3. I shall give you several instances for the confirmation of it 1. I shall only give you two main Characters of godly Parents First They are conscienciously careful for their preservation Secondly For the Eternal happiness and salvation of their Children 1. They are conscienciously careful for the preservation of the natural lives of their Children as trees support and feed the branches that grow out of themselves And as it 's natural to the brutes to defend and keep their own young so nature it self teacheth and inclineth Parents to defend and preserve and provide for the fruit of their own bodies and for this end to supply them with food raiment and physick and to fit them for callings and seasonably to provide for them meet yokefellows and every way to take care that they neither perish or be made miserable but godly Parents in whom natural affections are sanctified and improved by Grace do all these out of a principle of Godliness as persons who have to do with God herein they do it in a sense of their dependance on God and pray for daily bread to feed their Children and are thankful when they feel it come warm from their Father in Heaven they do it in obedience and faithfulness to God and with a design that their Children may live to be born of God and to be a blessing to this world and be blessed in the other world As for those unnatural monsters who feed their lusts with that which should maintain their Children they are so far from being Godly Parents that they are worse than Infidels in not providing for their Families and are like the Devil who as I said is a Murderer of his own Children 2. They are conscienciously careful for the Eternal happiness and salvation of their Children for their natural affections being now sanctified do work in them for the spiritual good and happiness of their Children Prov. 4.3 4 5. I was my fathers son tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother Solomon was his fathers and mothers darling their love did run out exceedingly upon this son and he tells us which way their love and kindness was express'd he taught me also and said unto me Get wisdom get understanding He tells us also how the affections of his good mother did work Prov. 31.2 3. What my son and what the son of my womb and what the son of my vows The son of her womb was the son of her vows whom she had devoted to God those Parents who have known both states the state of Wrath and the state of Grace and have experimentally felt what it is to pass from death to life and from the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God cannot but desire that the same change be wrought upon their children And as they who love themselves with a holy love do take God for their eternal life and happiness and Christ for their Redeemer to redeem them from all evil and to bring them to this happiness and the Spirit for their Sanctifier to fit them for this happiness So they that love their children with this holy Love will desire and endeavour that they be partakers with them of the same happiness 2. I proceed to give you three Characters of ungodly Children 1. They are such Children as will not be subject to the authority of their Parents The reverence of Children to their Parents is so incorporated into the whole body of Religion that all Religion is in vain without it this fully appears Levit. 19.3 Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father and keep my sabbaths I am the Lord your God Observe this duty is here joyn'd with keeping the Lords Sabbaths wherein Religion did always very much consist but it 's often seen that disobedient children are great prophaners of the Lords-day they are always bad but usually worst on that day and some of them may remember that their first breaking out into scandalous sins was on the Lords-day We are here further taught That this duty of Reverence to Parents is joyn'd with all Religion to God for saith God in effect it 's in vain for any to pretend to call me their Lord and their God if they do not fear their Parents and theresore wicked children are numbred among the most flagitious and worst sinners Ezek. 22.7 In thee have they set light by father and mother they villified and despised them and made nothing of them such break all the bonds of Religion and many hasten through a shameful and untimely death into a dreadful and tormenting eternity whose wickedness first began in scorning and despising their Parents 2. They are such children as will not obey the Commands of their Parents The godly Commands of Parents are the means which God hath appointed and doth often bless to make the children godly Gen. 18.19 I know Abraham that he will command his children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment and God commands all children to obey all the holy and lawful commands of their parents Ephes 6.1 Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right It 's the parents right that their children should obey them and it 's Gods right that they should obey them in the Lord and this saith the Apostle Col. 3.21 is well-pleasing to the Lord so that those children do neither fear provoking God nor care to please him who will not obey their parents and so are children of their parents sorrow and of Gods wrath 3. They are such children as are unthankful to their parents the Apostle tells us 1 Tim. 5.4 That it is good and acceptable before God for children to requite their parents and they have great things for which they should labour to requite their godly parents viz. for all their care and cost and pains to keep them alive and for all their diligence and faithfulness in endeavouring to make them blessed and all the requital which the poor parents desire is that their children would but love and obey God and not damn themselves but these ungodly children are so far from requiting them that like so many Dogs and Lyons they tear in pieces the hearts and bowels of their tender parents 3. I now come to confirm this That it 's ordinary for godly parents to have ungodly children and for this end I shall first give you some instances recorded in Scripture 2dly I shall instance in several cases wherein this is verified 1. I shall only give you four instances recorded in Scripture for the confirmation hereof 1. Instance is in Adam and Eve these were both godly parents and therefore in that first Evangelical promise Gen. 3.15 we have notice of the two great parties in the world the one was the Woman and her seed and the other the Serpent and his seed and of the enmity betwixt them and though there is only mention made of the woman yet the man
your hearts have wandered from God in his Ordinances 3. Bewail and beg pardon of God for your failings heretofore to your parents for many do often reap from their own children what they formerly sow'd by their sins against their parents and their miscarriages to their parents do fall upon them in the wickedness of their children the best may sadly reflect upon their want of due honour and obedience and thankfulness to their parents ye may remember your peevish looks undecent behaviour to them your grieving them in quarrelling with your brethren and sisters your unjust censuring them for partiality in their love to their children and judging them to want love to you when you were wanting in your duty to them and many who are now godly parents themselves may remember that by greater sins in their youth they were the grief and bitterness of their fathers and mothers and therefore pray mightily to God to pardon you and not to visit these sins upon you in the disobedience of your children 4. Pray to God not to visit your sins upon your children When Manasseh was in Heaven Amon his son followed the steps of his unconverted estate and Jehoiakim was carried captive into Babylon for the sins of Manasseh Pray that your children may not be like you in any thing wherein ye are unlike God and that their teeth may not be set on edg for the sowre grapes that ye have eaten 5. Be deeply affected with the corruption of nature in your children For as no man will value a Saviour for himself who is not convinc'd of the sin and misery which he must be saved from so ye must be sensible of your childrens sins or else ye cannot labour for their salvation When your sweet babes are born ye rejoyce to find that in Gods book all their members were written but ye should also be sensible of that body of sin they are born with and that by nature they are young Atheists and Infidels and haters of God and basphemers and whoremongers and lyars and thieves and murderers for they are naturally inclin'd to these and all other fins and are by nature children of the wrath of the infinite God and being convinc'd of this ye will find that your chief care of them should be to save them from this dreadful state of sin and misery 6. Be convinc'd what a great deal of work lies upon you to endeavour the salvation of your children young children always make a great deal of work they make work for parents and work for servants and work for all that are about them but to save them from sin and hell is the greatest work that belongs to their parents for this purpose they have a great deal a work to do in their own hearts they must know and believe and love and obey the doctrine of salvation themselves that they may be able and sit to instruct their children therein for a man cannot train up his child in the way he should go if he do not know the way himself We read Deut. 6.6 7. These words shall be in thy heart and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children it 's fitly render'd in the margin thou shalt whet or sharpen them the word of God is more keen and sharp when it hath first done its work on the parents hearts and so comes from their hearts to their children Parents must keep their own graces in exercise to put authority and savour in all that they say and do for the salvation of their children Grace must work in their prayers grace must rule their tongues grace must guide the rod and grace must shine in their lives and then it 's a great work which is to be wrought in the children it is a great work for them who are born of the flesh to be born of the spirit a great work to make Religion and Godliness natural to them to make the children of the devil to become the children of God Almighty and parents must constantly labour in the use of means to accomplish this work 7. Be mighty in prayer for your children for all the good ye desire for them must come from God and therefore must be beg'd by prayer it is in vain for them to be taught of us except they be taught of God Whose words Lord saith holy Augustine were they but thine which by my faithful mother thou hast sung in my heart Pray and pray in faith and hope thy ears saith Augustine again were at my mothers heart when she pray'd for me ye must pray with tender and melting hearts the same Father tells us that his mothers tears watered the earth when she pray'd for him and ye must pray for their salvation this also Augustine calls the hinge of his holy mothers prayers for him 8. Solemnly dedicate them to God by baptism and then ye must heartily consent that God alone be the eternal life and happiness of you and your children and that Jesus Christ be their and your Redeemer to redeem you and them from all sin and misery and to bring both to God and that the Holy Ghost be their and your Sanctifier that by him you and they may have a Scripture-right unto and be made meet and fit for this happiness 9. When they are capable of it instruct them in the Covenant which by baptism they were solemnly entered into For this end ye must diligently teach them these six things 1. To know the evil and danger of sin for till they come to know what sin is and what it is to be saved or damn'd and what it is to lose or enjoy God they will not value or accept of Christ but will despise the Redeemer of the World as good for nothing ye must therefore labour to make sin odious and Christ precious to your children and then they will value Christ and obey you It was prophesied of John the Baptist that he was to prepare the way of the Lord and to turn the children to the parents so let it be your care to make way for Christ in your childrens hearts and if ye prevail in that they will be obedient to you 2. Inform your selves and them in the doctrine of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost for this is the doctrine whereinto they are baptized and by baptism they are solemnly entered into Covenant with these sacred persons against the flesh Satan and the world shew them the glory and love of God the Father in chusing ordaining fitting and sending Jesus Christ and in commanding him to be a sacrifice for us inform them that God the Father is the fountain of life for Christ lives by the Father the fountain of Authority for Christ received all power in heaven and earth from him the fountain of all the Christian Religion for Christ first heard these truths from the Father and then made them known to us and the fountain of glory for the Father hath exalted Christ and all glorified Saints are
Observe what sins your children are most prone unto and labour to fill them with revenge and hatred against those sins If your child have a foot or hand gangren'd ye will cut off the incurable member rather than bury your child so ye should do what ye can to pull out the right eye and to cut off the right hand and the right foot of sin in your children rather than suffer their bodies and souls to be cast into Hell As ye should especially kill those sins in your selves which your natures are most inclin'd unto so ye should do by your children who are so great a part of your selves we are taught Prov. 20.11 That even a child is known by his doing whether his work be pure or whether it be right Parents may much discern by the manners and ways of their children in their childhood what they are like to prove in their riper years and therefore they must observe them that they may encourage them in the good and discourage them in the evil which they then appear to be most bent unto 3. Chuse to place your children in families of holiness and prayer ye will not plant your trees among briars and thorns much less should ye chuse to place your children to serve those who will not serve God 4. Give them due correction this hath God commanded to kill their sins and to save their souls Prov. 23.13 14. Withhold not correction from the child for if thou beatest him with the rod he shall not dye thou shalt beat him with the rod and shalt deliver his soul from hell It is better thy child be whipt than damn'd and let not thy childs weeping and crying under the rod move thee to withhold due correction Prov. 19.18 Chasten thy son and let not thy soul spare for his crying If your childs bone be out of joint ye will have it set though he cry and bawl under the hand of the Surgeon and will say It 's better he cry now than be lame so long as he lives so it is better your children cry now under the rod of their father than that they should weep and wail for ever under the wrath of the infinite God and therefore that ye may perform this duty take these five Directions 1. Do not allow your servants to correct your children for correction is an act of authority and therefore cannot belong to those who are meerly your servants I would not have parents to permit their children to despise and abuse their servants but for parents to suffer their servants to correct their children is the way to make their children stubborn their servants proud and themselves contemptible in the eyes of both 2. Convince them that it is your duty to correct them for their sins and therefore it is adviseable that you make them get those Scriptures without book which bind you to correct them also some of those Scriptures which condemn the sins which you correct them for that their consciences may justifie you in doing your duty and that they may be more afraid of sin than the rod and of provoking God than offending you 3. Correct them betimes Prov. 13.24 and Prov. 19.18 Chasten thy son while there is hope Use the rod wisely to them before they become scourges and scorpions to you 4. Labour to be in a good frame when you correct them that love and prudence and meekness and not rage and fury may govern the rod and do not exercise too much severity towards them that ye may not provoke them to wrath lest the wrath of the children prove the grief of the parents 5. Pray to God for a blessing upon your correcting them that it may be effectual to drive out that foolishness which is bound up in their hearts Lastly Be good examples to your children let them not see you in any sin for that may infect them and make them despise you but let them always see you shining in the Image of God and that is the way to make them honour and obey you in the Lord live so that ye may say to them as Paul to the Philippians Chap. 4.9 Those things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in us do and the God of love and peace shall be with you 2dly I proceed to direct those parents who are under this calamity how to bear it 8 Directions 1. Abhor it as a great sin to faint under this affliction that is either to be disabled for thy duty or to sink in thy comforts for it 's a sign that thou didst place too much of thy happiness in thy children if their wickedness make thee faint under this calamity I shall only plead with thee as Joab did with David when he made that bitter lamentation for his son Absolom 2 Sam. 19.6 Thou hast declared this day that thou regardest neither princes nor servants So I say to thee thou hereby declarest that thou regardest not God and Christ if thy soul faint under the burden of a disobedient child 2. Consider what I have proved that this is an affliction which ordinarily befalls Gods dearest children ye must not think of this as if ye were the first godly parents of ungodly children or as if herein some strange thing happened unto you I confess where a calamity seems singular or extraordinary it is more apt to overwhelm the afflicted because they will be then apt to think that there is some extraordinary displeasure in God against them and to say with the Church Lam. 4.12 Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger But this affliction is ordinary and is consistent with the saving and distinguishing grace of God to them and is a rod that hath usually lain on the lot of the righteous 3. Consider that there might have befal'n thee greater miseries than this I shall instance in three greater Evils which would have made thee more miserable 1. Thou mightest have been a wicked an ungodly wretch thy self and for the great Jehovah to have curs'd and damn'd thee for ever would have made thee unspeakably more miserable than to be tormented a while with a wicked child 2. Thou mightest have had an ungodly yoke-fellow to be as rottenness in thy bones Solomon seems to speak of a troublesome yoke-fellow as more grievous than a wicked child Prov. 19.13 A foolish son is the calamity of his father and the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping This is like the constant dropping of rain into a house which rots the building spoyls the goods and ruins both house and inhabitants and forasmuch as thy yoke-fellow is nearer and ought to be dearer to thee than thy child to be afflicted therein is a greater calamity 3. God might have left all your children to perish in their sins but if ye have but one godly child your joy in that should much abate your sorrow
for your other wicked children 4. Consider thou hast greater things to affect thee with grief and sorrow than thy wicked children there are whole Empires and Kingdoms of men and women and children who have as precious souls as thine or thy childrens these dishonour the same God and perish under his wrath and multitudes that have the Scriptures and Ordinances despise the same Christ and the same Gospel as thy children do and why shouldst thou be more concern'd for one or more of thy wicked children than for the whole world that lies in wickedness 5. Let your sorrow be guided by Scripture and Reason that ye may not provoke God and defile your souls and wound your consciences by sinful groans and tears For this end observe two Rules First Mourn more for their sins whereby they provoke and dishonour God and defile and destroy themselves and others than for any shame or loss in worldly things that befall you hereby that it may appear that the love of God and your childrens souls and not the love of the World hath the greatest influence on your sorrow for I fear that there is usually in good parents too much of carnal sorrow and too little of godly sorrow in their mourning under this great calamity Secondly Let not thy sorrow disease thy body and impair thy health God doth not require us to mourn more for our childrens sins than our own and he never makes it our duty by sorrow for either to destroy our bodies which are the Temples of the Holy Ghost and the truth is that godly sorrow is the health of the soul and never hurts the body for Grace is always a friend and never an enemy to nature and therefore do not deprive thy self of all opportunities to honour God and serve his Church do not make thy yoke-fellow desolate nor thy children Orphans by such sorrow that will neither please God nor ease thy self nor do any good to thy wicked and miserable children 6. Labour to get your Graces strengthened under this great affliction for ye have need of more knowledge and wisdom and faith and hope and love and meekness and patience to inable and fit you to bear this than most other affections and ye must see and enjoy more of God and Christ to keep up your hearts under this than under most other troubles yet by the strength of Christ ye may be inabled not only to bear but to glory in this tribulation and the greater the trouble is the more good ye may gain by it 7. Comfort thy self in that the greatest and best things which thou hast most pray'd for and trusted unto and expected and chiefly loved and desired are all safe and sure 1. Thy God is and will be blessed and glorious for ever whatever becomes of thy child all his infinite perfections are working for his glory Christ himself is Gods and doth the whole work of a Mediator as his servant and for his glory all the blessed Angels and Saints will for ever honour and admire and love and praise him 2. God the Father Son and Holy Ghost are for ever thy own and will to all eternity be glorified in making thee blessed and glorious thou hast a bad child but a good God all thy work will be done thy sins pardoned and kill'd thy graces perfected and body and soul glorified and shall an ungodly child make all thy consolations herein small to thee Lastly Consider this trouble will last but a little while I confess I do not know or can upon search find any thing that can lift up the heart above this trouble but the knowledge and sense of the infinite love of God in Christ to a mans self and of that holy and glorious eternity which this love will shortly bring him unto to tell you that this is and hath been the case of other godly parents may allay something of your grief But what is this but to tell you that others are and have been as miserable as you or to tell you that as wicked children as yours have been sanctified and saved yields some hopes but it can amount to no more than to think they may be sav'd or thy may be damn'd and there is as much reason to fear the one as to hope for the other But for a man to see a gainful death ready to loose him into that world where there is none of this sorrow and to know that at the day of judgment his wicked children will be no more to him than bloody Bonners or Gardiners or damn'd Devils and that he himself shall sit with Christ to judge them and that he shall love and delight in the holiness and justice of the Judg of all the World in passing that sentence upon them Depart ye cursed into everlasting sire prepared for the devil and his angels This is sufficient to overcome all immoderate grief for his ungodly children Lastly I shall finish this discourse in a serious exhortation to these ungodly children who are the grief and bitterness of their good parents And herein I shall 1. Endeavour to convince them of their sins 2. Of their misery 3. Perswade them to forsake their sins that so they may be freed from that misery First I shall set before you the greatness of your sins in these four particulars 1. Ye have broken your Covenant with God 2. Ye have broken the Bonds wherein ye were bound to the Church of God 3. Ye have broken the Bonds of your duty to your parents 4. Ye have broken the Bonds of your duty to your other relations First Ye have broken your Covenant with God whereinto ye were solemnly enter'd by baptism for it 's clear by that Scripture before mention'd Levit. 19.3 That by casting off the authority of your parents ye have disowned the Lord to be your God Your breach of Covenant with God appears more fully in these four particulars 1. Ye do in your hearts and practices deny the Being of God the first Article of the Covenant is that ye should acknowledge and believe that the Lord he is God for he that cometh to God must believe that he is Hebr. 11.6 But this is the language of your hearts and lives That there is no God Ye deny God to be the first and best Being in preferring the creatures before him and saying in effect That the creatures are all and the great Jehovah is but as a cypher to you Ye deny his Omnipresence he fills all places where ye are but ye take no notice of him the presence of a Father or Master hath some influence upon you but it works not at all upon you that there is a God in the room Ye deny his infinite Wisdom that Wisdom of God in contriving the work of Salvation by Jesus Christ I say that Wisdom which is so glorious and wonderful to the principalities and powers of heaven is to such proud and ignorant boys and girls as you but a foolish and ridiculous thing
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
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