67. Occasions must be prevented a watch kept over our senses Over our fancy That it may be ordered and must else all will be out of order to pa 73. What may awe our thoughts 74. What the soveraigne help next to the awfulnesse of Gods eye to page 79. the summe and use thereof to the Childe to page 81. § 3. Of profit how unsatisfying what doth satisfie indeed to page 82. § 4. Anger What it is whence it ariseth who most subject unto it How we may be armed against this passion and overcome it Chrysostome's note notable and Melanchthons practise Gods patience towards us mighty to perswade us thereto Abraham and Isaac how meek and yeelding this way of the tongue from page 83. to page 92. § 5. Of Censure Charities rule her mantle how largely we may stretch it according to Chrysostomes and Mr Perkins rule A rule in Herauldry of great use to pag. 95. § 6. Affections sometimes the stormes of the soul sometimes the sweet gale or winde thereof like moist elements Who boundeth them Considerations of use to moderate our feare sorrow c. to page 100. § 7. Of Discontent how unreasonable it is Considerations teaching us content in present things Chrysostomes short story very notable so are the Philosophers words with Mr Bradfords concluded to page 107. CHAP. V. THe Sacrament of the Lords Supper Graces required in those who present themselves at that Table If wanting what is to be done Note Chrysostomes words and Dr Luthers at that point The close of the chapter very notable so is Mr Raynolds meditation to page 121. CHAP. VI. MAriage A solemne ordinance I. Our well and orderly entring into that honourable estate Abuses very many and great touching that point in young and old Whose abuse most notorious and how justly punishable c. to page 125. Our rule in treating about a match application thereof to the childe A childe no match-maker A childe no match-maker A notable story to that purpose to page 127. The duty of every single person threefold of infinite concernment to page 131. The Parents or overseers duty at this point five-fold The last of the five least thought on and worse answered but of infinite concernment page 138. II. Our well ordering our selves in that state as becometh the honour thereof Affections at the first strongest how to guide their streame in a right channell sinne hath put all out of frame Chrysostomes note notable Page 140. Good to count our Cost and forecast trouble Page 142. Equality inequality hard to draw even The man the leading hand how he stands charged the weight of the charge If the head be surcharged or so headlesse it cannot lead or drawes backward what the wives duty The head hath a head a grave consideration 148. A consideration which may helpe to make up all breaches and silence all differences betwixt man and wife out of Chrysostome Page 149. Grievances rancked under two heads What is only evill and to be feared Page 152. Evils Imaginary Reall The former how prevented Page 154. The bearing the latter silently and like a Christian supposeth two things greatly to be studied to Page 158. Snares they spring from two rootes how snares from plenty are prevented that our foote be not taken with them Feare a Catholike remedy page 163. snares from scarcenesse how to breake through them and how to carry and quiet our spirits in them 165. The houswifes charge how it may be discharged towards children what the parents ambition touching them and servants our charge over them how neglected The houswifes duty engageth the Tongue that it bee apt to teach The eyes for over sight The hands that they be diligent and open mercy to the poore inforced to page 170. Diligence a great thriver well husbanding the present makes us secure for the after-time The family the fountaine of society how ordered if it be as those families whose praise is in the Gospell The conclusion to page 175 CHAP. VII OLD-Age as an Haven we must doe as men arrived safe there What questions we must put to our soules the more to quicken us to the sacrifice of praise Many questions resolved into one to page 180. Two periods of this Age. I. Desired not welcomed A calme Time if youth hath not troubled it It must be imployed The lamp of our life must not now blaze-out to page 184. A grave complaint and counsaile page 186. who gives understanding 187. II. How burdensome those yeares The Grashopper a Burden When our time is shortest our expectation is longest a weake Body but a strong presumption how vaine to think we can turne to God then when we have turned from Him all our dayes It is not our Time nor Gods Time to page 192. Fooles delay Time Children of wisdome not so to page 193. Two lessons drawne from hence We must not wish for death in a passion Eternity when we may wish for death to page 196. Not trifle away Time Grave counsell to that purpose 197. Who may be said properly to live Groanes not discernable from what spirit they proceed 199. We make an Idoll of the last prayer What first to be done 221. Comfort in death Whence the peace of the Godly They taste not death they see it not c. Applyed to the Child concluded Faults escaped Page 29. line 12. of thy wings read whereof Page 50. line 34. covered read opened Not be hid Page 108. line 7. this read thy 109. Last line read imply Page 116. line 29. would read should These faults were found not sought for and because they marre the sense are noted so might many more if there had been will or leasure to have perused the Book The Remaines must stand as properly belonging to every person and presse and expect favour from every one who knows himselfe partaking of the same common nature But if here are more faults then usuall our excuse is that the coppy could not be made legible by the Authors own hand and being written by another was the more wanting in stops and otherwise and we keep to the Coppy A CHILDES PORTION The Second Part. Respecting a Childe grown up CHAP. I. What we are taught by beholding our selves in the wombe and what by our outward frame of body I Shall now call thee back to look unto the Rock whence thou was hewen to the wombe whence thou was taken I shall begin with thee at the very beginning of thy being that thou maiest take a more cleare sight and consideration even there of Gods goodnesse thy Parents kindnesse thy self misery Assuredly there is no period of a mans age that yeelds him such a discerning as this point of time doth at which he first breathed in this world and so set forth to runne his race Therefore I shall reduce thee now to thy primitive originals and as it were lay thee again in the wombe whence thou Chap. 1 didst spring That in this way of reduction thou maiest take
ant a lillie a raven to think on a providence seeing an oxe knowing his owner and his crib to think what is the duty of a reasonable creature observing the stork and the swallow and our houshold cock all exactly observing their season and I think the last observing it almost to a minute To learn from these and to get as was said of the children z of Issachar understanding in the times and to know what Israel 1. Chron. 12. 31. ought to do He that can do somuch through Him that strengtheneth all and in all he can he shall be made wise by his observation of the creatures for he sets his minde to the thing and the Law of God is in his heart he will receive profit by every thing and teach others how to profit also so I come to the third particular How to teach the childe to spell nature c. 3. Childehood and youth are ages of fancy Therefore the Father I mean a father at large master or teacher he hath the relation of a Father must make great use of the childes senses for they have the best agreement with its fancy hereunto the book of the creatures is very subservient They speak to the senses and the senses make report to the minde So in this way every place will be the childes school for every where it will meet with its lesson and no lesson plainer and more legible to a childe then what he findes in the volume of the Creatures This is a truth not to be doubted of That parent teacheth best and soonest attaineth his end the promoting his childe who verseth the childe most in the open view of the creatures So he cannot alwayes do but this he must do alwayes as he intends his childes profit When he cannot carry his childe abroad to view the creatures he must what he can bring the creatures home to the childe so shall he make the book in the childes hand what ever it be more legible For this the parent shall finde that where he comes short in making representations to his childes eye there the childe will fall short in his apprehension Nothing comes into the understanding in a naturall way but through the doore of the senses If the eye hath not seen that we are speaking of it can make no report of it to the minde The spirit of the childe as I may say is fashioned and moulded to the pattern and modell of that it looks upon And note we then the childe goes on with ease and delight when the understanding and the tongue are drawn along like parallel lines not one a jot before another It is Comenius his rule the ablest man in that way that yet the world hath taken notice of And this also the parent shall the more easily effect and with quicker dispatch if when he hath laid the book of the Creatures before the childes eye and is reading the lecture from thence he shall put the lecture into questions and make the childe not an hearer onely that is the old manner but a party in the businesse It will much enliven and quicken the childes fancy to see it self joyned as a party in the work though its little it can do A parent must question his childe and in a faire way take an account of him speaking wholly is lost labour The Tutour in Xenoph. a Lib 1. de Inst p. 34. for a lecture to his scholler Cyrus proposeth this question A great youth having a little coat gave it to one of his companions of a lesse stature and took from him his coat which was the greater upon which he demanded his judgement Cyrus answered that it was well because both of them were thereby the better fitted But his master sharply reprehended him for it because he considered onely the fitnesse and convenience thereof and not the justice which should first and especially be considered that no man may be enforced in that which was his own And this no doubt is an excellent manner of instruction saith Charron and it is probable this was the manner which the Iewes took for the instruction of their children b Deut. 6. 20. And when the childe shall aske thee thou shalt say thus and thus But how if the childe did not ask then sure enough the parent did ask the childe or help the childe how to ask If the childe did not question the parent the parent did question the childe We would have the childe ask and enquire for it is a true rule He that doubts and asketh most he profiteth most And he that enquireth after nothing he knowes nothing saith another But the parent will finde the childe very slack and backward this way Few children there are who make any further enquiry but When is the next holy day Therefore here the parent must help and give the hint of a question As it requireth some sense to make an answer not absurd so it asketh some knowledge to demand a question not impertinent it exceeds the skill of a childe Therefore there is no question but the parent must help and give the hint of a question at the least and that will give an hint to further instruction It is past all question that it is an excellent way in teaching to put the lecture into questions We have our great Lord and Master a president unto us whom they found in the Temple sitting among the Doctors both hearing them and asking them c Luke 2. 46. questions It is then no novel way but ancient and authentick though now as the best things are grown out of use and fashion And it sufficeth to point onely at this way of questioning the childe so making it a party which will help it very much to reade in the volume of Gods works and to profit by reading which was the third thing 4. The fourth follows which is To give some essay herein and reade a short lecture out of this great volume of the Creatures that lieth open before us And I begin at the footstooll where we had our beginning At the Earth for it is saith the Father d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost in Gen. Ser. 1. our countrey our mother our nurse our table our grave An effect it is which in a measure may be perceived by mans understanding but the manner of production cannot be concieved by any spirit compassed with a mortall body Here I enquire first 1. What Forme or figure it hath 2. Whence its dependance 3. What its magnitude c. How farre a childes sense will help in all three Something hereof the sense will report to the understanding but it will leave the understanding of old and young in a wonderment and that as was said is but the effect of a broken knowledge The use hereof we shall see anon The first 1. For the Figure of it It is circular or round we must not look for corners in it Our sense doth not report it so
rising and refresheth how that instructeth pag. 68. Sin and sorrow will sowre the sweetest earthly Blessings where the root of our comfort pag. 69. The Sun a publique servant teacheth man so to be even to serve his brother in Love and to shew to him the kindnesse of the Lord what the Idol of the world what makes man an abomination from pag. 69. to pag. 71. The Morning the first fruits of the day our season what a Mercy to have it but a greater to take it what our first work and with whom what our engagements to set about it what may be instilled by continuall dropping from pag. 71. to pag. 77. CHAP. VI. VVEeat bread at Noon What that implieth how fraile our bodies what our use therefrom pag. 78. Our right to the Creatures how lost how regained pag. 79. In eating we must use abstinence Intemperance how provoking to God how hurtfull to man and unbeseeming the Lord of the Creatures to pag. 81. When the fittest season to teach and learn abstinence how necessary a grace specially in these times when so much wrath is threatned What use a Parent must make hereof to Children Their lesson before and at the table to pag. 85. When we have eaten we must remember to return Thanks The threefold voice of the Creatures what the Taxation or Impost set upon every Creature If we withhold that homage we forfeit the blessing The memorable words of Clemens Alexandrinus A strange punishment upon one who seldome or never returned thanks so concluded pag. 90. CHAP. VII THe Method in reading the Book of the Creatures Foure Objections with their Answers out of the Lord Verulam to pag. 93. How to reade the Book of the Creatures Extreames corrected and accorded Two primitive Trades An Apocrypha Scripture opened and made usefull to pag. 97 How to teach the Childe to spell the Book of Nature What is the compendious way of Teaching to pag 100. Essayes or Lectures upon the creatures beginning at the Foot-stool Three enquiries touching the earth 1. What form or figure 2. Whence its dependance 3. What its magnitude Instructions therefrom very grave and usefull all from pag. 100 to pag. 107. A view of the Creatures In their variety delightfull and usefull Two Creatures onely instanced in From a little Creature a great instruction What a mercy to be at peace with the stones and creeping things From pag. 107. to pag. 114. The Waters their Surface barres or bound Their weight The Creatures therein the ship thereupon Great lessons from all from pag. 114. to pag. 122. repeated and mans ingratitude convinced 123. The Aire The wayes and operations thereof admirable Whence changed and altered for mans use sometimes for his punishment The windes Their circuit Their wombe to pag. 125. The winged Creatures Their provision and dependance greatly instructing man and reproving his distrust to pag. 126. The Clouds the ballancing of them The binding the waters within them The making a course for the Rain out of them All these three the works of Him that is wonderfull in working to pag. 127. Of Lightning But the Thunder of His power who can understand Job â—6 14. The Snow and the Haile and where their Treasure to pag. 128. The wonderfull height of the starrie Heaven Of the Firmament Why so called and why the Firmament of His Psal 150. power The eye a curious Fabrick of admirable quicknesse How excellent the eye of the soul when cleared with the True eye-salve The heavens outside sheweth what glory is within Chrysostomes use thereof and complaint thereupon to pag. 134. Of the Sunne Why I descend again to that Creature Three things in that great Light require our Mark. Grave and weighty lessons from all three Concluded in Mr Dearings and Basils words to pag. 144. CHAP. VIII THE Day and Night have their course here But after this life ended it will be alwayes Day or alwayes Night A great Instruction herefrom to pag. 147. Our senses are soon cloyed We are pleased with changes What Darknesse is The use thereof A little candle supplies the want of the Sun How that instructeth How we are engaged to lie down with thoughts of God to pag. 153. CHAP. IX A Great neglect in point of education Mr Galvines Mr Aschams Mr Perkins and Charrons complaint thereof The ground of that neglect to pag. 156. The Parent must fix upon two conclusions Of the School Whether the Childe be taught best abroad or at home 157. The choice of the Master Parents neglect therein The Masters charge 159. His work His worth if answerable to his charge to pag. 160. The Method or way the Master must take How preposterous ours Who have appeared in that way to pag. 164. The School must perform its work througly The childes seed-time must be improved to the utmost before he be promoted to an higher place The danger of sending Children abroad too soon When Parent and Master have promoted the Childe to the utmost then may the Parent dispose of the Childe for afterwards to pag. 165. CHAP. X. OF Callings Some more honourable as are the head or eye in the body But not of more honour then burden and service Elegantly pressed by a Spanish Divine and in Sarpedons words to Glaucus to pag. 169. The end and use of all Callings pag. 171. Touching the choice of Callings How to judge of their lawfulnesse To engage our faithfulnesse No excuse therefrom for the neglect of that one thing necessary Our abiding in our Callings and doing the works thereof How Nature teacheth therein The designing a Childe to a Calling Parents too early and preposterous therein 177. Parents may aime at the best and most honourable calling The Ministerie a ponderous work 178 But he must pitch upon the fittest In the choice thereof the Parent must follow Nature and look-up to God THE PREFACE SHEVVING the necessitie and worth of a vertuous education and may serve as an introduction to Dutie OUr great Advancer of Learning noteth an opinion of Aristotle which is this a Lib. 7. p. 375. In English Book 2. p. 263. That of those things which consist by nature nothing can be changed by custome using for example That if a stone be thrown up tenne thousand-times it will not learne to ascend and that by often seeing and hearing we doe not see or heare the better That Noble Scholler noted this for a negligent opinion so he cals it I know not why because the Philosopher doth instance in Peremptory nature and he took pains to informe us touching the same It is true saith he In things wherein nature is Peremptory Man cannot make massie bodies to hang in the Aire like Meteors he cannot make an Oxe to flye That which is crooked saith the wise man b Eccles 1. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 man cannot make straight There is a Peremptory bent of nature which man cannot turne no more then he can turne back a Spring-tide or a Rushing winde
This is a worke for Him and peculiar to Him Who turned Iordan back Who made the Iron Swimme Makes the Clouds those massie bodies to hang in the Aire as if they had no weight Who makes Mountaines Vallies and rough things even Raiseth children of stones stony hearts and made dry Bones live And the Parents worke in this case is to sit still I meane not any slacking of their endeavour that is to goe into his closet and spread this Peremptory bent of nature he sees in his Childe or not subdued in himselfe as the King the Letter before the Lord c 2 King 1â— 14. and to say it is Luthers Counsell d Poeaitendum mihi praecipis sed talis sum ego miser quod sentio me nolle neque posse quare this prostratus pedibus c. Concio de poenâ—tent Anno Dom. 1518. Here is an Heart that cannot turn that will not turne turne it Lord it is Thy Worke Thine onely Turne it as Thou didst the Rivers in the South Thus where Nature is Peremptory and what we are to do in that case Nothing but look up to Him Who caused the Sunne to goe back and so the shadow in the Diall But it is otherwise in things wherein nature admitteth a latitude for we may see that a straight glove will come more easily on with use And that a wand will by use bend otherwise then it grew and by use of the voice we speak lowder and stronger and that by use of induring heate and cold we indure it the better e See a Treatise of Vse and Custome p. 26. and 39. and 69. And here in the God of Nature Who onely can change Nature and supply what man cast away and is wanting would have Man active and stirring and admits him as a fellow-worker with Himselfe By this I would gaine but thus much That I might evince the necessitie of a vertuous education and inhance the worth of the same I meane that we might set a price upon it and no ordinary one neither It were an easie taske here to enter into a common place and to give a Laudative hereof which would fill the margent and the lines Sufficeth it to know first f Reade Hist of the World first Book 4. Chap. Sect. 11. p. 14. Quint. declaris Orat. Isocrat Areopag 217. in sol That Nothing after Gods reserved power doth so much set things in or out of Square and Rule as education doth Secondly That we have no other means to recover our sickly and crasie nature I know my words are too short but I mean not in things that are high concerning God for in them she is not sick but dead no other meanes to pull it out of the Rubbish of Adams and of our own Ruins and to smooth over the face of it againe beautifying the same and making it comely no other means I say left us then to apply the Georgicks g p. 236. of the minde as that Noble Scholler Phraseth it he means the husbandry and Tillage thereof The effects we see in the husbanding our grounds and they are great and admirable The good Tillage of the minde produceth as great effects and concerneth man more as he thinks himselfe of more worth then a clod of earth It hath such a forcible operation as hardly any length of time or contention of labour can countervaile it afterwards we remember the old saying the truth whereof is more ancient then is the verse Ingenuas didicisse fideliter artes c. This Culture and manurance of the minde taketh away the wildnesse and barbarisme and fiercenesse of mens mindes it subdueth savage and unreclaimed desires But then as the great Scholler noteth also The accent had need be upon fideliter h p. 82. that is The Culture and manurance of the minde must not be superficiall We deale not so with our ground but it must be laboured in faithfully heartily coÌ„tinually so the husbandman doth in his ground it findes him work all the yeer long And he doth his work throughly he doth not plant here a spot and there a plat of ground but he tils the ground all over that what he can and as the nature of the ground is capable he may make all fruitfull And so we must intend this businesse as we would that thing which concerns the Parent and the Childe more then any thing in the world besides yea more then a World is worth Being confident of this That all things by labour and industry may be made better then Nature produced them And that God so ordained it That the industry of man should concurre in all things with the Works of Nature both for the bringing of them to their perfection and for the keeping of them therein being brought unto it i See Dr. Hack. Apol. lib. 2. cap. 9. Sect. 3. p. 143. Having now concluded the worth of a vertuous education and the necessitie of the same it followes That my own practise be somewhat answerable to the Rule Therefore have I penned mine own Duty with mine own hands which may serve for a parent at large to direct and teach him his This I have digested into two parts each entire of themselves but yet as different in the subject matter and manner of handling as is the subject I would informe In the first part a Childe in its minoritie and younger yeers the second a Childe growne up Both the one and the other the subject of a Parents care and charge which in the first part is largely treated on with the manner or way how he may discharge the same The way is to make the Childe know himselfe then to know that which may be known of God k Rom 110. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is manifest for God hath shewed it unto him by that he sees and feeles of Him so haply he may feele after Him and finde Him l Acts 17. 27. This then is my subject now even The good culture of the Childe an old Theame whereto little that is new can be added either for forme or matter Yet because it is a work daily repeated and of Infinite concernment to the Childe And being a parent my selfe I obtained of my selfe naturally very indisposed to my pen to set downe out of some continued experience and some conversation with Children and Books concerning that Theame what I thought pertinent to that businesse The furthering and improving that great worke What now remaines as an introduction thereto I branch under these heads First making this my scope the good Culture of the Childe and being to note some wants and Deficiencies therein I shall first briefly observe such defects as my riper yeers have discerned in my own education the trayning up my younger yeers which may be of some use to others for prevention Secondly I shall note a naturall defect which troubled me very much For I thought it the greatest crosse in the world but it proved no
no more for present there for it will fall in my way againe in a fitter place but that from thence I was sent to the Vniversitie soon enough and raw enough So my Master advised and then my Mother was perswaded for he was counted an Oracle It remembers me how Iunius his Grandfather did sometimes indorse his letter to his sonne who he thought at that time might have spent his time to better purpose To t Dionysio dilecto filio misso ad studendum pro eo quod alii vulgò inscribunt studenti Vita Junii praefix Oper. Theol. Dionisius my beloved sonne sent to study And to study I was sent also as a means tending to a farther end which failed and though little I did yet I sate at it what awed me so for there was a providence in it I shall tell anon And such was the good providence also I was disposed to a Tutor the ablest amongst many and most conscientious of his duty and as skilfull to teach his Schollers theirs Touching some Tutors and their proceeding with their Pupils then and now if according to the old and most ordinary fashion as I think it not a patterne for imitation so I know it to be above my Censure I shall note a Defect which I may be bold to censure A fundamentall one it is yet not so properly mine as that it is not common to the most now as it was then sent to the Colledge as I was before I was fitted There we shall finde helps from other Arts which will give Forme to Matter But if we want Matter what should we do with our Forme I was put to Logick and Rhetorick before I was prepared or fitted for either Those grave Sciences as the Noble Scholler u 2 Book 99. lat pag. 75. saith the one for judgement the other for ornament doe suppose the Learner ripe for both else it is as if one should learne to weigh or measure or to paint the winde Those Arts are the rules and Directions how to set forth and dispose Matter And if the minde be empty and unfraught thereof if it hath not gathered that which Cicero calleth Sylva supellex stuffe and variety to begin with those Arts it doth work but this effect That the wisdome of those Arts which is great and Universall will be made almost contemptible and degenerate into Childish Sophistry So said that noble Scholler who hath not a word too light But empty and unfraught though I was yet to these Arts I was put and my benefit there-from was answerable so little as that I shall never recover those Defects For Defects which grow up with us in youth are as hardly amended in after time as the errour in the first concoction is corrected in the Second And yet if I should say that many were then and now are sent to the Universitie more empty and unfraught then I was I should say but the truth I did not cast away my howers there though for want of good order and method in my studies I spent not my time there to much purpose I fleeted Read the L. Cokes advise before his second part of Reports which he borrows part of it out of Sen. ep 108. and flutter'd from book to book variously tasting off many but digesting none some rude notions I had of the Arts but was not acquainted at all with the bodies of Disciplines I gathered some ends together so as that my collections that way and provision of learning was as our Advancer x pag. 222. compareth it like a Frippers or Brokers shop that hath ends of every thing but nothing of worth I have noted this also as my owne Deficiency for so it was more there are who proceed as inorderly as I did and that they may be better advised and directed I have noted it A defect they shall finde it and no ordinary one The next defect I shall note for there is use in it also is this I lost the fruit of disputation quite The benefit whereof is no little to a Boy if he be not through the default of the Moderator a right Sophister contending about Goats haire which is Childish Sophistry a vaine jangling about nothing and of nothing comes nothing or if they contend not with blows and bad language I mean as once it was with hard iron in stead of solid arguments Let the folly and abuses hereof be prevented by the wise over-sight of the Governours so shall the dispute be wisely carried and then assuredly much Advantage shall accrew thereby both to them that dispute and them that heare I durst not put my selfe forth therein for then my tongue was very imperfect when I was not ready in what I was to speak as in Disputations I could not be but in other exercises Declamations and the like I was best because most exercised therein and those I had so perfect that I could see my selfe speake Another defect there was and deserveth Censure I charged my paper book with many notes my memory with few or none at all had I gone on so The Scholler had lost if not quite his Treasurer yet he had put it out of office The most faithfull Servant in the world if it be called to an account constantly if not the very worst a very Slug a Nihil aequè vel augetur curâ vel negligentiâ intercidit Qâ—intil l. 11. cap. 2. Let there be a Recognition of what we heare or reade a chewing of it againe for as conference with others is the life of studie so meditation is the life of reading then we may book it we may and must take some briefe heads of it at first b Certissimum est quod in librum refâ—rtur sidel sâ—imum adjutorem memoriae cum id quod sola recordationenitatur facile possit dâ—uturnitate temporis vel penitùs extingui vel saltem corrumpi Bright in Revel cap 5 I allow not of those who make memory their store-house for at their greatest need they shall want of their store L. Coke ep 1. before his first part but charge the memory rather then the book Call it to an account so may a man prove as famous for memory as our Iewell c Read his life was who had the Artindeed or if not so for that was extraordinary and there is a different strength of memory as of other faculties not in all alike yet this recalling of things and charging of memory so as it may be par oneri not overcharged will prove a sure Art and most usefull d Si quis unam maximamque a me artem memoriae quaerat exercitatio est labor Quintil. ibid. I could give here a full Tale of my Defects for I know many and I could censure them too none better but I shall reserve them for a fitter time and place these are fittest for publike and serve best to correct others for from these I had most disadvantage as others shall
that upon whom he hath bestowed so many hard blows both from hand and foot too I tell but my own observation who is it he hath used so disgracefully with such contumelious words It is no other then the image and glory of God A strong consideration to cause the 1. Cor. 11. 7. parent to carry himself comely and reverently before the childe which he may do and yet make the childe both to know and keep its distance else it cannot know its dutie A Parent cannot conceive the childs condition to be more Maxima dâ—betur pueris Reverentia Iav Major è longinquo Reverentia Tacit. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. de prosper Adver Hom 5. ω. deplorable then was the Rich-mans in the Parable yet saith Chrysost and he makes it very useful Abraham called him Sonne a compellation still be fitting a Father so also words and actions well becoming that sweet name Jud. 9. α. and most likely to winne upon and to convince the childe whereas bitter and vilifying words become not though we did contend with the Devill a Kinde words make rough actions plausible The bitternesse of reprehension is answered with the pleasingnesse of compellations Sonne let that be the name for so he is though never so bad And as a childe hath no greater argument to prevail with a Father then by that very name of love so nor hath a parent any stronger argument whereby to prevail with his childe then by that very name of dutie whether we respect his Father on earth whose childe he is or in heaven whose image and impresse he beares though now much defaced This is the first †2. And it is his own image too that 's the second consideration his very picture even that childe whom in the rage and rore of his anger he hath thrown and battered so He is a mad man that will kick and throw about his picture specially if the picture doth fully and lively shew forth his proportion This childe is the parents picture right and never so fully the parents image as now that it is in a stubborn fit It is a certain truth a parent never sees his own revolting and stubborn heart more expressed to the life then he may do in a stubborn childe then he may see it as plainly as face in water answers face this is a weighty consideration if it be put home A Parent must consider whence had the childe this who put this in which the parent would now in all haste fetch out Sinfull peremptory nature runnes in a bloud it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Pet. 1. 18. by tradition the childe received it of the father This the Parent must not forget and then his carriage will not be such as may lose the childes heart and alienate his affections such an effect harshnesse and roughnesse may work it may make the childe think that the parent hates his own flesh a In â—mendando ne accrbus c qâ—idam sic objurgant quasi oderint Quint. 2. 2. 3. Is the childe thus stiffe and stubborn thus confirmed in evill Doth it stand against all the parents knocks and threats like a rock immoveable Consider then he must whence was that Rock hewen The parent is the quarry or pit whence it was taken and whence it contracted this Tanquam dura silâ—x aut stet Viâ—g rockinesse It cannot be too often considered but it was the former consideration the parent must consider this here and it sufficeth to calme and quiet him to take off from his eagernesse that the time was when the childe was not so stiffe and so tough it was tender like a twig so as a twig or the sight of it would have moved and stirred it but then the parent would not it was too soon the time was not yet afterwards would be soon enough Now if it be too late he must thank himself the parent might but would not he would now but cannot b Aegrè reprehendas quod sinis consuescere Hieron ad Gaudent de Pacat. l. 2. ep 16. Difficulter eraditur quod rudes animi perbiberunt Ad Laetam l. 2. ep 15. Through the parents fault and connivence it is that the childe is become as stiffe as a stake as unmoveable as a rock If a parent can thus consider of himself and his childe his instructions will be more then his stripes so they should be alwayes and then they may save that labour c Quò saepiùs monuerit hoc rarius castigabit Quint. l. 2. c. 2. pain his teares will fall faster then his hands his passion will be turned into compassion and his prayers before and after will exceed all for this peremptory nature is a crookednesse which man cannot make straight Oh how good and how comely is it for a parent to water his plants by help of a metaphor I mean his children not as one did those in his garden and as too many do those in their house with wine but in imitation of the Prophet with teares I will water thee with my teares O Hesbon An Hortens vino irrigavit Macrob. Isa 16. 9. excellent water to make fruitfull for a childe of many prayers and teares cannot perish if we may beleeve the Fathers words to Aug. Mother This may teach us how to Aug. vita carry our selves in the unrooting of evill Other considerations there are which may instruct the parent when he is implanting good Parents commonly teach their children the book and the needle at least the beginnings in both But they will say They are the unfittest of many for they have not the patience to heare the childe reade three words So I have heard some say and those not of the worst The inconvenience here-from is great therefore to cool their heat and to arrest their hands while they are instructing let them take upon trust these considerations till they can suggest better The first is 1 That the beginning in any kinde of learning seemes strange and hard to all young and old but specially to young folk The Father must expect to see an aukwardnesse an unaptnesse in the childe at his first entrance The Arcadia tels us it is a pretty fiction that a Prince the better to mask himself that he might not be known took upon him a Shepheards weed and the Shepheards hook he takes into his hand also The right Shepheard who will hold his thumbe under his girdle and lying along upon the ground will point you out this way with his legge this Shepheard indeed observing his instrument the hook nothing well managed came to this Prince whom he knew not and gave him some directions touching the managing of his hook but finding his instructions did not take he went away in a fume telling him he was the aukwardest fellow at the hook that ever he met withall A shepheards hook was a strange instrument in a Princes hand he could have held a Scepter better
from the discredit and disgraces that ignorance and misinterpretation have put upon the same 2. And this leads us to the second for it will point out the way to the parent how to make this walke profitable to himself I meane how he may receive benefit by perusing the book of the creatures And then which is the maine end of the walk 3. How to teach the childe to spell nature and by degrees to reade the volume of Gods works which will better be done in the fourth place when 4. I shall give some Essayes herein beginning at the foot-stoole the lowermost of Gods creatures and so rising higher c. For the first then The objections I finde cited by our noble and learned Advancer n Advancement pag. 6. and his answers unto them there 1. That the aspiring to over-much knowledge was the originall temptation and sinne Object 1 2. That it hath somewhat of the serpent for when it entreth into a man it makes him swell nature being easily blowne up for nature and the pride of nature are neere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of kin 3. That Salomon gives a censure That in spacious knowledge there is much contristation 4. And Paul gives a caveat That men be not spoyled through vaine Philosophy as some have been who poring upon the second causes have lost the light of the first and dependance on God who is the first cause To these he answers That it was not the pure knowledge of nature and universality Answ 1 a knowledge whereby man gave names to other creatures in Paradise which gave the occasion to the fall but it was the proud knowledge of good and evill with an intent in man to give law to himself It was saith the learned Author in another place o Pag. 56. not the naturall knowledge of the creatures which induced the fall but the morall knowledge of Good and Evill wherein the supposition was that Gods Commandements or prohibitions were not the originalls of good and evill but that they had other beginnings which man aspired to know to the end to make a totall defection from God and to depend wholly upon himself So he answers the first objection 2. Neither is it any quantitie of knowledge how great so ever that can make the minde of man to swell for nothing can fill much lesse extend the soule of man but God and the contemplation of God c. for he goes on very usefully There is such a capacitie and receipt in the minde of man so as there is no danger at all in the proportion or quantitie of knowledge that it should make it swell or out-compasse it selfe no but it is meerely the qualitie of knowledge which be it in quantitie more or lesse if it be taken without the true corrective thereof hath in it some nature of venome or malignitie and some effects of that venome which is ventositie or swelling This corrective spice the mixture whereof maketh knowledge Haec Antidotus sive aroma c. so soveraigne is charitie and so he goes on in answer to the second objection 3. And as for the censure of Salomon concerning the anxietie of spirit which redounds from knowledge It is certaine That there is no vexation of minde which resulteth thence otherwise then meerely accidentall when men fall to framing conclusions out of their knowledge so ministring to themselves weake feares or vast desires whence groweth that carefulnesse and trouble of minde for then knowledge is not a dry light but steeped and infused in the humours of the affections This is the sum of the answer to the third objection 4. For the Apostles caveat it must not lightly be passed over for if any man shall think by view and inquiry into these sensible and materiall thinges to attaine that light whereby he may reveale unto himself the nature or will of God then indeed is he spoiled by p The soul hath no more nourishment from this kinde of philosophy then the body hath from nuts transl out of Clem. Alex. Strom. lib. 1. p. 199. vain Philosophy For the contemplation of Gods creatures and works produce having regard to the works and creatures themselves knowledge but having regard to God no perfect knowledge but wonder which is broken knowledge And therefore it was most aptly said by one of Platoes School That the sense of man carrieth a resemblance of the Sun which as we see openeth and revealeth all the terrestriall Globe but then again it obscureth and concealeth the Starres and celestiall Globe So doth the sense discover naturall things but it darkeneth and shutteth up Divine And hence it is true that it hath proceeded that divers great learned men have been Hereticall whilest they have sought to fly up to the secrets of the Deitie by the waxen wing of the senses So he goes on in his answer and thus concludeth Let no man upon a weak conceit of sobriety or an ill applied moderation think or maintain that a man can search too farre or be too well studied in the book of Gods word or in the book of Gods works Divinitie or Philosophie But rather let men endeavour an endlesse progresse or proficience in both onely let men beware that they apply both to charitie and not to swelling to use and not to ostentation and again that they do not unwisely mingle or confound these learnings together So farre the answers which serve to deliver this kinde of knowledge we call naturall from the misconceits and exceptions against the same This pointeth us the way to the second thing How we may make our walk profitable and subservient to higher matters That though we walk low and upon the ground yet we may be raised in our thoughts to heaven like the wise and skilfull pilot whose hand is upon the rudder but his eye upon the starre to apply this then to our present purpose thus 2. There are in this our walk I mean in the view of the creatures two extremes and two sorts there are who fall foule and stumble at them The one sort are they who think to rise higher by the sight of the creatures then the creatures can carry them and so by prying too farre with their own light they make their philosophy vain and become vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart is darkened nature cannot rise above nature it cannot elevate herself above herself Though yet if we track and eye her well if we q Advancement 106. hound her as the noble Scholler phraseth it she can leade us and must needs do so from the foot-stool on earth to the Chaire in heaven but when she hath done so and when in our curious pursuit and disquisition our understanding is wound up so high yet is it but a naturall understanding still so as we do in this search and enquiry tumble up and down like a ship at anchor in the waves of our own reason and conceits for it is not possible as the
same Noble scholler saith for us to make a perfect discovery of the more remote and deeper parts of knowledge standing the while but upon the flat or levell of this naturall knowledge There is another sort and they are the most who stumble at the other extreame They behold the creatures the works of nature of God rather but do no more but behold them they stay and dwell upon the superficies or out-side of the work further they passe not either to what is within or to what it tends unto There are two most simple and primitive trades of life ancient and once honourable trades both though now as was said * Preface pag. 21. Cooks are of more esteem because the old simplicitie of life and livelihood are out of fashion Two trades I say and they maintain the state of the world The one of shepheardie the other of husbandrie They who are versed herein should be if they are not truants well instructed men for their books which are full of instruction are still in their eye and they are still poring upon them They live still in the view of heaven and of the earth the one tending his sheep the other driving his oxe and horse and yet though thus they do yet have they gained no more true understanding from their observations in either then the sheep or oxe have which they tend and drive Experience tells us that the shepheard and the husbandman are the most ignorant persons in the world Though yet I know very well that both these do know what sheep and which ground yeelds them most profit and the way they know how to make them most serviceable that way and all this they may know and yet remain most ignorant notwithstanding as for the most part they are no more understanding have they in those chief things and lessons which the beholding the earth and the heaven might yeeld them then the oxe or the horse have which they follow which was Mr Dearings complaint long since And whence this stupiditie or grosse ignorance There can be no other reason hereof but this that they do behold the creature and no more as so saith the proverb An oxe looketh on a gilded gate Their senses report no more to the minde but that they have seen it no more A fault carefully to be avoided for he that is unfaithfull in earthly things shall never have greater matters committed unto him and he who carrieth a negligent eye or eare towards the works and voice of nature gathering no instructions thence though the characters are most legible there and her voice cleare and audible shall finde no more capacity in himself for higher truths There is a place in the Apocrypha which is worth our taking notice of it will help to lead us the way betwixt those extreames it meets also with that stupiditie even now mentioned and corrects the same The wise man in the 38 chapter of his book verse 26. I Eccles. 38. vers 26. â—â— Eng. 25. reade after Iunius his translation for our English verse 25. may deceive us puts a grave and weighty question and it is concerning him who holds the plough and such persons who maintain the state of the world the question is Whereby shall a man be made wise At the last verse of the chapter in the Latine Translation he answers By nothing unlesse Vers 39. nisi qui adjâ—cerit animum suum c. he be such an one who will apply his minde and meditation on the Law of the most High It is a place not lightly to be passed over The husbandman in that place may seem to have as he reades and so pleades his ease a dispensation for his grosse ignorance but it is nothing so That Scripture tells us thus much and it is worth the noting that though he holds the plough which sheweth him the r Luke 9. 62. constancy of an holy profession for he looks straight before him he doth not look back much lesse take off his hand though he ploweth up the ground which sheweth him as in a glasse the sorenesse of afflictions how the wicked plow upon the Å¿ Psal 129. Micah 3. 12. backs of the righteous and what pains he should take with his own t Jer. 4. 3. heart also So preparing it for the true seed the word of life though he casteth in the seed still in the season and that he might understand his own season lookes to see again the very same seed which he sowes the very same u Job 4. 8. Hosea 8. 7. chap. 10. vers 12. 13. Galat. 67. 8. and with a large encrease but it rots and dies in the earth x 1. Cor. 15. 36. John 12. 24. Chrysost in locum Hom. 41. α. first which answers the great objection and cuts the knot as I may say with its own sword The body cannot rise again because it dies and rots in the earth nay because it dies and rots therefore it shall rise and he is a fool in the Apostles sense who seeth not so much in the sowing and reaping his grain Though this husbandman seeth all this yet he seeth not he understandeth nothing thereby he is not made the wiser by it By what he speaks we may know what his heart doth indite no songs of praise unto his God He will notwithstanding glory in his goad all his talk will be of bullocks for he giveth his minde to make furrows and all his diligence is to give the kine fodder all is for the earth there on he layeth out the pretious stock of time and strength thither to he bends himself he entertaineth not a thought whereby to raise himself higher and it must needs be so unlesse he shall apply his minde another way and meditate on the law of his God when he shall do so then every thing shall instruct him and make him wise and not before Here now we have our lesson and the way to make our walk profitable we must apply our minde to that we see and we must meditate on the Law of our God That is the man who will learn by every thing that hath inured and accustomed his heart to compare earthly things with heavenly to trade his spirit to heavnely things by earthly occasions He shall be made wise who hath a gift it must be given from above to be heavenly that is to make every creature which is the work of a sanctified fancy a ladder to heaven to turn ordinary properties of the creature or common occasions to heavenly meditations This I say is the man who will profit by his walk being now in the open view of the heaven and the earth and observing Gods great works in both To conclude and to instance so making the thing plain that man shall gain much by his observations who hath but so much understanding as seeing a sheep before the shearer to see also the meek-abiding and patience of the Saints seeing an
unprofitably and to no purpose d B. And◠The lesson is If I have the gift I must fall to my work such as is sutable and congruous to my gift and Station So much also touching our abiding in that place whereto we are called and that we exercise those acts and do those works as are proper and peculiar thereunto A word now follows in way of caution touching the designing the childe to a calling wherein Parents are commonly too early and forward and in one thing more preposterous Parents must not be too hasty here I meane in designing their children to any calling specially not to the ministry that sacred work so much spoken of and so early resolved upon before Parents can have any discerning of their childrens fitnesse that way e Parents will have their children disciples and teachers together they would have them cleanse others before themselves are cleansed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Nazian orat 21. pag. 378. A Parent will make the childe a Preacher so he is resolved to do for so boldly and unadvisedly he speaks He sees preferment in that way and that way the childe shall go though the childe saith plainly he is a childe and cannot I do but relate the Parents words and my own knowledge The Parent considers not that he speaks of great and high matters infinitely above his reach and compasse He weigheth not how weightie a burden the work of the minister is and how the most able men have declined from it shrunk and fainted under it If arrogancy were not in me how should I of all wretches the great est think to look into the highest roome and vocation that is upon the earth said humble Bradford to Father Treaves f Book of Martyr p. 1510. Reade Isid Pelus lib. 3. epist 127. lib. 4. epist 40. Who is fit for these things surely he that is best fitted hath need of all even of the fulnesse of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ g Rom. 15 29. And he that hath the least must have some speciall influence from heaven else what ever else he is fit for he is not fitted for that sacred function I remember what good Bishop Babington said concerning a Church Benefice I finde it in his good Letter to the Gentleman of Glamorgan shire very worth the reading The proprietie of a Church Benefice said he and he takes it from the Common law is neither in Patron Parson nor Ordinary the Fee-simple is in the Clouds And therefore it is a great wrong In nubibus for a man to make a commoditie to himself of that which the Law cannot finde he hath but is as farre out of the reach as the clouds are distant from his handling I know well at what this striketh and that it cuts to the quick and heart of all Symoniacall contracts But this also we may inferre hence by way of necessary deduction That if the purchasing of this Church be as farre out of the reach of any earthly thing as the clouds are from our fingers Then the purchasing of a sufficiency for the execution of the service in this Church is much more higher as it is more excellent and we are no more able to compasse it by our own strength what ever the indowments or endeavours are no more competent are we for it then we are able to touch the highest starre with our lowest finger If that text we reade Gen. 31. 38 39. touching Iacobs care over a brutish flock and Chrysostomes words upon that text touching a Ministers cure over a reasonable flock mightie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words they are so indeed are they in the text and should be as a signet ingraven on a Ministers hands as frontlets before his eyes and to his feet as obvious as the light is in his way If those words also which the same Father hath in his Latine Tract if that be his upon Matth. 24. 27. Ruler over All his goods That All are the souls of men for they are all If I say those words were thought of and considered it would make the ablest men to shrink at the very thought of the Ministry that high calling of being a Ruler over all And yet how small a matter doth it seeme how lightly do we speake of it how easie doth it lye even like a feather upon some mens shoulders Thus much in way of caution because I observe Parents ordinarily so farre out of the way in a preposterous designation of their children The lesson is But stay a little while we heare how a man h Asch Toxoph p 58. 2d. side of much learning and of no lesse judgement hath lessoned parents in this point and this fourescore yeares ago his words require our marke these they are This perverse judgement of fathers as concerning the fitnesse and unfitnesse of their children causeth the Common-wealth have many unfit Ministers And seeing that Ministers be as a man would say instruments wherewith the Commonwealth doth worke all her matters withall I marvell how it chanceth that a poore Shoo-maker hath so much wit that he will prepare no instrument for his Science neither Knife nor Aule nor nothing else which is not very fit for him The Common-wealth can be content to take at a fond fathers hand the riffe raffe of the world to make those instruments of wherewithall she should work the highest matters under Heaven And surely an Aule of Lead is not so unprofitable in a Shoo-makers shop as an unfit Minister made of grosse metall is unseemely in the Common-wealth Fathers in old Time among the noble Persians might not do with their children as they thought good but as the judgement of the Common-wealth alwayes thought best This fault of fathers bringeth many a blot with it to the great deformitie of the Common wealth and here surely I can praise Gentle-women which have alwayes at hand their glasses to see if any thing be amisse and so will amend it yet the Common-wealth having the glasse of knowledge in every mans hand doth see such uncomelinesse in it and yet winketh at it This fault and many such like might be soone wiped away if fathers would bestow their children on that thing alwayes whereunto nature hath ordained them most apt and fit For if youth be grafted streight and not awry the whole Common-wealth will flourish thereafter So the Author goes on very usefully and that which we reade in the side of the leafe before is as notable but I omit it and returne now where I brake of The Lesson then is Parents must first discerne their childrens fitnesse before they designe them to any calling And they must discerne Gods good hand pointing them and fitting their childe more peculiarly for that great work they speake so slightly of before they must have thoughts to designe them thereunto or any other way whereof as follows As there is a great varietie of callings so is there a great varietie