N00727:92
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.
That when He wa• in His last Agonies, it was a Thing lying very near His Heart, that His Widow Mother, might be provided for: He said unto a Disciple, Behold, thy Mother! intimating that He would have him, take her Home unto his ⟨p. 74⟩own House. Now, be your Dutifulness to your Parents, never so complete, Let this Righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, be all that you will plead with God, as your Title to the promised Blessings of the Dutiful.
That when He wa• in His last Agonies, it was a Thing lying very near His Heart, that His Widow Mother, might be provi•ed for: He said unto a Disciple, Behold, thy Mother! intimating that He would have him, take her Home unto his ⟨p. 74⟩own House. Now, be your Dutifulness to your Parents, never so compleat, Let this Righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, be all that you will plead with God, as your Title to the promised Blessings of the Dutiful.
VI. Do not Go on, Children, If you value your Lives, and Souls, do not Go on to Grieve your Parents, by any Disrespect unto their Admonitions, or by any Vanity whatsoever. You cannot more Make Light of your Parents, than when you Make Light of their Counsels: your Contempt of their Counsels, will speedily bring down Gods Curses upon you. Moses did well, when he Hearkened unto the voice of his Father-in-law, and did all that he had said. It is the voice of Heaven, in Prov. 1.8. My Son, Hear the Instruction of thy Father, and forsake not the Law of thy Mother. Is it not the Instruction of thy Father, That thou shouldest avoid all Vicious Company; and, That thou shouldest Pray in Secret every Day; and, That thou should Read and Hear the Word of God, with Assiduity? Or if not so, yet it may be, the Law of thy Mother, who is in Travailing pains for thee, to