Eve as the Cause all tho she was first caught in the transgression However the case stood between Adam and Eve I verely perswade my selfe that the same Serpent who was both their Tempter was likewise the first sower of dissention between man and wife Doubtless it never proceeded from God who bound them in so strong a bond of love It never proceeded from man who so strongly established his love If neither from God nor from man from whome then I pray you but from the Devil Who is that grand hater of Love and lover of hatred Neither is this position a childe of my own fancie or the conceit only of some other far more learned witt St. Chrysostome is the author Satan sayth he cunningly insinuated himself into the company of man and wife and craftily and wickedly disjoyned their hearts whom God before had joyned where by strife and contention doe doe now oft times reigne with them in Stead of love and contentment May it please you therefore who are rigorous husbands to your wives or such as are maintainers of this strife engendering Opinion to take notice of the Author thereof A worthy patron believe it for unworthy a practise a famouse founder of such impious and inhumane acts Heaven abhors it the earth was not so base to invent it Hell must be sought and the Devil found out for the first broacher thereof I think then is no man so shameless but would blush or at least might be ashamed to take his practise a notorious wicked man who is abominable to God and all sober men and will there be fonnd afterall all that 's sayd any monsters who will be Apprentices to the Devil to learne a Trade from Him Were there no other reason in the world to deterr if not perswade men from this hatefull Impiety but only this that it hate THE DEVIL for its Author methinks this might be Sufficient motive to rayse up a reall indignation and abhorrencie thereof especially when it is so detestable to God and to his sacred Lawes so opposite to the Law of Nature and that instinct planted in bruite beast so Contrary to the beeing life and wellfarâ— of mankind so destractive to Reason such a professed Enimie to true Religion In a word the publique shame and disgrace oâ— such wicked men and the grief and lamentation of all that are good CHAP. VI. The Conclusion MY conclusion shall therefore be an earnest request unto all married persons that as they are bound by the Laws of Reason and humanity by the lawes of God and man and as they have most solemnly given their plighted faith one to an other in the Church of God and before his all seeing ey so that they would both conscienciously make it their care and study how to Honour God in this honourable Estate of theirs and if contention must arise let it be a godly and zealous emulation who shall exceed each other in all the duties of Love according to that mutuall ' obligation one towards the other in that Sacred Bond of Mysticall Union where in they stand Husbands love your wives as Christ loveth his Church count not that all you can doe or suffer for their good can be too much Christ loves his Church with the dearest of all loves he thinks nothing too good too choise too deare for them provided they doe but all their endeavour to walke answerable to this Love Resolve your selves what due authority God hath given you over your wives and in extraordinary and difficult circumstances c. trie that utmost of your lawfull bound but never Stepp into that thorny field of rigour Severity sullen morosity or cruell Tyrannie which all sober ingenious and godly men have shunnd and fixed a brand of perpetuall shame and ignominie on every persons forehead who shall be found walking in that Aceldama or field of blood and unto whom God hath denounced a certaine curse VVives Love honour and obey your husbands in the lord as the church Loves Christ and learn how to rule and raigne for so Christ promiseth his Church shall Raigne with him by a dutifull a humble meek and wise subjection unto his golden Scepter of purest love And as undefiled love is the Churches greatest glory so should it be the greatest honour and dignitie to every wife to fix an Imperiall and sparkling Diademe of Flaming love upon her husbands head which as this Crounes his soveraigne brow with victorious lawrell so likewise doth it blazen forth her worth and by so much the more exalts her praises Both husbands and wives live together as One in that Unity of Soule as you are pronounced to be One in the unity of body and flesh husbands condescend to please your wives in all that with Deciency you may and be not bitter or rigid to them and you wives submitt â—nto your husbands in whatsoever lawfull commands and so the God of Love and peace will delight to take up his habitation in your houses when you lie down he will defend you when you sleep he will command his Angells to protect you when you awake he wilâ— meet you and converse with you he will teach and instruct you in all his ways and choose the path he would have you walk in and hold up all your steps in those his pathes and open fountains of his refreshing Love to your thirsty soules when 〈◊〉 wearyed in you pilgrimage throâ—â—â— this 〈◊〉 solitary and desolate wilderness and will never leave you nor forsake you but build you up as living and precious stones in his Spirituall building to your own mutuall confort and peace the good of your friends and acquaintance the usefullness and benefit of the Church of CHRIST and of your generation the everlasting hapines and welfare of your preciouss and immortall soules both in this life and in the life to come Which hath no FINIS †Seneca 5. 13. ep 89. b Tacit. hist 3. lib. ad princip a Ausoni 9. de great action ad Augst b D. G. in his Act at Oxf. 1608. c Chrys homil 57. on Gen. 29. c Cyclopes furiunt isti ut quidem Doctiss virj conjâ—ciunt ex Homer l. 9. Odiâ—si Transt ex Strozio Laur. post Plin. natur hist l. 10. c. 24. 29. Plin. hist nat l. 1. Transt â— Virgil. S. Ambrosius tom 1. l. 5. c. 7. Hex m. Arist de hist animal a a lib. pol. cap. 1. b 6. Tacit. lib. de mor. Germ. c lib. 10. c. 2. de Rom. Antic d Comment de bello Gallit e Stobaeus ex quorecitat Patr. lib. 4. in 3. Bodin de rep 1. f Plin. l. 14 cap. 13. g Arnobius lib. 5. contragentes Hom. illd 5. a Zeno ph in Cyrosuo b Martrialls Epigr. c Tit. Liv. in divers historicis ab urb cond d Frontinus in 4. lib. strat de P. sew suet in Tiberiâ— de C. Altiliâ— e Lucan f D. Hieromus a Plin. l. 10. c. 3. c De qua
〈◊〉 down in theise or equivalent terme or otherwise pass'd by any positivâ— Sentence or verdict that it is lawfâ— for a man to beate his wife Bâ— whatsoever is cited thence are eithâ—â— far fetchd conclusions or unfriendâ— Sequels which hang as well togethâ—â— when touched by a judicious Tryalâ— as the joynts of a rotten carcasse gibâ—beted together when tossed with 〈◊〉 violent winde There beeing nothing then directlâ— against us in the substance of the Lawâ— let us see what the Shadowes thereoâ— I meane the Interpreters thereof please to determine whose opinionâ— I finde as various as they make thâ— Subject of their opinion unconstantâ— and therefore I must place them iâ— their severall rankes In the first ranke are such who yet peremptorily â—old it lawfull But findâ—ng themselves oppressd with contrary reasons as â—en all together desperate use such turnings and windâ—ngs such sorry evasions and contradictions such â—oor shifts and trivial Soâ—hisms as the learned may â—wel laugh at the ignorant and maliciouse admire If you have seen a mill horse â—pacing his circle or a Spannel turning round after his taile you may justly conceive how those men tread the mare of their uncertain opininion Some of them and amongst theise bad the best hold it lawfull but not convenient Some a little more hardy and bold then the first think it both lawfull convenient but it must be but a little fâ— sooth slightly and but seldome having indeed foâ—â—gotten or else having neveâ— learned that circumstanceâ— can but lessen a fault never of aâ— action absolutly evil convert it into good Some other there are thâ— overgrowne Monsters of Tyranniâ— who proclaime it with their open mouth for fooles proclaime their owne folly c. that a husband may beate his wife much or little according to his own pleasure and as he sees occasion nay that he may publiquely shame her and if he like imprison her too but theise are such men who seeme to have banished all humanity of an yron heart of a brasen brouw and so cankerd with vice and the dangerous rust of Passion that vertue can take no impression in them For what is that letheth loose the raines of furie and gives madness its full Scope what is it that violates the holy rites of marriage what is it that infringeth the sacred bonds of Love what is it that breedes horried and domesticall massacres what is it that abolisheth all vertuous and matrimonall Societie if this doth not In the Second ranke are those who out of a staid judgment and upright minde hold it not only unlawfull but an Odiouse Unmanly and Unseemly thing Odious in respect of the breach of their faith given in wedlock Unmanly in regard of the womans weaknesse and imbecility Unseembly for examples Sake and therefore upon all theise considerations that it is all together unlawfull VVhose praise the sacred boddesse of Eternity Keepes hallowed in the Eternall Shrine of fame Vertue doth build Them Trophees Dignitie Crownes their desert and waites upon their Name And worthy are they of a marble Stone Made blessed by an Homers pen or none In the third ranke are such who tho they have written whole Tracts and large Volumes concerning the Estate of wives of their dowries of their inheritance of their portions of their vowes of their divorcements and many other circumstances yet have not a word of this question nor doe they vouchsafe to grace it with a gracefull terme Perchance because they thought it so hainous and ugly a paradoxe as unfitt to be matchd with so many honest and goodly precepts of the Law or else so vile a position as unworthy to be affirmed by a Lawyer These are the Opinions so disagreeing you see and all together contrary that whosoever weigheth that in the true scales of an upright judgment cannot rest satisfied for where truth seemeth to have taken up her Habitation Their Authority hath disguised her and where she cannot be found there fancie must needs attempt to describe her Every man making an Idol of his own conceit and partially impairing another mans judgment Not finding therefore in them the certainty we seeke for let us therefore compare reason unto reason and Oppose Lawyer unto Lawyer conferr Opinion with opinion And drawing from the law it selfe certain grounds and foundations in this point by a full and free discussing of the matter we shall give the reader a cleare and faire Light by which every one that runns may reade the truth of what we are maintaining My first grounds shall be the superiority of husbands over their wives where unto answereth the reverence of wives towards their husbands This Supperitie appeares first in the manner of their wedlok wherein the woman was made out of man and for man and given in Tuition by God unto man Secondly in the difference of their sexe because Nature and the God of Nature in every kinde hath given preheminence unto the male Thirdly in mans universall soveraintie which he received over all creatures when God enstalled him his Vice-roy over all the visible Creation And yet for all it was not so absolute a prerogative of his fellow-woman as it was in respect of others because she was joynd in commission with him yet such it was as might well be are the title of Superioritie for the man and require of the woman a duty of reverence But neither is the one so predominant nor the other so servile as that from them should proceede any other fruites but of a royall Protection and legall Subjection My second ground shall be the power and command of husbands over their wives Whereunto answereth the Obedience of wives toward their husbands And heer I need not weary out my pen in deciding the controversies touching the authority of husbands concerning their wifes goods possessions lands dowries c. Only pertaining to my purpose is the command over their persons Which the Law determines to consist partly in imposing on them convenient labours for the supportance of their Estate Chiefly in exacting the rights of marriage for the procreation of Children and avoidance of lust To the former as much as in her lyeth the wife must yeeld obedience To the latter unless or some restrictions which my modesty forbears to mention she is legally bound to give contentment Nevertheless in both hard it is to be judged whither the husband should command with greater Obeysance or the wife obey with greater command so both entirely strive to expresse the lively effects of so perfect an Union and so both interchangeably labour for the building up of the Temple of Love My third ground shall be the correction lawfully used by the husbands against their wives where unto answereth the submission required of wives unto their husbands This correction beeing a punishment must according to the rule of law be proportioned unto the fault punished The faults of wives towards
not much different c Pucatus told Theodosius to governe by example then by Soverity Every good example is a most pleasing invitation unto vertue where the eye is guided unto present action not the ear fed with fained speculation And heerupon was Petrarch his opinion grounded that a mimicall husband will make a lascivious wife a riotous husband avoluptuous wife a proud husband a proud wife a modest and honest husband a modest and honest wife Wherefore it is St. Augustines councell that such as we would have our wives appeare unto us the same we should first approove our selves unto them Would we have them chaste Civile in Carriage courteous and obliging pure and unspotted in the world we then must walke before them as the patterns of Chastity of Civilitie of Obsequiousnes and of irreprehension For what reason have we to expect more of them then we can performe our selves It is a silly master that offendeth in those faults for which he is offended with his pupil So is it an impudent and impious fellow sayth Seneca who of his wife requires an undefiled bed and yet he himselfe defiles it By our vertuous demeanure then we must direct them in the way of vertue for there are none of them so vicious who will stick to tell us we are their masters and ought to leade them an example It is reported by esteemed authors that in some places the husbands only are punished for the faults of their wives In Catalonia whosoever is Cuckoled payeth a Sum of money in Parrice he rideth in disgrace through the Citty the crier proclaiming these words before him So doe so have In some parts of England I have seen a custome not much different All which though they are well neare worne out of date yet their primarie intent was vertuous beeing to restrain husbands that they may love none but their own wives and dwell with them so that neither should need any other companie but by their mutual example one should be a president to the other of true Chastity and Affection Thus then to draw to wards my end and only thus may a husband lawfully correct his wife Admonition is his first degree for smallest faults and this must proceede from a pacient love or a loving pacience The next is Reprehension in greater offences which must aime at the amendment of the faults not offending of the faultie And both of theise must be seconded by our good example that the world may see us doe those things which we would have done by others Lastly in the last and highest degree is Divorce in Such cases as are before alledged Now for further satisfaction to proove that the Lawes allow not any verberall Correction I have added theise few reasons First if a husband may lawfully beate his wife then is the wife legally bound to indure his beating for the Law gives not authoritie to the punisher but there with injoynes Obedience on the punished But the Law bindes not the wife to such blockish pacience for in such a case it allowes her to depart from her husband and to obtaine sufficient maintainance of her husband in the time of her absence Neither doth it limitt her any time to returne if she feare his Tyrannie nor yet constraines her to live againe with him unlesse for her good usage good securitie be given her In answer whereof that shift will not serve to say the Law authorize the man to beate his wife but slightly and not with such crueltie as may cause her to depart This is too course a salve for such a sore for a little beating to same women is more then much unto others and therefore it will breed the same or worse effects and how little soever it is they are not bound to take it Secondly a The Law decrees that he Less grievously offends who killeth his mother then he who killeth his wife though both be most haynouse and execrable sinns He by rule of disputation I conclude therefore allso he less grievously offends that beates his mother then he who beates his wife But what a horrid and barbarouse Crime is it for a man to beate his mother judge you and then allso judge what the other is which is worse then that And whatsoever is sayd by Lawyers of the first proposition some plainly affirming it others mincing it which distinction availeth nothing for if as many doe you hold the offence greater in respect of the greater punishment alloted it by Law but less in it selfe and of his own nature I would demand of you whither the Law doth not proportionate every punishment to the qualitie of everie offence To small offence light punishments to greater punishments of a greater nature and to those that are most haynous punishments of the Severest kind Which if you graunt you must necessarely acknowledg the truth of the first proposition if you deny this you accuse the law of Injustice Or otherwise if your reply be as most mens is that heerin the Law was most especially mindfull and because men are more prone to injure their wives then their parents as very sad accidents doe most usually testifie therefore for greater terrour to such offenders and more Evident Examples to other spectators the law more severely punished the one then the other If thus you pleade I then joyne hands with you and in the present case give the same sentence Because men are more prone to beate their wives then their parents therefore in law the act shall be held more hay nouse because by law the punishment must be more grievouse Thirdly the name of a wife is a name of dignitie The Law stiles her thy familiar friend thy equal thy associate the Mistress of thy house to speack all in one word the same person and Inviduum as it were together with thy selfe If therefore she bear the name of dignity she is to be respected If thy familiar friend she is to be embraced If thy equall associate she is to be equally regarded If thy Mistresse she is to be honoured if thy very self she is as entirely and dearly to be beloved as thy selfe All which duties of an husband are necessarily intended by the law and are as contrarie to the rough and unkinde usage of a wife as fire unto water heaven unto earth And for the mittigation which is heer by some men interposed in way of answer unto this Objection which is that in the stricktnes of law it is lawfull for a husband to beate his wife but it is very inconvenient and undecent c. it is a plaine and peevish contradiction and injuriously robbeth the law of the great end wherefore it was instituted For the end of the law is the happy government of a Nation and families of which a State or Kingdome is constituted which happynes is in nothing more eminently Seen then in the decent conformitie of manners and orderly behaviour in all estates
are guided by no vertue nor directed unto any end who but fortish persons and stonie hearts will lay their violent hands on a woman the Pattern of Innocencie the Queen of Love the Picture of Beautie the Mistress of Delights who could with blowes deface those rich ornaments of nature Who could quarrell with her cheekes so purely mixt with lillies and roses who could violate those eyes the spheares of light and love stones of affection who could wrong those lipps the two folding gates of precious Rubies who would not imagine those ivorie armes fitter for imbracing then buffeting And who but would think those snowie hands and fingers of theirs more fitt to embroyder the outward fonnes of those admirable Ideas within their ravishing fancies and sparkling soules rather then to handle a fencers cudgell to secure their lives and those Liberties which God Nature and their own choise merits by the consent of all mens Reason in its due exercise hath by so many pledges and signalls confirmed on them from time to time as Their true and undoubted Right Beauty must not acquaint her self with warres And therefore hates such men as love such Jarrs And tho all women are not beautyfull neither hath nature bestowed all perfeactions every wife yet a true loving husband must imagine them All centering in his truly beloved wife for Love esteemes not a thing beloved as in it self it is but as it appeares in the lovers eye and therefore a woman that is not faire may make a faire wife to that husband in whose thought she is faire for he sees her with his own not with anothers eyes loves her only with his own heart and not anothers and enjoys her only to his own content in her then whom need he please besides himself So that if thy wife be not fairer to thy self then other women are thou lovest her not truly and if thou lovest her not why didst thou make choise of of such a companion whom thou lovest not why didst thou dissemble with God before whom thou didst profess a love why didst thou lye unto Man in whose presence thou promisedst Love Or if she be as indeed she ought to be fairer in thy own eye because dearer to thy own heart with what countenance with what arts with what vaine pretensions canst thou turn rebel unto love and presently hate her whom but now thou lovedst Or with what face canst thou look upon thy beloved spouse and instantly beate her No no heaven may as soone sink into hell as perfect Love turne into hatred and whole rivers of water may as well spring out of flames of fires as rigid behaviour or violent blowes proceed from fervent Love In a word therefore if thou lovest not thy wife thou hast playd the hypocrite and so canst not beate her but thy actions must needs aloud proclaime thy guilt and shame thy perpetuall disgrace and Infamie But if thou lovest her thou hast only performed thy vow and solemne marriage Covenant and so with due respect than must honour her all the dayes of thy life Neither may it be thought a small reason to deterr all husbands from such unworthy demeanure and bruitish violence to forecast the dangers that may ensue thereof for diverse women beeing of a diverse Stature strength complexion and disposition there must needs fall out a diverse event of such an action If such men schould chance to marrie with as stout and valiant women as Panthiselca was amongst the Amazones or the Lady Pathenia of Greece or the Empress Livia in Rome or some other of far less valour and after a while from Cupids warres fall unto Martiall armes I question whither their Pigwigg in valour would save them from Myrmidon like blowes If I should marry a weake and feeble wife such a one whose courage is daunted with a word whose Innocence is her defence â—hose yeelding her resistance and â—et play the Tyrant still and so make â—er feeld a 1000 deaths in life and at 〈◊〉 satisfie her long lingring hopes â—â—ith the well come approaches of beâ—â—ved death I am certain my own â—ad humor and obstinate will cannot â—â—ee me from the great Tribunall of â—eavens sacred Law and though I â—ight skinn over the deep wounds â—f an exulcerated conscience with â—ome pïtty full inconsiderable and â—ivolous Excuses yet all would not â—roove a sufficient plaister to remoove â—â—at indelible Stygma which God and â—an the Lawes of reason and humaâ—ity would most undoubtedly imâ—rint with Capitall Letters on my â—â—re head and Let all such Catne-like â—ispositions look to it for certainly â—engeance must and will pursue such â—â—en and overtake them tho they â—ay per chance escape mans Scourge â—uppose I should marrie a modest â—nd vertuous wife whose speech â—hose gate whose carriage and behaviour are as clear as Christall 〈◊〉 without blemish and yet all pleasâ—â— me not without some civill unciviâ— warres how should I live Offensivâ— to my friends by some of them upâ—â— braided by others of them scorneâ— and contemned by my enemies reproached and reviled hated of moâ—â— men and be loved of none And I should light on a light huswife whâ—â— yet beeing civily treated and might civilly demeanâ— her self but beeing troddeâ— upon as every worme 〈◊〉 will turne again how justly how deservedly-might 〈◊〉 weare Vulcans night capâ— on my paperskull 〈◊〉 fooles holydays and in 〈◊〉 devotion peel-garlick like doe perpetuall hommagâ— whither with devout zealâ— or not that matters nothing unto Cynthias budding Homes Now thereforâ— â— far safer course it is for us to lay aside â—ur learned weapons and rest in termes 〈◊〉 and armes of Love then to venture our selves on this double Jeopardie the event whereof at the very best will be but base and dishonourable And let our wives be what they be it is our wisdome now to love them since it was our Lott to have them and that our marriage was made in heavens Court whither we have many friends in that place or not yet it is no less our wisdome then it is our dutie to rest contented in the declared minde and will of God If we have good wives le ts bless god and study to walk answerable to so Choise a mercy one of the greatest comforts â—onder heaven and if we have bad â—ones le ts endeavour with meeknes and Christian Charity to cover their multitude of Sinns with the Azure victorious Mantle of true Love â—or if that cannot be yet at least let us endeavour to make the best improovement of that sore Affliction and pray to god for faith and paciencâ— quietly to beare that Cross remembring all this wile that whatsoever moates we spye in them yet thaâ— many beames remaine still in ouâ— eyes And as the private event of theise unnaturall variances and discours must needs be inconvenient to our selves so the publique Example thereof is noâ— less pernicious to the Common and Publique good for whatsoever in this kind
is committed within our own familie is acted as is were upon an open Theater where we have many sorts of spectators and each severally affected to us our Children servants neighbourhood sometimes our nearest kindred and often times our dearest friends Who perchance as most men are beeing ready to follow the ill example of others may proove by little the very abstracte of impietie Especially in this case when we have experience of so many cruell and execrable murthers Some through open Tyranny as of Pompeja by Nero some thro secret Villanie as of Apronia by Sylvanus some thro strangling some thro false accusing too too many by languishing away of their husbands monstrous unkindnesses With all which kindes I could wish that this our white Albion had never ben bespotted Now in those hainouse-Crimes though diverse perchance abhorre to be Actors yet not unlike but there are some who secretly hold the principles which breede theise sad conclusions and are Abettors of Theise Crimson colourd crimes and secret encouragers of those Tyrannicall husbands who are thus presumptuously bold to disturb the common peace of humane life and turne what in theâ— lies the very course of Nature into a Confused Chaos of contention and disorder Let all such persons knowâ— that even they themselves who are the Secret contrivers how to dissolveâ— this Oeconomicall Harmony between man and wife and thereby to Crackâ— the Axeltrees of our Microcosme 〈◊〉 under with whose ponderous weighâ— the burdend Earth beginns to Sinkâ— into the Gulph of dark Confusion c. as well as the notorious Actors of this sad Trigaicall Dissention are both equally and a like guilty in the sight of God as well as man and in due time will receive the reward of their Unrighteous Actions Besides suppose all such persons reall Atheists in principle as well as in life and conversation and expected neither a heaven to reward the good nor yet a hell to punish their black deeds and let us take our arguments to convince their reason if they â—ave any left for to be sure their Conscience is wasted every inch â—â—om that which respects the adâ—antages and benefits of this life What great hindrance must this needs 〈◊〉 to any publique Preferment for â—ow can he be thought fitt to manage the affaires of a Kingdome in any place of eminent trust who is not able to keep order in his own house how can the Magistrate safely confide in that mans integrity who deales so treacherously which the wife of his Covenant nay more with his own Conscience and his Sacred Vowes unto Almighty God How can he well preserve peace amongst the multitude of various humours and inclinations who is at daylie strife in his own familie and with the wife of his bosome Her who ought to be his dearrest and most entirely beloved Gordias the Rhetorician made an Oration to the Greekes who were at that time in some disordeâ— amongst themselves to perswade theâ— unto Concord and having generaâ—â—ly wonn the hearts of both sides Melanthius his adversarie replyeâ— O yee foolish Greecians is this fellow fitt to persuade you to agreement who lives himself in perpetuall diâ—sention Can he rule the wholâ— Citty think you in peace where are so many diverse minds as therâ— are diverse men and yet was neveâ— able to govern his house in quiet 〈◊〉 where are none but himself and hiâ— wife Which speech of his to this effect so possessed the people that what before they were fully persuaded of they now but faintly beleived and so by degrees falling into perfect relapse of discord and whereas at the beginning they entertaineâ— him with good applause in the end they hisd him from the barr with this acclamation Gordias rule thy self first at Rome then after rule us at Olympia Neither was this Gordias fortune only but is a common brand of infamy to all his followers who allways by their evil carriage in private draw unto them suspition of their like publique government Wherefore antiquity hath ben very provident heerin when as the chief quests at their marriage feastes used to offer sacrifice for those who were married But before they come unto the Altar they purifyed their Oblation from its gall and spiced it with fragrant odours A Custome in my opinion not so ceremonious as judicious whose morall is given by the best morallist to prevent a duty of man and wife that in them should be no gall or bitterness but the sweet relich of pleasing love They themselves should bear Virgils vine and Elme the tend ernes of the one supported by the others strenth Their hearts as Ledas twins both interchangably imbracing each other Their house as a Platos citty wherein nothing must be called mine or thine but all things common unto themselves nothing peculiar to the husband nothing proper to the wife which upon eithers occasion is not to be imparted to the other And if those singular partes and parabels of friends whose fame with golden wings flies throughout the world had nothing that was singular but all things mutuall In prosperity mutuall Joy in adversity mutuall sorrow in adventures mutuall aide in victories mutuall Triumph in all things mutuall Love the mother of this mutuality how much more may we rationally expect should be in marriage If possible a stronger bond of friendship where besides the present fruition of a mate ordained by God to be a reall and meet help at need is added the hopefull expectation of future issue Now we never read or heard that any of those inseparable friends fittly compared to Aeneas and Achates c. who gave a blow unto each other nor so much as stirred up to attempt such a thing by the wirlwinde of tempestuouse Passion or otherwise induced thereunto by any occasion whatsoever and why then should husbands sue for a tolleration to beate their wives to whom as they are in Society more early linkd so in love more dearly engaged then to their dearest friend their wife 's beeing one individuall person with themselves Many are the friendly offices of thy friend but many more of thy wife the friend of thy bosome who sitts at thy table and lies nearest to thy heart She it is who shares with thee in all thy grievances and lessens thy burden she partakes of thy joy and augments thy chiefest pleasures in matters of doubt she is thy Councellour in distresses thy Comforter she is a Co-partner with thee in all the Accidents of life Neither is there any sweeter taste of friendship then the coupling of soules in this mutuallity either of condoling or comforting where the opressed minde finds it self not all together miserable since it is sure of one who is feelingly sorrie for his misery And the joyfull spends not his joy either alone or there where it may be envyed but freely sends it to such a well grounded object from whence he shall be sure to receive a sweet reflexion of the