A commentary or, exposition upon the divine second epistle general, writtenA commentary or, exposition vpon the diuine second epistle generall, written

1 For society, it had been uncomfortable for man to have lived there alone: •ae solely. ^lIt is not good that man should be alone, I will give him a help meet for him. Marriage is called a Yoke; too heavy for one alone to bear: therefore each had a mutual help; a wife. In the participation of good, compassion of evil, in health •he best delight, in sickness the best comfort: the sole companion to whom we may communicate our joys, and into whose bosom we unload our sorrows: thus are •ur griefs lessened, our joys enlarged, our hearts solaced.^m A friend and compani•• never meet amiss; but above both is a wife with her husband. Duo in carne una, one […] body and soul, as the stock and the graft are but one tree. God when he made •an, made but one: when woman out of him, he made two of one: when marri•ge, he made one of two. Two parties and but one love, two souls compacted in•o one body: both one in affection while they live, both one in their posterity when •hey die. Where is conjugal faith, an indissoluble covenant, an unalterable af•ection; here is a blessed match, not to be matched by all the treasures of Nature. ⟨p. 584⟩The fair take no pleasure in the beauty of their own face; but by the reflection of that which others derive from it. Our eyes are not set to behold our own countenances, nor can our lips take delight in their own kisses, nor our arms in their own embraces: but in the society of a wife, by exchange, they have their use and perfection. She is mans similitude; so like him, as bone to bone, flesh to flesh, Is•• to Ish: where face answereth face, as did the Cherubins, both looking to the mercy-seat: and heart answereth heart, as a glass that returns upon a man his own Image. Ipse coram se, himself before himself, another that is himself, his adopted self: that loves what he loves, wills what he wills; that, as she wills his love, so loves his will: there is no society on earth that affords the like comfort.