N00727:42
A family well-ordered. Or An essay to render parents and children happy in one…
A family well-ordered. Or An essay to render parents and children happy in one another. Handling two very important cases. I. What are the duties to be done by pious parents, for the promoting of piety in their children. II. What are the duties that must be paid by children to their parents, that they may obtain the blessings of the dutiful. / By Cotton Mather. ; [Three lines from Malachi]
Boston: printed by B. Green for Michael Perry, 1699
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.
Shall I add; It is here intimated, That an Abraham, is to Command his Children, very particularly, about, The Way of the Lord. The Way of the Lord, is the Way of his Right, pure, Instituted Worship. Well then, Command your Children, That they don't Forsake the Holy Institutions of the Lord Jesus Christ, and Embrace a Vain Worship, consisting of Things that He never Instituted. There are some clauses in the Second Commandment, which in imate, That if Fa••n•s would see the Mercies of God upon their Children, they must Charge them, to Worship God, only in those Ways, of Worship, that God hath Appointed.
Shall I add; It is here intimated, That an Abraham, is to Command his Children, very particularly, about, The Way of the Lord. The Way of the Lord, is the Way of his Right, pure, Instituted Worship. Well then, Command your Children, That they don't Forsake the Holy Institutions of the Lord Jesus Christ, and Embrace a Vain Worship, consisting of Things that He never Instituted. There are some clauses in the Second Commandment, which in imate, That if Fa••n•s would see the Mercies of God upon their Children, they must Charge them, to Worship God, only in those Wayes, of Worship, that God hath Appointed.
Thus keep Charging of your Children, while you Live. And, if you are ⟨p. 30⟩capable so to Do, Do it once more with all possible Solemnity, when you come to Dy. The words of a Dying Parent, will probably be Living Words, and Lively Ones. When our Excellent Mitchel was a Dying, he let fall such a Speech as This, unto a Young Gentleman, that Lodged in his House, My Friend, As a Dying man, I now charge you, that you don't meet me out of Christ in the Day of Christ. This one Speech, brought into Christ, the Soul of that Young Gentleman! Truly, If your Dying Lips, may utter such Dying Words unto your Children, who can tell, but they may then be brought into Christ, if they were never so before! But, lest you should have no opportunity, to Speak in a Dying Hour, why should you not Write such Things, as you would have them to Think upon, when you shall be Dead and Gone? An unknown deal of Good, may your Children Reap, from the Admonitions, that a Dying Parent may Leave unto them.