Origin of the phrase "the ties that bind"

Factual Questions
1
      • I’m thinking Shakespeare maybe? I can almost remember.
  • Also, I searched for “quote search engines” on HotBot and found a quote database for the pop group Hanson, if anyone’s interested. (I didn’t try it, but I don’t think it was Hanson) - MC
2

Are you sure?

Could it be the “tie that binds”?

Might it be matrimony?

3

Shakespeare:
There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.

That’s from memory, though, and I don’t recall which play.

4

I don’t know whether the phrase precedes it, but there is a Christian hymn that begins “Blest be the ties that bind our hearts in Christian love / The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above”

(The hymn is about marriage, if that’s not clear.)

I don’t have any source on hand with names of who might have written it, though.

5

panamajack is right. I remember as a child singing this hymn in a Methodist church. First I heard of the marriage link though.
This site credits John Fawcett, 1782 , with the lyrics.