SECT. I.
Shewing that distinctions of Men have been from the beginning.

THat as there have been men from the beginning, so have some of them affected prevalence and priority, and thereby accumulated Power, Wealth, and Fame to themselves and their rela­tions, is not to be doubted: for that not only the Holy Story, but even the light of reason, carries us towards, and confirms us in, the belief of it: And in that Moses, who had so fair advantages, and so much skill to manage them to his own greatness, and his Families advance, did not pursue and improve them to a settlement of the Government of Israel in his children & their descendants, but yiel­ded and propagated it according to the appointment of God; we are to admire a self-denial & integrity in him paramount to them, whose worldly prudence it is, first, as much as they can, to make, then to take, advantages, and those subacted to them, to apply to the Majo [...]ation of [Page 4] their Names, and the coruscation of their issues and descendants.

There is then no doubt but as domi­nion and subjection are Aboriginal, so the effects of it in familique as well as personal distinctions is very ancient: for as nature dictates perpetuation of ones kind, by apt conjunctions of Male and Female, so doth she also include therein the beneficial consequences of it, and accordingly composes herself to the ser­vice of them. Thus she visiblizes her­self in the Circumactions of Providence, in the hazzards of Courage, in the toyls of Government, in the vicissitudes of Commerce, in the abstrusities of Science, that by the good voyages issuant from them, and the ports of success made by them, she may arrive her adventurers & owners at those Markets of advantage, which to some are Crowning, to others profitable, to all distinguishing mercies-

Thus Nimrod footed it fairly upon the stage of the first ages, [...] &c. lib. 2. ve­rarum Historia­rum, p. 403. Edit. in Folio. which he made (if he found it not) like that I­sland Nauplius in Lucian, conducted his followers to, A soyle productive of no­thing but Swords and Ponyards, encom­passed with two Rivers, one filled with the dirt and mudd of black designs, tinctured [Page 5] with the brimstone of Hell, the other with the blood of innocents prodigally and cruelly shed, and within all nothing but the fire of concupiscence and evil desire, lodged and luted up. And from his president did after-times carry on the project of greatness, by Methods proper to its atchievement: Nor could the de­sign of power have been propagated by any engine more adequate then that of a worldly wisdom, since the corrupted nature of man being rude and sturdy, is reducible rather by terrors and Out­witting, then by mercies and plain dea­ling; and since Order is so necessary to the Regiment and Harmony of the World, and all Societies in it, that which most conduces thereto, is the meetest genitor and conserver of it; and being usefull in so important a mat­ter as rule is, purchaseth to its self a justifyable Title by the common profit of its exercise, and the good office it doth unto Piety, to which it is subser­vient in the pessundation of vice, which it humbles, and thereby renders prepa­ratory to the prevalence of Christ Jesus in his Gospel's discovery, and in the va­rious and lovely attendants thereupon. Though therefore it be the voice of [Page 6] Babel-builders and prodigious fighters against God,Gen. 11. 3. Let us build a Tower that shall reach up to Heaven, and make us a Name; and though the Prophet condemns it as a wicked worldly project and work, to live alone in the Earth, to joyn house to house, Isai. 5. 8. and field to field, till there be no place, yet is this to be understood cur­sed, as God is thereby defied, and his feare resolved against; which is the sin of the Fool, who saies in his heart there is no God; not simply, as by Masculine pru­dence, prevalence and advantage is gained, and thereby order setled and kept: Nor do I see how the admission of some men of Gubernative spirits in­terest (if moderate) into the motives to and procedures of it, derogates from the charity or justice of such attemptors; for since without them succesfull, no Or­der could be, all the happiness and secu­rity that is enjoyed, is debtor to their disposition to, and acceptance of, rule and preheminence;Nobilitas est quidam habitus electivus, in me­dio consistens circa ea quae pertinent ad praeesse ac do­ [...]ninari▪ Cassa­ [...]aeus Catal. Gl. Mundi p. 303. and for so doing they are worthily accounted Noble.

It must therefore be granted, that all distinction, Nobility, & Rule of one over another (though it at first seemed vio­lent, yet by act of time and positivity of law, in which natural consent of Nations [Page 7] is involved, and the providence and pleasure of God rightly interpreted) is of divine Institution and moral Reason, as a branch from the Tree of Majesty, and of humane approbation; as that vicarious divinity which conducts to, and preserves mankind in, a neighbourhood, correspondence and agreement.

SECT. II.
That the Iewes, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and all Nations, had their Nobles and Nobility, and did honour to them according to their vertue, power and riches.

THis being modestly premised, (for I disclaim all Dictatorian peremptori­ness, and write with submission to the judgments of those that fear God and follow vertue) It may not be from my purpose to insinuate, that there never was any Time or Nation in which there was not the footstep, if not the full por­traicture of Nobility and distinction. The Jewes, whom I see no reason to disbe­lieve [Page 8] the first people,Councl. Ber [...]roni in Politia Iu­d [...]ica. had it by appoint­ment from God, the chief of their Fami­lies were Priests and Princes to them, be­fore their Judges & Kings, whom separa­ted from the vulgar they called [...] No­ble; so is the reddition of the word Exod. 24. 11. and upon the Nobles of Israel he laid not his hand, & 41 Isai. 9. I have called thee from the chief men or Nobles of the Earth. Of these Nobles the Jewes by their Language made divers sorts, chiefly [...] Heroiques, those that descended from brave ancestors men of blood, Viri candoris, 10 Eccles. 17. Blessed art thou O Land whose King is [...] the son of Nobles; so 4. Neh. 19. 5. c. v. 7. 34 Isa. 12. And then they had others they cal­led [...] Men of great riches and e­state. For [...] aurum from [...] includere imported men, whose Gold was their fence and confidence; whence proba­bly that passage, 2 Hab. 6. of lading himself with thick Clay; [...] &c. Iosephus [...] fratres apu [...] [...]hilonem p. 61. lib. de [...]seph. both these, for birth and riches besides others, were by the Jewes called Noble: After, the Egyp­tians, who termed themselves the chiefest of mortals, had great regard to worth both in men the Meriters, and in their posterities, renowned for, and privi­ledged by reason of them; they had [Page 9] their Kings and their Seconds in the Throne, their purple Robes and their Insignia's of distinction, which were badges of mens preheminence, either for power or wealth, which moderately, and which conscience to the publique, administred, caused them to be accoun­ted Men above men, that is, Heroiques or Pettit-Gods. Thus Diodorus Siculus writes, Nobility both in the Powery and Magnificent part of it, was for some Thou­sand years arbitrated by the Gods and by Godlike Kings, who did not only steer government to their own purpose of sub­jecting [...] Lib. 1. p. 41. the persons of their people, and taking to themselves their estates and la­bours, but according to the patrial Laws in­dulged their security as Shepherds and their enriching as Fathers, leaving their own posterity such fortunes as they for them gathered by thrist and common consent of the people, which revenues, added to their wel-descended Fame, made them in the Moralists sence Noble; [...] Plut [...]rchus lib. cont. Nobilita­ [...]em. For Nobility (saith he) is nothing else but an­cient Wealth, and ancient Worship, that is, Descent from ancestors, wealthy and worshipfull. In process, when Egypts glory withered, and the Greeks upon their stumps fixed their own increment, [Page 10] the learning of Egypt transmigrated with their fortune to Greece, where the Court Cards of request being, all the civill and learned order of declining Egypt, [...] Herodianus lib. 5. became prey to the Grecian trumps which ruffed and deported every excel­lency that quondamly they triumphed in; and thereby Nobility became at­tributed in Greek Authors to every thing rare and excellent; [...] Ari­stot. 3 Politic. Birth of ver­tuous parents is called Nobility, Trees of a good kind [...] by Lib. de Nob. Philo, andEuryp. in Heraclide. Euripides [...].

And so again,

And that the Trojans had Nobility amongst them, is plain from that of the Poet,Iuvenalis apud Lucium in Comme [...]tar. ad Virgilium. p. 903. Cerda in lib. 3. Aeneid. v. 3 [...]9. who mentioning valiant and divine men, terms them Trojugenas.

[Page 11] Yea, in thatAlexanerd M. cum fuerat 17. jure n [...]er­ni sanguini [...] Achille aucto­re, Paterni Her­cule gloriatus est, Vel. Pater­culus lib. 1. p. 14. edit. Lipsi [...]. Alexander was wont to glo­ry of his descent from Hercules and Achil­les, as did the Macedonian Kings after him, which Silius alludes to in those Verses;

In as much, I say, as these things are in Authors of credit, we are to be conclu­ded, that Nobility was in account with the Greeks; nor else would the holy Text have used the word [...] and [...], as it doth, Luke 19. v. 12. 1 Cor. 1. 26. Acts 17. 11. If this Nobility, which those places allude to, had not been in reputation in the world, and that in its several Vertigo's and traverses of power and Empire: For when the Romans su­perseded the Greeks (Men and States ha­ving their hot and cold sits) with the Conquests and Colonies of the Romans, [Page 12] the Grecian usages,Inde prodiit jus Imaginum quas nobiles ab armo­rum laude pa­rarint Familiae [...] Et nomina mili­tum clypeis a­scripta. Forreri­us in leg. 195. Vegetius lib. 2. c. 28. de re Mi­citari. laws, and opinions, eat themselves into the Roman greatness, and became, by common approbation, Roman; and then Rome swells with the bulk of Patricians and Senators, and groans under the overgrown weight of Triumphers and Coronetted persons; and it not only allows Citizens to write their names upon their Bucklers, or to charge on them some honourable de­vice, by reason of which they put a great value upon them,De Clypeorum dedicatione lege Plinium lib. 35 p. 3. and would not cow­ardly lose them to their enemies, but while they could, carry them, as their Badges of Honour, and at last dedicate them to their Gods, and to the memory of their Progenitors: I say, Rome did not only allow her Citizens this mark of cla­rescency, but animated them to every Instance of Heroickness. Now no Porch is without its Frontispiece; no corner in its Room of State without a Monument of Nobility,Nobiles autem primum Patricii, dicti sunt quippe quibus primum honores iis quibus nobilitas co u­paratur, in Republ. p [...]ueru ut post autem plebeii etiam ubi pri­mi ad Curules honores pervene­runt Nobiles dici caep [...]i sunt; ne­que enim ex genere nobilitas sed ex im [...]ginibus parabatur. Sigonius de nom. in Romam. p. 368. in some Obe­lisques and Pyramids, in others Triumphal Arches; here a Mar­ble Pourtraicture, there a goodly Statue, or Pillar; eve­ry where some Trophy, or Fe­scue, to Honour manlily ac­ceded to: Yea, though they [Page 13] most set by their first instituted Orders, and reckoned the Descendants from them the Virtuoso's primarum gentium; yet had they admissions into, and enlarge­ments of Honour, to reward brave Acti­ons in obscure Men: Which made Sene­ca, no small Courtier, nor yet a man of a refuse birth, to encourage real Virtue thus, No man is more noble then another, unless he have a nobler soul, and be apter to virtuous Atchieve­ments; Eadem [...]mnibus principia ea­demque origo, nemo altero no­bilior, nisi cui rectius ingeni­um, & artibus bonis aptius, qui Imagines in atrio exponunt, &c. Et paulo post, sive liber­tini ante vos habentur, sive servi, sive exterarum gentiuns homines, erigite audacter a­nimo [...], & quicquid in medio sordidi jace [...] transilite, expectat vos in summo Magna nobilitas ib. 3. de Benesic. c. 27. those that are full of the Antiquities of their Progeni­tors, and make an endless Nar­rative of them, adorning their Portals with their Effigiesses, are by them more noted then noble; there is one common Parent of all Men: This World, whether Men come first or last, are valued, or not, is not much by a wise Man to be stood upon: Despise no Man, saith he, that which only is valuable is nobility of mind, which expects the best praise, and makes them that have it worthy of it. Thus he: And hereupon he proceeds to de­fend Cleanthes, Chrysippus, and Zeno, though in condition beneath Magistrates, and so not enrolled in the publick Char­ters of Benefactors to the Government, [Page 14] proving that they, in the institution of men in moral Philosophy,Lib de O [...]io Sap. c. 31. and Rules of Virtue, were as useful as men of great Estates and Courage,In cujuscunque animo virtus inesset ei pluri­mum esse rit­buendum. Patercul. lib. 2. p. 76. to support the power of the Commonwealth, were, though then the Romans did prize Virtue and Wisdom in men of the first head, and thought highly of Coruncanus, Car­vilius, Cato, Marius, Fulvius, Asinius Pollio, Omnes boni sempen uobili­ta [...]i [...]avemus & quia utile est Reipubl. nobi­les homines esse dignos majo. ribus suis & quia valet apud nos claro­rum virorum memoria etiam mortuorum Cic. pro Sex [...]io. who all were of no Families, but names of Honour and Nobilitation to themselves, yet did they not wholly ex­clude the race of Worthies, though de­generated from conspicuity reflecting on them from their Ancestors, who beget­ting Children in nature and body, not al­wayes in nobility of soul, like themselves, they caution'd not to be wholly ca­sheired Esteem: Not thus is Seneca to be misunderstood; but his meaning, in what is praealledged, is, That if meer de­scent from a virtuous stock, and antece­dent Patricians, and personal virtue in an upstart, must be weighed each against the other, as two separate and abstracted things, not resolvable into one person; then he, as a Roman, and Man of reason, had rather chuse virtue without blood, then blood without virtue: For as Pha­laris wrote to Antiochus, Virtue is the true [Page 15] and only Nobility, [...]. Epistola ad An­tiochum. other things are referra­ble to fortune. To which Philo suffra­gates, Truth and Iudgment, quoth he, considers not Nobility only from the race of blood, but from justice and courage of action. For when the rattle and noise of descent and blood is drowned in the ca­sualties and confusions of worldly insta­bility, [...] Philo lib. de Nobilit. p. 904. Virtue susteins it self in every con­dition, and is welcome to another, when [...]it is banished from, or unhappy in, its own Country. Whence is discovered the vani­ty of too much resting on Blood and Ho­nour, which is only considerable in con­junction with Wealth, which hath wings, and may with them fly away, and then the Nobility of an ignoble soul'd man leaves him helpless, and remarkable for nothing but misery. Where then Names and Titles are concurrent with Virtue, and the Mind is a strenuous second to the Names pretension, there can be no attri­bution too luxuriant almost for such an Emeriter, Quid est eques Romanus aut li­bertinus aut servus, nomina e [...] ambitione aut ex injuria nata, subsilice in Coelum ex angulo licet, ex surge modo & [...]e quo­que dignum finge Deo. Senec. Fp. 31. who turns the little cottage he is in, into a Theater of Majesty, and reduces the grandeur of a Heaven into the uncouth angle of his resi­dence. For such Phaenixes, whose lati­tudes of love, and intentness of general [Page 16] good,Sint hi reges quia majores [...]orum non su­erunt, quia pro summo imperio habuerent Iu­s [...]itiam, abstinen­tiam, quia non Rempub. sibi sed se Reipub. dicaverunt, Regnent tu quia vir bonus qui­dam proavus eo­rum suit qui anima supra fortunam gessit qui ini dissensio­ne Civili quoni­am expedieba [...] Repu [...] vinci quam vincere malui lib. 4. de Benef. c. 32. puts them upon self neglect, in con­science to the general, more precious to, and valued by, them: The wisdom of Nations ought not only to decree pub­lick gratitudes, but to invite others by their acceptation to be free spirited: For they deserve best to be trusted and re­lyed on, who (as Seneca says) were single hearted, and unended, who did not abe [...] factions to admit themselves into request and wealth, but retained in turmoils that just sobriety, rather to be ruined in their private fortnnes, then to sacrifice the common peace to their ambitious and ma­lignant acremonies: So he.

As therefore the wisdom of Ages, and Governments, have given great vertue its due Guerdon, so have they quicken­ed the faint and languishing hopes of it, by signal favours collated on them, whom by them they, as it were, bribed and be­spake to become and abide excellent.

Thus Constantine's Brother,Zrz [...]mus lib. 2. Eutrop. in bre­viar. p. 112. & lib. 8. and Ana­ballianus (though men of no great de­degree in virtue) were for their very al­lyance to Constantine Nobilissimated; so the Emperor created his Son Iulian [...], and thus all Powers have done, to ingage their Relations and At­tendants to follow Majesty in such mani­festations [Page 17] of it as are expected from their respective conditions, and opportunities: For surely, if Nobility, and whatever is couchable under it, and understood by it, be worth desiring and obtaining, 'tis chiefly for the subsidy it yields to Virtue, and the addition it makes to Men and Things, which thereby are advanced to a Sphere superiour to their common na­tural influence and operation, as Macri­nus notably noted to the Roman Senate, [...] Herodian lib. 5. p. 560. When he so smartly traduced the Idol of Nobility abstracted from Virtue, as that it appeared the vapour and bladder of a tu­morous nothing, and the blazing semblance of an insignificant non ens.

From all which it appears, That No­bility and distinction amongst men has been ever in observance, but chiefly when compeer to vertue; the associa­tion with which, though it was not ever in an express of notability, yet in a truth of being, and in some degree or other of sutable appearance, which verifies that golden saying of Demosthenes, [...]. Apud Stobaeum Serm. 217. He that is born vertuous is truly born Noble: And since pure Nobility may well be compared to a River issuing out of four principall Wels, all which rise from the compass of one Hill; the Wells are Prudence, Fortitude, Iustice, [Page 18] Temperance: Bishop of Saint Davids Sermon at the entertain­ment of the IL. of Essex, 21 Eliz. Holing­shed p. 1263. the Hill whence they spring is the fear of God and true Religion; as a learned Prelate of our Church long since observed. Happy is that man whom the graces of a regenerated and subdu­ed soul to God, dignifies and declares Noble,Foeli [...] ille quem non ex­cellentia gene­ris sed mores virtutesque no­bilitaverunt. Apulejus. though he be in other regards straightned and reduced to be the ob­ject of a generous pitty, or of what's more usual, degenerous scorn.

Not only men then, but even Families have been happy enjoyers of Nobilitati­on. For though the immediate ray of ho­nour be darted upon the face of the first actor, and that for his action couragi­ously and with wisdom performed; yet are the reflexions of it considerable ad­vantages to all his family and relations, yea to his servants, who were chieflyAliciat ad le­gem 40. signified in the old Oscan word Famul, the lodge or lie of servants. Nor did the Family extend then to Wives, Children, Nephews or Libertines, but onely to the drudging or least free part of their do­mestiques. Though times and conquests have enfranchised words as well as men, so that at this day Family extends it self to the utmost line of consanguinity, which the great Master of reason as well as eloquence, Tully, Arist Polit [...]e. lib. 1. c. 3. fully sets forth, when [Page 19] he tells us, that even Nature hath so ex­patiated charity in man, Et ipsa charitas generis quae na­ta à primo satu à procreatori­bus na [...]i dili­guntur & tota domus conjugio & st [...]rpe con­jungitur serpit sensim foras cogniti [...]ibus primum tum ad [...]in [...]tatibus, deinde Ami­citiis. lib. 5. de Fin. bon. & malorum. that he does not only accept them for his Family, who are descendants from his body; or in a direct discent come from one common and nu­merical ancestor, or are by marriage affi­anced to him, but also by the frankness and latitude of that vertue, friends though more remote in blood are adopted into the fruits and kindness of it. But this is a large sense of Families, and would require a vast force of Fancy and pains to man the lines and outworks of its circumvalla­tion. That only notion of Families which is commonly understood to be branches from one stock, is that which is the family I treat of.

And certainly there is nothing has been more the care of wise and gene­rous men to raise and confirm in honour and reputation then their Name and Family. That is, not onely their chil­dren and their off-spring, but their re­lations collateral, whom by lawes of na­ture and nations they accounted se­cond heirs; which appears not onely in the qualities men of great minds en­deavour to attain, and by them to be notable and requested, but from the suitable improvements that they exer­cise [Page 20] the conspicuity of their parts about. For as they do invigilate themselves that their amorous or rash follys doe not precipitate their after preferment: so having well married do they caution the wel-breeding of their children, that fitted they may be for imployments and favours of respect and augmentation. Thus of old we read that the Patriarchs as they chose for themselves Wives wor­thy their piety and love, so did they to their sons present Wives, and them married, placed in courses of life labo­rious and supportive; upon which foun­dation they laid all the superstructure of their after happiness and thrift. This after ages imitated them in, & while they saw themselves more then ordinarily mortall in their issues, they either ha­ving none, or such as concluded in their sex the nominal perpetuity of them, they made provision for their con­tinuity by assumption of Nephews and Kinsmen, or by adoption of daughters children,Totius familiae interest ne quis ex ea vel in servitutem de. ducatur vel sla­gitiose damno­que dignitatis vivat. Ferrerius ad legem 195. which I best like, into their name; and so investing them with what fortune and honour they had in their power: so great a zeal to the prosperity of blood, name and relations is there in a generous man, that as their glory is [Page 21] his delight, so their dislustre is his tor­ment. Hence has it been ever the study of brave men to promote their kindred, and to resent their disobligements as unkindnesses done to themselves. Nor is there any more sure sign of a Noble soul, then this of endeavouring to know and improve the prosperity of his line and kindred, yea, and of his friends too; for I preferre constant and prudent friends above relations that are loose and uncapable; and truly I am decla­redly of the opinion, that Greatness or Riches is not desirable by any Heroique, further then it capacitates the have to serve God,Quid enim ge­nerosius quam tot literarum proceres habu­isse majores: nam si inve [...]e­ra [...]ae & per genus ductae divitiae nobile [...] faciunt, multo magis praestan­tior est cujus origo the sauris prudentiae locu­plis invenitur. Alatharicus Rex senatui Rom apud Cassiod var. lib. 8. ep. 19. and his Prince, officiates to the publique, and is a hook to draw into and a hedge to secure worthy friends and relations in the fellowship and afflu­ence of it; For although the other per­quisites of it, as place, plenty, p [...]mp of life, respect with men, be tempting and taking motives to its pursuit, and obtain­ment, yet the prospect that it gives into the knowledge of men and things, and the encouragement and reward it pri­viledges a man to give to what is excel­lent and useful, though perhaps clouded and spiritless, is the Royallest incentive to af [...]ect and accept it; I like the charity [Page 22] that begins at home, and since I account every one of my Family and Friendship that is vertuous and valuable in any No­ble accomplishment, they shall be the objects of my respect and neerest to my kindness who are neerest of kin to the souls nobility, and who have in them the most of intellectual Majesty & practical Divinity. But I return to a mans fami­ly, which surely must be dear to him, upon the reason of interest, as it is his temporary conservatory, and that in the Lunary motions whereof he sees the [...]bbs and flows of his own fame. For though he is but a termer for life in his person, and has but a contingent estate in that, yet in the continuity of his de­scendants he has a comparative fee, and an estate, as I may so say, of temporary eternity; at least the lease he has is such as it may last many hundred years: which wise men contemplating, if issue of them­selves fail by corporal defects, or anti­cipation of vice, vow, or what is paral­lel to them, provide substitutions to their memory, though they purchase them at rates transcending the ordinary values of reason. This makes them ven­ture on those designes of hazzard, and labours of death, that none would cope [Page 23] with but those that had a motion of mind above mortals, Non potest grande aliquid & supra cae­teros loqui nisi mota mens cum vulgaria & soli [...]a contemp­sit ins [...]inctoque sacro surrexit excelsior. Tunc demum aliquid cecinit grandius ore mortali non potest sublime quiddam & in arduo posi­tum contingere quam diu apud se est. Senec. lib. de Tranq. animi. as Seneca sayes, and whose eares could hear no discouragement though death were the Messenger to disswade them; and though they saw the pit of their se­pulchre opened before them, and ready to receive them: for then they most sweetly modulate the notes of greatness, when they strayne their accounts beyond and above the Elah of ordinary attainment, and assay the supern greatness by the projects of a more then mortall action, which they medi­tate and are generously transported to pro­duce.

SECT. III.
Treats of the perpetuation of Families, as more the desire of brave men then their attainment; and hereupon ex­horts submission to Gods pleasure.

WHen men therefore propose to themselves, by Gods permission, to be founders of Families, they doe, as provident builders doe, design models and lay in materials before they declare [Page 24] what they will build; for according to their well advised scheme and orderly draught, and the proper Instruments thereto, so usually are the advances in, and the conclusions of it. He that will not consider in his mind the money he would expend upon the conveniences he would have in, the time he would allow to, the perfections of his Pile, will never be a wise and thrifty builder; nor will he in resolves of illustration to a family, be more happy, who considers not well and acts wisely, and perseveres in his well-grounded design constantly, to the effection of it; and this if he does, and is humble and civil in it, he performs as much as man can doe to serve him­self to compleatness, and does by the very ambition to do generous things, de­clare himself of natures Peerage and Nobility; [...]. Apud Stobaeum Serm. 218. so true is that of Menander, A Vertuous man, though to his Mother He A Black have, yet is oth' Nobility.

This desire of continuing and propa­gating their Families the Romans of all Nations were more remarkable for, who, as they knew learning, valour, and imployments of gain, gathered estates, and by thrift in, and knowledge to get, disciplin'd men in the tenacious keeping, [Page 25] and the provident actuating of them; so bred their youth to those frugal and masculine courses, that as they despised vice and avoyded the costly expences of them, so did they preserve their an­cestors renown in its freshness and fra­grancy by their patrization; and where the contrary was, their publique lawes restrained the wast of patrimonies, and infamiz'd their degeneration; which prudent caution and sage provision for a worldly perennation, though it had not ever infallible influence upon the end aymed at (the good pleasure of God, being often not only negative of, but opposites to, such projects) yet was it a prudent assay to a probable and rationall attainment of perpetuity, or if not such in the propriety of the bles­sing (which may be thought inconsistent with this world, and with the men and things of and in it; yet secundum quid, and in compare with courses diametral to frugality and the benedictions of in­dustrious deligence, the principles of growth, and beauty of Families; it pro­mises much towards its establishment, at least more then the sensual and sense­less courses of prodigality and loose li­ving, which are not springs to, but dreyns [Page 26] of estates, and let them run at wast by intemperance and neglect.

I know the activity and concerns of the Romans in the severalties of their conquests, dispersing those of them that were strenuous and learned into the several quarters of it, made the gene­rosity of their spirits at home not seem so much and quick as it would, had they been kept nearer their heart, and seat of life, and not distributed into the remote veins and arteries of their growing body, which they were to inform and quicken: Yet did they in their transplantation not dye,Orta omnia aut serius aut ocyus tandem occident & senescunt, volvet motu continuo rotans fortuna, & de gente ingentium volubilia regn [...] versabit: Facies illa cum volet reges ex servis, servos, ex regi­bus, & in urbem Romam, & in orbem Roma­nam suam in­eluctibilem po­teutiam exerce­bit. Petrarcha Ep. 4. sine Ti­t lo Tom. 2. p. 714. but by their change of climate more improve. For since it is the good pleasure of God, that the Ague of time should, by varia­tions, serve to the revolution of this vicissitudinary world; in which all the Natives, of what edition soever, are by their principle of composition, and the regency of Gods Decree, inclined to change, and not without miracle to be preserved from the fate of their declen­tion and variation, which is but the gra­dual preface to their interition. They that [...]ix Absolom's Pillar on this Pedestal of dust, do but fancy their own deceit, and consent to their posterities delu­sion: [Page 27] For though it may please God that some Families are so happy, that they pro­duce as many Heroicks as men, Qui tot annis continuus simul splende [...] clari­tate virtutis, & quamvis rara si [...] gloria, non agnoscitur in tam longo stem­mate variata se­culis suis produ­cit nobilis vena primarios, ne­scit inde ali­quid nasci me­diocre. Tot pro­ba [...]ii quot ge­niti & quod dissicile provenit electa frequentius, ita ut quod addidit familiae ju­venes, tot reddidit curiae consulares. Theodoric. Rex Ep. 6. Importuno, apud Cassiod Var. lib. 3. every one born in it, proving, not only not a blemish, but an Ornament, companion to the Nobles, and best of men; in whom nothing trite, or prostrate, appears, but every thing that proves a spring to the emulation of their contemporaries, as the Decian Family is remembred to have, which lasted for hun­dreds of years unallayed, and in its prime and encreasing keenness, so that to be of it was to be, whatever is expectable from man­hood incarnate.

Or as the Domitian Family,Omnes ad con­sulatum sacer­dotiaque ad tri­umphantium paoene omnes per­venerunt insig­nia Pater. lib. 2. p 438. & 440. Plurimas vi­vendi causas ha­bentem. Plin. de Correll [...]o Rufo. of whom Paterculus writes, all of them either ar­rived at Consular, Sacerdotal, or Trium­phal Grandeur: Or the Brethren of Me­tellus, who triumphed in one and the same day. I know there have been these Instances of auspicious providence to some, who, with Corellius Rufus, have had felicities of all kinds constellated in them, and have had the issue of their prosperity imponderated by the massi­ness of their own wishes; yea, by those [Page 28] concentrated accommodations which have advanced them above parallel, and declared them single in those, not al­most to be believed, enjoyments: To have a clear reputation, and great pow­er, Wife, Daughter, Sons, Nephews, du­tiful and virtuous, a number of choice Friends, and all this with a chast and unviciated Conscience, is, that which but few Romans besides him had: Nor of many English men can that be said, which our Learned Cambden writes of the Earl of Wiltshire, Britannia, p. 267. Treasurer to King Edward the sixth, who well understood the different times he lived in, and was to steer his course by: That he was rai­sed, not suddenly, but by degrees, in Court; that he built Noble and Princely Buildings; was temperate in all other things, full of years, for he lived ninety seven years, fruitful in his generation, for he saw one hundred and three issue from him by his Wife: I say, though God leave these Instances, and such like, to as­sert, and make good, the imperativeness and priviledge of his pleasure, yet most­ly it is otherwise: Statues do not more gather moss, and moulder away with weather, nor Vegetables fade and dye by the currency of their season, and the [Page 29] aridness of their root, the decay of whose succulency appears in the contra­ction and cessation of the Flowre, then Men and Families do by Time, which has swept away with its Besome, and car­ried down its Current, Kingly, Peery, and Gentry Families, and set them and their Honours on shore in that Terra incognita, wherein they are extinguisht. Yea, in our own Nation, how has the same Ca­rere and fate mortified the quondam be­ing and greatness of Name in the Brit­tish and Saxon Families; yea, and in the Families from the Conquest, by name, Albanay, Fitz-Hugh, Mountacute, Mount­ford, Beauchampt, Brewier, Cameis, Bar­dolf, Mortimer, Valtort, Botereaux, Chau­mond, Curcey, De la Beche, Carminow, Brewire, Fitz-lewis, Marmion, Deincourt, Burnell, Plantagenet, all right Noble and Knightly Families in their times, but now either wholly eraced, or couched under Families, who married their Heirs, and, with their Lands and Blood, carry their Names only in their Title: I say, this Vulture, and vehemence, in time, tells us, that as here there is no Per­manency, so here good & brave Men must expect rather to be deplorable objects of desertion and poverty, then the Fa­vourites [Page 30] of credit and abundance; nor do I observe the lines of life crosser, or the channels of prosperity lower, to any then to these: Envy, or some other mis­chievous accident, either calmming their design so that they can make no Port be­fore they are ruined; or else the surges of the storms, in which they and their honest projects ride, suffering them never to be happier, then a shipwrack of all can make them; and the breaking of their hearts for greif superadded, can by it detriment the world in their loss. This I the rather introduce, to turn Men and my self upon rumination of Gods pro­ceedings herein, more abstruse then the nature of unmortified man is capable to submit to, or patient to acquiesce in: Nor is there anything, that I know, wherein the carnal Heart, and inquisitive Wit, more covets to fathom, and concerns it self to circumvolve, then Gods wrap­ping of himself up in the Cloud, execu­ting the pleasure of his Will in this, which our dwarfy reason, and insolent igno­rance, tearms, with reverence I write it, the hysteron proteron of divine Soveraign­ty, which, by what we call an inconse­quence of cause and effect, ratifies his great Authority, and ineffable Wisdom, [Page 31] Whose Iudgments are past searching, and his wayes not to be found out; because it is a way in the sea, and a path in the great water, Psalm 77. 19. whose footsteps are not known.

How this notwithstanding has per­plexed holy and wise men, appears in that of Iob cap. 12. who stumbled, That the Tabernacles of the wicked pro­sper, and they that provoke God are secure, into whose hand God bringeth abundantly. And of Ieremy c. 12. v. 1. Let me reason with thee of thy Iudgments; wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? where­fore are all they happy that are very trea­cherous? And Lam. 1. 5. speaking of the Church, complains, her enemies pro­sper, her adversaries are the chief, for the Lord hath afflicted her. O this prosperity of the wicked, is, that which makes Da­vid, a man of a good nature, and a grave sincerity, cry out, I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed mine hands in inno­cency, Psal. 73. 13. and tempts them (un­less better kept by his Grace, and less leaning to their own understanding, and less swayed by natural reason) to think there is either no knowledge in the most High, v. 11. Or, that though a sinner do evill a hundred times, his dayes may be pro­longed, Eccless. 8. 12. This slow progress [Page 32] of God, to judge evil men in the punish­ment of their evil actions, makes, as evil men set themselves fully to do evil v. 11. so good men almost put forth their hands to iniquity, Psal. 25. 3.

Indeed, I confess, according to the seruples and narrow calculates of depra­ved reason, and the vilde objects of our carnal senses, dijudicating these transposi­tions and seeming confusions of admini­stration, there should none of this be, but as no ill thing should fall out to good, so no good befal evil men; because, ac­cording to the Syntax of cause and ef­fect, and the compossibility of a good effect from a good venture well made and marketted, there should be a Ho­mogeneousness in the return. But when, as often it is otherwise, and that not on­ly in punishment of some adjunct evil to the best good in us, and so on the con­trary; but also in right to Gods inde­pendency, and plenipotency, vindicated thereby, it proves otherwise, there ought to be in us no repining against, or aversion from, the Love of, and Du­ty unto, God, who does, with the Crea­tion, his Clay, what the power and will of him the Potter pleaseth, who in all the emanations of his Attributes both [Page 33] penal and premiary,In quolibet con­tinuo indubi­tanter sunt par­tes insini [...]ae & sic providet & c [...]ravit creat [...]r, ut esset totum, sic providet et curavit ut esset medietas & eodem modo se habet de medi­etate medietatis & ita in infini­tunt qui enim providit & curat, ut sit d [...] ­mus, providet & cur [...]t ut sit paries, & etiam ut sil l [...]pis in pariete. Gulielm. Pari. siens. primae partis de uni­verso parte. 3. c. 2. & 3. p. 713. evidences himself not more a God of power and wisdom, then a Father of mercy and goodness. For in that the wisdom, power, goodness, holiness and fidelity of God are concerned to effect the glory of the Divinity, in the preserva­tion of the prerogatives of its Crown and dignity, & in the accommodation of its sub­jects with all things necessary to their being and wel-being. That which occurs to them in their passage from the one state unto the other, must needs be accepted by them as replete with all those energyes and intents of advantage, which are efflu­xable from those forementioned divine Excellencies, as Gods purpose concerning them, and the grounds of their subjection and relyance on him. And thereupon it follows that to recalcitrate those befalls, as they are consequences of superne good­ness and greatness, is, to kick against the pricks, and to desie the prescriptions and superemin [...]ncy of God.

Which lessons men to abate deplo­ration of their personal or Family mis­fortunes, because though the instru­ments that unwelcomely adjuvate their infelicity be from themselves, yet the chief causality is in that regency which is its own both regulation and sup­port. [Page 34] And if there be not a hayr of our heads but is numbred, Matth. 10. 30. Or a Sparrow fall to the ground without the goodwill of our Father, as our Lord has assured us, in the aforesaid Scrip­ture, then we ought to possess our souls in patience, Luke 21. 19. and to rea­son our repinings out of credit with us, as Iob did, Shall we receive good at the hands of God, and not euil? Iob 2. 10. Especially when the living man that com­plains suffers for his sin. 3 Lam. 39. For God being of infinite wisdom and power, as he designs nothing but what is good, so he admits no good into the rank of his effective purpose, but what he knows ought, and wills shall come to pass, and that in the very nicety and seemingly minute circum­stance of its appearing and opperation, ei­ther as to time, degree, persons, issue, or whatever else is considerable in it. For there being in him an Omniformity and comprehensivity of knowledge, by which he, after a manner superiour to our appre­hension and way of intellect, reaches all things by his simple and plenary intuition; the associate perfections in him being of equal lustre and unparaleldness, second the knowledge of God, and serve it out in providence and order of action which [Page 35] as validly produces, as his knowledge and wisdom contrives it. And hence it comes to pass, that the will of God working on ou [...] wills to a cooperation, works good in us, and thence works good by us; and then rewards his own encouragements to goodness by bounteous largesses of ac­ceptance from us.

Thus come men to be Wise, Learned, Temperate, Just, Fortunate, Honourable, not from the innate excellencies of their mind, or from the better temper of their constitution; and the stellary influences propitious to their births, (Though I am far from denying natures operation in any de­gree that is within her sphere, and Gods per­mission, which whether this be or be not, I un­dertake not to state) but from the emana­tion of Gods power, goodness, and wis­dom, imparted to, and mixed with, their actions, in the regularity and aptitude whereof, the characters of their merit and fame are impressed and fortunated; yea, so does God sweetly Soveraign it in the wills of men, that he not only leads their wills of action beyond their wills of deli­beration, and resolve, so that they shall not do the evil they intended, but in his method occasions their wills to will his production of good, in the way and de­gree [Page 36] of his establishment, which they in­tended not. Thus the peevishness of La­ban occasioned the prosperity of Iacob, and the treachery of Iosephs brethren, Iosephs advancement; the rancour of Saul, Davids rise; the revenge of Balack against Israel, Balaams blessing of them; and in a thousand other examples, wherein it might be made good. Which supposed, and written of (not I hope without the modesty that becomes a learner, the rea­son that beseems a man, the piety that ought to be in a good Christian,) there may be some good advance made towards the discovery of the distentions and con­vulsions of Families, Fortunes, and Men, in the various conditions and enterludes of their being: For though (as to us) things may [...]all out, as I said before, in a seeming retrogradation (and under wise manageries, and in the times of good men, unhappily; and under worse times and men more prosperously) yet is not this event of dissimilarity directed by a blind fate, or a chance of mischance, as we call things of spurious causation; but it is the very proper expression of God, conducting second causes to the subservi­ency they must not dispute or say nay to; but by a positivity of observance and [Page 37] compliance be disposed by, and concluded in, For it is the blessing of the Lord makes rich; and it is his pleasure, that as the same Sunne melteth the Wax and hardens the Clay, so the same power of his should become variously effective to men and things; which lets us into the reason, How Men and Families are by a secret sourse or sluce, either made affluent, or dreyned of whatever is notable in them.

SECT. IV.
In what sence the Author understands Ver­tues and Vices to become Rises and Decayes to Men and Families.

ANd now I come to the main of my intendment, having by the preludiary discourse introduced the subsequent mat­ter, which is the mention of those means, Vertues and Vices, which do Constitute or Determine Families, and make or ruin Men in them. Previous to the enlargment whereon, I crave leave to pray a right understanding of what by Vertues and Vices, commencing or determining the Grandeur and felicity of Men and Fami­lies, [Page 38] I herein intend. Far then be it from me to estate vertue in any right of merit to re­ward, by which God, the most free agent, should ex opere operato of his creature, be obliged; or be for reason of congruity or condignity of vertue in men, how remarka­ble for it soever, bound to make them hap­py, & their families after them;Quare profecto summae stu [...]litiae est dicere aut credere regna & imperia necesse esse, ad illos duntaxat perveniant, qui nobilitatem jactare possunt, cum videamus quotidie novos homines, non modo virtute, sed multis saepe vitiis prae­ditos, ad magnos honores a [...]que imperia perdu­ci Ita deo pla­citum est, ut nos nostr [...] ejusmodi bona, hoc non pluris faciamvs quo magis com­munia eadem omn bus & ne [...]mini perpetua esse videmus. Polydor Virgil pro emio lib 9. p 149. for that were to make God mercenary to men, and to take off the gratuity of his good pleasure, which makes every good in us what it is; or to perswade any to believe that God cannot out of prerogative bless a bad or blast a good man and family, with­out impeachment of his justice, or viola­tion of his mercy. No such thing intend I to [...]ix upon the basis of my discourse; for that I know God may do with men and things as he pleases, and yet reserve the glory and lustre of his Attributes; nor ought men to startle at the various­ness of his administrations, who (for reasons best known to himself, and admirable and adorable by us) suffers sometimes just men to perish in their uprightness, and not fearers of God to be exalted. All that I drive at is, to promote Vertue, and deter from Vice, by those cogent arguments of the one, for the most part in this world rewarded, and the other for the most part [Page 39] in this world sorely judged; the one sta­bilitive, the other enervative, of Families.

SECT. V.
Of Piety the first Vertue in Rise of Men and Families, what it is, and how evidenced.

THe first and main advance and prop of Families is Piety to God, which as it consists in a conformity to him in all those imitables, wherein a likeness to him is attainable, such as are Goodness and Charity of usefulness, easiness to give and forgive, patience notwithstanding pro­vocation, with all such other branches as are reduceable under these. So is it seen in those restraints which a man puts upon himself for Gods sake, and to null the pow­er of temptation diversive from God, to the opposites of, and the contrarients to God in him. Hence are those curbings, that holy and effectual self-denial sets upon it self, while the man, in whom it vigorously is, disowns his lawless heart, his straying foot, his wandring eye, his subtile head, his fortunate acquisitions in the most fawning [Page 40] and accumulate consequences and repre­sentation of them, [...]. Idem lib. 4. c 6. to keep the testimony of a good conscience towards God, which consists not only in the practice of that worldly Philosophy which Epictetus saies is the effect of refined nature, to consider what we want of the mastery of passions, what of the minds tranquility; what we are, and how we come up to the decree of our being; and wherein our neglect ministers to our own improsperity; but in giving ones self up to God, [...] lib. 3. c. 26 to be what he will, and will not have us be. This is to be truly godly, to take God for our pattern, and to resolve our thoughts, words, actions to him as into their Principle and Centre of authen­tication and excellency, which when a man sets his heart to effect in himself, God blesses with successe above mea­sure, and with comsorts not to be valued; and that not only in the minds calmness and in the faith of a future reward, but in the serenato of his outward condition; so was it to Abraham, who for entertai­ning Gods command with obedience, and following him to the abjuration of his native Country, and believing his pro­mise above and beyond hope procured the promise that God would be his ex­ceeding great reward; that in blessing [Page 41] he would bless him,Gen. 15. 1 multiply his po­sterity as the Stars of Heaven, and the Sands upon the Sea shore; the extent of which reached not only to his natural seed, but to his seed in succession of Faith in & reliance upon The to be revealed Sal­vation. Nor can piety have less entailed on it, then perpetuation, because St. Paul, from the Spirit of God, asserts it to have the promise of this life, 1 Tim. 4. v. 8. as well as of that which is to come; which though it be not in the summity of its degree fulfilled ever to pious men (For whose condition af­fluence is not ever good, nor by God allowed convenient, but often and in great proportions the contrary. Yet is in such kinds, waies, and methods indul­ged to them, as will comport with their present piety, and their future clarity; and that because piety is an honour done to God, in preferring him as the best good, and declining everything contrary to him, as evil inconsistent with him; and God saies,1 Sam. 2. 30. Them that honour me I will ho­nour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Lev. [...]0. 7. Piety is an imitation of God,1 Pet. 1. 16. Tis to he holy as he is holy; Ioh. 1. 5. Piety is a re­signation of our selves and our affaires toHeb. 13. 5. God; and that is attended with his never leaving nor forsaking his confidents; so just [Page 42] is God to his word, so royall is God to his waiters on him, that they who take him for their pattern to walk by, are sure to have him their reward to live with; and that not only in the reversion of e­ternity, the object of their faith,Quid est piet as nisi voluntas grata in paren­tes? qui sunt boni cives? qui belli qui domi de patria bene merentes, nisi qui patriae be­neficio memi­nerunt: qui Sancti, qui re­ligionem colen­tes? nisi qui meritam diis immortalibus gratiam jus [...]is honoribus & memori mente persolvunt. Cicero Orat. pro Cnejo Plaucio. but in the earnest of this worlds accommodation convenient to their sanctifyed and mode­rated sense; which makes me commend highly those parents who are not so over solicitous to cark and prog wealth and worldly allyes, which often are seeming rather then real stores to Families, as to train them up in the fear of God, and to dispose of them in Callings consistent with Religion, and then to match them with such as are religious, and heartily revere God; For if to make God ones aym, and to devote a Family to him, be to bespeak and in a sort lay a rightfull claim to his Patronage, and to the shelter and succour of his Wisdom, Power, Goodness, in which none can miscarry, as appeared in the Midwives of Aegypt, who, notwith­standing the favour and terrour of Pha­raoh, would not injure the births of the Israelites, but by doing their duties, as in the sight, and according to the fear, of God, are said to be dealt with well, Exod. 1. 20. and that in Gods reward of secu­rity [Page 43] upon them; for v. 21. it is said, And it came to passe, because the Midwives feared the Lord, that he made them houses; that is, he not only secured them against Pha­raohs displeasure, but enlarged the num­ber and wealth of their posterity.Sobolem eorum auxit quod Haebrei soboli pepercissens. Grot. ex Am­bros. in loc. Clarius in loc. Fecerat eos do­mas sacerdo­tii scilicet & regni. Va [...]ab. in loc. For, though I cannot assent to the Hebrews thoughts, that God directed the Israelites to build them strong houses against the danger of Pharaohs fury. Nor that this building them houses concerned their Fami­lies advance to the Priesthood and King­dom; yet I do humbly conceive, that God mightily enriched them and their Fami­lies, in a temporal regard;Locupletaverit eos magnit divitiis inter Egyptios & fecerit eos principla vel capita magna­rum domorum inde nascentium Stus. Greg. in lo [...] Tostatus in loc. which is, I think, the sense of the words: Though I know Reverend Calvin, and others of great judgment, in regard of the Mascu­line Pronoune refer it to the Israelites, propagated by the feeble Instrumentality of the Midwives, whose judgment (though I in most cases submit to, yet from it in this, crave leave to depart.) I say, if this fruit of piety, perpetuation of Families, be from this, and such like presidents, evin­cible, then those persons and families that most sincerely and constantly adhere to God, and are owned by him as such, are most likely and sure to succeed in their wise, humble and godly undertakings, [Page 44] and not only to have in their own hearts' and to give to others, excellent comforts: as did the deathbed of the Earl of Essex, Deputy of Ireland, Holingshed. p. 1 [...] 65. tempore Eliz. to the then Archbishop of Dublin, who profes [...]ed that his deathbed speeches should serve him for Sermons so long as he lived; but to obtain temporal good things to them and their heirs after them. The assurance of this in such times and proportions as God knows best, made Abraham so pre­cisely train up his children and family in the fear of God, and God give so full a testimony of it, in those words, Gen. 18. v. 19. I know Abraham, that he will teach his children and family to fear me. Yea, the expectation and confidence of this wrought David, to that instruction of his Son, 1 Chro. 28. 9. And thou Solomon my Son, know the God of thy fathers, and serve him with an uright heart, that ye may pos­sess this good Land, and leave it for an in­heritance [...]or your children after you for ever, V. 8.

I know this is vulgar Divinity to the high-minded World, and dull untaking reason to the prophane and deriding wits of it, who account Holiness the only way to bigotry; and declare serious resolution to live to, & as, God, excerebrated Enthu­siasm, [Page 45] and Phanatiqueness; they them­selves being, as Petrarch that gallant Gen­tleman complains of the prophane Gal­lants of his age,Ad [...]il aliud animosi quam ad luxuriae stu­dium virtutis­que odium, ni­hil autem in­solite est, si vir­tutis exempla virtutis hosti­bus sunt mole­sta. Lib. 2. de vita solitar. Sect. 4. c. 6. Remarkable for nothing but proficiency in Luxury, and Enmity to Vertue; and thereupon not to be accounted as other then haters of, and opposites to every divine man and thing. I say, though to these, religious severitie against sin, and in zeal to goodness, be foolishness and loss of time: yet if any thing be a support against decay, a lustre in ballance to ble­mish, a cordial against desperitings, a security in evil times, a winner upon ene­mies, a confirmation of friends; yea, a­bove all, a Command as it were upon Heaven: this is that very Soveraign dar­ling which is the subject of Gods care and power, both which cooperate to its preservation: This is that which makes a mans enemies be at peace with him. Pro. 16. 7. and, his God to speak peace to him, Psal. 85. 8. and ordain peace for him, Isa. 26. 12. make him enter into peace, Isai. 57. 2. live in assured peace, Jer. 14. 13. and die in peace, Jer. 24. 5. This is that which makes the cup run over, Psalm 23. 5. whatsoever is taken in hand to prosper, Psalm 1. 3. This is that which abandons fear in the midst of the valley of the shadow of death, Psalm 23. 4. [Page 46] And this is that in whose right hand is length of daies, and in whose left hand are riches and honour, Prov. 3. 16. And if this Piety be, how beautiful is it, and how desirable ought it to be, beyond every competitor with it? and how cha­racteristical is it of it self from all spuri­ous pretenders to it? which therefore are ineffectual to its ends, because adulterate and of false composition: For piety that is thus Munificent and subsidiary to Men and Families, is such by its conjunction with God, and its benediction from God. 'Tis that voyce which God calls for, Let me hear thy voyce, In specie autem fictae simulatio­nis, sicut reli­quae virtutes ita pietas inesse non potest, cum qua simule [...] san­ctitatem & re­ligionem tolli necesse est, for it is sweet, Cant. 2. 14. 'Tis that sweet savour that's grate­ful to him, Phil. 4. 18. 'Tis a potent charm, (with reverence I write) which has a pleasing restraint on him, Deut. 9. 14. 'Tis that without which there is no peace, Isa. 57. 21. 'Tis that with which there is no want; Quibus sub­latis, pertur­batio vitae sequitur & magna con­susio. Cicero lib. de natur. deorum. for to such as have it, The Lord is a Sun and a shield, he will give grace and glory, and no good thing will he withhold from them that love him, Psal. 84. 11. And is not this Piety to be valued? are Riches Power, Parts, Beauty, Friends, compa­rable to it? which, how useful soever they are, and how creditable soever they ap­pear, are only termers to the worlds ca­sualty [Page 47] and ebb and flow, as the vicissi­tudes of it do, when the fear of God en­dures for ever in its rule and reward, and thereby deserves a name or esteem above all names. Yea if piety be sincere and Scriptural, it is such a representation of God, as dazzles all mortalls eyes, and si­lences all mortall detraction; such it is, as extorts from enemies the acknowledge­ment that God is in it of a truth; and thus the Spirit of glory resting on it, the obsti­nacy of man must become suffragan to the testimony of its superexcellency; For if the glory of God be that fixedness of his to his purposes, and the indefeatibleness of his creatures expectations; then is Piety, which is the imitation of God in what he is imitable: Not besides that proportion of glory it is capable of, even for its con­junction to, and sameness with, him. And thus it is accounted by me in Founders, or Continuers of Families, a great vertue; yea the greatest of vertues, and that which gives acceptation to all the rest.

SECT. VI.
Of Iustice the second Vertue and Means of raysing Men and Families, with Examples out of Sacred and Civill Story.

NExt unto it, I account Justice, and Civil honesty of Conversation and dealing a great strengthning to the Rise of a Family: For Justice is the basis of Gods Throne, Psalm 79. v. 14. and an At­tribute essential to him, above all created beings, which are so far only Just, as they are partakers of his original Justice, which he has so implanted on,Omnium hone­starum rerum semina animi gerunt quae admonitione excitantur, non aliter quam scintilla flaiu levi adjuta, ignem suam explicat. Senec. Ep. 94. and riveted into, the soul and mind of man, that thence to avell it, or there to usurp upon it, is a rape upon, and an insolence against the Modesty and Majesty of it. Hence is it that the obligation and tincture of this vertue is generally admitted by all man­kind, as the principle of all natural Reli­gion, and morall converse; because it for­tifies a man against all seidges of dismay, & terrours of accidents; and composes him [Page 49] to set his soul upon the duty of its design and being,Ecce spectacu­lum dignum ad quod respiciat intentus operi suo Deus, Ecce, par deo dig­num, vir for [...]is cum [...]ala for­tuna compositus. Senec. lib. de Providentia. to serve his Maker, and serve his age and relations: which perhaps may be something of the reason why crosses and mis-fortunes befall the best men in this world, God delighting to see the Vertues of his Hectors tried in these com­bats, and the truth of their Mettall ham­mered on so hard an Anvil, gains the greater content to himself, and glory from others, by this their stability, which is not onely explorative of his bounty to them, but exemplary to others, whose courage and resolution is thereby exer­ted and confirmed. Which Solomon right­ly. considering, appends a great Encomi­um to it in the benediction he promulges upon it, when in his own experience of the providence of God, he testifies to the world, That the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked, but he blesseth the habitation of the Iust, Pro. 3. 33. And the Psalmist, Psal. 7. 9. O let the wickednes of the wicked come to an end, but establish thou the Iust. To which if we adde that of the 37 Psalm, v. 25. I have been young, and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous for­saken, nor his seed begging bread; there is enough to conclude with the wise man, Blessings are upon the head of the just, but [Page 50] violence covereth the mouth of the wicked, Prov. 10. v. 6. For however it may fall out, that just men sometimes suffer in common evils, and are boaren down by publique oppressions, not only as, but more remarkably beyond, violent and perverse men; and that to punish some notable failing in them visible to Gods eye, though latent from men, and to pos­sess them that all things many times fall alike here to good and bad; this World being neither the Heaven of the one, nor the Hell of the other, but so checquered with black and white veines, and with lardings of fat and lean occurrences, that there may be thought, in the contingents of it, no ground of concluding good or evil by what are the returns of them, we seeing here many impious men live in honour, and die in peace, while men more excel­lent then they are living unfortunate, and violently dealt with in their deaths. As were the two Transfigured Chiefs, who on the mount of Majesty appeared in their respective ages, trangsfigured, K. Henry the Sixth: and the never to be forgotten, but ever­lastingly to be admired and bemoaned, Our late gracious Lord and Master, Sir Henry Wottens Cha­racter. p. 141. King Charles the First, the Martyr, who was stiff in Good, and stout in great resolutions. Though I [Page 51] say, these Princes, on whom no designed evil, acted by them, can be honestly char­ged, were villanously dealt with; and by the prevalence of usurpation, destroy­ed; yet is it mostly otherwise, the Just in their persons and posterities being se­ [...]undated and kept by his power to their perfect day of discovery and glory, [...]. Bas [...]l▪ Seleviae. Orat. 5. p. 27. [...] Naz Orat. 27. Gods justice becoming to their justice a Buck­ler of defence as well as a bucket of store to them and theirs, to whom it hath con­veyed waters of relief and faecundation. This was remarkably made good to Noah a very just man, whom because God saw, truly religious in his generation, Gen. 7. 1. when he overwhelmed all the world, he preserved him by an Ark on the Waters, and with him secured his relations, and in them the seed of succession, [...] as the Fathers words are; and all this as a reward of distinction betwixt righteous He and violent sanguine They, who were Giants in the Earth, Idem Orat. [...]0. and who provoked God by the Inundation of their truculency and oppression. Nor rests it only upon this president, that justice is the way to honour and establishment, but the promises of God, and the assurances of prophetique Men, who accepted it as a matter of faith, and deliver it as such [Page 52] to us confirm the truth of it. King David spends the 37 Psalm in enumerations of felicity to just and good men, Vers. 3. Trust in the Lord and do good, and verily thou shalt be fed. V. 9. Those that wait upon the Lord shall inherit the Earth. V. 12. The wicked plotteth against the just. V. 13. The Lord shall laugh at him. For he knoweth that his day is comming. V. 17. The arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholdeth the righteous, V. 18. The Lord knoweth the daies of the upright, and their inheritance shall be for ever. Such flowers of comfort are disperced thoroughout this Psalm; yea, thoroughout the Scripture, that the acceptation of this grace with God is mightily thence arguable. In one Scripture we read of the path of the just, cleared out to him, and his proficiency in it, Prov. 4. 18. In another, the head of the just blessed, Prov. 10. 6. and his me­mory blessed, vers. 7. The just delivered from trouble, Prov. 12. 13. no evil hap­pen to him, vers. 21. The wealth of the sinner laid up for him, c. 13. v. 22. yea, his restitution to rectitude certain, c. 24. v. 16. So much concerned is God for this just man, that as his Tongue is as choyce Silver, c. 10. v. 20. and his mouth bringeth forth wisdom, v. 31. as it is a joy to him [Page 53] to do judgment c. 21. v. 15. So God doth weigh the paths of the just, Isa. 26. 7. & is to them a just God, and a Saviour, Isai. 45. 27. O this Justice is a rare Jewel, for it is not only the Rudder that steers humane actions to a happy conclusion, dum rem suum, In Plato's Amaiores. rem familiarem, rempublicam admini­strat, as Marcilius Ficinus notes: but also makes the Haver, in the darkest night of danger, and in the dismallest age of dis­honesty, to be transparent and feared. [...]. Cebes in Tabula p. 42. edit. Wolphii. [...]. Philosoph. lib. 5. de Morib. c. 5. St. Chrysostome calls it, the chief Phylosophy of the soul, and the Complement of all the Will of God: Cebes the Theban ranks it with those [...], which he places [...], as being led by Fortitude ushers Integrity, Temperance, Modesty, Libe­rality, Clemency, all Vertues; by reason of which this Cardinal vertue is of so use­full import to the soul, that it serves for all purposes of avail to it, as a Rudder to steer, an Anchor to hold, Sayles to carry, Merchandise to fraught, Port to secure, Market to vent it to ends of advantage: For as it keeps one eye at home, and les­sons a man, so to be good to others, as he prove not evil to himself; so doth it call him to be good to himself so, and so, only as consists with the good of others. There­fore Justice I account a vertue of distri­bution [Page 54] not impropriation, which is so o­perative that it ceases its private con­cern, when Charity and Piety challenges and conjures it to a manifestation of grea­ter latitude. This makes a man not so much consult the Willows prudence, as the Oakes fixedness,Scis quemdicam bonum, perfe­ctum, absolut [...]m quem malum sacere nulla vis nulla ne­cessitas possi [...] hunc in te pro­spicio si perse­veraveris & incu [...]ueris & id egeris ut omnia facta dictaque [...]ua inter se congruant, & respondeant sibi & una forma percussa sint. Sene [...]. Ep. 34. and to not so settle his words and actions to a symmetry with men and times in their riddle and scep­ticism of humours, as to bring his mind and actions into a congruity of mould and a correspondency with vertue; the dispropor­tion to which argue them differently im­pressed, and not equally allyed to truth, which in the concord of them is nobliest defined, as Seneca's observation is: For this, in a ra­diancy, as the morning light; and in a solidity, as the Center of the Earth, was Iob in the East famous, No man like him in the East, a perfect and an upright man: one that feareth God, and escheweth evil; Gods own certiorari of him, chap. 1. v. 8.

And such another was Cato Vticensis in the West,Homo virtuti simillimus & per omnia ingenio d [...]is qu [...]m hominibus propior, qui nun­quam recte secit▪ [...]t facere v [...]de­retur, sed quod aliter f [...]cere non poterat, cuique id solum visum est rationem h [...] bere, quod [...]iberet justi [...]iam omnibushuma­nis viti [...]s immuni [...], semper for­tuna [...] in sut po [...]estate ha [...]uit. Paterrul. lib [...]. p. 37. whom Paterculus writes to be the very Image of all Vertue, in Wit liker Gods then Men; who did nothing vertuously because he would have the praise of doing well, but be­cause he was so good, that he could [Page 55] not do other then good; to whom the juster any thing was, the more was he a friend to it: for justice was natural to him, and so exempted him from the miseries that attend injury; that men concluded by the happiness he had, that God had convey­ed to him the arbitration of his own fe­licity. Thus Paterculus.

Upon which ground I cannot but e­steemHaec est indubi­tata animi nobi­litas quae mori­bus probatur ornata. Theo­doricus Rex Theobaldo [...]p. 41. var. lib. 5. Cassiod. Justice in the nature of any man such a deep tincture of Nobility, as no­thing else can equally ingraine the mind with; such a dos of general and geno­rous cordiality, as no distemper can e­virruate, or defeat in its seasonable ope­ration. For Justice being in the Philo­sophers word, [...], not the good of the havers private self only, but of others chiefly he corresponds with,Lib. 5. de Mo­ribus. c. 10. eviden­ces it self to all those persons and cases in which men apply themselves unto it. Hence it makes the Zelot just to his professi­on, the Valiant man just to his party, the Husband and Wife just to their [...]roth, the Parent and Child just in their exchanges of love and duty, the Prince and his Subjects just in the entercourses of Protection and Subjection; the Schollar just to his Study, the Tradesman just to his Creditors, the Husbandman just to his [Page 56] Lands, in allowing them proper seasons and tillage. In summe, this is the not only varnish and perewig that sets out men,V [...]us rectae ra­tionit maxime apparet in Iu­stitia, & usus indebitus in vitiis oppositis justi [...]iae. Aqui­nas Sam. 1. 2. q 55. art 8. and actions to an amiable sparkishness; but it is the very heart and soul of all the Noble actions of life, without which man▪ (who is under God the King of all crea­tures, and should follow the example of God Almighty his chief, who is perfect Justice;) is not only not man, but even be­neath the beast that perisheth: to whom as the Holy Ghost attributes Wisdom and Prudence,Lege Bochar­tum parte 2. Hierozoon. c. 17. p. [...]56. Homines depri­mit infra be­stias stupidis­simas Id. parte 1. lib. 2. c. 41. p. 409. Isa. 1. 3. as to the sensual preservation of himself and his kind; so to the beast does he ascribe justice of gratitude to the care and kindness of his keeper, The Ox knoweth his owner, and the Ass his Masters scrib; that is acknowledgeth his Feeder, & is obser­vant of him. Hence it comes to pass, that as Justice is the pale and boundary of right and wrong,Danda opera est, ne quid contra ae quitatem con­tendas, ne quid per injuriam. Fundamentum enim perpetuae commendatio­ois & fam [...] est justitia, sin qua nihil potest esse laudabile. Cic. lib. 2. de offic. so to remove Justice is to lay all distinctions level, and to make a Gally­maufry of order and beauty: Take away justice and lust will become law, and power violence; friendship will transide into treachery, and neighbourhood lanch out into preying; the Table will become a snare, and the house a nest of enmity. But when men live and act in reference to justice, they doubly advantage man­kind, [Page 57] both by the good Rules they pre­scribe, and the Noble vertues they practise.

And hereupon justice, when other ver­tue are, in some sense, limited to particu­larities, as Valour to Souldiers, Eloquence to Advocates, nimbleness of peception to Statesmen: when diligence is proper to Tradesmen, Humility to Servants, and Bounty to Greatness.Iustitia legalis move per impe­rium ad su [...]m finem omnes alias virtutes morales S. A­quin 22. q. 58. art. 6. This Justice approves it self the Catholique Ornament: Nor is any man to be truly accounted good and happy, who is not grave and just, which because Alexander was not in that inex­cusable Homicide of Calisthenes, the blot of cruel and sensual indelibly lies upon him, and Seneca is his accuser,Hoc est Alex­andri crinem aeternum quod nulla virtus nulla bellorum faelicita [...] redi­met quod Ca­listhenem [...]c­cidit. Natur. Quaest. lib. 6. c. 23. as disho­nouring his conquests by the irregularity of that. And though Harold the once usurper comming in by ill means, did many excellent things (destroyed bad, en­acted good Laws, protected the Church, ho­noured Church-men, punished transgressors, defended the rights of all government, Regno potitus statim caepit leges in quas destruere, &c. Knighton lib. 1. de Eventib. Anglorum c. 16. which was Princelily done) yet with his Govern­ment he lost his honour, for Knighton sayes, He came in by sinne, and went out by shame. Yea, so great a hater is God of iniquity, and so ill stewards are men guilty of it, for their own peace and prosperity, that they seldom, that are immerged in it, a­voyd [Page 58] the ruine of it: Nor among all the Romans were there many, or any almost, that escaped cruel death, or banishment, who were causal of the deaths & diminu­tions of their vertuous Countreymen: or of others whom, in their Conquests they sinfully and against the law of Charity and Arms, trucidated. This Petrus Ble­sensis temp. H. 2. observed, [...] 4. [...]. Epis­copo [...] not without evident truth of story. Nor do I be­lieve any Family in its descent from the greatness of an Ancestor▪ who was or is un­just, can or will long thrive, unless it be for a punishment to something else in the age of its contemporariness; or to manifest some other pleasure of God, to which the present prosperity of such a race, subservs. Nor is there cause to fear the blessing of God upon Issue from a pi­ous and charitable Parent. For though, as before is noted, his branches may for a while, and in some particular, wi­ther: yet the root shall retain its life, and inform some seeming obscure Twigs to after eminency; [...] specioso [...]cognomine sed in ve [...]a Iustitia regi [...] regnique [...] sita est Petrarcha lib. 1. de re [...]ed. [...]. Fortunae dialog 9 [...]. He hath disper­sed abroad, he hath given to the poor, his righteousness remains for ever, his horn shall be exalted with honour. Psalm 112. v. 9. And when Eliphaz, in Job 4. 7. said, Remem­ber I pray thee, who ever perished being Inno­cent; [Page 59] or where were the righteous cut off? Does he not mind us that Justice is a great help to ascent and permanence in Great­ness, and that Families are seldom long Generous or Noble that are raised by In­jury; nor are men just from what they say, but in what they do.Sumpsisti no­men, ex me [...]itis custodi ut sem­per laeteris ve­ritate vocabuli Cas [...]iod. var. lib. 8. c. 18. Which Alatharick the Gothish King applied to Faelix, whom he minded to be as he was named, and not to content himself to be stiled that which in grace of action he deserved not.

SECT. VII.
Wherein Frugality is asserted to be a Rise to Men and Families: Together with the true adjustment of Fru­gality.

TO the two former there is to be ad­ded Frugality, a great advance to Families. For though to live high and splendid, make a noise, filling the sayles of a Family with the ayre of applause; yet the purchase of that flourish is so chargable, exhaustive, and irreparable, that wise men decline it as the [...] and sive thorow which the encrease of a Fa­mily [Page 60] dreyns and passes. Which Seneca remarkably seconds, when he writes thus: What is more vain and sensual then costly dyet, Quid est caena sumptuosa fla­gitius, & eque­strem censum consumente? Quid tam dig. num cansoria nota, si quis ut▪ isti Gareones loquuntur sibi haec & genio suo praestet. Epist. 95. and profuse drinking, what more wast­full to Knightly wealth, then the luxury of long and costly Entertainments? what is more worthy the Magistrates inspection, then the prodigality of deboshees, that study nothing but to pamper their bodies, and prostitute Vertue by a sinfull excess. Thus he. And not without cause and reason: for Rome was grown so profuse, that Vice disinhe­rited Patricians, and corrupted Matrons; which apologized for the Doctrine of Frugality, as the stop to that carrere, and the check to that Gangrene. For indeed great is the rake, and bottomless the mine of timely and discreet Frugality: It Fills the purse, moderates the port, pre­pares for posterity, supplies relations, answers charity, is obliged servilely to none, but subsists upon Gods blessing, and its own lawful providence; lawful, I say, For it resolves not to be rich, by making haste, in Solomons sense: P [...]ov. [...]8. 20. that is, by making more haste then good speed; nor by de­nying it self lawful accommodations; or by hoarding up what is better ungot­ten, then had; for such, not frugality, but covetousness, would be like The acqui­rents [Page 61] of Sacriledge, a curse to its saver; which God punisheth in his penal blast, and in the vain and praiseless dispersion of a prodigal heir, whose Fork will cast abroad all the Come to mee's of his Rake, and send the Fruits of the short measure, the deceitfull ballance, Diseamus mem­bris nostris inniti cultum victumque non ad nova exem­pla componere sed ut majorum suadent mores. Senec. lib. de Tranquil. animi. and of the evil covetise of the Achans and Iudasses of the world, into the Lethe and dead sea of wast and inappearance: Whereas Frugality as it consists in a convenient supply and management of things, in a mediocrity equally distant from excess: So it keeps us in a composure of mind, not cast down with our condition present, or raised by what may in our future state be more pub­lique and notorious.

Thus Livius Drusus may be thought as a wel-poysed Roman to live, who would have his house pervious, that his actions in it might be seen conform to the rule of a serious and wel-directed man, whose Furniture, Dyet, Clothes, Equipage, were all such as his Fortune would bear, his degree answer, and his reputation not be impeached by. And according to this, who ever enjoyes himself, will finde him­self the better Christian, the wiser Man, and the providenter Parent. I confess to the great spirits, and little experience of [Page 62] Youth this is an unwelcome prescript; a degenerous abatement, they count every thing of contraction, though it be a Pandora to afrer plenty; but yet it is that which years and full sight into the world▪ disciplines men in; and the further degree they take in this Liberal Science of life, the more capable are they to be good subjects, good Fathers, good Masters, good Common-wealths-men: For Vice is expensive and wasting, Vertue onely is thrifty and chargless: and if men do but once taste the sweetnesse of wel-tempe­red thrift, they will finde it befriend them with all the coveniences of life; and that without diminution of credit, or fortune; for wisdom being the understanding of arts, in order to the understanding of men by and beyond them; Frugality, which is the wisdom of living without excess, in any Inordinacy, must be a nota­ble means to Emineny, as it veinges upon self-mastery and practical wisdom.

I am no Orator for narrow minds or penu­rious living; I thank God I have both a spirit above the one, & have ever had the mercy to be exempt from the necessity of the o­ther, a Free spirit and a Free port suit well, and nothing beneath it becomes Noble men, and Gentlemen; where God gives [Page 63] them fortuns to their degree, credit and wisdom to do what is honest, seemly, and prudent; but that which I defend in Patronage to the fortune and generosity of a Family, is wisdom of practice to live within bounds, that is, to live vertuously. Without voluntary poverty, Non potest stic­dium salutare fieri sine [...]ru­galitate, cum srugalitas pau­pertas volun­taria est: Inter exerpta [...] libris Senec [...]. and the care of bounding a mans self, no Vertue (saies Seneca) can be secured: For, if men gra­tifie themselves to the utmost of their ex­travagant fancy, the progeny of that lu­bricity will be eradication of Fame first, then of friends, and suddenly after of fortune: For no man can be truly wor­thy, who contemns health, reputation, counsel, preservation, to satiate the rude importunity of a delicate pallate, a wan­ton eye, an extravagant brain, a credu­lous humour, and a costly levity: all which, as so many eager hounds, gnaw upon the surprised carcase of an over­driven prodigal, whose transition of the modest bounds of vertue, renders him a prey to the extorting Usurer, the cunning Broker, the harpy Cook, the cozening Taylor, the deluding Steward, the faw­ning Tenant, the crafty Divel; till at last he become Lord and Master of nothing but a prison, and be denied pitty when in himself he is helpless. Whereas Fruga­lity [Page 64] so directs to live, in all the several­ties of conversation, as to conform pre­sent enjoyments to future equality, and to prosperity not only personal but Gen­tilical; and to break in upon no advan­tage in hand, that leaves its dregs dole­ful to succession; which, from the wound and mortification of it, first droop, then wither, and at last fall off from their roo [...] and branch.

The inconsideration of which [...] or wise foresight, in the practicall use of it, is one of the main, and to us known rea­sons of the unprovision that in many the great Families of England makes Daugh­ters and younger Sons unhappy; because Noblemen and Gentlemen, swollen big with the flattery of a great Fortune, [...] free hous-keeping, a Noble retinue, ful [...] and chargeable recreations, and often with notable sucking vices, are so belea­gured and overpowred with multitude of expences, that they breeding their chil­dren in proportion to, and in love of these their treacherous diversions, leave the [...] when they die little but idleness, tenuity of fortune, Ignorance, Immorality, by reason of which they come to shame, sor­row, unprofitableness to their family and the Nation; which, were it timelily consi­dered, [Page 65] and their expences moderated in such excrecencies as their prudences may abate, without impeachment of honour, and wast of interest in their Countries; there might be such supply given to their childrens marriage, or other dispose, as would render them independent on their elder brother, and able to live like their fathers children. So true is that of ex­pence, which Xenophon sayes of Warre, small Forces well managed do great feats, when bodies more vage miscarry. The knack of which some great men having and hol­ding, expatiate their Families much, and make their children in their transplan­tation considerable;Optimus pecu­niae modus est qui nec in pau­pertatem cadit, nec procul à paupertate discedit, place­bit autem haec nobis mensura, si prius parsi­monia placue­rit sinequa nec ullae opes suffici­unt nec ulla non satis patent. Senec. lib. de Tranq. c. 9. nor have I ever in my experience seen so great estates raised by what has been gotten, as by what has been saved. For Parsimony, sayes Seneca, is that which makes a little, enough, and enough plenty; nor can he want content in what­ever he has, that makes what ever he has the bound of his desire and expence. For whosoe­ver doth not this, casts all he has▪ and himself, into the bottomless sea, the desires of man being vaster then are to be satisfied by the accressions of life, He is the only wise man who lives at home, and des [...]res moderate and attainable things; and them had, uses in measure as is worthy their possession, and [Page 66] useful for others to do good to whom they are bestowed. Which lesson, though it be difficult for men of high spirits to learn,Quicquid cupi­ditati contigit penitus hauri­tur & condi­tur, nec interest quantum in id quod inexple­bile est conge­ras, unus est sapiens cujus omnia sunt, nex ex di [...]icili tuenda lib. 7. de Benef. c. 2. and that which they often set themselves against; yet is it so much prudent in, and beneficial to them to know and practise, that it enhanses the lustre and accommo­dation of their whole life, in the influence and sequel of it: nor does any man neg­lect the season of it, but he that is permit­ted by God to be careless, that he may be miserable.

SECT. VIII.
Directs to Callings of imployment and income, as a great means to Aggran­dize and Felicifie Men and Families.

FOurthly, Callings of imployment and income are great Rises and Enlarge­ments to a Family. For, since the mind of Man must be in Action, and the body of Man (sustained by the labour of his life;) and his posterity be provided for, out of the fruits of it, Callings of gain and ad­vantage are preferrable before either sordid ease, or unprofitable toyl: For as [Page 67] to a vertuous and wel-poysed mind, that understands it self created for publique good, honest labour is a delight, and dili­gence in it a recreation;Quis autem vir modo & ere­ctus ad honesta, non est laboris appe [...]ens justi & ad officia c [...]m periculo promp­tus? Cut non Industrioso otium paena est. Senec. lib. de Providentia. so to none but to stupid and besotted ones, is idleness a satisfaction; or nugatory and returnless im­ployment, their choice; I know there is an unhappiness on some men, that be they never so diligent and knowing, yea, and that in a calling of compensation and gain; yet they reap no crop, receive no encouragement from it, but are put off with the loss of time, and the cross of beggary; yea, amongst the learned, I have observed some that have thriven in purse and preferment by talks and visits, (by cringings and flattery, and the light Fop­peries of trifling Learning:E [...]ce Romanos quoque invasit studium inane, supervacua discendi. lib de [...]revit. vitae c. 14. Which Seneca calls, the vain study of useless things, which was the scab of the Greeks, and grew the Plague-sore of the Romans;) when the serious and sober Clerk, who plods upon the choice parts of learning, and is contri­butive in his inquisition of good to his own and after times, gets nothing but censure and scorn, and arrives at no preferment, but to be admired for his diligence, and pitied for his imprudence. This has been and daily is seen, the unhappiness of some Worthies whom God keeps low, that they [Page 68] may by their indiversion hatch the eggs of their discovery, and publish their excellent endowments; but yet for all this, Callings are to many, and the most, supportive: and the failer thereof is rather the cir­cumvention of an over-ruling power, and a destiny of diminution to a few parti­culars, then the mischance and discou­ragement of all; and hence comes it to passe, that as the prudence of man puts him upon choice of a Calling, wherein to be busied, so is that conduct signal in the choice of a Calling, of reputa­tion and fortunary advantage; to pro­mote which, it closes with Sciences, Trades and businesses that are of good report, full practice, gainfull import; by which the industry of man is not only engaged but encouraged to the utmost activity of it; which, delighted in, arrives men, if not at Honour and Riches, yet at that condition of subsistance, which is free from tempting want or servile dependance.

I know there is great difference in Cal­lings, according to the subject-matter of them▪ and the persons engaged in them; and as generous Callings doe not well be­come persons of low degree, so common ones not Sons of good birth. Yet since God gives not man his own choice, but [Page 69] rules him by his occult pleasure to such a station and site of life as conduces most to his glory, and mens good; No man must think himself too great for his imployment, or too good to be obliged by the rules of it: for as God humbles generous births,Nobis quidem militandum est, & quidem genere militiae quo nunquam quies, nunquam ocium datur▪ Ep. 51. Senec. by the low conditions of their after life, They being exposed to those sorrows and sadnesses which are allowed no relaxation, or subterfuge; so he advances others by birth beggars, to be in quality Princes and Princes fellows; and though he put them upon labour of obscurity for a time, yet when they are fit to be Masters of their Arts, and Professors in their Callings, he ministers occasion to their publication and rise. By which mi­racle of goodness preternatural to the ex­pectation, and in a sort impossible to the apprehension, of reason; not only the see­mingly dead grandeur of some Families are raised to being and bravery, but a new creation of greatness is in them and their descendants, who in their ancestry were worms and no men, the lowest of the peo­ple and inconsiderable.

Nor do these redemptions of wasted honour, or obscure birth, ever become the blessings of Families, but by the Midwifery of some one destinated by God to be thus [Page 70] Orient in them, and by occasion of Cal­lings of Law, Learning, Trade, Warre, resolvedly entred upon, honestly conti­nued in, and prosperously come off from, (for courses of disorder and Immorality, in which men rather study themselves, then advance the publique, & value more their own trimness and ease, then the ho­nour and weale of their Family.Quis est is [...]orum qui non malit Rempub tur­bari quam co­mam suam▪ qui non sollicitior sit de [...]pitis sui decore quam de salute qui non comptior esse malit quam honestior Se­nec. de Provid. cap 12. Which Seneca charged upon some degenerate Romans,) procure men not only no splen­dour or addition, but the contrary, dis­repute and tenuity. And therefore let not any man, how well born and bred soever, disparage Callings and honest and worthy men in them, for they have ever been, and further I trust will be, not only steps and ascents of meanness into great­ness; but revivals of decayed greatness unto its pristine vigour:Non Ganus sed Genius. Nor would the great men of England know how to dis­pose of their younger children, or their Families expatiate so, and by such ally­ances strengthen and imbellish themselves, as now they doe, were it not for learned Callings, and imployments of Trade, which in the income of them are equiva­lent to Lands and Mannors, and by ex­change purchase them.

I am for Blood and Antiquity of Fa­mily, [Page 71] and am concerned in the Honour of them as much as other Gentlemen of ancient extract are: But I will pay a con­tinual Honour to Universities, Inns of Courts, and Corporations, as Wombs no less fruitful of rises and additions to Ho­nour, then Countrie re [...]dencies, and the great estates in them; yea in as much as the present Greatness and Wealth of Eng­land owes much to Vocational Improve­ments,5 Eliz. c. 7. and the purchases of them, they shall have my Vote for their merit of the Nation: For while others vapour on their Sejan horse of idle and vicious unfortu­nateness,See my discour­ses of Arms and Armory; printed An. 1660. these command the Trojan Horse, out of which march continually the Hellio's of Learning, the Hectors of courage, the Critiques in Law, the Ma­gistrates in Towns, the Nobles and Gen­try in Parliament and Country; The Nation is now peopledmore then here­tofore, and necessity giving aym to in­genuity, there are now more courses of imployment and entertainment taken and approved then quondamly; and as all sumptuary Lawes are vanished by the mixtures of gentry with the plebs in Corporations, so ought all grudge between the Country and the City Gen­try to be castated; for that is the best [Page 72] Mine of Treasure in the Nation which advances men from low beginnings, to eminent growths, and leaves their poste­rity rich and respectfull after them. And what would have become of the younger Brothers of England, after the cessation of the Civill Wars, by the Union of York and Lancaster, in H. 7. of happy memory; and ofter the dissolution of Religious houses by H. 8. In both which they were be­stowed, and from them supported; If Sciences, Trades and Callings of Civill request had not taken them up, is easie to say, either reason of State must have turned them to a forraign Warre, or they must have lived at home upon the prey either of their elder brothers, or of the Countrey.

SECT. IX.
Discourseth of good Company, and the great Addition and Benefit it is to free, vertuous, and liberall growth of Men and Families.

FIfthly, To the former, add good Compa­ny un-vicious and ingenious. For since [Page 73] Man is a sociable creature, whose time is best whiled away, and his cross fates di­gested by the help of conversation, and the pleasancy of company; Company that abounds with those conjunct vertues, which fertilize and adorn life, and make men usefull to, and honoured by, the age they live in, is most to be desired, obli­ged, and adhered to;Cum pla [...]idis­simo & facil­limo & minime anxio moroso­que vivendum est, Sumun­tura conver­santibus mores & ut quaedam in contactos amorem vini traxit, ita ani­mus mala sua proximit tradit. Senec. lib. 3. de ir [...]c. 8. which the great Moralist observes to my hand, With the most sweet, tractable, and least sowre companion men wisely court to live, because their own manners are formed from their associates; and such, either in good or evil, are men usually as their mates are. So he. Indeed life without society, is but a mo­tive death, and a sensitive insenseness, like a watch which has all the hours of the day inscribed on its Circumferential Ta­ble, and has a finger to direct to every hour of Circulation; but no spring with­in to carry about its finger, according to the directed order: So at a loss is man, without company, and those proper and adapt to him, that the quickness of his parts being abated by absence of the edge of their presence, example, and of that little ambition of rivalry which is a­mongst them, while he studies, he loyters; while he gathers, he loses; whiles [Page 74] he endeavours to be something, he proves indeed nothing, but lumpish, stupid, in­expert, ignorant of men (the best Expo­sitors and sweetners of Books, and the se­cond noble expence of time.

Which has caused the judicious in all ages and Nations, to fix their mayn con­tent and conversational felicity on Com­pany, which is called between Man and Woman, marriage; between Men and Men, friendship: for this is so strict and severe a compago, and in-laying of soules, that it is not only hard to discern any cha­racter of inunion, or to peep into the secrecy of their piecing, but impossible to conclude them any thing else but a coanimation of divers numerical soules into one and the same single and undivi­ded souliness: The consideration of which choice and connexion of Companions by the bond of friendship, made Senca con­clude,Detrahit ami­citiae majesta­tem suam qui illam parat ad bonos casus. Ep. 9. that when it is calculated only for, and limited to prosperity, it hath lost its Ma­jesty; and therefore is it the ob [...]ectament of life, because it is a fellowship of soules in community of Fortunes, what ever they are. Which Seneca describes fully. Friends, saith he, be of coincident hearts, making the common secrets of each other the Iewels of their retirement & punctuality, [Page 75] who prove themselves precisely such as tran­scend the suspition of imparity; Nihil aeque ob­lectaverit ani­mum quam dulcis & [...]ide­lit amicitia, quantum bonum est ubi prepara­ta sunt pectora, in quae tuto se­cretum omne descendat, quo­rum conscien­tiam minus quam tuam ti­meas horum fermo solicitu dine le [...]iat con [...]silium, expedi­at hilaritas tri­stitiam dissipet, conspectus ipse delect [...]t. lib. de Tranq. c. 7. whose speech is a relief to solitude, and are in Counsels Oracles; in presence, pleasures; in absence, grounds of confidence, that they shall meet the same in kindness and cordiality that they were at parting. This is Friendship, which provokedSynesius lib. de regno p. 11. Mea inquit in Antonium ma­jora merita sunt, illius in me beneficia notiora, itaque discrimine ve­stro me sub [...]ra­ham, & ero preda victoris. Paterculus lib. 2. p. 60. edit Lipsii. Synesius to term this [...], This Friend as a mans own soul, [...] a Kingly present and to cry out [...] &c. Who a pleasanter partaker of prosperity, and a pa­tienter consort in adversity, who more up­right in praise, and more affectionate in reproof then a friend; who like Asinius Pollio raised by Mark Antony, and com­manded by Caesar his enemy to attend him in the Actian War, replied thus to him: Sir, My deserts of Antony are greater, and his bounty more resented by, and obliging upon me, then to permit my so doing; Be­hold I submit to your pleasure, and withdraw my self from all appearance, that you may not fear me, who render my self a spoyl to your victory. Thus he, in testimony to the efficacy of friendship, which because it is most confirmed by daily converse, frequent compotation, sameness of humour and end; therefore is company so to be chosen by men that would reap the royal [Page 76] fruit and harvest of it, as that the proce­rity of vertue, the virgin verdure of sin­cere Ingenuity, in the native marks of worthy and wel attended Generosity, may appear herein.

For Company is the Glass in which the beauty or deformity of every mans mind is transparent; 'tis the crucible in which the loyalty or adulterations of their addicti­ons are tried. 'Tis the Physick that either purges out peccant humours, and abates the menace of them, or else leaves dregs of offence to the body by its ill compo­sition and the ineffectuality of its ingre­dients; by reson of which, as if men resolve to be evil, they must not take good Com­pany to them; so if men will be good, they must not admit evill men to them: For Company have a great stroke which way soever they take. Which caused Seneca to admonish his friend, to recede as much as he could into himself, Recede in teip­s [...]um quantum potes, cum his conversare qui te meliorem facturi sunt; Illos admitte, quos tu potes facere meliores. Ep. 7. and to con­verse with those by whom he may be bettered, or whom he himself may better. Which David considering, justifies himself to be good, from this, that he was a companion to them that feared God, Psalm 119. 63. And Solomon declares, He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed, Prov. 13. 20. Who­so [Page 77] keepeth the Law is a wise sonne, but he that is a companion of riotous men, shame­eth his Father. Prov. 28. 7. & v. 24. com­panion of a destroyer. For Companions are to men weal or woe, light or darkness, pre­ferment or ruine; which argues the ne­cessity of choice in them, and the danger men undergoe, who being vertuous love any one not such; and the improbability that any evil man will be companion to a good man, unless it be to discredit, de­ [...]oysh, or tempt him to his subversion. To [...]voyd which,1. Cor. 5. 10, 11. St. Paul dehorteth Christi­ [...]ns from worldly mens friendship;2 Cor. 6. 12, 13. not to [...]ertake with them in their friendships,Rom. 12. 2. [...]ot to be conformed to them, not to be [...]acked in their spiritual vigour by them; why? they mind earthly things, which [...]oly men do not; they tend to gratifie [...]he flesh, with the affections of it, which [...]odliness commands to resist, and to cru­ [...]ifie: Yea, wherever vertue is regent, and [...] mastery, it evidences its reallity by this, [...]hat it herds with those only that for it [...]e eminent; and hence reports the praise [...]f Excellent, which Socrates observing, [...]nd following the best, became the wi­ [...]st of his contemporaries. [...] Epictetus lib. 2. c. 13. ad fiuem. So that it is [...]sie hence to conclude, that all the value [...]nd esteem wise men put upon company [Page 78] arises from their endowments in mind and manners; from the conscience, cou­rage, constancy, esteem of fame, fidelity to trusts, liberality of humour, affability [...] nature, civility of carriage they see i [...] them, which only beautifie and nobilita [...] Company.

Nor is there any thing that compani­ons are useful in, to life in its Noble pu [...]poses; but to institute and confirm me [...] in Vertues Religious, Political, Civil, [...]conomique; nor do Birds, Beasts, or Me [...] associate, but where there is an harmo [...] in their natures, and a union of tendenc [...] And I will as soon believe that a Nigh [...]tingale and a Vulture, a Lamb & a Woo [...] a Crocodile and a Dog, a Basilisque an [...] a Man can make a companionry of friend [...]ship: as that a good man with a bad, [...] a bad man with a good, can be comp [...]nion. Good men must goe out of t [...] world, if they will not be in compa [...] casually with bad men: And so bad m [...] must not be so rife as they are, if good men sometimes light not into their co [...]pany; but to be companions to the [...] fully, frequently, composedly, is impos [...]ble for any but those that are conjur [...] to their likeness. For congeniality cau [...] consortion and delight, which that Nob [...] [Page 79] Lord Brooke proclaimed to the World; when above all his other felicities, He [...]ccounted the Phenix of his Titles, and Friend to Sir Philip Sidney. Which is as [...]uch as if he had enlarged his own En­ [...]omium: therefore he himself to be a man [...]f Courage, Wit, Learning, and Omni-mode [...]ertue, because a friend to him that was all [...]hese, in a proportion above other men his [...]oaevals and Equals.

Upon all which written on this Head, conclude, that as to be Nobly endowed, [...]nd Noble indeed, advances a Man and [...]amily: so to be in good company, and [...] square ones word and deed by the pro­ [...]pt and pattern of them, that excell in [...]owledge of the method of such profi­ [...]ble expression, is to be a promiser of, [...]d promoter towards, the rise of a Family.

SECT. X.
[...]videnceth that apt Marriage, both as [...] to Years, Degrees, and Honour, is a [...] great advance to Families.

[...]Ixthly, next to good Company, apt [...]matches in Marriage are helps to raise [Page 80] and advance Famelies. To be successful an [...] flourishing in any thing is a great encou­ragement to men, and that which ren [...]ders them respected; so is Homer, the blin [...] Poet for his seeing Poems, which have [...] enlightned his Fame, that Pat [...]rculus tear [...] him,Clarissimum si neque exem­plo maximum, qui magnitu­dine operum & fulgore carmi­num solis appel­lari poeta me­ruit. In quo hoc maximum est quod neque ante illum quem ille imetaretur, ne­que post illum quem ille im [...] ­rari inventus. est. Lib. 1. p. 12. Edit Lips. Lib. 2. p. 27. A Wit without president, and never [...] be followed, Poet of the Sunne, who nev [...] could have written so remarkably, had [...] not been by the Gods designed to be the H [...] rald and Monument of his own worldly I [...]mortality. So was the Family of Me [...] lus, in which, in twelve years, twelve [...] least were Censors, or Triumphed; an [...] the Domitian and Cicilian Families, whi [...] succeeded in what ever almost they [...]tempted; I say, to be Almoner of prov [...]dence, and to dispose the doles of [...] Soveraignty where we please, is to be ver [...] happy; but to be happy in a fit Marriag [...] and to dispose lifes pleasancy and succe [...]sions lustre into the Safe of a Matrim [...]nial Ark; which though it floats upon [...] vacillations of life, yet is priviledged fro [...] the Immersions and shipwracks of it, [...] a great advance to Men and Families▪ For Marriage being the Port, after all [...] vain Herrecanes of youth, there must [...] some ill principle, to correct which [...] miscarriage is a judgmen [...] unto, or M [...]riage [Page 81] must be a mercy, not as it is a bare conjunction of Male and Female, for that has met in Marriages to which the Divel and the world have been Paranymphs and Solicitors, Gravis sarcina, durae compedes, liberos humeros at (que) olim liberos pedes premunt, durum ductu, durius cogitatu, durissimum perpessu, non unius lucis sed totius vitae Hospes, forsi­tanque hostis, vacuam presi­diis invasit do­mum. Pet. arch. lib. 1. de remed. utriusque For­tunae dial. 65. and made the married persons tetrical and deplorable, in the sad effects of their unmeet and inconsiderate asso­ciation;) but then has marriage been apt and auspicious, when, the precedent love, and experienced Harmony receives con­ferrumination in the perfected and joyed in engagement; when by a Dovelike Mating, and a conformity of Coincidence, they have no scissure or flaw of separa­tion in thought, or of alienation in Car­riage or Language. This is that I prime­ly call apt Marriage; which not had, all other aptitudes are insignificant. For as the learned King wrote to his towardly son Prince Henry, Bas [...]li [...]. Doron. 2 book, p. 172 What can all this worldly respects availe, when a man shall find him­self coupled with a Divel; To be one flesh with him, and the half marrow in his bed? Then, though too late, shall he find, that beau­ty without bounty, wealth without wisdom, and great friendship without grace and ho­nesty, are but fair shews, & the deceitful mask of infinite misery. Thus that excellent King. And in this I am the more precise, because I know it is not more possible without a [Page 82] Miracle of restraining grace, or subacted nature next to it, (of which I have not known many examples thorow-paced) to find a happy marriage between a paire mismatched in Years, Humour, Descent, Feature, (all, or most of which in conside­rable degrees are the ordinary potent charms of it, [...]. Thucydides lib, 3. p. 177. and the cordial repulses of the contrary,) then to expect a quiet match from the yoaking of a Dog and a Bear, a Wolf and a Lamb, a Fox and a Goose, together; or the composition of contraries in an equality of proportion, which tends to no issue of accord:Cum per Ma­trimonium homo perpetuae servituti man­cipetur non potest pater co­gere ad Matri­monium quan­quam illum ex aliqua ratio­nabili causa ad ipsum possit in­ducere. Aquin. sum. Suplem. q 48. art. 1. And how the Fire and Water, Earth and Ayre, Heaven and Hell, in dispositions should agree (while like Caesar and Pompey their great Antipathy not attoned by the ex­pedient of love, the mutual axchanges of which are the transports of that state (the matter of both those mediocrities being absent) but published in the ones reso­lution to admit no Equal, and the other no Superiour,) is to me a Paradox; and to those that venture in such a crazy Ves­sel, oftner torment then content. Nor do Marriages thus hudled up in hast, and thus confounded in the prerequisites to, and the associates with them, prove ought above the religious Dungeons, and well-reported [Page 83] little eases of life, in which A­dultery is legitimated, and self Felony New-christned modesty; [...]. Libanius de­clam. 35. p. 790. the injured parties reserving their thoughts for them they love, and pyning away their souls, because they are crossed in their Contents. For Marriage, where it is not vertuous, (and vertuous it cannot be, where it is forced from its own motion, and diverted to something besides, and opposite to its natural current, and presuggested ten­dency) attended with reputation, con­venience suitable at least in those things that are indispensable; occasions first un­dervaluation, then soureness, then neg­lect, then abhorrence, and at last total alienation: Which Seneca observed long agoe,Nihil tam mo­bile quam fae­minarum vo­luntas, nihil tam vagum, no­vimus veterum matrimoniorum repudia & se­diores divortio male coheren­tium rixas, quam multae quos in adole [...]scentia amave­runt in commu­ni reliquere senectute. Inter excerpta. Seo [...]ta. when he tels us, Nothing is more vage then effeminate minds; whence we have seen desertion of Marriages long lived in; and those more scandalous then actual and judicial Divorces; former love giving place to late discontent; and those deserted in age, who had been beloved in youth. To pre­vent which turpitude and ill Omen to po­sterity, it is good to marry in the Lord; that is, according to the Lords appoint­ment in nature; and with eye to the pre­vention of sinne, and the satiation of the mind in the object of its fruition of, and [Page 84] cohabitation with; and if gratefulnes in every regard follows the aptitude of it to some darling and approved purpose of man and woman, and according to the presence or absence of it; so in the magis and minus is the love and acceptance of it with them, as an apt or fit house for the Master his occasions makes him take pleasure at home, and an apt horse cau­ses delight in riding, and apt servants pleases the Master, in their handiness; and apt words are winning and preva­lent. If aptitude and fitness in these trifles of life, compared to marriage, be so plea­sant and superating: how much more victorious and embraced are they, when aptness in superious pleasures commends them to our choice and love.Ad affectionem spectat quaedam jucunda & sua­vissima dele­ctatio Cassiodor. lib. de Ami­citia. If a Gar­ment fitted to our bodies, and a Coo­kery to our pallats, and a prospect to our eyes, and a perfume to our smell, and a softness to our touch, be enamoring: how does fitness transcend it felf, when it in­vades us by the pleasing assaults of a Wife, and batters us by the harmless cannon of her humour, levelled to her own Mark? This correspondence and equature in a Wife, Note this. who is the Mans self in another Sex, the duplicate of his heart, his own picture in the glass of Marriage; the partner of his [Page 85] cares, the [...]ure of his pressures, the heightner of his joyes, the stock of his perpetuation, and his Comrade in the Acts and Monu­ments of Omniform vertue. I say, this a fit Wife becoming to a Man, there is reason to ascribe the rise of content and encrease in wealth, glory, and every blessing unto fit Matches: For though some who love wo­men only sensually, and in a corner de­claim against Wives, as inconsistent with content, or Husbands freedom; being ir­ritated thereunto by either revenge be­cause they could not work their ends on them; or for that they would rove,Se non posse simul uxori, & sapientiae studio operam dare, Cic. and not be fettered to one Woman, which in Marriage they must be; or for the con­trary be infamous: which for ought I know,Quisquit litem fugis faeminam [...]uge vix alte­rum sine altera effugies, ipsa presentia ut ito dixen [...]m umbra nocens est. Tully might be guilty of, when he answered the counsels of his friends, to take another after he had repudiated his first wife (he could not serve Wisdom and a Wife together:) Which Petrarch so un­happily with a Monkish severity enlarged upon,Lib. 2. de vitae solit. c. 3. that he deserves the censure of indiscreet and rude,Nil egregiis caeptis infestius muliebr [...] con­sortia, lib. 2. de remed [...]te. Fort. dial 18. when he writes, Who­ever would fly contention, flie women, for the one is not to be avoyded without the other; the presence of women being no less or other then a hurtful shadow; and the cor­respondence with them, the bane of all He­roicisme. [Page 86] Though such lashes may be gi­ven this excellent Sex, the severity of which is due only to the Eccentrique and Elopers of them; yet the sober and well bred Wives with which God has blessed Men and Families in all ages, are ever to be Owned as Foundresses and Copart­ners with their Husbands, in the rise of Families, and the well-educating of their children to their after preferment; for while a mother is not unquiet or vain, like her in the Poet,

Or like that Wife of Dominico Sylvio the 51. Duke of Venice, who was so proud and costly, that she despised to wash in com­mon water,Shutes History Venice. or to touch her meat with o­ther then a Fork of Gold; or to be in her Chamber, but when perfumed that none that came into it could indure the scent of it, but was overcome by it: when a Wife is not so impertinent, but the con­trary, affable, modest, thrifty, diligent, obliging to all her relations, and dispo­ses the fruits of her excellent endow­ments according to the respective objects [Page 87] of her concernments, and the concerns of them; and that with an eye to God com­manding; her Husband, Children, Servants, Friends, needing and accepting the Mu­nificence of her vertue: Can she be coun­ted less then a rare Jewel, a divine com­fort, a notable second to aggrandization? I think our Proverb, He that will thrive must ask his wife, is enough to vindicate Women that are wise and worthy, from vulgar esteem. Yea, since they are so great comforts to life, and so great con­tributers to our perpetuation in honour and posterity; the least they can deserve from men, is to have the testimony of be­ing additions to them; which Theodorick in Cassiodore, thinks but reasonable: and I judge a just debt to such their obliga­tion. Let leud Poets,Inter caetera humani generis pondera conju­galis affectus [...]uram sibi prae­cipuam vindi­cavit, Quia in honore esse me­retur. Vnde reparatio poste­ritatis acquiri­tur. Var. lib. 2. c. 10, & 11. and ranting de­boshees unmercifully martyr them, as he did who branded all men with folly that were not Satyrick against them.

Yet ought sober and wise men ever to bless God for giving them such comforts for life, and to value them the only Hap­piness enjoyable next to Heaven, to [Page 88] which their fitness in Marriage is a great furtherance, and in the sequel the rise of Men and Families.

SECT. XI.
Stateth the Advantage Towardly Chil­dren give to a Family.

SEventhly, after fit matches in Marriage, Towardly Children by them are great advantages to Families; which as they doe continue in being, so them do they propagate in Honour and Wealth: For parents live personally but few years, and possibly either have in their lives no op­portunities to ascend, or else are cut off in the very moment of their motion to­wards Greatness; when the foundation of their Families pile is onely laid, and the roof of it not covered, nor any story of it finished, but in the vertues of children, (whose succession are a kind of protracti­on of time, into a comparative infinity;) there happens often not only a perfecting of the first design, but a procedeure to further and greater degrees. To capaci­tate children to which profitable and il­lustrating service, it becomes parents to [Page 89] bestow upon and rivet into, them, all man­ner of useful nurtriture and discipline, which will usher them unto the oppor­tunity, and carry them thorough the me­thod of such undertakings: For since the world is variable, and one Generation comes, and another goes, and men of Noble minds, though meanly born, by the help of great Geniusses and prudent dili­gences step into those Chasms of honour, which mortally makes in ancient and re­nowed Families, whose Braves die issu­less; Or for misdemeanour and declen­sion Escheat their Blood, Honour, and For­tune, to their Principals; or by adoption take others, because worthy and wel qua­lified, into them; which Seneca saies,Fabriciorum imagines Metel­li [...]patuerunt, Aemiliorum & Scipionum familias adopti [...] miscuit, etiam abolita saeculis nomina per suc­cessores novos fulgent, sic illa Patriciorum nobilitas a sun­d [...]mentis urbis in haec Tempora constitit Adop­tio Fortunae remedium est. Lib. 2. Controv. 9. was the advance of some Noble Romans; And by this adoption a remedy was given to misfortune, and Nobility carried on, which otherwise must have abated. Since these revolutions give season to notifie merit, and to purchase to it the reward of Gods blessing, and of his providences offer; [...]here is great cause for parents, that would advance their Families, to institute their Children or Nephews in all varieties of Elegant, Fashionable, usefull breeding, not only according to, but somewhat a­bove, their present quality: For Educa­tion [Page 90] hath a great influence on the mind and life of youth, and such as they are tutoured and habituated to be, such usually do they prove themselves to be in their Manhood:A good Item to Parents. and therefore if men would have Towardly children, they must allow them their fervent prayers, good example, constant love, prudent disci­pline, pregnant counsell, diligent inspe­ction, and if need be, thorow-correction [...] for Youth is liquid, susceptive of impress of both sorts, and seldome are the first engravings on its shield worn out, [...]long as its bearer lives, to be a display [...] genitors care about, & charge upon them which as vertuous children ruminate upon in order to their dutiful practice, accor­ding to it; so are they by God rewarde with blessings not only of long life, ac [...]cording to the Fifth Commandemen [...] which our Lord sayes is the first wi [...] promise, that their daies shall be long in th [...] Land which the Lord their God giveth the [...] which was made good to the sonnes [...] Ionadab, the sonne of Rechab, who be [...]cause they obeyed their fathers charge were promised never to be eraced, I [...] 35, last. but with comforts in their sou [...] and prosperity on their estates. Whic [...] the Archbishop of Canterbury, temps H. [...] [Page 91] presses upon the young King, who had disobediently raised warre against his fa­ther, and invaded his Kingdoms and Ter­ritories, telling him what Judgments im­pended such irreligious and immoral courses; and how short he came of those Noble examples of Decius, who when his father would have admitted him into the Empire with himself,Vereor ne si fiam imperatot dediscam esse filiut malo [...] ­men non esse imperator, & humilis filius, quam esse Im­perator & filiu [...] indevotus &c Petrus Bles. Ep. 47. replied, O Sir, I know not what my heart will lead me to when I have such an advantage; perhaps when I begin to be an Emperour, I shall cease to be a sonne: and therefore, because I preferr to be an obedient sonne, before to be an Emperour, and undutifull, do you my father raign a­lone, and I under you will obey. By this and other instances, he as a Friend coun­sels; and as a Father in God commands him, upon penalty of his souls damnation, and the Churches Censures, to remember his duty; which he not doing, was punished with sad warres in his Raign, and was an unhappy Prince in his Conscience: For though God is in the Generation of the righteous, Psal. 14. 5. And it shall re­ceive the blessing from the Lord, and righ­teousness from the God of its salvation. So that, for their signal mercies men shall say, This is the generation of them that seek him, Psal. 24. v. 5, 6. Though the just mans [Page 92] seed shall be mighty upon earth, wealth and riches be in his house, Psalm 112. v. 2, 3. When the children of wicked men, as the generation of his wrath, Jer. 7. 29. shall be cut off, Psal. 108. 13. Yet is this promise of benediction and advance to good men, to be expected fulfilled by those grada­tions of providence by which God brings the mighty things of the World to pass above & beyond the probability of second assistances: and if God intend good to men in worldly regards, he will excite in them desires to comply with his intend­ments, in the predispositions to it, which are personal, as well as concur with them in purveying for their acceptance in, and season of exhibition and reception: And therefore I do highly commend parents, if not first to provoke their children to take all possible and attainable useful breeding, yet, when they themselves de­sire it, and their parents are able to give, not to deny it them: For I do not know any punctilio or seeming minimm in ac­complishment, gainable by industry and instruction,Ipeculum se­quidem cordis humani verba sunt, dum illico moribus placere creditur quod ipse sibi ad agendum legisse monstrotur Cassiodor Var. lib. 6. c, 9. but has its use and re­ward in the return of Towardliness; even good words, which are the cheapest ex­pression of worth, yet are acceptable, and civil carriages do either acquire respect or [Page 93] shame vice; which is victory enough for a man to be modest with; yea, the le­vities of youth, abstracted from the gross errours and sensual alloyes of them, are very often conducing to their conspi­cuity; especially when its prepotency does not defeat the better part of their [...]ife, which is responsible to counsel and gravity. For thereby are they made fit to live usefully to God, their Country, and themselves, which no good and well di­rected man would not doe, if he had the sole power to be what he would: for of all pleasures, none so true and defecate, [...]s that which ariseth from an opportunity prayed for, obtained, understood, impro­ved, and to the giver of it acknowledged; which when the parents of Families con­sider not, nor their issues and descendants by industry refresh and quicken, they serve not the intendment of God in his blessing upon them: For, as it is not the best tempered edge-tool that will do [...]eall and skilfull execution unless an artly mind direct the dexterous poysing and handling of it; nor the best built Vessel [...]hat rides in the water, which will endure [...]he Sea, and arrive at a safe Port, unless here be aboard it Sea-men enough to manage the Sayles, Tackling, and Steer­age, [Page 94] and skill iu the Officers, to appl [...] them to the Wind, and to take more o [...] less of it as the rules of steerage and safet [...] admit: so is it not all the natural abilitie [...] children have that renders them prope [...] blessings to a Family, unless those Vertue in them be poynted for, and directed to the peculiar mean in which the excel­lency of their operation resides. Which Seneca elegantly sets forth: God has give [...] thee, Dedit tibi illa quae si non de­ferens, par deo surges, parem autem Deo pecunia non saciet, Deus ni­hil habet prae­texta non faciet, deus nudus est: Quaerendum est ergo quod non fiet indies dete­rius cui non possit obstari. Quid hoc est? animus: sed hic rectus, bonus, magnus. Quid aliud voces hunc quam deam in huma­no corpore. hospitantem. Ep. 31. O man, that which if thou dost not de­sert in thy self, will make thee a kind [...] Peer to him, and that not money: For th [...] divine Peerage is not purchasable; since Go [...] wants no addition, because he is all perfe­ction; nor will cloathing of lustre be t [...] in which we shall be equal to him; for [...] glory is his cloathing, and his Paramont [...] to us, his exemption from the need and or [...]nament of cloathing; that which parefies [...] to him, is of another nature; that whic [...] does not impair by time, nor can be impedi [...] by power, or evaded by policy; and that [...] the Mind, Vpright, Good, Great, which is [...] otherwise to be accounted then Divinity [...] a mortal residence. Thus he.

Which commends to wise parents the me­thod of ordering their sonnes aright; th [...] they breed their eldest sonne to Learning if he be capable of it; and the younge [...] [Page 95] [...]o Trades, Travels, Warres, and such ourses of life as have imployment and [...]rofit attending them, and are not distast­ [...]ull to their addictions; and the father [...]all see in the compliance of them with [...]t, and the prosequution they make after [...]t, what the probable success of it will be. [...]or this will not only kindle in them great [...]nd good ambitions to be excellent, but [...]arry them to the studies and exhibitions of themselves as such; and enfeoff them with the lustre and reward of such, which believe to be notably seen in some Fami­ [...]ies, wherein almost every heir or son, be­ [...]ng compleat in breeding, enamours, a For­ [...]une and heyr Female, whereby he adds to his family Land, Landsworth, and Alliance, with armoreal accessions; when others pre­cipitating, do not in ages add any thing by their Marriages, nor are worthy or influential on Ladies of Fortune and de­ [...]cent to bestow themselves upon them; and so they resting upon the single for­ [...]une of their Ancestors, decrease every discent (as profuseness, or multitude of children eates upon them;) whereas those that have several Fangs to fasten them, and accrewments of Marriages, to relieve their distresses and inevitable expences upon, dure longest, and bear the expen­sive [Page 96] accidents of life, with less palpab [...] injury and visible diminution. For as to [...]wardly Birds and Beasts will be imitati [...] their kind, and the Eagle despise Spa [...]rows, and little Birds, when he will e [...]counter with what is his proper prey: [...] is it with towardly Youth; it will expe [...] it self on the Noble enquiries of life an [...] art, in ambition to know how to ma [...] a little City a great State, while it negle [...] to fiddle, and in providence to know ho [...] to live another day, & how to save, to mak [...] a Sum, to become thereby somebody, & [...] purchase the renoun of hopeful & thristy with it; when others of profuse and l [...] principles, censure such caution for folly and such forecast, for a too soon solid [...] be a long lasting wisdom: Which howev [...] it be too often true, such precocity with solid ripeness, carrying life in its whi [...] wind to her period; yet has this for i [...] honour and comfort, that to pursue the great ends of living, while one live [...] though it be but for a day, is more [...]tional and manly, then to live beneath [...] besides it a thousand years.

SECT. XII.
Declares Gods blessing upon Honest and Wise endeavours, to be the only Way to durable Riches and Honour.

EIghthly, all these preceding furthe­rances, or such of them as God pleases to have ordinated to these Ends, blessed by him. This indeed is the top of all the imaginable successes Persons and Families, can hope, pray for, or wisely endeavour after; to wit, to make God theirs, whose Word is the Law, and Will the accomplish­ment of every good. I know there are other artifices more owned and ascribed to by the Rhodomontado's of the World, then this of address to God, and an hum­ble relyance on, and expectation from his mercy. These Waters of Siloam, that run in Gods method, slowly, in his, not their time, are not so appreciated by them, as those of their fancied and ap­plauded Damascus; by the celerity and precipitious temerity of which, they hope sooner to come to their aym, then by Gods Compass, and the course of his Cha­nell. [Page 98] The violences of power, the suc­cesses of blood and treason, the favours of Princes, the grindings of the poor, by unreasonable gain, and unjust surprises; the over-reaching of men in bargains; the Cormorant enhansing of Markets and Purchases; their well managed Frauds, their insinuation into secrets, and then falsifying trusts by menace of disclosure, and the bribes they obtain to be silent; the exposures of themselves to serve the pleasures of Greatness, and to merit of them the protection of their power, to oppress their inferiours. These and other the like tenebrious designes of gain and preferment, are the Idols they worship, the Altar they bow down before, the Oracles they consult, the parties they cajoul to them. As for God, he is not in all their thoughts; his Power not their fear, his Eye not their restraint, his Goodness not their dissuasive,Note this. his Holiness not their ex­ample, his Word not their rule, his Hell not their terrour, his Heaven not their motive to self-deniall they are all for the sensual interest, they understand, and they set light by God; though he be the best spoak in the Wheel of prosperity, and all the ends of the world are to look unto him,Isai. 45. 22. and be satiated and saved: for [Page 99] it is God alone that must smile upon men, and their actions, and render them ami­able and availing. 'Twas He, and He alone, that by a secret impetus, and a call of efficacy, gathered together the several Beasts, Birds, and Creatures from their dispersion so far distant into the Ark, and not Noahs craft or power to cog or force them in: poor man, he was an impotent tool to such a dexterity of Miracle, [...] Basil. Saleuciae Orat. 6. p. 35. had he not been prevented by the God of Na­ture, who cajould Nature in every Spe­cies, to appear at its rendezvouz, the Ark, and there appointed Noah to lodge them. 'Twas He, and he alone, that carried Moses his obscurity, by the various forms and steps of their order and motion into the Chair of their Estate and Majestique ap­pearance. 'Twas not Iosephs innocence that would have opposed and evicted lust, malice, falsness, cruelty, and over­ruled them to their shame, and his glory and vindication; but that God carried them beyond their natural motion to his mark, Iosephs exaltation. 'Twas not Davids beauty and victory that would have had that being and renown with the Virgins of Israel, that made them sing Epinichions to him,1 Sam. 18. 7. Saul hath slain his thousand, and David his ten thousands. [Page 100] Had not God raised Davids spirit to such heights of expression, and stirred theirs to receive and promulge his impression on them to that purpose. Whatever greatness the fair looks, the learned heads, the diligent hands, the intrigoe's of policy, the curryings of Favour, the successes of warre and peace, the neer­ness of blood, the dearness of love, the advice of friendship, the success of tra­vels, the relation of Marriage, brings men to, is the instance of God not willing the contrary, but in spight of the storm of second causes, obstetricating the calm of his own work and glory. Hence come the smooth gales in the sayls of endea­vour, the condescensions of hills to the proportion of valleys, the reduction of roughs to their plainness of correspon­dence, with the design of God. Thus comes rude and bloody Esan to be civil and unmurtherous; and the eager nature of Saul to become tame to the yoak of an Apostleship, and to glory in the Cross which was a crosse over the glory of men in the World, and dislustred it.

So that, if any man or cause would thrive▪ and succeed, it is politiquely to make God in his Power, Wisdom, Goodness, All-sufficiency, its patron. For it is he [Page 101] that passes the fiat to all occurrings; 'tisTurkish History p. 1197. he that encouraged the Lord Medasty victori­ously 1000 times to sight against the Turks; yet at last subdued him to himself by death. 'Tis he that raised up Count Mans­field to lay siege to Strigonium, fight be­fore it valiantly;p. 1070. but he whose wit con­trived the method of its surprise, whose valour headed the assailants of it, and whose heart was big with the hopes and glory of its obtainment, dyed before he saw his valour fortunate, and his project prevalent. He that brings Families to a hopeless and periodique decay, and then strangely reinvigorates them, as he did that Famous Family of the Iustiniani in Venice, all the Males of which being in the battel that State had with Emanuel the Emperour,Shutes Hist. Venice, p. 102. were slain; there was one a Priest, and a young man that survived, who was dead in Law, being in Orders, and serving in St. Marks Church; Him, at the request of the State and People, dispensed withall by the Pope, did God raise to Marriage, and by that to be the Ancestor of the Family again, which, but for him in that disability, had expired: He it is that makes improbabilities serve his purpose. So did he in the advance of Nicola Donato D. of Venice, who was cho­sen [Page 102] as the only worthy man,Sir Henry Wot­ [...]ons Character of some Kings of England, p. 175. and beloved by the People, ready to serve under, and be ruled by him only, upon a buite that he was the Good man that had caused the decree to be made for the Poor, a­gainst the Bakers; which good provision, though he was not the promoter of, yet God made it a tendency to his Greatness, which he worthily deported himself in. So did he in the the Case of famous Qu. Elizabeth, when He prevented Gardiners malicious and undue gained Warrant from Qu. Mary for her execution, by the stoutness of the Lieutenant Bridges, Speed p. 849. who chose rather to lose his place then be such a Butcher. After, when she was in the hand of cruel Benefield, and a Ruffian, Gardiners friend, came to kill her, God saved her, by the charge Benefield had given the under-keeper, that none should see her in his absence; during which, that assassine came, and thereupon was denied access: Yea, her God it was that when her Chamber was on fire, preserved her from burning in it; and kept up her spirit in a condition, which she thought less comfortable then that of a poor Milk­maid; in whose place she wished to be, when she heard her cry Milk. O, quoth she, that I were a Milkmaid. 'Twas he that [Page 103] was her hope and Saviour, that maugre all these made her Mistris of these Nations; and of the glory of Government in her Time. And 'twas he, and he alone, that was in the religious heart and pious pen, of that Angelique King, who in his sorest agonies, if trouble could have discom­posed so sublime and steady a soul, leaves us his doleful Suhjects the Legacy of ad­miring his Vertues and Words: I am con­fident the Iustice of My Cause, and clearness of my Conscience, Eicon Basil. Sect. 28. before God, and Towards My People, will carry me as much above them in Gods decision, as their successes have lifted them above Me in the vulgar opinion; who consider not that many times those underta­kings of men are lifted up to Heaven, whose rise is from Hell, as to the injuriousnesse and oppression of the design. Which con­sidered, who would not look upon God as the sweetest comfort, and safest refuge? and make his hiding place under the pa­villio [...] of his protection:Psal. 32. 7. who is a Rock of ages for his peoples establishment; and has provided Salvation for their Walls, and Bucklers;Isa. 26. 1. who leads them by his Pillar of Cloud by day, and by his Pillar of Fire by night; under whom are his Everlasting arms,Deut. 33. 27. and in whom his un­erring Spirit is, whom his Angels minister [Page 104] to; his affection encompasseth, and to whom his Truth performeth all that is good for them; and in wrong to whom he hath said, no weopon shall prosper; no prayer, but become sin; no counsel, but turn into foolishness: for all is Babel, and Nehushtan, without and against God; who will do whatsoever comes into the wisdom of his mind, to be brought to pass by the power of his hand: For as without God all perswasion is but as a sounding Brass and a tinkling Cimbal; so without him all actions is but writing in the dust, sowing on the rock, emptying the Sea with a Sive; as the barking of a whippet against the Moon, invalid, sottish, nothing; and if God be in our adven­tures, and his glory rest upon smal things, Aarons dry rod shall flourish, with fruit, and Sarahs dead womb spring forth a s [...]nne. Davids indiscernableness shall increase into a Kingdom; and Sauls King­dome decline into contempt; the great Monarchies be changed, and small Forces prevaile against great Princes and Coun­tries: have not our eares heard, and our eys read of the amazing providences of God, bringing down Nebuchadnezzars, and Bajazets, and Iulians, and unfortu­nating the Holy wars of Christians against [Page 105] Infidels;Sequitur par [...] quae solet non immerito con­tristare & in solitudinem deducere uti bonorum exitus mali sunt, ut Socrates cogi­tur in mori, Ru [...]ilius in exi­lio vivere, Pompejus & Cicero clienti­bus suis prebere cervicem, Cato ille virtutum viva imago in­cumbens gladio simul de se & de Republ. palam facere. Senec. lib de tranq. amici. when he has suffered his ene­mies Banners to be exalted, and their Empire to be expatiated into Christen­dome, to correct Christians for their dis­sension and jealousies? When I consider Charles the fifth, and his puissant Army, vanish, and do nothing worthy Story: and Charles the eighth of France, a young man, destitute of Money, and Councell, assault potent and Heroique Princes; and over-run as much of Italy, as he passed tho­row without so much as the least resistance; (which caused Pope Alexander to say, that the French came into Italy with Chalk in their hands, to take up their lodging where they listed: For they had not so much as occasion to put on their Armour one day, in their expeditions) I cannot but con­clude, that the way to render actions, and Men and Families considerable, is to pro­mote God by all those several means of his appointment, in the upshot of which his glory marches, and by his blessing to his instruments, he prospers in their sub­serviency to him, and returns them that which indeed exceeds their desires or deserts. For there is no contesting with God, who has power and wisdom too ef­fectual and commanding for us worms, by policy or strength to cope with; nor are [Page 106] any preparations, how valid soever [...] themselves, proper to a successful issue; but as the benediction of God rests o [...] them which Sir Iohn Arundel, Holingshed, p. 423. temps R. 2. found most true, to his ruin and cost, in his French Expedition, upon which he entred with great pride and pomp, for he had 52. new Suits of Cloth of Gold & Tissue with him, and all things suitable: but a storm came, drowned his person and bravery, and defeated that voyage; and long afore that the terrours that God ha [...] brought upon men and armies,Thu [...]ydides lib. 4. p. 335. on no real apparent ground, when they sear where no fear is, and fly when none pursues them, confirms this. Which if men would more ruminate, they would no [...] despise the day of Gods small things; nor trust in Coun­sels, Setlements, Armies, Navies, Treasu­ries, nor in any humane reserve or sub­terfuge, which are failable, carrying the worm of their corrosion in them, and lea­ving often the ill aspect of paramount power impending them; but they would apply themselves by prayer to God for conduct and counsel, and refer the glory of their ayds and gainful expedients to him, whose all men, arts, advantages, de­feats, conclusions are, and have no other dependance on emergencies, or second [Page 107] [...]uses, then his Almightiness by them [...]ves us view of the haults they make, [...]d the stops by them put to our [...]onfidentest Carrears: for as there is [...] arrest of the worlds greatness, but by [...]e officer of providence, who seises the [...]ltanish pride, and humbles the Lionlike [...]ightiness of Might; so is there no bayl [...] be taken to relax his prey from its sei­ [...]re, but by mercy conceding to the mil­ [...]er methods of power, and turning to it [...]he softer edge of its Regal absoluteness; [...]hich is more Gods delight to manifest to [...]e sons of men, then his severity, which [...]e calls his strange act. And I think that [...] the survey of the providences of God,Isai. 28. 21. the meditation and learning of which is [...]ery prudent and Christian to be fre­ [...]uent in.) It will appear that to one of [...]enal nature there is ten of mercy and [...]ndulgence:Nequaquam ergo nobis do­lenda est [...]aet asslictio infir­mit [...]m quum intelligimus matrem esse virtutum. Sal­vianus lib. 1. de Gubernat. Dei p. 9. for the good and Philan­ [...]hropique manifests of God are such as [...]ow from his being and benignity; and [...]o come upon us with all the adjuncts of [...]indness, compassion, indoctrination; when [...]he punishments he is cons [...]rained to send upon us for correction of sinnes of obsti­ [...]acy, and for reduction of us from our [...]ay of errour, fall from his justice which [...]e delights only in as his own vindication, [Page 108] not our affliction. And though they [...] not so apparently, and in present app [...] hension so obliging to us, yet as they [...] reductive of our deviation, & do defec [...] us; so they are cordialand salvifique.

And therefore since mans prospe [...] is so short,Non potest enim quis quam ab initio sormatus, & tota ratione compositus, Om­nes exsequi numeros, u [...] sciat quando oppor­teat, & in quan­tum & cum quo & quem ad modum. Senec. ep. 95. and his condition so uns [...] ble, that he is not fixed in any kno [...] ledge of himself; or of what is good and when and how it is to be brough [...] about; but must be taught knowledge [...] what he is and ought to be, and lea [...] obedience by the things that he suffe [...] It is good for man to have Gods re [...] upon him, and his grace of restraint [...] him, yea, his good Angels about him [...] keep him in all his waies. And this favo [...] God blesses his with that seek him w [...] all their hearts, and serve him with [...] their mights: whereupon I lay it dow [...] for a sure rule, That it is God that giv [...] rain in season, and makes the earth to yi [...] her increase, Levit. 26. 4. and makes m [...] increase mightily, & their daies to be prolo [...] ged, Deut. 6. 3. That blesses men in all th [...] increase, and in the works of their hands wherein they rejoyce, Deut. 16. 15. 'Tis G [...] that increaseth men more and more, Psal [...] 115. 14. 'Tis God that increaseth the jo [...] of the me [...]k, Isa. 29. 29. Makes them f [...] [Page 109] [...] plenteous, and their Cattel feed in [...]rge pastures, Isai. 30. 23. brings evil [...]on their devourers, Ier. 2. 3. Causes [...]em to be fruitful, Ier. 23. 3. Multiplies [...]vantages upon them, Ezek. 36. 11. Rai­ [...]s their glory, Dan. 11. 39. And hence [...]ere is a good account given, how ac­ [...]ording to what God has revealed, and [...]perience instructs us, Men and Fami­ [...]es come ordinarily to thrive, and grow [...] and in greatnesse; all which I call the [...]eps of ascent to Gentilicial Beatitude. For [...] it is God that gives a man a good heart, [...]. [...]t aright to serve him; so it is God alone [...]hat can keep that heart to its regular [...]xation, so as to be accepted by and re­ [...]ardedPlato in [...]ip­pia ad fium. Dialog. for such service with worldly [...]ontinuance and success of increase.

SECT. XIII.
[...]rraigns prophaness as the Curse and Cancre of Men and Families. Toge­ther with the nature and leaven of it.

NOw the co [...]trary descents To Gen­tilical Decay follow: for this Ladder [Page 110] of life hath Angels ascending and des [...] ding [...]on it, and consequences suita [...] thereunto. And the first ill Omen to Fa [...] lies and men is prophaneness and irr [...]gion; which is a defiance of God, and having him not in all our thoughts, Psa [...] 10 [...]4. For since the imaginations of [...] thoughts of our hearts are evil, and co [...] tinually evil, as Gods definitive senten [...] upon them is, Gen. 6. 5. To be a man [...] re [...]ined, and uncircumcised by Gods g [...] cious abscision of his unregenerate fo [...] skins, is to be prophane and unvalued [...] Gods sight, and hostile against him. Th [...] the Scripture calls, rebellion against Go [...] Deut. 31. 27. Ier. 28. 16. Fighting with Go [...] Acts 5. 39. Unpleasedness with God, I [...] 21. 14. Forgetfulness of God, Deut. 32. [...] Ier. 2. 32. c. 3. 27. Hosea 13. 6. A wearying God. Isa, 5. 13. Mal. 2. 17. A pressing God Amos 2. 13. Walking contrary to God Levit 26. 22. A grieving of God at th [...] heart, Gen. 6. 6. A hardning of their fac [...] against his reproof, and a refusing to re­turn, Ier. 5. 3. Drawing iniquiry wi [...] Cords of vanity, Isai. 5. 10, 18. And her [...] upon by reason of the Deicidial insolence of it, God is provoked to impend and af­flict it with desolating vengeance, not alwaies in the main bulk, and by signal [Page 111] subversions of it. (For in this sense good men to their discomposure see the wicked flourish like a bay tree) but in the petty­toes and particello's of it, which doe by degree abate and rot off, as precursories to the dissolution of their entireness & beauty. For as in the Motto of the Famous house of Memorancy (Deus primum Christianum ser­ [...]et) Which yet flourisheth in France to this day, we are told what the expectations and obtainments of piety are, from the God of every good thing and perfect; Who has promised no good thing shall be wanting to them that fear him, Psal. 34. [...]0. That is, not only that he will not with­ [...]old any good from them, Psalm 84. 12. but that he shall make others instrumen­tal to their good; so that the fruit of his mouth shall satisfie good to him, and the re­compence of his hands shall be rendred to him, Prov. 12. 14. So also are we taught from the contrary, of wickedness in mens hearts and lives, which I call prophane­ness, and irreligion, that the eye of God is upon Men and Families for evil, and not for good; and his Curse against them to root them out: which the Scripture calls Powring Hell out of Heaven upon them, as on wicked Sodom and her sister, Gen. 19. 24. Consuming the Tents of wicked [Page 112] men, Numb. 16. 26. bringing the way of the wicked upon his head, 1 Kin. 8. v. 32. Making the place of the wicked come to nought, Iob 8. 22. Putting out the light of the wicked, that his spark shall shine no more, Iob 18. 5. Putting out his can­dle with him, vers. 6. Abbreviating his triumph, and assaulting his excellency in its high noon, c. 20. v. 5, 6. Making the increase of his house to depart, and his Goods flow away in the day of his wrath, c. 20. v. last. Breaking the jawes of the wicked, c. 27. v. 17. Thus terrible i [...] God to wickedness, that he not only is angry with wicked men all the day long [...] Psal. 7. 11. Breaketh the arm of them, Psal. 10. 15. Brings sorrows upon them, Psal. 32. 10. but after all gives them the dregs o [...] his fury to drink, Psalm 75. 8. and cas [...] them into Hell, Psalm 9. 17. And is not prophaneness and irreligion the bane of Men and Families, that lets Gods venge­ance into the foundation, and fixes his wind of dissipation, and his fire of execu­tion, upon the Turrets, and Parapets of it [...] leaving neither stone nor morter visible of its wonted consistence. I know there is nothing more mysterious, then the path [...] of God, and his manifestations in out­ward things; nor dare I be too positive [Page 113] in concluding love or hatred by what oc­curs to men here: those on whom the Tower of Siloe fell, were not greater sinners then others that were secure;Luke 13 4. yet from the word and warrant of God, and experience, I may believe, that good fur­therances to good men are the tokens of Gods good will to them, and ill tidings and casualties coming, not by chance, but commission, are signes also of God pater­nally correcting their wanders and un­mortifiedness; which not being collectable from the like carriages of his greatness to evil men, to whom God is contrary,Psal. 7. 11. and with whom displeased; there may be sufficient warrant for looking upon their temporary flourishing, but as a minuts gaity before an eternal setting and expi­ration. And hereupon, when ever I see Men or Families turn upon God their backs, Ier. 32. 33. and imagine evil against the Lord, Nahum. 1. 11. when their heart is fully set in them to do evil, because sentence is not presently executed upon them, Eccles. 8. 11. When I consider, They take crafty counsell against the Lord, and against his Anoynted, Psalm 2. And hat [...] the man and thing that is good, Micah 3. 2. And speak evil of what is good. When theseIude v. 15. impudencies are exert, and the rancour of [Page 114] their prophane irreligious hearts breaks forth at their lips, & they do not only with Esau contemn that sacred gift of God, divine primo-geniture, by bartring it for tri­obolary contents, & momentany nothings; but they dare own Religion no further practicable by a wise man, then in the uutside, and in that part of it which is po­pular and exemplary;Non cogitamus quid ips [...] simus sed quid alteris esse videmur [...] [...]di eo perdu [...] & a resset ut neglecta veri­tate meriti de sola opintone curamus Pela­hius in qua [...]rela ad Deme [...]riam. Pro [...]nos appel­lam ubique ho­mines sacris non imitatos. Bu­d [...]eus in Pan­dect. p. 180. Fol. when men make no conscience of duties, and things sacred, but can pass them over, and swallow them down, deriding the precisianism of those that make scruple of sacriledge and im­piety that is gainful. No wonder that God is known to these in the judgment he executed, and these wicked ones are taken in their own snare, Psalm 9. v. 16. No wonder that God denies them the com­forts and conducts of his Spirit, in their way, and the glory of his Sonne in his Kingdom, who deny him their obedience and adoration here in their day; and who set themselves to dethrone his Holi­ness, Power, Goodness, Justice, from its command over the events of things, and upon the hearts of men: no wonder that he leaves these trusters in man, and these makers of flesh their arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord, by making them like [...]eath in the Desart, and not see good [Page 115] when good commeth, as the words are Ier. 17. 5, 6. When they set themselves to contradict his Institutions, and to live contrary to his punishments and rewards, no wonder God gives them the whirl­wind of instability for their portion, and razes their posterity and glory out of ho­nourableHab. 2. 16. record, who design his disho­nour in their heart, and establish it by their power, and defend it by their wit,Horum senten­ti [...] non modo superstitionem tollunt in qua inest timor ina­nis deorum, sed etiam religio­nem, quae deo­rum culta pio continetur. St. Augustin. lib. 4. Civit. dei. and propagate it by their example. Can God be jealous of his glory and power, which he will not give to any other, and yet pass by the provocations of these in­solencies, which question his being as a God good, as a Spirit holy, as a Lord great, as a Judge just? And when he gives, to such as give him the courage of their Faith, 1 Iohn 5. 4. the sincerity of their love, Matth. 20. 37. the perfect work of their patience, Iames 1. 4. the duty of their holiness, 1 Pet. 1. 16. the exceedings of their zeal, Gal. 1. 14. the indeterminateness of their perseverance; when to these he gives a name better then Isa. 56. 5. that of sonnes and daughters, and settles upon them the sure mercies of David, which shall not depart from his seed sorevermore. Isa. 55. 3. Is it not just with him to give to those that despise his counsell, and dispute his [Page 116] power, and deride his holiness, and dis­grace his Gospel, and grieve his Spirit, and crucifie his Son afresh, and put him again to open shame, by their hard hearts, rash speeches, vicious lives: is it not just with him to rend them and their children, and fortunes, with the stormy wind of his fury, and in the overflowing storm of his anger, and by the great hayl-stones of his fury to consume them, as the threatning is, Ezek. 13. 13. Yes sure, and such will be the end of all contemners of God and his Gospel; who, though they be too big for men to deal with, and too sturdy for them to argue off their courses, & to undeceive in their placing happiness and content in the luxury of life: yet are by God severely met with, sometimes in terrours of mind, and visions of horrour; as was that wicked Metropolitan of Saxony, Adalbertus Arch­bishop of Hannaburgh, who being highly born, but not so noble in grace as blood, was wont to boast, that all his predeces­sors were pitiful obscure Priests, and had no descent; nor was the See ever honoured with a Gentleman Bishop before he came into it; God met with the Atheism and pride of his heart, for on a certain night he dreamt he was officiating at the Altar, and that he saw one resusing his service, [Page 117] and heard a voyce, Thou proud Prelate, Tu homo nobi­lis & clarus non potes ha­bere par [...]em cum humilibus, Melchior. Adam. Hist. Eccles. p. 60. c. 19. that gloriest more in thy stemm, then rendrest thy self glorious by the grace of thy heart, hast no portion with Gods contrite ones. Or, if God calls them not home this way, he either chastens them by great mis-for­tunes, in their posterity, as he did the Conquerour, for his Sacriledge in throw­ing down 36. Mother Churches, besides Monasteries, Villages, Chappels, Houses and Towns, where men habited, to make new-Forrest, his Chase for beasts, which place was fatal to his sonnes, (for William Cambden in Han [...]shire, p. 259. Rufus and Richard, his two sonns, both perished therein, the one by pestilent ayre, the other by the arrow of Tyrril; and Henry his grand-child was hanged in the boughs of a Tree, pursuing his Game in this Forrest,) according to the fourth Commandement, To the fourth ge­neration of them that hate him. Or, by sweeping their posterity away, so were Ieroboams, 1 Kings 15. 29. So Baa­sha's, 1 Kings 16. 3, 4. So Ahabs, 2 Kings 21. 21. Which is the judgement David imprecates on the wicked, Let his poste­rity be cut off, and in the generation follow­ing let their name be blotted out, Psal. 109. 13. Thus is irreligion in the heart, and pro­phaneness in the word, and works, ener­vative [Page 118] of the prosperity and duration of Men and Families.

SECT. XIV.
Presents Injury and Oppression a Demo­lition to Men and Families.

SEcondly, No less to Men or Families harm and dock is Injury and Oppres­sion, which therefore is a great corrasive and supersedeas to them, because a breach of that law of Charity and natural good­ness which God end [...]wed man with at first; and the degeneration from which, is great part of the guilt and curse of nature; and as God once sent the Flood on the old World, to sweep away those Mon­sters of violence that rooted in it, Gen. 6. 11. So does he continue his secret curse on all unrighteous deali [...]g, and advan­tage of one man sinfully taken against a­nother: For, if God commands to fear him,Eccles. 12. 13. and keep his Commandements, one chief whereof is to love our Neighbour as our selves; and to do nothing to others, but that we would have done to ourMatth. 7. 12. selves. Then to do evil to, and to extort [Page 119] from our Neighbour, poor or rich, by force or fraud, his right; and to benefit our selves by his diminution, is a breach of the Royal Law, and a sinne meritorious of eternal severity, and of the forerunners of it Temporal infelicity: and if the righ­teousness of him that giveth and disper­seth abroad to the poor, remaines for ever, and his horn shall be exalted with honour, as is promised, Psal. 112. 11. which refers not only to the plenitude and per­ennity of his reward in Heaven; but also to the temporal conspicuity and continua­tion of his line and succession: If, I say,Minima com­moda [...] non mi­nimo sectanies discrimine fi­n [...]iles aiebas esse aura [...] hamo piscantibus cu­jus obrupti damnum null [...] captura pensari possit Octavius apud Sue [...]onia. this promise be to charity and goodness, then by the rule of contraries, to despise and oppress the poor, and to take from men their right, by violence and circum­vention, is to proclaim a Nimrodique spi­rit in them, and to consent to the entry of their enmity and violence on Gods re­cord, to be ever before the eye of his jealousie to root them out as evil doers, and to erace and eradicate both root and branch of them. That God may bring upon these Hookers and Anglers of Oppres­sion, whose every fish that comes into their bayt is, his fierce wrath, and take th [...]maway with Hooks, and their posterity with Fish-hooks, as by his holiness he hath [Page 120] sworne he will do, Amos ch. 4. ver. 2.

I know this Doctrine is little in credit in the world, whose projects are more di­rected by success, then by conscience; nor are men apt to believe these terrours, which they think are so farre off, and so dubious in their postage after them, as to hope they may not at all fall to their share, or not in their daies. The prospe­rity of the Turk, Tartar, and other the great Leviathans and Behemoths, disputes this out of their belief, and commends a likeness of practise to them; as for the me­nace of Scriptures, and the dehortations of Church-men, [...] Socrates apud Stobaeum. Serm 55. Caducum malis artibus partum nomen eamque vulgo quae glo­ria dic [...]r apud doctos in [...]miam esse non glori­am Petrarch. lib de rem. utri Fortune. Dial 19. they weigh them not; their will is their law, their tongue is their own, their hands are at liberty, they own no Lord over them; tell them, that ill gotten goods thrive not, that posterity is no better for them then the world is for the Sunne after its setting: which Socrates told his Countreymen, and that fame from cruelty, and a name for truculency, is infa­mous, and they believe it not. No, God himself is not authority enough to his own prevalence over their incredulity; for that they lay not his threats to heart, but heedlesly pass them by: yet the Scrip­ture, which will not fail in any Iota of truth, is positive against Injury and Op­pression [Page 121] in every limb & link of it. Iob 20. 19. Because he hath oppressed and forsaken the poor, because he hath violently taken away a house which he builded not, surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired. V. 20. There shall none of his meat be left, therefore shall no [...]ian look for his goods. V. 21. Though God will break in pieces the Oppres [...]or. Psal. 72. 4. Make the Oppressor to cease. Isai. 14. 4. And take away his fury, Isai. 51. 13. Yea, destroy his own house, for the Nations oppression, Ier. 22. 5. Though hand joyn in hand, the wicked shall not be un­punished, but the seed of the righteous shall be delivered, as the wise mans words are, Prov. 11. 21. Yet men trust in violence and oppression, till such Conijahs be cast out, they and their seed, and no man of their seed prosper, Ierem. 22. 28. and till there be judgment upon them with­out remedy; which we may read in the subversion of all the Asian Monarchys, and of all the mighty Favourites in the world, who, because they came to power, and continued to use power not so equally as they ought, lost their power and their governments by improbable means, and made way for the providences of God that were to subvert and succeed them. [Page 122] And though some righteous persons and governments have been determined and suppressed, as well as those that were not such, which proceeds, as I have written before, from the pleasure of God in the variations of his declared power; yet ought this as neither to make us restive and despaire,Nihil mihi te­cum foatuna, non facio mei tibi copiaus scio apud te Catones repell [...] Va [...]i [...]ios fieri, nihil rogo. Ep. 118. as he in Seneca, who because Fortune would not serve him as he would, discarded it, and vowed no service to, or expectation from it, because Cato's wer [...] frowned upon and Vatiniusses favoured by it. So neither to make us cease to be good, and imbrace evil, to prosper by it; for that when God does suffer evil men toBonum virum in deliciis non habet, experi­tur. indurat, sibi illum prae­parat. Senec. lio. de Provi­dentia. prosper, he does but fatten them against the slaughter; leave them excuseless, by giving them their portions in the bles­sings of this life: but when he denies it to good men and just,Omnia mala ab illi [...] remov [...]t, scelera & [...]a­gitia & cogi­tallones impro­bas & avida consilia, ipso [...] luetur a [...] vin­dicat nunquid hoc quoque a deo aliquis exi­git ut bonorum virorum etiam sar [...]inas serve [...], Idem. 'tis by their hard usage to try and indurate them, that their vertues might be more approved, and their re­ward most appreciated by them. It is enough that God takes care of their minds, saith Seneca, and preserves them from vices. God must not be expected to look after the luggadge of good men; no matter what poor scraps they have in their snapsacks, if there be courage in their minds.

As then good men are not to be fret­ters [Page 123] at Oppressors and injurious mens pro­sperity, which is but for a time; so are they not to despond their own reward, transcending theirs even in a visible return of good to them. For even worldly per­petuation as sanctified and consistent with Gods eternal intendments (without which they are not worth having but curses, and to be deprecated) are sure to be the just and merciful mans portion. So Prov. 12. 7. Ier. 22. 28. Gen. 35. 12. Deut. 4. 37. chap. 11. v. 9. ch. 34. v. 24. 2 Sam. 7. v. 12. c. 22. v. 51. 2 Kings 5. v. 17. 2 Chron. 20. v. 7. Psalm 18. v. 50. Psalm 25. 13. Esay 54. 3. c. 66. v. 22. & in many other places assertive, that the Tabernacle of righteous men shall be in peace, that their seed shall be great, and their off-spring as the grass of the earth. Job 5. v. 24, 25. It is not then, how much Wealth, how great Honours, how potent Friends, how politique Counsels, how hopeful Successors, men leave in their Fa­milies, and are carefully improved after them, though these be excellent outward comforts and preliminaries to establish­ment: but how Just and Honest mens acquisitions of them were; and how little they were Cruel, False, and Oppressive to others in them, that leaves the blessing of God with them, and adds no sorrow to [Page 124] the enjoyers of them; one Achans wedge in a Fortune is able to curse both it, and them that have it: that is only durable riches and honour, which is Gods in the aym of the seeker, and tends to God in the expression of the finder and enjoyer; which because sacrilegious men, who rob God of his right, and prey upon his pa­trimony, have not well considered; they have by this injury to and oppression of God, intailed his curse & blast, upon their Families. So God cursed the Sacriledge of Israel, Mal. 3. 6. Ye are cursed with a curse. Why? Ye have robbed me, even this whole Nation; [...]pist Bonisac. ad Aethelbal­dum Regem. Spelman in Conciliis p. 235. and that in Tythes and Of­ferings, V. 5. And so he cursed Ce [...]lred and Osred, two of the Saxon Kings, and sent miserable death upon them. The fret and consumption of which is irreparable, by diligence or thrift, because till expia­tion be made the sin is prosecuted in the punishment;Temps H. 8. which, if I mistake not, Chief Justice Fitz Herbert, considering, on his death-bed, called his children together, charging them, that they should neither buy nor take into their hands, any of the Church-land, which the King (said he) is now alienating; for if you doe, my curse shall be upon you, and so will Gods too; and it will eate out all the Patrimony I [Page 125] leave you. And Sir Henry Spelman was resolute in the observation, that nothing had eaten out Noble and Generous Fa­milies since H. 8. time, more then Church­lands. For if Injustice between man and man is a sin of provocation to, and punish­ment from God; how much more the in­jury that man does to God, and the prey such covetise and violence makes upon his rights; whose mans life, breath, being is; and to whose mercy and power they are everlasting debtors.

SECT. XV.
Insinuates Prodigality and Incirumspe­ction, a ready way to ruine.

THirdly, Prodigality, and ill conduct of life, is a great worm to the flouri­shing Gourd of an Estate. I rank them together, because much of prodigality arises from ignorance of life, and the ad­vantages or disadvantages of it, in all the expectations and rencounters of it; for to spend vastly, and with no eye to the pos­sibility and duration of the supply, is, as if an insecation should be made of every [Page 126] veyn in the body at once;Addiximus auimum vo­luptati, cum indulgere ini­tium omnium malorum est Senec. Ep. 110. and is to the fortune by its plurality of vent a suitable disperiting: for Estates are made up of savings as much as gettings; and so are they kept together when got; parsimony being the penning up of the floats of gain, which raises the depth of the estate, pro­curing therefrom not only supplies to necessity, but inundations of purchase, Nor did or will ever any man grow in his Estate, according to the estimation of com­mon wisdom, who from what he gets, or has given him, saves not the matter of his in­crease; therefore to know what frugality is, has done, or yet can do, and to approve and well-mannage it, is a great master­ship in vitall prudence, which is [...], the Prince of all vertues, be­cause it so governeth the reines of life, that it keeps every deportment and expression of man in its proper activity of regiment and subordination, according to the law of respective prudence, [...], Solen. apud Stob [...]e­um. Serm. 25. and the quality of mans station, To God, To men, To a mans self; and thence becomes as absolute in the vertues of practice, as the eyes are in the account of senses, where the precedency is given taem. Nor dos any man here well as wise and worthy, that vainly and loosly expends his time, parts, fortune, [Page 127] [...]ealth, in courses of deboshery and dis­ [...]epute, which Plato consented to, when [...]he saw a rude unthrift catching at the [...]naps and offalls of a good hous-keepers [...] Plato apud Stobae­um. Serm. 75. Table, O, said he, if you had oftner dined [...]paringly, you might have supped now more [...]leasingly, and plentifully. Although then men are fondlily imposed upon when they [...]ancy that luxury is liberality, and that good husbandry is beneath a great mind; which Tacitus condemns,Falluntur qui­bus luxuria sub specie libera­litatis imponit. Tacit. 1. Hist. as a fashionable gullery, and a fraud of circumvention, [...]n great favour with ayery youth, which [...]elights in becoming thereby seduced, yet is prodigality the truer argument of a low and mean soul, which looks at no end above that of a beast, nor uses any more reason in provision for the end of his actions, then beasts do: for God ha­ving given man reason to weigh and consi­der actions, and events & according to his apprehension of them, to regulate him­self, to or from them, as they are depen­dent on Providence in the good or evil of them; not to use our reason in things of such consequence, nor to be secured by its efficacy, well expressed by us in the prudent use of time, friends, fortune, plea­sures, is to cast away the reverence of God, so enabling us, and to reproach the [Page 128] dignity of the enablement rightly mana­ged, and to lose the result of those ver­tues, which by a rectitude of application to emergent providence, might have been advantageous to us; for that is true libe­rality, which is steered by the rules of reason, directive to, and associate with it; whereby all those assistances to oblige­ment,Ambitio & jactantia & effusio & quid­vis potius quam liberalitas ex­istimands est, Cui ratio non constat, Plin. Panegyr. being orderly introduced, and im­proved according to the proportion of their use, and created designment, with­out any diminution or diversion, become praiseworthy for some men to do, and comfortable for other men to partake of: For, as it is not strength only, but art and slight that brings great bodies into mo­tion; so is it not so much the bulk of the estate, as the way of ordering and pla­cing it, that appears operatively great. Thus sagacity fights with few against a numerous Army of men; and with a little wheel great weights are craned up; and with little cost good houswifery furni­shes a Noble Table; and with few ingre­dients the Physitian prescribes a Cordial composition: it being only the property of prudence, and experimental intuition into, and intelligence of the world, and men in it, to frugally manage a little to great acceptation; which is shostliest, [Page 129] and most comendably done, when the order of marshalling, the seasoning of time, the efficacy of performance, both enters it in, and brings it off. Hereupon, what­ever advantage and courtesie, to the glory of life, thrift and parsimony, (in the creditable regularity of it,) bring to life, that prodigality defeats, and evacuates; which fatal activity of its wast, does not only display its self in immense expence,Nondum satis omne robur pro­jecimus, adhuc quicquid est boni moris ex­tinguimus le­vitate & poli­tura corporum, muliebres mun­ditias an [...]sces­simus, co ores meret [...]icio ma­tro [...]is q [...]idem non [...], viri sumimus, Tener [...] & molli ingressu suspen­dimus gradum, non ambulamus sed incedi [...]us, Quotidi [...] com­miniscimur, per quae viri­litati siat iniu­ria, ut tradu­catur quia non potest ex [...]i Senec. 7 Natur. Quest. c. 31. and in triobular baubles to set out and pirk up a body of dust & vice with; which Seneca gravely increpates the folly of the Romans, for, We have not yet (saith he) cast off all antique masculineness, such reliques of vertue yet remain, which are passing over their solid worth to the levity of fashions, which invade vertue, and traduce it into a study of sining the body, rather then adorning the mind; so that now we men exceed women for neatness: no soul finger, no wrinkle, nothing must be otherwise then exact. Yea, we learn to lick from those Curtezans, whose native beauties they think not leur enough, and therefore curl and paint to entice more vehemently; and we walk so tenderly, and with such state, as if we crept, not walked; and daily we busie our selves, if not wholy to put off, yet in great degree to abate, Manliness. Thus that Authour. Not [Page 130] only, I say, is prodigality notified by these profusenesses, but by negligence of which end goes forward, and overliness in man­aging what men have, and ignorance and Invigilance in humouring and helping it to its best accomodation. This Solomon reproaches, and sends the guilty of it to the Ant, Prov. 6. 6. For as men are bodily unamiable, as well by not washing their skin, not trimming their hair, not paring their nayls, not wearing decent clothes, and keeping them decently, as by may­hems, scarrs and diseases; and as he is as untrue a Steward for his Owners, who does not observe and take the first wind, and put out all the sayls he safely may, & the vessel will well bear, in a quick wind, by which his port will be soonest made, and the Owners fraught be turned into effect; as he that casts them into the sea, or betrays them to Pirats, because in both cases there is a failer of trust, and so a de­sert of subsequent censure: so may he be accounted as true a waster of his estate, who lets it have its own swing, and minds it not; as he that by vain and costly li­ving contracts debts upon it, and then is fain to sell it to pay them: For Estates seldom stand at stay; if they increase not, they diminish. Let then the restraints [Page 131] and guards of frugality be taken off, and there will nothing in men of vice and latitude of living remain; but rashness, indiscretion, mistake, disobligement, po­verty, contempt, [...]ervility; yea, men ne­ver do sordid things, till their greedy vices pinch them for supplies; which be­cause they cannot furnish as they would, they must as they can. Which was the misery Agur deprecated, in that passage, Giveme not poverty, lest I be poor and steal, and take the Name of my God in vain. Pro. 30. 8. And which had William Rufus a­voyded, who was by them put to extre­mities unbeseeming a King;Holingshed, p. 27. (witness his ruining some to be benevolent to others:) he had never been needy, at such disad­vantages to his conscience and honour, as he was, who being a Christian took money of the Jews, to force converted Jews to become Jews again; and made so slight of Christianity, that he for money would violate any right of it; Which un­happiness of his humour, verified the cha­racter that is given of him, In such sort was he liberal, that therewith he was prodigal; and in such wise stout of courage, as proud withall; and in such manner severe, as he seemed cruel and inexorable. And so his vertues were absconded, and derogated [Page 132] from, by his concomitant errours. All which confirms me in the resolution to not only commend the abstayning from supernumerary expences, but from all diversions which render business and dili­gent overlooking estates tedious, as those inconveniences which are equally destru­ctive to Men and Families. For true is that of Petrarch, No vertue is too big for its own sphere that God has set it in; Nullum virtus spernit habita­culum, nisi vi­tiis occupatum, visne tibi do­mus omnis am­plissima videa­tur, cogi [...]a se­pulchrum. Petrarcha lib. 2. de remed. ut. Fortur. Dial 63. nor do great minds undervalue low conditions; un­less vices corrupt them, to be curious and un­satisfied: Wilt thou think thine own house big enough for thee, meditate it as thy se­pulchre, in which thou layest down thy body, not to rise to live here again, and that will calm thy pomp. Thus Petrarch.

SECT. XVI.
Impeacheth Idleness, as the direct track to Beggary and Devastation, both of Vertue in the Mind, and Riches in the Purse.

FOurthly, Idleness, which brings nought home, is a great Corasive to a Family: [Page 133] for it makes a plenary wast of all Ance­stors acquisitions; and brands the guilty of it with ingratitude to those that com­petently feathered their nests; and with unnaturalness to those that are to succeed, whom they will leave bare, and unsuitable to the president by which they were pro­vided for. This Solomon as productive of sad effects, pungently brands, Pro. 12. 24. The slothful shall be under Tribute. His way is a hedge of Thorns, Pro. 15. 19. The desire of his heart kills him, ch. 21. 25. It casts him into a deep pit, Pro. 19. 15. His buil­ding decays and drops down, Eccles. 10. 18. His body is cloathed with rags, Pro. 3. 21. All which, amounting to want and contempt, is so far the spur to ingenuity to avoid, that no labour, no hazzard of life, is refused, to escape and secure the spirit against it: For as the glory and hap­piness of a man is to independ on any but God in Heaven, his Vicegerents on Earth, and those subaltern and remote umbra­ges of supernity, which the conditions of inferiority and superiority in a sort make necessary to the circumvehency of the World: so is there no means more pre­valent thereunto then Diligence, provi­dently applied, and humbly persisted in; which the wisdom of this World finds so [Page 134] great a prevention, and so frank a supple­ment to the straits of livelyhood, that it pubishes it second, if not superiour to de­scending patrimonies▪ And hereupon it has been the care and practice of wise Na­tions and Parents to not only punish idle­ness, as an extraordinary crime,Tholoss. Syn [...]tagm. Iuris universi lib. 39. c. 6, &c. but to permit no man to live, but to shew to the Magistrate how he supported himself: and no child to be brought up without some Manual skill, by which he might be able to get a subsistance, and imploy his mind, whatever revolutions should hap­pen to him: For since the world is casual, Irus & est subito, qui modo Crassus erat; and Governments as well as Houses, Lands, Moneys, may cease to be subsistencies; it is good to carry as the Nightingale of a good conscience in the breast, so the Mine of a supply whence to eat or drink, in the head or hands.Acts 10. 34. For what St. Paul said in a case like this, These hands mini­ster to my necessities, may be true of them. When their Lands or Portions left or gi­ven, may, like the charity of his deserting hearers, [...]. Eu­ripid. signifie little or nothing to them. So true is that of the Poet,

[Page 135] And how great a provision against Idle­ness this is, another Poet tels us.

That Idleness is productive of evil, [...]. Sophocles in Iphigenia. Ad summa pervenit qui­scit quo gaudeat qui faelicita­tem suam in a [...]iena potestate non posuit. Senec. ep. 23. [...] &c. Instit. Cyri. lib. 1. p. 30. E [...]aeminari quidem otio & torperm pigritia, nihil allud est quam suffoca [...]e virtutem, nu­trire superbiam viamque construere ad Gehennam. Ep. 9. and nothing but such dangerous effects, appears not only from the prealledged miseries, whereby a mans happiness is in anothers, & not his own power; that is, he is void of all help, be his condition never so pres­sing, unless charity of others relieve him; but from the exercise of those vertues that in an occupied course he may com­fort his soul by, and win upon others by the Majesty of his well-boaren affliction. Whereas Idleness layes a man open to all villany and misery. Which made grave Xenophon instruct Cyrus, that it is hard to nourish one idle man, more an idle houshold, most of all an idle army. Insinuating there­by, the consuming nature of Idleness, and the dammage and defamation that attends it. Which Petrus Blesensis remem­bred to an excellent Schollar, and once his Pupil, who had a mind to be Priested, but was loath to part with the pleasures and idleness of his Lay life, and to take upon him the yoak of Christ. To study self-ease, and to wallow in idleness, is to chak vertue, nourish pride, and furnish the [Page 136] soul for Hell. This the holy Ghost seconds, in the severity he expresses against Idleness, Ezek. 16. 49. Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, Pride, Fulness of bread, and abundance of Idleness was in her, and in her daughters; and because she fed high, and was at ease, therefore was she filled with beastliness, which nothing but a fire from the Lord could consume. Which made St. Paul account it a deed of the flesh, and caution young widdows to beware it, lest they come within the lash of those who learn to be idle, wandring about from house to house, and thereby come to be talkers, and busiebodies, speaking things which they ought not, 1 Tim. 5. 12, 13. Yea in that idle souls shall suffer hunger, Prov. 19. 15. And vertue cateth not the bread of Idleness, ch. 31. v. 27. And our Lord laies it as a crime in the Parable, Why stand ye here idle? Matth. 20. 6. It may be concluded, that Idleness is inclu­sive of all turpitude, and they that are idle will be every thing that is mischie­vous: for the mind is a quick and spright­full part of man, active on something, which, if not good, will be bad, there be­ing between them no medium; for he that is not imployed in good, will be soon the tenant of sin, and the vassal of vice: [Page 137] Which was the reason St. Bernard writing to a Monke, Sis semper oc­cupatus ni dia­belus te inveni­a [...] otiosum. charges him to be never out of imployment, lest the Devil approach and find him idle. For then are men in danger of his temptations, when they are loose from engagements of vertue; which all men are, who propound to themselves nothing but themselves; that is, the pleasure, lux­ury, and gaity of their lives; which had Plutarch done, he would not have made his house [...], the house of Learning, as Plato called Aristotles: Lege Rualdum in vita Plutar­chi c. 15. & cap. 19. nor have written so much, and so well, in a life of so much employment as his was, nor had the great actions of Peace and War, Learning and Law, with the Volumes written of them, been transmitted to us. For to perfect and compose these, nothing but fedulity and avarice of time hoarded up particularly for such purposes, could availe.

Since then Idleness is so apparent a road to vicious life, in all the extravagancies of it, it must needs be a certain and un­avoydable way to the extirpation and diminution of Men and Families; which are only and best built and enlarged by frugality and imployments of Revenue and Fortunary addition or income.

SECT. XVII.
Debates the Infection and Danger of bad Company, to make a Man worse, and a Family less then but for them they both would be.

FIfthly, as Idleness, so bad Company is the Appollyon and Whirlpit of all hopes by men and their endeavours from good Nature,Mores graves in spectaculis quis requirat? ad circum nesci unt convenire Catones, quic­quid illic gau­denti populo dicitur injuria non putatur locus est qui de­fendit excessum Theodoric. Ep. 27 lib. 1. Var. opud Cassiodor. gracefull Education, and naturall addiction to employment: For it leads a man not to see, hear, and ob­serve Cato's, nor to attend wisdoms posts; Nor to learn the matter of our old age glory, and the sustentation of our last and best daies credit; but to Theatres and Houses of Game and Intemperance; where nothing but vanity and ruine nessles, And to the love of which seldom any thing of He­roique import is consequent. Whence it comes to pass, that because Company is as the Sword-fish, or Shark, that takes of [...] whatever limb or part of towardliness it can come to: The wisdome of men has deemed it the infection and plague of [Page 139] youth, over which may be written, Lord have mercy upon us; since Company Gan­gren'd and Mortified by Vice, are the in­curable ruines of those they wind them­selves into, and seduce unto their own likeness. Many a man had surely been good, had not his love betrayed him to his company, and his company assigned him to their sin. When a man is a brother to Dragons, and a companion to Owles, as Iob's words are, Iob 30. 29. He can be no bird of Paradise, no creature for rooms of State, and for heires of beauty and choiceness to behold with pleasure.O quam bonum tempus in remala perdis? quanto nunc satius erat. ami­cos parare imi micos mitiga [...]e. Remp. [...]admi­nistrare trans­serre in res do­mesticas operam que circumspi­cere quid alicui possis facere mali, quod aut dignitati ejus aut patrimonio, aut corpori vul­nus af [...]ligas. Senec. l [...]b 3. de Ira [...]. 28. Seneca appeals to the Prodigals of his time with this reasoning, O how many good minutes dost thou wast in bad actions? were it not much more manly to addict thy self by merit to purchase friends, and mitigate foes, to interest thy self in the good order of the pub­lique, and to regulate affairs wisely at home, then to prog up and down how to spight and injure thy brother in nature and Country; and to watch how thou mayest make his body miserable, his honour suffer, or his fortune be lurched? Thus he; and not amisse, for ill company is the seminary of all mischief; and the forsaking of them the way of se­curity and credit. When a man walketh with wise men, he shall be wise, but a [Page 140] companion of Fools shall be destroyed, [...] Stus. Clemens. Pauci sunt qui consilo se suaque dispo­nant, caeteri [...]orum more quae fluminibus innatat, non eunt sed ferun­tur. Senec. Ep. 23. Prov. 13. 20.

I know, nothing is more usual, than to keep company at all rates, & with all per­sons; without choice or fear, as Boats on Ri­vers, so men in humours, rather are carried by the eddy of custom & opinion, than by the line of reason, in their company & their re­creation; and hard it is to perswade them, that company is ought but a Cipher to the numeral Letters of their comman­ding Virtue; O! they are their own Ma­sters; and they know what to take and leave; and they are wise enough to di­stinguish between the Date and the Stone, the Gold and the dross, the benefit and the danger of any company; not consi­dering that Vice is cunning, and ore-reach­ing, and while they delight, they over­come, which adapteth that of Solomon to these con [...]idents, as their caution and cor­rection. Not who so keepeth merry, and wit­ty, and intelligent company, but who so keep­eth the Law, is a wise Son; but he that is a companion of riotous men, shameth his Fa­ther, Prov. 28. 7.

O, what Caitisss were the High Priests, and Scribes, though they sat in Moses chair, who had Iudas the Traitor for their com­panion? and how neer was Peter to ruine, [Page 141] who in the High Priest's Hall, came almost to be one of those Fanatiques, who cried out, Let him be crucified; so dangerous a taint is ill company, that to use it, is the in next degree to delight in ill company, and that is, to be wicked; so impressive is ill company, that it by degrees, winns & trans­mutes their companions nature into their own likness, [...]. as Plants become complyant and identique with the soil they are set in, says Philo; Hence comes the minds corrup­tion, the lifes shame, the credits blast, & the prosperites determination: And, I have often thought it one of the gracious to­kens of Gods goodness to me, to have a judgment of, an aversion from, and a power against evil company, which con­cession of God to mee, I have ever held my chief tutelar; for it is his grace alone that directed me to, and has ever kept me in, the love of good company, and that when I have been in ill, has preser­ved me from the power of their wit, the se duction of their wiles, the influence of any pleasure, or other charm upon me: so that now I can hear of ill company with­out wonder, know them without engage­ment, endure them without rudeness to them, and pray for them, in pitty to their souls, that they may see and abhor their [Page 142] evil hearts and waies. This, I thank God, I freely can do; but my delight is in the company that fears God, loves vertue, promotes learning, lives regularly, are not lofty but mild, not sordid but neat, not lucigirous but open faced; neither pro­digal nor loose, neither capricious not tepid, but mediocriously tempered, be­tween pleasant and grave, as either ex­tream is useful to them, and symboli­zes with the occurrences of their lives, and is regent in the tempers of their natures; and such as they I have found, the Sun-shine in the cold, and the shade in the heat of life; [...]. St. Chrysost. the Mine of all supply, and the Womb of all Fertility. The Sea is not fuller of drops, the sky not more infinite in breaths of ayr, and blasts of wind; the Sunne not more replete with rayes, the Earth not innumerabler in its particello's of dust, then good Compa­nions are of delight, comfort, profit, praise. Nor can the deepest degrees of misery give a truer description of woe,Primo inde strui potest unde destruitur, nemo ab eo illumina­tur a quo conte­nebratur. Tertul lib deprescrips. advers Hereses. and tri­sticity, then bad companions, in their fa­tality amount to, and in the dreadful conclusion occasion to men, which makes me not more delight in company, as releases from melancholly, then as ex­amples and instigations to vertue. For as [Page 143] there can be no greater a help to enlarge a Family, then by good companys which sharpen the parts, exercise the civility, propagate the merit, advantage the mar­riage, comfort the consciences of their friends, to whom they are all that health and sickness; riches and poverty, every condition requires from them, and they are able to express towards them. So is bad company the very sink and lurch of all wit, thrift, sobriety, morature, prefer­ment, and renders the relations uncom­fortable in the defeat of their hoped for contents. The bad friends, the bad hus­bands, the bad sonns, the bad Christians, the bad Englishmen, that are, owe their deterioration to bad company. Wicked men, and a wicked Devil, cooperating with their own wicked hearts; and thence are they so totally vitiated.

SECT. XVIII.
Treats of ill Chosen and Imprudent Mar­riage, as the Wreck of Men and Families.

SIxthly, unfortunate Marriages are de­cayes of Men and Families: For this is [Page 144] the dismall inquisition, whereinto whoso­ever is brought, by his lustfull or impru­dent heresie, (for tis sageless obstinacy, and too much leaning to their own selves, that lodges men in this dungeon) never sees the light of a happy day, or mo­ment, after it; but is, if not wholly lost, yet overwhelmed in those cares and distra­ctions that are parental of, and prefatio­nal to, unrescuable bonds, and merciless contempts. Now, because I have laid so heavy a charge on unfortunate marria­ges, it will be necessary for me to discover what I understand by unfortunate. For, though unfortunate is unfortunate in e­very notation and accept, yet every in­congruous marriage may not fall under the pungency of the censure in the full of what is thus expressed; though in some considerations of time and persons re­lating to it, and in some degrees under the capacity of it. Far be it then from me to think every unequall marriage un­fortunate; because then I shall make more unhappy marriages then I fear are happy; the most marriages of young persons, or those unknown in dispositions either to other; or those unequal in years, educa­tion, complexion; or those the regen [...] wherein are advantage: being the coun­sels [Page 145] of friends, the prevalences of interest, not the fruit of choice, being in this sence unfortunate. Nor doe I under the term of unfortunate reduce those marriages where every good vertue is present, though not commended by a suitable for­tune; which to some persons is useless, they having enough before, and so happy enough, that they have the opportunity to oblige and eminentise a person whose worth wants only their addition to make it Honourable or Worshipful; No such thought have I in this term unfortunate; nor do I think religion, beauty, modesty, wisdom, thrift, courage, constancy, less then counterpoises to any money or land fortune, with which they are not alwaies presential; God not ever, if often lading all his blessings in one vessell, but disper­sing them, that every one might have some largess of his love, and some Magnetique to draw the exchange of love to it. Nor is merit less then valuable, if it suffer un­der the greatest temporal diminution; nor do brave spirits adheare to Crowns less, because they are set upon rotten posts, but stand most fixedly to them, to te­stifie their homage to, and courage for those divine endowments, are not so much the hopes of preferment, as the ob­ligations [Page 146] of love. Not in this sence then is unfortunate to be alwaies, or by me understood. But by unfortunate I mean, unfit,Matrimonia inter valde dispares infali­cissimos exetus habere solent. Sanches de ma­trimon Sacram. lib. 1. disp. 12. 11. p. 37. improper and unsuitable marriage, where men and women suit not each with other, but are in their marriage like two perfect contraries, pugnant with, opposite to, displeased at, inharmonious in, their conjugality. So true is that of H. 5. to his mother, dissuading him from marrying the Lady Grey, small pleasure taketh a man off all that ever he hath besides, Holinshed, p. 726. if he be wived against his appetite: which he spake, alluding to that lurch of the pleasure and felony of the contrivance of marriage, un­der an incongruity of humour, and de­lectation of temper and person.Sanchez lib. 2. disp 55. p. 149. And though I think it not alwaies a sure rule to build infallibility upon examples, God not walking alwaies in the same path of providence; nor decreeing a like event to all marriages of like nature; but allow­ing various events of good and evil to them. Nor are we concern'd in events, which is his peculiar, and subject only to his jurisdiction, our duties and credits being responsible only to the prudence of our actions, not the issues of them, which are above us. Yet is it highly important to use all discretion, that the truth and [Page 147] vehemence of love, and a due dependence on Gods ability to bless us above all out­ward advantages, will permit in our mar­riages; and that done (with as little alloy to the freedom of our choice, as possible can be) to refer our selves in that estate, and the consequences of it to God. Thus no doubt did that vertuous Lady Queen Margaret, wife to H. 5. and mother to H. 6. who took to her husband Owen Teuder, a gallant brave Gentleman, whom she loved,Holinshed, p. 615. and under the blessing and bond of that marriage produced a­mongst other children the renowned H. 7. the glorious Ancestor of our now graci­ous Soveraign, whom God has made the second Uniter of all the Roses and flowers of peace and plenty in this Nation.

The state of marriage then being foun­ded in a mutuality of corporal and soulary complyance, containing in it the warrant of all intimate knowledge, and natural mixture of kindness, If the irritation to such familiarity and honest sensuality be not from the complacency of fancy & the imperation of kindness often obcaecating judgment, wherby the body and soul each of other are inseparably united in an one­ness of indivision, all the content, vera­city, and matrimonial confidence recedes [Page 148] and becomes lax and disloyal; yea, with­out this, marriage is so far from a remedy that it proves the meetest repository, and safest colour of all imaginable lust. Yea, and the nest of all brawles and open dissociation. Thus was Iane Shore disposed to the enamourings of E. 4. For she was young, given to pleasure and pomp; which her husbands calling not well al­lowing, not yet suiting with his godly temper, whose delight was to be in his calling, and intent upon that; she, I say, disliking him for this, so opposite to her way, and having no fixed affection to him, forsook his counsell and advice first,Holinshed p. 724. then his company, then her own conscience in the checks of it, and at last wholy waved him, as he unwillingly did her. And so her excellent endowments heard ill while she lived, and she ended miserably her ill chosen life: And where the Honour is preserved, the best effect of unequal matches is discord and unpleasancy; ei­ther by occasion of accidents, which pre­setled love would have obviated or con­solated under; or by the interfering of eager and unmortified tempers one a­gainst another; for though men are not often Fitz Lewisd, Cambden Bri­ [...]annia p. 442. nor have the fire of their wives displeasures bin destructive to [Page 149] them or their wedding daies; nor do wives know the hidden mischief of their husbands hearts, before the nine daies wonder be over (for we men are often cunning and conceale our hidden deceits which I would to God were written on our foreheads) yet too soon the fruits of their preengaged seductions will ap­pear not only in the light skirmishes, but in the foughten fields of disaffection and enmity. Not only saies Petrarch doe sus­picions, complaints, Nec ad mensam nec in thalamo tutus eris, mul­tum Tempus litigio vacabit. Media nocte pugnabitur. lib. 1. de remed. u [...]r. Fort. Dial. 65. and little ruffles mingle themselves with these mistaken loves, but immortal duels, and open hostilities, at bed, at board, at all times, not midnight excep­ted: therefore he counsels good men, To learn to suffer, to forsake all for their own wife, who must be, or else she will not be quiet, the wreck and rock to rend apieces all friendship. This I would not have Englished, but to lesson Parents and Guar­dians to great discretion and conscience, not to force or betray their children or charges to persons they disaffect; nor to brow-beat or lessen their respect to and care for them,Uxorem habeo Formosam R. Venenum dul­ce▪ compedes au­reas, splendi­dam servilu­tem. Idem Dial. 66. if they chuse rather not to marry then to marry at their time, or to their person preferred. For, if they do, the best expectable from such a rape and violence upon them, is to account their [Page 150] state a sweet poyson, Golden Fetters, splendid thraldom. For every Lover is a Soveraign,Est enim amor latens ignis gratum vulvus, sapidum vene­num, dulcis amaritudo, de­lectabilis mor­bus, jucundum sopplicium, blanda [...]. Petrarcha lib. 5 de remed ute. Fortun. Dial. 69. and desires to be absolute in its power, to give its self; and since love is a sudden fire, a welcome wound, a wel­relished poyson, a sweet bitterness, a delight­full disease, a pleasant punishment, and a sweet death; is it not reasonable to allow those that are parties to these bitter sweets to be free? sure it ought to be so, unless Parents and Guardians will have their children and trusts free of what is not their own; which they are seldom free from being, or dying for grief, who are lugged to marriage as Felons are to Goals;Note this. or frighted to it, or beguiled in it, as children are by Bug-bears and Rat­tles. And those Parents and Friends that decry the libery of treats and impu­dicity of freedoms, between Men and Women, had best consider, whether it be not the consectary of their over-ruling pleasure, upon their Children and Pu­pils: for nothing is more the fosterer of stollen love, then the anticipation of real love to persons beyond just, valuable, and religious exception. Nor is there any thing that will sooner and with more contentful efficacy restrain the exorbi­tancy of women, who bring the Matron [Page 151] natur'd of them under prejudice for their licenciousness,Non mutata faeminarum natura est sed vita, nam cum virorum licen­tiam aequaverint corporum quo­rum virilium vitia aequave­rant non minus pervigelant, non minus potant & oleo & mero viros provocant. Ep. 95. while (as Seneca complains of the Roman Famosa's They take liberty equal to, yea above men, sitting up whole nights, drinking, playing, and toying, as men of deboysture do, yea, provoking them to do more then they otherwise would;) then by the resolution that they see sober men have to avoyd them, and to oblige La­dies of more self-denial and modesty. Nor will men persist in such vanities, if they see it is distasteful to women, from whom no preferment is hereby like to befall them. The permission then of love to runne in its own channel, and the non-obstruction of power in its free and natural course, is that which I esteem the best expedient to rectifie the disor­ders of marriages, and to render them (with other moderate accommodations) Fortunate. Nor will it be any hard task to perswade a well-bred woman to stay at home, look to her houshold-affaires, and observe her husband,In Menone, p. 409. which Plato makes a womans virtue, if such husband of hers be beloved by her, keep at home with her, and be obliging as a wise man should be to her. For without this in­dispensable sine qua non, love, which is grounded upon likeness of humour and [Page 152] proof of constancy, I conclude little fortunateness in the promise of any Match: For though to some persons who are not touched with the vertue of love; nor have any sense of it in marriage fur­ther then negative, or in non-abhor­rence, whose ayms are Wealth, Friends, settlement, though they admit all incon­gruities and discouragements of a more generous nature, so their avarice or popularity be gratified. Though, I say, to these deliberate Lovers, whose love is not onely not stronger then death, but wea­ker then water, and overcome by the dirt and pelth of money, and money­worth, All Matches that are rich, and accomplishable of design, are fortunate, and as they think prove well; yet to o­thers whatever marriage is not affectio­nate, religious, and symmeterious, can never be accounted other then unhappy, and often destructive to the body, soul, fame, fortune, family, relations of them: Nor do the Bills for Alimony, the Suits for divorce, the owned and open incon­tinencies, the stolen loves, the frequent pawnings of Jewels and Lands, the ren­dings asunder of Families, derive them­selves and their disorders from any truer parent then from these. For though in the [Page 153] Roman Common-wealth,In Civitate Do­mini, in monte sancto ejus, hoc est in Ecclesia, Nuptiar [...]m non solum vincu­lum, verum etiam Sacra­mentum ita commendatur, ut non liceat viro uxorem suam alteri tra­dere, quod in Republ. tunc Romana non so­lum minime culpabiliter ve­rum etiam lau­dabiliter Cato fecisse prohibe­tur. Tertul. lib. de Fide & O. perib. c. 7. men might lend their Wives, and probably borrow other mens, as to them seemed best, which Stra­bo says, in defence of Cato, lending his Martia to Hortensius, was, according to [...], the old Roman Law, yet, when as in the Church of God with us Christians, Tertullian says, such customs are abhorred and forbidden, there ought to be greater care to chuse well, because change men cannot without sin. Which consider­ed, I do (not I think without cause) make unfortunate Marriages one of the true causes of the Decay of men and Fa­milies.

SECT. XIX.
Induceth wicked and expensive children, the wastes of honour and riches in a Family.

SEventhly, Another cause of decay of Families, are foolish Children; for, if Families be carried on in their Succession, by Children supplying the departures of Parents, and the introduction of one Ge­neration upon the cessation of another; [Page 154] then children that are wicked and impro­vident, are never like to maintain or aug­ment the glory of their Ancestours, who were wise and pious: For, since glory and Gods blessing of enduring is the reward of his fear and grace in them, so recom­pensed upon them, their virtue not being in their children, Gods reward to them wil not be hereditary to them, this the Pro­phet Iob, for so his Spirit testifies his en­dowment to be, exemplifies to us, in Ch. 5. v. 3, & 4. I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly I cursed his habitation; His children are farr from safety, and they are crushed in the gate; neither is there any to deliver them. So Chap. 20. v. 10. His chil­dren (speaking of the wicked) shall seek to please the poor: so Chap. 12. v. 17. How oft is the Candle put out; and vers. 19. God laieth up his iniquity for his children; that is, God punishes his unjust dealing with pro­digal and loose children, who shall riot­ously waste his injurious leavings, and ren­der themselves children of fools, children of base men, vilder then the earth, as the words are. Chap. 30. 8.

These foolish, because wicked, children, the Holy Ghost reproaches in the notion of his wayward Israel, whom he calls children of rebellion, Isa. 1. 2. corrupters of them­selves, [Page 155] v. 4. lying children, Chap. 30. 9. chil­dren of transgression, Ch. 57. 4. backsliding children, Ier. 3. 14. sottish children, Chap. 4. 22. forsakers of God, Ier. 5. 7. children of whoredoms, Hos. 1. 2. children of iniquity, Hos. 10. 9. children of the Aethiopians, Amos 9. 7. children of disobedience and wrath, Ephes. 2. 2. covetous cursed children, 2 Pet. 2. 14. and can these children, who are thus ingrain'd in wickedness, be expected to be within Gods care and blessings; or will he build up those who so pull down his glory in their hearts and lives? Indeed, children are not onely a blessing, but the best of earthly blessings, because the con­tinuers of Families, Names, and Ages, in which regard they are not said to be mans, but Gods delight, Children, and the fruit of the womb, are his delight, Ps. 127. 3. but then they are good and gracious chil­dren, that hear instruction, Prov. 4. 1, children of obedience, children that ap­ply their hearts to Wisdom; they that are old in understanding, when young in years, and are grave in their toys, and sober in their extravagancies, that speak and do as those whose age and wit will give each other the lie, and are reconciled by no­thing less then a miracle; such children as have their fortunes in their heads, their [Page 156] preferments in their faces, and their buck­lers in ther tongues, such as like Alfius Fla­vius in Seneca, who when a Lad, spake with applause,Semper com­mendabat elo­quentiam ejus aliqua res ex­ [...]ra eloquenti­am, in puero eloquentiae la­trocinium eras ingenii aetas, Controv. lib. 1, decl. 1. and so settled to Cestius, no puisne Advocate, that he not onely commended, but feared the force of his eloquence; who was eloquent above eloquence, and did what­ever he did, not onely above others, but (as it were) above himself; such Sons (causing their deceased father, to live afresh in the gratulations of men to their memo­ry, for being causal of blessings to Ages and Nations by the production of them) are honours and enlargements to Families,Raymundi Co­mitis Provin­ciae Phocensis quatnor filiae, quatuor summis regibus Christi­ani Orbis nup­t [...] erant. P. Aemilius, lib. 7. Licaon secun­dus Arcadum Rex filios ha­buit 26. omnes clarissimarum Vrbinm sunda­ [...]ores. Pausan. in Arcadicis. who by them are clarificated and Sydney­zed, but to have children that shame their Genitors, and dislustre their Stocks, is a sore curse, better never be generatively viril, than to beget children to be Boutefeau's and earthquakes to Ages, how much rather would pious Predecessours have wished they had died uncontinued in their Male line, then to leave Sons Unthrifts of their Patrimony, careless of their honour, for­ward in vice, intent on villany, engaged in confusion. 'Twas a serious profession of renowned King Iames to his Son PrinceEpist. to Basili­con Doron. Henry, I protest before that great God, I had rather not be a Father, and childless, than be a father of wicked children. 'Tis a sad up­braid [Page 157] that a father gives his unfortunate Son, as the father of that Roman did, to whom, taking part with Catiline in the conspiracy against the Common-wealth of Rome,Te Reipub. non Catilinae genui he said, I begot thee (sirrah) for the Common-wealth, not for Catiline, and had I thought thou would'st have proved a Rebel, I would never have ventured for thy being and birth, nor when thou hadst been born have thus educated thee; chil­dren, that like Simeon and Levi are bre­thren in that evil which makes their fa­ther stink in the nostrils of the people of their land; children that are born for the fall and fate of Ages and Governments, that rave and rage till they have con­founded Heaven and Earth, and dis­influenced, as much as in them lies, the good influences of both, such Attila's, whose gloryings are, that they are scourges and devastations to well constituted settle­ments and habitations of order and wealth; such Herods as make nothing of the heads of Iohn Baptists, to gratifie a rash oath made to a vain Mistress: Such children, who are grievous, wicked, stu­pid, disobliging, do not bless the womb that bears them, and the paps that give them suck, but curse and traduce them; For, as to separate the Rays from the Sun is to de­prive [Page 158] the Sun of light, Avelle à sole solis radinm, & non elucet, ri­vum a fonte, & arescit, ramum ab arbore, & siccatur, mem­brum a corpo­re, & putrescit, separa filium a devotione pa­terna, & jam non est filius sed frater & collega eorum quibus dicitur vos ex patre Di [...]bolo estis, apud Petr. [...]le­sens. Ep. 47. and the River from the fountain, is to render it drie; and the Bough from the Tree, to dead it; and the Member from the body, to perish it: so to se­ver a Son from his Father in similitude to him in true qualities dignificative of him, is to make him appear of a Son of a wise and good father, a colleague of them that are of their father the Devil, as the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Temps, H. 3. wrote to H. 3. And the reason why this is, is because, as a wise Son maketh a glad Father, so a foolish Son proves heaviness to his Mother, Prov. 10. 1. and, as Wisdom is said to build her house, so Folly is branded with the demo­lition of it, and that with both hands, Prov. 14. 1. which warrants the Position, That foolish children are the bane and minoration of a Family, and that because Folly harkneth not to the precepts of Wis­dom, which are preventive of ruine, as well as inductive of endevour, such as are heark­ning to Counsel, Prov. 13. 1. avoiding va­nities, which are a grief to the Father,Educantium saelicior laus est de filiorum probitate lau­dari, Alatha­ricus Rex, Epist 2 [...]. lib 8. variar. Cas­siod. Prov. 17. 25. embracing the fear of the Lord, Prov. 24. 21. observance of the Law, Prov. 28. 7. acceptance of correcti­on and instruction, Prov. 29. 17, 21. all which declined, the curse of God comes upon a Person and Family to root it out, [Page 159] which caused the sonne of Syrack very gravely to advise, Dèsire not multitudes of unprofitable children, though they multiply rejoyce not in them, except the fear of the Lord be with them. Eccles. 16. 1, 2. For by one that hath understanding shall the City be replenished, but the kindred of the wiked shall speedily become desolate.

SECT. XX.
Treats of Gods blast upon the Endea­vours and Atchievements of Men, the unavoydable Eclipse, and irreparable Diminution of their Families.

EIghtly, the eighth and last, but not the least means of the ruine and decay of Families, is, Gods blast upon the Vertues, Endeavours, and successions of a Family. For this is the storm in which no vessell of humane art, no cable of secular con­texture, no project of worldly hold, can availe; not only because it is anticipa­tive of all wisdom and prevention: As appeared in Caesar, who refused the coun­sel of Pansas, and Hirtius, to be wary and [Page 160] strict in government, and who despised the predictions of the Astrologers, the lesson of his Calphurnian dream; and laid aside the papers given him in detection of the conspiracy against him. So fell it out to Archias of Thebes, Charles the last Duke of Burgundy, and the Duke of Guise, and in that great Duke of Buckingham's death by Felton that Villain,Sir H. Wottons character, D. p. 106, 107, 114, 116. Ineluctabilis fatorum vis cujus cum for­tunam mutare constituit con­silia corrumpit. Paterculus lib. 2. p. 48. edit. Lipfii. against which Fate he was fore-warned by the Lord Goring, by an old woman in the way, by Sir Ni­cholas Throgmorton, by the mis-givings of his own thoughts: yet he (Generous soul as he was) despised all, being made con­fident by his courage and resolution; the force of fate being ineluctable: For when it should endeavour avoydance, it suborns prudence to incredulity, or ground­less resolution, whereby it works its end. Whereby not only is Gods purpose aver­sive to mens prudence, but positively con­clusive of what shall befall them, in eve­ry circumstance of it. For though Mau­ritius the Emperour foresee in his Dream, that Phocas shall ruin him and knows what he ought wisely to do to prevent it, yet all in vain. And therefore if God blast, who can bless? what shall succeed without or against him? Not devout prayers, not excessive humblings, not [Page 161] rich gifts, not potent friends, not perso­nal worth, not the love of living, nor the legacies of dying friends, can stop the leak of a Families Immersion: Nay, if any family were so happy to have the cream of mankind in it, were it the Nest of all the Eagles, Nightingals, Unicorns, Phoenixes, (as I may so say) of man-kind; were Cicero, Hortensius, Crassus, Cato, Sulpitius, Brutus, Calidius, Calvus, Caesar, Corvinus, Pollio Asinius, Varro, and the rest, whom Pe­trarch calls,Lib. 2. p. 307. Ingenia eminentia: Were these, added to by all the later Heroiques, of one family and confederacy, yet would they be Physicians of no value, to reco­ver that family from Gods blast. As when God blesses, every thing contributes its service, so do things equally minister to his curse: Not Babels Walls strength, or its Towers heighth, nor Senacheribs army, not Herods. Oratory, not Iulians craft; not Prior Boltons Hermitage on the top16 H. 8. Ho­linshed, p. 882▪ of Harrow-Hill, will avail; they are all as weak subterfuges, as miserable comforters: The best ingenuity and artisice of secu­rity and augmentation, is to pray ayd of God, and to beseech his presence with men, in their spirits by grace, in their actions by prudence, in their designs by success, in their correspondence with men [Page 162] by fidelity and favour, which when con­ducted by him, who is the Intellects foun­tain, the hearts steer, the tongues conduct, the foots guide, the friends motive, the foes disappointment; when, I say, he who is, and there is none besides him, becomes mens in the effects of his power and good­ness to them, then the springs of second causes flow freely, the winds and waves of opposition become calm and still. Thus good men in all ages have had their ends upon the World; though it hath set it self against them, and execised all cruelty to them: Witness the Primitive Martyr­doms, in which though the bodies of holy men were trucidated, and their credits and fortunes plundered from them by the malice of the Gospels adversaries; yet, maugre all their vehemence, whose interest it was to make the credit of Chri­stianity creditless, and the professors of persecuted Truth, vile; yet those dry bones invigorated, and those rams horns bore down the walls of their Iericho, be­cause God was in the cause, and in the Champions that suffered for it,Gatakerus in Antonino com­mentar, p. 386, 387. who is re­solved to abet his Justice and Authority, against the malice and Tyranny of the World; the perduration of which, and its carriage in a way of conviction and [Page 163] efficacy, against the high-flown resoluti­on of & subtil undermining, that the Eth­niques ages discovered towards it. The result of which, is directive to men, in the fortunation and felicitous conduct of their actions, in any kind whatever. If men would not have the Watchman watch in vain, Psal. 127. 1. Nor, the labourer earn Wages, to put it in a bag with holes, Hag­gai 1. 6. If men would live long, and see good daies, Psalm 34. 12. 1 Pet. 3. 10. If they would see their childrens children, to many Generations, and those wise and wealthy; there is no other nor better way to accomplish these attainments, then to comprecate Gods ayd and blessing. This is to be wise with a witness, with the wit­ness of all wise men, and all wise ages: And without this, Achitophels policy be­comes folly, and Iulians zeal for Ethni­cism the price of that Arrow which vin­dictively wounded him, and let out with his life the rancour of his Apostasie; yea, when men contrive a project without, and in desiance of God; it is just, the sequel of that insolence should be shame and sub­version. Never any standard was set up a­gainst God, but lost it self, and all that adhered to it. And therefore, O ye No­bles and Gentry, whose the Generous and [Page 164] Divine aym is to preserve and enlarge your Families; desist your other prudences in comparison of this Master-piece, which miscarries not;Gatakerus in Annotat. ad M. Antonium p. 235. set your faces towards God, seek his cooperation with, and bene­diction upon you. Be not faithless, but believe; for God to unhorse the confi­dence of man, and to spoyl the trust in Princes, often despised the day of great, & advanced the day of small things; that is, he hath made Austrian greatness to stoop to Copper Kings;The Emperour so called the King of Swe­den. his little and con­temned appearances to prevail against all formidable oppositions; for he looks not to the goodly Eliabs of our out-sides; nor is taken with the Micholls of our trans­port, but he looks upon his own Image, and at his own glory, and according to the Instrumentality of them to those ends, so he furthers or impedes them. Hence is it that dangers formidable, like Spanish Armadoes and Invasions, he changes into Morris Dances upon the Waves of dislustre, and makes the very Engineers of them to Sir H. Wotton, p. 23. confess, that Vertues, though they are within the chance, yet they are not ever within the power of ill Fortune: and good things that we promise fixed upon us,& p. 97. retreat and die useless to us. Yea, in Families, b [...]cause men look usually upon the prodigiousest [Page 165] wit, or the beauteousest person, or the valiantest Spark of mens packs, for the hopes of the house, as if the day of victory, and the field of greatness, were to be a present to his merit, and to be wonne by him; therefore God jealous of his glory, in mens lavishing attributions to it, while they luxuriate to such Idols, of their own institution, either removes by death, or disappoints by accident, the prevalency of such their hope, and puts a period to their felicity then, when they thought it most advanceable. This has bin so, this will be so; and that to put the question of Gods Paramontship out of question, & to confirm the certainty of no certainty in any prop or reserve without him; and to undeceive us of that distrust and under­valuation of weak and worthless things, adjuvated by him;Saepe Deorum permissa hono­rati ora sunt ossa pauperis philosophi qui vitam duri [...]er egit quam prin­citi qui delica­us [...]ime vixeta, Antonin. Ep. ad Egesippum. since how contemp­tible soever instruments in disjunction from him are, yet in conjunction with him, and subserviency to him, they are mighty and regent. Which truth hard­ly assented to by the Idolaters of sense, and the magnifiers of success, outstands all the violencies and attaques of this worlds artillery; and by God concurring it, makes good its ground against world­ly cavil, and incredulity; for God sorsakes [Page 166] not his confidents, nor do they receive a bafflle,Sicut qui deum audit non est surdus, fic quem deus audit non est mutus. Pe­trarch. lib 2. de rem utr. Fort. Dial. 103. or defeat, whose help and hope he is, For they that fear ths Lord shall renew their strength as the Eagle, they shall runne and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint, Esay 40. last. That is, God will give them blessings extraordinary, and lofty, above the usual sore of blessings, and blessings durable and unlanguishing, blessings that shall outweigh sonnes and daughters; hee'l give them so much of these lower springs as shall keep their names sweet, and give them all they can receive of the glory and satisfaction of his intuition and fruition. For such ho­nour have all his Saints. Which con­cludes what I have to write upon the generall causes and means of the Rise, Progress and decay of Men and Families, as they are prudently, and without of­fence to particulars, to be taken notice of by us.

SECT. XXI.
Alledgeth the Waies and Means of rai­sing Men and Families, now in this happy return of Affairs in Eng­land.

HAving now by the help of God fini­shed what I intend on the precedent heads: I proceed by the same blessed conduct, and under favour of the wise and pious, to suggest the waies and means of Rises and Decayes of Men and Families now in England: For as there are parti­cular qualities in men, that adapt them to those good Fortunes of Rise and Ri­ches, and so to Decay and Beggary: so is there in times, as byassed by men regents in it, certain specifique helpes and hin­derances effective of both chances, pros­perous and cross: And those the late sur­ly and unnaturall commotions, and the miraculous and merciful composure and reverses, having strangely occasioned here in England, It will not be amisse to write, tenderly and yet truly concerning them. [Page 168] First then, as Money is the price of all things, and thereupon, is said to answer all things, Eccles. 10. 9. and so did in all Ages heretofore, for by it, men have made good evil, and evil good, corrupting Ju­stice, seduced Counsels, subborned multi­tudes, purchased Royalties, directed Ex­peditions, prostituted modesties, atchieved Honors, yea, too much influenced Religions to intend or remit their influences, accor­ding to the Market of them;Pecunia ex quo in honore caepit verus rinum honor cecidit. Seneca Ep. 115. so did it of late in England, in the time of the troubles amongst us; it made men offenders, and restored them to a rectitude; it purchased lands upon the owners extremities, and at inconsiderable rates; it chopped and changed bad Titles for good, and put the negotiators into a capacity to buy their peace, & acceptance, in cases that were in their own nature, & in the currant repute of Honor, pardonable, so auxiliary was Money then to any purpose, that it seldom sailed of its errand to persons in Power; nor is Money inauspicious to the havers now, or are their merits less believed and accept­ed, for having good fortunes, and knowing how dexterously to declare themselves by them, in this our happy Serenato of affairs and glorious appearance of so long a de­sir [...]d settlement. For, as we all know, [Page 169] that in London, and in Corporations of Trade, and in Countreys too, personal Estates, (which were the Estates of pri­vate persons, who would live Office-free and undiscovered, such as were old men, widows, and Bachelours, and some other,) in the great years of Trade, from 1630. to 1640. were in request, men desiring to keep their Estates such, because they made one third part more profit by them then they did by land Estates of the same value; (the Warrs coming on, and those Estates being out at Intrest and in Trades, trusted into several parts beyond the Seas, and into this Nation, wherein the late unhappy Wars made Garrisons of Towns, and in the taking and re-taking of them, Merchandise and Staple goods portable, became plunder'd by those, and such like courses, those Personal Estates of very great value, became wholly lost, or in a very great degree mutilated, and so the Owners of them that way impoverished, unable to be afterwards, either Traders or Increasers, or to give great Portions with their children;) so are we also to know, that abundance of mean persons coming fresh into Trade, the old Traders being beaten out and ruined, or they be­ing in Offices of Plunder, Law, Custom, [Page 170] Trust of sale of Crown and Bishops Lands, with such other courses, of not dubious, but certainly illegal Title, did yet by their craft (knowing that Acts of Oblivi­on, and confirmation of Judicial proceed­ings would come, as of course in all resti­tutions they do) so transferr their acqui­sitions of ill Title into solid Estate, that they raised themselves from nothing, to great estate, and in that estate, by small refundments, inconsiderable to what they thus indirectly acquired, established themselves in prosperity (while others that lost Estates, and would get no new by those means) are in a great measure impoverished, and by reason thereof obscured. Such being the posture of things at home, and the affairs of those abroad requiring supply, few having wherewith, but these traffiquers in disturbance, and o­therwise casual gainers by it; they chiefly, and in number, must be the persons ad­vantaged; no [...] is it strange to have Money so requested, and so operative to ingra­ate men now; for the same feats it hath done in all revolutions. Solomon hence calls Money a defence, Eccles. 7. 12. and when we are told wisdom is good with an inhe­ritance, we are to suspect that it little a­vails in worldly revolutions without it; for [Page 171] though Princes Victors, do not themselves get by their ill subjects losses, or their good subjects diminution, yet are they ne­cessitated to make their favours beneficial to their servants and allies, who have at­tended their misfortuues, and are to be re­warded by the better issues of their af­fairs; And though in absolute Conquests the Victor'd persons forfeit life and land, as in that of the Conquerour, who ejected the Britains and English, and put Normans in their Houses, Lands, Honours, and Of­fices; yet in fewds of one part of the Nation against the other, though the Heads and Ring-leaders of the peccant party do suf­fer capitally; yet the majority of the se­duced and unperverse Commonalty, and Persons of worth, pass off by mediation of Favourites, by whom they are well offer­ed to the Prince, and from him obtain testimony of good will: Thus was favour after Rebellion obtained temps Rusi; thus did the Citizens of London obtain many privileges, temps R. 1. & 'Twas time for them to give money, when that King declared, That if London would be bought, he would surely sell it, Gul [...]el. Paruus, Raud. Hayden. p. 25. Holinshed, p. 119. p. 143. 145. if he might meet with a convenient Merchant that were able to give him money enough for it. Thus Offices, and custody of Castles came to be sold, 5. R. 1. Thus great [Page 172] Men paid Fines for leave to Turney,p. 497. 6 R. 1. and 22. and 23. R. 2. And thus since has it, and will it in all such alterations be; for Money being the great ground of alterca­tion, and separating, not onely man and wife, Prince and People, but even Popes and Prelates upon dispute of it, as appear­ed in that notable resolution of the Bishop of London, 40 H. 3. who, when the Popes Le­gate exacted money from his Clergie be­yond measure, said, he would rather be a Martyr, as was Thomas Becket, then be subject to such exactions; and when the King was angry with the Bishop, and told him, the Pope should punish him, as he well deserved to be, he answered, Let the Pope and King, which are stronger then I, take away my Bishoprick, which by Law yet they can­not do; let them take away my Mitre, yet an Helmet shall remain: I say, Mony being such a bait to discontent, and such an engage­ment to the casual effects thereof (as it is a great help to the comfort and conspicui­ty of life, while it procures remission of past faults, acceptance of present favours, sets men out in their Parts, Families, Relations, Enterprises to all desirable ad­vantages, and by the relief and employ­ment of the poor, as well as rewards to Artists, and good offices to the Publique; [Page 173] it so strong [...]y draws popularity to it;) so is it in the want of it, a potent alloy to, if not a total suppression of, whatsoever is eminent in Men and Families, Eccles. 9. 15. For while the rich mans wealth is his strong castle, the destruction of the poor is their poverty, Prov. 10. 15. And while the poor useth intreaties, Prov. 18. 23. is sepa­rated from his neighbour, Prov. 19. 4. hated of his brethren, and avoyded by his friends, V. 7. is ruled over by the rich, Ch. 22. v. 87. and devoured from off the earth, Chap. 30. v. 14. The rich come boldly, and are wel­comed frankly, dispute stoutly, and are answered civily; fear great men, but live without them; prefer their children, and make and take good settlements upon them; which shews the comfort and fur­therance to men, that Estates give. [...]. Menand. in M [...]nagirta. [...]. Which made Menander cry out, Blessed is he that hath wealth, and a soul aright to use it. For a man to be tempted by wealth, and by it not be overcome, is to be a man of men, and a very great debtor to grace of re­straint; for there are but few that sin­cerely can say with him in the Poet,

Which exemption from the treacherous [Page 174] possession of money, is not the gift of all men, for St. Paul tells us, The love of money is the root of all evil, 1 Tim. 6. 10. Which place is observable, because he saies not, The having, but the inordinate love of mo­ney; nor that it is the sprout, but the root; Note this. nor that it is the root of some, but of all evil; and he confirms it from the Apostatique Effect of it, which while some have coveted, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves thorow with many sorrows. Which is Emphatique also, While some; not while all. God has his Jewels amongst rich men, who use the world, but abuse it not; who have money, but love it not; that is, commit no sinne to accomplish their end, as Apostates and Seducers do, who have been so besotted & transported with it, that they have, for the conveniency and glory of it, erred from the Faith, made a revolt and defection from the Church; and not only wandered, as Gods people too often do, but persisted desperately in that errour, which Gods people do not. This the inordinate love of money leads into, and therefore is by all that love and feare God to be avoyded; for he that buyes will sell, and so judgment may be turned into gall, and righteousness into wormwood. Plato makes riches and pos­session [Page 175] of money [...]a great help to rectitude and injuriousness, [...] Plato de Re­pub. lib. 1. [...]. In Phaedro ad Fin [...]m Dia­log. while it not only raises a mans spirit above wrongful basenesses, but enables him to attain to whatever wisely and in a way of vertue he can well wish, and well use. And hereupon I cannot but account that a wise design of him in Plato, to beg of the Gods to be good and vertuous within, and to have no outward advantage that inconsisted with his intern vertue: And if rich, he must beg to have so much Money and Moneys-worth, as a tem­perate mind knows well to use, and yet en­joy its own vertue. And thus to have mo­ney, is to be master of every almost desi­rable adjument, to Gods glory and mens good. Money then being thus preva­lent, it cannot be denied to be a proba­ble Rise to Men and in them to Families. For in that it answereth all things in the exchange of it, there is no Match, Honour, Place, Character, Priviledge, which it (Subjects being capable of, and consistent with it) will not procure: nor is there any merit of conspicuity and obligement, which it gives opportunity to express & represent it self in, but is furtherable by it; which Richard Duke of Cornwall found true, as he well defigned, when by his Ri­ches (with which he glutted the Electors of [Page 176] the Empire, though great Princes) pro­cured them, contrary to their Honours and Oaths, to chuse him a Forraigner, and no Germrn King of the Romans.

SECT. XXII.
Proveth that Favour with the Prince is the chiefest cause of Rise to Honour and Riches.

SEcondly, Favour with the Prince is the most undoubted step to Honour, wealth and Greatness. This I had placed first, but that Money is the more general cause of Rise, many coming thereby to Honour and esteem, who never see the Prince, or transiently only, being added to by him, as they are attested to him by those that have reason and interest to give them a good character. Those then that are favoured by the Prince, as they are the better sort of subjects, so are they better dealt with in the shares and parti­cipations of their Favours. And if Prin­ces be to Subjects as bodies to shadows, and souls to words; and Princes are as absolute by their Generous and Just Go­vernment, [Page 177] as their own consciences and Noble desires wish themselves to be.Regnum ve­strum imitatio vestra. Forma est boni propo­siti unici ex­emplar Imperii, qui quantum vos sequimur tantum gentes alias anteimus. Theodoric. Rex Anastasio Im­per. Var lib. 1. c. 1. (Re­gulations or directions being (as it were) needless and supernumerary, where true Christian piety, and paternal Royalty, are guides to Princes,) then cannot their Fa­vourites that are dear to them, but be great by them; For theirs are the Offices of Revenue, the Titles of Honour, the Em­bassies of Credit, the Matches of Fortune, the dispose of Trusts to bestow, or have undenyable influence upon.Excepit [...]e no­ster affectus im­plevit beneficiis manus, fecitque esse votum quod nostrum expe­tisses imperi­um. Theodoric. rex. E [...]. 2. Felici Var lib. 2. And if these be the waies to Greatness, and they are commanded by Princes, then to be favou­red by them, whose so much is to be­stow, is to have all accesses to Honour and Wealth unfolded to them. The knowledge and practicability of this, in­clines men of good person, ready wit, quaint speech, generous garb, confident spirit, to apply themselves to Princes ser­vices, and by it become either Rich, Re­spected, Honourable, or some, or all of them: Yea, by this has the Worlds great­ness in Persons and Families first been obtained, and after augmented, with that which is remarkable in them. Thus Ha­dad in holy Writ is history'd to have fa­vour with K. Pharaoh, whereby he became his brother in law; by which means his [Page 178] sonne (begot upon the Queens sister) was born and brought up in the Kings house, 1 Kings 11. 19, 20. And thus David, by the favour of Saul, 1 Sam. 18. obtained first his daughter, then his Generalship, and at last his Kingdom. This, not needfull to be further instanced in, because a truth of every daies ratifying, is the reason that the Wise man informs us, that he that seek­eth good, procureth favour, Prov. 10. 27. Which I take not so much to be meant of Favour, as the consequent of goodness, as the opportunity to seek good for a mans self, and others also for whom he that is favoured interposeth. Hence those passages of Solomon, Prov. 14. 35. The Kings favour is towards a wise servant. And ch. 16. v. 15. In the light of the Kings counte­nance is life, and his favour is as a cloud of the latter rain. Which Text is affirma­tive of whatever is issuant from the pre­alledged notation: For in that the fa­vour of the King is said to be life, which is optimum bonorum, the most delecta­ble and desirable of all created goods: And in that it is said to be as a cloud of the latter rains, which is increasive, and has fertility included in it; what can the ex­pectations of men in their service amount to, which this grandeur of theirs doth [Page 179] not answer and exceed. And as I think Princes happy in the opportunities they have to oblige and reward servants, wise in heart, active in dispatch, diligent in attendance, sober in counsel, sincere in love and duty; and who are as faithful to them, as the Sunne is to his course, as Pyrrhus said of Fabritius. So do I not be­lieve them otherwise happy; [...]. Suidas in Fabricio. nor do I read or see that any Favourites, who are not such, long continue happy in such favour: For rival envy, and popular jealousie, hovering about and laying ginns for them, by cooperating accidents of diminution, ruine them, unless their personal and publique vertues are dissipative of those gathe­rings, and supersedall to the efficacy of them. Therefore Solomons advice to Take away the wicked from before the King, and the Throne shall be established in righ­teousness, Prov. 25. 5. is good counsel, for Princes to avoyd trouble to themselves; and for Favourites, to secure their favour and stability, by being good and vertu­ous, and by that to establish the Throne of their Masters, and themselves under the protection and favour of it. Nor is Prince­ly favour at all dangerous to, but desirable by, wise men, and next to the favour of God, to be sought after, if it be constant, [Page 180] and vertuous in the Prince, and transport not the Favourite beyond the true end and use of it, Gods glory, the Princes service, and the peoples ease and thrift, together with such advantages as the forementioned great ends, thorowly answered, allow to his private emolument; which Brewier, Baron of Odgcomb, the Favourite of H. 2. and R. 1. observing, was highly advanced, and continued in Wealth, Honour, and Love with all men;Cambden in Somersetshire p. 267. and Beauchamp the great Earl of Warwick, so favoured by H. 6. that he was Crowned King of Wight, yet lived and died beloved. So did Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk, p. 469. It [...] enim vir­tutes magnis viris decori gloriaeque sunt, si illis salutaris potentia est, Nam pestifera­vis est valere ad nocendum, illius demum magnitudo sta­bilis fundataque est, quam omnes tam supra se esse quam pro se seiunt cujus curam excubare pro salute sin gulorum atque universorum quotidie expe­riuntur lib. 1. de C [...]emen [...]a. c. 3. the Favourite of H. 8. and others. Which the Despencers in H. 2. time, Delapool and others in R. 2. time, E. Rivers temps E. 4. Wolsey temps H. 8. and others, not considering, made themselves hated, infamous, and ruined. For Vertues, saith Seneca, are often useful to men of place and power, when they qua­lifie, sweeten, and wisely manifest themselves in power delegated to them; for pestilent Might it is that is nocive; and then only beloved and prayed for is authority and power, when men finde the power over them is for their good, and not directed so much to cow them into stupidity, as to cherish them in a loyal freedom. And then does it de­serve [Page 181] the duty and subjection of all and e­very particular subject, when it intends the prosperity and protection of every particular subject. The consideration whereof les­sons Favourites to petition God, whose the judgment of every ones course and conclusion is,Damus quidem tibi equos, enses clypeos & reli­qua instrumen­ta bellorum; sed quae sunt om­nimodis forti­ora, Largimur tibi nostra ju­dicia, summus enim inter gen­tes esse crede­ris qui Theodo­rici sententia comprobaris, Ep. 2. Regi Herulorum. Var. lib. 4. Cassiod. to direct and fortunate them in the religious, just, judicious im­provement of their Princes favours: for if to them not onely Honours, Riches, Reputation, but even in a sort much of the administrative divinity of Kings is indulged, as Theodoric the Gothish King wrote to a Vice-king under him; What fidelity ought they express to their bene­factor, in not neglecting their service, dis­obliging their people, misusing their trusts; (as did Wolsey, who fraudulently got a warrant from H. 8. to execute the E. of Kildare, though the Lieutenant of the Towers honesty in not executing it, made it void by the Kings CountermandSpeed p. 775. p. 849.. And Gardiner from Qu. Mary to execute the Lady Elizabeth, the after happy Queen of this Land?) What conscience and reve­rence to themselves, not to do any thing rashly and improvidently, by which they may lose their ground, and be outed the occasion of so general good? For Princes favours being of delicate and casual com­posure, [Page 182] are not to be put to the stress of gross and dull mettalled ones, but to be humbly and modestly improved; which the wise King Solomon adviseth to, He that loveth pureness of heart, Prov. 22. 11. Fuit enim illi nobile ingeni­um & fure­bundi regis Impatiens. Senec. Nat. Quest. lib. 6. c. 22. for the grace of his lips the King shall be his friend. The failer of which in Calisthenes, the Favou­rite of Alexander, lost him both his inte­rest in the King, and in his own life: That being true of Favourites over-confidence, and peremptoriness, which a friend of the Earl of Essex, Sir Henry Wot­ton work p. Favourite to Queen Elizabeth, told him, O Sir, These courses are are like hot waters, which help at a pang; but if they be too often used, will spoil the stomach: as it was wofully made good in him, whose impatience to have any com­panion in favour with him, or any grists of greatness go by the Mill of his only in­fluence, declined both his lustre and his life: Yea, above all, what caution are they, that have these intrusts, to express, in avoyding envy,Sect. 2. Eicon. B [...]silic. upon the E. Sra [...]ord. Who moving in so high a Sphere, and with so vigorous lustre, raise many envious exhalations, which, condensed by popular odium, are capable to cast a cloud upon the brightest merit and integrity, as the divine Kings words are; and to chuse such choice servants and friends, whose int [...]grity, conscience, prudence, and in­dustry, [Page 183] they being responsible for,Holinshed, p. 324▪ p. 511. may not be defeated in; and then they will be secure, if not from the calum [...]y, yet from the desert of envy; which had the Spensers in E. 2. time,p. 555. the Earl of March temps H. 4. Earl of Arundel and Lord Percy temps R. 2. guarded themselves against, they could not have fallen, as they did, For much suspected by me, does no hurt, when nothing proved can be, is true.

All which in such measures and pro­portions as God shall permit their pruden­ces to method to themselves, being pro­tected and blessed by him, makes Fa­vourites not crazy, but hayle and happy in their Princes favour; then which there is no speedier way to Rise, Riches, Nobi­lity, Prelacy, Splendour, and Endowments of all kinds, possible to be imagined: for though Riches, Industry, and Frugality, give many rounds to the ascents of men; yet the Master Caper, and the Noblest Capreol to advance, is the Kings Favour: which as it is too full a blessing for any but a Magnanimous and Royall minded person to disgest, and well manage; so to such as already have, or hereafter may have it, I beseech God it may be conti­nued and enlarged; for it is an opportu­nity to serve God, the King, the people, [Page 184] and the havers, to all beneficially Noble purposes: it being (under the King) the spring that moves all; without which nothing runnes currant, but has cheques too many to pass by, as is evident in the vivid representation of it in Haman, who is said to have his seat (set by Abashuerus) above all the Princes that were with him. Ver. 2.Esther 3. and to command that all the Kings servants should bow before him; and his word so prevail'd with the King, that he gave him his Royal Signet, and said, The Silver is given to thee; the people also, to do with them as it seemeth good to thee. Ver. 10, 11. and what Haman issues forth is dispatched to the Kings Lieutenants, to be accordingly executed, Ver. 12, 13. In that, I say these are the bounties of Prin­ces to their Favourits, from whom they seem to withhold nothing, but the Throne it self, there is great cause to conclude, That no way to advance Men and Fami­lies, is more expedite and energical, then Service to, and Favour from Princes. For if the displeasure of a King be as the messenger of death, Prov. 16. 14. and the fear of a King is as the roaring of a Lyon; who so provoketh him to anger, sinneth against his own soul, Pro. 20. 2. If not only in case of Felony or Treason, but upon displeasures, penalties are not only [Page 185] inflicted upon persons but upon Lands,Cambden in Doaset, Britan. p. 214. and that indelibly, as Mr. Cambden tells us, the Lands of Hinde and others, in New Forrest, were charged and yet pay white hart Silver, for killing a white Hart of H. 3. in that Forrest. If these terrours and mulcts are in the disfavour of a King, whose frown and word has killed the heart of subjects of courage, who durst have out-lived any other hardship; what joy and freedom is in the Kings favour? No less sure then dew upon the grass; Prov. 19 12. Ch. 20. v. 8. v. 26. Eccles. 8. 4. no less then scattèring all evil, and bringing the wheel over the wicked; no less then power, and that visible in the testimonies of his favour, and the effects of it; the prospe­rity of which is such as the Princes in soul and government are, whose the favour is, and the design of the soul is, who is a sui­tor for, and obtainer of it: For as to be in favour with Terrible Princes, whose reigns are butcheries, and whose instruments must be rigorous and cruel, as was Peirce Exton to H. 4. who, (to be, as that Kings words were, The faithfull friend which will deliver me of him, whose life will be my death, and whose death will be the pre­servation of my life,)Holinshed in H. 4. p. 517. undertook and effe­cted the execrable and damnable Parri­cide of good King Rich. 2. is to be a divel [Page 186] in Flesh, and a miscreant more unhappy then almost Hell can make one. So to be in favour with a vertuous and serene Prince, whose soul is so serious and sincere that he dare appeal to God as his Com­purgator, and beseech God to try and search him, if there be any malicious and preme­ditated iniquity in him and in his govern­ment by his privity: To be a Favourite to a Prince, whose faith in, and relyance upon, God comforts him,Eicon Basil. Sect. 15. That no black veils of calumny shall be able to hide the shining of His face, while God gives Him a heart fre­quently and humbly to converse with him, from whom alone are all the irradiations of true Glory and Majesty, as the Kingly Mar­tyrs words are. To be Favourite to a Prince, as our most Gracious Lord and Master the King that now happily, and with general blessing of God and the people, reigns over us, is, whose con­science is not chargeable to Gods justice for the ruine of Favourites, and the blood of Subjects; but is Vigilant, Mild, Just, Generous, and strict in Religion and Go­vernment, according to his Lawes both Sacred and Civil:Consider this▪ O England, and be thankful, and l [...]yal. To be a Favourite to such a Prince, is to be presumed vertu­ously compleat; and to be an Instance of happiness: which, if not alloyed by a de­ceitfull [Page 187] heart within, yields no tempta­tion, but to be a Nehemiah, an Aristides, a Samuel, a what not, that is complexive of Greatness and Goodness: for if the zeal of God, and the rules of Honour, and Justice, inspire such a one, he cannot chuse but be presidentially good.

And therefore, since it is not boldness, but love to the prosperity of Good and Great Favourites, that invites me to write upon this head; the only Rock that Favour hath to fear, is from Gods jealou­sie, that any thing should rival with him for the glory of his Munificence: Since that promotion, as it is from him, so ought it wholy to revert to him, in fruits suit­able to his bounty and intendment. For then he leaves men to themselves, when they leave him, by forgetfulness of him and themselves; and when they remem­ber not, That it is he that gives them friends to bring them into view, parts to carry them thorow, Fortunate accidents to co-operate to their continuation, Ac­ceptation in and for what they have done; and in this thus variated, confirms them. Yea, if Favourites consider how neces­sary every fibre, sparkle, punct, and occult meatus of Providence, is to their being and stability; and how important the [Page 188] Soveraign benediction of God is to their consistence,Sic me inebri­averat ambitio, [...]ic [...]me blanda principis promissa preverterunt, ut sciens & pru­dens viderer in omne discrimen animae, corporis dispendium per­tinaciter conju­rasse. Pet. Bles. Ep. 14. they will find abundant mat­ter to solicite God to their ayd,Eicon Basil. c. 27. and to the subduing of their hearts,Psal. 87. 6. against ele­vation under such Sunshins, The Flatteries of which are as inseparable from prosperity, as Flies are from fruit in Summer.

And if Princes are but Gods that are mutable, and mortal as men; and the counsels of God must take place against all secular projects, and in defiance of all Politique contrivements: how prudent and Christian is it for Great men to trust mainly in the Lord Iehovah, who is the same yesterday, & to day, & for ever. And to serve & trust in Princes, as those who must give account to God and Them every moment; and in which reddition their innocence will be their best refuge: For since God has entailed passancy on this world, and here the best of men have no abiding City, but are wafted to and fro, by the impetuosity of passions, and the blasts of inharmonious variations, which admit no anchoring but in sincerity of aym, and piety of desire, and deed, according to the possibilities and allowances of humane infirmity. It is good to remember Mortality and Mu­tability in the greatest transports of ad­vancement and affluence. Which had [Page 189] Abraham, the great Visier Bassa to Solyman, believed, He who had his souls residence in his Masters body, as was said he had, would never have been such a Doter on great­ness, who after the misfortune of his Ma­sters Army in Persia, (which Expedition he was Counsellour to) was disfavoured,Turkish History p. 654. cur­sed, murthered, and after all submersed, and a great weight tied to his dead body, [...], &c. Plutarchus in Solone p. 94. Edit. Paris cast into the Sea, Nor would Solon have so divinely, and with such a prophetique importunity, pressed on Craesus, mode­ration of soul in a state of prosperity, but that he knew the treacheries of its incan­tation, and the fatality of its obcaecation and seduction. Yea, God himself would not fore-arm men by reason, & fore-warn them by counsell, and president of fre­quent miscarriage in this voyage of plea­sure, but that he would have his learn to deny themselves, and take up his Cross and follow his Christ to the contempt of this world, as their rest and refuge: For he that was in his time a Prince,Psalm 146. 3. dehorts from putting trust in Princes. Yea,Psalm 118. 3. de­clares it to the world, It is better to trust in the Lord, then to put confidence in Princes. And why? Not thorough pufillanimity, or inaptitude, to Maiesty it as high as any Monarch, does he utter this; but because [Page 190] of a spirit subacted by grace, and reduced by God to see and detract from its self. Princes are mortall, Princedoms are ca­sual; and therefore tis good to trust to God,Psalm 82. 7, Psalm 107. 40. Eicon B [...]sil. Sect. 27. in whose Mercy no relyant miscar­ries. For as That King that keeps to true Piety, Vertue, and Honour, shall never want a Kingdom: so, that Favourite that relies on God for the favour of his Ma­ster, shall never want such favour as God sees best for him to be favoured with; whom he would bestow the Glory of the next, after the Grace of this world. Not­withstanding all which praeconsidered, the Maxim remains firm, that Princes fa­vours are the ready and most pregnant way to Enrich and Enhonour Men and Families in England.

SECT. XXIII.
Considers Ambition and Confidence in wel-parted Men, a Means to the Rise and Riches of Men and Families.

THirdly, Next to the two former Rises to Greatness, Ambition and Confi­dence may be allowed a notable stepp [Page 191] to Honour and Riches.In maximis animis splen­didissimisque ingeniis plerum­que existunt ho­noris, imperii, potentiae, gloriae cupiditates. Cic. lib. 1. Offic. For men having a conceit that they are born for great, and that small things do not become them; that no courses beseem them but Olympique ones, and no companions but Kings; what is there that they will not un­dertake, and industriously follow, which has [...] a probability of arriving them at, and fixing them in, the sphere they aym at. This busies their thoughts, impedes their rest, accelerates their motion, cherishes their spirits, intends their correspondence, beautifies their civility: Thence they re­fuse not tedions voyages, desperate ren­counters, dangerous intelligences, paw­ning soul and body to propagate their party, and merit of their chief. This calls them from their native seats, and gaining callings, to actions turbulent, pe­rillous, and, as to the present, losing, ma­king them despise being for a while mise­rable, that they may for ever after pur­chase [...]and live in the Sunshine and Sum­mer of Regal favour. This makes them resolve to be active in their commands, passive to their wills, patient under their displeasures, free of their fortunes to sup­ply them, of their persons to fight for them, of their minds to consult for them, yea it arms their prayers and tears to en­counter [Page 192] their misfortunes, with their zeal▪ and to despise hazzard, & to fear as little to sink for, as desire much to swim with them; and all this that they may be taken notice of as Clyents and Votaries to Greatness; pleased with nothing beneath or besides it.Non ego ambi­tiosus sam sed nemo aliter Romae potest vivere: non ego sumptuosus sum sed urbs ipsa magnas impen­sas exigit. Ep. 50. This Seneca sayes, was the humour of Rome, where nothing was requested but Ambition, nothing commendable but what was costly and gay. And this is so much the darling of the Sparkish youth, that they think the still and quiet humour sottishness, and mediocrity of sta­tion, plebeity of humour and flettenness of spirit;Necessario ita­que magnus apparuit qui nunquam malis ingemuit, nun­quam de fato suo quaestus est, fecit multum intellectum sui, & non aliter quam in tene­bris lumen efful­sit, adver [...]itque in se omnium animos, cum esset placidus & lenis & hu­manis divinis (que) rebu [...] pariter aeques. Senec. Ep. 120. which is the reason that these precocious natures put themselves upon affairs in a kind of rape and compulsive violence upon them, and are content to be instruments in, and agitators about, those matters, which softer and better poysed tempers, and modester judgments, de­cline, as uneasie, difficult, and unhandsome for them to appear in, or promote. And indeed, were it not for such forlorn and desperate services, it were impossible for heady and fortuneless men to come to Riches or Greatness, because they would be voyd of friends, and reason, to counte­nance them in, and manage them amidst, the Maeanders of those courses; but they [Page 193] counting all their own they attempt to get,Celso [...] cursus nisi confidentia magna non ap­petit, dum gene­rosi est animi in optare quod summum est, audentes facit homines fiden­tia sui quia se non patitur oc­culere quem precipit na [...]ura prodire Theo­dari [...]: Felici Ep. 2. Var. lib. 2. and concluding themselves born for, and destinated to those toyls and haz­zards, which other men are not, nor shall be rewarded for, put themselves in the heat of the service, and venture their lives to rescue Greatness from contempt, and to revenge the insolence of its oppo­sition with the ruine of the Oppressors; in the return of which well-couraged ser­vice, they have Guerdons of honour and acceptance from the fountain of Honour: which title is the only true and honoura­ble origination of Honour,

Not that Ambition and Confidence of ones self is the only way of rising: for it is seen and known that Rises and Honour sometimes attend modest and meek spirits, who are so far from appearing canditates for them, that they avoyd and disfigure themselves, that they maybe not beleagured by commands to enter upon action, or be taken notice of for wel discharging them; though more often great friends usher men in accidentally, and their own parts con­tinue them profitably in that way which is attended with Greatness and Wealth: So was the great E. of Essex called fromSir H. Wotton, p. 4. 76, 78, 79. his retiredness at Lampsey by the great E. of Leicesters means, and the great Duke [Page 194] of Buckingham, by Sir Iohn Greham, who first spake of, and commended him to King Iames. But yet the way of some is to buoy up themselves, and to become graduates in grandeur from their own Spontenanscency, and to hew out their own way to what they wish and would thorow the Alps of seeming impossibili­ties and unconquerable hardships, such Caesars are they in their own minds, that they believe their coition with the Moon, and thereby entitle themselves to the courtesie of taking the profits of all sublunary casualties: which makes Seneca attribute much to mans spirit, in the ad­justment of weale or woe to himself: For he calls the mind now a King, anon a Ty­rant; a King, Animus noster mode Rex [...]odo Tyrannus; Rex cum honesta intuetur, salu­tem sibi corpo­ris commissi [...]urat, & nihil imperat turpe, nihil sordidum, ubi vero im­prudens, cupidus delicatus est transtulit in no­men detestabile & dirum, & sit Tyrannus. Ep. 114. when it considers vertue, Turkish Hist. p. 947. and according to it conducts the body to actions worthy, and of good report: but when it is imprudent, vehement, curious, then it becomes a Tyrant. Which that it may not be, nor men miss of their ayms, so far as they are approved by God, good for them, and proper for the publique, it be­comes them not to apply themselves to sinister means, such as are rebellion, mur­der, injury, as that wretch Amida sonne to Muleasses King of Tunis did, who betrayed his trust, forced his fathers Throne and [Page 195] Concubines, slew his brethren; yea, (vil­lain and divel, as he was) pickt out his own fathers eyes with a Pen-knife; such, such black, brutish, savage, truculent acti­ons are execrable and indurable paths to Greatness, while the walker in this wicked way loses his own soul to gain a triffing and momentary government in this world: but the lasting and vertuous way to great­ness is to comprecate God, that he would not interpose nor cast cross accidents a­thwart the way of their endeavour; for, if he do, the eggs of mens ambition will be addle, and the edge of their confidence turned and become blunt; which truth is hardly to be drilled into the beliefs of those boysterous spirits that are the Vi­rago's in this kind; For to tell them of Gods inclination of great mens wills to favour them, and of his adaptation of them to their favours, without which those bounties would be unsavoury, and the soul and spirit of them evaporate, and become ineffectuall to their hoped for ends, is to bespeak them to prejudice a­gainst, and censure of, such discourse as madness and bigottry. They are all for gay cloaths, spruce looks, high rants, fa­cetious drolls, pleasant froliques, hot spirited mettle, all or most of which they [Page 196] ascribe more to in the motives to and me­rits of their favour, then to any thing else; when as truly they are mistaken, for these things, though in some sence notable se­conds to the most noble fruits of vertue and ability, yet are not to be attributed to, as to Gods permission so to have it, is be acknowledged; though therefore I am no friend to ambition or confidence, yet because I know it a way to Rise and Wealth, if it will be limited by reason and religion, it shall have my Godspeed to it, though I must own to all the world, that I value more a grain of content then a pound of ambition, and a mite of mo­desty then a treasury of self-confidence, because the one works in them that have it a satiation of mind in their present en­joyment; the other an irrequietude by reason of anothers more prosperous estate then theirs. Which Seneca sayes is the bane of happiness, [...] faelix quem torquebit faeli­cio [...] minus ha­beo quam spe­ravi sed for­tasse plus spera­vi quam debui. Seneca lib. 3, de [...]ra c. 30. which is never attained till the mind be brought off thoughts that it deserves more then it enjoyes, and posses­sed that it enjoys more then it deserves, or could hope for if it had what is due to it. But this the Grandees of nature think be­low them; so did Alexander to reside in Macedon; Persia and the India's he is for; and the ambition that led him to that [Page 197] hardship, preferred him to the gainful and glorious consequence of it; yet had his intern pride a notable stagger put to it by that Dilemma of the Gymnosophists, who seeing him look on himself as a God, having Immortality in his power, & being invited to ask of him what they would have, answered, Immortality. Alexander replied, I am but mortall myself, and there­fore cannot give Immortality. Siergo morta­lem te esse cog­noscis cur non contentus pa­tri [...]s sedibus omnibus i [...]fe­stus totum or­be [...] subjicere conars. Cicer. lib 1. Tuscul. Quest. They replied to him, If thou knowest thy self a mortall, why art thou so vast in thy desires as to exceed the bounds of thine own kingdom, to the in­jury of others. If these reasons would have audience and suasion with them; and if these thoughts did possess men, they would be more sparing to set values upon themselves above their intrinsique worth, and crowd less upon Greatness to take notice of them, then they do: for most hard, and against the hair of worth is it, to begg Fortunes sordidly; or use them, given, illiberally; and as brave minds, when they have accomplishments to pub­lique service, will not reproach the favour of Gods providence by a sneaking un­willingness to the convenient and com­mendable shew of them; so will they not preproperate their such appearance by any mean prostration of themselves below [Page 198] themselves, which men of looser and less ingenuous Principles submitting to, run them down in the attainments of prefer­ments, and in the improvement of the effects of them. For as a faint heart never winns a fair Lady, so sparing to speak it sparing to speed; such as a man values him­self, other men usually valuing him; so little is the World now acquainted with the magnanimity of true virtue, that it think [...] meanly of them that are lit [...]le in their own eyes, and believes there is always a worth in that Pile, which hath the grace of a well-composed Frontispiece, though it be fal­laciously set to view, to grace a rude and inartificial Structure.

SECT. XXIV.
Shews, that Callings and Imployments, exercising the mind and body, to both which they are gainful, are Advances to Men and Families.

FOurthly, Callings of Imployment to mind and body are now great Rises of Men and Families, by the Honour and Wealth that attends them: For, England being an Island, and by Trade made a Continent, the Commodities of all Nations [Page 199] being brought into it, and the men of all Countries coming unto it: by reason there­of the Learning, Law, and Tillage of the Natives is wonderfully encouraged. For, by such Entercourse and Exchange of the mutual Endowments of Nations, which God has purposely so modelled, that the tide of Charity might be reciprocated, and benefit Mankind in the variety of its movency to them, there is no Ingenuity practised abroad, but has a means of ave­new to us, and no thrift or improvement that we make, but has its vent abroad; by both which, the Nation has its Profit in the imployment of its Inhabitants, and in the multiplication of its Shipping. This I premise to make way to the rich and ho­nourable

effects that Learning and Cor­respondence, first introduced by Trade, doe evidence now beyond what formerly they did; for, whereas when Trade was less, and People fewer, and those less vici­ous, because less knowing in the vices of other Nations, the transactions civil, and the cures corporal, and so the Lawyers and Physicians required to them were not so numerous, so esteemed, or so thriving; now, in the multiplication of Trade, and luxury, by the traffique with, and travel into them, room is made for more num­bers, [Page 200] and better Entertainments of Lawy­ers and Physicians; and the more they get, the better they thrive, and the richer all Callings that those vent themselves in­to. Though therefore there are no arts, callings, or wayes of life, but have, and do yield Estates and Honours to those that are industrious, and fortunated by God in them: and more especially the noble, ge­nerous, and copious Study of the Imperial Laws, the practice of which by the learned Civilians is in its due sphear favoured by the Laws, and by the Masters of it, the Re­verend and Learned Judges, who hate to confound Jurisdictions, and the Professi­on of Physick, the Doctors, wherein are now as great Oracles of Learning, as I think any sort of men, for the number, in the Nation are: Though these Professions, I say, do arrive the diligent, knowing, and fortunate Practicers in them at considera­ble Estates; yea, and Husbandry, which Socrates in Xenophon highly applaudes, [...]. Xeno­nophon lib. de rei domesticae Administra­tione, p. 831. as beseeming the Noblest Men, is a way to acquire Estate and Honour; yet because the Rises of Persons in Callings are not so great; nor so general, as those of Law and Trade are: I shall single out those two, as the Tropiques by which diligently fol­lowed men arise; or neglected, set them­selves and their Families.

[Page 201] For the Laws, I mean the Common and municipal Laws of this Land, as they have been the collections of the best Laws, ad­ded to, by the experience of Time, and men famous for observation of what was congenial to the people, and enacted to rule them; so have they, and ever, I hope, will be, the love, honour, and freedom of the Prince and people, protected, and re­gulated by them; and, as they are looked upon as sacred, and not to be temerated under grievous punishments, (being the standing Arbiters of good and evil, and the divine sentence of the King in his Par­liamentary Majesty and circumvallation,) so is there in the peoples minds and mouths great honour and regard given to the makers of it, and the professours and students in it; to whom (because theirs is in the study, pleading, conveyancing, and Clerkly parts of their Profession, which comprehends a vast number of men of con­siderable Fortunes and Families) the Na­tion yields a great part of their Estates and respects; for they are the most know­ing men in business, of any Profession, and they contrive settlements of purchase and marriage; these frame Wills of bequests and disposition; these exhibit Bills and Petitions in Courts of Equity; these draw [Page 202] Pleadings in Courts of Law; these are Pleaders at the Bar, Counsels in thei [...] Cham­bers, Officers in Courts, Attendants on Cir­cuits, Stewards in Mannor, Undersheriffs in Shires, Judges in Corporations, which shews their abilities, and their possibilities to improve them to their enriching: For by this they know the nature of Estates, and the condition of their Owners, and can thereby pleasure themselves more and surer then other men can. And, if to these their patebility to honors be added, when the High Chancellourship, the Chief Ju­stice, and other Justiceships, Mastership of the Rolls, Presidencies of the Privie Coun­cil, Attorney, Solicitor, Sergeantship to the King, which àre, for the most part, all Trusts and honours of Lawyers. If these so great rich, trusty, noble places be theirs, & theirs they will be, while the Inns of Courts yield royal Wits and noble Minds to de­serve and mannage them to the Kings ho­nour, the peoples content, and their own renown, as thanks be to God and his sa­cred Majesty, whom God long preserve and keep, their and our Royal Master, they now are. The conclusion, that they study and practice of the Law is a rise to honour, and riches, is very easie to be made. And, how can it be otherwise, since the Students [Page 203] and Practicers of the Law, being know­ingly bred, well-descended, richly fortu­ned, amply allyed, assiduously versed, or bred under such, as are these, or the most of them, but that Riches and Honour should fall in to them, and be conspicuous upon them. For, as they they drive a trade of gain with no Money-stock, nor hazard their gain by no credit, nor exhaust them­selves by no charge upon their Chambers, (their Inns being their Sanctuaries, and their Attendance on Courts their Privi­lege;) so need they not, nor seldom do they let their money lye dead any time by them, but either they know where safely to place it, and hedge it in by a legal and undeceivable Security, or else they have Attorneys and Negotiators that depend upon them, who can serve them in that Expedition. Hence come they to purchase the best Seats, the noblest Royalties, the best to be improved Lands in the Nation, and to match their Children with least Portions, and to most Adv [...]ntage of any men:Quid enim ali­ud & Iuris Consulti domus quam Oraculum Civitatis. Ci­cero. Add to this, their Influence on the People, whose Kindred, Counsel, and Stewards they are, by which they become presented to the Parliaments, as their De­puties, no Parliament having less then ma­ny of the Long Robe, of which the Speaker [Page 204] is mostly one, and those potent in passing Lawes; and their Power with Courtiers and Favourites, whom they are allyed, or usefull to, as Counsel or Stewards, they become presented to the King, honoured by him with Knighthood,See the most ingenious and learned Preface of that renown­ed Lawyer. and so enter their Posterity into Riches and Honour,See Sir Iohn Davis his Irish Reports in the Epistle dedica­ted to the Lord Elsmore. which Sir Edward Cook▪ the Learned Chief Justice, and Helluo of Experience, taking notice of, has collected near 200 Gentile and Noble Families, there named, in En­gland, raised by Lawyers; most of which, and many added since to them, do conti­nue in great Wealth and Honour, which he gives as an Encouragement to the Stu­dents of the Law in these Words, Cast thine eye upon the Sages of the Law that have been before thee, Preface to the 2 Re [...]ort. and never shalt thou find any that hath excelled in the knowledge of these Laws, but hath sucked from the breasts of that di­vine knowledge, Honesty, Gravity, and Inte­girty, and by the goodness of God hath ob­tained a greater Blessing and Ornament then any other Profession, to their Families and Posterities; for, it is an undoubted Truth, That the just shall flourish as the Palm-tree, and spread abroad as the Cedars of Le [...]anon, Psal. 91. 13.

Nor has the Law onely been thus fertile of Rise and Honour to Families; but Trade [Page 205] in Cities and Corporations, [...]hiefly that of Famous London, I dare say the glory of England, and that which is known, where England is not: This City, the City that I glory to be born in,In mandandis honoribus nobi­litas majorum claritudo mili­tiae, illustres do­mi artes spec­tandae. Tacit. 4. Annal. and to have long liv'd in, though I thank God of a Family Knightly (I hope I may without vanity say) out of it, has been the place wherein many men of no generous breed and bloud, and many of generous breed and bloud, have raised and augmented estates, and dignifyed Families no less then the former; and though some of them seated near the Town, where they are subject to vices of waste, have not kept their estates so long, nor marryed so advisedly, as those further-off Gentlemen do; yet is not their impermanency to be attributed to the ill-acquisition of those estates left them, but to the accidents of snare that attend this populous City, which is the common randezvous of all both good and bad,See my Dis­course of Arms and Armory. Printed 1660. and to the liberality of Citizens, who preferr their Daughters with great Portions, whereby the greatness of their Sons is detracted from: nor do I believe but that Trades may be as gentilely man­aged, and as becoming free and noble bred Persons in it, as other Professions may; and I may self have known as gene­sincere, [Page 206] royal minded men Traders, as e­ver I have done either Noblemen, Lawy­ers, or Divines, as zealous to God, as true to their Prince, as free to their Relations, as charitable to the Poor, as good to their Servants, as patient to their Debtors, as ready to reward merit, as restless to be in­debted to it,Take notice of this ye despi­sers of London. as real in friendship, as preg­nant in business, as wary against fraud. These I have known and seen living freely and dying wealthy and creditable: and to the honour of the Societies of London, which consist solely of Freemen, it may be with much truth averred, that they are the truest and most unbyassed Trustees of any in the Nation; their Works do praise them in the Gates. For alas, sharking in Trade is but of a late date, since luxury and high-living came into general use. For when Traders liv'd low, and rose by degrees, suting their port to their estate, to be ho­nest in word, and currant in payment, was their ambition, and the life of their thrift; but when they began, as in these late com­bustible times they did, to be vain and boundless, then they cared not to under­value their words, over-ask in their wares, shirk for one anothers Customers, steal Ex­cise and Custom, cavil and sue Neighbours, contract vast Debts, and pay them with [Page 207] becoming Prisoners. These are the flawes that are disparaging to Tradesmen, and to all others that practise the like, and all be­cause they spend high and live pleasura­bly, as if their Trades would maintain their ryot, and be kept together without their diligence. This loose attendance of Trade, together with its diffusion into so many hands, every of which must live and thrive as they may out of it, causes Trade to be visibly pregnant of great estates less then of old; not because Trade is not as much and as profitable as then, but because many more are of it, and draw succulency from it, and mind it less intently then here­tofore; and thence are the Estates less great though more general: which conside­red, it is easie to divine whence the decay of Estates in Tradesmen comes, not from Trades infertility; for it is a Mine of gold and golds-worth, which many have, and yet find, who come to it poor younger Brothers live in it plentifully, and leave it honourably, while their Estates gotten by it, subsist their Children in Knights and Knights-fellows Degree. But that which is the mall and marr of Tradesmen, is, Men run into it without fear or wit, and know not when to leave while they have some­thing; for Trade is such a tender thing, [Page 208] and so dangerous, that not to prosper in it, is to decay; and not to venture, is to forswear to thrive. And there is no Argu­ment of Gods blessing stronger to me then this, that men trade for great Summs, some­times with men they never see, nor from whom they neither give nor take any Se­curity, nor can perhaps legally prove the agreement of the price, quantity, delivery, payment, or other terms of their being in­debted or discharged; yet to one pound thus ventured lost, there is a hundred, a thousand currantly paid for; and that not­withstanding these hazards, and infinite o­thers, Trade should be thus gainful, and in twenty years (for more then that few men have gainful times (their Trade be­ing to seek and settle till they are thirty years old, and their children breaking their Stocks for breeding and Portions when they are fifty) That, I say, in twenty years, or some few more or less, there should be 10, 20, 30, 40, 60, or a 100 thou­sand pound clear Estate and more raised, besides expences and losses which may be ⅔, or at least half more necessary to be gotten (the clear Estate being that which survives expence and loss) is an instance of a multiform blessing, and a signal dis­covery of Gods love to mens industry and [Page 209] honesty in Trade. And though, in Trade, as in all other undertakings, the race is not to the swift, nor success to the know­ing and diligent; yet to one that miscar­ries that so does; there are ten thrive: For, as in all learned and mechanique Professi­ons, there are rules beyond which none must goe that will be reputed worthy cre­dit; so in Trade, there are courses that those which follow them not, forsaking the path, will fall into the dirt and ditch of miscarriage. When then I mention Trade to be a way of Rise and Riches to men and Families, I intend, Trade well-managed; as Forein Trade, I suppose, thus trans­acted, though I am like to err, which if I do, I crave the Merchants pardon: Good advice of a Staple or Market, proper and re­quested Commodities, those well-bought, of a good sort and cheap, after, fitted for their Port, then well-shipped, then safely ventured, then assigned to a careful and responsible factor, then put off to currant men, or bartred for [...]alable Commodities, then sent home, then sold, and the effects of them well pursed: These Methods, blessed by God, and not made null by the dreyn of an expensive Waste, nor defeated by neglect of Correspondence from abroad, and of heeding the alteration of Markets [Page 210] at home, (which do sink or raise the price and Profit of Merchandises) must needs in the revolution of twenty years, make a wealthy Merchant: So in Home-trade, to buy wares well, and sell them warily, let­ting little Stock lye dead, nor debts lye out, but keeping Shop, and looking over Books and Servants diligently and tho­rowly, and maintaining the credit by good payment and honest dealing, is not onely the way to get and keep, but to thrive by a Trade; and a firm Estate once gotten, which is done by diligence, forecast, fru­gality, and royalness, it will increase on a man to yield him and his, Support, Cre­dit, and Plenty. Thus it has, and thus it will yet, I hope, ever give Encouragement to its Followers; and though it yield the attainers, to the highth of its reward, but the Temporary Office of a Lord Mayor, or the Title of a Knight; yet if with it, it convey fortune and honor too, whereby their Posterity become Knights and Peers, it is enough to confirm it to be a Rise of Riches and Honour.

And such not only famous Q. Elizabeth esteemed and found it to be, and there­from (as from the Metropolis of Money, Men, Trade, Regularity to the whole Na­tion,) received such service and supplies [Page 211] upon all occasions of Peace and War, as rendered Her the Mirrour of Monarchs, the desire of Friends, the dread of Ene­mies, throughout her Reign; but also the two last Princes, Father & Son, the glories of learned and pious Thrones, held her also in such esteem, calling her The Kings Cham­ber, the Seat Imperial of this Kingdom, and renowned over all the parts of the Christian World; in respect whereof, and of [...]he usual re­sidence of His Majesties Court so neer it, with the confluence of Forraign Ambassadours and Strangers of great State and Eminency, Proclamation 2 Maii, A [...]n. Reg Car. 1. Annoque do­mini 1625. thither, His Majesty is most graciously [...]are­full to neglect no means of lawfull policy to provide for the Continuance and Increase of the Honour, Liberty, Health, and safety of the same. And the same Genious of regal good­ness now steering and impregnating the Nation, the same aspect and encourage­ment is not to be diffided to his Majesties so great a Mart of Trade, and Mint of Money; yea, maugre the malignity of her opposites, she that has above 1500. years been the glory and abridgement of the Nation, and which for orderly govern­ment, and for rich, charitable, bounteous, inhabitants, is not to be matched in the World. She, I say, I hope shall further continue and increase, that there shall be [Page 212] ample reason to account Her a praise in the earth, and to praise God for his pro­mises accomplishment, That Kings shall be Her nursing Fathers, and Queens Her nursing Mothers. And if this blessing be conti­nued, and improved in her, she will, as the head of, and in proportion to all other Corporations, be a Rise of Honour and Riches to Men and Families.

SECT. XXV.
Shews, that Ecclesiasticall Promotions and Incomes are a great Rise to Riches and Honour.

FIfthly, Ecclesiastical Promotions and Incomes are now a great Rise to Riches and Honour: For God having reverted the Church-men to their wonted and legal lustre, and therewithall to the growing advantage of their suppression and inter­stitium; the chasm wherof, though it ruin'd many learned and worthy Bishops, and Dignitaries deceased, and reduced their living remains to straight and necessitous conditions; yet has it so added to the Ec­clesiastiques that came first to the Crop, after that 18. years Fallow, that there [Page 213] cannot but be great accrewments to such as were possess'd of them, who God knows in a great measure needed it; the injury and hard usage of the late distractions fal­ling chiefly on them; and their needs and pressures, by reason of those sequestrations and ejections, being many and importu­nate; (and those not to be relieved but by courtesie received, which was to be requi­ted; or money borrowed, which ought to be repayed: when true consideration is had of Debts to be discharged, Pallaces repaired, Houses furnished, Equipage pro­vided, and incident charges allowed, the Great advantages so noysed, will receive a considerable defalcation. Notwith­standing which, the estate of the Clergy will be most considerable, and appear moderately and discreetly used by the In­cumbents (where Piety, Hospitality, and Magnificence are not impeached by such providence) a very great Rise to Riches and Honour: For in that the Statute of 8. Eliz. c. 1. declares what was of old stated and acknowledged, (That the st [...]te of the Clergie is called one of the greatest States of the Realm,) we are not to take this de­claration for a complement: or in refe­rence to the Estates in Parliament, of which the Bishops are one, and the first [Page 214] nominated; yea, though but 25. in num­ber, yet are, for the reverence of their Persons, Learnings, and Callings, made Peers in Estate to the greater number by far, of the lay Nobility; but also with re­lation to the Spiritualities they have, and the Revenues of value that are annexed to the support of them; which though they were abated and curtayl'd by H. 8. yet are so considerable, that the Rents, Leases, Livings, Offices, Royalties, and other ac­comodations and perquisites of them, are notably to be valued: For as the Primi­tive Church introduced the order of Bi­shops as secondary Angels and Apostles, and them preferred in dignity and de­gree above Presbyters, whom they were to direct, Institute, send forth, and take account from, of Doctrine and Manners; and therefore did in the Counsels take order that Bishops should be pious,Concil. Aquis­gravense apud Binium c. 9. de sacerdotibus. Tom. 6. p. 143. & 364. To 4 p. 440. T [...]m. 9. p. 680 & 575. Tit de [...]piscopis Tom. 9 p. 579. Tom. 6. p. 231. Tom. 4. p. 876. To. 1. p. 434. To. 6. p. 406. To 6. p. 243. To. 7. p 841. lear­ned in the Scriptures, Humble, Chast, Ho­spitable, Conscientious, Resident. Nor did they provide only that Bishops should be personally good, but in their Actions, Family, dyet, habit, recreations, such as not only became the Gospel, but such as prevented all scandal; and above all, that they should, as the chief Episcopal Gift and Grace, Preach. The seed of the [Page 215] Gospel being committed to them as Christs continuing Apostles in his Church;Apostoli in quorum locum Eipiscopi suc­cesserunt satis nobis apparue­runt verbi dei predicatio­nem esse praeci­puum illorum munus qui in Episcopali sede collocantur. Concil. Medio. lanens. 1. To 9. p. 449. Concil. Aquilans. To. 9. p. 694. which is the sanction of the first Councel of Mil­lain, and confirmed by other Councels since. I say, as the Church did require of Bishops and Priests holy services, and self-denying lives; so did the Princes and Christians that were rich and able, adde supports Temporal to these Ecclesia­stiques, whereby they independed on peo­ple, and were more vacant to their Spiri­tual function; the cares of the world be­ing not pressing on them, and the oppor­tunities and means of relieving, suppor­ting, and obliging men to become Chri­stians, and already Christians to be more and more holy, as Christians ought to be, being afforded them. And though I shall not engage in assertion of Constantines donation,Tom. 1. Concil. p. 310. as not being over credulous of it, nor altogether incredulous; but of su­spended belief, as to it, because I see it as well opposed as maintained: Yet I shall thus far declare my self, that I believe, the Endowments of old to the Church, being fruits of gratitude to Christianity, and signs of the love of God working in mens hearts, and thereby appearing in their deeds, were acceptable to God, and are by [...]their Dedication to Him become Sa­cred; [Page 216] whatever the mis-imployment of some of them in some part of the Christian Church superstitiously be. I say, as the Primitive Church thought no Attribu­tion too eminent, no Honour too great to be given to the Bishops and Fathers; so neither did our Nation, in its first Chri­stianity, or since in its Christian proce­dure, begrudge the Bishops the best Ti­tles, and fattest Patrimonies; but confir­med and defended them unto them and their Successors: That as our Kings were the Founders of their English Hierar­chies, and Baronies:5 Rep. de re Eccles. Spelman. Con­cil. Inter leges Aethelst. Regis c. 11. Spelman. p. 404. Constit. Odonis Archi­ep. Cantuar. Spelman. p. 416. & p. 246. & 787. 11 H. 7. 9. 34 H. 6. 14. quoted 5 Rep. Act 1 Eliz. was not an Act introducto­ry of a new Law but decla­ratory of the old. Iudgment of the Iudges in Caudeys case. 5. Rep. de re Eccles p 8. & p 32. [...]. and our Councels the declarers of their Duties and Offices; and our Christians the amplifiers of their Revenews, and our Presbiters the obser­vers of their Canons, and our People the partakers of their learned labours: so our Lay laws have been the Recognizers of their Rights, and the Assertors of their Spiritual Jurisdictions, and required all men to obey them, where they them­selves obey the Laws of Christ, and com­mand nothing contrary to the legal and learned expositions of them. And there­fore the Ecclesiastical promotion of this Nation being at this day so great, they cannot but be occasions of gathering wealth, and so making way for the Ho­nour [Page 217] of Children and Kindred that are Executors to, or endowed with it.

And truly why should it not be so? why should our eyes be evil, because Gods and the Kings is good to them? why should not they that minister Spirituals partake of our Temporals. No reason do I see, no Re­ligion can I read to the contrary; but that what Gods blessing on the prudence and favour of Ecclesiasticques, devolves of Estates upon them, should enrich their Wives, Children, or Relations, (Charity, Hospitality,Verum enim vero non adeo suo sanguini in­dulge [...] quin etiam extraneis si honesti sunt Munifice & Magnifice pro­vide at eoque propinquioribus & consanquineis anteponat. Petr. Bles. Ep 38. de Mag suo Ar­chiepis. and convenient Bounty not being thereby impeded.) Yea, I think, what Man or Church-man soever, having a lawful occasion to advance his Family, being honest, and wel-reported of, and yet doth not, but neglects it, comes with­in the Apostles censure, of denying the Faith, 1 Tim. 5. 8. And blessed be God, this Church of England, as it has had rich and powerful, so Religious and generous Prelates in it, who have not only been sage in Councel, (as was that Bishop of Veradium, of whom Ferdinand the Empe­rour, speaking to King Iohn of Hungary, his Soveraign,Turkish history p. 697. I envy you for nothing that you have, but for one Hooded fellow, (meaning the Bishop) who was better for the defence of a Kingdom, then Ten thousand with Hel­mets [Page 218] on their heads: but also serious in the things of God, Holy in their lives, Fervent in their prayers, Frequent in their preachings, Exact inspectors, Just censu­rers, Liberal benefactors Of Learned minds, of Incessant study, of Matchless ingenuity; in their Writings eloquent, in their Disputes strenuous, in their Dis­courses florid;Optandum est ut ii qui Epis­copale munus suscipiunt quae suae sint partis Agant ac se non ad propria commoda, non ad divitias non ad luxum sed ad labores a [...] solicitudines pro gloria dei vocatos esse in­telligant: ne [...] enim dub [...]an­dum est & fide­les reliquos ad religionem in­noe [...]ntiamque facilius inflam­mandos si prae­positos suos vi­derint non ea quae mundi sunt sed animarum salutem a [...]c cae­lestem patriam cogitantes. Sess. 25. c. 1. de Re­format. Impr. Romae, Paul. Manutlo. edit. 1564. good Masters in their Fa­milies, good Friends in their Neighbour­hood, good Commonwealths-men in their Countries, good Fathers in their Dioces­ses, good Examples in their Conversati­on and Subjection, well born, well bred, well resolved: and therefore so influen­tial on others, because presidential to others, and Imperial over themselves; This even the perverse Councel of Trent, being overcome by that Inte­rest which Truth and Piety had gained upon the Ingenious Fathers and Learned men in it, who, being busie and vigorous Assertors of it, gave such testimony to the consequence & conscience of Reformation in Church-men, notwithstanding the pe­stilent design of Paul the fourth, then Pope, and his Politique a [...]d Atheistique creatures in it, who craftily designed their own grandeur, and the Churches dimi­nution; I say, the Majesty of Gods cause [Page 219] managed by those few Zelots in it, did, by Gods aid, so lord it over their contradiction and influence, who were bent and conjured against it, that, That Counsel concluded it the most effectual way to make the Church prevalent in Christs way upon the people, was to mind Churchmen that their main work in the Ministery high or low, is to re­nounce the World, to seek not themselves, but the peoples salvation, and example them by their own lives, to become holy.

And therefore when I consider what renowned Bishops and Presbyters the Church of England has had in all Times,Sacrosancta Ec­clesia Anglica­na in st [...]tu Prae­sulum intra Re­gnum Angliae, per Angliae Regem, & ejus Progenitores, ad populum in Lege Dei insti­tuendum, ho­spitalitatem co­lendam, Elee­mosynam ero­gandam, & ad alia charitatis opero exercenda fundata faisset. Stat. Carleoli. 25 Ed. 1. and how fit they have been for, and reall in Execution of their Charges, Digni­fying their Dignities: When I read the learned Sermons, and hear of the ample Charities, and Christian Lives, of so many of them, who have left their Praises and Pieties for their Remembrances: When I remember that renowned Arch-Bishop Bradwardine, whose Grace kindled in the cause of God to confront Pelagianisme, when it was in power and request;Cambdens Brit. p 206. and Generous Bishop Grandison, who prevailed with the Clergy of Exceter Diocess to leave their Estates to his dispose, dischar­ging his trust right piously in endowing Churches, and in building and adding to [Page 220] Hospitals,Domini Papae, & Regis redar­gutor manife­stus, Praelato­rum correptor, Monachorum corrector, Pres­byterorum di­rector, Clerico­rum instructor, Scholasticorum sustentator, Po­puli praedicat [...]r &c. M. Paris. in H. 3. p. 876. converting not a doyte to his own use; and Stout Grosthead Bishop of Lincoln, who durst, when Enormities were raunting, reproach and withstand them, approving himself The zealous Reprover of Pope, King, and Prelats, the Chastiser of the Monks, the Director of Priests, the Instructor of the Clergy, the Supporter of Scholars, the Peoples Preacher, the Incontinents Prosecu­tor, the exact Scripturist, the Mall and Hater of Rome, at his Table, plentiful, pleasant, courteous; at the Lords Table, and in Spiri­tual Exercises, full of tears and mortifyed contrition; in short, a Pastor, industrious, venerable, vigilant, as Mat. Paris characters him: When I muse upon the later Parallels to these antique Heroiques, The Iewels, the Andrews's, the Abbots, the Halls, the Vshers, the Kings, the Lauds, the Davenants, the Carletons, the Mountagues, the Bilsons, the Brownriggs, the Sandersons, the Potters, the Whites, the Gaudens, preaching and writing Bishops, and others since, no less worthy to be remembred and honoured, who are mentioned by a better Pen then mine,Eloquent and learned Bishop Gauden in his Hieraspistes. as Stars of the first Magnitude in our Firma­ment, and must be honoured as Champions to our Religion as it opposes Popery. I say, when these and others, Prefermentaries in this Church of England, are thorowly [Page 221] considered, and their virtues have their due valews with us, I think a sober consi­deration being had of the learned and pious succession of Bishops since the Re­formation of our Church, I perswade my self, I may with much truth, and if I did not think so, I would abhorr to write it, (my Spirit being (I bless God) too bigg to flatter either Bishops or their Betters) That the Church of England has had since the times of H. 8. more holy, Episcopi offici­um est authori­tate divina fi­ducialiter & veraci [...]er abs (que) ullo timore, vel adulatione, loqui verbum Dei Regibus, Prin­cipibus omnibus dignitatibus, nunquam veri­tatem subterfu­gere, nulli par­cere▪ neminem injuste damna­re, neminem sine causa ex­communicare, omnibus viam salutis tam er­bis quam ex­emplis demon­strare. Concil. Calcuthense Legatinum. ad Annum. 787. Spelman Con­cil p. 296. learned, preaching Bishops, then any Church of its capacity in so many years at any time, since Christs time, ever had. And I hope it will still continue to deserve the same attribution from suc­ceeding Times. And therefore, how can the bounty of our Kings, and the Justice of our Lawes, and the Gratitude of our Piety, express it self by any other, or less commendable way, then by wishing them a prosperous enjoyment of what Riches and Honour they now have? and how can they evade the desert of rude, ingrateful, and absurd, who malign these Rights so usefully vested in them? Yea, I think I may say it without offence, I am sure with­out falshood, that the splendor of Bishops, and other Dignitaries in our Church, is that which makes our Clergy most consi­derable abroad, and most powerfull at [Page 222] home. For by reason of their port and place are they capacitated not onely to entertain Strangers,Beneficia Eccle­siastica confe­renda sunt pro­pter officia, putae propter verita­tem doctrinae, sanctiatem vi­tae, equitatem justitiae, haec enim personam faciunt dignam Ecclesiastica Praelatura. Augustin Tri­umphus de Potestat. Eccles. quaest. 47. art. 1. in Resolut. p. 252. gather out of Libra­ries and Universities, the choisest books and learnedst men, preferr those that are virtuous, but also to become Intercessors for the Subjects to their Princes, & to per­swade Greatness to be reconciled to God, and Regular, as he commands; yea, and to forward the enaction of good Lawes in the Lords House, of which they are Members. And if men preferred to those Dignities be of strict Piety, convenient learning, resolved diligence, exact pru­dence, serious charity, conscionable resi­dence; if they devote themselves to be God's, to conform their lives and actions to his Word, to comply with the motions of his Spirit in the voice of Conscience, to love and value Gods Image in the mean­est Christian; if their desire be to God, and to remembrance of his name, and their heart is towards those that are faithfull in the Land; if they think it their duty and de­light to pray for and teach the people the word of God, and the duty of love and subjection, Which are most profitable to the Estate of this Realm, upon which the mercy, favour, and blessing of Almighty God, is in no wise so readily and plenteously poured, as [Page 223] by Common Prayer, due using of the Sacra­ments, and often preaching of the Gospel, with the devotion of the Hearers: Stat. 21. H. 8. c. 13. These are the words of the Statute 5 & 6 E. 6. c. 1. If these things they do, as by the Lawes of Religion they are to do, and as by them­selves, and their Substitutes, the Parochial Ministers, they are presumed to do; The Honours they have are too little to set them out by, Binius Conci­liorum Tom 9. p. 698. To. 1. p. 63. To. 1. p. 539. Concil. Sardiense. Sine dubio magna cautio est habendae in regimme ani­marum, quia aliorum vitid sunt statim cor­rigenda, aliquo­rum vero levi­ter sunt incre­panda aliquo­rum vero ad tempus sunt dissimilanda: nam quia ars artium est re­gimen anima­rum, qui tale arte carent ad Praelaturam assumi non de­bent quantum­cunque sunt instructi in ali­quibu [...] scientiis & vigeant ali­qua doctrina speeulabilium. Aug Triumph. q 3 de Potest. Eccles. art. 3. Resol. ad 3 argumen p. 30. and the riches they may accumulate, not sutable to the labour of their love, and the desert of their zeal and worth; For as a Husband that is kind to, and resident with, his Wife, deserves all she can bring to him, and is conspicuous as her Husband irradiates her; so a Bishop that is married to his See, and resides upon it, inspecting it as becomes a waking Watchman, is not so much honoured by his See, as his See by him. Nor do they, who traduce this Or­der and begrudge the Promotion and Re­venues of it, know the travel of their souls and the importance of their zeal, who are conscientious and prudent Governours in the Church; for did they, they would bless God for calling forth such useful In­struments of Order, and by a ready sub­mission to them, in things lawfull and ho­nest, prevent their trouble and diversion from other their weightie concerns: For [Page 224] till Lay-people desist their factious levity, and troublesome recusancy,Sacerdos quip­pe est ut popu­lus, quando ea agit is qui spi­rituali officio fungitur, quae illi nimirum facinnt, qui adhuc de studiis carnalibus ju­dicantur. St. Gregor. Pastor. part. 2. and Clergy­men intend constant residency, fervent duty, regular exemplarity, vigilant Fathers in the Church are inforced to be Strangers to theirComplaint of Arch-Bishop Laud in Epist. against Fisher. Lege Didacum e Castello de Ornatu & Ve­stibus Aaronis Illatione. Sanctus Ber­nardus Serm. Christ. in Cant. Cantic. Books and Pulpits, wherein they cannot study and preach as they would, but are necessitated to be at the Stern of Government, lest for want of good steer­age, the leaks of those storms and wanders procure Shipwrack.

Alas! 'tis not their choice not to preach frequently, God forbid they should be so misunderstood, who understand so well their Duty and Comfort, Habent V­bera, sed non vacua, their Spiritual Breasts are full of the milk of the Word; and it cannot in Charity be thought less then pain and grief for them to with-hold from those good words of reconciliation, which their Commission from Christ pur­porteth, They have wisdom to apply to men and times,Gandere cum gaudentibus, Flere cum sten­tibus norunt. and thereby to ingra­tiate themselves with men whose conver­sion and conviction they are to negoti­ate. O, but that which impedes their fre­quent preaching Exercise, is the weight of Government, the Care of the Churches, which is not like to be lighten'd, unless Priests and People pray for, submit to, and [Page 225] comply with established Government: Happy would our Fathers in God think themselves,Non sunt pro­fecto matres qui cum sint de Crucifixi Patrimonio n­mium incras­sati, impinguati dilatati non compa [...]iuntur super contriti­one▪ Ioseph▪ Idem. if Mens Follies, and the Churches Peace, would take up less time in Government, and allow more to Devotion.

This I presume to write in obviation of vulgar cavils, and to mollifie the tumor of weak or seduced minds, whom solid reason and soft kindnesses will sooner sweeten and reduce then rigidness or harsh speaking, which Charles, the Fourth Em­perour of the Romans, practising on a vil­lanous Conspirator against him,Nesciebam, in­quit, qualis Ca­rolus esset, nunc liberalem & clementem prin­cipem ferire nullo modo possum. Aeneas Sylvius lib. 4. de doct. & gest. Al [...]onsi. (to whom he gave a thousand Crowns for a Portion for his Daughter, more ready for a Hus­band and a Portion, then the Conspirator her Father was to give it,) sent him to his Partizans, a Convert, and so overcome with kindness, that he not onely disclaim'd his fore-intended Villany, but drew off all the rest; and so not onely secured the good Prince his life, but won the wanderer unto a virtuous course. And this further I write, to declare, that as the preferr'd Clergy-man is to honour his Preferment by his personal and publick virtue; so he may expect and honourably take to him­self, as his right and due, the emoluments real or casual of his Preferment; and thereby the intendment of this head is [Page 226] made good, That Ecclesiastical promotions are a Ground and Rise of Riches and Ho­nour.

SECT. XXVI.
Discourses of Dealing and Trust in No­ble and Great mens Estates, a great way to Rise, Riches, and Honour.

SIxtly, Another means to raise Estates, and thereby Honour to Families, is Trusts and Agitation in and about great mens Estates; not because the Estates of Nobles and Great men, are vaster now then wonted; or those large Collops, and gainfull Cantlings, which dexterously and by dishonest Arti [...]ice may be slipped off them, and not missed in them, if looked judiciously into, are of greater worth then ordinary: but because the owners of them (grown lofty, careless, and in spirit and mind as high above looking to their Estates, as they are beneath the skill of judging the posture of them,) wholly put themselves and their fortunes into the power and ordering of their Servants and Officers, who, by acting all themselves, [Page 227] and soothing their Masters in courses of pleasure, and impatience of business, secure to themselves the dispose and privacy of all transactions: especially, if the plea­sures of London seduce their Master from their Countrey residencies; their influ­ence and power is so absolute, that their Master or Lord is shrivelled up, and they are publish'd sole Rulers. For their Lords or Masters absence and expences in high Dyet, rich Clothes, frequent Treat­ments, Fashionable Equipage, added to by great Gamings, lend Compotations, exhausting Suretiships, perilous Quar­rels, Amorous caressings, dreyning him of all Exuberances, forces him to be more greedy upon his servant to return moneys, & more to accept him when he returns him money supplies. By reason wherof, as the Tenant looks upon the Steward or Tru­stee as the Lord in deed and power, be­cause he only executes his pleasure to­wards him: so does he propitiate the Steward or Trustee, by such tenders and presents as have amollient and inclining operations; which renders the condition of these Favourites and Agitators (well salaried, free from all charges, subtile to flatter their Lords and Masters into needs and want of money, and not visibly re­deemable [Page 228] deemable, and set a float, but by Mort­gage or sale of Lands at undervalues, both as to Rent, Purchase, and Perqui­site;) probable to produce them Rise and Riches. For these that now-a-daies put themselves upon, and are accepted into Services and Trusts, are not of the temper of those wonted attendants on Greatness, who descended out of worshipful Families, came into Noble Fetters, not so much to live upon, or get by them the matter of their future subsistance, (though some­times by accident this worthily befell them) but to learn the way of Noble bree­ding, and to be under the view and re­gency of exemplary vertue; and to re­port from them the glory and fame of fidelity well accepted and acknowled­ged: Which motives to, and practices in, their services and houses, were less dan­gerous and diminutive to the Great men and Lords, by reason these Eagles of great spirits, abhorring vulgar preys, proposing no reward but what was the bare enter­tainment of their time and paines, and was un-detrimental to their Principals, and uninjurious to their Tenants, and o­thers to whom they in their Offices are friendly. I say, these having no designe above praise, and a good Match, if their [Page 229] service and breeding there may oppor­tunize them thereunto, must needs be more profitable for them to entertain, then the creatures of late admission and countenance in those places; who being taken poor lads, and kept in mean con­dition, when advanced prove rapacious, cunning, insolent, and obliged by nothing but gain, which they are so crafty contri­vers of, that they have hoards of money ready in other mens names to accommo­date their Masters with; provided they may, as they will (for they are both De­mandants and Consenters) have the best security he has to give, and they can have made to them: so that they so car­ry matters [...], that they will be seen and known in every transaction: Nor will nor almost can, their Lord (as things are ordered by them, and permitted by him to be) do any thing without them: or refuse any thing they prefer or allow pre­ferred unto him. Whence we see they rise, thrive, and are full of Money, when their Lord or Master with his great Estate is needy, uncurrant, reproached, and alto­gether creditless. So that, when Children come to he married, or disposed abroad to travel, home study, or any other Cal­ing, the good word of the Steward or [Page 230] prime Servant must be had▪ before any thing towards such provision or expence can be raised, and the manner of its sup­plement setled. Which too true in every daies experience seems to be a flaw of de­preciation in the Jewel of greatness. Nor do I understand how great minds do to, themselves answer the sola [...]cism of being patient to be needy and narrow, when things of import and honour call upon them for ayd and supply; and in matters trivinl and absurd, on which there is no­thing of Nobility and vertue impressed, nor from which can they from either of them be added to, [...]express a termless, and abyss freeness and grandeur.

SECT. XXVII.
Shewes the Gift of Tenacity, or close hol­ding what we have, or can come by, a great means of Rise or Advance.

SEventhly, Resolution of Hold-fast, is a great Rise to Riches and Honour. This humour of Frugality, which is the softest and least blemished sence of Hold-fasting, being a great advance to Estates: Nor [Page 231] do I think it is excelled by any way of acquisition practicable. For it consists of all those ingredients that in their simpls are conducing to thrift; and therefore in their conjunction must amount to it. It implies knowledge of worldly casualty, and of that vertigo and fluency which swinges and tides to and fro worldly things, and worldly men; and because these conversions are oftner from better to worse, then from worse to better, it practises wisdom of preparation for, and prevention of, the fatality of Humane Contingencies, and provides in plenty for Want, in health for Sickness, in Riches for Poverty, in Peace for Distraction: and this by a Mortification of appetite in those exhaustions, that are too liberal to be lasting, and too expensive to be sober: Hence it spins its thred into as large an ex­tent, as its tenuity will bear; and require [...] no more then needs must from the grea­test advantage it hath; and that because it would more confidently press upon it, and be supplied from it in need. It ex­presses a right judgment of things, eying Fame as a windy noise, which passes with­out any foot-step or remarque of its con­sistency; and cherishes that which main­tains a full purse, and a fore-hand for­tune. [Page 232] It values Friendship of indepen­dence, and un-endedness; and as it re­solves it self will not, so others shall not by their confidence oppress it. It grati­fies no humour of costliness, because it hath an adjunct mischief; nor is led by any prepotent addition,Titulo Impera­tor, animo Pe­tuniae misera­bile mancipium, de Iustino apud Valer. Max. lib. 9. c. 4. to advance its charge, or neglect its lustre; its in short, wholy a creature of this world, living by and to it, studying all the intrigues and mysteries of it, and refunding all its dili­gence and satisfaction into it. This is the nature of Hold-fasting, which is not only relative to money, which it scrapes base­ly, and keeps sordidly; [...]. Stobaeus Fo. 755. but to words, writing, yea, even thoughts: and this it does, not so much to anticipate the waste of time, as the vanity of openness, and to raise a fence against the inrodes ann inju­rious dishonours of it. And though wise men often crack their credit by this kind of heedlesness, which is so fatal to them, that they hardly ever claw off the scair and mortal wound of it; as did that Fa­mous Sir Henry Wotton, who by not with­holding his hand, wrote that which Sci­oppius made use of to his Master's up­brayd, and was turned upon him in his Masters disfavour: Or if he had preser­ved to himself that Present which the Em­perour, [Page 233] gave him, and not given it in a Complement to the Countess of Sabrina, Sir H. Wet [...]ods Works. p. 253. p. 483. he need not to have professed, he had no Riches but his Books and Miseries, and complained to be the man of all men laden with unfortunate baseness: yea, though State-Holdfast be that which brave men can hardliest learn; their spirits being so great, that they think it too sen­sual and mean for their condescentions, and believe that their selves and parts will bear a better value in the Age,To [...]. Thucyd. Hist. lib. 2. and be a stronger obligation to the men of it, then to put them to shift and prog for their subsistance and amplitude, whose the command and greatness of their times are not too great to be presents to their eminent merits; yet has it been found more Soveraign to their exigencies, and the straights of life to which they in com­mon with others are subject, and by which made unhappy beyond others, then all their other agitable accomplishments: Especially when it has been regulated by Honour and Conscience, and by a wise and observant discerning of time, and use of reason, avoyded the censure and curse of wicked policy, and injurious te [...]acity; which good and grave men abhor, as a breach of morral kindness, and religious [Page 234] charity, seldome or never without the breach of every restraint: therefore cal­led an evil covetousness, Hab. 2. 9. Iniquity, Isa. 57. 17. A companion of theft, Mark 7. 22. Vncleanness, Eph. 5. 1. Idolatry, Col. 3. 5. Exclusive of Heaven, Revel. 22. Which is the woe against it, Hab. 2. 9. Yet for all this, the Misers of this world are so deeply wounded with the love of, and so wedded to the practice of it, that they will sooner let go their hold of Hea­ven, then of this World, and the perishing pelf, and fading beauty of it; for the securing of what they have, and to hold fast their possessions, They will oppress the afflicted, Prov. 22. 22. Amos 4. 1. And ruin a man and his Heritage, Micah 2. 2. Wrong the widdow and fatherless, Zach. 7. 10. And though God threaten to break in pieces the oppressor, Psalm 72. 4. yet they trust in oppression, Isai. 30. 16. and make lies their refuge. If they get a man at advantage, they'l handle him without Mittins: if his Inheritance be their pledge, his security their prey, his reputation their secret, his supply their advantage: no Commisera­tion, no Justice, no Civility will they ex­press; all's violence, and advantage that comes in the Net of these Crafts-men, and into the Beak of these Cormorants; all's [Page 235] profit that these finger, all's their own that these Leeches and Harpyes have any co­lourable title to.Gen. 34. 26. 1 Kings 21. To be at their mercy is for Hamor and Sechem to be subject to Simeon and Levi's, and for Naboth to part with his Patrimony; to be kindly dealt with, is to be devoured by them, that na­ture may know an end of her misery, and not to be miserable by protracted degrees, and to buy their curtesie, is to pay what Iudas did for the High Priests company and power, to apprehend Jesus, Ones soul. Thus malignant is their vicious Hold­fasting, that it is the divels livery and sei­sin of the whol man, soul and body. For in this sense that it is culpable, it has excee­ded the bounds of pure frugality, and is become every gainful vice in appetition, and so far as it is cumularive to it in fact. Sh [...]w me a Holdfast that resolves to be Rich, and cares not what he does to an­swer his desire; and I will shew you an Esau for prophaneness, a Cain for murder, an Ahab for oppression, a Saul for fals­hood, a Simon Magus for Sacriledge, a Iudas [...]or treachery. No vice but this ministers to, no vertue but this defies, no Attribute of God but this contradicts, no Command of God but this transides, no menace of Gods but this huffs at, and re­solves [Page 236] against; yea, take it as it is eccen­trique, as I before said, and 'tis brutish rapacity, savage Cannibalism, yea mon­strous treason against the general good of mankind: For he that thus loves himself more then he ought, loves not his neighbour so much as he should, no not at all; for he makes his life a trepan to those he converses with, and is pleased with nothing but the subversion of hu­mane society: for he would live alone in the Earth, Isai. 5. 8.

And yet God knows, that which this industry arrives at, is, but to write a name in dust, and to fix a family on a quick-sand: For though it is but a little time that prosperity thus founded lasteth; yet great Rise and Riches are for a time procured by it. And therefore do I account it now a way to advance, not because the Age accounts it a vertue, but because the general transport of pleasure and luxury indisposing men of fortune to know and practise their security, leaves them a prey to such courses. So true is that of Solomon, in this sence,Prov. 22. 7. A negligen­borrower is servant to a diligent lender, who will not only be sure to be paid, if it be to be had, alledging for his Canon and Creed, that self is first to be served, [Page 237] and his own child first to be christned; but also even where it is not with mercy or conscience to be had, even from the bones of his Creditor, and the bellies of his Relations: Thus rapacious is Hold­fast, that it never parts with what it can hold, nor ever payes what it can by force stave off, or by fraud evade; so much like Hell and the Grave is it in its Call, Give, Give; so little of the Spirit of Good­ness hath it to return what is due to be re­turned.

SECT. XXVIII.
Shews, That Flattery and False-faced-complyance, is a way and means to wards Rise, Advance, and Riches.

LAstly, Flattery and False-facedness is a great art and means towards Rise and Advantage. This seen in the deviations of every foot, and heard in the dissimu­lations of every word, and work almost of men, arraigns the Age of not onely Vanity, but delighted in Wickedness; so that if Iohn the Baptist, Though he burned with zeal, Iohn 5. 35. and shined in holiness; or Aristi­des, who was [...], without welt or [Page 238] guard, were alive, the one would be the scoff of wits in their Lampoones, and the o­ther, the abuse of those that are in and out at every pass of shift and prevaricati­on: This having a Heart, and a heart is that God complains of,Is. 29. 13. This people draw near unto me with their lipps, when their heart is far from me; and this the Holy Chost in Scripture severely brands, There is no faithfulness in their mouth, Psal. 5. 9, 10. their inward part is very wickedness, their throat is an open Sepulchre, they flatter with their tongue, There is their Sin: Then the Psalmists Im­precation on them, is v. 10. Destroy them, O Lord, let them fall by their own Counsels, cast them out in the multitude of their trans­gressions, for they have rebelled against Thee. Indeed, God being a God of Truth, and designing the heart of man for the Tem­ple and Palace of his Residence, looks up­on deceit and falsness crept in thither, as an Usurper upon him and inconsistent with him; and thereupon loads it with his re­proach, that it might be un-requested and ashamed.Prov. 7. 21. Hence the Histrionicism of flat­tery is ascribed to the Harlot, Prov. 2. 16. and the poyson of Aspes is said to be under these lips, Rom. 3. 13. For Lips and looks of pretended love, and intended evil, are the unavoidable rocks of kindness and credu­lity; [Page 239] nor can men of sincere aims and can­did natures, avoid their abuse if not ruine, which is the reason why wise and holy men have desired Gods Protection from, seduction by seeming friendship, and feigned sanctimony: For as the heart of man seduced, does ever act an ill part a­gainst its interest of rectitude; so does Sa­tan and the World, by the industry and invisibleness of their motion, endeavour mans subversion and outwitting: Thus was it in Moses his time, All that the Lord saith we will do, Exod. 8. 9. Deut. 5. 27. Thus in Ioshuah's time, Iosh. 1. 16. Thus in Da­vids time, Psal. 12. 2. They speak vanity with his Neighbour, every one with flattering lipps: Thus in our Lords time, the Scribes and Pharisees are said to tempt him, and ask him a sign, Matth. 16. 1. So Matth. 19. 3. Mark. 10. 3. Mark. 8. 11. Iohn 8. 6. in all which places, their appearance of learn­ing from him, for betterance of their know­ledge, being onely an aim to cavil at, and inform against him, and by perversion of his words, to subvert his doctrine and per­son, is called a Diabolical Fallacy, tempt­ing of him: Thus further has flattery and fallacy been carryed on in all Ages of the World, as that Pionery and subterraneous mischief, which is at its mark before disco­red, [Page 240] and is possessed when but just admited in. And indeed as this fucacity and assimi­lation to something good has wrought it self into great favours, commands, and trusts; so has it by progresses sutable to its Rise, seduced Men, Nations, and Ages, into a coparcenry with it in its joynt stock of seduction and effrontery, the leaven and suppuration of which has sowred and deturpated the nature and manners of mankind, and made it monstrous, faith­less, and brutish: This has brought in Su­perstition upon Piety, Tyranny upon Sub­jection, Lust upon Love, Injury upon Trust; yea, an universal inundation of Confusion in all kinds, in all Persons, in all Degrees;Intu [...] Nero, Fo­ris Cato totus ambiguus. S. Hieronymus. Quaenam istae sunt pelles o­vium nisi no­minis Christi­ani extrinse [...]us super [...]icies? Qui lupi rapaces, ni­si sensus et spi­ritus subdoli ad infestandam gregem Christi i [...]trinsecus de­li [...]e scentes? Ter­tull. c. 4. de Praescrip. adv. Haereses. yea, he that can best act this part, and most creditably formalize it, is thought, The most agible and preferrable, though he be within, Nero, without, Cato, and in both ambiguous. This Piracy and Pestilence of depravation, as it is praevious to spiritual Seduction, by a vigour of Insi­nuation, that randezvouzes in the will of man subdued, and the other faculties at least made neutral; whereby Gods party in the soul is less assisted and more drawn upon duty: & such Tertullian expounds the prediction of Christ, to beware of them that come in Sheeps cloathing, but inwardly they [Page 241] are ravening Wolves; so does it also ante­cede the general deboysture of moral vir­tues, and civil, social honesty and veracity between man and man:Quid ergo A­thenis, & Hie­ro [...]olymis? Quid Haereticis & Christianis nostra Institu­tio de Por [...]i [...]u Solomonis est? qui & ipse tra­diderat Domi­num in simpli­citate cordis esse quaerendum. Id. eod. libro. so that (if not St. Paul, or St. Iohn, or Athanasius, or Cyprian, those sincere Christians, and Nathaniels, in whom there was no guile;) but even a Plutarch, a Seneca, a Cato, a Socrates, should arise and peragrate the World and come into thes [...] Northern Parts of it, most remote from Asian Crafts and Profusenesses, He would cry out, O Tempora, O Mores, and rather chuse to goe to his Grave and be still there, then live, and move, and speak, and do contradiction to Reason and Reli­gion. Indeed, if there were no other Ar­gument to arraign this Age, the request and respect done to flattery, and the ad­vantages that come by it, is enough to pro­nounce it guilty, & condemn it. We are all of us in a vain shadow, and we love to have our follies called wisdom, and our flatte­ries, Civility, our luxury, Liberality, and our profane scoffing, Wit, our idle time, Good-fellowship, our pride, Fashionable­ness, our cold zeal, Moderation, our idle­nesses, unavoidable Diversion, our plea­sures, Health, our prodigalities, noble En­tertainment; so that it is hard to find this Serpent hissing, without some note of [Page 242] more sweet Incantation; and all this while we smile in our sleeves, and cry, What evil have we done? and applaud our own se­cret Atheism, which no eye of man disco­vers: when God, whose Holiness, Power, Purity, Presence, Patience, this provokes and despises, laughs this to scorn, and has the policy and clancularity of it in d [...]risi­on; yea, and will make it appear, when he has reversed those unjust judgments in the Tribunals of our transports and degenera­tions by a Writ of Errour, before the Peer­age of rectified Reason, Religion; which as it requires, so gives the Guerdon to be­ing what we appear, and doing what is honest and of good report.

I like the actions of men, inscribed with the Motto of that Nobleman's Gate at Verona, Patet Ianua, Cormagis, which, tho Aristides truely made good, yet when Themistocles came to rule, he was banished, and so poor, that hardly out of his estate could the bearing of him to his Grave be paid: now though it be counter to the interest and advantages of great, wise, learned men, who love to be soothed up, and have crea­tures soft and plyable, whom they sutably reward and endear; yet is it upon God, and [...]ntegrities account practicable; tho if any man would be counted intelligent, [Page 243] eivil, moodish, acceptable, he can know and practise no better methods to the rewards of these, in the sense that Greatness under­stands them, then to observe their hu­mours, bear their burthens, admire their actions, attend their commands, without weariness, dispute, or curtilation, and then he is likely to be accounted of; so indul­gent are the Aristoxernus's of our Age to those flowers in the garden of their love, that they well water them with wine, ho­ney, and other delicates, that they may not onely grow great, but be more and more by their flatteries acceptable to them; else, though a man have the Piety of Enoch, the Prudence of Moses, the Valour of David, the Integrity of Samuel, and would use all these in a method proper to their designation, to procure blessings, and repell miseries from Persons and Na­tions; yet, shall he be accounted a vain man, that is easie and has no guard of him­self, for Qui nescit dissimul [...]re, noscit vivere: Notable therefore is that of Sir Henry Wot­ton, who had paid dear enough for open­wording, I have no Riches but my Books and Miseries, which are Mansueta Mala to what I have deserved; therefore I will spend my Opinion, which is all my Free­hold, without Fear of Parliaments, or Hopes [Page 244] of Courts. And therefore while these sup­ple and plyant natures, that are as twina­ble as Adders, swimm, and are patronized by those they sting to death, and by their nearness to, destroy, Truth and plain dealing is repudiated as spurious, imper­tinent, tedious, intollerable. This makes every man that aims at advantage to re­present himself above and beyond himself; The Divine in the Pulpit, the Advocate at the Barr, the Physician at the Bed, the Servant at the Board; This, the Sutor to court his Mistress, the Gamester to cogg his Prey, the Merchant to make his barter, the Courtier to design his Boon, other wayes then he appears; so much is Man in love with himself, that he accepts, Agatho­niam Cantionem, every thing that admires him, and regrets whatever is less pallata­able, though more wholesome: which con­sidered, to distinguish rightly of men and things, and by the ingratiation of Flattery to prevail, our designs accomplishment is to those that can practise it, (which I thank God I cannot) a hopeful Rise to Riches and Honour; for, nothing can Greatness deny to him and his, who in him­self, and in his, is a vassal to, and an ex­pecter from, that which he admires, and is both able and willing to oblige him.

SECT. XXIX.
Herein follow the Means and Vices that probably now in England tend to the Decay and Ruin of Men and Fa­milies.

ANd as this our age has particular spe­cifique vertues and means, by which Hononrs and Riches, as before said, are attained to, so hath it as signal Vices and deboysheries, by whith Honours grow de­spicable and Estates Impair and Cease.

The first whereof is Prophaneness; the great Deicidial evil that in its Effrontery denies the purity, and defies the power of God. This is either that close and covert hostility against God, which men transact and improve by the ayd of Sacriledge and Sectarism:Pro [...]anum quod Fani re­ligione non te­netur. Festus. Contamina [...]ione semel sacratae rei committitur sacrilegium Gu▪ Paris de Sa­cramen to Ordi­nis p. 501. Or that leud and Meretrici­ous boulstring out of Immorality; which in spight of Law, Example, Natural con­science, absurd minds hatch, and in ab­surd actions produce; now both of these Prophanations being the violation and contempt of what is sacred, whether things dedicated to God, or men commis­sionated [Page 246] by God, as Magistrates are, and power distributed by them is. Both of these, I say, abounding in this time, threa­ten the Ruin of Men and Families in it. Of the first kind is Sacriledge and Secta­rism; which though they are not Iden­tique in every circumstance or punct of de­finition, yet in the Tantamount are one; for both of them are a reduction of Gods Ordinance and propriety,Prophanum est quod ex r [...]li­gioso et sacro in hominum usum potesta­temque conver­sum est. Treba­tius Iu [...]iscons. apud Tholass. Sy [...]tagm Iuris lib. 1. c. 146. to mans norm and royalty, which is such a degradation as amounts not only to a Scab or Tetter, but to a Plague-sore in affairs, and be­comes pestilentially infectious: for as in Sacriledge men violate the propriety of God, in time (sanctified and hallowed that is separated from all prophane uses, saies the Stat. 5 & 6 E. 6. c. 3. So 1 C [...]r. 1. [...]. 1. & 3. c. 1.) In places,Sacrilegium est Sacrar [...] rerum Furtum. Tom 5 Cencil. p. 468. Sacrilegium est omne quod [...]it ad irreventi­am Sacrae rei [...] Stus Thomas [...]. daeq 99. as Churches and Chap­pels, and Patrimonies, and in Appurtenan­ces to them: so in Persons particularly devoted to him, as men in Holy Orders, and Magistrates who are Gods Deputies, to see both Tables kept, is there (by vul­gar esteem of, and violent contempt to­wards them) Prophaneness and Sacri­ledge committed: And if God punished these sins (for they are the unhappy Twins of Antique Iuciserianism) in Corah and his company,Num. 16. A [...]t 5. and in Ananias and Sapphyra; in [Page 247] Arnolph the eighth Emperour of Rome, [...], &c. Plato in Eu­thyphron. p. 4. eaten up by lice; and in multitudes of o­thers: Yea, and if the very light of na­ture taught men to censure them to death that were predacious upon God in any kind, or concealers of such Enormities, as Plato asserts the law; and as in our own Land the punishment of Sacriledge has been,Holingshed, p. 704. Temps E. 4. Five for robbing St. Mar­tins le Grand Church, were put to death, three hanged and burnt, and two pressed to death.)Sacrilegium vero tanto est gravius pecca­tum qua [...]to commi [...]i non potest nisi in de [...] St [...]s. Argust [...] [...] 4 Contra Cresco­nium Gram 198 Edit. Froveni. If these things be true, as un­doubtedly they are, then all Grave, Good, and wel-minded Christians are to avoyd prophaneness as introductory to Sacri­ledge and Sectarism.

When therefore I rank Sectarism with Sacriledge, I take Sectarism not for a tem­porary dissent in things accidental and less consequent: (For that may be in men wise, learned, humble and loyal, through some preoccupations of breeding or o­ther consortial imbibings, where there is no premeditated restiveness, or stubborn­ness of resolve; yea, it may be through a tenderness and timoriety of spirit; which God may raise and continue in men, as his opportunity to some further work upon them; such adhesions, barely to comply with the present satisfaction and light of [Page 248] a mans conscience, regulated by reason and Scripture in any tolerable sense, I doe not understand to be the mate of Sacri­ledge, For that in matters Divine Gods word is all in all, the which so soon as a godly man hath received, he presently yieldeth and submitteth himself; I [...] rebus divinis vox dei debet esse instar omnium quam non­quan [...]mens pia semel accepit, statim cedit & manus dat, post tergiversatur & expectat alios, id [...]elligit se non Pontificis, aut c [...]ncilii arbitrio oportere cre­dere sed voluntati dei, ejus autem voci obtemperandum esse invitis omnibus Epist ad Scipio­nem Nobilem Venetiam de Ce­cilio Tridenti [...]o. he is not wavering nor expecteth others; he understan­deth that he is not bound to give eare to the Pope, or to the Coun­cel, but to the will of God, whose voyce is to be obeyed, though all men say Nay, as Renowned Bi­shop Iewels words are. But that Sectarism which I make prophane and Sacrilegious,Sacrilegium e [...]l sacrae Personae l [...]sio. Bonaven­ [...]ra Centiloqua 1 Part. Sect. 24. is that which bends its brow upon Prin­ces,Gravius est Sa­crilegium con­tra personam qu [...]m contra lo­ [...]um St. Tho­mas secunda secund. eq 99. [...]. Plato lib 9. de legtb p 91 [...]. Edit Ficmi. and clinches its fist against Lawes, and hardens its heart against kindnesses, and stiffens its neck aganst the yoak of discipline. This insubjection to the higher powers in their enactions, where they are Christian, according to the pu­rest ages practices and professors; yea, ac­cording to the Scriptures Canonical, which commands order, decency, and obedience to the Higher Powers, Kings, and under them Parliaments, and according to them to in­feriour Magistrates, opposition to which Plato calls [...], The dis­soltiou [Page 249] and menace of all, is not to be thought a small, but great, yea all sinne: For in that it tends to detract from and lessen the Ordinance of God, the Supream Magistrate, and exalts insolence and self­will against his Law, and will no longer be subject then power makes it (christian conscience being suf­focated and vertually non-en­ted by Interest.)Sacrilegus dicitur qui sacra violat. Binius. Concil. Tom. 5. p. 468. There is a necessity for the Magistrate to assert Gods power in his manad­gery, Or else he will bear the Sword in vain, and lose the praise of Just and Trusty; so true is that rule of Theodorick, He that will live without, and do against Law, Dicam plane quod sentio, qui sine lege vult agere cunctorum disponit regna quassare. Cas­siod Var. lib. 3. c. 3, meditates the sub­version of all Government, Quod enim dicunt qui contra suas impietates leges justas constitui nolunt, non petisse a regibus Terrae Apostolas talia nan considerant aliud suisse tunc Tempus & omnia suis Temporibus ugi. St. Augusti­nus Ep. 50 ad Boni [...]acium, mi­litem Caesaris. and drives, Iehu-like, to confusion.

And therefore it was piously prayed, and wisely advised, which I find from a great Prelates pen, presented to the late Divine King; where speaking of the con­fidence of Jesuits and Popish Priests, and all that are confraternal with them,Arch B. Laud pre [...]ace to the King against Fisher. I humbly beseech you see to it, that they be not suffered to lay their Weeles, or bayt their Hooks, or cast their Nets in every Stream, lest that Tentation grow both too general, [Page 250] and too strong, and I know they have many devices to work their ends; but if they will needs be Fishing, let them use none but lawful Nets, lets have no dissolving Oaths of Allegi­ance, no Deposing or Killing Kings, no blowing up of States, to settle Quod volumus, that which fain they would have in the Church; with many other Nets as dangerous as these. Thus that wise Prelate wrote; for thus all Faction, peremptory and sanguine, in its opposition to Fundamentals and necessa­ries, intends: Which considered, no man can rationally plead a Dispensation from the Law of obedience, so positively pro­posed, and so indefinitely enjoyned, Let every soul be subject to the Higher Powers; For if every soul be the subject,Si omnis anima & vestra, quis vos exce [...]it a [...] universitate, si quis tentat ex­cipere, conatur decipere. Stus. Bernard, Ep. ad Henricum Epis. cop. Senopens. and the Higher Powers be the object of obedience, which God has enjoyned; then to exempt ones self from it, where it is an universal Rule, is to implead the power of Gods Legislation, and to contemn the Magi­strate who is the Minister of Gods com­mission, and so becomes Sacriledge, and thereby becomes penal; for the Magi­strate is not bound to protect those that will not subject [...], but may take the punish­ment that is legal on him that refuses to give him the obedience the Law prescribes.

Which the Primitive Christians well [Page 251] knowing, kept themselves, Intra limites disciplinae; and though they did not par­take with Heathens in their Idolatries, which were by Edict commanded, yet did they pray God for the life, answer to the summons, acknowledge the power, and fight for the Rights of their persecuting Emperours, and therefore had the Re­turns of their panoply prayers and tears in Gods signal Presence with and their suc­cess through him, and that because as the weapons of their Christian Warfare were not appointed by God to be carnal but spiritual, so they relyed on, or acted by, no other Militia but that of Faith, Fear, Humility, and Patience; neither did they disobey the Magistrate Ethnique in his ne­farious Commands, because they would not re [...]ede their sturdy Resolutions, or lessen their Credit with their Party, but su [...]ered willingly the loss of their For­tunes, Favours, Liberties, yea Lives, that they might make a Confession of their Faith worthy them, knowing that as the Conscience of well-doing was their war­rant, so the reward of well-doing would be their Crown.

This I thought good to declare here, not with intent to reflect on sober Dissen­ters, who cannot be guilty of Obstinacy [Page 252] and Mutiny, but to evidence that there may be some danger in withdrawing from obedience to Magistracy, though never so closely shrowded, and that such an aver­sion may be troublesome and fatal; for, as it is no new thing, for men to be great Pre­tenders to Peace and Vnity, who will admit neither, Arch-Bishop Laud, Preface to the King a­gainst Fisher. unless they and their Faction prevail in it, as is truely charged on the Jesuits; so is it no new thing too, for pious and well­meaning men to believe their reluctance against Establishments is zeal for the rights of Christ, and ac [...]ordnig to the expe­ctations of God from them; when it is to be feared, it may be some self-will, or o­ther private passion, which God has pro­mised to keep his from, that wait upon him, and do not reject the things that tend to Peace and Vnity: For as good men, when suffering according to the will, and fully in the cause of God, are never unhappy, but glorious, as Christ was in his suffering, and may joyfully bear the spoyling of their Goods, and the renouncing of their Lives, as pious Martyrs; so in causes not clearly and palpably Gods, nor directly and a­vowedly referrable to his Glory, to suffer either personal disgrace or fortunary di­minution according to Law, is so far from being an act of Martyrdom, that I cannot [Page 253] esteem it other then a signal weakness, and a display of more contradiction then courage.

Now, though the former Prophanation and Sacrilege be very much to be dis­countenanced, abhorred,1 Sam. 15. 22. and declined, Because to obey is better then Sacrifice, and to hearken then the Fat of Rams; and not to obey,Rom. 13 1, 2. is, to resist the Ordinance of God, And they that resist shall receive to themselves dam­nation; yet the sorest lash is to be given to the prophaneness of debauchery; not but that the other is as high a sin, but because it is not thought so notorious and daring, nor so epidemique, because this mostly is the sin but of some of the common people, who are more addicted to follow novelty & to pitty sufferers, because they know no better; when this is the scarr of men of high degree, of great place, great parts, great fortunes, after the rate of usual calcu­lation; yea, though his Gracious Majesty, not onely decrys this in his sober example, but has declared against it, as Gods dis­honour, his disservice,See his Procla­mation against Propha [...] and his Lands de­filement, his good peoples offence, and his bads seduction; yet has it so wrought it self into the loves and lives of men, that it is pitty to think such opposites to Reli­gion, civil life, and good Lawes, should [Page 254] prevail over them; or that the words and deeds of men should be so loose, that it [...] almost as impossible to fear them worse, a [...] improbable to hope them better, witness the excessive drinking, vain play, vilde Leachery, profuse Dyet, and chargeable Company, that every where is found, all which conspire to draw off the mind from Gods fear, and mens shame, into [...] broad and lawless course of life, tending to bestial and paganish lubricity: which, as it is the mischance of our Peace, & the by [...]blow of Gods mercy to us; so will hardly have from God the Portion of an Isaac, For his mercy is on them that fear him, but threatens us with all the cursings of our blessings, which mans sins can merit, and Gods justice inflict, and especially with Ismael's pittance to be sent packing out of our good land, which may spew us out, Lev. 18. 28. and c. 20. 22, For, as a Fruit­full Land is turned into a barren Wilderness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein, Psal. 107. 34. so may evil be brought upon a Land, to cast the Inhabitants out of their Possessions, for casting God behind their backs,Regnum An­gliae, reg [...]um Dei. and living as without God in the World. Indeed, considering Gods pecu­liar Propriety in England, the security of its situation, the Paradise of its Pleasure, [Page 255] the Fertility of its Soyl, the Plenty of its Inhabitants,Note Englands Mercies▪ the Generalness of its Accom­modation, the Glory of its Lawes, the Freedom of its Subjects, the Order of its Composition, Full of Plenty, Peace, Riches, Renowned for Learning, Famous for Va­lour, Envyed for Affluence, above all, considering the Residence (as it were) of God amongst us in his Worship Primitive, and Orderly, as in no Nation in the World; Considering all these, to find Prophane­ness and Despight of God, Exorbitancy and Contempt of Manhood, so frequent and consident amongst us, is a Prodigy of Ingratitude, and an Omen of Menace to us all. And though I think that none of the least Prophaneness, which many good and wise people think chargeable, upon such wicked Sons of Belial, as make the Sacrifice of God to be abhorred, 1 Sam. 2. 17. I mean those irregular and immoral Clergy­men, who being devoted to God in their Orders, are truer Factors for Satan in their lives, such being too like those, Columna, General of the Navy to Pope Pius the Fifth, in the battel of Lepanta, told Don Alonso the Jesuite,Vos alti Padri, di Ihesu have­te la mente al cielo le manl al mundo, l'anima al diavolo. His Order were, Men, who seem to have their minds in Heaven, but have their hands in the World, and lease their souls to the Devil: (Such bibbing, [Page 256] brawling, gaming, effeminate, swearing, jocular Priests, being the blot and ble­mish of Priesthood,Deformatur ho­nestas (Clericu­lis) cum Cleri­cus se immiscet saecularibus ne­go [...]iis, item in­cedendo m [...]mis & joculatori­bus, item Ta­bernas ingredi­endo nisi tem­pore itineris, item ad aleas & Tallellas lu­dendo vel els­dem interessen­do. Gloss▪ ad Lindwood Pro­vincial. lib. 3. de vita & ho­nestate Clerico­rum, p. 61. Spelman Con­cil p. 276, 277, 284. Binius Concll. Tom. 7. p. 1169. Tom. 1. 12. To. 7. p. 811, 1150, 1186. To. 8. 156. To. 9. p. 706. To. 1. p. 308. To. 9. p. 460, 704, 716, 706, 265. To. 1. p. 13, 300, 721, 930, To. 6. 225. To. 7. 1169, 709, [...]82, 229, 265, 328. Tom. 9. 706. yea even of Christia­nity; and notwithstanding all their boasts of Conformity and Canonical Obedience, the greatest Enemies to, and Opposers of, the Church of Englands Establishment, Glory, and Success, and the sacrilegious Prophaners of that holy Calling and Pro­fession they are entred into; though I leave the severe judgment of these to the Reverend Fathers of the Church, whose care and cure they properly are, and who I am sure doe really discountenance them; and so not onely testify their own abhorrence of it, but in a sort expiate by their severity to it, the inquination of it:) yet ought it here to be touched upon, as a great blemish which gives Adversaries too just occasion to reproach us: But the great Cry that I have to make, is against the Civil and Lay-prophaneness, which is monstrous and temptative of God, to dis­honour and desert us. O the formidable Oathes, the monstrous Loves, the devilish Frauds, the Bacchanalian Jovialties, the furious Quarrels, the wasting Suretyships, the bloudy Murthers, the endless Debts, the infamous Shifts, which Debaucheries put men to, which engages too many of [Page 257] our Gallants to be passionate, idle, humo­rous, needy, unstable, yea, and keeps them in resolution to justifie themselves & their Courses against the Commands of Superi­ours, the Counsels of Equals, the Exception of Inferiours, till at last the upshot of these Exorbitancies, not onely proves scandal to their Degree, and worse then a battoon of abatement to their Honour, but a Back­door to their Estates, which are not only wasted by the squitter of these Vices, but burthened with Penalties upon the pub­lick ill Example and consequence of them; for were the Penalties of the 21 Iacob. c. 20. of twelve pence upon every Oath that out common Swearers blasphemously utter, levyed upon them; and were the Penal­ties for prophanation of the Lords Day, according to the Statutes of 1 Car. 1. c. 1. & 3 Car. 1. c. 1. and the Penalty for sitting in Tipling Houses, and unlawful Meetings together, levyed upon them: Those, with the satisfactions for taking off Prosecution upon Recognizances for heynous Crimes; with other like Expences, I perswade my self, some in this Nation would pay great Summs for their Offences: But when Consideration is had to Gods disho­nour, and the Lands guilt by reason of it, and when Children are often charged [Page 258] with their Fathers sins (as in Cases of Trea­son against the King, so in Cases of Blasphe­my against God) then Debaucheries may well be accounted a ruine to Men and Families, and God may bring upon the Chieftains of Wickedness in them, Judge­ments remarkable.

Certainly there never was in the World a prophaner Cannibal then Hat­to Bishop of Mentz, who in a time of Fa­mine which pinched the Poor, caused a great Company of them to come into a Barn, as if he would relieve them; but when the poor wretches were in the Barn, he caused it to be fired,Non differunt hi à Muribus, qui multum co­medunt, & in nihilum utiles. unmercifully say­ing these words, They differ not much [...]rom Mice who devour much and are good for no­thing, but God brought this cruelty home with a vengeance upon him, for the Mice dayly so tormented him, that he was like to be devoured by them, at last he put himself into a strong Castle upon the Rheine, but God brought the Mice swim­ming down the Rheine so irresistably upon him, that they not onely devoured him, but eat his name out of all Hangings and Places: a memorable Story in punishment to Prophaneness, Murther, and Cruelty. O, if these Roysters would consider the Blasphemies and Prophanations of Sena­cherib, [Page 259] Nebuchadonosor, Antiochus, Ni­canor, Scaeva's Sons, Iulian, Elpidius, Olim­pius the Arrian Bishop, the Boy in Gregory Towers, Lib. 4. c. 18. and sundry others in old and late Stories, they would fear to provoke the great God of Heaven by them.

For do we not read of God cursing and blowing upon Families, as is threatned a­gainst the Swearer and the Stealer, Zach. 5. 3. Ier. 23. 10. upon the Lyar, Murthe­rer, and Adulterer, Hosea 4. 2. upon the violent, Ezech. 28. 16. upon the prophane, Amos 2. 7. & c. 3. 1. Ezech. 22. 3. and when he curses, who shall bless? and when he scatters, who shall gather, and when he subverts, who shall establish? And if none can reverse his Sentence, or evade his Power, then how ill Ancestors are they to Succession, how ill Englishmen in this Age, that challenge God by their prodigious Impieties to commence his quarrel against us, and to fix his arrows upon us, and to make us a hissing and a by-word, and not a blessing and a praise amongst the Nati­ons that environ us; For though God will not cast away perfect men, yet will he not help such evil doers, Job 8. 20. But God will break the arm of these wicked ones, Ps. 10. 15. Set his face against them, Psal. 34. 16. Yea, cast upon them the fierceness of his wrath, in­dignation, [Page 260] and trouble, by sending evil An­gels amongst them, Psal. 78. 15. and haunt these with evil, Ps. 140. 11. He will punish these for their evil and iniquity, Jer. 13. 11. which they shall not avoid, Jer. 11. 11. And against their Families will devise an evil from which they shall not remove, Micah 2. 3. yea, and so aggravate their sufferings to them, that they shall be uncomfortable under them, and inglorious by reason of them, and not with Lentulus, Be renowned and chearful, Pelli potes, ce­di, capi, perimi, vinci autem nisi manum extu­leris non potes, neque ornamen­tis tuis spoliari, cum quibus quocunque ieris & Civis & Patriae Princi­p [...]m unus cris. Petrarcha, lib. 2. de remed. ute. For [...]unae. Dialog. 67. though naked and restrained, being spoyled of nothing in his banishment and losses, while he kept his Virtue, which alone he accounted his own; because it ren­dred him worthy to be accounted a Chief Citizen and Prince of his Nation, (as the Prince of Witts, in his time, sets it out;) but contemned, meanly thought on, un­pittied; yea, all men shall see their affli­ction with incompassion, and some with rejoycing: For they, who vainly profli­gated that which with care and sobriety would have honourably supported them and theirs, are not often thought worthy any support from Generosity or Charity, but rather are to be seperated from the Society of men, who are so contagious to, and so seductive of them. All which con­sidered, in the punishments of God and [Page 261] man or substance, [...]. Liba­nius Declam. 35. p 787. children, body, soul; There is good cause to conclude, that prophaneness is a ready way to run down, and irrecoverably ruin Men and Fami­lies; and therefore I deprecate this guilt, in the words of our Church-Letany, From all Sedition, Treason, and privy Conspiracy: From all False Doctrine Schism, and Heresie, rom hardness of heart, and contempt of Gods Word and Commandements, Good Lord de­liver mine and all the Generous Families in England.

SECT. XXX.
Highth of Port and Pride of living, is now a way to Ruin and Decay Men and Families.

THirdly, highth of living now in England is like to decay Men and Families▪ For this Gangrene diffused into all parts, or­ders, and persons almost in the Nation, makes every man weary of his National or Vocational limits, and move into Orbs superiour to it, and suffer in the costly and not to be maintained Port of it: For whereas there was (not by sumptuary [Page 262] Laws, or Magistratique sanction, but by common agreement, [...]and general understanding) as it were, a setled way of Garb, Equipage,Nulla toto orbe gens est quae Britannos superet in splen­dore domestico, Famulitii mul­titudine, afficio­rum ac gradu­um distinctione ret quidam ad­mirabilis cuicunque contingit, aspi­cere cupedia­rum quae singu­lis diequs pa­rantur multitu­dinem, Alber­gatus in Relat. RegniBritannici The sauro Polit. p. 201. Dyet, Hous­holdstuff, Clothes, Education of Children, and Men of prudence held themselves concerned in Discretion and Thrift, not to exceed the bounds of their Degree in any of the forementioned things, but lived, bred, maintained, mar­ried, and provided for their Children, ac­cording to the permission of that under­standing and decency, which by mutua­lity of Intelligence and accord, Intercur­red between degrees of all sorts: Now the mode and rate of them is so altered and exceeded, that it is hrrd to find so much as a stump of that ancient pale, un­stocked up, but Nobles and Gentry, Gen­try and Mechaniques, Entercommon, as it were, in the lawtess of life: while not only such foolish and high-flown Prodigals,Vulo [...]es ace [...]o liquefactas cae­n [...]s appoueret. as AEsap the Tragedians son, who left very rich, had Pearls liquefied served in as a Dish at his third course. Or, Muleasses King of Tunis, whose Kitching brought up the charge of dressing a Peacock and two Pheasants to above 100. Ducats, so laden and over-charged with Perfumes were the Sauces,Turkish Hist. p. 745. and Trickings of them, that [Page 263] they were as pleasant to the pallat to taste, as to the eye to behold. I say, while not only such Epicures by themselves are excessive, but even all men fashioned into Luxury and State of life: And now every one prepares a full Table, has good Attendance, keeps Horses, weares rich Clothes, gives great Wages, retains many Servants, builds Magnificently, furnishes Amply, adorns Luxuriantly their Bodies, Children, & Houses, by which many costly diversions not only, the Paunch of an estate is pinched, and the Succulency suffurated from its Amassation, the Scale of Estates amount, but also provision for Daughters and younger Sons dock'd, and the evil day not foreseen in wise forecast for it.

This Excess frequent of old, the wi­sest of men judged ominous, and decri­ed it in their practice. The great Mor­ralist Seneca notably delivers his mind con­concerning it, I love, saith he, Houshold par­simony, not rich Beds, and costly Arrasses▪ Tenet me sum­mus amor par­simoniae, fateor placet non in ambitionem cubile compo­situm &c. [...]ed in usum posita quae nullius con [...]ivae oculos nec [...] volunta [...]e moretur nec ac­cendit invidia lib de [...]ranq. Animi c. 1. not Tyres for Rooms, that must be Pressed and Chested, and seen only upon Grand daies, but convenient and comely Vtensils, that may be used fr [...]quently, and will not bring too great loss in the damage of them. I love Servants neither sordidly rude, nor femi­ninely trim, Plate o [...] the fashion of Ancestors; [Page 264] not a Table so neatly set out as if no foule finger were to come neer it; none of these things take me, but such things as neither sill the beholders eyes with envy, or occasion them by the vility of them to reproach. So Seneca.

For alas, as when several veines of the body are at once open, spirits evapora­ting at all of them, the sea of spirits at last grows low; so all these waies of expence baiting and worrying a fortune, cannot but sink and mortifie the courage,Quid mihi Pho­cionem loque­ris, quid Ari­stidem? Tune paupert [...]s erat saeculi quid lo­queris Fabri­cios, quod Co­runcanos, P [...]m­pae ista exempla, fictilibus fue­ [...]unt dii saciles. Senec. Contr. lib. 2. Contr 9. Vos quidem qui virtutem cul­ [...]orem ej [...]s odi­ [...]tis nihil novi [...]acitis▪ nam & [...]ole [...] lumina [...]gre formi­ [...]ant. Et aver­ [...]ntur diem [...]pleudidum [...]octurna ani­ [...]alia. Senec. [...]. de vit. be [...]. 21. and very being of it; which is little now con­sidered by any: For men are so far from looking upon poverty as an opportunity to vertue, or bearing a moderate condi­tion contentedly, that they are apt, as Seneca saies, to think of Aristides and Pho­cion as men fashionable in their frugal con­ditions, which were suitable to the then Age; & to the Gods who loved Fabricius Corutca­nus, and the rest, for their homely living, and Countrey contentedness. Nor is it any wonder, that men made up of vice, and abounding in deeds of darkness, hate ver­tue and the practices of it: for it is so an­tipodique to them, that they are excecra­ble even from the deeds of vertue, which are opposite to theirs, and for which the doers are honoured when they are lightly set by.

[Page 265] Which teaches us to transfer the blame on time to men, the livers in, and infectors of it; for time is passive and under the tyranny of men, livers and rioters against the virgin nature of it; yea, haters of those their Contemporaries, who are most steady and noted for vertue:Sacri erimus & modica con­cupiscemus si unus quisque se numeret, metiatur simul corpus, sciatque nec mul [...]um capere, ne [...] diu posse. Senec. Ep. 11. 4. O miseri genum vilium comito­res usoresque nobtlium ama [...]is quae nec se, amari sentiunt [...] nec amantibus invicem red­dunt. Petrarch [...] lib. 1. de remed. Vir. Fort. Dial. 59. For Cato's presence is no awe to resolved peccants, who make their wills their laws, and long to be ea­sed of their Estates, that they may have the stronger leures to vice, from their ne­cessities pressing them & their resolves, to comply with any course that relieves them. But, O how far is this from a true rational calculate? If a man considers, that his senses are those quarries, out of which are digged and hewn the materials of life, the stru­ctures whereof are beautified only by moderation of them, and paring excres­sences from them; which when best di­rected are but a while to be lent us, and subject to many casualties that little while. If a man consider but this, he would be less pleased with, and less wed­ded to their sensual fruitions; for man, the Image of God, is not made to feed upon ayr, to be enamoured of vanity, to loose himself in the pursuit of a vain shadow; but is to consider his Reason, his Guardi­ans, his God; and as one accountable to [Page 266] all these to live, which they in no so [...] mind to do, who live like beasts to the utmost tither of their unbridled appetites, which Christians are so far to avoyd, that they are not to live as vicious men do, in surfeiting and drunkenness, not in cham­bering and wantonness, not in excess and ryot, but walking honestly as in the day, Rom. 13. 13. To take heed lest at any time their hearts be overcharged with surf [...]iting and drunkenness, and the day of Iudgment come upon them unawares, Luke 22. 34. And when they do contrary, they do not only grieve good men (as the luxury of Petrarchs Age did him, when he sadly inveyed a­gainst the Forein habits, & vanities fashio­nable in it,) but accelerate their and their families ruine. For nothing reduces a fa­mily to straits, and sale of Patrimony, but vice which is notably advanced toward in High-living; that is, living beyond ones rank,Ita tamen eunt res, haec est [...]tors nobilum iantt alios. Petrarcha lib. 2. de remed. Utr. Fortunae Dialog. 108. and above ones fortune; which folly, though it be not restrained from, or punished by, sumptuary Laws; yet, has the check of prudence, and the reason of men experienced in the fatal return of such exuberance, which ought to be the law to correct the practice and insolence of it: For man is a sacred piece of divine art, to the compilent of whom, as wisdom [Page 267] and power joyned; so ought such a rare contrivance,Cultus deorum est optimus at (que) castissimus, atque sanctis­simus, plenissi­musque pietatis, ut eos semper pura, integra, & pura mente & voce vene­remur. Cic. lib. 2. de Nat. deo­rum. not to be defeated and de­faced by trite and considerable addicti­ons, which cannot compensate his intent­ness on them, and thereupon should not engage him fondly in the love of them; And if a man consult religion, and the rule of reason, from which he as a man ought not to swerve, he cannot live vain­ly, lest he dye wickedly: for God has gi­ven us our reason and judgment, not to betray us into, but to rescue us from those fallacious surprises that o [...]ten beguile us of our interest in God, and our justifica­tion by the Law written on our hearts; which as often accuses for evil, as excuses for good and right doings. Therefore luxury of life being one of those enor­mities which brings a lent and sparingness upon the estates and subsistence of Men and Families is resolutely to be resisted and set against; for it parselling the estate into many minuite refractions, at last leaves nothing in the centre that is clear, solid, and value worth; and the curse of God not permitting them to be considerate and advised, the fortune they have left squitters away without any visible cause of its ex­inanition; nor does the running expence of it leave any impress of respect on the [Page 268] minds of those whom the profusion of [...] aimed to oblige;Homo sacra res ust, Homo jam per lusum & jocum occidi­tur. Senec. Con­sol. ad Helviam. c. 9. but as first men are foo [...] led into misery, so after are they under it despised.

SECT. XXXI.
Vain and Profuse Gaming, the undoub­ted way to Ruin and Beggar Men and Families.

FOurthly, Vanity of Gaming is another decay of Estates, because it ventures that in a moment upon a chance, which would last the gradual expence of life a long while. This I account in its abuse, for a­gainst [...]that only I declaim, a purpresture rai­sed upon the wast of this Age, to the defi­ance of what ought more to rule with us, Religion [...]; which better disciplines the ex­pence of time, and cals us to more compact & close lives, to the honour of him who has made our Captivity to return to this de­gree and unparrellallity of Miracle; yet, ingrate men that we are, this none of the least of the pack of vices, which was wont to sneak, and to be modest and ti­morous to appear, is now confidenced to [Page 269] take up the day and night of great and mean persons of both sexes; who though they would think an hours prayers or converse with their Families, like Parents and Pastors over the souls of them, teadi­ous and irksome; yet they can al­low 12. of the 24. hours of the natural day to this fondness. But, O that they would consider that of blessed King Iames, To play only for recreation, Basilicon. Do [...] ron. lib. 3. p: 187. resolving to haz­zard all they play for, and play for no more then they would cast among Pages, and play alwaies fair: for neither a mad passion for loss, nor falshood used [...]or desire of gain, can be called a play. Or rather that of the Plalmist, Palmares fecisti dies meos, that God has written their mementoes in their fingers; and that the length of them is but a short entertainment for the Celerous motion of time, that spends away be­tween accidents of wast and necessaries of nature;Nam tam be­nignum ac libe­rale tempus natura nobis dedit, ut aliquid ex illo vacet perdere, & vide quam inulta etiam diligen­tissimi pereunt. Senec. Ep. 117. and if frugall imployers of time, yet are oft overtaken by it, before they are prepared for the entertainment of it; what case are the prodigals in, that spend time as if it had a wick of inconsumption, and a light inextinguishable; when this I consider, my wonder is great how many of our Gallants do answer their own reason, in this spareless vanity; yet so it is, that [Page 270] is nothing thought a Genteeler pass of time, then Cards and Dice, which they have not only increased, in the severalty of Games, but in the delight they have ava­riciously and with grippleness to get by play; which many Gallants so intend, that their presence is most in the open houses destinated to play; where they have Banks of Money to stake at it; yea, no bones do they make to pawn Houses, Lands, Jewels, and give Bonds for Stakes to play with; and hold it matter of quar­rel and dishonour to baulk payment of their losses, or implede the validity of their Obligation: when their just and due Debts, for Provisions for back and belly, are underfrayed, lie on score, or perhaps are resolved not to be paid,O perditum Tempus, Opu­erile studium, O curae super­v [...]cuae. O in eptissimi cla­mores, stulta gaudia aerique ridiculae, gau­dere lucro tax [...] illorum tale est a [...]si dulci gau­dea venena lib. 1 de remed. V [...]r. Fortu. Dial 29, 26. if any eva­sion or starting-hole can be found out. The folly of this Petrarch compares to the joy of wel tasted poyson, which for all its pleasing tincture on the palate, ends in death. Though God knows it is hard to convince men of it in this Age, so indul­gent to it, that whereas heretofore Game­sters and Gaming-houses were under the lash of the Law, and under the reproach of men; now they are become practices and courses of Credit and Thrift, and the Keepers of them accounted meet com­pany [Page 271] for persons of Fashion and Favour. I know this Trade was merrily driven on by the Germans of old, who so insani­ously loved it,Interseria sobrii Germani aleam exercent, tanta lucrandi, per­dendi ve teme­ritate, ut cum omnia defece­runt, extremo ac novissimo jactu, de libe­rate ac de cor­pore contendunt. Tacitus de Mo­rib. Germ. that they would not only play away their money, but their clothes, and persons also; but they have found this the mother of theft and quarrel; therefore forbad they not onely Souldi­ers, but other men, and not only in pub­lique, but even in private houses: which Tacitus informs us, and Tholossanus from good authorities;Tholoss. Syntag. lib. 39. c. l. 2. Art. 5, 6. 4 Ethic. ad Nichom c. 1. and so scandalous were common Carders amongst the Greeks, that the Philosopher ranks them with Thieves and Villains. The Fathers of the Church so detracted from it, that it is for­bidden men in Holy Orders to play at Cards and Dice:See the Quota­tions in Fo. 256. For though there were ever some Games allowed for entertain [...]of Time, and exercise of Wit, as were the Quinque Ludi, instituted by Iustinian; and Archery amongst us, 33 H. 8. c. 9. Yet were Cards, Dice, and such like Games ever disallowed, as enervaters of Vertue and Time. And amongst us in England, though they have been connived at in private houses, yet never allowed by Law, but in Christmas time, and on Festivals: and in publique houses forbidden, because Nurseries of vice, and Seminaries of dis­honesty, [Page 272] and wast; so 33 H. 8. c. 9. forbids keeping houses for only Cards and Dice, Bowles, Tennis, Coyles, &c. as unlaw­ful Games, and the players of them (not exempted by Statute) are to be impri­soned, without Bayl or Mainprise, till they have found sureties not to use such gaming any more: Which our wise Ancestors en­acted to preserve youth from seduction by vice, and to sustain Families from that ruine which time evilly and costlily spent induces upon them: For since they thought Play to be one of the great Cancres of Morral Vertue, of Oeconomique Thri [...]t, of cordial and durable Friendship, they did like themselves, to prevent as much as a seasonable and well penned Law could, the growth of that mischief which we see now so fertile of beggery, blasphemy, and confusion. In the History of Luca there is a notable story of one Iaconto Pietro De Sancto Romano, a young Gallant of 26 years old, who having lost his Money at Dice, powred out many blasphemies against God, and ayming with eye and hand to throw the Dice at the Picture of the Virgin Mary which stood before him, and as he stretched out his arm, his arm broke in the midst of the bone.

And though the licenciousness of this [Page 273] Age has bettered the report of it; and use has in a sort Emancipated it, by a de­swescency of the rigour of the Law against it; yet can it not alter the ill natured, and casual malignity of it; but that it will be known in the bitter and ill boding fruits of it, Irreligion, Vanity, Fraud, Con­tention which as fruits of the flesh God hates, and casts out of his protection as a cursed thing:Delectatio [...]u­nesta & turpis corruptio ani­mi ubi non de­cor morum, non modestia sit verborum, nec amor erga ho­mines, non erga deum reveren­tia, sed [...]a [...]gia & rancores & doli & perju­ria vulaera ad extremum & homicidia quoque, Pe­trarcha lib de remed. Utr. Fortun. Dial. 27. Which if our Gallants and men of all degrees would more think upon, their prosperities would endure longer, and their children and successions be better; but because they live careless of themselves, and do not their homage to heavenly supereminency by which worldly affairs are succeeded, they lan­guish and die in their top-branches, their heirs, and are not quickned by the thrift of their younger sonnes: Yea, I dare be prophetique of generall eradication of vertue and good proof amongst the youth, now breeding, and hereafter to be bred, if Gaming be not inhibited, or moderated and restrained in a high de­gree: For it is not now the recreation of Masters and Mistresses, but of Aprentices, Serving-men, and Maids; and those not only of high degree, but even Pedlars and Beggars; to whom every Ale-house [Page 274] and Drab-stall is a school and [...]pit of play: nor will manners be reformed, or Religi­on be practised; Till men be made kind Husbands, prudent Fathers and Masters, dutiful Children, obsequious Servants, by being denyed those avocations that steale away their times, fidelities, and kindnesses from those relations, I do not hope to see that succession and increase in the Riches and Honour of Families, which corre­sponds with former times, wherein all con­ditions were more taken in, and less did indulge their ease and pleasure: For this ease, luxury, and frequency of intermixed converse that is now in fashion amongst our English Imaliers, or Brethren of Love, who,Turkish History. p. 477. as those of Asia, can talk merrily, sing, play, dance, and what not, which is jocund and passant of time, do by their full feeding, and idle living, prove oft­ner Corrupters of Youth and Vitiators of Women, will rather occasion the same evil, then be the sourse of any thing good or gracefull.

SECT. XXXII.
Shews, That pompous Housekeeping, and the Equipage of it, is a great Decay to Families.

FOurthly, Pompous Housekeeping, and the Equipage of it,Petrarch. lib. 1. de remed. utr. Fortun. Dial. 34, 36, 37, 41. O scelestem, O [...]lagitiosam Pompam, O cru­delem & impi­am luxum in­anem, qui illu­strium domos dissipas opti­matum cogna­tiones disperdis destruis regna, & omne subli­me Imperium subver [...]is, & nemo est qui te caveat, te re­jiciat, te con­temnal: Lege Ricium in Ex­hort. contra Turcam. To. 3. Germ. Scripto­rum. is a great Decay to Families, and the Persons of it; For it is a daily sluce to the Estate, which is eat and drunk out by it, or lyes fallow in the costly Furniture in it; which Petrarch long agoe, and Ricius since in the Dyet at Spires declaimed against, as the subversion of Livelyhoods, and the povertizing of Chil­dren; which is to be understood not of Housekeeping in the neatness and decency of it, with consideration to mens Descent, Fortune, Relation, Place, failure in any of which, is too great a breach in discretion for any to salve, and too visible a scarr for any to palliate; there being nothing in the world more imperative of pleasure, more adaequate to the Genius of Wisdom, then to be exercised in Oeconomique Re­giment, wherein, as a man sees the circum­vallations of Variety, that derive them­selves [Page 276] from the Centre of Headship, and the Returns that those Emanations make to their Principle, so is there a very great Enablement derivable thereby to the con­templation of God's good and great being manifested in the Government of the World, his expansed Family, and to the Education and Institution of Men in the Method and Delight of publick Go­vernment, wherein there is no Dimension so Magnalian, or Mystery so secret, but has its resemblance and shadow in the close and common government of the House: The truth of which has inclined men of staid and compact minds to put themselves into the managery of this, that therein they may, by the Conduct of a Fly-boat, learn the Steerage of a Royal Vessel, and surely as they make the best Masters of great Vessels, that are taken into them from Pi­lots and Fishermen, who like lean and ras­cal Cattel, improve notably when they are transplanted; so are they the most probable to be knowing and calmly vi­gilant in publick Government, who know with order and quiet to govern their Fa­mily, by acting themselves the duty of Heads, and exacting the conformity of Members from all their Inferiours, and this by a majesty and sweetness of compulsion, [Page 277] ungrievous to the submitters to it.

Which,Ornanda est dignitas domo, non ex domo dignitas tota quaerenda, nec domo dominus, sed domino do­mus honestanda est, & ut in cae­teris habenda ratio, non sui solum, sed etiam aliorum, sie in domo clari ho­minis, in qua & hospites multi recipien­di, & admit­tendi hominum cujusque gene­ris multitudo, adhibenda est cura laxitatis. Cic. lib. 1. Officiorum. as it is done by a particular knack of steddy Order, so is that order in nothing more signal then in reducing Families to a regulable Stint: Too few Servants make Families inconspicuous; Too many, mon­strous and unruly: Too large an House is a Wood wherein a Family is lost, and a Fortune unnecessarily wasted; Too little an one is a Prison, in which every Room is a Little-ease, and every Convenience a Clogg: Too free a Table renders the Keeper of it but a Victualler to absurd Confidents; and too scant an one but a Miser to his Neighbours, and a blemish to his Condition and Relations: To in­vite all Comers, is never to be free; and to welcome none, is ever to be bound: To have too many Children, is to have more Cares and Corrosives then we can undergoe; and to have none or too few, is to dye a Debtor to Nature, to be in Ar­rears to Mankind, to decease a Banckrupt to Succession: To spend all our Income, is not wisely to prepare for a foreseen evil Day;Magnus animus sine magna po­tentia, magna stul [...]ina. Pe­trarch. Dial. 33. de remed. utr. Fortunae. and to spend nothing proportiona­ble to what we may, is to make Money our God, and to deny our selves the ser­vice of our Servant: Greatness of minde is seen in brave and a quanimo [...]s Designs, [Page 278] proportionated by such an aequature as has no less or more then the true poise and in­gredients that it ought; the recession from which, causes excesses of both hands,King Iames Basilicon Doron Book 3. p. 181. whence the unwelcome and defaming fates are, which they avoid that model things in and out of the house after the temper of true Harmony, wherein every note has its location and air peculiar to it, and conform to the consent of the whole,Ad legem na­turae reverta­mur, divitiae paratae sunt, aut gratuitum est, quo egemus, aut vile, Panem et aquam natura desiderat, nemo ad haec pauper est, intra quae quisque deside­rium suum clu. sit, cum ipso Iove de felici­tate contendat. Epist. 25. which is sutably ornamental and beaute­ous in Housekeeping to other things, For though small things and tenuous Dyet, after the Prescripts of Nature, will make a man un­miserable; yea, not in felicity beneath Jupi­ter, as Seneca's soar of Eloquence blazons contentedness of mind to amount to; yet do we see that few think themselves hap­py at that rate, and according to that Standard: That, they account it the allow­ance of a miserable Prison, not the Viands of a free and pleasant House, (the Inundati­on of good Treatment,) wherein is the sin and folly of Houskeeping; for that which is the houskeeping of Virtue, is Plenty, Variety, Frequency, without waste, exclu­sion, or rudeness; and this, stinted to hours, and persons, in a decent measure, is so far from lessening, that it augments an Estate: but when it degenerates into dainty food, [Page 279] rich liquors, full drinkings, prodigal doles, illimited entertainments, of persons un­necessary, and in manner extravagant. In these and such courses, which fall under the capacity of their Heads, is the pomp of Houskeeping ruinous, as well to virtue, which seems to be part of the reason of the Act of 2 & 3 Ed. 6. c. 14. as to Estate: So true is that of Seneca, A well-taught belly is a great part of Freedom to him that has it, Magna pars [...] felicitatis est bene moratus venter. Ep. 123. nor can he be miserable by curiosity, who rests not too much upon toyes, Non magnam rem facis quod vi­vere sine Regio apparatu potes, quod non desideras miliarios a­pros, nec linguas Phoenicopte­rorum, & alia portenta luxuriae: Tunc te admirabor si non contem­pseris etiam sordidum panem, Ep. 110. and cannot be well unless he be accomodated with Baths aud Oyntments, and other Fooleries, which are be­neath the expectation or satisfa­ction of Virtue; for mingled and strange-cooked Dyet do but con­found the stomach and destroy health, Simplex erat simplici causa va­letudo, multos morbos multa fer­cula fecerunt. Ep. 95. &c. which is frequenter now then wontedly, because luxury, the waster of Sea and Land, prevails, and virtue, which contents it self with dry bread and cold water, is unfashionable; [...], &c. Lib. 6. de Legib. p. 870. which argues men degenerated from what they were in Plato's age, when none was wont to be extrava­gant in drink, except it was in the Feasts [Page 280] of the God of Wine, which was indulged by the Rites of that Worship, but not o­thewise, because it hindred the offices of Sobriety. By all which I introduce the stabiliment of that Experience, that ir­regular, profuse Housekeeping, together with the costly Furniture, many Servants, and great Charge and Waste of them, is the Decay of Estates and Families.

SECT. XXXIII.
Evidenceth, That the Multitude of ill­chosen Acquaintance, and the Conse­quences of it, are a means to decay Men and Families.

FIfthly, Multitude of Acquaintance, to­gether with the consequence of it,Verae amicitiae rarum bonum usque adeo, ut qui unam lon­ga licet in ae­tate quaesierit negotiator re­rum talium sat industrius habe­atnr. Petrarch. lib. 1. de remed. utr. [...]ort. Dial. 50. is a means to decay Estates and Families now: For Friendship, that rare comfort and sup­port of life, the nearest relation in nature, and the strongest bond of Souls, and ce­ment of Senses, is so rare, that to finde one Phaenix of this sort in an Age, is enough for any man to account himself happy in: Nor are there many that in long and plen­tiful lives attain to it; for though acquain­tance be cheap, and havable, provided men [Page 281] feed those Flies and Wasps with the sweets and delicates of Advantage and Encou­ragement; yet the Company of true Friends are small and diffused: nor is their accidental distance, and the recollection of them to a nearer-hand impartment, fa­cile, or almost possible, which is the rea­son that Wisemen have made it one of the top Projects of their lives to know and be known, not so much to the many, and most, as to the few and best of men their Contemporaryes, whom they have sought after, and relieved their Solitudes from, by Conversation, Letter, or Thought, the Ternary of fruitional Felicities: For, though it be granted that latency of life is incontributive to the reward of gene­rous Virtue; nor must any man, who pro­pounds to be valued as a noted Virtuoso, practise it,Note this. lest he be covered over with the Cloud of his own Contrivance, and honour the ingratitude of men with a sus­picion of his own will to have it, and his own fault that it is so with him: yet is it as true, that by being private and exempt from the too often tyranny of publickness, a man is subject to less extravagancy, and less foyled by the irruption of temptation upon him; I confess it is a glorious Comet and noble blazing Star of Conversation, [Page 282] that some witty and raunting gallants a­maze the world with, and thereby attract their admiration, by the Heraldry of which they are Titularly valuable, amongst those who being Creatures of ayr, and youth, are captiv'd by every such appearance; which they conclude the truest attendant of Generosity, and the reallest Emblem of a Noble man, and Noble mind. Hence come they to extravagate so far beyond their proper degree, that they keep in no punct of proportion with it; they love breeding above their fortunes, marrying beyond their degree, spending without limit; by which more then ordinary shew, they fancy men think more then or­dinary of, and will do more then ordinary for them: the frustration of which, leaves them beyond almost retreat or salve mi­serable; for being they increase this their knowledge, they increase their sorrow in contracting amities, which produce, first charge, then trouble, and at last Ruin, or whats litle better, Suretiships, Gamings, Quarrels, Incontinencies, Expensive En­tertainments, all which are Goodwins sands to estates, and back-doors to Thrift.

Hereby become Parents unnatural, Children disobedient, Servants loose, Wives dis-loyal, Credit los [...], Money scant, [Page 283] and then shifts practised. Which because grave and wise men will avoid,Generosissima res est bonus amicus, non [...]erbi [...] non car­minibus magi­cis movetur non auro aut gem­mis non ad ex­tremum Ferro flectitur, aman­do vincitur col [...]ndoque. Petr. lib. 1, Dial. 59. they chuse [...] them friends who are cordial and cheap to keep, when beloved as they love, admitting others only so far as ci­villy they may, and in such measures as they may harmlesly be either their orna­ment, delight, or only present use; at which distance they being fixed, and nee­rer approaches not encouraged, but ob­viated and impeded, when discovered Pullulating, and throbbing towards Ma­turation; there is great benefit, and no damage by acquaintance: for from them he either learns something beneficial to him to know, or to them he imparts to publish, what he would have known in or of him, which he himself, may not without impudence, impart.

Thus qualified and sorted acquain­tance many and different in way and skill, is very behovefull. Nor is any man pos­sible to be conspicuous (unless he be the sole meriter, and only Regaltade of his Age) but by his ampliation of himself into these several conducts of his compleatness, by the Sympathy of which so loud an Alarm is given to men, that every Quar­ter of worth is beat up to take notice of it, & every mouth over-flowing with the [Page 284] discourse about it; and but for this, the links of association that the worlds fami­liarity is sodred by, seems to me of dan­gerous Import; for no Moths are more in­fective to Clothes, no Worms to Vege­getables, no Traytors to Princes, no Dis­eases to Bodies, then acquaintance too many, are; where they have ends upon, and practise ends towards those they are known to: who (as many active Traders manage great Comerces without any Stock of their own, purely upon the credit they have from one, and another, which their industry ordering and actuating by it, worketh out profit and Riches) do so presse upon their friends,Qui non amico­rum solummodo: matrimonia usurpant sed & sua amicis patientissime sub ministrant, ex illa credo majorum & sapientissim [...] ­rum discipl [...]a Graeci Socrat. & Romani Catonis, qui uxo [...]es suas amicis commu­nicaverunt &c. Tertul. c. 39. Apolog advers. Gent [...]s. by the encou­ragement their friends civility gives, and their own confidence takes, that they work out in the issue great ends; and if they be wise, and worthy to deserve them, are not to be defamed for so innocent self-seeking; for to do another good by counsel, countenance, speaking, assistance, uninjurious, & consistent with a mans own good, is to be like God, who is the perfecti­on of all excellency, but to be lurch'd as Cato was by Hortensius, to whom he lent his Mar­tia; & Socrates, who accomodated his friend with his Wife. I say, Friendship thus costly and sawcy, is intolerable, because it i [...]sen­sual [Page 285] in it self, [...]. Plutarch in Catone. p. 771. and detrimental to the man that permits it, and becomes exitial to the vitals of its being, and exertion. And in this sense Multitude of acquain­tance proving chargeable and afflictive, becomes the decay of Men and Families.

SECT. XXIX.
Instances, That disdain of thrift as Pe­dantry, to be a way and means to the Decay of Men and Families.

SIxthly, disdain of Thrift as Pedantry, is a great advance to Decay and Ruine of Men and Families: for most men are so raised in their ports and minds, that they think nothing Genteel, and praise­worthy, but what is wastefull and un­frugal. Hence comes it to pass, that all invention of the mind, & improving of ex­perience to abate luxurious Expence, is judged Pedantry, and unfit for any per­son that calls himself Gentleman; yea, not only to buy things at the best rate, and dispose them when bought into meet hands for distribution, to avoyd un­reasonable charge, and advance expedi­tion, [Page 286] is censured and exploded; but to be known by any badg of a profession, or any note of a relation, is wholy decli­ned, and in the Ceremonies omission, the real signification of it, lost; we are all so intumour'd and sick with self-conceit, that as we are ashamed almost to own God the giver & contriver of our mercies; so are we altogether regretters of owning the rock from whence we were hewen, and the breasts that gave us suck, & the means of our rise & improvement in the world; I confess, if this were the temper of Kings, & Kings Companions, it were to be less wondred at; (it being usual for, and not uncomely in them, being great, to love little things dear bought and far fetched, the better for their high price, and pretended scarse­ness, as did William Rufus, who Not caring for any thing of a small price, Hos [...]nshed. p. 27. had on a day by the Groom of his Chamber a pair of new Hose brought him to put on, he asked the varlet what they cost; he answered Three shillings four pence: why, thou whoreson, said the King, do a pair of that price become a King to wear; go thy way and fetch me a pair that shall cost a Mark of Silver. The Groom went and fetcht him a pair that cost not full so much as the former; when the King asked what they stood him in, and he [Page 287] answered, a Mark, He was well satisfied, and said, Yea marry these are more fit for a Kivg to wear, and so drew them on his legs.) I say, If great personages used this nicety and state, it were excusable in them) but for pitiful underlings, and vulgar subjects to affect heighth, and state of life, is in­tollerable. For the Priest to disdain his modest hair, and to be Perewigg'd; for the Lawyer to scorn to carry his bag, and the Citizen wear his Apron, and the Pe­sant bear his frock, and the Vallet his Livery: for men to have minds above their professions, is altogether imperti­nent; yet this is the leaven of all men, and the Lethargy of our present Vertue; though the way of wise men be to be at the one end of their affairs, to permit as lit­tle to be done by servants as may be, & as much to do themselves as possibly they can, to pen up all the waies of getting, that the stream of their Estates may rise and increase upon them, was their pra­ctice and project; and in this they did in their generation wisely, and throve ac­cordingly; but since men are so dainty and choice, that every thing of pristine diligence and commendation, is grown cheap and low rated, and forms of pride and garb introduced, Men sink in their [Page 288] Fortunes, retrograde in their Credics, a­bate in their abilities, to provide for their Families, and expend upon charity; and at last leave nothing to remember them, but prodigal and high-bred heirs; that are loath to be accounted their fathers sons, or to own their fathers possession and residence; though but for their fa­thers industry, and thrift in that very place and profession wherein they to good purpose lived, they, their sons and descendants had never been Gallants, nor [...]at so much the bread of Idleness and scorn as they do.

Nor is there any power of words, or ar­guments of reason can defend that charge upon them of sloth, which such humours deserves; Nor is it probable but such persons, instead of bearing the rule of dili­gent ones are with the slothful reduced un­der Tribute, Prov. 12. 24. and that which their Father took in hunting they rost not, Vers. 27. but their supineness raises a hedg [...] of thorns to interpose and stave them off, Prov. 15. 19. Whereas the way of dili­gence to thrift is very obvious; yea, so great are the Incomes of it, that it brings to Riches and Honour: which sloth doth not, for the Preacher terms it, brother to wasting, Prov. 18. 9. Letting the belly star [...] [Page 289] rather then feed the mouth with it, Ch. 19. 24. Killing ones self with desire, Ch. 21. v. 25. Creating discouragements for well-doing, Prov. 16. 13. Casting men into deep pits, Ch. 19. v. 15. A decaying of the buil­ding, and a dropping down of the house, Eccles. 10. 18. Thus this sin branching it self into haughtiness, is opposed by God, who sets his eye against it, 2 Sam. 22. 28. and who brings them to their fall by it, Prov. 16. 18. Indeed as there are great promi­ses to Industry, and Humility, so there are answerable threats to Pride and sloth, The haughty he humbles, Isa. 10. 13. and makes them to moulder away and lan­guish, Ch. 24. They are taken away by judg­ment, Ezek. 16. 50. Yea, God is not only said to blow down the haughty, Isa. 2. 11, 17. but to lay low the arrogancy of the proud, and terrible ones, Isa. 13. 11. By all which men ought to be disswaded from haughty thoughts, and spurr'd on to comply with Gods designs in their night-dress, and un­gaudy Manifestations of themselves. For surely that is the best discovery of a great mind, which propagates vertue by just and comely means conducing to its attain­ment; which since careful inspection over mens worldly affairs, doth, and by keep­ing them in a state of support, wealth, [Page 290] independency, adds to the liberality of their minds, which receive abatements & dislustres by the incumbency of need on them, which tempts them to, and nourishes them in, a servility of compliance w^th those whose benefactions they are relieved by. I say, since men cannot be accommodated with wherewith to do great Actions, and to stand single sighted in their Judgment, without convenient frugality and pru­dent looking to their fortunes however placed, it is contrary to reason and grati­tude not to intend and honour that course of life by which men subsist, and without which, if they would not be miserable, I am sure they could not be happy; and not to think that service, Slavery, which brings in Penny-savoury: For, as it is no ungentile thing to blow the Nose, or vent the Belly, when the excrements in them are burthensome, nor to dress wounds when they are foul and tormenting; nor does any man, how great soever, in a Storm or Siege refuse to tugg at the Oar, or digg in the Trench, or pump, or carry scaling Ladders or Buckets when Houses are on [...]ire, but every ones State is then reduced to common Notions when the danger is common and desperate; so is no man how well born, bred, or fortuned soever, when [Page 291] [...]n the high-noon of them, disparaged in applying himself to, and complying with,Maxima quae­que bona soli­cita sunt, nec ulli fortun [...] minus b [...]ne quam optimae creditur. Se­nec. de B [...]evit. vitae. c. 17. the lowest works of that Calling or Im­ployment, which is his Sanctuary and Sup­ply; for this life being a Scene of Inter­ [...]udes and intermixt Varieties, there can be [...] better harbour against the Storms and Entertaiment of the uneven Pulses and Motions of it, then this Resolution, To bear whatever comes, and to be whatever we [...]ust and ought to be,ubi enim quae­ratur modestus animus si foedent violen­ta Patricios. Theodoric. Rex Ep. 27. apud Cassiod. Var. lib. 1. with silent and tho­ [...]ow-paced Fortitude and humble Gene­ [...]ousness, and to venerate that Calling and [...]ate of life which God affords to officiate [...]o their Despairs, and to dispell their [...]louds of want and Contempt; nor does [...]e deserve such a mercy, who thinks a manly thrift below him, when, without it, [...]e must unavoidably become poor, if not [...]ant and be undone. It is rather becom­ [...]g the greatest Spirit and gratefullest Vir­ [...]ue, to follow the Patriarch Iacob, and To [...]mfess to God devoutly, as did he, I am not [...]orthy of the least of all the mercies, and of [...]ll the truth, that thou hast shewed unto thy [...]rvant; for with my Staff I passed over [...]is Iordan, but now I am become two [...]ands, Exod. 32. 10.

SECT. XXXV.
Shews, That immoderate coming to, and long staying in London and the Sub­urbs, from Greatmens Country Re­sidence, is a ready way to decay Men and Families.

LAstly, Immoderate flocking to, and residing in, London and Westminster▪ and the Precincts thereof, from the several Quarters of the Country and Nation where the Nobility and Gentry reside, and their Seats are, is in my Opinion, but if [...] erre, I crave pardon, a great danger to de­stroy persons of Worth in their Virtue and Fortune, by drawing them from their re­tirements, where they may live thriftil [...] and usefully to the King, Country, and themselves, into the publick, where they are taken off their local Service, and as­saulted by Delicacies and vices of Cos [...] Effeminacy, and Inconsistence with all a­bode of Virtue.

And this judgment the Glorious Martyr King and his Council had in An. when [Page 293] the great flocking to Town first appeared in Request, as I have been informed, and I hope truely; for there issued out a Pro­clamation, That no Person of Country Re­sidence should live out of his own Coun­try where his Estate was, above certain Months in the year; which Proclamation, when it found not that obedience & com­mand with some Gentlemen that it ought, but that notwithstanding they stayed in Town, his Majesty was pleased,I had here in­serted the Pro­ceedings of the Star Chamber, but I could not meet with the Records soon enough. with ad­vice of his Council, of which his Grave, Learned, and Honourable Chancellour, the Lord Coventry, was Chief, to command Informations against some of them, to be exhibited in the Star-Chamber, where they were sentenced and fined.

I confess, there are great Magnetisms in the Court and City to work upon men & wo­mens desires to come near them,Quicquid hu­mani generis floris est, habere curiam decet, & sicut ar [...] decus est urbi­um, ita illa or­namentum est ordinum caete­rorum. Theo­doric. Rex Se­natni Romano. Ep. 13. Var. lib. 1. Cassiod. the influ­ence and cogency of which seems to apo­logize for the casual offence of them: For there is the Kings Court, where the Per­son, Order, State, Officers of the King are pleasurably and with great satisfaction be­held, there are the Flower of the Nation, Lilia mixta rosis, both for beauty, bravery, [...]arriage, and attendance; and who that [...]ath senses to gratifie, and fortune to pre­sent him a meet Spectator, or whats better, [Page 294] Servant thereto, has not enough to do to keep his passions from the pleasures of those Objects of Attraction and Fascinati­on. If the eye be never satisfied with see­ing, nor the eares glutted with sounds, nor the other Senses stupified with things of Delight, but are, by a longing after them unweary of them, no wonder that men consisting of those impulses, and ridden to [...] often by them, are easily drawn to, and kept with,Hic propria est bonitatis prudentiae literarum culturae sedes, omnesque virtutes tu­tum & stabile habent profu­gium. Discurso Politico Al­bergati. Dissertatione de Im­perii Eccles. Cura. p. 303. them: To this, [...] the Centre of Greatness and Pomp, Fashion and Civility Honour and Advancement, d [...] all Persons of Ambition, Lustre or any remarkable Conspicu [...] ity, come,Affuit mandatis regalibus eloquens & decorus ornatur, permulcens etiam inspectus, quos gratissimos reddebat au­ditus, tales enim decet esse anlicos viros, ut naturae bona judicio frontis aperiant, & possunt agnosei de moribus cum videntur; taeens enim plerumque despicabilis est, si eum tantum lingua nobi­bilitat, semper autem in ho­nore manet, si cujus est tran­quillus animus, eum quoque serenissimus commendat as­pectus. Alathane Rex apud Cassiod. lib. 8. Variarum. Ep. 14. in hope to mak [...] their Interest in, and their Ad [...]vance by it: Hither comes th [...] proper man, who is fit to stan [...] before the King, in hopes to [...] taken notice of for a Favourit [...] and the delicate Woman to ad [...]vance her self by an honourabl [...] Match, and the eloquent D [...]vine to get Preferment by [...] Courtly tongue and appos [...] Discourse, and the wealthy [...]squire to be presented to [...] nour, and the witty Younger Brother [...] [Page 295] be accepted into profitable Service, & the Tall Yeoman to be looked upon as fit for one of the Guard; so that it is not strange that the Court thus embellished, thus ca­pacitated, thus apprehended, should ruff the whole Nation of those Persons who are fit to be Courtiers or Courted. And for the City, that, is a Collection and Di­gest of all men and all things, to all ends and accomplishments of life, Learned, Me­chanique, Religious, Civil, in all Faculties, of all Nations, of all Ages, of all Humours, of all Sexes; There are the best Preachers, the best Physicians, the best Lawyers, the best Traders, the best Artsmen in the Na­tion to be had and met with; There are Commodities the best and most general for all purposes to be bought, for Food, Clothing, Medicine, Muniment, Thrift, Recreation, serious and pleasant; There are to be seen and obtained, Rich Wives, Spruce Mistrisses, Pleasant Houses, Good Dyet, Rare Wines, Neat Servants, Fashiona­ble Furniture, Pleasures & Profits the best of all sorts; There are Friends of all kinds, for all seasons and conditions; There is the best Exchange for Money, the best Market for Wares, the best Security for Wealth, the best Imployment for Children, the best Nursery for Wisdom by Conversation in [Page 296] the Nation; Thither drive all Ships of note, and Caravans of Merchandise, which are marketable there when no where else; yea, there, if any where in England, a man of parts may live and thrive if he have di­ligence and frugality, both which he may as profitably expend there as any where;Ubi enim dig­nius cloquens quam in Civi­tate proficiat literarum, ut ibi declaret meritum, ubi nutrivit inge­nium? aptum est omne bonum locis suis, & laudabilia quaeque sordes­cunt nisi con­grua sede poti­antur. Theodor. Rex Senatui Rom. apud Cassiod. Var. lib. 5. c. 22. yea, I perswade my self, take one time and thing with another, as we vulgarly say, a Family may live as handsomely and cheap in London, as in any part of England; for though Rents are dear, and Rates upon Commodities and Estates higher, then in any other part, yet is it ballanced by little Hospitality, Fewness of Servants, Variety of food of all natures haveable with mo­ney in an instant, and that in what pro­portion Houskeepers please, and their Houses can spend: Here is the way of breeding Children, buying Necessaries, im­proving Money, following Sutes of Law, Remedies for Sickness and Infirmity to be had, and at a cheaper rate then in any o­ther part: Hitherto London and the Sub­urbs of it is to Foreiners and Great Persons of other Residences, no harm, but good, in their residing in it. But the great de­triment that the excessive repair to and abode in London and the Suburbs from all parts of the Nation, consists in this, That [Page 297] thereby they put themselves upon folly of Fashions, multitude of Acquaintance, pra­ctice of Vice, defence of Atheism, contempt of Regularity, admiration of Forein Tra­vel and Aeryness, cunning conduct of Fraud, bold ventings of Fury; which, with other the like mischiefs, leure off the mind from Modesty and religious Sobrie­ty, and burthen the fortune with unneces­sary and insupportable Charges, which Seneca charged to be the unhappiness of Rome, Expulso meli­oris aequioris (que) respectu, quo­cunque visum est libido se impingit, nec furtiva jam scelera sunt, praeter oculoscunt, adeoque in publicum missa nequiti [...] est & in omni­um pectoribus evaluit, ut innocentia non rara, sed null [...] sit. Seneca lib. 2. de ir [...]. c. 8. which aggravated Vice as it in­creased in People, For Now, saith he, Vice is not modest, the occupier of a Corner, but the usurper of Publickness; so that there, Innocence is not onely rare, but not at all to be found, so daring is wickedness grown, that it out-confidenceth Virtue: thus Seneca. Which being too true of London and the Suburbs, in regard of so many frequenting it, these ill-consequences follow there­upon, Desertion of mens Native Seats, Ces­sation of Hospitality, loss of Interest in their Countreys love, Disservice to the King, in not keeping his peace, suppressing disorder, propagating love between man and man, and giving opportunity to a dangerous ambidextral Justice, who looks one way while he rows another way, and is resident to dispatch the Countreys business to their [Page 298] ease and security, to root himself more in their love, and to do more with them by his Influence, then forty greater men then He, whom the Country know absent, and have no love, by reason of it, for, shall by all their power and rufflling, do with them: For it is with People in Countreys, as with Armies in Fields, be the Commander in Chief never so famous and great, yet if he be seldom with them, the Chief Field-Officer that is ever, day and night, in wet and dry, cold and heat, danger and safety, with them, shall have most power with and most love from them: Besides this con­stant absence of Lords and other Gentle­men from their Country Residencies, op­portunizes the nourishment of such greedy Cormorants and such proud Persons their Servants, who manage all their Estates for them, that they are more stately towards and more pressing upon them, then their Masters either would be, or would need to be, if their Masters and Lords were in place, to observe or to be addressed to: but they not being, and their expences increasing by here-living abstracted from all frugality, and separate from those ac­commodations of extenuating expence, which at home they have, they are neces­sitated to become Projectors of pressures [Page 299] and wild wayes to maintain their Luxury, which Tully terms a high piece of Injury,Delectant enim magnifici ap­paratus, vitae (que) cultus cum e­legantia, & copia quibus rebus effectum est, ut infinita pacunia cupi­ditas esset, nec vero rei Fami­liaris amplifi­catio, nemin [...] nocens, vitupe [...] randa, sed fu [...] gienda semper injuria est. Cic lib. 1. de Offic [...] and to press and rack their Tenants to provide and return their Rents at all dis­advantages; their good Ministers are dis­couraged (by their being not at Church) to fit themselves worthy their Calling, preaching onely to bare Walls, and giving them onely rude Meditations; Country Traders, who live and bear charge in wel­governed Corporations, are deprived of serving their Persons, Houses, Servants, and Offices with Merchandises and Com­modities of all sorts, which usually they were wont to do, and were well-paid and in good Summs, which stored them for their Journey to London: High-wayes grow out of measure decayed, and not re­paired, which they would be, if men in Commission of Lie [...]tenancy and of the Peace, concerned in Counties, travelled them from place to place upon business and visits, as they were wont, and would do, if they lived with their Families in the Country; matching of their Sons and Daughters into other parts, and unto men and women of other Counties, happens whereby Neighbours cemented together by Marriages, grew into intire Masses of love, and thereby prevented the feuds and [Page 300] ruptures that in the contiguity of great men and great estates, (not sweetned and softned by a pliableness each to other,) is probable, and often falls out.

These, and sundry the like evils occa­sioned by the irregular and boundless addresse to, and residence in these neigh­bourhoods to the Court and City, seem to me to bode ill to after-times, and not to look well upon present Men and Fami­lies; but to blow up all thrift, whereby Estates are kept free for the elder Son, and Portions raised for the Younger chil­dren; and to tempt Prodigals to extra­vagancy, upon the deluding hopes of a sudden and plentiful reimbursment. I know there are great arguments given to the contrary of this, by some who because the Skie has let fall a Lark into the lap of some one Lady, or into the Arms of some one Gentleman, now and then, believe that all the Larks that are in it will fall; and that their Sons and Daughters shall have the advantage of rich City-matches, which in their Country retirements they meet not with; nor would, without the Quaint­ness of the Town-breeding, Civility and Courtship, be probable to conquer and attain to. Therefore they say, they re­move their residencies to give their Chil­dren, [Page 301] the furtherances God and Na­ture has imparted them, their due The­atre: I confess I am for this; and I believe there is something in it.Dote auctus sum opima & opima Ty­ranide super­biae conjugalis duo stimuli, Dos & Forma Dos undo ingre­ditur inde liber ta [...]egreditur. Petrar. lib. 1. de remid. utr. Fort. Dialog. 68. But I erre in my observation (as I easily may, and am sorry for it, if I do; which upon this submission, and preface, the Generous will excuse and pardon me:) that to one Gallant that has gotten a Fortune by living high and ranting out of his Country in the Town, ten have ruined themselves by such Matches, as they have held great Fortunes, brave Beauties, &c. For the Dames here being (for the most part so so soft and delicate, that they pro­fess no houswifery beyond that of dres­sing fine, turning day into night, and night into day, launching out deep into ga­ming, expressing bounty to gallants, fre­quenting daily Plays, and Enterludes, vying bravery in Clothes, Furniture, Je­wels, Attendants; while the Country and City Ladies, of Country disposition, study to serve God, oblige their Husbands,True Wives. breed their Children, inspect their Houses, discipline their Servants, and acquaint themselves with their Husbands affairs; like Women of Renown, and Wives of Vertue, desire to encrease their Husbands Fortunes, and come up to Town only to [Page 302] see and furnish themselves with necessa­ries, and to breath out their plurifie of Money, and then return to their thrift a­gain; which when they set their minds upon (and, as good Women ought to be) are encouraged by their Husbands who can never too much deserve, or too well repay, their loyal kindness, and Religious prudence herein) they exceedingly pre­vent not only the troublesome and sinful operation of thoughts, which are, if not wholly non-ented, yet at last in a degree lessned by business, and domestique im­ployments; but also proceed to notably advance their fortune; whence the acci­dents of life, uninjuriously to the Estate, are best born off,Antiqua sapi­entia nil aliud quam facienda & vitanda praecepit, & tunc longe me­liores erant viri; post quam docti prodie­runt, boni de­sunt, simplex enim illa & aperta virtus, in obscuram & solertem scien­tiam versa est, docemurque disputare non vivere. Senec. Ep 95. & the younger Fry pro­vided for without the elder Sons diminu­tion, or clogging. So true is that of that sense worthy Wives have of their duties; which Seneca saies of ancient wisdom, Which consisteth not in large precepts, but wise actions; but when it wandred into much learning, it ceased to be sincere, and became ceremonious; and perswaded the pretenders to it, rather to seem to be what they ought, then really to be what they seemed or ought. And whether this be not in this case true, let the wise judge, who know nothing is held more a detraction from [Page 303] Women, then to be plain-hearted, thrifty-minded, houswifely-addicted, modestly limited, and constantly affectionate to their Choice; which yet are Vertues so valuable by wise men, that one grain of them weighs down in true Intrinsique worth,Note this. all the Pounds, Millions, Myriads, Abysses of their other more requested and finer sorted Meritings; such as are Pain­tings of the faces, Nimbleness of Tongue, Craft of design, Frequent correspondence, Antique Garbs, Prodigal Curiosities, Rude Huffings, Unnatural braves of their Hus­bands; which are such displayes of Gen­teelness and high Spirit, as I pray God nei­ther I, nor any of mine, nor any vertuous Man in this Nation, may be unhappy by.Non faciem le­nociniis ac co­loribus polluist [...] nunquam tibi placuit vestis quae nihil am­plius quam nu­dam com [...]o­neret, unicum tibi ornamen­tum pulcherri­ma & nulla ob­noxia aetati forma, maxi­mum decus visa est Pudici­tia. Senec. Con­sol. ad H. loia [...]. c. 16. Thats the best Ornament of a Woman, which Solomon gives her, Prov. 31. and which Seneca commends Helvia for, in those words, Thou hast not Enamell'd thy face with Snares, nor fucuss'd thy Age with Youth of Vermilion; thy Vestures have covered thy nakedness, not commended thee to Enamourment; one Ornanent thou hast which no Age can deform; no accident dis­lustre, Modesty; that's thy Iewel, which ren­dreth thee Acceptable and Honourable. Thus he. This I the rather insist upon, because I see the sober Vertue of Still women is [Page 304] unrequested, and almost all the applica­tions are made to the Quainter sort of them; who, because they have the report of great Fortunes, and live as if they would be thought better portioned then they are; are oftner the Engrossers of Young Gentlemens times and applicati­ons, then they deserve to be, or then they in the event find them worthy to be, or are gainers by their so being; For what what with the cost of Courtship, before they are prevailed with, the great Joyn­tures, and expence of life when they are had; the many expectations that must be satisfied, both in themselves and to their Relations and Children, they prove grea­ter banes then helps to their Husbands Estates; when as to marry a serious Wo­man, neer ones Estate, and with a reaso­nable portion, and of a Genteel and thrifty Family, is to obtain a convenience which will deserve every way, if a Hus­band have Wit to chuse, Grace to ac­knowledge, and Wisdom to manage it a­right;Consider this. which because too few have, the ambition of Women is so little to excell this way. For with the most of our now-a-day Husbands, who have too few generous qualities in them, but must live high, and cannot deny themselves exuberancies, and [Page 305] impertinent superfluities; not what she is, but what she has is most esteemed; which makes Parents not breed their Daughters, and Women not so much ad­dict themselves to steddy and serious ver­tue, as to this levity and gayity of humour which is such a credential to their recep­tion with modish men, that nothing seems more: but God knows it is neither ver­tuous, wise, nor durable; nor will it make those that delight in it, or chuse for it, happy in condition, or rich in purse: For since that of the Philosopher is most true, [...], &c. Arist. lib. 7. Repub. That the life of Men and Cities is then best, when most vertuous; and no further prais­worthy, then it is vertuous. And this way of the Town jollity & profuseness, (I know so contrary to it, and to the humour of good Husbands & good Wives, and to the prosperity of the descendants from them,) I will pray for better endowments in the Choyces and Marriages of either Sex; and humbly commend to the Nobles and Gen­try of England the choice of good Wives, after King Solomons precept, Prov. 31. and not hope to finde a restoration of pri­stine sobriety, frugality, hospitality, and true friendship, together with an Elimi­nation of all deboyshery and rudeness, contrary to them, till the Generous spi­rits, [Page 306] and great men of the Nation, by the circulation of what is eminent in them thorough the whole body of the people, according to the respective abodes and influences of them, be restrained to their staies at home, and not permitted to be all, and almost altogether here; for this, as it causes an over-growing of these parts, by too much succulency, so will it atro­phize other parts; & what the issue of such inordinateness and inequality in the body Politique will be, is conjecturable from the effects of monstrosity and decay that thereby follows, and therefrom threatens. Which wise King Iames of blessed memo­ry, a Prince, in whose daies Peace, Riches, and Religion, as much flourished as in any times before him, considering in his no­table Speech in the Star-Chamber, Anno 1616.P. 567. Of His Works in Folio. thus declares himself:

Another thing to be cared for, is, the new Buildings here about the City of London; concerning which my Proclamations have gone forth; and by the chief Iustice here, and his Predecessor Popham, it hath been resolved to have been a general nusans to the whole Kingdom: And this is that, which is like the Spleen in the Body, which in measure as it overgrows, the body wasts. For is it possible but the Countrey must diminish, if [Page 307] London do so increase, and all sorts of peo­ple do come to London? and where doth this increase appear; not in the heart of the City, but in the Suburbs, not giving wealth or profit to the City, but bringing misery and surcharge both to City and Court; causing dearth and scarsity through the great provision of victuals and fewel, that must be for such a multitude of people: And these buildings serve likewise to harbour the worst sort of people, as Alehouses and Cottages do. I remember, that before Christmas was Twelvemoneth I made a Proclamation for this cause, That all Gen­tlemen of quality should depart to their own countries and houses, to maintain Hospitality amongst their Neighbours, which was equi­vocally taken by some, as that it was meant only for that Christmas: But my will and meaning was, and here I do declare that my meaning was, that it should alwaies continue.

One of the greatest causes of all Gentle­mens desire, that have no calling or errand, to dwel in London, is apparently the pride of the Women: For if they be Wives, then their Husbands & if they be Maids, then their Fathers must bring them up to London; be­cause the new fashion is to be had no where but in London: and heer if they be unmar­ried they marr their marriages; and if they be married they lose their reputations, and [Page 308] rob their Husbands purses. It is the fashion of Italy, especially of Naples,) which is one of the richest parts of it) that all the Gentry dwell in the principal Towns, and so the whole countrey is empty: Even so now in Eng­land, all the countrey is gotten into London; so as with time, England will only be Lon­don, and the whole countrey be left waste: For as we now do imitate the French fashi­on, in fashion of Clothes, and Lackeys to follow every man; so have we got up the Ita­lian fashion, in living miserably in our hou­ses, and dwelling all in the City: but let us in Gods name leave these idle forein toyes, and keep the old fashion of England: For it was wont to be the honour and reputation of the English Nobility and Gentry, to live in the countrey, and keep hospitality; for which we were famous above all the countries in the world; which we may the better do, having a soile abundantly fertile to live in.

And now out of my own mouth I declare unto you, (which being in this place, is equal to a Proclamation, which I intend likewise shortly hereafter to have publiquely proclai­med,) that the Courtiers, Citizens and Law­yers, and those that belong unto them, and others as have Pleas in Term time, are only necessary persons to remain about this City; others must get them into the countrey: For [Page 309] besides the having of the countrey desolate, when the Gentry dwell thus in London, di­vers other mischiefes arise upon it: First, if insurrections should fall out (as was lately seen by the Levellers gathering together) what order can be taken with it, when the coun­trey is unfurnished of Gentlemen to take or­der with it? Next, the poor want relief for fault of the Gentlemens hospitality at home. Thirdly, my service is neglected, and the good government of the countrey for lack of the principal Gentlemens presence, that should perform it. And lastly, the Gentlemen los [...] their own thrift, for lack of their own pre­sence, in seeing to their own business at home. Therefore,Proclamation Anno 16 27. 3 Caroli, dated Nov. 28. 1627. entituled, A Proclama­tion comman­ding the repair of Noblemen, Knights and Gentlemen of quality unto their Mansion houses in the Countrey, there to attend their services, and keep hospitality. as every fish lives in his own place, some in the fresh, some in the salt, some in the mud: so let every one live in his own place, some at Court, some in the City, some in the Countrey; especially at Festival times, as Christmas and Easter, and the rest. Thus the learned King Iames. And thus his patrizating Son incomparable K. Charles: The Kings most Excellent Majesty taking in­to his Royall consideration the present state of the times, together with the great decay of Hospitality, and good Hous-keeping, which in former ages was the honour of this Nation; the too frequent resort, and ordinary resi­dence of Lords Spiritual and Temporall, [Page 310] Knights, and Gentlemen of quality, unto Cities and Towns, especially in or neer our Cities of London and Westminster; and the many inconveniences which ensue by the ab­sence of so many persons of quality and au­thority from their Countries; whereby those parts a [...]e left destitute both of relief and go­vernment, and the Cities and Towns, especi­ally those of London and Westminster, are overburthened with Inhabitants and Resi­ants, hath thought fit to renew the course formerly begun by his dear Father ef blessed memory, and therefore commands them to their homes under penalty of his displeasure. This the wise in heart, I hope, will consi­der; and the wel-affected Englishman, whose heart is towards those that are faithful in the Land, and who would have England a praise in the Earth, will not judge me herein to speak as a vain per­son, but as one whose design it hitherto has, and ever I pray may be, To Fear God, Honour the King, Pray for the Church, praise Vertue, and discredit vice. Which because it too much now abounds, not­withstanding the mercy of God never to be forgotten, calls for better fruits; and the Kings Majesties gracious Prnclama­tion against deboyshery, then which a more Princely testimony of Wisdom, Reli­gion [Page 311] & zeal to Reformation cannot readily be published. So much a follower is he of his wise King Grandfathers maxime, Speech Star­chamber, Anno 1616. p 569. Take this for a rule of policy, That what vice most abounds in a Commonwealth, that must be more severely punished, For that is true Go­vernment. I say, because in opposition to all these all kinds of vanity, prophane­ness, and impiety abounds, to the scandal of the good, and the animation and tri­umph of evil men both at home and a­broad, I think it my duty, as to animad­vert the meanes and vices that raise and decay families in England at this particu­lar time; which in the precedent dis­course I have endeavoured, and thus far finished; so to address to the Nobility and Gentry of England, some Christian, cordial, and humble counsel, which though it comes not from an Apostle that may command, or a Prince that may conjure them to the audience of it, yet comes from the kind and generous heart of a Gentle­man, whose person, as it is not alto­gether unknown, so his duty and de­votion to Antiquity of Families (wherein he hopes he may without vanity say, he is natively interessed) and the preserva­tion of them, may undeniably thereby ap­pear: yea, I must profess, that as my ex­perience [Page 312] has been my best Master in what I have writ; so I have some jealousie and cause to fear, that the vertues not being, but the contrary in some of mine and o­ther mens Ancestors, has caused that de­cay in our Families, that now is in them. So true is that of our learned Cambden, As vertue and wealth laied the foundation of generous Families in the North,Britannia p. 748. and else­where; and provident mòderation with sim­plicity, standing contented with their own estate,H [...]c est una via mihi cre­dite & laudis et dignitatis & honoris, à bonis viris sa­pientibus, & bene natura constituti [...] lau­dari & dilegi. Cicero orat. pro Sextio. both preserved and increased them; so in the South parts of England, riotous ex­pence and superfluity, usurious contracts, voluptuous and vicious life, together with indirect courses, and crafty dealings, have in short time overthrown most flourishing Hou­ses. Thus Cambden.Mihi omnis oratio est cum virtute, non cum desidia; cum dignitate non cum vo­luptate, cum iis qui se pa [...] iae, qui suu ci [...]i­bus qui laudi, qui gloriae, nen qui somno & co [...]vivii [...] & delectati [...]ni natos arbltran­tur. Idem paulo post. And therefore in the Oratours words to the Nobles of Rome, I would beseech and incite them to imi­tate their vertuous Ancestors, who arri­ved at Glory and Fame, not by Vice and Irreligion, but by the only way of praise and renown; by being and honouring vertuous men.

For as the Orator said, All my reason and Interest shall be pawned for Vertue, not sloth; for those who benefit their Ages with good examples, & after Ages with good testi­monies of their love; these shall be the No­bles [Page 313] Imagnifie and treat of; For they only are truely Great that account themselves not born to be their own Admirers, but to forward others in those virtues which are not onely ample Displayes of Gods mercy, but also Eternizers of Gods Wor­thies in the Fame of their Renown and Beneficence.

SECT. XXXII.
Wherein is contained, The Authors hum­ble Address to the Nobility and Gen­try of England, in certain Particu­lars of Consequence to their Honour as Great Men, aud their Happiness as Good Christians: The First where­of is, Piety and Religion.

HAving thus, by the assistance of God, cursorily discoursed of the probable Means of the Rise and Fall of Men and Families, though not in the Labyrinth of History, or to that rate which the extent of the Argument would require, and the bulk of its import bear; yet so, as in some small Degree may either satisfie the inge­nious [Page 314] and generous Reader, or provoke some more exact Pen further to amplifie: My Conclusion shall be applicatory to the Nobility and Gentry of England, in the hum­ble, pious, and affectionate Presentation of some (not I hope to be rejected) Re­membrances to Them, whereunto I will preface that of Socrates in Plato, as my Disclaimer of all self-conceit, and my Com­purgator from suspicion of Vanity, [...]. Plato in A­polog. p. 17 (I am conscious to my self that neither in great nor in small things, I am wise:) But if God make my good intent acceptable to him­self, and to those ends of Honour, Virtue, and Good-will to the Great and Gallant Men of England, for whom I intend it, It is enough, Recte factorum verus fructus est, fecisse;

That then which I do humbly first commend to the Great Persons, Nobles, and Gentlemen of England, is, The per­swasion that Religion and Piety is the truest Point of Honour, and noblest Qua­lity they can adorn themselves with, and render themselves conspicuous by: And that because it is the Copy of Gods Ori­ginal, a Draught from Perfection it self, [Page 315] God, as I may so say, [...]. Nazianz. Orat. 11. p. 179. in the likeness of man. Now, as true Nobility is likeness to the King in such Proportions as he is pleased to dispense Honour, which is fontally and prerogatively his; so is Piety and Religi­on such a partaking of God, and such an effigiation of all his gracious Proportions on the Table of the Heart, & thence on the figure of the Life, as Mortality is capable to take of Immortality, and Imperfection of Perfection: And though it serves to the excellent purposes of this World in ci­vilizing and associating men and Govern­ments into a comeliness and use of or­der and correspondence, which without this knot and bond would be unaccom­plishable and indurable; yet are there higher and nobler ends of it, which con­cern the better part and state of man, to which this bodily and worldly is but du­cent and preparatory: And by reason of this, Piety becomes not onely a Pearl of great Price, to purchase which the Hea­venly Merchant, that regulates his affairs by Gods advice, sells all he has, and is a gainer by the bargain to, if he can obtain it, but a Grace of great activity and con­tribution to Gods Glory; nothing man is capable of, being more holily prodigal, and unwearyedly advantageous to Gods [Page 316] Prevalence, then is Piety: For, as it is in­vited to by great and precious Promises, Such as are, Gods gift of a new heart, Ezech 11. 19. Is. 51. 5. 19. Ps. 25. 14. Matth. 25. 34. and of his comforting with his free Spirit, of knowing his Secrets, of having his Direction and Defence, of seeing his face with joy, of enjoying his Glory: All which are those Magnalia Dei, transcending our conception as far as they do weigh down and over­poise the merit of our work, there being no congruity between this work of ours, and that wages of his; so ought it to be diligent in pressing us towards, and carry­ing us to great undertakings of zeal, self­denyal, humility, gratitude, courage, and constancy for God; For, shall the Fame of Men, and the love of Justice, work a Pagan Tamberlain to conflict with Hun­dreds of Thousands Men, and as many Dangers, and keep him in the heigth of Victories so sober and satisfied, that he can, being Lord of Constantinople, Turkish Histo­ry. p. 222. and the riches and splendour of it, not onely re­strain himself from Sacking, but from see­ing it, accounting it an inconsiderable Pre­sent to tempt him to be faithless: Shall a Heathen have that great and divine mind to commiserate the oppressed, and humble the oppressing Bajazet, and that done, to have his end? Shall these Fruits come [Page 317] from Trees in the Worlds Wilderness, and Gods Paradise not yield the like, neither so fair to the eye, nor so ple [...]sant to the taste? God forbid, [...] Arri [...] ­anus Epict. lib. 1. c. 9. since the Moralist tells us, that To be holy is to be of Gods cognation, [...]well-beloved Cousin and Counsellor of his Secrets: For, wherever true and unfeign­ed Piety is, it discovers it self in all the fruits of Righteousness and Holyness, in adoration of Gods Goodness, in admirati­on of his Power, in resignation to his Pleasure, in assimilation to his Perfection, in acceptation of his Denyals, as well as in expectation of his Reward;True Piety fruitfull. which gra­dations advance it beyond moral Virtue, that has often no Goade but vain Glory, no Centre save that of Fame, which is but a few steps from this World, with which often it leaves men, or it rests Leidger for them a few years or ages, when the glory of Piety thus tapering up to God, shall from his blessing flow into eternity, and be had in everlasting Remembrance, as that which is true Nobility, and makes the Haver more excellent then his Neighbour in nature, that is impious. And therefore as the wise King Solomon places this Fear of God, Piety, in the front of all noble accomplishments,Prov. 1. 7. calling it, The beginning of Wisdom; and commends it to Youth, as [Page 318] the best Preliminary to after-document and improvement, Remember now thy Cre­ator now in the dayes of thy youth; so doth he bring up the rear, and conclude the Honour of Life and Action, with Fearing God and keeping his Commandements, which is the whole duty of man. Eccles.

And therefore, though great Spirits, and young Years, are loth to stoop to De­votion, Religion being (as the Chrysostome-Father of our Church,Famous Bishop Hall. Decad. 1. p. 254. Epist. to Mr. Newton. now with God, once wrote it) grown too severe a Mistress for youth and high courages to attend, and very rare is that Nobility of bloud, that doth not challenge liberty, that ends not in looseness; yet is Religion and Piety the best Rivet to fasten Greatness, and the best Luminary to display it: Whereupon, though the full Figure of Piety be wishable to be drawn on Nobles and Gentlemen, by whose in­fluences on its behalf it may prevail, and proselyte Men and Nations; yet even the Vmbra and beginnings of it in any degree, are hopefull and encourageable in them: for, such are the Diversions and Tempta­tions that Greatness is objected to, and so directly doth it lye in the pelt of the Sur­ges, and in the teeth and tendence of the blasts of carnal and sensual Reason, and of the Pleasures and Accommodations of [Page 319] Sense, that it is hard to find any man, espe­cially any Great-men, strictly good, pre­cisely just, exactly modest, solidly humble, and wisely provident; and rare is that Family of which it may be said,Aluit nutri­ments, auxit Patrimoniis, ornavit mori­bus, & quod edidit Fami­liae Iuvenes, tot reddidit Curiae Consu­lares. C [...]ssiod. Var. lib. 3. Ep. 6. as Theodo­rie wrote of the Decian Family, that It sent forth not more Sparks well bred, well couraged, and well fortuned, then men fitted for Senators, Grave, Learned, Religious: I say, such being the Snares of Greatness, though Religion and Piety in sincerity and truth be mainly to be driven home upon them; yet the obstacles thereunto being so many and so urgent, even the superficiary parts of it, are welcome to God and the World, as Earnests of more real subsequent Fruits, and as anticipations of Scandal; That they keep religious Ex­ercises in their Families,Note this in order to pra­ctice. That they observe the Rest and Rites of the Lords Day, That they forbid and forbear open Immo­ralities, That they be true to their Mar­riages, Royal in their Words and Honours, Merciful to their Servants Souls, by re­leasing them from subserviency to evil, That they concern themselves in the vir­tuous Education of their Children, That they be Countenancers of men and things excellent, of good report, and prais [...] ­worthy: These, I say, are rare advances [Page 320] in them towards the highest expectable from them: And be they themselves never so blamable, yet when they are neither exemplary to, nor subsidiary of, others in Vice, but command and countenance the contrary, they are to be praised for what they thus nobly do, and prayed for, that they may further be perfected. O, but when Noblemen and Gentlemen are pre­cisely serious, spiritual Worshippers of God, when they are burning and shining lights, when they are not only Permitters, but Approvers, and Doers, of things that are Christian and according to Godliness, when Piety presents the World with such effiuctions of Greatness, as that the best men of place and estate, are the best props of Piety,Viri divi [...]ia­rum in civi­tate sunt domi­ni virtutum. Sanct. [...]ernard Serm. 12. in Cant. Cantic. and the stoutest Pillars of Virtue, and when Grace so itches at their fingers ends of action, that they dare undervalue themselves to cogg men to be fearers of God, and to accept of their invitation on his Errand; when they will entice the World by the Charms and Oratory of their Condescension, to pedagogize them, as David the King presidents them, Come my little Children, hearken to me, and I will teach you the Fear of the Lord; when this they will and can do, and not think them­selves undone in their Reputation, but if [Page 321] this be to be vile,Primus prospe­ritatis gradus est suis non esse damnosum, ut pro quorum compendio la­bo amus eorum non videamur asslixisse For­tunas. Theodor. Rex apud Cas­siod. Var. lib. 5. Ep. 10. resolve to be more vile, that God may be exalted, and his Graces Prepotency preside worldly Pomp and carnal Pride; when Men of Place, Parts, Honours, Respect, Popularity, have these Pietatis fragrantia pectora, these sweet breaths, savoury languages, couragious resolves, carrying to do actions not so much humane and Christian, as Angelique; (Singula opera, singula sunt aromata, as St. Bernard said of Saint Paul:) How great Contributors are they to Nations Bles­sings? How unenvyed are they in their Honours? Good men pray for them, and praise Gods goodness in them; Evil men are afraid of, and ashamed to reproach them,1 Pet. 4. 14. on whom so much of the Spirit of Glory rests, and from whom the rayes of that residence is so diffusive: Those that are above them cannot but be convinced, that they are the Legion of Angels whose invincibleness is out of question; for the same power of God that first put them in, will still keep them in, the work of faith to the upshot of Salvation; And they that are beneath them, seeing their good works, dare not but acknowledge, that God is in them of a truth, and glorifie God for their Piety and President: So munificent does God make his Rewards to be to Good [Page 322] Great men. That as Servius the good Ro­man King is storied to receive his govern­ment besides his expectation, and retain it beyond his will; [...]. Plu­tarchus in Parallellis, p. 323, edit. Paris: so does God make Fame the Vassal unto these to a degree of servi­lity inexpressible, God working them and their deeds into the Pyramid of Time, so Master-like, that it shall not crumble into any particle, but there shall the record of it be visible;ps 12. 2. [...] &c. Philo lib de nobilit: p: 909 His posterity shall be blessed and mighty upon Earth, is the promise to the just man; yea, where there is not this spirit in Greatness, to advance vertue, and serve the ends of mans creation and ele­vation. Philo makes some mens arroga­tion of blood and place over other men, to be an hostility to mankind, and a Monopoli­zing of that which is common to humane nature, and is impropriable by none but such as are Gods to men, and Goods to So­cieties.

The consideration of which has made our Holy Mother the Church of England to mind Nobility and Greatness, what its duty and demeanour ought to be, and to pray that God would give suitable grace to those hearts, whose bodies are graced with dignity and procedency. So for the King we are directed to pray, So rule the heart of thy chosen servant Charles [Page 323] our King and Governour, that He knowing whose Minister he is, First an second Collect in the Communion office. may above all things seek thy honour and glory. And in another place, We humbly beseech thee to dispose and govern the heart of Charles our King and Governour, that in all his thoughts, words, and works, he may ever seek thine honour and glory. And in the Letany, That it may please thee, to endue the Lords of the Coun­cel, and all the Nobilitie, with grace, wisdom, and understanding. Which last words, Grace as Christians, Wisdom as Nobles, Understanding as Men, directs us to the right knowledge, that Wisdom and Un­derstanding of action follows Grace and Piety of design, God giving ordinarily Wisdom and Understanding to perfect, where he gives Grace to begin with him, who is both the best giver, and the best gift.

And also our Kings themselves, from the consideration of vertues Nobilitating Nobles, have bequeathed this actuation of Greatness to their Successors and Poste­rities.

So Edward the fourth of this Land upon his death-bed, spake to the Lords,Holinshed. p. 709. I desire you, and in Gods Name adjure you, rather to study to make my children rich in godly knowledge, and vertuous qualities, then to [Page 324] take pains to glorifie them with abundance of worldly Treasure, and mundane super­fluity.

So King Iames of learned and happy me­mory, Remember this, that this glistering worldly glory of Kings, is given them by God, to teach them to presse to glister and shine before their people in all works of San­ctification and Righteousness:Advice to Prince Henry. Basilicon Do­ron, Book 1. p. 149. That their persons as bright lamps of Godliness and Ver­tue may, going in and out before their peo­ple, give light to all their steps. Remember also, that by the right knowledgs, and fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom (as Solomon saith) ye shall know all things ne­cessary for discharge of your duty, both as a Christian, and as a King, seeing in him as in a mirrour, the course of all earthly things; wherof he is the spring and only mover. Thus King Iames.

And the pious Martyr King, writing to our now happy and beloved Soveraign, words his piety thus: With God I would have you begin, and end, Eico [...] Basilic. c. 27. who is King of Kings, the Soveraign and disposer of the king­doms of the world; who pulleth down one, and setteth up another. The true glory of Princes consists in advancing Gods glory in the maintainance of true Religion, and the Churches good: Prety will make you prospe­rous, [Page 325] at least not make you miserable; nor is he made a looser that looseth all, yet saves his own soul.

These, and such like instances, confirming that Piety is no abatement to, but an e­stablisher of,Retinetur a [...] ­tem & ad opi­nionem vulgi & ad magnas uti­litates Reipubl. Mos. Religio, disciplina, Ius, Augurum collegii au [...]bo­ritas Cicero lib 2. de Divi nat. and a matchless Jewel in the Coronet of Nobility, Look to it, O ye Nobles and Gentry of England, whom God has set in the Orb of Grandeur; whose births are honored with solemnities, whose Infancies are attended with care, whose riper years are accomodated with plenty; to whose Persons men do homage, on whose Fortunes and Favours men depend, by whose words men are commanded, and to whose Vices men are too apt to lacquy: O ye whose faces ought to shine with wisdom,Forma corp [...]ris fusta sed ingenio mori­busque distor­tissimus. be not incommoded with Commodus his Character; disparage not your goodly persons by godless minds, and graceless deeds, answer Gods requiries; doe justice, Mich 6. 8. have mercy, w [...]lk humbly with your God; ye whom God hath made Ieshurons for fatness, do not spurn with the heel; ye whom uncontrouled Power hath made vessels of honour, be not, by en­mity against, and ignorance of him, vessels of wrath; O ye whom he hath made Peers, and Angels in the Parliament of England, ministring Spirits for the good of Gods [Page 326] Elect in all the Nations;Amos 6. 3. Pro. 14. 9. be not your own tormenters, by putting the evil day far from you, by making a mock of sin by not knowing the things that belong to your peace in this your day, which spends a­pace, and to which wasted there is no re­call possible. Consult, O consult your own eternity; so use Greatness here, that like the Sunne it may rise to the world a­bove, when it sets in this Sublunary Ho­rizon. So look after things Temporal, as that you lose not things eternal. By the pri­viledge of Peerage well used here on earth, to be a Compeer with the King of Saints, with Angels and Spiirts of just men made perfect. (The three Estates of the Supernal Parliament) is to make a true and right improvement of a glorious condi­tion, and a gracious life; for he lives to the truest and most undoubted sublimity of a Noble mortal, who fits himself best for, & assures himself undoubtedlest of, Im­mortal notability: For in that all creatures colland God for their being, [...]. Epict [...]t. how mean soever; much more, saith Epictetus, should man, who is created to that end, and whose endowments with reason is to offer God the praise that is due to him, and an honour of him.

And that those Nobles and Gentlemen [Page 327] onely and seriously do,Note this. who honour the Lord with their substance, his Worship with their presence, his Day with their devotion, his Law with their obedience, his Priests with their respect, his Patri­mony with their power, his Sacraments with their preparation, his Providence with their observance, his Works with their ponder, his Spirit with their enter­tainment of his motions; yea, all that is his, with all that is within them: And how glorious will the Crowns of the Davids, the Solomons, the Iosiahs, the Hezekiahs, the Constantines, [...]. Arri­anus Epictet. lib. 3. p. 362. Edit Hol­stenii. the Edwards, the Eliza­beths, the Iames's the Charles's be, when the King of Saints Jesus Christ shall ap­pear to give to every of them his Euge and addition? what joy and illustricity will the Abrahams, the Nehemiahs, the Iobs, the Daniels, the Iosephs, have, before the whole world in its great rendezvous, when their Nobility and favour with Greatness, shall be published to be (with reverence I write it) Christs obligation, and have his open acknowledgment; and when they in the view of all the world shall be declared Faithful stewards, Trusty ser­vants, prepared Virgins, willing to follow the Lamb to the shambles of their credits, and worthy to sit with the Lamb in the [Page 328] Sessions universal, and to raign with him in glory eternal.

O consider this ye Nobles and Gentry, God calls you by his dignification of you [...] above others to more expressions of piety then he expects from others: They that have ten Talents must return suitable ser­vice to their intrust; God has given you,Arrianus Epictet. lib. 2. c. 9. p. 190. as his Alexanders, great souls, and great hopes to cherish you to great underta­kings and successes. He hath kissed you [...] with the kisses of his love, A happy kiss; which is not so much an union of lips, as of God and man together; a dignation not fre­quent, but speciall and peculiar, as St. Ber­nard Plutar. Pa­rallell. p. 342. devoutly. What have you done for God more then others? If God has height­ned your Honours, enlarged your bounds,Fael [...]x osculum ac stuqend [...] dignatione mi­rabile in quo non [...]s ori imp­uimitur seddeus homini [...]ni [...]ur. Stus Bernardus Serm. 2. in Cantie. elevated your spirits, accommodated your degrees, above, and with what he has denied, other men not less comely in body, nor compleat in mind, then you are; when yet them, (equally his creatures, and equally allied to the paternity of his love, and the bounty of his hand,) he has left to crawl on their bellies & lick the dust, like worms of no value, and not men after his own Image; to labour with difficulties, contend with wants, lie under disgrace, to lack coverts, nourishment, ne­cessaries; [Page 329] to know nothing but to obey, to enjoy nothing but at your pleasure, to fear nothing but your dis-favour; to be servants to your pride, pleasure, plenty; not only equal with, but in a sort beyond the beasts. If thus the eye of God has pitied, and the hand of God advanced you; and ye have not had such severe Ma­sters, Oaks and Beeches, nor been forced to the hardships of cold and want, (asNullus habuit praceptores praeter quercus & fagos. Vo­lateranus de St. Bernardo. holy St. Bernard is said to have been tu­tored by:) Let not you reyes be evil a­gainst him, or your hands be heavy upon his worship, servants, patrimony; Do not put him off with Turtles aud Pigeons, when you have Stalled Oxen; nor Females when you have Males in your Flocks to Sacrifice to him, But come and offer up to God your selves, souls and bodies, which are but your reasonable services to him. Take heed of doting on this world; the greatness whereof hath bird-lime to clog the wing of Piety; God accounts it an enemy to him, because it is in a con­stant profession of enmity against him. 'Twas a sad complaint of good Pope A­drian, Read his Speech to Encourt and Hezius his Fa­miliars. Nistory councel Trent. p. 24. The condition of Popes is miserable, seeing it was plain, that they could not do good, though they desired and endeavoured to do it. And of Pope Pius the fifth, When I [Page 330] was (said he) a Religious Clerk, I had good hope of my interest in God, being become a Cum essem Re­ligiosus, spera­bam bene de sa­lute animae meae; Cardina­lis factus, ex­timu [...]; Pontifex creatus, penè despero C. La­pide. Comment. in c. 11. Numb. v. 11. Cardinal, I saw cause to fear, God and I were not at a truce; but when I was made Pope, then I almost despaired ever to see God with comfort: So Pope Clement the Eighth was wont to bemoan himself. Let not God have cause to say to your up­braid, The poor receive the Gospel, when Ye Rulers believe not on my Son, but reject the Counsel of God against your selves; Fishermen have left their nets and forsa­ken all to follow me, when those that have great Possessions think it a hard saying so to command, and resolve not to be guilty of the folly to obey it: Silly women mini­stred to my Son in his disertion, when the great Counsellors and Doctors were afraid to own him boldly, or to come to him openly; Poverty doesSinite, ergo sinite Sapienti, hujus seculi de spiritu sapien­tiae hujus mundi tumentes, al [...]a sapere, & terrā lingentes sapi­enter descendere in infernum; v [...]s autem dum foditur pecca­tori fovea, sicut cepistis stulti facti propter Deum, per stultum Dei quod sapientius est omni­bus hominibus, duce Christo, humilem apprehendite discipli­nam, ascondendi in coelum. Sauctus Bernatdus Epist. ad Fralres do monte Dei. often cast a charitable mite into my Treasury, when Plenty and Abundance are close-fisted: Do not, O do not stand upon your terms with God, and dis­pute your Priviledge till his patience wave you, and you with all your Greatness and Wisdom descend into Hell a­mongst all that forget God and [Page 331] themselves; But do ye as wise and holy Souls, stoop to Gods terms, and accept his conditions, not thinking it below you to be vile in your own, that you may be lovely in his eyes, who gave you yours to see him, and will make them happy in seeing him after you have served him. Let n [...] God complain his gifts of gold are in your [...]hinets become dross, and his [...]naments on your outward Splendour become Instruments to your inward and outward Rebellion against him: Remem­berQueen Eliz. 2 Speech to the Parliament. [...]9. regni. that renowned Monarch, who said, When first I tool the Scepter, my Title made [...]e not forget the Giver; and think him best worthy your temporal Greatness in all the emanations of it, who hath prepa­red for you [...]ansions with himself▪ and beMuliū quidem merui [...] de nobis qui & imme­ritis dedit se­ipsum nobis: Sanct Bern. Tract. de dili­gendo Deo. willing to invest his Glory with your Robes of State, It ho hath provided for you the Robes of his Sons righteousness, and in the glory of that will set you on his Right hand.

Be not offended, I beseechNon numero Hispanos, nec ro­bore Gallos, nec calliditate Paenos, nec art [...]bus Graecos, sed pietate ac religione, atque hac una sapicntia quod deo­rum immortaliū numine om­nia regi gubernarique perspe­ximus; omnes gentes, nationes­que superavimus. Cic. Orat. de Aruspicium responsis. you, at this my Address, as if I wished you to your loss, or presented with what is be­neath you to accept; 'Tis no Pedantry I provoke you to, but the noblest Act of Divine [Page 332] Generosity and Magnanimity you can ex­press: Think, O think nothing beneath you that is a service to Him who is farr above Principalities and Powers, compa­red to whom, your Honour is but Base­ness, your Riches but Poverty, your Wis­dom but Folly, your Power but Weak­ness, your Duration but Momentaryness: Recall to mind that Great Monarch and Grave Christian, Who esteemed it the great­est Title and chiefest Glory to be the Defender of the Church, both in its true Faith, and its Eicon. Bafilic. e▪ 14. just Fruitions, equally abhorring Sacrilege and Apostacy. Is Gods Harvest great? Be ye in what you can the Lords Harvesters, pre­sent honest, learned, and pious Clerks to your Livings, and countenance them inHearken to this that God may hearken to you. their Ministerial Labour; deserve, by sha­ring with them in the work of mens con­version, to share with them in the reward of Gods Promise: Be the Lords Helpers, who has helped you to be Lords and Gen­tlemen, the Angels your Equalls are ser­viceable hereto; O draw not back the shoulder: Is Gods cause in danger? Take courage, and let the Stars be your Presi­dent, who fought in their order to help the Lord against the Mighty; O be ye not unactive in this Heroicism: Is the life of Christ in Humility, Meekness, Purity, Pa­tience, [Page 333] Obedience, and Constancy, tradu­ [...]ed and blasphemed by the Sins and Con­ [...]idictions of enormous men? Be ye, as [...]. was Noah, Gold glittering in the midst of his Ages mud, bright virtue in a grave of night [...]d death; partake not with them in theirSanct. Basil. Selencia. Orat. 5. Basphemy and enmity, but live to their consutation, rule to their suppression, ex­ [...]end your selves to their conviction, ap­pear openly to their confront, and let themLiquet [...]ergo & absque scientia dignitatem esse inutilem, & scientiam abs­que virtute damnabilem. Sanct. Bern. Tract. de dili­gendo Deo. [...]ot alone till you have brought them off the evil of their wayes, and brought them [...] to submit to the yoke, to lye down at the feet, to come at the call, and run at the command of God in his word, and upon the motions of his Spirit in the Dictates of [...]well-informed and regular conscience: When you are to resist sins, bear your arms in your eyes, that the pride of not under­ [...]aluing your selves may make you abste­nious; but when God commands you to duty, carry, with Noble Bradeas, your Armes in your shoos, trample upon any di­ [...]ersion, any high thought, that exalts it self against the courage and gratitude you owe to him. Shall one brave Roman ven­ [...]ute to ride armed into the deep Pit, where he, and his horse, and armes, inevi­tably are swallowed up? And shall ano­ther, I mean Horatius Cocles, and his two [Page 334] Companions, encounter the whole Army of the Hetrurians, and keep the pass over the Bridge that led to Rome, till the Bridg behind them was cut off, and that done, leapt into Tyber, venturing his life in the water, which he had so strenuously haz­zarded on the Land? Shall these, and such other Chieftains of Fame, dare to bid more for the Breaths and Pens of Men, to be well-spoken and well-written of, as Heroiques and Virtuoso's of Nobility? And dare you express the cowardize not to offer your selves to God, to be the foot­stools of his Throne, the door-keepers of his House, the dancers before his Ark, the Champions of his Battells? O, think notEgregi [...]s viros dico, qu [...]s è gr [...]ge hominum vulgarium ali­qua abstraxit excellentia, & Dei justitia, & sanctitas insigais, quod heu nostra ae­tate perrarum est, vel rei mi­litaris experi­entia, ac libe­rorum copia re­rumque notitia singulares s [...]cit. Petrarch [...] lib. de Reip. admi­nistratione. your Right-eyes, your Right-hands, your Parts, your Fortunes, your Relations, or your Honours, too great to venture for him who is the Fountain and Founder of them all, and without whose Support and Providence, they will soon abate: This to do is more additional to your Honours, then Coronets, Stars, Georges, Ermines. Ba­ronies; Then Coats, Quarterings, Titles, Revenues, Allyances, all which are de­terminable, being the Pensioner of every accident, whenas the reward of well-do­ing is permanent, and returns the doers everlasting Remembrance; yea, shall enter [Page 335] Heaven a Memoire of well-doing, never to be forgotten or worn out, For the God you serve therein is mighty in Recompences, as able to preserve the fruit of his Servants from above, and their root from beneath, as to destroy the root and fruit of contra­ry doers, Amos 2. 9. And pitty it will be that ye, who are so rare Masters in the artDiis quam ho­minibus confi­cie idis melior. Quintil. de Phidia statu­ario. of captivating Men, should not, with Phidias, express your excellency and in­ [...]uence for Religion and Piety.

SECT. XXXVI.
Shews, That they should not neglect due politure in their Youth, which gives the Rise to their after-eminency, or the contrary.

SEcondly, That they would not neglect due politure in their Infant-youth: For, as every thing hath its season, so hath instruction and accomplishment; The seed is sowed in the ground when the earth is shortest and of best mould, and compe­tently moist; The impression is fixed on [Page 336] the Iron or Wax, when they are warm; and most susceptive of the incumbent force. The Twigg is incurvated and pla­shed to the hedge, when it is young and tractable; the distorted limb rectified, while it is tender and unfixed in its irre­gularity: So is youth made any thing while it is a rasa Tabula, and has no pre­occupations or restivenesses assumed into, or by ill habit imposed upon it. There­fore as the care of Parents and Guardians; so the duty and willingness of Children and Pupils ought to exercise it self in for­warding and following youth to its ut­most improvement, that the Seed and Cy­ons of institutions may loose no season, towards its growth and flourishing, but may be embelished with, and productive of, something suitable to its time, cost, ex­pectation, possibility.

And this I rather humbly advise to, be­cause however as the body renews its flesh, and changes it minutes parts, as it passes thorow the conducts of Matura­tion and increase, answerable whereunto the expressions of the will, understanding, and other soulary powers are; yet there are gradual rejections of what we chil­dren were. To imbrace what we men are, some educational and habitual [Page 337] touches adherent, which seldome or never are fully discharged and drawn from us; against which there is no appositer re­medyCloriosa est de­nique scientia literarums quia quod primum est in homine mores purgat, seeundum, ver­borum gratiam subministrat, ita utroque be­neficio mirabi­tur ornat & tacentes & lo­quentes, Theo­dor. Rex Var. lib. 2. Ep. 33. prescribable, then to narrowlyregard youth, and to infuse proper and specifique seasoning into it: True principles of Reli­gion sound rules of plain reason; to read well, and well to write, to be thoroughly disciplined in Grammar, and after in Mythology; to intermix with the lusory parts of Learning, Authors religious, Po­ets and Prose, and them to read to them, as well as prophane ones: to allow them convenient play, without abuse or vio­lence; to train them to manly Exercises, (a) Running, Riding the Great Horse,Basilicon D [...]ron, 3 book, p. 185. Fencing, Dancing, Leaping, Wrestling, Tennis, Archery, Vaulting; which, though an Elegant wit, & Grave judgment, terms, but the varnish of the Picture of Gentry, Bp. Hall. whose substance consists in the Lines and Co­lours of true Vertue: Yet are Courtly things, and o sweeten and allay the choller and rudeness of these by Musique of voice and touch; whichLib. 3. de Repub. p, 625. Plato saies is contri­butary to Fortitude, Plato [...]u Alcibiade. & [...], and renders men compleat in ver­tue. When thereunto is added the con­viction of them, that vice and villany is beneath them; and the nourishment of [Page 338] emulations to do things wise & harmless, is worthy them, wherby the suckers & ex­travagant expression of youth (which do but impair their present repute, & occasion their after dolour) are rescinded, and they set free from those follies that first take, and then stupifie the mind, and mortifie all that is hayle and savoury in it. I say, these incumbrances removed, the fruit of good nurtriture, and generous e­ducation will fully and seriously appear to compensate the cost and care of those that under God have been fountains of the counsel and defrayers of the charge of it.

Provided there be such adaptation ofO levitas ado­lescentiae deplo­randa nec mi­rum, si enim de­us, tibi cursum vitae longiorem indulserit, Fle­bis aetate pro­vectior quod ami [...]tis impu­bes, nec erit t [...]nc locus pae­nitendi cum res in eum desold­tionem venerit ut resormari non possi, Epis­cop Rhotomag. Epist. H. 3. Regi Augl. apud Pe­trum Blesen­sem. Ep. 33. the breeding and method of institution to the nature of the person, and end of his designation, as is proper and direct in ten­dency thereunto. For, as no man ever made a Port, but he that steered to it, (unless by impulse of storm, he was above and beyond his hopes miraculously be­friended by God, who reserved the glory of his safety for his challenge of praise from such a saved miscarriage, and gaining loss;) so, no Father, no Guardian, can hope to have his child or charge well bred, ac­cording to the notion of true breeding; but where he greedily sucks in his institu­tion, [Page 339] and retains it, with a resolution to wind himself into the love, practice, and mastery of it, which is the fruit of some­thing occult in nature, depending upon the endowment of God, and annexed to the Genius of it, as its inseparable vehi­cle to such and such methods of ambi­tion and diligence as leads to those con­cluded issues, and no other; which being a secret to us, and discoverable only at the time, and in the way of Gods pro­ject in us, is served to in education no otherwise then as education is fitted to the acceptation and improvement of e­mergencies; in the closing with which, as it is fautive to, what is to be emi­nently subsequent thereto, is the marrow and soul of probable Felicity and Nobi­lity.

For though it be true, that Miracles have heretofore, and further can, if the Principal and Regent of them please, turn stones into bread, and advance ignominy unto Majesty, and by instantaneous qua­lifyings render them not unkingly, but as Regally compleat as if born from Kings, and bred for Government. Yea, and fit the Fishers of the Gospel, by sublimation of their weak and watery Rhetorique, to out-spirit those Oracular Philosophers, [Page 340] who were looked upon in the world, as so many walking Gods, moving in mens Figures, to reduce their exorbitancies into a resonable regularity, and to beat down the arguments, and flourishes of their Ora­tory, which did hallucinate and becalm men into a credulity of transport and ve­neration. Though God, I say did, at the first Exoriency of the Gospel thus credit his Implantation of Faith and Holiness, which was to subvert all antique settle­ments, and to disgorge all wonted imbi­bings; yet the usual and declared way of God, to produce brave persons, is from Neat and Noble education of their Child­hoods: Nor is it often seen, that men do prove conspicuous, and praise-worthy, where their Youths have been lax and loose.

And therefore Plato prescribes bree­ding [...]. Lib. 4. de Repub, of Learning and Manliness in Youth, to be the only way to make them [...], Grave and well-poysed souls in age: For so penetrative is the tincture of youth, that it leavens all the subsequent life with its impression, if bad; and gives it a plea­sancy, if good: which was not only the opinion of the Garamant Sage to Alexan­den, who told him, his active Manhood was a spire from that root of Ambition which [Page 341] his youth had nourished, and his age disco­vered; Viro enim tur­bis ac conten­tionibus enutri­to, ipsa pro qui­ete inquietudo est. Guevara. lib. 1. c. 35. Ut liberos da­ret ingeniosos & acutos. Crebrum in­fantiae ploratum adversae mero fortunae esse praesagium. Guevara. l. 1. c. 11. but even is the experience of all mankind, who therefrom take the hints of anticipating evill, by prudent means in­ductive of good: And as they presented the God Cautius sacrifices, that their chil­dren might be ingenuous and acute; and to their Vagitanus, that they might be cheery, and not full of tears; (they concluding, children given much to weep, destined to misfortune.) So did they indespensably train those that they would have brave Souldiers, & brave Senators, to Learning, as that which must chiefly nourish them in, furnish them for, and carry them to, the reward of great vertues. For Lear­ning, as it is an improvement of the Can­dle of God in a man, being a kind of na­tural Divinity, which lets a man into all those varieties of apprehension, utterance, sagacity, policy, conduct, counsel, which bespeaks acceptance, procures assurance, extrieates difficulties, prevents surprises, discovers secrets, improves Sciences; so is it that which without diligence to follow, and resolution to obtain, will not be arri­ved to in any conspicuity. And therefore, Oye Nobles and Gentry, let my coun­selNote this. be acceptable to you; Study books, convers with wise men, get understanding [Page 342] in the Laws of God, and of the Nation; be humble Christians, valiant Englishmen,Libros plus quam Saphy­ros & smarag­dos c [...]aros ho­bui [...] quibus Chrisolitorum magnam copi­am inesse di­cebat. Platin. de Pio 2do. Pontific. Roman.learned Artists, sincere and true-hearted creatures; and you shall have more ho­nour in life, and comfort in death, from these endeavours and acquisitions, then from those mistaken recreations, and false delights that are entred upon with trou­ble, carried on with sin, and ended in sor­row and infamy. For most true in this Case is that of St. Bernard, of the Cells of Reli­gious men,A Cella euim saepe in caelum ascenditur, vix autem unquam à cella in infer­num descendi­tur nisi sicut dicit Psalmista descendunt in infernum viven tes ne descen­dant morientes. Stus. Bernard lib. de vita s [...] ­litaria. Ad Fratres de morte dei. From the Cell men often ascend up into Heaven, seldom do men descend into Hell, unless they tast of Hell in their lives afflictions, who in their deaths are promised and prepared for endless joyes. Which is a notable argument for you not to count Learning pedantry, and studying of Books an effemination of courage; since Books are, as the Noblest representation of An­tique valour, in the enumeration of their examples & dijudication of their motives; so in the excitations of the spirit to that time and method of action and expressionN [...]m fuit So­crates Patri­tius, non eques Romanus, quem tamen Philo­sophia non ac­cepit sed nohi­lem reddidit. Senec. ad Luci­lium. which is most opportune and seasonable.

Especally since this vertuous Learning was that which made Socrates, Servius Tullus, Tullus Hostilius, and others Noble, for blood they had none nor came they from Patriti­an Ancestors, or Triumphers adopting them; [Page 343] mean & obscure were their parentage, yet so glorious, and esteemed, by their wisdom and vertue did they grow that they were held the wonders of their age, and the pat­terns of excellent Endowments to all suc­cessions of men. For it is not Robes of Pur­ple, nor Mantles of Ermin, nor Georges ofQuis est autem re [...]um hum [...]na­rum adco impe­ritus, qui hos censeat nobiles appellandos quorum vita quo turpior fuit eo citius suorum Nobilitatem extinxit. Pla­tina l [...]b. de ve­ra Nobilitate. Diamonds, nor Spurrs of Gold, and Swords keen and well Girt, nor gilt Coaches, many Lacquies, great Mannors, gainfull Offices, Noble Relations, that Make men; in the account of rational and real He­raldry, Noble, and Gentlemen; but the knowledge of God, and themselves, the pions and generous disposition they have to be good; and by being such patterns, to make others good also: To serve man­kind by such improvements, as Gods mercy and their time, parts, and accomo­dation enables them to do; that declares them Noble and Generous.Holinshed. p. 709. Which that brave Prince, E. 4. of England, well know­ing, councelled the Lords whom he left his children with, thus: I commend and deliver into your government both this No­ble Realm and my Natural children, and your Kinsmen; My Children by your dili­gent oversight, and politique provision to be taught, informed, and instructed, not only in the Sciences Liberal, Vertues Morral, and [Page 344] good Literature, but also to be practised in Tricks of Martial activity, and diligent Exercise of prudent Policy. If you set them to Learning, your Governours shall be men of knowledge. If you teach them Activity, you shall have valiant Captains. If they pra­ctise Policy, you shall have politique and prudent Rulers. Thus he. And the great Attempts and Conquests of Alexander, [...]. Plu­tarchus in Parallellis p. 337. Plutarch refers not so much to his Nume­rous and Valiant Army; or, to Perdicca Meleager, Seleucus, and the other brave Commanders, that under him mannaged his Army, as to Alexanders Wisdom and Learning of Mind and Councel; which understanding Things, Men, and Times, made his Motions and Actions conform to them, prosperous and taking. For when Alexander was dead, then the Army moul­dred away, and did nothing splendid; for it was only notable when it had him its head, who had Philosophy for his Rule, and Valour for his Recreation, & whose asso­ciate Vertue with his Arms made him suc­cessful. Which brings to my mind that passage of Erasmus, That those onely are Noble, who adarn their minds with Vertue; and fill their heads with Learning; and while others give Lyons, Eagles, Bulls, Leo­pards in their shields, as Tokens of their [Page 345] [...]obility, they giving the liberal Sciences for Pro nobilibus quidem haben­di sunt omnes qui studiis libe­ralibus exco­lunt animum, Pingant alii in­clypeis suis L [...]ones, Aqui­las Tauros &c. plus habent verae nobilita­tis qui pro in­signibus suis possunt ima­gines de­pingere quos perdidicerunt artes liberales. Erasmus Tract de civilitate morum pureri­lium. their Badges are truliest Noble.

Excepting then the extraordinary and [...]estival Providences of God, which are [...]in a great degree miraculous (whereby unexpected Successes and Advances are given to men of no luxuriant natural parts, and pregnant Mother-wits above and be­yond the Success of Study, and metho­dique Institution:) The most undoubted and known usual way of well-accomplish­ing Youth to eminent Manhood, is, by training it up by the novicism and gradu­ality of Arts to the compleat Science of them, which omits no moment of follow­ing on, and labouring at, the Forge and Anvil of them; because every moment then lost is either a Precipice irrecovera­ble, or an Eddy against which he that bears his head above water, must have the courage of a Lion, the Industry of an Ant, the strong wing & lofty flight of an Eagle, the [...] and vehement addiction to learn­ing that a Hen hath to the eggs which she broods, and would hatch; For God and Nature have proportioned every punct and step in the prosiciency of time to its peculiar impression, in which there is a fixability of every good sutable thereun­to: and this is the reason why, if the Stock [Page 350] be planted then, when the Root and Soyl are fitted each for other, the Tree not onely thrives, but the fruit it bears is loyal to its kind; and to expect Winter Fruit from Summer Plants, or Summer Fruit from Winter Stocks and Cyons, is to invert Natures Order, and to gather Grapes of Thorns, and Figs of Thistles.

Season therefore is the best express of Wisdom and Success, and the producing 'st Womb of whatever is hopefull and prove­able to Industry, which is wholly lost and bortive, if failhere be either in the time or method of breeding, which the Historian notes in Robert Vere Earl of Oxford, and Duke of Ireland, 15 R. 2. who dyed at Le­vain in great anguish of mind and misera­ble necessity, Which young Gentleman doubtless was apt to all commendable Exer­cises and Parts fit for a Nobleman, if in his youth he had been well trained and brought up in necessary Discipline: p. 479. They are the words of Holling shead out of the elder Authors.

Let then rude and reasonless men con­temn breeding, and suffer their children to exuberate and run out into limitless vanity, in hopes to take them up when they come to Manhood and Discretion; yet my experience tells me, to season them [Page 351] well betimes, and to keep them in the knowledge of good, and from acquain­tance with evil, is the best way to render their Manhoods grave and gracious; and if they break forth into the frivolous choices of youth, which are skittish and insolid, the reserve of hope must be in Gods grace manifested in their clearer sky of reason, the purity whereof, if it wholly shame not vice out of appearance, yet will so eclipse and disparage it, that it shall have little to brave with, but its impu­dence; which is so much the harder to be tradicated, by how much the deeper it is soyled, and the stronger it is fixed, which makes me plead for Solomons Precept, as Gospel in this case, Teach a Child in the trade of his youth, and he will not depart from it in his age.

Consider this, O ye Nobles and Gentry of England, and postpone all other things to the breeding of your Children, who being your selves in the exemplification of time, render you to have been what they really are: For, men will hardly believe Parents noble in Bloud, and virtuous in Mind, who bring into the world children fit and possi­ble to be such successive, and yet neglect them in the conduct of them to be such: Nor did brave Men of old care much what [Page 348] became of their Sonnes,Si mei similes erunt nullā in­indigerent com­mendatione, sin secus nolo filii Socratis dican­tu [...], non enim merentes if they in their minds degenerated from them: Famous in that reply of Socrates to his Wife, who asked him dying, whom he would be­queath his sons to be bred by, replied, To no body; For if they be like me, they'l need no care of any mans, nor any mans com­mendations: If they be not, I would not have them known, or said to be my sons. Better Honour Houses, and Mannor Seats Fall; better Parks of Deere, and Breeds of Horses; better Rents of Land, and Roy­alties over Estates, abate, then Children, the Heirs of them be not bred, or not well bred. A Nobleman or Gentleman, without Noble Parts, & Noble Vertues, is like a glorious George on Hors-back, in a Signe; or a Battel bravely fought, in a Map; like a Lyon, in Gingerbread; or the Sea, in­sculped on a Cockle-shel. Better be a brave minded Vallet, then a poor spirited Noble or Gentleman; and more comely is it to know Arms, and Letters, then to shake the Elbow, [...]. De­mocritus apud Stobae­um. Serm. 254. or sport with a Mistris; Ge­nerous recreations do whet the Industry of Vertue, to cope with toyl to gain her excellence: but sordid pleasures do im­bell the mind, and weaken the activity in any course of Honour and Grandeur. I can allow Greatness as much scope as is [Page 349] by Canon theirs to take,Siue cupidita­tibus natura nos genuit, sine timore sine sus­pitio [...]e. Falsa opinione imbuti summum ma­lum pauperta­tem existima­mus quod non putarunt Ro­mani illi ve­teres. Platina lib. de vera no­bilitate. or mans to give; but the Vessel that is all Sailes, and no Ballast, will soon run a ground or sink. Want then what will, Good breeding, to Masculine and Christian vertues must not, nature will some times abate some grains and ounces of the precious part of man; but Education must be the supplement, and if possible the improvement of what­soever is tending to Noble conclusions: for if Study and Arts be for poor and un­noble mens sons, then affairs of State, and places in Judgment, &c. are for them also; When men of more countrey concerns nay intend their Hawkes and Hounds, not only as recreation, (which the wisest and learnedest of men in some degrees practise, and in more degrees allow) but is the only or chief noble perquisite, which is contray to the sense, & thosewise, learned, and Noble Gentlemens practice they must not presume: For men may properly, and according to the rule of Fame, be Noble, without great Fortunes. So were many of the Romans, Menenius Agrippa, Valerius Publicola, Concinnatus Attilius Seranus, and others, who were so far from having Noblemens Fortunes, that they had harly enough to feed them alive, or bury them dead; Yet were they great [Page 346] in their time, and in the respect of tha [...] victorious Nation. But without Vertue and Courage, no man, how well born, how wel [...] Fortuned soever, was or can be accounted really Noble. Which digression I make, to alleviate the prejudice that Learning is pe­dagogique, & to be bookish is to become a sot. Of which sort of sots, I wish to God more of the Nobility and Gentry were [...] Though I must own, to the Glory of God, and Honour of our Nation, I think the English Nobility and Gentry are now as learned as ever in any Age they have been; and as the Nobility and Gentry of any other Nation is. And such as so are, [...] am sure, will conclude with me, that such they have been made by good Education, and provident care of their Youth.

SECT. XXXVIII.
That the Nobles and Gentry of England would affect no Travail abroad, till they be capable rightly and religiously to improve it.

III. MY third humble offer to the No­bles & Gentry of England is, That they would affect no Travaile abroad till [Page 347] they be capable rightly and religiously to improve it: For though I should grant that Travail, as it is the opportunity to see seve­ral Persons, Places, Fashions, is an addition to Youths experiences; & in the variety of i [...] entertainment, gives a keenness to their Invention and Enquiry; and therefrom [...]ggests matter of Ponder and Disquisi­tion; which yet the Spaniard, a wise peo­ple gain at home, as the brave old English [...]ere also wont, when tho they were not [...]ompt in their carriages, and gay in their [...]umours; yet were as wise in their Laws, as stedfast in their words, as stout in their minds, as devout in their actions, no dispa­ragement to us, as we now are. Suppose I should grant it, yet thence would it not follow, that Youth very young is fit for Travaile. For Travail being in them the gratification of the visual sense (whose trea­chery is often mortiferous,) is not at all completive to a Gentleman, till it be dire­cted and limited by soulary prudence, and a spirit of discerning; which few Children have in any tolerable degree proportio­nate to the danger of miscarriage upon the absence of it;Lege Petrarch. Ep. 12. lib. Ep. sine Titulo. nor men till they have pas­sed 24. years of their life, (Prodigies and Miracles of manhood excepted.) When though their tongues are less plyant to [Page 352] learn Language, (the keenness of childish imitation, being something blunted and dis-edged.) Yet is their judgment more mature and generall then sooner it can be ordinarily expected to be: for the vi­gour of the soul, like the strength of the body, is advanced by graduals, till it be at its vertex; and then it also descends and winds off: And if so, as to send them too old men, is to expect but winter fruits; so to send them to young, is to receive from them no account worthy their charge and hazzard. For, not the scitua­tion, not the soyl, not the Cities, not the Ports, are so much the intendment of bene­ficial Travaile,M [...]vete felici­ter ite modera­ti, tale sit iter v [...]strum quale decet esse qui laborsnt pro salute cuncto­rum Theoric Rex Gepidis ad Gallias desti­nalis Var. Cas­sium lib. ep. 11. as to read their untranslated Authors, consider their Government, and Laws, visit their Universities, and Buildings of note, discourse with their Statists, under­stand the Art of their Manufactures, and Improvement of their Land: To learn their Martial Discipline, and Mechanique thrifts: These, and the like designs, which all Foreigners have upon us in their Tra­vaile hither, are or ought to be the intents of Foreign Travaile. These are the He­lens in the eyes of discreet Athenians; these are the golden Fleeces that such Ia­sons venture for to our Colchis: Whereas we Englishmen must so soon as our Noble [Page 353] striplings are out of their Coats; away with them abroad,Quisquis pre­sentem statum Civitatu com­mutari non vult, & civis & vi [...] bonus est, itaque qui contrarium vult procul dubio malus, nec civium nec virū bonorum nomine dignus aut conso [...]tio. Petrarcha lib. de Repub. opt. Administra. with a Tutor perhaps careless, or poysoned in principle; Then his Genios must be the Aequator of theirs, and they must be, and must not be, what he will have them; and while they are so Foreinz'd, that there is nothing Eng­lish left in them, then they are thought compleat and fit to return, when perhaps they have attained no more to the stabi­lity of their mind, in after Vertue, and generous Bravery, then to Court a Mi­stris, wear a Feather, Swear, Raunt, Game, and do every thing that is their stain and defamation. The not only Tincture, but Grain-dye thereof, never departs them to their death; but their light, rude, lewd Youth continues to, and determines in a wavering, passionate and diseased Old Age.

Therefore I am first for home-breeding, in Universities, and Inns of Court, which are Courtly Academies, and profitable Hostelyes of Generous Youth: wherein, besides the Patrial Laws, (which to study, and be versed in, concerns Noblemen and Gentlemen above others, as they have great Estates, and great trusts in Govern­ment; in which ignorance of the Lawes will not well set them off:) There is no [Page 350] kind of Learning but may be imparted to them, by Masters proper and neer: Not are there any manly Exercises, but there also are gainable (the Institution of those Societies being in order to those Conco­mitants accomplishments as well as to the study of the Lawes,In my Commen­tary on Forte­scue, de Laudi­bus legum An­gliae, printed An. 1663. as elswhere I have discoursed.) Yea, there is now a Society The Royal Society at Gresham-Colledge. Ama quaeso claustrum & abscinde ab animo d [...]side­rium exeundi si paradesus in hac vita present est, vel in claustro est vel in scholis quicquid extra haec duo sunt, plenum est anx­ietate inqui­etudine, ama­ritudine, For­midine, [...]oli­citud [...]ne & do­l [...]re. Pet. Bl [...]s. Ep 13. Incorporated by our gracious Soveraign, (the Learning and Worth of Many in which, is much the glory of this Nation,) that promises no small contribution to the Englishmans compleatness. This I hope the Nation will take notice of, as a fur­ther encouragement to our Great mens institution at Home, which I think the probablest means to keep them in heart and deed true Englishmen. For the less Youth knows of the levity, liberty, shifts, prophaneness, atheism, subtilty, and lu­bricity of other Nations, the more are they probable to be solid, circumspect, plain, devout, pious, modest. The better Governours, Husbands, Parents, Masters, Friends, Landlords, Debtors they prove. And I wish it were considered, whether the bad men, bad husbands, and loose Protestants that our Nation abounds with be not more the consequence of young breeding abroad, then of bad wives, or bad company at home.

[Page 351] But if Travail must be (and it may be without danger, and with good profit; if Gods grace bless it, and prudent con­duct accompany it) then I wish neerer Plato's age might be regarded as the best season, that is, [...]. Plato lib. 12. de Legibus. p. 988. Edit Ficini. Towards 40. years of age, and not then for common persons, but for such only as are publique; such as Spies, Ambas­sadours, Heralds, and such as may there lie, on purpose at their return to breed up others to the knowledge of what is good, and useful in Travaile. For when the Judgment is ballasted in point of Religion, and they are setled well in the belief of our Refor­med Truths, which are but the declara­tions of Catholique credens; there will be less danger of their seduction; which has long time been the project of the Ro­mish Factors, whose practice it is to cap­tivate novices, and them to place beyond the Seas, in such Convents and Trains as are apt for them, (of which they make such a Trade, that the late Learned, Holy, and Eloquent Bishop of Norwich, Incomparable Bp. Hall, Fa­ther to to the now Reverend Bp. of Chester. See his Quo va [...]lis, p. 641. (whom I must to all the world own, to be the first provoker of me to compose and write, my Virgin penn being the Pedisequa of his de­vout Meditations. He, I say, has observed it long agoe, That one of those Factors for Transfretation of our English youth, [Page 356] hath been observed to carry over six several charges in one year:) and then, children, naturally taken with toyes and outsides, (which are pleasing Hogoe's in the Ro­mish Ollio's;) are apt to be captiva­ted by them beyond the solid Reason, Scripture authority, or the pious lives and deaths of the professors of Popish Re­ligion, So true is that of a learned and witty Doctor,Dr. Fuller Holy State, lib. 2. c. 4. now with God, They that goe over Maids for their Religion, will be ravished at the sight of the first Popish Church they enter into: but if first thou (saith he) be well-grounded, their fooleries shall rivet thy Faith the faster, and Travail shall give thee Confirmation in that Baptism thou didst receive at home. So he. Yea, I am confir­med in the belief that the Statute, 1 Iacob. 4. 3 Iacob 5, 3 Car. 2. all which were in­hibitive of sending children beyond the Seas, to be Popishly bred; are cleanlily avoyded and fairly eluded by this pre­tence of Travail for breeding. Nor shall there need to be any more favour done to Popery, then what the fashion and com­mon inclination of persons of quality have to their childrens Travaile, gives it. Which I wish the wise and great men would look upon as the In-let to the first neglect, then diseteem, and lastly [Page 357] subversion of our Church and Religion.

To Travaile also, when ever entred upon, I wish settlement in Morrals: For if the Reines be laid on the neck of Youth, which is unbroken, and not brought to handiness by good manage, how apt is youth to miscarry in its choyce, way, conclusion? I love when men make re­solutions to build their Travailes (with Gods help) as the sons of Seth, [...]. Antiquita­tum Iudice. lib. 1. c. 3. by Iose­phus are said to leave their love to Learning and succession) on pillars of brick and stone, that withstand fire and water, the impetuosity of lust, and the submersion of Multitudes, which like waters are hurri­ed this way and that way, as the impul­ses and breaths of greatness drive them, what men of Fortune and Fashion on tra­vaile do, that they'l do also, be it never so dissolute and desperate. My suffrage accompanies them, who bring their pra­ctice to the rule of pure nature and improved piety; who fear the defama­tion, and abhor the turpitude of irregu­larity, though it be back'd by Greatness; foreseeing the fatal setting of those see­ming Sun-shines in a night and cloud of dis-lustre. Let the Nobles of the Isle of Somabarr in East-India glory in the brand of a red hot Iron on their faces,Sir Iohn Man­devils T [...]a­vails. in testi­mony [Page 354] of their Honour; and other our Gallants of Christendom bring the testi­mony of their Veneral Valour in the loss of a Nose, or in some other visible deformi­ty; let them pride in the sin and shame of their travailes; they shall be the true Nobles and Gentlemen in my Calendar who keep themselves unspotted from the world; who are free from the just Tax of pro­phane, prodigal, proud, absurd, effemi­nate, light, sordid: from which vices, whoever preserves himself in travaile, must needs be favoured by God in the restraint of his grace, & be applauded for faithful to himself, in a latitude of care­ful and diligent circumspection: for he that will not experiment the vices of sense, must almost not touch, not tast, not handle; it is very difficult to forbear to be bad, where one is not afraid to be any thing beneath good: nor will he ever be the faithful steward of Gods restrai­ning grace, as Mr. Ascham was,Preface to his Schoolmaster. who de­lights to stay in Italy above nine daies; wherein (as his words are) in one City, Ve­nice, he saw more liberty to sin, then in Lon­don he ever heard of in nine years. There­fore Wisdom avoyds Travaile to early, the very goodness of which is either Impiety or Superstition. Holy Bish. Hall Quo vadis p. 641. Nor will any man be con­vinced [Page 355] of the danger of a long Elope­ment, but he that has found the bitter sawce of those adulterate mixtures, and vicious captivations that associate care­less travaile: If Seignior Scipioni was a wise man (whom Sir Henry Wotton, none of the lowest rate men, consulted as an Oracle) how he should best and safest travaile to Rome, answered, Your thought close, I pensieri stret­ti, & il viso sciolto. and your countenance loose, will goe safely over the whole world. If this be, as undoubtedly it is, good counsel,Sir Henry Wot­ton. Elements Architect. p. 396. then youths that look at random, and talk what comes uppermost, which wise men refrain, are not expectable to travaile, but in danger: For experience and years make the fairest Sculptures by being pur­gations of superfluities; and since England has ever been accounted Gods Kingdom, I wish from my heart the Nobles and Gen­try of England would,Consider this in this sense, seek this Kingdom of God, and the righteous­ness thereof, by breeding their sons more in the knowledge and love of it, and not seek other foreine things to be added to them, without which, I dare say, a true Englishman is more Englishly compleat.

SECT. XXXIX.
That the Great men of England would study most, and affect best, the Laws, Customs and Vsages of England.

FOurthly, I humbly offer to the Great men of England, that they would study most, and affect best, the Laws, Customs, and Usages of their own Countrey; which I (under favour) take to be a great piece of wisdom in them: For since it is natural for ever man to love his own, and the in­nate Interest of propriety calls for the great shares of kindness and benevolence, England being the natural and native ayre of Englishmen, and the very relation there­to devolving a kind of property in it, to every child of it; why should they who have not only Titular, but Solid and For­tunary superadded right to it, not above all love, delight, praise God for it, and contest with all animosity, for the honour and compleatness of it? I see no reason but they should; and wherein they fail they are unnatural: And if so, why are we so covetous to see forrein parts, when we [Page 361] [...]it still and desire not to Travaile in our own Country, where as much curio­ [...]ty and delight of nature is? Why are we studious of Foreine Laws, and neglect to know our own, by which our Fortunes, Fames, Children, Lives, must stand or fall? Why do we admire the Rarities of France, Spain, Italy, and the East, when we have as much Variety and wonder in Britain, as elsewhere; or as needs to entertain our Enquiry? why should our neighbours give us the Standard of breeding, and the code of Fashion, who never could give [...]s Laws, or be Masters of the Seas a­bove us.

Let Nobles and Gentlemen take their latitude, and use their pleasures, in Fa­shions, and Carriage, I am not so bold to offer a rule for my betters, equals, or any; nor do I think these things are under any prescript, but that of comeliness and con­veneince; yet I confess, had I my op­tion, I would pray a discard of all Exotique trifles, as pestilent to the Religion, Gravi­ty, Veracity, Hospitality, & common good of England: Let other Nations habit, live, & do as they think good; nothing is in my apprehension so commendable in an En­glishman, as to love and prefer English Laws, Usages, Customs, and Fashions, a­bove [Page 358] Foreine ones. 'Twas a brave re­solve of the Peers in H. 3ds time,King Iames Speech Star-chamber 1616. p. 567. of his Works. No­lumus mutare leges angliae & consuetudi­nes hactenus usitatas. And it will be no less English and renowned for the Peers and Commons ever so to say; for if the wisdom of our Ancestors be attribu­ted to, as in duty we ought to return to their excellent merit, (We being by the Conscience and Concession of our Kings, upon the advice and petition of the Lords and Commons his Subjects, all Englishmen, left a free and happy people.) The admiration of their setled Laws, (ad­ded to by loyall succession of Laws to them; together with the laudable and convenient Customes and Usages annexed thereunto,) will not onely be our duty, but those Laws be highly honoured by us. For though it sometimes falls out, that time meliorates and experience continues things more thriftily, and to greater ad­vantage, then Antiquity arrived at, or did discover; yet it being hard to use mode­ration, and not often seen the lear­ning of travaile, to chuse upon judgment but humour, I am for that retention of respect to the native English rules and practices, which time rather then men has Endenizend, yea Naturalized; which be­because [Page 359] education abroad does divert men mostly from, my quarrel to that humour is more just, and my counsel to the contrary I hope less to be excepted [...]gainst.

Let the world judge how use and con­verse does alter and winn upon the na­ture of men, and what Polypusses they [...]e to custom and how neer neighbour­hood it is to sameness; and how much re­quested things foreine are to our Gallants that have young & long lived abroad; and they will confess, the things of England will need an Advocate; for by reason of this, it is that Dyet, Clothes, Coaches, Toyes, yea even every thing is (by many) thought the worse for being English; which is the reason that we may wel be ac­counted Christendoms Scepticks, who seek husks & trash abroad, when there is plenty and bread enough in our fathers house; and by a ludibrious desultoriness, patch up our dainties of minute severalties ex­traneously collected; such linsy-woolsy minds we have, that if the warp be Eng­lish, the woof must be Foreine, so unde­lighted we are to be all English.

This Tetter began to prick, and burn in H. 8. his daies, when certain Gentlemen of the then Bedchamber, who had in [Page 364] France been very pleasant with the then French King, riding disguised thorow Pa­ris, and throwing things in merriment at the peoples heads, thought to play the like tricks here: they therefore habited a la mode, [...]olinshed. p. 850. and behaving themselves too unlike Englishmen, and uttering words of disgrace to the States of England, the Kings Councel took notice of, and repre­sented it, to the King, desiring they might be discountenanced, and for their fanta­stical insolence exofficed; which they were, and banished the Court, and four sad and ancient Knights put into their pla­ces. This I the rather mention, because the English gravity and sobriety is now almost derided out of use and credit, and men seem afraid to be accounted weighty and serious; the levity of young mens garb, discourse, pleasure, dyet, having disseised gravity even in men of age;Omnes quippe boni viri hujus regionis jam [...]lim sunt mor­tni, & in his monumentis sepulti M. An­tonim. Philo­soph. Epist. ad Pollionem. Guevar Horol. Princip. lib. 1. so that, if enquiry should be made, as once the Roman Censor did of the Citizen of Nola, where the good and grave Citizens of Nola were; the Enquirer must be car­ried as he was to the Graves of the old Citizens: the men of counsel and valour that were per tout English in their words and works, being now in their Monuments, and in their ashes; for an old English [Page 365] Noble-man or Gentleman was wont to be in Habit grave, I hope I have not er­red in this Character of an old English No­ble or Gen­tle-man. but rich; in attendants ma­ [...]y, and orderly; of his word true and no­ble; in his house free and sober; a good Sub­ject to his Prince, a good Husband to his Wife, a kind Father to his Children, a noble Master to his Servants, a Royal Lord to his Tenants and Neighbours, an orderly Liver, a strict Iusticer, a true Patriot, a good Chri­stian; at home honoured, abroad admired; f [...]ithful to his trust, resolute in his Enter­prises, provident in his affairs: in short, the wisdom of our Ancestors is concludable from this, That they contrived Good Laws, Fa­voured Religion, Nourished Trade, Advan­ced Manufacture and Husbandry, Maintai­ [...]ed Peace at Home, and Reputation abroad; Gave Rules to other people, but Took none from them. And were not these brave Englishmen? and ought they not to be patterns and praises?

Truly,Ita me, mi Pol­lio, Dii ament immortales, ita manum in bellis Mavors meam regat, ut qui nostro [...]uo ha­betur moribus emendatissimus vix cum illius saeculi dissolu­tissimo confe­rendus est. M. Anton. Philos. Epist. ad Pol­ [...]onem. let me speak plain truth, these last thirty years has so altered our temper in England, that it is rare to finde that cordiality, and sincee goodness in any one, that generally was the Genius of England, and of the plurality of persons in it; Atheism has subverted Religion, Craft Plain-dealing, Pride Charity, Com­plement Friendship, Gain Civil honesty, [Page 362] Pleasure, Frugality, Pomp, Moderation [...] we are all now in a career, driving by ex­cess to the displeasure of God,Non est locus ut desteam, atque execrer ludi­bria haec habi­tuum externo­rum, quos vobis ab externis mundi finibus fu [...]ibunda aeta [...] intulit, sed Dii homines (que) malè oderint has belluas humana effigie. Petrarch and ruine one of another.

But God, I hope, and our Governours, will give ere-long a check to this Gan­grene, when things so long disordering are once reduced, as they are now hope­fully in a Method to be: And when the Nobles and Gentry of England have well considered the Fitness of our Municip [...] Lawes, the Purity of our setled Religion, the Convenience of our general and to­pique Customs, the Consequence of our Usages, the natural Temper and the As­sistance of the Elements to the primarizing of an Englishman compared to the men of other Nations; (though all most worthy and as sutable to their Countries, as ours are for our Island:) When, I say, this has been well-commended to us by good Lawes of Advance to every thing Native, as is in a great measure likely to be, I hope there will be conceived less reason to shar­pen our Goads abroad, when we have such Forges at home, or to think our Youth unpolished, if bred not abroad, but at home: Surely this conceit of forein things, in prejudice to native ones, is either a sign of envy or pusillanimity, which England [Page 363] was not wont to deserve to be charged [...]ith; for there is no vanity in request [...]ith us, but (saith a holy Saint of our Church) We have learned from abroad, Bishop Hall of Norwich. Quo vadis. Sect. 21. p. 654. and [...] virtue that we were famous for, but we [...] parted with in exchange for forein [...]pperies; So that, I trust, my humble and [...]arty weale to my Country in this Head, [...]f commending the Love of Native Laws, [...] and native Customs, will not be superflu­ [...]us and rejected; or have the fate of the [...]pian Law, which,Matronae nulla nec authoritate nec verecundia nec imperio v [...] ­rorum contine­ [...]i limine pote­rant. Livius. though necessary, and [...]ged by Cato to be continued in obvi­ [...]ion to very audacious mischiefs, yet [...]as by Valerius the Tribune opposed, and [...] favour to his Party abrogated. I wish [...]y Reason and Pen had the Sovereignty [...]at the Stone, Prince Choresky's Wife in a [...]ing,Turkish History p. 1366. 1367. given her by the Prince, when a Ser­ [...]nt to her, had, which, clapped to the eyes [...] one blind, restored sight, and to the [...]res of one deaf, restored hearing: But if [...]hat I have wrote upon this Head be not [...]evalent, I wish our Gallants would at­ [...]nd that which methinks their Ancestors [...] in their eares in the words of Aeneas [...] Ascanius.

Which I thus English.

SECT. XL.
Presents avoidance of unmeet Love, an [...] unequal disparaging Marriages, [...] noble part of Virtue and Wisdom in [...] Noble or Gentleman.

FIfthly, That they would not debas [...] themselves by vulgar Loves or vulga [...] Marriages; that is, neither by sordid an [...] lustfull Addresses to pitifull Persons be [...]fore, or by rash unlasting and unequa [...] loves in their Marriages: the former [...] these is well to be cautioned against, be [...]cause [Page 369] this effeminate hurry is the common Precipice and plague of Youth, whose cu­riosity is so keen, and whose [...]re so intent, that it enters upon its desired gratificati­on, as the Horse doth into the Battel, with more courage then consideration: whence arise not onely the minds and bodies de­virgination, but a disposition to that folly, which once actuated, becomes customary, and then natural, and in a sort necessary; the Piety and Prudence of Manhood ly­ing more in timely anticipation whereof, then hopes of discarding it, when admit­ted, shews the flattering and insinuating nature of this Pregustation, the sensual charms whereof being in possession, puts all rightfuller claims to Entry in hazzard, and nourishes a lurking adversary in the very Bowells: For, as it is a true rule, Ig­ [...]oti nulla cupido, what the mind knows [...]ot sinful, it covets not sinfully; so what it through corruption finds correspondent to is sensuality, that it sensually lingers after [...]o enjoy and improve. And therefore it is a great blessing of God to enter upon Marriage unspotted, that is, ignorant of my prefruition to it, (because then curi­osity has no tast of what is alien to its own, nor is tempted to undervalue what it has for the propriety and frequency of tis ac­cession [Page 370] to it; [...]. Muso­nius in lib. an Philoso­phiam impe­diunt nuptiae. apud Stobae­um. Serm. 186. whereas, when there have been full and free fruitions before, the Matrimonial ones are mostly underva­lued;) so great an antipathy is there in our natures to virtue, that we prize those enjoyments least that are most lawfully our own, and those most that are suffura­ted and come with the curse of God and men to their enhansers.

As therefore Prevention of greater Thefts is done by checking and reproach­ing the injury and iniquity of a pin and a penny; so the way to avoid the most wast­ing and scandalous effects of lust, is to a­void those persons and occasions that are Contributors and Accessaries thereunto: which Demosthenes notably remembers men of, [...]. In Oratione contra Ne­aeram. when he tells men, That common Wenches are taken onely to satisfie Lust, Con­cubines kept for health and convenience, but Wives are honoured with the production of Children and the Government of the House. Whereupon for great young Persons, to paddle with Servants, Landresses, Cur­tizans, mean, mercenary Dames, who set themselves in the way to tempt, and set themselves out with all advantages, to lead aside their amorous Tempers; or for Persons of Honour and Quality in their ages to be transported with mean and [Page 371] vulgar dotages, set upon objects more re­medies then incentives to a just and manly love, is to be trecherous to their Wisdoms, Honours, Self-command, Judgment, and to all that ought to be dear to them, which depend upon the good or bad of this their Carriage. And often it is seen that what lust commences, Cruelty determins; so did [...]ene's conclusion confirm Mahomet's lust to her: For he so doted on that beautiful Greek, that he left all his care of the Com­ [...]on-wealth to court her, and had almost lost all his Acquisitions by his amorous ne­rligence, which Mustapha Bassa perceiv­ing,Turkish History p. 351. and being dear to, and faithfully be­loved by him, gravely remonstrated to [...]im; He kindly accepted of the reproof, and commanded Mustapha to summon to­gether all the Commanders of his Army, before whom he would quit himself of the effeminacy charged upon him: Before them he brought Irene, and asked which [...]f them would not be taken with such a [...]eauty? All consented to the efficacy of [...]he Transport: after all, to shew his Otto­ [...]an Courage or rather Cruelty, he drew [...]s Falchion, and at one blow strook of [...]er head.

But the main Caution that is in debase­ [...]ent to be needed, is in point of Marri­age; [Page 372] for Marriage being the Seraglio of life, out of which all the furtherances to succession are transmitted; the condition and humour, and so the good or evil for­tune of Posterity is probable to be such as the choice good or ill of the wife, is: nor is there any action of life which denomi­nates prudence and magnanimity truer,Unde melius nobilitati col­legam quaeri­mus, quam de vena nobilium, qui se promit­tunt abhorrere moribus quam refugit sangui­ne vilitatem. Cassiod. Var. Ep. 12. lib. 1. and less fallible, then Marriage doth; which was the reason that Theodoric the Gottish King (a wise man) writing to his Friend, sayes thus, Whence is it likely to find a Noble Associate but from Noble Stocks and birth of Honour, who hold themselves bound from that baseness of action which they abhorr in the dignity of their degree and quality as beneath it; and King Iames o [...] blessed and pious memory hath positived the truth of this,Basilicon Do­ron. 2 Book p. 172. If a man marry basely be­neath his rank, he will ever be the less ac­counted of thereafter; whereupon it wa [...] ever the counsel of wisdom to avoid de­basing, by entring upon equal Marriages which Pittachus, [...] Laertius lib. 1. Par pari jungatur con­j [...]x quicquid impar dissidet. Reg. Iuris. being asked by one, whe­ther he should marry a rich, or a sutabl [...] Wife? answered, by turning the Inquirer to the Boyes then at play, and the Cry tha [...] was from them to each other, which was Take thou thy like, which the Civilians ac­cord to in their rule, Like to like do well i [...] [Page 373] marriage; for whatsoever is unlike, discords. And this our Law commends as necessary; and thereupon Magna Charta, c. 6. & 20. H. 3. c. 6. Command Wards, who are usually men of great Blood and Estates, shall be married without disparagement. That [...],Stat. Merton. c. 6. Instit. upon Littleton Sect. 107. p. 80, 81. [...] Plutarchus in Nuptial praeceptis. [...] Philo lib. de Prae­miis & pae­nis p. 918. not to people beneath them, villano [...] Burgensi, or to others unmeet for them, [...] Sir Edward Cooke enlarges upon it: for [...] marriage be the merry age of persons that are willingly, and with a vertuous [...]ncerity of condition and humour brought [...]nto that Estate, then to be defeated of [...]eir aim, makes the Estate marriage, the [...]ne of all content, and the depth of mi­ [...]ry. For as a Glass set out with Gold and [...]earls avails nothing, unless it represent [...] true likeness. So saies Plutarch, is there [...] comfort in marriage, if there be not a [...]ness of conversation and concord of Hu­ [...]ur. For marriage, in Philo's words, is a [...]ind of pitch'd field, wherein the soul and [...]son of man musters up its vertues, to op­ [...]se their contrary Vices, in it Prudence op­ [...]ses Folly, Constancy Wavering, Frugality [...]xury, Fortitude Rashness and Fear. And [...] to these Noble designs there ought [...]o be care preceding.

I know it is often seen, that as men of [...]eat parts, spirits, and forecast, do err in [Page 374] point of Conduct,Perit judicium cum res transit in affectum. Scholastie. Surius in Com­mentarium re­rum gestarum ad Annum 1539. as did the Emperour Charles the fifth, who, notwithstan­ding Francis the first of France, his dis­grace at Pavia, and his imprisonment in Spain, would pass thorough France to Flanders upon a safe conduct of King Fran­cis, and H. 3. of France, when he slew the Cardinal of Guese, beloved of the Nobi­lity and Commons, having neither Money, Army, nor strong place after to make good the fact. I say, as men of great parts often are ove-ruled by providence of discovery or punishment to over-shoot themselves in other affaires. So in the great affaires of marriage, in which pas [...]sion is an ill guide, and men conducted to love by the fire of youth contracted in the burning-glass of the eye, and thence intending it self in the action formed according to the engaged mind Idea, may be deceived into a captivity to an unmeet object; and yet in all othe [...] actions be prudent. Yet because this i [...] the Master-choyce of life, and is in fluential on all the after-actions and de [...]grees of a mans condition: No man re [...]taines a good reputation, that degene [...]rates in this from the merit of advise and prudent; not that any man can avoi [...] what is concluded by God to be his por [...]tion: [Page 375] nor is the force of resolution and caution vigorous enough to dispel the impedencies of Fate, which is (according to nature)Quae Fato ma­nent non facile vitantur. Tacit. as inseparable from the subject it attends, as the effect is from the cause. But then men are causal of their own woe, and detractive from their wel-doing and happy enjoying, when they delight to be solely privy to their actious, and refra­gate all counsel, which is better from a stranger than their engaged selves, whose judgement is drowned in their resolved pertinacy;Nemo inde s [...]rui potest unde destruitur, nemo ab eo illumi­natura aquo contenebratur. lib. de Praescrip. advers. Haere­tic. c. 12. so true is that of Tertullian, in this case, which he uttered in another sense, No man can be built up by that which is his ruin, nor enlightned by that which is his Ecclipse. And yet so great is the sedu­ction of man, and so stone-blind his error, that he is less curious and advised in this, that is the great secret and sacred concern of his life and well-doing, then he is in trivial matters, which do neither make him happy in having, or miserable in wan­ting; while in this that is the Heaven of Earth, [...]. Philo lib de de victimas offerentibus. p 856. and the Haven of life, there is not so much the honour of God, which Philo calls the cement and indissolvable bond of conjunctive benevolence, as sudden thoughts, and transient humours consul­ted with, which the very man that uses [Page 376] them in ayd to marriage, would not be guided by in a purchase of Land, drift of a bargaine, loan of money, bodily distemper; no not almost in the choice of a servant, while in chusing a wife, (to which, as the best of mercies when good, and the worst of curses when bad, all others are triffles,) men go passionately & without judgment to like, court, present to, and marry, consi­dering not the consequence of it. When as God knows in the lesser things of mo­ment, there is no care thought too great, no counsel too much, to be taken. They will have their Clothes made by the best Taylors, their Evidences drawn by the knowingest Conveyancers, their Bonds signed by the solventest Obligers, their Children taught by the best Masters, their breed of Horses from the best Strain, their store of Lambs from the best Flock, their seed for Corn from the best Vein of Land, their Guns and Bows from the best Ma­kers, their Plants from the best Nurseries: only in their Wives they are not so cu­rious, because either they love them not, or they care not to breed upon them; or that their breed should be blessed, and brave after them; but think any thing that is of the producing sex will serve for exercise of their Manhood, and to bring [Page 377] Children of Charge and Trouble into the World, to wedge and force them out of it; a Mistriss forsooth they I have choyce and spruce, bligth and bright, and to her they'l pay kindness full and frequent; their Lands, Jewels, Persons, Lives, are Presents too little for her to accept of: But the Wife who deserves as far beyond the Mistris, as the Sun transcends a pi­tiful Rush light, must be chosen for In­terest, addressed to by halfes, humoured not at all, presented to but coldly, accom­panied with but seldom; and all this, be­cause not equality of temper and condi­tion byassed the choyce, but some sinister Regents, which after had, are no longer in season and favour. [...]. Lib. de Specialib: legibus p. 778. Which Philo reports, most contrary to the rule of nature; for that teaches to accept Wives as the best bles­sing of life, and to account the Children of them the most Noble and preferrable to rule; and so the Persians of old thought and did, saies that Author.

Indeed every man when he marries, being to lay the foundation of his poli­tique life, should consider, the conveni­ence, discouragements, and other acci­dents annexed thereunto, or contingent thereupon, and whatever he resolves to pardon, and dispense with the absence of, [Page 378] not to admit failer of love; [...]. Hier [...] ­cles in lib. de nuptiis apud Stobae­um. Serm. 186. and that upon the surest basis of it, both piety and likeness, which are the sine qua non's to concord. Likeness, do I say, not ever of person (though the common opinion is, that the stronger and most radique loves are those of visual likeness) nor of mind, as to the specifique adunation of mind; but likeness of shade and compli­ance, likeness upon fixation of resolution, and testimony of Matrimonial Oneness; likeness of proportion to the Ornament, and convenience of the marriage Fa­brique; though not likeness of articulate Figure, [...]. Dictum My­tele [...]norum Thucydid. lib. 3. p. 177. yet of resolved humour and fide­lity. This is so absolutely necessary, that where ever it is wating, marriage is abu­sed and debased; which Francis sonne to Iohn the fifth, Duke of Brittain, probably meant, when he being to marry Isabel of Scotland, & told, that she was very wise? & comely, but had some imperfection in her Speech, replied, I marry my Wife for Posteri­ty, not for Eloquence; Talem volo po­steritatis causa, non Eloquentiae, satis prudens est uxor si penu­lam & interu­lam mariti dignoscere pos­sit Aegidius Corrozetus lib. de dictis & fa­ctis Memorab. wise enough is a Wife, and worthy enough to be beloved, if she can distinguish between the Shirt and Snapsack of her Husband. Intending, without doubt, that the most wively vertue, next to pro­duction of Children, is care of and tender­ness to her husband, at home in kindness, [Page 379] and abroad in fidelity. For sure it is that greatness of mind is not arguable from little or great, [...]. Arianus Epictetus. l. 1. c. 12. high or low growth; but it is denominated from the determinations of the mind, which are great & lasting where a great soul is; according to Epictetus.

This is that which I make the undoub­ted felicity of Marriage: For though I know that God can, and sometimes does, by a special overflood of bounty correct contrary dispositions, and make them harmonize in some expedient, equivalent to sameness, and prosequutive of the same Noble issue, content: yet this is no ground for men to relax their care upon such a presumption, that God can do, be­cause his power and will, though they be one and the same in him, yet are not ever concurring in the declaration of them to us. God may, and ever has power to do that which perhaps he wills not; and so in this case it may be, which denies pru­dence to venter on the Seas of casualty in a schiff of presumption; nor is God fre­quent in his gratifications of so bold and presumptuous adventures, where there are safe passages to the Port, to affect de­vious waies, is to provoke God to leave men to wander and naufrage.

And therefore, if any man of Honour and Worship would be a wise chuser of a [Page 380] Wife, and be a happy Husband in her, let him look up to God, in an humble peti­tion, to have his counsel and conduct; and then let him look to the Stock, the Breeding, the Relations, the Company, the Complexion, the Years, the Humour of her he wives, and consider the agree­ableness of them to his own condition, according to the Sympathy or Antipathy whereto he may conclude himself happy, or otherwise: For Gold and Copper, Silver and Tinn, Oyle and Water, Light and Darkness, do not kindly cooperate in a mixture; nay, matrimonially do not mix at all: for consent being of the essence of mar­riage, & that not permanently using to re­side in unsuitable dispositions & qualities, their corporal junctions are but the out­works of marriage, & their souls yet unen­gaged by tyes of affection, wander from each other to more adamated objects; w^ch errancy of nature from its true central conjugal loyalty, arrives the proceed of it at Ideotism, Bigottry, Leudness, & unplea­sing deformity of soul, or body, or both.

Which ought well to be considered by the Nobles and Gentry of England, whose glory it has ever been, and ever I hope will be, to be Couragious, Beauteous, Ci­vil, Sage, Noble Englishmen; and as to [Page 381] marry their equals in Birth and Blood (or in that which is as true Nobility, express and notable vertue, which most often is associated with Honour of descent, and Worship of parentage, wherby not seldom great Fortunes, and additions to Families come (as is instanceable from the learned Cambden, and is otherwise to be supplied to a greater number)Thorough out every Shire of his Britannia. every Family of the high and low Nobility having more or less Land and Arms from Matches with Heirs Females, with whose per­sons sons their Families, Lands, and Coat Ar­mours come to their Husbands and Chil­dren, and their Descendants.) I say, the Nobles and Gentry of England, whose Ho­nour it ever hath been, and may with Gods blessing further be, as to marry their equals, so will it be their Honour also to be vertuous Examples to, and va­lewers of, their own Wives, their own Children, and their own Paternal, or o­ther acquired abodes; and to live with and in them; which they will most con­tentedly do, when they love whom they chuse in marriage, and devote conscien­ciously their most generous spirits and kindnesses to them, and to them onely; the fruit whereof, besides peace of con­science, salve of Honour, increase of For­tune, [Page 382] and popular Renown, will be con­tented and kind Wives, (who like Alceste, the loyal Wife of King Admetus, will die to redeem his life; and like the renow­ned Queen Philip wife to Edw. 3.Holingshed p, 404. whose three petitions of the King declare her a Noble Lady,) Beauteous and obser­vant Children, in whose faces, and on whose bodies the Sculptures of conjugal Chastity are fairly and symmetriously wrought, by the Master-hand of Nature; and to whose minds God the Naturater of Nature has assigned suitable Vertues, of Holy softness, pure Modesty, unprovoked Patience, humble Meekness, commenda­ble Thrift, couragious Grandeur, dome­stique Ingenuity, resolved Fidelity, inde­fatigable Goodness: These having an In­dian wealth, and a felicity of Paradise, associating and attending them, will be good seconds to the narrow Fortunes of younger Children;Nullum majo­rem haeredita­tem, possunt filiis parentis tradere quam rerum bene ge­starum gloriam, & integritatis ante actae vitae, Iodocus Chi­cthoneus. tract. de Nohilitate c. 5. & 7. as well as great Con­tributers to the preferment of elder Chil­dren: For no Greatness will stick to marry into a Stock that is worthy: in Pa­rents, Great, Grave, and Good, and in Children worthy, them to bring into, and breed, and bestow in the world: For, if a Gentleman that has courage to serve in Arms with a Prince, be a brother in Arms [Page 383] to him; a Gentlewoman that has Vertue to deserve, and Prudence to guide it, may is well be a Sister, nay a Wife in Arms to a Prince, to whom she may perform as good service to perpetuate his posterity by the fruit of her body, and the fervour of her prayers answered by Gods grace in, and blessing upon them; as by all o­ther means that reason of State, and worldly Interest can imagine, set a foot, or bring to pass, to make him happy.

This I the rather press, because one of the great mistakes and mischiefs of our Age, [...]. Epictetus Euchirid. c. 62. is dis-esteem of wives, and that upon conceit that any thing, if woman, serves for a wife, if she have but money, be she never so otherwise incompleat, they think all is well: when if men of Honour and Fortune would well weigh the vanity and fallacy of this conception, they would abhor the [...]ucacity, & resolve against the prevalence of it; for if any thing be valuable in this world, it is a Wife; and if any thing be in a Wife contributive to a perennity and principality of glory, 'tis in a worthy and wise wife: not such an one as that of [...]arnard Newmarch, the famous Norman, (who when her only sonne by Newmarch, called Mabell, reproved a young Gentle­man that was too familiar with his mo­ther, [Page 384] took it from her sonne so heynously, that to be revenged of him, she took a publique solemn Oath, that Mabell was not the sonne of Newmarch her husband,Cambden Brit­tania, p. 620. but got by another in Adultry: This Oath she took before H. 3. which act of hers, she grievously paid for; for within few years after she was cast into prison, and fami­shed there:) But in such a Wife as does not only adorn life with all friendly and con­tenting Domestique comforts; but con­veyes to Posterity the fruits of Piety, Cha­stity, Kindness, Constancy, Frugality; and that not only by imparting so much of her soul and body to them as is Emanant from Motherhood, wherein her partici­pations are concludable to be more, from her long fostering them in her, then they can be thought from the father, from whom they pass in a Whirl-wind: but also from those actions of vertue which she will breed them up to know and ex­ercise: And if men of great value and place would not debase themselves by vi­ces, and deeds of clancularity in the Gins and Traps of which they are by vulgar persons snap'd and ecclipsed, they would find their Honours more valuable, their Posterities more proveable, their Lives more Exemplary, their Deaths more Chri­stian; [Page 385] for poor Spirits advanced do know neither Moderation nor Gratitude;Quid jactitas genus tuum? quem teipsum facis? vaga & incerta est ho­minum genera­tio, & quan­doque putatur filius Principis qui filius est culinarii Hi­strionis. Petrus Blesens. Ep. 3. ad Nobilem. nor do they think any thing below them, whose souls are so lowly minded to be vi­cious; nor are Great Personages by any thing more diminished, then when they forget unlikeness, the Curse, and Disparage­ [...]ent the Cross, of Marriages.

SECT. XLI.
Suggests the Convenience and Commen­dation of Great mens living within bounds of their Fortune, and by such frugal living not contracting Debts.

SIxthly, That which I shall further hum­bly beg of them, is, That they would live on, and within bounds of their For­tunes: For, to spend beyond what is ones own, is to borrow of others, and to pay them either in the ruine of the Creditor, or the misery of their Debtor in his Im­prisonment, or whats worse then it, an ill Conscience, which abuses the Law into Patronage of Injustice: For what greater abuse can be offered to the Law, which is [Page 386] the Rule of Right, then to make Prisons her Punishment, to become Sanctuaries to dissolute and injurious men, whose Vices have run their Fortunes into Arrears, and whose resolves are to pay them off onely by the colour of Imprisonment, which is a privilegiated freedom. And what readier way is there to become infamous for dis­honesty, then to borrow and pay not, pro­mise and perform not, be security for mo­ney, and therby insecure the money they subscribe to pay; and all this when they have reason to tell them they ought, and fortune to enable them, to answer their un­dertakings. Indeed it is one of the things to be deplored, that many men of Place and Fortune, who in their places are examples to common People, and Ministers of Justice & Government over them, should be so re­miss to their own reputations, as to lesson them in their practice the evasion and pro­stitution of the Equity and Majesty of the Law, of which they themselves are Con­servators; yet so it is, that moral virtue and conversational Justice and Sobriety, is less Debtor usually to Greatness then to Communities: What a shame is it that the Houses of Greatmen should be receits of Vice, and lodges of Luxury, nests of Idle­ness, and pests of Prophaneness, which [Page 387] ought to be the shame and bane of such Courses;Sed hac domo ut cum familia dominum com­prehendam ni­hil est damna­bilius ad me­ritum, nihil se­ditiosius ad consortium, ni­hil inhonestius ad mores, nihil sordidius ad conscientiam, nihil cul [...]abil [...] ­us ad famam, nihil pernicio­sius ad exem­plum. Petrus Bles. Ep. 18. or that those who have ample fortunes should pinch Virtue to pamper Vice by them. It is the great Cry and Clamour of the People against men of E­states, That they let their Lands at a Jew­ish wrack, maintain their Servants at a thriftless highth, spend their Fortunes at a merciless rate, gratifie their vices be­yond measure, spend their bodies and souls for that which is a pittiful exchange for either, disoblige their Neighbours, ne­glect their Children, overlook the Poor, discourage their Minister, undo their Cre­ditors; To please the state of an humour, and conceit that to look after their For­tunes does not become them, when as in­deed there is nothing so praise-worthy [...]nd noble, as to be aforehand and pay [...]ell, and nothing so ungenerous as the [...]ntrary, when the effect of pride and care [...]sness. If therefore the Nobles and Gen­ [...]y, (whose Residence is Country, and who [...] the major part of the considerable men [...] in England, (Officers of State excepted) [...]ould either please to look over their Fa­ [...]ilies, and cause them to be over-looked [...]nd not augment the Expences of it; if [...]ey would raise their Cattel, Bread, and [...]her Viands from their own, proportion [Page 388] servants to their degree, amputing un­necessary suckers, allow them free and compleat salaries, without taking Fees from their Lords Farms, or cutting large Thongs out of his hide, supply other pro­visions at reasonable rates, by just and seasonable payments, necessitate no dreins out of their Estates by vices, which suck them dry, leave them needy, and then borrowing, and then mortgaging or sel­ling; breed their Children to honest and gainful Callings, and furnish them with competent Portions to follow them; and marry their Daughters in good time, and not let them out-stay their desire or prime, till they forestall their fathers in­tents, and engage to their own undoing. If they would come to London but to fur­nish themselves, and see fashions, and after a whiles stay here, and the Feaver of thei [...] purse breath'd out at their purs-strings, re [...]turn to their Countrey; if this they woul [...] do, they need not be behind hand for mo [...]ney, questioned in credit, denied to bor [...]row, dishonoured by Writs, and Summo [...] to answer Suits, and give bayl to Act [...]ons; but would be rich, full of credi [...] free to prefer their Children, and to kee [...] their Estates from Engagement; and [...] nothing to full and free living, would the [...] be wanting.

[Page 389] But the misery is, there is nothing thought so un-genteel a quality, as honou­rable Thrift, and vertuous Frugality, the best title to which, that most of the high-flown spirits give, is narrowness and misery of nature; when as the discreet and creditable Thrift (for I commend no course or port of life beneath the degree of Nobles and Gentry) is the only display of true Oeconomique Magnifi­cence: For as he that over-sayls his Bark, or over-lades his Boat, will sink them; and he that over-stocks his Ground will starve his Cattel; and he that over-charges his stomack will surfeit his body, and ruin those which he intends his health good to; so to overcharge an Estate, and make it answer more rent-charges then it can de­fray, is to destroy and null it. And there­fore, when as men will study beyond their strength, and lift above their power, and run beside their breath, and wrastle beyond their match, there is more desire then discretion expressed. So, when [...]en live and spend beyond their ability and degree, their necessities will become their punishment sooner then their ex­ [...]ess therein be accounted their Magni­ [...]cence. Indeed it is a brave humour, to be free and generous, and it well becomes [Page 390] Royal minds to appear in Royal actions. But then the actions that men Royally do must have a rectitude of Justice in the end, and in the means to it. If Alexander give a Talent to a Cynick, that desires only a mite, Alexander has considered himself right in giving what becomes him, whose the Talent was; but if Alexander had had of his own but a Mite, and gave a Talent which he bor­rowed, and knew not how or when to pay, the Magnificence of the gift is no addi­tion to its Donor, though a pleasure to the receiver; men may be free of what is their own, but to do great things by con­tracting debts which are not possible or probable to be paid, is to be Generous and Noble in the sence that Solyman the Great Turk was Magnificent, who throws away 80000. men at Vienna, and yet went without it, and brought 500000. men be­fore Gouza, losing a good part of them, and got it not, though a small Garrison: Tis to be magnificent by sacrificing mens lives to satiate a humour, and to violate sacred faith to please a leud Bassa, as his Magnificence did in the case of Iohn the King of Hungary, Turkish History p. 712. and his Wife and Chil­dren. As this was Magnificence in Soly [...]man, so is living beyond mens abilities [Page 391] Generosity and Nobleness in them, and no otherwise; for though extraordinary cases may make wise men evade their limits, and exceed their boundaries; yet is such profuse erogation in them no great­ness of spirit, but the unhappiness of their encumbrance, and the consectary of un­profitable accidents cogent thereunto; thats true Nobleness of mind which keeps Vice lean, and Vertue full; which can de­ny it self to promote a general good, and abate superfluities to advantage Vertue in Men and Things.

Mistake me not, I beseech you, O Nobles and Gentry, as if I were senseless of your avocations, or knew not Yee that have great Estates, great Honours, great Rela­tions, have great temptations, and great expences attending them; I know not England, nor the Great Men, and Estates in it, so little, as not to consider these as their apologies and defalcations: but have ye not, O Nobles and Gentlemen, great Fortunes, and high Tydes of Reve­nue, to set you a float, and bring you off these quick-sands? are not your Estates well napp'd with Timber, and well laden with Mines and Minerals? have you not Casualties, Offices, Royalties, Alliances, and other means to bestow and prefer [Page 392] Children, then meaner men have, whose Estates are less compleat, and accommo­dated with casual profits then yours are; and if so, how comes it to pass, that you are wanting, and needy of money, when others less Estated and Nobly living also, are in Cash, and can give ready Money Portions, and make decent settlements on their children, without selling Land, fel­ling Wood, signing Rent-charges, granting Lives, passing Leases, or enfranchising Coppy-holds; which are Docks and Bars to the Royalty and Freedom of Estates: when many of ye are fain to do some of these in every childrens dispose, or other sudden change in their lives: Whence, O whence can this disparity be, but from the ones frugality and resolution to look af­ter, and live within compass of his Estate, and your pleasure and inadvertency, rather then Gods curse, unless it be a curse (as it is very like one) to live above the rate of prudence, and the Income of ones Estate? The benefit of avoyding which, those Lords and Gentlemen know and find who are their own Bayliffs, Treasu­rers, and Overseers, that is, who take ac­count of what their servants do, and of what they do not, and adjust the proceed of their receits and payments.

[Page 393] For Fortunes, like Cattel are best in [...]ase, where inspected by the masters eye, and their Children and Tenants are best provided for, and dealt with, whose fathers and Landlords are frugal and forehanded men; who need neither to wrack their Lands, require their Rents before pay-day, or draw their Tenants into engagements for them. Nor are children tempted to pray for their pa­rents deaths, or prey upon their parents credits, to supply their short allowances from their parents; when their parents living within their bounds, save the mat­ter of such relief, and yet are in statu quo [...]s to their Lands; so great advantages come not only by the real, but even re­puted forehandedness of Noblemen and Gentlemen, that in letting of Lands, mar­riage of Children, Purchase, choice of Se­curity for Money, cheapness of House-ac­comodations; yea in the common love and talk of the Countrey, it is a great grace and furtherance: for it is one of the great leures of the common Peasants to Markets, to talk of men and Countrey news, over the Pots and Pipes of which meetings they will arrogate the making men Angels or Devils, rich or poor, as they find them free or straight, needy or aforehand; so [Page 394] potent is the Purse of great men to pur­chase their adoration and good word, that there is no secret in Countrey life more gaining and useful, then not to be known to want money; for he that does, shall be pelted with as many detracting verdicts of the high-shoos, as they have Tongues to utter, Eares to hear, Oppor­tunities to meet with, and envy to detract from a needy man, who shall need no o­ther misery then to become cheap in his Countrey neighbours thoughts, and to need their supply before he may com­mand it as his due. For as rich Princes, and sage, in the treasuring up their Re­venues, and other accessions, never shall want love from the subjects they oppress not, nor fear hatred from the Foes and Traytors they are able by themselves to reduce and repel; so shall great men ne­ver be abated the good respect and cha­racter of those they live amongst, or deal with, where they spend nothing but what they can allow, and not pinch or defeat them that are to subsist upon what they serve in to support that greatness. Which I hope in the main irrefragable, makes me (in conclude to live within bounds of For­tune and degree is worthy Noble and Gentlemens consideration.

SECT. XLII.
Adviseth Great men, To conform to the Laws, and to be Patrons of Order and Vertue.

SEventhly, I do heartily beseech them to conform to the Laws, and be Pa­trons of Order and Vertue: For the Law being the Standard of right and wrong, and the size, according to which Order and Vertue in its demonstrative and refe­rential capacity is stated, for Great men not to be Presidents of conformity to, and propagation of it, is unbecoming them. And since the Laws,Culpae genus est non [...]e fecisse quod summum. Theodoric. Ep. 5. Var. lib. 3. the measures of good and evil in every Nation, are contrived by the Councel, and promulged by the Majesty and power of the Nation, not to conform to them is to refragate the visi­ble Divinity and express Image of God in the Nation, and to sin against the light of humane Nature, in the contexture of civil Societies; to which Lawes are as neces­sary preservations and furtherances, as Food is to Health, Ayr to Motion, Wa­ter to Nutriment, or any thing is, that is [Page 396] necessary to the being and well-being of creatures: and thereupon though men that have protection by, ow ex debito sub­jection to the Laws,Hot enim intrarem in curia nost­ram decet, qui ad primos ho [...]ores non expendunt meritum suum, sed cum magna susceperint ite­rum majora pro [...]erentur: haec est enim gloria, haec indubitata sententia, frequenter potuisse mereri, per quod Homines con­stat ornari. Alatharic. Rex apud Cassiod. lib. 8. c. 22 as Tutelars to them, yet are Peers and Gen­tlemen more especially obliged to assert, and subserve the Laws, because they are in some measure the Law Contrivers, Regulators, and Passers; and how ludibrious will the Nomo­thetique power be made to be, when the Law is by such remarkable men traversed and impleded? 'Tis no good character Pe­trarch give of some, nor is it at all suitable with true Greatness, In their chairs they are dogmatica, In Cathedris Philosophantur, in actionibus insaniunt, praeci­piunt aliis, praeceptis (que) suis primi obstant primi legibus à se latis derogant, & signiferos se pro­fessi, primi ordines deserunt, primi virtutis imperio rebel­la [...]t. Petrarch. lib. 2. de vita so­litaria Sect. 7. c. 1. in their actions they are leud, they com­mand to others what first they themselves resolve to disobey; they profess themselves Chief [...]ains of Athletiques for the Law, and throw down their Gantlets in de­fiance of all Opposers against it, and God help them, they are the Master-rebels who will not be subject to the vertuous mandats of it; so much of Volusius Metianus his mind and pride are they, that they take pleasure to boast that there is no law in the world that they know not, rather then in [Page 397] doing according to what they know;Die mihi Ma [...] ­gister est ne ulla lex in mundo quam praestes & observes. [...]uevara lib. 1. c. 3. as M. Antoninus smartly replied upon his va­pouring Tutor.

It is of consequence therefore, that Great should also be good men, and good in observance of, and obedience to the Law; for as when Salt has lost his savour, it is unsavoury: so when Lord-lieutenants, Deputy-lieutenants, Parliament-men, Justi­ces of Peace, & all Officers of Justice, are not exemplary, in not offending the Law, the Commons will be less careful, & con­tented to be obedient to the Law; which wise King Iames of famous memory con­sidering, applies to his Son thus: There­fore my Son, sith all people are naturally in­clined to follow their Princes example, Basilicon doron. 2. book p. 166. let it not be said that ye command others to keep the contrary course to that which in your own person ye practise, making so your words and deeds to fight together; but by the con­trary, let your life be a Law-book, and a Mirrour to the people, that therein they may read the practice of their own Laws, and therein they may see by your image what life they should lead. Thus wrote he who knew in book and practice what consequence the example of Great mens conformity to the Law is: and thus has Greatness with Goodness ever demeaned it self. For [Page 398] though priviledge is by the Law due to it, [...]. Arri­anus Epi­ctetus lib. 3. yet not to take it when it may be taken, but to live and do above common per­sons, in exemplarity of Piety, Justice, and Integrity, is chiefly and most unquestio­nably Heroick. Which Ciala Bassa fol­lowed, when there being a custome in Con­stantinople, that the owner of the house, with all his family whose the house is, first set on fire, should be burned for his negligence; and it hapned that in the Emperour Mahomet, father to Achmet, the Serail was set on fire; he very bravely pre­sented a petition to the Emperour,Tu [...] kish History p. 13 [...]2. that this custome might be abolished, holding it unjust that other men should be put to death, and the same be let pass in the Empe­rours own house. Thus did the brave Iohn of Gaunt Beaufort behave himself, temps R. 2. for being by the King created Mar­quess of Dorset, which H. 4. in hatred of R. 2. deprived him of, the Commons of England in Parliament loving Iohn of Gaunt very dearly, made earnest suit to H. 4. that the said dignity of Marquess of Dorset might be again restored to him: but he himself distasting this new Title, and never heard of before those daies, A rare Pre­sident. Camb [...]en Bri­tannia p. 217. utterly re­fused the same: which probably he did, not more to avoyd the envy of a new [Page 399] [...]oyned Title, then to shew his voluntary [...]bmission to the Law, which had damn­ [...]ed it, and in whose judgment he was to [...]xquiesce.

For, next the mercy of God in good Governours and good Government, no­ [...]ing can be a more real help to Reforma­tion and Ease of Government in this Nati­ [...]n, as at all times, so more especially now, [...]hen Great Mens regularity and exempla­ [...] Virtue; (a good and laudable life is the [...]est Herald, and makes the most popular [...]roclamation of Nobility and Generosity,) [...]hich will serve the King and his Lawes [...]ore by the fame and attraction of it, [...]hen by all the noise of Titles, the raunt­ [...]gs of Visceration, and the luxury of car­ [...]ival Hospitality; for the Commons of [...]ngland are knowing, judicious, and well­given people, and they are not cogg'd [...]nto belief of good from those that are not good in their souls and lives; nor do they [...]illingly subject to Lawes or Government [...]nded to them by men obvious to their [...]ception, or taken by them, for loose and [...]eligious: But where a sober and learned Prelate, Baron, Parliament-man, Justice, [...] Gentleman dwells, and is active, it is [...]erceived the Country is more orderly then elsewhere; for those Great Mens [Page 400] actions, are the Commoners Rules, and they are ashamed and afraid to provoke Power where Comorade to Virtue. 'Tis a notable Note Platina inserts in the life of Pope Paul the Third, who was a wise and worthy man,Nulla unquam à multis saeculis comitia sinceri­us, simplicius, concordiu [...]ve, inita peracta (que) suntquam nullo livore protracta, nullo ambitu corrupta, nul­loque demum met [...] precipi­tata fuere. Platina in vita Pauli tertii. and shewed his judicial goodness in this, That he kept the Conclave sincere, single-hearted, and united; so that, as Sentences therein were not precipitated, so neither protracted, but calmly and imparti­ally expedited, which was not wont to be the Character of Popes. In like manner, if the Nobles and Gentlemen in their Pre­cincts and Jurisdiction be knowing, and diligent, how easily, and with general ac­clamation may they lead the▪ willing, and convince the obstinate to a ready obedi­ence? And if the Fear of God be in a loyal Great Man, and when he sees men offend God, he can convince them by the reason of a Religious Argument, and make their souls tremble by pressing the Law of God violated by them upon their consciences, and touch them by the dint and dart of God in their tender parts; (which [...] Tutouring of Gods, [...] in Mino [...]. Plato calls [...] Gods Scepter and Power in good mens Custody and Dispensation:) Then are the people readily awed by them, and be­come useful to, because obedient accor­ding [Page 401] to Law and Policy of Government; [...]. Arrianus Epict. lib. 3. c. 24. p. 333. Ed. Holst. nor is there any rigour that can so prevail with the people of England, as this swasi­on of conviction from Virtue and Piety in those that are Governours, and ought to be Examples and Promoters of it in o­thers, which Petrus Blesensis made excel­lent use of in his Defence of his Chaplin­ship to his Lord His then Grace of Canter­bury, which was aspersed by a Schole-Ma­ster, as a life of lazyness; though he e­vades the taunt, and vindicates the truth thus, In the House of my Lord the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, In domo Domini mei Cantuarien­sis Archiepisc. viri literatissimi sunt, apud quos invenitur omnis rectitudo Iustitiae, omnis cautela Providentiae, omnis forma Do­ctrinae; Illi post Orationem, & ante Comestionem in lectione, in disputatione, in causarum de­cisione jugl [...]er se exercent, om­nes questiones regni nodosae re­feruntur ad nos, quae cum inter S [...]cios nostros in commune audi­torium deducuntur, unusquisque secundum ordinem suum sine lite & obtrectatione ad bene dicen­dum mentem suam acui [...], & quod illi conciliosius videtur, & sa [...]ius de vena subtiliore pr [...] ­ducit. Petrus [...]lesens. Epist. 6. there are lodged continually the most learned men, with whom is the uprightness of Iustice, the wariness of Providence, all good method of Learning: these, after Chappel and before din­ner do exercise themselves in reading, disputing, and stating [...]f Iudgments; all difficult and knotty questions are referred to our resolution, every one in our common meeting according to his Seniority and Place, de­claring what he most judiciously and with greatest weight of rea­son conceives: thus Blesensis. [Page 402] And by this he purged his life from Idleness, and his Lords house from uselesness. I say, when Greatness is thus advantagious to the publique, it comes with all the force of prostration upon every thing that op­poses it.

This I would not be thought to present under any notion less generous then pub­lique good, and serious courage for Piety and good living, though it be by some branded with the Title of Puritanism or Phanatacism: For though I know the Do­natist or Gnostique in any man is a shrewd advance to anti­subjection,Venistis rabidi, venistis irati, membra laniantes Ecclesiae, subtiles in seductionibus, in aedibus immanes, [...]ilios pacis ad bella provo [...]antes, de sedibus suis multos seci [...]is extorres, cum conducta manu venientes. Basi­li [...]as invasistis. &c. Optatus Milevitand. lib, 2. p. 54, ad­vers. Donatistas. and to meditative Rebellion, and Schismatical dis­union, and men of such deceit­ful Sanctity, and Pharisaical va­pour, are pests to Societies, and dead flies in the Noblest poli­tique Composition: yet is Ho­liness and Morral exactness of conversa­tion, in any man, so proper a companion of, and obliger to Loyalty and subjection to Government, that it is impossible to find it separate from it, or to expect truth of fidelity upon Noble grounds any where but in such well tempered and well in­structed souls. And therefore to rebuke those Hot-spurs, who think S'blood, [Page 403] S'wounds, Rammee, Damme, (words not for a Heathens mouth.) Those that think to Drink, Drab, Raunt, Prophane, the only and best Cryterions of loyalty and trustableness,Vbi enim regnat ebrietas, ratio exulat, intellectus obtunditur consilia devian [...], consilia sub­vertuntur. Petrus [...]les. Ep. 7. do I profess my prealledged sense, That the King is best and most effectually served by Pious,Quorum exitio intelligi possit eorum imperiis Rempublicam amplisicatam qui Religionibus paruis [...]ent. Cicero lib. 2. de Nat. deorum. Moderate, So­ber, Learned, Well-directed Gentlemen, whose resolution is to observe the Laws themselves, and thereby to invite others so to do,Note this. or to shame and punish them that obstinately oppose themselves to it:Quod me corripi putes affectio est, ideoque mihi acceptiora sunt vestra verbera, quam eorum ubera qui me lactant. Idem Ep. 6. For as he is not a good man that desires to live without Law; so, he is not a good Subject, that having a good and just Law, dares wilfully and propensedly violate it; Nor does he de­serve any better Title, then singular and proud,Adeo non erit Christianus qui eam negabit quam confiten­tur Christiani, & his argume [...] ­tis negabit, qui­bus utitur non Christianus. Tertullianus lib de Resurrect. Carnis, c. 3. who vehemently reasons against National constitutions, though they con­clude his private liberty and judgment; for there must be in the Nation some Civill ultimate Judge, which surely is in England the great Judgment of the Nati­on, the King in his Parliament, & by them particular Subjects must be bounded in their judgment of Civil duty to the Laws [Page 404] of their Establishment: And I pray God I may live no longer then to see the Law in power and credit, against all opposition of private and seduced spirits.

SECT. XLIII.
Commends the Meditation of God, Death, and Iudgment, to Great men in their Conversations, Actions, and Counsels.

EIghthly, and lastly, I do humbly com­mend to the Nobles and Gentry of England, That in all their Lives, Coun­sels, and Actions, they would think of God, Death, and Judgment. Of God, the Soveraign being, whom to know, is life e­ternal; whom to love, is to be holy; whom to live with,Iohn 17. 3. Ch. 14. v. 15. is to be happy. Of Death, the common and inevitable state of man­kind; into which the greatest pride, and gallantest pomp must be resolved, and with which be veyled and vanquished. Of Judgment, the Just Assise, wherein distri­bution shall be of rewards unutterable, of Torments intolerable. These three well and throughly debated, and then applied, as incitations to Vertuous and Godly de­meanours, [Page 405] and dehortating terrours to the contrary, will be notable both Defensa­tives and Cordials.

Concerning God, though the thoughts of him are precious, yet there are some that have a specifique tendency to the whole latitude of godly life, and godly action; being not only Therapeutique and Medicinal, to heal the flaws and gashes that the violence of depravation has made in the soul, but Energical and Incentive to exercise of spiritual faculties to spiri­tual purposes. And these I suppose may be reduced to five heads, (in which the whole of a Christians meditation of God, in order to sins anticipation in its preva­lence over man, is most effectually visible,) The purity of Gods nature, the power of his Hand, the preception of his Eye, the obligation of his Mercy, the severity of his Sentence. These well considered, and applied, by that serious digestive faculty that sincere piety discharges its thoughts into, and from whence it draws forth its Spiritual Artillery upon occasion of Spi­ritual conflict, & Satans temptation, make the first degree of my commendation of this Head to Great mens meditation.

1. The purity of Gods Nature is the [...]ourse and Womb of all purity; for the [Page 406] created Purity, being but a Ray of that Purity increate; as to the quantum it is short, to the quale, it is incomparable to it: God is pure Fontally, as Purity is his Essence, and as Purity is in the verity, though inutterability of its being. Thus pure he centrally himself only is, who is light, and no darkness. Now, in as much as to this Divine purity there is no possi­bility of attainment,1 Iohn 1 [...] 5. In Deo est mag­nitudo virtutis & perfectionis non autem mag­nitudo molis. S [...]us. Thomas part, 1. q. 42, art. 11. because it is incom­municable, (assumption of Manhood into the Godhead, being onely in the Hypo­statique union of Christ, and without pos­sibility of after condescension or assimi­lation; that which of Purity [...]s attainable by man, (being but a following of his pre­sident, and an obedience to his precepts,) is yet as close an access to God, and as full a price for glory as Mortality can attain to, or offer for it.

And therfore since God is perfect & un­alterable purity, as his command is to be pure, so his acceptation is according to the truth of purity in men & things. For so far, and no farther does the purity of God admit mortality, as it is defecated by pu­rity of intention and sincerity; God, that made the heart, loves purity in the Cabi­net of his Residence, and Treatment; and therefore, [...]eb. 11. 6. as he that will come to God, must [Page 407] believe his being, that he is: so he that will converse with God, must be pure, as he is, For God heareth not sinners; Iohn 9. 31. nor doth puri­ty correspond with defilement: and there­upon thou art,1 Pet. 1. 15, 16. O man, by Gods purity cal­led upon, to be pure as he is, if thou wilt be happy as he is,Matth. 5. 8. because blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. And as thy heart, so thy deeds must be pure; nay, if the heart be upright, the Emanations from the heart (transports and temptations only excepted) will not be halting, or down-right lame. Chri­stianity is a votal regularity, a holy Order of reclucism;Note this. a temporal exinanition; 'tis an abstraction of the soul from the body of sin, and an oblation of all that is wor­thy, to him who is worthy all; because Wise, Pure, Merciful, Powerful above all. And thereupon the consideration of Gods Nature, has an avulsive operation; it makes the Christian sit loose from, and be indifferent to this world,1 Iohn 2. 15, 16. which is so ho­stile to, and quarrelsome with Purity.

It considers it self under the vow of God, to be as he is, as far as imitation of him can have being in it;The true Puritan. now the seri­ous and practical Puritan commands his thoughts to be holy,Psalm 139. 17, 23. his words to be edi­fying, his works to be warrantable,1 Cor. 14. 26. his [Page 408] gate to be compos'd, his pleasures to be innocent, his company to be Angelique, his soul and body thorowly spotless.Psalm 119. 63. 2 Pet. 3. 14. This Notion the Purity of God portends, and the Idea of this it raises in the mind and resolution of every holy contemplater of, & active man in it. St. Bernard writing to a Religious order of his time,Quod geritur in caelis hoc & in Cellis, Quid non est hoc? vaca­re deo, frui deo, Quod cum secundum or­dinem piè & fideliter cele­bratur in Cellis audeo dicere Sancti Angeli Del Cellas ha­bent pro caelis & aeque dele­ctantur in Cel­lis a [...] in caelis. S [...]us Bernardus lib. de vita so­litaria ad Fra­tres de mon [...]e dei. exhorts them That they would make their Cells Epitome's of Heaven, as men that were vacant to, and only at leisure to welcome God, and to en­joy him, to be as Angels Holy and serviceable, that the Angels may frequent and delight in their Cells as their Heaven. Thus St. Ber­nard. For I have often thought a Militant Saint in mind ascended, is Heaven Trium­phant in content and transport descen­ded. And the grace of us pupils in Earth is the joy of those Angels, Our Guardians, in Glory.

And how should it be otherwise, but that the consideration of Gods purity should transform his to be pure, who are commanded to it, as their principals en­action, and are enabled to it by their Principals adjutancy and corroboration [...] Fer it is God that works both to will and do purity. Contemplate then, O ye Nobles and Gentry, what purity is; that it is the patefaction of God, and the accomoda­tion [Page 409] of his ineffability to humane under­ [...]tanding, and the sublimation of the soul [...] life, to that achme of rarefaction, that is [...]xxt degree to perfection it self; and then there is argument enough to draw your desire and compensate your vehemence.

Look, O look upon God as altogether ancircled with purity, and not accessible [...]o, without it; and thereby consider the consequence of that grace which is so gra­ [...]ed with neerness to, yea oneness with God. Say to thy soul, is God pure? Yes, bure, and therefore God; How pure? All [...]ure; How can he be not all pure, whose being is purity, and without whom purity [...] nothing? for what it has, it has from [...]im: His Eyes are pure, Hab. 1. 13. his Word is pure, Psalm 12. 6. Faith in, and Charity to him is pure, 1 Tim. 1. 5. His blessing is upon the pure in heart, and way, Psalm 119. 1. Yea, there is nothing be­loved by, or abiding with him, but is pure; his Religion is pure, Iam. 1. 27. his Wisdom is pure, Iam. 3. 17. his Saints minds are pure, 2 Pet. 3. 9. his Ierusalem is pure, Revel. 1. 8. the gold of it pure the water of it pure, Rev. 22. 1. the light of it pure, Rev. 22. 5. his Waies, Spirit, Attributes, all pure: And if the Principles of Wisdom direct men to attain their ends by the conduct and im­ployment [Page 410] of proper and adequate mean [...] thereunto, then to enjoy the purity o [...] God, as it is God, that is to see and be with him in glory, is to becomepure. This medi­tation sadly thought upon and pressed up [...]on the soulary powers, is able to traduce more the vanity of this world, then any enamourment can commend it; for in that it is a creature of so pure an Architect, and is so loveless, because so unlike its Creator, it is then to be hated and a­voyded, not only because it is im­permanent, but also more chiefely as it is the snare and diversion of purity.

But if the Purity of God be not, O im­pure Christian, thy shame; yet know, that the Power of God ought to be thy re­strainment and curb: Consider his power that made the World, and all in it; and can dissolve it, and make that not to be, that is misused to so ill purpose; this Po­wer of God is his Thunder and Lightning after the Former, his Still voyce neglected and depraeciated; by this Terrour of his Power is he in the eyes of the world glo­rious,Deut. 9. 19. Iob 37. 23. Exod. 15. 6. By this display of his Grandeur doth he cherish his dejected ones, who therefore praise him for their comfort by, and protection from it, Psalm 21. 13.Psal. 59. 16. By this Reyn and Bridle doth he [Page 411] moderate the world, and repress the Phae­ [...]ontique hurry of it, Psalm 66. 17. From this doth he batter down the confidence, and damp the merriment of his ene­mies, Psalm 50. 22. According to this is he had in awof those that are too wicked, for reason to work upon, or for death almost to Master.

Consider then, O Nobles and Gentlemen, the great Diana of your boast,Malos principes faciunt nimia licentia, rerum copia amici im­probt, satellites detestandi. Vo. piscus in Au­reliano. the rock of your confidence, not only mated, but e­ven undermined. If your actions are so craftily manadged, or your persons so high in favour, that the Tribunals of the world can neither discover your guilt, nor punish your greatness, yet there is a hand of power stronger then your whole loynes, which can reach what ever its eye disco­vers, to revenge the insolence, and rescind the contextures of their enmity. Nothing more becomes High blood, and Great place, then to understand God and its self aright, and to entrench nothing on that prerogative which can as soon re­medy its injury,Eccles, 5. 2. as discover it, If God be in Heaven, and we men on Earth; if he be absolute, infinite, in all attendencies of re­ward and punishment; if the whole crea­tion be his Army, the Angels his Janiza­ries, the Elements his Bayliffs, and his crea­tive [Page 412] word recalled, determines the com­mission of life and being: What madness possesses the Viragoes of flesh, and the Fu­rious drivers of this sublunary World, That they live in contempt, speak in con­tradiction, enjoy with forgetfulness; when all these repasts to life are but Flowers of pleasure, which God pleases to bedeck his Garden and Nursery with, to enter­tain our short life, and to while out the labour and vanity of it; which though e­very man must give account for, accor­ding to the proportion of the sweetness and recreation he has exhausted from them; yet supereminently must they that are the Sons of the Morning, the Gyants of flesh and blood, who run in their law­less races over all inclosures; and pro­strate all seperations;Consider this seriously. will God, think ye, be easily put off in his demand of satisfa­ction for abused Patience, and derided Purity; for ill used Parts, and not used Talents? will he allow it for a good plea, I ruled according to reason of State, and with reservation of those secrets, that are neither to be detected nor parted from: I was vertuous at the rate of the Age and Peers to me that were in it; and had I done otherwise, I must have been singu­lar; I loved no liberty, but such as was [Page 413] suitable to my port, and such as those took that are called good Subjects,Non admittit status fidei alle­gationem neces­sitatis nulla est necessitas▪ delin­quendi quibus una necessitas est non de­linquendi. Ter­tullianus lib. de Coron Militis. and good Christians? O but, O ye Nobles and Gentry, consider this World and Gods Tribunal judges by different rules, and values at [...]nequal rates; and having in your Bap­ [...]ism renounced this World, and accepted the Cross of Christ for your Signature, the [...]w of Christ for your Rule, and the love [...]f Christ for your Magnetique; your [...]eerage is by another Compass, and your senses to be superelemented. This worlds [...]ove, joy, fashion, example, content is to [...]e alien to you; not mens examples, or [...]our own conveniencies, are to engage or [...]gulate you; but yee are to weigh your obligation and conform to your Allegi­ [...]nce: You are not not to be conformed [...] this world, Rom 12. 2. but to be transformed in the [...]irit of your mind; Matth 1. not to revenge, but for­ [...]ive enemies. Haec sunt quae carnis opera ap­petitus anxieta­tis & vecordiae actus abomina­tionis & im­munditiae exi­tus paenitudinis & verecundiae. Petrus Blesens. Ep. 15. Not to do as the most, but the best do; and to hate those actions [...]hich are troublesom in their desire, abomi­ [...]able in their act, penal in their consequence, [...] Blesensis notably expresses them. And [...]f this ye do not, the wrath of God im­ [...]ends you, and the terrour of God will [...]cede you, and the comforts of God will [...]oid you, and the plagues of God will [...]nihilate you. These are the sentences [Page 414] of severe inquisition, and the Decrees [...] the Star-chamber of Heaven, Indignatio [...] and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upo [...] every soul that obeyes not the Gospel: Rom. 2. 8, 9. upo [...] the Iew first, and also upon the Gentile. An [...] is not this hand of God so impartial, [...] sure, so terrible, considerable to your im [...]pedement and avocation from sin.

Yet further ruminate the intentness, in diversion and penetration of Gods eye alwaies upon, alwaies within thee, an [...] thy actions, in the visible denudation, an [...] clear scrutiny of thee and them,Heb. 4, 13. All thing are naked and bare before the eyes [...] him with whom we have to do. No ab [...]struse designe, no Tenebrious corner, [...] Eclips'd Horizon, no profound Cave [...] secret from him whose Microscope mag [...]nifies the least atome, and whose vehicl [...] carries to the perception of the most re [...]mote object; He it is that knows the im [...]ginations of the thoughts of mans heart to b [...] evil, Gen. 6. 5. And as they are wicked, a [...]bominates them,Isai 59. 7. Prov. 6. 26. Bringing ev [...] upon men, Ch. 66. v. 18. as the fruits of their thought, Ierem. 6. 19. And if such insect pullula [...]tions, and sinful nonentities, as I may [...] say; if such putid inarticular Embrio [...] are discoverable to his Omniscience, wha [...] plain and full view shall we not think h [...] [Page 415] [...] of the daring Effronteries, that chal­ [...]nge the Noonlight; those monsters that [...] begot, fostered, and produced by the [...]homoths and the Leviathans of lubri­ [...]iy and violence?Isa. 48. 4. How will the brow of [...]iss, Ier. 3. 3. and the whores forehead, Ier, 17. 1. have the con­ [...]ence of proclaiming their sin, Isa. 3 9. like Sodom, [...]d not hiding it? Omnia prorsus & in quandam caenosam latri­nam confluxe­runt flagitia ne [...] vel unum ei vitium deerat, Apuleins lib. 9. de Sergio Galba. How will the Worlds [...]soloms, that are impudent on hous-tops? [...] the Ammons, that are kept at distance [...] no lines of nearness? the Reubens, that [...] parricide their fathers pleasures? the [...]liogabalusses, the Sardanapalusses, that [...]blish their wantonnesses to prostitute [...]dicity?Loquebar enim leges spiritu in illic praedict [...]s exhortationibus, de terribili sen­tentia distincti & extremi ju­dicii, & dice­ham, Quod necappellationis remedio nec supplicationis suffragio nec actione infactum subsidiatur nec all quo restitu­tionis beneficio poterat atten­tari, Petrus Ble [...]ensis. Fr. 8. How will the wickednesses in [...]gh places and persons hope for a covert [...] apologie? will he not look upon these [...]iscreants, and their mischiefs, with his [...]oody and enraged eye, and ride to the [...]venge of them upon his pale horse? and [...]ite these with his sharp Sword, and [...]ound these with his envenomed arrow? [...]ill he not vex these in his sore displea­ [...]re, and turn down the lees and dregs of [...]ell upon these setled and daring sinners? [...]ho have no respect to the Holy one of Israel, [...] the godly have, Isai. 17. 7. Though they have [...] away the evil day far from them; and [...]ough they say, no eye sees us, and conclude [...]eir to morrow of sin shall be as this day, [Page 416] and much more abundant. I say, notwith­standing all their braving and roystery, may not God bring a woe on these sha [...]dowing their wickedness with wings [...] Isai. 17. 1. May not God prove to these a Lion of dilaceration, and a Moth o [...] corrosion? May not he bathe his whetted Sword in the blood of these Nobles and Great men, which are as the Constella­tions of Heaven, above the reach of earth­ly contradicting? Yes sure: for these sin [...] and sinners, God may justly Turn th [...] streams of Nations into Pitch, Isa 34 9. and the dus [...] into Brimstone, and make the land as bur­ning Pitch. And all this prefational to Hell, the last and unreleasable lodge o [...] impenitent sinners: And this he will do [...] to vindicate the perspicacity of his eterna [...] eye, from which nothing is conclaved [...] not the adulterers stollen pleasure, no [...] the Oppressors injustified cruelty, nor the [...] Curtizans impudent sorcery, nor the Di­vines practical Atheism, nor the Lay-man [...] prophane Sacriledge, nor the learned man [...] withholding the truth in unrighteousness nor the Nobles and Gentlemans persistenc [...] and confidence in wicked pleasures, and beastly sensualities. And when the eye of God is thus lift up to scorn the scor­ners of his Holiness, and to remove from [Page 417] them the pleasure of their eyes? How bitter will the remembrance of their folly be? and how anxiously will they reflect upon their wisdom, Knowledge, Greatness, that hath perverted them, and curse those ravings of theirs, that are thus rewarded with their own shame, & their Gods curse. O Lord, what a Hell will be in the con­science of a sinner, when the fire of his tor­ment and auguish of his conscience shall be fed by the fuel of abused mercy, and contradicted goodnes: and how shall it aggravate his dolours, and burst his spirit for very abhorrence,Quid tibi & pauperi sacel­lano (superbe & Fatue) Tu emi­nentiam generis tui tuâ gravi­tate deprimis & conculcas, ille in medio suorum sancta & honesta con­versatione prae­radiat. Petrus Bles. Ep. 3 ad nobilem Iactan­tem. to see a poor Com­moner, a soul that he would not breath upon, look towards, or give a good word to, when this wretch, whom his lofty looks thought fellow only to the dogs of his flock, shall be [...]iducially quiet, and hope­fully couragious, to encounter death, and shall have a seat at Gods right hand; when this great and wise disdainer shall be ex­truded Heaven, and intruded into the place of Devils?

Hearken to this,In compendiam mittimus mala si presentia fa­cimus esse ju­dicia. Cas [...]iod. Var. lib 6. c. 2 1 O ye Nobles and Great men, that too often think of death never [...]ill it comes, and are too often unprepa­red for it when it comes; who ought to be the Lights of your Countreys, the Tutors of your Neighbours, in all morral litera­ture, [Page 418] the terrors of your ages Exorbitan­cies; be not blind Guides to your seeing Countreymen, be not dead Flies in the oytment of Grandeur, cause not the way of Honour, and the worth of Blood, to be depreciated by your oblivion of, and con­traition to God, but let this eye of Gods condescension, (in these distinguishing ex­ternal mercies, expressed to you above o­thers,) provoke your eyes to be lifted up to him, in holy gratitude, in humble love, in fixed faith, in exemplary charity: That you may expiate for the failings of some Great men, by the vertues of you Great men, that are Great and Good.

And that this Ye may do, consider the mercy of God ought to melt, and the pa­tience of God to shame, you into this holy Justice to it and your selves. This the Apostle presses upon his Romans, Rom. 12. 1. I beseech you therefore (saith he) by the mercies of God, that ye present your bo­dies a living Sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Where the Apostle enforces his argument on them, from not only his Apostolique con­descension, in beseeching them whom he might command, but from Gods goodness to them, not barely in the mercy of his Mi­nistery, which though he knew salvifique [Page 419] to them,De quatuor [...]iliabus magnae mise [...]icordiae dictum est, quae sunt immistio amaritudin [...]s, substractio op­portunitatis, v [...]rtus resist e [...] ­di, & sani [...]as affectationis. Serm de Tripl. misericord. & quatuor mise­rationibus. Ostendit uno exemplo ei ritu­alia perf [...]ci per res solidiores quae unibris istis ex adverso re­spondeant, Iu­daei offerunt corpus mortu [...]m vos corpus vi­num, id ect, una cum corpore actiones ejus, n [...]m agere est vivere. Grat. in locum Hostia vivens est cor­pus pro domino afflictum, A [...] ­selmus in locum. yet he magnifies not amongst them, but by the mercies of God, which are exemplified by Godly sorrow wrought for sin, by defeat of opportunity in which, to commit it, by gift of grace to resist it, by confirming them in a constancy of good reso­lution. I say, the Apostle does not only press them by these, which St. Bernard calls the daughters of Gods great mercies; but moves them to become Gods in their bo­dies fully, no member, no faculty exemp­ted, freely (for thats offering our selves,) without any compulsion or mercenary re­spect; and this by holiness, tending to acceptation with him: From the conside­ration, that thus to do, is to be reasonable ereatures, and thus to offer is to offer to God reasonable service: For if God made the bodies, and has honoured the bodies of men above other creatures, with the inhabitation of reason in them; is it not rea­sonable, that their bodies should be devo­ted to God, who is the giver of the life & lustre of their bodies, by the inspiration of their divine souls, to quicken their bodies.

And this Gods Spirit provokes Ye to in the conviction of your reason, and the convulsions of your conscience. That God has made you among Creatures, Men; [...]mon Men, Christians; among Christians, [Page 420] Free-men; among Free-men, Noble and Gentle-men, are cogent exertions of mer­cy, in retributions to which, your lives are too short, your parts to low, your fortunes too narrow, to give mercy a suitable re­turn; and when you do the utmost you can, and above, (as it were) your selves, if yet you are short of that you ought, how unlike your selves, and your just ac­knowledgements to your God, are of ye a­mong Noble & Gentlemen who by Oathes and Blasphemies, Adulteries, Oppressions of poor Neighbours and Creditors, indi­ligence in your Charges, and heedlesness of Gods service, endavour to provoke God to determin your pace, which is yet as a river, and your righteousness as a wave of the Sea. Isai. 6. 18.

For when sins of Great men are enor­mous, Exemplary, Truculent, and the sufferers by them have no Earthly reme­dy, God takes them to task, and sets them home in the fatal return of them, which leaves them wretched, pittiless, remedi­less. For who shall gather, when he scat­ters? who shall bind up, when he breaks in pieces? who shall powre in Balm, when he causes the wound to rage, and the playster to be invalid? Remember, O remember, He that has, waited that he [Page 421] might be gracious; Isai. 30. 18. & been discouraged any longer to wait, that he might be gracious, has a Fan in his hand to purge, Ier. 15. 7. a Fining-pot to try, Mal. 3. 2. a Hammer to break in pieces, Iur. 23. 29. and an Ax to hew down, Ier. 51. 20. impenitent sinners: and such all will appear that are rather vi­tiously Great, then vertuously Good; and then, what ever silence, your power, and mens civility favours here your vanities with, the Truth, the whole Truth of them then will out; and then shall ye appear to be the sinners whom the long-suffe­rance of God has not led into, nor kept in, continual repentance, nor work'd into amendment of life. O therefore forget not Saint Bernards Meditations, Consider whence you came, Vnde veneris & erubesce, ubi sis & inge­misse, quo va­das & contre­misce Serm. de primordiis me­diis & novif­fimus nostris. and be abashed; where, and what you are, and be sorrowful, and per­plexed; whether you are passing post, and be amazed, and tremble. And, O Nobles and Gentlemen, having thus meditated of God, and approved your selves Candidates to his favour, you will be the better disposed to die comfortably, and appear in judge­ment couragiously; to die in the comfort of God lived unto,Primo domi­nandi spes in arduo, ubi sis ingressus ad­sunt studia & ministri Ta­cit. Annal. 4. is to prepossess God lived with: 'Tis to have a chaire of con­nexion between the upper and lower Worlds: 'Tis to be Magnetique (as I may say) of God into a Mans soul, and to [Page 422] breath out Hyperhumane Hallelujahs: 'Tis to contend and vye with Angels in comfort of condition, rapture of Intuiti­on, and delight of permanency: 'Tis to be what God is, fixable on a Created stump, and improvable into an increated attainment. This is the true Nobility and Generosity that God designed, our nature little lower then the Angels: For in that he hath made us Kings and Priests to himself by effectual vocation, testified in an holy life and death; what has be done less then superiorated us to Angels, who are but ministring spirits to the Elect, and so under service inferiour to our Co­parcenry with him in Soveraignty. This is to be in Nazianzens words, [...], Nobles Indeed, Orat. 23. not in the sence that is ordinary [...], as re­ferrable to ancient descents and inscriptions of Monuments of Ancestors, who hundreds of years since were men of renown, but as Nobles by vertue, and Nobles by the fear of God first in their own hearts, and then in in the effects of it, Piety in others.

O Nobles and Gentry, how zealous is my soul to bespeak you for Christs Virgins, whose Lamps he hath filled with Oyl of gladness above your fellows in Manhood? how great a present, and how welcome [Page 423] a boon to my holy ambition would that Oratory be which might entice you to be Enamoured of Gods mercy, and winn you to be reconciled to Gods love, and grateful to his Sonnes condescension and bounty in his purchase of you? How doe I long to obtain a Starr-ships Oriency in Heaven, upon procuring though but one of you convert to God, upon this my humble address to you; and (I hope) my honest zeale for you. Be not heedless of your own good, who are so supplicated to be wise in this your day, for Eternity; fear not any undervaluation For this pru­dence, which hath the promise of this, and of the life that is to come. Consider that Golden saying of That Magnificent Heroique, I care not much to be reckoned among the unfortunate, Eicon Basilic. c. 23. if I be not in the black List of Irreligious, and Sacrilegious Princes; no restraint shall ensnare my soul in sin, nor gain that of me which may make my Enemies more insolent, my Friends asha­med, nor my name accursed. For never man served God for nought, nor are the Indempnifyings of the name against dis­honour, and the soul against Hell fire, small attainments, or insuasive motives to love, fear, follow, and resign to God, our trusts for the obtaining of what is best for us. [Page 424] And in order thereto to do nothing that is contrary to, abhorred by, or inconsi­stent with, his Regency over, presence with, approbation of, remuneration to, Men and Things.

And that, O Nobles and Gentlemen, this humble Application may not savour more of a weeping and soft devotion, then of a solid reason, and preventive prudence; give me leave to offer my reasons for this Importunity. The first whereof is, to al­loy the vanity of life, which though it be a bounty of God, and a delight of na­tures, yet is no other then a centre of Cy­phers, which in their connumeration makes no summe of real consistence, or durable amount. For it is but a Termer to Gods pleasure, and in a great degree servile to every accident, the compliance of which therewith doth not more beau­tifie and sustain it, then the contrary does perstristate, eclipse, and nul the contents of it; which Hegesius the Cyrenean Phi­losopher did so accurately, and with such affectionate passions, set forth the miseries of, that Many to avoid them, laid violent hands upon themselves. Indeed there needs no fuller comment on the nature of life, then that curt determination of Solo­mans, which comprehends at once both [Page 425] [...] summe of his own wisdom as a King, [...]nd his own misery as a man, placed in a [...]orld, all the arrivals in which are but [...]nity and vexation of spirit; Eccles. 1. 14. Ch, 2. v, 11. & v. last. vanity in re­ [...]d of its Elementary composition, and [...] tenuours connexion of sublunaries, [...]hich are the arteries of its motion, and [...]he ligaments of its fastning; and vexation [...] spirit, in order to that penal calamity, [...]oth present and future, which, without Gods preventing and condonating mercy, [...]t betrayes man to merit, and delivers [...]an up to suffer for, while, for the enjoy­ [...]ent of a minuits sensuality, and a few years wander from his chief good, he not only hazzards, but forfeits and incurs, both the eternal loss of the best good, and the eternal passion of the worst evil, Gods displeasure, and the frustration of his bles­ [...]d intuition and fruition.

In asmuch then as the vanity of life [...]easured up in a Beauteous face, a Strong body, a Learned brain, a brave Fortune, interest in Favourites, Conquest of diffi­culties, Enjoyment of ends, Evasion of snares, Gratification of passions, Exempti­on from Diseases, prosperity in Families, accession to Honour, and the like; which are the greatest attainments of life, are difficult to come by, uncertain to hold, [Page 426] vexatious to part with: which made hi [...] in Plutarch to cry out, Where is the cons [...]stency and pride of Power? where the grea [...] Lydian Monarch Crassus? [...], &c. where Xer xe, who glutted Hellespont with his ships? Ar [...] they not all passed and entombed? is no [...] their glory ingrav'd with their bodies? an [...] all the tumour of their Equipage vitiated by a putrid superduction of more numerou [...] Worms, who worry and feast upon their Car­cases. I say, sinceConcillorum naturae partici­pem. Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. 2. c. 12. Hyparchus natures Coun­sellour, and Eudoxus the Suns intimate, and Archimedes the Worlds Operator, and Solomon the Universal Librarier, since the Philosophers, Conquerours, Princes, Theologues,Preach. 9. 8. Artists of the several ages of time, are incinerated & remember nothing of their own, nor know nothing of our affairs, but are all after the favour, honour, pleasure, command of life, receded into silence, and laid asleep in oblivion, what a vanity is it to affect life, or any thing in it, impetuously; while what is considera­ble in them, is so coy to obtain, so unfixed to prosecute? Or, how can men wisely compose themselves to their service, under which no man is or can be free; Or, la­ment for their losse, which are thievs to all that is vertuous, serene, and communica­tive in us

[Page 427] Yet thus are all the best of sublunary glories, and requests, vexatious and anga­ [...]ious to men; they disturbe the mind, they [...]pede the rest, they debilitate the ap­ [...]etite, they bedull the fancy, they distort [...]he judgment, they trouble Friends, wast [...]ortunes, corrupt Modesties, destroy Re­ [...]utation, deboyst Youth, seduce Age, in­ [...]ect the retirements, and entrench upon [...]he devotions of men; and yet are not [...]woyded, but made the Mistresses they Court, the Altars they Immolate to, the [...]dols they bow down before, the Marks [...]hey aym at: when God wot all that these Datisses, have ever in their mouths, [...] their repast and ditty, [...]. I sing, I fare well, [...] rejoyce, is but a vain shadow, a trouble to get, a torment to keep, a labo­ [...]ynth to engage in, a lethe to live to, a [...]oss to be everlastingly ruined for, much like the titillation of Atepomarus that rain Petty Bellicose King of France, who would not retreat warr against the Ro­ [...]ans, till he and his Army had lustfully satisfied, themselves with the Wives and Daughters of the Romans, which he de­manded them to send forth to that pur­pose; when as, God knows, and Stories tell us, He and his men had their pleasure of Women sent out to them from the Ro­mans; [Page 428] but they were but She-slaves, on whom the French men were so enfeebled, that being layn to sleep to recover their wasted spirits and enfeebled strength, they all a sleep were surprised by the Romans and slain. Thus, and thus only, are the snares of sense, and the pleasures of life, to be accounted of: True joy is termina­ted to vertue, and obtainable only from Supralunaries, non capit has pompas humi­lis domus; The low roof'd lodge of mor­tality entertaines no such Gyant-like joyes and altitudinous assurances: which Ber­nard phrases,Iubilus cordis non strepitus oris, motus gau­diorum non so­nus labiorum, voluntatum non vocum consonantia. The hearts joy, not the mouths motion, the sense of the souls joy; not the sound of the lips agility, a consonancy not of syllables and ayres, but of wills and desires. I confess to live, is the greatest and most acclamated naturall priviledge; 'tis that which is the great evidence of natures perfect work in us,Stus. Bernardus Serm. 1. in Cantic. Cantic. Sunt ista bona consequentia summum bonum non consumm [...]n tia. Seneca de vita beata c. 15. and Gods vitall word to us; but if life be considered by the description of those that have clearest light into the discovery and reallest expe­rience of the result of it, it will appear, is but a vacillating transient futile thing. The wise Eliphaz in Iob terms it a wind, Iob 7. 5. and Iob in Ch. 24. v. 22. saies, No man is sure of his own life. And David tels us, his life is spent in grief, and his years [Page 429] [...] sorrow, Psal. 31. 10. And King Solomon, Who knoweth what is good for a man in this [...], all the daies of his vain life which he [...]ndeth as a shaddow, Eccles. 6. last. And [...]iah professes his Age is departed, and is [...]moved from me, like a Shepheards Tent, [...] have cut off like a Weaver my life, he will [...] me off with pining sickness from day to [...], even to night will thou make an end of [...], Chap. 38. v. 12. And when St. Paul [...]lls the godly, that if their hope were of [...]is life, they were of all men most miserable, 1 Cor. 15. 19. What doth he less then di­ [...]inish this life into nothing of reall good, [...]nd true contribution, to good men.

And therefore, if a man will only summon [...]s own experience to enquire and ver­ [...]ict this, the result of that Justice which [...]at will do to it self, and its entrust, [...]ill confirm, beyond all scruple, That [...] is nothing but a Sea of misery, a Ren­ [...]ezvouz of cares, a Mint of diseases, a [...]ine of dangers, a Rode of Misery, a [...]ss to Forgetfulness. Nor is any man [...]appy further to live,Eccles. 7. 14. Chop. 1. 11. then he lives to [...]lorifie God, to oblige men and immor­ [...]allize himself; which they do best who [...]onour God with their Honours, as David, Josiah, Hezechiah, and all godly great men [...] to do, with their Parts▪ as the Pro­phets, [Page 430] Apostles, Martyrs, Primitive Bishops and all Christian learned Clerks and Gen [...]tlemen, have, and ought further to do, and who oblige men by their examples, wri [...]tings, and actions of vertuous Charity and diffusive goodness; in which none of lat [...] ages has deserved beyond the Famou [...] Pereskius, who, if Gassendus do not Hyper [...]bolize of him, was the true Pandora, that ha [...] the collection and amassation of all vertu [...] in him, above the expression of any Enco [...]mium or Panagerick, Epist. Philippo Valesio ante ope­ra Gassendi. and that not only be [...]cause he was a Mecaenas of Learning, but on that never did in his life any thing mean o [...] little; which, because the most of me [...] fail in, they ought to fall short of the glo [...]ry of this Divinity. For since they live as beasts, not men; as Pagans, not Chri [...]stians, whose god is their belly, whos [...] glory is their shame, whose lust is thei [...] law, whose strength is their confidence whose sensuality is their conscience, whos [...] interest is their friendship, whose falshoo [...] is their wisdome, whose shift is their de [...]ceit, whose words are snares, whose loo [...] are ponyards, whose actions are poysons whose religion is rebellion, whose faith i [...] [...]action; because they live in this riot a [...]gainst reason; and in this breach of the Peace of their Soveraign Lord the King [Page 431] [...]f Heaven in their souls. Therefore are [...]ey to be strangers from the comforts of [...] Almighty, and to be tormented with [...]uilt, before consumed with fire.

O Lord, what Monsters are we men? how [...]attique is even Europe in its production [...] Satyrs, Oedipusses, Centaurs, Apes, Pea­ [...]ocks, Lyons, Wolves, Serpents, Adders, full [...]all Venom & Mortiferanism; which if re­ [...]esentable to sober eyes, in that posture [...]nd turpitude of action, in that evidence of [...]onstrosity and Peccant villany, wherein God sees it, nothing but shame, amazement, [...]nd horror would possess the seers or hea­ [...]rs of that sad spectacle, and and dismall [...]rrative; Good God, when a man con­ [...]ders, that God has bestowed upon man [...] share of Divinity, and endowed his soul with reason, [...]. He­trussio. legati apud Dionis. Halycarnass lib. 5. against which he ought to do [...]thing, it being the direction and line of [...] termination, and enlargment; that its [...]te the body is but the ring in which [...] Jewell soul is set, and life the foyl by [...]hich it is set off to a transparency: Now [...]at men of mortal bodies should have im­mortal vices, and men of divine souls have [...]vellish projects and designes to disho [...]our the divine excellency of it by, is [...] strange Nonsense, and Manless brutish­ [...]ess; yet such is the sinful eddy, and preva­lent [Page 432] currant of life, that it bears every mor­tal down the stream of its vanity into the torrent of enmity against, and displeasure from God; if Adam should be presented to us in his innocence, environed with pleasure, attended with plenty, exempted from sin, consorted with a beauteous mate [...] priviledged with converse with God; and yet This great model of incarnate Divinity, This creature, that had the Prerogative to be the Viceroy of God; and had the ter­rour of his Power, and wisdom, upon all the creatures, who durst not come into This persons presence; [...]. Philo de Adamo In lib. de nobilitate p. 906. nor, into the view of his Majestique eye, nor deserve the rebuke o [...] his terrifying voyce; or provoke the power of his armed hand; if this Adam that was this all, that God could put into the Power of the second, to himselfe, to manage; i [...] Adam thus secured, thus accomplished, be considered, for all this tempted to, and prevailed by, the hising of a Serpent, that crawles on the earth, and licks the durt, and the redness and sweetness of an apple [...] that God had reserved to himself upon the tree of Knowledge,Nec Adam de Baradiso des­cendisset nisi delectatione deceptus esset. Stus. Ambrosi­us c. 1. lib. de Fug. siculi. seperate from him, and inappetible in Justice by him) to forfeit all his primacy; and prelature, his pleasure and command, his natures custody from decay and his posterities sustentation in [Page 433] perfection, and inputrefaction, and to make himself and all mankind in all parts, of all ages, to all purposes, miserable and sinfull; if, I say, consideration be had of this pristine instance of mans vanity, there will be cause to conclude the life of man to be a vaine shadow; the shew and semblance rather then the truth of any thing to be desired to have, or having to hold.

For, If the vanity of man in his thoughts conduct and life was so notorious in this none such heroique, who was not made man by the power of Mortall Generation, but by Miracle of almighty creation; the morn­ing Masterpiece of Gods Architectonique Power Wisdom and Goodness; how much more vaine and visible will the va­nity of men prove in their verticle and declination, when sin has led them from their central rectitude, so far, and so long? how will not only Cains murder, Sampsons dalliance, Dauids folly, Solomons seducti­on, Peters fear, but also Iudas his trea­s [...]on, Iulians apostacy, Caesars ambition, Alexanders curiosity, Mahomets impo­sture, Arrius his pertinacy; all the great and prodigious actors and actions of the severall ages of the world, anatomiz'd and ravelled out in the severalls of their projects, and particles of their rise, pro­cedure, [Page 434] conclusion? how will these placed in rank and file, and brought to orderly and distinct triall, aggravate the life of man with sins, shifts, weakness, wanton­ness▪ and make man the Tennant of it, a pittifull and treacherous subject to rea­son?

Upon this survey of the forrest of vanity mans life, the verdict of its Court of Aire, Jury would be very much abasive of him, and all that comes from him. How flat would his briskness, how effete his boasts, how inform his designs, how improper his instruments, how sinful his projects, how frustrate his hopes, how dishonourable his Reward?Qui vult ascen­dere, non laeta saeculi, non amaena, non de. lectabilia, sed plena doloris & [...]etus sequa­tur. Stus Am­bros lib de Fuga saeculi c. 1, No insect more deformed, no stench more noysome, no Figure more Tor­vous, no Spectrum more formidable, no rabble more unruly, no confusion more amazing, then the lives of men would be, if they were denuded, and a lecture of truth read upon the lymphatique vessels, the Cavous veines, the abstruce Mea­tuses, the Occult Fibres, the unriddleable Meanders of them. If men were so tho­rowly possessed of the obligation of their duty, and of the dishonour of their non performance of it, according to the law of their being, and the requiry of their Principall, they would be ashamed to [Page 435] live so little like, and so much unlike, themselves.

God sends man into this world to lade himself with the Gold and Silver of Rea­son in his Soul,Nuncii vestri à Romana curi [...] redierunt. exo­nerati q [...]idem argento, onerati plumbo. Non multum indu­mentis aut eve­ctionibus hono­rati. Blesensis Ep 41. Henrico 2. Regi. and Religion in his actions. But he returns, as Henry the seconds Am­bassadour from Rome did, with no Penny in his Purse, no Pater noster in his Prayer, having lost the assurance that Faith gives him, to call God Father, and parted with the Penny of Reason and Religion, that is of great price with him. And what has he in exchange? the Lead and Wax of Bulls, and Bawbles, much in sound, but little in signification; so that, if a sober man sits down & considers the Scepticism, Excentricity, and narrowness of men in their actions and lives; and views how greedy they are to taint and tarnish the virtuous fame, and durable consistence of their Persons and Families, he must needs wonder they should flatter themselves to be wise, under such burthens of sin, and in such engagements of madness. To be­gin a war with Heaven, to levy Subsidies on Gods Subjects, against him their Sove­raign; to hope to thrive by Blood, Op­pression, Parasitism, Adultery, Avarice, fals­hood, is to make God not good, nor Great. For if good, he must hate evil; and if [Page 436] Great, punish it: And if God command Ju­stice, Kindness, Chastity, Constancy, Cha­rity, and Contentation; and has annexed his Blessing to them:Beatus plane quem delectatio non revocat quem voluptas non inclinat, qui ad inferiora non respexit. Stus Ambros. lib. de Fuga saeculi c. 1. then, because he is Just, he must prosecute the contrary to these with his Malediction, and disappoint­ment: Yea the doctrine of Morality is so direct against these courses, that by the teaching of that, there is enough to de­cline Injury, love Rectitude, and value Contentation. For the Conquests of A­lexander, the Tyranny of Dyonise, the Fa­ctions of Rome, the Gottish Irruptions, the attempts of Solyman the Magnificent, and Mahomet the Great, the discoveries of the new World, the Colonizing of Places un­inhabited, which were the great actions of the Worlds curiosity and ambition: though they are good for mankind, as God over-ruled them by accidental ad­vantages, yet in the nature of their in­tent, did but hatch the Cockatric [...] egg of a bird and brat of vanity.

Ask the conscience, survey the conse­quence of the greatest proficient in na­tures secrets and masteries, what he aymes at, by his restless and bold spirit, coura­gious heart, undaunted enterprises; and he will reply to you, to be talked of, fea­red in, esteemed for a gainer by them; [Page 437] and what's that above a vanity? when the Cream & skimming of that collection of courage and curiosity, serves but for a present to a curious eye, a flattered eare, an amorous touch, an enchanting tongue, of a temporary and blandiating mortall, whose pallate devours, whose train con­sumes, whose foot treads upon, whose prattle coggs away, whose fruition swal­lows down, the riches, power, delights, wits, labours of Men, [...]ountries and Con­tinents; and is not t [...]s vanity? and the life of its transaction vanity and vexation? When men of parts, person, ingenuity, success, grind in the mill of danger, and dive into the bottom of seas, to fetch thence that Pearl that serves only for a Mornings-draught, or a bodies Ornament, or a sacrifice to the insatiable Vorago of a Mercurial Philosopher, who if he had the Indias would exhaust them to feed his fancyfull intense expensive Fyre, which sooner finds out the bottom of his purse, then teaches him to find the Au­rifycating Elixar; and is not this vainity? Yea, when the gravity of Counsells, the wisdom of studies, the results of Negotia­tions, the force of Armies, the pleasure of Countries, the power of Governments, the prevalence of Words, the prudence [Page 438] of Actions, and all that is additional here­unto, is but preparatory to death, and departure from his world, wherein we shortly sorrowfully, sinfully live, is not life a vanity and vexation? And since the wisdom and power of the world with all its accumulable structures and artifices, are but to expatiat and adorn mans mo­ment, that with greater pomp and more visible disgrace he may be outed his part of state and be passive to his resolution into dust; how vaine are our unquiet­nesses to start, pursue, and overtake those fugitives, that neither make us happy when we have them, nor miserable when we want them; To live so as to have our life hid with Christ in God, is to live above, and to be Lord over, the vanity of life.

And is this, O Nobles and Gentlemen, not worthy you most to think upon who are deepest engaged in and probably most re­sponsible for the vanity of life? or can you but think civiily & kindly of him that is your Monitor to this that is so much your security, renown, interest? And that you may not take my report of the vanity of life, and the beseemingness of your con­sidering it such, and as such providing against it; Be, O Gallants, consulters which Solomon, whose latitude of knowledge [Page 439] was a notable second to his Regal dignity; by both which he commands his credit with his readers. Truely the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is to behold the Sun; but if a man live many years, and rejoyce in them all, yet let him remember the dayes of darkness, for they shall be many; all this cometh to vanity, Eccles. 11. 7, 8. verses. And our King Solomon the second, so experi­mentally confirms it, who after so long knowledge of the light and dark side of the cloud of Greatness,Eicin Basilic. Meditat. upon Death, cap. 28. sets down this conclusion, As to the last event, I may seem to owe more to my Enemies then my Friends; while those will put a period to the sins and sorrowes attending this miserable life, wherewith these desire I might still contend, I shall be more then Conquerour thorow Christ enabling me; for whom I hither to have suffer­ed, as he is the author of Truth, Order, and Peace; for all which I have been forced to contend against errors, Factions, and Con­fusions. Thus he. Whereupon I conclude, that if, as Heliogabalus measured the great­ness of Rome by the many Cobwebs found in it, which being weighed after gathering, came to 10000 pound weight; so we cal­culate the miseries of life by the Imperti­nent trifling vanitys of it, there wilbe found such a mass of them that we shall be forced [Page 440] to despise our selves who are so by sin de­teriorated and impayred; which was the Sentence of the Preacher, I said in my heart, concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts, for that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts, even one thing befalleth them, &c. Eccles. 4. 18.

SECT. XLIII.
Shews, That to think of God, Death, and Iudgment, prepares to encounter with the varieties of humane state here in the World.

MY second Motive to you, O Nobles and Gentlemen, [...], &c. Maxim. Tyrius dis­sert. 25. to think of God, Death, and Judgment, is that thereby you may the better encounter the varieties of this your humane state; For though God himself be immutable, and hath a perma­nency of being, by reason of which he is compleat and indefectuous, neither ca­pable of addition to him, or liable to sub­straction from him; yet we men, and all things attendant on, useful to, and crea­ted for us, being compound, and Elemen­tary, [Page 441] are not only alterable, [...]. Mac. Antoninus lib. 2. but are to be made reputatively compleat, and accor­ding to our capacity happy by those gra­dations and motions of ascenr and retror­sion which circulate our revolution and cursory circumambiency; and therefore Inconsistency being our conditions punish­ment, [...]. Arrian. Epict. lib. 3. c. 10. p. 285. Edit. Holste­nii. and in a very full sence ascribable to it, we ought to arm our selves by pati­ence, piety, and wisdom, against the mo­ [...]ion and malevolence of it. This Epicte­tus makes the summe of all Philosophy, to be ready and prepared for every mission of Gods, good or evil; for let us look upon the best condition of us men, and we shall find it, not only unlike God, who is without variableness, and shaddow of tur­ning, being the same yesterday, to day, and for ever: but even so unlike our selves,Lege Doctissi mum Gatakerum Annotat. in lib. 2. Antoni­ni p. 54, [...]5. that to morow we are not what to day, nor the next day, what the anteceding, but are turned from one side to another, till we are turned topsie turvey, and our Proteus repeated change brings us captive to the unchangeable state of death.

Thus we pass from our first conception in the womb, to articulation, thence to further mutrition, thence to birth, thence to childhood, thence to youth, thence to [Page 442] Adultism, thence to Manhood, thence to Old age Declension and thence to the dust of death; and as our bodies, so our minds and manners vary, we first are dis­covered animate by motion then by in­vigoration, then by expression of our in­ward wants by extern Organs of notice; Then we mark what is said and done, then we imitate, then we enquire the reason, then we judge and improve, then we de­sign and fabricate, then decline in Memory, and Counsell, and at last again are Chil­dren in Understanding.

Answerable to these are the stations and Agible terms of our lives, we are appren­tices to Mysteries and Studies, before we become Masters, when we come to be Freemen we profess what we desire to live by,Omnis saeculi faelicitas dum tenetur amitti­tur, imò ante­quam tenetur elabitur. Stus Hieron in c. 38. Isaiae. Sr. Hen. Wot­ton p. 12. when we think our selves setled an accident disjoynts us; then we stop our leak by another Engine, which we hope more successful, but that fails per­haps in the meridian or vespers of our lives, when for the most part all Horizons are charged with thick and unpleasant vapors; and then we give our selves for lost yet God makes this shipwrack our port, this defeat our victory, this fall our rise; some­times in youth we are Princes, and in age Peasants; in the summer of our lives War­ [...]ours [Page 443] and in the autumn Confessors; while [...]ch scatterers and leud, undoing and un­ [...]one; in poverty recalled, serious, pru­ [...]ent; in sickness peevish, moopish, nasty; [...] health, good humoured and neat; [...]hile in counsel severe, and short of [...]ech; but in converse affable, and open: [...]ow in the presence of Kings, beloved, [...]ppy, affluent; anon discarded, out of [...]vour, despised, miserable; which well [...]ewed and considered, made Seneca cry [...] of the instability of worldly things,Humanorum rerum circulus hinc inde rota­tus Fortunat [...]s esse homines non sinit. [...]nd resolve to keep vertue fixed what ever [...] in or neer man be volatile, which would [...]e ambitions of our nature circumvolve, [...]nd by the restraints of them prevent [...]he Fate of their consequence, men of [...]reat emulation would liue more serene, [...]nd dye more happy then they mostly [...]oe.

Lord, what a Pageantry is this sublu­ [...]ary Greatness? what Regal and Pea­ [...]ntly, what wise and waggish parts does [...] put men to act, whom it neither makes [...]ng Great by vice, nor keeps mean for [...]ertue? What Tennis-balls does it ren­der men of great parts, and great births, while it leads them to be what they are [...]ot, and divests them of what really they are? When Flaccus Attilius, the great Fa­vourite [Page 444] of Tiberius, falling into disgrace with his master, shall be bereft of his wits and bemone himself poorly, and with meanness of spirit shall wring his hand [...] and complain, How am I fallen, that wa [...] once the wonder of Alexandria and Egypt▪ how miserable is my condition, Philo lib. in Flac [...]um p, 988. who a [...] now to believe my prosperity was rather a dream, then a truth? I am deceived, my ho­nours were rather the shaddows then reali­ties of Good, and so as he bemoaningly pro­ceeds. When Pompey the Great, after the victory of 22 Kings in the East,Longa [...]ita Pompeium magnum ver­tenti [...]radidit Fortunae. Livi­us lib. 9. and the government of the Roman Empire shall yet at last be forced from all, and flie for his life unaccompanied and miserable. When Tomombejus, the great Sultan of Egypt, Turkish History p. 550. the first and the last that enjoyed the height of that command, when he who had warred so successfully, and setled himself so [...]irmly, is assaulted and over come by Selimus, and exquisitely tortured yea, from being the glory of Egypt, becom [...] a captive and a scorn to the very Egyptians, raggedly cloathed, set upon a mea [...]ger Camel, with his hands bound, le [...] thorow Caire to be derided, and after al [...] stangled with a Rope.Turkish History p. 280. When the grea [...] Bassa Carambey General of Annieaths ar [...] my, when overthrown by Hnninades, wa [...] [Page 445] [...]aken Captive, and valued but at ten [...]uckets; when the fortune of Amurath, [...] conquering all that he would, turned and broke his heart upon the declension [...]f it;p. 331. when Scanderbeg, who was the [...]errour of the Turk, and could not sleep [...]or desire to fight him, and that with his [...]rm bare; and that with such fierceness, [...]hat the blood often gushed out at his [...]ips;p. 424. yet even this man must become [...]eaths prisoner, and his dead body be ta­ [...]en in Lyssa, and happy that Turk that [...]ould get any part of his bone to set in Gold: when Techelles the Hermite, who was so fortunate a General against Baja­ [...]et the second,p. 473. and all others, yet comes to be burnt alive at Tunis; when Belisa­ [...]ius the great Conquerour becomes ex­ [...]culated, and a beggar by the high-way side; and Dyonisius the Tyrant of Sicily, [...] Musique-master for his living. When we shall consider the examples in our own Land, of Henry the great Duke of Exeter, who married the sister of E. 4. driven to such misety,Cambden in De [...]onshire p. 205. that he was seen all tattered and torn, and bare-footed, to beg for his living in the Low-countries: And Roger, the great Bishop of Salisbury, taken from a Mass-priest, and put in highest authority next King Stephen, and yet become so un­der [Page 446] his displeasure, that not only his Castl [...] at the Devizes and Shirburn, And in Wilt­shire 244. were taken from him, with all his Goods, Moveables and Riches, but also he himself kept in prison so low, what with misery and hunger, that between the fear of death, and torment of his life, he neither had will t [...] live, or skill to die. When to these w [...] adde the Myriads of Examples of al [...] ages, which have been tossed to and fro [...] with various treatments, and in vari­ous postures of condition; we may and must conclude, that great is the variety of state, which God inclines Man to exercises him by, and concludes him in and that it is rather a wonder, that we have not more and greater, then fewe [...] and less; Considering that our ingenuitie are as Mutable from God, and as fixed to evill, as pravity assisted by Satan ca [...] provoke us to be.

When I consider mens restlessness to do [...] mischief, and their impatience to be prevented it, I bless God that Eustace the Son of King Stephens Condition,Holingshed p. 60. to run ma [...] before they enjoy the least of their end and after dye defeated as he did, is not th [...] condition of such men. And when I con­template the fast and loose that men are a with God; they will and they will not▪ [Page 447] Is it not a Mercy that God makes not their condition like a storm at sea, full of ridges and rollings, up and down, like the rebounds and descents of a ball, band­ed and touch'd by a vigorious arm against a marble wall; or a brazen footing? was it not thus with the great Nevill Tempt. H. 6. Who though no King was, saith Mr. Cambden, above Kings, as who deposed H. 6. a bountifull Lord and Master to him, placed E 4. in the throne, after de­posed E 4. and restored H 6. engaging not only England in a cruell Civill Warr,Cambden Bri­tania p, 570. but himself in those troubles, that made him stiled the Tennis Ball of Fortune. And with Cecilia Mother to E 4. who saw Ri­chard D. of York her Husband, even then when he thought himself sure of the King­dome, and her Son the Earl of Rutland, slaine together in a field battle, and some [...]ew years after her Eldest Son E 4. en­joying the Crown, deprived of it by un­timely death; when he had made away her second Son, and his own brother George D. of Clarence; after she saw her Son the D. of Gloucester aspiring to the Throne by the murder of his Nephews, and slaun­der of his own Mother, with the greatest dishonour; and after he had thus impiously obtained the Crown, she saw him slain in [Page 448] Bosworth field, and those Her miseries (saith Mr. Cambden) were so linked together, Idem p. 511. that the longer she lived the greater sorrowes she felt, and every day was more dolefull then other. When, I say, these examples direct us to many of semblable import, how much to be admired is the patience of God that these smart and earthquake providen­ces which shatter all about mens ears, and swallow them up in the rage of them, do not befall men oftner.

And therefore it is no wonder that the Spirit of God portraits our life as a Passing so Iob. 14. 20. Thou washest away the things that grow of the dust of the earth, and thou destroyest the hope of man, thou prevailest for ever against him and he passeth; thou changest his countenance and sendeth him away; so Psal. 78. 39. As for man his dayes are as grasse as a Flower of the field si he flou­risheth. For the wind Passeth over it and it is gone, Psal. 103. 15, 16. so Psal. 144. 4. Man is like to vanity, his daies are as a shadow that Passeth away, Nor doth the spirit of God Toul this passing bell over Mortall changes, but Rings it out to its utmost extent and note, of Proclamati­on, that this variety mans state is sub­ject to; As the whirlwind passeth so is the wicked no more, Prov. 10. 25. No motion [Page 449] more phrensic and celerous then that of an Earthquake, and a Whirlwind; yet thus is an impious life, as all mens is, as­sociated; sin makes the earth quake un­der its burthen, and Gods Whirl-wind scatters the severalties of it, so that it is not consistent, but passes, as the chaff before the wind: so God causes the terrible ones to pass away, Isai. 29. 5. as the stubble that passeth away by the wind of the Wilderness, God scatters those that forget him, and trust in falshood, Jer. 31. 25. As the morning dew, and as the early cloud passeth away; as the chaff that is driven with a whirl-wind out of the Floor, and as the smoak out of the chimney, so shall they pass, that are sinners more and more, Hosea 13. 3 [...]

This instability of terrene station pur­posely fitted by God, to welcome the better change to his, Heaven, made Saint Paul, Nihil despere­mus, nulli rei fidamus, cum videamus tot varietates, tam volubuli orbe circumagi Pli­nius lib. 4. Ep. 24. and the other Apostles of Christ, with the Primitive Martyrs and Confes­sors, to account themselves Strangers, Pil­grims, and Wayfaring men here, to use the world as their diversory, but to lie loose from it, ct long only for their Own Home, not anchoring in this rode of storms and calms, where ofner shipwracks then secu­rities betyde them; for as in the case of sufferings they comfort themselves, that [Page 450] God wils, either affectively, or permissive­ly, all their contingents; and thereupon they relieve themselves with that spiri­tualized which Libanius brings in Hipe­rides consolating Demosthenes, [...] Declam. 17. p. 477. Thou brave man are in servitude, a base condition, much beneath thy merit and worth; O but Orator, thou art not the first brave person that thus has been dishonoured, nor shalt thou be the last, nor art thou alone. If any man de­served of life, being by his vertue and prudence a singular Ornament to it, we may think among the Heathens Xeno­crates was the very he, who though he had Learning, and Art of equivocation, and dubious speaking, and could regulate his steps so even, that none should per­ceive him tripping: yet was no double dealer, but so plain and upright that the Judges of his time made his word equally Sacramental with any mans oath; yet e­ven this man, Vt ita in e [...]ilio degens frange­retur. that was so sincere and use­ful, did the Athenians sell, and that desig­nedly, that grief of banishment should break his heart. Indeed since God has made this Bisk of varieties, in which are hotch­potch'd high and low, sad and cheery, rich and poor conditions, the lot for our designment, we must accept of, and Mag­nanimously manage; knowing God the [Page 451] Lord of the Lottery, as well bounteous in his blanks, as in his prizes, both being his pleasures to his creatures, whom con­tentedness and submission becomes rather then repinings and moans: For since Kings to day, to morrow may die, Ecclus. 10. 10. and Clowns to day, to morrow may live to aggrandization, and the projects and resolves of men are never neerer defeat then when puffed up with the Timpany of mortall pride, to which God is pro­fessedly opposite, and which he mostly humbles by defeat and disappointment, (as he did in Fransperg, who commanding an Army of desperate Dutchmen, pertina­eiously marching against Pope Clement the seventh, whom he threatned to hang, carrying a Halter with him in his Ensigne,History Councel Trent p. 42. but was taken with an Apoplexy, where­of he died, before he came neer either Rome, or the threatned Pope:) Because, I say, these anticipations are possible,Mundus dicitur quasi undique movens, est enim in perpe­tuo motu. Stu [...] Anselmus lib. 1. de Imagine mundi c. 1. and usuall encounterers of our resolutions relative to this world, various, insolid, troublesome, sinful; how prudent is it to make the perfection of Heaven our am­bition to ascend to, by the profession and action of sincere love, obedience, faith, reliance on God, to draw us by our change to his presence, and to the sight [Page 452] of the beauty and fellowship of the plea­sure of it, where we may actuate those divine qualities that the varieties of our condition here deny the freedom of theirOmnes virtutes in gloria erunt in actu, non e­runt ibi habitus dormientes, om­ne enim impe­dimentum, om­nis difficultas om­nis retracta­tio procul erit ab omnibus virtutibus. Gu­liel Parisiensis [...]. 1 de retribut. Sanctorum p. 309. activity to.

And therefore, since this world is so full of vanity, and mens states and condi­tions in it so vertiginous and unstable; how necessary is it to press the knowledge and reverence of God upon you, O Nobles and Gentlemen, whose Greatness is varia­ble, whose Blood is capable of taint, whose wealth is casual, whose power is servile to unthought, unheard of accidents? How should ye, whom God hath made compa­nions with his sonne in the or­der of nature,Pensa mi Frater saepissimè & scio certissimè, quia quos allicit dulcedo saeculi eos occupat ae­terna amaritudo. Amicus hu­jus saeculi est quicucque sacu­ailos delecta [...]ion's amicus est, Stus Anselmus Ep. 8. ad Hel­vinum. the badge where­of is a red Cross in a Field vary, sharp afflictions in a changable life, to follow the Soveraign of your order, and the Captain ge­neral of your Angelique band, Thorough Honour and Dishonour, Good report and Bad report? How becoming your selection is it, for ye to make your selves of noExin [...]ivit se, non formam dei ami [...]tens, fed sormam servi [...]ccipiens. Idem in c. 2. Phi­lip. reputation, (if to be vertuous and self-denying to a degradation be such; which if it be, it is a blessed one, above the [Page 453] opinionated Honour of self-magnification: I say) if Christ has thus exalted your na­ture in his condescension and exinani­tion, go and do likewise, after your pro­portion;Lib. 7. Ethico­rum. c. 1. manifest to him [...], as the Philosophers words are; your sincere love, hearty courage, invincible constancy; and by this procure your safe conduct thorow this world,Magnus praeda­tor qui ascen­dens in oltum captivum duxi [...] captivitatem nec tamen ab­stulit quic quam sed magis ipse dona dedit ho­minibus. Stus Bernardus, Ser. 1. in vigil. nati­v [...] lomini. to him who is ascended, and leads captivity captive in the next. This will be to a­void the dangers, and settle the varieties of life into their fixation. This will be to get that Peerless thing, which a great Statesman sought long for, followed hard after, but never could overtake in trans­actions of State, Animas sapientiores esse quiescendo. For,Sir H Wotton in his Adver­tisement to the Reader. though Princes here in the world often do, and sometimes are constrained, their opportunities not being able to grati [...]ie the merits of all their ser­vants, let many of them lie like deserted Castles unguarded, unregarded, weather-beaten tattered; Noble in nothing, but in the Moss of time, and the Moulds of Bullets, discharged against, but repelled by them: Though, I say, this may be the mis-fortune of deserving men, Sir H. Wottons letter to the Duke of Buck­ingham. who yet are like those [...]ell-fishes, which sometimes, they say, over­sleeping themselvs in an ebbing water, feel no­thing [Page 454] about them but a dry shore when they awake. Yet in Heaven, whither, O Nobles and Gentlemen, I hope, by the mercy of God, many of you will come, there will be, as no preterition of you, nor no separation from your glory; so will your glory keep your vertues in constant actuation:Omnes virtutes erunt ibi in effectu & potenitalitate, tardi­tate ac difficultate operandi omnino sublatis, erunt itaque in continu [...] actualitatis suae. Guliel [...]us Parisiensis c. 1, de trib. Sanctorum. And when you have conside­red this compensation promi­sed and certain, your mortal varieties of state ought not so much to fear you to encounter with, as your immortal stabi­lity and unalterableness encou­rage you to overcome them. And is not God a good Master, and the thoughts of him a nota­ble cordial to provoke you to despise, [...]. De corpore Christi Stus Athanasius Orat. de Salutari advent [...] Salvatoris advers. Apol­linar p. 648. Tom. 1. and carry you thorow whatever this life (which Atha­nasius calls a sequestration from glory) can inamour you with by its power, or discourage you in by its policy; which is nothing at all to a good man, whose treasure is maga­zin'd where nothing malicious or injurious can come; yea, in spight of which God will speak [Page 455] peace by the voyce of consci­ence, whose me [...]age is as sola­cing as that to Leo the ninth was,Ego cogito pacis cogitation [...]s non afflictionis, Platina in Leo­ne 9. I think the thoughts of peace, and not of affliction. For God makes this World to Holy men what the Father calls affliction, [...]. Stus Basil. Selenciae O­rat. 6. p. 37. The Schole of Vertue, the Safe of Na­ture, in which are deposited the Laws & Rights of it, the admired shadows, the victorious Tree of the Cross.

SECT. XLIV.
Shews, That by thinking of God, and the account Nobles and Gentlemen are to make to him, better preparation is made for Death.

THirdly,Quantumlibt enim vivat di­utius, somnium sibi esse vide­tur, quod vixit cum moritur, non ergo lon­gaevitatem ho­mo hic habet, ubi quandoques mori [...]urus est. Anselmus lib. de similitud. c. 58, by this ye Nobles and Gentle­men, shall the better prepare for the suddenness and inevitability of death; which, being the wages of sin, and the doom of God upon culpable nature, is to be expected till, and welcommed when it comes; for alas what is life, which death is the intruder upon, and the determiner of, but a wind that soon passes, a vapour [Page 456] presently dissipated, a tale ending while telling, a Flower in a moment faded; a Flash of Lightning, as instantly departed as darted; a bubble that with the least touch is prick'd and flatted; and when life so tender, and mercenary to every tri­fle, is trod upon by death, and trampled upon by its insultings, then all the Page­antries of mens visible greatnesses, gives way to their recess into silence, and forget­fulness: the meditation of this Epictetus commends to men, [...]. Euchyrid. c. 23. as that which renders life not much to be desired, or death much to be feared; for in that life is rather lent and deposited by God with us, then given to us, as Retrarchs notion of it is; wisdom calls upon men to reckon themselves ever accountable,Homo quippe vitae commo­datus est non donatus, sapiens in hac vitaa sic dies stude [...] a­gere transito­rias ut in fu­tura die [...] aeter­nitatis inve­niat Petrarch. lib. 1. de vera sapientia. and to be willing to return it every moment; which is confirmed by holy Moses, whose desire for Israels, useful and practical good, was, That they were wise to consider their latter end; and I suppose upon this ground is that of the Wiseman, Better go into the house of mour­ning, then into the house of laughter; because the mourning house is disciplinary of mor­tality, and referential to that fatal pe­riod, which sin and sorrow, the two un­happy Twins of life, have set to them: In­deed sin is so natural to life, and so true [Page 457] [...]n alliance of sorrow, that it is not ordi­ [...]arily possible to separate their conjuncti­ [...]n, or to disanul their cognation. Hence [...]t is, that because we are all in the shadow of death, life being but glittering death,Iob 10. 11. Iob 30. 23. and death as it were but ecclipsed life; all [...]hat man who is born, can look for here, [...] to die; that is, to ravle off the bottom of his daies, and to become what he was, when he was not man, that is, dust; and to [...]he expectation of this, nature and expe­ [...]ience do every day manifoldly summon [...]nd lesson him. For in that we see all [...]ges, all conditions, all sexes, render them­selves prisoners to death; how Noble is it to die daily, and to cherish life but as a present good not worth delighting in, or progging for, further then as the season to sow what in eternity we would [...]eap.

Death being thus stated and certain, God has mercifully seconded Nature with his premonitions to man, how to encoun­ter and overcome the force and fear of it; and that by not only meditating up­on Gods decree, For all men once to dye, but also by pawsing upon those written parts of Gods pleasure introducing to the maine conclusion; Thus we are told of Sorrows of death compassing us, Psal. 18. [Page 458] 4. and of being in the valley of death, Psal. 23. 4. of being harassed with the terrours of death, Psal. 55. 4. Of being brought neer the gates of death, Psal. 107. 18. before we sleep the sleep of death, and are not these notable Monitors to vigilance and excita­tions to watch against deaths approach to us as a thief in the night of our security, in the Moment of our unpreparation; in the midst of our dreams of dainties, dal­liance and sensuall sinfulness? and ought not the possibility of this dismal approxi­mation of death, in this moment before the next put us upon prayer to God to fit us for himself, [...]. Arria­nus. Epict [...]t. lib. 2. c. 5. p. 179. by giving us new hearts, and forgiving us our old sins, that we may be living for him, dye in him, and after death reign for ever with him. Ought not the discovery of the truth, that man who is born must dye, Perswade us to live, and doe, and think, and dye as those who have Magnaminity, and are in­spired with thoughts above fearing death; or charging God with indurable love, or determining goodness; For in that he suffers revolutious to be, he does not impair his power, or kindness, but improves them, as by them he makes way for the worlds Cir­cum [...]erence, and the succession of the Ele­mentary Vigour in its Specifique appea­rance, [Page 459] and respective usefulnesse.

Hearken to this, O ye who pish at the day of death, and live as if ye were born ever to live, and never to dye, and be judged and Condemned for an evill life and an impenitent death: Consider this [...]ee Nobles and Gentlemen, The mortality of whose ancestors has made way for your being and bravery; and since ye being born of corruptible seed, must be corruptible in your bodies, do not live as if you never meant to dye or come, for an evil life, to judgement. Can you hold out the seige of deaths terrours, and re­pell the force of his assaults? can you peep into the Counsells of the Almighty, and seize his judgments, for your prisoners? are your eyes all light, your feet all wing, your fingers all force, your weapons all steele, your armour all proof? can you make time stand at your big words, or diseases keep off for your grim looks? Have ye the art to fix the fluency of life, wrapping up its motion in a punct of consistence beyond which it shall not stirr? are yee Masters of those millions of accidents that your sins have [...] against, made mischievous to, and master­full over ye? Can ye corrupt the last Judge? Can ye dwell with everlasting burn­ings? [Page 460] Can ye turn your sins red as scarlet to become white as Wool? Are ye stron­ger then he that made the world and all in it? Or wiser then he that rules the world, and all the concerns of it? Or durabler, then he that is from everlasting to everlasting? If thus ye be furnished, then reproach his Champion; Marshall your Forces, produce your Artillery, beat up the Drums, and sound the Trum­pets of your defiance, and reverse the sentence of death by Force, and enact your priviledge from the fate and certain­ty of death: But if ye have less force to encounter, lesse prudence to regulate, lesse certainty to overbear and vanquish death, [...]. Thu­cyd. lib. 2. p. 158. then death has to subdue you and your Fancyed greatnesse, Then kisse the Son of God, while you are in the day and on the way of life, to death; and so compose your selves in life against your change. That your death may not become your torment, nor your dissolution your des­pair.

O Consider, God holds the glass of time in his hand; and as he has appointed to [...]very thing its season, so is it to act, and not otherwayes; and though in the course of nature, Youth has a larger Cir­cuit, and greatnesse a probabler trench [Page 461] [...]bout it then age or meanness has, which [...](as it were naked) exposed to every haz­ [...]rd; yet so can God errand accidents, [...]nd so leaven the advantages, that most [...]rprise and detain you. That they shall [...] miserable Comforters to you, What de­ [...]ght do Titles, and Honours give to [...]e torture of the cout? Or what ease [...]o Treasures or Mannors present to the [...]exation and anguish of the stone? What [...]eliefe does the fame of strong, beautiful, [...]eloved, Minister to the torment of a [...]roken limb? or what comforts come to a [...]angreen'd body, from Fomentations of [...]sts, and Baths of pleasure? Doe the [...]lls of Couscience own suppling from [...]ires of Musick, or the Hells of despair [...]ap cooling from merry company? doth [...]ot God often reach Pharoah's power [...]nd pride, with Armies of Insects, and [...]ortify the First born of Countryes to [...]proach the folly of Mortall insolence? [...]ould Herods Oratory, that spake him a [...]od, free him from dying like a man, or [...]ther like a beast? Or Selymus the Firsts [...]mbition, who vowed conquest of Europe [...] of Asia, Turkish History p. 561. not meet with a Canker that [...]ulled him back to buriall? He that can [...]ise up death and envigour faintnesse [...] Cebelits to be his Executioner upon thep. 209. [Page 462] victorious Amurath; and can disselse the subtilty of Duns Scotus by an Apoplexy which shall conclude his Learning with his life; he that is the Lord of life and death, and does whatsoever he pleases in order to life and death, he only is the Fountaine of content and the hope and happinesse of the Soul, and to him and to his joyes we are carryed by death, and hereupon because death is beneficiall to good men, it is desired, entertained, re­signed to,Mors timenda non est quia vita adimitur, sed quoniam acerba mors ni­hil aliud est quam vitae sce­leratae Carnisex. dict [...]m Bruxilli morientis ad Senatu [...] ▪ Gue­vara Horolog. Princip. lib. 1. c. 6. by them with all chearfulnesse▪ The very Heathen said, Death was not t [...] be feared because it determined life, bu [...] because a bitter death was nothing else bu [...] the Executioner of a wicked life; And Christians, inasmuch as Christ has by tast­ing death sweetned it to and victor'd i [...] for them, ought to meet it at Gods time and upon his account, with joy and spiri [...]tual Triumph, as it is Vehiculary of the [...] to Christ, as it is the conclusion of thei [...] sorrowes, and the buriall of their sins as it is the expedient that only can unit their hopes and feares, their faith wit [...] their fruition, whereupon St. Bernar [...] writing to his friend, uses this Meditatio [...] I would have thee if not escape, yet not at a [...] to fear death, sor a holy man, though he ca [...]not sometimes avoid death, yet ever ought [...] [Page 463] [...] beware fear of it; Volo te mortem etsi non effu­gere, certe vel non timere, ju­stus quippe mortem, & si non cavet, tamen non pa­vet, bona. mors si peccato moriarts & ju­stitiae vivas, Bona mors justi propter requi­em melior propter novi­tatem, optima propter securi­tatem, mala mors peccato­r [...]m in mundi amissione, pe­jor in carnis separatione, pessima in ver­mis ignis du­plicis contritio­ne. Stus. Ber­nardus Ep. 104. ad Gual­teruns de Calvo mon [...]e. for if it be a good death [...]hich a good man dyes to sin and lives to [...]ighteousnesse, it is an ill fear that makes a [...]an avoid, so Good an expression of Gods [...]race and mercy, the death of a holy man is Good, for therest he hath from his labours, [...]etter for the change he hath of his life, his [...]bour, his Company, his reward, best, for [...] security he hath against lapse or [...]verter of evill to him, whereas the [...]eath of the wicked man is bad in the [...]ss of the world his Paradise, worse in the [...]peration of his Flesh, worst in the worm of [...]nscience and fire of Hell which after it he [...]ust everlastingly be punished in. Thus St. [...]ernard.

And is death thus advantageous to [...]ood men, then is the thought of death the [...]ost necessary and healthfull theme, the [...]ul at its senses can take Comfort from: [...]ust death come because it is appointed, [...]y God the wages of sin? Must the se­ [...]ond death follow where in the sting and [...]orrour of it, the first is not passed? Must [...]e day of death be hidden from all men [...]at they may alwayes be solicitous about [...], preparing for it, expecting of it, joy­ [...]ll at it? does it come as a thief in the [...]ght, in the cloud and umbrage of a [...]ontemned accident, with a potent and [Page 464] not to be refused errand, in the moment of thy Jollity, in the heigth of thy youth, in the glory of thy preferment, when all eyes are upon thee, & all tongues applaud thee, and all knees bow to thee, and perhaps all backs bear burthens for thee, in defiance of thy power, in Confront of thy Learning, in ruine of thy designs, without pitty of thy relations, without fear of thy fury, without diversion of thy policy? Will not thy bags buy off its execution, nor thine eloquence soften its stroak, nor thy bravery transport it to kindnesse, nor thy charms bind its hands, but with its rapacious claw it must seise, and by its mall burst asunder, the fabrique of soul and body? Must these things be without baile or Mainprize, or saving of the Contenement? Then, O then, what manner of men ought yee, O Nobles and Gentlemen, to be in all Holy Conversations? How ought ye to be tuned Heaven­ward, [...]. Nazi­anz in En­comio Atha­nasii p 22 and as it is said of Athanasius, to have your lives, words, and works uniso­nous, full of harmony and concent, not jarring and combatting one with another? How ought your vessels to be pure, your lights to shine, your Lamps to be trim'd, your loynes to be Girded? How ought ye to anticipate deaths terrour by dying [Page 465] dayly in terrour to your lusts? How ought ye to take Heaven by force (as it were) while you live, for whom, if penitent, the possession is purchased, when you dye? what is the graves visage to one that is dead unto sin and alive unto God?Quid caput stro­phiolo aut Dra­contario dam­nas diademati destinatum? nam & Reges deo & patri suo fecit Iesus Christus. Quid tibi cum flore morituro, habes Florem ex vir­ga Iesse, super quem tota di­vini spiritus gratia requie­vit. Tertulli [...] ­nus lib. de Co­rona Militis cap. 15. What is the dissolution of Soul and body to him at any time, whose resolution is to make Christ his at all times, and to live no long­er, nor other, then to please God al­waies, and to be pleased with Gods plea­sure concerning him? How can the ex­piration of a Mortall life be troublesome to him, who lives as one born to, exercised in, assured of a most glorious and durable life, consequent to it: And this no man being possible to attain but by Meditat­ing and living in a dayly exercise of Christian severity and fiducial Mortifica­tion; How important is it to presse upon the Memories and Consciences of Great­men, not to be infected with Pride, not to be buryed in secular affairs,Parvi defecti (que) anim [...] est de subditis non profectum quae­rere subditoru [...] sed quaestum proprium. Stus Bernard. de consider. lib. 3. not to be glewed to and glutted with varietyes of pleasures? Happy that Prince that can say, I received my Life and Crown from God, and as I managed them for him, so I am willing to resign them to him: happy that Peer and Gentleman who can appear before God in the Coat armour of humi­lity, [Page 466] and dare to appeal to God for his Justification, That he has walked before him with an upright heart, and desired to do the thing that was right in his sight? Isai. 38. 3, Happy that Prelate who has deserved Athanasius [...], In vita Athanasii. Fortes fuere in bello non molles in sericis. &c. Si [...]tlius es A­postolorum & prophetarum & tu fac simi­liter, vendicae tibi nobil [...] ge­nus similibus moribus quod non aliunde nobil [...] quam morum inge­nuitate & fidei Fortitudine fuit. Stus Ber­nard. lib. 2. consider. his character to be a living and immova­ble Pillar of Virtue; whose life has bin a continual sermon of Moderation, self de­nyal, charity, diligence, who has fol­lowed the Apostles, Martyrs, and Confes­sors, in their prayers and private agonies, in their care and tendernesse to teach and keep together the flock of God commited to them, and whose Consciences on their death beds can solace them that they have preach'd and lived and ruled not for their own fame and pomp, but for their Masters honour, and their fellow labour­ers encouragement, and their flocks edifi­cation to life eternall: this will be the sweetest and takingst cordial to the de­parting soul to consider that their labour in the Vineyard shall have the penny of eternity, and their denying themselves for Christ shall be recompenced with Christs imparting his glory to them, and their taking up Christs Crosse in self con­tempt & self abasement shall return them a partaking in Christs crown and glory with him. Happy he and he only that can so [Page 467] live and so dye, that living and dying he may be Gods. Which the Meditation of death is a great furtherance to, because it both keeps from folly of action, and keeps in eye eternity of joy or misery, for in that lifes determination, gives entry to death, and that to particular Judgement, it is a high part of Christian Prudence to rumi­nate on death in the summer and brightest day of life, and by a quotidian view of it, to lessen the terrour, and usher in the treat­ment of it, by such diseases and other loosenings of life from its basis, as God uses to make the access of death under­stood by us, and this whoever does will not only possesse his Soul in patience and prevent the exorbitances of his passions, (whose evolations are not easily leured home or whose tumours are not presently asswaged) but also settle in the mind, ready to leave the world, the sedatenesse of a prelibating Saint, whose earnest of heaven appears in a sensible senselessenesse of what is tumorous, troublesome, avulsive, and incongruous with his departing sublimity, God that has called his heart to heaven in the Divinity of its Love, having left the faculties of the soul, yet resident in the body, to expressions of themselves suita­ble to their origen, Office, and other cir­cumstances [Page 468] by which they subsist and serve the conjunction of soul and body,Peregrinus ni­mirum potest facile occasione viatici plus quam oporteat & detineri quaerendo & praegravari portando mor­tuns si desit ipsa sepultura non sentit, sic vituperantes ut laudantes, sic a­dulantes audit ut detrahentes; imo vero nec audit quod mor­tuus est. Stu [...] Bern Serm. 7. in Quadrages. by reason of which they being dead to sin, and alive to God, in their option of disso­lution as well as in their ligament of faith, and in their assurance of acceptance, ra­ther are detained by, then living in or to the world; For the world being nothing to them but their prison, Death, which brings their Habeas Corpus, must needs be their joy, and Gods Writ of Ease their gratulation; for Men having set an end to all their desires, and seen a period of all their labours, by the enfranchisement of their departure, become from Earths vil­laines and lifes vassals, Gods freemen, yea Kings and Priests to God.

The just consideration whereof (if the dictates of pure nature and the assurances of Gods word had any power with men) would lenify the thoughts of deaths trou­ble, in the worlds adiew and the body and Souls dissociation, because the incon­tinuity of them does but resolve them in­to their respective Principle; the Body retiring to the dust from whence it came, and the Soul to God that gave it; Nor is any man happy in life further then he has provided for a good death; or in death, if he have not the testimony of a good, yet [Page 469] of a penitent life; my meaning is, if before he dye the errors of his life be not expiat­ed for in the palliations of his guilt, and Gods ignoscency of them, and in the ac­ceptation of his sorrow and person with Gods agnition of him for a dyer in him, That is in the beliefe and assurance of his forgivenesse and filiation; which once had, the soul cannot but trample upon despondency, and bid defiance to des­pair, since Christ justifies it is too late for any to condemn, if life makes us debtors to nature, (the whole Creation being but as one lump of power and mercy masshed together in the common fatt and fate of vicissitude, and the providence and wis­dom of God brewing us together till we work out the Lees of sin and nature and become defecate, or as neer it as the plea­sure of our maker design'd us to arrive at, and by our respective proportions to auxi­liat the productions and gradations of succession towards perfection) then to dye when we have lived our time, and out-lived our innocence by as many de­grees as we have at all lived, is but the payment of our debt to nature and the surrender of our forfeiture to God, and we are to account that a Good death, which not so much takes away as betters life, [Page 470] because it does rather advance the Soul then depresse the body; Bona mors quae vitam non au­fert sed trans­fert in melius, bona qua non corpus cadit sed anima subleva­tur, rerum enim cupiditatibus vi vendo non tene­ri, humanae vir­tutis est, corpo­rum verò simi­litudinibus spe­culando non in­volvi angelicae puritatis est, utrumque ta­men divini muneris est, u­trumque exce­dere, teipsum transcendere est. Stus Ber­nardus, Serm. 52. in Cant. Cant. for to be in Soul an Angell while in state a man, is to be an arriver at what ever God requires, and man can at­tain to, in this under-age of Glory.

And, O Nobles and Gentry, If death be thus Emolumental, if it be the Ladder to heaven, if it be the disarray of those uneasy harnassings that sin and life put up­on you, such as Iob oft calls shaking of the bones, Iob. 4. 14. piercing the bones, Ch. 30. ver. 17. and David calls vexing the bones, Psalm 6. 6. If it brings no rest to the bones, Psal. 38. 3. breaks the bones, Psal. 51. 8. if it streightens the compass and disedges the Divine soul and its fa­culties in their raptures and sallies, and fill the heart with grief, the eye with tears, and the countenance with wanness and disspiriting; then to be by death enlarged and to have a separation of a troublesome match,Vivebas antea O beata, anima sed in specioso carcere, nunc immensus aether palatium est; vid [...]bas, sed non nisi per fragiles atque angustas cor­poreae Massae [...]enestras, nunc liberè sine transenna sine velamine, audi­ebas, sed per sin [...]osos aurium mea­us mortalium, & eos ing [...]atos sape sermones, nunc dulcissimam caelo­rum Harmoniam, & aeternarum in­telligentiarum concentus precipis. Ludovicus Fabritius in Orat Inau­gurali super mo [...]em Domini de Saletione. and an assignation of body and soul to their proper Spheres, is to be re­leased from both the labour, and the guilt of sin; and to be in the road, and upon the march to the Hercules pillar, beyond which there is nothing but hope of being [Page 471] more, & belief of becomming more then you unclarifiedly are; and is not this a great motive to be ready to dye, and to be advanced by dying well; [...]. Stus Basili­us Mag. p. 229. for as the Sea and the wind, and the stars, and the compasse, and the industry of Seamen, and the titeness of the ship, well rigg'd, & well steered, are all furtherances to the one attainment of the Port;Habitatio ista nec deserviret hominibus ut patria cum in ea nullus nascere­tur, nec deservi­ret ut exilium cum in ea nul­lus exulare mereretur. Gu­lielm. Parisiens. parte 1. de uni­verso part 3. c. 48. nor do men ordi­narily come thither safely and seasonably, but by the subserviency of these, to the purpose and project of the mind, where the designs upon the port are united; so neither does any man attaine the Vision of God, the Clarification of his nature, the Comprehension of happinesse, but by the passe of death; Which lets us out of toyle, and combate, into pleasure, and quietnesse; And that not as pleasure and quietnesse is notioned here; which is Planetary and moving, as well as tired with vexation and confusion, but as it is in Gods presence, fullnesse of joy, and pleasure for evermore. Thus shall a good death befriend the providers for it, who only have Confi­dence in, and comfort from it; For though God did translate [...]. Stus Basil Mag, Orat. p, 65. ol 1. Enoch without sight of death as an example by himselfe of a Celestial man who (in a sort) lived above sin and was taken away without death; [Page 472] yet the grave is the usuall Supersedeas to life, and death the Port of Mans march off; and therefore since nature, piety, and the interest of both, tends to death; to set your souls, O ye Nobles and Gentry, in Order to receive deaths charge, is to discharge your selves of being surprised, and to receive your charger and enemy with Courage; and by victorying his terrours, to be victors of the joyes con­sequent to it, which St. Paul intended in that Epinichion, which he athletarily chanted out,1 Tim. 4. 7. I have fought the good fight, I have finisht my course, I have kept the faith; Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of righteousnesse.

SECT. XLV.
Evidences, that to meditate of God, and the great concerns of the Soul, is the way to come unto, and come off from Iudgment Honourably.

MY last, and not least Argument to beseech ye, O Nobles and Gentry, to think of God and of the great concerns of your soules, is, that thereby ye may [Page 473] come off honourably in the day of judg­ment. [...] Stus Basil. Mag. Epist. ad virgin laps. p. 755. operum. 2 Thes. 2. 8. 2 Pet 3. 10. For this indeed is the true end of a vertuous life, and of regular and exem­plary actions, to appear happy, accepted, and approved of God, in that great day, when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed, the Cabinets of all Junctos [...]riffled, the Legerdemains of all Politicos tryed, the seeming piety of the worlds Sanctimonists weighed, and the frothy Learning of the worlds flatterers repudiat­ed; when God shall come with truth and terrour of judgement, with legions (a) of Angels, Armies of Saints, and summon the Juries of mens consciences to their im­partiall verdict; when the elements shall melt and the earth be burnt up & the ran­dezvouz of all Creatures great and small, be, and theMat. 25. 32, 33. Angels referr them to their respective Stations; when the persecut­ed Son of God, whose life was the scorn, and whose death and wounds are the curse of the lewd world; when the Saints, that have undergone the reproach of Christ, shall attend the Lord Jesus to judgement. and to give approbation and acclamation to his sentence: Then, Then to stand in judgement,Luke 21. 28. Matth. 19. 28. Matth. 10, 37. To lift up the head with joy, as those that have followed Christ in the regene­ration, and have not bin ashamed of him [Page 474] before men; but have loved Christ more then Father or Mother, or House, or Land, or Honour, or Preferments, Nil magis pro­ficit ad vitam honestam quam ut credamus eum judicem futurum quem & occulta non fallunt, & in­decora offen­dunt, & honesta delectant. Stus Ambros. offi­ciorum lib. 1. c. 26. will be the priviledge and peculiarity of Gods Jewels, To whose illustrations nothing is more contributive, then this day of Judgement; because it sets every being upon its own bottom, and gives every action its due testimony, and every actor his deserved essay. Therefore Goodmen look upon Christs second Advent Judiciall, not Mi­nisterial, as their Jubile, the restitution of Gods Kingdom of content, quiet and victory to his Israel, In which none can be bold, and added to, but Gods hidden ones, Who have exercised themselves to keep a good conscience, void of offence, both towards God, and towards men; and who have mourned in secret, Acts 24. 16. Ezech. 9. 14▪ for their own and othermens sins; these are the contenders for,Revel. 2. 17. v. 28. and obtainers of,Revel. 3. 12. the New name and the white stone, Revel. 3. 4, 5. and the Morning starr, these are to be pillars in the house of God. These are to be cloathed in white as Citizens of the supernall Ierusalem; Matth 22, Isa [...]. 26. 1. for these, not Tophet is prepared of old, but salvation for walls and bucklers; Iohn 14. 1. These are they to entertain whom the Marriage feast is made; Iohn 12, 32. and on whom the wedding Garment is put; and for whom Mansions are prepared; and to glorifie whom, [Page 475] Christ sits at his Fathers right hand; to draw them up to heaven after him; and to place them in Heaven, on the right hand with him. Quod enim ibi honoratur & glorificatur▪ non sua utili [...]as sed hominum slcut cum sol videtur non ipsius uti­litas est, sed vi­ven [...]ium, sic & dei glorificatio & honoratio tota perfectio animarum no­strarum in ul­timitate suae completionis, Gulielm. Paris­censis partis 1. de universo parte 2. p. 709. This is the honour that God does his Saints; the glory of whose tran­slation and association adds not to God, who in perfection is unaddable to, undi­minishable from; but the lustre that thence is reflected is purely remunerative to them who have bin in the holy warr with him against sin, Satan, and the world.

And, O Nobles and Gentry, is any thing so Magnificent and Royal as to comparti­zate with Christ, to preside above Angels, to be released from a troublesome life, into a plenary vision, and fruition of good? Or can any change parallel this that changes a light and Lovelesse world, For a weighty and eternall Glory? 2 Cor. 4. 17. And this the day of Judgement will devolve upon every particular Worthy, whose vessel, according to its receptivity shall be brim­full of glory, and stowed up with unutte­rable Comforts; and whose [...]idelity shall have the Test and Seal of Truth and Power for its Security and Commendation, which will be denyed to those caytiffs, whose power has trampled upon the necks, and whose cruelty has rowled their Gar­ments in the blood of Christs Martyrs [Page 476] and Confessors; and whose mouths have blasphemed Christs holynesse, and whose weapons have suppressed his Gospell: Yea, even to the Iudases and Demases of Christs own Family; (those irreverend Clerks who have withheld the truth in un­righteousnesse, Rom. 1. 18. and have rejected the coun­sell of God in the Motions of his spirit, and the convictions of their own Consci­ences:) When such Viragoes and Illumi­nates shall cry to the Mountaines, Rev. 6. 15, 16. a Wisdom 5. 3, 4, 5. fall upon us; Verus honor qui nulli negabitur digno, nulli de­fertur indig­no, ad quem nec ullus ambi­et indignus ubi nullus permit­tetur esse nisi dignus, vera ubi nihil ad­versi, nec à se­ipso nec ab alio quisquam pa­tietur, ubi prae­mium virtutis erit deus i [...]se qui virtutem dedit, ubi ipse erit & vita & salus, & copia, gloria & honor pax & omnia bona. Stus▪ Au­gustin. lib. ult. de Civitat. Dei. and shall beshrew themselves for very anguish as those in (a)) Wisdom do? We fools counted his life madnesse, and his end to be without honour: How is he numbred a­mong the Children of God, and his lot is amongst the Saints?) When these, I say, are reserved, for the Distruction of the great day, Iude ver. 6. Then shall the righteous lift up their hearts with joy and chearfulness, then shall their faces be cleansed from blubbers, and their eyes be wiped from tears; Then shall their ears be filled with transporting Ecchoes, and their living sin­cerity be compensated with unutterable comforts; the Judge, our Lord Jesus, shall own them his Members, and embrace them in his arms, and possesse them in his joyes, and confirm them in all the perquisites of his purchase, and in all [Page 477] [...]he merits of his life and death, and say [...]nto them,Matth. 25. Come ye blessed of my Father [...]herit the Kingdome prepared for you from [...]he beginning of the world. This shall be [...]he Portion of those contemned and des­ [...]ised ones whom the world vilipends, a­ [...]uses, disgraces, casts out.

And therefore,Nulla splendi­dior gemma in omni praecipue ornatu summi pontificis. Quo enim celsior ca­teris eo humili­tate a [...]paret il­lustrior & se­ipso. Stus Ber­nardus lib. 2. de considerat. ad Eugen. O ye Nobles and Gentry, Consider your selves, and the advantages God has above others indulged you, and do not neglect your eternall splendour; [...]hink nothing small that God expects as [...]he way to him, and will accept for wor­ [...]hy to dwell with him; be not solicitous of securing your honours and families [...]gainst temporal diminution, while you make no provision, for your souls salvati­on, and your Gods blessing on your poste­ [...]ities; would ye share with Christ in his glory? inoculate him into the stock of [...]our glory; [...] Nazianz. Orat. 18. p. 283. be not ashamed of his Crosse, [...]e not defiers of his humilitie; be not [...]ghters against his prevalence, provide [...]y prayers and tears, by self denyall and [...]ove-like meeknesse, against the siege of death, and the scrutiny of Judgement.

Which, because the wicked of the world do not, therefore are the thoughts [...]nd dread of Judgement so terrible to [...]hem: As God is not in all their thoughts, [Page 478] so neither is the account they are to give to God ever before the eye of their consi­deration: this makes the worlds Felixes, when they are discoursed to, of Tempe­rance, Righteousuesse, Acts [...]4. 15. and Iudgement to come, to tremble, and either to wish, that assize not to be at all, or themselves not at all to be when the Sessions of it is, This does not only touch aci'dly, and with twitches of torment their naturall conscience, which yet has some part of it tender, and relucting; but it rends themselves from themselves, and makes an Earthquake that confounds all that is in them, and makes them dubious of their futurity in any thing but wo. Venerable Bede tells a no­table story of a Monck who lived very prophanely, not observing any regularity, when his brothers were at Chappell he would keep in his Cell,Sicut Beatus Stephanus vidit caelos apertos, ita ipse in [...]er­num, & Iudam & Cajaphum, & Pilatum in medio eorum, & alios item Crucisixores domini, & sibi misero non lon­ge ab eis locum esse paratum. Historia An­glorum, Folio. p. 943. when they were praying he was bousing, and delighting himselfe sensually; at last God brought sicknesse upon him, and then he had smit­ings of Conscience, and told his brothers in great anguish, that he had seen in a vision his future estate; as St. Stephen saw Heaven opened to him, & Christ ready to Crown him, so he saw Hell open, and in it Iudas, Cajaphas, Pilate, and others, the crucifiers of our Lord & not far from them [Page 479] a place for his soul, full of horrour and torment, And when Greatness is begirt, when the delicate and proud mind of it is thus gashed and sawed between hopes and fears; when it feels the Gravel of dispaire, fretting and wounding its tender vessels, and knows not how soon the soul of such fools may be required from them, then it is bitter in tears, and sad in coun­tenance, then it forbears feasting & keeps a Lent too late, and knocks for entrance when the door is shut; [...] Greg. Nis. then these Esau's seek a place for repentance but are deny­ed it; when as the Mourners for sin and the Sealed for salvation, come into this fur­nace of judgement for Triall and come out of it with Triumph; they are not only sure to be quitted, but to be blessed, Psal. 1. 1. and that because they have not walked in the way nor by the Counsells of the ungodly; but because their delight was in the Law of the Lord, and herein they exer­cised themselves day and night; their [...]eaf, the lightest part of them, shall flou [...]ish, and whatever they doe shall prosper; when sinners shall not stand in the Congre­gation of the Iust, but shall be filled with [...]eeping and wailing for the torment of [...]he [...]ire, that never shall extinguish; and [...] with gnashing of teeth, by reason of the [Page 480] worm that never dies, Ibi erit fletus et stridor denti­um; Fletus qui­dem ob ignem qui non extin­guitur, stridor verò ob ver­mem qui non moritur; Fletus ex dosore stri­dor ex furore. Sermone in Psal. Qui habitat. as St. Bernard on that place, Matth. 24.

And happy it is for good men, that they have another world to confide in, and rest upon; For (God knowes) here they have but cold comfort and hard usage, exposed to the injuries of power, the prejudices of envy, the censures of mistake, the extremities of want, the violences of death; but when the other world comes uppermost, when Martyrs and Confessors are court Cards, and they trump all the Diamonds, Hearts, Clubs and Spades in this pack of Cards, which is so much the game of our lives and the de­sport of this world; then it is well with the righteous, Micha 7. 13. for the fruit of his works are given him. Then what the Duke of Guise re­plyed to the Emperour's General, D' Avila, (That whatever the Condition of the man he complained of was, while in the [...]ield, now he was entred the bowells of France, Caeterum regni Franciae id Iu­ris esse ut qui­cunque servilis conditionis pe­dem in ea po­suerit Mox li­bertatem recu­peret. Thuanus volum. 1. lib. 11. p. 343. Heb. 4. 9. he was free; Mal. 3. 17. for that France admitted no [...] servility, or basenesse of degree into it, but presently enfranchised whoever was commo­rant in it,) becomes true with infinite advantages; when the day of judgment comes, then commenceth the rest of the peo­ple of God; then shall they appear Gods Ie­wells, and be ranked as his sheep: the [...] [Page 481] shall they sit to Iudge,Matth. 19. 28.not stand to be Iudged, and cry out for vengeance on their male­volent persecutors, who were deaf, when to them they cryed for Mercy; then shall they acknowledge Gods promise,In quo enim quemquam in­venerit suus novis [...]imus dies, in hoc cum comprehendet mundi novissi­mus dies quoni­am qualis in die illo quisque mo­ritur, talis in die illo judica­bitur. Stus August. Ep. 80. H [...]sychio. the Basis of their faith, and his spirit the mo­ver of their consciences, and his Word the directory of their conversation; then shall not only the Judge purge them, and their fellow Saints rejoyce in them; but their own consciences, being the charter part of Gods record, shall acquit them; and the testimony of that is instead of all wit­nesses; For if our consciences accuse us not, then have we boldnesse before God; 1 Iohn 4. 17. O,Rom. 2. 15. c. 9. 1. I say when a good conscience,2 Cor. 12. 1. which Saint Paul glories so much in the testimony of,1 Tim. 1. 5. bears witnesse of the Soules sincerity;Heb 13. 18. [...]. Dictum An­tipho [...]t. apud Stobaum Serm. 106. what comfort and confidence thence re­sults? no tongue can utter, no melody parallel, no thought conceive; Fancy what, O yee Nobles and Gentry, in na­ture or art you can, the straines of which are most hallucinating; and the aires most inebriating sense; and by the kind and pleasing raptures of it, forcing na­ture from her Staple and leading reason captive to their spoile; let the Musick of the Orbs and the Queristers of the aire; let the Syrens of the Sea, and the Nightin­gals [Page 482] of the Land; Let the Lutes, Vyalls, Harps, Offerialls, be touch'd with the sweetest singers that ever moved string, and follow the delightfullest notes that ever were composed; Let them have all the advantages of the Naturall and Artifi­cial Ecchoes, that the best artists can find out and highthen their prevalence by: Yet are all these nothing to the mirth and satiation of a good Conscience; This is that inartificial light that burns bright, (not as those Roman ones which attended the urns and monuments of Famous dead men) but as that light in Heaven, which is ever in Oriency to bear witnesse to living wor­thyes, giving their merits legibility and vindication in the deadest and dismallest night of Oppression & Misrepresentation: this is that name, that is better then that of Sons and Daughters; eternizing them beyond Marbles and Pyramids; and more invigouring them then thousands of Cordials: when a man can lead a life in the Sun-shine, and leave a life in the shade of a good conscience, he need envy no Monarch, [...]. Greg. Nisse [...]. exchange happiness with no Favourite, vie pleasure with no Opera­tor; his all is in himself, 'tis Heaven com­pendiated and abridged into a devout breast; 'tis the holy Spirits residence in a [Page 483] moving Tabernacle; 'tis Gods Pot of Manna, and his Rod in a Mortal cask, the externity whereof may perish, but its e­ternity is secure;O Familiarita­tis gratiam, O honoris culmen. O prerogati­vam securitatis perfectae. Serm. 8. in Psal. Qui Habitat. O the grace (saith St. Bernard) of divine familiarity, Si. vis scire quam nihil mal [...] sit in pauperta­te compara in­terse vitam divitis & pa [...] ­peris, sapius panget [...]idelius ridet nulla so­licitudine con­cutitur, in alto est. Senec. inter excerpta. O the di­mension of this glory, O the Priviledge of this Confidence, O the Prerogative of this com­pleat security. This is the holy link that makes God and holy souls inseparable, for while they are in the exercise of a good Conscience God is in them, and when they are exercised with sorrows for a good Conscience, the glory of God rests upon them; and when an evill conscience con­victs evill men and makes them mute, Iohn 8. 9. when it seares them as with a hot iron, to utter lyes in hypocrisy, 1 Tim. 4. 2. when by the defilement of the mind and conscience, [...] Plu­tarchus lib. de Tranq. animi. nothing is pure Titus 1. 15. Then the life is a little ease, and the spirit is, Inter cudem et malleum, Ground to powder by distrust and de­spair, then Minstrells will not lay Sauls evil spirit, nor solenesse secure Cain, af­ter the murder of his brother, nor Iudas his thirty pieces bear down the rising of the lights of his clamorous conscience; but that it shall break out and ruffle him into self execution;Psalm 50. 21. Thus God is said to set mens sins in order before their faces; and to Muster them in rank and file before [Page 484] them, that they may be terrifyed before condemned. O the emphasis of that cry,Gen. 4. 13. My sin is greater then can be forgiven me! O the anguish of that,Psal. 51. 3. My sin is alwayes before me! O the pangs of Hell,O lignum ari­dum & inutile aternis ignibus dignum quid respondebis in illa die, cum exigetur à te usque ad ictum oculi omne tem­pus vivendi im­pensum qualiter expensum. Stus Anselmus. that the worlds Spira's have, when God in­spires them with the fire of conversion, & immerges them in the water of contrition! no fiery furnace, no sulphurean bootes, no coats of brimstone, no pains, no wrack, no wheel, no athretick torture comes near the hell of conscience, ac­cusing, Judging, condemning, a remorse­lesse sinner; when God lets loose Satan to accuse, as well as the Flesh and the world to betray; nothing comes of it but confusion and horror: There was not in the world a wickeder man then Alfonso King of Naples, whose delight was to mur­ther Noblemen, take forfeit of their honor and fortunes,Philip. Comi­nae [...]s in vita. Caroli 8. Guic­card. lib. 1. lay grievous taxes on his people, and cruelly force them, as he had unjustly levyed them; God call'd his conscience up to torment him, so that he was mad day and night, and was possessed with such a fear, that he flew out of his Kingdome and cryed France, France, and dyed tormented grievously in Sicily: and our Richard the third, a little before his end, dreamed that he saw all the Divels [Page 485] in hell hayling him in,Non esse som­nium sed con­scientiam sce­lerum, Polydor. Hist. A [...]g. in R 3. and tugging him to pieces, which Polydor sayes, was no dream but the reall torment of his consci­ence.

Add to these,Filefac in Sel [...] ­dorio lib. 2. p. 235. the torments, that Tiberius, Nero, and others have this way felt and bin made miserable by; and then it will be granted to be an unspeakable happinessO vere quietis locus in quo deu [...] non quasi turbatus irâ, nec velut distentus cura prospicitur visio illa non terre [...] sed mul­cet, inquietis [...]uriositatem non excitat sed sed [...], Bernard. serm. 21. in Cant. Cant. to have a good Conscience; and that to be the best array, and the adorningst Jewell in the day of doom. Consider this, O yee Nobles and Gentlemen, and be con­cerned to purchase this Jewell, if already ye have it not, and to preserve it, yours, if already ye have it; do not disturb the peace, disfigure the beauty, dismay the chirrups of it, by sins of premeditation, and malicious wickednesse, or by ap­proaching too neer things forbidden; despise not the lectures of the least pro­vidence, or the intreaties of the least mercy, when it knocks for entertainment and admission, begs to have audience, and is by God directed to your amend­ment; be not obdurate to its meltings, nor querulous of its importunity, nor rude to its applications; be hospitable to your own good in entertaining these An­gells who unawares bring the love of God, and the peace of your souls to [Page 486] you; Judge every good motion and every serious reproof a step to your conviction for sin, and conversion to God; And by this purge your Consciences from dead works to serve the living God; doe,Heb. 9. 14. doe, O doe, what he commands, and he will perform what he has promised; Believe, and you shall be established; Isai. 7. 9. repent and your iniquities shall be forgiven you; Acts 3. 19. Keep good consciences, and you shall be kept from the portion, of evill men; follow God in all imitable virtues, and he shall follow you with his comforts, and overtake you with his heaven: Forsake all for him, where he and the world are not accordable in your love and practice, and he shall give you all by giving himselfe, who is the owner of the upper and lower springs; keep your selves his virgins, and he shall crown you with his glories; for though the worlds confidents and servitors are of­ten put off with poverty and discredit, yet those that serve the Lord are sure to be inheriters of the sure mercies of David, and the rich merits of Jesus, and of those glorious Mansions at Iehovahs right hand; for he whom they serve, he by whom they are to be judged, does accept their service, commend their constancy, ratifie their work, reward their sincerity; and that [Page 487] by signally owning them members of his body,Audiant [...]ac Prael. qui sibi commissis sem­per volunt esse Formidini, uti­litati raro, eru­dimini qui ju­dicatis terram subditorum matres vos esse non dominos, stu­dete magis a­mari quam me­tui, & si i [...]ter­dum severitate opus est, paterna sit non Tyran­nica, matres Fo­rendo paires corripiendo ex­tubeatis. Stus Bernard. serm. 2 [...]. Cant. Cant. objects of his love, Jewells of his care, subjects of his bounty, instruments of his propagation, instances of his graces efficacy; and as vessels fit for his doles, prebendaries, thrones, Give them ever­lasting preemminence; amongst which fa­vourites to be at the last day, is, O Nobles and Gentry, the great and only Phi­losophy man can attain to; let it there­fore, I beseech you, become your study and emulation to excell in it, to know how to make the day of the Lord, which is Amos 5. 18. darkness to evil men, light to you, is more then to turn Copper into God, or Tinn into Silver. This is the call to the Moun­tain of greatnesse, be yee removed from your prejudice against, and opposition to Christ Jesus, and by faith to effect it; this is not only to subject your selves to God, but to subject devils to you; 'tis to cast out the devil of pride, uncleanness, Atheism, Rebellion, and to become pure, that ye may see God; and to become meek and lowly, whereby you shall find rest to your souls in God; and to be little in your own eyes, that you may be exalted with Christ,Phil. 3. who also made himself of no reputation; and thereby has obtained a name above every name, both in heaven and [Page 488] earth; this is to be taught of God, as dear children, and to be portioned by him, as dear children; this is to be virgins here with lamps ready and lighted; and to be virgins hereafter with clarified backs cloathed, and clarified heads Crowned, for though it be a great happinesse to deserve the character that our lear­ned Cambden gives the Lord Burleigh, that he was one, Britannia p. 206 whose wisdome for a long time was the supporter of peace, and Englands happy quietnesse: Yet to love Christ more then these outward honours, and secular splendours, to be one of those Heavenly Philosophers, [...]. Nazianz. de Laudibus A­thanasii p. 17. To. 2. operum. that are studious to love and live with God, and to take heaven by the force of their faith, even while they are on this side of it in condition, as Nazianz. writes of famous primitive Christians; and to enjoy a free and serious soul; big to God, and full of good works, in the midst of, and maugre the temptations that beset and often besot greatnesse, is to be a Peer and a Gentleman indeed, and to entaile Gods blessing on a family and posterity, which shall subsist it, when the aires of fame, and the sands of power separate from and adverse to God, shall become ill foundations to them, and only passing memorials of them: for it is God alone, [Page 489] [...]hat is the rock to build upon, the security [...]o fly to, the anchor to be stayed by, the [...]ower by which resuscitations are made of things and men, past hope of recovery without him. There is a memorable story of Walter Constable of Gloucester, who had five Sons men of especial note; Cambden Bri­tannia p, 621. yet every one of [...]hem, were cut off by untimely death, after [...]our of them had succeded to one another in [...]heir fathers inheritance: And therefore, [...] Nobles and Gentry; as my first design in [...]his poor and plain discourse is, to be­seech your avocation from vanity, sub­versive of your families, and vitiative of your fames; so my conclusive application [...]hall be to the same purpose: Let God be (O Heroiques) your chief aim, his love your Loadstone,Consider this and follow it. his fear your wisdome, his purity your pattern, his patience your conviction, his law your delight, his poor your pitty, his reproach your ambition; when you are high in your own and others thoughts, Meditate on Christ higher, yet [...]ower to merit for you, and to extend bounty to you; when your desires are irregular, moderate them by the stint that God has set, and desire rather the best things, which are not stinted, in which there is no excesse: when you think most of your families, think most of God, and [Page 490] sacrate them by comprecating God to b [...] a principl [...] of inextinction in them, an [...] of indetermination to them; anxiou [...] cares and subtile projects move some step [...] towards greatnesse, and often set it o [...] the Pinacle of the Temple, from which i [...] has a vast prospect,Tibi [...] mul­ta tu ipse tibi solicitudinis materia es Stus Bernard. de vita solitaria ad Fratres de mon­te dei. and under which a dangerous a precipice of Temptation [...] but it is the blessing of God that maketh and keepeth rich and great; when he saies in blessing I will blesse and in multiplying [...] will multiply thee, as he did to Abraham Gen. 15. he blesses and multiplyes with a witnesse of this world in earnest, and the next in promise. And when he sets his face to bring down the mighty from their thrones and to level high thoughts, and proud boasts? how does he blast with his breath, and overturn with his wind? root up with his earthquake? drown'd with his overfloate? Morti [...]ie with his plagues? and baite to ruine with his every way let loose judgements upon the worlds greatnesse? while the instance of Noahs ark (the lodge of all Creatures in their species, though not in their Number) which was secured against the waters leak, the winds blasts, the ladings over­burthen, and had the discipline of so ma­ny, and so different natur'd creatures; [Page 491] whose feeding, nature, shape, tendency, were so repugnant; yet all they govern'd by eight persons, and kept in order ei­ther by no food, or food unusual; and in a sort contrary to their natures) I say, while there remains this instance of Gods severity & mansuetude,Lege Bochar [...]u [...] in Hierozoon. p. 10. de Qua­draped▪ in Ge­nere. his anger towards the old, and clemency to the new world; there will be irrefragable reason and solid ground to build upon God, all our hopes for stability, so far forth as is good for us, and ours; notwithstanding we see no ap­parent probability of good coming to us, or them; for to trust in God who is power­full, faithful, wise, good, eternal, is to have the security of heaven and earth for our indempnity, and to excell others (who put their trust in men whose breath is in their nostrils, or in Armies, Counsells, Conclaves, or what else of worldly con­texture,) as far as heaven does earth, and fruition hopes. Many things here do fall between the Cup and the Lip, as we proverbially say; and ordinarily the Babels that we build, in the pride of our hearts, and for the glory of our names, are the spoiles of Gods power, and the surfeits of his fury; and do not onely call us vain in the designs of them, but miserable in the judgements upon us by them; because [Page 492] Nebuchadnezzar will be above God, God reduces him beneath man; and he that did not know what it was to be under God, was taught, what was fitter for him, to become a brute; so falls it out often with us in our wild Stratagems and mon­strous contrivances,O [...]lum autem tentationum & cogitati-num malarum & inutilium sen­ [...]ina ocium est. Nunquam otio­sus sit servus dei quamvis à deo feriatus sit. Stus Bernard, de vita solita­ria ad Fratres de monte dei. but never man that consulted Gods glory, in Gods Method, and by his line and square, ever built upon a failing foundation: he that aimes at no more then how to please God, and to get above this world to him, and to leave the blessing of God upon what of his in this world he leaves behind him, cannot misse to be blessed in the kind he desires, and in a kind suitable to His magnificence to whom he is so loyal, and with whom so welcomely bold.

This is the Reason, O Nobles and Gentry, I first undertook the application to you; which as I earnestly beg God to blesse to your advantage; so I really desire it may be accepted by you, [...] Nazi­anz. in E [...] ­comii Atha­nasii. p. 23. ad sinem. Tom. 2. Considering that the motive to its publication came from that humble generousnesse, which the love of God and men excites in a sober and sincere Christian, who begs of God like Athanasius the property of those virtuous stones, the Adamant, which by stoutnesse re [...]unds the force of Satans temptation [Page 493] and mens insolence, & with the Load-stone draws the differences of men uncharitable to one another into a little compasse,Quare imite­ [...]ur nostros B. Camillo [...], Halas. Decios, Curios, Fabricios, Maxi­mos Scipiones, Lentiles, Aemi­lios, &c. ame­mus patriam, pareamus sena­tui, consulemus bonis, presentes fructus negliga­mus, posteritati & gloriae ser­viamus, id esse optimum pu­temus quod erit rectissimum, speremus quod volumus, sed quod acciderit feramus, cogi­temus vero cor­pora virorum fortium mag­norumque ho­minum esse mortalia, animi vero motus & virtutis glori­am sempiter­nam. Cicero Ora [...]pro Sextio. and closes them up into a Christian onenesse. These excellencies, that you may abound in, he begs of God, who desires not more to be happy himself, then to have the Nobles and Gentlemen of England happy in the Conclusion of, and in the consequence to, this their present Grandeur; which they can no better, or other way be, then by following what that Renowned Roman Orator Tully excites his contempo­raries to, by imitating those Noble Patriots, and Ancestors, who have done great and good deeds for the Publique, by obeying the Government, taking counsell for futurities advantage both in point of profit and glory, by accounting that most worthy praise and practice, that is most right and just, by spirit­ing their courages, from hopes suitable to their wishes, by bearing equanimously what happens crossely and unpleasing, by account­ing their bodies made of elements, and ser­vile to accidents, Mortall; and not delicat­ing them; and above all, by Meditating noble Atchivements, and of gaining immortal glory the reward of them. Thus Tully, and with that I end.