FOOTNOTES:
[22] Naturale vocabulū eſt Fœmina. naturalis vocabuli generale, Mulier.—Tert. de Virg. Veland. cap 4.
[23] Aliud eſt Timere ſimpliciter, aliud Timere Deum——quippe timere & amare ſimpliciter prolata, affectione: cum additamento aute virtutes ſignificāt. Simplices nempe affectiones inſunt naturaliter nobis tanquam ex nobis, Additamenta ex Gratiâ. S. Bern. de Grat. & lib. Arb.
[24] Mulier enim no naturâ nomen eſt vxoris, ſed vxor coditione nomen eſt mulieris. Tert. ib. c. 5. Gen. 2. 23. Hæc vocabitur mulier, quoniam de viro ſuo ſumpta eſt: Quia ſumpta eſt (inquit) de viro suo, non quia virum experta ... Non enim corruptelæ, ſed ſexus vocabulum eſt. Gal. 4. 4. Luke 1. 28. S. Ambr. ibid. c. 5.
A Promiſe, and Motiue.
I.
The partie that ſhall be praiſed.
A weake ſex[25] to beginne with, and yet being ſtrengthned by Grace[26], no impediment; but that a woman as wel as a man may feare the Lord, and haue praiſe of him, and ſo become the partie who ſhall, and one Reaſon too, why ſhee ſhall be praiſed.
For a woman muſt be more good than nature, art, policie, preferment can make her, elſe ſhee is not good enough for Gods Spirit to praiſe her. He commends neither men nor women conſidered in their pure Naturalls only, in that eſtate of corruption, they all heare alike to their diſgrace, that they are All vnder ſinne[27], All come[28] ſhort of the glory of God, and are All the children of[29] wrath, becauſe they Are without all feare of God[30]
By nature then both ſexes are alike faultie, alike diſcōmendable in Gods ſight, and ſo they ſhould be in ours. We ſhould not diſpraiſe women more than men, for the ſex ſake only (as ſome doe[31]) becauſe they haue as noble ſoules as men, for[32] ſoules haue no ſexes, (as Saint Ambroſe ſaith) nor praiſe women for the endowments of the fleſh onely (as otherſome doe[33]) vnleſſe they be adorned alſo with the ſauing Graces of the Spirit, whereof a chiefe one is not noble birth, great wealth, excellent wit, or rare beautie: but the feare of the Lord, his treaſure.[34] This godly feare is that, that makes a Woman in relation[35] to God, praiſe-worthy. And good reaſon it ſhould do ſo, if we regard the weakneſſe of a woman, in whom ſo excellent a Grace as the feare of the Lord, is found, and the Nobleneſſe of fearing the Lord, being ſo found.
