Third Query, Have you not risen up rebelliously against, and hated your parents for chastening your bodies, to save your souls from hell? Some children (saith one) will not take that from a parent, which beasts, yea, and savage beasts too, bears and lions, will take from their keepers. What is this but to resist an ordi- nance of God for your good ? and, in rebelling against them, to rebel against the Lord ? Well, if they do not, God will take the rod into his own hand, and him you shall not resist.
Fourth Query, Have you not been unjust to your parents, and defrauded them? first, help to make them poor, and then des- pise them because they are poor. O horrid wickedness ! What a complicated evil is this ! Thou art, in the language of the scrip- ture, a companion with destroyers, Prov. xxviii. 24. This is the worst of theft, in God's account. You may think you make bold with them, but how bold do you make with conscience, and the command of God ?
Fifth Query, Are you not, or have you not been ungrateful to parents ? Leaving them to shift for themselves, in those straits you have helped to bring them into. O consider it, children, this is an evil which God will surely avenge, except ye repent. What I to be hardened against thine own flesh ; to be cruel to thine own parents, that with so much tenderness fed thee, when else thou hadst perished ! I remember Luther gives us a story of one, (and oh that it might be a warning to all that hear it), who had made over all that he had to his son, reserving only a maintenance for himself; at last his son despised him, and grudged him the very meat he eat ; and one day the father coming in, when the son and his wife were at dinner upon a goose, they shuffled the meat under the table ; but see the remarkable vengeance of God upon this ungracious, unnatural son : the goose was turned into a monstrous
390 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. SERM. XXXI.
toad, which Seized upon this vile wretch, and killed him. If any one of vou be guilty of these evils, to humble you for them, and reclaim vou from them, I desire these six considerations may be laid to heart.
First, That the effects of your obedience, or disobedience will stick upon vou and yours to many generations. If you be obedi- ent children in the Lord, both you and yours may reap the fruits of that your obedience, in multitudes of sweet mercies, for many generations. So runs the promise, Eph. vi. 22. " Honour thy fa- " ther and mother, which is the first commandment with pro- u mise, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long " on the earth.'" You know what an eye of favour God cast upon the Recabites for this, Jer. xxxv. 8. from the 14th to the 20th verse : and as his blessings are, by promise, entailed on the obedi- ent, so his curse upon the disobedient, Prov. xx. 20. " Whoso * curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in u obscure darkness ;" i. e. the lamp of his life quenched by death, yea, say others, and his soul also by the blackness of darkness in hell.
Secondly, Though other sins do, this sin seldom escapes exem- plary punishment, even in this world. Our English history tells us of a yeoman in Leicester-shire, who had made over all he had to his son, to prefer him in marriage, reserving only a bare main- tenance at his son's table : afterward, upon some discontent, the son bid his father get out of his house. The next day Mr. Goodman, the minister of the parish, meeting the young man walking about his ground, asked him, How he did ? He answered, Very well ; but before the minister was gone far from him, his bowels fell out, which he carried in his hands, got to his house, sent for Mr. Goodman, bitterly bewailed his sin against his father, and so died. And Dr. Taylor, in his great examplar, tells us of another, that, upon discontent with his father, wished the house might be on fire, if ever he came any more into his father's house : afterwards, coming in, it was fired indeed, and this wicked son only consumed. I could multiply instances of this nature, (for indeed the righteous judgment of God hath multiplied them,) but this only for a taste.
Thirdly, Heathens wall rise up in judgment against you, and con- demn you. They never had such precepts nor precedents as you, and yet some of the better natured Heathens would rather cho- sen death, than to do as you do. You remember the story of Croesus"1 dumb son, whose dear affections could make him speak when he saw Croesus in danger ; though he never spake before, yet then he could cry out, " O do not kill my father !" But what speak I of Heathens ! the stork in the heavens, yea, the beasts of the earth, will condemn the disobedience of children.
SERM. XXXI. THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE, 391
Fourthly, These are sins inconsistent with the true fear of God, in whomsoever they are found. That a man is indeed, which he is in his family, and among his relations. He that is a bad child can never be a good Christian. Either bring testimonies of your godliness from your relations, or it may be well suspected to be no better than counterfeit. Never talk of your obedience to God, whilst your disobedience to the just commands of your parents gives you the lie.
Fifthly, A parting time is coming when death will break up the family, and when that time comes, oh ! how bitter will the re- membrance of these things be ! when you shall see a father or a mother lving by the wall, what a cut will it be to remember your miscarriages and evils ! They are gone out of your reach, you can- not now, if you would,* give them any satisfaction for what you have done against them ; but, oh, how bitter will the remembrance of these things be at such a time ! Surely, this will be more unsup- portable to you than their death, if the Lord open your eyes, and give you repentance ; and if not, then,
Sixthly, What a terrible thing will it be, to have a father or mother come in as witnesses against you at Christ's bar ? As well as they loved you, and as dear as you were to them in this world, thev must give evidence against you then. Now, what a fearful thing is it for you but to imagine your parents to come before the Lord, and say, Lord, I have given this child many hundred reproofs for sin ; I have counselled, persuaded, and used all means to reclaim him, but in vain ; he was a child of disobedience, nothing could work upon him : what think you of this ?
Inf. 2. Have you such a pattern of obedience, and tender love to parents? Then, Children, imitate your pattern, as it becomes Chris- tian.s, and take Christ for your example. Whatsoever your parents be, see that you carry it towards them becoming such as profess Christ.
First, If your parents be godly, O beware of grieving them by any unbecoming carriage. Art thou a Christian indeed ? thou wilt then reckon thyself obliged in a double bond, both of grace and nature, to them : O what a mercy would some children esteem it, if they had parents fearing the Lord, as you have !