fortune leans entirely upon it 18. Nevertheless though a high c. I answer again If he can insinuate the scope of the war to be zealous legal a little daubing will serve to legalize the circumstances that of the Civilians must be remembred Licere in bello quae ad finem sunt necessaria nothing is unlawful in war that serves the end and design of it the Oracles of the gown are too tender for the sword men and it may be he had wit in his anger who affirmed that martial law was as great a solecism as martial peace If the people be once possest that his aims and ends are fair will never expect that the media for attainment of his end should be retrenched by the strict boundaries of law he manages that rule very practically I may invade any thing of any mans that threatens certain danger to me if I suffer him to enjoy it Now he can very plausibly make this certain danger or incertain as shall best suit with his affaires it is a broad liberty that Culpeper concedes If I have no other way to assure my life I may by any means repel any power that assaults it though just self-defence being a clear dictate of nature when life and liberty and safety come in question there ought no consideration to be had of just or unjust pitiful or cruel honourable or dishonourable Now when the people have according to his desire got over the great obstacle and digested the plot for pious it is easy to set all future proceedings upon the score of liberty safety religion and if he be constrained to use means grosly unlawful t is but to make them seem holy in the application and all 's well for it is the humour and Genius of the vulgar when they have once rushed into a party implicitely to prosecute it as desperately as if they were under demonstrative convictons of its justice He doth make a vertue of necessity because there is no other verttue will so easily be induced to serve his proceedings as this she may well smile upon licentiousness who hath her self no law 19. Keep then your conscience tender c. I answer It is either science or opinion which you mean by the word conscience for men say that such and such a thing is true in and upon their conscience which they never do when they think it doubtful and therefore they know or think they know it to be true but men when they say things upon their conscience are not therefore presumed certainly to know the truth of what they say it remaineth then that the word is used by them that have an opinion not onely of the truth of the thing but also of their knowledge of it to which the truth of the proposition is consequent conscience I therefore say is the opinion of evidence and the Devil never troubles the conscience except he find the man either void of knowledge or of the fear of God 20. Fly that self-murdering Tyrant c. I answer most Heresies have proceeded from mingling Philosophy with Religion from that and obstinacy of Policy have all the Papists errours risen when Christ tels them that flesh and bloud cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven 21. All Religions but ours c. I answer Variety in any thing distracteth the mind and leaves it waving in a dubious trouble and then how easie it is to sway the mind to either side but among all the diversities that we meet with none trouble us more then those that are of Religion t is rare to find two kingdoms one as if every nation had if not a God yet at least a way to God by it self this stumbles the unsetled soul that not knowing which way to take without the danger oferring sticks to none so dies ere he does that for which he was made to live the service of the true Almighty we are born as men set down in the midst of a wood circled round with several voyces calling us at first we see not which will lead us the way out so divided in our selves we sit still and follow none remaining blind in a flat Atheism which strikes deep at the foundation both of our own and the whole worlds happiness T is true if we let our dimmed understanding search in these varieties which yet is the onely means that we have in our selves to do it with we shall certainly lose our selves in their windings there being in every of them something to believe above that reason that leads us to the search Reason gives us the Anatomy of things and illustrates with a great deal of plainness all the wayes that she goes but her line is too short to reach the depth of Religion Religion carries a confutation a long with it with an high hand of Soveraignty awes the inquisitive tongue of nature and when she would sometimes murmure privately she will not let her speak Reason like a milde Prince is content to shew his subjects the causes of his commands and rule Religion with a higher strain of Majesty bids do it without inquiring further then the bare Command which without doubt is a means of procuring mighty reverence what we know not we reverently admire what do know is in a sort subject to the triumphs of the soul that hath discovered it And this not knowing makes us not able to judge every one tels us his own is the truest there is none I think but hath been seal'd with the bloud of some nor can I see how we may more then probably prove any they being all set in such heights as they are not subject to the demonstrations of Reason and as we may easier say what a soul is not then what it is so we may more easily disprove a Religion for false then prove it for one that is true there being in the world far more errors then truth yet is there besides another misery near as great as this and that is that we cannot be our own chusers but must take it upon trust from others Are we not oft before we can discern the true brought up and grounded in the false sucking in heresie with our milk in childhood nay when we come to years of abler judgement wherein the mind is grown up complete man we examine not the soundness but retain it meerly because our fathers taught it what a lamentable weakness is this in man that he should build his eternal welfare on the approbation of perhaps a weak and ignorant parent why do you neglect that wherein should be your greatest care 22. As it it manifest that most Princes c. I answer There are few which first fit that precept of trying all things and taking the best Assuredly though faith be above reason yet there is a reason to be given for faith he is a fool that believes he knows neither what nor why among all the diversities of Religions that the world holds I think it may stand
ADVICE to a DAUGHTER In opposition to the ADVICE to a SONNE OR Directions for your better Conduct through the various and most important Encounters of this life Under these generall Heads I. STUDIES c. II. LOVE and MARRIAGE III. TRAVELL IIII. GOVERNMENT V. RELIGION Conclusion By Eugenius Theodidactus LONDON Printed by J. Moxon for Francis Cossinet at the Golden Anchor in Tower Street at Mincheon lane end 1658. To the Excellently accomplished Gentleman Mr. CHARLES BRVTON Cittizen and Marchant Adventurer of London c. Much Honoured SIR I Here trouble you with a short discourse It is no Laboured peece and indeed no fit Present But I beg your acceptance The first time I ever saw the Advice to a Son was the last day of Hillary Term I read it and found it full of bitterness against Women And indeed they were shamefully Wronged and Abused I shuff'd up this Answer in sixteen dayes for your spare hours in which you may maâ—â— your self Merryâ— fur it was born this last Vâ—cation when I did not so much Labour as Play I found him a Nameless over-worn Wittal that five times before I espied him had adulterated the Press and abused Ladies and Gentlewomen And no Man durst answer him for so he reported I will see what and who this diseased Maccabee is This as yet unconquered enemy of Women and defie him and prove his discourse and hard censure of Ladies and Gentlewomen like the blasts of Rams horns before the walls of Jericho that throwes down the Reputation of Ladies at one utterance I know you are Great but yet there is a better title you are Good I might have fixed this peece to a Pinacle made the Dedication High But to what purpose Greatness is a thing I cannot admire in others because I desire it not in my self It is a proud folly a Ceremonious Fancy There is nothing necessary in it for most men live without it And I may not apply to that which my Reason declines aswell as my Fortune The truth is I know no use of Hooghen Mooghens and Tituladoes if they are in a humour to give I am no Begger to receive I look not for any thing Sir but what the Learned are inriched withall Judgement and Candor you are a true friend to both and to my third self And for my present boldness you may thank your self you taught me this familiarity and you may see what unprofitable affections you have purchased I propose nothing for your instruction Nature hath done her part and I would make you my Judge not my Pupill if therefore amongst your serious and more dear Retirements you can allow this trifle but some few minutes and think them not lost you will perfect my ambition you will place me Sir at my full height and though it were like that of Statius amongst Gods and Stars I shall quickly find the Earth again and with the least opportunity present my self SIR Your most humble Servant Eugenius Theodidactus March 26. 1658. To the Book and Reader ANd now my Book let it not stop thy flight That thy just Author is not Lord or Knight I can define my self and have the Art Still to present one face and still one heart But for nine years some great Ones cannot see What they have been nor know they what to bee What though I have no Rattle to my name Do'st hold a Simple Honesty no Fame Or art thou such a stranger to the Time Thou canst not know my Fortune from my Crime Go forth and fear not some will gladly bee Thy Learned friends whom I did never see Nor shouldst thou fear thy welcome thy small Price Cannot undo 'em though they pay Excise Thy Bulks not great it will not much distress Their Empty Pockets but their Studies dress Th' art no Galeon as books of burthen bee Which cannot ride but in a Library Th' art a fine thing and little it may chance Ladies will buy thee for a new Romance And this perhaps may sometimes move their Laughter That thou art call'd Advice unto a Daughter Oh how I 'le envy Thee when thou art spread In the bright Sun-shine of their eyes and read With breath of Amber Lips of Rose that Lend Perfumes unto thy leaves shall never spend When from their white hands they shall let thee fall Into their Bosome which I may not call Ought of Misfortune thou dost drop to rest In a more pleasing place and art more blest There in some silken soft fold thou shalt lye Hid like their Love or thy own Allegorie Nor shouldst thou grieve thy Language is not fine For sixteen dayes hath made this Book of mine I could have voyâ—'d thee forth in such a Dress The Spring had been a slut to thy express Such as might file the rude unpolish'd Age And fix the Readers Soul to every Page But I have us'd a course and homely strain Because it suits with Truth which should be plain Last my dear Book if Readers Look on thee As on three Suns or some great Prodigie And swear to a full point I do deride All other Sects to publish my own pride Tell such they lye And since they love not thee Bid them go Learn some High-shoe Heresie Nature is not so simple but she can Procure a sollid Reverence from Man Nor is my Pen so lightly plum'd that I Should serve Ambition with her Majesty T is Womens Vertue I do tell abroad For Women-Angels are sent us from the Lord This Truth makes mee Come forth and having writ This her short Scaence I would not stifle it For I have call'd it Childe and I had rather See 't torn by them then strangled by the Father E. I. To his Daughter Daughter I Have forborn to set your name on the fore head of these Aphorisms not that I am ashamed either of them or you but because your Enemy and his Son have done so before me And such old men as these I accept against as a generation of decrepit and withered understandings People whose Minds could they be looked into would prove infinitely more monstrous then their Bodies and such as like Monkies having either gnawed away or lost their tayles read Lectures and Advices to young ones to cut theirs too First we give to all the Vertues the habits and visages of Women and of all the Vertues Truth is the best for Truth is the mother of Justice and Justice they say comprehends them all Yet she is naked though she love the publike and hate Corners And is it not very fit that all the Sex should imitate such an excellent Pattern and Mistress In this light humour I am in I think we can do no greater right to Women then to bring them to be Judged by one rule And since every Woman Judges her self the fairest shee that would be backward to this Arbitriment would be diffident of her self and consequently a Rennegade from her Sex Next take care of the subtle devices of Men and
five general Heads I will cut off and you will think him the Triple-headed Porter of Hell Ladies Fear him not I am your Champion Little David will fight Goliah I scorne to kill him I 'le only box him kick and cudgel him for his boldness and let him know He is the better man who hath besiedged and taken a Town not plotted to rob an Orchard and for all his subtleties was VVhipt But I must read first and write afterwards Here comes the Pedee of a Romancer with his Advice to a Son 'T is the Indorsement to the Packet like a fine knot to a fine bundle Come Let 's open in the name of good sence Oh! How it smells like a diseased peece of an Apocripha taken out of Guzman's rags or burnt bones VVhat saies this Father to his Son 1. Though I can never pay enough to your Grandfathers Memory for his tender Care in my Education yet I must observe in it this mistake that by keeping me at Home where I was one of my young Masters I lost the advantage of my most docile time For not undergoing the same Discipline I must needs come short of their Experience that are bred up in Free Schools who by plotting to rob an Orchard c. 1. Here he complains of the losse of those times which I could wish I had not known Daughter I would have you as good as I could fancy one and three things I would have you know First Your own misery secondly Gods Love thirdly Your thankfull Obedience your misery How just Gods Love How free How undeserved Your thankfullnesse How due How necessary Consideration of one successively begets the apprehension of all Your condition shews you his Love His Love calls for your acknowledgement Want makes a Bounty weightier 2. As your Education hath been befriended by a foundation so you may endeavour a requital if God makes you able However let not the contrary afflict you since it is observed by some that his Name who burnt the Temple of Diana out-lasted theirs that built it c. 2. Answer Of Education I say thus much It is seen every where If you travel but from White Hall to Exeter or from a Village to an Accademy or see but a Horse well manag'd and another resty in his own fierceness Dyet no question alters much even the giddy Airyness of the French I shall rather impute to their Dyet of VVine and wild Foul then to the difference of their Clime it being so neer an adjoyner to ours And in England I beleeve our much use of Strong beer and gross Flesh is a great occasion of dregging our Spirits and corrupting them till they shorten life Age is also a changer Man hath a Zenith as well in VVit as in ability of Body He grows from sence to Reason and then again declines to Dotage and to imbecillity Youth is too young in brain and Age again does drain away the Spirits Passion blunts the edge of Conceit and where there is much sorrow the mind is dull and unperceiving the Soul is oppressed and lies languishing in an unsociable loneliness till it proves stupid and inhumane Nor do these more alter the Mind then the Body VVeigh every Mans Education as his means have been A man may look in vain for Courtship in a Plow man or Learning in a Mechanick VVho would expect a lame man should run swiftly Or that a sick man should deliver an Oration with a Grace and cheerfullness If you find any man failing in his Manners you must consider his Means before you censure the Man and one that is short of what he might be by his sloath and negligence you must think as justly blameable as he that out of his Industry hath adorned his behaviour above his Means is commendable 3. Let not an over-passionate prosecution of Learning saith he draw you from making an honest improvement of your Estate as such do who are better read in the bignesse of the whole Earth then in that little spot left them by their friends for their support 3. I Answer You clumsie Epithite Nothing wraps a Man in such a mist of Errors as his own Curiositie in twisting himself into things above him How happily do they live that know nothing but what is necessary Your knowledge doth but shew your Ignorance Your most studious scrutenies is but a discovery of what the Spirit knew before it was imbodied You find the effect but not the Cause Besides If I must describe a meer Scholer He is an intellegible Asse or silly fellow in Black that speaks Sentences more familiarly then Sence and Latine better then his Mother Tongue But is a stranger to no Countrie but his own He is Ambitious and tells great stories of himself to no purpose for they are commonly ridiculous be they true or false doubtless he is a Graduate but if ever he get a Fellowship he hath then no Fellow in spight of all Logick he dares swear and maintain it that a Cuckold and a Towns-man are Termini Convertibiles though his Mothers Husband and the Father of the Advice to a Son's Father be Aldermen in the singular Number He cannot but wrangle with harmless VVomen His Tongue goes alwaies before his VVit like the Gentleman Usher but abundance faster He is long-winded and able to speak more with ease than any man can endure to hear with Patience University Jests are his universal Discourse and his News the Demeanour of the Proctors His phrase the Apparel of his Mind is made of divers shreds like a Cushion and when it goeth plainest it hath a rash out-side and Fustian Linings the current of his Speech is clos'd with an Ergo and what ever be the Question the Truth is on his side 't is a wrong to his Reputation to be ignorant in any thing and yet he knows not that he knows nothing He gives Directions for Husbandry from Virgils Georgicks for Cattle from his Bucolicks He would be thought as great a Duellist as Heydon and as stout a Fighter He speaks of Warlike Stratagems from his Eucides or Ceasars Commentaries He orders all things and thrives by none He is led more by his Ears then his Understanding taking the empty sound of words for their true sence and does therefore confidently say that Aera Pater was the Father of Hereticks Rodolphus Agricola a substantial Farmer and will aver that Systimo's Logick doth excell Kickermans His ill luck is not so much in being a Fool as in being put to such pains to express it to the World for what in others is Natural in him with much adoe is Artificial His Poverty is his Happiness for it makes men beleeve he is an honest man That Learning that he hath was put in backward like a Clister and is now like ware mis-laid in a Pedlars pack he has it but knows not where it is And this is the Index of a Man and the Title page of his Father a new Religion in Morality much in
to view in the open Champion a brace of swift Greyhounds coursing a stout and well breathed Hare or a Pack of well tuned Hounds and Huntsmen on their horse backs with pleasure and alacrity pursuing their game and to hear them winding their hornes near a wood side so that the whole wood rings of the eccho of that Musick and chearful yelping of the eager Dogs and these sports ended retire every man with Gentlemen my occasions will not permit me further c. 30. Such as are betrayed by their easie nature c. I answer Hear this emblem of an Age taking of signes by experience mistakes that wherein men do ordinarily think and believe the difference stands between man and man in wisdom by which he and all others commonly understand a mans whole ability surety-ship trusting or power cognitive but this is an errour for the signes are but conjectural and according as they have often or seldom failed so their assurance is more or less but never full and evident for though a man have alwayes seen the day and night to follow one another hitherto yet can he not thence conclude they shal do so or that they have done so eternally Experience which he cryes up concludeth nothing universally if the signes hit twenty times for one missing a man may lay a wager of twenty to one of the event but may not set it down for a truth You cannot from experience conclude that any thing is to be called just or unjust true or false you may conclude such things to be without that are within you 31. He that lends upon publick faith is security for his own money c. I answer Rich widowes therefore were ordained for younger brothers for they being born to no lands borrow upon the publick and must plow in another mans soyl 32. Honesty treats with the world upon such vast disadvantages c. I answer It is policy to borrow sometimes to prevent lending and to be alwayes indebt and able to pay upon demand is more profitable then to appear rich 33. In a case of importance hear the reasons of others pleaded c. 33. In such a case If I mistake not the fundamental deceit lies in a greedy entertaining those first pretences and seemingly candid important propositions are made to us before they have passed those scrutinies and severe iniquities they deserve external holy reasons invite awful regards there is no mask that becomes Rebellion and innovation so well as Religion Herod would fain worship when he means to worry and these must be examined by the test of Gods word and National Laws All the rest are but ugly consequence of that absurdity in the Advice to a Son 34. Beware nevertheless of thinking your self wiser or greater then you are c. I answer Let all sober Christians know that the shel of Religion though it may be of external conducement yet there is nothing that Gods pure and undeluded eye looks on with more abhorrency then this and subtile pride we may possibly disceive men but it in vain to put Ironies upon God A counterfeit Religion shall find a real hell and 't is pitty that such a sacred thing should be violenced and made subservient to Rebellious irregular designes As for pride and baseness and such who have conspired with the wrath of God in the stupefaction of their consciences though they may for a time struggle with those inward checks yet there will be a day if not in this life when that witness that judge that jury will not be bribed God hath fixed it in the soul as an internal Register as an impartial Diary as the causer of the affections and pedagogue of the passions it does not onely illustrate Divine justice in an Autocatacrisis but was meant by God for a bridle and restriction And he that hath by an inveterate wickedness conquered the opposition which God seated on his heart to sin may possibly consult well with his present advantage and greatness but not at all with his future comforts for besides the loss of that intimate pleasure which waits upon innocency He feels some times those bosome quarrels that verberate and wound the soul 35. King Iames used to say of a person in a high place about him that he ever trembled at his approach it minded him so much of his pedagogue c. I answer If you be a Politicion and in favour with the King the prosperity of innovation depends in a high measure upon the right knack of kindling supercilious Aspects and fomenting jealousies and dislikes in the people and then weilding those grudges to the favour and advantage of private ends for the people are to the Politician like Tools to the Mechanick he can perform nothing without them they are his Wings his Wheels his implements the properties that he acts with 36. To whisper with another in company of your betters is uncivil c. I answer Learn to be silent before Princes to avoid evil repentance often followes speaking As the Crane flying out of Scicilly puts little stones in her mouth least by her own Garrulity she betray her self as a prey to the Eagle of the Mountain Taurus by this policy she flies in safety even so should you curb your tongue least you offend and may procure your ruine and prove as a sword to cut the thred of your life in too t is good alwaies to speak well and in season 37. When you speak to any c. To speak too much bewrayes folly too little an unperceiving stupidity look not full in the face but upon the band with a pleasing smile for an ingenious look is the Ensign or a virtuous mind 38. Impudence is no virtue yet able to beggar them all c. I answer Virtue is commanded into exile and the Lady impudent vice is seated in her throne to perform the tenor of this Paragraph virtue went from amongst men and wisdom and truth durst not stay long after but with honesty they travelled poor and naked they had not gone far when standing upon a mountain they perceived a great train to pass by in the middest of it was a Chariot attended with Kings Princes and governors and in that a stately Donna who like some Queen regent commanded the rest of the company poor Virtue Wisdom and Truth with Honesty they stood still whilest this pompous Squadron past but when the chariot came over against them the Lady impudence who was there seated took notice of them and causing her Pageants to stay commanded to come nearer there they were scornfully examined whence they came whether they would go and what about to these questions they answered as their custom is very truly virtuously wisely and honestly whereupon the Lady vice commands them to wait upon her and that in the reer and tail of all her troops for there is their known places c. 39. I do not find you saith this curled lock of Antichrist guilty of covetousness c. I