to good and make him bend to that side without breaking any thing and without doing any violence to his honour Do in such sort as that he may loose nothing neither of respect during familiarity nor love during corrections nor time during play let him always learn somthing that may help him to become Wise and let every accident that happens to him he made a lesson of Wisdom and Piety let him have all his pleasures in the presence of his Father and Mother and although one suffer him not to commit faults there yet nevertheless he cannot suffer to be kept elsewhere Let him know that the reproofs that you give him come from good will let his Mother appear as lovely during threatnings as caresses let severities bear so well the marks of a true affection as that he may hold himself thereby obliged as by gratifications and recompences Let him accustom himself to take the little discontents of his Mother for the greâ—test misfortune and let him have no ruder punishment than the sadness of her countenance and her silence Let him with the milk suck the first sweetness of devotion and let this Maxim be imprinted in his Soul betimes That on eâ—rth there is no other felicity then to live according to the Laws of Reason and Justice let them often say again the same things to him after different Methods and with that weariness and address as that he may not loath to hear it And that to tell him one good word let the proper time be made use of whilst that he plays and that his heart is open by tenderness to the end that words may enter sweetly and that he may feel nothing but pleasure in learning what he ought to learn II. MAXIM He that loveth his Son causeth him often to feel the rod Eccl. 30. PARAPHRASE HE that loves his Son ceaseth not to instruct him according to the needs of his age and he regulates all the motions of his body and mind by perpetual and judicial advices REFLECTION BEgin to apply your self to the instruction of your Children assoon as they are able to hearken and forget not that education ought to follow soon after the birth since corruption and the inclination to evil comes with it For little as a Child can be since that he hath a spiritual and an immortal Soul 't is scandalous to let them live brutishly and to expect that reason should be throughly awake before you speak to him of his duty is to wait very long Whilst that nature is soft and flexible it is necessary to bend it and give it the first folds of the affections and habits that it ought to have in the time of its strength It is necessary that your Child practise good before he knows it ' it's necessary that he accustom himself thereto by obedience or necessity before he chuse it by judgement and that without knowing what he doth he should do nothing but according to the rules of reason and honesty Infancy has its perfections and its vertues order it so that they appear in the infancy of your Son Assoon as nature teaches him to will and to speak teach him to will and to speak as is necessary and do so well that any of his humane actions may not have the air and appearance of the actions of a Beast The Child that is happily and well brought up is he in whom the passions are subdued and obedient before reason is awake in such manner as that when 't is awake it has nothing else to do but to reign in peace and to enjoy the victory that education has won III. MAXIM He that teacheth his Son shull have joy in him and shall rejoyce of him among his aâ—quaintanoe Eccl. 30. PARAPHRASE THe Father who teacheth his Son and hath care himself of his education shall draw honour from thence and shall with much joy see him dearly beloved of his Parents and esteemed of his fellow citizens A Son nursed by the Mother and instructed by the Father shall be the joy of their House and the happiness of their Town REFLECTION THe negligence of the one and the affairs of the other have introduced the custom of confiding in Masters for instructing of their Children This is not what Nature intended When it gave milk and tenderness to the Mother and intelligenâ—e and prudence to the Father its design was to accomplish the glory of their fruitfulness and to render them Father and Mother of a Son who was entirely theirs and who owed his nourishment and his Wisdom but to their pains and conduct A Mother that lets not her Child go out of her arms but when reason is come to him A Father who lets him not go out of his House but when that reason shall govern him and that he hath contracted the habits of acting by judgement and of loving honour tasts the true pleasures of paternal authority and no man is perfectly happy in having a Son but he who hath given him life science and vertue If your Son holds his vertue from another and not from you he is not yours by one half and you have no right to attribute to your self any of his fine actions He holds from you the power to eat and sleep and from the Master the power to act wisely and to live as an honest Man IV. MAXIM He that teacheth his Son grieveth the enemy and before his friends he shall rejoyce of him Eccl. 30. PARAPHRASE HE who brings up his Son carefully labours as well for others as himself He can boast amongst his kindred and neighbours that he is their good friend since he is a good Father and one who prepares them a successor and a faithful heir who shall revive the friendship that he had for them and the good examples that he hath given them REFLECTION A Man has not much wealth when he hath none for his Children But he hath yet less vertue if he hath not enough of it to make an Inheritance and to hinder that this vertue does not die with him If you aspire unto immortality and if you are touched with the laudable desire of acquiring it do so as that all the most precious and excellent things that you possess may remain after you and let each remain in the place proper to them to be immortal and glorious Your Soul in Heaven your vertue in the heart of your Children your reputation and your name in the memory of your friends in fine your silver in Gods Treasury in the hands of the poor But observe that vertue is not bestowed as wealth in saying I leave Touching this Article To say at the hour of death or by the hand of a Notary in ones Will I give and bequeath unto my Son my Devotion and my Wisdom c. is to do nothing at all your Son shall not have them thereby If you would that he possess them do so in the time of your health as may put him in possession of
her Soul and you have the power to regard this Soul and stop your fight there you shall never tire your selves one of the other Whilst your vertue remains your pleasure shall never have an end VI. MAXIM A Woman if she maintain her Husband is full of anger impudency and much reproach Eccles 25. PARAPHRASE THe Wife who by her imperious mind is Mistress in the House is rigorous to her Husband She cannot have dominion over him but she changeth it into tyranny nor see him her subject without making him her slave REFECTION THe Wife that one fears is truly to be feared Assoon as one trembles before her she is terrible And the more ready an Husband is to obey her and to comply with her the more unsufferable and cruel is she Please your self with all that is pleasant to her but govern her so wisely that nothing shall please her but her duty Have you always over her the authority that belongs to you but joyn thereto so much of love and goodness as that she may have more pleasure in obeying you then you shall have in commanding her If you know by long experience that it is not in your power to bring her to good take heed that at least she bring you not to evil Part from her rather asmuch as may be permitted it is better to quit her then to follow her into misery but leave her not in disorder This were to cause scandal and to make a great noise in avoiding her and not to be well escaped from this domestic torment VII MAXIM There is no head above the head of Serpent and there is no wrath above the wrath of a Woman Eccles 25. PARAPHRASE AMongst the heads of Animals that of the Adder is the worst and most dangerous and among angers that of a Woman is most dreadful and the subtilest to invent treasons and means to destroy you You shall have more contentment in dwelling with Commorari lâ—oni draconi placebit quam habitare cum muliere nequam a Dragon or a Lioness then in having a wicked Wife in the House One may tame or daunt wild Beasts or else one may find means to escape from them and save ones self by flight But the rage of an unruly Woman is inevitable you can neither daunt her appease her nor fly from her REFLECTION IT is true that amongst the disorders caused by sin one of the most deplorable and most fatal is that which ordinarily appears in a Woman Gods design was that her countenance her voice her nature and her spirit should not be hut sweetness That the spirit of Man should not be but vigour and Wisdom and that of these two qualities joyn'd together should the felicity of Houses be composed Sin has overthrown this design There is happened in our nature a corruption which in the greatest part of Women hath strange effects The force of fumes and vapours the weakness of the Organs and of the Imagination and in fine the blindness of the mind cause many tears to those that love them and much misfortune in most affairs wherein they meddle In them objects vehement light or vagabond govern themselves and stir of themselves The Imagination delicate and feeâ—le follows their transport the proud and blind mind approves their faults and mainâ—ains them The Woman believes that all which passes in herself though in despight â—f her is iust and praise worthy It seems that in all this there is some reâ—ainder of the old Serpent or some sort of â—ossession That which we call Caprice Obstinacy and very often madness c. is the Devil that enters their head and who without taking away the judgement and the liberty makes them do what we see VIII MAXIM Her Husband shall sit among his Neighbours and when he heareth it shall sigh bitterly Eccles 25. PARAPHRASE HEr unfortunate Husband whom she incessantly afflicts his common exercise is in making of complaints and all the comfortable answers he receives from those who hear him are but sighs REFLECTION IT is very improper to complain publickly of domestic disorders 'T is a shamefull harm that a man is loath to discover to the Physician Those who suffer it ought to blush at it aswell as those who make it Let the Wife be loose fierce or violent the Husband doth himself wrong assoon â—â— he accuses her It is no less his interest to keep her fault secret then to cure it There is necessary Prudence and Power The point is effectually to remedy the evil and in the mean while to hinder that the Patient does not cry out Choose well a Woman before taking her When you have her do not adore nor despise her Take heed either of stirring her up or indisâ—reetly driving her to anger by severe and unjust outrages or making of her proud by a loose complaisance and importunate kindnesses Love her perfectly but shew her only one part of your love at least hide the infirmities thereof Your duty and your happiness is to inspire her with Wisdom but remember That you shall never make her wise but in rendring your self otherwise lovely then by too much friendship ARTICLE II. MAXIMS For the government of Children The first MAXIM For I was my Fathers Son tender and only beloved in the sight of my Mother He taught me also and said unto me Let thine heart retain my words get Wisdom c. Prov. 4. PARAPHRASE SOlomon saith I have heretofore been young and a little Child well-beloved of my Father and governed by my Mother unto whom I was very dear and who kept me always near her that I might receive as well instructions as caresses from her I lost no time even whilst I was at play for whilst I play'd and took the diversions due to my age she would that I should always have a mind attentive and an open heart ready to hearken because she had always some good word to tell me Her discourse ordinarily was My Son love Wisdom and Vertue more then all the wealth of the World the rest is but vanity That which shall render you an honest man is the true wealth and that which God shall prize in you is the true greatness Observe his Law and obey his Will Don't forget any thing that you have learn't touching the happiness of being in his favour don't quit that for any violence you shall be brought to suffer Feaâ— nothing That shall preserve you as long as you keep it REFLECTION HOw great are the inventions of Wisdom in the least things What a high and sublime policy has it in the Conduct of a Child who comes out of the Cradle How fair and profitable Councils in anâ—nimitable example Love a Child tenderly and caress it on every occasion without spoiling the flower of his age or making the câ—ndor of his innocence and simplicity to fade preserve it in him without perplexing him keep him in fear and duty without taking away his liberty Give him an inclination
THE COUNCILS OF WISDOM OR A Collection of the Maxims of SOLOMON Most necessary for a Man wisely to behave himself With Reflections on those Maxims Rendred into English by T. D. LONDON Printed for Sam. Smith Bookseller at the Princes Arms in St. Pauls Churchyard 1683. To the Right Worshipful the Mayor the Worshipful the Justices with the capital and inferiour Burgesses of the Burrough of Taunton Saint Mary Magdalen and St. Iames's in the County of Somerset Gentlemen WEre I accountable to any how I pass my time here 't were certainly to you who know that I was not one of the idlest at home wherefore partly to satisfy you the following Manual I took the pains to translate out of French the contents of which as they are universally necessary are design'd for all but dedicated to your selves as persons so much more in need of it as you are publique Persons and called to shew your abilities or defects more than your Neighbours And if any member of our Body politic thinks himself scandalized and that he 's too wise to take the Counsels of Solomon in good part he is one that least deserves them I wish to all the same satisfaction in the perusal as I had which encouraged me to translate it and should be glad of any opportunity agreeable to the following Maxims to tell you that I am Your humble Servant Tho. DARE Amsterdam Febr. 14. 1683. S. N. THE PREFACE IT is long since Thotimus that you did me the favour to pitty me and to feel for me the Pains of my Solitude I have often taken the liberty to answer you that it is to me no great misfortune to be unknown permit me to testify to you this day that I should be to blame to tire my self and that I have here company that is well worth all other that I should be able to see I can at least assure you that during our conversations the sad spectacles and affrightful silence of the desert where fortune yet keeps me doth not hinder that the hours do not pass there very swiftly and that time were one of the things which are wanting It is easy for you to judge that I speak of Solomon You know that formerly I did comfort my self in Books you are about to see in the writing that I send you that I imploy myself now to explain them and to endeavour by my reflections to make the wise men of the World see Truths unknown to their Philosophy I thought of it immediately at the entry into this Solitude where I am All melancholic as it is or as it appears to your eyes I know nothing more commodious for a man who would busy his thoughts or meditate on the writings of this learned Prince I say it because I believe that I read lately that Wisdom who dictated these Proverbs when it was solitary explains them not but to persons who are so also and who go to ask it as he did in places where one hears no news of the Creature nor any noise capable of troubling the attention and the pleasure of those that hearken Solomon loved to be alone as much as the Princes of his Court to be near him and to hear him speak The time to which his desires aspired was When after the labours of the day weary of the affairs of the honours and the noises of the World he could retire himself from the sight of company and when he went to entertain himself with God in a Country-house called Hetta near enough to the City It pleased him more then any of the Royal Houses because that besides the magnificences and the riches added by the hands of men there were great Woods with Rocks and Streams and other workmanship of nature proper to raise his spirit to Heaven and to make him remember eternity It was in this stately desert at the sight of the beauties of God that his contemplations disclosed to him That he conceived such great contempts of the beauty of mortal things and that after the other complaints that he made against the treacheries of their promises and their flatteries he sung this famous Song that the Caves and the Waters of his palace first heard but its eccho's have been since heard throughout and shall be made to resound even to the end of ages Vanitas vanitatum cuncta vanitas The moral and politic sentences of which his Book of the Proverbs is filled and those which the Son of Syrach has brought together and kept by his care were born in the same solitude where silence and tranquillity help'd them into the World And it is without doubt That to these devout walks that the universe is obliged for the knowledge of the truths which are gone out of the Pen of this learned Prince which have enlightned all Nations I have chosen amongst these sentences those of which I believed I could be able to help my self in working at my design which is to draw from their Texts subjects of meditation proper for persons who would live amongst the Laws of Conscience and Prudence and conduct themselves wisely in the various occasions of a civil life It is but a little peece as it appears If I had had a little more leasure and a little more light perhaps it should have been bigger But to say with an Ancient if I had more of one and the other in stead of enlarging I should endeavour to shorten it and I should remember what one of the best Writing-Masters of our time told me That to excell in the Art of writing well it is necessary to be able to blot well out This thought is not only his I observe it is common to the Masters of every Art and Science and that it keeps even the first rank among their Maxims When they are willing that what they do should be their Master-piece all their industry is imployed to make it pass well into the Spirit and to leave there but little matter Force and delicacy are the perfections of all works that of a Book is soveraign when it can be read in few hours and that it can not be read nor meditated enough in many years Much Truth few Words was heretofore the device of a great Divine very great in that but infinitely less than God who encloseth infinite truths in one word alone and who saith all that can be said to eternity when he pronounceth his word The Book is divided into two Parts The First divided into 4 Articles contains Maxims necessary for a Man to demean himself well First of all are the Maxims necessary for the Conduct of the Conscience Secondly Maxims necessary for the Conduct of the Wit Thirdly for the Conduct of the Heart and Passions Fourthly for governing the Tongue The second Part contains necessary Maxims for a Mans wise Conduct in regard to his family and other persons The Wife Children Servants Friends and Enemies are the Articles which divide it ARTICLE I. MAXIMS For the Conduct of the
Conscience FIRST MAXIM Of making many Books there is no end Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandmens this is the whole duty of Man Eccles 12. PARAPHARASE MUch is the Counsel that 's given and many are the Books that are written to help Man to become great and to render him perfect Wisdom has but one word thereupon and this word is the Compendium of all that wise Men have said the end of all that which its self said since the beginning of ages It hath never spoken nor ever writ but to make Men understand how to love God and obey his Will this is to be the whole duty of Man REFLECTION WHen the Creator formed the project of our nature and that he conceiv'd the Idaea of Man as he pretended that this was the chief and most excellent Piece he conceived not onely a Body and a Soul He saw well that as the Body separated from the Soul would be but rottenness even so the Soul seperated from God would be another deformity infinitely more frightfull and instead of the being chief of the work he contrived he should but make a monster Not to fail in his design at the same time that he joyned the Body with the Soul he judged that it was necessary to joyn the Soul with God by the means of Grace and he would that this Grace entred into his workmanship and that these three together were the whole Man Stop a moment and consider well the Wisdom of God when he proposed to himfelf the meeting of these three so different things and to form thereof the chief of his work How many marvels in Man when they are united How many misfortunes when they are seperated Grace repelled and withdrawn the Soul there 's reprobation and sin The Body separate from the Soul there 's death The Soul separated from the Body and from Grace there is Hell Three objects of horrour or of fear Rejoyn these and make but one they are three coelestial beauties and the three greatest miracles of divine power united together and that is Man Time Deum hoc est omnis Homo II. MAXIM Let thy glorying be in the fear of the Lord and all thy communication in the precepts of the most High Eccles 9. PARAPHRASE EStablish your Honour by fearing God and being faithful to him If you would that Men should look on you with respect and esteem and always see on your countenance that modesty and in your conduct that force and tranquility of spirit which raises a man above other men have always in your self some thought of the goodness of the Creator and his eternal perfections and accustome your heart not to relye but on him in all its designs and hopes REFLECTION DO not as the proud In timore Domini sit tibi gloriosio man who is ashamed to fear and to worship God because people fear and worship him and who establisheth his honour by making light of his duty Take you heed in forming your opinions and Maxims of taking for a man of nobility and greatness your being less wise then others And do not believe a folly that is particular to be more worth then Wisdom that 's common If because you are noble it 's painful to you to do what mean people do That which is good you ought to do better then they Do not imitate his devotion surpass it Do not follow him in the ways of falvation and in the exercise of righteousness and holiness have regard to your condition March first and serve as an example Keep your rank in the Churches permit not that any should be more devout nor more modest then you Since you are first in quality your place before the Altars and during the sacrifices is to be more near to God and the more raised by Prayer Remember that you have no surer means to put your self above this croud of little people then to abase your self more then they before this supream Majesty and to adore him more perfectly III. MAXIM Vanity of vanities all is vanity and vexation of spirit Eccles 1. PARAPHRASE YOu must love nothing but Universa vanitas God The true good and true pleasure is not to be found but in him alone The good which appears before our eyes deceives us it is nothing but illusion and vanity And this false and apparent good becomes a real evil as soon as it pleases us and that we begin to love it REFLECTION ALl the felicities of this life are vain and deceitful When they present themselves to us we take them for stable and immoveable things Our heart being drawn by this appearance stretcheth out its arms and blindly fastens its self unto them promising its self eternal pleasures in possessing them But it is to embrace running water from the hour that we begin to possess rhem they begin to run away from us During embracements and joys and amidst our mutual promises and hopes of an inseperable tye they escape from between our hands and continue their course we continue ours and we quit our selves we go each where our destiny calls us and where time leads us They to nothing we to death Time goes apace and the end is near it is not far between the pleasures of a moment and the tears of eternity These long years that we figure between the two are very often but a night Perhaps those who shall see us this evening settled in a high and powerful fortune will find us next morning buried in its ruines Today prosperity health riches and honours To morrow all these vanities in the air wind and smoak our Body in a Tomb our Soul in another World there to lament and to say eternally but too late Universa vanitas afflictio spiritus The justest reason we ought Vanitas vanitatum to contemne these runagate felicities for consists in this word Vanitas God alone is the true Good created goods are the productions and shadows of this essential and Infinite Good Consider and open your eyes You are rich but if God withdraws himself from your heart what remains and of what do you boast To be heir and master of the shadow of an house without having any right to the house and without being able to go into it what Patrimony and what sort of inheritance is this for a man To be Master of a Treasure or a Revenue Master of a Kingdom an Empire a part of the World the whole World all the appearances of good Possess all the shadows of God all his works all his gifts but without possessing of himself What a possession is this for a Soul who breaths after the true Good and who cannot be filled or satisfied but by him alone The worst of it is that these shadows of the Creator these Riches and Magnificences which are about us are not in us Gold and Silver enter into the Houses Pleasures enter into your eyes and senses