Page:Wedding-ring, fit for the finger, or, The salve of divinity on the sore of humanity (2).pdf/20

 in the ſands of delay, thouſands have been ſplit on the rock of precipitance. Raſh adventures yield little gain. Opportunities are not like tides, that when one is paſt, another returns. But yet take heed of flying without your wings: you may breed ſuch agues in your bones, that may ſhake you to your graves.

1. Let me preſerve you from a bad choice. 2. Preſent you with a good one.

To preſerve you from a bad choice, take that in three things 1. Chuſe not for beauty— 2 Chuſe not for dowry 3 Chuſe not for dignity. He that loves for beauty, buys a picture. He that loves for dowry, makes a purchaſe. He that loves for dignity, matches with a multitude at once. The firſt of theſe is too blind to be directed. The ſecond, too baſe to be accepted. The third, too bold to be reſpected.

1 Chuſe not by your eyes. 2. Chuſe not by your hands. 3. Chuſe not by your ears.

1. Chuſe not by your eyes, looking at the beauty of the perſon. Not but this is lovely in a woman: but that this is not all for which a woman ſhould be beloved. He that had the choice of many faces, ſtamps this character upon them all. "Favour is deceitful and beauty is vain." The ſun is more bright in a clear ſky, than when the horizon is clouded: but if a woman's fleſh hath more of beauty, than her ſpirit hath of Chriſtianity, it is like poiſon in ſweet-meats, moſt dangerous. Gen. vi. 2. "The ſons of God ſaw the daughters of men, that they were fair." One would have thought that they ſhould rather have looked for