ever embroyled the world so this particular concerning tithes hath raised no little dust in the Church of God whiles some plead them in the precise quota parta due necessarie to be paid both by the law of God and nature it self others decry them as a judaicall law partly ceremoniall partly judiciall and therfore either now unlawfull or at least neither obligatory nor convenient What is fit to be determined in a businesse so over agitated I shall shut up in these ten propositions 1. The maintenance of the legall ministery allowed and appointed by God was exceeding large and liberall Besides all the tithes of corn wine oyle herbs herds
a sinne is no better then heresie and in succeeding times how liable the usurer hath ever been to the highest censures of the Church and how excluded from the favour of Christian buriall is more manifest then to need any proofe Secondly however it is unlawfull to covenant for a certaine profit for the mere loane of money yet there may be and are circumstances appending to the loane which may admit of some benefit to be lawfully made by the lender for the use of his money and especially these two the losse that he sustaines and the gaine that he misses by the want of the summe lent For what reason can there be that to pleasure another man I should hurt my selfe that I should enrich another by my owne losse If then I shall incur a reall losse or forfeiture by the delayed payment of the summe lent I may justly look fot a satisfaction from the borrower yea if there be a true danger of losse to me imminent when the transaction is made nothing hinders but that I may by compact make sure such a summe as may be sufficient for my indemnity And if I see an opportunity of an apparent profit that I could make fairely by disbursing of such a summe bona fide and another that hath a more gainefull bargaine in chace shall sue to me to borrow my money out of my hand for his owne greater advantage there can be no reason why in such a case I should have more respect to his profit then my owne and why should I not even upon pact secure unto my selfe such a moderate summe as may be somewhat answerable to the gaine which I doe willingly forgoe for his greater profit Since it is a true ground which Lessius with other Casuists maintains against Sotus and Durand that even our hopes of an evident commodity are valuable and that no lesse then the feares of our losse Shortly for the guidance of our either caution or liberty in matter of borrowing and lending the onely Cynosure is our Charity for in all humane and civill acts of Commerce it is a sure rule That whatsoever is not a violation of Charity cannot be unlawfull and whatsoever is not agreeable to Charity can be no other then sinfull And as Charity must be your rule so your selfe must be the rule of your Charity Looke what you could wish to be done to you by others doe but the same to others you cannot be guilty of the breach of Charity The maximes of Traffique are almost infinite onely Charity but ever inseparable from Justice must make the application of them That will teach you that every increase by loane of money is not usurary and that those which are absolutely such are damnable that will teach you to distinguish betwixt the one improvement of loane and the other and will tell you that if you can finde out a way whether by loane or sale to advance your stock that may be free from all oppression and extortion and beneficiall as well to others as to your selfe you need not feare to walke in it with all honest security but in the meane time take good heed that your heart beguile you not in mis-applications for we are naturally too apt out of our self-love to flatter our selves with faire glozes of bad intentions and rather to draw the rule to us then our selves to the rule But whiles I give you this short solution I must professe to lament the common ignorance or mistaking of too many Christians whose zeal justly cryes downe usury as a most hatefull and abominable practice but in the meane time makes no bones of actions no lesse biting and oppressive they care not how high they sell any of their commodities at how unreasonable rates they â—et their grounds how they circumvent the buyer in their bargaines and thinke any price just any gaine lawfull that they can make in their markets not considering that there is neither lesse nor lesse odious usury in selling and letting then there is in lending It is the extortion in both that makes the sinne without which the kind or termes of the transaction could not be guilty Surely it must needs be a great weaknesse to think that the same God who requires mercy and favour in lending will allow us to be cruell in selling Rigour and excesse in both equally violates the law of commutative Justice equally crosses the law of Charity Let those therefore that make scruple of an usurious lending learne to make no lesse conscience of a racking bargaine otherwise their partiall obedience will argue a grosse hypocrisie and they shall prove themselves the worst kinde of what they hate usurers For in the ordinary loanâ— usury the borrower hath yet time to boot for his money but here the buyer payes downe an excessive interest without any consideration at all but the sellers cruelty For the fuller clearing of which point whereas you aske CASE II. Whether may I not sell my wares as deare as I can and get what I may of every buyer I answer THere is a due price to be set upon every saleable commodity else there were no commerce to be used among men For if every man might set what rate he pleases upon his lands or goods where should he finde a buyer surely nothing could follow but confusion and want for mere extremity must both make the market and regulate it The due price is that which cuts equally and indifferently betwixt the buyer and seller so as the seller may receive a moderate gaine and the buyer a just penny-worth In those countries wherein there is a price set by publique authority upon all marketable commodities the way of commerce is well expedited and it is soone and easily determined that it is meete men should be held close to the rule But where all things are left to an arbitrary transaction there were no living if some limits were not set to the sellers demands These limits must be the ordinary received proportion of price current in the severall countries wherein they are sold and the judgement of discreet wise experienced and unconcerned persons and the well-stated conscience of the seller If men shall wilfully run beyond these bounds taking advantage of the rarenesse of the commodity the paucity or the necessity of the buyers to enhance the price to an unreasonable height they shall be guilty of the breach of charity and in making a sinfull bargaine purchase a curse Not that a man is so strictly tyed to any others valuation as that hee may not upon any occasion aske or receive more then the common price or that if the market rise he is bound to sit still There may be just reason upon a generall mortality of cattle to set those beasts that remaine at an higher rate or upon a dearth of graine or other commodities to heighten the price but in such cases wee must bee so affected as that wee grudge to our selves our owne gaine that wee bee not
by the Church to be believed are fundamentall A large ground-work of faith Doubtlesse the Church hath defined all things contained in the scripture to be believed and theirs which they call Catholick hath defined all those Traditionall points which they have added to the Creed upon the same necessity of salvation to be believed now if all these be the foundation which is the building what an imperfect fabrick doe they make of Christian Religion all foundation no walls no roofe Surely it cannot without too much absurdity be denied that there is great difference of Truthes some more important than others which could not be if all were alike fundamentall If there were not some speciall Truthes the beliefe whereof makes and distinguisheth a Christian the Authors of the Creede Apostolick besides the other Symboles received anciently by the Church were much deceived in their aime He therefore that believes the holy Scriptures which must be a principle presupposed to be inspired by God and as an abstract of the chiefe particulars thereof professeth to believe and embrace the Articles of the Christian faith to regulate his life by the law of Gods commandements and his devotion by the rule of Christ prescribed and lastly to acknowledge and receive the Sacraments expresly instituted by Christ doubtlesse this man is by profession a Christian and cannot be denyed to hold the foundation and whosoever shall wilfully impugne any of these comes within the verge of Heresie wilfully I say for meere error makes not an heretick if out of simplicity or grosse ignorance a man shall take upon him to maintaine a contradiction to a point of faith being ready to relent upon better light he may not be thus branded eviction and contumacy must improve his error to be hereticall The Church of Rome therefore hath beene too cruelly-liberall of her censures this way having bestow'd this livery upon many thousand Christians whom God hath owned for his Saints and upon some Churches more Orthodoxe than her selfe presuming upon a power which was never granted her from heaven to state new articles of faith and to excommunicate and barre all that shall dare to gainsay her oracles Whereas the great Doctor of the Gentiles hath told us from the spirit of God that there is but one Lord one faith one baptisme Ephes. 4. 5. and what faith is that S. Jude tells us Iude 3. The faith that was once delivered the Saints so that as well may they make more reiterations of Baptisme and multiplicities of Lords as more faiths than one some explications there may be of that one faith made by the Church upon occasion of new-sprung errours but such as must have their grounds from fore-written truths and such as may not extend to the condemnation of them whom God hath left free new articles of faith they may not be nor binde farther than God hath reached them Hereticks then they are and onely they that pertinaciously raze the foundation of the Christian faith what now must be done with them surely first if they cannot be reclaimed they must be avoided It is the charge of the beloved Disciple to the elect Lady 2 John v. 10. If any man come unto you and bring not that is by an ordinary Hebraisme opposes this doctrine receive him not into your houses neither bidde him God speede But the Apostle of the Gentiles goes yet higher sor writing to Titus the great Super-intendent of Crete his charge is Tit. 3. 10. A man that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition reject Now when wee compare the charge with the person we cannot but finde that this rejection is not a meer negative act of refraining company but a positive act of censure so as he who had power to admonish had also power to reject in an authoritative or judicatory way He sayes then Devita reject or avoid not as Erasmus too truly but bitterly scoffes the Romish practise De vita tolle This of killing the heretick as it was out of the power of a spirituall supervisor so was it no lesse farre from the thoughts of him that desired to come in the spirit of meekness Fagots were never ordained by the Apostle for arguments to confute Hereticks this bloudy Logick and Divinity was of a much later brood and is for a Dominick not a Paul to owne for certainely faith is of the same nature with love it cannot be compelled perswasions may move it not force These intellectuall sinnes must look for remedies of their owne kinde But if either they be as it is often accompanied with damnable blasphemies against God whether in his essence or attributes or the three incomprehensible persons in the all-glorious Deity or the blessed mediator betwixt God and man Jesus Christ in either of his natures or else shall be attended with the publique disturbances and dangerous distempers of the Kingdome or State wherein they are broached the Apostle's wish is but seasonable in both a spiritual and a bodily sense Gal. 5. 12. Would to God those were cut off that trouble you In the mean time for what concernes your selfe if you know any such as you love God and your soules keepe aloofe from them as from the pestilence Epiphanius well compares heresie to the biting of a mad dog which as it is deadly if not speedily remedied so it is withall dangerously infectious not the tooth onely but the very foame of that envenomed beast carries death in it you cannot be safe if you avoid it not CASE VI. Whether the lawes of men doe binde the Conscience and how far we are tyed to their obedience BOth these extreames of opinion concerning this point must needs bring much mischiefe upon Church and Kingdome Those that absolutely hold such a power in humane lawes make themselves slaves to men Those that deny any binding power in them run loose into all licentiousnesse Know then that there is a vast difference betwixt these two To bind the conscience in any act and to bind a man in conscience to do or omit an act Humane laws cannot do the first of them the latter they may and must doe To binde the conscience is to make it guilty of a sin in doing an act forbidden or omitting an act injoyned as in it selfe such or making that act in it selfe an acceptable service to God which is commanded by men Thus humane lawes cannot bind the conscience It is God onely 1 John 3. 21. who as he is greater than the Conscience so hath power to binde or loose it Esay 31. 22. It is he that is the onely Law giver to the Conscience Jam. 4. 12. Princes and Churches may make lawes for the outward man but they can no more binde the heart than they can make it In vain is that power which is not inabled with coertion now what coertion can any humane power claim of the heart which it can never attain to know the spirit of man therefore is subject onely to the father
the hearts of too many Christians as if the contributions to their ministers were a matter of meer almes which as they need not to give so they are apt upon easy displeasures to upbraid But these men must be put in minde of the just word of our Saviour The laborer is worthy of his wages The ministery signifies a service a publique service at Gods Altar whereto the wages is no lesse due then the meat is to the mouth of him that payes it No man may more freely speak of tithes then my selfe who receive none nor ever shall do Know then ye proud ignorants that call your Ministers your almes-men and your selves their Benefactors that the same right you have to the whole they have to a part God and the same lawes that have feoffed you in your estates have allotted them their due shares in them which without wrong ye cannot detract It is not your charity but your justice which they presse for their owne Neither think to check them with the scornfull title of your servants servants they are indeede to Gods Church not to you and if they doe stoop to particular services for the good of your souls this is no more disparagement to them then it is to the blessed Angels of God to be ministring spirits Heb. 1. 14. sent forth to minister for them who shall be heires of salvation Shortly it is the Apostles charge ratified in heaven that they which labour in the word and doctrine should be remunerated with double honour that is not formall of words and complements but real of maintenance which he laies weight upon his Timothy to enioyn 1. Tim. 5. 17. 10. And surely how necessary it is that we should bee at som certainty in this case and not left to the meere arbitrary will of the givers it too well apears in common experience which tell us how ordinary it is where ministers depend upon voluntary benevolences if they doe but upon som just reproofe gall the conscience of a guilty hearer or preach som truth which dis-relishes the palat of a prepossessed auditor how he straight flies out and not only withholds his own pay but also withdrawes the contributions of others so as the free-tongued teacher must either live by ayre or be forced to change his pasture It were easy to instance but charity bids mee forbeare Hereupon it is that these sportulary preachers are faine to sooth up their many masters and are so gaged with the feare of a starving displeasure that they dare not be free in the reprehension of the daring sins of their uncertain benefactors as being charmed to speak either placentia or nothing And if there were no such danger in a faithfull and just freedom yet how easy is it to apprehend that if even when the laws enforce men to pay their dues to their ministers they yet continue so backward in their discharge of them how much lesse hope can there be that being left to their free choyce they would prove eyther liberall or just in their voluntary contributions Howsoever therfore in that innocent infancy of the Church wherein zealous Christians out of a liberall ingenuity were ready to lay downe all their substance at the Apostles feet in the primitive times immediately subsequent the willing forwardness of devout people tooke away all need of raysing set maintenances for Gods ministers yet now in these depraved and hard hearted times of the Church it is more then requisite that fixed competencies of allowance should by good lawes be established upon them which being done by way of tithes in those countries wherein they obtaine there is just cause of thankfulnesse to God for so meet a provision none for a just oppugnation CASE VIII Whether it bee lawfull for Christians where they find a countrey possessed by savage Pagans and Infidels to drive out the native inhabitants and to seize and enjoy their lands upon any pretence and upon what grounds it may be lawfull so to doe WHat unjust and cruel measure hath been heretofore offered by the Spaniard to miserable Indians in this kind I had rather you should receive from the relation of their own Bishop Bartholomaeus Casa then from my Pen. He can tell you a sad story of millions of those poor savages made away to make room for those their imperious successors the discovery of whose unjust usurpation procured but little thanks to their learned professors of Complutum and Salamanca Your question relates to our owne case since many thousands of our nation have transplanted themselves into those regions which were prepossessed by barbarous owners As for those countries which were not inhabited by any reasonable creatures as the Bermudas or Summer-Islands which were only peopled wih Hogs and Deer and such like bruite cattle there can be no reason why they should not fall to the first occupant but where the land hath a known master the case must vary For the decision whereof some grounds are fit to be laid No nation under heaven but hath som Religion or other and worships a God such as it is although a creature much inferiour in very nature to themselves although the worst of creatures evil spirits and that religion wherein they were bred through an invincible ignorance of better they esteem good at least Dominion and propriety is not founded in Religion but in a naturall and civill right It is true that the saints have in Christ the Lord of all things a spiritual right in all creatures all things are yours saith the Apostle and you are Christs and Christ is Gods but the spirituall right gives a man no title at all to any naturall or civill possession here on earth yea Christ himselfe though both as God and as Mediator the whole world were his yet hee tells Pilate My kingdom is not of this World neither did he though the Lord Paramount of this whol earth by virtu of that transcendent soveraignty put any man out of the possession of one foot of ground which fell to him either by birth or purchase Neither doth the want of that spirituall interest debar any man from a rightfull claim and fruition of these earthly inheritances The barbarous people were lords of their owne and have their Sagamores and orders and formes of government under which they peaceably live without the intermedling with other nations Infidelity cannot forfeit their inheritance to others no more then enmity professed by Jewes to Christian Religion can escheat their goods to the Crownes under which they live yea much lesse for those Jewes living amongst Christian people have or might have had meanes sufficient to reclaime them from their stubborn unbeleefe but these savages have never had the least overture of any saving helps to wards their conversion they therefore being as true owners of their native inheritances as Christians are of theirs they can no more be forced from their possessions by Christians then Christians may be so forced by them certainly in the same
of the father which may be prejudicial to the government of the family paternal pow'r which is sufficient for my purpose in the question in hand And although those Casuists doe sufficiently doat upon their Monkery and the vows thereunto appertayning yet they ascribe so much to the bond of filial duty as that they teach That a sonne which his parents being in extreme need and wanting his help enters into a religious order or comes not out of it though professed when hee might be likely by his coming forth to bee aidfull to his said Parents is guilty of a sin against the fift Commandement so as even with them the respect to a parent ought to overweigh a vow of religion although consummate by a solemn profession But that you may not object to me the age of the law as therefore abrogated because Mosaicall heare what the chosen vessell saies under the new law of the Gospel If any man thinke that he behaveth himselfe uncomely towards his virgin if shee passe the floure of her age and need so require let him doe what hee will hee sinneth not let her marry 1 Cor. 7. 36. Neverthelesse he that standeth stedfast in his heart having no necessity but hath power over his owne will and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin doth well c. ver 37. Loe the Apostle supposeth it in the parents power either to keep his daughter a virgin or to dispose of her in marriage she is not her owne either to hold or give but must be altogether ordered by the superior will of a parent Not that any force is allowed either way to be used towards the daughter whether to continue her in a constrained virginity or to call her against her minde upon a dis-affected match No that God who disposeth all things sweetly would have us doe so too hee allowes parents to be rulers of their children but not tyrants what they doe therefore in this kinde must be more by councel then command and with more sway of love then authority thus consulting wisely with the state of times and the childs disposition and abilities of contayning must the parent either keep his virgin or labour for the provision of a meete consortship Thus did the two great Patriarchs of Gods ancient Church Abraham and Isaac provide fit matches for their holy seed whiles the unholy provided unfit matches for themselves Thus did their godly issue in all generations take their parents along with them in the choice of meet yoke-fellowes whiles the godless whether out of impetuous lust or stubborn disobedience affect with Esau Gen. 28. 6 7 8. to be their owne purveyors to the great regret and heart-breaking of their parents Lastly the latitude that S. Paul gives of the liberty of marriage to al Christians is Tantum in Domino onely in the Lord 1 Cor. 7. 39. Now how can that marriage bee in the Lord which is against him and how can that bee other then against the Lord which is against the Lords commandement And what commandment can be more express then Honor thy father and thy mother Gal. 6. 1. And Children obey your parents ver 2. And what can bee more contrary to the honour and obedience due to Parents then to neglect them in the main business that concernes our lives And what businesse can concern our life so much as the choice of a meet partner with whom we may comfortably weare out all the dayes of our pilgrimage on earth Doubtlesse then we may in a generality safely conclude that it is altogether unlawfull for a childe to sleight his Parents consent in the choice of his marriage There may be some particular cases incident wherein perhaps this may without sinne or blame be forborn as when the child either by general permission or former elocation shall be out of the Parents disposing or where the parent is defective in his intellectuals or where the child lives in remotis out of the compasse of intelligence or where the Parent being averse from the true Religion denies his consent to match with any but those of his own straine or shall upon other by-occasions wilfully stand upon so unreasonable terms that neither friends nor authority can over-rule him But where these or the like preponderating exceptions doe not intervene the child cannot without sin balk the Parents consent to his choice in marriage But though such marriages without or against consent bee not lawfully made yet being once made they are valid The civill law out of the grounds of policy goes herein too far which sentenceth those marriages void which are made without the consent of Parents of Guardians but as Matrimony hath somthing in it of Nature something of Civility something of Divinity as instituted by God and by him to be regulated so sure this last interest ought to over-sway the other two The marriage therefore thus made being though faulty yet true is doubtlesse after consummation indissoluble The parties repentance and the parents sorrow may have leisure to afflict them no power to relieve them CASE II. Whether Marriage lawfully made may admit of any cause of divorce save only for the violation of the marriage bed by Fornication or Adulterie OUr Saviour hath so punctually decided the case in his Divine Sermon upon the mount that I cannot but wonder at the boldnesse of any man who calls himself a Christian that dares raise a question after so full and clear a determination from the mouth of truth it self Whosoever saith he shall put away his wife saving for the cause of fornication causeth her to commit adultery and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery Mat. 5. 32. Yet I find this so evident an assertion checked by two sorts of adversaries The one certain wild Novellists who admit of very sleight causes of separation the other Romish Doctors who plead for some other main and important additions to this liberty of divorce I have heard too much of once saw a licentious Pamphlet thrown abroad in these lawlesse times in the defence and encouragement of Divorces not to be sued out that solemnity needed not but to be arbitrarily given by the disliking husband to his displeasing and unquiet wife upon this ground principally that Marriage was instituted for the help and comfort of man where therefore the match proves such as that the wife doth but pull downe a side and by her innate peevishnesse and either sullen or pettish and froward disposition brings rather discomfort to her husband the end of Marriage being hereby frustrate why should it not saith he be in the Husbands power after some unprevailing means of reclamation attempted to procure his own peace by casting off this clog and to provide for his own peace and contentment in a fitter Match Woe is me To what a passe is the world come that a Christian pretending to Reformation should dare to tender so loose a project to
were Iscah Nahor his neece Milcha Amram his Aunt Jochebed and these not without a large bles-upon the bed Let him tell me also that Jacob married two Sisters and conversed conjugally with both which were now shamefully incestuous yet was herein blessed with the issue of six of those Patriarchs who were the root of those glorious stemmes of Israel If we should speak most favourably of these conjunctions to ranke them under malum quia prohibitum it must needs follow that till the prohibition came they could not bee censured as evill Though good Authors make it justly questionable whether these fore-alledged marriages should deservedly bee charged with a sin or excused by Gods extraordinary dispensation in the meane time the blessing was to the person not to the act even Lots incestuous copulatio with his daughters sped well two famous nations sprang thence of one of them the gracious progenitrice of the Saviour of the world Yet this is no plea for the allowance of that monstrous conjunction After â—he law one justifiable example were worth a thousand before it Lo good Caleb saith he married his daughter Achsah to his brother Othoniel Joshua 15. 16 17. Indeede this case comes as home to the businesse as it is farre off from the text See whether mes-prision of Scripture may mislead us a man that understands nothing but the english or vulgar latin may easily run into so foul an error weigh but the place well you will soon find the fault without me Othniel the son of Kenaz Calebs brother tooke Kerath-Sepher and Caleb gave him Achsah his daughter to wife The English wanting cases expresses it doubtfuly it will be cleare in the Latin as Montanus and Pagnine two great Masters of the Hebrew in their Interlinear read it Othniel filius Kenaz fratris Calebi Othniel the sonne of Kenaz which Kenaz was Caleb's brother both the Hebrew Chaldee cleare that sense So the Septuagint as Emanuel-Sa also urges upon that place Judg 1. 13. expresly say that Kenaz was the brother of Caleb and not Othoniel wherein yet I cannot much blame an unballanced judgement whiles I find the Septuagint contrary to themselves For in Josh. 15. 16 they say Othniel was Calebs younger brother In Judg. 3. 9. they say Kenaz the father of Othniel was so for which there is no excuse but the large sense of a brother in the Hebrew We are brethren saith Abraham to Lot yet he was Lots uncle so was Kenaz a progenitor to Othniel for Caleb is stiled the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite Josh. 14. 14. Num. 32 12. The case was only this Kenaz was the ancestor of Caleb and one of the same name was his brother the father of Othniel what can be more plain then 1 Chron. 4. 13. And the sons of Kenaz Othniel Seraiah So as if wee take this most strictly to the letter it implies nothing but the marriage of two cozens german Othniel the son of Kenaz and Achsah the daughter of Caleb brothers children as Bucer upon the place Melanchton in his Tract De Conjugio Junius and indeede who otherwise And now by this time you see what a poore ground this is to build upon rather you see a castle not built on the sand but in the ayre meer misconceit But saith the Advocate this marriage is no where directly forbidden in the Law I must tell him it is but a meer shuffle to stand upon the terms of a direct prohibition when there is one no lesse forceable convictive Two wayes may ought be effectually forbidden in the law Either in plain expression of terms or in clear implication of sense surely that is rather more in the law which it means irrefragably than what it verbally expresseth now however this be not in the letter of the law yet in the sense it is the same law that forbids the nephew to marry the aunt doth eadem operâ forbid the uncle to marry the neece In regard as of neerness yea identity of blood the case is the same however som inequality may be conceived in respect of government subjection And if upon som oeconomicall termes it be more unfit for a Nephew to marry his Aunt than for an Uncle to marry his Neece yet in regard of blood and that bodily conjunction which God principally aymes at in this prohibition what difference can possibly bee conceived Nature hath made no other distance betwixt the Nephew and the Aunt than bewixt the Neece the Uncle or if there be any they must be sharper eys than mine that can discerne it God himself me thinks hath put this out of doubt the reason wherewith hee backs his command is iresistible The Nephew shall not marry the fathers sister why so For she is thy fathers neer kinswoman v. 12. Lo it is the neerness of blood that makes this match unlawfull not respect of civil inequality Where the blood then is equally neere the marriage must be equally unlawfull That rule of law which is pretended in prohibitoriis quicquid non prohibetur permittitur What is not forbidden is permitted had neede of a fair construction Indeed that which is not forbidden either in words or in necessary analogy implication of sense is supposed to be left at large But what place hath this Axiome in a case not less really forbidden than the expressed And if wee should strictly follow the letter of this Maxime it would lead us into Sodome since there are marriages not specified which would be monstrously incestuous such as honesty would blush to mention as shall appeare in the sequele Neither is there any more force in that other In poenalibus non fit extensio That penall lawes should not bee stretcht further then their words import Certainly in som sense I know no law that is not penall but why this law Thou shalt not marry thy Aunt or Neece should be rather penal than Thou shalt not commit adultry I know not I am sure learned Zanchius accounts these of the 18. of Leviticus equally morall and Bucanus holds them to be against the law of nature And if in humane laws this axiom may challenge a place yet in the roy all laws of our Maker where under one sin mentioned all the species appendances and the whols claim of that wickednesse is wont to be comprised doubtless it is utterly unsufferable Neither is here any extension of this prohibition beyond those limits which God hath fixed in the undoubted sense of his law In the seventh Commandement nothing is expressed but adultry shall we therefore say neither fornication nor pollution nor sodomie is there forbidden were not this to destroy that lawe which God makes to be spirituall and to open the flood gates to a torrent of licentiousnesse surely it is easy to observe that Gods Spirit no lesse meanes that which he pleaseth to suppresse The Psalmist sayes Promotion comes neither from the East nor from the West nor from the South Psal. 75.