vow and promise to be void; much more may his own adultery or fornication make void his vow of single life. If, for the dishonour of his house, and the introduction of bastards into his temporal possessions, he is absolved from his vows of wedlock, which God certainly did approve and appoint; much more may his vow be null, when there is danger or ruin to his soul. A man may lawfully live with an adulterous wife; and yet he may choose, and his vow does not oblige him but he cannot safely live with burnings, he cannot lawfully abide in fornication and uncleanness. "Who can dwell with everlasting burnings ?". For, 30. It were not unreasonable to consider the ecclesiastical law against the second marriages of priests, or the ordaining them, who have married the second time. But this also,-relying upon the humour of men, who will be more pure than God, and more righteous than the law of Christ, and more wise than the Apostle,-it may be determined by the same considerations. The law is a snare; it is in an incompetent matter: it is a restraint of that liberty which Christ hath left; it cannot be fitted to time and place, and yet remain a law: because there are so many necessities to be served, and so many favourable cases to be considered, that the exceptions may be more than the rule. It may also be considered that to make second marriages a cause of irregularity, or incapacity of receiving holy orders, is nothing but a secret accusation and an open reproach to marriage; that it was not of use and avail in the primitive church,-Tertulliano witnessing, "apud vos digami ubique præsident," "in the Catholic church, bishops, twice married, do every where govern;" that Cauterius, a Spanish bishop, was twice married; that St. Jerome affirms that all the world was full of such ordinations, not only of deacons and priests, but of bishops; and that he could reckon so many as would excel the number of bishops convened in the council of Ariminum; that St. Austin had fornicated with two several women, and yet he was made priest and bishop, for all that; and to deny that to holy marriages, which is not denied to unholy fornications, will be a doctrine unfit for the honour of Christian 4 schools; that the o De Monogam. Epist. ad Ocean. q Glossa in dist. 34. can. Fraternitas hanc rem exhorruit. Ecce causus, ubi plus juris habet luxuria quam castitas: quia castus repelleretur, si contraxisset cum secunda; sed fornicator non, Vide etiam S. Aug. epist. 64. In locum apost. 1 Tim, iii. second marriage is as holy as the first: that it may be as necessary and as useful; that it is always as lawful; that the canon of the Apostle, that "a bishop should be the husband of one wife," is intended against plurality of wives at once, and marrying after divorces, both which were usual amongst the Jews and Greeks and Romans, and could not first be taken away from the new-converted Christians; that it was so expounded by St. Chrysostom, Theodoret, St. Jerome, and divers others, but especially by the Greek fathers; that not only the first marriages are blessed by God, but the second and third, as St Austin observes; that St. Clemens of Alexandria affirmed, that διγαμία μετὰ ἐπαγγελίαν παράνομον οὐ διὰ τὴν συνάφειαν, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸ ψεῦδος, "digamy, after a vow to the contrary, is an irregularity, not for the contract and conjunction, but for the lie;" that the church of Rome does, without scruple, frequently ordain them, that have been twice married, if they will pay the price appointed in the chancery-tax, as is witnessed by one that knew very well; that if the Apostle had forbidden it by a canon, yet that canon did no more oblige the descending ages of the church than the other canons which we see broken in every church, according to their reason or their liberty; that in the primitive church they were not very solicitous about the affairs of marriage, because they supposed the end of all things was at hand:'" Crescite et multiplicamini' evacuavit extremitas temporis ";" that it was a blot in the face of the primitive church, that they would not bless second marriages; that it was most rationally and elegantly complained of by St. Bernard; that second marriages are not a sign of incontinence but the cure, or if they were a sign of an incontinent body, they are a sure sign of a continent mind, that will, at no hand, admit any uncleanness; that a great liberty permitted is infinitely to be preferred before a little prevarication of a divine law, and therefore that second marriages are to be permitted to the clergy, rather than evil thoughts, or the circles of an inward fire; that the prohibition of the ordination of persons, after the second marriages, did rely upon the opinions of holiness, that was in the ecclesiastical order above the lay purity, and the unholiness of marAd Ocean. tom. 2. lib. 3. cap. 2. Spalat. lib. 2. cap. 10. n. 75. s Tertull. ubi supra. t Serm. 66. in Cantica, I 66 riage in respect of single life; that in whatsoever sense the former can be true, yet the latter is a branch of Montanism, and a product of the heresy of Tatianus; that Theodoret did ordain Irenæus, that was twice married; that he defends the fact by the consent and suffrages of the bishops of Phoenicia, and says that he insisted in the footsteps of his ancestors, and produces for his precedent, Alexander of Constantinople, Acacius of Berea, and Praylus of Cæsarea, who ordained Domnus after his second marriage; that the chief of the diocess of Pontus did so, and all the bishops of Palestine; that they accounted it holy according to the opinion and doctrine of their nation, for so we read in Maimonides": Although a man have fulfilled the precept concerning the multiplication of mankind, yet nevertheless it is prescribed in the sayings of the scribes, that no man should cease from the multiplication of his kind, so long as he can well continue it; for whosoever shall add a soul to Israel, is like him that buildeth up the world. And it is moreover in the sayings of the wise men, that a man should not keep a house without a wife, lest he be provoked by lust." It may also be considered that he that burns, had better marry, though he hath been already married, and though he be a bishop; that the virgin or widow estate is no where commanded, but that in some cases marriage is, as in that of burning; that, in Scripture, no chastity or continence is required of a bishop but the matrimonial; that Abraham the father of the faithful was married again after the death of Sarah; that Saint Joseph, the supposed father of our blessed Lord, was, by the ancients, said to be twice married; and lastly, that it is confessed that the forbidding second marriages to the clergy, and refusing to ordain such as have been twice married, is neither of the law of nature, nor any article of faith, nor any necessity of the sacrament; it is only a constitution of the church, which as the Pope binds on, so he may take off as he please, as is affirmed by Aquinas, Durandus, Gabriel Vasquez', and others and therefore this law also ought to be cancelled; but if it be not annulled by express revocation, it is unjust, and unreasonable, and unnecessary, and a snare to consciences, "Halach Ishoth. cap. 15. y In sent. 4. dist. 27. q. 4. * Quodl. 4. art. 13. In 3. part. tom. 3. disp. 24. cap. 5. and is not the circumstance of a thing commanded, but of that which ought to be left at liberty, and therefore is no measure or proper band of conscience; but to us it is an obligation neither in conscience nor in law. But Hæc ideo volui nostris intexere chartis, Ut quoties patres—coeunt, Sint memores, magno ad leges opus esse ferendas I have given these instances not only to fix the conscience in these great inquiries, but by those to explicate the measures of the rule. Sect. 5. Of ecclesiastical Laws of Faith, or Articles of Confession. RULE XXI. The Catholic Church is a Witness of Faith, and a Record of all necessary Truths; but not the Mistress and Ruler of our Creed; that is, cannot make any Laws of Faith. 1. In our inquiries of faith, we do not run to the Catholic church desiring her to judge our questions: for she can never meet together; and she is too great a body to do single acts and make particular sentences: but to her we run for conduct, by inquiring what she believes, what she hath received from Christ and his apostles. So that the authority of the Catholic church is resolved into Catholic tradition. Whatsoever can be made to appear to have been, by the apostles, taught and consigned to the church, that is a law of faith. But of this I have already given accounts". The Catholic church, taking in the apostolical, that is, the church of all ages, is a witness beyond exception. For if she have the Spirit of God, if she love truth, and if she do not consent to deceive herself, she cannot be deceived in giving testimony concerning matter of fact and actual tradition or if she could, yet we are excused in following that testimony, because we have no better, we have no other. Better than our best, and better than all we have, we cannot be obliged to b Lib. 2. chap. 3. rule 14. • Mantuan. use: but therefore we have the justice and the goodness, our own necessity and the veracity of God, for our security, that this is a sure way for us to walk in. But then when this is reduced to practice in matters of belief, it will come to this only, that she bears witness to the Scriptures, that they are the word of God; but beyond what is contained in Scripture, she hath no article of faith. 2. The consequent of this, which I have largely proved and explicated in the place above cited, is, that all her sermons and all her explications of doctrines must be by that measure. If it be agreeable to Scripture, it is that which she hath received: but if she hath not received it, she cannot make a doctrine, nor deliver a proposition with authority, nor oblige the conscience. 3. But this rule, if it be understood of the Catholic church of this or any other present age, will not signify so much for unless the tradition be delivered in a constant succession from the apostles, the church is not a certain witness, but makes herself a judge of truth; which she can never do, but by relating to the Scriptures, by showing there it is, in the code which she hath received. But when any doubt does arise concerning any matter of belief, the Catholic church hath no solemn court of judicature or place of resort, where a single person may go for determination. And if a question be between church and church, as between Rome and England, the question is, which is the catholic church for indeed neither of them is: and there is no such thing then as a catholic church to determine the question: as when the head and the belly, the mouth and the arms, fell out, the whole body could not be judge of the controversy; but if they had had a rule, thither they might go to be guided. And if it be asked, who shall expound the rule, there is no other answer to be given, but to desire men to be good and humble, to pray to God, and without partiality to desire truth; and then every man will be able to answer his own question. For if the rule be hard, it is hard to them, that are not willing and soft and compliant: but not to the gentle and the humble, to them that follow God in simplicity, and whithersoever he will lead them. : 4. But it is to be considered, that the church is a net, that hath in it fishes good and bad; it is a field of corn and |