not be sweet where the song did jar with the place. And although some may say, that "a gracious heart consecrateth every place into a chapel;" yet, sure, though pious things are no where unfitting to be thought on, they may somewhere be improper to be uttered.

Drawing near her death, she sent most pious thoughts as harbingers to heaven: and her soul saw a glimpse of happiness through the chinks of her sickness-broken body. She was so inflamed with zeal, that she turned all objects into fuel to feed it. One day, standing with St. Augustine at an east window, she raised herself to consider the light of God's presence, in respect whereof all corporal light is so far from being matched, [that] it deserves not to be mentioned. Thus mounted on heavenly meditations, and from that high pitch surveying earthly things, the great distance made them appear unto her like a little point, scarce to be seen, and less to be respected.*

She died at Ostia in Italy, in the fifty-sixth year of her age; Augustine closing her eyes, when through grief he had scarce any himself.

AUGUSTINI Confessiones, lib. ix. c. 10.

CHAPTER III.

THE GOOD HUSBAND.

HAVING formerly described a good wife, she will make a good husband; whose character we are now to present.

MAXIM I.

His love to his wife weakeneth not his ruling her; and his ruling lesseneth not his loving her.-Wherefore he avoideth all fondness, (a sick love, to be praised in none, and pardoned only in the newly-married!) whereby more have wilfully betrayed their command, than ever lost it by their wives' rebellion. Methinks, that [the] he-viper is right enough served which, as Pliny reports, puts his head into the she-viper's mouth, and she bites it off. * And what wonder is it if women take the rule to themselves, which their uxorious husbands first surrender unto them?

II.

He is constant to his wife, and confident of her.-And, sure, where jealousy is the jailer, many break the prison; it opening more ways to wickedness than it stoppeth; so that where it findeth one-it maketh ten-dishonest.

III.

He alloweth her meet maintenance, but measures it by his own estate.-Nor will he give less, nor can she ask more. Which allowance, if shorter than her deserts, and his desire, he lengtheneth it out with his courteous carriage unto her, chiefly in her sickness; then not so much word-pitying her, as providing necessaries for her.

IV.

That she may not intrench on his prerogative, he maintains her propriety in feminine affairs.-Yea, therein he follows her advice. For the soul of a man is planted so high, that he overshoots such low matters as lie level to a woman's eye; and, therefore, her counsel therein may better hit the mark. Causes that are properly of feminine cognizance he suffers her finally to

* PLINII Nat. Hist., lib. x. cap. 62.

decide; not so much as permitting an appeal to himself, that their jurisdictions may not interfere. He will not countenance

a stubborn servant against her; but, in her, maintains his own authority. Such husbands as bait the mistress with her maids, and clap their hands at the sport, will have cause to wring them afterwards.

V.

Knowing she is the weaker vessel, he bears with her infirmities. -All hard using of her he detests; desiring therein to do not what may be lawful, but fitting. And, grant her to be of a servile nature, such as may be bettered by beating; yet he remembers he hath enfranchised her by marrying her. On her wedding-day she was, like St. Paul, "free born," and privileged from any servile punishment.

VI.

He is careful that the wounds betwixt them take not air, and be publicly known.-Jars concealed are half reconciled; which if generally known, it is a double task to stop the breach at home, and men's mouths abroad. To this end, he never publicly reproves her. An open reproof puts her to do penance before all that are present; after which, many rather study revenge than reformation.

VII.

He keeps her in the wholesome ignorance of unnecessary secrets. -They will not be starved with the ignorance-who, perchance, may surfeit with the knowledge-of weighty counsels, too heavy for the weaker sex to bear. He knows little, who will tell his wife all he knows.

VIII.

He beats not his wife after his death.-One, having a shrewd wife, yet loath to use her hardly in his life-time, awed her with telling her, that he would beat her when he was dead; meaning, that he would leave her no maintenance. This humour is unworthy a worthy man, who will endeavour to provide her a competent estate. Yet he that impoverisheth his children to enrich his widow, destroys a quick-hedge to make a dead one.

CHAPTER IV.

THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM.

I INTEND not to range over all his life as he stands threesquare in relation,-husband, father, master. We will only survey and measure his conjugal side, which respecteth his wife.

We read not that ever he upbraided her for her barrenness, as knowing that natural defects are not the creature's fault, but the Creator's pleasure; all which time his love was loyal to her alone. As for his going-in to Hagar, it was done not only with the consent but by the advice of Sarah; who was so ambitious of children, [that] she would be made a mother by a proxy. He was not jealous of her, (though a grand beauty,) in what company soever he came. Indeed, he feared the Egyptians, because the Egyptians feared not God; suspecting rather them of force, than her of falseness, and believing that sooner they might kill him than corrupt her.

Yet, as well as he loved her, he expected she should do work fit for her calling. "Make ready quickly three measures of meal and knead it." (Gen. xviii. 6.) Well may Sarah be cook, where Abraham was caterer, yea, where God was guest. The print of her fingers still remains in the meal; and of crumbling dough she hath made a lasting monument of her good housewifery.

Being falsely indicted by his wife, he never traversed the bill, but compounded with her on her own terms. The case this: Hagar being with child by Abraham, her pride swelled with her belly, and [she] despiseth her mistress. Sarah, laying her action wrong, sues Abraham for her maid's fault, and appeals to God. I see, the plaintiff hath not always the best cause; nor are they most guilty who are most blamed. However, Abraham passes by her peevishness, and remits his maid to stand or fall to her own mistress. Though he had a great part in Hagar, he would have none in Hagar's rebellion. Masters who protect their faulty servants, hinder the proceeding of justice in a family.

He did deny himself, to grant his wife's will in a matter of great consequence. Sarah desired: "Cast out this bondwoman

and her son." (Gen. xxi. 10.) O hard word! She might as well have said, "Cast out of thyself nature and natural affection." See how Abraham struggles with Abraham; the father in him striving with the husband in him, till God moderated with his casting-voice, and Abraham was contented to hearken to the counsel of his wife.

Being to sacrifice Isaac, we find not that he made Sarah privy to his project. To tell her, had been to torture her, fearing her affections might be too strong for her faith. Some secrets are to be kept from the weaker sex; not always out of a distrust, lest they hurt the counsel by telling it, but lest the counsel hurt them by keeping it.

The dearest husband cannot bail his wife when death arrests her. Sarah dies; and Abraham weeps. Tears are a tribute due to the dead. It is fitting that the body, when it is sown in corruption, should be watered by those that plant it in the earth. The Hittites make him a fair offer: "In the chiefest of our sepulchres bury thy dead." (Gen. xxiii. 6.) But he thinks the best of them too bad for his Sarah. Her chaste ashes did love to lie alone: he provides her a virgin-tomb in the cave of Machpelah; where her corpse sweetly slept till he himself came to bed to her, and was buried in the same grave.