The sermon titled 'Advice to Children of Godly Ancestors' was delivered by Scott Brown at an unknown church. The sermon was part of a series of sermons preached in Boston in 1721. Increase Mather, an 83-year-old pastor, expressed his concern about the growing worldliness of the rising generation and the loss of holiness. He emphasized the importance of godly parents and the advantages they provide to their children. Mather presented four propositions regarding godly parents and ungodly children, highlighting the sovereignty of God in salvation. He urged children to seek God early and not rely solely on their parents' righteousness. The sermon concludes with a prayer for the preservation of the children of New England from apostasy.

Okay, so let's open up to early piety page number 205 and let's open in prayer before we get into this. Lord, oh Lord, we thank you for gathering us. You've drawn us with chords of love. We pray that you would give us understanding, that you would open up our eyes to see wondrous things from your law, that you would bind us together in love, that you would give us such strength that we would not quench the Holy Spirit tonight as we hear your word as we fellowship together oh Lord that you would come and make yourself strong in our hearts so that we would see you in your righteousness and be changed. So this final chapter in early Piety begins with a preface spoken about the author of this last sermon which is a Short one is increase Mather and if you remember how all of this happened that these Pastors gathered together to preach eight sermons to families there in Boston in 1721 the problem was that Increase Mather and his son cotton had seen the degradation of spiritual life in their lifetime right before their eyes in a flash of time in a sense they saw Really a loss of the holiness that they once knew increased Mather is 83 years old the year of 1721 He had personal contact with those who landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620.

And he had seen the kind of society that had been created as a result of this desire to be obedient to the Word of God. They saw the happiness of it. They saw the holiness of it and and they saw the rising generation rejecting it. And so Increase Mather is 83 years old and doesn't have many years left and cotton is 58 years old. Father and son had served together there in Boston decade after decade to preach the gospel there and to gather a harvest and they were seeing that the formula was being lost.

So they gathered pastors together for nine consecutive Thursdays. As you can tell by the sermons, The preachers were preaching to both parents and children at the same time They turned to children and the parents parents to children and back and forth After the preaching of these eight sermons they gathered together one last time with a sense of anticipation and There this 83 year old wise and spiritual father was to stand probably feebly before them as this preface indicates the people were there, you know, at the edge of their seats in a sense hoping that the mantle of Elijah would fall upon them that this mantle of this godly man would somehow be experienced by the rest of them and so he was concerned about the growing worldliness of the rising generation and he saw this turn for the worst and what was in his heart he longed for revival he longed that God would pour his spirit out again as he did before So with that as a preface we move into this ninth chapter advice to the children of godly ancestors and increased matter is preaching this in July of 1721 here we are at the very end of July and increased matter preached this in the same month in 1721 and he's addressing children of godly ancestors.

One of the chief values of this book and these sermons is that they are preached to a very specific audience. They are preached to families and their children children growing up in Christian homes and how will they view it all and so the sermons are directed to those children who've experienced a godly environment They grew up with the Word of God. They didn't grow up in a home that was running towards sin. They didn't grow up in a perfect home but they didn't grow up in a corrupt and worldly home. And often it's difficult for children growing up in those kinds of homes to understand the things of God and to understand where they stand because they've grown up in this protected, beautiful environment, as they should be growing up in a protected and beautiful environment.

And so, Increased Mather begins with a text, and he begins with 1 Samuel 8 verse 5. And The text refers to a moment in time Samuel is an old man and His sons had served him in the government of the nation but they were not walking in the ways of their father. And the elders of Israel came to complain to Samuel about the terrible behavior and spiritual state of his children. And so this verse explains it. They said to Samuel, your sons do not walk in your ways.

So this is a reference to a situation that often occurs where you have a godly father and you have ungodly children. That's the situation that Increase Mather is speaking to here. And he's explaining this phenomenon that does take place. And he gives four propositions, As you'll see here, and let's go down through them. The first proposition is in the lower part of page 207 proposition number one all good men do walk in the same way And he's speaking of the fact of history that there are men who do walk in the old paths.

There are men who do desire to obey God. And they walk in the way everlasting as Psalm 139 verse 24 speaks, or the good way that Jeremiah 6, 16 speaks of. He makes it very clear that there are men who first of all worship God Second of all they represent his name Properly, they don't take his name in vain and they honor him in the way that they live their lives. They take God's commandments in the government of their time seriously and they work six days and they rest one. They keep the Sabbath and They walk in the ways of righteousness, and they're careful and conscientious to observe the moral law in both of its tables, in the first and the second table of the law.

And increased matter makes it clear that Samuel was this kind of man. He did walk with the Lord. He cites this reference in 1st Samuel 12.3 and verse 4 where Samuel declares that he was a righteous man. He did do justly. He did love mercy.

He did walk humbly with his God. A man can actually say that. Samuel said that in so many words that he was not only righteous but he was prayerful that he was a person who cried out to God and 1st Samuel 12 23 is Quoted far be it for me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you." So he was a man of prayer, he was a man of righteous living. And what Increase Mather is saying is that there are men who live like that. And then the second proposition is that children of godly men have particular or peculiar advantages to serve God because they have an opportunity to walk in the ways of their fathers.

They have a good path laid out before them and they know what that good path looks like because they have a father who walked in that path and so they have many advantages and he cites the different advantages that they have. First of all they have the Word of God. The Scriptures were brought into their lives. He quotes 2 Timothy 3.15, from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation. This is a great advantage of having a godly father and a mother is that you get the scripture.

Secondly, you get parental instruction. They teach you how to serve God. They teach you the difference between good and evil. They actually use the rod to correct you. They bring the proper biblical means in order to teach you what is right and wrong.

And so they bring instruction. And then thirdly, they pray. They pray for their children. He says, The people of God put up many prayers for their children that God would give them grace. And this is a reminder to all children of how if they do have godly parents, they have parents who are praying parents.

And then fourthly or last, they have the blessing of their parents in other words their parents look upon them with favor and they bless them they have love from their parents because of the love of God that is placed in their hearts So he lists these four advantages that children of godly parents have. And then he brings the third proposition that many children of godly parents do prove godly too and walk in the good ways of parents, yet it is often sadly otherwise." So he's stating a fact that probably all of you have observed if you've been in the Christian community for very long at all, and that is that God does bless the good instruction of parents, and most children of godly parents do turn toward the Lord. God blesses his ways. In fact, if you look at the admonitions to parents in the book of Proverbs, you'll notice many of them are cause and effect you know discipline your son and this will happen you know bring up your children in the ways of the Lord and at the end they will not depart from it the reason is that God blesses his ways when parents are obedient God blesses it but it's not always the case that's what increased matter is saying he's saying that the norm is that godly children come from godly parents but it's not always that way and that leads us to the fourth proposition where he says but still the grace of God is sovereign.

It is not engaged to any particular family. In other words, he's saying that while it is true that the pattern of godly parents is to have godly children. It's not always that way because this is exclusively the territory of God and his sovereignty. Only God can save. He gives a number of examples that make this clear.

And he walks through history, begins with Adam, and he goes all the way down to Josiah's sons. And he gives examples about how this is true. For example, he speaks of Adam, who was a godly man, and he had a godly son by the name of Seth, but Seth's descendants were degenerate. And then Noah was a godly man, but Shem was not a godly man. Abraham was a godly man, but his son Ishmael was not a godly man.

That David was a godly man, but Amnon was a wicked man. That Caleb was a godly man, but Nabal of his offspring was a wicked man. That Josiah was a godly man, but his son was not a godly man And he quotes a passage of scripture in the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter 22 verse 15 Where you read did not your father do justice and righteousness yet your eyes and your heart are for nothing but covetousness for shedding innocent blood and practicing oppression and violence. What a tragedy. The man who was at the center of one of the greatest revivals that has ever happened in history, Josiah, had a son who was wicked.

You remember Josiah had a heart toward the Lord from a very early age, from the age of eight at least. And he was the king at a very young age and he discovered the lost book of the law. And when they discovered the Word of God after so many years of it being lost as they were doing repairs, they fell on their faces and they cried out to God. Josiah was an exemplary man in so many ways, but he was a courageous man and he tore down the altars and he removed idolatry from the land. And there was a tremendous revival that broke out.

But as it often happens, revivals don't always last forever. And that one did not. And his son picked up and created an ungodly legacy for him. Then he speaks in the same chain of reasoning of this fourth proposition that often apostate nations grow out of this kind of situation and he quotes Judges 2 10 which speaks of another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord Nor the work which he had done for Israel So this is a generation that had passed through the promised land passed through the wilderness and seen the miracles of God but the next generation did not know the Lord. Their parents did not teach them the ways of God.

That was the problem. They did not know because they were not taught. They did not take heed to Moses' words in Deuteronomy chapter 6, that fathers should diligently teach their children and speak of the Word of God when they sit in the house, when they walk by the way, when they lie down, and when they rise up. The next generation neglected that And this is one of the great dangers of every generation, where you have a new crop of fathers that do not fill their homes with the word of God. Increase Mather is saying that apostate nations actually arise out of this kind of condition.

And then he speaks of ungodly children. I'd like to read a quote in the upper middle part of page 211 where he says, secondly, how is it that godly men sometimes have very ungodly children? The answer to this question first. The children of godly men are born as sinful as the children of other men. They have original corruption in them as much as others have.

So no matter how godly your home is, still the greatest danger is that every person is born with the same sin nature, the same inclination toward rebellion against God. That is the greatest danger. No matter how godly your home is, your children are always born as sons of perdition in that sense. And he quotes David in Psalm 51, 15, where David says, behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin. My mother conceived me.

And he says this about David. He said, David was the son of a godly father and a godly mother. Yet he was conceived in sin and shaped in iniquity. He says they are apt to tell lies as soon as they are born. Well this is true every parent understands that.

Children actually tell lies from a very young age and the reason they do is because they have a corrupt nature. And then he speaks of corrupt churches that come out of this. He also says that one of the problems that we experience in the church when there's a time of apostasy is that often it's impacted by the death of godly men. He says, fourthly, it comes to pass from the removal of eminent servants of God. Thus, Paul, when going from Ephesus, says, after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you.

And he cites the experience of those who existed during the period of the judges that 400 years of spiritual ups and downs where you would have good judges and things would go well And then those good judges would die. They were removed from the earth. And what replaced them? Evil judges. And then things would get so bad, people would cry out to God as a result of their pain.

And then a good judge would rise up. And he would die. And the people would revert right back to the same old sins. And so he says it matters if you have godly men on the ground. And so, you know, pray that God would not remove the godly from among you because they do actually exert an influence, you know, on the church and on the nation so after after going through these four propositions about how we should understand what is happening in the lives of children whether they turn away from the Lord or toward the Lord after he does that then he gives five applications And the first application is in the middle of page 212.

And the first application is this. We see that men ought not to set their hearts inordinately upon their children. And what he's really saying is that it's our tendency to cry out to God for children and to be desperate for them. And he speaks of the desperation of Abraham, who says, oh, Lord God, what will you give me seeing I go childless or Rachel who said give me children or I die he says don't make children the greatest focus of your life and He says this parents who know not how their children may prove, should not set their hearts inordinately upon their children. He speaks of Rebecca and the conflicts that that family experienced.

She said, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. So he's speaking of this really important matter and that is that we should not idolize our families. We should not think that everything rises or falls on our children because God is sovereign over these things. And then secondly, in the second application, he says that if the children of good men prove ungodly, it is no wonder that the children of ungodly men do so because children they do tend to imitate their parents He says children are more apt to imitate their parents in that which is evil than in that which is good And He quotes this remarkable scene in Jeremiah chapter 7 verse 18 where you have this whole family and the whole family is involved in idolatry. The little children of the parents are all involved in some aspect of the idolatry in the same way that you see this in Christian families as well The whole family is involved in some element of church life.

That's a beautiful thing But when it's in the ungodly you find ungodly families doing the very same thing only in ungodly practices and this text in Jeremiah 7 18 the children gather wood You know for the idolatry the fathers kindle the fire and the women knead the dough To make cakes for the queen of heaven The whole family is involved. It's family integrated idolatry, that's what it is. And what he's saying is that if godly parents tend to have godly children, then ungodly parents tend to have ungodly children as well. And then the third application is found in the top of page 213 where he states that we may see by this that it is not the power of parents to give grace to their children. And what Increased Mather says is that parents give their children quite a bit.

They give them what they have in the world. They give them a home, they give them an environment, they give them a culture, they give them a world to grow up in. That's really the best they can do. They can't control the outcome of their response to that world. Let me read this quotation on page 213.

They cannot give them sanctifying grace. Parents cannot give them true repentance. This is the gift of God, not of their parents. They cannot give them faith in Jesus Christ. None but God can give this.

A godly man can no more make his children godly than he can raise the dead out of their graves. None but God can do it. And he alone must have the praise and the glory of it. This is such an important matter. And I think Increase Mather states this as succinctly as I have ever heard it.

And He makes it very clear that all these matters are under the power of an ever wise and sovereign God. Parents have a duty to create a culture, to create a world, to fill their homes with the love of God and the word of God. That they see the beauty of the kingdom of heaven. That is the job of parents. But they cannot save, they cannot sanctify, they cannot justify.

Only God is justifying in His power. And Only God can draw them. No one comes to the Lord unless they're drawn by God. And then the fourth proposition is this. It is not safe for children to build upon having Abraham for their father.

So now he turns to the children and says, children, it's not safe for your parents to trust in their righteousness for yours. And then he turns to children and he says, don't think for one second that your godly parents are going to affect your salvation. It is between you and God alone. And so he says, it's not safe for you to think well I had a godly father I'm okay no do not think that way at all and he says this is a foundation not to be built on you may have a father as good a man as Abraham and yet perish forever in your unbelief." And then he says, your father and mother that loved you dearly, that have wept and prayed for you so many times, your father and your mother, they will condemn you. They will justify God in his condemning you they will join with the Lord in passing a sentence of eternal condemnation upon you at the last day and say like the angel in Revelation you are righteous O Lord the one who is and who was and who is to be because you have judged these things." Revelation 16 verse 5.

And then after delivering this fourth application he delivers a fifth in which he states it this way, the children of godly men should be careful that they themselves are godly. Now this is where Increase Mather begins to really ratchet up the intensity in the sermon. Think of it. Think of being there. Think of hearing him.

Think of this old man gripping the pulpit after such pleadings as he has done for many, many decades there in Boston, crying out for the souls of men and women there. And he says this, Now the children of New England are, or once were for the most part, the children of godly men. What did our fathers come into this wilderness for? Not to gain estates as men do now, but for religion that they might lead their children in a hopeful way of being religious. There was a famous man who preached before one of the greatest assemblies that was ever preached unto seventy years ago, and he told them, I have lived in this country seven years, and all that time I never heard one profane oath, and all that time I never heard one profane oath and all that time I never did see a man drunk in that land he's saying There was a man who was preaching 70 years before, and he said he never saw anyone drunk, he never saw anyone use any profane language.

That was the state of New England in 70 years previous to 1721. And then he says, where is that country? It was New England. New England! New England!

But ah, degenerate New England. What have you come to at this day? So, Increase Mather is incredibly moved by this moment seeing the degeneration of the rising generation and it's right for him to do such a thing and he says oh New England where is the New England that I once knew And I can say the same thing about the country that I live in. Where was that country that I grew up in? It's changed dramatically.

And then he finally ends with two basic admonitions. Number one, seek God early. And he quotes Proverbs 817, those who seek me diligently will find me. And he just speaks of how critical it is to seek the Lord early in your life. You know we've been in 1st John and surveying John's instruction about the work of Jesus Christ in a person's life and he says that Jesus Christ came to destroy the works of the devil.

This is one reason why young people should seek the Lord early. Every day you push the Lord away from you is a day where the devil is not being destroyed. Every day the work of the devil continues in your life every day. You do not have the sanctifying Presence of the Holy Spirit every day. You don't have the presence of Jesus Christ Purifying you comforting you making you happy showing the way in which you should go, comforting you and helping you and walking with you.

You don't have that. And so he says seek him early. And I don't know why anyone would not want to see the end of the works of the devil in their life and the beginning of holiness, the beginning of every means of comfort and happiness that there is in this world and to experience it for all eternity. And then the second admonition is wait on God in the use of his own means that he would be merciful to you and Here he says, you know God has given you ways to know him and he says don't sleep through the sermons Listen to the sermons be there Understand what God is saying take it to heart Be as it were on the front row. And he says do not quench the Spirit of God.

Do not resist the Holy Spirit. He says, he quotes Genesis 6 3 where the Lord says, my spirit shall not strive with man forever. In other words, there is a day when it is too late. Don't wait for that day. Seek the Lord now.

Seek the means of grace that would turn your heart toward him. Is your heart cold? Then go and hear the preaching of the word of God. Expose yourself to the prayers, the fellowship of the people of God. Run to the people who can help you and who will proclaim the glory of the goodness of God to you and who could preach the gospel of salvation by grace alone and cry out to God that he would save you when they minister to you.

That's the whole matter that he's speaking of and he he cites this scene in the life of Saul, where we read, the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul. And then he quotes Hosea 9-12, woe to them when I depart from them. And then Mather, he ends with a prayer, and here's the prayer in the very last paragraph. Now, may the God of our fathers mercifully preserve the children of New England from that apostasy which may provoke him to cast them off forever. May he be with them as he was with their fathers and help them to walk in the good ways of their fathers in that faith and order of the gospel which they walked in, and may he never leave them or forsake them.

And so that's the last of the sermons that were preached there in 1721, preached in a time very much like our own, with Christian leaders with concerns very much like those times. So what should we say of all of this? We've just completed walking through this testimony, this appeal to early piety. Why should you give all of the earliest days of your life to serving the Lord Jesus Christ? It's because God is an inexhaustible fountain of grace.

Because every day you delay is another day that you're deprived of light that you're deprived of bread that you're deprived of the joy and the blessings of the kingdom of heaven one last day of no progress in purification, one less day of comfort, one less day of guidance, one less day of eternal hope. This is the tragedy of waiting. And how thankful though we are that God has sent his Son to destroy the works of the devil and so that he would invade every dark corner of every fallen soul and he would make it a happy place. He would sanctify it and cleanse it by the washing of water by the Word and he would convey that soul to heaven. He would see that soul through every trial, every temptation.

He will see them through. Who would not want to walk with a God like that? And I think that's really the spirit of Increase Mathers' final words and why he cries out so passionately is because Jesus Christ is such a good Shepherd and God is such a kind Father and the Holy Spirit is such a comforting Spirit And that's the appeal of the whole book. So there you you you you you you Thank you. You you you Thank you.

You you you Thank you.