CI CORNELII AGRIPPÆ
de Nobilitate & Præœcellentia Fœminei
sexus, ad Margaretam Augustam
Austriaco & Bur-
gundionum Principem
[1529]
Expostulatio cum Ioanne Catilineti super expo-
sitione libri Ioannis Capnionis de uerbo mirifico
De sacramento Matrimonii declamation ad
Margaretam Alenconiæ duœm.
De triplici ratione cognoscendi Deum liber vnus ad Guilielmum Paleologum Marcionem Mantisserrati.
Dehortatio Gentilis theologiæ ad Episcopum Vasatensem.
De Originali peccato desputabilis opinionis declamatio ad episcopum Cyrenensem. Regimem aduersus pestilentiam ad eundem episco.
OR THE
Dignity and Excellency of that
Sex, above the Male.
An Ingenious Discourse:
Written Originally in Latine,
by Henry Cornelius Agrippa, Knight,
Doctor of Physick, Doctor of both
Laws, and Privy-Counsellor to the
Emperour Charles the Fifth.
Done into English, with Ad-
ditional Advantages.
BY H.C.
1 Esdr. 3.12. Women are strongest.
LONDON
Printed by T.R. and M.D, and are to be sold by Henry Million, at the Sign of the Bible in Fleet-street. 1670.
The Epistle Dedicatory.
TO HER
Most Excellent Majesty,
KATHERINE,
By the Grace of God,
QUEEN of Great Britain,
France, and Ireland, &c.
Madam,
His little Champion,
who long hath Brav'd the World in Your
Noble Sexes Defence, being Arriv'd in Your
Majesties Dominions, and
taught to speak the English Dialect, is with all Humility
prostrated at Your Royal Feet. The Original Tratise was
Grac'd with the propitious Regards of a Great Princess,
The Illustrious Margaret of Austria, afterwards Empress;
whence this mean Translation derives, an ambition, not to
take shelter under any less than Soveraign Patronage.
Yet is not Your Majesties Greatness, so much as Goodness,
respected in this Humble Address; that serious primitive
Devotion, exemplary Virtue, and other excellent Endowments,
that render You more truely Glorious, than all
the magnificnet Advantages of
Your Most Illustrious Birth and Fortune. To Your Majesty
this Discourse is necessitated to Appeal; for 'tis
Your bright Name alone, that can, being stampt thereon,
(like Your Royal Consort's Effigies on Coyn) make
it pass Currant in the opinion of the World; who no
longer will be scandaliz'd at the Title, nor think the Author
too Lavish in Womens Praise, when they Reflect on
Your Majesty, that Great Example of Female Pre-eminence,
and Excellency, that have out-done the mosr daring
Hyperbolies, and not only Justified, but Surpass'd in
Life and Merit, whatever can
be said in the behalf of Your Most Glorious Sex.
That Your Majesty, Encircled with all Happiness, may long remain a President of Piety to this Degenerous Age, and find as many to Imitate as Admire Your Royal Virtues, is the Prayer of
Your Majesties
Most Humble,
Loyal, and Obe-
dient Subject,
H. Care.
The Translators Preface.
In this giddy Age wherein each extravagant
opinion finds a welcome, and Conceits more wilde than any
Bedlam-phrensie, have been entertain'd
with zeal, and promoted with passion, an innocent
Paradox may fairly hope for Pardon at least, if not Applause.
(2.) By Glauco.
(3.) By Paco**nus.
(4.) By Erasmus.
To say much of the noble Agrippa, were to put an Affront on the Reader, (if he pretend at all to traffick in the Commonwealth of Learning) by supposing him a stranger to that Man, who was justly admir'd as the Prodigy of his Age, for all kind of Science. That vast progress he made, Tam Marte quam Mercurio, in Arms no less than Arts; the Titles and Honours he acquir'd; the respect paid him by most of the Grandees, and famous Men, his Contemporaries; and those Monuments of Learning, wherewith he hath oblig'd Posterity; all speak him a Person above the ordinary level of Mankind; to be rankt only amongst those few noble Heroes;
Queis meliore Luto finxit præcordia Titan.
Whom Titan with a gentle Ray,
Hath moulded of a purer Clay.
How prudently this Design was undertaken, or how well perform'd, I shall not fore-stall the Readers opinion, so far as to determine; but must confess my self pleas'd with that Diversion I met with in reading the Original; and thereupon to have attempted the Translation, not without some Additions, and variation, to render it more smooth and gratefull to the present Age, thinking I could scarce better devote my vacant hours, than to the service of that sweet Sex, which every one deserving the Name of Man, cannot but love; and to whom, whoever hath not forgot he had a Mother, is oblig'd to pay a reverential esteem.
Yet is it no part of our Design to flatter Women, but to put some check to the rude, undeserv'd reproaches, cast on them by the Men: To acquaint the fair Sex with its natural Dignity, that they may scorn to act any thing unworthy of themselves: to treat them with variety of real (not Romantick) Examples of true Piety, exact Chastity, sincere, unalterable Affection, and other rare, sublime qualities; whence inspir'd with a generous emulation, they may strive ti out-vye these ancient Heroinaes, and transcend the excellent Patterns here recommended; finding, that it is Virtue alone that can embalm their Memories, and render them still fresh and amiable, even then when Age or Sickness have plow'd their Faces with wrinckled furrows, and swept away the sparkling Glories of their Eyes.
To conclude: If the captious World shall a while lay aside its usual severities, and vouchsafe any Acceptance of these our inconsiderable pains, (now confusedly huddled up in hast,) we shall use our utmost endeavours in the second Edition to deserve that favour, by some further Additions and Embellishments.
H.C.
To His Ingenious Friend
Mr. H. Care:
On his Pains in Translating, and
Refining this quaint Discourse
of Female Pre-eminence.
'Tis bravely done, dear Friend! thus to Engage
For the Fair Sex, in this detracting Age,
When vip'rous Tongues so virulently throwe
Venome at thise to whom their Lives they owe,
And each base Fopp poor Womens Judge doth sit,
Who thinks Railing at them proves him a Wit,
And therefore Dams 'um, They'r all Whores, hee'l cry,
Though's Mother and his Sister both stand by:
Nor want there Squires o'th' Quill to wound their Name,
And with foul Ink Bespatter their bright Fame.
But as when Royal Phæbus shews his Face,
Those Sporads vanish which usurpt his place;
So all these black-mouth'd screeching Birds of Night,
And by your Book put to eternal Flight:
Your Book; For what you modestly do call
Translation, if with the Original
It be compar'd, 'twill easily be known,
That the far better part on it is your own.
You adde, correct, and so the Whole Refine,
That 'tis no more Agrippa's now, but thine;
He laid the Plot, but you the Language bring,
And giv't a Dress as glorious as the Spring:
Choice Words compos'd in Periods, that surprize
The Ear with most harmonious Cadencies,
Such charming stile, which France it self admir'd,
Was thought t'have vanisht when Love-Day expir'd;
Our English Prose seem'd sunk ever since then,
But now there's hopes you'l Buoy it up agen:
For such fair Blossomes in your Youth, presage
No common Fruit from your maturer Age.
But what dost aim at? (for I must profess,
In this Attempt, 'twill puzzle one to guess)
Weary of retail-Love, by this Design,
Dost thou intend to Court all Womankind?
T' ingross their Favour, and ambitiously,
Affect Loves universal Monarchy?
Or do thy flames which to some one Aspire,
Transport thee, the whole Sex thus to admire?
What e're it bem unto thy pains and wit,
All Ladies must confess themselves in Debt;
And to thee, whence such Ornament they find,
They'r most ungratefull if they prove not kind.
Their Snow-white Hands thy welcome Book shall hold,
And sometimes wrap't up in some silken Fold,
In their sweet Bosomes suffer it to Rest,
(Ah! who'l not envy it when 'tis so Blest?)
DE FOEMINEI SEXUS
praecellentia L. Beliaquetus
Desine vaniloquax sexum laudare virilemPlus aequo, laudum ne sit aceruus iners
Desine (si sapias) sexum damnare malignis
Fœmineum verbis, quae ratione carent.
Si bene lance tua sexum perpendis vtrumque
Fœmineo cedet quisquis virilis erit
Credere si dubites, & res tibi dura videtur
Haud alias visus nunc mihi testis adest
Quem nuper vigilans extruxit Agrippa libellum
Ante viros laudans fœmineumque genus.
[3]
CLARISSIMO VIRO DOMINO
Maximiliano Transsiluano Caroli quinti Caesaris
Imperatorisque A consiliis Hen. Cor. Agrippa S.D.
Anni ferme viginti retroacti sunt (splendide Maximiliane) quo tempore in Dola Burgundiæ Gymnasio pulpito donatus magna omnium admiratione librum Ioan. Capnionis, de Verbo Mirifico ad honorem diuae Margaretae Principis nostræ interpretabat, habita in prælectione insigni laudum suarum oratione. Instabant per id tempus apud me plerique eius ciuitatis non infimæ sortis viri, inter cæteros quem nosti Symon Vernerius Dolanæ ecclesiæ Decanus, & Gymnasii Procancellarilis vt prænominatæ Principi nonnihil operis scripto dedicarem: contendebant omnes improbis precibus, vrgebantque epistolis, & ingerebant me hoc ipso haud non insignem gratiam apud eandem principem initurum. Annui nefas arbitratus tantorum virorum preces rejicere, ac propositam mihi tantæ Principis gratiam contemnere. Et cepi argumentum operis de nobilitate & præcellentia Fœminei sexus, non indignum ratus quod illi Principi potissimum deuouerem dedicaremque quæ supra omnes nostri æui præclaras mulieres fœmineæ nobilitatis præcellentiæque vnicum exemplar visa est, vt se præside ac teste libellus ille non parum authoritatis caperet aduersus eos qui in fœmineo sexu vituperando, nihil faciunt reliqui. Quod autem ad id temporis cum ceptum hoc votum meum apud celsitudinem suam non liberarim, non loci distantia, non temporis effluxus, non animi facilitas, non propositi mutatio, non etiam argumenti angustia, ingeniiue paupertas, sed Catilineti cuiusdam calumnia in causa fuit (que cuiusmodi fuerit ex ipsa nostra ad eumdem expostulatione quam vna cum præsentibus ad te mitto videre, licebit) cuius hypocrisi victus, indignabundusque factus suppressi librum, usque adhuc nolui tamen hac fidelia aliam quamuis etiam pretiosum parietem dealbare, futurum aliquem [4] confidens quo liber ille non esset amissurus suam dominam. Nunc itaque reuersus in patriam hanc, equum putaui respondere fidei, nec diutius differendum librum illum principi nostræ offerre, qui illi ex stipulatione & voto æquissimo iure debetur. Atque vt cognoscat me interim temporis nec illius oblitum esse, nec deuotam fidem vnquam deseruisse, nec pluris valuisse apud me alienam nequitiam, quam proprii animi constantiam virtutibus ac laudibus eius impense fauentem. Quod si nunc tua prudentia hoc meum consilium non improbauerit, faciam vt libellus iste cum plerisque aliis meis progrediatur in publicum, etiam si videam res hæc quam sit exigua, & qua nulla elegantia dicendi reddita. Sed volo libellum hunc quondam in pueritia mea conscriptum, & nunc non nisi vt in hoc exemplari vides tumultuario, alicubi recognitum ipsi principi suæ (sicut apud Canonistas (quos vocant) dicendi mos est) ex nunc vt a tunc, vel cum æstimationis meæ iactura oblatum iri. Dum interim ætate iam grandior, grauiori ac pleniori argumento, sublimiora & digniora cælsitudini suæ parauero. Neque vero velim Principem ipsam, ab his pueritiæ meæ nugis, ingenium meum metiri: quod si experiri velit, possit sibi etiam in maximis rebus & pace & bello vsui fore. Proinde vero ne quis superbior, aut eruditionis iactantior, contemptu mediocritatis meæ, in ingenium nostrum ingratus hanc operam nostram despiciat, calumnietur, mordeat, laceret, tuæ Magnanimitati eandem, vna cum fœmineæ nobilitatis splendore, cum muliebris excellentiæ gloria insuper tuendam, defendendamque commendo, speroque futurum me huius causæ, quod viris fœminas prætulerim, facile veniam obtenturum quod tantæ Principi hæc scripserim, ac tua amplitudine hortante, tuenteque, ediderim. Vale. Ex Antuerpia, xvi Kalendas Maii An. M. D. XXIX.
Iuditium tuum expectabo
[5]
DIVAEMARGARETAE AVGVSTAE
Austriacorum Burgundionumque principi
clementissimæ Henricus Cornelius
Agrippa, S. D.
EM HACTENVS
inauditam, sed a vera haud absimiliem
pro viribus audacter quidem,
sed non sine pudore aggressus
sum fœminei sexus nobilitatem,
præcellentiamque
describere. Certauit fateor
intra me sæpius audacia cum pudore. Nam ut innumeras
mulierum laudes, virtutes, summamque præstantiam
oratione velle complecti, plenum ambitionis & audaciæ
putabam, sic fœminas maribus præferre, tanquam euirati
ingenii plenum pudoris videbatur. Hinc forte causans
cur quum pauci admodum de mulierum laudibus scribere
tentarunt. Nullus hactenus quod certo sciam earum
supra viros eminentiam adserere ausus est. Proinde
vero tam dignissimo sexui veras atque debitas sibi laudes
tacendo velut inuidere, & præripere eumque suppressa
agnita veritate suis meriti suaque fraudari gloria, plenum
ingratitudinis arbitrabar atque sacrilegii. Quum
itaque inter has varias dissonasque sententias anxius mecum
[6]
ipse hæsitarem, miro hoc ingratitudinis, codemque sacrilegii
metu, victo pudore audacior effectus sum in scribendo,
dum metuo videri audacior, si tacerem, bonum omen interpretatus,
quasi eius rei prouincia, quam hactenus eruditorum
cœtus penitus neglexisse videtur, mihi à superis relicta
atque decreta fuerit. Annunciabo itaque gloriam mulieris,
& honestatem eius non abscondam, tantumque abest quod me
assumpti argumenti pudeat, quandoque si fœminas viris præferam,
ob id me vituperandum putem esse, vt vix me excusatum iri
fidam, qui rem adeo sublimem humiliori quam par est dicendi
forma complexus sum, nisi me cum temporis angustia & rei
difficultas, tum causæ æquitas tuerentur, tum quia nullo adulandi
assentandiue studio hanc operam aggressus sum ideoque
non tam studium fuit rhetoricis figmentis officiosisque mendaciis
verba in laudes ornare, quam rem ipsam ratione authoritate,
exemplis, ipsisque sacrarum litterarum, & vtriusque
iuris testimoniis commonstrare. Tibi autem serenissima
Margareta, cuius inter huius aeui præclaras fœminas
per uniuersum orbem terrarum Apollo, Diana, dies
Aurora, Vulcanus, dii quinque non illustrarunt, cum generis
nobilitate, tum virtutum præstantia, & rerum gestarum
gloria, parem alteram hanc operam nostram,
ideo deuotam dedicatamque constituto, ut te (quæ ad id virtutum
fastigium ascendisti, quod, cuncta quæ de fœminei sexus
laudibus prædicantur, vita & moribus superasti)
præsentaneo exemplo, ac teste fidissima, eiusdem sexus
vestri decus, & gloria, quasi sole quodam splendidius
[7]
elucescat. Vale felicissime nobilissimarum mulierum simul
ac principum decus, & ornamentum, & gloria, modis
omnibus absoluta.
CORNELII AGRIPPAE DECLA-
matio de nobilitate & præcellentia Fœminei sexus.
EVS optimus maximus cunctorum
genitor, pater ac bonorum utriusque secus
fecunditate plenissimus, hominem
sibi similem creauit, masculum
& fœminam creauit illos [Genes. prio.]. Quorum
quidem sexuum discretio non nisi situ
partium corporis differente constat, in quibus usus
generandi diuersitatem necessaria requirebat. Eandem vero
& masculo & fœminæ, ac omnino indifferentem animæ
formam tribuit. Inter quas nulla prorsus sexus est distantia.
Eandem ipsa mulier cum viro sortita est mentem, rationem
atque sermonem, ad eundum tendit beatitudinis finem, ubi sexus
nulla erit exceptio. Nam iuxta Euangelicam veritatem [Luc. 20. Mar. 12. Matth. 22.]
Resurgentes in proprio sexu, sexus non fungentur
officio, sed angelorum illis promittitur similitudo.
Nulla itaque est ab essentia animæ inter virum &
mulierem, alterius super alterum nobilitatis præeminentia.
Sed utrisque par dignitatis innata libertas.
Quæ autem præter animæ diuinam essentiam in homine
reliqua sunt, in iis muliebris inclyta stirps durum virorum
genus in infinitum pene excellit, quod tum
[8]
demum ratum firmumque erit, quum id ipsum (& quod
institutum nostrum est) non adulterinis fucatisve sermonibus
neque etiam logicis tendiculis quibus multi sophistæ
homines illaqueare solent, sed cum optimorum
authorum patrociniis, rerumque gestarum veridicis historiis
ac apertis ratioibus, tum sacrarum literarum testimoniis
& utriusque iuris sanctionibus ostensum est.
![[A]](../tritheim/a.gif)
lmighty God, to
whose efficacious
Word all things owe
their original, abounding
in his own
glorious Essence with
infinite goodness and
fecundity, did in the beginning Create
Man after his own likeness, Male and
Female, created he them; the true distinction
of which Sexes, consists meerly
in the different site of those parts of the
body, wherein Generation necessarily
requires a Diversity: for both Male
and Female he impartially endued with
the same, and altogether indifferent
form of Soul, the Woman being possess'd
of no less excellent Faculties of
Mind, Reason, and Speech, than the
Man, and equally with him aspiring to
those Regions of Bliss and Glory,
where there shall be no exception of
Sex. For though at the last Trumpets
universal Alarm, when our recollected
bodies shall start up amazed, to find
themselves releas'd from their Prisons of
Darkness, we may perhaps appear in
our respective proper Sexes, yet shall
we not then either need or make use of
Sex, but are promised by him who is
Truth it self, a Conversation resembling
that of blessed Angels in Heaven.
Hence 'tis evident, that as to the essence
of the Soul between Man and Woman,
there can no Pre-eminence at all
be challenged on either side, but the
same innate worth and dignity of both,
the Image of their Creator being stampt
as fairly, and shining as brightly in one,
as t'other; whereas in all other respects
the noble and delicate Feminine Race,
doth almost to infinity excell that rough-hewn,
boisterous kind, the Male.
This may at first perhaps seem an odd
Assertion, and extravagantly Paradoxical,
but will appear a certain Truth, when
we have prov'd it (which is our present
undertaking) not with empty flourishes of
words, or gawdy Paint of Rhetorick, nor
with those vain Logical Devices, wherewith
Sophisters too frequently inveigle
unwary understandings, but by the Authority
of the most Approved Authors,
unquestioned Histories, and evident Reasons,
as likewise with Testimonies of holy
Writ, and Sanctions of both Civil and
Canon Laws.
quod sonat oriens, occidens,
septentrio, meridies. Et in eodem libro interpretatur
idem nomen Adam, quia terra caro facta est, quam vis talis
expositio discrepat à traditione Mose, quum apud Hebræos
non quatuor literis sed tribus scribatur. Hæc tamen
expositio in tam sancto viro non est vituperanda,
qui linguam Hebraicam non didicit, quam plures sancti
& sacrarum literarum expositores sine multa culpa
ignorarunt. Quod si mecum non habeatur similis
licentiæ patientia, ut liceat mihi ad arbitrium in fœminei
sexus laudem nominis Euæ pariformem etymologiam
effingere, saltem hoc unum mihi dicere permittant
[10]
ex Cabalistarum mysticis symbolis, ipsum nomen mulieris
plus affinitatis habere cum nomine ineffabili diuinæ
omnipotentiæ 
, quàm nomen viri
quod cum diuino nomine nec in characteribus, nec in figura,
nec in numero convenit.
Some little wits at Woman rail and ban,
Swearing she's call'd so, quasi woe to Man;
Yet such vain derivations are to blame,
Since God himself did her Man's help-meet name.
Woman promote our joyes, partake our woes,
But we men work our own, and their o'rethrowes.
Tis too great a derogation from the known prudence and piety of our ancestors, to imagine them at once so injurious and impious, as to brand this noble Sex with a name, diametrically thwarting that character which Heaven it self had given of its Nature. We may with much more probability, (the only Compass to sail by in an Ocean of Etymologies) suppose the word, Woman, to be derived quasi Woe man, she being the loadstone of Man's desires, and the sole adequate object of his affections, whom he is to woe, court, and settle his love on; or else from With Man, abbreviated in the pronunciation, intimating the need Man hath of her presence and company, and his dull heartless condition without her. Society is the life of Life, and Women the life of Society, compar'd with whom all other pleasures and diversions are but flat and melancholy; whereof the Protoplast, even whilest he was in his state of innocency, and had a garden of pleasure for his habitation, was not insensible; of whom thus a minor poet,
Adam alone in Paradise did grieve,
and thought Eden a desert without Eve,
Untill God pittying his lonesome state,
Crown'd all his wishes with a loely mate.
No reason then hath Man to slight or flout her,
Who could not live in Paradise without her.
However if we shall not be allow'd the priviledge of contriving for the honour of the Female Sex, such advantageous etymologies, yet let us at least affirm from the mysterious learning of the Cabalists; that the Woman's Name in the original language, hath a much nearer affinity with the ineffable Tetragrammaton, or sacred name of the Divine Essence, than the Man's, which bears no resemblance thereto either in characters, figures, or number.
Sed in nunc supersedebimus:
sunt enim paucis lecta, paucis lecta, paucioribus intellecta,
& fusiorem narrationem requiunt quam ut hic adscribi
conveniat. Nos interim excellentiam mulieris
non à nomine modo, sed à rebus ipsis ac muniis meritisque
investigabimus. Scrutemur itaque scripturas (ut
aiunt) & ab ipso creationis initio sumentes exordium
quid dignitatis mulier ipsa in primo productionis ordine
supra virum sortita est disseramus. Scimus quæcunque
à Deo optimo maximo facta sunt, hoc potissimum
differre ut quædam eorum perpetuò maneant
incorruptibilia, quædam corruptioni, ac mutationi subiecta
sint, atque in his creandis, Deum hoc ordine
progressum ut à nobiliori unius incipiens, in nobilissimum
alterius desineret. Itaque creauit primum incorruptibiles
angelos, & animas: ita namque contendit
Augustinus animam primi nostri parentis ante corporum
productionem una cum angelis creatam fuisse [Augu. super Genes. Ii. 7.].
Porro creauit incorruptibilia corpora, ut cœlos ac stellas,
ac elementa incorruptibilia quidem, sed variis mutationibus
obnoxia, ex quibus cætera omnia quæ corruptioni
subiecta sunt, conflauit ex vilioribus per singulos
dignitatis gradus, rursus ascendendo ad universi
[11]
perfectionem procedens [Gene. 2.]. Hinc primum mineralia prodierunt
post vegetabilia, plantæ, & arbores, deinde
zoophita, demum animantia bruta per ordinem reptilia, natantia,
volantia, quadrupedia. Postremò verò creauit sibi
similes homines duos, marem inquem primum, & postremo fœminam, in qua perfecti sunt
cœli, & terra, & omnis ornatus
eorum, ad mulieris enim creationem, veniens creator, quieuit
in illa, ut nihil honoratius creandum præ manibus
habens, in ipsaque conclusa & consummata est omnis creatoris
sapientia, atque potestas, ultra quam non reperitur
creatura alia, nec excogitari potest. Cum itaque mulier sit
ultima creaturarum, ac finis, & complementum omnium operum
Dei perfectissimum, ipsiusque universi perfectio, quis eam
negabit super omnem creaturam præcellentia dignissimam
sine qua mundus ipse iam ad unguem perfectissimus, & numeris
omnibus absolutus fuisset imperfectus, qui non
aliter quam in creaturarum omnium longe perfectissima perfici potuit.
Dissentaneum enim est & absurdum opinari, Deum in
aliquo imperfecto tantum opus per fecisse. Nam cum mundus
ipse velut integerrimus aliquis perfectissimusque circulus
à Deo creatus sit, oportuit illum in ea particula absolui
quæ omnium primum cum omnium ultimo unitissimo quodam nexu in
sese copularet. Sic mulier dum creatur mundus inter omnia
creata tempore fuit ultima, eademque cum authoritate, tum
dignitate in ipso diuinæ mentis conceptu omnium fuit
prima, sicut de illa scriptum est per Prophetam: Antequam
cœli crearentur elegit eam Deus, & præelegit eam.
[12]
Ea siquidem est pervulgata philosophantium (ut illorum
verbis utar) sententia finem semper priorem esse in
intentione & in executione postremum. Mulier autem
fuit postremum Dei opus introducta à Deo in hunc
mundum velut eius regina in regiam sibi iam paratam ornatam,
& omnibus muneribus absolutam. Merito igitur
illam omnis creatura amat, veneratur, obseruat, meritoque
illi omnis creatura subiicitur, atque obedit, quæ omnium
creaturarum regina est atque finis, & perfectio, & gloria
modis omnibus absoluta. Quamobrem de illa Sapiens
inquit: Generositatem mulieris glorificat, contubernium
habens Dei, sed & omnium Dominus dilexsit
eam. Quantum etiam ratione loci in quo creata est mulier,
generis nobilitate virum excedit, sacra nobis eloquia
locupletissime testantur, quando mulier in paradiso
nobilissimo loco pariter & amœnissimo formata est
cum angelis, vir autem extra paradisum in agro rurali cum
brutis animalibus factus est. Postea creandam
mulierem traductus in paradisum. Ideoque mulier peculiari
quadam naturæ dote veluti assueta æditissimo creationis
suæ loco, quantumvis ab also despiciens non patitur
vertiginem, neque caligant oculi eius, ut viris accidere
solet. Prætereà si contingat mulierem cum viro pariter
in aquis periclitari omni externo adiutorio semoto mulier
diutius supernatat viro, citius subsidente fundumque
petente. Quod autem loci dignitas ad hominis nobilitatem
faciat, leges ciuiles sacrique canones haud obscure confirmant,
[13]
& omnium gentium consuetudo. Illud maxime obseruat
non solum in hominibus, sed quibusque animalibus,
etiam in inanimatis æstimandis, ut quanto quæque dignioræ
sunt orto loco tanto generosiora censeantur. Quocirca
Isaac præcepit filio suo Iacob ne uxorem acciperet
de terra Canaan, sed de Mesopotamia syriæ conditione
meliore. Est haud dissimile quod est apud Iohannem [Iohan. 1.] dum
Philippus diceret: Invenimus Iesum filium Ioseph, à Nazareth
dixit ei Nathanael, à Nazareth potest esse aliquid
boni.
But waving (at present) this abstruser mode of proof, as a matter read by few, understood by fewer, and requiring a more ample ample explication, than our leisure, no less than the reader's patience, can here allow of, we proceed from words to things, and come to investigate and display Female Excellency, not barely from the name, but in reality from its intrinsick worth and proper endowments; for long jangling about nominals, whilest substances fleet by unregarded, may argue some smattering in Grammar, or Sophistry, but no great stock of solid or usefull learning.
Let us then (as we are commanded)
search the Scriptures, and dating our
discourse with the World's original,
examine what dignity was alotted to
Woman above Man, by order of Creation.
We know that all things made
by the Almighty Architect, may not unfitly
be branched into these two ranks,
some remaining ever incorruptible,
others subject to corruption and mutation;
in the creation of both which,
Divine Wisdome proceeded in a method
of descension and ascension, beginning
with the more noble of the one,
and concluding with the most noble of
the other. Hence he first created those
purer essences, immaterial angels and
souls, (for so the great St. Augustine
contends, that the soul of our first parent
was created together with the angels,
before the poroduction of his body)
then the incorruptible bodies, as the Heavens,
and those vast numbers of glorious
stars, wherewith the same are embroidered;
as also the elements, incorruptible
too, but obnoxious to various
mutations, of which last he composed
all other things liable to corruption, beginning
with the meanest, and so proceeding
upwards again by several degrees of
dignity, to the perfection of the
Universe; so as first minerals were
brought forth, then sprouted up vegetables,
plants, herbs, and trees, afterwards
plant-animals, then living
creatures in order, creeping, swimming,
flying, and four-footed, and
last of all he formed our first parents
after his own similitude, first the man,
and then the woman, in whom was
compleated the Heavens and the Earth,
and all the glory of them, for after her
creation the great Creator rested, as
having nothing more honourable to
frame; and so well resented the pleasure
of having finisht this glorious work so
happily, that he instituted a day of each
seven to celebrate its Festival. Woman
then beingthe last of the creatures,
the end, complement, and consummation
of all the works of God, what ignorance
is there so stupid, or what impudence
can there be so effronted, as to deny
her a prerogative above all other
creatures, without whom the World
it self had been imperfect; it being impossible
the same should be compleated,
but in some creature most perfect,
and absurd to dream, that Infinite Wisdome
would conclude so noble a fabrick,
with a thing any way trivial or defective:
for the whole Universe being created
by God, as an entire and perfect circle,
it was requisite the same should be made
up, and finisht in such an exact and absolute
particle, as might with a most
strict tye unite and glew toghether the first
of all things with the last. Thus the
woman in relation to time indeed was
formed last, but in respect of dignity,
first of all conceived in the divine Idea,
(as 'tis written, Before the Heavens were
created I chose her;) the End, according
to the Catholick Creed of philosophers,
being ever first in intention, though last
in execution: but Woman was the
End, and last work of God, and introduced
into the World, not unlike a
queen into her royal palace, Paradise
her metropolitan residence, being fitted
and prepared before hand for her reception
and entertainment, where the
Man seem'd only her harbinger or attendant.
Deservedly therefore doth
every creature love, and pay respect
and homage to her, who is of all creatures
the queen, perfection, and glory;
for which cause the wise man saith, He
glorifies the generosity of the Woman, having
society with God, the Lord of all hath
loved her.
But further, in reference to the place
of her creation, how much Woman
doth surpass Man in dignity, sacred Oracles
liberally inform us, witnessing
her to be created in Paradise, a place
no less noble, than pleasant and delightfull;
but the Man out of Paradise, in a
rural field, with irrational brutes.
And therefore as great personages, of
noble extraction, though by the malice
of Fortune reduc'd to extremities,
retain still some marks of grandeur, and
a mean different from the vulgar, so
Woman carries yet an air of Paradise,
something that speaks her sublime descent,
her inclinations beign generally
more pious and devout, and her countenance
angelical, and (as accustomed
to that sublime place of her first birth)
she enjoys this peculiar priviledge,
that looking downwards, though from
never so high a precipice, she is not
seiz'd with that dizziness or dimness of
sight, which frequently in such accidents
happens to men. As also if a
man and woman together chance to be
exposed to danger by water, (deprived
of all external aid or assistance) you
may behold her a long time floating on
the chrystal superficies, the compassionate
element seeming unwilling to contract
the guilt of destroying so much
excellency; whilest the Man streight
sinks, and (like other gross bodies)
tends to the bottome, as his proper center.
Now that the dignity of the place
of nativity conduces not a little to the
enobling a person, both the civil laws,
and sacred canons plainly intimate, and
the custome of all nations confirms;
and that not only in men, but in all
other animals, yea inanimate creatures,
esteeming each so much more generous
and noble, as they come from a
more worth place. Thus Isaac commands
his Jacob not to take a wife of
the land of Canaan, but of the then
more renowned country, Mesopotamia
of Syria: not unlike which is that in
John, where Philip relating, that he
had found Jesus of Nazareth, Nathanael
(that true Isreaelite) nimbly queries,
If any thing good could come
thence?
Nunc ad alia pergamus: Præcellit mulier virum
materia creationis, propterea quod non ex inanimato
quopiam aut vili luto creata [Gen. 2.], quemadmodum vir, sed
ex materia purificata, viuificata, & animata, anima inquam
rationali mentem participante diuinam. Accedit ad hoc quod
vir ex terra quasi suapte natura omnis generis animantia
producente cooperante cœlesti influxu à Deo factus
est. Mulier autem supra omnem cœli influxum ac naturæ
promptitudinem absque ulla virtute cooperante à solo Deo
creata est, in omnibus sibi constans integra, & perfecta
viro interim unius costæ iacturam faciente, ex qua formata
est mulier, videlicet Eua de Adam dormiente, atque
tam profunde ut ne costam quidem evelli sentiret, quam
Deum abstulit à viro & dedit mulieri. Vir itaque naturæ
opus, mulier opificium dei. Ideoque mulier diuini splendoris
plerunque viro capacior, sæpeque plena existit, quod
etiamnum, ex munditia & pulchritudine ipsius mirifica
facile videre licet. Nam quum pulchritudo ipsa nihil est
[14]
aliud quam diuini vultus, atque luminis splendor rebus insitus,
per corpora formosa relucens. Is certe mulieres
præ viris habitare ac replere abundantissime elegit. Hinc
mulieris corpusculum omni aspectu tactuque delicatissimum,
Caro tenerrimam, color clarus, & candidus, cutis nitida,
caput decorum, casaries venustissima, capilli molles, lucidi
& protensi, vultus augustior, prospectusque hilarior,
facies omnium formosissima, ceruix lactea, frons expeditus,
spatiosus & splendidus, oculos habet vibrantiores,
micantioresque, amabili hilaritate, & gratia contemperatos,
supra hos supercilia in tenuem gyrum composita,
eademque cum decora planitie, decenti distantia
diuisa, è quorum medio descendit nasus, æqualis & intra
rectum modum cohibitus, sub quo os rutilum, &
tenellis labris conformi compositione venustum intra quæ
tenui risu, dentes emicant, minutili & æquo ordine locati,
eburneo candore nitentes, illorúmque quam viro
paucior numerus quod neque edax neque mordax. Circumsurgunt
maxillæ, genæque, tenera mollitie roseo fulgore
rubentes, verecundiæque plenæ, ac mentum orbiculare, decenti
concauitate iucundum. Sub hoc collum habet gracile, & longiusculum,
rotundis ex humeris erectum, gulam delicatam & albicantem,
mediocri crassitiæ fultam vocem, & orationem
suauiorem, pectus amplum, & eminens, æquali carne vestitum
cum mamillarum duritie, illarumque simul ac ventris orbiculari
rotunditate, latera mollia, dorsum planum & erectum
brachia extensa, manus teretes digitosque concinnis iuncturis,
[15]
protensos, ilia coxasque habitiores, suras carnosiores, extrema
manuum pedumque in orbicularem ductum desinentia, singulaque
membra succi plena. Ad hæc incessus gressusque
modestus, motus decentior, gestus digniores, totiusque præterea
corporis ordine atque symmetria, figura ac habitudine
longe lateque in omnibus speciosissima, nullumque in tota creaturarum
serie, neque spectaculum adeo mirandum, neque miraculum
perinde spectandum, ut nemo nisi cæcus omnino non videat
deum ipsum quicquid pulchritudinis capax est mundus
universus in mulierem simul congessisse, ut ob id illam
omnis creatura stupescat, & multis nominibus amet, ac veneretur,
usque adeo ut usu venire videamus quod incorporei
spiritus, dæmonesque mulieres sæpissime ardentissimis
amoribus depereant, quæ non fallax opinio est, sed multis
experimentis nota veritas. Atque ut omittam ea quæ poetæ
nobis de amoribus deorum, eorumdemque amasiis tradidere,
ut Apollinis, Daphne, Neptuni, Salmonea, Herculis,
Hebe, Iole, & omphale, cæterorumque deorum amasiis, &
ipsius Iovis admodum multis, Hoc tam divinum pulchritudinis
munus diis, hominibusque amabile sacra eloquia in mulieribus
præ cæteris gratiarum dotibus in multis locis celebriter
commendant [Gene. 6.]. Hinc legitur in Genesi quod videntes filii
Dei filias hominum quod essent pulchræ, delegerunt uxores
sibi ex illis quas voluerunt. Legimus etiam de Sara Abrahæ
quod fuit pulchra præ aliis terræ mulieribus, imo
pulcherrima. Sic servus Abrahæ cum vidisset Rebeccam
eximiæ pulchritudinis puellam, dixit tacitus secum: Hæc
est quam præparavit Dominus filio Abrahæ, Isaac, & Abigail
[16]
uxor Nabal viri pessimi erat prudens, & cordata,
perinde atque speciosa. Ideoque servavit vitam & facultatem
viri sui à furore David. Et malus vir per pulchram
mulierem servatus est. His namque verbis allocutus est
eam David: Vade pacifice in domum tuam, ecce audivi
vocem tuam, & honorificavi faciem tuam, nam cum omnis
pulchritudo sit, vel spiritualis, vel vocalis, vel corporea.
Abigail tota pulchra fuit, & prudentia spiritus,
& facundia sermonis, & venustate corporis, quo nomine
mortuo viro suo Nabal facta est una uxorum David.
Et Bathsaba fuit adeo insigni forma mulier, ut
eius amore captus David, illam post mortem viri desponsatam
reginali dignitate præ cæteris elevaret. Item Abisag
sunamitis quod esset puella pulcherrima, propterea
electa fuit ut accubando David senescœntis iam regis
calorem instauraret. Quapropter & summis honoribus
senex eam rex augere voluit, & post mortem regis
potentis reginæ loco habita est. Huc spectant ea quæ
de mira pulchritudine reginæ Vasti legimus, atque de
Hester quæ illi prælata, illaque præstantior fuit, nimis
quam pulchra & decora facie. De Iudith etiam legimus
cuius auxit Dominus pulchritudinem, in tantum ut eam
conspicati stupore sint admirando affecti. De Susanna
denique quæ fuit oppido quam delicata, & specie pulchra.
Quid quod legimus etiam post varia tentamenta Iob
& eius ærumnas exantlatas præter cætera quæ summa
patientia meruit, dedisse illi Dominum tres filias
[17]
pulcherrimas, tribus charitibus longe gratiores, quibus
mulieres in universa terra speciosiores neutiquam
inventæ sunt. Legamus porro licebit sanctarum virginum
historias, nimirum mirabimur quam miræ pulchritudinis
et speciosissimæ formæ præ cæteris filiis hominum
catholica ecclesia solemniter illas collaudando decantet.
Sed omnium longe lateque principem immaculatam Dei
genitricem virginem Mariam, cuius pulchritudinem sol
& luna mirantur, è cuius speciosissimo vultu tanta simul
effulsit pulchritudinis castimonia, atque sanctitudo, ut licet
omnium oculos pariter & mentes perstringeret, nemo
tamen unquam mortalium suis illecebris, vel minimo cogitatu
corruerit. Hæc etiam si fusius è sacris bibliis ubi
toties de pulchritudine facta mentio, idque ipsissimis pene
verbis ideo recensui, quo plane intelligamus mulierum pulchritudinem,
non apud homines solum, sed & apud Deum c
ohonestatam esse & honore cumulatam. [Numeri. 31] Proinde &
alibi legimus in sacris literis Deum præcepisse omnem
masculum sexum etiam pueros occidi, mulieres vero pulchras
servari. [Deut. 21.] Et in Deuteronomio permittitur filiis
Israel pulchram mulierem è captivis sibi deligere in coniugem.
But to proceed; as in order and place, so also in matter of her Creation, Woman far excells Man. things receive their value from the matter they are made of, and the excellent skill of their maker: Pots of common clay must not contend with China-dishes, nor pewter utensils vye dignity with those of silver. One line drawn by Appelles his exquisite pencill, is more to be esteemed, than whole portraitures perform'd by the slubbering hands of vulgar artists. Woman was not composed of any inanimate or vile dirt, but of a more refined and purified substance, enlivened and actuated by a Rational Soul, whose operations speak it a beam, or bright ray of Divinity. Man was taken out of the Earth, which of its own nature, with the co-operation of Celestial Influxes, is wont to bring forth living creatures: but Woman, above all influence of the Heavens, or aptitude of Nature, without any assisting virtue, or co-operating power, was formed miraculously, by god himself, out of that ribb taken from dormant Adam's side, whereby Man became maim'd and imperfect; and thence ever since, as a needle that hath suffered the magnetick touch, stands alwayes trembling till he looks full on its beloved North, so he can never rest, till by taking a woman, and incorporating her with himself, he retreive that loss, and render himself again intire and perfect, The rare art exercised in rearing this Female-Fabrick, is not obscurely intimated by the Divine Historian, in his Original Language, where God is said to make Man, but to have built Woman; that implying but common work, this much curiosity, and contrivance; insomuch that Man seems little more than the production of Nature, Woman, the more immediate handiwork of the God of Nature. And therefore for the most part Woman is more susceptable of, and replenisht with divine splendor and irradiations, than Man, of which her incomparable Neatness, and charming Beauty, may be a pregnant evidence; for Beauty is nothing but the brightness or radiancy of Divine Light, shining in created Essences, and casting on us its glorious reflections from fair bodies, as illustriously as out weak eyes are capable without dazleing to behold it. And this most frequently chooseth to reside in Woman, rather than Man; whence she becomes beyond all espression amiable and delightfull, her flesh tender and delicate, her colour bright and clear, her hair most becoming, her locks (Cupids Fetters, and the only threads wherewith he strings his bow) soft, long, and glittering, her countenance more august and majestical, her lokks more sprightly, vivid, and jocund, a snow-white neck, and large smooth high fore-head, sparkling eyes, armed with irresistable glances, and yet tempered with a lovely grace and chearfulness, arches over with stately eyebrows, (half Moons, that boast more conquests than the proud Turkish ensigns) which being divided with a beseeming, plain, and equal distance, her well proportioned nose leads to her pretty mouth, and that displaying with an amorous smile, the rosie portals of its soft ruddy lips, discovers a row of inestimable pearl, her fine small teeth, even, and out-vying ivory for whiteness, yet fewer in number than man's, as having less occasion to use them, being neither great eater, nor biter. Then her modest cheeks, whose colours are so purely mixt, that lillies and roses seem there to contend for superiority, and her pretty round chin, beautified with a love-dimple; a voice she hath most sweet and inchanting; breasts which seem two sphears of snow, or swelling mountaines of delight; long arms, little hands, interwoven with a curious laberynth of azure veins; long slender fingers, nimble joints, and all parts of her body plump, juicy, and attractive. Besides, her gate is so modest, her motions decent and natural, her gesture more free and noble, her air more taking and complacent, and the whole form, habit, and symmetry of her person, graced with such innumerable charms, as without injuring truth, we may affirm, That in the whole series of creatures there is nothing so much to be admir'd, or miracle so deserving to be seen, since in her alone all that have not their eyes blear'd with prejudice, or envy, may clearly see, the great Creator (who is the fountain of all that is good and amiable) hath epitomized the beauty of all his other works, for those perfections which sparkle here and there in them, are collected and constellated in her, whom we may call, a draught of the whole Creation in miniature, or a copy of that vast Volume done in exquisite short-hand. Hence all creatures admire, love, and almost adore her; for so (* Lib. 8. Nat. Hist.) Pliny (that great clark of Nature's Closet) relates, That the lion which spareth no other creature, trembleth at a woman, and hardly proffereth her that violence which usually he doth to Man; as if Nature had taught that savage animal the respects due to so fair a presence. Nor is it only the conceit of fond opinion, but a very credible Truth, That even spiritual Natures, incorporeal Essences, and Dæmons, have many times been enamoured on Women with wonderfull passion; for omitting those stories poets tell us, of the Amours of their fabulous Deities, as Apollo and Daphne, Neptune and Salmonea, or rampant Hercules with his three wenches, Hebe, Jole, and Omphale, &c. The Holy Scripture seems to intimate no less, as in Genesis we find, That the Sons of God seeing the Daughters of Men were fair, took of them for their wives: to which we might adde, (if it be not too Apochryphal) the ill spirit Asmodeus, who so jealously courted the Lady, that he destroy'd all his rivals, in the history of Tobit. Indeed these sacred rolls are frequent in recommending this divine ornament, Beauty, and furnish us with various examples of its power and excellency. Thereby it was Abigail preserved her churlish husband's life and fortune, from the fury of incensed David; for thus the royal captain accosts her, Return in peace, I have heard thy voice, and honoured thy face, (or as other versions render it, Accepted thy person.) All beauty is either intellectual, vocal, or corporeal; in each of which this Lady is recorded to have been eminently accomplisht, being both prudent in mind, eloquent of speech, and beautifull in person; for which excellency perfections, David after Nabal's decease accepted her for one of his wives. Hester's beauty was a means to deliver her people out of the jaws of destruction, to which proud Haman had devoted them. And fair Judith's charms infatuating the besotted general, preserved her nation from a ruine which seem'd inevitable. After those various temptations and tedious afflictions of holy Job, Heaven (as if it could not bestow a better earthly reward on such a stupendious and inimitable patience) blest him with three daughters so sweet, fair, and attractive, that they surpast those graces poets fable of, and the whole World (bankrupt of such other excellency) could not produce their parallels. Who reading the legends of the Sacred Virgins, can but admire in them that transcendent beauty, which the Church vouchsafes to celebrate with such solemn Eulogies of honour? especially that immaculate Virgin, the blessed Mary, whose beauty is said to be so exactly temper'd with chastity and holiness, trhat though it captivated all hearts, yet it never tempted any to folly, so much as in thought. Not is beauty only esteemed amongst men, but seems also to be particularly regarded even by God himself, (as indeed how can he but respect his own reflection.) Thus we sometimes read him commanding all the males (even children) should be slain, but the women that were fair to be saved alive. And in Deuteronomy, liberty is indulged to the Israelites, to take one of their captives to wife, if she were beautifull, which otherwise was unlawfull.
But besides this charming excellency, which not only invites, but commands our admiration, Woman is endowed with another natural ornament, not vouchsaft to men; her hair growing to that becoming length, as to veil those more reserved parts, whereof modesty commands concealment; and indeed of that slushing virtue this sweet Sex may justly challenge the far greatest share, it having been oft experienced, (*) that in desperate diseases, they have chosen to expose themselves to Death's imbraces, rather than to the view and handling of chyrurgions [surgeons] for cure. Nor can Death it self rifle them of this modest bashfulness, for when drowned, (as Pliny relates, and experience proves) they lye in the water with their faces downwards, Nature sparing their modesty, whereas a man in such a case swims on his back, exposing all his shame and nakedness to publick view. further, the most worthy part of us, whereby we chiefly differ from brutes, is the head, and of that, especially the face. Now in men, that noble member the head, is often by age or other infirmity plundered of hair, its native ornament, and grows deformed with a despicable baldness, from which misfortune women by an extraordinary priviledge of Nature are exempt. As likewise their faces remain alwayes smooth and comely; whereas men's are frequently so beset with over-grown beards, and sordid hair, that 'tis difficult to distinguish them from beasts; whence by the Law of the Twelve Tables, it was provided, women should not shave their cheeks, lest it might occasion the growth of beards, and destroy their native pudor [modesty] and comeliness. Now of the cleanness and purity of this sex, this oft-try'd experiment cannot but be a proof beyond exception; for when a woman hath once washt her self clean, let her wash again in fresh water, and it shall receive no spot or tincture of foulness; but a man never so well washt, as oft as he washes again, will still leave behind some filth and sordities. Nor may we omit, That Nature hath given Women the greatest share in the procreation of Mankind; for according to the opinion of those great pillars of the Art of healing, Galen and Avicenna, she contributes most to the matter and nutriment of the birth, which may be the reason that most children resemble their mothers many times in external features, but almost alwayes in genius and inclinations; for where mothers be simple, the children generally prove fools, and where they are wise, these are witty: but on the contrary, the wisest fathers have most times idiots to their sons, and foolish fathers frequently get wise children, provided the mother be but possest of a competent stock of discretion. And hence it should seem, mothers become more fond and indulgent to children, as being sensible of having a greater share and interest in them; in requital whereof for the same cause, we are naturally more affected towards our mothers than to our fathers, so as we seem but to respect our father, and to love only our mother. And this leads us to make some reflection on that which is our first commons in this World, our mother's milk, a thing of that catholick virtue, that it not only nourishes infants, cherishes the sick, and restores consumptive and languishing nature, but may in case of necessity suffice for the preservation of life to persons of any age, a notable instance whereof we read in Valerius, of a poor young woman, who therewith preserved her aged mother in prison, that otherwise had inevitable been swallowed up by the devouring jaws of famine, whereby
She sav'd her life who gave her life before,
And kindly did in kind her milk restore.
Which signal love and tenderness not
only procured the old woman's release,
and a competent maintenance for her
and her daughter, but for a monument
thereof the goal was converted into the
Temple of Piety, a virtue to which
women are almost ever more prone
than men; so that Aristotle recounts
piety, mercy, and compassion, as virtues
peculiar to this sex. Nor is it unusual
for physitians to relate, That the heat
of young women's paps, applyed to the
breasts of persons won out with age,
doth stir up, augment, and preserve the
vital heat, of which David not ignorant,
when age had snow'd her silver
hairs on his head, and robb'd him of
his youthfull vigour; procured the fair
young Shunamite for his bed-fellow,
that he might receive warmth from
her sweet caresses, and cherishing imbraces.
(*) This discourse in the original was dedicated by the author Agrippa, to the Princess Margaret, afterwards wife to Maximilian, Emperor, who was herself a fatal instance hereof, for breaking her thigh by a fall from a horse as she was hunting, she would not permit chyrurgions to set it, but chose rather to die thereof, than prostitute her modesty. See Speed's Chronicle.
Furthermore, to omit that women
are more early ready to accomplish that
great end of our being, generation, and
the propagation of posterity, than men,
and that stupendious miracle of Nature,
their longing, when many times without
danger they greedily feed on raw
flesh or fish, and not seldome on
coals, dirts, stones, and other trash,
which without damage they concoct,
and convert into healthfull nutriment:
We only at present adde, That according
to the traditions of philosophers
and physitians, ratified by experience,
women have obtained this excellent
book from the indulgence and bounty
of Nature, That in all diseases whatever,
they of themselves, from their
own proper stock, are furnisht with remedies,
and can cure themselves, without
praying in aid of any forreign help,
or far-fetcht medicament.
But that which transcends all wonder, is, that Woman alone, without Man, should be able to produce humane Nature, which Man alone never could pretend to; and yet this is commonly affirmed by the Turks and other Mahumetans, to be feazible; amongst whom many are believed to be conceiv'd without Fathers, whom in their own tongue they call Nefesogli. Stories likewise go of islands, where the women are conceived to conceive by the Wind; but this we dare not admit into our Creed, for thereby we should injuriously rob the blessed Mary of her honour, whose alone prerogative it was to conceive without the knowledge of Man, when she brought forth her natural Son, our Saviour, of her proper substance, being impregnated by the Holy spirit, and remaining still a pure and immaculate Virgin, such fruitfulness attending the precedent Benediction, that she needed not Man's help in reference to conception. But of brute animals it is more confidently affirmed, some females conceive without the company of the Male; as Origen against Faustus, delivers on the credit of history, concerning she-vultures; and Antiquity of certain mares, which went to foal by the fruitfull gales of Zephyrus, of which the Poet,
Ore omnes versæ in zephyrum stantrupibus altisIam quid de sermone dicam divino munere, quo uno beluis maxime præstamus, quem Trismegistus Mercurius eiusdem ac immortalitatem pretii existimat. Et Hesiodus optimum hominis thesaurum nominat. Nonne sermone mulier viro facundior, magisque diserta & abundans? Nonne quotquot sumus homines, non nisi aut à matribus, aut à nutricibus primum loqui didicimus? sane natura ipsa rerum architectrix in hoc humano genere sagaciter prospiciens, hoc muliebre genus donavit, ut vix uspiam mulier milia reperiatur. Pulchrum profecto & laudabile eos viros præcellere, quo cæteris animantibus homines potissimum præstant. Sed à prophanis ad sacras literas ceu postliminia redeamus, atque ab ipsis usque religionis fontibus rem auspicemur. Scimus in primis haud dubie propter mulierem viro Deum benedixisse, quam benedictionem vir utpote indignus habere non meruerat prius quam mulier esset creata. Cui consonat illud Salomonis proverbium, [Proverb. 18.] Qui invenerit mulierem bonam, invenitbonum, & haurit benedictionem à domino, Et illud Ecclesiastici: [Ecclesia. 26.] Mulieris bonæ beatus vir, numerus annorum illorum duplex. Et nullus homo potest in dignitate comparari illi, qui dignus fuerit habere mulierem bonam. Nam ut ait Ecclesiasticus: [Eccle. 26.] Mulier bona est gratia super omnem gratiam. Ideoque Salomon in proverbiis [Proverb. 12.] vocat illam coronam viri. Et Paulus [I. Corinth. 11.] gloriam viri: definitur autem gloria, consummatio & petfectio rei [24] quiescentis & delectantis in suo fine, quando videlicet rei nil amplius addi potest ut crescat eius perfectio. Mulier itaque consummatio, perfectio, fœlicitas, benedictio et gloria viri existit, atque ut ait Augustinus: Prima humani generis in hac mortalitate societas. Idcirco illam omnis homo amet necesse est, quam qui non amaverit, qui odio habuerit, ab omnibus virtutibus & gratiis alienus est, nedum humanitate, referenda forte istic essent cabalistica illa mysteria, quomodo Abraam benedictus à Deo per mulierem Sarah, decerpta à nomine mulieris litera H, & addita nomini viri, & vocatus est Abraham [Gene. 27. & 28.], quomodo etiam benedictio Iacob illi sit, per mulierem, matrem videlicet acquisita [Gene. 2.]. Sunt huius generis plura in sacris literis, sed hoc loco non explicanda. Benedictio itaque data est propter mulierem, lex autem propter virum, lex inquam iræ & maledictionis, viro namque interdictus erat fructus ligni, mulieri non item, quæ neque dum creata erat illam enim Deus ab initio liberam esse voluit, vir itaque comedendo peccavit, non mulier, vir mortem dedit, non mulier. Et nos omnes peccavimus in Adam, non in Eva, ipsumque originale peccatum non à matre fœmina, sed à patre masculo contrahimus. Ideoque vetus lex omne masculinum circumcidi iussit, fœminas autem incircumcisas manere, peccatum videlicet originis. In eo sexu qui peccasset solummodo puniendum statuens. Neque præterea increpavit Deus mulierem, quia comederat, sed quia mali occasionem dedisset viro, atque id quidem imprudens, [25] eo quod per diabolum tentaretur. Vir itaque excerta scientia peccavit, mulier erravit ignorans, & decepta. Nam & à diabolo primo tentata est, quippe quam cognovit creaturarum omnium excellentissimam. Et ut inquit Bernardus: Videns diabolus admirandam eius pulchritudinem, sciens eam talem qualem antea in divino lumine cognouerat, quæ super omnes angelos gauderet colloquia Dei, inuidiam iecit in solam mulierem, propter suam excellentiam. Quo circa Christus natus huic mundo humilimus, quo sua humilitate superbiam expiaret peccati, primi parentis, sexum assumpsit virilem, ut humiliorem, non sexum fœmineum, sublimiorem & nobiliorem. Præterea quia condemnati fuimus propter peccatum viri, non mulieris, voluit Deus vt in quo sexu fuerat peccatum in eo fieret & peccati expiatio, & qui sexus ignorans deceptus erat, per eundem etiam fieret vindicta. Ideoque ad serpentem dictum est, quia mulier, vel quod verius legitur quia semen mulieris caput eius conteret [Gene. 3.] non vir neque semen viri. Atque hinc est forte quare ordo sacerdootalis ab ecclesia commissus est viro potius quam mulieri, quia sacerdos omnis Christum representat. Christus autem primum hominem peccatorem ipsum videlicet Adamum. Ex hoc iam intelligitur Canon ille qui incipit [33 q. 5. hæc imago] hæc imago dicens mulierem non esse factam ad imaginem Dei, scilicet ad corpoream Christi similitudinem. Noluit tamen Deus ipse inquam Christus filius esse viri, sed mulieris, quam eo usque honorauit ut ex muliere sola carnem indueret. [26] Propter mulierem namque Christus dictus est filius hominis, non propter virum. Hoc est illud ingens miraculum, quod admodum Propheta stupescit, quia mulier circumdedit virum [Hiere. 31. (Jer21.20)] quando videlicet sexus devoratur à virgine, & Christum portat in corpore. Etiam resurgens Christus à morte, mulieribus primum apparuit, non viris [Io. 20. Marc. 16.]. Nec ignotum est post Christi obitum viros à fide discessisse, mulieres autem nusquam constat à fide & religione Christiana defecisse. Porro nulla unquam fidei persecutio, nulla hæresis, nullus in fide error à mulieribus unquam emersit, secus constat de viris. Christus traditus, venundatus, emptus, accusatus, damnatus, passus, crucifixus, tandem morti traditus, non nisi per viros. Imo etiam à Petro suo negatus, à cæteris discipulis relictus, à solis mulieribus ad crucem usque & sepulchrum comitatus [Luc. 24.]. Atque etiam ipsa Pilati uxor, Aethnica plus conabatur salvare Iesum, quam quisquam virorum etiam illorum qui crediderant [Matth. 27.]. Accedit huc quod tota ferme theologorum scola asserit, acclesiam tunc non nisi apud solam mulierem puta virginem Mariam mansisse, atque, ob id & merito religiosus ac sacer fæminei sexus appellatur.
Exceptantque leves auras, & sæpe sine ullis
Coniugiis vento gravidæ.
Ore omnes versæ in zephyrum stantrupibus altis
Exceptantque leves auras, & sæpe sine ullis
Coniugiis vento gravidæ.
Standing on top of rocks, the wanton Beast
Sucks in the gentle breises of the West;
Whence she grows pregnant, and such Coles you'd find
As fleet and nimble, at their Sire, the Wind.
What shall we say of speech, that divine Faculty differencing us from brutes, whereby the Soul puts conceptions into words, and makes her apprehensions audible, which the profound Trismegistus prizes at no lower rate than immortality; and the poet Hesiod deservedly stiles our best treasure. I appeal to each man's own exerience, (and some I know have had cause to observe it) whether women are not naturally more eloquent of speech, than men, and their tongues more apt and voluble to cloath their thoughts in language and express their sentiments on any occasion. How sweet and insinuating are their complements? how close and home their objurations? how sudden their answers? how ingenious their retorts? how ready their excuses? how neat their evasions? how irresistable their intreaties? Did not every one of us first learn to speak from no to tutors than our mothers or nurses? and in this behalf Nature (like a carefull governess) so wisely provides for Humanity, that scarce ever any of that sex are found dumb. Nor is this sure any mean or vulgar honour, but meriting the greatest regard, to surpass men in that, wherein Man himself chiefly excells other creatures.
But pretermitting these more vulgar and prophane instances of feminine superiority, let us return to sacred letters, deducing the rivulets of our discourse from the very fountains of Religion; where we may observe, That Man was first blest for the woman's sake, God vouchsafing no benediction on him till after her Creation, as if before he had been unworthy that celestial favour. consonant whereunto is that Proverb of Solomon, He that finds a good woman, finds a good thing, and shall receive a blessing from the Lord. And that in Ecclesiasticus, Blessed is the husband of a good woman, the number of his years shall be doubled. Nor indeed can any vye dignity with him whose good fortune 'tis to enjoy a good wife; for (as the same Siracides saith) she is a Grace above all Graces: and therefore the wisest of kings calls her, The Crown; and the great Apostle, The Glory of the Man: Now Glory is defined to be the consummation and perfection of a thing acquiescing and delighting in its end, viz. when nothing more can be thereto added to augment its perfection. Therefore Woman being the complement, feliciry, blessing, and glory of Man, 'tis but requisite every man should love and respect her accordingly; and he that doth not do so, or shall be to barbarous as to hate or dis-esteem her, is not only a stranger to all virtues and graces, but a very rebel against Humanity.
Hereto we might, perhaps not improperly, refer those Cabalistical mysteries, how that Abraham was blessed of God in some respect through means of his Wife Sarah; for by taking the letter H from her name, and adding it to his, he came to be called Abraham. As also that Jacob's blessing was acquired by a woman, his mother: of which sort there are in Scripture several other passages, not requisite here to be unfolded. This may suffice to let us see, that the blessing was bestow'd for the Woman's sake, but the Law given to the Man: to him was forbidden the fruit of that unhappy tree, which set all posterities teeth on edge; not to the Woman, who was not then so much as created. For although St. Gregory (*) [Greg l. 35. Moral c. 16.] read the Prohibition, you shall not eat, as though it were spoken to both Man and Woman, yet the original delivers it in the singular number. And St. Austin (*) (Gen. ad Lat. lib. 8. cap. 17) [St. Augustine] taketh away the doubt, and telleth us, That by tradition the Woman receiveth this Commandment from the Man, not by immediate delivery from God; which if so, we thence conclude, That by reason thereof the Woman might chance more easily to break this Law, than the Man; since the All-glorious Majesty of God that commanded, should take deeper impression in Man, than the equality of person that related, could in the Woman; the roaring of a lion being more trembled at, than the braying of an ass; the commands of a king more powerfull, than the words of one's companion. At most, when Woman sin'd, she did it, poor Soul, unwittingly, being deluded by the insinuating Serpent: so that, it appears the Man sinned against perfect knowledge, and the positive command of his Maker; the Woman out of ignorance, seduced by the crafty wiles of the Tempter, with whom for a considerable time she disputed the matter, and lost not the glory of the day without a fair combate (?), though at last she fell an unhappy trophy to his strategems: whereas no sooner was that too-pleasing apple proffered to the Man, but without scruple he greedily falls oon, and, rebel as he was, would needs tast its fancied sweetness, whose bitter rellish remains to this day, and hath left on us those original stains, which nothing but Divine Blood can fetch out.
That Woman was first set upon by the Adversary, may be an argument of her excellency; for we know, that the sharpest points are soonest blunted, and the perfectest white most easily soil'd.
Envy strikes at the best, who stand on high,
And fairest marks for foulest oblaquy.
The black Prince of the Air, that subtle degraded Seraphin, well knew Woman to be the most accomplisht of all creatures; and seeing (as St. Bernard observes) her amazing beauty to be such, as before his lapse he had beheld in the Divine Light, and which above the sublimest Hierarchies enjoys Communion with God, did thereupon meeryl out of envy, plot how he might dismount her from that Throne of Perfection, and endeavoured by his malitious darts first of all to wound her innocency, and sully her glory, whose transcendent lustre above others, his hellish nature could not but most of all repine at. Nor want we further intimation of the fair sexes dignity and pre-eminence, if we reflect, That when the promised seed of Woman, that bruised this cursed Serpent's head, I mean our blessed Savious, left the bosome of his Eternal Father, and the splendors of inaccessible Light, to become visible in these lower Regions, and veiling the Majesty of his glorious presence, cloath'd himself with humane flesh, coming into the World in the lowliest manner imaginable, that by his humility he might expiate the pride of our first Parents' sin; we may with all humble reverence conjecture, That he was therefore pleased to assume the Male, as the meanest and inferior Sex; contriving by his infinite wisdom, that since Man's offence had reduced us all into this forlorn condition, (for had the Woman only sin'd, we never had had such cause to cry out, Oh Adam! what hast thou done? nor the Apostle to say, In Adam we all dyed) satisfaction for sin should be made in that Sex, from whom that ocean of impiety which overwhelm'd the World, had its first source and origine. But although this blessed Immanuel took not on him the Female Sex, yet he so far honoured it, as to assume his Flesh only from the Woman; and is therefore entituled, Filius hominis, in respect of her, not of Man, (which our vulgar translations seem to have forgot.) This was that stupendious miracle, the contemplating whereof put the admiring Prophet into an extasie, That a Woman should encompass a Man; that is, Christ be conceiv'd in a pure Virgin's womb, Impregnated without the contact of two prolifick sexes; that Divinity should be embroidered in an earthly Tabernacle, and have its glories shut up in a cloud of flesh, like Sun-beams in curtains of chrystal [crystal]. Nor did our Lord afterwards when he had dissolv'd the powers of the Grave, and destroy'd death's Empire by his miraculous Resurrection, voiuchsafe his first appearance to men, but women, who are not known at any time to have quitted the faith, or turn'd their backs on true Religion; whereas men immediately after his ascension began to apostatize. Nor can it be proved, that ever any persecution, heresie, schism, or error in the church, had women for its first authors, but alwayes men. By that perfidious and cruell sex was our blessed Jesus the Lord of Life, and King of Glory, betrayed, sold, bought, accused, condemned, crucified, and slain: yea when he was denied by his own great confident, Peter, and abandoned by all the rest of his male disciples, even then the women left him not, but accompanied him still to the Cross and sepulchre; and Pilate's heathen wife endeavoured more his preservation, than any of the men which profess'd belief in him. Whereto we may adde, That almost all School-Divines concur in opinion, That the Church at that instant remained wholly and solely in a woman, viz., The Virgin Mary; and therefore this Sex is deservedly by them stiled sacred and religious.
Quod si etiam
quispiam cum Aristotele dicat [Arist. lib. de animali.] inter omnia animalia masculos
esse fortiores, prudentiores & nobiliores, huic respondet
excellentior doctor Paulus Apostolus dicens: Quæ
stulta sunt mundi elegit Deus ut confundat sapientes &
infirma mundi elegit Deus, ut confundat fortia, & ignobilia
mundi, & contemptibilia elegit Deus, & ea quæ non
[27]
sunt ut ea quæ sunt destrueret [I. Corynth. 1.]. Nam quis inter viros in cunctis
naturæ gratiarum dotibus Adamo sublimior extitit? [Gen. 2]
at mulier illum humiliavit. Quis Samsone fortior? mulier
eius fortitudinem superauit. Quis castior Loth [Iudich. 14. & 16.]? mulier
illum ad incestum prouocauit, Quis Dauid religiosior? mulier
eius sanctimoniam turbauit; quis sapientior Salomone, [Gen. 19.]
mulier eum decepit. Quis patientior Iob? [2. Reg. 11.] quem diabolus
fortunis omnibus exuit [3. Reg. 11.], familiam & filios occidit, ipsumque
ulceribus, sanie, dolore toto corpore oppleuit? tamen à pristina
animi simplicitate, patientiaque ad iracundiam prouocare
non potuit, prouocauit autem mulier, in hoc diabolo superior
confidentiorque, quem ad maledicendum irritauit. Quod
si modo fas est vel Christum ipsum [Matth. 15.] in hanc comparationem
vocare, quo nihil potentius, nihil sapientius, cum sit æterna
Dei sapientia, atque potestas, nonne à Chananea illa muliercula
sese superari passus est, dicente ipso: Non est bonum
tollere panem filiorum, & mittere canibus. Illa contra
respondente: utique Domine, nam & catelli edunt de micisquæ
cadunt de mensa Dominorum suorum, cum que iam vidisset Christus,
quia illam hoc argumento superare non posset, benedixiti
illi dicens, Fiat tibi sicut vis. Quis Petro Apostolorum
primo in fide ferventior? [Ioan. 18. Matth. 20. Marc. 14.
Luc. 22.] mulier illum non minimum
ecclesiæ pastorem ad negandum Christum seduxit,
dicant quicquid velint canonistæ, ecclesiam suam non
posse errare, Papa mulier illam egregia impostura delusit. [24. q. 1. à recta Plati. de Ioan. 3]
Cæterum dicet quis, hæc magis in opprobrium
mulierum vergere, quam ad laudem accedere.
[28]
Cui mulieres ad hunc modum respondebunt. Si alterum
nostrum necesse est aut boni alicuius, aut etiam vitæ iacturam
facere, malo ego te perdere quam me perditum
iri, Idque exemplo Innocentii tertii, qui in quadam sua
decretali epistola ad quendam Cardinalem à Romana se
de legatum scriptum reliquit. Si te vel me confundi oporteat,
potius te confundi eligam. Præterea ciuilibus legibus
etiam mulieribus indultum est, ut liceat sibi consule
re damno alieno. Atque in ipsis sacris literis nonne sæpe
benedicitur, et extollitur iniquitas mulieris, plus quam vir
benefaciens? Nonne laudatur Rachel, quæ patrem suum
idola quærentem [Genes. 31.], pulchra adinventione delusit?
Nonne etiam Rebecca quia per fraudem obtinuit Iacob
benedictionem patris [Genes. 27.], & postea cautius fecit declinare
fratris iram, Raab meretrix decepit eos qui quærebant
exploratores Iosue, & reputatur ei ad iustitiam
Egressa est Iahel in occursum Sisaræ, dixitque ad eum
intra ad me Domine mi, ac petenti aquam dedit illi bibere
de utre lactis, & operuit illum iacentem, dormiente
autem Sisara ingressa est abscondite, percussitque clauum
in caput eius, & interfecit illum, qui se fidei eius crediderat
servandum, atque pro hac in signi proditione benedicta,
inquit scriptura, inter mulieres Iahel benedicatur
in tabernaculo suo. Legite historiam Iudich [Iudich. 11], & notate
verba eius ad Olofernem. Sume inquit verba ancillæ
tuæ quoniam si ea secutus fueris perfectum te faciet
Dominus, veniens nunciabo tibi omnia, ita ut adducam
[29]
te per mediam Hierusalem, & habebis omnem populum
Israel, sicut oues quarum est pastor, & non latrabit
vel unus canis contra te, quoniam hæc mihi dicta sunt
per prouidentiam Dei, sopitumque blanditiis Olofernem percussit
in ceruicem, & abscidit caput eius. Quod quæso, iniquius
consilium, quæ crudeliores insidiæ, quæ captiosior
proditio ex cogitari posset, & hanc idcirco benedicit, laudat
& extollit scriptura, & longe melior reputata est iniquitas
mulieris, quam vir benefaciens.
But if any object with Aristotle, That the male is generally much the strongest, and therefore to be more valued; wedesire such to consider, how contemptible a glory tis to boast of big bones, or brawny arms, and what mean trophies they can hope to raise to themselves by excelling women, by those advantages wherein they must confess themselves inferior to hundreds of beasts. If strength alone must give the pre-eminence, let Men give place to their horses, confess their oxen their masters, and pay homage to elephants. But in truth they have little reason to vaunt of the strength or prudence, the valour or subtilty of their Sex, having been alwayes shamefully baffled by those whom they vainly call the weaker vessels. What Man was ever able to vye strength with Sampson, whose single arm no better weapon'd than with an asses jaw-bone, could at once sacrifice a thousand and lives to his fury? yet did this prodigious hero (like Hercules) truckle to a distaff, and was ridiculously captivated by a woman. Who could boast a more severe chastity than just Lot, whose righteous soul did daily suffer pangs of grief and indignation, seeing the Sodomite's debaucheries? yet women easily inticed him to ebriety and incest. Who more religious than David? yet a bathing Beersheba caused him at once to sully the pure robes of his sanctity, with the black stains both of adultery and murder. Who so wise as Solomon, who seems to have been Nature's Privy-Counsellor, and to have had the honour to behold her undrest? yet was not all his wisdom amulet sufficient to guard him against women's charms, but that he still placed more felicity in their enjoyment, than in all the curious contemplations and researches of Philosophy; and even abandon'd the worship of that God, who had bestowed those stupendious parts on him, to wantonnize in their imbraces. Who more fervent and resolv'd in the faith, than Peters, the chief of the Apostles? yet a silly damsel caused that great pastor of the Church thrice to deny his Master.
But methinks I hear some whispering, That all this makes more against than for Women, and tends rather to their infamy, than praise. To whom we answer, That the evil of the before recounted actions redounds chiefly to Men the actors, rather than to the Women, who were only accidently the occasion of them. And if the Sun's lustre by dazling our weaker eyes, bring on us any inconvenience, shall we accuse his glorious brightness: or rather ought we not to bewail the imbecillity of our own Opticks, unable to cope with so much splendor? Besides, admitting Women to be in some of these cases criminal, we could (if we delighted to be paradoxical) alledge, That even the holy Scripture seems to put a more favourable construction on their lapses and failings, than on Mens. Is not Rachel commended, who with a neat invention deluded her Father, in his search for her Idols? And Rebecca, who by fraud procured Jacob his father's blessing? Rahab with a lye deceived those who sought for Joshuah's spies, and 'tis accounted to her for righteousness. Jahel most perfidiously destroy'd Sisera, as he lay innocently sleeping in her tent, whither with an entire confidence he had committed himself for preservation; which signal treachery notwithstanding, 'tos said, Blessed amongst women shall Jahel be, &c. Read the story of Judith; observe well her dissembling insinuations to Holofernes, and those flatteries wherewith she having lull'd him to sleep, cut off his head, for which she is applauded and extolled to the sjies. Lot's daughters pass uncondemn'd for their incest; and yet their father is not excused, but hath his succession excluded from the Church of God. Lascivious Thamur is defended, and said to be more just than the Patriarch Judah; and by that fraudulent incest obtains the honour to be named in our saviour's geneology. But 'tis time we dis-entangle our self from this odd digression and return to the prosecution of our subject.
[Nonne bonum operatus est Cain offerens in sacrificium optimarum frugum primitias & eo ipso reprobatus esta Deo? Esau nonne benefecit dum pia obedientia venatur decrepito parenti cibum, & interea defraudatur benedictione, & odio habitus est Deo? Oza, dum, zelo religionis inclinatam, & iam prope labantem arcam sustinet, morte subita percussus est; rex Saul dum Amalechitarum pinguiores hostias in sacrificium parat Domino, deiectus regno etiam spiritui nequam traditus est. Excusantur ob incestus patris filiæ Loth, & non excusatur temulentus pater, & successio eius eiicitur ab Ecclesia Dei. Excusatur incestuosus Thamar, & dicitur iustior patriarcha Iuda, & fraudulento incestu meretur propagare lineam Salvatoris. Ite nunc viti fortes & robusti, & vos prægnantia Pallade, ligata tot fasciis scolastica capita, & totidem exemplis contrariam illam probate sententiam, quod melior sit iniquitas viri quam mulier benefaciens. Certe non poteritis illam tueri, ni recurratis ad allegorias, ubi tunc æqualis cum viro mulieris erit authoritas.]
There needs not any more evident argument of this happy sexes pre-eminence, than to reflect, That the most worthy of all creatures that ever was or will be, was a Woman, viz. the blessed Virgin. Nor is this any other than one of Aristotle's own Arguments. That kind of which the best is more noble than the best of another kind, is it felt more noble than that other kind: now of the Female kind the Virgin Mary is the best. In the Male there arose not a greater than John Baptist; and how much that sacred Virgin, who is exalted above all the Quires of angels, doth surpass him, there is no Catholick so ignorant but understands. In like sort we may argue, That kind whose worst is worse than the worst of another kind? but we know, that the worst and vilest of all creatures is Man; whether we understand it of that wretched Judas, who committed high treason against the King of Kings, and of whom 'tis said, It had been good for him not to have been born; or whether there shall hereafter arise an Antichrist worse than he, in whom shall dwell all the power of Satan. And here by the way give us leave to remark, that the Scriptures mention divers Men banisht to eternal torments; whereas we nowhere read of any woman damn'd. But to proceed;
Nature herself gives a suffrage to our assertion; for in all her productions, when any thing is to be framed more excellent than ordinary, she makes it a Female. Thus the Eagle, the noblest of birds, and Queen of all the winged troops, is never found a Male. And the wondrous Phoenix (to which the World is too poor to yield a mate) is related by the Egyptians to be ever of the female sex. But on the contrary, The King of Serpents, whom they call the Basilisk, the most mortal of all poisons, is alwayes, and cannot but be a male, as the more proper receptacle of venome and destructive qualities. Whereas the excellency and innocency of this other sweet-natur'd sex, which we here recommend, is hence abundantly manifest, in that all those black crimes and crying enormities which incense Heaven, and infest Earth, derive their pedigree from men. Adam the first man, first lockt up the Gates of Paradise, and by presuming to transgress the Law of his Maker, rendred all us his unhappy posterity obnoxious to sin, and consequently entituled to the wages thereof, death. And his first-born son unlockt the Gates of Hell; first of all introducing that infernal train, Envy, Murder, Paracide, and Despair into the World. The first that ventured on polygamy was Lamech; the first drunkard, Noah; the first setter up both of tyranny and idolatry, Nimrod, that mighty hunter, who thereby at once exercised his cruelty both on body and soul. Men they were that first establisht a commerce with the Regions of darkness, by treating and making compacts with infernal spirits, and inventing prophane arts. Men they were whose raging lusts first transported them to offer violence to Nature, whereof the ruines of Sodom and Gomorrah (once famous cities) calcin'd by that unnatural heat, remain to this day a dreadfull monument. To read of men that have abandon'd themselves to all kind of brutish sensualities; had two or more wives, or been adulterers, or whore-mongers, is not at all rare or unfrequent. How many wives had Abraham, Jacob, Esau, Joseph, Moses, Sampson, Saul, David, Solomon, Roboam, Abashuerus (?), and a numberless number more, who besides their wives, had concubines; and yet not satisfied, could not refrain tampering with their servants and handmaids. But we find not one woman (except Beetsheba) mentioned, but was content with one man; nor any that made a second choice, if she had issue by the first: for women are naturally far more chast and continent than men; insomuch that perceiving themselves unfruitfull, they have oft abstained from their husband's bed, and brought in others to supply their places, as Sarah, Rachel, Leah; and others voluntarily offered their maids to their husband's embraces, to raise them up posterity.
Nor are examples wanting of divers illustrious ladies, surpassing the best of men, not only in an exact and rigid chastity, but also for entire conjugal affection. Some out of a passionate tenderness, not enduring to survive their husbands, have violently cast themselves into the graves or funeral piles, together with the beloved corps. Others have thought no tomb but their own bodies, worthy to inshrine the ashes of their dearest mates. How religiously have they preserved their love's flames, as pure and undecaying as vestal fires? What means have they left unattempted? What hazards have they not embraced, to serve those to whom Hymen's sacred Band hath united them? Witness Cornelia, who so dearly affected her Pompey, that she would not suffer him to go into the wars, (though he were the World's Terror) unless her self in person might wait on him. Witness Demotia, who having lost her Leosthenes, could not find her self, and therefore through solitariness made a speedy voyage to death after hijm. Witness Sulpitia, who being adjudged to stay, and watched that she should stay at rome, when her husband Lentulus was banisht thence, did yet (notwithstanding the Senate's command, her princely father's charge, the love of her city and country, the loss of friends and family) alone expose her self unto the danger of the night, beguiled the watchfull eyes of her strict guard, brake forth of the city, and lacquted after him along the fields, until she became the joyfull companion of his wofull banishment, so little she esteem'd all the World's felicity in regard of her dear Lentulus; and for her Lentulus so willingly she incurr'd whatsoever misery. Witness Panthæa, Rhodogune, Laodemia, Martia, Valeria, Portia, Lucretia, Penelope, Alcinoe, and millions more, whose singular fame herein as it hath caused Antiquity to invest them in eternal shrines of honour, so may their rehearsal enforce Posterity to receive them as the fruitfull patterns of imitation, and so dar proselyte the bitterest Woman-hater, as to convert his aversion into an admiration of this sexes heroick vertues; especially if in his thoughts to these miracles of affection, he adde those mirrours of chastity, who have bravely slighted all both temptations and torments to preserve their honour, which they not only scorn'd to prostitute for sordid gain, or aiery titles, fror a flattering complement, or prodigal treat, but also withstood the importunities of Grandees, and defi'd the menaces of tyrants, valuing their virgin purity more than crowns, or kingdomes, or Life it self; as the Calidonian Atlanta, the Volcian Camilla, the Grecian Iphigenia, Cassandra, and Crase, and divers Lacedemonian, Spartan, Theban, and other virgins, whos enames are embalm'd in History, for the wonder and imitation of Posterity,
But here perhaps some barking Zoilus may interrupt us, by objecting the datal matches of Sampson, Jason, Deiphobus, Agamemnon, &c. and those tragedies thence ensuing: in most, if not all which, if we narrowly inspect all circumstances, we may easily find the women to be wrongfully accused; for scarce ever do ill wives happen to any but bad husbands, and such as by their own vitious examples debauch them, and teach them to be wicked by a president. We are more easily sway'd by patterns, than by precepts: every example is a most pleasing invitation, where the eye is guided unto present action, not the ear fed with fained speculation. A lascivious husband will make a wanton wife; a spend thrift husband an extravagant wife; and a modest, honest, careful husband, a modest, honest, carefull wife. We should therefore take St. Austin's [St. Augustine's] counsel, and such as we would have our wives appear unto us, the same should we first approve our selves to them. 'Tis an impudent and impious fellow (saith Seneca *) [(*) Ad. I** Epist. 94.] that requires of his wife an undefiled bed, yet he himself defiles it. For this reason (as Diogenes struck the father, when the boy swore, because he had taught him no better) so in some places the husbands are punisht only for the faults of their wives; as in Catalonia, whoever is cuckolded, payeth a summe of money; and in Paris, he rides in disgrace through the city, the cryer proclaiming these words before him, So do, so have; from which our English custome of ridings is not much different. Nor do these deplorable consequences alwayes arise from any extream ill habit or disposition of wither of the parties, but from their indiscreet conjuncture; their tempers disagreeing cause their discord, and their humours being contrary, are unfit for so close an union; such jarring notes can produce no harmony, but rather dismal effects: as a fiery vapour inveloped in the arms of a cold cloud, breaks forth with amazing flashes, and terrible thunderclaps. A mature deliberation is requisite before such an eternal bond be entred into: The mutual affection of each party; the consent of parents; the approbation of friends; the tryal of acquaintance; the special observation of disposition, genius, kindred, education, and behaviour, ought seriously to be weigh'd, before one conclude for the better, for worse, and tye that Gordian knot, which cannot be loosed till death cuts it. Now then if a man make his choice with these due respects, his marriage cannot but prove a merry age, and b