PoN "á arto faplilp Zook. 293 Parents do theirduty! eillany tale more pains about their .Horfes, and Cattle, theln they do about their Children P, O that I could (peak what is deeply upon my heart to all the Parentsof the Land ! I would be bold to tell them, that multitudes aremore cruel than Bears and Lyons to their own Children. God bath com- mitted their fouls much to their truft and care, as he hath done their bodies, ' It is they that are at firft to devote them to God, in the Covenant of Baptifm It is they that are to (d) Teach them, and to eie- fort them to keep the Covenant which they made to Catechife them ; and to mind them of the State of their fouls, their need of Chrift, the mercy of re- demption, the excellency of holinefs, and of ever -_ lafling life : It is they that are to watch over themwith Wifdom, Love and diligence, to Pave . them from Temptation, Satan and fin, and to lead them by the exampleofa holy life. But Alas, inftead of this, they bring their Children Hypocritically to make that Covenant in Baptifm with God, which they never heartily contented to thee- (eves : They turn all intoa meerceremony, and below no more of it, than to have God-fathers and God- mothers as ignorant and ungodly as themfelves, to promife and vow that in the name ofthe Child, which theynever underftood ; nor intended top°rforni their promife forhis holy Education, the Child being none of their own, nor ever inftruc`fed by them : And when they think that the water and the Goijips and the words of the Prieft, have thus made a Chriftian of their (d) Deltt.6.6,,7,8 e, I 1.19) 2 p. U 3 Child ;
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