knows not how to grow rich Let it be so thought my Son prefer it however and thou shalt find something sweeter within thee than the delight of riches more certain here and a blessed earnest of that which is better hereafter Though I judge that it would be no difficult thing to prove that a prudent man manifesting sincerity in all his dealings is at the long run in a fairer road of acquiring riches than he that uses craft or subtle falshood for the obtaining thereof For 1. Nothing invites more than just dealing and not only the just whose custome will be certain but even they who practise subtilty themselves love plain dealing in others For a time happily they may suffer because for a while their fidelity will not be believed men having vainly assumed the shews of it to gain a name that they may the more freely deceive But when time and experience manifests that they hate all circumventing policies may be credited and relyed upon in what they say and promise Both the implanted love of Truth which though weakened is yet in the Conscience of every man with the profit content and satisfaction every man cannot chuse but take in such dealing must of necessity invite numerous Chapmen the only means of acquiring riches Whereas a man who in making his bargain speaks falsly and by little arts designs to over-reach and to lay foundations of future advantage must in time as their circumventions appear be warily avoided or dealt with only out of necessity which last no longer than that necessity compels However be the matter in this particular as it will let the love to Truth be thy chief motive and in that thou wilt stand right to God thy Neighbour and thy own Soul and then thou shalt find that there are other recompences and rewards as far beyond riches as vertue is beyond vice or the joyes â—f Heaven above those which are worldly and sensual Of Wisdom In the Government of our selves here there is nothing so necessary as the guidance of Wisdom I mean not the crafts of the World or the policies of artificial men those I would have thee my Son understand not to use them but to know how prudently and securely to avoid them Remember that true Wisdom which only deserves that name is alwayes joyned with goodness and vertue Take it therefore for a rule that whatsoever is not so associated though it may be called craft policy art wit all which have their esteem in this artificial state of the World yet Wisdom it is not which is ever agreeable to the rules of right reason consonant to the life and principles of our blessed Saviour and is properly defined to be the knowledg how to demean our selves in the best manner in all the occasions and occurrences of humane life Now Wisdom thus defined is acquireable by these helps 1. By the instructions and examples of prudent Parents 2. By reading the Books of wise men and principally the Scriptures which as they are intended to make us wise to Salvation so are they very effectual to secure us against all the assaults of temptation and to steer us right upon all occasions 3. By conversing with those who by long experience and true Conclusions drawn thereupon have attained a high measure of prudence and are able to advise the best and securest wayes in all accidents and variations of life 4. By meditating frequently and seriously with our selves As to the First of these the instruction and good example of prudent Parents I know it is the duty of all for their childrens sakes as well as their own to be such the defects in this particular are a radical cause of the Worlds depravation I know it is a much more difficult matter for Children who have not such Parents to gain any proportionable measure of prudence the attaining thereof being uncertain where there are such I think also that the defects and imprudencies of Children are justly chargeable upon Parents where they have not done their parts though Children are not thereby wholly excused because God has offered many other helps for the attainment of Wisdom I conceive 't is fondness and regard to themselves in Parents when they love their Children imprudently that is when their affection is not directed chiefly to the making them Good and Wise This should be the prime end wealth but secondary That in order to this they ought to be very careful that they indulge them in nothing that may any wayes cross those ends Neither out of compliance with the World the fulfilling their own humors the powerful inclination of their own bad examples improvidence and negligence in doing their duties omission of taking times and seasonable advantages to instruct and reform them moroseness and keeping an imperious distance out of an ill use made of their Paternal authority and prerogative loosing thereby the fair occasions of preserving and reclaiming them which decent and prudent familiarity would daily afford them This as to Parents which may concern thee if ever it pleases God to bless thee with Children In the mean time let it not be grievous to thee but rather a pleasure to give an attentive ear and to lay up in thy mind the advices and instructions of thy Parents Consider That what they advise is as near as they can for your good that it flows from their affection even when they rebuke or correct that it is grievous even to them to have occasion to do it and taken up out of necessity lest they should fail in their duty towards you Consider that they have lived many years and have had experiences in the World and are therefore in fit capacity to instruct That affection perswades them to extract the best of that knowledg they have and communicate to you there being nothing more delightful to them than to see your understanding improve in the acquisition of true Wisdom That the young of all creatures do learn of the old it being the method which God has placed in the order of Generation and continuation of all species and that consequently it is unnatural not to have regard to it Lastly consider that Solomon reputed the wisest man our blessed Master excepted spent a great part of those experimental instructions he thought fit to communicate to the World in commending to us the excellency of Wisdom and perswading youth that it is chiefly to be gained by giving heedful attention to the counsels of Parents that besides the profit arises from it a blessing also attends it from God Almighty who is well pleased when we guide our selves according to the course and order which in his infinite Wisdom he has planted in the World This is what I thought necessary to mention to thee in order to the first means of acquiring Wisdom The giving heed to the instruction and example of Parents With this caution subjoyned that if upon improvement of thy own knowledge thou shalt discover some blemishes or defects in
despising the documents of reason and Gods Sacred Word void of prudence using no other conduct than what a Fox a Wolf a Bear makes use of when lust or rage incites them and therefore never to be practised by those who bear the image of the Almighty who is said to be long suffering slow to anger And who never exercises it but either and that chiefly for correction and reclaimer of offenders or upon the incorrigible who are not justly the subjects of thy Anger but whom the lash of the Law or Divine vengeance alone must punish Of heightning the differences of others Never ingage in the heightning others Differences 't is the proper business of the great enemy of mankind and of wicked men Leave it to them and be thou in the number of those who are blessed because peace makers The general affection thou shouldest bear to mankind ought to oblige thee to this for what ever particular obligations or respects thou hast to Relations Friends or Neighbours whereby thou art prompted readily to assist and do them all good offices yet ought not this in any measure to warp or oppose the duty we all owe to mankind in general and common equity without which every little Town or Village would be ever in conttest and run into Faction He is very unfit to be a peace maker who comes not with all indifferency to the decision of a controversy knowing no Friend or Relation but prepared to adhere solely to what is right on which side soever it appear you may give away what you please of your own but in this case you defraud another to pleasure your Friend and become much more unjust than he who gave occasion to the controversy because besides the breach of the Rules of Justice you betray a trust which either is committed to you by the parties in difference or which Laws of Humanity entrust every man withal for conservation of the Peace and Government of the World A most remarkable instance of this we have in the life of Sir Tho. Moor who being Lord Chancellour of England determined a Cause in Chancery against his Son in Law who in confidence of his near affiance with the Judg his Father would come to no fair and reasonable terms with his Adversary He might easily have found plausible pretences for an opposite Decree and been born out by the greatness of his place and power but he did much better by leaving himself not only in this case but in multitudes of others the great example of an exact and worthy Justiciary whereby he preserved that chearful and pleasant frankness which in all his actions he shewed and left behind him the richest perfume and sweetest savour of an honest name to be preferred before all wealth or Honours of the World Follow so good an example Partiality as it is the off-spring of injustice so is it a procurer of hatred and just distast from the person injured which no ingenious man would draw upon himself though the tye of Conscience should be his greatest and most valued reason I have spoken much of justice through the whole course of this advice and that thou shouldest much rather suffer wrong than do any I shall therefore add little to the perswasion of this so excellent a vertue Only remember that I disown thee in every unjust action thou standest upon thine own leggs there and the weight thou bearest will certainly depress thee Be watchful therefore and let a line of justice run through every action of thy life Remember thou art bound to love thy neighbour as thy self thy reason therefore is to stand in an indifferency when thy self and neighbour come in competition Do justice then as if thou wert the Umpire and thy self unconcerned How happy would this world be and how pleasant would it be to live in it were this so general principle digested and practised by every man we should not need then to be so anxiously careful for our selves for we should all take care one of another Whereas by being partial to our selves and thoughtless of what injuries we do to others friendship concord security peace of mind readiness to assist and all sweetness of human life is lost amongst us man stands single every one for himself and is thereby deprived of those mutual helps and assistances which would flow from the principles of general justice God loves and provides for us all has given us commands and motives to be good one to another not superficially in words and shews but as we are to our selves Guide thy self my Son by those commands and do what lies in thee to rectifie the world in this particular Thou hast to incourage thee besides the justice of it the improbability that it will be to thy damage since doing good to all and hurt to none thou mayest rationally expect if not to be beloved and kindly dealt with yet to be less injuriously handled than where thou hast not softned the Spirits of men by thy own amicable deportment It is necessary to the performance of just actions to be knowing in the nature and circumstances of things and for that end and purpose to examine particulars with advice and deliberation that thou mayest not either do injustice at unawares or justice by chance Be not then too sudden and positive when thou hast not sufficiently deliberated Be careful not to be swayed by affection to either party by perswasion of friends by any temptation and where it is meet to moderate extremities do it with the consent of both parties and be very inclinable to it if thou thy self be the injured party Be armed however against the three great assailers of Justice Fear Love Gain and then thou standest an upright man if thou givest way to the first thou art a Coward and deliverest up a Fort that was tenable to the dammage of thy Country If to the second thy love is unseasonably shewn and where the matter admits it not thou mayest as well snatch off another manâ— Cloak and give it him thou accountest thy Friend If to the last thou art notoriously unjust and wilt be infamous They are only worldly wise whose eyes are blinded by bribes but are indeed to be ranked in the number of those Fools who have said in their heart there is no God for did they then give credid to it or at all consider it they would prefer a little gain to the loss of inward peace and the favour of God which must follow acts of injustice he being a God of pure eyes that cannot behold unrighteousness Of Temperance Were it not for the perverseness of custom it would be sure no difficult matter to perswade thee to Temperance since it is the best and most allowed means of healthful long and happy life But mankind led by sensual and present pleasure doth scarce do any thing with his reason Observe it in what you will in Meats Drinks Cloathing Pleasures Gain Knowledg in this also he strives
Religion A further shame to the Title of a Gentleman are the proud and scornful the luxurious the debauched the idle and grosly ignorant Who trusting and relying wholly upon the name derived from it may be worthy Ancestors vainly think that their Vices cannot lose what the others vertues attained Remember that God Almighty who is the most excellent being and from whom all living things receive theirs is yet full of gentleness kindness love patience compassion and that notwithstanding all provocations which may serve thee instead of all arguments to heighten thy indeavours in the acquisition of those qualities may make the retain the image of Gods likeness and raise thee above that degenerated complexion which mankind has acquired from the heat and extravagance of his unruly passions Whether the title follows this disposition of the mind is not material The just respects of a few good men are to be preferred before the common vogue and the observance of those whose pride and ignorance renders them incompetent Judges of what is praise-worthy and to be esteemed I am now to advise thee in two Particulars of great moment the one in the choice of thy profession the other of thy Wife Concerning the choice of thy Profession If it pleases God that I live until thou art grown up to a mans estate I purpose to perswade thee and shall endeavour to enable thee for the practice of Physick as also your Brother as I would have you do some of your Children that so there may not in any future age be wanting in this City God protecting and blessing you one of your name and lineage bred up in and professing the practice of that art Not that I esteem so much the reputation of the name or the Honour attained by such an acquisition for I have often declared to you that true honour has not its just rise from things without us nor yet from the abilities of the brain but the truth and sincerity of the mind But because I think it of very great advantage to the real attainment of some considerable perfection in the acquisition of an Art to be educated by a Father therein and both directed by him to avoid all the superfluous studies and readings by which much time both by himself and others hath been lost and directed also in the best practical method and choice of the best Books for attaining the utmost accomplishments therein that your limited Age is capable of Besides it is no small reputation and consequently an equal advantage to your being applyed to that you are the Son of a Physician It being presumed that you have both the assistance of your Fathers knowledg and your own additional acquisitions Besides these reasons given you why I would incline you to the profession of Physick I may add 1. That is is a study of great latitude comprehending particulars enough to take up delightfully the whole time of your life and that will be more pleasant to you even in your old age By means whereof you can never want delightful objects for your thoughts to be imployed upon and thereby kept from other diversions upon which the greatest part of mankind engage themselves to the great impair of their health the loss of their time and reputation 2. 'T is a profession of everlasting use and the Professors there of if able and honest of good esteem 'T is in the middle Region not too high for the converse of the meanest not too low for the respect of the greatest Consider besides that it is not over laborious to the body that it has many priviledges as exemption from Offices and several duties both chargable and burthensome That it is of all others most independent not so lyable to the vicissitudes of times not ingaged to declare it self in vindication or refusal of fashionable opinions taken up by prevalent Parties And Lastly amongst other the blessed designs of our Lord and Master this took up no small part of his time for he went about doing good and healing all that were sick which though we cannot with certainty perform yet according to that Sphere and Capacity God has placed us in it is sufficient that we use an honest and careful indeavour If you should have many Sons and that it be necessary to dispose some of them into other professions observe these Rules following Avoid in chusing for them those that are over laborious and toylesome to the Body for they occasion aches and diseases and shorten life Avoid those which are dirty and greasy as a Tallow-Chandler Soap-boyler Cook especially roasting one c. Avoid those which depend most upon the vices and ill Husbandry of the people and which also by being their profession endanger the vitiating and debauchery of them who profess them As Alehouse keeper Vintner Tobacco-Men Srongwatermen c. Above all avoid being ingaged in any thing that is vexatious to the people I had rather you should be Coblers than Excise-men Sergeants Promoters Projectors or any other profession that depends not upon honest business helpful and serviceable in its measure to others Lastly be sure you well understand and be well pleased in the choice of your Profession Acquaint your Children therefore before hand with the conveniences and inconveniences of what they seem most inclined to that so thy good Councel may guide their judgments to the being ingaged in that they shall not afterwards repent of For all actions undertaken with good deliberation though they may miscarry being subject to common casualties yet in some measure satisfie the mind beyond what is undertaken rashly and imprudently Now forasmuch as in all professions it is expedient that some diversions should be interposed to sweeten the business and toyle thereof I think it meet beside what I have mentioned in reference to the body in the Paragraph of Recreation to advise thee concernining some particulars wherein thou mayest in thy Closet or more openly at home employ thy self both to the refreshment and profit of the mind as particularly often in reading and meditating upon the Scriptures and other good Books for whatever care you have of your livelihood here your eternal being hereafter is often to be thought upon Nor is the knowledg of God and Divine things without its exceeding delight when a mind well seasoned comprehends the same This may be often performed with thy Wife Children Servants And assure your self that you will find much comfort in time thus spent and in knowledg thus gained 2. Another Diversion profitable and pleasant may be the study of the Mathematicks Especially of Arithmetick Geometry and Musick Not too superficially but radically for though Fundamental knowledg be more difficultly attained yet after the acquisition of some part thereof the rest proves much more delightful and is longer retained whereas the superficial becomes soon nauseous and through want of use in a little time vanishes By the way design not to let your knowledg in these things end in speculation but
even against thy own genius and aversion Remember the pleasure of wholsome and handsome Children remember the improbability of having any where there is a secret and a real dislike Remember what disgusts will arise in thy breast when thou shalt see others happy in a suitable match in a numerous and amiable off-spring Take all these things together and before thou settest forth upon this expedition read over again and again the Memorandums I have here given thee as the fruit of my experience and observation and which I have delivered unto thee in hopes to make thee in this particular truly happy The happiness of a Married life requires that both be good But it will not be an expedient sufficient for the procurement of thy happiness to have chosen a good and vertuous wife with the best qualifications above intimated unless thou also prove as fit and suitable a Husband For though thou canst not be happy with a bad one yet thou mayest so demean thy self as to be very unhappy though thou hast a good one Thy own vices and vanities will in the continuance and consequence of them bring many evils upon thee both as thou art a Husband a Father a Master of a Family As thou art a Husband if thou debauchest thy self becomest a Drunkard a common Gamester negligent of thy fame and thy calling besides the evils more immediately will attend thee thou wilt by degrees sowre the good disposition of thy Mate and turn thy sweet nourishing and delicious Wine into Vinegar Thou wilt bring upon her Melancholy and Sickness cool and lessen if not totally extinguish her affection for there being in all naturally implanted self love and desire of good to our selves what reason is there you should expect a permanency of her affections when through your default she is made most miserable For what ever humor and obstinacy may perswade you to yet love is naturally the off spring only of love and you will but vainly exact it from her as her duty when notwithstanding the mutual obligation you have broken all the ties and by a vitious and imperious carriage which usually follows it you incite her to a reliction of those respects she would otherwise inviolably have maintained You must remember that you marry not a Saint but a Woman that you have past your promises as well as your Wife that the Tie is equally obliging and withal ask your self whether if she were become so vitious so neglectful of all the parts of her duty you would not think it unreasonable that she should expect any degree of affection from you having done all that lay in her to sink you into irreparable Calamities Consider further that if through your default the temper of her mind and constitution of her body be perverted which should indeed by your sweetness be improved you are justly to be charged with all the ill effects that may thereupon ensue which will be no small burthen to your Conscience and a certain diminution or destruction of all the contentments which would otherwise flow from that relation A Vitious Father seldom makes good Children 2. Your Vitious habits will not only have an influence upon your Wife but your Children also for how can you then be capable of the due oversight of their education and giving them those good instructions which are necessary for forming and fashioning their minds and seasoning them with fit principles of Religion and Vertue What power also can your instructions have when as they grow up they shall discover in your own life vitious practices contrary to the instructions you give them 'T is by all allowed that practice and example perswade much more powerfully than precept and therefore it will be certain that they will every day warp and decline that original innocence and good nature they are born with by observation of your daily deviations How can you implant and cherish in them that Reverence they owe to God that love to honesty and vertue they cannot but perceive you contemn by practising contrary thereunto So that since the happiness of man in his posterity is not in having Children but in having good ones you must never expect a participation in that blessing when you take a course that can in no reason produce other than the contrary You will find it as the World is constituted a difficult matter to steer them right with the utmost care a good and prudent Father can use what little hopes then will remain when there is not only a neglect of the paternal duty but your own perswasive example to hurry them into vitious extravagancies It is not force and a rude hand that fashions the mind you shall find looking with an unperverted eye into the World and examining things aright that when Parents are playing the Beadles with their Children that for every lash the Parents it may be passionately or humerously give them they deserve ten themselves were the cause fairly pleaded as either foolishly beating them for trivial lapses by other means more easily amended or for such faults as they themselves either for want of good instruction or by giving bad example or some occasion thereunto have thereby produced This is indeed one of the greatest causes of the Worlds perversion And therefore my Son for the sake of your self and Wife whose felicity is here much concerned for the respects you owe to your Children who will owe more to you for good education than their lives for 't is better never to have been born than to be vitious and lastly for the common respect you owe to your Countrey and to mankind whose integrity is preserved by the good of particulars be circumspect in this and careful to discharge your Paternal duty by preserving your self in a fit capacity both for seasoning the minds of your Children by prudent instructions and affording them the more powerful incitement from your own well led life and laudable example The concernment to the Family that the Master be a good Man 3. A Vitious man can never make a good Master of a Family The good will either be corrupted by him or with detestation leave him You are not Master of Slaves that you can force to serve your will God be praised the Law of England knows no such tenure But of Servants by contract who when they are admitted you are tacitly charg'd with a care of them not only to afford conveniences for their livelyhood and external support but 't is a duty incumbent upon you to form and fashion their minds with a love to all that is good and Honest This you are obliged to in several regards as 1. Out of respect to the good of your Country of which Servants are a numerous and considerable part And therefore it is a deserved blemish upon Masters if their Servants fly out into unworthy actions unless they can manifest that they have not been wanting on their part to teach them better and afford them the benefit
life which he must also foreknow he cannot avoid for otherwise he could not foreknow them How would it sower and imbitter all his present injoyments to be acquainted before hand that shortly he must break his Leg at another time have his house burnt or lose his Wife and Children or Estate sufficient certainly is the sorrow of each day for it self How does it make the countenance of men and their Spirits to fall when upon losses or other accidents they find the feilure of their Estates and in a short time to their apprehensions an inevitable breaking certainly the anxiety before it happens is greater than after when the worst being known and the discredit digested which is but an imaginary reproach the mind by degrees is quieted Let us therefore give thanks to Almighty God who out of his abundant wisdom and loving kindness to man hath denied us what we so eagerly covet and what would tend to our so great vexation Let us with humble and thankful hearts enjoy the present and so lead our lives that our assurances of the future enjoyment of God in the mansions and society of the blessed may make us contentful in any condition here since it will be but a little time before we shall be possest of eternal beatitude hereafter Of Pride It is meet that I say something of Pride because it is a general vice the cause of much yea most of the evils in the World and not only very prejudicial to others but to our selves also The foundations of it are ignorance and presumption Ignorance I say for though men accounted knowing are very incident to it yet it alwayes arises from their folly in having a better opinion of themselves than they deserve This is evident from this undeniable truth That there is no man without numerous defects the knowledg of the best is poor low and imperfect the possessions of all uncertain matters depending much upon chance exposed to numerous casualties wholly extraneous to man and their estimation depending upon vain opinion Pride has alwayes something of Herods fault for which he was eaten up of Vermine for arrogating honour to himself which is due only to God It makes him apt to practical Atheism that is to rely upon and attribute what he obtains to his own parts and consequently to think he has no need of God But see the consequence of it in the 16 of the Proverbs the 18. Pride goes before destruction and a haughty Spirit before a fall For such contemning God are justly despised by him and then follows that of St. James c. 4. v. 6. He resisteth the proud but sheweth grace to the humble and that of St. Luke 1.51 He scattereth the Proud in the imaginations of their hearts This is true of private persons and of States both which are nearest to destruction when they appear most arrogant and secure It is common with proud men to use an hypocritical humbleness to invite thereby greater respect from others by which they tacitly confess their own unworthiness of which they are justly conscious and bewray the baseness of their own minds They who have most of worth abominate such practices decline it themselves and hate it in others All kind of honour as it should be the recompence of Vertue and true worth so should it flow freely from others who are benefited by good Actions but should never be sought by our selves yea should be avoided not out of a fallacious design of gaining otherwise thereby but from a true sense of our own imperfections and because it is but our duty to do all the good we can That saying of the Poet Contempt of Fame is the contempt of Vertue is grounded upon a false supposition that the motive to Vertue is applause whereas indeed it should arise from a sense of its own excellency and that God has commended it to human practice as that which carries in itself the blessed fruits of peace joy and the solace of the mind as the greatest means of happiness this world can afford us And hence is it that Christ disswaded his followers from accepting worldly Honours Dominion Praise and all other the esteemed darlings of corrupted men preferring to them peace of Conscience here and assurances of real felicities hereafter Consider well of this and let thy mind my Son possess the knowledg thereof lead thy life in conformity to it for thereby thou wilt avoid many evils which the proud are exposed to It s remedy is humility grounded upon a just esteem of our selves and of others In our selves we are chiefly to consider how much we want of what we should be and here we can hardly be mistaken in others to value what we see worthy in them and to consider how easily they may attain if they exceed not already what we judge good in our selves to weigh above all that we are all born for the good one of another and that there is no greater evil to human Society than for us so to love our selves as to be detrimental to others that the love of our selves is the rule and extent of our love to others that 't is Christs great Commandment That no man can truly love God whom he hath not seen if he love not his brother whom he hath seen That we should make our selves equal to men of low degree peradventure as being the best or as having most need of incouragement or to shew that men are not to be esteemed for their riches or disesteemed for their poverty but all are to be lov'd and the vertuous chiefly to be respected Man will soon cease to be proud if he well considers that he has nothing to be proud of not of Wealth or what is purchased by it for 't is no part of himself 't is full of uncertainty the fool or vitious may be master of it as well as the wise and vertuous Not of Honour for if it arise not from good and worthy Actions 't is a false Coin and is therefore contemptible If it be the effect of true desert the foundation of that desert which is vertue will teach him to think meanly of it since vertue praises it self with its own contentment and is rather diminished than satisfied by reward especially since it cannot but be conscious of coming abundantly short of its duty being attended with many defects which are too well known to the possessor Not of Learning and great Parts since both of them are but acquisitions to promote common good and no further valuable but as they do so which carry with them when in the best manner exercised solace and contentment of Mind The great Apostle St. Paul which next to his and our blessed Master did the most good in the world protested that he had nothing to glory in But the Cross of Christ and that he was counted worthy to suffer for the giving testimony to that blessed Name and the profession of his Discipleship renouncing all esteem that might otherwise arise