spiritual marriage.^149 Richard Godbeer advances the premise that “[p]erhaps the most
remarkable aspect of Puritan sexuality was not its spiritualization of the erotic but its
eroticization of the spiritual.”^150 Further, McGinn maintains, “the study of Christian
mysticism shows that we should be scandalized not so much by the presence of such
erotic elements as by their absence.”^151 Thomas Hooker employs erotic language
rather daringly when he refers to Proverbs 5:18-19:
If a husband hath a loose heart, and will not content himselfe with the wife of
his youth, but hath his back doores, and his goings out; this makes a breach in matrimoniall affection; but when he is satisfied with her brests, he is ravished
with her love: so hope hath an expectation of mercy, and is satisfied
therewith; desire longs for mercy, and is satisfied therewith; the will closeth
Christ, and it is fully satisfied with him.^152
Rous employs Genesis 26:8, the other favorite Puritan text for encouraging love-play
within godly marriage, and counsels his readers, “Isaac sported with Rebekah, ... So
doth the mysticall wife also, she thinkes sometimes how she may please her husband
by service, and not onely how she may take pleasure in him and of him.”^153 Rous also
encourages his readers to lust after Jesus, “[a]nd if hee come not yet into thee, stirre
up thy spirituall concupiscence, and therewith let the soule lust mightily for him, and
let her lusts and desires ascend up to him in strong cryes and invocations, & then by
his spirit he will descend unto thee.”^154 Rutherford also employs erotic language and
imagery of the Song of Songs to stimulate and encourage spiritual marriage. Often he
149
Porterfield, See for example Westerkamp, “Engendering Puritan Religious Culture,” 113, 115; Female Piety in New England, esp. 72-4; Achinstein, “Romance of the
Spirit,” 415; Godbeer, “Love Raptures,” esp. 53, 58, 62 and Sexual Revolution in
Early America 150 , esp. 57-8, 72-4, 356n68-69.
151 Godbeer, Sexual Revolution in Early America, 55.^
152 McGinn, “Language of Love in Mysticism,” 205, cf. 225.^
Hooker, Soules Exaltation, 5-6. The topic of eros and desire will be examined in
chapter 5. 153
(^154) Rous, Rous, Mysticall MarriageMysticall Marriage, 64, 288-6.-9.^