The Gentlemans Calling, Title page 1 – Frontispiece
The Gentlemans CALLING
foreign 1. Cor. VII. 24
LONDON Printed for Tim; Garthwait 1660
Reputation
When I prepared my Seat—The Aged Stood up Princes Layd their hand on their Mouth. Iob. Chap. 29. ver. 7. 8. 9
Nobility
Religion
The Gentlemans CALLING
Former Felicityes
—The Lillies—They neither Toyle nor Spin & yet Sollomon &c.
LONDON
Printed for T. Garthwait at the Little North-doore of S. Pauls 1660.
THE PREFACE.
1. THe Authority of Custom hath so much a more general praevalency then that of Truth; that he that shall adventure to assault that with this, may be thought not to have well digested the prudent Caution of our Saviour, Luk. 14. 31. To sit down and consider whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him, that cometh against him with twenty thousand; for doubtless such, and much greater is the ods between the Abettors of these two Litigants. And to the imputation of this unwariness I cannot but foresee the present designe very lyable.
2. GENTILITY has long since confuted Jobs Aphorisme, Man is born to labour, and in stead thereof, has pronounced to its Clients the Rich mans Requiem, Soul take thine ease, eat drink and be merry. A Gentleman is now supposed to be onelyonly a thing of pleasure, a creature sent into the World, as the Leviathan into the deep, to take his pastime therein (and the better to compleat the Parallel to devoure his underlings too) and then 'twill be no wonder if it be adjudged a ridiculous soloecisme to attempt to define his Calling, whose very Essence is thought to consist in having none. Nay perhaps it will be deemed not onelyonly absurd but malicious, a Levelling project, of robbing him of his Birth-right, of degrading him from those priviledges, which belong to his quality, and of moulding him again into that vulgar Mass, from which divine Providence and humane Laws have distinguished him. But from this jealousie I dare trust the ensuing leaves to be their own vindicators.
3. I have been no unconcerned (much less insulting) spectator of the depressions the Gentry have fallen under in these latter years, but have pay'd them my just tribute of compassion, yet I confess, I think those scarce worthy a regret, in comparison with those voluntary descents, too many of them have made from true worth and virtue. 'Tis sure a far less deplorable spectacle to see a Gentleman spoiled of his Fortune by his Conscience, then his Luxury, & to behold him under the stroke of the Headsman, then under those more infamous Executioners, his Lust, or Intemperance. Yet I fear if the Martyrologie even of these suffering times were scanned, Venus and Bacchus would be found to have had many more Martyrs, then God and Loyalty.
4. But I confess it an impertinence thus to balance the two mischiefs of doing and suffering ill, since 'tis certain the latter is to be resolved into the former, and has no existence of it self, but what it derives from that. Punishments are but the results of sins, and therefore whatever Malignity is in the Effect, becomes intirely chargeable upon the Cause, and we are to look upon our Vice not only as our greatest, but our only unhappiness. This Consideration shews us the source of all our sufferings, and is it self no less obvious, then those; though one would think it as concealed as the head of Nilus, that should only observe how many other Originals of our Calamities are assigned, whilest this is scarce dreamt of. This Jonah is suffered to sleep securely in the ship, while her more innocent fraught is cast over board, Jon. 1. 5. Every the least sparkle from without is charged as an Incendiary, when alas, like Aetna, our own bowels send out that fire, which has so neer reduced us to ashes. But as in Diseases we account the discovery of the Cause the first and most necessary step to the Cure, so certainly is it here, the conviction of our guilt is a most indispensable preparative towards the ease of our Pressures, and we must be heavy laden in the Christian sence, Matth. 11. 28. before we shall cease to be so in the Civil.
5. But I fear men proceed in this affair rather like Mountebanks then good Physitians, use some palliating Medecines to allay the Effects, or perhaps Anodynes to stupifie the patient, and wholly neglect the root of the malady. Nor do I appropriate this error to the Gentry, 'tis too visible that all sorts and qualities have too just a claime to it, to let any one go away with the inclosure: But because the present design makes them my peculiar Province, I shall, waving all others, address my self at this time to them onelyonly, with this most passionate request, that they would not use that cruelty to themselves, for which Amalek stands branded towards Israel, Deu. 25. 18. By their persevering impieties smite and destroy those feeble and faint remains of their former felicities, but that they would now at last seriously advert to this their so great and important concernment, and pitch upon the true Achan, that has thus long troubled their Israel; and that being done, that story directs the next step of the Process, even the bringing him to execution, cutting that off, which will else infallibly bring down a fatall excision upon themselves. Nor is this to be deferred, for alas the Disease is come to too great a height, too dangerous a Crisis, to admit any delay of the remedy.
6. When Egypt had smarted under a succession of miraculous plagues for deteining the Israelites, the Servants of Pharaoh importune him to release them, and conclude their advice with this Pathetique enforcement, Knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed? And God knows I may but too properly give the same edge to mine; For alas, Gentlemen, are not your Estates wasted, your Priviledges violated, your Splendors eclipsed, your Persons restrained, your Families broken and shattered, your Dignities trampled upon by the meanest of the Vulgar, and finally your selves quite transposed in your station, now made the Tail who were once the Head, Deut. 28. 44. And is it not yet time to dismiss those Sins which are the Authors of all this? If you are still of Pharaohs minde, and resolve to retain them, you are certainly no less obstinate then he, but much more irrational: he had somewhat of visible advantage to tempt him to detein the Israelites, they were his Slaves, wrought hard at his work, built him Cities. But how far is that from the case here, they are not your Slaves, but your Task-masters, which you are so unwilling to part with, those that set you to the vilest and most servile drudgeries, and are so far from bringing you in profit, that I may boldly make the Apostles challenge, Rom. 6. 21 What fruit have you had of those things? and doubt not the only account you can bring in of your harvest, must be the Inventory of your miseries; we are witnesses of many Houses, many Cities they have demolish'd and laid waste, but we have no structure of theirs to shew, but a Babel of confusion.
7. But alas, these your secular Ruines are but their modest and petty outrages, Take another view of them, and it will like Ezekiels vision, Ezekiel 8. 6. present you with more and greater abominations then these, even the abomination of desolation in the holy place. Your sins have not only desolated your own houses, but Gods: That Beauty of his Ornament which he set in Majesty, Ezek. 7. 20. hath by these your detestable things been exposed to spoil and pollution; we are not yet grown so old in our miseries as to have out-worn the aggravation of remembring our happier estate, and how sad, how wounding a contemplation is it to compare the past and present condition of this Church? When the Temple was rebuilding, the joy of that restauration could not suppresse the grief of those who remembred the so much more Glorious Fabrick of the first, but they layd the foundation in their tears, the text sayes, They wept with a loud voice, Neh. 3. 12. But what teares, what ejulations can be bitter or loud enough for us, who are to lament not partiall and imperfect repairs, but totall ruines and vastations, that see the materialls of our Sion now reduced to dust and rubbish, who once saw them happily compacted, built together as a City at unity in its self!
8. And while we thus remember Sion, and are our selves by the waters of Babylon, 'tis sure but proper we sit down and weep, bid, as those Captives Ps. 37 a solemn Adieu to all entertainments of joy and pleasure; and would God we all, particularly you to whom I now speak, did as exactly parallel them in this sad and pious resentment, as we do in the motives of it, that so your quarrell to sin might be accended to its full height, as that which robs you not only of your spiritual, but (that which many of you have more gust of) your carnal joyes also. Tis your sins, I would I could say, yours alone, which have been the persecuting Sauls, that have thus made havock of the Church; The Securities, Profaness, and Licentiousness of your prosperous dayes made the first breaches in her walls, and now the Impenitence and Incorrigibleness of your calamitous, like the Edomites, cry down with her, down with her even to the ground. 'Twas among the Jews a Capital Guilt to curse a Parent, and shall it now pass for an easy, or no crime, not only to curse, but destroy our common Mother, to abette and maintain those Troops which thus defie, yea invade her? O why should you not at last recall your exiled Pietie, and assume a holy and becoming indignation against these her cruel her implacable Enemies?
9. But this you cannot be supposed to do, whilst You arraign only other mens sins, and leave your own out of the Indictment. I doubt not many of you do with displeasure, perhaps more then enough, charge her ruine upon the immediate Instruments, accuse the bold Intrusion of ignorant Teachers, of having depraved her Doctrine, Ambition & Envy of impatient inferiours, of subverting her Discipline, the Pride and Faction of busie Spirits, of disturbing her Peace, the greedy Avarice of Sacrilegious persons, of devouring her Patrimony; & these I shall not deny to have been the Weapons, that have thus mortally wounded her, but let it be remembred that these were wielded & whetted by the more general impieties, from whence they borrowed their destructive power, & therfore to transfer the guilt here, is but the artifice of slaying Uriah with the sword of the Children of Ammon, which you know acquitted not David from being a murderer. No, God knowes, here lies a Carcass of a poor bleeding Church, but which of you our Elders are qualified for the purgation the Law assignes in that case Deu. 21. 8. which of you can say, our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.
10. Yet the less capable you are of thus washing your hands in innocence the greater need you have to VVash them in Penitence, and therefore since as you are Sons to this Mother, the Office of Avenger of blood devolves on you. O bring forth fruites of repentance by discharging that part faithfully, drag out these Criminals which have taken Sanctuary in your breasts, and there dwell securely, as in a City of Refuge, and hew them in pieces, as Samuel did Agag before the Lord. And as your incentives to this are infinitely greater and more pressing, then in other murders, so will the effects also vastly transcend those of Common Justice, that onelyonly revenges, but this may repaire the mischief, recall the vitall spirits and reunite the scatterd limbs of this mangled body, such an Omnipotencie is there in sincere Repentance, that it is able even to effect a resurrection. O that you would be ambitious of working this Miracle, and by this pious Prodigie beget your Mother, that you would weep so long over her ashes, till that moisture had rendred them prolifical, and you see her spring out of her Urne.
11. This, this is your only way of reversing that extirpating Decree which these Hamans, your sins have procured, and if You neglect this, Mordecaies menace to Hester, will be too applicable to you, if God in his unfathomable mercy should cause deliverance and enlargement to arise from some other place to this poor desolate Church, Yet your selves can expect nothing but Destruction. If you have no sence of the desolations of Sion, no pitty to see her in the Dust, but still chuse to Cherish those impieties, which have brought her thither, yet even they will at the last avenge her quarrell, bring You those miseries, the sence whereof it will be impossible for You to avoid, or extinguish.
12. For alas to represent your sins to you as the Originalls meerly of Temporall, whether Private or Publick Ruines, is to give you too faire and flattering a portraicture of them; these are but the light prelusory skirmishes to a more dismall Slaughter, the Prologue to the fa…all Tragedie; Take their fuller character from the Apostle, Ro. 6. 21. The end of these things is death, even death eternall. It is our usuall comfort against the persecutions of men, that they can pursue us no farther then to the Grave, there, as Job speaks, the weary be at rest; But this Tyrant in our own breasts has no such limits to its malice, but then especially begins, when all other cruelties cease, tortures infinitely by the g…wings of that worm which never dyes, and the scorchings of that fire which never shall be quenched.
13. And now who can sufficiently wonder at the Infatuation, that you should demurre upon the dismissing of so treacherous a Guest, that you should cherish this Viper in your Bosoms, which you alreadie feel cating your Bowels, devouring all your temporal Felicities, and yet takes those but in the way to your Heart, your more pretious and eternal part. Tis the common Maxime even of those that receive advantage by the perfidiousness of Others, to love the treason but hate the Traitor, but here is that Rule quite inverted; you hate the treason, are impatient of the afflicting Consequences of your sin, yet love the Traitor, hugge that in your closest Embraces. The Apostle indeed forwarnes us of the Deceitfulness of sin, Heb. 3. 13. but sure this is a pitch beyond that, this is not deceit, but inchantment, some powerfull Philtrum it must needs be, that can thus make men in love not only with deformitie, but disease.
14. But all the Magicians of Egypt are not able to stand before Moses, this Magick is not so irresistible, but that Reason and Religion will yield you countercharmes, able to disenchant You, if You will but suffer them to come in to your aid. Do but once step out of the Devils Circle, the actual vertiginous pursuit of Your sinful appetites and give your Faculties some intermission, so much breath from that hot chase as may qualifie them for a calme considerate view of Other things, and then 'tis certain You will discerne that Vertue has a much more ravishing appearance, infinitely more delectable and enamouring, then all the Devils Opticks could put upon your highest and most gustfull sensualities. Do you only bestow some attentive looks upon her, let her once in at your eyes, and then leave her to make her own way to your heart. And this is sure a very moderate request, that you will but vouchsafe to look upon what is thus amiable, and with what pretence can you deny it; You who to gaze on those transitorie beauties which are only your snares, stick at no difficultie, will be content to come (those of you that have no other motives) even to Church upon that errand, O do not here put off your curiositie, where alone it may Availe You, but rather take this opportunitie of hallowing that (hitherto prophane) part of your temper.
15. It has been none of the Devills meanest or unluckiest Arts to infuse prejudices into mens minds against Christian practise, by representing it in the most averting formes, he changes shapes with it, and as he transformes himself into an Angel of light, so he does this into one of Darkness, makes it appear a State of the most dismall sadness, and horrour, a region of Antipodes to all Joy and Cheerfulnesse. And how much more ready men are to take the Devill at his word, then Christ at his, who professes his Yoke easy and his Burden light, appears too visible in the generall aversation those have to Piety, who never so much as tryed it, but take up implicite confused prejudices against it, and reteine those as fast, as if they were the products of many years costly experiences, and 'tis to be feared these have taken the deepest root in the richest Soil, they seeming no where more to flourish, then among You of the highest Qualitie, yet sure, of all others You are most obliged to eradicate them, they implying such a gross injustice, as any ingenious minde must be ashamed of.
16. You will your selves readily pronounce, that Judge not onelyonly corrupt, but impudent, that condemns a person whose plea he never heard, yet if you will but reflect, You will find your owne verdict rebound upon your selves, with a Tu …s homo, for 'tis evidently your case here. It is time for you therefore to be so just, if not to Vertue, yet to your own Reputations, as to retract that condemnatory sentence, you have past upon her, and put on so much at least of the form of Justice, as to give her a fair Triall. But this you cannot doe by hearing the tongues of men and Angels plead for her, none but her self can manage her cause, you must admit her into your societie, and converse, take her into such a familiaritie, as may bring her within distance of your Observation, before you pronounce of her. In short if you will indeed render your selves competent Judges, whither a Vertuous life be a pleasant or a dismall thing, enter upon it, and let your owne experiences be your informers.
17. I cannot suspect the age so degenerous, as not to beleeve there are divers particular persons among you, who have made the experiment, and to their Testimonie I dare appeal, and doubt not they will from Judges turne Advocates, and recommended it to you, and sure you will have no cause in this instance to wave your wonted Priviledge of being tryed by your Peers, to except against their judgment in the case, who being placed in equall circumstances with you must be supposed to understand your utmost Temptations to Vice, from whence alone all the seeming difficulties and uneasinesses of Vertue doe arise.
18. It were the work of many Volumes to describe the severall distinct Advantages towards a pleasant Being, which are wrapt up in this one comprehensive Felicitie. I shall instance onelyonly in that, to which the ensuing Tract particularly relates, and that is that it furnishes you with a succession of very Agreeable and Cheerfull Imployments. Vertue is of a busie and active Nature, and as in its severall Operations it has an opposition to all the severall sorts of Vice, so in its very Constitution and Principle it beares an avowed Antipathie to that one fertile Seminary of most other Sins, Idlenesse; and sure the rescuing you from that is no contemptible Benefit. For though you seeme to challenge it as a considerable part of your Inheritance, that you may live and do Nothing, and are very tenacious of that Claim, yet, tis most evident, that what you contend for, as your Priveledge, your selves esteem your burden, yea so much so, that to be rid of it, you cast away Estate, Health, Soul and all for Company, imploy your selves the most ruinously, rather then endure to be Idle; nay, quite confute your owne Pretensions to ease, by those laborious and toilsome Vices, wich you are fain to call Pleasures, to render them tolerable; but have certainly no pretence to that Title on any other score, but that they keep you doing.
19. And now what more gratefull Office can possibly be done for men in this Condition, then to shew them how they may free themselves of this load without contracting a worse; I mean the guilt of those sins which like Rehoboam converts Whips into Scorpions, yet are now fain to be resorted to, as the onelyonly instruments of their relief. And this a Christian Life will be sure to do for you, It will constantlie provide you with innocent divertisements, nay much more, it will give You business, so excellent, and worthie the dignitie of Your Natures, so Noble and answerable to the Splendour of your Qualities, so every way agreeable to the aims of Rational Men, that You will have cause to acknowledge with Our Church, that Gods Service is perfect Freedom.
20. I shall not undertake to give you a particular view of all the Severals of those Emploiments; Those Precepts of the Gospel which assigne your Tasks, doe sufficiently informe You of the Nature and Excellencie of them, my whole Scheme is comprised in that One, which directs an Attendance on that Calling wherein God hath placed men, and therefore I am to treat onelyonly of those particular Duties which are incumbent on You as Gentlemen, and therein shew You that considered as such, You have a Calling, and so free you of that reproach and miserie of being unprofitable burdens of the earth, and then evince to you also that that Calling is so far from implying any thing of reall toil or uneasiness, that it is only an Art of refining and sublimating your Pleasures, rendring them more gustfull and exquisite and so will (if attended to) make good to you in earnest your mistaken pretence to a Life of sensuality and delight.
Mr. Garthwait,
I Need not tell you with what success you published the Excellent Treatise, The whole Duty of Man: It is your Felicity to be again instrumental to the profit of this Church and Nation, by your Edition of these Religious and Prudent Instructions. And although the Address be not so Universal in this, as in the former; yet this will have a large influence upon other Conditions besides Gentlemen: Their Converse, if reformed, will be exemplary, and operative upon others. A Gentry that would afford an obedient Ear to these Admonitions, and a Clergy that would to Piety and Learning, joyn Humility, Modesty, and Sobriety, will be the best Humane means to recover this sinful Nation, and oppressed Church, from the miseries, Spiritual and Civil, under which we now groan. So that the Argument is well chosen, and it is so managed, that I know not what a Reader that is somewhat morose can desire, which is not here. The Author keeps close to his intended province and design, his Reasons are sinewy and convincing, his Reproofs are severe and grave, yet pleasing; and they whom he chides, must needs love him. There is nothing in his Periods redundant or defective; he hath a Native Elegancy that invites his Reader; variety of Learning couched, not vaunted; and a Perspicuity such, as will make his Reasonings appear to a weak Eye: A Manual which is enriched with all these Graces, shall (I trust) not onelyonly be frequently and attentively perused, but that it will lively affect, and sit close to the Reins, and penetrate the Heart of the Reader, especially that Reader for whom it is designed; and for this Blessing on the Gentry, it is our Duty to sollicite the Divine Goodness.
SAR. 27 Octob. 1659. Your assured Friend H. H.
IEREMIAH—13. 17. —Mine Eye shall run downe with teares because the Lords, flock is carried away Captive—
ZEDEKIAH—Ier. 39. -The Anointed of the Lord was taken in their Nets under whose shaddow we said we should live in peace &c - Lament: 4. 20