Comfort for Parents Mourning over their Hopeful Children THAT DYE YOUNG In a Funeral Discourse upon JER 31. xvii And there is Hope in thine End saith the Lord. By Thomas Whitaker Minister of the Gospel at Leeds in York-shire LONDON Printed for John Dunton at the Raven in the Poultrey 1693. THE PREFACE AT the Desire of Mr. Nicholas Dunwell who was particularly concerned both for the Preaching and Publication of the following Sermon I write this Preface In his Hopeful Child he saw many Pleasant and Amiable things but now that dear Comfort of his Life being withdrawn as he acquiesces in the Holy Providenee of God that causes many times those Flowers to wither by an Early Decay which perhaps we should be very apt to doat upon so he doubts not but this Discourse made by that Minister under whose Instructions he sits with great Delight will contribute to the Good of others especially those who are yet in the Morning of their Age. I could not in Civility refuse the prefexing my poor Name such as it is tho' the worthy Author needs no Recommendation much less mine his Skill in Spiritual Affairs and the Success wherewith God has blest his zealous Eudeavours for the Good of Souls render it needless for me to say any thing that hath so much as the Shew of Flattery he neither expects it nor does my Genius lead me to say much of one who is too modest to hear his own just Praises and who has so many Witnesses of his fitness for his Honourable Work amongst his Numerous and Happy Auditory which was I doubt not Edified at the Hearing of the following Sermon and will be more so at the Reading of it it must be their own fault if they receive not considerable Benefit from a Subject so suited to the use of Parents and Children and which is so well managed I shall only speak a little to those that are Young and to those Parents who are shedding Tears for the Loss of Hopeful Children Those that are Young have but little Experience of the Sorrows and Calamities of Life and in a World where they have been for so short a space every thing appears to them as Gay and Fine they are but beginning to Travel and finding no Pain nor Trouble at present promise to themselves many smooth Years and to be at ease a long while and being Charmed and Blinded with sensual Pleasures they put afar off the Evil Day But I would desire them to consider that they may be taken away betimes that their Sun may be Clouded a little after be is risen and that now in their full Strength and Vigor it is the most proper seasson wherein to prepare for another World and if they should live to be old they 'll find no Inconveniencies from such an Early Preparation it will be the Joy of their Parents and their own Joy God will multiply his Favours and he will be pleased to see them in his Vineyard in the Dawn of Life this will enable them to run their Christian Race with an eager haste and the Brightness of their Examples will allure others to run for the same Blessed Crown whereas if they be secure careless and unthoughtful of Eternity their Minds will be laid waste and be like the Field of the Sluggard all overgrown with Thorns and Bryers with every evil and unpleasant thing This Earth with its fair Charins and Tentations will chain them to its self and the Devil will lead them Captive at his Will he will insult over them in their growing Age and strive to keep them from deserting his Service when they were before his Volunteers And it must be a doleful and Melancholy Prospect to their poor Parents to see their dear Children run in the way of Hell and like to be the fuel of Eternal Flames I would beg of them to read this Sermon and other good Discourses that may give them a right sense of things and especially to delight in the Holy Scriptures the frequent perusal of which will keep them from the Vanities of Youth and with admirable Clearness and Efficacy direct them to cleanse their ways and while they read in so Divine a Book to pray to the great Father of Lights that he would irradiate their Souls with Vital Beams that they may not only see the Light but feel the warmth of Truth and then if they die early if they go to Bed betimes they 'll fall asleep in Jesus and never complain that they were in Heaven too soon if they be good 't is no great matter whether their Lamps be extinguished at Midnight or at Noon As to Parents who have lost good Children whom they loved with all imaginable Tenderness tho' it is impossible for them not to shed tears at the pleasant Images of themselves their pretty Carriage their little innocent Actions their serious Discourse and their Holy Prayers yet they have a great many things to sweeten the bitterness of their Grief Oh what a Spiring is it of daily Consolation to think that a part of themselves is in Heaven And that tho' Death has pluckt from their Embraces a Child that was so Amiable and so good yet instead of groaning under the miseries of Life he is praising God above with Loud and Chearful Hallelujahs How reviving must it be to think that the Supream Ruler whose they and theirs are has removed the sweet Flowers that they look'd upon with Joy into the Coel stial Paradise It is reviving to think that these little Vessels are filled with an Early Glory and gone to see the Face of their Heavenly Father as their Angels did before the Parents of such Children ought not to shed unprofitable Tears for all their Sorrows will not cause a Spring in the Grave nor make the lovly plants to grow again They should not alway keep their Finger on the Sore for the Rod that chastens them is dipt in Honey and managed by a Father's Hand who must be more to them than many Sons and Daughters Their Love to these Amiable things shoâ—ld not exceed their Love to God he must be more to them than their Life which yet is a dearer and sweeter thing than all their other Comforts What Graces soever adorned the Bodies of their Children what Perfections soever enriched their Souls yet it should support them to think that whilst they are left to many a Cold and Stormy Winter they whom they once loved are arrived at their home and tho' they see them no more in their Families yet they shall meet them with Pleasure at the Great Day and never part again and then those Bodies which the Grave for a season preyed upon shall be like the Glorious Body of our Lord. You that are Parents may Lawfully drop some tears over the Graves of your departed Children but you ought not to bury your selves alive nor to be made unserviceable to God by excess of Grief You prayed that they might be good and they
unnecessary as Young as you are And your Thoughts by thus looking Inwards will by a necessary Connexion be led to look Upwards By thinking of your selves you will be led to think and consider of God as the Author of your Beings as the great Object of your Duty as the Awful Judge before whom you must stand within a few Days and as the Blessed Center where alone you can expect Rest and Happiness How profitably how sweetly may your Thoughts run upon these Subjects And how refreshing will it be to your Expecting Parents to observe that you are Thoughtful about such Matters 2. Labour to possess your Hearts with the Early Conviction of your Miserable State by Nature As innocent as you may suppose your selves to be yet be willing to know Eph. 2.3 That by nature you are Children of Wrath as well as the worst of Sinners and that you came into the World with that Corruption and Defilement of Nature which renders you Guilty before God Rom. 3.19 Be willing to be convinced that you are so many undone perishing Souls whom God is angry with every day and who are obnoxious to his Righteous Judgment every moment Joh. 3.36 till a Change of State have past upon you Look within you and see what wretched depraved Creatures Sin hath made you Full of little but Rebellion and Enmity against God and Serious Goodness Look above you and see the Flaming Sword of Offended Justice waiting only for a Divine Commission to dislodge your Trembling Souls out of your Bodies and to send you down to the Chambers of Death Look before you and behold the Burning Lake of Infinite Wrath opening her Mouth to receive you into Vnquenchable Flames And having got a sight of your Danger and Misery argue the Case with your own Souls Is this a Condition to be rested or lingred in Is this a State to be careless or unconcerned about Who can dwell with Consuming Fire Who can in hub it with Everlasting Burnings Why art thou at ease O my Soul Why art thou secure within me Thy case is thus Dreadful and Dangerous Sequester some of the Time which is too often spent in Vanity to entertain your Minds with such Considerations and Expostulations as these and put not off the matter with a few slight Thoughts that almost perish in the Thinking but labour to press and follow the Conviction till your Awakned Souls begin to cry out Act. 16.30 Oh! what shall we do to be saved What blessed News will it be to your Concerned Parents to hear from you such an Enquiry 3. Endeavour to impress your Hearts with your absolute need of a Saviour You must know You cannot be saved now but in an humble Compliance with the Terms of the Gospel no more than others and that must be by looking after Pardoning and Healing Grace in a Redeemer pardoning Grace to deliver you from the Condemnation Healing Grace to deliver you from the Dominion of Sin Be assured that nothing short of this Grace can savingly recover you Col. 1.19 And that this Grace is not to be had but in a Mediator Make it therefore the matter of your Early Inquiry who this Redeemer is what he hath done and suffered and purchased for you and how you must come to an Interest in Him and His Glorious Purchases Act. 4.12 When you hear the Tydings of this Beloved Saviour attend thereunto as those that are sensible that you have as Needful a Concern in Him as any When he is proposed and tender'd to you upon Gospel-terms know that your Consent is expected as well as from others and that now you are past your Infant-state you must be saved in the very same way and by the very Rules as Older Persons Is a Cordial Acceptation of Christ as their onely Lord and Saviour required of others The same is expected from you Is a Sincere Resignation of themselves to be entirely the Lord's required of others The very same is call'd for from you without any Exception or Dispensation Prov. 8. from the 22 th ver to the end Labour to settle these things upon your Hearts betimes for they are your Life 4. Apply your selves to a serious Reading the Scriptures and Attendance upon Publick Ordinances As soon as you have learnt to read put your selves to Christ's School and let the Bible be the chief Book you desire to learn in The Scriptures are for your Instruction as well as for Others Read them not meerly as a Task but as the matter of your Delight not to gratisie your Curiosity 2 Tim. 3.13 but as the Blessed Means to make you wife unto Salvation Here as in a Glass you must behold your own Wretchedness and Misery Jam. 1.23 2 Cor. 3.18 And here also you must behold the Matchless Glory and Excellency of a Redeemer Rom. 7.13 1 Pet. 2.7 2 Tim. 3.16,17 In this Chrystal Mirrour you must see Sin to be exceeding sinful and here also you must see Christ to be exceeding Precious Whatever is necessary either to your present Duty or future Felicity must be all learnt from hence Make this blessed Book then your Early Companion it 's a Book to make you Wise as well as more grown Persons and you cannot be too soon acquainted with it And the better to promote your Acquaintance therewith and Improvement thereby put your selves betimes under the Dispensation of publick Ordinance Publick Ordinances must help on Private Duties The Divine Truths that you read in private may be more opened and applied with that Heavenly Light and Warmth as may not only enlighten your Understandings but inflame your Affections with an Holy Life and Love I Let it be your Delight then as soon as you are capable Prov. 8.34 to wait daily at Wisdom's Oates and to wait at the Posts of hat Doors And wait with all Seriousness and Reverence with an earnest Desire and Expectation of the Coming down of the Angel to heal your Souls and to make you Sound and Sincere Converts 5. Send up your early Cries to Heaven that you may not fail of the Grace of God During your uncapable Infancy your Parents have prayed for you now you must pray for your selves And you have both as much need and as many Encouragements to Pray as others You have as much Need to Pray as Others For being Guilty before God you stand in need of Pardoning Mercy and your Natures being depraved you stand in need of Regeneration by the Spirit of Grace as well as others And who are more obliged to Pray for these Divine blessings for you than you are for your selves Or who have a nearer Concern in you than you have in your dearest selves You have also as many Encouragements to Pray as Others For besides the blessed Encouragements common to the Generation of Seekers in general you have Special and Appropriate Promises to encourage you Prov. 8.17 I love them that love me and they that seek me early shall find me Early Seekers are the surest Finders And who would not see about so Blessed a Duty that have such Encouragements of Success Learn then to make your humble Addresses to the throne of Grace betimes and though you cannot Pray as you would yet strive to Pray as well as you can Press your Hearts with the Sense of your Wants and that will direct you to such Expressions as will be acceptable to God though they may but be Poor and Confused in themselves If you can say little yet send up your Sighs and Groans Rom. 8.26 and that Broken Inarticulate language may have Power with God and prevail When you can do no more tell him in all Humility Gen. 23.26 that you are resolved to hang at his Door and lie at his Foot until he bless you Oh! howgrateful must it be both to Heaven and Earth to see you so Early in your Bibles and upon your Knees breathing after Christ and enquiring the Way to the Heavenly Zion This is now Early Religion This is the Holy Course I would recommend to your Blooming Years both for your own and your Parent 's sake The Observance whereof will be your Crown and Joy whether you live or die If you live to arrive to more Maturity it will be your Glory and Honour that you have began so Early with God as well as you parents Delight and Joy And if you die in your tender Minority it will both be your own Peace and your Parent 's Comfort in your Latter End Finis
cross and sour upon the Management of any Holy Duty Thereby manifesting their secret Disrelish of and prevailing Aversness unto things of a Spiritual Heavenly Character But on the contrary when Children evidence a pleasant Towardliness to the Holy ways of God when they manifest a dear Affection to Prayer and reading good Books and Religious Discourse as performed and managed by others and when they frame themselves to these things in what Manner and Measure their short Capacity will admit making up in the Will wherein they come short in the Work This is also a very Amiable Hopeful Symptom It 's left as a Mark of Honour upon young Josiah That when he was but Eight Years old he walked in the ways of his Father David to do that which was Right in the Sight of the Lord. 2 Kin. 22.1,2 What a lovely Discovery was it of an Immortal Seed dropt into the Heart when it thus began to sprout above Ground How delightful were such early and choice Beginnings The Power of Divine Grace must be at work betimes where the Effects were so Early and Signal Well It ministers no less matter both of Delight and Hope to see our Children beginning to savour the things of God and to disrelish their Childish Vanities in the timely Spring of their Day And it cannot but bespeak a new Divine Palat formed in the Soul to which the Vanities of Youth are so unsavoury and the Exercises of Heaven so Grateful and Pleasant 4. A Thoughtful Concernment about an Eternal State is another hopeful Indication of early Goodness Childhood is a Time of Life that ordinarily runs so much into Froth and Vanity that it seldom admits of any serious Consideration How difficult is it to fasten a serious Thought upon Children either of their Duty or Danger either of their Present State or Future Doom Their Vain Minds are possess'd with their Childish Trifles Eccles 11,10 that there 's no Entertainment for Thoughts or Fears or Cares of an higher Nature They are so charmed by the present Allurements of Time that they know not how to apply their Minds to the more solemn Concerns of Eternity And therefore where any Thoughtfulness appears of this kind it is the more remarkable For Children to be possess'd with an Awful Sense of an Eternal State to hear them inquiring What they shall do to be saved to see them concerned about Death and Judgment and Heaven and Hell must be much more than the same things in grown Persons It 's the more observable in them by how much it 's the more rare and more contrary to the Temper of that Foolish Age. It 's rare to have a Child's Mind composed to any thing and much more to things that lie so remote from Sense and Fancy which are their chief Governing Principles Whence then must these Thoughts have their Original To what Spring must they be ascribed Certainly to no other than the secret Operation of Heaven Children do not use to look into their Graves or take a Prospect of Eternity but when the Finger of the Almighty powerfully directs them thither They do not use to entertain themselves with Anxieties about another World or what will be their suture State therein but when such Thoughts are dropt from above And how seldom do such Thoughts abide but when they are rivetted by the same Hand that made the first Impression When therefore Thoughts of this Nature take up such early Possession in the Minds and Hearts of Children it is a Token of very comfortable Signification 5. A real Desire after an Interest in Christ is another Intimation that affords a good Ground of refreshing Hope What an Encouraging Presage doen it suggest to hear Children timely inquisitive after the Blessed Jesus asking who and what is he and of what use to the Souls of Sinners And upon Intelligence received to be mighty sollicitous and concerned about an Interest in his Grace and Mercy Our blessed Saviour himself who was no Stranger to the early Appearances of Divine Grace lays it down as a fundamental Maxim Job 17.3 This is LIfe Eiernal to know the only God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent It 's Eternal Life in the Seed though not in the Flower in the Beginnings though not in the Perfection of it The first Buddings of Spiritual and consequently of Eternal Life are frequently couched in Pleasing Inclinations to hear of this Incomparable Person and in secret Desires to have a Part and Lot in him And this argues both some Conviction of a lost State by Nature and also some Spiritual Acquaintance with the Nature Uses and Ends of Jesus Christ as the great Contrivance of Heaven for saving Perishing Souls Why do such Souls esteem it their concern to look after a Saviour but that they are in some measure sensible of their guilty undone Condition by reason of Sin And why do they desire to be interested and wrapt up in the Mercies of a Gracious Jesus but that they have had some Beam of DivineLight breaking into their Minds whereby to understand him as the great Propitiation ordained of the Father for Guilty Sinners You must allow for the Incapacity of Children in not coming to that distinct Acquaintance with Christ which maturer Years may arrive unto But it is a singular Foundation of Hope when they know so far of themselves as to be afraid of dying in a Natural State and so far of Jesus Christ as to breathe out their Hearts in an Affectionate Concernment for a Portion in him as the only Saviour of dying Souls And more may be wrapt up in a Sigh a Groan a Word a Tear of theirs to this purpose than we are aware of 6. A tender Fearfulness of known Sin is another hopeful Testimony of early Goodness We must indeed make allowance for the unballasted Temper of Childish Years which cannot be expected to be altogether free from the Vanities and Follies of that Age But when Children are under powerful Impressions of Fear of doing any thing which they are convinced to be downright Sin and this not so much from a Servile Awe of the Rod as from an ingenuous Tenderness of Heart it cannot but suggest a good Hope notwithstanding some Childish Follies that they may be incident to Children cannot be supposed to have that explicite and extensive Knowledge of Sin that riper Years may attain unto But what they understand to be Sin they are sensible it 's offensive to God and displeasing to their Godly Parents as well as Damning to their own Souls and from all these Considerations are possessed with an Awful Fear of doing amiss Who can esteem this any other than a Divine Spark struck from Heaven into their Hearts while yet in their tender Minority How fearful have some Children been in Lying tho' an Iniquity too commonly incident to that Age of taking the Name of God in vain of profaning the Sabbath or bearing apart in the wicked Excesses that other