made so publick a profession It would make them more afraid to do bad things against which they had protested so solemnly And not only fear but shame in this case would restrain them from doing wickedly This would be to young People a great defence against Temptations Bad men would not so boldly ask them to sin if they knew they had openly and solemnly disowned and renounced them and all their wicked Courses and if they were tempted they would be more apt to say in their own minds Shall we do such wicked things and run the hazard of being Covenant-breakers and perjured persons Shall we commit such Villanies and practice such Abominations and thereby break our solemn Vow and Engagement Shall we by our folly and impiety give occasion of offence and scandal to the Church of Christ which he hath purchased with his Blood Shall we renounce the Captain of our Salvation and prove Deserters who have so lately vowed to renounce the Devil and all his Works What a mighty defence would this be to your Children when assaulted by the fiery Darts of the Devil the Vanities of the World and the lusts of their own deceitful hearts to consider that by their own actual Consent they have renounced all these and given up themselves into the hands of God to be kept by his mighty Power through Faith unto Salvation They have vowed and they ought to perform it to keep his righteous Judgments These things being impartially considered should mightily excite Parents to see that their Children do openly and solemnly profess their Faith in Christ crucified their resolution to obey him to serve him and love him to fight under his Banner against sin the Devil and the World and to continue his Faithful Souldiers and Servants unto their lives end Is not this your Glory that your Children are Christians and do you think it a shame or dishonour for you or them if they make a solemn profession of their Christianity that they avow their Religion and will by Gods help make good the promise which was made in their Name in Baptism Of so great importance is this Custom that the greatest men amongst the Reformers did highly commend it and did earnestly with that it might be restored as a thing of great use towards the reviving the true Spirit of Christianity 8. Duty to encourage them to come to the Lord's Table Eighthly When they are fit for it you should encourage them to come to the Table of the Lord that they may be strengthened in their most holy Faith and further assured of the love of God that they may make a publick profession of their Christianity of their love to their Lord and Master Jesus of their Charity to all Men and of their sincere affection to those who are Christs Members and Followers They ought to make use of this holy Sacrament that their love to their dearest Lord and Saviour may be kindled and enflamed by remembring his Love and shewing forth his Death that they may bind themselves more strictly to serve and obey him and to fulfil their Baptismal Engagement How glad should Parents be to see their Children advanced to this honour to eat and drink at their Lord's Table to partake of so great a Testimony of his Kindness and Friendship How earnestly should they encourage them to embrace this opportunity of renewing their Covenant with the Lord to live and to dye his faithful Servants Do you not desire to have them saved to have them delivered from their Lusts and Passions their Pride and Revenge Uncharitableness and Malice their Hatred and Envy and from all manner of Sin and Folly to be made pure and clean in Heart and Life to be made meet for that holy place where no unclean thing can enter Do you not desire that their Sins may be blotted out that they may be washed with the Blood of their Saviour And yet do you not advise and entreat them for their Souls Health and Safety to come to the Holy Communion which is designed for these excellent and great Ends and Purposes But alas how far are too many Parents from doing this for their Children How many do either wholly or for the most part neglect and slight this holy Ordinance themselves as if our Lord had without any just or necessary ground appointed it How can such Persons expect the precious Fruits of the Death of Christ who will not remember his Death when he so lovingly and kindly calls and invites them to do it Do this in remembrance of me What a great Argument is it of a wonderful decay of true Piety and Religion in the World when Men do thus despise and set at naught the kindness of their Lord and Saviour When they refuse to do a thing so just and reasonable and so easie as this is which tends so much to his Glory and their own true Happiness and Welfare both here and hereafter 9. Duty to take care that they accustom themselves to Self-Examination Ninthly When they are fit for it see that they accustom themselves to Self-Examination that they spend a few moments every night if another time of the day be not more convenient for them to do it in in calling themselves to an account That they may see what good or what evil they have done That they may give praise and thanks unto God for any thing they have done which was good and right and that they may confess their Sins and Follies begging his gracious pardon and renewing their purposes and resolutions to do better for the time to come But besides these daily short Reviews of their Heart and Life 't is fit to call upon them when they are well advanced in years to a more strict and solemn Examination of themselves to Prayer and Fasting as their Age and Strength can bear it This may be done once a Month or once in two Months or once a Quarter at least As to their abstinence from Food on such days there 's no Rule can be given to serve all persons if they can fast one meal or two it is well if not then they may eat less at a time and of such things as are less apt to be a hinderance to their Devotion That is to be done that serves most to render them fit for Prayer and Meditation It will be convenient in order to their doing this to good purpose to be directed to a method that so their Thoughts may not wander and be unfixed For which end it will be of good use to have the direction of their Minister if he be a discreet and good Man or of some other prudent serious Christian Friend Or you may recommend to them some plain and easie short Treatise on this Subject such as you shall find written discreetly with due moderation of Spirit There is not any one method can be prescribed for all persons nor fit for all times But in general upon such days it 's fit for them to
but what falls out daily Some are going out of the World and some are coming into it Some are a great while upon the Stage and some but a very short while some no sooner enter upon it but presently they are gone and are seen no more some take a few turns and then they are withdrawn some tarry longer and act a great part on the Stage for a considerable time and give hopes of yet greater Actions and Performances but on a sudden they are gone likewise as a shadow and all their own designs and projects and the hopes and expectations of others fall to the ground All this happens every day in the Course of things here in the World and therefore Parents have no reason to think it strange when they see their Children dye The thing that hath been it is that which shall be and that which is done is that which shall be done and there is no new thing under the Sun Eccles 1.9 And as it is with men so it is with all things else which live upon the Earth or grow out of it Some live longer and some a shorter while than others of the same kind Some prosper and thrive and others decay and perish Some things grow up in the Morning and are withered e're Night Some things grow apace till they are very near the time of ripeness and perfection and then somewhat happeneth which prevents the perfect growth and makes the goodly appearance come to nothing Now what are Men Moses in his Prayer Ps 90.5 6. tells us In the Morning they are like grass which groweth up In the Morning it flourisheth and groweth up In the Evening it is cut down and withereth And to the same purpose the Psalmist David speaketh Psal 103.15 16 As for Man his days are as grass as a flower of the field so he flourisheth for the Wind passeth over it and it is gone and the place thereof shall know it no more Likewise Esa 40.6 7. it is thus written The Voice said Cry And he said What shall I cry All flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field The grass withereth the flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it Surely the people is grass By all which it appears what Man is by Nature to wit a very weak and vanishing thing soon nipt and brought to nothing like the tender Grass and the Flower of the Field which is more exposed to the Winds and other inconveniencies than the Flowers of the Garden which the Gardiner preserves and secures The Consideration of these things will tend mightily to quiet the minds of those who calmly and wisely reflect upon them when God removes their Children or other Relations from them by Death Their case is not singular it is that which is common and usual amongst men it is according to the course of Nature for a mortal thing to die But what if the manner of the death of your Children be somewhat extraordinary by some sudden and unusual Accident or by some strange and odd Distemper are you on this account to allow your selves in the excesses of Sorrow and Mourning No in no ways You are not therefore to be transported into immoderate grief and mourning Shall you be vexed and disquieted because a Worm did eat up your pleasant Fruit or because the stormy Wind did blow away your lovely Flowers Are you therefore to be enraged and mad with anger against the Worms or against the Winds What would it mend the matter if you should give way to your passion and anger never so much in such a case This would only multiply your losses by making you lose not only your Fruit and your Flowers but your selves too Which they all do who lose their patience in which it is that we possess our Souls When therefore your Children are removed from you by Death in some unusual and extraordinary manner you ought to look beyond Diseases or Accidents unto the Lord of Life and Death who by his Providence ordereth not only their death but the manner of it If the Sparrows fall not to the ground that is die not without your Father You may be sure your Children do not die by chance or without the particular disposal of their heavenly Father As to the particular grounds and reasons for which God does after such a manner see fit to put an end to your Childrens days you are not to be too curious and inquisitive The Counsels of God are a great deep His ways are in the deep waters and none by searching can find him out unto perfection Job 11.7 Upon such occasions all ought to remember the words of our Lord when they told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their Sacrifices Luk. 13.2 3 4 5. Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things I tell you Nay But except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Or those eighteen upon whom the Tower of Siloe fell and slew them think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem I tell you Nay But except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Thirdly Consider from whence 3. They should consider from whence and whither they are gone and whither they are gone They were here in a life of Vexation and Trouble subject to innumerable vanities temptations snares and dangers They were compassed about with great and terrible Enemies the Devil the World and the Flesh They were subject to daily necessities and wants If they had lived never so long they would only have seen the same things in a continual succession and revolution As for Example heat and cold fair weather and foul night and day Summer and Winter health and sickness plenty and poverty peace and war prosperity and adversity succeeding one to another All things going round But now they are delivered from all these they are at rest they are subject to no more necessities and wants oppressed with no more troubles and vexations exposed to no more enemies temptations or dangers but exalted to a state of perfect peace joy love and glory They are as well and better than you can desire You are not able to comprehend the Happiness that they are admitted to Will you then be in continual sorrow and grief for your Children when they are exalted to a state of Rest and Glory when they are where you would rejoyce to be when their gracious Father hath freed them from the vain company of the World and translated them into the blessed Society of Angels and of the Spirits of just men made perfect when he hath put an end to their toil and labour to their fighting and wrestling against their Enemies and bestowed on them a Crown of Glory and an everlasting Inheritance when he hath broken their bonds asunder wherein they were held and kept in captivity and slavery and hath put them into a state of
see a House marked for the Plague you are careful not to go into it you keep your selves at a good distance from it that you may not run the hazard of infection The Love which you have for life makes you do all you can to preserve it Ought you not then to be as careful to keep out of the company of prophane persons whose throat is an open sepulchre whose mouths are full of blasphemy and cursing whose breath is very infectious whose words and actions are full of most deadly poison whereby your Souls are in danger of being corrupted and destroyed for ever Enter not into the path of the wicked saith Solomon and go not in the way of evil men Avoid it pass not by it turn from it and pass away Prov. 4.14 15. And Chap. 5.8 He adviseth young men to remove their way far from the strange woman and not to come nigh the door of her house It is true sometimes your necessary affairs may oblige you to be in the company of very wicked persons This must needs happen especially if men have a great deal of business in the World But in this case when you are under this necessity of being in such company beware lest by word or deed you approve or countenance any thing that is bad and wicked in them and if you cannot do them good beware lest they do you hurt get away from them speedily like a Bird out of the snare of the Fowler Sometimes likewise your Relation wherein you stand to some persons or your Calling and Circumstances wherein God hath placed you may make it your Duty to be often with those who are very bad persons but then you ought to be First possessed with a great abhorrence of what is evil in them and in no manner to approve their sin and folly Have no Communion with their unfruitful works of darkness Secondly You ought to make use of all favourable opportunities to endeavour to make them better and to rescue them from their evil ways and doings If you observe these things you are not partakers with them in their sins and therefore God will not lay them to your charge If at any time atheistical and prophane persons follow after you and thrust themselves into your Company beware of them and shake off their Society unless you converse with them with a design to reform them and to bring them off from their evil practices and have ground to hope that you may do them good But when after having tryed twice or thrice to make them better you find you only cast Pearls before Swine and that there is more danger of getting hurt by them than of doing them good it is fit that you deal roundly and plainly with them and that you let them know that so long as they are no better you desire to be excused if you do not keep company with them Tho' plainness is very necessary in this case yet it is fit that it be tempered with all the discretion and sweetness that 's possible otherwise it may do more hurt than good Endeavour to make such persons sensible that you are only an Enemy to their Vices and that as for their persons you will be always ready to do them all good offices Secondly As you ought carefully to avoid the company of those who are prophane and atheistical persons so it is your interest as well as Duty to visit those who are good and religious They who feared the Lord saith Malachi ch 3.16 spake often one to another When you have the opportunity of enjoying the company of such persons make the best use of it that you can Consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works Heb. 10.24 Exhort one another daily Heb. 3.13 Admonish comfort and in a friendly and loving manner reprove one another as there is need Make use of one anothers Counsel and Advice in any thing that is doubtful and difficult By all discreet and prudent ways endeavour to learn some good and useful thing from good and wise persons with whom you have occasion to converse Counsel in the heart of a man saith Solomon is as deep waters but a man of understanding draws it out Prov. 20.5 Counsel that is a skill and dexterity to give good Advice and Counsel and to talk of things which tend to make men wiser and better This in the heart of a wise man is like deep waters that is it makes no great noise the wisest men being also the modestest and is not come at without some pains and some prudent Arts and Methods But a man of understanding draws it out that is by discreet and seasonable questions and other fit ways he gives his wise Friend an opportunity to discourse to communicate his thoughts and to discover his wisdom and experience Beware lest in good Company your Discourse vanish into air and smoak lest it be too trifling and about things vain and impertinent Let your words be seasoned with salt ministring grace to the hearers Col. 4.6 Endeavour to receive benefit from the Society of those who are good and wise and to do them good so far as you can by your Society It is true it is not only lawful but sometimes very convenient and necessary when virtuous and excellent persons meet together that they recreate and divert themselves a little by chearfulness and innocent mirth that thereby their minds may be made more fit for serious and sacred things Such is the state and condition of man while in the body that his Soul cannot be always employed about those things which are of a Divine and Spiritual Nature This vigour and strength of Soul is not perhaps attained to by any on this side the Grave However our care must be that the bent and inclination of our hearts be toward those things that are good and useful This must be our business our way and course to be good and to do good And as for our Recreations and Divertisements they must only be subservient to the other Sixthly 6. Time to be redeemed from worldly Business Redeem time from your ordinary cares and worldly business that you may do some great good for the glory of God and benefit of Mankind In the ordinary course of your lives you must mind the business of your Calling according to your setled and usual Method but then you are still to remember to let the concerns of your Soul take place and be preferred First seek the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness Mat. 6.33 At some times it is fit to deny your selves in the affairs and concerns of this life to leave off your ordinary work and labour for some time when your great Lord and Master affords you some extraordinary opportunity for doing good to your Christian Brother or to your own Souls Then you must sell things of lesser value that you may buy time for doing that which will make you rich in the true Riches that you may
to make them proud cause them to yield and to submit to your Will or to the Will of others whom you think fit they should obey If you find them peevish and passionate teach them to be meek and gentle to be of a sweet and mild disposition to love those who have done or said somewhat that crossed them not to seek revenge but to forgive them and to be kind to them to be ready when they have occasion to do them good for evil If they be given to Lying shew them the evil of it that a lying Tongue is an abomination to the Lord Prov. 6.17 That the Devil is the Father of Lyars and that they are in the number of those that are shut out of the new Jerusalem and have their part in the Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone Rev. 21.8 and 22.15 Shew them how great hurt it will do them and what shame it will bring upon them That if they be found Lyars people will not believe them even when they speak Truth Encourage them to confess their faults if they have done any thing amiss be apt to pardon them when they confess and tell the Truth and commend them for doing so But if you find them in a Lye be sure to chastise them for it especially if they have done it oftner than once Nothing tends more to the spoiling of Children than their getting into such a habit This is a Vice that grows up apace if not timely cured by good Education Thereby they learn to grow so false and disingenuous that they are not fit to be trusted or employed If you find them to be of too prodigal a Temper apt to be too profuse in their Expences ready to throw away their Money upon Trifles and when there is no reasonable occasion for it you ought by all prudent and proper Methods to endeavour to make them a little more discreet and careful That they waste nothing in vain that may be of use to poor people That they do not throw away that which may do good at some time or other Suggest often to them that we are Stewards of whatever God bestows upon us that he will call us to an account and that therefore we ought to employ to good purpose all those good things he gives us Shew them what our Saviour said to his Disciples after he had sed five thousand men with five Loaves and two Fishes Joh. 6.12 When they were filled he said unto his Disciples Gather up the fragments that remain that nothing be lost He would not have any thing lost or thrown away unnecessarily which might be useful afterwards to one or other If you find them of a covetous Temper endeavour to enlarge their thoughts by the Principles of Christian Charity Shew them what an excellent thing it is to do good to shew mercy and kindness to make peoples hearts glad Accustom them to the doing such kind and charitable offices for which end give them now and then money and other things to bestow on those who are poor and needy Shew them the evil of Covetousness that it 's the root of all evil that it takes the heart off from God and rendereth it unfit for the consideration of Divine things and for all worthy and useful designs that it disposeth a man for the basest and vilest actions and undertakings as it did Judas to betray his Lord That it bereaves him of true repose and satisfaction of mind and pierceth him through with many sorrows 1 Tim. 6.9 10. If you perceive them to be naturally melancholy and fearful of every little thing endeavour to chear up their Spirits Suggest to them such considerations and possess them with such Maxims and Principles as tend to fortifie their minds against those things which are apt to make them uneasie and are the occasion of their fear If their distemper proceed from some bodily indisposition as oft-times it does use such helps as are necessary When such evil habits of body are once rooted and strongly fixed and when the blood and spirits are deeply infected therewith they are a very grievous clog to the Soul and a great hindrance to that chearfulness and liberty of Spirit wherewith people ought always to endeavour to serve God If you see them to be of too gay and airy a Temper so that they cannot fix and be stayed at any time you are to use a great deal of prudence and discretion to compose and settle their Spirits See that they use their Wit and Fancy without giving offence and that they hurt no body by indecent reflections Let them by no means take liberty to indulge their humour in jesting about things that are Sacred or that have any relation thereto But you are to take heed lest your endeavouring to cure one fault occasion another lest your striving to deliver them from one extream drive them to the contrary that is lest instead of their being too gay you make them melancholy and dull Their Wit and Spirit is not to be rooted out but reformed and rightly managed for this may be of use for seasoning and sweetning Conversation If you observe them to be rash and forward ready to speak and act without due consideration strive to make them more cautious and circumspect to reflect and think a little more on what they say and do lest otherwise they fall into a habit of speaking and acting impertinently and indiscreetly when they say or do a foolish thing for lack of consideration then take occasion to make them sensible what a shame it is for them to do so what a reproach to those who are reasonable Creatures to speak and act like fools without Reason and Understanding Shew them some of the bad consequences which attend speaking and acting in this manner Thus you are to make it your Business to consider what are their defects and faults and to do all that you can to cure them thereof and to direct them in the ways of Wisdom and Virtue 5. Duty to see that they be taught to Read Fifthly When once they are of an Age fit for it see that they be taught to read that thereby they may be able to make use of the Holy Bible If your condition in the World is such as disables you from doing much for them as to their outward Estate yet if you do this it may prove unless it be their own fault of unspeakable advantage to them and in some sense better than a great Portion It is sad to see how a great many bestow readily enough on their Children to learn a gainful Trade that they may get Wealth And yet they are very unwilling to give a little money to one to teach them to read that sacred Book which instructs them in the Art of being happy how to be saved how to obtain a Crown of Glory to purchase a Kingdom which cannot be shaken to obtain a Pearl of greatest price and enduring Substance The Word of God doth teach
the Soul whereas slothfulness and giving up ones self to drowsiness and sleep causeth spiritual beggery An idle Soul saith Solomon Prov. 19.15 shall suffer hunger And Prov. 20.13 Love not sleep lest thou come to Poverty Open thine Eyes and thou shalt be satisfied with Bread Then was it that Samson lost his Hair wherein was his strength when he was asleep Judg. 16.19 As it is a fault at any time to waste our precious hours in this sluggish and lazy manner so especially when God affords very favourable opportunities of doing some great good to our selves or others He that sleepeth in Harvest saith the Wise Man is a Son that causeth shame Prov. 10.5 that is he makes his Father and Friends ashamed of him and brings shame and disgrace on himself Now is the day of Grace now is the acceptable time now is the season of gathering the Fruits of Righteousness and of making sure an Harvest of everlasting Glory And therefore let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober 1 Thes 5 6. 2. Time to be be redeemed from dressing the Body Secondly Redeem time from dressing and adorning the Body Let not more time be spent that way than is meet and fit Let your first care every day be to dress and adorn the better part to put on the true Ornaments to cloath your selves with Humility Meekness Patience Charity and with all other Virtues which are of great price in the sight of God Put off the Works of darkness and put on the Armour of Light Raise your Souls towards Heaven by some short and fervent Ejaculations Read the word of God with great attention and humility with an earnest desire to know his will and with a sincere purpose to do it Indeavour to feed and nourish your Souls by serious Meditation Call on God by humble and earnest prayer to pardon you to bless you to direct and prosper you in all your ways and to save and preserve you from all Evils Ghostly and Bodily Form good purposes and strong resolutions to do what is good and right Set the Lord always before you Seek his Glory in all things whether you eat or drink or whatever else you do After having done those things which are needful for the Soul you may next do what is fit and decent as to your Attire and Cloathing according to your Circumstances in the World Beware lest you pride your selves in your Apparel Do not therein gratifie your Vanity to go beyond others of your Rank and Quality to make your selves be taken notice of more than others Too great care about adorning the outward Man gives just cause to suspect that the chief business is neglected Consider what it is that you deck and adorn with so much care and cost even a poor vile sinful Body that 's full of rottenness and corruption consider that within a little while it will become a very ugly deformed and stinking Carcass and be food to the Worms If they who bestow so much time every day in painting and patching and such like things would but bestow a few Minutes in thinking of the Grave and what the Body will become within a very little time so vile and loathsom that even they who do love it most dearly will then avoid it and be glad to have it removed out of their sight and that their face which now they themselves admire so much and which they are ready to think every body else admires likewise shall within a short time be eaten thorough by vile Worms and wasted and made ugly with Rottenness and Corruption and that all its Beauty shall be marred I say if vain persons would sometimes think of these things and behold themselves now and then in this Glass how would it humble them and make them less addicted to such vain Imployment and be more busied in things of greatest consequence This would turn their thoughts another way and make them bestow a little more pains to wash away the Impurities of their Souls Consider what is written against all those who are guilty of this vanity and extravagance in Apparel and Ornaments Isa 3.16 and 17 Moreover the Lord saith because the daughters of Sion are haughty and walk with stretched forth Necks and wanton Eyes walking and mincing as they go and making a tinkling with their feet Therefore the Lord will smite with a Scab the Crown of the Head of the Daughters of Sion c. And verse 24. It shall come to pass that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink and instead of a Girdle a Rent and instead of well set Hair Baldness and instead of a Stomacher a girding of Sackcloth and Burning instead of Beauty Thirdly 3. Time to be redeemed from eating and drinking Redeem time from eating and drinking from pampering the Body Spend no more of your time that way than what is fit Make not your Belly your God eat and drink that you may live that you may be able to perform the necessary actions of life but do not live so as if you had nothing to do but to eat and drink and to make provision for the flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof Live soberly at all times and use abstinence and fasting sometimes Take not too great delight in gratifying your Palate and Appetite God alloweth you the free and liberal use of his good Creatures for your health and refreshment but not to abuse them to gluttony and drunkenness or any other sort of excess and extravagance It is fit to use all those perishing things with great moderation because First they are apt to be a great Snare and to lead Men to a great deal of Sin and Folly The Apostle reckons up first Gluttony and Drunkenness and then Chambering and Wantoness c. Rom. 13.13 Intemperance being as the Mother of the rest It is often the occasion and cause of them The sin of Sodom was occasioned by their fulness of Bread and abundance of Idleness Ezek. 16.49 Secondly This renders the Soul unactive and unfit 〈◊〉 those exercises which chiefly belong to it to perform The Spirits are thereby made dull and sleepy and incapable to be attentive and serious Watch and be sober must go together If we are not sober and temperate we are not fit to watch And therefore our Saviour saith Luke 21.34 Take heed to your selves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and so that day come upon you unawares So long as the Soul lodgeth in the Body it depends much upon the state and temper of it so that the Body when it is clogg'd and oppressed with meat or drowned with drink is a very unfit Tool for the Soul to manage yea thereby the Soul is as it were chained up and cannot freely move and act So we see that men at such times when they are guilty of excess and intemperance are rash and imprudent in their Counsels and Resolutions whereof they are
his Life and Estate would he not improve with great care and diligence that little time To be sure he would not lose one moment of it And tho' perhaps at other times he was wont to give up himself to his pleasures and pastimes and to mind little else but the gratifying his Lusts and Passions and his vanity and folly yet now that his Life and Fortune lye at the stake you should see such a man changed in a moment You should see him with great application of mind with the utmost diligence imploying his time running from place to place from one person to another according as his great and important business and concern required How readily would such a person redeem his time not only from idleness from gaming from impertinent Visits and from dressing and adorning of his Body and the like but even from eating and drinking and from his rest and repose in the night The desire of preserving his life would so fill his thoughts as to make him forges almost every thing else What would you 〈◊〉 or say if you should see a man in such circumstances wholly unconcerned and careless spending his time in gâ—ming or idleness in making impertinent visits in rioting and drinking and the like and doing nothing at all to obtain his pardon and to secure his life and fortune Doubtless you would look upon such a man as void of common understanding fit only for Bedlam or not worthy to live who knew no better to make use of his short time to preserve his life which Nature teacheth all men to do by all honest and lawful means It is easie for you to make application of all this to your selves You are by your sins Enemies to God Rebels against your Lord and King whereby you are in danger of everlasting death and destruction But God in his infinite mercy gives you time to sue out your Pardon which he offers you upon the most just and reasonable conditions only believe and repent and you shall be saved He will have mercy upon you and blot out your iniquities Be therefore so wise as to husband well this short time which God bestows on you for this purpose Redeem it as much as you can from all vain and unnecessary things that you may obtain forgiveness of Sins and the assistance of the Holy Spirit to enable you afterwards to walk in newness of life But if instead of minding this great and important concern of your Souls you give up your selves to sin and folly and indulge your selves in your mad and wicked practices and thereby provoke God yet more and more against you how just will your judgment and condemnation be If you will not be saved if you will not turn to the Lord that you may live if you will not believe repent and amend what remains you shall certainly dye and be miserable for ever They that will not be happy shall not be happy The wrath of God shall abide upon them Secondly 2. Motive from the uncertainty of your Time Consider that as your time is very short so it is most uncertain What do you know whether your Sun shall decline leasurely or whether it may not go down suddenly when you think it is not yet come to the noon-tide of the day You are not sure to live till you come to a good old Age. How many sicknesses and distempers and how many sudden accidents are there in the way which may shorten your day and cause your Sun to set when you think it shines with its greatest force and lustre Sometimes a Candle is blown out by the Wind or snufft out undesignedly when it is not yet half burnt And so the life of Man is often extinguished by outward accidents when by the course of Nature it might have been prolonged much further How many come forth into the World and give great appearances of making a very considerable figure in it by their Wisdom and Sagacity their good Conduct and Address their excellent Parts and useful Learning their Courage and Valour their charming Eloquence and clear and distinct Reasoning or by their shining Piety and burning Zeal But do not you see how suddenly they are gone they are hurried away by death and you neither see them nor hear of them any more There is nothing certain as to your time but its shortness and uncertainty Nothing can secure you against an unexpected blow by death when God sees fit to give charge to the King of terrors to knock you down Youth and strength cannot do it for how many dye when their Breasts are full of milk and their bones are moistened with marrow Too great abundance of Blood and Spirits do sometimes oppress and stifle the life of Man Wealth and Riches cannot secure you How many great and wealthy men have been suddenly carried away as with a Flood when their Coffers were full of Silver and Gold when they had all that heart could wish Even their Wealth proved the bait which allured idle covetous and desperate persons to break into their Houses and rob them not only of their Treasure but of their lives Greatness of Power and earthly Honour and Dignity are not able to do it Crowns and Scepters Castles and Palaces a wise Council and great Armies are not able to protect Princes from the violent and desperate attempts of Men who are prodigal of their lives How many of those who have been most famous in the World for their Power and Greatness have been very unexpectedly removed by a violent and sudden death When they have been in their greatest heighth at the very top of Earthly Felicity and full of the deepest Projects and Designs when they made account to make the Earth as it were to tremble to humble and to mortifie their Enemies to enlarge their own Dominions or to enslave their Subjects even then Death gave them a sudden blow and so there was an end of them and their designs together But may not Wisdom and Understanding great Learning and skill in various Arts and Sciences do somewhat to secure men from the sudden blow of Death No all this cannot do it We see even Wise men suddenly and unexpectedly removed from us by death as well as others In the midst of their useful Studies and excellent contrivances and designs the King of terrors puts a stop to them and in the twinkling of an Eye they are gone and all their thoughts are laid asleep So vain a thing is Man and even the wisest Man and so uncertain is his time Consider that Death can enter by a thousand doors Every pore in your Body is a gate wide enough for Death to enter in at Do not you see what a small thing makes way for Death The prick of a Thorn or a Splinter of Wood does it sometimes by occasioning a Fever or a Gangrene How quickly are some removed by violent and unexpected Distempers and sometimes on a sudden are struck dead you cannot tell
how Have not some dyed through an excess of joy and others through immoderate grief some by excessive laughter and others by too much mourning and weeping Some have dyed with a fright or sudden fear some by the violence of their anger and wrath and others by an excess of love How many have been killed with over much care and too great watching and others have occasioned their own death by idleness and too much sleep Some have killed themselves with eating and drinking and others have done it by too great abstinence and fasting Have not some dyed while they have been at Meals by a Crumb or a little Bone or some such very small matter When they were thinking to repair their strength and to fit themselves for going on with their business and work that which they did to save and lengthen out their lives did shorten them and put an end to them May not this instance alone shew you the great uncertainty of your time and how necessary it is to redeem it But besides all this consider that when you go abroad you are in danger from innumerable accidents You may be killed by the noisom steams of the Earth by some infectious quality in the Air by the Beasts of the field by the teeth of Dogs by the horns of mad Oxen or by the heels of wild Horses You are likewise in danger from the winged Creatures the least of whom have Weapons sufficient to destroy you if God by his Power and Justice arm them against you How remarkable was the manner of the death of Aeschylus Valer. Max. lib. 9. cap. 12. an ancient Poet in Sicily who as he sate in a Sunny place without the Walls of the City was killed by a Tortoise which an Eagle let fall on his head And no less memorable is the Story which is mentioned in the Book of Martyrs of one Burton Bailiff of Crowland in Lincolnshire who pretending to be a Friend to the Reformation in King Edward's time after the King's death began to set up the Popish Mass again and would have beaten the Curate if he had not complied with his design But see how the Lord's hand overtook him as he came riding from Fenbank one day a Crow flying over his head let fall her excrements upon his face the noisom scent whereof so annoyed his stomach that he never ceased vomiting till he came home And after falling deadly sick would never receive any meat but vomited still and complained of that stink cursing the Crow that had poisoned him and in a few days he died without giving any sign of his repentance for his former wicked life Besides the danger you are in from unreasonable Creatures are you not also sometimes in hazard from men who are mad either through the distemper of their Brain or through their violent Malice and Envy Let a Bear robbed of her Whelps saith Solomon meet a man rather than a fool in his folly Prov. 17.12 And not only are your Lives in danger from unreasonable Creatures and from Men but likewise from the Spirits of Darkness unless restrained by the mighty Power of God These are Enemies of great Power and of as great Malice But your heavenly Father keeps them as it were in chains and sets bounds to their rage and fury that they cannot hurt you so much as in a hair of your head without the Divine permission But further so uncertain is your time that there is not a stone nor a block in your way but it may be an occasion of your stumbling and falling into the snares of Death And sometimes when there is no such block in your way you are not secure from danger One foot may prove a stumbling-block to the other and an occasion of your falling into the hands of Death And more than all this in how great danger are your Lives from Fire and from Water from Heat and Cold from Storms and Tempests from Thunder and Lightning and many other things the stroke whereof you cannot prevent nor foresee God hath in store the Sword the Famine and Pestilence and innumerable Judgments and Plagues whereby he can cut you off and shorten your Lives When you are in your houses and think your selves in safety you know not but that Death is even there and that your Grave is ready for you By a sudden Wind by an Earthquake or by a decay in the Foundation or some other part of the Building the house may fall down about your ears and prove your burying place From all which you may conclude that your time is the most uncertain thing in the World Ought you not therefore to make good use of it while it lasts not knowing how soon and suddenly it may be at an end Thirdly Consider how great and difficult a work you have to do 3. Motive from the greatness and difficulty of the work you have to do a work that requires a great part of your time and worthy of all your time How hard is it to work out your Salvation to make your Calling and Election sure to strive to enter in at the strait gate to be born again to be made new Creatures to be renewed in the Spirit of your mind to put off the works of darkness and to put on the armour of light to add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity To have the image of God renewed in your Souls to be made partakers of the Divine Nature to escape the corruptions which are in the World through lust to be comformed to the Example of your Blessed Lord and Master in those Virtues wherein you ought to imitate him to learn of him who was meek and lowly to go about as he did doing good to the Souls and Bodies of men to be zealous for God and holy as he who called you is holy in all manner of conversation How great a work is it to overcome your selves To become vile and base in your own eyes to think meanly of your selves and to be willing that others should think so of you too to be content with every state and condition of life wherein God does by his Providence place you to bear wrongs and injuries with meekness and patience not to be overcome with evil but to overcome evil with good to mortifie your sinful desires and sensual appetites to crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts to purifie your selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit to cleanse your hearts from all manner of wickedness that they may be fit Temples for the Spirit of God to dwell in to govern your eyes that you may not thereby betray your souls into the hands of your enemies to govern your lips to take heed to your ways that you offend not with your tongue to put away from you all lying flattery and dissimulation all
the voice of their Father because the Lord would slay them By the Law of Moses the stubborn Son was to be put to death Deut. 21.18 19 20 21. If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son which will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother and that when they have chastened him will not hearken unto them Then shall his father and mother lay hold on him and bring him out unto the Elders of his City and unto the gate of his place And they shall say unto the Elders of his City This our son is stubborn and rebellious he will not obey our voice He is a glutton and a drunkard And all the men of his City shall stone him with stones that he die so shalt thou put evil away from among you and all Israel shall hear and fear In ancient times in most Countries Parents had an absolute power over their Children to punish them as they thought good for their disobedience and other faults And when amongst the Romans they lessened this power yet they did it at first only in part The Father was enjoyned to present his disobedient Child to the Judge that he might be punished and the Judge was to pronounce such a Sentence as the Father thought fit This came somewhat near the Law of Moses By this it appears what the sense of Mankind was concerning the exceeding greatness of the crime of stubbornness and disobedience in Children to Parents 3. Duty of Children to be determined by their Parents as to their Calling Thirdly They are to be determined by them as to their Calling and Employment if it be an honest and lawful one Their Parents are to be supposed ordinarily more wise and prudent to chuse for them than they are to chuse a Trade for themselves They have more experience and know the World better than their Children do and no doubt they have kindness enough for them to wish them well and to design their advantage and not to press them to any Trade or way of Life which they believe is inconvenient and like to be hurtful to them But if Parents should be mistaken as to the fitness of the Employment to which they design their Children and supposing the Children to be sensible of the great inconveniencies thereof which the Parents through prejudices and partialities do not see in this case Children may with all due modesty meekness and humility represent to their Parents what their thoughts are and tell them what objections they have against such a Calling that their Parents may be prevailed upon by their Reasons to alter their resolutions or if they be not so fit themselves to discourse their Parents upon such a subject they may do it by some wise and discreet Friends And if after all Parents be wilful in their intention and design Children are not upon the account of uncertain or probable inconveniencies to oppose themselves to the Will of their Parents they ought to submit themselves to their Judgment if the Trade or manner of Life to which they design them be not dishonest and unlawful for then there is no farther question to be made the case is clear The Will of God is always to be preferred to the Will of Man He that loveth father or mother more than me saith Christ is not worthy of me Matth. 10.37 But if there be nothing of dishonesty or unlawfulness in such an Employment they are to enter upon it with all the chearfulness that 's possible leaving all events unto God It will afford great peace and comfort to their minds whatever afterwards falls out when they consider that they did what was their Duty to do they submitted their own opinion to the Judgment of their Parents whom God hath commanded them to obey Whatever may be their temporal loss they are sure of spiritual gain God will plentifully reward their humble obedience and ready compliance with the Will of their earthly Parents Against Children who neglect this Duty From what hath been said on this Head we may see how much they are to be blamed who are so far from being determined by their Parents in the way and manner of their living in the World that they either wholly give up themselves to idleness and waste their time in vain and foolish Company or they chuse some way of living that is either dishonest or very inconvenient for them in many regards or if they comply with their Parents so far as to enter upon some honest way of living yet they do not keep at it but leave it and become Prodigals they spend their substance in riotous living they waste and consume what their Parents bestow upon them in drinking gaming and whoring and such like extravagancies whereby they prove Robbers of their Parents of whom see what the Wise Man saith Prov. 28.24 Who so robbeth his Father and his Mother and saith It is no Transgression the same is a Companion of a Destroyer That is he is to be look'd on as one of those who rob and murder on the High-way as a man desperately wicked who is disposed to act any sort of Villany and Impiety who will stick at nothing in pursuit of his mad and wretched designs that may gratifie his Lusts and Passions 4. Duty not to suffer themselves to be bestowed in Marriage against their Parents will Fourthly As to their Marriage they are not to suffer themselves to be bestowed without their Parents consent Thus Samson Judg. 14.1 2. And Samson went down to Timnath and saw a Woman in Timnath and he came up and told his Father and his Mother and said I have seen a Woman in Timnath of the Daughters of the Philistins now therefore get her for me to Wife How great reason is there for this that they who are under God the causes of their life and being in the World whose goods and possession Children are should he acknowledged and advised with by them and depended on in the settling of themselves in the World in such a state of Life which will prove either the foundation of great happiness or of great misery To give themselves away without their Parents Consent is a kind of theft it is to invade the right of others to rob them of that which God hath given them We see how great the Power of Parents was by the Law of Moses Numb 30.3 4 5. To disanul the rash Vows of their Children before Marriage If a Woman also vow a Vow unto the Lord and bind her self by a Bond being in her Father's House in her youth and her Father hear her Vow and her Bond wherewith she hath bound her Soul and her Father shall hold his peace at her Then all her Vows shall stand and every Bond wherewith she hath bound her Soul shall stand But if her Father disallow her in the day that he heareth not any of her Vows or of her Bonds wherewith she hath bound her Soul shall stand And
the Lord shall forgive her because her Father disallowed her Now if it be thus in a Father's power to disanul his Daughters rash Vow which she made to God how much more may we reckon it in his Power to disanul her rash and indiscreet promise made to Man of bestowing her self without her Parents allowance Can there be any thing more unjust more unkind more unthankful and more unnatural than for Children who have been brought up nourished and cherished by their Parents for whom all their care and pains have been bestowed to dispose of themselves in the most important affair of their lives without their knowledge or against their Will What a grief and trouble of heart must this needs be to their poor Parents As we see it was to Isaac and Rebekah Gen. 26.34 35. And Esau was forty years old when he took to Wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite and Bashemath the Daughter of Elon the Hittite which were a grief of mind to Isaac and to Rebekah As to such undutiful Children who do thus bestow themselves against their Parents will and consent it is very remarkable that they seldom live happily and comfortably they bring upon themselves very often a great deal of sorrow and trouble lasting misery and woe They live to eat the fruit of their foolish doings and wish when it is to little purpose that they had never done so mad and wicked a thing 5. Duty to submit to their Parents Reproofs and Chastenings Fifthly They are meekly and patiently to submit to their Reproofs to their Chastenings and Corrections It is a Power that God hath given Parents over their Children to correct and chasten them for their Faults This is necessary for Childrens good and therefore when Parents do correct them they ought not to be angry with them or grumble at their severity which they use for reforming of them much less are they to resist and rebel against them Heb. 12.9 We have had Fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence Yea tho' Parents sometimes exceed the bounds of prudence and discretion in chastising their Children tho' they indulge a little to their own Passion yet Children are bound patiently to bear and suffer their Corrections They are not to fly out into indecent and irreverent words and actions but with all the submission and respect that 's possible ought to endeavour to mitigate the wrath and passion of their angry Parents and afterwards they are to study all that ever they can to prevent their anger and displeasure by a most humble reverend and dutiful carriage How much may this serve to reprove those Against Rebellious Children who are so far from taking in good part their Parents correcting and chastening of them that they refuse to submit thereto They resist them and rebel against them Can there be any thing more unnatural and monstrous than to see those who owe their being to their Parents who have been brought up by them who have met with so many testimonies of a tender care and of great kindness to rise up against them to fly into the faces of those who are the Authors of their being to lift up their hand against them This is a sin of so crying a nature that he who was guilty thereof was to be put to death by the Law of Moses Exod. 21.15 He that smiteth his Father or his Mother shall be surely put to death How greatly does it aggravate this sin when Children have met with no severe nor unmerciful dealing from their Parents But have been treated by them with all that gentleness and kindness that was possible And yet for such Children to rise up against their Parents is a Crime of so black a nature that it is no wonder if the hand of God appear against them for it in a very signal manner as it did in the case of Absalom for whom his Father David had so great a fondness This unthankful and unnatural Son rose up against him and endeavoured by force and violence to pull him from the Throne and to usurp the Royal Dignity See how the hand of God appeared against him 2 Sam. 18.9 And Absalom met the Servants of David and Absalom rode upon a Mule and the Mule went under the thick Boughs of a great Oak and his Head caught hold of the Oak and he was taken up between the Heaven and the Earth and the Mule that was under him went away And ver 14. it is said that Joab took three darts in his hand and thrust them through the heart of Absalom while he was yet alive in the midst of the Oak And ver 15. Ten young Men that bare Joab's Armour compassed about and smote Absalom and slew him And ver 17. They took Absalom and cast him into a great Pit in the Wood and laid a very great heap of stones upon him This was done as a lasting Monument of Absalom's sin and shame and of God's righteous Judgment upon him 6. Duty to love their Parents and how they are to express their Love Sixthly Children ought to love their Parents and to express it by all those Offices which are in their Power to do for them by serving them readily by doing every thing that may make them well pleased by sympathizing with them in all their troubles by assisting them and doing all they can to make their Lives joyful and comfortable by shunning every thing that may grieve them or make them uneasie They ought to refuse no labour nor pains to do them service especially when they are sick and weak oppressed with the Burden of Old Age or poor and indigent under any sort of necessity whatsoever then ought Children to be very ready to help them to comfort and to encourage them to do all that they can to make their lives easie to them and to lighten their Burdens This is called 1 Tim. 1.4 A shewing Piety at home It is an act of Religion and Worship which God is well pleased with We see how Joseph nourished his Father and his Brethren and all his Fathers household with Bread Gen. 47.12 It was an old Roman Law Let Children relieve their Parents or be put in Prison How many Examples have there been amongst the Heathens of Eminent Piety towards Parents Such was that Act of her Valer. Max. l. 5. cap. 4. who when her Old Father was condemned to be put to death in Prison visited him often and gave him suck and so preserved him alive who otherwise must have dyed of Famine The like instance we meet with in the same Author Valer. Max. ibid. of a worthy Roman Daughter who did in the same manner preserve her Mother in Prison being condemned to dye When the Keeper of the Prison to whom the charge of putting her to death was committed found after some time that her Daughter kept her alive by giving her suck he was so affected with the greatness of the Daughters Compassion