that are now Children and Servants may become Parents of Children and have Servants under you being built up in Families of your own Now the better you are at present in your private Station the better you may be when advanced to a more publick Capacity For to Obey well is the way to Govern well So that setting of you right for the present may be a Means of regulating your Families for the future and those who shall receive holy Instructions from you may afterward convey the same to their Families And who knows but as there shall ever be a holy Seed raised up to praise and serve the Lord so there may be a Succession of Religion in those that descend from you till the coming of Christ to Judgment It is observable That though God calls home to himself some who were far off and he will yet more eminently do so when all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before him Psal 22. 27. Yet Religion hath been much propagated through the Loins of the Faithful And it hath been observed That when Grace gets into a Family ordinarily it doth not soon take its leave of it But though there may be some sad Interruptions yet it appears many times again in Grand-Children or Great-Grand-Children and if not in the direct Line yet Collaterally as the Rivers of Water run thorough the Valleys though not in a direct Course but with many Windings and Turnings and various Branchings so that we are many times ready to be at a loss in following them Of this the Scripture doth and our own Observation may furnish us with Instances Now may I not begin my Address to you as St. Austin one of his Sermons Ad vos Juvenes mibi sermo flos aetatis periculum mentis Aug. de Temp. O Young Ones my Speech is to you who are in the flower of your Age but peril and danger of Mind Or with very little Variation as St. John that bosome Disciple of our Lord I have written unto you fathers that you may know him that is from the beginning I now write unto you little children that you may know the father I write unto you young men that you may be strong and overcome the wicked one and that the word of God may abide in you 1 Joh. 2. 12 13 14. Therefore Come ye children hearken unto me I will teach you the fear of the Lord Psal 34. 11. I shall give you the sum of my Advice in the following Particulars 1. Consider seriously what kind of Creatures God hath made you and learn to set a due value upon your own beings The very Frame of thy Body which is wonderfully and fearfully made and curiously wrought Psal 139. 14 15. speaks something extraordinary But then thy Soul is Heaven-born a Spiritual and Immortal Being capable of the Knowledge and Enjoyment of God himself and by what Bonds and Tyes this Material Body and Immaterial Soul are united and linked together thou do'st not know So that thine own Being is above thy Conception St. Austin Aug. Confes wonders that Men admire other things and leave themselves unadmired Consider thou art not a lifeless Rock or Stone a senseless Plant or Tree an irrational brute Beast but a Creature endowed with a rational and immortal Soul capable of knowing and enjoying God here and hereafter Yea thy mortal Body shall at the last day be raised to an Immortal State Remember thou art a Creature made for Eternity 2. Seriously lay to heart your State of Sin and Misery How you are tainted with Adam's first Transgression The Scriptures of Truth acquaint us That in him all sinned and therefore death came upon all men Rom. 5. 12. And in Adam all died 1 Cor. 15. 22. Consider further how your whole Nature Soul and Body every Faculty of the one and Member of the other is vitiated and defiled with the Leprosie of Sin Thou hast within and upon thee a compleat Body of Sin and Death Rom. 7. 24. with all its Members Even the youngest Children have old Adam in them Infants themselves are not innocent Thou hast that Corruption within thee which is sufficient to betray thee to the greatest Sins and expose thee to the greatest Sufferings Yea thou art guilty of manifold actual Sins of Omission and Commission and these cloathed with various Aggravations O! Consider how thy excellent Being is debased by Sin and how thou hast plunged thy self into unspeakable yea unconceivable Misery 3 See that thou be regenerate and born again without which thou shalt never enter into the Kingdom of God Thou art by Nature a child of Wrath and Heir of Hell Thy Nature must be changed by renewing Joh. 3. 3. 5. Grace before thou canst be a Child of God and Heir of Heaven And this know and remember that the New Birth is of the whole Man as the Natural is if it be a living Birth Remember your solemn Dedication to God in Baptism obligeth you to secure your Regeneration improve it therefore accordingly If taken out of the World by Death before thou art taken out of the World by Grace it had been good for thee thou hadst never been born for thou art undone to Eternity Woe to thee if thou diest before thou art alive to God for on such the second Death shall have Dominion and they shall be kill'd with Death 4. Have and maintain an inward Value and Esteem of your Parents Masters and Governours Yea tho' they be not so great or rich or wise or obliging as some others Esteem them as those set over you in the Lord and as obeying the Lord in so doing I have heard of a Wife who said she could be Obedient to her Husband but he was such a one as did not deserve it It was reply'd But the Command of God is worthy to be obey'd and shew your Obedience unto that So in this Case The Yoke will gall if it be not lined with Love but Love will cover a multitude of Faults Beside the Sin of Undutifulness we profit little by those whom we do not much affect 5. Study the Duties of your particular Places 1 Thes 4. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Relations and conscientiously practise them Many study other Duties and neglect their own They spy a Mote in anothers eye and cannot see a beam in their own Do you especially study and perform your own Duties Let your words looks gestures actions be such towards Parents and Superiours as they ought to be Let their Cautions restrain you from all Vanities their Counsels set you upon the Practice of what is Duty Yea tho Parents and Masters do not perform their Duty to thee yet thou must perform thine both to God and them You must be subject with all fear not only to the good and gentle but also to the froward 1 Pet. 2. 18. their Sin can be no
the Talent is so the Account will be great It is worth while to perform Duty though without Success Yet who knows what blessed Success may attend sincere though weak Endeavours You may thus early prevent those youthful Extravagances which like Errors of the first Concoction in the Body Natural once admitted are seldom cured If any belonging to your Families are in a course of Sin who knows but a little Advice faithfully given may be to them like the Remora a little Fish which they say if it stick to the greatest Ship will put her to a stop when under full sail Admitting some be Angling for the World thy heavenly Counsel may be like the Torpedo which it is said in a secret way transfuseth its Vertue to the Rod and so to the Hand of the Angler and makes him let it fall Who knows but by this means those of thy Family may be made knowing methodical well grounded steady practical Christians here upon Earth and at last become glorious Saints in Heaven What a Blessing had that good Man who could comfortably say I have had Six Children and I bless God for his Mr. Eliot of New-England free Grace they are all either with Christ or in Christ and my Mind is now at rest concerning them I can yet condescend to offer Arguments of an inferiour Nature if by any means I may gain some The Books recommended for your Assistance in Catechising are very good yet very cheap very full yet very brief very deep yet very plain These Catechetical Exercises will tend to sweeten the very Humours of the Family they will mend the Discourses of the Family at other times They will improve your Children's Understanding advance Parts and accidentally fit for Employments in wordly business and converse This will tend to make them better Husbands and to keep use and improve their Estates the better It will be a means of encreasing Family-Love and promoting Obedience Your Children that are in danger to become Rods yea Scorpions to you may by this means become a Staff in your Hand It is said That eminent Family in Rome received the Name Scipio from one of their Ancestors who was Scipionis vice as a Staff to his Parents Such may yours be The Regulation of Christian Families will give a Set-off to Religion and commend it even to a carnal World When the Queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon and the house that he had built and the meat of his table and the sitting of his servants and the attendance of his ministers and their apparel and his cup-bearers also and their apparel and his ascent by which he went up into the House of the Lord there was no more spirit in her 1 Kings 10. 4 5. In a word by this means may be raised up more accomplish'd Instruments in Church and State and both dearly need such You that are Children and the govern'd Part of Families hearken to that Counsel that out of meer good Will is given you by one that wisheth your Welfare here and hereafter It has been observ'd by my intimate good Friend who is now with God How Mr. Joseph Whiston of Lewes in Suffex the Privileges of the Infant Seed of Believers has been asserted and pleaded for by himself and some others who had no Children So here you have the good of Children and Families sought and endeavoured by one that hath neither Child nor Family Do not hearken to the destroyer of Souls and turn a deaf Ear to such as desire your Salvation Read with fear and trembling Prov. 1. 20. to the end Prov. 5. 11 12 13 14. with other the like Scriptures Many bewail these neglects and the sad consequences of them on the Rack of Conscience on a Death-Bed and some in Chains and at the Gibbet Yea Hell in all the Caverns of it is filled with horrid Echoes of the doleful Yellings of those who in vain torment themselves with severest Reflections on their Youthful Miscarriages If you will rant away your time and opportunities here you also shall roar it out there to all Eternity God's Prison will hold you if nothing will restrain you short of it Grinaeus rejoyced when he saw any young Persons improving and was wont Melch. Adam vit Thed to say That more worshipped the rising than the setting Sun O what great things may you do for God your own Souls and the succeeding Age Others must quickly sleep with their Fathers The Children of this Age must be the Men and Women of the next 'T is in and with you that Religion must live or dye There is a Promise Instead of the fathers shall be the children whom thou mayst make princes in all the earth Psal 45. 16. I have been bespeaking no less of you than to endeavour after a truly sanctified saving Knowledge but if I must not prevail in that yet let me desire you to get at least a notional Knowledge and it may be Grace may come afterward And here I shall take leave to recover from Oblivion a Passage that I do not know is preserved by any publick Print I have heard of one who being Servant in a Family of good Order did while there submit to Family-Catechising and thereby obtained a form tho' only a form of Knowledge After his removal thence he fell into ill Company and Courses and at last committed some Fact punishable with Death Being apprehended and committed to Prison the Poor Creature at once saw Death and Hell before him and began to bethink himself how tho' he must lose his Life he might save his Soul His time was short he was shut off from all Advantages abroad and shut up with Company more like to harden than soften his Heart In the Multitude of his hurrying Thoughts within him he begun at last to reflect upon that good Family he once lived in and he seriously recollected the good Things he then obtained some Notion of and it pleased God that his Knowledge issued in Conversion And when he came to dye by the Hand of Justice this was part of the good Advice he gave to those who were Spectators That they would get Knowledge tho' they did no more for that the Truths stored up in their Heads might afterwards fall down on their Hearts This he said was his case or else he could not with such comfort go thus out of the World Let me in the close importunately beseech Magistrates Ministers the Masters and Mistresses of Schools all Heads and Members of Families effectually to set upon promoting this and other parts of Reformation as they would escape those most fearful Judgments which will else as certainly befall one and all of them as there is a Righteous God in Heaven and wicked Sinners on Earth God will pour forth his fury upon the heathen that know him not and on all the families that call not on his Name Jer. 10. 25. It is said of a people of no understanding that he
the Ass is a dull blockish Creature the wild Ass an untractable Creature and such is Man by Nature 2. Consider it will be your great Honour and true Comfort to hearken to Good Counsel and receive good Instructions and that betimes saith the Lord Since thou hast been precious in my sight thou hast been honourable Isa 43. 4. This made Jabez more honourable than his brethren 1 Chron. 4. 9 10. Wisdoms ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace Prov. 3. 17. All that ever walked in them have found them so They are Enemies and Strangers to them that suggest the contrary 3. Consider how much Evil both of Sin and Punishment thou mayest prevent by a speedy attending to wholsome Counsel and Instruction Look upon thy whole Life as a time of Temptation yea and the further thou engagest in the World the more thou shalt find the Temptations of it Even Infancy hath its Temptations but Childhood more than Infancy Youth more than Childhood There are such filthy Lusts of the Flesh as make even a Child of God cry out O wretched man that I am Rom. 7. 24. And such would be glad of Deliverance even by Death Yea it is a great Testimony of the truth of Grace when we can desirously submit to Death which even pure Nature is averse unto rather than be infested with Temptations unto those Sins which corrupt Nature is most pleased with And it is a further Testimony of the Grace of God in us when yet we sit patient and submissive though uneasie under this greatest of Burthens till God shall in his own time and way give us a fair discharge from our service But if these Temptations should prevail and you should be induced to make provision for the flesh to satisfie the lusts thereof Rom. 13. 14. what Wounds do you give to your own Souls Great also are our Temptations when we come to Man's Estate for then ordinarily we engage more deeply in the World a most dangerous Enemy It was smartly and as truly said by one The Devil of Business hurries more Souls to Hell than all the Devils in Hell besides At this age it is that Persons usually enter on the Conjugal Relation which so much influenceth the residue of our Lives yea and Posterity after us And if you should arrive at Old Age which few do yet that of all is most unteachcable As to Evil of Punishment it is consequent to that of Sin Yea God sometimes even where he forgives the Sin and exempts from Hell yet will not remit or abate the rigour of Chastisement here Saith the Psalmist Thou answered'st them O God! Thou wast a God that forgavest them though thou tookest vengeance upon their inventions Psal 99. 8. God may visit our transgressions with the rod and our iniquities with stripes though he do not utterly take his loving-kindness away Psal 89. 32 33. At least Sin will cost us a dear-bought Repentance Now how much of this Evil of Sin and Suffering may be happily prevented by early attending to good Counsel and Instruction 4. Consider the Shortness and withal Uncertainty of Time and the vast Extent if I may so speak and Concernment of Eternity Thy Time will soon be at an end how soon thou knowest not and thou must take that amazing step into an Eternity which has no end 5. Consider None ever complained they were brought to Acquaintance with God too early but many have repented it was so late Said Austin I have loved thee late Sero te amavi veritas tam antiqua tam nova Ang. O thou Truth so Ancient and yet so New By which I suppose he meant so Ancient in it self as being Eternal and yet so New that is newly discovered unto him Who was ever brought so early to God but he wish'd it were yet earlier if earlier it could be I am sure in this of the concurrent Testimony of all the Saints that are or have been or ever will be upon Earth though in this case late is better than never yet early is better than late 6. Consider As the Lord will be very gracious and indulgent toward you if you hear Instructions that you may live so he will be equally severe if you reject his Counsel and chuse Death God was highly pleased with his Sacrifice of Lambs and his Offerings of First-fruits When the Ears were yet green his Soul desires the first ripe Fruits When any do early attend the Calls of God He remembers the kindness of their youth the love of their espousals Jer. 2. 2. The Shepherd of Israel even the great Shepherd of the sheep gathers his lambs in his arms and lays them in his bosome Isa 40. 11. But if you cast his fear behind your backs and walk contrary unto him he will walk contrary unto you Lev. 26. 23 24. The Lamb of God is likewise the Lion of the Tribe of Judah and will rend and tear and none shall deliver out of his Hand Psal 50. 22. He hath his Iron Rod as well as his Golden Scepter therefore Kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye perish from the way Psal 2. 12. Thus I have been suggesting Motives the Lord himself move you by them CHAP. VII Objections Answered The Conclusion I Shall now apply my self to Answer those Objections that either the Governors or Governed in Families or both of them may be apt to raise against the necessary and important Duty I have been urging Yet thus much I must first premise in general That there can in this case no Objections be made but such as savour very strongly of Weakness Sloth Earthliness Impiety and Obstinacy But such as they are I shall give them a Hearing and endeavour to Answer them that this Iniquity may for ever stop its mouth Object 1. Some weak Persons may object against Catechising as a Dead Flat Formal Thing not suiting the Spirituality of the Gospel I Answer 1. Solemn Catechising or Instructing Persons in the chief Heads of Christian Doctrine is a Duty of that nature as necessarily requires a methodical Collection of those fundamental Truths that lye scattered throughout the Scriptures The Apostle mentions a Form of Doctrine delivered Rom. 6. 17. And we are presented with some of the fundamental Principles of the Doctrine of Christ Heb. 6. 1. under certain Heads methodically and regularly disposed And Timothy is commanded to hold fast the form of sound words which he had received of Paul in faith and love that is in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 1. 13. 2. Whether or how far Forms of Prayer are lawful is nothing to my present purpose to enquire But this let me say There is a manifest difference between Forms of Prayer and those imposed and Forms for Catechising either composed or chosen as adapted and fitted to that Occasion which necessarily requires such a Form 3. I plead as much as you against Formality in this or any other Christian Duty yea I exhort you to be