Evil or unfortunate Children.

And by this means we are exposed to the greater sorrow of having a fool, a swine, or a goat, to rule after us in our families; and yet even this condition admits of comfort. For all the wild Americans are supposed to be the sons of Dodoniam; and the sons of Jacob are now the most scattered and despised people in the whole world. The son of Solomon was but a silly weak man; and the son of Hezakiah was wicked: and all the fools and barbarous people, all the thieves and pirates, all the slaves and miserable men and women of the world, are the sons and daughters of Noah; and we must not look to be exempted from that portion of sorrow which God gave to Noah, and Adam, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob: I pray God send us into the lot of Abraham. But if anything happens worse to us, it is enough for us that we bear it evenly.