Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n
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A39501
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An Earnest call to family-catechising and reformation by a reverend divine.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing E95; ESTC R31403
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30,606
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74
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late Assembly recommended CAtechising in general is any Instruction by Word of Mouth more particularly it is a plain and familiar instructing of Persons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sono est vivâ voce instituere To instruct by Word of Mouth in the Rudiments of any Doctrine but yet most strictly of all it is taken for teaching the Principles of Christian Religion and we have both the Word and Thing it self in Scripture This Catechising is either publick and as such performed by a Minister of the Gospel Saith the Apostle let him that is Taught or Catechised in the Word communicate unto him that Teacheth or Catechiseth in all good things Gal. 6. 6. where we read both of the Catechist or him that Catechiseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Catechumen or the Person Catechised In another place the same Apostle mentions Instructors of Children as the Greek Word in its 1 Cor. 4. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strictness signifies And there were in the Primitive Churches Catechists that is Teachers whose particular Work it was to Catechise and they had their Catechumens those that were instructed by them and it might be to very good purpose if we had such now But to descend from Publick to Private or Family-Catechising and Instruction which we have both Scripture-Precept and Precedent for We have among other these Scripture-Precepts and Commands for it These words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy House c. Deut. 6. 6 7 8 9. So in another place But teach them thy sons and thy sons sons c. Deut. 4. 9 10. Saith the Psalmist Ps 78. 5 6 7. He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel which he commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their Children c. Saith Solomon train up or Catechise a Child in the Prov. 22. 6. in the Margin way he should go c. Add to the rest that of the Apostle Fathers provoke not your Children to Wrath but bring them up in the Nurture Admonition of the Lord. Eph. 6. 4 I will now pass from Scripture-Precepts to Scripture-Precedents and Examples whereby this Duty of Family-Catechising is further confirmed Solomon writ his book of Proverbs To give subtlety to the simple to the young man knowledge and discretion Prov. 1. 1 4. And he calls upon his own Son thus My Son hear the instructions of a father and forsake not the law of thy Mother ver 8. He saith afterwards A wise son heareth his father's instruction Prov. 13. 1. c. Which implieth that a wise Father will give instruction to his Son He concludes that book of wise Sayings with the words of King Lemuel the prophecy that his mother taught him Prov 31. 1. c. Which contains indeed most excellent Catechetical Instructions Joshua resolved that he and his house would serve the Lord Jos 24. 15. having likewise no doubt so instructed them and intending to continue so doing Who can doubt but Timothy had been thus Catechised by his good Mother 2. Tim. 1. 5. and Grand-Mother whose faith he inherited But a great and standing Instance is that of Abraham the Father of the Faithfull and no doubt to be imitated by all his Spiritual Children Now of him God himself testifieth I know him 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 that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him Gen. 18. 19. Thus you see we have both Scripture-Precepts and Precedents for the Warrant of this Duty of Family-Catechising and Instruction And what is there recorded is for our admonition Instruction ought indeed to be given occasionally yea and all occasions taken for it But publick and Family-Catechising cannot be methodically and throughly managed unless the chief heads of Christian Doctrine be first digested in a Form of Sound Words according to the Scriptures Now besides many other excellent Catechisms ready provided to our hands we have those of that Reverend Assembly which I recommend to you as being a little but withall great Body of Divinity and likewise because divers holy and good Men have written very worthily thereon whose books may assist your proceeding herein with more ease and profit both to your selves and Families CHAP. III. Directing Parents and Governours of Families for the Catechising of their Families I Now proceed to direct such as are Parents of Children and Governours of Families as to a method of procedure Wherein I include those of the Female Sex who have the greatest Advantage of Forming Children in their younger Years and whose Business engageth them to be more constantly at home If Queen Esther observe a private fast her maidens shall fast also Esther 4. 16. And no doubt she engaged them in more ordinary as well as these extraordinary Duties of Religion Mothers should be Mothers in Israel How the Royal Bathsheba did document her Solomon and honest and religious Lois and Eunice did instruct their Timothy in Scripture-knowledge I have already instanced Good Monica's Soul underwent stronger Travail-Pangs for the new Birth of her Austin than her Body did for his first Aug. Confession Birth Can you bear the Thoughts of it That those whom you have born from the Womb that have hung on your Breast and been dandled on your Knees should be Fire-brands in Hell to all Eternity and not rather desire and endeavour they may be Heirs of Eternal Glory Now to One and All of you I say in this Case as Jotham in another to the men of Shechem Hearken unto me that God may hearken unto you Judg. 9. 7. 1. I desire Parents of Children and Governours of Families to consider with themselves what a great necessary and beneficial Duty this of Catechising is Humble your selves in secret before the Lord for your so great and long neglects of it Beg of God Courage for and Conduct and Success in it Resolve before the Lord that you will break through all Temptations and Oppositions and set upon this Duty and study to do it to the best advantage 2. Having thus solemnly prepared your selves for this Work In the next place prepare your Families Acquaint them you are convinced it is your Duty to be concerned for the Souls committed to you and that you look upon Catechising as a proper Means for their Instruction and confirmation in those great Truths which they ought to believe and Duties they ought to practise Let them know you expect their Compliance in a Matter wherein God may be so much glorified and they benefited Put them upon solemn Preparations for it and if you have observed sinful Miscarriages in any give them particular Admonitions As Jacob said to his houshold
that are now Children and Servants may become Parents of Children and have Servants under you being built up in Families of your own Now the better you are at present in your private Station the better you may be when advanced to a more publick Capacity For to Obey well is the way to Govern well So that setting of you right for the present may be a Means of regulating your Families for the future and those who shall receive holy Instructions from you may afterward convey the same to their Families And who knows but as there shall ever be a holy Seed raised up to praise and serve the Lord so there may be a Succession of Religion in those that descend from you till the coming of Christ to Judgment It is observable That though God calls home to himself some who were far off and he will yet more eminently do so when all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before him Psal 22. 27. Yet Religion hath been much propagated through the Loins of the Faithful And it hath been observed That when Grace gets into a Family ordinarily it doth not soon take its leave of it But though there may be some sad Interruptions yet it appears many times again in Grand-Children or Great-Grand-Children and if not in the direct Line yet Collaterally as the Rivers of Water run thorough the Valleys though not in a direct Course but with many Windings and Turnings and various Branchings so that we are many times ready to be at a loss in following them Of this the Scripture doth and our own Observation may furnish us with Instances Now may I not begin my Address to you as St. Austin one of his Sermons Ad vos Juvenes mibi sermo flos aetatis periculum mentis Aug. de Temp. O Young Ones my Speech is to you who are in the flower of your Age but peril and danger of Mind Or with very little Variation as St. John that bosome Disciple of our Lord I have written unto you fathers that you may know him that is from the beginning I now write unto you little children that you may know the father I write unto you young men that you may be strong and overcome the wicked one and that the word of God may abide in you 1 Joh. 2. 12 13 14. Therefore Come ye children hearken unto me I will teach you the fear of the Lord Psal 34. 11. I shall give you the sum of my Advice in the following Particulars 1. Consider seriously what kind of Creatures God hath made you and learn to set a due value upon your own beings The very Frame of thy Body which is wonderfully and fearfully made and curiously wrought Psal 139. 14 15. speaks something extraordinary But then thy Soul is Heaven-born a Spiritual and Immortal Being capable of the Knowledge and Enjoyment of God himself and by what Bonds and Tyes this Material Body and Immaterial Soul are united and linked together thou do'st not know So that thine own Being is above thy Conception St. Austin Aug. Confes wonders that Men admire other things and leave themselves unadmired Consider thou art not a lifeless Rock or Stone a senseless Plant or Tree an irrational brute Beast but a Creature endowed with a rational and immortal Soul capable of knowing and enjoying God here and hereafter Yea thy mortal Body shall at the last day be raised to an Immortal State Remember thou art a Creature made for Eternity 2. Seriously lay to heart your State of Sin and Misery How you are tainted with Adam's first Transgression The Scriptures of Truth acquaint us That in him all sinned and therefore death came upon all men Rom. 5. 12. And in Adam all died 1 Cor. 15. 22. Consider further how your whole Nature Soul and Body every Faculty of the one and Member of the other is vitiated and defiled with the Leprosie of Sin Thou hast within and upon thee a compleat Body of Sin and Death Rom. 7. 24. with all its Members Even the youngest Children have old Adam in them Infants themselves are not innocent Thou hast that Corruption within thee which is sufficient to betray thee to the greatest Sins and expose thee to the greatest Sufferings Yea thou art guilty of manifold actual Sins of Omission and Commission and these cloathed with various Aggravations O! Consider how thy excellent Being is debased by Sin and how thou hast plunged thy self into unspeakable yea unconceivable Misery 3 See that thou be regenerate and born again without which thou shalt never enter into the Kingdom of God Thou art by Nature a child of Wrath and Heir of Hell Thy Nature must be changed by renewing Joh. 3. 3. 5. Grace before thou canst be a Child of God and Heir of Heaven And this know and remember that the New Birth is of the whole Man as the Natural is if it be a living Birth Remember your solemn Dedication to God in Baptism obligeth you to secure your Regeneration improve it therefore accordingly If taken out of the World by Death before thou art taken out of the World by Grace it had been good for thee thou hadst never been born for thou art undone to Eternity Woe to thee if thou diest before thou art alive to God for on such the second Death shall have Dominion and they shall be kill'd with Death 4. Have and maintain an inward Value and Esteem of your Parents Masters and Governours Yea tho' they be not so great or rich or wise or obliging as some others Esteem them as those set over you in the Lord and as obeying the Lord in so doing I have heard of a Wife who said she could be Obedient to her Husband but he was such a one as did not deserve it It was reply'd But the Command of God is worthy to be obey'd and shew your Obedience unto that So in this Case The Yoke will gall if it be not lined with Love but Love will cover a multitude of Faults Beside the Sin of Undutifulness we profit little by those whom we do not much affect 5. Study the Duties of your particular Places 1 Thes 4. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Relations and conscientiously practise them Many study other Duties and neglect their own They spy a Mote in anothers eye and cannot see a beam in their own Do you especially study and perform your own Duties Let your words looks gestures actions be such towards Parents and Superiours as they ought to be Let their Cautions restrain you from all Vanities their Counsels set you upon the Practice of what is Duty Yea tho Parents and Masters do not perform their Duty to thee yet thou must perform thine both to God and them You must be subject with all fear not only to the good and gentle but also to the froward 1 Pet. 2. 18. their Sin can be no