Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A75227
|
A New-Years gift: or, Advice to a god-son. By P.A. Gent.
|
P. A., Gent.
|
1696
(1696)
|
Wing A25A; ESTC R203728
|
16,553
|
78
|
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