Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
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A40750
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Advice to a young lord written by his father ...
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Fairfax, Thomas Fairfax, Baron, 1657-1710.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing F255A; ESTC R13706
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24,090
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146
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did not triumph and I charge you to make your duty to your Soveraign one of the chief Points of your Religion so far forth as may consist with your obedience to God and the Laws of your Nation which ought to be served best and in the first place yet there is such a reciprocation between both these Services that they commonly go together He that keeps himself strictly to the observation of the Divine Laws cannot err in the Humane and he that is a good Servant of God will never be an ill Subject to his Prince 'T is a Maxime of State That where Princes and People are of a different Religion they will not very well agree yet Modern Experience since the Reformation arrived to a settled constitution of Church Government evinces the contrary as at present in Germany and our own Kingdom of England Cherish and maintain the Ministers of the Gospel especially Pious and Learned Preachers Nothing brings more contempt upon the Religion and service of God in the eyes of the Vulgar than the necessities wants and miseries of Church-Men what esteem you reflect upon them will redound and reflect upon your self again What the Heathen said of their Poets That by their Means and Writings Famous Men were transmitted to Posterity and Immortality who otherwise would have lain in perpetual Oblivion is very true of Evangelical Doctors their Prayers Instructions and Recommendations of you together with your own Holiness 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 good and Charitable Persons Let Charity be a chief Ingredient in your Religion In all things preserve a good Intention without which no good Action can be performed vid. Sen. de Beneficis c. 1. both in Giving and Forgiving as you 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 to be always as apt and prone to pardon and pass them by which in the greatest Adversities you can undergo will never be out of your power to do Frequent your Chappel and the Houses of God let no Business invade or intrude upon your Religious hours what you have destined to the service of God is already Sacred to him and cannot without great Profaneness be alienated from him and conferred upon others For other Duties necessary for a Christian's Practice I refer you to the Discipline and Instructions of the Church thinking it needless to repeat them here which are so exactly laid down by her which I esteem the purest Truth For search all Religions through the World and you will find none that ascribes so much honour to God nor constitutes a more firm Love among Men as does the Establisht Doctrine of the Protestant Church amongst us In whose Arms I leave you and her to the everlasting protection of God Almighty Of Study and Exercises OF STVDY I shall be more brief and compendious because I have wholly as to this Affair committed you to the Conduct of your Tutor but yet hoping that my Advice may be of some use to you after your leaving the University I shall lay before you these few directions 1st That you make it a great part of your care not to spend your time in frivolous Niceties such as the study of Criticisme may be which is not unfitly termed by one difficiles Nugae stolidus labor Ineptiarum but always propose an end to your self in your Studies according to that Old Rule Respice finem For it will be an instance of great Prudence in you to study things which may be of solid use whereas now the whole Province of Learning is infested with frivolous disputations and nice and vain Impostures The best part of your study will be to read such Books as are most pleasing to you and you can study no Science better than what treats of the knowledge of your self and instructs you how to live and die well Therefore I say the usefulness ought in your Studies to be most observed or respected since 't is a strong evidence of weak Judgment when Men approve of things for their being rare and new or yet for the difficulty where Virtue and Usefulness are not conjoyned to recommend them But though the studying only to pass away time be a most inept Curiosity and mis-becoming active and generous Spirits yet you must so order your Studies that you make them subservient to the Concerns of your Honour Estate and Interest and that they intrench upon no time which should be better imployed either in the Service of God or your Prince Your vacant and leisure hours you cannot better impend upon any thing than Books and Meditation nay there is a necessity of making such leisure time if the multiplicity of business press too fast upon you remembring that of a Great Emperour whose Affairs were not only urgent but full of trouble in a new attained Empire Nulla dies sine linea he would not let a day slâ—p without some improvement in Studies Your own choice and Judgment will direct both what Books to read and what Science chiefly to apply your self to though I think it Pedantical and unworthy a Person of Honour to be Excellent in any one it seems as ridiculous as Nero's mad Ambition of being esteemed the chief Fidler and best Songster in the World whom Petronius Arbiter a Roman Knight excellently describes in his Satyricon under the Name of Eumolpus History and the Mathematicks I think are the most proper and advantageous Studies for Persons of your Quality the other are fitter for Schoolmen and People that must live by their Learning though a little insight and tast of them will be no burthen or inconvenience to you especially Natural Philosophy which next to the two I mentioned above I should give the preheminence to As to the Laws of the Kingdom I reckon them not a particular Study for they must be your constant practice your place as to Executory will instruct you and as to the pleading part of them 't is below you Keep always an able Scholar for the Languages in your house besides your Chaplain who may be ready at hand to read to you out of any Book your fancy or judgment shall for the present pitch upon him you 'll find to be of singular use and advantage to you and you ought therefore to give him Salary accordingly Think no Cost too much in purchasing rare Books which I esteem next to acquiring good Friends but buy them not to lay by or to grace your Library with the name of such a M. S. or such a singular Piece but read revolve him and lay him up in your memory where he will be far the better Ornament Read seriously what ever is before you and reduce and digest it to Practice and Observation otherwise you 'll have Sysiphus
ADVICE To a YOUNG LORD Written by his FATHER Under these following Heads Viz. Religion Study and Exercises Travel Marriage House Keeping and Hospitality Of the Court Of Friendship Of Pleasure and Idleness Of Conversation LONDON Printed for and are to be Sold by R. Baldwin near the Oxford Arms Inn in Warwick-Lane 1691. ADVICE TO A Young Lord. INTRODVCTION My Dear Son I AM not ignorant that there are many Tracts of late years writ concerning these very Subjects I now design to treat of yet I must confess have most of them been writ with a particular intention to their own Relations and 't is therefore the most probable reason that they are not of such general use and observation Others I am apt to think are designed out of presumptuous ambition of exceeding by imitation such rare Examples as went before them in the accessions of Wit and Elegant Discourses very often discoloured with Urbane and Facete Prophaneness I do acknowledge 't is a singular and the right way of transmitting a Man's Memory to Posterity especially his own The first of which I disesteem in Comparison of the latter because I believe 't will not be by them observ d so much as 't will by the other be respected You are now to be separated for some time from me and the greatest Consolation I have in your absence left me is the Confidence I have in the Learning and Abilities of your Tutor as also in your good nature in complying to follow his Directions which I am sure will be very reasonable 'T is not my doubting of your Tutor for if I did I should never have committed you the thing I prize and value above any in the World to his care But to shew you how tender I am of and what concern I take in your wellfare has been the occasion and reason which moved me to give you my particular Advice in these several Subjects thinking withall that these my Admonitions may be the more Sacred with and esteemed by you coming from one whom Nature and the Indulgence I have ever shewn you obliges to reverence and respect And I must confess I have as yet no reason to think that you 'll be deficient in your Duty or frustrate the expectations that I and all your Relations and Friends have conceived of you The better to imprint in your Memory what I think fit at present to advertise you of I shall use a distinct Method and divide my Discourse into several Heads and first of Religion Of RELIGION RELIGION my dearest Child is the greatest Concern we have upon us in this World our Eternal happiness in the next depending on it and for that reason ought to be the director of all our Actions I cannot therefore use my Paternal Authority to better purpose than in adjuring and straitly charging and requiring you to be constant and zealous in the Religion Established in this Kingdom Not that I forbid you to make enquiry into it to see if in all Points it agrees with the revealed Will of God but rather Exhort you to 't for I had rather you would make it your choice than to take it upon Credit The best Religion is a good Life and the securest fence against Temptation 'T was the Advice of a Great and Prudent Statesman to his Son Sir H. Sidney's Advice to his Son Sir Phil. That his first Action should be the lifting up his hands and mind to Almighty God in Prayer and feelingly to digest the words he uttered with continual Meditation and thinking of him to whom he spake and to use this at an ordinary hour that the time it self might put him in remembrance to do that thing he was accustomed to do at that time This Advice I would you should receive from me and I desire no better return and obedience from you in this Affair than what was made by the Person it was first directed to Let your thoughts in the Morning be what you have to do that day for which crave God's Blessing and Protection and at Night be sure you omit not to return thanks and recollect in your thoughts what you have done for which you must implore his Pardon Use all your endeavours to suppress sinful thoughts and desires while they are weak and impotent that if greater temptations present themselves you may be the better able to resist them and by using your self and delighting in doing good it will at length prove habitual 'T is an Old Saying Nemo repentè fuit turpissimus Juvenal holds good in the contrary for no Man is good on a sudden but as he has been inured to good works Adeo in teneris assuescere multum est Virgil. Thus I 'm confident you have been Educated which with your Virtuous Inclinations puts me in comfort and assurance that you 'll never degenerate Let no advantage in the World tempt you to be wicked at any time for you know 't is an Old Saying He that will once be wicked for his advantage will be always so if his Interest require it If any thing in Religion disturbs you consult an able Physician of the Gospel and not depend too much on your own Reading which yet I would have be so much as not to be imposed upon by any man Diversity in any thing distracts the mind and leaves it wavering in a dubious perplexity and then how easie 't is to sway the mind to either side the most Elegant Comedian will inform you Dum indubio est animus paulo momento huc illuc impellitur This is most true in Religion you must therefore obfirmate your Ears and confirm your Judgment being once satisfied in the excellency of your Profession Neither would I have you only fixt and constant in your Religion but also very Devout which is the chiefest thing in the practice of it and also remember this that he that is not truly Religious will hardly be esteemed such since nothing is of less continuance than Hypocrisie and Dissimulation and if your Religion be such such will your Honour be viz. a feigned thing and a meer shadow The Observance of Religion does become none more than Noble and Illustrious Persons other Glories have lifted them beyond the pitch and reach of Men but this is a Ray of the Divinity which advances them near to the Deity and like a 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 Virtues What brave Effects of Obedience to Princes has it wrought in Subjects Look back to the Primitive Times how Couragious were they in all Enterprizes hardy and resolute in dangers liberal to the Necessitous ready and willing to do their utmost endeavour in the distrest Affairs of the Empire and all this from one pious Principle that in serving their Prince they served God whose Lieutenant he is nor was there any difficulty over which their Faith