Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n
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A30267
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Advice to parents and children the sum of a few sermons contracted and published at the request of many pious hearers / by Daniel Burgess ...
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Burgess, Daniel, 1645-1713.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing B5692A; ESTC R4891
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23,990
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80
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It is required of Superiors according to that power they receive from God and that relation wherein they stand to love pray for and bless their Inferiors to instruct counsel and admonish them countenancing commending and rewarding such as do well discountenancing reproving and chastising such as do ill protecting and providing for them all things necessary for soul and body and by grave wise holy and exemplary carriage to procure Glory to God honour to themselves and so to preserve that Authority which God hath put upon them I will transcribe no more of our many Summaries But propose these particulars which I take to be comprehensive And such that God will judge all the neglecters of and not hold them guiltless however full they be of excuses Knowing the Terror of the Lord I thus instruct and perswade every Christian Parent 1. Be Exemplary in Vniversal Duty Ill Example is the rankest Poyson in the World Parents ill Example is the worst that Children can have I know not what God hath forbid or required if he forbids not ill and requires not good Example Good Example for Duty foresaid Wouldst be a good Parent Thou canst not till thou dost understandly affectionately and practically keep the Gospel-Covenant Owning the Engagement of thy Holy Baptism renewing it at the Lords Supper observing it in all thy ways towards God other Men and thy self You that do not this ye bid your Children not to do it In practice ye bid ' em And ye who bid them not to do this ye bid them virtually be Atheists and Devils and Rebels to God and to your selves As little as ye think of it this ye do God and Godly Men count you so to do Parents Parents con ye well Job 22 21 22 23. Job is advised to Acquaint himself with God to receive and lay up God's Word in his Heart to return unto the Almighty that is to do all I have here foresaid And for his encouragement he is then told his relative Duties will come on with their Blessings He shall be built up that is he shall have more Children And he shall put away Iniquity far from his Tabernacles that is he shall be a good Father and Master and remove the Iniquity of his Children and Servants and promote Family-Godliness Which without that course prescribed he could not expect to do Preceptive Teaching alone is a little more than a Cypher 't is practical Teaching is the Figure The Language that God binds Parents and all Teachers to use is this Come with me unto this and that Duty Fly with me from this and that Sin Mourn with me for this and that Omission and Commission sinful Delight with me in this and that Holy Service And be it written on all our Walls They that are not Patterns to their Children be plagues to their Children They who give them not good Example give them nothing good at least nothing like to do them good For a grain of bad Example doth an hundred times more hurt than a pound of good Counsel ordinarily doth good 2. Be as full of prayer as St. Austin's Mother That Holy Creature got her Son and her Husband Converted by her Prayer But not by slight and sleepy Prayer Think of this Parents As their greatest Wickedness makes not Prayer hopeless so your greatest Sanctity makes not Prayer useless Our Redeemer whose Obedience is Meritorious he himself asks before God gives Nor will God give till in his Name ye ask Ordinarily he will not But if ye ask not amiss ye can never miss of what ye ask And I will be allowed to say Prayer for our Children is that Duty to them without which we can discharge none We must be joyned to God in the Covenant of Grace before we can rightly Pray And we must Pray before we can expect to benefit our selves or our Children by any means possible Gen. 17.18 20. Abraham prayed for Ishmael and that warmly And what says the Text God said and as for Ishmael I have heard thee behold I have blessed him and will make him Fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly twelve Princes shall he beget and I will make him a great Nation David prayed hard for Solomon his Son O Lord God of Abraham Isaac and of Israel our Fathers give to Solomon my Son a perfect heart to keep thy Commandments and thy Statutes 1 Chron. 22 12 1 Chron. 29 18 19. The seventy second Psalm is David's Prayer for his Solomon Parents Of all things be not niggardly of your prayers for your Children Rather deny them Victuals and Drink For many can give them both that cannot put up prayers for them And the same may be said of the will as of the power of most I know few do think it but 't is true a stock of prayers is a richer Child portion than a stock of broad Gold 3. Be Catechizers through the whole compass of the words of Eternal Life Suffer not thy Child to say there is one Truth or one Grace or one Duty necessary to Salvation that thou knewest but never taughtest him Who ever doubted but if a Man had a blind Child he was bound to use all the likely means he could come by to recover it's sight I am very confident that Adam Seth Noah and Sem were all Catechisers From the Cradle the Church was still kept up by Catechising Of Abraham God speaks plainly Gen. 18. 19. For I know him that he will command his Children and his household after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do Justice and Judgment that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him David and Bathsheba too Catechised Solomon soundly 1 Kings 2.2 3. I go the way of all the Earth be thou strong therefore and shew thy self a Man And keep the charge of the Lord thy God to walk in his ways to keep his Statutes and his Commandments and his Judgments and his Testimonies as it is written in the Law of Moses that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest and whithersoever thou turnest thy self 1 Chron. 28.9 And thou Solomon my Son know thou the God of thy Father and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind for the Lord searcheth all hearts and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts if thou seek him he will be found of thee but if thou forsake him he will cast thee off for ever Prov. 31.1 The words of King Lemuel the prophesie that his mother taught him Lois and Eunice are praised on this account 2 Tim. 1.5 3 15. When I call to remembrance the unfeigned Faith that is in thee which dwelt first in thy Grand-mother Lois and thy Mother Eunice and I am perswaded that in thee also And that from a Child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto Salvation through Faith which is in Christ Jesus After the death of the Apostles the Churches had
Mothers as of Fathers and all Duty towards them You must Love your Parents constantly sincerely and eminently Your Father must not be despised when poor nor your Mother when she is old Prov. 23.22 Nor either of them when they rebuke you for sin Pro. 29. Your Love must be pure and not mercenary for gain from them As Absolom's was for all his Flattery 2 Sam. 14. And it must be eminent 'T is unnatural to Love a Father or Mother no more than we Love the most beneficial of our Friends in the World Nature and Justice give Parents the Preheminence 2. Honour your Parents most highly Next unto God most highly In your Thoughts Words and Behaviours Honour them Fear to think an ill thought of them Their faults forget and cover this is praiseworthy Shem and Japheth are Blessed and Cain's posterity Cursed Gen. 9.22 to 28. Let every Speech unto your Parents be expresly Reverent Rachel's to Laban was so Let not my Lord be displeased Gen 31.35 'T is unnatural when it is not so Mal. 1.6 A Son honoureth his Father that is naturally Sons do Break a bone as soon as omit to bow it to your Parents Irreverent gestures of body are wicked most scandalously Solomon bowed to his Mother 1 Kings 2.19 Joseph bowed himself with his Face to the Earth unto his Father Gen. 41.12 Where I see not this threefold Reverence in you to your Parents I cannot think you other than ignorant despisers of God and your Parents 3. Obey your Parents most absolutely I mean in the Lord as the Scripture speaks Where God forbids not do what they bid you and because they bid you though it be against your own minds and wills For this is God's most Wise and Holy Will Col. 3.10 Children obey your Parents in all things for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord. Where is the honour required in the Fifth Commandment without this Read Prov. 13.1 Prov. 1.8 9. Prov. 30.17 Children Rebecca and Rachel kept Sheep at their Parents command Gen. 24. Gen. 29. Jesus Christ himself was subject to Joseph and Mary in their mean employment Luke 2.57 Matt. 13.15 How wonderoufly yielded Isaac to Abraham see Gen. 22.9.10 And the Rechabites to their Father Jer. 35.5 6 7 to v. 11. He that says I will not do what my Parents would have me he therein saith also I will not do what God would have me Unless he can say therefore do I disobey my Parents because I should otherwise sin against God A good Childs heart speaks thus Whatever I can do without sin let my Parents command and spare not 4. Requite your Parents most Zealously 1. Tim. 5.4 Let them learn with Piety at home to requite their Parents for that is good and acceptable toward God The Honour in the Fifth Commandment includes Recompence which is called Honour Numb 22.37 1 Tim. 5.17 Children had you Kingdoms to give your Parents they would not pay your Debt unto them You must all your lives long be paying of it you will never have paid the sum total Never come out of your Parents debt Therefore always according to their needs and your abilities you must be paying your Thank-Offerings A Child is a servant Mal. 3.17 As thee his son that serveth him Phil. 2.22 As a son with the Father hath he served with me You must ever promptly serve them to your power in every innocent matter And if they fall into want you must supply them readily as ever they supplied you and as liberally and more richly too if you are able You must in many cases spare from your selves to give them Yea you must lay out the less upon the Worship of God too to bestow on them To withdraw from Parents even for God's Worship was an abominable fault of the Pharisees condemned by our Saviour Mark 7.9 10 11 12 13. In a word 't is not enough if you do nothing to grieve your Parents You sin if you omit any thing in the power of your hands to comfort them and to make their Loyns bless you Blessed are the Josephs that nourish their Parents and Brethren Gen. 47.12 5. Behave your selves so that you may be high Honours unto your Parents I mean so Holily toward God so Righteously toward Men so Temperately toward your selves So as may make for the Honour of your Parents The Honour of their granted prayers and their blessed pains took for you So as may make both Town and Countrey have your Parents in more Notice and Reputation for you This Counsel comprehends all O what a World should we have if it were followed Children come on and begin and set to mend this World You cannot doubt but this my Counsel is certainly commanded in the Fifth Commandment You must needs know he cannot Honour his Father and Mother that is a reproach and shame to them Whose whole life casts disgrace on their Persons Families and Names Yet so do theirs do that observe not this Counsel See Prov. 17.25 A Foolish son is a grief to his Father and bitterness to her that bare him Come unless you will say plainly ye will be Atheists that your Conversion shall never make joy in Heaven take this day my advice Say just now If prayers and pains will prevail I will make glad my Father and Mother that ever they had me given unto them I will learn diligently every Truth they teach me I will pray hard for every Grace they commend I will perform seriously every Duty they set me I will resist every Lust and Temptation they warn me of I will imitate all the good I see in them God I will know His Gospel-Covenant I will enter and live by My Holy Baptism I will know and keep The Lords Table I will prepare for and hasten to Holiness I will industriously perfect in the fear of God No Man living shall say henceforth that I wrong him wilfully or do him right unwillingly And neither of my Parents shall be able with truth to say that I do so much as seem to forget my debt to them and its depth When this is truly said and with full purpose of heart you then first begin to be good Children and dutiful Then you may be called the Crown and Honour of your Fathers as Prov. 17.6 and their very Glory as it is Hos 9.11 Such as make them not ashamed but honoured in the Gate or in all company as Psal 127.4 5. And until you thus resolve and declare you are the clean contrary For you are Fools And he that begeteth a Fool doth it to his sorrow the Father of a Fool hath no joy 'T is no joy save to a Fool to beget and breed up Slaves for the Devil and Fuel for Hell And this Holy Parents do know if you not sc That A wicked Child of Godly Parents is one of Earths uglyest burthens and without wonderful Grace intervening one of Hells certainest Fire-brands More particularly I now Exhort You. 1. Be it for Conscience