A20760:405
Four treatises tending to dissuade all Christians from four no less heinous then common…Foure treatises tending to disswade all Christians from foure no lesse hainous then common…
Four treatises tending to dissuade all Christians from four no less heinous then common sins; namely, the abuses of swearing, drunkenness, whoredom, and bribery. Wherein the greatness and odiousness of these vices is discovered; and the means and remedies, which may either preserve, or wean men from them, are propounded. Whereunto is annexed a treatise of anger. By John Downame Bachelor in Divinity, and preacher of Gods word.Foure treatises tending to disswade all Christians from foure no lesse hainous then common sinnes; namely, the abuses of swearing, drunkennesse, whoredome, and briberie. Wherein the greatnes and odiousnesse of these vices is discouered; and the meanes and remedies, which may either preserue, or weane men from them, are propounded. Whereunto is annexed a treatise of anger. By Iohn Dovvname Batcheler in Diuinitie, and preacher of Gods word.
London: printed by Felix Kyngston for William Welby, 1609
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
And these are the means to preserve our bodies and souls chaste in single life from fornication and uncleanness;1 besides which, there is another means peculiar unto married persons, to preserve them in the estate of marriage from whoredom and adultery, and that is, that either party love their yokefellow above all others in the world: for he that delighteth in the wife of his youth, and letteth her be unto him as the loving Hind, and pleasant Roe: he that is at all times satisfied with her breasts, and delighteth in her love continually, he will never take any pleasure in a strange woman, nor embrace the bosom of a stranger, as the wise man showeth, Prou. 5.18.19.2 Whereas contrariwise, he who taketh no ⟨p. 205⟩pleasure at home, taketh the least occasion to range abroad; he that can find no sweetness in his own field, is ready to break the fence, and to stray into forbidden pastures; he that beginneth to loth his wife, will soon after love a harlot, and seek delight in unlawful lust. Now, that this love may be of sufficient force to restrain all married persons from unlawful concupiscence, they must learn to ground it not upon carnal respects, as upon beauty, personage, riches, friends; no, nor yet upon their moral virtues, and other excellent parts, for then the causes being taken away, their love also must needs cease; as we find by daily experience in many who having married in the burning, and almost raging heat of their love, have afterwards come to as great a loathing one of another, when either they find themselves disappointed, and unsatisfied in their hopes, or the cause of their love quite taken away, or decayed: but they must ground their love upon the love of God, and perform it one toward another, in obedience to his commandment; as also upon the bond of marriage (which nothing can dissolve but death or adultery) whereby there is such a near union between them, that they are no more two but one flesh; so that though all other causes fail, yet they are to continue their love towards them, because they are parts of themselves,3 and members of their own body.