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

Secondly, Curb and Check, and Correct, as far as you can, all the Ungodliness, into the Excesses whereof your Ungodly Children would be Running. While your Children are under your Government, so Govern them, that they may not have their Way, when they shall be set upon Going out of the Way. While they are yet but Children, it is said, If thou beat them with the Rod, they shall not Die; thou shalt Save their Soul from Hell. Better Whipped, than Damned And afterwards, Don't Humour your Children, in every Fantastical and Extravagant Vanity, which you may see grateful unto their Unrenewed Hearts. Be as Ingenious as you can, to make a Thorn Hedges, against every Way of ⟨p. 29⟩Sinning, which they would be Walking in; therefore Begin Betimes to observe their Doings, whether their Work be Pure, or whether it be Right. This I say, If you can't Cross your Children, in their Proud, Mad, Ungodly Inclinations, God will ere long make them Crosses unto you. Be especially Inquisitive, what Company they keep. If you Leave them to be, The Companions of Fools, they will soon be Destroyed Fools themselves: Wherefore, do all you can to Rescue them from all the Snares, and Haunts of all Evil Company. O Forewarn them, and Withhold them, as much as ever you can, from those Knots of Profane, Gaming, Scoffing, Drinking, and Unclean Wretches, that keep so many of our Young People, in the Bond of Iniquity for ever: and, the Evening after the Sabbath, when, alas, there is more Villainy, they say, done among us, than all the Nights of the Week besides, if they will Then be singularly Exposing themselves unto Temptation, don't you consent unto it, but confine them, with your own watchful Eye, at home upon them. I shall say no more; but set before you that word, in Prov. 29. 15. A Child Left unto himself, brings his Mother to shame. It seems, ⟨p. 30⟩the Mother is usually most ready to let them have their Wills; and Lo, She pays for it.

Secondly, Curb and Check, and Correct, as far as you can, all the Ungodliness, into the Excesses whereof your Ungodly Children would be Running. While your Children are under your Government, so Govern them, that they may not have their Way, when they shall be set upon Going out of the Way. While they are yet but Children, it is said, If thou beat them with the Rod, they shall not Dy; thou shalt Save their Soul from Hell. Better Whipt, than Damn'd And afterwards, Don't Humour your Children, in every Fantastical and Exeravagant Vanity, which you may see grateful unto their Unrenewed Hearts. Be as Ingenious as you can, to make a Thorn Hedges, against every Way of