of many a Noble person in this Kingdom and I know not of any person so given but the very same measure hath been meeted unto him again The Cup is gone round and therefore content your self but above all I require you to have more regard to Christianity then covertly or basely to kill a particular Enemy by secret assault or practise it being altogether most unwarrantable either by Faith or Honour And this by way of Praemise To the rest of his CHILDREN Children AS you are the greatest part of me and in whom I may promise to my self a continuance of succession so have I also a paternal care more incumbent on me now towards you I shall therefore in some particular directions to you as the monuments of my affection advise and counsel you in what shall be necessary and expedient for your several conditions First therefore make not hast to put your selves out of the government or charge of those to whose care and tuition I have committed you if any thing happen that shall offer you advantage in another station of life then I leave you I require you to consult with them first I have laid a sacred obligation upon them to assist and aid you in all matters which if you neglect or contemn you will soon find your selves left to the world as a ship to the raging sea without Furniture or Anchors Above all bear that constant filial duty to your Mother which her piety and tenderness in your Education most justly call for at your hands her great indulgence towards you and her entire affection to me in all my suffering of late deserve very much at my hand and therefore I charge you to shew that respect to her for me which I would have done my self and in which in all the time of our wedlock you have known me to have continued Fail not in any outward circumstance of honour and reverence to her that so by your dutiful behaviour and carriage towards her some of the harshness and asperity of her present condition may be alleviated To your Eldest Brother who is the Prince of your Family shew your selves obedient and loving he is my substitute your Honour is bound up in his in him it now rests and may for a while not appear in its lustre take heed therefore you do not by any dis-respect quite extinguish it your due observance of him will preserve it in the minds of all men who are not strangers to the ancient worth and merit of Our House With one another maintain a mutual love and confidence This happiness you may have by my adversity to indear your selves more to one another lay out no affection upon the world but keep the entire stock for your selves Let that equal love which I bear you and which I leave with you be communicated among you by a constant amity to one another which will be the better Cemented by your religious and godly Conversation wherein I trust you have been so well instructed that my memory shall not be charged or blamed for your education Keep a Decorum in your present condition value not your selves the worse for one riot or attempt of fortune made upon me mind not her temporary outrages vertue is the true standard such allays pass not with her fix your self upon your own worth and no engine of fate can remove you from that Basis. Pusill animity is a vice almost needless to be warned of because noble minds do always niti contra and bear up against their extremities till they have either surmounted them by their bravery and ascended to their first height or levelled them by their patience and equanimity plain'd their difficulties and made them even with their contented minds The small Portions I have left you though the world miscounts them as great matters and I could wish they amounted to their sums you must improve as talents serve your necessities with them not your pleasures what the Royal Bounty may hereafter do by way of restitution you may do with it as may be most subservient to your Honour you will not be liable to great expences you are free from any dependency on Court where men spend money on a vanity called Hope As for marriage of which I shall speak more largely hereafter and of which in the beginning of this Monition I gave you a Caution your vertue must supply dower though I trust I have left a Competency with your vertues to match you to any family in Scotland Behave your selves therefore prudently decently and warily to all people that so you may gain the general good will and benevolence of all imitate the example your Mother hath set before you stand upon your guard against all pleasures or other baits or allurements that shall tempt you to any unlawful actions or desires which may practise upon you either in your Conscience or in your Reputation and resolve this as a sure rule with your selves that no person is wise or safe but he that is honest Fear your Creator and serve him with all your might begin all your works and actions with him 't is he onely can succeed and prosper them If you pursue your own designs upon your own bottome the conclusion will be your own ruin for he can wither and blast at his pleasure sinful undertakings I shall never despair of Gods blessing upon you nor doubt his all-sufficiency for you if you apply your self to him and make his fear the rule of your Lives You see that to be descended of great Personages is no exemption from the strokes of fortune but to be descended of a Heavenly race will carry you out of the reach of those misfortunes which are incident to Humanity Imploy therefore your time in renewing your alliances there probably your consanguinity and relations here may stand off from you like Jobs friends in his adversity Desertions are usual in this case you need however not much care for this worldly friendship as long as you have dependance on the Favour of Heaven What is abated here to you in the transitory felicites and pleasures of the world from which you have no such cause to wean your selves altogether will be easily recompenced in your enjoying him who is the foundation of all good and from whom all happiness is derived to his Creatures To whose Protection I commit you and your ways beseeching him to bless and prosper them to his glory and your comfort CHAP. I. Religion THis being your greatest concernment the director of all your actions I cannot use my Paternal Authority to better purpose then in adjuring you and straightly charging and requiring you to be constant and zealous in the Religion now left established in this Kingdome I will not take upon me now to decide controversies arisen betwixt ours and the Church of England in matters of Discipline they agreeing altogether in Doctrine all that I shall say is that their Ceremonies have not been used here and you have
been bred up without them and the Nation of Scotland otherwise affected and therefore you shall do well to continue in this Kirk though I would rather have it your own choice then any other consideration whatsoever Diversity in any thing distracteth the mind and leaves it waving in a dubious perplexity and then how easy is it to sway the mind to either side this is most true and experienced in Religion you must therefore obfirmate your eares and confirm your judgment being once satisfied of the Excellency of your profession and having received the true and sincere Doctrine Neither would I have you only fixt and constant in your Religion but also very devout in the practise of it that as heretofore your ancestors have been eminent for Honour you that come short of them by this deliquium or Eclipse of it in me may nevertheless exceed them in the true way to it by your Zeal and Piety and remember this that he that is not truly religious will hardly be esteemed such since nothing is of less continuance then Hypocrisie and dissimulation and if your religion be such such will your greatness and honour be a fained thing and a meer shadow The observance of Religion and the exercise of good manners do become none so much as illustrious persons other glories have lifted them beyond the pitch and reach of men but this is a ray of the Divinity which advanceth them neer to the Diety and like the Diamond out-shines the lustre of all other Jewels A religious heart and a clear conscience will make you truly conspicuous it is as the mother of all other vertues what brave effects of obedience to Princes hath it wrought in Subjects look back to the primitive times and the Emperors how courageous were they in all enterprises hardy and resolute in dangers liberal to their necessities ready to do their utmost devoir in the distrest affairs of the Empire and this from one pious principle that in serving their Prince they served God whose Leiutenant he is nor was there any difficulty over which their faith did not triumph Nevertheless some have taxed and it hath been along and strong imputation that this Kirk of Scotland doth teach sedition against or at least the diminution of the Authority of their Princes For my part I know no such matter nor did I ever embrace or adhere to such opinions though censured for them if any mans entemperature hath vented such dangerous Tenets or his rash presumption ventilated such questions I have nothing to do with them I disown and disclaim them and therefore to remove this prejudice from you also I charge you to make your duty to your Soveraign one of the chief points of your Religion so far forth as it may consist with your obedience to God who ought to be served best and in the first place There is such a reciprocation between both those services that commonly they go together Whatever the late miscarriages have been by the peoples strugling for their Liberty of Conscience as they are past so they have left the means whereby they may be prevented for the future and no doubt the good temperament of the King with an easie indulgent hand of his Ministers will keep Religion from the scandal of a Civil War 'T is a maxime of State that where Princes and People are of a different Religion they will not well agree yet Modern experience and since the Reformation arrived to a setled constitution and Church Government evinceth the contrary as at present in the Kingdome of France and in Germany where the quite opposite religions are peaceably and quietly profest But God be thanked there is no such contrariety in the religion professed in these two neighbouring Kingdomes which may not without animosity and interest keep the breach open be reconciled All impatient zeal being turned into an aemulation of Loyalty to the King Cherish and maintain the Ministers of the Gospel especially painful able Preachers Nothing brings more contempt upon or aviles religion and the service of God in the eyes of the vulgar then the necessities wants and miseries of Church-men what esteem you confer upon them will soon redound and reflect again upon you What the Heathen said of their Poets that by their means and writings famous men were transmitted to immortality who otherwise would have lain un perpetual oblivion is very true of Evangelical Doctors their prayers and their instructions and their recommendations of you together with your own endeavour after Holiness which is the only Fame and Glory will transmit and place you hereafter in Heaven and establish you here living and dead in the good will and praise of all men Let charity be a chief ingredient in your religion both in giving and forgiving As you shall have abilities indulge the poor and let them in some measure partake with you in your outward blessings and enjoyments For the other as you are always liable to offences so be always as apt and prone to pardon or pass them by which in the greatest adversities you can undergo will never be out of your power to do Frequent the Church and the Houses of God let no business invade or intrude upon your religious Houres what you have destined to the Service of God is already sacred to him and cannot without great profaness be alienated from him and conferred upon others use private prayers as well as go to the publick Ordinances For other duties necessary for a Christians practise I refer you to the discipline and instructions of the Kirk it being needless to repeat them here being so exactly laid down by her whom I take to be the purest Church For search all religions through the world and you will find none that ascribes so much to God nor that constitutes such a firm love among men as does the Establish'd Doctrine I except the Schisms amongst us of the Protestant Church among you In whose Armes I leave you and Her to the everlasting protection and guidance of God CHAP. II. Of Marriage HAving devoted your self principally to the Service of God and subordinatly to your Prince which includes your Country the next duty or affection you owe to your self in the ordering or governing of your life according to your several inclinations and dispositions And among the most important and strong sways of Nature I reckon marriage especially in great and noble Families where interest forbids perpetual virginity nor ever since the suppressing of Nunneries and such Monastick Privacies and renunciations to the world have we had in this Kingdome many if any of the daughters of Jephtha Marriage no doubt was one of the greatest favours that God conferred on mankind and when he bestows a vertuous mate whose humility chastity and affection are eminently great he doth renew his first intentions of kindness to man and gives grace upon grace and infinitely happy is he that can find and make such a choice 'T was therefore well
Lo here the Genius of the great Arguyle Whose Politicks and Ethicks in one pyle Like Anchor Buoys appeare to teach thee Wit To shun those rocks on which himselfe was split Instructions to a Son BY ARCHIBALD Late Marquiss of Argyle WRITTEN In the time of his Confinement London Printed for J. Latham at the Mitre in Saint Pauls Church-yard 1661. THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER THat the Author of this ensuing Treatise was an able States-man and of excellent natural endownments a Master of reason and the most accomplish'd Scholar of experience will without scruple be allowed to his ashes From them this product of his notable spirit these Posthuma he having envyed the uncharitable world other remains of his choise literature and observation have taken wing into the world and by your candid acceptance may surmount his Fate He hath not at all herein consulted his reputation and esteem of learning or abilities which were very eminent in him but hath descended to the plainness which affections require without any art or elegancy of Ornament as more becoming the sincerity of his paternal love This was judged fit to be premised that the expecting Reader might not be stumbled at the easiness and common language with which he hath cloathed his most difficult cares and thoughts for his Children and withall to let you know that this copy was transmitted hither by a worthy hand and saving the alteration of some Scoth words which would puzzle the English Reader is faithfully Printed To them I commend it and remain Your Friend The Contents THe Marquess of Argyls instructions to his Son fol. 1 The Marquess of Argyls instructions to his Children fol. 20 CHAP. I. Of Religion fol. 29 CHAP. II. Of Marriage fol. 39 CHAP. III. Of the Court. fol. 49 CHAP. IV. Of Friendship fol. 59 CHAP. V. Of Travail fol. 69 CHAP. VI. Of Hous keeping and Hospitality fol. 79 CHAP. VII Tenants and other concerns of Estate fol. 89 CHAP. VIII Of Study and Exercise fol. 98 CHAP. IX Of Pleasure Idleness c fol. 107 CHAP. X. Considerations of life fol. 116 Maxims of State fol. 125 Miscellaneous Observations fol. 169 The Marquiss OF ARGYL'S Instructions to his Son SON I Know there are several books in Print written Prudently Politickly and Piously of this very title of late years I confess most of them were of particular entendment to their own relations the reason probably that they are not of such general observation and use others designed out of presumptuous ambition of exceeding by imitation such rare patterns as went before in the accessions of wit and elegant discourse discoloured sometime with urbane facete Prophaness Ido acknowledge 't is a singular and the right way of transmiting of a mans memory to posterity especially to his own it argues a kind of reverence that men bear to themselves when they can so impartially unbosome themselves in the account and register of all their Actions and can shew no disliked experience of them as to their own proper guilt I do not hereby understand what concerns religion who can excuse or extenuate his failings but of moral transient Acts to the evil of which no man is so strongly inclinable but by the bias of a corrupt education Many very sententious pieces are extant among Ancient Authors of this subject but I know none Testamentary but among the Moderns and of them we have some excellent Princes and renowned Statesmen My care of you whom I would have to consider your self as the prop of an ancient Honorable Family is no way less then theirs however I am inferiour to them in Dignity and Judgment and therefore I will trace a beaten way rather then lose my self and you in a general discourse what I come short of here you cannot misse in their common places and so I may be sure I shall attain my end Probably men may think I can adde nothing to that store but if they consider my station and how far concerned in these Times they may rather expect novel Politicks from me such a variation of the Latitude of the most approved and received maximes of State lying in the sphere in which I acted but the managery of the Counsels of those times were by success or the monstrous guilt and fraud of the Politicians so irregular that I cannot if I would bring them under Heads though up and down as they occur I may point at them I confess 't was my great misfortune to be so deeply engaged in these Fatal Times I know the Nobility of Scotland have always bickered with their Princes and from the insolency of that Custome not any of our Kings have been free 'T is also true the perpetual Family feuds among us which by all the industry and Authority of our Princes could never be so pacified but that they revived again and took upon themselves as they had advantage to revenge their quarrel and yet like sudden floods which violently over-run and as peacably return within their banks abated to their due allegiance did easily perswade me that there was no such apparent danger in the first beginnings of the contest betwixt the King and my Nation of Scotland I had laid it for a maxime that a Reformation was sooner effected per Gladium Oris then per Os Gladii and certainly true Religion is rather a setler then stickler in Policy and rather confirms men in obedience to the Government established then invites them to the erecting of new which they neither do nor can know till it be discovered and declared Wherein I did not look upon our intended Reformation as any way taxable since it had the whole stream of universal consent of the whole Nation I never thought of those dire consequences which presently followed till by that confusion my thoughts became distracted and my self incountred so many difficulties in the way that all remedies that were applyed did the quite contrary operation whatever therefore hath been said by me and others in this matter you must repute and accept them as from a distracted Man of a distracted Subject in a distracted Time wherein I lived and this shall serve to let you know how far I waded unwarily in that business I will not however counsel you if any such lamentable commotions which God forbid should break out for my unhappiness to withdraw your self from interposing to quench and allay them as much as by your Authority you can however I was mistaken by some in my Actions I did labour for a right understanding but be sure let your Allegiance keep the ballance by no means stand like a neuter in the cause of your King and Country That Decree of Solons that every man that in a general Commotion was of neither party should be adjudged infamous is rightly decreed of great men Popular furies would never have end if not awed by their Superiours who supinely neglecting such outrages not ordinarily are rnined and depress'd in their own Estates and Honours a late