the heart and soul of a child running out in his pleasant and loving looks to his parents but ye disobedient children do not love your parents but do them more hurt and cause them more sorrow than all the malicious enemies and persecutors they ever met with in the world ye are always vexing and crossing and provoking them and are as continual pricks in their eyes and thorns in their sides and had rather be with lyars and swearers and drunkards and with your wanton and idle companions than with your wise and grave and holy parents how merry and jovial are ye in the company of such who will joyn with you to serve the devil and dishonour God and destroy your souls but how uneasie and lumpish and sowre and discontent are ye in the presence of your parents your spiteful looks and sullen words and scornful carriage doth betray your hatred and anger and envy against your good parents Ah wicked wretches that ye cannot find in your hearts to love your parents from whom ye had your Beings under God and who have us'd all holy means to make you holy and blessed Lastly Ye have broken the Bonds of your duty to your other relations and to all men ye cannot be good brothers or sisters whil'st ye are such bloody children to your parents ye cannot be good servants or apprentices or good husbands or wives or good subjects to Magistrates whilst ye are bad children for the same sins that debauch you in that relation will debauch you in all and will make you an incumbrance to your place the troublers of the world and a very plague and curse to your generation 2. I shall now endeavour to convince you of your misery and oh that I had a heart and tongue to think and speak of this as the matter doth require Consider ye are cursed children Deut. 27.16 Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother and all the people shall say Amen Observe God himself doth here proclaim you cursed he only can curse or bless you having all curses and blessings at command and can set his love or pour out his wrath where he pleaseth he is able and faithful to fulfil his own threatnings and he knows you to be cursed for he knows all the children of his Grace and all the children of his Wrath. Observe further that all Gods Ministers are to pronounce you cursed vers 14. The Levites shall speak and say to all the men of Israel with a loud voice Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother The Ministers of God must with a loud voice as if they would ring in the years of all declare you to be cursed and I a Minister of the Gospel do hereby proclaim all wicked and disobedient children though some of them may be the fruit of my own body to be cursed Nay further all people yea your own selves are to judge you cursed and all the people shall say Amen They and you are to believe it and to approve of it as most just and righteous that ye be cursed But that I may convince you of your misery I shall further set before you these four things 1. Ye are out of the way of all good God hath his way of mercy and his way of wrath and ye are out of the way of his mercy for ye do not stand in the grace and love of God which causeth all good and are children of his wrath which causeth all misery and as I have told you ye have broken that Covenant which conveys all Grace and Mercy so that no good can come to you except ye turn to God and your parents 2. Ye are in the very way and road to all wickedness Many of the most horrid sins in the world first began in disobedience to parents and most of those who have proved Lyars Drunkards Whoremongers Thieves Murderers were first ungodly and disobedient children 3. Ye are in continual danger of some remarkable judgment of God in this life Exod. 21.17 He that curseth or revileth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death Prov. 20.20 Who so curseth his father or his mother his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness Your lamp of life and pleasure may seem to burn and shine at present but there is a black and dismal night hastening on all disobedient children Prov. 30.17 The eye that mocketh his father and despiseth to obey his mother the ravens of the valley shall pick it out and the young eagles shall eat it None are more like to pass into the eternal world through a shameful and untimely death than disobedient children when God leaves children to disobey their parents it 's a dreadful sign of their approaching ruine it 's recorded of Eli his sons 1 Sam. 2.25 That they hearkned not unto the voice of their father because the Lord would slay them 4. If ye go on in your course of disobedience ye will for ever be damn'd in Hell for I say ye have broken that Covenant which promiseth eternal life to all that believe and obey the Gospel and doth as certainly bind over to the wrath and vengeance of God all that live in disobedience to God and their parents Miserable children I have sent this poor little book to overtake you before the wrath and vengeance of God do overtake you I am not altogether a stranger to the terrors of the Lord but do know what is before you and what a meeting there will quickly be between God and you better than ye do and have laboured to affect my heart in seeing what lies at your door I know that whilst ye are following the chase of your filthy pleasures evil from God is hunting you and will find you out to destroy you and I dare not damn my own soul by not warning you of those sins which will be the damnation of yours Foolish boys and girls can now laugh at the hearing of death and hell and judgment to come and when Ministers sound the trumpet in their ears to give them warning of these things they can like the War-horse in Job say among the trumpets Aha for the devil tempts his children to make sport of those things at which he trembles himself but when I remember how I have seen in some of you your down-looks your pale-faces your shivering-limbs and as Job speaks of the Adulterer when he comes to be known Job 24.17 that ye have been as in the terrors of the shadow of death when your mortal parents have found you out in your sins I cannot but think how your countenances will fall and your stout spirits sink and your mettal fail when ye come to fall into the hands of the living God Lastly I come now to exhort and perswade you to abhor and forsake your sins that ye may escape this misery I would have you to repent and believe with the Saints of God that ye may be saved before ye
Parents Groans OVER THEIR Wicked Children SEVERAL SERMONS On PROV XVII 25. Published for the Benefit of all but especially of good Parents and their Children By EDWARD LAWRENCE M. A. sometimes Minister of the Gospel at Baschurch in the County of Salop. 1 Sam. 2.25 Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto the voice of their Father because the Lord would slay them LONDON Printed for Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers-Chappel and Joseph Collier at the Bible under the Gate on London-Bridge 1681. To my beloved Children Deborah Samuel Edward John Thomas Elizabeth Mary Benjamin Nathanael and to all the Children of Christian Parents My dear Children I Am sensible of my unworthiness and unfitness to be seen in Print it is now above Twenty years since by the power and goodness of God I was unexpectedly rescued from the jaws of death which was the reason I then published that little book called Christs Power over bodily Diseases and I had never been the Author of a book of this Title had not two of you but especially one made me the Father of fools I shall here say no more particularly to you two but that sound repentance and the fruits thereof in a setled reformation of life will yet be your glory and my joy but if ye hate to be reform'd which God forbid I shall mourn till I dye for the loss of Children but ye will be tormented for ever for the loss of God Children I have not of the things of this world to leave you I do acknowledge the wisdom of God in not judging me sit to be intrusted with these things but it 's enough for us if we can call God our own though we cannot call the riches of the world our own some of you do with comfort remember how we have often worshipped God together in singing with delight those words Psal 37.16 17 18 19 20. A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked c. I here leave you this Letter of the counsel and advice of your aged and loving and faithful Father who sees death looking him and you in the face and beholds the Judg before the door this will speak to you when death hath silenc'd me and it speaks the same things which God and Christ and your own Consciences speak to you and it speaks to you as it were in the hearing of the world 1. Put a true value on your own Beings for ye cannot love God and Christ if ye do not love your selves ye are of that kind of creatures who are made much higher than all other visible creatures and but a little lower than the Angels ye are capable to know and chuse and love and delight in God and to speak of him and to entertain your selves continually with him ye are of those creatures in whose happiness God glorifies all his perfections he made this world for man he commanded his only-begotten Son to sacrifice himself for man and sent him to be born and to live and dye and to rise again and to intercede in heaven for man he hath reveal'd all the Truths of the Christian Religion for the good of man and therefore ye should think it greater madness to sell your precious souls and bodies to the Devil and your lusts for the short and dirty pleasures of sin than to sell a purse of gold or a cabinet full of jewels for a bag of chaff or cherry-stones and should account it below you to give your selves to any but to God 2. Know that as your Beings are great so your happiness or misery will be very great Riches or poverty sickness or health this present life or the death that deprives you of it are things too little to make you blessed or miserable all the curses of God or the blessings of the Gospel will be upon you presently and ye can neither live like men nor like Christians till ye know what it is to be sav'd or damn'd and what it is to lose or enjoy God 3. That ye may escape the wrath and obtain the glory set before you let it be your chief end and interest to know and honour and enjoy God use the creatures as his witnesses to testifie and declare the being and glory of God to you for God hath not only made and appointed them to fill your hearts with food and gladness but also that in the use of them ye may feel and find and fill your souls with God but especially behold the glory of God as he is presented to you in the glass of the Scriptures that he may have that name in your hearts which he hath in his word Present him to your souls as God over all blessed for ever that ye may conclude that he who is so infinitely good as to be his own happiness is sufficient to make you happy And that this God may be your eternal life and happiness ye must know and behold his glory in the face of Jesus Christ who is the Image of the invisible God the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person and therefore behold his glory as the Father of such a Son and as the Lord of such a servant for Jesus Christ is the Lords Christ Luk. 2.26 Christ is Gods 1 Cor. 3.23 and executes his office of a Mediator in obedience to the will and to the glory of God the Father whose glory ye may behold in his calling him to such a high office in his accomplishing him for the execution thereof in prospering him and making him successful in his whole work in giving him such a blessed seed in making him victorious over all his enemies and in rewarding him for his great service and obedience so that according to the intent of the Scriptures forenamed ye must labour to get such a sight of the glory of God shining upon you in the face of Jesus Christ as will make an impression of his image in your souls And therefore loathe and abhor sin which is against the glory of God and which is the only evil that can make you lose such a glorious God And for this reason be convinc'd of the vanity of this world which is but a poor thing when the glory of God shines on your souls for ye will be most blessed in him when this world shall be dissolv'd and pass'd away And let this make Jesus Christ glorious and acceptable to you whose office and work it is to redeem you from all sin and misery and to make you blessed for ever in the likeness and enjoyment of this glorious God And let this also cause you to endeavour to fill all persons with the great Name of God and Christ that ye may gain them all the hearts and love and service ye can and therefore in all company let God and Christ have your good word 4. Know that to love and delight in God is the best imployment for the days
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
jewels and treasure and children and heirs of God and the glorious bride and spouse of Christ they must and do judge their own wicked children to be a generation of vipers and serpents and dogs and swine and lyons and bears and wolves as God calls them in his Word 5. That the anger and displeasure of God appears so much against these good parents herein indeed the sense of their own folly must make them justifie God in this sharp correction and cause them to say with Solomon Prov. 26.3 As it is meet that there be a whip for the horse and a bridle for the asse so is it that there be a rod for the fools back But this is very grievous that God should correct them with a scourge made of their own bowels and should chasten a blessed father with a cursed child his holy anger must be acknowledged herein for when the child despiseth his father God himself doth justly spit in the fathers face 6. The shame and disgrace which comes to them hereby Prov. 19.26 He that wasteth his father and chaseth away his mother is a son that causeth shame Every one will be ready to reflect upon their parents and to say Surely these children were never taught to serve God who do so sacrifice themselves to the service of the devil 7. Both parents are deeply affected for the trouble and misery that comes hereby to one another their love to and sympathy with one another makes the burden of both more uneasie The good father is not only troubled with a wicked child but also for the bitterness and sorrow of his wife and the good mother is not only troubled with the wicked child but also for the grief of her husband the mothers heart bleeds to see the tears and to hear the groans of the afflicted father and cries out Oh what a child have I brought forth that so much deprives me of the comfort of a loving husband and is like to break his heart and to make me a desolate and disconsolate widow The father mourns to see the tears and the sad countenance and to hear the groans of the distressed mother and is ready to cry out Wo is me that the child of my bowels is destroying the wife of my bosom and yet these hard-hearted children are not affected herewith but let the parents sigh they will sing let the parents weep and mourn they will rant and roar and care no more to break their parents hearts than to break a Tobacco-pipe and will not abate a lie or oath or cup to save the lives of their tender parents Secondly The greatness of this calamity appears by the passions in the parents which are moved and affected hereby I shall only instance in three passions Fear Anger and Sorrow 1. Fear This is a troublesome passion and godly parents are never out of fear of their wicked children they are afraid that every one that knocks at the door and that every post and every friend that comes to visit them brings them some sad tidings of their disobedient children I shall amplifie this by instancing in three great Evils which such parents are greatly perplexed with the fear of 1. They are afraid lest their children are in the practice of some great sins this was Jobs fear when his children were feasting together Job 1.5 Job said It may be my sons have sinn'd and curs'd God in their hearts their children are seldom out of their sight but the good parents are in fear of this they know their children are always expos'd to the devils temptations and to the snares of the world and to the allurements of evil company and that their corrupt hearts are set to comply with all and that they have provoked God to give them up to their own lusts and therefore they are in continual fear lest these poor children are lying or swearing or cursing or whoring or drunk and defiling and debauching and destroying themselves and others 2. They are in fear lest some heavy judgment of God will befall them in this life And thus David when his son Absolom was in the head of a high rebellion against his father and the battel was to be fought with the Rebels was fearful lest his son should then perish in his sins these parents know that their poor children are out of Gods way and as birds wandring from the nest Prov. 27.8 are expos'd to all manner of danger they know what the word threatens against them and what fearful instances there are of the vengeance of God upon disobedient children and therefore they are in fear lest their sins should bring them to some untimely and shameful death 3. They are in fear of their eternal damnation they are sensible that their children are children of wrath and do live in those sins for which the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience and these parents believe what Hell is for as faith in the promises is the substance of things hoped for so faith as it believes the threatnings is the substance of things feared and therefore they cannot but tremble to think that their dear lambs whom they so tenderly nourish'd and cherish'd are in danger every moment to be cast into the fire that is prepared for devils 2. Anger is another passion that is moved in godly parents with the wickedness of their children and this is troublesome for a man is never out of trouble whilst he is in anger and the more the wills of these parents are bent to have their children godly the more are they displeas'd and provok'd to anger by their sins they are angry to see them provoke that God whom they themselves are so careful to please and to see them destroying their precious souls which they are labouring to save and to see them waste those estates on their filthy lusts which they have got by their care and labour and prayers they cannot but think of them with anger and speak of them with anger and look at them with anger and thus their children which should be their delight and pleasure are a continual cross and vexation to them 3. Sorrow They are deeply affected with grief and sorrow for the wickedness of their children the parents graces cause them to mourn for their childrens sins their saving-knowledge makes their hearts bleed to see their children scorn and despise that glory which they see in God and Christ and whilst they by faith are feeding on Christ it grieves them to see their children feeding themselves with the dirty pleasures of sin their love to God makes them groan that their children love sin the worst evil and hate God the chiefest good Thirdly I proceed to shew the greatness of this calamity by comparing it with other troubles and shewing how this exceeds them I shall instance in four other Troubles 1. This is a greater calamity than to be without Children so that if God had said of those Parents as he said of him Jer. 22.30
Write ye this man and this woman childless the punishment had not been so great as to be afflicted with wicked children such parents may say with our Saviour in another case Luke 23.29 Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bare and the paps which never gave suck As it 's better to have no herbs in your gardens than to have only stinking-weeds that cumber the ground and better to have no beasts in your ground than a company of foxes and wolves so it 's better to have no children than to have only such who are the continual shame and plague and torment of their parents 2. It 's a greater misery than to have diseased or deformed children This indeed is a sore affliction to be the parents of sick or blind or lame or monstrous children because such children are naturally disabled to do that service to God and their generation and their parents which otherwise they might do but this is not so grievous as to have wicked children for they that are most diseased and uncomely are often called to be the blessed and glorious children and heirs of God and the amiable and beautiful bride and spouse of Christ when all wicked children are the filthy and loathsome children of the devil 3. This is more grievous than the death of children I know it's matter of deep sorrow when parents may say with the tender Patriarch Gen. 42.36 Joseph is not and Simeon is not My son is dead and is not and my dear daughter is dead and is not but this sorrow is not lasting the impression of it usually doth and should wear off but wicked children are constant troubles to their parents and cause them to say with the Psalmist Psal 31.10 My days are spent with grief and my years with sighing 4. This calamity is greater than persecution from wicked men though that be also very grievous insomuch that Paul a man of a great spirit was so affected herewith that he solemnly beseecheth the Roman Christians Rom. 15.30 For the Lord Jesus sake and for the love of the Spirit that they would strive together with him in prayer to God for him to deliver him from persecutingmen it is a sad case to be smitten and wounded in our names by lying and slanderous tongues David and Christ in him tells us Psal 69.20 That reproach hath broken his heart It is sad for the jewels of God to be accounted and used as the sink and jakes of the world and to have our estates wasted and spoyl'd and to be expos'd to beggery and want and to be drag'd from our healthful and pleasant habitations and families and to be cast among rogues and thieves into nasty and loathsome prisons and to have our innocent and precious blood shed by barbarous men but all this is not so grievous as to be tormented by wicked children for in that case we are distressed by the sins of our enemies and if so as David speaks Psal 55.12 We could have born it But in this case we are afflicted by the sins of our own children and may say with David when he was reviled by Shimei 2 Sam. 16.11 Behold my son which came forth of my bowels seeketh my life how much more may this Benjamite It is a far greater torment to have the children of our own bowels tear and break our hearts than to be destroy'd by merciless enemies Fourthly The greatness of this calamity is seen in that it causeth these good parents to do all their work with sorrow I shall instance in three sorts of Works which they do in the bitterness of their Souls 1. Natural 2. Civil 3. Religious Works He that hath a wicked child on his heart doth all these with a sad heart 1. Natural Works these they do with sorrow They are fed with the bread of tears and drink their tears in great measure as the Psalmist speaks in another case Psal 80.5 And as it 's said in the prayer of the afflicted Psal 102.9 They eat ashes like bread and mingle their drink with weeping 2. They do their Civil Works with grief this makes them labour with sorrow in their particular callings it was Solomons trouble to think that a fool should have the rule of his labour wherein he laboured and shewed himself wise under the Sun Eccles 2.18 19 20. And this sad case is often observ'd that the same estates which were the fruit of the wise and good parents prayers and diligence are consum'd upon the childrens lusts and that the good creatures which were a blessing to the parents and wherewith they did honour God and feed Christ in his members do prove a curse to their children and weapons in their hands wherewith they sight against God and his people 3. This also causeth them to do their Religious Works in grief and sorrow I shall only instance in two particulars 1. This makes them instruct these poor ungodly children with sorrow It is a doleful case when men can have their dogs to come at their whistle and their horses to yield to the bridle and their oxen to submit to the yoke but their unruly children will not be subject to the holy government of their parents they can readily learn filthy words and wicked actions from their ungodly School-fellows or Fellow-apprentices or debauch'd companions but they will not hear the instruction of their father nor obey the law of their mother 2. This causeth them to pray for such children with sorrow for according as is the spiritual state of the children so are their holy parents affected in prayer to God for them when they can in prayer call upon God as the Father of their children and can present their children to God as such who are born of God and adopted of him and can beg mercy for them who are the vessels of mercy then they do as the Apostle for the Philippians Chap. 1.4 In every prayer make request for them with joy but when children are manifestly wicked and their good parents must in prayer to God call them what they are and must say Lord my poor children are children of the devil children of disobedience children of thy wrath lying swearing covetous drunken unclean stubborn children Oh pity pardon save convert them they pray for them but they pray in the sorrow and anguish of their souls Fifthly I come to shew how wicked children embitter all the comforts of their good parents so that as Solomon tells us Prov. 17.21 A father of a fool hath no joy I shall exemplifie this in four particulars 1. The good parents cannot be so comfortable and delightful to one another as they would be when both are in bitterness for their wicked children the husband cannot be such a comfort to his wife when he is almost in continual anger and sorrow for his wicked child nor the wife such a delight to her husband when her heart is bleeding for her ungodly child for if they have no joy in themselves as
the blessed of the Father Labour by these and all other means that God the Father have the greatest place in your childrens hearts Teach them to know and prize Jesus Christ without this they cannot be true Christians shew them all the fulness and glory of the Godhead in Jesus Christ Labour to make them see his glory as the only begotten Son of God and all that he as Mediator and Redeemer hath done in the state of his humiliation and is doing and will do in the state of his exaltation for the salvation of lost sinners Labour to imprint these great Truths upon their hearts 1. That it was the Will and Law of God the Father that God the Son in our nature should be a sacrifice for our sins this fully appears Heb. 10.5 c. A body hast thou prepared or fitted me meaning to be a sacrifice and saith he Lo I come to do thy will O God and Psal 40. Thy law is in my heart meaning that will and law of the Father which bound him to offer and sacrifice himself for our sins 2. That Jesus Christ by his obedience to the death of the cross did perfectly obey and fulfil this law and will of God the Father 3. That all salvation and happiness is by the Covenant of Grace setled upon all and only those who believe and obey the Gospel only for the sake of this sacrifice and obedience of Jesus Christ and therefore saith the Apostle Heb. 10.10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ once for all that is by Christs fulfilling the will of his Father in once sacrificing himself for sinners we and all true believers are sanctified that is perfectly saved Ye must also acquaint them with the office and work of the Holy Ghost which our Saviour tells us John 16.13 is to guide or lead them into all truth that is to inable them to believe and love and obey the saving-truths of God reveal'd in the Gospel for to the end that they may know and keep their baptismal-covenant they must know how all the Three sacred persons the Father Son and Holy Ghost are interested in the great work of Salvation 3dly Labour to convince your children of the Excellency of the Life of Religion and obedience to God commend this to them as the most honourable life for our Saviour tells us John 12.26 If any man serve me him will my father honour What shall be done to the man saith Ahasuerus whom the king will honour But who is able to tell what shall be done to the man whom the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ will honour Let them also know that this is the wisest life it's Jobs inquiry Where shall wisdom be found and saith he Job 28.28 Behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding And further that it is the safest life for God is a shield and rock and wall to all that obey him and although such things which they have in common with other men are expos'd to danger and loss yet their persons and their whole portion is always safe and also that this is the most gainful life for hereby Saints gain God and Christ and Heaven and lose nothing for we cannot lose by a Saviour who saves us from all evil and brings us into the possession of all good and though death it self strips us naked of all things under the Sun yet death is unspeakable gain to all who live this life and ye must further assure them that this is the most pleasant life for it is a life of faith and love and praise and joy and a life of victory over sin and they who live this life have all things to please them they have God to please them Christ and his Merits to please them and a prospect of a holy and a blessed Eternity to please them ye would never be the fathers and mothers of fools if ye could perswade your children to be so wise as to prize and love a life of obedience to God 4. Commend to your children the glory and amiableness of the House and Church of God this is the body whereinto they are baptized take your child with you and go walk about Sion and go round about her and tell the towers thereof and mark well her bulwarks and consider her palaces as ye are taught Psal 45.9 Present to their view King Jesus and at his right hand standing the Queen his Church in gold of Ophir Psal 45.9 say to them as the Angel said to John Rev. 21.9 Come hither and I will shew you the bride the Lambs wife shew them that glorious sight Rev. 12.1 The woman cloathed with the Sun and upon her head that bright and glorious constellation a crown of twelve Stars that so the company of those who live in communion with God and Jesus Christ may be desirable and delightful to them and that they may forsake evil company which is often the bane of youth 5. Teach them to esteem aright of Gods Ordinances for by baptism they are solemnly admitted into that house and family which is blessed with these as the means of salvation Labour to beget in them good thoughts of Gods Ministers for ye shall ever find that those children will despise you who make light of them teach them to pray ye can never have comfort in your children till they cry to God Abba Father teach them to know and prize and long for the Lords-Supper and therein to take Christ and all Salvation in a little bread and wine teach them to honour and delight in the Lords-day as the Diamond in the ring of time those children are always the honour and joy of their godly parents who make conscience to keep holy the Lords-day 6. Make them sensible that time is short and precious that an eternity of glory and misery is at hand and that death and judgment and heaven or hell are at the door of young children I shall further add five Directions to godly parents to prevent this sad calamity 1. Labour to save your children from those sins which provoke God and will destroy them as well as from those sins which will also bring loss and reproach upon you some are sadly affected to see their children given to drunkenness or whoredom or the like sins but are not so much concern'd for their unbelief and impenitency and want of love to God and for their covetousness which shews such parents to have too much of the love of the world and too little love to God and their childrens souls but we must take our measures of the evil and danger of sin from the word of God which tells us 1 Cor. 6.9 10. that the covetous as well as drunkards and whoremongers shall not inherit the kingdom of God and this will teach parents not only to mourn over a debauch'd child but also over a covetous though he be a wealthy child 2.
Ye deny his Power in daring to war against him and like those hectoring Atheists Job 15.25 26. Ye stretch out your hands against God and strengthen your selves against the Almighty ye run upon him even on his neck upon the thick bosses of his buckler as if ye were able to fight God and overcome the Almighty Ye deny his Holiness and think that God is altogether such a one as your selves Psal 50.21 And that ye may not be terrified by your enmity and unlikeness to him ye will please your selves in fancying that God is like you as if ye must rather be a pattern to him than he be a pattern to you and so ye will perswade your selves that he is the God of Atheists and Whoremongers and Drunkards and Lyars and Thieves and not the holy God of a holy people Ye deny the Truth of God one of the greatest and best truths that ever God spake to man is that 1 Joh. 5.11 God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son and yet herein ye would make him a liar in not believing this solemn record which he gave of Christ a liar is one of the worst characters of the devil and this ye give to the true and holy God These things I write as it were upon the brazen faces of all ungodly and disobedient children 2. Ye break the Covenant in refusing to take God for your God and happiness the greatest promise that ever God made to man is that Hebr. 8.10 I will be to you a God but this signifies nothing to you ye will not accept of him for your chief honour and treasure and joy it is no honour to you to have the great Jehovah for your Fâ—ther ye see no good in him and account not your selves the better for him and if ye lose him ye think ye lose nothing ye neither love nor desire him nor take any delight or pleasure in him 3. Ye have broken the Covenant in renouncing God the Father Son and Holy Ghost in whose Name ye were baptized your lives declare that ye had rather have the love of a debauch'd companion than the love of the Father of Jesus Christ ye despise the Lord Jesus and account the great price of redemption to be worth nothing and would rather keep your sins than be saved from them ye defie the wrath of God and scorn that the Mediator should make your peace with him ye resist the Holy Spirit and would rather be made filthy and wicked and be taught to lye and swear and steal than that the Spirit should teach you to love and serve and delight in God 4. Ye have broken the Covenant in taking part with the devil and the world and sin against the Father Son and Holy Ghost and this ye have done two ways 1. In believing the promises of the devil the world and sin and in not believing the promises of God the devil the world and sin are the three great cheats of mankind and they deceive men by making seemingly great and high promises and by these they have prevail'd with man to break both the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace the devil tempted our first parents not to believe that word of God which he gave them to deter and keep them from sin which word is written Gen. 2.17 In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye the devil tempted them to look on that word as a lye and makes them that great promise Genes 3.4 5. wherein he promiseth them that if they eat the forbidden fruit they shall not only be safe from all evil saying Ye shall not surely dye but that they shall also be preferr'd to greater happiness than God had then placed them in for saith he your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil and by believing this promise of the devil they brake the Covenant of Life and brought that deluge of sin and misery which came upon all mankind and since he prevail'd with men not to believe the word of God which he spake to keep them from sin and destruction now his work is to tempt them to make God a lyar in the word which he hath spoken to save them from sin and ruine by Jesus Christ and this is the word of the Covenant of Grace which promiseth eternal life and salvation to all that believe in Christ and repent of their sins and live the lives of new creatures according to the rules of the Gospel but the devil tempts men to break this Covenant by promising them life and all happiness in a course of sin and these wicked children believe the devil herein and bless themselves in their sins saying with those bold ranters Deut. 29.19 We shall have peace though we walk in the imagination of our own hearts to add drunkenness to thirst and thus ye break your Covenant with God and make a Covenant with Death and Hell 2. In obeying the devil the world and sin and in disobeying God ye call God your Father in heaven but ye do the lusts of the Devil your father in hell ye walk according to the course of this world Ephes 2.2 and are the servants of sin Rom. 6.20 and ye hate and fight against God your Maker and Redeemer and were it possible for you ye would every day kill him who only hath immortality And thus like a company of renegado's ye live as if ye were baptized in the name of the devil the world and the flesh to renounce the Father Son and Holy Ghost Secondly Ye have broken the Bonds of your duty to the Church of God ye were born members of the Church and subjects of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and by baptism were solemnly admitted into that great and holy and victorious and blessed society Hebr. 12.22 23. Mount Sion the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem the general assembly and Church of the first-born written in heaven but ye have forsaken this Church and turn'd your selves out of the family and house of the living God and are become of the same party with the devil and his seed and have laboured to fill the world with sin and the kingdom of Satan and ye would have Jesus Christ to have no Name or Kingdom or Ministers or Ordinances or People in the world Thirdly Ye have broken the Bonds of your duty to your parents This appears in that those black characters already given of wicked children are found on you whereunto I shall add this one which includes all the particulars of your disobedience which can be mention'd namely Ye do not love your parents for love worketh no evil unto but always willeth and seeketh the good of the beloved Love ever inclines persons to please them whom they love and to love and delight in their company and causeth such looks and words and behaviour as are expressions of love how pleasant hath it been sometimes to me to see as it were
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
that death is near whatever ye think of your lives they will be but as a vapour or shadow or smoke as God speaks them to be and though ye put death far from you yet it will be within a hands-breadth of you one day or hour may put an end to your space of repentance and conclude your day of grace and salvation and dispatch you into that world where no new creatures are made ye now defie death as if ye were a fit match for the king of terrors ye scorn the grave and scoff at the day of judgment and deride everlasting burnings but when God shall pour upon you your own wickedness Jer. 14.16 then ye will too late condemn your selves for fools when ye come to reap the fruit of your own folly Secondly I come to give you directions to direct you to true Wisdom that ye may be such wise children as to make glad fathers and not to be the heaviness of your mothers 1. Do not dare to put off your repentance any longer it is not too late to repent so long as God calls you to repentance and gives you time for it Yet is the accepted time yet is the day of salvation God and Christ and Angels and the Church and your bleeding parents are yet ready to receive you in love and joy but it will shortly be too late to repent though it can never be too soon Dear children ye must either perswade your selves that the word of God is a lie and so think ye are secure from hell because ye deny the Bible that threatneth it or ye must presume that ye are not ungodly children as indeed ye are or else ye must conclude that your present state is not safe and good and that therefore ye must either repent or be damn'd and perhaps the devil himself doth not tempt you to resolve that you will never repent but to think that it is yet time enough and that therefore ye will repent hereafter I have sometimes dreaded to hear debauch'd children confidently say That they do not question but they shall be converted and become good when at present they hate to be reformed yea I am perswaded that some secure them selves in their sins by presuming that the prayers of their good parents for their conversion and salvation will at last be heard but how many such have been as Solomon speaks of others Prov. 14.32 driven away in their wickedness in whom that dreadful Scripture hath been fulfill'd Prov. 29.1 He that being often reproved hardneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy I shall here seriously reason this case a little with you Why should ye continue one moment longer in those sins which ye must repent of or perish and defer repentance for which ye shall have cause for ever to rejoyce and bless God when it is done Are ye not wicked enough already that ye must stay to be worse Have ye not defil'd your selves and provok'd God and refus'd Christ and afflicted your parents long enough already Poor souls if there be one hour yet left wherein ye are sure that ye shall not die and fall into hell or one hour wherein sin is better than grace and wherein it is better be a child of the devil than a child of God or if ye can come into the kingdom of God and begin an eternal life an hour too soon take that hour and spend it on your lusts but if not stop presently and let this be the hour wherein ye begin to believe and repent and reform and wherein ye begin to set your faces towards heaven with an unmovable resolution to walk in the way of faith and obedience till ye come there Direct 2. Judge whether ye have more reason to obey the devil or to obey God as the Apostles said to their Persecutors Acts 4.19 Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken to you more than unto God judge ye So say I to you whether it be right to obey the devil rather than God judge ye Consider God hath authority to command you for he is your Maker your Preserver and Redeemer and ye owe your selves to him but the devil neither made nor kept nor bought you and therefore can have no right to command you Consider further that all the Commands of God are the Commands of his Love for he doth not only command you as your Lord but also as your Father and Saviour and therefore he commands you to take himself to be your God and happiness to take his Son Jesus Christ to save you from all evil and to make you for ever holy and blessed but the devil commands you out of hatred and malice and all his commands are the commands of a Murderer and therefore he commands you to defile and to destroy and to damn your selves he commands you to be blind and ignorant to hate and scorn God and Christ and to love sin and death and hell Consider also that God is able to reward your obedience and to punish your disobedience he is that only law-giver who is able to save and to destroy James 4.12 He can crown you with eternal glory if ye obey him and can cast you into everlasting flames if ye disobey him but the devil who is cursed and tormented himself cannot make you happy if ye obey him nor miserable if ye do forsake and renounce him 3. See the great difference betwixt those wise and holy children who live in obedience to God and their parents and you who live in disobedience to both it is not wealth or poverty or beauty or deformity or sickness or health but sin and grace that make the greatest difference betwixt persons and ye must know God and Christ or else ye cannot understand the worth of a Saint nor the vileness of a Sinner Some of you may look into your own families and there see some of your brethren and sisters like pleasant and fruitful plants about your fathers table when ye are as briars and thorns and weeds in the family they are the crown and joy and you the calamity of your parents all that see them may look upon them as a seed whom the Lord hath blessed but all that see you have reason to judge you to be a cursed generation Poor children is it better to be like Cain than like Abel or like cursed Canaan than like Shem or like Ishmael than like Isaac or like Esau than like Jacob Are not your souls and bodies as precious as the souls and bodies of your good brethren and sisters or can the devil and sin and the world be better to you than to them or is not death and judgment as near you as it is to them or have not ye as much reason to love and obey God and your parents as they or can ye endure the loss of Heaven or torments of Hell better than they if not why should not ye be as good as they are 4.