3. I shall give you several instances for the confirmation of it 1. I shall only give you two main Characters of godly Parents First They are conscienciously careful for their preservation Secondly For the Eternal happiness and salvation of their Children 1. They are conscienciously careful for the preservation of the natural lives of their Children as trees support and feed the branches that grow out of themselves And as it 's natural to the brutes to defend and keep their own young so nature it self teacheth and inclineth Parents to defend and preserve and provide for the fruit of their own bodies and for this end to supply them with food raiment and physick and to fit them for callings and seasonably to provide for them meet yokefellows and every way to take care that they neither perish or be made miserable but godly Parents in whom natural affections are sanctified and improved by Grace do all these out of a principle of Godliness as persons who have to do with God herein they do it in a sense of their dependance on God and pray for daily bread to feed their Children and are thankful when they feel it come warm from their Father in Heaven they do it in obedience and faithfulness to God and with a design that their Children may live to be born of God and to be a blessing to this world and be blessed in the other world As for those unnatural monsters who feed their lusts with that which should maintain their Children they are so far from being Godly Parents that they are worse than Infidels in not providing for their Families and are like the Devil who as I said is a Murderer of his own Children 2. They are conscienciously careful for the Eternal happiness and salvation of their Children for their natural affections being now sanctified do work in them for the spiritual good and happiness of their Children Prov. 4.3 4 5. I was my fathers son tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother Solomon was his fathers and mothers darling their love did run out exceedingly upon this son and he tells us which way their love and kindness was express'd he taught me also and said unto me Get wisdom get understanding He tells us also how the affections of his good mother did work Prov. 31.2 3. What my son and what the son of my womb and what the son of my vows The son of her womb was the son of her vows whom she had devoted to God those Parents who have known both states the state of Wrath and the state of Grace and have experimentally felt what it is to pass from death to life and from the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God cannot but desire that the same change be wrought upon their children And as they who love themselves with a holy love do take God for their eternal life and happiness and Christ for their Redeemer to redeem them from all evil and to bring them to this happiness and the Spirit for their Sanctifier to fit them for this happiness So they that love their children with this holy Love will desire and endeavour that they be partakers with them of the same happiness 2. I proceed to give you three Characters of ungodly Children 1. They are such Children as will not be subject to the authority of their Parents The reverence of Children to their Parents is so incorporated into the whole body of Religion that all Religion is in vain without it this fully appears Levit. 19.3 Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father and keep my sabbaths I am the Lord your God Observe this duty is here joyn'd with keeping the Lords Sabbaths wherein Religion did always very much consist but it 's often seen that disobedient children are great prophaners of the Lords-day they are always bad but usually worst on that day and some of them may remember that their first breaking out into scandalous sins was on the Lords-day We are here further taught That this duty of Reverence to Parents is joyn'd with all Religion to God for saith God in effect it 's in vain for any to pretend to call me their Lord and their God if they do not fear their Parents and theresore wicked children are numbred among the most flagitious and worst sinners Ezek. 22.7 In thee have they set light by father and mother they villified and despised them and made nothing of them such break all the bonds of Religion and many hasten through a shameful and untimely death into a dreadful and tormenting eternity whose wickedness first began in scorning and despising their Parents 2. They are such children as will not obey the Commands of their Parents The godly Commands of Parents are the means which God hath appointed and doth often bless to make the children godly Gen. 18.19 I know Abraham 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 and God commands all children to obey all the holy and lawful commands of their parents Ephes 6.1 Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right It 's the parents right that their children should obey them and it 's Gods right that they should obey them in the Lord and this saith the Apostle Col. 3.21 is well-pleasing to the Lord so that those children do neither fear provoking God nor care to please him who will not obey their parents and so are children of their parents sorrow and of Gods wrath 3. They are such children as are unthankful to their parents the Apostle tells us 1 Tim. 5.4 That it is good and acceptable before God for children to requite their parents and they have great things for which they should labour to requite their godly parents viz. for all their care and cost and pains to keep them alive and for all their diligence and faithfulness in endeavouring to make them blessed and all the requital which the poor parents desire is that their children would but love and obey God and not damn themselves but these ungodly children are so far from requiting them that like so many Dogs and Lyons they tear in pieces the hearts and bowels of their tender parents 3. I now come to confirm this That it 's ordinary for godly parents to have ungodly children and for this end I shall first give you some instances recorded in Scripture 2dly I shall instance in several cases wherein this is verified 1. I shall only give you four instances recorded in Scripture for the confirmation hereof 1. Instance is in Adam and Eve these were both godly parents and therefore in that first Evangelical promise Gen. 3.15 we have notice of the two great parties in the world the one was the Woman and her seed and the other the Serpent and his seed and of the enmity betwixt them and though there is only mention made of the woman yet the man
come to repent with the damned in hell and with the devils to believe and tremble For this end I shall 1. Endeavour to convince you of your Folly 2. Direct you how to attain true Wisdom First I shall endeavour to convince you of your Folly ye see the Text calls a wicked son a foolish son God who knows you best and hath a true judgment of you calls you fools and would have all the world to be of the same judgment with himself and therefore to account you fools and ye will at last call your selves fools when ye come to have the portion of fools and except ye judge your selves fools ye cannot be wise And that ye may as in a glass see your own folly I shall propound to you these five Questions and as God said to Job so do I in his name say to you Job 38.3 Gird up your loins like men I will demand of you and answer ye me 1. Are ye not very fools in that ye do in your hearts and lives deny the being of God There are no worse fools than they that say in their hearts There is no God Psal 14.1 For such a one saith in effect that there is no Religion no Sin no Heaven nor Hell yea he saith that he himself is nothing and that there are neither Heavens nor Earth nor Seas nor Men nor Beasts nor any other creatures for if there be no God there can be nothing else so that ye have the name of fools written on your foreheads and as it 's said Eccles 10.3 Ye say to every man that ye are a company of fools 2. Are ye not fools to make such a foolish choice It is the infinite goodness of God that ye have life and death blessing and cursing set before you and that ye have a God and Christ and the Holy Spirit and the heavenly glory to chuse and ye have Beings capable to chuse them and may take them for your own and use them as your own every day and that ye are called and commanded to chuse them and have time and opportunity to chuse them and shall certainly have them if ye chuse them and yet these as Solomon speaks Prov. 17.16 are but as a price in the hands of a fool that hath no heart to it Consider there are two sorts of Affections in all humane creatures and all are wise or fools according as they set and place these there are affections of union as love desire and delight which do unite the heart to their objects and there are affections of opposition as hatred and anger which do separate the heart from their objects And are ye not monstrous fools in that ye hate and abhor God and your Redeemer in whom there are all reasons for your love and desires and joy and in that ye love and desire and delight in sin and the devil and death and hell in whom there are all reasons for the hatred and revenge of your souls To love those things which are altogether loathsome and and to hate what is altogether lovely is a plain argument of your madness and folly 3. Are ye not fools in suffering every thing to deceive you The Scripture tells you that the devil is a deceiver it tells you of the deceitfulness of your hearts of the deceitfulness of sin of the deceitfulness of riches of the deceitfulness of wine and strong drink of the deceitfulness of harlots who promise pleasure but prove a deep ditch and a narrow pit of the deceitfulness of a lying tongue which promiseth that lyes shall serve the lyars turn and do his work but proveth to be but for a moment of the deceitfulness of theft and unjust gain which seems sweet at present but soon after proves as gravel in the mouth and yet notwithstanding all the shame and rags and stings and torments of conscience which have come upon you by trusting in these yet ye will still believe them and suffer your selves by these deceivers to be cheated of God and Christ and of your souls and of your time and of heaven 4. Are ye not fools in being so set and bent to ruine and destroy your selves Prov. 18.7 A fools mouth is his own destruction and his lips are the snare of his soul Eccles 10.12 The lips of a fool shall swallow up himself ye are so bent on your own ruine that your hearts rise in anger and hatred against your good Parents and Ministers and all that labour to save you and ye account them your worst enemies who would not have you damn'd Miserable children allow your selves but one hours serious consideration of your eternal estate and ye will see reason to condemn your selves for a company of proud and ignorant fools in attempting to run down God and his Kingdom and Religion and in valuing your cups and lusts and lies at such a rate as for them to exchange the eternal life and happiness of your souls 5. Are ye not fools in not preparing for death and judgment which are ready to overtake you To convince you of this be inform'd That men are prepared for death and judgment who by faith and repentance and holiness are become heirs of the promises of the Gospel and so have a right unto and fitness for all that glory which in performance of these promises God will give them the possession at those great days but men are unprepared when they are under the wrath and curse of God and are condemned to those eternal torments which are threatned in the Scriptures and will at death and judgment be executed upon them Now prove your selves by these things and ye may then see what fools ye are in not preparing for these days for if ye were prepared ye should then enter into a world where all will love you God and and Christ and all Angels and all Saints will love you and ye will for ever be holy and blessed in their love to you and in your love to them but being unprepared ye must then be cast into a world where all will hate you and where you will hate all the holy and blessed God will there hate you and be a consuming fire against you the devils and all the damned in hell will hate you and you will hate them and we find that our Saviour brands him for a fool Luke 12.20 who promiseth to himself an easie and merry life for many years when that very night he was to lose his soul and he gives the character of foolish virgins Matth. 25.2 to those who were unprepared for that great and terrible and sudden cry The bridegroom is come go ye out to meet him Poor children let these common things be imprinted on your hearts Death is certain the day of death is as certainly appointed as was the day of your birth and as your birth kept its time so will your death keep its time ye cannot sin away death though ye sin away the sense of death Consider also
is also included so that by the woman and her seed we are to understand Adam and Eve and Christ and his Church and by the Serpent and his seed are meant the Devils and all the devils children and forasmuch as we find Adam and Eve of the same party with Christ and his Church and in enmity with the Devil and his seed we conclude them to be godly persons and godly parents Moreover we find Genes 4. that they brought up their children in that Religion and to worship God in the use of those Ordinances which he had then instituted as a means of their salvation these two were the first-fruits of Christ the first persons that ever entered into the Covenant of Grace and Christ might say to them as Jacob said to Reuben Gen. 49.3 Ye are my first-born my might and the beginning of my strength At first the whole Church of God was only in these two persons and yet these are the parents of that cursed and bloody Cain And I shall observe three things in this history that render this case very doleful 1. That Eve was so exceeding glad for the birth of Cain some are of opinion that she thought she had brought forth the promised Messiah and that made her break out with joy saying Gen. 4.1 I have gotten a man from the Lord and yet this is he of whom the Apostle speaks 1 John 3.12 He was of that wicked one meaning the devil This is a common case that parents are exceedingly glad for the birth of a child and call their friends and neighbours to rejoyce with them and yet that sweet and pleasant babe proves the greatest torment to their parents which ever they met with in their whole age 2. Consider his crime he barbarously murdered his own brother Gen. 4.8 Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him He considered not how this would grieve the heart of his good Father and Mother nor that he was the elder brother and therefore ought to have nourished the life of the younger and to have been a pattern of holiness and love to him neither did he consider that he hated and murder'd not only a brother but also a holy child of God and for that which he ought to have honoured and loved him because his brothers works were righteous and he considered not how his brothers blood would cry to God for vengeance against him no bonds or arguments or reasons will prevail with ungodly children 3. Consider the dreadful judgment of God both upon himself and his posterity Gods judgment on his soul was so dreadful that he desperately cries out Gen. 4.13 Mine ini quity is greater than that it may be forgiven he was cast out of the favour of God excommunicated from the Church and all his posterity were excluded from communion therewith they are call'd the sons and daughters of men in opposition to the Sons of God and at last all perished in the deluge of waters and yet I say this bloody and cursed monster was the son the eldest son of the two first godly parents that ever were in the world 2d Instance is in Noah the first instance was in the first godly man in the old world as the ages before the flood are called 2 Pet. 2.5 This instance is in the best man in the new World after the flood this Noah hath a great character in the Scriptures Gen. 6.8 9. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations When all the earth was debauch'd and corrupt Gen. 6.11 12. yet then was Noah just and upright and walked with God it 's he that is called in 2 Pet. 2.5 A preacher of righteousness It is he that was so much in the favour of God that he and his family were singled out to be preserved in the Ark when all the world besides were drown'd and perish'd in the waters yet this holy Noah was the Father of that wicked Ham whom all the waters of Noah as the Scripture calls that deluge were not effectual to eure of his wickedness but he went a wicked man into the Ark and came wicked out insomuch that his own holy Father was inspired by a prophetical spirit to curse both his son and posterity and the crime mentioned Gen. 9.22 25. was his irreverence and disrespect to his father 3d Instance is in Isaac that holy Patriarch who so greatly feared God that his son Jacob gives God that honourable name Gen. 31.42 The fear of Isaac meaning the God whom Isaac feared yet he and that good mother Rebekkah were the parents of a wicked Esau whom God is said to hate Rom. 9.13 I know we read Gen. 25.28 that Isaac loved Esau but we see that children may be greatly beloved of their parents and yet abhorred and cursed of God 4th Instance is in David call'd a man after Gods own heart whom God rais'd up to be king of Israel he was a Pen-man of a considerable part of the holy Scriptures such an eminent type of Christ that Christ himself is often call'd David in Scripture yet he was the tender father of that wicked Absolom who bloodily murdered his brother Amnon and miserably and shamefully dyed in Treason and Rebellion against his Royal Father whose bitter lamentation is yet in our ears 2 Sam. 18.33 O my son Absolom my son my son Absolom would God I had died for thee O Absolom my son my son 2dly I shall further instance in four Cases wherein this is often verified 1. Those Children who are most beloved of their parents do often prove the most wicked Children Absolom was David's darling insomuch that although he set his whole kingdom in a flame and constrained his father to fly for his life yet when David sent out his Army to suppress that rebellion he gives this charge to his Commanders in the audience of the Soldiers 2 Sam. 18.5 Deal gently for my sake with the young man even with Absolom And it often happens that the Children who have most of their Parents love and delight and whose looks and talk they are most taken with and whom they are most apt to boast of and are most unwilling to part with and in whom they promise themselves most content and pleasure do often prove the greatest scourge and torment to their parents for it is not the love of the godly parents but the love of God that makes children holy and happy 2. This is often the sad case of some holy Ministers of the Word I know it 's a Popish and peevish humour in some to say that Ministers children never do well indeed every thing of Ministers is most exposed to the observation of people and therefore the wickedness of their children is most observ'd and talk'd of but the holy learned and every-way prosperous and blessed seed of divers godly Ministers is sufficient to confute and shame the ignorance of people herein and yet it is true that many
jewels and treasure and children and heirs of God and the glorious bride and spouse of Christ they must and do judge their own wicked children to be a generation of vipers and serpents and dogs and swine and lyons and bears and wolves as God calls them in his Word 5. That the anger and displeasure of God appears so much against these good parents herein indeed the sense of their own folly must make them justifie God in this sharp correction and cause them to say with Solomon Prov. 26.3 As it is meet that there be a whip for the horse and a bridle for the asse so is it that there be a rod for the fools back But this is very grievous that God should correct them with a scourge made of their own bowels and should chasten a blessed father with a cursed child his holy anger must be acknowledged herein for when the child despiseth his father God himself doth justly spit in the fathers face 6. The shame and disgrace which comes to them hereby Prov. 19.26 He that wasteth his father and chaseth away his mother is a son that causeth shame Every one will be ready to reflect upon their parents and to say Surely these children were never taught to serve God who do so sacrifice themselves to the service of the devil 7. Both parents are deeply affected for the trouble and misery that comes hereby to one another their love to and sympathy with one another makes the burden of both more uneasie The good father is not only troubled with a wicked child but also for the bitterness and sorrow of his wife and the good mother is not only troubled with the wicked child but also for the grief of her husband the mothers heart bleeds to see the tears and to hear the groans of the afflicted father and cries out Oh what a child have I brought forth that so much deprives me of the comfort of a loving husband and is like to break his heart and to make me a desolate and disconsolate widow The father mourns to see the tears and the sad countenance and to hear the groans of the distressed mother and is ready to cry out Wo is me that the child of my bowels is destroying the wife of my bosom and yet these hard-hearted children are not affected herewith but let the parents sigh they will sing let the parents weep and mourn they will rant and roar and care no more to break their parents hearts than to break a Tobacco-pipe and will not abate a lie or oath or cup to save the lives of their tender parents Secondly The greatness of this calamity appears by the passions in the parents which are moved and affected hereby I shall only instance in three passions Fear Anger and Sorrow 1. Fear This is a troublesome passion and godly parents are never out of fear of their wicked children they are afraid that every one that knocks at the door and that every post and every friend that comes to visit them brings them some sad tidings of their disobedient children I shall amplifie this by instancing in three great Evils which such parents are greatly perplexed with the fear of 1. They are afraid lest their children are in the practice of some great sins this was Jobs fear when his children were feasting together Job 1.5 Job said It may be my sons have sinn'd and curs'd God in their hearts their children are seldom out of their sight but the good parents are in fear of this they know their children are always expos'd to the devils temptations and to the snares of the world and to the allurements of evil company and that their corrupt hearts are set to comply with all and that they have provoked God to give them up to their own lusts and therefore they are in continual fear lest these poor children are lying or swearing or cursing or whoring or drunk and defiling and debauching and destroying themselves and others 2. They are in fear lest some heavy judgment of God will befall them in this life And thus David when his son Absolom was in the head of a high rebellion against his father and the battel was to be fought with the Rebels was fearful lest his son should then perish in his sins these parents know that their poor children are out of Gods way and as birds wandring from the nest Prov. 27.8 are expos'd to all manner of danger they know what the word threatens against them and what fearful instances there are of the vengeance of God upon disobedient children and therefore they are in fear lest their sins should bring them to some untimely and shameful death 3. They are in fear of their eternal damnation they are sensible that their children are children of wrath and do live in those sins for which the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience and these parents believe what Hell is for as faith in the promises is the substance of things hoped for so faith as it believes the threatnings is the substance of things feared and therefore they cannot but tremble to think that their dear lambs whom they so tenderly nourish'd and cherish'd are in danger every moment to be cast into the fire that is prepared for devils 2. Anger is another passion that is moved in godly parents with the wickedness of their children and this is troublesome for a man is never out of trouble whilst he is in anger and the more the wills of these parents are bent to have their children godly the more are they displeas'd and provok'd to anger by their sins they are angry to see them provoke that God whom they themselves are so careful to please and to see them destroying their precious souls which they are labouring to save and to see them waste those estates on their filthy lusts which they have got by their care and labour and prayers they cannot but think of them with anger and speak of them with anger and look at them with anger and thus their children which should be their delight and pleasure are a continual cross and vexation to them 3. Sorrow They are deeply affected with grief and sorrow for the wickedness of their children the parents graces cause them to mourn for their childrens sins their saving-knowledge makes their hearts bleed to see their children scorn and despise that glory which they see in God and Christ and whilst they by faith are feeding on Christ it grieves them to see their children feeding themselves with the dirty pleasures of sin their love to God makes them groan that their children love sin the worst evil and hate God the chiefest good Thirdly I proceed to shew the greatness of this calamity by comparing it with other troubles and shewing how this exceeds them I shall instance in four other Troubles 1. This is a greater calamity than to be without Children so that if God had said of those Parents as he said of him Jer. 22.30
Ye deny his Power in daring to war against him and like those hectoring Atheists Job 15.25 26. Ye stretch out your hands against God and strengthen your selves against the Almighty ye run upon him even on his neck upon the thick bosses of his buckler as if ye were able to fight God and overcome the Almighty Ye deny his Holiness and think that God is altogether such a one as your selves Psal 50.21 And that ye may not be terrified by your enmity and unlikeness to him ye will please your selves in fancying that God is like you as if ye must rather be a pattern to him than he be a pattern to you and so ye will perswade your selves that he is the God of Atheists and Whoremongers and Drunkards and Lyars and Thieves and not the holy God of a holy people Ye deny the Truth of God one of the greatest and best truths that ever God spake to man is that 1 Joh. 5.11 God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son and yet herein ye would make him a liar in not believing this solemn record which he gave of Christ a liar is one of the worst characters of the devil and this ye give to the true and holy God These things I write as it were upon the brazen faces of all ungodly and disobedient children 2. Ye break the Covenant in refusing to take God for your God and happiness the greatest promise that ever God made to man is that Hebr. 8.10 I will be to you a God but this signifies nothing to you ye will not accept of him for your chief honour and treasure and joy it is no honour to you to have the great Jehovah for your Fâ—ther ye see no good in him and account not your selves the better for him and if ye lose him ye think ye lose nothing ye neither love nor desire him nor take any delight or pleasure in him 3. Ye have broken the Covenant in renouncing God the Father Son and Holy Ghost in whose Name ye were baptized your lives declare that ye had rather have the love of a debauch'd companion than the love of the Father of Jesus Christ ye despise the Lord Jesus and account the great price of redemption to be worth nothing and would rather keep your sins than be saved from them ye defie the wrath of God and scorn that the Mediator should make your peace with him ye resist the Holy Spirit and would rather be made filthy and wicked and be taught to lye and swear and steal than that the Spirit should teach you to love and serve and delight in God 4. Ye have broken the Covenant in taking part with the devil and the world and sin against the Father Son and Holy Ghost and this ye have done two ways 1. In believing the promises of the devil the world and sin and in not believing the promises of God the devil the world and sin are the three great cheats of mankind and they deceive men by making seemingly great and high promises and by these they have prevail'd with man to break both the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace the devil tempted our first parents not to believe that word of God which he gave them to deter and keep them from sin which word is written Gen. 2.17 In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye the devil tempted them to look on that word as a lye and makes them that great promise Genes 3.4 5. wherein he promiseth them that if they eat the forbidden fruit they shall not only be safe from all evil saying Ye shall not surely dye but that they shall also be preferr'd to greater happiness than God had then placed them in for saith he your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil and by believing this promise of the devil they brake the Covenant of Life and brought that deluge of sin and misery which came upon all mankind and since he prevail'd with men not to believe the word of God which he spake to keep them from sin and destruction now his work is to tempt them to make God a lyar in the word which he hath spoken to save them from sin and ruine by Jesus Christ and this is the word of the Covenant of Grace which promiseth eternal life and salvation to all that believe in Christ and repent of their sins and live the lives of new creatures according to the rules of the Gospel but the devil tempts men to break this Covenant by promising them life and all happiness in a course of sin and these wicked children believe the devil herein and bless themselves in their sins saying with those bold ranters Deut. 29.19 We shall have peace though we walk in the imagination of our own hearts to add drunkenness to thirst and thus ye break your Covenant with God and make a Covenant with Death and Hell 2. In obeying the devil the world and sin and in disobeying God ye call God your Father in heaven but ye do the lusts of the Devil your father in hell ye walk according to the course of this world Ephes 2.2 and are the servants of sin Rom. 6.20 and ye hate and fight against God your Maker and Redeemer and were it possible for you ye would every day kill him who only hath immortality And thus like a company of renegado's ye live as if ye were baptized in the name of the devil the world and the flesh to renounce the Father Son and Holy Ghost Secondly Ye have broken the Bonds of your duty to the Church of God ye were born members of the Church and subjects of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and by baptism were solemnly admitted into that great and holy and victorious and blessed society Hebr. 12.22 23. Mount Sion the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem the general assembly and Church of the first-born written in heaven but ye have forsaken this Church and turn'd your selves out of the family and house of the living God and are become of the same party with the devil and his seed and have laboured to fill the world with sin and the kingdom of Satan and ye would have Jesus Christ to have no Name or Kingdom or Ministers or Ordinances or People in the world Thirdly Ye have broken the Bonds of your duty to your parents This appears in that those black characters already given of wicked children are found on you whereunto I shall add this one which includes all the particulars of your disobedience which can be mention'd namely Ye do not love your parents for love worketh no evil unto but always willeth and seeketh the good of the beloved Love ever inclines persons to please them whom they love and to love and delight in their company and causeth such looks and words and behaviour as are expressions of love how pleasant hath it been sometimes to me to see as it were
the heart and soul of a child running out in his pleasant and loving looks to his parents but ye disobedient children do not love your parents but do them more hurt and cause them more sorrow than all the malicious enemies and persecutors they ever met with in the world ye are always vexing and crossing and provoking them and are as continual pricks in their eyes and thorns in their sides and had rather be with lyars and swearers and drunkards and with your wanton and idle companions than with your wise and grave and holy parents how merry and jovial are ye in the company of such who will joyn with you to serve the devil and dishonour God and destroy your souls but how uneasie and lumpish and sowre and discontent are ye in the presence of your parents your spiteful looks and sullen words and scornful carriage doth betray your hatred and anger and envy against your good parents Ah wicked wretches that ye cannot find in your hearts to love your parents from whom ye had your Beings under God and who have us'd all holy means to make you holy and blessed Lastly Ye have broken the Bonds of your duty to your other relations and to all men ye cannot be good brothers or sisters whil'st ye are such bloody children to your parents ye cannot be good servants or apprentices or good husbands or wives or good subjects to Magistrates whilst ye are bad children for the same sins that debauch you in that relation will debauch you in all and will make you an incumbrance to your place the troublers of the world and a very plague and curse to your generation 2. I shall now endeavour to convince you of your misery and oh that I had a heart and tongue to think and speak of this as the matter doth require Consider ye are cursed children Deut. 27.16 Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother and all the people shall say Amen Observe God himself doth here proclaim you cursed he only can curse or bless you having all curses and blessings at command and can set his love or pour out his wrath where he pleaseth he is able and faithful to fulfil his own threatnings and he knows you to be cursed for he knows all the children of his Grace and all the children of his Wrath. Observe further that all Gods Ministers are to pronounce you cursed vers 14. The Levites shall speak and say to all the men of Israel with a loud voice Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother The Ministers of God must with a loud voice as if they would ring in the years of all declare you to be cursed and I a Minister of the Gospel do hereby proclaim all wicked and disobedient children though some of them may be the fruit of my own body to be cursed Nay further all people yea your own selves are to judge you cursed and all the people shall say Amen They and you are to believe it and to approve of it as most just and righteous that ye be cursed But that I may convince you of your misery I shall further set before you these four things 1. Ye are out of the way of all good God hath his way of mercy and his way of wrath and ye are out of the way of his mercy for ye do not stand in the grace and love of God which causeth all good and are children of his wrath which causeth all misery and as I have told you ye have broken that Covenant which conveys all Grace and Mercy so that no good can come to you except ye turn to God and your parents 2. Ye are in the very way and road to all wickedness Many of the most horrid sins in the world first began in disobedience to parents and most of those who have proved Lyars Drunkards Whoremongers Thieves Murderers were first ungodly and disobedient children 3. Ye are in continual danger of some remarkable judgment of God in this life Exod. 21.17 He that curseth or revileth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death Prov. 20.20 Who so curseth his father or his mother his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness Your lamp of life and pleasure may seem to burn and shine at present but there is a black and dismal night hastening on all disobedient children Prov. 30.17 The eye that mocketh his father and despiseth to obey his mother the ravens of the valley shall pick it out and the young eagles shall eat it None are more like to pass into the eternal world through a shameful and untimely death than disobedient children when God leaves children to disobey their parents it 's a dreadful sign of their approaching ruine it 's recorded of Eli his sons 1 Sam. 2.25 That they hearkned not unto the voice of their father because the Lord would slay them 4. If ye go on in your course of disobedience ye will for ever be damn'd in Hell for I say ye have broken that Covenant which promiseth eternal life to all that believe and obey the Gospel and doth as certainly bind over to the wrath and vengeance of God all that live in disobedience to God and their parents Miserable children I have sent this poor little book to overtake you before the wrath and vengeance of God do overtake you I am not altogether a stranger to the terrors of the Lord but do know what is before you and what a meeting there will quickly be between God and you better than ye do and have laboured to affect my heart in seeing what lies at your door I know that whilst ye are following the chase of your filthy pleasures evil from God is hunting you and will find you out to destroy you and I dare not damn my own soul by not warning you of those sins which will be the damnation of yours Foolish boys and girls can now laugh at the hearing of death and hell and judgment to come and when Ministers sound the trumpet in their ears to give them warning of these things they can like the War-horse in Job say among the trumpets Aha for the devil tempts his children to make sport of those things at which he trembles himself but when I remember how I have seen in some of you your down-looks your pale-faces your shivering-limbs and as Job speaks of the Adulterer when he comes to be known Job 24.17 that ye have been as in the terrors of the shadow of death when your mortal parents have found you out in your sins I cannot but think how your countenances will fall and your stout spirits sink and your mettal fail when ye come to fall into the hands of the living God Lastly I come now to exhort and perswade you to abhor and forsake your sins that ye may escape this misery I would have you to repent and believe with the Saints of God that ye may be saved before ye