and again proves, that there is Grace neceffary to Married People, from the T. Difficulties attending them, of forfaking the Father that begot them, and the Mother that bare them, and with forrow brought them forth, and nurft them with the tendereft care; and from their Duties of teaching their Children the true Religion, and endeavouring to make them true Members of Chrift; but, faith he, God never enjoins Duties above Nature, but he at the fame time alfo gives or promifes Grace by which they may be performed. And the fame may be faid, of keeping the Bed undefiled, and of mutual Love and Charity and spiritual Affection towards one another, which ought never to fail or flacken or decrease. 502. B. All this we readily own. Grace is abfolutely neceffary to the performance of all Christian Duties, for as much as all are attended with what is hard to Flesh and Blood. But is there a fingular or Special Grace given or Promised more to Marriage, then to any of the other Relative Duties above faid? Is it not as great and as difficult a Duty, for Servants to obey froward Churlish and Cruel Masters; for Masters to be Patient and Favourable to Negligent, Saucy, Cross, and (many other ways) wicked Servants; For Parents to bear with diffolute and stubborn Children; For Children to Obey extravagant and unkind Parents; For Kings to Govern a Stiffnecked and Rebellious People; For Subjects not to refift a Tyrannical though natural Soveraign; Nay, for a Man to fuffer with Chrift his Head, and for his fake to give up his own Flesh, to the Sword or to the Fire, whilst Nature bids him to Cherish it and Nourish it; I say are not these as hard Duties, as for Husband and Wife to forfake all, and hold together for better for worse till Death depart them? These are all alike Inftituted by God, and Grace is equally neceffary to the Performance of them all. Now this doth not appear, that there is one Singular, Special, Proper, Distinct Grace given to each of them; as one fort of obeying Grace to Servants; another to Children; another to Subjects; another to the Wife; or one fort of loving Grace, to Masters; another to Parents; another to Lords and Kings; another to Husbands; another for Chrift when we are Perfecuted or another for our Love to our very Enemies. By all thefe Graces is meant nothing else, but the Almighty Affiftance of one and the fame Holy Spirit, for the Performance of our Duties in all our feveral Callings, States, and Conditions and Difficulties. And this divine Affiftance is once Promised unto every one in their Baptifm, and renew'd by the holy Communion. There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek; for the fame Lord over all, is Rich unto all that call upon him; whether Married or Unmarried, Bond or Free, Princes or Subjects, whosoever shall call upon him shall be faved. In all our needs and diftreffes, if we again and again befeech the Lord, as St. Paul did, we fhall undoubtedly receive the fame Anfwer from Him, my 1 Cor. 12.8,9. Grace is fufficient for thee. And this Doctrine is most clearly, and largely fet down by the fame Apostle and expreft by that common Symbol of Chrift and the Church, I mean, Man's Body and Members; as the Body is one, and bath many Members, and all the Members of that one Body, being many, 13. are one Body; fo alfo is Chrift; For by one Spirit are we all Baptized into one Body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be Bond or Free (and in like manner, whether we be Married or not,) and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. By Baptifm and partaking of the fame Cup at the Lord's Supper, we are all alike Interested in God's Promife of his conftant Af fiftance. And this is not only true in his difpenfing of thofe higher Spiritual gifts there mention'd, as Prophefy, working of Miracles, Speaking with Tongues, and the like; but in his diftributing of his Grace, or divine Help, alfo, to every one for their Performance of every Christian Duty; as from the fame Symbol of Christ's one Body, St. Paul elsewhere makes God's Grace, (or the Comfortable Affiftance of his Holy Spirit,) as it were the common Life and Soul of Chrift's Myftical Body, diftributed through every Member, and manifefled not only in Prophefy, or Ministry, or Teaching, or Exhortation; Dd 2 Rom. 10. 12, 13. 1 Cor. 12, Iz. Rom. 12. 1 2.4) 5. Rom. 12.6,7, but 37. T. p. 209. but alfo in the Performance of every Chriftian Duty; as in unfeigned Love; Abhorrence of Evil, Diligence in Business; Patience in Tribulation; Being of the fame mind, and not Wife in our own Conceits; Living, if poffible, Peaceably with all men; and to fumm up all, in being never overcome Ront. 8. 32, of Evil, but always overcoming Evil with Good. So again, be that fpared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall be not with Him alfo freely give us all things. Through his Grace in all things we 1 Cor. 10, 13. are more then Conquerors. For he will not fuffer us to be tempted (or prest in any Duty enjoin'd by him) above what we are able to bear. So, Eph 4. 6, 7. from that other Symbol of God and his Church, a Father and a Family. there is one Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all, and unto every one of us is given Grace according to the measure of the Gift, (the Office, or State, or Condition, or Calling, which is the Gift,) of Christ. The Scripture is every where full of God's Promises of Grace, (fuitable to our needs) made on his part in our Baptifm unto every one, withCol. 2. 12. out any respect of Perfons; take one Paffage more out of St. Paul, we are c. 3.10. verf. all alike buried with Chrift in Baptifm, and we are rifen again with him, and have put on the new Man after his Image; and we are all alike obliged to mortify our Earthly Members. All fiofull Lufts and Affections; and to put of all Uncleanness, Anger, Wrath, Malice; and all of us (Married or Unmarried, without diftinction) as Elect of God, Holy, and Beloved, are bound to put on bowels of Mercies, Kindness, Humbleness of Mind, Meeknefs, Longfuffering, Forbearing one another, and Forgiving one another; and above all Things, Charity, which is the Vinculum, bond of Perfectness. Then as conformable to thefe general Duties of every Chriftian, or Subordinate to them, or rather plainly included in them, he particularly mentions the Duties of Relations, Husbands and Wives, Children and Parents, Mafters and Servants all alike; and if he had not named them particularly, (as he hath not here mention'd the Duty of Masters) yet they had every one of them been mutually obliged to thefe particular Duties, by the force of the general Duties of all Chriftians whatever. 5, 8, 9. verf. 12, 13, 14. Eph. 5. 28. Now then let us review the three Things by which Bellarmine and the Schoolmen would prove Marriage to be a Sacrament truly fo called. Firft it is Inftituted by God; fo is Government; fo was the Body and Members of Man and of every living Creature; and they were commanded to Increase and Multiply. Secondly, It is a Sign of a Holy Thing, Chrift and the Church. So is Government; King and Subjects, Mafter and Servants, Father and Children, are often made in Scripture Reprefentations or Signs of the fame; But nothing more commonly then the Head and Members of a Man's Body; God when he first framed it, ftampt upon it the facred Principle of felf PreJob. 2. 4. fervation. Skin for Skin and all that a Man hath will be give for his Life; is a common Truth, though spoken once by the Devil; and Man's natural Love to himself, is made the Standard by which he must measure his love to his Neighbour; Nay, and his Love to his Wife too, fo ought Men to love their Wives as their own Bodies. Self Love then is a Self. Love then is a Symbol of Marriage Love, if that is a Symbol of Chrift's Love; and if you please you may fay Man and Wife are Symbols of Body and Soul; or rather thefe are Symbols of those. And the Care of the Head for every Limb, and the most admirable Union, and Symetry, and agreement and usefulness of every part in our Bodies to one another, is certainly the moft Sacred, as it is the most common and the most lively, Symbol of Chrift and the Church; and therefore we have these so often fet out in Scripture, as one Myftical Body and Members; but rarely as a Myftical Marriage. Thirdly, there is Grace promised; Grace is indeed neceffary to the performance of the Duty between Husband and Wife, and it is promised to them also, as it is to all other Chriftians in their Baptifm and Communion; But what Prerogative of Grace, or what Privilege of Grace is promifed or given to it more then to other Relative Duties of as difficult Performance, does not appear; T. P. 210. A appear; fo that thus far we fee no real or proper Sacrament in it, more T. p. 218. then in those. P. 510. F. 509. D. But Bellarmine will ftill have it to be a Sacrament, and farther advances this wonderfull Paradox upon it; He owns that Matrimony hath been from the beginning of the World, and that it is yet amongst Infidels; and that there is no difference between the Marriage of the Antients and that of Chriftians as to all its Rites, its Matter and Form and the Minifter of it; and that thofe of Infidels were true Marriages; Tet, he faith, that only the Marriages of P.499. H.503. Christians are Sacraments, and none of the others are fo; becaufe Chriftian F. Marriages are the cause of Grace, but others are not; and that thefe or the p.503. c. 509. like words. I do now take thee as mine own, have not the fame force amongst Infidels, as amongst Believers; amongst thofe they make only a civil Contract, but amongst these they fignify not only a Union of Bodies, but also a Union of Minds, or a Refemblance of the Union of Chrift and the Church, and they fanctify Men. D. 3, 4. 510. F. It is plain then by him, that amongst Christians the Union of Minds in the Married, refemble the Union of Chrift and the Church, and fanctifies the Party, upon this I have above made a remark out of the old Pontifical. But p. 206. why fhould not a perfect Union of Minds between Man and Wife amongst Infidels, Reprefent (naturally at leaft) the fame Thing, and fanctify likewife, for like is like? And where fuch perfect Union is, the Perfons furely are in a happy and bleft Eftate. Now was there never fuch a loving Couple amongst the Infidels? What fhall we fay to fome of the Pythagoreans, as to Myllias Iambl. in vit. and Timycha? Or to Admetus and Alceftis? To Penelope and Ulyffes? Ari. Pythag. §. 1921 ftotle makes thefe last a most amazing Example, grñs, pidius, mígews, of natu- Oeconom. 1. 1. ral Affection, mutual Love, and Faithfulness. She would never admit the P. 282. A., Addreffes of any Lover during his long abfence; and He refufed the offer of Immortality it felf, rather then violate his Faith to Her, counting it the greateft Plague and Punishment for a Husband to be unfaithfull, though he should gain, by being fo, even everlasting Life. But if we look upon these Instances as meer Romances or Poetick Fables, yet we muft own that the Philofopher's Morals or Applications, which he draws from them, are most egregious Rules and Directions for Husbands and Wives; He urges them to ftrive to overcome one another in Kindnes, and preffes; ὁμόνοιαν, ὁμοφροσύνην, ἐ τὴν τοχέσαν, ἀλλὰ τὴν An, the very fame extraordinary Charity, the fame mutual Concord and bleffed Union of minds between them, as St. Paul himself doth. They are fuch Precepts as, I fear, will make many Christians blush, and one day condemn them. Now can any one be so illnatur'd or hardhearted, or rafh as to think or say, that never any Heathen Couple lived up to thefe Rules? There never was fuch a Vinculum, divine Knot of Love and Affection in any of them? But if there were fuch eminent Couples amongst them, there must then be allowed, to Jelov, Jéla moga, (as Plato calls it) a Divine Affiftance, a Di vine Difpofal amongst them, a Confcience and an Inward light to enable T. p. 211. them; which I must call Grace, unless you will make the Power of meer Nature to equal or exceed it; And I muft alfo call it faving Grace; for fince Chrift died for the Sins of the whole World, at least some of them will be the better for it. Meno. p. 99.€. 1 Joh. 2. 2. What must we now fay of the Jews before Chrift came? The case of their having many Wives, feems to be not fo well confidered by the Cardinal, when he faith, the Houfe could not be fo well Governed where there were many p. 516.a. Wives. For in his Inftance of Leah and Rachel (and their Maids,) each of Gen. 31. 33. them had their feveral diftinct Tents apart to themfelves; As the Jewish Wives had afterwards their feparate Rooms and Apartments when they came to live in Houses and Cities; As the Turks fashion (which they borrow'd from them) is to this day. One Wife have her feveral Lodgings and Family to her self, and the other have nothing to do there, but every one govern only in their own; and they vifit one another as now two Neighbours do with us. And Leah If. 50. 1. Ezech. 16. 15. 20. P. 1002, 3. T. p. 211. Leah with her Maids, and Rachael with hers, were plainly two diftinct Families; and the Emulation that was between them made them better Wives, and more pleafing to their Husband, as it is amongst the Muffelmen every where. And Jacob was a truly loving Husband to both his Wives, and as Loving a Father to all his Children; yet he might have a greater tenderness for one Wife, then for the other; and more fondness for Jofeph then for the reft of his Sons, (as Fathers commonly have for the youngest,) and yet the common bond of true Affection to both his Wives was no ways in this violated or broken; no more then his true Fatherly Love to all his Sons was quite destroy'd by his particular kindness to Jofeph. And Jacob as a Husband with his Wives; as a Father with his Children; as a Lord or Mafter with his Servants, most truly reprefented God and the Jewish Church, which was his peculiar People; his Wife; his Children; his Servants; Nay, St. Auguftin Le 3132 faith Expreffly, plures uxores antiquorum Patrum. The many Wives of the Hof. 2. 2. 19, antient Fathers have fignified our Churches which were to be out of all Nations fubject to one Man, or Husband, Chrift. And there a little after, De bon. conjug. c. 18. T. 6. he calls the Polygamy of the Patriarchs illius temporis, in thofe days, Sacramentum, a Sacrament, as he calls there the Marriage of one Man and one P. 501. D. E. Woman, noftri temporis, in our days a Sacrament too; which the Cardinal owns but he cleverly endeavours to fhuffle it off, as he does most things elfe which pinch him. Sacrament there, faith he, is taken in a large Senfe not truly and properly. But by his favour Monogamy of Chriftians and Polygamy of the Jews, are there both called Sacraments in one and the fame Sense; yet he owns it is Improperly, or only as nominal Sacraments, or Reprefentations; fo then to St. Auguftin, one was no more a real Sacrament then the other. I am apt to think from hence, that Polygamy more clearly reprefented Chrift and the Church, then Monogamy did. All Chriftians difperfed over the Face of the whole Earth, Greeks, Latins, Armenians, Abaffines, Britains, Lutherans, Calvinifts, &c. make up one Catholick Church under Chrift; and SoT. p. 212. lomon and his true Wives may feem then to reprefent it better then Adam and Eve, or any one Man and one Woman. But perhaps the Cardinal would make us believe that Chrift now hath but only one true Spouse, i.e. the Church of Rome. Yet I think he hath gotten (he best knows how) a very bad name amongst fome in thefe quarters of the World. What is next objected against Polygamy, is that it cannot confift with the entire Affection and Love which is requifite to a true reprefentation of Christ and the Church. There must be a defrauding of each Wife in her due, and diffention must arife from thence. But that might be well adjusted then amongst the Jews, Plut. in ejus as the Turks (their Imitators) do it now; and as Solon did in his Laws of vi. p. 89. C. old. And fome fuch agreement was between Jacob and his Wives, as appears by the exchange of the Mandrakes. But of thefe Matters 1 take occafion to fpeak more fully in another Treatife. 516. A. B. Gen. 30. 15. However, if Exceptions are taken against Jews that had many Wives, that they could not be proper Representations of this Sacramental Union; what can be faid to those who had but one? Was there never, before Chrift came, a pious Couple amongst them, who had that Spiritual Unanimity, that Spiritual Love and perfect Concord mutually between them, which the Cardinal 500. A. B. &c. makes the only Form of his Chriftian Sacrament? To pafs by Abraham and Luk. 1. 6. Sarah, Ifaac and Rebecca, how was it with devout Anna and her Husband? Luk.2.36, 37. How was it with that Righteous and blameless Couple Zacharias and Elizabeth? What can be faid of Jofeph and the bleffed Virgin? She was first his Spouse Mat. 1.18, 24. and then his Wife; and fuch Marriages, though they are not confummated, faith the Cardinal, retain the principal Signification ftill, of the conjunction of Chrift with the Church, (and with every Soul) by fpiritual Love. there in none of the antient Jewish Couples, especially in these last named Spiritual Charity, and Divine Love, and mutual Affection enough, to make their Marriages as true Sacraments, as that of Chriftians are pretended to be? I P. 504. H Was fhould fhould think it a Piece of hellifh Pride and unpardonable Arrogance, in any T. p. 212. Christian Couple, to think themselves any way able to equal, much more to furpafs any of these blessed Pairs, these renowned Saints, in any conjugal Grace or Refpect whatever. Yet Bellarmine advances another Privilege to Married Chriftians above all others; Because besides getting of Children which is common to all Nations, nay, 502. b. even to Beafts themselves; Chriftians are bound to inftruct their Children in the Faith and Religion, that they might be made true and living Members of the Catholick Church. But the Heathens had the very fame Plut. de leg. Notion, not only that they should in a manner perpetuate Nature and1.6.p. 773.E. Themselves, and set up a kind of Immortality by carrying on Propagati on from Fathers to Children, and to Childrens Children; but thereby to leave, vængetas T 3, a fucceffion of Servants and Minifters, or Worshippers, to God. And at their Weddings they had always, Juolas, bures, euxas, De Repub. 1. §. Sacrifices, Hymns, and Prayers; to that Marriages with them were ever, 459. E. Sacraments, that is, facred Things. And they were as careful in bringing 546. A. 461. A. up their Chrildren under the best Philofophers. And the Jews were again Exod. 12. 16. and again commanded to take the fame care of their Children; and at all times and upon all occafions to teach them and admonish them; and we &c. may fufficiently understand the Father's Authority over them, and their strict Difcipline towards them by that fevere Law, a Stubborn and Rebellious dif. Deut. 21. 18, folute Son was to be ftoned to Death, that all Ifrael might hear and 19, 20, 21. fear. Deut. 11. 18, 19. c. 32. 46. Now what a forry trifling Anfwer have we to all this. Though the Jews p. 503. D. (and he might have faid the fame of the Gentiles) were obliged to bring up their Children in the Faith and Religion of God, yet this end was extrin T. p. 213. fical to their Marriage, but intrinfical to the Marriage of Chriftians. Was not Virtue and Morality, and the Happiness which attended thefe qualities, the chief end of all the Nobler Heathen; and was not this the main Spring and only Motive which put them upon the Education of their Children? Was not the awful fear of the only true God, Jehovah, and the inward Love and pious Zeal for his Service the true end of all the Jews performances; and their only aim in their Instructing and bringing up of their Children in the fame way? And have Christians any other end then Happiness by teaching and practiceing the Law of Chrift? The whole Matter then ftands thus; God hath in various Measures given Light (which I must Call Grace), unto all Mankind; He plainly Revealed and Manifefted himself to the very Heathen, even his Power and Godhead. They had a Law written in their Hearts; and by their own Confcience and natural Reafon judged them, accufing or elfe excufing them; and particularly about their Marriages, they had as folemn Ceremonies seld. Ux. heb. and as facred Thoughts as any others; moft of our Chriftian Rites are borrow'd 2. p. 215, from them, as I could eafily fhew. They had a good (though the lowest) degree of God's revealed or manifefted Light. As for the Jews God took them unto himself, and made them his peculiar People; and told them that he was their God, and that he was the only true and living God; and delivered unto them his lively Oracles by the Hand of his fervant Mofes. Rom. 1. 18, 19. 222, 223. &c. The Act. 7. 28. Deut. 4. 34, 35. old Teftament is one entire Proof of all this; but I will direct the Reader only to one Chapter for his Meditation herein, and point out only a verse or two of it. Ask of the days that are paft, fince the day that God created verf. 32, 33, Man upon the Earth, from one fide of Heaven unto the other; did ever People bear the voice of God as thou hast heard? Hath God affayed to take him a Nation from the midst of all others, by Signs aud Wonders, and with a mighty Hand, that thou mightest know that the Lord he is God, and none elfe befides him? Out of Heaven he made thee to hear his voice that he might Inftruct thee. The Jews then had a much higher degree of Revelation then the Gentiles. They had not only the law of Nature written on their Hearts; but pofitive Laws and Inftructions given them besides from the mouth of God Him |