of your youth God is much concern'd for young persons the Proverbs of Solomon are written to give to the young man knowledge and discretion Prov. 1.4 and one great use of the word of God is to teach young men to cleanse their way Psal 119.9 Young men and maidens and children are call'd upon to praise the Name of the Lord Psal 148.12 13. We find many mourning with holy Augustine that they loved God so late but none complaining that they loved him too soon as young as you are in heaven and hell it 's better be a young child of God than a young child of the Devil young Saints are the glory of God the fulness and accomplishment of Christ the joy of Angels the security and support of Religion the crown of their Parents and the blessing of their Generation 5. Fill your time with the fruits of the Spirit see that your hearts be fill'd with grace and then your days will be fill'd with fruit be always receiving Christ and resigning your selves to him feel your hearts continually laying hold on eternal life and live as if ye were always running to heaven spend every day so that ye may lye down in peace at night that the Lords-day may be pleasant death gainful and eternity glorious 6. Improve Gods Ordinances of worship feel your vow of Baptism always fresh and strong upon you feel the difference betwixt the Lords-day and other days see that the word Preached be mixt with faith ingrafted in your hearts that it kill your sins and reform your lives pray continually and in that duty see that ye be with the spirits of children with your Father in Heaven let all your affairs pass through praying-hearts and reckon all your own which ye sincerely pray for Sing Psalms as those that make God your song and joy and as if ye were sensible that ye are in the gates of heaven ready to enter therein to joyn with that world of blessed Angels and Saints in admiring and praising God When ye come to the Lords-Supper see all that is presented to you receive all that is offered and do all that is commanded you 7. Be saithful to the Truth and then ye need not be afraid of your selves or of any other this is your greatest safety and ye may then feel the ground firm under you and may say with David Psal 26.12 My foot standeth in an even place and if ye are called to suffer chuse it rather than sin and seeing men cannot kill your souls let not the fear of them make you destroy them your selves 8. Decline evil company do not go with them to Hell who will not go with you to Heaven but if ye are called into such company feel your selves with God whilst ye are with them and carry it as those that are sensible that there is a God in the place exercise those graces which are contrary to and do cendemn their sins be humble with the proud meek with the angry loving with the malicious that they may be reproved by your graces and that ye may not be defiled by their sins 9. Labour to be a blessing to all persons let men see that in you for which they may have cause to love and praise God bear all wrongs but do none do what in you lyes to make all persons holy and joyful but make none sinful angry or sad forgive all but let none have need to forgive you exercise their love but do not by your sins exercise their patience give all cause to bless God for you but give not cause to any to wish they had never known you 10. Dread debts do not unnecessarily bring your selves under the bondage of debtors look upon it as more just and honourable to beg than to borrow if ye are not likely to pay except in that case ye plainly acquaint the lender with your condition that he may know what adventure he makes and when ye are able pay seasonably fully and thankfully I would have none to lend to any children of mine without first advising with me except they be in a hopeful way of trade and my advice to such of you is that you be afraid of being too much trusted for it 's often seen that they who go to the length of their credit are injurious to others and prove bankrupts themselves 11. Abhor Lying This is a sin which is an abomination to the Lord whom ye should always please it 's contrary to the Divine Nature which is in every one that is born of God Ephes 4.24 It 's an abuse of your tongues which should be your glory for the use of your tongues is to express your minds but in a lye your minds and thoughts do contradict your words it 's a wrong to others whom ye would have believe you when ye do not believe your selves it makes you unfit for humane society for who will converse with those whom they cannot believe ye hereby rot your names for a lyar is one of the worst characters of the devil of hell ye destroy your bodies and souls for ever for all lyars shall have their part in the lake of fire and brimstone which is the second death 12. Do not dare to steal take nothing from any person but what ye can say ye received it from the hand of God and can praise him for it and can comfortably beg his blessing upon it kill those lusts which ye would feed with the fruit of other mens labours consider that when ye are tempted to this sin of theft ye are tempted to bring a curse on your estates and persons to thrust a dagger into your Fathers heart and to hasten your selves to an untimely and shameful death and a tormenting eternity 13. Deride and jeer no persons let your jests be harmless and make not your selves the fools of your company but whilst ye are cheerful as men and women lose not the savour of Christians 14. Haunt not Taverns or Ale-houses c. Go not into such places but when God calls you stay no longer than he will stay with you and do nothing there but what ye shall have cause to bless God for when ye come away 15. Be thankful to them who have shew'd mercy and kindness to me and you pray for them inquire how it is with their posterity and as ye are capable do them good remember Prov. 27.10 Thy own friend and thy fathers friend forsake not 16. Forgive all that have done me wrong and pray to God not to visit it on them or their posterity ye know I have had hard measure from some and I know that I have stood before God to speak good for them and to turn away his wrath from them 17. As for you that are or may be hereafter set up for your selves in a way of trade my counsel to you is this See that your persons be upright with God that ye may have a Scripture-right to the promises of the life that now is and
3. I shall give you several instances for the confirmation of it 1. I shall only give you two main Characters of godly Parents First They are conscienciously careful for their preservation Secondly For the Eternal happiness and salvation of their Children 1. They are conscienciously careful for the preservation of the natural lives of their Children as trees support and feed the branches that grow out of themselves And as it 's natural to the brutes to defend and keep their own young so nature it self teacheth and inclineth Parents to defend and preserve and provide for the fruit of their own bodies and for this end to supply them with food raiment and physick and to fit them for callings and seasonably to provide for them meet yokefellows and every way to take care that they neither perish or be made miserable but godly Parents in whom natural affections are sanctified and improved by Grace do all these out of a principle of Godliness as persons who have to do with God herein they do it in a sense of their dependance on God and pray for daily bread to feed their Children and are thankful when they feel it come warm from their Father in Heaven they do it in obedience and faithfulness to God and with a design that their Children may live to be born of God and to be a blessing to this world and be blessed in the other world As for those unnatural monsters who feed their lusts with that which should maintain their Children they are so far from being Godly Parents that they are worse than Infidels in not providing for their Families and are like the Devil who as I said is a Murderer of his own Children 2. They are conscienciously careful for the Eternal happiness and salvation of their Children for their natural affections being now sanctified do work in them for the spiritual good and happiness of their Children Prov. 4.3 4 5. I was my fathers son tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother Solomon was his fathers and mothers darling their love did run out exceedingly upon this son and he tells us which way their love and kindness was express'd he taught me also and said unto me Get wisdom get understanding He tells us also how the affections of his good mother did work Prov. 31.2 3. What my son and what the son of my womb and what the son of my vows The son of her womb was the son of her vows whom she had devoted to God those Parents who have known both states the state of Wrath and the state of Grace and have experimentally felt what it is to pass from death to life and from the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God cannot but desire that the same change be wrought upon their children And as they who love themselves with a holy love do take God for their eternal life and happiness and Christ for their Redeemer to redeem them from all evil and to bring them to this happiness and the Spirit for their Sanctifier to fit them for this happiness So they that love their children with this holy Love will desire and endeavour that they be partakers with them of the same happiness 2. I proceed to give you three Characters of ungodly Children 1. They are such Children as will not be subject to the authority of their Parents The reverence of Children to their Parents is so incorporated into the whole body of Religion that all Religion is in vain without it this fully appears Levit. 19.3 Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father and keep my sabbaths I am the Lord your God Observe this duty is here joyn'd with keeping the Lords Sabbaths wherein Religion did always very much consist but it 's often seen that disobedient children are great prophaners of the Lords-day they are always bad but usually worst on that day and some of them may remember that their first breaking out into scandalous sins was on the Lords-day We are here further taught That this duty of Reverence to Parents is joyn'd with all Religion to God for saith God in effect it 's in vain for any to pretend to call me their Lord and their God if they do not fear their Parents and theresore wicked children are numbred among the most flagitious and worst sinners Ezek. 22.7 In thee have they set light by father and mother they villified and despised them and made nothing of them such break all the bonds of Religion and many hasten through a shameful and untimely death into a dreadful and tormenting eternity whose wickedness first began in scorning and despising their Parents 2. They are such children as will not obey the Commands of their Parents The godly Commands of Parents are the means which God hath appointed and doth often bless to make the children godly Gen. 18.19 I know Abraham that he will command his children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment and God commands all children to obey all the holy and lawful commands of their parents Ephes 6.1 Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right It 's the parents right that their children should obey them and it 's Gods right that they should obey them in the Lord and this saith the Apostle Col. 3.21 is well-pleasing to the Lord so that those children do neither fear provoking God nor care to please him who will not obey their parents and so are children of their parents sorrow and of Gods wrath 3. They are such children as are unthankful to their parents the Apostle tells us 1 Tim. 5.4 That it is good and acceptable before God for children to requite their parents and they have great things for which they should labour to requite their godly parents viz. for all their care and cost and pains to keep them alive and for all their diligence and faithfulness in endeavouring to make them blessed and all the requital which the poor parents desire is that their children would but love and obey God and not damn themselves but these ungodly children are so far from requiting them that like so many Dogs and Lyons they tear in pieces the hearts and bowels of their tender parents 3. I now come to confirm this That it 's ordinary for godly parents to have ungodly children and for this end I shall first give you some instances recorded in Scripture 2dly I shall instance in several cases wherein this is verified 1. I shall only give you four instances recorded in Scripture for the confirmation hereof 1. Instance is in Adam and Eve these were both godly parents and therefore in that first Evangelical promise Gen. 3.15 we have notice of the two great parties in the world the one was the Woman and her seed and the other the Serpent and his seed and of the enmity betwixt them and though there is only mention made of the woman yet the man
your hearts have wandered from God in his Ordinances 3. Bewail and beg pardon of God for your failings heretofore to your parents for many do often reap from their own children what they formerly sow'd by their sins against their parents and their miscarriages to their parents do fall upon them in the wickedness of their children the best may sadly reflect upon their want of due honour and obedience and thankfulness to their parents ye may remember your peevish looks undecent behaviour to them your grieving them in quarrelling with your brethren and sisters your unjust censuring them for partiality in their love to their children and judging them to want love to you when you were wanting in your duty to them and many who are now godly parents themselves may remember that by greater sins in their youth they were the grief and bitterness of their fathers and mothers and therefore pray mightily to God to pardon you and not to visit these sins upon you in the disobedience of your children 4. Pray to God not to visit your sins upon your children When Manasseh was in Heaven Amon his son followed the steps of his unconverted estate and Jehoiakim was carried captive into Babylon for the sins of Manasseh Pray that your children may not be like you in any thing wherein ye are unlike God and that their teeth may not be set on edg for the sowre grapes that ye have eaten 5. Be deeply affected with the corruption of nature in your children For as no man will value a Saviour for himself who is not convinc'd of the sin and misery which he must be saved from so ye must be sensible of your childrens sins or else ye cannot labour for their salvation When your sweet babes are born ye rejoyce to find that in Gods book all their members were written but ye should also be sensible of that body of sin they are born with and that by nature they are young Atheists and Infidels and haters of God and basphemers and whoremongers and lyars and thieves and murderers for they are naturally inclin'd to these and all other fins and are by nature children of the wrath of the infinite God and being convinc'd of this ye will find that your chief care of them should be to save them from this dreadful state of sin and misery 6. Be convinc'd what a great deal of work lies upon you to endeavour the salvation of your children young children always make a great deal of work they make work for parents and work for servants and work for all that are about them but to save them from sin and hell is the greatest work that belongs to their parents for this purpose they have a great deal a work to do in their own hearts they must know and believe and love and obey the doctrine of salvation themselves that they may be able and sit to instruct their children therein for a man cannot train up his child in the way he should go if he do not know the way himself We read Deut. 6.6 7. These words shall be in thy heart and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children it 's fitly render'd in the margin thou shalt whet or sharpen them the word of God is more keen and sharp when it hath first done its work on the parents hearts and so comes from their hearts to their children Parents must keep their own graces in exercise to put authority and savour in all that they say and do for the salvation of their children Grace must work in their prayers grace must rule their tongues grace must guide the rod and grace must shine in their lives and then it 's a great work which is to be wrought in the children it is a great work for them who are born of the flesh to be born of the spirit a great work to make Religion and Godliness natural to them to make the children of the devil to become the children of God Almighty and parents must constantly labour in the use of means to accomplish this work 7. Be mighty in prayer for your children for all the good ye desire for them must come from God and therefore must be beg'd by prayer it is in vain for them to be taught of us except they be taught of God Whose words Lord saith holy Augustine were they but thine which by my faithful mother thou hast sung in my heart Pray and pray in faith and hope thy ears saith Augustine again were at my mothers heart when she pray'd for me ye must pray with tender and melting hearts the same Father tells us that his mothers tears watered the earth when she pray'd for him and ye must pray for their salvation this also Augustine calls the hinge of his holy mothers prayers for him 8. Solemnly dedicate them to God by baptism and then ye must heartily consent that God alone be the eternal life and happiness of you and your children and that Jesus Christ be their and your Redeemer to redeem you and them from all sin and misery and to bring both to God and that the Holy Ghost be their and your Sanctifier that by him you and they may have a Scripture-right unto and be made meet and fit for this happiness 9. When they are capable of it instruct them in the Covenant which by baptism they were solemnly entered into For this end ye must diligently teach them these six things 1. To know the evil and danger of sin for till they come to know what sin is and what it is to be saved or damn'd and what it is to lose or enjoy God they will not value or accept of Christ but will despise the Redeemer of the World as good for nothing ye must therefore labour to make sin odious and Christ precious to your children and then they will value Christ and obey you It was prophesied of John the Baptist that he was to prepare the way of the Lord and to turn the children to the parents so let it be your care to make way for Christ in your childrens hearts and if ye prevail in that they will be obedient to you 2. Inform your selves and them in the doctrine of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost for this is the doctrine whereinto they are baptized and by baptism they are solemnly entered into Covenant with these sacred persons against the flesh Satan and the world shew them the glory and love of God the Father in chusing ordaining fitting and sending Jesus Christ and in commanding him to be a sacrifice for us inform them that God the Father is the fountain of life for Christ lives by the Father the fountain of Authority for Christ received all power in heaven and earth from him the fountain of all the Christian Religion for Christ first heard these truths from the Father and then made them known to us and the fountain of glory for the Father hath exalted Christ and all glorified Saints are
come to repent with the damned in hell and with the devils to believe and tremble For this end I shall 1. Endeavour to convince you of your Folly 2. Direct you how to attain true Wisdom First I shall endeavour to convince you of your Folly ye see the Text calls a wicked son a foolish son God who knows you best and hath a true judgment of you calls you fools and would have all the world to be of the same judgment with himself and therefore to account you fools and ye will at last call your selves fools when ye come to have the portion of fools and except ye judge your selves fools ye cannot be wise And that ye may as in a glass see your own folly I shall propound to you these five Questions and as God said to Job so do I in his name say to you Job 38.3 Gird up your loins like men I will demand of you and answer ye me 1. Are ye not very fools in that ye do in your hearts and lives deny the being of God There are no worse fools than they that say in their hearts There is no God Psal 14.1 For such a one saith in effect that there is no Religion no Sin no Heaven nor Hell yea he saith that he himself is nothing and that there are neither Heavens nor Earth nor Seas nor Men nor Beasts nor any other creatures for if there be no God there can be nothing else so that ye have the name of fools written on your foreheads and as it 's said Eccles 10.3 Ye say to every man that ye are a company of fools 2. Are ye not fools to make such a foolish choice It is the infinite goodness of God that ye have life and death blessing and cursing set before you and that ye have a God and Christ and the Holy Spirit and the heavenly glory to chuse and ye have Beings capable to chuse them and may take them for your own and use them as your own every day and that ye are called and commanded to chuse them and have time and opportunity to chuse them and shall certainly have them if ye chuse them and yet these as Solomon speaks Prov. 17.16 are but as a price in the hands of a fool that hath no heart to it Consider there are two sorts of Affections in all humane creatures and all are wise or fools according as they set and place these there are affections of union as love desire and delight which do unite the heart to their objects and there are affections of opposition as hatred and anger which do separate the heart from their objects And are ye not monstrous fools in that ye hate and abhor God and your Redeemer in whom there are all reasons for your love and desires and joy and in that ye love and desire and delight in sin and the devil and death and hell in whom there are all reasons for the hatred and revenge of your souls To love those things which are altogether loathsome and and to hate what is altogether lovely is a plain argument of your madness and folly 3. Are ye not fools in suffering every thing to deceive you The Scripture tells you that the devil is a deceiver it tells you of the deceitfulness of your hearts of the deceitfulness of sin of the deceitfulness of riches of the deceitfulness of wine and strong drink of the deceitfulness of harlots who promise pleasure but prove a deep ditch and a narrow pit of the deceitfulness of a lying tongue which promiseth that lyes shall serve the lyars turn and do his work but proveth to be but for a moment of the deceitfulness of theft and unjust gain which seems sweet at present but soon after proves as gravel in the mouth and yet notwithstanding all the shame and rags and stings and torments of conscience which have come upon you by trusting in these yet ye will still believe them and suffer your selves by these deceivers to be cheated of God and Christ and of your souls and of your time and of heaven 4. Are ye not fools in being so set and bent to ruine and destroy your selves Prov. 18.7 A fools mouth is his own destruction and his lips are the snare of his soul Eccles 10.12 The lips of a fool shall swallow up himself ye are so bent on your own ruine that your hearts rise in anger and hatred against your good Parents and Ministers and all that labour to save you and ye account them your worst enemies who would not have you damn'd Miserable children allow your selves but one hours serious consideration of your eternal estate and ye will see reason to condemn your selves for a company of proud and ignorant fools in attempting to run down God and his Kingdom and Religion and in valuing your cups and lusts and lies at such a rate as for them to exchange the eternal life and happiness of your souls 5. Are ye not fools in not preparing for death and judgment which are ready to overtake you To convince you of this be inform'd That men are prepared for death and judgment who by faith and repentance and holiness are become heirs of the promises of the Gospel and so have a right unto and fitness for all that glory which in performance of these promises God will give them the possession at those great days but men are unprepared when they are under the wrath and curse of God and are condemned to those eternal torments which are threatned in the Scriptures and will at death and judgment be executed upon them Now prove your selves by these things and ye may then see what fools ye are in not preparing for these days for if ye were prepared ye should then enter into a world where all will love you God and and Christ and all Angels and all Saints will love you and ye will for ever be holy and blessed in their love to you and in your love to them but being unprepared ye must then be cast into a world where all will hate you and where you will hate all the holy and blessed God will there hate you and be a consuming fire against you the devils and all the damned in hell will hate you and you will hate them and we find that our Saviour brands him for a fool Luke 12.20 who promiseth to himself an easie and merry life for many years when that very night he was to lose his soul and he gives the character of foolish virgins Matth. 25.2 to those who were unprepared for that great and terrible and sudden cry The bridegroom is come go ye out to meet him Poor children let these common things be imprinted on your hearts Death is certain the day of death is as certainly appointed as was the day of your birth and as your birth kept its time so will your death keep its time ye cannot sin away death though ye sin away the sense of death Consider also