Advice to Parents and Children, Title page – Dedication
ADVICE TO PARENTS and CHILDREN. The Sum of a few SERMONS, Contracted, and Publiſhed at the requeſt of many Pious Hearers.
By DANIEL BƲRGESS, Miniſter of the Goſpel.
He ſhall turn the Heart of the Fathers unto the Children, and the Heart of the Children unto the Fathers, lest I come and ſmite the Earth with a curſe, Mal. iv. 6.
LONDON, Printed by J. R. for Tho. Parkhurſt at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapſide; and J. Lawrance at the Angel in the Poultrey. 1690.
To the Flock Committed to my Care. Eſpecially thoſe whoſe Importunity Extorted this Publication.
Brethren,
YOu would not Excuſe, you muſt therefore Accept this ſmall Labour. Were it not for the Writing, I would not Name it a Labour. The Meditation and Delivery of it were very Pleaſure to me. He knows it, who knoweth what my Heart feels in my Hopes of Benefiting you; and in my Diſcernments thereof.
I have contracted it; and the rather, becauſe my late Sermon of Early Converſion is gotten into many of your Hands I preſume.
Under the Law, he that built a new Houſe was to make a Battlement for the Roof of it; leſt any walking on the Roof, ſhould through their Imprudence fall from it. Deut. 22.8. God was not ſatisfied, to have Houſeholders only forbear Puſhing Men down. But Commanded them to make Proviſion againſt their own falling down. So that no Man ſhould eaſily come unto hurt in their Families. None ſhould ſlip, if he would not wilfully leap down headlong, over the Battlements. Believe it, my deareſt Friends, the Law is ſtill in force. God is not content that your Children be not by you put upon ſinful courſes. He Commands that they be by you kept from them. That you ſet up ſuch Spiritual Battlements in your Houſes, as ſhall make it hard for a Child to fall into them. I have directed you how to make thoſe Battlements. If you ſet them up, and your children will leap over them into Hell, yet your own Souls are delivered. If you do not ſet them up, their Blood will be required at your Hands. To prevent their Perdition and your Sorrow thence, I have prepared for them, that which I muſt truſt you to deliver unto them.
My Life is ſpent in Prayers and Pains for you and them. I hope, I do not Live a day, wherein I have not the help of your Holy Prayers. You do by this time know my need, and my deſire alſo.
May every of you be Bleſſed in your children, and your children in you. May all the Graces of the Bleſſed Spirit, all the Promiſes of the Goſpel-Covenant, and all the Joys of the Heavenly Manſions, be the Lot of your Inheritance, and of theirs. I am
Your very Affectionate PASTOR, DAN. BURGESS.