A65285:2329
A Body of Practical Divinity
A body of practical divinity consisting of above one hundred seventy six sermons on the lesser catechism composed by the reverend assembly of divines at Westminster : with a supplement of some sermons on several texts of Scripture / by Thomas Watson ...
London: printed for Thomas Parkurst, 1692
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
3. Provide for your Children what is fitting both in their Minority, and when they come to Maturity. 2 Cor. 12.14. The Children ought not to lay up for the Parents, but the Parents for the Children. They are your own Flesh; and as the Apostle saith, No Man yet ever hated his own Flesh, Eph. 5.29. The Parents Bountifulness will cause Dutifulness in the Child. If you pour Water into a Pump, the Pump will send Water out again freely. So if Parents pour in something of their Estate to their Children, Children (if ingenuous) will pour out Obedience again to their Parents.
4. When your Children are grown up, put them to some Lawful Calling, wherein they may serve their Generation. And it is good to consult the Natural Genius and Inclination of a Child. Forced Callings do as ill sometimes as Forced Matches. To let a Child be out of a Calling, is to expose it to Temptation. Melancton. Otium Balneum Diaboli. A Child out of a Calling is like Fallow Ground, and what can you expect should grow up but Weeds of Disobedience.
4. When your Children are grown up, put them to some Lawful Calling, wherein they may serve their Generation. And it is good to consult the Natural Genius and Inclination of a Child. Forc'd Callings do as ill sometimes as Forc'd Matches. To let a Child be out of a Calling, is to expose it to Temptation. Melancton. Otium Balneum Diaboli. A Child out of a Calling is like Fallow Ground, and what can you expect should grow up but Weeds of Disobedience.
5. Carry it Lovingly to your Children. In all your Counsels and Commands, let them read Love. Love will command Honour: And how can the Parent but love the Child who is his living Picture, nay, part of himself. The Child is the Father in the Second Edition.