Lo heere the Dictates of a Dying man Marke well his note who like th' expiring Swan Wisely praesaging hir approaching Doomb Sings in soft charmes hir Epicaedium Such Such are His who was a shining Lamp Which though Extinguisht by a fatall Damp Yet his Last-Breathings shall like Incense hurld On sacred Altars soe perfume the world That the Next will admire and out of doubt Reuere that Torchlight which this age put out A Dying Fathers LAST LEGACY TO AN Onely Child OR Mr. HUGH PETER'S ADVICE TO HIS DAUGHTER Written by his own Hand during hiâ— late Imprisonment in the Tower of London And given her a little before his Death LONDON Printed for G. Calvert anâ—T Brewster and are to be sold at the Blackâ— spread-Eagle and at the Three Bibles at the West-End of Pauls 1660. To the Impartial READER BE not Discouraged from reading this small Treatise because of the unhappy End of a wearisom pilgrimage which the Author met with in this world If we get a Fall in a journey or meet with a great showre of rain so it be in the close of the day when we are near our Inn where we meet with accommodation and refreshment we are the less troubled Yet such was his Care who for many years was very Instrumental in the Church of God and a means of bringing many Souls to Christ and for the Good of others came into this Kingdom when it was in a flame of Civil War which hath signed him also that he might escape everlasting flames in this Discourse he bewails the vanity of his own Spirit And we will not Exause him he finds himself too busie in Aliena Republica and we will not justifie him But if that precious Gold should be cast away because there is some Dross or the Children of God cast out of the Family for every fault though heinous we should condemne the Generation of the Iust You will find in this Legacy to his only Child that he had a Root of Grace and that the Fountain was clear from which ran so savoury a stream And that at the last when he had no hope to save a frail Body yet he minded his own and others Souls And that he was a Master Workman in that Mysterie wherein he had laboured succesfully so many years And we hope that notwithstanding the prejudicasie of some against him and the words of others and his sad shameface Catastrophy we may charitably judge that God hath wiped away all Tears from his Eyes that he is entered into Rest his Works following him and that he is made perfect by his great Sufferings And wish the same to you except these Bonds G.F. N.B. Mr. HUGH PETERS LAST LEGACY TO HIS DAUGHTER For Elizabeth Peters My Dear Child I Have thought to leave you the Extract of all my Experiences so far as may Concern your â—elf and because thre are so â—any Books Printed looking to â—â—l Cases which I have often Commended to you my Labour will be the less though your Pains the greater in searching and studying them which next to the Scriptures I conjure you to acquaint your self withal for never Age was so pregnant that way since our Saviour came in the flesh which Light I wish may grow to greater Glory But to thy self 1. Above all things know That nothing can do you any good without Union with Christ the Head which can never be till your Understanding be enlightned with the want of Christ and his worth and then that your Will be so subdued to that Light that it draw forth choice and consent of and to that only good with an Emvire or Resolution to close with him against Sin World Hell Death c. And know this Thaâ— the necessity of a Christ which the understanding discovers will set the Will on work to all duty and the worth in Christ it makes manifest will make the Will delight unless these two Faculties be thus wrought upon by the Word and Spirit you will be at a constant loss and all the miscarriages in Religion have the Ignorance of this for the Fountain Read Shephards Convert Daniel Rogers Practical Catechism and Hooker to this end with such other helps as you may get And herein I am the more earnest with you because in this my Condition I find that Union with Christ and the Satisfaction Christ hath made to his Fathers Justice by his Active and Passive Obedience are the only Two Pillars that must Support a Soul leaving a mortal Body For as I profess my self Orthodox in all Points of Religion according to the Assemblies Confession Explained by Others at the Savoy also so I have desired in nothing to be more Clear than in the Two Doctrines aforesaid I have wished you to be perfect in Rom. 8. and mind vers. 1. and vers. 28. well with what follows to the end of that Chapter this hath been my Experience That the Preaching of these Truths have been my greatest Advantage and of most benefit to Others though in this I have enough to bewail also 2. To this purpose Hear the best Men Keep the best Company Read the best Books especially make the Grounds of Religion your own Balls and the Assemblies Catechism with the like you have from me Commended to you And though there are near an Hundred several Catechisms in the Nation yet if sound they must speak one thing viz. Man lost in himself Redeemed only by Christ and holy Walking or Thankfulness you have my Experience so often repeated to you That an unbroken Heart and an uncatechised Head will keep distance enough betwixt God and a poor sinful Creature Oh! that Parents and Ministers would think of it what a heap of Mischiefs this Neglect hath produced The Waldenses and Germans had never been so famous for Suffering had they been uncatechized This is a large Field in which I could Walk long Preach long yea lose my self in this sweet Wilderness For this is life eternal to know thee and Jesus Christ Joh. 17.23 But take this for a Caution That many may be well Taught also who never took forth Christs first Three Lessons never denying themselves nor taking up the Cross nor following him Matth. 16.24 We know no more than we Practise yet we shall never practise without Knowledge How many Scriptures give Evidence to this which I forbear to quote only remember how Solomon extols Wisdom and Knowledge I take my share in Mourning that I see in the Afternoon of this Age the Shadow longer than the Substance Profession than Practise though the Trade may not be Condemned when it falls into ill hands that manage it He that sets up Religion to get any thing by it more than the glory of God and the saving his own Soul will make a bad Bargain of it in the close My dear only Child be rooted in the Truth and thou shalt be fruitfull thriving 3. Be constant in Reading the Scriptures and that with a fervent Meditation I mean as
the soul to know that he is not able to satisfie Divine justice and so the Law may be called a School-master to Christ though the Text leads to the Ceremonial the Ceremonies being the Gospel of the Jewes These three steps of Love Christ takes in the Law by his first approach Secondly In his Gospel approach he takes these steps First He holds forth himself to the sinner a Mediator of the New Covenant and a free pardoner of sin this keeps the soul from despair Secondly He lets you know that he is as able and as willing as ever to do it Colos. 1.19 c. This keeps the soul in heart and hope Thirdly By that which they call the Reflex Act he brings home a particular Promise of grace to the soul as Revel. 3.17 and the Spirit of Christ thus argues He that is athirst must freely come But saies the Spirit Thou art thirstie Therefore come freely Thus I use to say A pitiful nasty ragged fatherless friendless Child is lying dying in a ditch A noble bountiful hand means to save him and adopt him first sends a servant to awaken him and bring him to his Court-gate then bids another let him in a third to wash him and put him on clean clothes another to read him the Order of his House another to set him at Table with his Children another to shew him his present and future estate Thus the Spirit of Humiliation first wakens a miserable lost sinner and that by the Law and can onely bring him to the Gate Then Vocation opens the Door Then Justification puts on Christs Righteousness Sanctification teacheth him how to walk taking away the Power of sin Adoption makes him a Brother and gives him his Priviledges And Glory begun here in part by sanctifying shewes him his estate And all this hath its rise from Free Grace Ezekiel 16. for God found us in our Blood The Lord open your eyes and make this a time of Love to you dear Child 27. But whilst I speak to you of Free-grace I must let you know that in the next place I must commend unto you accurate walking as the fruits thereof and for your better understanding I commend unto you divers of the aforesaid Books so my own thoughts are that it consists in all manner of Christian Circumspection Ephes. 5.15 to look within you without you about you beneath you to all and every duty and the rather because God's eye is ever and every where upon you Oh that you could so walk so think and not only so but you have bad men observing who by your negligence may either infest your Liberties or infect you with their Evils or at best be harder drawn-on to the wayes of God by your carelesse example Adde hereunto that you have the eyes of good men upon you and if they be young Christians you may make the Wayes of God like Giants and Brazen Walls unto them carry much difficulty and discouragement with them or if ancient Christians you may send them with grief to their graves by your miscarriages and not only so but the very way of Religion is like a narrow Bridge you need step advisedly that you may keep upon it or if fall you may recover with much trouble there is great cause you should be wise for Free-grace will never teach sin nor folly which that you may have help in consider what is said from the above-said Arguments and weigh them well and not only so but study the Lives of all the Saints in Scripture and do but see what trophees of their failings sin hath hung up and Satan David's sins of Adultery and Murder Peter's Denial of his Master Hezekiah's Pride and Vanity in shewing his Treasury Jonah's Impatience and Folly with the like And see Paul's and Samuel's Integrity Phineas his Zeal Nathaniel's Truth c. On the other hand Oh walk in this Gallery among these Pictures and for your security rest not without Assurance of God's Love which will make you wary Who would endanger it much lesse forfeit it The empty Purse fears not the Thief but the full looks to every Danger every Temptation And really nothing is a greater safeguard than the freeness of this Love communicated to the Soul stay you no-where on this side of it it will keep you steady in a trembling world Thus may you walk and from this blessed Principle dear Child 28. And that all this may be carried-on and is property the life of Faith remember That the hardest thing in the world is To believe in Jesus Christ to these and all other good ends Faith is a short word and easily spoken but Oh how hard is it in the nature of it when if ever the Lord works it in us he findes nothing not a spark of it till he comes nay he finds us opposit to the work of it nay he finds us unwilling to be made willing to close with the offer of Christ though made so freely Hypocrisie and all evil hath its fountain here we believe not all the other graces sink when this fails all must have its cure we bind the lame arm we anoint it we warmit and yet nothing helps because it is out of joynt Oh we believe not Anger rageth Lust provokes Covetousness cozens c. and all is We believe not Nature cannot reach this Art cannot compasse it to look near 1700 years back upon the Son of Mary who was the Son of God lived not forty years preached but three years and half reproached home to his grave and to believe in him for a Savior I say this must be the work of another world and the outstretched Arm of God See Ephes. 1.18 19 20 c. To believe that another will pay all my debts and become poor to make me rich to dye to make me live Oh Miracle of Mercy My Child to believe things incredible to hope things delayed and to love God when he seems angry are Luthers wonders and mine and thine It is unbelief is that death in the pot that lifts up sense that brings an ill report of God that overhastens our mercies and sets God a time for our deliverances Faith is the gift of God and the greatest which overcomes difficulties sets Mercy to work against Justice fetcheth the work done either by without or against Means throws Mountains into the Sea A little little grain like Mustard-seed will do Wonders enliven a dead heart save even a damned soul for such we are This will not be had without the Word and Spirit Rom. 10.17 and the Glory of it See Heb. 11. for this hear beg pray weep fast seek labour strive use violence read ask wish sigh and if you do believe the Lord help your unbelief dear Child 29. In the next which looks like the last indeed I must give you my thoughts about Death which certainly must be your portion though young and I must tell you it is a great word to say I dare dye many Books and
Funeral Sermons you may reade about it I say Life is sweet and Death terrible many in several distempers may call for it neither minding what it is nor whither it leads Job describes it in his Agony and Heathens could say The first good was not to be born and the next to dye quickly Paul above any desires it upon right grounds Yea the last words in the Canticles and the last in the Bible are for the Lord Jesus to come quickly yea to come to judgment as if it were the breathings of the spirits of the Just in the last times of which spirit if you be these will be your Reasons as theirs First That you may see Him of whom you have heard so much who hath done and suffered so much for you Secondly That you may have full draughts of what you now tast only Thirdly That your Beloved may come to you or you to Him for whose sake and love you may undergo here many frowns brow-beatings if not worse thus the absent Spouse waits for her Beloved Fourthly When the Sanctuary is troden upon Isa. 64.1 Fifthly That the double Vail of Corruption and Affliction may be taken off from you Thus to wish for Death is to wish for Life These things I pray study and to help you further remember Balaam would fain die the Death of the Righteous which you can never do unless you live the Life of the Godly to which I have written so much before Only let me adde That you must live in daily Expectation of this great Change for though there be but one way into the World there are many out I know nothing to sweeten it but the Death of Christ who suckt out the poison of it and saves to the uttermost Romans and Fools can dye bravely write their own Elegies I am sure a well-led life is the best Monument If one at your door should cry every morning You must dye it would not reach far but Christ dyed for you My Child 30. They say and truly Where Death leaves you there Judgment finds you Nothing flies so swiftly than as the soul out of the body and you know Eternity hangs upon a moment and such is our Life and especially such is the last groan and pang and thither it leads It is a vast Ocean hath neither bound nor bottom where you are to come before an impartial Judge with a naked and open breast it is unavoidable and the miscarriage there intolerable Many Books are written by many about these last things and Apothegmes not a few the World and the Flesh will not appear for you the former can lend you but a few Ceremonies and Complements the other dare go no further than the Judges door but a good Conscience sprinkled by the Blood of Christ will enter with boldness and plead and hear the voice of Come ye blessed Your wisdome will be to carry your Pardon in your bosome there Wit and Learning Parts and Wealth will get no hearing there the Eloquent Orator is dumb no Coin is currant but the Blood of a loving Saviour No man can appear there by any other Proxy there Greatness must give way to Goodness there Hypocrisie is unmask'd Truth naked there your fellow Saints shall sit Judges though dispised amongst men there the Son of man shall appear because despised as the Son of man there Preaching Miracles Casting out Devils will not profit but a Name written in the Book of the Lamb Oh that you would consider betimes what a nothing a thousand years are to Eternity yea where you shall be an hundred years hence if the Grave make no distance betwixt the Scepter and the Mattock what will Eternity do when that shall make the difference Wherfore I pray measure all your works by Eternity eat drink sleep work by Eternity the cry of a damned soule is I never minded Eternity how many are every day carrying faggots to burn them to Eternity Call that good that holds for ever Let but the Judge be your Husband and fear nothing The ever-living God love you and keep you to all Eternity My Child 31. And because I have brought you so far as the Great Day give me leave to awaken you with the condition of the place Heaven and to let you know it in the particulars which are the presence of all good and the absence of all evil the former commends it self unto you in these First in the universality of it whereas all things here below are but partial so in the suitableness of it they are there spiritual and suitable to the Spirit Secondly for their Continance the good things are not like Cherries drawn by the lips or Comforts tasted and gone but they stay and are good for ever Thirdly Evil knows no place there Sin cannot dwell with that Holiness Sorrow cannot mingle it self with that Joy no more fading Riches dying Friends changing Honors perishing Beauty no more aking heads nor languishing diseases no more hearing the chain of the Prisoner nor anger of the Oppressor no cry of what do you lack every Bottle is full and every Bed easie being of never-blasting Roses and Sweets where every Room is paved with Love where Wisdom Power Mercy and Grace have combined to make all glorious and pleasant Then never be troubled about a dunghil-world when the Apostle to the Thessalonians sayes all in a few words We shall be with the Lord for ever and that includes all answers all hard Questions all hard Labours under the Sun Remember the Swaggerer that met the poor man ever mourning over his sins quoth he What still mourning c. But what if there be no Heaven Ah Sir quoth the other what if there be a Hell The Doctrine of Hell was never enough preach'd some thinks and there on the contrary is the presence of all evil and the absence of all good you may study it by the former where the Tormented never die and the Tormentor is never weary where thought and fear despair punishment extremity meet altogether in Eternity The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve you to his Heavenly Kingdom My poor Child Union with Christ and Knowledge sound The Scriptures reade in Pray'r be found A constant Watch and growth in Grace Good Conscience Time short Work apace Contentment in Condition Low No Trifling Spirit in you grow Nor Busie nor Pragmatical Truth still appearing in your All Wisdom directing soon and late In Calling and in Marriage-state The World describ'd in its bad wayes A Friend indeed beyond all praise And Sin the Mother of all Grief Grace often question'd for relief With Providences running crosse Fears sinfull causing Doubts and Losse Dayes of Adversity and Evil Errors that spring from Self and Devil Sabbath for Rest and Worshipping And Free-grace pitying pardoning With accurate and holy walking Hard to believe though easie talking Death ghastly looking and Sins daughter With Judgment that will follow after Heav'n in its great Magnificence Hell's punishment in