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all this for want of a timely, and prudent preventing care. O thers, there are, of the rude and ignorant multitude, who are bred themselves, much like the beafts they daily converfe withal; and fo they are fitly defcribed, Job xxx. 6, 7. Go into their houses, and you may fooner find in the window, or upon the shelf, a pack of cards, than a bible or a catechifm; their beds, and tables, differ little, or not at all, from the falls, and cribs where beafts lie down, and feed in refpect of any worship of God among them; or if, for fashion-fake, a few words be huddled o. ver, in the evening, when their bodies are tired, the man faith fomething, he scarce knows what, the wife is asleep in one corner, the children in another, and the fervants in a third. This is the education multitudes of parents give their children all the week, and when the fabbath comes, the most they learn to know at church, is, where their own featstands, and that it is neceffary to speak with fuch a neighbour after prayers, about fuch or fuch a bargain, or business for the next week.

And others there are, who breed their children as profanely, as thefe do fottifhly; teaching them, by their examples, the newest oaths, that were laft minted in hell, and to revile, and fcoff all ferious godlinefs, and the fincere profeffors of it, fmiling to hear with what an emphasis they can talk in the dialect of devils, and how wittily they can droll upon godly ministers, and Christians.

Such families are nurferies for hell; and though God, by an extraordinary hand of providence, now and then fnatches a foul, by converfion, from among them, as a brand out of the fire; yet, generally, they die as they live, going "to the generation "of their fathers, where they fhall never fee light,” Psal. xlix. 19. I know education, and regeneration, are two things; but I alfo know one is frequently made the "inftrument of working "the other, and that the * favour of what first seasons our "youth (generally) abides to old age," Prov. xxii. 6. We may obferve, all the world over, how tenacious men are of that which is warpowapadorov, delivered to them by their parents. O what a cut muft it be, to the heart of that father whole fon's life shall tell his confcience what a profane fon's lips once told his father to his face!" If I have done evil, I have learnt it of "yout." Had they felt more of your prudent correction, it might have prevented their deftruction. Prov. xxiii. 14. "Thou fhalt beat him with the rod, and fhalt deliver his foul from

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hell." That this is a common beaten path to hell, is beyond all question; but how to bar it up, and ftop the multitudes that are engaged in it to their own ruin, this is the labour, this is the work. I cannot be large, but I will offer a few weighty confiderations.

The firft way to hell barred.

1. Let all parents confider, what a fearful thing it is to be the inftruments of ruining, for ever, thofe that received their beings inftrumentally from them, and to feek whofe good they ftand obliged, by all the laws of God, and nature.

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In vain are all your cares, and studies for their bodies, whilft their fouls perish, for want of knowledge. You rejoiced at their birth, but they will have cause to curfe the day they were born of you, and say, "Let the day perish wherein I was born, and

the night in which I was conceived." You were follicitous for their bodies, but careless of their fouls;. earnest to see them rich, but indifferent whether they were gracious; you neglected to teach them the way of falvation, but the devil did not neglect to teach them the way of fin. You will one day wish you had never been parents, when the doleful cries of your damned children fhall ring fuch notes as these in your ears: O curled father! O cruel, merciless mother! whofe examples ⚫ have drawn me after you, into all this mifery. You had time enough, and motives enough, to have warned me of this place, and mifery, whilst my heart was tender, and my affections pliable: Had it not been as eafy to have put a bible, as a play-book before me? To have chaftifed me when I provoked God, by fin, as when I provoked you about a trifle? One word, fpoken in feafon, might have faved my foul; one reproof, wifely given, and fet on by your example, might ⚫ have preferved me. Had it not been the fame pains to have asked me, child, what wilt thou do to be faved? As, what wilt thou do to live in the world? Or had I but observed any 'ferious religion in you, had I but found, or heard my father, ⚫or mother upon their knees, in prayer, it might have awaken⚫ed me to a confideration of my condtion. In my youth I was 'fhame-faced, fearful, credulous, and apt to imitate; had you ' but had wisdom, as other parents have, to have taken hold of any of thefe handles in time, you had refcued my foul from 'hell. Nay, fo cruel have you been to your own child, that you ' allowed me no time (if I had had a difpofition) for any exercise of religion; yea, you have quenched and ftifled the sparks of 'convictions, and better inclinations, that fometimes were in VOL. III. Kkk

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my heart. O happy had it been, if I had never been born of 'you, or feen your faces.' This must be the refult, and issue of your negligence, except God, by fome other hand (which is no thanks to you) rescue them from their impending ruin.

2. Let all children, whofe unhappy lot it is to be born of, and educated by, carnal and irreligious parents, confider, God hath endued them with reason, and a confcience of their own, to enable them to make a better choice than their parents did, and that there is no taking fanctuary from the wrath of God in their parent's examples. We read, in 1 Kings xiv. 13. of a good Abijah," in whom was found fome good thing towards the Lord God of Ifrael, in the houfe of Jeroboam." Here was a child that would not follow his wicked father to hell, though he had both the authority of a father, and of a king over him. "You must honour your parents, but fill you must "prefer your God before them " God will never lay it to your account as your fin, but place it to the account of your duty, and comfort, that you refused to follow them in the paths of fin, and destruction. No law of God, no tie of nature binds you to obey their commands, or tread in their steps, farther than they command in God's authority, and name, and walk in his ways. Your temptations, indeed, are ftrong, and disadvantages great; but the greater will the mercy of your de liverance be: It will be no plea for you, at the judgment-feat, to fay, Lord; my father, or mother did fo, and fo, before me, and I thought I might fafely follow them; or thus, and thus, they commanded me, and I thought I was bound, by thy command, to obey them. Therefore look to your own fouls, if they are so desperate as to caft away their own. If fome children had not minded their own falvation, more than their parents minded it, they had never been faved.

3. Let this confideration work upon the hearts, and bowels of all feridus Chriftians, to pity, and help thofe that are like to perish under this temptation; and if their parents be fo ignorant, that they cannot, or fo negligent, that they do not inftruct and warn their own children; you that at any time have an oppor tunity to help them, have compassion on them, and do it. 'Tis true, they are none of your children by nature; but would it not be a fingular honour, and comfort to you, if God should make them fo by grace? Thousands of children (and, it may be fome of you) are more indebted to mere ftrangers, upon this account, than to their nearest relations; you know not how

Amandus genitor, fed præponendus Creator.

much good an occafional word may do them: All have not ability to be fo publicly useful this way, as a late worthy minifter of our own nation hath been, who, in compaffion to the dark, and barbarous corners in Wales, where ignorance, and pover ty fhut up the way of falvation to them, at a vaft expence procured the tranflation, and printing of the bible in their own tongue, and freely fent it among them. O you that have the bowels of Chriftians in you, pity, and help them! What is it, for the faving of a precious foul, to drop a serious exhortation, as you have opportunity, upon them, to beflow a bible, or fuitable book upon them? Believe it, thefe little fums of fhillings, and pence, to bestowed, will stand for more, in the audit day, than all the hundreds, and thousands, other ways expended. The fecond way to hell difcovered.

II. A fecond way to hell, in which multitudes are found haftening to their own damnation, is, the way of affected igno rance. The generality of people, even in a land enlightened with the gofpel, are found grofly ignorant of Chrift, the true, and only way to heaven, and of repentance, and faith, the only way to Chrift; and thus the people perish for want of know. ledge, Hof. iv. 6. if the tree of knowledge had been hedged in from the common people, as it is in popish countries; and it had been criminal to find a bible in our houses, there might have been fome cloak, and pretence for our ignorance: But to be stupidly ignorant of the moft obvious, plain, and necef fary truths, and yet bred up among bibles, and minifters! O how ominous a darkness is this, foreboding the blackness of darkness for ever! For if the hiding of the gospel from the hearts of men be a token to them that they are loft fouls, how much notional light foever they may have; much more must they be loft to all intents, from whofe hearts, and heads too, it is judicially hidden. They that know not God, are in the catalogue of the damned, 2 Theff. i. 8. and if this be life eternal, to know the only true God, and Jefus Chrift, whom he hath fent; then this must be death eternal, to be grofly and affectedly ignorant both of God, the end, and Chrift, the way, by the rule of true oppofition, John xvii. 3.

Look over the feveral countries in the profeffing world; go into the families of country farmers, day labourers, and poor people, and except here and there a family, or perfon, into whole heart God hath graciously shined; what barbarous, bru tifh ignorance overfpreads them: They converfe, from morning to night, with beafts, though they have fouls, which are

fit companions for angels, and capable of fweet converfe with God. The earth hath opened her mouth, and swallowed up all their time, ftrength, thoughts, and fouls, as it did the bodies of Corah, and his company. They know the value of a horfe, or cow, but know not the worth of Chrift, pardon, or their own fouls: They mind daily what work they have to do with their hands, but forget all they have to do upon their knees; their whole care is to pay their fine, or rent to their landlord, but not a thought who fhall pay their debts to God. They are fo far from putting unneceffary bufinefs afide, to make way for the fervice of God, that God's fervice is put afide as an unneceffary bufinefs, to make way for the world: The world holds them faft till they are afleep, and will be fure to vifit them, as foon as their eyes are open, that there may be no vacancy, or door of opportunity left open for a thought of their fouls, or another life, to flip in: Or if at any time they think, or speak of thefe matters, then the world, like Pharaoh, when Ifrael fpake of facrificing, is fure to speak of more work. And thus they live, and die, without knowledge; there is no key of knowledge (as it is fitly called, Luke xi. 52.) to open the door of the foul to Chrift; he, and his minifters, therefore, muft ftand without; pity they may, but help they cannot, till knowledge open the door; Satan is ruler of the darknefs of this world, Eph. vi. 12. that is, of all blind, and ignorant fouls. Ignorance is the chain with which he binds them faft to himself, and till that chain be knocked off, by divine illumi nation, they cannot be emancipated, and made free of Chrift's kingdom; Acts xxvi. 18. "To turn them from darkness to

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light, and from the power of Satan to God." Ignorance, indeed, incapacitates a man to commit the unpardonable sin ; but what is he the nearer, whilft it difposes him to all other fins which damn, as well as that? By ignorance it is, that all the effays of the gospel, for men's falvation, are fruftrated; that naked affent is put in the place of faving faith, morality mistaken for regeneration, a few dead duties laid in the room of Christ, and his righteoufnefs. Indeed it would fill a greater book than this is, to fhew the mischievous effects of ignorance, and how many ways it deftroys the precious fouls of men: but feeing I can speak but little in this place to it, let me bar up this way to hell, if it be poffible, by a few ferious confiderations.

The fecond way to hell fout up.

1. Let the ignorant confider, God hath created their fouls with a capacity of knowing him, and enjoying him, as well as thers that are famed in the world for knowledge, and wisdom.

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