to

St. Paul's marriage. Can my Refuter deny this? The words are plain: Locus cogere videtur; "The place seems enforce it, not by domonstrative reason, but in all reasonable sense, that Paul had a wife." So he: which is all I contended for. If now he shall think to choke me" with a cross testimony of the same author, concerning St. Paul's not conversing with his wife after his apostleship; he may understand, that I well remember Cajetan to have been a Roman Cardinal; and therefore, in some points, necessarily unsound: whose ingenuity yet in this business I have formerly shewed.

SECT. XXVIII.

FROM the practice of the Apostles, which is yet clear for us, we descended to their Canons.

It troubles my Refuter, that I say, the Romish Church fathers these upon the Apostles; and that their Jesuit, Turrian, sweats to defend it; insinuating my contrary opinion: and, yet that I cite them for myself. Whereas his wisdom might have considered, that their force is no whit less strong against them, notwithstanding our doubt or denial. For example: the Trent Canons roar terribly to them; to us, or the French, they are but as the pop-guns of boys: we may cite these to them as Gospel; they may cite them to us as Alcoran.

By this it appears, how far, not only school-learning, but even logic, transcends this poor Refuter's capacity; who could not distinguish between disputing ad rem and ad hominem.

What I said in my Epistle to my reverend and worthy friend Master Doctor James, the incomparably-industrious and learned bibliothecary of Oxford (a man, whom their Possevine thought so well of, that he hath handsomely stolen a book of his, and clapped it out for his own; a man, whom so base a tongue as my Detector's cannot disgrace) I profess still: That I hold those Canons of the Apostles uncanonical.

And do I hold this alone? Doth not his Pope Gelasius so? Doth not Isidore, Bishop of Hispalis, so? Doth not Leo the Ninth so? Are not some of them, at pleasure, rejected by Possevine, Baronius, Bellarmin?

Or, in a word, if they be the true issue of the Apostles, are they accordingly respected and observed of the Roman Church? Doth not his Medina grant to their shame, that the Latin Church scarce observes six or eight of them?

Cajet. Com. in Phil. c. iv. Quia omnes Apostoli, exceptis Joanne et Paulo, uxores habuerunt. Amb. &c. y Can. 65, 67. &c.

Refut. p. 117.

* Refut. p. 118.

1 Mic. Med. de Sacr. Hom. Contin. 1. v. Vix sex aut octo Latina Ecclesia nunc observat.

These Canons then I do not hold Apostolical; I do hold ancient and not unworthy of respect; and such, as I wonder they have escaped the Roman Purgations.

As for those other nine or ten noted counterfeits, which I joined herewith for company, in that Epistle, his shame would serve him to justify, if his leisure would; whereas, there is scarce one of them, whom his own authors have not branded.

My Refuter must have a fling. In an idle excursion therefore, he unjustly rails on the Protestant practice, in rejecting those Fathers for bastardy one while; whom, otherwhiles, they cite for current: when his own eminent impudency, in the very passage next going before, and in the next following, to go no further, offends in the same kind.

The truth is, the Protestants take liberty to refuse those Fathers, whom even ingenuous Papists have censured as base: the Papists take liberty, when they list, to reject the authority of those Fathers, whose truth they cannot deny. The instances hereof would be endless.

But, with what face can any Papist tax us for this, when all the world may see above three hundred and twenty of their authors, whom, after the first allowance, they have either suppressed or censured? To their eternal and open conviction, Doctor James, whom they may revile but shall never answer, hath collected and published the names and pages.

SECT. XXIX.

b

NOT to follow, therefore, this babbling vagary of my adversary against Zuinglius, Luther, Musculus, Whitakers, (what puppy cannot bark at a dead Lion?) we come close to the Canon: "That no Bishop, Presbyter, or Deacon shall forsake or cast off his wife in pretence of religion or piety, upon pain of deposition."

Wherewith, how much my Refuter is pressed, appears, in that he is fain, with Baronius, to avoid it, with, Apocryphorum non est tanta authoritas; "There is no so great authority in Apocryphal Canons."

Where is the man, that, even now, upbraided us with the lawless rejection of ancient records; and, by name, would undertake to justify those, whom my Epistle taxed for adulterine, whereof these Canons of the Apostles were a part? Now, he is fain to change his note: Apocryphorum non est tanta authoritas. He hath cast off Ignatius already: anon, you shall find him rejecting Socrates, Sozomen, Nicephorus,

a Refut. pp. 120, 121. usque ad 125.

b Refut. pp. 126, 127.

с

Apost. Can. 5.

Gratian, Sigebert, H. Huntingdon, and whom not? upon every occasion, shamelessly practising that, which he censures.

If I allege the Sixth General Council, that of Constantinople, proclaiming this sense truly apostolical, even the Sixth General Council is rejected, as neither Sixth, nor General, nor Council.

That this Apostolical Canon is bent against the denial of matrimonial conversation, is apparently expressed in those Canons of Constantinople; however the extent of it, in regard of some persons, is restrained. There is no way, therefore, to untie this knot; but by cutting it: and my Cavilling Priest, with his Jesuits, may gnaw long enough upon this bone, ere they suck in any thing from hence, but the blood of their own jaws.

Any of those words, single, might be avoided; but, so set together, will abide no elusion: "Let him not, upon pretence of religion, eject his wife."

The shift, that C. E. borrows from Bellarmin, is gross; and such, as his own heart cannot trust: "πpopáσei evλaßeías,' saith he; "that is, prætextu cautionis," "In pretence of heediness." Look over all the copies; all interpretations of these Canons; that, of Dionysius Exiguus; that, of Gentianus Hervetus; that, of Caranza; that, which Gratian, whom my either graceless or ignorant adversary dares name against me, citeth from hence: all of them run prætextu religionis.

How clear is that of their own law! Si quis docuerit Sacerdotem, &c. "If any man shall teach that a Priest, under pretence of religion, may contemn his own wife, let him be accursed!"

And Zonaras, whom both our Junius and their Espencæus. cite out of Quintinus's Exposition, is most clear: Hoc enim videtur in calumniam fieri nuptiarum, &c. "For this ejection," saith he, "would seem to be done in reproach of marriage; as if the matrimonial knowledge of man and wife caused any uncleanness." Thus he. Where it is plain, that he takes it, not of maintenance, but Teρì Tîs μiğews," of the conjugal act."

The necessity of which sense also is evicted by their own Espencæus, out of St. Chrysostom in his second Homily upon Titus.

And Balsamon no less directly: "Because," saith he, “before that law of Justinian, it was lawful for a man, upon any cause, to divorce his wife; therefore, the present Canon gives charge, that it shall not be lawful for a Bishop, Priest, or Deacon, upon pretence of piety, to put away his wife." Thus he.

d Refut. p. 128.

Dist. 28. sub obtentu religionis propriam uxorem contemnere.

Espenc. 1. i. de Cont. c. 4.

f

In Canon. Apost. in. Phot. in nono Can.

From all which, it is not hard to see, that, in those young days of the Church, the Mystery of Iniquity began in this point to work so as marriage, according to the Apostle's prediction, began to be in an ill name; though the clear light of that primitive truth would not endure the disgrace.

So as, in all this, I have, both by Moses and the examples of that Levitical Priesthood, by the testimony of the Apostles, by their practice, by their anciently-reputed Canons, and by the testimony of the agedest Fathers, so made good the Lawfulness and Antiquity of the Marriages of Persons Ecclesiastical, that I shall not need to fear a divorce, either from my wife or from the truth, in that my confident and just assertion.

THE HONOUR OF THE

MARRIED CLERGY MAINTAINED,

&c.

THE SECOND BOOK.

SECT. I.

AND now, since in this point we have happily won the day, less labour needs in the other. It is safe erring with Moses and the Prophets, with Christ and his Apostles. Soon after, according to St. Paul's prophecy, spirits of errors were abroad; and, whether out of the necessary exigence of those persecuted times, or out of an affectation to win favour and admiration in the eyes of Gentilism, virginity began to raise up itself, in some private conceits, upon the ruins of honest wedlock: neither is it hard to discern by what degrees; yet, never with such absolute success, as to proceed to any law of restraint. I do not therefore feign to myself, as mine idle Refuter, golden ages of mirth and marrying, under those tyrannous persecutions; but in those bloody ages, I do avouch to him and the world, an immunity from the tyrannous yoke of forced continency. This, if he could have disproved by any just instances, he had not given us words.

с

If he be angry that I said, some of the pretended Epistles of his ancient Popes to this purpose are palpably foisted; let him fasten where he lists, if he have not an answer, let me have the shame. In the mean time, it is enough to snarl, where he dares not bite.

That, which I cited from Origen, advising the sons of Clergymen not to be proud of their parentage, he cannot deny; he

Refut. p. 130.

b Though Amram, the Levite, father to Moses, married in the heat of Pharaoh's persecution; and David did the like in Saul's.

Refut. p. 131.

VOL. IX.