A SERIOUS EXHORTATION TO THE Necessary Duties of Family and Personal Instruction Made formerly to the Inhabitants of the Parish of Tredington in the County of Worcester and now upon request published for their use By William Durham B. D. Minister of the Gospel there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Train up a Child in the way that he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it Prov. 22.6 London Printed by Tho. Newcomb dwelling in Thames-street over against Baynards Castle 1659. TO The truly Religious and my much honoured the Lady Vachel of Coly neer Reding Madam IT is no mean priviledge to be born of godly Parents and such who are stedfast in the faith for although Grace be no more ex traduce by traduction from our Ancestors then our souls but both immediately from God yet besides the benefit of their prayers their Godly examples and their Religious care in the education of their children have by Gods blessing a wonderful influence in moulding their hearts towards Godliness The fairest Gem in Solomons Crown was the special care which his Parents had to teach him to know God and his Law It was Timothies great advantage that his Mother and Grandmother were so famous for Religion In this great Priviledge few persons of your rank are greater sharers then your self Sir Francis Knollys Knight of the Garter Treasurer of the houshold and Councellor to Q. Eliz. Your Grandfather an Exile with his Family for Religion in those bloody days of Queen Mary and an eminent Instrument in that happy Reformation in the time of Queen Elizabeth whose name is yet eminent in Forain parts and no less precious at home for his many good services done to the Church of God Sir Francis Knollys After him your late dear Father of whom I may say as the * Epistol lib. 2. Learned Zanchy saith of William Lantgrave of Hessen that he was Optimi parentis Optimus filius the most Religious Son of a most Religious Father who was the greatest Countenancer of Religion and cherisher of Religious men in those parts all his time whose pains and purse were never spared sor their encouragement and defence even in the worst of times as is yet very well remembred with thankful hearts by many who bless his memory The pious labors of divers eminent Ministers of Christ Dr. Twist Dr Tho. Taylor whom he cherished under his wing give the world a taste how much it owes to his memory How great his care was to instruct his children in the Faith may be seen by their carriage in the Church of God when they were grown up to riper years Witness him who whilest he lived Sir Francis Knollys your brother was deliciae humani generis for his candor sweetness courtesie and love to goodness the delight and love of all that had the happiness to know him I heartily desire that there may be the like Religious care taken for the education of that Infant upon whom that Estate is descended that he may tread in the steps of his worthy Ancestors and inherit their vertues as well as their possessions Your Ladiship might be my next great instance who have so well improved those Principles of Religion instill'd in your education that your Piety Charity and Religious Government of your Family I may call it in the Apostles Language The Church in your house may be a pattern to Posterity which will not readily be taken out I must not take in all that might be spoken but consider what your Ladiship will be willing to hear Who in this as in your whole course have proposed your Saviour for your example who when he had done any great work commanded them not to publish it It is much more delightful to your Ladiship to do good then to hear of it when you have done it What the benefits and advantages of instructing Families are I have endeavored to manifest in this following Exhortation and being importuned to communicate it to mine own charge I have taken the humble confidence to put it under your Ladiships name for which attempt I the rather hope to gain your pardon because all that is said here is but a transcript of your own practice in your Family You will finde it plain so are the people for whom it is mainly intended but I hope honest and sutable to the minde of God So God may have glory his people committed to my trust advantage and this small testimony of my thankfulness for the many real expressions of your favors may finde acceptance at your hands he hath his ends who is Madam Your Ladiships much obliged Nephew and most humble servant William Durham From my study in Tredington this 7 of December 1658. TO My well beloved Friends and Neighbours the Inhabitants of the Parish of Tredington Grace and Peace in Jesus Christ BELOVED THat which was the hearts desire of the Apostle Rom. 10.1 and prayer to God for Israel is really mine for you that you may be saved That wise God who in his Providence hath set me over you in things pertaining to your souls hath through Grace made me in some measure sensible of the weight of mine imployment and the excellency of those souls committed to my trust Were your souls like those of inferiour creatures only as salt to preserve your bodies from putrefaction and did they die together with you it were more excusable if you were less curious in the cultivating of them but since they are immortal and must live when these houses of clay are dissolved and that nothing is a proportionable price for them but that blood of God it concerns us highly to take care what will become of them when we go hence and shall be seen no more The great part of a Christians portion lies in reversion that which we enjoy here though full of inward comfort is nothing in comparison of what we expect There 's an inheritance in Heaven 1 Pet. 1.4 which is incorruptible undefiled c. whose worth the tongue of men and Angels cannot express for the obtainment of this glorious inheritance I daily bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ on your behalf and that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory Eph. 3.14 to be strengthned with might by his Spirit in the inward man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that you may know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye may be fill'd with all the fulness of God Joh. 17.3 and in a word that your souls may prosper through the knowledg of the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent because this is life eternal This is the main end and aim as of all that pains I have otherwise taken among you so of this following exhortation which was formerly made to you in publique That your hearts which seemed much warmed thereby to a ready compliance with your
What if thy child come not to be great nor rich in this world yet he may be an honest gracious man and rich toward God but if thou sufferest him to live in ignorance of Religion whatever thou providest for him else in the end he will be most miserable Poor Lazarus would not change skins though it were full of sores with rich Dives Verily our extraordinary diligence in making temporal provision for our children will rise in judgement against us for our utter neglect of their eternal welfare Sect. 7. This is the fittest season to instil knowledge into them before their hearts be corrupted with the pleasures or insnared with the profits of this world If you suffer those things to preingage them it will be a harder matter to make them unlearn evil then it would have been to have made them learn that which was good before While they are young their memories are best their appetites are strongest their affections keen and eager they are now apter to learn and to take any impression you shall set upon them now they must be followed close Pers Sat. 3. v. Casaub Plato 2. de legibus Vdum molle lutum es Nunc nunc properand c. As age grows on they will be more hard to learn They are now of an active disposition they find themselves employed in something If you employ them not in what is good they will employ themselves in what is bad Good things are as easily learnt as bad were they but as diligently taught a Catechise as easily learned as a Ballad or a tale of Robin Hood Whatsoever you would have your children excellent in teach it them betimes Heyl. Geog. in Russia In Russia they train up their children to shooting in their minority and give them nothing to eat till they can hit a white that is set before them The Baleant give them no meat Flor. hist l. 3. c. 8. but what they can kill with their sling Cibum puer à Matre non accipit nisi quem ipsâ monstrante percussit time and use makes them Masters of their Art Much may be done with children ere we think fit to trouble them with such things They can learn to swear and to prophane the Sabbath why might they not as well be taught to read to be catechised to learn some choice Scriptures by heart I have heard of that Noble Lady the now Lady Packington daughter of the Lord Keeper Coventry that in her minority she was tyed by the strictness of her education to learn daily such a proportion of Scripture by heart before she should eat a bit of bread by which custome and assiduity she became in a short time so perfect in the Scripture that she had a great part of the Old Testament and all the New so perfectly by heart that she could repeat any chapter backward or forward tell you any particular verse or words where they were what went before and what followed after Indeed she was a living Concordance the very Prodigy of Memory whose excellencies in these attainments are almost beyond the belief of any but of those who have seen or heard her examined Husbandmen know that they must not expect a good crop unless they sow in a right season Youth is the time to have the seeds of grace and godliness sown else there 's little hope of a good and a holy life Sect. 8. Children are the seed-plot of the Church and Common-wealth those who are now children will soon grow up to be men of action both in things concerning God and their countrey Such as they are when they cease to be children such they will be when they begin to be men Those who spend their youth in ignorance idleness naughtiness what can you expect from them when they become men but to grow from bad to worse As youth leaves them manhood finds them good if good if bad stark naught What impressions are put upon wax when it is melted you shall find upon it when it is hardned What you write upon white paper sticks there What savor your vessels have when they are new they retain when they are old What good you infuse into youth it will relish on when it is ripened into age The wise man gives counsel like himself Train up or catechize a child in the way that he should go Prov. 22.6 and in his age he will noâ— depart from it It should be something to us to consider what posterity we are like to leave behind us and that we may labour to make the generation to come happier then this by giving our children better instruction then perhaps we have had Pythagoras was wont to say Lilius Gyrald â—ymb Pythanum propter opes that the main end of our begetting and bringing forth children should beâ— that we might leave those behind us who may serve God in their generation When we consider the trouble and miseries which our eyes have seen we are ready to wish and hope that our children may see better times Good men will make good times Time is in it self nor good nor evil but as the persons are who live in them Do your duty and you may much promote your own desires Labour to make them more knowing men and more obedient to God and that will make better men and better men will make better times Sect. 9. This will enable them to profit by the Sermons which they hear And the want of this is one main ground of that strange non-proficiency amongst men that live even under powerful Ministers God hath been exceedingly gracious in giving his word a free passage which is by many men set on with a great deal of power and life yet many even of such complain in the bitterness of their souls and say Lord who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed In many such places there 's but little good done and this I conceive amongst others is not the smallest cause that they who come to hear the Word Preached are in no measure prepared thereunto by understanding the Principles of Religion If they understood beforehand what Justification Sanctification Adoption c. were what the covenant of works and the covenant of grace were then they would be able to go along with us in what we say But being so arrantly ignorant of Fundamental necessary truths we only speak into the air they give us the hearing and they depart no wiser then they came A man would wonder else what shift many men could make to remain so ignorant who are like the Ectones Heyl. Geo. in Lyvon the original inhabitants of Poland who are diligent frequenters of the Churches but so extreamly ignorant that hardly one in a Village can say his Pater Noster Should any of you hear a man make a learned Discourse concerning any point in Geometry Arithmetick c. you might admire what you did not understand but if you were
commands when they see thee practizing what thou enjoynest them It was the reproach of Appius Appius Lucretiae Regum juris quod ipse composuerat oblitus Flor. lib. 1. c. 24. In commune jubes si quid censesve tenendum Primus ipse subi Claud. Prius disce qui doces Lanct that he forgot the Law of his own making and that he who had expelled Tarquin for a rape himself committed one Pompey was famous for giving good rules but as infamous for breaking them first himself When a Father or a Master of a Family doth truly fear God Suarum legum Author Eversor Tacitus Vid. Muscul Psa 7.7 he will both by his Precepts and Example endeavor to bring his whole houshold to the knowledge and obedience of God too but if he be a wicked person himself whatsoever commands he may lay upon them his corrupt practice will hazard and indanger the ruine of them all Mind that place in Joshua well Josh 24.15 I and my house will serve the Lord it is not I without my house a good man would willingly bring all especially those of his Family to heaven with him nor is it my house without me I am contented that they shall know and serve him but I will not This is all one as if one should say I am willing that my Family should go to heaven but for my self I am resolved to go to hell But it is I and my house I will enjoyn them no more then I will do my self I shall walk before them by mine own example but I will not leave them to their own choice whether they will serve God or no. It 's a pernitious liberty which suffers men to be either of no Religion or of a false one You must provoke them to this good work by doing it before them or else they will be apt to think that it is onely a device to keep children in awe but not a duty necessary to salvation Thus have I according to the grace of God given me Conclusion endeavored to perswade you to lay the foundation whereon the Fabrick of your salvation is to be raised Other foundation can no man lay let every man take heed how he builds thereuponi fanyman build upon this foundation 2 Cor. 3.10 11 12 c. wood hay stubble his work shall be burnt with fire but if any man build gold silver precious stones his work shal abide and he shall receive a reward You have seen the sad inconveniencies which attend the neglect of this work and the great advantages that accrew to those who exercise themselves in it Profit is a spur to Piety Moses his eying the recompence of the reward quickened him in his Duty The Lord give you understanding in all things that you may know where your interest and greatest concernment lies And now Brethren I beseech you by the tender mercies of God by the precious merits of Jesus Christ by all that is dear and precious to you that you suffer this word of Exhortation to prevail with you to the performance of your respective Duties God will have much glory and your poor Souls will one day find the comfort on 't And as for me it will be an abundant recompence of this and all other pains which I have taken amongst you if I may find your hearts more and more inflamed after the saving knowledg of our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ as he is revealed in the Gospel Finally what remains Act. 20.32 but that I commend you to God and to the word of his Grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among them that are sanctified Humbly beseeching the God of peace Heb. 13.20 that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ that great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant that he would make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen READER THere remaining some spare room and meeting with this short Catechism used heretofore to the benefit of many Christians by that eminent and faithful servant of Christ Mr. Robert Lilly late Minister of Campden I thought fit to annex it here as out of a desire to promote thy spiritual good so to testifie that reverend respect which I bear to the memory of that worthy Person now with God Twelve Questions and Answers fit to be learned and understood by all those who desire worthily to communicate at the Lords Table Quest 1. WHat is the Ground of your coming to receive the Lords Supper Answ Because it is an Ordinance which Jesus Christ hath appointed in his Church for the spiritual good of every true Member of it Q 2. What is that spiritual good Christ hath appointed it for A. He hath appointed it as for a holy remembrance of himself so for a special means to confirm the faith of every true Beleever in him Q. 3. What need you or any man believe in Christ A. Yes I and all men are sinful both by Original and Actual sin and must die eternally if the Lord Jesus Christ do not save us which he will not do unless we beleeve on him Q. 4. How can you conceive that the receiving of Bread and Wine should be a means to confirm Faith A. Yes Because as they are a sign of Christs Body and Blood so they are a seal to confirm a special part of the Covenant between God and a Beleever and to give him an interest in it Q. 5. What is the special part of the Covenant which it both confirms and conveys to a Beleever A. That by Faith as he shall have his sin pardoned and Gods favor recovered which is signed and sealed in Baptism so in feeding on him by Faith he shall be nourished and preserved in that estate unto Everlasting life Q. 6. Hath every one that receives this confirmed and conveyed to him A. Yes every one that hath Faith if he come not unworthily for so he may hinder his own spiritual good Q. 7. May a Beleever come unworthily A. Yes in some sort if he do not carefully perform his Duty as he should both before he receive in receiving and after receiving sanctifying them all by prayer Q. 8. What is the Duty that a Christian must do before he receive A. He must duly examine himself whether he have Knowledge Faith Repentance Obedience Love and carefully renew them all so oft as he cometh to receive Q. 9. How may he know by his examination whether he hath these Graces yea or no A. By this Rule every one of them if he can truly say that his Performance is some his Endeavors are more his Desiâ—e is infinite Q. 10. How is a Beleever to renew these Graces A. In laboring to see the imperfections of them in seeing them to bewail them confess them crave pardon for them with a holy resolution to redress them Q. 11. What is the Duty which a Beleever must do in receiving A. In beholding the Bread and Wine thankfully to discern the Lords Body and by faith to receive them as the seal of God that by his faith he shall be preserved in Gods love and that they as instruments of God exhibit it to him Q 12. What is the Duty that a Beleever must do after receiving A. As to remember the Covenant made in receiving and continually to make use of it so to remember himself whether he have received that spiritual comfort to be had in it if he have to be thankful and make use of it if not to search out the cause and be humble for it FINIS READER BE pleased to correct these Errata's ere you read the Book because many of them marr the sense the literal slips especially in the Margin are less considerable you may mend them as you read Page 12. Line 3. for would r. worlds line 24 25. the words are misplaced in the beginning of each line in the 24. for thorough r. in some measure in the 25. for in some measure r. thorough p. 14. l. 17. r. in a wrack p. 16. l. 19. r. they will find p. 17. l. 5. for Baleans r. Baleares p. 21. l. 11. for Estones r. Estones l. 25. for vari r. vare p. 33. l. 22. for what r. which p. 53. l. 6. for be r. he l. 7. for he r. be p. 71. r. Greg. Nazianzene l. 22. for Eynus r. Cyrus