Addresses to old men, and young men, and little children. In three discourses ...…

All Christians are first addressed under the name of New-born Babes; for indeed we all should be like Babes for our Humility, for our Innocency, for our Placability; or else, our Lord has told us, Y•• shall not enter in o the Kingdom of Heaven. But these Babes are then ranked under three Denominations, Fathers, Young Men, Little Children; to each of these does the Apostle say, I write unto you; For truly, our God hath His Children in all Ages, and all Ages ought very much to be conversant with the written Word of God.

Let us begin at the first, and of them: note,

First, The Persons apply d unto. Fathers. By these are meant, not merely Fathers in Grace, but likewise, Fathers in Age; the Expression intimates Old Men, that are in the School of the Lord Jesus Christ, And mark, the old Apostle calls them, Fathers; which was not from any Relation of theirs to him, but from his Reverence to them. 'Tis to teach us. That, Old Men should have much Respect and Honour from us; we ought still to […] them as our Fathers, & use no Terms unto them, which discover not our sense of something operable in them, but remember that Charge of […], in Lev. 22. 19. Thou shalt Honour the Face […] ••he Old Man, and Fear thy God; there is no […] of the Great God where the Face of an Old […] is not beheld with Regards of Honour.

First, The Persons apply d unto. Fathers. By these are meant, not meerly Fathers in Grace, but likewise, Fathers in Age; the Expression intimates Old Men, that are in the School of the Lord Jesus Christ, And mark, the old Apostle calls them, Fathers; which was not from any Relation of theirs to him, but from his Reverence to them. 'Tis to teach us. That, Old Men should have much Respect and Honour from us; we ought still to them as our Fathers, & use no Terms unto them, which discover not our sense of something erable in them, but remember that Charge of , in