The Novelty of Popery Opposed to the Antiquity of True Christianity, Book 7 · Controversy 4 · Chapter 4
CHAP. 4. Another text of the ſame Epiſtle, chap. 3.
ONe text more remains, which more then any puts our Adverſaries to the rack. The Apoſtle Paul, 1 Tim. 3.1. ſpeaks thus, A Biſhop muſt be blameleſs the husband of one wife; &c. one that ruleth well his own houſe, having his children in ſubjection with all gravity, for if a man knows not how to rule his own houſe, how ſhall he take care of the Church of God. And the like order he giveth for the chooſing of a Biſhop, Tit. 1.6. If any be blameleſs, the husband of one wife, having faithfull children, not accuſed of riot, or unruly, For a Biſhop muſt be blameleſs, &c. Obſerve that the Apoſtle ſaith that the Biſhop muſt be (not that he hath been) the husband of one wife. For if the Apoſtle ſaid, the Biſhop muſt have been blameleſs the husband of one wife, vigilant, ſober, &c. he ſhould make Epiſcopacy a ceſſation of vertues, and a diſpenſation from doing good. And when the Apoſtle will have the wives of Biſhops and Deacons to be grave, not ſlanderers, ſober, &c. it is evident that he inſtructeth them that are wives of Biſhops and Deacons, not them that are their wives no more.
Pope Leo the firſt underſtands it ſo,(a)Leo Epiſt. 85. in quibuſd. codicibus eſt Epiſt. 87. ſaying, The Apoſtle bids that ſuch a man be made a Biſhop, which is known to have been or to be the husband of one wife.
And Chryſoſtom upon Tit. 1.(b)Hom. 2. foreign, St. Paul ſheweth that marriage is ſo honourable, that with it one may get up into the holy See, ſo he calls Epiſcopacy. He ſaith foreign with it, not foreign after it, as all that have ſome little skill in Greek underſtand well. Here admire the Cardinals ignorance in Greek; For whereas he reads foreign (inſtead of foreign) he joyns foreign with foreign, the neuter with the maſculin, as if one ſaid negotium ille pro illud, which is a groſs incongruity.
To know how and in what ſenſe the Apoſtle will have the Biſhop to be the husband of one wife, it muſt be known that a man may have two wives together, two ſeveral wayes, Either having two wives together in one houſe, Or one at home, another divorced without cauſe of adultery. In this manner a woman may have two husbands, for it was in faſhion then, both among(c)Joſeph. Origin. l. 11. c. 11. Salome ſoror Herodio Coſtobarum virum ſuum repudiat. Jews, and(d)Coelii Epiſt. 8. Ep. 7. apud Ciceronem. Seneca de Benef. l. 3. c. 16. Pagans, that wives would give the b…ll of divorce to their husbands. Of which we might bring a great number of examples. The ſame cuſtom was practiſed of old among the Chriſtians. Juſtin Mar…yr in the beginning of the firſt Apology ſpeaketh of a Chriſtian woman that put away her husband(e)foreign. giving him the bill of divorce. Which is condemned by the Eliberin Council in the eighth and ninth Canon; And in a Council of Carthage, which is the one hundred and ſecond Canon in the Code of the Canons of the(f)Apud Balſamonem. Church of Africa. Hierom in the eighty fourth chapter to Oceanus, ſaith, that Fabiola put away her husband. And in the Epitaph of Marcella he ſaith, that it was the cuſtom of the rich women to marry poor husbands to put them away. For which cauſe the Apoſtle giveth order, that the widows that had been wives of more then one husband, ſhould not be admitted into the office of Deaconeſſes, that is, if at the ſame time they had a husband at home, and another divorced. Chryſoſtom underſtands it ſo, and ſaith that the Apoſtle forbids the Biſhop to have two wives at the ſame time, ſaying that(g)Chryſoſt. in 1 Tim. 3. cap 3. Hom. 3. foreign. the Apoſtle forbiddeth the exceſs, becauſe among the Jews the aſſociation of a ſecond marriage was lawfull, and to have two wives together. Here the truth is ſo evident that Cardinal du Perron, and with him(h)Baron. an. 58. Sect. 14. Salmeron Comment. in 1 Cor. 16. Diſp. 30. Sect Septimâ. Eſtius Com. in hunc locum. Cardinal Baronius, and Salmeron, and Eſtius, acknowledge that in St. Pauls time married men were received to be Biſhops. But they ſay it was only for a time, by reaſon of the variety of unmarried perſons in the time of the birth of the Church, when the Jews curſed the Miniſters, and the Pagans puniſht them; But that after the Emperour Conſtantin had given priviledges to them that did lead a ſingle life, the Church began to make uſe only of perſons that lived in celibat.
This is a remarkable confeſſion, that in the Apoſtles time Biſhops were married. For God would not have permitted in the Apoſtles time a thing evil of its nature in a matter of ſo high importance as the Miniſtery of his Goſpel. Alſo it is a great conceſſion, that the celibat of Clarks began in Conſtantins time, that is, above three hundred years after Chriſts birth: As in effect all the Canons and teſtimonies of Antiquity, which Cardinal du Perron brings upon that ſubject are ſince that time. We have then for us in this cauſe by the confeſſion of our Adverſaries the whole Church of the old Teſtament, and the three firſt ages of the Chriſtian Church. We may ſafely believe that the Apoſtles were at the leaſt, as wiſe as the Biſhop of Rome, when they commanded that the Biſhop ſhould be blameleſs, the husband of one wife, without declaring that it was a commandment only for a time, or ſaying how long it muſt be obſerved in the Church.
For indeed St. Paul ſpake not of toleration, but gave a rule without exception. Elſe we ſhould ſay, that as the command of being husband of one wife was given to the Biſhop by toleration and for a time, ſo the command which obligeth the Biſhop to be blameleſs, ſober and vigilant, is but a command for a time. And it will follow, that the Apoſtle ſuffers ad tempus, and proviſionally, that the Biſhop be of a holy and blameleſs life, for theſe things are tyed together by the Apoſtle, and equally recommended to the Biſhop. But who ſeeth not that when St. Paul ſaith, Let the Biſhop be blameleſs, the husband of one wife, he gives us to underſtand, that the Biſhop muſt be the husband of one wife, that is, he muſt not have two together, that he may be blameleſs. For that was an ordinary thing in thoſe dayes to have two wives, the one at home, the other divorced. Yea, wives would put away their husbands to take other husbands, as we have proved. Hierom in the Epiſtle to Oceanus confuteth thoſe, that by one wife underſtand the Church.