is an inureing of them from the first to such a meannes in all things as may rayther pluck them down then lift them up as by plain and homely dyet and apparrel sending them to school betimes and bestowing them afterwards as they are fit in some course of life in which they may be exercised diligently and the same rayther under then above their estate by not abetting them one against another nor against any specially before their faces without great cause nor by makeing them men and women before they become good boyes and girls How oft have I observed that parents who have neyther fayled in diligent instructing of their children nor in giving them good example nor in correcting them duely have onely by streyning too high this way eyther endangered or utterly overthrown their posteritie hereby lifting them up in their vayn hearts and teaching them to despise both mean things and persons and themselvs also many times amongst others thereby drowning them Icarus like in a sea of mischeif and misery by their flying too high a pâ—â—ch And this must be the more mynded because there is in men an inbred desire and that inordinate usually to hoyse up their children as high as may be so as they half think they do them wrong if they set them not higher or as high at least as themselvs almost whether God will or no. Yea what place affoards not some such as make themselvs their childrens slaves not careing how basely they themselvs grovell in the earth so they may set them on their tiptoes But first of all for childrens competent education specially for their disposeing in some particular course on which all are to settle at last though some libertie of stepping this way or that be given them for a while as a man though for his pleasure he see many places yet seeks his abode in some one in the end there is required in their parents a through discerning and right judgment of their disposition which is as difficult as necessarie The difficultie aryseth from the partiality of parents towards their own for that as the crow thinks her own bird fayrest so do they commonly their children towardlyer and better then they are or then any other indifferent judg doth This partiality in many is so grosse as they not onely deem small good things in them great and great evils small but oftens account the same things well becomeing them and commendable which in others they would censure as undecent and it may be enormous This perniâ—ous errour ariseth from self love For as in nature the object cannot be seen which is eyther too near the eye or too far from it so neyther can the disposition of that â—â—iâ—de be rightly discerned which lyeth too near his fathers heart And yet is the knowledg of this so necessarie that we build not eyther upon a vain or uncerteyn foundation with great hazzard of losse both of labour and expence in sorting our childe to his particular calling and course of life as all without it is but a verie rash adventure For as none is fit for everie course nor hardly any for many in any great degree so everie one is fit for one or other to which if his ability and disposition be applyed with any convenient diligence on his part and helps by others he may easily come to a mediocritie therein if not to some rarenes Hence was it that fathers in some places used to lead their children to the shops of all kinde of artificers to try how they could both handle their tools like their works that so they might bestow them accordingly Some wise men also have wished that there might be established by publique authoritie a course for the due tryall and choyce of wits for severall sciences And surely where there goes not before a naturall aptnes and morall disposition also for some callings there will follow nothing but losse losse of time losse of labour losse of charges and all as when the seed is cast into the barren ground And as the midwife how skilfull soever in her art cannot make the woman to be delivered that was not first with childe so neyther can the best maysters make their schollers or servants to bring forth sciences unlesse they have an aptnes thereunto first conceaved in their brayns There is running in the breasts of most parents a strong stream of partiall affection towards some one or other of their children above the rest eyther for its beautie or wit or likenes to themselvs or some other fancyed good in it which is alwayes dangerous and oft hurtfull Sometimes the Lord takes away such before the rest to punish the fathers fondnes And most commonly such if surviveing prove the worst of all the rest as growing hereby proud and arrogant in themselvs presumptuous upon their fathers love and contemptuous of the rest of their brethren and sisters as we may see in Esau Absolom and Adoniah their fathers darlings and in many mo in our dayly experience And though they in themselvs which they seldom are free from be not corrupted with pride yet will the rest seldom or never escape the infection of envy at it as is to be seen in Iosephs brethren It is naturall for parents tenderly to love all their children and best for them to be as equall towards all as may be reserving the bestowing of their best and greatest love till they see where God bestows his And if so be they cannot or will not command their inordinate affections as they should yet it is wisdom to conceal them from their children whom els they may hurt so many wayes as the ape is said many times to kill her young ones by too streyt embraceing them The Lord promises and affoards long life to such as honour father and mother whose dayes if he shorten in this life for their good he lengthens out with immortalitie in glory On the other side he cuts off from the earth stubborn and disobedient children suddeynly and sundry wayes And if he give them long life it is for a curse unto them They also oftens dye without children themselvs and if not their children oftener pay them that which is due and owing them from their parents The historie is note worthy of the father who being drawn by his son to the threshold of the house by the hayr of the head cryed to him to draw him no further for that he had drawn his father no further And how should they expect honour from their children who have dishonoured their parents or a happy life who despise the author of their life under God This honour is due not onely to them by whom we have our being but to them also by whom our well-being is furthered CHAP. LXI Of Youth and Old age THat cittie or common wealth sayth one flourisheth most where old mens counsayl and young mens swords are in request And a litle sayth another avail weapons abroad
the works of his worship but in those also of our conversation with men and putting our selvs in all our waies under his protection and that specially in the time of distresse or danger that as the bodily hand gets and gathers strength by being diligently used in works competent so may also the Spirituall hand do which Faith is Now as for our succesfull wrestling against the Rulers of the darknesse of this World and spirituall wickednesses in high places we must put on amongst other parcels of the Armour of God the Shield of Faith so must we not forget the Helmet of Salvation Hope whose strength is great to bear off all blows of temptation and that with chearfulnesse For what burthens of afflictions and temptations will not he cherfully undergo that expects undoubtedly their speedie ending in endlesse happinesse Alexander the Great meaning to invade Asia and giving away his riches aforehand being asked what he would reserv for himself answered Hope But what is the shadow to the substance He hoped for the Kingdom of Persia we of Heaven And what if his hope stretched it self to the Monarchy of the whole World It was but to this World wherein also it was frustrated and perished with him But the Anchour of our hope is cast within the veil and extendeth to the World to come being also firm and stedfast and which cannot be disappointed nor shall have other end then in being perfited in the end of all the full fruition and eternall possession of happinesse with God Were it not for hope the heart would break but we having this hope faint not but hold fast the profession thereof without wavering yea even glorie in afflictions under the hope of the glorie of God Lastly Touching Love as it is the affection of union so it makes after a sort the loving and loved one such being the force thereof as that he that loveth suffereth a kind of conversion into that which he loveth and by frequent meditation of it uniteth it with his understanding and affection Thus to love God is to become godly and to have the mind after a sort deified being made partakers of the Divine nature in its effects to love the World is to become a worldling and so of the rest Thus in the Parable of the Tares the Children of the Kingdom are called good Seed and Wheat as growing and becoming Wheat of the Wheat or Seed sowen in them as the Wheat ear groweth of the Wheat corn As on the contrarie ungodly men are said to have eyes full of Adulterie and the like and not onely to be sinfull but sin unrighteousnesse darknesse and beliall as being even metamorphized and transformed into the evils which they love and delight in Oh how happie is that man who by the sweet feeling of the love of God shed abroad into his heart by the Holy Ghost which is given him is thereby as by the most strong coards of Heaven drawn effectually and with all the heart to love God again who hath loved him first and so becomes one with him and rests upon him for all good and happinesse For this our love to God there is required not onely the positive affection of the heart aspiring unto union with God upon knowledg of him as the chiefest good both in himself and to us in Christ and a contentation in him so known and obtained but withall that we exercise prove and approve that our love to him in our love to such good persons and things as unto which he hath imparted some sparks of his goodnesse especially to his good Children and good Word and Ordinances He cannot love him that begetteth saith the Apostle who loveth not him and that in deed and truth who is begotten in truth of affection and in deed of action for his comfort and this with greater bent of both as the graces of God are more eminent in him Neither loves he God that loves not his Word and that both in affection of heart and effect of readie obedience to all his Commandments We must take heed of a shadowish love of goodnesse and pietie onely in the abstract and must love it in the concrete where both the person and good in him is visible in whom Hypocrites for the most part hate and persecute it He but pretends to others the love of goodnesse or imagines it in himself that loves not good men for it Lastly He that loves not his brother whom he sees how can he love God whom he sees not Not but that there is matter of love infinitely more then in any or all men but because for the loving of God we want the advantage of sense and motive of compassion by which our love to our distressed brethren is holpen This love is the fulfilling of the Law the love of God being the greatest Commandment and the love of our neighbour like unto it It is also that to which the Gospel in the end leads us by which Gospel or new Covenant God writes his Lawes in the mind and heart of his and so perfits the one in the other And so naturall to Christians is this brotherly love as that the Apostle makes account he needs not write to the Churches to teach them that which God taught them so many wayes By this we know our selvs to be raysed from death to life by it all others know us to be Christs Disciples if we love one another See said the Heathens pointing at the Christians how they love one another and see said the Christians of them how they hate another Oh that Heathens could not now say of Christians as they sometimes said of them If we were perfit in this Love we needed no other Law to rule us either in the duties towards God or our neighbours no more then do the Angels in Heaven and Souls of the Faithfull men departed who by the Law of Love alone do live both most perfit and most happie lives And indeed to love as we ought is a verie happie thing wherein we resemble God and the Angels as by the contrarie we complice with the Divel and wicked men who live in mallice and envie hatefull hating one another And howsoever naturally we desire rather to be beloved then to love yet is it incomparably a more both excellent and blessed thing to love then to be beloved as it is to give rather then to receav Besides Love is the Loadstone of Love And the most readie and compendious way to be beloved of others is to love them first They taking knowledg thereof will be effectually drawn to answerable good will if they be not harder then Iron and such as have cast off the chains and bonds of common humanitie for even Publicans and sinners love those that love them Yea admit thy love of them never come to their knowledg yet will God by the invisible
magnifie his mouth above measure and the weight of the matter and draw Hercules his hose upon a childes leg which the wise King counted no matter of commendation And besides affectation in which men strain the strings of their eloquence to make persons or things as good or bad or as great or small not as they are but as the speaker can I have known some by an abused benefit of nature and art so impotently eloquent as that they could hardly speak in prayse or disprayse of person or thing without doubling and trebling upon them superlative synonomies of honour or disgâ—â—â—e Such Oratours would make notable market-folk in crying up their own wares which they meant to sell and in making other mens which they would buy double nought Both length and shortnesse of speech may be used commendably in their time as Mariners sometimes sayl with larger-spread and sometimes with narrowergathered Sayls But as some are large in speech out of aboundance of matter and upon due consideration so the most multiply words either from weaknesse or vanitie Wise men suspect and examine their words ere they suffer them to passe from them and so speak the more sparingly But fools pour out theirs by talents without fear or wit Besides wise men speak to purpose and so have but some thing to say The other speak everie thing of everie thing and thereupon take libertie to use long wandrings Lastly they think to make up that in number or repetition of words which is wanting in weight But above all other motives some better some worse too many love to hear themselvs speak and imagining vainly that they please others because they please themselvs make long Orations when a little were too much Some excuse their tediousnesse saying that they cannot speak shorter wherein they both say untruly and shame themselvs also For it is all one as if they said that they have unbrydled tongues inordinate passions setting them a work I have been many times drawn so dry that I could not well speak any longer for want of matter but I ever could speak as short as I would Some have said that hurt never comes by silence but they may as well say that good never comes by speech for where it is good to speak it is ill to be silent Besides he that holds his tongue in a matter that concerns him is accounted as consenting Indeed lesse hurt comes by silence then by speech and so doth lesse good Some are silent in weaknesse and want either of wit to conceav what to speak or of courage to utter what they conceav or of utterance where the other defects are not They of the first sort are not desperately foolish seeing they are sensible of their own want which is half the way to mending it there being more hope of such a fool then of a man wise in his own conceipt that is thinking himself wiser then he is Besides such have the wit to cover their folly and a fool whilst he holds his tongue is accounted wise whereas a babâ—ing fool proclaims his foolishnesse For the second though it be a miserie for a man to be compelled to keep silence when he would speak and that the prison be strait where the verie tongue is tyed yet he wants not all wit who can for fear of danger hold his tongue and not make his lips the snare of his Soul Some again are silent in strength of wisdom and others of passion As deep streams are most still so are many of deepest judgment through vehement intention of mind upon weightie or doubtfull matters whereas the shallower are lowder and more forth-putting And here the testimonie which Spintharus gave of Epaminondus hath place that he met with no man in his dayes that knew more and spake lesse Again in some vehemencie of passion and affection dams up the passage of speech The grief is moderate which utters it self that which is extream is silent So Absolom hating his Brother Amnon to the death spake neither good nor evill to him Lastly there are who can bridle their tongue in discretion and know not onely how to take the time to speak but also the time to keep silence which surely is no small commendation in a wise able person And this the Phylosopher knew well who when all the rest of his fellows being ech to present the King with some notable sentence or other were forward to utter everie one his ware desired of the Kings messenger that it might be certified in his name that he had skill to hold his peace when others were forward to speak CAP. XXIII Of Books and Writings WRiting is the speech of the absent and even he that gives a writing into the hand of another to be read by him thereby after a sort sequesters his person from him and desires to speak with him being absent and that to his advantage if his personall presence and speech may endanger either contempt or offence The Lord God in providing that the Books of Holy Scriptures should be written effectually commended the writing and reading of other Books touching all subjects and sciences lawfull and lawfully handled For though the difference be ever to be held between Divine and humain writings so as the former may worthily challeng absolute credence and obedience as breathing out onely truth and godlinesse whereas the other are not onely to be learned but judged also yet even in humain writings the truth in its kind is taught commonly both more fully and more simply and more piously then by speech For howsoever the lively voyce more pierce the heart and be apter to move affection and that to the receaving of truth and goodnesse not onely by love and liking but by Faith also and assent for Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God yet men seldom take either the pains or time to lay down things in speech which they do for publike writings neither can any possibly either have the obportunitie to hear the tythe of that which he may read for information or take the time for the full understanding of things remarkeable spoken which in private reading he may do Besides men are commonly in their writings both freer from passion in themselvs and from partiall respect of others then in their speeches And hence it comes to be said of dead men that they are the best councellors to wit in their Books wherein they are freest from affection one way or other Lastly though the Father found some in his time who because Christ had said Thou shalt not swear thought they might do that in writing which they might not do in speech and confirm Idolatry with their hand so they professed it not with their tongue yet it is usually found otherwise and that men are or would seem to be more religious in writing then in speech Who ever shall finde a black-mouthed blasphemer
that speciall blot and blemish wherewith this sin steyns the body which never after can be wiped of though the guilt of the sin may be repentance He that committeth adultery lacketh understanding getteth a wound and dishonour and his reproach shall not be wiped away sayth Salomon As maryage is a medicine against uncleannes so adulterie is the disease of maryage and divorce the medicine of adulterie though not properly for the cureing of the guiltie but for the easing of the innocent which remedy he may but is not simply bound to use as some are the former Some have sayd that he who conceals the fault of his wife this way becomes a patron of her â—â—â—â—hynes but this is rightly restreyned by others to certain cases The divorce for adulterie both under and before the Law was to be made by the magistrates sword Where that is not drawn the innocent may use this remedy against the peccant as directly violateing the maryage bond which other sins though greater otherwise do not In other cases divorce though much used amongst the Iews was never approved by the Lord in the court of heaven as no sin but permitted onely in civill courts without bodily punishment and onely the giving of the bill commanded and that for the advantage of the divorced and to testifie that the housband had so freed the wife as he might not require her after-returning unto him though he would This permission unto the Iews being onely for the hardnes of their hearts may justly by the magistrate be denyed to Christians whose hearts should be more softned by the blood of Christ. As a man may surfet at his own table or be drunken with his own drink so may he play the adulterer with his own wife both by inordinate affection and action For howsoever the mariage bed cover much inordinatenes this way yet must modestie be observed by the maryed left the bed which is honourable and undefiled in its right use become by abuse hatefull and filthy in Gods sight It hath been by some well observed that divers of the patriarks conversed with many wives whom they took out of a singular desire of a plentifull progeny more chastly then many others did and do with their one CAP. LX. Of Children and their education GOD that made all things good and blessed them imparted expresly this blessing first to his creatures capable thereof that they should encrease and multiplie in their kinde More specially God created our first parents male and female and blessed them saying Be fruitfull and multiplie and fill the earth This order then set he hath preserved to this day and mankinde by it By this parents when they are dead live in their children as parts of them and imps taken from their stock in speciall manner one with them This onenes Gods gratious covenant with the faythful and their seed confirms and commends blessing even the godly dead parents in their living children and so cursing the wicked in theirs and that oftens sundry ages afterwards as both the Scriptures common sense and experience teach Such parents as leav their seed under Gods covenant and blessing as heyrs of their fathers pietie as Ambrose sayd of Theodosius provide a good inheritance for them if they afterwards by their own rebellion and unthankfulnes disinherit not themselvs And a sweet comfort it is to Christian parents when they can commend their litle ones liveing or dying into Christs hands in heaven who being upon earth testified both in word and deed their interest in his blessing The generation of the upright shall be blessed but the posteritie of the wicked shall be cut off And as we judg of the plant or graffe by the stock whence it was taken till it be grown able to bring forth its proper fruit and that the tree be known by the fruit so do we of children by their parents till coming to years of discretion they chuse their own way Not that grace is derived by naturall generation but by the supernaturall covenant with beleevers and their seed confirmed in Christ and by godly education on the parents part which promise of blessing as it is ever effectuall in some according to the election of grace so where it follows not usually the negligence and indulgencie of the parents and alwayes the parties proper rebellion is the cause thereof as we may see both in the word of God and dayly experience We read of Dionisius the tyrant that meaning to revenge himself upon Dion who made war against him he caused his son whom he had in his power to be brought up in riot and wantonnes This labour many save their enemies and do it themselvs and so prove miserable parents of dissolute children It was an odious thing in the Israelites to sacrifice to divels their sons and daughters which they had born unto God and whom he avoweth for his children Which in a spirituall sense we certeynly do if we eyther neglect instructing them or praying to God for them or walking exemplarily as we ought before them or correcting them duely or any other such means as by which the seeds of grace may grow and prosper in them And let us remember that as bruits bring forth in their kinde and all parents their children so we being in the Lords covenant of grace bring forth as by nature ours so by supernatural covenant and grace his children also and that he trusts us with the bringing them up for him and in his nourture and instruction which is a great matter and wherein we must deal faythfully with him that so under his blessing we may fit them for his heavenly inheritance provided for them with us It is a during fruit of Gods gracious covenant when good parents by their godly care have gracious children and that by which our fayth is much confirmed Children in their first dayes have the greater benefit of good mothers not onely because they suck their milk but in a sort their manners also by being continually with them and receaving their first impressions from them But afterwards when they come to riper years good fathers are more behooffull for their forming in vertue and good manners by their greater wisdom and authoritie and oft times also by correcting the fruits of their mothers indulgencie by their severitie They are a blessing great but dangerous They come into the world at first with danger both in respect of themselvs as passing sometimes from the womb to the grave sometimes being born deformed in body sometimes uncapable of understanding as also in regard of the Mother the first day of their being in the world being oftens her last in it After their coming into the world through so many dangers they come even into a world of dangers In their infancie how soon is the tender bud nipped or bruised by sicknes or otherwise In their ventersom dayes
into how many needles dangers do they throw themselvs in which many perish besides those into which God brings them and that all their life long Above all other how great and many are their spirituall dangers both for nourishing and encreasing the corruption which they bring into the world with them and for diverting them from all goodnes which Gods grace and mens endeavour might work in them These dangers and difficulties howsoever they make not Gods blessings in giving children to be no blessings or deserving to be lightly esteemed yet should they moderate our desire of them and greif for their want that none should say eyther to God or one to another as Rahell did to Iakob Give me children or els I dye specially if we weigh withall that though the Lord give us divers towardly good yet one or two proving leaud and wicked will break our tender hearts more then all the rest will comfort us like as in the naturall body there is more greif by the akeing of some one part though but a tooth then comfort and ease in the good and sound state of all the rest If children considered aright of the carefull thoughts sorrows and fears and sore peyns withall of their parents they would think they ought them more honour service and obedience then for the most part they do We seldom consider and prize worthily the cares and peyns of parents till we become parents our selvs and learn them by experience Many bodily diseases are hereditarie and so are many spirituall in a sort and that both by naturall inclination and morall imitation much more that as the Lord sayth of Israell Thou art thy mothers daughter so may it be sayd of many that they are their fathers and mothers sons and daughters in evill Yet if it so come to passe that God vouchsafe grace to the childe of a wicked father and that he see the sins which he hath done he commonly hates them more vehemently then if they had been in a stranger and good reason considering how they have been his dearest parents ruine Yea further even where grace is wanting the child oft tymes by observing and sometimes by feeling also the evils of his fathers sin is driven though not from his evill way into a good way yet into the contrary evill Thus a covetous father oftens makes a prodigall son so doth a prodigall a covetous The son of the covetouse takeing knowledg how odious his fathers covetousnes is to all and therewith perswading himself and being perswaded by others about him that there is enough and more then enough for him takes occasion as prodigally to pour our as his father hath mizerly hoarded up as on the contrarie the son of the prodigall both seeing feeling the hurt of his parents lavishnes is thereby provoked to lay the harder about him for the repayring of his fathers ruines Love rayther descends then ascends as streams of water do and no marvayl if men love where they live as parents doe in children and not they in them Hence also is it that grandfathers are more affectionate towards their childrens children then to their immediates as seeing themselvs further propagated in them and by their means proceeding on to a further degree of eternity which all desire naturally if not in themselvs yet in their posteritie And hence it is that children brought up with their grandfathers or grandmothers seldom do well but are usually corrupted by their too great indulgencie It is much controverted whether it be better in the generall to bring up children under the severitie of discipline and the rod or no. And the wisdom of the flesh out of love to its own alleges many reasons to the contrarie But say men what they will or can the wisdom of God is best and that sayth that foolishnes is bound up in the heart of a child which the rod of correction must drive out and that he who spares his rod hurts his son not in the affection of person but effect of thing And surely there is in all children though not alike a stubbernnes and stoutnes of minde arising from naturall pride which must in the first place be broken and beaten down that so the foundation of their education being layd in humilitie and tractablenes other vertues may in their time be built thereon This fruit of naturall corruption and root of actuall rebellion both against God and man must be destroyed and no manner of way nourished except we will plant a noursery of contempt of all good persons and things and of obstinacie therein It is commendable in a horse that he be stout and stomackfull being never to be left to his own government but alwayes to have his rider on his back and the bit in his mouth But who would have his childe like his horse in his bruitishnes Indeede such as are of great stomack being throughly broken and informed become verie serviceable for great designes els of horses they become asses or worse as Themistocles his mayster told him when he was a childe that eyther he would bring some great good or some great hurt to the common wealth Neyther is there need to fear left by this breaking the children of great men should prove base spirited and abject and so unapt to great imployments for being Adams sons whose desire was to have been like unto God and having those advantages for maysterfulnes and highthoughts which great mens children want not unto whom great affayrs are appropriated usually they will not easily be found unfurnished of stomack and stoutnes of minde more then enough wherein a litle is dangerous specially for making them unmeet for Christs yoak and to learn of him who was lowly and meâ—k For the beating and keeping down of this stubbornnes parents must provide carefully for two things First that childrens wils and wilfulnes be restreyned repressed and that in time lest sooner then they imagine the tender sprigs grow to that stiftnes that they will rayther break then bow Children should not know if it could be kept from them that they have a will in their own but in their parents keeping neyther should these words be heard from them save by way of consent I will or I will not And if will be suffered at first to swey in them in small and lawfull things they wil hardly after be restreyned in great and ill matters which their partiall conceipt and inexperienced youth with the lusts thereof and desire of libertie shall deem small and lawfull as the former And though good education specially the grace of God may afterwards purge out much other evill and weaken this also yet will such unbroken youth most commonly draw after it great disquietnes in crosses when they fall and in the whole course of life a kinde of unweyldines inflexibilitie and obstinacie prejudiciall to the partyes themselvs and uncomfortable at least to such as converse with them The second help
skill for the promoting of his own welfare By love of himself I do not mean that ravenous self-love which eaâ—s up all love of God and of other men save for a mans self but that affection of created nature enclyning everie man to procure his own true welfare to his power everie way The former is rather hatred of a mans self in effect whatsoever the positive affection be But now the question is what this himself means Himself is not his worldly riches nor honour nor any the like appurtenance but his Soul and body in a convenient state and constitution to perform good duties and to obtain true happinesse He that is wise for this himself is wise to God and for other mens true good But for that other common and commonly called self love in which men foolishly mistake by takeing that for themselvs which is not The best that can be wished to such is that they have little wit and lesse authoritie and that specially considering the deepest wisdom of such vermin is not to care how much and in how great things they harm others so they may benefit themselvs never so little in comparison like the thief that to get the Gold-ring would eat off the finger upon which it stuck close If the wealthiest life were the best wisdom were not so much to be desired considering how many meer Nabaâ—s and rich fools the World hath And if the merryest life were the best it were better to be a fool then wise The Fagle continually gnaws the heart of Prometheus And in much wisdom is much grief so as he that encreaseth knowledg encreaseth sorrow saith the wise man out of his own experience Whereas on the contrarie naturall fools and many artificiall fools also almost alwayes laugh and are merrie as having neither grace to mourn for sin not wit to be much troubled with crosses But for all that wisdom excelleth folly as far as light excelleth darknesse yea for that if there were nothing els Seeing by the sadnesse of the countenance the heart is made better whereas the laughter of fools is like the crackling of thorns under a pot There is in truth no greater recreation in the world then to converse with wise men Yet many cannot make themselvs merrie without a fool though Salomon amongst all the vain delights which he could devise or procure got not a fool to make him merrie with Such companions of fools might for the most part save that charg and say that in earnest which a wise man said for fashion When at any time I would be merrie with a fool I laugh at my self Salomon in his Proverbs uses to call good and godly men wise and wicked persons fools partly because there is folly and madnesse too in all wickednesse partly because the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom as both making men carefull to learn their duties and having a promise of direction in the way that they shall chuse and partly to free true pietie and goodnesse from the reproach of folly and simplenesse cast upon them by worldly-wise men who as the Heathen-wise counted the Doctrine of the Gospel foolishnesse so do these worldly-wise judg all true conscience of it and obedience unto it to arise from want of wit and superstitious simplicitie But say men what they will the Gospel is the wisdom of God and the obedience of it the wisdom of Gods people in his sight and in all theirs that judg aright which to neglect and true happinesse in it is the madnesse of folly We say of some that they have good wits if wise men had them in keeping But as wooden daggers are fitter for some then those of Iron and Steel so a blunt wit is indeed fittest for him who wants discretion and wisdom how to use it without which the sharp is as dangerous as is the sharp Knife in a Childes hand or Dagger at a Fools back And as sharp wits without wisdom are dangerous so are they pernitious without grace serving to make men both more incorrigible and more inexcusable and fitter Instruments of the Divel for mischief even as the fat soyl unordered brings forth greatest plentie of thorns and weeds The Serpent was more subtile then any beast of the Field and of him before the rest the Divel made choyse to deceav by who accordingly so well fitted his turn at the first as ever since he hath well liked and much used such subtile and Serpent-like Instruments for mischievous purposes But the Serpent who was more subtile then other beasts was also cursed by the Lord above all other beasts and so are those Serpent-like men for whom how much better were it if they had been born Ideots and naturall Fools then to abuse Gods good gifts of naturall wit to the dishonour of the giver as they do CAP. XVII Of Discretion DIscretion is a skill enabling a man to improve himself in all his affairs and whatsoever he is or hath to best advantage according to variable circumstances and occasions Sapience or wisdom stands in bare contemplation of things excellent gathered from principles and conclusions Prudence and discretion are for practise which if we will distinguish the latter discretion is to be restrained to things fit or unfit This discretion is neither wit nor wisdom nor learning nor any Art liberall or illiberall but that which shews how to govern them all conveniently everie other thing with them like Iphicrates who was neither legionarie Souldier nor Archer nor Targeter but one that could rule and use all these And of such use is this discretion in the whole course of our life in regard of the infinite varietie of circumstances according to which particulars are performed conveniently or inconveniently as that we may daily observ men of lesser meanes for the World as riches trading and skill in faculties and yet doing well in it yea better by discreet manageing their little then others wanting this discretion with far greater helps and measure of means otherwise Yea even in Divine matters some of lesse knowledg zeal diligence and other generall graces by the benefit of this particular vertue are found more serviceable to God and profitable to men then others wanting it though far exceeding them in the former Discretion is to be preferred before wit or art or learning and onely comes after goodnesse in worth As the Serpent-like generation specially where truth and honestie goes with a scratcht face and is in disgrace of the times esteems men square upright in their courses for witlesse silly so must the more shallow-headed take heed that they sensure not discreet cariage and handling of things for craftie and unhonest considering that other men may do that in good honest discretion which they by defect thereof could not do but in evill conscience The same honestie sinceritie may continue in a man though in discretion applying himself diversly
of Abraham the Father of the Faithfull in beleeving under hope against hope and of Iob in keeping patience in extreamitie of tryals and the like are as a Cloud of witnesses going before us as did the Pillar of Cloud before the Israelites in the Wildernesse to shew them the way and do testifie against our withdrawing hearts that other frayl men as we are by the power of the same grace of God whereof we are made partakers have performed due obedience unto God in such and greater tryals then ours are So that as in precepts we have the Word of God and his will in it to direct us so in those patterns of godlinesse we have his work and as it were his visible hand reached down from Heaven to lead us in the way which by his Word we are appointed to walk in By which if we profit not we take the Name of our God in vain both in his Word and Works in which he makes himself known for our good He who makes another his ensample really acknowledgeth both the want and the desire of that perfection in himself which he imitates in the other And so Parmeno in his how artificiall soever imitating of the gruntling of a Sow aymed but at a swinish perfection The like is to be said of childrens playing of Bulls and Bears and Horses To which purpose tended the saying of a great Lord that Womens imitation of men as their perfection in apparrell gesture and the like might better be born then mens effeminate and degenerate imitation of Women Which also the practise of Lycurgus confirmed in trayning up maids in manly exercises and making them thereby after a sort masculine whereas usually by riot and wantonnesse men are transformed into women and made feminine Many think themselvs good enough if there be any worse then they But we should not strive with the worst but with the best rather makeing apace and as fast as we can after them though we come never so far behinde them in wisdom and goodnesse as the Apostle exhorts the Corinthians to be followers of him as he was of Christ. Yea further as Eupompus would imitate Nature and no workman in Painting So neither should we stint our endeavours and desires absolutely at the degree of goodnesse to which any meer man is come before us but should aym at the verie perfection which the Law of God requires Men in shooting aym at the White though sometime they misse the But. Onely the Law of God which onely is perfect must be made by us the absolute rule of our life and wayes As Land-marks are set up by the Sea-shore not onely to teach men which way to take but sometimes also which to leav So are sundry examples even of good men propounded in Holy Scripture not for imitation but for warning And a verie preposterous course it is to follow good men wherein they do evill which they that use are like unto Apes and Dotterels that are aptest to imitate men in their mops and mows and unseemly gestures And if it were folly in the Persians to esteem such men the fairest as had hooked noses because Cyrus their King had such a one It is meer madnesse in Christians to deem vices vertues and errours truths or either the one or other to be embraced through superstitious admiration of some mens persons in which they are found But as the Egyptians following the Israelites with the dark part of the Cloud towards them were drowned in the Sea which the other passed thorow safely so they who follow good men in their faylings and not in their vertues shall surely be punished when the other escape Notwithstanding although examples of others great and antient cannot make sins to be no sins yet doth it something lessen their blame who are misâ—â—d by such guides as it was in the Polygamy of the Patriarcks and both hath been and is in other the like traditionall evils Some pretend the examples of good men in their faylings for the excuse of the evils which they themselvs have a minde to do and would do though none ever had done them before them or should do them after them Others are indeed misled by their aberrations In both the Divel shews himself his crafts-master And hardly can he more improve evill then when he so works that a good or great mans vertues which he cannot abolish should countenance and commend his vices to others By how much therefore the more any person excelleth in knowledg wisdom vertue or authoritie by so much the carefuller must he be that he furnish not from thence the enemie of Gods glorie and mans salvation with weapons of advantage for evill from whence the speciall means of his overthrow therein are to be taken as by Gods appointment they are from great and good men And if any thing possibly could surely this would make the verie Saints in Heaven sorrowfull for their faylings upon Earth that others having by their example oâ— other provocations been drawn to evill whereof they never repenting as the principals did do for the same suffer the eternall wrath of God which they by true repentance have escaped Examples of Superiours are strong coards to draw on others either to good or evill in which regard it is rightly said that great men have no small either vertues or vices with which that of Austin consorts The joy for the great is great if they be good because it is not for them alone So on the contrarie when Peter dissembled for fear of them of the Circumcision not onely the other Iews dissembled likewise with him but Barnabas also was carried away with that their dissimulation How good were it for inferiours that Superiours minded this â—s they ought How much better for themselvs That they might be warned to take heed that they encrease not the guilt and extent of their personall sins by making them exemplarie He that having many standing under him falls from aloft may easily bruise others besides himself with his fall And if the blinde do lead the blinde though both fall into the ditch yet the guide falls under and so is pressed besides his own with the others burthen that falls after and upon him As on the contrarie he that furthers others by his holy ensample in vertue and godlinesse hath his part in their goodnesse also both in the eyes of God and men CAP. XX. Of Counsell COunsell by which we consider wisely whither what and how things are to be done for profitable ends is a sacret thing and withall so necessarie to be taken not onely with God and a mans self but with others also as that Salomon though peerlesse in wisdom yet had his Councellors about him Without counsell people perish and purposes are disapointed but in the multitude of Conncellors there is both safetie and stabilitie It is Gods peculiar to be all sufficient
use of all earthly things that we may watch and to watch that we may escape the danger of spiritual enimies which watch for our destruction When thou sittest to eat with a ruler sayth the wise man consider diligently what is before thee and put thy knife to thy throat if thou be a man given to thine appetite They that eat with rulers or where there is varietie of delicates are apt enough to consider diligently what is before them but it is for the most part not to restreyn their appetite as it should be but rayther to provoke it But a wise man will consider of his temptations to escape the danger of them a foole to provoke himself to swallow them the more greedily as the fish doth the bayt with the hook under it He onely is not overtaken with unlawfull things who inureth himself at times to absteyn from many things lawfull He that will go as near the ditch as he can will at some time or other fall in So he who will take all the libertie that possibly he may lawfully cannot but fall into many unlawfull things Thereupon Austins mother would not allow the young mayds committed to her government to drink as much water as they would least afterwards becomming wives and having plentie they should use excesse in wyne CHAP. XXXI Of Liberality and its contraries LIberalitie teacheth us to bestow our worldly goods when upon whom and as we ought in obedience unto God and for mens good This is to be done without hope of requitall from them as not being a mercinary vertue but that wherein a man looks to his dutie to others and not to profit from them Els it is not liberality rightly performed but a bargayn well made Neyther is that to be accounted liberalitie which is done for vayn glory seeing the work is named from the affection Least of all that when men give to some that they may take from others This is rayther theeverie upon condition Many account themselvs and are by others accounted not onely liberall but even bounteous because they give great gifts whereas if we consider the persons on whom and the ends for which they so pour out themselvs and their mony and other mens also oft tymes we shall see that in truth they deserv no more the name of liberall then those prodigals do who bestow their goods upon harlots for the satisfying of their lusts For as that is not a benefit which wants the best part of it namely to be given in iudgment so neyther is that liberalitie which wants that part but the casting away of a mans goods This vertue exercised in great states and gifts is called bountie and a hingly vertue But may preserv the due respect of liberalitie in the smallest matters and by the poorest persons if it be constant which rayther teacheth to give a litle to many then much to few This was verifyed in the churches of Macedonia towards the poore Saints in Ierusaelem whose deep povertie abounded unto their rich liberalitie The same is confirmed by our Saviours testimonie of the poore widows contribution of two mites that she gave therein more then all the rich men None can give more and therein be more liberall then he that leavs himself litle or nothing On the contrary None can spare more and therein be more covetous then he that will not do the litle which he can do and his neighbour stands in need of It is the dangerous errour of poore men that onely the rich are covetous or liberall They may be and oft are as very mizers and odiously covetous in their penny as the other in their pound So may they be as liberall Every one sayth Solomon is a freind to a man of gifts which have in them sayth another a kinde of secret force to draw the mindes of men as the loadstone draweth iron and that not onely of them that desire to use the liberalitie of others but of such also as neither need nor would use the same Look what liberalitie looseth a man in his purse it gets him in a better place not onely in heauen but in earth also and the best place there the hearts of men and their loving affection On the contrarie covetous men are contemned and hated not onely of them whom they wrong by unjust getting or keeping but by all others that know them though all dare not so manifest Their credit with others and comfort in themselvs is onely in their purses It is a question amongst learned men whether of the two extreames of liberalitie prodigalitie in the excesse or covetousnes in the defect is worse but something the lesse needfull to be determined considering how often they meet together in the same person and beget eyther the other Many lust and desire to have and sometimes obteyn that they may consume upon their pleasures like unto kites and gleads and other ravenous birds who are ever watching and catching for prey and yet remain ever caryon-lean converting the greatest part of their nourishment into long feathers As some desire riches that they may haue them so a great part of the covetousnes reigning in the world is to maintayn prodigall expences that look what covetousnes hath gathered together ryot may lash out and consume For men as well as women being with child of ryot and excesse in diet apparrel and other worldly vanities long â—or riches and great gettings to nourish and maintain their lusts without which they are in danger to cast their calf On the other side they who scape best with prodigalitie are driven to repair their too great lavishnes in one thing by too great nigardlines in another But as it was said of Cataline that he was prodigall of his own and covetous of other mens so the greatest mispenders for the most part are constreyned to be as great misgetters to feed one vice by another Hence some borrow without means or meaning to pay again circumvent others if they haue more cunning then they oppresse them if they have more power and some are driven to plain theeverie violent or secret Yet if we will compare together these two naughts we shall finde covetousnes the worse of the twayn For first it is the root of all evill for that there is no evill fruit but will grow of it Iudas sould Christ for it And manie thousand daylie sell their bodies and souls to sin and hell for it and would sell Christ if he were in their hands whereas wise men and lawyers count the prodigall raither vayn or at the worst but half mad and not capable of governing his own goods then mischeivous Secondly Covetousnes is â—â— the Apostle called Idolatrie not in the common condition of all sinns in which men either in affection or effect esteeme of transitorie vanities aboue God and despise him in comparison of them but especially for that they