A compleat history of the most remarkable providences both of judgment and mercy, which have hapned in this present age extracted from the best writers, the author's own observations, and the numerous relations sent him from divers parts of the three kingdoms : to which is added, whatever is curious in the works of nature and art / the whole digested into one volume, under proper heads, being a work set on foot thirty years ago, by the Reverend Mr. Pool, author of the Synopsis criticorum ; and since undertaken and finish'd, by William Turner...

CHAP. LXXV. Present Retribution to them that have been Obedient to Parents.

HOnour thy Father and Mother, saith the Apostle, which is the first Commandment with Pro∣mise. And the particular Promise annexed to it, is Length of Days, viz. That thy Days may be long in the Land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee. And the Reason is obvious and na∣tural, and plain to any Man of Common Sence: for besides, that the Dutifulness of Children, is the likeliest may to engage the Favour of God, and the Divine Conduct and Blessing on their sides, it obligeth the Chil∣dren who are temselves green in Years, and unexperienced in the World, and obnoxious to many Tempta∣tions and Snares of Ill Company, Idleness, Rashness, Licentiousness, &c. to keep close to wiser Counsels, and the grave Instructions of their faithful, aged, and experienced Parents: by which means they oftentimes fare better than such rash and refractory Phaetons, who throw off the Yoke of Parental Discipline, and are left like Sons of Belial, to do whatsoever seems good in their own eyes. How many in the World have escaped the Stings of Poverty, and the Ignominy of the Gallows, and a violent Death, and other Dangers by this means?

1. Tho' Lamech had several other Children, as Jabal, Jubal, Tubal-Cain, &c. yet none that we read of, trod in the Steps, and proved so dutiful and comfortable to his Parents, as Noah, Gen. 5.29. And he was remarkably blessed and rewarded for it: for when all the rest of the World was destroy∣ed, He found Grace in the sight of the Lord, Gen. 6.8.

2. Noah had Three Sons, Shem, Ham, Japhet; but Ham dishonoured his Father, and made a Scorn of his Nakedness, and therefore was accursed by him: Shem and Japhet joyned together, and took a Garment to cover their Father's Infirmity, and therefore, Blessed (saith Noah) be the Lord God of Shem, &c. Gen. 9.26.

3. Abraham had Two Sons, Ishmael and Isaac, the one scornful and disinherited, and turned out of the House; the other dutiful, and his Father's Favourite and Heir.

4. Isaac had Two Sons, Esau and Jacob; the one a cunning Hunter, a profane Fellow, that made light of his Birth-right, and therefore forfeited his Blessing; the other a plain Man, and pious, and according procured the Blessing.

5. Jacob had many Children; but Reuben, the First-born, unstable as Water, went up to his Fa∣ther's Bed, and defiled it; and therefore, Gen. 49.4. Thou shalt not excel. Simeon and Levi had In∣struments of Cruelty in their Habitations, in their Anger they slew a Man, and in their Self-will digg'd down a Wall: and therefore, (ver. 7.) Cursed be their Anger: for it was fierce, &c. They were to be di∣vided and scattered in Israel. Judah to save Joseph's Life, who was his Father's Fondling, and the Son of his Old Age, advised his Brethren to sell him, and afterwards offered himself to be Joseph's Bond∣man, for his Brother Benjamin, out of Tenderness to his Aged Father, Gen. 44.34. For how shall I go up, saith he, to my Father, and the Lad be not with me; lest peradventure I see the evil that shall come

on my Father. And therefore see how this Piety of Judah, and Dutifulness to his Father was at last rewarded, chap. 49.8, 9, 10. Judah, thou art he, that thy Brethren shall praise, thy Hand shall be in the Neck of thy Enemies; thy Father's Children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a Lion's Whelp, &c. The Sceptre shall not depart from Judah, &c.

6. I have read (saith my Author) of a young Man hang'd at Four and twenty Years, whose curled Black Locks upon the Gallows instantly turned White; many enquiring into the Cause of such a strange Event, a grave Divine assigned this Reason: Had this young Man, (saith he) been dutiful to his Parents, obedient to his Superiours, he might have lived so long, 'till that in the Course of Nature, his Black Hairs had become White. Mr. Quick, in his relation of the Poisoning of a whole Family in Plimouth, &c. p. 87.

7. Mr. Paul Baines, of Christ's-College, in Cambridge, was at first very undutiful and irregular in his Conversation, and therefore his Father being grieved at it, left with one Mrs. Wilson, a Sails-man in London, 40 l. per Annum, upon this Condition, That if his Son did forsake his evil Courses, and become an honest Man, he should then give him the Estate; if not, he should never let him have it. After the Father's Decease, Mr. Baines reformed mightily, and became eminently pious and devout: Mr. Wilson falling sick, sends for him, and desires him to pray with him; which Mr. Baines did every savourily: upon which the good Gentleman told him of the 40 l. per Annum, which his Father had left with him, and so faithfully delivered up those Writings of the Agreement, which had passed be∣twixt his Father and him. And being like to leave behind him a Wife and two Children, he intreat∣ed Mr. Baines to be a Friend to them. And accordingly after Mr. Wilson's Death, to Discharge his Trust, and approve himself grateful, he married his Widow. Mr. Clark in his Life.

Here was a Son, that indeed was not dutiful to his Father in his first Years, that would not go, when his Father bid him go; but afterwards repented and went: and accordingly he fared; for tho' the Estate came not to him presently, yet afterwards it came.