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
Callings will be Recreations After you have educated your Children and trained them up in some honest Calling provide timely a suitable Match for them 'T is the Parents duty to dispose of their Children in Marriage as appears plainly by these Scriptures Deut. 7.3 Exod. 34.16 1 Cor. 7.38 Where observe saith my Author that the Commandment touching the Marriage of the Child Mr. Perkins is given to the Parent not the Child Thus Abraham took a wife for his son Isaac and Isaac suffer'd himself to be disposed of by his Father afterwards Isaac commanded his son Jacob to marry in the house of Laban Gen. 28. and Jacob obeyed I do not mean that Parents may absolutely command their Child to marry this or that person but to marry one thus or thus qualified according to Rules of Scripture and right Reason and Prudence I say they may Great is the power of Parents over their Children In some Countrys Parents have power of life and death over their Children Amongst the Jews the Parents might sell their Children to free themselves out of debt and in case Children were disobedient and incorrigible their Parents might bring them forth to be stoned to death by Gods Law And this brings us to treat of the next Head or Argument viz. The duty of Children towards their Parents Honour thy Father and Mother saith the Law Which is the first Commandment with promise saith the New Testament Ephes 5. Parents must have a double honour namely of Reverence and of Maintenance Thou shalt fear thy Mother and thy Father And again according to our Saviour's Interpretation the Pharisees Corban non obstante Children were bound to provide for their Parents 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to do or shew kindness to their Father and Mother yea those Christians who do not provide for their own Parents are worse than Infidels It is sad to think of what Luther observes That one Father will more willingly maintain ten Sons than ten Sons will maintain one Father but where Children are unnatural to their Parents God in just judgment suffers their Children to retaliate their unkindness unto themselves 'T is memorable the Story of the Father who being drawn by his Son to the threshold of the house by the hair of the head cryed to him to draw him no further for that he had drawn his Father no further v. Robinsons Essays p. 548. 'T is observable that Children are apt to slight their Mother most and her especially in her old age We are apt to break over the hedge where 't is lowest but the Law of God is a Mound and a Hedge in this Gap charging us not to despise our Mother when she is old Prov. 23.22 And there is a curse denounced against him that setteth light by father or mother and all the people were to say Amen to it Deut. 27.16 How terrible is that place Prov. 30.17 The eye that mocketh at his father and despiseth to obey his mother the Ravens of the Valley shall pick it out and the young Eagles shall eat it And he that slights his Parents for the infirmities that accompany their old age or for their wrinkles or hoary hairs is very unreasonable The natural affection and kindness of the Stork to its Dam may be a witness against such Children such worse than unreasonable men and women Aeneas is call'd Pius Aeneus by the Poet and why because he carried his Father Anchises upon his back at the destruction of Troy We must do what we can to hide our Parents nakedness Remember Chams or his son Canaans curse who some say first saw his Grandfather Noah and went and told his Father and is therefore cursed We must think reverently of them we must shew outward reverence to them bow down to them or rise up before them we must speak awfully to them and respectively of them We must obey their just and lawful commands if they say Go we must go if Come we must come if Do this we must do it We must provide necessaries for them if they want afford them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we must thus honour or reward them for their kindness to us The Jews have a saying What honour is to be given to Parents the answer is To give them meat and drink and to cloath them and cover them Let 's endeavour to procure their hearty prayers for blessings to God upon us and ours and dread the thoughts of their ill Wishes Curses or Imprecations 'T is memorable what St. Austin in his Civ Dei b. 22. cap. 8. relates namely Often Children that being cursed by their Mother went about quaking and trembling from one place to another like Vagabonds And I have been very credibly told of a Son that stamping on his Mothers grave for madness because she had given him no more thereby broke his leg Though a man must love his Wife more than his Mother yet he must reverence his Mother rather than his Wife We should honour our Parents living and dead with Civil honour and respect so Joseph fell on Jacob his Father and kissed him when dead Give them decent burial so Jacob and Esau too buried their Father Ifaac and weep or mourn over them David speaking of great sadness saith he bowed down heavily as one thâ—â— mourned for his mother Psal 35.14 and Joseph when he buried his Father it was with a great and solemn mourning and of a long continuance Gen. 50.10 If the widows made great lamentation for the death of Dorcas and shewed the Coats that she had made for them Acts 9.39 how much more should Children weep and mourn for their deceased Parents from whom under God they had their Beings their Lives Education Food and Cloathing and Portion and all CAAP VI. Of the loss of Children IF God have given you Children and taken them away again yet be not like Rachel weeping for her children because they are not Rather with Job say The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord Job 1.21 Better I think to have had Children though we see them go before us to their grave than to have been always Childless for hereby God hath taken away the reproach and curse of Barrenness and hereby you have helped to fill Heaven and your Children are not lost but gone or sent thither before you Job who had all his other goods doubled had not a double number of Children and this reason some give of it because these were not lost Job should meet with them again in Heaven If your Children dye in the womb and never see the Sun the Sun in the visible Heavens yet may they for ever see the Sun of Righteousness in the highest Heavens and surely 't is a pleasant thing always to behold this Sun in the vision and fruition of whom consists so much of our happiness What though your children dye in the womb or go out of the world presently after they are born into it
neither of you being such good friends to our Church and Clergy will deny that is to joyn with me in my prayers for the Tribe of Levi Let thy Urim and thy Thummim be with thy holy One let the sound of Aarons bells be ever heard and the smell of his Pomegranates always perfume the Church of God and let there be found at last of the Tribe of Levi amongst us as of other Tribes twelve thousand sealed ones And that there may never want a supply of able and good men for the work of the Ministry Let the Rod of Aaron I mean the Universities ever flourish and yearly bud blossom and bring forth ripe Almonds Your very much obliged and very humble Servant T.H. July 1. 1673. TO THE READER Courteous Reader Two things I desire to premise First That I do not pretend in this small popular Tract to teach Men Brethren and Fathers of the Church them and their Wives Oeconomicks But yet shall beg leave to transcribe a passage out of Luthers Colloquia Mensalia which I desire our Married Clergy would consider viz. That one cause of the unmarried lives of Priests to wit in the Papacy was that the faults of the Priests wives were offensive so that when the Priests should reprove the wickedness of others then the people would hit them in the teeth again and say why did not they reform their own wicked wives And truly I could wish that I might have cause to say of all the Married Clergy and of all others in the state of Matrimony as confident I am I may say of many Ye have no need that I write unto you of Conjugal love and duties for ye your selves are taught of God to love one another To this purpose it was we advised by a Right Reverend Father of our Church viz. the B. of W. to all such as his Lordship married often to read over the Office of Marriage that so they might the better remember and dâ— their duties each to other And truly I could heartily wish and beg of the Right Reverend thâ— Fathers of our Church that if ever they should revise our Liturgy which even some good men desire that the duties of Man and Wife Parentâ— and Children Masters and Servants might bâ— appointed to be read on the Lords days after the reading of the Commandments out of the Epistle to the Ephesians or Colossians or both The second thing I desire to premise is that I do not present you with a Regular and Scholastical Discourse either of Marriage or of the difference betwixt the Church of England and Rome concerning the Marriage of Priests or persons in holy Orders but offer as to the latter some Collections out of Dr. Field his Fifth Book of the Church Dr. Fulk and Mr. Cartwright their Annotations on the Rhemists Testament on Matth. 8. and on the Epistles to Timothy and Titus Mr. Perkin ' s his Demonstration of the Problem Dr. John and Dr. Francis White concerning this Argument and others together with some of my own observations The truth which is on our Churches side is chiefty maintained and the Church of Rome confuted by the Authority of the holy Scriptures Bishop Hall in his Treatise of the Honour of the Married Clergy page 124. observes that the Church of Rome teaches contradictory to the Holy Scripture The Spirit of God saith he saith that a Bishop may be the husband of one wife the Church of Rome says a Bishop may not be the husband of any wife at all The Spirit of God says Marriage is honorable amongst all men the Church of Rome says Marriage is dishonorable to some The Spirit of God says to avoid fornication let every man have his wife the Church of Rome like a quick-huswife says some Order of men shall not have a wife though to avoid fornication So that as another Author notes amongst them Marriage only and not Fornication is inconsistent with the dignity of a Clergy-man and that Fornication has been allowed to Priests and Fryers in compensation for their restraint from Marriage three or four Whores as part of their spiritual Preferment And probably such foul Positions and Practices made Luther so zealous for Matrimony I took a wife said he therewith to upbraid the Devil and to confound the whoring in Popedom and in contempt of that nasty Letchery in Popedom which is very great and abominable Luth. Col. Mens The same Author tells us that under Pope Julius was exercised an abominable Letchery and Whoring in Rome At the same time saith he was a Cardinal that had a married wife the which being known he was constrained to forsake her but in less than a years space he took her again Now when the Cardinal dyed his wife wept bitterly and said she had an honest husband who contented himself with one woman The Citizens of Rome wondering to hear the same cryed O Sancta Maria for says Luther Chastity in those people is rare Venison And as we have the holy Text on our side so have we the Fifth Canon of the Apostles the testimony of Paphnutius a holy Bishop and with him concurred the whole Council of Nice the Sixth Council of Constantinople Can. 13. and the practice of the Greek Church to this day so far as to justifie the lawfulness of Priests officiating about the holy things of their Function notwithstanding their being married And further to justifie our Church and the practice of our Clergy we have the Concessions of many of our Adversaries as Franciscus a Sancta Clara observes that the Celibacy of Priests is not de Jure divino but by the Law of the Church and that the Pope may dispense therewith and some say doth dispense with the married Clergy in the Greek Church and others in his name 't is said have made Overtures of the like favour to the English Clergy and in case they would be his dutiful and obedient Sons be would be an Indulgent Father to them Lastly It is worth the consideration on our behalf â—n this matter that some of the best men of the Church of Rome such as Espencaeus Aeneas Sylvius Polydore Virgil Erasmus and others have desired that the Law of forced Celibacy might be taken away to prevent the great scandal that is given by the filthy lives of the Clergy Forasmuch then as the English Clergy have had the possession of their wives for above a thousand years after Christ and again have had them restored to them by Law at the Reformation they have no reason to quit their so just and ancient Rights and with one half of themselves and to be contented with Lemans instead of Wives and Nephews in room of Sons I shall dismiss thee Reader when I shall have told thee that the fig-leaves wherewith the Romanists seek to hide the nakedness of their Church in this cause are eafily blown away by Dr. Field of the Church Dr. Francis White his Defence of his Brother Dr. John White by Bishop Hall
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
greater sin than Fornication if not than Adultery and yet their Schoolmen Thomas and Scotus that in other things differ agree in this That the single life of Priests is not by Scripture prohibited but by the Constitutions of the Church What shall we say to these Men that make it a greater sin to break the Law of the Church than the Commandments of God Sure we are 〈◊〉 Scripture prohibits the Marriage of Priests or Ministers of the Church The Apostles were no more enjoyned to forsake their Wives than their Father and Mother House and Land and that saying of our Saviour That whosoever did forsake father or mother or house and land or wife for his sake respected those that were not Apostles as well as them that were 'T is well noted by our Church Historian that Enoch walked with God and begat sons and daughters In which Enoch saith he met the threefold capacity of King Priest and Prophet He made not a Prayer the less for having a child the more and let us be but alike holy with Enoch and let others be more holy with Anselm and Dunstan that opposed the marriage of the Clergy here in England They say of the latter that he took the Devil by the nose how true that is I know not but in this point forbidding to marry being a doctrine of Devils 't is true enough that the Devil led him by the nose If that place be urged 1 Cor. 7.33 where the Apostle saith that he that is married careth for the things of the world how he may please his wife The Historian answers These things are vitia mâ—â—iti not matrimonli uxoris not uxoratus flowing neither from the exercise of marriage but only from the depraved use thereof which by Gods assistance and mans best endeavours may be rectified and amended So he That other saying of the Apostle in the same Chapter Defrand ye not one another except it be with consent for a time that ye may give your selves to fasting and prayer and come together again that Satan tempt you not by reason of your not having the gift of continency doth not justifie the Popish Prohibition of marriage for that Interdiction of the Marriage-bed is voluntary by mutual consent of the parties and temporary only durante bene placito But the Popish Prohibition is impulsive by the power of others and perpetual to continue during their lives F.H.b. 3. p. 22. Wo to them by whom so great offences and scandals come as do daily in the Papacy from the forbidding to marry If marriage be a Sacrament why should the Priest be Interdicted the use of it and if it be uncleanness as the Marcionites and Manichees taught why are the common people the Laity indulged it There were I know the Scripture saith Mat. 19.12 some that made themselves Eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven But our Saviour hath laid upon his Disciples whether Ministers or ordinary Christians no such unnecessary burthen If a man have the gift of continency which is not a common but a proper gift he may receive it but not in Origens sense who allegorized other Scriptures and 't is said took this in a literal sense by the same reason we should cut off our right hands and pluck out our right eyes and dismember our selves and destroy our bodies lest they should be occasions and instruments of sin to us But this way of interpreting those sayings of Christ in the Gospel would be contradictory to God's Law viz. the Sixth Commandment The Apostle Paul saith indeed Mortifie your members which are upon earth which he expounds to be fornication uncleanness evil concupiscence c. But whilst the Church of Rome would compell her Priests and Nuns to be like the Angels of Heaven neither marrying nor giving in marriage 't is too apparent they occasion many to be worse than Beasts and to be delivered over to the unclean Spirit or to be possessed with an unclean Devil It is marked that those who have neglected the remedy of marriage which God hath prescribed have in vain used other means and methods of cure In vain as to the cure of Concupiscence did St. Jerome strike his breast with stones St. Francis embrace and kiss the snow to cool himself and quench this fire of Lust and St. Benedict strip himself naked and lie among the thorns In vain do the Romish Priests and Nuns make Vows os Celibacy or Single-life they Vow that which is not in their power that is to live always single and yet chastely whereas the gift of continency is a proper gift and rarely given If they say they will pray for this gift But where hath God promised to hear such prayers it not being necessary to salvation to live chastely without using the remedy God gave not this gift to those he loved dearly to Moses to Aaron to Samuel to David to Isaiah c. Ignatius and Ambrose tell us that all the Apostles except John were married Philip the Evangelist had four Daughters and Platina in the Life of Cletus the first saith that St. Luke was married and that his wife was in Bithynia 'T is a fond saying an imagination of these mens brains that the Apostles had wives but that after their undertaking the Office of Apostleship they never accompanied with them they may as well say they left for ever all propriety in their children in their houses in their fisher-boats But we see that they did not St. John had his house wherein he entertained the Blessed Virgin Mary after the death of our Saviour Again as to the Vows of Monks and Nuns ordinarily they are made unwillingly or without knowledge of what they do and whether they shall have power to contain Men make their daughters Nuns at twelve years of age and their sons Monks at fourteen when they know not what Concupiscence meaneth and which after kindling burns more violently like cinders covered over with ashes at last break out violently into a flame Witness the unchaste lives of many that are under this Vow of Chastity But if they cannot contain it is better for them to marry than to burn better break an unnecessary and unlawful Vow than the Commandment of God better a Priest or Monk or Nun their Vow notwithstanding marry than to break the Commandments of God and their Vow in Baptism 'T is horrid to think that the Popes forbid marriage and permit or tolerate fornication and adultery in their Priests as a less crime than marriage Again That although a man that hath had two Wives be accounted irregular in the Papacy yet he that hath had divers Concubines is not as Pope Innocent III. declareth If for the strengthning of their unlawful Vows they urge that of the Apostle 1 Tim. 5.11 12. where he saith Refuse the young widows for when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ they will marry having damnation because they have broken their first faith This may be answered from the context
namely that younger widows should marry and guide the house and not be received into the Office of Deaconesses of being servants to the Church to relieve or look to the sick and to succour the poor because such persons if they should make such a promise to the Church to continue in that state all the days of their life would be apt to break it either by being wanton against Christ committing fornication or else would be under the power of their husband and so not be at liberty to serve the Church Now therefore the Apostle concludes that none should be received into the Church as Deaconesses under the age of threescore at which time saith one the Vow of not marrying would be ridiculous Therefore the Pope and his Clergy saith Dr. Fulk admitting other widows or virgins to profess or vow Continency do sin against the express Commandment of the H. Ghost Nor was the want of Monasteries and Monkish and Nunish Rules and Orders in the Apostles times the occasion of this Prohibition or restraint For saith my Author the Incontinency of Nuns and Monks in Cloysters and under all your Rules and Orders hath and doth daily give sufficient proof that Lust will not be kept out by the walls of your Monasteries nor by the Rules and Prescripts of your Orders So then as the experience of some younger widows that had followed after Satan was a sufficient reason to cause the Apostle to refuse all young widows to the Office of Deaconesses so the experience of so many Milch Nuns and filthy Monks and Friers teach us that no young persons are to be admitted to any Vow or Profession of perpetual Continency Let me add here what the said Doctor hath out of Wierus de Praestig Daemon l. 3. cap. 9 11. edit 3. That the Devil helpeth the Nuns in their abominable lusts in divers Nunneries in Germany namely in the Province of Colen where the Devil in the likeness of a Dog was seen to fall upon them in the day time in most beastly manner about the year of our Lord 1558. also in the Nunnery of Nazanth in Colen the Nuns in most filthy manner suffered the same illusion oftentimes in the sight and presence of many anno 1564. The state of the Church saith Gerson Chancellor of Paris is grown altogether bruitist and monstrous and should give an Item to the Overseers to enquire whether the Cloysters of Nuns be not become the Stews of Harlots and who would think saith the Author of the Triumph of Rome over despised Protestancy that so wise a man as Caesarius Branchedorus could so far over-reach as to say that the lusts of whoredom and gluttony and other shameful enormities had gotten such a head that young men did pati muliebria and Priests did facere virilia and that their Nuns did as it were openly profess unchastity and at last that whosoever was noted to be a shameless Adulterer or a wild Ruffian that had lavish'd out all his Patrimony anu pene ventre was sure to betake himself to the Court of Rome as his Sanctuary And again Who could have looked for such language to fall from so grave an Author as Espencaeus that our Ancestors wish'd that our Clerks should turn their wives into their sisters but now our age turns them into Lemmans and Whores and consequently their lawful issue into Bastards And again God hath taken away our sons and the Devil hath given us Nephews and could imagine that so learned and ingenious a â—â—n as Erasmus would so far wrong his neighbours as to say that a number of Monasteries are so degenerated that the Stews are more chaste and sober and modest then they The supplication of Beggars tender'd to King Henry VIII assured him that by virtue of the Sacred Votaries there were a hundred thousand Whores in this our Nation Fryar Menolem in the Pulpit cryed to the Clergy Ye my Masters of the Church do not damn your souls Ye have now Birds in the Cage that chirp to you by night yt know my meaning put them away So the Author of Romes Triumph over despised Protestancy which some say was Bishop Hall Our Church Historian tells us that King Stephen's fury fell most fiercely on the Dean and Canons of Pauls for crossing him in the choice of their Bishop for he sent and took their Focaria's that is Roger Hoveden being Interpreter their Concubines and cast them into the Tower of London where they continued many days not without much scorn and disgrace till at last those Canons ransom'd their liberty at a great rate F. Hist Book 3. p. 27. From these premises I hope we may safely draw this good and honest Conclusion That marriage is not to be prohibited to a whole Order of men within the pale of the Church neither directly nor by consequence and that 't is not expedient to suffer young men and young maids or women to vow Celibacy all their lives It was piously said of Pope Pius the second That for great causes Priests wives were taken from them but that for greater causes they ought to be restored to them again See Platina in the life of the said Pope It is better to marry than to burn saith St. Paul and the Canons of St. Paul's Church aforenamed had much better have had Wives than Focaria's Fire-makers or Concubines How horrible is it that the Church of Rome doth hold That 't is much better and less offence for a Priest to use another mans wife than to marry one of his own after that he hath once accepted and married our dear Mother the holy Church for his wife during life But leaving such Apocryphal Doctrine of the Romish Church I come to the Canon of the holy Scripture 1 Cor. 7.2 To avoid fornication let everyman and therefore Spiritual persons are not exempted have his own wife and every woman and therefore Nuns are not interdicted have her own husband and to avoid fornication it is enjoyned and therefore all persons of both Sexes who have not the gift of Continency are bound to marry nor can any Vow or Oath be vinculum iniquitatis i. e. a Bond of Iniquity and oblige against God's Law which saith Thou shalt not commit Adultery and It is better to marry than to burn Besides if two Oaths be taken and the one contradict the other the first is obligatory and not the second Now all Priests and Nuns in Baptism vowed to keep all God's Commandments and therefore the Seventh not to commit Adultery Those Scriptures Be ye holy for I am holy and Pray continually concern all Christians as well as Priests and Professed persons and therefore if they be interpreted to oblige from marriage they oblige the Laity as well as the Clergy to use the ordinary distinction Besides Aaron and his Sons though married persons were daily both morning and evening to attend upon the Sacrifice and to burn Incense every morning Exod. 30.7 and this Incense was a Type of Prayer
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
not said that a Bishop must be such a one as hath been the husband of one wife in time past but he useth the present time both in Timothy and Titus The High Priest himself under the Law might have a wife after his first wife if she was dead if he married a maid which was a figure of Christs Spouse the Church which was to be presented holy and as a chaste Virgin to Christ By the same reason that they may drive Ministers from their wives they may also deprive them of all use of wine and they may deprive Ministers of all use of meat and command them to fast always that they may be fit to pray always as well as alway to abstain from their wives We never read that the Levites that taught in the Synagogues into the place of which our Churches succeed were barred from the company of their wives And consider it may be as necessary to marry the second time as the first and sometime and in some cases perhaps more necessary says Dr. Hamond The wife may dye presently after Marriage and without Children and the second Marriage in that case tending as much to the ends of Matrimony Comfort of life Propagation remedy of Lust as the former can be supposed to do it would then be strange to debar a Bishop or Presbyter in such a condition Chrysostome and Theodoret with divers others plainly and clearly teach this place to be understood as we do that a Bishop should not have two wives at once Erasmus upon the place disliked the then practice of the Church of Rome in forbidding Marriage to Bishops and Priests Admittitur saith he incestus admittitur homicida admittitur pirata admittitur Sodomita sacrilegus parricida denique quis non solus digamus excluditur ab hoc honore qui solus nihil admisit And further considering the times and the ill consequence of the single life amongst their Clergy and Monks he inclines to think they had better much to allow Matrimony to these persons Nunc caelibes habet Mundus quamplurimos castos perpaucos Grotius saith I confess that amongst all Nations second Marriages were less honoured and amongst some these were restrained by punishments And that Tertullian is fierce against second Marriages condemning them as unlawful and interprets this of the Apostle against a Bishops being twice married Notwithstanding which Authorities let the Scripture and right Reason be heard and what hath been premised on this Argument considered and you will have good ground and cause not to call good evil I meann not to condem second Marriages whether in Lay-men or Clergy And if a Bishop may without sin marry a second wife after he has buried his former surely then he may lawfully marry at first If he cannot contain let him marry he sinneth not only let him marry in the Lord an honest grave sober person that may adorn and not blemish his holy Function The Romanists say there are three special Crowns reserved in Heaven one for Martyrs a second for Virgins and a third for Doctors The Virgins overcome the flesh the Martyrs overcome the World and the Doctors overcome the Devil They have no such Crown for married persons but although they have none for them God hath laid up for them a Crown of Righteousness even the like Crown of Righteousness for every one that loves the appearing of Christ the Judge of quick and dead as that Virgin Apostle as most say the Doctor of the Gentiles and eminent Martyr St. Paul 2 Tim. 4.7 8. Virginity saith one is not a Virtue in it self and no more acceptable to God than Marriage is and this he proves Because all Virtues by Repentance may be restored But Virginity cannot be restored and therefore it is not a Virtue Again Because all Virtues in time and place are commanded But Virginity is left free and only Paul gives his advice to it 1 Cor. 7. therefore it is not a Virtue The same Author saith That Virginity is not good in it self but good for another end when a man having the gift of Continency lives a single life that he may be more fit or free to serve God The Papists glossing on the Parable of the Sower say That Virginity bringeth forth an hundred-fold Widowhood seventy fold and Marriage but thirty-fold Great is the difference 'twixt the Ancient Church of God amongst the Jews and the present Church of Rome in this matter there in Psalm 78.63 The Virgins were not given in Marriage or were not praised so the Hebrew signifies But in this Church the Virgins which are not married are most praised Celibacy is made here a state of Perfection or Supererogation and Meritorious but if but one half be true which we find in our Chronicles it had been happy for our Votaries very many of them at least that they had never known their Cells and Cloysters they might have gone as near a way to Heaven out of the World as out of their Monasteries Bale in his Book of the Acts of the Roman Bishops saith That when the Kings Visitors in England in the year 1538. visited the Abbies they found in some of their Styes rather than Religious Houses five in some ten in some twenty Sodomites and Adulterers of which some kept five some seven some twenty Harlots And a later Historian tells us That Barkley Nuns were all with child at once and how Sir Henry Colt caused a Buckstal to be set in the narrowest place of the Marsh from Cheshnut Nunnery to Waltham Abby and therein took the Monks of Waltham as they passed homewards in the night and the next morning he brought and presented them to the King namely to King Hen. 8. who had often seen sweeter but never fatter Venison D.F.H. 6 b. p. 317. And 't is reported that Dr. Smith who disputed at Oxford against Peter Martyr and who had written a Book for the Celibacy of Priests was taken himself at Oxford in the manner or in the very act This is enough to prove That 't is much easier to make an Eloquent Speech or write a Learned Book in Commendation of Single-life and of Chastity in that condition than to live so If you Object the practice and praise of the Monks of Antient times I answer That the Monks of old times and our present Votaries of the Church of Rome are very different 1. They lived single without any Vow of Continency these are Votaries 2. They had Callings and got their bread in the sweat of their brows these live idle most of them and like Drones consume the honey which others have gathered 3. They did not look upon that condition as a state of greater perfection and in it self Meritorious these do 4. Some of them as I take it had wives and these not but esteem it more lawful to have a Concubine than a Wife Those Monks were none of the Popes licensing or founding these are We read of 12000 Monks of Bangor that were destroyed by
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