be to be Catechized but be ashamed that you had not learned sooneâ— God forbid you should be so mad as to say I am now too old to learn Except you be too old to serve God and be saved how can you be too old to learn to be saved Why not rather I am too old to serve the Devil and the world I have tryed them too long to trust them any more What if your parents had not taught you any trade to live by or what if they had never taught you to speak would not you have set your selves to learn when you had come to age Remember that you have souls to care for as well as your children and therefore first begin with your selves 4. In the mean time while you are learnâ—ng your selves teach your children what do you know and what you cannot teach them your selves put them on to learn it of others that can perswade them into the company of the godly who will be glad to instruct them If French men or Welsh men lived in the Town among us that could not understand our language would they not converse with those that do understand it and would they not daily send their children to learn it by being in the company of those that speak it so do you that you may learn the heavenly language Get among those that use it and encourage your children to do so to Have you no godly neighbours that will be helpful to you herein O do not keep your selves strange to them but go among them and desire their help and be thankful to them that they will entertain you into their company God forbid you should be like those that Christ speakes of Luke 11.52 that would neither enter into the Kingdom of God themselves nor suffer those that would to enter God forbid you should be such cruel barbarous wretches as to hinder your children from being godly and to teach them to to be wicked And yet alas how many such are there swarming every where among us If God do but touch the hearts of their children or servants and cause them to heare and read the Word and call upon him and accompany with the godly who will sooner scorn them and revile them and discourage them then an ungodly parent What say they you will now be one of the holy brethren You will be wiser then your parents c. Just such as Pharaoh was to the Israelites such are these wicked wretches to their own children Exod. 5.3 8 9. When Moses said Let us go sacrifâ—ce to the Lord lest â—e fall upon us with pestilence or sword c Pharaoh answers They are idle therefore they say let us go sacrifice lay more work upon them c. Just so do these people say to their children You know Pharaoh was the representer of the divel and yet let me tell you These ungodly parents are far worse then Pharaoh For the children of Israel were many thousands and were to go three dayes journey out of the land but these men hinder their children from serving God at home Pharaoh was not their father but their King but these men are enemies to the children of their bodies Nay more let me teâ—l you I know none on earth that play the part of the divel himself more truly then these men And if any thing that walks in flesh may be called a divel I think it is a parent that thus hinderech his children from salvation I solemnly professe I do not speak one jot worse of these men then I do think and verily believe in my soul Nay take it how you will I will say thus much more I verily think that in this they are far worse then the divel God is a righteous Judg and will not make the Divel himself worse then he is I pray you â—e patient while you consider it and then judg your selves They are the parents of their children and so is not the divel Do you think then that it is as great a fault in him to seek their destruction as in them Is it as great a fault for the VVoolf to kill the Lambs as for their own dams to do it Is it so horrid a fault for an enemy in war to kill a childe Or for a bear or a mad dog to kill it as for the mother to dash iâ— bâ—ains against the wall You know it is not Do not you think then that it is so hateful a thing in Satan to entice your children to sin and hell and to discourage and disswade them from holiness and from heaven as it is in you You are bound to love them by nature more then Satan is O then what people are those that will teach their children in stead of holiness to curse and swear and raile and backbite to be proud and revengeful to break the Lords day and to despise his wayes to speak wantonly and filthily to scorn at holiness and glory in sin O when God shall ask these children Where learned you this language and practice and they shall say I learned it of my father or mother I would not be in the case of those parents for all the world Alas is it a work that 's worth the teaching to undo themselves for ever Or can they not without teaching learn it too easily of themselves Do you need to teach a Serpent to sting or a Lyon to be fierce Do you need to sow weeds in your garden will they not grow of themselves To build a house requires skill and teaching but a little may serve to set a town on fire To heal the wounded or the sick requireth skill but to make a man sick or to kill him requireth but little You may sooner teach your children to swear then to pray and to mock at godliness then to be true godly If these parents were sworn enemies to their children and should study seven yeers how to do them the greatest mischief they could not possibly finde out a surer way then by drawing them to sin and withdrawing them from God SECT XVI I Shall therefore conclude with this earnest request to all Christian parents that read these lines that they would have compassion on the souls of their poor children and be faithful to the great trust that God hath put on them O Sirs if you cannot do what you would do for them yet do what you can Both Church and State Cities and Countrey do groan under the neglect of this weighty duty your children know not God nor his Laws but take his name in vain and slieght his worship and you do neither instruct them nor correct them and therefore doth God correct both them and you You are so tender of them that God is the leâ—â— tender both of them and you Wonder not if God make you smart for your childrens sins for you are guilty of all they commit by your neglect of doing your duty to reform them even as he that maketh a man drunk is
The delight which a pair of special faithful friends do finde in loving and enjoying one another is a most pleasing sweet delight It seemed to the Philosophers to be above the delights of Natural or Matrimonial friendship and I think it seemed so to David himself so he concludes his Lamentation for him I am distressed for thee my brother Jonathan very pleasant hast thou been unto me thy love to me was wonderful passing the love of women 2 Sam. 1.26 Yea the soul of Jonathan did cleave to David Even Christ himself as it seemeth had some of this kinde of love for he had one Disciple whom he especially loved and who was wont to lean on his brest why think then if the delights of close and cordial friendship be so great what delight shall we have in the friendship of the most High and in our mutual amity with Jesus Christ and in the dearest love and consort with the Saints Surely this will be a closer and stricter friendship then ever was betwixt any friends on earth and these will be more lovely and desirable friends than any that ever the Sun beheld and both our affections to our Father and our Saviour but especially his affection to us will be such as here we never knew as Spirits are so far more powerful then Flesh that one Angel can destroy an Host so also are their affections more strong and powerful we shall then love a thousand times more strongly and sweetly then now we can and as all the Attributes and Works of God are incomprehensible so is the attribute and work of Love He will love us many thousand times more then we even at the perfectest are able to love him what joy then will there be in this mutuall Love SECT VII 5. COmpare also the Excellencies of heaven with those glorious works of the Creation which our eyes do now behold What a deal of wisdom and power and goodness appeareth in and through them to a wise Observer What a deal of the Majesty of the great Creator doth shine in the face of this fabrick of the world surely his Works are great and admirable sought out of them that have pleasure therein This makes the study of natural Philosophy so pleasant because the Works of God are so excellent VVhat rare workmanship is in the body of a man yea in the body of every beast which makes the Anatomical studies so delightful what excellency in every Plant we see in the beauty of Flowers in the nature diversity and use of Herbs in Fruits in Roots in Minerals and what not But especially if we look to the greater works if we consider the whole body of this earth and its creatures and inhabitants the Ocean of waters with its motions and dimensions the variation of the Seasons and of the face of the earth the entercourse of Spring and Fall of Summer and Winter what wonderful excellency do these contain Why think then in thy Meditations if these things which are but servants to sinful man are yet so full of mysterious worth what then is that place where God himself doth dwell and is prepared for the just who are perfected with Christ VVhen thou walkest forth in the Evening look upon the Stars how they glissen and in what numbers they bespangle the Firmament If in the day time look up to the glorious Sun view the wide expanded encompassing heavens and say to thy self what glory is in the least of yonder Stars what a vast what a bright resplendent body hath yonder Moon and every Planet O what an unconceiveable glory hath the Sun Why all this is nothing to the glory of Heaven yonder Sun must there be laid aside as useless for it would not be seen for the brightness of God I shall live above all yonder glory yonder is but darkness to the lustre of my Fathers House I shall be as glorious as that Sun my self yonder is but as the wall of the Pallace-yard as the Poet â—aith If in Heavens outward Court such beauty be What is the glory which the Saints do see So think of the rest of the Creatures This whole earth is but my Fathers footstool this Thunder is nothing to his dreadful voice these winds are nothing to the breath of his mouth So much wisdom and power as appeareth in all these so much and far much more greatness and goodness and loving delights shall I enjoy in the actual fruition of God Surely if the Rain which rains and the Sun which shines on the just and unjust be so wonderful the Sun then which must shine on none but Saints and Angels must needs be wonderful and ravishing in glory SECT VIII 6. COmpare the things which thou shalt enjoy above with the excellency of those admirable works of Providence which God doth exercise in the Church and in the World What glorious things hath the Lord wrought and yet we shall see more glorious then these Would it not be an astonishing sight to see the Sea stand as a Wall on the right hand and on the left and the dry Land appear in the midst and the people of Israel pass safely through and Pharoah and his people swallowed up what if we should see but such a sight now If we had seen the ten Plagues of Egypt or had seen the Rock to gush forth streams or had seen Manna or Quails rained down from Heaven or had seen the Earth open and swallow up the wicked or had seen their Armies slain with Hailstones with an Angel or by one another Would not all these have been wondrous glorious sights But we shall see far greater things then these And as our sights shall be more wonderful so also they shall be more sweet There shall be no blood nor wrath intermingled we shall not then cry out as David Who can stand before this Holy Lord God Would it not have been an astonishing sight to have seen the Sun stand still in the Firmament or to have seen Ahaz Dyal go ten degrees backward Why we shall see when there shall be no Sun to shine at all we shall behold for ever a Sun of more incomparable brightness Were it not a brave life if we might still live among wonders and miracles and all for us and not against us if we could have drought or rain at our prayers as Elias or if we could call down fire from Heaven to destroy our enemies or raise the dead to life as Elisha or cure the diseased and speak strange languages as the Apostles Alas these are nothing to the wonders which we shall see and possess with God! and all those wonders of Goodness and Love We shall possess that Pearl and Power it self through whose vertue all these works were done we shall our selves be the subjects of more wonderful mercies then any of these Jonas was raised but from a three days burial from the belly of the Whale in the deep Ocean but
Ignorance and if conceitedness and pride do but strike in to become a zealous enemy to Truth and a leading troubler of the Churches peace under pretences of truth and holiness Are we men of eminency and in place of Authority How strong is our Temptation to slight our brethren to abuse our trust to seek our selves to stand upon our honour and priviledges To forget our selves our poor brethren and the publick good How hard to devote our power to his Glory from whom we have received it How prone to make our wills our law and to cut out all the enjoyments of others both religious and civil by the cursed rules and model of our own interest and policy Are we Inferiors and subject How prone to grudg at others preheminence and to take liberty to bring all their actions to the bar of our incompetent Judgment and to censure and slander them and murmure at their proceedings Are we rich and not too much exalted Are we poor and not discontented and make our worldly necessities a pretence for the robbing God of all his service If we be sick O how impatient If in health how few and stupid are our thoughts of eternity If death be near we are distracted with the fears of it If we think it far off how careless is our preparation Do we set upon duty Why there are snares too either we are stupid and lazy or rest on them and turn from Christ or we are customary and notional only In a word not one word that falls from the mouth of a Minister or Christian but is a snare not a place we come into not a word that our own tongues speake not any mercy we possess not a bit we put into our mouths but they are snares Not that God hath made them so but through our own corruption they become so to us So that what a sad case are we poor Christians in And especially they that discern them not for it s almost impossible they should escape them It was not for nothing that our Lord cryes out What I say to one I say to all Watch. We are like the Lepers at Samaria if we go into the City there 's nothing but famine if we sit still we perish But for ever Blessed be Omnipotent Love which saves us out of all these and maketh our streights but the advantages of the glory of his saving Grace And blessed be the Lord who hath not given our souls for a prey Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fouler the snare is broken and we are escaped Now our Houses our Cloaths our Sleep our Food our Physick our Father Mother Wife Children Friends Goods Lands are all so many Temptations and our selves the greatest snare to our selves But in Heaven the danger and trouble is over there is nothing but what will advance our joy Now every old companion and every loose-fellow is putting up the finger and beckning us to sin and we can scarce tell how to say them nay What say they will not you take a cup will you not do as your neighbors must you be so precise do you think none shall be saved but Puritans what needs all this strictness this reading and praying and preaching will you make your self the scorn of all men Come do as we do take your cups and drink away sorrow O how many a poor Christian hath been haunted and vexed with these Temptations and it may be Father or Mother or neerest Friends will strike in and give a poor Christian no rest And alas how many to their eternal undoing have hearkened to their seducements But this is our comfort dear Friends our Rest will free us from all these As Satan hath no entrance there so neither any thing to serve his malice but all things shall there with us conspire the high praises of our great Deliverer SECT XIII 5. ANd as we Rest from the Temptations so also from all abuses and persecutions which we suffer at the hands of wicked men We shall be scorned and derided imprisoned banished butchered by them no more the prayers of the souls under the Altar will then be answered and God will avenge their blood on those that dwell on the Earth This is the time for crowning with thorns buffetting spitting on that is the time for crowning with glory Now the Law is decreed on That whosoever will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution then they that suffered with him shall be glorified with him Now we must be hated of all men for Christs Name sake and the Gospel then will Christ be admired in his Saints that were thus hated Now because we are not of the world but Christ hath taken us out of the world therefore doth the world hate us then because we are not of the world but taken out of their calamity therefore will the world admire us Now as they hated Christ they will also hate us then as they will honor Christ so will they also honor us We are here as the scorn and off-scouring of all things as men set up for a gazing-stock to Angels and men even for signes and wonders among professing Christians They put us out of their Synagogues and cast out our name as evil and separate us from their company But we shall then be as much gazed at for our glory and they will be shut out of the Church of the Saints and separated from us whether they will or no. They now think it strange that we run not with them to all excess of riot speaking evil of us 1 Pet. 4.4 they will then think more strange that they ran not with us in the despised ways of God and speak evil of themselves and more vehemently befool themselves for their carelesness then ever they did us for our heavenliness A poor Christian can scarce go along the streets now but every one is pointing the finger in scorn but then they would be glad of the Crums of his Happiness The rich man would scarce have believed him that would have told him That he should beg for water from the tip of Lazarus finger Here is a great change We can scarce now pray in our Families or sing praises to God but our voyce is a vexation to them How must it needs torment them then to see us praising and rejoycing while they are howling and lamenting How full were their prisons a while ago and how bitter their rage How did they scatter the carkasses in the fields and delight themselves in the blood of Saints How glad would they have been if they could have brought them to ruine and blotted out their name from off the Earth How did they prepare like Haman their Gallows and if God had not gainsaid it the execution would have been answerable But he that siteth in Heaven did laugh them to scorn the Lord had them in derision O how full were their hearts of blood and
thou shalt perish for ever except I had seen the Book of Life Why the Bible also is the Book of Life and it describeth plainly those that shall be saved and those that shall be condemned Though it do not name them yet it tels you all those signs and conditions by which they may be known Do I need to ascend up into heaven to know That without holiness none shall see God Heb. 12.14 Or That it is the pure in heart who shall see God Matth. 5.8 Or That except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3.3 Or That he that believeth not that is stoops not to Christ as his King and Saviour is condemned already and that he shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Joh. 3.18.36 And that except you repent which includeth reformation you shall all perish Luke 13.3 5. With a hundred more such plain Scripture Expressions Cannot these be known without searching into Gods Counsels Why thou ignorant or wilful self-deluding Sot Hath thy Bible layn by thee in thy house so long and didst thou never read such words as these Or hast thou read it or heard it read so oft and yet dost thou not remember such passages as these Nay Didst thou not finde that the great drift of the Scripture is to shew men who they are that shall be saved and who not and let them see the conditions of both estates And yet dost thou ask me How I know who shall be saved what need I go up to heaven to inquire that of Christ which he came down to earth to tell us and sent his Spirit in his Prophets and Apostles to tell us and hath left upon Record to all the world And though I do not know the secrets of thy heart and therefore cannot tell thee by name whether it be thy state or no yet if thou art but willing and diligent thou maist know thy self whether thou be an heir of heaven or not And that is the main thing that I desire that if thou be yet miserable thou mayest discern it and escape it But canst thou possibly escape if thou neglect Christ and salvation Heb. 2.3 Is it not resolved on That if thou love father mother wife children house lands or thy own life better then Christ thou canst not be his disciple and consequently canst never be saved by him Is this the word of man or of God Is it not then an undoubted concluded case that in the case thou art now in thou hast not the least title to heaven Shall I tell thee from the Word of God It is as impossible for thee to be saved except thou be born again and made a new creature as it is for the devils themselves to be saved Nay God hath more plainly and frequently spoken it in the Scripture that such sinners as thou shall never be saved then he hath done that the devils shal never be saved And doth not this tidings go cold to thy heart Me thinks but that there is yet life and hope before thee and thou hast yet time and means to have thy soul recovered or else it should kill thy heart with terror and the sight of thy doleful discovered case should even strike thee dead with amazement and horror If old Ely fell from his seat and dyed to hear that the Ark of God was gone which was but an outward sign of his presence how then should thy heart be astonished with this tidings that thou hast lost the Lord God himself and all thy title to his eternal presence and delights If Rachel wept for children and would not be comforted because they were not How then shouldst thou now sit down and weep for the happiness and future life of thy soul because to thee it is not VVhen King Belshazzar saw but a piece of a hand sent from God writing over against him on the wall it made his countenance change his thoughts trouble him his loyns loosed in the joynts and his knees smite one against another Dan. 5.6 VVhy what trembling then should seaze on thee who hast the hand of God himself against thee not in a Sentence or two onely but in the very tenor and scope of the Scriptures not threatning thee with the loss of a Kingdom onely as he did Belshazzar but with the loss of thy part in the everlasting Kingdom But because I would fain have thee if it be possible to lay it close to thy heart I will here stay a little longer and shew thee first The greatness of thy loss and secondly The aggravations of thy unhappiness in this loss thirdly And the Positive miseries that thou maist also endure with their aggravations SECT III. FIrst The ungodly in their loss of heaven do lose all that glorious personal perfection which the people of God do there injoy They lose that shining lustre of the body surpassing the brightness of the Sun at noon day Though perhaps even the bodies of the wicked will be raised more spiritual incorruptible bodies then they were on earth yet that wil be so far from being a happiness to them that it onely makes them capable of the more exqâ—isite torments their understandings being now more capable of apprehending the greatness of their loss and their senses more capable of feelâ—ing their sufferings They would be glad then if every member were a dead member that it might not feel the punishment inflicted on it and if the whole body were a rotten carkass or might again lye down in the dust and darkness The devil himself hath an Angelical and excellent nature but that onely honoreth his skilful Creator but is no honor or comfort at all to himself The glory the beauty the comfortable perfections they are deprived of much more do they want that morâ—all perfection which the Blessed do partake of Those holy dispositions and qualifications of minde That blessed conformity to the Holiness of God that chearful readiness to do his Will that perfect rectitude of all their actions In stead of these they have their old ulcerous deformed souls that perversness of Will that disorder in their faculties that loathing of good that love to evil that violence of passion which they haâ— on earth It is true their understandings will be much cleared both by the ceasing of their temptations and deluding obâ—ects which they had on earth as also by the sad experience which they will have in hell of the falshood of their former conceits and delusions But this proceeds not from the sanctifying of their natures And perhaps their experience and too late understanding may restrain much of the evil motions of their wils which they had formerly here on earth but the evil disposition is never the more changed so also wil the conversation of the damned in hel be voyd of many of those sins which they commit here on earth They will be drunk no more and whore no more and
thither and that were wont to despise their counsel that bid them Try and make sure And to say They made no doubt of their Salvation 2. Yea and many that have excelled in worldly wisdom yet have been befooled in this great business and they that had wit to deceive their neighbours were yet deceived by Satan and their own hearts Yea men of strongest head-pieces and profoundest learning who knew much of the secrets of Nature of the courses of the Planets and motions of the Spheres have yet been utterly mistaken in their own hearts 3. Yea Those that have lived in the clear light of the Gospel and heard the difference between the Righteous and the Wicked plainly laid open and many a Mark for Tryal laid down and and many a Sermon pressing them to Examine and directing them how to do it yet even these have been and dayly are deceived 4. Yea those that have had a whole life's time to make sure in and have been told over and over that they had their lives for no other end but to provide for Everlasting Rest and make sure of it have yet been deceived and have wasted that life-time in forgetful security 5. Yea those that have Preached against the negligence of others and pressed them to Try themselves and shewed them the danger of being mistaken have yet proved mistaken themselves And is it not then time for us to rifle our hearts and search them to the very quick SECT III. 2. TO be mistaken in this great Point is also very Common as well as easie So common that it is the case of most in the world In the old world we find of none that were in any fear of Judgement and yet how few persons were not deceived So in Sodom So among the Jews And I would it were not so in England Almost all men amongst us do verily look to be saved You shall scarce speak with one of a thousand that doth not And yet Christ telleth us That few find the strait gate and narrow way that leads to Life Do but reckon up the several sorts of men that are mistaken in thinking they have title to Heaven as the Scripture doth enumeraâ—e them and what a multitude will they prove 1. All that are ignorant of the Fundamentals of Religion 2. All Heretick who maintain false doctrines against the Foundation or against the necessary means of Life 3. All that live in the practice of gross sin 4. Or that love and regard the smallest sin 5. All that harden themselves against frequent reproof Prov. 29.1 6. All that minde the Flesh more then the Spirit Rom. 8.6.7.13 Or the world more then God Phil. 3.18 19. 1 John 2.15.16 7. All that do as the most do Luk. 13.23 24 25. 1 John 5.19 8. All that are deriders at the Godly and discourage others from the way of God by their reproaches Pro. 1.22 c. 3.34 19.29 9. All that are unholy And that never were Regenerate and born anew 10. All that have not their very hearts set upon Heaven Mat. 6.21 11. All that have a Form of Godliness without the Power 12. And all that love either parents or wife or children or house or lands or life more then Christ. Luk. 14.26 Every on of these that thinketh he hath any Title to Heaven is as surely mistaken as the Scripture is true And if such multitudes are deceived should not we search the more diligently lest we should be deceived as well as they SECT IV. 3. NOthing more dangerous then to be thus mistaken The Consequents of it are lamentable and desperate If the Godly be mistaken in judging their state to be worse then it is the consequents of this mistake will be very sad But if the ungodly be mistaken the Danger and Mischief that followeth is unspeakable 1. It will exceedingly confirm them in the service of Satan and fasten them in their present way of death They will never seek to be recovered as long as they think their present state may serve As the Prophet saith Isa. 44.20 A deceived heart will turn them aside that they cannot deliver their own soul nor say Is there not a lye in my right hand 2. It will take away the efficacy of means that should do them good Nay it will turn the best means to their hardening and ruine If a man mistake his bodily disease and think it to be clean contrary to what it is will he not apply contrary remedies which will increase it So when a Christian should apply the Promises his mistake will cause him to apply the threatenings and when an ungodly man should apply the Threatenings and Terrors of the Lord this mistake of his estate will make him apply the promises And there is no greater strengthener of sin and destroyer of the soul then Scripture misapplyed Wordly delights and the deceiving words of sinners may harden men most desperately in an unsafe way But Scripture misapplied will do it far more effectually and dangerously 3. It will keep a man from compassionating his own soul. Though he be a sad object of pity to every understanding man that beholdeth him yet will he not be able to pity himself because he knoweth not his own misery As I have seen a Physician lament the case of his Patient when he hath discerned his certain death in some small beginning when the Patient himself feared nothing because he knew not the mortal nature of his disease So doth many a Minister or godly Christian lament the case of a carnal wretch who is so far from lamenting it himself that he scorns their pity and biddeth them be sorry for themselves they shall not answer for him and taketh them for his enemies because they tell him the truth of his danger As a man that seeth a beast going to the slaughter doth pity the poor creature when it cannot pity it self because it little thinketh that death is so neer So is it with these poor siners and all long of this mistaking their Spiritual state Is it not a pitiful sight to see a man laughing himself when his understanding friends stand weeping for his misery Paul mentioneth the voluptuous men of his time and the worldlings with weeping but we never read of their weeping for themselves Christ standeth weeping over Jerusalem when they know not of any evil that was towards them nor give him any thanks for his pity or his tears 4. It is in a case of greatest moment and therefore mistaking must needs be most dangerous If it were in making an ill bargain yet we might repair our loss in the next Scipio was wont to say It was an unseemly absurd thing in Military cases to say I had not thought or I was not aware The matter being of so great concernment every danger should be thought of that you may be aware Sure in this weighty case where our everlasting Salvation or
doth lye upon you You that neglect this important work and talk to your Families of nothing but the world I tell you the bloud of souls lyes on you make as light of it as you will if you repent not and amend the Lord will shortly call you to an account for your guiltiness of your childrens everlasting undoing and then you that could finde in your hearts to neglect the souls of your own children will be judged more barbarous then the Irish or Turks that kill the children of others 8. Consider also what a world of sorrows do you prepare for your selves by the neglect of your children First You can expect no other but that they should be thorns in your very eyes and you may thank your selves if they prove so seeing they are thorns of your own planting Secondly If you should repent of this your negligence and be saved your selves yet is it nothing to you to think of the damnation of your children You know God hath said That except they be born again they shall not enter into the Kingdom of God Methinks then it should be a heart-breaking to all you that have unregenerate children Methinks you should weep over them every time you look them in the face to remember that they are in the way to eternal fire Some people would lament the fate of their children if but a Wizard should foretel them some ill fortune to befall them and do you not regard it when the Living God shall tell you That the wicked shall be turned into hell and all they that forget God Psal. 9.17 Thirdly Yet all this were not so doleful to you if it were a thing that you had no hand in or could do nothing to help but to think that all this is much long of you that ever your negligence should bring your childe to these everlasting torments which the very damned man Luke 16. would have had his brethren been warned to escape if this seem light to thee thou hast the heart of a hellish Fiend in thee and not of a man Fourthly But yet worse then all this will it prove to you if you die in this sin for then you shall be miserable as well as they and O what a greeting will there be then between ungodly Parents and children what a hearing will it be to your tormented souls to hear your children cry out against you All this that we suffer was long of you you should have taught us better and did not you should have restrained us from sin and corrected us but you did not what an addition will such out-cries be to your misery 9. On the other side do but think with your selves what a world of comfort you may have if you be faithful in this duty First If you should not succeed yet you have freed your own souls and though it be sad yet not so sad for you may have peace in your own consciences Secondly But if you do succeed the comfort is unexpressible For first Godly children will be truly loving to your selves that are their Parents when a little riches or matters of this world will oft make ungodly children to cast off their very natural affection secondly Godly children will be most obedient to you They dare not disobey and provoke you because of the command of God except you should command them that which is unlawful and then they must obey God rather then men thirdly And if you should fall into want they would be most faithful in relieving you as knowing they are tied by a double bond of Nature and of Grace fourthly And they will also be helpers to your souls and to your spiritual comforts they will be delighting you with the mention of heaven and with all holy conference and actions when wicked children will be grieving you with cursing and swearing or drunkenness or disobedience fifthly Yea when you are in trouble or sickness and at death your godly children will be at hand to advise and to support you they will strive with God in prayers for you O what a comfort is it to a Parent to have a childe that hath the Spirit of Prayer and interest in God how much good may they do you by their importunity with God And what a sadness is it to have children that when you lye sick can do no more but ask you how you do and look on you in your misery sixthly Yea all your Family may fare the better for one childe or servant that feareth God yea perhaps all the Town where he liveth As Josephs case proveth and Jacobs and many the like when one wicked childe may bring a Judgment oâ— your house seventhly And if God make you instruments of your childrens conversion you will have a share in all the good that they do through their lives all the good they do to their brethren or to the Church of God and all the honor they bring to God will redound to your happiness as having been instruments of it eighthly And what a comfort may it be to you all your lives to think that you shall live with them for ever with God ninthly But the greatest joy will be when you come to the possession of this and you shall say Here am I and the children thou hast given me And are not all these comforts enough to perswade you to this duty 10. Consider further That the very welfare of Church and State lyeth mainly on this duty of well educating children and without this all other means are like to be far less successful I seriously profess to you that I verily think all the sins and miseries of the Land may acknowledg this sin for their great Nurse and Propagator O what happy Churches might we have if Parents did their duties to their children then we need not exclude so many for ignorance or scandal nor have our Churches composed of members so rude then might we spare most of the quarrels about Discipline Reformation Toleration and Separation any reasonable government would do better with a well-taught people then the best will do with the ungodly It is not good Laws and Orders that will reform us if the men be not good and Reformation begin not at home when children go wicked from the hands of their Parents thence some come such to the Universities and so we come to have an ungodly Ministry and in every profession they bring this fruit of their Education with them when Gentlemen teach their children onely to Hunt and Hawk and game and deride the godly what Magistrates and what Parliaments and so what Government and what a Commonwealth are we like to have when all must be guided by such as these some perverse inconsiderate persons lay the blame of all this on the Ministers that people of all sorts are so ignorant and profane as if one man can do the work of many hundreds I beseech you that are Masters and Parents do your own duties and free Ministers from these
lest they should be thought proud As if a Schoolmaster should let his Scholars do what their list or a Pilot let the Seamen run the Ship whither they will for fear of being thought proud in exercising their authoritie Secondly But a far greater clog then this yet doth lie upon the Ministers which â—ew take notice of and that is The fewness of Ministers and the greatness of Congregations In the Apostles times every Church had a multitude of Ministers and so it must be again or we shall never come neer that Primitive patern and then they could preach publikely and from house to house But now when there is but one or two Ministers to many thousand souls we cannot so much as know them much less teach them one by one It is as much as we can do to discharge the publike Work So that you see you have little reason to cast your Work on the Ministers but should the more help them by your diligence in your several families because they are already so over burdened SECT XIV 3. BUt some will say We are poor men and must labor for our living and so must our children and cannot have while to teach them the Scriptures we have somewhat else for them to do Answ. And are not poor men subject to God as well as rich and are they not Christians and must they not give account of their ways and have not your children souls to save or lose as well as the rich cannot you have while to speak to them as they are at their work have you not time to instruct them on the Lords day you can finde time to talk idlely as poor as you are and you can finde no time to talk of the way to Life you can finde time on the Lords day for your children to play or walk or talk in the streets but no time to minde the life to come Me thinks you should rather say to your children I have no Lands or Lordships to leave you nothing but hard labor and povertie in the world you have no hope of great matters here be sure therefore to make the Lord your portion and to get interest in Christ that you may be happy hereafter if you could get riches they would shortly leave you but the riches of Grace and Glory will be everlasting Me thinks you should say as Peter Silver and gold I have none but such as I have I give you The Kingdoms of the world cannot be had by beggers but the Kingdom of Heaven may O what a terrible reckoning will many poor men have when Christ shall plead his cause and judg them May not he say I made the way to worldly honors unaccessible to you that you might not look after it for your selves or your children but Heaven I set open that you might have nothing to discourage you I confined riches and honors to a few but my Blood and Salvation I offered to all that none might say I was not invited I tendered Heaven to the poor as well as the rich I made no exception against the meanest begger that did not wilfully shut out themselves Why then did you not come your selves and bring your children and teach them the way to the eternal Inheritance Do you say you were poor Why I did not set Heaven to sale for money but I called those that had nothing to take it freely onely on condition they would take me for their Saviour and Lord and give up themselves unfeignedly to me in obedience and love What can you answer Christ when he shall thus convince you Is it not enough that your children are poor and miserable here but you would have them be worse for everlasting too If your children were beggers yet if they were such beggers as Lazarus they may be conveyed by Angels into the presence of God But beleeve it as God will save no man because he is a Gentleman so will be save no man because he is a begger God hath so ordered it in his providence that riches are exceeding occasions of mens damnation and will you think poverty a sufficient excuse The hardest point in all our work is to be weaned from the world and in love with heaven and if you will not be weaned from it that have nothing in it but labor and sorrow you have no excuse The poor cannot have while and the rich will not have while or they are ashamed to be so forward the young think it too soon and the old too late and thus most men in stead of being saved have somewhat to say against their salvation and when Christ sendeth to invite them they say I pray thee have me excused O unworthy guests of such a blessed feast and most worthy to be turned into the everlasting burnings SECT XV. 4. BUt some will object We have been brought up in ignorance our selves and therefore we are unable to teach your children Answer Indeed this is the very sore of the Land But is it not pitty that men should so receive their destruction by tradition would you have this course to go on thus still 〈◊〉 parents did not teach you and therefore you cannot teach your children and therefore they cannot teach theirs By this course the knowledge of God should be banished out of the world and never be recovered But if your parents did not teach you why did not you learn when you came to age The truth is you had no hearts to it for he that hath not knowledge cannot value it or love it But yet though you have greatly sinned it is not too late if you will but follow my faithful advice in these 4. points 1. Get your hearts deeply sensible of your own sin and misery because of this long time which you have spent in ignorance and neglect Bethink your selves sometime when you are alone Did not God make you and sustain you for his service should not he have had the youth and strength of your spirits Did you live all this while at the door of Eternity What if you had dyed in ignorance Where had you been then What a deale of time have you spent to little purpose Your life is near done and your work all undone You are ready to dye before you have learned to live Should not God have had a better share of your lives and your souls been more sadly regarded and provided for In the midst of these thoughts cast down your selves in sorrow as at the feet of Christ bewaâ—â— your folly beg pardon recovering grace 2. Then think as sadly how you have wronged your children If an unthrift that hath sold all his lands will lament it for his childrens sake as well as his own much more should you 3. Next set presently to work and learn your selves If you can read do if you cannot get some that can and be much among those that will instruct and help you be not ashamed to be seen among learners though it