and for thy encouragement in so doing assure thy self that thou shalt reap a double advantage thereby for first it will help thee to Live well and secondly to Dye easily First It will teach thee to live better which it doth 1. By warning and admonishing of thee to avoid and forsake thy Sins For when thou considers that thou must certainly dye and that thou knowest not how soon it may be thou wilt then think with thy self Why should I commit these things which if they do not hasten my latter end yet they will make it more uneasie and troublesome by reflecting then upon what I have done amiss I was for any thing I know die to morrow why therefore should I commit this evil which will then be Gall Bitterness unto me would I do it if I were sure I should dye to morrow if not O why should I do it to day since I am certain that tho' I should not dye to morrow yet it will not be long before I must perchance it may be the last act of my life O therefore let me not conclude so ill and close up the last Scene of my life with that which may peradventure usher in my Eternal Death 2. It will be a great motive and means to put thee upon the best and most profitable improvement of thy time There are certain Civil and Natural Actions of our lives that the Almighty God hath indulged and allowed to us and indeed Commanded us with moderation to use as the competent supplies of our our own natures with moderation and sobriety the providing for our families and relations without coveteousness or anxiety the diligent and faithful walking in our callings and the like But there are also other businesses of greater importance which are attainable without injuring our selves in those common concerns of our lives namely our knowledge of God and of his Will of the doctrine of our Redemption by Christ our Repentance of sins past making and keeping our peace with God acquainting our selves with him living to his Glory walking as in his presence praying to him learning to depend on him rejoycing in him and walking thankfully before him These and the like things are the great business and end of our lives and beings and the reason why we enjoy them in this world and withal fit and prepare us for that which is to come And therefore the serious consideration that our lives are short and uncertain and that death will sooner or latter overtake us puts us upon the resolution and practice to do this our great work whilst it is called to day that so we loyter not away our day and neglect our task whilst we have Time and Opportunity to do it lest the night overtake us when we cannot work And if thou wilt wisely consider thy latter end thou may'st then do this great business this one thing necessary with ease and quietness without any neglect of what is necessary to be done in order to the common necessaries of thy life and calling For assure thy self that it is not these that rob thee of thy time and prevent thy minding the one thing necessary but it is thy negligence thy excess of pleasure thy immoderate and excessive Cares and Solicitousness for wealth and grandeur thy excessive eating and drinking thy curiosity and idleness These are the great consumptives that do not only exhaust that precious time which might be with infinite advantage spent in working out thy salvation with Fear and Trembling and finishing the great work and business of thy life But also when Sickness and Death comes and God calls upon thee to give up the account of thy Stewardship will perplex thy thoughts and fill thy soul with confusion when thou shalt find that thy work is not half done or it may be not at all began and yet thy day is spent thy night approaching and thy lamp just ready to expire so that what thou dost then will be with abundance of trouble perplexity and vexation and peradventure after all thy soul will take its flight before thou hast brought it to any perfection Therefore do thou wisely provide against all that mischief at the hour of thy death by a due consideration of thy latte end and a making use of thy present time and opportunity to do thy great work in whilst it is called to day because the night certainly cometh when no man can work Thirdly The wise consideration of thy latter end and the imploying thy self upon that account about the one thing necessary will most certainly render thy life the most pleasant and comfortable life in the World For as a man who is before-hand in the world hath a quieter life in reference to externals than he that is behind-hand so a man that takes his opportunity to gain a stock of grace and favour with God and hath made his peace with his Maker through Christ Jesus hath done a great part of the chief business of his life and is ready upon all occasions for any Condition which Divine Providence shall assign him whether it be of life or death of health or sickness of poverty or of riches for he is as it were before-hand both in the business of his Everlasting State and of his present Life too So that if God lend him longer life in this World he still carries on his great work to greater degrees of perfection and that too with the greatest ease and facility imaginable without any kind of difficulty trouble or perturbation whatsoever And if he cuts him shorter and calls him presently to his Bar his work being done before-hand and his accounts ready and fairly stated he joyfully imbraces the message of death And blessed is that servant whom his Master when he comes shall find so doing Secondly The frequent Consideration of thy latter End will teach thee to dye Easily 1. In regard thy frequent consideration of thy approaching Death and Dissolution will render it so familiar to thee that thou wilt not be afraid of it when it comes The fear of Death is often times more terrible than Death it self but by thy frequent meditating of it thou wilt learn not to fear it 2. In regard by thy frequent Consideration of thy latter end Death becomes no Surprise to thee The great Terror of death is when it surprises a man at unawares but by this anticipation of it and serious preparation for it thou wilt take away all possibility of thy being surprised or afrighted by it in regard thou wilt be alwaies ready to receive it 3. In regard the greatest sting and terror of Death are the unrepented and unpardoned Sins of the past life the thoughts of whereof are the main strength the Elixir and the very venome of Death it self But if thou wisely consider thy latter end thou wilt then take care to make thy Peace with God in thy life time and get the pardon of thy sins sealed in the blood of Christ To enter
into Covenant with God and to keep it by husbanding thy time for the promoting his Honour observing his Will and keeping his Laws that so thou may'st keep thy own Conscience always clean and thy Evidences for Heaven clear whereby the Malignity of Death will be cured the bitterness of it healed and the fear of it wholly removed And if thou canst but entertain it with such an appeal to Almighty God as once the good King Hezekiah made viz. Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee with a perfect heart c. it will make the thoughts and the approach of Death no terrible business to thee at all 4. But that which will above all other things render Death easie to thee if thou makest it thy business to enter into a frequent consideration thereof is this That by the help of this consideration and the due improvement of it Death will become nothing to thee but only a Gate to give thee admittance into a better Life it will not be to thee so much the dissolution of thy present Life as it will be the changing of it for a far more glorious happy and immortal Life so that though thy Body die yet thou wilt not for thy Soul which is the most noble part of thee only makes transition from her life in the Body to her life in Heaven not so much as one moment of time intervening between her quitting the one and her entering into the enjoyment of the other And this is the great Priviledge which the Son of God hath obtained for us that by his Death he sanctified it to us and by his Life hath conquered it not only in himself but for us too It is true this passage through death is somewhat streight and painful to the Body which is left by the way but the Soul passes through without the least harm or any expence of time and in the very next moment acquires her estate of happiness and glory In the next place when you have received great Mercies from the hand of God be sure that you return Praise and Thanksgiving to him especially if it be a recovery from some sore and desperate Disease wherein Almighty God brings you down to the very Gates and shews you the Terrors of Death and yet after he hath shown you the Spectacle of your own Mortality wonderfully rescues and delivers you from that danger and gives you a new life as it were from the dead Resolve therefore to live that Life to his Glory that you have received from his Goodness and in order to your doing so I would have you always remember 1. That Affliction comes not forth of the Dust nor doth Trouble spring out of the Ground but from the Wise and Over-ruling Providence of God whose Prerogative alone it is to bring down to the Grave and raise up again 2. That Almighty God being of most Infinite Wisdom Justice and Mercy he hath Wife and Excellent Ends in all the Dispensations of his Providence and that therefore he never sends an affliction but it brings a Message with it his Rod has a Voice a Voice commanding us to search and try our Ways repent of our Sins humble our selves under his mighty Hand and turn to him that strikes us which Voice be sure that you hear and obey 3. How uncertain and frail a creature man is even in his seeming strongest age and constitution of health For even then a Pestilential Air some ill Humour in the Blood the Obstruction it may be of a small Vein or Artery a little Meat ill digested and a Thousand other Accidents may upon a sudden without giving him the least warning plunge a man into a desperate and mortal Sickness and bring him to the Grave 4. That your condition can never be so low but that God hath power to deliver you and you ought to trust in him nor is your condition ever so safe and secure but you are within the reach of his Power also to bring you down and therefore think not that now your turn is served you shall have no more need of him and that therefore you my live as you list 5. That Sickness as well as Death undeceive men and shews where their true wisdom lies When a Young Man especially is in the career of his Vanity and Pleasure he thinks Religion the fear of God and the practice of Piety to be but pitiful foolish low mean and inconsiderable Matters and that those who practice them are a sort of silly brain-sick melancholy and unintelligent Persons that want Wit or Breeding and understand not themselves or the World But on the other side they think themselves to be the only Men that live bravely and splendidly in regard they can Drink and Roar Whore and Swear and Blaspheme without the least fear But so soon as ever a fit of Sickness seizes him death looks him in the Face and tells him he must die that his Glass is almost out and hath only a few Sands left to run then his judgment of things is altered and he cries out of his former Follies and Intemperance as Madness Vexation and Torment and tells you That he now sees plainly that to be truly religious is mans greatest happiness to which he adds many Solemn Promises of Amendment and Reformation if God will be pleased to spare him Be sure therefore that you always keep this in your mind and make conscience of performing your sick-bed Protestattons 6. How pitiful and inconsiderable a thing the Body of Man is and how soon the strength of it is turned to saintness and weakness its beauty to ugliness and deformity and its whole consistence to putrifaction and rottenness and then remember how foolish a thing it is to be proud of such a Carkass and spend all or the greatest part of thy time in trimming and adorning of it or in pampering and pleasing thy Appetite and yet this is the chief business of most young Men in this Age but let it not be thine 7. To avoid intemperance and sinful Lust for although Sickness Diseases and Death are by the Laws and Constitutions of our Nature incident to all Mankind yet Intemperance Whoring Vncleanness and Disorder bring more Diseases and destroy more strong and healthy young Men than the Plague or any other natural or accidental Distempers for they weaken the Brain corrupt the Blood decay and distemper the Spirits disorder and putrifie the Humours and fills every part of the Body with putrifaction And those Diseases that are not occasioned but these Vices yet they are rendred far more sharp lasting malignant and incurable by that stock of corrupted Matter which those Vices lodge in the Body to feed those Diseases and by rendring Nature impotent and not able to resist them 8. That you ought every Morning and Evening upon your Knees with all reverence to acknowledge the goodness of God in his Mercy to you and return him hearty Thanks for it
THE Father's New-Years-Gift TO HIS SON CONTAINING Divers Useful and Necessary DIRECTIONS how to Order himself both in respect to this Life and that which is to come Written by the Right Honourable Sir MATTHEW HALES Kt. and late Lord Chief Justice of England Whereunto is added Divine Poems upon Christmas-Day London Printed for William Booker near the King's-head in the Old Change 1685. The Right Hon. ble Scroop Egerton Earl of Bridgwater Viscount Brackley Baron of Elsmere 1703 SIC DONEC The PREFACE ALtho' Piety and Religion be the glory of Youth as well as the Crown of Old Age And Solomon to incourage Young Men to imbrace and practice it tells them That Wisdom hath length of days in her right-hand and in her left-hand riches and honour and that she will promote those who do exalt her and bring them to honour that do embrace her Yet â—here is nothing more common than for those of your Age to neglect and cast off the practice of Piety and Religion as things too mean and trivial for them to be concerned about and imploy themselves wholly in pursuing the sensual pleasures and delights of sin and wickedness as tho' they were resolved to spend all their present time in doing that which will be bitterness to them in time to come and thought that their Youth were to be imployed only in treasuring up matter for repentance and sorrow in Old Age Which renders the Advice contained in the following Sheets very needful and necessary especially at this Season when too many especially Young Men under pretence of rejoycing for the Birth of their Saviour do all they can to dishonour Christ and gratifie their own sensual and luxurious Inclinations I do not pretend like some that have shamm'd several Tracts upon the World under pretence of their being written by the Reverend Author of the whole Duty of Man that the ensuing Sheets were written by the Lord Chief Justice Hales in the Method and with the same Title wherewith I present them to thee But yet thou may'st assure thy self that they are all the true and genuine Works of that venerable Author and are the same Advice which he gave whil'st living to his own Children And finding upon my perusal of them that they had something more of weight and excellency in them than I had ever yet observed in any thing of that kind I thought them very well worthy and deserving of a more general reading than they were capable of whil'st scattered up and down in several larger Volumes Abanishing the thoughts of Death and Eternity An obscene licentious and extravagant liberty of the Tongue An unthankful receiving and an ungrateful forgetting the greatest Favours and Deliverances And a violating and prophaning the Sabbath are most natural and common sins of Youth and are for the most part the cause of all other Vices in regard they viciate and debauch the mind and dispose it for the ingaging in and perpetrating the worst of Crimes as appears by the frequent Confessions of those whose Wickedness and Debauchery brings them to an untimely Death And therefore this wise and prudent as well as holy and religious Judge took a more than ordinary care to prevail with his Children to forsake and guard themselves against those leading and foundation Sins And I assure my self that if thou wilt seriously read and conscientiously practice the Directions which he gave them in order thereunto thou wilt then acknowledge this to be the best New-Years Gift thou ever yet received'st THE Father's New-Years-Gift TO HIS SON SOlomon who was inspired by the Almighty with a Spirit of wisdom above all that ever went before him or have followed after him tells us That it is the indispensible Duty of all Young Men to Remember their Creator in the daies of their Youth before the evil day come or the years draw nigh wherein they will say they have no pleasure in them Notwithstanding which it is lamentable to see the Wickedness and Debauchery Irreligion and Atheism that generally abounds in the Youth of our Age But that thou maist secure thy self from being reckoned among their number do thou seriously make it thy business to furnish thy mind richly with the Knowledge Nature and Design of the true Religion which thou wilt find to be the greatest improvement advantage and priveledge of the humane nature and that which gives it the most noble and highest pre-eminence above all other visible creatures whatsoever And when thou hast informed thy self let not that alone content thee but do thou seriously set thy self to the Practice of it and particularly make Conscience of a due ordering thy Speech making Preparation for thy Death returning sutable Praise for Mercies received and Sanctifying the Lords Day for the better performing whereof observe the ensuing Directions And First of the Ordering of your Speech which consist of two branches First how to entertain the speech of others when they speak to you and Secondly how to order your own As to the former of these observe well what is the Temper and Disposition of those Persons whose Speeches you hear whether they be wise grave sober and discreet Persons for if they be such their speech will be commonly like themselves and well deserves your serious attention and strict observation But if they are light vain impertinent or passionate Persons their speech is for the most part according to their Temper and therefore the greatest advantage you can reap thereby is to learn their dispositions and discern their failings whereby you will make your self the more cautious both in your conversation with them and your own speech and deportment towards them Secondly If persons whom you do not very well know to be men of Truth and Sobriety relate strange stories be not over ready to be Believe or Report them Thirdly If you hear a man report any thing to the disadvantage or reproach of one that is absent be not ready to believe it only observe it and remember it till you have heard what the accused person has to say for himself for it may be the thing is not true or not all true Or it may be some circumstance which the relater conceals may justifie or at least allay and extenuate it Fourthly If any man acquaints you with an injury that is done you by another either in words or actions do not presently give credit to it nor entertain angry thoughts of the accused person for possibly it may be only the malice or mistake of the accuser and how unseemly would it be if your credulity and passion should carry you upon a supposed injury to do wrong to one who hath done none to you Fifthly If any man whose integrity you do not very well know makes you exrtaordinary promises and professions give him as kind thanks as may be but give not much credit to his words for it is to be presumed he hath somewhat besides kindness to you in his intention and when he hath served