Husbands should love their Wives Even as Christ loved the Church and gave himselfe for it In the next ensuing Chapter hee declareth the duty of Children in these words Children obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right Then hee descendeth to the duty of Parents And yee Fathers provoke not your children to wrath but bring them up in instruction and information of the Lord. Then touching Servants Servants bee obedient unto them that are your masters according to the flesh with feare and trembling in singlenesse of your hearts as unto Christ. Concluding the last duty with masters And yee Masters doe the same thing unto them putting away threatning and know that even your Master also is in Heaven neither is there respect of person with him Thus have wee briefly and cursorily runne over those particular duties deputed to every one from the highest to the lowest in their peculiar places and offices where wee can finde no exemption from the Servant to the Master but that certaine particular duties are enjoyned either As every mans house is his Castle so is his family a private Common-wealth wherein if due governement bee not observed nothing but confusion is to bee expected For the better prevention whereof I have thought good to set downe sundry cautions as well for direction in affaires Temporall as Spirituall which observed it is not to be doubted but that God will give you all good successe to your endevours FIrst therefore in affaires Temporall I could wish you to observe this course so to provide for the releefe and supportance of your familie as you may not onely have sufficient for your selves but also bee helpfull unto others sufficient for your selves in providing food and apparell being all which Iaakob desired of God and helpfull unto others in giving food and rayment to the fatherlesse in providing releefe for the desolate and comfortlesse in harbouring the poore needy and succourlesse and briefly in ministring to the necessity of the Saints and all such as are of the family of Faith And because providence is the way by which releefe both to your selves and others may bee sufficiently ministred beware of Prodigality and excesse Lest you give your honour unto others and your yeeres to the cruell Lest the strangers should bee filled with your strength and your labours bee in the house of a stranger Goe rather to the Pismire who though shee have no guide governour nor ruler provideth in Summer her granary for Winter Neither is it sufficient to gather but frugally to dispose of that which is gathered This Providence admits of no Vitellius break-fasts nor Cleopatra's bankets The Prodigals dainty tooth brought him to feede on huskes Esau's to sell his birth-right for a messe of pottage Ionathans for a honey-combe to endanger his life The Israelites to murmure against Moses Babylons golden cup to fill her full of abominations I have observed and no lesse admired than observed how some have consumed their estates in satisfying their appetites and that only in the choice of meats drinks and was not this a great vanity that those whom meats though lesse delightfull yet more healthfull might have sustained and fewer diseases occasioned could not content themselves with that which might have better satisfied nature but to shew themselves Epicures rather than Christians will bestow the revennues of a Manour upon the superfluous charge of a supper For these are they who like the Erycthons bowels will disgorge as much upon the boundlesse expence of their own Family as might serve wel for releeving a whole Countrey These are they who like the Endive or Misselto suck up al the natiue verdure and vigor of such plants as they inwreath for by their excesse though their owne luscious palats taste no want the comonalty feeles it when they goe to the Markets and finde the rate of all provision inhaunced by such whose Prodigality scarce extends a provident eye to themselves much lesse to the behoofe of others It is said of Cambletes the gluttonous King of Lydia that hee dreamed hee devoured his wife while they lay sleeping together in the same bed finding her hand betweene his teeth when hee awaked hee slew himselfe fearing dishonour Howsoever the History bee authenticke sure I am the Morall taxeth such whose Epicureall mindes are only set upon prodigall expence without respect either of present fortunes or care to posterity whose want is oft-times procured by their riot To bee short as Parcimony is too late when it comes to the bottome so it may bee with discretion used when it is at the top for I approve of his opinion who would have a Gentleman neither to hoord up niggardly nor lash out all lavishly For as the former argueth a miserable and ignoble minde so the latter sheweth a minde improvident and indiscreet both which are to bee so avoided that a meane betwixt both may bee duely observed For as I would have a Gentleman even in arguments of outward bounty shew whence he was descended so would I have him keepe a hanke lest his too free disposition bee through necessity restrained So as in matters of expence I hold his resolve authenticke who said I will never spare where reputation bids me spend nor spend where honest frugality bids me spare It is a good rule and worthy observation for whosoever spares when with credit and reputation hee should spend is indiscreetly sparing and whosoever spends when with honest frugality he may spare is prodigally spending Now in governement of a Family as I would not have you too remisse so I would not have you too severe towards your Servants I meane and those who have received their severall charge from you this it was which moved the Apostle to exhort masters to put away threatning adding this reason For know that even your Master also is in heaven neither is there respect of person with him Therefore it was Saint Augustines prayer unto God that hee would root out of him all rashnesse frowardnesse roughnesse unquietnesse slownesse slothfulnesse sluggishnesse dulnesse of minde blindnesse of heart obstinacie of sense truculencie of manners disobedience to goodnesse repugnance of counsell want of bridling the tongue making a prey of the poore shewing violence to the impotent calumniating the innocent negligence of subjects severity towards servants harshnesse towards familiars hardnesse towards neighbours Hence note how in this holy Fathers repetition and enumeration of many grievous and odious sins hee toucheth severity towards servants as a hainous and egregious offence and not without great cause for if we bee taught not to muzzle the Oxe that treadeth out the corne and that we are to spare the life of our beasts much more ought wee to have mercy over such as partake with us in the same Image which wee have equally from him received by whom wee live move and have our being I approve therefore of them who put on the spirit of
then turne loyterer their late distemper'd rest into a shady repose or plenteous repast Such as these will be the aptest for taking up those words of that malapert Servant in the Gospel My Master doth deferre his comming Hee resolves therefore to take advantage of time and to play the Commander in the absence of his Master Where like an imperious Censor he begins to smite the servants and maidens and to eate and drinke and to be drunken These are many times the fruits of parcimonious Masters who by tasking their Servants too strictly or by deteining from them what they are to render them in equity either make them dissolute or some other way desperate whereof wee have such daily examples as their too insulting command have brought many timorous Servants to a fearefull end The like may be spoken of domineering Mistresses who make their correction of their Maids their sole recreation And these for most part are of that tenacious nature as they will not afford a competence to their Family but ingage themselves to famine amidst of plenty These as they live without love so they generally dye without teares Their excessive care to advance a posterity as it expos'd them to an indiscreet parcimony so it ever closed their memory with an incompassionate Elegy This that injuried Melissa in the Poet expressed who having long time served where shee little profited and now freed of her sharpe Mistris Drusilla by death attached resolved to revive her Mistresses memory one no lesse decrepit in mind then body in this Loves Lachrymae or her Ladies Elegie Ladies tell mee you that shine In the fancy of the time Would you live when you doe feele Maladies from head to heele Rugged wrinkles on that brow Whiter once then Ida's snow Many rivels beamlings few Where the Rose and Lily grew When those dangling'trosses shall In a timely Autumne fall When that breath shall Earth partake Which was once Ambrosiack When those pearled Cordons shed Leave your mouths unpeopled When your nose and chin shall meet Balmy Palme has lost her heat When those weake-supporting feet Faile in traversing the street If Death pleasing be to such Why should frailty then thinke much When like Grasse she is cut downe For others good and for her owne Let not a tear then dimme your eye When you see your Mother dye She only to her Mother goes Where for a while she must repose Till her united parts shall sing A glorious Paean to her King Or to Dis I know not which Who made her poore by being rich For ready Entrance who 'l deny her That has the Keyes of Angels by her But let us decline our course from these parcimonious natures being such as make themselves most miserable in having by enjoying least what they have in possessing And in briefe deliver the true Character of a deserving Master Which we shall not presume to commend unto you as a Patterne or Modell drawne from the Engine of our owne conceit being already so exactly presented to life by that glorious Convert and excellent Vessell of Election in these words Yee Masters doe unto your servants that which is just and equall knowing that ye also have a Master in Heaven And to attemper the inclemency of sterne and implacable Masters whose highest glory it is domineere over their Servants he useth this exhortation Put away threatning for know that even your Master also is in Heaven neither is there respect of persons with him Now to observe this golden meane in your Command neither beare your selves so indulgent as your remissenesse may probably beget a neglect in your Servant for so by remitting your care might you occasion him to difert or omit his charge nor cruell for your distemper may discourage a well composed nature and make him weary of his imployments for so severe and rigid a Master Be it your care that neither your remissenesse make him sleight you nor your to much strictnesse bring him to hate you So shal your gracefull demeanour deserve the choyce of such a Servant as I am now to present unto you whose service shall be to your solace and whose behaviour shall ever conduce to your profit and honour NOw as you have heard those distinct Offices of Masters to their Servants You who are in all lawfull things to obey your Masters recollect what especiall duties import you and how you stand obliged both by divine and humane Law to performe conscionably what you are enjoyned to observe legally And to expresse your selves the better in the performance of this duty let not such taskes nor imployments as are injoyned you be done perfunctorily or remissely but cheerfully and with all alacrity Observe the direction of that sage Morall That labour loseth a great part of its honour that is done in a secure or drowsie manner A Servant to render himselfe truly obedient must have agility of hand and alacrity of heart Many by repining have lost their penny in the Evening And know ye that as a curse is denounced on that Master who defraudeth his Servant of his wages so can no blessing redound unto that Servant who defraudeth his Master of his worke It was the Apostles exhortation and it well deserves your attention Servants be obedient unto them that are your Masters according to the flesh with feare and trembling in singlenesse of your hearts as unto Christ. Whence you may collect how pretences of obedience without reverence and sincerenesse can purchase no acceptance Let it bee your principall care to reteine a memory of your highest Master by which you shall learne to performe those offices to his honour which are recommended to your charge and in the evening of your service amply remunerate your care Iacob because hee did the duty of a carefull servant became a Master of dutifull Servants He shall never know well how to command that has not learned first how to obey Obedience is a thankfull Sacrifice Neither can he well expresse it to his invisible Maker who has not endeavour'd to render it to his visible Master You know well what is commended and committed to you discharge your place with discretion it will improve your Masters affection confirme his good opinion and conferre a blessing on your fortune A discreet servant shall have rule over a lewd sonne Doe you observe this honour As you tender then your reputation let your service be ever seasoned with discretion Let not your labours be to the eyes of men seeing you are in his sight whose eyes are upon all the Children of men Let not your Masters presence be the sole motive to your diligence but when hee is farthest divided from you addresse your imployments as if hee were present with you Let no wandring thoughts distract you as you are seated in a vocation you must not suffer it to admit of the least distraction This has made too many Labourers mighty Loiterers by suffering their thoughts to
such a faire provision as it may prepare you to be loyall Lovers discreet Fathers just Masters friendly Neighbours and which is above all such absolute Commanders of your own affections as should all those occurrents which encounter mortality oppose you they could not surprize you because a pious resolution hath reer'd her counter-mure to secure you This Taske I shall account happy so it may redound to your profit Gods glory FINIS A Tablet reflecting upon this SVPPLEMENT A Preamble branching it selfe into a briefe Analysis of the whole Tract pag. 1. Of Conjugall Offices pag. 6. OBSERVAT. 1. The excellent saying of Caia wife to Caius Tarquinius ibid. The noble Florentines Impreze which hee caused to be engraven for a Nuptiall Embleme pag. 7 Conjugall Offices are not to be disorderly mixed Palaemon si Caulam negligat Galataeam faciet indigentem Galataea si Colum deserat Palaemonem faciet insipientem p. 9. The Offices of a Wife to her Husband pag. 10 Wonderfull Examples of Piety and Mortification p. 13 A discreet loving Treaty betwixt a Wife and her Husband recommended to the constant practise of all affectionate Censorts p. 14 Offences ingenuously acknowledged are with conjugall piety and pity to be pardoned and this locally instanced p. 15 Of Parentall Offices p. 16. OBSERVAT. 2. A Parentall care reflects properly upon two distinct Objects Internall Externall The one to educate them in Principles of Religion the other to accommodate them for a Vocation p. 16. 17. c. The highest point of discretion in a Schoole-master is to find out the disposition of his Scholler p. 18 Inconsiderate youth accounts the fruitlesse expence of time a meere pastime ib. Parents are to dispose of their estates now while they stand seazed of estates lest their decease alter the intention of their estates p. 22 The Offices of Children to their Parents ibid. Children are bound to render unto their Parents expressions of their duty and zeale in three respects Obedience p. 23. c. Reverence p. 23. c. Supportance p. 23. c. The fruits of Obedience as they have relation both to Children and Parents p. 25 The Admonition of an incensed Father to a disobedient Sonne p. 27 A constant position observable in disobedient Children p. 28. The graduall respects of love and duty p. 30 Of Domestick Offices p. 31. OBSERVAT. 3. The Offices of Masters to their Servants ibid. Two extreames or perillous Poles to be avoided whereby this Domestick Obedience may be better observed Lenity p. ibid. Severity p. ibid. No Servant meaner then a Parcimonious Master p. 32. The duty of Servants to their Masters p. 34 The duty of a Servant to his Master will make a Servant an happy Master ibid. Emblematicall Hieroglyphicks of sloath p. 35 Adam no sooner became sinfull then the earth unfruitfull ibid. It is not sufficient for a Servant to intend his owne peculiar charge unlesse he admonish others of the neglect of their care p. 36 Of Neighbourly Offices p. ibid. OBSERVAT. 4. All Neighbourly Offices pitch upon three particulars Arguments of Discourse or Communication p. 36. c. Arguments of Action and Negotiation p. 36. c. Arguments of Pastime and Recreation p. 36. c. Foure cautions in matters of Discourse to be avoided that all grounds of distaste may be better diverted Telling marvailes p. 37 Pressing reasonings p. 37 Lessening others merits p. 37 Making comparisons p. 37 Three particulars observable in arguments of Discourse Verity ibid. Vtility ibid. Modesty ibid. Three peculiar Subjects wherein these Neighbourly Offices are to be exercised LIFE p. 38 FAME p. 38 SVBSTANCE p. 38 Five degrees of civile society 1 Of one Family p. 39 2 Of one City p. 39 3 Of Neighbourhood or Propinquity p. 39 4 Of Amity p. 39 5 Of one Countrey p. 39 The dangers arising from opinionate wits p. 44. The unexpected events of frequent meetings p. 45 Circumstances observable in all inferiour actions of delight 1 With whom wee consort p. 46 2 For what end we consort p. 46 3 The meane p. 46 whereby we may attaine the end for which we consort HEE winds up the Series of his discourse with a repetition and usefull application of every particular branch ibid. The usuall salutation by the ancient Lations observed and as it is to this day by us reteined p. 47 HEE concludes this Supplement with a briefe relation of the benefit of every particular Subject ibid. A Conclusive POEM contracting all these Subjects in one BY Him who steers the sterne of ev'ry State Inspires our Muse informes us how to write That Palme of peace that day which knowes no date That Sole-all-seeing and surveying sight That wings our faith and cheers us when we fight By His sweet influence was this begun With whom it ends and so my Worke is done To you then ENGLISH GENTLEMEN to whom Our first part is addrest Bestow your care To act what may Gentility become That as yee in your Fathers Fortunes share Your Vertues may proclaime whose Sonnes yee were 'T is this will leave your Names more eminent Then Honour fading Favour or Descent Next to you ENGLISH LADIES who expresse A native beauty in each act yee doe Let good resolves prepare your morning dresse And thinke on Heav'n when wanton Suiters wooe Or on those Mates yee stand affianc'd to Fame is a precious odour whose least graine Once shed is hardly gather'd up againe LADIES LOVE LECTVRE to you have I read Where yee such fresh-choice-fragrant flow'rs may cull As yee no other Ornaments shall need Fill then your Iv'ry-azur'd bosomes full Ne're any such did Atalanta pull Prove usefull Readers then and if yee erre Condemne mee for a carelesse Lecturer Lastly I 've cloz'd all in a SVPPLEMENT Where modest tearmes describe the art of love Which to the rest gives such Embellishment 'T is styl'd the TRIVMPH of the TVRTLE-DOVE Whose reall-loyall Emblemes if yee prove I shall not chuse but like where ere I looke And for your sakes make bold to kisse the Booke FINIS FOR THE MOST VERTVOVS AND Nobly-Accomplisht LADIE THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE ELIZABETH DOWAGER COVNTESSE of STRAFFORD HIGHLY EMINENT IN THE SKALE OF THE SERIOUS'T AND SERENEST JUDGEMENTS FOR HER PIOUS CONSERVATION OF THE LIVING MEMORY OF Her most Absolute CONSORT A CHARACTER OF HONOVR TO write of Honour and not amply according to Honours Character were a derogation to her and to write exactly would require a more expert and judicious Artist then every rude Myson to take in hand a subject of such consequence But vertue as she is best adorned when least garnished with externall colours so Honour is most lively when she seemes most naked of Rhetoricall Varnish The best Moralls have ever pourtray'd Justice by a scale poyzing every action duely discussing every ambiguity throughly without fixing of her eye on the object of Majesty commanding or of Amity with more easie meanes perswading They have deciphered Fortitude not by Thrasoe boast or a precipitate opposing her selfe
mildnesse towards such as are deputed or substituted under them bearing with one anothers weakenesse as those who have a compassionate feeling of humane infirmities not laying such heavy burdens upon them as they themselves will not touch with their finger but will in some measure partake with them in all their labours But of all other vices incident to masters there is none more hateful in the sight of God and man than the unthankefulnesse or disrespect of Masters towards their servants when they have spent their strength and wasted themselves in their service These like the Greyhound in the fable may well say that they see nothing can please but that which doth profit when they were young able and fit to endure labour they were respected whereas now being old infirme and helplesse either to themselves or others they are sleightly regarded Whereas if they were thankfull masters these whom they once loved for profit-sake in youth they would now love in age in respect of the profit they reaped by their youth But alas doe we not see how nothing is more contemptible than an old Servingman Hee may say hee was a man in his time but that is all There is no man that will know him since his blew-coat knew no Cognizance the losse of his Crest makes him hang downe his Crest as one crest-fallen so as the poore Larke may boast of more than he may for every Larke hath his crest saith Simonides but hee hath none To redresse this as in humanitie you ought so I know such as are Generously disposed will that those who have deserved well under you being now growne aged yet unpreferred may by our care be so maintained that their service of Labour may be made a service of Prayer offering their sacrifice of devotion unto God that great Master of a Houshold that He in his mercy would give a happy successe unto all your endeavours Now as the Labourer is worthy of his wages for cursed is he that defraudeth the labourer of his hire so there is an especiall care required in every seruant to looke unto that which is given him in charge For the better discharge whereof it is inioyned you that be Masters not to be too remisse in your care and over-seeing thereof for much over-sight is usually committed for want of a good overseer Admonish your servants that they intend their charge suffer them not to idle but in their peculiar places to doe that which they in dutie are to performe and you in reason are to expect Wherein as they proceed in diligence so are you to requite their care with a cheerefull thankfulnesse If it be your lot to have such an one as Iaacob was as rare it is to find such an one as he was reward him not with a bleare-eyed Leah for a beautifull and faire Rachel I meane abridge not nor scant not their wages for this is a discredit to your selfe and a discouragement to your servants If he say These twenty yeares I have beene with thee thine ewes and thy goates have not cast their young and the rams of thy flocke have I not eaten Whatsoever was torne of beasts I brought it not unto thee but made it good my selfe of mine hand diddest thou require it were it stollen by day or stollen by night I was in the day consumed with heat and with frost in the night and my sleepe departed from mine eyes Thus have I beene twenty yeares in thine house and served thee fourteene yeares for thy two daughters and six yeares for thy sheepe and thou hast changed my wages ten times If I say he hath thus served you and shewne faithfulnesse in that charge over which he was appointed reward him with a bountifull hand and encourage his care with your best countenance Whereas contrariwise if you meet with such a Servant that saith in his heart My master doth deferre his comming and shall begin to smite the servants and maidens and to eat and drinke and to be drunken you are not to use remisnesse to such a Servant but to cut him off lest you give example unto others by your indulgence to be of the like condition In briefe as a good servant is a precious jewell tendring the profit and credit of him he serveth so an evill servant whose service is onely to the eye and not for conscience sake is a scatterer of his substance whom he serveth aiming only at his owne private profit without least respect had to his Masters benefit Difference therefore you are to make of their care in cherishing the one and chastising the other which can hardly be effected unlesse you who are to make this difference of your servants have an eye to their imployments Neither would I have your care so extended as to afflict and macerate your selves by your excessive care a meane is the best both in the preservation of health and wealth Be diligent saith Solomon to know the state of thy flocke and take heed to thy herds Yet withall note his conclusion Let the milke of thy goates be sufficient for thy food for the food of thy family and for the sustenance of thy maids Whence you may observe that to gather is admitted so the use or end for which we gather be not neglected For such whose Hydropâ—icke minds ever raking and reaping yet know not how to imploy the blessings of God by a communicative exhibition unto others are become vassals unto their owne making their gold-adoring affection an infection their reason treason and the wealth which they have got them a witnesse to condemne them But I have insisted too long on this point especially in framing my speech to you whose more free-borne dispositions will ever scorne to bee tainted with such unworthy aspersions wherefore I will descend briefly to such instructions as you are to use touching spirituall affaires being Masters of Housholds in your private families WEE reade that Abraham commanded his sonnes and his houshold that they should keepe the way of the Lord to doe righteousnesse and judgement And wee are taught what we must doe returning from Gods house to our owne and what we are to doe sitting in our houses even to lay up Gods word in our heart and in our soule and binde it for a signe upon our hand that it may be as a frontlet betweene our eyes And not onely to be thus instructed our selves but to teach them our children speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou lust downe and when thou risest up And not so onely but thou shalt write them upon the posts of thine house and upon thy gates Whence you see how no place time or occasion is to be exempted from meditating of God but especially in Housholds and Families ought this exercise of devotion to he frequently and fervently practised for a Blessing is pronounced upon
divert all grounds of future distrust We are then in this usefull Connexion first to treat of Conjugall Offices being inherent as that grave Morall tels us betwixt Husband and Wife Wife and Husband Secondly of Parentall Offices being subsequent as that profound Stagyrite teacheth of Parents to their Children and Children to their Parents Thirdly of Domestick Offices being Concomitant as that sound Stoicke reasoneth being of Masters to their Servants and Servants to their Masters Fourthly of Neighbourly Offices being reciprocally dependent as that excellent Politicke concludeth being mutuall civill Offices or Courtesies betwixt Neighbour and Neighbour In all which distinct Subjects our purpose is with such brevity and perspicuity to deliver our usefull directions that in this very Breviarie may be layd downe the Rules of an entire Oeconomie Which being perused with attention and seconded with retention may not onely prevent all occasion of dissention at home but all division abroad For be the Sea never so troubled there is good hope that the groaning ship may be better secured when Wisedome and Moderation performe the offices of a Pilot and with a vigilant eye steers her against all occurrents Of Conjugall Offices IT was the saying of the Wisest of Kings Hee that findeth a Wife findeth a good thing and receiveth favour of the Lord. And that he might more emphatically expresse the incomparable estimate of a good Wife and how far in the Scale of judgement she is to be preferred before substance riches or any worldly inheritance to render them the more proper and genuine distinction he returnes them not only a distinct gradation but also a different derivation House and riches are the inheritance of the Fathers but a prudâ—nt Wife commeth of the Lord. In what high estimation are you then Gentlemen to hold discreet women And what happinesse may you be said to enjoy in casting your lots in so faire a field so fruitfull a ground Where you are Caius shee will be Caia such is her constancy Where you are Agathocles she will be Theogena yours in prosperity and adversity Fulnesse of fortunes cannot transport her nor any indigence dejâ—ct her Shee cannot endure to admit of that Italian Proverbe for Orthodoxall which they hold for a Tenet so generall When Love wants harbour it drives Love into a fever No so shee may live where she enjoyes her love she is rich enough how soe're she live Now what mutuall offices are required that love so freely tendered may be requited Humanity sayes the Philosopher exacts love for love But love her you cannot if you mixe your love with any or fix it on any wherein shee partakes not Let it then be your care that she only have the Monopoly of your love Let her Bed be undefiled your Vow inviolate remembring ever that divine Maxim To breake a Spoâ—full Vow 's an odious sin To keepe't unstain'd h 'as still an honour bin And to observe this Lesson better conceive with your selfe how ill you should digest her if shee should wrong you in the same sort It is an apparent Argument of honest Wisedome said that ancient Sage to module an other by our owne measure For to impose heavie burdens on others and never to partake of them to injoyne taskes on others and not to share in them argues an indulgency in respect of our selves our inhumanity unto others Entertaine this Fellow-helper then which you have received and to whom by a sacred Nuptiall tye recorded in Heaven solemnized on Earth and confirmed by the mutuall gages of two individually united hearts you stand affianced with an affectionate continence knowing how an heart divided cannot live nor a divided fancy truly love For as there is nothing so precious as a continent soule so is there nothing more odious than a Nuptiall Bed stained with an adulterate soyle That devout Father Saint Ambrose can tell you that it is a Crime detestable to Savages and Barbarians how much more to be excluded from the practise of Christians The very Birds of the ayre can retaine a memory of a dishonour'd love witnesse the Porphyrio who as the Naturall Historian reports no sooner finds another too familiar a sharer in her love then she despaires any longer to live Her Nest she leaves desolate and in her distasted life she becomes so disconsolate as being so injuriously abused by her endearedst friend she chuseth griefe to be her only Associate to accompany her to her Grave How passionately takes the loving Turtle the losse or dereliction of her beloved She will brouze on no greene herbe sit upon no flourishing sprig nor entertaine any new love She frequents the retired Laune where throbs and dis-passionate threnes become her choycest melody sighes griefes and groanes her Widows obsequy Receive these loyall Emblemes of constant fancy in the precious Store-house of your memory ever making use of these morall Readings that if creatures directed onely by sense scorne to be sensuall much more purity should that soule retaine which is rationall How mournfully did that propheticall Dove expresse his pious zeale and devout compassion in the discovery of this sinne a great dishonour to the house of Sion In the morning every one neighs after his Neighbours wife Nay observe how hee seconds it that the brutish nature of this sin might be fuller displayed In the morning they are as fed horses Thus were they sated and surfeited in their sensuall delights making the pleasures of sinne their gaine and the torments of Hell their goale Shall wee close this with the positive Conclusion of that Vessell of Election Marriage is honourable among all and the Bed undefiled but Whore-mongers and Adulterers God will judge Or with that passionate expostulation of the Prophet in the person of God himselfe against this sinne with the numerous Professors of this sinne How should I spare thee for this thy Children have forsaken me and sworne by them that are no gods though I fed them to the full yet they committed Adultery and assembled themselves by companies in the Harlots houses But to use the words of that elegant Morall It is the least of our feare but to find more rich treasure in your Tents more pious graces in your Pavillions your descent promiseth largely to your family that as your Predecessors vertues were as Signals or Land-markes to their posterity so you walking in the same pathes might derive the like streamlings of goodnesse unto yours An ancient Family saith that excellent Ethick retaines ever some beame-lings transcending others And as a genuine modesty is for most part an Attendant to Ingenuity so are generous Graces those constant'st Consorts which hold in equipage with true Gentry That solid Cinick hearing how a young Gallant descending from the order of the Ephori became hatefully debaucht preferred his suite and in it humbly begged this loose Rioters estate The whole Synod wondring much how and on what grounds that
nearest tye of affection no doubt but wee are by the Law of Nature nay by the definite command of our Maker rather to surcease from living then from supporting those from whom we received our being Our breeding was their care let our care bestow it selfe on their succour Let not a wish proceed from our heart to accelerate their end Though a wish extend not to an act yet it breaths too much inhumanity to worke upon so native a part Man should be of a more noble and malleable a temper then to partake of the nature of a Viper It is reported that towards the North-west part of Ireland there is an Iland so temperate or by some miraculous influence so indowed as when any Inhabitant there becomes worne with age or so enfeebled as their life becomes an affliction so tedious their houres so fastidious their yeares their Children or Friends must remove them out of that place before they can dye Whether there be any such enlivening Ile or no I shall leave to the credit of the Relater but I much feare mee there be many remorcelesse Friends and gracelesse Children who would find ready hands to remove those eye-sores from that Iland long before such times as any such decrepit age seized on them desiring rather to enjoy their present fortunes then the presence of their persons But such premature hopes resolve themselves into weake helpes for where Sonnes are sicke of the Father or Daughters of the Mother they generally decrease no lesse in the prosperity of their estate then quality of their nature Be it then your care to provide for their necessity to support them in their misery and cheerefully returne them all such offices of piety as may relieve their age and consequently improve your comfort in a surviving posterity And so we descend briefly to those Domestick Offices wherein the Servant is to expresse himselfe with all diligence and reverence to his Master as likewise in what manner every Master is to demeane himselfe towards his Servant in a gratefull and ample measure to requite his endeavour Wherein as they merit precedency we are first to treat of the Offices of a Master and in the second place of those duties of a Servant to his Master which are ever to be rendred with competent honour Of Domestick Offices EVery private Family is a little City wherein if there should be no order nor harmony that distracted government would beget a private Anarchy It were a great abuse said that Mellifluous Bernard for the Mistris to play the Hand-maid the Hand-maid and Mistris yet as the eyes of the Hand-maid should be upon the eyes of her Mistris so must not the eyes of the Mistris be estranged from the eyes of her Hand-maid As there is a deputative charge recommended to the one so should there be a supervisive care in the other Now as Masters challenge to themselves a power to command so are they to have discretion in knowing what they command In some cases Servants may more conscionably dis-obey then obey the commands of their Masters Ioseph would not ingage his honour by prostituting his chaste thoughts to a prohibited pleasure for the losse of a light Mistris favour Lawfull things only as they are by Masters to bee commanded so are they with all alacrity by Servants to be obeyed Now to walke in such a faire a smooth path of commanding as neither the Master may erre in the exhibition of his commands nor the Servant shew himselfe remisse in observing what is commanded the Master is to decline two extreames the neglect whereof many times begets either a contempt or hate in the Master an insolence or remissenesse in the Servant These are Leuity and Severity for as the one makes the Servant more insolent so the other makes the Master more hated The Wise-man indeed proposeth a Rule how Masters are to command and in what manner they are to demeane themselves to their Servants which he expresseth to life in these words He that delicately bringeth up his Servant from youth at length hee will be even as his Sonne Whence he inferreth That too much delicacy or familiarity with ones servant begets a contempt This makes him quite forget his servile condition and strangely infuseth into him an over-weening conceit of his owne abilities which begets in him such a malapertnesse as in short time his perverse disposition confiâ—mes the Wise-mans assertion He will not bee chastised with words though hee understand yet hee will not answer It is dangerous then to make a Copesmate of our Inferiour You are then to observe a Meane in this neither to insensate them by too much indulgency nor decline their affections from you by too much severity That indiscreet act of Vedius Pollio could deserve no lesse then an extreame censure who as one stript of humane nature could so intemperately tyrannize over his Servants as to cause one to bee cast into a Fish-pond for breaking a Glasse What an excellent rigid Master would this man have beene for our lascivious and spritely Gallants who cannot present an Health to their britle Venus without the breach of a Venice Glasse Now there be many Masters who with Zimri by seeking their Servants lose themselves These are so glued to the world as they verily think the world has not enough mould to give every one an handfull They never looke upon the wheele for such Emblemes are farre from them which in its motion has ever the least part or portion of all his proportion upon the ground Earth receives the least part of it whereas earth enjoyes the most of their heart These though they reteine the title of Masters are in their condition poorer then the lowest of their Servants For in those comforts or complies of nature they partake the least share Their sleeps are distracted their unseasonable repasts undigested their clothes sordidly or broakishly suited So as such miserable wretches as these who are only rich in having but poore in enjoying want no Character to discover the quality of their slimy nature but that Epitaph or Inscription which was addressed for one of the like temper and in this manner Here lyes hee who had stocke and store Had flocks i' th field had corne o' th floore Had Goats within and Gates at 's doore Had all a-Shore yet dyed poore I vow by fate a wondrous feate That such a Mate should dye for meate It is farre better to possesse little and enjoy it then by possessing much to be estranged from the enjoyment of it These as they are ever their owne Tormentors so they for most part leave few Mourners but fat Executors I have observed many of these rigid and severe Masters suited with the very sluggisht and sloathfull'st Servants Such as though they pretended diligence in their Masters sight it was but eye-service at the best For their Masters absence gave them an easie dispensation with Conscience Their seeming labour must
wander amidst those interesses of their labour Thinke how many are made slaves of servants This cannot chuse but sweeten your taske in conceiving that extreame servitude which others taste Let not an indiscreet word passe from you know how you are to serve Let your speech then suite with the condition of a servant A malapert answer may exasperate the passion of the most indulgent Master But above all things observe this Caveat Guild not over your errours with glozing excuses To defend an errour is the way to confirme you in errour Nor is there any hope of his reclayming who either stands in justification of his offence or with a frontlesse boldnesse labours to approve it either by a palliated excuse or apparent defence For in this case saith the Civilian the meere defence equals the quality of the offence Now to divert all occasions of wandring be it your care to assigne every distinct houre his peculiar taske There is no rust that consumes iron so much as Sloath enfeebles or effeminates the spirit Idlenesse makes of Men Women of Women Beasts of Beasts Monsters Let it not then be said of you what was sometimes spoken of Margites that he never plowed nor digged nor did any thing all his life long that might tend unto goodnesse Such as these are wholly unprofitable to the world Furnished with Ericthous bowels but Philoxenus hands for howsoever they are lesse then Pigmies at their work yet at their meat they are more then men I would have these Patrons and Patterns of Idlenesse used as Zeno handled his servant Bruso who being taken with theft and alledging for himselfe that it was his destiny to steale so apt are the most irregular to weave excuses his Master shaped him as ready an answer and thy destiny to be beaten The Crab-fish when as the Oyster doth open her selfe by a politick instinct casteth a stone into her shell by which meanes being not able to shut her selfe againe she becomes a prey unto the Crab. The Fathers by a proper allusion apply this unto the Divell when hee findeth men gaping and idle he casteth into them some stone of temptation whereby he workes their overthrow and ruine The sloathfull man is the Divels shop there hee workes ever most busie when men are lazie ever intentivest when men are securest For as mans extremity is Gods opportunity such is his piety So the Divels opportunity is mans security such is his policy You are to know then that Health commeth not from the Clouds without seeking nor Wealth from the Clods without digging The Earth begun from her former fertility to faile when Adam begun to fall It needed not then such culture as it afterwards required to make it fruitfull Had Adam never transgrest hee had never received that strict command of eating his bread in the sweat of his browes Eden was then a native fruitfull Garden but Adams sinne alter'd the soyle As you are then injoyned and by a strict Covenant tyed neglect no time wherein you may in a conscionable way render unto your Master an usefull account of your imployment And as this is required at your hands so let this bee done with cheerfull hearts For where alacrity accompanies any good or pious action it argues a sincere previous intention which indeed is the Crown of every action For good actions may be ill done either by being corrupted in their doing or by being not intended before they were done You are then to performe your labours with singlenesse of heart which affords an high approvement to every act There is one thing more which you are carefully to prevent for as the errour is more generall so it requires a timely diversion lest habit begin to sleight the quality of the offence through an inurement or continuance of practise I have observed many Servants to hold this opinion that if their care extend it selfe to what is committed to their charge they are not bound in conscience to looke any further The Charge of their Fellow-servants holds no relation with them They doe what is injoyned them and this as they erroneously pretend may sufficiently discharge them It is true indeed as the world goes such Servants may bee well received into the list of carefull Reteiners who addresse their labour to what is peculiarly injoyned them by their Masters But if they should duly consider the office of a faithfull Servant their care would dilate it selfe to an higher extent For that Servant cannot love his Master sincerely nor performe those offices which are required of him effectually unlesse hee reteine a cautious and vigilant eye towards his Fellowes care and to their neglects prescribe a cure Yet not so as by an insinuating way so to ingratiate themselves in their Masters favours as by private whisperings or suggestions to lay a disgrace upon their fellow-Fellow-servants This is neither an act of duty nor any such office as may hold coherence with charity For her Rule is to doe as you would be done unto But if you apparently perceive that those who are in Family with you neglect their charge or profusely dissipate your Masters goods you are not in conscience bound to bee their Secretaries For when no admonitions will reclaime them corrasives instead of cordials must be applyed to them Thus have you heard what you are to doe and what you are to decline Much is expected from you because much is committed to you Remit not your care but reflect on your heavenly Master in whose presence you ever are Begin the actions of every day with a memoriall of piety so shall you prosper better in the performance of those offices in your Family And so we descend to our last Observation which strikes Anchor upon those neighbourly Offices which wee are to doe mutually one to another Of Neighbourly Offices OVr daily experience and hourely Observance may sufficiently informe us that as our Speech is the bond or arterie of humane society so is humane society an especiall solace in this vale of misery That rough Philosopher who gloried more in his contempt of the world then others did in enjoying the fulnesse of it though he naturally affected retirednes yet could he not chuse but apprehend a great happines to consist in the mutuall enjoyment of one anothers neighbour-hood This moved him to returne that answer to one who intreated his resolution touching a parcell of ground which he was to purchase with the conveniences which accomodated it Before thou become purchaser inquire first who shall be thy Neighbour An ill Neighbour makes an unhappy Farmer Neither can the purchase be deare who has a friendly Neighbour at his doore It was the Wisemans positive assertion He that despiseth his neighbour is destitute of wisedome Now to preserve this neighbourly vnion that as propinquity of place hath joyned them so a sweet harmony of mindes may ever accompany them you are first to know in what especiall offices this
fidem violare nefas nuptialem thorum venerari aâ—cus Thales Miles Ambros. lib. 1. de Abraham Aeliâ—n in nat hist. Alciaâ— in Emblem This you may the better retaine by engraving in the window of your Bed-chamber with thas noble Flâ—rentine this Impreze to make you more tender of your nuptiall honour Emblema est 〈…〉 theri Ier. 5.8 Heb. 13.4 Ier. 5.7 Optima semper ingenia quaedam geâ—â—â—â—a comitatur modestia Gen. 39.9 Tali conjugio fruor ut sive foris egrediar sive revertar quicquidevenerit libentissimè patior patiendo vinco citiùs quà m vincor Vid. Licost. Apotheg Meleand in Bast. Palemon ad caulam Calatea ad colum Plutarch Licosth Macrob. The offices of a wife to her husband Obsâ—ruantur fenestrae ut luceat domâ—s Sen in Herc. Fur. Macrob. Habitus mentis in corporu statu cernitur Gestus corporis indicat qualitatem mentis Vid. Gre. in Mor. Bern. in Epist. Aug. in Confess Nazian Luke 13.32 In urbe maxima confluunt vitia Bona consortia vita solatia Petrarch de remed utriusquè fortunae Caro quò agilior Anima debilior Anima quò sortior Caro infirmior In Pandect Hippol. de Collib Obserantur aedes quò interiores splendeant sedes Quae unius cellulae clausa angustiis latitudine coeli fruebatur Her de laud. Asellae Epist. 15. A discreet loving Treaty betwixt a Wife and her Husband recoÌ„mended to the constant practice of affectionate Consorts Primitias prolis teneas Botolphia sedes Ingenio pollens palladis arte potens Prae sâ—ciis docilis puerilibus Argus in annis Ast Spurii stirpes obtinuere leves Vid. Remaines of a greater work Aug. Gen. 3.16 Victi victoresquè in lachrymas fusi Cadmaea victoria 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ambros. li. 1. de offic ca. 18. Vxorem vivam amare voluptas est defunctam religio Observ. 2. A Parentall care reflects properly upon two distinct Objects Arist. in Eth. Prov. 22.6 Vid. Plutarch Trog Pomp. Macrob in aturn Stobae Appian Alex. Patere How a Prodigals profuâ—enesâ—e abuseth his parents providence With such transported spirits as these divine ayres are accounted choyce Canto's only for dull eares Our ignorant gentry estrangeth Philosophy from their society The reason why young Gentlemen are not in learning delighted is because they are not in principles of learning sufficiently grounded Vid. Petrarch The highest point of discretion in a School-master is to find out the disposition of his Scholler Inconsiderate youth accounts the fruitlesse expence of time a meere pastime 〈◊〉 senâ—x tenâ—io â—idem in qu◠〈…〉 sâ—m Hier. ad Pammach Ocean de eâ—ror Orig. Levius esâ— dispendium sertâ—â—ae quà m famae famae quà m animâ— Chrysol Lâ—â—â—â—t 1 Tim 5.8 Talis substantia non est stabilis aut ipsis invenientibus est peritura aut à malis haeredibus esâ— dissipanda Chrysost. in Matth. Vide Plut. vid. Var. Macrob in Saâ—â—â— Media viâ— peâ—ere via dirigitur quâ adâ—â—ctam â—endiâ—ur Fodere nondum didicerunt mendicare crabuerunt fures igitur non caiâ—s vident quâ—m cum iis currunt 〈◊〉 adulteris portione ponunt Ista ne generosa cersâ—amus vitia quae antiquae 〈◊〉 detraxerunt auspicia Pandect Parents are to dispose of their estates now while they stand seized of estates lest their decease alter the intention of their estates The offices of Children to their Parents Children are bound to render vnto their parents expressions of their duty and zeale in 3 respects OBEDIENCE Ecclus. 7.27.28 Magistris diâ—s Parentibus non 〈◊〉 reddi equivalens Arist. Eth 9. Parentes nostros vt propria viscera dâ—ligamus Basil. Mâ—retur caecitatis suae subire supplicium qui parentum vultus torvo visu respexit elatis oculis laeserit pietarâ—â— Greg. Sicut membra capiti liberi et servi patri familiae Elench Parentes pius diligunt faâ—es quam è converso eò quòd magis sciunt parentes quám filij quòd ab iis sunt geniti Arist. Eth. 8. Rariùs ascendit descendit gratius 〈◊〉 Quae patres paeris non retulere suis. Salv. Illud expectandum est à nobis quod praestitimus nostris Panorm Quicquid parenti placuisse vivo senserit eo etiam mortuo praestare non desiâ—it Paterâ— O quam parva fuis tenero placuere parenti Parvula in nostris misuere noble Hom. in Iliad Vita spectabilis vultus amabilis Vita enormis forma deformis Greg. The fruits of obedience as they have relation both to Children and Parents REVERENCE Prov. 16.31 Ecclus 25.6 a Quare nihil turpiuâ— est quà m grandis natu senex qui nullum aliud argumentum quo se probet diu vixisse quà m aetatem Sen. de Tranq an b Malle esse se quà m vivere mortuum Ib. c Nihil sene elementario turpius Sen. Nihil dialectico sene deformius Petrarch Ecclus 25.3 Ecclus 25.4 5. Omne peccatum incurabilius est in sene quam in juvene Holgot sup li. Sap. Quantò senes sunt morti viciniores tantò debent esse puriores In decret dist 86. Tune Aurorae filius nepenthiacis Salamancae fumis primas Aurorae horas offeres E tabernis vestri proruant Rhetores A constant position observable in disobedient Children Prov. 17.25 Prov. 17.6 SVPPORTANCE Plin. in Nat. Hist. Aelian Sambuc in Emblem Paradin Soli vultures parentes fame mori permittunt Ib. Quam vis plurima 〈◊〉 reddidima rursus tamen eos generare non possumus Ciâ—il Admoverunt labiis Tigrides ubera lacte sugunt Nutricis ilia Basil. Homil. 8. 9. Valer. Max. The gradual respects of love and duty Donec ab Insulae finibus removeantur languentem agentes vitam emori non poterint The Offices of Masters to their â—ervants Bern. Med. 3. Two extreames to be avoyded whereby this Domestick Obedience may be better observed Prov. 29.21 Prov. 19.19 No servant meaner then a parcimonious Master Vid. Lucian in Sat. Luke 12.45 Lacrymans amoris Epicaedium vel Heroinum Elegium Farn. in Epig. Colos. 4.1 Eph. 4.9 The duty of Servants to their Masters Vid. Laert. Eph. 6.5 The duty of a servant to his Master will make a servant an happy Master Tunc nostra magis clarescunt bona cuÌ„ fuerint praesentibus comparata malis Gothofred de corp Iur. Civil Casel de jure civili Iulius Pacius in Analysi Theoph. Instit Fabrot Inter. Vid. Plut. in Mor. Ovid. in Met. Arist. in Eth. Emblematicall Hieroglyphicks of Sloath. Adam no sooner became sinfull then the Earth unfruitfull It is not sufficient for a Servant to intend his own peculiar charge vnlesse hee admonish others of the neglect of their care Vid. Arist. in Polit. Zenophon in Cyro ped Observ. 4. Oratio vinculum humanae societat iis Societas solatium animae peregrinantis Vid Cic. Hippol. Casiman Laert. in vit Diog. Prov. 11.12 Arist. in Eth. Melanct. Fonseca Pererius DISCOVRSE LIFE Foure cautions in matters of discourse to bee avoided that all grounds of distaste may be better directed Three
the performance hereof as appeareth in the foresaid place and the nexet ensuing verse where he saith You shall doe all that I have commanded you that your dayes may be multiplyed and the dayes of your children in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them as long as the heavens are above the earth Marke the extent of this Blessing for it promiseth not onely length of dayes to them that performe it but even to the children of them that performe it and that in no unfruitfull or barren land but in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them and that for no short time but so long as the heavens are above the earth So as this blessed promise or promised blessing is as one well observeth not restrained but with an absolute grant extended so that even as the people that were in the gate and the Elders wished in the solemnizing of that mariage betwixt Boaz and Ruth that their house might be like the house of Pharez so doubtlesse whosoever meditates of the Law of the Lord making it in his Family as a familiar friend to direct him a faithfull counsellor to instruct him a sweet companion to delight him a precious treasure to enrich him shall find successe in his labours and prosperitie in the worke of his hands But amongst all as it is the use of Masters of housholds to call their servants to account for the day past so be sure Gentlemen and you who are Masters of houses to enter into your owne hearts by a serious examination had every night what you have done or how you have imployed your selves and those Talents which God hath bestowed on you the day past in imitation of that blessed Father who every night examined himselfe calling his soule to a strict account after this manner O my soule what hast thou done this day What good hast thou omitted what evill hast thou committed what good which thou shouldst have done what evill which thou shouldst not have done Where are the poore thou hast releeved the sicke or captive thou hast visited the Orphan or Widow thou hast comforted Where are the naked whom thou hast cloathed the hungry whom thou hast refreshed the afflicted and desolate whom thou hast harboured O my soule when it shall be demanded of thee Quid comedit pauper how poorely wilt thou looke when there is not one poore man that will witnesse thy almes Againe when it shall be demanded of thee Vbi nudus quem amiti victi how naked wilt thou appeare when there is not one naked soule that will speake for thee Againe when it shall be demanded of thee Vbi sitiens quem potasti esuriens quem pavisti Vbi captivus quem visitasti Vby moestus quem relevasti O my soule how forlorne wretched and uncomfortable will thy condition be when there shall not appeare so much as one witnesse for thee to expresse thy charity not one poore soule whom thou hast releeved one naked whom thou hast cloathed nor one thirstie whom thou hast refreshed nor one hungry whom thou hast harboured nor a captive whom thou hast visited nor one afflicted whom thou hast comforted Thus to call your selves to account by meditating ever with Saint Hierome of the judgement day will be a meanes to rectifie your affections mortifie all inordinate motions purifie you throughout that you may be examples of piety unto others in your life and heires of glory after death concluding most comfortably with the foresaid Father If my mother should hang about me my father lye in my way to stop me my wife and children weepe about me I would throw off my mother neglect my father contemne the lamentation of my wife and children to meet my Saviour Christ Iesus For the furtherance of which holy resolution let no day passe over your heads wherein you addresse not your selves to some good action or imployment Wherefore Apelles posie was this Let no day passe without a line Be sure every day you doe some good then draw one line at the least according to that Line upon line line upon line And Phythagoras posie was this Sit not still upon the measure of corne Doe not looke to eat except you sweat for it according to that Hee which will not worke let him not eat In my Fathers house saith Christ are many mansions So that no man may sing his soule a sweet requiem saying with that Cormorant in the Gospel Soule take thy rest for in heaven onely which is our Fathers house there are many mansions to rest in In this world which is not of our Fathers house there are not many mansions to rest in but onely Vine-yards to worke in Wherein because not to goe forward is to goe backeward we are to labour even to the day of our change Hereupon Charles the fifth gave this Embleme Stand not still but goe on further Vlterius as God saith to his guest Superius Sit not still but sit up higher Doing thus and resolving to be no masters over that Family whose chiefest care is not the advancement of Gods glory you shall demeane your selves being here worthy that Vocation or calling over which you are placed and afterwards by following hard toward the marke obtaine the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Iesus THE ENGLISH GENTLEMAN Argument Of the difference of Recreations Of the moderate and immoderate use of Recreation Of the Benefits redounding from the One and inconveniences arising from the Other Of Recreations best sorting with the qualitie of a Gentleman And how he is to bestow himselfe in them RECREATION RECREATION being a refresher of the mind and an enabler of the body to any office wherein it shall bee imployed brancheth it selfe into many kinds as Hawking which pleasure one termed the object of a great mind whose aymes were so farre above earth as he resolves to retire a while from earth and make an evening flight in the ayre Hunting where the Hounds at a losse shew themselves subtill Sophisters arguing by their Silence the game came not here againe by being mute it came not there Ergo by spending their mouthes it came here Fishing which may be well called the Embleme of this world where miserable man like the deluded fish is ever nibbling at the bait of vanitie Swimming an exercise more usuall than naturall and may have resemblance to these diving heads who are ever sounding the depths of others secrets or swimming against the streame may glance at such whose only delight is opposition Running a Recreation famously ancient solemnized by the continued succession or revolution of many ages upon the Olympiads in Greece so as the accompt or yearly computation came from Races and other solemne games used on Olympus Wrastling Leaping Dancing and many other Recreations of like sort as they were by the continuance of many yeares upon
of such Recreations as require small use or exercise of the body wee will first proceed with such as follow being ranked in the same Siedge because Recreations of the same nature descending from them to exercises requiring more alacrity of spirit and more ability of body Of these which may be rather termed exercises of the mind then exercises of the faculties of the body are Cards and Dice a speciall Recreation meerely invented and intended to passe tedious Winter nights away and not to hazard ones fortunes at them as many inconsiderate Gamesters now adayes will not sticke to doe which done what ensueth hence but entertaining of some desperate course which bringeth the undertaker many times to an end as infortunate as his life was desolate which makes me thinke I never see one of these Gamesters who in a bravado will set their patrimonies at a throw but I remember the answer of one Minacius who having on a time lost at Dice not only his money but his apparell too for hee was very poore fate weeping at the Portall doore of a Taverne It chanced that a friend of his seeing him thus to weepe and lament demanded of him How it was with him Nothing quoth Minacius Why weepest thou then said his friend if there be nothing For this cause doe I weepe replyed Minacius because there is nothing His friend still wondring Why then quoth he dost thou weepe thus when there is nothing For the very same cause quoth he because I have nothing The one understood that there was no cause why he should weepe the other wept because hee had Nothing left to play How many be there who may sing Lachrymae with Minacius going by weeping-crosse being either by crosse fortune as they ascribe it or rather by flat cheating as they may properly terme it stript of their substance Amongst the Romans Venus or Coâ—s was the best chance at Dice but indeed the best chance that any one can have is not to throw at all Howsoever I could wish young Gentlemen to beware of frequenting these common gaming houses where they must either have fortune with advantage or else be sure to play like young Gamesters to their owne-disadvantage Truth is I would have none to play much but those which have little to play For these as they have little to lose so they cannot bee much poorer if they lose all Whereas such whose Ancestors have left them faire revenues by investing them as Heires to their providence need little to raise or advance their fortunes by these indirect meanes For tell me Gentlemen doe ye game for gaine or passing time If for gaine it is needlesse ye have sufficient If for passing time your stake should be lesse and your care for winning more indifferent Besides doe ye not observe what foists yee have daily resorting and frequenting these houses whose purses are lined with cheats and whose profession is only to sharke Shun their companies then left they prey upon you whereby you shall make your selves subjects both of want and weaknesse Of Want by filling their purses with your coine of weaknesse by suffering your selves to bee made a prey of by their cheats If you will game make choice of such as you know to be square Gamesters scorning to bring their names in question with the least report of advantage As for tricks frequently used in these dayes learne rather to prevent them then professe them For I never knew Gamester play upon advantage but bring him to the square and his fortune was ever seconded with disadvantage But above all use moderation in Play make not your Recreation a distemper and set up this as your rest never to mount your stake so high as the losse of it may move you to cholâ—r And so I descend to Recreations more virile wherin I will be briefe because I would hasten to the next branch In this ranke may be numbred Hunting and Hawking pleasures very free and generous and such as the noblest dispositions have naturally affected For what more admirable then the pleasure of the Hare if we observe the uses which may be made of it as I have else-where more amply discoursed purposing here rather to touch them then treat of them In her doubles note her cunning in the dogges eagernesse in pursuing Where all the senses remaine for the time pleased but when at default how much are they grieved What an excellent Melody or naturall Consort to delight the Eare What choice Objects to content the Eye What odoriferous smels in the floury Meads to refesh the Nose only the Touch and Taste must have their pleasures suspended till the sport be ended Non sine lepôre tanto labore pro uno Lepore homines torqueri video saith one very wittily and elegantly I can never chuse but laugh to see what labour men will take for a poore Hare What Mountaines they will climbe what Marishes they will passe what brakes and bryers they will runne through and all for a Hare which may be an Embleme of humane vanity where men miserable deluded men will refuse no toyle or labour to gaine a trifling pleasure What indirect courses they will take for a moments delight which is no sooner showne them then vanished from them These pleasures are most commonly affected by Youth because they have agility and ability of body to maintaine the pursuite of them whence the Poet The beardlesse Youth when 's guardians reines doe yeeld Sports him in Horse and Dogges and open field The reason may be this hee cannot endure restraint for the heat of Youth must needs take aire or it choakes it selfe with too much holding It must be carried aloft on the wings of the wind taking an Icarian flight but never fearing his fall Such dogges as were presented by the King of Albanie unto Alexander the Great who would not stirre at small Beasts but at Lions and Elephants are the fittest for his kennell for Youth is no sooner moving then mounting Whence Ascanius in a youthfull bravery Wisheth some Boare or savage Lion should Descend the Mount and cope with him he would So subject is Youth to expose it selfe to all dangers swimming ever with bladders of vaine-glory till they receive water and it sinke There are some also of these youthfull Hunts-men who when they cannot speed in their sport will rather buy it then want it that having their game on their backe they may proclaime to the world how they are Masters of their profession And these are excellently displayed by the Poet in the person of Gargilius At once Gargilius who one Morne betime Sent out his Servants forward to the chace With Hunting poles and twisted nets of line To buy a Boare which through the Market place Laid on a Mule as if his men had slaine him Would as bee thought eternall glory gaine him So apt are many in inventing and eager in pursuing ought which may raise them a name
ever living never dying yea that worme which gnaweth and dieth not that fire which burneth and quencheth not that death which rageth and endeth not But if punishments will not deterre us at least let rewards allure us The faithfull cry ever for the approach of Gods judgement the reward of immortality which with assurance in Gods mercy and his Sonnes Passion they undoubtedly hope to obtaine with vehemency of spirit inviting their Mediator Come Lord Iesus come quickly Such is the confidence or spirituall assurance which every faithfull soule hath in him to whose expresse Image as they were formed so in all obedience are they conformed that the promises of the Gospell might be on them conferred and confirmed Such as these care not so much for possessing ought in the world as they take care to lay a good foundation against the day of triall which may stand firme against the fury of all temptation These see nothing in the world worthy their feare This only say they is a fearefull thing to feare any thing more than God These see nought in the world worthy either their desire or feare and their reason is this There is nothing able to move that man to feare in all the world who hath God for his guardian in the world Neither is it possible that he should feare the losse of any thing in the world who cannot see any thing worthy having in the world So equally affected are these towards the world as there is nothing in all the world that may any way divide their affection from him who made the world Therefore may we well conclude touching these that their Light shall never goe out For these walke not in darknesse nor in the shadow of death as those to whom the light hath not as yet appeared for the Light hath appeared in Darkeness giving light all the night long to all these faithfull beleevers during their abode in these Houses of Clay Now to expresse the Nature of that Light though it farre exceed all humane apprehension much more all expression Clemens understandeth by that Light which the Wise-woman to wit Christs spouse kept by meanes of her candle which gave light all the night long the heart and he calleth the Meditations of holy men Candles that never goe out Saint Augustine writeth among the Pagans in the Temple of Venus there was a Candle which was called Inextinguishable whether this be or no of Venus Temple wee leave it to the credit of antiquity onely Augustines report we have for it but without doubt in every faithfull hearer and keeper of the Word who is the Temple of the Holy Ghost there is a Candle or Light that never goes out Whence it appeares that the heart of every faithfull soule is that Light which ever shineth and his faith that virgin Oile which ever feedeth and his Conscience that comfortable Witness which assureth and his devoted Zeale to Gods house that Seale which confirmeth him to be one of Gods chosen because a living faith worketh in him which assures him of life howsoever his outward man the temple of his body become subject to death Excellently saith Saint Augustine Whence comes it that the soule dieth because faith is not in it Whence that the body dieth because a soule is not in it Therefore the soule of thy soule is faith But forasmuch as nothing is so carefully to be sought for nor so earnestly to be wrought for as purity or uprightnesse of the heart for seeing there is no action no studie which hath not his certaine scope end or period yea no Art but laboureth by some certaine meanes or exercises to attaine some certain proposed end which end surely is to the Soule at first proposed but the last which is obtained how much more ought there to bee some end proposed to our studies as well in the exercises of our bodies as in the readings meditations and mortifications of our mindes passing over corporall and externall labours for which end those studies or exercises were at first undertaken For let us thinke with our selves if we knew not or in mind before conceived not whither or to what especiall place wee were to run were it not a vaine taske for us to undertake to runne Even so to every Action are wee to propose his certaine end which being once attained we shall need no further striving towards it being at rest in our selves by attaining it And like end are wee to propose to our selves in the exercise of Moderation making it a subduer of all things which sight against the spirit which may bee properly reduced to the practising of these foure overcomming of anger by the spirit of patience wantonness by the spirit of continence pride by the spirit of humility and in all things unto him whose Image we partake so neerely conformed that like good Proficients wee may truly say with the blessed Apostle Wee have in all things learned to be contented For the first to wit Anger as there is no passion which makes man more forgetfull of himselfe so to subdue it makes man an absolute enjoyer of himselfe Athenodorus a wise Philosopher departing from Augustus Caesar and bidding him farewell left this lesson with him most worthy to be imprinted in an Emperours brest That when hee was angry hee should repeat the foure and twenty Greeke letters Which lesson received Caesar as a most precious jewell making such use thereof as hee shewed himselfe no lesse a Prince in the conquest of this passion than in his magnificence of state and majesty of person No lesse praise-worthy was that excellent soveraignty which Architas had over this violent and commanding passion as we have formerly observed who finding his servants loitering in the field or committing some other fault worthy reproofe like a worthy master thought it fit first to over-master himselfe before he would show the authority of a Master to his servants wherefore perceiving himselfe to be greatly moved at their neglect as a wise Moderator of his passion hee would not beat them in his ire but said Happy are ye that I am angry with you In briefe because my purpose is onely to touch these rather than treat of them having so amply discoursed of some of them formerly as the Sunne is not to goe downe upon our wrath so in remembrance of that sonne of righteousness let us bury all wrath so shall we be freed from the viols of wrath and appeare blamelesse in the day of wrath For in peace shall we descend to our graves without sighing if in peace we be angry without sinning Secondly wantonness being so familiar a Darling with the flesh is ever waging warre with the spirit she comes with powdred haire painted cheeks straying eyes mincing and measuring her pace tinkling with her feet and using all immodesty to lure the unwarie youth to all sensuality These light professors as St. Ierome to Marcella
soule enjoyeth Yea but our silken worldling or delicate Wormeling will object This discipline is too strict for flesh and bloud to follow Who can endure to yeeld his head to the blocke or his body to the faggot when the very sight of death in another ministers to the beholder motives of terror Surely this is nothing to him that duely considereth how be that loseth his life shall save it but he that saveth his life shall lose it What is a minutes anguish to an eternity of solace Wee can endure the launcing or fearing of a putrified member and this endures as long as our time of wrastling with our Dissolution which brings us to our Saviour nor skils it much what kinde of death wee die seeing no kinde of death can hurt the righteous be the terrors and torments of death never so numerous The way then to contemne death is to expect it and so to prepare our selves for it as if wee were this very houre to encounter it resolving never to goe with that conscience to our bed with which wee durst not goe to our grave being so uncertaine whether before the next morne wee shall bee taken out of our bed and shrouded for our grave And this shall suffice touching our Mortification or Contempt of life if with such a sacrifice wee may bee thought worthy to honour him who gave us life Wee are now to speake of Mortification in respect of name or report wherein you are to understand that this is two-fold First in turning our â—ares from such as praise us Secondly in hearing with patience such as revile us For the first it is and hath beene ever the condition of sober and secret men to avert their eare from their owne praises at least with a modest passing over such vertues as were commendable in them which modesty appeared in Alphonsus Prince of Aragons answer to an Orator who having repeated a long Panegyricall oration in his praise replied If that thou hast said consent with truth I thanke God for it if not I pray God grant me grace that I may doe it Others likewise we reade of who could not with patience endure their persons or actions to bee praised above truth this princely passion appeared in Alexander who hearing Aristobulus a famous Greek Historian read his writings purposely penned upon the memorable acts he had atchieved wherein he commended him farre above truth being mightily incensed therewith threw the booke into the river as he was sailing over Hydaspes saying with all hee was almost moved to send Aristobulus after Neither indeed will any wise man endure to heare himselfe praised above truth seeing no lesse aspersion may be laid on his person by being too highly praised than if he were discommended for should wee praise one for his bountie who is publikely knowne to the world to be parcimonius or for his humility who is naturally ambitious or for his continencie who is licentious our praises would not tend so much to his honour as to the display of his nature yea even he himselfe guilty in himselfe would tax us knowing that he the least of all others deserved these praises from us It is flattery saith one to praise in absence that is when either the vertue is absent or the occasion is absent But in the report of our owne praise admit wee should deserve it the safest course is to withdraw our eare from hearing it lest vaine-glory transport us upon hearing of those praises which are spoken of us for if our aymes be only to purchase popular esteeme preferring the praise of men before the praise of God or the testimony of a good conscience as our aymes were perverted so shall wee bee rewarded Now there is no better means to abate or extenuate this desire of praise in us than duly to consider whose gifts they bee that deserve this praise in us for were they our owne wee might more properly be praised for them but they are Gods and not ours therefore is the praise to be ascribed unto God not unto us For he that would be praised for Gods gift seeketh not Gods glory but his owne in that gift though he be praised by men for Gods gifts yet is he dispraised by God for not seeking Gods glory but his own for this gift and he who is praised by men God dispraising shall not be defended by men God judging nor bee delivered God condemning Whereas he that loveth God will chuse rather to bee deprived of all future glory than detract by any meanes from God the Author of all glory Let us then so avert our eare from selfe-praise or ought else that may beget in us vain-glory or ostentation that we may become like unto him who dis-esteemed all worldly praise from the houre of his birth to the houre of his passion Secondly we are to heare with patience such as revile us and reason good for observing this a blessing is pronounced on us Blessed are yee saith the Lord of all blessing when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evill against you falsly for my sake rejoyce and bee exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you Yea not only the Prophets but even Him of whom all the Prophets bare witnesse yet became hee as one that did not heare having no rebukes in his mouth When hee was tempted in the wildernesse the Scripture was his armour of resistance when hee was reviled on the Crosse he prayed for his enemies to expresse his heavenly patience Now if the Sonne of God was in the desart tempted what Hermit can expect to bee from temptation freed If the Master be reviled how may the servant looke to bee intreated For howsoever some or indeed most of the ancient Fathers doubt whether the Divell did know that Christ was GOD or no touching that parcell of Scripture wherein Christ was tempted in the Desart yet may it appeare probable by inference from the text it selfe that after Iesus had said unto him It is written thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God the Divell tooke him up into an exceeding high mountaine and shewed him all the kingdomes of the world and the glory of them saying All those things will I give thee if thou wilt fall downe and worship me Whence I collect that after Christ had told him that he was God he continued his temptation which was an argument to evince him of palpable ignorance or of distrust to Christs speech which argued his diffidence but our purpose is not too curiously to insist upon these subtill digressions it sufficiently appeareth that Christ who ought to bee every faithfull Christians patterne was reviled yet opened not hee his mouth but with sweet silence and amiable patience offered his prayers unto his Father for them who maliciously offered him upon the Crosse leaving us an example of admiration and
succour or by removing buttals to enlarge your boundiers or by any meanes to surprize others to inhance your injurious Coâ—ers The Partridge saith Ambrose makes her a nest of stolne eggs which she hath not laid but as soone as the birds are hatched the true Mother cals them all away from their thievish Step-dame This may be the proper Embleme of the covetous and cruell man Incubat auro Such incroaching Brooders be all unconscionable Misers who sit hatching those golden egges to use the words of the Apologue which they never lay but to their griefe must be stript by the true owners of what they so immoderately love For the Oppressors wealth is like Achans Wedge Turnus Belt Dagons house broke Dagons neck and all usurping Possessors are to expect the like fate Gnipho the Vsurer as Lucian feigneth lieth in Hell lamenting his miserable estate that one Rodochares an incestuous Prodigal did on earth consume his goods wastfully in the suâ—feits of pleasure which hee with care and unjust meanes had scrap'd together The way to decline these laments and prevent those infernall teares is with discretion to moderate your cares and feares Let not an unjust nor injurious thought seize on you nor a desire to improve your selves by anothers ruine surprize you Let not a Widowes teare nor an Orphans shreeke beare record against you These have shrill voyces and will find an Avenger One who has a Bottle to preserve the teares of the one as a precious Elixir and an Eare to compassionate the cryes of the other like an indulgent Father The way then in these temporall cares to make you happy Parents is with that indifferency to value gold as to make Godlinesse your chiefest gaint To preferre the approvement of equity before the improvement of a posterity To rejoyce more in honest poverty than in those swelling titles of iniquity For beleeve it that little Common-weale of man cannot chuse but enjoy much quietnesse where Conscience becomes Soveraignesse and receives Preheminence Now there is one errour that I have observed in Parents which were well to be rectified it is too generally spreading and consequently exacts the more expedite prevention It shall be our care to prescribe a cure which if it admit a cure it shall amply recompence our care Many too many make it their prime ayme their principall care in preferring their Children to fixe upon Inheritance or Portion Their sonnes must marry with Câ—â—cires and so joyne land to land A survey of their estates with whom they intend to match must precede all inducements of love Grounds of fancy must be rank'd in the second siege Proportion is to veile to Portion Reall affection to a rich Possession It was onely hope of Promotion that preferr'd this loves motion Were those inward Ornaments of this great Inheretrix never so meanly accoutred being thus encountred and with such rare fortunes embellished they must be above their estimate valued there is not so much as the least question made of the young Gentlemans love The Parents choyce must admit no change Meane time what miseries have attended such enforced Marriages every age can afford variety of dolefull Instances Where an vnion of hands begot a dis-union of hearts The reason might be this indirect affections seldome receive a blessing They invert the use of marriage who make Portion Directrice of Affection Fancy subordinate to Fortune Love is not to be made such a Page of Bee it then your office to examine the affection of your Child before you engage their persons to an enforced choyce Though a good fortune be not to be rejected yet is a good liking betwixt the parties to be preferred In a word let vertue be the ayme and the Marriage-day cannot chuse but cloze with a glorious Even In bestowing likewise your younger Children upon Trades you are to be very circumspect in the choyce of their Masters with the quality of their professions Ingenuous natures suite not well with rigid Masters Neither are tender or delicate constitutions for toyling â—or sinnewy professions This was especially observed by the ancient Romans which made them exquisite Artists in those manuall mysteries Wee have here in this our flourishing Iland many Staple Trades wherin as it is no derogation for our Gentry to interesse their younger Children so by Gods blessing and their good endeavour they become many times so well improved as they need not obsequiously ingratiate themselves to any inferiour favour nor rely on a pentionary supply or any necessitated succour being able by a civill remonstrance to render curtesie for curtesie to their elder Brother Neither can I approve the Indulgence of such Parents whose too tender affection towards their Children declines them from all hopes or helpes of preferment in this kind Birds wee see after such time as they have brought forth their young ones will not for ever foster them under their wings They must be sent abroad to provide themselves food to releeve them to build them nests to receive them and fitting mates to consort them And must these be wiser in their generation than those nobler Creatures who partake of Reason These observe the meanes by which they are directed to conserving ends Now would you have these meanes defined they are properly styled the way by which wee are directed to that scope or marke at which we aymed As you are then by nature their parents be it your care to raise them meanes of supportance As they had from you their being let them receive from you grounds of subsistence Let not your delicacy estrange their spirits from Industry lest by too much hugging them with the Ape in the Fable you stifle them Send them then forth into the world that as you have educated them so you may reape the fruit of your provisionall care by their improvement For trust me highly are such parents to be condemned who leave their estates so perplexed as they recommend the lively-hood of the Younger to the remisse consideration or doubtfull commiseration of the Elder For these many times entertaine such profuse Followers as their vast and unbounded ryot begets a neglect in them towards such as were recommended to them by making Servants of their Brothers and Brothers of their Parasites Besides the charge of Annuities as they exhaust the estate of the Elder making him live all his time like an ancient descendible Begger so it begets an irregular course in the Younger who either falling short in receipt of his annuall allowance or exceeding his bounds ingageth his perishing hopes to some desperate action which in the end spins to a full length the threed of his ruine So many fearefull examples both ancient and moderne present themselves daily upon the Stage of our State as they need no further illustration in this kinde That Maxime holds ever authentick Brethren are ever kindest one to another when they are least beholding one to another Assigne then to every one their peculiar portion which
will become such a firme Cement or ligament to their affection as their mutuall supplyes may produce reciprocall tyes by which harmonious freedome or propriety of living one may enjoy the others society without the least conceipt of a too tedious beholding In the disposing too of your estates let me advise you not to neglect opportunity of doing good to your owne now while it is in your power to dispose of your owne Many by deferring the settling of their estates to their death become abridged of their intents by being prevented with the inopinate arrest of death and so leave their distracted estates to be determined by Lawyers who being sed with fat fees make fooles of your intended heires leaving them after many an humbly complayning to bemoane their leane fortunes when they fall into consideration how their extracted estates by those numerous Suite atoms are resolved into papers And how their long practise in a litigious kind of Alchimy by a precious pragmaticall pouder has reduc'd all their Chymicall fortunes into the Remaines of a greater Worke the Elixir of poverty Sicknesse is a sufficient burden of it selfe disburden then your selves by disposing of your estates before sicknesse commeth not by dis-possessing your selves of them for so you may give others power over you but by a discreâ—t and deliberate disposure of them that temporall cares may lesse intangle you when sicknesse shall surprize you and your inward house be set in such order as your composed Soules may receive rest to your comfort and Gods honour Thus farre have wee enlarged our discourse in laying before you the care which you are to have in spirituall affaires for improving your Children in that best knowledge which may truly enable them for their highest inheritance as likewise how you are in a conscionable provision to addresse your inferiour care for their temporall subsistence In which two respects as you shall performe the office of prudent and affectionate Parents so shall those rich treasures which you Deposit in succeeding hopes of your Children crowne your silver haires with incomparable comfort For as this religious care was sincerely discharged by you so shall you receive those filiall Offices from yours as may amply recompence your care and as you shall now heare returne to their Labourer a deserving hire YOu have heard what is required of Parents to their Children their incessant cares jealous feares and these intermixed with such doubtfull hopes as not one houre without a corroding care nor a promising hope without a threatning feare It was observed in Augustus that so long as his two daughters Iulia and Livia were in his presence hee could never returne any expression to his Councell with much resolvednesse His mind was not fixed upon an Answer but upon his daughters behaviour Where he collected by the company they frequented how their affections were inclined If Iulia converse with a Ruffian it becomes no lesse a sting to her fathers heart then a staine to his daughters reputation Whereas if Livia enter into discourse with any grave Senatour this pleasing object redounds equally to his solace as well as her honour Now to recompence these numerous cares and anxious feares which become constant companions to Parents hearts let Children returne a gratefull remonstrance of their duty and zeale in these three distinct respects First in tendring them the sacrifice of Obedience Secondly in performing that filiall office with all reverence Thirdly in affording them if necessity should thereto enforce them their best supportance Of these we shall take occasion to treat severally and with that perspicuity as the very youngest and rawest in these offices may vnderstand his peculiar duty It was an excellent admonition of that sonne of Sirach Honour thy Father from thy whole heart and forget not the sorrowes of thy Mother Which admonition in the next ensuing Verse he strengthneth with this Emphaticall remembrance Remember that thou wast borne of them and how canst thou recompence them the things that they have done for thee This confirmes that Maxime of the Stagyrite To our Masters our Gods and Parents can never be rendred an equivalence And if that divine rule hold that the obedience we exhibit to our Superiours we even exhibit to God himselfe who is the Lord paramount and in whose presence the highest Potentates are inferiours what superiority in a degree of such propinquity exacts of us a more filiall duty whence it was that blessed Basill falling into a serious contemplation of this tender native affection affirmeth That we are bound to love our Parents as our owne proper bowells So as hee well deserveth saith Saint Gregory to bee punished with blindnesse which lookes vpon his Parents with a louring count'nance or with proud eyes offends the Piety of his naturall Parents Canst thou looke said that excellent Morall vpon those who brought thee forth into the world with a contemptuous eye as if they were not worthy to live in the world Must those who bred thee breed a distaste in thee Art thou by being a man of place ashamed of thy birth which gave thee a being upon Earth Must thine honour so degenerate from nature as nature must veile to honour and make the affluence of a fading state to soveraignize over her Are these arguments of Obedience when creditors become debters and Parents servants to their Children As every family is a private Soveraignty so ought there to bee a disposition order or apt symmetry in every member of that family The Members are Ministers unto the Head so are Children and Servants to the Master of the House Should the least Member surcease to minister the Head could not chuse but infinitely suffer Now how unnaturall bee those Tendrells how adulterate those Scienes which decline from that Stemme which gave them growth from that parentall Stocke which render'd them their first birth The Philosopher indeed gives a reason why Parents love their Children more then Children their Parents and why they know more then those Children that derive their being from them because sayes he as water is the purest which flowes from the Fountaine Head the nearest so that love which descends from the Originall root is ever the dearest and for as much as true love is ever grounded upon knowledge for otherwise it merits rather the title of folly then fancy in regard Parents know us better to be theirs then we our selves know us to be theirs so much more as their knowledge is surer so much is their parentall affection purer Whence the Poet delivers this for a knowne experiment Nature do's oft descend but seldome mount Parents areeres fall short in their account But if Children would consider how they have received their native being from them againe those incessant cares which attend them with those promising hopes which they have treasured in them they would hold it one of the highest taskes and noblest Acts of piety to be imployed in those offices
betrayed the trust of every faculty and unriveted that golden Claspe of the memory which should have reteined like a sure Recluse or Store-house the bowell of every secrecy In your deportments then of this nature as your reserved houres admit of moderate recreation to allay the weight or grandeure of more serious businesse make it only as a pastime not as a continued taske of passing time Flies when they play with the Candle never leave it till their wings are singed by it Habit as it is precious in the practise of vertue so it growes pernicious in the exercise of vice Observe then these circumstances in these inferiour actions of delight 1. With whom you consort 2. For what end you consort 3. To observe a meane whereby you may attaine the end for which you consort Now to give an usefull touch in each of these That excellent Morall can informe you The way to safety is to retire your selves from company but seeing humane society admits nay injoynes it you are to make choyce of such as may improve your knowledge by it All good fellowes are not good men You are then to bee no lesse cautious in your choyce of company then you would be of those you consort with in a contagious or pestilentiall City The way to infect all is to mixe the sick with the whole The meanes to avoid this malady is to make piety your directresse in the course and choyce of your society Secondly you are to consider for what end you consort Not to ravell out time as if no account were to bee given of it but to bestow it upon some usefull discourse such as may improve the Hearer and returne this testimony of you to the discreetest eare that you come not thither to be time-spenders but Improvers of your Talents to your selves and others Thirdly you are to observe a meane whereby you may attaine the end Distemper is an ill Manager of any busines And in the course or passage of occasions to admit any unnecessary diversion mainely troubles the current or in-let of occasion Avoid both these Let neither your bloods bee inflamed through distemper nor your occasions diverted by any irregular or indisposed humour So shall these amicable intercourses of yours not only redound to the benefit of the Hearer but returne into your owne bosomes with much profit and honour Now to take our worke out of the Loome you may remember how in this our last Observance wee told you that these Neighbourly Offices either pitched upon Arguments of Discourse and Communication or upon Action and Negotiation or Pastime and Recreation in the pursuit or agitation whereof you were to be cautelous of the Life Fame or Substance of such with whom you stood interessed Of all which with no lesse brevity then perspicuity wee have so farre treated as nothing now remaines to be further handled or discussed save only Substance which being in the estimate of opinion the least wee have reserved for the last We shall briefly descend to that too that nothing may be omitted wherein your knowledge may be improved and these mutuall Offices better performed which even in humane society are necessarily to bee preserved Touching this then a better morall Direction you cannot receive then from that well contented and rightly tempered Tarentine who protested that hee never saw his Neighbours field flourish but hee rejoyced in the fecundity of it as if it had beene his owne His welfare made him smile His successe caus'd him to give thankes to the gods as if that successe had redounded to his owne goods This well-disposed Ethick had not an evill eye He knew not how to repine or murmure when his Neighbour did prosper Be you of the like mind As it is an Angelicall vertue to rejoyce at anothers good so is it a Diabolicall Vice to repine at anothers gaine Let not your eye be evill because another's good Be it your salutation when you passe by them in your devoutest prayers to blesse them saying God speed you We wish you good luck May you prosper in your labour to his glory whom you honour These if you duly observe when you see your Neighbours field look fat to use the saying of that wise Cinick it wil not make your cheeks look leane That marrow-eating envie cannot grind you because your neighbours prosperous successe doth infinitly cheer you You will not stumble on his meere-stone nor remove his Buttoll to inlarge your own because you tender his welfare equally as your owne His losse must not procure your curse because your best wishes ever cloze with his successe Let us draw in our Sailes and contract all in one Would you Gentlemen in your reflexion upon Conjugall Offices performe the duty of good Husbands Love your Wives even as Christ loved the Church and gave himselfe for it And rejoyce with those whom you have loved Observe likewise that mutuall office and benevolence betwixt them and you and let none partake in your love but those who are affianced to you The Wife hath not the power of her owne body but the Husband and likewise also the Husband hath not the power of his owne body but the Wife This mutuall interest thus confined should make your hearts the more individually united Performe then the Office of good Elkanahs loving Husbands so may you find in your Wives the like mutuall affections And yee Wives who are thus happily espoused render a faire requitall unto them in whose esteeme you are so much endeared Be discreet chaste keeping at home good and subject unto your Husbands usurpe no authority over them but bee in silence This Conjugall Office by a sweet introduced habit will become a Solace Secondly touching Parentall Offices As yee children are to obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right So are yee Fathers not to provoke your Children to wrath but bring them up in instruction and information of the Lord. Thirdly for Domestick Offices As yee Servants are to be obedient unto them that are your Masters pleasing them in all things not answering againe So yee Masters doe the same things unto them putting away threatning This in every private Family will beget a sweet consorting harmony Lastly in Neighbourly Offices As yee Neighbours are to please one another in that that is good to edification Let no man seeke his owne but every man anothers wealth These Offices thus performed what can be less expected then such a sweet union of minds and affections as these two Consorts here combined and to one volume reduced cannot in their loves be more firmely cemented then they harmoniously joyned Be it then your care to preserve this faire contexture trust mee it will conferre on your Family where vertue gives the best beauty more true honour then the easie-resolving varnish of fortunes or whatsoever may outwardly accommodate you For in the Survey of these you shall find