Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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B03435
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A fathers advice to his son at the university: wherein is hinted some general directions, which may be usefully read by persons of any age or sex.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing F553A; ESTC R176976
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82,678
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160
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good thing as is convenient for every person in their Station And from the goodness of God every thing being made for the use of man man's using it moderatly is not only allowable but required Yet I intreat you beware that as an Expression of your kindness ye do not in any measure perswade your Friend to insobrietie for there is indeed no grain of real Kindness or Affection in tempting your friend to be as a Beast if not worse than such 73. You may after this apprehend I should have imparted to you my Opinion anent the Government of the Church and the Nature of your Alledgeance to the Civil Magistrat but these Heads being not to be handled but where there is suitable ability and discretion for doing thereof is Argument enough for my not doing of it I have already written more than I intended and my attempting any thing of this kind would engage me far beyond my design Nor do I consider my self fitted becomingly upon evident Grounds to hold forth wherein Presbytery is the Government most warranted from the Word of God and nearest to that in the first ages of the Church albeit I be satisfied of its being so and sees no ground from Scripture allowing what is assumed by Bishops that Title being therein given to such as were Overseers of their Flock and not of their Brethren in the Ministrie for their pretending to so great preferment and power in Jurisdiction to a negative Voice and the power of sole Ordination with other of their pretences are without all Warrand from the same and from which Office to the reproach of Religion and being an in-let to Errour and Wickedness has plainly proceeded the Pretentions and Corruptions of the Church of Rome for albeit the maintaining of the Popes Infallibility Purgatory Transubstantiation Invocation of Saints and the almost innumerable other Fopperies of that Perswasion be but the Consequents of the Corruptions of that Church yet hath the Papacie first and naturally had its Rise from Episcopacie nor can I see why there is not as much Reason for there being a Supreme Bishop over the whole Catholick Church as there is for there being an Arch-Bishop over a National I remember where before I was requiring of your love to your Brethren even differing in the Essentials of Religion but especially such as differs only anent Church-Government I have said it to be too much the practice of many to trouble themselves with Niceties which Word may seem to infer in me great indifference in the contraverted Points betwixt Presbytery and Episcopacy but I did only therein mean the later Practices and Principles of such as but too eagerly pretend to be the more refined part of Professors yet shall I say I do believe there are of the Episcopal Perswasion such as are among the best of Men and that since Episcopacy was brought into the Church there has been some Bishops in all Ages and in some Ages many who were truly Pious and Worthy but to my Apprehension what in this Kingdom may satisfie such as are not able duely to weigh the Controversies betwixt these Perswasions is the palpable decay and almost utter-failing of Christian-walk and Conversation under Episcopacy I do not consider my self able to defend Presbytery in all its Principles and much less can I say that all Presbyterian Ministers or Professors are in their Profession and Practice what is desirable yet is the advantage palpable upon that side for Prophanity has been I may say at least in this Kingdom the Concomitant of the other yea to such a Degree that Swearing and doing of almost every kind of Wickedness were the infallible Marks of Respect to that Government This may seem to you a severe and uncharitable Censure but it was too palpable for in their rigorous and unchristian Persecution of their Brethren of the other Perswasion it was undeniably evident that the doing of what evidenced Prophanity was the ready way for their deliverance As I am satisfied there may be good Men of both Perswasions so I can say I do from my heart wish that their only Strife may be who shall love one another most and live nearest to the 〈◊〉 of the Gospel of our Blessed Lord. And for Alledgiance to the Civil Magistrat the nature of it hath been at least in thir late times so much canvassed and the differing Notions thereof so much defended as puts it beyond my reach to say any thing satisfyingly to you thereanent Whatever my own Inclination hath been to Loyalty yet could I never come up to that height as to think that the Supreme Government in any person or Family was intended only as an honour or advantage to them but that its principal end was the good of the Society they were to Govern and that it is possible the Case may exist wherein it may be the duty of Subjects so to act as the end may not be inverted and destroyed It is above my reach to set bounds to and limite how far the Alledgeance of Subjects tyes them to Obedience but I am fully satisfied it were the interest of Subjects to consider their Tyes therein very great There are in many places of Scripture plain and positive Precepts requiring it And surely a Subjects giving Passive Obedience even when he thinks himself or may be truly wronged is what he will have most Peace in upon serious Reflection and when the great day of accompting for our Actions comes it is more than probable Challenges will be for refusing and not giving at least Passive Obedience to the Civil Magistrate And it may with some confidence be affirmed that many for Rebellion and Disobedience may be rejected but few or none for being Passive will be refused Mercy Son I have hinted to you some Directions in this I have written and after this when years brings you to greater knowledge it may with some reason appear to you that I have omitted many things necessar and has not suitablie urged and enlarged upon what I have hinted at and that I have written some things which are not necessar under your present Circumstances and which may fall out never to be useful to you to which I shall say that albeit my Capacitie did allow or yet is it not my design either to write upon every thing that might have occurred or to enlarge upon what I have hinted at But having from experience observed in some things what is obviously apparent in the Actions of Men I have given you brierly my Opinion thereanent and for what I have said in relation to a State of Life from which you are yet at a distance If it shall so fall out that my Advice to you therein be not necessar you have but little lost Labour in reading of it and as by the course of Nature I ought to die before you So I intreat you whilst you live as any thing occurrs in your being in the World that has any relation to what I have
A FATHERS Advice to his SON AT THE Vniversity Wherein is hinted some general Directions which may be usefully read by Persons of any Age or Sex Printed by the Heir of Andrew Anderson Printer to Their most Excellent Majesties Anno 1693. And are to be sold at their Shop and at Mrs. Ogstoun's Shop in the Parliament Closs To the Reader THese two following Letters written by a Gentleman to his Son at the University came to my hand without any other notice whose they were then that they were the sincere desires of a country Gentleman to the Heir of his Family at the University and by some Circumstances of their conveyance to me I had ground to believe the Gentleman was of the West I was desired to read them and I must confess the more I read I was ever the better satisfied You have not here any thing of gaudy language nay nor that gayety and quaint neatness of expression that is so much the study of the men of this Age who love to appear abroad in the World And therefore you may be sure the Author had not the publishing of them in his view they being dressed up by him as the private paternal Advices of a Father to his Son Nor will you find here any thing as to the Subject of what is writ but what you have very well discoursed of by many who make it their design to treat of the Education of youth But if you do seriously consider the sincerity of the Author you 'll find in all his words a weighty Ingenuity that will bear home deeper Convictions of the solidity and moment of the Advices given than if they were set off with more delicate words they come from a country Gentleman by whom solid Truth in a plain Dress and Religion in a simple primitive Garb is more valued than with a pompous ceremonious Attire It hath rendered these Letters more dear to me that therein I find a wonderful contexture of the deepest impression of Religion and an honourable concern for all the points of true Gallantry with what care and solicitude doth he press home the serious minding of soul concerns and of an Eternity that doth approach us all as if that were the only thing to be minded by us yet with such vigorous endeavours of preparing for and the managing the affairs of a present life as if his Son were always to live How truly noble is it to see a Gentleman alse warmly concerned to entail the Grace of God to his Posterity as he is to leave it the opulency of a Fortune and honor of a Family If the Author had been a Minister of the Gospel what is writ had passed as an ordinary effect of faithfulness and diligence in his Employ but being from a Gentleman living it seems upon his private Fortune at home the Words are to be the more regarded and the person more esteemed A Minister preacheth the Gospel from the Precepts and Promises in the Word of God this Gentleman with a suitable regard to the Word and the preached Gospel doth evidence the reality and life of Religion by his own experience and practice and therefore presses it on his Son That calmness in his temper when he treats of matters of Religion and of the Government of the Church is worthy of all imitation and gives an irrefragable demonstration that there may be a Presbyterian and that in the West of Scotland that hath a suitable esteem of worthy men of differing Perswasions and who are more concerned about the life and kernel of Religion then either the husks or shells though they be the Safe-guards and Ornaments of the same and though this Gentleman lived in a Country and manifests a Perswasion that without all question he was a sharer in the Sufferings that were for so long a time wrapt about these of his Country and perswasion yet the whole of his Letters are far from publick resentment or revenge I reckon it no small Glory that as that part of the Kingdom in a special manner had it for their lot and submitted to it cheerfully even those of the best quality to suffer for the Interests of Religion and were eminent for faithfulness therein so now when God is pleased by a marvellous cast of His own Right-hand to give a merciful change of Providences That there are found in that Country Gentlemen of Note as vigorously to act and do in their Stations to adorn Religion by their Practises and commend it by their Precepts and endeavour to transmit the same to posterity and it is to me a very encouraging Token for good to this Church and Kingdom that as God is pleased to raise up Instruments in the Church and to grant access to his most faithful Servants to preach the Gospel so he is spiriting and stirring up some of other qualities and employs to presse home serious seeking of God and manly Religion If persons of all ranks were suitably concerned in their souls state and taken up with the study of a personal Reformation and were imitating this worthy Gentleman in such serious advices and laying such ties on their Posterity to give themselves unto God as you see he does the Reformation of a Church and Nation would have greater advance and would be a more cheerful work to the Governours of Church and State then many a time they find it I nothing doubt when with a serious eye you have perused these Sheets and how much massie reason and religion you find you will allow of my recommending the perusal thereof to all and in a special manner to the Youth at Universities the Advices here contained though not at first designed for you are very suitable to you and calculat for your station and age and it may be my recommendation will go the further with you that you only know that I am Your sincere wellwisher and humble Servant The Printer to the Reader Courteous Reader THe writer of these Sheets having it seems partly for his more easy comprehending thereof and partly as is said in the Letter here printed of its being done without any exactness upon several pieces of Paper as the Subject occurred written the sauce in Paragraphs in the printing they are numbred with some intention of adding an Index for the more ready finding the vertues exhorted to or the vices dehorted but the Paragraphs being so short and the Book of that bulk as the whole may be so easily perused it is not done and the Writer his not attending the Press and want of exactness in the written Copy has occasioned Errors in the printing there being in some places words wanting and in others words that ought to be delet sometimes one word for another or Letters wanting or added which makes what ought to be the Plural Number the Singular or the Singular the Plurar and the Pointing in many places as may occasion it s not being rightly read yet the mistakes being obvious to the judicious shall spare