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A48116 A letter of advice to a young gentleman of an honourable family, now in his travels beyond the seas for his more safe and profitable conduct in the three great instances, of study, moral deportment, and religion : in three parts / by a True son of the Church of England. True son of the Church of England. 1688 (1688) Wing L1566; ESTC R7895 45,890 138

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of Grace and other vertuous Accomplishments as full of Words Vanity and other vitious Habits and Inclinations Now Sir if you should unhappily Miscarry which the Lord of his great Mercy prevent as it would be the greatest mischief to your self so not only your Parents hopes of your Youth but the Staff and Comfort of their Age will lie a bleeding to their unexpressible Grief and Sorrow These Considerations have very much affected me which I took the freedom to mention to some of your Friends when I first heard of their Design of sending you beyond Sea and upon more due and serious deliberation do now with more considence yet humbly communicate my Thoughts to you upon these Subjects For I am very well assured that considering me as a Divine and True Friend I shall not incur the least suspicion of being herein too bold or presumptuous and will think my self sufficiently apaid if thro God's Blessing I may be an happy Instrument in doing the least good to your Soul. I know it would be the greatest Happiness to your self as well as a Comfort to all your Friends if you be persuaded by any means to fall in love with Religion betimes and remember your Creator in the Days of your Youth Eccles 12.1 This has been for many Ages the glory and support of your Family which has been always eminent for Religion and Loyalty nor could there ever be less Danger of a degenerous Heir not to slatter you Sir nor puff you up nor greater Hopes of its establishment to future Generations But before we come to the Point give me leave to note to you for your greater Security That you 'l be in danger of meeting with many Brokers of Villany whose Trade and Business it is to pervert and do live upon the Spoils and Ruins of Young Gentlemen insomuch that scarce any Person of your Quality can travel into Foreign Parts but he shall be mightily caress'd and treated with so much respect and civility as if it were a pleasure to be seduced We know very well what Stratagems are used by some Men to undermine the sacred Foundations of the Doctrin and Worship of the Church of England insomuch that before his Majesties Declaration of Indulgence neither Laws nor Penalties could restrain them What then will they not dare to attempt within their own Territories and Jurisdictions especially when they meet with Persons of Temper and Quality who are inclin'd and dispos'd as you are to Religion And seeing also they have not only free scope and priviledge but encouragement to seduce so that 't is next to impossible not to be assaulted at least by their close and cunning Insinuations There have been alass too many perverted already the loss of whom joyned with the Churches we have sufficient cause to lament And indeed 't is a great wonder we have lost no more and let us praise God for it considering the importunate Methods and Plausibleness of our Adversaries on the right hand and on the left who like those infected with the Plague have always an itching desire of tainting others Wherefore none can blame the Clergy of the Church of England if we be as zealous for Truth as our Adversaries of Falshood which Argument alone might be a sufficient Apology for this Undertaking I have read Sir of some Countries I wish your Curiosity may not carry you thither whose chief Vertues modestly speaking do very much border either on Impiety or Superstition and yet those very Places as Travellers observe which are most worth seeing are of all others the most contagious Now 't is no small difficulty for a Young Gentleman to be chast and vertuous in the midst of Sodom and few have travell'd thither however they may please themselves with variety of Objects and returned home without some dangerous Tincture either of Sin and Wickedness or Schism and Sedition Thus I have noted in general what Temptations and Hazards you are exposed to amongst Foreigners and the greatest of all is the danger of being corrupted and contaminated in your Religion and Manners And 't is certain tho your Tutors be never so careful yet much must be left to your own Temper and Inclination how to sever Good from Evil For there 's no Man proves Factious Superstitious or extreamly Wicked on a sudden but thro several Declinations falls by degrees from Vertue and Religion Seeing then so many Temptations and Snares may await you in every Place where you come which no Mans Prudence can foresee and your own Heart prove deceitful and forward to betray you Therefore I beseech you be constantly upon your Guard and if your Tutors should either be negligent or persidious as many have been in the like Trust and I could name some of them yet thro the Assistance of God's Grace you may secure your Religion and Conscience inviolable But for the further prevention of their Machinations who lie in wait to deceive and your Establishment and Confirmation in the Religion of the Church of England I offer these Three following Particulars to your serious and impartial Consideration And First I shall give you a true tho short Account of the Constitution of the Church of England both as to her Doctrin and Worship or Discipline which I hope may for ever oblige you to continue in her Communion Secondly We shall enquire a little into the Principles and Practices of the Romish Church and Religion wherein they chiefly differ from Vs A Religion of all others within the Pail of the Christian Church the most pleasing and delightful to Flesh and Blood A Religion which no Man scarce can comply with especially if he has been bred up in the Church of England but must offer violence to his own Reason and Conscience if he pretends to either Thirdly We shall consider the Pretensions Reasons and Arguments which our Brethren of the Non-conformity have urged in their own Defence to palliate their Separation from our Communion and seduce others By all which I hope 't will evidently appear that there cannot be the least colour of Reason nor any thing like Argument to tempt much less to persuade you or any other Person of Parts and Education who is not blinded with Passion Interest or Prejudice to separate from the most truly Orthodox and best constituted Church in the whole World I mean the Church of England Of all these severally And First Of the Religion of our Church both as to its Doctrin and Worship or Discipline And First Concerning her Doctrin Wherein 't is most plain and evident That we have a clear Profession of all Fundamental Truths and Duties both to God and Man in our Creeds Commandments Lords Prayer and the Doctrin of the Two Sacraments which every Orthodox and Believing Christian in the whole World will readily subscribe and say Amen to Our Sabbaths are duly observed and kept with the greatest Reverence and Solemnity God's Holy Word is purely and faithfully preach'd his Sacraments duly
administred according to our Blessed Saviours own Institution We worship God viz. the One Divine Essence and Trinity of Persons in Spirit and Truth in and thro' Christ without the Mediation of Saints and Angels We hope for and believe the Remission of Sins and Salvation of our Souls and Bodies by the Merits of Christ alone thro' the Mercies of God and upon the condition of a sincere and unseigned Repentance Which Repentance in the Judgment of our Church implies a true Sight and Confession of hearty arrow for and the hatred and forsaking of all our former Sins with a stedfast Resolution never to return to them again with any consent delight or approbation and the use of all possible Endeavours to put these Resolutions in practice even to our Lives End So that if we shall at any time fall into the commission of the least Sin or the neglect of any Duty either wilfully or by infirmity and surprize we do again seriously and solemnly renew our Repentance and are never at peace with our Selves and in our Consciences till we be again reconciled unto God or our Neighbour whom we have offended And this we do as well after as before our Conversion not daring to continue in any one sin unrepented of unreformed When we have thus renounced and abandon'd Sin the World and the Devil as our deadly Enemies we think our selves further oblig'd to magnifie and adorn our Profession by the Works and Fruits of Piety and true Holiness Justice and Charity Purity and Sobriety Tit. 2.12 and to perform all and every one of these Duties both to God and Man without Partiality without Hypocrisie This is a short Specimen of the Doctrin and Fundamentals of our Religion which in all and every particular are warranted and recommended to Us by God's infallible Word and the concurrent Suffrages and Confessions of all the Churches of Christ in the Primitive and Purest Ages of the Gospel And as the Doctrin of our Church is Sound and Orthodox so Secondly Our Worship and Discipline is truly Antient and Apostolical For there 's not one single Passage in our Liturgy and Church Service and Circumstantials of Worship our most rigid Adversaries being Judges that is either Anti-Scriptural or Sinful but do all very much conduce to Decency Order Vniformity and the Edification of its Members All which I could easily make appear to you by an Induction of Particulars insomuch that there 's not one National Church under the Cope of Heaven that 's more Orthodox than Ours in Her whole Worship and Politie Consult and examine our Liturgy Articles Homilies Canons and Constitutions Ceremonies c. and there you 'l find a truly Primitive and Apostolical Spirit in the disposition of the several Parts for the Honour and Glory of God and Advancement of his true Religion and Worship amongst Vs And for a further Testimony hereof and your own particular Satisfaction read when you can have the convenience of those Books and leisure to read 'em Hookers Ecclesiastical Politie Dr. Comber's large Volume on our Church Liturgy and Dr. Falkner's Libertas Ecclesiastica which Triumvirate are sufficiently able to answer all the Doubts and Scruples of any unbiast and unprejudiced Reader Besides I can give you a Catalogue of such Books when you please to command it as have treated so learnedly judiciously and convincingly of the Religion of the Church of England in all the Points of Faith Worship and Discipline as will furnish you with such Reasons and Arguments as neither Papist nor Phanatick were ever yet able to answer Let your Religion then and that Church into which you were admitted and initiated by Baptism and in whose Communion you have been hitherto educated be as dear to you as your Estate and Life Remit nothing of your Love and Affection Zeal and Courage to defend it when you are thereunto lawfully called For the Doctrin and Worship of our Church has been transmitted to Us by our pious Ancestors with all the Sanctions both of divine and humane Authority and as sure as there is a God the Religion which you profess came down from Heaven For the everlasting Prince of Peace has consign'd and confirm'd it to Us by the Effusion of his own precious Blood and the Suffrage of many Saints and Martyrs in this Kingdom so that you have not the least reason to scruple your Compliance with and Conformity to it If therefore an Angel or Devil or any ill Men should at any time suggest the contrary to you have no Communication with him but reject him as an utter Enemy and Impostor And when you have more leisure opportunity and experience your Curiosity may lead you to read over and consider the Canons and Constitutions of the Greek and Latin Churches wherein you 'l find the true State of Things and Times the Beginnings Proceedings Increases Encounters Yieldings and Restaurations of the Gospel and what the Primitive Fathers did and suffer'd for the propagation of the Christian Religion and the interest of the Church And herein you 'l also see the Conformity of our Church of England Men since the beginning of the Reformation to the Primitive Pattern And when you have thus made some considerable Progress in inquiring into the Fundamentals and Superstructures of our Religion you 'l be better able to judge of the Opinions and Errors of those that differ from Us. But till you have more time and convenience to inform your self as to the Particulars I shall present you Secondly With a true and brief Account of Popery or the Doctrin and Practices of the Church of Rome as to those Particulars wherein they differ from the Church of England For which cause we are forced to separate from them since we cannot communicate with them without sin nor have we departed further from 'em than they have departed from Themselves and the Truth Now for Method's sake we shall consider also First The Principles or Doctrin And Secondly The Practices of the pretended Catholicks of the Romish Church Whereby 't will evidently appear that Popery if rightly understood is no such beautiful and charming Object as to allure any Man of Reason and Conscience to fall in love with it And First For the Principles of Popery and we are obliged to call them so because they are so esteem'd and accounted by their own Church For since their Council of Trent no Man can properly be admitted into the Romish Communion however in Popish Countries but shall be censured and condemned as a damn'd Heretick unless he believes as followeth viz. That a Mortal Man as the Pope in Cathedra or as some say with his Council of Cardinals is infallible knows all things and can err in nothing that he directs informs animates and commands both in Earth and Purgatory expounds Scripture forgives Sins canonizeth Saints creates new Articles of Faith and in all these and many other of the same Stamp and Character is as absolute and infallible as his Maker But
not indulge your self in any one Lust neither commit the least sin with delight and approbation because even those which we think are the smallest will prove Decoy's and Incentives to greater vain and sinful Thoughts proceeding to Words and Words to Deeds So that in this Progress of Wickedness a Man knows not where to stop till he has plunged himself into the most dangerous and irreparable Mischiefs And then on the other hand for your Positive Duties you should always propose God's Glory the happiness of your self and others as the End and his infallible Word and the Dictates of sober Reason as the Rule and Standard to govern all your Affairs by For without this your best Endeavours will prove either unprofitable or sinful Whereas if you observe this Method and your Intentions be sincere tho you fail in many Instances of Duty and unwillingly fall into some Sins and Errors yet God will be gracious in not imputing them and pass Judgment upon you according to the general Frame and Tendency of your Life if you do not wilfully and wickedly continue in any known Sin or the neglect of any known Duty 'T is observable hence what Obligations you lie under to avoid the most accursed and tempting Company of profane Swearers gluttonous Persons Wine-Bibbers unchast Men and Women c. I have singled out those Vices on purpose which are most incident to Youth and given you the most seasonable Advice I can think of to vanquish and overcome them Reject therefore every Temptation to sin and wickedness in the first Assault and the Conquest will be easie and certain Lament and deplore your past Failings and humbly beg the assistance of God's Grace and Spirit that you may be more watchful over your self and ways for the future Now the best and most certain Means to avoid greater Sins is to make Conscience of the less For the least Sin is damnable in the sight of God and when the work of Regeneration is wrought in you beware of Relapsing consider the dangers of habitual Sin and Apostasie from Grace and exert all your Endeavours to live in the exercise of a Conscience void of offence both towards God and Man For so the whole Time of your short aboad in this World will be pleasant and comfortable and your Death happy There are some other little things I desire to note to you before I leave this Point And First Beware of Swimming which you 'l probably be allured to in those Low Countries the most being dexterous in that Art For tho it may save a Mans Life in case of necessity yet a vain Currosity herein may expose you to the greatest Dangers and Hazards Therefore if you should attempt it for your Pleasure exceed not your own Depth and in seeking to save another have a care you drown not your self Secondly Your Gesture and Deportment should neither be light nor insolent nor wanton For the Life and Soul of true Honour is in generous Qualities and a modest and affable Carriage but yet with a comely regard to your self and such as becomes a Gentleman whose Mind is furnished with worthy and generous Spirits But in this Point as in his abstinence from the Vices and practice of all the Vertues hitherto recommended you have an admirable Pattern in your dear and worthy Father almost beyond Example whose temper and sweetness of Disposition has deservedly recommended him to the Favour and made him honourable and respected amongst all Persons of all Ranks and Conditions Yet be careful to avoid the other Extreme of affected Easiness or Compliance lest your good Disposition should be imposed upon by others Deceit and your own too much Credulity For too much Familiarity and Fawning is always rewarded either with Flattery or Contempt Thirdly What concerns your Bodily Deportment Wrestling Fencing and other Feats of Arms and Military Skill and how far all or any of these are expedient or necessary to be understood or practised I must leave to your self and better Judgments for Advice and Direction for these are not my Province What other Vertues or Vices may occur in your Conversation with others which my designed Brevity and the Occasion I write upon have persuaded me to omit you should note and observe them and make that use of them at least to improve and correct your own For what you dislike or admire in others study and endeavour to avoid the Evil and strive to imitate what is vertuous and commendable And when you have seriously consider'd all those several Rules and Arguments which under this Head do concern your Manners and Deportment you 'l be pleas'd to go one step farther to the last Branch of this faithful and friendly Advice which will have a more peculiar Respect to your Religion The End of the Second Part. ADVICE TO A YOUNG GENTLEMAN Of an Honourable FAMILY Now in His TRAVELS Beyond the SEA'S c. PART III. Of RELIGION THE Business of Religion is the grand Concernment that all of us are sent into the World to mind and our eternal Happiness or Misery depends on the right knowing and acknowledging of God or mistakes about it We had need therefore be very accurate in the choice of that Religion we intend to live and die in and venture our eternal Salvation upon Now there are many Opinions in the World concerning Religion and we may be easily imposed on and deluded if we make not a prudent and wise Choice I shall not trouble you with an account of Heathenism Mahometanism and Judaism For these are all false Religions and contrary to the whole scope and design of the Gospel which being without the Lines of Christian Communication we leave 'em to themselves and the righteous Judgment of God. We Christians know no other way to Salvation but One and that 's by Faith in Christ Jesus and therefore we think our selves obliged to believe the Principles of Christianity with all our Hearts and live according to them For there 's no other name under Heaven whereby we can expect or hope for Salvation but the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ Acts 4.12 Yet there are many Differences not only Circumstantial but Fundamental even amongst those that are called Christians which disturb the Peace of the Church and ruine the Souls of many private Persons as will appear more fully afterwards But 't is more immediately my Design to recommend to you and inforce the Belief and Practice of the truly Primitive and Reformed Religion as now solemnly and publickly profess'd and by Law establish'd in the Church of England I have not the least cause to doubt or suspect but that your Parents did seriously weigh and consider when they sent you abroad the Minority of your Age and Judgment which yet without your own extraordinary care and caution may hurry you unawares into the peril of Miscarriage For alas how many young Gentlemen have lost their Hopes and themselves in Foreign Adventures and return'd home as empty
Worship in the greatest detestation and abhorrence because they know 't is impossible that Popery should ever return upon Us or be establisht again in England while our Common-Prayer-Book is kept unaltered For the whole Form of our Worship is point blank contrary to Image-Worship praying to Angels and Saints Propitiatory Sacrifice Doctrin of their Sacraments Transubstantiation c. And this is the true Reason why they do so mortally hate both Vs and our Religion And again those Prayers in our Liturgy which were taken out of the Mass-Book are many of them the Collects and Devotions of the Antient Fathers which were in use before ever Popery was known in the World which being purged from the Popish Superstition by our Reformers are now lawfully used by the Church of England according to their Original Institution Insomuch that those who cavil at our Service because some part of it is used by the Papists may as well find fault with the Epistles and Gospels Psalms Chapters Creeds Commandments Lords Prayer c. these being also in the Papists Mass-Book Having fully cleared this first Objection we pass to the 2. And they charge Us again with many Corruptions Additions Defects and circumstantial Errors in our Set Form of Worship and Discipline for they have no Objections against our Doctrin and Fundamentals and for those seeming Reasons they think themselves obliged to withdraw and separate from our Communion Answer This may seem to be a weighty Objection at the first sight and the most plead it being joined with the former which we have answered to the full as the Cause why they think and speak so hardly of our Church and desert our Communion But they might be persuaded to alter their Opinion if laying aside all Prejudice they would but seriously and impartially consider these few Things And 1. 'T is a true and undoubted Maxim that all Persons are obliged to hold Communion with the National and Establish'd Church where they live and must by no means separate from it tho there be some circumstantial Additions Errors and Defects in its external Worship Politie or Discipline For 't is plain that the Prophets and People of God did not separate from but held Communion with the Jews in their Publick Worship tho there were very many and great Defects and Corruptions c. both in their Doctrin and Practice This is clear in many Instances For the solemn Ordinances of God as Circumcision and the Passover were for a long time a-wanting and such Monuments of Idolatry were set up as not only the People thereby became superstitious and immoral but even the Priests also as Eli's two Sons c. brought a Scandal upon their Religion Were not these greater Faults than any of our fiercest Adversaries can charge upon us And yet for all that we sind not one President of so much as any single Person that departed from their Communion 2. At the time of our B. Saviours coming into the World the Jewish Worship was exceedingly corrupted with the Leaven of the Pharisees the Heresie of the Sadduces who denied the Immortality of the Soul and the Resurrection of the Body Besides the whole Service of God was intolerably prophaned the Temple polluted Religion subverted Judgment and the Love of God trampled upon and neglected many needless and superstitious Ceremonies interlarded with their Worship the People addicted to all manner of Wickedness and even the Priests themselves very heterodox and dissolute both in their Faith and Manners And yet at that time we find several religious Persons both Men and Women with great Zeal and Devotion worshiping God in the Temple as Zachary and Simeon Hannah and Elizabeth c. And our Blessed Saviour himself was by his pious Parents presented in the Temple according to the Custom and Law of Moses He afterwards kept the Passover and all the Festivals of the Jewish Church frequented and taught daily in the Temple in their Synagogues gave Honour and Reverence and paid Tribute to their Rulers nor did he ever desert their Communion till he was forced to retire to save his own Life So that he thought it necessary and so did those other Votaries to join in Gods Publick Worship notwithstanding those great Errors and Defects which thanks be to God are not chargeable upon Us. But 3. There were many Errors and Defects both in the Doctrin and Practice of the then slourishing Churches of Corinth Galatia c. and yet the Apostle S. Paul was so far from encouraging a Schism in and Separation from the Communion of those Churches that he threatens those Persons with the severest Punishments who were the Instruments in fomenting and promoting those Animosities and Divisions Nor is there any one Instance or President in the whole Scripture to warrant our departure from any Church that is Sound and Orthodox in her Principles however erroneous and corrupt in the Politie and Circumstantials of Divine Worship We might hereunto add 4. The concurrent Judgments and Opinions of the most Eminent and Reformed Divines beyond Sea who have unanimously declared their Dislike of a Separation from our Communion as Calvin Bullinger Bucer and many others And tho they dissented from Us in lesser Things yet held Communion and Correspondence with our Church Church-men as may appear by their several Letters to our Reformers and would have been glad if their Circumstances would have allowed our Form of Church Politie and deservedly preferr'd it to any Church Government in the World. But to argue yet more closely 5. If any will refuse our Communion and separate from Us because there are some pretended Errors in the Discipline and Circumstantials of our Worship which yet none have ever been able to prove against Us they 'l be obliged upon the same score to withdraw their Communion from all the Churches in Christendom For what Church Government shall they be ever able to assign that 's so pure and sincere as to be wholly exempted from Circumstantial Errors and Defects And were there not more Faults in the Worship of the Primitive Churches for the five first Centuries than are at present in Ours Are there no Errors in the Worship Constitutions and Ecclesiastical Government of Geneva and Amsterdam I 'm sure many of their Learned Divines have ingenuously acknowledg'd that all things were not according to their Desire and yet did not think it Prudence to alter the Government for the sake of some small Errors In short our Dissenting Brethren must either disclaim these Conceits or turn Hermits and Anchorets live in a Cell or Wilderness and even depart from themselves who as I could easily shew them are guilty of as many if not more and greater Faults and Errors in their little Assemblies than can be justly charged upon Vs or the Liturgy and Government of the Church of England Whither would not these wild and extravagant Fancies carry any Man that shall give way to them So that they must either prove their own Churches