has Greatness with Goodness ever demeaned it self For though priviledge is by the Law due to it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arrianus Epictetus lib. 3. yet not to take it when it may be taken but to live and do above common persons in exemplarity of Piety Justice and Integrity is chiefly and most unquestionably Heroick Which Ciala Bassa followed when there being a custome in Constantinople that the owner of the house with all his family whose the house is first set on fire should be burned for his negligence and it hapned that in the Emperour Mahomet father to Achmet the Serail was set on fire he very bravely presented a petition to the Emperour Tuâ— kish History p. 13â—2 that this custome might be abolished holding it unjust that other men should be put to death and the same be let pass in the Emperours own house Thus did the brave Iohn of Gaunt Beaufort behave himself temps R. 2. for being by the King created Marquess of Dorset which H. 4. in hatred of R. 2. deprived him of the Commons of England in Parliament loving Iohn of Gaunt very dearly made earnest suit to H. 4. that the said dignity of Marquess of Dorset might be again restored to him but he himself distasting this new Title and never heard of before those daies A rare President Cambâ—en Britannia p. 217. utterly refused the same which probably he did not more to avoyd the envy of a new â—oyned Title then to shew his voluntary â—â—bmission to the Law which had damnâ—ed it and in whose judgment he was to â—xquiesce For next the mercy of God in good Governours and good Government noâ—â—ing can be a more real help to Reformation and Ease of Government in this Natiâ—n as at all times so more especially now â—hen Great Mens regularity and exemplaâ—â— Virtue a good and laudable life is the â—est Herald and makes the most popular â—roclamation of Nobility and Generosity â—hich will serve the King and his Lawes â—ore by the fame and attraction of it â—hen by all the noise of Titles the rauntâ—â—gs of Visceration and the luxury of carâ—ival Hospitality for the Commons of â—ngland are knowing judicious and well-given people and they are not cogg'd â—nto belief of good from those that are not good in their souls and lives nor do they â—illingly subject to Lawes or Government â—â—nded to them by men obvious to their â—â—ception or taken by them for loose and â—â—eligious But where a sober and learned Prelate Baron Parliament-man Justice 〈◊〉 Gentleman dwells and is active it is â—erceived the Country is more orderly then elsewhere for those Great Mens actions are the Commoners Rules and they are ashamed and afraid to provoke Power where Comorade to Virtue 'T is a notable Note Platina inserts in the life of Pope Paul the Third who was a wise and worthy man Nulla unquam à multis saeculis comitia sincerius simplicius concordiuâ—ve inita peractaque suntquam nullo livore protracta nullo ambitu corrupta nulloque demum metâ— precipitata fuere Platina in vita Pauli tertii and shewed his judicial goodness in this That he kept the Conclave sincere single-hearted and united so that as Sentences therein were not precipitated so neither protracted but calmly and impartially expedited which was not wont to be the Character of Popes In like manner if the Nobles and Gentlemen in their Precincts and Jurisdiction be knowing and diligent how easily and with general acclamation may they lead the willing and convince the obstinate to a ready obedience And if the Fear of God be in a loyal Great Man and when he sees men offend God he can convince them by the reason of a Religious Argument and make their souls tremble by pressing the Law of God violated by them upon their consciences and touch them by the dint and dart of God in their tender parts which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tutouring of Gods 〈◊〉 in Minoâ— Plato calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods Scepter and Power in good mens Custody and Dispensation Then are the people readily awed by them and become useful to because obedient according to Law and Policy of Government 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arrianus Epict. lib. 3. c. 24. p. 333. Ed. Holst nor is there any rigour that can so prevail with the people of England as this swasion of conviction from Virtue and Piety in those that are Governours and ought to be Examples and Promoters of it in others which Petrus Blesensis made excellent use of in his Defence of his Chaplinship to his Lord His then Grace of Canterbury which was aspersed by a Schole-Master as a life of lazyness though he evades the taunt and vindicates the truth thus In the House of my Lord the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury In domo Domini mei Cantuariensis Archiepisc. viri literatissimi sunt apud quos invenitur omnis rectitudo Iustitiae omnis cautela Providentiae omnis forma Doctrinae Illi post Orationem ante Comestionem in lectione in disputatione in causarum decisione juglâ—er se exercent omnes questiones regni nodosae referuntur ad nos quae cum inter Sâ—cios nostros in commune auditorium deducuntur unusquisque secundum ordinem suum sine lite obtrectatione ad bene dicendum mentem suam acuiâ— quod illi conciliosius videtur saâ—ius de vena subtiliore prâ—ducit Petrus â—lesens Epist. 6. there are lodged continually the most learned men with whom is the uprightness of Iustice the wariness of Providence all good method of Learning these after Chappel and before dinner do exercise themselves in reading disputing and stating â—f Iudgments all difficult and knotty questions are referred to our resolution every one in our common meeting according to his Seniority and Place declaring what he most judiciously and with greatest weight of reason conceives thus Blesensis And by this he purged his life from Idleness and his Lords house from uselesness I say when Greatness is thus advantagious to the publique it comes with all the force of prostration upon every thing that opposes it This I would not be thought to present under any notion less generous then publique good and serious courage for Piety and good living though it be by some branded with the Title of Puritanism or Phanatacism For though I know the Donatist or Gnostique in any man is a shrewd advance to antisubjection Venistis rabidi venistis irati membra laniantes Ecclesiae subtiles in seductionibus in aedibus immanes â—ilios pacis ad bella provoâ—antes de sedibus suis multos seciâ—â—is extorres cum conducta manu venientes Basiliâ—as invasistis c. Optatus Milevitand lib 2. p. 54 advers Donatistas and to meditative Rebellion and Schismatical disunion and men of such deceitful Sanctity and Pharisaical vapour are pests to Societies and dead flies in the Noblest politique Composition yet is Holiness and Morral exactness of conversation in any man so
THE Gentlemans Monitor Or a Sober INSPECTION INTO THE Vertues Vices and Ordinary Means Of the RISE and DECAY OF MEN and FAMILIES WITH The Authors Apology and Application to the Nobles and Gentry of England Seasonable for these Times BY EDW. WATERHOVS Esq LONDON Printed by T. R. for R. Royston Bookseller to his most Sacred Majesty MDCLXV TO THE Most Reverend Father in God GILBERT By Divine Providence Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Primate and Metropolitan of all England and one of his Sacred Majesties most Honourable Privy Council May it please your Grace GReat Presents bespeak their acceptance small ones are modest intreaters and triers of the Grandeur of the minds of those to whom they are presented who value them rather for the respect and kindness of their Tenderers then for the Bulk and Port of such their Tender This being the temper of your Grace's mind expressive of all Noble Civilities and Favours to those that have the happiness to be known to and the Honour to be favoured by you makes me hopeful that your Grace will not despise the Patronage of this Discourse which as well in the nature of its matter as in the Authors design and resolve is most properly Yours And in asmuch as it treats of Vertues and Vices as they refer to Men and Families in the good or bad effects of them and subjoins Addresses suasive to the great ends of Civility and Religion to whom are they to be devoted as their Tutelar next under God but to your Grace who being a Gentleman by Blood and Birth a Learned man by Breeding and Endowment and an Eminent Church-man by Dignity and Office have the Naturallest and most Powerfull Influence to protect and propagate what of right Reason Civil Insinuation approved Experience and Divine Zeal Your Paternal Iudgment shall allow contained in it Such then as it is I humbly beg your Grace to Own for the Subjects sake and for the good intent I have to the Publique in its publishing For since the unparallelled Mercies of God are so mistaken by men who build their hopes and happiness upon this planetary World the consistence and glory of which is but in Nazianzen's words a â—pist 47. ad Amphiloch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fabulous and Enthusiastique and since we of this Nation God knows little bettered by our past deliverances are rather sicci ad ignem then albi ad messem as b Lib. 2. de Consider St. Bernard once wrote to Pope Eugenius and since it is high time to advertise the too too general Extravagancy of England of that sober gratitude and vertuous conversation which the abundant Goodness of God to the whole Nation and to the Nobility and Gentry in it calls for from them I think it my duty whom God inclined to meditate and perfect this now to submit iâ— to the view and censure of the Readers beseeching God the inelaboration of the Method and Stile may rather return the Author disparagement then the Argument misfortune If then Your Grace whom to speak and write of is to speak and write of Vertue c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianz de laudibus Athanafii as was said of c Athanasius the Great shall excuse this confidence which proceeds from Conscience of my Duty to do what in me lies to serve the Publique I shall take it as a good encouragement to hereafter diligence in this way wherein in the worst of times and on the then least favoured Subjects I have neither been silent nor I bless God insuccesfull Yea I assure Your Grace I am so convinced of the Activity that Reason and Religion expects from every one in whom the Candle of God shines and the Zeal of God burns that not to improve the least d Quia non benè utuntur talento sibi commisso id est mentis acie quâ videntuâ— omnes qui docti aut urbani aâ—t faceti nominantur excellere sed habent cam in sudario ligatam aut in torra obrutam id est delicatis aut superfluis râ—bus aut terreniâ— cupiditatibus involutam oppressam ligabuntur ergo his manus pedes mittantur in tenebras exteriores Stus August lib. de vera Religione Tom. 1. Opetum Talent of Learning and Grace I account Sacriledge and Sin which would many of the Great and Wise men of England think more upon they would Fear what I do to wrapp up their Talents in Privacies or to mis-spend them on sins May Your Grace long live to Edifie this Church to Advance Learning to Foster Piety to Suppress Licenciousness to Pray Preach Rule and Live down all Malignant opposition to the Power and Purity of true established Religion and Practical Godliness So shall You obtain the Virgins Crown and the Victors Euge which that Your Grace may have when Your Life not Your Vertues and Renown leave this World He most affectionately prayes who now is and ever resolves to be From Syon-Colledge this 5. February 1664. Your GRACES Most unfeigned Humble Servant EDW. WATERHOUS The Authors Apology to the Nobles Gentry and others his Generous and Candid READERS BEcause it seems to many wise men to be out of fashion to be publique spirited and Vertue bears now so â—w a price that he who with Cleantpes dare and can deny himself to erswade and example men to be Vertuous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Cleanthes aapud Plutarchum lib. de vitanà ere alieno p. 831. is so far from being accounted Magnanimous that such an one is censured down right weak and an unthrift of his time Therefore do I in obviation of those detractions that prophance spightful and ignorant persons afflict honest actions with prefix this humble defence hoping that God who has in all ages assisted his Champious in their conflicts with Errour and Obstinacy will not desert me in this so Sober and I hope so seasonable a Manifest Wherein as I willingly have expressed no vain hope that my pen will prevail beyond abler ones refused so have I no fear but that God will give some success to it because it is in a sort his Monitor to mens miscarriages and does not with Xerxes quarrel with Seas and Mountains 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem lib. de Ira Cohibenda p. 455. whipping and battooning them by the rudeness of passion but calmly comes upon them with the influence of Argument and the prevalence of Language soft serious I confess in the Cause of God wherein Catholique Truth is malled down by Paganism or corrupted by Heresie there to appear with spirit like that of the ancient Fathers Athanasius Clemens Alexandrinus Caesarius Augustine Optatus Bradwardine is but to answer the Alarms Summons of true Christian zeal upon such occasions God expects the Cannons and Volleys of our Courage should play freely and fiercely on such defiancers of him But when prophaness hath only eat into the manners of some men and Laws are in being to punish them
in preferring him as the best good and declining everything contrary to him as evil inconsistent with him and God saies 1 Sam. 2. 30. Them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed Lev. â—0 7. Piety is an imitation of God 1 Pet. 1. 16. T is to he holy as he is holy Ioh. 1. 5. Piety is a resignation of our selves and our affaires to Heb. 13. 5. God and that is attended with his never leaving nor forsaking his confidents so just is God to his word so royall is God to his waiters on him that they who take him for their pattern to walk by are sure to have him their reward to live with and that not only in the reversion of eternity the object of their faith Quid est piet as nisi voluntas grata in parentes qui sunt boni cives qui belli qui domi de patria bene merentes nisi qui patriae beneficio meminerunt qui Sancti qui religionem colentes nisi qui meritam diis immortalibus gratiam jusâ—is honoribus memori mente persolvunt Cicero Orat. pro Cnejo Plaucio but in the earnest of this worlds accommodation convenient to their sanctifyed and moderated sense which makes me commend highly those parents who are not so over solicitous to cark and prog wealth and worldly allyes which often are seeming rather then real stores to Families as to train them up in the fear of God and to dispose of them in Callings consistent with Religion and then to match them with such as are religious and heartily revere God For if to make God ones aym and to devote a Family to him be to bespeak and in a sort lay a rightfull claim to his Patronage and to the shelter and succour of his Wisdom Power Goodness in which none can miscarry as appeared in the Midwives of Aegypt who notwithstanding the favour and terrour of Pharaoh would not injure the births of the Israelites but by doing their duties as in the sight and according to the fear of God are said to be dealt with well Exod. 1. 20. and that in Gods reward of security upon them for v. 21. it is said And it came to passe because the Midwives feared the Lord that he made them houses that is he not only secured them against Pharaohs displeasure but enlarged the number and wealth of their posterity Sobolem eorum auxit quod Haebrei soboli pepercissens Grot. ex Ambros in loc Clarius in loc Fecerat eos domas sacerdotii scilicet regni Vaâ—ab in loc For though I cannot assent to the Hebrews thoughts that God directed the Israelites to build them strong houses against the danger of Pharaohs fury Nor that this building them houses concerned their Families advance to the Priesthood and Kingdom yet I do humbly conceive that God mightily enriched them and their Families in a temporal regard Locupletaverit eos magnit divitiis inter Egyptios fecerit eos principla vel capita magnarum domorum inde nascentium Stus Greg. in loâ— Tostatus in loc which is I think the sense of the words Though I know Reverend Calvin and others of great judgment in regard of the Masculine Pronoune refer it to the Israelites propagated by the feeble Instrumentality of the Midwives whose judgment though I in most cases submit to yet from it in this crave leave to depart I say if this fruit of piety perpetuation of Families be from this and such like presidents evincible then those persons and families that most sincerely and constantly adhere to God and are owned by him as such are most likely and sure to succeed in their wise humble and godly undertakings and not only to have in their own hearts ' and to give to others excellent comforts as did the deathbed of the Earl of Essex Deputy of Ireland Holingshed p. 1â— 65. tempore Eliz. to the then Archbishop of Dublin who profesâ—ed that his deathbed speeches should serve him for Sermons so long as he lived but to obtain temporal good things to them and their heirs after them The assurance of this in such times and proportions as God knows best made Abraham so precisely train up his children and family in the fear of God and God give so full a testimony of it in those words Gen. 18. v. 19. I know Abraham that he will teach his children and family to fear me Yea the expectation and confidence of this wrought David to that instruction of his Son 1 Chro. 28. 9. And thou Solomon my Son know the God of thy fathers and serve him with an uright heart that ye may possess this good Land and leave it for an inheritance â—or your children after you for ever V. 8. I know this is vulgar Divinity to the high-minded World and dull untaking reason to the prophane and deriding wits of it who account Holiness the only way to bigotry and declare serious resolution to live to as God excerebrated Enthusiasm and Phanatiqueness they themselves being as Petrarch that gallant Gentleman complains of the prophane Gallants of his age Ad â—il aliud animosi quam ad luxuriae studium virtutisque odium nihil autem insolite est si virtutis exempla virtutis hostibus sunt molesta Lib. 2. de vita solitar Sect. 4. c. 6. Remarkable for nothing but proficiency in Luxury and Enmity to Vertue and thereupon not to be accounted as other then haters of and opposites to every divine man and thing I say though to these religious severitie against sin and in zeal to goodness be foolishness and loss of time yet if any thing be a support against decay a lustre in ballance to blemish a cordial against desperitings a security in evil times a winner upon enemies a confirmation of friends yea above all a Command as it were upon Heaven this is that very Soveraign darling which is the subject of Gods care and power both which cooperate to its preservation This is that which makes a mans enemies be at peace with him Pro. 16. 7. and his God to speak peace to him Psal. 85. 8. and ordain peace for him Isa. 26. 12. make him enter into peace Isai. 57. 2. live in assured peace Jer. 14. 13. and die in peace Jer. 24. 5. This is that which makes the cup run over Psalm 23. 5. whatsoever is taken in hand to prosper Psalm 1. 3. This is that which abandons fear in the midst of the valley of the shadow of death Psalm 23. 4. And this is that in whose right hand is length of daies and in whose left hand are riches and honour Prov. 3. 16. And if this Piety be how beautiful is it and how desirable ought it to be beyond every competitor with it and how characteristical is it of it self from all spurious pretenders to it which therefore are ineffectual to its ends because adulterate and of false composition For piety
that is thus Munificent and subsidiary to Men and Families is such by its conjunction with God and its benediction from God 'T is that voyce which God calls for Let me hear thy voyce In specie autem fictae simulationis sicut reliquae virtutes ita pietas inesse non potest cum qua simuleâ— sanctitatem religionem tolli necesse est for it is sweet Cant. 2. 14. 'T is that sweet savour that 's grateful to him Phil. 4. 18. 'T is a potent charm with reverence I write which has a pleasing restraint on him Deut. 9. 14. 'T is that without which there is no peace Isa. 57. 21. 'T is that with which there is no want Quibus sublatis perturbatio vitae sequitur magna consusio Cicero lib. de natur deorum for to such as have it The Lord is a Sun and a shield he will give grace and glory and no good thing will he withhold from them that love him Psal. 84. 11. And is not this Piety to be valued are Riches Power Parts Beauty Friends comparable to it which how useful soever they are and how creditable soever they appear are only termers to the worlds casualty and ebb and flow as the vicissitudes of it do when the fear of God endures for ever in its rule and reward and thereby deserves a name or esteem above all names Yea if piety be sincere and Scriptural it is such a representation of God as dazzles all mortalls eyes and silences all mortall detraction such it is as extorts from enemies the acknowledgement that God is in it of a truth and thus the Spirit of glory resting on it the obstinacy of man must become suffragan to the testimony of its superexcellency For if the glory of God be that fixedness of his to his purposes and the indefeatibleness of his creatures expectations then is Piety which is the imitation of God in what he is imitable Not besides that proportion of glory it is capable of even for its conjunction to and sameness with him And thus it is accounted by me in Founders or Continuers of Families a great vertue yea the greatest of vertues and that which gives acceptation to all the rest SECT VI. Of Iustice the second Vertue and Means of raysing Men and Families with Examples out of Sacred and Civill Story NExt unto it I account Justice and Civil honesty of Conversation and dealing a great strengthning to the Rise of a Family For Justice is the basis of Gods Throne Psalm 79. v. 14. and an Attribute essential to him above all created beings which are so far only Just as they are partakers of his original Justice which he has so implanted on Omnium honestarum rerum semina animi gerunt quae admonitione excitantur non aliter quam scintilla flaiu levi adjuta ignem suam explicat Senec. Ep. 94. and riveted into the soul and mind of man that thence to avell it or there to usurp upon it is a rape upon and an insolence against the Modesty and Majesty of it Hence is it that the obligation and tincture of this vertue is generally admitted by all mankind as the principle of all natural Religion and morall converse because it fortifies a man against all seidges of dismay terrours of accidents and composes him to set his soul upon the duty of its design and being Ecce spectaculum dignum ad quod respiciat intentus operi suo Deus Ecce par deo dignum vir forâ—is cum â—ala fortuna compositus Senec. lib. de Providentia to serve his Maker and serve his age and relations which perhaps may be something of the reason why crosses and mis-fortunes befall the best men in this world God delighting to see the Vertues of his Hectors tried in these combats and the truth of their Mettall hammered on so hard an Anvil gains the greater content to himself and glory from others by this their stability which is not onely explorative of his bounty to them but exemplary to others whose courage and resolution is thereby exerted and confirmed Which Solomon rightly considering appends a great Encomium to it in the benediction he promulges upon it when in his own experience of the providence of God he testifies to the world That the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked but he blesseth the habitation of the Iust Pro. 3. 33. And the Psalmist Psal. 7. 9. O let the wickednes of the wicked come to an end but establish thou the Iust. To which if we adde that of the 37 Psalm v. 25. I have been young and now am old yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread there is enough to conclude with the wise man Blessings are upon the head of the just but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked Prov. 10. v. 6. For however it may fall out that just men sometimes suffer in common evils and are boaren down by publique oppressions not only as but more remarkably beyond violent and perverse men and that to punish some notable failing in them visible to Gods eye though latent from men and to possess them that all things many times fall alike here to good and bad this World being neither the Heaven of the one nor the Hell of the other but so checquered with black and white veines and with lardings of fat and lean occurrences that there may be thought in the contingents of it no ground of concluding good or evil by what are the returns of them we seeing here many impious men live in honour and die in peace while men more excellent then they are living unfortunate and violently dealt with in their deaths As were the two Transfigured Chiefs who on the mount of Majesty appeared in their respective ages trangsfigured K. Henry the Sixth and the never to be forgotten but everlastingly to be admired and bemoaned Our late gracious Lord and Master Sir Henry Wottens Character p. 141. King Charles the First the Martyr who was stiff in Good and stout in great resolutions Though I say these Princes on whom no designed evil acted by them can be honestly charged were villanously dealt with and by the prevalence of usurpation destroyed yet is it mostly otherwise the Just in their persons and posterities being seâ—undated and kept by his power to their perfect day of discovery and glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basâ—l Seleviae Orat. 5. p. 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz Orat. 27. Gods justice becoming to their justice a Buckler of defence as well as a bucket of store to them and theirs to whom it hath conveyed waters of relief and faecundation This was remarkably made good to Noah a very just man whom because God saw truly religious in his generation Gen. 7. 1. when he overwhelmed all the world he preserved him by an Ark on the Waters and with him secured his relations and in them the seed of
Doron 2 book p. 172 What can all this worldly respects availe when a man shall find himself coupled with a Divel To be one flesh with him and the half marrow in his bed Then though too late shall he find that beauty without bounty wealth without wisdom and great friendship without grace and honesty are but fair shews the deceitful mask of infinite misery Thus that excellent King And in this I am the more precise because I know it is not more possible without a Miracle of restraining grace or subacted nature next to it of which I have not known many examples thorow-paced to find a happy marriage between a paire mismatched in Years Humour Descent Feature all or most of which in considerable degrees are the ordinary potent charms of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thucydides lib 3. p. 177. and the cordial repulses of the contrary then to expect a quiet match from the yoaking of a Dog and a Bear a Wolf and a Lamb a Fox and a Goose together or the composition of contraries in an equality of proportion which tends to no issue of accord Cum per Matrimonium homo perpetuae servituti mancipetur non potest pater cogere ad Matrimonium quanquam illum ex aliqua rationabili causa ad ipsum possit inducere Aquin. sum Suplem q 48. art 1. And how the Fire and Water Earth and Ayre Heaven and Hell in dispositions should agree while like Caesar and Pompey their great Antipathy not attoned by the expedient of love the mutual axchanges of which are the transports of that state the matter of both those mediocrities being absent but published in the ones resolution to admit no Equal and the other no Superiour is to me a Paradox and to those that venture in such a crazy Vessel oftner torment then content Nor do Marriages thus hudled up in hast and thus confounded in the prerequisites to and the associates with them prove ought above the religious Dungeons and well-reported little eases of life in which Adultery is legitimated and self Felony New-christned modesty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Libanius declam 35. p. 790. the injured parties reserving their thoughts for them they love and pyning away their souls because they are crossed in their Contents For Marriage where it is not vertuous and vertuous it cannot be where it is forced from its own motion and diverted to something besides and opposite to its natural current and presuggested tendency attended with reputation convenience suitable at least in those things that are indispensable occasions first undervaluation then soureness then neglect then abhorrence and at last total alienation Which Seneca observed long agoe Nihil tam mobile quam faeminarum voluntas nihil tam vagum novimus veterum matrimoniorum repudia sediores divortio male coherentium rixas quam multae quos in adoleâ—scentia amaverunt in communi reliquere senectute Inter excerpta Seoâ—ta when he tels us Nothing is more vage then effeminate minds whence we have seen desertion of Marriages long lived in and those more scandalous then actual and judicial Divorces former love giving place to late discontent and those deserted in age who had been beloved in youth To prevent which turpitude and ill Omen to posterity it is good to marry in the Lord that is according to the Lords appointment in nature and with eye to the prevention of sinne and the satiation of the mind in the object of its fruition of and cohabitation with and if gratefulnes in every regard follows the aptitude of it to some darling and approved purpose of man and woman and according to the presence or absence of it so in the magis and minus is the love and acceptance of it with them as an apt or fit house for the Master his occasions makes him take pleasure at home and an apt horse causes delight in riding and apt servants pleases the Master in their handiness and apt words are winning and prevalent If aptitude and fitness in these trifles of life compared to marriage be so pleasant and superating how much more victorious and embraced are they when aptness in superious pleasures commends them to our choice and love Ad affectionem spectat quaedam jucunda suavissima delectatio Cassiodor lib. de Amicitia If a Garment fitted to our bodies and a Cookery to our pallats and a prospect to our eyes and a perfume to our smell and a softness to our touch be enamoring how does fitness transcend it felf when it invades us by the pleasing assaults of a Wife and batters us by the harmless cannon of her humour levelled to her own Mark This correspondence and equature in a Wife Note this who is the Mans self in another Sex the duplicate of his heart his own picture in the glass of Marriage the partner of his cares the â—ure of his pressures the heightner of his joyes the stock of his perpetuation and his Comrade in the Acts and Monuments of Omniform vertue I say this a fit Wife becoming to a Man there is reason to ascribe the rise of content and encrease in wealth glory and every blessing unto fit Matches For though some who love women only sensually and in a corner declaim against Wives as inconsistent with content or Husbands freedom being irritated thereunto by either revenge because they could not work their ends on them or for that they would rove Se non posse simul uxori sapientiae studio operam dare Cic. and not be fettered to one Woman which in Marriage they must be or for the contrary be infamous which for ought I know Quisquit litem fugis faeminam â—uge vix alterum sine altera effugies ipsa presentia ut ito dixenâ—m umbra nocens est Tully might be guilty of when he answered the counsels of his friends to take another after he had repudiated his first wife he could not serve Wisdom and a Wife together Which Petrarch so unhappily with a Monkish severity enlarged upon Lib. 2. de vitae solit c. 3. that he deserves the censure of indiscreet and rude Nil egregiis caeptis infestius muliebrâ— consortia lib. 2. de remed â—te Fort. dial 18. when he writes Whoever would fly contention flie women for the one is not to be avoyded without the other the presence of women being no less or other then a hurtful shadow and the correspondence with them the bane of all Heroicisme Though such lashes may be given this excellent Sex the severity of which is due only to the Eccentrique and Elopers of them yet the sober and well bred Wives with which God has blessed Men and Families in all ages are ever to be Owned as Foundresses and Copartners with their Husbands in the rise of Families and the well-educating of their children to their after preferment for while a mother is not unquiet or vain like her in the Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sâ—obaecus Serm. 188. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A costly Wife doth with her trouble bring Her Husband's slave while she 's in power a King Or like that Wife of Dominico Sylvio the 51. Duke of Venice who was so proud and costly that she despised to wash in common water Shutes History Venice or to touch her meat with other then a Fork of Gold or to be in her Chamber but when perfumed that none that came into it could indure the scent of it but was overcome by it when a Wife is not so impertinent but the contrary affable modest thrifty diligent obliging to all her relations and disposes the fruits of her excellent endowments according to the respective objects of her concernments and the concerns of them and that with an eye to God commanding her Husband Children Servants Friends needing and accepting the Munificence of her vertue Can she be counted less then a rare Jewel a divine comfort a notable second to aggrandization I think our Proverb He that will thrive must ask his wife is enough to vindicate Women that are wise and worthy from vulgar esteem Yea since they are so great comforts to life and so great contributers to our perpetuation in honour and posterity the least they can deserve from men is to have the testimony of being additions to them which Theodorick in Cassiodore thinks but reasonable and I judge a just debt to such their obligation Let leud Poets Inter caetera humani generis pondera conjugalis affectus â—uram sibi praecipuam vindicavit Quia in honore esse meretur Vnde reparatio posteritatis acquiritur Var. lib. 2. c. 10 11. and ranting deboshees unmercifully martyr them as he did who branded all men with folly that were not Satyrick against them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that reviles not Women in a hate Of them no wise man is at any rate Yet ought sober and wise men ever to bless God for giving them such comforts for life and to value them the only Happiness enjoyable next to Heaven to which their fitness in Marriage is a great furtherance and in the sequel the rise of Men and Families SECT XI Stateth the Advantage Towardly Children give to a Family SEventhly after fit matches in Marriage Towardly Children by them are great advantages to Families which as they doe continue in being so them do they propagate in Honour and Wealth For parents live personally but few years and possibly either have in their lives no opportunities to ascend or else are cut off in the very moment of their motion towards Greatness when the foundation of their Families pile is onely laid and the roof of it not covered nor any story of it finished but in the vertues of children whose succession are a kind of protraction of time into a comparative infinity there happens often not only a perfecting of the first design but a procedeure to further and greater degrees To capacitate children to which profitable and illustrating service it becomes parents to bestow upon and rivet into them all manner of useful nurtriture and discipline which will usher them unto the opportunity and carry them thorough the method of such undertakings For since the world is variable and one Generation comes and another goes and men of Noble minds though meanly born by the help of great Geniusses and prudent diligences step into those Chasms of honour which mortally makes in ancient and renowed Families whose Braves die issuless Or for misdemeanour and declension Escheat their Blood Honour and Fortune to their Principals or by adoption take others because worthy and wel qualified into them which Seneca saies Fabriciorum imagines Metelliâ—patuerunt Aemiliorum Scipionum familias adoptiâ— miscuit etiam abolita saeculis nomina per successores novos fulgent sic illa Patriciorum nobilitas a sundâ—mentis urbis in haec Tempora constitit Adoptio Fortunae remedium est Lib. 2. Controv. 9. was the advance of some Noble Romans And by this adoption a remedy was given to misfortune and Nobility carried on which otherwise must have abated Since these revolutions give season to notifie merit and to purchase to it the reward of Gods blessing and of his providences offer â—here is great cause for parents that would advance their Families to institute their Children or Nephews in all varieties of Elegant Fashionable usefull breeding not only according to but somewhat above their present quality For Education hath a great influence on the mind and life of youth and such as they are tutoured and habituated to be such usually do they prove themselves to be in their Manhood A good Item to Parents and therefore if men would have Towardly children they must allow them their fervent prayers good example constant love prudent discipline pregnant counsell diligent inspection and if need be thorow-correctionâ— for Youth is liquid susceptive of impress of both sorts and seldome are the first engravings on its shield worn out â—â—â—long as its bearer lives to be a display 〈◊〉 genitors care about charge upon them which as vertuous children ruminate upon in order to their dutiful practice according to it so are they by God rewarde with blessings not only of long life acâ—cording to the Fifth Commandemenâ— which our Lord sayes is the first wiâ—â— promise that their daies shall be long in thâ— Land which the Lord their God giveth theâ— which was made good to the sonnes 〈◊〉 Ionadab the sonne of Rechab who beâ—cause they obeyed their fathers charge were promised never to be eraced Iâ—â— 35 last but with comforts in their souâ—â— and prosperity on their estates Whicâ— the Archbishop of Canterbury temps H. 〈◊〉 presses upon the young King who had disobediently raised warre against his father and invaded his Kingdoms and Territories telling him what Judgments impended such irreligious and immoral courses and how short he came of those Noble examples of Decius who when his father would have admitted him into the Empire with himself Vereor ne si fiam imperatot dediscam esse filiut malo â—â—men non esse imperator humilis filius quam esse Imperator filiuâ— indevotus c Petrus Bles. Ep. 47. replied O Sir I know not what my heart will lead me to when I have such an advantage perhaps when I begin to be an Emperour I shall cease to be a sonne and therefore because I preferr to be an obedient sonne before to be an Emperour and undutifull do you my father raign alone and I under you will obey By this and other instances he as a Friend counsels and as a Father in God commands him upon penalty of his souls damnation and the Churches Censures to remember his duty which he not doing was punished with sad warres in his Raign and was an unhappy Prince in his Conscience For though God is in the Generation of the righteous Psal. 14. 5. And it shall receive the
the tokens of Gods good will to them and ill tidings and casualties coming not by chance but commission are signes also of God paternally correcting their wanders and unmortifiedness which not being collectable from the like carriages of his greatness to evil men to whom God is contrary Psal. 7. 11. and with whom displeased there may be sufficient warrant for looking upon their temporary flourishing but as a minuts gaity before an eternal setting and expiration And hereupon when ever I see Men or Families turn upon God their backs Ier. 32. 33. and imagine evil against the Lord Nahum 1. 11. when their heart is fully set in them to do evil because sentence is not presently executed upon them Eccles. 8. 11. When I consider They take crafty counsell against the Lord and against his Anoynted Psalm 2. And hatâ— the man and thing that is good Micah 3. 2. And speak evil of what is good When these Iude v. 15. impudencies are exert and the rancour of their prophane irreligious hearts breaks forth at their lips they do not only with Esau contemn that sacred gift of God divine primo-geniture by bartring it for triobolary contents momentany nothings but they dare own Religion no further practicable by a wise man then in the uutside and in that part of it which is popular and exemplary Non cogitamus quid ipsâ— simus sed quid alteris esse videmurâ—â—â—di eo perduâ— a resset ut neglecta veritate meriti de sola opintone curamus Pelahius in quaâ—rela ad Demeâ—riam Proâ—â—nos appellam ubique homines sacris non imitatos Budâ—eus in Pandect p. 180. Fol. when men make no conscience of duties and things sacred but can pass them over and swallow them down deriding the precisianism of those that make scruple of sacriledge and impiety that is gainful No wonder that God is known to these in the judgment he executed and these wicked ones are taken in their own snare Psalm 9. v. 16. No wonder that God denies them the comforts and conducts of his Spirit in their way and the glory of his Sonne in his Kingdom who deny him their obedience and adoration here in their day and who set themselves to dethrone his Holiness Power Goodness Justice from its command over the events of things and upon the hearts of men no wonder that he leaves these trusters in man and these makers of flesh their arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord by making them like â—eath in the Desart and not see good when good commeth as the words are Ier. 17. 5 6. When they set themselves to contradict his Institutions and to live contrary to his punishments and rewards no wonder God gives them the whirlwind of instability for their portion and razes their posterity and glory out of honourable Hab. 2. 16. record who design his dishonour in their heart and establish it by their power and defend it by their wit Horum sententiâ—â— non modo superstitionem tollunt in qua inest timor inanis deorum sed etiam religionem quae deorum culta pio continetur St. Augustin lib. 4. Civit. dei and propagate it by their example Can God be jealous of his glory and power which he will not give to any other and yet pass by the provocations of these insolencies which question his being as a God good as a Spirit holy as a Lord great as a Judge just And when he gives to such as give him the courage of their Faith 1 Iohn 5. 4. the sincerity of their love Matth. 20. 37. the perfect work of their patience Iames 1. 4. the duty of their holiness 1 Pet. 1. 16. the exceedings of their zeal Gal. 1. 14. the indeterminateness of their perseverance when to these he gives a name better then Isa. 56. 5. that of sonnes and daughters and settles upon them the sure mercies of David which shall not depart from his seed sorevermore Isa. 55. 3. Is it not just with him to give to those that despise his counsell and dispute his power and deride his holiness and disgrace his Gospel and grieve his Spirit and crucifie his Son afresh and put him again to open shame by their hard hearts rash speeches vicious lives is it not just with him to rend them and their children and fortunes with the stormy wind of his fury and in the overflowing storm of his anger and by the great hayl-stones of his fury to consume them as the threatning is Ezek. 13. 13. Yes sure and such will be the end of all contemners of God and his Gospel who though they be too big for men to deal with and too sturdy for them to argue off their courses to undeceive in their placing happiness and content in the luxury of life yet are by God severely met with sometimes in terrours of mind and visions of horrour as was that wicked Metropolitan of Saxony Adalbertus Archbishop of Hannaburgh who being highly born but not so noble in grace as blood was wont to boast that all his predecessors were pitiful obscure Priests and had no descent nor was the See ever honoured with a Gentleman Bishop before he came into it God met with the Atheism and pride of his heart for on a certain night he dreamt he was officiating at the Altar and that he saw one resusing his service and heard a voyce Thou proud Prelate Tu homo nobilis clarus non potes habere parâ—em cum humilibus Melchior Adam Hist. Eccles. p. 60. c. 19. that gloriest more in thy stemm then rendrest thy self glorious by the grace of thy heart hast no portion with Gods contrite ones Or if God calls them not home this way he either chastens them by great mis-fortunes in their posterity as he did the Conquerour for his Sacriledge in throwing down 36. Mother Churches besides Monasteries Villages Chappels Houses and Towns where men habited to make new-Forrest his Chase for beasts which place was fatal to his sonnes for William Cambden in Hanâ—shire p. 259. Rufus and Richard his two sonns both perished therein the one by pestilent ayre the other by the arrow of Tyrril and Henry his grand-child was hanged in the boughs of a Tree pursuing his Game in this Forrest according to the fourth Commandement To the fourth generation of them that hate him Or by sweeping their posterity away so were Ieroboams 1 Kings 15. 29. So Baasha's 1 Kings 16. 3 4. So Ahabs 2 Kings 21. 21. Which is the judgement David imprecates on the wicked Let his posterity be cut off and in the generation following let their name be blotted out Psal. 109. 13. Thus is irreligion in the heart and prophaneness in the word and works enervative of the prosperity and duration of Men and Families SECT XIV Presents Injury and Oppression a Demolition to Men and Families SEcondly No less to Men or Families harm and dock is Injury and Oppression which therefore
Officers in Courts Attendants on Circuits Stewards in Mannor Undersheriffs in Shires Judges in Corporations which shews their abilities and their possibilities to improve them to their enriching For by this they know the nature of Estates and the condition of their Owners and can thereby pleasure themselves more and surer then other men can And if to these their patebility to honors be added when the High Chancellourship the Chief Justice and other Justiceships Mastership of the Rolls Presidencies of the Privie Council Attorney Solicitor Sergeantship to the King which à re for the most part all Trusts and honours of Lawyers If these so great rich trusty noble places be theirs theirs they will be while the Inns of Courts yield royal Wits and noble Minds to deserve and mannage them to the Kings honour the peoples content and their own renown as thanks be to God and his sacred Majesty whom God long preserve and keep their and our Royal Master they now are The conclusion that they study and practice of the Law is a rise to honour and riches is very easie to be made And how can it be otherwise since the Students and Practicers of the Law being knowingly bred well-descended richly fortuned amply allyed assiduously versed or bred under such as are these or the most of them but that Riches and Honour should fall in to them and be conspicuous upon them For as they they drive a trade of gain with no Money-stock nor hazard their gain by no credit nor exhaust themselves by no charge upon their Chambers their Inns being their Sanctuaries and their Attendance on Courts their Privilege so need they not nor seldom do they let their money lye dead any time by them but either they know where safely to place it and hedge it in by a legal and undeceivable Security or else they have Attorneys and Negotiators that depend upon them who can serve them in that Expedition Hence come they to purchase the best Seats the noblest Royalties the best to be improved Lands in the Nation and to match their Children with least Portions and to most Advâ—ntage of any men Quid enim aliud Iuris Consulti domus quam Oraculum Civitatis Cicero Add to this their Influence on the People whose Kindred Counsel and Stewards they are by which they become presented to the Parliaments as their Deputies no Parliament having less then many of the Long Robe of which the Speaker is mostly one and those potent in passing Lawes and their Power with Courtiers and Favourites whom they are allyed or usefull to as Counsel or Stewards they become presented to the King honoured by him with Knighthood See the most ingenious and learned Preface of that renowned Lawyer and so enter their Posterity into Riches and Honour See Sir Iohn Davis his Irish Reports in the Epistle dedicated to the Lord Elsmore which Sir Edward Cook the Learned Chief Justice and Helluo of Experience taking notice of has collected near 200 Gentile and Noble Families there named in England raised by Lawyers most of which and many added since to them do continue in great Wealth and Honour which he gives as an Encouragement to the Students of the Law in these Words Cast thine eye upon the Sages of the Law that have been before thee Preface to the 2 Reâ—ort and never shalt thou find any that hath excelled in the knowledge of these Laws but hath sucked from the breasts of that divine knowledge Honesty Gravity and Integirty and by the goodness of God hath obtained a greater Blessing and Ornament then any other Profession to their Families and Posterities for it is an undoubted Truth That the just shall flourish as the Palm-tree and spread abroad as the Cedars of Leâ—anon Psal. 91. 13. Nor has the Law onely been thus fertile of Rise and Honour to Families but Trade in Cities and Corporations â—hiefly that of Famous London I dare say the glory of England and that which is known where England is not This City the City that I glory to be born in In mandandis honoribus nobilitas majorum claritudo militiae illustres domi artes spectandae Tacit. 4. Annal. and to have long liv'd in though I thank God of a Family Knightly I hope I may without vanity say out of it has been the place wherein many men of no generous breed and bloud and many of generous breed and bloud have raised and augmented estates and dignifyed Families no less then the former and though some of them seated near the Town where they are subject to vices of waste have not kept their estates so long nor marryed so advisedly as those further-off Gentlemen do yet is not their impermanency to be attributed to the ill-acquisition of those estates left them but to the accidents of snare that attend this populous City which is the common randezvous of all both good and bad See my Discourse of Arms and Armory Printed 1660. and to the liberality of Citizens who preferr their Daughters with great Portions whereby the greatness of their Sons is detracted from nor do I believe but that Trades may be as gentilely managed and as becoming free and noble bred Persons in it as other Professions may and I may self have known as genesincere royal minded men Traders as ever I have done either Noblemen Lawyers or Divines as zealous to God as true to their Prince as free to their Relations as charitable to the Poor as good to their Servants as patient to their Debtors as ready to reward merit as restless to be indebted to it Take notice of this ye despisers of London as real in friendship as pregnant in business as wary against fraud These I have known and seen living freely and dying wealthy and creditable and to the honour of the Societies of London which consist solely of Freemen it may be with much truth averred that they are the truest and most unbyassed Trustees of any in the Nation their Works do praise them in the Gates For alas sharking in Trade is but of a late date since luxury and high-living came into general use For when Traders liv'd low and rose by degrees suting their port to their estate to be honest in word and currant in payment was their ambition and the life of their thrift but when they began as in these late combustible times they did to be vain and boundless then they cared not to undervalue their words over-ask in their wares shirk for one anothers Customers steal Excise and Custom cavil and sue Neighbours contract vast Debts and pay them with becoming Prisoners These are the flawes that are disparaging to Tradesmen and to all others that practise the like and all because they spend high and live pleasurably as if their Trades would maintain their ryot and be kept together without their diligence This loose attendance of Trade together with its diffusion into so many hands every of which must
and ordering of their Servants and Officers who by acting all themselves and soothing their Masters in courses of pleasure and impatience of business secure to themselves the dispose and privacy of all transactions especially if the pleasures of London seduce their Master from their Countrey residencies their influence and power is so absolute that their Master or Lord is shrivelled up and they are publish'd sole Rulers For their Lords or Masters absence and expences in high Dyet rich Clothes frequent Treatments Fashionable Equipage added to by great Gaming 's lend Compotations exhausting Suretiships perilous Quarrels Amorous caressings dreyning him of all Exuberances forces him to be more greedy upon his servant to return moneys more to accept him when he returns him money supplies By reason wherof as the Tenant looks upon the Steward or Trustee as the Lord in deed and power because he only executes his pleasure towards him so does he propitiate the Steward or Trustee by such tenders and presents as have amollient and inclining operations which renders the condition of these Favourites and Agitators well salaried free from all charges subtile to flatter their Lords and Masters into needs and want of money and not visibly redeemable deemable and set a float but by Mortgage or sale of Lands at undervalues both as to Rent Purchase and Perquisite probable to produce them Rise and Riches For these that now-a-daies put themselves upon and are accepted into Services and Trusts are not of the temper of those wonted attendants on Greatness who descended out of worshipful Families came into Noble Fetters not so much to live upon or get by them the matter of their future subsistance though sometimes by accident this worthily befell them but to learn the way of Noble breeding and to be under the view and regency of exemplary vertue and to report from them the glory and fame of fidelity well accepted and acknowledged Which motives to and practices in their services and houses were less dangerous and diminutive to the Great men and Lords by reason these Eagles of great spirits abhorring vulgar preys proposing no reward but what was the bare entertainment of their time and paines and was un-detrimental to their Principals and uninjurious to their Tenants and others to whom they in their Offices are friendly I say these having no designe above praise and a good Match if their service and breeding there may opportunize them thereunto must needs be more profitable for them to entertain then the creatures of late admission and countenance in those places who being taken poor lads and kept in mean condition when advanced prove rapacious cunning insolent and obliged by nothing but gain which they are so crafty contrivers of that they have hoards of money ready in other mens names to accommodate their Masters with provided they may as they will for they are both Demandants and Consenters have the best security he has to give and they can have made to them so that they so carry mattersâ— that they will be seen and known in every transaction Nor will nor almost can their Lord as things are ordered by them and permitted by him to be do any thing without them or refuse any thing they prefer or allow preferred unto him Whence we see they rise thrive and are full of Money when their Lord or Master with his great Estate is needy uncurrant reproached and altogether creditless So that when Children come to he married or disposed abroad to travel home study or any other Caling the good word of the Steward or prime Servant must be had before any thing towards such provision or expence can be raised and the manner of its supplement setled Which too true in every daies experience seems to be a flaw of depreciation in the Jewel of greatness Nor do I understand how great minds do to themselves answer the solaâ—cism of being patient to be needy and narrow when things of import and honour call upon them for ayd and supply and in matters trivinl and absurd on which there is nothing of Nobility and vertue impressed nor from which can they from either of them be added to â—express a termless and abyss freeness and grandeur SECT XXVII Shewes the Gift of Tenacity or close holding what we have or can come by a great means of Rise or Advance SEventhly Resolution of Hold-fast is a great Rise to Riches and Honour This humour of Frugality which is the softest and least blemished sence of Hold-fasting being a great advance to Estates Nor do I think it is excelled by any way of acquisition practicable For it consists of all those ingredients that in their simpls are conducing to thrift and therefore in their conjunction must amount to it It implies knowledge of worldly casualty and of that vertigo and fluency which swinges and tides to and fro worldly things and worldly men and because these conversions are oftner from better to worse then from worse to better it practises wisdom of preparation for and prevention of the fatality of Humane Contingencies and provides in plenty for Want in health for Sickness in Riches for Poverty in Peace for Distraction and this by a Mortification of appetite in those exhaustions that are too liberal to be lasting and too expensive to be sober Hence it spins its thred into as large an extent as its tenuity will bear and requireâ— no more then needs must from the greatest advantage it hath and that because it would more confidently press upon it and be supplied from it in need It expresses a right judgment of things eying Fame as a windy noise which passes without any foot-step or remarque of its consistency and cherishes that which maintains a full purse and a fore-hand fortune It values Friendship of independence and un-endedness and as it resolves it self will not so others shall not by their confidence oppress it It gratifies no humour of costliness because it hath an adjunct mischief nor is led by any prepotent addition Titulo Imperator animo Petuniae miserabile mancipium de Iustino apud Valer. Max. lib. 9. c. 4. to advance its charge or neglect its lustre it s in short wholy a creature of this world living by and to it studying all the intrigues and mysteries of it and refunding all its diligence and satisfaction into it This is the nature of Hold-fasting which is not only relative to money which it scrapes basely and keeps sordidly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stobaeus Fo. 755. but to words writing yea even thoughts and this it does not so much to anticipate the waste of time as the vanity of openness and to raise a fence against the inrodes ann injurious dishonours of it And though wise men often crack their credit by this kind of heedlesness which is so fatal to them that they hardly ever claw off the scair and mortal wound of it as did that Famous Sir Henry Wotton who by not withholding his hand wrote
very obvious yea so great are the Incomes of it that it brings to Riches and Honour which sloth doth not for the Preacher terms it brother to wasting Prov. 18. 9. Letting the belly starâ—â— rather then feed the mouth with it Ch. 19. 24. Killing ones self with desire Ch. 21. v. 25. Creating discouragements for well-doing Prov. 16. 13. Casting men into deep pits Ch. 19. v. 15. A decaying of the building and a dropping down of the house Eccles. 10. 18. Thus this sin branching it self into haughtiness is opposed by God who sets his eye against it 2 Sam. 22. 28. and who brings them to their fall by it Prov. 16. 18. Indeed as there are great promises to Industry and Humility so there are answerable threats to Pride and sloth The haughty he humbles Isa. 10. 13. and makes them to moulder away and languish Ch. 24. They are taken away by judgment Ezek. 16. 50. Yea God is not only said to blow down the haughty Isa. 2. 11 17. but to lay low the arrogancy of the proud and terrible ones Isa. 13. 11. By all which men ought to be disswaded from haughty thoughts and spurr'd on to comply with Gods designs in their night-dress and ungaudy Manifestations of themselves For surely that is the best discovery of a great mind which propagates vertue by just and comely means conducing to its attainment which since careful inspection over mens worldly affairs doth and by keeping them in a state of support wealth independency adds to the liberality of their minds which receive abatements dislustres by the incumbency of need on them which tempts them to and nourishes them in a servility of compliance w th those whose benefactions they are relieved by I say since men cannot be accommodated with wherewith to do great Actions and to stand single sighted in their Judgment without convenient frugality and prudent looking to their fortunes however placed it is contrary to reason and gratitude not to intend and honour that course of life by which men subsist and without which if they would not be miserable I am sure they could not be happy and not to think that service Slavery which brings in Penny-savoury For as it is no ungentile thing to blow the Nose or vent the Belly when the excrements in them are burthensome nor to dress wounds when they are foul and tormenting nor does any man how great soever in a Storm or Siege refuse to tugg at the Oar or digg in the Trench or pump or carry scaling Ladders or Buckets when Houses are on â—ire but every ones State is then reduced to common Notions when the danger is common and desperate so is no man how well born bred or fortuned soever when â—n the high-noon of them disparaged in applying himself to and complying with Maxima quaeque bona solicita sunt nec ulli fortunâ— minus bâ—ne quam optimae creditur Senec de Bâ—evit vitae c. 17. the lowest works of that Calling or Imployment which is his Sanctuary and Supply for this life being a Scene of Interâ—â—udes and intermixt Varieties there can be 〈◊〉 better harbour against the Storms and Entertaiment of the uneven Pulses and Motions of it then this Resolution To bear whatever comes and to be whatever we â—â—ust and ought to be ubi enim quaeratur modestus animus si foedent violenta Patricios Theodoric Rex Ep. 27. apud Cassiod Var. lib. 1. with silent and thoâ—ow-paced Fortitude and humble Geneâ—ousness and to venerate that Calling and â—â—ate of life which God affords to officiate â—o their Despairs and to dispell their â—louds of want and Contempt nor does â—e deserve such a mercy who thinks a manly thrift below him when without it â—e must unavoidably become poor if not â—ant and be undone It is rather becomâ—â—g the greatest Spirit and gratefullest Virâ—ue to follow the Patriarch Iacob and To â—mfess to God devoutly as did he I am not â—orthy of the least of all the mercies and of â—ll the truth that thou hast shewed unto thy â—â—rvant for with my Staff I passed over â—is Iordan but now I am become two â—ands Exod. 32. 10. SECT XXXV Shews That immoderate coming to and long staying in London and the Suburbs from Greatmens Country Residence is a ready way to decay Men and Families LAstly Immoderate flocking to and residing in London and Westminster and the Precincts thereof from the several Quarters of the Country and Nation where the Nobility and Gentry reside and their Seats are is in my Opinion but if 〈◊〉 erre I crave pardon a great danger to destroy persons of Worth in their Virtue and Fortune by drawing them from their retirements where they may live thriftilâ— and usefully to the King Country and themselves into the publick where they are taken off their local Service and assaulted by Delicacies and vices of Cosâ— Effeminacy and Inconsistence with all abode of Virtue And this judgment the Glorious Martyr King and his Council had in An. when the great flocking to Town first appeared in Request as I have been informed and I hope truely for there issued out a Proclamation That no Person of Country Residence should live out of his own Country where his Estate was above certain Months in the year which Proclamation when it found not that obedience command with some Gentlemen that it ought but that notwithstanding they stayed in Town his Majesty was pleased I had here inserted the Proceedings of the Star Chamber but I could not meet with the Records soon enough with advice of his Council of which his Grave Learned and Honourable Chancellour the Lord Coventry was Chief to command Informations against some of them to be exhibited in the Star-Chamber where they were sentenced and fined I confess there are great Magnetisms in the Court and City to work upon men womens desires to come near them Quicquid humani generis floris est habere curiam decet sicut arâ— decus est urbium ita illa ornamentum est ordinum caeterorum Theodoric Rex Senatni Romano Ep. 13. Var. lib. 1. Cassiod the influence and cogency of which seems to apologize for the casual offence of them For there is the Kings Court where the Person Order State Officers of the King are pleasurably and with great satisfaction beheld there are the Flower of the Nation Lilia mixta rosis both for beauty bravery â—arriage and attendance and who that â—ath senses to gratifie and fortune to present him a meet Spectator or what 's better Servant thereto has not enough to do to keep his passions from the pleasures of those Objects of Attraction and Fascination If the eye be never satisfied with seeing nor the eares glutted with sounds nor the other Senses stupified with things of Delight but are by a longing after them unweary of them no wonder that men consisting of those impulses and ridden toâ— often by them are easily drawn to and kept with
and noblest Quality they can adorn themselves with and render themselves conspicuous by And that because it is the Copy of Gods Original a Draught from Perfection it self God as I may so say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianz. Orat. 11. p. 179. in the likeness of man Now as true Nobility is likeness to the King in such Proportions as he is pleased to dispense Honour which is fontally and prerogatively his so is Piety and Religion such a partaking of God and such an effigiation of all his gracious Proportions on the Table of the Heart thence on the figure of the Life as Mortality is capable to take of Immortality and Imperfection of Perfection And though it serves to the excellent purposes of this World in civilizing and associating men and Governments into a comeliness and use of order and correspondence which without this knot and bond would be unaccomplishable and indurable yet are there higher and nobler ends of it which concern the better part and state of man to which this bodily and worldly is but ducent and preparatory And by reason of this Piety becomes not onely a Pearl of great Price to purchase which the Heavenly Merchant that regulates his affairs by Gods advice sells all he has and is a gainer by the bargain to if he can obtain it but a Grace of great activity and contribution to Gods Glory nothing man is capable of being more holily prodigal and unwearyedly advantageous to Gods Prevalence then is Piety For as it is invited to by great and precious Promises Such as are Gods gift of a new heart Ezech 11. 19. Is. 51. 5. 19. Ps. 25. 14. Matth. 25. 34. and of his comforting with his free Spirit of knowing his Secrets of having his Direction and Defence of seeing his face with joy of enjoying his Glory All which are those Magnalia Dei transcending our conception as far as they do weigh down and overpoise the merit of our work there being no congruity between this work of ours and that wages of his so ought it to be diligent in pressing us towards and carrying us to great undertakings of zeal self-denyal humility gratitude courage and constancy for God For shall the Fame of Men and the love of Justice work a Pagan Tamberlain to conflict with Hundreds of Thousands Men and as many Dangers and keep him in the heigth of Victories so sober and satisfied that he can being Lord of Constantinople Turkish History p. 222. and the riches and splendour of it not onely restrain himself from Sacking but from seeing it accounting it an inconsiderable Present to tempt him to be faithless Shall a Heathen have that great and divine mind to commiserate the oppressed and humble the oppressing Bajazet and that done to have his end Shall these Fruits come from Trees in the Worlds Wilderness and Gods Paradise not yield the like neither so fair to the eye nor so pleâ—sant to the taste God forbid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arriâ—anus Epict. lib. 1. c. 9. since the Moralist tells us that To be holy is to be of Gods cognation â—well-beloved Cousin and Counsellor of his Secrets For wherever true and unfeigned Piety is it discovers it self in all the fruits of Righteousness and Holyness in adoration of Gods Goodness in admiration of his Power in resignation to his Pleasure in assimilation to his Perfection in acceptation of his Denyals as well as in expectation of his Reward True Piety fruitfull which gradations advance it beyond moral Virtue that has often no Goade but vain Glory no Centre save that of Fame which is but a few steps from this World with which often it leaves men or it rests Leidger for them a few years or ages when the glory of Piety thus tapering up to God shall from his blessing flow into eternity and be had in everlasting Remembrance as that which is true Nobility and makes the Haver more excellent then his Neighbour in nature that is impious And therefore as the wise King Solomon places this Fear of God Piety in the front of all noble accomplishments Prov. 1. 7. calling it The beginning of Wisdom and commends it to Youth as the best Preliminary to after-document and improvement Remember now thy Creator now in the dayes of thy youth so doth he bring up the rear and conclude the Honour of Life and Action with Fearing God and keeping his Commandements which is the whole duty of man Eccles. And therefore though great Spirits and young Years are loth to stoop to Devotion Religion being as the Chrysostome-Father of our Church Famous Bishop Hall Decad. 1. p. 254. Epist. to Mr. Newton now with God once wrote it grown too severe a Mistress for youth and high courages to attend and very rare is that Nobility of bloud that doth not challenge liberty that ends not in looseness yet is Religion and Piety the best Rivet to fasten Greatness and the best Luminary to display it Whereupon though the full Figure of Piety be wishable to be drawn on Nobles and Gentlemen by whose influences on its behalf it may prevail and proselyte Men and Nations yet even the Vmbra and beginnings of it in any degree are hopefull and encourageable in them for such are the Diversions and Temptations that Greatness is objected to and so directly doth it lye in the pelt of the Surges and in the teeth and tendence of the blasts of carnal and sensual Reason and of the Pleasures and Accommodations of Sense that it is hard to find any man especially any Great-men strictly good precisely just exactly modest solidly humble and wisely provident and rare is that Family of which it may be said Aluit nutriments auxit Patrimoniis ornavit moribus quod edidit Familiae Iuvenes tot reddidit Curiae Consulares Câ—ssiod Var. lib. 3. Ep. 6. as Theodorie wrote of the Decian Family that It sent forth not more Sparks well bred well couraged and well fortuned then men fitted for Senators Grave Learned Religious I say such being the Snares of Greatness though Religion and Piety in sincerity and truth be mainly to be driven home upon them yet the obstacles thereunto being so many and so urgent even the superficiary parts of it are welcome to God and the World as Earnests of more real subsequent Fruits and as anticipations of Scandal That they keep religious Exercises in their Families Note this in order to practice That they observe the Rest and Rites of the Lords Day That they forbid and forbear open Immoralities That they be true to their Marriages Royal in their Words and Honours Merciful to their Servants Souls by releasing them from subserviency to evil That they concern themselves in the virtuous Education of their Children That they be Countenancers of men and things excellent of good report and praisâ—worthy These I say are rare advances in them towards the highest expectable from them And be they themselves never
visible disgrace he may be outed his part of state and be passive to his resolution into dust how vaine are our unquietnesses to start pursue and overtake those fugitives that neither make us happy when we have them nor miserable when we want them To live so as to have our life hid with Christ in God is to live above and to be Lord over the vanity of life And is this O Nobles and Gentlemen not worthy you most to think upon who are deepest engaged in and probably most responsible for the vanity of life or can you but think civiily kindly of him that is your Monitor to this that is so much your security renown interest And that you may not take my report of the vanity of life and the beseemingness of your considering it such and as such providing against it Be O Gallants consulters which Solomon whose latitude of knowledge was a notable second to his Regal dignity by both which he commands his credit with his readers Truely the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is to behold the Sun but if a man live many years and rejoyce in them all yet let him remember the dayes of darkness for they shall be many all this cometh to vanity Eccles. 11. 7 8. verses And our King Solomon the second so experimentally confirms it who after so long knowledge of the light and dark side of the cloud of Greatness Eicin Basilic Meditat. upon Death cap. 28. sets down this conclusion As to the last event I may seem to owe more to my Enemies then my Friends while those will put a period to the sins and sorrowes attending this miserable life wherewith these desire I might still contend I shall be more then Conquerour thorow Christ enabling me for whom I hither to have suffered as he is the author of Truth Order and Peace for all which I have been forced to contend against errors Factions and Confusions Thus he Whereupon I conclude that if as Heliogabalus measured the greatness of Rome by the many Cobwebs found in it which being weighed after gathering came to 10000 pound weight so we calculate the miseries of life by the Impertinent trifling vanitys of it there wil be found such a mass of them that we shall be forced to despise our selves who are so by sin deteriorated and impayred which was the Sentence of the Preacher I said in my heart concerning the estate of the sons of men that God might manifest them and that they might see that they themselves are beasts for that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts even one thing befalleth them c. Eccles. 4. 18. SECT XLIII Shews That to think of God Death and Iudgment prepares to encounter with the varieties of humane state here in the World MY second Motive to you O Nobles and Gentlemen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Maxim Tyrius dissert 25. to think of God Death and Judgment is that thereby you may the better encounter the varieties of this your humane state For though God himself be immutable and hath a permanency of being by reason of which he is compleat and indefectuous neither capable of addition to him or liable to substraction from him yet we men and all things attendant on useful to and created for us being compound and Elementary are not only alterable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mac. Antoninus lib. 2. but are to be made reputatively compleat and according to our capacity happy by those gradations and motions of ascenr and retrorsion which circulate our revolution and cursory circumambiency and therefore Inconsistency being our conditions punishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arrian Epict. lib. 3. c. 10. p. 285. Edit Holstenii and in a very full sence ascribable to it we ought to arm our selves by patience piety and wisdom against the moâ—ion and malevolence of it This Epictetus makes the summe of all Philosophy to be ready and prepared for every mission of Gods good or evil for let us look upon the best condition of us men and we shall find it not only unlike God who is without variableness and shaddow of turning being the same yesterday to day and for ever but even so unlike our selves Lege Doctissi mum Gatakerum Annotat. in lib. 2. Antonini p. 54 â—5 that to morow we are not what to day nor the next day what the anteceding but are turned from one side to another till we are turned topsie turvey and our Proteus repeated change brings us captive to the unchangeable state of death Thus we pass from our first conception in the womb to articulation thence to further mutrition thence to birth thence to childhood thence to youth thence to Adultism thence to Manhood thence to Old age Declension and thence to the dust of death and as our bodies so our minds and manners vary we first are discovered animate by motion then by invigoration then by expression of our inward wants by extern Organs of notice Then we mark what is said and done then we imitate then we enquire the reason then we judge and improve then we design and fabricate then decline in Memory and Counsell and at last again are Children in Understanding Answerable to these are the stations and Agible terms of our lives we are apprentices to Mysteries and Studies before we become Masters when we come to be Freemen we profess what we desire to live by Omnis saeculi faelicitas dum tenetur amittitur imò antequam tenetur elabitur Stus Hieron in c. 38. Isaiae Sr. Hen. Wotton p. 12. when we think our selves setled an accident disjoynts us then we stop our leak by another Engine which we hope more successful but that fails perhaps in the meridian or vespers of our lives when for the most part all Horizons are charged with thick and unpleasant vapors and then we give our selves for lost yet God makes this shipwrack our port this defeat our victory this fall our rise sometimes in youth we are Princes and in age Peasants in the summer of our lives Warâ—â—ours and in the autumn Confessors while â—â—ch scatterers and leud undoing and unâ—one in poverty recalled serious pruâ—ent in sickness peevish moopish nasty 〈◊〉 health good humoured and neat â—hile in counsel severe and short of â—â—ech but in converse affable and open â—â—ow in the presence of Kings beloved â—â—ppy affluent anon discarded out of â—â—vour despised miserable which well â—â—ewed and considered made Seneca cry 〈◊〉 of the instability of worldly things Humanorum rerum circulus hinc inde rotatus Fortunatâ—s esse homines non sinit â—nd resolve to keep vertue fixed what ever 〈◊〉 in or neer man be volatile which would â—e ambitions of our nature circumvolve â—nd by the restraints of them prevent â—he Fate of their consequence men of â—reat emulation would liue more serene â—nd dye more happy then they mostly â—oe Lord what a Pageantry is this subluâ—ary Greatness what Regal and
Peaâ—â—ntly what wise and waggish parts does â— put men to act whom it neither makes â—â—ng Great by vice nor keeps mean for â—ertue What Tennis-balls does it render men of great parts and great births while it leads them to be what they are â—ot and divests them of what really they are When Flaccus Attilius the great Favourite of Tiberius falling into disgrace with his master shall be bereft of his wits and bemone himself poorly and with meanness of spirit shall wring his handâ— and complain How am I fallen that waâ— once the wonder of Alexandria and Egypt how miserable is my condition Philo lib. in Flacâ—um p 988. who aâ— now to believe my prosperity was rather a dream then a truth I am deceived my honours were rather the shaddows then realities of Good and so as he bemoaningly proceeds When Pompey the Great after the victory of 22 Kings in the East Longa â—ita Pompeium magnum vertenti â—radidit Fortunae Livius lib. 9. and the government of the Roman Empire shall yet at last be forced from all and flie for his life unaccompanied and miserable When Tomombejus the great Sultan of Egypt Turkish History p. 550. the first and the last that enjoyed the height of that command when he who had warred so successfully and setled himself so â—irmly is assaulted and over come by Selimus and exquisitely tortured yea from being the glory of Egypt becomâ— a captive and a scorn to the very Egyptians raggedly cloathed set upon a meaâ—ger Camel with his hands bound leâ— thorow Caire to be derided and after alâ— stangled with a Rope Turkish History p. 280. When the greaâ— Bassa Carambey General of Annieaths arâ— my when overthrown by Hnninades waâ— â—aken Captive and valued but at ten â—uckets when the fortune of Amurath 〈◊〉 conquering all that he would turned and broke his heart upon the declension â—f it p. 331. when Scanderbeg who was the â—errour of the Turk and could not sleep â—or desire to fight him and that with his â—rm bare and that with such fierceness â—hat the blood often gushed out at his â—ips p. 424. yet even this man must become â—eaths prisoner and his dead body be taâ—en in Lyssa and happy that Turk that â—ould get any part of his bone to set in Gold when Techelles the Hermite who was so fortunate a General against Bajaâ—â—et the second p. 473. and all others yet comes to be burnt alive at Tunis when Belisaâ—ius the great Conquerour becomes exâ—culated and a beggar by the high-way side and Dyonisius the Tyrant of Sicily 〈◊〉 Musique-master for his living When we shall consider the examples in our own Land of Henry the great Duke of Exeter who married the sister of E. 4. driven to such misety Cambden in Deâ—onshire p. 205. that he was seen all tattered and torn and bare-footed to beg for his living in the Low-countries And Roger the great Bishop of Salisbury taken from a Mass-priest and put in highest authority next King Stephen and yet become so under his displeasure that not only his Castlâ— at the Devizes and Shirburn And in Wiltshire 244. were taken from him with all his Goods Moveables and Riches but also he himself kept in prison so low what with misery and hunger that between the fear of death and torment of his life he neither had will tâ— live or skill to die When to these wâ— adde the Myriads of Examples of alâ— ages which have been tossed to and froâ— with various treatments and in various postures of condition we may and must conclude that great is the variety of state which God inclines Man to exercises him by and concludes him in and that it is rather a wonder that we have not more and greater then feweâ— and less Considering that our ingenuitie are as Mutable from God and as fixed to evill as pravity assisted by Satan caâ— provoke us to be When I consider mens restlessness to doâ— mischief and their impatience to be prevented it I bless God that Eustace the Son of King Stephens Condition Holingshed p. 60. to run maâ—â— before they enjoy the least of their end and after dye defeated as he did is not thâ— condition of such men And when I contemplate the fast and loose that men are a with God they will and they will not Is it not a Mercy that God makes not their condition like a storm at sea full of ridges and rollings up and down like the rebounds and descents of a ball banded and touch'd by a vigorious arm against a marble wall or a brazen footing was it not thus with the great Nevill Tempt H. 6. Who though no King was saith Mr. Cambden above Kings as who deposed H. 6. a bountifull Lord and Master to him placed E 4. in the throne after deposed E 4. and restored H 6. engaging not only England in a cruell Civill Warr Cambden Britania p 570. but himself in those troubles that made him stiled the Tennis Ball of Fortune And with Cecilia Mother to E 4. who saw Richard D. of York her Husband even then when he thought himself sure of the Kingdome and her Son the Earl of Rutland slaine together in a field battle and some â—ew years after her Eldest Son E 4. enjoying the Crown deprived of it by untimely death when he had made away her second Son and his own brother George D. of Clarence after she saw her Son the D. of Gloucester aspiring to the Throne by the murder of his Nephews and slaunder of his own Mother with the greatest dishonour and after he had thus impiously obtained the Crown she saw him slain in Bosworth field and those Her miseries saith Mr. Cambden were so linked together Idem p. 511. that the longer she lived the greater sorrowes she felt and every day was more dolefull then other When I say these examples direct us to many of semblable import how much to be admired is the patience of God that these smart and earthquake providences which shatter all about mens ears and swallow them up in the rage of them do not befall men oftner And therefore it is no wonder that the Spirit of God portraits our life as a Passing so Iob. 14. 20. Thou washest away the things that grow of the dust of the earth and thou destroyest the hope of man thou prevailest for ever against him and he passeth thou changest his countenance and sendeth him away so Psal. 78. 39. As for man his dayes are as grasse as a Flower of the field si he flourisheth For the wind Passeth over it and it is gone Psal. 103. 15 16. so Psal. 144. 4. Man is like to vanity his daies are as a shadow that Passeth away Nor doth the spirit of God Toul this passing bell over Mortall changes but Rings it out to its utmost extent and note of Proclamation that this variety mans state is subject to As the whirlwind passeth so is