far from knowing how to end this Discourse as I profess I know not yet where to begin it and indeed when I have writ all I can on it I fancy I can make no other than this whole-sale judgment of it That beauties universal governing Power is of a miraculous nature like that of the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea every body may daily see its strange effects but none can give a good reason for the true cause therefore I am sure my weakness ought not to attempt what the strength of wit and Philosophy could never perform So that I am resolv'd to venture on this Subject but as little Boys do on a great River not hazard far on it for fear of being lost in it but content themselves with wading a little on the Brink of it and there to dable and wash them out of the reach of its great depth and fierce stream And though I know that the cause of Mens so enslaving themselves to handsom Womens power cannot spring but from a mean slavish nature and so ought not to be look'd upon better by any considering Men than a kind of Kingdom in the Moon or Fairy Land only hatch'd by the fiery amorous Love of a high lustful and enflam'd distemper'd passion seated in the vain Aiery Region of meer foolish imagination being not grounded on any foundation of true reason or good consideration Yet I cannot imitate the Map makers who still leave a blank for their Terra Incognita but I must fill up my Paper and rather than not write more of it I will leave of scratching my head and breaking my brain any longer about it to find out how and where to begin this desperate Subject it being like a Coal all over red hot there 's no touching it in any part without burning one finger 't is like a Hedge-Hogg all over prickles so that 't will be almost as hard a task for me to know how to hit upon a safe good way to begin this Discourse as to find a sure means to put an end to Womens governing power But since I must begin I will as all Builders do never mind to have the first foundation stone cut into any shape so I am resolv'd to lay my first entrance into this Discourse on the Courtships and power of the Welch Ladies for there I fancy the Men take no pains nor use any arts to square or polish their Addresses but only take what comes uppermost as they arise out of pure Natures Quarry And truly I am of opinion that according to the Rules of sober reason and naked truth the Welch ought to be esteem'd the more for it since as 't is a general approv'd Rule that of evils we ought still to choose the least so sure by the same rule of proportion we ought of troubles to choose the shortest which being granted we must necessarily come to own that the Welch Courtship and manner of making Love must needs surpass our great Masters of that Trade the French for the Welch are all plain honest dealing Men and good kind friends who are well acquainted with one anothers humors and therefore esteem it superfluous to make many words to a Bargain which makes them railly both the English and the French who they say dare not approach their Mistrisses but with humble looks and obedient postures speaking as Solomon says Prov. 6.13 With their feet by making so many Legs before they come to them and those with as much exactness as Poets make Verses where every syllable must be weigh'd that they may keep just Measures and true Cadence as well in their approaches as addresses Nor dare they speak to them but with large Harangues of Praises still besieging their Mistrisses with Armies of Complements in admiration of their beauty and perfections and most of these fierce great Lovers I had almost said worse differ and excel one another in their manner of Addresses means of Approaches expences in Presents degrees of Courtship and ways of Treating and the like whereas the plain dealing honest Welch-men are most of an equal kind of breeding and birth being all Gentlemen of Wales and most of them high born which is a truth all that have Travell'd thorow their Country will easily believe since really in one sense few of them can be other considering the many elevated Mountains their Country is made up with and yet I often observ'd in my Travelling through it that the Men of that Country are generally of a very plain breeding and much of a level Capacity for though Wales is highly seated yet 't is but of a short extent which occasions the whole Country to lie under the same degree of Elevation And as the Welch Gentry have for the most part an aversion to the Roman Doctrin so they have no fancy for Romance Courtship few studying the one and fewer practising the other and yet for all they are both great Vertuosos and expert Soldiers in the Art of expeditiously managing a Venus War and can sooner take by storm the Fort of their Welch Mistrisses heart than the English or French can finish their Approaches to gain so much as the outworks of their Mistrisses civil and favourable Looks But I am stray'd from my Theme and therefore I 'll conclude my Welch Travels and Interloping Discourses of Wales leaving the Welch Cavaliers to the power of their own Country Mistrisses And take notice how we are now in England shrunk into such a Brood of unmasculine Petticoat Men that are such adorers of their Mistrisses beauty as they cannot behold them but through the magnifying Prospective of their own enflam'd lustful passion and amorous folly which renders their Mistrisses beauty so large and Charming and their Power so high and Mighty that like the possessed man in the Gospel they will run thorow fire and water in their Love fit and to feed their momentary flames will venture those of everlasting Burning This wretched sort of Slaves to Womens Power who in their Courtship and Addresses to gain their Mistrisses hearts do so desperatly hazard the loss of their own Souls by offending God in their words and actions resemble exactly those People of Jerusalem and Judah which the Prophet Isaiah cap. 3. v. 8. speaks of They are fallen down because their Tongue and doings are against the Lord provoking the Eyes of his Glory And now the Prophet has told you their fault he will also tell you their punishment The Lord of Host will take from them the Judg and the Prophet the Prudent and the Ancient and will give Children to be their Princes and Babes to be their Governors and pray what is the consequence of this noble Infant Government why the Prophet tells you Vers 5. And the People shall be oppressed one by another every one by his Neigbour the Child shall behave himself proudly against the Ancient and the base against the honourable c. And as 't is a practical Art in Oratory to keep
beauty than they should which makes it common for such Women to ruin their Lovers liberty to proclaim their own Soveraignty over it and therefore sure it cannot appear very unreasonable that such Men as will make themselves Slaves to Womens beauty should pass for fools in sober Mens thoughts Indeed there 's one Law and but one Law I know which though a French one yet as great lovers as our English Ladies are of the French fashions they are so far from esteeming or allowing it as they will not endure so much as to hear it nam'd and that 's called the Salick Law which in France prohibits the female Sex from wearing the Breeches and Reigning which our high spirited governing Women in England so hate the Name of as there was a report they were about calling a Parliament of Women to vote it high Treason against the Power of their present Government to but name bringing that Law into England but as good fortune would have it they could not agree among themselves about chusing a Speaker for every one would be one and knowing where all will speak aloud none can be heard they were necessitated in Prudence to dissolve that Parliament design But truly in my opinion at the high rate of power Womens beauty now Governs the Ladies have no cause to be concern'd that the Breeches are not given to them by Act of Parliament since it is freely bestowed on them by the Custom of the Country and Custom you know makes Laws and those as binding as any she Act of Parliament since they are ratified and confirmed by the Major part of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal as well as the Knights Burgesses and Commons who by many Signs and Tokens give great cause of fear that they have submitted in a perfect obedience to beauties Soveraign power and Wives Government over their Husbands Indeed for the Protestant Clergy they must be concern'd parties and fellow sufferers in the general Calamity of having Governing Wives but for the Roman Clergy they are quite free from that misery and servitude because they must never Marry so that they can be no concern'd parties as to their own Wives and therefore may be aiding and assisting in promoting and confirming Wives in their Universal Monarchy over their poor Husbands which they are briskly sayling towards with a too prosperous Gail But I hope the Fates will protect poor Husbands from such an unnatural shameful and Tyrannical kind of Government for if ever all Wives should attain to that Supremacy of Power which but too many have already Wives would then make such a total destruction of all Husbands authority over them as the Wives Monarchy would be then as absolute in England as that of the French King is now in France and would make then their Husbands as great Fools as that King do's now his ordinary Subjects Slaves In short I really fancy English Wives would be then as very resolute in maintaining their new Franchises over all their Husbands in England as the Pope is now steady in destroying the old Franchises of all Ambassadors in Rome Then we must conclude that Diogenes his Prophecy is fullfill'd who order'd himself to be buried with his Face downward saying The World will turn upside down and then he shall lie in his right place Then we shall reckon as the old Germans and Gauls did by Nights not Days Then we shall look on all Government as we read Hebrew that 's backward Then that Verse shall be razed out of the Bible that says the Woman is the weaker Vessel Nor shall S. Pauls instruction to Titus when he left him in Crete pass for good practical Doctrin 1 Tim. 12. That young Women are to be sober discreet and obedient to their Husbands the Apostle thereby plainly implying That a Wives obedience is a Wives discretion Then shall the old Men see Visions and the young Men especially the married dream Dreams And now I would gladly hear what sort of answer and interpretation the Governing-spirit Ladies will make to the Question of our blessed Saviour Can the Servant be greater than his Lord For surely Wives assuming power cannot render them so over senseless as to fancy he ask'd it as a Question of doubt but spoke it as a thing of impossibility that a Servant can be greater than his Lord any more than a Son elder than his Father And now Women are about impossibilities and vain dreams methinks they ought to endeavour getting the Philosophers stone for that would be very convenient to carry about in their Breeches Pockets so that as they have now got the powerful knack to change Men into Women and their poor Husbands Rentals into Shop-books so they may then by the vertue of the same Elixir and the more powerful Charms of their own killing beauty turn all Metal into Gold as well as too many Wives now a days turn their silly Husbands Lands and Woods into rich Gownes and fine Coaches 'T was the saying of a great Roman who I fancy Married a kind of an English humor'd Wife that the Womens rich Gowns destroy'd more Men than all the Enemies Arrows And now Reader I am sure you must be tir'd as well as I am of this Subject of Womens Power tho many Men are not of their subjection to it and therefore I will now take leave of these great beauty adorers for I cannot as they do Dream with my Eyes open nor can I spare them so much of my patience as to wait for the Chimera issues of their Dreams my design being only to write of not to dwell on this Subject and perhaps I have already not only writ more on it than I should but sharper of it than I ought for considering how generally as well as powerfully Women now wear the Breeches 't is dangerous provoking them especially having now in my mind the saying of a great Philosopher Those that consider little as most Women do are apt to be angry soon And sure if wise Solomon in his days when certainly the Women did not then pretend to half the power they now usurp could prefer dwelling in a Wilderness before living with an angry Woman how cautious nay fearful ought the writers of this subject to be in offending them when their Anger is as fierce as their power is great and in some Women their passionate revengeful humor suitable to both Therefore if the Apostle thought he had good reason to pray to be deliver'd from unreasonable Men sure Men may also pray to be deliver'd from unreasonable Women And doubtless as it suits well with all the measures of true Reason and good Policy that those who Command ought to be wiser than they who are to obey And therefore Women ought not to use a Soveraignty over Mens Actions whilst they are Subjects to their own Passions and sure none can deny this Truth that she who cannot Rule her self is very unfit to Govern another But 't is full time for me to
do you no real good therefore to apply to your self the right use of both instead of being angry at others for accusing you of some vices you do not act be angry with your self for acting the many you do which is the true way of having Praises and deserving them too Praise is not only the dearly beloved Mistris of Christendom but also of Turky for 't was Praise that was the occasion of making the grand Vizier Mustapha lose so many Men before Vienna for his Story tells us that he did not attempt that Siege so much to serve his Master as to Court his Mistris more out of design to gain her than out of hopes to take it but Mustapha was as much mistaken in his measures of Conquering his Mistrisses heart as in those of taking Vienna for by destroying her Husbands life he totally destroyed her Love and so made his Mistris to revenge her Husbands death to beg the Grand Seignior to take away Mustapha's Life which he did and by it she shew'd her kindness to her Husband and the Grand Seignior his Justice to her 'T is desire of praise and ambition that makes the French King imploy such vast Sums of Mony and Armies of Soldiers to work about his Palace of Versaillies which is rather a Prodigy of Riches than a Miracle of Nature fitter to be wondred at for the vast expences laid out on it than to be praised for any agreableness about it except the Gardens and Water-works which indeed excel all either of Rome or Florence and consequently the whole World but for the House it self I could observe nothing in it extraordinary except the rich Gildings both within and without and therefore as to my own opinion of the Place I think there 's nothing so wonderful in all that glory as that any one should so much admire it having neither River Wood good Land or pleasant Prospect about it being all round about close besieg'd by great coarse and ragged Hills which cannot add much lustre and glory to the Situation of any place of such vast Expence and Magnificence so as to be Celebrated by some as one of the Wonders of the World. We read in History that Alexander the Great expressed much trouble that he had no more Kingdoms left him to Conquer I am sure the French King needs no cause of trouble for want of more Hills to Conquer and site about his Palace of Versaillies as long as he lives tho he had more Men and Mony to employ about levelling them than now he has Indeed such a Royal Building of Magnificence well deserved a most pleasant and Stately Situation but it seems that King thought it more noble better becoming his greatness to make one by the expence of Art than to be beholden to one of Natures free bounty that the World might know he scorn'd so mean an offer whilst he has Armies that can level Mountains as plain as he pleases and Mony to mount Rivers as high as he desires And indeed if we range over not only France and Turky but all the whole World we shall find that Praise is the Butt all Shoot at tho few hit the Mark for if we but look narrowly into Praises and consider the Actions as well as the Persons they are commonly great Flatterers and the breath of such Praises is but like a Rain-bow which is no other than a meer seeming Collection of many bright Colours without any true substance or long duration one day discovering the folly of the other and a few days will shew you your own end and with it the vanity of them all Therefore if the young Ladies could but perswade themselves to think seriously of the little reality there is in the Praises Men present them and the vain pastimes the World deludes them with both Women and Men will find that most of their delights are vain and despicable for the possession of much beauty breeds great pride and high concern and the decay of it creates in such as much discontent and envy at what they then lose and afterwards see others enjoy And so 't is the same with many of Mens Worldly delights which soon become uneasie to the Mind and often destructive to the Body for a debauch of drinking makes most sick and out of order after it and the enjoyment of handsom ill Women causes usually foul Pocky Diseases such French punishment suiting well with such an English transgression for the fondness of an unvertuous Love placed on an unchast Womans beauty is like the Fire of a Candle which lasts no longer than it flames and Candle like assoon as its flame is consum'd it presently expires in a stinking snuff So such a debauch'd Love I should have said Lust commonly ends with the odious detesting thoughts of such a foul and lustful passion which makes him then loath the sinner as he ought still the sin and himself for having committed the folly And if any one of these Venus Courtiers falls in Love with a truly vertuous Beauty hopes to gain his base unchast desires of her by fierce Courtship great adoration large offers of Presents all these thick larded with the common false Oaths of the praises of her great beauty and his great and constant Love the Lingua franca of all Gallants which all still swear to observe but few ever design to perform and therefore handsom Ladies never ought to Credit for surely he that speaks what he does not believe none ought to believe what he speaks but is bound in Conscience and Honour to slight his Courtship and scorn his Offers or else she must do much worse slight her self and reputation too 'T is a Proverbial saying that Love is blind I am sure such a sort of Love is for he will not see the unjust desires he makes to her but only minds the unkind returns she makes to him without ever considering that they spring from her Love to Vertue and a good Reputation but vainly fancies 't is her Love to some happy Lover that 's in her favour and keeps him out which disquiets and torments his Amorous mind with a fierce Jealousie which Solomon calls the Rage of Love and tho young Men are more naturally enflam'd with eager desires in the pursuit of beauty than old Men are for Age to Love is like Water to Wine the more quantity of Water the less strength in the Wine but t is most certain old Men are as able Courtiers and Lovers of Wealth as any young Men can possibly be Riches being like the Sun agreeable and comfortable to all and indeed nothing is more common than to see Covetousness to grow in most with their Age and the reason of it in my Opinion is that all other youthful sprightly delights but that of gaining Wealth decreases as Age increases but the pleasure of Mony all Men can keep as the Heathen do their Gods they adore under Lock and Key But yet this so adored
the best Arguments to bring up the Rear of the Discourse to leave the strongest Impression at the last so God is pleased to reserve for the last the greatest punishment of all which he here threatens by the Prophet when he tells men verse 12. And Women shall rule over them Really 't is a sign the Peoples stay and strength are gone and their prudence out of Power when Women are placed to Rule over them from whence without the help of Philosophy I can easily extract this Observation That the Almighty who sure best knows the abilities of his own Creatures places Women in the same Rank with Children thereby plainly denoting That a Nursery kind of Government suits best with Womens Power and this kind of doctrin is in some manner confirmed by S. Paul though in a larger Character for he ascribes to Women as their fit sphere and proper imployment the guiding of the house that is the Women in it There is an Author who in his discourse of Women very well observes that they have but three States of Life Virginity Marriage and Widdowhood for the first two they are or ought to be states of subjection to Parents and Husbands and for that of Widdowhood God himself counts that state of life to be desolate and sad the Almighty having design'd them for subjection and therefore accounts Women most miserable when most at liberty from Mans Power And now surely out of these reasons and considerations of his I may here safely because truly draw this undeniable Argument and conclusion That it cannot but be very bad for Men to be under Womens Government when God says 't is very sad for Women to be under their own And so I have done with the time when 't was appointed for Women to govern over Men next of course follows the manner how they Ruled and that we have an account of in few words in the 12 verse of that Chapter aforementioned by the Prophet O my people says the Lord Those that is the Women that lead ye cause you to err and destroy the ways of thy Paths Thus we find that error and destruction are the effects of Womens ruling power it being contrary to the ways of Truth for it causeth Error and the Laws of Nature of Reason I cannot say of common Practice and it was here appointed to Women not as a favour but for a punishment as an effect of Gods wrath against his People it being a Reverse of the Fundamental Law which was made by God almost as soon as the World I am sure as early as the first Man in it for Sacred writ tells that 't was laid as a load on the first Woman for her disobedience to her Maker that she should be subject to her Husband and though to be so now is but the practice of very few Wives of our Age yet that do's not hinder it from being the duty of all from the beginning of the World. Therefore let all our high spirited governing Women who make their silly Husbands and foolish Gallants such slaves to their Power because admirers of their beauty remember what one very well observ'd That the day of the date of Womens Power over Man was the day of the date of her sin against God It being most clear and plain that from Adams time the Woman ought to be in subjection to the Man and therefore S. Paul said I will not have the Woman usurp an authority over the Man and seems to give the Reason for first Adam was made then Eve. Seneca well observes in saying There is something of meanness in the most seeming gallant and inviting sin I am sure there is a great meaness of Spirit in Mens so subjecting themselves to Womens power since such must in effect declare that they have lost not only the Courage of Men but the very Nature of Gentlemen what did I say they have lost the Nature of Gentlemen nay I might have added the very natural right and reason of humanity and deserve to loose the great honour of being English Men for such Petty-Coat Men ought to be Transplanted into the Suburbs of England Wales where the Language of that Country fits exactly their effeminate humor who by a kind of Welch Paradox call the Man hur not he and indeed hur suits betten than he with such a sort of female Gentry who are composed of such unmasculine Spirits Really when I reflect on what Crowds there are of this pitiful rank of Men who take so great pride and delight in being constant adorers and humble servants to their Mistrisses beauty not in railery but in reality who are as very happy in their own conceit if their Mistrisses do oblige them with a kind word or favourable look as if the Day Star from above had come to visit them and to lead them into eternal light and that all the Aspects of the Stars had combin'd together to be propitious to them Yet after all 't is a very great pity that these sort of Mistrisses do not bestow on these kind of servants Lace to their Coats for sure they are fools enough to deserve it and I see no reason why such who are so ambitious of their service should refuse to wear their Liveries and be out of Countenance to be known Fools by their Coats when they are not asham'd to deserve that name by their actions Solomon says a slothful Man shall be covered with rags and so indeed ought such Men who are dull and drowsie in the exercise of their own power and over-active in their obedience to Womens for which they well deserve to wear the Colours of their Mistrisses Soveraignity and their slavery on the ragg'd Fools Coat of their own simplicity Sure all such Men as will debase themselves into such an effeminate servitude as to render it both easie and habitual to them cannot pretend in the least to possess a noble or generous spirit for that must be averse to it since it makes a Man not ony unfit to serve his King and Country the duty of every good Subject but even to be useful to himself and family Whereas if young Men studied noble Sciences instead of courting handsom Women who can only divert their Time probably corrupt their Lives whereas the practice of vertue and the study of Men and business with other useful Sciences will refine and strengthen their knowledge fortifie prudence in their actions kindle Magnanimity in their hearts raise glorious desires in their minds and so polish and regulate all the weighty actions of their lives so as to render them fit to serve their Country both in War and Peace and themselves and families to boot which advantage can never redound on either by courting and serving beauty never so long for meer beauty sake And I wonder your beauty Courtiers do not observe that great beauties seldom esteem the long attendance or great services of their Adorers as they ought because they value more their own
most of our vain modish Ladies especially that are the cried up beauties and these our fickle Ladies no less blush I mean if their Peeter would give them leave at their indiscretion in receiving those high praises and believing those great Complements and often repeated Oaths their young Gallants make them when in real Truth these Gallants are as much inconstant to their Mistrisses as their Mistrisses can be to them and their perjured Vows of constancy on both sides weigh as little in themselves as the breath that speaks them which immediatly vanishes into meer Air without ever making the least return their Tongues and Hearts being so great strangers as there 's seldom any correspondence between them so that 't is most certain that such Men may very rationally extract out of Womens fickleness this true Conclusion that the more they confide either on Chance Fortune or handsom Womens Constancy which are all three now a days much alike the more folly as well as falsehood they entertain in their relyance and depending on them Sir John Sucklin was a person of great Wit and Parts and not only highly esteem'd of by the applauded witty Men but by the handsom Ladies of his age and was one who had made many Philosophical Essays on the wavering nature and various windings of many of the Ladies humors and inclinations as far as an extraordinary Wit a plentiful Fortune a liberal Mind an open Purse and a Venus heart could carry him and after having employ'd all these with all the care and industry imaginable he found most young Womens hearts so volatile and inconstant and to come so far short of real Truth as nothing can be farther which occasion'd this noble Knight-Errant to leave behind him in Print this friendly Caution that it might appear as publick as young Womens inconstancy or young Mens folly who pretend to a perfect knowledge and sole possession of a young beauties heart you that propound to your selves propriety in Love know Womens hearts like straws do move and that which you vainly think is Sympathy with you is really but Love to Jet in general Indeed the most experienc'd Venus Philosophers and enlightned Inspectors into the humors of most Womens hearts and affections are apt to make as gross oversights in their guesses and fancies of their making good Wives or true Lovers as the ablest Scamen do often commit mistakes in their sight at Sea sometimes taking Land for Clouds other times Clouds for Land. Really the very best and most able Masters of Art and most Critical Enquirers with their greatest observations and pretences of knowledge as to the Motions of Ladies hearts can only make such imperfect guesses and speculations as Astronomers do of the Operation of the Stars which is but by the great they can give an account of the general order of Providence in their Stations and Motions but can give no certain Rule or true Measure to discern their Influences upon particular actions or bodies no more than they can give a reason other than Gods Will why constant success attends this Mans undertakings and a continued ill fortune waits on another Mans endeavors or why a wicked cursed Tyrant should live out his Natural Life prosperously among his abused Vassals and our highly excellent and truly pious Martyr King Charles the first of ever Blessed Memory should be barbarously Murder'd by his own free Subjects which is a most clear and plain Lesson of instruction not to Judg the true right of Causes by the false light of successes and therefore sober religious Men freely own their ignorance as to the certain Causes of the divers effects of Gods providence as to the event of things in this world there being such an infinity of Causes that depend on one another that good and wise Christians esteem it their best and safest way to live in a state of Neutrality as to a pretending knowledge of the effects of Gods providence in the Issues either of his Mercies or Judgments And truly if our young Gallants were as wise as they ought to be they would also live in a State of Neutrality as to their Judgment of the motions of young Ladies fancies and be satisfied with these general notions that their minds and inclinations are generally bent towards men who are young handsom rich witty high born well bred and the like but how to discern special Causes for particular Occurrences and to be able to tell the true reasons and give the just measures for Womens so often differing and varying in their Love fancies is I believe beyond the power of Man to Judge some Women esteeming the black before the fair others the fair before the black in which few agree or this handsom Man before t'other and sometimes an ugly Man before them both Womens likings to Men being like their mode of governing who tho the power be still the same and certain yet the manner of it is always changeable and inconstant I say in all these changes or rovings of fancy the most knowing and experienc'd Lovers can make at very best but imperfect Guesses almost as very uncertain as Womens Constancy or young Mens Love which indeed is much of the nature of common Hay and Stubble which a little spark lights and a small time consumes young Men being more inconstant in their addresses than very beauty in its duration most of our young Gallants Love being not able to keep up to the same degree of Elevation as the short space wherein their Mistrisses beauty does In a word I think the best Wit and most knowing Lover cannot say better of the nature of Womens Love than what S. Austin said of the nature of the Times I fancy I know it when no body bids me describe it but find I am ignorant of it when any does Truly few of our vain Ladies guide themselves in their Love choices by the clear Light and true Rule of Reason which occasions their being so often misled by the vain Love flashes of their present Airy fancy And indeed when a young Mans alluring beauty or what else you please to call it attracts a young Womans sight and thereby moves her fickle fancy and inconstant likings and so stamps a fierce but hasty impression of Love on her tender slippery heart which commonly makes the newest object the richest prize for indeed most of our modish Ladies Gallants are to them like the Fashions where usually the last Commer is best lik'd and most us'd And the Jest of it is that many of these changeable Ladies being so smitten are apt to believe that this their last Love is the only true one and that all their former Loves were but a kind of Mushrom Love which sprung up in a Night as Mushroms do without any Root but that this their present Love is built on good reason and true consideration and therefore shall be like the Laws of the Medes and Persians unalterable being so deeply engraven in their marble hearts
and the Center point where all the Lines of his happiness did meet She in whom he could find no discontent with or content without She whose presence made a Village as agreeable as London and her absence London as doleful as a Village In short this very She whose Company he esteem'd his Heaven upon Earth no sooner was the flower of her fair and youthful beauty worn off but his fickle passion assoon decays and grows languid and this late Soul of his soul and Joy of his heart turns to be the very clog and burden of his life and from all Mistris becomes all Wife that is she falls from the top of all admiration to the depth of meer misery and from an extraordinary charming delight to an ordinary necessary evil called a Wife And such Husbands commonly call such Wives and so do Wives such Husbands the Yoaks of Liberty and the Stocks of Love and all know that neither of them can be easie or pleasing in such a bondage being an enemy and destroyer of sweet variety so that the Husbands love being decay'd with his Wives beauty he grows weary of her she of him and both of one another And as to a young Mans Marrying an old ugly Wife meerly for her Mony all I shall need say of it is that often such young Men fancy such Mony Wives to be of the same Nature of Mony it self whose vertue consists not in keeping of it but in parting with it and so commonly use such Wives accordingly and thus this wild passionate Love or meer Mony Marriages like wild-fire soon devours and consumes it self in its own flame and Torrent like instead of refreshing it destroys and by over-pressing too violently the course and streams of its Waters soon Ebbs and runs it self dry Therefore that Man that will sell his sweet Liberty and enslave himself into Matrimonial Chains meerly to enjoy a Womans beauty sure he does not know or at least does not consider that still the richer the Metal the heavier the Chain and therefore though his Mistris be never so much the admired object of his present fancy and that I should allow her golden Chains to weigh as long light on his mind as she continues beautiful to his sight yet to bind himself to her in a Matrimonial Vow only on the account of her beauty till death them depart on assurance that he shall feast on her beauty as long as he lives is just such a kind of folly as if a young Man that were a great Lover of Sweet-meats should leave all his business imployments and pastimes to bind himself an Apprentice for seven Years to a Confectioner meerly on the account and assurance that during that time he should every day feast himself on them when very common Experience is able to inform him though his confidence be never so great his inclinations never so eager and his stomach never so good yet 't is natural for him to eat so fiercely at first falling on that like a greedy Hawk he soon over-gorges himself with his own Prey and after having taken a full draught of that sensual delight seeing them continually exposed to his sight and prostrate to his will he comes to hate them as much after enjoyment as he courted them before for though the Fire of Love still burns for enjoyment yet enjoyment still quenches if not extinguishes the fire of Love and he grows in a little time so cloy'd as he wants not only appetite to eat them but almost patience to see them Then when t is too late he accuses the unreasonableness of his prefancied delight on which he built his confidence of a lasting pleasure and allows it to be not only a great folly but sin against reason in any Man to believe that his sensitive nature ought to be gratified when it proposes only a bare satisfaction to the Appetite and cannot secure any durable happiness or content to the reason and judgment of mankind And this is really the cause why so many of our young Gallants now adays make Marriage a kind of Paradox in Love for one of these to obtain the Woman he is in Love with turns his Mistris into a Wife and then t is two to one in a little time to get rid of his late beautiful Mistris being shrunk into the shape of a meer Domestick Wife he parts for ever with his late Mistris to get free from his present Wife and note that tho many Mistrisses turn to Wives yet no Wives ever turn to Mistrisses Wife and Mistris being of the same differing nature as Water and Wine 't is common to drink Wine with Water but of Water to make Wine to Drink was never done but once and that by the first Miracle of our Saviour so that in effect they did but seemingly agree really to fall out piece together to fall asunder and Married to get rid of one anothers Company And 't is some of these unfortunate disagreeing Husbands that says the Translator of S. Pauls Epistles hath left out the word well in one of them for where the Apostle says He that gives in Marriage does well it should have been He that gives well in Marriage does well for all know there are more bad Wives than good and sure all believe that S. Paul was too wise to write or think that any Man could do well in Marrying ill so that I am of opinion the sum of the Apostles meaning by saying He that Marries well does well but he that abstains from Marriage does better has some reference to that good plain English saying That next to no Wife a good Wife is best which occasions my pitying the many Husbands that have bad Wives and the many Wives that have ill Husbands and to wish those few that fancy they have good ones as truly content in their Marriages as I am in my Resolution of never Marrying and I am sure none can deny but that I have this advantage by the Bargain that 't is impossible for me to meet a bad Wife that does not Marry but 't is very possible and common for him that does THE SIXTH DISCOURSE Against Maids Marrying for meer Love or only to please their Parents Inclinations thô quite contrary to their own I Am against Maids Marrying for meer Love because they that Marry for meer Love Marry in a manner for meer fancy and so to feast their sensual appetite on what they then like they often starve the body of what it will hereafter need for tho your fancy may tell you that beauty great store makes Love a feast yet truth can tell you 't is too slender a Diet to make a livelyhood on therefore in my poor opinion 't would be a much wiser course for Maids to make up their Marriages with a good share and large proportion of interest and conveniency to mix with their Love-liking and present fancy for the true and durable content of Marriage is so founded on these two great
beauty Riches carries its troubles as well as delights for there 's great labour in procuring Wealth trouble in defending and preserving it and also great Cares in the well spending it whilst one lives and well disposing of it when we die and so if we look over and search into most Worldly pleasures and vanities we shall find them as contrary to the true repose of this life as they are to the felicities of the next Certainly there is some great Charm in this thing called Praise that tickles the ear inflames the heart raises the spirits enlivens the resolution deludes the reason flatters the hopes and deceives the sight by giving a false gloss and making a counterfeit representation of things for the Bait of Praises for which both Men and Women so strive and eagerly pursue is still painted and set out in the brightest and most oriental charming Colours that are imaginable to allure our eyes inflame our hearts and enliven our ambition But the Hook that is hid in this Bait that is the great dangers hardships and thousands of vexatious disappointments that one must necessarily meet and run thorow in the pursuit of this Idol folly is so obscure artificially drawn as 't is not commonly seen but very ordinarily felt by many in some to their loss of Life and to others of their greatest satisfactions in it And now to put my last finishing Touch to this Picture of Praise the Mistris and Darling of the whole World methinks we ought not to wonder that this adored beauty is so Coy in her Carriage and so difficult to be gain'd if we do but reflect tho in a wholesail manner the sad oversights great mistakes and blind pursuits of its followers of whom I shall only say in general that some are so eager in gazing at it others so over earnest in their seeking it as really most oversee the right way to it which is by true Piety constant Charity and a daily practice of Vertue and Godliness in all their actions And no wonder that such as will not take these blessed Guides should miserably miss their way to it and be sadly defeated in their hopes of it And now having done with my Discourse of Praise give me leave to change the Scene and to pass by the uncertainty of your meeting it tho to reflect on the certainty of deaths meeting you and the terrors that then appear at the end of a vain wicked life and to beg the vain young Ladies Company for a little time that I might lead their thoughts into the sad and dismal Regions of Mortality that they may now consider it to prevent it hereafter from surprizing them and that they may carry their thoughts to the Grave before their friends carry their Bodies The Seasons of our Lives resemble exactly those of the Year the Summer of our Life swallows up the Spring of our Youth and the Autumn of our Age makes us to decline as the Sun does daily of its vigorous heat and influence till all the fair days and various productions of natures beauty at last yeild to old Age Winter as their Grave for as the Apostle says 'T is appointed for every Man once to die and one day is still the death of the other and tho many things may keep back the thoughts of deaths coming yet nothing can retard the time of his approach And now I must humbly beg our vain modish Ladies pardon if I here a little mind them of the sad concluding Scene of their Life and in how miserable a condition some of them must necessarily be in when they come to die and have wasted all their Life in Vanity and Sin little considering Reputation and less fearing Scandal little valuing Conscience and less esteeming Eternity It has often come into my mind that the sad end of such vain Womens Lives is like the last Scene of their Loves to their Gallants which is just as an Ague turned upside down the cold fit after the hot for when the fiery passions of youthful Love are changed through their Inconstancy or worn out by Age or wasted by Sickness for you know that Loves-vanity is but of a short date it either vanishes in the act and is nipped in its gay and vigorous blossom like the tender-leav'd Plants by a cold Northern-wind or else grows wrinkled and impotent like crooked and deform'd shrubs for want of sap and moisture and so grows loathsom and deformed as the grim Jaws of Death that will too at last come with a dreadful stroak to level all our fair Cedars to the ground and make your beauty Ladies to consume away like a Moth fretting a Garment every Woman is therefore but vanity and when you are thus brought to your Death-beds of pain and languishing O then Consider what a sad condition you must needs be in when you will find all your fond beauty and vanity going off the Stage when your life is just expiring when the scorching thoughts of your past vain life come to inflame your mind more fiercely than the burning Feaver can your body and that the remembrance of your past extravagant pride and vanity will torment your troubled Conscience more than ever before they pleased your sensual appetite and that the shivering fit of guilt not only seizes your heart but pierceth your very soul with sad and sober thoughts of your past sins and the strict account that you must soon give of them and of the terrible punishments that you must justly suffer for them when perhaps you cannot comfort your afflicted Conscience with the assurance of having so much as performed in your whole life one pious act or charitable deed when you had both time and means to have performed thousands and so as too many of you do lose the blessings of the other World meerly for slighting Gods mercies in this And farther 't will be well worth the consideration of our vain Ladies that when they lie a dying the sins of their life will flie about their troubled minds as naturally as sparks do about fire and will lighten them to a clear sight of their pride and vanity and their greatest trouble when they are leaving this World is what will become of them when they are out of it and truly it will not be without great cause since their Consciences will then assure them that their Bodily pain in this Life will be but the Prologue or first step to their Souls eternal misery in the next Whereas a pious young Lady who with holy David makes a covenant with her Eyes that they should not behold vanity but observe Gods commandments as her chief study and delight by truly living in his fear she will certainly die in his favour and will find at her death that her good Conscience will be her real friend and true comforter and furnish her with a chearful readiness to submit her will to Gods which will never fail to protect her against all those spiritual