1. Be careful to brinp them up in the fear and nurture of the Lord : Eph. vi. 4., " Bring tliem up in the admonition of the Lord." You conveyed tlie plague of sin to them, therefore endeavour to get them heal- ed and sanctified. Austin saith, his mother Monica travelled more for his spiritual birth than his natural. Timothy's mother in- structed him from a child, 2 Tim. iii. 15. She did not only give him her breast-milk, but " the sincere milk of the word." Sea- son your children with good principles be- times, tliat they may, with Obadiah, ' fear the Lord from their youth,' 1 Kings xviii. 12. When parents instruct not their chil- dren, they seldom prove blessings. (lod oft punisheth the carelessness o( parents with undutifuliiess in their children. It is not enough that in baj)tism your child is dedi- cated to (iod, but it must be educated for God. Children are young plants which you must be continuaHy watering with good instruction, Prov. x-xii. 6., " Train up a child in the way lie should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." The more v<)ur children fear God, the more they will honour you.
2. If von would have your children ho- noin* voiJ, keep up parental authority over your cJiildren ; be kind, but do not cocker them ; if you let them get too much a-head, they will contemn you instead of honour- ing you. The rod of discipline must not be withheld: Prov. xxiii. \\., " Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul fntm hell." A child indulged and hn- mouri'd in wickedness, will be a tlun n in th«' parents' eye. David cockered Adoni- jah, 1 Kings i. G., " His father had not dis- j)lejisc<l him at any time, in saying, Wliy hast thou done so?" And he afterwards was a grief of heart to his father, an<l was false tt» the crown, v. 7, 9. Keep iij) your authority, and you keep u|) voiir honour.
but the parents for the children." They are your own flesh, and, as the apostle sjiitii, " No man ever yet hated his own flesh," Eph. V. 29. The jiarents' bountifulness will cause dutifulness in the child. If you pour water into a pump, the jnunp will send water again out freely; so, if parents pour in something of their estate to their children, children (if ingenuous) will pour out obedi- ence again to tlieir parents.
4. When your children are grown up, put tliem to some lawful calling, wherein they may serve their generation. And it is good to consult the natural genius and in- clination of a child ; forced callinnrs do as ill, sometimes, as forced matches. To let a child be out of a calling, is to expose him to temptation. Melancthon, Otiuin balneum diabolL A cliild out of a calling is like fallow-ground; and what can you expeet should grow up but weeds of disobedienee?
5. Carry it lovingly to your children ; in all your counsels and commands let tliem. read love. Love will command honour : and how can a parent but love the child who is his living picture, nay pai't of him- self? The child is the father iu the second edition.
6. Carry it prudently towards your chil- dren. A great point of prudejice, is, when a parent doth not jnovoke his children to wrath, Col. iii. 21., " Ij^athers provoke not your children to anger, lest they be dis- couraged."
Quest. How many ways may a parent provoke his children to wrath ?
Ans. 1. By giving them opprobrious terms, 1 Sam. XX. 30., " Thou son of the perverse rebellious woman," said Saul to bis son .Jonathan. Some parents use imprecations and curses to their children : this is to pro- voke them to wrath. Would you have (iod bless vour children, and do vou curse them .''
2. Parents provoke children to wrath, . when they strike their cliildren without aj cause; or when the correction exceeds the fault. This is rather to be a tyrant than a father. Saul cast a javelin at his son to.
3. Provide for your children what is lit- , sn\iie Uim, I Sam. xx. 33., and his son was
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provoked to anger, v. 34., " So Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger." In JUium pater obtinet non tyrannicum imperium, sed bosilicum. Davenant.
3. When parents deny their chiklren con- veniences ; they will not let them have that which may cherish or cover nature. Some have thus provoked their children ; they have stinted them, and kept them so short, that they have forced them upon indirect courses, and made them put forth their hands to iniquity.
4. When parents carry it unequally to- wards their children, shewing more kindness to one than to another, this sometimes breeds bad blood. Though a parent hath a greater
^ love to one child, yet discretion should guide affection, that he should not show more love to one than to another. Jacob shewed more love to Joseph than all his children, and what did it procure, but envy of his bre- thren. Gen. xxxvii. 3, 4., " Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, and when his brethren saw that, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him."