The Last ADVICE OF Mr. BEN. ALEXANDER late Minister of West-Markham in the County of Nottingham To His CHILDREN In Two Parts The Contents follow Prov. 24.21 My Son fear thou the Lord and the King and Meddle not with them that are given to change London Printed for Nath. Ekins at the Gun in S. Pauls Church-yard 1659. The CONTENTS OF This BOOK In the first Part. A Preface to Page 3. A Catechisticall Dialogue to p. 13. A Godly Form of Prayer to p. 26. In the second Part. Generall and Particular Advice 1 In Religion from p. 29. to p. 43. 2 Opinion to p. 48. 3 Morality to p. 60. 4 Government to p. 65. 5 Study to p. 72. 6 Mariage to p. 75. The ADVICE OF Mr. Benjamin Alexander To his CHILDREN IT was great joy which S. John 3. Epistle of John v. 4. had when he heard that Gaius and his Children did walk in the truth and if it be a part of the glory of Heaven to know what is done on earth my glory should be exceeding glorious to know that you my Children did so But whether I know it or know it not if ye do so ye are certain of the crown of glory This which I have left you concerneth you first as you stand to God secondly to men thirdly to your selves the Lord bless you these and allother helps of piety to you that you may be glorious through holiness here and in holinesse hereafter Your loving Father Ben. Alexander August 2. 1658. The first part Sarah I pray thee Brother let us sit under yonder green tree Ben. I will sister for it is pleasant weather But why wilt thou go to day S. Because I am now at leisure and would speak to thee in private B. Let us go S. Pray tell me one thing Brother B. Doubt not Sister I will if I can S. I have seen my Father oft times on his knees in the hall and sometimes in the parlour what doth he mean by that B. My Father goeth then to prayers S. To pray what is that B. It is a duty S. Is there a duty due to any but my Father and Mother B. Yea Sister that there is S. To whom B. To God S. What is he B. A Spirit S. A Spirit what is that B. A spirit is an intelligent substance without body or bodily qualities S. What is God then B. God is a Spirit most holy most wise eternall and infinite in whom we live move and have our being S. How many Gods are there B. But one in essence but three in persons viz. Father Son and holy Ghost S. How shal I come to know him B. Three waies S. Which are they B. By his works about us his word unto us his workings in us S. What is his word B. That which we call Scripture S. How came that to us B. God breathed it into men who spake as they were inspired by the Spirit of the Holy Ghost S. What men were they B. Enoch Moses the Prophets Evangelists Apostles c. S. What are his works B. The Creation of the world and all the things therein as Sun Moon Cloud Earth Sea and his Powerfull and wise Providence in upholding and ordering all things till the end come S. What are his Workings B. Light Love Feare and all affections acts of Conscience Faith and all Graces S. But why doth my Father Pray B. That God would forgive our sins and give all things necessary for life and godliness S. What is sin B. Sin is the transgression of the Law S. And have I any sin B. Yea Sister and I also for we were born in sin and are thereby enemies to God and all goodness and subject to sicknesses crosses and losses in this life yea we must die also and without the speciall Grace of God are cast away for ever and ever S. Thou tellest me a strange thing how cometh this to pass B. By Adams sin in whose loynes we were and so are liable to these punishments S. What did Adam do B. He disobeyed the Commands of God in eating the fruit which he had forbidden S. How is that proved good Brother B. See Rom. 5.12 By one man sin entered into the World and death by him and so death passed over all men for that all have sinned S. Is there any more Scripture for it B. Yea Sister S. Which are they B. Read Psal 1.51.5 I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive and Epes 2.3 we are by nature the children of wrath even as others S. Alas Brother what case are we then in B. In the state of damnation and God may cast us into hell S. Hell what is that B. The place of torments by fire and brimstone where is weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth S. These are torments the Lord deliver us from them is there a way to escape them B. Yea Sister S. How B. By the Son of God S. Who is he that I may know him B. Jesus Christ of whom you read in the Bible S. Is it he of whom I read in my Psalter that was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried rose again the third day and shall come in the end of the world to Judge the quick and the dead B. Yea Sister the very same S. What is he that I may see him B. He is in heaven thou canst not see him yet S. How then shall I know him B. By mixing faith with thy reading of the Gospel S. What is Faith B. Faith is the gift of God by which he giveth a mind to believe in Jesus Christ and a full perswasion settled that what he did suffered in life or death as it was sufficient so it was efficacious for my salvation S. And is there nothing but this Faith required B. Faith alone doth save us but this Faith never goeth alone but it worketh by love S. Which is the Rule of love B. The ten Commandements S. What is the summe of the Commandements B. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and thy neighbour as thy selfe S. Faith then is a perfect jewell how shall I finde it B. The Word begets it Sacraments confirme it Prayer encreaseth it S. And will this bring me to Heaven B. Yea if you persevere to the end S. But you told me I must die how then can I go to Life B. Death is the doore to Life S. Doth my soul die B. No that goeth to God that gave it S. Then my body onely stayeth in the grave B. Yea. S. How shall that rise B. According to the Scripture by the Power of God S. When B. In the Resurrection of the last day when they which have done good shall go into everlasting life but hypocrites and unbelievers to eternall fire S. Will you help me to Pray B. Yea Sister S. I thank you Brother how then must I pray The Prayer O Most
glorious and gracious Lord God the great Creator of Heaven and earth and the wise Disposer of all things which thou hast made for thine own glory and for the good and welfare of all thy servants we the most unworthiest of all thy servants do desire to prostrate our selves before thy divine Majesty under an humble acknowledgement of thy goodnesse thy grace thy truth and faithfulnesse thy many mercies renewed and continued every day to us and our great unworthinesse of the least of any of them We are not worthy of the crumbs that fall from thy Table not onely because we were born in sin but because we have lived in sin and have daily added to our sins by the vanity of our thoughts words and actions and the unsutablenesse of the whole man to all thy commands we are ignorant of them yea we have digged to our selves Cisterns that will hold no water we have doubted of thy promises and distrusted therein thy Covenants broken thy Lawes polluted thy Ordinances profaned thy Sabbaths abused thy mercies slighted thy judgments sinned against the light of our own Consciences against Grace received against the motions of thy holy Spirit against Heaven and in thy sight and we are not worthy to be called thy Children and therfore most justly mayst thou poure down thy displeasure upon us and empty the vials of thy wrath upon us and ours making our lives bitter unto us by diseases and manifold crosses and deny us the fruition of thy self in glory hereafter and yet thou art just in all thy wayes and holy in all thy works for this we abhor our selves and condemn our selves oh let us escapâ— the condemnation of thee our God O enter not into judgement with us for in thy sight shall no flesh living be justified our only Hope is on the Merits of Jesus Christ thy beloved Son our Saviour of whom thou spakest from thy Excellent Glory this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased in him O Lord be well pleased with us and signe thy good pleasure unto us by a full and free Pardon of all our sins Lord 't is a great Request we begg of thee and more then such sinners as we are can hope for to receive from thee but it was a great Price which was paid for us not by corruptible things as silver and gold but the most Precious blood of thine own Son we tender up to thee Lord Jesus Christ upon the Altar of a believing soule O receive him for us thou laid'st upon him the iniquities of us all that we through his stripes might be healed magnifie thy mercies towards us sinners and thy Grace by passing by our transgressions and Lord Seale up thy Pardon by giving thy holy Spirit unto us in more inlarged fullnesse and let him comfort us and beare witness to our spirits that we are thine and thou art ours that being delivered from the bondage of sin we may cry out Abba Father O let thy Spirit bring gracious answeres to our soules desires plead the cause of our soules shed abroad the love of thy selfe in our hearts leading us into all necessary truths guiding us by Grace here that we may come oâ— Glory hereafter And as we desire Pardon of sins so we pray thee subdue our sins mortifie those corruptions that dwell in us and oft times do tyrannize over us and bring us to subjection to the Law of sin making us most wretched creatures O let it pittie thee to see Satan rule over us who takes us captive according to his will bruise his power limit his malice shorten his chaine divide his Kingdom hasten his finall doome and condemnation O let no Lord Rule over us but thy selfe for thou art our only God and we will worship thee And good Father lead us not into temptation deliver us from the evill thereof strengthen us against them sanctifie us under them and let us finde the sufficiency of thy Grace under them to make us conquerors through Jesus Christ O make sin loathsome to us helpe us to looke upon sin as thou dost looke upon it to Judge it and condemne it give us a sight of it in thy favour a sorrow for it and a resolution against it and hold us up by the Power of thy Spirit through Faith to Salvation Helpe us to derive our Joy from Heaven and our comforts from above the cloudes and to lay up our treasure above the sun where the moth and the thiefe cannot eat thorough and steale Make good thy Covenant to us in giving us a new heart and renewing our spirit in us let the Scepter of Christ sway over the whole man our understandings wills affections bringing all to obedience of the Law of Christ Remember thy whole Church what promises thou hast for Jewes and Gentiles in thy good time make out to them bring in the out-cast of Israel and all from the high-wayes that so thy house may be full O let the Nations be thine inheritance and the utmost parts of the Earth be thy possession Remember and blesse these Nations wherein we live O Lord keep up England from falling from thee let it not languish nor decay in Godlinesse and let not the wantonnesse under the meanes of Grace in it procure the want of Grace in it thou hast divided us bring us together again O Pardon the sins of our Nation and helpe us to keep our selves free from the pollution thereof thou art a God of order O settle order in thy Church and unity among thy Saints let such as do erre out of ignorance learne knowledge and such as have sinned against knowledge finde Repentance endue the Magistrates with the knowledge of thy Spirit of Grace and wisdom as well as with Power that we may live a peaceable and quiet life under them in all godlinesse and honesty O let thy Ministers be cloathed with holinesse write it on their brest let them shine by holinesse of life as well as by Doctrine and Crown all their Labours with a Garland of soules And remove not O Father thy Candlestick from us for our unworthinesse of it and our unthankfullnesse for it but Pardon our unprofitablenesse under it and teach us to profit more and more And O Lord comfort all the children of affliction speake peace to the wounded and troubled spirit binde up the broken hearted powre in wine and oyle into their maladies that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce convert our enemies and make our wayes so to please thee that our very enemies may be at peace with us blesse our Relations in consanguinity affinity and Christian friendship that as there is a communion of Saints so we maystudy to edifie one another in love and piety by words and workes And good Father set us higher than our crosses and temporall afflictions in this life helpe us to cast our care upon thee who hath promised to care for us and thou that regardest sparrowes tellest us we are of far
least you be thought to value your conceipt above his and so be accounted proud 24. Write not the faults of Great Persons in a Letter least it be intercepted and you sent out of the World before your time 25. Weare your cloathes neat but suitable to your fortune least on the one hand you be accounted a soven or on the other proud and vain glorious 26. Live frugally at present that thou mayest grapple with what may come hereafter 27. Have a care you meddle not with womens quarrels for womens braules are mens thralls 28. Let not thy judgement be corrupted by a gift a bribe may not be taken a boone may 29. In expenses spare when you may that you may spend when you should 30. If anger do boile in your heart let it not run over in your mouth open scandall doth more hurt then concealed vice 31. Do not too much enjoy prosperity for Manna was despised for variety 32. Be mindfull of received curtesies and write not good turnes in sand and ill turnes in brass 33. Reverence your Mother and if need be relieve her love your brothers and sisters remembring that ye are of a piece and differ from one another in name only 34. Take heed you lay not the aspersion of a witch upon any one for we are strangers to the secret Malignities of Nature and madd men in their melancholly extasies have had as prodigious confessions and gestures as they 35. At a conference be silent a while to speak last is a great advantage for thereby shall you heare the matter debated and the strength or weaknesse of others Arguments to guide your speech 36. Despise none for the meannesse of their birth or poverty of breeding for true virtue maylodge in a poor Cottage 37. Be neither pleased nor grieved at reports the good is enlarged and the bad quenched by nothing sooner then neglect 38. Judge of nothing by the voice of fame nor desire it much for it carrieth a trumpet which for the most part gathereth more enemies then friends 39. Provoke not a coward too farr least he turne valiant to thy overthrow 40. Take heed what company you keep for example prevaileth more then precepts 41. When you speak to any look them full in the face other gestures do bewray want of breeding confidence or honesty and dejected eyes argue guilt or folly 42. Ride not hastily thorough a Town men do think that either the horse or your braines are none of your own 43. Keep a good horse it is very usefull for you and much may be done that way to oblige a friend 44. If it may be never buy but with ready money and not commonly of your friends and acquaintance for they will take it ill if you will not be cheated some times to humour them 45. When guilty of a fault seeke not to excuse it by niceties a fine thred will soone be broke in the spinning Concerning GOVERNOURS 1. A wicked man and a bad Instrument is to be obeyed Christ and his Apostles did so 2. In bad times t is better to be passive then active our blessed Saviour was never heard to inveigh against the present Power though it made the head of John Baptist to be cut off 3. Owne the Power but not the faults of Magistrates and comply not with them that under Pretence of Law would defraud Naboth of his Vineyard 4. Forfeit not the trust which is imposed upon you in neither Peace nor Warr there is none but will befriend vertue though it be found in Armes against him 5. Submit to that Government which Providence hath placed over you for Conscience sake though of meane beginnings and necessary deformities in obtaining the Soveraignty David from a small rise was made a King and Treason it was not to obey him 6. Stand not upon your innocency with those that are able to bring the greatest into a fault t is no dishonour to submit to thieves if fallen into their hands 7. To whom your Person must be subject let your tongue be silent a fooles tongue will sometimes or other cut his head off 8. If you can enjoy your Conscience and the designes of Gods Glory question not the Authority of those under whom you do it 9. Consider all States and Kingdomes had their foundation laid in the dirt be not therefore misled in Point of civill obedience least you make your guide your stumbling block 11. If Religion in the Profession thereof be blemished and Law lie dead a golden tongue in a prudent head will have great influence in a Common-Wealth 11. Meddle not with the Powers of a Land for he that drawes his sword against his Prince must throw away his scabbard 12. What is required by men in Authority though it be not thanks worthy to grant yet t is dangerous to deny 13. Censure not nor talke at randome of State Matters there may be a moath under the Carpet of Council Tables or a flea may leap into the bed chamber of Princes and these are lesse then the birds which Solomon spoke of Eccles 10.20 Concerning STUDY 1. IN the first place study tâ— know God and call tâ— minde that advice of Daviâ— to his Son Solomon 1 Chro. 28â— 9. And thou my Son know tho the God of thy Father and servâ—â— him with a perfect and willinâ— minde if thou seekest him 〈◊〉 will be found of thee if thâ— forsakest him he will cast thâ— off for ever 2. Latin is more necessary for you then your own Mother tongue being an universall Language and much Learning is conveyed in it apply your selfe to the study of it 3. Good and true writing is part of Grammer and a blessing which God gave to one of the Tribes of Israel viz Zebulon Judg. 5.14 Practice it dayly a competent substance is got by it and t is very usefull in a Common-Wealth 4. Arithmatick is a very liberall Science Nature Reason and Art freely contributing to it of this I may say what Solomon speaketh Prov. 22.29 Seest thou a man diligent in his business he shall stand before Kings he shall not stand before meane men 5. Have some inspection in Physick that will add to your welcom where ever you come 6. But do not imagine the diseases you read of are in herent in your selfe for that will argue melancholy 7. As for bookes si non habes quos leges lege quos habes few bookes well studied nurish the understanding more then many hundered which are but gargled in the mouth as many do 8. Read as much as you can but withall consider that the more you gather out of books the poorer you proclaim your Naturall parts 9. Spend no time in difficult trifles and niceties which like tough meat aske more paines to chew then they do yield profitable nourishment 10. If you make use of Poetry let it be rather your recreation then your businesse for men of sound Judgement looke upon it rather as fancy than solid perswasion 11. Content your selfe with ordinary Invention for constant exercise in any Art will teach you to attaine excellent habits 12. Make not Musicke your study for besides the unprofitablenesse of it it rendreth a man suspected of Levity 13. If thou attainest to any proficiency in parts be humble no greater ornament to Learning than humility 14. Leave your bed when first sleep hath left you t is very ill for your eyes to read lying and worse for the mind to be a cage of uncleane thoughts 15. Eate not so long as you are able meates in England which do most inveagle the stomach are stewd up at last in great houses 16. Drinke not while you are hot unlesse your drinke be not rather chew liquorish or take tobacco 17. Let not the Irreligiousnesse of any place cause thee to forget thy duty toward God remember God heard the Prayer of Daniel in Babylon as well as David in â—â—on 18. Disputation is for the Schooles and shun thou all Disputes concerning Religion t is commonly unprofitable and sometimes dangerous 19. But if it be unavoiddable make queries rather then Arguments for a young Student must rather learne then teach 20. Be not curious concerning things that are future least you render your present condition uncomfortable 21. Provide not roome in your breast for the passion of feares by a tedious expectation of what may come ill fortune it is as unconstant as good and a wet day may be as short as a faire day is pleasant 22. Make not your selfe stupid by poring upon despaire nor wanton under contemplation of hope MARIAGE 1. BE neither a Misogamist nor a Misogunist love is a winning quality but lust is a deadly sin 2. Pray for the guift of continency and if God do give it thee account it a most precious Jewell 3. Mariage is Honourable in all but not all kinde of Mariage t is lawfull for any to marry but not to marry with any they that marry must marry in the Lord 1 Cor. 7.39 4. Boast not of the favoures women bestow of you least you be accounted light 5. Fly the embraces of women and remember Joseph least you loose your liberty strength and Religion and turne that to you which is theirs viz. to have your will subject to them Gen. 3.16 6. Dote not upon beauty t is the fruit of that Tree which first of all destroyed man and made him subject to slavery suffering her to command who in right reason ought to obey 7. Marry not for beauty 〈◊〉 unendowed handsomness â—st you bury your judgeâ—ent in sensuall affection FINIS