A81235:307
Correction, instruction or, a treatise of afflictions
Correction, instruction or, a treatise of afflictions: first conceived by way of private meditations: afterward digested into certain sermons, preached at Aldermanbury. And now published for the help and comfort of humble suffering Christians. By Tho. Case, M.A. sometimes student of Ch. Ch. Oxon. now preacher of the Gospel in London.Correction, instruction or, a treatise of afflictions: first conceived by way of private meditations: afterward digested into certain sermons, preach'd at Aldermanbury. And now published for the help and comfort of humble suffering Christians. By Tho. Case, M.A. sometimes student of Ch. Ch. Oxon. now preacher of the Gospel in London.
London: printed by J.M. for Luke Fawn, 1652London: printed by J.M. for Luke Favvn, 1652
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.
First, 1Afford your Children due correction. It is the counsel of the Holy Ghost, CHASTEN thy son while there is hope, and let not thy Soul spare for his crying. Behold, God counselleth you that are Parents, or in stead of Parents, to do with your children as He doth with his; wisely to use the discipline of the rod, before vicious dispositions grow into habits, and folly be so deeply rooted, 2that the Rod of Correction will not drive it out. Error and folly, saith one very well, be the knots of Satan, wherewith he ⟨p. 271⟩ties children to the stake to be burnt in Hell; and these knots are easiliest cut betimes; or if you should make the child bleed in cutting of them, let it not cause you to withdraw your hand; for so it followeth, Chasten thy son, &c. and let not thy Soul spare for his crying: It is not only foolish, but cruel pity to forbear correction for a few childish tears; to suffer the child to howl in Hell for sin, father then to sh•d a few tears for the preventing of it. Foolish fathers and mothers call this love, but the Father of spirits calls it hatred: He that spareth the rod, Hateth his son, Prov. 13.24 Surely there is nothing so ill spared, as that whereby the child is spoiled; such sparing is hatred; and because you hate your children in not correcting of them, they come afterward to hate you by not correcting of them: But that is not all; *the parents lenity in this case makes way for Gods severity: Pity to the flesh is cruelty to the soul; so the Hebrew may be rendered, Spare ⟨p. 272⟩not to his destruction, or to cause him to dye, that is, to occasion his destruction: The foolish indulgence of the parent may be, and often is, the death of the child, eternal death: Parents spare their children in their folly to the destruction both of body and soul. And this may help us to expound that other parallel text, Withhold not correction from the child, 4