many To instance breifely in some few of them This Love preserues and encreases mankind in a perpetuall generation and vnites familiar Provinces and Kingdomes It causeth abundance of felicity to such as are indeed true lovers such who live together like Abraham and Sara Isaack Rebecca Paetus and Arica Seneca and his Paulina Rubenus Caelar and his Ennea Cato and his Portia and the rest of those who are regestred in the list of true and happy Lovers It is said there is no pleasure in the world like that of the sweet society of Lovers in the way of marriage and of a loving husband and wife Hee is her head she commands his heart he is her Love her joy she is his honey his Doue his delight They may take sweet councell together assist and comfort one another in all things their joy is doubled and Redoubled By this blessed vnion the number of Parents friends and kindred is increased It may be an occasion of sweet and lovely Children who in after times may bee a great felicity and joy to them And these may remaine as living Pictures to shew their memory from generation to generation Lysippus Mento Polycletus Zeuxis or Parthasius had never the skill to engrave or paint the father and mother neere 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 Nuptiall Love and society sweetens all our Actions discourses all other pleasures felicities and even in all Respects Encreases true Ioy and happinesse SECTION 2. The Miseries of the losse and want of such Love THis blessednesse excellency of love will be the more aparāt if we cōsider the miseries either of the losse of such love before marriage or of the want thereof after marriage It is wonderfull to thinke how many Lovers for want of enjoying their wishes in this kind plunge themselves into a multitude of cares feares sorrowes blindnesse dotage seruitude slavery mischeife and miseries Many men will venture their goods fame lives and as King Iohn for Matilda Crownes if they had them to enioy their Loves Sorrow deiection much waking sighing Neglects Peevishnesse restlesse thoughts brutish attempts want of apperite palenesse and leannesse are common effects and Symptomes of the want of enioying and of the losse of Love And millions of men having lost their Loves for this cause become Melancholly discontented and deiected all their life-time after Many there be saith Zorobabell that have runne out of their wits for women and become servants for their sakes Esdr 4.26 These things are commonly knowne Bedlam hath bin full of examples Many also have perished have erred and sinned for women Esdr 4.26 Examples heereof have bin common in all ages Histories are full of them And how many have wee knowne and heard of in our ages who have consumed away and dyed for want of enioying and loosing their loves yea some for griefe have bin their owne executioners and for this cause have made away themselves And after marriage it is strange to thinke what Iealousies 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 These things have alwayes bin and are so common to all mens view as they need but little disquisition An evill woman saith the wise man makes a sorry countenance and an heavy heart and he had rather dwell with a Lyon then keepe house with such a wife Eccl. 26.27 And he that hath her is as if he held a Scorpion verse 14. SECT III. Of a good choyce in Love BVt that wee may truely love obtaine our loves enjoy them and live well together First let us make a good choyce in Love A good wife is from the Lord saith King Solomon Let us then first goe to him by prayer for such a one and invite Christ to our wedding let us take Saint Pauls counsell to marry onely in him Whatsoever yee doe saith he let all bee done to the praise and glory of God Let Piety and Vertue be the first mover of our affections since therein onely consists true and permanent felicity And no lovers live more pleasantly and happily together then such as are of gracious and vertuous conditions Whereas among such as are of vicious and impious conditions what is to bee seene but strife tumults disorder suspition confusion and misery in the end A vertuous and well given lover is much better to bee esteemed then a fine faire face with ill conditions Let us not then bee so sensuall as to love onely the 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 vnderstanding man appeares to bee a divine essence and to which he mingles his soule in love which if truely thought on will appeare to bee a farre more excellent and permanent love then that of the body and consequently more pleasant So then let us spheare our loves and seeke beauty rather in a mind then in a countenance In the next place after Piety vertue and good conditions it is very good and requisite to looke after corporall and externall respects And as neere as wee may to choose such as are of equall yeeres birth fortunes and degree of good parentage and kindred of such a countenance complexion and constitution as best agrees to our love and disposition Inconsiderate and vnequall marriage are commonly very pernitious and a multitude of mischievous and miserable effects spring from such marriages An old woman is a very unfit and unpleasing companion for a young man and for an old man to dote upon young wenches is very unseemely and hatefull Ecclus 25.26 And commonly much strife suspition jealousie discontents and miseryes ensue such marriages It is a good time as some say for a man to marry betweene fiue twenty yeeres old and thirty and for a woman betweene her age of eighteene and two and twenty That young fine wife of old rich Faelix Plater of Basill beeing married to him against her will for griefe hang'd herself Such as marry foolish light Phantasticke adlepated brainsicke Peeces and of contrary conditions are like to find but peevish jealous froward and untoward things of them If a sound and healthy person marryes one that is diseased and impotent It is like to bee an occasion of much discontent And so in all respects such as marry unequally and unfitly what better successe can they looke for then Vulcan had with Venus Menelaus with Hellen Theseus with Phadra Minos with Pasiphae Claudius with Messalina Suspition Iealousie Strife Shame Sorrow Discontent and Misery Let us then as neere as wee may conveniently choose such as are of fit and equal yeeres birth fortunes degree parentage constitution and of like vertuous and gracious conditions And especially such a one as from our
of hinderances charges cares crosses and annoyances are incident to marryed people what wise men would marry Besides I might to this purpose tell how happily wee Batchellors live without wives How freely securely merrily pleasantly and without controle Saint Paul preferres a single life before marriage and I hope you will beleeve him Yea but saith the married man you had better marry and live honest To answere this Cavill It is observed that Batchellors are as honest as married men for many of them are seldome content with their owne wiues which is a greater shame and evill in them But to let that passe Batchellors can live honest without marrying Such as are of a very unruly temper may use a moderate spare coole and dry kind of dyet and other Physicall Remedies to allay the fire of Lust They can fast pray bee alwayes busy about some good occasions and thinking on good matters But the most excellent Remedy is Divine Contemplation for certainely those Spirits which are truely raysed to the knowledge of divine things and doe well know the Art of heavenly Contemplation are elevated above all the pleasures of the earth in as much as Eternity is above time and infinite felicities above vanities And not being able to find any thing on the Earth worthy of their desires They doe set out their pleasures and their felicities in the Empyrean heaven So as they doe in part tast before hand of the sweetnesse of those pleasures which they pretēd to receive at the end of their life which makes them very graciously to tread vnder foot all the pleasures of the Earth while their soules are in such contemplations directing their Aimes to heaven And while they are in these divine Extasies their Spirits are so strong as they doe overcome their bodies so heavenly as they doe then esteeme the chiefest pleasures of the body as this of carnall desire and love but as dung and drosse in comparison of those more heavenly pleasures which they enjoy in their soules And in such comparison they rejoyce more in Contemning these bodily pleasures and in being above them then in enioying them What need wee care for farthings who may have gold enough But as St. Paul signifies Marriage hinders this heavenly pleasure He that is marryed saith he careth for the things that are of the world how hee may please his wife And certainely there bee many married men in the world if they did but truely know the Excellency of such a contemplatiue heavenly life and and did seriously consider how freely and ioyfully wee Batchellors may life They would even runne through fire and water to bee so happy But now least marryed men should bee too much displeased let them know or thinke That wee Batchellors when wee speake against marryed men meane onely of vnfit and ill marriages Such as that of Spungius and Philtra They would sweare curse quarrell fight c. Let such bee alwayes scoft at and remaine miserable till they mend their manners And least Batchellors should bee too averse from marriage And such as loose their first Love should forbeare a second choice which alwayes drownes the Love of the former in oblivion and is the best remedy against Loves losse for heere they may find it againe in another Let us still say as Saint Paul saith That marriage is honourable in all men and that it is good to marry though for such as can containe themselves better to live single And that a Consonant Equall and fit maariage when both parties bee loving kind wise constant and of good conditions is a Terrestriall Paradise and from thence as hath bin dilated proceedeth a marvailous deale of happy and blessed effects SECT XI Remedies against an over-sottish and doting Love HAving formerly viewed and seeing the excellency of Lawfull Love and the many sweet and blessed effects springing from thence Let us take heed that wee doe not as many men in the world have done plunge our selves beyond the bound-markes of Reason and discretion into an over-sottish and doting affection Many other wise famous and wise men as Sampson David Solomon Hercules Socrates and many others Have not uniustly bin taxed of folly and indiscretion in this matter And the Poets faine that Iupiter himselfe was turned into a Golden showre A Bull A Swan A Satyre A Shepherd and cōmitted many grosse dotages for Love For Remedies whereof and to the intent that wee may bee contented if wee cannot enjoy our wishes And that if wee doe Enjoy our Love and desires the same may not hinder us from seeking and enjoying Divine beauty and pleasures which are infinitly better Let us also view the vanity and insufficiency of this Externall Lovelinesse and beauty which is the object of our Love in this kind It is altogether vaine and uncertaine Sicknesse care griefe The scratch of a Pin The Sunne or any thing may deface it It ofttimes prooves dangerous makes us forget God bereaves us of grace and of divine pleasures And is many times an occasion of unlawfull Lusts and the miseries thereof And many men by reason heereof in spight of friends parents credite and fortunes have bin wilfully and foolishly carried away to shame disgrace misery So that immoderate ouer-sottish Love is no more a vertuous habit but a vehement passion and perturbation of the mind A Monster of nature a destroyer of wit and Art This externall Lovelinesse and beauty sometimes bereaves us of all manlinesse of Spirit dejects our otherwise Nobler thoughts to vanities and toyes Insomuch that heereby wee are sometimes ready to become foolish doting weake brainsicke Inamoratoes and sometimes to fall in Love even with painted vanityes meere out-side Creatures Things Empty of vertue and grace And composed of Pride Vanity and wickednesse If wee Love such as have no other beauties but their bodies what doe wee but love as irrationall creatures doe Reason tell us wee love that which a Pin may alter That which is subject to above 300 severall diseases That which is all loathsome within And that which shall bee nothing heereafter but putrified and Rotten Corruption And yet many of us forsooth are no wiser then to fall in Love with such creatures of meere vanity and corruption quite depriving our selves of Reason comparing their eyes to Starres thinking them the onely wonders of the world and telling them they are like Angels divine creatures And what is most excellent and so even Idolatrize to these creatures of earth and vanity You Courtiers and others who thinke it a trimme peece of glory to get a Mistresse and a Ladyes favour forsooth you who esteeme and call your Minnions Goddesses and divine creatures And would like Adam give Paradise if you had it for an Apple and venture heaven to satisfie your base and vnlawfull Lusts you that adore these Victimes and think your selves most happy when you can tempt the Pudicity of these female creatures and overcome them to your Lusts what doe you but act the Devils
Love of God to it As that this infinite glorious God should send his onely Sonne a part of himselfe to redeeme and glorifie us That this part of himselfe This very God our Saviour Iesus Christ should vnvaile himselfe of all his glory come to live on Earth and suffer so much such a Death for such miserable wretches as wee are when wee were his enemyes to deliver us from Death Hell and all misery and to merrit for us Heaven and all felicity why then it is even overcome and with Saint Ignatius even weepes with Love and joy to thinke that his love was crucified for him Lord teach us a language wholly divine to thanke thee for such Love See what a vertue is in the passion of our Saviour that if our soules in Contemplation of his wounds should ressent the smart yet knowing that he suffered all this most willingly to make us happy It is enough to make us even swoune with Ioy and Love and bee extazied with a thousand sorts of pleasures Insomuch as wee should willingly dye of Love and joy for his sake Moreover when the Soule thinkes how her Saviour loves her it is enough to fill her with sweetest ioy and pleasure O! how shee is inflamed with Love when shee contemplates those sweete words of her beloved calling her his sister his spouse his Love his Dove his vndefiled 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 tenne thousand Looking forth as the morning faire as the Moone pure as the Sun c. Cant. 5. That shee is a Kings daughter As a Queene in a vesture of Gold of Ophir embroydred Rayment of Needle worke that the King might take pleasure in her Beauty Psal 45. O! how the sweet harmonious accents of these words doe ravish the Spirits and powerfully attract the hearts of all those unto him that are able truely but to heare the Eccho of them and to perceive the sweetnesse thereof Insomuch that they are ready to borrow wings on all sides to flye out of themselves that they may bee wholly possest with the Love and Ioy of their Saviour Let us then feelingly speake to our Beloved in the same language which hee speakes to us Then which indeed can be no better no sweeter Come then my Beloved Kisse mee with the kisses of thy mouth for thy Love is better then Wine Draw me and I will runne after thee Shew mee O thou whom my Soule loveth where thou feedest and where thou makest thy flocke to rest at noone Cant. 1 2 4 7. Stay mee with thy flagons and comfort mee with apples for I am sicke oâ— Love Cant 2.5 Come my beloved let us goe foorth 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 Pomgranate bud foorth There will I giue thee my Love Cant. 7.11.12 Set mee as a seale of thine heart and as a signet on thine Arme For Love is as strong as death It is as a fire a vehement flame many waters cannot quench Love and the flouds cannot drowne it c. Cant. 8.6.7 I am perswaded saith Saint Paul That neither life nor death nor Angells nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall bee able to seperate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Rom. 8.38 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 paines and torments thereof are changing the name and quality within the Heart They are Roses rather then Thornes For if it sigh it is of Ioy and not of paine if it bee necessary to dye for the glory of this Lovely cause of its life It is no death to it but a meere Rapt of Contentment which severs it selfe from it selfe in Love of another selfe whom it Loves more then it selfe So that if wee were truely capable of the Love Beauty Glory and excellency of our Saviour Though with Saint Lawrence wee should broyle uppon 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 aflame already and our soules afire how could wee expire amidst those heates though our bodyes were burned to ashes since the stronger must needs prevaile Insomuch as wee should feele the delights of Heaven in the fire whereof we should make our selves a Crowne of glory Though wee cannot attaine to such an height of Love and Ioy yet let us endeavour to love as much as wee can For GOD who alwayes accepteth the will for the deed will lovingly accept of our good wishes and Endeavours And his Power is made perfect in our Infirmities as St. Paul sayth And the more to inflame our loue to GOD. Many gracious and glorious Promises are registred in his Divine word to such as Love him I shall onely mention and Conclude with that of Saint PAVL 1 Corinth 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 Spirits of the world what Felicitie this is Wee know the Eye hath seene most Beautifull Lovely and glorious things The Eare hath heard rare Consorts of Musicke and voyces What sweet Ioy 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 assemble in one Subject whatsoever is most Beautifull and delicious in Nature Let them imagine a Quire of Syrens and let them joyne thereto in Consort both the Harpe of Orpheus and the voyce of Amphion Let Apollo and the Muses bee there to beare a Part And let them search within the Power of Nature all the extreame Pleasures which it hath produced in the world hitherto to charme our Senses and to ravish our Spirits Yet all these are but meere Chymeraes and as a vaine Idaea A meere Shadow of a body of pleasure in Comparison of those Divine thoughts and pleasures which the Saints may and shall enjoy in the Contemplation of GOD and 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 bee Composed of mutterably Glories Crownes Kingdomes Divine visions Heavenly exultations of Spirit and of extreame ioyes pleasures and felicities It is impossible to expresse the pleasures of a heavenly Soule The Contentments thereof are not to bee so called Its sweetnesse hath another name Its Extasies and Ravishments cannot bee vttered Saint Paul himselfe could not expresse the same Hee could not tell whether hee were in his body or no Insomuch as the heart that feeles them cannot comprehend them Truely therefore doth Saint Paul say That such pleasures have not entred into the heart of man This seemes to bee a Riddle Not Entred into the heart of man how can man enioy it then Indeed hee must bee aboue a naturall Man Aboue himselfe that enioyes such pleasures Hee must bee Partaker of the Divine nature of a Superhumane and Heavenly temper All Grace is aboue nature And if by reason of our frailties and infirmities wee cannot attaine to such a height of Love to and joy in God in this life yet if wee indeavour truely for this grace to Love and serve him who alwayes accepts our true Endeavours and desires and perfects our weaknesse by his power There shall come a time when wee shall see GOD as hee 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 sayth 1. Iohn 3.2 In such sort as fire by uniting it selfe to yron by an exceeding and extreame heate doth purifie the yron 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 vnites and takes the soule into his owne divine nature And this fire which shall so vnite us to God is divine Love For as God is a consuming fire to his Enemies So is hee a fire of Love to his friends And then wee shall have a new being and a new Name That is of our Spouse of our Beloved of GOD himselfe For hereby the Soule becomes a Part of GOD and with him and in him enjoyes all Happinesse So as now it may be sayd to be no more a Soule but GOD himselfe To conclude Let us then fervently wish and long for this time which shall bee at the Marriage of the Kings Sonne to which the Angels shall invite us Then shall wee Celebrate an Everlasting wedding Feast yea our Soules shall bee the Bride and Love shall be the Banner over us And then shall we possesse and enjoy infinite pleasures and felicities for ever FINIS Jmprimatur THO WYKES Decemb 7. 1637.
THE LOVER or A Discourse of NUPTIALL LOVE Written by Robert Crosts To please himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Virgil. Ecloga 10. Omnia Vincit amor nos cedamus amori Boetius metro 8. lib 2. Hic coniugij sacrum Castis nectit amoribê° Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit vtile dulci 〈…〉 W. Marshall sculp THE LOVER OR NVPTIALL LOVE WRITTEN by Robert Crofts To please himselfe LONDON Printed by B. Alsop and T.F. for Rich Meighen next to the middle Temple in Fleet-street 1638. TO THE READER COurteous Reader if you aske mee to what intent I publish this Treatise I may answer to please you A well resolved man cannot please himselfe but hee desires to please others also and endeavours in all good wayes so to doe And I am not out of hope but that this discourse wil profit some men also since I have made use of many and divers Authors in the composing thereof But I have endeavoured to digest the same into such a new manner method stile and forme as was most pleasing to my selfe adding therevnto such Inventions Raptures observations Poems Alterations experiments as met with my meditations so as the Treatise may seeme and bee even as pleasing as if it were all new Which to doe oft times requires wel nigh as much Art as wholly the Invention of new matters It is true I know the world is cloyd with bookes and many there bee perhaps more then needs of this subject but this is a breife and Compendious discourse and therefore I hope will neither cloy the world or the Reader It was written for Recreation amidst more serious occasions and so I desire it may be read I know there be many malicious envious male contented and maligne Spirits in the world who will pine greive and grudge at the prosperity and pleasures of True-lovers as they doe at all happinesse and that there bee many carping Readers who vsually read all especially pleasing bookes in a sneaking manner and endeavor to find nothing so much as faults and by their jugling and cunning art of detraction can make one or a few faults seeme to devoure a multitude of good Actions endeavouring nothing so much as to discourage and hinder all good pleasant and happy waies But for the censure of such men I shall endeavor not to regard or else to contemn them Yet truely I shall thinke my selfe much obliged to such as in good will shall tell me of my faults Errors Ignorances and negligences However knowing that all things in the world are imperfect it shall suffise to please my selfe that I have done as well as I could for the present time But I had not so easily nor so soone bin perswaded to be a foole in Print as the proverb goes and as the Carping and barking Reader is especially like to say if I had not had some enemies aswel as many frieÌ„ds who have provoked me rather to be ceÌ„sured by many then abused by a few But if I did not thinke and hope that this discourse would be pleasant profitable to some in reading as it hath bin to me in writing if that I had not bin greatly encouraged herein by many men I should still have bin content to have suffered the aspersion of a Pocket Author ashamed to shew himselfe abroad fearing to be a foole in Print Farewell The Contents THe first Section treateth of the Excellency of Nuptiall Love The II of the miseries of the losse and want of such Love Section III. of a good choyce in Love IV How to Enjoy our wishes please our Lovers and encrease Love V The Art of Love discourse VI An instance in this Art concerning Loves Excellency VII Shewing further the vse of this Art of discourse VIII Shewing breifely how to attaine the same IX Answeres to some obiections X Remedies against the losse of Love XI Remedies against an oversottish and doting Love XII Remedies against vnlawfull Lusts XIII Remedies against discontents after marriage XIIII A breife perswasion to marriage XV The good use of this Nuptiall Love and so concluding with a breife discourse of Divine Love THE LOVER OR A Compendious Discourse of Nuptiall Love SECTION 1. Of the Excellency thereof THe Difinition Divisions Pedigree kinds object causes symptomes and effects of this subject Nuptiall Love hath exercised the pen of many and divers Authors they are Common and well knowne I shall therefore begin with the excellency thereof The Excellency of this marriage Love may first appeare by the Author thereof which is God himselfe In the beginning of the World the Lord God said it is not good that man should bee alone I will make an helpe meet for him Gen. 2.18 Our Saviour saith from the beginning of the Creation 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 Mark 10.7 Mat. 19. And in his Sacred Word by St. Paul he saith Husbands love your wiues 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 The excellency of this Nuptiall Love may further appeare in respect of the object which is Woman who is the image of God as well as man Gen. 1.27 An help meet for him 2.28 A part of himselfe 31. Wine is strong Kings are strong but a woman is stronger Women have Dominion over Kings saith Zorobabell Esdr 4. All men submit to Love When that Hermits boy who had alwayes bin brought vp in the wildernesse came first abroad in the world being asked what sight pleased him best therein readily reply'd Those things which you call Women A vertuous woman is a Crowne to her husband saith King Solomon Prov. 12.4 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 And the parts of man affected also are his most excelleÌ„t parts as the Heart liver bloud and braines and consequently the imagination and Reason I say Reason for want of Love commonly shewes want of reason either stupidity or peeuishnesse in a man It is most certaine that divine Love is infinitely more excellent and aboue humane Love And such men as are of a Divine temper may easily overcome the same But all of us have bodies aswell as soules wee 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 therevnto and therefore Excellent And further the excellency of this Nuptiall Love appeareth by the effects thereof which are very
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 then otherwise for why it possesses the heart with joy and a ioyfull heart takes pleasure in all things sweetens all our Actions Discourses Riches and all pleasures A million of joyfull and blessed effects spring from Love if wee love truely So if wee love wee still shall find A joyfull pleasure in our mind Whether eate talke thinke work or play True Love will turne all into joy 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 who seeme to bee Loves handmaids who graces and sweetens all the rest And as a Circumstance hee can discourse almost of any thing and set forth the excellency thereof as by the Attendants Riches honours 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 and most generous men 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 wee may spye and spell Glympses of heaven and bee the more inflamed to seeke and possesse it so as it seemes wee may enjoy two heavens In highest joyes that can be thought Wee l sweetly passe our time away What pleasure is in Earth or heaven That thee and I may not enjoy Thus have I given a tast of Loves excellency by way of instance in this Art of discourse But I pray remember it is but by way of discourse and I hope you will pardon what is amisse for you know men will talke somewhat largely to please their Lovers and yet say they have given but a tast when they have done But I proceed SECT VII Shewing further the use of this Art BY which order or Art of discourse wee may discourse of any other particular whatsoever as for example Of the contrary to what hath bin dilated to wit the misery of Loves Losse Which may even readily bee dilated and expressed by this Art in this manner likewise Either by the number of miseries the misery of each particuler 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 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 wee may discourse of any other subiect upon occasion whether of Riches or of honour of health of Prudence Temperance fortitude or of any vertue of Poverty disgrace or sicknesse of Covetousnesse Ambition Intemperance or of any other vice or misery yea of Religion and divine Matters And in truth there cannot bee a better way of Love discoursing then a Religious way however seldome practized but rather despised by many of the blades and gallant Dames of the world aswell as the sottish and blockish sort of people who thinke and esteeme all things aboue their phantasticke and vaine humors folly and madnesse But indeed what better way of Love discoursing can bee then a laudable and pious insinuation into the mind of such as wee discourse with whether friend or Lover by heavenly discourses which also may bee done by some such like Art as hath bin dilated In somuch that if both parties bee of a divine temper their hearts may bee filled with heavenly and glorious thoughts 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 bee filled with heavenly Ioy in such discourses and by the eye of Contemplation see one another in respect of their mindes like Angels Divine creatures and so love one another with a heavenly aswell as earthly Love Both which being vnited doe tye their hearts together with an indissoluble knot and fill them with sweet fountaines of joy and delight SECT VIII Shewing briefly how to attaine this Art of discourse NOw to give a tast as I said how to attaine to bee a skilfull Artist in this or the like Art of discourse Which because it may bee 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 meditations to imprint into our minds the grounds and heads thereof As Numbers Particulars Observations Arguments Examples Comparisons Contrarieties Similitudes Circumstances Appendances and the like as perfectly as wee doe our A B C. Whereby wee may as readily call to mind those grounds as wee can letters to spell words with which is as fast as wee can speake Or as in the Art of Brachygraphy or Short-writing wee readily know at which end side or place of the letter to set the tittle dash or ensuing letter whereby wee know what vowell dipthong or word it signifies even as suddenly as wee can thinke of any thing or as Preachers doe especially take notice and imprint into their minds the heads divisions and grounds of their Sermons Secondly having thus imprinted the grounds in our minds wee ought to bee furnisht with sufficient learning and skill concerning the matter of our discourse And in generall to bee skilfull in such Arts and Sciences as wee 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 aswell as the Lover in their severall wayes 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 wee may bee furnisht with sufficient Learning matter examples and skill to this purpose in such sort that wee may as some ancient and well furnisht Orators Lawyers Physitians and others can in their severall wayes readily discourse even Raptim upon any Maxime ground or Rule in their Scicences 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 attaine to this Art of discourse And although the perfection thereof bee 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 bee an occasion of encreasing the same and possessing our selves and Lovers with most pleasing joyes and delights unlesse wee have to doe with some brainsick foolish Phantasticke light things better lost then found and consequently dispossesse the
young melancholly Lover of that pensiue humour fearing not to enjoy or please his Love Thus much concerning the Art of Discourse SECT IX Containing answeres to some objections ANd now me thinkes I cannot but imagine that some too severe Cato Churlish Timon or Carping Momus will esteeme this Love-discourse too light and wanton And I know there bee many in our times so Stoicall and Rigid as they will scarce allow moderate and lawfull Recreations for this discourse was chiefly written for meere recreation amidst more serious occasions and so I desire it may bee read And they esteeme honest and harmlesse Love sports pleasures and discourses though in the way of marriage prophanenesse But wee may know that it is good and commendable for such as doe or intend to live in that honourable and blessed estate of mariage to bee possest with conjugall Love and consequently such honest love discourses devices and pleasures as encrease the same are to bee esteemed good and commendable And I conceive that no well condition'd happy man none but envious malicious male-contented Spirits will hinder dislike or grudge True-lovers of such honest and harmelesse Love delights and pleasures And I am not so Cynicall but that I thinke a modest expression of such amorous conceits as suite with reason being free from obscaenity will yet very well become my yeeres in which not to have some feeling of Love were as great an Argument of much stupidity as an oversottish affection were of extreame folly But what need I excuse my selfe in this when 't is well knowne that many whole volumes have bin written of Love and that divers famous and worthy Philosophers Physitians Historians Poets and others have written as lightly and more wantonly then I have done of this subject But saith my Grandsire it seemes to mee that such vaine Love discourses are vnnecessary and of little perswasion Yet if wee thinke of the Parties to whom these things are spoken that is to female creatures and to Lovers Such things as are a great deale more youthfull vaine wanton and not of such a serious and solid substance as my Grandsire is wee shal know that such discourse are most apt and pleasing and much more perswasiue than other more graue and solid And wee know that these female Lovers esteeme every word of their Sweet-hearts discourse though peradventure but slight matter as if it were spoke like an Angell and if withall such Arteficiall discourses such pleasant Heart-striking Reasons bee mixed it is even sufficient to enchant and enflame a Saint with Love and Ioy. In so much I know that if there bee a reasonable simpathy betweene the Parties in Age degree fortunes Countenance Constitution and Conditions and a willing consent of Parents and friends at first though afterward great and strange opposition should happen in many respects it would bee a marvailous hard matter if not impossible to part and disunite their Love And that sometimes even such great opposition quickens and encreases such true Love and joy which often flames the more when it is blowne against and stirred up And then such Love and joy after crosses are past is most pleasant indeed If such discourses then bee of such strong effect and operation as to joyne hearts in true Love and encrease joy notwithstanding many crosses and great opposition much more is it when those are past when both parties and their friends are well pleased when all their thoughts are composed of kindnesse Love and Ioy. Medea's oyntment Helenaes bowle Circes cup Phaedras Ring or Venus girdle cannot so inchant a man so sweetly moue and please his mind as such discourses will a female Lover SECT X. Containing Remedies against the Losse of Love BVt now heere comes a question what is to be done if wee loose our beloved Indeed many Lovers for want of enjoying their wishes in this kind become extreame melancholy and sorrowfull and some betake themselves to ill courses as whooring and Taverne-haunting and sometimes spoyle themselves But indeed it is a madnesse for a man to grieve melancholize and runne into dissolute courses because hee cannot obtaine his desires in this kind perhaps some unworthy creature For if he have not placed his Love too high aboue his deserts or too unequally and unfitly and if hee have used good meanes to gaine her if this will not hee may iustly thinke that she is some light phantastick thing not worth his Heroicall and Noble thoughts A wise man will not Love a meere Corps or which is worse A body with an ill soule in it Some Remedies usually perscribed against this malady the losse of Love are To withstand beginnings to avoid all occasions as the company of the party beloved discourse with her sight of her place where she lives and the like Or to goe to some other Mistresse of better fortunes birth and degree if it may bee or if such cannot bee attained yet let us know That of all necessary evils such as men say wiues are any may serve for necessity and because they are Evils perhaps 't is better to have none at all Though wee Batchellors perhaps thinke wiues fine things yet such as haue tryed will tell us otherwise as that there are many Thornes amidst the Roses of marriage which hinder the pleasures thereof and cause much sorrow That married mens shooes wring them but wee know not where That many of there fore-heads are forked and wee are blind That the Love of the body is at the height and will fall when once it hath gotten admittance into those hidden and worst parts thereof And that so it is of the mind Though our Lovers shew us their best conditions forward yet when those hidden and worst parts of the soule which they dare not shew the world are bare and detected 'T is like wee shall find them much worse then wee expected So may wee observe by the carriage of most men after they are married They are commonly more sullen dull sad and pensive then before Many of them love not their wiues Nor perhaps have they any great occasion for asmuch as wee see many of them proove sluts Scolds idle infirme Proud Iealous Scornefull Arrogant and so imperious not to be endured light peevish froward sad lumpnish prodigall discontented And yet these men when they were Batchellors thought these peeces fine things and imagined a Paradise in gayning them and many husbands also t is true are as bad or worse then their wiues insomuch as many married people live a very miserable life scolding brawling grieving and alwayes discontented Wee may read in divers Philosophers and other Authors of many wise and witty speeches and opinions against marriage and they tell us many tales and stories to this purpose Some sad and some merry ones They are very common and for brevity I omit them Some men are Cornuted and father Children which are none of their owne Their Children proove vndutifull disobedient and prodigall servants stout and carelesse A multitude
they would bee as fraile and as passionate as women And if Women were freed from the frailty of their sex they would bee as manly and as excellent as men And though Women have divers naturall infirmities both of body and mind yet a wise man will not love his wife a jot the worse because hee knowes they are naturall But few Women are Angels and hee that would have a Woman without passions must marry when the Signe is not in Coelo And for this scolding malady this is a good Remedy To bee silent and not regard her or else to laugh at her But let us see if the fault be not in our selves The reason why many Women are so bad is because they have ill Husbands if so let us mend Happie are wee if our Wives be an occasion of our being good though they be never so bad And sometimes a good man may chance to make a good wife of an ill one It is also fit that Men should use their Wives well and maintaine them in good fashion according to their meanes and to let them have such reasonable and convenient Liberty and authority as it is fit a wife who is a mans second selfe should have and enjoy For want of this many women being too straitly kept under and unkindly and Churlishly used are even forced to flye out beyond Reason and to become Froward Contentious Iealous discontented And some to turne Queanes by Compulsion Too much liberty and Authority on the other side is not fit to bee allowed them especially to such kind of women as love not their owne houses but by reason of much gadding abroad learne more tricks then bee good who are then onely pleasant and contented And at home nothing but brawle and are there commonly sullen froward peevish discontented and of idle lewd conditions Let therefore both men and women endeavour to avoyd all occasions of strife and discontent as much as they may And such as cannot bee avoided to Contemne or Dissemble and make the best thereof And to endeavour in all respects to live lovingly familiarly and pleasantly in such sort as becomes them Saint Paul and Saint Peter give excellent directions to this purpose So ought men to love their Wiues saith Saint Paul as their owne bodies for no man ever yet hated his owne flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the Lord his Church Eph. 5.25 And againe yee men Love your wiues and bee not bitter to them Colossians 3.19 And to women he sayth Wiues submit your selves vnto your husbands as unto the Lord For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the Church Eph. 5.22 Saint Peter also giveth directions to this purpose in his 1. Epistle and 3 Chapter I will write them at large for they are most excellent Hee beginnes with Wiues and is longest about them they having as it seemes most need of instruction Yee wiues saith hee bee in subjection to your husbands that if any obey not the word they also may without the word bee wonne by the Conversation of their wiues while they behold their Chast conversation coupled with feare Whose adorning let it not bee that outward Adorning of playting the Haire or of wearing and putting on gorgious Apparell But let it bee of the Heart in that which is not Corruptible even the ornament of a meeke and quiet Spirit which is in the sight of GOD of great price For after this manner in the old time the holy Women also who trusted in GOD adorned themselves being in subjection unto their owne Husbands Even as Sara obeyed Abraham calling him Lord whose Daughters yee are as long as yee doe well and not being dismayed with feare Likewise Yee husbands sayth hee dwell with your Wives according to knowledge giving honour unto the wife as unto the weaker vessell and as being heyres together of the grace of Life that your Prayers may not be hindred Finally bee yee of one minde having Compassion one of another being pittifull courteous Not rendring evill for evill or rayling for rayling but contrariwise blessing knowing that yee are thereunto called that yee may inherit a blessing Thus much sayth St. Peter 1 Ephes 3 Chapter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 and 10 verses So then let Men and their Wives in all respects Endeavour to live together as they ought according to such Divine direction Let them alwayes bee as Loving kinde pleasant and as familiar as may bee and mutually enjoy together all the blessings and benefits belonging to this Nuptiall Love and Societie And especially let them bee Pious and Religious Then though their Beauty and Bodies should decay and become infirme yet their very Soules may bee in Love with one another which is farre more excellent then bodily Love So while they view one another as divine and Celestiall creatures as the beloved of God himselfe their Loves may still kindle and increase untill both they and it ascend to that firmament of fire where Love all divine and heavenly flames beyond imagination and lasts for euer SECT XIIII A briefe perswasion to Marriage I Shall now endeavour briefly to perswade such as may conveniently though a single Life bee otherwise to bee preferr'd before it to this honourable and blessed estate of Marriage It hath alwayes bin confest by all reasonable men That a consonant Marriage such as when both parties be equally match'd in respect of Yeares Birth Constitution and Fortunes and of loving kinde wise constant and good Conditions is an earthly Paradise of happinesse And no man can justly blame such Marriages unto which All lawes both Divine and Humane exhort us Nature provoketh us Honesty draweth us All Nations approove thereof necessity of Continuing our kinde constraineth us and abundance of felicity inviteth us thereunto And St. Paul sayth It is the Doctrine of Devils to forbid Marriage The best and most learned Philosophers have praised and used the same As Socrates Plato Aristotle Seneca Plutarch and others And though a Contemplative divine Spirit can overcome Nature and contemne the greatest earthly pleasure in Comparison of heavenly delights and take great pleasure in such Contempt Yet all men have not this divine Grace of Continencie And looking downewards againe we may consider that we have Bodies as well as Soules which require due and convenient Recreations And though as St. Paul well observed Marriage hindereth a heavenly Contemplative life in respect of Care and other disturbances yet for all these fore-named considerations and many other It is good to marry though better to live single if wee burne not and if wee have divine Grace enough to bee Continent And this Nuptiall society being honourable blessed and ordained of God for avoyding of unlawfull lusts for the preservation of Mankind and for mutuall helpe comfort and pleasure in one another It cannot bee denyed but it is good to marry especially when such marry whose bodies minds doe Sympathize and both are of
Loving and good conditions From such a Marriage as hath bin dilated springeth a Terrestriall Paradise of pleasures and happinesse To conclude then Let us wish all joy to such happie Lovers Let the Graces dance and the Muses sing at their Wedding And let all pleasantnesse love and joy dwell for ever in their hearts And as their yeares so may their Love and Ioyes increase That in after-times they may say This is the twentieth or thirtieth yeare of our Ioy. Let them alwayes be familiar and kind to one another So to our selves when wee are married and to all married men let us wish all prosperity And let us all take King Solomons counsell Prov. 5.17 Rejoyce in the wife of thy youth let her bee vnto thee as the loving Hinde and pleasant Roe and Rejoyce in her Love continually SECT XV. Of the good use of this Nuptiall Love and so concluding with a briefe discourse of Divine Love TO conclude then with the good use of this Nuptiall Love If God please to give us any blessings in this kind let us use them well Enjoy them and bee thankfull Hee that useth these externall felicities of the world such as this of Nuptiall Love to the glory of God and to good ends with moderate delectation is better to bee reputed then hee that unduely Inconsiderately Rashly Inconveniently and Suspitiously as some Monkes and others doe neglects and refuseth so great a good which God freely offers to our acceptance These externall pleasures and blessings of the world may serve to many excellent uses stirring us up to all duties of piety to the Love of God to thankfulnesse and joy in him Let us then enjoy God in all things And all thinges in him and to his glory The Principall good use of this Love and the felicities thereof which I shall now insist upon is That by viewing and enjoying such pleasures and felicities of the Earth wee may looke higher to their Fountaine Contemplating the Love Lovelinesse Beauty Sweetnesse and Excellency of the Creator who is infinitely more excelling And so conclude with a briefe Discourse of Divine Love True it is that all other Excellencies are but dung and drosse in respect of GOD yet by and through these lower delights and felicities of the Earth These little glimpsing Rayes proceeding from that Sunne of Glory wee may spy some light of that Sunne GOD himselfe and of that Eternall felicity which wee pretend hereafter to possesse And so in some measure spell and spye Heaven from the Earth Neyther ought wee to disdaine to make Comparisons betweene Corporeall and Spirituall thinges betweene Earthly and Heavenly Though in respect of the Excellency of the Spirituall and Heavenly there is no comparison Yet as Children have need at first to bee allured to the acquist of Great and Excellent matters by such toyes and trifles as they apprehend so in respect of our weake apprehension such Comparisons and Similitudes are and ought to bee used in a convenient manner So as wee may make a very good use of Earthly felicities in this respect as men doe of Spectacles for by and through these our dimme Eyes may see the cleerer into heavenly Excellencies And consequently bee the more enamour'd of them and so stirred up to seeke and enjoy them And in this respect of Nuptiall-Love the sacred Scripture gives us many and faire Examples As in Hosea I will returne vnto my first Love for it was then better with mee than it is now Hos 2.7 And in divers places CHRIST and his Church are compared to Lovers betrothed and to bee married together The Church is called the Bride the Lamps wife Rev. 21.9 And the end of the world is called their marriage day Rev. 19.7 Saint Iohn Baptist calleth Christ the Bride-groome and his Church the Bride Iohn 3.29 And Christ calleth himselfe the bridegroome Marke 3. That Song of Songs betweene two Lovers betrothed each to others Is by the consent of all Divines a most pleasant Love-song betweene Christ and his Church What remaines then but that wee seeke for and enjoy that fountaine of all Love lovelinesse beauty sweetnesse and excellency which is infinitely more permanent and Excellent then all the other beauties and excellencies of the world if they were all united together If wee could truely thinke what God is how beautifull lovely glorious and in all respects most Excellent Our hearts would presently bee filled with Love and Admiration of him insomuch as then wee should settle our deerest and noblest thoughts wholly upon him and in his Love wee should bee filled with sweetest flames of joy and pleasures One thing have I desired saith King David and I will still desire to behold the beauty of the Lord. His beauty infinitely excells the beauty of the heavens Sunne Moone Starres Angels or what is most excellent If there bee such beauty lovelinesse and pleasure in a Creature As that it hath such power to draw neere unto the eyes Eares and affections of such as behold and consider it how much more beautifull and lovely is God himselfe the Creator and the fountaine from which all other Excellencies spring How should this divine beauty of God attract our desires and inflame us with Love and Ioy. If wee so much endeavour and bee so much affected with the Comelinesse of Creatures how should wee bee Rapt at the Admirable Lustre of God himselfe Hee offers his Love most freely to such as will accept the same Wisdome cryes out in the streets c. Prov. 8. Hee invites us to come into his faire garden to eate drinke with them to bee merry and to enioy his presence for ever Cant 5. But wee must then lay aside all vaine objects of the world All mucky Covetousnesse All aiery Ambition All vaine sensuall Lusts Our desires must not creepe on the Earth wee must purifie our hearts deny our selves and looke aboue our selves If wee will have a cleere vision of God A flaming Love and soule-ravishing delights in him Let us then endeavour to lay aside all Earthly thoughts when wee intend to view this sight To enjoy this Love this pleasure Let us by Contemplation which is the best opticke view heaven see and grow into acquaintance with God Being acquainted let us proceed further and endeavour to bee more familliar with him To denie our selves and goe out of our selves to live above our selves with him Let us powre forth our soules into God and In-soule our selves into him so as his Divine Love and Ioy yea himselfe may wholly possesse us When a Soule is once thus possest with the beauty and Love of God it will bee often thinking of him often mounting up to heaven and as a vapour exhal'd by the Sunne often gliding after its Love being thereunto attracted by the allurements of his most Amiable faire and Divine beauty and Lovelinesse Insomuch as it will be enlightned with glorious thoughts towring apprehensions Ardent affections and heavenly Ioyes Further when the soule considers the infinite
hearts wee can truely love From such a loving fit equall and good choyce is like to spring abundance of most sweet delights and felicities SECT IIII. Shewing how to enjoy our wishes please our Lovers and encrease love HAving made our choice now comes a question How shall wee doe to obtaine our wishes and please our lovers It beeing such an excellent felicity to enjoy our loves and such a misery to loose them as is said this matter therefore is very requisite to bee peept into The ordinary and vsuall Arteficiall meanes prescribed and used to obtaine and encrease love and to please our Minnions Mistresses and Madames are such as follow Pleasant and well composed lookes Glances Smiles Countersmiles plausible Gestures pleasant carriage and behaviour affability complements salutations a comely gate and pace dancing and the like will greatly please and increase the love of some female creatures Also time place opportunity conference importunity sometimes I know that neglect and scorne doth in some of these female kind much increase love for some of them are of such Imperious conditions as they will insult over and scorne such puny Lovers as will bee pind upon their sleeves Hence it is like women are compared to shadowes if wee follow them they will goe from us If wee goe away they will follow us againe wherefore sometimes to neglect is better then opportunity and whetteth Love There be divers love-trickes and devices also to stirre up and increase love as tokens favours letters valentines merry meetings and many others All these fore named occasions allurements and love devices are usually practized and even naturall to lovers and need little disquisition I might now imagine a Wedding day wish to all true-louers joy and proceed Yet because me thinkes I see many young lovers in a deepe study very pensiue and melancholly surely the matter is they are plodding and devising what to say to please their mistresses at their next meeting And forasmuch as heretofore at idle times to recreate and please my selfe I began to study the Art of discourse I now thinke it not amisse out of the same to take a little paynes or rather a little pleasure to recreate my selfe amidst more serious occasions and giue an instance onely concerning this matter of Love SECT V. The Art of Love-discourse ARteficiall discourse being added to the other love devices if any good meanes will this may effect our desires and to such as are already agreed the same may bee most pleasant and delightfull much increase love and adde a greater joy and pleasure to all other Love-sports devices and pleasures Wee know that even common and frivolous discourse being spoken in the way of love will much please and take these female lovers such as are idle Complemēts Players ends Newes tales Love-stories Lascivious Iests Songs and the like though very idle and frivolous and though spoken and acted by some Apish gull-Pot Poet or swaggering idle companion so as especially light Phantasticke things such as many women are will bee over head and eares in love But now if some well given faire condition'd young man for to such I cheifely direct this discourse shall withall adde a sweet pleasing convincing heart-striking and materiall discourse to his Lover whom I will imagin to bee a like vertuous and well condition'd young creature it will bee indeed sufficient to captivate sweetly charme and overcome them and beeing spoken in the way of love and mingled with other honest pleasant love devices to fill their hearts full of joy and pleasure and so to enchant them as they will be ioyned together with an indissoluble bond of true flaming Love For the manner and matter of our discourse I have alwayes thought it vanity and lightnesse rather then courtesie to discourse according to the gallants fashion of our times by meere complements congies apish gestures and meere finicall words To say sweete mistresse or Madame I honour your shoo-strings the ground you tread upon am proud to kisse your hand it is my ambition to bee your servants servant and the like to present and offer not onely our service but life to the command of our mistresses as wee use to call them though God knowes wee never meane to bee their servants Or on the other side to study and talke to them high straines of wit and figuratiue exornations lest they bee not vnderstood or laught at But in this respect a plaine yet arteficiall mouing and peircing way is best I intend not to perscribe a set method to discourse in for why methinkes a premedicated set discourse shewes something a barrennesse of wit though not of judgement And is commonly uttered with little passion or feeling which is in some measure taken away by premeditation and consequently not so freely lively and with such a grace as otherwise unlesse wee can counterfeit like a Player our passions and have wit enough to come out and in upon all occasions of discourse On the other side wee are not strayted in this subject for want of matter to discourse on all occasions even in an extemporeall manner for every smile Action Object Event or speech may affoord a lover matter of sudden discourse and indeed love of it selfe if it bee fervent whets the wit and so stirres up the spirits as wee may say of lovers As of fine wits they can make use of any thing But neither of this extemporeall discourse is my intention to write of but rather a mixture of both which I will call a habit of discourse or an extemporeall Method A method not so much to discourse in as to discourse by in such sort as a man may bee furnisht with continnuall abilities of discourse in an extemporeall method as I may say or a sudden and well composed manner without brainsick light idle frivolous prating on the one side or too much pumping for wit on the other side but with a ready yet perswasiue and materiall discourse on all occasions But this Art of discourse in generall concerning all matters will not easily be given to weake novices yet the meere observation thereof even to such may doe them some good concerning this matter of love but in generall it will rather require that a man bee well learned and experienced in the liberall Sciences especially such as he shall have most occasion to discourse of So as he may readily on all occasions dilate the matter of his discourse by the Rules and grounds of this Art which are By Number Particulars Arguments Examples Comparisons Similitudes Contrarieties Appendances Circumstances and the like I shall first giue an instance in this Art of discourse very breifely concerning this matter of Love and that onely concerning the excellency thereof And then a taste what is to be done to attaine to this Art SECT VI. An instance in this Art of Discourse concerning Loves excellency FIrst for instance in this Art concerning the excellency of Love which though I have already given a tast of
Stratagems which he teaches you what doe you enjoy and adore but a Crust of Playster full of corruption a peece of flesh that must Rot and turne to Putrifaction What a thing is this A peece of Clay quickened with life adores a Snowy dunghill There shall come a time when the Crust of your pleasures shall bee broken and you shall see what misery lyes within thinke what faces you shall make at the day of Iudgement unlesse you repent and amend Where is now the faire Hellena Cleopatra Arethusa Hero Lucretia Roxane Panthea Leucippe Ariadne Polixena 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 and become a sinke of Corruption and so gastly as wee should be afraid to see 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 Emptie of Vertue and Grace and full of Pride and wickednesse You that take a pride to charme Spirits and bereave them of reason and grace You that study each day new lessons of Vanity Pride and nicenesse to wound hearts whereby you undoe Soules your body is just of the same temper with the shadow which you see in your Glasse You are indeed nothing And if you will that I say you are something You are a meere dunghill covered with Snow A sinke of Infection environed with Flowers A rich Coffer full of loathsomnesse You are the frailest and most changeable things in the world I dare hardly eye you any longer for feare while I looke upon you you vanish from mine eyes since you are ready to change and to dye every houre Me thinkes I could even laugh at your Vanities and mock at those that admire you so I could willingly turne back and teare those Love-discourses out of my Booke in contempt of your Vanities were it not for their sakes who are indeed True-lovers But for such Lovers sakes truely who are not possest with this over-sottish and doting affection on the one side Nor with a stupid blockish or peevish Love on the other side Such as are indeed vertuous discreet modest Loving constant of sweet and gracious Conditions I could wish that I were able to invent such sweet and pleasant Love-straines as might continually fill there hearts with as much Ioy and delight in each other 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 joy and happinesse SECT XII Remedies against unlawfull Lusts LEt us also while wee view the excellency of Lawfull and true Loue beware of unlawfull and Raging Lusts There is wel nigh as much difference betweene true Love and unlawfull Lusts as betweene heaven and hell For Nuptiall Love is lawfull honorable blessed ordained of God in Paradise A Remedy against fornication adultery and all unlawfull Lusts And from which as hath bin declared springeth a million of blessed and ioyfull effects But all unlawfull Lusts and the effects thereof as fornications Adultery Incests and the like are Cursed and often forbidden and threatned against in Gods sacred word as all men acquainted therewith doe well know And from thence proceedeth a multitude of evill and miserable effects Let us therefore briefly view the miseries of such unlawfull Lusts The consideration whereof may bee Remedies sufficient to slight our irregular desires from the same Though these Lusts bee pleasant at first yet the end is as better as Wormewood as that wise King saith Prov. 5.4 The way to death and hell verse 5. To the body it often causeth loathsome diseases as Pox Gout Sciatica Aches Convultions and divers others It vsually causeth dulnesse weaknesse and shortens life Many men consume their estates thereby in feasts banquets Revelling pride and guifts thinking thereby to seeme magnificent and please their Minnions Lusts hath bin an occasion of much Iealousies strife discention disturbance and subversion of multitudes of persons families Townes and Kingdomes It was an occasion of the destruction of the old world of Sodome of Ghomorra The Sychemites of Troy Persepolis Of Spaine in the Raigne of King Rodericke and many others It hath bin the Raine of strong men as Sampson wise as Solomon Priests as Holies Sonnes Elders as in the story of Susanna Histories are full of examples in in this kind As of Caracalla the Emperour Childericus the first of that name King of France Teundezillus King of Spaine Redoaldus King of Lombardy Mulleasses King of Thunis Abusahid King of Fez and his sixe Sonnes Of Tarquin Antonius Cleopatra Appius Claudius Alexander Medices Duke of Florence Galleatius Duke of Millaine Peter Lewes Duke of Placentia Ione Queene of Naples Fredegundus and Brunhaldus of France others innumerable From this roote of unlawfull Lusts springeth also to the Soule of man a multitude of evils and miseries as Fornications Adulteries Incests and somtimes Rapes breach of Vowes and treacheries are occasioned hereby whereof Histories are replenished with Examples Cares feares jealousies paines perplexities Enmities Contentions extreame sorrow heart-burnings sadnesse dulnesse and sometimes fiery dotage and madnesse proceed from this Fountaine Shame and Repentance is certainly the end thereof or worse Dispaire and eternall misery without Reconciliation to God through CHRIST our Saviour The consideration of all these miseries may make us for ever hate and endeavour to avoid such unlawfull Lusts Other Remedies usually perscribed against the same are A moderate coole dry and sparing diet fasting Prayer Continuall Action in some good businesse imployments and to be alwaies thinking of other good matters But the best and most vsuall Remedy for such as are of an unruly temper is marriage and Nuptiall Love Let therefore married men endeavour to Love their wife 's as much as they can and let Batchellors if they may Marry such as from their hearts they can truly Love For true Lovers as I conceive may take more pleasure in the Enjoying of one another then if they might possesse the Love society of as many Minnions and beauties as they can desire in the world For why diversity of Loves as in obiects to the sight hinder intire and true pleasure in any And wee know that one dainty dish most pleasing to our pallate is more delightfull then abundance which cloyes our eyes and stomacke SECT XIII Remedies against Discontents after marriage BVt now if wee should mistake our selves as many men do who thinke they take an Angell by the hand at their marriage day in the Church but after find that they have a Scorpion in their house and in their beds some scolding brawling ill condition'd woman for King Solomon saith An evill woman is like a Scorpion yet let us bee contented Let us bee as wise as wee may and consider womens weaknesses and infirmities That if perhaps men had their bodyes