The saints everlasting rest, or, A treatise of the blessed state of the saints in their enjoyment of God in glory wherein is shewed its excellency and certainty, the misery of those that lose it, the way to attain it, and assurance of it, and how to live in the continual delightful forecasts of it and now published by Richard Baxter ...

SECT. XI.* 1.1

6. THe last whom I would perswade to this great Work of helping others to the Heavenly Rest, is Parents, and Ma∣sters of Families: All you that God hath intrusted with Children or Servants, O consider what Duty lyeth on you for the furthe∣ring of their Salvation. That this Exhortation may be the more ef∣fectual with you, I will lay down these several Considerations for you seriously to think on.

1. What plain and pressing commands of God are there that require this great Duty at your hands. Deut. 6.6, 7, 8. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou lyest down, and when thou risest up. So Deut. 11. And how well is God pleased with this in Abraham, Gen. 18.19. Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? For I know him, that he will com∣mand his Children, and his Houshold after him, that they shall keep the way of the Lord, &c. And it is Joshuaes Resolution, That he and his Houshold will serve the Lord.* 1.2 Prov. 22.6. Train up a childe in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. Ephes▪ 6.4. Bring up (your children) in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord. Many the like Precepts, especially in the Book of Proverbs, you may finde: So that you see it is a Work that the Lord of heaven and earth hath laid upon you; and how then dare you neglect it and cast it off?

2. It is a duty that you ow, your children in point of Justice; from you they received the defilement and misery of their natures; and therefore you ow them all possible help for their recovery▪ If you had but hurt a stranger, yea, though against your will, you would think it duty to help to cure him.

3. Consider how neer your children are to you, and then you will perceive, that from this Natural Relation also, they have in∣terest in your utmost help: your children are, as it were, parts of your selves; If they prosper when you are dead, you take it almost as if you lived and prospered in them. If you labor never so much, you think it not ill bestowed, nor your buildings, or purchases too dear, so that they may enjoy them when you are dead: and should you not be of the same minde for their everlasting Rest?

4. You will else be witnesses against your own souls: your great care▪ and pains, and cost for their bodies, will condemn you for; your neglect of their pretious souls; you can spend your selves in toyling and caring for their bodies, and even neglect your own souls, and venture them sometimes upon unwarrantable courses, and all to provide for your Posterity; and have you not as much reason to provide for their souls? Do you not believe that your children must be everlastingly happy or miserable when

this life is ended? and should not that be fore-thought of in the first place?

5. Yea, All the very bruit creatures may condemn you; Which of them is not tender of their young? How long will the Hen sit to hatch her Chickens? and how busily scrape for them? and how carefully shelter and defend them? and so will even the most vile and venemous Serpent; and will you be more unnatural and hard-hearted then all these? will you suffer your children to be ungodly and profane, and run on in the undoubted way to damnation, and let them alone to destroy themselves without controll?

6. Consider, God hath made your children to be your charge; yea, and your servants too: Every one will confess they are the Mi∣nisters charge, and what a dreadful thing it is for them to neglect them, when God hath told them, That if they tell not the wicked of their sin and danger, their blood shall be required at that Mini∣sters hands; and is not your charge as great and as dreadful as theirs? Have not you a greater charge of your own Families then any Minister hath? Yea doubtless▪ and your duty, it is to reach, and admonish, and reprove them, and watch over them, and at your hands else will God require the bloud of their souls: The greatest charge it is that ever you were entrusted with, and we to you if you prove unfaithful and betray your trust, and suffer them to be ignorant for want of your teaching, or wicked for want of your admonition or correction! O ••ad account that many parents will make!

7. Look into the dispositions and lives of your children, and see what a work there is for you to do. First, It is not one sin that you must help them against, but thousands; their name is Legion, for they are many; It is not one weed that must be pulled up, but the field is overspread with them. Secondly, And how hard is it to prevail against any one of them? They are Hereditary diseases, bred in their Natures. Naturam expell••s furea, &c. They are a•• neer them as the very heart, and how tenacious are all things of that which is natural? how hard to teach a Hare not to be fearful? or a Lyon or Tiger not to be fierce? Besides, the things you must teach them are quite above them, yea, & clean contrary to the interest and desires of their Flesh; how hard is it to teach a man to be willing to be poor, and despised, and destroyed here for Christ! to deny themselves, and displease the flesh, to forgive an Enemy, to love those

that hate us, to watch against temptations, to avoid occasions and appearance of evil, to believe in a crucified Saviour, to rejoyce in tribulation, to trust upon a bare word of Promise, and let go all in hand (if call'd to it) for something in hope that they never saw, nor ever spake with man that did see; to make God their chief delight and love, and to have their hearts in heaven while they live on earth; I think none of this is easie; they think otherwise let them try and Judg; yet all this must be learned, or they are undone for ever. If you help them not to some Trade, they cannot live in the world, but if they be destitute of these things, they shall not live in hea∣ven; If the Marriner be not skilful he may be drowned, and if the Souldier be not skilful he may be slain; but they that cannot do the things above mentioned will perish for ever; For without holiness none shall see God, Heb. 12.14. O that the Lord would make all you that are Parents sensible what a work and charge doth lye upon you! You that neglect this important work, and talk to your Fa∣milies of nothing but the world, I tell you, the bloud of souls lyes on you, make as light of it as you will, if you repent not and amend, the Lord will shortly call you to an account for your guilti∣ness of your childrens everlasting undoing; and then you that could finde in your hearts to neglect the souls of your own children, will be judged more barbarous then the Irish or Turks, that kill the children of others.

8. Consider also what a world of sorrows do you prepare for your selves by the neglect of your children: First, You can ex∣pect no other but that they should be thorns in your very eyes, and you may thank your selves if they prove so, seeing they are thorns of your own planting. Secondly, If you should repent of this your negligence, and be saved your selves, yet is it nothing to you to think of the damnation of your children? You know, God hath said, That except they be born again they shall not enter into the Kingdom of God. Methinks then it should be a heart-breaking to all you that have unregenerate children; Methinks you should weep over them every time you look them in the face, to remember that they are in the way to eternal fire! Some people would lament the fate of their children, if but a Wizard should foretel them some ill fortune to befall them; and do you not regard it, when the Living God shall tell you, That the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all they that forget God? Psal. 9.17. Thirdly, Yet all this

were not so doleful to you, if it were a thing that you had no hand in, or could do nothing to help; but to think that all this is much long of you! that ever your negligence should bring your childe to these everlasting torments, which the very damned man (Luke 16.) would have had his brethren been warned to escape; if this seem light to thee, thou hast the heart of a hellish Fiend in thee, and not of a man. Fourthly, But yet worse then all this will it prove to you, if you die in this sin; for then you shall be miserable as well as they; and O what a greeting will there be then between un∣godly Parents and children! what a hearing will it be to your tormented souls, to hear your children cry out against you, All this that we suffer was long of you, you should have taught us better, and did not; you should have restrained us from sin, and corrected us, but you did not; what an addition will such out-cries be to your misery?

9. On the other side, do but think with your selves; what a world of comfort you may have if you be faithful in this duty: First, If you should not succeed, yet you have freed your own souls, and though it be sad, yet not so sad, for you may have peace in your own consciences, Secondly, But if you do succeed, the comfort is unexpressible. For first, Godly children will be truly loving to your selves that are their Parents; when a little riches or matters of this world, will oft make ungodly children to cast off their very natural affection: secondly, Godly children will be most obedient to you; They dare not disobey and provoke you, because of the command of God, except you should command them that which is unlawful, and then they must obey God rather then men: thirdly, And if you should fall into want, they would be most faithful in relieving you, as knowing they are tied by a double bond, of Nature, and of Grace: fourthly, And they will also be helpers to your souls, and to your spiritual comforts; they will be delighting you with the mention of heaven, and with all holy con∣ference and actions; when wicked children will be grieving you with cursing, and swearing, or drunkenness, or disobedience: fifthly, Yea, when you are in trouble, or sickness, and at death▪ your godly children will be at hand to advise and to support you; they will strive with God in prayers for you; O what a comfort is it to a Parent, to have a childe that hath the Spirit of Prayer, and interest in God? how much good may they do you by their im∣portunity

with God? And what a sadness is it to have children, that when you lye sick, can do no more but ask you how you do, and look on you in your misery? sixthly, Yea, all your Family may fare the better, for one childe or servant that feareth God; (yea per∣haps all the Town where he liveth:) As Josephs case proveth, and Jacobs, and many the like; when one wicked childe may bring a Judgment o•• your house: seventhly, And if God make you in∣struments of your childrens conversion, you will have a share in all the good that they do through their lives; all the good they do to their brethren, or to the Church of God, and all the honor they bring to God, will redound to your happiness, as having been instruments of it: eighthly, And what a comfort may it be to you all your lives, to think that you shall live with them for ever with God? ninthly, But the greatest joy will be, when you come to the possession of this, and you shall say, Here am I, and the children thou hast given me; And are not all these comforts enough to perswade you to this duty?

10. Consider further, That the very welfare of Church and State lyeth mainly on this duty, of well educating children; and without this, all other means are like to be far less successful. I seri∣ously profess to you, that I verily think all the sins and miseries of the Land, may acknowledg this sin for their great Nurse and Pro∣pagator. O what happy Churches might we have, if Parents did their duties to their children! then we need not exclude so many for ignorance or scandal, nor have our Churches composed of mem∣bers so rude! then might we spare most of the quarrels about Dis∣cipline, Reformation, Toleration, and Separation; any reasona∣ble government would do better with a well-taught people, then the best will do with the ungodly. It is not good Laws and Or∣ders that will reform us, if the men be not good, and Reformation begin not at home; when children go wicked from the hands of their Parents, thence some come such to the Universities, and so we come to have an ungodly Ministry; and in every profession they bring this fruit of their Education with them; when Gentlemen teach their children onely to Hunt, and Hawk, and game, and de∣ride the godly, what Magistrates, and what Parliaments, and so what Government, and what a Commonwealth are we like to have? when all must be guided by such as these? some perverse in∣considerate persons, lay the blame of all this on the Ministers, that

people of all sorts are so ignorant and profane, as if one man can do the work of many hundreds! I beseech you that are Masters and Parents, do your own duties, and free Ministers from these unjust aspersions, and the Church from her reproach and confusion; Have not Ministers work enough of their own to do? O that you knew what it is that lieth on them! And if besides this, you wil cast upon them the work of every Master and Parent in the Parish, it is like indeed to be well done: How many sorts of Workmen must there be to the building of an house? and if all of them should cast it upon one, and themselves do nothing, you may judg how much were like to be done! If there be three or four Schoolmasters in a School, amongst three or four hundred Scholars; & all the lower that should fit them for the higher Schools, should do nothing at all, but send all these Scholars to the highest Schoolmaster as ignorant as they re∣ceived them, would not his life be a burden to him, and all the work be frustrate and spoiled? Why so it is here: The first work towards the reforming and making happy of Church and Commonwealth lies in the good education of your children; the most of this is your work; and if this be left undone, and then they come to Ministers raw and ignorant, and hardned in their sins; alas what can a Minister do! whereas if they came trained up in the Principles of Religion, and the practice of godliness, and were taught the fear of God in their youth; O what an encouragement would it be to Ministers! and how would the work go on in their hands! I tell you seriously, this is the cause of all our miseries and unreformedness in Church and State; even the want of a holy education of children! Many lay the blame, on this neglect, and that but there is none hath so great a hand in it as this: what a School must there needs be where all are brought raw, as I said, to the highest School? what a house must there needs be built, when Clay is brought to the Masons hands in stead of Bricks? What a Commonwealth may be expe∣cted, if all the Constables and Justices should do nothing but cast all upon King and Parliament? And so, what a Church may we expect, when all the Parents and Masters in the Parish shall cast all their duty on their Ministers? Alas, how long may we Catechise them, and preath to them, before we can get them to understand the very Principles of the Faith? This, this is the cause of our Churches deformities, and this is the cause of the present difficulty of Reformation. Its in vain to contend about Orders and Disci••pline,

if the persons that live under it be not prepared. Perhaps you'l say, the Apostles had not their hearers thus prepared to their hands: Is not the word the first means of conversion?

Answ. 1. The Apostles preached to none at first but Infidels and Pagans: And are you no better? Will you do no more for your children then they?

2. All the success of their labors, was to gather here and there a Church from among the world of unbelievers: but now the Kingdoms of the world are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and his Christ.

3. And yet the Apostles were extraordinarily qualified for the work, and seconded it by Miracles, for the convincing of their hearers.

4. I do verily believe that if Parents did their duty as they ought▪ the word publikly preached would not be the ordinary means of Regeneration in the Church, but only without the Church, among Infidels. Not that I believe Doctor Burges, and Master Bedfords doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration: But God would pour out his grace so upon the children of his peo∣ple, and hear prayers for them, and bless such endeavors for their holy education, that we should see the promises made good to our seed; and the unthankful Anabaptists, that will not confesse that the children of the Saints are any neerer God, or more beholden to him then Pagans, so much as for the favor to be visible Church-members, should by sweet experience be convinced of their error, and be taught better how to understand, that our children are holy.

II. I intreat you that are parents also to consider, what ex∣cellent advantages you have above all others for the saving of your children.

1. They are under your hands while they are young and tender and flexible; But they come to Ministers when they are grown eld∣er, and stiffer, and settled in their wayes, and think themselves too good to be catechised, and too old to be taught. You have a twigg to bend, and we an oake. You have the young plants of sin to pluck up, and we the deep rooted vices. The consciences of children are not so seared with a custome of sinning and long resisting grace, as others. You have the soft and tender earth to plow in, and we have the hard and stony wayes, that have been

trodden on by many yeers practice of evil. When they are young' their understandings are like a sheet of white paper, that hath no∣thing written on; and so you have opportunity to write what you will. But when they are grown up in sin, they are like the same paper written over with falshoods; which must all be blot∣ed out again, and truth written in the place: and how hard is that? We have a double task, first to unteach them, and then to teach them better; but you have but one. We must unteach them all that the world, and flesh, and wicked company, and the divel have been diligently teaching them in many yeers time. We have hardened hearts to beat on, like a Smiths Anvile, that will not feel us: We may tell them of death and Judgment, heaven and hell, and they hear us as if they were asleep or dead; you have the soft clay to mold, and we the hardened burned bricks. You have them be∣fore they are possessed with prejudice, and false conceits against the truth: but we have them to teach, when they have many yeers lived among those that have scorned at godliness, and taught them to think Gods wayes to be foolish preciseness. Custome hath not en••nared and engaged your little ones to contrary wayes: But of old sinners, the Lord himself hath said, that if the Aethiopian can change his skin, and the Leopard his spots; then may those that are acc••stomed to do evil, learn to do well, Jer. 13.23. Doth not the experience of all the world shew you the power of education? What else makes all the Children of the Jews to be Jews? and all the Children of the Turks to be Mahometans? and of Christians, to be in profession Christians? and of each Sect or party in Re∣ligion to follow their parents, and the custom of the place? Why now what an advantage have you, to use all this for the further∣ance of their happiness? and possess them as strongly beforehand against sin, as else Satan would do for it; and so Satan should come to them upon some of those disadvantages that now Christ comes on.

2. Consider also, that you have the affections of your Children more then any others: None in the world hath that interest in their hearts as you. You will receive that counsel from an un∣doubted friend, that you would not do from an enemy, or a strang∣er. VVhy now, your children cannot choose but know that you are their friends, and advise them in love: and they cannot choose but love you again. Their love is loose and arbitrary to others: but

to you it is determinate and fast; nature hath almost necessitated them to love you. O therefore improve this your interest in them for their good.

3. You have also the greatest authority over them. You may command them, and they dare not disobey you; or else it is your owne fault, for the most part; for you can make them obey you in your business in the world. Yea you may correct them to in∣force obedience. Your authority also is the most unquestioned authority in the world. The authority of Kings and Parliaments, hath been disputed, but yours is past dispute. And therefore if you use it not to constrain them to the works of God, you are with∣out excuse,

4. Besides, their whole dependance is on you for their mainte∣nance and livelihood. They know you can either give them, or deny them what you have; and so punish or reward them at your pleasure. But on Ministers or neighbors they have no such depen∣dance.

5. Moreover, you that are parents, know the temper, and in∣clinations of your children, what vices they are most inclined to, and what instruction or reproof they most need; But Ministers that live more strange to them, cannot know this.

6. Above all you are ever with them, and so have opportunity as to know their faults, so to apply the remedy, You may be still talking to them of the word of God, and minding them of their state and duty; and may follow and set home every word of advice: as they are in the house with you, or in the shop, or in the feild at work; O what an excellent advantage is this, if God do but give you hearts to use it. Especially you mothers, remember this: you are more with your children while they are little ones then their fathers; be you therefore still teaching them as soon as ever they are capable of learning. You cannot do God such eminent service your selves, as men, but you may train up children that may do it, and then you will have part of the comfort and honor. Bathsheba had part of the honor of Solomons wisdom Pro. 31.1. for she taught him. And Timothe's mother and grandmother, of his piety. Plu¦trach speaks of a Spartan woman, that when her neighbors were shewing their apparel and jewels, she brought out her children vertuous and well taught, and said, These are my ornaments and Jewels. O how much more would this adorn you, then your bra∣very?

What a deal of pains are you at with the bodies of your children more then the fathers? And what do you suffer to bring them into the world? and will not you be at as much pains for the saving of their souls? You are naturally of more tender affections then men: and will it not move you to think that your children, should perish for ever? O therefore I beseech you for the sake of the children of your bowels, teach them, admonish them, watch over them, and give them no rest till you have brought them over to Christ.

And thus I have shewed you reason enough to make you dili∣gent in teaching your children, if reason will serve, as me thinks a∣mong reasonable creatures it should do.

Notes

• * 1.1

  §. 11.
• * 1.2

  Josh 24.15.