Imprimatur.  
Geo. Royse. March 6. 1691/ 4.   

Advertisement.  
THE Pages of the Guardian's Instruction, and the Apparatus ad Theologiam, which are so often referred to in this Book, are according to the first and best Impression, sold by Walter Kettilby, and Sam. Smith in St. Paul's Churchyard. and Henry Clements in Oxford.   

New Instructions TO THE GUARDIAN: SHOWING That the last Remedy to Prevent the Ruin, Advance the Interest, and Recover the Honour of this Nation is, 

I. A more Serious and Strict Education of the Nobility and Gentry.  
II. To breed up all their younger Sons to some Calling and Employment.  
III. More of them to Holy Orders.    
WITH A Method of Institution from Three Years of Age, to Twenty One.  
LONDON, Printed for Walter Kettilby, at the Bishop's-Head in St. Paul's Churchyard. 1694.   

TO CHARLES Lord BRUCE, Son and Heir to the Right Honourable the Earl of Ailesbury.  
My LORD,  
I Am very willing it should be known how great a share of the Guardian's Instruction was Influenced by the Prospect of your good Lordship's Education; and also the just Regard these Second Thoughts have both to your Lordship, and the Splendid Families of Saresden, Barton, and Glympton.  
I looked on myself your Debtor in the Result of all my Experience and Observation, from the time when Sickliness made me Retire from Business, and that Retirement made Reflection the main use of my Being, and Notions of Education so familiar as to become the very Property of my thinking Faculty.  
This I intent for an Excuse to those Persons who are so kind as to think that I am able to deal with a greater Subject. They think Letters, Syllables, and Spelling beneath the venturous Pretention of the Title-Page: They are beneath it indeed, but no otherwise than the Foundation is beneath the Building, which, though it be low and unregarded, dirty and less Polished, yet the least neglect and slightness in that is fatal to the Pomp and Pride of what looks higher.  
Some are so kind as to wish that it were not so short; whereas it seems I mistake when I thought that a Civility and Bribe to the Reader. There are those who know that a while since it was much larger; and why it is not so now, among several Reasons I will name but one: If I should have written all that I could have said on the Subject, I am satisfied it would never have made a Fool a Wiser Man; and what wrong is it to the Tutor to presume him able to Improve and Practise upon a few plain general Directions. I am not tempted to think the Directions I give the best and wisest in their kind: But to justify my Choice, (whatever becomes of my Judgement) I must own that they are such as I would use myself in hopes of Success, as thinking them most plain and easy, and most agreeable to the Infancy of Thought; which ought mainly to be considered in the business of Institution.  
That the Knowledge I wish your Lordship, may more effectually serve this Life and a better, I pray God to Water with Dew from above the Seeds of Virtue and Religion in you: For Knowledge in a Person of great Quality without Grace and good Manners, is a sight rather Ominous than Delighting; it is like the mighty Blazing Comet, the more Glorious the more Terrible, and the Influence of the former on the Ruin of this Kingdom is much more certain than the Prediction of it from the latter can reasonably be pretended.  
My Lord, I speak not this out of any distrust, I know the just Temperament of Authority and Affection, which cannot but turn to Account so sweet a Disposition: For though I will not stand by all the suppositions which have been made, yet I think it is safe to believe that God will not Deny Grace where Parents and Tutors do their Duty.  
And now, (my Lord) the great Prejudice of a long Preface to a Book which hath nothing in it to command a Reader's Favour, makes me short in mine own Defence, and conceal many things which the World would willingly know concerning your Illustrious Ancestors, and must depend upon the experienced Good-Nature of your Noble Family, to accept of a general Acknowledgement how much I am,  
Your most Obliged, and Affectionate, STEPHEN PENTON.   

THE CONTENTS.  

The First Part.  
A Word to the Wise, lamenting the great Degeneracy of Manners from the Gallantry of our Ancestors, page 1, 2  
Caused by too much Indulgence and Fondness in the Education of Persons born to Greatness and Places of Trust, p. 3, 4  
Frugality recommended, p. 5, 6  
Prodigality condemned, p. 7  
Covetousness censured, p. 8  
Some Calling and Profession absolutely necessary for the younger Sons of Nobility and Gentry, p. 10  
The reason why so few of them undertake any Calling is an Error in their Breeding, p. 10, 11  
A Reason for a distinction in the Breeding the  Son from the Younger, p. 11, 12  
Divinity recommended to the Younger Sons of Nobility and Gentry, p. 13  
A Catalogue of Nobles who have been Churchmen, p. 14  
The damage the Public suffers for want of the Service young Gentleman's Parts might do in some Profession or other, p. 18  
The great Advantage their own Private Families might reap thereby as to the Riches of this World, p. 20  
And as to the Happiness of the next in the Salvation of their Souls, p. 23  
The looseness of Manners in the Sons of the Gentry, is to be ascribed to the carelessness of the Fathers when they grow up, p. 24  
The Advantages which Parents have above Strangers in Breeding up their own Children, p. 25  
Good Education would fortify them against Temptations by the help of God's Grace, p. 28  
And prevent the Horror of a guilty Conscience, p. 29  
The Earl of Marleborough's Pious Letter before he was killed at Sea, p. 33  
The famous Earl of Rochester's conversion, the Restections on his Life, and Mr. Robert Parson's very useful Sermon at his Funeral; recommended to young Gentlemen, p. 35, 36, etc.   

The Second Part. A Method of Teaching from Three Years of Age to Twenty One.  
A Vindication of the Guardian's Instructions in an answer to a Letter, p. 44  
First Stage for learning English, p. 52  
Lord's Prayer, Creed, and Ten Commandments, p. 57  
Second Stage from Six to Fourteen, p. 63  
A Method proposed to exercise the Child's Memory, so that at the same time he may have a general View by the Division of the Old Testament History, p. 63  
A familiar way of feeding his thinking Faculty with variety of Matter, p. 67  
Solomon's Proverbs digested under several Heads, with the Addition of the Proverbs of all civilised Countries, recommended as a good Foundation for Prudence and Goodness, p. 70  
Learning to Write early, proposed, p. 71  
Placing Children of much differing Ages and Capacities in the same Class at School discommended, p. 72  
The Admirable effect of constantly accustoming a Child to read a Chapter Morning and Evening in the Bible, p. 73, and also p. 36  
What sort of Chapters most useful for the Child's reading more particularly, p. 74  
Directions for learning Latin and Greek, p. 74  
Reasons considered why Children beyond Sea learn Latin sooner than here, p. 75  
The common Grammar and Accidence to be used, tho' objected against by learned and judicious Men, p. 77  
Great Leisure and Patience advised to treat a Child with at the beginning, p. 79  
Directions for the next Eight Years, Year after Year; how to teach a Child Latin and Greek, and fit him for the University by Fourteen, not omitting between whiles the forementioned English Exercises, p. 80  
Dancing between while advised, p. 91   

The Third Stage.  
From Fourteen to Twenty One, p. 93  
Short Directions for a Tutor to treat a young Gentleman newly brought to the University, p. 93.  
The Practice of some Persons in sending their Sons to an Academy first, and afterwards to the University discommended, p. 100  
To place him with a Country Minister instead of sending him to the University also discommended, p. 100  
As also sending him to some Protestant University with a foreign Tutor, p. 101  
The several Courses of Life, young Gentlemen are to be grounded in, according to their respective Talents and Conditions, p. 102  
Travailing, with some Directions, p. 102  
Settling in the Country, and acting there, p. 108  
Study of Physic, p. 108, 109  
Civil-Law, p. 110  
Common-Law, p. 111  
Directions for a complete Course in the Study of Divinity, by the help of the Apparatus ad Theologiam, written for that purpose, p. 113  
A Tutor to direct a young Nobleman or Gentleman in the study of Divinity advised, as greatly useful, p. 118   

The Third Part. The Conclusion, in behalf of Holy Orders.  
ENcouragement for Persons of Quality to study Divinity, p. 123  
Objections, (why they do not study it) answered, p. 125  
The Rural Clergy in many places neither beloved nor kindly used, p. 126  
Going to Law not a convenient Remedy, p. 128  
A Description of a Purs-proud Clown who oppresseth his Minister, p. 130, 131  
Cheating the Parson thought no sin, and the danger of it, p. 133  
Objection that many Clergymen have much more than they deserve, p. 134, 135  
That the Clergy live to high, p. 136  
That many of the Clergy are too Great, p. 137  
That the Inferior Clergy are many of them Idle, Ignorant, Quarrel. some, and Lose, p. 138  
The Pattern of St. Ambrose and Theodosius, p. 139  
More Respect paid the Sacred Function all the World over than is here, p. 140  
If Nobleman's Sons were Clergymen, their Interest would support the Function, p. 142  
Without some Amendment we must be ruined, p. 143    

A Word to the Wise.  
THose English Gentlemen I mean, whose Great Souls are grieved, when they consider how this Gallant Nation hath fooled away that Honour which our Ancestors so dearly purchased: We once made a greater noise in the World, our Arms were Formidable where ever they came, Conquest of whole Nations was easy: We fed in Prison the Kings of those Countries we are afraid of: Our assistance was often Courted, and always Successful: Happy were the People who could get the English on their side, to Relieve distrested States, and six tottering Crowns: We road in Pleasure-Boats on the Sea, and knew no other Dangers but what were under Water: In one Battle could make the Enemy send a Blank, and give a Peace he was neither able to Force or Purchase.  
Now, what less than a Stoical Senseless Patience can bear a Reflection on the unhappy Change? That in few Years (I am ashamed to say how few) from so great a steddiness of Gravity, Honesty, and Courage, we were softened into Foppishness, Dissembling, and almost Cowardice: To see Wisdom sold for Wit, Veracity lost in Swearing: To see Vice impudent, and Virtue despised for singularity, and almost as much Courage required to be a Good Man, as would Take or Defend a Town.  
To trace this Calamity through all its Causes, is a subject too Melancholy for a thoughtful Man to be trusted with.  
It must be confessed, the Hardships of the Civil War ruin'd the Fathers, the Luxury following the Restauration spoilt the Sons; and if a stricter Discipline doth not mend the Grandchilds, we will resolve to be a Byword, and an Hissing to French, Dutch, Scotch, and all Mankind.  
But perhaps, Arguments from Honour may be too speculative; I will try one taken from Interest and Force: Self-Preservation at this time is very costly, Wars thicken upon us, and our Silver Mines run low; A strict Education of Children is a good way to save and pay Taxes, for Virtue is cheaper than Vice: Tenderness and Indulgence feeds the Inclination to Gaiety, which tends to Debauchery, and ruin of a Family: When you shall see the unsatiable Curiosity of a Child's wanton Appetite everlastingly gratified with whatsoever it craves (and so craving thereby made infinite:) When Father and Mother shall fear to displease him, as if the Child were wisest of all the three, and were in good truth my Little Master, without any Compliment: At Ten Years of Age, when he should be form to Wisdom, he must once every day Hunt, making his Horses and Dogs Companions, instead of Servants, and venture his Neek four or five hours at a time for Health's sake: When perhaps this is a Person whom Providence designs for a Trustee in the Government of six Millions of People: And what care can be enough for his Accomplishment? What Wisdom, History, and Politics, what Integrity, Oratory, and Courage is required to understand and debate the true Interest of the Kingdom, to discover and baffle the Fallacies of a designing Speecher, to give the King seasonable and useful Counsel, so serviceably to manage Foreign Ministers of State, as to redeem us from the Scandal of that old true Jest, of losing in a Treaty all we got in a Fight.  
There are great Places of Trust and Profit in the Kingdom to be aimed at, which Kings are many times forced to fill up with Persons of meaner Birth, because, forsooth, Great Ones will not condescend to be Wise enough to manage them: So that in conclusion, besides the Service of the Public, the best way to keep up and increase a Patrimony, is to breed up Children Severely, and fit them with Improvements suitable to their Quality: This will make them able to live Wisely, and within compass, and bear the great Burdens, the Public Exigencies of our Affairs lay upon us: And it will be worth all the Charges we are at for our present Defence; if that Frugality and Wisdom which neither Morality nor Religion could teach, Necessity at last should force us to.  
And here I cannot pass by the Censure of an Humour too frequent among young Gentlemen; mistaking Vanity and Profuseness for Generosity; they despise and laugh at Parsimony and Thrift, as qualities Sullen, Sordid, and Ungenteel, those Qualities which are valued in other Countries, and which made the Romans masters of the World; and which have made the Venetians and the Dutch in Greatness equal to most Kingdoms in Europe. And is not this a much more reputable disposition in a Nation, than to feed an heedless humour of Wasting: And instead of true and solid Honour, (which nothing but Wisdom and Virtue hath any Title to) vaingloriously to aim at Popularity, and sacrifice an Estate to purchase the Admiration of the Rabble; but the Hatred of all who are Good, and Contempt of all who are Wise. Care therefore in time should be taken in the Education of Youth, to prevent this Temper.  
1. It seldom goes alone; it is seen in very had Company most times, and the Vices which attend it are none of the cheapest.  
2. It brings the Honour and Credit of a Family into great suspicion of Danger, and leaves Younger Children too much at the Mercy of the Eldest Brother's Virtue.  
3. It makes the Man despised by those who feed most upon his Looseness: He that Cheats you, though he be Damned for it, laughs at you. When a Person of Quality lands at Calais, and the People flock about, and cry out, Here comes Money, it seems a greater Compliment to the plenty of our Nation, than to the wisdom of the Travellers.  
4. A Prodigal Temper makes a Man less able to bear any Calamitous Change of his Condition, which by Providence or secular Casualties may befall him: He hath been too Free of the Money which should have been laid up to prevent Necessity, and of the Wisdom which should support it.  
Therefore when a Child is carefully taught good sentiments of Justice, and Charity, which is the greatest piece of Justice in the World, let him be taught to live as savingly as may comport with Decency and the circumstances of his Condition. Prudence will go a great way in keeping a Man from being Base or Mad.  
And now lest the Reader should think I am setting up for Usury, I must declare that I am no greater friend to the sin of Covetousness, than I am to Idolatry, the Root of all Evil, and E●●●ity with God 〈◊〉 and where 〈…〉 Prodigality meet (for such a Monster now and then to Born) When a Man shall spend a Thousand Pound for Vainglory, and at the same time break the Laws of God and Man to get one Groat; I am so far from favouring him, that I think in the worst sense of the word Reprobate, without fear of mistake, he may put himself down for one.  
There are a great many more Cautions in the Education of young Gentlemen, as to Morality, which might come in here, but I mention this in particular, as being big with most inconveniencies, and being very catching as soon as a Child thinks himself something. Now to prevent the other many ill Habits in Youth, was the subject of a late Book, called the Guardian's Instruction; the design of which appears in the Preface before it, and the Index in the end: The usefulness of which, to that end is Explained and Improved in the Second Part of this Book; which is a Method to teach a Child from three years of age to twenty one, etc. For the use of Gentlemen who have Wit enough to be Advised, and know how to be Civil to their own Interest, that is, who are wise enough to consider, that there is an Archbishopric, a Lord-Chancellorship, and a Lord-Chief-Justice-ship in the Kingdom worth studying for; of which more in another place.  
And I must here rid myself of some Thoughts which have often run in mine Head, that, whatever be the Occasion, certainly Foolish is the conceit, That Law, Physic, or Divinity is beneath the Son of a Person of Quality, though the Fourth, Fifth, or Sixth Son. It were worth the while to show the reasons of it, I cannot be so hardhearted to the Gentry and Nobility as to think that this Humour always proceeds from Pride: But I rather imagine that it proceeds from an Aversion (to the confinement of a Profession) in the Children themselves, occasioned by an Unwary promiscuous way of their Education, which I have touched upon in the forementioned Book, Pag. 35. Guardian's Instructions.  
I will exemplify this in a Case: A Person of Quality, worth several Thousands a year, hath four or five Sons, but the Eldest is to carry the Estate and Title, upon the decease of the Father; nay, perhaps beforehand, is to be Master of a good share, and the Younger Children to depend on the Father's Prudence for a moderate Provision: In the mean time they are all bred up in one Common manner, enjoy the same Fondness, wear the same Clothes, go to the same School, Hunt and Hawk at the same Idle rate: This must needs plump up the sensual Soul of the Youth, make him reckon himself as good as his eldest Brother, and of as good parts too, never considering that the other is to be Wiser by Five Thousand Pounds a year.  
How will such a Child be able to bear the Ungrateful Distinction which must shortly be made? The eldest Son must be taken from School, Treated like a Man, Habited for Quality, and have a Man and an half to wait upon him, and a brace of Geldings; and after he hath flam'd for a year or two in the University, retire to be settled in the Country, and share the Greatness of his Father. Now in the sight of all this, who shall undertake to persuade the other Children to go up to Oxford, and live thriftily there, and study hard to make out their Fortunes by some Calling. The Quality of their Birth, and gaiety of their Brother, will still be running in their Minds; this will breed Discontent; Discontent will make them Idle; and Idleness will make them even what they please.  
It may perhaps be objected, that this distinction in Education of Elder and Younger Sons, may be apt to beget Pride in the one, and to discourage the other: As for the first, a Sober and Pious education may prevent that, and as for the second, the younger Children ought to be discouraged from thinking too well of themselves: They must be told, and be taught the difference of their Relation to the Patrimony, and that more knowledge and learning, will vie with what they Envy in their elder Brother; and that Industry in an honourable Profession, may entitle them to as comfortable, if not as great a Fortune. And having mentioned the undertaking a Profession, I cannot think but the study of Divinity a very Genteel and Agreeable employment to exercise the Talon of a young Person of Quality: There is one Melancholy Objection which I am afraid makes so few of them undertake it: They see the dignified Clergy Envied, and the inferior Clergy treated with Contempt and Hardships in many places, by the great Enemies of Religion and the Church. I have not room here to give an Answer, but the Function shall have Justice done it, and the Clergy be Vindicated from its Enemies, whom Malice, Atheism or Pride, Avarice or Dissension make so. In the mean time, because it is not impossible but some Gentleman or other of Parts and Learning, may be inclined to hearken to these Good Wishes. In the Second Part, I will prescribe him such a Method from the very beginning of his Adventure, as by God's Blessing upon his Abilities, shall give him very great Insight, if he can take Pains enough.  

A Catalogue of several Great Families whose Relations have been Church Men.  
AGelnothus, Bishop of Canterbury, Son of Earl Agelmare.  
Athelmarus, Bishop of Winton, Son to Hugh, Earl of March.  
Henry de Bloys, Bishop of Winchester, Brother to King Stephen.  
Hugh de Pudsey, Bishop of Durham, Earl of Northumberland.  
Boniface of Savoy, Bishop of Cant. Uncle to Queen Eleanor, Wife to Henry III.  
Richard Talbot, Bishop of London, Allied to the Talbot's, after, Earls of Shrewsbury.  
Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Lincoln and Winton, Son to John of Gaunt.  
William Courtney, Bishop of Canterb. Son of Hugh Courtney, Earl of Devon.  
Giles de Bruce, Bishop of Hereford, Son of William, Lord de Bruce.  
George Nevil, Bishop of Exon and York, Brother to Richard Nevil, Earl of Warwick.  
Thomas Piercy, Bishop of Norwich, Allied to the Piercy's, Earls of Northumberland.  
Lionel Woodvil, Bishop of Sarum, Son to Earl Rivers.  
Thomas Vipont, Bishop of Carirsle, Allied to Viponts, than Earls of Westmoreland.  
Marmaduke Lumley, Bishop of Carlisle, Allied to the House of Lumley's.  
Walter, Bishop of Durham, Earl of Northumberland.  
Julius de Medici's, Bishop of Worcester, Allied to the House of Medici's in Italy.  
Nicholas de Longespee, Bishop of Sarum, Son to William, Earl of Salisbury.  
William Dudley, Bishop of Durham, Son of John Lord Dudley.  
Walter de Cantilupo, Bishop of Worcester, of a Great House in Normandy.  
Lewes Beaumond, Bishop of Durham, of the Blood-Royal of France.  
Thomas Arundel, Bishop of Canterb. Son to Robert, Earl of Arundel and Warren.  
James Berkley, Bishop of Exon, Son to the Lord Berkley.  
Richard Scroop, Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield, Brother to William Scroop, Earl of Wiltshire.  
Thomas Bourchier, Bishop of Cant. Son to Henry Bourchler, Earl of Essex.  
Roger de Clinton, Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield, of the same Family with Geofry de Clinton.  
John Stafford, Bishop of Canterbury, Son to the Earl of Stafford.  
William de Vere, Bishop of Hereford,  
Richard Beauchamp, Bishop of Hereford, and Sarum.  
John Orandison, Bishop of Exon, of the House of Grandison, Dukes of Burgundy.  
Edmund Audley, Bishop of Hereford. Allied to the Lord Audley.  
Henry 〈◊〉 Bishop of Lincoln, 〈…〉 Baron of Lords.  
John Zou●h, Bishop of Landaff, Brother to the Lord Zouch.  
Fulco Basset, Bishop of London, Lord Basset.  
James Stanley, Bishop of Ely, Brother to the Eacl of Derby.  
Simon Montacute, Bishop of Ely, Allied to the Montacutes, then Earls Salisbury.   
What Clergy have sprung from the Gentry, Lawyers, and Merchants, you may see in a very large Catalogue annexed to the Charter of the Corporation for Widows and Children of Clergymen, Printed July 1. 1678. for John Playford in Little-Britain.  
To speak my mind more plainly,  
1. A strict Education of the young Nobility and Gentry would be a great Advantage to the Public. It is a great Wrong to the National Concerns that we lose the Service and Assistance which the Parts of so many excellent Persons might afford: What great variety would the King have to fill up all void Places of Trust and Honour? What choice of Privy-Councellors, Ambassadors, Judges, and Justices of the Peace? What a glorious show of Military Officers at Land and Sea?  
We may learn from an Enemy: How mightily doth the French King serve himself of the Nobility there? What an Emulation makes them contend to deserve best? And though God be thanked the Arbitrary Command of our Service is not so great as theirs, yet the Love of our Country ought to be: And what a noble Resolution would it be for all Persons of Quality to Consecrate the several Inclinations of their Children to the respective Services of the Kingdom Civil, Ecclesiastical, or Military, according as Sedentariness and Books, or Activity and Business is their Talon.  
How many Honourable Conditions doth great skill in the Law prepare a Man for? How many Lives doth a good Physician save? And what a Calamitous want is there in many places? where many a Gentleman miscarries, because the Quack cannot write a good Bill, or because the Apothecary cannot read a bad Hand. There are great Dignities in the Church which no doubt the King had rather bestow on a Man of Birth: If his Temper be for Action in the Field, he will scarce ever want an opportunity to be as Stout as he pleaseth: And he must have a care of mistaking the Employment: It is not now as in the time of Peace, when being good for little was Qualification enough for a Soldiers Life, which is often chosen, because it is most like to Idleness: Now, Industry, Hardiness, Vigilancy, Skill, and Conduct is required, and Courage to venture the Lottery of Death or Honour.  
2. A strict Education of the Nobility and Gentry, would be of great Advantage to their own Private Families. The Eldest Son would keep up the Honour, and wisely manage the Estate of his Ancestors, and be likely to add to both: But on the contrary, if he value himself by the customary liberty of Heirs, to be Lose and Idle, he may Hunt, Hoop, and Hollow for some Years, but in a little time thou shalt look and behold he is not, thou shalt seek him, but he shall no where be found: And besides the danger of running out an Estate, a lose and fond Education of a Son and Heir, is the ready way to make him self-willed, Humoursome and Proud: For having been gratifyed in all he desired when young, he expects the same Fondness from all People when he grows up, and for want of it grows Peevish, Sour, and Unconversable: And I believe many Mothers, Wives, Sisters, and Servants have often found such a Man prove the most imperious Son, Husband, Brother, Master and Neighbour in all the Kingdom.  
As for the Younger Sons, if they are not bred up to some Profession, their case is not indifferent. They are left to the dieting of a moderate Condition: Their Parentage makes them aim at Great Fortunes, but the hard word Jointure spoils all. Sobriety in such Persons is a great Virtue, and it must be a great share of preventing. Grace that can keep them within bounds, it being a very hard matter not to do ill, when a Man hath nothing else to do: Whereas, were they bred good Scholars, what might not they promise themselves. I would have every younger Son dream as Joseph did, That Father, Mother, and eldest Brother, should bow to his Wealth and Power: There have been Honourable Families in this Kingdom, which have made this good. By undertaking one of the forementioned Professions, as they may do great service to the Nation, so in the end they may be very well paid. The Kingdom is not niggardly to such as deserve, if they are not wanting to themselves by Modesty. No Nation in Europe hath better rewards for Industry; and I verily believe they are generally as well bestowed: So that if the Gentry and Nobility will not be encouraged to take such seasonable advice as this, it is because they resolve to go on in the ancient Road of Carelessness.  
3. Besides the secular inducements, there is one advantage more of an higher Consideration; The everlasting Condition of the Soul in the life to come, which nothing but a Virtuous and Holy education can secure. I know Abraham, says God, Gen. 18.19. that he will command his Children and his Household, to keep the way of the Lord, to do Justice and Judgement, that I may bring upon him all that I have spoken. Old Eli paid dear for miscarrying in this point; because his Sons made themselves Vile, and he restrained them not. It cost him the Life of his two Sons, his own Neck, and such a Curse upon his Posterity as made both the Ears of every one that heard it tingle. 1 Sam. 3.11. So true is it what God said to Ezekiel 3.18. When I say to the Wicked, thou shalt surely die, and thou givest him not warning, from his wicked way that he may save his Life, he shall die in his Iniquity, but his Blood will I require at thine Hands. And when God shall bring the Youngman into Judgement for walking in the ways of his Heart, and the sight of his own Eyes, with what confusion shall the Father hear the poor Creature plead for his excuse; He was bred to nothing, and knew no better. He was a good Moralist tho' no Courtier, who with the sarcasm of a Blow, reproved the Father for the Crime of the Son. And in truth Children are Talents to be accounted for. Red mihi Liberos meos. There is no returning as you found them: They must be improved.  
Most Men think they have done their Duty when they have gotten Children and an Estate, leaving their Souls to God and their Wives. And 'tis observable, That many Ladies are very industrious, and begin betimes with Prayers and Catechisms; but after a little time the Child grows up to be a Boy, and the Boy grows too wise for his Mother, and then the Father undertakes the Management; and here it is that Time and Chance happens to his Morals and Religion. The Father he is careless, concludes that Virtue will come to him some way or another, as it did to himself (supposing him a good Man) but if himself be not so, than the insluence it is likely to have upon the Child, must needs be obvious, beyond the Power of all the Prayers and Tears of the best Wife, Mother, or Sister in the World.  
Infinite is the force of Example and Instruction from Parents on the tender Soul of a Child, and the encouragements to do their duty are great.  
2. From that Reverence and Love (which earliest of any thing appears in the Child's looks and actions) the constant care, presence, and fondness they show, begets from the Infant. It is notorious that a Person learns the same thing much more speedily and more effectually from a Man he loves, than from a stranger, or one he fears and hates. Whose Commands are received and obeyed with more reluctancy than from Parents.  
2. It is a great advantage the Parents have to deal with a Child who knows nothing already, and yet desires and longs to know any thing: To teach him is to write upon Clean and Smooth Paper; and if you make not a good stroke, a plain Letter and a straight Line, it is the Pen, or the Hand that holds it, but not the Paper to be blamed.  
3. The Child as yet hath contracted no Ill Habits, which are a great hindrance to Instruction of Persons in years, especially as to Morals.  
4. The Devil is at a loss to deal with a Child (who knows neither good nor evil) by all his Temptations.  
5. God's Blessing may reasonably be hoped for, to succeed their careful performance of the Duty he commands: It is God's business they do, they are his Children they breed up, as Jacob told Rachel, Gen. 3.2. and He never fails to reward those that serve Him faithfully in it.  
6. Those Children who are most Virtuously bred up, prove most Dutiful and Comfortable to their Parents for ever after; whereas a Child bred up without the Fear of God, will never reverence Man: And how will all the Immoralities of his life, the great dangers he runs into in this World, and the greater dangers he ventures in the next, afflict the Souls of his Parents, hasten their old Age, equal the Pangs of his Birth, and make them sorry that a Man Child was ever born into the World.  
7. One infinite advantage Parents have above a stranger in Education of their Children; they knowing their own natural Infirmities, and foreseeing the danger that a share of them may be born with their Children, aught to be Jealous of the mischief, watch the first motions, and more seasonably obviate the Disease, than others can.  
And from hence it is easy to account for that infamous Atheism and Immorality, which for many years have disgraced Reason and Humane shape: It must be charged upon this Fundamental misearriage in Education. For though Nero and some others may be alleged as Insiances, how much Institution may be foiled by Nature; yet Socrates ingeniously confessed, what power Philosophy had in such a case; And why should not Christian instruction do the same? The knowledge of his Duty and God's Grace, would make Vice looked upon as an Enemy, and its Temptations suspected: It would supply the young Man with an answer to the World, the Flesh, and the Devil: How can I do this great wickedness, and Sin against God? Gen. 39.9. Joseph was young enough, and private enough to have played a Courtier, but his Heart was brim full of Gratitude, and made him as great a Master of his own little Family, within his Breast, as he was in Potiphar's House, all at his Command, no Passion stirs: What? Sin against the good Master I live upon, and the merciful God who by Miracles brought me hither? I may not, I dare not break in upon my Conscience with such a Gild: With what Horror shall I live, and how can I dare to die.  
And here having mentioned Dying, I cannot avoid offering a serious Consideration of the most dismal Apprehensions which must needs confound the Soul of a notorious Sinner, when a Desperate Sickness shall set him beyond any Relief from Pleasure or Delight in Life, when Pain increasing, Strength failing, Time shortening, he fears a few Minutes may put him upon the woeful Experiment of the Grand Perhaps: When Conscience let lose shall prevent Stupidity, what Painter is able to draw the Horror and Amazement of his Looks? He stairs as if his Eyelids were never to meet; his Groans make the standers by tremble as much as the Bed that he lies upon; he knows not how or where to begin Repentance; he is ashamed to think of Mercy, and at last angry at the Immortality of his Soul, he seems willing to die, because Damnation cannot be worse. Hear this o you who laugh at Virtue, contemn Religion, and yet must Die, whatever be your Wealth, your Wit, or your Honour!  
Sometime after this was written, coming to Oxford, I showed these Papers to a very Worthy Person of my Acquaintance, who hearing this read, told me, there was a case now fresh upon the Stage, like this, and showed me the Book called, the Second Spira, where I saw dreadfully exemplisi'ed what I had been describing, whether the matter be true or no.  
It doth please God sometimes to glorify the Power of his Grace, by snatching a Brand out of the Fire, and showing wicked Men a possibility of Salvation: That though the Path be narrow, the Gate straight and he must strive, yet he may enter, and be received, if he will but knock hard enough.  
I have here subscribed a Letter to my Purpose of the Earl of Marlborough, a little before his Death in the Sea-Fight, 1665.  
To the Honourable Sir Hugh Pollard, comptroller of His Majesty's Household.  
SIR,  
I Believe the Goodness of your Nature, and the Friendship you have always born me, will receive with kindness the last office of your Friend. I am in Health enough of Body and (through the Mercy of God in Jesus Christ) well disposed in mind. This I premise, that you may be satisfied, that what I writ proceeds not from any Fantastic Terror of Mind, but from a sober Resolution of what concerns myself, and earnest desire to do you more Good after my Death, than mine Example (God of his Mercy pardon the Badness of it) in my Life-time may do you harm.  
I will not speak aught of the Vanity of this World, your own Age and Experience will save that Labour. But there is a certain thing that goeth up and down the World, called Religion, dressed and pretended Fantastically, and to Purposes bad enough, which yet, by such evil Dealing loseth not its Being.  
The Great Good God hath not left it without Witness, more or less, sooner or later in every Man's Bosom, to direct us in the pursuit of it; and hath given us His Holy Word, in which, as there are many things hard to be understood, so there is enough plain and easy to quiet our Minds, and direct us concerning our future Being.  
I confess to God and you, I have been a great Neglecter, and (I fear) Despiser of it: God of His Infinite Mercy pardon me the dreadful Fault.  
But when I retired myself from the noise and deceitful vanity of the World, I found no true Comfort in any other Resolution than what I had from thence.  
I commend, from the bottom of my Heart, the same to your (I hope) happy use. Dear, Sir Hugh, let us be more Generous than to believe we die as the Beasts that Perish; but with a Christian Manly Brave Resolution look to what is Eternal. I will not trouble you further. The only Great God, and Holy God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, direct you to an happy end of your Life, and send us a joyful Resurrection, so prays  
Your true Friend, Marleborough. From the Old James, near the Coast of Holland, Apr. 24. 1665.  
The Quality of the Person, the seriousness, the Piety, and designed usefulness of the Letter, together with the remarkable circumstance of the Time in which it was written tacks it very well to the Subject I am upon.  
It is Printed at the beginning of a small Tract, called Fair Warning to a Careless World, Published by Dr. Lloyd, Printed for John Amery over-against St. Clement's-Church in the Strand, 1673.  
The Author hath Collected Instances of all Conditions, Emperors, Kings, Philosophers, Statesmen, etc. of all Religions, Jews, Mahometans, Heathens, Christians, and of Good and Bad Men in each, to show the opinion they had of a Life to come; and especially how warmly that Opinion worked when they came to die: The Souls of young Gentlemen would feed upon such Instances, gather Strength, and grow able to call Carelessness, Vice, and Atheism the greatest Folly in the World.  
And I think it were a good expedient to confirm the Good in their Love of Virtue, to read the late Disquisition of the Law of Nature, and the Confutation of Hobbs, Published by Mr. Tyrrel. And to convince the Bad of the danger of their Folly, I wish every Gentleman would Command his Children seriously and frequently to read over the Reflections on the Life, and the genteel and very useful Discourse at the Funeral of the late Famous Earl of Rochester, a Man always wonderful whether Good or Bad: I hope I shall not offend by Naming him, since it is for the Glory of God's Mercy to Him and His; and also since it was his own especial Command to the Orator to make the Best of him in the Pulpit at any Rate that Posterity might look upon him and learn to be Wise, and all the Kingdom grow better by his Uncommon Example.  
There are very good Reasons to believe that his Education in his Youth was as carefully managed, as the Calamitous time he was Born in would permit; and to show the power of Education, some of his most Intimate Companions, in the loser part of his Life, have declared, That before he slept, he would continue the Custom he had been bred up in of reading a Chapter in the Bible.  
But to say the truth, His Eyes were too tender to bear the mighty Sunshine he went out so early abroad into: He was too too Young to be trusted with the sight of Vice and Atheisin Dressed up with Wit, Beauty, and Honour: To see the Gauntlet thrown against Heaven, and the Philistine traversing the Ground to defy the Host of the living God: His Youthful Curiosity gazed too long, and went too near, and at last he was taken Prisoner, led away Captive, And for a while made Slave to the Cruel Tyranny of Custom, Fashion, and Example.  
But the great Shepherd of Israel would not suffer the Lamb to perish in the Paw of the Lion or the Bear, or the Devil to wear away a Jewel so rich as this. God had great things to do by him, and therefore darts a Ray from above into his Breast, softens and Refines the Metal, and purgeth the Dross, and like Saint Paul, makes him Preacher of the Cause he had so often assaulted, though with more violence to his own reason than theirs whom he Thought to Baffle. He now tells the World that the time must come, when Mirth and Laughter shall say 'tis not in me, Honour 'tis not in me, and the greatest Wit in the Kingdom, 'tis not in me: That the King of Terrors must make Atheisin shrink and give back at Last, even at that time, when (if there were any thing in it) it ought to be more Daring, and most Bold of all.  
It was not Pain and Weakness, or Faintness of Spirits, which made him Good, for than it would have made him Dull too, but his Wit continued to the last; he had more than there was strength to show; and his dying sharpness was as great, as when the greatest mixture of Madness composed the best Verse he ever wrote.  
Therefore let his Memory be precious, let the Wicked take the Ptatern, and let the Spirit of God have the Praises of a sound and sincere Conversion, which the mournful Courses of his Life set off as shades do the Picture, and as the Dark side of the Cloud in Egypt, without which the bright side had been no Miracle.  
And now 'tis full time to take my leave of the Gentry, ask Pardon for becoming their Adviser; and begging that a good Intention may atone for what ever is eagerly and weakly spoken: I am sure they would forgive me, did they but know how much I think an English Gentleman, Religiously, Virtuously, and Wisely bred, the finest sight in the World.   

New Instructions TO THE GUARDIAN, The Second Part.  
Containing an Easy METHOD FOR TEACHING A Young Gentleman FROM Three Years Old to Twenty One.  
London, Printed in the Year 1694.   


An Answer to a Letter from a Person of Quality.  
Madam,  
I Received your Censure of the Guardian's Instructions, with a Duty becoming the Favour, and would have Printed it before this Second Part, but that this Performance will not endure such Neighbourhood.  
I am sorry that your Ladyship (who is the One only great Exception to all I have written) should fancy that You and your Son were in my Thoughts when my Pen dropped the Vinegar Part of the Book, as you Phrase whatever Intrencheth on the Jurisdiction of the Woman's Court. I am very willing to own that your Ladyship is often in my Thoughts, but I take care that it be when I am disposed to think wisest, which I fear the Ladies will never say was, when I wrote such a Book as that.  
However, being neither Old nor Rich enough to set up for an Humour, and pretend to despise what Gentlewomen think of me, I do but beg the reasonable liberty of a common Criminal, to explain my own meaning, and then it shall be found, that the worst of my Design is, to save fine shaped Gentlemen from having their Backs broken by too much Hugging.  
Your Ladyship Indicts me in the name of all your Sex, for Insinuating that the Fondness of the Mother spoils the Son, as much as the Fondness of the Father spoils the Mother; or which is all one, where the Husband dotes, that is, thinks every one wise who is handsome, and leaves his Wife to do what she will with the Son, the Wife leaves the Son to do what he will with himself, and so prepares the young Man to set up his Horse at the Stews or a Tavern.  
To get rid of this Objection as well as I can, it is too late to repent of having discovered an Opinion which Scripture and Reason inclines me to, That the Man should guide the Woman, he is Head, and a Man would think the Understanding should be there. 'Tis true, Men in England have parted with this Prerogative, for you Ladies have Compounded for it with so much Beauty, that you have gotten an Empire over Husbands here, unheard of in other Nations. I do not envy you this Power, or think it unjustly gotten, for I wish I were under the Dominion of it myself. But since this Monarchy Occonomical is a mixed Monarchy, I would have due Limits adjusted, and proper Shares allotted: I would not have the Husband be carefully looking after the roasting of Eggs in the Kitchen, while the Wife is reading Lectures of Politics in the Parlour, to the Son; neither would I have the Son sent for three times in the Week from School, to do nothing else but make Babies in his Mother's Eyes for two hours together.  
I shall not here describe all the various Shapes in which this Fondship appears; alas! that is the mortal Sin in the Guardian's Instructions, which hath offered so much violence to the  Eyes of the Fair Sex, that this Sheet is the Penance for. And though I cannot, with a safe Conscience, allow Mothers so much liberty to spoil their Children as I would, yet I will make them amends for it with an Equivalent; I will bring the best Reasons they can have to plead for their Breeding up their Children, and show that they cannot help being too Fond; and the more there is of Necessity, the less they are culpable; and if this doth not make my Peace, than I must conclude to live and die a Bachelor. Thus than I will suppose you to argue.  
The Tenderness of our Sex, the great pain in Breeding, and Torments of our Travail, the delight of being eased of those Pains, and seeing the Fruit of our Labour, the infinite Care and Trouble, necestitous Infancy requires from the Mother, whilst the Father walks about and Whistles, with his hands in his Pockets, the Pleasure of seeing the growing little Actions and first Essays of Knowledge, these things cannot but heighten our Affection, and make it too loud for Reason; and we may claim as the Mother's due, the comfort of his Tattling, for the trouble of his Crying, and unanswerably conclude, that no Person can be sitter to manage the Child when he can speak, than she which taught him first to do so.  
I confess, How an Husband who is as fond of his Lady as he ought to be, can deal with such Logic as this, is beyond my Experience: And to make you amends once for all, I will frankly confess that Woman's natural Wit is as brisk as ours. I will not say Brisker: The sharpness of a Daughter is beyond that of a Son of more Years: Indeed afterwards the greater freedom of Conversation, Hearding in Societies, and Feeding one another with Observation and Experience in the World, give our Sex those Advantages which Women want: But since the Law of the Creation doth not think you fit to be trusted with this Improvement, for fear you should manage your Knowledge as ill as you first obtained it: You must excuse me, if I cannot force myself to believe, that the Husband ought not to be wiser than the Wife.  
My Service to Mr. William, and tell him I hope to see him prove a more material Objection to the Guardian's Instructions, than I have met withal yet.  
And now, Madam, I know the length of that Apology which ought to be made for treating so much Excellency with a Style thus Familiar: But that I am confident it is impossible for your Ladyship to be discovered without your own Consent: For I have compelled myself to a Vow of foregoing the satisfaction which I could easily make myself envied for, by Publishing the Honour of Corresponding with so much Worth, and subscribing,  
Your ladyship's, most Affectionately Devoted.   

The First Stage.  
New Instructions to the Guardian.  
1. THE Two things to be practised upon in the Breeding up a Gentleman, are, Good Manners, and Knowledge: It is not my design in this small Tract to meddle with Morality, and the Dutiful or Adviseable Practices of the Respective Behaviour of Childhood, Youth, and Riper Years, either at Home, or in the University or Country, and that in Private or Public Conditions; for this was the business of The Guardian's Instructions, the Method, Management and Parts of which may be known by the Preface before the Book, or the Index at the end of it.  
2. My concern therefore at present is, with the Knowledge of a Child, and to reduce my own Observation (with just Deference to others) into some Rules to help at first, and afterward to improve the Natural desire of Knowledge, which discovers itself with the first exercise of Reason.  
The Rules are Few and Easie, because the eager Appetite after Novelty is heightened by the Pleasure which attends it; so that if it be burdened with the Number, or stifled with the Difficulty of Instructions, Distrust will make the Desire more indifferent, and the Progress more moderate.  
3. For Method sake I have measured out One and Twenty Years, by such distinct Stages as I thought convenient, with Directions agreeable to each Interval.  
How to treat a Child from his beginning to Read till Six Years old, from Six to Fourteen, from Fourteen to One and Twenty: These Distances are calculated for the common Capacity of Human Nature, not for the Gigantic reaches of some singular Prodigies of Parts, who do Wonders from the Cradle, and early stride over one of these Stages in a Breath; and if they did not hasten as fast to Die, would want Matter to know before they come of Age. He who will undertake to prescribe just Rules for such Abilities as these, were best first to take good care to be somewhat like them himself.   

The First Stage.  
For English.  
AS soon as ever the Child is able to speak several Words plain, let him be taught his Letters.  
1. By this means he will grow able much sooner, and with much more ease, to Apprehend and Pronounce all manner of Words, than he would otherwise do, from the confusion of a bare Family-Noise: Wherein the frequent difference of Tones, and the hasty Abbreviations of Words, in the common rambling Talk, make the Child apt to mistake one Word or Syllable for another, and so make it much longer before he come to speak perfectly well, than it will be after he be thus somewhat prepared, to observe, apprehend, and catch at the Pronunciation of the Syllables he hears.  
2. This will be a means to put some stop to the perpetual Motion and Hurry a Child is in all the Day long, which is good for nothing but to make the Nurse sleep well. For tho' it looks somewhat diverting to see a Child brisk, yet if his Motion be too Violent, or too Frequent, it will keep his Brains in an everlasting Tumult, and put him so many degrees back from thinking. Whereas if he did but breath now and then on the Horn Book, this would help to fix the Mercury of his Idle Soul, give the Spirits time to settle, and insensibly make preparation for as much resemblance of some kind of Seriousness as every degree of Tameness in Childhood can promise. And the Pauses at first between every Letter, and afterwards the distinctive Points in Sentences, which the Child ought to be carefully taught to observe, will bridle the Infant-Eartlestness, make him look as if he did consider, and in time make him really do so; and I cannot but blame the common Practice. It is thought a kind of Perfection in Reading, if the Child read loud and fast; beside the indecency of each, one begets an ill-becoming Tone, and the other hinders the minding the Sense and Truth of what is read.  
3. When you begin with a Child, do not clog him with too much; let him come to his Book as to his Recreation: That the frequent exercise of Memory in Persons of Discretion helps it, cannot be denied; but burdening a tender memory doth not so: the delight which is taken in Performances will strengthen the Faculty; but tireing of it weakens the same. The Mind of a Child is to be dieted like his Stomach, little and often; for fullness creates heaviness, and that is but another name for dulness; nay sometimes a Surfeit follows it; now a Surfeit in the beginning of Learning is fatal. If he dread and loath his Book, if ever you intent to make him a great Man, you must be sure to provide him a good Clark.  
4. Forasmuch as the unexperienced Apprehension of a Child is weak and tardy, the Elements of Instruction ought to be very simple and easy: For Difficulty and Discouragement begin with the same Letter. And therefore tho' I were sure to have my Eyes scratched out the next Moment, I cannot forbear speaking irreverently of the Grave Hornbook in use, which brings in the Country School-Dames so many Groats a Week: For the mixing the Great and Small Letters at first teaching, and putting down the same Letter in different Figures, as R. S. and V, etc. must needs distract an Infant, and make him keep the Straw much longer in his Fingers than he need to do.  
One Caution I cannot fail of putting in here: There are certain Letters which some Children cannot so soon learn to pronounce as they do the others, especially R. and L. if you find that this is not out of heedlessness only, but some kind of unusual Difficulty, go on at present without them (they will come in time) and do not stop the Child's progress, till he get the Pronunciation of these two Letters also, for you know not how much time you may hinder him of.  
After he is perfect in his Letters, let him Spell as follows:   

Lord's Prayer.  
OUR Father Father, which art in Heaven Heaven; Hal-low-ed Hallowed be thy Name: Thy King-dom Kingdom come; Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Heaven: Give us this Day our Daily Daily Bread; and for-give forgive us our Trespasses Trespasses, as we for-give forgive them that Tres-pass Trespass against against us; and lead us not in-to into Temp-ta-ti-on Temptation: But de-li-ver deliver us from Evil Evil. A-men Amen.   

The Creed.  
I Believe Believe in God the Father Father Almighty Almighty, Ma-ker Maker of Heaven Heaven and Earth; and in Je-sus Jesus Christ his on-ly only Son our Lord; who was con-cei-ved conceived by the Holy Holy Ghost, born of the Vir-gin Virgin Marry Mary; suffered suffered under under Pon-ti-us Pontius Pilot Pilate, was Crucified Crucified dead and bu-ri-ed buried; he deseended descended in-to into Hell, the third Day he risen a-gain again from the dead; he aseended ascended in-to into Heaven Heaven, and sitteth sitteth on the Right Hand of God the Father Father Almighty Almighty, from thence he shall come to judge both the Quick and the Dead; I believe believe in the Holy Holy Ghost, the Holy Holy Catholic Catholic Church, the Com-mu-ni-on Communion of Saints, the for-give-ness forgiveness of Sins, the Re-sur-re-ction Resurrection of the Bo-dy Body, and the Life everla-sting, everlasting, A-men Amen.   

The Ten Com-mand-ments Co mmand ments.  
I. THou shalt have no o-ther other God's before before me.  
II. Thou shalt not make un-to unto thyself any any Graven Graven I-mage Image, or the like-ness likeness of any any thing that is in Heaven Heaven a-bove above, or that is in the Earth beneath beneath, or that is in the Wa-ter Water under under the Earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous jealous God, vi-si-ting visiting the I-ni-qui-ty Iniquity of the Father's Fathers, upon upon the Children Children un-to unto the Third and Fourth Ge-ne-ra-ti-on Generation of them that hate me, and showing showing Me●cy Mercy un-to unto Thou●s●nds Thorsands of them that love me and keep my Com-mand-ments Commandments.  
III. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guilt-less guiltless that takes taeth his Name in vain.  
IU. Remember Remember the Sabbath Sabbath day to keep it Holy Holy, Six Days shalt thou la-bour labour and do all thy Work, but the Se-venth Seventh Day is the Sabbath Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any any Work, thou, nor thy Son, nor thy Daughter Daughter, thy Man-Ser-vant Manservant, nor thy Maid-ser-vant Maidservant, nor thy Cattle , nor the Stran-ger Stranger that is within within thy Gates; for in Six Days the Lord made Heaven Heaven and Earth, the Sea, and all that in them is, and re-sted rested the Seventh Seventh Day; wherefore wherefore the Lord blessed blessed the Se-venth Seventh Day, and Hal-low-ed it.  
V Ho-nour Honour thy Father Father and thy Mother Mother, that thy Days may be long upon upon the Land which the Lord thy God gives giveth thee.  
VI Thou shalt not kill.  
VII. Thou shalt not com-mit commit A-dul-te-ry Adultery.  
VIII. Thou shalt not Steal.  
IX. Thou shalt not bear false Wit-ness Witness against against thy Neighbour Neighbour.  
X. Thou shalt not co-vet covet thy Neigh-bour's Neighbour's House, thou shalt not co-vet covet thy Neigh-bour's Neighbour's Wife, nor his Man-ser-vant Manservant, nor his Maid-ser-vant Maidservant, nor his Ox, nor his Ass, nor any any thing that is thy Neighbour's Neighbours.  
Glo-ry Glory be to the Father Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Holy Ghost.  
As it was in the be-gin-ning beginning is now, and e-ver ever shall be, World without without end. A-men Amen.  
The Grace of our Lord Je-sus Jesus Christ, and the Love of God, and the Fel-low-ship Fellowship of the Holy Holy Ghost be with us all e-ver-more evermore A-men Amen.   

The Church Catechism after this.  
This is a method, the easiest I could think of, for a Child at first to be taught in. And here I leave him to be farther perfected in this Language, by useful Books to this purpose.  
If any Man complain that I might have spent my time on bigger and louder Subjects; let him read the Catalogues of Famous Men, collected by Elzevir, Crenius, Morhofus and others: And then he will pardon a Man of my Size.   

The second Stage.  
From Six to Fourteen.  
AFter the Child can read the Bible, (which may be presumed about six Years of Age) let him immediately fall to Latin: And because Latin cannot go down so easily as English, which is the familiar Language of the whole Family, and which the Child's Necessities make him earnest to understand; I therefore think it convenient that this dry and tough Diet be larded now and then with some English Exercises, which may be diverting and useful also; which I thought fit to prefix before the Rules for learning Latin and Greek.  
1. It will be fit now to fix his Memory by some such like Method as this which follows, repeating the things over once every day.  
From the Creation of the World, to the great Flood of Noah. The First Chapter of Genesis to the Seventh.  
From Noah's Flood, to Abraham's going into the promised Land. Genesis the seventh Chapter to the twelfth.  
From Abraham's going into the promised Land, to Jacob's going into Egypt, to Joseph his Son. Genesis the Twelfth Chapter, to the Forty sixth.  
From Jacob's going down into Egypt, to the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt by Moses. Genesis the forty sixth Chapter, to the thirteenth Chapter of Exodus.  
From Moses carrying the Israelites out of Egypt, to Joshua's bringing them into the promised Land, over the River Jordan. The thirteenth Chapter of Exodus, to the fourth Chapter of the Book of Joshua.  
From Joshua's carrying the Israclites into the promised Land, to Saul the first King of the Israelites anointed by Samuel. The fourth Chapter of the Book of Joshua, to the first Book of Samuel and the tenth Chapter.  
From Saul's being anointed King of Isnael, to the Dividing of the Kingdom by the Ten Tribes running away to Jeroboam: the first Book of Samuel and the tenth Chapter, to the first Book of Kings and the twelfth Chapter.  
From the Division of the Kingdom under Jeroboam, to the Destruction of the Israelites and Samaria by the King of Assyria. The first Book of Kings, the twelfth Chapter, to the second Book of Kings, and the eighteenth Chapter.  
From the Destruction of the Israelites, to the the Destruction of Jerusalem and the Jews. The second Book of Kings, the eightteenth Chapter, to the second of Kings, the twenty fifth Chapter.  
From the Destruction of Jerusalem and the Jews, to Cyrus delivering the Jews from Captivity. The second Book of the Kings, the twenty fifth Chapter, to the first Chapter of the Book of Ezra.  
From the Deliverance of the Jews from Captivity by Cyrus' King of the Persians, to the Destruction of the Persian Empire by Alexander the Great. The first Chapter of the Book of Ezra, to the first Chapter of the first Book of Maccabes.  
From the Destruction of the Persian Empire by Alexander the Great, to Judas Maccabaeus. The first Chapter of the first Book of Maccabes, to the first Book of Maccabes and the third Chapter.  
From Judas Maccabaeus to Jesus Christ. The first of Maccabees the third, to the first Chapter of St. Mattew.  
As the Child grows up, and Memory ripens, you may add the Years from time to time, and fill up these distances with more or fewer Particulars; according to the Method of the Apparatus ad Theologiam, pag. 102. And practise him in the Years after Christ by Centuries only, from one Emperor to another.  
2. Because nothing more contributes to the enlarging of a Child's Capacity than variety of Matter, though in things at first not fully understood, it may be useful between while to prattle with him at such a rate as this.  
Take the Figures from 1, 2, 3, etc. to 12. and place under each Figure such things promiscuously, as fall under every Number. As for Example  
I  
One World.  
One God.  
One Mediator, etc.  
II.  
Two Testaments.  
Two Tables in the Commandments.  
Two Sacraments in the New Testament.  
III.  
Three Persons in the Blessed Trinity.  
Three Creeds or Sums of Faith in the Trinity.  
Three Offices of Christ; King, Priest, Prophet.  
iv  
Four Parts of the World.  
Four Great Monarchies of the World.  
Four Elements.  
V  
Five Books of Moses  
Five Senses.  
Five Declensions of Nouns.  
VI  
Six Days for the Creation.  
Six Days in the Week for Labour.  
VII.  
Seven Churches of Asia.  
Seven Wise Men of Greece.  
Seven Kings of Rome.  
VIII.  
Eight Persons saved in Noah's Ark.  
Eight Days for Circumcision.  
Eight Parts of Speech in Latin.  
IX.  
Nine Muses.  
X.  
Ten Commandments.  
XI.  
XII  
Twelve Patriarches.  
Twelve Tribes of Israel.  
Twelve Apostles.  
More under each Figure you may add, and occasionally explain the Particulars: As for instance, under the Figure (1) One World; because some pleaded for infinite Worlds. One God because the Heathen worshipped many false Gods. One Mediator because the Papists have many.  
3. Because of all instruction, there is nothing so much to be considered as the Morals of a Child both for true Happiness here, and hereafter; besides the Directions every where in the Guardians Instructions. As soon as ever the Child seems to stare about, that is, as soon as ever he is capable of Observation and Reflection, I would have the Tutor take Solomon's Proverbs, especially such as respect God, Religion, Good Manners, Civil Breeding and Duty in all Relations, and Enlarge on, and explain them (according to the Lord Bacon's method in his Advancement) on the Sundays and Holydays: Perhaps it may be wondered at, why I distinguish this Exercise by the particular time of performing it: Truly it is to beget an early veneration for the Sabbath and holy Festivals  
For when a Child is accustomed to a more Solemn and Religious Instruction upon some days than others, he will in time begin to consider why so; and being taught the Occasion and the Reason, perhaps may love and observe such times the better for it as long as he lives.  
4. Another diverting exercise for a Child is that of Writing, which will profitably fill up some idle Hours; a Muscular Motion, the sooner the better it is begun.  
Though it be almost Proverbial, That Scholars Writ ill, yet three Parts of the Kingdom take a good Hand to be some degree of Learning; and it is no disparagement to good Sense to be written in a fair Character, and read with pleasure; especially if he prove an Author, and writ Books, it will save many a curse from the Compositor.  
These and the following Directions may serve private Schools as well as Families; especially if true care be taken to place Children of near the same Age, and the same Capacities in one Class, wherein the Instructions being equally intelligible may beget a laudable Emulation, and brisk the Spirits, which by carelessness would stagnat, and lie unactive. And on the other side, when a Youth of less Age (though perhaps as good Natural Parts) shall be forced every Hour to do the penance of Admiring the great Performances and Commendations of the Scholar who sits next him: The first effect of this is, he often wishes he could do the same, but afterward sighs because he cannot; this begets a kind of shame and discontent, which makes his little Soul retire and hid itself; he acts what he could do with less of Spirit, and quarrels the Stars for not being born as wise as he who is Five Years older.  
I would have the Immoralities and Negligence of Youth punished severely; but as to their Mere Parts and Natural Abilities, all the kindness and encouragement in the World is but enough.  
There are many more particulars very proper to have been Added here, but I refer the Tutor to the general directions for the better breeding a Child of great Quality in the Guardian's Instruction, pag. 65.  
One Advice I must conclude the Child's English Exercises with. After he hath paid his Devotion in the Morning, and before he doth it at Night, let him constantly read a Chapter: Great is the Influence of such a Practice. I have been told of Persons noted for extravagance of Atheism and Immorality, who have yielded to the Impressions of such a Custom, retired to say their Prayers and read a Chapter, whenas before and after this, they would dispute God's Being and Providence, and return with the Dog to their Vomit, and with the Sow to their wallowing in the Mire.  
It is expedient that those Chapters be frequently read, which may fix in the Memory such great Examples as make God's Providence illustrious, either for miraculous Deliverances of good Men, such as are Joseph, Moses, Hezechiah, Daniel; or for Punishing notorious Sins, as the Rebellion of Corah, Oppression of Ahab, Pride of Nabuchadnezzar, Sacrilege of Belshazzar, Cruelty of Haman, Lying of Ananias and Saphira, etc. The Pleasure of such kind of Readins will make a Child mind the Sense, and perhaps may render the Remembrance very instructive.   

Directions for Learning Latin and Greek.  
THE Rules of Grammar for learning Latin, and the Explication of those Rules have been performed well already, and it is not for me to pretend to that Art; I shall Master my Design if I can but suggest any thing that may be useful to make the Practice of those Rules easier for the Gentry.  
For I have often heard from Gentlemen who have travailed, that Children in the Schools abroad come sooner much to understand Latin than here in England: I know better than to question the truth of what comes well attested; I only wish to be able to prevent some of those Impediments which make the difference.  
1. Some allege for an occasion of it the Foggyness of our Air, and foul Feeding, as if (forsooth) the Soul of an English Child were mired, and so stuck (as it were) in a Muddy Carcase as to move more heavily. But this I will never endure for a reason of the thing, because our Youths would then never be able to overtake these hasty Sparks, which 'tis certain they do when they grow; and if I were not an Englishman, I would assert that they outgo them generally in that Language. And what Nation in Europe need we envy the Professors in all Arts and Sciences, Divinity, Mathematics, Civil Law, Physic, Critical and Philological Learning: So that let not our good Beef and Mutton be thought ill of, or the Air impregnated with our Ignorance and Dulness: Unless in favour of Music an Italian should put in a Cavent against all Tramontanes, and with a keener Judgement split our gross Sounds, and seem to want the delicate touch upon the Drum which beats in his Climate.  
2. Others therefore ascribe it to the differing Method in teaching, (as is said in the Apparatus de Grantmaticâ, pag. 28.) which if true, (us there seems more sense in it) than it were to be wished, that whosoever is hereafter so Piously and Publicly inclined, as to Build and Endow a School, before he tie up the School and Schoolmaster by strict and unalterable Statutes of Method, he would scan the courses that are taken beyond Sea, and fashion his own Institution to the Advantage and Honour of our Nation: For the common Rules of Teaching here, either by Custom or particular Injunction of Benefactors, are so established, that an attempt of change is extravagant.  
There is a great outcry against the customary usage of the common Accidence and Grammar; and tho' I could wish that every one who rails at them understood them, yet I must own that the Objections which the Learned in the Art of Grammar have made, are very considerable, but will hardly be able to prevail with public Authority to establish a new Method upon the Ruin of Lily, till manifest Experience of much greater and speedier Effects shall prepare the whole Nation to embrace it. But it must be confessed that they deserve a great many thanks who by their Objections endeavour to promote a more beneficial use of the common Grammar. For tho' the Laws permit not private Persons to shorten Journeys by making a new Highway, yet it is something like an equivalent to pick out the Stones, and remove the Rubs which lengthen the old one. And every man is a Benefactor to the Public who sets up a Mercurial Statue, which tho' it be fixed, and cannot turn and point to every By-Path, yet it saves many a Traveler from being lost in the common Road.  
I come now to such directions as Year after Year may forward the Understanding the Latin Tongue: They are not the largest or the most learned that I have read, but they are most easy, and most likely to be practised of any I have met with: And hereby will be avoided the great Inconvenience which both Master and Scholar would find by changing the Accidence and Grammar: Extraordinary success must not be expected without extraordinary pains: But because it will seem tedious to dwell long upon little things, there is great danger that the Master may make too much haste with the Child, especially since Parents are impatient for the taking out New Lessons: This, I conceive, is one great reason why Children afterwards prove imperfect, because they leave things behind them not well understood.  
Therefore in what follows, I will set down the easiest Method I could extract out of the Rules which Lily, Ascham, and later Schoolmasters give compared with foreign Advices of the same kind.   

First Year.  
JET the Child be made perfect in Declining Nouns through all Cases, and forming Verbs through all Tenses and Persons when required, and the flower it is in doing, the effect will be the more sure, and Progress greater. Foreign Writers allot but few Months for this; but I should be glad if the first whole Year could do it. When he comes to the Declension of Nouns, and Conjugation of Verbs, let him have many several Examples of each; First the easiest Examples, and by general Rules, (without the Exceptions, which will puzzle at the beginning) afterwards such Examples as are harder, and with the Exceptions also.  
Daily Declining a Noun, and Forming a Verb, and turning it into all Fashions, will fit him for Concord's, and framing Sentences, by showing him how single Nouns and Verbs are joined. Take some easy Sentence wherein all the Eight Parts of Speech are contained, and let every single Word be declined and form and afterwards construed, as they depend upon each other.  
When the Cases of Nouns, and Persons of Verbs and Concord's are well known, then let not the Child drudge to learn the Rules orderly by rote, as they lie in the Syntax, but rather learn some easy Book, containing good plain Latin; and as there falls out any necessary Rule of Syntax to be known, show it, and let him learn it, as the Sentence giveth occasion; thus th' Grammar will be taught by the by.  
And I could wish that the Forming Verbs were made more easy by lengthening all the Abbreviations which baffle a tender Understanding: For Instance, Amabam, as, at; it were better to write it at length, Amabam, Amabas, Amabat: And let the Persons be also set down; Ego Amabam, Tu Amabas, Ille Amabat; for it disturbs the Child's Memory to be made add them of himself.   

Second Year.  
WHen he comes to make Latin, the easiest Method, I think, is what Mr. Lewis sets down in his Vestibulum Technicum, whereby the Child is eased of the difficulty of finding out proper Larin Words, and hath nothing to do but to alter Tense and Case, as the Sense requires, and be careful that he never go upon a new Sentence till he be perfectly Master of what he did last. Turning English into Latin will fix the Rules in his Head, and help him sooner to speak Latin, than turning Latin into English: For many Persons can more easily Construe Latin than Speak it. If between while you show him the use of Brinly's Posing the Accidence, and Hooll's Accidence examined, it will add to his knowledge of the Rules; with Mr. Walker's Works of Grantham.   

Third Year.  
NOW he must be very frequent in Construing and Translating some easy Author, wherein he may learn both Morals and Latin together; Castalio's Dialogues, and some of the most easy of Cicero's Epistles, especially I except those which touch upon State Affairs, because the Matter makes the Latin difficult. Let him for variety be taught to Construe some easy Poet, according to the Method for the Dauphin, resolving the Verses into natural Order, because Poetical Latin at first will be more difficult, as being more Concise. Some Speeches in Ovid's Matamorphosis being Construed, and perfectly well understood, will be worth his learning without-Book, and repeated to exercise his Memory, which must be exercised in something or other once every day. The Nature and differing kinds of Verses are too difficult yet to be explained: And Composition or Imitation, I think, may yet be let alone. How much I prefer Translation before Composition in order to Institution I have shown in the Apparatus ad Theologiam de Grammatica, with a Method to learn the Latin Tongue.   

Fourth Year.  
IF the former Course be duly taken, the Child's Judgement will begin to appear fit for some solid Instructions; so that together with progress in the Latin Tongue, a Foundation may be laid for more useful Knowledge than of bare Words and Sentences: Justin I think the fittest Author to begin this Year with; because he is less crabbed than the Style of Historians commonly is, especially wherein much Matter is crowded into little compass; but in reading of him regard must be had to the Chronology as well as History, and the Youth directed to measure the time and distances of Men and Actions recorded in him, by some such assistance as you have in the Apparatus ad Theologiam de Munere Historico; for otherwise the Historical Narrations will be found lose, uncertain and false.  
Between whiles some Speech in Cicero, famous for the Art and Rhetoric; sometimes a Speech in Livy to be so perfectly construed and understood, that the Child may comprehend the Strength and Nerves of the Orator.  
And because by this time Wit and Sharpness may deserve to be encouraged, some of the most notorious, chaste Epigrams in Martial will very usefully exercise his Translating Faculty. The Nature also, Scanning and Pronouncing Verses may now begin to be taught, and some Rules in order to Composing, that he may not be altogether ignorant of the Mechanical part of Poetry, and may perceive the different make of Latin in Verse from Latin in Prose. He also may be assisted how to invent Sense upon some plain and obvious Subject, which will be the way to stir up Fancy. But because inventing Sense for Verse is much more difficult than in Prose, exercise him for a while to learn the Rules concerning the Feet in long and short Verses in making Nonsense Verses without any regard to Concordance, and only for Metre's sake.   

Fifth Year.  
I Presume at this time Knowledge will begin to thicken, and Composition will ripen apace, by showing the Parts and Method of Speeches, and also of common Themes. He will now be able to read Authors himself, and therefore must be guided what to Remark as observable in Authors, according to the Method prescribed in the Apparatus de Grammaticâ.  
A Play in Terence now and then will divert by the Matter, and give a new kind of Relish by the finery of the Phrase. In Florus the Wit, and Juvenile Elegancy will affect a Youthful Fancy, which Martial and Ovid's Works will heighten: The variety of Subjects in Valerius Maximus will please.   

Sixth Year.  
IT is odds but some Persons will wonder why not a Word of Greek all this while; and because Wonderers must sometimes be answered in their folly, I will tell the reason: I am afraid it is one great hindrance to progress in those Schools, wherein before a Boy can turn his Pater Noster into true Latin, he must play at Blind-Man's-Buff with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and make his Mother quite stun the next Company she meets, with the Gossipping News what an horrible Grecian her Son is: When all this while the Boy is but going to unlearn his little Latin, and acts like a crippled Turn-Spit in a Wheel, he takes great pains to get up forwards, and all he gets is to come down back again the faster.  
But now at such an Age as this, it is to be presumed that he may be so far gone in Latin, as that some leisure Hours may be spared for the Rudiments of Greek: For the more Pains is taken, and the more Skill he gets in the Latin Tongue, will enlarge his Capacity, and make the Greek Language more easy to be learned than Latin was, when Memory, and Fancy were weak.  
Let him spend this Year to be made fully understand the Greek-Grammer; getting without Book Declinations of Nouns, and Conjugations of Verbs, and the use of Pronouns, Conjunctions, Prepositions, and Adverbs.  
But Care must be taken, that Pretention to Greek, may not make the young Man think that Latin is not the more useful Language: Now Quintus Curtius, and Lucan will be worth his Study; and composing Verses, and Speeches may be taught him; though Versifying (beyond the bare form) how unfit it is for a Gentleman: See the Apparatus de Grammaticâ.   

Seventh Year.  
WHen he is well instructed in the Greek Grammar, for Nouns, Verbs, and the Syntax of both; the next thing is to furnish him with the Knowledge of the Greek Themes. I have seen a Book (the Name I cannot remember) wherein all the Original Greek Words were comprised in so many Sentences (with Latin annexed) so that they might be learned in little Time, and by being often read over, fixed in the Memory; for want of such an help, let him take Leusden's Compendium Novi Testamenti, and practise upon that Book, first, for single Words; and Stobaeus his Fragmenta, Epictetus, with some of the minor Poets: For Latin, Cicero, Virgil, and Livy. This Year and the next, must be mightily employed with all manner of Exercises, not one Hour to be lost, unless for Health's sake.  
And lest that Health should be made use of, to make the Child Idle to no purpose, in seasonable Wether, and at leisure Times, let him learn to Dance; because these Exercises will divert from worse, or more tedious loss of Time: They will also prevent antic and misbecoming Gestures, which Children are apt to get, and which prove afterwards difficult to be Cured; for at this tender Age, thsee Mascular Motions, are easily shaped to decency of Address, and Carriages, which looks Delicately in Children, and which by degrees will grow up into so easy an Habit, as that the Art, and Stiffness of it, being with his Age quite lost, his Gentility shall seem Natural, and so Infinitely more Delighting: This is an odd Digression, but perhaps useful. Now some skill in the Globes.  
Now the Epochas in the Apparatus de Munere Historico, are to be filled up, and distances determined; and a Method of Cronological History after Christ by Centuries contrived   

Eighth Year.  
THis Year being the last at School, is to be very Laborious, especially for Greek; it is like the distance Post at a Race, here they are to whip and spur; Homer and Xenophon's Cyrus, for Greek; Horace, Caeshr's Commentaries, and Tacitus for Latin.  
Here I must make all the hast I can to tell the Tutor, that when I name respective Books, for each single Year, I do not mean that the Child should read them all over in that Year, but go so far in each Book, as to taste the relish of the singular Latin in one and the other, and hereafter to study the Mastery of each.  
Neither do I take myself to be so wife, as to make what I have said a Standard unalterable; but, sincerely, my only Design is to prescribe a Scheam for a young Tutor, or Schoolmaster to build upon; exchanging Method or Books at his own Discretion.   

The Third Stage.  
From Fourteen to Twenty One.  
AFter a just Practice of the foregoing Methods, it may be reasonably presumed that the young Gentleman is very well furnished with skill in the Latin Tongue, and no Stranger to Grock; and then I conceive him fit for the Us niverllty, because public Affairs, and his own Family Concerns will hastily require him into the World.  
And here I will lay down the Resolutions which (after some Experience) I would take; were I now chosen Tutor to a Person of great Quality and good Capacity.  
(1.) Conscientious Care must be taken of his Moral Behaviour in the University.  
(2.) Care must be taken the Child understand, that though he be come to Oxford, and expects the Tailor should put on him Philosophy with his Gown, yet that Philology is still improveable, and that Speeches and Themes will still deserve a good share of his Thoughts, though Logic, and Philosophy must make the greatest Noise in his Head.  
(3.) That Seriousness may not be thought a foreign Qualification to an Oxford Scholar, the Tutor will do well to explain (and advise the frequent reading over) the Directions for a more easy, quiet and less disturbed Life; Guardian's Instruct. p. 7. which if he be made fully and warmly to comprehend, he will know the value of his own Thoughts and Soul, and reckon the Prospect of Two Thousand a Year, but as Paper and Pack-thread to the Fruit.  
(4.) At his first coming to Oxford, it is fit he should be made acquainted with some general knowledge of Philosophy, of the Original Design, and several parts of it; because this will abate that confusion and surprise of Thoughts, which cannot but attend the first entrance on this new fort of Learning.  
(5.) Great Industry must be employed to explain the Terms in all the Parts of Philosophy: Because though this may be thought dry Diet for a Gentleman, yet hereafter it will have this use, that if the Person prove bookish, and thinks it worth his while to read a controversial piece of Divinity or Philosophy, it will trouble a Man of good Comprehension, not to understand an Argument, for want of knowling some odd Term on which perhaps the Stress lies.  
(6.) Next to the Terms, the Rules of Reasoning, and foundations of Moods and Figures, and Consequences, being frequently insisted on and throughly known, would be more beneficial (to such a Person) (not being of a Foundation, or intending to stay long) than to dispute Logical Questions, for either he will be vexed to find an Argument, or will have nothing else to do but to read one of his Tutors making, which is all lost Time.  
(7.) After a short System of Physic, in the old way, a taste of the new Philosophy would relish well, to understand the differing Principles upon which it proceeds.  
(8.) It will be very accomplishing, to have some time set apart for the Mathematics, but for this there ought to be a Tutor particular, whose singular conversation in that Study, shall teach him much in little time.  
(9) Ethics, Politics, History, and the Practice of Rhetoric, will be of everlasting use to a complete Gentleman, and therefore will best become the most designing part of the Institution,  
Here it may be expected that I should be more particular in the Concerns of an Academical Institution, both as to the Morals and Knowledge of the young Gentleman; But that being already performed, partly in the Guardian's Instructions, and partly in the Apparatus, I shall refer the Tutor without swelling these Papers with a Transcript.  
1. As for that Behaviour, which good Manners, the Statutes of the University, and a design of success and Proficiency oblige him to; it is at large set down in the Guardian's Instruction, beginning page 50. and occasionally in many other Places, with Advices to Parents, Tutor, and Scholar.  
2. As for a general Scheme of Philosophy, both Speculative and Practical, from the Original, Design and Division of it: See Appatus Chap. 9  
3. For a short and plain view of the Nature, Use, and Method of Logic: See Apparatus Chap. 12.  
The special Parts of Philosophy follow only I think Institution in Ethics, and Civil-Law, may usefully be mixed  
4. A Method for the Study of History is at large set down in the special Part of the Apparatus de Munere Historico.  
What Preparatory Directions are to be given for undertaking any one of the eminent Professions, either of Physic, Civil-Law, Common-Law, or Divinity, (each of which are capable to reward as much Industry, as any Gentleman shall think sit to bestow) are here to follow, and complete the design of an Academical Education, which I take to be absolutely necessary, to sit any Person of Quality, to serve God and his Country in any public and useful Employment, or Calling: And therefore I wish I were able to remove those Prejudices against the Universities, which hinder many Persons from sending their Sons thither; whence those Prejudices arise, and (in order to remove them) what conceros the Governors, Tutors, and Discipline of the University, as also what concerns the Parents, and young Gentlemen to be bred up there, hath been suggested in the Guardian Instruction, to which I refer such Gentlemen as are solicitous for the disposal of their Children into the World: what some put in Practice at this time I cannot approve of.  
1. To send a young Gentleman to the Academy at Ten or Eleven Years of Age, to be accomplished in those Exercises first, and afterwards to be made a Scholar, at the very first sight looks preposterous: For after he hath been Mounted, made look big, and his Head runs round with the Prancing of the Great Horse, he will think himself sitter to lead an Army, than to sit down with the lazy. Arts of Wisdom and Learning.  
2. To take him from School and place him with a prudent exemplary Minister, is a way probable enough to keep him Virtuous, and improve his Knowledge (provided he will endure Confinement.) But that Conversation is somewhat of the narrowest for a Gentleman born to spread when he comes of Age, and mix with Persons of his own Quality, who have had a more Liberal knowledge of the World.  
3. If he be sent from School to some Protestant University beyond Sea, the strangeness of New Faces, Language, Manners and Studies may prove perhaps uneasy: And then their great want of Discipline to confine him to Prayers, Exercises, and Meals, is dangerous; all he will have to do is to keep touch with a Lecturer, and what is learned from him, most young Gentlemen are so civil as to leave behind them when they return.  
If for cheapness or curiosity, instead of an English Governor he be committed to a Foreigner, there are some in the World who without a Fee will tell you what that is like to come to.  
This Caution I thought necessary, and now shall proceed.  
I cannot better compare a Person who by his honest Industry hath qualified himself to serve his Generation in some special Course of Life, than to a Man who hath laboured a great while with many a Sigh and weary Step to climb up an high Hill, and at length reaching the Top, rests and pants, and with delight looks back down on the tedious exercise of his Limbs and Patience; then turns about and views a mighty Plain, which offers to the curiosity of his Choice variety of Paths to walk in, according as his Ability and Condition shall direct him to take.  
1. Some are for following their greedy Eyes, and taking the longest Path, to borrow the Wisdom of foreign Countries for the use of their own: And no doubt it would be a great Advantage to the Nation, did every Person study to make the usefulness of his Travels equal the pleasure he takes in seeing things abroad, and reporting them at home.  
To this purpose 'tis convenient to inquire after those Authors who have bestowed their Experience on the World very particularly on this Subject.  
And because my Hand is in, and Instruction is the Word in all this Book, I am bound to set down such general Advises for Travailing as at this time come into my Thoughts.  
I. The knowledge of your own Country is necessary, not only for your own Pleasure and Satisfaction, but also to beget a curiosity of looking and enquiring.  
II. I would take the young Gentleman along with me round all the Circuits with the Judges: The diversion of the Company, and the security on the Road will balance any Inconvenience I can foresee: And by this means in few Weeks time you will view all Counties and Cities most eminent in the Nation.  
III. The History and Geographical Description of the Country you travail to should be first studied; How it Borders, and how it is Divided, by tracing the famous Rivers and Branches of them.  
iv Some Grammatical Instruction in the Language would prepare you more easily to learn to Speak it.  
V A Catalogue ought to be collected and always with you of such Curiosities Ancient and Modern in Provinces and Cities as are most observable, and the old and new Names of Places compared; by this you will readily know what to inquire for.  
VI As for , take only a Travailing Suit, and dress yourself a-la-mode when you arrive there. Good Skill in the Prices of things is absolutely necessary for his Tutor.  
VII. Besides Bills of Return, it will be convenient to have some Letters of Credit to Merchants in case your Bill should fail; and some advice, to take with you a Jewel, or any precious thing which may easily be carried and concealed about your .  
VIII. You must resolve upon a great inoffensiveness of Conversation, Patience of disagreeable occurrences, and avoidance of Earnestness in Dispute, especially about Matters of Religions, or Honour of Kingdoms.  
IX. You must not be too open, as if every one you met were an Englishman; neither yet so reserved as to beget a suspicion of your Jealousy.  
X. When you receive Money keep it private, lest it be borrowed one of the two ways.  
XI. When you remove from one Province to another, keep the time of your departure secret, laest other Foreigners, or your own Countrymen (who sometimes prove the most impertinent of Acquaintance) pin themselves upon you.  
XII. You must study your own Constitution, and carefully observe how it relishes the great change of Air and Diet; and remember to eat Fruit wisely.  
XIII. You must not expect that all you see others practise, and do yourself abroad, must be equally practised here when you return. For Example.  
If you see a French Nobleman run a poor Peasant through, for not taking notice of him a Mile off, you must not do that here, for fear of a Knock in the Poll, with a Club or an Ax.  
If you see a Venetian Lady standing at a Window and looking, as who should say, you must not Compliment her with a Billet Douce, lest you receive a dried Pear for your Kindness.  
If you see a Fop ambling in the Street, his Toes awayward, as if the had fallen-out, simpering as Formally, and cringing as stiffly as the two Beaux do on the Sign of the Salutation, and you practise that here, you will be as much Laughed at in England, when you come back, as you were in France when first you went over to learn it.  
If you see a poor Animal run a Mile for one Farthing to open a Gate for a Passenger, and wear out his Wooden Shoes to the Bargain by scraping Thanks, you must beware of expecting that here, lest the same Fellow shut the Gate against you when you come that way again.  
Because you care not Threepences for any Man you meet in the Streets of Paris, Rome, Venice, or Amsterdam, you must not bring hither such a Selfishness, as to despise Relations, old Acquaintance, Friends and Neighbours; for if you do so, they will all wish you gone again.  
Above all things, if you see others Atheistical and careless, do you double your own private Devotions; for Fear, keep your Soul diligently, and secure the Blessing of Him whom Wind and Sea obey.  
XIV. Now, lastly, you must make me one Promise, That you will tell no more when you return than you saw: And so I wish you a good Journey; and if you can send me News of any Nation the King of France hath not made Fools of, 'tis odds but I and my Friend may follow.  
2. If his Temper rather inclines him to settle and spend his Talents in the Country, how he may pay his Duty to God in being useful there, I refer him to the Directions given in the Guardian's Instruction, pag. 13. in the Honourable Offices he may be called to; and if he merit a Promotion into the Parliament-House, he may sinned some thoughts spent upon a young Gentleman's Carriage there, Guardian's Instruction, pag. 85. See more on this Head in the Gentleman's Calling.  
3. If the delight of the Study, or gainfulness of the Practice make him fancy the Profession of Physic, then good and more than ordinary skill in the Greek Tongue is necessary for understanding Terms of Art and Authors to be met withal: As also considerable understanding both in old and new Natural Philosophy. As for a Method of entering on the Study, Advices being various, he must consult with his Friends knowing in it.  
I have heard a Person learned in the Science, and skilful in the Practice, recommend Chemistry first, as most agreeable to the order of Knowledge: For since we can have but little or no Notion of the Saliva, ferment of the Stomach, Chylisication, and all other Ferments and Juices upon which the Oeconomy of all Human and Animal Bodies depends; as likewise but an imperfect Knowledge of the Medicinal qualities of Simples, without a previous and general insight into the nature of Salts, and the various Effects their mixture with Liquors may produce: It seems but reasonable to give Chemistry the first place in a Study of this Nature. Now though Anatomy hath not that Relation to Botany as Chemistry hath to both, yet because the use of the latter, as far as it makes a part of the Materia Medica, depends wholly upon a nice acquaintance with the former, it would look like a preposterous Method to consider that first.  
4. If the noble Study of the Civil-Law makes his Mouth water after good Latin, Reason, and History, these following Books are thought adviseable by the Learned.  
I. Duc de Authoritate Juris Civilis. This shows of what Authority it is now in the several Nations of the World.  
II. Ridley's View of the Civil-Law.  
III. Justinian's Institutions, to be read with an easy Comment; the most easy is Mynsinger in Institut.  
iv Bronchurstius de Regulis Juris.  
V The first and last Books of the Digests.  
The first and Three last Books of the Codex.  
These H. Grotius doth particularly recommend to a Person of Quality, and may best be read with the Assistance of Calvin's Lexicon, and Wesenbeehii Paratitla.  
VI Vulteii Juris prudentia Romamana; which gives a full view of the Roman Law, under most exact Divisions.  
Lastly should be read several useful Questions exactly stated, (viz.) in  
VII. Zouch Questiones Juris Civilis.  
VIII. Hotomanni Questiones Illustres.  
5. No Study can make a Gentleman more considerable and useful to his Country than good skill in the Common-Law of England, to which purpose some advice,  
I. Fortescue de Laudibus Legum Angliae.  
II. Terms of the Law.  
III. Smith de Republicà Anglorum.  
iv Doctor and Student.  
V Sir Francis Bacon's Introduction to the Laws of England, at the end of his Maxims.  
VI Wingat's Abridgement.  
VII. Coke upon Littleton: His Institutes, and some of his Reports, occasionally read.  
VIII. Bracton.  
IX. Fleta with Selden's Notes; consult the Learned.   

Directions for the beginning a complete Course in the Study of Divinity, by the help of the Apparatus ad Theologiam, Written for that purpose, and sold by Walter Kettilby, and Sam. Smith in St. Paul ' s-Church-yard; and the Booksellers in Oxford.  
1. SInce the different Persuasions in Religion and Controversies shelter themselves mainly under the Authority of Scripture, the first Step, and I am certain the surest Footing, for a young Divine must be on a sound Knowledge of the Language and Text, Sense and Context of Scripture, and a sincere search after Truth must exclude all prejudice in the Application.  
2. The Hebrew Language being narrow, and therefore obscure, I advise that the close Study of that Tongue be deferred for the first Two or Three Years, because it may discourage and stop the beginnings of the Study.  
3. For perfecting his Knowledge in the Greek, it will be requisite to buy the Septuagint, and a Greek Testament, the larger the better, and get them Interleaved, to write down the explication of such Words he knows not, with their various Significations, and Authors who use them.  
3. He must also have an English Bible Interleaved of a large Size; and if bond up in two Volumes no matter, wherein he may put down the Interpretations of all difficult places, which he either Casually or Industriously finds, to he constantly in his Study, differing from the Bible he is afterwards to use in the Pulpit.  
4. He must get the Art of Writing down his Observations and Explications very briefly, otherwise his Transcriptions will be infinite and tedious: A Method of Marking difficult places. See Apparat. pag. 120.  
5. Several Observations to be made in reading the Scriptures, concerning,  
I. The Chronology, so far as till the Heathen Computation of time gins to have certainty.  
II. The History of the illustrious Examples of Good and Bad Men; of Deliverances and Judgements, etc.  
III. The Geography, especially as far as concorns the Holy Land, and bordering places mentioned.  
IV. Weights, Measures, and Distances, and what Proportion they bear to ours now.  
V The English Phrase and Rhetoric, which will be of great use hereafter in the Pulpit.  
VI Such Texts as are a kind of Common-place Texts, either of good Life and Manners, or to Preach on upon occasion.  
VII. Next to the Study of Scripture, he must acquaint himself with the Doctrine of his own Church, out of the Articles, Homilies, and especially the Collects, as also to be well versed in Canons and Rubrics.  
VIII. The various opinions dissenting from the Doctrine, and Practices dissenting from the Canons of his own Church:— Arch-heretics, schismatics Ancient and Modern, etc.  
IX. Then to read the Lives of the Apostles, Apostolical Men, Fathers; Heads and Founders of differing Opinions, the Eives of the Emperors; with a Chronological Series to be learned without-Book, and frequently repeated; this will help the knowledge of Church-History.  
X. Two great Paper-Books for Heads and Common places; the first for things Theological: See Apparatus, pag. 45. The second for some other promiscuous matters: See pag. 13. cap. 6. this will be useful all his life-time, to set down, or refer to what he reads; but with brief and contract writing, mentioned before.  
XI. A short Catalogue of the best Books for his purpose, which for the first Two or Three Years are absolutely necessary, he must be directed to; and than what private Tracts are most Orthodox and Learned, on any part in his Divinity Head-Book.  
XII. He must seriously consider to which part in the Study of Divinity his Nature inclines him, for the main bend of his Indistry, according to that Division: Apparatus, pag. 1.  
As for Preaching, both Method, Materials, and Delivery, it is not convenient to be published; it is best taught by Discourse and Example, when the Person's Capacity, Knowledge, and Temper is known.  
This I think is a safer Course for a young Divine than to begin with Systems, and suck in Opinions before he understands them: If the Divine be a Person of Condition and Quality, I would advise him the Assistance and Tutorage of some experienced Person, it would turn to great Account, by easing Difficulty, shortening the Course, and effectually obtaining the Design. Something like this Project I approve of very well, which a very worthy Gentleman of good Sense and Fortune is now putting in Practice: He hath one only Child, Heir to a very considerable Condition in the World, and who for Personals might make as fair pretensions to the Vanity and Courtship of it, as Men of less Discretion do; but his Parents are resolved that the World shall not have him, for they will give him back again to God; and which is something more strange, the young Gentleman himself is as willing as they can be, to be lent unto the Lord, so Hannah called her Son Samuel's Ministry: And I persuade myself that a dutiful Compliance with so pious a design, at the rate of God's Mercifulness, can hardly fail of the desired Blessing.  
The Method the Father intends to go by is this: After the Advice of Tutors in a round Course of University-Studies, he intends to provide his Son a Tutor for Divinity, which, by the the way, is as necessary as for Logic and Philosophy, and so I might say for Physic and Civil Law too: His great aim is to find a Man knowing in the Studies, and experienced in the Practice of a Divine: And the advantage may prove very great: For what is written in Books is dead and stiff in comparison of what is delivered Viva Voce. When Friendship and Familiarity (beside solid and fundamental Instruction) shall draw out a Thousand little Advices of great moment, though not fit to be Printed, neither doth any Man care to publish to all the World what himself knows, and hath practised in his Function: Two Years of such an Institution, rightly managed, and intelligently received, would give so great a lift into the Pulpit, and to Preferment also (if that were wanted or aimed at) as is not to be valued.    

New Instructions TO THE GUARDIAN, The Third Part.  
THE CONCLUSION: In behalf of Holy Orders.  
London, Printed in the Year 1694.   

THE CONCLUSION: In behalf of Holy Orders.  
WHY may not a Man be bold to persuade the Nobility and Gentry, after such an Education of their Children, as hath been prescribed, to make more of them Clergymen.  
1. From the Nature of the Profession.  
Certainly, every good Man must needs own, that it is a singular Blessing, to have that for a Man's peculiar Business and Calling, which is the greatest concern of all Mankind; Namely, the Study of our Duty to God and Man, to which other Professions are a great Hindrance, and Idleness a very Enemy.  
2. The usefulness of it, and the great Service their Children may do to God and Man, according to the Instructions in Mr. Herbert's Country Parson, who was a Man of Quality, and a Famous Example.  
3. The Credit they will do the Profession which is infinitely enhanced by the Dignity of the Person: Divinity in a Man of Quality shines like a Diamond in a Case of Gold; it communicates and reflects a mutual Lustre; it attracts the Eyes, the Admiration and Love of all, and becomes a Present for a King and Queen's Closet: Whereas Learning in vulgar Persons, is like the same Diamond unpolished, 'tis rough and unregarded, and few Men have Skill enough to venture their Credit by showing of it.  
4. Secular Advantage, also may be considered and looked upon as a good Encouragement, tho' not aimed at as the end of the Study: What opportunities have Persons of Quality by their Acquaintance with, and Interest in Men of power to reward the Industry of their Relations, with Dignities, and place them in Stations to serve the King by their Counsel, and the Kingdom by great and good Examples? And because this Advice may meet with some Objections, a word or two to them.  
1. The difficulty of the Study is obvious.  
born with as good Abilities as others? nay, better if they knew it; and why they are not bred up to as much Industry, I am afraid I have hit upon the reason in the Guardian's Instruction, I am sure no wise Man can give any Reason why they should not be bred so.  
2. The Gravity, Strictness, and Confinement in that Profession is too great, and the restraint of the high flying Liberties and Properties of a Gentleman: as if looseness of Manners were Noble and Gallant! if the young Man should say he thought so, I would believe him, and I would pity him, but if a Father and Mother should talk so, were Solomon alive now, I know what he would call them.  
3. I fear the greatest Discouragement of young Gentlemen, from taking Orders, is the envy they see some bear the dignifyed Clergy, and the mean Esteem, Unrighteousness and Hardship the Inferior Clergy are treated with in many Places (some particular places must be excepted) Few People love a Profession which is contemned, since the Government has made the Clergy Gentlemen, 'tis pity but the People should think them such; especially coming by their Gentility so Honourably as by Act of Parliament, which is much better than when a Man right or wrong hath gotten an Estate, and barters ten Pounds with the Herald for a paltry Coat of Arms, and presently grows as proud as the Emperor Maximilian was when he heard that his Pedigree reached Noah; till his own Fool told him, Sir, than I am of Kin to you.  
It must be confessed, and some of us are bound to own, That there are many excellent Persons and Families who give us great Respect and Countenance, who Honour the Function, and are just in their Regards, and are Merciful to the Complaints of such as are over-taxed: And may all the Blessings of the Left and Right-Hand of the Almighty God of Heaven and Earth be upon them, and upon all their Posterity, for ever and for ever.  
But the number of such Persons is not great enough to make this Complaint unreasonable, which does not spring from any singular and private Resentment, but from the general Sighs of the Rural Clergy; who though they they are as willing as any Men living to contribute their Share to the necessary defence of the Nation, yet they cannot forbear to wish that they had no reason to complain, That many times Assessments, Rates, and Payments of Dues, are not made with that Righteousness by which we must all [Clergy and Laity] one Day be tried, when the dreadful Trumpet shall sound, Arise, and 〈…〉.  
This makes many a Man with sorrow appeal to the Great Judge of all the Earth.  
Here it will be returned; the Law is open for a remedy: No doubt, to relieve the Oppressed was the great Design, and is the Noblest Practice of the Law: But,  
1. Some Men are of a Temper rather to endure a Wrong, than the bustling Mechanical part of a Suit of Law.  
2. It is some odds against a Clergyman, when the Jury shall reckon themselves a Party; as I am afraid many times they do.  
3. If a Jury of Countrymen should prove Twelve good Men and true, and he carry the Cause, 'tis catching a Tartar, it will cost Five times more than the thing is worth; and to call that a Remedy, must be either an Irony or a gross Catachresis.  
4. Set Case every Minister should Sue for such Deuce as they are wronged of, how would it fill all the Courts of England; and what a Clamour would then be raised of the Litigiousness of the Clergy, when every Action is as Righteous as if there were a Coach and Six Horses for a Fee.  
5. Suppose a Parsonage of Threescore Pounds a Year, after the Payments of Poll and Land-Taxes, Parish Rates, Procurations, and synodals, Servants Wages, and Feeding and Clothing a Family, what will remain at the Years end to manage a Suit for Twenty Shillings-worth of Tythe-Milk or Wool, with a Sturdy Illbred Wealthy Farmer, who denies it merely because he knows the Minister unable to oppose him: But let such a Wretch read, and tremble when he reads, when the Poor curseth thee in the bitterness of his Soul, he shall be heard by him who made him.  
Certainly, every sober Person must needs look on this as a great Hardship on the Inferior Clergy, and a great Discouragement in the Performance of their Duty: For it is natural to think the Labourer worthy of his Hire; and the Scripture tells us, That the Hire which is kept back by Fraud, Cries, and the Cry enters into the Ears of the Lord of Sabbaoth.  
I cannot reckon such an Oppressor as this a downright Atheist, because he has a rambling, consused, giddy, Rude Notion of God, Providence, and Judgement to come, and many times varnisheth over his hidden Malice, Lying and Fraud with the formal outside of Religion: He frequents the Church, Receives the Sacrament at Easter, and perhaps with Tears shall complain of his own rotten and deceitful Heart; and to make sure work, shall accuse his Neighbour of Swearing, Whoring, or Drunkenness; and how will this Man think himself on Tiptoe for Heaven.  
But all this doth not exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, Luke 18.11. God, I thank thee I am not as other Men, Extortioners, , Adulterers, or even as this Publican: But Christ says, Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees; condemns them for what they are, while they justify themselves for what they are not; He determines the Case in favour of Humility, Confession, and Repentance, and shows that Blindness of Heart, Pride, Vainglory and Hypocrisy, Envy, Hatred, Malice, and all Uncharitableness, are wrong Signs of Justification.  
Such is the Oppressor I speak of, what he calls Religion shall do him no more Service at the Hour of Death, than a strong Potion doth a Malefactor who is going up the Ladder; he takes it not to save his Life, but to prevent showing Fear, or feeling Pain at the present.  
Thus doth the fair Pretence of Godliness stupefy the Man's Conscience (like a sweet Morsel which Charms the Dog that by Barking should save the House) there is no Roaring, no Horror, no Distraction on the Deathbed, which makes the fool who tends him, tell the World he went away like a Lamb, whereas when the Scene is shifted, and he gone out of sight, instead of a Lamb, he is doomed to the Kennel of Dogs, Foxes, and Woolves, to everlasting Howling and gnashing of Teeth: With what Amazement will he receive the Sentence? stare about him, grumble and mutter all the way, and wonder, till he comes to know, what such a Saint as he is going to Hell for.  
And now since the Revenues of the Church and Pious Donations are settled and confirmed by as wise Laws as any Man's Patrimony, and the Purchaser is considered for the Tithes; what a sad thing is it that it should be so hard to persuade the generality of the Vulgar, that it is a Sin to cheat the Parson: the Vulgar, I say, because the Gentry know better; and the Generality, I say, because some Country People pay honestly and cheerfully, and many of them that grudge it, yet they dare not make so bold with their Consciences as to Lie, Cheat, and Steal.  
And methinks it should confound the Guilty Soul of every one who is told, That the Great God to whom Vengeance belongs, hath said, He that despiseth you, despiseth me: That God who withered Jeroboam's Hand, Destroyed the Children who mocked the Prophet, made Vzziah a Leper, rotten the Flesh of Antiochus alive, 2 Maccab. 9.9. and struck Ananias and Saphira Dead, Acts 2. is as jealous of his Honour now, and still as well able to revenge it; and many a Man's Heart would ache, if every one would read Spelman de non Temerandis Ecclesiis.  
The great muttering among those that do not love Churchmen is this, That many of the Clergy have much more than they deserve, Live too High, and are too Great, and that the Inferior Clergy are many of them Idle, Ignorant, Quarrelsome or Lose; this is often murmured, and when they are in a good Humour, spoken out aloud; therefore something shall be replied.  
As for the First part of the Objection, that some of the Clergy have much more than they deserve: Truly, if God should measure out every Man's share in England according to their deserts, if he should lay Judgement to the Line, and Righteousness to the Plummet, it would be Impudence in any Man to think he deserves the Bread he eats: And if God be so Gracious as to bless any Man's Industry in an honest Profession, I hope he will have so much manners as not to Sacrifice to his Net, or burn Incense to his own Drag, as if by them his Portion were made fat, and his Meat plenteous.  
But if Merit were to be the Standard of Worldly Happiness, what great desert is there in being born  Son and Heir to several Thousands a Year, when sometimes it falls out, that the Person is hardly able to Answer Two or Three the easiest Questions in the World wisely enough to save himself from being Begged. And therefore I think we were better to let the Word Desert alone, and leave the Law to judge of that, which gives the Right and Title.  
No doubt the Day-Labourer murmurs now and then at his Miserable condition, and the unequal distribution of Riches in the World, and thinks he deserves better than to work late, rise early, and eat the Bread of Carefulness, and be an everlasting Drudge in the Service of others, who would be thought to deserve their Luxury less than he doth his Bread, if the judicious Rabble should undertake to be Judges, as under the Tribunes in Rome, and in the Sanguinary Tumults of Germany they did.  
The next part of the Objection is, that many of the Clergy live too high, and are too great; If they do live too high, they are very much to blame; and now I think of it, that is the folly of the whole Kingdom at this time: Men live as profusely and as unthinkingly as they did when they paid no Taxes; and, I dare say, there is scarce a Man of any wealthy condition, but might pay the Taxes, by bating some needless excesses in Habit, Diet, Pocket-money, etc. and if they would wear nothing but our own Cloth, drink nothing but our own Liquor, keep none but their own Wives, they need not quarrel at the King and Parliament for burdensome Impositions.  
By the 〈…〉 I suppose the Bishops are a●●ed at: The King is the Fountain of Honour, and let him be Judge of the most convenient Disposal, and of the serviceableness of Persons who are to be in that mighty Meeting: And why may not His Majesty presume that the laborious Education of the Clergy may furnish them with Abilities capable to administer Pradent Counsel to the great concerns of the Kingdom?  
The last and heaviest weight of the Objection is, That many of the lower Clergy are Idle, Ignorant, Quarrelsome, or Lose: There is not one Word of Excuse to be made for this wherever it is found; though where the Profits are poor it can hardly be avoided: But I seriously believe, that if the utmost of our Enemy's Malice were gratisied, if there were an universal change in the Nation, and a new Set of Clergy (of any Persuasion whatsoever) put into all the Cures and Dignities of the Church, considering the great number, there would hardly be fewer exceptionable Persons for any due Qualifications, than there are at this day. And if the Clergy were kept up in Credit and Esteem, than they would exercise their Function with some Authority, which I am afraid this Age will never endure.  
St. Ambrose and Theodosius were remarkable Instances of the Power of a Bishop, and the Christ anity of a Prince. The good Emperor did not allege Greatness to Indemnify the horrid Murder of Seven Thousand People in a Fit of Sovereignty: He did not call the Bishop Pragmatical Prelate for telling him that he should never come into the Church, and could never go into Heaven without Repentance. He took the Censure as one of the Arrows of the Almighty sticking in him, and the Poison thereof had well-nigh devoured his Spirits; he was like to have perished by a voluntary Famine; he cried, and tore the Hair from his Head, and fell flat on the Ground: Such was a Bishop then, (says Theodoret gloriously) and such was an Emperor. And forasmuch as Heaven and Hell is the same thing now it was then, and few Men are wiser, better, or more Religious than he, and no Man greater than Theodosius was; why should any Man's Wealth, Greatness, or something worse, make him think himself above the Sins of Human Infirmities, or notorious Gild? He should thank the Hand that gives him the Sacrament, and the Man who helps him in Confession of his Sins, begging Pardon, promising Amendment, and Prayers for assistance to perform these Promises: This was the design of the Holy Function, this it did heretofore, and this it does do still wherever we are looked on as the Ministers of Christ, and not the mere Servants of Men: But 〈…〉 Apostolical Maxim, The Less is blessed of the Greater, is not now without all Contradiction.  
Oh good God that after the Blessing of so much Knowledge, by the Gracious Liberty of Preaching and Reading the Gospel, we should run counter to all Mankind! Examine all the (too many several) Persuasions of Christians in the World, Papists, Lutherans, Calvinists, Presbyterians, Independants, the word Priest and Pastor is a Term of affection, deference and Veneration: Ask a Jew, Turk, or Infidel, he will tell you that no Subjects are more Honourable than those who serve their Public Worship: Therefore if we worship the True God, and if the Communion we profess, be altogether as good, or much better than any other whatsoever, why should not those who Administer to the National Religion be esteemed for their Works sake? St. Paul would have spared some of his Rhetoric in Magnifying his Office, and Celebrating the Ministration of the Gospel, above the Law: He would never have dressed up the Function with such Glorious Titles as Enthassadors, Stewards, Overseers, and Co-workers with God, had he thought that Contempt would have been the English of all this: When the same words applied to Secular Persons, here and every where else, are words of an Honourable Distinction, Worth, and Reputation. And why should more Pride, Malice, Covetousness, or Atheism, make English Men an Exception to all Ages and Nations in the World?  
To sum up the Import of this Conclusion: If the Nobility and Gentry breed up their Sons Clergymen, they would be able to maintain the Interest, and support the Honour of the Priesthood, which Men of mean Birth and Fortune are like to sink under: And so farewell to Priest-Riding, (as they call it) that is, farewell to that Courage in the Preaching and Power in the Governing-Clergy, which should reprove and restrain the Wickedness of the Nation, and prevent the fatal Measure of Iniquity.  
It is hard to leave off, and it is pity to go on; and if the Reader will believe that there is more Grief than Anger in all this, he will do Justice to a Mind full of terrible Apprehension, that our Destruction cannot linger: For of National Sins the Punishment is much more likely than the cure.  
So it is where Selfishness hath eaten out all the good Qualities of our Ancestors; where shall we find any true Generosity of Spirit? Where is the old true Justice and Righteousness in Deal? Sincerity in Words and Promises is lost, and no true Charity and Friendship to be found: So that whereas there is much Talk of mending the Clergy, alas, there is such an ill habit in the whole Body of the Kingdom, that I pray God mend both the Failings of the Clergy, and the Gainsaying of the Laity too; if God will not, I fear an Earthquake, or the French King must do it.  
FINIS.