454 Of Eletlion ~but lfaac and lfbmatl, and perhaps both were ungodly, though the promife BooK V. of Chrift was fer upon I(aac) No , the comfor was to come, when at lat– ~ trr day he !hall !ay thefe are the Children God bath given .me. We are herein partakers of part of Chrifls priviledge , it was his Speech , ljm'. 8. 18. Lo I, mzd the ChJ!drtll rho" haf/ gzvm me. Vjt 2. When you have Children born unto you, then renew your Co– venants with God, and walk more obediently. Hmmah dcdicJted her Child to God : That. is not in your power: But dedicate you your fel ves more to God, God ts to extend lus Covenant anew to your Children for yoLr fakes : Do you therefore renew your Covenant with him. Arid the m.>re they cncreafe, and the more Children thou art in dependance upon God to extend his Covenant unto; the larger do thou extend thy Covenant O– bedience, and to more·Duties, Search further into the Commandments to find out new ways of Obedience to lay thy felf forth in , as God gi'ves rhee more Lives, give thou more Lives to him, e:lr!tthZ~{dab being born to E11ocb, provoked him to walk the more exatlly: SoGtnej. )· 22. you who have many Children, lhould be much in Obedience ; and tv~r for your Childrens fakes,walk fo as to keep up the repute of being holy. Walk not doubtfully and unftably, fo as that there lhould arife any que!!ion of your Godlinefs by the Saints , you live with. Do this even for your Childrens fakes; for you have foen what a help, what an encouragement it may be ro their Faith, that you are accounted and known to be Godly; when you lhall walk fo , as to leave that doubtful, (as Solomon did,who fo lived, that it is a Q!)efiion in the Church whither he be faved, or no) you then waken all thefe Encouragements of their Faith, and all the Ar– guments that fhould provoke them to a holy Life. A Third Vj( to Parents is, that if you have Children that are Godly , and already converted; they lhould then get their hearts exceedingly af– fetled towards God, in love again, There is no outward mercy like thi'; it is more than if he had ratfed up one of thy Children to be Mo11arch of the whole World, See how it took 'Davids heart, 1 Chr011. '7• 25,16. that he had raifed himfclf up to be one of the great ones of the Earth ; which is not {pnken of himfelf alone, but of his Houfe alfc. They fay, that Man and Wife love each other the better, when tl1ey come to have Children by each other: It is a fign of an everlafiing love on Gods Part., for him to have Children' by thee: And it lhould be an encreafe of love on thy Part to have Children by him. V[t 4· Are you to think your Children Eletl? then dye in that Faith con– cerning them, and kave them to God. This comforted Davidwhen he was to dye, that thouga his Houfe was not trmta; fo great (as fame read it) nor ittJ erga'Deum, fo exatl towards God, ( as Jmutu) yet God had made a Covenant with him for his own, and many others Salvatiom, though out– wardly it lhould not profper. God is thy Friend, and thy Childrens Friend, he will remember thy Seed when thou art dead and rotten, even as he oft timeoremembred 'Davids. It is a comfort thanhou £anfi leave them to a Chur£h, a Mother, but a greater comfort, that to God as to a Father, If thou hadft a Grandfather to leave thy Children to, who thou wert fure would live, thou then wouldfl not dye follicitou{]y in refpetl of thy Chil– dren. Lmhtr being to make his la!! Will, and having nothing to bequ,ath to his Children, he bequeathed them to God : So do thou , and fay ns Chnfl did when he made his la!! Tefiameot, as being about to leave the World; thine 0 Fath'r lhty wtr', m!dthougave{l th'm mt: and tell them as he did, I go to my Father a?Jd.)•our Father. Thofe that are godly arc provided for, there is one who hath taken them off thy Hand and care already: in the confidence therefore of that thou mnyft dye hcpefully , and quiet· ly, A FifthVfe may be, to take heed of an unequal partiality in your love or care towards any of~our Children : Wherein many Parents are oft times blameworthy, as difaffcCl:ing and neglelling fame one, out of on inordin?te leavwg
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