Help for distressed parents. Or, Counsels & comforts for godly parents afflicted with ungodly…

If: any of you are Afflicted with and for, such miserable Children, Let these Lessons be acceptable to you.

I. Though you are Afflicted with Ungodly Children, you must not be discouraged as if you were altogether Singular, in your Affliction. Godly Parents are full of Lamentations, over their Ungodly Children; and among the rest of their Lamentations, they often make That, in Lam. 1. 12. Behold, and See, if there be any Sorrow like unto my Sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord has Afflicted me, in the Day of his Fierce Anger. They conclude, that among the Children of God, there are none punished with such Ungodly Children, and they suspect whether they be themselves indeed the Children of God, and not themselves Ungodly: Why? Because th• Fierce Anger of God, appears in their Affliction. But you are very much mistaken! There are many Godly Parents, whose Children have given them cause to complain, like that Worthy Minister, who Printing a Little Book, Entitled, Parents Groans over their Wicked Children, Dedicated it unto his own Children, with these grievous words, There are some of you that have made me the Father of Fools. There is an Italian saying well-known, which intimates, That the man was not Born of Mankind, whose Family ⟨p. 12⟩has no Blemishes akin unto it. Even so, If in a Family of many Children, there should be some Ungodly One to Blemish it, this is a Thing whereof I may say, 'Tis Nothing but what is common to man.

I. Though you are Afflicted with Ungodly Children, you must not be discouraged as if you were altogether Singular, in your Affliction. Godly Parents are full of Lamentations, over their Ungodly Children; and among the rest of their Lamentations, they often make That, in Lam. 1. 12. Behold, and See, if there be any Sorrow like unto my Sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord has Afflicted me, in the Day of his Fierce Anger. They conclude, that among the Children of God, there are none punished with such Ungodly Children, and they suspect whether they be themselves indeed the Children of God, and not themselves Ungodly: Why? Because th Fierce Anger of God, appears in their Affliction. But you are very much mistaken! There are many Godly Parents, whose Children have given them cause to complain, like that Worthy Minister, who Printing a Little Book, Entituled, Parents Groans over their Wicked Children, Dedicated it unto his own Children, with these grievous words, There are some of you that have made me the Father of Fools. There is an Italian saying wellknown, which intimates, That the man was not Born of Mankind, whose Family