AN APOLOGY FOR LOVERS. OR A Discourse of the Antiquity and lawfulness of LOVE. By Erastophil, no Proselyte, but a native of that Religion. Faelices ter & amplius Quos irrupta tenet copula, nec malia Divulsus querimoniis Suprema citius solvet amor die. Horat. ad Lydiam. Ode, 13. London, Printed in the year, 1651. TO My Dearest Sister, Mrs. M. W. My Dearest Sister, WHat I long since promised I now perform, if a thing imperfectly flubbered over, and in haste, may merit the name of a performance: but for that as I acknowledge the debt, so I look upon you as an easy Creditress, and not so scrupulous as to refuse payment, because it comes in clipped and broken money. 'Tis true, I have sometimes heretofore thought of it, but those thoughts perished almost in the very conception without producing any thing, unless it were some few rude lineaments, and which I should call the rough draught of this discourse, but that I should be injurious to it as it is now, by robbing the thing of its apellation; although I am persuaded the conceptions concerning this subject, being so exceeding fine, and having so little commerce with sense, are not to be expressed to the life by the most curious Pencil, much less by so uneven an hand as mine, but are like to those which Apelles is said to have drawn when he contended with Protogenes, Lineas visum effugientes: however delineated, it is yours by a double relation; both because I know you to be (and methinks there should be no one of so little humanity as not to be) a friend to lovers; and next because it is a task which I had not undertaken but upon your assignment, and so in both respects most properly belonging to you. For a conclusion, I wish you all the joys of Love, of Youth, and Health, and what ever happiness else is to be found in this World, and in the next, eternal and ever lasting Felicity. Your most affectionate Brother and Servant. Erastophil. To my worthy friend the Author on his Apology for Lovers. I'Ve seen thy fair Design, and I approve Thy each part, like the first great Act of Love, When fire pursued, and water stood at Bay, Heat fought with cold, and darkness with the day: When Nature was all tempest, when no Cheek Had smiles, nor were there lips to kiss or speak: When unfledged Cupid had no wings to fly, Nor were his shafts placed in the killing eye, Love calmed the Chaos, and reduced the brawl, Into a good, a great, and glorious ALL. Thus friend thy p●● transcribes his draughts above. And every line runs parallel with Jove. Something alike in both my fancy finds, He worked on matter, thou dost work on minds. Love was his creature, but thy ward: nay thou Art more than Guardian to that passion now. He in a larger volume did express His admired flame, thou dost it in a less: And though thy narrow Trace may not contend With his vast course, yet both conspire in th' end; To the same point of union thou dost run, As Heliosropes do imitate their Sun. Me thinks I see the soul like some course fire Allied to Coal, enslaved with a desire Of pelf and stock, so that her noble flame Feeds on cheap chips, and stuff beneath her name. Health to thy brave design, that would translate Our Spirits from this dirty kitchen-state, And fix them in a heaven, where eyes with eyes, And beams with beams may twist and eternize. Why should we dote on trash? and so misplace That on the Fan, which is due to the face? Stars mix with stars, and trouble not the earth, lest saint should interpose and soi the Birth. I would fright the Mother, did the child's aspect But figure that, most fathers do affect, And well she might mistake herself a Mint, Did stamp Philippo's, and bring forth in Print We should have children faced like Duckatoons, And like George riding too, out of the Wombs. Such indirect affections I can pity, And justly may bequeathe them to the City: There without Love, Gold only hath the Name They have the fuel, but they want a Flame. Eugenius Philalethes. To my dear Brother, upon the publishing of his apology for Lovers. I Thank thee for this Credit, thou hast done A Stock of super-erogation: Now I may run upon the score, and say, My Younger Brother will the reckoning pay; Thou mak'st up what I want; I now may play The Fool, and Elder-Brother every day, And yet be born with; for though my Scale's light, It well may pass, because thine's over-weight. But is't impossible I should be screwed T'a higher pitch more near thee? Am I mewed Unto a nero plus ultra, nor can find Some way to Elevate my sluggish mind? Am I so sottish, or so little kin To Thee, that Emulation cannot win Upon my Genius, nor resemble it, In some proportion to thy lofty wit? It will not be: Nor can a man invite (On any terms) an Aethiop to look white. Where didst thou get (my dear Evastophil) This huge advantage? I did climb the Hill Of Nature first: but now (in all beside) Thou hast out stripped me the whole Heaven-wide. Sure there's a different stuff in Thee and Me; Or is't the Fate of firstlings, that they be essays and rough casts, which the following draughts Exceed far more than do the second Thoughts. I'm but thy Hench boy, and thy Harbinger, The Prologue to thy day, thy morning star; Nay to speak truth, thou art so much alone, That there's between us no comparison. Nor can my verse commend more than the Gown On Horseback did that Otacousticon, That would demonstrate his new ta'en degree To his admiring friends in the country. Yet fear not, thou shalt have thy due applause. The great Eugenius, who knows natures laws, And can tie love knots there, he who held forth A candle to the world, approves thy worth, And Deigns to usher in thy Virgin muse▪ So did the noble generous Romans use To grace their friends, as Scipio for his brother, Wore a blue coat, for his own son another. F. W. AN apology FOR LOVERS. Gen. 29. vers. 20. And Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days, for the love he had unto her. CErtainly, if man could ever have brocked Solitude, or been happy in himself, without the Society of another, it was the in the state of his Innocency, when his understanding was clear and unclouded, his will indifferent and unbiased, his affections regular and obedient, and in a word, all the faculties and powers of his soul healthful and undiseased; for having so absolute a command over himself, so vast a signiory and unlimited Empire over the creatures, it was not to be expected, that his condition should be more independent than then it was or himself better able to subsist without supply from any other: yet even then, amidst all these perfections he was imperfect, amidst all these riches he was in poverty, there was something wanting to complete his happiness, for so God himself, his Creator, (who made him of the dust, and formed him of the Clay, and must therefore best know his temper and composition, and what was most requisite and best for him) pronounced, and that after a most deliberate Consultation held there by the unity, as in the Chapter before, when he created him by the Trinity, not improbably to shadow forth and adumbrate allegorically that unity and self-sameness, (as I may so term it) that aught to be in this great and near Relation; God I say himself pronounced of him, Non est bonum, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. Some out of Curiosity of Wit may perhaps conceit that the remedy here proposed might have produced some inconveniencies, for it is evident will they say, That had man continued in his first Innocency, his Obedience had been rewarded with an Immortality here, which being granted, as it cannot be denied, than there may arise this Question, How this small Globe of Earth, which as Astronomers not only say, but unanswerably demonstrate to be no bigger than a little * Punctum est in quo vivitis, in quo regna desponitis, in quo bella geritis. Seneca in Praefat. ad Nat. Hist, Point, compared to the universal Globe of the World (as the most ignorant themselves would confess, were they but capable of conceiving the reason) should have been ever able to have held and contained so many infinite millions, and vast numbers of people, as we must necessarily imagine, would have been, had the propagation of mankind run still on, exempted from the stroke of merciless death, and unbrieed laws of Mortality; or if we suppose it might have held them, because we see a few Acres will contain a multitude of persons, yet how they should ever have been able to have lived one by another, we do not see: Again whether there might not have been a cure more apt and apposite found out against the want of company, than the Ceeation of woman; perhaps if there had been such a set and definite number of men only formed, as would have served to have peopled the whole earth, which would have remedied the inconvenience beforementioned; Furthermore, which might likewise not unfitly, will they say, and without violence be drawn into question, Whether friendship betwixt man and man, or conjugal Love betwixt man and wife be more agreeable and grateful to human Nature, or better satisfy the intention for which Woman was created, which is here expressed to be for a remedy against solitude; but these are subjects fitter for the anxious inquiries of Philosophers, than the humble belief and credulity of Christians; leaving them therefore, and other the like queries to Disputants and polemics; let it suffice us that we have here God almighty's Probatum est annexed to this cure, and no other, and ought therefore to conclude it of all other the best and most sovereign. But I pass on to the Text itself, in which we have these parts considerable. First, here is the Lover, or after our modern phrase, the servant Jacob. Secondly, here is the penance served. Thirdly, here is the aggravation of the penance from the length of time, viz. Seven years. Fourthly, here is the object of his love and affections, or according to the mode of Lovers, his Mistress, Rachel. Fifthly, here is the wonder, and they seemed to him but a few days. Sixtly and lastly, here is the cause rendered, which being once known, the wonder vanisheth, and ceaseth to be any longer a wonder, viz. He loved her. And Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days, for the love he had unto her. I shall take a view of the parts severally as they lie in order, and first therefore of the first Branch of the Text, the Lover Jacob, brought in here by way of connexion with the story precedent, viz. And Jacob served seven years for Rachel, &c. They that have taken upon them to pass Censures, and make Observations upon the various and uncertain dispositions of mankind, affirm that such minds as are not either Religious, or Philosophical, or Amorous, are sordid and earthy dispositions, altogether unworthy, as having nothing of nobleness or generosity in them; but here we have a concatenation of them in this our Amourist, they are all three linked together: for his Piety and Religion it is throughout this whole book of Genesis conspicuous; and for his learning and deep knowledge in philosophy, we have amongst others a notable instance in that politic invention which he used to enrich himself, and impoverish Laban, upon the contract which he made with him, which shows that he was no superficial, and mere notional philosopher, but had conjoined experiment with reason, and that of the most abstruse and highest nature, for such is the knowledge of the strange power and miraculous effects that are, and may be wrought by imagination: but omitting him in both these capacities, of a Divine and a scholar, I shall only consider him in the quality of a Lover, for with that aspect only he looks upon me in this text, And Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to Him but a few days for the Love he had unto her. Every Breast is not an Altar fit for Love to sacrifice upon, nor every Soul a Shrine worthy of so great a Saint: No, the Altar must be first consecrate, and the Shrine hallowed and purified before this Deity be there Lodged. There are to make a Lover, peculiar conditions required, of which every one is not capable of the performance. Love is not an Artifice, or a Disguise that can be assumed and left off at pleasure, but like virtue ceaseth to be, when it is once dissembled. It is Nature that must mould a disposition for a Lover; and that you may not mistake him, he hath usually (as Artists tell us) these marks whereby you may know him. First, he is mild and gentle expressing in his very countenance, modesty and simple virtue. It may beget wonder in any one that shall seriously and attentively consider, how exceedingly much nature is delighted with variety, how she plays and sports her self in it, hence it is, that amidst so many thousand faces of men and women (not to mention the disparities which are in other creatures) there is so great and strauge diversities outwardly expressed in their countenances and yet the inward discrepancy and disagreement of their minds is far greater, and this is the reason, that one and the same thing enters men's minds clothed in a different habit, and is represented with so much advantage by some, and disadvantage by others, as may be seen for example amongst others, in a Covetous man, and a Prodigal; before whom do but set a sum of money, and presently you shall see one of them with his eyes fixed and immovable, as if he were wonder-struck, eagerly gaze upon the beauty of so beloved an object, with which his very soul seems to be ravished; the prodigal on the other side, he looks upon it with no such eyes, it appears to him no other than a mass of cold, pallid, ponderous earth, and is so far from being in love with it, that he thinks the very sight of it will contaminate him, but is so far assured, that he dare swear the touch of it would defile him: betwixt these two extremes is the Provident and frugal man placed, who looks upon it neither so carelessly as the one, nor so greedily as the other. So we have here one and the same thing yielding a different relish, according to the diversity of the tasters palates. Instances of this nature are infinite, but to resume our discourse, I say with Charron in his Book of wisdom, That for the most part, the face is the soul abreviated; her very pattern and image, in which is placed her Escutcheon, with many quarters, representing all her titles of honour, being set in the gate and forefront, to the end men may know, that this is her abode and her palace. And although this Rule is sometimes fallible, yet it holds generally true, and therefore it was well answered by Socrates, and like a philosopher, who when his friends (that were well acquainted with his virtues, and greatly had them in admiration) were angry with a certain Physiognomist, for saying he was blockish, given to Wine; and to all manner of vices, 'Tis very true (saith he) what he speaks; for such a one I was by nature, and should have been, had not the study of philosophy and good letters weeded out and eradicated those vicious inclinations. But to fit the garment to the body, and the dial to the Meridian, to apply what hath been spoken in general, to our lover in particular, we read in the history of his nativity, that Jacob was a smooth man, and as his complexion was, such was his disposition, calm and serene, smooth and even, as there was no tempest in his looks, so neither was there in his breast, all was quiet there and in tranquillity: contrary to him in all things was his Brother Esau being of body hairy and rugged, and of mind fierce and violent, a man of an untamed beat, and every way unfit to make a Lover; neither do I find that he was ever guilty of so much humanity; indeed I read that he was a Polygamist, and had more wives than one, as namely Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, which were as the text saith, a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah, and afterwards a third Malahath daughter to Ishmael, when he saw the others were nothing pleasing to his father and mother; but you will say, if this were his crime, yet he had that comfort of miserable persons, company, and which doth greatly alleviate his brothers too, whom herein you shall find as faulty as himself: but do you think in good earnest, to do a thing voluntarily with election and premeditation, and to be enforced to it by affection the strongest motive in the world having been by Laban so notoriously deluded, after so many years service and sufferings makes no alteration in the case? nay what will you say after all this, if I make it appear, that he had no other wife besides Rachel? for of this opinion are the Casuists, who say, that the consent which proceedeth so from error, that the error gives cause to the consent (whether it be error personae of the person, as in this case, or Conditionis aut qualitatis ad essentiam conjugij pertinentis, of the condition or quality belonging to the essence of Wedlock, such as is mentioned Deut. 22. 20. and which Joseph suspected of the blessed Virgin such consent say they is void and to be accounted for none, and consequently no marriage, for in that, as in all other contracts the consent of both parties must precede and go before: and this consent must be voluntary or else it is not Consensus Humanus, the consent of a rational creature; if it be asked, why he retained Leah afterwards? I answer, as his concubine, and not as his wife, which that age then dispensed with, for I cannot think but that herein he would imitate, the pious example of Abraham and Isaac, who were both Monogamists, the latter not having so much as a concubine. But whether am I digressed, while I pursue the ●●●●…ing notions too far? I shall only add thus much further and return. These two brothers so different in their dispositions, methinks are no unfit allegory of reason and passion, or policy and strength, in which we see the great advantage that reason and policy hath over passion and brutish strength; for indeed therein beasts properly excel: and therefore it was foretold by God at their nativity, that the elder should serve the younger; for passion is in every man elder than reason, for he is first a slave to passion, before he comes to be a subject to reason, and though kingdoms and Dominions are usually gained by the sword, yet they could never subsist without good laws and administration, the nerves and ligaments of all commonwealths, which proceed from that supreme and sovereign part of man his intellect and under standing, to which only the Throne is due, and to which all the other faculties ought to be subordinate. But I proceed to the second symptom whereby nature discovers a Lover, and that is, that he is of a great, but withal a merciful spirit, herein resembling God Almighty himself, who as he hath the greatest power to punish, so he hath the greatest mercy to forgive, which as it proceeds from God out of his infinite love and goodness to his creatures, so it doth likewise from a Lover out of that natural and innate Sympathy, which he beareth to his fellow creatures; for indeed the lover is the only person of humanity, all others are but Lycanthropoi, mere Wolves one to another, for the proud man he looks upon others as his footstools and vassals, the ambitious man as his ladders, the covetous man as his prey and booty, the fearful man starts and looks upon others as bugbears, the envious person he looks upon others too, but it is a squint, and as upon his tormentors, only the lover looks upon others with an eye os compassion, acknowledging even in the basest and poorest persons, the communion of minds and mortality. The third mark which nature gives of a Lover, is that he is impatient of idleness and all occasions of sloth. But upon the very mention of this, methinks I hear some cry out, A Paradox, and that I sin against experience, and the old verse, Otia si tollas, they allege that idleness is the oil which maintains and feeds the flames of affections, and that were it once subtracted, Love would instantly go out, perish, and die of itself. But I pray you what a kind of Love do these men ideate and fancy to themselves? will you know? why truly nothing else but some loose extravagant & wanton heats, to attribute to which the name of this most pure and unspotted flame, were an impiety altogether unpardonable; no, when Love hath once taken possession of the soul, when affection hath once inspired it, it presently sets all the faculties and powers of it on work, there is no room then, no place for idleness, every corner is filled, every angle is replenished, every recess is taken up. How many from mere beasts and savages in a sort (to instance in adventitious & acquired love, of which we have examples as well as of natural) hath it restored to reason and humanity? How many proud and ambitious men hath it taught humility and obsequiousness? How many fierce and cruel minds hath it made affable and gentle? How many ignorant and blockish persons have become great scholars, Fools Philosophers, & Cowards valiant, being instructed by Love, than which there is not a more excellent Schoolmaster in the World? Away than ye morose Rigid satirists, and supercilious Antiamorists, with your long Beards and starched faces; you that can personate virtue with such a counterfeit and seeming Gravity, and like the Philosopher in Lucian, have taught your brows the knack to bend at the mention of Vice, when indeed for all your dissembling and hypocritical visards none are more rotten and corrupt at the bottom than your selves. Most excellently and truly is Love described and vindicated from those most false and unjust Aspersions ye have cast upon him, by * Barelay in his Icon▪ a●●morum. one whose Knowledge is greater then your Ignorance. unjustly (saith he) do severe men accuse Love, and paint him in a loose and feeble Figure, when there is nothing more sincere amongst mankind, provided that he burn in just limits, and those raised by virtue, and fire not with an unlawful Flame, where he is forbidden. And in another place, saith he, This Flame is kindled even in children, in whom their innocency may be a sufficient Apology for the purity of it; Nay (saith he, elsewhere) you shall see many of the honest est kind of men tormented with a care (or to call it rightly) a love of some young men. And this Love is a certain tye of Benevolence more but and violent then to be called. Friendship. How solicitous are they? how fearful lest they should do any thing amiss or unworthy of those thoughts and cares they bestow upon them, that you may know that Love is planted in Worthy Breasts? I will conclude therefore, that so far forth is Love from making men to become effeminate and slothful, that there is not in the World a greater spur or sharper Incentive to Noble and heroical Actions. Lastly I might note in our Lover one thing more, and that is that he was a Younger Brother, and from thence infer (if I shall not be thought too much to strain for this Inference) that Younger Brothers, as it should seem, are more fitted and better disposed for Lovers then Elder, whether it be that Nature takes the better aim from her first Aberrations, correcting these Younger Copies by the erratas of the former, or that custom which is a second Nature gives them this privilege and Advantage; for being for the most part habituated to sufferance and hardship, there minds become thereby, as more gallant and resolute, so withal more humble, pliant, and tender, and fitter for Love to make his Noble Impressions in: whereas on the contrary side, Elder brothers being bred up with hopes and expectations of estates and fortunes (though by their favour, to speak the truth in behalf of all Younger brothers, neither by the laws of God nor Man have they any so absolute a Birthright, but that the Inheritance may at any time with the consent of Parents, be as lawfully and as justly disposed to any Younger son, as to them, or any of them. And that this is no idle or vain Assertion, be pleased but to read over a Book entitled, The Younger Brothers Apology, a most excellent Discourse, and very well worthy the perusal of all Owners of estates of Inheritace to rectify their judgements by, wherein what I say is fully and evidently demonstrated, and clear satisfaction given in the point; whereto I might likewise add, that throughout the whole Book of GOD, you shall not find any to whom he expressed a more peculiar favour to, then to younger Brothers, as were easy to instance in Abel, in Jacob here, in Judah, in Joseph, in Ephraim, in Moses, in David, in Solomon, and in many others, which I cannot now call to mind, all Younger Brothers) I say Elder Brothers being for the most part delicately and wantonly educated, and not with that rigour and severity which the Younger are, by that means their minds become more haughty and imperious, and that suits not with a Lover, for he must be of a disposition, though not servile, yet obsequious and willing to suffer and endure any thing whatsoever for his Mistress sake; which brings me to the next branch of the Text, The Penance served, And Jacob served. All men by nature were born free, Servitude and Bondage was first brought into the world by sin, and is by the Civilians defined to be a Constitution of the Law of Nations, by which, contrary to nature, one is subjected to another's power; for Sin first enslaving his mind, his body soon after came to be captivated, for by sin entered death, and all other miseries, both precedent, concomitant, and subsequent; and indeed, it was but just with Almighty God, that since man would not be obedient to, but deviated and deflected from the rule of his most sacred & perfect Will, whose service is perfect freedom, that he should be made a slave to the unjust and tyrannical Will of his Fellow-Creature, which heretofore hath been so large and so far extended, that they had Vitae & potestatis necem, absolute power over life and death, to save and kill at pleasure, (and afterwards had a very unlimited Authority and Jurisdiction, until such time as Justinian the Emperor in favour of Liberty, abrogated the Law styled Lex Fusia Caninia, which was very rigorous and severe, even in the formalities of Manumission) though now it be utterly ceased and quite grown out of fashion throughout all Christian Commonwealths, and indeed it might be truly called what Sennertus doth in another case of being born deaf and dumb, Miserandum malum; for herein the condition of man was more miserable than that of Beasts, for we do not see that they serve one another, only if they contend, as it sometimes happens, the more impotent and weaker gives place to the stronger and more excellent, for herein their excellency consists as properly as in any thing else; but the misery of servitude in man received agravation, from his having reason to be sensible of it, in all the circumstances which might exasperate and heighten it. For first, the original of it proceeded not from any Victory obtained by one man over the reason of another, which might justly challenge a superiority, since therein the excellency of man consists, as being thereby distinguished from a beast, but from that wherein he is by beasts exceeded; strength and ability of body and limbs; for he upon whom nature had bestowed the more sinewy and brawny arms, making use of this advantage, fell upon another that was weaker than himself, vanquished and overcame him, and so by this means he became his captive and his slave; afterwards in process of time, it may be this property thus acquired which he challenged in him, might either by gift, or sale, or contract, or some way or another, be transferred to one possibly every way inferior to himself, and even in this, which was the first cause of his captivity. I do not discommend valour: I deny not but that it is a great ornament to any man, and of great use too, for that by it, he is able to protect himself in the doing of his duty, to countenance virtue, and to add authority to it likewise: neither will I deny but that nature may have seemed to have marked out some persons for sovereignty and command, and again others for servitude and slavery, by induing the former with Brave, Noble, heroic dispositions, and the others with Low, Servile, and Sordid; for indeed there are millions and multitudes of people, that have nothing of man in them, but only the outward aspect, being otherwise little superior or better than beasts, insomuch that they may seem to have begot that question, whether beasts differed from men specifically, or only gradually? I say not to deny but to acknowledge all this, yet we cannot grant valour a Prerogative above reason, being, without this to govern it and appoint it its limits, nothing else but a rebellious and stubborn heat, for did beasts but equal men in reason, as they exceed them in strength, they would quickly be masters of the world, and turn man out of that dominion which he pretends as Lord over the creatures, in despite of all his walled Towns, strong Castles, and fortifications. But not to expatiate further, I say liberty being accounted so precious, and so highly valued by every one, that Jacob quite contrary, being born free, should voluntarily prefer servitude before this so esteemed, happy condition, may seem to most people very strange and wonderful; but I perceive these Wonderers are ignorant what it is to Love, or else they might have read, that even Jupiter himself, Rex superum, the King of the Gods, was not ashamed, as the poet's fable, to assume the shape of a beast, and bellow like a Bull amidst the fields, for the love of the fair Europa; and that Hercules too, after all his Labours and Conquests, refused not, even with those victorious hands with which he had performed such Wonders, to hold a distaff, and spin at the command of Jole his Mistress. Such is the efficacy and power of all-powerful Love that there is no Office so mean, no Danger so great, no Hazard so apparent, no Peril so imminent, that a Lover will stick at, and refuse to undergo: And therefore, what that great advancer of Learning saith in the beginning of those excellent Precepts which he gives about moulding a man's own Fortunes, namely, that it is as hard and severe a thing to be a true politic, as to be truly Moral; I might transfer, and say, That it is as difficult a matter to be a true Lover as either, and that Love layeth as heavy Impositions as either virtue or Fortune: And indeed, what is there that we highly prize, that is easily obtained? Do not we see that men commit themselves to the Sea, to Death, and to a thousand dangers to gain a little wealth and riches, and shall a Lover sit still and do nothing to obtain a prize so excellent as an Heart, a treasure so far beyond all treasures, if we will believe Solomon (and he was no unwise man) who saith, that * Cantie●●…, 8. v. 7. if a man would give all the substance of his house for it, that it would be utterly contemned. Were there no difficulty in the obtaining, there would be no pleasure in the enjoyment, for it is that which renders the fruition so much the sweeter, so miserable is our Lot here, that we cannot relish the least contentment, unless it be seasoned with the bitterness and acerbity of misery, Pleasure and Pain being by Jupiter, as the Fable hath it, inseparably linked together, not by any means to be parted asunder. But I come in the next place, to the Aggravation of the Penance from the length of Time, viz. Seven Years. And Jacob served Seven years. There are some who are of Opinion, that there is a certain hidden and secret magic in Number, and in some more especially then in others; this conceit seemeth to be first deduced from the Pythagoreans, who were great and Religious Admirers of the virtues and Powers of Number. Amongst the rest, or rather above the rest, hath this Number of Seven been celebrated, as to any one who shall take the pains to read the many Comments upon that famous place in Virgil, Oterque quaterque beati, will evidently appear. Frequent mention is likewise made of it in the sacred Scriptures, especially in Amos, where we have it repeated no less than eight times in the two first Chapters, where we read so often these words, For three Transgressions, and for four, &c. But I shall not make so superstitious a scrutiny into the words, only from the number of the Years, which make up one complete climacteric, in which they say there are so many great Changes and Mutations in Dispositions and Affections. I shall observe the Constancy of our Amorist, and commend it to the Imitation and Practice of all Lovers; for indeed, this is that which Crowns all actions: and is the very Touchstone to discern a sincere and loyal, from a masked & pretending Lover. Whosoever thou art therefore, that intendest to enter these lists, be sure to come well Fortified and Armed against all Dangers and Difficulties whatsoever, and resolve either to Die or Conquer; for know, that many may please themselves with the Thoughts of being Lovers, till they come to suffer, and then their Inconstancy betrays the weakness of their Resolution, and discovers the Sandiness of the Foundation upon which they were built: for, how many do we read of, that have been Candidates and Probationers, whom yet the strictness of the Discipline hath deterred and frighted from becoming professed Lovers? How many that have proceeded further, yea, so far, that they have attained even within sight of the Haven, and yet there, by an ill Fate, have been shipwrackt and cast away? that have escaped the ninth Wave, and yet have been absorbed and overwhelmed by the tenth? unfortunately quitting the Siege, than when if they had continued never so little longer, the Fort had been yielded up, and delivered into their Possession? If thou wouldest therefore steer a right Course, in the midst of a Sea so tempestuous, so beset with Rocks, with Shelves, and quicksands, be sure thou aavoid Presumption on the one hand, and Despair on the other, both alike Enemies to this virtue of Constancy; and though thou dost wait long, yet consider, that thy Patience will at last be Crowned with Victory and Conquest. The Angler, though he sit long in silence and expectation by the Brook-side, yet at last draws up the Fish. The Husbandman, though he take so much pains to plow and sow, forcing the stubbernness of the barren Earth, to make it fertile, yet at last receives a plentiful Crop, which pays him for all the labour and toil that he hath taken: So thou, if thou continuest Constant and Patient, though thou mayest meet with some hindrance in thy passage, some difficulties and obstructions in the way, yet thou wilt assuredly at the last arrive at the Haven of thy Desires and Wishes. Come we in the next place, to the Object of all this Love & Affection, his Mistress Rachel. And Jacob served seven years for Rachel. It was the opinion of Aristotle, that the first Monarchs; and those to whom others yielded Subjection, were such as were most beautiful, by this Submission acknowledging that Nature had indulged and bestowed upon them a privilege and Prerogative extraordinary above and beyond others; for certainly, there is in Beauty an awfulness and sovereignty, that forceth every one to stoop to it: for even very Beasts are sensible of the power of it; and without all question, it is most usually an Index and symptom of a virtuous and well disposed soul, and therefore it is said, that Mores saepe sequuntur temperamentum corporis, the conditions oftentimes follow the temperament and crasis of the body: This that judicious and excellent Poet Homer well knew, for he makes Thersites who was deformed in mind to be alike deformed and mishapen in body; Now whether Beauty consists in a certain pleasing Harmony and Symmetry of Parts, which they call good features, or in a perfect mixture of Colours and Complexion; or lastly, which seems to be a more immediate efflux of the soul, in a certain air and taking garb of the whole, which renders all the actions graceful and becoming, is not easy to define, Men disagree so much about it; neither can we allow them for competent Judges in this case; so much doth natural prejudice corrupt the judgement of every one: for as several humours are predominant in everybody (which though they be reduced to four Heads, yet are infinite in degree and mixture) so are the fantasies and Conceits severally framed and effected accordingly; hence it is that what one man loves, another hates, and again what is disliked by him, is affected by another; for why else do the Chinoses esteem great pouting lips, and flat noses, such as we call saddle noses, to be the only Beauty, when amongst us it is held and accounted so great a deformity? notwithstanding this incertainty of opinion (if I might be admitted to give in my conjectural suffrage) I should assign the first place to that which we called the Air or garb, the next to the countenance, and the last to the complexion, and indeed so great is the force of Beauty to beget Love, and that with so much ardency and violence, that we read of many that have died for love, because they were denied the enjoyment of those they so passiovately affected, so we read that Iphis died for the love of Anaxarete, Dido for Aeneas, and a great many more that I will not now instance in; & yet alas without virtue, how admirable and excellent soever Beauty be, it is nothing, so much doth a vicious soul within deform the most beautiful form & outward appearance of the fairest body; for certainly, if according to the conceit of that famous Opti●… Vitruvius, Nature had windowed every breast, the deformity of the mind would appear greater and fouler then that of the body; and virtue, as Cicero hath it, Mirandos sui excitaret amores, would ravish all eyes with the sweetness and lustre of its Beauties, and therefore we read of Socrates, that though he was very deformed, and extremely crooked, and bunchbackt, yet his eyes were irradiated with a certain sweet and amiable splendour raised from his virtuous soul, wherewith the beholders were marvellously delighted. Seeing then that Jacob had such a Mistress endued as well with all virtuous qualities as beautiful perfections, being as virtuous as she was fair, and most fair and beautiful amidst so many virtues, it is no wonder if to gain a jewel so inestimable (for so Solomon saith in the beginning of that large Encomium which he makes in praise of a good wife, where he interrogates and asks the question* Who Prov. cap. 31. 10. can find a virtuous Woman, for her price is far above Rubies) he despised his liberty and all the injuries of the Climate and inclemency of the weather, which by the way let me tell you, was much more rigorous and extreme in Syria (as Geographers will inform us) than it is anywhere with us. Now that she was virtuous I need not prove being everywhere so fully demonstrated, and that she was beautiful we have Divine testimony for our Authority, which can neither err nor be deceived. Indeed Lovers that see only through the mists and clouds of their passion, do many times hyperbolise, setting out their Mistresses elaborately with borrowed & feigned Metaphors and Titles impoverishing every thing to enrich them: but of Rachel here, though we have no particular Description, yet we have her set down beautiful and well-favoured in general, & one instance for all in particular, even in that which is held to be the chiefest Prerogative of Beauty, the Eye, the Sun that inlightens this little world, the window of the soul, from whence she takes her fairest & most immediate prospect, so much we may by consequence gather out of the Text itself, which we read thus, * Gen. 29. 17. Now Leah was tender-eyed, but Rachel was beautiful and well-favoured; we do not find any other defect of Beauty here, wherewith Leah is charged, but only this, that she was tender eyed, and yet this one single Blemish is opposed to being beautiful and well-favoured, as if because she wanted good eyes, she were neither beautiful nor well-favoured, the whole beauty or deformity of the Face (as it should seem) consisting in the having or wanting this principal part of beauty. But leaving this, I come in the next place to the Wonder, And they seemed to him but a few days. And Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days. There is no one that by nature loveth or desireth that which seems Evil to him, but flieth from it, and avoideth it, and this out of principles of self-preservation engrafted into every one; for as St. Paul saith, * Ephes. cap. 5. ver. 26. No one ever yet hated his own flesh. To take away the Malignity of a thing, and to render it privatively good, is much; but, that that which every one abhorreth as evil, by a strange Metamorphosis, should not only disappear to be so, but likewise become amiable and pleasing, is the greatest Wonder, and must needs proceed from some strange and excellent Cause. Had Jacob spent these seven years of Service with as much pleasure and contentment as ever he did when he was free, and at his own disposing, why this had been strange, seeing it involves in it a Paradox, so universally contradicted, viz. That Servitude is as much to be desired as Liberty; for, if there be that Content and Satisfaction to be found in it that is in Liberty, why should it not be alike desired? but that there should be in it a great deal more sweetness then in Liberty, cannot but beget a world of admiration; for this is analogically in effect, as if Gall should not only leave and forsake its bitterness, but become sweeter than honey or Sugar: For do not we see, how many Recreations, and those many of them sinful too, are daily invented and found out, as Antidotes and divertisements against Melancholy, merely to pass away and beguile the time; for the truth is, time seems so tedious to us, that we know not what to do with it, we are a weary of it, and it lies upon our hands, like a merchandise or Commodity that we would fain utter, but cannot tell how, and therefore to be rid of it some way or other, we do not only suffer others to steal it from us, but we rob our selves, and are those fures temporis, which Seneca saith that Friends are, when notwithstanding our disestimation, as he himself tells Lucilius in his first Epistle, The thing is so precious, quod ne gratus quidem, potest reddere, He that studies Gratitude never so much, can never be sufficiently grateful; whereas on the contrary side, to a busy Lover, the time seems short, and the Years fews, Seven years' time appears to Jacob but a little time, and two thousand five hundred fifty and six Days seem but a few Days (for so many upon computation you will find them, allowing the Intercalation of one day for a Bissextile, though I am not ignorant that the Julian account was many hundred years after) a ot computed the years by the Sun, but by the Moon (as some say the years of those long-lived fathers before the flood were) or if by the Sun, ●a●●er, as it should seem, by his diurnal than his Annual Motion, this is wonderful indeed & strange, & something like to that Prerogative of Gods, of which Saint Peter speaks, * 2 Peter c. 3. v. 8. when he saith, that a thousand years to him are but as one day, for with him all things, past, present, and to come, stand and remain in the same station and consistency perpetually, without any manner of flux or alteration. Come hither then all ye that think the time slow, and the wheels of his Chariot heavy, that like the mother of Sisera * judges 5. chap. ver. 28. look out of the window, and cry thorough the lattess, why is his Chariot so long in coming? why tarry the wheels of his Chariot? would you have not only a lawful and honest, but a most sweet and pleasing diversion to beguile the time withal, (if I may call that a diversion, which is the noblest and the greatest business) why learn to love, retire your selves into your selves, learn to know your selves, to which nothing in the world conduceth better than love, being the best comment that was ever writ upon that text of r {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, and that by which it is most illustrated, enter into your chamber which is your heart, for so St. Augustine calls it. Cubiculum tuum, est Cor tuum, and shut the door after you, and make fast the Lattess, for as long as ye look out at the windows, as long as ye look out of yourselves to see what faults ye can spy in others, ye may cry long enough, Why so long? and Why tarries? ye may oscitate and gape, ye may stretch out first the one hand, & then the other, but ye are like to find but little ease or satisfaction, but rather perpetual lassitude and weariness of spirit. But I hasten to the last part of the Text, viz. the cause of all this wonder, which we have here rendered in these words, viz. for the love he had unto her, And Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days, for the love he had unto her. All wonder and admiration is begot by ignorance, and is the child thereof; for that which we know we do not admire, but only that which we are ignorant of. Hence likewise proceeded Fortune, being as Juvenall speaks excellently, a Goddess of our own making. Te facimus fortuna Deam, caeloque locamus. For when any thing happened that was strange and wonderful, and for which they could assign no reason, that they forthwith attributed to Fortune; then Altars must be built and erected to her, and Sacrifices offered, and because her distributions were so very unequal, she must be figured and painted blind, when indeed the blindness was their own, for Fortune is nothing else but that serpentine or crooked line of Providence, as Dr. Brown in his Religio Medici. one Metaphorically defines, or rather describes it; the other being drawn straight and evenn, and so obvious to every eye: or as the Schoolmen more Logically, Fortune is an accidental cause in Voluntary Agents, whereby such events do follow our Actions as were neither foreseen nor intended by us; for in other actions (as I said) the line of providence is straight and easy to be seen of all, but in this more tortuous and winding, as we know if we lock straight along a level of a great length, we may easily see to the end of it because there is no rising in the midst to interrupt and obstruct the sight, and therefore Mathematicians say, Linea recta est brevissima, but in any thing which is crooked, it is otherwise, by reason that the eye is intercepted by the tumour and unevenness of it; but leaving these digressions, let us now lastly come a little seriously to consider and examine the cause which instead of satisfying our wonder as we expected, ministers to us fresh cause of a stonishment and admiration. For now methinks my Heart wants thoughts to conceive, & my tongue words to utter any thing in the least measure suitable to the dignity and excellency of this subject; I must therefore with the Painter that was to picture Agamemnon, a father beholding the sacrificing of his own daughter Iphigenia, who because he was not able to express a sorrow so unconceivable drew him only with a veil over his face, thereby better acquitting himself, then if he had made a rash venture, at that which he knew all his art came so far short of performing, so I presume my best Sanctuary and Refuge here would be Silence, seeing that whatsoever I shall be able to say or speak, will be nothing else; for what should this be that hath so strange a power and efficacy, as to render the bitterness of Servitude sweet? to make the tediousness of time seem short? that is able to trample upon all extremities of heat and cold, and set the Wind and Weather at defiance? Certainly, whatsoever it be, it hath occasioned a great deal of wrangling amongst Philosophers, and some of them, as * Tul. de nat. Deorum. Li●. 1. Cicero saith of Velleius Epicurus, de nullo magis dubitans, quam ne de aliqua re dubitare videretur, doubting of nothing more than lest they should seem to doubt of any thing, and fearing lest their silence should seem to confess and acknowledge their Ignorance, have given us a Definition of it, such as it is, Love, say they, is an Appetition of a Good which is present, if there be an Appetition when the Good is absent, it is then called Desire: If there be a possibility of obtaining this absent Good, why then it is Hope: but how far short this comes of giving us any true knowledge what Love is, I leave every one to judge: For the truth of it is, the Essence of it is not capable of a definition, neither is it demonstrable a priori, but we must content ourselves with such a rude Description of it as we are able to gather from the Effects, taking an imperfect and short View from thence. And here methinks Xenophon gives us some little light (who as my Lord of St. Albans saith in his Advancement of Learning) observeth truly; That all other affections, though they raise the Mind, yet they do it by distorting and uncomeliness of ecstasies and Excêsses; only Love doth exalt the mind, and nevertheless, at the same instant, doth settle and compose it; strange, that so different and repugnant Effects should proceed and flow from one and the same Cause; and therefore it is elegantly said by Menander (saith the same Lord of St. Albans elsewhere) Amor, melior, Sophista lavo, ad humanum vitam; That Love teacheth a man to carry himself better than the Sophist or Preceptor, which he calleth left-handed, because with all his Rules and Preceptions he cannot form a man so Dexterously, nor with that facility to carry and govern himself, as Love can do. Let us give a guess then at the Cause by the Effects, (for that is all we are able to do) and from these graceful and amiable Operations, imagine and conjecture, how much more excellent and beautiful that must necessarily be, from whence all these beauties and excellencies proceed and are derived; For we know the Old maxim, Quod efficit tale, illud est magis tale, That which makes a thing to be so, be it good or bad, must needs be more, and in a far greater measure so itself. Now some have undertaken to discover and find out the intricacy of this involved and hidden Mystery, by several symptoms, some by one, and some by another, as by the Eye, the Pulse, &c. Concerning the Eye there have been great questions moved, which are the amorous or the loving eyes? Whether the dying, or the smiling, or the wild, such as Aristotle calls, in sani, the mad eyes? for all of these have found their assertors, who have took up the Gauntlet in maintenance and defence of them; or again, whether it be true, what some of the Platonists held, That the Spirits of the Lover do pass by the Eye into the Spirits of the Person loved, which causeth the desire of return into the body whence they were emitted? whereupon (say they) followeth that Appetite of union which is in Lovers. So likewise about the Pulse, Whether there be not a love-Pulse, or a Pulse proper and peculiar to discover Love by? as we read in Plutarch, of Erasistratus the physician, that found out that young Antiochus the son of Seleucus was in love with the fair Stratonica, his father's Wife, by the unusual beating of his Pulse; and then again, what kind of motion it causeth, whether, great or little, quick or slow, or rather quite irregular, and altogether confused, like to that which is observed to be at the point of death, at which time the Heart doth so palpitate and tremble, that the Systole and Diastole are in a manner confounded. This I only mention, to show how hard a matter it is, amidst so many difficulties and diversities of Opinion, to state any thing aright concerning this subject: Give me leave therefore to draw over the Curtain again, and to leave it here, seeing we may be rather said to admire, then know it, as long as we are here upon Earth, where we see but only in Aenigmate, & tanquam per speculum, darkly and in much obscurity. To conclude then, I say, that even God Almighty himself is most happy in that he is most loving, infinitely loving, or rather * 1 Ioh. 4. v. 8● Love it self) as St. John speaks) & the Devil is most unhappy in that he is not capable of this excellency and Divine perfection. Having therefore the example & pattern of so great a Patriarch before us, let no Lover hereafter be ashamed to imitate it, or write after so excellent a Copy, when he reads that Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days, for the love he had unto her. I have now done with the literal and historical parts of the Text, I shall a little touch upon the allegorical and so make an end; This indeed is the kernel and the marrow, the other is but the bone and the shell; this is the spirit that quickeneth and giveth life, the other is but a dead letter; for so Saint Paul saith, Litera occidit spiritus autem vivificat; By Jacob therefore is here meant every Christian Militant upon earth, by the service which he endures, the afflictions and crosses which he must abide and undergo in this world; by Rachel the kingdom of Heaven: By Seven Years, the whole time of his life, which will then seem short and pleasing to him, when his Heart is kindled and inflamed with Love towards God, and Charity towards his Neighbour. Let us but a little consider the vast & infinite disparity and disproportion, betwixt these things; and surely we shall be ashamed to have made the Comparison: For what, shall Jacob undergo so much sufferance and hardship, and that with so great delight and pleasure, for a temporal Remand? and should not every Christian●●dure much more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉nall and far more 〈◊〉 weight of Glory? For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is this life, but a Stage & 〈◊〉 of Misery and Discontent, whereon every one acts a sad and sorrowful part, some more, some less, but every one hath a share. Man is born to Misery (saith Job) as the Sparks fly upwards, and how natural it is for light bodies to ascend, such as sparks are, every one knows. What is this life, but a Repetition of the same things over and over, or (as * Dr Brown in his Religio medici one elegantly saith) a Dull retaining to the Sun and Moon, we eat, we drink, we sleep, that we may eat, and drink, and sleep again; and thus the Year runs round: And as the same seasons return which were before, so do we reiterate the same follies again and again, and yet for all gain no experience from thence, or grow a whit the wiser; for, as if we had not work enough to do at home, we live out of our selves, and leaving our own Houses, as we imagine, clean swept and garnished, we are prying into the Dirt and Imperfections of others; for indeed, most men's whole lives are in a manner from first to last, nothing but a lying at the catch and advantage, how they may undermine, surprise and destroy others. Then this man must be incensed to that man's Spleen, another sacrificed to his Lust, a third Holocausted to his Ambition, and what is the reason of all this? but because there is no love in the World, ( * 1 John c. 5. v. 19▪ totus Mundus positus est in maligno, as St. John saith) nor scarcely so much as Humanity; Would men but vivere secundam naturam, live according to Nature, which is that which Seneca so often inculcates in his Epistles, it were no hard matter to satisfy them. Vivitur exiguo melius, Natura beatis Omnibm esse dedit, si quis cognoverit uti. Saith Claudian. Nature is content with a little, but men's ambitious desires think it a confinement and constraint to be bounded within the narrow limits of one world, as it was said of Alexander, Aestuat infaelix angusto limit Mundi. This little, scant, diminutive world, did so crowd and crib up the young gallant, that he was not able to turn himself, but did sweat again for want of elbow-room; what a Monster had this been, if his body had been but of the same tumid and swelling bulk with his mind? Certainly Garagantua had been a mere pigmy to him. It is the least part of men's business now a days to live, but as Pompey answered those that dissuaded him from putting to sea in a storm, by telling him, that thereby he would endanger and run the hazard of his life, What tell ye me of life, saith he? Necesse est ut eam, non ut vivam, There is a Necessity that I should go, but there is no necessity that I should live; that is no part of their concernment: when they have got the whole world in their possession, than perhaps they will bethink of living, as Pyrrhus' King of Epirus told Cineas, who seeing him so eagerly bent to make war against the Romans, took occasion one time when he was at leisure, to ask him, what benefit they should reap from the victory, in case they were so fortunate as to obtain it, why (saith Pyrrhus) dost thou not see that the Romans being once overcome, there is an open and an easy way then to such and such, and so great conquests? and so run on from country to country, and place to place, and Cineas still persisting to know what the better they should be when all was done, at the last when he could go no farther; Why then good Cineas (quoth he) we will be quiet and take our ease, and make feasts every day, and be as merry as we can possibly devise, Cineas (that had been Demosthenes scholar & was a sober and wise man as well as an eloquent) having brought him to this point, said again to him. My Lord, what letteth us now to be quiet and merry together, since we enjoy that already without further travel and trouble, which we will now go seek for abroad with such shedding of blood, and so manifest danger? and yet we know not whether we shall ever attain unto it, atter we have both suffered, and caused others to suffer such infinite sorrows and trouble. But to all this Pyrrhus was deaf, and would on, till at last after many conquests, he was knocked on the head in the City of Argos, by a tile thrown by a woman from the top of an house. But to proceed I say, that Nature (as one well observes) hath made one world, and Art another, and the paint and adulteries of this latter, have quite spoiled the real and solid beauties of the former, it is this that hath undone the good old world, and left us nothing now but an hearsay, that there was ever such a time, which for its happiness was called the Golden Age, for this that we now live in is so wretched, so full of miseries, that certainly, did but men foreknow them, or could they but foresee them, they would choose rather to return into their mother's wombs again, as Pliny relates of an infant of the City of Saguntum, that year that it was taken by Hannibal, then venture to come forth into so miserable a place; and therefore man is not unfitly said to be, animal {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, a weeping, or according to the word, a tear-loving creature, (as it is elegantly expressed in that Epigram) set down by Caussinus in his Symbols. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}▪ {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}! Sum natus lachrymen, lachrymen moriorque, peregi In lachrymis vitae tempora longa meae. O Genus humanum miserum & lachrymabile! Let us consider again, that although Love be the most excellent thing in this World, yet here it is but imperfect, being subject to a thousand hopes and fears and discontents; and likewise Beauty, to how many casualties is it obnoxious? how soon doth a little sickness blast it, and the pride and lustre of it is gone, and the flower withered? Or suppose it exempted from these misfortunes, yet at last comes old Age, and quite consumes it, not leaving so much as a ruin to tell that Beauty had there once her habitation: {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} * Theoerit, Eidyll. 25. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. But in the World to come as our Saviour told the Sadduces: (albeit * Matth. chap. 22. ver. 30. they neither marry there, not are given in marriage, but are as the Angels of God,) there Love is eternal, and Beauty ever youthful, always young, and perpetually green, (as the Poets sancied the Elysian fields to be,) and therefore the Apostle, when he comes to speak of those joys, and that place, he give us but a negative description, which * 1 Cor. chap. 2. ver. 9 neither Eye hath seen, nor Ear hath heard, nor hath it entered into the Heart of man to conceive; for of an affirmative one we were not capable. No (may some say?) why what is there that hath any thing of beauty or delight in it, that the Eye hath not seen? hath it not beheld such and such most ravishing and beautiful objects, as lovely and beautiful persons, fair and goodly prospects, stately and magnificent buildings, pleasant Orchards and Gardens, flowery fields, shady Groves, clear Fountains, soft gliding Rivers, murmuring Brooks, the Heavens spangled and beset with twinkling-Starres, sweet Evenings, blushing and rosy Mornings, and a thousand other most glorious and pleasing sights, and is Heaven like none of these? I answer, no; it falls not within the prospect of this sense, Eye hath not seen it, nor any thing, that resembles it. Yea, but notwithstanding it comes not within the view of this sense of seeing, yet possibly the ear, that hath heard such exquisite variety of all sorts of music, such sublime and deep learned discourses, that hath had derived and conveyed to it, so many primitive and ancient traditions, may have met with some strain something like it, or at least may have heard some tidings of it. No, it falls not under the latitude of this sense neither, Ear hath not heard it: yea, but yet notwithstanding it falls not within the knowledge of the senses which are corporeal, yet surely the understanding, which is inorganical and incorporeal, and which needs not the support of these Crutches, but is able to subsist & act without them, may be able to find out and discover what kind of place this is; for we see we are able to conceive a great many things which never were, nor shall be, much more than (as one would think) this, which we are as certain is, as we are uncertain what it is; by this we are able to move from the centre to the Circumference, and back again in a moment, we can dig as deep and low as Hell, and immediately soar again above the Stars: and although there be in every thing that we have seen or heard, something that displeaseth us, for even the sweetest music is not without some discord, and the most excellent Beauty hath its naevos, and its blemishes, and (as the Optists tell us in their maxim, that Omnis visio fit per Pyramidem, that every thing that we see enters into the eye by a sharp angle, like the Cuspis of a Pyramid (the object making the Basis) so that it may seem to prick as it enters, as Alexander said the beauty of the Persian Ladies did the Macedonians, so that it made their Eyes sore again; so methinks, every object hath in it really something of that figure, something that is sharp and pungent, something that pricketh, and is distasteful and ingrate; and yet nevertheless, we are able by our understanding to sever and abstract whatsoever dislikes us, and to retain only so much as pleaseth Us. I say, by our understanding we are able to do this; sure then, although we never saw nor heard of them, yet we may be able to conceive the joys and pleasures that are there. Why no, not thus neither; it hath not entered into the Heart of man to conceive. Why then let us be satisfied, and rest assured, that they are beyond the perception of our senses, and beyond the fancy of our imagination, and apprehension of our understanding. Seeing therefore then, that we have so excellent a Reward proposed and set before us, let us with all humble earnestness, contend thither, qua non passibus itur sed affectibus, whither with our feet we cannot come, they are too slow, and too heavy, neither is the way at all pervious to them; it must be the wings of devout and pious Affections that must bear us thither; it must be Love by which we must be carried thither, love to God, and love to our Neighbour; for no man (saith St. John) loveth God, and hateth his Brother: and he gives an excellent Reason for it, for * 1 John chap. 4. ver. 20. how (saith he) can he love God whom he hath not seen, and hate his Brother whom he hath seen? O Lord, which art the true and perfect Love, kindle in our Hearts, we beseech thee, the love of thy self, and thy perfections. Let our souls ascend thither upon the wings of Faith and Charity, whither otherwise we cannot come; let us die unto this World, that we may live unto Thee; let it seem bitter unto us, that we may taste no sweetness but in thee. O Lord, we have had abundant experience of the Vanity and falseness of it, we have sought for contentment and satisfaction in it, but we have not found it, we have wandered up and down in the ways of wickedness, but we have found no rest for the soles of our feet; and now at last, that we are weather-beaten, and weary, now we are forsaken of every thing, we come unto Thee. As long as any thing would receive or entertain us, we cared not, we would not return, and therefore thou mightest justly now deny us admission; but yet, O receive us, for his sake who is our peacemaker, and hath parchased it at so dear a rate, even with the effusion of his own most precious blood, Jesus Christ the righteous, our blessed Lord and only Saviour. AMEN. FINIS.