THE House-holder OR Perfect MAN Preached in three Sermons lately by ED TOPSELL preacher at Saint Buttolphs without Aldersgate Prou. 27 23 c. Be diligent to know the estate of thy Flock and take heed to thy heards c. The Contents follow in the next leafe Printed for Henry Rockyt and are to be sold at his shop in the Poultry vnder the Diall 1610. ⧠Contentes of the first Sermon 1 DIfferences of men because few be good 2. A perfect man described by the text 3. Wisedome needefull for all especially for the teacher of other 4. The way to attaine it 5 Neglecters of the meanes reprooued 6. multitude of fooles and a remedy for them 7. All wants sensible except the want of true Wisedome 8. odiousnesse of spirituall folly by Doctrine 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18. And by comparatiue examples 19 20. Exhortation to wisedom and dehortation from folly Contents of the second Sermon 1 THE subiect of priuate wisedome 2. Diligence described 3. The necessity thereof 4. The diligent shall beare rule 5. And is rewarded 6. The praise of diligence 7. Dispraise of negligence and sloth 8. Commodities of diligence amplified in mo rewards 9. As Nobility and acquisition of honour 10. comfort to the diligent and good presidents to other 11 Discommodities of negligence 12 Education to labour desert of hire necessary for al men Contents of the third Sermon 1 THE generall charge of Householders praise of knowledge 2. Euery man shold know his owne estate and affaires 3. And not onely belieue other 4. Comparison of Faith Knowledge 5. Dignity of knowledge especially Diuine 6. Ignorance cause of many euils 7. Who and what must bee knowne in Oeconomicks 8. God and reason commaundeth it 9. Honour of Household prouision and cares 10. Yet with predominancy of spirituall things 11. The Householders Store-house necessary 12. This store must be giuen forth commaunded by God 13. By Nature 14. By Men. 15. Exemplified in Beasts and Creatures 16. 17. yet so that we leaue rather then lacke 18. It must be spent on our Countrey 19. 20. 21. 22. And on Wiues Children Seruants and Strangers To the Right Honourable and right worthy young Plants of Nobility highly borne Diuinely educated and happily married the Lord RICHARD SACKVILL Earle of Dorset Baron of Buckhurst and the Lady ANNE his beloued wife sole Daughter and heire to the renowned Lord GEORGE late Earle of CVMBERLAND and the truly Religious Lady MARGARET Countesse Dowager of CVMBERLAND Great LORD and LADY IT were vaine to excuse this enterprize your goodnesse will not refuse it it were folly to commend it your wisdomes might iustly explode it I will not say I contriued and compiled it for your sakes so shoulde I seeme to begge your thanks and depriue my selfe of a vniuersall benefite for wee that labour in the Church must not bee personall Yet I will say that I would not divulge it to the world but vnder the honor of your names And if it could adde either Goodnesse or greatnesse to your Honours as I hope Almighty God in time will both I would euery line had beene a leafe and euery page a volume till both your soules and selues could say with Salomon who could eate or hast to these things more then we You are nowe become other then you were and the graces of your Noble Natures and education begin to appeare to the view of all that will beholde you for your great places haue mounted you on the highest seates whereby you cannot bee secret though you woulde for you may not discend that Theater of Honor till you dye Principibus regnare est viuere non regnare est mori Princes Rulers their life is to be eminent and when they cease to be eminent they dye and cease to liue VVherefore you see without my Narration the good and euil in great personages will disclose it selfe so as all the enemies shall not staine their Vertues which will breake forth like the Sunne in his heighth and heate nor all the flatterers with their seuerall false colours and false praises so enammell and gilte ouer their vices but they will discouer themselues and if they would not yet an euill conscience is not cured with false praises nor a good one wounded by vniust reproaches Your Hon are greatly blessed by Almighty God I am assured you will as you ought euer acknowledge his goodnesse and greatnesse the Author of yours For you haue not forsaken your Fathers houses with Abraham Iacob and other but you are both heires of your Fathers houses and in their houses to your mutuall glory your coniunction hath increased their honour for you acquired And that which hapneth to fewe is fallen vpon you euen in your first and yonger yeares to be rich and good God graunt it to continue and without blemish to the Noble Stemmes from which you are descended I will not cease to pray that you may bee glad Parentes of many children like your selues and you and your Posterity be greater and better then they if it bee Gods good will and pleasure The first thing wherein your Hon must now shew your selues to the worlde is your Houshold gouernment Houshold Gouernment I say the Parent first beginner of Common-wealthes the Seminary of Kingdoms Counsels the discerner of naturall wisedome the Architect of honour and Disciplinarie schoole of a wise vertuous and happy life from which Almighty God setcheth his Byshops The Romaines and best common-wealth-men fetched their Consuls Tribunes and many times Kings haue beene chosen out of this ranke The wise Salomon is an Authour of this gouernment as you may reade in the succeeding discourse Antoninus was made an Emperor out of this sight proofe and hope who is commended for taking away all wages from the ydle and leauing nothing to his Daughter but his priuat Patrimony Hermion the fift King of Germanie who liued after the floud foure hundred and eleuen yeares much about Abrahams time is likewise remembred for his oeconomy VVhē he went abroad to fight he gaue diligent order for his Husbandry at home I could speake of Eberhard a Duke of VVittenberge for this cause honoured like a God Of Galeacius of Columella and of Cato the wise who wrote heereof and is commended for this saying Non deterior domus rector quam ciuitatis A Housholder is not inferiour to the Gouernour of a Citty and he that is not wise in Domesticall matters shall neuer bee trusted in the Common-wealth For these causes when I came vnto Hartfield after seauenteen years absence the first Pulpit that euer I ascended and the first place of my Ministerial function I chose to speake heereof how and with what successe your Hon haue hearde and I am not now bound to make relation thereof or trouble my selfe against rash ydle false and at the best ignorant censures yet as euill Lawes gaue occasion to good manners sinnes
him for the Prince and restorer of their Country who did first of all inuite them to his house after their departure out of the Temple vvho passing by this Miltiades and hee by their apparrel knew them to be strangers hee called to them and offered them entertainment in his house which they accepted and the next day they shewed him the Oracle and intreated him to go with them possesse their Countries principality which thing hee did and happily enioyed many yeares the reward of his hospitality Euen so the Diuine Oracles I know haue prouided for you your posterity in Testimony that almighty God loueth Hospitality more honour on earth and an incorruptible kingdome in Heauen Maister PELHAM WHo may in all your Country say better then you My shepheard is the Lorde his rod his staffe comfort me My head he hath annointed with Oyle and my Cup doth ouerflow My table is decked in the presence of my foes I dwell by greene Pastures and stil waters You are seated in the Eagles nest it is a regal Bird you if I be not deceiued are descended of that race Royall thinges do therefore become you Good Sir let me not slatter you the fame and name of your Antecessours haue long sounded in those partes Honour of Armes commended your Father and Vncle Loue of his Countrey your Brother Hospitality in peace hath bin your honour I trust you haue not nor will not giue ouer to feed Your Patrimony hath beene by your thrift augmented and there is no cause why your mind should not euer tast of her prime and most honoured graces mercy liberality and hospitality These things brought me first vnto you And I confesse as I had heard so I foūd neither want nor wast neither an euil eye nor a sparing hand and in that time of your greatest expence on your poore Countreymen you increased most in fame and wealth I cannot forget that note of a neighbour of yours the woorthiest learnedst iustest most ingeniously affable Gentleman that euer I knew in all my courses to whose noble memory Iowe a better Sacrifice then now I giue that your house hande were open whē your mouth was shut and other men had their mouths open when their houses and handes were shut You haue ennobled your family by honorable alliance in marriage I need not commend him he honoureth your family and none that knoweth him but honoureth him beeing a louer of the meanes of Honour Learning and Armes without which no man is Noble or woorthy of Honour It is the basest and vnworthiest mark of a Gentleman to care for nothing nor to dignifie his house but by purchases gallant Sutes Rapiers and Spurs gaming and playing scores and hundreds and neuer to doe any part of Honour whereof he boasleth A man may say vnto them as Herodes Atticus did to Bradeas his Wiues Brother when hee had praised his race and descent and yet beeing vnwoorthy himselfe Tu equidem in astragalis nobilitatem gestas They haue no Honour but in olde bones I will pray that your Sonne may Patrizare and that if Heauen resist not you may liue to see him most happie for you will make him Rich. And I will end as Stratonicus sayde of his Hoast vvho receyued him kindly and welcommed him most heartily although he knew him not and after him two or three in the same curteous maner Discedamus ò puer nam inuenimus pro columba palumbum pro hospite pandocheum Let vs bee gone and depart for insteade of a Doue we haue founde a Ring-Doue and where we thought to find a speciall fauour to bee receiued alone wee finde a House-keeper that entertaineth all Maister BLOVNT YOu are my latest acquaintance therefore with you I must conclude not as the least but as the vpper most in my hart and if I would praise you for houskeeping you might giue me leaue to say as much of you as of the residue and in your proportion equall to the best For with the Centurion you haue euer loued our Nation I meane the Preaohers vnto your commendation do al the Prophets and Children of the Prophets giue Testimony You and your nobly borne minded wife neuer refused him that came vnto you in the name of a Prophet Wherefore faint not but expect a Prophets reward a prophets rewarde what is that Nothing in earth but an empty Cup Heathy and Barren Land God forbidde so the world rewardeth vs and woulde admit vs but one foote before the Begger viz. we must stand in the Porch the begger without the doore but a Prophets reward is to be partaker of all the good labors of the Prophets For the louers of goodnesse are respected before God with the Preachers But especially the reward of the olde Prophets was the assured performāce of al that they had foretolde of Iesus Christ and thereof they are not now ashamed no more nor no lesse is the assurāce of those things which you belieue hope for they that trust in the Lord shal not be ashamed These lines I mean the succeeding Booke were written in Dedsham house how vnthankful should they be if they did not leaue a long lasting Monnument vpon that Housholder vnder whose roofe they had their first being in letters Beleeue me Sir I was neuer better pleased nor had more cause of cōtent then in your house Where besides Leuies large feast we had Christ at the table euery day I meane the holy scriptures we wanted nothing fit for Christians or fitting vs for heauē only the prime part of your family your owne worthy selfe was absent the hope of your name your son Oh that you had more of such hope so you had more inheritances for thē and for the residue of your hapy issue you are blessed in them al they for a father a mother are as happy as euer were any of their bloud yet by father mother nobly discended Now must I your latest Oratour and as it were a child of yesterday blesse you all in the name of al my brethren the Prophets your ancient wel respected ghests to whō with the Sumanite you haue giuē lodging and light with the Sarepthian widdow Oile Meal with Lazarus Mary and Martha meate drink entertainment obediēce with Onesiphorus sought them out being not ashamed of their chains So as Candala Q. of Panonia neece to Lewis the 12. of France said to the Venetians for her royall entertainmēt that she neuer knew her selfe to be Queene til she came to their teritory so may the Preachers say they know not themselues to bee Christes Ministers til they come to your house The Lorde shewe mercy to this house and the peace of Christ which the Apostles preached and the sonne of peace rest in it to the worlds end So be it FInally vnto al other Noble worthy Worshipfull Housholders
cannot hope in him if wee know not our selues we cannot be humble and then we cannot bee blessed By the knowledge of our selues saith Saint Bernard wee Sowe in teares because we feele and see to our sorrow the defects of our Nature By the knowledge of God we reape in ioy because we feele and see and heare the plenty and copiousnesse of his Redemption therefore let vs go forth and carrie our seed weeping that we may return with our sheaues ioying and both for our knowledge and for our Humility neither with the Pharisies let vs boast our selues aboue others nor with the base multitude be contented to bee like others For in giuing Honor saith Saint Paule go one before another that is the rule of our Humility to wish with Martinus Turonensis that all our Vertues could bee concealed And again Couet the best gifts there is the rule of knowledge the best giftes are the greatest knowledge and the greatest knowledge if it be sanctified maketh the best men Difference of knowledge maketh difference of men and as Dauids grace and knowledge preferred him in the sight of God and Samuel before his Brethren thogh he were lower in stature and they taller and more personable men euen so God delighteth not in mens legs or strength but in their heart and soules The Angels are pictured not great but full of wings and wee that are in the last part and end of the world therefore lesse in our marriage bed then our Fathers in their Cradle let vs flye about the worlde about our calling vppe to Heauen with the wings of heauenly knowledge 2 Salomon therefore commandeth to bee diligent to knowe our Heards take heed to our flocks for they signifie but one thing Whereby hee meaneth that wee should informe our selues of al our possessions and not onely referre their care to our Balyffes and Stewards who many times take more paines to get our Liueries Badges then to doe vs seruice and deserts It is well obserued that Almighty God hath giuen euery mā a minde and a state equall one fit or at least fitted for another and no man is so poore but his estate is big enough to occupie his mind and set that on worke for a little with righteousnesse will keepe an honest man in action But if righteousnesse be absent what is then the condition of such a person Namely to busie himselfe in other mens affaires to talke of their liuings of their stocke of their pedigrees of their sonnes and daughters and seruants and of the prizes of Corne and Merchandize as if he had ten Characks at sea when he hath neither Money to buy nor ware to sell away This man is neuer a stranger but at home knoweth euery man but himselfe summes vp all mens reckoninges but his owne is eeuen with all accounts till he leaue himselfe euen nothing From the roote of this vanity ariseth the ydle humour of seeking after newes in Italy Spaine Fraunce Turkey Morocco or the Low-countries and wanting good matter hee coyneth some of his own then he posteth to one Lord or Ladye or other great person but of meane intelligence and there hee venteth the winde in his braine Such is the nature of mans minde my beloued as is the Nature of good ground if you Till Sowe it will it not bring foorth good fruits But if you Till it not and let it alone vnoccupied will it not bring forth weedes or Grasse Euen so our mindes sowed with knowledge of good discipline yeeldeth a happy haruest of honest faculties but let alone and not filled with some better matter becommeth stuffed with the wind of vain humours lying Tales credulous lies and vnprofitable discourse From hence also it commeth that men haue leisure to sowe debate by immagining faults where none are and discouering imperfections and follies of other men which lying hid in secret were better buriand forgotten then remembred For what cōmeth of it but shame to our Countreymen contentions in the Law troubling of the seates of Iudgement hatred and diuision among honest families exhausting of Treasure and setting the soule either wide open by malice to the deuill or closed vp by shaking off grace and shame This is the fruite of them that are ignorant of their owne estates and yet be turbulent discerners of other men the best is the world payeth them well againe For if they haue as many Maisters as they haue hearers euery one payeth him with hatred reuilings and reproaches so as hee laboureth without fruite Sowing the winde and reaping the Whirle-wind discouereth without thankes speaketh without credit eateth without welcome liueth without reputation or loue dieth without teares or pitty sauing it is pitty such wretches treade vpon Gods deare earth 2 But you beloued which either heare this or heare of this binde and buckle your selues to knowledge if it were possible of euery thing Art Trade and Occupation but especially of your estates without which a Christian is vnlike to God and shameth his profession which crediteth other men where onely he shoulde beleeue himselfe You haue but two things in your estate to looke into your soules and your Temporalties do in the one as you do in the other I read of one Pomponianus a Mantuan that he was in secret accused for denying the soule and at last as all secret faults shall bee renealed it came into the light and hee was called into Iudgement for it His Iudges demanded of him whether hee did belieue hee had a soule or no hee answered Negatiuely hee did not whereat his enemies and accusers reioyced his graue Iudges reproued him sharply and gaue sentence vppon him The Prisoner meruailed and told them they were too hasty for said he do you belieue you haue souls Yea said they al and accurse them that do not But said he do you no more then beleeue it saide they that is sufficient then saith he Non credosed scio I do not only belieue it as a thing absent but I knowe I haue a soule and faith giues place to knowledge So my beloued do not onely beleeue you haue Leases and Lands and Friendes and Cattle and goods and Soules but know it it is better to know then to beleeue it Heauenly thinges I must belieue till I may know but earthly things I must know or else I cannot belieue I will loue my Seruaunt for his obedience but I will not belieue or trust him for all my state Know your selues to be rich and doe not onely beleeue it know your selues to be Christians and do not onely beleeue it know your selues to be in the way to heauen for if you doe but belieue it you are deceiued Knowe your selues to haue Hope Faith and Charity report and opinion are many times false Faith is the beginning of life eternal knowledge is the perfection and complement Faith goeth before as Grammar before other Arts or as the scholler belieueth his Master but knowledge commeth after and eyther
confuteth or confirmeth the Maisters precepts 4 There be causes there be effects there be contraries to Faith all which knowne and discerned doe no onely confirme Faith but transport and transforme it into knowledge and true faith will neuer cease til it come to knowledge as true loue is not at quiet till it haue the seale of Mariage because it traineth to experience and experience resteth in knowing The triall of many thinges begetteth Wisedome and Wisedome the better part of experience maketh triall of euill thinges yet without sinne and keepeth that which is good It was the fault of Hieron his wife that hauing neuer kissed man except her Husband thoght that euery mans breath did smel as ill as her husbandes whereby her husband blamed her and shee was not thought careful inough of him Vntill and vnlesse we know what difference is betwixt a Iewes faith a Turkes faith an Anabaptists faith and a true Christian faith none at all in respect of the forme but the matter the efficient and the ende of beleeuing which is not discerned without knowledge I call the forme of beleeuing not the essence of a true Faith which is a worde impropriated to Diuinity but the beeing of faith in the mindes Morrall and Naturall Vertues Wherefore out of a good doctrine ariseth a good faith not on the cōtrary and out of good Doctrine and Faith a sound knowledge defending maintaining and perswading both This is that knowledge that Salomon saith is better then Golde and Siluer and is not therefore to bee misliked because it is not alway honoured and had in reputation I haue seene saith the Preacher an euil vnder the Sunne The race is not alway to the swift the victory to the strong nor breade to men of knowledge What then God himselfe is not alway so respected as hee ought shall not wee therefore regard him as much as if al the world did agnize him Bread then which nothing is more needfull to mankinde yet is not alway respected of wanton and full-fed Children shall the hungry therefore cast it away God forbid no more let honourable Science and Knowledge loose her reputation because some indiscreete Fooles haue set her in the last least and lowest place 5 God himselfe is a God of knowledge next to God men are the Professors and Students of knowledge for euen the Angels by the church are informed in the secrets of our Redemption A man without knowledge hath no God but himself no heauen but this world and in this through ignoraunce of the world to come they craue a large improuement of their euill daies feeling no other loue or hatred or feare or care or sorrowe or wounds or conscience For as men first sinne and do not care by a long inueterate custome they sinne and doe not knowe From hence men fall into a Reprobate minde hauing no good thing in them like Beastes they are guided by appetite like him that had a thousand Cookes and a thousand Faulconers Reason which should rule is made of the Ladye the Hand-maide and so the yssue of their minds is like Ismael a bastard and a Bondage-generation from which sildom commeth any good Religion the Daughter of God the Church and the first borne in Paradice yea in Heauen is clapped vp into some stinking Dungeon thorough which passeth the sincke of all our beastly pleasures and that which shoulde haue the highest and the most honourable room in our house of clay too base for such a Ghest is thrust behinde the Stables of great Horses the Mewes of Hawkes the Porters lodge yea the Scullery of the most seruile Offices and where she most loueth to be like the Haebrew seruant shee is boared thorough the eare and hath many wronges and brands of disgrace still a Seruant that should bee a Commaunder Their rule to belieue is their sence except they see with Thomas they will neuer beleeue and yet all the sences being filled they are not ouercome so easie is it to shew the reasons of Diuinity and so harde to perswade In error many like our late Apostataes are first perswaded and then instructed but in Religion and Faith after so much as sence it selfe cryeth hoe yet instruction can worke no perswasion as though some Ephialtes ouerlay their breasts 6 From hence also it commeth that Adams sinne is layed vppon God because he suffered and permitted it therefore he decreed and acted it and whatsoeuer other euill is committed in the worlde he must be made the Authour thereof so strangely rangeth ignorance and want of Knowledge being not able to discerne betwixt permission and action betwixt the action and the euill that like a Birde in a net the more it striueth the faster it is hampered and the higher goeth the sin Then Fortune or good lucke is made their Goddesse attributing whatsoeuer they haue eyther to chaunce or to themselues with the wicked in the Prophet they Sacrifice to their net or else to their Armes to their Horses to their experience to their wit but if successe faile and the yssue aunswere not the expectation then they curse themselues or open their mouth against Heauen or accuse Fortune or peraduenture lay load vpon the Deuil and wel they may for they ride him to Hell as a Thiefe in a Cart to the gallowes The Prophet saith He which is afflicted shall run hether and thether and when he is angry hee shall curse his Gods and the Kings They giue ouer praying in such cases Propter hoc malum saith Tully or arem deos at hij renuntiarunt or ationibus meis For this euill I would pray to the Gods but they haue renounced al my Prayers That admired Tacitus hath this blasphemy Numquam maiores caedes Pop. Rom. c. The people of Rome neuer indured more slaughter whereby it was prooued that the Gods are not so watchfull for our health and safegard as they bee for our punnishment and reuenge That wise Liuy also speaking of a doleful ye are saith that for Plagues Famines and sedition neuer the like befell them and if saide hee forraigne enemies had not beene wanting Vix ope deorum omnium sustentata foret Resp scarce all the Gods could haue supported our estate or common wealth It is hard yea almost impossible for men without the knowledge of God to stand in affliction if it be not sudden but lingering Wicked men are worst in long sorrowes and best in sudden good men bee worst in sudden as Manaoh Daniel and Saint Iohn and best in long miseries and continued calamities Titus another Demy-God among the Heathen when hee saw that hee must dye in his youth after he had bin Emperor but two yeares he cried out against the heauens for their small regard of his life Wicked ignorant men if they haue any spirits are like Tygers who hearing a Drumme bite and teare off their own flesh so these in great terrors and euils are at their wittes ende When their