time of peace hee will bee thy Tower in a time of trouble Those that are under the government of Christ are sure to bee provided for by Christ Unto whom Christ is a King to rule them he is a strong tower to secure them Christs power is beyond the distresses of his people Our difficult work is Christs work If thou wouldest not fear temporal judgements when they come strengthen thy faith and bee much in prayer before they come As faith gets up so fear gets down the strength of fear is from weakness of faith All our spiritual swouns come from unbelief The way for a Christian not to act his fear is to act his faith The creature is not much to bee feared You cannot fear man too much but you fear God too little The main sin that brings destruction upon men is trusting to men and not to God Fear addes much to our vexation nothing to our safety When fear prevails take a promise and plead it by faith If you go to the Father by prayer you need not fear peace through the Son Make the Lord of hosts your fear and you shall have him for your sanctuary You must sanctify God and make him your fear and your dread and he will sanctuary and safe-guard you In evill times God will have a special care of his own people That man is too big for all evils that is great in God Hee that dwells in God for sanctification shall dwell in him for preservation Hee that walketh uprightly shall dwell on high and his place shall bee in the Rock THe times of the Churches calamities are the times of wicked mens insolencies and blasphemies When the Church suffers there should be a veil of sorrow drawn over thy eyes Look not what the world doth but what God would have thee to do Be not afraid or discouraged though sometimes our Ark doth move upon very troublesome waters Victory in the end shall bee on the Churches side The Church is taken for the whole number of Gods Elect effectually called into a fellowship with Christ through sanctification and belief of the truth What ever the difference is between the enimies of the Church and the Church Christs party shall overcome On whose side dost thou think God doth ingage himself Is not the Sea able to quench a coal of fire One acting of a grace sometimes is sufficient to destroy an enimy Heb. 11.33 34. The Church of Christ in this life is like a ship upon the Sea The ship hath goodly sails the Church hath admirable graces If there bee not a gale the ship cannot stear so notwithstanding all the Churches graces it cannot move from faith to virtue without the fresh actings and breathings of God upon those graces The ship is a trading vessel and so the Church They are the great trades-men for heaven The ship is the onely safe place out of the Church there is no safety The Church of God though it bee tossed and tumbled yet it hath an Anchor the blood of Christ The ship in comparison of the sea is but a little thing yet it is above the water so the Church in comparison of the world is but a handfull of men yet it hath an Ark the Lord Jesus Christ In every new danger the people of God are apt to forget their former deliverance The proper time of fear is in thy prosperity and the time to believe when other helps fail There is all in God in the want of all The life of a Christian as a Christian is to live out of himself As the graft of a tree lives upon the root so a Christian by faith lives upon Christ You must provide for a troubling time as well as a healing time Prophane persons will make troublesome times with such David had to deal their words pierced nearer his heart than their swords When a people are not healed by their troubles they must expect to be troubled in their healings Observe this wheresoever there is faith there is a quiet soul first or last THe top of a Christians joy is not in outward earthly but spiritual things They which are most acquainted with carnal mirth are greatest strangers to spiritual joy Every grace as it is the expression of Gods love so it is the spring of our joy Wee may joy in these things below but they must not bee our spring and sea the spring from which they come and the sea to which they tend Joy it sets the soul upon wing for heaven what is the nature of your joy doth it make you fly up or fly out Cursed is that joy that makes God sad eat and drink and rise up to play and not rise up to pray and praise God and your table will bee your snare your death There is a desperate propension and active forwardness in the affection of joy to run out upon such things that are sinful Let not that bee the matter of your joy which is the fruit of your sin Do not make that the matter of thy joy which should bee the matter of thy humiliation The sins of others the calamities of others God allows us to rejoyce in creature-comforts and lawful liberties so it bee done lawfully It is not the thing rejoyced in but the manner of rejoycing that makes our joy criminal and sinful Though the Scripture allows thee to rejoyce yet it forbids sinful rejoycing It is a sinful thing to rejoyce in a creature for it self Joy sinfully acted is when the sweetness of the creature is not a means to lead thee unto God but as an object to satisfie thee without God Creatures are not given properly to bee injoyed but to bee used and directed to a further end You are not to bound and terminate your comforts in them You cannot joy in any thing for it self but you make it a God Delight is a glory proper to God as God Joy naturally centers it self in the things of this life A natural man doth not take occasion to rejoyce from the creature but hee rests his joy in the creature Do not you over-joy in the things of this life but joy in this that your name is written in the book of life Your heart cannot bee overmuch taken or best pleased with that which is not best without sin Though outward comforts are good in themselves and so occasions of joy yet they are not good enough for the joy of thy heart to bee taken up at or to bee taken up with As wee may quickly be more taken with these things than they are worth so our joy cannot but exceed Worldly comforts since the fall suit so well with our carnal humours that while wee deal about them wee cannot but feed too heartily on them and drink more deep of that cup than wee ought It is a lawful thing to take pleasure in lawful things but they are made unlawful to us when much of our time is eaten up in eating and drinking Time is short and time
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
Covenant applies this promise and rests upon Christ for justification Therefore of faith that it might bee by grace therefore of faith to the end the promise might bee sure to all the seed Faith is the root of a Christians conversation and a Christians conversation is the fruit of faith Many measure their faith by perswasion but I had rather measure my faith by the power of mortification so much as it sanctifies so much it is faith cannot conduce to the act of redemption but faith conduces to our justification You are to act faith upon God that the promise may bee returned Wherefore do I believe because God hath promised Wherefore do I hope because faith believes Wherefore do I wait because hope expects An easie faith is always a false faith Hee that never found it hard to believe never believed A fruitless faith is alwaies a false faith It is not the work faith nor the works of faith but faith with her proper work by which wee are justified By faith the person is justified and by works the faith is justified Though faith alone doth justifie yet not that faith which is alone Christians should not onely labour to be justified by faith but they should labour to justifie their faith Shew mee thy invisible faith by thy visible life God doth justifie a man by his faith hee doth not justifie him for his faith Faith is the Engine by which wee do all by which wee prevail with God and overcome the world it must not onely live in us but wee must live by it Faith it grows in the exercise Do what you can for faith though your doing will not come up to believing and say not that you cannot believe for if you go not thus far to do what you can your unbelief is not from your cannot but from your will not Go and put forth that faith thou art able to put forth and in the end God will make it a spiritual believing As the water Christ commanded to bee poured out was turned into wine by the pouring of it out so deal with Christ Jesus for believing and in the end God will turn thy faith which is but water into wine Thou wilt believe thy self into believing You ought to believe till you bee perswaded that you do believe for the more you do believe the more you shall bee perswaded to believe By frequency of believing you shall feel at your very heart that you do believe 1 Joh. 5.10 If repentance accompany faith it is no presumption to believe but it is presumption to look for mercy in a way of unbelief Beware of unbelief for it is a shelter to sin all your life As faith is the shield of the new man so unbelief is the shield of the old man As the shield of faith doth quench the fiery darts of the Devill so unbelief doth quench the fiery darts of God This unbelief removes all the blocks that lie in the way of sin as belief removes all the blocks that lie in the way of holiness Unbelief it robs God the Father at once of all his Attributes it robs God the Son of the Glory of his triumph over Sin Death and Hell it robs God the Holy-Ghost of his seals to thy evidence of pardon The Spirit seals to thy soul the pardon of thy sins and unbelief comes and tears thy evidences and breaks the seals Labour as much for faith in the threatnings as for faith in the promises And remember this though other sins merit hell yet it is this sin of unbelief onely that puts you into damnation AS great sins are not easily to bee reformed so great mercies are not soon obtained When the stream of thankfulness is not returned the tide of mercy stops Although God looks for nothing in us to bestow his love upon us nor for nothing from us as the ground of the continuance of his love to us yet wee are to bee highly thankful for any little the Lord gives and to be humble and judge our selves worthy of nothing when the Lord denies Mercy is not the purchase of the creature but the gift of God Follow God close with your praises that goes before you in his mercies As praises are the seasonable fruit under mercies so humiliation and prayers are the seasonable fruit under troubles Sinners may speak good words of God it is only comly for the upright to praise God Thanksgiving it is the proper work of Christians and the natural work of Angels A little makes a thankful man admire much Oh how big are a thankful mans mercies and how little hee Bee careful for nothing but by prayer and supplication make your requests known to God with thanksgiving Daies of thanksgiving and prayer are helps to the duties God requires from us they are not our onely business When wee pray and give thanks it is not the onely business of the day but these are helps to us that wee may persevere and improve our obedience Though our goodness reaches not to God yet it should to the Saints If God be rich in mercy unto us it is that we should be rich in good works unto others It is good to receive a mercy from God it is better to improve a mercy Great and renewed receivings from God should beget fresh quick and strong resolutions of obedience unto God The more holy fire there is in the service the more pleasing the service When ever you serve God it must bee with fear when ever you praise God it must bee with trembling Though I cannot praise God sufficiently yet Christ can ALl have a call of inexcusableness few have a call of effectualness Grace is not denied to the wicked but it is onely given to the weary By grace is meant the love and favour of God within himself and is the spring and fountain of all that good which hee doth give out unto his children As grace is communicative so it is called goodness As it is with delight so it is called love as it is given out to man in state of misery so it is called mercy as it is dispensed freely so it is called grace When the Spirit works a man for salvation then doth the Spirit pour forth those graces and exercises those operations without which you cannot live grace Notwithstanding Christ hath paid the price of salvation yet you shall not bee saved without the Spirits application The Spirit is the executor of that will of which Christ is the Testator Christ gives the Legacies but the Spirit paies them Christ is the Mediator of the new Covenant and the Spirit is the Administrator of that Covenant You can no more expect to be renewed without the Spirit than to bee saved without the Son As you cannot bee saved unredeemed so you cannot bee saved unrenewed A graceless man shall never inherit heaven A graceless man is a cruel man to his own soul As sinners are given up to sin so those that have really profited by
is precious and time imployed in acting our joy on creature-comforts it is to fit us for better joys A day of prosperity must not be a day of joy when we have gone a whoring from God Hos 9.1 In regeneration and sanctification the affection of joy is renewed A new creature and a new joy It is the godly mans practice to make heavenly things his chiefest joy Joy rectified rejoyces in nothing contrary unto God in nothing above God in nothing equal unto God in all things for God Make God and Christ and the Word the center and complacency of thy soul the rule and reason of all thy delight in other things In a word delight in spiritual things first and last onely and most ALL the Saints in this life some way or other they have or they shall have their afflictions That father that doth alwaies dandle his childe upon his lap may be a fond father but hee is but a foolish father God in his wisdome he will not let us bee alwaies dandled upon the lap of pleasure God loves his children yet he makes not wantons of them Wee have a mixture of grace and sin therefore wee must have a mixture of mercy and affliction Sorrow shall never cease to bee untill sin cease to bee The least sin is a greater evill than the greatest affliction therefore God makes use of affliction to cure his people of their sin A wicked man is bad under affliction a childe of God never better A rose is never so sweet as under the Still Faith gets more by affliction than mercy Faith gets more love by mercy but more strength by affliction The less a childe of God hath of affliction the less of faith and patience The more the Bullock is accustomed to the yoke the more quiet There is not so much danger of spiritual pride under afflictions as under mercies Affliction laies the soul low in humility but lifts it up in heavenly mindedness Whom have I in heaven but thee God may condemn a man to prosperity in this life so as that prosperity shal both increase and secure his ruine As God sometimes scatters his blessings in wrath so now and then hee throws away his rod in wrath Gods judgements may be secret to the persons afflicted they cannot be injurious they come not by chance but by special direction from God For a man to say it is my chance or my hard hap is the language of Ashdod of a Philistine 1 Sam. 6.9 Afflictions as they are the candle of the Lord whereby hee searches our hearts and makes inquiry into our lives so they are the voyce of the Lord that wee would search and try our hearts too When God smites hee doth as it were judge thee and those afflictions command thee to judge thy self As the instructing voyce of affliction is that God is displeased so the exhorting voice is seek my face Every lash is seek and pray Seek Gods face more than the removal of Gods judgements Hee doth not lay on so much as hee is able to afflict but a the Saints are able to bear God will either bring down the Saints afflictions to their strength or raise up their strength to their afflictions Now if thou beest not the better for being the worse thou maiest suspect thy self Thou needest no other art of memory besides misery If smarting here will save from smarting hereafter refuse not the chastening of the Lord neither bee grieved at his correction When Gods hand is on thy back let thy hand bee on thy mouth When the father hath the rod in his hands the childe falls upon his knees Let Judah repent of the evill of her waies and God will repent of the evill of his punishments Providence layes the plaster but grace makes the cure The work of the Devil is to destroy us the work of grace is to try us God hath a great deal of honour not onely by the truth of grace but by the trial of grace Wheresoever God chastiseth there hee is there hee is in mercy By affliction hee separates the sin that hee hates from the sinner that hee loves Hee that continues faithful unto death shall receive a crown of life The ready way to the crown is by the cross Those that are saved souls are most of them afflicted souls THe glory of our hereafter glory will bee in oneness of communion with the Father Son and Spirit and one another in God who is one in all and all in one Death to the Saints is a guide to convey them to happiness to the wicked as a Jaylor to carry them to the place of execution It is good for us to bee here saith Peter but it is better for mee to depart saith St. Paul Here wee are like Martha cumbered about many things there wee are like Mary at the feet of our Saviour If you live holily like a sound Christian upon earth you shall live happily like the glorious Angels in heaven It is the peculiar priviledge of the Saints to appear in glory when Christ appears Redemption of the soul from sin was the end of Christs first coming redemption of the bodies of the Saints is the end of Christs second coming The bodies of the Saints are members of Christ joyned in a mystical and perpetual union unto Christ Union and intimate relation to Jesus Christ as it is the ground of so it infallibly infers communication of grace and glory from Christ Seeing the union of the body is certain the glory of the body is certain likewise The bodies of the Saints are in part sanctified by Christs first coming and therefore shall bee hereafter glorified by his second coming Sanctification begun is a forerunner of glorification hereafter A man that would reap glory must sow grace The best of a Christian is to come The state of a Christian is nothing in real possession to what it is in reversion The onely way for thee to make good provision for thy soul is to bee a Saint And here is your duty 1 To live in unity Eph. 4.3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace 2 To keep the Saints company Psal 16.3 But to the Saints that are in the earth and to the excellent in whom is all my delight 3 To pray for the Saints Ephes 6.18 Praying alwaies with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all Saints 4 To have the bowels of compassion towards all the Saints Phil. 2.1 2. If there bee therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels of mercies fulfil yee my joy that yee be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one minde 5 To help thy brother out of sin Gal. 6.1 Brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault yee which are spiritual restore such an one in the Spirit of meekness considering thy self lest thou also be tempted 6 To provoke to goodness Heb. 10.24 And let us consider one another to provoke to love and good works 7 To relieve the Saints Act. 4.34 35. Neither was there any among them that lacked for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the prices of the things that were sold and laid them down at the Apostles feet and distribution was made to every man according as he had need 8 To imitate the Saints so far as you have Christ for an example 1 Cor. 11.1 Be ye followers of mee even as I also am of Christ FINIS Books sold by Elisha Wallis at the gilded Hors-shooe in he Old Taylor MR. Caryll his exposition on the fourth fifth sixth seventh twenty seaventh twenty eighth twenty ninth thirty and thirty first chapters of the book of Job in Quarto Mr. Robinsons Christian Armour Octo. Mr. Ellis his Pastor and the Clark or a debate real concerning Infant-Baptism wherein 1 the truth of the doctrine is afresh cleared 2 the Scriptures alledged for it vindicated 3 the objections usual briefly answered 4 the seeds-men of them truly ciphered together with some retractations of the Authour and repentings in reference to the late civil and ecclesiastical changes Octo. A vindication of the Civil Magistrates power and authority in matters of Religion with a refutation of the toleration of all Religions among Christians with the judgement of the reformed Churches concerning the same Quarto Dr. Thomas Taylors works in two volumes in folio First Volume 1 An exposition on Christs temptations 2 On Peters Sermon before Cornelius 3 Circumspect walking 4 A three-fold Alphabet of rules for Christian practise Second Volume 1 An exposition on the 32 Psalm 2 The parable of the sower 3 A map of Rome With several other Sermons FINIS The Dying Fathers Living Legacy