A26903:70
Compassionate counsel to all young men especially I. London apprentices, II. students of divinity,…
Compassionate counsel to all young men especially I. London apprentices, II. students of divinity, physic, and law, III. the sons of magistrates and rich men / by Richard Baxter.Compassionate counsel to all young men especially I. London apprentices, II. students of divinity, physick, and law, III. the sons of magistrates and rich men / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed by T.S., 1681
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
§ 9. But if they be wicked Parents, and as bad themselves, the misery is far greater, though they yet feel it not: For,
1. As the Thief on the Cross said to his Companion, Luk. 23.40, 41. Thou art in the same Condemnation, and we suffer justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds. Wicked Parents, and wicked Children are in the same Gall of bitterness and Bond of Iniquity! They sinned together, and they must suffer for ever together, if true Faith and Conversion do not prevent it.
2. And it is their wickedness which was much of the cause of their Children's sin and misery: And their own deep guilt will be more to them than their Children's suffering: God and Conscience will say to them ere long, [O cruel Parents! that had no mercy on your Children, or your selves! What did Nature teach you to love more, than your selves and your Children? And would you wilfully and obstinately be the ruin of both? You would not have done as the mad Idolaters, that offered their Children in fire to Moloch: And will you offer them by sin to Satan and to Hell? Had a Serpent stung them, or a Bear ⟨p. 46⟩devoured them, they had done but according to their Nature: But was it natural in you to further their damnation? This was work too bloody for a Cannibal, too cruel for an Enemy, fitter for a Devil than a Father or Mother. As your Child had from you his vicious nature, it was your part to have endeavoured his Sanctification and Recovery: You should have taught him betime to know the corruption of his nature, and to seek and beg the Grace of Christ; to know his God, his duty, the evil of sin, the danger of temptations, and his everlasting hopes and fears: You should have taught him to know what man hath done against himself, by disobeying and departing from his God, and what Jesus Christ hath done for his Redemption, and what he himself must do to be saved: You should have taught him early how to live, and how to die, and what to seek, and what to shun: You should have given him the Example of a holy and heavenly mind and life: You should have watched over him for his safety, and unweariedly instructed him for his Salvation: But you led him the way to despise God's Word, and set light by Christ, and Holiness, and Heaven,