and preseruatiue of many graces a bond of her owne and others peace a setler of the comfort of her life an ornament of her head and of her house which once let her be disrobed of she may bid farwell to her families welfare for let any vile affection beare sway but for a little while as of anger impatience excessiue griefe intemperance or any such how is the whole house in a kind of tumult which as a Common wealth in the commotion and rising of some one rebel cannot be composed and setled till the rebel be subdued which they finde too true who in their match were left vnto thēselues to make choise of such as wanted then and yet haue not attained with the feare of God the practise of this vertue Now then seeing this vertue is so necessarie for all parts of life that it ought neuer to be wanting many womē who want not many good parts of nature and grace may yet see hence their error who conceiue that if they be generally well reputed of both for their religious and honest course and can in good manner please their husbands in the administring of the family that then they may be dispensed with in some predominant indiscreete and intemperate affecton especially if it be more priuate as now and then in extraordinarie vnquietnesse and bitternes not seldome in some bitter roote of couetousnesse drawing on iniustice towards their husbands perhaps to breake out into some prodigall and idle expense another way in lashing out libertie of speech against some that cannot answer for themselues in becomming for some dayes the greatest strangers at home c. all this while thinking that these things if seldom will stand well enough with religion but they are to knowe that all Salomons wisedom could not reconcile two things so abhorring together the giuing of the heart vnto wine or any one lust and the leading of it in wisedome and it will prooue starke vanitie to make triall of it after him neither can it be other then the shuffling out of a religious course for man or woman to giue way to any one inordinate lust More of this vertue see in the places forenoted Chast or pure The Apostle by permitting the three former vertues hath made way vnto this fourth which is a fruit of them issuing from the loue of their husband and children and from tending and watching against inordinate affections And this puritie or chastitie is not that of the virgin or single estate but it is a marriage vertue the keeper of the mariage faith and may thus be described It is a puritie both of soule and bodie in regard of vnchast lusts abandoning all vnlawfull and strange pleasures which description is wholly couched and abridged in 1. Cor. 7.34 where the Apostle calleth it the holynesse of bodie and spirit of spirit when it is either not tempted to vncleannes or beeing tempted yeeldeth not or yeelding is recouered by repentance of body also when it neither exciteth nor beeing incited executeth not vncleannes Now how equall and reasonable is it that women especially such as haue the remedie of marriage against impuritie in whome the want of it is more sinnefull and dangerous should be prouoked to the preseruing of such a sweet grace as this is First if we consider how the Lord approoueth and vrgeth it 1. By his commandement 1. Thess. 4.3 this is the will of God that ye should abstaine from fornication and euerie one possesse his vessell that is his body which is the instrument of the soule and containing it as in a vessell in holynesse and honour 2. In that the Lord here interposeth himselfe and though many husbands and wiues thinke of nothing but a mutuall stipulation betweene themselues yet the Lord challengeth the couenant to be made to himselfe as it proceeded first from himselfe so as she that forsaketh the guide of her youth forgetteth the couenant of her God that is of marriage of which God is the author and whose name was or ought to haue beene invocated in the match making 3. In that the Lord professeth that he narrowly watcheth and clearely seeth when this couenant is broken that although the fact be done in the darke and neuer so charily and cautelously yet day and darkenesse are alike vnto him If the husband see it not nor any eie of flesh yet the Lords eie findeth it out and will set it in the cleare light before men and angels This is made a reason of the precept Prou. 5.15.17.20.21 for the wayes of man are before the eies of the Lord. Ioseph might haue sinned secretly enough but that his eie was happily lifted vp toward this pure eie of God which cannot abide to behold such iniquitie 4. In that he declareth that he watcheth the sinner of this kinde to bring destruction vpon his bodie and soule to shut him out of heauen and to roote him as a loathsome weede out of the earth The former appeareth Prou. 5.22 the sinner of this suite destroyeth his owne soule 1. Cor. 6. no fornicator shall inherit the kingdome of heauen Reuel 21. no vncleane thing shall enter within the gates of the citie but shall bee kept without with dogges enchanters and lyers The latter seeing the law of God is that the adulterer and adultresse should die both because he would not haue the land defiled nor the guiltie person to liue as an eyesore vnto the innocent nay more if a man were deceiued in the qualitie of the person he hath taken to wife thinking to find her a maid but he findeth her virginitie bruised and another man hath humbled her it is lawfull for him to put her away and the Magistrate to put her to death as an adultresse Further how strictly the Lord watched ouer this sinne appeareth by that law Numb 5.21 If the husband were but ielous whether iustly or iniustly himselfe was accounted guiltie if he did not bring her to triall and this triall was not to be made by man but was Gods owne triall by the bitter cursed water by which himselfe from heauen would reuenge so greiuous a sinne against so holy an institution as marriage is And in comparison the word of God accounteth this sinne farre more wicked then some of those which mens lawes punish with death we thinke theft a great sinne because it bringeth malefactors to the gallowes and so it is but not comparable to this for Salomon himselfe by comparing these two sinnes putteth them almost out of comparison a theefe steales for hunger to saue his life but he that committeth adulterie sinneth against his owne life the former is not alwaies to be despised but this is neuer to be spared the former may make satisfaction by restitution of the thing and fowre fold for the sinne the latter can make no restitution at all the satisfaction of the theefe may be accepted of the owner or if he cannot satisfie with all the substance of his
himselfe when he said that he that marrieth not only doth not euill but doth well but good is opposed to that which is incommodious or inexpedient so is the word also vsed Matth. 19.10 and this is that the Apostle saith it is not good for the present necessitie that is it is not conducible expedient for that it is more ioyous for a man to drinke his owne cup of trouble in troublesome times then to be vexed with the miseries of a destitute wife and children The like precept was giuen vpon the like occasion to the Iewes that they should not marrie nor get children Why some Papist would hence affirme because marriage is an vncleane thing and a sinne No but in regard of those most heauie times of warre exile and captiuitie wherein they should haue lesse sorrow and greefe who had none to care for but themselues and this is the reason expressed by the Apostle where he saith that such as are married shall haue sorrow in the flesh vers 28. Many more places they abuse but these are the chiefe Against all which this place of the Apostle may settle the iudgement where is auouched that the Minister may be the husband of one wife and the qualities of this wife described 1. Tim. 3.12 the euidence of which two places collated none but such as are willingly blind can resist which with some other places haue so pressed them as that they haue beene driuen to and from many poore shifts As 1. they alleadge against this place that in the Apostles daies indeed while the Church was rude and deformed there were fewer precepts giuen and there beeing but few conuerted it was permitted to the Clergie to marrie but afterwards the Church growing more confirmed and better ordered this precept of chastitie was added Ans. But who but Satan could teach them so to distinguish and determine that which was lawfull in Pauls time to be now a sinne so capitall as must be prosecuted with no lesse punishment then death it selfe againe how basely do they deeme of Apostolicall constitutions in regard of their own deuises accounting them as rude and childish things and such as could bring no Church to any perfection Besides how do they forget that the Apostle had reformed many things in this Iland alreadie and left Titus to absolue the rest and proceed in the reformation thereof still and yet in that his finishing and perfecting things begun this rule is deliuered if any be vnreprooueable the husband of one wife 2. Others seeking to elude this text say that the Church indeed had power then to appoint what constitutions she pleased and saw fittest for her present condition and that this power she still retaineth so as looke as the Master of a family hath it in his power to entertaine none but single men seruants in his family the like power hath the Church if she please to admit none into this seruice or Ministery but single persons Ans. But to follow them also into that starting hole 1. They must prooue their Church to be this family of Christ and the Pope to be the master of this familie 2. Let them improoue that the Master of this familie is the Lord Iesus who hath alreadie prescribed a certaine forme by which he will haue his Ministers chosen and for the vse of the Church to the ende of the world hath recorded it in the Scriptures of which this is a speciall branch if any be the husband of one wife 3. Others haue found out another shift namely that he who now is the husband of one wife and hath children too may be chosen but the Apostle saith not that after one is made a priest he may marrie a wife so that if the worst fall the vow of chastitie at the consecration of a priest shall still stand in force Ans. But what a miserable shift is this for can it be lawfull for a married man to be a Minister and not for a Minister to be a married man It is all one as if an Anabaptist should thus reason He that is now a Magistrate may lawfully vse his Magistracie but yet it is not lawfull for any man to become a Magistrate or when we are commanded to feare God a man might thus reason God bids him that hath his feare exercise it but yet he enioynes vs not to vse the meanes to come by it Surely notwithstanding all these follies it must needs be as lawfull to become an husband as be one and he that can without sinne haue a wife may without sinne marrie one we will therefore conclude with their Cardinal that priesthood dissolueth not matrimonie whether before or after ordination contracted if we seclude all other lawes and stand onely to those which we haue from Christ and his Apostles Vse Seeing then this is one of the lawes of nature euery one that hath nature in him hath right vnto it In the state of innocenciâ— marriage was instituted as a further perfection then man had by his creation since the fall it is also a remedie of his imperfection 2. The Apostle calleth it honourable among all the new Papists shift in all things is a senceles cauill and full of folly besides the words following restraine it to persons But whoremongers c. Obiect But if among all saith Bellarmine then among them of consanguinitie and affinitie Ans. If he had looked to the words following and the bed vndesiled he would haue saued that obiection 3. The priests of the law yea the high priest that was to offer before the Lord twise euery day and the Leuites and the Prophets and Prophetisses and the Apostles and most of their successors till 1070. yeares after Christ were married men Famous and very remarkeable is that confession of Policrates Bishop of Ephesus who affirmeth of himselfe that he was the eight Bishop all descended of Bishops which historie me thinkes might blanke them or cause them to blush 4. But if that doe not the curse of God vpon this their constitution if they were not giuen ouer to strong delusions might cast dung vpon their faces in this defence Well obserued Luther that this one law brought in among them all the sinnes of Sodome for which no doubt the spirit of prophecie calleth Rome by the name of Sodome for the sodomiticall filthines of it for the defence of which vnnaturall and monstrous sinne not to be thought on much lesse without blushing named some of them haue written and published sundrie bookes If the monasteries in other countries came aswell to the rifling as ours did in the daies of King Henrie the 8. of famous memorie therefore no doubt but many Bales might be set on worke to write many centuries of their filthines Or if some of their fishponds come to the casting as that in Gregorie the greats time it may be that some of their owne would not sticke to write of 6000. heads of infants found
speake let him speake as the word of God and the embassadors of Christ must speake his message euen as himselfe would vtter it 2. The soule of the word is the presence of the spirit which euerie Minister must striue to make demonstration of for else it is but a dead letter or sound it is the spirit that quickeneth it and maketh it liuely and mightie in operation it is not the demonstration of the person nor manifestation of the man that getteth authoritie to the word but when out of good conscience a man faithfully striueth to make it appeare to the consciences of others that not he but the spirit of God speaketh in him that when simple men shall perceiue the secrets of their hearts made manifest they may fall on their faces and worship God saying God is in this man indeede 3. The Prophets and Apostles haue gone before vs as presidents in this behalfe Micha 3.8 I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord and of iudgment and of strength to declare Iacob his sinne and Israel his transgression Before Isai was sent on his message his lippes were touched with an hote coale from the altar The Apostles accordingly were not sent to witnes of Christ vntill the spirit had descended vpon them and that in the forme of fierie tongues to signifie that themselues beeing kindled with zeale and feruencie in the Lords businesse they should also by their doctrine enflame others and that their speech should not light any where but it should kindle and enflame the hearts of the hearets But the most perfect patterne of imitation herein we haue in the cheife doctor of his Church who not onely after his resurrection could and did make the hearts of the disciples burne within them euen in his ordinarie talke but all the time of his humilitie it is truely verified of his whole doctrine that he taught with authoritie and not as the Scribes Indeed neuer man spake so nor can speake by the confession of his verie enemies for neuer man spake so in his owne name verily I say vnto you neuer man confirmed his speaches with such powerfull and proper miracles neuer man spake with such peculiar grace zeale libertie and command of the spirit in the conscience but yet all his Ministers are to imitate him in zeale in power in libertie of speach and spirit for the glorie of God and come as neere this copie as they can Vse Ministers must take heede of coldnes in their ministerie of liueles and spiritles preaching of powerlesse and a frozen manner of deliuering the word alwaies preseruing a fire of zeale and conscience in themselues mettals we knowe will not worke without fire no more will the steely and stonie heart of man melt or soften without the spirituall fire taken from the altar And yet here I must not be vnderstood as condemning all coolenesse or moderation of speach for doctrine may be ponderous and weightie where the speach is calme and treatable still waters often runne the deepest and Salomon saith that a man of knowledge spareth his words but yet it followeth that he must be of an excellent spirit so there must of necessitie be at the least a soft fire in these distillatiōs But the thing iustly condemned is when men by their owne default beeing giuen ouer either to pride sensualitie or worldlynesse haue benummed their spirits and are become frozen without power or life in their ministerie and so bring forth their doctrine as many women doe their children stil-borne teaching as the Scribes onely of forme without zeale or conscience or experience of that they speake And before I leaue this point it must be knowne that whereas I require heate and authoritie in the deliuerie of the word that therefore euerie heate should be warrantable for some is iustly condemned as 1. all heate of humane affection proceeding from perturbation and passion 2. all inconsiderate heate of youth 3. all heate not well guided although in good men full of godly affections but suffered to boyle ouer so farre as a man looseth his memorie and interrupteth his doctrine and whole discourse 2. A flattring Ministrie is an enemie to this authoritie for when a Minister must sing placebo and such sweet songs it is impossible for him not to betraie the truth 3. To withstand this authoritie or to weaken it is a fearefull sin whether in high or low and the Lord will not suffer his messengers feet to be cut off 4. Hearers must 1. pray for their Teachers that they may deliuer the word with authoritie with boldnesse and with open mouth Ephes. 6.19 Coloss. 4.4 2. Not deeme this authoritie in Ministers humor or anger or bitternes and much lesse madnesse with Festus and least of all to cast them in prison as men rauing as Ieremie was cap. 29.26 3. Not to refuse to yeeld subiection vnder this authoritie nor be angrie when it beateth down some practise which they are loth to part with seeing it is iust with God to reprobate put out the light of such as refuse the conuiction of the light offred The third and last precept of this Chapter and verse Let no man despise thee teacheth two things First how people and hearers should entertaine the Ministers sent them of God seeing they cannot without great sinne despise them for seeing the Lord who could by himselfe worke the saluation of men yet is pleased to vse as his helpers herein weake and base men whom he assumeth into fellowship with himselfe to become coworkers with him although not in the act of conuersion yet in the Ministrie of it who dare despise such whom the Lord so farre honoureth and therefore calleth them his white horses horses in that he vseth them in his battailes against sinne Satan the world and wicked ones and white for the puritie of their doctrine and integritie of their liues yea his Angels namely such as by whom he reuealeth his good pleasure vnto vs and his owne voyce by whom he beseecheth men to be reconciled Secondly how carefull is the Lord to preserue his Ministers from contempt when he affirmeth that such as despise them despise himselfe that sent them In which sence we read that the posteritie of Caine contemning the preaching of Noah dispised and contended against Gods spirit so Israel murmuring against Moses and Aaron Moses saith he hath heard your murmurings against the Lord for what are we that yee haue murmured against vs. Thirdly how vnnaturall a part were it for children to despise their Fathers and what seueritie hath the Lord shewed against it in his law but godly Ministers are the Fathers of their people I am your Father saith Paul and Onesimus yea and Titus here begotten by him vnto the faith he calleth his sonnes Let no cursed Cham presume to scorne them which is not so hurtfull to them as dangerous to themselues beeing the next way to bring themselues vnder