A Sermon Preached Before
the Sons of the Clergy
The children of thy servants shall continue and their seed shall
be established before thee. Psalm 102:28
Use 3. Advice to the children of godly
parents.
I shall first speak to them in the general,
and then to this day's meeting more particularly. In the general--
1. Bless God for this privilege. Better be
the child of a godly than wealthy parent. I hope none are of so vile a spirit
as to hate and contemn your parents because of their piety. Certainly it is a
great privilege when you can go to God, and plead your Father's covenant: Psa.
116:14, 'Lord, I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid.' So did
Solomon: 1 Kings 3:25, 26, 'Lord, make good thy word to thy servant David, my
father.' That you are not born of infidels, or popish parents, nor fautors and
upholders of superstition and formality, but in a strict, serious, godly
family, it is a great advantage that you have. It is better to be the sons of
faithful ministers than of nobles.
2. Do not interrupt
and break off the blessing. It is the greatest unworthiness that can be to be
ungodly children of godly parents, and to cast off the God of your fathers:
Jer. 2:12, 'Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this!' He would have the sun to
look pale upon such a wickedness, and the spheres to cast out their stars, that
a people should cast off their God. Solomon continued alliance with Hiram
because by had been a lover of David; and it is his advice to others, ' Thine
own friend, and thy father's friend, forsake thou not.' Surely, then, not the father's
God. Wilt thou be a traitor to thy father's God? 'Be astonished, O ye heavens!'
None stain their blood so much as you that forsake the sincerity and strictness
of religion which your fathers professed. Treasons in the posterity are counted
a stain to noble ancestors; so is apostasy and loss of church privileges in
you. It is an excellent thing to see the power of religion preserved from
father to son: Heb. 11:9, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are called 'heirs of the same
promise.' Pliny writeth that it was counted a great honour and point of
felicity that in one house of the Curios there were three excellent orators one
after another, and of the Fabii three presidents of the senate in the same
succession. Oh, what an honour is it when there is a constant succession from
father to the son, from the son to the grandchild, and all heirs of the same
promise! The third descent, they say, maketh a gentleman in a new and opulent
family. Here is Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all heirs of the same promise; this
is the true noble blood, a holy kindred, true gentry; otherwise omnis
sanguis concolor--all blood is of a colour. It is high honour to be born of
such a race. My father, my grandfather, and great-grandfather were all servants
of the Lord, and will you cut off the entail? Christians, I must speak to you
not only as sons of private christians, but as the sons of ministers, of whom
special holiness is required, and which will engage a special blessing to their
posterity, and will you stop the course of it? Oh! let not the ministerial
blessing be worn out of your generations. I remember one observeth of the Jews,
that as long as the strength and virtue of manna continued in their
constitutions, they were a fortunate, valorous, and brave people; but when,
after some successions of generations, that it was worn out, they grew
pusillanimous and base. The ministerial blessing, while that lasteth, the
posterity thrive, and by a wonderful providence arrive to great increase, many
times from small beginnings. Oh! therefore keep up the warmth and vigour of
godliness in your families, and then you will transmit the blessing to ages to
come, and the children that are yet unborn. But alas! many times, through our
carelessness and default, in the next generation it is worn out; as
Phylostratus said of the son of Rufus, Perrinthius, a great master, 'As for his
son, I have nothing else to say but that he was his son.' If that be all your
honour, that you are the son of such an eminent man, but have nothing worthy in
you that will be a sorry commendation; much more it you should fall to
looseness and riot, you are the stain of your parents, and put them to shame
when they are dead and gone. There is a notable place, Lev. 21:9, 'The daughter
of any priest, if she shall play the whore, she profaneth her father, and shall
be burnt with fire.' Let us comment on this text a little. Under the daughter,
saith Calvin, the sons were also comprised; but if that were not, the daughter
of the priest suiteth with your case; for the sons of priests were priests,
which you are not now in the times of the gospel; and her case was more like
your, who are not always public persons. Now it is said, 'She profaneth her
father.' How? That is, she was a defilement to his name and house. And so the
Septuagint, to
onoma tou patrou auteu aute bebeloi, she is a reproach to the dignity of his
office. Ministers must be not only good in their own persons, but in their relations,
ruling their children and their own houses well. Eli's sons were a disgrace and
shame to their father; so will you be, if you be nought. Men judge of the
parents by the behaviour of their children. Yea, that is not all; the
reflection will not only be personal, but as they will judge of the parents by
the children, so of the calling by the persons; yea, and of God by the calling.
It reflects upon God at last; as the people 'abhorred the offering of the Lord
because of the wickedness of Eli's sons,' 1 Sam. 2:17. The heathens thought it
a disgrace to the persons of their gods if their ministers were detected of
impurity; and that is the reason of the great punishment there mentioned, 'She
shall be burnt with fire.' The punishment of the priest's daughter was greater
than that of any other woman. Others were not to die for simple fornication,
neither man nor woman; but the man to marry her, or to pay a sum of money,
Exod. 22:16, 17; but she is to be burnt. Austin observeth the same of the
Romans, Lib. de Civit. Dei, cap. 5, Nam et ipsi Romani antiqui in stupor
detectas vestales sacerdotes, vivas etiam defodiebant: adulteras autem
faeminas, quamvis aliqua damnatione, nulla tamen morte plectebant; usque adeo
gravius quae putabant adyta divina quam humana cubilia vindicabant. They
were zealous for the honour of their gods, and therefore punished the faults of
their ministers the more severely. Well then, if you would preserve the name of
your ancestors to posterity, show it in the gravity of your conversations. Your
offences will be a disgrace to them, and by them to God.
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