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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A84659	Theion enōtikon, A discourse of holy love, by which the soul is united unto God Containing the various acts of love, the proper motives, and the exercise of it in order to duty and perfection. Written in Spanish by the learned Christopher de Fonseca, done into English with some variation and much addition, by Sr George Strode, Knight.; Tratado del amor de Dios. English	Fonseca, Cristóbal de, 1550?-1621.; Strode, George, Sir, 1583-1663.	1652 (1652)	Wing F1405B; Thomason E1382_1; ESTC R772	166,624	277

same causes and meanes that mans love decreaseth the love of God increaseth SOme Divines have propounded the question why Christ the second Person in the holy Trinity rather than either of the other persons was made man and among other reasons this they give in answer That our first parents sin 1 Cor. 1.24 in desiring to be as God knowing good and evill directly opposeth the wisdome of God which is Christ And to shew the infinite love of God to man that Person who most directly was offended came down from Heaven tooke mans nature and suffered more than man could do and all to redeem man So that he alone God that can draw good out of evill and light out of darknesse used mans sin as an occasion through his love to save mankinde The Prophet Zacbary describes the state of the world Zach. 6. and in especially of the Israelites by foure Chariots the first whereof had red horses which typified the bloody Babylonians the second had black horses which noted the Persians under whom the Jews were neer their utter extirpation the third had white horses by which may be meant the Macedonians who as Alexander and others were gracious and favourable to the Jews the fourth had grizled or horses of divers colours which figured the changeable various and mixed government of the Romans which first or last is destructive to a State And now under this power and rule which contained all the misrule and barbarous usage of the three other Governments came the Messias into the world and this by the Apostle is called the fulnesse of time Gal. 4.4 because when the sin of the world was at the full now was the time of our blessed Saviour to come into the world and by his unspeakable love to redeem it The Prophet Isaiah sets forth Jerusalem thus Their hands are defiled with blood and their fingers with iniquity Isa 59.3 their lips have spoken lies and their tongues perversenesse none calleth for justice nor any pleadeth for truth the act of violence is in their hands their feet run to evill and they make baste to shed innocent blood their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity wasting and destruction are in their paths The way of peace they know not yea judgement is turned backward and justice standeth afar off for truth is fallen in the streets and equity cannot enter and he that departeth from evill maketh himself a prey And the Lord saw and wondered that there was no Intercessor therefore his arm brought salvation For he put on righteousnesse as a breast-plate and vengeance for a clothing and according to their deeds he will repay fury to his adversaries but to Zion shall the Redeemer come And is there any thing in all this that savours but of the love of God to truth and justice to his people though laden with their sins and for this punished and oppressed by their enemies The love of Christ in this kinde is not to be uttered or any way expressed I will summe it up therefore in that one passage of S. Paul the same night that our Lord Jesus was betrayed he instituted the Sacrament of his body broken 1 Cor. 11.23 and of his bloud shed as a sacrifice fully and solely expiatory for the sin of the whole world And while the Jews cried to the Romans Crucifie crucifie him he for them more incessantly praies to his Father Father forgive them and though they said Let his blood be upon us and our children yet he tells them My blood is shed for you and for all that will take and apply it to the forgivenesse of their sins The Psalmist in a wonder and amazement of this excessive love Psal ● 4 exclaims Lord what is man that thou art so mindfull of him or the son of man that thou visitest him for what is there in himself as man but that is to be abhorred his body being at the best but a bag of bones a sinke of foule water and stinking dirt and his soule like a cage of uncleane birds or a forge of wicked imaginations and a storehouse of sinne To the Psalmists question Why Lord hast thou so visited man no other answer or reason can be given then this of the Apostle Job 3.16 So God loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son to be made saith the Prophet Isay Isa 9.6 as a childe as the Apostle Saint Paul saith as a Servant who emptied himself as it were Phil. 2.7 to a nothing and all this as the effect onely of his infinite incomprehensible Love CHAP. XIV Gods jealousie JEalousie in man is an excesse of love and for the most part is the attendant of some ill condition in him whereas in God it is the quintessence as it were of his love And this riseth in God and moves him to anger and punishment when he finds himself dishonoured or neglected by those he loves Moses not onely tells us Exo. 20.5 that he is a jealous God but adds Exod. 34.14 that his Name is jealous And such is his jealousie that although he suffered the rebellious murmurings of his Israel Exo. 34.14 yet when they committed spirituall whoredome in making and worshipping the golden calf he destroyed 33000. of them and had not his deare servant Moses interceded he had in his jealousie utterly destroyed them all Covetousnesse by S. Paul is called Idolatry Col. 3.5 and when God finds his people worshipping or setting their hearts on these it moves him to jealousie Yea God is jealous of the inordinate or overmuch love of the husband to the wife or of the wife to the husband For these may love each other so much that some part of the love and worship due to God is bestowed on the Creature And for this God oft times turns jealous and in his anger takes the one from the other or bereaves them of their delight which is children And it being so that God hath commanded us to love him with all our heart and with all the strength and powers of the soule the least alienation of our love from God and bestowed on vain delights moves God to jealousie and provokes his anger And as the least withdrawing of our love from God works jealousie in him so when he finds us persist in a daily revolt from him he ceaseth any longer to be jealous See this proved in Israels case where God for Israels multiplied departings from him threatens My jealousie shall depart from them Ezek. 16.42 and I will be quiet and will be no more angry And this is the saddest condition that a soule can fall into for then it is apparent that God hath sent a bill of divorce to that soul and hath removed his love utterly from it for where God loves he cannot but be jealous Chap. XV. Gods revealing his secrets is a great demonstration of his love to man DElilab useth this as an argument Judg. 16.15 that Samson

inflamed by the heat of love And this love though it oft-times want a tongue for outward expression yet this defect it makes good by the eye for as loves palace is the heart so this palace is full of lights through which love makes it self visible and known And as a Chamaeleon or an Actor on the stage is now fearfull then confident sorrowfull and anon joyfull jealous yet secure weak but made strong so love makes one man twenty severall men it makes him all and again a nothing but all working love CHAP. V. Love lesseneth or facilitateth things most difficult LOve hath a participation of the Almighties power able to make the bitter sweet heavy light and the almost impossible things feasible A tast of the Colloquintida in Elisha's pot of portage 2 King 4.41 causeth his guests the Prophets to cry out Death is in the pot to remedy the which Elisha casts meal and then saith the text there was no harm or evil thing in the pot what that meal did Love can doe and more Our most blessed Saviour saith My yoke is easie Mat. 11● 30 and my burden light now his yoke and burden are the renouncing all that a man hath wealth liberty and life and are these so easie and light yes Truth it self hath spoken it and most true it is that Love makes these both light and easie The traditionall Jewes had branched and summed up the precepts of the Mosaicall law into 793 whereof they made 428 affirmatives 365 negatives but all these and if there were a thousand times more Joh. 15● 12 Christ hath reduced them all into this one Love and according to this truth S. Paul averreth that the fulfilling of that law which to flesh and blood was impossible is now done and performed by love Love saith he is the fulfilling of the law Rom. 13.10 As love fulfills all and makes all things easie and light so where love is wanting nothing is light easie well done or indeed is done at all or not as it ought to be done for where love is wanting all is too much that is done and where love is all that is done is too little love maketh a beam a straw and contrariwise it can change a straw into a beam He saith Christ that loveth me keepeth my law for where love is the least word is a law and that law is fulfilled by this word Love Some spectacles there are that represent things greater and others lesser then indeed they are and both these spectacles are made of love which makes the virtues of the beloved greater but his vices lesse Jacob loves Rachel and that he may injoy this beloved piece he serves twice seven yeares bearing the heat of the day and cold by night and yet all this seemed to him but as a pleasant act of a few daies Gen. 29.20 for the love saith the text he had to her The truth of this Axiome is made manifest by the mirrour of love Love it self Christ our Saviour who being very God and so impassible yet assumes our nature and then suffers himself to be reviled scornfully used scourged and put to a shamefull and most ignominious death and all for us his open deadly enemies Look upon me O Lord saith David and be mercifull unto me ●s 119.132 as thou usest to doe unto those that love thy name that is as to thy friends and servants whom thou lovest for as Love by the Heathens and Poets is feigned and portrayed blind so indeed where love is it doth not or will not see or censure the infirmities and blemishes of its beloved but takes them to be as Love-spots rather then deformities When Adam laid the blame of his transgression on his Wife S. Bernard seems to blame Adam that he had not taken it upon himself which saith he he would have done had he loved her CHAP. VI. Love extracteth delight and glory out of torments and sufferings I Speak not this of carnall or politick love which is usually changeable and inconstant and accompanied with falsity tending to self-ends but of Divine love and of this I may truly say the greater or lesser the affection is such more or lesse is the perfection acquired The blessed Apostles and holy Martyrs in the primitive times give us ample testimony and proof to this assertion whose revilings and most exquisite tortures begot in them not patience only but delight and pleasure the stones thrown at the Proto-martyr Stephens head he esteemed as so many jewels The fire under Laurence was to him as some pretious balme or soveraigne confection Ignatius who so much longed to be torn in pieces by wild beasts said If they be tame I will provoke them for I am as wheat to be bruised broken and to be served up to my Lords table And S. Paul said that his afflictions 2 Cor. 11.30 temptations and tribulations were his joy and glory so that though pain oft-times might have drawn teares from their eyes or blood from their veines yet the love they bore to their Lord Christ raised content in their hearts and such smiles in their faces as if they had been already with him in heavenly joy And in all this they did but as scholars imitate their Master who as he often delighted to treat of his passion so he profest to his disciples that Luk. 22.15 with desire he desired that is he greatly and earnestly desired to eat the Passover not as delighted to feast with them but to suffer for them and when S. Peter would have disswaded his Lord from his last great sufferings his Lord reproved him more for this then for his deniall of him in the high Priests hall for on this deniall Christ did but cast his eye toward Peter minding him thereby of his high promise made never to deny him but for that he not only bids him avaunt Mat. 16.23 which we only say to Dogs but he calls him Satan as being an adversary or hinderer of his much desired and longed-for Death We read in the New Testament of two Mountains whereon Christ more eminently appeared the one was Tabor where the shine of his glory seemed greater then that of the sun the other was Calvarie where he was beheld as a man despised more then the worst of men Barabbas the thief murderer prefer'd before him and when the sun hid his face ashamed of the horrid fact of putting the God of Heaven to death yet this exaltation on the Crosse in Mount Calvarie took more with Christ then that other of his transfiguration on Mount Tabor insomuch as here he finished the great work of his love for which he came into the world for the redemption of mankind and that all might be saved a pledge of which the thief dying besides him found who upon the word of Christ spoken unto him presently entred Paradise and this suffering on the Crosse in Calvarie substantially proved what the other appearing on

ought much to be strengthned by that bond of naturall propagation for that what God vouchsafed not to other creatures no nor to his good Angels he granted unto man as an especiall bounty and sign of his love that all mankind should proceed from one generall Father Adam that so all his posterity as descending from one and the same root might all love as being in or indeed as all but one I read that when Trajan the Emperor had sent to Pliny Praetor in Sicily to destroy all the Christians there the Praetor forbore the execution and counselled the Emperor rather to cherish then extirpate them for saith he they are a people which live in obedience to law they neither rob nor kill nor injure any but live as hating none but loving all And when I read that of S. Paul love is the fulfilling of the law I finde that the Apostle in the same text by way of command bids to owe no man any thing but mutuall love Rom. 13.18 whence I conclude that love as it is a command from God so from and by God it is held as a debt and so injoyned as that though we daily pay it yet we should never be discharged from it but that we should with our days and years grow yearly and daily more in this debt of mutuall love But there is a fourth reason perswading and urging this love which is stronger then that of nature and this is our spirituall brotherhood as being not so much one from our naturall parents as one by our spirituall birth and regeneration in our baptisme whereby being united to our head Christ we are all become members of Christs mysticall body and this if any thing will inforce our love It was the argument which good Abraham used to Lot Let us have no breach nor difference betwixt us but let us love and live in accord For saith he and he thought he could bring no stronger argument for it then this me are brethren Gen. 13.8 And we Christians may say we are all brethren not by one Father in the flesh but by one Father which is in heaven and by one Mother the chast undefiled spouse of Christ and by these we become heires not of an estate got by force or fraud and which may be taken away by fire theeves injustice or an usurping power but of an inheritance in the heavens where neither theef nor usurper shall ever come to help himself or hurt us When S. Paul had shewed how in Christ we are all become one body 1 Cor. 1● 1● he then inferres that no one part can pride it selfe over an other saying I have no need of thee but that as members in the naturall body so much more being members in this mysticall body of Christ we should be tenderly compassionate and not only not to have Schismes and breaches but much more not to hurt or offend but rather to help and defend each other from wrong and oppression and so farre as the law will permit to act as Moses did when he saw his contreymen to be oppressed or wronged Exod. 2.13 S. Chrysostome useth an other metaphor to perswade this love when he tells us that this spirituall brotherhood is as the cementing stones together in an arch or other building where as the one supports the other so all united bind and keep all fast and safe together To which well may that of S. Paul be applyed that love or peace is the bond of perfection and therefore Col. 2.14 Eph. 4.3 keeps the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace In which texts as love is the bond ligament or hold-fast of the Christians mysticall body so it is the bond uniter and knitter together of all the perfection that man in this world can attain unto You see the great sweet and powerfull effects of this spirituall love begotten by our baptisme into Christ which is much cherished and increased by the Sacrament of his body and bloud It was not only acted by Caliline but long before him and since I would I could not say the like of Christians that they strengthned their leagues and covenants of holding together as it were in one binding each other to defend and keep them though they were covenants with hell and death yet these I say they entred into and strengthned by drinking the bloud either of themselves or others a covenant we have taken and received the Sacrament of the bloud not of beasts or man but of God himself that as we are all members of one body which is Christ so we will love one another In the reall and true performance whereof if we fail S. Paul tells us that we have not only taken that Sacrament unworthily 1 Cor. 11 27. but therein we have taken our own damnation because saith he we did not discern the body and bloud of Christ but did eate and drink these as of course and in ordinary and not considering that if we kept and performed the commandement and covenant of love the seal whereof was the body and the red inke the bloud of Christ that then we should have life everlasting in him but otherwise nothing but infirmities sicknesse and death And whether we finde not these sad and deadly effects to have fallen upon us for the want or breach of Gods commandements and our covenant signed and sealed in the Sacrament of Christs body and bloud judge and seriously think of it while I proceed to The fifth reason why man should love his neighbour which is grounded upon the nature of the Law-giver God for generally such as the legislator is such are his laws So that be the law-maker a bloudy man his laws savour of cruelty and bloud whereas be he of a sweet meek disposition his laws are full of mercy and love Now God being love it self his law or command to man that he love his neighbour relisheth of Gods own nature as flowing from it So that the nearer we come to the fulfilling this law of love the nearer we approach to the nature of God which is love Christ therefore though at first he took not away all legall sacrifices yet he profest that he would have mercy and not sacrifice Mat. 9.13 or mercy rather then sacrifice but so as in the sacrifice of Cain if it were mingled with the hatred of his brother Abel he rejected it and in this or such a sacrifice he saith I will have mercy and not sacrifice and accordingly when the Scribe answering Christ according to his own doctrine that to love our neighbour as our self Mar. 12.13 is more then all sacrifices Christ hereupon finding that the Scribe answered discreetly and to the truth he said unto him Thou art not farre from the kingdome of God which is as much as if Christ had said thus to teach and so to doe is the straight way to the kingdome of God and without it there is no other way In the

my soul tread down my life and lay mine honour in the dust And to that of Solomon because God commended and blessed him for not desiring the blood of his enemies from hence to conclude that he might have hated or revenged himself upon his enemies is all one as to say God loves and blesseth the humble the chaste and the sober therefore a man may be proud lascivious a glutton or a drunkard But passing by what is or may be argued in desence of hate or revenge to our enemies it is easie to shew and prove that it is unnatural and against the law of God so to do and that the contrary to love them is not onely commanded and praised as natural but easie to be performed even by the Heathen The royal Prophet David saith Thy law is sweeter and more pleasant to me then honey Psa 19.10 or the honey-comb and our Saviour Christ speaking of his Law which is this to love and not hate our enemies Matth. 11.30 he calls it though a yoke and a burthen yet such as he professeth to be easie and light But we must consider to whom it is such not to the carnal worldling and meer natural man but to his disciple whom he understands to be a new creature born and begotten by the Spirit of grace and then to such a nature it is as natural to love his enemy as it is natural to the other to hate him The reason is for that as the Elements of Earth and Water though of themselves ponderous and heavy yet while they are in their own place they press not nor are burthensom So is the love of an enemy in an heart spiritual And as the armour of Saul before David was exercised in bearing arms was cumbersom unto him but after much use and practise in the war he could wield the great Sword of the Giant Goliah and say as he did to Abimelech There is none like unto that 1 Sam. 21.9 even so fareth it with him who hath practised and exercised himself in this holy duty of loving an enemy which an humble spiritual use and exercise will make not onely tolerable but joyous and delight-full May not this and much more be confirmed by the examples of Joseph who being sold treacherously by his brethren Gen. 45. wept over them feasted them and plentifully provided for them of Moses who being murmured against by his Subjects and grosly slandered by Corah Numb 16. Dathan and Abiram who endevoured to disgrace and dethrone him yet then even then he ceased not to labour with God to preserve them whom otherwise the Lord in his just anger would have consumed of David who not onely would not suffer his Soldiers to knock down that railing Shimei but forgave him and when his unnatural rebellious Son Absolom conspired not only the deposing but the killing him yet he then cryes Spare the life of the yong-man who being slain against his will he with floods of tears bewails his death and as desirous to have saved his life by the loss of his own cryes out Absolom my son my son Absolom 2 Sam. 18. would God I had dyed for thee O Absolom my son my son Now can we conceive that more love then this in Joseph Moses and David to their greatest enemies could have been shewed by any other to their dearest friends So true is this that love of an enemy in a soul purified and exercised with patience proves not onely connatural to it but most easie and delightful Nay further if any shall say these indeed were rare examples of men extraordinarily endowed with heavenly gifts of faith love and patience and to these and such as these it was no hard matter thus to love their enemies To this let me reply and tell you that Heathens who as S. Paul speaks of them know not God yet by the light of reason and by the help of humane patience alone have come near to these most illightned and sanctified men and therefore the art of loving your enemies is not so hard a thing to the naturall man if he would give his minde to it Augustus Caesar that great Conqueror and Commander of the World being in the open streets called Tyrant by an unworthy fellow returned no more then this If I were as thou callest me thon couldst not live to call me so a second time Zino a Conspirator against Julius Caesar was pardoned by him and his estate restored and when he had fallen into the like again yet Caesar again pardoned him saying I will see which of us two shall be soonest weary thou in procuring thy own death or I in pardoning thy life I confess there are ingraffed by God in mans sensitive Soul the concupiscible and irascible faculties the one whereof is soon provoked and the other as soon desires and delights in revenge but on the other side you must know That God hath placed in the reasonable Soul the Understanding and Will so that be thy Passions as wilde horses or curst and cruel as mastiff Dogs yet these two the reasonable Spiritual Soul like the skilful Rider or the Master of the dogs can with the whistle or bridle retrain and keep them in if they will use their own power and authority over them If any ask me May I not sue my neighbour or mine enemy who hath taken or kept away my goods or may I not implead him who hath robbed me of my good name I briefly answer Yes so it be for restitution of the one or reparation of the other and without hate or revenge to his person Nay this thou art bound to do in a triple obligation the one to God for the honour of his Power and Justice in punishing violence and iniquity the second to thy self who art bound to love thy self before thy neighbour the third to thy neighbour be he in this case as in place of an enemy yet thou are bound to sue and implead him that by a moderate and lawful chastisement he may see his faults repent and do no more so and hereby thou shalt in part and as much as in thee is save his soul which is no piece of hate but a great part of love that thou shouldest bear to thy neighbour If it be yet urged that the voyce of the blood of Abel cryeth to God for vengeance Gen. 4.10 and that the Souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held cry with a loud voyce saying How long O Lord holy and true Rev. 6.9 10. dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth The general answer to the cryes of Gods Saints or holy ones living or dead to God for vengeance is That these as holy ones and Saints desire nothing against but according to his will 2. Not so much or not directly to the torture of their persons as to the destruction of their violence rapine and

they conceived a vindicative and revengeful soul never acted that which was truly glorious The Almighty God by his Prophets and Apostles is said to be rich in mercy Joel 2. Heb. 2. Neh. 9.16 17. but never in punishing and richer in this then in any thing else that when the Levites had acknowledged what wonderful things God had done for the Israelites and that notwithstanding all his blessings to them they dealt proudly and hardned their necks and obeyed not his Commandments yet for all this they confess of God to his glory That he is a God ready to pardon or a God of pardons and not onely not a punishing God but as it follows there God is gracious merciful slow to anger and of great goodness And indeed go through the whole Book of God and ye shall not finde God so much extolled for any attribute of his Power Wisdome or Justice as for his Mercy in pardoning injuries done unto him Numb 14.17 Accordingly when God was minded to have destroyed the rebellious Israelites Moses findeth no stronger argument to incline him to mercy then by praying Let the power of my Lord be made great according as thou hast spoken Exod. 36.6 saying The Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy forgiving iniquity and transgressions Psal 10.3 8. Pardon therefore I beseech hee the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy mercy So that by the greatness and riches of his mercy his Omnipotency is made most glorious And as God is most pleased with this attribute of Merciful as conducing most to his glory so in imitating God herein man most proves himself to be his Fathers own childe for as our Saviour spake of the hard-hearted revengeful Jews Joh. 8.44 Ye are of your father the devil who was a murtherer from the beginning so saith he Love your enemies Mat. 5.45 and do good to them that hate you that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven intimating that by this act and disposition of the heart ye may prove your selves the true born Sons of God your Father And such as cross and oppose this doctrine of our Lord Christ saying in heart or tongue it is baseness and cowardize to put up an affront without taking revenge I must pronounce that man not onely a bastard as S. Paul calls such no son of God but an heretick to Christs doctrine whose precept is Love your enemies We reade that our Saviour told his disciples that for his sake they should suffer and forsake estates wife children and life but never that they should suffer for his name or doctrine any loss of reputation or honour whence it will easily follow that to obey Christs command in pardoning the offences of our neighbour and in loving our enemy we lose not but gain that which indeed with God and good men is truly called and known to be honour To incline mans heart to this duty is the consideration of that trouble and torture which hate and revenge brings into the soul of man This appears by many instances in holy Writ Cain after the murther of his brother became a fugitive in the land of Nod Gen. 4.14 which signifieth disquiet and he is a vagabond not onely to others but to himself wandring with fear and torture of minde as a man distracted and ter●ified fearing himself or as we say his own shadow and Lamech having as the general opinion is slain his thrice great Grandfather Cain he saith I have slain a man to my wounding Gen. 4.23 though it were done ignorantly and by a misadventure yet that manslaughter was a wound to his own heart Good God what wound must that be then to the heart of him who meditates and useth all the means he can to destroy that image of God which Christ the Son of God so loved that he vouchsafed to dye for it When Abigail laboured to pacifie David 1 Sam. 25.31 incensed and purposed to kill the Churl Nabal though a man of no worth or esteem she useth this argument This shall be no grief nor offence of heart unto my Lord that thou hast not shed blood or that thou hast not avenged thy self and David considering what a corrosive the act if committed would have been to his conscience V. 32 33. saith Blessed be the Lord which sent thee with this counsel and blessed be thy advice and blessed be thou which hast kept me from shedding blood It is observed that the Bee having shot her sting and wounded what offended her she either soon after dyes her self or continues but as an half liv'd drone and as despised of others so disconsolate and careless of it self and it can be little other if not worse with that man who seeks revenge on his neighbour for the edge or point of that sword which killed his brother pierceth and woundeth the soul of the slayer and as the wise-man speaks of sorrow and wrath Ecclus. 30.23 so may I of this It shortneth the life and hath killed many Another reason to pardon the injuries done us by our enemy or neighbour is that the stroke comes not so much from our enemy as from God and thereby that we may reap benefit and no hurt if we will our selves Although Joseph had said Ye my brethren sold me to the Egyptians yet in the same verse he addeth God sent me into Egypt Gen. 45.5 His brethren sold him but God sent him And when Shimei cursed David 2 Sam. 16.10 David would not revenge himself on Shimei this had been to have imitated the dog who bites the stone thrown at him but he passeth by the reviler or railer not saying Wherefore hast thou done this and he gives the reason for it for the Lord saith he bade him curse David The King of Assyria is called the rod and the staff of Gods indignation Isa 10● Psa 37.14 and the Prophet saith The wicked have bent their bow and drawn out their sword to slay the godly what then are the godly to do to draw their swords and kill the wicked which in case of defence and backed by lawful authority is justifiable no but they are to consider what follows in the next verse Psa 17. Their bow shall be broken and their sword shall enter into their own hearts and when or how shall this be see that where it is said ●he wicked and so the sword of the wicked is Gods sword who cannot rise or strike unless God speaks as be doth V. 13. Awake O sword and smite Zech. 13.7 Now thine enemies being Gods rod his staff his sword what man is so mad as to resist this sword or to break this staff and not rather to kiss the rod because it is Gods and that it is not laid on for thy destruction but correction and not to hurt and wound but to chastise thee and make thee better Job the upright and

be had to make choice of that woman with whom we would be yoked or joyned in that estate of matrimony till death us depart Now the sour especiall and usuall promoters or workers of mariage are 1. Beauty 2. Wealth 3. Honour 4. Goodness or virtue of which the first three moderately desired are good requisites for the better keeping up the superstructure in this building but the most necessary basis and foundation without which mariage can neither please God nor benefit man is grace and goodnesse And of these four promotors in mariage the 1. Beauty for the most part works upon the carnall man the 2. wealth on the worldly the 3. honour on the proud the 4. grace and virtue moves the desire and works the assent in the heavenly minded and spirituall man virtue I say and not beauty for first consider what beauty is in its nature and being 2. what it is in power and then say whether beauty rather then goodnesse should make the match Now beauty as to its first being whether in man or woman is a delightfull object of the eye appearing from the colour and figure of the body which colour is as a fair blush well mixed with white and red clearly glimmering through a tender skin and arising from an equall temper of the humours but especially of the bloud well tempered and the figure is that comely proportion of all the limmes and members in themselves and with the rest of the parts each to other so that neither are too long nor too short nor too big nor too little but that all and each holds an equall symmetrie which makes the parts and members seem goodly and now though this beauty in colour and figure may be accounted among the common gifts of God and therefore it may serve as often it doeth for a letter of commendation and a superscription of favour as being the signe of a well tempered soul and therefore it never satiates the eye of the beholder yet oftentimes like a tyrant it is not long-lived but short of continuance for if it be blasted with sicknesse or buffeted by Satan it is soon withered like your fairest flowers And yet oft-times beauty is not only deceitfull like a painted Sepulcher or the apples of Sodome which have only a fair superficies yet dust or rottenness within but it is often dangerous both to the Spectator becomming an infectious Basilisk and to the owner as a gilded poyson For in many it is little more then a skin puffed up with a proud love of it selfe and a base envy or contempt of others And yet these beauties as coloured flies or well skinned beasts are most run and hunted after though it prove to the ruin of the huntsman as in Samson and the Son of Shechem and to the hunted as Dinah Lucrece and others For as boyes love to be running after coloured flyes to play with them to their destruction so such coloured flyes delight to be flying abroad to play in the Sun or with a burning light Dinah may serve for a motto of this embleme and David for the word of that Beauty is and hath been both a straggler and a tempter to the destruction of others and a restless peece desirous to be tempted though it prove to its own ruin And besides all this you shall find fair Rachell to sell her husband for mandrakes which such women oft-imes love as well as their husbands Be therefore if you please a well wisher to beauty but the lover and wooer only of grace and virtue without which beauty in an ill woman is like a ring of gold in a swines snout and therefore of it self not to be desired Neither is honour to be loved whither traduced by descent or conferred by the favour of the Prince for though these as branches of choice roots are left to be graffed on and likeliest to bring forth the finest fruit yet even these by time or taint are often so corrupted that they become as blood in an ill dieted or surfeited bodie which is good for nothing but the sewer yea and take honour at the best yet what is it more then a splended phantasme or airy opinion floating or warbling in the brain of the standers by who one day reverenceth the honourable person as thing sacred while the next day perhaps he scorns it as prophane yea and by a vote to be utterly cast away as a thing both useless and dangerous And though money and lands have a more elementary stuff and substance then either beauty or honour and are so far worthily called goods as being instruments to work and do good yet neither are they in themselves good no nor so well able to make or denominate the possessor good as either honour or beauty I find not among all the marriages whereof we reade in the book of God that any of them were made for wealth and for this and many other reasons I cannot but condemn the too too common senseless guise of our times which sends lands or moneys to be or as it were the chief Orators or contractors of marriage or as though the ironicall words of the Poet were now verified Quaerenda pecunia primùm virtus post nummos be he or she rich it is that we most look after and let grace wisdome and other beautles of the soul or body serve but as lackies which we much regard not whereas these are not to be used as contractors of marriage they being at their best but earthly uncertain deceitfull or dangerous and such as of which one may say when marriage is made for these winged creatures that as these take wing and fly out of the door so love that was endeared for them will soon creep out at the window Mary not then for these nor mary with one that is unequall to thy self An oxe and a sheep a lion and a calf will hardly yoke or draw together choose a wise according to thy self said Plutarch and Pittacus the like marry one of thy own quality for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equality it is that begets love and love to continue and grow is best planted with the like roots or branches Where I would not be understood that the man or woman exceeding the other in wealth birth or the like is ever to be accounted above the other that hath not the same in the like measure But as the soul is to be preferred before wealth c. so the extraordinary endowments thereof make the persons so qualified superior to those that exceed in wealth honour or power For close wouldst thou man have a good wife or thou wise have a good husband know that as at the first marriage neareness of flesh begat affection in the soul Gen. 2 Gen. 3. for Adam seeing Eve to be flesh of his flesh called her wife so since that the affection in the soul hath begot the nearness in the flesh For first they affected and then they are made one flesh So