Childhood and Youth and yet as they grew up to a riper and more mature Age by reason of such cruel Usage became melancholy and mopish and at last meer Sots Dullards and Dunces Now if Masters and Mistresses are charged with so great Cruelty for abusing the Children of Strangers What can be said in the behalf of some Fathers and Mothers who as barbarously beat and bruise the heads of those very Children who came out of their own Loins even in their tender years never considering how softly our blessed Saviour laid his tender hands upon young Childrens heads when he took them up into his Arms and blessed them There is yet a Generation of Vipers I mean some particular Nurses who are so barbarous as to give dangerous Blows in their Fury and rage to poor young Infants in their Cradles and in their own Laps insomuch that those innocent Babes dread as much the fierce Looks of those Furies as Men usually dread the sight of Lions or Tigers Not to mention some other Behaviour of some of those Nurses after they have taken upon them so great a Charge that many times proves the loss of those poor Infants Lives for all which they must undoubtedly one day Answer it being a kind of Man-slaughter and so near a-kin to Murder Servants are to be obedient to their Masters according to the Flesh in singleness of heart as unto Christ Not with Eye-service as Men pleasers but as the Servants of Christ doing the Will of God from the heart with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to Men 6 Ephes 5 6 c. Masters are to be just and kind to their Servants forbearing threatning as knowing that their Master also is in Heaven 6. Ephes 9. And for that reason they ought not to be as Lions in their Houses nor Frantick among their Servants as the Son of Sirach wisely advises 4 Ecclesiasticus 30. Joshua 's Declaration before all the Tribes of Israel at Shechem is an excellent President for all Parents and Masters of Families and plainly admonishes and points out to them their Duties viz. Choose you this day whom you will serve whether the Gods which your Fathers served that were on the other side of the Flood or the Gods of the Amorites in whose Land ye dwell but as for me and my House we will serve the the Lord 24 Joh. 15. All Subjects are commanded in the Holy Scriptures both to pray for and to yield due obedience to Kings and all Supreme Governours as to God's Vice-Gerents Forasmuch as by Him King's Reign and there is no Power but of God and therefore whoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God 13 Rom. 1 2. On the other side Kings and Queens Soveraign Princes and Princesses who receive their Crowns and Scepters from the Hands of the great King of Kings are to be considered as Nursing-Fathers and Nursing-Mothers to all their Subjects but more particularly to his own Church where ever it is planted or established within their respective Realms and Dominions according to those Royal Presidents of David Hezekiah Josiah and several others recorded in the Holy Scriptures It is both the Honour and Duty of Senators Counsellors and Ministers who are in effect Pilots of those great Ships called Empires Kingdoms and Common-wealths with their utmost Skill Wisdom and Diligence to discharge the great Trusts that are reposed in them by their Soveraign Lords and Masters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to keep the Helm of the Government steddy to have a watchful Eye upon their Compass and never to give Directions for either Larboard Port or Starboard with an intention to steer a wrong Course to gratify their ambitious Desires or for any other sinister or Self-ends Bishops have their respective Diocesses and inferior Pastors and Ministers their particular Congregations and ought to act as good Shepherds watching over and feeding the Flocks of Christ committed to their charge Judges and Magistrates are commanded by God to hear the Cause of the Widow and Fatherless and to be no respectors of Persons Lawyers both Civilians and others for the very same reason are obliged to plead with zeal and diligence for the Oppressed against the Oppressors and not to spin or wire-draw just and righteous Causes while a Man might make several Voyages to and from the East or West-Indies nor to suffer their Attoâ—neys Proctors or Sollicitors to cut large Thongs out of their Clients Hides The proceedings of Physicians with their sick Patients forasmuch as the best of their Skill lies in a very narrow Compass by reason of the great variety of Constitutions and the daily Mutations which happen in the same Human Bodies ought to be with great caution and very conscientious never throwing away Men's lives to make Experiments or feeding them with vain hopes when they plainly see them drawing near to their last Agonies or for greedy Lucre to play with little Distempers till they turn to remediless Diseases There is likewise a Conscience to be used by Apothecaries in preparing and administring their Doses and Potions the particulars whereof I leave to their own private reflections Chyrurgions ought to be very cautious how they dally with slight Sores till they become incurable Wounds God alone knows what some Shop-keepers have to answer for making false Protestations to put off their Wares to unskilful Buyers or Customers Merchants and Trades-men of all Professions are required and commanded by God himself to be just and upright in all their Dealings and not to defraud or go beyond their Brethren in Sales or Bargains or in any wise to break their Covenants for Gain and Advantage for which they will do well to read what the aforesaid Son of Sirach observes A Merchant shall hardly keep himself from doing Wrong and an Huckster shall not be freed from Sin 25 Ecclesiasticus 29. The Rich and Mighty are not to oppress the Poor and Needy or to make use of their Labours Skill or particular Talents without giving them sufficient Recompences and Rewards as the custom of some is feeding them with fair Promises and flattering Speeches till they have obtained their own Ends and Purposes and then taking no more notice of them then if they had never known them which Behaviour of theirs together with a friendly Caution to such poor Men is not unaptly expressed in the following Verses When Great Men cajole thee mark well their design True Friendship 's a Goddess that few Men adore It 's something they want from thee or from thine Which when they have got they know thee no more By the foregoing Passages we are taught and instructed in the Holy Scriptures what God requires either to be done or not to be done on our parts in pursuance of his second Covenant made with us and how we are to demean our selves while we remain in these fleshy Tabernacles To encourage us to the performance of which with all Integrity and Faithfulness we have in the first place
Parents and therefore none of their Posterity have any Reason to make use of them so extravagantly as some Persons of this last Age have done to that degree that they have made themselves ridiculous in the Eyes of many sober Beholders The Pride and Vanity of the Daughters of Sion or Jewish Ladies were severely reprehended in the time of the Prophet Isaiah by God Almighty Himself 3 Isai 16 17 18 c. Namely their walking with stretch'd-forth-Necks and wanton Eyes mincing as they went and priding themselves with the bravery of their tinkling Ornaments about their Feet There was likewise particular Notice taken of their Cauls and Round Tires like the Moon of their Chains Bracelets and Mufflers their Bonnets Head-bands and Ornaments of their Legs their Tablets Ear-Rings and Nose-Jewels their Mantles Wimples and Crisping-pins together with their châ—ngeable Suits of Apparel For all which Extravagances and Excesses there were at the same time threatned and denounced very severe Judgments I pray God the Vanities of this latter Age may not give as great offence Reflection Should a plain Country-Gentleman of Wit and Parts who has by any Misfortune been confined and shut up in a close place for twenty or thirty Years last past be suddenly brought forth into some places of publick Shows and Concourse I am apt to believe that he would be extremely surprized with the sight of some strange Dresses that are in use now-a-days and possibly fall into as great fit of Laughter crying Aha! Aha! as those who are stung or bit with a Tarantula And peradventure it might be as difficult to reconcile him and oblige him to approve of their wild Fancies as it would be to compose such a specifick musical Tune as might perfectly cure and bring the others to their right Senses 11. To love our Neighbour as our selves not to slander calumniate reproach backbite or bear false Witness against him Not to lessen or detract from his Worth or Merits or delight to hear it done by others or to envy his Prosperity and Happiness Never to break out into sinful Anger unbridled Passions provoking Language or reviling Speeches much less to do him any kind of violence or give him mortal Wounds Not to rob or steal his Goods or any way to cozen or deceive him by false Wares Weights or Measures or other fraudulent practises Not to covet his House his Wife his Man-servant his Maid-servant his Ox his Ass or any thing that is his Not to let his Ox or his Ass go astray and hide our selves from them but to take particular care of and restore them Not to remove old Land-Marks or enter into the field of the Fatherless and not to oppress the Poor in the Gate or devour Widow's houses Not to judge or set at nought our Brother Nor to lay any stumbling-Block or occasion to fall in his way or to censure him for strickly observing Meats or Drinks or Days Not to draw him into any Sin or Wickedness by our Encouragements Connivance or ill Examples When we converse with others to be assable and courteous and to behave our selves with all humility and meekness condescending to Men of low Estates and esteeming others better than our selves To follow Peace with all Men as much as in us lies and to be Peace-makers our selves To let our Love be without dissimulation and hypocrisy and to be kindly affectioned one to another rejoycing with them that rejoyce and weeping with them that weep To shew kindness as we have occasion to our very Enemies and to pray for those that hate persecute and despitefully use us To shew mercy with chearfulness and alacrity and never to let our Alms be accompanied with harsh and uncomfortable words And thus to deal our Bread to the Hungry to give Drink to the Thirsty to cloath the Naked to visit the Sick to relieve the Prisoners to redeem the Captives to help the Poor the Widow and the Fatherless to comfort and assist the Desolate and Oppressed and never to shut up the bowels of our Compassion from any without distinction of Persons or Qualifications who stand in need of our asssistance To conclude all Persons whatever are bound in Conscience to behave themselves with all sincerity and uprightness in their several and respective Stations and Relations Wives are to submit themselves to their own Husbands as unto the Lord for the Husband is the Head of the Wife even as Christ is the Head of the Church and as the Church is subject unto Christ so are the Wives to be to their own Husbands in every thing 5 Ephes 22 23 24. Again Husband are to love their Wives even as Christ also loved the Church so ought Men to love their Wives as their own Bodies He that loveth his Wife loveth himself for no Man yet hateth his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it For which cause shall a Man leave his Father and his Mother and shall be joined unto his Wife and they two shall be one Flesh 5 Ephes 25 26. c. Children are to obey their Parents in the Lord To honour their Father and Mother which is the first Commandement with promise that it may be well with them 6 Ephes 1 2 3. Parents are enjoined to bring up their Children in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord and according to their Abilities to make suitable provision for their Maintenance It is no small Trust that Parents repose in Governours and Governesses but more especially in School-Masters and Mistresses for the pious and virtuous Education of the Youth of both Sexes which Trust if it be faithfully and honestly perform'd is of unspeakable Benefit and Use in a Common-wealth and such School-Masters and Mistresses deserve to be valued and respected according to their Merits On the other side if this Trust be not rightly perform'd but neglected and abused it is of pernicious consequence of which I my self have seen some woful effects and have heard very bitter Complaints It is and has been a daily practise in some Schools by harsh and cruel Masters and by peevish hard-hearted and ill natur'd Mistresses to beat and bruise poor Childrens heads as if their double Fists were so many Mallats their Scholars heads as so many Blocks and they themselves Hemp-beaters And the truth is Beating of Hemp would be a much fitter Employment for the meaner sort of those unmerciful Wretches and it 's great pity that there are not very severe Laws made against such barbarous and inhumane Practises which so manifestly obstruct and hinder the Soul whose principal seat the head is in sending too and fro and rightly making use of the Vital and Animal Spirits for the due performance of their several and respective Operations of which the natural consequences are oftimes Deafness Imposthumes and other dangerous Disorders and Distempers And God alone knows how many persons there are and have been in this very Kingdom within the space of forty or fifty Years who promised Wonders in their
Arguments if they do but gratify fleshly Desires have great power and force with poor Mortals It was a promise of sensual Delights and Pleasures though in the other World by which Mahomet so advanced his Dominions and gained so many Proselites and at last exalted himself above our blessed Saviour Christ Jesus who indeed as a Prophet is by the Alcoran acknowledged but as to his Divinity or his being the Second Person of the Trinity it is by the Turks utterly denied I can never forget a Passage in Mahomet the Fourth's insulting Letter to the Emperor at the beginning of this last War namely I value not or I am not afraid of your CRUCIFIED GOD to which blasphemous Expression I do really attribute his being Deposed a few Years after with great Dishonour and Disgrace and all the Misfortunes and Disasters as so many Marks and Tokens of God's displeasure which have ever since befallen that Ottoman Empire And here I hope it will not be ill taken to make an humble Address to the young Nobility and Gentry of this Nation that they will be pleased to have so great a regard to their own Eternal Welfare and Happiness as neither to countenance this impious Book themselves nor allow it a place in their Libraries for fear it may one day corrupt some of their noble Race when they are laid in their cold Tombs I most earnestly beseech you Sirs to hearken to a poor Man's Advice who has no sinister Ends or Designs and whatever he here urges is out of true respect and kindness Who reflects with great remorse upon his own mispent Hours Days and Years and were it in his power to recall Time and Opportunities would certainly with God's assistance employ them to better Ends and Purposes Hitherto your tender years and little Experience may justly plead for your not discerning Id manticae quod in tergo est or diving into the subtil Fallacies and Mysteries of the Composer of this Treatise But now that you have some of his Blasphemies Arrogancies Contradictions and Extravagancies laid so plainly and clearly before your Eyes to harbour or cherish in your Bosoms such Snakes and Vipers would admit of no excuse If you find a Gamester making use but of one false Die he never wins a Shilling more of your Monies If a Tradesman cheats you with false Wares you never after by your good Wills come within his doors And then Why should you give the least respect or countenance to one who endeavours to cheat you of your Souls and rob you of Eternal Happiness Forasmuch as you may be well assured That all such impious Discourses as these are Traps and Snares laid for you by the Devil and his Emissaries to entice you to Sin and Wickedness and then to plunge you in endless Woes and Miseries For the timely prevention of which the best and safest Advice that I can possibly give to the Youth of both Sexes is to employ some part of their precious Hours in reading the Holy Scriptures rather than Plays and Romances which are appointed by God himself to be the Rule of their Lives and by which they must be one day judg'd and give an account of all those extraordinary Talents and Donatives which they have received at his hands above the vulgar and meaner fort of Human Race By which I mean 1. In the first place their ingenuous liberal and more refined Education there being few Parents among the Gentry or Nobility who for their own Reputation are not exceeding careful to put their Children under such Discipline of Tutors and Governesses as may break their natural rudeness and mould them into some form of Civility and teach them that fundamental Lesson of Obedience upon which must be built all future Instructions and afterwards to cultivate their Understandings to bend their Wills and â—ncline their Affections as they grow up in years to those things which are proper Accomplishments for each of the respective Sexes Which is an Advantage that poor and indigent Parents can never purchase for either Sons or Daughters by reason of the great Expence they being forced to send them abroad into all places and among all Companies where the one are in danger of learning all sorts of Vices and the other liable to manifold Temptations and can seldom or never observe or practise such a Severity and Reservedness as otherwise would become a Virgin-Innocence 2. A second Advantage is Wealth and Riches which many times comes into the hands of young Heirs and Heiresses as if they were dropt out of the Clouds Houses and Pallaces which they built not Goods which they provided not Lands and Possessions of which they never made the purchase But are now become God's stewards and must one day give accompt of all particulars that is to say what they have laid out upon themselves what they have distributed among the Poor the Widow and the Fatherless and what they have left behind them to their Children and Families 3. A third Advantage is that of Time the Rich have no need to employ their time to gain that wherewith they already abound whereas the poor Man has scarce any vacant Hours or such as he can call his own but they are all forestall'd by their pressing Necessities The Shepherd must by Day and Night watch his Flocks and his Folds the Husbandman is confined to his Plough his Goad and his Oxen the Carpenter to his Saw and Ax the Smith to his Hammer and Anvil the Potter to his Clay and Wheel and so are all Workmen and Artificers to their several Manufactures and Employments So that the Rich and Wealthy have by this means their Time at their own disposal God having prevented them with the Blessings of his Goodness but must be accomptable to God how they have employed it that is to say what part or portion has been by them set apart for private and publick Devotions and what for reading of the Holy Scriptures what has been spent in lawful or unlawful Pastimes and what in sloth and idleness what in gratifying Pride and Vanity or indulging any manner of Excess Besides all this as the Inclinations and Aversions of great Princes are very much imitated by their Courtiers and Attendants Regis ad exemplum totus componitur Orbis so have the Examples of Persons of Quality of both Sexes no small Influence upon the Actions and Behaviours of their Inferiors and those of lower Ranks and therefore they are highly concerned throughout the whole Course of their Lives to become eminent Patterns of Pieâ—y and Godliness A Prayer for the Youth of both Sexes MOst gracious God and merciful Father in Christ Jesus who while he was here on Earth took little Children in his Arms and blessed them Be graciously pleased to have a particular Regard to the Youth of both Sexes but in a more especial manner to bestow a larger portion of Spiritual Graces and Heavenly Benedictions on those whom thou hast placed in higher Ranks and
the Night shineth as the Day The Darkness and the Night are both alike to Thee And forasmuch as the closing of our Eyes to Rest so nearly resembles Death and our Beds are but models of our Graves out of which we must one Day be called by the sound of the last Trump to Arise and come to Judgment Let this and every Evening and every Morning of our Lives put us in mind of our dying Hours And let no worldly Affairs hinder us from being always in a readiness for our last and final Conflict with the Prince and Powers of Darkness who knowing their time is but short will be sure to make their fiercest Assaults upon Departing-Souls when they find them struggling with Bodily pains and sharp Diseases and drawing nigh to their last Agonies And sometimes to terrify them with frightful Dreams and Visions to make them if possible utterly to despair of God's Mercies and to let go their hold and quit their Hopes of Eternal Life and Happiness Make us therefore sensible how highly it concerns us while we have Health of Body and soundness of Mind to arm our selves like good Souldiers with Christian Courage and Resolution for those Death-bed Combats and critical Hours Minutes and Moments of our Lives And because we are to wrestle with invisible Enemies of mighty Power and wonderful Knowledge great Subtilty and long Experience who know too well our Tempers Inclinations and Infirmities and where and how to set upon us with the greatest Advantage Be pleased to send thy blessed Angels and Ministring-Spirits to comfort and assist us in all those siery Tryals and Temptations That so Death which is to so many others the King of Terrors may be to us a kind Friend and a welcome Guest and we may with all cheerfulness quit these Houses of Clay and fleshy Tabernacles and exchange the Troubles and Sorrows of a painful Pilgrimage in a Valley of Tears for the Joys of Heaven and Everlasting Happiness with blessed Saints and Angels in the highest Heavens All which with whatever else Thou knowest to be needful either for us or for any of ours or for any of Thine we humbly beg in the Name and for the sake of the blessed Jesus who in compassion to our Infirmities has taught us thus to pray Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy NAME thy Kingdom come thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this Day our daily Bread and forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that Trespass against us and lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil for thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen A MORNING-PRAYER FOR Sundays Fasts and Festivals LET us now fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker Most Holy Blessed Glorious and incomprehensible Triniry Father Son and Holy Ghost Three Persons and One God Almighty Maker of all Things and Judge of all Men Have mercy upon us miserable Sinners who are by Nature Children of Disobedience and by our actual Sins every Day and Hour of our Lives liable to Divine Wrath and Vengeance Remember not O Lord the many Follies and Vanities of our Child-hood and Youth nor the innumerable Transgressions of our riper Years and how we have always erred and strayed from the Ways of Truth and Righteousness and trod in forbidden Paths through the several Stages of our Lives leaving undone those things which thou hast absolutely commanded and doing those things which thou hast exprelly forbidden and many times drawing upon our selves the guilt of other Men's Sins by our Encouragement Connivance or ill Examples breaking the solemn Vows and Promises either made for us by others in Baptism or by our selves in Times of Danger or Sickness unthankful for Mercies and incorrigible under Judgments rejecting the Motiors of thy blessed Spirit and following the Devices Desires and vain Imaginations of our own Hearts and so running the hazard of losing our precious and immortal Souls for the enjoyment of a few sinful and short-liv'd Pleasures Blessed LORD we cannot but confess and acknowledge with shame and confusion of face that it is a wonder of thy patience and forbearance that we are yet alive and that thou hast not cut us of in the midst of our Sins and Doom'd us to dwell with everlasting Burnings among damned Souls and Spirits But this is our hope and humble confidence that we have to do with the God and Father of Mercies who takes no delight in the death of Sinners but is slow to Anger and ready to forgive all those who sincerely repent and truely believe in our blessed Lord and Saviour CHRIST JESUS for whose coming into the world to save lost Sinners and to open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers with Angels and Arch-Angels and all the Company of Heaven we laud and magnify thy great and holy NAME as we likewise do for thy other Mercies and Favours daily and hourly bestowed upon us We bless and praise Thee for giving us a Being in the World for that admirable Frame and Structure of our Bodies while we lay inclosed in our Mother's Wombs for breathing into us the Breath of Life and enduing us with reasonable Souls after thine own Image and Likeness for being Born where the Gospel of thy SON is openly preached and professed and not among Heathens Turks or Infidels For the unparallel'd Pattern of all Goodness in the Life of the holy JESUS and for the pious Examples of the blessed Patriarchs Prophets Apostâ—â—s and Martyrs who are gone before us and with their own Blood have traced out for us the true Way to Life and Happiness beseeching thee that we following their good Examples may with them be made partakers of Everlasting Life in the World to come We thank Thee LORD of Heaven and Earth for the wonderful Works of the Creation of which we all enjoy our shares and proportions for the Sun that shines by Day and for the Moon and Stars That rule by Night and by their regular Motions and sweet Influences serve for Signs and Seasons Days and Years for the Clouds that give Rain and drop Fatness upon our Fields and Pastures and for the Springs that go up by the Mountains and run down among the Vallies for reserving to us the appointed Times of Harvest and giving us the kindly Fruits of the Earth in their due and proper Seasons for our Food and Raiment and all the good things of this Life and our manifold preservations from sundry Dâ—â—â—â— and Dangers ever since we hung upon our Mother's Breasts for protecting us this last Night from many calamitous Accidents which in a Night might have befallen us and bringing us safely to the light of another Day and so giving us a longer time and space for Repentance and Amendment of our Lives most humbly beseeching Thee to continue these thy Mercies and Favours to us and to keep us the remainder of this Day and of our Lives from