Works of Joseph Hall, Book 1 · Section 25
SECT. XXV.
FRom the lawfulneſſe of our Mariages, I deſcended to the Antiquity;Refut. p. 110. where my Refuter takes an ignorant exception. I ſaid, Some things hauehave nothing to plead for them but Time: Age hath beene an old refuge for falſhood: Then I lay for my foundation Tertullians Rule;*Rectum … quodcun que primum; adulterinum quodcu… poſterius, Te…t. de Praſc. That which is firſt is trueſt; My Detector findes here a flat contradiction, and cryes out, Doe theſe men wake or ſleepe when they write? There are none of his wiſe friends which will not be aſhamed of this groſſe ſtupidity; For whether of theſe two Sentences can he diſlike? and if both be allowable, how can they be contradictory? neither am I his Aduerſary herein, but Tertullian. What ſurer way could there bee, then to controll the pretences of a ſecondary antiquity by the firſt? And what contradiction is in this? The firſt is true, all vnderunder the firſt is obnoxious to error, The puiſne poſthumous Antiquity hath beene a refuge for falſhood, the Primigenious Antiquity (which proceeded from the ancient of Dayes) is certaine. Let this Trifler goe learne to ſpell Engliſh, ere he preſume to Diuinity. This Antiquity is the touch, whereby we deſire all truth to be tryed; which eaſily findes all the gilded Coynes of Romiſh innouation, ſhamefully counterfeit.
Not to goe backe ſo farre as Paradiſe (though I well might) where God made the firſt wedding in perfect Innocence. I began with Moſes and his Leuiticall Brotherhood; to which my Refuter replyes;Refut. p. 111. That yet in eating their Paſchall Lambe they had their loynes girt. Iuſtly concluded! All the Iewes did eate the Paſchall Lambe with their loynes girt, for the expedition, or moment of their flight, therefore their Prieſts and Leuites did not conuerſe with their Wiues. If his Superiours of Doway doe not bluſh at this Logicke, his wit and their ſhame are gone together.
But, They abstained (he ſaith) from their Wiues, whiles they did miniſter in the Sanctuary; What if we yeeld this? Their miniſtration was by courſes, and had intermiſſions. There is an holy & decent modeſty in al thoſe which are worthy to ſerue at the Altar, which teacheth them to giuegive God his due times, with reſpect euen of outward purity; which is all thatqEuſeb de praep. Euang. l. 1. c. 9. foreign, i. Sacra facientibus, they turn it, Sacratis, &c Refut. p. 112. Euſebius by them miſſe-tranſlated, and miſſe-alleaged by him, requireth. But what will my Refuter ſay to the High Prieſt himſelfe, which was bound eueryevery day to a morning and euening Sacrifice, who yet was not reſtrained from a coniugall ſociety? That Bone hath troubled, blunted, and broken better Teeth then his.
But (ſaith he) The figure of the eternall Prieſthood of Chriſt (to wit) Melchiſedeck, is not read to hauehave had any wife at all; What of this? He, whom he prefigured, was onelyonly a ſpirituall Husband to his Church. If this man be not read to hauehave had a Wife▪ no more is he read to hauehave had Father or Mother. Nay, hee is read to hauehave had neither. Why doe they not thence infer that Prieſts ought to hauehave neither, but to be begotten and borne of Angels, not of humane kinde? which is as good for an inference as that foppery is for a Legendary fable, that Luther was begotten by an Incubus. Yet had the Literall (not myſticall) Melchiſedec both Father and Mother: and if Sem were Melchiſedec (as wiſer men then mine Aduerſary hauehave vponupon good probabilities thought) hee may paſſe, I hope for a maried man.
As for the perfection of the new Law aboue the old, it onelyonly bars thoſe inſtitutions which had in them an imperfection, not thoſe which God thought fit for Paradiſe it ſelfe. So as the practice of the Iewiſh Church, founded by God himſelfe, is an all-ſufficient warrant for the mariage of his Euangelicall Miniſters.