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A43746
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Institutions, or, Advice to his grandson in three parts / by William Higford ...
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Higford, William, 1581?-1657.
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1658
(1658)
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Wing H1947; ESTC R34464
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23,330
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114
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preserved by a few dishes and those of good juice and nourishment so in learning a few Books well studyed and digested will profit you more than a great number not will chosen Lectio certa prodest saith Seneca The Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Scudamore is best able to direct you when you can have access to his Lordship he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great lover of learning and very learned and a most bountifull Mecaenas to all Schollars and men of parts The Book wherein you are to be most conversant is the Holy Scriptures This must be your Vade mecum Non recedat Volumen legis hujus ab ore tuo sed meditaberis in eo diebus noctibus This word is a lantern unto your feet and a light unto your paths The Scripture is compared to a River wherein a Lamb may wade and an Elephant may swim in some places easie in some places hard to be understood The easie must expound the harder and where you doubt you must follow the Advise of St. James Si quis indiget sapientia postulet a Deo and also have recourse to Gods learned Ministers and Embassadors of whom it is said Vobis datum est nôsse mysteria dôi whereto the Prophet Malache agreeth The Priests lips preserve knowledge seek the law at his Mouth Thus doing yo must acquiesce and captivate your understanding to the obedience of Christ The Psalms of Holy David you are to read as they are appointed for the Day being a chioce part of the word of God and the ejaculations of a person according to Gods heart Among other Books I would commend unto you especially in divinity the learned Hookers Ecclesiastical politie in History the honour of our Nation Sr. Walter Raliegh Plutarchs Lives for the knowledge of our own Country Mr. Camdens Britannia and my freind Sr. Richard Baker's Chronicle for precepts of Morality and vertuous Education Xenophons Cyrus and Tullies Offices together with K. James Basilicon Doron and to refresh your self with poetical stories you may take Sr. Philip Sydney in steed of all When I was young it was a defect for a Gentleman not to be versed in Him Alfred one of the Saxon Kings during the Heptarchy Founder of the University of Oxford divided the 24. hours of the Day into 3. parts whereof one third part he spent in the necessities of Nature viz. eating drinking dressing sleeping c. another third part he imployed in hearing and composing matters of state negotiations of his Kingdome but the other third part he constantly devoted to Meditation and acquisition of wisedome Kings and Princes have many and great difficulties and Crownes have thornes and so in like sort all Masters of Families and Trades in their several mysteries and vocations have a full imployment of their time of whom it may be said as Seneca Ipsa vita vitae apparatu consumitur But in you who are freed frem all those incumbrances it were noble to vindicate from sleep and sports some Hours every day and to dispose them in the exercise of learning Of all professions the Lawyer is most painfull and it may well be so Gold is an especial Invitement to industry I have known divers Students of the Law who have without any failer set apart eight nay some ten hours more every day in study of the Law whereby they became great Gainers and were advanced to the highest place of Iudicature Titus the son of the Emperour Vespasian called Deliciae Generis Humani because he was of so sweet a disposition that it is said Neminem ab eo tristem discessisse this Titus kept a Diary of all his Actions and when at night he had found upon examination that he had acted nothing memorable he would exclame Amici diem perdidimus This example I commend to you Dear Cosin and adde no more here concerning your converse either with Men or Books INSTRUCTIONS OR ADVICE TO HIS GRANDSON The third Part. THE last part of our discourse will concern your Actions Virtutis laus omnis in Actione consistit The World is a Stage and every one is to act his part before that great Spectator God Almighty which must make you carefull how you act under his all-seeing eye The highest acts you can perform are the acts of Religion whcich raiseth up your mind from earth to Heaven Your Religion must be accompanied with zeal and your zeal tempered with discretion that you may not be one of them whom the Apostle censureth Habentes zelum sed non secundùm scientiam In your Access to Heaven you are to be led by two Virgins prayer and preaching by the one you talk with God by the other God speaketh unto you In your prayer you are to be frequent and fervent Holy David in the Evening Morning and Noon did pray unto the Lord and that instantly and the Lord heard his prayer He did rise also at midnight to give thanks unto the Lord. Our Saviour Christ pernoctabat in Oratione As for preaching when you enter into the house of God be ready and attentive in hearing the word of God and make it your own by meditation and practice Those beasts onely were accounted clean that ruminate and chew the cud It is practice and the carefull observance of Gods Commandements which brings the Reward Hoc fac vives This is it that doth most lively denominate a Christian You shall know him by his fruits For the better observance of Gods Law you are to pray in aide of Grace as St. Austin adviseth Facere quod possumus petere quod non possumus When you fall let your prayer be Ne derelinquas me Domine Strive to raise your self again by repentance which is no more but peccata praeterita plangere plangenda iterum non committere called by St. Ierom Secunda post naufragium Tabula The Theological Vertues which attend Religion are three Faith Hope and Charity with which you must joyn Humility This is the basis or foundation of all other vertues the first step of Iacobs ladder He that humbleth himself shall be exalted But the Moral vertues are a more proper subject for Me the first in order is Iustice This is the bond of all Societies Families Kingdomes and Commonwealths Justitiâ amotâ quid sunt regna nisi magna Latrocinia Justice is Suum cuique tribuere to perform your word contracts and thereby you will command other mens Estates as your own And let this be a Rule unto you Nullum utile quod non honestum that which is unjustly extorted from others will never prosper De male quaesitis non gaudet terâ—…ius haeres Think not to be registred a Saint in the Court of Heaven unless you make restitution aut voto â—…t facto of that which you have wrongfully exacted upon earth Non remittitur peccatum say the Casuists nisi restituitur ablatum But how will you be able to â—…ender every one his own
Asylum or Sanctuary unto them You are three in number Numero Deus impare gaudet And as Solomon saith The triple twisted cord is not easily broken Nemo laeditur nisi a scipso There be many ways middesses by which Families have decayed and many seeming wise men have overthrown their own estates Such are they that grasp more than they can hold Mortgage not your own land upon a certain title for other land of whose title you cannot be so well assured Such as these Syracides well noteth He that buyeth land with other mens mony is like one that buyeth a heap of stones to bury himself It is not the number of acres will give you content when you are besieged and oppressed with debts and necessities Melior est pauper saith Solomon sibi sufficiens quà m qui multa possidet tamen egenus Such as these are Gamesters also who out of a covetous desire and overweening to gain somtimes make a Patrimony but a Christmas-Cast Others have more sport for their Money who adventure bag after bag and never leave off till all be lost This hath accelerated the ruine of many noble Families I am not so supercilious to conceive but that it may be a firting decorum for you to play when by noble company you are invited thereunto nay not to play is a defect but then not to adventure more than you can well spare and for which the losse will not discontent you And in this your disport you are to have some respect unto time and not to make that to be your vocation which is onely intended for your recreation Ludendi modus est retinendus saith Tully And it will also become you to know the advantages of games so shall you not altogether commit your money which is so precious to the temerity of fortune Mony is the hand to all actions and it is also called alter sanguis and Regina pecunia cui omnia obediunt A consequent of the two former is the taking up of mony upon Interest What though you see many of the Nobility and Gentry involved and plunged therein Multitudo errrantium non parat errori patrocinium Cato being demanded Quid est foenerare made answer Hominem jugulare The Jews well versed in the trade ever since were permitted to lend upon usury to those Nations whom God had commanded to be cast out before them thereby to extâ—rp them It devoureth States and Kingdoms The King of Spain called the King of the golden purse upon whose Dominions the Sun never setteth was not able to pay the Interest of mony taken up from the Merchants of Genoa for the supply of his Army in the Low-Countries A concomitant to this of Usury is Suretyship which hath also undone many Mony cannot be procured but upon high security whereby you must make use of your friends even of your best friends If you suffer them to be sued and impleaded Actum est de Amicitia But for the most part the borrowers of money as at a mart are engaged one for another by a law of congruity Those that stand engaged for you you must underwrite for them also so that thereby your person and estate will not onely lie exposed to your own engagements which might be weighty enough to pull you down but for other mens debts also And then it will be too late for you to hearken unto Solomon whose advice is If thou be surety for thy Neighbour and hast stricken hands with a stranger give no sleep to thine eyes not slumber to thine eyelids Deliver thy self as a Doe from the hands of the hunter and as a bird from the hand of the fouler Your own engagements with others also by a figure of multiplication may so redouble and treble upon you that in a moment you may be swallowed up alive and that House wherein your Ancestors have been glorious for bounty and hospitality may become the Den of a mercilesse Usurer Your enemies will laugh you to scorn your friends passing by will lament and say O domus antiqua quà m dispari dominaris domino But to prevent these and other the like mischiefs you have a sure way Be you the fruitful servant of Almighty God you shall take deeper root You shall be like a tree planted by the water side which will bring forth fruit in due season your leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever you do it shall prosper Thus much for the preservation of your Honour and Estate which descend upon you from your Ancestors You may take breath a little and then proceed to the second part of this Discourse concerning your Company and Converse INSTRUCTIONS OR ADVICE TO HIS GRANDSON The second Part. HOmo est Animal sociale and he that is not sociable saith Aristotle is more than a man or lesse than a man aut Deus aut bellua either a God which hath need of none or a beast that will do good to none And from this principle or instinct of nature for men to live together he deduceth Families Villages Cities and Commonwealths But the best things have a mixture of ill and a difficulty ariseth since Mundus in maligno positus how shall we converse and not participate with other mens sins touch pitch and not be defiled or be like fishes of the Sea bred up in salt waters and alwaies sweet Pelagius affirmed that man onely sinned by imitation and certainly by seeing others sin before us we insensible suck in the poyson of Vice This hath been the cause that divers pious and devout men have dissociated and retired themselves into rocks caves and desart places thereby to avoid the contagion of Evil such as Iohn the Baptist Father of the Eremites But man by his Fall being judged to eat his bread Sudore vultus sai is necessitated to live and make choice of an active life which consisteth in labour commerce and thereby is engaged to the society of others And because of temptations it is good in the first place to avoid the converse of all known wicked persons such as â—…e Cheaters Ruffians Debauched who glory in their shame A â—…nis bona perdisces saith Seneca quod si malis adhaeseris mentem â—…uam habes proculdubio perdes But because the Assemblies of â—…en and those also of the better â—…ort which is to be bewailed â—…o abound with such we are to fortify our selves with the morall Vertues and put on the Christian Armour that thereby by Gods assistance we may avoid the baits and engines wherewith they endeavour to ensnare us as Solomon adviseth us Si alliciant te peccatores ne acquiescas eis c. Seneca also gives us excellent direction Cum tuis versare quite meliorem facturi sunt illos admitte quos tu potes facere meliores Good is diffusive and it is a happy Converse when we either profit others or our selves The first place in our Affections must be for our Friends True friendship is as Tully saith inter