the Priest first giues our hands I would haue her thinke but thus In what high and holy bands Heauen like twins hath planted vs That like Aarons rod together Both may bud grow green and wither FINIS THE METHOD FIrst of Mariage and the effect thereof children Then of his contrarie Lust then for his choice First his opinion negatiuely what should not be the first causes in it that is neither Beauty Birth nor Portion Then affirmatiuely what should bee of which kind there are fower Goodnesse Knowledge Discretion and as a second thing Beauty The first onely is absolutely good the other being built vpon the first doe likewise become so Then the application of that woman by loue to himselfe which makes her a wife And lastly the only condition of a wife Fitnesse A Wife EAch Woman is a briefe of Woman-kind And doth in little euen as much containe As in one Day Night all life we find Of either More is but the same againe God fram'd Her so that to Her husband She As Eue should all the world of Women be So fram'd he Both that neither power he gaue Vse of themselues but by exchange to make Whence in their Face the Fayre no pleasure haue But by reflâ—xe of what thence other take Our Lips in their owne Kisse no pleasure find Toward their proper Face our Eyes are blind So God in Eue did perfit Man begun Till then in vaine much of himselfe he had In Adam God created onely one Eue and the world to come in Eue he made We are two halfes whiles each from other straies Both barren are Ioyn'd both their like can raise At first both Sexes were in Man combin'de Man a Shee-man did in his body breed Adam was Eues Eue mother of Mankinde Eue from Liue-flesh Man did from Dust proceed One thus made two Mariage doth revnite And makes them both but one Hermaphrodite Man did but the well-being of his life From woman take her Being she from Man And therefore Eue created was a Wife And at the end of all her Sex began Mariage their obiect is their Being then And now Perfection they receiue from Men. Mariage to all whose ioyes two parties be And doubled are by boing parted so Wherein the very act is chastitie Whereby two Soules into one Body goe It makes two one whiles heere they liuing be And after death in their Posteritie God to each Man a priuate woman gaue That in that Center his desires might stint That he a comfort like himselfe might haue And that on her his like he might imprint Double is Womans vse part of their end Doth on this Age part on the next depend We are but part of Time yet cannot die Till we the world a fresh supply haue lent Children are Bodies sole Eternitie Nature is Gods Art is Mans instrument Now all Mans Art but only dead things makes But here in Man in things of life partakes For wandring Lust I know t is infinite It still begins and addes not more to more The guilt is euerlasting the delight This instant doth not feele of that before The taste of it is only in the Sense The operation in the Conscience Woman is not Lusts bounds but Woman-kind One is Loues number who from that doth fall Hath lost his hold and no new rost shall find Vice hath no meane but not to be at all A wife is that Enough Lust cannot find For Lust is still with want or too-much pinde Bate Lust the Sin my share is eu'n with his For Not to Lust and to Enioy is one And More or Lesse past equall Nothing is I still haue one Lust one at once alone And though the woman often changed be Yet Hee 's the same without varietie Mariage our Lust as t were with fuell fire Doth with a medicine of the same allay And not forbid but rectifie desire My selfe I cannot chuse my wife I may And in the choice of Her it much doth lye To mend my selfe in my Posteritie O rather let me Loue then be in Loue So let me chuse as Wife and Friend to find Let me forget hir Sex when I approue Beasts likenesse lyes in shape but ours in minde Our soules no Sexes haue their Loue is cleane No Sex both in the better part are Men. But Phisicke for our lust their Bodies be But matter fit to shew our Loue vpon But onely Shells for our posteritie Their soules were giu'n lest man should be alone For but the Soules interpreters words be Without which Bodies are no Companie That goodly frame we see of Flesh and bloud Their Fashion is not weight it is I say But their Laye-part but well digested food T is but twixt Dust and Dust Life's middle way The worth of it is nothing that is seene But only that it holds a Soule within And all the carnall Beauty of my wife Is but skin-deep but to two Senses knowne Short euen of Pictures shorter liu'd then Life And yet the loue suruiues that's built thereon For our Imagination is too high For Bodies when they meet to satisfie All Shapes all Colours are alike in Night Nor doth our Touch distinguish foule or faire But Mans imagination and his sight And those but the first weeke by Custome are Both made alike which diffred at first view Nor can that diffrence Absence much renew Nor can that Beauty lying in the Face But meerely by imagination be Enioy'd by vs in an inferior place Nor can that Beauty by enioying we Make ours become so our desire growes tame We changed are but it remaines the same Birth lesse then beauty shall my reason blinde Hir birth goes to my Children not to me Rather had I that actiue gentry finde Vertue then passiue from hir Auncestrie Rather in her aliue one vertue see Then all the rest dead in her Pedigree In the Degrees high rather be shee plac't Of Nature then of Art and Pollicie Gentry is but a relique of Time-past And Loue doth only but the present see Things were first made then words She were the same With or without that title or that name As for the oddes of Sexes Portion Nor will I shun it nor my ayme it make Birth Beauty Wealâ—h are nothing worth alone All these I would for good Additions take Not for Good Parts those two are ill combind Whom any third thing from theÌ„selues hath ioynd Rather then these the obiect of my Loue Let it be Good when these with vertue goe They in themselues indiffrent vertues proue For Good like Fire turnes all things to be so Gods Image in Her Soule ô let me place My Loue vpon not Adams in Her Face Good is a fairer attribute then White T is the Mind's beauty keeps the other sweet That 's not still one nor mortall with the light Nor glasse nor painting can it counterfet Shee s truly faire whose beauty is vnseen Like heau'n faire sight-ward but more faire within By Good I would haue Holy vnderstood So
vnderstand are three degrees not vnderstood That country ambition is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for there is nothing aboue a man That fighting iâ— a Seruingmans valour martyrdom their Masters That to liue long is to fill vp the daies wee liue That the â—â—ale of some mens religion reflects from their friends That the pleasure of vice is indulgence of the present for it endures but the acting That the properreward of goodnesse is from within the externall is pollicie That good and ill is the crosse and pile in the game of life That the soule is the lampe of the body reason of the soule religion of reason faith of religion Christ of faith That circumstances are the atomies of policie censure the being action the life but successe the ornament That authoritie presseth downe with weight and is thought violence policie trips vp the heeles and is called dexteritie That this life is a throng in a narrow passage hee that is first out finds ease hee in the middle worst hemb'd in with troubles the hindmost that driues both our afore him though not suffering wrong hath his part in doing it That God requires of our debts a reckoning not payment That heauen is the easiest purchase for wee are the richer for the disbursing That liberalitie should haue no obiect but the poore if our minds were rich That the misterie of greatnesse is to keep the inferior ignorant of it That all this is no newes to a better wit That the Citie cares not what the Country thinks Sr. T. R. Newes from the very Country THat it is a fripery of Courtiers Merchants and others which haue been in fashion and are very neere worne out That Iustices of peace haue the felling of vnderwoods but the Lords haue the great falls That Iesuits are like Apricocks heretofore here and there one succour'd in a great mans house and cost deare now you may haue them for nothing in euery cottage That euery great vice is a Pike in a pond that deuoures vertues and lesse vices That it is wholsomest getting a stomacke by walking on your own ground the thriftiest laying of it at anothers table That debtors are in London close prisoners and here haue the libertie of the house That Atheists in affliction like blind beggers are forced to aske though they know not of whom That there are God be thanked not two such acres in all the country as the Exchange and Westminster-hall That only Christmas Lords know their ends That wâ—omen are not so tender fruit but that they doe as well and beare as well vpon beds as plashed against walls That our carts are neuer worse employed than when they are wayted on by coaches That sentences in Authors like haires in an horsetaile concurre in one roote of beauty and strength but being pluckt out one by one serue onely for springes and snares That both want and abundance equally aduance a rectified man from the world as cotton and stones are both good casting for an hawke That I am sure there is none of the forbidden fruit left because we doe not all eat thereof That our best three pilde mischiefe comes from beyond the sea and rides post through the country but his errand is to Court That next to no wife and children your owne wife and children are best pastime anothers wife and your children worse your wife and anothers children worst That Statesmen hunt their fortunes and are often at default Fauorites course her and are euer in view That intemperance is not so vnwholesome heere for none euer saw Sparrow sicke of the pox That here is no trechery nor fidelitie but it is because here are no secrets That Court motions are vp and down ourâ— circular theirs like squibs cannot stay at the highest nor returne to the place which they rose from but vanish we are out in the way Ours like mill-wheels busie without changing place they haue peremptorie fortunes we vicissitudes I. D. Answer to the very Country Newes IT is thought heere that man is the coole of time and made dresser of his owne fatting That the fine Sences are Cinque ports for temptation the trafficke sinne the Lieutenant Sathan the custome tribute soules That the Citizens of the high Court grow rich by simplicitie but those of London by simple craft That life death and time doe with short cudgels dance the Matachiue That those which dwell vnder the Zona Torrida are troubled with more damps than those of Frigida That Policie and Superstition hath of late hir masque rent from her face and she is found with a wry mouth and a stinking breath and those that courted her hotly hate her now in the same degree or beyond That nature too much louing her owne becomes vnnaturall and foolish That the soule in some is like an egge hatched by a young pullet who often rigging from her nest makes hot and cold beget rottennesse which her wanton youth will not beleeue till the faire shell being broken the stinke appeareth to profit others but cannot her That those are the wise ones that hold the superficies of vertue to support her contrary and all-sufficient That clemencie within and without is the nurse of rebellion That thought of the future is retired into the country and time present dwels at Court That I liuing neere the churchyard where many are buried of the pest yet my infection commeth from Spaine and it is feared it will disperse further into the kingdome A. S. Newes to the Vniuersitie A Meere Scholler is but a liue booke Action doth expresse knowledge better then words so much of the soule is lost as the body cannot vtter To teach should rather be an effect then the purpose of learning Age decaies nature perfects Arte therefore the glory of youth is strength of the gray head wisdome yet most condemne the follies of their owne infancie runne after those of the worlds and in reuerence of antiquitie will beare an old error against a new truth Logick is the Heraldry of Arts the array of iudgment none it selfe nor any science without it where it and learning meet not must bee either a skilfull ignorance or a wilde knowledge Vnderstanding cannot conclude out of moode and figure Discretion conteines Rhetorique the next way to learne good words is to learne sense the newest Philosophie is soundest the eldest Diuinitie Astronomie begins in nature ends in magicke There is no honestie of the body without health which no man hath had since Adam Intemperance that was the first mother of sicknesse is now the daughter Nothing dies but qualities No kinde in the world can perish without ruine of the whole All parts helpe one another like States for particular interest So in arts which are but translations of nature There is no sound position in any one which imagine false there may not from it bee drawne strong conclusions to disproue all the rest Where one truth is granted it may be by direct meanes brought to confirme any other
God Shee cannot loue but also mee The law requires our words and deeds be good Religion euen the Thoughts doth sanctifie And shee is more a Maide which rauish't is Then Shee which only doth but wish amisse Lust only by Religion is withstood Lusts obiect is aliue his strength within Moralitie resists but in cold bloud Respect of Credit feareth shame not sin But no place darke enough for such offence She findes that 's watch't by her owne Conscience Then may I trust Her Body with her Mind And therevpon secure need neuer know The pangs of Ielousie and Loue doth find More paine to doubt her false then know her so For Patience is of euills that are known The certaine Remedie but Doubt hath none And be that Thought once stirr'd 't will neuer die Nor will the griefe more milde by Custome proue Nor yet amendment can it satisfie The anguish more or lesse is as our Loue This miserie doth Ielousie ensue That we may proue Her false but cannot True Suspition may the will of Lust restraine But Good preuents from hauing such a will A Wife that 's Good doth Chaste and more containe For Chaste is but an Abstinence from ill And in a Wife that 's Bad although the best Of qualities yet in a Good the least To barre the meanes is Care not Ielousie Some lawfull things to be auoyded are When they occasion of vnlawfull be Lest ere it hurts is best descride afarre Lust is a sinne of two he that is sure Of either part may be of both secure Giue me next Good an vnderstanding Wife By Nature wise not learned by much Art Some knowledge on Hir side will all my life More scope of Conversation impart Besides Her inborne vertue fortifie They are most firmely good that best know why A passiue vnderstanding to conceiue And Iudgment to discerne I wish to find Beyond that all as hazardous I leaue Learning and pregnant wit in Woman-kind What it findes malleable maketh fraile And doth not adde more ballaste but more saile Bookes are a part of Mans prerogatiue In formall Inck they Thoughts and Voyces hold That we to them our solitude may giue And make Time-present trauaile that of old Our Life Fame pâ—eceth longer at the end And Bookes it farther backward doe extend Domesticke Charge doth best that Sex befit Contiguous buisnes so to fixe the Mind That Leasure space for Fancies not admit Their Leasure t is corrupteth Woman-kind Else being plac'd from many vices free They had to heau'n a shorter cut then we As good and knowing let her be Discreet That to the others weight doth Fashion bring Discretion doth consider what is Fit Goodnesse but what is lawfull but the Thing Not Circumstances Learning is and wit In Men but curious folly without it To keep their Name when 't is in others hands Discretion askes their Credit is by farre More fraile then They on likelyhoods it stands And hard to be disprou'd Lust's slanders are Their Carriage not their Chastitie alone Must keep their Name chast from suspition Womens Behauiour is a surer barre Then is their No That fairely doth deny Without denying thereby kept they are Safe eu'n from Hope in part to blame is shee Which hath without consent bin only tride He comes too neere that comes to be denide Now since a Woman we to Marie are A Soule and Body not a Soule alone When one is Good then be the other Faire Beauty is Health and Beauty both in one Be Shee so faire as change can yeeld no gaine So faire as Shee most Women else containe At least so Faire let me imagine Her That thought to me is Truth Opinion Cannot in matter of opinion erre With no Eyes shall I see her but mine owne And as my Fancie Her conceiues to be Euen such my Sences both do Feele and See The Face we may the seate of Beauty call In it the relish of the rest doth lye Nay eu'n a figure of the Minde withall And of the Face the Life moues in the Eye No things else being two so like we see So like that they two but in Number be Beauty in decent shape and Colours lies Colours the matter are and shape the Soule The Soule which from no single part doth rise But from the iust proportion of the whole And is a meere spirituall harmonie Of eu'ry part vnited in the Eye Loue is a kinde of Superstition Which feares the Idoll which it-selfe hath fram'd Lust a Desire which rather from his owne Temper then from the obiect is enflam'd Beauty is Loues obiect Woman Lust's to gaine Loue Loue Desires Lust only to obtaine No circumstance doth Beauty beautifie Like gracefull Fashion natiue Gomelinesse Nay eu'n gets pardon for Deformitie Art cannot it beget but may encrease When Nature had fixt Beauty perfect made Something shee left for Motion to adde But let that Fashion more to Modestie Tend then Assurance Modestie doth set The face in his iust place from Passions free T is both the Mindes and Bodies Beauty met But Modestie no vertue can we see That is the Faces only Chastitie Where goodnes failes twixt ill and ill that stands Whence t is that women though they weaker be And their desires more strong yet on their hands The Chastitie of men doth often lie Lust would more common be then any one Could it like other sinnes be done alone All these good parts a Perfect woman make Adde Loue to me they make a Perfect Wife Without Hir Loue Hir Beauty should I take As that of Pictures dead That giues it life Till then Her Beauty like the Sunne doth shine A like to all That makes it only mine And of that Loue let Reason Father be And Passion Mother let it from the one His Being take the other his Degree Selfe loue which second Loues are built vpon Will make me if not Her her Loue respect No Man but fauours his owne worths effect As Good and wise so be Shee Fit for mee That is To will and Not to will the same My Wife is my Adopted-Selfe and Shee As Mee so what I loue to Loue must frame For when by Mariage both in one concurre Woman converts to Man not Man to her FINIS The Authors Epitaph THe Span of my daies measur'd heere I rest That is my body but my soule his guest Is hence ascended whither neither Time Nor Faith nor Hope but only loue can claime Where being now inlightned Shee doth know The Truth of all men argue of below Only this dust doth here in Pawne remaine That when the world dissolues shee come againe CHARACTERS OR VVitty Descriptions of the properties of sundry Persons A good Woman A Good Woman is a comfort like a Man Shee lacks of him nothing but heat Thence is her sweetnes of disposition which meets his stoutnes more pleasantly so wooll meets iron easier then iron and turnes resisting into embracing Hir greatest learning is religion and her thoughts are on her owne Sexe or
a maine part of his behauiour Hee chooseth rather to be counted a Spie then not a Polititian and maintaines his reputation by naming great men familiarly He chooseth rather to tell lyes then not wonders and talkes with men singly his discourse sounds big but meanes nothing and his boy is bound to admire him howsoeuer He comes still from great personages but goes with meane He takes occasion to shew lewells giuen him in regard of his vertue that were bought in S. Martins and not long after hauing with a Mountebaneks method pronounced them worth thousands empawneth them for a few shillings Vpon festiuall daies he goes to Court and salutes without re-saluting at night in an Ordinarie hee confesseth the businesse in hand and seemes as conversant with all intents and plots as if he begot them His extraordinary accompt of men is first to tell them the ends of all matters of consequence and then to borrow mony of them hee offereth curtesies to shew them rather then himselfe humble He disdaines all things aboue his reach and preferreth all Countries before his owne Hee imputeth his wants and pouertie to the ignorance of the time not his owne vnworthines and concludes his discourse with a halfe period or a word and leaues the rest to imagination In a word his religion is fashion and both body and soule are gouerned by same he loues most voices aboue truth A Wise-man IS the truth of the true definition of man that is a reasonable creature His disposition alters alters not He hides himselfe with the attire of the vulgar and in indifferent things is content to be gouerned by them He lookes according to nature so goes his behauiour His mind enioyes a continuall smoothnesse so cometh it that his consideration is alwaies at home Hee endures the faults of all men silently except his friends and to them hee is the mirrour of their actions by this meanes his peace commeth not from fortune but himselfe He is cunning in men not to surprise but keepe his owne and beats off their ill affected humours no otherwise then if they were flies Hee chooseth not friends by the subsidie booke and is not luxurious after acquaintance Hee maintaines the strength of his body not by delicacies but temperance and his minde by giuing it preheminence ouer his body Hee vnderstands things not by their forme but qualities and his comparisons intend not to excuse but to prouoke him higher Hee is not subiect to casualties for fortune hath nothing to doe with the minde except those drowned in the body but he hath diuided his soule from the case of his soule whose weaknesse he assists no otherwise than commiseratiuely not that it is his but that it is Hee is thus and will be thus and liues subiect neither to time nor his frailties the seruant of vertue and by vertue the friend of the highest A noble Spirit HAth surueyed and fortified his disposition and converts all occurrents into experience between which experience and his reason there is a mariage the issue are his actions He circuits his intents and seeth the end before he shoot Men are the instruments of his Art and there is no man without his vse occasion encites him none enticeth him and hee mooues by affection not for affection hee loues glory skornes shame and gouerneth and obeyeth with one countenance for it comes from one consideration He calls not the varietie of the world chances for his meditation hath trauailed ouer them and his eye mounted vpon his vnderstanding seeth them as things vnderneath Hee couers not his bodie with delicacies nor excuseth these delicacies by his bodie but teacheth it since it is not able to defend it 's owne imbecilitie to shew or suffer He licenseth not his weaknes to weare fate but knowing reason to be no idle gift of nature he is the Steeres-man of his owne destinie Truth is his Goddesse and hee takes pains to get her not to looke like hir He knowes the condition of the world that he must act one thing by another and then another To these he carries his desires not his desires him and stickes not fast by the way for that contentment is repentance but knowing the circle of all courses of all intents of all things to haue but one center or period without all distraction he hasteth thither and ends there as his true and naturall element Hee doth not contemne fortune but not confesse her He is no Gamster of the world which onely complaine and praise her but being only sensible of the honestie of actions contemnes a particular profit as the excrement or skum Vnto the societie of men hee is a Sunne whose clearenesse directs their steps in a regular motion when he is more particular hee is the wise-mans freind the example of the indifferent the medicine of the vicious Thus time goeth not from him but with him and he feeles age more by the strength of his soule than the weaknesse of his body thus feeles he not paine but esteemes all such things as frends that desire to file off his fetters and helpe him out of prison An old Man IS a thing that hath been a man in his daies Old men are to bee knowne blindfolded for their talke is as terrible as their resemblance They praise their owne times as vehemently as if they would sell them They become wrinckled with frowning and facing youth they admire their owne customes euen to the eating of red herring and going wet-shod They call the thombe vnder the girdle grauitie and because they can hardly smel at all their posies are vnder their girdles They count it an ornament of speech to close the period with a cough and it is venerable they say to spend time in wyping their driueled beards Their discourse is vnanswerable by reason of their obstinacie and their speech is much though little to the purpose Truthes and lyes passe with an equall affirmation for their memories seuerall is worne into one receptacle and so they come out with one sense They teach their seruants their duties with as much scorne tyrannie as some people teach their dogs to fetch Their enuie is one of their diseases They put off and on their clothes with that certaintie as if they knew their heads would not direct them and therefore custome should They take a pride in halting and going stiffely and therefore their staues are carued and tipped they trust their attire with much of their grauitie and they dare not go without a gown in summer Their hats are brushed to draw mens eyes off from their faces but of all their Pomanders are worne to most purpose for their putri fied breath ought not to want either a smell to defend or a dog to excuse A Country Gentleman IS a thing out of whose corruption the generation of a Iustice of peace is produced Hee speakes statutes and husbandry well enough to make his neighbours thinke him a wise-man hee is well skilled in Arithmetike