much as I ought to have done to know thee and to do thy Will but have done my own will in many things and followed my own foolish and sinful inclinations I have broken many of thy most Holy and Just Laws in thought word and deed * Here they may make a particular Confession of their Sins whereby I have deserved thy Wrath and Curse Father of Mercies have mercy upon me forgive me all my sins for Jesus Christ his sake who dyed for sinners Give me a true and hearty Repentance for all mine Iniquities that I may not wilfully break thy Laws any more Lord never leave me nor forsake me Hold up my goings in thy Paths that my footsteps may not slide Grant that henceforth I may love thee with all my heart and may be afraid to sin against thee Work in me a true Faith and a lively hope make me humble meek and patient sober and temperate in all things Charitable and compassionate towards all that are in distress true and faithful in my words and sincere and upright in my Actions well content and thankful in every condition of Life and zealous for thy Glory Grant that I may daily grow in Grace and spiritual Knowledge Create in me a clean Heart and renew a right Spirit wethin me and cause me to walk in thy ways O Lord send thy Gospel through the World pour our plentifully the Blessings of thy holy Spirit on all thy People Bless and preserve our King and Queen Guide our Judges and Magistrates Sanctifie and assist the Ministers of the Gospel Be with all my Friends and Relations particularly bless and preserve my Father and Mother Reward them for their care and kindness towards me Make me a loving and dutiful Child unto them * If there be any Brothers or Sisters he may pray for them and for Grandfather and Grandmother if they be alive Comfort all that are in trouble and sanctifie their afflictions to them I thank thee O Lord for thy care of me this Night Watch over over me this day Bless and direct me in all I do or say Keep me mindful that I am always in thy sight that I may be in thy fear all the day long Cause me to remember that I must shortly dye and come to judgment that I may not mispend my precious time but employ it in a constant and chearful Obedience to thy holy and righteous Laws that when this vain and short life is at an end I may be made partaker of everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord in whose Holy Name and words I pray Our Father c. This Prayer may serve likewise at Night until you come to the last part which begins with these words I thank thee O Lord for thy care of me this Night c. instead thereof you may say as follows I thank thee O Lord for thy care of me this day watch over me this Night and grant me quiet repose save me from every Evil thing for the sake of thy dear Son Jesus Christ in whose Holy Name and words I conclude my imperfect Prayers saying Our Father c. ADVICE TO CHILDREN BY A Divine of the Church of England LONDON Printed for S. Lowndes near the Savoy-Gate in the Strand ADVICE TO CHILDREN THERE is scarce any thing wherein all Nations and Men of all Religions do more agree than in the Common Duties of Children to their Parents Neither is there any thing that tends more to the comfort and happiness the beauty and strength of Society than for Children to perform all those Duties which they owe to their Parents And yet hew sad is it to think that a great many Children who have not only all the advantages which natural Religion affords but likewise the assistance of Divine Revelation do nevertheless carry themselves in that manner towards their Parents as if they either understood nothing of their Duty or were most prodigiously perverse and resolved to rebel against the Light to trample upon all the Principles both of Natural and Revealed Religion The Design of this short Treatise is to shew what the Duties of Children are towards their Parents and to suggest some Considerations to excite them to do their Duty 1. Duty of Children to honour their Parents and how they are to honour them First Children are bound to honour their Parents which imports First That they should entertain respectful and reverend thoughts of them as being under God the Authors of their Life and Being they must not think slightingly and under valuingly of their Parents whatever be their weaknesses and imperfections They ought to hate and abhor their Vices every thing in them that is evil dishonourable to God and contrary to his Laws and Commandments but still they ought to love and honour their persons And if at any time disrespectful and irreverend thoughts arise in their minds they ought to check them to accuse and be angry with themselves for them and to call to mind what God hath commanded them to do when he saith Honour thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee Secondly This imports that they ought to express their inward Reverence and Esteem by all the outward marks and demonstrations thereof in their words and deeds their looks and gestures these things are the Picture of the Mind they ordinarily represent the temper and disposition thereof so that if there be any thing of real esteem and regard towards any body in the heart it will discover it self by some of those outward expressions We see how Solomon carried himself towards his Mother 1 Kings 2.19 Bathsheba went unto King Solomon to speak unto him for Adonijah And the King rose up to meet her and bowed himself unto her and sate down on his Throne and caused a seat to be set for the King's Mother and she sate on his right hand Children are more apt to carry themselves irreverently and slightingly towards their Mother which is the reason as some think that she is set down first Lev. 19.3 Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father Thirdly This imports that they ought to cover the infirmities and weaknesses the imperfections and indiscretions of their Parents to do as Shem and Japhet did Gen. 9.23 when Noah their Father was drunken and was uncovered within his Tent. They took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and went backwards and covered the nakedness of their father and their faces were backward and they saw not their fathers nakedness Children are not to publish the faults and follies of their Parents but ought to conceal them all that they can However there are two things very consistent with this Duty First Children may and ought to do all that they can by their private modest and humble Advice to reclaim their Parents from their sinful practices Secondly If they find it not so fit for them immediately to advise
you with loving kindness and tender mercies who prevents you every Morning and follows you all the day long with many signal instances of his Fatherly care and love giving you richly all things to enjoy for life and godliness If you find that you joyn in the Publick Prayers without any due Sense of God upon your Souls and without any real impression of those things to which you say Amen if you find that you repeat some words as do others but in the mean time your minds are busie in pursuing shadows in thinking of your Trades and Sports or Pastimes c. be ashamed that you do thus lose your precious time that you are guilty of such trifling in the most serious and sacred action Endeavour to be more affected with a right sense about what you do that you may offer up unto God the Sacrifices of broken and contrite hearts that you may pour out your hearts before him and may worship him with all your Soul and Mind Bid farewell to your Worldly Cares and to your Pleasures and Vanities when you come into his presence to pay your homage to him Serve him with your best affections with the strength and vigour of your desires and with all your power and might If you do this you may then expect with great assurance and confidence that God will give ear unto you and satisfy your longing Souls with good things he will make you taste and see how good he is But if you pray without being in good earnest your Sacrifices will be an abomination to him he will not regard your Prayers nor take any notice of you He will answer you according to the multitude of your Idols If you find that you lose time by your communicating in a careless and formal manner without considering the end and design of that holy Institution and without indeavouring to prepare your selves as you ought to do that you may eat and drink worthily at the Table of the Lord study to redeem this loss by partaking of this Sacrament for the time to come in a more devout and religious manner Be careful to approach with greater love and gratitude unto the Table of your Lord who not only allows you to come but kindly and lovingly invites and encourages you to do so Come with your Souls burning with love to him who dyed for you and who appointed you this Sacrament that therein you might remember his wonderful love and his astonishing compassion and mercy which he hath testified in laying down his life for sinners that he might purchase to them everlasting Life and Glory even to as many as repent and believe the Gospel Come with your hearts deeply wounded and pierced with sorrow for your sins and follies which were the cause of so shameful so painful and so cursed a death to your dearest Lord and Saviour Come with your Souls full of sincere and hearty purposes and resolutions of being new Creatures not to live any more unto your selves or unto the World but to him who dyed for you Come with your Souls likewise enlarged with thoughts of kindness and unfeigned Charity to all men with your minds delivered from all bitterness and wrath from all malice and envy that you may eat and drink at this Feast of Love with suitable dispositions of universal Love and Charity Come with a great desire to obtain strength from the God of your Salvation that you may be able to fight the good fight of Faith and may at last lay hold on Eternal Life In this manner you ought to endeavour to redeem the time by doubling your care and diligence in all those Duties of Religion in the performance whereof you have been formerly faulty and defective Thus you are to do likewise in every other Action which you perform to the glory of God When you find that you have been too formal and careless in what you have done and said for God for Example in admonishing others in instructing them in reproving them in comforting them c. endeavour to redeem time by doing those things with greater sincerity and zeal with a more pure regard to the Glory of God with a greater desire to approve your selves unto him who gives you the opportunity of doing somewhat for his Honour and with a greater Charity to the Souls of men Depend on God for a Blessing in all your endeavours beg of him that he may direct and assist you to do that which is good and well pleasing unto him and that he may so dispose the hearts of those whom you admonish instruct reprove or comfort that what you speak to them may not be lost but may have the desired effect for the glory of God and their happiness and welfare From what hath been said you may see how you ought to redeem your time The next thing which I proposed to speak to was to suggest to you some Considerations to excite you to do so Some Motives to excite you to do these things First 1. Motive from the shortness of your Time Consider how short your time is Your life is compared to a Vapour which appears for a little time and then vanisheth away Jam. 4.14 It makes a little shew and appearance for a while and then it is gone It is compared to a Post to the Swift Ships and to the Eagle that hasteth to the Prey Job 9.25 26. And to the Wind and to a Weaver's shuttle Job 7.6 7. All which Comparisons serve to express how short and swift our time is how suddenly it flies away and is gone Man that is born of a Woman saith Job chap. 14.1 is of few days And Jacob when he was a great deal older than men live to be now even 130 years old told Pharaoh saying Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been What are 40 or 60 or 80 years when a man lives so long and looks back upon them all They appear to him but like a shadow or as a Dream or like a Tale that is told Ought not this to move you to be good husbands of your short time If it were in your own power to dispose of it according to your own humour and fancy you might then be pardoned to delay your great Work and Business till you thought good But now that it is not in your power to lengthen out your time one Minute what a madness is it for you to put off and neglect your greatest and chiefest Concern Now therefore be so wise as to make good use of your present opportunities and occasions of doing good That you may work out your Salvation with fear and trembling and may make your calling and your Election sure work while the day lasts for the night cometh wherein you cannot work If a man who is guilty of Treason or Rebellion against his Prince or of any other great Crime which deserves death were allowed a few days to sue out his Pardon that he might secure
folly is it for Men to consume to disquiet and to torment themselves where it is to no purpose at all to do so And not only do you thereby no good at all to your selves but you do your selves a great deal of mischief and prejudice You provoke God to anger against you to bring upon you yet heavier and more grievous punishments and to deprive you of other Mercies and Comforts which you still enjoy You do thereby no small hurt to your Bodies you bring upon your selves very dangerous Distempers which will make you unfit for the actions of Life and the Duties of your Calling You likewise do unspeakable mischief to your Souls you deprive your selves of that vigour and chearfulness of Spirit that is needful to make you fit to serve God acceptably You thereby weaken your Memory and darken and disorder your Reason and Understanding and so expose your selves to all the sad consequences of a disordered and distracted Mind Your Example does also a great deal of hurt to others Your impatience and immoderate sorrow and mourning teacheth others to do so upon the like occasion Hereby you bring no small reproach upon our holy Religion as if it were not sufficient to support and fortifie us against our crosses and afflictions and to comfort us amidst the uneasie things which God sees sit to exercise us with in this World What an excellent Example is David unto you in this matter When God struck his Child so that it was very sick he fasted and prayed but when the Child died he arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his apparel and came unto the House of the Lord and worshipped Then he came to his own house and when he required they set bread before him and he did eat Then said his servants unto him What thing is this that thou hast done Thou didst fast and weep for the Child while it was alive but when the Child was dead thou didst rise and eat bread And he said While the Child was yet alive I fasted and wept for I said Who can tell whether God will be gracious unto me that the Child may live But now he is dead Wherefore should I fast Can I bring him again I shall go to him but he shall not return to me 2 Sam. 12.15 16 c. Thus ought all Parents to do who fear God When the Lord layeth his hand upon your Children you ought to pray to God for them and to use all lawful means for their recovery But when he sees fit to take them away by death you ought patiently to submit to his Will and to say with Job The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord Job 1.21 This is your wisest course It is the way to make your selves happy and to enjoy comfort and satisfaction of mind under your crosses This is the likeliest and readiest way to obtain new Mercies and Favours from the Lord instead of those you are deprived of Thus you see the Lord dealt with Job Jam. 5. 11. Ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord That the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy And Job 42.12 13. The Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning And vers 16 17. After this lived Job an hundred and forty years and saw his sons and his sons sons even four generations So Job dyed being old and full of days But if God see it more fit to withhold from you the blessings of the Womb and to bestow no more Children upon you he can and will make up this want with much greater and better Blessings What you want in Temporals you shall have in Spirituals As Elkanah said to Hannah 1 Sam. 1.8 He will be better to you than ten Sons He will give you a Name better than of Sons and Daughters even an everlasting Name that shall not be cut off Isa 56.5 SOME FORMS OF PRAYER WHICH Parents may teach their Children according to their Age. A Morning Prayer to be taught Children when they begin to speak O Lord I praise thee for all thy Mercies and for thy Care of me this Night Watch over me this day Forgive me all my sins and make me thy Child for Jesus Christ his sake This Prayer may be used likewise at Night only changing that petition watch over me this Day into watch over me this Night When Children come to be four or five years old the following Prayer may be used O Lord my God what shall I render unto thee for all thy Mercies I bless thee for giving me Life and all things needful to keep me alive But above all I bless thee for sending Christ to dye for me that he might wash me with his Blood and make me fit for the Kingdom of Heaven For his sake have mercy upon me and forgive me all my sinful thoughts words and deed Give me Grace to serve thee as I ought to do that I may not do nor say a naughty thing lest thou be angry with me and cast me into Hell fire Lord bless and preserve my Father and Mother * If there be Brothers and Sisters let them pray for them likewise and all my Friends and Relations I praise thee O God for preserving of me this Night watch over me this day save me from every evil thing Good Lord hear me and grant me whatsoever thou knowest to be best for me for Jesus Christ his sake in whose holy name and words I pray Our Father c. This Prayer may be likewise used at Night by changing only two words and saying instead of preserving me this night preserving me this day and instead of watch over me this day watch over me this night A Morning Prayer for Children when they come to twelve or fourteen years of Age sooner or later according to the ripeness of their understanding LORD teach and assist me to worship thee as I ought to do Lift up my heart unto thee What shall I render unto thee O most gracious God and most merciful Father for all thy mercies to me and to all the World I bless thee for making me a reasonable Creature and for affording me all things which be needful to support my Life I bless thee for my health liberty and safety for my Food and Rayment for the use of my Reason and Vnderstanding and of my Senses for thy corrections and deliverances and for all the advantages I have had by good Examples and good Instructions But chiefly I praise and bless thee for the redemption of Mankind by the Lord Jesus Christ That I was born within thy Church where I was early given to thee in Baptism that I have had the benefit of Christian Education that thou hast afforded me the means of Grace and called me to the hope of Glory But notwithstanding thy goodness and love I have gone astray from thee I have not cared so