He was bad when he was born and worse while he lived and worst of all when he is to dye 5. Learn the equity of Gods Justice in punishing a wicked man with eternal torments for sins committed in time For he sinned more and more as long as he lived and if he had lived longer he would have sinned longer and if he had lived for ever he would have sinned for ever 6. Learn the over-ruling providence of God that setteth bounds to wicked mens sins if he did not restrain them they would be worse and do worse than they do 7. Learn that natural men by the improvement of common grace or the means of grace cannot work themselves into a state of grace nor of themselves that are bad make themselves to be good for we have shewed that without the speciall and irresistible operations of the Spirit of God wicked men grow worse under the Administrations of the Gospel 8. The folly of delays and procrastinations of repentance and turning unto God Wicked men think they can repent when they will and though they have no heart to turn to God for the present yet they will hereafter but he that is not disposed to turn to God and repent to day will finde his heart more indisposed to morrow and the longer they put it off the more unwilling and unable they will be to do it hereafter We have heard we must not be worse now let us see we must be better and that is the second part of this first Direction SECT XVI HAth the Plague been raging and you yet alive then be better than you were before And here I especially direct my speech to those that had the grace of God infused into their hearts before this Judgement came upon us that you would improve this providence by being better than you were before if Drunkards and Swearers will not be better yet be you if sensualists and flesh-pleasers will not be better yet be you It may be the wicked will be worse but will you be so too If Gods people are not mended by his Judgements who will and hath God swept away so many thousands into another world and shall there be no good effect or fruit upon neither bad nor good God forbid London hath been a place of great prosperity a City of Feasting and a place of plenty of outward enjoyments but in this last Sickness God hath filled it with dolorous complaints by the many breaches made by death in so many families and relations God hath filled it with pale faces and sick persons and running sores God hath turned it into a place an house of mourning And Solomon saith Eccl. 7.2 It is better to go into the house of mourning than to the house of feasting for that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart Have not your houses been houses of mourning some dead out of most houses and you are yet living will you then lay it to your heart What should you lay to heart Lay to heart the great Judgement that hath been amongst you Lay to heart the sins that did provoke the Lord to lay his hand so heavy upon you Lay to heart the goodness of God in preserving you The City hath been an house of mourning but have you learned the lessons that are to be learned in an house of mourning Have you met so many dead Corpse carried in the streets have you seen the living laboring to carry forth their dead and yet not learned the lessons that are to be learned in such a place of mourning Where one is dead in a family that before was an house of mirth and gladness it will turn it into an house of mourning and sadness much more when many dead in one family and this is the case of many families God hath been teaching you many things at such a time but is your lesson taken out Oh what dull Scholars are we in the School of Christ that must thus be scourged to learn our lessons and yet have not done it Consider when God hath turned London by reason of their dead into an house of mourning he hath been teaching you such things as these I. God hath been teaching you the Infallible verity of divine threatnings God threatned our first Parents Gen. 2.17 That if they sinned they should certainly dye they and their posterity This threatning was made some thousands of years since and it hath been made good in all generations Length of time makes not voide the threatnings of God men read Gods threatnings but do not believe them nor fear them nor tremble at them Many will not practically believe that they shall dye though they sin and will not at all believe they shall be damned though they sin but we see that men that have sinned must dye and wicked men shall feel that they shall be damned according to Gods threatnings but you have learned the truth of Gods threatnings in this and they are as true in all other respects therefore do you that are Gods people learn the truth of Gods threatnings when he saith the Drunkard shall not inherit the Kingdom of God and let this move your heart to pity them that are such that have a threatning of God which is of undoubted verity as a flaming sword standing in their way to keep them out of the Paradise of God and be thankful unto God that you are none of these Do you learn the truth of Gods threatning when he saith the hypocrite and unbelieving shall be cast into the lake that burnes with fire and brimstone Rev. 21.8 and pity and pray for them that are such and bless God that you are none of them and so are taken from under the curse of that threatning II. In this great house of so great mourning God hath been teaching you what are the Wages of sin You have often heard that death is the Wages of sin Rom. 6.23 The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there used is a military term signifying the wages that is due to souldiers intimating that death is as due to a sinner for his service to the Devil as pay is to a Souldier for his service to his General it comes from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth properly all kind of pleasant meats that may be prepared or made ready by fire so that all the delicates and dainty dishes that sin prepares for sinners hath a deaths head in them Do you learn this and by this learn to hate sin more than you did before and watch against it more than you did before III. In this great house of so great mourning God hath been teaching you the certainty of mens mortality You have seen that this is the way of all flesh Josh 23.14 1 King 2.2 and therefore learn to live as mortal dying men should live you have seen that thousands have been carryed from their houses to their graves And Oh
some with terrors in their consciences and have you not seen some godly dye with peace and comfort and giving good evidences of their hope of a better life that God hath filled them with joys that they were going to their Fathers house and that the plague and death had not so much in them to terrifie and affright as the hopes of heaven had to comfort and support their hearts It hath been ground of great rejoycing to hear how many of Gods people in this plague did dye with joy and comfort And should not yâ—u by such a sight as this be quickened in your service unto God and ever while you live look upon Religion as a real thing that letteth in such real comforts into their hearts who had real grace in such time of real discouragements after such a sight as this never think it a vain thing to serve God though you must dye who comforts his peoples souls in the very gates of death IX In this great house of so great mourning God hath been teaching you the folly of delaying in the great concernments of another world you have seen many Drunkards did delay to repent and turn to God but when death once came to Arrest them it would not stay till they had done their work Have not you seen many have been surprized by death that those that thought they would repent hereafter and talked how they would mend hereafter are gone down into the grave before that time was come and wil not you after such a sight as this be quickned to make more haste in doing of the work that God expecteth at your hands Have not you seen some that have talked what they would do the next year laid in the dust before this year is past and gone God hereby would have you learn not to boast of to morrow because you know not what may be in the womb of another day nor what to morrow may bring forth Prov. 27.1 God would have you learn so to number your days that you may apply your hearts to wisdom Psal 90.12 God would have you learn to do your duty quickly and to do it with all your might because it will be too late when you are rotting in your Grave Eccles 9.10 X. In this great house of so great mourning God hath been teaching you the great lesson of Mortification you have seen how many dyed by sin and should not you be now dead unto sin you should now in good earnest labor for the death of sin O be the death of your passion and be the death of your lusts and be the death of your worldliness especially be the death of your beloved sin God forbid that sin should be found alive in your heart after such a time of death to so many thousand persons Are so many dead and rotting in their Graves and shall not sin be dead and mouldring in your hearts These be some of the lessons God in his late providence hath been instructing you in and if you can now do these duties better than before it is some sign that you are better than you were before But yet because so great a providence should not be sleightly passed over with but a little Improvement I shall take occasion to press you to be much better than you were before before God saw a great deal of sin in his own people and amongst Professors much censoriousness and rash and uncharitable judgeing one of another want of love and affection a great deal of pride in Apparel pride in Diet pride in Furniture of houses pride of Beauty pride of Parts and Gifts and God hath been staining the pride of all Families therein God saw a great deal of neglect of Family Duties in Professors houses and customary cold and dead performance of them in others and doth it not concern all to see where they have failed and do so no more SECT XVII I Know the wicked World thinks that professing people are too exact already and that they make more adoe than is needfull But their Charge is 1. False for there is no man is so exact in his life as he ought 2. Blasphemous for what do such but blame God himself in giving such strict rules unto his people 3. Malicious Cain envyed Abel because his works were evil and his brothers good 4. Diabolical what could a Devil say more or what is this but to play the Devils part in discouraging discountenancing speaking against the pressing after the highest degrees of goodnesse But let it be your great care whom God hath spared from the grave in this time of Plague that are such as truely fear God and are truely good On take heed that after such a preservation none of you might be found worse than you were for though those that once were truely good shall never so decline as to be absolutely bad yet they may so farre fail that they may comparatively be sayd to be worse Here consider 1. To lose any degrees of Goodness and Grace is a grievous and a sinfull loss If you had lost your life in this Plague it might not have been your sin but you cannot be in the least degree worse than you were after such a providence but it is a great sin Because it is our duty to love God as much as we can therefore to lose any degrees of our love to God is to come short of our Duty and therefore a sin 2. To be worse in your spiritual condition will be great unthankefulnesse to God for his watchfull Providence over you If a man do a kindness for you will you be worse towards him than you were before And will you deal worse with God than with a fellow Creature 3. To be worse in your spiritual condition after such preservation and deliverance will be displeasiâ—g unto God and a grief unto him If God see his Children love him less and fear him less and delight in him less will it not grieve him and displease him And had it not been better you had dyed than to live to be a grief to God Had not you rather follow your Children to their graves than to see them live to be worse and dishonour God and will you yet do so your selves Is it not a grief to you the more kindness you shew unto your Children to see them the more undutiful to you and will it not be so in you to God 4. If you be worse than you were in your spiritual condition you shall have less communion with God than you had before and had not you better dye than lose your communion with God for what is your life without fellowship with God 5. If you be worse you will have less Comfort from God than you had before If you deny Duty to him which you performed to him before he will deny that comfort to you which he gave you before and what will your life be without the comforts of God let down into your soul
few considerations to presse thee to put a stop unto thy sinnings hoping that though thou hast gone far yet thou mayst return while thou art out of Hell thou art within our call and within the reach of Exhortation and reproof God hath called often to thee to return and yet thou hast not returned but art going on unto destruction The Son of God hath called to thee and said How long wilt thou goe on in thy Rebellion against him that would redeem and save thy soul he hath told thee if thou dost proceed thou must be damned and said the Mercy of God will not save thee and my Merits they will not they shall not save thee but if thou wilt return to God and come to me here is mercy for thee here is pardon for thee and I will give eternal life unto thee The Spirit of God hath often moved upon thy heart he hath been often knocking at thy doore that thou wouldest open thy heart and let him in and he would apply the blood of Christ unto thee and he would fill thee with better joyes and better pleasures and better comforts than thou ever foundest in the way of sin But hitherto thou hast stopped thine ears and stiffened thy neck and hardened thy heart and wouldest not hearken nor obey The Ministers of God have often wooed thee and beseeched thee with tears in their eyes and sorrow in their hearts as if their happiness had been wrapped up in thine and as if they could not have gone to Heaven and been saved without thee while patience waited upon thee they have been earnest with thee and now at last one unworthy to preach the Gospel is a suiter to thy soul that thou wouldest be divorced from thy sin and be married unto Christ as yet thou art out of hell and art not yet reckoned among the dead nor numbred amongst the damned as yet thou art not irrecoverably lost this day Christ is once more tendred to thee in the name of God I once more offer thee pardon and eternall life upon thy repenting of thy sin and turning unto God Oh that I could perswade thee or if I cannot as indeed I cannot oh that God would yet perswade thee If I might be serviceable to thy soule oh how should I rejoyce if I did but know where thou dost dwell that hast been wicked all thy dayes and now art reading of these lines having a purpose in thy heart to come to Christ I would come to thee as opportunity was offered and beg upon my knees that thou wouldest cherish those purposes and be perswaded to what conduceth to thy eternall happiness if teares and prayers would do it I would endeavour though my heart is hard to shed them for thee if putting my hands under thy feet and stooping to the meanest office of love unto thy soule would excite thee to let Christ into thy heart how readily by the grace of God would I be willing to it I beseech thee by the mercies of God by the death of Christ by the coming of our Lord by the love thou bearest to thy self as ever thou wouldest see the face of Christ with comfort as ever thou wouldest escape the damnation of Hell return at last and though it be late yet return at last But if thou wilt not let God be my witness let as many as read these lines be my witnesses let thy own Conscience be my witness that thou hast been asked entreated yea earnestly entreated to reform and mend and turn to God But in hopes that I may prevail I beseech thee in the fear of God give in a sober and deliberate answer unto these following Questions First Whether art thou going while thou art waxing worse and worse Dost thou know that Hell is at the end of the way in which thou art daily walking Dost thou know that if thou dost proceed a little further a little longer in this course thou wilt be among the Devils those cursed Fiends of Hell Or dost thou know it and yet wilt venture to dance about the brink of a bottomless pit who hath bewitched thee or what hath made thee mad that thou seest thou art going unto Hell and yet wilt venture on Secondly Dost thou believe the Scripture to be the Word of God or dost thou not And are the threatnings contained therein true thinkest thou or are they not Wilt thou say they be false or that they were found out by some Precisians or are the workings of some melancholly brain or that they were found out by some Politician to keep the world in awe I would have thee know that to thy eternal sorrow thou shalt finde them all true even to a tittle and to thy everlasting woe shalt know the truth of Gods Word When thou art shrieking in the flames of Hell and roaring hideously among the damned because of Gods eternal wrath thou shalt be convinced that the wicked shall be turned into Hell that the Unbeliever shall be damned and that it was true which thou wast told that without repentance there was no deliverance from eternal condemnation But if thou dost believe this Word to be true what aileth thee then to live as thou dost that thou actest quite contrary to what is contained in the Word of God Doth not the Word of God in a thousand places cry down sin and press to holiness doth it not tell thee the drunkard the covetous the unbelieving the lyar shall be damned If thou never didst observe such places take thy Bible and turn unto them 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Rev. 21.8 Heb. 12.14 Gal. 5.20 to 25. Col. 3.5 6. Eph. 5.5 6. Mar. 16.16 Mat. 18.3 Luk. 13.3 5. Canst thou read and believe these Scriptures to be true and yet goe on in the practice of those things that the eternal holy God doth forbid upon pain of eternal torments Wilt thou be worse than thy very beast which thou canst not force into the fire when he seeth it before him Shall I call out thy Neighbours to behold a dreadful sight viz. A man that knowes he is in the way to Hell and yet will goe on Thirdly With what face or heart canst thou hope as thou dost that God will pardon thy sin or save thy soul while thou persistest in thy wickedness and encreasest therein Shew me an instance of any one man in all the Word of God that was pardoned and saved who repented not and I will be thy slave for ever I know great sinners have been saved and I know those that have gone far have obtained mercy Manasseh did 2 Chron. 33.12 13. Mary Magdalene did Luk. 7. But then they turned unto God Canst thou say there is any one now in Heaven that did not repent and believe before he dyed or dost thou think that thou shalt be the only man Fourthly Whom dost thou set thy self against Or who is it that thou dost provoke whose anger and indignation art thou daily kindling against thy self What
at home Did it not then trouble thee that thou being a Professor hadst been at nights drinking in the Tavern when thou shouldst have been praying in thy family that thy Wife and Children though they have not gone Supperless to bed yet have almost every night gone prayerless to bed except they went apart to pray in secret But did not then thy conscience tell thee that their performance of their duty would be no excuse to thee when thou shouldst stand at the Bar of God for thy neglecting of what thou oughtest to have done Didst thou not then resolve if thou shouldst live it should be so no more That thou wouldst read thy Bible more as well as look over thy Shop-books daily That thou wouldst spend some time in secret before God whereas before thou wast use to waste it in thy pleasures and taking of thy worldly delights Deal plainly man with thy self and do not flatter thy soul and daube with thy conscience Was there not some such thoughts and purposes and resolutions as these in thy heart at such a time And didst thou promise and resolve in jest and not in earnest God did afflict thee by the plague in good earnest and thou waste then affraid of death and the grave and judgement in good earnest And didst thou onely purpose in jest and resolve in jest and play with holy things when thou wast near another world and dally with God when thou didst not know but within an hour thou mightest have appeared at his Bar and been set before the terrible tribunal of the great heart-searching God But if thou wast in earnest with God when God was in earnest with thee if thou wast in earnest in promising be earnest in earnest to perform if thou didst indeed resolve to reform when thou shouldst be well then reform indeed according to thy resolution since God hath made thee well and saved thee from the Grave to which thou wast so near so very near Or if God hath been so good to thee to preserve thee from the infection of the Plague amongst the many thousands that have been visited that thou hast not been heart-sick yet thou hast often felt shootings and pains and prickings up and down in several parts of thy body and sometimes hast had such things as thou hast thought to be symptomes of the distemper and hast apprehended it to be approaching to thee that hath made thee hasten to thy bed and make use of thy preservatives and thy cordials that thou thoughtest thy self in real danger and wast possest with real fears What were thy purposes at such a time as this And what didst thou resolve to do And how to live if God would prevent the thing thou fearedst Or hadst thou no such purpose in thy heart No such resolution in thy breast that if thou livedst thou wouldst be better Was thy heart indeed so backward unto good that at such a time of fears and dangers thou hadst not so much as a purpose to be better but if thou hadst and let thy conscience be thy witness and the God of heaven that did fully know the purpose of thy heart then now perform what then thy heart did purpose to perform I am perswaded if the people in London and in Country too would live up according to the purpose of their heart in time of danger of the Plague would reform and mend as they did resolve to do we should be much better than we were before Oh what a difference would there be in the frame of our hearts and in the course of our lives What a change would there be in all our practises Those that were forward Professors of Religion and were not much more then Professors would be zealous practisers of Religious duties and in order hereunto I shall to follow this direction do three things 1. Lay down some considerations why you should be careful to keep your purposes resolutions and vows 2. Prescribe some helpes how you may perform your purposes resolutions and vows 3. Set down the aggravations of your sin if you break your purposes resolutions and vows SECT I. 1. GReat and constant diligent care should be taken in time of health to keep our purposes to perform our resolutions and to pay our vows to God which we made in time of sickness and danger and distress if you consider these particulars 1. That one great deceit of the heart of man doth appear in this in being forward to purpose in our selves and promise unto God but are backward to perform In time of sickness what resolutions do men make what purposes have they in themselves to mend and turn to God and seem to promise this with tears in their eyes and sorrow in their hearts for the evil that is past and done and seem to others and think verily themselves that they promise in good earnest and mean to do as they do speak and when they think the danger is past and their fears removed do nothing less than what they promised I have known some upon sick beds so to promise that they would be drunk no more c. and yet when health hath been restored have returned to their wickedness So did Pharaoh promise fair when the Plagues of God were upon the Land that he would let the children of Israel goe but when the Plagues have been removed he hath hardened his heart against them more than before and this he often did Exod. 8.8 15. 9.27 28 34 10.16 17 20. Now this deceitfulness of the heart is yet in part remaining in the best of men and therefore you must be carefull else though you have promised you will never perform 2. That sin is of a bewitching encroaching and alluring nature if it can prevail it will keep you from resolving against it if you do resolve it will entreat you that you would not send it farre from you that your Resolution might not be peremptory and universal that if you resolve to banish it from your heart it might be only some of its members that are not so dear unto you and reserve the rest or if it be peremptory and universal that you will part with all sin it will contend that your Resolution may not be perpetual that you send it not away for ever but only till your danger of death is over and your fears thereof are ceased that then it may be received into your heart be your Favourite again or if you do resolve to part with sin peremptorily universally and perpetually yet after a while it will solicit you to change your resolution or if you will not change it it will solicit you to abate the strength and vehemency thereof and will come and offer you so much delight and so much pleasure and so much profit if you will not be so severe against it If you are not carefull it will encroach upon your heart and insinuate and winde it self into your love and delight and
perform thy promise unto God when thou canst never break it but when God is looking on 10. Keep a lively and a tender conscience and diligently hearken to its admonitions that thou keep thy purpose cominations while thou art purposing to come short of thy purpose and accusations afterwards if thy conscience is not faithful unto thee thou wilt be false unto thy promise and fail of thy purpose but if it be do not choak the voice of conscience for it is thy monitor and remembrancer to put thee in minde of the bond â—nd obligation that lies upon thee to a holy life by virtue of thy own resolutions and vows in time of great mortality 11. Make a prudent choise of some wise and holy Christian for thy most intimate associate One that knows thy ways and practise most that is most acquainted with the manner of thy life and hath most occasion to be most in thy company supposing him to be faithful prudent pious tell him what hath been the purpose of thy heart when the terrors of the Lord were upon thee not onely against sin in general or in respect of holiness in general but what was the purpose of thy soul and the resolution of thy heart against this sin if it be convenient in particular which thou hast been most prone unto and the particular duty thou hast resolved to be constant and diligent in which thou hast found thy heart most backward to and engage him as he loves thy soul and the promoting of the work of God in thy heart that he will carefully observe thee and if he discern thee to be backward to thy duty that he would admonish thee if forward to thy sin that he would reprove thee and in all deal faithfully with thee this would be an exceeding help to perform our promises and purposes of holy living and such a friend as this is to be prized above his weight in gold and such a friend as this is better than a brother if you finde him let him not go 12. Seriously consider and work upon your heart till you feel your soul affected with it that Gods purposes concerning you and your good and eternal peace is the same at one time as at another and he performes all his promises which he maketh unto you God doth not one time purpose for to save you and another time purpose to condemn you and why should you then be unconstant in your purposes towards God one time to purpose that you will serve him more and glorifie him more and at another time be careless to order your life according to the intention of your heart When you finde your hearts begin to slink and goe from the purpose and promise that you have made press your self with affecting thoughts of the Immutability of Gods purposes to you and this might help you to constancy in your purposes towards God 13. Steel your heart with an holy courage against all oppositions in your way of performance Take heed of slavish fears which enfeeble your resolutions and put a stop in the way of an holy life you have resolved upon fear of danger and of death made you to resolve to keep close to God and yet your fear of death and fear of danger for holiness sake will hinder your living up to those Purposes and Resolutions Fear of death natural and from God was the occasion of your resolving to practise an holy life but fears of death violent and from men will be the cause of your breach of promise so to doe Therefore resolve to live up to your Resolutions though loss of Estate Liberty or Life should attend you for so doing 14. Fill your heart with an holy Zeal for Gods glory and if you be zealous for the glory of God you will be couragious against all Impediments and Obstructions of an holy conversation Courage is opposed to slavish Fears and Zeal is opposed to Lukewarmness And Lukewarmness is inconsistent with the practice you have resolved upon You have purposed to pray more fervently than you were wont to do but if your heart be as lukewarm in Religion you cannot do it you have purposed to lay out your self more for the good of souls to endeavour to help others in their way to heaven but if you be as lukewarm as before you cannot do more than you did before But if your heart be enflamed with zeal for God more than before you will perform all your Religious undertakings with more life than before you will pray with more life and preach with more life and speak to men about the things of God and another world than you did before and this is the performance of your Purpose 15. Be much in daily Reflexions whether you live up to your Resolutions or no. Review your life every night reflect upon your Duties and the manner of performance of them Survey at night before you sleep the actions of the day whether they have been according to the Rule of Gods Word what temptations did assault you and how you did resist them what corruptions did rise in your heart and how you did subdue them what Ordinances of God you have sate under and how you did improve them what Talents God hath entrusted you with and how you have employed them what company you have been in and how you did behave your self If you do not call your self frequently to account you will live below your Purposes and not perceive it 16. Be often renewing your Purposes and Resolutions for an holy life Frequent acts do beget and strengthen habits Actually renew your Purpose to pray to God to walk circumspectly to discourse of the things of God and it will at length be habitual to you so to do If you finde upon reflection and self-examination that your Purposes are weakened and your heart draws back from that pitch of holiness you did intend to labour after binde your heart thereto by the renewal of your Purposes If you finde you have broken your Resolutions do not resolve to continue so to do but repair them If the Mariner be driven back by windes and storms yet he keeps and renews his purpose of sailing unto his intended Harbour If a Traveller fall in his Journey he gets up and resolves to hold on his way 17. Presse your heart with the evils of coming short and with the benefits of living up unto your Resolutions The evils of this I shall speak to in the third general Head that follows next in order The Benefits of keeping the purpose of your heart are many and great Your sins will not be so many your sins will not be so strong for Resolutions against sin that are firmly made and carefully kept do exceedingly weaken sin and if you should sometime sin your sin will not be so great when God doth see you keep the firm purpose of your heart against it though sometimes you are overborn and bowed down yea
Contagion would resolve to live together you would so far as concerns you in this respect live in force measure answerably to so great a mercy else you cannot Hath God spared you to be more unkind one to another To be bitter one against another To grieve one another Or do you think this is the Improvement you should make of this mercy God forbid SECT XVI SEcondly The next Relation I consider in a Family is between Parents and Children whom God hath continued after this great Mortality God hath taken away Parents from others and they are lest Orphans but God hath continued thy Parents Both or one to thee What doth God require from thee in answer to a sutable return for this mercy God hath taken away Children from others and bereaved them of those that were dear to them but God hath continued thine all or some to thee what doth God require at thy hands in answer to a sutable return for so great a mercy It is that Parents and Children should fill up the duties of this relation else you can never walk worthy of this mercy But more particularly First Parents if they would live answerable to his mercy of Children continued to them must be careful First In instructing of them in the things of God and training them up in the waies of God this is the duty of both Parents Pro. 1.8 My son hear the instruction of thy Father and forsake not the Law of thy mother Prov. 31.1 The words of King Lemuel the Pâ—ophesie that his mother taught him This mothers might do when they are dressing of their Children Do not think you do enough if you make provision for your children and get a portion for them Let me tell you that is the leâ—st part of your duty as hard as you think it is but you must give them instructions and that 1. Timelily before they are accustomed to evil they are born in natural hardness and by frequent acts of wickedness they will contract habitual hardness and then if God clap upon their hearts judicial hardness your Children are undone for ever Children before they can goe can run from God and before they can speak plainly can speak wickedly Teach them not to be proud of their fine Clothes teach them not Revenge by giving you a stroak to beat others these be the buddings of Pride and Revenge in little Infants 2. Instruct them frequently They are apt to learn evil but backward to learn any thing that is good There must be Line upon Line Deut. 6. 6 7. You must whet the things you speak unto them that they may pierce their hearts frequently inculcate the same things upon them and instil the knowledg of God into them by little and little 3. Instruct them affectionately Let them perceive when more grown up that they are matters of Weight and Moment that you speak to them about When you speak of Heaven and Hell of God and Sin let them see that your hearts are affected with what you say Secondly In Correcting of them for the evil of Sin He that spares the Rod spoiles the Childe better you correct them here than God damne them hereafter The Rod is as needful for your Children as their Food Prov. 22.15 Folly is bound in the heart of a Childe the Rod of Correction shall drive it far from him Do this 1. Timelily a young Twigg is flexible and easie to be bent break them of wicked Words and Wâ—ies betimes or else they may break your heart when they are bigger Adonijah was Davids Dâ—â—ling an â—he was wanting in correcting of him and he Rebelled before he died and usurped the Kingdom before his Fathers death 1 King 1.5 Then Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself saying I will be King and he prepared his Horsmen and Chariots and fifty Men to run before him Vers 6. And his Father had not displeased him at any time in saying Why hast thou done so Too much indulgence will make undutiful and disobedient Children 2. Proportionably to their fault Do not Correct a small offence over sharply nor an hainous sin too slightly if you are too severe for a small offence they will hate you if you are too indulgent in a great offence they will despise you This was Elyes sin that he did not correct the hainous sin and reprove the abominable practise of his Sons with greater severity 1 Sam. 2.23 And he said unto them Why do ye such things for I hear of your evil dealings by all this People Vers 24. Nay my Sons for it is no good report that I hear ye make the Lords People to transgress It is no good report that was too good a word for so hainous wicked Works it was an abominable thing that was reported by others and committed by his Sons But see what God saith to Ely Vers 29. Thou honourest thy Sons above me and God severely punished his Children for their vile offence and the Father for his so cold reproof as you may read in the following Verses 3. Compassionately do not Correct your Children in the heate of Passion but with bowels of compasion when the Rod is in your hand let there be tender love in your heart 4. Discreetly Observing the temper and disposition of your Childe which you correct if you Scourge and frown upon one as much as is needful for another you will discourage him if you scourge not another more than this that is more tender spirited you will not break him Correction is like a Medicine in which the Physitian hath respect to the constitution of the Patient Children are like Herbs some if you cut and tread will grow again but if you do as much to other Herbes you kill them 5. Seasonably There is much wisdom in Parents in timeing their Correcting of their Children if you correct them for some faults before others you will discourage them take the fittest season 6. Penitently When you correct your Children judge your self first and repent for your own sin or else you do but beat your self 7. Believingly When you exercise your child with the Rod do you exercise faith upon the Promise Thirdly In Praying much for them many pray for Children before they have them but neglect to pray for them when God hath given them as though their being were a greater blessing than their well-being you must add Prayer to Instruction and Correction for it is not onely your Instruction nor Correction but Gods blessing given in to servent Prayer that will make your Children good When you look upon your little Infants as they are sucking at your breasts or laughing in your faces or playing in your armes oh consider the seed of sin that they have in their hearts that they by Nature are the children of wrath and when you go to pray for them use such considerations that might make your heart to mourn over them and for them When you consider they are enemies to God