To what end and purpose they are serviceable and much more Of what many who profess Christianity can give but a slender account Philip of Macedon Quintus Curtius Supplem 1. cap. having found the benefit of good education himself was careful to provide the best tutors for Alexander his son especially Aristotle by whose care and industry he was so well improved that it grew into question whether Alexander owed more to Philip who begat him or to Aristotle who taught him The Persians were exceeding exact in teaching their children betimes Xenoph. de inst Cyr. in princip they labored to prepossess their minds with good things before they were poisoned with evil as being rather desirous to see them do what was good then to punish them for doing amiss Nay the very Turks themselves are exceeding careful of training up their youth Grand Signor Seraglio pub by Mr. J. Greaves p. 70 71. those especially that are to be for the more immediate service of the grand Seigneur The course that is taken with them so soon as they come into the Seraglio is admirable and nothing resembling the barbarism of Turks but beseeming men of singular vertue and discipline for they are exceeding well tutored and daily taught as well good fashion and comely behavior as they are instructed in the rites and ceremonies of the Mahometan Law and whatsoever else may tend to the enriching of their minds What will such Christians be able to answer for themselves at the day of Judgement for their neglect of this duty wherein they see themselves out-done by the purblind Heathen I come now to the second Branch of the Exhortation which is to children and servants to submit themselves to discipline and to be willing to learn that which conduceth to their souls health And that they may more cheerfully yeeld up themselves to publick and private instruction I beseech them by the mercies of God to consider Sect. 1. Your eternal salvation depends upon your knowledge of and faith in Christ what ways God hath for those who dye in their infancy we shall not be curious to inquire much less confident to determine But for such as are come to the use of reason and to years of discretion he saves none but such as can and do act faith in Christ Hos 4.6 How can you believe on him whom you do not know Want of knowledge is destructive to yong as well as to old If you reject knowledge he will also reject you Either you have Parents that put you forward or they do not if they do you are bound to obey your Parents in the Lord for this is good and right Eph. 6.1 Disobedience to Parents in things which they command agreeable to the mind of God is direct disobedience to God himself If they be backward in their duty be not you backward in yours Your souls are your own and you must give an account to God for them God will require your bloud if you dye for want of instruction at your Parents hands but you shall perish in your sins Hell torments will not be a jot the easier to you because you come into them through your Parents fault If they be careless of your eternal welfare you had need to double your diligence to make your calling and election sure You are put to your shifts to provide for your selves in your greatest concernment you must take the more pains Are you so inconsiderable that your souls are not worth the saving why of such is the kingdome of God Sect 2. You were engaged hereunto by Baptisme your Baptismal Covenant engages you to learn all things belonging to your souls health You were baptized into the name of the Father the Son and the holy Ghost and will you always be ignorant who and what that Father Son and holy Ghost are And what each of them doth toward the promoting of your eternal welfare Will you grow old in the ignorance of that ordinance which you received so yong and render it fruitless You then renounced the world the flesh and the devil Repete quid interrogatus sis recognosce quid responderis tenetur vox tua in libro viventium presentibus Angelis locutus es Amb. de initiand c. 2. and were dedicated unto Christ What will you live and dye in the ignorance of him into whose warfare you have engaged your selves Remember what was askt you remember what you promised what stipulation and covenant was made that day between God and your souls Your words were spoken in the presence of Angels and they are recorded in Heaven If the children of Israel would be asking their Parents what was the meaning of Circumcision and the Paschal Lamb those Sacraments under the Law is it commendable for you to spend all your days and never inquire what is the end use nature of Baptisme and the Lords Supper the Sacraments under the Gospel I beseech you consider the vows of God are upon you Sect. 3. You have no assurance of your lives but may be quickly taken away and have no long time to learn What will become of you if you are called to an account before you have learned what to plead for your Justification I have heard of a young man who being desirous to be instructed in Moral Philosophy which is the Doctrine of living well was disswaded from it he was told he was too young in the flower and prime of his youth to which such harsh rules were no way suitable he might apply himself to that hereafter O! but saith he what if I dye before I be elder what will become of me then Think seriously on this the Charnel house hath as many little Skuls as great ones in it there are as many young as old carried out to burying We often see as the Proverb is the old Camel carry the young Camels skin to market Parents doing that office for their Children which in the course of Nature might be expected from the Children to their Parents If you were sure of long life yet it were no wisdom to put off this work to old age you will be then harder to learn your avocations more your hindrances greater Besides you must not put off sowing your seed until it be time to reap Since your time is uncertain work while it is to day neglect not your season Sect. 4. You have much to do in a little time Ars longa vita brevis our life is but short but our lesson is long and difficult A Christians task is never at an end so long as he lives he will have something to learn or to learn better There be many things necessary to make the man of God perfect throughly furnished unto every good work The sum of Christian Religion though it may be drawn into a short Catechism yet 't is of large extent Every Article requires an age to know it throughly As there are many things to be known so many of them are
What if thy child come not to be great nor rich in this world yet he may be an honest gracious man and rich toward God but if thou sufferest him to live in ignorance of Religion whatever thou providest for him else in the end he will be most miserable Poor Lazarus would not change skins though it were full of sores with rich Dives Verily our extraordinary diligence in making temporal provision for our children will rise in judgement against us for our utter neglect of their eternal welfare Sect. 7. This is the fittest season to instil knowledge into them before their hearts be corrupted with the pleasures or insnared with the profits of this world If you suffer those things to preingage them it will be a harder matter to make them unlearn evil then it would have been to have made them learn that which was good before While they are young their memories are best their appetites are strongest their affections keen and eager they are now apter to learn and to take any impression you shall set upon them now they must be followed close Pers Sat. 3. v. Casaub Plato 2. de legibus Vdum molle lutum es Nunc nunc properand c. As age grows on they will be more hard to learn They are now of an active disposition they find themselves employed in something If you employ them not in what is good they will employ themselves in what is bad Good things are as easily learnt as bad were they but as diligently taught a Catechise as easily learned as a Ballad or a tale of Robin Hood Whatsoever you would have your children excellent in teach it them betimes Heyl. Geog. in Russia In Russia they train up their children to shooting in their minority and give them nothing to eat till they can hit a white that is set before them The Baleant give them no meat Flor. hist l. 3. c. 8. but what they can kill with their sling Cibum puer à Matre non accipit nisi quem ipsâ monstrante percussit time and use makes them Masters of their Art Much may be done with children ere we think fit to trouble them with such things They can learn to swear and to prophane the Sabbath why might they not as well be taught to read to be catechised to learn some choice Scriptures by heart I have heard of that Noble Lady the now Lady Packington daughter of the Lord Keeper Coventry that in her minority she was tyed by the strictness of her education to learn daily such a proportion of Scripture by heart before she should eat a bit of bread by which custome and assiduity she became in a short time so perfect in the Scripture that she had a great part of the Old Testament and all the New so perfectly by heart that she could repeat any chapter backward or forward tell you any particular verse or words where they were what went before and what followed after Indeed she was a living Concordance the very Prodigy of Memory whose excellencies in these attainments are almost beyond the belief of any but of those who have seen or heard her examined Husbandmen know that they must not expect a good crop unless they sow in a right season Youth is the time to have the seeds of grace and godliness sown else there 's little hope of a good and a holy life Sect. 8. Children are the seed-plot of the Church and Common-wealth those who are now children will soon grow up to be men of action both in things concerning God and their countrey Such as they are when they cease to be children such they will be when they begin to be men Those who spend their youth in ignorance idleness naughtiness what can you expect from them when they become men but to grow from bad to worse As youth leaves them manhood finds them good if good if bad stark naught What impressions are put upon wax when it is melted you shall find upon it when it is hardned What you write upon white paper sticks there What savor your vessels have when they are new they retain when they are old What good you infuse into youth it will relish on when it is ripened into age The wise man gives counsel like himself Train up or catechize a child in the way that he should go Prov. 22.6 and in his age he will noâ— depart from it It should be something to us to consider what posterity we are like to leave behind us and that we may labour to make the generation to come happier then this by giving our children better instruction then perhaps we have had Pythagoras was wont to say Lilius Gyrald â—ymb Pythanum propter opes that the main end of our begetting and bringing forth children should beâ— that we might leave those behind us who may serve God in their generation When we consider the trouble and miseries which our eyes have seen we are ready to wish and hope that our children may see better times Good men will make good times Time is in it self nor good nor evil but as the persons are who live in them Do your duty and you may much promote your own desires Labour to make them more knowing men and more obedient to God and that will make better men and better men will make better times Sect. 9. This will enable them to profit by the Sermons which they hear And the want of this is one main ground of that strange non-proficiency amongst men that live even under powerful Ministers God hath been exceedingly gracious in giving his word a free passage which is by many men set on with a great deal of power and life yet many even of such complain in the bitterness of their souls and say Lord who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed In many such places there 's but little good done and this I conceive amongst others is not the smallest cause that they who come to hear the Word Preached are in no measure prepared thereunto by understanding the Principles of Religion If they understood beforehand what Justification Sanctification Adoption c. were what the covenant of works and the covenant of grace were then they would be able to go along with us in what we say But being so arrantly ignorant of Fundamental necessary truths we only speak into the air they give us the hearing and they depart no wiser then they came A man would wonder else what shift many men could make to remain so ignorant who are like the Ectones Heyl. Geo. in Lyvon the original inhabitants of Poland who are diligent frequenters of the Churches but so extreamly ignorant that hardly one in a Village can say his Pater Noster Should any of you hear a man make a learned Discourse concerning any point in Geometry Arithmetick c. you might admire what you did not understand but if you were
Professors whilst accurate Catechising of all sorts of people which did so much good in the * Cognitio scientia Christi Evangelii olim Christiano populo multo perspectior fuit quà m hodie Id. ut supra Primitive times is so generally neglected Sect. 8. You cannot with any colour of reason expect to be made partakers of the sealing Ordinances without knowledge this is one main thing wherein the trial of your fitness is to be made whether or no you discern the Lords body If you eat and drink without knowledge you eat it undiscerningly 〈◊〉 if you eat undiscerningly you eat unworthily and if you eat unworthily 1 Cor. 11. you eat and drink your own damnation In the Synod of Dort it was thought fit that all that brought their children to baptism Non admittitur testis Baptismi c. should give an account of their faith and knowledg before their children were baptized and that none should be a witness at the baptizing of an Infant who were not first examined concerning the nature of that Sacrament and the Office and Duty of a Witness And for the Sacrament of the Lords Supper they judge that none should be admitted to it but those who first make a publique profession of their Faith before the whole Congregation Ad coenae Dominicae usum nemo admittetur nisi qui Doctrinam Chatecheticam probe teneat fidei suae rationem coram totâ Ecclâ—siâ publice reddat Judic Hassio Theol Our Liturgy enjoyned not onely Parents and Masters to cause their Children Servants and Apprentices to attend dâ—ligently and obediently upon publique Catechizing until they had learned the Catechism appointed Rubrick for Confirm but also strictly forbids to admit any to the Commuâ—ion until such time as they could say the Catechism and were confirmed Ignorance as well as scandal was ever reckoned a bar sufficient to keep from the Sacrament Sect. 9. Ministers are to take care of all the flock Act. 20.28 over which God hath made them overseers Elder people are either members of the several flocks or no if not then these are as sheep without a shepheard if so then they are not to exempt themselves from that care which we are obliged to take of the whole flock The sheep which withdraw themselves from their shepheards care are manifestly exposed to the worrying of the ravening Wolf Sect. 10 Ministers are to give an account to God for their people Heb. 13.27 which when I seriously consider I profess my sinews are loosened and my joynts tremble to think what an account we have to make to God I have sometimes wondered at the self-denying modesty of those times when Gregoryâ— Nazieneâ— Ambrose In their Lives printed before their Works and others being called to be Bishops hid themselves and fled away from such high imployment But when I sadly consider the weight of the Ministerial imployment and the account that must be given to God for the flock I wonder that more do not flie from it And if they must give an account to God for you it is but reasonable that they take an account of you God hath made us Stewards in his house it is a great honor but withal a great trust If a Noble man will exact an account of all the business of his family at his Stewards hands it must be necessarily implied that others shall give up their account to him else how shall he be accountable to his Lord If we must be called to an account for your proficiency we may justly call you to an account about it O that you would help us to give up our account that we may do it with joy and not with grief for that will be unprofitable for you 1 Thess 2.19 A thriving people are here a Ministers crown and joy and will be much more so when he is to give up his account in the day of Jesus Christ What a comfort will it be when God calls a Minister to reckoning for his imployment if he can bring with him many precious souls which he hath by his Ministery converted strengthened confirmed and can say in the language of the great Shepheard of our fouls Behold here am I Isa 8.18 and the children which the Lord hath given me When God shall ask him as Esau did Jacob Gen. 33.5 Who are these with thee he can chearfully answer as Jacob did These are the children that God hath graciously given to thy servant in the exercise of his Ministery On the other hand what a grief will it be to a Minister when God shall call him to an account of his employment that in the bitterness of his spirit he must return such an answer as this Lord I have preached in vain I have labored in vain I have stretched out my hands all my life long to a rebellious people I have spoken to them the great things of thy Law but they have accounted them a vain thing I would have healed them and they would not be healed I would have gathered them and they would not be gathered I have piped to them and they have not danced I have mourned for them but they have not wept I have laid thy Law before them but they have not trembled I have preached the Gospel to them but they have not beleived Lord thou knowest how I have daily bended my knees to thee in prayer for them I have spent my strength and time in preaching to them I have watched for them when they slept and labored night and day to bring them to the knowledge of Jesus Christ I would have instructed them but they would not learn but they have continued proud and peevish and stubborn and ignorant and refuse instruction Good friends take heed and be well advised such an account would neither be to a Ministers comfort nor to a peoples profit Sect. 11. The concurrent consent of all Protestant Divines Synod of Dort ses 15. not onely singly considered and dispersed which would be too tedious to recite but as united into one body in the most considerable Assembly that hath been of the Protestants since the Reformation Where though some thought it would be a difficult work to bring antient people to be publickly catechized especially in the first setting this unusual work on foot unless they would voluntarily submit themselves thereunto yet they all agree in this that Parents and Masters ought to be constantly present at the publique Catechizing their Children and Families that so they may the better take notice of their proficiency and know how either to encourage or reprehend them accordingly and be hereby the better inabled to teach them themselves in private And further that they ought to submit themselves to trial if not publique as some noble persons had done to the great advantage of the Church of God yet that they would be content to learn in private which is all that we now press and which they all