Slavery to Sin and Satan Death and Hell God was pleased to make a Second Covenant of Grace and Mercy with lost Man and therein promises to send his Son that Seed of the Woman which should break the Serpents Head who should be a King Priest and Prophet to us A King to rule us a Priest to make an Atonement for us with his Father and to intercede for us and a Prophet to teach and instruct us in all things necessary to our Happiness in the whole Will and Mind of God Accordingly the Blessed Jesus in fulness of Time was sent into the World from Heaven to take our Nature upon him to become Man and so in our stead as our Surety then paid the Price of our Redemption by shedding his most precious Blood upon the Cross offering up his Soul a Sacrifice to God to satisfy his Father's Justice of which great Sacrifice all the legal Sacrifices were Types and as such were acceptable with God for he was the Lamb of God slain from the Beginning of the World and by this means to reconcile us to God to procure to us the sinful Offspring of sinful Adam upon our true Repentance a Pardon of all our Sins For he purchased a general Pardon to all the Rebellious Sons of Adam upon their Submission and laying down their Arms and ceasing their Hostilities against Heaven and becoming dutiful and obedient Subjects and of the Servants of Sin and Slaves of Satan the greatest Slavery in the World to be made the Sons and Servants of God whose Service is perfect Freedom to be in some Measure restored to their first State of Innocence and Happiness to be made vertuous and holy conformed to the Image of their heavenly Father to enjoy his Friendship and Favour and to be blessed by him here in this Life and at Death to be translated into the blessed Regions of Happiness above in Heaven there to behold love contemplate praise and admire Him to all Eternity with all his holy Angels Now consider seriously God-son Was not this great Love and good Will of God in this great Contrivance and Work of our Redemption And in his sending his beloved Son into the World for the effecting the same And was it not also great Love and condescending Goodness in the Son of God the blessed Jesus to stoop from Heaven to Earth to take upon him the Nature of sinful Man To be born of a Woman to live here upon Earth a mean and despicable Life to be hated reviled persecuted even while he went about designing and doing all the Good he could both to the Bodies and Souls of Men and publishing the glad Tydings of Salvation to all the World and by his divine Doctrine rectifying the great Errors Mistakes and Delusions that the World lay under making a clear and full Discovery of what was Truth and being the great Exemplar of all Vertue Holiness true Worth and Goodness to all the World Being notwithstanding herein exposed to all the Malice and Rage of Men and Devils And at last to lay down his precious Life by a shameful ignominious painful and cruel Death of Crucifixion Hereby perfecting the Work of our Redemption That whosoever would accept of this Salvation and would believe in him repent and be baptized and so become his faithful Disciple should be saved Now God-son you being happily born of Christian Parents were according to the holy Institution of this blessed Jesus our Lord and Master and the constant Practice of his Church baptized and thereby initiated in his Church and made a Member of the same as I mentioned before and so made not only capable of but really partaker of this great Redemption and Salvation It very much concerns you now you are come to a competent Age of Understanding to consider how you stand obliged to God and to be true and faithful to your baptismal Vow and Covenant which now you must renew in your own Person except you will renounce your Christianity and think that you were obliged also to them who were assistant and instrumental in this charitable Work of bringing you to this holy Baptism and devoting and dedicating you to God and to be the Disciple of the blessed Jesus Christ you being thereby Partaker of all the Privileges and Benefits of the Gospel Now I beseech you with all Chearfulness and Alacrity of Soul resolve forthwith to ratify and confirm this Advantageous Contract and Vow made for you by your God-fathers and God-mothers in your Minority and Nonage and perform the same in your own Person now you are of Capacity and abhor to profess what you do not intend to practise In pursuance thereof be modest and humble and teachable be very sollicitous to know and understand fully what your Christianity means and also what it requires of you And abhor to be of the Number of them too many in the World who neglect that most wherein their chiefest and greatest Care should be viz. Their Religion and by that means know little more of their Christianity but the Name First therefore God-son have recourse with humble Reverence of Heart and Body to God in Prayer and with great Fervency beg the Guidance of his Grace and Spirit wherein your blessed Lord and Saviour hath furnished you with the most excellent Form composed by himself which should be a Pattern to all our Prayers and always to accompany them But herein also your Mother the Church hath furnished you as also other pious Men especially that most excellent Book the whole Duty of Man which now I have mentioned to you let me recommend it to you as an Attendant to the sacred Scriptures in which in the next place I would advise you to be very Conversant I mean the Scriptures with a spiritual Guide to direct you and take you by the Hand especially in doubtful and difficult places and hearkening to good Sermons and the learning and understanding the Principles of your Religion contained in our Church Catechism in which you should request your Parents and Friends to assist and help you And consider God-son Whereas in your Baptismal Vow you renounced The Devil and all his Works the Pomps and Vanities of this wicked World and all the sinful Lusts of the Flesh That is to say all Acts of Sin and Disobedience to the Divine Laws for Sin is the Transgression of God's Law as also all the vain and evil Customs of the World the Pride Excess and Vanity of worldly and wicked Men together with the gratifying of your carnal and sensual Desires and Appetites in opposition to those Restrictions and Rules God hath set us And whereas in the next place you promise to believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith briefly summed up in the Apostles Creed in which is comprehended the Knowledge and Belief of all those Truths of Christianity necessary to be known by us to be the Guide of our Lives it being the Foundation of all Christian Practice It is very needful
to have your Mind well instructed therein For without this Foundation be well laid the Superstructure thereupon can never stand but will come to nothing Ignorance herein is the Mother of Error He that understands amiss concludes worse and Error is endless as one speaks and as Dr. Sibs long since well observed Whosoever is corrupt in Faith is corrupt in Obedience in that Degree Evil Opinions hreed evil Life For as Truth is from above the Offspring of God so Error is from beneath from the great Deceiver the Father of Lyes the Devil Therefore nothing is so much worth as a Mind well instructed saith the Son of Syrach Eccles 26.14 And Mistakes in things of Religion are of most dreadful Danger to you wherefore it very much concerns you to be well instructed with good and sound Principles True Piety being the Consequent of a sound and orthodox Faith And whereas you promise to keep God's holy Will and Commandments and therein to persist to your Lives end It is most necessary you should know them and their true Sence and Meaning that so you may avoid the Ill they forbid and do the Good they command you which are briefly yet fully contained in the Exposition set down in your Catechism which deserves your frequent and serious Consideration And as soon as convenient Opportunity is offered have Recourse to Confirmation by the Hands of the Bishop there to renew solemnly your baptismal Vow and Covenant and receive the Benefit of the Prayers of the Congregation and of his Prayers and Blessing also For as a worthy Divine observes When Men have solemnly addicted themselves to the Christian Religion and made it their own Act by a voluntary and publick Choice it will ordinarily have a great Influence upon them in Modesty Honour and Reputation as well as Conscience that they shall not easily go back from it and renounce it And if you have not a convenient Opportunity for Confirmation take the greater Care to fit your self the sooner for the holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour and there renew solemnly you baptismal Vow and Covenant and as soon as you have so renewed your Covenant and Vow either at Confirmation or at receiving the Sacrament I would advise you to enter it down in Writing in your Bible or some other Book of Devotions and Prayers in which you are often if not daily conversant In Manner following BE it remembred that I _____ did this _____ Day of _____ Anno Domini 16 solemnly renew my baptismal Vow and Covenant with God and did then seriously devote and resign up my self to his Service from which I am resolved by his Grace never to depart but to persist in the same and be a faithful Disciple of my dear Saviour unto my Lives end in Witness whereof and that I may be mindful of it and not forget it I have here set down the same and subscribed my Name And then subscribe your Name thereunto And often afterwards have recourse to this Contract Vow and Covenant you have made with God and consider it seriously and often renew it at the holy Sacrament as also at convenient times read both the Church Office and Prayers at Baptism and at Confirmation But here let me advise you to have a great Care that your religious Warmth and early Seriousness do not carry you beyond the plain and known Measures of your Duty Let your baptismal Vow your Duty to God and your Neighbour as set down in the Catechism be chiefly in your Mind and suffer not your self mark it and remember I say suffer not your self to devise some new and particular Rules to your self which in your Zeal you 'll be apt to think necessary and then be ready to tie your self up by a solemn Vow to observe them This Forwardness in making Vows is ordinary in all beginners in Religion and especially in young People And such Vows which are no part of Duty but proceed usually from too much Heat and too little Consideration I have heard to become afterwards great Snares to those who made them robbing them of the Comforts of sincere Indeavours to keep a good Conscience by being brought under an Obligation which they had better have avoided of doing such and such particular Acts of Religion and with such Circumstances as in themselves are not necessary and perhaps not convenient for them when their own Condition of Life is altered nay perhaps were not so when they made their Vow This I the rather caution you against both for the Reason above mentioned That I conceive an early Piety is very apt to lead you this way and because I have heard some whose Scruples have been so great upon the breaking of these Vows and coming short of that Strictness and height of Religion in those particular Tasks which they had imposed upon themselves as to be ready to fall into Despair Whereas had their Souls been free from such a Bondage they would have made great Progress in vertuous Living and not have wanted the unspeakable Comfort of a good Conscience Wherefore I advise you heartily that in all these Religious Warmths you never bind up your self by any hasty Vows but consult your spiritual Guide and take his Directions For such Assistance is every whit as necessary for the well governing our Fits of Heat as it is for curing our Coldness in the Duties of Religion And do not think my Advice in these Matters to be needless or superfluous For Religion is the grand Concern of our Lives and therefore not to be trifled and played with as it is to be feared most do among us now a-days in the World I hope I need not use many Arguments or Motives to perswade you to that which is the grand Concern of your Life and in which consists your greatest Interest and Advantage I need not use many Words to perswade you to be an honest Man and to be as good as your Word as your solemn Vow and Oath made to God I hope you will say with holy David Psal 101.4 I hate the sin of Vnfaithfulness there shall no such thing cleave unto me and when your faithfulness herein is to be true to your own highest and greatest Interest and Advantage Further consider seriously the Worth and Excellency of the Rules and Precepts of the Christian Religion which in short you know is the loving God with all our Hearts and Minds with all our Souls and with all our Strength And in the next place loving our Neighbours as our selves as you are taught in our Church Catechism Now one would think there should need no Argument to perswade you to be in Love with God the most excellent amiable soul-satisfying Object in the World the greatest and most resplendent Beauty you can ever have your Mind fixed upon in the whole Universe yea The Beauty of all the Beauties and Excellencies in the World Wisdom 13.3 For the first Author of Beauty hath created them And
from this sinful and troublesome World into the Mansions of eternal Pleasures and Delights above This true Wisdom of being Religious and Vertuous will in short make you live comfortably and die bravely God-son you remember that saying in your Grammar Multum scire est vita Jucundissima Wisdom and Knowledge is the sweetest Life of all And the Son of Syrach Ecclesiast 40.20 will tell you Wine and Musick rejoice the Heart but the Love of Wisdom is above them both Improve your Mind therein now take Pains to acquire it As one hath well observed All Men desire Knowledge but they are unwilling to be at the Pains to get it The wise Heathen Seneca will tell you The greater any Man's Knowledge is the greater and more perfect is his Mind It 's Knowledge makes us Men and not Years and he goes on and extolleth the Knowledge and Contemplation of God above all other Knowledge The Knowledge of God saith he is the most excellent Knowledge He is the most excellent Object and therefore the Knowledge of him must needs be so Nothing so much delights and perfects the Minds of Men as the Knowledge of God that 's most Pleasant and ministers greatest Satisfaction to them that quiets and lays to Rest the Motions and satisfies the Appetites of them it also perfects and compleats them I need not recommend to you the knowledge of God and Religion for he hath you see prevented me done it to my hands And not only get your Mind well instructed in your Christian Religion but consider also that our Happiness lies not in bonorum cognitione but fruitione not in knowing but in living answerable to our Knowledge As a great and learned Man saith Veritatem Philosophia quaerit Theologia invenit Religio possidet Religion Consists in Practice If ye know these things happy are you if you do them as the holy Scripture teacheth us If you love me saith our blessed Lord and Master keep my Commandments Let me exhort you to live answerable to your holy Christian Religion in Communion with the Church of England she being a sound part of the Catholick Church of Christ and beware of such as would seduce you from her Communion for herein lies your Safety to obey and be guided by them that have the Oversight of you and are over you in the Lord Heb. 13.17 and to esteem them highly for their Works sake as the Apostle exhorts us 1 Thes 5.13 And tell them that shall at any time attempt to pervert you That by an hearty Practice of the Religion as you have been taught in the Church of England you find you have attained to a Temper so like that of good Men and even of our Lord Jesus himself as it is set down in Scripture you find such a suitableness in it with all the Wants and Desires of your Soul such Helps against your Infirmities such Comfort from discharge of your Duty such a Fear of doing any Ill either to Friend or Stranger such an hearty Inclination to do Good to all As that if they should teach you any other ways they must needs make you a worse Man Both more uneasy to your self and more troublesome and perhaps dangerous to others And that therefore you resolve by God's Grace to continue in the said Holy Church which as far as you can discern by a Tryal of your own and I am sure Practice will convince you of this makes Men as Happy in themselves as useful to others as they can be in this World And that any other Communion which requires Men to practise otherwise must as far as you understand make them worse And therefore you cannot but think that you have more reason to hearken to the Advice of and be guided by your Mother the Church of England and her Pastors she hath appointed and set over you than by any Strangers whatsoever And in this humble Submission to the Church wherein you were born and baptized and from whom you received your Christianity and in your Fidelity to her if you should happen by this means to be led into any Error or Mistake as to Matters of Dispute it will be doubtless a very venial or pardonable Crime in you it being in an humble Submission to the best Guide you have next the Scriptures An Error or Mistake arising from Humility of Heart and Diffidence in your self is a far less Crime than what arises from Pride and self-Confidence in Opposition to your spiritual Governours Guides which God hath placed and given them Authority over you which our Sectaries have reason seriously to consider of in our days God-son Since the penning of the precedent Discourse meeting with these following Verses of a late Author something pertinent to my Discourse I thought fit to add them to it considering that with Youth the same Matter being cloathed in Verse may be more acceptable than in Prose Do not mispend thy golden Youth and bring The Dross of thy old Age to serve thy King Do not neglect the Morning of thy Days And think the Evening fit thy God to praise God early must be sought the longer we Persist in Sin the stronger Sin will be From Vice to Vertue turn from bad to good The deeper still he sinks who stands in Mud. A Nail the farther it is driven in The harder is drawn out and so is Sin None can foretel how long the fatal glass Shall run or else how soon the Sand will pass Delay no time that Man will shrink and fear Who lays the Burthen on old Age to bear Because the foolish Virgins came too late They Heaven lost for Christ had shut the Gate Should we be old are we then sure to store Our Souls with Grace which we refused before Through Mire and Dirt who travels all the Day Will hardly go by Night a cleaner way The Tenant which neglects th' appointed Day Forfeits his Lease and fret his Landlord may Unto which let me add what a worthy Divine speaks as very remarkable It is observable saith he that for the most part of good Men and Women they are such as had the Foundations of Piety laid in their Youth and very few are found who were effectually reclaimed afterwards Doubtless God-son there is nothing makes a Man honest upright ingenious useful and truly recommends himself to the World and Society of Mankind as Religion and above all Religions the Christian which truly makes us like to God St. Chrysostom as a late Author presents him doth confirm what I have said herein In one of his Homilies or Sermons he speaks thus None labours so much that we should be approved Great and Ingenious as God who made us and therefore he doth us good oftentimes even against our Wills and gives us many good things which we know not of c. In the next place it will not be improper to give you a short Description of Ingenuity of Mind to let you know what it is as a worthy Person hath
SInce the former Impression of this Book meting with the Judgment and Opinion of a great Statesman in the Reign of King Henry VIII and his Vice-Roy in Ireland Sir Anthony St. Leiger by Name who used to say That there were three things would settle a State or Kingdom 1st Good God fathers and God-mothers performing their Vows 2dly Good Housholders overlooking their Families 3dly Good School-masters Educating of Youth And this last the most useful although the most contemptible I am the more encouraged to a Second Impression of the same hoping it may somewhat contribute to the same good End before-mentioned which is the hearty Prayers of the Author A New-Years Gift OR ADVICE TO A GOD-SON Train up a Child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it Prov. 22.6 Religio est omnium moralium Virtutum nobilissima The Second Edition By P. A. Gent. LONDON Printed by J. L. for Luke Meredith at the Star in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1696 IMPRIMATUR Liber cui Titulus A New-Years Gift or Advice to a God son Nov. 26. 1687. Guil. Needham TO THE Hopeful young Gentleman T. C. Esquire THE serious consideration of the dreadful danger to mens souls by reason of vicious and sinful Customs and Habits contracted in youth which being confirmed by a long continuance in a debauched course of Life renders their Conversion and Reformation very difficult if not next to impossible as the Prophet speaks Jer. xiij 23. Can the Aethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil made me sensible that the only way to prevent this great Mischief must be by engaging Persons betimes in their young and tender Years in Vertue and true Goodness by means of religious and prudent Education Instruction and Advice And therefore I conceived it not to be besides my Duty next to my own Children to indeavour to prevent this Evil and Danger falling upon my only God-son now remaining alive and capable of Advice and that therein I acting within my own Province it could not be imputed to me as a Crime But Sir now seeing this Discourse is likely to be made more publick than was at first intended I could not well find out one more suitable to whom to dedicate it than your self who are a Gentleman of such great Hopes as to be in time one of the Vertuosi of the Age you live in who I doubt not will make it your Study and Care by your Life and Conversation to refute that bold Assertion of him who once said O virtus quaesivi te ut rem sed tantum merum nomen es For certainly there is true Gold in the World although there is a great deal of counterfeit Metal like it I shall say no more least it may prove Offensive to you whose Care I verily believe will be to be rather Good than Great who will have a greater Desire to be useful in your Generation to serve your Prince and Country than to be talk'd of in the World Thus heartily wishing to you the Completion of all Happiness which only consists in a religious and vertuous Life here and at Death to be made more Happy translated hence into heavenly Mansions those Receptacles of Vertuous Noble and Purified Souls in the highest Heavens there to be taken up with the holy and excellent Imployments of the blessed Angels for evermore I am SIR Your affectionate Friend and humble Servant P. A. Decemb. 10. 1687. A New-Years Gift OR ADVICE TO A GOD-SON God son IN regard you have own'd me your God-father I think therefore you do not doubt but that I performed that Office for you in the Face of the Christian Congregation So that if that kind of Right and Interest I have in you do it not yet at least the Obligation of Christian Duty puts me upon this present Trouble of tendering to you my Christian Advice and Counsel which being out of my Love to you I hope it will not be ungrateful and unpleasing for none but ill Natures can be so unworthy as to reject the Advices of an affectionate Friend You are to know God-son That I was your Proxie in your place and stead to answer for you you being not able to answer for your self That you did renounce the Devil and all his Works the Pomps and Vanities of this wicked World the sinful Lusts of the Flesh That you did believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith And that you would keep God's holy Will and Commandments and walk in the same all the Days of your Life as you have acknowledged in your Catechism in which I was instrumental in the solemn Dedication of you to God and his Service to be the Disciple of the ever blessed Jesus to your Entrance upon your holy Christian Profession and the initiating you in his holy Catholick Church of which the present Church of England is a Part in which Church you being born were baptized Now God son although I question not but by the Christian Care of your Parents you have been already instructed in the First Principles of your holy Religion contained in our Church-Catechism who doubtless are no less obliged to promote your Christianity than if you had had no God-fathers and God-mothers But nevertheless it many times falls out that our Parents are remiss and negligent herein therefore our Mother the Church of England hath strictly imposed this Duty of catechising and instructing all young Persons her Children in their Christianity upon all her Priests and Ministers Therefore for your Welfare God-son after my hearty Prayers to God for you give me leave with Freedom and Earnestness to exhort you to account this happy Privilege of your Christianity to be the greatest Blessing and Happiness that a Man or Woman born into the World are capable of for the Gospel or glad Tidings of Salvation by Jesus Christ was the great Redemption and Happiness to a sinful degenerate and miserable World Now you must know God son That God having created Man made a Covenant and Agreement with him to this purpose That if he continued in Obedience to God That both that Knowledge of his Duty and that Strength of Soul and Mind he then enjoyed in his Estate of Innocency and Happiness should be continued to him and that he should never die but be happy for ever But on the other side if he sinn'd and disobeyed God then both he and all his Posterity should lose that Knowledge and that perfect Strength and be subject to Death both Temporal and Eternal But our First Parent Adam disobeyeth God and so brings a Curse on himself and all his Posterity they losing both their Knowledge of and Strength to perform their Duty being both ignorant and weak having a Backwardness to all Good and an Aptness to all Evil and also Death Temporal and Eternal at last All Mankind being now in this miserable Condition of Bondage and