These words thou shalt teach diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.* Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old he will not depart from it.† Bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.‡ Joshua resolved, that he and his house would serve the Lord. And God himself says of Abraham, I know him, that he will command his children, and his household after him, that they shall keep the way of the Lord.-Consider it is a duty you owe your children in point of justice. From you they received the defilement and misery of their natures; and therefore you owe them all possible help for their recovery.-Consider how near your children are to you. They are parts of yourselves. If they prosper when you are dead, you take it as if you lived and prospered in them; and should you not be of the same mind for their everlasting rest? Otherwise you will be witnesses against your own souls. Your care, and pains, and cost for their bodies, will condemn you for your neglect of their precious souls. Yea, all the brute creatures may condemn you. Which of them is not tender of their young?-Consider, God hath made your children your charge, and your servants too. Every one will confess they are the minister's charge. And have you not a greater charge of your own families, than any minister can have of them? Doubtless at your hands God will require the blood of their souls. It is the greatest charge you were ever entrusted with, and woe to you, if + Eph. vi. 4 * Deut. vi. 6, 7. Prov. xxii. 5. you suffer them to be ignorant or wicked for want of your instruction or correction. Consider what work there is for you in their dispositions and lives. There is not one sin, but thousands. They are hereditary diseases, bred in their natures. The things you must teach them are contrary to the interests and desires of the flesh. May the Lord: make you sensible what a work and charge lieth upon you!-Consider what sorrows you prepare for yourselves by the neglect of your children. If they prove thorns in your eyes, they are of your own planting. If you should repent and be saved, is it nothing to think of their damnation; and yourselves the occasion of it? But if you die in your sin, how will they cry out against you in hell, "All this was long of you; you should have taught us better, and did not; you should have restrained us from sin, and corrected us, but did not !". What an addition will such out-cries be to your misery!On the other side, think what a comfort you may have, if you be faithful in this duty. If you should not succeed, you have freed your own souls, and have peace in your own consciences. If you do, the comfort is expressible, in their love and obedience, their supplying your wants, and delighting you in all your remaining path to glory. Yea, all your family may fare the better for one pious child or servant. But the greatest joy will be, when you shall say, Lord, here am I, and the children thou hast given me; and shall joyfully live with them forever.-Consider how much the welfare of church and state depends on this duty. Good laws will not reform us, if reformation begin not at home. This is the cause of all our miseries in church and state, even the want of a holy education of children.-I also entreat parents to consider, what excellent advantages they have for saving their children. They are with you while they are tender and flexible. You have a twig to bend, not an oak. None in the world have such interest in their affections as you have. You have also the greatest authority over them. Their whole dependance is upon you for a maintenance. You best know their temper and inclinations. And you are ever with them, and can never want op. portunities: Especially you, mothers, remember this, who are more with your children, while young, than their fathers. What pains are you at for their bodies! What do you suffer to bring them into the world! And will you not be at as much pains for the saving of their souls? Your affections are tender; and will it not move you to think of their perishing forever? I beseech you, for the sake of the children of your bowels, teach them, admonish them, watch over them, and give them no rest till you have brought them to Christ. 20. I shall conclude with this earnest request to all Christian parents that read these lines: that they would have compassion on the souls of their poor children, and be faithful to the great trust that God hath put on them. If you cannot do what you would for them, yet do what you can. Both church and state, city and country, groan under neglect of this weighty duty. Your children know not God, nor his laws, but take his name in vain, and slight his worship, and you neither instruct them nor correct them; and therefore God corrects both them and you. You are so tender of them, that God is the less tender, both of them and you. Wonder not if God make you smart for your children's sins; for you are guilty of all they commit, by your neglect of your duty to reform them. Will you resolve therefore to set upon this duty, and neglect it no longer? Remember Eli. Your children are like Moses in the bulrushes, ready to perish if they have not help. As ever you would not be charged before God as murderers of their souls, nor have them cry out against you in everlasting fire, see that you teach them how to escape it, and bring them up in holiness, and the fear of God. I charge every one of you, upon your allegiance to God, as you will very shortly answer the contrary at your peril, that you will neither refuse nor neglect this most necessary duty. If you are not willing to do it, now you know it to be so great a duty, you are rebels, and not true subjects of Jesus Christ. If you are wil-· ling, but know not how, I will add a few words of direction to help you. Lead them, by your examples, to prayer, reading, and other religious duties. Inform their understandings. Store their memories. Rectify their will. Quicken their affections. Keep tender their consciences. Restrain their tongues, and teach them gracious speech. Reform and watch over their outward conversation. To these ends, get them bibles and pious books, and see that they read them. Examine them often what they learn: Especially spend the Lord's day in this work, and suffer them not to spend it in sports or idleness. Shew them the meaning of what they read or learn. Keep them out of evil company, and acquaint them with the godly, and fail not to make them learn their catechism. Especially shew them the necessity, excellency, and pleasure of serving God; and labour to fix all upon their hearts. CHAPTER X. THE SAINT'S REST IS NOT TO BE EXPECTED ON EARTH. 1. In order to shew the sin and folly of expecting rest here, § 2. (I.) the reasonableness of present afflictions is considered; §3 (1) that they are the way to rest, 4. (2) keep us from mistaking our rest,5 (3) from losing our way to it, § 6. (4) quicken our pace towards it, 7 (5) chiefly incommode our flesh, § 8, 9. and (6) under them the sweetest foretastes of rest are often enjoyed: § 10. (II.) How unreasonable to rest in present enjoyments; § 11. (1) that 'tis idolatry; § 12. (2) that it contradicts God's end in giving them; § 13. (3) is the way to have them refused, withdrawn, or embittered; § 14 (4) that to be suffered to take up our rest here is the greatest curse; 15. (5) that it is seeking rest where it is not; 16. (6) that the creatures without God, would aggravate our misery; § 17. (7) and all this is confirmed by experience. 18. The author laments that this is nevertheless a most common sin. § 19—23. (III.) How unreasonable our unwillingness to die, and possess the saint's rest, is largely considered. 24. The author apologizes for saying so much on this last head. 1. WE are not yet come to our resting place. Doth it remain? How great then is our sin and folly to seek and expect it here! Where shall we find the Christian that deserves not this reproof? We would all have continual prosperity, because it is easy and pleasing to the flesh; but we consider not the unreasonableness of such desires. And when we enjoy convenient houses, goods, lands and revenues; or the necessary means God hath appointed for our spiritual good; we seek rest in these enjoyments. Whether we are in an afflicted or prosperous state, it is apparent, we exceedingly make the creature our rest. Do we not desire creature enjoyments more violently, when we want them, than we desire God himself? Do we not delight more in the possession of them, than in the enjoyment of God? And if we lose them, doth it not trouble us more than our loss of God? Is it not enough, that they are refreshing helps in our way to heaven, but they must also be |