If the husband can prove the wife to be an adulteress, a witch, a murderess; to have bought or sold to slavery any one freeborn, to have violated sepulchres, commit

besides adultery, since our Saviour expressed that only? To this question, if we retain our principles already laid, and must acknowledge it to be a cursed blasphemy, if we say that the words of God do contradict❘ted sacrilege, favoured thieves and robbers, desirous of one another, of necessity we must confess, that our Lord did grant divorce, and marriage after that, for other causes besides adultery, notwithstanding what he said in Matthew. For first, they who consider but only that place, 1 Cor. vii. which treats of believers and misbelievers matched together, must of force confess, That our Lord granted just divorce and second marriage in the cause of desertion, which is other than the cause of fornication. And if there be one other cause found lawful, then is it most true, that divorce was granted not only for fornication.

Next, it cannot be doubted, as I shewed before, by them to whom it is given to know God and his judgments out of his own word, but that, what means of peace and safety God ever granted and ordained to his elected people, the same he grants and ordains to men of all ages, who have equally need of the same remedies. And who, that is but a knowing man, dares say there be not husbands and wives now to be found in such a hardness of heart, that they will not perform either conjugal affection, or any requisite duty thereof, though it be most deserved at their hands?

feasting with strangers, the husband not knowing, or not willing; if she lodge forth without a just and probable cause, or frequent theatres and sights, be forbidding; if she be privy with those that plot against the state, or if she deal falsely, or offer blows. And if the wife can prove her husband guilty of any those forenamed crimes, and frequent the company of lewd women in her sight; or if he beat her, she had the like liberty to quit herself; with this difference, that the man after divorce might forthwith marry again; the woman not till a year after, lest she might chance to have conceived.

CHAP. XXXVIII.

An exposition of those places wherein God declares the nature of holy wedlock.

Now to the end it may be seen, that this agrees with the divine law, the first institution of marriage is to be considered, and those texts in which God established the joining of male and female, and described the duties of them both. When God had determined to make woman, and give her as a wife to man, he spake thus, Gen. ii. 18, "It is not good for man to be alone, I will make him a help meet for him. And Adam said," but in the Spirit of God, v. 23, 24, "This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh: Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be one flesh.”

Neither can any one defer to confess, but that God, whose property it is to judge the cause of them that suffer injury, hath provided for innocent and honest persons wedded, how they might free themselves by lawful means of divorce, from the bondage and iniquity of those who are falsely termed their husbands or their wives. This is clear out of Deut. xxiv. 1; Malachi ii.; Matt. xix. 1; 1 Cor. vii.; and out of those principles, To this first institution did Christ recall his own; which the Scripture every where teaches, that God when answering the Pharisees, he condemned the changes not his mind, dissents not from himself, is no licence of unlawful divorce. He taught therefore by accepter of persons; but allows the same remedies to his example, that we, according to this first institution, all men oppressed with the same necessities and infirm- and what God hath spoken thereof, ought to determine ities; yea, requires that we should use them. This he what kind of covenant marriage is, how to be kept, and will easily perceive, who considers these things in the how far; and lastly, for what causes to be dissolved. Spirit of the Lord. To which decrees of God these also are to be joined, which the Holy Ghost hath taught by his apostle, that neither the husband nor the wife "hath power of their own body, but mutually each of either's." That " the husband shall love the wife as his own body, yea as Christ loves his church; and that the wife ought to be

Lastly, it is most certain, that the Lord hath commanded us to obey the civil laws, every one of his own commonwealth, if they be not against the laws of God.

CHAP. XXXVII.

For what causes divorce is permitted by the civil law subject to her husband, as the church is to Christ."

ex l. Consensu Codic. de Repudiis.

It is also manifest, that the law of Theodosius and Valentinian, which begins “Consensu,” &c. touching divorce, and many other decrees of pious emperors agreeing herewith, are not contrary to the word of God; and therefore may be recalled into use by any christian prince or commonwealth; nay, ought to be with due respect had to every nation: for whatsoever is equal and just, that in every thing is to be sought and used by Christians. Hence it is plain, that divorce is granted by divine approbation, both to husbands and to wives, if either party can convict the other of these following offences before the magistrate.

By these things the nature of holy wedlock is certainly known; whereof if only one be wanting in both or either party, and that either by obstinate malevolence, or too deep inbred weakness of mind, or lastly. through incurable impotence of body, it cannot then be said, that the covenant of matrimony holds good between such; if we mean that covenant, which God instituted and called marriage, and that whereof only it must be understood that our Saviour said, "Those whom God hath joined, let no man separate."

And hence is concluded, that matrimony requires continual cohabitation and living together, unless the calling of God be otherwise evident; which union if the parties themselves disjoin either by mutual consent,

CHAP. XL.

or one against the other's will depart, the marriage is then broken. Wherein the papists, as in other things, ppose themselves against God; while they separate for many causes from bed and board, and yet will have the bond of matrimony remain, as if this covenant could be other than the conjunction and communion Now if a husband or wife be found guilty of any of not only of bed and board, but of all other loving and those crimes, which by the law" consensu" are made helpful duties. This we may see in these words; “I causes of divorce, it is manifest, that such a man canwill make him a help meet for him; bone of his bone, not be the head and preserver of his wife, nor such a and flesh of his flesh: for this cause shall he leave woman be a meet help to her husband, as the divine father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and they law in true wedlock requires; for these faults are putwain shall be one flesh." By which words who dis- nished either by death, or deportation, or extreme incerns not, that God requires of them both so to live to-famy, which are directly opposite to the covenant of gether, and to be united not only in body but in mind marriage. If they deserve death, as adultery and the also, with such an affection as none may be dearer and like, doubtless God would not that any should live in more ardent among all the relations of mankind, nor wedlock with them whom he would not have to live at of more efficacy to the mutual offices of love and loy- all. Or if it be not death, but the incurring of notoalty? They must communicate and consent in all things rious infamy, certain it is neither just, nor expedient, both divine and human, which have any moment to well nor meet, that an honest man should be coupled with and happy living. The wife must honour and obey an infamous woman, nor an honest matron with an inher husband, as the church honours and obeys Christ famous man. The wise Roman princes had so great her bead. The husband must love and cherish his a regard to the equal honour of either wedded person, wife, as Christ his church. Thus they must be to each that they counted those marriages of no force, which ether, if they will be true man and wife in the sight of were made between the one of good repute, and the God, whom certainly the churches ought to follow in other of evil note. How much more will all honest their judgment. Now the proper and ultimate end of regard of christian expedience and comeliness beseem marriage is not copulation, or children, for then there and concern those who are set free and dignified in was not true matrimony between Joseph and Mary the Christ, than it could the Roman senate, or their sons, mother of Christ, nor between many holy persons more; for whom that law was provided? but the full and proper and main end of marriage is the communicating of all duties, both divine and human, each to other with utmost benevolence and affec

Whether those crimes recited chap. xxxvii. out of the civil law, dissolve matrimony in God's account.

tion.

CHAP. XXXIX.

The properties of a true and christian marriage more distinctly repeated.

By which definition we may know, that God esteems and reckons upon these four necessary properties to be In every true marriage. 1. That they should live together, unless the calling of God require otherwise for time. 2. That they should love one another to the height of dearness, and that in the Lord, and in the Communion of true religion. 3. That the husband bear himself as the head and preserver of his wife, instructing her to all godliness and integrity of life; that the wife also be to her husband a help, according to her place, especially furthering him in the true worship of God, and next in all the occasions of civil life. And 4. That they defraud not each other of conjugal benevolence, as the apostle commands, 1 Cor. vii. Hence it follows, according to the sentence of God, which all Christians ought to be ruled by, that between those who, either through obstinacy, or helpless inability, cannot or will not perform these repeated duties, between those there an be no true matrimony, nor ought they to be counted

tan and wife.

And this all godly men will soon apprehend, that he who ought to be the head and preserver not only of his wife, but also of his children and family, as Christ is of his church, had need be one of honest name: so likewise the wife, which is to be the meet help of an honest and good man, the mother of an honest offspring and family, the glory of the man, even as the man is the glory of Christ, should not be tainted with ignominy; as neither of them can avoid to be, having been justly appeached of those forenamed crimes; and therefore cannot be worthy to hold their place in a christian family: yea, they themselves turn out themselves and dissolve that holy covenant. And they who are true brethren and sisters in the Lord are no more in bondage to such violators of marriage.

But here the patrons of wickedness and dissolvers of christian discipline will object, that it is the part of man and wife to bear one another's cross, whether in calamity or infamy, that they may gain each other, if not to a good name, yet to repentance and amendment. But they who thus object, seek the impunity of wickedness, and the favour of wicked men, not the duties of true charity; which prefers public honesty before private interest, and had rather the remedies of wholesome punishment appointed by God should be in use, than that by remissness the licence of evil doing should increase. For if they who, by committing such offences, have made void the holy knot of marriage, be capable of repentance, they will be sooner moved when due punishment is executed on them, than when it is remitted.

We must ever beware, lest, in contriving what will

be best for the soul's health of delinquents, we make | ourselves wiser and discreeter than God. He that religiously weighs his oracles concerning marriage, cannot doubt that they, who have committed the foresaid transgressions, have lost the right of matrimony, and are unworthy to hold their dignity in an honest and christian family.

But if any husband or wife see such signs of repentance in their transgressor, as that they doubt not to re

gain them by continuing with them, and partaking of Whether the husband or wife deserted may marry their miseries and attaintures, they may be left to their own hopes, and their own mind; saving ever the right of church and commonwealth, that it receive no scandal by the neglect of due severity, and their children no harm by this invitation to licence, and want of good

CHAP. XLIII.

That to grant divorce for all the causes which have been hitherto brought, disagrees not from the words of Christ, naming only the cause of adultery.

Now we must see how these things can stand with the words of our Saviour, who seems directly to forbid all divorce except it be for adultery. To the understanding whereof, we must ever remember this: That in the words of our Saviour there can be no contrariety: That his words and answers are not to be stretched beyond the question proposed: That our Saviour did not there purpose to treat of all the causes for which it might be lawful to divorce and marry again; for then that in the Corinthians of marrying again without guilt of adultery could not be added. That it is not good for that man to be alone, who hath not the special gift from above. That it is good for every such one to be married, that he may shun fornication.

With regard to these principles, let us see what our Lord answered to the tempting Pharisees about divorce, and second marriage, and how far his answer doth extend.

First, no man who is not very contentious will deny, that the Pharisees asked our Lord whether it were lawful to put away such a wife, as was truly, and according to God's law, to be counted a wife; that is, such a one as would dwell with her husband, and both world and could perform the necessary duties of wedlock tolerably. But she who will not dwell with her husband is not put away by him, but goes of herself: and the who denies to be a meet help, or to be so hath made herself unfit by open misdemeanours, or through incurable impotencies cannot be able, is not by the law of God to be esteemed a wife; as hath been shewn beth from the first institution, and other places of Scripture. Neither certainly would the Pharisees propound a question concerning such an unconjugal wife; for their depravation of the law had brought them to that pass, as to think a man had right to put away his wife any cause, though never so slight. Since therefore iis manifest, that Christ answered the Pharisees coneing a fit and meet wife according to the law of Gal, whom he forbid to divorce for any cause but fornation; who sees not that it is a wickedness so to wrist and extend that answer of his, as if it forbad to divorce her who hath already forsaken, or hath lost the

plare and dignity of a wife, by deserved infamy, or

swer, first, that the sentence of divorce and second marriage is one and the same. So that when the right of divorce is evinced to belong not only to the cause of fornication, the power of second marriage is also proved to be not limited to that cause only; and that most evidently whenas the Holy Ghost, 1 Cor. vii. so frees the deserted party from bondage, as that he may not only send a just divorce in case of desertion, but may seek another marriage.

Lastly, seeing God will not that any should live in danger of fornication and utter ruin for the default of another, and hath commanded the husband to send away with a bill of divorce her whom he could not love; it is impossible that the charge of adultery should belong to him who for lawful causes divorces and marries, or to her who marries after she hath been unjustly rejected, or to him who receives her without all fraud to the former wedlock. For this were a horrid blasphemy against God, so to interpret his words, as to make him dissent from himself; for who sees not a flat contradiction in this, to enthral blameless men and women to miseries and injuries, under a false and soothing title of marriage, and yet to declare by his apostle, that a brother or sister is not under bondage in such cases? No less do these two things conflict with themselves, to enforce the innocent and faultless to endure the pain and misery of another's perverseness, or else to live in unavoidable temptation; and to affirm elsewhere that he lays on no man the burden of another man's sin, nor doth constrain any man to the endangering of his soul.

CHAP. XLIV.

That to those also who are justly divorced, second marriage ought to be permitted.

THIS although it be well proved, yet because it concerns only the offender, I leave him to search out his own charter himself in the author.

CHAP. XLV.

That some persons are so ordained to marriage, as that
they cannot obtain the gift of continence, no not by
earnest prayer; and that therein every one is to be
left to his own judgment and conscience, and not to
have a burden laid
upon him by any other.
CHAP. XLVI.

bath undertaken to be that which she hath not natural The words of the apostle concerning the praise of sin

ability to be?

This truth is so powerful, that it hath moved the papists to grant their kind of divorce for other causes besides adultery, as for ill usage, and the not performing of conjugal duty; and to separate from bed and board for these causes, which is as much divorce as they grant

for adultery.
But some perhaps will object, that though it be
yielded that our Lord granted divorce not only for
adultery, yet it is not certain, that he permitted mar-
riage after divorce, unless for that only cause. I an-

gle life unfolded.

THESE two chapters not so immediately debating the right of divorce, I choose rather not to insert.

CHAP. XLVII.

The conclusion of this treatise.

THESE things, most renowned king, I have brought together, both to explain for what causes the unhappy but sometimes most necessary help of divorce ought to be granted according to God's word, by princes and

rulers; as also to explain how the words of Christ do | ranted rule, not to give an inventory of so many words, consent with such a grant. I have been large indeed but to weigh their force. I could have added that eloboth in handling those oracles of God, and in laying|quent and right christian discourse, written by Erasmus down those certain principles, which he who will know on this argument, not disagreeing in effect from Bucer. what the mind of God is in this matter, must ever think But this, I hope, will be enough to excuse me with the on and remember. But if we consider what mist and mere Englishman, to be no forger of new and loose obscurity hath been poured out by Antichrist upon this opinions. Others may read him in his own phrase on question, and how deep this pernicious contempt of the first to the Corinthians, and ease me who never wedlock, and admiration of single life, even in those could delight in long citations, much less in whole trawho are not called thereto, hath sunk into many men's ductions; whether it be natural disposition or educapersuasions; I fear lest all that hath been said betion in me, or that my mother bore me a speaker of hardly enough to persuade such, that they would cease at length to make themselves wiser and holier than God himself, in being so severe to grant lawful marriage, and so easy to connive at all, not only whoredoms but deflowerings and adulteries: whenas, among the people of God, no whoredom was to be tolerated.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, who came to destroy the works of Satan, sent down his Spirit upon all Christians, and principally upon christian governors both in church and commonwealth, (for of the clear judgment of your royal majesty I nothing doubt, revolving the Scripture so often as ye do,) that they may acknowledge how much they provoke the anger of God against us, whenas all kind of unchastity is tolerated, fornications and adulteries winked at; but holy and honourable wedlock is oft withheld by the mere persuasion of Antichrist, from such as without this remedy cannot preserve themselves from damnation! For none who hath but a spark of honesty will deny, that princes and states ought to use diligence toward the maintaining of pure and honest life among all men, without which all justice, all fear of God, and true religion decays.

And who knows not, that chastity and pureness of life can never be restored, or continued in the commonwealth, unless it be first established in private houses, from whence the whole breed of men is to come forth? To effect this, no wise man can doubt, that it is necessary for princes and magistrates first with severity to punish whoredom and adultery; next to see that marriages be lawfully contracted, and in the Lord; then that they be faithfully kept; and lastly, when that unhappiness urges, that they be lawfully dissolved, and other marriage granted, according as the law of God, and of nature, and the constitutions of pious princes have decreed; as I have shewn both by evident authorities of Scripture, together with the writings of the ancient fathers, and other testimonies. Only the Lord grant that we may learn to prefer his ever just and saving word, before the comments of Antichrist, too deeply rooted in many, and the false and blasphemous exposition of our Saviour's words. Amen.

A POSTSCRIPT.

THUS far Martin Bucer: whom, where I might without injury to either part of the cause, I deny not to have epitomized; in the rest observing a well-war

what God made mine own, and not a translator. There be others also whom I could reckon up, of no mean account in the church, (and Peter Martyr among the first,) who are more than half our own in this controversy. But this is a providence not to be slighted, that as Bucer wrote this tractate of divorce in England and for England, so Erasmus professes he begun bere among us the same subject, especially out of compassion, for the need he saw this nation had of some charitable redress herein; and seriously exhorts others to use their best industry in the clearing of this point, wherein custom hath a greater sway than verity. That therefore which came into the mind of these two admired strangers to do for England, and in a touch of highest prudence, which they took to be not yet recovered from monastic superstition, if I a native am found to have done for mine own country, altogether suitably and conformably to their so large and clear understanding, yet without the least help of theirs; I suppose that henceforward among conscionable and judicious persons it will no more be thought to my discredit, or at all to this nation's dishonour. And if these their books the one shall be printed often with best allowance in most religious cities, the other with express authority of Leo the Tenth, a pope, sball, for the propagating of truth, be published and republished, though against the received opinion of that church, and mine containing but the same thing, shall in a time of reformation, a time of free speaking, free writing, not find a permission to the press; I refer me to wisest men, whether truth be suffered to be truth, or liberty to be liberty, now among us, and be not again in danger of new fetters and captivity after all our hopes and labours lost: and whether learning be not (which our enemies too prophetically feared) in the way to be trodden down again by ignorance. Whereof while time is, out of the faith owing to God and my country, I bid this kingdom beware; and doubt not but God who hath dignified this parliament already to so many glorious degrees, will also give them (which is a singular blessing) to inform themselves rightly in the midst of an unprincipled age, and to prevent this working mystery of ignorance and ecclesiastical thraldom, which under new shapes and disguises begins afresh to grow upon us.