young melancholly Lover of that pensiue humour fearing not to enjoy or please his Love Thus much concerning the Art of Discourse SECT IX Containing answeres to some objections ANd now me thinkes I cannot but imagine that some too severe Cato Churlish Timon or Carping Momus will esteeme this Love-discourse too light and wanton And I know there bee many in our times so Stoicall and Rigid as they will scarce allow moderate and lawfull Recreations for this discourse was chiefly written for meere recreation amidst more serious occasions and so I desire it may bee read And they esteeme honest and harmlesse Love sports pleasures and discourses though in the way of marriage prophanenesse But wee may know that it is good and commendable for such as doe or intend to live in that honourable and blessed estate of mariage to bee possest with conjugall Love and consequently such honest love discourses devices and pleasures as encrease the same are to bee esteemed good and commendable And I conceive that no well condition'd happy man none but envious malicious male-contented Spirits will hinder dislike or grudge True-lovers of such honest and harmelesse Love delights and pleasures And I am not so Cynicall but that I thinke a modest expression of such amorous conceits as suite with reason being free from obscaenity will yet very well become my yeeres in which not to have some feeling of Love were as great an Argument of much stupidity as an oversottish affection were of extreame folly But what need I excuse my selfe in this when 't is well knowne that many whole volumes have bin written of Love and that divers famous and worthy Philosophers Physitians Historians Poets and others have written as lightly and more wantonly then I have done of this subject But saith my Grandsire it seemes to mee that such vaine Love discourses are vnnecessary and of little perswasion Yet if wee thinke of the Parties to whom these things are spoken that is to female creatures and to Lovers Such things as are a great deale more youthfull vaine wanton and not of such a serious and solid substance as my Grandsire is wee shal know that such discourse are most apt and pleasing and much more perswasiue than other more graue and solid And wee know that these female Lovers esteeme every word of their Sweet-hearts discourse though peradventure but slight matter as if it were spoke like an Angell and if withall such Arteficiall discourses such pleasant Heart-striking Reasons bee mixed it is even sufficient to enchant and enflame a Saint with Love and Ioy. In so much I know that if there bee a reasonable simpathy betweene the Parties in Age degree fortunes Countenance Constitution and Conditions and a willing consent of Parents and friends at first though afterward great and strange opposition should happen in many respects it would bee a marvailous hard matter if not impossible to part and disunite their Love And that sometimes even such great opposition quickens and encreases such true Love and joy which often flames the more when it is blowne against and stirred up And then such Love and joy after crosses are past is most pleasant indeed If such discourses then bee of such strong effect and operation as to joyne hearts in true Love and encrease joy notwithstanding many crosses and great opposition much more is it when those are past when both parties and their friends are well pleased when all their thoughts are composed of kindnesse Love and Ioy. Medea's oyntment Helenaes bowle Circes cup Phaedras Ring or Venus girdle cannot so inchant a man so sweetly moue and please his mind as such discourses will a female Lover SECT X. Containing Remedies against the Losse of Love BVt now heere comes a question what is to be done if wee loose our beloved Indeed many Lovers for want of enjoying their wishes in this kind become extreame melancholy and sorrowfull and some betake themselves to ill courses as whooring and Taverne-haunting and sometimes spoyle themselves But indeed it is a madnesse for a man to grieve melancholize and runne into dissolute courses because hee cannot obtaine his desires in this kind perhaps some unworthy creature For if he have not placed his Love too high aboue his deserts or too unequally and unfitly and if hee have used good meanes to gaine her if this will not hee may iustly thinke that she is some light phantastick thing not worth his Heroicall and Noble thoughts A wise man will not Love a meere Corps or which is worse A body with an ill soule in it Some Remedies usually perscribed against this malady the losse of Love are To withstand beginnings to avoid all occasions as the company of the party beloved discourse with her sight of her place where she lives and the like Or to goe to some other Mistresse of better fortunes birth and degree if it may bee or if such cannot bee attained yet let us know That of all necessary evils such as men say wiues are any may serve for necessity and because they are Evils perhaps 't is better to have none at all Though wee Batchellors perhaps thinke wiues fine things yet such as haue tryed will tell us otherwise as that there are many Thornes amidst the Roses of marriage which hinder the pleasures thereof and cause much sorrow That married mens shooes wring them but wee know not where That many of there fore-heads are forked and wee are blind That the Love of the body is at the height and will fall when once it hath gotten admittance into those hidden and worst parts thereof And that so it is of the mind Though our Lovers shew us their best conditions forward yet when those hidden and worst parts of the soule which they dare not shew the world are bare and detected 'T is like wee shall find them much worse then wee expected So may wee observe by the carriage of most men after they are married They are commonly more sullen dull sad and pensive then before Many of them love not their wiues Nor perhaps have they any great occasion for asmuch as wee see many of them proove sluts Scolds idle infirme Proud Iealous Scornefull Arrogant and so imperious not to be endured light peevish froward sad lumpnish prodigall discontented And yet these men when they were Batchellors thought these peeces fine things and imagined a Paradise in gayning them and many husbands also t is true are as bad or worse then their wiues insomuch as many married people live a very miserable life scolding brawling grieving and alwayes discontented Wee may read in divers Philosophers and other Authors of many wise and witty speeches and opinions against marriage and they tell us many tales and stories to this purpose Some sad and some merry ones They are very common and for brevity I omit them Some men are Cornuted and father Children which are none of their owne Their Children proove vndutifull disobedient and prodigall servants stout and carelesse A multitude
hearts wee can truely love From such a loving fit equall and good choyce is like to spring abundance of most sweet delights and felicities SECT IIII. Shewing how to enjoy our wishes please our Lovers and encrease love HAving made our choice now comes a question How shall wee doe to obtaine our wishes and please our lovers It beeing such an excellent felicity to enjoy our loves and such a misery to loose them as is said this matter therefore is very requisite to bee peept into The ordinary and vsuall Arteficiall meanes prescribed and used to obtaine and encrease love and to please our Minnions Mistresses and Madames are such as follow Pleasant and well composed lookes Glances Smiles Countersmiles plausible Gestures pleasant carriage and behaviour affability complements salutations a comely gate and pace dancing and the like will greatly please and increase the love of some female creatures Also time place opportunity conference importunity sometimes I know that neglect and scorne doth in some of these female kind much increase love for some of them are of such Imperious conditions as they will insult over and scorne such puny Lovers as will bee pind upon their sleeves Hence it is like women are compared to shadowes if wee follow them they will goe from us If wee goe away they will follow us againe wherefore sometimes to neglect is better then opportunity and whetteth Love There be divers love-trickes and devices also to stirre up and increase love as tokens favours letters valentines merry meetings and many others All these fore named occasions allurements and love devices are usually practized and even naturall to lovers and need little disquisition I might now imagine a Wedding day wish to all true-louers joy and proceed Yet because me thinkes I see many young lovers in a deepe study very pensiue and melancholly surely the matter is they are plodding and devising what to say to please their mistresses at their next meeting And forasmuch as heretofore at idle times to recreate and please my selfe I began to study the Art of discourse I now thinke it not amisse out of the same to take a little paynes or rather a little pleasure to recreate my selfe amidst more serious occasions and giue an instance onely concerning this matter of Love SECT V. The Art of love-Love-discourse ARteficiall discourse being added to the other love devices if any good meanes will this may effect our desires and to such as are already agreed the same may bee most pleasant and delightfull much increase love and adde a greater joy and pleasure to all other Love-sports devices and pleasures Wee know that even common and frivolous discourse being spoken in the way of love will much please and take these female lovers such as are idle Complemēts Players ends Newes tales Love-stories Lascivious Iests Songs and the like though very idle and frivolous and though spoken and acted by some Apish gull-Pot Poet or swaggering idle companion so as especially light Phantasticke things such as many women are will bee over head and eares in love But now if some well given faire condition'd young man for to such I cheifely direct this discourse shall withall adde a sweet pleasing convincing heart-striking and materiall discourse to his Lover whom I will imagin to bee a like vertuous and well condition'd young creature it will bee indeed sufficient to captivate sweetly charme and overcome them and beeing spoken in the way of love and mingled with other honest pleasant love devices to fill their hearts full of joy and pleasure and so to enchant them as they will be ioyned together with an indissoluble bond of true flaming Love For the manner and matter of our discourse I have alwayes thought it vanity and lightnesse rather then courtesie to discourse according to the gallants fashion of our times by meere complements congies apish gestures and meere finicall words To say sweete mistresse or Madame I honour your shoo-strings the ground you tread upon am proud to kisse your hand it is my ambition to bee your servants servant and the like to present and offer not onely our service but life to the command of our mistresses as wee use to call them though God knowes wee never meane to bee their servants Or on the other side to study and talke to them high straines of wit and figuratiue exornations lest they bee not vnderstood or laught at But in this respect a plaine yet arteficiall mouing and peircing way is best I intend not to perscribe a set method to discourse in for why methinkes a premedicated set discourse shewes something a barrennesse of wit though not of judgement And is commonly uttered with little passion or feeling which is in some measure taken away by premeditation and consequently not so freely lively and with such a grace as otherwise unlesse wee can counterfeit like a Player our passions and have wit enough to come out and in upon all occasions of discourse On the other side wee are not strayted in this subject for want of matter to discourse on all occasions even in an extemporeall manner for every smile Action Object Event or speech may affoord a lover matter of sudden discourse and indeed love of it selfe if it bee fervent whets the wit and so stirres up the spirits as wee may say of lovers As of fine wits they can make use of any thing But neither of this extemporeall discourse is my intention to write of but rather a mixture of both which I will call a habit of discourse or an extemporeall Method A method not so much to discourse in as to discourse by in such sort as a man may bee furnisht with continnuall abilities of discourse in an extemporeall method as I may say or a sudden and well composed manner without brainsick light idle frivolous prating on the one side or too much pumping for wit on the other side but with a ready yet perswasiue and materiall discourse on all occasions But this Art of discourse in generall concerning all matters will not easily be given to weake novices yet the meere observation thereof even to such may doe them some good concerning this matter of love but in generall it will rather require that a man bee well learned and experienced in the liberall Sciences especially such as he shall have most occasion to discourse of So as he may readily on all occasions dilate the matter of his discourse by the Rules and grounds of this Art which are By Number Particulars Arguments Examples Comparisons Similitudes Contrarieties Appendances Circumstances and the like I shall first giue an instance in this Art of discourse very breifely concerning this matter of Love and that onely concerning the excellency thereof And then a taste what is to be done to attaine to this Art SECT VI. An instance in this Art of Discourse concerning Loves excellency FIrst for instance in this Art concerning the excellency of Love which though I have already given a tast of
I shall now speake more therof in another manner method and to another purpose For this purpose let us imagine a man to bee well skilled in this Art that wee may guesse what such a man can doe and imagin this able skilfull man in this Art have occasion to discourse of the excellency of Love he can readily even Raptim discourse thereof in divers wayes and manners as for example Either from the number of benefits and excellencies flowing from thence as from a fountaine such as are sweet and pleasant thoughts lookes smiles kisses discourses songs tales jests sports embraces dalliances mutuall kindnesses comforts helps society pleasant meetings mirth encrease of parents kindred friends riches sweete and pretty children mutuall enjoymēts of all the blessings and pleasures that can bee thought upon and as he pleases can apply all or any of these to his love and when he sees occasion can sing to the same purpose Wee le sometimes sit and sweetely chat And pretty tales and stories tell Wee le sometimes sing and jest and laugh In all delights wee still may dwell Wee le sometimes lovingly embrace And sometimes sport and sweetely play Yea all delights that can bee thought Like truest lovers wee le enjoy And also he can from these felicities and benefits springing from love conclude the excellency thereof apply it and if he pleases sing 'T is sure a pleasant most excelling thing From whence such and so many joyes doe spring The rarest Iewels are not halfe so precious The sweetest honey is not so delicious Oh then deere Love let us true lovers bee That wee such joyes may feele may tast may see And also if he pleases can discourse of any particular of this number yea even of the least of them As for example of a kisse telling that the Rose Gilli-flower Muske Nectar Balsome Ambrosia are not halfe so sweet as these loue-dropping kisses or in the like manner and this he verifies on her lipps and can when he sees occasion mingle therewith pleasant songs and Poems O that such sweet joy Should so soone passe away and so suddenly wast That such excellent blisses As are thy sweete kisses No longer should last So sugred so precious So soft so delitious So dainty so sweet and so fine As the honey from the Bee Is not halfe so sweet to mee As is one sweet kisse of thine Or from a very thought of Love hee can tell the excellency thereof shewing that even such a thought is enough to fill the heart with joy drowne all sorrow and make us thinke our selves even in Paradise to imagine what pleasures wee shall enjoy hereafter Deere let us ever be in Love Let still such thoughts our fancy move And so of the like concerning any other Particular of this number Hee can further Argue and conclude from any particular of this number the excellency thereof divers wayes as for example from the lesser to the greater As from a thought of Love hee concludes a necessity of greater excellency in greater matters If but a thought of Love bee such a treasure To enjoy the same is sure farre greater pleasure Or from particulars to the number in like manner If from one or a few particulars of this number of excellencies and benefits flowing from Love spring so much felicity How much more doth then proceed for them all When such so many sweetest joyes Shall all at once within us meete Oh how wee shall bee rapt therewith And fild with pleasures extreame sweet And likewise concerning Time as for example To enjoy such pleasure but one houre or a day were enough to possesse the heart with mervellous Ioy yea though that houre or day were halfe a yeere hence yet the very imagination of it in the meane time is sufficient to possesse us with sweet pleasures till then Much more may a longer time delight us To enjoy such pleasures but one day It were enough to ravish even Our hearts and minds with such sweet joy To thinke our selves almost in heaven If but one day bee such sweet joy Such rarest pleasure such delights What pleasures may wee then possesse Perchance a thousand dayes and nights Or otherwise in divers kinds But to proceed Further he can discourse and set forth the excellēcy of Love by examples as of Seneca and Paulina Orpheus Euricide Mansolus and Artimesia Marke Antony and his Octavia Argalus and Parthenia and others Histories are replenished with examples and can shew how such Lovers thinke themselves even in the Orchards of Adonis or the Elizian fields when they enjoy their Love they are so taken with pleasure If others in their Loue doe find Such joy such pleasures in their mind Why should not wee let thee and I Enjoy such sweet felicity Or by comparisons by way of Interrogation or otherwise did ever any Lovers enjoy such pleasures and shall not wee Then will wee sport play laugh and sing And live as merrily as a King Or beyond comparisons Chaereus never tooke such pleasure in his Pamphila as thee and I will in one another Hee thought none living so happy as they two but wee may sweare it of our selves Cupid nor Venus Ioue himselfe Shall never know what wee may tell What heavenly pleasures what delights Within thy heart and mine may dwell Or by contrarieties That the power of Love is of so great force as the losse of it often causeth extreame melancholly sadnesse griefe madnesse and sometimes death it selfe as appeares by the examples of Queene Dido Queene Artimesia Portia Triara Panthea Medea Parthenia Iuliet and Romeo Pyramus and Thisbe Antonius and Cleopatra Coresus Calirhoe Clorus Amintas of Mareus Lepidus Plantius Numidius and many others It must needs bee a most excellent felicity the Losse whereof causeth such misery If it be death to loose a loving wife To enjoy her then is sure more worth then life Or by similitudes divers wayes and in every particular as for example The pleasure of Love may bee likned to fire an ardent and flaming joy to water a fountaine of pleasure Gold Pearles Amber the Rose-muske Nectar Ambrosia or whatsoever is most pleasant is not so precious so sweet so delightfull the Elizian-fields or Turkes Paradise is not more pleasant This Nuptiall Love is often used as a Resemblance betweene Christ and his Church the Canticles is wholly a Love-song to this purpose And it is to bee thought that no humane earthly joy represents that of heaven more then this of true Love though there bee no comparison betweene terrestriall and Celestiall happinesse either in worth or duration of time these being as nothing as drosse in respect of the heavenly yet in respect of our weake Apprehension such comparisons often are and may bee made For some doe thinke that Love is even A joy Divine a taste of heaven Or by the effects of Love To instance among many and divers in a few Love quickens the Spirit and wit and makes a man become pleasant neate spruce
of hinderances charges cares crosses and annoyances are incident to marryed people what wise men would marry Besides I might to this purpose tell how happily wee Batchellors live without wives How freely securely merrily pleasantly and without controle Saint Paul preferres a single life before marriage and I hope you will beleeve him Yea but saith the married man you had better marry and live honest To answere this Cavill It is observed that Batchellors are as honest as married men for many of them are seldome content with their owne wiues which is a greater shame and evill in them But to let that passe Batchellors can live honest without marrying Such as are of a very unruly temper may use a moderate spare coole and dry kind of dyet and other Physicall Remedies to allay the fire of Lust They can fast pray bee alwayes busy about some good occasions and thinking on good matters But the most excellent Remedy is Divine Contemplation for certainely those Spirits which are truely raysed to the knowledge of divine things and doe well know the Art of heavenly Contemplation are elevated above all the pleasures of the earth in as much as Eternity is above time and infinite felicities above vanities And not being able to find any thing on the Earth worthy of their desires They doe set out their pleasures and their felicities in the Empyrean heaven So as they doe in part tast before hand of the sweetnesse of those pleasures which they pretēd to receive at the end of their life which makes them very graciously to tread vnder foot all the pleasures of the Earth while their soules are in such contemplations directing their Aimes to heaven And while they are in these divine Extasies their Spirits are so strong as they doe overcome their bodies so heavenly as they doe then esteeme the chiefest pleasures of the body as this of carnall desire and love but as dung and drosse in comparison of those more heavenly pleasures which they enjoy in their soules And in such comparison they rejoyce more in Contemning these bodily pleasures and in being above them then in enioying them What need wee care for farthings who may have gold enough But as St. Paul signifies Marriage hinders this heavenly pleasure He that is marryed saith he careth for the things that are of the world how hee may please his wife And certainely there bee many married men in the world if they did but truely know the Excellency of such a contemplatiue heavenly life and and did seriously consider how freely and ioyfully wee Batchellors may life They would even runne through fire and water to bee so happy But now least marryed men should bee too much displeased let them know or thinke That wee Batchellors when wee speake against marryed men meane onely of vnfit and ill marriages Such as that of Spungius and Philtra They would sweare curse quarrell fight c. Let such bee alwayes scoft at and remaine miserable till they mend their manners And least Batchellors should bee too averse from marriage And such as loose their first Love should forbeare a second choice which alwayes drownes the Love of the former in oblivion and is the best remedy against Loves losse for heere they may find it againe in another Let us still say as Saint Paul saith That marriage is honourable in all men and that it is good to marry though for such as can containe themselves better to live single And that a Consonant Equall and fit maariage when both parties bee loving kind wise constant and of good conditions is a Terrestriall Paradise and from thence as hath bin dilated proceedeth a marvailous deale of happy and blessed effects SECT XI Remedies against an over-sottish and doting Love HAving formerly viewed and seeing the excellency of Lawfull Love and the many sweet and blessed effects springing from thence Let us take heed that wee doe not as many men in the world have done plunge our selves beyond the bound-markes of Reason and discretion into an over-sottish and doting affection Many other wise famous and wise men as Sampson David Solomon Hercules Socrates and many others Have not uniustly bin taxed of folly and indiscretion in this matter And the Poets faine that Iupiter himselfe was turned into a Golden showre A Bull A Swan A Satyre A Shepherd and cōmitted many grosse dotages for Love For Remedies whereof and to the intent that wee may bee contented if wee cannot enjoy our wishes And that if wee doe Enjoy our Love and desires the same may not hinder us from seeking and enjoying Divine beauty and pleasures which are infinitly better Let us also view the vanity and insufficiency of this Externall Lovelinesse and beauty which is the object of our Love in this kind It is altogether vaine and uncertaine Sicknesse care griefe The scratch of a Pin The Sunne or any thing may deface it It ofttimes prooves dangerous makes us forget God bereaves us of grace and of divine pleasures And is many times an occasion of unlawfull Lusts and the miseries thereof And many men by reason heereof in spight of friends parents credite and fortunes have bin wilfully and foolishly carried away to shame disgrace misery So that immoderate ouer-sottish Love is no more a vertuous habit but a vehement passion and perturbation of the mind A Monster of nature a destroyer of wit and Art This externall Lovelinesse and beauty sometimes bereaves us of all manlinesse of Spirit dejects our otherwise Nobler thoughts to vanities and toyes Insomuch that heereby wee are sometimes ready to become foolish doting weake brainsicke Inamoratoes and sometimes to fall in Love even with painted vanityes meere out-side Creatures Things Empty of vertue and grace And composed of Pride Vanity and wickednesse If wee Love such as have no other beauties but their bodies what doe wee but love as irrationall creatures doe Reason tell us wee love that which a Pin may alter That which is subject to above 300 severall diseases That which is all loathsome within And that which shall bee nothing heereafter but putrified and Rotten Corruption And yet many of us forsooth are no wiser then to fall in Love with such creatures of meere vanity and corruption quite depriving our selves of Reason comparing their eyes to Starres thinking them the onely wonders of the world and telling them they are like Angels divine creatures And what is most excellent and so even Idolatrize to these creatures of earth and vanity You Courtiers and others who thinke it a trimme peece of glory to get a Mistresse and a Ladyes favour forsooth you who esteeme and call your Minnions Goddesses and divine creatures And would like Adam give Paradise if you had it for an Apple and venture heaven to satisfie your base and vnlawfull Lusts you that adore these Victimes and think your selves most happy when you can tempt the Pudicity of these female creatures and overcome them to your Lusts what doe you but act the Devils
they would bee as fraile and as passionate as women And if Women were freed from the frailty of their sex they would bee as manly and as excellent as men And though Women have divers naturall infirmities both of body and mind yet a wise man will not love his wife a jot the worse because hee knowes they are naturall But few Women are Angels and hee that would have a Woman without passions must marry when the Signe is not in Coelo And for this scolding malady this is a good Remedy To bee silent and not regard her or else to laugh at her But let us see if the fault be not in our selves The reason why many Women are so bad is because they have ill Husbands if so let us mend Happie are wee if our Wives be an occasion of our being good though they be never so bad And sometimes a good man may chance to make a good wife of an ill one It is also fit that Men should use their Wives well and maintaine them in good fashion according to their meanes and to let them have such reasonable and convenient Liberty and authority as it is fit a wife who is a mans second selfe should have and enjoy For want of this many women being too straitly kept under and unkindly and Churlishly used are even forced to flye out beyond Reason and to become Froward Contentious Iealous discontented And some to turne Queanes by Compulsion Too much liberty and Authority on the other side is not fit to bee allowed them especially to such kind of women as love not their owne houses but by reason of much gadding abroad learne more tricks then bee good who are then onely pleasant and contented And at home nothing but brawle and are there commonly sullen froward peevish discontented and of idle lewd conditions Let therefore both men and women endeavour to avoyd all occasions of strife and discontent as much as they may And such as cannot bee avoided to Contemne or Dissemble and make the best thereof And to endeavour in all respects to live lovingly familiarly and pleasantly in such sort as becomes them Saint Paul and Saint Peter give excellent directions to this purpose So ought men to love their Wiues saith Saint Paul as their owne bodies for no man ever yet hated his owne flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the Lord his Church Eph. 5.25 And againe yee men Love your wiues and bee not bitter to them Colossians 3.19 And to women he sayth Wiues submit your selves vnto your husbands as unto the Lord For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the Church Eph. 5.22 Saint Peter also giveth directions to this purpose in his 1. Epistle and 3 Chapter I will write them at large for they are most excellent Hee beginnes with Wiues and is longest about them they having as it seemes most need of instruction Yee wiues saith hee bee in subjection to your husbands that if any obey not the word they also may without the word bee wonne by the Conversation of their wiues while they behold their Chast conversation coupled with feare Whose adorning let it not bee that outward Adorning of playting the Haire or of wearing and putting on gorgious Apparell But let it bee of the Heart in that which is not Corruptible even the ornament of a meeke and quiet Spirit which is in the sight of GOD of great price For after this manner in the old time the holy Women also who trusted in GOD adorned themselves being in subjection unto their owne Husbands Even as Sara obeyed Abraham calling him Lord whose Daughters yee are as long as yee doe well and not being dismayed with feare Likewise Yee husbands sayth hee dwell with your Wives according to knowledge giving honour unto the wife as unto the weaker vessell and as being heyres together of the grace of Life that your Prayers may not be hindred Finally bee yee of one minde having Compassion one of another being pittifull courteous Not rendring evill for evill or rayling for rayling but contrariwise blessing knowing that yee are thereunto called that yee may inherit a blessing Thus much sayth St. Peter 1 Ephes 3 Chapter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 and 10 verses So then let Men and their Wives in all respects Endeavour to live together as they ought according to such Divine direction Let them alwayes bee as Loving kinde pleasant and as familiar as may bee and mutually enjoy together all the blessings and benefits belonging to this Nuptiall Love and Societie And especially let them bee Pious and Religious Then though their Beauty and Bodies should decay and become infirme yet their very Soules may bee in Love with one another which is farre more excellent then bodily Love So while they view one another as divine and Celestiall creatures as the beloved of God himselfe their Loves may still kindle and increase untill both they and it ascend to that firmament of fire where Love all divine and heavenly flames beyond imagination and lasts for euer SECT XIIII A briefe perswasion to Marriage I Shall now endeavour briefly to perswade such as may conveniently though a single Life bee otherwise to bee preferr'd before it to this honourable and blessed estate of Marriage It hath alwayes bin confest by all reasonable men That a consonant Marriage such as when both parties be equally match'd in respect of Yeares Birth Constitution and Fortunes and of loving kinde wise constant and good Conditions is an earthly Paradise of happinesse And no man can justly blame such Marriages unto which All lawes both Divine and Humane exhort us Nature provoketh us Honesty draweth us All Nations approove thereof necessity of Continuing our kinde constraineth us and abundance of felicity inviteth us thereunto And St. Paul sayth It is the Doctrine of Devils to forbid Marriage The best and most learned Philosophers have praised and used the same As Socrates Plato Aristotle Seneca Plutarch and others And though a Contemplative divine Spirit can overcome Nature and contemne the greatest earthly pleasure in Comparison of heavenly delights and take great pleasure in such Contempt Yet all men have not this divine Grace of Continencie And looking downewards againe we may consider that we have Bodies as well as Soules which require due and convenient Recreations And though as St. Paul well observed Marriage hindereth a heavenly Contemplative life in respect of Care and other disturbances yet for all these fore-named considerations and many other It is good to marry though better to live single if wee burne not and if wee have divine Grace enough to bee Continent And this Nuptiall society being honourable blessed and ordained of God for avoyding of unlawfull lusts for the preservation of Mankind and for mutuall helpe comfort and pleasure in one another It cannot bee denyed but it is good to marry especially when such marry whose bodies minds doe Sympathize and both are of
Loving and good conditions From such a Marriage as hath bin dilated springeth a Terrestriall Paradise of pleasures and happinesse To conclude then Let us wish all joy to such happie Lovers Let the Graces dance and the Muses sing at their Wedding And let all pleasantnesse love and joy dwell for ever in their hearts And as their yeares so may their Love and Ioyes increase That in after-times they may say This is the twentieth or thirtieth yeare of our Ioy. Let them alwayes be familiar and kind to one another So to our selves when wee are married and to all married men let us wish all prosperity And let us all take King Solomons counsell Prov. 5.17 Rejoyce in the wife of thy youth let her bee vnto thee as the loving Hinde and pleasant Roe and Rejoyce in her Love continually SECT XV. Of the good use of this Nuptiall Love and so concluding with a briefe discourse of Divine Love TO conclude then with the good use of this Nuptiall Love If God please to give us any blessings in this kind let us use them well Enjoy them and bee thankfull Hee that useth these externall felicities of the world such as this of Nuptiall Love to the glory of God and to good ends with moderate delectation is better to bee reputed then hee that unduely Inconsiderately Rashly Inconveniently and Suspitiously as some Monkes and others doe neglects and refuseth so great a good which God freely offers to our acceptance These externall pleasures and blessings of the world may serve to many excellent uses stirring us up to all duties of piety to the Love of God to thankfulnesse and joy in him Let us then enjoy God in all things And all thinges in him and to his glory The Principall good use of this Love and the felicities thereof which I shall now insist upon is That by viewing and enjoying such pleasures and felicities of the Earth wee may looke higher to their Fountaine Contemplating the Love Lovelinesse Beauty Sweetnesse and Excellency of the Creator who is infinitely more excelling And so conclude with a briefe Discourse of Divine Love True it is that all other Excellencies are but dung and drosse in respect of GOD yet by and through these lower delights and felicities of the Earth These little glimpsing Rayes proceeding from that Sunne of Glory wee may spy some light of that Sunne GOD himselfe and of that Eternall felicity which wee pretend hereafter to possesse And so in some measure spell and spye Heaven from the Earth Neyther ought wee to disdaine to make Comparisons betweene Corporeall and Spirituall thinges betweene Earthly and Heavenly Though in respect of the Excellency of the Spirituall and Heavenly there is no comparison Yet as Children have need at first to bee allured to the acquist of Great and Excellent matters by such toyes and trifles as they apprehend so in respect of our weake apprehension such Comparisons and Similitudes are and ought to bee used in a convenient manner So as wee may make a very good use of Earthly felicities in this respect as men doe of Spectacles for by and through these our dimme Eyes may see the cleerer into heavenly Excellencies And consequently bee the more enamour'd of them and so stirred up to seeke and enjoy them And in this respect of Nuptiall-Love the sacred Scripture gives us many and faire Examples As in Hosea I will returne vnto my first Love for it was then better with mee than it is now Hos 2.7 And in divers places CHRIST and his Church are compared to Lovers betrothed and to bee married together The Church is called the Bride the Lamps wife Rev. 21.9 And the end of the world is called their marriage day Rev. 19.7 Saint Iohn Baptist calleth Christ the Bride-groome and his Church the Bride Iohn 3.29 And Christ calleth himselfe the bridegroome Marke 3. That Song of Songs betweene two Lovers betrothed each to others Is by the consent of all Divines a most pleasant Love-song betweene Christ and his Church What remaines then but that wee seeke for and enjoy that fountaine of all Love lovelinesse beauty sweetnesse and excellency which is infinitely more permanent and Excellent then all the other beauties and excellencies of the world if they were all united together If wee could truely thinke what God is how beautifull lovely glorious and in all respects most Excellent Our hearts would presently bee filled with Love and Admiration of him insomuch as then wee should settle our deerest and noblest thoughts wholly upon him and in his Love wee should bee filled with sweetest flames of joy and pleasures One thing have I desired saith King David and I will still desire to behold the beauty of the Lord. His beauty infinitely excells the beauty of the heavens Sunne Moone Starres Angels or what is most excellent If there bee such beauty lovelinesse and pleasure in a Creature As that it hath such power to draw neere unto the eyes Eares and affections of such as behold and consider it how much more beautifull and lovely is God himselfe the Creator and the fountaine from which all other Excellencies spring How should this divine beauty of God attract our desires and inflame us with Love and Ioy. If wee so much endeavour and bee so much affected with the Comelinesse of Creatures how should wee bee Rapt at the Admirable Lustre of God himselfe Hee offers his Love most freely to such as will accept the same Wisdome cryes out in the streets c. Prov. 8. Hee invites us to come into his faire garden to eate drinke with them to bee merry and to enioy his presence for ever Cant 5. But wee must then lay aside all vaine objects of the world All mucky Covetousnesse All aiery Ambition All vaine sensuall Lusts Our desires must not creepe on the Earth wee must purifie our hearts deny our selves and looke aboue our selves If wee will have a cleere vision of God A flaming Love and soule-ravishing delights in him Let us then endeavour to lay aside all Earthly thoughts when wee intend to view this sight To enjoy this Love this pleasure Let us by Contemplation which is the best opticke view heaven see and grow into acquaintance with God Being acquainted let us proceed further and endeavour to bee more familliar with him To denie our selves and goe out of our selves to live above our selves with him Let us powre forth our soules into God and In-soule our selves into him so as his Divine Love and Ioy yea himselfe may wholly possesse us When a Soule is once thus possest with the beauty and Love of God it will bee often thinking of him often mounting up to heaven and as a vapour exhal'd by the Sunne often gliding after its Love being thereunto attracted by the allurements of his most Amiable faire and Divine beauty and Lovelinesse Insomuch as it will be enlightned with glorious thoughts towring apprehensions Ardent affections and heavenly Ioyes Further when the soule considers the infinite