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Parents in general.

INCE we learn by the Word of God, that we are obliged to bring up our Children in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord, Eph. vi. 4. and in the vth Book of Mofes, Deut. vi. 6. 7. thefe Words, (viz. of the Law) which I command thee this Day, fhall be in thine Heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy Children, and shall talk of them, when thou fittest in thine Houfe, and when thou walkeft by the Way, and when thou lieft down, and when thou rifeft up; even alfo Solomon, Proverb xxii. 6. Train up a Child in the Way he fhould go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

It is therefore not enough to provide for them, fo as we find in Scripture, to be our Duty, 1 Tim. v. 8. 11. Cor. xii. 14. And natural Affection and Reason teaches us; but we must also learn them to know and ferve God rightly, that they may not perish, but be faved for ever; or even as new-born Babes are with their Mother's Milk nourished, they also must be nourished, with the fincere Milk of the Word, that they may grow thereby, 1 Peter ii. 2. and from Babes and Sucklings they may attain Strength for the Honour and Service of the Lord, Pfa. viii. 2. following the Examples of that pious Grand-mother Lois; and that believing Woman Eunice, who had accustomed her Son Timothy from a Child, to know the Scriptures, which are able to make him wife unto Salvation, 2 Tim. iii. 15.

If then thou art a Parent, a Father, or a Mother, thou art to confider thy Calling under this Relation, to obferve the great Obligation to your Children, fo that they may be really fanctified by the divine Spirit

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in that Covenant which you have fworn before God, and that they perish not through thee, by your Carelefnefs.

Therefore let the Thoughts of the everlasting Ruin of your Children by Negligence, provoke you to in-ftruct them, and confider the Arguments, which 1 fhall make use of to convince you; yea, which I hope God may imprefs upon your Minds.

Think that they are created to ferve and glorify fuch a holy and fupream Being, to be his Property with Soul and Body, and not of any others; and muft they be a Property of God's? Has he formed them to utter his Praife? How fcandalous then is it, to take them (through a careless Education) from their Proprietor, and let them be a Prey for the Devil and the World! Indeed it would be hard and forrowful for you, in Cafe your Children fhould be taken away from you by the Hands of malicious People, and offered up unto others to be their Slaves; even fo bitter you ought to think it is for God, to fee that his Creatures fhould, as it were, perifh, (while you allow them as much as appears by your Negligence) to be thus snatched from his Arms, whom he would have fanctified to his Service, and to be happy in his Love; but befides that, your own Love and Inclination, ought to excite you to a chriftian Education of them, on which the Welfare of your Children (under the Bleffing of God) commonly depends; or can you hate, kill, and entirely forfake your own Flesh and Blood? Can you fo eafily give up your Children (who have proceeded from your own Body) to the cruel Claws of the Devil, and eternal Bands and Captivities of the Prince of Darkness?

O Fathers! O Mothers! I call your own ConIciences to witnefs! Would it not be grievous for you that your most dear Infants, by the violent Hands of a Tyrant, fhould be murdered? Alas, how would the Eyes of the tender hearted Mother, fwim in brakish

Tears!

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Tears! How would fhe (in Agony of Soul) wring her Hands! With what Grief would her Heart be affected! And what a dreadful howling would she raise, when a furious Tyrant fhould break with Force into the House and take hold of her innocent Suckling, which lays in the Cradle, ftabing and turning the fame on the Point of his Lance. Oh! how would the tender Heart of the Mother be ftung and pierced through with Sorrow! How would the run, and ftretch out her Hands after the Child! The more when this innocent Babe, yet living, fhould be offered up to the confuming Flames of Fire. How would the feeble Voice, the ghaftly writhing of the little Members, and the last Sight of fuch a dying Lamb, cut through her Heart and Reins, and mortaly ftrike her! And what Father would not to the utmost be astonished, yea fwoon away by the chilling Fright, when he fhould fee with his own Eyes, his Son, the Joy of his Life, the Hope of his Pofterity, tortured, chained, and condemned to Death? It seems to me that the penetrating View, and the melancholly Remembrance of fuch a tragical Scene, would confume his Flesh and drink up his Spirits, and his grey' Hairs would with Sadnefs and Pains go down unto the Grave.

But are you not more cruel Murderers of your own Children, if you do not take Care of their immortal Souls, and that they may be educated in the Fear of God, by which they may be fnatched away from the Paths of Hell. And if you, by Negligence of your Duty in defpifing the Means fo highly neceffary for their learning and obferving the true Religion, the only Method of becoming favourite Children of God, fhould without natural Affection, fuffer their immortal Souls to fall a Prey to the Devil, the World, and several erroneous Spirits, till they are catched by their violent Enemies; fhould not God (who has given them to your Care) afk their Blood at your Hands? Certainly; and your Children fhall hereafter, in that awful Day

of Judgment, rife against you, curse you to your Faces, and lay their Punishment to your Charge.

Confider then, Parents, that your Love towards your Children not only confifts, in providing for them, as far as they can live happily in this temporal Life, yet more, than that, the greatest Love you can fhew to them, is, when you endeavour to lead them unto their Redemption in Jefus Chrift, out of their everlasting Ruin, and to practife all fuch Means, by which they can be instructed in the true Principles of the pure Doctrine and Fear of the Lord, as the Beginning of Knowledge, Provb. i. 7. Having Promife of the Life that nowis, and of that which is to come, 1 Tim. iv. 8. And alfo that you may have Joy of them, Provb. xxiii. 24. 25. To fuch a Practice of Means, the great Scope, which every one ought to have in Matrimony, namely, to raife unto the Lord a holy Seed, will oblige us, according to the Promife which all married People before God and Witneffes have fworn. Would you perform this Oath it is your Duty to ftir up your Children, (by Words and Chriftian Examples) to a holy Life and virtuous Behaviour, elfe you have fworn falfly, and it will appear that the Intention in your Matrimony has only been carnal.

And fhall I fpeak of the folemn Dedication, which you have made of your Children, by the Miniftration of Baptifm? Do not you remember how you have offered up these innocent Infants unto the holy Trinity, the God of the Covenant, when they are baptized in his Name? Do not you remember, that it has been your Promise to educate them in the Knowledge of the Truth, and inftruct them in the Religion you had them baptized in, when they fhould come to a ripe Understanding? Yea, to feparate them wholy to God and his Service: Unless you perform that, woe! then to the Souls of them, who have engaged before the Face of the Lord, and his Servant, with fuch an infenfible or feined Heart!

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