us we would never entertain them these goodly things have their Recipisti written upon them Son remember thou hast received thy good things c. How many of those think you saith the Author who out of their opinion of skill and strength hath given free entertainment to the world and made large use of it when their time and hour came would rather have gon out of some poor Cottage than out of a Princes Palace and have lived with no noise in the world that so they might have died with some peace Charles the 5 th the Prince of Parma and sundry others though they lived in all pomp and state yet at their death they desired to be buried in a poor Capuchins Hood I hope Gentlemen you will accept of plain reason and truth although coming to you in a plain and Country Dress without Ornament of Language Fine Words and Complement usually have a prevalency with Ladies but it is Reason that is or should be at least most acceptable to and most prevalent with men especially with Gentlemen that better part of Mankind the well educated the best instructed the most knowing part of the world with them especially the universal reason of all Mankind the Ius Naturale should prevail I cannot but express my respects I bear for a Gentleman that is such and truly deserves that name And this brief Essay proceeds therefrom designing next to the honour of God and Loyalty to my Sovereign the Credit the Honour the Profit of the Gentry of England their greatest interest and happiness their highest concern the welfare both of their Minds Bodies Estates and Families their felicity both Temporal and Eternal Gentlemen as the Son of Syrach speaks Ecclus. 39.20 Wine and Musick rejoice the heart but the love of wisdom is above them both The great design and main end of Gentlemen in all their study should be a solid piety according to that saying Finis studiorum sit erudita pietas You had better been without an Estate then without this for as Solomon speaks Prov. 26.1 As Snow in Summer and as Rain in Harvest so honour is not seemly for a fool I hope I may propose this to you in the words of the Royal Martyr to his Majesty that now is in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is better to be Charles le Bon than Charles le Grand it is better to be Good than Great CHAP. VIII Cautions to Gentlemen to take care to preserve their Estates by wise management of them I Hope it will be now needless further to pursue my design and to beseech you not to dishonour and degrade your selves by any sordid base and unworthy Actions but to uphold and keep up your eminency and Repute in the world to maintain your honour and that by actions truly Generous Noble and Excellent and this the rather upon this further consideration that the Gentry are usually the object of the Common peoples hatred doubtless you have many Enemies of the vulgar who have of a long time had an aking tooth at your Grandure and Estates and you may be sure you are the objects of their envy witness the designs of the Levellers in our late times take heed therefore you do not cherish an Enemy in your own bosom also I mean your Intemperance and Excesses Let this therefore be in the number of your Litanies A meipso Libera me Domine and be you solicitous to preserve your Estates as from the Assaults of others so more especially from the Assaults of your own Extravagancies Riot and Excess May I propose a few things for your welfare and preservation of your Estates and Fortunes in the world Live answerable to your selves and to your Estates but not above them and beware of Suretiship this being a fault that the best natures are most incident to Great reason that Gentlemen should be warned of the danger hereof and that their generous and friendly natures do not prejudice or undo them there being very many instances that many Families have been ruined thereby And certainly no charity should lead a man out of desire to save his friend wilfully to ruin himself and offer up himself Wife and Children a Sacrifice to Friendship Compute therefore often your incomes and disbursments that so you may see whether you go forward or backward in your Estates and think this no despicable Counsel for if this advice had been followed it had preserved many a gentile and worthy Family from ruin in this Nation that are come to nothing A Gentleman of Four or Five Thousand Pounds per Ann. may as soon be undone as a Gentleman of Two or Three Hundred when he will every year exceed his Income and Estate especially when it meets also with other chances and contingencies unseen and unthought of which very many times fall out in the world Expect not therefore impossibilities but if that you yearly sink in your Estate at last it may end in beggery And think seriously what entertainment you are like then to meet with in the world especially from the common sort of people It is true that Donec eris feliix multos numerabis Amicos but alas then you will find things far otherwise In time consider therefore to prevent this mischief by retrenching your Expences and reducing them to be answerable at least to your Estates that you come not to Iulius Caesar's Reckoning as a late Author hath it who when he had considered of his Estate and summ'd it up and found how great a Sum he was indebted beyond what he was worth said merrily Tantum me oportet habere ut nihil habeam so much must I have that I may give every man his own and my self have nothing Now doubtless it cannot be prudent therefore to live to the utmost extent of an Estate but to live above an Estate what less can it be but the height of madness and folly Get faithful Servants and that they may be diligent and faithful to you promote Religion among them if they are not under there straints of Religion and Conscience I know not how they should prove Good Servants for it is most certain that it is true Religion that makes Good and Loyal Subjects and good diligent and faithful Servants Do not therefore corrupt and debauch your Servants by promoting what is sinful in them either by your countenance or command for that is directly acting against your own great interest Gentlemen may I humbly tender this further to your consideration whether it might not better become you and be also for your real advantage to be more resident upon your Estates and at your ancient Mannor-Houses and Habitations in the Country not only to keep them up in good repair but to keep up and maintain your Honour Splendour and Repute by the ancient and good House-keeping and Hospitality and there to live as petty Monarchs in your own Principalities and to well-manage and govern your Tenants and Dependants to serve your King and
Wisdom Religion Justice Temperance Loyalty and Charity that will exalt you and that must establish both you and your Family For unless a man hold himself diligently in the fear of the Lord his House shall soon be overthrown Ecclus. 27.3 So that if ever God should suffer the Nobility and Gentry of this Nation to be once more overthrown and trodden down as heretofore Atheism Contempt of God and Religion Wickedness and Dabauchery together with gross Hypocrisy will be the cause thereof from which fearful judgment let us pray Good Lord deliver us Gentlemen think seriously of those many dangers and Temptations that your Wealth Grandure and Superfluity of all things expose you to therefore the Son of Syrach saith Ecclus. 31.8.9 Blessed is the Rich that is found without blemish Who is he and we will call him blessed Who hath been tryed thereby and found perfect Then let him glory who might offend and hath not offended or done evil and hath not done it How hard a thing is it for a Rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven saith our blessed Saviour although few ever in the World have believed him and it is recorded of Pelagius as a late Author hath it that grounding himself upon this Scripture It is impossible for a Rich man to enter into Heaven he would by no means grant that a Rich man could be saved but for this the Church noted him for an Heretick for among his Heresies this is scored up for one together with that That it is not lawful to swear but if Pelagius had never otherwise erred the Church might very well have pardoned him that heresy as the said Author observes and goes on thus For many times it falls out by reason of the hardness of our hearts that there is more danger in pressing some truths than in maintaining some errors many Rich and Covetous men by reason of the truth that Rich men may be saved flatter themselves in their sins whereof they dye well conceited from which they had been freed had it been their good fortune to have been thus far deceived and been Pelagians Let men therefore either quite refuse Riches if they offer themselves or if they will give them acceptance let them believe that if they be Rich they may be saved but let them so live as if they could not for the one shall keep them from error in their Faith the other from Sin in their Actions Therefore when ever thou seest God willing to bring the world upon thee to enrich thee to raise thee to honour Suspectum habe hanc Domini indulgentian which the said Author cites out of Tertullian In the midst of your fulness of all things consider seriously your danger and take this caution Go not after thy Lusts but refrain thy self from thine Appetite take not pleasure in much Good Cheer Ecclus. 18.30 32. And Chap. 19.2 5. Wine and Women will make men of understanding to fall away Whoso taketh pleasure in wickedness shall be condmned but he that resisteth pleasure crowneth his life It is true God vouchsafeth you abundance and you may pertake of the good Gifts of God and give him thanks for every Creature of God is good being sanctified by Prayer and as the wise man speaks Ecclus. 31.20 27. Sound Sleep cometh of moderate Eating he riseth early and his Wits are with him but the pain of Watching Choler and Pangs of the Belly are with an unsatiable man Wine is as good as life to a man if it be drunk moderately For it was made to make men glad The great danger is of sinning in the use of lawful things by Intemperance and Excess a Temptation to which lyes always before you and as a late Author hath it To be able to meet and check an Enemy to encounter occasions to act our parts in common life upon the common Stage and yet to keep our uprightness this is truly indeed to live and to serve God and Men and therefore God the more because Men On the contrary to avoid occcasions to follow that other Vincendi genus non pugnare to overcome the world by contemning and avoiding it this argues a wise indeed but a week fainting Spirit therefore it mainly concerns you in the midst of Temptations and Snares to be watchful over your selves And this you may please to take for your incouragement Ecclus. 33.1 There shall no evil happen unto him that feareth the Lord but in temptation even again he will deliver him Abound in conjugal affections to your Yoak Fellows Amor perennis Conjugis Casta manet Love them as your selves for they are a part of you and therefore as the Scripture speaketh No man ever yet hated his own Flesh render them their due benevolence let them be to you as the Loving Hind and Pleasant Roe as Solomon speaks And let her Breasts satisfy thee at all times and be content with her Loves Prov. 5.19 A Friend and a Companion never meet amiss but above both is a Wife and her Husband Ecclus. 4.23 Poverty is that which usually makes enjoyments comfortable and pleasant to us it is therefore certainly unnatural and unreasonable that it should be otherwise herein Let your affections run strongly to your own Drink Waters out of thine own Cistern c. Prov. 5.15 And abandon with abhorrence the wild Cattel leave them to the sordid base and ungentile leave them to your Slaves Drudges and Scullions And why wilt thou my Son be ravisht with a Ssrange woman saith the Wise man Prov. 5.20 And Can a man take Fire in his Bosom and his Cloaths not be burnt Can one go upon hot Coals and his Feet not be burnt Prov. 6.27 28. And Ecclus. 26.22 An Harlot shall be accounted as Spittle but a Married woman is a Tower against death to her Husband Lust not after her beauty in thine heart neither let her take thee with her eye-lids For by means of a Whorish Woman a man is brought to a piece of Bread c. Prov. 6.25 26. Consider also that in nothing more is Christianity to be esteemed than in the Laws of Conjugal Chastity The very Animals some of them observe a kind of Conjugal Covenant how much more should the Diviner Creature Man that he might not spring out of uncertain seed and so mutual affection that Nature hath kindled between the Parent and the Children be utterly extinguished as the Great Grotius hath observed Avoid Gentlemen as much as possible vacancy and to be unimployed for a man hath an active and Vigorous Soul and must be imployed and no man need in truth to complain of want and imployment that hath a mind and understanding to improve a Soul to save Now proper imployment for Gentlemen they being Scholars and having time and leisure also is the improvement of themselves in knowledge and wisdom as the Son of Syrach observeth Ecclus. 38.24 The wisdom of a Learned man cometh by opportunity of leisure and he that hath little business shall
become wise And Verse 25. And how can he get wisdom that holdeth the Plow c. You have Learning and good Education those great helps by which you are enabled if you will to improve your selves much in Learning in Wisdom and Prudence Ecclus. 14.20 Blessed is the man that doth meditate good things in wisdom that reasoneth of holy things with understanding This sure you have most of you great Estates and a great account to make to God for those many benefits and favours you enjoy from his bounty as I mentioned before you have therefore less time of leisure and vacancy than you imagine you have great things before you Non vacat exiguis rebus adesse Iovi Employ your selves your Parts and Learning and opportunity therefore to improve your Knowledg and Learning your Leisure and Time in the attainments of Wisdom and Vertue Keep sound wisdom and discretion so shall they be life unto thy Soul and Grace to thy Neck Prov. 3.21 22. And consider that Learning is unto a wise man as an Ornament of Gold and like a Bracelet upon his Right Arm Ecclus. 21.21 Make use of your capacious Souls and the great helps you have by Learning Leisure and your Education in improving of your selves who have the whole Universe before you stand not still and spend your time in idle speculation and gazing upon the variety of Created Beings like the Animals and Bruites but wisely contemplate and consider them There 's room enough for the greatest Wit the most penetrating exquisite and capacious Mind wherein to spend it self while it subsists in this life And from these Streams let them viz. your Solus have recourse to the Fountain to the Supream Wisdom the Original Being the Creator of all who hath made every thing very good yea hath made all things beautiful every one in their season Consider him and give him the honour of all his works And to help you herein take in the assistance of the Son of Syrach Ecclus. 43.26 By his word all things consist And Verse 27. We may speak much and yet come short wherefore in sum he is all Verse 28. How shall we be able to magnify him For he is great above all his works Verse 30. When you glorify the Lord exalt him as much as you can even yet will he far exceed and when you exalt him put forth all your strength and be not weary for you can never go far enough Consider you have the Sacred Scriptures to study the Life of the ever blessed Jesus to contemplate if you be Christians endeavour to adorn and beautify your Souls with Divine Knowledge with Virtue and Goodness mark what Solomon saith that Wisdom is good with an Inheritance Gentlemen be like your selves above other men in vertue and true worth and goodness make use of your Reason for in this consists mans great happiness and excellency above Bruits take that wise advice Ecclus. 18.30 Go not after thy Lusts but refrain thy self from thy Appetite And Chap. 19.5 Whoso taketh pleasure in wickedness shall he condemned but he that resisteth Pleasures Crowneth his Life Mind much the Education of your Children you on whom God hath bestowed that Blessing those that bear your Character and Image that are parts of your self in whom you will survive your selves in this world even after your are dead employ your selves much in the care of their future well-doing Ecclus. 7.23 Hast thou Children instruct them and bow down their Necks from their Youth Chap. 30.8 11.12 13. An Horse not broken becometh head-strong and a Child left to himself will be willful Give him no liberty in his youth and wink not at his follies Bow down his neck while he is young and beat him on the sides while he is a Child lest he wax stubborn and be disobedient to thee and so bring sorrow to thine heart Chastise thy Son and hold him to labour lest his lend behaviour be an offence to thee And be sure if ever you would have your Children Vertuous and Good be very careful not to give them ill example for more especially you will find this true in them that vivitur exemplis magis quam legibus therefore expect not Miracles and that your Children should be good when you your selves are daily examples before their eyes of Vice and Wickedness And be not too indulgent to your Children to their ruin and destruction for if you would have them worth any thing be content that they be under somewhat a severe Discipline if their tempers will bear it for as the Scriptures speaketh It is good for a man that he bear the yoak in his youth Lamen 3.27 It being most sure that Knowledge Wisdom and Virtue are not born with them but must be acquired by them and they must undergo some hardship and difficulty some pain and labour to acquire them for And it is better to dye without Children then to have them that are ungodly Ecclus. 16.3 Now by means of Religious and Vertuous Education they are kept from Habit and Custom in sin that second nature and so are more easily conducted to the ways of all vertue and goodness You have most of you great Estates to leave behind you to your Posterity it therefore very much concerns you to endeavour that by Education and Instruction they may be furnished with Religion Learning Vertue as well as with an estate else they are in great danger to prove like a Ship without ballast when she comes to bear a great Sail to be quickly overset and lost Instil into their young and tender minds Religion and Virtue by little and little wherein if you have not a better you may make use of this Scheme or brief draught of Religious and Vertuous Principles Let thy Thoughts Be Divine Awful Godly Let thy Talk Be Little Honest True Let thy Works Be Profitable Holy Charitable Let thy Manners Be Grave Courteous Chearful Let thy Diet Be Temperate Convenient Frugal Let thy Apparel Be Sober Neat Comely Let thy Will Be Constant Obedient Ready Let thy Sleep Be Moderate Quiet Seasonable Let thy Prayers Be Short Devout Often Let thy Recreations Be Lawful Brief Seldom Let thy Memory Be Of Death Punishment Glory Next to the improvement of your Children it will not be improper to mind the improving of your Estates for their future welfare a brave and noble imployment for Gentlemen to busy themselves in but chiefly consider that this is the happinesss of a great Fortune of a great Estate when it is an attendent to a Gentlemen of a Generous Noble and Vertuous mind a liberal and open hand when Gentlemen live like themselves are men of publick Spirits that look upon themselves not born only for themselves that delight in worthy designs in doing good who are of the temper of that famous Roman Titus who as it is storied of him used to say Hodie non regnavimus quia neminem affecimus beneficio Who are not themselves if they are not
Curius for Temperance Courage Honesty and Frugality Thrasibulus for Integrity and Love to his Country Trimoleon for Moderation and Humility in a prosperous Condition and for love to his Country And when Socrates was upbraided by one that viewed his mean out-side for being one of an ill nature he answered true it is that I am so by nature but I have altered it and made it good by Philosophy And as it is related of one Hiero a King of Cicily who although at first he was very rude and intractable yet afterwards giving himself to Learning he became a man of great note as also many others Now if these wise Heathens did thus far improve the weak and glimmering light of Nature to attain so great perfection in Vertue how should we who together with the light of nature have the assistance of Divine Revelation have the light of the Gospel of the blessed Jesus who came from Heaven to reconcile us to God to teach and instruct us both by Doctrine and Example and give us the assistance of his Spirit how much should we outstrip and go beyond them in all Vertue and goodness And how prevalent the holy and excellent Religion of the ever blessed Jesus would be upon us if we would but honestly and syncerely embrace it was sufficiently manifested in the primitive and first times of Christianity and in all Ages hath appeared more or less in those that have really and affectionately embraced it I have read of an excellent Saying of Lactantius Scholar to Arnobius who lived about the fourth Century Anno. 308 who speaks thus Give me saith he a fierce and contentious man and if he will but apply himself to the Grace and Institution of the Gospel he shall become as mild as a Lamb Give me a Drunkard or a Lacivious Person with this Doctrine I will make him Chast and Sober Let a Covetous Man hearken to this Doctrine and he shall presently disperse his Money as Charitably as before he raked it together sordidly Give me a Timerous and Cowardly Person this Religion shall presently make him Valiant and despise death and danger c. In the primitive times believing was not an excuse for disobedience or a commutation for a holy life but a foundation of obedience to all the Laws of God as a late Author speaks Now may not our blessed Lord and Saviour thus argue the case with us after much patience and forbearance with you I am resolved my holy Religion and Institution shall not be any longer abused by you the Religion of that Impostor Mahomet will best suit with you is sitter for you or any false Religion else or none at all my Religion shall no longer be despised and neglected by you I will now think of transplanting my Religion hence and the poor ignorant Americans shall enjoy the light of my Gospel that you have so long enjoyed and abused Many of the Heathens have lived far more justly and soberly from their light of nature than you have done How would they have rejoyced in the Revelations of my Gospel and conformed their lives thereto When that weak glimmering and imperfect light of nature afforded to them was so pleasing and acceptable to them and they by their diligent and difficult labour and industry so much improved the same and lived more conformable thereto than you Christians to the light of my Gospel And this is no new thing that now I am about to do to the Christian world if they speedily repent not Those once famous and flourishing Churches of mine in Asia when they abused the light of my truth and corrupted themselves and would not be reformed would not repent and do their first works I quickly removed my Candlestick out of his place removed my Gospel from them and delivered them over to Captivity and Slavery Ruin and Destruction and the same Rod is in my hand still how can you therefore but expect in justice the same issue and event when your sins are come to the same height as ever theirs were and that ye will not take warning and repent and return to the primitive Simplicity and Integrity of Christianity for what is the Western Church more to me than the Eastern And indeed why should I continue my Religion any longer to you to slight and contemn it to reproach and defame it When it is made of little other use among you Is it not the very voice of your daily actions depart from us O Lord for we desire not the knowledge of thy Laws CHAP. VII The great cause of fears we may justly lye under in Christendome and to perswade to unity LEt us therefore seriously now consider things and what dreadful fear we may very justly lye under and in truth why should we desire to have a Religion continued to us which it is too apparent we do not like is unacceptable to us and which we do not love nor will be regulated by What further use can this holy and excellent Copy be to us who abhor to write after and to follow it Any Religion or no Religion may best sute with Christians of Heathenish lives may we not in justice shortly expect to hear in our Temples if we still go on in our contempt of God that dreadfull voice reported to be heard in the Temple of God in Ierusalem immediately before the destruction thereof and the Captivity and ruin of the Iewish Nation Migremus hinc and that the abomination of desolation should be set up there the dreadful consequences of which revolution he that shall deliberately read the Story will make his Ears to tingle as it is related by Iosephus it being the total Ruin and Subversion of the Iews both of their Place and Nation although they they were once the chosen and beloved people of God a woful spectacle for their contempt of God and their Messia the ever blessed Jesus and Life and Salvation by him and Crucifying the Lord of Glory to all the future Ages of the world to the end thereof Alas when God departs and forsakes a Nation or People then their peace and happiness leaves them what then can be expected but Pandora's Box nothing but Plagues Calamities Miseries and Confusions And are not the Judgments of God eminently abroad in the Earth and doth not he seem by his Providences to threaten Christendom and to be calling to remembrance their Sins and Iniquities and severely to punish the Christian world Is it not time therefore for us all to learn Righteousness For shall the Lion roar and shall not all the Beasts of the Forest tremble Doth it not very much concern us when God seems by his Judgments to be searching after our iniquities in Christendom seriously to bethink our selves of our great provocations of our unchristian if I may not say Heathenish Lives and Conversations and among the rest those great Divisions and Factions those Animosities and Hatred that abound in the Christian part of the world a thing not