The Prevention of Poverty, Chapter 18
CHAP. XVIII.
MAny an one hath his father unfeathered to warm him, but pride, drunkenness, gamming, &c. plucks them away again so fast, that he soon becomes naked and bare. He is like a barren plot of ground, for let him receive never so much seed and manuring, Sun and showers, he remaines ever dry and fruitless, and no marvail, when not onelyonly his leud and vicious courses bring Gods curse upon all he hath or takes in hand; but when he and what he hath, is also cursed for his fathers sake. For whereas the Holy Ghost saith of the just man, His seed shall be mighty upon earth, his generation shall be blessed, &c. Psal. 112. 2. and many the like, Psal. 103. where God hath promised to bless and reward the children; yea, the childrens children for their fathers goodness, vers. 17. Isa. 58, 10, 11. 12. Psal. 37. 25, 26, & 112. 2. to 6. Of which I might give you examples, not a few. The children of Noah were preserved from drowning for their fathers sake, Gen 7. …. Mephibosheth fares the better for his fathers goodness, the Kenites for Jetbroes, 1 Sam. 15. 6. and that some hundreds of yeers after, their Ancester was dead; Phineas his seed for his sake, Numb. 25. 11, 12, 13. Solomon for his father Davids sake, 2 Sam. 1. 2. Ishmael for Abrahams sake, Gen. …7. 20. And all Israel fared the better for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacobs sake, Deut. 4 37. 1 Kings 11. 12. The loving-kindness of the Lord, sayes the Psalmist, indureth for ever, and ever, upon them that fear him, and his righteousness upon childrens children, Psal. 103. 17. Exod. 20. 6.
And as God usually blesseth, and rewardeth the children for their fathers goodness, so on the contrary, Exod. 20 5. Eternal payments God uses to require of the persons only, temporary oftentimes of succession; as we sue the Heirs and Executors of our Debtors. God hath peremtorily told us, that he will visit the iniquity of ungodly parents, upon their children, unto the third and fourth generation, Exod. 20. 5. As for the sin of Haman. his ten sons were hanged, Hester 9. 13, 14. And so for Sauls sin, his seven sons were likewise hanged, 2 Sam. 21. 6. and thus for Achans sin, all his sons and daughters were stoned to death, and burned with fire by the Commandment of Moses, who was in Gods stead, Iosh. 7. Yea God hath peremtorily threatned, Psal. 109. that the children of a cruel and unmercifully man, shall be Vagabonds and beg their bread, and that none shall extend mercy or favor unto them, ver. 7. to 17. God will make those children beggars, for whose sakes the fathers have made so many beggars; this is a truth which the father will not beleeve, but as sure as God is just, the Sonne shall feele. As what common and daily experience have we thereof, had men but the wit to observe it? for hence it is, that riches ill got, shift masters so often. As rare it is, if the wealth of an Oppressor doth last to the fourth generation, seldom to the second; for commonly in this case, as the father was the first that raised his house, by his extream getting and saving, so the son proves the last, in overthrowing his house, by excessive spending and lavishing; as Tullius Cicero answered a Prodigal that told him he came of beggerly parents; for no man when his means is gone, will ever after trust him with a stock to begin the world again; the case standing with him, as it did with the unjust Steward▪ who having wasted his masters goods for the time past, could not bee trusted with the like for the time to come; and whereas hitherto he hath with Esau, rejected the blessing of prosperity, it will be denyed him hereafter, though he should seek it with tears, and which is worse then all, if death find him (as is much to be feared) as banquerout of spirituall, a, of worldly goods, it will send him to an eternal …: for what can wee think of them, that do not only lose crusts & crummes, which our Savior would have carefully gathered up, John 6. 12. but even lavish & wherle away whole patrimonies; yea, most wickedly spend them in riot, and upon Dice, Drabs, Drunkenness? Oh the fearful account which these unthrifty Baylifs will one day have to give up, to our great Lord and Master, when he shall call them to a strict reckoning of their talents! he was condemned that encreased not the sum concredited to him, what then shall become of him that lawlessely and lavishly spends and impaires it? bringing in such a reckoning as this; Item, spent upon my lusts, pleasures, and pride, fourty years, and five hundred or ten thousand pounds, &c. let them be in their right sences, they cannot think that God will take this for a good discharge of their Steward-ships, though the devill may and will make them believe, that Christ will quit all scores between him, the father, and them.
And thus I have made it plain, that want and beggery is the heir apparent to riot and prodigality, and that he who when he should not, spends too much, shal, when he would not, have too little to spend, a good lesson for young gulls. I have likewise showne, that what the covetous hath basely gotten, is as ill bestowed, and worse imployed, a good item for old Curmudgens to take notice of, that so they may not starve their bodies, and damn their souls, for their sons, to so little purpose.
As O that the covetous Moule, who is now digging a house in the earth for his posterity, did but fore-see how his prodigal son will consume what he with so much care and industry hath scraped together; for should he have leave hereafter to come out of hell for an hour, and see it, hee would curse this his folly, yea, if possible, it would double the pain of his insernall torment, as it fares with Gnipho the Usurer, who (as Lucian seigneth) lying in hell, lamenteth his miserable estate, that one Rodochares, an incestuous Prodigal, on earth consumed his goods wastfully, which he by unjust means had scraped together so carefully; the which seemeth to have some affinity with the word of truth; why else is Dives being in hell torments, said to lift up his eyes, and to see Abraham a farre off and Lazarus in his bosome, parlying so seriously about his brethren, whom he had left behind him? Luke 16. 23, &c. Why else doth our Saviour say, that the wicked shall gnash their teeth for vexation, when they shall see Abraham, & Isaac, & Jacob in the Kingdom of heaven, and themselves thrust out of doors, Luke 13. 28.
But that thou mayst the better fore-see, or at lest fore-think what will follow, I will shew thee thy case in sundry other persons.
Clodius, son to Esophus the Tragedian, spent marvelous great wealth which his father left him. Epicharmus the Athenian, having a large patrimony left him by his parents, consumed it in six dayes, and all his life time after lived a begger. Apicius, in banqueting, spent great revenues, left him by his parsimonious father, and then because he would not lead a miserable life, hanged himself. Pericles, Callias, and Nicius, by prodigall lavishing and palpable sensuallity, spent in a shorttime very great patrimonies, left them by their parents, and when all their means was gone, they drank each of them a poysoned potion one to another, and dyed in the place.
Again, we read that Caligula, in one year of his reign, spent prodigally, sixty seven millions of gold, which Tiberius his Predecessor had gathered together, as Tacitus tells us, and where as John the 22. left behind him, (as Petrarch reports) two hundred and fifty tun of gold; insomuch that an odde fellow made this jest of him, Erat Pontifex maximus si non virtute pecunia tamen maximus. Pope Sixtus Quintus, (called of Englishmen, a by word, for selling our Kingdom to Philip of Spain, Six Cinque,) through his intollerable covetousness, left in his Exchequer five millions; but his successor Gregory the fourteenth, wasted four of them in ten months and less, besides his ordinary revenues, in riot and prodigality; and many the like which I could tyre you with; insomuch that the curse of Epimenides is daily fulfilled, which was, that all the treasure whorded up by the covetous, should be wasted by the prodigall; for, for the most part the Misers meanes lights into the hands of some such dingthrifty dearth-maker, as out of a laborious Silk-worm, rises a painted Butter-flye.