Nymphes be present in this Imaginary Paradise Let them search within the compasse of Nature all the choysest Pleasures which it hath produced in the word hitherto to charme our Senses and to ravish our Spirits In summe let them assemble in one Subject all whatsoever is and hath beene most beautifull and delitious in the World Yet are all these but meere Chimera's and as a vaine Idea a meere shadow of a body of pleasure in comparison of these divine thoughts and pleasures which the Saints may and shall enjoy in the Contemplation of God and of his infinite Beauty Glory Love and of the Felicities which hee hath prepared for them that love him Their thoughts and Contemplations even in this life may be composed of unutterable Glories Crownes Kingdomes Divine Visions heavenly exultations of Spirit of extreame marveilous Joyes Pleasures and Felicities It is impossible to expresse the pleasures of a heavenly soule The Contentments thereof are not to be so called It 's Extasies and Ravishments cannot bee uttered Saint Paul himselfe could not expresse the same He could not tell whether he were in his body or no. So as the heart that feeles them cannot comprehend them Well and truely therefore doth Saint Paul say That such pleasures have not entred into the heart of man as God hath prepared for them that love him Not entred into the heart of Man This seemes to be a Riddle how can man enjoy it then Indeed hee must be above a naturall man above himselfe that enjoyes such pleasures he must be a Partaker of the Divine Nature of a super-humane and heavenly temper for all grace is above Nature And if by reason of our Frailties and Infirmities we cannot attaine to such a height of Love to and Joy in God in this life yet if wee endeavour truely to love him hee who alwayes accepts the Will for the Deed and whose power is made perfect in our weaknesse and infirmities as Saint Paul saith will lovingly accept of our good Wishes Wils and Endeavours And then there shall come a time when we shall see God as he is know him as wee are knowne love him beyond expression and enjoy in him infinite pleasures and felicities for ever And then wee shall bee made like him as Saint Iohn saith 1 Iohn 3.2 In such sort as fire by uniting it selfe to Iron in an exceeding extreame heate doth purifie the Iron and convert the same into fire In like manner but above all degrees of comparison doth God purifie and reduce us to a being supernaturall and deified unites and takes the soule into his owne divine Nature And this fire which shall so unite us to God is Divine Love And then shall we have a new being we shall bee like him 1 Iohn 3.2 Phil. 3.21 One with him as his members and as a wife to her husband Rev. 21. Wee shall dwell in him and he in us 1 Iohn 4.16 And then wee shall also have a new name that is of our Spouse of our Beloved of God himselfe for saith our Saviour I will write upon him the Name of my God Revel 3.12 So as hereby the soule becomes a part of God and as it seemes may be said to bee no more a soule but God himselfe and with him and in him enjoyes all happinesse Oh then let us fervently wish and long for this time which shall be at the marriage of the Kings Sonne to which the Angels shall invite us Then shall we celebrate an everlasting wedding feast our soules shall be the Bride and Love shall be the banner over us And then shall wee enjoy infinite pleasures and felicities for ever How may the thoughts of this heavenly happinesse delight and possesse us with divine Love and Joy before hand also while we live on earth To come towards a Conclusion If we could truly say with King Davids heart I love the Lord and with Saint Peter Lord thou knowest that I love thee if all our streame could runne in that Torrent to love only him and all other things but only for him and so farre as they tend to his love and glory Oh then what peace what delight what a heaven upon earth should we enjoy If we were capable truly to love and know God it were impossible but wee should be infinitely pleased with what hee pleases and with nothing else Oh Lord if thou wouldest make me so love thee as I should and as I desire which is infinitely I should certainely enjoy such delights in thy love as would transport me to an heaven of joy immediatly Keepe me I pray thee with all my soule still in this minde to wish no other happinesse then what I enjoy in thy love of thy goodnesse to thy glory and which may encrease my love to thee Me thinkes I can desire nor wish no greater happinesse than I now enjoy in knowing that God whom I would love infinitely above my selfe is infinitely happy I doe esteeme it more happinesse to mee then heaven already to know that my Love my God is in heaven THE FOURTH PARTITION Of Eating SECTION I. The benefits of eating in generall also the abuses of eating and the extent thereof BEhold that which I have seene saith the Preacher Eccles 5.18 it is good and comely for a man to eate and to drinke and â—o take comfort in his labours for this is his portion And againe There is nothing better saith hee than to eate and drinke Eccles 2.24 The same is the gift of God chap. 3.13 and 5.19 Iob. 36.31 It is the blessing of God Psalm 128.2 Behold sayth God by his Prophet Esay my servants shall eate and rejoyce Esay 65.13 They shall eate and praise the Lord Chap. 62.9 By eating we sustaine Nature repaire infirmities of the body satisfie hunger please our appetites and preserve life it selfe Without this happinesse of Eating we should become on earth wholy miserable enjoy nothing and must of necessity die and perish For the most solid parts of the body are sustained strengthened and repaired by eating as the humid parts are by drinking and the aierie or spirituall parts are by pleasant and comfortable savours and wholsome aire Bread strengtheneth the heart of man saith the Prophet Psal 104.15 Eating also serves to glad and rejoyce the heart And especially Gods children and servants should eate with joy and gladnesse To such speaketh the wise Preacher saying Goe thy way eate thy bread with joy and drinke thy wine with a merry heart for God accepteth thy workes Eccles 9.7 See also as before Esay 65.13.14 and 1 Tim. 4.3 And so also for good society one with another as those ancient Christians mentioned in Acts 2.46 who eate their bread together with gladnesse singlenesse of heart The moderate naturall convenient and pleasant use of eating makes the body a fit and apt instrument for the Soule yea it preserves and maintaines the whole body and soule in due temper and good disposition Though it be true indeed that
wishes herein and never enjoy any But now I returne from whence I have digressed to shew the excellency of this lawfull Conjugall Love and because this subject is so necessary pleasant and beneficiall I shall perchance be the longer about the same From the Author I proceed to the Object of this Conjugall Love The excellency thereof may further appeare in respect of the Object which is woman who is the image of God aswell as man Gen. 1.27 An help meet for him 2.28 A part of himself 31. Wine is strong Kings are strong but a woman is stronger and hath dominion over Kings saith Zorobabel Esdr 4. All men submit to Love saith the Poet. When that Hermits boy who had alwaies been brought up in the wildernesse came first abroad in the world was asked what pleased him best therein readily replyed Those things which you call women A vertuous woman saith King Solomon is a crowne to her husband Prov. 12.4 Much more in divers Authours I finde in commendations of women and I wish that they did deserve the same Loves excellency also appeares in respect of the parties affected The bravest the most noble generous and gallant spirits are commonly most and best taken and possest with this Love wherefore it is called heroicall Love It is said to be a true note of a worthy generous minde and of the most ingenious schollers to be in love especially in their youthfull yeres for rude and dull understandings cannot raise their thoughts to bee capable of those high sweet and delicate fancies which we see that Love usually produces in such worthy generous and ingenuous minds And the parts of man affected also are his most excellent parts as the heart liver bloud and braines as Phisitians say and consequently the imagination and reason I say reason for want of Love shewes want of reason either stupidity or peevishnesse in a man Yet it is most certaine that divine Love is infinitely more excellent and above this humane love and such men as are of a divine temper may easily overcome the same but we all have bodies aswell as soules we are composed of humanity aswell as divinity and he that never felt the power of this Love may be esteemed as some Eunuch or sot or else of a super-humane temper And on the other side excesse of love shewes weaknesse dotishnesse and folly and then these excellent parts of man are misaffected Such love is without reason But true love is most agreeable thereunto and therefore excellent And further the excellency of this Conjugall or Marriage-Love appeareth by the effects thereof which are many To instance in some of them This Love excites men unto honourable actions and enterprises takes away cowardise covetousnesse rudenesse and makes men couragious liberall civill courteous loving ingenious and of a gracefull demeanor quickens enlarges and illuminates the mind Insomuch as many worthy and ingenious lovers their minds have thereby growne so quicke aiery and spirituall as their high soaring nimble and pleasing fancies have conceived and delivered most excellent famous and delightfull Poems Histories c. as if the Authors seemed to be more beholding to Love then to the Muses This Love preserves and increases mankinde in a perpetuall generation and unites Families Provinces and Kingdomes It is said there is no earthly happinesse like this of the sweet society of true-lovers in the way of marriage and of a loving husband and wife their joyes are doubled and redoubled by Love How sweetly may they counsell assist and comfort one another in all things By this blessed union the number of parents friends and kindred is increased It may be an occasion of sweet and lovely children who in after-times may be a very great joy and felicity to their parents and these may remaine as living pictures to shew their memory from generation to generation Lysippus Mentor Polycletus Zeuxis or Parthasius had neere the skill to engrave or paint the father and mother never so well and lively And great is the pleasure that loving Parents enjoy in their children A multitude of felicities a million of joyfull and blessed effects spring from true love And indeed this conjugall or marriage love and society sweetens all other actions discourses all other pleasures and felicities and even in all respects increases true joy and happinesse This Love also may excite us to divine and heavenly Love But of this subject I intend to write in the fifth Section of this Partition This blessednesse and excellency of Love will be more apparent if wee consider the miseries either of the losse of such love before or of the want thereof after marriage It is wonderfull to thinke how many lovers for losse or want of enjoying their wishes in this kinde plunge themselves into a multitude of cares feares sorrowes blindnesse dotage servitude slavery mischiefe and miseries Many men will venture their goods fame lives and as king Iohn for Matilda crownes if they had them to enjoy their loves Sorrow dejection much waking sighing neglects peevishnesse restlesse thoughts brutish attempts want of appetite palenesse and leannesse are common effects and symptomes of the want of enjoying and of the losse of love And millions of men having lost their loves become therefore melancholy discontented and dejected all their life time after And many there be saith Zorobabel that have run out of their wits for women and become servants for their sakes Esdr 4.26 These things are commonly knowne Bedlam hath been full of examples Many also have perished have erred and sinned for women Esdr 4.27 Examples hereof also have been common in all ages Histories are full of them And many that have consumâ—d away and died for want of enjoying and losing their loves yea some for griefe thereof have been their owne executioners and made themselves away And after marriage it is strange to thinke what jealousies contentions feares sorrowes strange actions gestures lookes bitter words outrages and debates are betweene men and their wives for want of true love and discretion And how many men for want of this love have turned whoremasters and also divers men not loving at home fly abroad and so become Taverne and Alehouse hunters dissolute people spoile themselves and wrong their families These miseries have alwaies been and are so common to all mens view as they need but little disquisition Since it appeares that true love is so excellent and the contrary so irkesome and miserable it is requisite therefore in the next place that we do even very diligently learne and view the way to this excellent happinesse of Conjugall or Marriage Love SECTION II. Shewing how to love truly enjoy our wishes please our lovers and increase Love THat wee may truly love obtaine our Loves enjoy them and live well together first let us make a good choise in Love Such are most like to obtaine their loves who chuse well and conveniently for there is no greater motives to love then this when there is a
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 this discourse by the rules and grounds of this art which are as follow By Number Particulars Observations Arguments Examples Comparisons Similitudes Contrarieties Appendances Effects Circumstances and the like I shall first give an instance in this art of discourse very briefly concerning this matter of Love and that only concerning the excellency thereof And then a taste what is to be done to attaine to this Art First then for instance in this Art concerning the excellency of Love which thogh I have already given a taste of I shall now speak therof in a more artificiall manner and method and to another purpose For this purpose let us imagine a man well skilled in this Art that we may guesse what such a man can doe and imagine this able skilfull man therein have occasion to discourse of this subject The Excellency of Love He can readily even Raptim discourse thereof in divers wayes and manners As for example First either from the Number of benefits and excellencies flowing from thence which some reckon up to be sweet and pleasant thoughts lookes smiles salutations discourses tales jests songs poems sports embraces and to speake more seriously mutuall kindnesses helps comforts society increase of parents kindred friends riches sweet and lovely children and mutuall enjoyments of all the blessings and pleasures that can be thought of 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 and to a pleasant tune c. Wee le sometimes sit and sweetly chat And sometimes pretty stories tell Wee 'l sing and laugh at you know what In all delights we still may dwell What pleasures are on earth I pray That you and I may not possesse A million of the sweetest may Still crowne us with true happinesse And also he can from these felicities and benefits springing from love conclude the excellency thereof apply it and if he pleases sing Then surely Lov 's a blessed thing From whence so many blessings spring It is most certaine that there is No earthly happinesse like this 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 salutation or kisse telling her as some Poets and others teach him that the Rose Gillo-floure Muske Nectar Balsome Ambrosia are not halfe so sweet as her sugred kisses and this he verifies c. can when he sees occasion mingle therewith pleasant Songs and Poems To this purpose the Poet hath a Song in his Comedy which with some alteration of words and to another tune thus it goes To the Tune of the Delights Oh that such sweet joy Should soone passe away Should so suddenly wast That such excellent blisses As are thy sweet kisses No longer should last So sugred so pretious So soft so delitious So dainty so sweet so fine as the honey from the Bee is not halfe so sweet to me As is one sweet kisse of thine Or from a very thought of love hee can tell the excellency thereof saying that even the thought of true love is enough to fil the heart with joy drown all sorrowes and make us thinke our selves even in paradise to imagine what pleasures wee shall enjoy hereafter To the Tune of the Fayry Queene Even but to thinke of this It is so great a blisse A joy excelling farre All worldly thoughts that are That such who in true love are wise Enjoy an earthly paradise And so of the like concerninng any other particular of this Number He can further argue and conclude from any particular of this Number the excellency thereof divers waies as for example from the lesse to the greater To instance againe from a thought of love he concludes from thence a necessity of greater excellency in greater matters If but to thinke of love It be a joy above All earthly thoughts that are Then surely to enjoy What we so thinke of may 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 joy and felicity how much more doth then proceed from them all When such so many sweet delights Shall all at once within us meet Oh how we shall be rapt with joy And fild with pleasures extreame sweet And likewise concerning Time As for example He tells her that to enjoy such pleasure but one houre or a day were enough to possesse the heart with marvellous joy yea although that houre or day were halfe a yeare hence yet the very imagination of it in the meane time is sufficient to possesse us with very sweet pleasures till then Much more may a longer time delight us And so he may sing to her againe To enjoy such pleasures but one day It were enough to ravish even Our hearts and mindes with such sweet joy To thinke our selves almost in heaven If in one day be so much joy Such sweetest pleasures such delights What pleasures may we then enjoy Perchance a thousand daies and nights Or otherwise in divers kinds But to proceed Further he can discourse and set forth the excellency of love by Examples as of Seneca and Paulina Orpheus and Euricide Mausolus and Artimesia Marke Anthony and his Octavia Argalus and Parthenia and divers others Histories are replenished with Examples and can shew how such Lovers think themselves even in the Orchards of Adonis the Elizian fields or Paradise when they enjoy their Love they are so filled with delights If others in their Love doe finde Such joy such pleasures in their minde Why should not wee Let you that 's I Enjoy such sweet felicity Or by Comparisons by way of interrogation or otherwise Did ever any Lovers enjoy such delights and shall not wee Yes we will sport play laugh and sing Live joyfull as a Queene a King Or beyond Comparisons Thaereus never tooke such pleasure in his Pamphila as I that is thou will together He thought none living so happy as they two but we may sweare it of our selves Venus nor Cupid Iove himselfe Shall never know what we may tell What heavenly pleasures whar delights Within thy heart and mine may dwell Or by Contrarieties That love is of so much force and excellency as the losse or want of it often causeth in divers people extreame Melancholy Sadnesse Griefe Madnesse and sometimes death it selfe as appeares by the Examples of Queene Dido Queene Artimesia Portia Triara Panthea Medea Parthenia Romeo and Iuliet Pyramus and Thisbe Antonius and Cleopatra Coresus Calirhoë Clorus Amintas Marcus Lepidus Plautius Numidius Tiberius Gracchus and many others If it be death To lose a loving wife To enjoy her then Is sure more worth than life Or by Similitudes divers wayes and in every particular
as for example The pleasure of love may bee likened to fire an ardent flaming Joy To water a fountaine of pleasure Gold Pearles Amber Honey the Rose and sweetest gayest flowers Muske Nectar Ambrosia is not so precious so sweet so delightfull as the pleasures of love That the Elizian fields or Turkes Paradise is not more pleasant All these and whatsoever is most pleasant he compares and likens to Love for sweetnesse pleasures delight c. Yea and more seriously if good occasion be he can tell that this Conjugall or Mariage love is often used as a similitude or resemblance betweene Christ and his Church that the Canticles is wholly a Love-song to this purpose And that therefore it is to be thought no humane earthly joy represents that of heaven more than this of true love though there bee no comparison or likenesse between Terrestriall and Celestiall happinesse either in purity brightnesse worth or duration of time these earthly being as nothing or as drosse in respect of the heavenly yet in respect of our earthly and weak apprehension such comparisons and similitudes since we finde such in sacred Scriptures often are and may be made So some have thought that love is even A Ioy divine a taste of heaven Or by the Effects of love To instance among many and divers in a few That Love causes a man to carry himselfe fairely courteously honourably and vertuously to all men It quickens and raises a mans spirits fancy wit and makes him become pleasant neate spruce lively a Poet a Musitian a Dancer a man of fine behaviour It makes us enjoy all things in the world with a sweeter pleasure than otherwise for why it possesses the heart with joy and a joyfull heart takes pleasure in all things Thus Love doth alwaies fill Our mindes with blisse that still What ere we thinke or doe It will delight us So Whether we study work or play True love will turne all into joy Further concerning the Effects of Love he can tell her that a Million of other joyfull effects spring from true love which will now be too long to discourse of Therefore now only that true love hath such a vertue in it as it will saith one even turne water into wine I had rather saith he drinke water with thee than wine with another live meanly with thee than richly with another Yea hee tells her that true love will turne even sorrow it selfe to the encrease of its joyes saying further All the crosses that ever thee and I have had I hope we shall hereafter quite bury or drown them in the fountaine of our Love-delights or rather make them serve as fuell to encrease the flame of our love and happinesse for love and joy after crosses past is the sweeter and livelier as having been purified enlightned and quickned by the same And so for future time When crosses happen in our way Wee le turne them in our love and joy And make them serve but to enflame Enlighten and encrease the same Or by Additions Appendances and Circumstances as for example That Love is more splendent and excellent when it is seated in its Throne and attended with riches honours and other pleasures which seeme to be Loves handmaids who as a Queene graces all the rest and addes glory sweetnesse and delight to them all And as a Circumstance he can discourse almost of any thing and set forth the excellency thereof as hath been shewed by the attendants riches honour and pleasures by the object Women by the Parts and Parties affected which are the most excellent parts of man and commonly the bravest noblest most generous and ingenuous men Also by the author which is God himselfe for Love is a daughter of heaven yea as some say a little heaven upon earth by which also as is to bee shewed in the last Section hereof we may spie and spell glimpses of heaven and be the more enflamed with divine and heavenly love to seeke and possesse it So as it seemes we may enjoy two heavens In sweetest joyes that be My dearest Love then we May passe our time away All times by night and day What pleasure is on earth I pray Or heaven that we may not enjoy Thus have I given a taste of Loves excellency by way of instance in this Art of discourse But I pray remember it is but by way of discourse and then I hope you will pardon what is amisse for you know that men will talke somewhat largely to please their Lovers and yet say they have given but a taste when they have done Now I proceed and shew further the use of this Art of discourse By this Order or Art we may discourse of any other particular whatsoever as for example of the contrary to that which hath been dilated namely the miseries of Loves losse which may even readily be dilated and expressed by this Art in this manner likewise Either by the Number of miseries the misery of each Particular of that Number with Observations in respect of Matter Time Place and other occasions and each Particular demonstrated by divers Examples Reasons Arguments Comparisons Contrarieties Similitudes Effects Appendances Circumstances or otherwise and set forth by apt expressions and particularly applyed and passionately enforced and uttered according to the nature of the Subject In this manner also we may discourse of any other subject upon occasion whether of riches of honour of health of prudence temperance fortitude or of any vertue or of poverty disgrace sicknesse of covetousnesse ambition intemperance or of any other vice or misery yea or of Religion and divine matters and in truth there cannot be a better way even of Love discoursing than a religious way however seldome practised but rather despised by many of Blades and gallant Dames of the world as well as of the foolish and blockish sort of people who thinke and esteeme all things above their vaine and phantasticke humours to be folly and madnesse But indeed what better way of Love discoursing can be than a laudable and pious insinuation into the minde of such as we discourse with whether Friend or Lover by heavenly discourses which also may be done by some such like Art as hath been dilated insomuch that if both parties be of a divine temper their hearts may bee filled possessed and united with heavenly and glorious thoughts joy and love But these things I know will seeme folly mysticall strange and as very riddles to such whose meere naturall mindes are not raised to the knowledge of supernaturall and heavenly things But such lovers and friends whose minds are elevated to a supernaturall and divine temper their hearts can be filled with heavenly joy in such discourses and by the eye of Contemplation they can see one another in respect of their heavenly mindes like Angels divine creatures and so love one another with an heavenly as well as earthly love Both which being united doe binde their hearts together with an indissoluble
enough to reade them But in good earnest againe Marriage is said to be a Rocke on which many men cast themselves away also a Yoke and a bondage a multitude of hinderances charges cares crosses and annoiances are incident to married people What wise man would marry Some men are Cornuted and father Children which are none of their owne To many men their children prove undutifull disobedient arrogant prodigall and become bitter Crosses to their Parents as Ham to Noah Absolon to David Hophni and Phineas to old Eli. Of moderne Examples to this purpose there are innumerable If I should reckon up all the troubles vexations cares charges hinderances and miseries belonging to marriage I should be very much too long and tedious Besides I might for this purpose tell how happily Batchelours live without wives how freely securely merrily pleasantly and without controule There are yet further more generous and sublime remedies considerations and consolations to ease and cheare the soule of a discontented and pining Lover As to consider that S. Paul and very many wise men learned Divines Philosophers and others prefer a single life before marriage I hope you will beleeve them And also that marriage corrupts many great and good spirits hinders many good and worthy actions and enterprises I have married a wife saith one and therefore I cannot come Luke 14.20 Also to consider that it is fittest for such to marry who are of lower minds such as have the most grosse spirits more of earth than heaven in them tye such men to women to the flesh to mundane troubles cares distâ—actions c. Let the other be free and happy Also to contemne and even scoffe at Cupid and all his wooden darts like that young man who could merrily sing Sir Cupid is blinde I say Though some have thought he seeth And though he hit my heart one day A T in Cupids teeth So to endeavour to be Cupids Masters to use him as we list and if we chance to play with him a little sometimes for recreation as wise men doe with a foole or Ladies with a little dog yet let us also scoffe at contemn and despise him when we please and see good occasion But now concerning that which is the best and most glorious remedy and consolation not onely against pining Love but against all other mundane desires wants losses and crosses which is to endeavour so to be possessed and inflamed with divine love of God and heavenly joy in him and so to trust in his never fayling providence as to be most sweetly contented and pleased at heavens will and pleasure to rejoice even in losses and crosses and thinke them divine love-tokens as certainely they are to them who love him Rom. 8.28 He that loves God better than himselfe cannot but be sweetly pleased with his will in all things So let us endeavour to love him above our selves and so to be pleased with his pleasure as to say yea Vow to God men to this purpose if there be occasion as I doe now That since 't is Gods will I wish no other happinesse then what I doe enjoy but all things to be as they are since he thinks good Me thinks I neither dare nor can wish greater happinesse then to know that God whom I would love infinitely above my selfe is infinitely happy Let us then endeavour to be of such an heavenly temper so enlightened with divine Love and Joyes as to have little or no roome left in our soules for carnall grosser love and joyes while we are elevated in heavenly thoughts and contemplations for certainly those spirits which are truly raised to the knowledge of divine things and doe well know the Art of heavenly contemplations are elevated above all the love and pleasures of the earth inasmuch as eternall heavenly felicities are above humane temporary earthly vanities and not finding any thing on earth worthy of their love and desires they doe note and set out their desires their pleasures and felicities in heaven So as they doe in part beforehand taste of the sweetnesse of those delights which they pretend to receive at the end of their life which makes them very graciously to set under their feet all the Love and 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 carnall desires so heavenly as they doe then esteeme the greatest pleasures of the body as this of carnall Love but as dung and drosse in comparison of the heavenly Love and pleasures which they enjoy in their soules And in such contemplations and comparison they rejoyce more inâ—contemning this earthly love and pleasures then in enjoying the same What need wee care for farthings who may have gold enough for earthly that may have heavenly happinesse But as Saint Paul signifies Marriage hinders this divine Love and heavenly pleasures He that is married saith he careth for the things of the world how he may please his wife But he that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord c. 1 Cor. 7.32 c. One doubted not to say that if men could live without desiring women and other superfluous things of the world they would be visited and very familiarly accompanied with Angels And certainely there bee many married men in the world if they did but truly know the excellency of such a contemplative heavenly life and did seriously consider how freely and joyfully Batchelors may live they would even runne through fire and water to be so happy But now lest married men should be too much displeased with what I have written Let me tell them I write this chiefly to comfort ease and cheere the hearts of discontented melancholy pining languishing Lovers And herein I thinke I have endeavoured to doe a very good deed and to shew very good causes and reason enough to cheere comfort and rejoice the most sad drooping languishing and discontented Lover if he be not gone out of his senses or without reason And let those displeased married men if any be so know or thinke that when we speake against Marriage wee meane onely of unfit and evill marriages Such as that of Spungius and Philtra They would quarrell sweare curse fight c. Let such be alwayes scoft at and remaine miserable till they mend their manners And least Batchelours should bee too averse from Marriage and such as lose their first Love should forbeare a second choyce which alwayes drowns the love of the former in oblivion and is one of the best Remedies against Loves losse for heere they finde 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 better to live single And that a Consonant equall and fit marriage when both parties bee loving kinde wise constant and of good conditions is even a
and looking above them doe even contemne them in comparison of the more excellent things which then they know So let us as children in Gods family make a good use of this earthly honour and be thereby encouraged and excited to learne and search the way to the eternall glory of heaven of which this is but a shadow And when we are grown wise and skilfull men in rhe knowledge of divine things Let us then in comparison endeavour to be above and even contemne these toyes and trifles of the world for such is earthly honour even in it's greatest excellency in comparison of the heavenly honour and glory and then let us untye our selves from the overmuch and vitious desire of terrestriall honor which can never satisfie us and with a desire full of sprightfulnesse love and joy elevate our thoughts to heaven to eternity for certaine it is that those souls which doe often contemplate the heavenly glory and doe well know the excellency thereof are often raised farre above all the greatnesse of the earth inasmuch as eternity is above time and infinite glory above a shadow thereof And in these contemplations they are often so transported and raised beyond and above themselves as if they were then capable of terrestriall and humane vanities they would not know themselves while their souls doe thus direct their lookes desires affections and contemplations wholly to God himselfe to heaven Insomuch that while their spirits are so raysed in such divine thoughts and illuminations they doe seeme very gloriously then to despise all the honour and greatnesse of the earth and with unexpressable delight to marke out the thrones of their honour in the kingdome of heaven where they know that a crowne of immortall glory shall for ever environ their heads And in these divine thoughts and elevations they are often even astonisht with such wonderfull delights and happinesse as they can finde neither measure nor limits in these divine glorious amuzements heavenly irradiations and elevations of spirit So not being able to find any thing on earth worthy of their greatnesse they have designed the crowne and set up the throne of their honour and glory in the empyrean heaven To conclude Let it alwaies be our glory to glorifie our fathet which is in heaven Mat. 5.16 Ier. 9.23 They that honour me I will honour saith God 1 Sam. 2.30 Psal 9.14 15 16. O how honourable how happy is he whom God is pleased to honour Teach oh Lord this secret divine language to my heart to desire onely thy honour thy glory and that I may glory onely in thee who art mans soveraigne glory yea onely true happines Let me esteeme this honour this glory this happinesse as heaven already The third PARTITION Of Conjugall Love SECTION I. Of the excellency of such Conjugall or Marriage Love in generall and the miseries of the losse and want thereof KIng Solomon saith a prudent wife is from the Lord Prov. 19.4 From the beginning of the creation saith our Saviour God made them male and female for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and they two shall be one flesh Mar. 10.7 Mat. 19. So it appeares God himselfe is the Author of this lawfull conjugall or marriage-love And therfore in respect of him the Authour to be very well esteemed accordingly Therefore in his sacred word by King Solomon he saith Rejoyce in the wife of thy youth c. See Prov. 18.2 Eccl. 9.9 and by Saint Paul Husbands love your wives as Christ loved his Church So ought men to love their wives as their owne bodies for he that loveth his wife loveth himselfe Eph. 5.25 28. Let me here againe make a short though perchance very necessary digression Since God himselfe as hath been shewed is the Authour of this Conjugall true Love and commends the same unto us I doe intend God willing to write on of this Subject though all the severe Grandsires and Stoickes of the world should frowne and the more nice then wise people turâ—e aside their heads and though envious malitious people should pine and grieve exceedingly at such loving felicities though over-doting sottish and brain-sicke Lovers should be toucht to the quick in this ensuing discourse and therefore kicke and though whoremasters should be gall'd and lash though Momus or jeering Coxecombes should carp and scoffe at this subject of Conjugall Love and though meere earthly sensuall fooles should not see or conceive the good and divine use thereof which is principally heavenly Love of God And I protest I shall in this discourse principally endeavour to please God the Authour of this Love that is to doe good for I know all goodnesse pleaseth him and what better and more necessary endeavour then to increase this so good and necessary happinesse of Conjugall or Marriage-Love in the world from which springeth so many good and happy effects therein as in this the next the fourth and fifth Sections of this Partitioâ— I intend to shew more largely And in the next place I would gladly also please all vertuous pious men and of them especially true-lovers which I hope I shall the rather since I have formerly been much encouraged by such and since I have followed and learned the substance of this Partition of many wise and worthy Authours who have formerly written of this subject done much good thereby and are deservingly commended for the same And lastly I write this to please and recreate my selfe also amidst more serious studies and occasions Now therefore let the said severe Grandsires Stoicks over-nice people envious malitious men over-doting sottish brain-sicke Lovers carping scoffing geering coxcombs meere sensualists or any other vitious men for such onely I thinke will frowne looke aside pine grieve be angry barke stir kick lash carp scoffe soulely detract or remain still meere sensuall fooles I care not since I have endeavoured and shall endeavour to doe this good hereby It matters not to me what such men say While I please God good men my self enjoy And since God the Authour of this Conjugall Love hath commended the same unto us in such a sweet amiable and pleasant manner as is said Prov. 5.18 c. Eccles 9.9 Ephes 5. and divers other places and also in the Canticles and elsewhere even in a misterious and divine way therefore if I or any man endeavour to shew and increase this happinesse and to do this so necessary good in a pleasing â—â—d harmelesse manner what wise well disposed man who but some rugged discontented envious carping maligne spirited men will be displeased therewith I wonder why any should be so maligne as to dislike grudge or envy the felicities of lovers I protest I wish that all the true-lovers and married men in the world might enjoy as much pleasure and felicity in their loves and wives as they can wish and thinke of though it were upon this condition that my selfe should lose all my joyes hopes and
fit and convenient sympathy in all things between them Hee who hath made such a good and convenient choise in Love may even justly hope to have almost gained his love already One word one smile between such will cause more love then many words and gifts betweene others Diversities breed nothing but disunion and sweet congruity is the cause of Love Hence growes the height of love and friendship when two simillary soules shall joyne in all their commixions and this assimulation pure and good in all things Those are observed to agree and love best who are both alike of good conditions both wise and religious And it is the crown of blessings to live in such happinesse Prov. 12.4 Let therefore piety and vertue be the first mover of our affections and the rather to chuse well let us take that Divines counsell who wisheth us to invite Christ to our wedding and to pray to him for a good wife or else none at all which he thinks best for us for an evill woman as the wise man saith makes a sorry countenance and an heavy heart and a man had rather dwell with a Lyon then keep house with such a wife Eccl. 29.27 and he that hath her is as if he held a Scorpion ver 7. What is to be seene among such husbands and wives as are of vitious and impious conditions but strife tumults disorder suspition confusion and misery in the end wheras none live more lovingly pleasantly and happily together then such as are of gracious vertuous conditions A vertuous well given lover is much better to be esteemed then a fine face with ill conditions Let us not then be so sensuall as to love onely the face and corps but looke higher and see something in our lovers of an Angelicall nature that is a free vertuous and gracious mind which to an understanding man appeares to be a divine Essence and to which he mingles his soule in Love which if truly thought on will appeare to be a farre more excellent and permanent Love then that of the body and consequently more pleasant A vertuous pious wife is far more pretious then rubies Prov. 31.10 She is as the Kings daughter all-glorious within Psal 45. So then let us spheare our Loves and seeke beauty rather in a minde then in a countenance In the next place after piety vertue and good conditions it is requisite to looke after corporall and externall respects and as neere as we may to chuse such as are of equall yeares birth fortunes and degree of good parentage and kindred of such a countenance complexion and constitution as best agrees to our love and disposition for inconsiderate and unequall marriages are commonly very pernitious and a multitude of mischievous and miserable effects spring from such marriages As if a sound and healthy person marries one that is diseased and impotent if an honest man marries a whore or an honest woman a knave if one that is well tempered in minde marry a phantastick adle-pated brain-sicke scolding piece or if one that 's young marry with an old doting companion or in any othar respects very unfitly what better successe can they look for then Minos had with Pasiphaë Vulcan with Venus Menelaus with Hellen Ptolomny with the whorish Thais Claudius with the lustfull Messalina or Hierome King of Sicily with Pytho What is like to ensue but suspition jealousie strife shame sorrow discontent and misery Therefore it is very requisite that men should love and marry such as are equall fit and convenient for them It is a good time as some say for a man to marry between five and twenty yeare old and thirty and for a woman between her age of eighteen and two and twenty And it seemes better saith one to love below then above ones selfe in estate and degree for saith he this will the more oblige a lover to be the more loving diligent and pleasing ever after But notwithstanding we may truly say that although light-headed phantasticke proud malapert women as many of them are will be the worse for a good estate and parentage yet a good woman though there be not many such will be rather the better then worse for the same But however it is thought best as neere as men may with conveniency to chuse such as are of fit and convenient yeres birth fortunes degree parentage constitution and especially of like vertuous and gratious conditions for when two meet of the same good condition what is it but the same soule in two bodies or rather in one body since marriage so unites as they are no more two but one flesh Mat. 19.5.6 as it were two persons intermutually transported into one another So that even with the same reason that we love our selves we love those that are so like and united to us But yet it seemes best to chuse if we may such as are more vertuous and gracious then our selves for to live with such 't is good hope and like will in time make us the more like them and consequently the better and more happy The choise hereof being esteemed the chiefest action of our life most neerely concerning us and from whence springs our future good and happinesse ought to be very diligently thought on and considered and especially that we chuse such a one as from our hearts we can truly and for good causes love dearely From such a loving fit equall and good choyce is like to spring abundance of most sweet delights and felicities Having made a good choyse wee may and should use all good meanes to gaine Love to please our Lovers and encrease Love which in such a good convenient choyce is very necessary and very like to be happily effected even by such ordinary and usuall meanes as are commonly used by lovers and prescribed in divers Authours for the same purpose but as for those common allurements and occasions of love which some Authors write of largely as pleasant comely and well composed gestures pace carriage behaviour also of glances smiles salutations complements conference familiarity gifts tokens favours letters meetings feasts wine musicke amorous tales singing dancing and the like I list not to treat of and the rather because if all these things were well used onely to good purposes as some of them are often too much abused yet they are so usually practised by and even naturall to lovers as they need but little disquisition Time place and opportunity often occasioneth love Also importunity to some kinde of women and sometimes also I know that neglect and scorne doth in some of these female kinds much increase love for some of them are of such proud imperious conditions as they will insult over and even scorne such puny lovers as will be pinned upon their sleeves Hence it is women are compared to shadowes if we follow them they will goe from us if we goe away they will follow us againe wherefore sometimes to neglect seemeth better then importunity and
whetteth love Though indeed such as will not be gained either without much importunity or much neglect are to be thought no whit the better in that respect but rather they may be thought the more nice proud or scornfull or else that they thinke their lovers not good enough or not fit and convenient for them But that which in this respect I intend only to treat so at large is Artificiall discourse yet before I begin let me tel you that I think it a very necessary good deed to endevour to help and comfort such as are afflicted and need comfort and who need the same more then lovers If you will not beleeve me looke upon thereupon their pale cheeks and sad melancholy looks Consider their sighs c. And to helâ— some of these I intend to endeavour in this ensuing art of discourse and in the next Section after to shew remedies and consolations against losse of love against an oversottish and doting love and against the miseries incident to crosse marriages c. so as they may remaine sweetly contented notwithstanding I doe also thinke it a very necessary charitable and good deed well pleasing to God and good men to endeavour to increase love joy and happinesse especially this Conjugall or Marriage-Love and delights Oh that â— could invent and write of such sweet â—nd pleasing love delights and discourâ—es thereof as might alwaies possesse â—he hearts of true and vertuous lovers with as much joy and happinesse in â—ach other as they can wish or thinke â—f Reverend and good old men Give â—e leave also I pray to write a few â—ords to you before I begin to write â—his ensuing Art of discourse If any â—f you chance to read the same though some of your age are growne much too severe and rigid yet I cannot but hope that your goodnesse will remember your former more youthfull warme and loving hearts and no whit hinder or grudge but rather be well pleased with and rejoyce to thinke of such joyes and felicities of lovers as I shall discourse of though perchance it be not solid severe and serious enough to agree with your age yet I hope you will thinke it fit convenient and good for young nuptiall true-lovers for whose sake it is especially written Yet I shall endeavour according to my weake abilities to write the same in a serious artificial though pleasing delightfull way And if any man shall too severely and rigidly thinke the ensuing love discourse too light of this subject leâ— me tell them I have many good precepts presidents and good reasons for what I have done But I intend to answer such objections toward the end oâ— this Section therefore now to proceedâ— Here followeth the Art of Love-discourse THe Preface Forasmuch as heretofore at idle times to recreate and please my selfe I began to study the Art of Discourse in some cases though I love silence in some other I now thinke it not amisse out of the same to take a little diligence and paines or rather a little pleasure further to recreate my selfe to please â—rue Lovers to encrease love and joy â—n them and give an instance only concerning this matter of Love ARtificiall discourse being added â—o other Love-devices is most pleasant and delightfull doth much enâ—rease love and adde a greater joy and pleasure to all other Love-delights â—nd felicities We know that even â—ommon frivolous discourse being â—poken in the way of love will much â—lease and take many female Lovers â—uch as are idle Complements News Tales Jests Songs even such as are very idle and frivolous and though spoken and acted by some apish coxcombe swaggering fellow or pot-companion such as especially light phantastick things such as some Women are will be over head and eares in Love But now if some well given faire conditioned young man for to such I chiefly direct this discourse shall withall adde a sweet pleasing convincing and materiall discourse to his Lover whom I will imagine to be alike vertuous and well conditioned young creature it will be indeed sufficient sweetly to captivate charme and even overcome them to fill their hearts full of joy and pleasure and so to inchant them as it is like they will ever after be joyned together in an indissoluble bond of true flaming love Now for the manner and matter of our discourse I have alwaies 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 Sweet Mistresse or Madame I honour your shoo-strings the ground you tread upon am proud to kisse your hand it is my ambition to be your servants servant and the like to present and offer not only our services but lives to the command of our Mistresses as wee use to call them though God knowes we never meane to be their servants On the other side I think it also folly to study sing and talke to them in high straines of wit and figurative exornations lest they bee not understood and so perchance laughed at But in this respect a plaine yet artificiall pleasing materiall moving and convincing way is best I doe not intend to prescribe a set Method to discourse in for why me thinkes a premeditated 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 we can counterfeit like a Player our passions and have wit enough to come out and in upon all occasions of discourse On the otherside we are not straitened in this subject for want of matter to discourse of on all occasions even in an extemporary manner for every smile action object event or speech may afford a Lover matter of sudden discourse and indeed love of it self if it be fervent whets the wit and so stirs up the spirits that we may say of Lovers as of fine wits They can make use of any thing But neither of this extemporary discourse is my intention to write of but rather a mixture of both which I will call an habit of discourse or an extemporeall Method A Method not so much to discourse in as to discourse by in an extemporary manner in such sort as a man may be furnished with continuall abilities of discourse in an extemporary Method as I may say or a sudden and well composed manner without brainsicke light idle frivolous prating on the one side or too much pumping for wit on the other side but with a ready yet perswasive 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 may do even such men some good concerning this matter of love but in generall It will rather require that a man be well learned
knot and fill them with sweet streames and fountaines both of terrestriall and of heavenly joyes and delights Now to proceed and give a taste as I said how to attaine to be a skilfull Artist in this or the like art of discourse Which because it may be said in generall almost in as few words as particularly of Love I shall endeavour very briefly to shew the same in a generall way which is First by often and serious meditation to imprint into our mindes the grounds and heads thereof As Numbers Particulars Observations Arguments Examples Comparisons Contrarieties Similitudes Effects Appendances Circumstances and the like as perfectly as we doe our A B C. whereby we may as readily call to minde those grounds as wee can letters to spell words with which is as fast as we can speake Or as in the Art of Brachigraphy or short-writing wee readily know at which end side or place of the letter to set the tittle dash or ensuing letter whereby we know what Vowell Dipthong or Word it signifies even as suddenly as we can thinke of any thing Or as Preachers doe especially take notice and imprint into their mindes the heads divisions and grounds of their Sermons Secondly having thus imprinted the grounds in our mindes we ought to be furnished with sufficient learning and skill concerning the matter of our discourse In generall to bee skilfull in such Arts and Sciences as we shall have most occasion to discourse of whether of Divinity Physicke Law Philosophy History Poetry or other so as I might instance also in this Art concerning the Divine the Lawyer the Physitian the Gentleman and divers others as well as the Lover in their severall waies of discoursing and also concerning divers usuall occasions if my skill would attaine thereunto but this Treatise will not admit thereof that so by observation reading or otherwise we might be furnished with sufficient learning matter examples and skill to this purpose in such sort that we may as some ancient and well furnished Orators Lawyers Physitians and others can in their severall waies readily discourse even Raptim upon any Maxime Ground or Rule in their Sciences So then impressing the grounds of this Art in our mindes and furnishing our selves with a ready ability to discourse upon these grounds is the way to attain to this Art of discourse And although the perfection thereof be very difficult to attaine unto in such a ready manner yet even the meere observation or reading thereof may lend us some light and in this matter of Love be an occasion of increasing the same and of possessing our selves and Lovers with very pleasing joyes and delights Thus much concerning the Art of discourse Yet 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 for I know there be many in our times so Stoicall and rigid as they will scarce allow lawfull moderate convenient or necessary recreations for this discourse was chiefly written for meere tecreation amidst more serious occasions and so I desire it may be read and that they esteeme honest and harmelesse Love-delights and discourses though in the way of marriage Prophanenesse But surely piety and vertue is neither so rugged nor austere as some men would make the same and although their rigidnesse make them unkinde and therein unjust to themselves yet certainly in those things which are free from impugning the Lawes of God and humanity we may at convenient times allow our selves honest solaces and recreations especially in such a necessary good so agreeing to the Lawes of God and man of Nature and necessity of the Preservation of Mankinde And we may know that it is good and commendable for such as doe or intend to live in that honourable and blessed state of Marriage to be possest with Conjugall love and so good that such men are councelled in the sacred Book of God to love their wives as their owne selves yea as Christ loved his Church Ephes 5. And this Love is not only a remedy against a multitude of irksome troubles evils and miseries but an occasion of very many blessings and very much happinesse indeed as hath been shewed and therefore consequently such honest harmlesse Love-discourses devices and pleasures as increase such love and happinesse are to be esteemed good and commendable And I conceive that no well conditioned happy man none but envious malitious malecontented spirits or else ignorant stupid sottish people who are not capable of the excellency and felicities of such true heroical love will hinder dislike or grudge true Lovers of such honest harmlesse and commendable Love-delights and pleasures And I am not so Cynicall as one saith of himselfe but that I thinke a modest expression of such amorous pleasing conceits and fancies as are free from obscenity and sute with reason and goodnesse will yet very well become my yeares in which not to be in a good and convenient manner sensible of Love were as great an argument of much stupidity and blockishnesse as an over-sottish and doting affection were of extreame folly But what need I excuse my selfe in this when it is well knowne that many whole Volumes have been written of Love And that divers famous and worthy Philosophers Physitians Historians Poets and others have written as lightly and more wantonly than I have done of this subject and yet been highly commended for the same and I thinke in divers respects they have done much good thereby encreasing true love and happinesse in very many that have read their bookes and writings Yea since as before I shewed that God himself is the author of this conjugall or marriage love and doth in the holy Scriptures commend the same unto us in a very pleasing way as Prov. 5.17 18. Eccles 9.9 Mat. 19.4 5 6. Marke 10.7 Ephes 5. Chapter and divers other places and in all that booke of the Song of songs though in a divine way there are very many sweet and pleasant expressions of love and the delights thereof and that in a Song or Poem If then such pleasing expressions may and is good to be used in such a divine way certainly it may and is also in this humane way of lawfull love without all exceptions but only by such as are either malitious or too severe rigid over-nice and therein unwise men But since good things yea even the best things may be perverted and abused as Meat to Gluttony Wine to Ebriety Riches and honour to the increase of all vices so Love to Lust I desire and pray you Christian Reader as you will answer to God that you will not so abuse as to apply and pervert any of this Love-discourse to the provoking of unlawfull lusts but only to good purposes as to the increase of lawfull and convenient marriage and the honest harmlesse and laudable joyes delights and felicities thereof And so I hope and doubt not but this discourse will doe some
good and be well pleasing to God and good men But yet perchance my Grandsire may say It seemes to him that such light vaine discourses are of little power or perswasion to increase love and happinesse yet if we thinke of the Parties by and to whom these things are spoken that is Lovers who are a great deale more vaine wanton youthfull and not of such serious and sollid substance as my Grandsire is we shall know that such discourses are most apt and pleasing and much more perswasive for this purpose to increase love and joy then other more grave and sollid And we know that Lovers esteem every word of one anothers discourse though perchance but slight matter as if it were spoke like an Angel And yet truly there is I wish my Grandsire may see it a great deale of seriousnesse mingled in this Love-discourse and such as concernes the greatest choycest and sweetest happinesse of our lives insomuch as indeed such artificiall discourses such pleasant convincing perswasions and reasons are most justly really and seriously sufficient even to inchant and inflame a wise one a Saint with true Love and Ioy and surely the wisest and best Saint cannot be too loving and joyfull in this blessed and honourable way of conjugall or marriage Love no not joyfull and loving enough herein if you will not beleeve this See againe Prov. 5.18 Ephe. 5.25 c. I know you will or must beleeve that To returne I know that such discourses will so increase Love and Joy in true Lovers that if there be a reasonable sympathy betweene the parties in age degree fortunes countenance Constitution and good Conditions and a willing consent of Parents and Friends at first though afterwards great and strange opposition should happen in many respects it would be a marvellous hard matter if not almost impossible to part and disunite their Love If such discourses then be of so strong effect and operation as to joyne hearts in true love and increase it's Joyes 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 Joy Medea's Oyntment Helen's Bowle Circes Cup Phaedra's Ring Venus Girdle or Gyges Gloves cannot so sweetly inchant move and please the minde so delightfully increase Love and Joy as such discourses will and with good reason may in Lovers SECTION III. Remedies and considerations against the losse of Love against an over-sottish and doting Love and against the miseries incident to crosse marriages BVt now here comes a question What is to be done if wee should lose our Loves c. Indeed many Lovers for want of enjoying their wishes in this kinde become extreme melancholly and sorrowfull and some for Remedy betake themselves to ill courses as Whoring and Tavern-haunting and sometimes spoyle themselves This is to leap out of the warme Sunne into the fire But if we consider rightly there is little or no cause why wee should grieve for such a losse but wee may rejoyce notwithstanding Of this hereafter But first of some Remedies and Considerations usually prescribed in Authors against this malady the losse of Love As to withstand beginnings to avoyd all occasions to goe to some other Mistresse a better if shee may be gained or if not yet to know that of all necessary evils such as men say Wives are any may serve for necessity and because they are said to bee evils 't is like better to have none at all Though we Batchelours perchance may thinke wives fine things yet such as have 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 and we know not where That the love of the body is at the highest and will fall when it hath gotten admittance into the hidden and worst parts thereof and that so it is of the minde 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 detected 't is like we shall finde them much worse then wee look't for How soone was Ahasuerus weary of his Vasti Marke Anthony of the daughter of Caesar Philip King of France of the King of Denmarkes daughter Selenchus King of Syria of the faire Stratonices and Nero of his Poppea And so many in all Ages though they prosecute their Loves before marriage by many and strange promises oathes and protestations of Love yet after they doe distaste and perchance as Amon loathed Thamar they even loath their Wives We see after honey monthes past Marriages often turne to repentance bitternesse dislike contempt How soone doe many women waxe stale fulsome phlegmaticke out of fashion infirme diseased or old riveld witherd or at their best a wise man can very plainely and perpicuously see their greatest beauty and lovelinesse so vaine fading uncertain and undureable even as a bubble dew snow smoake winde aire yea even as nothing for a thousand yeares are even as nothing to eternity And their beauty passeth away with time as swift as thought and so after a moment of time in comparison of eternity comes to nothing and in the meane time a Feavour small Poxe losse of an eye or limme one of many and divers severall diseases yea even a little scarre or however Age and Time spoyles the choysest beauties And yet before they are spoyled even at their best and greatest beauty if thou sawest them in foule ragged nasty Beggers apparell or when they scold brawle are angry mad gape make ill favoured faces or as one saith undrest you would very likely be quite out of love with and perchance loath them But let us looke to future time they are creatures of an inferiour nature as beasts who minde only present things A wise mans soule is of a future nature as well as present It can see things to come also as if they were present If then you have a wise mans eyes in your soule and can but see yea if you will but imagine or suppose that you see the fairest loveliest and choisest beauties as they shall be when they are sick olde withered dead rotten in their graves the same will appeare so ugly gastly terrible dreadfull as you will be so far out of love as rather to loath and shun them Yea if thou couldst but see what they are now already that is but earth a meere excrement which thou so admirest thy soule would be at rest Imagine her skin from her face or other parts of her body There is nothing within but filthy Phlegme Choller Melancholy Blood Gall Spittle Snevill Snot and other stinking putrid excrementall loathsome stuffe If you thinke I speake unseemly in this case it is a good deed and necessary for it is a remedy against Love I hope young man you are now wiser than to grieve
Terrestriall Paradise and from thence as hath been dilated proceedeth a marvellous deale of happy blessed effects But me thinkes I cannot yet leave this subject of the vanity frailty folly and miseries of Love I meane now only of an oversottish doting Love it is so necessary For seeing the excellency of lawful Love and the many sweet and blessed effects springing from thence it is great reason to take heed that we doe not as many men in the world have done plunge our selves beyond the Boundmarkes of Reason and Discretion into an over-sottish and doting affection Oh how strange and what pitty it is to thinke how many otherwise most famous wise and best of men have beene so bewitched and besotted with this over-doting Love though but for a time and after repented in so much as they have committed some Crimes and many grosse dotages for Love as we may read of Iacob Ruben Iudah Sampson David and Solomon to omit the more unwotthy ones in the sacred Scriptures To reade and consider also of Caesar Haniball Theseus Achilles Pompey Marke Anthony Troylus Hercules and many other famous great and noble spirits also of Socrates himselfe and many of the wisest Philosophers and many Worthies in all Ages What mad foolish and strange prankes practises and dotages they have acted for Love Also to heare the Poets tell of men that degenerate into Dogs Hogs Asses Bruites for Love as Lycaon into a Wolfe Calista a Beare Elpenor and Grillus into Swine by Circe Apulaeus into an Asse yea Iupiter himselfe for Europa Laeda and others into a Bull a Swan a golden Showre a Satyr a Shepheard for Love expressing by their Morals how men by their foolish over-fond Love and Lusts make Beasts and Bruits of themselves How can we but strangely wonder to consider that so many thousand men created after Gods owne Image Enobled with such an excellent soule should be so besotted with this over-fond and doting Love as that they doe even strive by all meanes more to please their Lovers then God himselfe and all the world besides and so neglect the love of that infinitely to be beloved and Glorious Amiable and loving God for the love of so fraile and vaine a creature Yea and even to worship and Idolatrize to her So as they desire thinke of dream of delight in nothing more almost nothing else but her though millions of choysest delights and felicities both earthly and heavenly present themselves to their enjoyment if they had wit and grace enough to enjoy the same Yet they very foolishly neglect all these and place all their felicity in this weake fraile vaine creature She must be as they say their Mistresse forsooth their life their soule their Angell their Paradise their Goddesse indeed rather their Idoll their every thing Their mouthes hearts eyes eares thoughts are never well but when they are full of her As he that is bit with a mad Dog thinkes all he sees is Dogs so this foolish fond mad Lover thinkes sayes and wishes to heare and see almost nothing else but her and without her he is even all amort and as melancholy as a Cat. They are even as mad of love as if they had eaten Hemlockes and wanted Helebore and in this madnesse so blinded they are and deluded as to thinke their Mistresses the most beautifull lovely sweet amiable neat fine witty wise and the onely Paragon of their Sexe when in the eyes of others that are not so mad blinde and deluded there is no such matter but rather they see them perhaps very homely however vaine fraile and perchance unworthy things And yet these brainsicke Inamoratoes will say and thinke forsooth that they are sweeter than all the severall or compounded flowers and perfumes fairer and brighter than Lillies Ivory Glasse Silver Gold Pearles Stars Moone Sunne Angels yea even as heaven it selfe All these are but thought on and brought to expresse and delineate her All former and all other beauties â—hat ever the world could or now can shew all the Nymphs Graces and Goddesses must stand behinde hold the Candle to and waite upon her beauties worth c. Also to thinke how servile and slavish they are to their Mistresses even as if they were their drudges lackeyes bondmen they will refuse no labour no toile saying they will goe as farre as Jericho and grand-Caire or to the worlds end for their sakes undertake as great adventures as all the Knights Errants suffer all perils fight with all opposites doe wonders for her sake Yea and as Dido for Aeneas Piramus with Thisbe that they will even die for their sakes And also to consider how they plunge themselves into a multitude of biting cares feares suspitions perturbations discontents jealousies and sorrows how they pine languish looke pale leane anâ— how they doe even neglect and spoilâ— themselves Yea how that many havâ— run into fowle errors flatteries crimes immodest prankes impudency slanders detractions treacheries enmities hatred malice envy cruelty bloodshed murders and madnesse for love And here perchance I also may bee taxed of folly for writing this Love-discourse Well since I am in a humour and in a Section to write of the folly and vanity of Love I would if I thought it would doe any good confesse it I know some very wise men indeed have confessed it to be a folly to love and to write thereof c. As one of the most famous of them saith in one of his Poems D. I. Donne I am two fooles I know For loving aad for saying so In whining Poetry But where 's that wise man that would not be I If she would not deny c. And perchance Momus will say that I am a third foole also that is in Print and here Momus shewes his discretion chusing to be perchance a Cobler or a foole in Love rather privately than What doe you thinke that I le be so disgracd Quoth Momus as to go beyond my Last No no said he It is not my intent To shew my selfe to be a foole in Print He is perhaps so sottish or braine-sick as not to be capable of such an heroicall quickning and delightfull temper as true love yet it is like he can be foolishly fond talke baudily and doe worse then he talkes but leaving Momus againe to his carping fretting pining folly I returne and proceed The truth is that lawfull true love is good and commendable and it is only an over-fond unfit or undue Love that I write against in this Section We may plainly see the difference if we be wise for from the one proceedeth as hath been said a multitude of good blessed pleasant and happy effects and from the other as hath also been shewed commeth a multitude of evils sorrows strange dotages and miseries Insomuch as me thinkes I could willingly againe write of the vanity and folly of this over-sottish and fond love though I have been so long already It is a vehement passion and perturbation of the minde
ends they endeavour to possesse one another that change and variety is good though indeed it carries away the minde from all goodnesse and true love and so divides and cloies it that it hinders all true and most delightfull pleasures in love and is often an occasion of shame and of divers diseases alwaies of sadnesse repentance or greater mischiefs but these things are not talked of or perhaps scoft at till by wofull experience they finde and feele them But these inducements to unlawfull lusts and whoring they think are no faults but fine devices and mirth while they speake but over the fields and under the Rose as by the names of trickes of youth playing with Mistresses grafting of hornes Cuckoldmaking and the like fine words which they often use and leave out adultery whoring knaving and such words as being too plaine too grosse and spoiling all the mirth though yet there be some impudent brazen-faced dissolute knaves that over their pots and among their Companions will even bragge of and glory in their Whoring and wickednesse Let us now briefly view the miseries of such unlawfull Lusts and Whoring The same often causeth to the bodies of many men loathsome diseases as Pox Gout Sciatica Convulsions Aches and divers others It usually causeth dulnesse and weaknesse Whoredome takes away the heart Hos 4.11 and often shortens life Clorus having done Floreta's work she said I make no question Sir but you are paid And he was paid indeed but to his cost Paid with a Pox he was his life he lost By reason of this unlawfvll Lusting Whoring and Knaving many men consume their estates in Feasts Banquets Revelling Pride and Gifts thinking therby to seeme magnificent and please their Minions who when they have emptied their Purses and as the Divell serves Witches suckt away their best blood they leave them to poverty want shame and misery These Lusts and Whoring have also in all Ages beene occasion of much jealousies strife dissention disturbance and subversion of multitudes of persons families townes and kingdoms The same hath bin the ruine of strong men as Sampson of wise men as Solomon of Priests as Helies sonnes of Elders as in the story of Susanna Histories are very full of Examples in this kinde as of Caracalla the Emperour Childericke the first of that name King of France Teundezillus King of Spaine Redoaldus King of Lombardy Mulleasses King of Thunis Abusahid King of Fesse and his sixe sonnes of Tarquin Antonius Cleopatra Appius Claudius Alexander Medices Duke of Florence Galleatius Duke of Millaine Peter Lewis Duke of Placentia Ione Queen of Naples and others innumerable The same was an occasion of the destruction of the old World of Sodome Gomorrah of the Sychemites of Troy of Persepolis of Spain in the Raign of King Rodericke and of many other Townes and Countries From this root of unlawfull Lusts springeth also to the soule of man a multitude of Evils and Miseries such as commonly attend fornications Adulteries Incests Rapes and the like From hence commeth Cares Feares Jealousies Perplexities Enmities Contention hatred heartburnings Paines Sadnesse Dulnesse and sometimes fiery dotâ—ge madnesse breach of of Vowes Treacheries Duels and murders are hereby occasioned Shame and Repentance is certainely the end thereof or worse Despaire and everlasting misery without Reconciliation to God through Christ our Saviour Thus it appeares though these unlawfull Lusts may seeme to promise much as the Harlot did to the young Man to take their fill of Love Prov. 7.18 Yet this filling proves but emptinesse or rather fils the heart full of Evill Sorrow and misery The same brings forth but a Wind-egge a Moone Calfe some imperfect Embrio or Monstrous Birth as Shame Melancholy Sorrow Diseases Misery and perchance Ruine both of Body and Soule for an Whore is a deepe ditch c. Prov. 23.7 and 22.14 And hee that goeth after her goeth as an Oxe to the slaughter as a Foole to the Stockes and till a Dart strike through his Liver c. Pro. 7.22 23. So though the same seemeth to be pleasant as Honey and Oyle at first yet the end is bitter as Wormewood and sharpe as a two edged Sword saith King Solomon Prov. 5.4 and her house is the way to death and hell verse 5. and chap. 7.27 Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge Hebr. 13.4 and will be a swift witnesse against them Mal. 3.5 Reade also Prov. 6.32 33. Iob 31.12 1 Pet. 2.11 1 Cor. 6.15 1 Thess 4.3 and Col. 3.5 The serious Consideration of all these evils and miseries may justly cause men speedily to repent amend and for ever greatly hate and endevour to avoyd such unlawfull Lusts You Courtiers and others who thinke it a trimme peece of glory to get a Mistresse and a Ladies favour forsooth you who esteeme and call your Minions or Whores divine and caelestiall names and would like Adam give Paradise if you had it for an Apple venture heaven to satisfie your base and unlawfull Lusts you that adore these Victimes and thinke your selves most happy when you can tempt the chastity of these female creatures and overcome them to your Lusts what doe you but with Ixion embrace a cloude for Iuno What doe you enjoy and adore but a Crust full of Corruption that must shortly rot and turne to Putrifaction What a thing is this a peece of Clay quickned with life adores a Snowy dunghill but there shall come a time when the crust of your pleasures shall be broken and you shall see what shame griefe dulnesse aches diseases evils and miseries lies within what have you done but acted the Devils stratagems which he hath taught you Thinke what horror you shall suffer at the day of judgement unlesse you repent and amend Other Remedies usually prescribed against these unlawfull Lusts are A moderate coole dry and sparing diet fasting prayer continuall action in some good businesse or imployments and to be alwayes studying contemplating or thinking of other good matters especially of heavenly things But one of the best and most usuall Remedies for such as are of an unruly temper is lawfull Conjugall Love and Marriage for such desires should be contained in the chaste breast of one Companion onely and that in the way of Marriage Who doth otherwise transgresses the Lawes of God of Nature of Nations of Families and of Justice Hee breaketh faith trust and constancy brings in uncertainties jealousies discontents and as hath beene shew'd a multitude of evils and miseries Let therefore married men endeavour to love their Wives as much as they can and let Batchelours if they may marry such as from their hearts they can truely Love for true Lovers as I conceive may take more pleasure in the enjoying one another then if they might possesse the Love and society of as many Minions and beauties as they can desire in the world for why diversity of Loves as in objects to the sight hinder intire and true pleasure in any And wee know that one dainty
dish most pleasing to our Palate is more delightfull than abundance which cloyes our eyes and stomacke I shall now endeavour briefly to perswade such as may conveniently though a single life be otherwise to be preferr'd before it to this honourable and blessed estate of Marriage Marriage saith one filleth the world with men and heaven with Saints It hath alwayes beene confest by all reasonable men That a Consonant Marriage such as when both parties be equally matcht in respect of yeres birth constitution and fortunes and especially of loving kinde wise constant and good conditions such as live together like Abraham and Sarah Isaack and Rebecca Petus and Aria Seneca and Paulina Cato and Portia Rubenus Celar and his Ennea and the rest of those who are recorded as true and happy Lovers is even an earthly Paradise of Happinesse And no man can justly blame such marriages unto which the Lawes both divine and humane exhort Nature provoketh Honesty draweth all Nations approve of aboundance of felicity inviteth and necessity of continuing mankind constraineth If all men should live unmarried an hundred yeeres the world would be unpeopled and this alone may excuse and commend such men who like of Marriage better then single life since the one turnes to desolation and the other to encreasing of Mankinde The Grecians the Romans did and the Spaniards do in honour of Marriage give priviledges thereunto Marriage is honourable among all men Saint Paul saith Among Christians Iewes Turkes Pagans and why not among Fryers and Jesuites too if they be men in praise of which ordnance of God and men the pennes of many Authors in all Ages have beene exercised yea of the Papists themselves who make it a Sacrament and yet forbid the same to their Priests The best most learned Philosophers have praised and used the same as Socrates Plato Aristotle Seneca Plutarch and divers others Though there be many enemies to the name of marriage yet few to the use of it He was made imperfect that is not tending to propagation He that is perfect and marries not is said to be guilty of a contempt against Nature and Justice And why should any man thinke that God is pleased with that rigid inhibition of Marriage among the Papists which crosseth the current of Nature and his owne ordination It is the doctrine of Devils to forbid marriage 1 Tim 4.1 3. Some thinke the best chastity is Matrimoniall or Conjugall Chastity when Paires keep themselves in a moderate intermutuall enjoyance one constant to the other And though as hath beene said a contemplative divine spirit can overcome Nature and contemne the greatest earthly joy and pleasure in comparison of heavenly delights and take great pleasure in such contempt Yet all men have not this divine grace of Continency And looking downewards againe we may consider that we have bodies as well as soules which require due and convenient recreations And though as Saint Paul well observed Marriage hindereth a heavenly contemplative life in respect of care and other disturbances yet in respect of all these forenamed considerations and many other it is good to marry though better to live single if we burne not and if we have divine grace enough to live continent Whoso findeth a Wife saith King Solomon surely he meaneth a good Wife findeth a good thing and obtaineth favour of the Lord Prov. 18.22 And since this Conjugall or Marriage society is ordained and blessed of God in Paradise in the state of perfection approved of and commended by Christ when he was on earth and since by his Apostles and Saints and is said to be honourable among all men A remedy against fornication and unlawfull Lusts a resemblance and figure betweene Christ and his Church An uniting of two into one flesh and as some affirme into one spirit also saying that the spirits of true Lovers doe passe one into another so as Saint Peter adviseth them and us they may be of one mind 1 Pet. 3.8 and since it is the sweetest and nearest relation of Love friendship and society the occasion and encrease of children families and all Mankinde it cannot be deni'd but it is good to marry especially for such whose bodies and mindes doe sympathize and who are both of loving and good conditions From such a marriage as hath beene dilated springeth the best and pleasantest delights and felicities of this life To conclude then let us wish all joy to such happy Lovers Let all the Muses sing the most delightful strains and all the Graces dance the choysest Rounde layes at their Wedding Let all pleasantnesse Love and Joy dwell in their hearts And as their yeares so may their love and joy increase that in after times they may say This is the twentieth or thirtieth yeare of our joy And let them still take King Solomons counsell Rejoyce with the Wife of thy youth let her be unto thee as the loving Hinde and pleasant Roe c. Pro. 5.19 SECTION V. The good use of Conjugall Love and so concluding with a briefe Discourse of Divine Love SVch men who use these externall Felicities of the World as this of Conjugall or Marriage Love to the glory of God and to good ends with moderate delectation are better to be reputed then they who unduly inconsiderately rashly inconveniently and superstitiously as some Monks and others doe neglect and refuse such a good which God himselfe freely offers and commends to our acceptance and the rather since these externall Pleasures and earthly blessings may serve to many excellent uses stirring us up to all duties of Piety to the Love of God to joy in him to thankfulnesse and so in all respects to his praise and glory But the principall good use of this Conjugall or Marriage Love and the felicities thereof which I shall now insist upon is That by viewing and enjoying such pleasures and felicities of the Earth we may looke higher to their fountaine contemplating the Love Lovelinesse Beauty sweetnesse and excellency of the Creator and giver of these who is infinitely more excelling And so to conclude this division with this Section of Divine Love a Subject requiring our purest and most Angelicall attention and affection True it is that all other excellencies are but dung and drosse in respect of God yet by and through these lower Loves delights and felicities of the Earth these little glimmering Rayes proceeding from that Sunne of Glory God himselfe wee may espie some light of him and of that eternall Love Beauty Glory and happinesse which we pretend hereafter to enjoy and so in some measure spell and spie Heaven from the Earth Neither ought wee to disdaine to make such comparisons between corporeal spiritual things between Earth y 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 be allured to the acquist of great and excellent matters by such toyes and trifles as they apprehend so
in respect of our weak apprehension such comparisons and similitudes are and ought to be 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 the good use of these our dimme eies may see the cleerer into heavenly Excellencies and consequently be the more enamour'd of them and so stirred up to seeke and enjoy them And in this respect of Conjugall Love the sacred Scripture gives us many and faire examples As in divers places thereof Christ and his Church are compared to Lovers betrothed and to be married together And the Church is called the Bride the Lambes wife Rev. 21.9 and the end of the world is called their Marriage day Rev. 19.17 S. Iohn Baptist calleth Christ the Bridegroom his Chur the bride Ioh. 3.29 And Christ calleth himself the Bridegroome Marke 3. That song of songs betweene two Lovers betrothed each to other is by the consent of all Divines a most pleasant Love-song between Christ and his Church I might instance in many other places What remaines then but that from this earthly we looke up seeke and enjoy that fountaine and essence of all love lovelinesse beauty sweetnesse and excellency which is infinitely more loving lovely sweet excellent and permanent than all the other beauties delights and excellencies of the world if they were all united together If we could truly thinke what God is how lovely beautifull glorious and in all respects infinitely excellent our hearts would presently be filled with love and admiration of him insomuch as then we should settle our dearest thoughts on him and in his love we should be 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 excels the beauty and glory of the Sun Moone Stars Angels heaven or what is most excellent when therefore we see the most inchanting beauty and lovelinesse the world can shew us let us thinke there is yet infinitely more beauty and lovelinesse in God the Creator and fountaine of this Let us endeavour to see a kinde of infinitely higher purer amiable divine and heavenly perfection even through the frailty of a face Who would not gaze himselfe into admiration when he shall see so rich a treasure as Vertue and divine Grace dwell in so pure a Cabinet as a lovely beauty or countenance If such beauty and glory can dwell with corruption what excellencies are in the Saints above Oh if there be such beauty lovelinesse and pleasure in a creature as that it hath such power to draw thereunto the eyes eares and affections of such as behold and consider it how much more beautifull and lovely is God himselfe who is the Ocean from which these and all other excellencies spring How should this divine beauty of God attract our desires and inflame us with love and joy Me thinkes I cannot leave this so pleasing lovely divine subject therefore yet againe If we so much endeavour and be so much affected with the comelinesse of creatures how should we be rapt at the admirable glorious beauty and lustre of God himselfe Even the brightest loveliest beauty on earth what is it but a very little derivative from that infinitely perfect and primitive beauty which is God but a sparke from that infinite fire A glimpse from that sun And if this little image and Idea of beauty which is but corporall and externall so delight us Oh could we view and contemplate that infinitely pure and perfect beauty in God How sweetly and necessarily should we as the Angels love him and be delighted therewith Yea if with S. Peter we could truly espie but one Ray thereof We should indeed say It is good for us to be here and greatly desire to build Tabernacles and dwell where we might ever behold such beauty such glory such happinesse Also when we consider how our selves and all true lovers freely and gladly offer love to one another though we be but earthly creatures Oh let us thinke how freely God himselfe offers love to us and how gladly we should embrace his love and as far as we can love him againe He offers his love most freely indeed to such as will accept the same For Wisedome cries out in the streets c. Prov. 8. How lovingly doth he invite us to come into his faire Garden to eate and drinke with him to be merry and to enjoy his presence for ever Cant. 5. c. Oh what love is this The infinitely glorious King of heaven most freely offers infinite love to infinitely sinfull and miserable beggars on earth so God offers love to man Oh let not us be so infinitely blinde foolish and wretched as to refuse the same but let us embrace it with most eager swift flaming desires and affections and let us wholly dedicate our loves and our selves to him Let us love nothing else but so as it may encrease our thankfulnesse and love to him our joy and glory in him and as it may please and glorifie him Let us deny our selves and already endeavour to goe out of our selves to live above our selves with him even a life heavenly on earth Let us so poure forth our soules into God and insoul our selves into him as that his divine love and joy yea himselfe may wholly possesse us and the rather since he loves us so freely Hos 14.4 and with an everlasting love Ier. 31.3 When a foule is once thus possest with the beauty lovelinesse and free love of God to it it will be often thinking of him often mounting up to heaven as a vapour exhaled by that Sun of Glory often gliding after its love being so attracted by the allurements of his most amiable faire divine beauty and lovelinesse and also the most free love and assistance of God himselfe Insomuch as it will be enlightened with glorious thoughts high apprehensions ardent affections and heavenly joyes in him For hee drawes us with the bands of love Hos 11.4 Yet further of this most excellent and heavenly subject which we may the rather remember and contemplate when we have considered the great love of true lovers and what they will suffer for one anothers sakes But then oh to thinke of the infinite love of God to us which infinitely transcends that of humane lovers to consider that this infinite glorious God should send his only Son a part of himselfe to redeeme and glorifie us who have so offended him that this part of himselfe this very God our Saviour Jesus Christ should unvaile himselfe of all his glory come to live on earth and suffer so much such a death for such miserable wretches as we are when we were his enemies to deliver us from death hell and all misery and to merit for us heaven and all felicity it is sufficient to make us overcome and with S. Ignatius even to weep
with love and joy to think that our Love was crucified for us See what a Vertue is in the Passion of our Saviour that if our soules in Contemplation of his wounds should resent the smart yet knowing that he suffered all this most willingly to make us happy it is enough to make us even swoune with love and joy and be extasied with a thousand sorts of pleasures insomuch as to be willing even with sweetest joy to die of love for his sake Oh Lord what are we that thou shouldst daigne to accept our love but that thou shouldest so desire it at such a rate as thy heart blood is a miracle of mercy far beyond all humane and angelicall apprehension who unlesse a devill or a blinde ignorant worldling will not greatly thanke thee and love thee who hast and doest so infinitely merit the same and the rather also since who truly loves thee shall for thy sake and by thy sufferings and merits enjoy infinite heavenly happinesse and may in some degree taste thereof even on earth Lord teach us a language wholly divine and heavenly to thank thee for such Love O love the Lord all ye his Saints Moreover when we thinke how lovers sweet discourses please one another let us then also contemplate our soules sweet conversation discourses and soliloquies with our beloved God and Saviour Oh how our soules may be inflamed with divine love and joy when wee contemplate these most sweet and pleasant words of our beloved calling us his Sister his Spouse his Love his Dove c. and saying thou art all faire my Love there is no spot in thee Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes c. Cant. 4. And my beloved is the fairest among women the chiefest among ten thousand looking forth as the morning faire as the Moone pure as the Sun c. Cant. 5. That she is a Kings daughter As a Queene in a vesture of Gold of Ophir embroidered raiment of needle worke that the King might take pleasure in her beauty Psal 45. Clothed with the white raiment the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ crowned and enriched with his tryed and purified Gold his heavenly graces Rev. 3. O how the sweet harmonious accents of these words do ravish the spirits and powerfully attract the hearts of all those thereunto who are able truly but to heare the Eccho of them and to perceive the sweetness thereof Insomuch as they are ready to borrow wings on all sides and to flie out of themselves that they may be wholly possest with the love and joy of their Saviour Let us then feelingly speake to our beloved in the same language that he speakes to us then which indeed can be no better no sweeter Come then my beloved Kisse me with the kisses of thy mouth for thy love is better then wine Draw me and I will runne after thee Shew me Oh thou whom my soule loveth where thou feedest and where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon Can. 1.2 4 7. Stay me with thy Flagons and comfort me with Apples for I am sicke of Love Cant. 2.5 Come my Beloved let us goe forth into the fields let us lodge in the villages let us get up early to the vineyards let us see if the Vine flourish whether the tender Grape appeare and the Pomegranate bud forth There will I give thee my Love Cant. 7.11 12. Set me as a Seale on thine heart and as a Signet on thine arme for Love is as strong as death it is a fire a vehement flame many waters cannot quench Love and the floods cannot drowne it c. Cant. 8.6 7. Let us also endevour to be perswaded with Saint Paul that neither life nor death nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come c. shall ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is in CHRIST Romans chap. 8. verse 38. True Love suffers not for the subject which it loves It hath a power in it to change the nature of things From the time that a soule is chastly taken with this passion even the pains torments thereof are changing the name and quality within the heart They are Roses rather then Thornes for if it sigh it is of Joy and not of paine If it be necessary to die for the glory of this lovely cause of it's life it is no death to it but a meere Rap't of Contentment which severs it selfe from it selfe in favour of another selfe whom it loves more then it selfe So that if we were truely capable of the Love Beauty Glory and Excellency of our Saviour though with Saint Lawrence wee should broyle upon devouring flames yet our hearts which would burne more hot with the fire of his love then that of our punishment would quite extinguish the same for our hearts being all a flame already and our soules a fire how could we expire amidst those heates though our bodies were burned to ashes since the stronger must needs prevaile Insomuch as we should fee e the delights of heaven in the fire whereof wee should make our selves a crowne of glory It seemes also Policarpus Master Glover Master Sanders and others both Primitive and Queene Maryan Martyrs were so warmed with those truely Promethean fires of divine Love as exhilarated their soules with heavenly delights at the stake in the fire So let us endevour to be baptized with the baptisme of the fire of Heavenly Love and Joy And then how willingly and delightfully shall we suffer all the tribulations we meet with for his sake whom our soules so divinely love and rejoyce in Jesus Christ Me thinkes I could gladly dwell in this Discourse of Divine Love The more to enflame our Loves to God see how he wooes us unto his Love by very many and gracious Promises of Happinesse in his divine Word to such as Love him Insomuch as all things shall worke to their good Rom. 2.28 But I shall onely mention and conclude with that of Saint Paul 1 Cor. 2.9 Eye hath not seene nor eare heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man those things which God hath prepared for them that love him Thinke then you soules of the World what felicity this is We know the eye hath seene most beautifull lovely and glorious things the eare hath heard rare consorts of Musick Voices The heart of man can imagine worlds of Diamonds more glorious then the Sunne and millions of extreame Pleasures Delights and Felicities What sweet Joy and Pleasure hath the heart of Man imagined of the Orchards of Adonis the Gardens of Hesperides the Delights of the fortunate Islands of the Elizian Fields and Turkes Paradise but let humane Imagination thinke of all these at once And let them imagine also a Quire of Syrens Let them joyne therunto in consort both the Harpe of Orpheus and Voyce of Amphian Let Apollo and all the Muses bee there to beare a part Let all the Graces all the
servants saith God shall eate drinke rejoyce and sing for joy of heart Esa 65.13.14 So then if wee bee Gods servants we may eate and drink with merry hearts for God accepteth our workes Eccles 9.7 This also is good and comely and the gift of God Eccles 2.24 and 3.13.5.18 c. As eating so drinking also is a naturall action and pleasure necessary for the sustentation and reparation of Nature especially the humid parts of the body It preserveth health and helpeth many infirmities And for this purpose S. Paul adviseth Timothy to drink a little wine c. 1. Tim. 3.23 Drinking doth helpe the distribution of food through the body it doth in some sort nourish the body and preserveth life it selfe without which man cannot long well subsist It seemeth to be of as great utility as meate and the want thereof more irkesome and grievous It comforteth the miserable sorrowfull and heavie harted as King Solomon signifieth Prov. 3.23 It is delightfull it cheereth and quickneth the minde Iudges 9.13 It maketh glad the heart of man saith King Davâ—d Psalme 104.15 Encreaseth mirth Eccles 10.19 To speake the same againe Hereby thirst is quenched naturall moysture preserved good digestion of meate caused the spirits quickned and the vigor and welfare both of body and minde maintained and sometimes love and good-fellowship by mutuall pledgings and entertainements is thereby encreased This also may stirre us to praise and love God for such his blessings also to look up to and rejoyce in him their fountain so to search enjoy that Celestiall Nectar that water of eternall life those rivers of pleasures which are to be enjoyed in and with God himselfe for ever Now concerning the abuses of drinking and the extent thereof in this drinking age Our depraved nature finding and espying such delight and benefits in drinking see now a mischiefe is prone to go beyond the good uses thereof into abuses so hindring our selves of the happines which otherwise we might have therein and causing much evill and misery First concerning the manner of these abuses Many young men of hot cholericke and sanguine complexions and such as are of impatient light unsetled wavering and phantasticke conditions will commonly drinke of the strongest stalest wine and beere adding more fuell to their already too hot fires over-heating and inflaming their bodies spirits making themselves more hot cholericke impatient phantasticke idle c. Some grosse fat men will usually drinke sweete muddy thicke new wine ale and beëre encreasing their grossenesse and corpulencie And so of the like But our most ordinary and generall fault is wee commonly drinke too much hot and strong wine and drinks It is a most usuall custome when wee meete together to drinke beyond a due measure and proportion And some more then their strength and braines will afford perhaps till they are sick sottish wilde or till they tumble vomit sleepe or the like Others there are yet worse swil-bowles more notable strong-brained drinkers who will swallow whole cups and cans in abundance turne through their guts whole barrels in few dayes as much as would suffice twenty or thirty reasonable men and yet seldome shrinke at it of these ablebrain'd Grand Arch-drinkers of their common ill conditions and how they are more dangerous and worse then weake brain'd drinkers I intend to write in the next Section Also in respect of time both in excesse of time and at unfit times It is common that men will sit drinking five or six houres together in Taverns and tipling-houses yea some whole dayes and nights And the night as if they were in another Horizon to make our night their day many men esteeme the onely time to roare in As for sleepe then which indeed nothing is better for them they seeme to hate it as deaths cater-cozen and cannot afford to spend the night so idely as if God made starres to sleep by So also when t is fit they were about other better and necessary busines and occasions And some make the Lords day of all the dayes in the weeke the especiall day to goe to the tap-house and tipple in and that too as soone as ever they are out of the Church yea many men even in the time of divine service will slide into a Tavern or Alehouse and think they are out of the Devils danger if neither the Priest the Justice the Churchwardens their Parents nor Masters see them Also in respect of mens estimation and affections Divers men love drinke too much even against nature and reason They seeme to esteeme Sacke good liquor and idle tipling devices and courses above all the felicites of the world besides yea above Heaven and God himselfe So as their chiefe happinesse seemes to be little better then the felicity of irrationall creatures a littleshort pleasure in the throate and some other idle fugitive delights the end whereof is commonly melancholy and sorrow and yet how many men doe esteeme it a brave worthy action to drinke stoutly Though in truth a Horse or a Cow may doe as worthy a businesse yet this is the prime boasting and glory of our swill-bowles and pot-gallants They thinke it a victory eveÌ„ worthy a triumph though basely to make another man to use their owne termes foxt flawd fuddl'd payd scowr'd pepper'd potshot slasht casheir'd and the like Now concerning the extent of these drinking abuses divers Greekes as Agamemnon Nestor and Alexander yet in their later dayes onely are in Histories taxed as infamous for abusive drinking Also Romans as Nero Caligula that drinke devouring Bonosus Heliogabulus and others Some ancient writers have taxed the Lydians the Persians the Thracians the Caeltae and the Teutons by whom is meant the Gaules and Germans But in our age these abusive drinking courses doe extend themselves in almost all the Countries of the world among all sorts of people The Dutch men of all others have greatest aspersions laid upon them in this kinde The Transilvanians Wallachians Hungarians and Polanders are said to drinke after the Dutch The Danes Swedes Norwayans and of late yeeres the French also are noted of excessive and riotous drinking yea t is said that abusive drinking is not onely the Epidemicall disease or vice of our English Nation which abounds with an unnecessary company of Tavernes and Tap-houses but of the whole world it selfe These drinking abuses extend themselves in respect of all ages sexes conditions and degrees Some old men who ought to give better examples will to the Taverne tipple and abuse themselves And young men also some by that time they come to three or foure yeeres standing in briches can travell to the Taverne and Tap-house and at sixteene or eighteene yeeres of age they are able to commence Masters in the Art of drinking Some women also will tipple smoke c. These drinking abuses are not only used by the most unworthy and worst sort of men which is common but also by many else wise men of good parts worth
a monster of nature a destroyer of wit and art It often bereaves men of manlinesse of spirit and of divine Graces and makes them sometimes to fall in love even with painted vanities meere outside creatures things empty of goodnesse and composed of pride folly and wickednesse If we love such as have no other beauties but their bodies what do we but love as irrationall creatures doe Reason tels us we love that which the scratch of a pin may deface that which some Physitians say is subject to above three hundred common diseases that which a short time spoiles and disfigures That which is all loathsome within and that which shall be hereafter nothing but putrified and rotten corruption Where is now the faire Helena Cleopatra Arethusa Hero Lucretia Irene Lais Cresida Laurea Corinna Roxane Panthea Leucippe Ariadne Polyxena Lesbia Rosamond and the rest of those admired pieces whom the world hath seemed to adore where is now their beauty and glory They are dead become a sinke of corruption and so gastly as you would be afraid to looke upon them Thinke now you proud dames what Mettle you are made of and let it give a checke to your Pride Flatter not your selves before your glasse you mistresses and madames of the world I meane you who are empty and void of grace and full of pride and wickednesse you that take a pride to subject and charme divers spirits and to bereave them of reason and grace you that study each day new lessons of vanity pride and nicenesse to wound hearts whereby you undoe foules Your body is just of the same temper with the shadow which you see in your glasse you are even as nothing Or if you will that I say you are somthing you are a meere dunghill covered with snow a sinke of infection environed with flowers a rich coffer full of lothsomnesse you are the fraylest and most changeable things in the world I dare hardly eye you any longer for feare while I looke upon you you vanish from my eyes since you are ready to change and to dye every houre Me thinkes I could even laugh at your vanities and mocke at those that admire you so fondly I could willingly turne backe and teare those former Love discourses out of my booke in contempt of your frailties and vanities were it not for their sakes who are indeed true-lovers But for such lovers sakes truly who are not possest with this over-fond and doting affection on the one side Nor with a stupid blockish or peevish Love on the other side such who are indeed vertuous discreet modest loving constant of sweet and gracious conditions I could wish that I were capable to invent such sweet and pleasant Love-straines as might continually fill their hearts with as much joy and delight in each others as can be thought of Let us then endeavour to be such True-Lovers and to all such as to our selves let us wish all happinesse But once more you doting and over-fond Lovers harke yee you that by reason of your unusuall feares sorrowes suspition anxiety dotage neglect melancholy sighes much wakening leane body pale cheekes hollow eyes looke as if you were planet-strucke I pray thinke seriously againe what a fraile peece of earth vanity and corruption 't is that you so foolishly dote upon and 't will make you wiser and may set your heart and soule at quiet in peace But now for some remedies and considerations against discontents after marriage Such men therefore who mistake themselves as many do thinking they take an Angel by the hand at their marriage day in the Church but after finde they have a Scorpion in their house and in their beds for King Solomon saith an evill woman is like a Scorpion So if they should finde and marry some scolding brawling ill conditioned woman yet let them be contented Let them be as wise as they may and consider womens weaknesses and infirmities that if perhaps men had their bodies they would be as fraile and as passionate as women And if women were freed from the frailty of their Sexe they would be as manly and excellent as men And though women have divers naturall infirmities both of body and minde yet a wise man will love his wife not a jot the worse because he knowes the same are naturall But few women are Angels and he that would have a wife without passions must marry when the signe is not in heaven And for this scolding malady this is esteemed a good remedy To be silent and not regard her or rather to smile and laugh at her Also let them with wise Socrates learne the exercises of patience wisdome and many other vertues from their wives maligne conditions But let men see if the fault be not in themselves The reason why many women are so bad is because they have ill husbands Some men as if their wives like Wallnut trees and Stockfish were the better for beating will very unmanly and uncivilly misuse them and that perchance when themselves by reason of their ill courses are justly in all the blame And it is strange to thinke how many crosses and distempers in marriage many men doe make more than they finde They are of such crosse and untoward conditions that if they can finde none yet they will make holes in one anothers coates and pick faults even out of matters of nothing and make little faults great by their foolish aggravations to both their griefe and vexation so living together as two snarling dogs in a paire of couples And by their lewd luxurious foolish churlish brawling indiscreet unconscionable carriage to one another they enjoy no content but rather griefe in their marriages so making that an earthly hell which if they were both wise and good might be a terrestriall Paradise The best remedy then for this is to mend their ill manners and to endeavour to make one another as good as they can Happy are they whose wives are an occasion of their being good 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 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 unkindly and churlishly used are even forced to flye out beyond Reason to become froward contentious jealous discontented and some to turne Queanes even by compulsion Too much liberty and authority on the other side is not fit to bee allow'd them especially to such kinde of Women as love not their owne houses but by reason of too much gadding abroad learne more tricks then bee good who are then onely contented and pleasant and at home nothing but brawle and be commonly sullen froward peevish discontented and of idle lewd conditions Let therefore both men and women endeavour