Forbidding to marry
Which points out not the Encratites, Montanists, and Manichees,
who spoke against marriage; but the Papists, who forbid it to
their priests under a pretence of purity and holiness, and at the
same time allow them to live in all manner of debauchery and
uncleanness; for these are the persons that forbid marriage in an
authoritative way, and in hypocrisy: for that phrase is to be
joined to all the sentences that follow it; as through the
hypocrisy of those whose consciences are seared; and through the
hypocrisy of those that forbid marriage to their priests, this
being, by the common people, taken as an instance of great purity
and holiness, and hereby they are drawn into the deception; as
well as also through the hypocrisy of those that command
to abstain from meats:
not from some certain meats forbidden by the law of Moses, as did
some judaizing Christians; but from all meats at some certain
season of the year, as at what they call the Quadragesima or
Lent, and at some days in the week, as Wednesdays and Fridays;
and this all under an hypocritical pretence of holiness, and
temperance, and keeping under the body, and of mortification;
when they are the greatest pamperers of their bodies, and indulge
themselves in all manner of sensuality: the evil of this is
exposed by the apostle, as follows,
which God hath created;
and therefore must be good, and ought not to be abstained from:
and besides, the end of his creation of them is,
to be received:
to be taken, and used, and eaten; and therefore it is wicked to
command men to abstain from them, and evil in those that do it:
and the manner in which they should be received is
with thanksgiving;
since they are the creatures of God, and useful to men, and men
are unworthy of them, having forfeited them by sin; and since
they are the bounties of Providence, and a free use of them is
allowed; so far then should men be from abstaining from them,
that they ought to take them, and use them with all thankfulness:
and especially this should be done
of them which believe and know the truth:
that is, who believe in Christ, and know the truth of the Gospel,
which frees from every yoke of bondage, and from the burdensome
rites, ceremonies, and inventions of men; for these have the good
creatures as the fruits of divine love, through Christ the
Mediator, and as blessings indeed; and who have the best right,
claim, and title to them through Christ, being in him heirs of
the world, and for whose sake all things are; and therefore
these, as they know how to use them, and not abuse them, are to
receive them at the hands of God, with thanksgiving, and not put
them away, or abstain from them under a pretence of religion and
holiness.