N07105:80
The well-ordered family
The well-ordered family: wherein the duties of it's [sic] various members are described and urged. A small, but very comprehensive piece, suitable to be in the hand of every householder [sic]; and may be especially seasonable in the present day. / By that eminently pious and learned divine, Mr. Isaac Ambrose, Minister of the Gospel at Preston. ; [Two lines from John]The well-ordered family: wherein the duties of it's [sic] various members are described and urged. A small, but very comprehensive piece, suitable to be in the hand of every housholder [sic]; and may be especially seasonable in the present day. / By that eminently pious and learned divine, Mr. Isaac Ambrose, Minister of the Gospel at Preston. ; [Two lines from John]
Boston: printed by S. Kneeland, 1762
The Well-Ordered Family. › Section 5: Of the Duties of the Husband and Wife.
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.
The former Duties presupposed: there ought to be—
1. A sweet, loving, and tender-hearted pouring out of their Hearts, with much affectionate Dearness into one another's Bosoms. This mutual-melting-heartedness, being preserved fresh and fruitful, will infinitely sweeten and beautify the Marriage State. Now for the Preservation of this Love, let them consider
1. The compassionate and melting Compellations which Christ and his Spouse exchange in the Canticles, My fair one, my Love, my Dove, my undefiled, my well-beloved, the chief of ten Thousand: Such a fervent and chaste Love as this, all married Couples should resemble and imitate.
2. The Command of God to this Purpose, Husbands love your Wives, Eph. 5.25. and Wives (or young Women) love your Husbands, Tit. 2.4. Methinks this Charge often remembered, should ever beat back all Heart-rising and Bitterness, all wicked Wishes, that they had never met together, that they had never seen one another's Faces. When the Knot is tied, every Man should think his Wife the fittest for him, and every Wife should think her Husband the fittest for her of any other in the World.