N00727:80
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.
III. The Respects that Children must render unto their Parents, are comprised in those Three Words, Reverence, and, Obedience, and Recompense. Children do Set Light by their Parents, or cast Contempt on them, if they withhold any of these Three Regards from them: and the Curse of God, will Revenge the Contempt
III. The Respects that Children must render unto their Parents, are comprized in those Three Words, Reverence, and, Obedience, and Recompence. Children do Set Light by their Parents, or cast Contempt on them, if they withhold any of these Three Regards from them: and the Curse of God, will Revenge the Contempt
First, You Set Light by your Parents, if you withhold from them, the Reverence that is due unto them. The God of Nature hath placed a Distance, between Parents and their Children; Children ⟨p. 60⟩then Set Light by their Parents, when they Forget this Distance. There is first, an Inward Reverence, that Children owe unto their Parents. It was Enjoined in Lev. 19.3. Ye shall Fear, every man, his Mother, and his Father. Children, you Set Light by your Parents, if your minds are not Struck, with some awful Apprehension of their Superiority over you; if you don't see an awful Image of God, in their Superiority; if you don't look upon them, as the very Deputies of God, in their several Families. But this Reverence must have some Outward Expression given of it. There is an Outward Reverence, that Children owe unto their Parents. Hence 'tis said, in Mal. 1.6▪ If I be a Father, where is my Honour? Hence 'tis said, in Prov. 31.28. Her Children Rise up, and call her Blessed. Their Speeches, both to their Parents, & of their Parents, must be full of Reverence. When Children speak to their Parents, their Language must carry in it, some Acknowledgement of their being such. Thus, in