used all prudent wayes for our enlargement such are temperance and reducing our appetites to things wholsome and easily acquirable Contemplation of the Worlds vanity and uncertainty of Heavens joyes and their perpetuity That the Prison by taking us off from other employment gives us leisure to look back into our lives to mend what is amiss to record the best of our experiences for the benefit of others or any other way to do service to the world in communicating that knowledge and those notices we apprehend may be of use to mankind We have else to add that Imprisonment as an evil comes short of an oppressors Gout or fit of the Stone yea of the perplexities which an ambitious mans projects in the course and process of them enforces him upon Lesser evils are made lighter by being compared with greater Lastly as to death it self reckoned the greatest evil thou shouldest bear the apprehension of its approach with the greatest fortitude For if thou hast spent thy daies well there is no evil in it thou art going to a better place to better company to better injoyments The terror is chiefly in the misapprehension for Children dye without fear of it 't is the recompence of innocency Nothing but guilt makes it dreadful nor ought that neither when there is sorrow for sin a reliance upon Gods mercy through the merits of Christ without this Death would be terrible to every Man and Woman in the World but where this hopeful assurance has possest the mind Death is truly apprehended to be an unavoidable passage to a better life These are my Son the grounds upon which thy courage is to be maintained against the fear of Death which being once gain'd life will be more pleasant because the greatest disquiet thereof uses to be the dreadful apprehension of Death We have invented many wayes to make it terrible to our selves as the stories of dying men the amazement which their groans and sometimes agonies before departure raise in us the laments at departure all the funeral preparations keeping the sore fresh and smarting All which need not be did we keep our minds prepared and our belief steddy that our Friends or our selves are quitting a place of troublesome agitations and disquiets for rest and a participation of the joyes of those who shall be received into the Society of the blessed Let all that can be spoken upon this subject the reality of the whole matter must resolve into this That an honest and good Life makes death acceptable and takes off all the horrors that use to attend it This is the highest perswasive to a good life this and this only makes the way pleasant and the passage easy But this however not of merit because in the best there are abundant defects but God is merciful not extream to mark what is done amiss and the death of our blessed Saviour was on purpose to advance the mercy of God by clearing his justice and to cover a multitude of Transgressions were it not for this no flesh could be saved and a well governed mind though conscious to it self of multitude of failings and offences may yet with great asfurance rely upon the signal promises of Gods mercy and having his firm reliance therereupon pass through this vale of misery without affright and meet Death with the minds quiet The means of begetting true fortitude is wisdom so that Fortitude is not born with us but is a warm affection of the mind raised in us by the right exercise of our reason Others may be rash audacious hare-brained or tyrannically furious but the wise and good only are truly valiant Fortitude being rightly dignified by the justness of the cause and the excellency of the end which excludes from this worthy rank the passionate imperious revengful the Souldier of fortune the duelist and who ever else causelesly injures another or occasions any private or publick disturbance for any indirect and unallowable end Neither is fortitude strength of body for so a Horse or any other stronger Creature would be more valiant than a Man and the strongest men than those who are weaker 'T is true where strength of body is men are too often prompted in confidence thereof to engage in quarrels and boysterous attempts and so to be injurious to themselves and others but this is so far from being true valour that it is rather a Bestial quality which the passion of those Creatures often exercises and would do oftener did they know their own strength and the most advantagious wayes of using it Reason teaches otherwise That he who has most strength either natural or conferred by the Law should use it only for those good ends it was given for the protection of innocence and reducing of contemptuous and injurious Persons to those just bounds Nature or the Laws have set them God who is Almighty against whom all other Powers are but as the weakness of a Babe or what is more infirm who to his might has infinite wisdom joyned never used this strength but in doing good or restraining evil being in his own nature the most exact rule of Justice to himself And what instance or what argument can be greater to man than thus to use his own little strength Not boasting of it but giving thanks for it as being a means of performing in some proportion those good offices which God Almighty takes greatest satisfaction in Fortitude being no less eminent in patient sufferance than in couragious action To this vertue of Fortitude as it is passive belong many other vertues Such are Meekness Humility Patience readiness to assist the Distressed Not to be Contentious or Revengeful not to incense differing Persons by Partaking Backbiting useing a double Tongue concerning each of which let my experience advise thee and lay up my Advices in thy heart as more valuable than whatsoeveâ— of wealth my industry can get and my affection leave to thee Of Meekness Meekness will beget thee numerous Friends but a contentious Spirit raises multitude of Enemies Moses though the greatest and chief Ruler of Gods people is stiled the meekest upon the Earth And yet a greater than he was more Meek even our blessed Master To the Meek belongs the inheritance of eternal life and what are all the Kingdoms of the Earth in comparison to it No suffering is grievous to them that are Meek they are able to bear more than the mighty Meekness is the fruit of Wisdom and sound understanding but pride is the daughter of ignorance and folly Through Meekness Christ overcame the Principalities of the World and having subdued Death it self rose again victorious The Meekness of the Apostles was the contempt of arrogant worldlings and yet upon that Basis God established the Christian Church Of Humility and Patience Near akin to Meekness are Humility and Patience Meekness consisting in a gentle and quiet demeanour notwithstanding many provocations given Humility in not vaunting our selves above others but having a low esteem of
into the capacity of both persons and what thou wouldst not have done to thee wert thou in his condition that be sure thou do not to him in the same condition Let not a little profit or the passionate obtaining of thy will sway thee from this Heavenly rule Remember it is the mind and will of God and that God plac't it within thee for thy observance Whilest it was observ'd the world was in its state of Integrity and nothing under a series of Miracles can reform the World or reduce it to its desirable state again but the general observation of this Rule However my Son let it be the practice of thee and thine consider with thy self that a little gain the fulfilling thy appetite or satisfying thy passion can hold no proportion being put into the opposite scale with the favour of God the love and respect of good men the peace and quiet of thy own spirit which are indeed the greatest blessings upon Earth Almost all the mischiefs that are in the world arise from not observing this rule and yet 't is allow'd by all it was given by God it was exemplified by Christ it is the fulfilling of the Laws of the Second Table it is the rule of the Municipal Laws of all well govern'd Countreys it is of that universal esteem that never any one had the confidence to make an objection against it and therefore as an abbreviation of all good Laws let it be the Touchstone my Son of all thy actions towards others by which thou mayst easily examine and restrain thy self when thou art about to do any injustice to thy neighbour This sacred light within us is so radically fixt that it cannot by the utmost endeavours that man has us'd be utterly effaced for the most wicked men who would fain have believed that there is no God and consequently no Conscience that so the fear of a Deity being removed they might more freely indulge themselves in the satisfaction of their Lusts and Wills have never been able to accomplish that end but have that Conscience which they would stifle vigorously working within them and it self a revenger of their Crimes And therefore Caligula and Nero men infamous for their wickedness having committed foul actions secretly and which they knew no earthly power could punish have yet had day and night before their eyes the horrours of an awakened and revenging Conscience which embitter'd all the Pleasures which they fancied to themselves by the suppression of this unextinguishable light or rather â—ire within them maugre all the art and endeavours they could use to prevent it This is attested by that of the Apostle to the Romans c. 2. v. 15. where he vindicates the justice of God for that the Gentiles had the Law written in their hearts their Conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or excusing one another Man knows that Divine Laws are to be observ'd if he fails let him be himself the Judge his Conscience is the Witness and then comes in that indubitable saying Se judice nemo nocens absolvitur So that let him hide from the world what he can he carries himself about him and though he bears it proudly off he knows himself a guilty person deserving those punishments which it may be he sits as Judge to inflict on others From the sense of this verity Menander a Greek Poet has this expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No Faults can scape for in his Breast Man carries God his Conscience test So Cicero in his Oration for Milo Great is the force of Conscience to both purposes by means of which they who do no evil fear not and they who are wicked have the dread of punishment ever before them It may be laid asleep sometimes as it is whilest wicked actions are committing the gust of pleasure profit or revenge that while taking up and wholly possessing the thoughts but it will certainly awake again and bring with it those perplexing thoughts which the Poets express by Infernal furies Take therefore my Son the advice of wise Socrates study Conscience more than Fame justifie thy self to thy self by a life of Integrity rather than to the World by specious shews of pretended Honesty external acts of Religion plausible appearances of Vertue for though thou maist abuse the credulous world which for the most part judge from the outside and dissembled actions of men yet God and thy Conscience are within thee from whose irresistible light no man can conceal himself Next consider the regards thou owest to thy self It may be thou thinkest thou hast full and absolute power over thy own body and mind But it is a mistake my Son for thy authority over those is bounded by certain rules of Equity there is also a greater right even to these than thou canst lay claim to the right of him that made them who can gainsay it and then the right of him that redeem'd them ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your bodies and your Spirits which are Gods We were once lost my Son to all intents and purposes forfeited to the displeasure of God for breach of his commandments what is included in that forfeiture is dreadful to imagine think then how justly we owe our selves to him who by shedding his own blood rescued us from the Curse the pain and penalty of Gods disfavour We are therefore Christ's and shall we take the members of Christ and abuse them with falshood uncleanness bestiality or any vitious habit that may leave a blemish or reproach upon them No my dear Son have it in thy serious regard rather to preserve them pure and unspotted fit habitations for the holy Spirit to dwell in This is truly loving thy self which consisteth not in the pleasing thy humours indulging thy passions these are sickly and fading pleasures nor yet in the accumulation of Wealth the acquisition of Honour the gaining power over thy enemies all these have many bitternesses joyned with them but in the subduing thy Inclinations to Vice reducing thy Spirit to the Laws of Reason and Nature recovering thy body and mind to such a frame as that they may take pleasure in nothing but what is conducing to health and agreeable to the rules of Vertue and the pattern of our great Master the Universal Saviour This is truly self-love and allowable in no opposition to those duties we owe God and that affection we owe to our Neighbour which is to be extended and conformed to this self-love we are thus to shew unto our selves I know very well my Son that the light of thy mind is very agreeable to this and that thou wilt easily confess that all other self-love which is vitious and hurtful either to thy body or thy mind or detrimental and injurious to thy Brother as it is expresly forbidden in holy writ so is it in direct opposition to the light of unperverted Nature which having imprinted in all of us a love
and people in the first for being misleaders and in the second for being misled from acts of Justice and Righteousness to rest themselves and rely upon external Rites of Sacrificing observation of times new Moons Sabbaths formal Fasts and other observances without designing the purification of the heart from all sorts of vice and uncleanness Which Complaints and Accusations of the said Prophets were smartly seconded by the Worlds great Reformer our ever blessed Saviour stiling those who were by reason of such outward performances esteemed the most Religious but painted walls and Sepulchers outwardly specious but inwardly full of rottenness and corruption yea by reason of their cruelty and severity in exacting those performances and exercising acts of pride and injustice towards those who were really good a generation of Vipers In this kind the Gentile Priests were highly guilty as hath appeared in all Countreys and most remarkably amongst the Greeks and Romans whose Temples dedicated to various Deities as they falsly call'd them were almost infinite whose Ceremonies were numerous and exceedingly burthensome invented for the honour of their Priests and the interest of their States taking up a very considerable part of the peoples time and drawing from them no inconsiderable proportion of their substance But that which is most remarkable and much more to be abhorr'd is that upon the plain and innocent basis of the Christian Religion instituted by him who thought fit to appear in the World as the Son of a Carpenter and propagated by men of mean professions and common yea for the most part unlearned education and this done on purpose that the Religion commended to the World might have no gloss or esteem from its external grandeur which God could easily have furnisht it withal that I say which is most to be taken notice of is that upon this plain and innocent basis hath been erected a superstructure of quite different quality and condition namely a stately Scene of external pomp and splendor the representation whereof and its discordancy from the Original both Institutions and Founders is visible to all eyes but those who will not see though matters appear never so conspicuous The seeming excuse to this is that it was not to be expected that a Church in its infancy should be of equal accomplishment with what in process of time and by the endeavours of learned men it might be raised to All things have their season their periods of growth and augmentation and as long as nothing is altered in the substance and essentials of Religion no fault is to be found in circumstantial additions which by the wisdom of the Apostles successors have been invented as ornaments and decencies in the exercise of Religious duties and helps to the peoples devotion To this so specious a justification of what there is no foundation for in the Original Charter which is the good word of God it may not unfitly be replyed 1. That the Children of this world are in their Generation wiser than the Children of Light How wiser not with true wisdom which is ever attended with truth and goodness but with that which is worldly Craftier they are and cunning to do things for their own advantage though with shews of Honour to God and good to man Can we think that God was deficient in wisdom and so short and weak in his establishments as to need the additional assistance of Man we must not suppose it His Institution was at first absolute and perfect and whatsoever is superadded is of a different piece and though glorious in shew 't is false Coin dishonourable to the first Institutor though specious and profitable to the worldly inventors 2. That which is spoken of the Churches Infancy needing growth and augmentation from mans wisdom is a gross and obvious mistake 'T is not with the Christian Religon as with Arts and Sciences These indeed being humane inventions are capable of large additions because the first beginnings being the products of weak men could not be brought to light in their perfection but the Institution of Christian Religion flowing from the divine nature of Christ and the radiations of the blessed Spirit were in their first establishment pure and perfect If Almighty God had judged those circumstantials as we call them necessary what hindred but that at first he had established them but in that he did not but declining them as we may well suppose upon great and weighty considerations it may well be concluded that he judg'd them altogether against the good of Mankind and opposite to his main end which was that man should be most seen in sincere actions of Piety Truth Mercy Justice and all other real acts of Righteousness without the formal impediments of Ceremonious Devotion 3. And Lastly The invented Ceremonies are so far from being helps to Devotions that they are indeed diversions from it so certainly God Almighty in all former ages found and his Prophets so complained of them And therefore our good Saviour left them wholly out in his two institutions of Baptism and his appointed Supper Injoyning us only these two plain and familiar actions of washing and eating together the one as a token of our engaging in the Christian Religion with a renunciation of all others and the other to preserve in our memories the greatest benefit that mankind could receive from the Son of God namely his offering himself a Sacrifice for their Transgressions and of these I am now particularly to speak Of Baptism It was judged expedient that they who imbrac'd the Christian Religion should by some publick way manifest their desire of being a Disciple of Christ the establisher thereof which was in submission to the easiest but most significant action of being wash'd with water before which there ought to precede a belief and acknowledgement that Christ was the Son of God the true Messias and Saviour of the world as also a Renunciation of all other Religions both Jewish and Gentile a steddy Repentance and Sorrow for evil life past and a resolution for the future to become a new man and to observe carefully all the Rules and Precepts left by Christ and his Apostles in hope and assurance of being received after this Life into the Society and Communion of the blessed in Heaven What more easie way of Induction could be contrived than that of washing which amongst the Jews was a custome very familiar upon far lesser occasions and not unfrequent also among the Gentiles It was what John before had introduc'd who was therefore called the Baptist and which our Saviour himself had submitted to not in way of Penitence or for Remission of sins for he was without sin as St. Peter testifies of him 1 Pet. 2.22 not that by the contact of the waters with his pure and immaculate body he might sanctifie them and endow them with a regenerative power and vertue as Jacobus de Vitriaco with others have but guessingly and without ground imagined Nor yet that by
which is his industry he leaves a legacy to his Children His labour that gets him bread procures him an appetite which makes it sweet to him to digest it well also and maintain his strength sleep follows sound and undisturbed He is past fear of want and without desire of acquiring riches these particulars considered and compared with the numerous perplexities crosses temptations which a great estate is lyable to and daily distracted withal will make it very evident that poverty is not so contemptible as it is esteemed and that a small proportion of fortitude may well enable us to undergo what through mistake and inconsideration seems to be so great an evil 4. For the bearing of sickness and pain consider that patience enables thee to bear them best it keeps thy body in better temper it moderates those Spirits in thy blood which impatience would heighten to a great degree of sharpness and consequently would render both the one and the other more intense and intolerable therefore if ease be thy end bear thy pain and sickness with composed meekness as the best way to attain that end Epicurus his argument is that if pains be of long continuance they are tolerable if very accute they are but short and often intermitting 5. For loss of Friends This touches I confess nearly and requires my Son all thy vertuous strength to enable thee to bear so cutting an evil supposing them to be true Friends fitly qualified thou needest not however despair time may make up that want with the supply of others as true firm and well tempered However thou hast thy self to enjoy not in the sensuality of pleasure but in the sweet meditations of thy mind thou hast the remembrance of thy lost Friends which should be pleasing to thee in recollection of all the sweet discourses and converses you have had together in the good Counsels he has given in the assistance and supports it may be you have mutually afforded and in all other acts of real and generous friendship above all you have the wisdom and goodness of God Mans chiefest Friend to contemplate upon and to supply the vacancy of these hours the Society of thy lost Friends use to take up which is a supplement abundantly sufficient 6. As to the minds discontent there are many arguments to strengthen the mind against it but the principal are two The First 〈◊〉 deduced from the thing it self The other from Christian hope which is a compensation against any evil the mind is lyable to As to the First it is to be considered that there is no real evil to the mind but what it makes so to it self For could the mind be fortified before hand with the Principles of sound Reason whatsoever can happen to us from without though at the first surprize it might a little startle and discompose us yet should we so prepared soon recover our just temper and repel all assaults any adverse occasion may raise against us It is misunderstanding and the weakness of false opinion which gives a sting and asperity to those things we call evil which indeed only are so because we suffer them to be so and so Epicurus fully renders it in his excellent Axiome when he sayes That discontent of mind is not grounded upon Nature but upon meer opinion of Evil. And that it is reason alone which makes life happy and pleasant by expelling all such false conceptions and opinions as may any way occasion perturbation of mind But Secondly There is a stronger argument to be raised from our Christian expectation the hopes of an infinite and permanent good may easily perswade us to content when we lose a small and transient one If a man be worth 10000 l. and loses 5 l. Why should this trouble him Such and a far greater disproportion does 10000 l. bear to the joyes of Heaven or else our belief of Gods sacred word has no strength or validity in it If then we have assurance of this Beatitude let us not be perplexed at small losses for such they are in themselves though made great by the error and weakness of our misconception 〈◊〉 of such things too we cannot truly call our own because liable to a thousand accidents that may bereave us of them It is indeed our pride makes them a real loss for had we the prudence to reduce our minds to a compliance with our condition a lesson which though the Apostle had fully learned the most of us are but novices in the abatement of our port and fall from popular estimation would seize little upon us against which I say there cannot be any more cogent argument than that assurance the Scripture was given to beget in us The great impediment to this fortitude is when either pain which is a real evil or the other grounded upon false conceit are occasioned and brought upon us not only through our own error or negligence but our vices In this case also the remedy is obvious namely to abandon those faults whose effects they are for it will be found one of the hardest matters in the World to exercise reason and express the fruits of true wisdom whilst we wallow in vice and pursue those enormities which debase and enervate the Soul darkning its brightest beams subjecting us to captivation in all the assaults which either from within or without can be made against us Loss of liberty seems at the first view to be a great and insupportable evil against nature and the priviledg of all other Creatures upon some of whom however we have put restraint it takes from us the opportunity of following business the choice of abode for livelihood and health is usually grievous to the mind debauches often the manners and moral Habits and is destructive to health Some of these inconveniences by prudence may be prevented as what are within our power and others much mitigated by such considerations as arm us with patience If Imprisonment be for faults against the Law committed the best remedy is acknowledgment of the justice by which we are committed and repentance for the faults a sight and loathing whereof being gained by the restraint in which being at freedom we might have persisted makes Imprisonment like David's affliction when he said It is good for me that I was afflicted otherwise I had gone astray If it be causless and unjust we have the Balm of Innocence to comfort our minds and the consideration that our Great Master so suffered before with most of his good Disciples that in a bad World the Portion of the Righteous is affliction easy and tolerable how severe soever in it self because of the evidences we have of a joyful estate in perpetuity after a momentany season The same supports are to us if it prove for debt which being an effect of those causes which are without our power and and controul we have reason patiently to submit to them upon the same considerations Some other alleviations there are after we have
our selves through consciousness of our many infirmities Patience in a quiet sufferance of those evils the World rudely throws upon us These I would have the complexion of thy mind united and made one with thy Soul Be very careful that thou take them not up as the Politician does to deceive the credulous and by their speciousness to compass some unworthy end with which these excellent graces hold greatest repugnancy So to convert the best qualities to the vilest uses is Satans office when he assumes the shape of an Angel of light and those are doubtless guided by his instincts who put on the garments of Holiness and Vertue for ends little different from his Be therefore as thou seemest neither judge of those Vertues as the World judges Propose rather to suffer than to do injury But thy self to thy choice whether thou hadst not rather be John Baptist than Herod Remember who are the blessed in the fifth of St. Matthew that we are not to judge of our condition as it is abstractedly here for then the most unjustly suffering Persons the Apostle tells us would be of all men most miserable that is doubtless in the Worlds account but conjoyntly by taking in that interest and those promises good men have of hereafter If thou lookest upon the World and the deportment of Men and Women thou wilt either not think Humility to be a Christian grace or that there are very few deserving that appellation to be found We generally have too mean an esteem of others and think too highly of our selves Wealth puffs us up and though it be most uncertain and no part of our selves yet we vaunt as if it were and from the encouragement of it despise those who have real and in trinsick worth Honour swells us and the more if it be accquired by wealth unworthy office or Servility For they who have by true merit attained it esteem it least and are most humble Learning lifts us up above others and is aptest so to do when it is notional traditional and most imperfect for they who know best and most distinctly know also that the degree of knowledg man can reach is so small and his ignorance so infinitely exceeding his knowledge that he has reason rather to blush and hide his head than arrogantly exalt himself above his Brother Divine knowledg has a contrary effect for that gives us so true an acquaintance with our selves and so plainly discovers to us the multitude of our defects and infirmities together with the necessity of dependance upon another for our Salvation that it suddenly makes flat our Spirits and stops all the heavings and commotions thereof But that which begets the greatest pride and variance amongst us is the high conceit we have of our selves for being of an opinion or mode of Religion different from others thus the Catholick despises the Protestant The Turk slights all Christians as despicable in their opinions The Russian all other professors of Christianity as erroneous and unclean The Episcopals think slightly of others as meanly learn'd Heretical and Schismatical The Presbyterian condemns the Papist as idolatrous the Bishop as superstitious The Annabaptist prides himself in some nearer conformity with the Apostolical Rules and Practice The Quaker condemns them all not only for errors in Doctrine Discipline and practice but difformity also in life and conversation to the Laws and Precepts of Christianity Thus all arrogate to themselves a nearer affinity to Truth than is in others to the exalting themselves and debasing their Brethren to the breach of Charity and to the extirpation of Humility which is the most infallible Badge and token of true Christianity Weigh these things well my Son and conform thy practice to the true purpose and intention thereof Let me only add further that in what I have said I would not have thee think that I conceive it altogether and at all times unfit for good men to manifest that they have courage or that they are never to shew a just anger against whatsoever provocations All kind of wickedness is a just object of our anger though it may not be prudence alwayes to shew it and upon every slight occasion The defence of our Country and of the good Laws which maintains the peace and quietness thereof is a just motive to our courage which to want at times when those require it imprints upon us the indelible mark of Coward below manhood Religion was never designed to unman us or to reduce us to such a frame of Spirit as by our pusillanimity to encourage all wicked and injurious persons to offer what violence they please to those whose principles ingage them not to defend themselves their Wives and Children their Laws their Countrey their Religion whatsoever principle is thus irrational must doubtless be grounded upon some mistake or misunderstanding when it leaves all that is estimable and sacred amongst us to the rapine of unreasonable men It makes us in part guilty â—f their insolencies and taxes the commands of God with the same blemish of injustice 'T is true indeed the Primitive Christians sent abroad to convert the World without strength or power more than what was in the verity of their Doctrines the convincing efficacy of their miracles the sanctity of their lives used no other force than what those contained for they had no other But the World being now at least in shew converted and professing Christianity for one part of us to expose our selves to the other or for any of us to judge that we are to leave all that is near and dear to us in whatsoever distress is contrary to the reason and nature of man and therefore cannot be agreeable to the precepts of Christianity This is almost of universal consent for do not all ingage in Wars and partake where they conceive the cause is most just And even those who at first said they must use only prayers and tears have upon the urgency of provocation flown into Armes and given prof of almost irresistable Valour I speak not this my Son to prompt thee to slacken the reins of reason or to beget in thee an aptness to fly out upon every slight occasion administred which is against the scope of almost all that I have written but to keep thee a Man that no misconceived opinions may ty up thy heart and hands when the defence of Justice the Laws and common preservation requires thy assistance Otherwise I commend Patience to thee let thy prudence bear what thy passion would make worse He that is angry upon every little occasion loses the effects of it and renders it despicable He that raises a patient man to anger will be generally condemned and the World will conclude there is a competent cause it must be a very great wind or some hurricance that shakes a strong foundation Be assured that Patience will sweeten thy life and make thee avoid many evils impatience would thrust thee upon Again Patience is to be
to take in more than he can digest that is make use of in the progress of his life which ought to be the end of his knowledg Concerning Temperance as it relates to health enough is writ of it and thy experience and reason will soon assent though at first it may be thy sense and addiction to pleasure will despise it But young men will hardly be wise by others instruction but from their own sufferings In this as in the quest of other Vertues how can you do better than observe the lives of the best men and not the lives only but the Precepts It was not from necessity but choice that our Saviour declined the Courts of Princes and splendor of greatness or being himself a Prince Preferring rather Parents and a profession of mean esteem in the opinion of the sensual world and chose for his Disciples and was attended by men of lowest rank as if purposely God had designed to rectifie the judgments of mankind and shame them out of the fond Idolatry they generally bestow on what is in esteem amongst the great ones of the World To be content with food and raiment not in our Divines sense when we can get no more but as the best expedient for keeping us truly Religious and in the tracts of Vertue Not to mind or labour after high things to equal our selves to men of lowest degree for association if vertuous for reclaimer as our Saviour did if vicious You may think at first sight that this is a strictness not to be endur'd a penance too great to be suffer'd but look upon it with the Eye of Reason and you will find it the pleasure and happiness of Life for it cuts off the necessity of Toyle and anxiety The temperate have less to provide and are better arm'd against Losses and the Casualties of Time less liable to expensive Sickness less obnoxious to Envy and may more easily recover a contentful being in a common calamity I had rather leave thee and it is better thou shouldest leave thy Children with patient and prudent minds and remperate desires than great estates for much is too little to satisfie inordinate appetites and when Riches are lost which have Wings and will fly away a Temperate Spirit once gained by the sound exercise of Reason will ever remain and stand thee in great stead whatever befalls thee Besides the Lives and Precepts of the best men guide thy self in this by thy own Reason and just regard to thy own health What ever crosses either of these decline with care and be true to thy self in the observation thereof Plain wholsome and simple feeding prefer before dainties and variety convenient and cleanly living with few and well qualified Servants before State and a great retinue A competency before a vast estate Mediocria firma was the beloved Motto of a wise Man of my acquaintance Decline Honours and Offices power to oppress and do injuries In a word enjoy thy self and a Friend which thou canst never do if thou lanchest out in the wayes of excess and luxury For those who do so are never at home never themselves but are still harass'd and hurried from their natural tempers ever in a vain quest of that content that is to them unattainable which whilst they are fruitlesly pursuing thou mayest in the paths of Temperance easily and constantly enjoy Many men regard not what they have but proposing the acquisition of an estate to such an extent as they in their minds fancy neglect the present and for the compassing of it embroile themselves in multiplicity of business and anxious cares during which time nothing tasts with them but their profit Nay if they chance to retire to some Countrey solitude for a small space being perswaded to it as necessary to alleviate their minds they carry their cares with them which so wholly possess them that all the relish and delights of innocent diversions Philosophical or Religious discourses are taken away and wholly swallowed up in the gulph of their designs They reckon to live when their ends are obtained But Crede mihi non est Sapientis dicere vivam Martial Ep. 16. l. 1. Sera nimis vita est crastina vive hodie 'T is not a wise mans part Julius to say I live to morrow Better live to day The Argument's plain the present is hardly certain the future altogether uncertain To say you will live that is enjoy your self hereafter is therefore meer folly Yea the ground of your resolution is as vain for you may better enjoy your self with a moderate estate than when you are encombred with the many cares that unavoidably attend a great For content and peace of mind is a matter founded within us not depending upon excess and great superfluity but is the blessed fruit of sound understanding and the right observation of the principles of uncorrupted nature and pure Religion The Temperate man is ever in the best capacity to give and take Councel they have made the best use of their time and gained the truest Aphorisms from their experiences they have been least biassed by corrupt interest and kept nearest to the implanted light of nature and additional or communicated by Grace in the personal appearance of the Son of God The corrupt customs of the world have not so much prevailed upon them or blinded the eyes of their understandings by the false artificial colours luxury has brought in and perverseness still maintains This enables them to advise best and well to discern the sincerity and goodness of what others advise them A thousand benefits thou wilt find from this lovely Mistriss which I cannot on a sudden enumerate but which thou wilt daily find verified to thee if thou addict thy self to her pleasing Society If occasion brings thee to great Feasts and variety then is thy time to be wary and to exercise Temperance which do with least regret to the Society but with just regard to thy own health Some degrees of excess can hardly be avoided without distast but use thy reason and do thy best Observe the most Temperate and either follow theirs or be thy self their example Concerning Diet and Apparel It is an unhappiness to be of too curious an appetite and not contented with plain and wholsome Food which that you may allowing a competent distance of time between your meals interpose not ordinarily other trivial repasts that so your stomach may be preserved vigorous and fit for a new meal Especially forbear sitting in a Coffee-house Ale-house Tavern for those intervenient drinkings which are now exceeding common beside other evils dull the appetite and take off that quickness of stomach and hunger which makes feeding pleasant Be not curious in dressing or sawces so your victuals be cleanly and wholesome every thing is best in its natural tast especially when Hunger is the Sawce Feed Temperately leaving with some appetite Decently not in too great morsels and in no unseemly posture Not greedily or
in what may be brought into use and is of some commodity or at least innocently pleasurable which I would have to be the rule of your Choice in selecting only such parts of those Sciences as may serve you in some of your occasions or create an inoffensive pleasure to your self and Family of this kind is Musick of the other Arithmetick which well to understand qualifies a man and becomes serviceable to him in almost all businesses that occur in his life 3. The Third particular in which at leisure hours you may divert your self is the reading of History and gaining knowledg in the Laws of your Country You will find these of very great pleasure and use In the reading History let me advise you to these Cautions 1. To decline those which are trivial foolish and full of falsities Imprinting in the mind chimerical notions of things that never were stories of Gyants Fairies Ghosts and Goblins Walking Spirits and many such like appearances which though meerly chimerical having no being but in the minds of those who fansie them have yet an ill effect upon youthful apprehensions Creating frightful and unhealthy Dreams making them fear the dark and being alone to the great affright and debasing of their Spirits which should by truth and realites be kept vigorous and hearty 2. Contemn the Reading of Romances unless some very few which are innocent vertuous and of good design or which are purely Moral and under proper names commend the Vertues truth and Religion to the practice of mankind Such in particular is Dr. Ingelos Bentivolio Vrania a Discourse not only excellently well written for accomplishment of those good ends he designed which I now mentioned But purposely also to substitute a useful discourse written in a Romantick way in the place of what are more common than Bibles in many families and Create in young Men and Maidens false and corrupt notions of Government Love and Valour the constant and almost only subject of those Idle Pens For as to Government it usually supposes that all mankind is made for Princes it justifies their Wars raised upon private animosities or for enlarging of Dominions it makes them usually absolute unbounded by Law and through the bewitching pleasure the youthful take in reading those Books they suck insensibly those false opinions which complying with the common designs of Governours are not without much difficulty afterwards eradicated making them in the mean time easily stoop to a willing slavery Then as to valour it considers not the true ends thereof which only can render it justifiable Such are defence of our Countrey our Laws just Government common safety or particular lawlesly invaded Whereas the Idol they set up in their Romances has no regard to these things but is made to do things beyond humane belief and for ends as barbarous as his Valour is prodigious This also has no small influence upon the youthful that read them in raising their passions upon every trivial occasion and from a similitude they make of themselves with the Romantick stripling despise other people as vulgar the Herd Rabble Multitude who yet are in God Almighties esteem of equal rank with themselves many of whom also have parts and vertues more eminent than themselves the vices and debaucheries also of the rest owe themselves for the most part to the countenance and ill example of the great ones Then as to Love the very writers themselves are ignorant of what is truly such grounded upon Vertue and terminated in the sweet effects of Conjugal amities the production and education of Children and the Government of a Family which is the foundation of the Worlds continuance and for the preservation of which God implanted that noble passion in the minds of Men and Women this kind of love these Romantick vapours are ignorant of crying up in place thereof an idle phantastical useless impracticable affection not without frequent mixtures of lustful amours tending to the increase and nourishment of vain or evil concupiscence filling the mind with busy and phantastical apparitions and leaving them muddy melancholy and useless as to what is truly good and substantial That notice of Dr. Ingelo speaking of these Romances is very true and worth your observation That looked upon with a judicious eye they will appear to be full of the grossest indecorums of invention as odious representations of Divinity unnatural descriptions of human life improper and prophane allusions to Sacred things frequent and palpable contradictions sottish stories and in short all the absurdities of wild imagination Such also is the greatest part of Poetry both Ancient and Modern and therefore my Son be advised and advise your Children against not only so great loss of time as is required in reading these Fables but in avoiding the having not only your understandings misinformed by the false representations therein but your minds also vitiated by the lustful and vain insinuations thereof In reading of History 1. You are to propose the best end to your self which is not barely to enable your self for discourse but to be serviceable in your Generation by gaining knowledg of what has been good and well acted by those who have gone before you by acquainting your self also with the fallacies impostures frauds usurpations innovations and whatsoever irregularities else have been committed by any of them That so you may be able to resent and discover the abuses of those who are at present and especially to discover evil designs veil'd under fair pretences and thereby rescue the weak and ignorant from those abuses the proud and crafty would impose upon them 2. Tire not your self with multiplicity of Authors but when you desire to acquaint your self with the transactions Customs Government and manners of any Country advise with those who are knowing and learn from them who has best and most faithfully writ thereof insisting chiefly upon matter of fact and rendring impartially the grounds and secret reasons of all transactions 3. In reading Histories regard not so much the less remarkable and cursory passages thereof but only what is material to the bettering of your manners and that may be in some kind useful for the improvement of our well-being at home The description therefore of places of Palaces great Houses Churches Monasteries Cities Rivers the distances of Towns and many such like passages cast but a transient eye upon taking notice especially of what is good or evil in the Governours in the manners and behaviours of the people judging thereof by the instincts of nature and the rule of right and unperverted reason Aim chiefly at the knowledg of what has been and is now acted in your own Countrey for 't is a vain thing to be well skilled abroad and ignorant at home The end of reading the Roman or Grecian Histories or those of any other Country should be chiefly with reference to what is or ought to be done at home without which respect the knowledg of Foreign matters is a useless
life which he must also foreknow he cannot avoid for otherwise he could not foreknow them How would it sower and imbitter all his present injoyments to be acquainted before hand that shortly he must break his Leg at another time have his house burnt or lose his Wife and Children or Estate sufficient certainly is the sorrow of each day for it self How does it make the countenance of men and their Spirits to fall when upon losses or other accidents they find the feilure of their Estates and in a short time to their apprehensions an inevitable breaking certainly the anxiety before it happens is greater than after when the worst being known and the discredit digested which is but an imaginary reproach the mind by degrees is quieted Let us therefore give thanks to Almighty God who out of his abundant wisdom and loving kindness to man hath denied us what we so eagerly covet and what would tend to our so great vexation Let us with humble and thankful hearts enjoy the present and so lead our lives that our assurances of the future enjoyment of God in the mansions and society of the blessed may make us contentful in any condition here since it will be but a little time before we shall be possest of eternal beatitude hereafter Of Pride It is meet that I say something of Pride because it is a general vice the cause of much yea most of the evils in the World and not only very prejudicial to others but to our selves also The foundations of it are ignorance and presumption Ignorance I say for though men accounted knowing are very incident to it yet it alwayes arises from their folly in having a better opinion of themselves than they deserve This is evident from this undeniable truth That there is no man without numerous defects the knowledg of the best is poor low and imperfect the possessions of all uncertain matters depending much upon chance exposed to numerous casualties wholly extraneous to man and their estimation depending upon vain opinion Pride has alwayes something of Herods fault for which he was eaten up of Vermine for arrogating honour to himself which is due only to God It makes him apt to practical Atheism that is to rely upon and attribute what he obtains to his own parts and consequently to think he has no need of God But see the consequence of it in the 16 of the Proverbs the 18. Pride goes before destruction and a haughty Spirit before a fall For such contemning God are justly despised by him and then follows that of St. James c. 4. v. 6. He resisteth the proud but sheweth grace to the humble and that of St. Luke 1.51 He scattereth the Proud in the imaginations of their hearts This is true of private persons and of States both which are nearest to destruction when they appear most arrogant and secure It is common with proud men to use an hypocritical humbleness to invite thereby greater respect from others by which they tacitly confess their own unworthiness of which they are justly conscious and bewray the baseness of their own minds They who have most of worth abominate such practices decline it themselves and hate it in others All kind of honour as it should be the recompence of Vertue and true worth so should it flow freely from others who are benefited by good Actions but should never be sought by our selves yea should be avoided not out of a fallacious design of gaining otherwise thereby but from a true sense of our own imperfections and because it is but our duty to do all the good we can That saying of the Poet Contempt of Fame is the contempt of Vertue is grounded upon a false supposition that the motive to Vertue is applause whereas indeed it should arise from a sense of its own excellency and that God has commended it to human practice as that which carries in itself the blessed fruits of peace joy and the solace of the mind as the greatest means of happiness this world can afford us And hence is it that Christ disswaded his followers from accepting worldly Honours Dominion Praise and all other the esteemed darlings of corrupted men preferring to them peace of Conscience here and assurances of real felicities hereafter Consider well of this and let thy mind my Son possess the knowledg thereof lead thy life in conformity to it for thereby thou wilt avoid many evils which the proud are exposed to It s remedy is humility grounded upon a just esteem of our selves and of others In our selves we are chiefly to consider how much we want of what we should be and here we can hardly be mistaken in others to value what we see worthy in them and to consider how easily they may attain if they exceed not already what we judge good in our selves to weigh above all that we are all born for the good one of another and that there is no greater evil to human Society than for us so to love our selves as to be detrimental to others that the love of our selves is the rule and extent of our love to others that 't is Christs great Commandment That no man can truly love God whom he hath not seen if he love not his brother whom he hath seen That we should make our selves equal to men of low degree peradventure as being the best or as having most need of incouragement or to shew that men are not to be esteemed for their riches or disesteemed for their poverty but all are to be lov'd and the vertuous chiefly to be respected Man will soon cease to be proud if he well considers that he has nothing to be proud of not of Wealth or what is purchased by it for 't is no part of himself 't is full of uncertainty the fool or vitious may be master of it as well as the wise and vertuous Not of Honour for if it arise not from good and worthy Actions 't is a false Coin and is therefore contemptible If it be the effect of true desert the foundation of that desert which is vertue will teach him to think meanly of it since vertue praises it self with its own contentment and is rather diminished than satisfied by reward especially since it cannot but be conscious of coming abundantly short of its duty being attended with many defects which are too well known to the possessor Not of Learning and great Parts since both of them are but acquisitions to promote common good and no further valuable but as they do so which carry with them when in the best manner exercised solace and contentment of Mind The great Apostle St. Paul which next to his and our blessed Master did the most good in the world protested that he had nothing to glory in But the Cross of Christ and that he was counted worthy to suffer for the giving testimony to that blessed Name and the profession of his Discipleship renouncing all esteem that might otherwise arise