TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE, RIGHT VVorshipfull, and other my be∣loued Parishioners, Inhabitants of the Precinct of Black-friers LONDON, such sufficiencie of Grace as may bring them to fulnesse of Glory.

IF noble Birth, high Honour, great Estate, true Piety, bountifull Charity, good Esteeme of Gods word and Ministers, and in particular, intire loue of the Au∣thor, be inducements to choose a Patron for his worke, I, for my part, need not goe farre for a Patron. In mine owne parish are all these. To you therefore (right Honourable, right Wor∣shipfull, and other my beloued Parishioners, most worthy of all due respect) doe I dedicate these my poore paines about Do∣mesticall Duties. To testifie the equall dutie which I owe, and the impartiall respect which I beare to you all, I make you all as one Patron. You were the first ouer whom I euer had any ministeriall charge. To this charge by your free choice was I called. Among you haue I spent * almost two full prentiships. You haue alwaies so accepted my paines, and re∣spected Page  [unnumbered] my person, as I neuer had any cause to repent my ac∣ceptance of this place, and calling: but rather to thanke God for the same. My desire is (if so it may seeme good to the di∣uine prouidence) to spend all my daies among you: and, while I am among you, to helpe forward your spirituall edification. This is the maine end of my calling, and the marke, which, as in the ordinary course of my Ministry, so in the publishing of these Eight Treatises of Domesticall Duties, and dedica∣ting them to you, I haue aimed at. As in testimony of Loue and Dutie I haue preached in your hearing, and published in your name these Duties, so doe you manifest your kinde ac∣ceptance of my former, and latter paines, by a conscionable ob∣seruing of them, so farre forth as they are agreeable to Gods word: that all who know you, may know by that euident de∣monstration, how well you haue relished and approued them. Thus shall you gaine much profit, and my selfe much comfort by my paines. Oh if the head and seuerall members of a fa∣mily would be perswaded euery of them to be conscionable in performing their owne particular duties, what a sweet society, and happy harmony would there be in houses? What excel∣lent seminaries would families be to Church and Common∣wealth? * Necessary it is that good order be first set in families: for as they were before other polities, so they are somewhat the more necessary: and good members of a family are like to make good members of Church and common-wealth. The subiect matter therefore of these Treatises is worth the hand∣ling, if I were able according to the worth thereof to handle it. I haue endeuoured to doe what I could therein, though I haue not attained to what I would. Be you like vnto God, who, if there be first a willing mind, accepteth according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not. Though for such a matter as is handled in these Treatises, the worke may seeme at first sight to be too copious, yet I hope the obseruant Reader Page  [unnumbered] will not finde it too tedious. It is the variety of many, * not the prolixity of few points which hath made this booke to swell to that bignesse which it hath. The first Treatise (which is a fourth part of the booke) containeth a Commen∣tary on that part of Scripture out of which Domesticall Du∣ties are raised: wherein the Apostle setting forth Christ and the Church as patternes to husbands and wiues, liuely decla∣reth the great loue of Christ to his Church, and the neere vni∣on betwixt them, together with other deepe mysteries, the vnfolding whereof hath a little the longer detained me. But as I haue a while insisted on maine matters of much moment, so haue I very briefly passed ouer other points. The other Trea∣tises, wherein the Duties themselues are handled, are euery of them much shorter then the first. In them I haue barely pro∣pounded and briefly proued the truth and equity of the seuerall duties, except some choice points which are of especiall vse, or at least through disuse much questioned: and them I haue more largely handled. And because contraries laid together * doe much set forth each other in their liuely colours, I haue to euery duty annexed the contrary fault, and aberration from it. For many that heare the duties thinke all well enough, till they heare also the contrary vices, whereby in their conscien∣ces they are most conuinced. Concerning the many faults and vices of bad Husbands, Wiues, Parents, Children, Masters and Seruants, taxed in these Treatises, let me intreat you, not to ap∣ply them too generally to all Husbands, Wiues, Parents, Chil∣dren, Masters and Seruants. Hath not wise Solomon much taxed the lightnesse, shrewishnesse, pride, flattery, and other vices of women? And shall sober, meeke, humble, honest wo∣men thinke themselues taxed thereby? By like reason might vnchaste strumpets, vntrusty gossips, vnquiet shrewes, and proud dames thinke themselues commended by those excellent commendations which be giueth of good women. Let euery Page  [unnumbered] one, as their conscience (an impartiall Iudge) shall beare them witnesse, make a right application of euery thing to themselues. Thus shall we Ministers be freed from many euill surmizes. I remember that when these Domesticall Duties were first vttered out of the pulpit, much exception was taken against the application of a wiues subiection to the restraining of her from disposing the common goods of the family without, or against her husbands consent. But surely they that made those exceptions did not well thinke of the Cautions and Lamitati∣ons which were then deliuered, and are now againe expresly noted: which are, that the foresaid restraint be not extended to the aproper goods of a wife, no nor ouerstrictly to such bgoods as are set apart for the vse of the family, nor to cextraordinary cases, nor alwaies to an dexpresse consent, nor to the econsent of such husbands as are impotent, or farre and long absent. If any other war∣rantable caution shall be shewed me, I will be as willing to admit it, as any of these. Now that my meaning may not still be peruerted, I pray you, in reading the restraint of wiues power in disposing the goods of the family, euer beare in minde those Cautions. Other exceptions were made against some other particular duties of wiues. For many that can pa∣tiently enough heare their duties declared in generall termes, cannot endure to heare those generals exemplified in their par∣ticular branches. This commeth too neere to the quicke, and pierceth too deepe. But (to interpret all, according to the rule of loue, in the better part) I take the maine reason of the ma∣ny exceptions which were taken, to be this, that wiues duties (according to the Apostles method) being in the first place handled, there was taught (as must haue beene taught, except the truth should haue beene betrayed) what a wife, in the vt∣termost extent of that subiection vnder which God hath put her, is bound vnto, in case her husband will stand vpon the Page  [unnumbered] vttermost of his authority: which was so taken, as if I had taught that an husband might, and ought to exact the vtter∣most, and that a wife was bound in that vttermost extent to doe all that was deliuered as dutie, whether her husband ex∣act it or no. But when I came to deliuer husbands duties, f I shewed, that he ought not to exact whatsoeuer his wife was bound vnto (in case it were exacted by him) but that he ought to make her a ioynt Gouernour of the family with himselfe, and referre the ordering of many things to her discretion, and with all honourable and kinde respect to carrie himselfe towards her. In a word, I so set downe an husbands duties, as if he be wise and conscionable in obseruing them, his wife can haue no iust cause to complaine of her subiection. That which maketh a wiues yoake heauy and hard, is an husbands abuse of his au∣thority: and more pressing his wiues dutie, then performing his owne: which is directly contrary to the g Apostles rule. This iust Apologie I haue beene forced to make, that I might not euer be iudged (as some haue censured me) *an hater of wo∣men. Now that in all those places where a wiues yoke may seeme most to pinch, I might giue some ease, I haue to euery head of wiues duties made a reference, in the margin ouer a∣gainst it, to the duties of husbands answerable thereunto, and noted the reference with this marke *, that it might the more readily be turned vnto. Yea I haue further parallel'd, and laid euen one against another in one view, the heads of husbands and wiues duties, as they answer each other: and in like man∣ner the contrary aberrations: with a reference made vnto the particular sections where they are handled: that so on the one side it may appeare, that if both of them be conscionable and carefull to performe their owne duty, the matrimoniall yoke will so equally lie on both their necks, as the wife will be no more pinched therewith then the husband, but that it will be like Christs spirituall yoke, light and easie: and that on the *Page  [unnumbered] other side it may be manifest that there is commonly as much failing by husbands in their duties, as by wiues in theirs. This parallel and euen-setting out of each of their duties, and of the contrary aberrations, I haue annexed next to this epistle. And further I haue added thereto a table of the seuerall heads of those points that are handled in the eight following Treatises, that by this helpe you may the more readily finde out such par∣ticular points as you desire most especially to read. To shew that the duties prescribed to Husbands, Wiues, Parents, Children, Masters, and Seruants, are such as in conscience they are bound vnto, I haue endeuoured to shew how they are groun∣ded on the word of God, and gathered from thence. To auoid prolixity, I haue referred most of the quotations to the margin. If your leisure will serue you, you may doe well to search them out. Two things haue beene especiall helpes to me for finding out the many duties noted in these Treatises, & vices contrary thereunto: Obseruation and Disposition. Obseruation both of such duties as the Scripture commendeth and contrary vices as it condemneth: and also of such commendable virtues as I well liked in those Husbands, Wiues, Parents, Children, Masters, and Seruants, that I came among, and such vnseeme∣ly vices as I disliked in them: and Disposition of one point after another in the best order that I could. My method and manner of proceeding brought many things to my minde, which otherwise might haue slipped by. For by method sundry and seuerall points appertaining to one matter are drawne forth, as in a chaine one linke draweth vp another. There is no better way to finde out many obseruations in a text, then by a methodicall resolution thereof. As method is an helpe to In∣uention, so also to retention. It is as the thread or wier whereon pearles are put, which keepeth them from scatte∣ring. And if a man by abundance of matter be cast into a laby∣rinth, by the helpe of method he may easily and readily finde Page  [unnumbered] out the way againe. In which respects method is fitly stiled the *Mother of the Minde, and Mistresse of Memorie. If you well marke the order and dependance of points one vpon ano∣ther, you will finde as great an helpe in conceiuing and remem∣bring * them, as I did in inuenting and disposing them.

Because there is not one word to comprise vnder it both masters and mistresses, as fathers and mothers are comprised vnder Parents, and sonnes and daughters vnder Children, I haue according to the Scripture phrase comprised Mistresses vnder Masters: so as the duties enioyned to them belong to these, so farre as may stand with their sex. To conclude, in re∣compence of all my paines I heartily pray you all to pray hearti∣ly for him who daily praieth for you, euen *