A Discourse, OF MARRIAGE AND WIVING: AND OF The greatest Mystery therein CONTAINED: How to choose a good Wife from a bad.  
An Argument Of the dearest use, but the deepest cunning that man may err in: which is, to cut by a third between the greatest Good or evil in the world.  
Pertinent to both Sexes, and Conditions, as well those already gone before, as shortly to enter this honest society.  Amare & sapere vix Dijs conceditur. 
BY ALEX. NICCHOLES, Bachelor in the Art he never yet put in practice.  
He that stands by, and doth the game survey,  
Sees more oftimes then those that at it play.  
LONDON, Printed by N.O. for Leonard Becket, and are to be sold at his Shop in the Inner-Temple. 1615.   

TO THE VIRTUOUS YOUNG GENTLEMAN, AND HIS WORTHILY REspected friend, Mr. Thomas Edgeworth, under Treasurer of Windsor, Health and Content in his own Person, and in the happy fruition of his virtuous Wife.  
SIR, your felicity, the highest top of enjoyment in this kind, is become the aim, that the practic Art in this school of direction leveleth at, you being already instated (with envy and admiration) in that bliss, which others may thus toil after in most beseeming circumstances (by many degrees) to come short of: When I enter this course of life (as, for aught I know, I may one day marry) be it my highest ambition, with all my directions, to have one to be a near imitator of her so many Religious and Moral virtues, for whose happy continuance my best wishes shall be spent, that she may long continue yours, to make you a father of happy and undoubted children; sons for the earth, and Saints for heaven, multiplying upon your head all the comforts in that Covenant: And for this Treatise, which, by your direction, comes forth to direct others to that model of happiness wherein you stand eminent, may it have that success with all, that it hath had approbation with you, and as kind entertainment with the world as those best creatures, the subject thereof in their perfection deserve, which are the Seed and Seminary thereof, and which (by this means) have maintained that lasting, and yet un-ended, war against those two arch, and unwearied adversaries of Mankind Time and Death, the wasters thereof, and consumers of all sublunary things, which began their siege against the first man that lived, and have ever since held on without league, or imparlance, for the space of these 5500 years and upwards, and which shall go on and continue the siege to the end thereof, and consummation of all things: Wherein if it shall be so happy (beyond expectation) the pain thereof hath been well undertaken, and your encouragement fortunately seconded, which howsoever I leave it to the adventure, and you to your hearts best wishes.  
By him that entirely is dedicated yours: ALEX. NICCHOLES.   

To the Youth and Batchelary of England, hot bloods at high Revels, which forethought of this action, and all other, that hereafter intent this adventure.  
SINCE that the meanest blessing in man's life,  
Is not the Dowry of a virtuous wife;  
No otherwise then is the adverse cross,  
To him that bears it the most easy loss.  
Therefore to you, whose weary bonds yet keep,  
Severing the Arms wherein you long to sleep;  
That have beforehand, many a tedious hour,  
Wished that approaching minute in your power,  
Which when arrived, most slowly brought to pass,  
Cancels but Parchment to enrol in Brass:  
What not so short a term of years shall end,  
Unless one show himself the kinder friend:  
Wherein, lest your to forward haste should stray,  
Here is beforehand chalked out a way:  
(As conscience craveth, for so large connexion  
Should not be entered in without direction.)  
Which who so walks in to the true intent,  
Shall not commit that action to repent.  
The ignorant by this have sharper eyes,  
More deeper insight to these mysteries,  
And were their understanding dark or blind,  
To pass this Labyrinth 'tis here refined:  
Here are the Characters insculpt and read,  
That make a happy or a loathed bed.  
What woman is on whom all these depend,  
Her Use, Creation, Excellence, and End.  
In making choice how much to be confined,  
To Beauty, Riches, Parentage, or Kind:  
What are the chief disturbers of this state,  
That soonest point a man that sorest fate.  
Here are the Rocks discovered to the eye,  
That he that would not shipwreck may sail by.  
And these the rather being aforehand laid,  
Vnballanst pleasures to each youth and maid,  
That when experience shall their sweetness tell,  
In stead of heaven they purchase not a hell.  
And that the joy their forward youth hath sought,  
Vncrosly matched mry come more near their thought.  

To those that forbear marriage for more liberty of sin.  But you whose lusts this limit shall not tie,  
For more enlargement to variety,  
That will not any your own proper call,  
The better interressed to commerce with all.  
As when your Lord and Lady down are laid,  
Behind the door to woe the Chambermaid:  
Or amongst neighbours, where you lead your lives,  
To be the more familiar with their wives,  
Or any place where ere you do espy,  
A pretty morsel pleasing to your eye,  
To seize it more suspectless, being known  
Then he that hath at home a wife of's own.  
Well take that blessing, but withal this curse,  
To walk on weak legs with an empty purse.   

The Contents.  

1 OF the Institution and Author of Marriage.  
2 Of the excellency of Marriage with the consequence and use.  
3 Worldly choice what it is, or how, for the most part, men choose these wives.  
4 How to choose a good wife from a bad.  
5 What years are most convenient for Marriage.  
6 That conveniency and fitness in choice, is more to be preferred then either Beauty, Riches, or any other addition of either mind, or fortune.  
7 What is that chief moth and canker, that especially undermineth, and fretteth the marriage bed.  
8 Advice for choice, and whether it be best to marry a Widow, or a Maid.  
9 Since the end of Marriage is Issue, whether it be lawful for old Couples to marry, that are past hope of children.  
10 The difference between Lust and love.  
11 The best way to continue a woman chaste.  
12 The pattern of a bad husband, and a good wife, instanced in two letters.  
13 An admonition to Hubands and Wives, for Unity and Concord.  
14 Certain precepts to be observed in Wiving and Marriage, as also resolutions to Chastity.  
15 Discontents in all Ages, Sexes, States, Conditions.   
If by this level thou a good wife hit,  
Thank God that ere this Book was bought, or writ.   

Of Marriage and Wiving.  

CHAP. I. Of the first Institution and Author of Marriage.  
IT is not good for man to be alone (saith the alone and absolute Goodness of all goodness itself) 〈…〉 mus ergo adiutorem 〈◊〉: 
Gen. 2.18.  Let us therefore make him a helper meet for him: So the creation of the woman was to be a helper to the man, not a hinderer, a companion for his comfort, not a vexation to his sorrow, for Consortium est Solatium, Company is comfortable though never so small, and Adam took no little joy in this his single companion, being thereby freed from that solitude and silence which his loneness would else have been subject unto, had there been no other end nor use in her more, than this her bare presence and society alone: But besides all this, the earth is large and must be peopled, and therefore they are now the Crown of his Workmanship, the last and best and perfectest piece of his handiwork divided into Genders, as the rest of His creatures are, Male and Female, fit and enabled Procreare sibi similem to bring forth their like, to accomplish his will, who thus blessed their fruitfulness in the Bud: Increase & multiply, and replenish the earth. Well might S. Paul say, observing this, Marriage is honourable amongst all men, & the bed undefiled; since God himself was the Author and Institutor thereof even in Paradise, who gave the woman in the in, before in his sleep Adam lost a Rib, but now 〈…〉 Reperit Costam, he hath his Rib again with 〈…〉 increase, branched into many Veins and Ribs, and 〈◊〉 and Arteries, of wonderful use, and admirabl● 〈◊〉. So the creation of woman as it was for man, 〈…〉 out of man; Adam was made of the same of the earth, and were it not to make woman proud, I would 〈…〉 was of that better substance, of that well husbanded workmanship, and refined matter, refined and 〈◊〉 by the touch of his hands, in moulding to so exc●llent a proportion as man, of a bone taken out of his side (which that side ever wanteth since as Anatomists observe) to make him the more pliable towards her; not of a bone of his foot, that she should be so low or contemptible, or of his head, so high or ambitious, but of his side, a middle part, that she might be of a middle condition, his fellow and companion, not his servant or slave, for Socij sunt qui iunguntur lateribus, they are fellows that walk side by side: of a bone near to his heart, to put him in mind of dilection and love; from under his arm of protection and defence, etc. Now the Author of this creation we find here to be the Author of this Mystery; He who made the woman of the man gave her to the man, even God himself, who as Cassianus saith further, in the very prime and beginning of the world, Dedit, this unam uni, gave this one woman to one man, and no more than one, although for the increase and peopling of all the yet unhabited Regions and Kingdoms of the earth: In which, no doubt, the Divine Wisdom had a respect to the love, not to the lust of man; aiming hereby to advance the one, and suppress the other, for where love is divided there it is weakened, can never be strong, and as we see by experience, he who loves many formally never loves any fervently, for unity is loves number, cannot transcend, and God would have an entire affection between the husband and the wife, which he himself in person thus vouchsafed to honour by conjunction, that as the●e bodies were then not two, so their desires should be but one, and withal to insinuate by this his proper institution the more respect and reverence to that holy ordination, which had so high a beginning and so holy an end, honoured by his Person, by his Prophets, by his Miracles, and which should so generally be exercised, throughout all estates and conditions, ages and times, to the end of the world, and decistency of all things, which by this means (ere that eternal dissolution) should run a long and continued race in despite of grave and death.   

CHAP. II. Of the execellency of Marriage, with the consequence and use thereof.  
THE excellency thereof doth the more manifest itself in this, in that it was an addition of beatitude and blessedness, to that happy and absolute estate that Adam had in his first creation and innocency, that it was so precious flower that it would not thrive but in so pure a soil, that God himself was the Author to institute it, and the Priest to celebrate it, ere ever sin and impurity had tainted the earth, or blemished the Angelical beauty of either the Bride or Bridegroom; and though the consequence in that place brought sorrow and death, yet hath it a relation to as full, nay more ample joy and life in the extent and determination thereof, than it could otherwise have had in that first perseverance and fruiton, from which, though now by sin, our best faculties, privileges and prerogatives, in all kinds, are so clouded, eclipsed and fallen away, that we discern not aright the excellencies, true uses and ends of so Divine a Mystery in itself, notwithstanding we do yet in this twilight perceive such glimpses and sparkles of original purity and felicity unextinguished therein, that we are wedded by our own wills, and induced by so natural a coaction to the embracement thereof for the mutual society and comfort of life, without which it could neither subsist nor continue, more than to any other duty or action therein, commanded or required whatsoever.  
From the excellency of the institution, come we to the excellency of the true use, the danger of the contrary, and therefore the deep regard to be had before hand, as in the enterprise itself, being of such weighty moment and import of which one thus further displaying it, writeth.  
Marriage of all the human actions of a man's life, is one of the greatest weight and consequence, as thereon depending the future good, or evil, of a man's whole aftertime, and days; that Gordian knot once fastened not to be unloosed but by death, the means either to exalt an high to preferment, or cast down headlong to destruction, and the present disposer of a man's whole estate and fortune to his greatest joy or misery, and therefore with his tale pondus, (as before) not be danced into lightly or unadvisedly, with the first that comes to hand, as a blind man lays his hold, but soberly entered upon with mature advise, years, and deliberation, consent, and counsel of Parents and Friends: For it is in this action as in a Stratagem of war: Wherein he that errs can err but once, perisheth unrecoverably to all after advice and relief: And therefore that merry proverb is not amiss, that thus implieth; That in Wiving and Thriving, a man should ask counsel of all the world, it being a matter of such difficulty, doubt, and danger to be resolved in; such a continual storm and tempest to those that launch not forth in a prosperous gale, having perverted their felicity therein by running from the rule of God in their choice, that (with jonas) such to be delivered, were better be cast alive into the Sea, to the belly of the Whale, and mercy of the merciless bottomless deep (though with him they never came to shore again) then endure such a perpetual vexation it is the harbinger unto, with such a Leviathan of the Land as is a furious woman: for as a virtuous woman is a haven of beauty, so a wicked woman is a sea of evils, and in her tide more full than that element of monsters, worse far to live with then a smoky house, for that for the most part, offends only the eyes in the head, but this all the senses in the body: Nay, he that hath such a Familiar, hath a worse neighbour of his own, than Horsam should have had, if her fabulous Dragon had been true: Yet though in the curse it be subject to these evils, bless it in the true use, and it is of all human comforts the greatest; for if the mutual society between friend and friend be so great, that in affliction it administereth comfort, and in joy it heapeth the measure to the brim, by detracting from the sour, and adding to the sweet, by a sensible participation of either's quality, how much more than shall it be enlarged by such a friend, which is to us a second self, or Treasurer of our own thoughts, and therefore more nearly interressed in either the one or the other.  
Besides this, in thy Marriage, the very name whereof should portend unto thee Merry-age, thou not only unitest unto thyself a friend, and comfort for society, but also a companion for pleasure, and in some sort a servant for profit too, for a wife is all these: Besides, by the excellency and blessing of this institution, thou continuest thy name, thy likeness, and thy Generation walks upon earth, and so livest in thy similitude, in despite of death, when thou thyself art dead, and raked up in dust, and otherwise without remembrance, unless by some ruinous stone, or ragged Epitaph, and so (in some sort) makest thy body immortal, like thy soul, and not only by this dost thou add to the Sons of the earth, but to the Saints of heaven; Besides, by this so excellent, so honourably accounted of amongst all men are thy wild and unbridled affections reduced to humanity and civility, to mercy and clemency, and thou thyself called back to look into thyself, and to understand the substance and truth of things, and therefore he that hath no wife is said to be a man unbuilt that wanteth one of his ribs, a sleep as Adam was till his wife was made, for marriage awaketh the understanding as out of a dream; and he that hath no wife is said to be a man in the midst of the sea, perishing for want of this ship to waft him to shore: Is said to be parched in the heat of the Sun, that hath not this Vine to rest him under her shadow: If sickness come it brings thee a Physician; if health continue it is partly a preserver. But to go further, to equal it with the best commended Virginity, where is the man this day living whose Virginity may be compared with Abraham's Marriage, in whom all the Nations of the earth were blessed, S. Austin opposeth it to the Virginity of S. john: But the greatest authority we have in praise of Marriage, is the union of Christ with his Church compared unto it: The Bond whereof is the holy Ghost, the contract the Gospel, the Apostles the Registers, all married men, except S. john and S. Paul: And jesus Christ sealed it with his Blood, the betrothing whereof is here below in the Church, but the wedding itself shall be solemnized in heaven: It is likewise the original of all pairs, of all couples, Primum par, fundamentum parium saith one, father and child, master and servant, husband and wife, all grow out of this first union and conjunction, all kindred and affinity in the world take their birth from this root, without which men would live dispersed like savage beasts and irrational creatures, without distinction or separation of Tribe or family, which are the first parts of a Commonwealth.   

CHAP. III. Worldly choice what it is, or how, for the most part men choose their wives.  
IT is a fashion much in use in these times to choose wives as Chapmen sell their wares, with Quantum dabitis? what is the most you will give? and if their parents, or guardians shall reply there virtues are their portions, and others have they none, let them be as dutiful as Sara, as virtuous as Anna, as obedient as the Virgin Mary; these to the wise man, every one a rich portion, and more precious than the gold of Ophire, shall be nothing valued, or make up where wealth is wanting; these may be adjuncts or good additions, but money must be the principal, of all that marry, and (that scope is large) there are but few that undergo it for the right end and use, whereby it comes to pass that many attain not to the blessedness therein. Some undergo this curse in steed of blessing, merely for lust choosing their wives most unfitly, as Adulteresses, and such are said to marry by the eye, looking no further than a carnal beauty is distinguished, which consists in the outward shape and lineaments of the body, as in gate, gesture, countenance, behaviour, etc. And for such a one so she be fair, and can kiss, she hath portion enough for such a Pirate: but when this flower withers, as it is of no continuance, for diseases blast it, age devours it, discontent doth whither it (only virtue is not foiled by these adversaries) what shall continue love as then to the end, there Winter sure shall be full of want, full of discontent, that thus grashopper-like respected their Summer: There are others that marry to join wealth, to wealth, and those are said to marry by the finger's ends: Some others there are that take their wives from the report or good liking of others, and those are said to take their wives upon trust, and such I hope are not seldom deceived in their venture. There are some that marry for continuance of posterity, and those come nearest to the true intent, for the end of marriage is proles, issue; It was the primall blessing, Increase and multiply: God hath given and bequeathed many Precepts and Commandments to mankind, yet of all that ever he delivered, never was there any better observed (for the letter) than this: Nay, the most part are so ready to accomplish his Will herein, that for haste, many times, they overslip the true circumstances thereof, doing it, Propter intentionem, praeter viam, for God requires Liberi, not Spurij; children not bastards; and those that thus increase it, do it more for the manner than the end, more for lust then for love.   

CHAP. FOUR How to choose a good wife from a bad.  
THis undertaking is a matter of some difficulty, for good wives are many times so like unto bad, that they are hardly discerned betwixt, they could not otherwise deceive so many as they do, for the devil can transform himself into an Angel of Light, the better to draw others into the chains of darkness, so these, his creatures, themselves into the shape of honesty, the better to entangle others in the bonds of repentance: If therefore the yoke of marriage be of such perpetuity, and lasting even Vsque ad naecem, and the joys or grievance thereon depending of equal continuance therewith, either to make a short heaven or hell in this world, is not therefore to be undergone but upon the duest regard, & most advised consideration that may be, and because it is such a sea, wherein so many shipwreck for want of better knowledge and advise upon a Rock, that took not better counsel in the haven, I have therefore, in some sort, to prevent this danger, erected (as it were) certain Landmarks and directions in the way, to give aim to such passengers as shall hereafter expose themselves to the mercy of this fury, and the rather because our age is so adventurous, whether boldness or blindness be their guide, the mere children dare undertake with vessels scarce capable to hoist up sail, & adventure those passages, the former tunes in their nonage, near precedent us in the like, would have thought scarce navigable, but many times this calm that leads them forth in a sunshine with pleasure, brings them home in a tempest with sorrow; and therefore (as I said) he that would not repent him afterwards let him be advised before, for wise foresight for the most part is crowned with happy success, therefore say not hereafter (for it is a weak remedy) utinam saperem, would God I had been better advised, but be so.  
The first aim that I would give to him, that would adventure this voyage (for marriage is an adventure, for whosoever marries adventures, he adventures his peace, his freedom, his liberty, his body; yea, and sometimes his soul too) is, that in his election, after he hath made choice of his wife, which ever I would have grounded upon some of these promising likelihoods, vid. that she be of a sober and mild aspect, courteous behaviour, decent carriage, of a fixed eye, constant look, and unaffected gate, the contrary being oftentimes signs of ill portent and consequence; for as the common saying is, an honest woman dwells at the sign of an honest countenance, and wild looks (for the most part) accompany wild conditions; a rolling eye is not fixed, but would fix upon objects it likes, it looks for, and affected nicety is ever a sign of lascivious petulancy.  
Next regard, according as thine estate and condition shall best instruct thee, the education, and quality, of her thou hast so elected; her parsonage not being unrespected, for love looks sometimes as well with the eye of the body, as with the mind, and beauty in some begets affection, and affection augmenteth love, whereas the contrary would decrease, and diminish it, and so bring thee to a ●eath●d bed, which must be utterly taken heed of, for the dangerous consequences that follow; therefore, let thy wisdom so govern thine affection, that as it seize not up deformity to thine own proper use, for some sinister respect to be shortly after repent of; so likewise (for the mean is ever best) that it level not at so high and absolute endowment and perfection, that every carnal eye shall bethink thee injury, that every Goatish disposition shall level to throw open thy enclosures, that thy wife shall be harder to be kept then the Garden of the Hesperides, for as the Italian proverb is, 
Whose horse is white, and wife is fair,  
His head is never void of care.   
Next after thou hast thus elected thy choice, and considered her in herself, with the aforesaid circumstances, & this one more (not being of his mind that merrily said (speaking of his wife) since he was to make choice out of things that were evil, he thought it most wisdom to choose the least) to regard that she be not of too dwarfish a size, and kindred, to store thee with a generation of Pigmies, dwarves, half men, that want the Majesty and power of height and strength, and the comeliness a good stature is for the most part wedded unto: After this, a little look back to the stock from whence she sprung, for as Ezekiell saith, Like mother, like daughter; and experience and nature approves it, that the fruit will relish of the Tree from whence it sprung, as the Rose is not gathered from the Hauthorne, and as his Majesty well observed, if men be so careful to have their horses and dogs of a good breed, and race, which are only for external, and superficial uses and pleasures, how much more should they then wives of their own bosoms, from whom they expect to raise and continue their own generations and posterities upon earth, to represent and preserve alive their own image and virtues behind them, from generation to generation, usque ad longuinqum, etc.   

CHAP. V What years are most convenient for marriage.  
THe forward Virgins of our age are of opi on, that this commodity can never be taken up too soon, and therefore howsoever they neglect in other things, they are sure to catch time by the forelock in this, if you ask them this question, they will resolve you fourteen is the best time of their age, if thirteen be not better than that, and they have for the most the example of their mothers before them, to confirm and approve their ability, and this withal they hold for a certain ground, that be they never so little they are sure thereby to become no less; the effects that, for the most part, ensue thereafter, are dangerous births, diminution of stature, brevity of life, and such like, yet all these pains will they adventure for this pleasure: Now as these will not stay till their youth, but marry in their childhood, before either blood, or affection ripen them thereto by their early forwardness, so are their others that as much offend in the contrary, by passing over their youth for certain cautionary worldly respects, to salute this society with their age, like to him that hath suffered his house to burn down to the bottom, before he would seek to extinguish the flame, when the other, as néedlesly forward, as he foolishly slow, throws on water ere any fire come near it; the extremity in both is utterly distasteful, and as I have already showed briefly the indiscretion in either, so I might thus continue it further along in the first: that such should take upon them to govern others that (which as may well appear in this) know not yet how to govern themselves; the latter, that they utterly abandon the right use of marriage, for if the chief end thereof be propagation and increase, both for the Kingdom of earth and heaven, why then do they defer so long till their blood be frosty, and their bones be empty, their lamps be wasted, and their spirits consumed, hiding in the earth their talents from use, which might have been otherwise multiplied by a lawful usury, to a happy increase and excellent end, and therefore worthy such of their just reward, which is (for the most part) to perish in themselves as the last of their name and posterity upon earth.  
Diogenes being asked what time of a man's life was best to marry, answered in youth it was too soon, and in age it was too late, cynically insinuating thereby that it was best never: Indeed some of our infortunate conjunctions, might have been happy embracing his counsel, when Planets of malevolent aspect and influence are unfortunately howsed, like two opposite poisons in a stomach, one ever sick of of another, fearfully portending their own destruction and ruin; yet not to discomfort any that are to enter herein, the best good and most absolute perfection that ever was in the world, and most general, never did all participate in the fruition thereof, although the greatest number did; God gave sight to all, yet all partake not the benefit thereof, health to all, yet some are daily encumbered with sicknesses, limbs to all, yet some we see are decrepit and lame, although the most enjoy them, these infirmities having in their being rather deficient then efficient causes, for God created not blindness, lameness, sickness, or such like, but the deprivation of their better opposites, is the cause of their producement and effect: So likewise in marriage, God gave a general blessing to the first institution and use thereof, He blessed it by his Word, he honoured it by his presence, he confirmed it by his miracles, where he turned water into wine, to show that those that celebrate it in the right manner, to the lawful and true end, shall have their sorrow turned into joy, their water into wine; but the contrary, their joy into sorrow, that is, their wine into water.  
One saith, wives are young men's Mistresses, companions for middleage, and old men's Nurses, so that a man may have a quarrel to marry when he will: But the Apostle saith here, Rejoice in the wife of thy youth: As thereby he would point out the fittest time; In thy youth whilst thou hast blood in thy veins, & marrow in thy bones, health in thy loins, and security in thy suffiency, when thou mayst beget an offspring, and by course of time be so blest, as to see thy children's children engrafted into the Church, and Commonwealth, in honourable Offices, and Functions, to thy peace of conscience, and quietness in thy last Dimittis: Late repentance, they say, is seldom true repentance; and it is observable, that in these late marriages is seldom found that true comfort and happiness, which it is crowned withal in due season, therefore begin not the world, divide not thyself, thy love, when thou art going out of the world.   

CHAP. VI That conveniency and fitness in choice, is more to be regarded, than either beauty, riches, or any other addition, of mind or fortune.  
IN this one, and absolute greatest action of a man's whole life, men, for the most part, are either so careless, in their will, or so blinded in their judgement, or so carried away by affection, that they regard not that which most materially concerneth the peace, the welfare, and felicity of their whole life and conservation therein; for their eye, for the most part, either ceizeth upon beauty, and those are such that choose an Apple for the red side, as the serpent deceived Eve, which afterwards in the taste sets the teeth on edge: or the heart upon riches, and they are rather married to the substance than the owner: Some again marry for gentility, not respecting their own ignobility, and baseness, which for the most part, it upbraideth them with all their life long; and though all of these are joined by the King (the Emblem of Wedlock) yet few understand the Moral thereof, which is a representary fitness to be respected: I mean not equality or fitness of stature, for the more equal conjunction and action, but a fitness in affection, for as that being either too big, or too little, pincheth the finger or stayeth not on, so where this equality doth not sympathy in affection there is either a falling off from the bond of this duty, or a shrinking up of the joy and felicity therein: The choleric man, which for some outward respect, maketh this his expected heaven a hell, by unaptly conjoining unto himself provocation and impatience, ever to kindle that fire a fresh which of itself consumes without further addition, the very peace, and tranquillity, life, and spirit, of soul and body, when as he should rather have elected, as an allayer to this fury meekness, and endurance, such alenitives, as should rather have wasted the malady, then augmented the misery; for what concord, or society, can be expected to be injoyde, when natures, more repugnant than the Elements, are joined in one: free spirits, with miser dispositions, where they grapple and tug without ease and releasement, for breath and liberty: Heroical thoughts with dull affections, where there is no correspondence to there height or elevation: Knowledge with ignorance, where there is no zeal to communicate; and age with youth, where there is no desire of enjoyment, preventing the good by some blind inducement, which either might have claimed by their likelihood, in more suitable fitness, bearing the yoke with repining and displeasure, as pressing too heavily, which otherwise might have been supported with ease and delight, as scarce tasted or felt, Therefore (who ever thou art) know this in thy choice, that wouldst for bondage adventure thy freedom; that every good woman, makes not for every man a good wife, no otherwise then some one good dish digesteth with every stomach: therefore as for thy Trade thou wilt choose a fit servant, for thy stomach a fit diet, for thy body fit clothing, so for thy inseparable, daily, nightly society, choose a fit companion, according to the Poet's rule, in a lesser sense.  

Elegat equalem prudens sibi quisque sodalem.   

Let every wise and discreet man,  
Chose him a fit Companion.   
The Thief for his Burglaries takes his fittest opportunity and society: The Husbandman his seasons for his seed time and Harvest: The Lawyer the advantage of Assizes and Terms, The Merchant for adventure the Tide and the Winds, and all these the fitness befriendeth the endeavour, and shall the husband then think to establish his purpose, his peace, so great, and so greatly thereon depending, without this vigilancy and observance: The old rule will teach him new wit, in this aptness, which saith: 
He that a fit wise to himself doth wed,  
In mind, birth, age, keeps long a quiet bed.   
Art thou a remnant of the age of some mispended youth, fallen from the badge of one baseness to another, as frowned out of some convenient masters favour, for not pleasing thy Mistress, that now to support thy creature, wouldst smoke thee out a living in some blind and conscious corner, smell thee then a wife out a little tainted, the sweeter for thy purpose, and as apt to fall down as thy vapour to fly up, taking care, (unless thou wilt disrank thyself, or single out from the too too common shame and abuse in this kind) that she be such a one as can take it, and being light can light it.  
Art thou a Merchant, a Mariner, a Termer, choose thee a wife of some Phlegmatic humour, that like a rich Creditor, with her large stock of virtue, without breaking out, can forbear thee, upon occasion, a month or two, a year or two, a Term, or voyage, lest otherwise thou abroad, she prove an Actor with thy Factor at home, or for thee, whilst thou labours for this right in this case, do against thee that wrong in another, which no law can help, nor prevention hinder, nor patience bear; if otherwise, though thou escape the perils of the sea, thou art in danger of the Pirates of the Land; or thou, though thou get a judgement at the Hall, shalt be sure to have execution against thee at home: And from whence else proceeds these lamentable ●arres of households, worse than the open wars of Kingdoms, that devour and eat up whole families: Whence proceeds these separations, exclamations, disiunctions; whence arise they, but exhaled and drawn up with the heat of this parabolical sun, (the muck and mammon of the world) the beams whereof blind the eye sometimes of conscience, as well of understanding and judgement: whose conjoining of hands may resemble the league between the Low Countries & Spain, where hearts can no more be brought to unity and affection one another, than those ever vowed enemies thus taken truce: These respects I say, like that respect of state, and no other, have prostituted, under one covering, many a frosty january, and youthful May, many a green desire and grey performance, which could no more cohabit then these different seasons, otherwise aforehand meant, and afterwards satisfied, though with a shameful breaking out, to the ruin and destruction of both the one, and the other; Mere Crones, and many of my late remembrance, lip-bearded, as wiches, with their warted antiquity and age, have angled into their beds with this baited golden hook, (for lucre of desire and lust) on their parties, youth whose chins have never yet fallen under the razor, less that way by their heat and hair, expressing man then their wives, (wives) nay rather Matrons, and Mothers, to their children prostituted, the shame and unevenness whereof hath even cracked this forementioned wreath in the ring, broke Pryscians' head in the unequal conjugations, the destruction whereof hath not slowly followed, but thus quickly, (like a Gangrene) crept on by a careless neglect in the one, and earnest desire in the other, and a timely repentance in both: The one thus (to his precedent aim) the better supported to his wild pleasures a broad, whilst the other, with her frustrated intention and hope, all tame and penitentiary, left destitute to bewail her grievance at home. But go further, admit impossibilities, that Age and Youth, Summer, and Winter could be one, yet how would the Autumn with her tempests blast the Summer, and her tender buds of that season, and Summer, again, contradicting her contrary melting, her snows and frosts into nothing, what pangs and travels, and throbs, and throws, would they sustain one with the other, till they brought an end and confusion to both: even so admit, that youth could assume such a habit of gravity that might like an age, and age again so shake off her unnessaries, that she could look amiable in the fresh and green eye of youth; yet must this mixture of unequal heals be more pernicious to either, than those blasting contrary seasons one to another: From these unequal conjunctions break forth those maisterfull jealousies, those insupportable discontents, that have not set but even in blood and death, ruined their owners, afflicted and wrung into lamentations, their Friends, Allies, and Associates, and drawn blood from the heart of any one that had but a hand or finger in the carriage: Many instances of these we know of late times which we may remember, whilst I overpass them to recite one of more antiquity, as it is delivered by Tradition.  

Stows Survey.  An Alderman's wife, sometimes of London, her husband deceased, and she a rich widow left, but as old in years, as rich in substance (more for desire of portion than person) was solicited to an unequal banes and marriage, by a young and courtly Gentlemen (and which afterwards ended her bane) whose desire being obtained, and he master of her substance, most lewdly lavished it away upon royotous and evil company, grew careless of her regard, and utterly abandoned her society, both bed and board, which when with sorrow she perceived, with her too late repentance, herself thus rifled of her goods, upbraided of her friends, forsaken of her husband, destitute of all comfort, she took the evening to her mourning, went into a Spring near Shore ditch (a place that takes the name from a like fatal accident) and there ended her days, and sorrows by drowning, which Fount to this day is christened by her name, a remembrance of her misery, and warning to aftertimes, and called (by her name) Dame Annis a Clere. And therefore who ever thou art, entering into this common garden of humanity, respect for thy better blessing and prosperity therein, more than Beauty, Birth, or Riches, this Harmony and fitness, wherein is no jar, no strife, no discontent, nor weariness, and which shall land thee prosperously at the haven of thy rest, when this other, either tackling, fraught, or sail, may endanger to perish thee in the flood.   

CHAP. VII. What is that chief moth, and canker, that especially undermineth and fretteth the marriage bed.  
PRide, Ambition, equality with others, the Example of others, variety of Appetite, the unrealishnesse of that which is lawful, desire of that which is restrained, is unlawful, and then the oratory of the devil of darkness, in the shape of an Angel of light, working upon these advantages hath overthrown, and betrayed, to this vulture, and his merciless talant, that fort and Citadel, with as easy resistencie as a Bower of glass, that should be so unspotted, but more impregnable than a Bulwark of stone, admitted treason to the heart of the City, copt with the most dangerous enemy in the world, opened those gates with weakness, and this stratagem, that an Engine should not assail with strength, and might, broke down the door that struck dead the owner, laid open those enclosures, that have bondaged the Lord of the soil perpetually till death, to enclose his own supposed interest and use: Ambition and pride you twyn-borne sisters, you, you it is, and the dependency of your estate (you true and indulcitate issues of Lucifer) that have broken down this hedge of the greatest consequence and site that ever was erected, and which else had kept out the assailing and seducing enemies that batter and undermine the very supportance, root, and lifeblood of chastity itself, letting in at these casements, evil conceits, and motives more blasting thereto, than the breath of lightning, made the vows of marriage of less stability than the oaths of drunken men. Ambition, equality, example, you forementioned evils, you football players which short-héeled creatures it is you that are arraigned & found guilty in this trial.  
The Country Damsel under the thatched roof of her natural habitation, where she scarce ever thought of so much pride as handsomeness, never beheld her how otherwise presented then in a bowl of water, that dreamt more devoutlier under that innocent covering being asleep, than others pray in their lofty Palaces being awake, who can scarce there remember marriage but she blushes to think what a shame it is to lie with a man: yet afterwards bring her to the City, enter her into that school of vanity, set but example before her eyes, she shall in time become a new creature, and such a strong mutation shall so strangely possess her, that she shall have new thoughts, new purposes, and resolutions, and in the end so shoulder out her modesty, that she shall not blush to do that unlawfully, which before she was bashful to think on lawfully: Come to the City, there you shall have some good amongst many bad, but should have many more were it not for this sickness of this ill Example, therefore well were it with the world, If what were most done, were most good: Such a one could be content (for any desire of novelty or change, or for any heat in her blood, more than might be lawfully allayed) to be honest, but that she knows such a friend, and such a Gentlewoman her Gossip, have their variety of Gowns, of gifts, of favours, and variety of pleasures to, interchanging with variety of persons, and in this regard she will be no longer her own foe, to keep herself longer without such a friend, she sees the world takes notice of no more than it sees, and they are accounted most chaste, that can best seem so: In this resolution she pulls up the Floodgates, where her tide of vanity is swelled to the brim, which immediately o'erflows and drowns her therein, extinguishing all former sparks of virtue and respect, which before this conquest she debated with, and bears her along with the perishing multitude, for these brittle respects, that here she is ensnared with.  
The Court, the very Element and Centre of these sins, the ne plus ultra, for any example beyond that, being the pattern to itself, and to others, the respects that join there, are the respects of pleasure, not of profit; the highest ambition of theirs is to be most alured, most desired, to have most servants, most friends, most favours, and these should presage most falls, whose open out sides bosoms, were their insides so displayed, it would be found a poor and idle sin had not there been harboured, whose satin outsides, and silken insides, soft raiment and sweet feeding, so stroke the skin, and persuade the blood that it will not be persuaded.  
There is a Text in woman, that I would feign have woman to expound, or man either; to what end is the laying out of the embroidered hair, embared breasts, virmilioned cheeks, alluring looks, fashion gates, and Artful countenances, effeminate, entangling, and ensnaring gestures, their curls and purls of proclaiming petulancies, bolstered, and laid out with such example and authority in these our days, as with allowance and beseeming conveniency, such apish fashions and follies, that the more severer outworn ages of the world, deceased and gone, should they have but lifted up their head and in their times would have hissed out of countenance to death: But as to please, woman hath much starched up man from his slovenry, so to delight man (or rather his enemy) hath the woman thus increased in prides, doth the world wax barren through decrease of generations, and become like the earth, less fruitful than heretofore: Doth the blood lose his heat, or the Sunbeams become more waterish and less fervent than formerly they have been, that men should be thus inflamed and persuaded on to lust: or hath this age of sin usurped such a seeming purity, or thought, that the most licenced lust, hath the original from concupiscence or some taint of sin, and therefore must be thus dragged up to this anchor, like a Pitcher by the ears, by these blood neare-touching witcheries, and inducements, no, rather the contrary witness the superfluity and increase of these our times, of this our Kingdom, that hath more people than pasture, more bringing forth then breeding, for that it is compelled to empty itself into far distant Regions and Kingdoms: Is it not rather the contrary, when the youth of both sexes are daily cropped in the blossom by this forward motion, or rather headstrong devil, and unripely priest to that action, forestall maturity and fitness, where a Vestal should be more pointed at in a Cloister, than a Comet in the Air: Is it not rather the contrary, when lust is grown so unbounded, so headstrong, that it will not be hemmed nor encircled within any Laws, or limits, of God, or man; when it will garbage without all respect, or control, upon Adultery, fornication, possessed, the unpossessed, the bond, the free; where care shall more possess a man to keep his fair wife from foul play, when he hath her, than jealousy did to lose her, when he first rivalled for her; where virtue shall not so disguise itself in any habit, but vice will trace it out and betray it. The ignorant Papists, or other sectaries of Heresies, most commonly give no other reason for their seduced errors, than example of multitude, of parents, progenitors, or friends that went before them; so the example of this evil, so common, so much made of, so cockered, so thriving, so bedecked, so admired, so dandled on the lap of Greatness, of Authority, draws millions to perdition after it, for the greatest part never look further than the example of the greatest number; the Coach easily runs that is drawn with many horses, soon follows one where thousands lead the way: These have disjoined in chambers by the devil, that were conjoined in the Church by God, and yet it must be ingenuously confessed, it is but a cold comfort, to go to hot hell for company: Lust, that boiling damned putrefaction of the blood, that raging, ruling, headstrong sin of this age, that is too apt to break out, though it went clothed in Sackcloth, and Haircloth, and fed only (as saith an Author) with the Capuchin diet of grass and herbs, and such like, and suppressed with all the subjection can be imposed to subdue it, that yet like lime it would flash and fly out through out all these impositions: but on the contrary, we are so far from subduing that passion, and keeping it under, by any such means, that it is attired and set out in the most Artful bewitching, and enticing temptation that may be devised, whole days and nights, and thoughts and studies, and costs and cares, cast away thereon, for the better success therein, though the worse ill thereby, for the end thereof is but repentance and sorrow.  
Another main enemy, to open this breach, is impatience of restraint and limitation, for that which is most forbidden is most desired; He is the old devil that still tempts in that likeness that came to Eve in Paradise, and persuaded her to eat the forbidden fruit of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil, upon whom he obtained such a victory and conquest, in that first battle that ever was fought, that never since hath he disinherited the force of that stratagem: Every woman is an abridgement of all womankind, contains the shape, the proportion, the lineaments, the members, the use of all the women in the world, and likewise so of man; why should not desire then, being so linked in the most sufficient, and wisest allowance, that God and man thought meet, couch and submit itself to these ordinances, but that concupiscence and lust, enkindle desire, and it findeth not delight in that it hath, but in that it would have, according as the Poet verifieth.  
Lust near takes delight in what is due,  
But still leaves known delights to seek out new.  
It looks out of the window, where fuel is administered where temptation entereth in: edgeth itself upon one for respects that it can conceive but not utter; upon an other, for some thing it likes, but knows not what; It makes choice of a third, for modesty baits his lust in that flame, to think with what looks it could look in conclusion, that is so fired with blushes in but proffered, concerning circumstances, though far distant and remote from either time or action: Upon a fourth, for her acquaint conceit, and discovers by debating how she could use it, being put to her non plus, in the bare point of trial, with the beauty of a fift, to conceive what a large fruition it were to be inflamed on the promontory of the Hill, when the demeans, and adjacent Valleys, to that fuller surfeit, restrained not their shades nor fountains: And indeed, to conclude, there is none so ugly, none so deformed, but Lust will find argument to make use of it, may it but have means to enjoy it.   

CHAP. VIII. Advice for choice, and whether it be best to marry a Widow, or a Maid.  
He that marrieth a Widow, hath but a reversion in tail, and if she prove good, may thank death for his aim, if evil, upbraid him, and not unjustly for his occasion: He that takes her thus halfe-worne, makes account she hath that will pay for new dressing, she seems to promise security in her peace, yet invites many times to a troublesome estate, when the conquest achieved scarce countervails the wars, the principal of her love is perished with the use, for what is once firmly set on, can never be cleanly taken off, and he must near look to be enriched that way that hath her. The end of her Marriage is lust and ease, more than affection or love, and deserve what thou canst, the dead shall upbraid thee by the help of her tongue, flattered behind his back, the more to vex thee to thy face: The best is, though the worse for thee, they are navigable without difficulty, more passable than Virginia, and lie at an easier Road, as unsatiate as the sea, or rather the grave, which many times the sooner presents them thither: At the decease of their first husbands, they learn commonly the tricks to turn over the second or third, and they are in league with death, and coadjutors with him, for they can harden their own hearts like iron to break others that are but earth; and I like them the worse that they will marry, dislike them utterly they marry so soon, for she that so soon forgets the flower and Bridegroom of her youth, her first love and prime of affection (which like a colour laid on in Oil, or died in grain, should cleave fast and wear long) will hardly think of a second in the neglect and decay of her age. Many precedents we have against these sudden, nay against these second Marriages derived from former times, the ages of more constancy, and shame of these latter. The daughter of M. Cato, bewailing a long time the death of her husband, being asked which day should have her last tear, answered the day of her death (not the end of a month or year) for (saith she) should I meet with a good husband, as I had before, I should ever be in fear to lose him, if with a bad one, I were better be without him. In like manner, Portia, a young and honourable Lady, having lost her husband, answered, solicited by another, A happy and chaste Matron never marries but once. Valeria, having lost her husband, importuned by another, answered; My husband ever lives in my thoughts. Arthemesia, the wife of Mausoll King of Corinth, could not not be brought to any such action, but still answered, being mindful of her husband deceased, Upon thy pillow shall never second rest his head; She died a widow, and in memory of her husband, erected that Monument, or Tomb, the cost and fame whereof hath overspread the world: which Wife and Monument, Lucinius thus further commendeth.  
Rex dudum erat, etc.  
There was a King, of whom it may be read  
In ancient Stories, sepulchred ere dead.  
More wrong you'll say they did him, to deprive  
Him of his Kingdom thus he being alive.  

〈…〉  No he had all his rights, more than Kings have  
That ruled a Kingdom, and reigned in his grave.  
A Kingdom, nay a little world and more,  
A great world, and respected as before.  
Nay, even a Regiment that hath disturbed,  
The ablest health and policy to curb.  
A woman's heart and mind, and which more strange  
Free from variety of thought or change:  
So willingly subjecteth to his blood,  
ne'er to depose him whilst her Empire stood.  
Of whom all loves and Laws did firm remain  
In force, till one stone did enclose them twain.  
Of whom it may be said, now she is gone,  
there's few such Tombs erected, women none.  
Such a Widow couldst thou marry she were worthy thy choice, but such a one she could not be, because she would not then marry.  
Compare the loyalty of our times with those of more ancient, and see how they equal thy conscience and carcase breaking, how with thy piled up chests, they build monuments of remembrances to thy name and memory after death; nay rather observe, but how their ambition, thus heated makes them forgetful of themselves as well as thee: Knowing this, who would not, with these distraughted times, to leave the purchase of a Ladyship to his wife, glide like a shadow in his life upon earth, with a shrinking inside, and penurious outside, and sleep with broken thoughts and distracted dreams to gather with pain, and forbear with want, that which his living enemy may afterwards spend with pleasure and surfeit with fullness. Who can love those living that he knows will so soon forget him being dead, that are but Summer Swallows for the time of felicity, that will hang about ones neck as if they had never arms for others embracing, or as though extreme affection without control could not but this manifest itself and break out; yet decease, and such a lethe of forgetfulness shall so soon o'ertake thee as if thou hadst never been, nay so little a quantity of time shall confine it, that she shall not lie in her month but she shall be Churched again, and open to another all thy fruitions, with as fresh and plenteous an appetite as the harlot to her next sinner. Younger brothers, and poor Knights, may sometimes to these monsters make use of their births and Titles, making them pay dear (as it cost) for their dubbing, and release of Purgatory they are in with old rank and fashion to their new Eliseum, and instaulement; and it must be confessed, unwise they were, but with good boot and addition, to refuse a Virginity to accept a Widowhood, and yet many times with a Turkish fate, we pay dear for our Credo quod habemus, that article of Belief we too fond build upon, when we pay for the jewel that another hath stolen, and in hope of treasure embrace the ransacked casket, yet they are too blame that have thus been to blame, and for their easy punishment their first night shall discover them. Be not sudden therefore upon thy resolution in this point, because deceit, many times, lurks in a modest face, but let long acquaintance, or inquiry, the more secure thee. The Country deceives the City, & the City again returns it with interest, and lust so reigns in both, that there is scarce the quantity of virgins to be found in either to match the Parable in the Scripture; they have faces more fairer than men, but hearts more deformed than devils: It is ill building upon a broken foundation, amendment may skin the soar, but the scarce will long after retain a blemish, yet no doubt free thought, which is free, and dreams and wishes, which are but shadows, though the rilling ruffians that break through all bosoms, & superficially ravish all woman kind, from eight to eighty, and no doubt from actual transgressions many may be found free, for there was never infection so general but it spared some, never battle so great that all were wounded, some of eves Offspring have withstood the temptation, all have not tasted the forbidden Tree; and such a one if thou canst pray, to pray upon, she hath portion enough without other portion if she thus continue it, for she shall make thee a father of undoubted children, she shall not wrinkle thy thoughts with distracting jealousies, nor upbraid with a former husband thy unkindnesses; her Maiden thoughts shall receive from thee a more perfect impression of love and duty, and return it back more legibly endorsed and written, free from all former character, inscription, or soil; her affection shall be strong, not allayed by former wearing, she shall be such a one as it is a heaven to live with all, a misery to mourn without, she shall be to thy senses and delight as the budding Rose in the youth of the spring, nay shall be such a one, that, He that walks by thy door shall point at her, and he that dwells by her shall envy him that hath her, and every man shall admire his hap, but he most fully rejoice and be glad that hath her, and all generations shall call such blessed.   

CHAP. IX. Since the end of Marriage is issue, whether it be lawful for old Couples to marry that are past hope of Children, or whether it be lawful, for an old man to marry a young Maid, or the contrary.  
THe chief end of Marriage is proles, Issue, yet there are other respects in that covenant, that no doubt may tolerate the most ancient in this kind: God saw that it was not good for Adam to be alone therefore he made him an helper, and Saint Paul saith, Rather marry then burn, and as it is in another place; Vae solus: Woe to him that is alone, for if he fall he hath not one to help him up: Now those in age, to come nearest to a common and sub-corrective understanding, are most defective in their members, and therefore most subject to fall, and so by consequence most need of this help to raise them up, of this staff for their stay, and beside for aught that ever I could hear, or observe, that age is most prove to scorch itself in the flames of that fire, and therefore may lawfully partake the remedy against it, and for the latter proposition, for aught I see, the Law forbids not the act, But the circumstances may breed some danger, for if the wife be young enough, though the husband be near so decrepit, she shall not be out of all likelihood to see increase of her body, but he that thus undertakes to manage in his age, what hath shaked the heart of youth, may be commended for his valour, but shall near be crowned for his wisdom; And for such a one (I trust) he shall not need to be jealous, for that his doubt shall be apparently enough resolved. One asked Diogenes, upon a time, for some direction how to choose a wife, because he was a Philosopher, saith he unto him, fellow, choose one without a head (if thou canst) without a body, and without limbs, so her hands shall not offend in striking, nor her tongue in railing, nor her body in lusting: Another time seeing a man in his old age going to Church, to make up his second Marriage, said; O fool, hast thou so lately been shipwrecked, and wilt needs to sea again. The Law of God, nor man, doth not forbid such Marriages, but no policy in earth commends them; man & wife should be two in one: but can heat & cold, youth & age, be in one and not be repugnant, he that adventures so for sweet meats, shall find them relished with much bitter sauce, they say the Oak would longer last, were it not for the intwyning and embracing ivy, but in this case I intend the contrary, for the aged Oak here blasteth the younger, ivy with the heat of youth, must again renew, according to our Poet.  
No sharper corsive to our blooming years,  
Then the cold badge of Winter blasted heirs.  
Many worldly respects may conjoin these Marriages, but this sudor will crack in the wearing, and he that so old seeks for a nurse so young, shall have pap with a Hatchet for his comfort.   

CHAP. X. The difference between Love and Lust.  
LVst, the destroyer of Love, the supplanter and underminer of chastity, the Spring-frost of beauty, the tyrant of the night, the enemy of the day, the most potent matchmaker in all Marriages under thirty, and the chief breaker of all from eighteen to eight, that protests that in a hot blood that it near performs in a cold, a regarder only of the present, and to that effect will with Esau sell a birthright for a mess of pottage, no longer esteeming the object then the use, which in like example is thus further followed, according to a more common observance.  
Friends, Soldiers, Women, in their prime  
Are like to Dogs in Hunting time:  
Occasion, Wars, and Beauty gone,  
Friends, Soldiers, Women, there are none.  
More dangerous, when it roves without limits, than the Lion without the verge of his grate; for he but only would deprive the body of life, but this both of life and soul, and fame, subject to more opposite immediate passions and contradictions in itself then any sense or humour in the nature of man: as now well entreated, fairly spoken, lodged where it best likes, anon hated without enduring, cursed on't of charity, thrust out of doors, and yet not only though all this more immediately opposite, then preposterously fond headlong, that for a minute's joy, will incur a month's sorrow, that for one drop of water will mud the whole fountain that gave it, for one sweet fruit will blast the whole Tree that bore it; whereas the effect and force of love is contrary, oppressing folly, suppressing fury; aiming to preserve, not to destroy, and to that end, regards the end, by subduing passions and motives that would seem to oppose the tranquillity thereof, and in conclusion rejoiceth in the true fruition without discontent, without satiety, having captivated and subdued, though with some difficulty, those passions that sense for a time would have been best pleased with, to triumph at last in more full fruition to that purpose that one thus writeth.  
Love comforteth like sunshine after rain,  
But lust's effect is tempest after sun.  
loves golden spring doth ever fresh remain,  
Lust's winter comes ere summer half be done.  
In Love there is no envy, no jealousy, no discontent, no weariness, for it digesteth and maketh sweet the hardest labour, and of all things doth the nearest resemble the Divine Nature, for God is Love, it hath in it unity without division, for true love hath not many objects, it is a fire much water cannot quench: Now Lust contradicteth all these, for whereas Love is bounded with easy limits, Lust is more spacious, hath no mean, no bound, but not to be at all, more deep, more dangerous than the Sea, & less restrained, for the Sea hath bounds, but it hath none; not woman but all womankind is the range thereof, and all that whole sect not able to quench it neither: Full of envy it is, for it envies all without his reach, and envies it own nature that it cannot be satisfied: walking for the most part in similitude of an old Goat, in the shape of an incontinent man.  
In Love there is no lack, in Lust there is the greatest penury, for though it be cloyed with too much, it pines for want: Ambitious it is, for where it treads it puffs up, and leaves a swelling after it, turns low flats into little Mountains down, which precipitate folly tumbles headlong to confusion, a hasty breeder of disinheritable sinners it is, such as have more pleasure in the begetting, than comfort in the bringing forth, best contented when it looseth most labour. To conclude, though Love and Lust in a half brotherhood, dwell both under one roof, yet so opposite they are that the one, most commonly, burns down the house that the other would build up.   

CHAP. XI. The best way to continue a woman chaste.  
IS not the Magicians Ring, nor the Italians Lock, nor a continual jealousy ever watching over her, nor to humour her will in idle fancies, adorn her with new fangels, (as the well appayed folly of the world in this kind can witness) but for him that would not be basely mad with the multitude, would not bespeak folly to Crown him, would not set that to sale that he would not have sold, for who sets out his ware to be cheapened and not bought, that would not for his Shop have his Wife, for a relative sign) is to adorn her decently, not dotingly; thriftily, not laciviously; to love her seriously, not ceremoniously; to walk before her in good example (for otherwise how canst thou require that of thy wife that thou art not, wilt not be thyself, Vis tu uxorem tuam victricem esse & tu victus iaces: Wouldst thou expect thy wife a conqueror when thou thyself liest foiled at the same weapon) to acquaint her with, and place about her good and chaste society, to busy and apply her mind and body, in some domestic, convenient, and profitable exercises, according to her education and calling, for example to the frailty of that whole sex, hath a powerful hand, as it shall induce either to good or evil.  
There are of opinion that there is in Marriage an inevitable destiny, not to be avoided which is either to be Acteoned, or not to be, if it be not, as is the opinion of some damned in the error of Predestination, then let him take a house in Fleetstreet, divide it like an Inn, into as many several lodgings as rooms, make his wife Chamberlain to them all, attire her like a sacrifice, paint her out like a Mayor's posts, or May-poole, let her have fresh youth and high feeding, lustful company to incite her, her husband absent: all these opportunities present, yet notwithstanding this destiny shall preserve him, to wear his brow as sleek, as he that near fetched again the lost rib to his side, as unbunched as the front of a Bachelor; But if the contrary, be she the most pure in seeming, a very sister of that Sect, the opinion of the B●ownists shall so near cleave to her skin, that she shall besate thy forehead in thy sleep, kill thee dead in that image of thy grave; Be she Papist, absolution shall so resolve her, that she shall sin upon presumption, nay though thou hadst Argus eyes thou shalt not escape it, for 
No policy, they say, can that prevent,  
Whereto two parties give their full consent.   
Be she what she will in this case, it shall be all one for thee to restrain or to give liberty, where thou dwellest or what thou dost, for thy destiny is so allotted and it shall be accomplished: The rash opinion, and careless security of either is worthy the reward, which for the most part, it doth deservedly receive.  
It was an error in Religion that one Ludovicus had, who had given himself over to this damnable opinion and security of the devil, that if he were ordained to be saved, saved he should be without any inquiry or diligence of his; if otherwise, though he toiled to death in his best endeavour, it would not help nor reserve him; In this conceit, settling himself in the most Epicurian and dissolute course of living that might be, he continued, till upon a time he fell into a most grievous extremity of sickness, when sending for a Physician, who before hand acquainted with his damnable error, came not, but sent him word that he needed not his help, for if his hour were come he could not preserve him, if otherwise, he should recover though never any thing were administered unto him; by which easy application he understood himself, and that he must use the best means and endeavour, as well for the safety of his soul, as the preservation of his body, not knowing the event of their concealed ends, and so at once (by that means) was happily cured both in mind and body.  
In no less palpable error are those, that so wittingly and violently, are carried on either side in this dangerous stream of a corrupted judgement to the apparantest spectacle and certaintest shame that woman may do them, making that unquestionable their dishonour by this consequence, which a sober course might have directed to a more certain end, Therefore who ever thou art that wouldst not wink at such a shame, that so profit doth succeed, wouldst not regard whether hand brought it in, use a good endeavour, such foresight and wariness as may provide for competency, prevent indigence and want two great allayers of affection, and a main inciter of impatient bearers to this folly and abuse, and above all seek to plant in her Religion, for so she cannot love God but withal she must honour thee, increase her knowledge in good things, and give her certain assurance and testimony of thy love, that she may with hers again the more reciprocally equal thy affection; For true love hath no power to think, much less act amiss: And these discreetly put in practice shall more preserve at all times, and temptations, than Spies, or Eyes, jealousy or any restraint, for these sometimes may be deluded, or over watched, or prevented by opportunity, but this never.   

CHAP. XII. The pattern of a bad husband, and a good wife, in two Letters instanced.  

1 LETTER.  
FAIR Mistress, what so long I have expected,  
And till this opportunity neglected,  
Is now so happened as it would invite  
Me to enjoy my absolute delight.  
Your husband absent, and your servants gone,  
And you, but with your Maid, left all alone.  
Where least sad Care, or Melancholy grieve you,  
My best endeuour's ready to relieve you.  
What Female Comfort can one woman find,  
Within the bed with other womankind?  
What tedious gate the irksome hours do keep,  
When there's no joy to wake, no mind to sleep?  
Besides, the fearful terrors of the night,  
Which women and weak minds do much affright:  
All which, fair love, if you'll be ruled by me,  
We will convert so far from what they be  
That those which now are bitter for to think,  
Shall taste like Nectar that the Gods do drink.  
The strangest Monster that was ever bred,  
That Seas have nourished or else Desert fed,  
Transported from his solitary den,  
A common object to the sight of men,  
Loseth his admiration and delight,  
In little time, and pleaseth not our sight:  
Our Appetite, the Viand near so good,  
cloyed with one Dish will soon distaste her Food;  
That Music of all other best we deem,  
If ever in one Key we harsh esteem:  
Man's nature doth desire to hear and try  
Things that are new, to taste variety;  
And I of Women this opinion hold,  
They are not much in love with things are old,  
Which makes me thus more boldly to discover  
Myself unto you, your new friend and lover:  
In hope to be accepted, for whose pleasure,  
I'll spend my best life, and my dearest treasure.  
Object not you already are enjoyed,  
With Venus' pleasures dulled and overcloyed.  
Why joyful Widows when their husbands die  
Might this object, but yet you see they try;  
Because they think variety of men,  
May make old pleasures new delights again.  
She that contents herself with any one,  
For many nights as well might lie alone.  
Less difference is not twixt the virgin life,  
And state of pleasure, being called to wife  
Then is between the Elysium of one Bed,  
That crossly fated, to that's largely-sped.  
I have a wife myself, I tell you true,  
Yet in the old kind seek for pleasures new:  
Taking not now delight that I have took,  
To shake the Tree that I so oft have shook.  
We see in any Country that we dwell,  
The Air the Earth, nay All that others tell:  
Yet notwithstanding 'tis our commonest fashions,  
To seek out other Kingdoms other Nations.  
Each woman doth abridge all womankind,  
But yet one woman fits not each man's mind:  
Nor every man, experience too too common,  
Can fit, can please, or satisfy each woman.  
Since then the Sense, the Appetite and mind,  
In fresh variety all pleasure find;  
Let us then meet all nice respects to smother,  
And fully satisfy and joy each other:  
So shall I rest by your obligement due,  
A secret friend and faithful servant true.  
The world can judge no further than it spies,  
And where we act shall be from sight of eyes,  
Windows nor walls, can neither hear nor see,  
And for the bed 'tis tried for secrecy:  
Then seem but chaste, which is the chiefest part,  
For what we seem each sees, none knows the heart.  
And so your husband, and the world will deem,  
You to be that you are not, but do seem.  
Your husband he's abroad, where I'm afraid  
He hath deserved to be so apayed.  
My Chain here take you, wear it for my sake,  
And as you find me yours account so make.  
And here's my Ring in earnest of a friend,  
The latest Token that my Wife did send.  
And here's my Purse, within it store of Gold,  
Able to batter down the strongest Hold:  
Your dainty limbs shall be more neatly clad,  
In costlier Raiment than they erst have had:  
And for your stomach it shall not digest  
Any thing, but the rarest, and the best.  
These daily from me with a pleasing cheer,  
Which husbands grudge to part with once a year.  
Though for their maintenance I sell my land,  
Disherit heirs for that I will not stand:  
So you be mine in that sense I conceive you,  
Which till your answer manifest, I leave you.   

HER REPLY.  
ABused sir, much grieved am I to see,  
That you so long have tarried Time and Me,  
And now when both your good seem to conspire,  
They should in no sort answer your desire:  
My husband's absence seemeth to import  
In your conceit some hope to scale his fort;  
But know by that you small advantage find,  
For he is always present in my mind:  
The thought of whom, what ere his person be,  
Is able to repulse your battery.  
And for the hours that you so tedious deem,  
That by your presence would so shortened seem:  
I cannot tell with others what it might do,  
With me 'twould rather make one hour seem two:  
And for the fearful terrors of the night,  
What could affright me worse than would your sight.  
My Maid and I, a pleasure not repent,  
Will tell old Stories long ago evented  
To pass the time, or when such watch we keep,  
we'll think good thoughts, or pray until we sleep:  
For know my untainted mind did ever hate,  
To buy damnation at so dear a rate:  
To taste sweet Nectar for a day or hour,  
And ever after to digest the sour.  
'Tis not variety I seek or crave,  
My whole delight is in the one I have:  
And she that's not contented with her lot,  
I hold more monster than the Sea hath got.  
The friendship which you proffer me preserve,  
For those that will your kindness more deserve.  
The objection here you allege is fond strange,  
That women, though old clothes they love to change  
And fancies to in something, dothed infer  
That in this gross point they must therefore err.  
I am another's parcel I confess,  
And you by your acknowledgement no less,  
Now what a sin were this unworthy life,  
I so to wrong my husband, you your wife:  
My husband that dare swear that I am just,  
Should I so much deceive his honest trust?  
Your wife, although a party I not know,  
I hope imagines likewise of you so.  
For shame go then repent and be not nought,  
Be worth her good opinion, honest thought.  
Let fleshly widows when their husbands die  
They near did love, seek new variety:  
For me I vow, if death deprive my bed,  
I never after will to Church be led  
A second Bride, nor never that thought have,  
To add more weight unto my husband's grave,  
In second husband let me be accursed,  
None weds the second, but who kills the first.  
You have a wife you writ, give her your love,  
And that will all your wandering thoughts remove;  
You love her not, by these effects I see,  
For where love is there's no satiety.  
Can you so far forget humanity,  
As having shaked the fruit despise the Tree:  
It is not love but lust, that thus abuses,  
To make it weary of the walks it uses.  

Coelum non Animum, etc.  Those that to foreign Countries do repair,  
Change not their minds, although they change the Air,  
Preferring still, through novelty desire,  
Their Country's smoke, before another's fire.  
Like use observe unto yourself to take  
From the objection that you seem to make:  
That though you see of beauteous women many,  
And you by choice possess the meanest of any,  
More to respect her you your wife have made,  
Than others sunshine, to your proper shade.  
Suppress that lust, that soul and body wounds,  
For where it once breaks over, it hath no bounds,  
One woman doth abridge all womankind,  
The volume then at large why would you find:  
For sure I think where that doth bear no prize  
The Book at large might weary, not suffice.  
An other Argument to back your suit,  
You allege that walls and windows will be mute,  
And that the world hath no such piercing eye,  
The secret of the dark to search and try:  
As if there were not one, whose power imparts,  
To see through Doors, & Windows, & through Hearts,  
From whose bright eye, no secrecy can hide,  
That which is guilty and would not be spied,  
Than what avails to have the world acquit us,  
When our Conscience like a fiend shall fright us.  
And for the Bed although it cannot tell,  
Yet out their shame will break that do not well.  
My husband he's from home I must confess,  
Whose acts you measure by your guiltiness,  
But where so ere he be, well may he speed,  
Ere any such thought from my heart proceed:  
Admit he were in evil so compact  
Would I revenge the wrong by such an act,  
If that I should, were't not a helpless part,  
To kill my soul because he broke my heart.  
Your Chain of Gold here back again I send,  
I'll no Earnest sure of such a Friend:  
And there's your Ring, full little doth she know  
That sent in love, that you would use it so:  
And there's your Purse, and all the Gold therein,  
they're Wicked Angels that would tempt to sin.  
My Fort is more impregnable than they.  
That much persuade, although they little say.  
As for my bodies homely clothing weed,  
It keeps me warm, sufficeth nature's need,  
Which scarce more costlier do, and for my fare,  
My dishes wholesome, though they homely are.  
Let those that discontented do abide,  
Go wrong their husbands to maintain their pride,  
For me the meanest rag would hide my skin,  
Should better please me, then rich robes of sin,  
Which when I ask, my reason shall be such,  
No husband in the world shall need to grudge.  
Then for your heirs, reserve your lands unto them,  
They shall not curse my bones that did undo them.  
Call back yourself and think I am your friend,  
That thus would stay you from your wilful end:  
Call back yourself, or I may safety tell  
You are running down the steepest hill to hell;  
As when cold blood, and better thoughts shall show,  
You'll hold then your friend, though now your foe:  
And more rejoice in that I did refel,  
Your lawless pleasure, than consent: Farewell.    

CHAP. XIII. An admonition to Husbands and Wives for unity and concord.  
IN that you are bound, you must obey, for this knot can neither be cut nor unloosed, but by death, therefore as wise prisoners enclosed in narrow rooms suit their minds to their limits, and not impatient they can go no further, augment their pain by knocking their heads against the walls, so should it be the wisdom both of Husbands and Wives, that have undergone either this curse, or blessing, as the success or use may make it unto them, to bear it with patience and content the asswager of all maladies, and misfortunes, and not to storm against that which will but the deeper plunge them in their own misery: For what madness were it for any one to cross himself daily, because another hath crossed him once? or because another hath vexed him, therefore to vex himself? Who is so weak in discretion, that by some disaster having blemished one eye, for grief thereof, will weep out the other. That mother tries a merciless conclusion: 
Who having two sweet Babes, when death takes one,  
Will slay the other, and be nurse to none.   
Therefore seeing it is so, whosoever thou art in this disaster, seek to plant an affection and love, at least wise a patience to that which must of necessity be endured: for there is nothing so easy that the want of this may not make hard: nor nothing so harsh that this may not better temper: there are many occasions that this age administereth more than former have done of the use of this armour, (though all other rust by the walls of peace) introduced by the over-curious respects of secondary causes by secndary persons, that for these uses perish the principal, by joining hands where hearts are more disiunctive than different sectaries: and what is the issue of this but a weary patience, or sudden destruction. Others conjoin themselves by untimely folly, and these many times have a timely repentance when pleasures ebb, and sorrows begin to flow. As for instance, a youth of able means, hopeful expectation, equal carriage, regardfully befriended, carefully watched over, purposed to better destiny, pricked on by some rebellious blood, and guilty opportunity, strikes down all these hopes in the heat of his lust, with a greasy Kitchin-weneh in a corner, ceizeth her to his proper use for unlucky consequences, this being done, oppressed in mind, forsaken of his friends, shall he the more augment his misery, by thought of this his perverted felicity, with rage, and evil suffering, no rather let him love her, since it was his fortune to have her, and his fault to take her, and endeavour so to work and husband that cross beginning, to a more happy continuance and ending, taking S. Paul's counsel to his practice, which thus adviseth, Husbands love your wives, and be not bitter unto them: Love them for your own peace, for your own profit, dwell with them according to your wisdoms as with the weaker vessels, for there is no offence where love is, for love covereth the multitude of offences, of dislikes, and because the rather that God instituted it, who Himself is Love; setting aside contention, domestic civil, uncivil strife, the forerunner of ruin and the Purgatory upon earth; remembering whoever they be that fall into this predicament, they have before God and man by joining of hands, taken an everlasting peace one of another, more inviolably to be kept then the leagues of Nations; for as nothing is more odious in the sight of God or man, than self violence against a man's own person, and there was never any enraged that way but wanted either reason or faith in the deepest discontent; so then by this consequence he must either be mad or desperate, that shall to that end lay hands on his wife, being pact of himself, for they are no more two but one, as Adam and his Rib at first were but one side till severed and divided from him, so after by marriage it was conjoined again to as absolute unity as before, after which he pronounceth and thus witnesseth of himself: She is flesh of my flesh, and bone of my bone, he the head, and she as part of the members, which so being, to be divided and at odds, were as the hand to lift up, or the foot to kick against the head, the King and governor, or the head against these his instruments, supporters, and ministers, the harmony whereof in this little world of man, may instruct in example all household Commonwealths in the world, to unity. commonwealths I say: for every married man, for the most part, hath three commonwealths under him: he is a Husband of a Wife, a Father of Children, and a Master of Servants, and therefore had need of government in himself that must govern all these, and to that purpose cannot take unto himself a better practice or precedent, then from this uniformity of the body, where the head stands aloft like a King in his Three, giving direction and command to all his Subjects, biddeth the foot go, and it goeth, the hand fight and it fighteth, the members assist and they assist it, and this harmony preserves the whole man, which otherwise would destroy it, so must it between man and wife that Mystical head and member or both perish, and for that reason, shall a man forsake father and mother (the nearest that else could be) and cleave to his wife, being then no more two but one; and which he taketh from her parents and friends not to offer her violence, but to tender that love with increase which for his sake in these she parteth with, and she likewise to him, which besides the profit, hath the applause both of God and man, according to the allusion of the Psalm 133. Ecce quam bonum & jucundum fratres habitare in unum: Therefore avoid Discord thou that wouldst see the fruit of thy labours, for unity gathereth what discord disperseth; avoid jealousy that unresolved vexation, that labours to seek out what it hopes it shall not find, that many times forrunnes that evil which it causeth to follow after, being the author of dissension, distaste, misery, and sometimes of murder too, as many examples testify, of which I have here inserted one of most ancient truth and lamentable action, of a King that had a son by whose sword it was prophesied his own father and mother should perish, who therefore to prevent that fatal destiny forsook his inheritance and went into a far distant Country to inhabit, where fortune yet favouring he increased to great honour and riches, and to augment his greater felicity, was espoused to a wise right noble, rich, and exceeding beautiful, of whose welfare and happy success his father and mother afterwards hearing (being deposed of their kingdom, and in extreme misery) traveled to visit for relief and succour, and happening to his house in his absence, where making themselves known unto his wife to be her husband's father and mother, she kindly entertained them, & when having well replenished their bodies by food and sustenance, to rest them the easier after their travel, she laid them both in her husband's bed; after which he suddenly entering in possessed with this deadly jealousy, and missing his wife goes into the chamber, where perceiving two in his bed a sleep, he so enraged with passion (taking it to be his wife and some adulterer with her) drew forth his sword and slew them both thereon at once, which when he perceived his father and mother, he heavily repent with sorrow and woe, and shortly after died with grief and pensiveness. And besides all this because it is thought (for the most part) to call a man's own guiltiness into question, as Petrarch to that purpose well observeth, who thus noteth: 
There's no man jealous I durst pass my word,  
Nor fears the scabbard but hath struck with t'sword.   
If children, which are the very pledges of love, make you parents, relish their tender years with learning and piety, let God's Law be the seasoning of their first thoughts, for we know by experience, green vessels long relish of the first liquor they receive, and by instruction they may be as soon taught to say Hosanna to CHRIST, as Baldpate to Elisha; assoon a good word as a bad scoff: Affect not one more than another, love them all, but dote upon none, with the folly of the most; let them be children not wantonness, walk before them especially, their more riper years with the more observant example, which will be better to them then many good lessons. Repine not with the wicked worldling, who had rather see his counting house environed with upbraiding bags then his Table with this blessed garland of children, but be thankful for them, what ever thy poverty, for as they are Pignora, Pledges, so are they Benedictiones, blessings; and it shall be more pleasing to thy conscience upon thy deathbed to seal them as treasure for the Kingdom of heaven, to yield up thy spirit in the midst of their environing, then to unseal so many bags of evil heaped treasure to near after performed Legacies, every piece wherein shall rend thy heart in pieces at that hour, to think of the guilty achieving thereof: Besides he that hath much riches, is subject to many cares, many fears, dread of oppression of violence; but he that hath many children hath even a peace in war, a security even in greatest danger, for he shall speak boldly with his enemies in the gate, they are as so many swords in thy defence, so many arrows in thy Quiver, Arrows (as saith one) because they may be so leveled by good education and example, to shoot at thine enemies, as by the contrary against thyself. I do not see but that natural reason and mere carnal man may be graveled, encumbered and disquieted, in many circumstances of carriage in this business, but those must be debated and forethought before the entering therein, not repent of afterwards: If thou hast laid thy hand to this Blow, become a Husbandman in this exercise, thou must not by any means look back, for then the allurement of other beauties will breed a dislike of thine own, in which that thou mayst be the better contented, have some part in thine own portion, for as the saying is: 
Who takes a woman foul unto his wife,  
Doth penance daily, yet sins all his life.   
The charges of children, the unfaithfulness of servants, the disquietness of neighbours, would wish for a former liberty and releasement, and nothing disgesteth this course of life more than constancy and perseverance, and because it is a Trade of such Mystery and Art, therefore (as a famous man of our time writeth) those that have but seven years to learn any other, have three times seven to acquaint themselves in the labyrinth of this and the management thereof before they undertake it, therefore having this notion make use thereof, either discharge it willingly and contentedly, or undertake it not at all.   

CHAP. XIIII. Certain Precepts to be observed either in Wiving or Marriage.  
1 Woo not by Ambassador.  
2 Make not thy friend too familiar with thy wife.  
3 Conceive not an idle jealousy, being a fire once kindled not easily put out.  
4 Affect him not that would ill possess thee.  
5 Blaze not her beauty with thine own tongue.  
6 If thy estate be weak and poor marry far off and quickly; if otherwise firm and rich, at home and with deliberation.  
7 Bee advised before thou conclude, for though thy error may teach thee wit it is uncertain in this whether thou shalt ever have the like occasion to practise it.  
8 Mary not for Gentility without her support, because it can buy nothing in the Market without money.  
9 Make thy choice rather of a virtuous than a learned wife.  
10 Esteem rather what she is of herself, than what she should be by inheritance.  
11 Intactam quaeris intactam esto.  
Be that example to thy wife thou wouldst have her to imitate.  
For he that strikes with the Point must be content to be beaten with the Pommel.  
12 She whose youth hath pleased thee despise not her age.  
13 That thou mayst be loved, be amiable.  
14 Sail not on this Sea without a good Compass, for a wicked woman brings a man to repentance sooner than a surfeit, sooner than suretyship.  
15 'Tis the greater dispraise to children to be like to wicked parents.  
16 'Tis more torment to be jealous of a man's wife, then resolved of her dishonesty.  
And the more misery that a man may be assured of her vice that way, but cannot be of her virtue.  
17 True chastity doth not only consist in keeping the body from uncleanness, but in withholding the mind from lust; & she may be more maid that hath been unwillingly forced thereto in body, than she that hath barely consented in heart.  
18 A true wife should be like a Turcoyse stone, clear in heart in her husband's health, and cloudy in his sickness.  
And like a Tortoise under her shell ever bearing her house upon her back.  
19 Defer not thy Marriage to thy age, for a woman out of her own choice seldom plucks a man, (as a Rose) full blown.  
20 Marry so thy body that thou mayst marry thy mind; which that thou mayst the better do, thus meditate.  
1 That if thou hadst in variety of woman out-paraleld Solomon, thou shouldst in the end give up thy verdict with his: That all is but vanity and vexation of Spirit.  
2 That it is in lust as in riches, where to desire nothing and to enjoy all things is but one: To uncover more several nakedness than the Turk from his Decimary Seraglio hath authority for, with an unsatiateillimited appetite, and to desire none, at least wise no variety, is the same I with advantage.  
3 That if thou shouldest thus seeking to please thine appetite enjoy a thousand, and but want one thou desirest, thou shouldst more grieve for that little want, then rejoice in all thy former plenty.  
4 Then since what thou canst enjoy, consume thy oil to the socket, and thy substance to a morsel, will not, be one to thy pleasure for ten thousand that escape it, the variety so large never to be gathered into one bundle of thy fruition, to set up thy rest, but the more thou pursuest it the more thou art distracted: Content thyself within thy lawful limits, and destroy not thyself to run after that thou canst near o'ertake, which the faster thou followest it the swifter it flies from thee.  
5 That it were a grief to die for the full pleasure of any sense, but a torment for a taste to a greater distemper, like to him that should purchase at a dear rate salt water to quench his thirst, which the more he should drink should but the more increase it.  
6 That if beauty, or wisdom, or any other portion of the body or mind assail thee, refel them with this thought, that they are but shadows of that substance, which should the more allure thee: But pictures, which if they please, are but that the pattern should be the more desired.  
Think that as each day is an abridgement of all time, presents the same light, the same use, the same Sun and Firmament, and the ending of this renews but the same to morrow: So each woman an abridgement of that whole sex, and infirmity, how mean so ever, expresseth the same substance, the same mould, and metal, proportion, quality, and use of all other in the world: Who then would be so mad against sense, though they would persuade otherwise by Title, by Trapping, by copious adulterating all parts, to believe (as they would be thought) that they are other then what they are, other than the same, unless worse than other: The same way and the same fashion, leading to the harbour of the same site, of the same condition and quality, though a little more circumstances (in some then other) beats the Bush, and ushers it on. Know this, that the end of all such variety is no more than one dish, dressed and presented by a several Cook, and fashion the same in all one but in circumstance and carriage: Who would thus be mad without reason to ioyle after the whole Alphabet of woman, when the  letter in the row expoundeth all that Text and Coverture. And for Title, or Toombelike bravery, well may they work upon the eye of folly but never besiege the heart of understanding: And as it was lately well observed by one, who, to that effect, thus further noted their vanity.  
Things were first made, then called, woman the same,  
With or without false Title, or proud name.  
And if this be not yet enough, take with thee beside for a conclusion and bar to all the rest, this Motto or Sentence to lead thee home: that, 
Since all earth's pleasures are so short and small,  
The way to enjoy most is to abjure them all.    

CHAP. XV. Discontents in all Ages, Sexes, States, Conditions.  
VNmedled joys here to no man befall,  
Who least hath some, who most hath never all:  
I have examined from the King on's Throne,  
To him that at his chained Oar doth groan,  
Every estate, condition, and degree  
Scytuate between this large extremity:  
Yet wheresoever that I cast mine eye,  
I never was so fortunate to spy  
That man that had so great a blessing lent him,  
That had not some what in't to discontent him:  
The rich man with his cares and fears oppressed  
In all he hath can find but little rest:  
Ill Creditors, unthrifty Heirs, and losses,  
Or else the Gout, or something worse, all crosses.  
The poor in want forsaken of his friends,  
Thinks that were wealth is there all sorrow ends:  
But yet as here immediately I show,  
The rich that hath it doth not find it so.  
One Tradesman he dislikes his own Vocation  
And on a worse he sets his admiration.  
The single man commends the married life  
That hath the sweet fruition of a wife:  
That opens all her beauties and her treasure,  
In Hills and Dales that he ore-walkes at pleasure:  
That may unstarted and unfeared partake  
Whole nights together, that which he doth quake  
To snatch in corners, when he must away,  
Sometimes disturbed when he would longer stay:  
Banished like Tantalus in his forced haste,  
To touch the sweetness that he may not taste.  
The married man whom all these dainties cloy  
Thinks that the sauce the sweetness doth destroy:  
And that to purchase is so wondrous dear,  
That he had rather fast then find the cheer.  
Then children come, and they augment his charges,  
And jealousy some times all these enlarges.  
That what th'other thinks doth heaven excel  
He that enjoys it finds it but a hell:  
And wisheth now, but that it is too late,  
That with the Bachelor he might change his state.  
Therefore me thinks his application fit  
That to a public feast compared it.  
Where those that long have sat and cloyed with meat,  
Would feign rise up as others feign would eat.  
Th'ambitious youth lest folly oversway him,  
Hath Tutors, rod, and parents eye to stay him:  
Noting the liberty of riper years,  
With more impatience his restrainings bears:  
When elder times again (the more 'tis strange)  
Would feign creep back again and with him change.  
The busy Lawyer beating of his brain  
To make rough points by praesidences plain:  
Who from a judgement wrongfully gone out,  
Doth sometimes bring another's right in doubt  
By judging by it, let the first but stray  
And all go wrong that are adjudged that way.  
Noting the Merchant, how from foreign shores,  
The winds and waves land wealth unto his doors:  
That where he sleep, or wake, or rest, or play,  
So Airs be prosperous, he grows rich that way,  
Dislikes his choice, the Merchant he in danger,  
T'whom Rocks, and Shelves and Pirates are no stranger:  
That try the wonders of the unknown deeps,  
Whom but a three inched board from danger keeps:  
Traffics with unknown Airs, and unknown friends  
Leaving his wife at home to doubtful ends.  
Who in his watery Pilgrimage is said  
To be with neither living nor the dead.  
Commends the Lawyer that hath power and skill,  
Either to make or mar, to save or spill  
A man's whole revenue, and therefore need  
Either for speech or silence to be feed.  
The Empiric uncredited that tugs,  
With forceless herbs and with effectless drugs,  
Commends the Churchman for his happy share,  
Securely freed from Temporary care:  
When he again with discontents full many,  
Thinks the physicians happiest life of any;  
For by how much the bodies better deemed,  
Then is the soul, so much more he's esteemed,  
Which is by much, for let the body grieve it  
There's nothing unattempted may relieve it:  
But for the soul although it die and languish  
We near regard the dolour nor the anguish:  
But to the greatest danger do reply  
It will recover, or it cannot die:  
Therefore to him that doth the Physic bring,  
To this regardless disesteemed thing,  
Hath a poor meed more recompensed his merit,  
That cures the body than applies to th'spirit.  
And what in health men grapple and retain,  
If sickness come it flies to ease their pain.  
He that by avarice and damned extortion,  
Hath heaped up many a pound to his heirs portion,  
So far from thought of doing any good,  
That what it was he never understood;  
Sets up his rest for ever here to dwell,  
And therefore thinks no other heaven or hell.  
Yet when this Sergeant death comes to assail him,  
To thee he opens hoping thou canst bail him:  
And though thou canst not, do but seem to assent,  
And he'll reward thee to thine own content:  
Therefore this Art and Trade who ere neglect it,  
Let him exchange with me that do affect it:  
He that a weary languished youth hath lead  
To think what pleasures are in Marriage bed:  
That hath entreated hours and years to hast them,  
To cancel bonds that he may come and taste them.  
When there arrived not finding to content him,  
What expectation did before present him.  
Let him appease his thoughts upon this ground,  
That in this world that purchase is not found.  
There's discontent in every sect and age,  
As well in Childhood as in Parentage.  
There's discontent in every man's Vocation,  
Therefore pursues it newness innovation.  
There's discontent from Sceptre to the Swain,  
And from the Peasant to the King again.  
Then whatsoever in thy will afflict thee,  
Or in thy pleasure seem to contradict thee;  
Give it a welcome as a wholesome friend,  
That would instruct thee to a better end:  
Since no Condition, Sect, nor State is free,  
Think not to find in this what near can be.   
FINJS.