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
advanced to the Bishoprick Gregory the Great was Grandchild to Foelix Pope of Rome who was Pope 590. and he is said to have cancell'd his Decree against Priests Marriages upon the finding of 600 Infants skulls in a fish-pond Pope Adrian II. was Son to Bishop Tallerus had a Daughter by his Wife Stephania both which were killed after he was Pope which was an 863. Christopher Patriarch of Jerusalem about the year 900. had children viz. two Sons and two Daughters In Armenia the Secular Priests are all enjoyned to marry else they must not be admitted to the Priesthood Neque permittitur aliquis Sacerdotium assumere qui uxorem non duxit Berchard p. 95. The Prebendaries of Cathedrals out of which number they choose their Bishop are not allowed to marry In Biscay they allow not any Priest to live in their Villages except â—he bring his Concubine with him conceiving it impossible for them to keep their wives unto themseves if the Curate hath not a woman of his own D. H. G. p. 256. At the Council of Trent the Emperor and Duke of Parma made instance to the Pope and said it would be of great moment to grant that Priests that are separated because they are married may be reconciled and retain their wives and that hereafter where there is not a sufficient number of Priests married men of good life and fame may be admitted to the Priesthood Vid. History of the Council of Trent p. 813. And we find in the History of that Council that the more common Opinion was the Marriage of Priests might be dispensed withal 'T is true that this was thought by some dangerous because that married Priests would turn their affections and love to their wives and children and by consequence to their house and Country so that the strict dependance which the Clergy hath on the Apostolick See would cease and to grant Marriage to Priests would destroy the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy and make the Pope to be Bishop of Rome only Council of Trent p. 680. Yea the famous saying of Pope Pius II. was then in the mouth of many That Priests were by the Occidental Church forbid to marry for good reason but there was stronger reason to restore Marriage to them again The two great Reasons urged at the Council were Scandal given by incontinent Priests and want of continent persons fit to exercise the Ministry Hist of C. Trent p. 679 806. It was in the same Council alledged that the Constitution of the Church forbidding to marry might be taken away by the Pope or in case the Constitution remain still the Pope may dispense with it They alledged the examples of those who have been dispensed with and the use of Antiquity that if a Priest did marry the Marriage was good but the man was separated from the Ministry C. T. p. 679. And whereas as some thought that persons who were bound to Continency by solemn Vow could not be dispensed withal by the Pope others maintain'd that the Pope might dispense with these also and marvelled at those who granting the dispensation of simple Vows did deny that of Solemn as if it were not most clear that every Solemnization is de Jure positivo They brought places out of S. Austin by which it doth manifestly appear that in his time some Monks did marry and howsoever it was thought they offended in it yet the Marriage was lawful and St. Austine reprehendeth those who did separate them And as for Marriage of Priests Innocent II. was the first that ordained there should be a nullity in the Marriage This Pope sate in the Sea 1130. Innocent III. who bore a heavy hand over our King John and Interdicted the Kingdom for six years together was the terrible man against Priests Marriages Whereupon we have these Verses by an Oxford man Prisciana Regula penitus cassatur Sacerdos per hic haec olim declinatur Nunc per hic solum articulatur Cum per nostrum praesulem hec amo veatur Prid. Intro to Histri 123. Old Priscians Rule henceforth must hold no more 'T was hic haec Sacerdos heretofore But now poor Hic must lie alone perforce For his dear Haec our Prelate doth divorce This Pope Innocent was Pope first an 1198. If we may credit History divers Popes have had their Concubines Sixtus IV. provided for his Concubine Tiresia shooes covered with Pearl builded Stews at Rome which brought him 2000 Duckets yearly in-come he granted the Cardinal S. Lucia the use of unnatural lusts for three months in the year June July and August Innocent the eight a Genoway he had divers base children Vid. B. Prid. Hist and gave a great dowry to his Daughter Theodorina 'T is said of him Octo Nocens pueros genuit totidemque puellas Hunc merito poteris dicere Roma Patrem Eight Lads and twice four Girls Nocens got And might not Rome him Father term why not Pope Alexander the sixth heaped all upon his Bastards and carnally used his own Daughter Lucretia Hence those Verses Hic jacet in Tumulo Lucretia nomine sed re Thais Alexandri filia sponsa nurus Lucrece by name here liâ—s but Thais in life Pope Alexander's Child Spouse and sons wife This Pope entred on the Popedom an 1492. Paul the third prostituted his Sister Julia Fornesia to Alexander the Sixth that he might be made Cardinal committed incest with his own Daughter Constantia and poysoned her husband Bosius Sforsia to enjoy her the more freely he became Pope 1534. B. Prid. Hist p. 145. Yet I shall grant 1. That single life is in some respects to be preferred as most free ordinarily from trouble and care and in times of persecution and to unfixed persons as to their habitations affording better opportunity to serve God or to suffer for him and fewer and lesser temptations to deny him 2. I grant that those who have made a vow of Celibacy before or at their entrance into the Ministry or on some other occasion if they have they have the gift of Continency are bound to keep it 3. That 't is possible some Votaries of both Sexes may be free from the gross vices and crimes charged on most of our Votaries in the days of K. H. 8. at the dissolution of Abbeys 4. That in Colledges for training up youth in Learning it is expedient that those that are Tutors and Readers to youth be during such their employment single 5. That Presbyters or Priests at times of extraordinary Humiliation and at times of more solemn Celebration of the Lord's Supper shall do well to observe the old Canons that forbid the society of their Wives for a time But then I assert and avow with the Author to the Hebrews chap. 13.4 1. That Marriage is honorable among all men and therefore among persons in holy Orders and the bed undefiled And therefore 2. That the society of a Clergy-man with his wife whether he was married to her before his Ordination or after is
his Treatise of the honour of the Married Clergy and by Calixtus in his Book de Conjugio Clericorum And when I shall have begg'd thy pardon for the many faults â—hou maist possibly find in the Composing Transcribing or Printing of these few sheets Farewel Thy Friend to serve thee T.H. July 1. 1673. ERRATA Pag. 10. line 6. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lin 8. aft 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 add c. P. 24. instead of Fryer Menolein read Menotein P. 28. instead of married married r. married persons P. 66. instead of Matrimony read Maimony P. 74. In the Margin for Doctrine r. Demonstration CHAP. I. Of Marriage GOD at first did not make a Pair a Male and a Female in Mankind as he did of the rest of living Creatures but he made the one of the other the Woman of the Man and thus Male and Female created he them for to continue the Species by propagation and to be a mutual help and comfort each to other The Angels which each fill a Species and are à posteriori Eternal were not made Male and Female and therefore the Heathens who fansied their Deities Male and Female and worshipped many Godds and many Goddesses must be conceived to have worshipped dead Men and Women The difference of the Sex was made for the supply or remedy of our Mortality When we shall come to be like the Angels of Heaven then we shall neither Marry nor be given in Marriage Meat Drink Cloathing and Marriage are all provisions only for this state In the Regeneration there shall be no further need or use of them Our Creator made the Woman of the Man to shew the near Union and Conjunction which should be betwixt the Man and his Wife 1. God himself made the Woman as of the Man so for the Man for his Comfort and Benefit and to be one flesh with him And since Adam had his Marriage ordained and celebrated by God himself in Paradise and in the state of Innocency Who are they that dispute against God against his Ordinance and Institution Such as of old Montanus and Marcion who condemned Marriage as uncleanness and such as St. Jerom who spoke unbecomingly of it such as Papists who forbid Bishops and Priests to Marry and rather tolerate them the having of a Concubine than a Wife I cannot prefer the Woman before the Man absolutely although it be granted she was made after the Man and of the Man and not of the common Earth immediately And that Anatomists tell us of a finer Structure in the Body of the Woman than of the Man For the Holy Scripture tells us That the Man was not made for the Woman but the Woman for the Man and therefore sure the Man is the Head of the Woman and to be preferred before her The Light of Nature taught the very Heathens to prefer the Male before the Female When the Poets would shame men they call them Women We read in Homer's Illid B. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Virgil his Aeneids B. 9. O merè Phrygie nequae enim Phryges So Persius uses the word Troiades Sat. 1. instead of Trojani Good reason then that Wives should be subject to their own Husband and that that Law of Ahasuerus should be an Oecumenial Law viz. That every Man should bear rule in his own house The Holy Ghost in Scripture 't is observed gives three Reasons of the subjection of the Wife to the Husband First Because that Adam was first formed then Eve whereas other Creatures were created the Male and the Female together at the same time 1 Tim. 2.13 Secondly Because the Woman was made to be a meet help and comfort for the Man 1 Cor. 11.9 Thirdly Because the Woman was made or built out of the Man 1 Cor. 11.8 And as a sign of the subjection that was due from the Wife to the Husband the Women in Eastern Countries us'd to wear a Vail on their Heads and over their Faces and in so doing the Wife was said to have power on her Head because she had a Vail which did signifie that she was under the power of her Husband and therefore she is commanded to fear her Husband Ephes 5.33 Which saith Reverend Mr. Bains on that place did meet with the lewdness of many Women that think it their glory to know no awe for pleasing they stand on no such points if they like not they may leave say they let them get others do it better to their Husbands moved they will not stick to bid them go walk themselves For fearing them they cannot why should they make such bull-beggers of them they are their Wives not their Slaves Should they be pointed at for Sheep all the Town over These things saith he the Devil will round you in the ear with But know that you had better be God's Sheep than the Devil's Shrews So he And Mr. John Râ—binson in his Essayes p. 126. saith If the Husband pass the bounds of wisdom and kindness yet must not she shake off the bond of submission but must bear patiently the burthen which God hath laid upon the Daughters of Eve The Woman in innocency was to be subject to the Man but this should have been without all wrong on his part or grief on hers but she being first in transgression hath brought her self under another subjection and the same to her grievor c. in regard of her Husband often unjust but in regard of God always most just who hath ordained that her desire should be subject to her Husband who by her seduction became subject to him And albeit many proud Women think it a matter of scorn and disgrace thus to humble themselves to God and their Husbands and even glory in the contrary yet they but glory in their shame and in their Husbands shame also and whilst they refuse a cross chuse a sin of rebellion both against God and their Husbands Which shall not escape unpunished from God though many fond Husbands nourish them therein and by pampering and puffing them up by delicate Fare costly Apparel and Idleness teach them to despise themselves and all others So far my Author And let me here have leave to say That the pride peevishness of some Wives to their Husbands in our dayes hath brought an ill report on Matrimony and 't is to be feared hath frighted many from the remedy of Marriage into the Disease of Adultery and Uncleanness If Wives would by their discretion and by their meck and quiet Spirits they might gain their Husbands love and affection and they might do this kindness for those of their Sex that are unmarried they would raise and quicken the Market so that Tradesmen that are well stock'd with Daughters should not have cause to complain that their Daughters are the veriest Drug they have about them Let the Wife make it her business to please her Husband in lawful things and to the rest of her Endowments
the mastery I should further advise not to marry by the hand or weight meerly for money To marry World or Mammon this is next to marrying the Devil 'T is true a wise Counsellor advised his Son to marry a wife with something because nothing could be bought in the Market without money Yet a mateh meerly for money is not of Gods making nor mans making God never appointed nor ever approved of such matches and I have seen a Picture of three marriages one said to be made by God another by Love and a third by the Devil and this third in the Picture was when two old covetous wretches married together that they might joyn house to house land to land and bag to bag It was well observed by Mr. Herbert Palmer in his little piece of making Religion ones business that he never found in all the Scriptures amongst all the ends of marriage that God ordained marriage to make one rich And if so then if we will make that the chief end of marriage which was never by our Maker and the Author of marriage intended or designed any end at all how much are we degenerated how have we degraded our selves and sunk Gods Ordinance into earth mire and dirt If I mistake not the Jews and our Ancestors the Saxons used to purchase their wives with gifts or dowries Hence the custom with us of laying Gold and Silver upon the Book in the Solemnization of Matrimony and the Minister's giving it to the Bride and perhaps also those words in the Office appointed on the mans part with aâ—â—y 〈…〉 goods I thee endow and the money given at that time was an earnest of the rest A good wife at any rate is a good bargain I had much rather give money to buy a wife then sell my self to purchase a rich one Intolerabili nihil est quam faemina dives he that marries for 100 s. 1000 s. a 100 a 1000 to one but he is overwiv'd As he that marries above himself for honour is like a ship that hath too much sail for its ballast so he that marries below himself for money is like a ship over-laden that hath too much burthen for its sails and so is in danger of sinking They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and dangerous lusts which drown men in perdition Well then marry neither only or chiefly for beauty by the eye nor for honour by the ear nor for money or wealth by the hand but find out a meet helper a suitable yoke-fellow one whom you are sure you shall love because you do love her and that too for her Virtues and Qualifications so decently lodged that you cannot but be pleased to dwell with them To conclude this particular about the choice of a wife and conversation with a wife let me mind you what Wisdom it self adviseth namely To marry in the Lord A woman that feareth God of a meek and quiet spirit in whose lips is the Law of kindness in whom your heart can safely trust a good housewife that will look well to the ways of her houshold and will not eat the bread of idleness Prov. 31. And that you may hope for such a blessing the greatest earthly felicity for your preparation to marriage take King James his advice to his Son Prince Henry Keep your body clean and unpolluted till you give it to your wife to whom only it belongeth for how can you justly crave to be joyned to a pure Virgin if your body be polluted why should the one half be clean and the other defiled As for the time of your marriage defer not to marry till your old age for marriage was ordained to quench the lust of youth Marry not a woman unable either through age nature or accident for procreation of children neither marry one of known evil conditions or vicious education for the woman is ordained to be a helper and not a hinderer to man Add hereunto as accessions as that wife Prince adviseth if they may be had Beauty Riches and Friendship by Alliance in your marriage because Beauty encreaseth your love to your wife contenting you the better with her without caring for others and Riches and great Alliance do both make her the abler to be a helper to you Marry especially to one of your own Religion weigh and consider how you and your wife can be one flesh and keep unity betwixt you being members of two opposite Churches Disagreement in Religion brings on with it disagreement in manners When you are married saith the Royal Author keep inviolably your promise made to God in your marriage and for your behaviour to your wife the Scripture can best give you counsel therein Treat her as your own flesh command her as her Lord cherish her as your helper rule her as your pupil and please her in all things reasonable but teach her not to be curious in things that belongs her not Ye are the head she is the body it is your Office to command and hers to obey but yet with such a sweet harmony as she should be as ready to obey as you to command as willing to follow as ye to go before Your love being wholly knit unto her and all her affections lovingly bent to follow your will Three Rules he especially gives the Prince concerning his wife Hold her at the Oeconomick Rule of the house and yet all to be subject to your direction Keep carefully good and chaste company about her for women are the frailest Sex And be never both angry at once but when you see her in passion you should with reason danton yours B.Δ. 2 b. p. 82. CHAP. IV. Of Children ONe great end of Marriage is the peopling the world with mankind especially planting the Church with a holy Seed because men and women the individuals dye they seek lawfully and rationally by marriage the conservation of their kind and because men cannot avoid death and live ever here they seek to live after death in their posterity when they are dead in their own persons they have a kind of Resurrection in their children Good and bad Saints and sinners and those of both Sexes too are desirous of children What wilt thou give me saith Abraham seeing I go childless and this Eliezar of Damascus a stranger born in my house is my heir and Give me children or else I dye said Rachel Encrease and multiply was one of Gods first blessings to his Creatures after their first creation Fruitfulness is generally reckoned a blessing as Barrenness a curse in the holy Scripture God our heavenly Father that hath the key of the clouds he keeps the key of the womb he opened Sarahs womb that she conceived a Son in her old age and he fast shut up all the wombs in Abimelech's Court. Hence it is that children are an inheritance of the Lord and that it is accounted one of God's prerogatives that he maketh the barren woman
to keep house and to be a joyful mother of children And therefore because the Patriarchs and Saints of the Lord were thus perswaded they made their humble addresses and petitions at the Throne of Grace for children The Jews tell us that Abraham and Sarah put up their joynt prayers to God for a Son so did Hannab the Mother of Samuel and we may probably guess Zachary the Father of John the Baptist whilst he ministred in the Temple and prayed for we read Luke 1.18 the Angel Gabriel said to him Fear not Zacharias for thy prayer is heard and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son and thou shalt call his name John And truly if God give a child in answer to prayers 't is to be hoped that such child will answer the Parents prayers and prove a blessing and so did Isaac Samuel and John the Baptist I confess that sometimes wicked men who are described to be such as call not upon God have their fill of children Psal 17.14 and again that they send forth their children like a flock yea and their children dance Job 21.11 But yet I say that children that are the fruit of prayers are usually a double blessing when as children bestowed on wicked Parents who pray not for them oft-times prove a dismal curse to them In the one sort God as it were lights in his servants Families a Candle that their names be not put out in obscurity In the other he permits a fire to be kindled and that to a kind of wild-fire which soon consumes the whole house with the timber thereof and the stones thereof 'T is a blessing to be fruitful and to have our name continued on the contrary 't is a curse to be barren and to have our names blotted out and therefore God provided that if the elder Brother dyed childless the next Brother was to raise up seed unto his Brother and that was to be called after his Brothers name The causes of Barrenness are oft-times 1. Disobedience to Parents 'T is just and equal that they should dye childless that do not honour their Parents by whom under God they had their own Beings Births and Lives 2. Adultery and Vncleanness Those who lie with other mens wives are punished with Barrenness in their own wives 3. Notorious Wickedness and obstinate Rebellion against God When a man is wicked overmuch well may God in wrath say Write this man Childless or there shall no more of this mans seed be sown and Job 18.19 He shall neither have son nor nephew among his people not any remaining in his dwelling 4. An inordinate desire of great things in this world and of the continuance of our Name and Family Psal 49. 5. Persecuting of Gods Saints and Servants or afflicting the poor and needy Psal 109.13 Let his posterity be cut off let his name be wiped out Certainly on the other side Fruitfulness is a blessing and as a good Wife is the best Earthly blessing without us so are Children a special gift of God See Psal 113.9 Psal 127.3 4. Children are an heritage of Jehovah the fruit of the womb his reward or wages Hebr. As Barrenness is threatned and inflicted sometimes as a curse so is Fruitfulness promised and bestowed as a blessing and yet God will be sought unto for this blessing So did Abraham seek God for a Son and obtained him After Isaac had lived with his wife twenty years childless they both say the Jews went to the Mount Moriah and prayed there for a child and God heard them I should not advise Polygamy as a means to be fruitful and to multiply our Progeny One wife seems enough and often too much for one man to govern and 't is observed that some who have allowed or indulged themselves the liberty or licence of many Wives have had the fewest Children Solomon's Wives and Concubines made up a thousand and yet we read but of three Children he had by them all 2. Next to Prayer for Children let me advise a serious resolution to bring up your Children which God shall bestow on you in the nurture and admonition of the Lord resolve you and your Children will serve the Lord. Endeavour to be able to say to God at last when you come to give account of these Talents Of all thou hast given me have I lost none There is never a son or daughter of perdition amongst them not a profane Esau or a cursed Cham nor a scoffing Ishmael never a wandering Dinah nor a mocking Michal Lo here am I and the Children thou hast given me 3. Love God's Worship the place of his Worship and those that minister about holy things It was to Hannah praying at Shiloh to Zachary ministring in the Temple and to the Shunamitish woman that so courteously entertained the Prophet Elijah and to the Mariner and his Wife that in Q Maries Reign hid that eminent Doctor and Confessor Dr. Sands after Archbishop of York to whom God gave Sons after they had been childless a long time 4. Be you your selves God's Children his Sons and his Daughters and he will give you Children Sons and Daughters or at least a name better then of Sons and Daughters Isa 58. Psal 128. Blessed are all they that fear God and walk in his way Thy wife shall be as the fruitful vine upon the walls of thine house Thy children like Olive plants round about thy table Yea thou shalt see thy childrens children and peace upon Israel And this last Clause brings to mind that saying of our Saviour Luke 21.23 Wo unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days If you ask why it follows For there shall be great distress in the land namely of Israel and wrath upon this people Else save in case of war and desolation or in case of trouble and persecution as the times were like to be when St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians 1 Cor. c. 7. Else I say Blessed are those wombs that bear and the paps that give suck the blessings of the breasts and of the womb are the language of the Holy Tongue And though in troublous times it is not good i.e. expedient to touch a woman yet in Serene times and of Adam in Innocency God said it is not good for the man to be alone And as we have a wo in Luke to those that are with child so have we a Ve soli a wo to him that is alone in Ecclesiastes distingue tempora salves difficultatem distinguish the times when or of which these things were spoken and you will easily reconcile our Saviour's words and his Apostles with those of Solomon's The Hebrew word Ben which signifies a Son comes from Banah to build and those Mothers who bring forth children are said in Scripture to build up the house So 〈…〉 prayed for Boaz his wife Ruth in this manner The Lord make the woman that is come into thy house like Rachel and like
else I dye It may further be considered that if yet good Parents have divers towardly Children yet if they have one prophane person as Esau it may break your hearts more than all the rest can comfort you Like as in the Natural body there is more grief by the aking of some one part though but a tooth than ease and comfort in all the rest that are found and well And this consideration though it ought not to make us judge Children no blessings or not the gift of God or to be lightly esteemed yet may it put us upon being as earnest for to have our Children to be born again as to be born at first to have them Gods Children by Grace as ours by nature and to have his Image and likeness on their Souls as ours on their bodies When the Parents are in Covenant with God and endeavour their utmost to educate their Children in the fear of God it usually follows that their labour is not in vain in the Lord. The Israelites the holy Scriptures tell us their Sons and their Daughters which they had born unto God they sacrified unto Devils Psal 106. 37. Which in a Spiritual sense we do saith one if we either neglect instructing them or praying to God for them or walking exemplarily as we ought before them or correcting them duly or any such means as by which the seeds of Grace may grow and prosper in them Rob. Ess p. 532 533. CHAP. VIII Of Adultery and Fornication c. ALL sin is accounted filthiness and uncleanness and compared to the filthiest things Scum Mire Vomit but this sin is signanter call'd the fin of Uncleanness 't is caled also Abomination Ezek. 22.11 and Neighing Jer. 5.8 These sins are usually secret sins and therefore most frequently committed pleasing sins stollen waters are sweet and bread eaten in secret and men are prone to forget these sins the Whore wipes her mouth and thinks all well 'T is observed that the Sacrifice which was offer'd for the woman suspected of Adultery was call'd an Offering of Memorial because it was not offer'd to put away sin but to bring it to mind or to remembrance if it was committed Adultery by God's Law was punished with death either as the Rabbins say by strangling or they were to be thrust thorough with a Javelin as Phineas executed Zimry or Cosby or they were to be stoned with stones if the Damsel that was defiled was betrothed see Deut. 22.23 24. or else by burning with fire if she that played the Whore was a Priests Daughter and in her Fathers house Lev. 21.19 One expounds this of hot Lead poured into her mouth This punishment was called Combustio animae this punishment they say was used in after-times in imitation too of Gods punishing with Lightning whereby the outward parts are not hurt and the inward burnt up as in the example of Nadab and Abihu If any wonder at what was said before viz. that the punishment of her that was betrothed in case she was defiled or vitiated that it was greater by God's Law than of her that was married Grotius gives this Reason Because she was not in her husbands custody as stealing a sheep out of the field was punished more severely than stealing a sheep out of the fold Another Author gives these Reasons 1. Because she gave away her Virginity which her husband most esteemed 2. She brake her promise in so doing Deut. 22.23 3. She wrought folly in her Fathers house Deut. 22.19 4. She was not only dishonest to her husband in her first love but dishonoured also her first-born whose honour and priviledge amongst the Jews was very great and you must not say her punishment should be less because she was not another mans wife for she is called a neighbours wife Deut. 22.24 and therefore she is said v. 22. to be married to an husband as if the party were her husband before If so we know God accounts Idolatry commited by his people Advltery although the Church is but as it were espoused and betrothed to him here and the wedding and wedding-supper to be in Heaven Amongst the Nations in some Countrys Adultery was punished by the loss of both eyes in some by death Amongst the Egyptians by cutting off the nose if he vitiated a free woman In some Country illi virilia execantur The which also saith Alexander ab Alexandro was used amongst the Romans The same Author Gen. D. l. 4. c. 1. tells us The Partbians punish no crime more grievously that Opilius Macrinus condemned such to be burnt with fire and that amongst the Arabians and other Nations Adultery was always punished capitally That divers Philosophers have accounted Adultery a greater crime than Perjury In the Christian Church of old those that admitted such to Communion who had fallen after Baptism excepted those who were guilty of Adultery Murther and Idolatry Many and great are the threats against such sinners in the holy Scripture disgrace and dishonour is threatned to their name wasting and consumption to their bodies and estates a dart shall strike through their liver Lust is lodged in the Liver and there it is especially punished Whoremongers and Adulterers especially God will judge Hebr. 13.4 Neither Fornicators nor Idolaters c. shall inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.9 Dr. Heylin our Historiographer writing of them any divisions in Hungary into Romanists Lutherans Calvinists Yet saith he all these different parties do agree in this to punish Adultery and Fornication with no less a punishment than death the Father forcing his Daughter the Husband his wife and the Brother his Sister to the place of Execution H. G. p. 542. King James in his Advice to the Prince with much zeal dehorts him from this sin of Uncleanness p. 74. c. Hear God saith this English Solomon this King-Preacher commanding by the mouth of St. Paul to abstain from Fornication declaring that the Fornicator shall not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven and by the mouth of St. John reckoning out Fornication amongst other grievous sins that debars the Committers amongst Dogs and Swine from entry into that spiritual and heavenly Jerusalem And because saith he sibbest examples touches us nearest consider the difference of success that God granted in the Marriages of the King my Grandfather and me your own Father the reward of his incontinency proceeding from his evil Education being the sudden death at one time of two pleasant young Princes and a Daughter only born to succeed him whom he had never the hap so much as once to see or bless before his death leaving a double curse behind him to the Land both a Woman of Sex and a new born Babe of age to Reign over them And as for the blessing God hath bestowed on me in granting me both a greater Continency and the fruits following thereupon you self and sib folks to you are praise be God sufficient witnesses And page 81. Have the King my Grandfathers example