A Dying Fathers Living Legacy to his Loving SON OR Lively RULES from the Rule of Life to bee lived by every Mothers Childe Prov. 4.1 Hear O yee Children the instruction of a Father and give ear to learn understanding By F. S. Gent. Printed for the Authour And are to bee sold by Elisha Wallis at the gilded Horse-shooe in the Old Bayley 1660. Dear Childe I Have been at work for thee heart and hand it lieth upon thee as a duty now to perfect what I have begun to get these notions into thy heart by prayer and let others read them in thy life by practise The Speculative part of Religion is not comparable to the practical Begin in the Spirit oh but take heed you end not in the flesh Satan is subtile I know his devices the world is tempting take heed of its flatteries the heart is naught beware of its deceits Keep thy heart with all keeping and yet do what thou canst Corruption will break out but let not sin have a free passage to go in and out at pleasure Mind nothing but the one thing necessary union with Christ and never let it be thy aim to make thy self glorious in the world but to glorifie God in the world They only that follow holiness in this life shall attain to happiness in the life to come Be as holy as ever thou canst the more holy here the more happy hereafter without holiness no happiness It is not thine but Christs Thou wilt finde an opposition in the practice of Religion when you think your self surest then suspect your self most though thou shouldest get a foyl yet lay not down thy weapons and say I will fight no more Hee that continues faithful unto the death shall receive a crown of life Get wisdome and get understanding the fear of the Lord that is wisdome and to depart from iniquity that is understanding so shalt thou crown the work and not only rejoyce the heart of thy Father on Earth but our Father in Heaven and Elder Brother and Sweet Comforter Unto whose protection I leave thee F. S. Reader THese sententious words or proverbial sentences are left as a Legacy by a dying Father to his Son Expect not Method but apply thy self to meditation which was by the Author chiefly intended Youth is active It is good for us to busie them in the best things to write our children copies to write after or write over A good life is better than good lines Most men especially young men are led much by example It is best so to walk before our children as that they may see Christ in us and follow him Christ is the best copy to write after and the best pattern to follow Christianity is more than Christ to bee known it is the life of Christ to bee followed The Author is not willing to have his name known for reasons best known to himself and yet both reason and Religion too put him upon the work having his own experience to witness such beginnings successeful If through goodness it prove profitable either to thee or thine Let God have all the glory but let not prejudice hinder from closing with truth What is Manna the worse for being brought to thee in an earthen vessel The Apostle rejoyced that Christ was preached though they that preached him did it out of envy Here is my rejoycing that what I have done was out of pure love to poor souls and not to seek or purchase a fame among men Help mee with thy prayers that all these truths might bee put in practice by thee and mee thine and mine so wilt thou not onely ingage the Authour but many more to subscribe themselves Thine in the Lord F. S. A Dying Fathers Living Legacy to his loving Son REligion is necessary not in the way of nature to our beeing but in the way Grace to our well-beeing In all matters of Religion get Jesus Christ to bee thy Partner Reason perfects us as wee are men Religion as wee are Christians With God it is not how Rational but Religious Religion doth not consist in externals but in the motion of the soul after God God will not bee content with outsides The saving light of the Spirit is when that which is light in the head is heat in the heart and light in the Conversation Common light comes from the Spirit but saving light is that which is with the Spirit Do not determine thy estate by head-illumination but by heart-illumination Many Christians are in the dark meerly from their light True light where ever it is there is a desire after more light the light of the righteous shineth more and more Where ever this true light is it layes hold on Christ for life as it leads us unto Christ by faith so it leads us after Christ by practice They onely that live to Christ shall finde Christ to bee gain to them at death To mee to live is Christ to dye is gain Phil. 1.21 BEfore you put your hands into the worlds bosome put your heart into Gods hands As God hath bound you by precept to pray so hee hath bound himself by promise to hear Though prayer can make no change in God yet it may make an alteration in you Wee come to learn our duty from our request Wee pray not that Gods will may bee altered but accomplished not to alter his counsel but his sentence Though God bee resolved to shew mercy yet hee requires submission Though duty doth not merit mercy yet duty is Gods order to mercy Do not rest without prayer Oh but take heed do not rest in prayer External duties are means to convey grace but no arguments to prove the truth of grace The performance of duty is no sure sign of a mans acceptation with God but the neglect of duty is a sure sign of a mans abomination unto God However all external duties are as nothing so long as a man is an old man yet the nothingness of a duty that arises from the doer must bee no prejudice to Gods Authority or breach of mans duty A new creature is not so all in all that external duties must bee neglected seeing they are means appointed by God to make him more a new creature YOur prayers must not bee offered up as righteousness but with righteousness You cannot pray without a promise Gods promises are the Saints best prayers All things promised must be prayed for under the notion of promised things Promises are the ground of prayer and the ground of faith in prayer Promises are the rules of what wee may pray for in faith and faith is the ground of what wee may expect with comfort As God gives promises to ground faith so hee addes providences to build it up As the soul lives by faith so faith lives by promise Promise A Promise is a word-revelation arising from meer mercy out of the purposes of Gods heart concerning good to fallen man in Christ Jesus You had never known Gods
into the grave if hee had not fallen into transgression Man dyed not because his nature was subject to corruption but because sin had corrupted his nature Man was wholly a stranger to death till acquainted with sin There is no man that lives that shall not see death Death will finde every man and connive at no man The glorious end wee should aim at in life is not to study how wee might injoy the comforts of life but how wee may overcome the discouragements of death Death is alwayes drawing nearer and nearer whether you improve your time or throw away your time Men ordinarily leave the earth when they are most busie about it Those must dye that shall not bee damned It is a good minde in a man to bee content to dye and willing to live but to bee willing to dye and content live is the minde of a strong Christian To labour not to dye is labour in vain to live without fear of death is to dye liveing The comforts of life are no rational comforts till you bee freed from the terrours of death What comforts of life can bee sweet when a man is afraid of death and uncertain of life Seldome doth hee dye well that lives ill They are fools that give away their souls for nothing Prevention is better than confusion Hee lives twice that bestows the fore part of his time well That man that lives to dye shall dye to live The way to dye well is to dye often often and seriously think of dying and then sin if thou canst A dram of grace will bee more worth to you when you come to dye than a sea of gifts A man may live by a form hee cannot dye by a form Remember this the bellows of death will blow the spark of sincerity into a flame and the blaze of formality into nothing Hee neither fears nor feels death that hath his hopes in heaven Though death bee terrible yet innocency is bold Christ by death in death delivers us from death If hee dyed that you might live with him do not desire to live long from him 1 If you would live well take heed where you live even the place of pleasure is dangerous 2 In learning to live study how to dye hee loses all his time that knows not how to end his time 3 Dye you must bee active for God whilst you live You that must dye shortly had need to live strictly The way to have great confidence when you dye is to get and keep a good conscience whilst you live Mans life may bee very short it cannot bee long the time of man is a long death but it is but a short life Mens principles speak the shortness of life but their practises speak the eternity of life Time is but short but eternity is long If a wicked man would bee happy hee must make time long and eternity short As time is the measure of his sin so eternity is the measure of his punishment Prepare for an enemy that is alwayes getting ground of you not only the approaches of death are perpetual but insensible Make sure of death that you bee not miserable in death and after death When I was a young man saith Seneca my care was to live well and when age came I studied how to dye well The right way to dye well is to live well and the right way to live well is to dye betimes to sin the world and self You must dye make sure of an interest in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ Christ will do you good when you come to die so will the power of godliness AFter death comes Judgement At that day the wicked shall know Gods forbearance is no acquittance Wicked men are surely ordained to punishment as godly men are ordained to deliverance Though the Saints may bee losers for Gods word yet they shall lose nothing by God It cannot bee long before the worlds Funerals and the birth day of Judgement Though wee sleep in sin judgement slumbers not The Lord Jesus Christ hee is judge not onely of the fact but of the heart Make the Judge your friend Get him that is your Judge to bee your Advocate It is not the varnish of profession Christ will respect at that day unless hee see the workmanship of the Holy Ghost in the heart The wicked may drink a sea of wrath but they shall not sip one drop of injustice The sinner beeing self-condemned shall clear the Judge Christs first coming was to unite his second coming shall bee to separate That heart that would not break with sorrow for sin shall now bee rent thorow with despair They that would not weep for their sins shall now barn for their sins To bear this will bee intollerable to avoid this will bee impossible Sinners they must come to the Bar and they are sure to bee cast at the Bar. If you have not a part in the blood of the Lamb you shall bee sure to have a part in the wrath of the Lamb. But if thou hast no sins of allowance thou shalt have grains of allowance One dram of grace is too good to go to hell ALL that will expect to bee saved must wait upon the foolishness of preaching The creature as a creature is indispensibly bound to serve God Pray privately hear publickly God never comes so nigh to the soul as when hee enters into the ear It is preaching that brings hearing and hearing that brings faith and faith salvation As God will bee worshipped in Spirit so in truth not onely in opposition to the Ceremonial Law but in opposition to the hypocrisie of the heart That man never received the word in the power of it that never received it in the perpetuity of it Instability is alwayes a sure note of insincerity God looks more at the manner of the duty than the matter it is not what you do but how you do not how much but how well As God will have you holy because hee is holy so you must worship him in spirit because hee is a Spirit What is the reason that men sleep so securely after so many Sermons they say with Samuel It is onely mans voice The outward teachings of man is of no power without the inward teachings of Gods Spirit Christ revealed to us differenceth us from Pagans Christ revealed in us severeth us from Reprobates It is not thy hearing of mans voice but thy subjection to Gods voice that begets thee anew to God As hee sins that gives not God the hearing so hee sins that only gives God the hearing The word is never spoken in vain though it may bee often heard in vain it either purifies or consumes Gospel-ordinances you will finde either ripen your graces or ripen your corruptions The word of God is an enemy to none but them that are enemies to themselves No worship is a breach of the first Commandement false worship is a breach of the second Commandement Will-worship is alwayes false
worship All things that I command you in matters of practise and in matters of worship that do and no more You must worship God with your will oh but take heed of Will worship When the heart goes not along with the duty that is hypocrisie when the heart is not stirred up in the duty to lively and vigorous acts that is formality As God will have the heart in prayer so in hearing hee is a Spirit and hee will bee worshipped in Truth The Lord whose Name is Jealous is a jealous God Take heed of the false worship of the heart if thou are not guilty of Idolatry thou mayest bee guilty of Hypocrisie Take heed of the Idolatry of the heart Bee spiritual in what you do A jealous eye is a watchful eye When ever you come to worship look to your thoughts Look to your conceptions of God when you worship how you represent God in worship There is as much danger of imaginations within as there is of Images without That which makes us successeless in duty is undue thoughts of God Make spiritual growth the end of coming to the word That Spirit that sayes Hear my Law sayes My Son forget not my Law A holy life is the infusion of holy truth Truth shall never dye who ever dye or live Charge thy self with that which is the end of the word that is Live well ASk thy heart every night what hath been thy darling to day who hath been most in thy thoughts to day The actions of mens lives are the wayes of their thoughts Secret thoughts will ingender gross transgressions secret sins will bring to open shame if you do not shame your self before God for them Sins of act are like arrows that flye by day Sins of thought are the pestilence that lurks in darkness It is not what thoughts are injected into thee but what thoughts are maintained by thee Thoughts are sins of the highest part of a man for they are the sins of his heart Thoughts are the first-born of original corruption if it bee the first born it must needs bee the strongest as Jacob said to Ruben A man many times doth not what hee would but hee alwaies thinks as hee will If thy heart bee heavenly thy thoughts will bee holy God thinks on you when you forget him If God should withdraw his thoughts from us as we do ours from him what would become of us Think on that Thoughts are called the counsels of a mans heart if thy thoughts bee not counselled thoughts such as thou dost determine to think on they are not good thoughts The souls part of fin is the greatest part of sin therefore thoughts are the greatest part of sin yet sins in deed are in regard of progress the worse because thoughts are included in them This is that which undoes many a man let it not bee thy undoing to have good thoughts of God and good thoughts of themselves too THere is no soul hath more high thoughts of God than that soul that hath low thoughts of it self The foul that lives lowest hath the highest objects before it The lower the soul lyes the higher the things are it aims at The lower the ebbe the higher the tyde The lower the foundation of vertue is laid the higher shall the roof of glory bee overlaid They that are risen with Christ that seek the power of Christ risen seek things above An humble spirit may bee busied in low things but not taken up with them If Saints bee sad it is because they are too busie here below The more low wee are the more comfort wee have of God When wee are nothing in our own eyes then are wee something in Gods If thou wouldest bee all in God learn to empty thy self not by taking notice so much of thy graces as thy wants The more wee can empty our selves the more wee shall bee filled with God A Christians emptiness is his fulness and his fulness is his emptiness God is in that man that is not in himself If I will bee any thing in my self as of my self I must look to bee no creature of Gods making Whatsoever a Christian is for grace or glory it is out of himself hee hath nothing in himself as of himself all that hee hath hee hath in Christ Wee altogether shine in the beams of our husband Follow Christs example his whole life and death was an absolute denial of himself It unburdens a man of himself this self-denial If a man le ts go his fleshh ec shall advance his spirit A self-seeker is a clod of earth that sucks the sap of his soul onely to himself Deny thy self wholly if there bee not thorow self-denial ere long there will bee God-denial Whosoever is not poor in himself hee will never go our of himself for hee hath some other supply Those that have full conceits of themselves can never thirst after Christ When man makes an Idol of self hee wants now and then some to come and worship him Those that have least knowledge of themselves are apt to dote on themselves Hee that knows himself best loves himself least Those that have most light have lowest thoughts they trust not to the grace in their own hearts but to the grace in the Covenant Pride is a conceit of self-sufficiency THou canst never act freely and cheerfully in Gods wayes until the divine nature bee communicated Where divine power works not creatingly it works not relievingly hence it is that one that is not a Christian in deed holds not out alwayes to bee a Christian in shew As vital principles and spiritual habits are infused by God so they owe their permanency and stability to God It is his work to perfect holiness in his fear The judgement of sense ought to bee regulated by reason and the judgement of reason ought to bee corrected by faith Though I must not nor cannot give a reason of every thing I beleeve yet I must give a reason of my faith There is the life of faith the living of faith and the liveliness of faith the first is the habit the second is the act the third is the grace Faith doth not justifie as a grace in us or as a work not as an active condition contributing any thing to its own worth but as a passive condition or qualification whereby wee receive Jesus Christ the Lord and it is for his merits and not for our faith though by our faith wee are justified It is the application of Christs righteousness not our apprehending it By faith alone wee are justified but the faith by which wee are justified is not alone As wee cannot get it of our selves so wee cannot act it of our selves Faith is not our righteousness yet it makes the righteousness of Christ to bee ours Abraham beleeved and it was imputed to him for righteousness Christ in our nature hath fulfilled all righteousness this God hath promised shall bee ours for justification now faith closes with this