THe dutie of man and woman ioyned in marriage, requireth that Gene. 2. [...]. Mat. 19. 5. they two should be as one person, & cleave each to other with mutuall love & liking in society of life, until it please God, who hath coupeled them tog [...]ther in this bond, to set th [...]m free from it, and to dissociate & sever them by death. But the inordinat fansies & desires of our corrupt nature have so inveigeled Adams seede in manie places, that men have accostomed to put awaie their wives vppon every trifling mislike & discontentement: yea Ieuwes supposed thēselves to be warranted by Gods Deu 24. 1 Mat. 5. 31. lawe to doe it, so that whosoever put away his wife gave her a bill of divorcement. This perverse opinion & errour of theirs our Saviour Christ reproved teaching that divorcements may not be made for any cause save whoredome onely. For whosoever (saith he) shall put away his wife except it be for whoredom and shall marry another doth commit adulterie and who so marrieth her wich is put away, doth cōmit adulterie. Now about the meaning of these wordes of Christ expressed more fully by by on of the M [...]th. 10. 9 Euāgelists, by M [...] 1. Luk. 6. 18. others more sparingly, there hath a doubt arisen: and diverse men even from the primative churches time have been of diverse mindes.

For many of the Fathers have gathered thereupon, that if a mans wife cōmitted whoredom & fornication, he might not onely put her a way, but marrie another. Some others, and among them namely S. Austine, have thought that the man might put away his wife but marrie another he might not,

[Page] [...]he Scholedevins of later years, & the Canonists, as for most parte they were al adicted to S. Austins iudgment, did likewise follow him herein & the Popes mainteining their doctrine for Catholique, have possessed the Church of Rome with this opinion. But since in our daies the light of good learning both for artes and tongues hath shy­ned more brightly by Gods most gratious goodnes then in the form­er ages, and the holly scriptures by the helpe thereof have been the bet­ter understood: the Pastors & Doctors of the reformed churches have percieved & shewed, that if a mans wife defile her selfe with fornicatiō, he may nor onely put her away by Christs doctrine but also marrie an­other. Wherein that they teach agreeably to the truth, and not erroneously, as Iesuits & Papists do falsly charge them. I will make ma­nifest & prove (through Gods assistance) by expresse words of Christ, the truth it selfe. And because our adversaries doe weene that the cō trarie hereof is strongly proved by sundrie arguements & obiections, which two of their newest writers Bell. the Iesuit & a namelesse author of an English panphlet, have dilligenely laied together; For the farther clearing therefore of the matter, & taking awaie of doubts & scruples, I will set downe al there obiectiōs in order, first out of the scriptures, then of fathers, last of reasons and answer everie one of them particularly. So shall it appeaae to suh as are not blinded with a fore conceived opinion & preiudice, that whatsoever shew of prbabilities are brought to the contrarie, yet the truth deliverd by our Saviour Christ allowetls him whose wife committeth sornication, to put her away, and to marrie another

The proofe hoereof is evidnnt if the words of Christ be waied in the nienteuth Chapter af S, Mat. gospel For when the Pharises asking him a question, whether it were lawfull for a man to put away his wife for every catse, received answer that it was not, and thereupon saide unto him, Why did Moses commande to give a bill of divorcement and to put her a way: Our Saviouer sayde unto them; Moses suffered you because of the hardnes of your harte to put awaye Mat. 19. 1. your wifes: But from the beginning it was not so. And I say vnto you, that, whosoever, shal put away his wife, except it bee for whoredom, and shall marrie another, doth comit adultery: and who so marri­eth her that is put awaie, doth cōmit adultery.

Now this in sentēce, the clause of exception [except it be for whoredom] doth argue that he committeh not adulterie, who, having put away his wife for whoredom marrieth another.

But hee must needs commit it in doeing so unlesse the bande of marriage bee loosed and dissolved. For who so marrieth another as long as he is Rom. 7. 2 bound to the former vers. 3. is an adulterer. The band then of mar­riage [Page 3] is loosed & dissolved betwene that man & wife who are put assun­der and divorced for whoredome.

And if the band beloosed, the man may marry another: seing it is written [...] Art thou loosed from a wife? If thou marrie thou sinnest not. The­refore it is lawfull for him who hath put away his wife for whoredome to marrie another, vers. 28.

This argument doth firmly and necessarily conclude the point in question, if the first parte and proposition of it be proved to be true. For there is no controversie of any of the rest: beinge all grounded on such vndoubted principles of scripture and reason, that our adversa­ries themselves admit and graunt them all.

The first Bel [...]armin Tom 2 [...] 4 lib [...]. de ma­ [...]r [...]mon [...] ▪ cap 15. [...]. The Pamp [...]etter in his tef [...]tation of the discourse to [...] ­ening the law­fulnesse of marriadgge af­ter divorc [...] for whoredone. they denie to weete that the clause of exception in Christs speech [except it befor whordome] doth argue that the mā commiteth not adulterie, who, having put awaie his wife for whoredome, marrieth an­other, And to overthrowe this proposition, they doe bring soudry an­swers and evasions, The best of all which as Bellarmin avoucheth, is, that those words [except it be for whoredome] are not an exception, For Christ (saith he) ment those words Ni fiob [...] cattonem. [except for whoredome] not as an exception, but as a negation. Soo that the sence is whosoever shall put awaie his wife, except for whoredome, that is to saie Extra co [...] [...]ornicatinis. without the cause of whoredome, & shall marrie another doth cōmit adulterie. Whereby it is affirmed that he is an adulterer who having put awaie his wife without the cause of whoredome, marrieth an­other: but nothing is sayde touching him who marrieth another, having put away his former wife for whoredome. In deede this evasion might have some collour for it if these words of Christ [except it be for Whoredome] were not an exception. But neither hath Bellarmin ought that may suffice for the proofe here of and the verie text of the scripture it selfe is soe cleare against him, that he must of necessitie give over his houlde. For the principal pillar wherewith he vnderproppeth it, is De adulteri [...] conj [...]g lib. 1 cap 9. S. Austins iudgemēt who hath so expounded it in his first booke touching adulterous marriages: Now of that treatise S. Retractat lib. [...]. cap. 57. Austin saith himselfe in his retractatiōs I have writtē two bookes touching adulterous mariages, as neere as I could according to the scriptuers being desirous to open & loose the knotts of a most difficult quests on. Which whether I have done soe that no knott is left therein, I know not; nay rather I perceave that I have not done it perfectly; and throughly, al though I have opened many creeckes thereof, as whosoever readeth with iudg­ment may discerne. S. Augustin then acknowledgeth that the­re are some wants and imperfections in that worke which they may see who reade with iudgment. And whether this that Bellarmin doth al­leage out of it, deserve not to fal within the compasse of that censure I appeale to their iudgment who have eies to see: For S. Augustin thought [Page 4] that the worde in th original of S. Math gospel, had, by the proper sig­nification of it, imported a negation rather then an exception. And [...] adulter. co [...]ng. lib. 1. cap 11. he sheweth by saying that where the Latin translation hath Nisi ob Fornicationem. [ except for whoredom] in the Grieke text it is rather read Praeter causa Fornicationis without the cause of whoredō:

Supposing belike (whether by slipp of memory or rather oversight) Parectós Lò­gon por neias.that the same words, which were used before in the fift Chapter of S. Math. Gospel to the same purpose, were used also in this place: wher as here they ei [...] my epi potneia. differ, and are wel expressed by that in the latin by which S. Austin thought they were not so wel. Houbeit, if they had been the same with the former: yet neither so might Bell. allowe his opini­on; considering that the cōmon latin translation (which Papists by their Councel of Trent are bound to stand to under payne of curse, ex­presseth Except [...] causa fornice­tionis.those likewise as a plaine exception.

Which in de [...]de agreeth to the right and natural meaning of the Parectós. particle, as [...] in the Septuagint Sam. 21. 9 [...] Regum. 3. 18 the like writers use it in like construction: Co [...] [...]5. 27. [...] even then to, whē it hath as it were a link lesse to tie it unto that meaning. Wherefore S. Austins mistaking of the worde & signification thereof is noe sufficient warrant for Bell. to ground on, that they must betaken so. As for that he addeth, that, albeit [...] [...]ei mi. Apoc. 9. 4. et. 21. 27. both these particles be taken exc [...]ptively ofte [...] times, yet may they also be taken otherwise, sith on of them is u­sed in the Revelatiō as an adversative not an exceptive [...] this maketh much lesse for proofe of his as [...]ertion. For what if it be used there as an ad­versative where the matter treated of, & the tenour of the sentence doe manifestly argue that it must be taken so? Must it therefore be taken so in this place, whereof our question is? or doth Bellar. prove by any circumstance of the text, that here it may be taken so? No, Neither saith he a worde to this purpose. Why, men ioneth he then that it may be taken otherwise, and is in the Revelaton, for an adversative parti­cle? Truly I know not unlesse it be to shew that he can wrangl [...], and plaie the cavelling sophister in seeming to gainsay & disprove his adversarie, when in truth he doth not. Or perhaps, though he durst not say for the particular, that it is takē here as an adversative, which he could not but most absurdly. Yet he thou [...]ht it policie to breed a surmise there of for the generall, that shallower conceits might imagin another sence therein, they knew not what, and they whose brasen faces should serve them, thereto, might impudently brable, that our sence is not certaine because another is possible, evē as a Iew being pressed by a Christiā with the place of [...]sa [...]. 4. 2. Gualma. Esay, Behoulde a v [...]gin shall conceive, and bring forth a Sonne should answer that the H [...]brue worde translated Virgin, Prov. 30. 19 may be taken othrwise sith that in the Proverbs it signifieth a married womā: at least one that is not a Virgin in deede though she would seeme to be [Page 5] But as the Iew cannot conclude hereof with any reason, that the word signifieth a married woman in Esay; because the thing spoken of is a straunge signe and it is not straunge for a married wommen to coceave and bring forth a Sonne: so neither can the Iesuite conclude of the former, that the particle in Math. is meāt adversatively; because the words then doe beare noe sence at all; in which sorte to thinke that any wise­man spake, were folly; that Christ the word and wisdome of God were impietie. Nay if some of Bell. schollars should say that words must be supplied to make it perfect sence, rather than their Maiester bee cast of as a wrangeler: they would be quickely inforced to pluck in this horn, or els they might chance to leape (which is worse out of the frying pan into the fire. For adversative particles import an opposition & con­trariety unto the sentence against which they are brought in. Now, the sentence is, that who so putteth away his wife & marrieth another, doth commit adulterie.

Wherefore he by consequent, committeth not adulterie who doth so for whor [...]dome: If the particle be adversative, and must have words accordingly supplied; & understood to make the sence perfect. Thus the shift & cavil which Bell. hath drawen out ef the double meaning of the Greike worde, is either ydle & beateth the aier; or if it strike any, it striketh himselfe, and giueth his cause a deadly wound. Yea that which he sought to confute, he hath confirmed thereby. For sith the worde hath onely two significations exceptive, & adversative, neither durst he say that it is vsed here as an adversative, it followeth he must graūte it to be an exceptive: so the place rightly translated in our Enhelish (agree able to the other in the 5. of Math.) exoept it be for whoredom, which as in their authenticall latin text also doth out of conitoversie betoken an exception. Having all passages therefore shutt against him for scap­ing this way, he fleeth to annother starting hole: to weet, that if the worde betaken exceptively yet may it be an exception negative.

And this (he saith) sufficeth for the maintnance of S. Aust. answer. For when it is sayd, whosoever shal put away his wife excepting the cause of whoredō and shall marry another doth commit adulterie: the cause of whoredom may be excepted, either because in that case it is not adulterie to marrie another; & this is an exception affirmative: or because nothing is presently determined touch­ing that cause, whether it be sufficient to excuse adulterie or noe; and this is an exception negative, which in that S. Aust. imbraced he did wel. I would toe God Bell. had S. Aust. modesty. Then would he be ashamed to chargs such a man wiith imbracing such whorish filth of his owne facsing, ar in distinction of negative and affirmrtive exception he doth. Fo [...] h [...]e handeleth it soe lewdely and perv [...]rsely, by calling that affirma­tive [Page 6] which in deede is negative, & by a [...]ouching that to bee negative, which is not: as if he had made a covenāt with his lips to lye, treading in the steps of those wicked wretches of whom it is written [...]. 5. 20. woe unto them▪ that say that good is evil, and evil good. For the proofe where of it is to be noted that an exception is a particular proposition cōtradictorie to a geneaall: So that if the general proposition be affirmative, the exception is negative, and if the proposition be negative contrariewise the exception is affirmative.

As for exsamples sake Exod. 22. 20. He that sacrificeth to any Gods save to the Lorde shall be destroyed saith Moses in the lawe. The proposition is affirmative, He that sacrificeth to any Gods shalbe destroyed. The exception negative.

He that sacrificeth to the Lord shall not be destroyed Mat. 10. 18. There is none good, but one, even God saith Christ in the Gospell. The proposition is ngative, There is none good. The exception affirmative. One is good even God [...], 2 [...]. 29. I would to God that all (saith Paul to Agrippa) which heare me this daye, were altogether such as I am, except these bonds. The proposition affirmative. I with that all that heare me were such as I am altogether. The exception negatiue. I wish not in bonds they were such as I am. Phil. 4. [...] No Church did cōmunicate with me in the account of giving & receiving, saving you onely sayth the same paule to the Phillippians. The Proposition negative, No Church did cōmunicate with me in the account of giving & receiving. The exception affirmative You of Phillipp [...] did.

Likewise al the rest of expositions adioyned to general propositions, though the markes and tokens of generallity sometimes lie hiddē in the Proposition, soe of denying or affirming doe in the exception: Yet it is plaine & certain that in the propositiō & exceptiō matched with it, are still of contrarie quallity, the one affirmative, if the other negative, & negative if the other affirmative. Which being so: see now the Iesuits dealing, how falsly and absurdly he speaketh against truth and reason.

For sith in Christs speach to [...]hing Diuorcement for whoredome; the proposition is affirmative [...] Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marrie an other, doth commit adulterie: it followeth that the exception which denyeth him to commit adulterie who putting away his wife for whordome, ma­rieth another, is an exception negative, but Bellarmin saith that this were an exception affirmative. Yea which is more straunge in a man learned and knowing rules of logique (But what can artes helpe when men are given over by Gods iust iudgemnt to their owne lusts and errors?) he entiteleth it an exception affirmative, even then and in the same place when and where himselfe having set it downe in the wordes goe­ing immediatlye next before, had given it the marke of a negative, thus, It is not Adulterie to marrie annother. And as no absur­ditie [Page 7] doth lightly come alone, he addeth fault to fault, saying that this is an exception negative, When no thing is presently determined touching the cause, whether it be sufficent to excuse adulterie or no. So first to denie with him was to affirme: and next, to say nothing, now is to deny, Yet there is a rule in L. Qui't [...] D. de regul [...] juris. Law that he who faith nothing, dieneth not, Belike, as they coyned vs neuw Diviniti at Rome: so they will new Lawe and new Lodgique too. Houbeit, if these principles bee allowed therein by the Iesuits authoritie, that negative is affirmative & to say nought is negati­ve: I see not but al heretikes & vngodly persons, may as wel as Iesuits, mainteyne what they list, & impudently face it out with like distincti­ons. For if an adversarie of the H. Ghost should be controuled by that wy reade to the Corinthians Cor. 2. 11. The things of God knoweth no man, but the spi­rit of God: His answer (after Bellarmins patterne) were readie, that this proveth not the spirit of God to knouw those things, because it might be a negative exception [...] importing that S. Paul wolude determine no­thing presently thereof. If one who dispaired of the mercie of God through concience of his sine, & trespasses should be put in minde of Christs speach to sinners Luc. 1 [...]. 3. Yee shall all perish except yee repent: He migt re­plie thereto that the exception is negative; a [...]d this though not in the former poynt, yet here were true; but to make it serve his humour. He must expounde it with Bellarmin, that Christ doth not determin what shall become of the repentat. If a vsurer should be toulde that he Levi [...]. [...]4. 37. is for bidden to Give forth vpon Vsurie, [...]ze. 18. 13. or to take encrease: & a theefe that he is Epes. 28.commanded To labour & woorke, & The. [...], 12. so to eate his owne breade; they might (if they had learned to imitate Bellarmin) de [...]end their trades both, the one by affirming, that to forbidd a thing is to say nothing of it, the o­ther, that to commande betokeneth to forbid. In a worde, Whatsoever opiniō were reproved as false, or action as wicked, out of the scriptures denouncing death eternall and paynes of hell thereto▪ the seduced and disobedient might shift the scriptures of, by glosing thus vpon them, that false is true & wicked holy: life ment by death, & heaven, by hell. Or if the Papists them-selves would condemned this kinde of distin­guishing and expounding places, as sencelesse and shamelesse: then let them give the same sentence of Bellarmins that neg [...]tive is afirma­tive, and to say nothing is to denie; Which whether they doe, or not I wil, with the consēt and liking (I doubt not) of all indifferent iudges, and Godly minded m [...]n who love the truth and not contencion, con­clude, that these lying gloses of the [...]esuits doe not become a Christian. And seeing it is proved that an exception negative is not a preteriti­on or passing over a thing in silence (which if Christ had ment, hee could have done with fitt words, as wise men are wont) but a flat [Page 8] denying of that in on case, which the propositiō affirmeth in all others it remayn [...]th that Christ having excepted out of his generall speech thē who for whoredome put away their wives, denieth that in them, which in all others he affirmeth; and thereby teacheth vs that the man who putting away his wife for that cause, marrieth another, doth not com­mit adulterie.

The next trick of Sophistrie, whereto as to a shelter our adversaries betake them, is that the exception ought to be restreined to the former branche of putting away the wife onely. To the which intent, they say that there are some words wanting in the text which must be supplied and perfected thus; Whosoever shall put away his wife (which is not lawfull except it bee for whoredome) and marrieth another, doth commit adulterie. This devise doth Bell. allowe of as probable, though not like the foresayd two of negation and negative exception. But our English Pamphletter preferreth it before all. And surely if it were lawfull to foist in these words which is not lawfull: the Pamphletter might seeme to have shewed greater skill herein then Bellarmin. But men of vnderstanding & iudg­mēt doe knowe that this were a ready way to make the scripture a nose of waxe and leaden rule (as Hierat. lib. 3. Cap. 3. Pighuis doth blasphemously tearme it) if every one may adde not what the circu [...]stances and matter of the text sheweth to bee wāting, but what himself listeth to frame such sense ther of as pleaseth his conceit and fansie. The sundrie interlasings of words by sundry authors into this very place and the wrestings of it thereby to sundry senses may (to go noe further) sufficiently discover the fault & inconvenience of that kinde of dealing.

For Quaest 76. [...] Mat. 19. the Bishop of Auila supplieth it in this manner who so putteth a­way his wifs, except it bee for whordome, though he marrie not another, commit­teth adulterie, and whoso putteth her away in whatsoever sorte▪ if he marrie an­other, doth commit adulterie. Frei [...]r Alphonsus Alphonsia Castro advers h [...]r lib 11. tit Nuptiae. checketh and control­leth this interpretation, partly as too violent, for thrusting in so many words; partly as vntrue, for the former braun, h [...]of it: sith hee who put­teth away his wife, not for whoredome, although he cause her to commit adulterie, yet doth not himselfe commit it, vnlesse hee marrie another. Where­vpon the Frier would have it thus supplied rather. Whoso putteth away his wife, not for other cause but for whoredome, and marrieth another, doth commit adulterie. But this though it have not soe many words added, as the Bishop of Auilas, yet in truth it is more violently forced against the na­turall meaning & drift of the text. For by adding these words Not for other cause, his purpose is to say, that whoso putteth away his wife for noe cause bu [...] for whoredome yet committeth adulterie, if hee marrie an­other; much more if hee marrie having put away his wife for any other [Page 9] cause. And so is Christs speach in effect made cleane contrarie to that which his owne words doe give: he saying Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it befor whoredom: and the Frier [...]orceing him to say Whosoe ver shall put a away his wife although it be for whoredom, and shall marrie ano­ther, doth commit adulterie. In Matt. 19. Nicolas of Lira beeing as in time more aun­cient then the frier, soe more sincere and single in handeling the scrip­ture, saith that other words must be interposed to the supplying of it thus. Whosever putteth away his wife except it be for [...]whordom, sinneth, and doth agaiast the lawe of marriage; and whoso marrieth another doth commit ad­ulterie. Wherein though he deale lesse vyolently with the text, then doe the frier and the Bishop: yet he offendeth also in their licentious humour of adding to the scripture, where nothing was wanting, & making it ther by to speake that which he thinketh, wheras he should have learned to thinke that which it speaketh. Yea Bell, himselfe acknowledgeth that they all were overseene herein, albeeit censuring them with gentler words, as he is wont his favorits and freinds For the explications (saith he) which the Bishop of Auila, Alphonsus a Castro and others have de­vised, are not so probable.

But why should these be noted by him as improbable, yea denyed unworthy the rehersal, and that of his owne, though adding in the like sorte, which is not lawful, be allowed as probable, yea magnified as most true by the pamphletter? The reason which they both, or rather which Bell.. for the pamphletter doth no more here but Englishe him, as neither els where for the most parte, though he bragg not thereof: the reasons then which Bell. doth presse out of the text to breed a per­suasion in his credulous schollars that this interposition is probable & likely, are pressed indeed according to the proverb The wringing of the nose causeth bloode to com out. For he saith that Christ did not place the exception after those words And shal marry another, but streight af­ter those whosoever shall put away and likewise when he added, p [...]o. 30. 3 and whos [...] marrieth her that is put away committeth a [...]lterie he did not ioyne thereto, Except it be for whoredom: to the intent that be might shewe that the cause of whoredom doth onely make the putting away to be lawfull, & not the celebrating of a newe marriage too. And how doth he prove that Christ did so place the exception in the former clause to this intent? or to this intent did omit it in the latter? Nay he proveth it not; it is but his cōiecture, like a sicke mans dreame. Vnlesse this goe for a proofe, that Christ did not so place it before without cause, nor omit it afterwarde without cause. Which if he meant it should, it was for want of a better. For Christ did not these things without cause I graunt Therefore he did them for this cause; it foloweth not. S. Paule, having occasion to cite a place of scriptuere [Page 10] doth set it downe thus Com yee out from among thē, 2 cor. 6. 17. & seperate your selves saith the Lorde, and touch no unclean thing. Herein he hath placed the wordes saith the Lord, not after touch noe unclean thing, but after seperate your selves. This did he not without cause, What? for this cause therefore that he might restraine the words, saith the Lord, to the former braunch as not pertaining to the latter also? No for it appeareth by the Esay. 52. 13 pro­phet Esay that they belong to both. It is to be thought then, that the spirit of God who doth nothing without cause, did move Paule for some cause to place them soe. Perhaps for perspicuitye & comodious­nesse of giving other men therby to understaude the rather that both the wordes goeing before, & cōming after were quallified with saith the Lord▪ which is to be likewise thought of the exceptiō placed by our Sa­viour betweē the two braunches of his speech. And that with so much greater reason in my iudgment because if he had placed it after the la­ter And shall marry another, the words Ep [...]ornela except for whoredom might have seemed to signifiie that it were lawful for a man having put away his wife for any cause to marrie another [...] if hee could not conteine; as it is writtē Diatis porne [...] 7. 2 Because of whoredom let everie man have his wife where now, the exception being set before (the pharises whose question Christ therein did answer) could gather no such poysō out of his words: to feed their error: but they must needs accknowledg this to be his doctrine, that a man may not put away his wife for every cause, & marrie another, but for whoredom onely. As for Christs omitting of the exceptiō afterwrd Bell, himselfe wil quickly see there might be another cause thereof, if he considder how S. Paul repeating this doctrine of Christ doth wholly omitt the exception, which neverthelesse must needs be supplyed & un­derstoode. For why doth S. Paul say that to married persons, 1 Co [...]. 7. 10 the Lord [...] gave cōmandement; Let not the wife departe from her husband, & let not the husband put awaie his wife, without adding to either parte, except it be for woredom which the Lord did add? Bell. greatest Tho Aquin [...] [...]eo [...]. 7. Lect. 2. Doctor saith hee o­mitted it Because it was very well knowen most notorius. If then Paul had reason to omitt it wholly because it was so wel knowē: Hoe much more iustly might Christ in parte omitt it for the same cause, having mencioned it imediatly before, & made it knowē thereby? Cheefly see­ing that as he framed his speech to mens undestāding, so did he follow the cōmen use of men therein. And if I should say upon the like occasiō whosoever draweth his sword, except he be a magistrate, & killeth a man com­miteteth murder; and whosoever abbetth him that killeth a man committeth murder: what man offence and reason would not thinke I ment the exception set downe in the former sentence touching māqellers pertein­eth to the later of there abbetters also, and uttered once must serve for [Page 11] both? yea even in the former too, who would not thinke that my meaning were the exceptiō should reach, unto both the braunches of drawing the sword, & killing a man; not to be abridged & tyed up unto the first, as if I had said, whosoever draweth his sword (Which none may doe except he be a magistrate) and killeth a man, comitteth murder? yet one who were disposed to play the Iesuits parte, Matt. 26. 12. might thus expound my speech, and say I taught thereby that Peter in deede was iustly repro­ved for drawing his sword though, he killed not: But magistrates are authorized to draw it, and noe more, not to put men, to death, and Rom. 13. 4. to take vengeannce on him that doth evill. Neither should he doe mee greater wrong▪ there in by making mee to speake cōtrarie to scripture, then Bellarmin doth Christ by the like depraving of the like sentence. But if all these reasons will not persuade his scholars, that in Christs speach the exception of whoredome is to bee extended to both the points iointly of putting away & marrying: and that Bell. adding these words, which is not lawfull, did vnlawfully sow a patch of humaine raggs to the whole garment of Gods most preciōs word: behold their owne doctrine allowed and established by the Councel of Trent, shall force them, will they, nill they to see it & acknowledg it. For if the ex­ception bee so tyed onely to the former point: Then a man may not putt away his wife for any cause save for whoredome, no not from bed and boord, as they tearme it, that is, from mutuall companie & society of life, self. 24. [...]. [...] although he marry not another. But the Councel of Trent pro­nounceth & defineth, that there are many causes, for the which a man may put away his wife from bed and board, wherefore the Papists (no remedie) must graunt that the exception cannot so bee tyed vnto the former point onely. And therefore whereas Bell. sayeth further that he thinketh it is [...]n [...] dist. 35. quaest an act 5 adult. S. Thomas of Aquines opinion that Christs words should bee expounded so: and in Mat. 19. Ierom seemeth some what to bee of the same minde: the Papists peradventure wil bee faine to say that Bellarmin was deceived herein. For els not onelie Ierom of whom they reckon lesse but Kin. 3. 18 Tho­mas of Aquine the sainct of Saincts & chiefest light of the Church of Rome shalbe convinced of errour, even by the Councell of Trents verdict.

And these consideracions doe likewise stopp the passage of another shift, which is coosin german to the last intreated of, & Bell. prayseth it alike. To weete that the words committeth adulterie, must be supplied & un­derstood in the former parte of Christs sentence thus: Whosoever putteth away his wife, except it be for whoredome, committeth adulterie, & whoso marrieth another committeth adulterie. Kin. 3. 18. Salomon did wisely iudg that shee was not the mo­ther of the childe who would have it devided; but shee who desired it might bee saved entier.

[Page 12] Surely the Iesuite hath not those bowels of kinde and loving affection to wards Christs sentence that a Christian should. who can finde in his heart to have it devided; & of one living body, namely, Whoesoever put­teth away his wife, except it bee for whoredome and, marrieth another, commiteth adulterie, made as it were two peeces of a dead carkas, the first, whosoever putteth away his wife except it bee for woredome, commiteth adulterie, the secōd whoso maraieth another cōmiteth adulterie. Which dealing, beside the incōvenience of making the s [...]rpitn ere a nose of waxe & leaden rule, if men may add what pleaseth them, specially if they may mangle senteces, & chop them in sundry parts: but beside this mischief here it hath a greater, that Christ most true and holly, is made thereby to speake an un­trueth. For a man may put away his wife for other cause, then for whoredom, and yet not commit adulerie himselfe. Yes he committ­eth it (saith Bell in his wifes adulterie, whereof he was the cause by putting her uniustly away. But I replie that it is one thing to cause his wife to cō mit it, another to cōmit it him selfe. And Christ when he was mynded to note these several faults, did it with several words Poiei autin moichastai & moicharai. expressing them accordingly. Moreover, undrstanding the tearme, to put away, not as Apolve in Lelusai. 1 cor. 7 27. the force thereof doth yeeld, & Christ tooke it for the loosing of the band of marriage, but for a seperation from bed and boord onely, as Bell. understandeth it: He cannot allowe the sentēce which he fathereth on Christ, though so expounded, without either condemning of the Trent Councel, er beeing himselfe condemned by it.

For if whosoever seperateth his wife from him, but for whoredome, doth commit adulterie in causing her to commit it: Then is it a sinne to seperate her for any cause save for whoredome. Extra tit. de divoti [...]s. If it be a sinne the Church of Rome erreth in houlding & decreeing that shee may bee seperated for sundry other causes. But whosoever saith that the Church erreth herein, is accursed by the Councel of Sess. 24. can. 28. Trent. The Councel of Trent therefore doth consequently curse Bellarm. if he say that Christ spake his words in that sence, in which he construeth them. And doth it not curse Lib. c [...]ntra Adimant [...], ca. 3 in Mat. 19. [...] Austin also & ^c Theophilact, whom Bell. alleageth as saying the same? at least it declareth that in the Councels iudgment, the fa­thers missexpounded the Scriptures sometimes, even those verrye pla­ces on which the Papists cite them as sounde interpreters of the Scripture. Now the speech of Christ being cleared & saved entier from all cauils, the meaning thereof is plaine, as I have shewed; that he who ha­ving put away his wife for whoredō marrieth anothetr cōmitteth not adulterie. For so much importeth the exceptō negative of the cause of whoredō, opposed to the general affirmative propositiō, wherwith our Saviour answered the questiō of the pharisies touching divocremēts u­sed [Page 13] by the Iewes, who putting awaye there wives for any cause did marrie others.

The onely reasō of adversaries remayning to bee answered, stood vppon, & vrged by them as moste effectuall, & forcible to the contrarie, is an example of like sentences: from which, sith the like conclusiō (say they) cannot be inferred, as wee in ferre of this, the inferrence of this is faultye. And faultie (I graunt) they might esteeme it iustly if the like cō clusions coulde not bee drawen from the like sentences.

But lett the examples, which they bring for poofe here of be troughly sifted▪ & it will appeare that either the sentences are vnlike, or the like conclusions may bee inferred of them. For of three sentences propo­sed to this end, the first is out of Scripture in S, Iames Epistle Iames. 4. 7 To him that knoweth how to doe well, and doth it not, to him there is sinn. A sentence though in shewe vnlike to that of Christs, for the proposition & exception both▪ yet having in deede the force of the like, if it be thus resolved, To him that doth not well, except hee know not how to doe well there is sinn. And why may it not be concluded here of, that there is no sinn to him, who knoweth not how to doe well, & doth it not? because there are sinns of ignoraunce (saith Bellarmin) & he who knoweth not how to doe well, & doth it not, sinneth, though lesse then hee that offendeth wittingly. I kouw not whether this be a sinne of ignoraunce in Bellarmin, or not, that when he should say (if he will check the cōclusion) there is sinne to ignorant he saith (as if that were all one) the ignoraunt sinneth, Betwene which two things there is a great difference in S. Iames his meauing. For S. Iames in the se words A marrie au to estin. there is sinne to him, doth speake emphatically, & noteth in that man the same that our saviour did in the Pharisies, when (because they boasted of their sight & knowledg) Ioh. 9. 21 Ei [...]hete a m [...] ­tiau. he tould thē that they 8 had sinne: meaning by this Pharse, as himself expoundeth it, that their sin­ne remained, that is to say, continued and stoodt firme & setled. The custome of the Greeke tougue wherein S. Iames wrote doth geve this Phrase that sense, as also the Syriaque (the lauguage vsed by Christ) trāslating Christs words after the same manner: & the matter treated of doth ar­gue that he meant not generally of sinue, Luc 12. 4 [...] but of sinne being & cleaving to a man in speciall & pecular sort. For as ^f the servant that knew his Maisters will, and did not according to it, shalbe beaten with many strips: but he that knewe it not, & yet did cōmit things worthy of strips, shal be beaten with fewe. Likewise in transgressiō whereūto the punishment answereth, hee that knoweth how to doe wel, & doth it not, sinne is to him, he hath it, he offend­eth notably: But he that knoweth not how to doe wel, & doth evil hath not sinne sticking to him, his sinne remaineth not, he sinneth not so gretly & greevously.

Wherfore whē Bell draweth out of that sentence such a cōclusiō as if [Page 14] S, Iames in saying there is sinne to him, had simply meant, he sinneth; Bellarmin mistaketh the meaning of the sentence; which if the text it self cannot in forme him, T [...]o Aquin Hugh Card et. Guillia [...]d in Iacob. 4. his doctors well considered may. But take the right meaning & the conclusion wil be sound. Whoesoever doth not good & honest things, except it be of ignoraunce, he sinneth desperatelie & mainely. Therefore whoso of ignorance ommitteth to doe them, he sinneth not desperately. And thus our conclusion drawen from Christs sentence is rather confirmed thē preiudiced by this example, Yea let evē S. De adult. coujug lib. 1. cap. 9. Austin, whose authoritie Bellarmin doth ground on here in, be diligently marked: & him­self in matching these sentences together bewrayeth an oversight, which being corrected will helpe the truth with light & strength, For to make the one of thē like the other, hee is faine to fashion Christs speech in this sort: To him who putteth away his wife without the cause of whoredo­me & marrieth another Moehat [...]o est i [...]li to him there is the cry me of committing adulterie.

Now Christ hath not Moi [...] he [...] a [...] to [...]. these words of emphaticall propertie, and strong signification, whereby he might teach, as S, Augustin, gathereth, that whosoever putteth away his wife for any cause, save for whoredome, and marrieth another, committeth adulterie in an high degree: and so imply by consequence, [...] that who soe marrieth another, though having put away his former wife for whoredome, yet committeth adulterie too, a lesse adulterie.

But that which Christ saith is simple flatt, absolute; he committeth ad­ulterie. And therefore as it may be inferred out of S. Iames, that he who ommitteth the doing of good through ignoraunce, sinneth not with a loftie hand in resolute stifnes of an hardned heart: Soe conclude wee rightly out of Christs wordes that hee who having put away his wife for whoredome, marrieth another, committeth not adulterie in any degree at all.

The first sentence then alleaged by S. Austin & after him pressed by our adversaries out of the scripturs, is soe farr from disprooving, that it prooueth rather the like conclusions from the like sentences. The se­conde and thirde are out of theire owne braynes: The one of Bell. for­ging, the other of the Pamphletters; Bellarmins, Hee that stealeth, except it bee for neede, siuneth. The Phampletters. Hee that maketh a lye, except it be for a Vauntage d [...]th wilfully sinn. Where of they say it were a wrong and badd inferrence, That hee sinneth not, who stealeth for neede: and hee wh [...] lyeth for a Vauntage, sinneth not wilfully. A badd inferrence indeed. But the fault there of is, in that these sentences are not like to Christs, For Christs is from Heaven, full of truth and wisdome: These ofmen, fond, and imply vntruth, They might have disputed as fitly to their purpose, and prooved it as forcibly, if they had vsed this example: All [Page 15] foure-footed beasts except Apes & Monkeis are d [...]voyd of reason. or this All longeared Creatures except asses are beasts. For hereof it could not be concluded iustly that Asses are not beasts, & Apes are not devoyd of reasō. No▪ But this perhaps might bee concluded iustly, that hee had not much reason, nor was farre from a beast that would make such sentences. Con­sidering that all men who write or speake with reason, meane that to be denied in the perticular which they doe except from a general affirmed And therefore sith he sinneth who stealeth pro. [...] though for neede, as the wise man sheweth, and hee that lieth for a vauntage doth willfully sinne, yea the more willfully somtymes, because for a vauntage, as when the scribs belyed Christ: It were a verie fond and witlesse speech to say, that Whosoever stealeth, except it bee for neede, sinneth: And whosoever lyeth except it bee for a vauntage doth wilfully sinne. Wherefore these sentences are no more like to Christs, them copper is to gould, or wormewood to the bread of Heaven.

Neither shall they ever finde any sentēce like to his indeede, of which the like conclusion may not be inferred, as we inferre of that. And soe the maine ground of my principall reaso proposed in the beginning, remayneth sure & clearly prooved; that he by Christs sentence committeth not adulterie, who having put away his wife for whoredōe mar­rieth another. Whereof seeīg it followeth necessarely, that he who hath put away his wife for whoredome, may lawfully marrie another, as I there declared: it followeth by the like necessity, of cōsequence, that the popish doctrine mainteined by our adversaries denying the same, i [...] contrarie to the schriptuere and doth gainsay the truth delivered by the Sonne of God.

SAinct Austin in his learned bookes of Christian Doctrine, wherin he geves rules how to finde the right & true sence of Scriptur­es, doth wel De doctr. Christ li [...]b. 2. cap. 9. advise the faithful, First to search & marke those things which are set downe in the Scriptures plainely, and then to goe in hande with sifting & discussing of the darke places: that the darker speaches may be [...] made evident by Patterns & examples of the more plaine & manifest, & the re­cords of certaine & undoubted sentences may take away doubt of the uncertaine.

This wholesome & iudicious Counsaile of S, Austin if our adversa­ries had bin as careful to follow, as they are willing to shew the follow him in these things which he hath written lesse advisedly: they would not have alleadged & urged the places of Scripture, which they doc a­gainst the poynt of doctrine hitherto prooved out of the 19. of S. Mathew. For Christ in that place doth open the matter & decide the ques­tion most plainely & fully: of purpose answering the Pharises. In others, either it is not handled of of purpose, but incidetly touched, or in generallity set downe more briefly, & soe more darkely & obscurely.

Wherefore if any of the other places had seemed unto thē to raise a scruple, and shewe of some repugnacie: they should have taken paines to explaine & level it by that in S. Math. the darker by the clearer, the brieffer by the larger, the uncertein & ambigguous by the undoubted & certeine. But seeing they have chosen to follow S. Austins oversights rather then his best advises in like sorte as Furrius, an orator of Rome did imitate Fimbria whose force of speech and arguements he attained not to, but pronounced broadlye & set his mouth awry like him: wee must say of them as Christ of the Phareses [...] Let them alone, thy are blind leaders of the blind: and our selves endevour to follow S. Austin in that he followed Christ, who cleared the Cicero lib. 2 deorat. darker place of Moses by mat 15. 14. the plainer word & ordinance of God, Matt 19 7 The which if we doe, we shall (by Gods grace) easily percieve, vers. 4. et 8. that none of al the places aleadged by our adversaris, doth make against the doctrine alredy proved & cōcluded.

For the first of them is in the 5. of Math. Whosoever shal put away his wife, except it he for whoredome, doth cause her to commit adultery, And whoso marrieth her that input away doth commit adultery, These words (saith Bell. and looke what Bell. saith the, the pamphletter saith with him, so that [Page 17] one of their names may serve for both (and reason Bellarmin have the honour) These words. And whose marrieth her that is put away doth com­mit adtltery, must be either generally taken without exception, or with the excep­tion, Except it be for whoredom. If generally, then he who marrieth her that is put away, even for whoredom too doth commit adultery, The hand then marriage is not dissolved and loosed by her putting away: but company debarred onely, For he that marrieth her should not commit adulterie vnlesse shee were bound yet to her former husbād. And thus farr Bellarmin sayth well: but superfluously. For the words may not be generaly taken, sith they have relation to the former senten [...]e, whereto they are coupelld; and that sentence speaketh of her which is pnt away except for whordom, Their meaniug then must needs be that he who marrieth her which is so put away doth commit adulterie. Neither could Bell. be ignorant hereof, or doubt with any likelyhoode, but that this is our iudgmēt, & would be our answ [...]r. Wherefore his two forked dispute about the words, was aflourish onely to make us afrayde: as if hee fought with a two hande sword, which would kill al that came in his way But now he goeth fore warde upon his enemies pike, an saieth about him on the other side. If the words must be taken with the exception: then he that marrieth a whore put away from her husband, cōmitteth not adulterie, & consequently the whore is in better case then the innocent & chast, For the whore is free & may be married, whereas the innocent that is uniustly put away, can neither have her former husband, nor marrie another, But this most absurd, that the lawe of Christ being most iust, would have her to be in better case & state, that is iustly put away, then her that is uniustly. For answer unto which reason of Bell. I would spurr him a question, whether by the Popes law, which forbiddeth a man that Extra de bi­gan [...]s cap. [...]. hath been twise married, or [...] de big [...] ­u [...]is. hath married a widow, to take holly orders & admitteth on thereto that hath kept or happely keepeth many concubines, a whormōger be in better case thē an honest man: and if a whoremoger be so by the Popes lawe, wheth­er we ought to c Qui [...] [...]irc [...] [...] iugde that this is most absurd or noe. Here if he should answer that the Popes lawe is not most iust & therefor noe marvel if it have some such things as were moste absurd to be imagined by Christs law: I must ackowledge he spake reason. Wel, I would spurr him thē another question, whether he thinke that I ame in better case thē any Iesuit, yea, then the best of them all. Phy he will answer, there is noe comparison. The best? nay the worst of them is in better case then I am: Ext [...] c. [...] in imu [...], Qui cler [...]ci vel. vo [...]en [...]e [...] Yet I may marrie if I list: and none of them may because of their vowe (Belike this Vow-Doctrine was not establishede by the lawe of Christ, Which is moste iuste, but by the popes lawe rather. Or it is most absurde that a poore Christiane shoulde hee [Page 18] in better case, Corn Taci­ [...]us Annal lip 4 Dio. ib. 7 then the provdest Iesuit. But heere peradventure the man will say rather that wee are H [...]retiqu [...]s, and they Catholiques, and the meanest Catholique is in better case, even for his faiths sake, then any Heretique watsoever: which if he doe as it is likely, neither can hee say ought with probability but to this effect, then hath hee confuted and overthrowen his argument, For by this answere hee cannot chuse but graunt that the simplest woman being put away vniustly from her hus­band is in better case for her chastities sake. though shee may not marrie, theu watsoever whore that may. And I hope hee will not say that the stewes and cuttizans at Rome are in better case then honest mat­rons there divorced from their husbands. Yet may none of these, while their husbans live bee ioyned to others, whereas the curtizaus are free to marrie whom they will, if any will marrie them who are soe free. Howbeit, least any place af cavelling be left him, and of pre­tending a differente betweene those, who having had the use of mar­riage lose the benefit of it, and those who lose it not having never had it: I wil set before him a plaine demonstratipn thereof in married per­sons. Sianus (as the Romaine Historie recordeth) did put away his wife Aipicata uiustly: therby to winne the rather the favour of Livia, which was the wife of Drusus. Livia being carried a waie with the wicked intisemēts of Sianus was not only nought of her body with him, but cōsēted also to make away her husbād Drusus with poison. Now let Bell. tel us whether of these two were in bettir case Apicata or Livia; Lovia the adulteresse and murderesse of her husband, beeing free to marry, or chaft Apicata being bounde to live solitarie. If he say Livia should have ben put to death by the Lege Pom­peia de par [...]i­cidis Romaine law because of her murdnr & thē had shee not bē in better case thē Apecata for liberty to marrie: I reply that likewise by the law of Moses the womā whō Christ speaketh of, should have beē put to death, because of her adultery, & so the doubt here ceased Iev [...] 20. 10.too. But the law of Moses being left vnexe [...]uted on the adulterous woman, as the Romain was for the tyme of Livia; let Bellarmin answer to the poynt, not as of Livia onely, but of any whor that hath wrought her husbāds death, and for want of proofe, or through the Magistrats fault is suffered to live, whether shee bee in better case then an honest chast, religious matron, that is put away from her husband vnjustly.

Which if hee dare not saye, Dent. 28. 15 considderinge one the one si­dē the plagues that in this life, and Revel, 21. 8 in the life to come are layd vp for such miscreants, on the other the blessed [...] Tim. 4. 8 promises of them both as­sured to the Godly: then hee hath noe refuge, but hee must needs con­fesse that his argument was fond. For the murdering whore is not an aduteresse by the law of Christ, though shee take another man her [Page 19] husband being dead: and yet the chast Matrone were an adulteresse if shee married while her husband liveth, [...]Nam Per, mearia libeia ester nube [...]e Potest inno­cens autem in inste [...]missa, ne [...] p [...]i [...]m­virium habere Potest, hec al­teri [...]ubere who hath uniustly put her a­way. Wherein this notwithstanding is to be weighed that a chaste wo­mans case is not soe hard in comparson of the whores.

No, Not for marriage neither, as Bellarmin by cunning of speeche woulde make it seeme to countenauce therewith his reason, For he srameth his words soo, as if the chast had no possibility of remedy at all, neither by having her former husbād, nor by marrying another: & the refore were in worse case thē the whore who is free to marrie, whereas the truth is, that by Christs lawe she not Cor. [...]. ver 11 onely may but vers, 4 ought to have her former husband.

And why should not shee be as likely to recover her husbands good will, to whom shee hadd bene faithfull: as a faythlesse whore and infa­mous strumpett to get a newe husband?

Chiefly seing that it is to be presumed they loved ech other when they married: Teren [...]. Andt. and experiēce sheweth that Failing out of Lovers is a rene­wing of love. But if trough the frowardnes of men on the one side, and foolishnes on the other, the chaste wife could hardly reconcile her husdād, the whore get easily a match it fuffi [...]eth that the law of Christ cannot bee justly char [...]d with absurdity, though it doe enlarg the vnchast and lewd in some outward thing, in which it enlargeth not the chast, Ier. 1 [...] 1. No more then the providence of God may be controlled and noted of iniquity though psal 73 5. the evil & wi [...]ked enioy certaine earthly blessings in this life, which are not graunted the vpright & godly. Wherefore the first place of Scripture out of S. Mathew and forced by Bell. with his Di [...]emmal [...] logismus. horned argument (as the Logitions tearme it) doth serve him as much to annoy our cause; as the Iron hornes made in A [...]habs favour by Zedechiah the falce prophet did stand him in stead to push & consume the hoste of the Aramiters.

The second place is written in the tenth of Marke. Mark 10. 1 [...]. Who so putteth a­way his wife aud marrieth another committeth adulterie agaynst her: and if a woman put away her husband, & be married to another shee committeth adulterie. The like whereof is also in the sixtenth of Luke Luk 16. 18 whosoever putte [...]th away his wife and marrieth another committeth adultery: & whoesoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband, commiteth adultery. These words (sayth Bellarmin) doe teach generally that marriage contracted & perfected betweene the faithfull, is never soe dissolved that they maye lawfully ioynin other wedlocke. And whereas wee answer that these general sentences are to be expounded with a saving of the exceptiō mentioned in Mathew, because one Evanghelist doth add oftentymes that another ommitteth; Mat. 19 9. and Mathew els where contrary vnto Marke & Luke, which (sith they al [Page 20] wrote as they were moved by the holy-spirit of truth) is impossibel: Bell: replieth that the Evangelists in deed omit or add somewhat now and than, which other Evangelists have not omitted or added; but they doe never omit in such sort that the sentence is made false. A strange kind of speech, As if all generall sentences were false from the which some speciality, though not expressed in the same place, yet by conference with others, is understood to be expressed. Sure the Ci­vill Lawe which in learned mens opinons hath much truth, will then bestained fowlly with untruths & lyes. For how many sentences & rules set downe in it with full & generall tearmes, whereof not withstā ding there is none Lomm [...]t definitio D. de regul juris lightly but suffereth an exception. The Canon law also (whose credit & authority. Bellarmin must tender, hewsoever he doe the Civill▪ hath store of such axioms, and Eodtitin Sext [...] General pe [...] Speciem derogatur [...] Dig [...] in tot [...] jure. teacheth accordingly That a perticulaer doth derogate from the generall. But what speake I of mēs lawes? In the scripture it selfe Iob saith that Iob. 20 7. the hypocrite shall perish for ever, like the dung and David, that the psal. 9 17 wicked shal turne into hell, all na­tions that forget God, & Salomon that Prov. 1 [...]. 5 Everie proud harted man is an ab­omination to the Lorde, though hand ioyne in hand he shall not be unpunished. Luk. 13. 3. These sentences of Iob & David & Salomon, Esay. 1 et 55. 7. Luk. 3, 8 Act. [...], 18. are true in the beliefe of Christians; yet forasmuch as they must be understood with an excep­tion, according to the Doctrine of Christ and his servants, saing unto sinners Except ye repent Ye shal al perish: in the Iesuits iudgement they are made false. And Ionas semblably, when he preached to the Ninivits Ionas. 3. 4 yet forty daies, and Ninive shalbe overthrowen, acused them with an untruth: though learned men doe finde a truth in his speech, as to be thus takē that Niniveh should be overthrowen except it repented. Aben Ezra­ [...] Ier. 1 [...]. 7 Mic Ly [...]anus. 10. Ferus. [...]tem, et [...]n. [...] [...]onam. Or if Bellarmin also acknowledg the same, which he may not choose, unlesse of a Iesuit he wil becom a Iulian, and quite renounce the Christian faith: hen acknowledgeth he that he plaieth the parte of a gui [...]ful Sophister or a malicious Rethorician, in signifinge that the sentence of Christ is made false, if it be expounded and understoode with an exceptiō other where expressed. And with all by consequence he acknowledgeth farther, that it is an idle and brainsick amplification which hereuppō he lavish­eth out Iesuit like and vainely mispendeth paines & times about it, by saying that els (if the sentence forsooth were false) the Evangelists had dece [...] ­ved men to whom they delivered their Gospells making no mentnon of other E­vangelists and that when Marke wrote his Gospel at Rome receved by the preac­hing of Peter, hee did not send the Romaines backe to Mathews gospel, as to a commentary: Nay if Mathews gospel hadd bene then at Rome: in the hand of the faytfuull, it may be wel thought that Marke whould not have written, and that Marke wrote not to add ought to Mathew, as Iohn did afterward, but [Page 21] onely that the Romaines might the better remember that which Peter taught: For lib. cap [...] Irenaee lib. 2. hist. cap. 15. Eusebius aud [...]lib, de viris [...] Iustribus in Marco. Ierom geve this cause; and that Luke wrote his Gospel for those nations to whom Paul had preached, and vnto whom the booke of Mathew and Marke were not yet come, but certayue false writtings of False Euangelists onely: as Luc. 1. 1 himself sheweth briefly, and it is more clearly gathe­red out of Commen in Luc cap. 1. Ambrose, lib [...]. hist cap. 24. Eusebius and lib. de viri [...] il­lustribus i [...] Luca. Ierom.

And in conclusion, that the things therefore which Marke and Luke say, must bee ahsolutely true, & not depend of Mathews words, vnlesse our mea­ning be that they were deceived, who did read Marke or Luk without Mathew For by this reason of Bellarmin the words of Iob, David, Salomon and Ionas, must bee absolutely true, & not depend of Christs words in Luke or by Esay: vnles our meaning bee, that they were deceived, who read the Psalmes of David or Salomons proverbs, or heard Iob or Ionas speake without Christ, which likewise might receive a gay shewe by saying that els (if these sentences were false) these holy m [...]n had deceived them to who they spake or wrote, making noe mention of other holy teachers: aud that when Iob, and David, and Salomon, and Ionas did either write or speake, they did not put men ouer vnto Luke or Esay as to a comen­tarie; Nay Iobs words were vttered, before either of them, or any of Christs p [...]n-mē of the whole Scripture wrote, as Origen in Iob lib 5. Athanas in [...]y nops sacr. script. August. de civitat. Dei lib 18 cap, 47, Theodorer in Ier. Quaest. 92 Chrysost poly chron. sundry of the Fathers doe probably teach: and Ionas. 4. 5. Ionas did looke that Niniveh should be over­throwen according to his absolute speech, so farre was he of from sending the Ninivites to such as specifie the exception, besides that, had he sent them, whither should they have gone, who neither knewe the Scrip­tures, and 2 King 14. 25 lived before the tyme of Luke and Esay both? David too, & Salomon, were their auncients farre and ech did fett forth the one his Psalmes, the other his Proverbs (even those which they did writ) not all at once but by partes; and partly Psa. 9. 18. 30. 51. et. Prov. 10 1. et. 2 [...]. [...]et. 31 1. their owne titles, and 2 Chron. [...]6. 17. 1 K [...]n 4. 31 other Scriptures argue, partly Synops. Sacr Script. Athanasius Argum in psalm David Theodoret, and comment, in psalm prae­fat Bede signifie: neither did Luke or Esay write to ad ought to the Psalmes or Proverbs, or to the words of Iob or Ionas, as In the boo­kes of Chroni­cles. Ezra did to the booke of Kings; But Esay to publish onely his owne Prophecie. and the storie touching it, Luke the Gospel of Christ, and Acts of the Apostles. Here were a trim­me tale, which might be very forcible with a man forlorne, like Iudas Isoariot, to perswade him, that the sentences of Iob of David, of Salomon, of Ionas concerning the distruction of hypocrits and all the wicked, are not to bee expounded out of Luke or Esay, with an exception of Re­pentance. Yea, this should of reason heve greater force and weight then Bellarmins of the same spinning. For he sayth that Marke did not write his Gospell to add ought to Mathew. Which thing beeing graun­ted, yet Marke not withstanding might be expounded by Mathew, [Page 22] and soe much the rather, Mathew having specified an exception, that Marke omitteth: as [...]. Regula est D. be reg. [...]rip. [...] the Lawiers teach that the it Generall rules were not written to add ought vnto the former, yet must bee expounded with the exceptions touched in the former Lawes. But in the spieder­webb that I have woven after Bellarmins patterne, it is contrarie wise; that Esay and Luke did not write to add ought to the Psalmes or Pro­verbs; or to the words of Ioh or Ionas; which hath greater colour to prove that their sayinges should not bee absolutely true, & not depēd of exceptions mentioned so long after, neither meane to bee ioyned to them: Chiefly for alianes from the Common-wealth of Israell, such as they that heard Iob and Ionas were, who lived not to read the Doc­trine of Christ in his Prophets and Apostles. Wherefore seeing Bellarm. is forced to acknowledg it were a lewd parte to reason and conclude this on generall sentences of Iob, David, Salomon, that an hypocrite, a wicked, & proud-harted man, shall not bee forgiven and saved though hee repent: much more must hee acknowledg a fault, in his disputinge gathering out of Marke and Luke that a man having put awaye his wife maye not marrye another, though he have put her away for whoredome. And hereby wee may see what honour they both, himself and the pamphletter, who in this whole discourse goeth with him soote, by foote, save that by enterlacing more fond vnsavory words, hee over­runneth him sometymes: a cover weel beseeming and worthy such a cuppe, onely somewhat broader; but hereby wee may see what honour they have done De abulteria conj [...]g. li, 1. cad 9. S. Austin in knitting vpp their tale with his words, Who are wee, that wee should say, Some putting away their wives, and marrying other, commit adulterie: and some doeing soe commit it not, whereas the Gospel sayth, that every one committeth adultery, who doth so? Even as much hon­our as themselves should gayne, if in the forlorne mans case, which I spake of they were his ghostly Fathers, and put him in this comforte Who are wee that wee should say, some wicked men shall goe to hell, (namely the vnrepentant) some (the repentant) shall not goe, whereas the Scripture sayth that everie wicked man shall goe to Hell. Lett this kinde of dealling in re­futing matters bee once allowed for currant: and every Priest and Iesuit as well as the Pope will have more Royall power, even over Princes: what should I say over common Christians? For whereas it is written in the Epistle to the Collosians Col. 3. 20, Children obey your Parents in all things: and Prophets were honoured with the name of Fathers, not onely by their 2 Ring. 2. 12 schollers, the childrē of the Prophets, bnt also by the 2 R in. 6. 21, et [...] 1. Kings of Israel: the 9 Bell [...]om 1. cont 3 lib, 2 cad. 31. title of Father geven to all priests though not in such de­gree as to pape pa [...]et datrum to. And [...] in [...]le mentinar, Pro cem. the Pope, yet to all priests & to Iesuits especialy, in somuch that a Allen in [...]s Apologie of [...]he Englishi seminaries. chap, 6. great person of Rome doth terme them not Fathers onely with [Page 23] the people, but the Reverend Fathers, the Catholique Fathers, the good Fa­thers of the snciety of the holy name of Iesus: this title then applied & geven to them all will quickly winne their schollers to thinke that the Heb. 15. 17, Al [...]en Apolo­gie chap 4. obe­dience commaunded to wards them is obedience in all things. Now we pro­testants teach that neverthelesse supposing they were in deed Fathers not caterpillers of the Churche, yet if Priest or Iesuit or the pope him­self should commaund a mā to cōmit murder or whoredome, or theft, hee might not bee obeyed, because it is written in the Epistle to the E­phesiās Ephes. 6. 1. Children obey your Parents in the Lord, whence that to the Col­losians ought to bee expounded, that Parents must bee so farre forth obeyed, in all things as standeth with the dewty which children owe to God, and in pietie they may. But if some Catholique Father should denie this, and say (like Father Robert) that S. Paule in deed ommitteth or addeth some what in one Epistle, which hee hath not omitted or added in an­other, but hee doth never omit in such sorte that the sentence is made faulse: for els S. Paule hadd deceived the Colossians to whom hee sent theis Epistle, making no mention of that other to the Ephesians: And surely when hee wrote to the Collosians from Rome, he did not sent them back to his Ephesian Epistle as to a commentury; nay if that Epistle had bene in their hāds, it may be well thought, that hee would not have w [...]itten to them. For hee did not write the Epistle to the Collossians thereby to add ought to that which he had written vnto the Ephessi­ans, as hee did the later to the Corinthians, or Thessalonians, after the former, but onely to reclayme the Collosians from their errour, that man is reconciled, & hath accesse to God by Angels, & to corect their Iewish and Heathenish observa­tions; for Hom. 1 in epist ad co [...]oss Chrysostom Argument. epist, Theophylact, and Argum. 2 [...] Theodoreco. Oecumenius geve this cause. That which Paule therefore sayth to the Collossians must be absolutely true, & not depend of that hee sayth to the Ephesiaus, vnl [...]sse onr meaning bee that they were deceived, who read the Epistle to the Collossians without the other. If some Catholique Father (I say) should speake thus, agaynst our interpreting of Scripture by Scripture, would not his children (trow yee) thinke it strongly & invincibly proved, that they must obey him absolutely in all things? Chiefly, if as Father Robert bringeth Austin, soe he brought Monast in st [...]ut lib. 4. cap 27. For so the Syrique word Abba­ [...] hence Ab [...] (a [...] cometh) doth signifie Ko [...]. 1. 15 Cassianus S. Chrisostoms scholar in, who prayseth one Mutius (a novice of an Abbey in Egypt) as a most worthy pattern of obediēce to his abbat [...] Father, as you would say for that he was ready to cast his owne na­tural sonne a litle child, into the River at his commandement & soe as much as lay in hī did murder his sonne, but that some by the Abbats appoyntemēt did r [...]caive him beinge caste out of his Fathers hands to­wards the River, & saved him from drowning. For hee cassian [...] cap. 28. who extolleth this Novices fayth & devotiō to Heavē, affirming that the Abbat was by revelation straightway advertised, that Mutius hadd performed [Page 24] Gen es. 2. 10. Abraham the Patriarks wotke by the obedience, as if there were noe difference between the Gen es. 22. 2. Lords commandement, and [...]n Abbats might have formed a sentence like Austins in defence thereof: Who are wee that wee should say, Children in some things must obey their Parents, & in some they must not, whereas the Scripture sayth. Children, obey your Parents in all things. By the which construction whatsoever a mans mother should com­mand him, must be obeyed too, she being comprehended in the name of Parents: and what soever a mans 2 ki [...] 5. 13. Maister should command, hee beeing also a Father, and whatsoever gen. 45. 8. Iob. 29. 16. 1 Tim. 5. 1. Act. 7. 2. et 22. 1. any Governour should com­mand, or frend that hath done good, or an olde Gray-headed man they being Fathers all, though not by nature, yet by office, benefit, or age. And then had King 2. chro [...] 15. 16. Asa done evill in putting downe his mother Maachah from her state because shee hadd made an Idole in a grove; & in breaking downe her Idoll; and stamping it, & buruing it. And 1, Sam. 22. 17 Doeg the Edomite had deserved greater prayse then Sauls servants, sith they Would not move their hands to fal vpon the Lords Priests, when their Maister bidd them; which Doeg did and executed his wrath to the vtter most. And the Act, 4. 5 et. 5. 29. Apostles hadd overseene themselves, when they diso­beyed the high Priest, and rulers and Elders of Israel; and gave this re­ason of it Wee ought rather to obey God then men. Yea that wretched im­pious & execrable fryer, who did more then barbarously murder his Soveraigne Lorde the HENRIE the third. 1589 Augu. 2. French King the annoynted of the HIGHEST, may then bee excused, excused! nay commended and praysed by tray­terous papists, as having done that which hee ought: seing it is likely that either Pope or Priest, or Iesuit or Abbat, or some of his superiours commanded him to doe it. Such absurd consequents of Bellarmins affirming that Markes and Lukes words must bee absolutely true, and not de­pend of Mathew, doe shew what great reason hee had soe to speake. For it is written of the Cittie of Ierusalem, compared with the Canaanites, Amorites, and Hittites Ezek. 16. 44 Such mother, Such daughter: in like sort may it be sayd of this construction of the holy Scripture compared with Bellar. Such consequence, such antecedent. And this farre of his second place.

The third is in the Epistle to the Romaines the sevēth chap. Rom. 7. 1 Knowe yee not bretheren (for I speake to them that knowe the law) that the law hath Dominion over a man as long as hee liveth? For the woman, which is in sub­iection to a man, is bound by the law to the man while hee liveth: but if the man bee dead, shee is delivered from the law of the man. So then if while the man li­veth, shee take another man, shee shalbe called an adulteresse: but if the man bee dead shee is free from the law, soe that shee is not an adulteresse: though shee take another man. Out of which place and 1. cor. 7. 39 the like in the seaventh of the first Epistle to the Corinthians, Wee gather (saith Bellarmin) that the band of marriage is [Page 25] never loosed but by death: and that seing it is not loosed, it remayneth after divor­cement too, for whatsoever cause the divorce bee made. This doth Bellarmin gather: but gathering so, he reapeth that which the holy Ghost sowed not. For S. Pauls meaning in those words to the Romains and Corin­thians was, that the band of marriage is not loosed comonly and or­dinarily▪ while both the parties live; not that absolutely, it is never loo­sed till one of thē die. As in the like case (to open the matter by his ow­ne examples) hee 1 cor. 9. 7 sayth Who goes to Warrfare any tyme at his owne cost? Now some have served at their owne charges without pay sometymes. For so did the Dionys, Halycaru ant Roman l [...] 9. Roman stocke of the Fabij agaynst the Vientians and Hered li. 8 Clinias an Athenian Citizen agaynst the Persians. But men for the most parte are waged publiquely therevnto. And that is the poynt which S. Paule respected. Againe , 1 cor 9, 7 Who planteth a Vineyard, & eateth not of the fruite thereof? Ancaeus or Aga Penc [...], L [...]uc Tzetz in Lycophr. Hee on whom they father the first occasion of that proverb Many things doe happen between the cupp aud the lipp; is sayd not to have drunke of the fruite of the Vineyard which himselfe had plāted, not to have eaten thereof belyke. At least seing cic. de se­nectute. old men plant trees for their posterity, neither might Levit 19. 23 the Iewes eate of their fruite in certayn years: It is more then likely that many of them did not. Some did not questi­onlesse: they namely, who sustanied the curse which God denounced vnto them by Moses. Deur 28. [...]0 Thou shalt plant a Vineyard, and shalt not vse the finite thereof. Yet S. Paule saide wel, because such as plant vines doe eni [...]ye thē commonly. Againe who 1. cor 9. 7 feedeth a flock & eateth not of the milke of the flock? They eat not of the milke, who doe not milke there sheepe at al: & there be who doe not for, feare of impairing therbye the lambs and woole. But it is sufficient for S. Pauls purpose, & the truth of his speech, that men in most Varr lib [...]. c. 2 de re Kust colume [...]l l, 7. c 4. contreis are wont to have them milked: Deut 32 14 Hom odys [...] li §. Arist dehist animalium lid. cato be [...]etuil. cap 13. virg. l. Elag. 3. & they who under take the paines of feeding flocks, are accostomed to eate of the milkes of their flockes. Againe Ephes 5. 9. [...] plutar [...] coro No man ever hated bis owne flesh, but nourisheth & cherisheth it. Cato the younger, who slewe himselfe at Vtica, was so farr from nourishing & cherishing his body, that when his bo­wels being gushed out thereof, he was not yet dead, he tore thē in pie­ces with his owne hands as machab, 14. 16. Rasias also did. Neither would S. Paule have denied this: who knew that many l, Sam. 31. 4 2 Sam [...]. 13. mat 27, 5. hadd killed themselves, and taken awaie al ioyes of life from their flesh. Onely he ment that noe man hath ever lightly hated it, but every one doth nourish and cherish it rather. 2 Tim. 2. 4 Noe man that warreth entangleth himselfe with the affaiers of life, because he would please him that hath chosen him to be a souldier.

What? is this false, because dlutare. rich Crassus being chosen by the Ro­mains to be their Generall in Sirria, did without all care of pleasinge them, who had chosen him, playe the marchand man and occupiede [Page 26] himselfe in councels and mony matters? Cra [...]. Or because a band of Cam-Panian souldiers, polyb lib 1 who served the King of Sicilie gave thēselves to citezēs trades and occupations, having by treacherie seazed on Mesana, dis­possessed the townsmen, devided their wives, goods & lands amonge them, and a band of Romaines did the like at Rhegiū, to the discon­tentment of such as chose them to be souldiers, No. for the APostle who exhorted Tymothy to behave himselfe as good & honest souldier of Christe, Tim c [...] 2. 3 was not to learne that there are some unhonest soldiers & retch lesse of their duty. But his meaning was, that soldiers usualy doe im­ploy themselves on warrlike exercises, not on civil affaiers, or domesti­cal busines, when they are chosen once to serve, and in the same sence did he likewise say, that a married woman is bound by the lawe unto her husband while he liveth: because the band ōf marriage is not usuallye & or­dinarely loosed but by death though it may be loosed, 1 Cor. 7, 15 6 Lu dedoule tas Eleutera estia 6, ver 3. & is sometimes otherwise, on rare onwonted cause. Which is apparant to have been his meaning by that he teacheth that if an unbeliving man, who hath a Christian wife, doe forsake her then she is not in bondage. For if she be not in bondage, she is free to marrie: as the words of Scripture imply by the contrary, and the innocent, ra [...]t, c quanto extra de di­v [...]t. is Pope declareth. If the be free to marrie the band of the former marriage is loosed, els were she bound & not free. Where fore sith the Popes authentical record doth prove out of S. Paul, that a wife in some case is free to marrie another while her husbande liveth, the Papists must acknowledg that S. Paul meant, the band is nor com­only loosed but by death, not that it is never at al loosed otherwise ab­solutely and simply. Bell. to frustrate and avoyde this answer, saith that it may be proved by foure reasōs: which he bringeth forth poore unarmed, weake ons of his owne mustering, & with a strōge hand put­eth them to flight that soe men imagining that these are all that cann be alleaged on our side for the proofe thereof, might thinke that out whole force is quite discomfited and Bell. hath wone the feild. I have harde saie that there is cunning in daubing. Surely there is cunninge in this kinde of dealing. Neither is it for nothing that one Birstow. M [...]tive. 3. of our Glo­rious Champions doth vaunte that the coōmon sorte of Catholiques are able to say more for us, then wee can for our selves. In deede they would bear the common sort in hand, that their learned men in handling of questions and controversies of religion doe set downe all obiections that can be made of our parte. And I graūt, they set down more thē oftētimes thēselves can soūdly answer. Yet they use discretiō therein by ther leave [...]& may a strong reasō whi [...]h would troble thē fowlly if it came in place, they are cōtēt to wink at & saie nothing of it wherto thei [...] ioyn this policy now & thē also, that they take upō thē to be as it were our proctors▪ [Page 27] and attorneys, in shewing what may be saied for us. under which pre­tence they bring in such things as having already solution with the obiection, and prooving unsound, may turne to our causes discredit and to ours. So the Iesuit here his arguement beeinge groundede on two places, the one to the Romains, the other to the Corinthians, we countermyning the whole with one answer: he saith that our answer maye be proved by fower reasons, which he gathereth out of circumstances of the former place, al such as the later hath neither any kindred with, and discovereth them to be of no vallw. But of the reasons, which I have brought to prove our answer fitting both the places, and partely confirming that S. Paul might wel meane the same in these, which in the like he meant; partely demonstrating that certainly he did soe, be­case it were not true els that he teacheth of the libertye of Christians forsaken of the unbelevers: Ezra 4. 2. these reasons Bellarmin, doth not touch.

No marveil for they are to hot. And it is likelye that he studied not what might be most strongly saide in our defence, but rather what most weakely: Ezra. 4. 9. that so he might seeme to ioyne bataile with us, and yet might be sure to do him selfe noe harme. Letting passe therefore the helpe which he, offereth in like sorte to us as the Samaritans did unto the Iewes: I come unto the iniust & false accusation, wherewith they sought to hinder the buylding of the Temple, I meane the reasons which he untruly saith, doe witnesse our answer and exposition to bee false. Rom. [...]. 3 Those he draweth to there heads, wherof the first hath two braunches: one that S. Pauls words are plaine; the other that they are ofte repeated. For what is more plaine (saith he) then that if while the man liveth, the woman take another man, she is called an adulteresse? and that 1 cor. 7. 39. the Woman is bouud by the lawe as longe as her husband liveth Plaine I denie not. 1 cor. 9. 7

But this proofe how pithy & stronge soever he thought to sett it in his fore-front; Ephes 5. 29. is already shewed to be no proofe at all: [...] Tim 2. [...]. sith there are plaine words in like sentences, mark [...]. 2 [...], luck. 3. 24 Iohu 2. 10 Gal [...]. 15. which neverthelesse must be expound­ed as these are by us. For what more plaine then that Who planteth a Vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? and that Who fea­deth a flock and eateth not of the milke of the flocke? and that No man ever hated his owne flesh, but nourisheth & cherisheth it? and that Noe Warfarring mā entangleth himself with the affaiers of life? and many other such, that might be alleaged if in a thing so cleare it weare not su­perfluous? Naye in these sentences the woordes are more play­ne, then in those wee speake of, beecause those have noe shuche marke of generality expressed in them, as these have. Wherefore if soe greate playnnesse of woordes signede with generall tokens as it were importing that they are true in all yet cōvinceth nor that they [Page 28] are meant of all without any exception, fully and vniversally: how can a lesser playnnesse wanting such efficacie, convince the same of those in question? Or if it should elswhere by reason of some difference which might supplie, by other weight that this wāteth: Yet here it cannot possibly, because S. 1. cor 7. 15 Paule himself as I have declared sheweth that in one case the sayings could not so bee true Mor [...]over the cap vetum. Extra. de con. vers conjugō comm [...]ssum de spōsalibus. Cōcil. [...] ūbēt Sess 24 can 6. Bell. too [...]. 1. cont: lib. 8. cap. 38. Papists hold that if a married man become a moncke before hee know his wife carnally, she may lawfully take anot her husband, while he liveth. Perphaps fur­ther, also that the Pope for any very weighty cause, maye vpon the same circumstance dispence, and loose the band of Marriage. At least covartu. eper in 4, decre tal Parz cap. 7. 9 4. catha­rin. de matri­mon quart, utrum matrimō ante cob fit Sacramen­tum et al [...] ­quz in archi­typo themselves tell vs that sundry Popes have done so: and Hesticus. panormi [...]a et alij canōnst in. c expubli­co de co [...]vers. con [...]ugator. cardeaie [...]. opusculo de mattim Mac. Madium de Sacro [...] hom. contin lib. [...]. Martin Navar, confilict lib. 3. de convers. infid. cous 1. their great Doctors hould wee may. Yet is the woman his wife who hath wedded her, or espoused her onely, though shee hath not entred into his bed hamber. For she that is betrothed, is accounted a wise by the law Deut. 22. 24. Matt 1. 20. of God: & cō sent, not carnall company maketh Marriage as the civill L cuifucait D de condits [...] domōstra [...]. L NuPriarum. D de reg far▪ Lawiers, Ambrosin, stitur. virg cab [...]Augde nupt et con cud lib. 1. cap. 1 [...] [...]hr [...]souō. Isobeo Cre­gor comnuis e consuge [...]c. qui desponfa­tam. [...]7. 14 [...] si inteo Ex­lta despensa [...] Fa­thers, &, Popes doe reach. The Papists then of all man may worst on force the playnesse of S. Panls words agaynst our exposition thē-selves condescending in cases more then wee doe, that a woman may take a­nother man while her husband liveth, and bee noe adulteresse. Where by agayne appeareth how wisely and discreetly the Iesuit Triumpheth with beliere, c. ua [...] du [...]um despons. du­orum Austins words. These words of the Apostle so oftentymes repeated, so oftē ­tymes inculcated, are true are quick, are sound, are playne. The woman begin­neth not to be the wife of any later husband, vnlesse shee have ceased to bee of the former and shee shall cease to bee of the former, if her husband die, not if he playe the whoremonger. The wife then is lawfully putt away for whordom, but the band of the former lasteth: in somuch that hee becometh guilty of adulterie, who marrieth her that is put away even for whoredom.

For if these words of Austin bee quick and sound against vs, then touch they poperie at the quick: sith it may be sayd by the same reason The woman beginneth not to bee the wife of any later husband, vnlesse she: have ceased to be of the former: and shee shall cease to be of the former if her husband die not if hee waxe a Monke.

Admitt then that the wife bee put away for monkery, De adulee [...]. coning lib. 2. cap. 4. yet the band of the former lasteth: in sommuch that hee becometh gulty of adulterie, who marri­eth her thatis put away even for monkery, And likewise whatsoever those weighty causes were, for which so matrin the [...]. Eugenius the 4. Alexander the 6 Iu­llus the third paul the 4. & p [...]us the 4. as covattu. catharin [...] caje [...]an, an [...] Navar doe testifie. many Popes have loosed the bande of Marriage, thy are all controlled by the sawe censure, The woman be­g [...]nneth not to be the wife of any later husband vnlesse she have ceased th be of the former and shee shall cease to be of the former if her husband die, not if a better match be offered, or some mislyke be conceived, or the Pope dispence and be well freed from it. Nay S. Paul himself must fall within the compasse of [Page 29] Aestins reproofe, by construīng his words so without exception, beecause they are true, & quick, & founde, and plaine. For againste his doctrine touching a Susters liberty to marry if she h [...] forsaken of her unbelie­ving husband, the force of S. Austins consequence would inferre in like sorte: The woman begineth not to be the wife of any later husband, unlesse shee have ceased to be of the former, if her husband die, not if hee forsake her▪ The Ie [...]uit, who useth so often to repeate, so often to in culcate the testi­monies of the Fathers, should dealeper adventure more considerately, more charitably out of doubt, if before he cite them, he weighed their words better, whether they may stande with the truth of Scripture, & with his owne doctrine, For Gen. 9. 22. Cham discovered the nakednes of Noah, so doth he their blemishes: he who alleageth them; not wee, whom hee enforceth to shew why w [...]ee dissent tō thē ▪ least our Savious sentence be expounded against us math. 10. 37 He that leveth Father or Mother better then me, is not worthy of mee. But the Iesuits meaning (you will say) was not to discredit them by laying a necessitie on us to refute them, what? was his meaning then by their credit to discredit the Scripturs, with the truth whereof their sayings do not stand? For (I trust) he meant not to overthrowe the poynts of his owne doctrine, which their sayings crosse, unlesse he be of that minde which Tully cōdemneth as barbarous & sauage, expressed in an heathnish verse LET OVR FRIENDS FALL, SOE OVR FOES DIE WITHALL. Howsoever it be it is plaine that the plaines of S. Pauls words neither doth proove the sence therof to be simply & absolutely general, Pro. Deiora tro the Scripture note­ing an exception, neither cann be saide by Papists to proove it whose doctrine both alloweth that exception of Scripture, & addeth more thereto, Thus one braunch of Bell, firste & principall reason being cutt off: the other and the rest of his reasons also are cutt off with the same labour and instrument. For whereas he saith Certes it were maavell that the Apostel should never add the exceptin of wheredom, if it Were to bee added, Rom. 7. vers. 2. seing he repeated & inculcated these things so often. Certes wee maye say as wel of thos exceptions which himselfe approveth that it were marvel the Apostel should never add them, vers, [...]. if they were to be added. co [...], 7. veas. 39 Though what marvel is it, S. Paul. omitted the exception of whoredome in all those two places, which he Hath repated & inculcated these things so often, as Bellarmin so often telleth us: when the thinge is mentioned in the former of them by way of a similitude, wherein it hath been founde & beside the purpose to speake of any exceptiō: and, for the later S. Paul hath omitted the same exception vers, 10 et. twise, where the Scripture sheweth plainely and Bell. cōfesseth, it should have beene added, math 5. 23. e [...] 19 9. or (tospeake [Page 30] more properly) where al though it needed not to be added, yet must it needs bee understoode; Now to that Bellarmin doth next alledg the Fathers In uteu [...] que Iocum pauli. Ambrose, Chrysostome, Theophylact, Theodoret, Oecumenius, Primasius; Anselmus and others over and besides Loco [...]itat [...] Austin, In math 19. Origen, and In epist ed Ama [...]d. Ierom, all as bearing witnesse that wee expound the places fals­ly: I could reply that some of these whatsoever they witnesse have small credit with Bellarmin as Ambrose, specially: some, namely Chrysostome, Theophylact, Theodoret, Oecumenius, and Primasius doe not witnesse that no more then Paul himself doth: Nay they all save one are cōtrary min­ded rather as shall appeare in In the third Chapter. due place: But that which I have sayde already touching Austin, may serve for answer to the rest: chiefly sith the Papists in whose behalf they are aleaged, will rather yeald that all the Fathers might erre then any of their Popes. Alexander the third Pius the fourth & [...]in the canōs above cited out of the de cre [...]als & the councell of Trent who yet must have erred in more, then one Canon, if this were true which Bell, fathereth on the Fathers; Finally, concerning that for the vpshoote hee vrgeth Pauls similytude as if it he 1 Rom. 74 drift of it did absoiutely require that the man and wife can not bee made free from the band of Marriage by any seperatiō but by death onely, because while the law had life as it were and stoode in force till Christe the Iewes could never shake off the Yoke thereof from thē, although they endevored to seperate them-selves from it by committing whoredō with sundry lawes of salfe Gods: the rest of S. Pauls similytudes which I mē cioned; doe bewary the lamenesse and halting of this inference: seing that the drift of them requireth absolutely by the same reason that no man went to warfare at his owne cost, or planted Vynes, or fedd sheepe without relief thereby, because 1. Cor. 9. vers 6. all they vers 14 Who preach the Gospel are allowed to live of the Gospel. And likewise that no man did ever hurt his owne body, because Ephes 5. 33. Every husbād ought to love his owne wife Ephes. 5, 25 as Christ loved the Church and likewise that no souldier hath ever entangled him-self with the affayres of life because Timothee should bee stil about those actions, 2 Tim. 4 [...]. whereto the Lord [...]2. Tim. 2. 3. who choose him to be a souldier, did call him, Nay to goe no farther then the drift it self or the similytude, which Bellarmin doth vrge, if it requier absolutely that the band of Marriage may bee no way loosed but onely by the husbands or the wives death: then neither is it loosed if the vnbele ever doe for sake the Christian: neither if the husband be­come a Monke or the wife a Nunne: neither if the Pope see cause to dispence with either of them. And will not this fansie of his about that drift drive him in to greater inconvenieence yet: to weet, that every woman, whose husband is dead ought to marry another, because the Ie­wes were bound to become Christiās after the death of the Lawe? or of the other, side that the Iewes are not bound vnder payne of damnatiō to become Christians, because no widowe is bound vnder payne of [Page 31] death to take another husband? or (if these absurdities bee not great enough) that dead men ought to marry, because Rom. 7. 4 The Iewes by duty should be vnto Christ, whē they were dead to the Lawe? or that the men of Rome to whom S. Paul wrote, should rather not beleeve in Christ, becau­se 1. Cor. 7. 8.he wished widowes rather not to marry? Of the wich consequences if some bee esteemed erroneous by Papists, some not esteemed onely, but are so in deede, the most have impious folly ioyned with vnttuth: Let Bellarmin acknowledg that similitndes must not be sett vpon the racke, nor the drift thereof bee stretched and pressed in such sorte, as if they ought iust in length bredth and depth to match & fitt that whe­re to they are resembled. It sufficeth if in a generall analogy and proportion of the principall poynt wherein things matched, and compared together; they bee eche like to other, and both agree in one qua­litie. Which here is observed in S. Pauls comparison of the state of Marriage, with the state of man before and after regeneration: because Rom. 7. vers. 2. 3as a wife her husband and being dead doth lawfully take another, and is not an adulteresse in having his company to bring forth fruite of her body, to him: soe vers. 4. & 5. regenerate persons, their naturall corruption (prouoked by the law to sinne) aud flesh being mortified are ioyned to the Spi­rit (the force of Christ working in them) as it were to a second husband that they should bring forth fruite (the fruites of the Spirit) vnto God. And thus seing neither the drift of the similytude, nor the iudgement of the Fathers, nor the playnesse of the wordes so oftentymes repeated, doe disprove our answer and exposition of the place: our answer pro­ved by Scripture standeth firme and sure & therefore the third place by our adversaries, is sutable to the former,

So is the fourth & last; taken out of the first to the Corinthians the seaventh Chapter ^a To them who are Married, it is not I that givs com­maudement, but the Lord: Let not the wife depart from her husband: but if she depart too, let her remayne vnmarried, or bee recconciled vnto her husband. Who rein (as Bellarmin reasoneth) the words of S. Paul, If she depart, & so forth are meant of a woman which parteth from her husband vpon a cause of iust divorcement, as namely for whoredom, haeresie, and the rest whatsoever they bee, & not of her which parteth without any such cause. But concerning her of whom the word are meant, S. Paul. sayth most playne ly shee may not marrie another, Therefore even a cause of iust divorcement looseth not the band of Marriage neither is it lawfull for married folckes to marry others, al though they be severed & put a sunder by iust divorcement.

And of this argument Bellarmin doth say that it is altogether insolnble. In saying whereof he seemeth to confesse that none of the former arguments were so, but might bee answered and confuted. His confessiō [Page 32] touching them hath reason with it: I must needs approve it. But his vaunt of this is like that of 1. King. 20 10. [...]enhadads that the dust of Samaria would not bee enough to all the people that followed him for every man an handfull, To whom the King of Israel sayde, Let not him that girdeth his harmes, boast him self as bee that putteth it off. Bellamin hath skar [...]ly girt his harneis yet, & that which hee hath girt, is vnservisable [...]ad harneis too.

For the formost parte there of, his proposition a vouching that the words If shee depart, and so forth, are meant of her onely which parteth from her husband vpon a iust cause of divorcement, [...] namely for whordom heresie, and such like, is faulty sundry wayes: seing they are neither meant of her onely which parteth for a iust cause; and though they bee also meant of her which parteth for any other iust cause, yet not of her which for whoredom.

Moreover the conclusion knitting vpp his argument with Therefore even a iust cause of divorcement loaseth not the band of Marriage, is guilful­ly sett downe: being vttered in the forme of a particular, and true so, taking divorcement as hee doth; but intended to carry the [...]orce of a ge­nerall, so by fraude and faulshood to beare away the poynt in question. Of both the which to treat in ordre, his proposition he presumeth of as most certayne, because in (his iudgment) Paule would not have sayde of her who departed without some such cause, Let her ramayne vnmarried, or bee recon­ciled vnto her husbād; but hee would have sayde, Let her remayne vnmarried till shee bee reconciled vnto her husband, & let her come agayne vnto her husband in any case. And why doth Bellarmin thynke so? His reasons follow. For Paul could not permitt an vniust divorcement agaynst the expresse commandement of the Lord.

And, if in the same Chapter Paul permitteth not the man and wife to refrayne from carnall company for prayers sake, and for a tyme, except it bee with consent: How should hee permitt the wife to remayne seperated from her husband agaynst his will, 1 C [...]r. 1. vers. [...]. & [...]0. without any case of iust divorcement, In deede if it had [...]yen in S. Pauls power to stay & refraine the wife from remayning soo: no doubt hee n [...]ither would not might have permitted, which himself sufficient­ly shewed in forbidding her to depart at all, much more to cōtinue par­ted from her husband. But vers. 11. if not withstanding this charge and pro­hibition she did leave h [...]r husband vpon some lighter cause; or perhaps weightyer though weighty enough for a iust divorcemēt: thē Paul in duty ought and might (I hope) with reason requier and exhorte her to remayne vnmarried, and not to ioyne her self in wedlok with another, a thing that Dicdor. Siculilib. 12. Greekes and Iuvena [...]l. Satyr. 6. Sic [...] octo mariti Quinque per au [...]um. nor Romayns (whose of-spring the Strabe Geo­graph [...] [...]. 8. pausenas corinth. Corinthiās were) vsed to doe. As (to make it playne by the like examples (S. Pau neither might neither wold have allowed a mā to be rashly angry with [Page 33] his brother: for Ma [...]h. 5. 2 [...] Christ forbiddeth it. But if one were suddenly sur­prised with rashe anger S. Paul wold advise him [...] not to let the sunne goe downe vpon his angry wrath: neithe might hee therevpon bee iustly charged with permitting wrath vntill the sunne sett agaynst Christs comman­dement.

No more might hee with graunting liberty to lust, because he [...] 7. 15 wil­leth men not to fulfill the lusts of the flesh; whereas Ma [...]. 5. 18 Christ cōmandeth thē not to lust at al [...], For S. Paul [...] Rom. [...]8. condemneth all lusting of the flesh as sinne. Cal. 6. 17. But seing that the flesh will lust agaynst the Spirit, as lōg as wee are in this mortality: he stirreth vp the faythfull that they R [...]m. 6. [...]. [...] not sinne raigne in their mortall bodyes, nor doe fulfill the lust of the flesh. In the same sort therefore hee giveth charge with Christ that the wife departe not frō her husband, Yet in considration of hum aine infirmity he addeth But if shee departe too, let her bee vnmarried, And to meete with a doubt which herevpon might rise sith in the next words before he had affirmed that they who have not the gift of coutinence should marry and what if she have it not? hee adioyneth farther. 1. Cor. 7. 9. or let her be reconciled vnto her hus­band. So that although the words may seeme to be vttered in the sa­me sorte, as if they did imply and import a permission, yet are they not permissive, but imperative in truth, and an expresse precept, that the wife having forsaken her husband and there in downe evill sor beare to marry another, Mon [...] agamo [...] for that were farre worse yea though shee can not con­tain; in respect whereof or of any thinge else if shee mislike to liv [...] vn­maried, shee may not use the liberty that single folke may, who reather ought to marrie then burne, but shee ^• must reconcile her self vnto her husband, whose wife shee is by duty still. And I may say likewise doubt­les vnto Bellarmin that he & his pamphletter should not have maynt [...]yned their error in writting: but sith they have done it let thē write no more in defence of it, or let them a [...]knowledg that in this poynt they were deceived. For whereas Wh [...]ch [...]ollarml [...] doth not onelie in this quae [...]ion cap [...] bu [...] al­so in the ne [...]. before c. P. 14. they gather of the disjuctive particle Let her remayne vnmarried, or bee reconciled, that S. Paul hath put it in the wo­mans choyse & l [...]ft her at lib [...]aty, either to live seperated still from her husband, or to be reconcil [...]d vnto him; they might as well ground vpō Christs words to the angell of the church of the La [...]diās I would thou werest cold or [...]hat that hee hath put it in our choise & left vs at libertie either to bee colde in faith and love, Rev▪ el. 3. 15. as flesh is, Zestos. or to bee fervent in the spi­rit. Zeontes. Rom. 2. 11. [...] [...]ev. 3 [...].Yet Christ had no such meaning. For he commaundeth vs to bee fervēt & in that verie angell he saith to everi faithfull mā, Be hot &, Zealōs. Mat [...]. [...]3. 2 [...].But because the partye was luke warme, a wordling who had recyved the [...] of the word but bare not fruite, who Luk 12. [...]. knew his maisters will, but did it not and there by sinned most grievously; Christ wisheth [Page 34] that hee were colde and sinned lesse; sith hee did sinne, or that hee were hot and free from both these faults, the later wishe made simply the former in comparison. After the which manner seing Paul might well, and did by all likelyhood of circumstances of the text, wi [...]hee simply and cheifly that the wife estranged were reconciled to her hus­band, next that shee continued rather parted from him, then married to another as a lesse evill in comparison▪ the vttering of his s [...]nten­ce with a disjunctive particle Let her remayne vnmarried, or bee reconciled, doth not prove hee put it in the womans choyse and left her at liber­ty to doe wether shee listed. And thus it appeareth how certaine and vndoubted that principle is, which Loquitur er. [...] vllo dubio &c. vpon this proofe Bellarmin a­voucheth to bee most certaine and vndoubted that S. Pauls words touching the wise If shee depart, are ment of her onely which parteth from her husband vpon a iust cause of divorcement. How be it if they had bene meant of her onely: yet must they have touched su [...]h wives as leave their husbands for any other just cause, and not for whoredom, An other and greater oversight of Bellarmin, that in exemplifing the causes of divorcement to which in his opinion the words should be restrayned, hee nameth whoredom first, as principally comprised in S. Pauls precept; where as S. Paul meant that it and it alone, should be excluded and excepted.

For these are his words. [...]. Cor. 7. 10 To them who are married, it is not I that give comma [...]dement but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband but if shee departe too, let her remayne vnmarried, or bee reconciled vnto her husbād & let not the husband put away his wife,

Where in the last braunch Let not the husband put away his wife, must needes bee vnderstood except it bee for whoredom because S. Paule saith it is the Lords commandement, and Mat. 5. 32. & 19. 9. the Lord gave it with that expresse exception. This Bellarmyn doth graunt. Well, Then as the last braunche so the first too let not the wife depart from her husband; 1. Cor. 7. 4. For the analogie is all one: and Mat. 5. 32. & 19. 9. etche having interest in the others bodie, shee may as lawfully depart from an adulterer, as hee from an adulteresse. And this doth Beelarmin graunt also. But the middle braunche is to bee vnderstood of the same depar [...]ing, and likewise qualified as the first, Therefore, If shee depart too, is meant, except it be for whoredome. Nay, not so quoth Bellarmin: for the same departing is not meant, in both, but a farre different, in the first an uniust departinge, in the next a iuste, and this must be the sense of the Apostles wordes, Not I, but the Lord g [...]ve commandement let not the wife depart from her husband, to wee [...] without a [...]ist cause: but if shee goe away, to weet having a iust cause, let her remayne vnmarried, & so forth. In the refutation of which wrong & violence done vnto the sacred text [Page 35] what should I stand? when the onely reason, whereby out of s [...]ripture hee assayeth to prove it, is the disiunctive particle, which as I have she­wed alreadie, hath no ioynt or sinew of proofe to that effect. And August. l [...] de [...] conjug cap 1. 2. 3 et [...]. the onely father, whose testimony, hee citeth, for it, doth ground it on that disiunctive particle of Scripture: So that his reason being overthrowen, his creditt and authoritie, by August [...]pi. his owne [...]approved rule may beare no sway. And on the contrarie parte, chry [...]ostom Amb [...]ose pri­mas us Theo­d [...]ter Thro­phylact and O [...]cumenius many other fathers doe expound the second braunches as having reference to the same departing that is for bidden in the first. And (which is the chief point) the naturall drift and meaning of S. Paules words doth enforce the same. For the tearmes; ⁷ But, if, too, importe that doing alsoe of that which in the sentence before hee had affirmed ought not to bee done: As [...] cor 7 ve [...] 9 [...] the like examples in the same discourse (to go no farder) shewe; yea some ha­ving one Namely. K [...] par [...]icle lesse then this hath to presse it therevnto. It is good for the vnmarried & widowes, if they abide even as I doe: Eide But if they doe not con­teine, let them marry. The woman which hath an vnbeleeving husband, and hee consenteth to dwell with her, let her not put him away: Eide. but if the vnbeleeving de­part, let him depart. Art thou [...]oused from a wife? seeke not a wife: Ean de kai. Bot then marrie also, thou sinnest not. This I speake for your profitt, that you may doe that which is comely? But if a [...]ie man thinke it vncomely for his virgin if shee passe the time of Marriage, Eide. let him doe what hee will. The wi [...]e is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth: Ean de but if her husband bee dead, shee is at libertie and soe forth. In all the which sentences sith the clauses brought in with those coniunctions have manifest relation to the things spoken of be­fore, & touch them in the same sense, the braunche that is inquestion having like dependance, must in all reason be conserved of same the de­parting that the former. Thus it being proved that S. Paul commanding the wife to remayne vnmarried if shee be parted from her husband, did meane, Except it were for whoredom; it followeth that Bellarmins propositi­on is faultie even in this also that hee nameth whoredome amo [...]g the iust causes of the wives departing here meant by S. Paul. Now in this con [...]lusion inferring herevpon that even a iust cause of divorcement looseth not the band of marriage, he is deceitfull, as he was false in his proposition. For the word Divorcement, being vnderstood, as it is by him, for anie seperation and parting of the man and wife, though from b [...]dd onely, and for a certayne time: There may be sundry causes why, su [...]h a seperation should be allowed or toll [...]rated, when as the band of marriage shall neverthelesse endure still, And so the simple reader were likely to imagine that Bellarmin had concluded a truth & to purpose.

But the poynt where with he should have knit vp his dispute, and which hee would have men conceyve and beare away as if these [Page 36] words implyed it, is that no iust cause at al of any div [...]rcemēt doth loose the bād of marriage, & therefore neither whoredom. The falshood whereoe [...] woulde have bee as cleare as the sunne-shine at noone-day, the prpositiō being so evidently false wheron it is in ferred. And this is the arguement that Bell. set his rest on Argume [...]tū plané insolu­b [...]le the insoluble argument, even altogether insoluble, the ground wherof he termeth Invictissima de monstrat [...] a demonstration a most invincible demonstration: against the which nothing (saith he) can be obiected, but an insufficient reply, made by Erasmns to weet, that Paule speaketh of an adulterous wif [...], Vnum et tā ­tum quodo­ [...]i [...]et posset. who therfore being cast out by her husband is charged to stay unmarried, the innocent party not so charged, Which speaches of the Iesuit come from the like veine of a vauntinge spirit as those did of his cōplices, who boasted that In the yeare of Christ. 58. the Spainyards Armadoes & navy should finde but weake & silly resistans in England; and callede their armay sent to conquer us, an invicible armey, For as they dimini­shed by untru [...] reports the for [...]es prepared: To meete & en countere with the spanish power: so Bell. by saying that nought can be obiected beside that he specifieth; yea fard [...]r by belying and falsefing of Erasmus, A [...]uot in 1 Cor. [...]who contrariewise replieth that Paul doth seeme to speake De levio [...]l­bus offensis. non deg [...]avi­ [...]us [...] of lighter displeasiurs for which divorcement then were usual, not of such cryms as adultery. Moreover by the substance & weight of my replye to his insoluble argeument, the Godlye wise indifferent eye wil see (I trust) that the knotts & strings therof are loosed & brokē: even as the invi [...] ­cible armey of the Spainyards was by Gods providence shewed to bee Vin [...]ible without great en [...]oūtering; the carkeses and spoyles of their ships & men upon the English, Scottish, & Irish coasts did wittnesse it. So let allthyn enemies perish, O Lord, and let them who love him be as the sunne when he goeth forth in his strength.

AFter the forsayd testemonies of Scriptur urged by our adversaries in the first place for the cōmending of their errour: Secondly, the same truth (saith the Iesuite) may be prooved by tradition. By which his owne speech, if we should take advantage of it, he graunteth all that I have saide [...]gainste his argumentes drawen-out of the Scripture, and so farre forth agreeth with us. For what understandeth he by the word tradition [...]? [...] Doctrine not written, as [...] 4 cap 2 him selfe professeth in his first [Page 37] controversie. Where having noted that al though the word tradition bee generall & signifieth any doctrine written or vnwritten, which one imparreth to another, yet divines, and almost all the auncient fathers, applie it to signifie vnwritten doctrine onely. And soe will wee hereafter vse this word saith hee. If the point in quistion then may be proved (as Bellarmin affirmeth it may) by tradition: We might con [...]lude it is not written in the scriptures by his owne verdict, & therefore all the scrip­tures alleaged by him for, it are alleaged falsly. But hee semeth to vse the name of tradition in like sort, as cont hero [...]f: cap. l et 4 [...]. Vincentius Lirmensis doth, calling the doctrine de livered by the church the Churches tradition. This to bee his meaning I gath [...]r by the reason that hee addeth saying for there are extant the testimonies of the fathers in all ages for it. The Pamphle [...]ter in other words, but more peremptorily to avouch the proofe thereof by the opi [...]ion & censure of all ages, affirmeth, he will shewe that it was never thought lawfull since Christ, for Christiaas divorced for [...]ornication to mrrry anie other while both man & wife lived. That it was never thought lawfull since Christ, is a boulder speeche them Bellarmin doth vse: though to hitt the marke as it were with his shaft, hee must and doth imply as much in that hee saith it may be proved by traditio [...]. For tradition hath not for [...]e enough to prove a thing to be true, not in the Papists owne iudg­ment, vnles it have bene alwaies approved and agreed on by the gene­rall consent of Fathers, (as we tearme them) Pastors and Doctors of the Church. Which I affirne not vpon the generall rule of cap. [...] et 4 [...] Vincentius one­lie so greatly, and so often praised by them as golden: But upon the Canon of the Trent Cou [...]cel and pillars of the popish Church subscrib­ing to it. For Session. 3 the Councel of Trent commanding that noe man shal expound the Scripture against the sence that the Church houldeth or against the Fathers consenting al in one, doth covertly grannt, that if the Fathers consent not all in one, their opinion may bee false, and cōsequently, no sure proofe of a pyont inquestion. Andradius Desen [...]ide Tride [...] lib 2. doth open & avouch the same in his defence of the Councel: a worke verye highly commended by Epist ad vn [...] versam Chri­stianam [...] profixa Andr. Oserius, And Canus s [...]tteth downe for a conclusion, that many of them consenting in on can yeld noe firme proofe, Loco [...] The­olog l [...]b. 7. ca 3. if the rest though fewer in numbre doe dissent, Yea Tim [...] con 3 lib. 4. cap. 0 Bellarmin himselfe saith that there can no certainty be gathered out of their sayings, when they agrie not amonge themselves. It is a thing graunted thē by our adversaries that the Fathers have not strength enough to proue ought unlesse they al consent in one. But the Fathers doe not censent in one a­bout the poynt we treat of, as it shalbe shewed, Our adveriaries therfor must graunt that the opinion which they hould in this poynt, cannot be proovede by Fathars. Nay they are in daunger of beeinge enforcede [Page 38] to graunt a farther matter, Septimi de c [...]etalium lib [...]tit 5 c [...] p [...] [...] Nilo juxta v [...]amimem consensum Patrum. and more importing them by the conseqēt hereof. For through a decree of Pope Pius the fourth, the professors of all faculties, & all that take degrees in any popish schole are bound by solemne oth that they shall never expound & take the Scripture but according to the Fathers cousenting all in on. Wherfore how will Bell. perhaps the pamphletter also if he have been amongst them and taken any degree, As Patsont by name Edi tom con pa [...]t [...], con [...]. quest 4 & can [...]sius cat [...]chism de matrimon. sactam quest. 3 & Navartus In eap divort de pe int dist. 18 theirse­minatio sehol­lais. but what shift will Bell. and his Puefellows finde to save thē selves from periury, when it shall be shewed that many of the Fathers gaiusay that opiniō, which himselfe and his expound the Scriptue for? And what if it appear, that the greater number of Fathers doe so? not the greater onely: but the better also, and those whose grounds are sure Then all the probability, which Fathers can yealde will turne againste the papists: and that which our adversaries would proove by Traditi­on, and the consent of all ages wil rather be disproved thereby. But howsoever men be diversly persuaded touching the number & qualety of the Fathers enclining this: or that way, by meanes of sundry circū stance which may breade doup [...] both perticularly; of certaine, and of the whole summe in generall: the maine and principal [...] poynt remaining to be shewed, namelly that the Fathers consent not allin one for the pa­pists doctrine, is most cleare and evident out of all controversie. In soe much that many even of them also whom Bell. aleageth, and the pam­phletter after him, as making for it, make indeed against it: and those of the chiefest and formast ranckes especially, in the first, the second the third, the fourth hundred yeares after Cheist. All the which agree & teach with one consēt that the man forsaking his wife for her adultery, is free to marry again: save such of them onely, as in this verry poynt of doctrine touching marriage, are tainted with error by the iudge­ment and censure of Papists themselves. A token of the vanetie & folly of our adversaries Bellarmin and the Pamphletter: who by na­ming one at least in everie age, would needs make a shewe of having the cousent of all ages with them, whereas it wil be seene hereby that in many we have the most and best; and they, either none at all, or none sound. For in the first hundred yeares after Christ all that Bellar­min sayth they have, is the testimony of Clemens in the Canons of the Apostles Canon 48 where the man is willed without any exception to bee excommunicated, who having put away his wife doth marrie another. Nou beside that Clemens vpon whom Bellarmin fathrreth, those canons, is inriured therein. As for the later parte of them [...] cont [...] 7. ca 20 himself sheweth [...] Lo [...]en [...]is) otherwise called Turriā a lo [...]uit li [...] de [...] Sy­nod. his friend for the former, neither are they of Apostelique antiquitie and authori­tie notwithstanding theyr title, as Po [...]e Gela­sius the first. sh [...]ds assem­bled in accoūe [...]ll [...] Scra Ro­mans dict. 15. many Fathers estifie, and Pa­pists will acknowledge when they are touched by them: [Page 39] The author of the Canon had respect therein (by all probabilitie) to the Apostolique doctrine receyved from Christ, and therefore though he made not an expresse exception of divorce for whoredome, might as well imply it, Caeser Baronius Annalus Eecle tom. 1. ad annur [...] Christi 58. as I have declared that some of the Euangelists, and S. Paule did. Which the interpreters also of those Canons Commé [...] in Conou. Adost. Zonarus and Balsamon, thought to bee so likely and more then a coniecture, that they expound it so without any s [...]mple. Balsamon in saying that hee who putteth away his wife without cause may not marrie another; and Zonaras that hee who marrieth a woman put away without cause by her husband doth commit adulterie. Or if these writters mistooke the a [...]thours meaning, and in his opinion no man, howsoever his wife were put away, with out or with cause, might lawfully marrie another: thē take this with all, that Apost const lib. 3. cap. 2 hee skarse allowed any second marriage, but controuled the third as a signe of intemperance, and condemned flatly the fourth as manifest whoredom. Which although Fr. Turrsan. onner in Apo const. clemēt a Iesuit goe about to cover & salve with gentle gloses like Exck 13. 10. the false prophets, Who when one had built up a mudden wall did parged it with vnsavoru pla [...]ster: yet sith that counter­ [...]it Clemens woorke did flowe out of the fountanies of the Gretians, as a Barenius Annal ecele. tom. [...] an­nū Christi 57 great historian of Rome hath truelie noted, and among the Greti­ans many, held that errour, as it is likewise shewed by a Espencaeus li. [...] dec [...]nti nētla 9. ct 16. great Sorbo­nist; the likelyhood of the matter, & spring whence it procedeth agreeing so fitly with the naturall & proper signification of the words, will not per mitt their blacknes to take any other hewe, nor suffer that profane speech of I know not what Clement, to be cleared from plaine contradiction to the word of God. Wherefore the onely witnesse that Bellermin produceth out of the first hundred yeares, doth not helpe him. Out of the second hundred he produceth three; Iustinus, Athe­nagoras and Clemens Alexandrinus. 1. [...]. 7. 9. The first of whom Iustinus praising the compendious briefnes of Christes speeches rehearseth this amongst them: Apo [...]og ad Anto impera Whoso marrieth her that is divorced from her husband, doth commit ad­ulterie. Meaning not as Bellar, but as Christ did: who excepting whore­dome in the math. 5. 32. et 10. 0 former braunche of that sentence, vnderstoode it like­wise in this, as I have shewed. And how may wee know that Iustinus meant soe? By his owne words, in thet Apolog [...]d sen [...] R [...]mā [...]o leg. menō parkumin tēpodion hee commendeth a godly Christian woman, who gave to her adulterous husband L [...] di [...]timitu [...] devout [...] D. de divottijs et repudijs. a bill of divor cement [...] de tautes p [...]eaner Euseb eccl hist lib 4. cap 17 such as did loose that band of matrimony, and saith concer­ning him that, hee was not her husband afterward. The next Apolog. pro christia [...]is. Athenago­ras, affirmeth (I graunt) that if any man being parted from his former wife doe marrie a [...]other he is an adulterer. But Bellarm [...]n must graunt with all that Athenagoras affirmeth it vntruly: considering that hee speaketh of par­ting even by death too, as well as by divorcement, & teacheth with the [Page 40] Tertuli de monegam Ep. Pha. haere 48. August de haerescap 26 Montanists that whatsoerer second marriage is vnlawfull, Wherevpō a famous Parisian Divine De continēt lib 3 cap. 17 [...] Claudius Espenseus saith of this same sentence of his which Bellarmin citeth; that it favoureth rather of a Philoso­pher then a Christian: & may wel be thought to have ben inserted into his worke by Eucratites. A censure, for the ground thereof very true that the said opinion is a Philosophicall fansie, yea an heresie; Though the wordes seeme rather to be Athenagoras his owne, as Noted in part by Espencaeus himself ibid ca 9. 0 sundrie far­hers speak dangerously, that way thē thrust in by Encratites, Eplpha. here 46 et 47. Au­gust de heres cap. 6. who generally riected all marriage, not second marriage onelie. Athenagoras the­refore worketh small credit to the Iesuits cause, As much doth the last of his witnesses Strom li 2 Clemens Alexandrinus For both in this point about second marriage hee marcheth Athenagoras & otherwise his writings are tainted with vnsoundnes, Strom. lib. 3 and stained with spott of errour. Which iudgment not onely Hist Eccle. [...]n agdeburg eent. 2 cap 10 Protestants of Germaine have in our remembrance lately, geven of him, though a Egm cam Piam rar. Iesuitical spirit doe tradn [...]e thē inso­lently, for it: But cap Sancta Romans dist 15. an auncient Pope of Rome with seaventie byshops assembled in a Councell above a thowsand yeares since, and a Byshop of Spaine a man of no small reputation with Papists for skill [...] both in divinitie and in the Canon law Vat [...]at [...] Ib, 9. cap. 17 Didacus Covarr [...]vias doth approve the same, Now in the third hundred yeares (to goe forward) Tertullian & Oregen are brought forth to averre Bellarmins opinion, of whom one question lesse cōtrolleth, perhaps both. For Advers marcion lip 4. Tertulliā disputing against the heretique Marcion, who falfely obiected that Christ is contrarie to Moses, because Moses graunted divorcement, Christ forbiddeth it, answereth that Christ saying, whoesoever sholl put away his wife and marrie another committeth adulterie, meaneth ex eadem vtique causa qua non licet dimitti ut all aducatur. vndoubtedly of pu [...]ing away for that cause, for which is not lawfull for a man to putt away his wife that hee may marrie another. And likewise for the wife, that he is an adulterer, who marrieth her being put away, Illiate di­missain ma­ne [...]ri matri­moni quod non [...]ite dirē, ptium est. if shee bee put away vnlawfully: considering that the mar­riage, which is not rightly broken off, continueth; end while the marriage doth continue, it is adultarie to marrie. Which words of Tertullians manyfestly declaring that a man divorced from his wife lawfully, for the cause ex­cepted by Christ, may marrie another, Bellarmin doth very cunningly and finely, cut of with an et cetera, and saith that there he reacheth that Christ did not forbid divorcement, if ther be aiust cause, but forb [...]d to marrya gnine after divorcement. So directly against the most evident light of the woordes & tenour of the whole discourse: that lerned men of theire owne side, though houlding his opinyon yet could not for shame but graunt that Tertullian maketh against them in it. For Epit in 4 lib decretal Part. [...] cap 7. D. 6. bishop Covar­ruvias mentioning the Fathers who maintein that men may lawfully marry againe after diuorcement for adultery, nameth Tertullian. (quoting [Page 41] this place) among them. Bibleath. [...] l. b. 6. [...] 8. Siictus Senensis a man not in f [...]riour in learning to Bellarmin in sencere dealing for this point superiour, con­fesseth on the same place, a [...]d on those same words but recited wholy, not clipped with an et cetera) that Tertullian maketh a certayne & vn­doubted assertion thereof. Anu [...]ris Ib advers m [...]tclon cap. 3. et P [...]rad [...] Tertul. [...] Pamelius indeede through a desire of propping vp his chruches doctrine with Tertullians credit, saith that though h [...]e seem hereto allowe divorcement for adulterie in such sort, as that the husband may marrie another wife; yet hee openeth himself, & holdeth it to vn­lawfull in his booke de Mouc [...] mia of single marriage, Wherein he saith some what, but litle to his advauntage. For Tertullian wrote this booke of single ma­riage when he was fallē away from the Catholique, faith vnto the here­sie of Montanus: and so doth holde therein agreably to that heresie, that is vnlawfull to marrie a second wife howsoever a man be parted from the former by divorcement or by death. But in that hee wrote, while hee was a Catholique against the heretique Marcion, he teacheth cōtrariwise the same that wee doe, as Sixtus Senensis and Cova [...]ruvias truely graunt, Yea Pamelius himself if he looke better to his owne notes, doth graunt as much. For Hierom in ca [...] l [...]go script eccles [...] lib de mono­ [...]am et. cap. 9. he saith that Tertullian vseth the worde divorcement in his proper signification, Aunotat in lib. 4. [...] marcion cap. 34. for such a divorcement hy which one putteth away his wife & marrieth another, But Tertullian saith: that Christ doth avouche the righ­teousnes of divorcement. Habet Christem [...] Christ therefore avoucheth that for adulterie a man may put away his wife & marrie another by Tertullians iudgment. Which also may be probably thought concerning Orige: Al­though it be true Tract [...] m [...]th cap 9. hee saith (as Bellermin. citeth him) that certaine byshops did permitt a woman to marrie while her former husband lived, and addeth, they did it agaynst the scriptu [...]re. For hee seemeth to speake of a woman divor [...]ed from her husband, not for adulterie, but for some other cau­se, such as the Iewes vsed to put away their wives for, by giving them a bill of divorcement, The matter that he handleth, and cause that he geveth thereof doe lead vs to his meaning. Approved by the opinion of certaine learned mē to. For after he had said (according to math. 19. 8. the words of Christ which he expoūdeth) that Moses in permitting a bill of divorcemēt did yeeld vnto the wakenes of thē to whom the law was gevē; he saith that, the Christian byshops who permitteth a womā to marrie while her former husband liveth, did it perhaps for such weaknes. wherfor sith in saying that, this which they did, they did perhaps for such weaknes, he hath relatiō vnto that of Mo­ses, & Moses, as he addeth) didnot graūt the bill of divorcemēt for adulterie, for that was punished by death it followeth that the Byshop whom Origē chargeth, with doing against the scriptuere did permitt the womā, to marrie vpō divorcemēt for some other cause, not for adulterie & so his re­proving of thē doth not touche vs, who graūt for adulterie only: Thus [Page 42] doth Annot in 1 Go [...] Erasmus thinke that Origē meant: cōcluding it farther, as clea­re, by similitude which Origē tract Zin ma [...]k. he had vsed before of Christ who put away the Sy­nagoge (his former wife as it were, because of her adulterie & married the church. Yea Expsicar at tic [...]l [...]r Lovan art. 1. Tapper likewise a great divine of Lovā, & of better credit with Papists thē Erasmus saith that the divorcemēt permitted by those Byshops, whō Origē controuleth was a Iewish divorcement. Wherein though he aymed at another marke, to prove an vntruth: yet vnwares he hit a truth more thē he thought of, & strengthened that by Origē which he thought to overthrowe. Howbeit if Bell, or Bell Inther preter can per­suade by other likelyhoods out of Origē (as he is somewhat darke, and I know not whether irresolute in the point) that the thing reproved by him in those Byshops was the permitting of one to marrie againe after divorcemēt for adulterie: our cause shalbe more advantaged by those sundrie Bishops who approved it, thē disadvātaged by on Origē, who reproved for it. Chiefly seing Origē impaired much his credit both by other heresies in diverse points of faith, for which a Synod. 5 cō [...]intinob. col. lat. 8. cap II. Nicephot lib. 1 [...] cap. 38. general Councel with Tim 1 cōt 6. lib, 2 cad 8. Bell. allowāce coūt him damned heretique a & in this matter by Hom 17 in Lucam. excluding al such as are twise married out of the Kingdō of heavē, which Cenebrad. annot marg. in cum loca. Espenceus de continent lib 3 [...]d 9.divines of Paris observe & check him for. Wheras those Byshops of whō he maketh mētiō, were neither stayned otherwise for ought that may begathred, nor herein did they more thē the right believing & Catholique church all that time thought lawfull to be don, as appeareth by Tertulliā & Iustine the Martyr. In the which respect Tractat de insti [...]us Sa cerde. de ma [...]imon. lect 13 Peter Soto (a freir of great accout in the Trent Councell) having said that it is playne by many arguments that the case which we treat of was doubtfull in the auncient church alleageth this for proofe thereof out of Origen, that many Bishops permitteth married men to marr [...] againe after divorcement. Thus if the two fathers whom Bellar. out of the third hundred yeares as making for him doe not make agaīst him, which perhaps they doe both: yet one of thē doth not out of all controversie, & byshops, more in number, in credit greater then the other agree with him therein. Out of the fowrth hūdred, the shewe which Bell, maketh, is a great deal fayrer thē out of the third; & a nūber of Fathers, the coūcel of Eliberis [...] Am, S. Ierō, a Romā Byshop, & S. Chriso are affirmed thē [...]e to ioyne thē ­selves with him. But they are affirmed in the like manner as the for­mer were: skarse one of them avouching the same that hee doth, the rest in part seeming to bee of other opinion, in part most clearely she­wing it, and such as shewe not so much, yet shewing their owne weake­nes, & that in this matter their opinion & iudgement is of small value.

For the formost of them conon. 9. the Councell of Eliberis, ordained that a woman which for sooke her husband because of his adulter ie and would [Page 43] marie another, should beforbidden to marrie, & if shee married, shee should not receave the communion til he were dead whō shee forsooke, vnlesse necessitie of sic­knes cōstryned to g [...]ve it her. Wheerein it is to be noted, first that the cou­cell saith not. Si quis L. ver [...] de ver [...] If anie man, so to comprehend & touche generallie all both men & womē: but they speake peculiarlie of the womā alone, & so doe not forbid the man te leave his adulterous wife & marrie ano­ther. Secondly, that the womā is excommunicated, if whē shee is for­biddē by the church to marrie, shee marrie neuerthelesse, not if before she be [...]orbiddē: As it were to punish her disobedience rather then the fact it self. Thirdlie, that shee is not debarred all her life time from the communion, but for a season onely, & in time of neede, in daungerous sicknes doth receive it: yea, even while the partie, whō shee forsooke li­veth, Of the which circumstances the first though it might argue the Councels oversight who made the womās case herein worse then the mans, both being free alike by Gods lawe: yet for the man it sheweth that they allowed him to marrie againe after divorcement according to the doctrine of Christ which wee maintaine. The next yeildeth like­liehood that the Councell did forbid the womā this not for that they thought it vnlawfull, but vnseemelie perhaps or vnexpedient, as co [...]ncil. 1 lerd. c Non [...] porter a se [...]tu agesima 33 q. 4. another Councell is read to have forbiddē the celebrating & solemnizing of marriages at certaine times. But the last putteth the matter out of doubt, that they were persuaded of the womā also marryīg in such sort that her fact was warrātable by the word of God. For els had they, not iudged her marriage with this latter mā to be lawfull, they must needs have iudged her to live with him in perpetuall adulterie. Which if they had thought, it is most improbable they would have admitted her to the communion in case of daungerous sicknes: seeing at the point of death can. 64. they denie it to womē so continuing, yea [...]ah. 3. 7 17 18 47. 65. [...]o [...] & [...]5. to mē offend [...]ng lesse heynoufly then so. With such extremitie of rigour therein that Annal Eccles tom. [...] adanū christ 5 [...]. Bar [...] ­nius noteth their decrees as favouring of the Novation heresie; & Tim. 1. contr. 7 lib 1 cad 6. Bell. layeth it almost as deeply to their charge. So farre from all likeliehood is it that they would admitt her in necessitie of sicknes to the commu­nion had they bene persuaded shee lived in adulterie still. Therefore it was not without cause that Bell, did suppresse this circumstance to ge­ther with the former, in citing the decre of the Elibernie Councell: least his false illation, to weete that they accounted such marriage vnlawfull even for the innocent partie, & in the cause of adulterie, should be descovered and controlled thereby. Next is Ambrose brought in whom vpon the 16 chap. of Luke, writeth much against them that putting away their wife doe marrie another, and he calleth that marriage adulterie in sundrie places: neither doth he ever except the cause of whordō in that whole [Page 44] discourse as Bellarmin saith. But what if Bellarmin here be like himself too? Certainely S. Ambrose speaketh Dimi [...]t [...] [...]xocem qua­ [...]lu [...]a sin [...] crimine of such wivēs as lived without crime, & Putas id ti b [...] licere quia lex h [...]mana non prohibet sed div [...]na prohib. l. 1. whom their husbands were (as hee addeth) forbiddē by the lawe of God to put away. So that hee reproving men for marrying o­thers after they had put away their chaste wives, doth evidently shewe he meant not of marriage after divorcement for whoerdom, And if it be sufficiēt proofe that he supposed they, Noli ergo vxotem [...] tere. Quidi mittit uxotē facit eam moe cham. might not marrie againe af­ter they had put away a whorish wife because he never excepteth who [...] dō in that wholediscourse of marrying againe, thē by as sufficiēt a reason hee supposed that [...]2 they, might not put awaye their wives at all, no not for whordom, because he never excepteth it in that whole dis­course of putting away the wife. But that Papists will gr [...]unt that a mā may lawfully put away his wife, if shee committ whordom. As Bellar. then will construe S. Ambrose in this braunch, so let him in the former. And if he say, that S. Ambrose thinking vpon Luke alone whom he ex­pounded, or trusting his memorie forgot the exceptiō added by Christ [...] Mathew, for Math. c. 32. putting away the wife▪ the same slipp of memorie might loose the same exception for math. 19. 9. marrying another. If he thinke that Ambrose did not forget himself, but vnderstoode the exceptiō in the former point, as the 1 cor. [...], 11 Apostle did, though neither mention it ex­pressely: what reason why, it might not as well be vnderstood in the later also? As for S. Ierom no marve [...]l if he wrote against secōd marriage after divorcement for whordō Epist [...] ad Salvinam et n, ad Age [...]u chiā et adver­sus [...]ovinian. who wrote against all second marria­ges in such sort, that De continēt lib 3 [...] ap. [...] Espenceus asketh what could have ben said more greivously against them by the impure Who cōdemne of cond marriges Epiph [...]s. haeres 59 August de hae [...] ib cap, 8 Catharists, them is said by him? And In August de civit, de lib [...] The divines of Lo [...]anin in thier edition of Au [...]en. printed at Ant [...] sentence out beyond the prescript of index expurgatorius Vives pronounceth, that he did not only detest second marria­ges, but also had small liking of the first, nor did much favor matrimo­nie; Beside that himself to, as farre as [...] exceded the boundes of God­ly modestie & truth her in, even by thes [...]mens iudgments whom Pa­pists doe repute learned & Catholique allayeth & correct [...]th in one of the places, which Bell▪ alleageth, his peromptorie consure given in the other. For whereas hee saith in his Epistle to Amandus, that the wife who divorced herself from her husband because of his adulterie & married another [...]it on vult adui [...]ers redu [...]ari was an adulteresse for so marrying, & Non A Peila [...]ur vir fed a dul [...]et her newe husband an adulterer: In his epitaph of [...] (a noble godly [...]g gentlewoman of Rome, who did the like & was poenitēt for it after her second husbāds death he saith, that she lamented & bewaryled if soe, as if shee had commit­ted adulterie. By which kinde of speech & others sutable to it, as that hee tearmeth her state after divorcement from her first husband. Widdow­hood, & addeth, that shee lost Vidu [...]latem suam servare non pote [...]at 8 Sub, glo [...]a vni ver the honor of having h [...]d but on husband, Post [...] see nodi viri [...] Opera exer­cete [...] by mar [...]ying the secōd, & saith, shee though [...] better to vndergoe a certain, [Page 45] shadow of pitifull wedlocke, then to plaie the whore, because it is bet­ter (saith Paul) to marrie thē to burne: S. Ieron declareth that although it were a fault in his opinion to doe as shee did: yet not such a fault, a crime, a publique crime, as Bell. doctrine maketh it. No more may it be iustly thought in the opinion of that Roman Byshop, of whom, be­cause he put Fabiola to publique penance after her second husbands death, Bell, concludeth that it was accounted a publique crime in the Catholique Church at that time, if any man whilst his wife yet lived, married another yea, albeit for whordō. For mē at that time were put to some penance in the Catholique Church, for marrying againe after their first wives death, as Bell. observeth out of the Catholique Nec eaesas can. 7 et lao dicen cap. 1 proved [...] ha­ve tha. mea­ning by Espeu ceu [...] lib, 2. de continent cap I aS Zonaras too and Ba samō interpret them b [...]th, hongth the glossoon Graaian [...] one of them otherwise cap de his [...] D Qu [...]d. [...] D' de xdili [...]. edict l non emnia D, de publici iudi [...]. Coun­cels: adding therewith al, that al though they knewe second marriage to be lawfull, yet because it is a token of incontinēcie they chastised it with somepenāce. Wherefor sith it might easilie be that they who laid some penan [...]e vpon no fault, would lay publique penance vpon a smal fault, specially in women, to whō in such cases they were more severe & rigorous them to mē: the penance which the Bishop did put Fabiola to for her secōd marriage doth not prove sufficiently that it was accoun­ted then a publique crime in the Catholique church. Howbeit if the t [...]arm of publique crime be vsed in a gētler sēs thē cōmonly it is, or the Bishop of Rome did never put aney but grivous offēders & sinners to publique penance: yet perhaps even so to will Bellarmin come short of this conclusion [...] ▪ For thereby (saith he) we doe not vnderstand that [...]i q [...]i vivēte conjuge if any man while his wife yet lived, marrie another, yea albeit for whoredō, it was accounted a publique crime in the Catholique church at that time, if any mā did it. As who say the Byshop of Rome must need should that, if womē were not lisenced to marrie after divorce­ment for whordom, men could not be neither, Whereas he might be of the same opiniō, that an auncien, [...]onc l. Ell ber [...] cap. 9 Councell seemeth (as I shewed) to have bene before him; & an aunciēt Ambros. in. 1. ad c. [...] cap. 7 Father (living & writing as censura­theol gerum lova [...] in August lib quaest veret nov re­stain Tom. 4. some thinke, in Rome about the same time) was: I meane, that this liber­tie & freedō should be graunted to men but not to womē. Moreover the delay of Faviolas penance, in that she was not put thereto vntill Hi [...]rom epist. o ad [...]. af­ter her second husbands death, yeledeth very strong & probable cōectu­re, that it had not bene before thē accoūted any crime at all in the Catholique church, not for a womā neither to put away her husbād because of his adulterie, & to marrie another. Melius arbitra [...]ae [...]. For that which Fabiola did, she did opēly. Her self was religious, godly, wel instructed; & thought it to be lawfull. Her husbād by all lykelyhood of like minde & iudgement: the church of Rome called not their marriage in to question. The By­shop did not execute any Church cēsure on thē, Nay, sith she was Adolescentu [...]ten. yeat [Page 64] yong, when they married, and never harde of any fault therin cōmit­ted as long as her husband lived: it may be Rome had many bishops in that time, none of whom saw cause why they should blāe her for it. The exāple of Fabiola therfor, & the Romābs. deling in it, maketh more a great deale with us then against us, if it be throughly waighed. Now S. Chrisostom maketh absolutly with us: howsoeoer Bell, affirmeth that he teacheth the same with S. Ierom yea with Epist. 145 S. Ierom▪ simply comending all such marriage. Amanqum [...] For what doth S. Chrisostom teach in the sermō that Bell, quotetth upon Math? Hom. 17. in Math. cadt. Forsooth; that by Moses law it was permitted, that whosoever hated his wife for any cause might put her away & marry another in her Roome: But Christ left the husbād one cause alone to put away his wife for namely whoredom. What? & doth it folow hereof that Chrisost. meant that the husbād putting her away for whoredō, might not marry another? Rather the clean contrary. Seing he speaketh of such a puting away, as Moses did permit & maketh this the differēce betweene Christs ordinance, and the lawe of Moses, that Moses did permit it for any cause, Christ but for one, Which to be his meaning he sheweth more plainely upon the first to the Corinthiās, saying that the marriage is dissolved by whordom, Hom. 19 int 1. eor. 7. neither is the husband, a husband a­ny longer. For hence it appeareth that he thought the band of marri­age to be loosed when they are severed for woredō: and therefore cō sequently the parties are free to marry according to the Apostles rule. 1. cor 7. 28

And other where also, Homil de [...]bell requdii though somewhat more obscurely, yet cōfer­rence with this place will shew him to have taught. But what should I stande on farther proofe therof, it being so undoubted, Epitom in 4. lib dectetal part. 2. cap. 7 D. 6. that bishope Covaruvias an ernest adversary of marriage after divorcement, & bringing al the Fathers that he can against it, confesseth S. Chrisost. to stand on the other side against him for it. And this in four hundred years after Christ, Bell. cāot finde on of the Fathers, that he may iustly say is his excepting them which make as much for the Encratites, Montanistes, and Catharists, as they doe for Papists. In the ages followi [...]g he fin­deth better store: now one now moe in the hundred. Yet among thē also, looke how many he nameth of the Eastern bishops, whether ex­pressedly, or implyedly: he playeth the Ies [...]it with him. For the firste of them Theophylact he alleageth with the same faith & truth, that he did Chrisost, Tom. 7. contr. 7. lib. 1 cap. 4. whose schollar Theophylact being (after Bellarmins owne note) did follow his maister.

And this the two places themselves that Bellarmin quoteth; doe insinuate clearelye: Theophy [...]uct iae Math. cap. 19. The former by oppening how Christ permit­teth not the putting awaye which Moses did, without iuste cause, nor [Page 47] alloweth any cause as iust but whordom In. 1. Cor. 7 the [...] by omitting mention of whordom, in spesifying the causes for which if a woman depart frō her hus­band shee must remaine vnmarried. Whereto (if Bell. neede more light to see it by) we may adde a third place: in which In. Luc. cap. 16. Theophylact saying that Luke rehersing Christes words against men putting away their wives & mar­rying other must be vnderstood with the exception out of Mathew, Patectos logou porneias delade. obseured by the Latin trā ­slator omit­ting delade. Vnless it be for whordom, doth shew howfarre he differeth herein from Bell. who de­nyeth flatly that Christes wordes in Luke must be supplyed with that ex­ception. The rest of the Easterne Fathers whose testimony is alleaged by Bellarmin though their names not mentioned: are such as were as­sembled in the Councell of Florence. For there came thither to conferre with the Pope and the westerne by shops, albeit many of these houl­ding a generall Councell at Basil the same time, refused to chaunge the place for the Popes pleasure, who sought his owne advantage the­rein, not the Churches, and vndermined the actions of the Councell of Basil Concil Ba­s [...]lien [...]sese 33. et 34 Enias Syl [...]iusde ge [...]l. concil. which condemned him of heresie, and deposed him; but there came thither Synodus Flo­aentine, procé et subscript in ilterlavuioni [...] th [...] Patriarches of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioche, and Ierusalem, either themselves in person, or by their deputies, with many Metropolitanes and Bishops of Greece of Asia, of Iberia, and other countries of the East. Whose creditt and consent how vutruely Bellar. pretendeth, for the proofe of his false assertion, it is plaine by that hee saith the Coun [...]al of Florens did decree the same in the instruction of the Armenians. A chapter which is fathered indeed upon the Coūcell by the schismatical pope Eugenius the fourth, the deviser of it: but fa­thered uniustly and calumniously as the time agreeth, wherein it was begotten. For it is accorded in the same decree, that it was made the Decimo ca­lendas D [...]ce [...] b [...]tis two and twentith of November in theyeare of Christ a thousand four hundred, thirty & nine. Now the Councel ended in Iuly the same year four moneths before: As both Synod Fl [...] [...]ent. sess. ult. it self witness [...]th, & O [...]npht. in Pontil. max [...]t card Cene card. Chro­nog [...]adh. lib 4 Popish stories note. Wherefore the Councell could not be the farther of that decree and chapter: noe more then a man can bee of that childe which is borne fouretē moneths after his death. And the pope whose bastard in truth the brat is, by the acknowlegment and record of Papists them selves in the Decretum Eugeui [...] paper quat [...]i Tomes of Concells, was so much the more to blame to father it vpon the Councel of Florence Psaesens. [...]ane at atque mag­na et Vulversa li [...] Synodus the great & generall councell, and Florentiaeia Publica seffio ne Synoda [...]i [...] brata. date it in a publique solemne session therof; because neither was it debated in the Councel whether marriage after divorcement for a­dulterie were lawfull or no; & the Synod Flo [...]eur [...]. ult. Easterne byshops mainteyned it to be lawfull, whē the pope after the end of the councel did reprove thē fore its neither is it likely the contrarie was decreed by al there present of the west, Chiefly seing that more thēhalf of thē were, gone whē both [Page 48] partes the East & West, In proamio subscribed to the decrees of the Councell in the leters of agreement: as appeareth by conferring their number with Sess. ult. their names, & the note thereof, There are about [...]o by shops seas in Italie. Leand Albett in de­script. talie I Eneas Sylvi­us degestis Ba­sillensi [...] concil lib 1. clā dius Espēce us in epist ad ri­tum cap l. Yea the Councell being en­ded the sixth of Iuly, had their superscriptious added unto it the one & twentith. Then if of 7, score & perhaps upward, scarse 3. score were remaining at Florence. 14. daies after the Coūcel ended: What may we thinke there were above 4. moniths after? But how many soever were present of the West, as the Pope can quickely must [...]r up an 100; bish­ops or more, if need be out of Italie alone, to carry awy things in Co. by multitud of voyces, such policie hath he used for that; but how many soever Italiās he bāded to coūtenance his decree, the bishops of the East agreed not therto, neither was it the councels act. Thus al the Fa­thers of the Eastern churches, whom Bell alleageth, & may urge with credit their doctrine towards marriage, doe not onely not say with him, but gainsay him. Wherin there have soe many others followede them from age to age till our tyme, that it is apparant they allow with greater consent a mans marriage after divorcement for adulterie the [...] ▪ Fathers of the Western churches dissalow it, For Eusebius treatinge of Iustin the Martyr setteth forth with the same praise that he had done the story of the Christian woman, who divorced her self from her ad­ulterous husband. And S. Hist eccl sib 4 cap [...] 17 Basils cannons approved by Synod sext. in Trull can. 2 [...] Quoniam [...] 6 Synod. sept can. 1. general coū ­cells; doe not onely authorieze the man to marrie another, whose wif [...] is an adulteresse, but also check the custom which yeelded not like fa­vour in like case to the woman. And Epipha [...]ius Heres. 59. saith (his wordes are read corruptly, but the sence thereof is Plaine of our side, as Epis [...]a 4 lib docreta part. 2 cap. 7. 6. Covarievs as graūteth, Epiphanius saith therfore that Sepration being made for whordom a man may take a second wife, or a woman a second husband and the same in effect avoucheth De eur gr [...] affect lib. [...] Theodoret affirming that Christ hath set downe one cause: wherby the hand of Marriage should be dissolved, & onely rent asunder, in that he did except whoredom. And a generall Sext Sxnod Constautmot Iin T [...]u [...] cāot Nomon syna [...] thisan translated o­therwise by some but mē [...] thus by the councell as mentoi with the antithesis going before it shaweth & thi [...] vse of the word Sy­nap testas can 13 dist 3 e Quon [...]am Coūcel, wherin ther were above 220. bishops of the East gathered together, doth implye as much in saying that. He, who his [...] wife having keept the lawe of wedlocke & being faithfull to him, yet forsaketh her and marrieth another is by Christs sentene guilty of adultery. So doth [...]n prior ad cor cap. 7 Oecumenius in applying the precept of abyding unmarried to [...] has should not have departed, & in abridg­ing Chrisostoms words after his manner, whose schollar Tom 1 cont 7 cap l [...]b Bell. therefore tearmeth him. So doth In math. ca 5 Euthymimius Choysostoms. schollar too, in charging the man with adulterie, Hist ecel lib 3 cap. [...]3 who marrieth a woman divorced for any cause but whordom frō her husband. So doth Nicephoras, in copyinge & cōmeding that out of Eusebius, which he had out of Iustin the Martyr. To be short, the Grecians, Decretum. Eugenli pupae which name compriseth many natiōs [Page 49] the East all whom the ^h Florentine Councell calleth the Eastern Church doe put the same doctrine receyved from their aunstours in practise even at this day, allowing married folke not onely, to sper [...]te and di­vorce themselves in case of adulterie but also to marrie others, as Bel­larman confesseth. Wherefore his opinion hath not the consent of the Eastern bishops: neither hath had it any age since Christ, Much less can he shewe the consent of the South paulus lovi­nt [...] lib. [...] Francis Alvat descript [...] cap. 21 the Aethiopians, an Abessi­nes, or of the A [...]ex. [...] Moscovites & Russes in the North: both which as they re­ceyved their faith from the East, so vse they like freedom & libertie for this matter. No, not in the west it self, though he have many then a­greeing with him, yet hath hee the generall consent of all the Fathers perhaps not of half, if an exact count might betaken of them, [...]or be­sides Tertullian, the Councell of Eliberis &c. to let passe Ambrose on▪ By­shop of Rome, or more alreadie shewed to have thought that [...] a man being divorced from his wife for her adulterie, is free to marrie againe: th [...]re are of the same minde [...] Lactantius, In mat ca 5 Chromatius, [...] Hilarie, Augustin de aduliet cōjug, ad pollent lib. 2 cap. [...] et lib cap. [...]. Pollētius, [...]u Epist [...] cap 7. the auther of the Cōmentaries in Ambrose his name vpon S. Pauls epistles, can. 10. the first Councell of Arles, can. 2. the coūcell of Vannes, they who either were at or a­greed to the Cōstantinop in Trullo cap. 88 gr. 87 [...]at sixth generall coūcell the secōd time assēbled Epist 4 ad [...] Pope Gregorie the third [...] Pope Zacharie, the councell of cap 3. et 10 Burchard. de cre [...]or I c. 4 et l. 1 [...] cap. 17 [...] et [...] Wormes of [...]2 [...] cum no­va [...]ca Burchar. iib. 17. c. 17. et 18 Tribur, of ca. 5 Burchar [...] b. 17. c. 5. Mascon, a councel alleaged by, 52 q. [...] quaedam Gratian without name, and other learned mē alleaged likewise by Sed illud ead caus. et quest [...]e Vemeus [...] da eo qui a [...]gn con sang vxoris suae. him Qua [...]to. extra. de divortys Pope Alexander the third, Qua [...]to. extra. de divortys Celestin the 3, de concord Euang cap [...] Zacharie & Addit. 2. ad Lyran in mat. 19 Paul byshop, the one of Chrisopolis, the other of Burgose Christ marri­mon instit et au not. in [...]cor. cap [...] E­rasmus, Tract de mat [...] quest an propror c [...]im edult couj. l. b. a vinculo Cardinal Cajetan: Archbishop Catharinus Enar ratim epist ad [...] Naclantus byshop of Clugia, finalli the teachers of the reformed churches in Tindal ou mat, 5 Bucer. de regno ch [...]ist lib. 2. ca. 43 pmarry [...] in [...] cor [...] Bea [...] [...] the confession of their faith pie [...] in Luther [...]uacrat in mat 5. et. cor. [...]con [...] Saxon in Harmon con [...]. sect. 18. art de com w [...]itē ibid hist. magdeburch, [...] l. ca. Kēnic. exam, [...]. Trident part Eng. ^m Scot., ⁿ Ger. calvin lust [...] [...] lib 4. 19. ult gal. in Ha [...]mon conf. Be [...]g in Harm. con muscul in mat. 5. bul. decad. 2. se [...]m. 10. [...] zege France and i [...] Iacorcom, de div [...]r, tub. l. other countris, for why should not I name these of our professiō & faith amōg the Fathers as well as Bell. nameth the popish councell of Trent on the contrarie side? But the Papists (will some mā peradventure say doe not graunt that all whom you have rehearsed, were of this opiniō. But the Papists I answer) doe graunt that sundrie of them were? & such as they graunt not, the light of truth & reasō will either make them graunt, or [...]hame them for denying it. As Biblioth Sanct Sixtus Se­nensis, namely doth deny that Hilarie and Chromantius allowe a man to marrie another wife after divorcement: or teach that hee is loosed from the band of matrimonie, while his former wife though an adul­tesse liveth. Now weigh their owne wordes, & it wil appeare that Sixtus [Page 50] iniurieth them therein. For [...]n math. cap 5. Chromatius saith that they who having put away their wives for any cause save for whoredom, 4 A [...]sq forni­cationis causapresume to mar­rie others, doe against the will of God, and are condemned, Wherein, with what sence could hee except whoredom, vnlesse hee thought them guiltlesse, who having put away their wives for it doe marrie o­thers? And can 4. in Math [...]D. sinendla con [...]ugio. Hilarie affirming Christ to have prescribed no other cause [...] of ceasing from matrimony, but that; sheweth that the baud of matrimony is loosed thereby in his iudgmēt. Chiefly sith he knew that they might cease from the vse therof, for other causes: & the occasiō & tenour of the speech doe argue that he meāt such a seperatiō as yeel deth liberty of new marriag, In like sorte, or rather more plainly & expressely did Pollentius holde & maintaine the same: As Austin (whō in this point hee dissented from) doth repote and testifie. Yet Bellarmin (a strange [...]thing in a case so cleare, but nothing strange to Iesuits) saith that Pollentius Non [...]contra dix [...]t. Angu [...]ti. no sed eum consuluit. did not gainsaie Austin, but asked his iudgment of the matter: and for proofe here of referreth vs to the beginnings of both the bookes of Austin. Even Dead [...] cō ­iug ad pollēt, lib 1 cap 1. to those beginnings in which it is declared how Austin having laboured too prove that a woman parted from her husband for his fornication might not marry ano­ther, Tanquam consulende sh [...]th Austin In steedewherof, Bellarmin [...]a h cōsu [...] ēdo & drowneth. sanqnam. Pollentius wrot vnto him as it were by way of asking his iudgmēt and shewed hee thought the contrarie: yet shewed it in such sorte, that Austin setting downe both their opinions, doth specifie then as flatly crossing one the other: You are of this minde, I of that: and saith of Pollentius againe and againe that 8 hee was of this mynde, which Bellarmin de­nieth hee was of, wherein the Iesuits dealing is more shamefull, for that beside the evidence of the thing it self so often repeated in the ve­rie same places that hee citeth Id enim sen tis & videtut [...]ibset existi mas & putas. et ef [...]s [...]o nes tibivibet ut [...]t existimas▪ Sixtus Senenses a man as vnwilling as Bellarmin to weaken anie of their Trent points with graunting more then hee must needes confesseth that Poeleutius thought hereof as we doe. Biblior [...] sac [...]ae lib. 2. verb Bepud [...]j humanilibellus Belike because Sixtus Seuensis honoureth: him with the praise & tit­le of a polia [...]sium religiosish mum virum. most godie man, Bell. thought it better to lie, then to graunt that they have such an adversarie. Hee would faine avoid too another a [...]ncient father bearing the name ef Ambrose, & I [...] epi t. l ad ct [...] cap 7 Ambrose might his name be, though he were not famous Ambrose Byshop of Milan. But whether hee were named so, or otherwise (which As it is probably gathered out of Au [...]in cont duase of t [...]las pelagian lib [...], cap. perhaps is truer vnto his testimonie pronouncing it lawfull by S, Paules doctrine for a man iustly divorced to marrie (againe though not for a woman as he [...] by missetaking S. Paul thro [...]gh errour 20 [...] seb [...]llnd though Bellarmin replieth with a threefold answere. First Gratian (saith hee) and Peeter lib▪ sent. dist 35. Lambard doe affirme that those word [...]swere thrust into this authors Commen­tarie by some corrupters of writtings. In deede the one of them [Page 51] affirmeth: dicitur. it is said so the other, credituo. it is thought so. But if it be sufficient to affirme barely without anie ground of proofe or probabilitie, that it is said or thought so: what errour soe absurd that may not be desen­ded by perverse wranglers? what cause soe oniust, that vnrighteous iudges may not geve sentēce with? For whatsoever words be enforced against them out of the law of God or man, our of anie evidence or record of writers & witnesses worthie credit: they may with Peter Lōbard & Gratian replie that the place alleged is said or thought to have bene thrust into those monuments by some corrupters of writings. And in replying thus they should speake trueli, though it were said or thought by nome beside themselves: but how reasonably they should speake therein, let men of sense & reason iudge. Surelie though Peter Lōbard rest vpō that aunswer, for wāt of a better, yet Gratian (whether [...]aring the si [...]klie state thereof, doth leave it, and seeketh himself a new patron saying that Ambroses, words are thus meant, that a man may lawful­lie marrie another wife after the death of the adulteresse, but not while she liveth, which aunswer is mote absurd thē the former. In so much that Epis in 4. lib decreta [...] pat 2 caP. 7. 5. [...] Covarruvias speaking of th. former onely as verdict, as anie, said that this repugneth manifestlie to Ambrose. A verie true verdict, as anie mā not blind may see by Ambrose wordes: And Bellarmin couf [...]ss [...]th the same in effect, by passing it over in sil [...]nee as ashamed of it, But others (sayth hee secondlie) doe aunswer that this author speaketh of the Civil law, the law of Emperous: To weet, that by the Emperours Lawes it is lawfull for men, but not for women, having put away their mate, to marrie another: and that Paul therefore least he should offend the Emperour 1. cor. 7. 1 would not say expressely. If a man put away his wife, let him a bide so or bereconciled to his wife. Now Gratians second answer was no les­se worthy to have bene mentioned, then this of panop▪ E­vang lib. 3. cad, [...]. 5. William Lindam, pat­ched vp by Bell. For the li. D de di­vo [...]et [...]epud, [...] lege ad le, [...]e lubdea­du [...]t [...] cōnfen­su list constan [...]ee de [...]epu di [...]s. civill law prononceth the band of marriage to be loosed as wel by divorcement as death: and alloweth women to take other hushands, their former being put awaie, as it alloweth men to take others wives, So that is a fond and vnlearned conceit to imagin that Paul would not say of husbands as hee did of wives, least hee should offend the Emperour by speaking expresselie against that which his law allowed, For l. cor. 7. 11. hee did expressely controll the Em­perours law in saying of the wife. If shee dedart from her husband, let her remaine vnmarried, or bee reconciled to her husband. And the authours wordes doe shewe that hee meant to speake, not of humaine lawes, but of divine: of the sacred scripture where vpon he wrote, aud what was thereby lawfull, Which seemed soe evident vnto, Instit sacerd ca de Matr [...]m Lect 13. Peter Soto, gstiblioth sa [...]e lib. 9. annor. [...] & Sixtus Senesis, and Annot in cap v [...]or avi▪ 10. 32. 97. the Roman Censors, who oversaw Pope Gregorie the thir­tenths [Page 52] tenths new edition of the Cannon law, that they confesse that Ambrose (meaning this authour) doth a prove plainly, certainly, vndoubtely, mens libertye of marrying againe after divorcement. Bellarmin ther­fore comyng in with his third aunswer. Yet saith hee if these bee not so well liked, it may be aunswered easilie: that the author of those Com­mentaries is not Ambrose, nor any of the renowned Fathers, Qu [...]q erud [...] [...] igno­rant. as lear­ned men know. Thus at length this authour, if men will not beleeve that his wordes are corrupted, or that hee spake of the Civill law, shall bee graunted vs with Bellarmins good leave; But then wee shall bee told▪ that hee is not Ambrose, nor anie of the renowned Fathers as learned men know. And why could not Bellarmin aunswere this at first? Why was hee soe loath to graunt that such an authour, base, obscure of sclend [...]r cr [...]ditt, maketh with vs? H [...]rein th [...]re [...] a mysterie. There is in epist 1 ad [...]im cap. 2. in this authours Commentaries a place, a cujus h [...]die Iactov est Da­maus.peece of a senten [...]e, whi [...]h seemeth to speake for he Popes Supremacie: Though perhaps never written by this authour, or not with that mea­ning, as I have he wed els where. To. 2. e ntr [...] 3 lib cap 6 Bellarmin had cited that place for that in Beatus Am brosius where by he meneth simons Am. b [...]se. byshop of Mila as the quotatiōs so [...] lowing she [...] S. Ambrose. his na me: and The English college of Rheimes, Annot. On [...] tim 3. 15 manie make a feast thereof, as being fare S. Ambroses. Now if he should saie, that the author of those Commentaries was neither Ambrose nor Saint: hee should gainsaie himself. And sith hee was learned, when he did cite it soe, and there­fore knewe (by his owne words) that it was not Ambrose not anie of the renowned fathers who writt it: men would see thereby, that he had for the Pop [...]s sake against his owne knowledg, fathered on S. Ambrose that which is not his. No marveil then if Bellarmin came to his auns­were as a beare to the stake. At the which though hee seeme to cast vs of, by saying that the authour was no renowed Father, and erred in mistaking S. Paul, as having geven more libertie to men then women, whereof in due place afterward: yet in the meane season hee is forced to graunt that this auncient Father tooke it to bee lawfull for men to marrie againe after divorcement for adulterie. The sundrie evasions & shifts whereby the Papists have laboured to wrest the credit of this one Father out of our handes, doe geve mee occasion to suspect that they will wrangel much more to withdraw from vs the first Councell of Arles' being more auncient in time, in credit greater, and (as Heldin con­stan [...]ins time about they [...]at ol christ [...] [...]art caranza in somon [...] eō ­ciliocum. one of themselves doth probably coniecture) confirmed by the Pope also. Herevente the Councele wishing of certaine persons not to marrie in the case wee treat of might serve them for a colour in as mu [...]h as can. [...]o it saith concerning them whose wives are taken in adulterie, that if they bee yong men and forbidden to marrie, [...]ns llum. eis deur, advise should bee given the, as much as may bee not to take other wi [...]es while the former live, [Page 53] though adulteresses. But this giving of advise is in truth an argument that the councell iudged a man no adulteter, if hee tooke another wife. Els would they have given not advise and counsail, but charge and commandement to refraine from it; and (as it is likely) restrained mens transgression therein with sharpe discipline, specially cōsidering [...]an 3. 4. 5. 7. 11. 12. et 14 e In quantum pciest Adolescens [...]s exprohibē [...]es nub [...]e.they punish lesser faults with excommunication. Neither is it no­thing that they temper also this counsail and advise to be geven such, with ⁹ as much as may bee. And a farder circumstance yet of more importance, they make not this restraint for all men, but for [...] young men nor [...]or all yong men, but such as are forbidden to mar­rie: meaning (as it seemeth) thoose who being vnder the care of their parents were by them forbidden, and could not honestilie disobey. For had not this respect or the like moved the Fathers of the Councel, why should they have restrained such yong men and not ot [...]er? Nay, why onelie yong men, not rather men, not aged men, or thē also? Sith in ^p Tim. 5. 9 S. hripture elder women are chosen to be widowes, and yonger willed to marrie. Our adversaries therefore must yeeld that the coū cell of Arles is of our side for the point in question, Whereto they shall have greater reason to induce them, if they note with al that the Concil Va narie in Gallia cund 2.Councell of Vames in the same contrie, Ab [...]ut the yeare of christ 400. ^a the age following made this canon. pecca [...]a Wee appoint and ordeine, that they who having left their wives, except for whoredom (as it is said in the Gospel) or vpon proofe mad of adulterie, mar­rie others, shalbe excommunicated: Least, finnes being suffered by o [...]r too much gentlenes doe provoke other men to loosenes of transgressing. And this decree I finde not anie of the Papists that goeth about to shift of: Neither cā I see how they may possiblie: The Con̄cell expoūding so playnly Christs wordes of marriage forbidden after divorcement unlesse it bee for whoredome, and accompting marriage after such divorcement not a lesser sinne, but no sinne, at all, as the reason added for strength of their decree sheweth, Now for the next the generall Councell assembled in the Emperours palace of Constantinople which made the like de­cree and taught the same doctrine, as I have declared: Bellarmin would persuade vs (vpon other occasions touching Poperie nearer the quick, thē this doth) that the western Byshops neither gave coun­tenaunce thereto with their presence, nor approved the Canons there of with their consent. To this end he denieth that the said Councell was a generall Councell, & striveth in his De Ro pont lib. 2. cap 27 third controversie to aun­swer some of our reasons which confirme it. But he easeth vs of paines to fist his aunsweres by meanes that himself in the Dr ecc'es m [...] te lib 1 cap 7 vi s [...]8 D, de con [...]ititu [...] pri [...] eip [...]m. fourth controver­sie, discoursing of generall councels purposelie, doth reckē it amongst thē. For as in ^v mēs lawes whē they are repugnāt on vnto another, the [Page 54] later derogateth from the former: lib led magini [...]ad eao 35 Post Nicaen synod 2. [...]cius synodi e [...]ct [...]. a Nicae u [...]sy. 6. so (I trow) when Bellarmin doth contradict himself, his last word must hould. And the more reason it should so in this, because both Pope Adrian the first of auncient tyme, did cal it the sixth Councel, declaring therby he tooke it to bee of the Generall Councels whereof he tearmed it the sixth, and in the seaventh General Councel sundry Fathers alleadged it by the name of the sixth Generall, and avouched it to be iustely called so. Which sen­tence of theirs being uncontroled by any of that Councell, Nicaen-sy and the Councell it selfe afterward approoving the decrees and canons of the sixe generall Councels, Zonaras et o orientatis a orienta is ec [...]ls. c. ult. it is very probable that the Western churches yealding their consent to the seaventh councell, and taking it for foūd accounted (as the Eastern have done & doe) that which they entiteled the sixth to be generall, Specially seing that in the West, men of great credit Ivo & Gratian and Pope Ionoceutius the third and their disciples the whol schole of cāonists have on those autorities of the seaveth coū cel made like reckouing of it. Decretie pari 4. c 12. et [...]e­qu nt And although our yonger Papists for the most parte aud some of the elder, perceiving what advantage may be taken thence against many grounds of popery, Oist 16 c. Hobe [...] librū [...]c A mustis doe crosse th [...]er predecessors herein with seely reasons, such as whereof the best would in­ferre more forcibly that their councell of Trent was noe Generall cō cell: yet among thē also ther are who allow the auncient opinion as Caranza namely, and Genebrard and Surrius, with whose preface tending to the proofe thereof it is recōmended & published by papists in the two perfectest and last editions of the councels. Virged by of Canus etc. lib. 2. de Rom pont cap. 27. Wherefore whether a­uy of the West were present in persō, orby deputys, & subscribed to it which Belsamon and Nilus, learned Greeke Fathers avouch by oulde recordes; or whether it were celebrated by Estern bishops onelye, as the second Generall Councell also was in the same city of Constantin­ople the consent of the West approving it for Geuerall averreth my saiings by a cloud of wittnesses of the Western Churches, sū ma cōci­Iotū, chtono gra Ph. lib 3. stātino lolita­num sinit it sub [...] ustinian [...] Rhimotmet oeolctis. 237 pope Gregory the thirde followeth, He graunteth that if a womā by reason of siicnesse wherewith she were taken could not performe the dutye of a wif to her husdand, her h [...]sband might put her awaye and marry anoth­er. More then by the doctrine of Christ he had learned to graunt for sickenesse, but so much the likelyer that he thought it should be grā ­ted for whoredom expressely mentioned by Christ. Whereupon Io­verius a sorbonist in a woorke approved by Sorbonists, Pres [...]t sy [...]n 6 matcheth this Cannon with the like of Councels, who gave the innocent party leave to marey againe after divorcement, while the other lived. an [...]t eccles clsi. 2. sect. 2. Neither doth Bellarmin deny the illation but the proposition, which the poynt inferrede is grounded upon. For the Doctores (sayth hee [Page 55] meaning the Canonists) expound the Canon of such sicknesse as maketh a woman vnfitt for Marriage: and foe is an impediment disolving matrymo­nye contracted, by shewing it was no true matrimonye, But the Doctor of Doctors sed illud. Quanvis 3. [...]7 Gratian himself vnderstood it otherwise; of sicknesse befal­ling to her, who was an able wife. And those his glosse writers vse most that exposition which Bellarmin would have vs receive for authentick as the fittest salve; yet rest nba [...]. u vel intellige ve dic In c squo [...] P [...]opo ulsti verbo they not vpon it. And Hist part 2. tit. 4 capl. quamvis. where he nameth Englishmē in sied of Ger­ina nes & Gergotye the [...] susteed of Greg orie the 3 [...] tooeke it. Antouius a great Canonist: Archbyshop of Florence correcting Explicat arti cul. lovan. art. 19 Gratians slipp of memo­rie for the persons, concludeth with him for the matter. And the slow­er of Lovan ^q Tapper, the Chauncelour of their viniversity, approveth this of Antonius. And cōcilior Ton 3 annotat mat ad hūc loenm. the learned men who were over-seers of the last edition of the Councels doe witness [...] by controlling it as a thing which now the Church observeth not Istuc hodie ecclofix non [...]ervat. that Gregory meant of sicknes­se happening vnto lawfull wives in their iudgemēt. And the Pope him­selfe (as Tom 1 cont 3 lib. 4. cap. 2 32 [...] con­cubuisti. Bellarmin noteth elswhere) declareth that hee tooke it to be true matrymonie, by saying that the man ought not to bereave the former wife of ayde, that is, ought to maynteine, & finde her as his wife still. Wher­fore if no Catholique byshop would imagin that a man may lawfully put away his sick wife, and marrie another, vnlesse hee thought the same much more to be lawfull in an adulterous wife, as wee are to pre­sume: then must the Papists by consequent acknowledg, that the poynt in Question is proved and allowed by Gregory the third. A playner aud directer allowance thereof, appeareth in a Canon of his successor [...] Zacharie, who when a certayne man had d [...]fi [...]ed himself incestiously with his wives sister, graunted that his wife should bee divorced from him: and vnlesse shee were privie to that wicked act by cousayling or pro [...]uting it▪ might marry in the Lord if shee could not conteine. This so cleare a testimony of an About the yeare of christ 740 auncient Pope authorizing the divorced woman to marrie, Bellarmin would elude, by saying that hee meant shee might marrie another, after the form [...]r husbands death. As who say, the Pope inioyning the Since spe con jugii Ierma [...] atis. man and the whore for a punishment to stay and abyde without hope of marriage, were likelye to meane by li­berty of marrying graunted the guyltlesse for a benefite, that while the guilty lived, who might overlive her, shee should not marrye no more then hee. Or as though there had bene neede for the Pope then to graunt it with ex [...]eptiō, Si se cont­inere nō vul [...]. If she will not conteine Let her marrie in the Lord. Whereby it seemeth that hee rather wished her to refrayne from mar­riage, if shee might bee induced thereto, which hee had no cause too wish on this occasion after the mans death, she being [...] cor. 7. 39 then simply fre, & willed to marrie [...] 5. 4 such might her age be. But what doe I reason out of the circumstances in a thing so certayne and cleare of it self, that al­though [Page 56] the great maisters whom Bell. alleaged before & solloed here, have assaied to darken the light thereof by this mist: yet Sixtus Senefis confesseth that Pope Zachary decreed that the womā if she would not conteine, peter Lom­and Gracian. should marrie another husband while the formrr liv'd. It is true that Sixtus seketh to helpe the matter another waye somewhat, by yoking the Pope with provinciall Councels: Biblioth fact lib. 6 Anno [...]at. 8. who (saith he) alow­ed and decreed it, not by a general & pereptual ordinance, but for a time and to certein nations, and that in such heynous cryms as incest onely, But wil the Papists stand to this doctrine, that the popes decres binde not al nations generally, nor are perpetual to last? Then muste they acknowledg (which would touch papcie & popery verie nerely) that the Popes supremacie is faulsly pretended, he hath his certaine li­mites as Metroplitanes have: and some wil reason also that the lawes of Popes were to last for a time untl Luther rose, but for a time onely, there date is out now. As for the time of incest, whereupon the Pope allowed the innocent party to put away her husband & to marry another, that confirmeth rather the point in question thē disproveth it.

For he had noe warrant to allow this by, but our Saviours doctrine forbidding such divorcemēt, Matth. 9. except it were for whoredō: so that h [...]e might not have graūted for incest, Exod. 20. 14 Math. 5. 28 unlesse he had thought it lawefull for adulterie, Neither did he consider the crime but as cōprised under adultery too: adul [...]tera. Whereof (in a general sense meant by the lawe) incest is a kinde. And therefore in speaking of her with whom the detestable acte was cōmitted, cap. 3. Bntch a [...]d decte [...]or. lib. 9. cap 41. he tearmed her the Adulteresse nor the incestious person. Thus it is apparant, that in this manner Pope Zachary was noe papist, No more was the Councell of Wormes which shewed their iudgment to the like effect to weet, of livla Drusiin cornelius Tacitus N [...]res Aiden mres Sanders In our Eagl [...]sh chroniclaes that a man who could proove his wife to have been of counsail with such as sought his death, might put her away & marry another if he would. Presūing that belike, which they might iustly, as exāples teach us▪ that she was uought of her body with some of the conspiracie. math. 19. 9 Forels had the Councell expess [...]ly authorized the same which Christ cōdemneth, Epit in 4. lib. decrtial, part 2 cap. 6. D. 6. if for any other cause thē for adulte­ry they had allowed the man to marrie, Therefore Covau [...]vias reckoneth up this Councell among them who held that a man having lawfully put away his wife for her whoredom might take another while shee lived. Eilbetrnu­omh [...]e cal­le thit trough an ertoucot lonie dit [...]ō of Cratian. Yet a certain spanish Frier named Raymund, one of Pope Gregory the ninths speciall State-men, the compiller of his Decretals ca [...] Si qua­muliet extra de div [...]rtijs. would a­voyde it also after Gratanus manner, by false exposition as if the coun­cel had meant, a man might take another wife afte the death of the former. To the more effectu II devswad [...]ng whereof, that questionlesse they meant soe: Hee useth a speciall trick of Popish cun­ning. [Page 57] For, making shewe of registering the Councells owne de­cree, in steed of those wordes pote [...] [...] Hee may put away his wife and marry a­nother, if he wil, the Frier setteth downe theses He may after his wives death marrie another, if hee will. And where as the Coūcel had sayd, [...] ipse porell [...] as we thinke; which wordes had beue absurdely pnt in, if they hadd meant after his wives death hee might marrie another, a thing agreed on and vndoubted: The Frier (as theeves are wont to deface and suppresse the markes of things which they have stolen, least they betaken thereby) leaveth that cleare out. But by the mouth of two witnesses Detetor. lib [...] cap. 41. Burchardus Byshop of worms, & li q [...]a muli­et 31. d, 1 of sūdry lawiers that it was prae [...]olium Gratian or Palea, both elder thē the Frier, and from whom of likelyhoode hee receaved this Canon of the Councell of Whormes his false and irreligious dealing is bewrayed. Where­to may the confession of the third bee added, though in years yonger, yet greater in credit for things agaynst Papists, himselfe a Popish Doc­tor and burning light of Paris, [...] Ioverius I meane: who sayth of that Councell, that it allowed the innocent partye to marrie agayn after divorcemēt, the other being yet alive. And the Councel it self maketh farder proofe that they are not on iustely charged by Ioverius and Covariuvias with this iudgement.

For if any man had committed wickednesse with his dangter in lawe, the daughter of his wife by her former husbād, ^h they agreed that hee should keepe neither of them: but his wife might marrie an other if shee would, if shee coulde not conteyne and if she had not carnall cō pany with him, after that she knew of his adulterie with her daughter. The last clause whereof sheweth that they mēt of liberty graūted her to take another husbād while the former lived: sith it cānot bee thought with reason, but they iudged shee might take another the former be­ing dead: though shee had continued with him as his wife, after shee knew of his adulterie. The ^l Conncell of Tribur did maynteyne the sa­me: ordeyning that if any committed vilany with his mother in law, her husband may take another wife if hee will, if hee cannot conteine and the like order is to bee observed; if with his daughter in law or his [...]ives sister. [...] Potest ingium pervenite Bellarmin like the Horat do arte. Poet, paynter, who being good at purtra­of a Cypresse tree, when one gave him money to draw and represent a shipwrack in a table asked if he would have a Cypresse in, dispaiting to doe ought worth perhaps, vnlesse that helped: saith that all such Ca­nons (all not onely this of the Triburian Councell) are vnderstood of marriage graunted to the innocent party after the death of the for­mer wife or husband. An answer no fitter for this and all such Canōs then a Cypresse tree is for a shipwrackin those of Pope Zacharie and the Councell of wormes the former whereof he granisheth also with [Page 54] this Cypresse tree doe argue. For the same reasons which prooved▪ Zachries cannon to be meant of the womans marriage while the man li­ued, proue the Councel of Tribur to be likewise meant of the mans in the womans life time. The punishment inflicted therin on the offenders doe equally enlarge the benefit to the innocent. The exception added to the enlargemēt, fi [...]fo [...]n [...]teyne e [...]non potest is stronger: implying they would have him stay unmarried rather, if he can conteine, The testemony of Sixtus is all one for both: neither doth the quallity of the cryme of incest more infer­ring the argument here then it did there. And this extenuation that the Councel being a provinciall Councel ordainede it for men of their of their owne province, and for that time onely, encreaseth the auto­thorety therof, if the precious be severed from the vile, the truth from the falshood. For why affirmeth hee that they did ordein it for that time o [...]ly? The forme of their decree touching al generaly that should offend so, not some p [...]rticular person, who presētly had; they speaking of the thing as lawful in it selfe, P [...]oncil. Tri­bur can. 4. & to be observed alike in all cases, thir making of other connons to that effect: yea another Councell alsōo peradventure, and no limitation of time in any of them; doe pesuade the contrary. Now whereas they ordained it for men of their owne province, their modesty was the greater: who did not take uppon thē as Popes to make lawrs for men of al nations, but looked as bishops to thir owne Diocaes. And the greater modesty the liker to Christ, and the batter to be l [...]ked of Christiās, the more reverence to be haerd with, and their iudgment to be had in greater estimatiō. Beside that this self-same decree of theirs was establishede also by the Councell of Wormes.

And at that time Pipinus King of (Fraūce, & of a great parte of Germamy) was presēt. Who as he did keepe a general assēbly of his Poeple there: [...] Wo [...]ma­ti [...] civitare Aimein de [...] Francor. lib. 4 cap. 66. so by al likelyhood caled Bishops thether out of his whol realm to make decrees for the whol. A province of such largnes, that coūcels consisti [...]g of pishops assēbled, out of no greater, have been tearmed general: & worthely as (Bell. cōfesseth) in cōpatisō of provincial coūcels cōmonly so caled, wherin there were not bishops of a whole natiō, or Realme. Thus Sixtus by striving to lessē & diminish the credit of the cā non of the coūcel o [...] Tribur, hath givē us occasiō to make the more of it [...]ōsidering on the on side the modesty of the Bs. who were assēbled there, & made decres for their provin [...]e; on the other the province for which that decree was made for, so large that al the prov. of Italy cāot match [...]it, though they were linked in one.

Had it not ben beter for him, Sanction [...]cle. clasi. 2. without this retori [...]ue to say derectly & flatly as Iover. doth that the Co. of Trib. made the like decre to the C. [Page 55] cell of wormes, which now the Church (he meaneth the Popish church receyveth not: werher any papist wil take exceptiō agaynst the Coun­cel of Mason, [...]. Bur [...]nad. lib, 17. which allowed likewise a certain man, whose wife had bene de floured by his brother beefore hee wedded her to put her a­way and marry another it may bee wee shall know here after. But vnto a Councell that made another such decree, as Queda [...]. Gratian sheweth alle aging it without name, Bellarmin taketh two exceptions: one, that it is lost: the other of the Cypress tree. Touchching the former, not as much as the name thereof (sayth he) is extant: therefor it might be ea­sily contemned & sett at nought. Why? Is it therfor worse then al that have names, because it is namelesse? Then have Cardinal P [...] le Sadose [...]con [...]taren er cons [...] delect card. many Cardinals with other learned reverent men bene much to blame, for writing so of Rome as if it had a nnmber of wicked lewd propane inhabitants. For by there report the Romans having everye one a name or two, should bee worse for the most parte, then were the Atlantes, a people of Af­ricke, whom Diodorus Seculus commendeth very heighly for Godly­nes and Humauity, yet non of them had any name, Horodotus saith. Or if this bee a fable as ^f Plinie s [...]emeth rather to thinke, & wel it may be; yet is it most certayne that Plutarch recordeth as grave & wise sayings of Lacedemonians without names, as of any whoses names are known. And Bellarmin (I trust) will graunt that in the scriptu­res there is no lesse account to bee made of the booke of Ioshua, thē of Nehemias, of Iob, then of the Proverbs: though their name who wrote the one be not sett downe, as theirs who wrote the other. But hee wil say perhaps that of this councell not onely the name is vnknowē, [...]dom iniett [...] but alsoe the worke it selfe lost; And what if it bee? were not F [...]ccus Flor [...] tinus [...]set [...]ore [...] vnder the nā of L Fēeste [...]a. those of Varroes workes, whi [...]h wee have not as learned as the worke ^• The writers of the Notes on Gregories edition. of Floccus which wee have? Of Tullie, of Polibius, of Livie, Deo, Tacitus▪ of infi­nite writers more, are there not as good bookes lost, as ther are extrāt The same hath fallen out in Eclesiastical authors specially in councels whereof a great meany are not to befound: as they who by occasiō of Canons cited thence in the Decrees and Decretals, have dilligently searched through the chiefest liberaries of Europe, doe note. And a certayne famous and auncient Councel of Ments beeing commēded & praised above the other, by Tretenius & Surius, who wisheth he might have gotten it to be publyshed; sheweth that soome extant, are not too bee compared with some that are lost, wherefore Bellarmins for­mer exception to the Councell that it is not extant, no nor the name of it, was not worth the nameing. The latter that the Councells▪ Canons meant of Marriage after the former wives death: is lyke too prove as false as the profe thereof is frivolous and fond. For quedam. 32 these [Page 60] are the wotds of the Canon: A certaine woman laye with her husbands brother: it is decreed the adulterers shall never bee Married: but lawfull Mar­riage shalbe graunted vnto him, whose wife the vilenie was wrought with. Which words are wēll expounded (saith Bellarmin) by the Doctors, and their meaning gathered [...] [...]adem quaect out of the like Canon [...]ollowing a litle after: wherein it is ordeined, that When the adulterous wife is deceassed, her man may marrie whom hee will; but her selfe the aldulteresse may not marrie at all, no not her husband being dead. Gratian in deed, and the Glosse-wri­ters on him (the Doctores meant by Bellarmin) doth them wrong in saying they expound it rightly. For this Canon following, out of which they gather that to be the meaning, being a Canon of I know not what Gregory, at least Fathered on him, doth no more prove it thē quod proposuisti, cap. [...]the above alleaged Canon of Gregory the third permitting marriage to the innocent partye while the other lived, doth inferre the cōtrarie. And the Councells words mentioning expressely the Innocent parties freedom & liberty to marry, which had bene superfluous if they meāt of marriage aftet the others death: make it most probable that the Councell vttered them with the same meaning, wherewith others vt­tered the like, as hath bene shewed. Herevnto the iudgement of Bebl, Sanct lib. [...] a [...]not 81 vnder the nāe of Syuadns Six­tus Senensis doth add no small weight, sith he albeit striving to weaken the strength & cutt the sinewes of it, acknowledgeth not withstāding that it was of one minde with the councell of Tribur. So was Pope A­lexander the third too some tyme, though Bell. alleage [...]ebl, sanct lib. 6 auno [...] 8 [...] vnder the [...]n [...]e of syu [...]d [...]s him as of ano­ther mynde. Ex [...]arte ex­tra de spōse [...] matrim. But let Bellarmin say whether hee had two myndes & er­red in on of them: seing it is certaine hee ^• [...]e Venie [...] [...] de eo qui was of this minde once, vnlesse hee wrote against his minde. For whereas a man that had wedded a wife, did, before hee entred the marriagebed with her, enter her mothers bed: Pope Alexander sayde, that hee doing some pennance might bee dispensed with to marrie another wife. Here the Popes fa­vour towards the offender; doth savour of that which ^• [...]ran [...]. Victoria relect [...] [...]e [...] lib. 1. et. 2 hath bene mis­sliked in papall dispensations. But hee that graunted thus much to the incestuous husband; would (I trust) have graunted it to the guiltlesse wife: as ^• Epist Alex aud tor [...] addict. eise Append. [...]. lateram hee did also to her that had this iniurie. The onely evasion whereto a Bellarminian might by his Maisters example have recourse, is that the Canonists expound the Popes words not of a wife but of a spouse, and her espoused also by wordes of the tyme to come, not of the tyme present.

Which exposition may seeme the more probable, because the Po­pes wordes sett downe in the D [...]cretalls geve her the name of spouse without sinification that the mā had wedded her. But hereof Frier Raymund who compiled & clipped the Dec [...]lls must [...] the blame, [Page 61] as Annor 8 de vari [...]s decretal et in diaesat Grego t [...]j u [...]nl. Antonius Contiu [...] a learned Lawier of their owne hath well obser­ved. For the Popes Epistle which is extant whole in the Appēd Cōe Tomes▪ of Councels, declareth that the woman was the mans wedded wife, though he did forbeare her companie a while. No remedie there-fore but it must be graunted, that in this matter pope Alexander the third subscribed to the former Councels. Now by all the rest whom I alea­ged there is none excepted against by a [...]nye Papist, for ought that I know, or as I thinke will bee. For Diomor. institu [...] lib 6. cap [...]3. Lactantius first avoucheth, soe the lawfulnes of putting away a mans wife for adulterie even with intent to marry another that both Epit in lib 4 Decretal. part 2. cap. 7 D 6. Covaruvias & In 4 sent. [...] [...]6 ac [...] 6 Dominicus Soto graūt him to be cleare from it. Next ci Quadam sen [...]e [...]tiam [...]2 9 [...] Sed [...] lud. toyching the authours mentioned by Grat [...]an as holding the same for one kinde of adulterie: who doubted but there were ceertaine so persuaded, when such an adversarie con [...]s­seth it, Then for Pope Celestin the thirde, sith [...]un [...]centi a Pope saith he thought that a man or wife might lawfully forsake their parteners in wedlocke for haerisie▪ and marry others: I see not how the Papists may deny [...] h [...]e thought it lawful for adulterie, more then I shewed they might of Gregorie the third. And albeit ^• De cōcord Evāg cad 102. Zacharie Byshop of Chrysopolis, may seeme to sh [...]w rather what other m [...]ns opinion was then what his owne; yet it is apparant by this manner of handeling that hee ioyned with iu epist. ad [...] cap. 7. Ambrose therein, whos [...] words hee eiteth, and fenseth them against autorities, that might bee opposed, As for the Byshop of Burgos, Paul cō ­mended heighly by Aust S [...]ene. [...]ec [...]gn [...] ver Teb [...] in Gen 3 [...] [...]ixt sene [...] l [...]b. 4. learned mē for learning, Addit. 2 ad lyt in Ma 19 he saith that it is manyfest by Christs doctrine, that whoesoever putteth away his wife for whoredom, commiteth not adulterye though he marry another. Naclantus who was present at the coun [...]ell of Trent, a Byshop of princi­pall name and price among them, affirmeth as directly that a wife being loosed from her husband by death or by divorcement, is not an adult [...]resse if shee marrie another. Too conclude Bellarmin confesseth that Erasmus, En [...]tar in epist [...] cap. 7. Caietan, Catharinus, Lnther. Melanc­ton, Bucer Calvin, Br [...]utius, Kemnitius, Peeter Martyr, and in a worde all Lutherans & Calv [...]nists (as it pleaseth this Roman Tertullus to name vs poore [...]cti 24. 5 Nazarens) agree that our Saviour doth allow marriage after divorcement for adulterie. Howbeit fearing much what a deadly wounnde hee might geve his cause by graunting that Erasmus, Te [...]ton Na­ [...]ora [...]en aire seus Prote [...]tis▪ Caut [...]m, Catharinus three soe learned man, and two of them such pillars of the Romish Church a Carpinall and an Arch byshop agree in this poynt with Lutherens & Caliunic [...]: [...] reliquo [...] he addeth that those three differ much frō these hertiques (meāing By hertiques the Nazare [...]s I speake of, 7. whose ring-leader was Prul) in as much as they submitt thēselves expressely to the churches iudgement▪ [...]bldue test [...] And because the church (saith hee) hath [Page 62] now opened her minde most evidently, as appeareth by the Councel of Trent the 24 session the 7 Canon, where all who thinke the band of marriage maye be loosed for any cause are a cursed: therfor it seemeth that those thre also, & chiefly the two later, must be thought no other wise minded in this matter, thē ⁸ all the rest of the Catho. Divines are & have bene with great agreemet & cōsent, which dispute of Bell. if it have sufficiē groūd & strength of reasō Eras. must be counted a catholique in al things For [...] in al [...] his writting he submitteth himself to the churches iudgemēt. Thē why doth ^k Bell. cal him a ^l demie Christiā, & enrol his nāe amōg sectaries & hertiques? what are the Fathers of the Coūcel of Trēt Demie-christiās, [...]biden in. 1. or. ad hunc Ipsum locum emper inquit illabefacto eccle. catholic [...] [...]iditio. s [...]ctaries, heretiques; they are (by Bell. logique) of one minde with Erasmus. Moreover S. Austin the ciefest mā of Bell. side in this questiō must be counted ours by the same logi­que. For ^m he taught expressely that himself; yea any byshop evē S. Ci­priā, yea provincial Coūc. to, should yeeld to the authority of a general Coun. & the 6 general Coū. graūted liberty of mariage after divorce­mēt, as hath ben declared: wherfor if Caietā must be thought no other wise mynded thē Papists are, because that church who [...]e iudgmēt he did submitt himself to, defi [...]ed so at Trēt a good while after his death: S. Astin must be thought no otherwise minded thē we are, because our assertiō was cōfirmed likewise by a General Counc. whereto hee would haye yeelded. Chiefly sith of liklyhood he would have more easily ye [...]lded therunto, thē Caietan to his churches because Cou [...]cil mi­levit cum [...]7. carthag. sent. Prefat. 7. Caietā sheweth hee was stiffe in holding fast his owne opiniō, ^• whēfor feare of churchmē he durst not say all that he thought; & in this very point, though [...] submitting himself to the See of Rōe as wel as to the church, ^p he eludeth decrees of ^q popes that make against him, so resolut he was in it, S. Austin cōtrariwise vsed very modestly & willingly to retract things that he had writtē, evē whē he lighted on ought in an heretike that seemed better & truer, & this point he thought ^t so darke in the Scripturs, & hard to be discerned, that his opinion was not hard to be removed; if he had seē strōger reason broght against it, or greater authority. Now if S Austin come over to our side by that quirck of Bell. a band of Bellar. witt­nesses is like to come with him namly the councel of Melevis & Affri­que, ^• which he was present at, & swaied much with: perhaps Primasius also (were he Austins f [...]hōlar) & Bede with a nūber of Canonists, & s [...]hool men, who folowed most S. Austin. But Bella. will never resigne all these vnto vs, to gaine the other three from vs. For (as our Bee-hive saith) Men live not by losses. He must suffer therefore Erasmus, & Caietan, & Ca­tharinus specially, who (beside the Annot in co­ment cajetan. lib. 5. place that Bellarmin hath quoted) doth avouch the matter in a treatise written purposely there of, more [Page 63] throughly & exactly then Erasmus or Caietan; Bellarmin I say must suf­fer them to be counted of that minde which they were of, while them­selves lived; not cavil as if they were of that which peradventure they would have bene ⁴ had they not died before the Councell of Trent taught so, Vnlesse he thinke (which hee may by as good reason that whreas they were deceased above x. yeares yer the Cou. of Trent made that new canon, wee ought to count them alive all that while, because they did submitt thēselves to Physitians & would have lieved perhaps till then, had arte bene able to cure disseases. How much more agrea­blye to si [...]gelnes & truth doe Sixtus, Couarruvias, & Domeni [...]us Soto ac­knowledge (the two former touching Catharinus the last for Erasmus, all con [...]erning Caiet an) that in this question of marriag: agayne after di­vorc [...]m [...]ur for adulterie, E [...]itaph. Fabi. er. Adman. their doctrine is the same with those auncient Fathers whom our yonger [...]eachers of the reformed churches follow. And thus if I should enter into the comparison of Divines on both si­des: first, or the number it is more thē likely, that wee prevay [...]e much, For all whom Bellarmin and the Pamphletter after him doe muster out of the west, I mea [...]e whom they claime iustly, not who either say against them as Tertulli [...]n, or not with them as Scotus, all theresore whom they master fo o [...]t of the West, are Ierom the Conncels of Melvis and A [...]frique In [...]ocentius the firste Austin, Paimasius, Isiodore, Bede, the Co [...]ncell of Friouli and Nantes, Auselmus, Pope Alex­ander & Innocentius the third, Thomas Bonaventure, Durand; and other S [...]holemen, Pope Eugenius with his florentines & the Councel of Trnt

Which though Gratian, Lombard and whomsoever hee might byll, were added to them yet ours out of the West alone perhaps would match them? What if the North, the South, whence Bellar. hath none? what if the East, when [...]e he hath two or three at the moste for hund [...]reds of ours be ioyned thereto? [...]ean ga [...]de­mus de divor­tijs. Then for Quallity came the worde of God out from you? saith Paule to Corinthiaus, or Came to you onely? Meaning that they ought to reverence the iudgment of o­ther christian Churches being more thē they were: but of those cheeflly & first (as he placeth them) from whom the Gospel came firste. Now the Go [...]pel came first out of the East: whose consent we have in a manner generally, Sent. lib. 4. d [...]t. 35. and as we have the first in Contrey so in time the aun­cientest and eldest: our two firste Councels in Spaine, and in Fraūce elder an hundr [...]d years th [...]n their two in Affrique, our next farre eld­er yet then their next; and so unto the laste: yet, for several Fathers, auncient on both sides, there are more with us in the four or five or sixe formoste ages then th [...]re are with them.

Of soūdnes in Doctrine, of learning, of vertue, of cōstācie, of cōse [...]t, it [Page 64] is hard to speake by way of comparison whether excelleth other. 1. Tim 3. 3 Tim. 2. 24

Saving that for gentlenes and meekenes, a special ornament of bis­hops, weigh both parties to gether, 6. wga [...] [...]ut Saviour also who sayth it and ours surpasse our adversarics.

Amongst whom the Councel of Trent accurseth all such as saye that they doe erre in this poynt, into which outrage nō of ours hath brokē against the cotrary minded. As for other graces of the holye Ghost, though Bellarmin have noted sundrie spotts and blemishes whereby some of ours are touched in credit, Bel. tom cont 3. lib. 4 Cap. 12. and their authoritye is impeached let him cast his eyes uppon his owne witnesses without pertirlity, l [...]id. Ca 14 [...] the Place. and he shal find that we have a Rowland for his Oliver. For where he tell­eth us that Ambrose did erre in yealding greater freedom to men thē to women; Luther & Bucer in graunting second marriage after divorce­ment for moe causes then whordō, [...]u Marc. C. 10. pope Gregory the same for sicknes [...] Celestine the same for haersie: Did. cov [...]t wee tel him againe that Clemens Alexandrinus Athenagoras, Origen (if he be out of theirs) Ierom and Bede did errelikwise in speaking against al secōd marriages, & Clemens with Or­igen in sundrie wighty poynts of faith. Where he telleth us that Lact­antius fel into a number of errours, as being more skilful in Tully then in the scriptures, we tell him againe that some of the scholemen were, though not more skilfull in Tully, thē in the scriptures yet as vnfkilfull in the scriptures, as in Tully; & their graund [...] Maister the Maister of the sentences is charged by themselves with above a score of errours.

Where he telleth us that Luther varieth from him selfe Melancton agreeth not with him, & lib. 6. An [...]not. 11 [...]. nor K [...]mnitius with either of them, because Lu­ther allawed divorement for moe causes afterward then at the firste, & Melancton thinketh that both the divorced parties are free to mary Kemnitius that the innocēt onely, Sixt senēs cad, v [...]t. we tell him againe that niether doth Pope Innocentius the thirde agree with Pope Alexander, nor Alexander with him selfe nor neither of them with Athenagoras, Tom [...]cont [...] seeinge Athen­agoras condemneth second marriage which the Popes allowe, Meleh ca [...]us though Alexander punished one that blessed it; Articuli [...] in quibus Innocentius checketh a decree of Alex. cum sec [...]d u [...]capella­ [...]ū extca de that deprived the Innocent party of his right because the offen­dour had sinned thus, or thus: Alex. whether in this deree I know not (for it is razed out of the Decretals) but in other extāt overthwarteth himself, as his wordes alleaged on both parties, for Bellarmin & for us do testesie. Closs in d [...] So Bellarmins obiections of humaine infirmetyes and wantes notwithstanding, they which are of our fide excell in este­mation those which are of his, Tertul chro [...]t Hilax p [...] lem cone Ven [...] &c for diverse circumstaunces & respects.

And (the moste important respecte of all others) the grounde whereuppon ours doe buyld- theyr Doctrine, is the plaine evi­dence and expresse testemonye af our Savioure Christe, [...]. 19. 7 excepting [Page 65] whordō namely out of the cruses for which he denieth a man may put away his wi [...]e & marrie another. Cōtrarie wise the ground that our adversaries buyld on is their owne cōceit, not able to stād without violēt wresting, suppressing, or corrupting of Christs exception the proofe where of is seene in three the most peremtorie mē for his matter, & best accounted of among thē, Innocentius the first. the 3. & Thom. of Aquin. Thom. in that he answereth that Christs exceptiō pertaineth to the putting away of the wife, & not to the marring of another, also Inuoc. the first, in that he omitt [...]th the exceptiō quite, & citeth Christs words thus whoso putteth away his wise for whordom, & marrieth another doth commit ad­ulterie Innoc. [...] Que [...] ̄que dimisserit vs o [...] suam obsorni cationem. the third, in that he depraveth & altereth the exceptiō, af­firming that C [...]rist sayth whoso [...]ver putteth away his wife for whordom, & marrieth another, doth commit adulterie: whosoever putteth away his wif [...] for whordom. A notable corruption by s [...]raping out of the sentence Nisi el m [...] or me. the excep­tive particle having the force af a negative, to chāge for this point into an affirmative: & so ea [...]ily to be corrupted by the text of the Scriptur it self, that I doubted whether it were not the Pri [...]ters or bookewriters errour, vntyll I perceived that al the printed copies, which I could get the sight of, did agree there in; even the newe one to Gre. the thirtenth con­ferred with all the written copies in the Popes liberarie, beside many o­ther, & corected by thē. But of such buyldings such must be the groūd wrokes; or equall vnto such in force; An vntruth will never cleav vnto the truth by other kinde of morter▪ in probabillity therefore it is to be presumed that not only the greater parte of the fathers but the better also, & they whose groundes are surer doe maintayne our doctrine. So the weapō which Bell. draweth out of their sheath against vs, doth bēd backe & turne the poynt against himself: and the wound it may geve, it can not pearce so deepe as that which is sharper then any two edged sworde, but the wound it may geve, it geveth to his owne cause. Howbeit if any shall concive otherwise hereof for the number & quality of the witnes­ses, as some peradventure will & may by reason of broken coniectures, which the variety of circumstances yeeldeth, yet no man will (I trust) sure no man of modestye & sence can denie, but the mayn & principall poynt I hadd to shewe, namly that the Fathers cōsēt not all in one for the Pa­pists doctrine, is shewed to their shāe, whose face & consciēce served them to avouch the contrary. Wherfore sith our adversaries doe graūt that the Fathers have not strēgth enough to prove a point in qustiō vnlesse they all consēt about it: Bell. with his Pamphletter must consequently graūt, that their cursing Trēt assertiō in this point cānot be proved by Fathers & so the secōd staffe which they have framed thēselves to lea [...]e vpon, is like to that broken staff of reed, Egipt, whervpon (saith the scriptur) if a man leane, it wil goe into his hand and pearce it.

The third and last obiection, whereuppon the Iesuit & his schollar stand, is conceit of reason: devided into five braūches as it were, or Rivers issuing from on spring. The water wherof how unlike it is to the water of Siloah, and savoring of that puddle of which the Romā deputy Gallo did draw when having undertakē to do according to reason he spake prophanely of Religion, and suffered one to be wrongfully vexed for regarding it, as if to doe iustice in that case were agai [...]ste reasō, 1. Argumentū agatione p [...] ­ [...]m. I leave it to be iudged & considered by them who saye that our reason is naturally darke, and leadeth her wisemen into sottish follies, neither can discern the things which are of God til it be lightēed with his spirite. For although the Papists have some glimse of light and see more then the Heathēs, as the phare [...]ies did whose words (I am afride) they will use likewise: are wee also blinde? yet as the phare [...]ies were over seene fowly in may argumēts grounded upon reson, so the papists may bee. And that they not onely may be overseene, but are in the reasones which their puddle-water hath yealded to Bell. ceasterns in this point the bēames of reason lightned from above shall open and discrie; lett such as love not darkenes more thin light bee iudges. For he reasoneth first thus: The Marriage of the faithful is a signe of Christs coniunct­tion with the Church, as S. Paul teach [...]th. But that Coniunction is indissolluble, and canot be loosed, The bande of Marriage is therefore indissoluble too.

As if a rebell shold say, The ioyning of the head with the body in man resembleth the coniunction of Christ with the C [...]urch as S. Paul teachth. But Christ and the Church can never be parted; therefore the head may never bee cut from the body. A happy conclu [...]ion for traitors; if it were true. But if it be false where then is Bellarmin reason? which wil take the greater overthrow by this because looke how Cbrist is the head of the Church, semblably the husband is the wives head. So that notwithstāding the similtud of Christs headship, the ioint wherby a traitors heade is knit to his body may feele the axe of iustice, as Bell. will grant: the marri­age band that coupleth a man to an adulterous wife may be loosed by the like reason, notwithstanding marriage is a signe of Christs coniuction with the Church. And if this fuffice not to make him acknow­ledge the loosnes and fondnes of his Sophisticall sylogisme, let him observe farder that the seperation which them selves allow in case of a­dultery [Page 77] is condemned by it. Bellar de ma [...]ium ser. [...]acre Cap. 14. eiur For Christ doth continue with his church alway, & cherisheth her [...]or ever with his spirit of comfort, & is so farre from dispoylinge her o [...] her owne, wealth, if she had any, that of his giftes & graces still he leaveth with h [...]r. Now the papists teach that a man may lawu [...]uly with drawe himself from ever dwellinge with his wi [...]e, and [...]rom yealding husband-like love & duty to her, yea may still wit [...]ould her owne dowery from her if she be an adulteresse. Which doctrine how could Bell. cleanse from staine of errour, i [...] some whoore of Rome should touch it with this reason. The marriage of the faithful is asigne [...]f Christs coniunction with the Church, C. [...]rmatrin, [...]ac ram. ca. 4 [...] as Paul teacheth but Christ doth stil assist relive, & enrich the Church with his graces: thrrefore must the husband dwel still with his wife & finde her maintenance & wealth. Woulde he say the Councel of Trent accus [...]th al who make such Iesuitical silo­gismes & sophismes against th [...]ir sa [...]red cānon. Certainely the harlots reason must be good unlesse the Iesuits be naught. But he goeth on­waard and addeth that albeit some partes of the church, te weet the faith­ful folke doe commit spiritual whoredom now and then and make a divorcement yet is not lawful for them to change their God. What a speach is this? As who would say▪ our Saviour could deserv [...] at our hands that we should forsake him, and get our selves a newe bridgrom. Neither doth God caste them soe away (saith Bellarmin) that he wil not be reco [...]ciled, nay he doth exhort to reconcilement stil stil? To whom then sware he, they should not enter into his rest? What were they whose carkeises sel in the wildernes? whēce c [...]me the mā of God who wil [...]d thē that cōn [...]it Idolatrey to be slaine? wh [...]re lived the prophet who saies Thou destroy [...]s [...]al them that goe a whoring from thee: The Israelits whom God did shut out of the promisede laude, of whom he tooke many thousands away by sundry plagues, to whō the law speake has being under the lawe, did they not professe that faith & use thos Sacramēts which al that doe are faithfull folke & partes of the Church in Bell. phrase & meaning? I graūt that God of­fereth to be reconciled some times to such offendors, & waiteth in mercie long for their amēdement. Whi [...]h i [...] it be a pattern for us to follow herin, I say, if it be, for God gave time of repētāce to Ioab a wil [...]ul murderer, who the magistrat shold have put to death presently: God gave time of repentā [...]e to Idolatrous wives of the Iewes, whō th [...]ir husbāds ought not to have spared so: if therefore Gods actiō herein be set doūe for our imitatiō, the man that can cōteine, & be without a wife, as God without our servi [...]e, may like wise in m [...]rcie waite for her repentance & when he perceiveth it to be be unfained, take her againe to be his wife. But h [...] who can not or wil not render such kindnes for such unkind­nes and wickednes, may in iustice alsoe put her soe away that noe place or hope of reconcilement bee left her, as Bellarmin owne [Page 68] reason in this similitude teacheth. For God is not bound to give vn­to prophane dispisers of his grace & breakers of his covenant place of repentāce & reconciliation: Nay he may in iustice absolutely denye it them, & oftentyms doth as the examples of Cain of Esau, of Corah, Dathau and Abiram, of Zimri, of Acan, of Auanias & Saphira, of infinit other, that have either presently dyed in their sinnes, or had sentence of death pronounced irrevocably against thē ▪ doe argue. wherfor whē Bell. cōcludeth this resō with sayin that S. Austin vrgeth it greatly in his book of the Good of marriag; De bone con­jug cap. 7 15 [...]e dealeth as Cooks do in larding leane meate to give that a relish which of it self woul be vnsavoury, Though evē for the lard to perhaps it agreeth not half so wel herwith, as this I­taliā cook would have vs think it doth, De adulter. cō [...]g. ad Pollenium. For why did not S. Austin vrge the same likewise in his bookes of adulterous marriages writtē after­ward & purposely maintaining this Point against Pol [...]tius who gainfa­ied him in it? Retractat. ib 2. cap. 22. was it because he saw that he had vrged it more then it would bear wel? or that he perceived it would not hould against an adversarye: though without an adversarie it were a pretie allusiō? At least whatsoever mē deem of the lard, the meat is naught questiōles: & such that the cook be cōtēt to eate the driest morsel of it, yet must he needs graunt that it hath not tast, not as much as th white of an egg hath. For himself saith that marriag betokeneth & signifieth Christs coniūction with the faithful soule, as Thomas & the Pope reach. But Christs coniunctiō with the faithful soule is not ind [...]ssoluble, [...] Innocentiv [...] the third c. debitum extra de digam is. 4 Injuri [...] affice [...] Prolee. [...] as him felf also saith: the band of marriage therfor (by his owne consequēce) may be dissolved & loosed. And thus farr of his first sophisme.

The next is that if other marriage were lawful, the of-spring should be iniuried: for the childrē borne already (saith he) should [...]e evilll provided for, who should begin to have a stepfather in steed of a father, a stepmother in steed of a mother. Wher hence the conclusiō secretly inferred, to weet that other marriage therfore is not lawful, would very wel folow if his formost ground & propositiō werr true, that the childrē should be iniured therby. For it is not lawful to deale iniuriously with any he that doth wrong shal receive for it, But how proveth Bel. that they should be iniuried? his reasō ensueth▪ for they should be evil provided for, what? therfor? Is God vniust thē, who by taking mē out of this presēt life, doth leave their wives widowes; & their chil­dren fatherless: both often destitute of help? God forbid (saith the Apostle) els how shall God iudg the world? But the childeren shold be endamaged therby, & that perhaps wil Bell, say was his meāing, wel, they shold be endamaged & evil provided for. Why? Because they shol [...] have a step fa­ther insteed of a father or step-mother in steed of a mother. Then belike the braūhe [...] cut of the Olivtre which was wild by nature & graffed cōtrari to nature [Page 69] in aright olive tree; are evil provided for & endāaged by it, For as when a gardenar asked why the hearbs which he set or sowed doe growe & shoot up so slowly, where weeds which the earth brought forth of her owne accord encreased a pace, Aesop said that it was because the earth is the weeds mother, and the hearbs steepe-mother: so the wild Olive tree was the mother that brought forth such brauches: the right Olive tree whereinto they were graffed, is their stestmother. S, Paul, who thought it better for vs of the Gētiles to be graffed so, thē to cōtinue as we were the childrē of wrath by nature: declareth that a Christiā whose wife being an infidel, an nnbelever, forsaketh him, is free to marry an­oth [...]r. Which cōsidering that he had an eie to the holly seede, their offspr­ing also) what letteth him to have done with this perswasion, that the children shold receive more good & benefit by a beleeving step-mo­ther then by an ūbeleeving mother. Doubtlesse his care of having thē brought up in godlines, a thing that godly mothers do furder verye muche, and ungodely hinder, is argueat agnement that hee was of this minde▪ And the soune of Catelyne, whom that adulterous wretch his father murdered to compasse the more easily the liking of a woman whom he lusted after, hath left snfficient proofes that som ha­ving fathers are no better looked to for things of this life neither, thē they should of liklyhood, if in steed therof they had stepfathers. Wherfor sith experiēce varifieth the same in mē which in woemē, that when they have made shipwracke of their chastity, they wil not sticke at any wickednes: the argumēt that childrē shold be endamaged & evil provided for, because in steed of adulterours fathers or mothers, they should have stepfathers, stepmothers, chast, & honest, is worse provided for by Bell. thē he thought. But suppose it were good, & proved that the chil­dren should be endamaged how followeth the conclusion? The childrē shold be endamaged by marriag another eitherefore the marriage is not lawful? [...]or by this reason a beleeving husband forsaken by his wife being an vnbelever, may not take another if he had children by the former. Nay no wife or husbād having any children may lawfully ever marry again either of them after the others death. 6 Adulte [...]tū virgo de servi domū Sen Agamemnon And in deede by a law that Cha­rondas made for his Thurian Cityzens, the men who did so were puni­shed. And Mar. Antonius, an Emperour of Rome, because he was loath to wedd a step-mother to his children his wife being dead, kept a concubine. And S. Ierom speaking as the Catharists did, against second ma­riage, doth by detestation of a stepfarther d [...]ssuad a widowe from it. But the Papists hold agreeably to Scripture that the man is at liberty to marry in the Lord after the womans death, the woman after the mans: yea in life tyme also, if either of them being an infidel & vnbeleever forsake the other being a Christiam, And Bell. acknowledgeth that [Page 70] they hold both these poynts, & ought to hold them Bell. shall therfor doe well to acknowledg that his step-reas [...]n, which oppugneth both these poynts of sound doctrine, savoureth of haeresie, neither maketh more for him against vs, then [...]or the Catharists against the Catholi­que Fathers. Wherewith he may confesse to that he hath abused Am­brose in affirming this to be his reason: & avouching him to say, that the Father ought to pardō the Mothers fault for the childrens sake. For S, Amb. blaming the man, 7 Dim 'tis uxorē quasi ju [...]esine crimi [...]e. who puteth away his wife without cryme, and mar­rieth another, an adulteresse by so marrying; mislyketh that the childrē should have such a stepmother having such a mother vnder whō they might be. And if the mother, being put away so, took another husbād, who in this case were an adulterer: S. Ambr wisheth the children to be vnder their father, not vnder such a step-father, And if the Fath [...]r ca­sting out his wife so, cast out his childrē with her: S. Amb. saith the children should rather purchase pardom for their mothers fault at their fathers hands, then bee cast out for her sake. Wherin hee doth no more saye that the father ought to pardō the mothers adultery for the chil­drens sake; then Abraham said that God ought to forgive the Sodomi­tes abhomination for Lots sake, when he said that the wicked should rather be spared for the righteous, them the righteous should bee de­stroied with the wicked. But here peradventure the Pamphletter will reply that although Bell. author & argumēt (as himself observed, who there vpon cut Bell. shorter) prove not his intent to weete that another marriage is vnlawful: yet they prove such marriage to be inconvenieur in respect of the childeren, to whom there riseth hurt & discomodity by it, For answer whervnto & to the like reasōs drawen by him & Bell. from other inconveniences, 7 things are to be noted: al such as our adversaries themselves must n [...]eds yeeld to, [...] De Ma [...]ri [...]m. Sacram lid 14 [...] gandem [...]s. ext [...] de co [...] ­ [...]ers co [...]iugat & yeelding therevnto shal set on fire their owne chaffe. The first that the man whose wife is an adul­teresse: may put her absolutly away, for al his liftyme: nor is ever boūd to let her dwelwith him again, no not though sh [...] repent. Which point being plainly implied in our saviours answer to the Pharises, Bel. avou­cheth and maintaineth thence: agreably to the doctrin of his chiefest guids the Pop [...]s & Thom. of Aquine. The second that if the woman cō tinue in her wickednes, without repentance & amendement, the man is by duty bound to put her away. S. Mat. reporteth, of the blessed vir­gin, that when she was found to be with child of the holy Ghost, before her hus­band Ioseph & she came together, Ioseph being a iust man, & not willing to make her a publicke example, was minded to put her away secretly. Of which words impotting that iustice mov [...]d him to put her away, goodwill to doe it secretly, it seemeth to follow, that such a woman as Ioseph misdeemed her to be, to weet an adulreresse, cānot be kept without sinne, whether she repent or no. And Cornelius Iansenius a learned bushop of the Papists [Page 71] graunteth herevpō, that it was so in the old Testament. But in the new Testament, he saith, if she repent she may bee kept with out sinne: ack­nowledging that she may not in the new Test▪ neither vnless she repēt. Whervnto the Canonists and Schoolemen doe accord; Innocen [...] [...] lib [...] de com­tempt. expounding a sentence cited by many Fathers our of the Prov. of Salo. He that keepeth an adulteresse, is a f [...]nle & a wicked mā; a sentence [...]ound in the Greeke text of the Prov. albeit not expressed out of the Hebrue Fountaine, but add [...]d by the Seventie Interpreters, or other, perhaps to shew that Salo. commending a wife, did meane a chast wife in their Iudgment, but added in the Greeke, & thence translated also into the commo Latin edition called, S. Ieroms. soe that it goet for Scripture with Papists by their Trent Canon; this sentence I say, & the Canons of the Fathers that vr­ge it vndi Sinctly against whosoever kepeth an adulteresse, whether re­pentant or vnrepentant, in like sorte as the Civill Law condemned all such, the Canonists & Schoolmē distinguish & expound of such as kepe adulteresses, which doe nor repent & amend their lives. Now graun­ting that a man may kepe an adulteresse in matrimony if shee repent, or being divorced from her, may take her again: yet (which is the third point) he may not doe it often least impunitie encrease inequitie. And this is agred on by the same pillars of the Church of Rome, the Canō ists & Schoolemen. Hermes out of whom the Maister of the sentences aleageth & avoucheth it, meant (as his reason brought to prove it ar­gueth) that the man may take her so againe but once. Which doctrine the Papists cā make Canonicall if they list, 9 in libre S. [...] vnlesse Stapleton lie, who saith their Catholique Church at this present may add to the Catalogue of Canonicall Scriptures that book of Hermes, writtē in the Apostles tyme by S. Pauls schollar, not only cited much but commended to by many & most auncient Fathers, Clemens, Ireneus, Origen, Athanasius, Eusebius, & Ierom. At least the chiefest part of the Canon Law compiled by the di­rection and ratified by the authority of Pope Gregory the ninth, setting downe the verie same out of a Councel that Peter Lombard out of Hermes: [...] L [...]be [...] q [...]li appe [...]etur Pa­ [...]bris, [...] p [...]us d [...]st. 15the Papists though they will not (I trow) be of Stapletons minde for Hermes booke, yet may think it likly that the Coūcel & Pope approved his meaning in this point. Chiefly sith Panormitan, the flouer of the Canontsts having noted on it that one offending often must not be par­doned, because sinnes vnpunished doe becō examples, citeth an excelēt proof & light therof a lawe of worthy Emperors, Valentinianus, Theodosius, & Arcadius: who graūting a generall pardon for smaler trespasses exten­ded it to nō cōmitted oftner thē once; accoūtīg such vnworthy of their Princilie favour, as grew by their former forgivenesse to a custom of sinning rather thē to amendemēt. But whether the Papists will iudge those Christian Emperours to have bene to strickt, & saie that adulterie deser­pardon [Page 60] oftener then lesses faults with them, or whether they thinke it sufficient to pardon on so great a crime, which the Emperours except-by name out of their pardon, Authens u [...]ll­ [...]cat m [...]tret [...] ­vl [...] Qu [...]a ve [...]o plur [...]m coll [...]t, [...] & willed it to be punished euen the first time: The papists doe agree that a husband must not forgeve it to his wife often. The fourth thing to be noted is, that a woman being put a waye so, doth loose her dowry too by lawe. Which punishmēt as God hath threatned by his law to men that goe awhoreing frō him, thogh they have not any dowry of their owne neither, but of his gift: so the Civil law hath inflicted it on adulterous wives, & the Cānon law in looser times also. The fifth, that many persons mistake the help prepared of God, and marry or doe worse: cōsidering that some cāot cōteine, as Pope Gregory noteth touching men S, Ambrose touching woemen, the scripture touching both; some, though they could perhaps, yet sho [...]ld h [...]ut their bodies with sickues, & if they did, as phisique & phy­losophie teach; some though neither chastity nor health enforce them to marrie, yet need it for their state of living, as Dominicus Soto doth prove by certaine poore husband-men & labourers. The sixth, that if a man die & haue no sōne; his inheratāce ought to come to his daughter by the lawe of Moses & if he have no daughter, it ought to come to his bretherē, & so fourth to the next kinsmā of his famely. Vnto which ordinance: the lawes of al wel ordred stats & cōmon weals are though in certaine circūstāces defferēt, yet in supstāce sutable. The seaventh, that it is sundry waies incōmodius for a child to be ūlawfuly be gotten (as we tearme it) base-borne because both the ignōeny thereof is a blemish & that blemish breedeth basnes of courge; & bastards are not broght up so wel by their Parents as lawful children use to be: nei­ther are they priveleged alike; Chrisosto. in epi ad Hebre. Rom. 29▪ & peferred to place of publique government, or Benefite of inheritāce by lawes divine or humaine. And these things being weighed wel shew that Bll. reasō corected by the pāphlet­ter needeth a new core [...]ctiō: & if incōueniēces might decide our question which they canot doe for many things are lawful that are not expediēt but if they mihht decid it, they would swaie with us rather thē against us. For in case the man, burning with ielosie & rage which is unlawe­full in this kinde of iniury or the woman being (as adulteresses comō ­ly are) wicked, impius, once nanght & alwaies naught, hee wil not or may not keepe or take her againe, the childrē missing her, are destitute of a mother to looke to their education. L. Ceneral [...]ter Spatios D. de [...] D [...]entionibus

And then it were better for them that their Father tooke a seconde wife to breng thē up, as Plato thought, Wherin another man might have the like successe that Poris (a gentlemā of Macedōia) had whose former wi [...]es childrē were brought up as carfuly by their stepmother [Page 73] owne children were. But if it fall not out with many as with him, & the children find more sharp and hard vsage at theit step-mothers hands, who knoweth whether it may not turne to thir more good. Chiefly [...]ith the tender indulgencē of Parents doth nourish wantō wiked nesse, in the sonnes of Eli, ambition in Adonia, transgressions in whom not? and moderat severytle would restrayne the same as one who sayde hee had a cruel stepmother & a father, another who found like fault with his father & mother, both for feare restraing hemselves from tricks of unthrifts did shew by their exāples. Here is a farder help to for the childrens benefite, that their father having their mothers whole dowry beside whatsoever the second wife bringeth is able to doe more for them Wheras contrarywise: if by means he cannot live single and unmarried he be constrained to keepe the adulteresse still or after seperation too receive her againe: [...] she is likely to geve her owne & her husbands gods to her lover, as Messalliua did to Silvis or though she take gifts and re­wards of him, to wast al in riot, as the whores of Cattilinis conf [...]dracie did. Moreover a woman that can have no sonnes, but daūghters only by her husband, may have sonnes by another man, as Hippocrates she­weth, Which if the adulteresse have by her lover the daughters to whō the in heritance should come are defrauded of it, And if she have but daughters or yonger sonnes by him the bastards; presūed to be lawful childrē, defraud the lawful childrē of so much as thē selves get. The [...] hatcheth her eggs in other birds nests, & the eggs shee findeth of theirs, she devowreth, as Arist. writeth: or, as Pline sayth the birds that sitteth abroade vpon her owne eggs & the Cuckows when both theire yong are bred vp, liketh the Cuckows bird better then ther owne, and suffereth them to be devoured of him in her owne sight. A tearme in reproch drawne in many languages from the Cuckows name to no­te their calamity, or (if they suffer it willingly) dishouesty who receive other men into their bedds & foster vp their children, Vestigia [...]ir­alien i Collatine in lecto sunt [...] Liv lib. 2 may bee a suffi­cient leson for a father what confort & benefit his childrē are to looke for by having such a mother to feede & oversee them. Beside to omitt suspicion of bastardy, where by his children also may bee discouraged & stained) himselfe shal be counted a bawd vnto his wife, & must (by a Canon of the C. of Nantes) doe seaven years dublique penance, & bee shut out al that while from the cōmunion, yea want the consort ther­of even at his death too, (by another Co.) if he be of the C [...]argi [...], And how can hee choose but live still in feare & anguish of minde, least hee add drunckennesse to thirst, & murder to adultery: I meane least shee serve him as Clytem [...]estra did Agamemnon, as Li [...]ia did Drusus as Mr. Arden did her hushand? or if to avoyd these grifes of shame & daūn­ger he put her quite away and resolve never too come againe in house with her [...]he may incurre as great daunger or shame, or both nay greater, [Page 74] on the other side, by lack of anecessary help for his living, or by state of body subiect to certein sicknesses or by incontinēci, wether consuming burnig him without remedy, or forcing him to dannable re­medies of whors or worse, Further more his wife, the adulterous mo­ther, may be the boulder to sinne, & to returne as the dog to his vomitt, & the sow washed to wallowing in the myer, if shee know her husband canot wāt a wife, & must have her or none, which pethaps moved that Gentle woman of Rome to be the more licentious, Quam [...]e nunquam repuhiaru [...]um ante iu [...]eva whom her husband found plaing the incestuous whore with their sonne in law: after that she had her husband bound by oth that he would never seperate & divorce her frō hī, for to be free to marry another, And why may not she live too in pertuall heavinesse & feare, least her husband being chayn­ed with such necessitie should seeke to get himself libetty of marrying by making her away: There was a certayne Spā [...]jard, whose wife drivē out by him for her adultery & estsons reconciled, was when shee offended againe, divorced from him by an Ecclesiastical Iudge, at his suite, & shutt into a monastery. The husband saying after ward that he loved her, & that he a greed for fear to the divorcemēt, desired that he might be recōciled to her, & she restored to him, according to the Civill Law Navarus (as famous a man forskil in canon law, among the Papists, as Bell. for Divinity (being asked his indgmēt what should be done herin made answer, Ex a more cotra [...]endi cum a [...] [...] Postlius mortē. that the wife divorced in such sort, is not bonnd to returne againe unto her husband, & that the husbāds speech of his affecti­on must not be easily beleeved, because he may fayne it to theintent to allure her therby to dwell with him, that hee may slea or poysen her, through desire of marrying another wife, after her death. Of which thing (saith Navarus) there may suspicion & conicture rise of the circū stances of her offēce; & his suite: chiefly in a man of the Spanish natiō, which is more inclined to bear small love to their wivs yea being chast then to be reconciled to then being adulteresses, specially after the first tyme. Now though Spanjards chiefly be prone to worke such feats of slaying or poysoning, as this man who knew thē (himself a Spanjard) witnesseth? yet an Italian Marquis who put to death his wife taken in adultery & married another declareth that not only Spanjards wil adventure to make their wives away, if finding then vnchast, they must have some & would have beter. Finally if the wife not able to have any children by her husband, have some by an adulterer (for this may co­me to passe also) the brethren, or the next of kinne to the husband, shal loose his inheritance: & that which they ought to enioy by right the adulterous feede will intercept & purloine, I let passe the publike harmes and discommoditis which by such iniquities of private per­sons were likely to a crrew to the common weale.

These that I have touched suffice to overweigh our adversaries rea­son drawen from inconveniences. For if I should stand on the cildren [Page 75] alone, even those alreadie borne whom Bell. expressely mentioneth & nameth: the hardnes of a stepfather or stepmother lighting on thē by the second marriage, cannot counterpeise the losse in educatiō, wealth, inheritance, honour, which an adulterous parent bringeth, Beside that the children to be borne afterward (as Bell. by naming those already borne seemeth to confesse) should be evil provided for: whose basenes of birth and discommodities following it Proceeded from restraint of maring again after divorcemēt for adultery. Wherfore if we put with all in our ballance the detriments & harmes, that grow to the father, the mother, the brethren and kinsmen of the father I might say to the common weale too: the balance of our adversaries wilbe tilted vp soe high by the weight of ours, as if it were lighter then vanity it selfe.

And thus by the way of weaknes of Bell. third & fourth reasons is des [...]ryed & daunted. The third that if the marriage wee treat of were lawful, a gapp would be opened to infinit divorcemēts, yea wrongful & vi [...]st. The fourth that if the i [...]nocent party may marry, the nocent also may, who then should gaine by his sinne, platin a de v [...]x pont i [...] cum, in P [...]o. 2. & many would sinne of purpose that they might marry others. For as one of the wisest, and best learned Popes Pius the [...] said, that marriage was taken away from Priests for great cause, but ought to be restored to them for greater: so may a iuditious & discrete Papist supposing these reasons of Bell. to be sound, say that marriage after devorcemēt for adulterie was takē away from men vppon many & good confiderations: but ought to be restored vnto them again vpon more & better. Howbeit I must add thervnto that al though his reasons be confuted sufficiently with this supposall, lett them be tried also by the rules of reason, & it wil appeare they are a great deale sounder in shew then in decde. For the di­vorcement of an adulteresse from her husband is punishment of her sinn: as hanging with vs is a punishmēt of theeves, of cutpurses, & burning through the eare of rogues. So that Bell. reason concluding the marriage in question to be vnlawful, beca [...]se a gap would be opened to infinite divorcemēts, is likeas if a libertine or vagabond should say, that it is vnlawful for Iudges to do iustice on rogues, theeves, & cut­purses, Innocent quart in c. si se d [...]xerit. exrta de adule Hostiens sum de adult. 5.because there would be opened a gap to infinitie hangings, & burnings through theeares, But some me [...] (sayth Bell.) would sowe debates, pick quarels, devise faulse accusations against their wives being innocent: & so a gap would be opened to wrongfull divorcemēts, not to divorcements only. What? must no offendor, no traytour, no blas­phemer then bee put to death because many thousands of innocent persons, yea innocēcie it self, have bene accused falsely, & putt to death wrongfullie? Or if Bellar. graunt, that al though some sitting to iudge according to the law, doe manifest wrong to guiltlesse men against law, yet must wicked miscreants bee exequted by the Magistrate who beareth not the sworde in vaine: hee graunteth it is cavilling cap­tiousnes [Page 76] & sophistrie to cōclud that mē divorced lawfulle may not marry because some would therfor de divorced vnlawfully: the greater was his fault to say that this reason is touched by, S. Ierom: whose oversight he should have done better to acknowledg & freindly to excuse it by his haste in writing; for haste is unadvised & blinde (as on said wel) thē by his name to couutenance so weake a reason in itself, so daungerous in cōsequence, which overtroveth all administring of Iuctice & iudgmēt. And sith himself teacheth aginst S. Ieroms iudgment that a man whose wise entiseth him to heresie, or to wicked deedes, may be divorced frō her, because although the wemans chastitie should come thereby into hazard, yet lesse is the perill & hurt of her adulterie then of his wicked­nes or herēsie, & the churche provideth rather for the innocent partie, then for the nocent: he might with a litle indifferencie & equitie of an vnpartial eye have seene that the church should by the same reason al­lowe the innoeent to marrie: at least that S. Ieroms creditt cannot preiudice vs more in the one point thē him in the other. True is that (I can­not denie) which he addeth true, most true & certaine, that the ⁸ offen­dours should gaine by their sinne, if they might also marrie, as well as the innocēt. Commodum ex peeca [...]osuo adulter reportaret dan 4. 16 They should gaine in deede. But as Dan. said vnto Nabuch. the dreame be to them that hate the & the iuterpretation therof to thine enemies: In like sort may I say, this gaine be to the enemies of God & of his Church. For adul [...]rers & aldulteresses doe gaine, first, dishonesty, defiling their bo­dies & soules with an heynous & detestable crime. Then hardely scape they, but they gaine beggary to the mā if he be a whormōger, wasting all commonly as the prodigal child did; the woman losing her dowry. Beside they gaine infamy; a gaine of greater value them beggarry by much: for a good name is to be chosen above great riches. Last of al they gaine the heavi [...] wrath of God, & his iust vengenance: they lose the inhertāce of the kingdō of Heaven, & purchase to themselves the chaines of dar­knes for ever Lucretia a matrone of Rome in tyme of paganisme, ha­ving suffered violence of Sixeus Tarquinius, when her husbād being sent for to come vnto her 9 did aske her Is all well? No quoth the; for what is well with awaman, her chastity being lost? yet she if better iudgemēt might have prevailed with her, had not lost her chastity: her body being only defiled by force, her mind vndefiled. But now a Christian man, if yet a Christian; sure a Iesuit, the chiefest instructer of the youth of Rome and of the Romanists through al Christendō, [...] Lucret [...]a no [...]. doth mainteyn in print that Lucretia, not she I spake of but such a Lucretia as the popes daughter was having lost not onely chastety but also wealth, good name Gods favour▪ the promise both of this life & the life to come, yet if being put away from her husband she may take another, hath gained by her los­ses, because she may be married to her Tarquinuus, & match a gracelesse whore witha a shamlesse beast.

As for the last of Bell. points of inconvenience that many would cōmit adulterie of purpose to the intent of being set free frō their former wives, they might marie others: it may be some would, & I have read of a woman that had a desire to be beaten of her husband: which she found means also (as she was wittie) to obtein, in so much that shee, put it oft in practise, til having cruely beatē her at length he killed her The man who of purpose to get anew wife would cowmit adulterie, should dessire more strips then that woman meant, & die a death infinitely more grevous then she did. Sigis mund commeutar rerum, Mus [...] covitat. But if as wise almost as she was should long after scourges: must they who deserv by lawe to be whipped be denied it, because a foole desired it without desert? The Romaius had an auncient law that whosoever did a man injury, should by way of punishmēt paie about shilling. There was a lewd losel, a yōthly harebrined Ruffian, who having wealth enough at wil & taking a de­sire in giving honest men boxes on the eares, would walke up & down with a purse full of shillings, which his slave attēding an him did carry & giving on a boxe would bid his slave geve him a shillinge, another boxe & a shilling, What was in this case to be done for remedy? If Bell. had lived there & bene of the counsaile to the state, wee see the advise he would geve: namly that the amercimēt shold be takē away because some would doe men iniurie of pupose to fulfil their lusts with paing of a shilling or two. But the Romaine governour stoke cōtrary order, to encrease the amercement, according to the discretion & arbitrem­ent of Iudges: that evel desposed persons might be deterred from trespassing by sharpnes of the punishment to be inflicted on them for it, Whose wisdome therein it is to be wished that Princes & Rulers remē bering them selves to be ordained as David betymes to destroy all the wicked of the Lande. would follow by encreasing the punishment of adulterie: [...] Apolog [...]t cap 6 [...] Weleriue, Max lib. 2.And then should Bell. mouth be the sooner stopped for his fourth reason. Which yet in the mean while doth no better prove that fafth­full husbands seperated from adulterous wives may not marry again, then userers & extorcionars procuring wealth by wicked & ungodly means doe prove that honest men may not enioy the goods which by lawfull trades & vertuous industrie they get.

The fifth & last is, that even among the Heathen too, where good orders flourished, no divorces were made. For no bill of divorcement was written at Rome, sor the space almost of six hundred yeares after the City was buylt: but afterward, good orders beeing overthrowen, divorces alsoe were brought in with other vices. And this reason Bellarmim doth lard after his manner with Tertullians name, to season it thereby & give it some ver­dure. But it is such caraine that the lard is lost, & all the cookery cast away. For the first divorce which was made at Rōe, was of a chast wife put away by her husbād because she was barin, & did not bear him childrē. [Page 78] [...] si­sieprehēdisses [...]heiudicio raimme ne [...]a 119.Now to seperate husbāds & wives for such causes (we graūt) it is ū lawful: our Savior allowing it for whordō only; The example therefore of the wel ordared Romās is in vain aleaged out of Tertul. against us. But neither was there any divorce for adultery made above 500 years among thē, wil Bell. perhaps say, I graūt. And I wil help with a strōger argumēt: that among the Cains (a state wel ordered too) 700 years did passe befor any divorcemēt was made for adultery. For (as Plutarch writeth) there was no adultry cōmited by the space of soe many yeares among thē. But among the Rōans (wil Bell. perhaps reply) it is likely that some was cōmitted within 500 years. True. But the husband then might put his wife to death (being convicted first of adultery) without al publique iudgmēt, So that if Bell. words have any force, this is theire effect, Among the heathen Romās while good orders florished, the wo­mā that cōmitted adultery suffered death: afterward good orders be­ing overthrowē, she was divorced onely. But whether shee were put a­way by death or by divorcemēt, the man might marry again. Wher­foore the exāple of the heathē Romās, both wel & evel ordered, fight against the popish Romās, & their Chāpion, Hereto the example of all other heathens, whose orders were but so good that they allowed se­cond marriage, may be adioyned, Which I do not so much affirme on myne owne knowledge (though for ought that I have read & remēber it is true (as on Bell. [...] God desecū dis, nuptys de repudy. 1. Cen. 43 20. secret cōfefsiō & silence a mā of greater reading & having used many mens pains in search of these things. Beside, when christiā faith came among the heathens the Emperours did punish adultery first by death: afterward Iustinian mittigating that lawe did pū ­ish it by divorcement. But in both these cases the man being severed from his adulterous wife is free to marry againe. Bellarmins speech therfore touching wel ordered heathens came in evil season, to raise both them & others yea Christiās too, against him. So his last reason, nay his reasons all are growen to worse plight, then were the seaven later kyne in Pharaos dream, the seauen poore, evil favored & lean fleshede kyne, that devowred the the seavē former fatt well favoured & therby saved their life. For the thin carkeiss dreamed of by Bellarmin have no [...] strength enough to overmaister & eat up the sounde bodies of reasons standing ther against, but gasping after them in vaine they dye with famin. And thus having proved that neither light of reson, nor consent of Fathers, nor authority of Scripture disproveth our assertiō I cōclude that the point demōstrated at first by the word of truth the doctrine of Christ, That a man having put away his wife for her adultery may lawfully marry another.