Captives bound in chains, made free by Christ their surety

2. Let Parents that are made free, pity and compassionate their Children that yet are bound. If any of your Children should be laid in Irons for some Fact committed ⟨p. 219⟩against the Laws of men, and carried bound to Execution, would not this like a Sword pierce your very hearts, be matter of grief and trouble to you? would not tears plentifully flow from your eyes, and bitter lamentations from your mouth, that ever you should bring forth, and bring up children that should end their days in such reproach and infamy to you and them? or if any of you had a Son abroad, and you should hear he were taken Captive by the Turks, or were in the Spanish Inquisition, what shedding of tears! what ringing of hands! what smiting on the breast would these tidings make! what dolorous complaints and grievous moans would you make! saying, Oh my Son, my Son, my poor afflicted and distressed Son, thou art fallen into the Hands of barbarous and cruel men; thou art put to drudgery and slavery! O my Son, my Son, what shall I do for thee, my Son. O that I could give or find a ransom for him! if all I have would set him free, he should not lie in Chains and Fetters, nor continue in that sore Captivity! Why, you Parents! would you thus lament the misery of your Children's body, and do you make nothing of the misery of your Children's souls! would you thus take on, and grieve and mourn for their outward Bondage, ⟨p. 220⟩which is consistent with the good condition of their souls, and will shortly have an end, and yet it is nothing to you, to see them in their spiritual bondage, captivated by Satan, and in danger of being cast into an everlasting Dungeon of black and thick Darkness! Oh why do you not speak to them, and tell them of their misery and their remedy; how they came into this condition, and how they may get out of it? why do you not day and night plead with them, instruct them, and exhort them, that they may escape the Torments of Hell hereafter, by being brought out of their bondage now? why do you not pray to God, that he would make them free? why do you not plead at the throne of grace, and say, Lord I have Children that are Satan's Captives, my poor Children are fast bound in Fetters of sin, in the Bonds of iniquity, O thou God of grace that hast showed favour unto me, show favour to my children also! Oh that they may be released!