vain contended with if a fair endeavour may free you you must practise it if that cannot wait with a calmed mind Whatsoever happens as a wonder you must admire and Magnifie as the Act of a power above your apprehension But as it is an alteration to man you must never think it marvelous when every day a Reputed witch suffers more changes then is of her self to imagine 29. Be not therefore hasty to c. I Answer Self examination will make your judgement charitable It is from where there is no judgement that the heaviest judgement comes if you must needs censure it is good to do it as Suetonius writes of the twelve Caesars tell both their vertues and their vices unpartially and leave the upshot to collection of the private mind so shall you learn by hearing of the faults to avoid them and by knowing the vertuous practice the like otherwise you should rather praise a man for a little good then brand him for his more of ill you are full of faults by nature you are good not without care and industry 30. As he offers an high indignity c. I Answer When God distinates a man to do good he makes every opportunity and occasion though it seem never so harsh in mans eyes to turn to his good and Gods glory but when God leaves man to himself he makes more opportunities than he finds and without occasion to work his own ruine to his own shame 31. Let not the cheapness c. I Answer Let that great rule be received that no man can be necessitated to the sin of purchasing Church Lands our divines generally damn an officious lye the equity binds from any officious sin M. Heydon speaking of the Romans and Spaniards saith t is impossible to be ambitious without injury to the Gods Temples themselves are not exempted from the fury of conquering Tyrants the sacriledges of the Romans were as numerous as their Trophies yet their gods followed their triumphant Chariots 32. Denounce no enmity c. I answer The Clergy is as full of changes as the Moon for I cannot see one of them setled in a Church but before I have heard four Sermons his face I perceive is full of strange gestures and his tongue of novelty 33. Grudge not Tythes c. I answer The Minister of our Parish said to me touching conformity that it would be a scandal for himself to conform yet told me he would allow that his Son may do it as if he living a fool all his life desired so to die and would you not grudge Tythes to such yet the labourer is worthy of his hire 34. Yet I cannot but by the way c. I answer Let that eternal God which raised so brave a fabrick out of such indisposed materials that weilds the world with his finger ever since it was made that controuls the waves and checks the tumults of the people of all Religions that sits above and laughs at the malignant counsels and devices of wicked men let his mercy be implored for the speedy succour of his distressed Church that the rod of Aaron may blossom that the tabernacle of David may be raised that the subtle factious inventors of schisms may be caught in their own snare and that the result of all afflictions may be the granting his glory and exalting of his Scepter 35. And here it may not improperly c. I Answer Let us mix our prayers that God would forever banish those cursed devices of Cardinal Wolsey and others I dare not name out of Europe and the Christian world and damn them down to hell from whence originally by policy they came and let such advisers as delight to abuse others think of that self-cousenage with which in the interim they abuse themselves God permitting the devil to revenge the imposture and whilst we are busie with politick stratagems subtle advices and tortious Armes to invade the rights of others let us all consider that this is not the violence that takes Heaven The Conclusion 1. BEar alwayes a filial reverence c. I answer Honour your Father and Mother and enjoy the promise of the Lord and consider what a wise daughter saith that a wise woman overseeth the wayes of her Husband and eateth not the bread of idleness these advices are very naturally a mothers affectionate love to a child therefore remember them 2. Continue in love and amity with your Sister c. I answer I advice you to be so to your brother and take his advice mixed with your Mothers in the admission of a servant you please with their consent to accept as your Husband 3. Let no time expunge his memory c. I answer Remember how much Mr. Culpeper and his Wife have done for you and thank God for your happiness 4. What you leave at your death c. I answer Make your will so that there may be no strife in dividing your goods chattels lands or tenements for the Lawyers will do by you and them as one did by a Cripple and a blind man the one found an oyster and the other took it up a Lawyer rides by and they shewing him the cause he opens the oyster and eats it and gives them the shells therefore be wise 5. Be not solicitous after pomp c. I answer Let my burial be after the Protestant form by a Minister of the same faith without the burthen of a Tomb-stone or any expence except a piece of earth opened as big as my body made ready to receive it that it may grow fit for etenal life through the mercy and merits of Jesus Christ 6. Neither can I apprehend such c. I answer Death is a sleep eternal the bodies dissolution the rich mans fear the poor mans wish an event inevitable an uncertain journey a thief that steals away man sleeps father lifes fight the departure of the living and the resolution of all who may not from such sights and thoughts as these learn if he will both humility and loftiness the one to vilifie the body which must once perish in a stenchful nastiness the other to advance the soul which lives here but for a higher and more heavenly ascension As you should not care for too much indulgiating of the flesh which you must one day yield to the worms so you should ever be studious for such actions as may appear the issues of a noble and diviner soul 7. And concerning a future account c. I answer Let it be a piece of our daily oraisons that God would guard our Pulpits from such Boutefeu's as like Aetna and Vesuvius belched forth nothing but flames and fiery discourses of the day of Judgement using the Scriptures as preposterously and impertinently as some Pontificians who transported with the vehemence of Hildebrand's zeal think the temporal Monarchy of Popes sufficiently Scriptural from the saying of Christ to Peter Feed my sheep far be it from us to intitle the Spirit of God to
consider their designes which may be more Loving to your Portion then your Person All people having not the same Conceptions of beauty which is as hatefull to an Ethiopian as Black is to us not considering that Women uncloathed are all alike and the Conceptions about the harmony and measures of her Body differ not Yet I advise you not to follow the example of a Princess appearing in a Lawn smock to be veiwed by Embassadours as towards a Marriageâ— said she would put off that too if there were any necessity But custome hath made Cloaths decent The deeds of our Ancestors are not to be slighted for they left them for our example and used in their days abundance of cheaper Artificiall Ornaments from Shels Feathers and Stones Behold the Sun and Moon and all the Glorious Batalia of Heaven and they appear as the Great God and Nature made them to which God and Nature I am Servant and Secretary This will not produce such infinite provocations and incitements to lust as the Advice to a Son fondly conceives But I say not For I dare say that what by Painting what by the Looseness and Change of Garments what by these gaudy inventions of dressings that flexure and fracture of gate the deformity is hidden unless to a very nice eye there is much more fuell added then if all went with no more Mantles Scarfes Gowns and Hoods then Nature thrust them into the World with viz. Hair hanging loosely down or else carelesly gathered up in a Fillet and perhaps some little kind of Cover that might restrain the Virginall flower from being too much gazed at and blown upon Follow not Daughter their fashion that uncover the parts of their chiefest Beauty as their Face Neck Breasts and Hand as the Index to the more secret object which without a signe may be by the guide of humane Nature sound out So that Women do endeavour in part to break that restraint which bides the rest of their Glory and to set forth their delicate Dresses plaited and weaved with such variety their Ivory Necks their Harmonious Faces their Milkie Spherical Breasts and their Melting Hands my advice is to shew All or Nothing Daughter though some Crazy ignorant old welch Owens with powder dried bones fit to be burnt with diseases hath endeavoured to deceive you from the same Species with Men and one madder then they denie you Souls and so have many others yet when we shall oppose Holy Scripture which makes Man the Consummation of the Creation and you the Consummation of Man if I should but instance those particular indulgencies of Nature which John Heydon reckons unto you and those peculiar advantages of composition and understanding he ascribes to you or if I should mention that of Eugenius Theodidactus that friend to the Fraternity of the Rosie Cross and beleeved to be inspired and so thought a Rosie Crusian he I say calls you Fountains and perfections of Goodness Whom Daughter can we imagine to be so insensible as not to be presently touched with the delicate Composure and Symmetry of Womens Bodies The sweetness and killing Languors of their eyes The mestange and harmony of their Colours The happiness and spirituallity of their Countenance The Charms and allurements of their mind The Air and Command of their smiles Men are meerly rough cast bristly and made up of tough Materials and if they approach any thing near Beauty do so much degenerate from what they are How generall is the affection of old Men to Women some I have known of three score to Marry Girles of sixteen Soloman was no fool and it is well known how your sex tempted him that his power Commanded you to fulfill his desires And I only advise you to Wisdome and Vertue And if any Clumsy old doting Wittall blinded with Ignorance and by his own Wofull Experience shall protest against the Sufficiency of these or any thing else I have written or shall write for your better instructions that may perhaps hereafter be made publike He wilfully goes about to Councel his Master and adventures to make the Sun stand still and to run another race For your sake I set Pen to Paper to teach you how to live that to Die you need not fear The World is full of deceit trust not therefore the hot love of a Stranger for if you will expose your self to all you are Slighted and a Common Wife is hated Beauty affords Contentment Riches are meanes to cure a weak Estate Honour illustrates all comes nigh it If you Marry thus you are happy And then to find Worth Carriage Gesture and Grace in your choyce it perfects felicity These things in this Book are written for your instruction hopeing you will excuse my faults which through hast and other infirmity are Committed A more Leasure time may perfect what is here Charactered in Water Colours And you may easily perceive that I consulted not at all with advantaging my Name or wooing publike esteem by what I now write I know there was much of Naked Truth in it And is a Caution given to you from Your Loving Father c. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} March 26 1658. ADVIGE to a DAUGHTER In opposition to the ADVICE to a SONNE WHo is this that darkneth Councel by Words without Knowledge Come thou Embrio of a History thou Cadet of a Pamphleteer Gird up thy loins like a man for I will demand of thee and answer thou me But now I think upon it I will allow thee time to breath after thy late Bawling those fragments of a Prophane Atheistical old Pamphlet intituled Thy Advice to a Son and speak a few words to my Reader Reader I have met with a Thing it is not named It speaks like a Man and yet abuses Women It is the first Tincture and Rudiments of a VVriter dipped as yet in the preparative Blew like an Almanack well-wilier To call him an Historian is to Knight a Mandrake to say he is a Politician is view him throw a Perspective and by that gross Hyperbole to give the reputation of an Engineer to a maker of Mouse-traps He is such an one as Queen Mabbs Register One who by the same figure that a North Country Pedlar is a Marchant man you may stile an Author There goes his Affection which is the Heliotrope to the Sun of Honour and hath long since abjured his God Religion Conscience and all that shall interpose and skreen him from those Beams that may ripen his wishes and aims into injoyments And now have at his Advice to a Son Come thou Relique of a Politician that five times at least by I know not what Ignis fatuus hast adulterated the Presse And have you so much Policy in your Advice to your Son that the Readers mistake your Name and beleeve you to be the Tripple-headed Turn-key of Heaven Behold his Directions For your better Conduct through the various and most important Encounters of this Life under the
and made tame again 20. Yet take one who thinks her self rather beneath then above you c. I answer Those I observe to agree best you Episco-Mastix which are of free natures not subject to the fits of choler their freedom shuts out jealousie which is the canker of wedlock and withal it divideth both joy and sorrow and when hearts alike disclose they ever link in love Nay whereas small and domestick jars more fret marriages then great ones and publick those two will take them away freedom reveals them that they ranckle not the heart to a secret lothing and mildness bears them without anger or bitter words so they close again after discussion many times in a straighter tye Poverty in wedlock is a great decayer of love and contentation and riches can find many wayes to divert an inconvenience but the mind of a man is all some can be servile and fall to those labours he calls base drudgery which another cannot stoop to Above all let the generous mind beware of marrying poor for though he cares the least for wealth yet he will be most galled with the want of it Self-conceited people never agree well together they are wilful in their brawls and reason cannot reconcile them where either are opinionately wise Hell is there unless the other be a Patient meerly but the worst is when it lights on the woman she will think to rule because she hath the subtiler brain and the man will look for 't as the priviledge of his sex then certainly there will be mad work when wit is at war with prerogatives 21. I confess vast Estates are not so sensible c. I answer Mr. new-fashioned Doctor Justice where Marriage proves unfortunate a woman with a bad Husband is much worse then a man with a bad Wife men have much more freedom to court their content abroad There are some that account women onely as seed-plots for posterity Anonymus the Author of the Advice to a Son worse he sayes they are whores and onely quench for their fires but surely there is much more good in them if they be discreet they are women but in body alone questionless a woman with a wise soul is the fittest companion for man otherwise God would have given him a friend rather then a Wife A wise Wife comprehends both sexes she is woman for her body and she is man within for her soul is like her Husbands It is the Crown of blessings when in one woman a man finds both a Wife and a friend Single life he commends to his Son cannot have this happiness though in some minds it hath many it prefers before it this hath fewer cares and more longings but Marriage hath fewer longings and more cares and I think care in Marriage may be commendable so I think desire in single life is not an evil of so high a bound as some men would make it it is a thing accompanies nature and a man cannot avoid it 22. Therefore dear Son if c. I answer Dear Daughter some things there are that mans conscience condemns without a literal Law as injustice blasphemy lying c. But to curbe and quite beat down the desires of the flesh is a work of Religion rather then of nature and therefore saies Saint Paul I had not known lust to have been a sin if the Law had not said Thou shalt not lust Votive abstinence some cold constitutions may endure with a great deal of vexatious penitence to live chast without vowing I like a great deal better nor shall we find the Divel so busie to tempt us to a single sin of unchastity as he will when it is a sin of unchastity and perjury too I find it commended but not imposed and when Iephtha's daughter died they mourned for that she died a Maid 23. I have heard a well-built woman compared in her motion to a Ship under sail yet I advise no wise man to be her owner if her fraught be nothing but what she carries between wind and water c. I answer What she carries there you Scotch Wittal in honour of her Marriage is priviledged to the wedded and though the Romans had their Vestals yet after their thirty years continuance the cruelty of inforced chastity was not in force against them Single life I will like in some whose minds can suffer continency but should all live thus a 100 years would make the world a desart And this alone may excuse me though I write against you and like of Marriage better one tends to ruine the other to increasing of the glory of the world in multitudes 24. But if once you render your self a pupil to whining love c. I answer Why dost call it whining love a good woman is a comfort like a man she lacks of him nothing but heat thence is her sweetness of disposition which meets his stoutness more pleasingly so wool meets iron easier then iron and turns resisting into embracing her greatest learning is Religion and her thoughts are on her own sex or on men without casting the difference and dare you call these whores believe me dishonesty never comes nearer then her ears and then wonder stops it out and saves vertue the labour she will leave such Dauphine youths as you telling your tales and puts back the Courtiers putting forward with a frown yet her kindness is free enough to be seen for it hath no guilt about it and besides her mirth is clear you may look through it into vertue but not beyond 25. To conclude if you will needs be a c. I answer It would make a man in love that is an hundred years old to see these vertuous creatures good women and a good Wife hath not behaviour as at a certain but makes it to her occasions she if I may describe her briefly hath so much knowledge as to love it and if she have it not at home she will fetch it and for this sometimes in a pleasant discontent she dares chide her sex though she use it never the worse she is much within and frames outward things to her mind not her mind to them She wears good clothes but never better for she finds no degree beyond decency she hath a content of her own and so seeks not an Husband but finds him she is indeed most but not much of description for she is direct and one and hath not the variety of ill Now she is given fresh and alive to a Husband to increase and multiply and she doth nothing more then love him for she takes him to that purpose and to increase the world in multitudes Ladies now your enemy is vanquished you may take your pleasures 26. But if this savours too much of the Stoick c. I answer He speaks still but faintly as a man out of breath I le give him a serious reproof and let him take rest a while Oh vain man be advised approch not the presence of such Angelical Creatures as