remove do it the sooner the better Let not meer secular advantages keep thee there It is better being out of the warm Sun than out of Gods blessing And you that are fixed as a Wife Child an Apprentice count the want of Family-duty as your Affliction and groan under it as such and in your private addresses beg down if possible Mercy and Grace upon them Pray heartily for them who will neither pray for you nor for themselves the godly Wife for the ungodly Husband the gracious Child for the profane Parent and the Religious Servant for the Wicked Master or Mistress yea wrestle mightily in Prayer for them and with Iacob weep as well as make supplication and be sure to live up to the Laws of the Relations you stand in filling up your days with the duties of your places that though they will not practise Godliness they may see the power of it in its influences upon you If the Wife be peaceable and quiet loyal and loving respecting and reverencing her Husband the Children very dutiful and obedient the servants submissive diligent and faithful every one walking in the fear of God giving no cause of quarrelling with you or blaspheming Religion for your sakes In a word let your whole conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ. You see I have spent a great deal of time and taken no small pains in studying preaching and writing out all this discourse Oh! that it may not be in vain but all the better that have heard or shall read it to that end the good Lord accompany it with his Spirit and blessing bring you to this work keep you at it and help you so to manage your selves and families that after a Life of Prayer on Earth you may be taken up to a Life of Praise in Heaven where all your Wants shall be supplied all your Prayers answered and all your hopes accomplished then you will see the Word was your best rule the Ministers of Christ your real Friends and Religion your grand Interest when fury shall be poured out upon them that know not God and Hell shall receive the Families that call not upon his Name where there shall be no end of their torment and pain nor of their roaring cursing and blaspheming of that holy and righteous but terrible God whom they would not be persuaded to love seek and serve 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A POSTCRIPT HAVING said so much as I have done in this Book to the graver sort of Persons your Parents and Governours dear young ones and that not only for their sakes but yours also I have judged it fit to accompany that advice and counsel to them with a few words to you because you likewise are very nearly and greatly concerned and all means possible are to be made use of for the preventing your present miscarriage and eternal ruine You are now in the Morning of your Age and prime of your strength you have set forth and entred upon that Journey which will certainly bring you to your last home where you must take up your everlasting abode from whence there can be no remove and that will be either Heaven or Hell the Glorious Mansions above or the Bottomless Pit below where it is absolutely necessary for you to take heed to your ways and ponder all your goings to set out right at first and then to go straight on without turning either to the right hand or to the left otherwise you will be lost for if the way be not good the end cannot be peace as for such as turn aside unto their croâ—ked Paths the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity Psal. 125.5 It is too evident that multitudes of young ones through corrupt inclination and bad conduct have gone out of the way of life betimes and could never find it afterward Having made an early choice of Sin they grew harden'd in it and there being a judicial Tradition of them to the power thereof they went on to commit it with greediness living and dying its Votaries and Vassals and is it not sad to consider may it not well be matter of bitter lamentation that such Excellent Noble Creatures should be spoiled such precious immortal Souls should be irrecoverably lost that such sweet and lovely Blossoms should be utterly blasted that they who once were the hope of their Parents and might have been the Ornaments and Blessings of their Country should prove burthens and curses to them both God forbid that any of you should be so too for we have too many such already Therefore I pray God that you may and desire that you would be serious betimes get alone sit down and consider what you are where you are whether you are going what is for your interest and what against it labour to know and knowing mind those things which belong unto your peace youth will not always last nor the pleasures of it which you do now count so very sweet and delicious and run such desperate ventures for the enjoyment of A Sickness may quickly be sent of God and cover your faces with a dismal paleness pick the Marrow out of your Bones suck all the Milk out of your Breasts and convert all your strength into weakness faintness and tremblings your smiles may be turned into frowns your mirth into mourning your laughter into heaviness and your songs into sighs groans and shrieks Your own Consciences may arm against you as your enemy and God may so appear as to be your terrour and you may be then made to possess the iniquities of your youth when all the honey is spent and nothing but the sting left the pleasure is over and only the guilt remains whereby you are bound over to the suffering of the judgment written If you be not wise in this condition you may live and die and then you will see cause to wish you had never been born O! be you I beseech you be ye your own friends provide for your own peace and welfare and instead of working out your Damnation with joy jollity and self-pleasing chuse to work out your Salvation with fear and trembling since all the pleasures of Sin are but for a season do you seek out for and make sure of those which are at Gods right hand for evermore and since this life will be but short when drawn out to its greatest length do you lay hold upon that which is quite out of the reach of death that life which came from God and will be perfected in him And know how great a number soever the Prodigals and Profligate Youths of the present Age do amount to yet if you will be serious and truly religious you will not be alone there have been many choice and excellent Persons that went before you the Names of some together with their Character you meet with in the Sacred Records an Isaac who loved Meditation a Iacob that was set for the blessing and by a Vow bound
hath crowned your Conjugal Relation with Posterity but what is your Posterity but the Seed of evil doers Children of those that have corrupted themselves those pure Souls which were created by God were polluted and spoiled as soon as they entered into those bodies that came of you you did convey a cross froward depraved nature to your Children who therefore are so bad because they are yours It is said Gen. 5.3 Adam begat a Son in his Image and after his likeness not in the Image and likeness of God as Adam himself had been made at first but in his own Image in his Image not only as he was Man but also as he was lapsed Man his Son was like himself in Body and in Soul and in Sin and thus have the Sons of Adam done ever since Iob saith Iob 14.4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Man being unclean cannot make himself clean let them wash in tears let them wash with Snow water he cannot fetch out the dirt the spots and stains he cannot wash himself clean and being himself unclean he cannot produce and bring forth that which is clean That which is born of the flesh is flesh weak flesh sinful flesh that water which is soil'd and muddied at the Spring cannot be pure and clear in the Stream Aethiopissae Filius nigrum ab eâ Colorem trahit The Son of a Blackmoor will be a Blackmoor too You know there are hereditary Diseases as the Gout Stone Spleen Lethargie which commonly run in the blood and are transmitted by the Parents to their Children Sin is one of them it is the worst of them it sticks close and descends from Parents to Children and that from Generation to Generation without interruption without exception unless that of our dear Lord Jesus who was to be holy harmless undefiled and separate from Sinners that he might be a Sacrifice and a Saviour and in order thereunto came into the World in an extraordinary way of generation being formed in the Womb of a Virgin by the power of the Holy Ghost who over-shadowed her otherwise Sin doth inseparably follow Nature and never goeth out of the blood So that I may call Parents the Channels the Kennels the Common-Sewers in and through which all that abominable filth runs which defiles their otherwise lovely and desirable Children rendring them odious and abominable unto God And never carry your heads high because your Children are of a Noble or Gentile descent come of such a Family bear such account or because you can leave them a great Estate there is one thing alass that stains and spoils all that Glory viz. It is from you they have it that they are born Sinners And truly as there is a great deal of joy at the birth of an Infant because a Man-Child is Born into the World so there is reason why that joy should be upon this account somewhat allay'd and mingled with grief and sorrow that a Sinner is born into the World Secondly Let us consider you as the Heads Governours of Families are not your Families the worse for you you that are Husbands and Wives should be the better for one another and fill your Relations and carry in your places as those that are Co-heirs of the grace of life that you may have cause of blessing God you ever came together But reflect and curiously enquire are not you the worse for one another and are not your Children and Servants in some respects the worse for you both You that have no Religious Duties performed in your Houses are for certain very injurious to them by that your omission for you teach them Atheism neglect and contempt of God you teach them to live without God in the World like so many Brutes you do thereby teach them to neglect their precious and immortal Souls and to mind nothing but the concernments of a vile and perishing Body and the inferiour good things of a Transitory World But what do you think of your selves who are the best who walk most closely with God do you foot it so right that you do not sometimes tread awrie do you demean your selves with so much exactness that nothing amiss is to be discerned in you do you order your carriages and conversations with so much judgement and circumspection that they are without fault and blameless David saith Who can understand his errours and if thou Lord shouldest mark iniquities O Lord who shall stand and have you not read such passages as these in the Scriptures There is not a just Man upon Earth that liveth and sinneth not In many things we sin all If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us There are too many graceless Persons in the World but there is not one sinless Person there are many holy Persons who have been washed and justified and sanctified but not one that is cleansed from all filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit and who hath attained to a perfection in his holiness and can you think that your blemishes and miscarriages are invisible do not those that live and converse with you observe you yes they do and see more spots in your faces than you do in your own though you look in the glass and they will be exceeding apt to tread in your steps and to imitate you especially in that which is evil for unto that their own corrupt Nature doth incline and like a strong Bias carry them that way yea and your example shall be made use of and pleaded as their sufficient Warrant If they should be reproved by some sober judicious Persons for doing that which they should not they will justifie themselves thus I saw my Father or my Mother do so my Master or my Mistress do so and therefore I may do it too Poor things they do sometimes think of their Parents and Masters above that which is meet and not considering their imperfections and that body of Sin and Death which they carry about with them they do not in their following them make use of that caution which they ought to do Be serious my dear Friends be serious and consider whether your Children and Servants be not the worse for your Pride discovered in your haughty looks and lofty words and stately gestures and costly garbs and dresses the worse for your Passion shewn in sharpened Eyes furious Countenances and words like Swords and Daggers the worse for your mispence of time in vain visits frothy discourses games and recreations and lazy lying in Bed upon the Lord's Day till much of the morning is lost and a considerable part of the Publick Worship be over before you come into the Congregation In short are they not the worse for this and that and the other yea for many things which your own Consciences if you please to consult them and give them free leave to speak can and will inform you of far better than I can being every day
and by practising it they may fall in love with it for Childhood and youth are vanity and by consequence very apt to follow after vanity and in time they may come to love it so much as to consume and spend their time in it untill their purses be exhausted their Estates dwindled and shrunk into nothing and themselves with their Families reduced to beggery and a morsel of bread and at the same time their Souls are lost into the bargain and surely rather than that should come to pass it is a thousand thousand times more desirable that all the Cards in London in England yea in the World should with just indignation be Sacrificed in the Flames In short as to this I beg of you that you would do justly in giving to God the things which are Gods and let not Cards nor any other game hinder his Work and Service nor keep you from the performance of your Duty Many have been undone by gaming and thousands enrich'd by praying it was by this means that Iacob as a Prince had power with God and Men and did prevail Oh! that so much may suffice to be spoken to that complaint and Oh! that God would accompany it with his Spirit and Blessing There is another thing which is indeed the matter of a general Complaint and hath raised a great Cry that reached mine Ears and the Ears of many of my Reverend Brethren and that which renders it so much a Gravamen so grievous and afflictive to our spirits and those of other persons truly fearing God and concern'd for the Honour and Interest of our Religion which deserves to be dearer to us than our Lives is that it is the common yea daily custom not of the vile Debauchees of the Age the wicked and profane Crew from whom nothing is to be expected that savours of goodness and sobriety but even of sober Persons grave Citizens yea of Men eminent for their Profession Members of Churches worshipping God in that way which so many unjustly labour to fix a black brand of Infamy upon but our Heavenly Advocate will one day plead our Cause and bring forth the Righteousness of it as the Light But the thing is such Persons sitting so long as they do at Publick houses of one kind or another and spending there so much time that it is nine ten yea and often eleven of the Clock at night before they return to their home so deeply engaged are they in their Clubs and Discourses in telling and hearing of News I bless God I very seldom hear of Professors and Members of Churches being charged with Drunkenness Uncleanness or other gross Immoralities though I wish there were none of them guilty and do fear there be some who are Spots in our Communion yet this we can say we allow them not and if we did know them and there were just proof we should proceed against them according to Scripture-Rule Further to prevent my being mistaken I shall say these two things First I do not speak against mens inquiring after News or their being desirous to inform themselves concerning the State of Affairs and how matters go in the Nation and abroad and with the Church of God specially in such a time as this When the Army of Israel went out to War against the Philistines good old Eli could not stay at home but out he went and sate upon a Seat by the ways side watching for his heart trembled for the Ark of God 1 Sam. 4.13 And I look upon it as a duty yea a necessary part of duty in us all that so we may be accordingly affected and the better understand how to order our Spirits and demean our selves and how to direct our Prayers and Praises unto God that so there may be no unseemly discord and jarring between God's Providences and our Prayers but an harmony and consent Secondly I do not speak a word against Citizens having their Clubs in order to the better and more prudent management of their Trades this I am a stranger to and therefore do not meddle with for any thing I know it may be convenient for them and profitable and more than so needful but for Men to sit in those places so long and keep from their own houses till it be so late is indeed blame-worthy and calls loudly for a reformation and oh that I could help toward it I will do my endeavour and in order thereunto offer some things to your consideration First if any of you who are here present before the Lord and are Husbands be guilty of this thing and make an ordinary practice thereof I beseech you when you are most calm and composed seriously to reflect upon it and think with your selves whether this be kindness to your Wives Is this walking answerably to that near intimate conjugal relation into which you did voluntarily and of your own choice enter promising to express all love and tenderness Is this living up to the Law and doing the duty of that Relation Is this being as good as your word Is this your love and kindness to her in whose Company and Converse you ought to delight above all others except Gods Is this to be a Comfort to her as you ought to be Think that while you are abroad Merry Jocund Pleasant Delighting your self with your Friends and Wine she for want of you is at home Melancholick Concern'd Afraid Troubled lest you should Contract any Guilt or come by any Hurt at least she is solitary and alone Secondly To that thought add another While I am here doth not my Family want me May you not be more useful and do much more good at Home than you are capable of doing in one of those Publick Houses What becomes of your own Vineyard which you are bound to keep Would it not turn to a better account and prove far more advantagious both to you and yours to be teaching of your Family commending God and Godliness to them giving them good Counsels instilling into them sound Principles reading to them your selves or hearing them read the Holy Scriptures and other good Books by which they may be richly furnished for good Works and made wise to Salvation or Catechising them about the main Fundamental Points of Religion and examining them as to their knowledge in the things of God for want of due care wherein while they are young many when they come to be grown up prove unstable Souls and an easie prey to them that lye in wait to deceive Possibly you do not and I will hope that you do not Drink to Excess in those Houses nor spend too much Money upon them who will not thank you for it afterward but what saist thou Conscience Speak out to them speak plain do they not spend too much time there May they not spend it much better at home and about something else Thirdly Suppose the great and holy God should come to you at such a time and in such a place would you