God may enable you to the sanctified use of every mean of Grace and bless the same to his glory in your eternal Wel-being is and my God enabling me shall be whilst I live the Prayer of Your affectionat Father January 8. 1691. SON WHat I have written to you in thir few Sheets I intreat you do not neglect the perusal thereof as I have desired it is far from my intention to do what may agravat guilt in you but if you consider not seriously what I have written with a full resolution and endeavour to put the same in practice however imperfect it may be yet it will witness against you in the day of your appearance before Gods Tribunal But I hope our good God will by his Grace enable you so to live as the most desireable and only Saviour of Sinners in that day will be found to be your Portion you know I have sometimes endeavoured to hold forth to you your Engagements in Baptisme and you may remember what partciularly you engaged your self to in Write under your hand that day I did with your dear and most tenderly affectionat Mother whose Rememberance ought ever whilst you live to be savourie to you I say when we did joyntly endeavour in Prayer cordially to devote you to God and lest ye may not have kept by you the Double of what by writ you have engaged your self to I send you the words thereof under-written â— A. B. having it represented to me by my Parents the Engagements I am under by my being baptized That I shall renounce the Devil the World and the Flesh and live Godly and Righteously and soberly do here declare I believe in one God the Father and Son and Holy Ghost and does devote my self to him my Creator and reconciled Father in Jesus Christ who 's Blood signified by the Water in my Baptism can only cleanse me from Sin And I promise in his Strength He for Christ's sake enabling me to live up to my Engagements in Baptism to strive against all sinfull inclinations in me a wicked and corrupt Creature and to hate every Sin not only because it procures a temporal Curse and the ruine of my Soul to Eternity but especially because it is hateful to and contrair the holy Nature and Precepts of my blessed God And I do hereby expresly promise He by his Grace strengthening me to live in obedience to His holy Will revealed in the Scriptures and explained in the Confession of Fath and Catechism presently professed in this Church and I humbly beg O my most merciful God! for Christ's sake that thou would enable me to the performance of what I have hereby engaged to and to every Duty required of me in my Station and that I may ever have thy Grace in my heart and for my Portion here and to all Eternity an Interest in Christ thy Son my Blessed Glorious and lovely Lord and Saviour A. B. November 28. 1689. MInd that you have thus engaged your self and I intreat you may not by your being forgetful thereof and not living up there to draw down a Curse upon you You would at least every Sabbath set some short time apart for thinking upon your Baptismal Engagements and read over the Double of what you have subscribed and in a humble sense of your Sin anâ— Unworthiness upon your Knees seek by Prayer with earnestness of heart that God for Jesâ— Sake may enable you to every Duty I am seâ—sible I have written to you more in some thing then is at this time necessar and that I have not in what is more necessar suitably presse your Dut under your present Circumstance which makes me again require your remembriâ— my desire to you in forbearing bad Company Neglect not private Prayer and know that you unreverent going about that Duty with a waâ—â— dering faithless loveless heart and the was of a due consideration of what a wretched Sinnâ—â— you are and what God is whose Presence yoâ— dare to approach will but aggravat your Guilâ—â— in stead of procuring to you a Blessing And also desire you mind your being moderate 〈◊〉 the time you allow for your Recreations 〈◊〉 them be so harmless as may be vindicable in 〈◊〉 sight of God and Man and you would your seâ—â— not only forbear altogether the going to drink Taverns or Ale-houses but even forbear 〈◊〉 Company of such as do's it for often is thâ— Practice an In-let to and the beginning of avitice and debauched Life yea shun all appearance of Evil for the bent of the Inclination in frâ—â— Man is ready where there is the least of yieâ—â—ing to hurry us forward to every Wickedness and whatever may be the desirableness of the humour of any Comerade or complacency in his Converse if there be in his fellowship any thing inducing to the slghting of the due attendance upon your Book but especially to the doing of what is sinful and so dishonourable to God I do strictly enjoyn your forbearing all familiarity with such I have written to you more then I intended and shall now end again intreating you may unbyasedly enquire in what may be your Duty in all your Concerns and therein debar Self which is almost undecernable in its workings to our ruine and may be truly said to be the Devils Bait for the destruction of Soul and Body and that ye so live as in your whole Conversation you evidence the due apprehension you have of the certainty of Death the uncertainty of the time thereof and that you have an Immortal Soul that will be miserable to all Eternity unless you so walk as Christ may be your Portion and in your so doing you have even whilst in the World the advantage of the Crowd therein that pursues so eagerly after what is truly and undeniably Vanity for your heartily and humbly endeavouring after what is Duty in the sight of God and your being content with what He in His Providence is pleas'd to tryst you with and your using it to the end of His giving thereof is what the World reaches not as is apparent to those that has but the use of little Reason for almost every man be he Great or Mean in the World is grasping at what when obtained proves but a Shaddow and yields nothing of what he proposed as the end of his having it Ask the Ambitious man why he covets Honour and the Covetous Riches the Voluptuous and Carnal their Pleasures suitable to their Desires and Appetites And all will be answered that they may have Contentment and their Minds satisfied in having and using according as they project to themselves what they so eagerly seek after and how Notour and uncontraverted a Truth is it that when their Projects are attained they are not nearer but surther from Contentment and Satisfaction of mind then before their seeking after them I pray God in Christ may be your Portion I am c. SON YOu may believe what I have written to you to be
especially in the New Testament by our Lord and his Apostles is beyond exception the most rational and convenient even for the well-being of Society and good of Mankind in the World and far preferable to the best of Rules and Laws that ever were given by any man or Societie of men I shall forbear writing of many things which might occur to me and does intreat your whole Conversation may evidence the belief of your Being to appear before the Tribunal of God in Judgment and shall recommend your being careful of some few things in your Walk First towards God Secondly Towards your self and Thirdly Towards our Neighbours You are in all you do to respect the Glory of God there being no action of your life but it truly ought to be done to that end We are with all carefulness to avoid every thing sinful and to go about even the most indifferent of our Concerns in obedience to his Command Love to him being the Motive and his Glory the Aim of all we do wherefore make Conscience of seeking of God strength enabling you to every Duty I shall not nor am I fitted to enlarge upon what might be said to what is Duty and shall recomend your reading practical Pieces of Divinity but above all be in a constant and humble dependence upon God for his Grace enabling you to serve him and seek for Christ's sake a broken heart and strength against every Corruption Cry with earnestness that you never be left to the power of your wicked self and beware of seeing any Merit in what ever is possible for you to do for only in Christ is your acceptance with God Son whilst I am writing what occurs to me of your duty God-ward I am sensible it may be truly said to be duty towards your self the Salvation of your Soul not of Merit but Free-grace being what is annexed thereto 1. Have your heart filled with faith in God and his Son Christ Jesus and love to him and the fear of his holy Name seek not to satisfie your shallow Reason in divine things but as the Apostle requires 2 Cor 10.5 Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought unto the obedience of Christ For to give your Assent meerly upon a sensible or rational Demonstration is no divine faith and truly to believe in a divine sense is to assent to a preposition upon the credit of the Revelation though we cannot make it out by our Reason And this is to have our thoughts brought into Captivity unto the Obedience of Christ for mans reason being corrupted by Adam's fall it objects against several divine Propositions Saying how can one be three and three one How could the divine and humane Nature unite in one Person How can the Dead rise These and what else are above â—â—r Reason and contained in the blessed Word of God are to be believed because asserted therein and at all times our hearts ought to be fill'd with Love to God and his Son our Saviour and Redeemer whom we are to love with all our Soul with all our Mind and with all our strength for whatever in Creatures may be a Motive to love as Goodness Power Kindness Veracity c. Are in our blessed God in an unspeakable superlative degree He is of infinite goodness and excellencie and there is nothing good in the world but what hath received all its Goodness from him and he is wonderfully Kind and Merciful to Souls and Bodies of poor Sinners Having when miserable Man had lost himself by sinning against his Command offered that wonderful way of satisfying Divine Justice by sending his Son to the world who took upon him the nature of frail Man and suffered that shamefull death of the Cross and all to stand betwixt Sinners and Justice And are not our Bodies supplyed with all good things we enjoy through his care and providence 2. Make Conscience of living as in the sight of Him the only living and true God before whose Tribunal you must appear to give an Account of your Actions Be diligent having Faith with Knowledge and attention of Mind in reading the Scriptures and seek of God and depend upon him for his Holy Spirit enabling you to that and every Duty I have from my experience observed that being up late at night and lying a Bed in the morning are a hinderance of the Duties required of us for not only has God appointed the Night for rest and sleep and the Day for Exercise but you will find the advantage of making use of the Morning for your private Devotion and that so early as you may have convenient and uninterrupted time for the performance thereof before either Business or Companie may have the occasion of tempting you to a Diversion You will find David's practise in the 5th Psalm and 3 v. In the morning O Lord will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up 3. The end of your living being Gods Glory your last thought at night and first in the morning ought to be of God Think with seriousness of your own misery through your Original and Actual Sin and of the unexpressible Goodness and Mercy of God in Jesus Christ to you and every lost Sinner that shall have grace to lay hold on him in and by Christ And when you arise endeavour by meditation to bring your heart to such a Frame as may fit you for drawing near to God who albeit he be merciful yet is the great and only God altogether unaccessible to sinners not coming to him in and through Christ And surely an Ignorant Wandering Unbelieving and hardned Heart has no ground to expect Access to God in Christ our Lord. You would stirr up your self not only to Prayer in the morning but to reading some part of the Scriptures and I do advise you when first you do retire your self after you have endeavoured by some suitable Mediation to bring up your heart to an awfull Sense of the presence of God to whom you are about to dare to speak that you fall down upon your Knees and lifting up your heart to God in some few and suitable words seek to him with earnestness for Grace enabling you to read his Word aright and suitably to put up your desires in prayer and whenever you do pray always express your thankfulness and magnifie the Name of God for his Mercy to lost Sinners in Jesus Christ then read a portion of Scripture as you find convenient to stint your self to I think it would not be amiss you did every morning read a Psalm or two and an Chapter of the new or old Testaments as you have read through the Psalms you would begin again and think it not too much if you should read them a thousand times and for the old and new Testament there is no part of either ought to be omitted but especially you would read the new Testament
Day and of the Duties of it have been of singular comfort and advantage to me and I doubt not but it will prove so to you God Almighty is the Lord of our time and lends it to us and as it is but just we should consecrate this part of that time to Him so I have found by a strict and diligent Observation that the due Observation of the Duties of this Day hath ever had joined to it a Blessing upon the rest of my time and the Week that hath been so begun hath been blessed and prosperous to me and on the other side when I have been negligent of the Duties of the Day the rest of the Week hath been unsuccessful and unhappy to my own secular Employment so that I could easily make a◠estimat of my success in my own secular Employment the Week following by the manner of my passing this Day and this I do not write lightly and Inconsideratly but upon a long and sound Observation and Experience These being the words of that Grea◠Man are much to be considered he not only being of great Integrity but uncontrovertedly o◠a sound Judgment and great Knowledge almost in every thing 15. In the Evening of the day preceeding you would be more then ordinarly earnest with God that He may by his Grace fit you for 〈◊〉 suitable going about the Duties of the ensuin◠Sabbath And when it is come consider that as God did appoint in the Old Testament the Sacrifice to be doubled on that Day so he require◠of us Christians that we should therein double our Duties of Prayer Praise and Meditation◠and as at all times you are bound to remember the Church and People of God in your Prayers so especially in a Sabbath pray with earnestness that our Lord's Kingdom may be advanced throughout the world and that the Offers of Grace in his Gospel may be the Portion of the Land you live in Pray that God for Christs sake may send forth Ambassadors fitted for that Work and that he bless the Word and Ordinances where you are to be present in the discharge of the Duties of a Sabbath 16. Rise early that Morning and mind you are to spend the whole day in God's service When you repair to the place of Publick Worship do it so as you be there before any part of it begin and come not from the same whilest it be fully ended and in the time of Worship have your heart intent upon the Duties it is the heart especially that God requires and not only ought we to have presence of mind in hearing the Word preached but especially in Prayer and Praise for it is an intollerable contempt of God who searcheth the heart and knoweth the most secret of our Thoughts to draw near to Him in Worship and to have our hearts going out after any other Object whatsoever Yea it is a direct Saying practically that we are bruitish Fools and wretched Atheists in worshipping of God as knowing our Thoughts and doing it in that manner as evidences manifest contempt and directly draws down His Vengeance upon us 17. If the Sacrament of Baptism be administred where you are present you would not only with all your heart concur in the Petitions up to God before and after the Administration but hearken to your own Duty in what is held forth by the Minister and let such Occasions stir you up to new Resolutions to live up to your own Baptismal Engagements Mind that the whole Sabbath is to be a Mercat-day for your Soul and by dealing in the Duties thereof gain strength against the Corruptions of the ensuing part of your time 18. When occasion offers of your Communicating you are to consider that it is not indifferent to you to come or not to come to the Table of the Lord but that you are obliged to be serious in examining your self as to your Knowledge and your being otherwise fitted to partake of that Sacrament Instituted by our Saviour First in the remembrance of His Sufferings which were only able to expiate the Guilt of lost undone Sinners And next to be a Seal of Sinners Covenanting with God in Jesus Christ And 3dly to be a Mean of Communion with our merciful Lord that suffered for our Sins It is plain 1 Cor. 11.26 That the great end of the Sacrament is to hold forth to the Church the Lords Death and Suffering whilest he come again to Judgement And by the 27 28 and 29. Verses you see the absolute necessity for the worthy participating thereof You must search your heart and find out all your iniquity and hate it not only as it procures Gods Curse in this life and to all Eternity but especially as it is contrare to the Commandments and holy Nature of our God and as a needy Wretch having examined your heart and found out your Wants you are in coming to the Table of the Lord to bring with you some Faith some Love and some hope c. Your Errand being for more and cry with earnestness that you may be amongst the number of such of whom the Psalmist speaks Psal 110.3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy Power At such Occasions make conscience of mourning for every Sin and with all your heart magnifie Gods Mercy in his Dispensations to you and seek with earnestness of heart Grace enabling you to that and every duty and beg of God for Christs sake that he give a heart in a truly fitted frame So as in the Sacrament you may by the eye of Faith behold our lovely Lord and Saviour crucified and His Blood shed to expiate the Guilt of vile sinful Wretches and in particular to stand betwixt your self a vile sinful Wretch and the Vengeance of God due to you in Justice Seek with all earnestness from God a heart filled with love to Christ our Lovely Saviour who so loved loft undone Sinners as He took upon him the nature of frail man and to satisfy Divine Justice which could not be otherways satisfied for the sins of all that would truly come to Him and by Faith rely upon Him He suffered the shameful Death of the Cross it Representation whereof is this Sacrament Institute by our Lord himself before His suffering And before and at the time of your drawing near to the Table of the Lord have your heart filled with suitable Meditations and ejaculatory Petitions to God as saying within your self O my Soul can'st thou behold Justifying Blood and not love Him that shed it for thee Canist thou behold Precious Quickening softening Bloods and not love Him that gave it to quicken and soften thy heart and to Redeem the from Sin from Hell and everlasting Wrath O my God and Saviour enable me to say if my love were better it should be thine but such as it is thou shalt have it make it greater and make it better and I firmly resolve in thy Strength it shall ever be set upon thee 19.
to her after his Death at which time the Law allows her only what she has thereby a right to to be as if with his one hand he should give it to the other for Man and Wife whilst they live ought to have no distinct propriety in Goods and your care of her ought in every thing to be as it should be in relation to your self As I have said to you one great end of your entering into that state of Life ought to be your being encouraged in your Duty God-ward in order thereto watch over one another and with Meekness and Affection hold forth to others your Failings whatever they be Accustom your self to the patient bearing of one anothers Infirmities Be often in Prayer together and at such times and a-part let it be your earnest request to God that He for Christ's sake would enable you to the mutual Duties required 59. If ye be blessed with Children receive them from God as Blessings and solemnly return and devote them again to his Service When they are to be Baptized as you are to engage to their Education in God's fear so let these times be Opportunities of your renewing your own baptismal Engagements and with a willing Heart give up to God your self your Children and what ever is yours As a Parent you are expresly bound to provide for your Children in this World but especially to all Eternity your care is to commence from the time of their being in the Womb and what is suitable for them in your Station is to be provided for them in all tenderness and affection yet let not your indulgent Care destroy Soul â—or Bodie Be careful of the means of their convenient Subsistance but beware of what is hurtful to the Child or tending to Vanity and being sinful in the sight of God Often does Parents indulgence in pampering Children as directly destroy their Bodies as if they did out their Throats Wherefore I advise their Dyet to be of such common Food as is suitable to persons in your Station and never press their eating but give moderatly when their Appetite requires for sure I am the death of Thousands of Children is hastened and procured by Unseasonable Intemperate and Unwholsome Feeding where one for the Thousand suffers death by Want and Hunger 60. Endeavour their Knowledge in Learning as what will more fit them for any Condition of Life they may be called to Be sure they be acquaint with doing what may keep them from Idleness and make them useful Members of the Society they live in 61. The usual Imployments for Male-children besides what is Mechanicks are the profession of Law Physick and Merchandise You would in some measure from their own Inclination let them make choice of their manner of Living and endeavour to hold forth to them the many Snares that attends them whilst in the World and particularly most incident to persons in the Imployment they are to follow For that of Law I believe since the world was it has been much abused and I think never more against knowledge and light than in thir late Ages I shall be far from thinking but there are persons of great Honour and integrity of that Profession but uncontravertedly the generality of these in it are very corrupt I shall say nothing of Judges but what is too apparent that they do at least many of them beyond what Law allows take upon them the disposal of peoples Proprietie and by the event makes it appear they do it to the hight of Injustice and for Advocats and persons of an Inferior Rank depending upon Judicatories The generality of them are not only corrupt but truly to the hight of Excess therein for the most tender and consciencious of that Imployment some few excepted does little scruple to endeavour the promoting of an injust Action I must confess there are to my knowledge persons of great Honour in that station and it may be said that severals are of that Ingenuity as to signifie to their Client that they ought not â—o insist and that they should in Justice lose their pretences But too seldom does it happen that these in that Profession does absolutely refuse to concur with their Client in the Injustice and if they do not for their own gain with the greatest part stir up and further their Client to what is unjust yet if they be desired and liberally rewarded do they not endeavour at the Bar and otherways so to inveagle the Judge in comprehending any Intricacies in that Action as to oblige him to pronounce a Sentence which they are fully satisfied is as unjust as they are satisfied that the Sun is in the Firmament And as it is surely to be cordially wished that Judges and other in a Capacity would by suitable Rules and other Methods provide against the continuance of that Iniquitie so the only desireable way of reaching that end is the Liedges having such a Sense of the Inconveniences from contending at Law and that both to Soul and Body as may make them by having a Christian and desireable Concord in all their dealing withhold what enables that Society to acquire a great part of the Substance of the Kingdom 62. For that of Physick you would be very cautious in determining your Children to that Profession for next to the Ministry there is no other to which a suitable knowledge is so necessar for in other Imployments a man by his want of Knowledge and Care does for the most part only prejudge himself but an unqualified Professor of Physick or Pharmacy does irrecoverably prejudge his Patient and it is to be feared that Ignorance and Insobriety which is most inconsistent with that Imployment does but too much abound 63. Merchandise has many Snares attending it the Devil and our corrupt Hearts combining together where there is mulciplicity of Business thereby to destroy our Souls and I do truly apprehend there is no little guilt in the common and uncondemned way of dealing in that Imployment and that both by Vender and Buyer in their disingenious Asking and offering what they are conscious to themselves is not the worth of that they deal for And I know no Argument for it but its being as it is but too truly customary But so are many things very grosly sinful And whereas it may be objected the impossibility of dealing in any Trade without following these customary Methods the objecting is a direct saying they believe not in God and his Providence And that he has said Prov. 10.9 He that walketh uprightly walketh surely I can for my self truly say I have been ashamed to offer persons who I was otherways bound to value as ingenuous less than what they asked being satisfied that the asking more than the worth is direct Lying and that my offering less than was asked was indirectly saying you Ly. It is true the Buyer and Vender may differ in point of Judgment and after communing may come to alter their Opinions but it is certain