Chapter 3

Wherever choice souls are found, wisdom is the mother of them; all submissiveness and love their breed is.

Speak we now of a father’s rights; do you, sons, give good heed, and follow these counsels, if thrive you would.

God will have children honour their fathers; a mother’s rights are his own strict ordinance.

A lover of God will fall to prayer over his sins and sin no more; so, all his life long, his prayer shall find audience.

… riches he lays up for himself, that gives his mother her due.

As thou wouldst have joy of thy own children, as thou wouldst be heard when thou fallest to praying, honour thy father still.

A father honoured is long life won; a father well obeyed is a mother’s heart comforted.

None that fears the Lord but honours the parents who gave him life, slave to master owes no greater service.

Thy father honour, in deed and in word and in all manner of forbearance;

so thou shalt have his blessing, a blessing that will endure to thy life’s end.

What is the buttress of a man’s house? A father’s blessing. What tears up the foundations of it? A mother’s curse.

Never make a boast of thy father’s ill name; what, should his discredit be thy renown?

Nay, for a father’s good repute or ill, a son must go proudly, or hang his head.

My son, when thy father grows old, take him to thyself; long as he lives, never be thou the cause of his repining.

Grow he feeble of wit, make allowance for him, nor in thy manhood’s vigour despise him. The kindness shewn to thy father will not go forgotten;

favour it shall bring thee in acquittal of thy mother’s guilt.

Faithfully it shall be made good to thee, nor shalt thou be forgotten when the time of affliction comes; like ice in summer the record of thy sins shall melt away.

Tarnished his name, that leaves his father forsaken; God’s curse rest on him, that earns a mother’s ill-will.

My son, do all thou dost in lowly fashion; love thou shalt win, that is worth more than men’s praise.

The greater thou art, the more in all things abase thyself; so thou shalt win favour with God …

Sovereignty belongs to God and no other; they honour him most that most keep humility.

Seek not to know what is far above thee; search not beyond thy range; let thy mind ever dwell on the duty God has given thee to do, content to be ignorant of all his dealings besides.

Need is none thy eyes should see what things lie hidden.

Leave off, then, thy much questioning about such things as little concern thee, and be content with thy ignorance;

more is granted to thy view than lies within human ken.

By such fancies, many have been led astray, and their thoughts chained to folly.

… Heart that is obstinate shall thrive ill at the last; danger loved is death won.

Heart that will try two ways at once shall prosper little; he falls into the snare that goes a-straying.

Heart that will not mend shall be weighed down by its own troubles; the sinner is ever ready for one sin more.

For one sort of men there is no remedy, the proud; too deep a root the evil has taken, before they knew it.

Heart that is wise will prove itself in wise company; ever greedy of wise talk is the ear that knows how to listen.

Heart that is wise and discerning will keep clear of wrong, and by honest dealings prosper yet.

No fire burns so high but water may quench it; almsgiving was ever sin’s atoning.

God marks the grateful eye, and remembers it; here is sure support won against peril of falling.