A30128:281
Christian behaviour, or, The fruits of true Christianity showing the ground from whence they…Christian behaviour, or, The fruits of true Christianity shewing the ground from whence they…
Christian behaviour, or, The fruits of true Christianity showing the ground from whence they flow in their godlike order in the duty of relations, as husbands, wives, parents, children, masters, servants &c. : with a word of direction to all backsliders / by John Bunyan.Christian behaviour, or, The fruits of true Christianity shewing the ground from whence they flow in their godlike order in the duty of relations, as husbands, wives, parents, children, masters, servants &c. : with a word of direction to all backsliders / by John Bunyan.
London: printed for F. Smith, 1663
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Christian Behaviour; OR, The Fruits of true Christianity. › Of Children to Parents.
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.
It is a double Sin in a gracious Son not to remember the Commandment, yea, the first Commandment, with promise, Ephes. 6. 1, 2.
Take heed of giving thy sweet Parents one snappish word, or one unseemly carriage. Love them because they are thy Parents; because they are godly; and because thou must be in Glory with them.
Again, if thou be godly, and thy Parents wicked, as often it sadly falls out:
Then, first, let thy bowels yearn towards them; 'tis thy parents that are going to Hell.
Secondly, As I said before to the wife touching her unbelieving husband, so now I say to thee, Take heed of a parrating tongue; speak to them wisely, meekly, and humbly; do for them faithfully without repining; and bear with all child-like modesty, their reproaches, their railing, and evil speaking. Watch fit opportunities to lay their condition before them. O! how happy a thing would it be, if God should use a Child to beget his Father to the Faith? Then indeed might the Father say, With the fruit of my own bowels hath God converted my soul. The Lord, if it be his will, convert our poor Parents, that they, with us, may be the Children of God.