Solomon compares her love to the mans cistern as delightful as fresh water to bath in to a loving Hind as a pleasant Roe in his own Park Prov. 5.15 19. to take his delight this love shews it self most of all by the loss and made the very heathen resign their lives as captives to it Gracchus finding two serpents in his chamber See Valer. Max. was told kill the Male and you shall die first the Female and your wife shall die to save the last he killed the first and dyed A mans wife of Naples was taken by the Mores and shipt away French Acad. he swam after her and by the power of such love overcame the taker that sent them both home Pedro Maxio lib. 5.14 to weare out their loves together Three noble Romans for love of their ravisht wives made an end of themselves Orpheus his wife dying on the wedding day he never loved other but left the world to be a companion to his deceased wife A great Don of Spaine having sustained this losse that was his bed his board his pillow slept a years space in his clothes eat not on any Table-cloth nor sate down in a chaire Herod was so enamour'd on Mariamne Josippus that having embalmed her dead body he us'd it as his living bed-fellow Few men of our age out-do these affectionate examples but I have shewn them the most excellent way 1 Cor. 12. Now Michal Sauls daughter and Davids wife is a rare and onely example of lovingnesse to an husband 1 Sam. 20. by an officious feigning and counterfeit image suborned and invented to further his escape Otherwise the Scripture is silent and leaves women to speak for themselves yea Jonathans mother had not his fathers good word and theirs but one single example of love to their husbands among the Jewish wives the more Jews you will say for that But among the Gentiles go we to their reports and their Story produceth numbers of most loving and adventurous wives Some putting on armes and playing the man in wars for their husbands company to hazard life or bring them off some choosing death according to the Oracle See F◠Acad. to save them alive some changing apparel to convey them out of prison and to stay and answer in their place winning the hearts of conquerors by love of the first to become their second husbands killing their living bodies to lye by their corpes drinking their ashes to interre them in their bowels at the sight of their bloody coat swooning travailing lying eating hot coles to consume thē for want of other weapons in banishment becoming slaves and exiles keeping their house and children at home notwithstanding all their abuses and indignities abroad not enduring life if husbands must die opening a veine to bleed and die with them in the bath forsaking rich fortunes to go barefoot for a Scholars fancy embracing both bodies to precipitate themselves in the sea to end an incurable consumption refusing Queenships and preparing poisons for joy-sops rather then marry to their husbands murtherers keeping their chambers for a years space and not so much as looking out at windows striving for precedence to be buried alive with their dead husbands Calvis in Conrad 2. in a siege carrying them on their backs for their best goods ingeniously deluding the intent and winning the consent of conquerors bearing their beloved over the snow lest his footsteps should betray their meeting and avenues bearing each others burden and fulfilling the law of Love Gal 6. Who desires more examples of the love of women may find in every age and climate some to country some to parents some to children and some to husbands I hope good store of company But I will end at home with one an example of Queen Hellen whose pillars and statues deserve to stand as Mary's boxes but unbroken to the end of the world to witnesse her work and preach by the way her memorial who suckt with her lips the poisoned wound received in wars Speed in Ed. 1. to save her husband Edwards life We have lately had one more at home whom t is hard to say who loved most but these are parted and I know not how to apply to them the active or the passive sense implyed in my Text. I have been long on this Bow of love bent on both sides but I trust the women will not think it so as long as t is in commendation of that sex nor the men to gruge them this garland so long as here is but one in their sex to exceed them all whose love surpassed the love of women Use 1. Let this stand as to this use for a monument to the men husbands love your wives and be not bitter unto them for Juno's marriage-sacrifice expels the gall and to the women be it as the pillar of salt to season their manners and to keep them sweet and lovely to their husbands to both to set one another interchangeably as seales upon their hearts Cant 8.6 7. and signets on their armes for love is stronger then death and more hardy then the grave her coales are of fire breaking out into a vehement flame much water cannot quench love neither can the flouds drown it This is the love that past betwixt Jonathan and David that like Hippoc. twins did impart joys and sorrows one to another and which I have endeavour'd to recommend to you in this masterpiece of love in the old Testament which is the character of a true disciple of the new Saint Pauls most excellent way and Saint Johns all-sufficient exercise who in age not able to ascend the pulpit and carried to Church used to say no more but my little children love one another and being askt by his disciples the reason of so frequent repetition of these words Perald To. 1. cap. 8. answered Quia praeceptum Domini est si solum fiat sufficit T is the Lords command if this be done then all is done Where also I might seasonably shut up my sayings were it not where Jonathans part goes out as acted there onr second Jonathan this much lamented person should come in on whom deaths sable mantle here hath overspread it self and on whom this lesson of the Bow with David-like affection may be playd wept anew I'arallels as being with little variation fit parallels in circumstance of life and some similitude of death names answering in manners and natures all agreeing for which let me bespeak your eares and affections for some spare minutes and so an end For their descent and family Parallel 1. Solomon tells us that the glory of children are their fathers Jonathan was of the tribe of Benjamin unattainted for treason or apostasy Saint Paul could boast of this if that Christ had not been in the ballance and our Jonathan of the ancient family of the Lucies whose loyalty to my report was never yet impeacht but as Jonathan
to Saul Artabanus to Cinnamus Sir Tho. Eâ—iol lib. 3. cap. 6. or Ferdinando the Protector to the Castilian Princes faithfully rendred and performed For religion as Jonathan profest and maintained the faith of Abraham and Israel his fathers so he the Church of England eldest daughter to Rome planted here by the Apostles of Christ confirmed and propagated by King Lucius without a license from the Pope making some suite for his counsel but owing none to his court which religion came along though lesse visible in her professors like those rivers that runne under ground or as the Orinoque thorough the salt sea retaining still her fresher water untill at last it brake forth again and was conspicuous to the world in the confession of Augusta and the protestation at Spiers and the Apologies of the Church of England A religion like Christ it s own Law-giver the first and the last the true and pure Elixar Rev. 1.17 drawn out of the new Testament and into that casting off all scum and froth of corrupt times contraction at last resolving it self for when death calls the adversaries to the bar and gives them the book to attest the whole truth nothing but the truth then Bellarmine untwists with Penelope his laborious webb of workes and makes up the whole piece with the onely Tutissimum of trust in Gods mercy for fear of vain-glory and uncertainty of mans righteousness and in this mind and religion he makes his last wil with Lord have mercy on me not as a rewarder of Merits Geor. D. of Saxonic but as an almoner of Pardons Another great Lord a great Anti-protestant in his life is perswaded at his death by his Chancellor to the truth of his own usual saying he is the best Bow-man that shootes next to the mark and so rejecting all other aimes given by his Priests dies Protestant See â—enrad Dieteric Dom. passâ—p 2. obs 1. fixing the arrow of his faith in the onely and pure white of Christs merits A religion which Father Sherer commends to his penitent at last without mention of his former ambageous trifles the Confessor confessing to the sick Sir we use to deal one way with the sound and well but another with the sick and weak Thus the wounded Fowl betakes her self to firm land and leaving her vagaries in the water as Balaam all his Essayes against the truth of Israel Num. 23.10 cries out Let me die the death of the the protestant righteous and let my last end be like unto his Of this religion was the generation of our worthies fathers to three or foure ascents whose noble examples have watered these parts as the four rivers falling from the mountaines of the Moon watered Paradise In this religion to see and observe his Bow and bent his practise in his timely readiness like a morning starre or Lucifer resorting and calling out his family to the publick service of God how have I been comforted and cheared and for the order and harmony in private and at home Jeromâ— I may say with Jerom Videbar mihi interesse choris Angelorum Methought I was among the Quire of Angels and when the bow of death gave him that lamentable blow of which though he left his life yet he took his religion away with him what time he made his compellation to the witnesses round about him that as in the profession of the Church of England he had lived so he resolved to die and in that mind he departed To adde a testimony of his own not setting aside the brethen of the Allobrogick plat-form good God how didst thou incline his heart with Jonathan to Samuel and the men of God to the Clergy constant to their order and of the Orthodox affection Let the house of Aaron now confesse what signal loves they have received as if his house had been a Naioth or Colledge for the entertainment of scholars and an Academy for their resort his nature being composed as Daniels Ish chemdoth a man of desires or a desirable man as Cymbalum mund Dan. 10 11. Palamed to invite them and his various expressions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Nightingal of the Muses to detaine them received with such lowly greeting entertained with such smiling and lovely embraces Theodaret 5.7 fed with such wholesome dishes lodged in the choicest chambers accompanied with so gratefull a presence dismist with such courteous adieus as if Jonathan had strived to ingratiate David or Samuel Theodosius the B. Ambros in ob Val. Meletius with kissing his eyes or lips or Valentinian Saint Ambrose Quem Salutem sibi quandam venturam arbitrabatur whom when he saw he thought some special healthfulness was coming towards him And when maturity invited him to mariage who was the choicest pearl in his eye but the vertuous Margaret allyed collaterally to that mother of pearle his late deceased parent To which choice he was not invited onely by the eyes for beauty that Moon is soon clouded changed or Eclipsed nor by the fingers which values a woman no higher then her portion nor by the eares which by credulity is often cheated with reports but by Solomons character 〈◊〉 1.10 〈◊〉 Her price is farre above pearls and let her own workes praise her in the gates In this his choice he seems to have had a mindful reflection on that name and merit in his mother who like another Rachel Ruth 4 â—â— did build the house of Israel and did famously in Bethlehem that house of bread Here the armes of Lucie and Spencer were enquartered and enclasped in one coate the Pike-fish taken in a net or knot Here Lucie with his match is met As taken with a Spencers net Eros and Anteros love and relove so lively acting interchangeably their parts that oh the pitty they were so soon parted the fight would have made a wise mans heart rejoyce to see it so little or no gall was there in this Junoes sacrifice but all the water turned into wine John 2. and may she bear also his religion name love and just interest in estate as his coat of armes in honour and memorial of such a Jonathan And could my speech reach to the ears of all his brothers and sisters I would appeal to their report whether the losse of their late loving and provident parents was not much eas'd and lightned by his supporting hand becoming a second father in performance and a second mother in compassion how did this Lucifer send light morning-influence motion to fortifie their matches improve their fortunes in all proceedings so long as he appeared oriental Lord of the house and in a right aspect or conjunction with those of lesser magnitudes exceeding the examples of this age as much as Jonathan did of his or the morning starre the scarce appearing twinklers of the times And you his Tenants and servants whom he might say with Pyrrhus he never sent away to wear black clothes in sorrow
weak smal head-piece a black foule Bill and a note as churlish as a Frog in a fen a fair outside sham'd and belyed with a foule degenerous mind and language Happy our Jonathan and he that enjoyed him a sweet and alluring condition Plutarch like the Dove perfumed in his feathers as a harmlesse decoy draws all good natures to follow him and entertains them in his houses very pleasant hast thou been to me and more then so thy love was wonderfull A note of Admiration and my sixth part Niphleatha ahavatheca li 6. Thy love to me was wonderful and what 's that a thing wrought extraordinarie by the rare work of God Aug. ad Honorat cap. 16. above the common order of nature such was the love of Jonathan to David an holy fire that came from heaven and fell upon the altar of Jonathans heart kindling his affection to David an Heroick motion that God put into his minde which like the touch of a loadstone drew the needle of his thoughts to fix upon this pole-starre in a word when that gallant passe was made by little David upon that formidable Goliah the Philistim his head presented to Saul and his account of himself and sonship made unto the King the next word tells us how suddenly Jonathan fell in love with him and the soul of Jonathan was knit unto the soul of David 1 Sam. 18. Nichserah as if the finger of God had woven and knit two souls into one curious piece of work or tyed up two hearts into a ribband or bracelet All that the Moralists can prescribe make not out the perfection of this friendship not begotten with profit which is mercenary nor with pleasure which seeks her own end and interest sordid considerations that are won and lost for a triflle with the turning of an hand this is friendship at bowles with a self-bias But the vertue of Davids acts the grace of his sayings was the allective the own-sake and service to do David good was the end and God was the Author To neglect his own profit and apparant inheritance to a crown and the hope of a kingdome to hazard the evil will and displeasure of a King his father and to cleave so fast to an aspiring Rival and competitor against himself was wonderfull To see a souldier part with his armes 2. a courtier with his complements a Prince with his apparant expectances a politician with his pretences against his honour against his profession against hls fortunes against his family against his father against himselfe to a shepherd to plain country-swain a to divest his whole family and advance David this was divine friendship that had God to the father and Jonathan the performer 't was wonderfull For a man of his quality to covenant three times and keep them 3. of his relation to digest that disparagement to his father Saul his thousands but David his ten thousands to have the opportunity of Michal to make him away and would not be of the councell the command to kill him and to treat for his security and life to acquaint him with the danger and swear to do for him what his soul desired to hazard his mothers reputation and bring himself her within the misprision of high treason 1 Sam. 20.30 to yield to David the first title to the crown and content himself with the only hope of a second to quit himself in the next capacity and to designe it for anothers head this is a work of more then a man and a very wonder wrought in him by Almighty God Come all the paires of friends and twinnes of Amity recorded in divine or humane writings of Moses and Aaron of Joseph and Benjamin of Castor and Pollux c. The mirrors of love and friendship kissing each other in the mount clipping and entertaining in a farre different condition not accepting immortality if left without a second engaging body for body and life for life refusing honours and resigning Empires quitting lives and surrendring dear contracted spouses and put the fairest colours of all into one masterpiece and picture and Jonathan to David shall outshine them all Let the great Moralist limn and all his Commentators lay on colours to the life yet all will come too short of that love whose Original is Loves fountaine God whose subject is a Prince whose object is onely vertue whose effects are sincerity without hypocrisy charity without counterband secresy without impeachment resignation without consideration acquittance without payment continuance without revocation Beloved Use the old Picture of friendship was revived and a â—ed in our new deceased Jonathan A young man as Jonathan taking divine affection to a poor shepherd as was David young as never grown too old faire as alwayes in his flower Pagius Pâ—â— Aboâ—h bare-headed and open-fac'd as not ashamed of his friend in course clothes suited to serve you and yours to povertie it self his side open just against his heart without dawbing or dissembling his finger pointing to his bosome as ready to do from his heart whatsoever lies in his hand to do On his forehead is written summer and winter on the fringe of his garment in Life and Death and besides this posie yours at length and at hand Farre and near So you may learn to act and copy out this Jonathan of Davids and this Lucie of ours to the life So I come to my last part the Comparison Meahavath Nashim passing the love of women Nashim is taken in the best sense 7. of Nasha to forget because the name and house of their fathers is forgotten in exchange for their husbands In the worst of Nasah to deceive as if their loves were of no other use or matter then the Ignis fatuus a fire set forth to infatuate men and mock them from their wits but in the better sense it is as the moon that forgets her own shape to follow her husband the sunne The love here is interpreted passively Lyra. Serrar A Lap. in loâ— for the love men bear to women or actively as of women to men the first not so likely to be intended by David in the praise of a man yet that the man may not lose his commendation or the living their incouragement Gen. 2 let the love of Adam to the woman Eve appear in the first place when he embraced her body as the flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone loving her so farre that he lost the love of God himself and all Eden to pleasure her ne contristaret delicias suas that he might not displease his darling Aug. 2 Sam. 12. What adventures Jacob made for Rachel Shechem for Dinah Uriahs affection to Bathsheba the lamb that lay in his bosome is movingly set forth by the Prophets parable and Ezekiel was put hard to it Ezeâ— 24 15. when the desire of his eyes must be taken away and his eyes must not weep for the losse