calling which is agreeable to the first foundation and building up of the world Where at first no sooner was the stage of the world reared but that our first father Adam was set to acting that is to speak plainly Adam was set to dress the garden and not only the children of Adam who were heires of the world spent their time in tilling and sowing the earth or in keeping and feeding sheep but the Patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Jacob though Lords of great possessions and masters of many servants and powerfull to fight with and conquer Kings yet these witness the holy writ lived not as our Gentlemen do but as the Apostle counsells and commands us they lived and exercised themselves in honest callings for they knew that as of idleness comes no goodness so he that lives idly to eate drink and play must be sure as the Apostle speaks that the judgement of God is according to truth Row 2.2.5 against them which commit such things and therefore that they do hereby treasure up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath and the just judgement of God who will render to every man according to his deeds The Greeks as I am taught have a word which signifies to play the Stork whereby they understand that the love of parents to their children should beget in children a reddition and retribution of their duty to their Parents for it is storied of the Stork that as the old one hath been loving and tender to feed defend and cherish their young so the young will feed defend and carry the old when it is unable to help it self Now Christ himself Mat. 6.26 though in another case bids us behold the fowles of the aire and accordingly the Spirit of God by his pen-men grounds instructions to children in their duty to parents as S. Paul doth when he saith Children obey your Parents in the Lord Ephes 6.1 2. for this is right and again Honour thy father and mother which is the first commandement with promise and he adds a reason to his counsell on the childs behalf That it may be well with thee and that thou mayest live long and happy on the earth The Parents of Tobiah called their son implying what children should be to their parents the light of their eyes to guide and direct them Tob. 5.17.10.5 and the staff of their hand in going in and out to defend them and we have a story of a godly Christian Daughter to this purpose who in part rob'd her child that with the milk of her breasts she might nourish her father imprisoned and almost sterved by the merciless Tyrant Nor doth the Childs duty here end Eph. 6.1 but goes on to what S. Paul taught that children must obey their parents in the Lord that is in all just and lawfull things what ever they command so it be not repugnant to the word or law of the Lord which the same Apostle in an other Epistle commands saying Col. 3.20 Children obey your parents in all things that is as before in the Lord for this is well pleasing to the Lord for obeying them in all things in the Lord in so doing the children obey the Lord which commands this obedience And what the sin or punishment of disobedience is Prov. 30 17. the wise man in part hath told us when he saith The eye that mocketh at his father and despiseth to obey his mother the ravens those birds which of all others are least regarded as I told you by the old ones shall pick out and the Eagles shall devour them but the Apostle saying Obey and honour thy father and mother that thy days may be long and happy on earth implies no less then that he who doth not obey and honour them shall have but few or evill days while they live here besides the evill which shall follow after Our blessed Saviour hath pronounced the same plainly and fully saying God commanded Mat. 15.4 Honour thy father and mother and he that doth contrary let him die the death Prov 30.11 And yet such ungodly children have been found of whom the wiseman speaks there is a generation that curseth their father and such saith the Prophet are those who dishonour their parents Mie 7.6 and such was the accursed Cham Ge. 9.22 who proclaimed the nakedness of his father yea monsters of men have there been whom I am ashamed to name Nero who in an inhuman manner ripped up that womb of his mother where himself lay but I will tell you of the sons of Sâ—nacherth 2 King 15.37 who fearing that their father would kill them in hope to prosper thereby as Abraham did in sacrificing his son slew their father Against which sin of paricide or killing parents the wise law-giver Solon provided no law because he thought no man could be so desperately wicked as to kill and destroy him that under God gave him life yet the Romans in detestation of this so unnaturall a sin decreed a death unheard of untill their times which was that such a parent-slayer should be closed up in a leathern sachell together with a viper art ape and a cock and so to be cast into the river to be gnawed upon to be drowned and to be sterved to death When God promised Abraham to be his exceeding great reward he replyed to Godand said Lord God wherein wilt thou reward me or what wilt thou give me seeing I am childless wherein he implyed all temporall goods and blessings were as nothing to him without an heire and then the word of the Lord came unto him saying thou shalt have an heire come forth of thine own bowells Hezekiah likewise when the Prophet told him he should dye wept that he should dye childless And barrenness or want of children is in holy writ often called a reproach yea and pronounced by God as a punishment but on the contrary a great blessing to have children Insomuch that David repining as it were at the prosperity of the wicked he reckons this as one of their greatest Psal 17 24. That they are full of children and that they leave their substance to their babes and in another psalme Ps 115.14 God will bless them that fear him and will increase them more and more them and their children and again Loe children are an heritage of the Lord Ps 127.3.5 and the fruit of the womb is his reward for they are as arrowes in the band of a mighty man and therefore happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them for they shall be able to speak with their enemies in the gate that is in the gate where the Judges sate where their children shall stand up to plead for their father and in the field they shall be as arrowes to defend him against his enemies It is storied that when Croesus was ready to be slain that his son who till that time was dumbe and never could
sight of the Lord yet because he might have been unprepared at that time therefore God gave him time to think and prepare himself and that all things were not so well in order for the soul of that good King as they should have been for a dying man it appears by the message of the Lord sent unto him saying set thy house in order for thou shalt dye and not live They come short who say by house here is meant only houshold affaires for can we think that God had more respect or care to these then to the soul of Hezekiah which is the Temple and house of God though trusted to Hezekiahs keeping and when Hezâ—kiah is commanded to set his house in order before his death 2 King 18.3 it is apparent enough that somewhat therein necessary to be put in better order was out of good order and therefore as apparent it is that the very best may pray if for no other reason though many more there are yet for this that he may set his house in order before he dye for as the best swept house may gather some dust or uncleannesse in an hour so the purest soule of man and therefore as he is ever bound to pray Lord forgive me so he is ever bound to pray From sudden death good Lord deliver me that he may before his death say the same prayer which many suddenly surprised by death have not had time to say neither at their death to pray or say as S. Stephen or our most blessed Saviour who though they were before their deaths approach as well prepared for death as could be yet even then and as blessing God for this benefit and mercy they prayed not only for themselves but for others whereas he who is suddenly stroke dead hath no time with that blessed Martyr or the son of God to say Father forgive them or Lord have mercy on me The theef that dyed near Christ found this as an especiallmerc y from heaven that before his death he had time and grace to say Luk. 23.42 Lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdome and this mercy was a thousand times greater to the theef on the Crosse then if he had dyed on his bed without prayer I am not ignorant that such seeming Saints as mislike of this prayer against sudden death reply that men are daily put in mind of their death by the frequent preaching of the Gospel and the hourly spectacles of mortality and these are enough to prepare them against a sudden death I know that the like frequent preaching might be means enough and sufficient to prevent and resist all sin and is it therefore so effectual but that notwithstanding al the preaching sin continues I would I could say it abounds not for all the preaching and would I could not truly say that it more abounds by the latter kind of preaching But tell me I pray did not Noah preach unto the old world of the deluge which should destroy them and therefore that they should repent and be prepared for death had not Sodome fair warnings in the like kind and had not Jerusalem caveats and preparatives given it by Christ himself to prepare and prevent that which might suddenly fall on them But did these warnings and preachings produce the effect and to tell us we should be ever prepared for death is no more then to tell us we should avoid all sinne but this telling this preaching works not ever the effect for which preaching was ordained and therefore in Gods name pray against sudden death In the Prophet Ezekiel and the Revelations of S John Ezek. 1â— Rev. 1. we find the Beasts said to be full of eyes as though they had eyes not only in their heads but in their hands feet tongues that all should watch against the approach of death and for a preparation to Judgement and not only the Apostles but Christ himself often preached this lesson to his disciples and lest they might forget it three times a little before his departure out of the world Christ bids his disciples watch Mat. 26. and in the parable of the Virgins he gives the reason of this advise for ye know neither the day nor the hour Mat. 25.13 wherein the son of man calleth either to death or judgement For as it is in another parable he shall come secretly and closely as a theef that he may not be discovered Mar. 13.39 but take thee unawares he shall come in the night therefore saith he that you be not surprised watch He that hath any enterprise or great work to do and hath but an hour a day or a week or a short set time allotted for the same how carefull he is to observe the time how it passeth that it slips not away before his work be ended And can man be sayed to have any greater work to finish then so to negotiate and do his business here that he may be ready and prepared whensoever he shall be summoned by death to give an account of his stewardship and so not fear that doome Go thou accursed into hell fire but rather that other Come ye blessed of my Father enter into the kingdome prepared for you S. Peter for close of this point 2 Pet. 3. 16 11 12 is most worthy our reading and best consideration Seeing saith he the Lord will come suddenly unexpectedly and to us uncertainly as a theef in the night what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for and hasting unto the comming of the day of God And as the frailty and uncertainty of mans life should instrnct us to this so should the iniquity and misery thereof cure the itch of the desire of life which is no less to the best then what Job speaks Job 14.1 Ge. 47.9 man is of few days and full of trouble which is verified in Jacob who pronounced his to be such when he sayed Few and evill have the days of the years of my life been the years few but all the days full of evill of evill either of sin to be lamented or of affliction to be suffered and for this cause as many Philosophers blamed nature as a stepmother to man so many nations and people rejoyce at their friends going out but weepe at their comming into the world And Tertullian hath a conceit call it a conceit because I cannot warrant it that male children as soon as born express their lamentation by A A as sons of Adam and the females by E E as comming from Eve the parents of all their misery and sorrow Yet this is apparent that when God had fashioned the earth and the two great lights Gen. 1â— the Sun and the Moon and after that he had made the waters and the beasts that after every days work of each of these it is said God saw them that they were good which he forbeares to speak of man in speciall
incorruptible What is Musick but an harmony or consonancy of various discordant sounds What 's health but a temper or accord of the elements and parts of the body Some write that the stone Tuces if broken though then lesse weighty sinketh but so long as it is one whole and intire then and so long it swimmeth and keeps from sinking under water and the like power hath love and unity in all other bodies Consider and know that if the Almighty Architect of the world had not breathed or infused a spirit of unity into the upper and celestiall parts with the inferiour elementary that these had soon been scorched and indeed consumed by those Again the inferiour parts ever stand in need and crave the help benefit or influence of those above them as the earth of the water the water of the aire the aire of the fire and the fiery element of the Heavens in which if one Sphere should thwart and not gently yeeld to the others influence or motion they as the inferiour world would suddenly perish and be consumed The great Creator of these and all things in and under them Genesis 1.31 gave not the high praise and title of very good unto them untill himself by his most admirable power and goodnesse Gen. 1.31 had united them by love and so made them all one I cannot but acknowledge the saying of that Philosopher to be good and wise who called this kinde of love the Soul of the world For as the soule gives life and motion unto the body so doth love unto all other things and as the soule cherisheth and enlightens the bodie so doth love beautifie and inrich the world In a word there is no creature nor part of the world either great or small but hath if not all yet the greatest part of its perfection subsistence or continuance from this love But besides this kinde of love hitherto spoken of which in unreasonable creatures may more strictly be called inclination there is a love properly so termed which hath its working in the will both of God Angels and men Parmenides though an Heathen could say That love in God preceded the Chaos or the creation of the world as causing and making both Take this love as in man and then hear another Philosopher call it the Pilot a second the Sun a third the guide and director of the will of man and of all his choice actions CHAP. II. What love is and how it is the cause of all passions THings high and immense having some resemblance to infinity hardly come under the limits of a strict definition which hath caused the ancients to set forth love by Emblemes and Hieroglyphicks Yet so that some have in generall described it by negatives as that it is a thing which is I know not what affecteth and worketh I know not in what manner and which hurteth I know not how S. Gregorie calls it the fire in mans heart which according to the working thereof either cherisheth or destroyeth the Tabernacle of its residence and it may well be conceived that when the holy Ghost descended in the figure or shew of fire Act. 2.3 that that fire signified the love and accord to be amongst the holy Apostles being assembled together in one place which is the complement and blessing of all good Assemblies when they are all of one minde and one heart in a godly innocent love The fire which came from Heaven to consume the Sacrifice God commanded ever to be continued Levit. â— 13 that so it might never be extinguished or put out Isaiah saith Isa 31.9 That God hath his fire in Sion and his furnace in Jerusalem each Symbols of Gods love burning in the temple of our souls Now Philosophy teacheth that love is a passion both of complacency and such as fasteneth the thing or person beloved in the heart of the lover and it addeth That this love is the originall cause of all other passions in man according as they please or displease suit with or are contrary to our love and desire For the soule of man hath two great powerfull faculties called by Philosophers the concupiscible and the irascible In that are love hate desire fear joy and sorrow arising from the presence or absence of something or other which is either truly or apparently good And according as the concupiscible part is affected with grief want or losse of that which is desired so more or lesse the irascible part is inflamed or incensed to the prosecution or revenge of the affronts or bereavings of the souls desire S. Basil compared this passion unto the Shepherds dog more valued by him then many of his sheep not for that the dog hath any wooll or gives any milk but because by his watchfulnesse and barking he defendeth the flock from the wolf and so the concupiscible faculty or part of the soule proposeth to it self matter of delight and content and the irascible removeth or converteth the inconveniences and difficulties which crosse or oppugne this desire And these are the two wings wherewith mans soule flyeth in the pursuit of great Acts and without which she appears as a Galley unoared and a bird unwinged each unable to move or help it self A certain Philosopher hath compared the body of a man to a Coach drawn with two horses Conceive them to be love of good and hatred of evill But considering that they are disorderly and oft-times unruly God hath assigned them a discreet guide that is reason to rule and govern them Seneca the Philosopher calleth this the Guardian and S. Augustine termeth it the Author and Mover of all our actions be they good or evill as having tied at its girdle the keyes of all our wills and affections Betwixt love and concupiscence some put this difference 1. That concupiscense aimeth at a supposed good that is absent but love both at the absent and present 2. Concupiscence after the having and enjoying the thing desired as being satisfied groweth cold or ceaseth for the present to desire whereas love by possessing and injoying increaseth and is more ardent towards the thing beloved For the possession or enjoyment of the thing beloved serveth as fuell to continue and increase the flame or fire whereas things desired by a concupiscence being injoyed die and are often resolved into the smoak of disgrace or the ashes of hate CHAP. III. The power and force of Love SOlomon saith Love is strong as death But if we examine the strength of each we shall finde love to be the stronger â—antic â— 6 T is true that all earthly things submit to the power of death the young as the old the King as the Peasant the rich as the poor the wise as the fool Scepters and spades are both alike to death All know this truth would we did but half so well consider and prepare for it And as the jurisdiction of death so is that of love universall None ever escaped the
rather a moving trunk of flesh then a living soule and this in part excuseth the words and acts of Lovers as proceeding from men distracted rather then from men in their wits and hereupon the Romans had a law exempting such Lovers from the penalty of death holding them to be no better then mad men This holy phrensie of love hath not escaped the Saints of God on earth S. Paul was neer this when in his extreme love to his Country-men as Moses Exod. 32.32 Rom. 9.3 that wished himself blotted out of the Booke of God so he wished himself accursed from Christ unlesse the Jews his brethren might be pardoned and saved with him so that which is said of Peter ravisht with the glorious apparition on Mount Tabor the like might be spoken of S. Paul in his excessive love to the Jews he knew not what he said or as Felix said unto him Paul thou art surely besides thy self love in stead of learning hath made thee mad And if ever any exceeded in love Joh. 10.20 above all the love that ever was in the world it was Christ who so exceeded herein that the Jews once thought him mad And might not others as well as they have imagined the like of him when in the excesse of his love to his very enemies he would suffer himself to be taken delivered up and shamefully put to death for them Thus far did the love in Christ work him to go or seem to be besides himself and all that he might work us to return to and to look into our selves and up to heaven that as ravisht with the love hereof we might live here in the world as though we were out of the world and that we might so look on these delights below as men blinde and hear of them as deaf and discourse of them as not concerned but as men in part translated to heaven and here become earthly Angels S. Paul made his daily prayers unto the Father of our Lord Christ That he would grant unto the Ephesians the riches of his holy Spirit to be rooted and grounded in love Ephes 3.17 and that they might know the love of Christ which passeth all knowledge where he prayeth for the mutuall love between the head and the members their love to him but his love to them first For without this love of Christ to them they cannot love him He loved his first saith S. John and then without their love to him 1 John 4 1â— they cannot understand the power that love hath ere it is rooted in them For it is able to make things in themselves base and contemptible to be of great price and esteem Might it not seem in our blessed Saviour a blemish and dishonour to his person to be reviled scorned whipt and crucified yet the love of Christ took and accounted all as acts of glory and all that he might prove himself thereby the Saviour of the world It is registred of the wife to the Emperour Theodosius That she as a Nurse-keeper rather than an Empresse attended the sick and weak and made playsters and drest the sores of the poor Hospitallers who when she was by some nice Courtiers gently reproved her answer was That although those offices were below the person of an Empresse yet were they not able to reach and expresse the love which she bore to the poorest members of her Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus who in his unspeakable love did more saith she for me then ever I can in the least deserve or in any measure requite CHAP. IX Love exchangeth and counterchangeth all with its beloved FOr proof of this I could instance in many Lovers Registred in profane Authors as in Pylades and Orestes each of them though but one was guilty took the fact upon himself that he might thereby redeem the life of the other King David when the plague seized on and destroyed the people cries out to the Lord 2 Kings 24.17 It is I Lord that have sinned let me suffer but spare these innocent sheep for what have they done And when the Souldiers came to apprehend Jesus whom they yet knew not and some of his Disciples being present with him he asks Whom seek ye they answered We seek Jesus he roundly and readily answereth I am he And this he did Joh. 18. to the end that he might save his disciples from their arrest and therefore he addeth Ye have me whom you seek therefore let these go their way Reade and consider that of S. Paul Who is weake 1 Cor. 21.29 and I am not weake who is offended and I burn not the troubles infirmities and sufferings of the Corinthians through the Apostles love to them are all become and made his Yea but see a greater power of love manifested in the same Apostle toward the Philippians whom he tells that his death will be gain to him v. 21. Phil. 1. for thereby he shall injoy Christ whereas life to him will prove but labour and pain v. 22. and yet saith he though the difference be so great as is betwixt everlasting joy and glory being with Christ and pain and labour living with you yet my love is such to you more then to my self that I am in a strait not knowing which to choose but concludes Though it be far better for me to die and to be with Christ v. 23. neverthelesse saith he v. 24. to abide in the flesh is more profitable for you and therefore he concludes v. 25. Having this confidence I shall abide and continue with you for your furtherance and joy of faith But S. Paul writing to the Romans seems to go beyond all the bounds of love I and of common reason Rom. 9.8 when he saith I could wish that my self were accursed from Christ for my brethren my kinsmen the Jews Expositors antient and modern generally conclude that this wish or desire of S. Paul was an expression of the most transcendent power of love which might possesse any mortall man but what the full extent and force of the words may be is not so clearly agreed on for some expound the words accursed from Christ wherein all the difficulty lies to intend a temporall affliction or corporall punishment 2. others a spirituall separation or excommumcation from the Church of Christ 3. a third sort will have an eternall separation rejection or casting away from the joyes of heaven to be here understood They who imbrace the first exposition conceive this desire of the Apostle to be like that of Moses saying Lord Exod. 32.32 if thou wilt not forgive the sins of the Israelites in making the golden calf then blot me out of thy book and this blotting out of the book they expound of deposing or casting Moses from his government of that people which was as they would have this in S. Paul to be but a temporall punishment and this they would deduce and inferre from the word accursed which in the
Spouse such is true love was at little rest while absent from her beloved the whole book of Canticles proves this Where Ch. 1.7 O where art thou whom my soul loveth and Ch. 3.1 2. by night I sought thee whom my soul loveth and I will rise and go about the city in the streets and in the broad wayes I will seek him whom my soul loveth and seeking but not finding how she bemoans her self to the watch-men and having found him she holds him fast V. 4. and will not let him go until she had brought him where she might enjoy him whom she so much loved and desired Absence and silence in friendship are like frost to the waters which deprives them of their flowing and yielding their comfort to those that need them whereas the presence and speech of a friend is to a friend like the light and heat of the Sun I end the conditions requisite to friendship with this That friendship should be without end Enmities among all but especially among friends and Christian friends ought to be mortal every day dying but their loves must be if true and from God immortal Such was Christs love to us Joh 15. as himself professeth saying Whom I love I love unto the end and then as it were by way of Application he saith This Commandment give I unto you That as I have loved you so ye love one another and where he findes not love thus long-lived but temporising he blames it as in the Church of Ephesus with which Church as he begins so in it the onely thing he findes fault with Rev. 2.4 is That she had left her first love for this is the love that he shews to man as by his Prophet he speaks Jer. 31.3 I have loved thee with an everlasting love In conclusion True love most not be like those Creatures spoken of by Naturalists that live and dye in a day or like your Pinks or Tulips flowers of sight and smell delightful but for a few hours but like the Oak the Hart the Elephant which are long lived In a word it should be as our wives till death us depart CHAP. XXVII The comfort and benefit of Friendship TO set forth the good redounding from friendship Tully and others as it were in the manner of proverbiall speeches used these That we had not greater need or use of fire and water then of friendship and to take this away were all one as to take the Sun out of the firmament intimating thereby That man cannot live without friendship Insomuch as what is generally spoken of health may as truly be spoken of friendship That it is such a good as without which nothing can seem good And this good among many others alleviates and lessens our griefs and enlargeth and extends our joyes by the participation and communication of each of them with a friend The wise-man therefore saith Pro. 18. that a friend is better then a brother and according hereunto Christ calls not his disciples brethren but friends And God himself to express the great love he bore unto Moses though his servant saith that he talked with him as a friend To sum up all Exod. 33. Ecclus. 6.14 the wise-man saith A faithful friend is a strong defence and he that hath found such a one hath found a great treasure and in the next verse A faithful friend is the medicine of life V. 15. and his excellency is so unvaluable that nothing doth countervail it But the same wise-man in the same Chapter having pointed out many kinds of counterfeit friends at the 7th verse counsels If thou wouldst get a friend prove him first that is saith another Translation Try and prove him in the time of trouble and be not hasty to credit him that is untill thou hast tryed him And one thing wherein thou art to try thy friend is his goodness and vertue For as the Prophet saith There is no peace to the wicked so may I say Ifa 57 2â— There is no good lasting peace nor agreement with the wicked no more then with a tempestuous Sea to which the wicked is there compared which is never at rest within it self nor suffers others to rest that sail in it There were Nations with whom God forbade his Israel to have any peace or league of friendship And some sins there are which more especially and neerly strike at and destroy the root of true godly love so that we cannot covenant or unite with them In the first Table the breach of the first and third Precept and in the second Table the violation of the sixth seventh ninth and tenth But in brief beware of the man decyphered by the Prophet who walketh in the counsell of the ungodly and standeth in the way of sinners Psa 1.1 and sitteth in the seat of the scornfull that man I say whose study and counsel is sin and maketh it a piece of his trade so that he scorns all just reproof that man avoid as in no condition fit to be a friend Now as Wisdom Humility and Meekness are the vertues in which as in good soils we may sow the seed of love and friendship so Folly Pride and Anger are grounds that will never receive the seed of love to any good encrease not Folly for as a fool cannot judge or rightly value the hidden parts of a wise man thereby to make him his friend so neither can the wise man see any thing in the fool wherefore he should choose to love him A fool may so may a wise man play and make sport with a fool but a fool cannot love a fool much less can a wise man for the Moon changeth not so often as the fool doth for his thoughts are as the spokes in the wheel of a Cart ever moving up and down and the secrets which thou shalt commit unto him are as the wise-man speaks Ecclus. 19.12 as an arrow that sticketh in a mans thigh with which he travels to be delivered of as a woman in labor of a childe Nor Pride for this is apt to beget hate envy and malice whereas Humility as the low and fertile valley is the best ground for friendship Again Pride rejoyceth in it self and as the Pharisee despiseth others if he see a mountain or beam of vertue good in another he would make it appear but as a mote or as a mole-hill whereas on the contrary the humble soul either seeth no faults in his friend or he lessens it all he can to the world and thereby would make his friends errors to be but motes and his vertues beams And when the proud man speaks of his friends good qualities or endowments he doth it with â—n if or a but then the humble doth it categoâ—â—cally and affirmatively but never forgetting how our Saviour commended John the Baptist which was not to his face for this is the mark of a Sycophant or Flatterer but in his
makes them gadders abroade For of what other use is beauty but to shew it self thereby either to inamour or insnare the beholders or to gain some windy praise of their shadow of beauty faire Dinah will be gadding and though she say it is to visit the Daughters it is to intangle and to be taken by the men of the land Again we say as by way of proverb or common speech fair and foolish or ordinarily not so wise at others which proves natures equity that if she denies beauty to the hard favoured she makes her amends with wisdome which she denyeth to the fair But indeed the fair piece so much confides in her beauty that she hath neither time wit nor will to study the beauty of the minde which is judgement and discretion And for want of wit or judgement it often falls out with these fair snouts that if they have not what they long for or desire they grow above others impatient and impetuous Rachel must have children Gen. 31. else she will dye Herodias will not be pleased no not with half a kingdome nor any thing can content her but the head of John Baptist nor will our grandame Eve be quiet till she have the forbidden fruit though it be purchast at no less rate then the death of mankind When S. Peter counsels men to honour women as the weaker vessels some have thought that counsell fit in this case to temper such proud lust full women with good words and gentle usage as the best remedy and I remember that when Christ was plain with S. Peter saying Come behind me Satan though Peter counselled his Master to be good to himself yet when Zebedees wife indiscreetly would require the precedency for her children above all the other Apostles yet Christ mildly answers her You know not what you ask and gives her a reason for his refusall adding it is not mine to give Fooles and children we see must be pleased or fooled with fair words or else their haughty beauty will make them above others mad That these kind of women are inconstant fickle and false one day loving and another hating like the Chamaeleon or the planet Mercury which are of that colour or disposition as is the plant or planet with which they are in conjunction is so ordinary a theme with Poets as other wise men that they have compared women to fortune which is said to be constant and certain in nothing but levity and inconstancy And if they be constant in any thing else it is in coveting and ill getting that they may as vainly spend it as S. James saith on their lusts and they who would more exactly know in what kind these lusts are conversant let them read the Prophet Isaiah Ch. 3.16 who in seven verses together tells us and that in the first place of their neeks bare and stretched forth with the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet their caules their round tires like the Moon their chains bracelets and musters the bonets head-bands rings changeable suits of apparell the mantles wimpels crisping pins the glasses fine linnen hoods and vailes and to these as additionalls of our later pride S. Peter hath added the plaiting of the hair 1 Pet. 3.3 wearing gold and rich apparell and hence it comes that S. Peter speaks of their eyes full of adultery 2 Pet. 2 as though all this cost and wast were to shew by their eyes what their hearts desires You may read that Asa destroyed the stately and rich temple of Belphegor 1 King â— 15 2 Chro. 2. or Priapus wherein were the most abominable uncleannesse used and not to be named by the most impudent and profligate men yet this was built by women at their cost and charges and so was that golden calse which the Isaelites adored made out of the car-rings and Jewels of the women which though they loved above all outward things of fortune yet these they would part withall to please themselves in Idolatry lust and vain delightes yea the Prophet tells us of women who at their husbands costs give gifts to their lovers and hire them that they may come in unto them Ezek. 16.33 I would I could truly say that oft-times in these womens hearts malice envy revenge murder were not lodged though the face pretends and holds forth as many an house the sign of an Angel or a fair maid the wiseman said Ecclus. 25.15 1 King 17.9 There is no wrath above that of a woman if she be an enemy the Prophet found it so who fled from Jezebel haz-arding death by famine or wild beasts rather then to fall under her implacable anger and mercilesse revenge and no lesse did John Baptist see when Herodias would rather refuse the half of Herods kingdome in Judea then not to be revenged on the head of John Baptist So immortall is their enmities when they hate as their affections are mortall and short lived where they love King Salomon said that beauty in such a woman as this Prov. 12 is like gold or pearl in a swines snout which defiles the gold and that which is precious her beauty by her routing and wallowing in the stinking dunghils of uncleannesse and filthy lusts A Legend tells us of a young child taken and kept by an Eremite in the wildernesse at last when he grew to be a young man he saw goodly fair women and asked the Eremite what they were who told the youth as to disswade him from the love of them that they were Devils yet so it was that not long after the Eremite asked the young man what pleased him best of all that ever he had seen who readily answered that those Devils which he lately saw delighted him most That women known to be little better then Devils or their Imps have thus overtaken men is not to be denyed or doubted and can any man conceive that the man who hath brains in his head or an heart in his bosome can be so mad or destitute of all grace and understanding as to set his love or affection on such a Saint-like Devill Which that they may not do let me tell them that as there hath been virtuous good women such as Sarah Rebecca the widow of Sarepta and the old poor woman that cast in the mite to the treasury Mary Magdalen Dorcas with many others in the new Testament so there have been and are with us Daughters of Sarah as S. Peter calls them and such as are not taken with the outward adorning in plaiting hair naked breasts and necks gold and silken clothes but in the inward dresse of a quiet and meek spirit and these these love in Gods name but of the other beware and as we say look before you leap for a woman if good deserves the love of all if ill of all creatures she is most dangerous and oft-times worse then the Devill Gen. 6.2 The Devill did not but the daughters of men
wearing pearl or costly array unlesse it be an enemy unto modesty shamefastnesse sobriety or an hinderer of good works but rather then any of these be hindered or diminished away in Gods name with pearles and costly array The great Philosopher Aristotle setting down the qualities and duties of a good and fit wife saith she must be apt to rule within doores according to the will of her husband 2. That she neither carry our nor take in ought against her husbands mind 3. That she be cleanly and handsome to please her husband and not fine and trim to please other men 4. That she be no busie-body in others houses or affaires 5. That she should observe her husbands qualities and conditions that so if they be good she may follow and teach them if ill to avoid them her self and as much as she can to weed them out of her husband or by little and little to wean him from them 6. That with a godly and loving fear she be carefull not to give her husband cause of offence and if he be offended or troubled with discretion and meeknesse to pacifie and mitigate his passions 7. To be a compatient or fellow-sufferer as a true yoke-fellow in all estates as well in adversity as in prosperity We read that Admetus being sick and the Augures inquired of how he might recover they answered it could not be but by the death of his best friend which his wife hearing answered he cannot have a better friend then me his wife and thereupon to recover him she killed her self I propound not this as a thing to be imitated but to shew of what power the compassionate love of a wife is to which I might adde that of Phinehas his wife who upon the report of her husbands death 1 Sam. 4.19 fell in travail and died and from these and many the like instances we may conclude that the compassionate love of women to their husbands is as Salomon said Gent. 8.6 as strong as death And now having touched some duties and qualities of good wives I shall add a few observations or exhortations if you please to call them so whereby wives may the better be inabled to performe those duties and to make those qualities be more gracious and seem more glorious And the first shall be that the wife learn to be obedient to her husband with a loving fear as well in his absence as in his presence For though the husband happily in some respects may be inferior to her yet she having yeelded to be his wife she hath withall made him her head and it is an honour to the wife to reverence her husband that he may appear to others worthy of honour The second is that she be modest and bashfull even in her greatest desires and best delights fire being blown may seem to resist the breath although by it it is kindled Nolo nimis facilem saith one Poet I refuse the too easie yeelder and fugit ad salices se cupit ante videri saith another she fled to the covert and seemed desirous to be first seen both intimating that a gentle and modest refusall provokes and inflames desires I observe that Rebecca when she had travailed many miles uncovered now approaching near the place where Isaac her husband was to meet her that she then put on her vaile that love or desire in women is most to be esteemed when she seems to refuse with one hand yet ready to entertain and imbrace her husband with the other A third may be that she be not garish in her dressings or to disguise her self with spots patches or paintings I have read that a Judge who perswaded the husband who had put away his wife to take her again being so fair and comely the husband answered that it was not his wife for she that accompanied with him at home was none such and indeed though wives generally say all their dressings and slâ—bberings is to please their husbands yet I may answer with that of S. Augustine to covetous fathers who pretend all their care is for their children saith the father vox pietatis it is the voice of piety but indeed excusatio iniquitatis it is but an excuse or cover of their iniquity For observe when Jezebel paints and when Esther puts on her bravery the first doth it to appear not to her husband but to Jehu whom she would inflame and the other to Ahashuerus whom she would inamour I pray observe that when you would make the child leave the dug you smear it with mustard or the like such are Mercury waters or such slâ—bbers to a good and wise husband neither can this counterfeit beauty or artificiall dressing so much allure or please the husband for the time as the wives ordinary familiar homelinesse will distast or take off at all times else The fourth observation is that wives as they are called so they should be house-wives For so saith the Psalmist Thy wise sall be as the vine about thy house Ps 128. not in the streets or fields but on the sides of the house The males only were commanded thrice a year to go to Jerusalem to serve the Lord Exod. 24 but not the wives but the husbands were to go so far from their own homes And the spouse called his beloved a Dove Cant. 2. which delights her selfe only in her mate at home and he courtech her to solace her self in the clifts of the rocks not in the markets exchanges or play-houses yea when the Spouse invites her to recreate her self with the flowers figs and pleasant fruits her answer is Dilecius meus mibi all my delight is in thee my Spouse Armenia being asked by her husband Tygranes how she liked the King answered that she looked not wishly on him for her eyes were all the while on her husband A fifth may be that the wife though she be fair rich or honourable yet ought she to be frugall and carefull for the estate at home The Germans used antiently to present a yoke of Oxen to the new maried couple intimating thereby that they as yoked should draw together and S. Paul calling mariage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a yoaking together 2 Cor. 6.14 charges the man and woman not to be unequally yoaked The Greeks when they would express a careless prodigall wife called het Ocnus his Asse for this Ocnus being a rope-maker that laboured and wrought all day yet before night his Asse eat more then he got by his work you may adde that if an Oxe and Asse be yoaked if the Oxe draw never so much and the Asse hang back so little good will come of their yoaking that as a father said in another case non solum non trahunt sed rumpunt quod junctuÌ„ est they not only draw not but break what was joyned I can conclude this observation with no better counsell then that in the Proverbs Chap 31. from the 11. verse to the 25.
speak yet now distracted with fear and grief arising from the love to his father he cryed out O kill not my father Croesus And it is fabled that Gerion had three faces the morall whereof was that he had three sons who lived so lovingly and defended their fathers name and possessions so unanimously as though they had had but one soul animating and actuating in three bodies Neither can I forget here that passage of Scylurus because it comes so neer to that quiver of arrowes which I mentioned from King David in his Psalmes who calling his sons unto him compared them to a bundle of arrows which saith he if ye sever you may easily break them singly but so long as they are thus bound and fastned together they will hold and be a defence both to your selves and your father and thus happy is that father which hath his quiver full of such arrows Chap. XL. The love of our Native country NExt to the love of our Parents our Country challengeth an interest in our love as being our common parent and although one Philosopher would derive the word from the mothers side and call our country Matria yet generally it is called Patria as from the father because though our country as the mother bears us yet as the father it nourisheth provides for and defends us which most properly are the acts of the father And hereupon both with Greeks and Latines these speeches became as proverbs The salt of our own country is more pleasant then all the dainties of strange places and of all sweets our country is the sweetest And this holding true and working by a kind of naturall instinct it comes to pass that what ever our country is though barren or unhealthy yet we love and prefer it before a richer and more healthy place were there not such a working naturall instinct in man inclining his love and desire to his own native soil many a country would hardly be inhabited but be left desolate Ithaca the place of birth to Vlysses esteemed the wisest man then living among the Greeks though it were a poor rocky land and the meanest of Islands thereabout yet it were worth your reading how that wise man bewailed his absence thence but ten years though imployed abroad in his countries service and with what joy he welcomed himself home at his return And from the fervent love and zeal that some men above others have born to the honour and welfare of their country they have deserved the highly priced and honourable title to be called Patriots which signifies lovers and defenders of their country And although all countries more or less have abounded with such yet Rome which by this means became the Mistress of the world hath exceeded all with whom it was common and ordinary to prefer the good and glory of their country before parents wife or children or what ever was most dear unto them even before their own lives holding that true which the Roman Orator said It is said a sweet thing to dye for the good of our country Histories that confirme this among the Romans are obvious and innumerable I mall therefore without troubling you give but one of those Lacedemonians who being sent to pacifie the enraged Persian and finding that nothing but their lives could abate that fury against their country readily yeelded themselves to death which gallant resolution and zealous love when the Persian considered he gave them their lives and spared their country And so much were the holy Patriarchs affected wich this love to their native soile that when they were either sent or constrained through want or otherwise to dye in other lands yet as Jacob and Joseph they made it one of their last and greatest râ—quests among earthly things to be brought back and to be buried in their own Countries I could adde hereunto that among all punishments inflicted upon capitall offenders that next to death was generally accounted banishment by which I mean not an amandation sending away or sequestring a man from his own house within his own countrey which was not much feared or declined but an exile casting out or driving away from his native soile Neither held this so among men alone but it was denounced by God himself as a most severe punishment and sign of his heavy wrath against the King Jehoiakim Jer. 22. that he should not return home from captivity to bis own countrey Nay I could instance in divers both wise and noble Spirits who have desired rather presently to dye and so to be buried in their own then to prolong their lives and after it to be interred in a strange countrey esteeming themselves better laid in a grave in their own countrey and returned to their own house Dan. 6.10 I cannot deny but when Daniel being in Babylon usually prayed three times a day with his window open and looking to Jerusalem that he much longed after the Temple which once stood there but I think no man can deny that his love and desire was not the less to bis country and the rather for that God himself commands Jacob to return to his own countrey though it were from a richer to the poorer place Gen. 32.9 A Philosopher being asked what a man ought to doe to a wicked rebellious country answered you must deal with it as with your mother whom you must never despise but honour and make her better if you can but never forsake her and accordingly we have read of divers who have rejected parents wives children when grown to excess of impiety or iniquity yet so it comes to pass that even for the most crying sinnes few or none cast off their country Think on Lot who rather then forsake his countrey he must be forced out of it by an Angel of heaven as rather hazarding to burn in his own country then to live in a better I could adde to all this that Christ himself so farre testified the love he bore to Bethlehem the village and Nazareth the region of his birth and education that he resorted often to them labouring their conversion and bewailed himself as it were for this that through their unbeleef he did no miracles among them But briefly to close all I shall desire you to read two Psalmes in the one whereof you may plainly see how the people of Israel though they enjoyed Gods gracious presence and comfortable assistance in Babylon Ps 137. yet how they mourned for the absence from their own country and in the other you shall as apparently discover the wonderfull extreme joy they took in being restored home again Ps 126. For being out of their country saith the text They sate down and wept when they remembred Zion yea they hanged up their harpes the instrumens of joy and musick to the Lord professing they could not sing the Lords song in a strange land and yet though this they could not do for grief yet for loves sake they