For I would know what one thing was in those nations, and is here forbidden, being indifferent in itself, yet forbidden only because they used it. In the laws of Israel we find it written, “Ye shall not cut round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou tear the tufts of thy beard⁸.” These things were usual amongst those nations, and in themselves they are indifferent. But are they indifferent being used as signs of immoderate and hopeless lamentation for the dead? In this sense it is that the law forbiddeth them. For which cause the very next words following are, “Ye shall not cut your flesh for the dead, nor make any print of a mark upon you: I am the Lord⁹.” The like in Leviticus, where speech is of mourning for the dead; “They shall not make bald parts upon their head, nor shave off the locks of their beard, nor make any cutting in their flesh¹⁰.” Again in Deuteronomy, “Ye are the children of the Lord your God; ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make you baldness between your eyes for the dead¹¹.” What is this but in effect the same which the Apostle doth more plainly express, saying, “Sorrow not as they do who have no hope¹²?” The very light of nature itself was able to see herein a fault; that which those nations did use, having been also in use with others, the ancient Roman laws do forbid¹³. That shaving therefore and cutting which the law doth mention was not a matter in itself indifferent, and forbidden only because it was in use amongst such idolaters as were neighbours to the people of God; but to use it had been a crime, though no other people or nation under heaven should have done it saving only themselves.

As for those laws concerning attire: “There shall no garment of linen and woollen come upon thee¹⁴;” as also those touching food and diet, wherein swine’s flesh together with sundry other meats are forbidden¹⁵; the use of these things had been indeed of itself harmless and indifferent: so that hereby it doth appear, how the law of God forbade in some special consideration such things as were lawful enough in themselves. But yet even here they likewise fail of that they intend. For it doth not appear that the consideration in regard whereof the law forbiddeth these things was because those nations did use them. Likely enough it is that the Canaanites used to feed as well on sheep’s as on swine’s flesh; and therefore if the forbidding of the later had no other reason than dissimilitude with that people, they which of their own heads allege this for reason can shew I think some reason more than we are able to find why the former was not also forbidden. Might there not be some other mystery in this prohibition than they think of? Yes, some other mystery there was in it by all likelihood. For what reason is there which should but induce, and therefore much less enforce us to think, that care of dissimilitude between the people of God and the heathen nations about them, was any more the cause of forbidding them to put on garments of sundry stuff, than of charging them withal not to sow their fields with meslin¹⁶; or that this was any more the cause of forbidding them to eat swine’s flesh, than of charging them withal not to eat the flesh of eagles, hawks, and the like¹⁷?

Wherefore, although the church of Rome were to us, as to Israel the Egyptians and Canaanites were of old; yet doth it not follow, that the wisdom of God without respect doth teach us to erect between us and them a partition-wall of difference¹⁸, in such things indifferent as have been hitherto disputed of.

---

← That our allowing the customs of our fathers · Contents · That the example of the eldest churches is n →

Footnotes

1. T. C. lib. i. p. 89, 131. [See also p. 67.] ↩

2. Lev. xviii. 3. ↩

3. Lev. xix. 27. ↩

4. Levit. xix. 19; Deut. xxii. 11. ↩

5. Deut. xiv. 7; Lev. xi. ↩

6. Ephes. ii. 14. ↩

7. Levit. xviii. 3. ↩

8. Levit. xix. 27. ↩

9. Levit. xix. 28. ↩

10. Levit. xxi. 5. ↩

11. Deut. xiv. 1. ↩

12. 1 Thess. iv. 13. ↩

13. [Cic. Tusc. Quæst. ii. 23. “Ingemiscere nonnunquam viro concessum est, idque raro: ejulatus ne mulieri quidem: et hic nimirum est lessus, quem duodecim tabulæ in funeribus adhiberi vetuerunt.”] ↩

14. Levit. xix. 19; Deut. xxii. 11. ↩

15. Deut. xiv. 7; Levit. xi. ↩

16. Levit. xix. 19. [“Meslin: mixt corn, as wheat and rye.” Johnson, quoting Tusser:“If work for the Thresher ye mind for to have,“Of wheat and of meslin unthreshed go save.”] ↩

17. Deut. xiv; Levit. xi. ↩

18. Ephes. ii. 14. ↩