THE
R/iAfVIv RINC
'f
LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OT
CALIfORNlA
THE MARRIAGE RING
V/vv// /' ■//■III-,- r// ■ yr/^/-^' ■ / , /f//
THE MARRIAGE RING
BY THE RIGHT REVEREND JEREMY TAYLOR,D.D.
BISHOP OF DOWN AND CONNOR, AND OF
DROMORE: A REPRINT FROM THE FOURTH
EDITION OF HIS ENIAYT02 PUBLISHED IN 1673
EDITED WITH NOTES BY FRANCIS COUTTS
WITH A PHOTOGRAVURE FRONTISPIECE
AFTER PERUGINO'S MARRIAGE OF THE VIRGIN
LONDON JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD
NEW YORK JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMVII
LOAN STACK
T37
PREFACE
IT is hoped that a reprint of our British F^ndon's
Sermon on JMarriage, with a diminished reproduction
of the Arundel Society's copy of Perugino's Mar-
riage of the Virgin (for which I am indebted to the kind
permission of the S.P.C.K.), will be acceptable to those
who would present an appropriate gift to their friends
about to be married ; and that no cursory inspection of
the volume will affright them with its aspect of learned
quotation, since the Bishop's meaning is always plainly to
be understood without the translation of any of the Greek
and Latin with which it is tessellated.
The present text is an exact reprint of the eighteenth
sermon of the Bishop's Eniautos : A Course of Sermons for
all the Sundays of the Year, published in 1673, except in
the following respects : —
1. The designation of Sermon xviii, recurring on every
page, has been omitted.
2. The quotations have been corrected, so far as grammar
and context demanded.
3. The Greek is printed in the modern character.
4. A few slight variations in wording and punctuation
have been introduced, for reasons explained in the notes.
F. C.
^'7
THE
MARRIAGE RING:
OR
The Mysterlousness and Duties of Marriage.
Part I.
Ephes. 5. 32, 33.
This is a great mystery, Btit I speak concerning Christ and
the Church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular
so love his Wife even as himself, and the Wife see that she
reverence her Husband.
He first Blessing God gave to man, was Society :
and that society was a Marriage, and that marriage
was confederate by God himself, and hallowed by a
blessing : and at the same time, and for very many
descending ages, not only by the instinft of Nature, but by a
superadded forwardness (God himself inspiring the desire) '''' 2£";™'
the world was most desirous of Children, impatient of Barren- minem mi
ness, accountmg smgle life a Curse, and a childless person uxor, mi-
hated by God. The world was rich and empty, and able to Z"',)"em ;
provide for a more numerous posterity than it had. Tn'scrip'"
, , tura di-
- E|et? iyovfiiiPie reKva catur,
XuXkov e'xajy TTTWXo'i S' ovSe rci rexva ^iXei. &^Ae'm''"'
You that are rich Numeiiius, you may multiply your laniily ;
u poor
nam crea-
The Marriage Ring.
vit COS, 5f poor men are not so fond of Children, but when a family
'tomen could drive their Herds, and set their children upon Camels,
eorum
Adam seu
'Tdamseu ^^^ lead them till they saw a fat Soil watered with Rivers,
^T'Eiu-'er ^""^ there sit down without paying rent, they thought of
dixit in nothing: but to have gfreat Families, that their own relations
GeiH Bah.
Quiainq; ' might swell up to a Patriarchate, and their children be
'pfit'aftum enough to possess all the Regions that they saw, and their
piicatime grand-childrcn become Princes, and themselves build Cities
humani ^^^ ^^\\ xh&m by the name of a Child, and become the
generis, ^ c ^ a
habendum fountain of a Nation. This was the consequent of the first
homi- blessing, Increase and multiply. The next blessing was, the
promise of the Messias. and that also increased in men and
women a wonderful desire of marriage : for as soon as God
had chosen the family of Abraham to be the blessed line,
from whence the worlds Redeemer should descend according
to the flesh, every of his Daughters hoped to have the honour
to be his Mother, or his Grand-mother, or something of his
Christiani Kindred : and to be childless in Israel was a sorrow to the
Athenas, Hebrew women great as the slavery of Egypt, or their
wfT/Tai dishonours in the land of their Captivity.
o>7a/i^,y„y,/^/,.
selves, because as then it was, when they were to
flee, and to flee for ought they knew, in Winter, and they
were persecuted to the four winds of Heaven ; and the nurses
and the women with child were to suffer a heavier load of
sorrow because of the imminent persecutions ; and above all,
because of the great fatality of ruine upon the whole nation
of the Jews, well it might be said by S. Pan/ 6\L^i.v rfj crapKi
i^ova-iv 01 ToiovTot,, Such shall have trouble in the Jlesh, that
is, they that are married shall, and so at that time they had :
I! 2 ;uul
The Marriage Ring.
and therefore it was an a6l of charity to the Christians to
o-ive that counsel, eyw Se u/iajv ^ei8oju,at, / do this to spare
you, and deku> v/xa? a;aept/xvous dva.i : for when the case was
alter'd, and that storm was over, and the first necessities of
the Gospel served, and the sound ivas gone out into all
nations; in very many persons it was wholly changed, and
not the married but the unmarried had dXi^iv iv aapKi trouble
in the flesh ; and the state of marriage returned to its first
blessing, & non erat bomwi homini esse solitaritun, and it was
not good for man to be alone.
But in this first interval, the publick Necessity and the
private Zeal mingling together did sometimes over-a6l their
love of single Life, even to the disparagement of Marriage,
and to the scandal of Religion ; which was increased by the
occasion of some pious persons renouncing their contraft of
marriage, not consummate, with unbelievers. For when Flavia
Domitilla being converted by Nereus and Achilleus the
Eunuchs, refused to marry Aurelianus to whom she was con-
trafted ; if there were not some little envy and too sharp
hostility in the Eunuchs to a married state, yet Aurelianus
thought himself an injur'd person, and caus'd S. Clemens who
vail'd her and his spouse both to die in the quarrel. St.
Thecla being converted by St. Paul grew so in love with Vir-
ginity, that she leaped back from the marriage of Tamyris,
where she was lately ingaged. S. Iphigenia denied to marry
King Hirtacus, and it is said to be done by the advice of
St. Mattlieiv. And Susanna the Niece of Diocletian refus'd
the love of Maxiviiamis the Emperor ; and these all had been
betrothed ; and so did St. Agnes, and St. Felicula, and divers
others then and afterwards ; insomuch, that it was reported
among the Gentiles, that the Christians did not only hate all
that were not of their perswasion, but were Enemies of the
chast
The Marrias'e Rins;.
chast Laws of Marriage ; And indeed some that were called
Christians were so ; forbidding to luai-ry, and connnanding to
abstain from meats. Upon this occasion it grew necessary for
the Apostle to state the Question right, and to do honour
to the holy Rite of Marriage, and to snatch the Mystery from
the hands of zeal and folly, and to place it in Christs right
hand, that all its beauties might appear, and a present con-
venience might not bring in a false Dodrine, and a perpetual
Sin, and an intolerable Mischief The Apostle therefore who
himself '"-had been a Married man, but was now a Widower, *-a^iii-
does explicate the mysteriousness of it, and describes its '^^Zxm Kai
honours, and adorns it with rules and provisions of Religion, ^"^^j^J""^^
that as it beo-ins with Honour, so it may proceed with Piety, t^^m""
and end with Glory. "->>j- Varro in lege
ness, but sits alone, and is confin'd and dies in
Singularity ; but Marriage, like the useful Bee, builds a house
and gathers sweetness from every flower, and labours and
unites into Societies and Republicks, and sends out Colonies,
and feeds the World with delicacies, and obeys their King,
and keeps order, and exercises many Vertues, and promotes
the
The Marriage Ring.
the Interest of mankind, and is that state of good things
to which God hath designed the present constitution of the
world.
Ao? /3/30TOI/ AvtI aidev. eOye Be na-)(\o(7vvr)v.
Single life makes men in one instance to be like Angels,
but Marriage in very many things makes the chast pair to be
like to Christ. This is a great mystery, but it is the symbolical
and sacramental representment of the greatest mysteries of
our Religion. Christ descended from his Father's bosom,
and contrafted his Divinity with flesh and bloud, and married
our Nature, and we became a Church, the spouse of the
Bridegroom, which he cleansed with his Bloud, and gave her
his holy Spirit for a dowry, and Heaven for a joynture ; be-
getting children unto God by the Gospel. This Spouse he
hath joyn'd to himself by an excellent Charity, he feeds her at
his own Table, and lodges her nigh his own Heart, provides
for all her Necessities, relieves her Sorrows, determines her
Doubts, guides her Wandrings, he is become her Head, and
she as a Signet upon his right hand ; he first indeed was
betrothed to the Synagogue and had many children by her
but she forsook her love, and then he married the Church
of the Gentiles, and by her as by a second venter had a more
numerous Issue, atqne una domus est omnium filiorum ejus,
all the Children dwell in the same house, and are Heirs of the
same promises, intituled to the same Inheritance. Here is
the eternal Conjundion, the indissoluble knot, the exceeding
love of Christ, the obedience of the Spouse, the communicating
of Goods, the uniting of Interests, the fruit of Marriage, a
celestial Generation, a new Creature ; Sacramentum hoc mag-
num est; this is the Sacramental mystery, represented by the
holy Rite of Marriage ; so that Marriage is divine in its
Institution,
The Marriage Ring.
Institution, sacred in its Union, holy in the Mystery, sacra-
mental in its Signification, honourable in its Appellative,
religious in its Imployments : It is Advantage to the societies
of men, and it is Holiness to the Lord. Dico autevi in Christo
& Ecclesia, It must be in Christ and the Church.
If this be not observed, Marriage loses its mysterlousness :
but because it is to it^&di much of that which it signifies,
it concerns all that enter into those golden fetters to see
that Christ and his Church be in at every of its periods,
and that it be intirely conduced and over-rul'd by Religion ;
for so the Apostle passes from the sacramental rite to the real
duty ; Nevertheless, that is, although the former Discourse
were wholly to explicate the Conjunftion of Christ and his
Church by this similitude, yet it hath in it this real Duty, that
the man love his wife, and the wife reverence her husband :
and this is the use we shall now make of it, the particulars of
which precept I shall thus dispose :
I. I shall propound the Duty as it generally relates to
Man and Wife in conjundion. 2. The duty and power of
the Man. 3. The rights and priviledges, and the duty of
the Wife.
I . In Christo & Ecclesia] that begins all, and there is
great need it should be so : for they that enter into the state
of marriage, cast a dye of the greatest contingency, and yet of
the greatest interest in the world, next to the last throw
for Eternity.
NOi/ yap hrj irdvTecrcnv eVi ^vpov 'laTaTat, dKfji,r]<;,
*H fidXa \u7p0s u\edpo<; 'Aj^atot?, Tje ^imvai.
Life or death, felicity or a lasting sorrow are in the power
of marriage. A woman indeed ventures most for she hath no
Sanctuary to retire to from an evil Husband ; she must dwell
upon her Sorrow, and hatch the Eggs which her own Folly or
c Infelicity
The Marriage Ring.
Infelicity hath produced ; and she is more under it, because
her tormentor hath a warrant of prerogative, and the Woman
may complain to God as Subje61;s do of tyrant Princes, but
otherwise she hath no appeal in the causes of unkindness.
And though the man can run from many hours of his sadness,
yet he must return to it again, and when he sits among his
neighbours, he remembers the objeftion that lies in his bosom,
and he sighs deeply.
All tuni te niiserum, nialique fatt
Qtieni attraElis pedibus patente porta
Percurrent mugilesque raphanique.
The boys, and the pedlers, and the fruiterers shall tell of this
man, when he is carried to his grave, that he lived and died a
poor wretched person. The Stags in the Greek Epigram,
whose Knees were clog'd with frozen Snow upon the mountains,
came down to the Brooks of the valleys, x^t^i^at vorepois aad-
fiaa-Lv wKv yoi'i;, hoping to thaw their joynts with the waters of
the stream ; but there the Frost overtook them, and bound
them fast in Ice, till the young Heards-men took them in
their stranger snare. It is the unhappy chance of many men,
finding many inconveniences upon the mountains of single
life, they descend into the valleys of ''■marriage to
»''Axpiso>'5sawo5,Nou- ^gfj-gsh their troubles, and there they enter into
'El' j(? f^i' cWi TUK a7a- fetters, and are bound to sorrow by the cords of
Eie' orav eiaiKerj yafxeT^, a mans or womans peevishness : and the worst
•E"S'f?iarii)(rl) Koi avTW tj crap^ etvat Kar ivLdvfJiiau 80^17
/caXi), aapKLKtos 'Stiiv koX dfiapTr]TLKa<; Sl ov redavixaKe, /cpiVerai,
Said S. Clement. " He or she that looks too curiously upon
"the beauty of the body, looks too low, and hath flesh and cor-
"ruption in his Heart, and is judg'd sensual and earthly in
"his Affections and Desires." Begin therefore with God ;
Christ is the President of marriage, and the holy Ghost is the
Fountain of purities and chast loves, and he joyns the hearts ;
and therefore let our first Suit be in the court of Heaven, and
with designs of Piety, or Safety, or Charity ; let no impure
spirit defile the virgin purities and castifications of the soul,
(as S. Peters phrase is ;) let all such Contra6ls begin with reli-
gious affe6lions.
Conjugium petimus, partumque uxoris ; at illis
Notum, qui pueri qualisve futura sit uxor.
We sometimes beg of God, for a Wife or a Child, and he
alone knows what the wife shall prove, and by what dis-
positions and manners, and into what fortune that child shall
enter : but we shall not need to fear concerning the Event of
it, if Religion, and fair Intentions, and Prudence manage, and
conduft it all the way. The preservation of a Family, the
produftion of Children, the avoiding Fornication, the refresh-
ment of our Sorrows by the comforts of Society, all these are
fair Ends of Marriage and hallow the entrance ; but, in these
there is a special order ; society was the first designed, // is
not good for man to be alone : Children was the next. Increase
and multiply ; but the avoiding fornication came in by the
superfoetation
The Marriage Ring. 13
superfoetation of the evil accidents of the world. The first
makes marriage Delegable, the second necessary to the
Publick, the third necessary to the Particular; This is for
safety, for life, and Heaven it self;
Nam simulac venas injlavit dira cupido,
Hue Juvenes csqiium est descendere ;
The other have in them joy and a portion of Immortality :
the first makes the mans Heart glad ; the second is the friend
of Kingdoms, and Cities, and Families ; and the third is the
Enemy to Hell, and an Antidote of the chiefest inlet to
damnation : but of all these the noblest End is the multiplying
children, Miindus cu7n patet, Deorum tristinm atquc inferum Macrobim
quasi patet janua ; propterea uxorem liberorum qticerendorum rone.
causa ducere religiosum est, said Varro, It is religion to marry
for children ; and Qtiintilian put it into the definition of a
wife, est enim uxor quani jungit, quant diducit utilitas ; ctijus
h(BC reverentia est, quod videtiir inventa in causa liberorjirn,
and therefore S. Ignatius when he had spoken of Elias, and
Titus, and Clement, with an honourable mention of \h€\r Epist.ad
virgin-state, lest he might seem to have lessened the married deipl.
Apostles, at whose feet in Christs Kingdom he thought him-
self unworthy to sit, he gives this testimony, they were rots
ya/tiois Trpo(TOiJ.i\rj(TavTes ov)( vtto ■npoOvyiia'; rrj? Trepi to npayfj-a,
a\X' in ivvoia'i iavraiu tov yevov; icrxov eVeiVov?, that they
might not be disparaged in their great names of holiness and
severity, they were secured by not marrying to satisfie their
lower appetites, but out of desire of children. Other con-
siderations if they be incident and by way of appendage, are
also considerable in the accounts of prudence ; but when they
become principles, they defile the mystery and make the
blessing doubtful : Amabit sapiens, cupient cceteri, said Af ra-
mus.
14 The Marriage Ring.
nius, Love is a fair Inducement, but Desire and Appetite are
rude, and the Chara6lerisms of a sensual person : Amare
justi & boni est, cupere impotentis ; to love, belongs to a just
and a good man ; but to lust, or furiously and passionately
to desire, is the sign of impotency and an unruly mind.
2. Man and Wife are equally concerned to avoid all
Offences of each other in the beginning of their conversation :
every little thing can blast an infant Blossom ; and the breath
of the South can shake the little rings of the Vine, when first
they begin to curie like the locks of a new weaned boy ; but
when by Age and consolidation they stiffen into the hardness
of a stem, and have by the warm embraces of the Sun and the
kisses of Heaven brought forth their clusters, they can endure
the storms of the North, and the loud noises of a Tempest,
and yet never be broken : So are the early unions of an
unfixed Marriage ; watchful and observant, jealous and busie,
inquisitive and careful, and apt to take alarum at every unkind
word. For Infirmities do not manifest themselves in the first
Scenes, but in the succession of a long Society ; and it is not
chance or weakness when it appears at first, but it is want of
love or prudence, or it will be so expounded ; and that which
appears ill at first usually affrights the unexperienced man or
woman, who makes unequal conjedlures, and fancies mighty
sorrows by the proportions of the new and early unkindness.
It is a very great Passion, or a huge Folly, or a certain want
of Love, that cannot preserve the colours and beauties of
Kindness, so long as publick Honesty requires a man to wear
their Sorrows for the death of a Friend. Plutarch compares
a new Marriage to a Vessel before the hoops are on, jueTo,
a.pya.% jJ-ev vno t^? tu^ouch^s /aaSiws StacrTrarat TTpo(f)dcreo}i, every
thing dissolves their tender compaginations, but }(j)6vo} twv
dpfjicov (Tvp.TTri^i,v Xa^ovTov juoyis vtto vvpos kol cnBijpov StaXverat,
when
The Marriage Ring. 15
when the joynts are stiffened and are tied by a firm com-
pliance and proportion'd bending, scarcely can it be dissolved
without Fire or the violence of Iron. After the Hearts of
the man and the wife are endeared and hardened by a mutual
Confidence, and Experience longer than artifice and pretence
can last, there are a great many remembrances, and some
things present that dash all litde unkindnesses in pieces.
The little Boy in the Greek Epigram, that was creeping Mafw toO
down a Precipice was invited to his Safety by the sight of ^opa^Kai
his Mother's pap, when nothing else could intice him to *"•'"'"'•
return : and the bond of common Children, and the sight
of her that nurses what is most dear to him, and the endear-
ments of each other in the course of a long society, and the
same relation is an excellent security to redintegrate and to
call that love back which folly and trifling accidents would
disturb.
Tormentum ingens mibeiitibus Jiaret
QiuB neqtieunt parere, & partu retinere maritos.
When it is come thus far, it is hard untwisting the Knot ;
but be careful in its first coalition, that there be no rudeness
done ; for if there be, it will for ever after be apt to start
and to be diseased.
3. Let man and wife be careful to stifle little ■■ things, * ^''fff'"
that as fast as they spring, they be cut down and trod upon ; dcm, sed
for if they be suffered to grow by numbers, they make the randa ma-
spirit peevish, and the Society troublesome, and the Affecflions
loose and easie by an habitual Aversation. Some men are
more vexed with a Flie than with a Wound ; and when the
Gnats disturb our sleep, and the Reason is disquieted but not
perfectly awakened ; it is often seen that he is fuller of trouble
than if in the day-light of his reason he were to contest with
a
1 6 The Marriage Ring.
a potent enemy. In the frequent little accidents of a Family,
a mans reason cannot always be awake ; and when his Dis-
courses are imperfeft, and a trifling Trouble makes him yet
more restless, he is soon betrayed to the violence of Passion.
It is certain that the man or woman are in a state of weakness
and folly then, when they can be troubled with a trifling
accident ; and therefore it is not good to tempt their affeftions,
when they are in that state of danger. In this case the
Caution is, to substra6l Fuel from the sudden Flame ; for
stubble though it be quickly kindled, yet it is as soon ex-
tinguished, if it be not blown by a pertinacious breath, or
fed with new materials. Add no new provocations to the
accident, and do not inflame this, and peace will soon return,
and the discontent will pass away soon, as the sparks from the
collision of a flint ; ever remembring, that Discontents pro-
ceeding from daily little things, do breed a secret un-
discernable Disease, which is more dangerous than a Fever
proceeding from a discerned notorious Surfeit.
4. Let them be sure to abstain from all those things,
which by experience and observation they find to be contrary
to each other. They that govern Elephants never appear
before them in White, and the Masters of Bulls keep from
them all garments of Bloud and Scarlet, as knowing that they
will be impatient of civil usages and discipline, when their
Natures are provoked by their proper Antipathies. The
ancients in their martial Hieroglyphicks us'd to depidl
Mercury standing by Venus, to signifie, that by fair language
...Hujus2SiA sweet intreaties, the minds of each other should be
"u nZi united ; and hard by them, Stiadam & Gratias descripserunt,
que vo- j.j^g„ would have all deliciousness of manners, compliance and
Nuiiaboni, mutual observance to abide.
auimo 5. Let the Husband and Wife infinitely avoid a curious
r«/X distindion
The Marriage Ring. i 7
distin6lion of mine and thine ; for this hath caused all the Plus aloes
Laws, and all the Suits, and all the Wars in the World ; let mollis
them who have but one Person, have also but one Interest, juven'sat!
The Husband and Wife are heirs to each other (as Dionysius ^'
Halicarnasseus relates from Romulus) if they die without
Children ; but if there be Children, the Wife is tois Traicrti'
icro/Aot/Do?, a partner in the Inheritance. But during their life,
the use and imployment is common to both their necessities,
and in this there is no other Difference of right, but that the
Man hath the Dispensation of all, and may keep it from his
Wife just as the Governour of a Town may keep it from the
right Owner ; he hath the pozucr, but no right to do so. And
when either of them begins to impropriate, it is like a tumour
in the llesh, it draws more than its share ; but what it feeds
on, turns to a bile : and therefore the Romans forbad any
Donations to be made between Man and Wife, because
neither of them could transfer a new Right of those things,
which already they had in common ; but this is to be under-
stood only concerning the uses of necessity and personal
conveniences ; for so all may be the Woman's, and all may be
the Man's in several regards. Corvinus dwells in a Farm
and receives all its profits, and reaps and sows as he please,
and eats of the Corn and drinks of the Wine ; it is his own :
but all that also is his Lords, and for it Corvinus pays
Acknowledgment ; and his Patron hath such powers and uses
of it as are proper to the Lords ; and yet for all this, it may
be the Kings too, to all the purposes that he can need, and
is all to be accounted in the censtis and for certain services
and times of danger : So are the Riches of a Family, they
are a Womans as well as a Mans : they are hers for Need,
and hers for Ornament, and hers for modest Delight, and for
the uses of Religion and prudent Charity ; but the disposing
D them
1 8 The Marriage Ring.
them into portions of inheritance, the assignation of charges
and governments, stipends and rewards, annuities and greater
donatives are the reserves of the superior right, and not to
be invaded by the under-possessors. But in those things,
where they ought to be common, if the spleen or the belly
swells and draws into its capacity much of that which should
be spent upon those parts, which have an equal right to be
maintain'd, it is a dropsie or a consumption of the whole,
something that is evil because it is unnatural and monstrous.
Macarius in his 32 Homily speaks fully in this particular, a
Woman betrothed to a Man bears all her Portion, and with
a mighty Love pours it into the hands of her Husband, and
says, e/u.oj' ouSei- e)(aj, I have nothing of my own ; my Goods,
'p,,r6/)w^ my Portion, my Body and my Mind is yours. No/aw yap
airauTa yi/yi^ecruaL tov yeya/Aij/coTos, tov ttKovtov, Trjv ooqav, Tov wavrl,
in all things ; and it is more plain in the parallel place. oJ?
o.vr\K(.v iv Kvpio), as it is fit in the Lord: Religion must be Coi. 3. 18.
the Measure of your obedience and subjection : intra limitcs
1- disciplina,
34 The Marriage Ring.
disciplines, so Tertullian expresses it. iravra ju-ev tw avhpl
ireLBofievr), cJs jinySev a/covros eKeivov, Trpa^ai iroTC, irXrjv ocra ets
stromal.'], apevriv KoX ao(f)Cav 8t,a(f>ep£Lv vofiC^eTai, so Clemens Alex. In
all things let the Wife be subjeft to the Husband, so as to
do nothing against his will ; those only things excepted, in
which he is impious or refra6lory in things pertaining to
wisdom and piety.
But in this also there is some peculiar Caution. For
although in those things which are of the necessary parts of
faith and holy life, the Woman is only subjefl to Christ, who
only is and can be Lord of consciences, and commands alone
where the conscience is instru6led and convinced : yet as it is
part of the mans office to be a Teacher, and a Prophet, and a
Guide, and a Master ; so also it will relate very much to the
demonstration of their affe6lions to obey his Counsels, to imitate
his Vertues, to be direcfted by his Wisdom, to have her Per-
swasion measured by the lines of his excellent Religion, ov^
■^TTOv Se arejjivov aKOvaai ya/ierijs XeyovcTT^s, ^Avep, av jxol icrcrl
KaOrjyrjT'^'i koI <^iXoo"o^os kol SiSacr/caXos twv KaWCcrTov koi
OeLOTaroiv, It were hugely decent (saith Plutarch) that the Wife
should acknowledge her Husband for her teacher and her
guide ; for then when she is what he please to efform her, he
hath no cause to complain if she be no better : to. Se rotaOra
\La.dr)p.aTa. ■npunov dLcrTrjcn t /xero. vo^x-ov; lepovs crvveXOovcrav
dvBpl KOLvcjvov wnavTOiv eXvaL ^p7)[j,dTa)V re »cai Upwv, q^^^-^ dcJitus auum
said Romuhis. A Woman by the holy Laws hath ^y- ''*'' "''./"''""' '{:
' J lam quam lauawus cj-
right to partake of her Husbands Goods, and her /''•''
,,, . ,. ,,,, liorreat, inque dies stp-
Husbands Sacrifices, and holy thmgs. Where u-nh odcrit /wHs?
there is a Schism in one Bed, there is a Nursery of ""^^"^ "* '
temptations, and Love is persecuted and in perpetual danger
F 2 to
,6 The Marriage Ring.
to be destroyed ; there dwell Jealousies, and divided Inte-
rests, and differing Opinions, and continual Disputes, and we
cannot love them so well, whom we believe to be less beloved
of God ; and it is ill uniting with a person, concerning whom
my perswasion tells me, that he is like to live in Hell to
eternal ages.
2. The next line of the womans duty is compliance,
which S. Peter calls, the hidden man of the heart, the ornament
1 Pet. i.^. of a meek and a quiet spirit, and to it he opposes the outzmrd
and pompous ornament of the body ; concerning which as there
can be no particular Measure set down to all persons, but the
proportions were to be measured by the customs of wise
People, the quality of the Woman, and the desires of the
Man ; yet it is to be limited by Christian Modesty, and the
usages of the more excellent and severe Matrons. Menander
in the Comedy brings in a man turning his Wife from his
house because she stain'd her hair yellow, which was then the
beauty.
Nui' 8' epiT wjT oIkuiv Twi'Se" Ti]v '^vvaiKa 70/3
Ttji* (ra)if)pov' ov Set rd'i T/3/!%a? ^avOa<; -rroielv.
A wise Woman should not paint. A studious gal-
Quid juval ornato proce- .^11 -ati i-
dere, vita, capiiio, lantry m Clothes cannot make a wise Man love his
Tcque pcregrinis vendcre ,-,.^,, ^, \ ov / \
muneribus. Wife the better. Eis rous Tpaywoov<; xPW^'l^^ '^''■^
^""aX.X ""'''"'"' ovK eU Tov /3Cov, said the Comedy, such gaieties are
Nee sinere in propriis ^^ f Tragedies, but not for the uses of Life :
membra mtere boms! o '
Propert. 1. 1. el. 2. Decor occultiis, & tcHa vemtstas, that's the Chris-
tian Womans Fineness, the hidden man of the
^ Vorne'ihmat'e^ ^"'"" ' heart, Sweetness of manners, humble Comport-
''"::uMi^:^c:r'- ment, fair Interpretation of all addresses, ready
Grande superciiimn 6- Compliances, higfh Opinion of him, and mean of
numeras m dote trtum- 1 'or
P'">^- , ^ , her self.
Juven. Sat, 6. ^ . , y 10. >- ■> =f , t
Ev KoivM KvTrr]<; t r)oovr]<; r ej^etv /xe/Dos, 1 o par-
take
The Marriage Ring. 37
take secretlv, and in her heart of all his joys and
sorrows, to believe him comely and fair, though the J.t^: tV^r? .1^,
Sun hath drawn a Cypress over him, (for as mar- '^''J' '"x^?" ^^op.#,o.; er.aj
J ^ \ t-t; 7e vow K€KTTip.ivr]' ov
riages are not to be contracted by the hands and y^p <5*''aXM« to Kpiv^v
eye, but with reason and the hearts : so are these
judgments to be made by the mind, not by the sight :) and
Diamonds cannot make the Woman vertuous, nor him to
value her who sees her put them off then, when Charity and
Modesty are her brightest Ornaments.
Oil Koa/iov, ovK, (o T\fjfiov, aXX' ciKoafiia
^alvoir av elvai, awv re fiap>]. The remainder of
the epigram is quoted on page 8 (4).
7. Margin 4. Varro, Lex Maenia. Quoted by Nonius Marcellus, De honestis et
nove vetei-um dictis, lib. 2 (Quicherat, Paris 1872, p. 109). [aliqui or aliquem].
8. 4. Anthologia Palatina (1872) 9. 444. The first part of the epigram is quoted
on page 7 (margin 3).
8. 23. Venter, i.e. womb (ventre).
9. 27. Iliad 10. 173.
10. 9. Catullus 15. 17. The application and paraphrase of the lines are most
curious.
10. 14. Anthologia Palatina (1872) g. 244. Willmot makes an odd comment on
this passage (the italics are mine) : " Sometimes he (Jeremy Taylor) sends his moral
home upon an arrow out of the quiver of the epigrammatists ; thus, he tells those
who hurry into the tumult of business, in the hope of escaping from the inconvenience
of solitude, 'The stags,'" &c. (Bishop Taylor, his Predecessors, Contemporaries, and
Successors, p. 141).
10. Margin. Anthologia Palatina (1872) 11. 388. [tectIui']. The remainder of the
epigram is quoted on page i (11).
11. I. Odyssey 11. 326.
11. Margin i. Plautus, Amphitruo 839. [esse duco...et parentum].
11. Margin 2. Juvenal 6. 143. The lines that follow are quoted in the margin below.
Notes. 43
11. 15. Euripides. Quoted by Clemens Ale.xandrinus, Stromata 4. 20. Grotius
places these lines with those quoted on pages 28 (23) and 37 (margin) and makes
the whole emended passage run thus (0'?(ri>' »; rptxyifUo. being Clemens' own
words): — OuSf/xfai' wvT]a( xiXXos eis iricrii/ f^vvo-ofov,
T) 'fXTTj S' Sivria^ iroWiV vaaa yap aya6 ri yvi^,
TjTis anSpl avvriTTiKe, aiiKppoviXv iwiffTarat,
irpurra ixkv yh,p Toud' i/irdpx"' ^'S" if^opcpot y r6()a\iJ.bt ri ixopr\v Kplvov iarlv, aW 6 voiJ!.
iO X^7a;' 5', St' drrtXifii;, XP'I SoKeli', Khv fii] \iyv,
K!i.irop(~iv h.v Tu ^vvbvTt irpbs x^-P^" M^^^!? X^7Ci>'.
Excerpta (Paris 1627) p. 425 and the Notes, p. 960.
11. Margin 3. Juvenal 6. 143. A continuation of Fades non uxor amatur in
the margin above.
11.24. Odyssey 4. 456. [aXV ,5701 rai irapSaXis].
Eubulus. Quoted by Clemens Alexandrinus, Stromata 7. 6.
Clemens Alexandrinus, Stromata 4. 18.
I Peter i. 22. Animas vestras castificantes (Vulgate).
Juvenal 10. 353.
Horace, Satire i. 2. 33. [inflavit tetra libido].
Varro. Quoted by Macrobius, Saturnalia i. 16. 18. [janua patet
Quintilian, Pro Caeco. Declamatio 2. 7. [uxor est...haec sola reve-
rentia...inventa causa].
13. 22. Ignatius, Epistola ad Philadelphicnses 4. [ni" yi-iJ.oi'i Trpoaoii.CKr\(javTuv
...laxof yma'iKa^]. This is partly a repetition of the quotation on page 5 (margin).
13. 31. Afranius. In Homine. Quoted by Nonius MarcelUis, De differentia
similium significationum. Lib. 5 (Quicherat, Paris 1872, p. 491).
14. 28. Plutarch, Moralia, Conjugalia Praecepta 3 (Didot, Paris 1839, p. 164)
[rar" apxAj].
15. 2. Can il be... The Eniautos (1673) reads r(j« i^« //.
15. 8 and Margin i. Anthologia Palatina (1872) 9. 351. {rhv Xi/toD j,vTopa\.
15. 10. Cattermole changes ^ap into breast, a word not nearly so appropriate
(Select Sermons of Jeremy Taylor, 1845).
15. 17. Juvenal 2. 137.
15. Margin 2. Juvenal 6. 183.
16. 26 — 31. Plutarch, Moralia, Conjugalia Praecepta (at the beginning) (Didot,
Paris 1839, p. 164).
16. Margin. Juvenal 6. 178.
17. 4. Dionysius Halicarnasseus, Antiquitates Romanae 2. 25.
17. 15. Plutarch, Moralia, Quaestioncs Romanae 7.
18. 10. Saint Macarius of Egypt. Homily 32. 9 (Patrcs, Caillau, 1842, p. 240).
18. 14. Lucian 51. 'Pnr6puv SManaXos, 6 (Uindorf, 1840, p. 572). [yly>'eTai...//ie
order of the words being different^
11.
30-
12.
4-
12.
1 5.
12.
18.
13.
?■
13.
12.
liberum].
13.
16.
44 NoUs.
19. 14. Herodotus 5. 92 (Gaisford, 1824. Vol. 2, p. 650).
20. II. Livy 34. 7- [aut viros].
20. 14. Iliad 6. 429. ["Ektop, a.Tap ail fiol iaai. Trarrip Kal TriTvia M'^Vp]. Quoted
by Plutarch, Moralia, Conjugalia Praecepta 48 (Didot, Paris 1839, p. 172). See
note 34 (17)-
21. 3. Euripides, Medea 230.
21. 8. St Ambrose, Exhortatio Virginitatis 4. 23. His words, which do not
seem to be intended to refer to Euripides, are as follows :— " Quae nupserit ad ser-
vitutem pecunia sua venditur. Meliori conditione mancipia quam conjugia com-
parantur : in illis meritum emitur servitutis, in istis pretium ad servitutem additur."
21. 13. Cicero, De Republica 4. 6. Quoted by Nonius Marcellus, Lib. 9, De
numeris et casibus (Quicherat, Paris 1872, p. 581).
21. 19. Philo (Judaeus), Lib. 3, Leges allegoriarum, 18 (Lipsiae 1828, p. 141).
22. 27. The E.-H. reference is " Aclius Spartianus. Antoninus Caracalla, cap. 8."
23. 4. Plutarch, Moralia, Quaestiones Romanae 30 (Didot, Paris 1839, p. 335).
[ubi tu ; Greeks Stoi- au\.
23. 9. Aeneid 6. 397.
23. 13. Catullus 61. 31.
23. 14. Martial 11. 7. 8.
24. 7. Colossians 3. 19.
24. 16. Persius 5. 45.
24. 20. Genesis 2. 24 (Vulgate), and Matthew 19. 5.
24. 21. No man .. Ephesians 5. 29.
25. Margin. Tibullus, Elegia 2. 59. [ornatus dissoluisse comae].
25. 8. Iliad 15. 16.
25. 10. Plutarch, Moralia, Conjugalia Praecepta, just after the extract given on
page 37 (10). V r,v
25. 12. St Basil, Hexaemerus 7. 6 (Migne's Patrology, 30. 945). [Vipera pesti-
ferum virus evomit nuptialis causa revercntiae ; tu feritatem aninii et amaritudinem
non deponis, coactus pudore conjugii].
25. 22. St Chr)'sostom, I Epistola ad Corinthios. Homily 26. 7 (Migne's Pa-
trology. Series Graeca 61. 222).
26. 4. St Chrysostom, as above. The actual words do not occur.
26. 7. Plutarch, Vitae, Cato Minor 70.
26. 16. Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophiae, Lib. 4, Metrum 6. 16.
26. 25. St Hieronymus, Epistola 3, Ad Ruffinum Monachum 6 (Migne's
Patrology 22. 335). [potest, vera nunquam].
26.27. ofiMa... Exodus 21. 10 (Septuagint).
eivota... 1 Corinthians 7. 3.
26. 28. ^iXAttjs... Iliad 14. 209.
(pCKoipjioaivn... Plutarch, Moralia, Conjugalia Praecepta 28.
27. S- Proverbs 5. 19.
27. 6. Psalm 133.
27. 8. The Song of Solomon 4. 12.
Notes. 45
27. Margin. Horace, Carmen i. 13. 17. [divulsus].
27. 1 1 — 17. This is an affecting passage when we remember Bishop Taylor's own
domestic sorrows (see Archdeacon Farrar's Essay in Masters in English Theology,
p. 183, and the note).
27. 27. Plutarch, Vitae, Tiberius Gracchus. " It is said that he (T. Gracchus)
once caught a pair of serpents upon his bed, and that the soothsayers, after they
had considered the prodigy, advised him neither to kill them both nor to let
them both go. If he killed the male serpent, they told him his death would be
the consequence ; if the female, that of Cornelia (his wife). Tiberius, who loved
his wife and thought it more suitable for him to die first, who was much older
than his wife, killed the male, and set the female at liberty. Not long after this
he died, leaving Cornelia with no fewer than twelve children." Plutarch's Lives,
Langhornc, p. 572. (The footnote says : — " Cicero relates this story in his first book
dc Divinatione, from the memoirs of Caius Gracchus, the son of Tiberius.")
28. I. Baptista Fregosa (or Fulgosa) 4. 6. De Conjugali Charitate.
28. 3. Baptista Fregosa. The same as above. " Singulari etiam memoria dignus
est amor, quern Dominicus Catalinus, qui Lesbi rerum potiebatur, erga uxorem
ostendit. Quae cum in lepram incidisset, vir minime veritus a contagione infici
posse, aut aspectus horrore averti (etenim illuvies magis, quam vivum corpus videri
potest) ncque tetro odore quern ulcera mittebant, nunquam aut mensa aut lecto com-
muni eam prohibuit. Conjugalis enim charitas apud eum contagionis timorem,
tetrunique conspectum odoremque in securitatem ac voluptatem verterat, quod eam
juxta Dei verbum eandem carnem secum esse arbitrabatur."
28. Margin. Varro, Satyrae Menippeae. Quoted by Aulus Gellius i. 17. [vitium
uxoris aut tollendum, aut ferendum, est commodiorem...].
28. 19. The note in E.-H. is: — "Qu. Epictetus ? Enchiridion. Cap. 65." But
the correct reference seems to be Cap. 43.
28. 23. Euripides. Quoted by Clemens Alexandrinus, Stromata 4. 20 (see
note II. 15).
29. 12. Sophocles, Philoctctcs 97. \a.(iyhv...dxav f>7driv].
29. Margin. Aristotle, Mirabilia, 15S.
29. 26. Iliad 14. 205 and 209. \k\)(!ui\.. three lines omitted. ■■aviaa.i.y,C\. Quoted
as in the text by Plutarch, Moralia, Conjugalia Praecepta 38.
30. 3 — 5. Ludovicus Caelius Rhodiginus 25. 32 (Geneva 1620).
30. 5—7. The E.-H. reference is, " Digest 48. 3."
30. 9. Propertius 2. 8. 3.
30. 29. N(nu concerning... This is the commencement of the third leading divi-
sion of the subject, as analysed on page 9.
31. 17. Genesis 3. 16.
31. 23. The E.-H. reference is, " Digest 24. 3. 14."
31. 26. Plautus, Stichus 99.
32. 3. Martial 8. 12. 3. [Prisce, marito].
32. 29. Juvenal 6. 133.
33. 2. Menander. Quoted by Stobaeus, Florilcgium 74. 5. [^i StiTtp' ai't!...].
46 Notes.
33. 8. Aeneid 9. 617.
33.9. Devoratum... Isaiah 51. 30 (Vulgate).
33. 10. Effaminati... Isaiah 3. 4 (Vulgate).
33. 1 1. Aristophanes, Plutus 2.
33. 22. St Hieronymus, Commentarius in Epistolam ad Ephesos, Cap. 5.
" Sicut Domino. Quomodo Sara subdita erat Abraham, dominum eum vocans."
34. I. TertuUian, De Idololatria 15.
34. 3. Clemens Alexandrinus, Stromata 4. 19. [dperV Te ko!