have to do a work that requires a great part of your time and worthy of all your time How hard is it to work out your Salvation to make your Calling and Election sure to strive to enter in at the strait Gate to be born again to be made new Creatures to be renewed in the Spirit of your mind to put off the works of darkness and to put on the armour of light to add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity To have the image of God renewed in your Souls to be made partakers of the Divine Nature to escape the corruptions which are in the World through lust to be conformed to the Example of your Blessed Lord and Master in those Virtues wherein you ought to imitate him to learn of him who was meek and lowly to go about as he did doing good to the Souls and Bodies of Men to be zealous for God and holy as he who called you is holy in all manner of Conversation How great a work is it to overcome your selves To become vile and base in your own eyes to think meanly of your selves and to be willing that others should think so of you too to be content with every state and condition of life wherein God does by his Providence place you to bear wrongs and injuries with meekness and patience not to be overcome with evil but to overcome evil with good to mortifie your sinful desires and sensual appetites to crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts to purifie your selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit to cleanse your Hearts from all manner of wickedness that they may be fit Temples for the Spirit of God to dwell in to govern your eyes that you may not thereby betray your Souls into the hands of your Enemies to govern your Lips to take heed to your ways that you offend not with your Tongue to put away from you all lying flattery and dissimulation all evil speaking whispering and backbiting all foolish talking and jesting which are not convenient to be sober and temperate in all things to be just and sincere in all your dealings doing to others what you would have them do to you How great a work is it to overcome the World to despise its Pomps and Vanities not to be allured and charmed by its smiles nor yet frighted and cast down by its frowns not to suffer your selves to be possessed with the love of Riches to entertain just and fit opinions of the things of this World to consider them as vain uncertain and unsatisfactory enjoyments which are not capable to make you happy which are only so far to be desired as they are necessary in order to your accommodation and more easie subsistence in the World How hard is it to overcome the temptations of earthly pleasure and outward delights and not to suffer your minds to be too far transported by the love of them but to use even the most innocent pleasures with great moderation lest they lead the Soul Captive and render it unfit for the true pleasures How hard is it to live in the World as Pilgrims and Strangers ought to do to pass through this Wilderness without much regarding it but fixing your eyes on the happy Land the heavenly Canaan which you ought to look on as your only Country How hard is it to escape the danger of the evil Manners and Customs which are in the World The many temptations which you have to vanity and folly to pride and passion to gluttony and drunkenness to luxury and sensuality and to other Vices by the bad Examples of your Friends Neighbours and other Acquaintances How great and difficult a work is it to resist the Devil to quench his fiery darts to reject his suggestions to discover his wiles and stratagems to watch against all his assaults and vigorously to oppose his temptations that you may overcome him and triumph over him Now this is the work you have to do For we wrestle not saith the Apostle Eph. 6.12 against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places How hard and dangerous a Warfare must it needs be that makes it necessary for you to take the whole Armour of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand How hard a work is it to read and hear and meditate to examine your selves to pray to God and to praise him to partake of the holy Sacrament and to perform all other Acts of Devotion and Piety as you ought to do How great a work is it to love God above all things to love him with all your Soul and Heart and with all your strength and might and to keep your selves in the Love of God that it may be in you a powerful Spring and Principle unto all good actions that you may be thereby sweetly constrained to do and to suffer whatever is his holy Will and Pleasure Is it not a great work to perform aright all those Duties which you are bound to do in your several relations and capacities To instruct to admonish to reprove and to comfort others and to do every thing you can for the good of Mens Souls and Bodies Let no Man saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 10.24 seek his own but every Man anothers wealth And Chap. 13.5 Charity seeketh not its own that is not only its own it seeketh not its own to the prejudice of another but it endeavours to promote the happiness and welfare of others The charitable Person hath an eye to the good and benefit of other Men as well as his own gain and advantage And besides all this you ought to â—ave so much Zeal for the Glory of God and the good of Souls as to endeavour to do somewhat which may â—ave a lasting effect and influence not only in the present time but in the time to come You ought to contrive by all means to propagate Religion to do somewhat which may bear fruit for the honour of your Maker and Redeemer when you are laid in the Grave From all which you may see what a great and difficult work you have to do in the World and how great need you have to redeem time and to lose as little of it as is possible How necessary is it for you to begin your work betimes and to be constant in the pursuit of it In the Morning to sow your Seed and in the Evening not to withhold your hand What a madness is it to have your work to begin when your time is almost at an end when there are but a few sands in your Glass You who have so long a Race to run and so much bad Way to pass through and who are so weak and have so
Practices and with their rash and foolish Designs In a word they study a perfect Opposition to their Parents in all things they pull down whatever they built they root up whatever they planted they hate what they loved and love whatever they hated So unlike do they render themselves to their Parents in all their Manners and Customs that all who see them must needs call them a degenerate Seed Cursed Children unnatural Plants ready to be hewn down and cast into the Fire From what hath been said Children may see what their Duty is which they owe to their Parents which that they may perform there are several things which serve as powerful Motives and Arguments to excite them Motives to excite Children to do these things 1 Motive from the divine Commandment First It will tend mightily to move them to Honour their Father and Mother if they consider who requires this at their hands This Law proceedeth not from Men but from God It is a Law made by him who is their Maker and therefore by right of Creation may require their Obedience It is a Law made by their faithful preserver and rich provider and therefore by Virtue of his daily care over them and kindness to them may command them what he thinks good This is the will of their Father in Heaven of their Lord and King of him who will call them to an account and render to them according to their Works of him who is their greatest and best Friend if they do his Will and keep his Commandments but will be their most dreadful and terrible Enemy if they do not obey his Voice If therefore Children have any sense of God on their Souls If they consider his infinite greatness Power Wisdom Justice Truth Faithfulness Mercy and Kindness they cannot but endeavour to perform what he requires when once they know what is his holy will and pleasure Now as to what I speak of to wit the Duty of Children to Parents it is plain and clear not only from those Laws which are contained in Holy Scripture which were revealed from Heaven to Holy Men whom God made use of to be the publishers thereof to the World but likewise from the Laws of Nature those clear impressions which God hath made on the Minds of Men in all places and in all Ages whereby they are taught that Children ought to honour and obey their Parents to love them and to relieve them and provide for them if they stand in need of their help * See Simplicius upon Epictet Cap. 37. and Arrianus l. 2. c. 10. These have always been the calm and sober thoughts of all Men and when any were so wicked as to violate this sacred Law they were hated and abhorred by all others and in all well govern'd States were punished according to the demerits of their Crime and the degree of their disobedience and perverseness either immediately by the Parents or by publick Judges upon complaint made by Parents The Sense of all this ought to move Children to honour their Father and Mother that they may approve themselves to God who requires them to do so and that upon the severest Penalties if they shall dare to dishonour them and disobey them 2. Motive from the Divine Promise Secondly To encourage Children to perform their Duty to their Parents God hath been pleased to add a gracious promise That thy days may be long †Or that they i. e. Thy Parents may prolong thy days to wit by their Prayers and Blessing upon the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee He might only have commanded them to do this by Virtue of his absolute Power and Soveraign Authority which he has over all Men without proposing any Reward but such is his infinite Bounty and Goodness that he hath added a Promise to the Command thereby to make Childrens Duty the more easie As to the Promise it self it is not to be understood absolutely as if all good Children should live long promises of Temporal Blessings are made conditionally that is so far as God sees such things best and fittest for us So that as to this promise of long life God will bestow it if it be most for his own Glory and the good and Benefit of Children Oftentimes he does lengthen out the years of pious and dutiful Children whereas the years of wicked and undutiful Children are shortned by their prophane and wicked courses so that some of them are cut off immediately by the hand of God and others are put to death by the hand of Man As for those Children who live not to a great Age tho' they are very dutiful and obedient to their Parents God doth make up what is wanting in the number of their Years here with an everlasting Life and Glory in Heaven In which case there 's no cause to complain as if Cod did not fulfil his promise to them For as there is no reason for a Man to complain who is employed to work for so much a day if his Master see it fit to free him from his Work and pay him all his Wages before the third part of his time is out Even so if God think fit to set his Children at Liberty from the toil and labour of this life and to bestow upon them Glorious and Eternal Rewards while they are in the Morning or Noon as it were of their Age there is no ground of complaining upon his doing so but rather great matter of Praise and Thanksgiving unto him whose Mercy and Love is infinitely great But besides this Reward in the other World there are Temporal Blessings which God will bestow on those who keep this Commandment My Son saith Solomon Prov. 1.8,9 Hear the Instruction of thy Father and forsake not the Law of thy Mother For they shall be an Ornament of Grace unto thy Head and Chains about thy Neck That is if thou art obedient to the Commands of thy Parents this will make thee very amiable not only in the sight of God but even of Men who cannot but love and esteem such Children who carry themselves as they ought to do towards their Parents But further to encourage Children to honour their Parents there is a promise of Prosperity added to that of long life Deut. 5.16 That thy days may be prolonged and that it may go well with thee c. The same Promise is repeated Eph. 6.3 with this difference only that it is prefixed to the promise of long life that it may be well with thee and that thou mayest live long on the Earth When God does prolong the Years of his Children he often affords them more or less of Temporal Prosperity also as he sees it will turn to their good that so their long life may be the more sweet and comfortable to them How acceptable and pleasing to God was the Obedience of the Rechabites unto their Father tho' his Commands seemed very hard and severe to wit That they