Dealing With Sin In Our Children

Dealing With Sin In Our Children

by Arthur Hildersham
1563-1632

Taken from his sermons on Psalm 51:7
preached on May 22, May29, and June 12, 1627



The doctrine that sin is passed from parents to children serves to exhort and stir us up who are parents to do our uttermost to work grace in our children, and so cure the deadly wound that we have given them, and to preserve them from perishing by that poison and infection that we have conveyed upon them.

To better enforce this necessary exhortation, I will give you certain motives that may provoke us all to this care.
The motives are of three sorts:
Some of them respect our children and our duty towards them.
Some of them respect ourselves and our own comfort.
Some of them concern our duty towards God and the respect we should have unto His glory.
I will also show you the means that we must use to this purpose.

The Motives

Motives Respecting Our Children
Of the first sort of motives, there are two principally.
First, our love to our children binds us to it. Nature moves us to love them, and has given bowels of pity and compassion towards them when we see them in any misery. The Lord has been pleased to set forth His mercy and compassion towards His children by the compassion of a mother. Isaiah 49:15: "Can a woman forget her suckling child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?" And by the compassion of the father in Psalm 103:13: "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him." He is worse than a beast who does not love his children, and does not grieve to see them in misery. Lamentations 4:3: "Even the sea monsters draw out the breast; they give suck to their young ones."

The apostle teaches us in Romans 1:31 that they who are without this natural affection have extinguished in themselves the very light of nature and are, in God's just judgment, given up unto a reprobate mind. And what love can we bear to our children if we have no care for their souls? The nature of true Christianity is to seek the good of their souls whom we love.
1 Corinthians 8:1: "Charity edifieth." See how Abraham expressed his love to Ishmael in Genesis 17:18: "O that Ishmael might live in Thy sight." Thus did Solomon's parents in Proverbs 4:3-4: "I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me and said unto me, 'Let thine heart retain my words; keep my commandments and live.' "

No, this is the only way to express true love to their bodies and their outward estate also. No lands or possessions that we can leave them can give us the assurance that they shall live comfortably in this life as this will do, if we can be a means to breed saving grace in their hearts.
1 Timothy 4:8: "Godliness hath the promises even of this life."


Second, we admit that we are not bound to love them above others, yet we are bound in justice to make amends for the wrong we have done them. There is no man whom we have hurt in body, goods, or good name, but we are bound in conscience to do what we can to make satisfaction to him. See the equity of God's law in this point, Exodus 21:19, "He that smote him shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed." How much more are we bound to take care that our own children may be thoroughly healed of that wound that we have given them in our souls, of that filthy disease that we have infected them with?


Next time we will look at motives respecting ourselves.