CHAPTER XII: The Special Duties of Children and Youth towards God
Psal. 106:6. "We have sinned with our fathers, &c." Saith God:
"Behold your fathers have forsaken me—and have not kept my law; and ye have done worse than your fathers: therefore I will cast you out, &c." "Have ye forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and your own wickedness? They are not humbled even unto this dayk." "Be not as your fathers, to whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Turn ye now from your evil ways, but they did not hear." "Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone, away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto youm." "Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers." "Follow not your fathers in their sin and error, but follow them where they follow Christo.
CHAPTER XII
The special Duties of Children and Youth towards God THOUGH I put your duty to your parents first, because it is first learned, yet your duty to God immediately is your greatest and most necessary duty: learn these following precepts well.
Direct. I. 'Learn to understand the covenant and vow which in your baptism you made with God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, your Creator, Redeemer, and Regenerator: and when you well understand it, renew that covenant with God in your own persons, and absolutely deliver up yourselves to God, as your Creator,
Redeemer, and Sanctifier, your Owner, your Ruler, and your Father and felicity.' Baptism is not an idle ceremony, but the solemn entering into covenant with God, in which you receive the greatest mercies, and bind yourselves to the greatest duties. It is but entering into that way which you must walk in all your lives, and avowing that to God which you must be still performing. And though your parents
had authority to promise for you, it is you that must perform it; for it was you that they obliged. If you ask by what authority they obliged you in covenant to God, I answer, by the authority which God had given them in nature, and in Scripture; as they oblige you to be subjects of the king, or as they enter your names into any covenant, by lease or other contract which is for your benefit; and they do it for good, that you may have part in the blessings of the covenant: and if you grudge at it, and refuse your own consent when you come to age, you lose the benefits. If you think they did you wrong, you may be out of covenant when you will, if you will renounce the kingdom of heaven. But it is much wiser to be thankful to God, that your parents were the means of so great a blessing to you, and to do that again more expressly by yourselves which they did for you; and openly with thankfulness to own the covenant in which you are engaged, and live in the performance and in the comforts of it all your days.
Direct. II. 'Remember that you are entering into the way to everlasting life, and not into a place of happiness or continuance.
Presently therefore set your hearts on heaven, and make it the design of all your lives, to live in heaven with Christ for ever.' O happy you, if God betimes will throughly teach you, to know what it is that must make you happy; and if at your first setting out, your end be right, and your faces be heavenward! Remember that as soon as you begin to live, you are hasting towards the end of your lives; even as a candle as soon as it beginneth to burn, and the hour-glass as soon as it is turned, is wasting, and hasting to its end: so as soon as you begin to live, your lives are in a consumption, and posting towards your final hour. As a runner, as soon as he beginneth his race, is hasting to the end of it; so are your lives even in your youngest time. It is another kind of life that you must live for ever, than this trifling, pitiful, fleshly life. Prepare therefore speedily for that which God sent you hither to prepare for. O happy you, if you begin betime, and go on
with cheerful resolution to the end! It is blessed wisdom to be wise betime, and to know the worth of time in childhood, before any of it be wasted and lost upon the fooleries of the world. Then you may grow wise indeed, and be treasuring up understanding, and growing up in sweet acquaintance with the Lord, when others are going backwards, and daily making work for sad repentance or final desperation. "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, (of all things here below) I have no pleasure in them."
Direct. III. 'Remember that you have corrupted natures to be cured, and that Christ is the physician that must cure them, and the Spirit of Christ must dwell within you, and make you holy, and give you a new heart and nature, which shall love God and heaven above all the honour and pleasures of the world: rest not therefore till you find that you are born anew, and that the Holy Ghost hath made you holy, and quickened your hearts with the love of God, and of your dear
Redeemer.' The old nature loveth the things of this world, and the pleasures of this flesh; but the new nature loveth the Lord that made you, and redeemed and renewed you, and the endless joys of the world to come, and that holy life which is the way thereto.
Direct. IV. 'Take heed of loving the pleasures of the flesh, in overmuch eating, or drinking, or play.' Set not your hearts upon your belly or your sport; let your meat, and sleep, and play be moderate.
Meddle not with cards or dice, or any bewitching or riotous sports: play not for money, lest it stir up covetous desires, and tempt you to be over-eager in it, and to lie, and wrangle, and fall out with others.
Use neither food or sports which are not for your health; a greedy appetite enticeth children to devour raw fruits, and to rob their neighbours' orchards, and at once to undo both soul and body. And an excessive love of play, doth cause them to run among bad
companions, and lose their time, and destroy the love of their books, and their duty, and their parents themselves, and all that is good.
You must eat, and sleep, and play for health, and not for useless, hurtful pleasure.
Direct. V. 'Subdue your own wills and desires to the will of God and your superiors, and be not eagerly set upon any thing, which God or your parents do deny you.' Be not like those self-willed, fleshly children, that are importunate for any thing which their fancy or appetite would have, and cry or are discontent if they have it not. Say not that I must have this or that, but be contented with any thing which is the will of God and your superiors. It is the greatest misery and danger in the world, to have all your own wills, and to be given up to your hearts' desire.
Direct. VI. 'Take heed of a custom of foolish, filthy, railing, lying, or any other sinful words' You think it is a small matter, but God thinketh not so; it is not a jesting matter to sin against the God that made you: it is fools that make a sport with sin. One lie, one curse, one oath, one ribbald, or railing, or deriding word, is worse than all the pain that ever your flesh endured.
Direct. VII. 'Take heed of such company and play-fellows, as would entice and tempt you to any of these sins, and choose such company as will help you in the fear of God.' And if others mock at you, care no more for it, than for the shaking of a leaf, or the barking of a dog.
Take heed of lewd and wicked company, as ever you care for the saving of your souls. If you hear them rail, or lie, or swear, or talk filthily, be not ashamed to tell them, that God forbiddeth you to keep company with such as they.
Direct. VIII. 'Take heed of pride and covetousness' Desire not to be fine, nor to get all to yourselves; but be humble, and meek, and love