Theologian of The Day : A Joshua Harris of his day...

William Gouge

(1575-1653) "was born in Stratford-Bow Middlesex County, England. Educated in Paul's School, London, Felstad in Essex, and at Eton School. He graduated from King's College, Cambridge, followed by a brilliant teaching career there.

Following his ordination at 32 years of age, he ministered at Blackfriars Church, London for 45 years. In addition to his great success as a pastor, his mid-week expository lectures at Blackfriars drew increasingly larger crowds. Spirituality and scholarship made his career at Cambridge, his pastoral work and his writings unique. He was renowned as "the father of the London Divines and the oracle of his time." In 1643 he was made a member of the Westminster Assembly of Divines by vote of Parliament. His primary works include his Commentary on Hebrews, The Whole Armour of God, and Domestic Duties."

Of Domesticall Duties and the family
Of Domesticall Duties (1622) was a popular and thorough text of its time discussing family life.[11][12] It argued that husband and wife should be partners in marriage,[13] and was an important conduct book of its period, running to later editions.[14][15]

Gouge himself was father to 13 children. His wife Elizabeth, nee Calton and an orphan, died shortly after the birth of her thirteenth child. They had married in the early 1600s, in effect by arrangement, when Gouge was put under pressure by his family.[16][17][3] Elizabeth had been brought up by the wife of an Essex minister, John Huckle, and was eulogised after her death.[18]

His teaching on female submission was resisted even by his own congregation.[19] He considered adultery equally bad in both genders, and encouraged love matches.[20]