inually, and |
hold it your greatest Honour, the |
Noblest imployment of your Soule, |
as it is indeed, to keep your selfe |
(as a King[o] did before you.) from | [Note o: _Psal. 18. 23._]
your iniquitie. _Quod si tu (quod |
procul absit) nolueris, ego liber |
ero. Epistola, immo concio me haec |
mea, cum lecta fuerit, |
absoluet._[p] And so I rest, being | [Note p: _S. Ierom. ad Castorin.
mindfull of your Vertues, | Materteram._]
|
|
_Saint Mauganthe
19. August 1626._

_Yours in all Christian Deuotion,
and heartiest prayer to God for
you,_

HANNIBAL GAMON.

THE PRAISE OF A
Godly Woman.

PROV. 31. 30.

_--But a woman that feareth the Lord, shee
shall be praised._

Praise is a Debt (saith _Gregory |
Nazianzen_[a]) and it must be paid, | [Note a: _Orat. 25. fol. 439. Rom.
not to men alone, but to women | 13. 7, 8._]
also; yet not to euery woman, be |
shee neuer so noble, wittie, | [Note: The Diuision.]
wealthy or faire[b], vnlesse she be |
godly withall: For _fauour is | [Note b: _Non possumus reprehendere
deceitfull, and beautie is vaine; | diuini artificis opus; sed quem
but a woman that feareth the Lord, | delectat corporis pulchritudo,
shee shall be praised_. | multo magis illa delectet venustas,
| quae ad imaginem, Dei est intus, non
A promise this is and affirmatiue, | foris comptior. S. Ambr. Instit.
and an affirmatiue promise hath two | Virg. c. 4. Prou. 11. 22. Eccle.
parts in it. The first is the | 11. 2. ... Homo igitur mihi non tam
Partie to whom it is made, and shee | vultu quam affectu admirand^s
is _Muliertimens Dominum_. _A woman | emineat atque excellat: vt in his
that feareth the Lord_, which is | laudatur, in quibus etiam Deus
also the reason why she shall be | prophetico iudicio laudatur de quo
praised: euen because she is _a | scriptum est Psal. 66. 5.
woman fearing the Lord_. The second | Terribilis in consiliis super
is the thing promised, and that is | filios hominum; cuius opera coram
_Laudabitur, she shall be praised_. | Deo luceant,