Reformed Covenanter
Cancelled Commissioner
For it is obvious to every observation, that Families are the Seminaries of Towns, Churches, Countries, and Nations; and are as it were, the Hives, out of which do swarm the materials of greater assemblies; if therefore they be not well Principled therein all their Relations, the rest must needs miscarry. And here I observed, was the true Original of all our Miscarriages and mischiefs abroad; that when young people went out thence, to constitute new families, either as servant, or by marriage, they knew not the particular duties of their New Relations; as Husbands and Wives, as Parents and Children, as Masters and Servants: because for the most part, they were never taught them in the Families from whence they were transplanted.
Remove a Crabstock from a barren to a fruitful soil, it will still be a Crabstock, without change of nature. It is a certain Truth, a thousand times exemplified, That (without special converting grace) he or she shall never be good parents to their children, that were not good children to their parents: Nor they good Governours of servants that were not good servants to their Governors; nor they good Husband or Wife, in their own families that were not good in their former family Relations, as children or servants; Nor lastly, will those who are naught in their Family Relations be good Neighbours in a Town, good Members of a Church, or good Subjects, or Magistrates in the State: A good man is the proper subject of the goodness of all other Relations: And he only is a good man, that is good in his first Relations; The Spring then of all Reformation, in Towns, Churches, Nations, (next to personal Reformation, where everyone mends one, that is himself) is that which is found in Families. If they were but either well constituted, or well-ordered and reformed, the whole work were done.
For the reference, see:
reformedcovenanter.wordpress.com
Remove a Crabstock from a barren to a fruitful soil, it will still be a Crabstock, without change of nature. It is a certain Truth, a thousand times exemplified, That (without special converting grace) he or she shall never be good parents to their children, that were not good children to their parents: Nor they good Governours of servants that were not good servants to their Governors; nor they good Husband or Wife, in their own families that were not good in their former family Relations, as children or servants; Nor lastly, will those who are naught in their Family Relations be good Neighbours in a Town, good Members of a Church, or good Subjects, or Magistrates in the State: A good man is the proper subject of the goodness of all other Relations: And he only is a good man, that is good in his first Relations; The Spring then of all Reformation, in Towns, Churches, Nations, (next to personal Reformation, where everyone mends one, that is himself) is that which is found in Families. If they were but either well constituted, or well-ordered and reformed, the whole work were done.
For the reference, see:
Daniel Cawdrey on families as the seminaries of nations
[F]or it is obvious to every observation, that Families are the Seminaries of Towns, Churches, Countries, and Nations; and are as it were, the Hives, out of which do swarm the materials of greater …
reformedcovenanter.wordpress.com