Prov. 12. 4.
‘A virtuous Woman is a Crown unto her Husband.’
AS in one
Day and
Night, all life we find;
As more of either is the
same again;
So each
Wife is a
Brief of
Woman-kind,
And doth,
in little, full as much contain:
God
form'd her so▪ that to her
Husband she,
Like
Eve, should all the
world of Woman be.
So
form'd he
both, that
neither power he gave
Vse of them-selves, but by
Exchange, to make:
Whence in their
cheekes the
Fair no
pleasure have,
But by
reflex of what thence others take:
Our
lips in their own
Kiss no
Sweetness find;
And both our
Eyes are, t'ward our own
Face, blind.
Thus God in
Eve a
perfect man begun;
Till now, in vain much of him-self
Man had:
In
Adam God created only one;
Eve and the
World to come, in
Eve he made.
We are
two halfes: While
male from
female straies,
Both barren are;
Joyn'd, both their
like can raise.
At first both
Sexes were in
Man combind;
Within his
Body, Man did
She-man breed:
Adam
was Eves, Eve
Mother of Mankind;
Eve from
live-flesh, Man did from
Dust, proceed:
One thus made
two, Marriage unites again;
Two Sexes
make one flesh, One flesh
makes Twain.
Since
Man
[...]d but the
well-being of this life
From
Woman took; Since
Being, She from
Him;
Since God at first created
Eve a
Wife,
Since her
Sex did, for
Adams sake begin;
Marriage is
Womens Crown: their
Being then,
Their now-Perfection, they receive from
Men.
Marriage; to all whose joyes
two parties be;
Whose
joyes are
doubled, being
parted so;
Wherein the bed of love
is Chastitie;
Whereby two Soules
into one Body
go;
Which makes
two, one, while
They two living be,
And, after death,
one in their
progenie.
God to
each man a
private Woman gave,
That in that
Center his
Desires might stint;
That he a
Consort like Himself might have,
And that on Her
his like he might imprint:
Double is
womans use: part of her end
Doth to
this Age, part to the
next, extend.
We fill but
part of Time, and can not die
Till we the world a
fresh supply have lent:
Children
are Bodies
sole Eternitie:
Nature
is Gods, Art
is Mans,
instrument;
Now all
mans Art no
living Thing can make,
But herein
Men in
Things of life partake.
For
wandring Lust; I know 'tis infinite;
It still
begins, and
adds not more to more:
The
Guilt is
everlasting, the
Delight
This instant doth not feel, of
that before:
The
Tast of it is onely in the
Sense;
The
Guilt is
poison in the
Conscience.
Woman is not
lusts bounds, but
Woman-kind;
One is
Loves number; Who from that doth fall
Hath lost his Hold, and no
now rest shall find;
Vice
hath no Mean,
but not to be at all:
A
Wife is that
Enough which
lust can't find;
For
lust is still with
want, or
too much, pin'd.
Bate
lust the
Sin, my share is even with
His;
For not to lust,
and to enjoy,
is one:
And (more or less past) equal
Nothing is;
I still have
one; He
one at once, alone:
And, though the
Woman be oft
varied, He
Is still the same
without varietie.
If in a
single life we take no joy,
Marriage our
Lust (as 'twere with fewell fire)
Will▪ with a
Medicine of the same, allay;
And not
forbid, but
rectifie, Desire:
When high
flames threaten
chimnies, lay on
wood;
This
makes the
Fire, and
keepes the
Fabrick, good.
Nor doth my
Marriage order
lust alone;
A
Second-selfe may help me every way;
And, 'gainst my failings, make me
two for one:
My self I cannot chuse, my
Wife I may;
And, in the
choice of Her, it much doth lie,
To mend
My self in my
posteritie.
O rather let me
love, then
be in love;
So let me
chuse, as
Wife and
Friend to find;
Let me forget her
Sex, when I
approve;
Beasts likeing dwells in
Sense, but
Ours in
Mind:
Our
Soules no
Sexes have; their
Love is clean,
And (like
Souls) pure;
Wives, in their
Souls, are
Men.
But
Physick for our
lust their
Bodies be;
But
matter fit to shew our love upon;
But merely
shells for out
Posteritie:
Their
Souls were given, lest
men should be alone:
Without Words Bodies
are no companie;
And, but the
Souls interpreters, Words be▪
What
goodly Frame we see of
Flesh and
Blood,
Their
Fashion is, not
Weight; It is (I say)
But their Lay-part,
but Well-digested food;
'Tis but, 'twixt
Dust and
Dust, Lifes
middle-way:
Of no worth were the
Lump of Flesh that's seen,
Did it not
entertain a
Soul within.
All the
Externall Beautie of my
Wife
Is but
skin-deep, but to two
Senses known;
Short even of
Pictures, shorter liv'd then
life;
Yet doth that
Love survive which's built thereon:
For our
Imagination is so high,
That Bodies mett
can't true love
satisfie.
All
Shapes, all
Colours, are alike in
Night;
Nor doth our
Touch distinguish
Foul, or
Fair,
But our
observing Mind, and
busie Sight;
These, but one week: By
mutual converse are
Both made
alike, which
differed at first view;
Nor can
long Absence first
dis-likes renew.
Nor can those
Features seated in her
Face,
(More then through
self-deluding Fancies) be
Of us
enjoy'd in an
inferiour place:
Nor, in
enjoying, can those
Features she
Her-self make
Ours: Love, while it
rangeth, errs;
We
doat on
lookes which are, not
Ours, but
Hers.
Birth less then
Beautie shall my reason blind;
Her
Birth comes to my
Children, not to
Me:
Let me (that
active Gentrie) virtue find,
Rather then
(passive Gentrie) Ancestrie:
Alive in Her more worth
one virtue is,
Then all the rest dead in her
Pedegrees.
For high
Degrees; High rather be she plac'd
In gifts of
Nature, then of
Policie;
Gentrie is a good
Relique of
Times past;
Yet
love doth only
what is present see.
Things were first made, then
Words: She is the same
With, or without, this
Title, or that
Name.
As for (the odds of
Sexes) Portion;
Nor will I
shun it, nor mine
Aim, it make:
Bi
[...]th, Beautie, Wealth, are nothing worth alone;
All these I would for
good Additions take,
Not for
good Parts: They two are ill combind,
Whom what they have,
not what they are,
hath joynd.
Instead of
these, the Object of my
love
Shall
Virtue be: When
these with
Virtue go,
They (in themselves inifferent)
virtuous prove;
What's
good (like
fire) turns all things to be
[...]:
Thine
image in her
Soul, LORD; let
Me place
My
love upon, not
Adams in her
Face.
Good is a fairer
Attribute, then
White:
This (the
Minds beautie) keepes the other
sweet:
This is nor
born, nor
mortall, with the
light;
Nor
gloss, nor
painting, can it counterfeit:
Nor doth it raise
Desires which ever tend
At once, to their
perfection, and their
End.
I, by a
Good, a
Holy Wife designe;
So
God she cannot love, and not love
Me;
Mans law can onely
Words and
Deedes refine,
Gods law
our inward Thoughts
doth Sanctifie:
Whence a
Maid ravish'd more a
Virgin is,
Then that
Maid which hath onely
wish'd amiss.
Lust onely by
religion is with-stood:
Lust▪ Object
is with-out,
its Strength within;
Moralty resists but in
cold blood;
Respect of
Credit feareth
Shame, not
Sin:
But no place
dark enough for such
Offence,
She findes, that's
watch'd by her own
Conscience.
Now may I trust her
Body with her
Mind;
Yea,
here-upon secure, I nere shall rue
The
pangs of
Jealousie; yet
Love doth find
More
pain to
doubt, then
know, she is
Vn-true:
For
Patience is the
Cure of Evils-known;
But
Doubt is still
impatient, Doubt hath none.
Be then that
Thought once stirr'd, 'twill never die;
Nor will my
greif more mild by custom prove:
Untill her
new life my
Fears satisfie,
Th'
Anguish is more or less, as is my
Love:
This
punishment to
Jealousie is due,
That it
may prove one
False, can't prove one
True.
Suspicion
may the Will of Lust
restrain,
Goodness prevents from having
such a will;
A
Wife that's
Good doth
Chast, and
more, contain;
Chastitie is but
Abstinence from ill,
And is, though in a
Wife that's
bad, the best
Of
qualities, in a
Good Wife the least.
Prudence must keep us
Chast, not
Jealousie:
Such
lawfull things to be avoided are
As may the
cause of
things unlawfull be;
Lust, ere it hurts, is best descri'd a far:
Lust is a
sin of two: He that is sure
Of
either person, is of
both secure.
Give me, next
Good, an
Vunderstanding Wife;
By Nature
wise, not
learned by much Art:
Some
Knowledg in her, will to all my life
More Scope of Conversation
impart;
Besides, 'twill
in-bred virtue fortifie;
They are most
firmly good, who best know why.
A passive Vnderstanding
to conceive,
And
judgment to
discern, I wish to find:
Beyond
these, all as
hazardous I leave:
Learning
and pregnant witt,
in Woman-kind
What they find
malleable, that they make frail;
And do not add more
Ballast, but more
Sail.
Domestick Charge doth best that
Sex befit;
Contiguous Business; so to fix the
Mind,
That
leisure space for
Fancies not admit;
Their
leisure 'tis, corrupteth
Woman-kind:
Else, being plac'd from
many Vices free,
They had to
Heaven a
speedier way then
we.
Bookes are a part of
Mans prerogative;
In
formall Ink they
Thoughts and
Voices hold;
That we to them our
best spare houres may give;
And make
Time present travel
that of old:
Our life
Fame peiceth longer at the end;
And
Bookes our life do farther backward send.
As
Good and
Knowing, let her be
Discreet;
This, to the others
Substance, lustre brings;
Discretion doth consider what is
meet,
Goodness but what is
lawfull; only
Things,
Not
Circumstances: Without
this, even holy
Mens
learning and
witt are
curious folly.
To keep their
Name, since 'tis in others hands,
Needs
Discretion: Their
Credit is by farr
More
frail then
Them: On
likelihoods it stands;
And hard to be disprove'd
Lusts slanders are.
Their
Carriage, not their
Chastitie alone,
Must keep their
Name chaste from
Suspicion.
Womens Behaviour
is a surer Barr
Then is their
No; This fairely doth
denie,
Without
denying; Hereby
fond men are
Kept even from
Hope: In part too blam is she,
Which hath
(without consent) bin onely tride;
He comes
too neer, that comes to be
denied.
Now, since a
Woman we to marrie are,
A
Soul and
Body, not a
Soul alone;
When
one is
Good, then be the
other Fair:
Beautie is
Health and
Beautie, both in one.
Be she so
Fair, that she most
Wives contain;
So
Fair that
change can yeeld to
Me no gain.
So
Fair at least let me
imagine Her;
That Thought
to me
is Truth: Opinion
Cannot in matter of
Opinion err:
With
no eyes, shall I see her, but
mine own:
And, as my
heart conceiveth Her to be,
Such is she to my
Sight, my
Touch, and
Me.
The
Face we may the
Seat of
Beautie call;
In it a
Taste of the whole
Bodie lies;
Nay, even a
Relish of the
Mind with-all:
And, of the
Face, the life moves in the
Eyes:
So like each other these
two Eyes we see,
That these two Eyes, two
but in number,
be.
Beautie, in decent
Shape and
Colour, lies;
Colours the
matter are, and
Shape the
Soul;
The
Soul doth from no
single part arise,
But keeps a
just proportion in the
whole:
Such is the
pure spirituall harmonie
Of
every part united in the
Eye.
Love is a kind of
Superstition
Fearing that
Idoll which it self hath fram'd;
Lust is a
Fire, which rather from its own
Temper, then from its
Object, is enflam'd:
Beautie is
loves object;
Wom
[...]n, lusts, to gain;
Love, love
requires; Lust,
only to obtain.
No circumstance doth
Beautie beautifie
Like gracefull Fashion, native Comliness:
This even getts pardon for
Deformitie:
Beget, Art
cannot; but Art
may redress:
When
Nature had fix'd
Beantie perfect made,
Something she left for
Motion to adde.
But let that
Motion more to
Modestie
Tend, then t'
Assurance; Modestie doth set
The
Face in her just
Form, from
Passions free:
'Tis both the
Minds, and
Bodies Beautie, met:
But
Modestie, no
Virtue can
Eye see;
This is the
Faces onely
Chastitie.
Where
Goodness failes, there
Modestie withstands:
Hence 'tis, that
Women (though they
weaker be,
And their
Desires more
strong, yet) in their hands
The
Chastitie of
Men doth often lie:
Of all sins,
lusts would sins most
common grow,
[...]
All these
good parts a
perfect Woman make;
Add Love to me,
they make a perfect Wife;
Without her
love, her
Beautie I did take
For (that of
Pictures) dead;
Love gives it life:
Till now
[...]
Beautie (like the
Sun) did shine
[...] it onely
Alive.
And of this
love let
Reason Father be,
And
Passion Mother: Let it from the
one,
Its
Being take; from th'
other, its
Degree;
Self-love, which
second loves are built upon,
Will make me, if not
Her, her
love regard;
No man but favours his
own worths reward.
As
Good and
Wise, so be she
Fit for me;
With me
to will, and
Not to will, the same:
My
Wife is mine
Adopted Self: and She,
As
Me, so
what I love, to love must frame:
[...] God to
Men in
Marriage Wom
[...] gi
[...]es,
[...] must submit to
[...] not
[...].
FINIS.