cavils of prophane Spirits and against my own unbelieving fears 2. God never forsakes the Children of Godly Parents till they forsake him poor Children run away from God before he turn them off 1 Chron. 28.9 If thou seek him he will be found of thee but if thou forsake him he will cast thee off for ever If Solomon or any other Child or Children of a Godly Father put on a Cloak of Religion to please Parents or accomplish a carnal end while they live and cast off Religion and perversly turn their backs on God and embrace wicked ways without true Repentance they have discharged God of his performing promise because they have voluntarily descarded the condition on their part now at ripe age when they are fit to make a choice it 's a voluntary act proceeding from their own wilfulness John 5.40 You will not come unto me and then it becomes a judicial act in God to forsake them because they first forsook him and neither they nor their Parents can find fault with God for withdrawing from them that Grace they abused which he is not bound to give them 3. Parents have no reason to challenge God for non-performance of the terms of the Covenant but themselves for their neglect of duty to their Children this is ordinarily the reason of their Childrens miscarriage even godly Parents are too apt to miss it by over fondness and negligence in their education not admonishing counselling correcting them David had been too indulgent to Adonijah in not crossing him and doubtless his Conscience flew in his Face upon his Ambition this is a plain case good Eli honoured his sons above God 1 Sam. 2.29 by permitting them to dishonour him chusing rather to offend God by connivance at their sin than displease them by severe rebukes effectual restraints and severe punishments for as a Father and as a Magistrate he ought to have curbed them therefore God saith I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth of because his sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not Oh what privy nips do the Consciences of Parents give them when their Children grow up and take not good ways alas I sinned against God and now God leaves them to themselves I have no cause to censure God but condemn my self God is Righteous their sin is a Glass to see my own Lord humble me and convince them oh pardon my iniquity that I may pray believingly for my Seed 4. God may pass by the immediate off-spring of his faithful Children and work upon their more remote posterity Free grace sometimes runs under ground for a season and breaks out at a distance an immediate Son is bad but grace layes hold on a Grandson Jehoshaphat was a good man 2 Chron. 20.32 But Jehoram his Son proved bad 2 Chron. 21.6 Yea Ahaziah his Son walked in the ways of the house of Ahab 2 Chron. 22.3 4. Vzziah did right in the sight of the Lord 2 Chron. 26.4 And Jotham his Son 2 Chron. 27.2 6. But had a bad Son Ahaz 2 Chron. 28.1 2. Yet Electing love broke out again in good Hezekiah 2 Chron. 29.2 But it lay dormant for a considerable time and laid not hold of Manasseh 2 Chron. 33.2 Yea some think his forc'd Repentance was not sincere and saving however the grace of God withdrew from Amon his Son 2 Chron. 33.20 But laid hold on good Josiah his Son 2 Chron. 34.2 You see how grace skips and leaps over the head of one and lays its hand upon another yea sometimes it crosseth hands and as Jacob guided his hands wittingly laying his right hand on Ephraim and his left hand on Manasseh Gen. 48.14 20. setting the younger before the Elder contrary to Josephs desire and design Thus God crosseth our natural affections and expectations blessing such as we least thought of and leaving others that our hearts were most set upon to convince us of the freeness of his grace But thus his Covenant doth stand sure 5. Delays are no denials God hath his time to bring in the Prodigal Sons of pious Parents nullum tempus occurrit Regi the King of Heaven can take what time he pleaseth to work on hearts Saul shall long persecute the Church yet become a chosen vessel it 's worth observing that the Children of many godly Parents sowed their wild Oats in youth even godly Jacob was guilty of many faults stealing the blessing by a lye Several of Jacobs Sons had foul spots Ruben and Judah were guilty of Incest Simeon and Levi of rash Anger Treachery Murder yet all godly Patriarchs Several combining out of envy to sell Joseph Whereby they broke their Father Jacob's honest heart but let not godly Parents make too hasty conclusions He that believes makes not haste It may be God defers to hear because he loves your company and would make you an Errand to the throne of grace your Prayers are yet too cold he thinks fit to quicken importunity the Answer will come double loaden and pay for all your pains and patience give God the glory of his wisdom he knows how to husband your mercies better than you it 's worth observing that those Women in Sacred Writ that waited longest for Children had the best as Sarah Rebecca Rachel Hannah Manoahs Wife and Elizabeth Be not preposterous you may see Gods Salvation before you die 6. If God never shews mercy to your seed you must not so much murmur at his Justice as adore his Soveraignty he is absolute disposer of his own grace such an act of Prerogative may be admired must not be questioned The Apostle Paul having waded as far as Scripture led him into the unfathomable Abyss of God's casting of the Covenanted seed of believing Abraham and adopting the forlorn and forsaken Gentiles stands on the bank of that Ocean and cries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! Ro. 11.33 how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out The immensity and ineffability of these counsels are such depths as he saith in Job 32.13 He giveth not account of any of his matters They are oft unaccountable but never unrighteous Kings have Arcana Imperij misteries of State not fit to be communicated to vulgar capacities And much more the infinit God Deut. 29.29 secret things belong to God It 's presumption to pry into Gods Ark our weak eyes cannot behold this glorious Sun poor sinner down on thy knees and say thus to God Lord I will rather adimire the riches of thy grace to my own Soul than quarrel with thee for not giving my Child grace It is an abstruse and inscrutable depth my humble Ignorance or nescience shall stop at thy pleasure my will shall be melted into thy will if my seed must glory in thy Justice I will acquiesce therein and say though clouds and darkness are round about thee yet righteousness and judgment are
draw out my heart to thee in vain when a Father bids his Child ask he designs to give thou wilt not let this blessed spirit breathe in vain in my soul Wilt thou inlarge my heart and not grant my request Psal 38.9.15 Lord all my desire is before thee and my groaning is not hid from thee In thee O Lord do I hope thou wilt hear me O Lord my God Thou hast raised my heart in Expectation wilt thou not give me the mercy I expect 8. Lord is not thy Glory concerned in this affair as well as my comfort And yet my comfort is something in thine eye For thou sayst Ps 118.15 The voyce of rejoycing and salvation is in the Tabernacles of the righteous And alas What joy can there be in a family when a foolish Son is heaviness both to Father and Mother Prov. 10.1 and a disturbance to the whole house But oh thy Name is dishonoured by my own flesh wicked men hardened some scandalized by the miscarrying of the Children of the Covenant But on the other hand if Covenant-grace be spread upon my childs heart by Converting-grace many will glorifie God Gal. 1.24 His own Soul will be the actual lively Trumpet of Divine Glory by confessing sin and turning to God thy Omniscience Grace and Omnipotency will be made glorious And who can tell how many may be won to God by his Example 1 Pet. 2 1â— 2 Thes 1 1â— and every Convert Glorifies God in the day of their visitation and at the great Day God will be glorified in his Saints Lord consult thy Glory 9. Lord thou hast given me some incouragement concerning this Child I am praying for When my Child was young he was very hopeful now he is grown up my hopes are dasht He hath now embraced the world or is fallen into bad company and courses the less are my hopes now because he is a woful Apostate and sins against more light than others and this daunts and damps my spirit however I will pray and wait still for what is a daunting to me Gen. 22.14 is rather an advantage to thee In the mount of the Lord it is seen When the knife is at Isaac's throat Hos 2.14 the valley of Achor is a door of hope When men say our bones are dryed our hope is lost Ezeck 37.11 12. we are cut off for our parts then the graves are opened and there 's life from the dead The case is mine I am saying as Jonah I am cast out of his sight yet will I look again toward thy holy Temple The other look may fetch the mercy There 's a may be in the case Can a Child of so many Prayers and Fears miscarry This brings to mind a passage in Melchior Adamus De vitis Theol. Germ. pag. 724. It is this The mother of Hunnius being with child of him had a Vision She thought she was in the Church and took up a Reed or a Straw or such a small thing While she held it in her Fingers it so increased that she was almost oppressed with its weight even to death She presently saw it turned into a Pillar of the Temple Then she was eased of her burden This was verified in her Son Hunnius who though religiously educated and hopeful in Childhood yet fell into bad Company and then into horrible Temptations and sad Apprehensions That he had committed the sin against the Holy Ghost but by Grace was recovered and proves an excellent instrument in the Church of God This may be of use to poor afflicted desponding Parents 10. Lord If thou deny my suit and glorifie thy Justice in the rejection and damnation of My child I must and will acquiesce in thy Soveraign righteous Will It 's hard to bring my heart to it but I will say Thy Will be done Rom. 11.33 Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledg of God! How unsearchable are thy judgments and thy ways past finding out I my self deserve to be forsaken and cast into Hell I have many a time told thee I must for ever justifie God with flames about mine ears if thy justice be glorified in my destruction for all my abominations And if thou deal thus with my beloved Off spring I will say The Lord is righteous in all his wayes and holy in all his works Dan. 9.7 Righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto me and mine confusion of faces I submit my all to thee and thank thee for grace in my own soul and hopes of Glory and if my wilful child may not bring a revenue of Glory to free Grace I will be content with thy raising up a revenue of Glory to thy Justice in his just condemnation Obj. But what tender-hearted Parent can be contented to see his Child damned Answ You must distinguish betwixt Nature and Grace Nature loves its own and cannot bear to see part of it self in misery Yea grace cannot but desire cannot but earnestly breathe after the spiritual and eternal good of our Children And 't is not only lawfull but duty to desire it Yet if God deny it Grace brings man's Will to a due submission to the Divine disposal for the more a Christian is like to God the more is his Will melted into God's Will and therefore will a Child of God rejoyce in the execution of Gods justice upon dearest carnal Relations at the great Day As sanctified Levi in the cause of God Deut. 33.9 said to his Father and his Mother I have not seen neither did he acknowledg his Brethren nor knew his own Children Nature will be in a sort swallowed by grace in Gods good pleasure That was a remarkable passage of a gracious Gentlewoman that had a vicious Son who fell into many debaucheries and into one hainous Act which sunk her tender spirit But recovering her self she said to him with some warmth Ah! my sinful Son thou hast cost me many a Tear Groan and bitter hour but a day is coming when I shall triumph in seeing the just vengeance of God excecuted upon thee this did so appall the young Gentleman that he laid it to heart repented and became a new man to the joy of his Godly Mother But 2. You must distinguish about Damnation and look on it as under a double notion 1. as a state of compleat Sinning Blaspheming and hating God to the utmost God calls you not to be content with this which is so directly contrary to the Grace of God in the Christian nor yet may you be content to have your Child separated from God the cheifest good which is the worst part of hell But 2. Hell may be considered as a place or state of torment and misery to the Rational Creature and upon this account you must not be contented simply to have your Child tormented which is abhorent to nature but your Souls must be so overr-uled with the Divine pleasure as where his will is
and take no care of their precious Souls and know not when they Dye whether he that comes after them shall be a Wise man or a Fool Eccl. 21.9 if he be a wise man a little will serve him with Gods blessing if wicked he puts a Sword into the hand of a Fool to do himself and others a greater mischief Oh how much better is it for their own peace and their Childrens profit to plead the Covenant to Instruct Correct Admonish Counsel Comfort and incourage their Children in the ways of God and use their utmost Endeavour to make them Gods Children an Ancient thus writes Sabrian ad Eccles cath lib. 3. p. 441. Disciplinam parentes deus jubet thesaurisare filijs non pecuniam perennia praecipit non peritura conferre God commands Parents to hoard up Disciplin not Money for their Children things of a perpetual not perishing nature what a base and sordid thing is it to prefer a Swine to a Son to provide for a Beast and cast out a Child and yet most Parents bestow more care of their Cattel than of their Childrens Souls they give their Children nature but deny them nurture Yea they propagate corruption to them but do not travel over them till Christ be formed in them they glory in being Fathers of their Flesh but cry not to the Father of Spirits for the best life in their Childrens dead Souls they promise at their Baptism to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord but know not what that meaneth and have no heart to learn that they may teach Oh what account will these perjured Parents give another day Remember God will call you to account what Answer will you give when he shall Say where is the Childs Soul that I committed to thy trust what care hast thou taken of it where are thy Tears Prayers Groanings Earnings of Bowels for thine own Bowels didst thou not know that thy Child had a Soul that its Soul was polluted with Sin that it must be born again not only of Water but of the Spirit or could not be Saved that though I was to be the Efficient cause yet thou must be the Instrument to begin and carry on this Work and hast thou struck one stroke in this work by faithfull endeavours or hast thou earnestly desired me to do that for thy Child that thou couldest not thou knowest thou hast done neither and therefore thy Childs Blood shall be reqiured at thy hands what Apology wilt thou then make for thy self Dost thou think to come off by Saying I sent him to School to learn or to the Minister to be Catechised this is more than some will do but is this all is not paternal care thy personal duty was not thou charged with thy Childs Soul may not God justly blast other teachers pains as a punishment of thy negligence and doth not thy bad Example at home unravel all that others teach them Wo Wo be to such wicked wretched Parents In the name of God I charge you as you will not have your Children accuse and curse you in Hell for ever concern your selves deeply about their Everlasting State think they can never do well if they do not well for another World they will never be dutifull to you till they be Obedient to God train them up for God and you consult at once Gods Glory the good of Church and Common-wealth your own Comfort and their Eternal felicity true Grace qualifys persons for every condition for he that is really good will be relatively good a good King and Subject Father and Child Master and Servant Heathens knew this that the way to form Persons into a due mould of civil Subjection is a literate and vertuous Education thus the King of Babylon conquering Judah ordered the Kings seed Dan. 1.3 4 and Princes to be trained up in the learning of of the Chaldeans and our own Historys tell us that when the Romans conquered this Island Julius Agricola brought Noble mens Sons to Rome and caused them to be educated in liberal Sciences whereby they gradually tamed the furious temper of the Brittains so that the Inhabitants here became of gentle spirit and peaceable Subjects much more will Christianity and true Piety bring persons into a regular conformity it expells Barbarity and produceth Civility Hospitality Frugality and yet a discreet liberality a divine Benediction is entailed upon Sincere Religion Godliness is profitable unto all things 1 Tim. 4.8 having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come if your Children be Godly they will be fit for any thing and all things will conduce to their good And You Oh children suffer a word of Exhortation from one that hath had Experience of childhood Youth riper age and is arrived at old age and hath been a teacher of others above forty years and may say to you as Augustus did to his mutinous Army Audite me juvenes quem juvenem senes Audierunt Hear me Young men whom sometimes Old men have heard and obeyed God forbid you should be head-strong sons of Belial Yoakless and so run headlong into the pit of destruction Be not like the wild asses colt break not thro' Parents tears Prayers counsels and commands to Hell Alas that any young persons should desperatly contradict the perswasions of Ministers the motions of the Spirit the checks of their own consciences the sad warnings of their undone companions and the rods of God on their own backs and haste through all these to the pit and never stop till they be swallowed up in that Infernal Lake that burns with Fire and Brimstone you will say what would you have us to do I answer Act as Rational Creatures inure your selves to Solemn consideration Consider that you are Creatures of an higher rank than Bruits that you have Immortal never dying Souls that God made you to Glorify and injoy him that he hath given you a rule to act by in order to another state in the other World that Sin hath depraved your natures hath diprived you of Gods Image brought you under his curse that Christ came to redeem Sinners that saving Faith doth interest Souls in Christ that Faith is the gift of God that in your Baptism you were ingaged to forsake the World Flesh and Devil Consider your sins since you were baptized confess them to God review and renew your Baptismal vow actualy renounce all other claimers and give up your Selves to the Lord understandingly Deliberately Vniversally and Perpetually improve Jesus Christ as the way the truth and the Life Espouse his interest joyn with Gods People Obey all his commands Attend on him in all his Ordinances Be sure you be sincere Exercise every Grace aim at Perfection keep a constant watch over your hearts and ways maintaining a dayly warfare against all Spiritual Enemies prepare for death and consider where you must lodg when the King of Terrours lays its cold hand of Arrest
11.16 If the Root be holy the Branches are also holy So in humane Laws the Father and the Heir are but one Person of this opinion is Mr. Perkin's and produceth the testimony of the Antients as St. Augustin and Bernard saying it is meet and for the honour of God that to whom age denies their own Faith Grace should grant to them a benefit by the Faith of another Perk vol. 1. fol. 486. where he answers Bellarmine's objection That by this means Children shall be born Believers and so be conceived and born without original sin Answ Believing Parents sustain two persons one whereby they are men and thus they bring forth Children having Mans Nature with all the corruptions of nature the other as they are holy men and Believers and thus they bring forth Infants that are not so much their Children as the Children of God and Infants are Gods Children not by vertue of their birth but by means of Parents Faith which intitles them to all the blessings of the Covenant Thus he But this is not the subject of our present design and consideration CHAP. IV. What grounds of hope Parents have from the Covenant for their Adult and surviving Children THE second head in the prosecuting of this Doctrine is the proof of the point That notwithstanding the sins and sufferings breaking forth in a godly man's Family or breaking in upon it which occasion much grief to his Spirit yet he is and hath reason to be supported and satisfied from Gods gracious Gospel-covenant I am very sensible I have undertaken a difficult province and walk in an untrodden path But this I may confidently affirm that whatever befalls a covenanted Soul he may fetch all good out of this blessed treasury for 1. Either his Children shall be laid hold on by converting Grace or 2. They shall not if they be oh what cause will he have to magnifie Covenant-love on their behalf if not still he will exceedingly adore Covenant-grace on his own behalf that hath made him to differ and in the worst case will find something in the Covenant for supporting his Spirit and sanctifying his bitter cup of Affliction in the death of Children As to this latter I shall say nothing but refer you to a small Treatise of Mr. John Flavel's called the Balm of the Covenant applied to the bleeding wounds of afflicted Saints from this text But my present business is to gather up such gracious promises as a Nosegay or Posie out of the Garden of Scripture as may refresh the drooping hearts of Gods poor Children sorrowing for the miscarriages of their Children that they may turn them into Prayer or use them as a Cordial to support them till the Lord shine upon the Souls of their beloved off-spring In general observe that as the Covenant of Grace is a blessed constellation So every promise is an orient refulgent Star to give both light and influence to the weary Traveller in this dark and dismal dispensation wherein he is appalled through sad fears that his Child shall be a cast-away The Question is what grounds of hope from Scripture have godly Parents for their Children that are grown or growing up and likely to survive or out-live them The resolving of this is of exceeding great importance and having searched the Sacred Records I do find twelve sorts of Promises that may incourage Parents Hearts 1. The first and chief is God himself Gen. 17.7 For I will establish my Covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their Generations for an Everlasting Covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee This extends both to Abraham's natural Seed and afterwards to his Spiritual Seed all Gentile-believers Rom. 4.12 18. Oh what a priviledge is this whatever God is hath or can be or do is for believers of all that 's communicable divine power wisdom goodness mercy holiness justice is the portion of Believers and their Seed whatever they can ask or expect in a God shall be in due season laid out in them and for them this one word is the substance and confluence of all good spiritual temporal eternal Deus meus omnia My God is the most extensive and comprehensive word in the World what can a man desire more and no less will give a gracious Soul content for himself and his Seed no less is in the Covenant Jer. 31.33 Blessed is the Nation whose God is the Lord. Psal 33.12 God in some sense may be the God of Nations Families as well as Persons and if some boast of Pedigree Wealth Honour numerous Posterity Worldly Prosperity yet let David reckon up the Epitome the summa totalis of mans felicity he will thus conclude happy is that People whose God is the Lord Psal 144.12 15. Happy Parents that bequeath such a Legacy to their Posterity though they leave them in Poverty 2. Next to that and a mean to injoy God is Jesus Christ the Mediator of the Covenant Isa 42.6 I will give thee for a Covenant of the People for a light of the Gentiles it 's true God vouchsafed to the Jewish Nation this priviledge Rom. 9.5 that of them as concerning the Flesh Christ came but they cannot monopolize this glorious gift Eph. 2.13 for now in Christ Jesus we who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ and poor Gentiles laying hold on the Covenant are become free Denizons of all Jewish priviledges that are essential to Salvation Gal. 3.28 for we are all one in Christ Jesus and promises are to us that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall call Act. 2.39 even Christ himself in whom all the promises of God are yea and in him Amen 2 Cor. 1.0 Nor can any man have an interest in any one promise for himself or seed without an interest in Christ there never was or will be any Covenant betwixt God and Man since the fall but through Christ he then that hath Christ hath something to plead for his Children more than another hath Col. 3.11 he only is all and in all for our selves and ours And they shall hang on him all the glory of his Fathers House the off-spring and the issue all vessels of small quantity Isa 22.24 All believers are Gods family and by Faith in Prayer they may freely hang upon him off-spring i. e. Children Grand-children the smallest and least of the Vessels that are in their house he will not refuse them but lovingly entertain them himself will take Infants into his Arms as himself being an Infant was taken into old Simeons Arms and both old and young are blessed by him Oh happy Parents that lay surviving seed in so warm a bosom they cannot miscarry that have Christ for their Guardian 3. Another Legacy that Parents may leave their Children is the third person of the blessed Trinity the Holy Ghost Isa 44.3 4. For I will pour Water upon him that is
the habitations of thy throne Psal 97.2 7. Yet for all this Religion must be owned and vindicated God is good to the Soul that seeks him Isa 45.9 to the Soul that waits for him He never said to the seed of Jacob seek ye me in vain Lam. 3.25 If God never shew mercy to any of my seed yet I will never justifie the wicked by saying It 's in vain to serve God Mal. 3.14 No God forbid Il wil never say that prayerless Families are as good as praying Families my own experience and thousands more besides the infallible verity of the faithful God Psal 19.11 will contradict that Atheistical Maxim in the keeping Gods commandments I have found great reward Yea I have found that the miscarriage of my Child which is the greatest cross that ever I met with hath been blessed for the good of my Soul as the good Woman said bearing my Children and my crosses have cost me dear but I could not be without either it 's not fit I should chuse my affliction and what God lays on is welcome and I will like Christ no worse for his Cross for I find these bitter Waters most medicinal and the sweetest fruit grows on this bitter Tree the badness of my Child hath helpt to make me better this heart-breaking hath proved an heart melting it 's true wicked men are hardened by seeing the Children of the Covenant thus miscarry even as divisions Mat. 10.34 35. 2 Cor. 2.14 and offences amongst Gods people are occasions of their ruine yea the Gospel-preaching is the savour of Death to some but as God is just therein to them so my Soul hath cause to bless the Physitian of Souls that so tempers this poison as to make it wholesome Physick to my poor Soul my crosses are better than their comforts I will commend Religion though I mourn over my irreligious Child Godliness is gain though I gain not Grace for my Child by it CHAP. VII An Vse of Conviction and Humiliation ALL the improvement I shall make of this point shall be 1. Of Conviction 2. Exhortation 1. Of Conviction if this be true that notwithstanding the sins and sufferings in a godly mans family which occasion much grief to his Spirit yet he is comforted and satisfied in Gods gracious Gospel-covenant Then it follows by the rule of contraries that those Families that have no right to this Gospel-covenant are in a woful state have no grounds of comfort satisfaction no hopes of Salvation so remaining they are not under a blessing but under a curse Prov. 3.33 The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked the Plague is in that house set a cross on that door and say Lord have mercy upon it wicked families read your doom and train of curses in Deut. 28.15 16 17 18 19. you make great reckoning of your estates alas there 's no Covenant blessing in any thing you have they are in themselves great blessings of God but to you they are cursed Mat. 2.2 If you will not hear and if ye will not lay it to heart to give glory to my name saith the Lord of Hosts I will even send a curse upon you and will curse your blessings yea I have cursed them already because ye do not lay it to heart it 's a dreadful flaming text against impenitent inconsiderate sinners not only their persons but all their domestick concerns are under a curse your meat money houses wives children garments imployments injoyments all that you do all that you have shall be accursed this is an heavy case a grounded curse by man lyes long and lights sadly upon Successors Noah pronounced a curse on Cham's off-spring Gen. 9.25 which never left them till it rooted out the Canaanites by Shem's Posterity The subject is large and astonishing I shall say something 1. To Irreligious Parents 2. To Irreligious Children 1. There are some Parents within the bounds of the visible Church that 1. Understand not this Covenant never set themselves to consider it they bring their Infants to be baptized in a custom because others do so and it would be a shame not to have them Christened Neighbours would cry out against them but they neither know the meaning of Baptism nor Covenant nor have they any mind to know them 2. Take no pains to get their own Souls interested in this Covenant Eph. 2.12 but are strangers from the Covenants of Promise and so have no hope for themselves or seed we find great fault with prodigal Parents that imbezel and alienate their Ancestors Inheritance that should have descended to their Children but it 's a thousand times worse for Parents to cut off this blessed entail of the Gospel-covenant 3. Most are negligent in doing their duty to Children alas how few will take pains to instruct them in the principles of Religion the nature use ends of the Seals of the Covenant in praying for them as if there were no such text in the Bible or they had never made such a promise Eph. 6.4 to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord Ah! wretched Father Mother out of your own mouth are you condemned that promise what you never intend to perform how notoriously do you falsifie your promise betray your trust 4. There are too too many Parents that are scandalous prophane atheistical and teach their young ones to lye swear be drunk unclean by the evil example they set before them A Child brought up with Plato coming home hearing his father in a furious passion could say I never saw or heard the like in Plato Alas sirs you lessen your esteem with your Children by sinful courses you bring guilt upon your family yea you do your endeavour to root out your family The seed of the wicked shall be cut off Psal 37.28 The whole Psalm and daily experience testifies the same Hab. 2.10 Ah sinner thou hast consulted shame to thy house and some generations hence may reap the fruits of thy folly The text saith he will visit the iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate him Exod. 20.5 There are some hereditary sins and some hereditary punishments bequeathed as an heritage to their Children Divines vindicate Gods Justice in proving that God may righteously punish sins of Relations in their correlates Filij sunt res Parentum for Children say some are portions of Parents as people are the riches and good of Princes yea they have in them aliquid parentis something of the Parent they are pieces of them So David was punished in his Childs death But I shall not spend more time in this point because somuch is said by many others How can you see your Children damned in Hell through your default How can you hear their cries and see their torments in that Infernal Lake gnashing their Teeth and roaring with Flames about their Ears saying