which every Christian whether married or single is bound to offer up unto God daily As for holiness Matrimony is not inconsistent with holiness witness Abraham Isaac and Jacob Aaron the servant of the Lord and Enoch that walked with God and yet did not forsake his wife and children and 't is observable that the Bosom of Abraham although a married person is used to set out Heaven by in the Scripture If Heaven had been set out by the Bosom of any Saint in Heaven that had always led a single life on earth what triumphs would Rome have made on that occasion And whereas 't is said Rev. 14.4 Those that follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth these are they which are not defiled with women for they are Virgins Certainly Christ is followed whithersoever he goeth not only by the blessed Saints that have led a single life but also by married persons as Patriarchs Apostles Martyrs and innumerable others as the Scripture speaketh 2 Cor. 5.6 1 Thess 4.17 And the Apostle speaks of all kind of true Believers 2 Cor. 11.2 These are bought from among men to be first-fruits unto God and the Lamb these are dedicated as first-fruits used to be unto God They are called 't is thought Virgins because they adhered to Christ when the Whore of Babylon had made all the Kings and Nations of the earth drunk with the cup of her fornication It is conceived this place may have reference to those Israelites that were inticed to Idolatry by the Midianitish women and 't is frequent in Scripture to call or compare Idolatry to Adultery or Fornication because God's people are betrothed and married unto him he is their Husband and they his Spouse and when they go after Idols they are said to give God a Bill of divorce and to go a whoring after other gods Or as Dr. Hamond on the place These are they which had kept pure from all the heretical Gnostick corruptions of uncleanness Where there is neither spiritual nor carnal Fornication or Adultery there is no defiling with women for the marriage-bed in Scripture-Dialect is the bed undefiled and to the pure all things are pure The unbelieving husband is sanctified by the believing wife and the unbelieving wife by the believing husband and therefore are their children holy If marriage was filthiness or uncleanness or a vice or that married persons could not please God doubtless the H. Ghost would never have said Marriage is honorable amongst all and therefore amongst Clergy men nor would our blessed Saviour have been born of a Mother though a Virgin yet espoused and married to a husband namely to Joseph Marriage one saith fills earth and Virginity heaven but if there were no Saints in earth how should there be any in heaven if earth were empty how could heaven be full of Saints He did not commend his Sex that said a woman was a necessary evil for how evil then must man be deemed for whom such an evil is necessary and I take him to be a fool as well as mad that being asked whether he was married he answered He was never so mad yet for I dare say there are more made sober than mad by marriage I presume that Hypochondriacal Melancholy a species of madness doth more seise and distract single than married married persons And confident I am as one saith that the Patriarchs did converse with many wives more chastely than many do now adays with one so that many live now more holily and chastely in Wedlock than others in their Cloysters and Cells And if when a voyce from heaven calls to single persons whether man or woman whether Ecclesiastical or Temporal persons Let every man have his own wife c. Let them not say or reply I do not meddle with any state that is common or unclean If they should I reply to them again What God hath cleansed or rather always accounted a pure holy and undefiled estate that call not thou common or unclean CHAP. III. Qualifications requisite in them that marry AS for the Qualifications of a Husband or Wife I would advise all to look at true Religion in the first place that those that marry may be said to marry in the Lord. If I mistake not this was that King James advised Prince Henry unto v. B.Δ. 2 b.p. 72. c. When Solomon married the Daughters of a strange god then he fell to tolerate if not to worship their Idols Next to Religion I should commend a Suitable Disposition and a Conformity in Manners that man and wife may delight in the society and converse one of another And as I would not have a man or woman marry meerly o◠chiefly by their eyes or fancies so neither would I advise a marriage betwixt those that have an aversness or antipathy at first sight each to other I would have a natural free and unenforced affection before marriage When there is no other affection 'twixt parties than what is the fruit of Ratiocination or Syllogisms I would never perswade a marriage Syllogistical love such as is raised thus Every man must love his wife But this woman is my wife Therefore I ought to love her And so on the part of the woman in reference to her husband Every woman must love her own husband This man is my husband Therefore I must love him I say this love goes so far about that it is like to be long before it bring home affections Nature is always at hand and natural affections are up at first view but Reason Religion and Grace too are sometimes to seek or held off at distance by Passion 'T is true notwithstanding that those that match meerly by the eye many times meet with their match an eye-sore or a very thorn in their eye and that beauty which was a Loadstone to attract their love proves a snare to others and a torment to themselves whilst it draws others eyes to the same object and occasions jealousie And if neither of these happen as oftentimes both do yet a disease a sickness or at least old age changes the beautiful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into a Chaos and the most lovely countenance into an object in which thou wilt say I have no pleasure Next let me advise you not to marry by the ear not for honor or great parentage and noble Titles for these without virtue and money are of small value an empty sound a tinkling cymbal yea more discord than harmony for the most part in such matches and hence ordinarily is the worst sort of marriage-musick Imparity in birth and parentage makes odds where all should be even the one oft lords it in this case and the other is but a servant and a servant to to their fellow yoke-fellow a servant underling to all their high kindred and often despised by their own servants 'T is in such families oft as 't is in the Family of Hawks the males are the underlings and the females have the respect the glory
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
of Parts Parentage Beauty Education Portion add that which makes the rest That they are not meer Cyphers in comparison and account namely Let her study to frame and compose her self what may be viz. lawfully to her Husband in conforming her Manners to his And let not the Husband delight to domineer over his Wife or please himself in shewing alwayes his Authority which none but fools will do saith Mr. J. Robinson Nabal was according to his Name a very Fool that was so churlish that neither Wife nor any body else could speak to him It was Abigails wisdom to bear patiently with him as it was the wisdom of Socrates that taught him to bear with his Zantippe her daily home-brawlings and thereby learned him to converse quietly and patiently with unreasonable perverse and peevish persons abroad The Husband should be able alway to guide counsel and direct the Wife to go before her as a man of knowledge His Wife he should use as a Comfort and Helper not saith Sir Walter Rawleigh as a Counsellor When Adam in Innocency he observes and Solomon the wisest of Temporal Princes took counsel of their Wives they both miscarried no such wonder as lamentable then that other men have been so allured to so many inconvenient and wicked practices by the perswasions of their Wives or other beloved Darlings If Adam in the state of perfection and Solomon the Son of David God's chosen Servant and himself a man endowed with the greatest wisdom did both of them disobey their Creator by the instigation and for the love they bear to a Woman It is not so wonderful c. that others have done the like So he CHAP. II. Of the Marriage of Persons in Holy Orders MArriage is honourable amongst all our Saviour graced a Wedding with his presence at Cana in Galilee John 2. and there manifested his Glory by working that Miracle of turning Water into Wine By which those who enter into that state might be put in mind that their sorrows should be turned into joys The Apostle St. Paul Ephes 5.32 makes Marriage a Mystery and to set out the relation and love 'twixt Christ and his Church And lastly 'T is thought Heaven is set out in Scripture by a Marriage-Feast Mat. 22. and the Joys of Heaven represented by the joys of a Wedding Rev. 19. The Nazarites that were whiter than Snow by reason of their vow of Holiness were not defiled by their Marriage Of the Marriage of Priests The High Priest under the Law was not forbidden to Marry onely he must have a Wife so and so qualified Aaron the High Priest the Saint of the Lord a Type of our Lord Christ was Married and the High Priest-hood annexed to his Family and entail'd on his posterity It is made a Character of Antiochus Epiphanes or Epimanes rather that he should not regard Women or desire Women in the Old Testament Dan. 11.37 And 't is made a mark of the Antichrist and branded for a Doctrine of Devils according to our Translators to forbid to Marry in the New Testament 1 Tim. 4.1 3. And as Priests and Prophets under the Law might lawfully marry so might the Holy Apostles and Ministers of our Lord and Saviour under our Gospel St. Peter the first or chief of the Apostles as to a primacy of Order was of this Order himself And St. Paul asserts his right and power to lead about a Wife or Sister as well as Cephas or Peter and other of the Apostles of Christ The Scripture foreseeing saith a Reverend Author the frensie of this Heresie viz. of forbidding marriage to Priests made the Wall higher and stronger of the lawful marriage of the Ministracy for besides the places wherein generally it is without all exception permitted to all Orders of men to Marry it speaketh especially of the lawful use of Marriage in the Ministry It speaks particularly of their Wives likewise of their Children which we remember not to be done in any other estates onely of the Kings it is said That they should not marry many Wives Wherefore the Ministers having not onely the common evidence which all other men have to hold their Wives by but also certain Specialties and special Charters whereby the quiet and peaceable possession of them is warranted it is evident that the Popish Court which impleadeth them and condemneth them for their Wives is a lawless Court So Mr. Cartwright in his Answer to the Rhem. Test Annot. on St. Mat. chap. 8. And amongst the Canons ascribed to the Apostles it is decreed Can. 5. If any Bishop Elder or Deacon under colour of Religion or reverence put away his Wife let him be separate from his Ministry if he abide in that mind let him be deposed This Canon saith the aforesaid Author is of a contrary spirit to you for you sever men from their Wives that sever themselves to the Ministry and it severeth men from the Ministry that sever themselves from their Wives under pretence of the Ministry Again Mr. Perkins in his demonstration of the Problem testifies That the Marriage of the Clergy for the space of 300 years after Christ was a thing alwayes freely allowed without prohibition or vow of perpetual continency Athanasius in his Epistle to Dracontius saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And there are many of the Bishops saith Athanasius that have not married and contrariwise many Monks we see daily become Fathers of Children Again you may observe many Bishops to be Fathers of Children and many Monks that have not sought to see their own Generation for this is lawful and the other is not forbidden but every one as he liketh let him undertake to live And whereas we read saith the Decretal c. 56. That the Sons of Priests have come to the honour of the Papacy we must not understand them to be begotten by Fornication but by lawful Marriage which was lawful for the Priests every where until the time of prohibition and in the East Churches is lawful to this day The singleness of Priest-hood was instituted because of the poverty of the Churches wanting sufficient means to maintain many families of Bishops Priests and Deacons D. 28. c. d. Syr. Pope Siricius about the year 385. forbad Priests Marriage in the Western Church But that Decree had no Universal Admission in the Church until the time of Pope Hildebrand 1007. And 't is observed that Bishops and Priests married in England until Anselms time that is about 1100 years after Christ no Law forbidding them 'T is an observation of Balsamon on the 5th Canon of the Apostles that it was lawful before the 6th Synod in Trullo for the Bishops to marry and have Wives yea after they had received that dignity And for my part I think Arch-Bishop Crammer the Martyr no less a Saint though once or twice married then if he had lived single Arch-Bishop Parker also as I have read was a married Man and our Church since the Reformation never forbad any of her Fathers
yet may they see God notwithstanding the opinion of the Father that Duras Infantum Pater and not withstanding the hard-heartedness of the pretended Mother-Church of Rome in this a Step-Mother rather than a true Mother to her Children The Hebrew Children that dyed before the eighth day and consequently before they were circumcised and those Bethlemitish Children that were baptized in their own blood and that child that being born was also baptized and buried in the flames being thrown into the fire again the arms of that Midwife that delivered the Martyred Mother of a live child doubtless were not excluded Heaven for want of a Sacrament which they did in no wise neglect or contemn but could not have these being comprehended in the Covenant made and sealed to and with their Parents had a right and title to the heavenly inheritance were of with God and co-heirs with Christ Again consider That God may have taken away your Children from the evil to come on the place where they lived When Storms Tempests and Troubles are abroad you Parents call home your Children and so doth God God saith by his Providence in these cases to his Children though your Children also Come my Children enter into your Chambers and shut the door till all these calamities be overpast 'T is a common saying Quem diligit Dous moritur Juvenis he whom God loves dyes young and sometime and in some cases God calls the sins of Parents to remembrance and slays their Children If so it be this is a Lamentation and ought to be for a lamentation But upon your Repentance God may give other Children in room of them he hath taken from you or himself be better than ten Sons than all Sons and Daughters could be unto you Learn of Aaron the Priest of the Lord who when he had lost Nadab and Abihu both in one day and after an extraordinary manner did not say If it be so why is it thus but saith the Text And Aaron held his peace Levit. 10.3 he was dumb and opened not his mouth because God had done it Jonah was angry because God had smitten and withered the Goard that came up in a night and perished in a night but Aaron acquiesced in Gods handy-work though he slew his two Sons by fire in an extraordinary manner in all this Aaron sinned not nor charged God foolishly Behold he taketh away who can hinder him Who will say unto him what dost thou If thou art either barren or by the death of thy child childless thou mayest do well to educate others Children you may adopt some Kinsman or Friend or Neighbours Child and cultivate them and sow the seeds of Virtue and Learning in them and make such your heirs else make the Church or Poor your heirs and do not prodigally therefore waste your Estates or live idly and wastefully Again If you have no Child be humbled under the want of this blessing for Children are so and then encrease and abound more in your Devotions towards God the less you are to care for the things of the world the more reason you have and the more care you should have how to serve and please God 1 Cor. 7. CHAP. VII Of Parents that have bad Children IF Parents have Children and they prove crosses to them how great is that cross If blessings prove curses if comforts turn to sorrows and your light be darkned in the Heavens thereof how great is that darkness And yet this may be the case of a good man or woman for Parents are Parents as men and women and not as Christians and Grace and Virtue is not Ex traducè is not propagated A righteous Noah had a prophane Cham a good David a rebellious Son Absolom Of some Children we may say Blessed is the womb that bare them and the paps that gave them suck of others It had been good for them and for their Parents too if such children had never been born 'T is more tolerable to have none than wicked Children It is the Speech and Protestation of King James in his Preface to his Book to the Prince I protest before that great God I had rather not be a Father and Childless than be a Father of wicked Children I charge you saith he as ever you think to deserve my fatherly blessing to follow and put in practise so far as lieth in you the Precepts hereafter following And if ye follow the contrary course I take the great God to record that this Book shall one day be a witness betwixt me and you and shall procure to be ratified in Heaven the Curse that in that case here I give unto you And I find in the life of Reverend Mr. Robert Bolton that he had told his Children so much both in the time of his sickness and before he verily believed that none of them durst think to meet him at that great Tribunal in an unregenerate estate I confess 't is a sad Meditation for a Parent to think of the life or death of a wicked Child David that was presently comforted for the death of the young Child he had by Bathsheba refused to be comforted for the death of Absolom sorely lamenting Oh Absosom my Son my Son I would to God I had dyed for thee Oh Absolom my Son my Son 2 Sam. 18.33 It is thought it was for the manner of his death the ill condition he dyed in and for his Soul that he pierced his heart so deeply and that he wept so sorely Let good Parents that have bad Children give them good counsel and good example and pray daily with all earnestness for the return of their Prodigals St. Austins Mother Monica her Prayers for her Son when a Manichee were heard at last and he was converted and became one of the greatest and best Lights of the Church since the Apostles times 'T is thought one cause why Hezekiah wept so sore at the tidings of death was because he was then Childless but could the Prophet have told him that he should have such a Son as Manasseth that should commit such abominations how needs must such tidings have made his ears to tingle and pierce his heart thorough with many sorrows Yet this may somewhat alleviate Parents grief that have bad Children Manasseth when he was in Chains sought the Lord and was found of him at the last and that out of his loyns by his Son Amon came the Mirror of Kings King Josiah And if thou hast matter of sorrow from thy own immediate Child thou mayest have abundant cause of rejoycing from thy Grandchild thy Childrens Children may praise the Lord and this may be part of thy happiness thus to see thy Childrens Children and peace upon Israel And sith so it is that sometimes godly Parents have ungodly Children this should moderate your desire of Children and your grief for the want of them Let none be so impatient or passionate as Rachel saying to God or their own Husbands Give me Children or
the King of Northumberland for not stooping to Austin the Monk upon the instigation as History tells us of Austin The Original of Monkery or the Pattern or Platform of it is not taken in the Mount viz. in or from the holy Scriptures although perhaps some would pretend that they imitate Jeptha's Daughter or Elijab and Elizeus or the Nazarites or St. John Baptist or the Children of Jonadab the Son of Rechab But who hath required these things at their hands now under the Gospel to tread in the steps of those before-mentioned and yet Jeptha's Daughter bewailed her Virginity and so 't is thought did yearly the Daughters of Israel lament on her account or for her sake As for our Nazarites they might marry and some were married as Sampson and Samuel Again the Monks and Anchorites of old were necessitated to that Solitary life these live so out of choice voluntarily obliging themselves to this course Elijah Elisha and John the Baptist were all extraordinary Persons and Prophets had extraordinary Calls and are not to be imitated by ordinary Christians It is noted by Mr. Perkins that Jerome saith in the life of Hilarion that there was no Monk in Syria See his Doctrine of the Problem before Hilarion who was the Founder of that Profession in that Province And Chrysostome in the 25 Hom. ad Hebraeos saith That in Pauls time there was no sign nor step of any Monk Monastical Profession began in the Church about 260 years after our Redemption by Paul a Thebane or rather saith my Author about the three hundredth year by Antony These Monks or Hermites lived alone in Fields or Desarts Basil 't is said first invented Monasteries and was head of the Monks Basil himself Ep. 65. saith That the Neo-Caesarians objected the Novelty of Monastical life against him Besides these Monks of old were Lay-men and not Clergy-men and Athanasius in his Epistle to Dracontius saith That he knew many both Monks and Bishops that were married and had Children There were no Nuns saith Mr. Perkins until about two hundred years after Christ and these lived continent and freely privately out of Monasteries In Rome Marcella was one of the Nuns about the year 400. vid. Hieron in Epitap Marcellae St. Austine doth not approve of the idle lives of Monks The Solitary life saith one is inferior to the common and ordinary life because it is full of importunate cogitations c. neither do we speak this out of bare conjecture but have learned it of those who have tried it to be true Ivo Carnotensis Ep 258. I shall now give some Answer to the Objections against the married lives of the Clergy or of men in holy Orders taken from the Scriptures The Scriptures that have been are or may most seemingly be alledged to the contrary are these Those that are in the flesh cannot please God Rom. 8.8 Be ye holy for I am holy 1 Pet. 1.16 Defraud not one another except it be by consent for a season that ye may give your selves to prayer and fasting 1 Cor. 7.5 'T is good for a man not to touch a woman 1 Cor. 7.1 He that is unmarried careth how to please the Lord but he that is married careth how to please his wife 1 Cor. 7.33 No man that is chosen to be a Souldier intangleth himself with the affairs of this life 2 Tim. 2.4 Whosoever hath left Father or Mother or Wife or House or Land for my sake or the Gospels shall receive a hundred-fold in this life Mat. 19.29 There are that make themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven he that can receive it let him receive it Mat. 19.12 Younger widows reject for when they wax wanton against Christ they will marry having damnation because they have forsaken their first faith 1 Tim. 5.11 12. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord that she may be holy both in body and spirit but she that is married careth for the things of this world how she may please her husband 1 Cor. 7.34 To these Objections from Scripture I answer in general 1. That the Scripture directly and plainly allows Marriage to Ministers equally as to any sort of men 1. Saying That Marriage is honorable among all men and therefore amongst Clergy-men and the bed undefiled Hebr. 13.4.2 And again Let every man have his own wife 1 Cor. 7.2 and if every man then a Priest or Presbyter may lawfully have a wife 3. A Bishop must be the husband of one wife and one that hath his children in subjection with all gravity 1 Tim. 3.4 2. I say That the High Priest and Priests of the old Law had liberty to marry that Aaron the Saint of the Lord was married and had Children Nadab and Abihu c. that divers of the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour were actually married that St. Peter whose Successor the Pope or Bishop of Rome claims to be was married our Saviour healing S. Peters wives Mother of a Feaver Mat. 8.14 15. Nor doth it any where appear that they did wholly forsake society with their Wives any more than their Houses Trades Ships to which they certainly sometime after at least for a time returned 3. That Scotus Aquinas Bellarmine Franciscus à Sancta Clara divers in the Council of Trent and of the Romish Church hold that the Celibacy or single life of Priests is not de Jure Divino and therefore cannot be proved out of Scripture either by Precept Institution or Example To the particular Scriptures besides what hath been said before to several of them I answer That Rom. 8.8 Those that are in the flesh cannot please God must not be interpreted or understood those that are in Wedlock cannot please God because we know that many Patriarchs Prophets Apostles were married and yet pleased God and Enoch walked with God and God took him up to Heaven that he saw not death for before he was translated he had this Testimony that he pleased God Heb. 11.5 But by those that are in the flesh must be meant either those that adhere to the old Law and slight the Gospel or else those that are in a state of Nature in an unregenerate estate never as yet renewed in the Spirit of their minds but still remain carnally minded and drowned in the corruptions and sinful lusts of the flesh To that of Peter Be ye holy for I am holy it concerns all Christians and if Marriage and Holiness could not consist together neither Lay-men nor Clergy-men should marry and again Moses and Aaron and God's people of old to whom these words were spoken were married persons and not commanded thereby to put away their wives To the third 1 Cor. 7.5 Defraud not one another c. that it is said to all indifferently Lay-men as well as Clergy-men and that it forbids to separate the man from the society of the woman or his wife wholly and perpetually but only for a time and that too that they might give