6

CELIBACY.

ately gives this advice: "Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband." 1 Cor. 8: 1, 2. And so far from forbidding clergymen to marry, when directing Titus in the election of men to be ordained bishops he says, "If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children," &c. Titus 1 :.t>. ut Writing to Timothy he says, "A bishop must Be blameless, the Jmsbayid of one wife."   1 Tim. 3: 'Z.

Such is the plain and simple teaching of the word of God upon this subject. But the Pope and his clergy have become wise "above what is written." They have made the discovery, it would seem, that by marriage, which God says "is honorable in all," men contract a degree of impurity so great, that they are wholly unfit to exercise the office of the ministry. They have thought fit to annul or deny the doctrine of Paul, and to say, a bishop must not be the husband of one wife, must not have children. They would even depose a man from the ministry, who should be as impure as Peter was, and as Paul claimed the right to be! Nay, they will not even allow the lowest order of deacons to be as unholy as the apostles of Christ were! For it should be observed, that the Roman church does not require celibacy of her clergy merely as a matter of expediency, but because it is a holier state. The council of Trent says. "Whoever shall affirm, that the conjugal state is to be preferred to a life of virginity or celibacy, and that it is not better and more conducive to happiness to remain in virginity or celibacy than to be married; let him be accursed." And the Catechism of Trent says, "As it is the duty