Gurnall - BV4500 .G87 1655

1,-.2.7!1 .!.,,, -,: , 7. , , 226 digainft the Rulers of the My people are degroyed for lack of knowledge, Hofea 4. 6. Do you not tremble to offer them not to Motech, but the devil, whom before you had given up to Gad , when you brought them to that folemnordinance of Baptifme,andthere defired be- fore God and man that they might become Covenant-fervants to the Lord ? and haft thou bound them to him, and never teach them, either who their Lord and Mafter is, or what their duty is as his fervants? of thy own mouth God will condemn thee. Fourthly, confider you who are Parents, that by not inflru6t ing your children, you entitle your felves to all the fins they fhall commit to their death. We may fin by a proxy, and make anot hers fad our own. Thom haft (faith God by Nathan to Tavidc oncerning Vriah,) faint him with the fwordof the chil- dren of Ammon, 2 Sam.12.9. So thou mayeft pierce Chrift, and flay him over and over with the bloody fword of thy wicked children. if thou beeft not the more careful to train them up in the feare ofGod ; There might be fomething Paid for that Hea- then, who when the Scholar abated him, fell upon the Matter and Bruck him . Indeed iris poffible he might be in the molt fault. When the childe breaks the Sabbath, it is his fin; but more the fathers, if he never taught himwhat the command of God was. And if the Parent be accefrary to the fin of the childe, at will be hard' for him to eicape a Partnerfhip, yea, a Precedency in the punifhment, 0what a fad greeting will fuch have of their children at the great day will they not then ac- etate you to be the murderers of their precious foules, and lay their blood at your door, curling you to your face that taught them no better ? But grant,that by the interpofition of thy time- ly repentance, thou fecureft thy foule from the judgement of that day ;, yet God' can icourge thee here for the negleet of thy duty to them. How oft do we ice children become heavy crof- fes to fuch Parents ? It is jail that they fhould not know their duty to thee, who didit not teach them their duty Jo God; or if thou fhouldelt not live fo long to fee this, yet lure thou .eanft not but go in forrow to thy grave, to leave children behind thee that are on theirway to hell., Some think, that Lou lingring fo long in' Sodom, was his loathnefre to leave his fons in le,w be. hinde him, to perifb in the' flamesi Nodoubt (good mar) it , was

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