But this answer is not sufficient for those places of Jerem. 31. and Ezek. 18. speak not of a civil but of a divine punishment III Others again answer it thus that God punisheth the sins of Fathers on their Children if they do such like sins as their Father He will punish the Children for their Fathers Idolatry if their Children are Idolaters also and punish them that hate God as their Fathers did before them If this were true then those places in Jeremiah and Ezekiel were answered with this exception The Son shall not bear the iniquity of his Father unless the Son be wicked too the Childrens teeth shall not be set on edge unless they eat sowre grapes as their Fathers did before them But this answer is not to the purpose neither 1. Because Children have been punished for their Fathers sins which they never imitated as the Children of the Sodomites were destroyed with the same destruction their Fathers were 2. Sometimes the Children who have repented have been outwardly miserable because their Fathers were exceeding sinful 3. Because then God did not punish the sins of their Fathers on them so much as their own personal sins not punish their Fathers Idolatry but their own Idolatry nor their Fathers Adultery but their own 4. The force of the threatning is taken away for God brings that threatning of visiting their Idolatry upon their Children to make Fathers to take heed of Idolatry Then this would be the sense of it according to their interpretation Take heed ye Fathers of Idolatry for I will punish your third and fourth generation if they be Idolaters By these reasons it is evident that this answer that God punisheth Children for their Fathers sins because Children follow their Fathers in their sins is not sufficient IV. This answer may give full satisfaction There is a three-fold evil of punishment with which God visits sinners 1. There is eternal damnation so no Child is punished for his Fathers sins but the Soul that sinneth that shall die Every man is damned for his own proper sins only such as eat the sowre grapes of sin they shall gnash their teeth in Hell 2. There is malum morale a moral evil God his giving up the Children to follow their Fathers steps is a punishment for their Fathers sins But this God doth not inflict upon them as they are sins but by denying grace to the Children of wicked Parents upon which denial they fall into the like sins their Fathers did before them God denying grace to the posterity of Idolaters they commit Idolatry also 3. There is malum naurae evils of nature as Losses Crosses Afflictions Famine Sword Plague temporal death God oftentimes punisheth the Children for their Fathers sins with these temporal punishments For Gehazi's Covetousness his posterity shall be leprous and for the mutiny of Dathan and Abiram their Children perished with them For David's Adultery the Sword shall never depart from his house to all successions So oftentimes it falls out that for the riot adulteries or oppressions of Progenitors Children are brought to a morsel of bread The reason is because God in punishing the Children punisheth the Fathers also Qui◠Filii quaedam pars parentum because Children are part of their Fathers as branches are part of the tree therefore the good that is bestowed on the Child or the evil inflicted on him is the good and evil of the Father Quest. But how can the evils which Children suffer when their Fathers are dead be a punishment to him that is deid how can the evil which the fourth generation suffereth be the evil of the Father dead it may be many years before Resp. 1. I answer yes they are evils to them because God threatens them as punishments to them Shall we think that God would threaten this as an evil if it were not look as other evils threatned which follow the wicked after they are dead are a punishment as the name of the wicked shall rot shall stink when they are dead They that pass by their graves shall say Here lieth a beastly drunkard here lieth a profane swearer a cruel oppressour These are curses though they are not sensible of them So when God shall ruine the posterity of wicked men it is a sore punishment to them As now it is a mercy to just men that their memory when they are dead shall be blessed and that the seed of the Righteous shall be blessed on earth Then on the contrary if the seed of a man be cursed it is a punishment to the Fathers 2. We are not to judge of punishment only by our sense and feeling as if it were no punishment because dead men are not sensible of the miseries of their Children but we are also to judge of punishment by the evil which is in it Now it is a sore evil when God shall for the sins of our Fathers bring ruine upon our estates miseries upon our bodies Plagues Sword or Famine upon us 3. It is a punishment to the Fathers though dead because it is directly contrary to their wills and intentions Fathers would have their Children rich and happy after their death and would have their Houses and Names to contiue for ever but God in justice ruinates their Families and cloatheth their Children or Childrens Children with misery as with a garment Object But put the case the posterity of wicked men are converted and become godly doth God punish such for the sins of 〈◊〉 Fathers Sol. I answer yes God sometimes may and doth deprive such of their honours and estates and takes them away with temporal death for the sins of their Fathers But then the evils which such Children endure are only parentum poenae their Fathers punishment and are filiorum probationes medicinae exercitia the Childrens tryals medicines exercises God in mercy turneth their afflictions into their spiritual advantage God makes their death a passage to glory and life eternal And these afflictions though they are the punishments of their Fathers yer shall work out for them a greater weight of glory Here let me add these things 1. We must hold this as an undeniable truth that God is alwayes righteous in all his administrations of Judgements whether in punishing Parents or Children for Parents sake Though the Judgements of God are sometime hidden yet they are never unjust There is no iniquity in the wayes of God though we cannot see the equity of them 2. There is a matter of condemnation in all Children though God sometimes in punishing doth not punish them with an immediate relation to their own sins 3. When God visits Nations and Kingdoms then usually he doth it for the sins of the present generation as for the sins of our Fathers Our sins and the iniquities of our Fathers do joyn forces to bring down Plagues and devastations upon the Kingdom The Jews were led into Captivity for their own sins and their Fathers also So Daniel in his Confession of sins
others with them in the same wayes of Destruction and being joyned together in a wretched society by lewd and lustful songs scurril jests abusive speeches loud laughter ruffian-like out-faceing better and wiser men than themselves they encourage each others they harden their hearts they drown the voice of Conscience they contemn the Word of God they fight against Heaven with prophane and horrible Oathes and as it were seal alâ— their leagues of pretended good-fellow-ship even with a resolved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a decreed forgetfulness of God and so of godliness oâ— Death and of Judgment to come wherewith St. Paul made even his Heathen Judge to shake as he sate upon the Bench. 2. Secondly and especially a company oâ— grounded Drunkards that are up and down iâ— the Countrey old Sotts that are setled upon their lees who know almost every corner in every common or blind Ale-house as well as the rooms in their own houses and never think themselves so well at home as in a Tap-house Oh how do these work about to poyson the youth of our age and to make them like themselves the children of hell who by the assistance of the Devil abuse their old crafty pates to ensnare young heedless Souls and to bring in Captives to the Prince of Darkness Doth not the same doom belong unto these which was due to Elymas the Sorcerer for seeking to turn away the deputy from the truth to whom St. Paul himself used this language Thou Child of the Devil and enemy of all goodness wilt thou not cease to pervenâ—â— the streight wayes of the Lord Do not these by the enchantment of their fawning tongues bewitch green years and cast them into a dead sleep of security and forgetfulness of God Oh that miserable experience did not prove my words too mild which yet some that in their own causes can be merciles perhaps will accuse me of too much roughness But who can forbear when he seeth them to be the very Emissaries of Hell and as I may so speak Ipsius ebrietatis leannes the very Panders or Bawds for Drunkenness an inferiour sort of Tempters or Devils Satan's under-Officers and Factors for the Land of Darkness who are not content to go to Hell without a Troop at their heels as if it were not sufficient for them to be guilty of destroying their own Souls unless they have many more Murthers of the same kind to be put into the same Indictment I tell you who soever ye are your society is more to be shunned than his that hath a Plague-sore upon his body ye are to be poynted at and accounted by all that know you as the very Mothes that fret the newest and the strongest Cloth Juventutis pestes The very bane of youth and the corrupters of the next age which shall then arise when your bodies are rotten under ground yea the sins you now set in a course may stream down unto the end oâ— the World whilst they that are infected bâ— you shall infect others and so again successively so that by this means ye may bâ— guilty of those sins which shall be committed many hundred years hence if the World so long continue 3. Those Ale-house-keepers who givâ— way to all manner of excess in their houses whose Motto may be Lucri bonus odor c. In whose ears Swearing is good Musick in whose eyes beastly vomits are a pleasing spectacle and the Lords day a fit time for tipling and swilling with greediness so that they may take mony feed higher go braver and look bigger than men of more worth and better employment These have their trains to draw on the younger sort who know not that their houses go down to the chamber of Death 4 Those Magistrates and Officers cannot by any means be excused under whom these youthful sins growsâ— fast whiles they hold the Sword that is put in to their hands rusting in the sheath where is the Spirit and courage that should be in these that are the very Triarii in the armies of the Lord of Hosts the stoutest and choicest Soldiers Are ye afraid of those who are but Lixae calones Scullions and Tapsters under Satans Banner should such Men as ye fly or fear and not dare to face those who at the most are but Milites levis armaturae Souldiers lightly armed as I may so speak What can they do against a Justice of the Peace a Constable or an Head-borough more than let flye their Arrows even bitter words I know not what policy is in this connivance unless it be to leave the envy and burthen upon us of the Ministry whiles we alone fight against these things with the Sword of the Spirit But if ye refuse utterly to joyne with us in bearing your part of the burthen you must not look to share in the reward I desire above all that you would let the honour of God prevail with you your Charge your Oathes but if these things move not take heed lest the Lord repay you in your own Coyn and whiles you tender not the Glory of God nor the good of the younger sort in general by restraining their licentious meetings by informing against or punishing those that entertain them he may justly leave your own Children to be thus corrupted or at least your Childrens Children of the third or fourth Generation The Lord give you zeal and courage that you may not have your portion without among the fearful CHAP. VII Vse LEt me speak a few words to you that are of the younger sort When soever you see a young Man or Maid carried to their graves that spectacle of Mortality forbids you to be forgetful of your Creatour in any Age or part of your Life Look upon that Coffin that holdeth a body young and very lately strong in constitution and let it be unto thee O young Man an use of instructioâ— nâ—t to trust to long life in the heat of thy youth or the best of thy strength not to please thy self in a self-content arising out of thine own form youthful lively temper not to magnify thine happiness in regard of a seeming advantage which thou thinkest thou hast of old age in being more capable of carnal delights than it that thou art able to take in more of the Devils baits which he never casteth forth without an hook Let it teach thee not to hearken to the enticements of Sinners old or young nor to think that house of all others the best adorned that hath a Sign-post Let it reprove thy great forgetfulness of thy Creatour in the daies of thy youth Let it strike a deep apprehension into thine heart of the necessity of present repentance without all delay and let this so work upon thee and stick by thee that no potts mâ—y wash it off nor no loud Ale-house clamours may drown the voice of thy Conscience when it shall bring this to thy remembrance Oh let not Satan bewitch thee Weart thou as certain of a long
honour and reverence To see aged men to be sober grave temperate sound in faith in charity in patience and the aged women likewise to be in behaviour as becometh holy women to be teachers of good things to be discreet chast c. this is a Crown of glory to them Otherwise though men and women live long and are found in the way of sin they are a cursed people Isai. 65. 20. The sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed An old drunkard an old swearer an old whoremonger an old profane worldling is a wicked wretch Diogenls being asked what was the saddest spectacle in the world answered an old man in misery But an old man in misery is not so vile an object as an old man in his sins To see an old man durunk to hear oaths curses revilings ribauldry come from the mouths of aged persons is a most lamentable thing Poor wretches they lie under the evil of Age which is burdensom and they have the evil of Sin upon them which is intolerable and may daily expect when their gray hairs shall be brought down with sorrow to the grave yea to the pit of Hell II. It is Children's glory that they are descended from such gracious and aged Parents We see how the world esteemeth of descent from men of noble birth from antient Stocks and Families But this is nothing if Children do degenerate from their generous and noble Ancestors In this respect if any glory be due it is due to the Parents not to the Children unless they tread in the steps of their worthy Parents which gave occasion to Cicero to reprehend Cateline by comparing the antiquity of his blood with the vitiosity of his manners who saith of him That he was not more famous by the Nobility of his Parents than ignominious by his own notorious Vices It is a vanity for men to derive their Pedigrees from antient Houses and to carry themselves unworthy such Ancestors surely the Nobility and goodness of their Progenitors cannot so much credit them as their own badness and wickedness will discredit them But if nobility of blood be joyned with grace and vertue it is highly to be esteemed Now if men account it an honour to them to be nobly descended surely much greater honour it is to descend from godly Parents grace and godliness being much better than all outward wealth riches honour and greatness This was the glory and boast of the Children of Israel that they had Abraham Isaac and Jacob for their Fathers We have Abraham to be our Father said the Jews Matth. 3. 9. Our Father Jacob. said the woman of Samaria Joâ— 4. 12. and St. Paul speaking of the priviledges of the Jews puts in this for a great priviledge Rom. 9. 5. Of whom are the Fathers So it is the glory and crown of Children when they have believing Fathers when it can be said of them as of our Saviour Who was the Son of Enos which was the Son of Seth which was the Son of Adam which was the Son of God Luk. 3. 38. So it is spoken to the honour of such a Child when it is said He is the Son of such a godly Father and such a godly Mother who were and are the Sons and Daughters of God Solomon sets it down as an honour to him that he was the Son of David Prov. 1. 1. The Proverbs of Solomon the Son of David King of Israel It might well be an honour to Solomon to have the Title which was afterwards given to Jesus Christ Mat. 1. 1. It was an honour to young Timothy that the unfeigned Faith that was in him dwelt first in his Grand-Mother Lois and in his Mother Eunice 2 Tim. 1. 5. III. It is their glory and Crown in that they can glory in this that God was and is the Father of their Fathers It is a frequent title in Scripture given to God The God of our Fathers It is that wherein the faithfull boast Except the God of my Father the God of Abraham and the fear of Isaac had been with me saith Jacob to Laban that is that God whom his Father Isaac feared or worshipped Genes 31. 42. God himself glorieth in this title I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Israel The Lord appeared unto Isaac at Beer-sheba and said I am the God of Abraham thy Father Genes 26. 24. So the Lord said unto Jacob I am God the God of thy Father Genes 46. 3. So the Lord said unto Moses I am the God of thy Father the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob Exod. 3. 6. And when he sent Moses to the Children of Israel he said unto him Thus shalt thou say unto the Children of Israel The Lord God of your Fathers the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob hath sent me unto you This is my Name for ever and my Memorial unto all Generations ver 15. This is a memorial of my faithfulness of my truth and constancy in my promises made with your Fathers that all succeeding Generations may see and acknowledge me to be a God keeping Truth and Covenant for ever The glorious God is not ashamed to be called the Father of his people neither is Christ ashamed to be called their Brother Now that their believing Parents are thus allyed to God to Jesus Christ to all the company of Angels and Saints what an honour and crown of glory is this unto the Children IV. The Parents being in Covenant maketh their Children holy this is a glory to their Children 1 Cor. 7. 14. because they come of a believing Parent they are federally holy for God covenanteth with believing Parents that he will be the God of them and of their seed So the Apostle Rom 11. 16. If the first-fruits be holy the lump is also holy and if the root be holy so are the branches The Apostle proveth there that the Children of believing Parents are within the Covenant of God because the Parents the Children too Therefore that the seed of the Jews are not finally rejected for they be the seed of faithfull Abraham they spring from that holy root That which he made an Argument for the Children of faithful Abraham is a good Argument for the Children of all faithfull Parents The Parents being within the Covenant so are the Children for the Children are as the branches the Parents as the root Children as the lump Parents as the first-fruits It is the ground why Christian Parents bring their Children to Baptisme to receive the Seal of the Covenant because the Children are comprehended in that Covenant Act. 2. 38 39. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins c. saith Peter to his hearers for the Promise is to you and unto your Children God owneth such for his people for his Sons and Daughters who are in Covenant with him Other
is the reporach of both when as they say of a Child that he is a drunkard or a swearer his Father was so before him How doth St. John honour the elect Lady in his Epistle to her with a praiseful memorial 2 Epist. Joh. 4. I rejoyced greatly that I found of thy Children walking in truth as we have received a commandment from the Father IV. A wise Son is an honour to a godly Father A wise Son maketh a glad Father Prov. 10. 1. So in Prov. 23. 15. My Son if thine heartâ—le wise my heart shall rejoyce even mine Such a Son is an honour to his Father while he liveth My Son be wise and make my heart glad that I may answer him that reproacheth me Prov. 27. 11. Men desire to leave memorials behind them a wise and godly Son is a better Monument of a Father than a stately Pallace left behind him Absalom having no Son he built him a Pillar to keep his Name in remembrance 2 Sam. 18. 18. A grave Divine tells us of an ancient Minister of good note in this Nation who being unmarried himself reasoned with a married Gentlewoman about the best Estate of the two pleading his great freedom from family cares and for his studies She calleth a Child of hers and catechizeth him before the Minister Now Sir said she you had need serve God while you live for he shall get no glory by you in this world when you are dead This Child may honour God when I am dead and gone and others that may come from him to the worlds end Godly Children as they are an honour and comfort to their Parents while they live so they honour the memory of their Parents when they are dead But as for foolish and wicked Children they are like Peacocks which uncover the house where they roost or the Ivy that pulls down the wall that holds it up V. Parents and Children will be mutual crowns and glory to each other at the day of Judgement When the Father shall present his godly Children before Christ Lord here are the Children whom thou hast given me blessing and praising God for them how will the Children bless God for such a Father and bless the Father for his example and pious instructions CHAP. V. Use. I. THis may serve for a just reproof of those Fathers who live in swearing whoredom drunkenness oppression and so are a shame and reproach to their Children and regard not though their Sons likewise to their shâ—me and reproach be a stinking generation and family walking in their sins Diogenes when he saw a young man drunk said the reason was because his Father begat him when he was drunk In like manner when he saw a young man beating his Father he said he doth it because his Father did neglect his duty to him in bringing him up The wicked lives and dissolute conversations of Fathers is the cause of their Sons wickedness Hearken to me all ye Parents let me demand of you Are not ye the propagators of original sin to your Children which maketh them Children of wrath and heirs of damnation Will not ye rest there but must you needs by your wicked and licencious conversation make them twofold more the Children of Hell Hast not thou sins enough to answer for but thou must have their sins upon thy score too Ye wicked Parents that sin in the sight of your Children you draw them to sin as you do a Parents sin committed in the sight of a Child is a double sin It is said of a corrupt generation Hos. 2. 3 4. Their Mother plaid the Harlot and they are the Children of whoredoms The Holy Ghost seemeth to give in this as the reason why the Children are the Children of whoredoms viz. Because their Mother plaid the Harlot so that there was a succession of wickedness among them Take heed therefore O ye Parents of breathing infection upon your Children to make them like your selves in wickedness and the guilt of your sins and to bring them to partake of God 's Judgements together with your selves The Switzers foresaw this who enacted a Law that if a Child were condemned to die the Father should execute him because that usually the neglect and evil carriage of Parents is the fountain of all misery and wickedness in their Children Oh what cruel Parents are they to their Children that will lie swear curse in the hearing of their Children that will teach them to lie to game to steal to use deceit to break the Sabbath as if they would have them to learn the Devils Carechism without book Thou that art a Father of Children consider thou that at the resurrection day thy Children whose damnation thou didst further by thy wicked example will curse thee to thy face Cursed be that Father that begat me and the Womb that bare me and the Paps that gave me suck Oh! that there had been news brought to my Father that a Toad or a Snake had been born to him when it was said there is a man-child born Then will the Son cry out in Hell-torments I had never come into this place of torment had not my Father been had he given me good instruction a good example I had not been cast into this dark dungeon I learnt to curse and blaspheme from that cursed blasphemous Father I learn'd to be drunk from that drunken Father I learn'd to mock at piety and holiness to scoff at the wayes and people of God of that scoffing Father I learn'd to prophane the Sabbath I neglected Prayers in my family I neglected the hearing of the Word for my Father did so before me he was an Atheist and so was I. Oh that I had been his currish Dog his filthy Hog rather than his beloved Son As they in Rome said of Nero because of his cruelty it were better be Nero's Hog than his Son Oh how will such Children be ready to cast fire-brands in the faces of such wicked Parents when they are in Hell-flames together CHAP. VI. II. This may reprove those Parents who labour more to make their Children rich great glorious in the eye of the world than to make them gracious and glorious in the eye of God who care not by what unjust means they scrape their wealth together to leave behind them a rich posterity and care not that their Children be enriched with grace that drown themselves in perdition and destruction for their Childrens greatness in the world Salvian hath an excellent Meditation upon the rich man in the Gospel that laid up much riches together With his goods saith Salvian he prepareth happiness for others misery for himself mirth and jollity for others tears and sorrow for himself a short pleasure for others everlasting torment for himself His heirs that possessed his wealth and substance did game take their ease eat drink and were merry and this poor covetous wretch was howling and roaring weeping and wailing in Hell Oh what fools are those
and pass away What most affectionate dehortation is that of Solomon's Mother unto him Prov. 31. 2. Who my Son and what the Son of my womb 〈◊〉 what the Son of my vowes Give not 〈◊〉 strength unto women nor thy wayes to th◠which destroyeth Kings It is not for King O Lemuel to drink wine nor for Princes strong drink lest they drink and forget the Law and pervert the judgement of any of the afflicted ver 3 4 5. Parents should often tell their Children that such and such ungodly courses will be their reproach bring down the gray hairs of their Parents with sorrow to the grave and their own Souls down into the pit of everlasting destruction III. Instruct them in the worship word and way of God and godliness ye Fathers bring up your Children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord Eph. 6. 4 in the nurture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it signifies it the Childhood Beza renders it in the doctrine of the Lord and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in admonition drawn from the word of God Henoch had his name as one taught from his Youth and consecrate unto God God commanded his people Deut. 6 7. Thou shalt rehearse these words continually unto thy Children The word is Thou shalt whet them continually upon thy Children as when an Arrow or other Instrument is sharpened that it may pierce the deeper It implyeth two duties 1. That the Parent make his Instructions delivered plain and piercing by perspicuity giving it an edge that it may the more easily enter into the dull heads and pierce the hard hearts of his Children 2. That he repeat it again and again going often over the same thing as the Knife goeth often over the whet-stone as the beast in chewing the Cud. Abraham is highly commended of God for instructing his Family I know Abraham will command his Sons and his houshold after him that they keep the way of the Lord Genes 18. 19. He taught them the substance of the Law in commanding them to do Righteousness and Judgement and the substance of the Gospel in declaring unto them the tenour of the Evangelical promises that in him or his seed that is in Christ the promised seed who was to come of his loins all the Nations of the earth should be blessed as also the meaning of Circumcision Genes 17. 23. Joshua professed that he and his house would serve the Lord Jes. 24. 15. Intimating that he would instruct his Family in the true knowledge and right manner of the worship of God without which they could not perform any acceptable service unto him David taught his Son Solomon and laid this Charge upon him And thou Solomon my Son know the God of thy Father and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind 1 Chron. 28 9. So others Psal. 34. 11. Come ye Children hearken to me I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Thus Solomon instructeth his Son Rehoboam in the beginning of the Book of the Proverbs Hezekiah professeth as much of himself The living the living he shall praise thee as I do this day The Father to the Son shall declare thy truth Isai. 38. 19. He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a Law in Israel which he commanded our Fathers that they should make them known to their Children that they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God but keep his Commandements and might not be as their Fathers a stubborn and rebellious generation c. IV. Have a watchful eye over the duties practices and conversations of your Children David would not suffer a worker of deceit to dwell in his house nor a teller of lies to carry in his sight Psal. 101. 7. Oh take heed of countenancing or allowing your Children in any sin Their sins and thy neglect of godly reproof will make thee stink in the Land as Simeon and Levi made Jacob their Father to stink his name to stink among the people of the Land Take heed of cockering and over-much indulging your Children It is observed that usually that Child which the Parent cockereth most regardeth the Parent least and many times proveth the heaviest cross unto it making him to speak in bitterness of Soul Why died it not from the womb Job 3. 11. One saith That the bloody knife of Parents unconscionable and cruel neglect in training up their Children religiously doth stick full deep in their Souls We have read and heard of some Children that have been loosely trained up who have pierced their Parents hearts with sorrow yea and their throats too who have stuck the knife in the bowels of their Parents A certain fond Mother must not have her Child corrected at School when he deserved correction Not long after the Child angred the Mother and the Mother struck the Child he runs to the fire and up with the fire-fork and at the Mother he makes threatning what he would do The Mother would not have her Child struck with a rod to let out his folly and the Child offers to strike the Mother with the fire-fork Then the Mother hastens to the School-master as much displeased with the Child as ever before she was pleased with it Another Parent so doted upon her Child that she could not endure it out of her sight but at last he proved so dissolute that she would have sent this Son to the remorest Islands any where so he were on ship-board that would keep him in compass which a Prison did not or out of her sight That Child which the Parent so cockereth that it must not be out of his sight is the Child that is most like to be an eye-sore and heart-grief to the Parent to whom the Parent is most like to say Stand out of my sight thou art a burden to me S. Augustine gives us a sad relation of one Cyrillus a man mighty both in word and work but a very fond and indulgent Father One Son he had and but one and because but one he must have his will he must not feel the rod he must not be crossed He might have what he would and do what he listed he might go forth and return when he pleased he gave no account either of his purse or time we read in the story that this Child brought his Mother to shame nay more than so This Child came home drunk and in the day time he violently and shamefully abused his Mother great with Child he killed his Father out-right and mortally wounded two Sisters Hereupon a great Assembly was called that all Parents hearing so sad and lamentable a Tragedy might for ever beware of this loose and sottish indulgence which brings woe to the Parent and ruine to the Child V. Pray for your Children that they may glorifie God and so be your glory and crown this was Job's practice Job 1. 5. Job sent and sanctified his Children and rose up early in the morning