of their good example 2. If on your default or ill example your Servants grow depraved you are to be charged with their crimes if not in Curia humana yet in Foro Conscientiae and before the Divine Tribunal This is a position that I confess may be extended further to Magistrates and Governours but that however lessens not the verity and validity of it since it is grounded upon this just Maxime That all crimes have a reflection of guilt upon those who by their Authority and power being implyed in their charge might have prevented if through supine negligence or their own incouragement they promote them The neglect or inanimadvertency of this rule takes not from it its essential verity and therefore think not that since you might by your good management of your self have made your Servants good you can become guiltless if in default of your care they become otherwise 3. A Man by his vitious life loses the respects of his Servants the truth and reality of their Service and grows into their contempt For indeed nothing renders a man cheaper and lower in esteem than vice Honour is the reward of Vertue and though a Vitious man may think to have it by the prerogative of his Mastership yet he but deceives himself he may have lip or knee-service but little of the heart they may be obliged by interest but never by affection which is the productrix of the truest service I know the Apostle advises Servants contrary to this That they should discharge their duty well even to the froward and perperse But where will Servants so qualified be found or if they have attained that Christian and honest disposition how long will they stay under the roof of those the sight of whose evil lives are a vexation and grievance to their Spirits If therefore a man expects to be well served Let him shew a just regard to those that serve him Let it appear to them that he intends their good by paying duly their wages affording them reasonable conveniencies forbearing froward and passionate carriage to them giving them prudent instructions such as tend to the improvement of their knowledg and bettering their lives and lastly let him not spoil all by exposing to them the daily sight of his own vitious habits invalidating thereby all that he otherwise sayes to them and rendring him cheap and of low estimation among them The almost universal complaint of the scarcity of good Servants their negligence indisposition to business their Pride Frauds Purloynings and other debaucheries will upon a fair scrutiny be found to be the product and imitation of the same vices in Masters and Mistresses and therefore the redress and reformation must begin above and from thence derive its influence to those who are subordinate and but imperfectly transcribe their Copy Of Boldness or Confidence I will speak to thee now of several occasional matters and first of Boldness or Confidence It is counted a fault in education to see Children bashful 'T is what Parents count their Childrens shame and their own My opinion of it is quite otherwise when it does not proceed from debauchery or universal ignorance I judg it a mans great honour to take upon him no more than his skill fully reaches to sometimes fairly to profess his ignorance and where he knows to express it civilly and modestly Nothing gives a greater value to his knowledg What though the greatest part of mankind are shallow in judgment and weak in Courage and consequently apt to be wrought upon by the confident 't is a poor despicable victory and of short continuance As appears by the little and fading repute of Mountebanks in Physick State matters or whatsoever profession Acquire my Son real worth from thy Vertue and Honest life acquire it also in thy profession and let thy actions of desert gain thy esteem and not thy vauntings or confident extollings of thy self The Bashful are every where thought to have more than they shew the Boaster suspected ever to have less However use neither one nor other for advantage but depend upon Gods blessing in the constant practice of honest dealing and acquisition of solid skill The Bold appear best at first incounter but gradually lessen till they vanish to nothing Nor is any thing more contemptible than ignorant confidence discovered in its failings Whilst the esteem of Persons of real worth daily increases and indears it self Of Ceremonious behaviour Concerning Ceremonious behaviour the less of it the better it implies a defect of real worth and where it is studied and affected is very despicable it has to the real prejudice of mankind justled honest and plain dealing out of practice and esteem In lieu of it my Son I would have thee use a natural and free civility giving every man his just due and respects especially where desert claims it though in mean condition They who are Ceremonious aim therein at their own fame or advantage whereas decent civility is a debt due to others and terminated in them What can be more unworthy and derogatory from manhood than to express an outward respect and fawning where there is no reality in the heart yea and many times a dislike and abhorrency of the person we seem to honour Guide thy self in this particular by the rules of Honesty and Justice Let thy conversation be plain and courteous shewing alwayes a dislike of the Vitious and undeserving plainly but candidly where it may be done with safety to thy self to reclaim as much as thou canst but not to irritate and that for the common love to mankind and to Vertue They who are most ceremonious do commonly little regard more worthy matters they are either superstitious and ignorant or crafty and designing and therefore 't is a practice most used by Statesmen and Courtiers who aim at advantages by it and who though they are great explorators of other mens hearts keep their own skreened with the outside of Ceremony and art of obliging Good men are of another mould they do not hide their hearts in the formality of their carriage and expressions but intend to be known by them Reservation being for the most part an argument of ill intentions and secret frauds than which nothing has more debased and unmanned us and will in time make us as it has done some other Nations a Proverb to express falshood by I would not have thee therefore my Son to study and affect any particular carriage but to let it naturally flow from the integrity of an honest heart and a will to do no man any wrong and thy self only just right Let thy behaviour therefore be free and unaffected manly agreeable to the Laws of thy Country hearty and consonant to the just regard thou bearest to the good and well being of mankind Leave the other to men of outside apes parasites falsehearted Courtiers to the deceitful superficial ignorant and impostors Of Deformity They who are deformed are rather to be pitied and gently
will follow that men must believe as the Magistrate or Synod believes which is but the same thing with that of the Papist That we must believe as the Church believes 2. The opinions of Magistrates and Synods have differed even to contrariety and consequently men must in different times and ages be forc't to believe and conform to different and contrary Tenets for if that opinion be true at one time it must be so also at another 3. It condemns all dissenting Protestants from the Church of Rome 4. It takes away from man the free use of his reason for either he must so use it as to believe and conform to what is established or he must not use it at all 5. There has yet been shewn no convincing reasons of it from Scripture and it may well be presumed that it cannot be evidenced because then it would conclude a necessity of obedience to whatsoever power and persons are uppermost be their opinions of never so great contrariety to the Sacred Word These reasons I have set down to shew you that my opinion in this particular is not taken up without due consideration As to the second a supposition that mankind has entrusted a part of themselves to form Articles and Doctrines of Religion with a tacite acknowledgment That they ought to believe them and conform unto them That such a grant was ever made can never be proved and upon grounds of reason be allowed The contrary thereunto may thus I think be evinc'd 1. Because it is against the very nature of belief which ought to be a voluntary act proceeding from conviction of the mind and an assent freely and unconstrainedly flowing from a due consideration and examination of the matter to be believed Since therefore every man is to examine and consider it follows that assent must attend and be the off-spring of his own consideration 'T is an intrinsick action and every mans own others may shew reason and express the grounds of their conviction but my belief and assent must follow my own conviction 2. Man cannot convey a trust to another of that which in its own nature is not to be committed to anothers trust Every mans belief is such a matter not capable of being transferred to another Nay there is no man Master of his own belief for it is not an object of his will but of his understanding Men do not believe because they will believe but they do so or so believe because they are so or so convinc'd They cannot choose but believe as they do until further conviction appear If therefore my belief is not in my own power how can I intrust it to the management of another 3. Our Saviour though he had all wisdom and knowledge though he was the Fountain of Truth and that nothing could flow from him but what was truth it self And also his followers though they were enlightned by the Spirit of God which led them into all Truth yet they dealt with mankind as men and expected no conformity but upon conviction of the mind They used no force or violence no threats or punishments and where they exprest themselves bitter against gainsayers or opposers it was for their Hypocrisie and other notorious crimes for opposing where there was conviction of which they were capable Judges our Saviour as being Cardiognostes a knower of the heart And his Apostles as being endowed with a Spirit of discerning which are qualifications now wanting If then our blessed Master and his Disciples so qualified used no force upon mankind but dealt with them as creatures of understanding and expected obedience and conformity to their blessed Doctrines and rules of life from the excellency of their Tenets and profitableness even to mankind who was to obey and that only upon an uninforced conviction of his understanding How can any others without extream presumption arrogate such a power over their brethren where apparent fallibility appears and where there is no ground to presume there ever was or indeed could be such a trust But let us return to consider further the Hellish Tenet of punishing Hereticks We will suppose that Heresies are false opinions in the opinion of the prosecutor though those which are often so called are allowed to be true Does it not argue a great distrust of their ability or of the verity of those mens opinions who would force a belief by punishment Is this the way to convince the Heretick or others who shall observe that instead of the weapons of Spiritual warfare or the irresistable force of sound reason Imprisonment seisure of Goods Fire and Faggot are used For whose sake is this done For the sake of the Heretick him you recover â—ot but destroy If in History some few be found that have recanted for fear for the most part either an irrecoverable Melancholy has succeeded or they have become as a due punishment for their Apostasy seven times more the Children of wrath than even their persecutors Those who persist to Death you convince not they dye as Martyrs glorying in suffering for the truth and being found worthy thereof What remains after but infamy upon the Persecutors and a worthy memory of them who suffer This is as to what follows in this World but for the next read in the Epistle to the Thessalonians Ep. 2. c. 1. and mark it well my Son for there you will find sufficient to preserve you from being in the number of Persecutors See this point more fully argued in Curcellius 's institutions l. 7. c. 37. de haereticorum poenis I have been something longer my Son upon this point though abundantly more may be spoken to it because I would have it take deep impression in thy mind that it may frame in thee such a temper of Spirit as to be willing and ready to do all the good thou canst to all but hurt to none Of the Minds Victory over the Passions As one of the principal and most considerable means of being just let me perswade thee to endeavour the gaining a mastery over thy desires that thou be able to check and suppress them when they are most impetuous as a skilful rider can give stop to a well managed Horse in the midst of his speed He that can moderate his desires withdraws the fuel of injustice Content thy self therefore with mean and competent enjoyments to what ever degree of plenty thou arrivest and herein thou wilt find most solid happiness Be assured that plenty was not left thee by me and allowed thee by God the sole Author of all good things to satiate thy desires esteem the right ends thereof to be the furnishing thee for thy convenient occasions the taking off the anxieties of thy mind and the enabling thee to do good to others in acts of well-guided Charity If the pains I have taken to acquire a good foundation for thy industry which is the great end and encouragement of Parents labour if it should be by thee imprudently converted to
when temptation and opportunity incline thee to a relapse for then is the hour of battle and shews of valour are but vain boasts if they are not active in the instant of danger Compliance with old acquaintance yielding to the present instigations of passion And insensible forgetfulness of thy promises to God and thy Conscience these are the Rocks against which this Vertue is in danger to be Shipwrackt Remember God is thy best Friend and therefore not be displeased dependency upon him is certain and never failing upon others doubtful and not to be relied on abide the inconsiderable blame of thy slight Companions rather than the piercing objurgations of thy own Conscience Think of the delight thou wilt take when thou art master of thy desires and hast subdued thy vitious inclinations What peace what contentment at home and above all consider that one victory will make thee hardy and more confident to undertake the rest of thy enemies if any remain to shake the resolutions off thy mind 'T is the greatest imprudence and cowardise to go back from thy good Resolves 't is better thou hadst never promised self conviction will attend thee Thou carriest thy Jury within thee whose evidence being apparent what canst thou expect but judgment and if thy own Conscience condemn what can acquit thee Of Secrecy and Reservation Open not thy breast too suddenly to thy new made Friend it is sufficient that thou art faithful to him Thou knowest not how times may alter and interest may then make him thy Enemy This is the great reason why wise men advise to have but few Friends I mean intimate ones In the worlds infancy and innocency there was no need of any reserves every mans breast was and might safely be open to all till propriety and the various self concerns of men made us all draw several wayes and every man labour to fill his own Barn Brotherly love natural and common affection being now scarce known or not esteemed amongst us puts man upon the the necessity of standing upon his guard communicating no more to another than is consistent with his own security This do with caution but not with moroseness and too visible a distrust with a sincere resolution never to injure any and as near as thou canst to avoid being injured I would not however have this Counsel prompt thee to play the Hypocrite You know there is much difference between not speaking and speaking what the heart assents not to If thou dislikest the actions of others as it would be unworthy in thee to sooth and flatter them so is it dangerous to thy self to discover thy just resentments until thou hast a fair and hopeful opportunity neither should thy dislikes arise from doubtful and private sentiments and animosities but from a sense of common detriment Words unwarily spoken are past recal let them not be drawn from thee by heat of discourse thou mayest speak that suddenly and unadvisedly yea and without any design too which may prove much to thy prejudice and the disturbance of thy quiet since others must be judge thereof who peradventure bear thee no good will and whose interest it is to quell and wholly destroy what may oppose and those who do at present distaste their actions There was a time sayes Cornwallis when all were good and then praise was superfluous they had motions and instigations more excellent Now men are so ill that they deserve thanks who are good and vice hath perswaded that to call naught naught is uncivil and dangerous Let not an opinion of thy own ability prompt thee to speak what is inconvenient but let thy knowledg be seasoned with prudence Few suffer by moderation by rashness too too many Be not reckoned in the number of the talkative for they who are such are least regarded when they speak and least retentive when secrecy is required Let thy understanding alwayes go before thy tongue and thy Conscience with thy understanding 'T is a sign of great weakness to covet being heard or to be almost sick until thou hast vented thy mind as if praise were due to talking speak what just occasion and the subject invites thee to and not too forwardly that but rather at the desire and importunity of others 'T is a great advantage to speak slowly which therefore the ancient have before the youthful and is commonly a fruit of wisdom and experience 'T is a difficult matter to an honest mind when it meets with a base servile Spirit crafty in designing mischief selling his Soul and Conscience for gain and preferment slighting all ties of Religion and the Laws regardless of the good of mankind and instrumental in the introduction of all his evils it is almost an impossible thing for a free and sincere heart to contain himself when occasion is offered and provocation given I do not therefore advise thou shouldest at all such times be silent but that rather thou shouldest both speak and do when a fair opportunity shews it self but poorly and out of passion to throw away thy own life and put thy self into the Trap his baseness set for thee is an effect of indiscretion and untimely courage than which nothing can more gratifie the ends and designs of those who lay the snare and would make thy own Mettle thy destruction Be advised and diliberate in things of this nature since it is not only the concernment of thee and thine but of thy Country also Though I would have thy mind so well established as to be a Law to thy self preserving thee from the violation of all other Laws yet I would have thee give them all a true and just esteem 1. The Law of the Creation which is the Law of God and usually called the Law of Nature Offer no violence as near as thou canst to any part thereof 2. The Laws of Christ conform thy life as near as thou canst thereunto 3. The Laws of thy Country made for conservation of the just rights of the Inhabitants thereof and to secure the peacable and innocent from the crafts and injuries of great and wicked Men In defence of this Law as a Servant to thy Country joyned in a common Bond with the rest of thy Country-men thou art ever to be ready in a Legal and regular way when wicked men shall labour in the subversion thereof Thou wilt find it however necessary amongst those Laws to distinguish between what are radical and Fundamental and those which are since made especially if in opposition and to the subversion of the former Our fore-fathers were more sincere regardful of common good not broken into factions and parties but guided by a just indifferency towards all and therefore made such Laws as they conceived would be perpetually good notwithstanding all emergencies the variations of times circumstances and occasions whatsoever Thou must therefore esteem them as the touchstone of what ever shall succeed them or be made pro hic nunc in doing whereof thou
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
treacherey Instead of affectionate and hearty care meet with self-interest and respect which upon occasion and temptation breaks out into disdain reproach private robbery and too frequently into secret Murder For those who have sold their honesty for gain will not stick for the same traffick to venture all And therefore how miserable are those deluded people who part with so much of real and solid happiness to purchase misery and the extreamest hazzardsmen in this world can run Bless God therefore my Son that you are cautioned beforehand and be wise by Counsel rather than by sufferance Of Expences Of Expence I now purpose to advise thee being a matter of no small influence upon thy happiness or misery The world you know is full of people a small part whereof by fine arts or as the fruits of Paternal frugality industry and lucky opportunities have gotten into their hands the fat and plenty of the Land so that the poorer sort live upon the sweat of their brows in their daily labour The middle sort of which number I suppose you may be though they are not so anxiously put to it living more upon the ability and artifice of the brain than the toil of the body yet without care and good husbandry these find it a difficult matter to acquire preserve or increase an estate and consequently to provide well for present occasions devouring casualties and laying up a competency for posterity It is expedient therefore thou should'st so manage and moderate thy expences as neither to deny thy self or thy needful conveniences with due refreshments to sweeten your lives nor yet to bring upon your self a yearly diminution and in time a certain decay of estate the consequence whereof will be either to render thy life Melancholy and disconsolate or to weaken thy honesty by the assault of pressing temptations which though it should stand unshaken against all storms yet it is better human frailty considered not to bring it to the conflict where pressing necessity takes part against it Let me advise thee therefore against the common vanity of Men not to place thy happiness in too much finery or in the imitation of others above thy quality Remember that true reputation is not grounded upon things without but in Honesty and Wisdom What sober men are there who do not prefer a well governed and prudent man in plain habit and that provides answerably for his Family without base pinching and penurious saving before a flaunting prodigal who Comet-like makes a present blaze and draws the eyes of wondring people to him but in a short time vanishes into air and his memory with him Let not as the custom is thy expence rise with thy gains at least but to a moderate proportion for if what thou hast already got be uncertain how much more is the continuation of thy gettings where there are 1000 ways to beget a discontinuance 'T will be a trouble to the mind to be forc't to lower expence when your own vanity is the occasion of it for what is the effect of common casualty and calamity to which all mankind is liable should not bring down a mans esteem in the opinion of others and that straitness which is occasioned by it we should chearfully bear and ought indeed not only to pity but readily to assist in others for 't is certainly in this sense in what ever other that man is said not to be born for himself 'T is needless to give rules for the just proportion of your expence some have done it to the one half of your income others to a third as my Lord Burleigh and Lord Verulam making thereby provision for casualties and for posterity 'T is well where it may so be done but that is only for great estates In the main be careful that at the years end all charges defray'd you are growing and find a competent and pleasing increase so that year goes chearfully round But if you get much and raise your expences answerably at New years day you are but where you were the year before and all your toil and labour amounts not to so much as less gains with honest thrift and rational parsimony would have advanced and then every casualty will be a plummet upon your Spirit and when Portions are called for and you have not wherewithal your Children with your self grow Melancholy and peradventure vitious which is the case of most of the gentry of England and of very many improvident Citizens 'T is a good caution of my Lord Bacons that if you shew upon some great occasion some extravagance in expence it should be in such cases as do very rarely perhaps once in an age happen not in such as may grow into a custom and be a constant charge upon you Neither would I advise you to such a lanching out if you can prudently avoid it which in your middle estate may certainly be done for many are the inconveniences of such high expence and especially because it raises an opinion in your Neighbours that you are wealthier than you are which is of ill consequence and it heightnens the minds of your Children who with all prudential cautions should be bred up to a love of decent thrift and industry whose warm youthfulness will be ever apt to fly out especially if their heat be blown up by your improvident example Consider not expence by retail but in gross or but in passant only so far as to keep it within the bounds thou allowest in the main for the year for what matters it how thy wood thy coals and other wasting materials consume if the waste exceeds not the proportion thou allowest or canst be well content to bear This was alwayes my practice the other I esteemed too troublesome and pedantick of no use unless to trouble the mind and engage it in a vexatious trifle 'T is expedient however to be so far circumspect as to prevent waste and fraud to which Servants being concerned to avoid them by the ties only of Conscience or reputation now little valued are too inclinable This is however to be done in such a manner as may effectually prevent them and not shew too low a suspition which when there is just ground to have remove it speedily by discharging the person suspected otherwise thy mind will never be at rest which fairly do upon some other occasion unless the matter be very apparent and then 't is goood to be plain and express and take some pains with the offender by discourse and good Counsel as well to reform the guilty as to preserve other persons from the like sufferance When thou art married commit the care of those matters and the oversight of particular expence to thy wife for whom it is a meet imployment and diversion who will be ready to advise with thee upon all emergences extraordinary Of Tobacco Now I come to the consideration of that which from custom and the reputation of many of those who are eminent for sobriety and
ripe fruits are horary of short duration whilst others keep round the year 4. If they escape the quicksands of intemperance and follow their Studies hard they commonly prove subtle full of contrivance and exceeding arrogant From such as these commonly the World is chiefly disturbed their great abilities prompting them to great undertakings and when true wisdom and real goodness is wanting they become fit instruments to promote the worst designs You will therefore find in common experience that the best men and the best Magistrates and Governours are those of middle capacities men that understand things well of steddy motion and well grounded perswasion that love to keep the tract of the Law of the antiently established Government that are not capritious that is alwayes in motion changing from one thing to another That love the mild and moderate course and hate cruelty and innovations Whereas the quickwitted and deeply designing men think they hold the Helm of the world in their own hands and can turn it as they please that attempt things out of the course and order of the Law in confidence that they can bear them thorow and out wit their opposers This makes them soon lose their integrity and tie of Conscience which being lost they become mischievous to the World and in conclusion to themselves Hence it is that the main end of this writing is to furnish your mind with solid prudence and steddy honesty that if through industry you acquire substantial knowledge you never imploy it for other ends my Sons but what are consistent with Vertue and your Christian profession and then the more knowledg you have and the more useful Science you are Master of the greater will be your content the more permanent your felicity and the higher esteem you will obtain from the best and wisest men and the blessing of God will alwayes attend you Of the Love that ought to be between Brothers and their Sisters I will close my Advices to you with injoyning you most intirely to love your Brothers and Sisters And notice is to be taken that the Counsel I give to one is to be taken by all When the Poets would describe the worst Age Which they called the Iron Age amongst other the evils which were eminent therein they say Fratrum quoque Gratia rara est There was seldom found any kindness even between Brothers intimating that where so great a tie as Brotherhood could not oblige to a mutual affection it was manifest that the age was in the highest degree depraved 'T is true indeed that man ought to bear an universal respect and kindness towards all for that is natural and a resemblance of the love of God to all minkind But since the world hath been depraved through interest our kindness is what it ought not to be lessened and contracted to a few and there is no hopes to reduce the World to its Original simplicity and common affection However I do advise you my Children to continue that natural affection towards all but especially and in a more eminent manner to maintain it towards your own Relations The Reasons whereunto are 1. Because it is a thing in it self good and laudable it preserves a good Fame and esteem amongst men for it is in this sense that the contempt of Fame is said to be the contempt of Vertue Otherwise to despise Fame when it arises not from good and Vertuous Actions is no crime for it is but despising vain glory Every one will speak well of you all when they observe you to be united not only in blood but in Brotherly Affection 'T is true indeed the Command is universal in which every man is accounted a Neighbour and a Brother for we are all Originally the off-spring of one Man nor do I give you the particular Advice to exclude or lessen the Universal Mandate But considering how the World is depraved what difficulties are introduced even where plenty is to acquire a competent livelihood and that interest draws all men to provide for and take care of their own you will be exceeding blame-worthy to be deficient in that particular 2. If you are to love your Neighbour as your self you are upon a greater tie to love your Brother so inasmuch as you are all the immediate Off-spring of one Father and Mother This Love is several wayes to be manifested as in the care of one anothers health in assisting one another in Counsel upon losses and all difficulties that may occur in your lives For if some of you should prosper and others not the prosperous ought to be helpful to those who are in distress This I would have you cordially and voluntarily do For all kindnesses that come freely are much to be preferred before what are procured by importunity To this you are to be perswaded not only from duty but from interest For if you maintain true friendship and brotherly affection one towards another you will each of you be stronger by Union Which Bond who ever of you breaks through discord and perverseness of Spirit breaks the Law of Christ which commands Brotherly Love neglects the Mandates of a Loving Father and Mother and exposes himself singly to a thousand difficulties which Union would prevent or mitigate Be advised therefore my dear Children and yield obedience frankly and readily to this injunction of your Parents which out of tenderness and great regard to your welfare we leave as an indispensable command upon you But if it shall so happen that any of you should prove rioâ—ous and bring themselves by an evil and debauched life to want and misery though I would have the rest assistant in Councel and indeavour by all amicable and prudent wayes to reclaim and recover them that have so brought evil upon themselves yet do I not think it reasonable that the vices of some of you should bring misery and necessity upon all the rest Rather let them who against all the saving counsel that is given them neglecting the Laws of God and the injunction of Parents bring ruine upon themselves and dishonour to their Family bear the burthen of their own Crimes and smart for their own follies until such time as it appears by a real repentance that they are sensible of the evil of their ways In which case compassion is to be shewn and assistance is to be given freely gladly and without upbraiding For such is the method of Gods goodness who hath declared that there is more joy in Heaven for the recovery of one Sheep which was lost than for the ninety nine which never went astray Take him therefore into your bosom associate with him and joyntly assist him with part of your substance with sound and prudent advice preserve him from Relapse sweetly and affectionately perswade him let him see the difference between good and evil in their own natures and in their effects and consequences Render your Societies very pleasing to him that he may prefer it before that of his