Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A56510
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Oeconomica sacra, or, A parænetical discourse of marriage together with some particular remarks on the marriage of Isaac and Rebecca.
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J. P.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing P62; ESTC R6
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38,180
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146
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Oeconomica Sacra OR A Paraenetical Discourse OF MARRIAGE Together with some PARTICULAR REMARKS ON THE Marriage OF ISAAC and REBECCA Faelices ter amplius Quos irrupta tenet copula nec ullis Divulsus quaerimoniis Supraema citius solvit amor die Horace LONDON Printed for John Salusbury at the Atlas in Cornhil near the Royal Exchange 1685. TO THE Right Honourable JAMES Earl of Salisbury VISCOUNT CRANEBVRN Baron Caecill of Essenden May it please your Lordship THe Doctrine of Vitality and Vegetation as it is the Act of an Omnipotent God so 't is a stupendious Mystery to Man And as the Divine Institution and Legitimacy in prosecuting the Succession of natural Causes and propagation of Corporeal Beings was a clear Indication of Divine goodness and a publick Manifesto to indulge Mankind in Conjugal embraces as Antecedents to those wise and honourable purposes for which Marriage was ordained so the Pravity and Corruption of the humane Nature is visible in those notorious deviations from the Primitive Sanction And the eager pursuite of unlawful and destructive pleasures doth wholly invert the appointed Decorum and this violence of appetite continuing the mind is dealt withall and prepared to an Assent and reason proselyted to the dictates of passion The fatal effects of Fornication and Adulteries are too plainly apparent in destroying bodily health the ruine of Families and Kingdoms the debauching the generality of Mankind the Production of a miserable and obscure Progeny the Atarchy and Confusion in Government the loss of Property in the World the want of Education and Protection of Parents the Abolition of Religion and Devotion and in short the Destruction of the Creation all which are sufficient Punishments in themselves Did I say Punishments I must only call them Sufferings Proaemial to Eternal Torments How will the wiser Heathen condemn such beastial and irrational Practices they valued themselves highly in hopes of their Elysium and Life to come and disdained the Commission of any thing incongruous to such expectations The Holy Resolution of Seneca stands upon record Faciam omnia tanquam Deus videret And hence the Philosopher so much preferred his contemplative Aristotle before his practick felicity and the Poet Claudian tells us That Nature meaning the God of Nature assigns happiness to all men Natura Beatis Omnibus esse dedit si quis cognoverit uti Now who can be so foolish and act Antipodes to his own Reason as to degenerate into Sensuality and uncleanness which inevitably pulls on Everlasting Misery Whereas nothing can more advance the humane Nature to its primitive Dignity and Happiness than Obedience to the Supream Law-giver and nothing can gratifie the Senses of a thinking man but what is licenc't by the bounty of Heaven God having thus admirably consulted the good of Mankind who would not accept of such Gracious Invitations when Conjugal Enjoyments are not only lawful but indulged and man made an Instrument to propagate Posterity and conferr a Religious Education to his Children preserve Honour and Honesty Peace and Concord good Government and decorum in the World and all those Placentia's and Contents of Marriage are but praelibations of celestial Joys hereafter And your Lordships early condescension to the Matrimonial Obligation hath encouraged this Dedication that as your Honour is a Noble Advocate for Marriage so I have great hopes to presume that your Lordship will protect this piece against the licentious humour of a depraved Age when Marriage is decry'd as a restraint upon Liberty and the beaten path of our wiser Ancestors utterly exploded Your Honour 's Most Humble and Faithfully Devoted Servant J. P. E Museo meo Londini dieMaii 25. 1685. THE PREFACE TO THE READER THe French first introduced the solemnity of a Preface and others as well as they have abused it to a great deal of Vanity and out of pretended modesty have largely decry'd their own Works and the Imperfection of their pieces Yet after all to publish them to the World is no better than to adventure upon a Crime against open Conviction and Acknowledgment I would not be here misconstrued but submit to the favourable censure of the Judicious and shall have as low a respect for my own Works as any man And as this Treatise was occasioned by my accidental reading the twenty fourth Chapter of Genesis and composed for my private Recreation at vacant hours but by the importunity of some Friends now made publick so 't is recommended to your vacant time and leisure to peruse it and if it give you but a small diversion and a little benefit consider that even that time which was bestowed on reading of it might have been worse spent ERRATA PAge 64. line 19. for Imperial read Empyrean OF Marriage IT is a Maxim in Nature to affect Happiness and Society Naturae semper in meliorem tendit and to aim at Improvement and Benefit this was at first declared by the God of Nature It is not good for man to be alone and hath since been practised by mankind as the sine quâ non without which the Species could not be preserved because the all-wise God having invested the humane Nature with a Potentia and Organical helps for generation and also given those respective Productions an inherent faculty of life and vegetation he was not further pleased to propagate mankind by Creation as he did the Angels but even in the perfecting their first Species he was not pleased to Create but form the Woman ex materia praeexistente of the Rib of Adam which also implies that as there was an Identity of Materia prima for constituting Organical Bodies so there is also an innate and natural affection and sympathy reciprocal Now it pleased God to tye these two pieces of Nature together by the sacred bonds and Sacramental Ordinance of Matrimony whereby God did not only supply Adam with a meet help for Propagation but also superadded the Comfort and enjoyment of Society the Woman resembling the Man in nature shape body and mind and there being nothing wanting to Adam for the Consummation of his Happiness but a Wife he was made Lord over the Creatures Heir of of the World and seated in Paradise and God providing him a fit Companion hath abundantly supplyed what he wanted and man ever since retains such Principles and Inclinations suitable to the Institution of Nature which by Philosophers is styled previous Dispositions or Aptitudes in matter to attain and seek after which brings us to discourse of Marriage which God Instituted for his own Glory the good of Mankind and benefit of Posterity Marriage being the subject of which we are to treat we will first consider it in its Institution and secondly in its Effects And First It s Appointment is Divine A priori After God had said It is not good for man to be alone it follows Let us make a meet help for him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for man is by nature a