of Parts Parentage Beauty Education Portion add that which makes the rest That they are not meer Cyphers in comparison and account namely Let her study to frame and compose her self what may be viz. lawfully to her Husband in conforming her Manners to his And let not the Husband delight to domineer over his Wife or please himself in shewing alwayes his Authority which none but fools will do saith Mr. J. Robinson Nabal was according to his Name a very Fool that was so churlish that neither Wife nor any body else could speak to him It was Abigails wisdom to bear patiently with him as it was the wisdom of Socrates that taught him to bear with his Zantippe her daily home-brawlings and thereby learned him to converse quietly and patiently with unreasonable perverse and peevish persons abroad The Husband should be able alway to guide counsel and direct the Wife to go before her as a man of knowledge His Wife he should use as a Comfort and Helper not saith Sir Walter Rawleigh as a Counsellor When Adam in Innocency he observes and Solomon the wisest of Temporal Princes took counsel of their Wives they both miscarried no such wonder as lamentable then that other men have been so allured to so many inconvenient and wicked practices by the perswasions of their Wives or other beloved Darlings If Adam in the state of perfection and Solomon the Son of David God's chosen Servant and himself a man endowed with the greatest wisdom did both of them disobey their Creator by the instigation and for the love they bear to a Woman It is not so wonderful c. that others have done the like So he CHAP. II. Of the Marriage of Persons in Holy Orders MArriage is honourable amongst all our Saviour graced a Wedding with his presence at Cana in Galilee John 2. and there manifested his Glory by working that Miracle of turning Water into Wine By which those who enter into that state might be put in mind that their sorrows should be turned into joys The Apostle St. Paul Ephes 5.32 makes Marriage a Mystery and to set out the relation and love 'twixt Christ and his Church And lastly 'T is thought Heaven is set out in Scripture by a Marriage-Feast Mat. 22. and the Joys of Heaven represented by the joys of a Wedding Rev. 19. The Nazarites that were whiter than Snow by reason of their vow of Holiness were not defiled by their Marriage Of the Marriage of Priests The High Priest under the Law was not forbidden to Marry onely he must have a Wife so and so qualified Aaron the High Priest the Saint of the Lord a Type of our Lord Christ was Married and the High Priest-hood annexed to his Family and entail'd on his posterity It is made a Character of Antiochus Epiphanes or Epimanes rather that he should not regard Women or desire Women in the Old Testament Dan. 11.37 And 't is made a mark of the Antichrist and branded for a Doctrine of Devils according to our Translators to forbid to Marry in the New Testament 1 Tim. 4.1 3. And as Priests and Prophets under the Law might lawfully marry so might the Holy Apostles and Ministers of our Lord and Saviour under our Gospel St. Peter the first or chief of the Apostles as to a primacy of Order was of this Order himself And St. Paul asserts his right and power to lead about a Wife or Sister as well as Cephas or Peter and other of the Apostles of Christ The Scripture foreseeing saith a Reverend Author the frensie of this Heresie viz. of forbidding marriage to Priests made the Wall higher and stronger of the lawful marriage of the Ministracy for besides the places wherein generally it is without all exception permitted to all Orders of men to Marry it speaketh especially of the lawful use of Marriage in the Ministry It speaks particularly of their Wives likewise of their Children which we remember not to be done in any other estates onely of the Kings it is said That they should not marry many Wives Wherefore the Ministers having not onely the common evidence which all other men have to hold their Wives by but also certain Specialties and special Charters whereby the quiet and peaceable possession of them is warranted it is evident that the Popish Court which impleadeth them and condemneth them for their Wives is a lawless Court So Mr. Cartwright in his Answer to the Rhem. Test Annot. on St. Mat. chap. 8. And amongst the Canons ascribed to the Apostles it is decreed Can. 5. If any Bishop Elder or Deacon under colour of Religion or reverence put away his Wife let him be separate from his Ministry if he abide in that mind let him be deposed This Canon saith the aforesaid Author is of a contrary spirit to you for you sever men from their Wives that sever themselves to the Ministry and it severeth men from the Ministry that sever themselves from their Wives under pretence of the Ministry Again Mr. Perkins in his demonstration of the Problem testifies That the Marriage of the Clergy for the space of 300 years after Christ was a thing alwayes freely allowed without prohibition or vow of perpetual continency Athanasius in his Epistle to Dracontius saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And there are many of the Bishops saith Athanasius that have not married and contrariwise many Monks we see daily become Fathers of Children Again you may observe many Bishops to be Fathers of Children and many Monks that have not sought to see their own Generation for this is lawful and the other is not forbidden but every one as he liketh let him undertake to live And whereas we read saith the Decretal c. 56. That the Sons of Priests have come to the honour of the Papacy we must not understand them to be begotten by Fornication but by lawful Marriage which was lawful for the Priests every where until the time of prohibition and in the East Churches is lawful to this day The singleness of Priest-hood was instituted because of the poverty of the Churches wanting sufficient means to maintain many families of Bishops Priests and Deacons D. 28. c. d. Syr. Pope Siricius about the year 385. forbad Priests Marriage in the Western Church But that Decree had no Universal Admission in the Church until the time of Pope Hildebrand 1007. And 't is observed that Bishops and Priests married in England until Anselms time that is about 1100 years after Christ no Law forbidding them 'T is an observation of Balsamon on the 5th Canon of the Apostles that it was lawful before the 6th Synod in Trullo for the Bishops to marry and have Wives yea after they had received that dignity And for my part I think Arch-Bishop Crammer the Martyr no less a Saint though once or twice married then if he had lived single Arch-Bishop Parker also as I have read was a married Man and our Church since the Reformation never forbad any of her Fathers
lawful no Adultery no Uncleanness 3. That for a person at his Ordination to make an absolute vow of single life for all his days is a rash and unlawful Vow 4. That if a man have made such a Vow and find he have not nor cannot obtain the gift of Continency in that case he ought to marry 5. That the Marriage of Luther with Katherine Bora on supposition they could not contain was lawful 6. That the Church of Rome sins grievously to put a yoke upon the neck of the Disciples of Christ that officiate in holy things which neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear 7. That the Church of Rome may and ought to reverse and repeal her Laws Canons or Constitutions enjoyning Celibacy on the Clergy so contrary to Scripture the Apostles Canons the Council of Nice and the continued practice of the greatest part of the Christian Church to this day 8. That that Church of Rome's admitting young Youths and Virgins to make and engage in absolute solemn Vows that they will live all their days in Celibacy is a great snare a grievous sin and contrary to the Apostles advice concerning young widows 2 Tim. 5.14 is opposite to the prime blessing Crescite multiplicamini Increase and multiply is a great scandal to Religion is a damage to Kingdoms and States where such are educated idle and useless to the Publick is a weakning to their Countrey a destruction of their Race and Family an occasion of grievous and horrid lusts and wickednesses 9. That Marriage notwithstanding it is lawful to all Ranks Orders and Degrees of men and consequently to men in holy Orders yet it is no Sacrament 10. That the Church of Rome by advancing Matrimony to be a Sacrament lays claim to the Administration of it and to the judging and deciding Matrimonial causes and so brings store of grist to her Mill. And by forbidding Marriage to Priests doth inrich the Church with that which should otherwise be expended on wives and children and keeps the Clergy in a dependance on Rome having no such near relation as wives and children to withdraw their affections from it 11. That to assert that for a man in holy Orders suppose he have made a Vow of Celibacy to marry and to accompany with his wife is worse than Fornication yea than Adultery is an erroneous and dangerous Position contrary to the holy Scriptures to sound Reason to the Ancient Councils and Fathers vid. Austine de Bono viduitatis And if this Book be questioned whether it be his or not see his Epistle to one Bonifacius who had vowed a Monastical retired and single life and yet afterwards did marry his words are these Thy wife hindereth me that I cannot exhort thee to this kind of life without whose consent it is not lawful for thee to contain c. Of this opinion also was Jerome the great Patron of Virginity Ep. 47. de Suspecto contubernio vitando Of the same judgement was Epiphanius Haeres 61. who indeed maketh it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. a thing evil and such as God will judge and punish to forget neglect and not perform a Vow made to God but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. a thing which casteth men into the condemnation of Hell fire and plungeth them in everlasting destruction as to live in Adultery He thinks it better for a man though he have committed a fault in breaking his Vow which he may repent of and be forgiven to marry than by living in continual Adultery to add one sin to another and to plunge himself in endless destruction And 't is an absurd and irrational thing for any man to say that 't is better to burn than to marry because either of his Vow or of the Command of the Church for neither a Vow of our own nor any Command of the Church can make void the Law of God if he cannot contain let him marry and to avoid Fornication let every man have his own wife Our Saviour saith nothing to the contrary when he saith he that can receive it let him receive it We speak only of those who cannot receive it who cannot contain and in such case we must not make void the Laws of God against Adultery and Fornication in seeking to confirm or observe the Laws and Constitutions of the Church In this case Whether it be better to obey God or man judge ye I shall not here go about to shew that the Answers of Bellarmine and others to the Authorities that are brought on our side are but fig-leaves to cover the nakedness of their cause and easily blown away but I shall direct my Reader to Bp. Jewel his Defence of his Apology Dr. Field of the Church B. 5. ch 57. to Mr. Cartwright and Dr. Fulk's Answer to the Rhemist's Testam on Matth. 8. and on 1 Tim. 3.8 to Calixtus de Conjugio Clericorum to Bishop Hall's Honour of the married Clergy Nor shall I go about to answer the particular sayings of some Fathers to the disparagement of Marriage It sufficeth that the Church of England hath the holy Scripture and the Ancient Church on her side the desires of many Learned Worthy men that have been in the Church of Rome the practice of the greatest number of Christian Churches in the world at this day so far as to justifie the lawfulness of married men to be admitted to holy Orders and to officiate in and about holy things notwithstanding their having wives and that the blessing of God is and hath been upon our married Clergy no other Nation excelling them in Learning Piety or the gift of Preaching that saying still holding good notwithstanding their Marriage Stupor mundi Clerus Britannicus If it be objected That this Marriage doth spoil our Charity and Hospitality and proves a temptation to Covetousness I answer That Solomon Eccles 4.7 8. says There is a vanity and dissatisfaction and unprofitableness in heaping up riches even by single persons And 't is observed by a sober and learned Casuist of our own Mr. Capel That single persons and those that have but few children oft-times prove more covetous than those that are married and have many children alledging that the latter are by daily and frequent experiences and layings out habituated to part with money and so a peny comes not as from some others like a drop of blood from their hearts I say further that great things have been done by the married Clergy and other married persons in our days if it were necessary we might instance in particulars It hath been said That Pater Noster built Churches and Our Father pull'd them down but it hath been proved and published to the world that as many and great Acts of Piety and Charity have been done in England since the Reformation of Religion as in the like number of years in times of Popery And whatever is or may be said or pretended to the contrary as if the allowing of the marriage of the Clergy was an impoverishment of the Church and Country and a damage to the Kingdom I dare say they that would remove the married Clergy to bring in the Monks could never be able to recompence the Churches their Countrys and the Kings and Kingdoms damage Who can more earnestly pray for and endeavour the weal of their own King and Country than those who have such great bonds and interests to desire and endeavour it And who is like to be most at home amongst his own people if not he that hath amongst them continually a wife the desire of his eyes and children which he loves as his own eyes FINIS
A TREATISE OF MARRIAGE WITH A Defence of the 32th Article of Religion of the Church of England VIZ. Bishops Priests and Deacons are not commanded by God's Law either to Vow the state of single life or to abstain from Marriage therefore it is lawful for them as for all other men to marry at their own discretion as they shall judge the same to serve better to godliness Heb. 13.6 Marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled But Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge 1 Tim. 3.2 A Bishop then must be blameless the husband of one wife 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theophylact. on Tit. 1.6 London Printed by J. D. and are to be sold by R. Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul's Church-yard 1673. To the Worshipful Robert Raworth Esq SIR THe Argument of this small Treatise is so great that I presume I need not Apologize for it 'T is Marriage the Ordinance and Institution of God himself that which the Church of Rome holds a Sacrament and the Church of England with other Reformed Churches a Mystery 'T is that which our Blessed Lord and Saviour Emmanuel honoured by being born though of a Virgin yet of one that was married to a Husband by his presence at and by working his first Miracle of turning water into Wine at the Celebration of a Marriage at Cana in Galilee 'T is that which the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures honours by comparing therein the joys of Heaven to a Marriage-Feast and by making the Bosom of Abraham a married person and the Father of the Faithful the Receptacle of all Saints in Heaven whether they were married or single on earth 'T is a subject of which that great Scholar Erasmus hath written namely both de Laudibus and de Institutione Matrimonii as has also Ludovicus Vives de Conjugii Origine utilitate 'T is that which the zealous Martyr Dr. Taylor blessed God for and in commendation of which that Saint of the Lord which one calls that Angel of God Mr. Bradford who when he was in Prison and there being some hopes of his deliverance and freedom being asked what he would do in case he should be released Answered he would marry being I question not of that holy Bishop Paphnutius his mind who at the Council of Nice declar'd That the society of man and wife was a holy chastity 'T is the shame of this Generation that so many men and women live in common as if they understood that noted saying All things are common amongst Friends of a Community of Women and of Wives also as of other goods My wish therefore is and it shall be my prayer that the uncleanness and filthiness of this age may not be punished with a Deluge of Popery I mean by God's giving us over to Spiritual Adultery or the Idolatry of the Church of Rome And now having mentioned that Church give me leave to say that she is justly branded with the name of The Mother of Fornications and those too Corporal as well as Spiritual What other Church in the world allows of publick Stews and Brothel-houses where but amongst her Sons was it pleaded in their excuse that they are as necessary as a Pump in a ship and a Sink in a house to keep all clean And although they would make us believe that their Church is pure and clean yea both Militant and Triumphant in their holy Societies of Monks and Nuns that these are like the Nazarites whiter than the snow Yet if we may give credit to their own Authors such as Polydore Virgil Book 7. cap. 5. de Inventoribus rerum speaking of their Orders of Monks he saith That it were behoveful that those dregs of men were cut off and burnt and that with their filth they should no longer defile God's service And N. de Clemangis a Doctor of Paris who in his Book de Corrupto statu Ecclesiae c. 21. saith of the Nuns Shame forbiddeth me to speak of them lest I should mention a company of Virgins dedicated to God but stewed deceitful impudent Whores with their Fornications and Incestuous works For what I pray are Nunneries now adays but the execrable Brothel-houses of Venus the Harbours of wanton young Women where they satisfie their lust that now the vailing of a Nun is all one as if you prostituted her openly to be a whore So he I say if we may believe these and other their own Authors our Church who hath none of these Convents for single persons and who allows of the married life of the Clergy is more holy and honorable than Rome And I doubt not but our Ministers though married multitudes of them will present themselves and their modest chaste and pious Consorts with innumerable others of their Congregations as chaste Virgins to Christ And whereas the Papists tell us there are three special Crowns in Heaven one for them that overcome the World another for them that overcome the Flesh and a third for them that overcome the Devil If so I dare promise many of our Doctors though married to each of them three Crowns in Heaven far beyond the Popes Triple Crown on Earth namely to our Learned and Laborious Doctors who by their Writings overcome the Devil to our married Doctors who by their chaste Wedlock overcome the Flesh to our couragious Doctors who are ready if God call them to Martyrdom to ascend to Heaven like Elijah in a fiery Chariot and so overcome the world I say to these I dare promise three Crowns in Heaven besides a fourth to them and their Religious Modest and Chaste Consorts viz. The Crown of Righteousness which is laid up in Heaven for all them that love the appearance of Jesus Christ Sir Although neither the subject I treat on in the following Discourse viz. Marriage nor the Church of England her Doctrine in the 32 Article of Religion which I defend allowing persons in holy Orders to marry need any Apology yet I humbly beg your pardon for any weakness or miscarriage you may find in my manner of treating of these things And I humbly present this small Piece to you coming into the World from as it were under your roof and beg your excuse at least if not your Approbation and Patronage of it If any of our Romish Adversaries should quarrel the Doctrine of our Church on this occasion you have such Learned Friends and Acquaintance and those who have opportunities advantages and courage sufficient to defend their chaste Mother the Church of England and their own chaste Wives against the greatest Goliah amongst the Romish Philistines Sir I humbly thank you for your favours to me and your care of the welfare of our Society and shall according as my duty binds me pray for you and for your good your pious charitable Consort that God would crown you with all the blessings of this and the other World Sir I have one thing more to intreat of you both which I am confident
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