A17412:663
Sermons upon the ten first verses of the third chapter of the first Epistle…
Sermons upon the ten first verses of the third chapter of the first Epistle of S. Peter Being the last that were preached by the late faithful and painful minister of Gods word, Nicolas Byfield. Wherein method, sense, doctrine, and use, is, with great variety of matter, profitably handled; and sundry heads of divinity largely discussed. Published since the authors death by William Gouge.Sermons upon the ten first verses of the third chapter of the first Epistle of S. Peter Being the last that were preached by the late faithfull and painfull minister of Gods word, Nicolas Byfield. Wherein method, sense, doctrine, and vse, is, with great varietie of matter, profitably handled; and sundry heads of divinitie largely discussed. Published since the authors death by William Gouge.
London: printed by H. Lownes for George Latham, 1626
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
1For the case of Divorce, I think that rule of our Saviour binds peremptorily, that no man may put away his wife, but only in the case of fornication, Matth. 19.9. In that case a man (making a lawful divorce) is not bound to cohabitation, but freed from it, and must not dwell with her any more. If it be objected, that in the case of desertion, when an Infidel forsakes a Believer, the Apostle saith the Believer is free. I answer, that this is not a case of Divorce: The Believer doth not for the business of religion put away the Unbeliever, yea, the Apostle shows he ought not, 1. Cor. 7. only if the unbeliever will depart, let her depart. And so by the wilful departure of the Infidel, the Christian is freed from the bond of marriage, as Divines conceive; which is a kind of Nullity, but not a Divorce. But then a great respect must be had to the kind of Unbeliever: not every wicked man or woman, nor every person that professeth a false religion, but such an Unbeliever as is a profest enemy to the Name of Christ, is the Unbeliever the Apostle speaks of.
1For the case of Divorce, I thinke that rule of our Saviour bindes peremptorily, that no man may put away his wife, but only in the case of fornication, Matth. 19.9. In that case a man (making a lawfull divorce) is not bound to cohabitation, but freed from it, and must not dwell with her any more. If it be objected, that in the case of disertion, when an Infidell forsakes a Beleever, the Apostle saith the Beleever is free. I answer, that this is not a case of Divorce: The Beleever doth not for the businesse of religion put away the Vnbeleever, yea, the Apostle shewes he ought not, 1. Cor. 7. only if the unbeleever will depart, let her depart. And so by the wilfull departure of the Infidell, the Christian is freed from the bond of marriage, as Divines conceive; which is a kinde of Nullity, but not a Divorce. But then a great respect must be had to the kinde of Vnbeleever: not every wicked man or woman, nor every person that professeth a false religion, but such an Vnbeleever as is a profest enemy to the Name of Christ, is the Vnbeleever the Apostle speaks of.