Instructions to a Son, Instructions 2
To the rest of his CHILDREN.
Children,
AS you are the greatest part of me, and in whom I may promise to my self a continuance of succession, so have I also a paternal care (more incumbent on me now) towards you: I shall therefore in some particular directions to you, as the monuments of my affection, advise and counsel you, in what shall be necessary and expedient for your several conditions.
First, therefore make not hast to put your selves out of the government or charge of those to whose care and tuition I have committed you; if any thing happen that shall offer you advantage in another station of life, then I leave you, I require you to consult with them first. I have laid a sacred obligation upon them to assist and aid you in all matters, which if you neglect or contemn, you will soon find your selves left to the world, as a ship to the raging sea, without Furniture or Anchors.
Above all, bear that constant filial duty to your Mother, which her piety and tenderness in your Education, most justly call for at your hands; her great indulgence towards you, and her entire affection to me in all my suffering of late, deserve very much at my hand; and therefore I charge you to shew that respect to her for me, which I would have done my self, and in which, in all the time of our wedlock you have known me to have continued. Fail not in any outward circumstance of honour and reverence to her, that so by your dutiful behaviour and carriage towards her, some of the harshness and asperity of her present condition may be alleviated.
To your Eldest Brother, who is the Prince of your Family, shew your selves obedient and loving; he is my substitute, your Honour is bound up in his, in him it now rests, and may for a while not appear in its lustre; take heed therefore you do not by any dis-respect quite extinguish it; your due observance of him will preserve it in the minds of all men, who are not strangers to the ancient worth and merit of Our House.
With one another maintain a mutual love and confidence: This happiness you may have by my adversity to indear your selves more to one another, lay out no affection upon the world, but keep the entire stock for your selves. Let that equal love which I bear you, and which I leave with you, be communicated among you, by a constant amity to one another; which will be the better Cemented by your religious and godly Conversation, wherein I trust you have been so well instructed, that my memory shall not be charged or blamed for your education.
Keep a Decorum in your present condition, value not your selves the worse for one riot or attempt of fortune made upon me; mind not her temporary outrages; vertue is the true standard, such allays pass not with her, fix your self upon your own worth, and no engine of fate can remove you from that Basis. Pusill animity is a vice almost needless to be warned of, because noble minds do always niti contra, and bear up against their extremities, till they have either surmounted them by their bravery, and ascended to their first height, or levelled them by their patience and equanimity, plain'd their difficulties, and made them even with their contented minds.
The small Portions I have left you, (though the world miscounts them as great matters, and I could wish they amounted to their sums) you must improve as talents, serve your necessities with them, not your pleasures; what the Royal Bounty may hereafter do by way of restitution, you may do with it as may be most subservient to your Honour; you will not be liable to great expences, you are free from any dependency on Court, where men spend money, on a vanity called Hope. As for marriage, (of which I shall speak more largely hereafter and of which in the beginning of this Monition, I gave you a Caution,) your vertue must supply dower, though I trust I have left a Competency (with your vertues) to match you to any family in Scotland.
Behave your selves therefore prudently, decently, and warily to all people, that so you may gain the general good will and benevolence of all; imitate the example your Mother hath set before you; stand upon your guard against all pleasures, or other baits or allurements that shall tempt you to any unlawful actions or desires, which may practise upon you either in your Conscience, or in your Reputation: and resolve this as a sure rule with your selves, that no person is wise or safe, but he that is honest.
Fear your Creator, and serve him with all your might, begin all your works and actions with him, 'tis he onelyonly can succeed and prosper them. If you pursue your own designs upon your own bottome, the conclusion will be your own ruin, for he can wither and blast at his pleasure sinful undertakings. I shall never despair of Gods blessing upon you, nor doubt his all-sufficiency for you, if you apply your self to him, and make his fear the rule of your Lives.
You, see that to be descended of great Personages, is no exemption from the strokes of fortune; but to be descended of a Heavenly race, will carry you out of the reach of those misfortunes which are incident to Humanity.
Imploy therefore your time in renewing your alliances there, probably your consanguinity and relations here, may stand off from you, like Jobs friends in his adversity. Desertions are usual in this case; you need however not much care for this worldly friendship, as long as you have dependance on the Favour of Heaven.
What is abated here to you in the transitory felicites and pleasures of the world, (from which you have no such cause to wean your selves altogether) will be easily recompenced in your enjoying him who is the foundation of all good, and from whom all happiness is derived to his Creatures.
To whose Protection I commit you and your ways, beseeching him to bless and prosper them, to his glory, and your comfort.