saith That by Adam sinne entred into the world It sufficeth to know That God by just imputation realizeth the infection into the whole race of Adam in whom we were as in a common Lumpe and in his leaven sowred In his Loines we were and there we sinned and so did partake of his guilt which like a common infection worse then a leprosie we took from our Parents and transmitted it to our Children a Seede of evill doers So we sprang up as the seede doth with stalke and huske though the fanne made the same difference betwixt the wheate in the heape and the other fitted for the seede as grace doth betwixt the Parent and the Childe Though the Parent be accepted in the righteous one and his sinne covered the guilt remitted yet sinne and guilt are transmitted to the Childe Hereby the Parents see matter of great humiliation h Book pag. 32 they feele a tye also and an engagement upon them to doe their utmost to prevent the evill whereof they have beene a Channell of conveyance unto their Childe It is their Image They its debtors It is very equall and a point not so much of mercy as of justice That we should for I am a Parent too labour by all meanes and take all occasions whereby through Gods blessing our owne and bad image may be defaced and the New which is after Christ formed on and in the Childe This is that we should endeavour with all our might giving All diligence It is an heavy and grievous judgement which we reade threatned against Parents and Children I will recompence your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together i Esa 65. 7. That is Because the Fathers have committed an abomination and ye their Children have done according to the same abomination therefore the wickednesse of the wicked shall be upon him k Ezech. 18. 20. I will lay your sinnes together as upon heapes visiting you both Children and Fathers in your heapes of sinne O pray we in our prayer pray l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iames 5. 17. wrestling and weeping pray we earnestly m Hosea 12. 3. 4. Remember not against us former iniquities n Psal 79. 8. Recompence not our iniquities and the iniquities of our Children together nor measure out unto us our old Worke into our bosome This Mercy we should pray so for and long-after even from the heart-root we should long For if the curse was heavy and sore which we reade of Psal 109. 14. then is the mercy great and greatly to be sought after from the Lord Let not the iniquitie of the Father be remembred with the Lord against the Childe and let the sinne of the Mother be blotted out Whensoever the Lord visits the Childe for Sinne certainly it should call the sinne of the Parent to remembrance o 1 King 17. 18. and so it will doe if the conscience be not asleepe or seared Then he will discerne that there was a great and weighty reason that made the Woman of Canaan thus to petition Christ p Matt. 15. 22. Have mercy on me O Lord thou Sonne of David my Daughter is grievously vexed with a Divell She counted the Childes vexation hers so would she the mercy We have filled our Childrens bones with sinne which will fill their hearts with sorrow It is our engagement to doe all we can though that All be two little to roote that sinne out which we have beene a meanes to roote so fast in I shall in another place the Second Part q Chap. 2. speake more unto this roote of bitternesse and the fruits springing thence whereby all are defiled Here I have onely pointed unto it as it engageth the Parent upon this so necessary and principall a service touching the good culture and breeding of the Child And we see what an engagement it is the greatest and strongest that can be thought of And so much as an Induction to Duty what this Duty is comes now to be handled To the Reader THis Treatise tendeth to the erecting of faire Edifices to the Lord which are the children of children of men The Author sheweth himself herein a skilfull builder in that he first layeth a sure solid foundation and then reareth thereupon his goodly edifice This the Lord Himselfe noted to be the part of a prudent builder Luk. 6. vers 48. He wisely sheweth when and by whom especially this foundation is to be laid even by Parents so soone as their children attaine any competent capacitie Young and tender yeares are flexible and may easily be bowed this way or that way They are like a Argillà quidvis imilaberis udâ— Hor. the moist potters clay which may readily be fashioned into any shape and like soft waxe which soone receives any print Nor so only but also long retains what it first receiveth like b Quo semel est imbuta yecens servabit odorem Testa diu Idem a vessell which long holds the savour which it first tooke while it was new Old men are said to remember in their elder yeares what they learned in their younger I shall not need to presse this further it being so plentifully and pithily pressed by the Author himself who layes his foundation very deep even in the mothers wombe and goeth along from infancy to childhood thence to youth and so on till he bring his childe to a growne yea an old man full of dayes going to the grave in a full age like as a sheafe of corne cometh in in his season c Job 9. 26. In every estate and degree of these Ages even from the wombe to the grave he prescribeth pertinent and profitable directions not to children only but also to Parents Guardians Schoole-masters Tutors Governours of all sorts of Societies yea and to Ministers too whom he fitly styleth Instructors of Instructors So full he is as he hath passed nothing over in this long journey without a due observation whether it concerns the mothers care of the childe in her wombe or after in the infancy or both Parents care about a new birth or initiating it in pietie good manners good literature at home at schoole at Vniversity or any other good Seminary Yea also about calling marriage carryage to Parents to their superiours equalls and inferiours in all ages times and places This is that faire Edifice whereof intimation was made before fairer then the Edifices which have formerly been erected by Xenophon in his d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Institution of Cyrus by Plutarch in his Treatise e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of training up children by Clemens Alexandrinus in his f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Instructour of children by Hierome in his Epistle to Laeta concerning the g De institutione filiae educating of her daughter by Erasmus in his Discourse h De puâ—ris stalim liberaliter iastituendis of timely and liberall training up of children or by others in
like Treatises This Author hath more punctually and pertinently handled all kinde of duties from ones first entrance into this world to his going out thereof then any of the fore-named Authors or any other that have written of the like subject Such varietie of matter is here couched as it will prove usefull to all of all sorts that will reade and heed it The Lord give a blessing to this and all other like labours of his faithfull servants Amen William Gouge THE CONTENTS OF THE BOOK CHAP. I. WHat the Parents dutie when it begins Gods gracious work upon the Childe framing it in the wombe and giving it its due proportion of parts what thanks therefore pag. 1. 2. How Sinne defaceth Gods Image How repaired Of Baptisme and the solemnitie thereof The Mother the Nurse to pag. 4. The Mother is most imployed about the head of the Childe my head my head saith the Childe carry him to the Mother saith the Father 2 Kings 4. 19. The Mother is charged with the head Father and Mother both with the heart and this work is for the closset pag. 4. What Infancy is called an Innocent Age but miscalled Something may be done even then for the rectifying the Childes body and his heart too Grave considerations pressing to that Dutie from pag. 5. to pag. 9. CHAP. II. CHild-hood and youth how they differ whereâ—â— they agree unhappy Ages both The period of this Age not easily defined The Parent makes it longer or shorter as their care is more or lesse pag. 10. Parents not discharged in point of care when they have charged the Schoole with their childe how vain that thought pag. 12. How preposterous the Parents care How much Father and Mother both do crosse their own ends What a point of wisdome it is well to Time our beginnings When the Seed-Time what their imployment there to pag. 15. CHAP. III. A Two-fold imployment which lyeth in the order of Nature and right reason Lets hindring this twofold dutie two fondnesse fiercenesse extreames yet ordinarily in one and the same Parent I. Of fondnesse what causeth it Youth more profitable Child-hood 〈◊〉 delightfull * Fructuosior est adolescentia liberâ—rum sed Infantia dulcior Sen. epist 9. What hurt fondnesse doth The Divels â—â—â—â—theâ—ing engine to pag. 18. Foure mightie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fortifie us against it from pag. 19. to pag. 2◠〈◊〉 â—xamples evidencing how destroying it is to pag â—â— Repeated concluded in Mr. Bâ—ltoâ—s words with some use of the whole to all Parents to page 26. II. Fiercenesse whose fruit it is and how much it hinders to pag. 27. It helps not to unroot evill but rather roots it more in to pag. 29. It hinders much the Implanting of good to pag. 30. Considerations which may help to calme a Parent when in heat of spirit he is about to unroot evill are three very worth his consideration to pag. 33. Considerations which may arrest a Parents hand when he is about the implanting of good are foure which being considered will command an answerable practise to pag. 35. CHAP. IIII. OVr nature like a soyle fruitfull of weeds what they are and how unrooted 1. Pride the heart-string of corruption Chrysostomes note upon it how cherished how the contrary grace may and ought to be instilled to pag. 38. 2. Frowardnesse a spice of the former The Parents dutie here how the contrary grace may be inforced to pag. 40. 3. The way of lying and the way the Parent must take to prevent the course of it a great work if it may be done if not the Childe is fit for no societie to pag. 41. 4. Idlenesse how corrupting and provoking Labour how naturall to a man how he is provoked thereunto to pag. 43. 5. A bad Maligâ—us comeâ— quamvâ—s candâ—do simplici râ—biginem suam suam affricuit Sen. epist 7. companion how infectious and corrupting he will defile the best and most candid nature with his foule example pag. 44. 6. The evill of the Tongue prevented by teaching the Childe silence and this the Parent must teach himself and his Childe under five notions The briefe of that which concernes the Childes Instruction is while it is a Childe let its words be answers Nature teacheth much at this point and they more who walked by an higher light pag. 47. 7. An oath a word cloathed with death in a Childes mouth the Parent as in all so here very exemplary yea yea nay nay The Friers note upon those words No more must be heard from a Childe pag. 48. 8. The Childe must be taught what weight there is in those words yea yea c. A good hint there-from to teach the Childe to abhorre that religion which gives no weight to words nor oathes neither pag. 51. 9 10 11 12. Nick-names and abuses that way are ordinary with Children and a fruit of corrupt nature so quarrelling uncovering their nakednesse mocking scorning the meaner sort Great evills to be corrected and prevented in Children betimes a notable example to presse us thereunto to use our Inferiours kindely to pag. 53. 13. Cursing a great evill so imprecations against our selves Foure great examples full of instructions who spake rashly and were payed home in that they spake to pag. 57. 14. As Childrens Tongues must be watched over for the Tongue is a world of wickednesse so must their hands They will spill more then they eate how to teach Children to prize the good creatures pag. 59. 15. Children delight in the pain and vexation of those weake creatures that are in their power A great evill to be looked unto and prevented betimes considering our natures what they are page 61. 16. Nature fruitfull of evills more then can be pointed at or prevented but that is the true and genuine order of nature to prevent the evills thereof first pag. 62. 17. Teaching by examples the best way of teaching and the shortest they make the deepest impression pag. 64. CHAP. V. THe implanting of good the order therein The foure seasons in the day seasonable therefore 1. How uncomfortable darknesse is how comfortable the light A notable lesson there-from wherein our light and the true light differ to pag. 67. The Sun knoweth his appointed Time what that teacheth The Sun is glorious in his rising and refresheth how that instructeth pag. 68. Sin and sorrow will sowre the sweetest earthly Blessings where the root of our comfort pag. 69. The Sun a publique servant teacheth man so to be even to serve his brother in Love and to shew to him the kindnesse of the Lord what the Idol of the world what makes man an abomination from pag. 69. to pag. 71. The Morning the first fruits of the day our season what a Mercy to have it but a greater to take it what our first work and with whom what our engagements to set about it what may be instilled by continuall dropping from pag. 71. to pag. 77. CHAP. VI. VVE eat bread at Noon What that implieth
how fraile our bodies what our use therefrom pag. 78. Our right to the Creatures how lost how regained pag. 79. In eating we must use abstinence Intemperance how provoking to God how hurtfull to man and unbeseeming the Lord of the Creatures to pag. 81. When the fittest season to teach and learn abstinence how necessary a grace specially in these times when so much wrath is threatned What use a Parent must make hereof to Children Their lesson before and at the table to pag. 85. When we have eaten we must remember to return Thanks The threefold voice of the Creatures what the Taxation or Impost set upon every Creature If we withhold that homage we forfeit the blessing The memorable words of Clemens Alexandrinus A strange punishment upon one who seldome or never returned thanks so concluded pag. 90. CHAP. VII THe Method in reading the Book of the Creatures Foure Objections with their Answers out of the Lord Verulam to pag. 93. How to reade the Book of the Creatures Extreames corrected and accorded Two primitive Trades An Apocrypha Scripture opened and made usefull to pag. 97 How to teach the Childe to spell the Book of Nature What is the compendious way of Teaching to pag 100. Essayes or Lectures upon the creatures beginning at the Foot-stool Three enquiries touching the earth 1. What form or figure 2. Whence its dependance 3. What its magnitude Instructions therefrom very grave and usefull all from pag. 100 to pag. 107. A view of the Creatures In their variety delightfull and usefull Two Creatures onely instanced in From a little Creature a great instruction What a mercy to be at peace with the stones and creeping things From pag. 107. to pag. 114. The Waters their Surface barres or bound Their weight II. The Creatures therein the ship thereupon Great lessons from all from pag. 114. to pag. 122. repeated and mans ingratitude convinced 123. The Aire The wayes and operations thereof admirable III. Whence changed and altered for mans use sometimes for his punishment The windes Their circuit Their wombe to pag. 125. The winged Creatures Their provision and dependance greatly instructing man and reproving his distrust to pag. 126. The Clouds the ballancing of them The binding the waters within them The making a course for the Rain out of them All these three the works of Him that is wonderfull in working to pag. 127. Of Lightning Job 26. 14. But the Thunder of His power who can understand The Snow and the Haile and where their Treasure to pag. 128. The wonderfull height of the starrie Heaven Of the Firmament IIII. Psal 150. Why so called and why the Firmament of His power The eye a curious Fabrick of admirable quicknesse How excellent the eye of the soul when cleared with the True eye-salve The heavens outside sheweth what glory is within Chrysostomes use thereof and complaint thereupon to pag. 134. Of the Sunne Why I descend again to that Creature Three things in that great Light require our Mark. Grave and weighty lessons from all three Concluded in Mr Dearings and Basils words to pag. 144. CHAP. VIII THE Day and Night have their course here But after IIII. this life ended it will be alwayes Day or alwayes Night A great Instruction herefrom to pag. 147. Our senses are soon cloyed We are pleased with changes What Darknesse is The use thereof A little candle supplies the want of the Sun How that instructeth How we are engaged to lie down with thoughts of God to pag. 153. CHAP. IX A Great neglect in point of education Mr Galvines Mr Aschams Mr Perkins and Charrons complaint thereof The ground of that neglect to pag. 156. The Parent must fix upon two conclusions Of the School Whether the Childe be taught best abroad or at home 157. The choice of the Master Parents neglect therein The Masters charge 159. His work His worth if answerable to his charge to pag. 160. The Method or way the Master must take How preposterous ours Who have appeared in that way to pag. 164. The School must perform its work throughly The childes seed-time must be improved to the utmost before he be promoted to an higher place The danger of sending Children abroad too soon When Parent and Master have promoted the Childe to the utmost then may the Parent dispose of the Childe for afterwards to pag. 165. CHAP. X. OF Callings Some more honourable as are the head or eye in the body But not of more honour then burden and service Elegantly pressed by a Spanish Divine and in Sarpedons words to Glaâ—cus to pag. 169. The end and use of all Callings pag. 171. Touching the choice of Callings How to judge of their lawfulnesse To engage our faithfulnesse No excuse therefrom for the neglect of that one thing necessary Our abiding in our Callings and doing the works thereof How Nature teacheth therein The designing a Childe to a Calling Parents too early and preposterous therein 177. Parents may aime at the best and most honourable calling The Ministerie a ponderous work 178 But he must pitch upon the fittest In the choice thereof the Parent must follow Nature and look-up to God A CHILDES PATRIMONY Laid out upon the good Culture or tilling over his whole man CHAP. Wherein the Parents dutie doth consist and when it begins Of Infancy A Parents dutie begins where the childe had its beginning at the wombe There the Parents shall finde that which must busie their thoughts about it before they can imploy their hands And this work lyeth specially in considering Gods worke upon the childe and how their sinne hath defaced the same First they consider Gods worke and the operation of His hands how wonderfull it is and how curiously wrought in the secret parts of the earth so the Prophet calls the Wombe beâ—ause Psal 137. curious pieces are first wrought privately then being perfected are exposed to open view It was He that made the bones to grow we know not how then clothed them with flesh He that in the appointed time brought it to the wombe and gave strength to bring forth Here they acknowledge an omnipotent hand full of power towards them and as full of grace and they doe returne glory and praise both But here it ceaseth not Now they have their burden in their armes they see further matter of praise yet in that they see the childe in its right frame and feature not deformed or maimed Some have seene their childe so that they had little joy to looke upon it but through Gods gracious dispensation it is not so and for this they are thankfull And upon this consideration they will never mocke or disdaine nor suffer any they have in charge so to do a thing too many do any poore deformed creature in whom God hath doubly impaired His Image This they dare not do for it might have been their case as it was their desert Deformitie where ever we see it admits of nothing
OF THE CHILDS PORTION viz GOOD EDUCATION By E. W. OR The Book of the Education of Youth that hath for some yeers lain in obscurity but is now brought to light for the help of Parents and Tutors to whom it is recommended BY Will Goudge D. D. Edm Calamy John Goodwin Joseph Caryll Jer Burroughs William Greenhill Psal 34. 11. Deut. 12. 28. Come ye children hearken unto me I will teach you the fear of the Lord that it may go well with you and with your children after you for ever when thou dost that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord thy God Chrysost As our Seminaries or seed-plots are such are the Land and Nation As the Parents house and school are such are the Town and City Printed at LONDON and are to be sold by Tho Vnderhill at the signe of the Bible in Woodstreet 1649. VVEE whose names are under-written well acquainted with the scope and purpose of this Book Tending to an orderly proceeding in a well-Timed Reformation of our selves first and our children betimes do give our attestation thereunto heartily and in all faithfulnesse Edm Calamy John Goodwin Joseph Caryll Jer Burroughes Will Greenehill THE PREFACE SHEWING the necessitie and worth of a vertuous education and may serve as an introduction to Dutie OUr great Advancer of Learning noteth an opinion of Aristotle which is this a Lib. 7. p. 375. In English Book 2. p. 263. That of those things which consist by nature nothing can be changed by custome using for example That if a stone be thrown up tenne thousand-times it will not learne to ascend and that by often seeing and hearing we doe not see or heare the better That Noble Scholler noted this for a negligent opinion so he cals it I know not why because the Philosopher doth instance in Peremptory nature and he took pains to informe us touching the same It is true saith he In things wherein nature is Peremptory Man cannot make massie bodies to hang in the Aire like Meteors he cannot make an Oxe to flye That which is crooked saith the wise man b Eccles 1. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 man cannot make straight There is a Peremptory bent of nature which man cannot turne no more then he can turne back a Spring-tide or a Rushing winde This is a worke for Him and peculiar to Him Who turned Iâ—rdan back Who made the Iron Swimme Makes the Clouds those massie bodies to hang in the Aire as if they had no weight Who makes Mountaines Vallies and rough things even Raiseth children of stones stony hearts and made dry Bones live And the Parents worke in this case is to sit still I meane not any slacking of their endeavour that is to goe into his closet and spread this Peremptory bent of nature he sees in his Childe or not subdued in himselfe as the King the Letter before the Lord c â— King 19. 14. and to say it is Luthers Counsell d Poenitendum mihi praecipis sed talis sum ego miser quod sentio me nolle â—eque posse quare tuis prostratus pedibus c. Concio de poentent Anno Dom. 1518. Here is an Heart that cannot turn that will not turne turne it Lord it is Thy Worke Thine onely Turne it as Thou didst the Rivers in the South Thus where Nature is Peremptory and what we are to do in that case Nothing but look up to Him Who caused the Sunne to goe back and so the shadow in the Diall But it is otherwise in things wherein nature admitteth a latitude for we may see that a straight glove will come more easily on with use And that a wand will by use bend otherwise then it grew and by use of the voice we speak lowder and stronger and that by use of induring heate and cold we indure it the better e See a Treatise of Vse and Custome p. 26. and 39. and 69. And here in the God of Nature Who onely can change Nature and supply what man cast away and is wanting would have Man active and stirring and admits him as a fellow-worker with Himselfe By this I would gaine but thus much That I might evince the necessitie of a vertuous education and inhance the worth of the same I meane that we might set a price upon it and no ordinary one neither It were an easie taske here to enter into a common place and to give a Laudative hereof which would fill the margent and the lines Sufficeth it to know first f Reade Hist of the World first Book 4. Chap. Sect. 11. p. 14. Quint. de claris Oraâ— Isocrat Areopag 217. in sol That Nothing after Gods reserved power doth so much set things in or out of Square and Rule as education doth Secondly That we have no other means to recover our sickly and crasie nature I know my words are too short but I mean not in things that are high concerning God for in them she is not sick but dead no other meanes to pull it out of the Rubbish of Adams and of our own Ruins and to smooth over the face of it againe beautifying the same and making it comely no other means I say left us then to apply the Georgicks g p. 236. of the minde as that Noble Scholler Phraseth it he means the husbandry and Tillage thereof The effects we see in the husbanding our grounds and they are great and admirable The good Tillage of the minde produceth as great effects and concerneth man more as he thinks himselfe of more worth then a clod of earth It hath such a forcible operation as hardly any length of time or contention of labour can countervaile it afterwards we remember the old saying the truth whereof is more ancient then is the verse Ingenuas didicisse fideliter artes c. This Culture and manurance of the minde taketh away the wildnesse and barbarisme and fiercenesse of mens mindes it subdueth savage and unreclaimed desires But then as the great Scholler noteth also The accent had need be upon fideliter h p 82 that is The Culture and manurance of the minde must not be superficiall We deale not so with our ground but it must be laboured in faithfully heartily coÌ„tinually so the husbandman doth in his ground it findes him work all the yeer long And he doth his work throughly he doth not plant here a spot and there a plat of ground but he tils the ground all over that what he can and as the nature of the ground is capable he may make all fruitfull And so we must intend this businesse as we would that thing which concerns the Parent and the Childe more then anything in the world besides yea more then a World is worth Being confident of this That all things by labour and industry may be made better then Nature produced them And that God so ordained it That the industry of man should concurre in all things with
disquieteth himselfe in vaine touching his Childe Let him take these Directions which are brought to my hand touching this point 1. We who are Parents must take speciall care about our Generall Calling how we answer that great and honourable name which is called upon us so likewise for our Children Thoughts heereof must busie us And herein we should remember this rule Christianity is a matter rather of Grace then of Gifts of Obedience then of Parts Gifts may come from a more common work of the spirit and more for others then our selves Grace comes from a peculiar favour of God and specially for our owne good And so if the Parent direct the Childe also he shall teach it a Trade which is surer then house or Land 2. For a particular Calling we must be very wary as in behalfe of our selves so of our Children That we walke not above the parts and Graces we see in them for then we shall put them into another condition then ever God ordained them for The issue whereof will be discouragement in themselves and disgrace from others As a warranted Calling warranted I meane by the Word of God whereof in a fitter place is no small warrant for comfort so the fitnesse of our parts for this Calling what ever it be is the best warrant that any man hath that he is Called thereunto And he must remember That no Calling is so meane but a man may finde enough to give account for And meane though it be yet faithfulnesse will commend a person in the lowest condition of life And unfaithfulnesse will poure contempt upon the height of Dignity as a spewing upon that Glory Our Master in Heaven regards not how high a man is but how faithfull he is e God hath given thy Brother a great gift to thee a little one He hath proportioned the work accordingly and so spares thee Blesse His Name therefore and be faithfull in thy little so maist thou receive â— great Reward His great and thy little came out of the same Treasuâ—y and was dispensed by the same Hand Doe not call God to an account why He gave thee little and thy Brother much but labour thou to be accountable for thy Measure Chrysost 1 Cor. 12. Hom. 29. The maine work then of a Parent with his Childe at this point is to take a right Scale and measure of his Childes parts and so answerably to fit it with a fit Calling The Parent must labour by all means to hide Pride from the Child I meane The Parent must beat it off from vaine-glory and selfe-conceit young folke have the best opinion of themselves because they discerne themselves worst and to shake it off from sloth that Moth and Canker of our Parts The one Pride will make the man and Childe both to lay open their weaknesses The other Sloth will make them not to know Qui se nescit uti se nescit their strength or not to put it forth And let the Parent having done his endeavour comfort himselfe with this That how weake or unserviceable soever his Childe seemes to be if not doubly deformed in respect of his parts yet there is no member but it is fitted with some abilities to do some service in the body and by good nurture and manurance may grow up to a greater measure And let him consider this with it That as in the body naturall the most exalted part the Head hath need of the lowest the foote so there is not the greatest person but may have use both of the parts and graces of the meanest in the Church I say more though I may not say The head more needs the foote then the foote the head nor will I say though so it is concluded f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost 1 Cor. 13. Hom. 34. Aristop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 2. Sc. 5. That the poore man who is as the foot doth not so much need the Rich who is as the head as the rich man needs the poore man for who needs more or who lesse that is not the point but one needs the other that is certaine Nay one cannot be without the other And this that the poore man may not be too much cast downe nor the rich overmuch exalted but that the one and the other may glorifie Him that hath so disposed them so as in the body there should be no lack But now in the last place for maintenance for the Childe how he shall live hereafter The thoughts whereof so take up and tyre out the Parents thoughts so stuffs his heart and disquiets his Rest and peace For this is the great enquiry who will shew us any good Where is this preferment to be had How shall I make my Childe rich and high in the World Where shall I finde a place where he may have great wages and little work This is the great enquiry All the Parents Travels hither and thither is but to make discovery of this point where this fortunate Iland is where is gold and there he would land his Childe and no other reason can he give of all his dangerous adventures but this and this carryeth him and dasheth him upon rocks also because the gold of that Land is good This is the sore Travell and one of the great evils under the Sunne And a folly it is exceeding that of the simplest Idiot in the World for it is as if the Parent should lay out all his whole stock of wealth and wit to purchase and furnish a Chamber for his Childe in a Through fare and provide it no house in the City where it is for ever to dwell I cannot take off this vaile of false opinion But assuredly if we would follow the counsell of the wise we might shorten our sore Travell at this point and make our way to Comfort more compendious The Counsell is this Our g What madnesse is it to spend all our labour to possesse our selves of the Cisâ—erne when the fountaine is offered unto us S. C. p. 642 â— S. C. p. 249. care must be to know our work touching our selves touching ours and then to doe it and so to doe it as unto God with conscience of moderate diligence for over-doing and overworking any thing comes either from ostentation or distrust in God And negligence is so S. Con. 249. farre from getting any blessing that it brings us under a curse That which belongs to us in our calling is care of discharging our duty That which God takes upon him is Assistance and good successe in it Let us look to our worke and leave God to doe His owne Diligence and Trust in Him is onely ours the rest of the burthen is His h Let us make good our ends and the meanes we use and God wil make good the issue and turne all to the best Dr. Feat p. 103. We must part our care so as to take upon us onely this care of Duty and leave the rest
to God S. Con. 85. In a Family the Fathers and the Mothers care is the greatest The Childes care is onely to obey and the servants to doe his work Care of Provision and Protection doth not trouble them Most of our disquietnesse in our Calling is that we trouble our selves about Gods work whereas we should Trust God and be doing in fitting the Childe and let God alone with the rest He stands upon His credit so much that it shall appeare we have not trusted Him in vaine even when we see no appearance of doing any good when we cannot discerne by all our spialls the least shew either for provision or Protection We remember who were very solicitous for their Children and because they could not provide for them nor protect them neither therefore perish they must in the wildernesse We must remember also That the Lord took care of those Children and destroyed those distrustfull parents who thought there was no path in a wildernesse because they could not discerne any nor meate to be had there because their hand was too short to provide it It is dangerous questioning the power of God in the greatest straite If He bring any person into a wildernesse it is because He may shew His power there for provision and protection both God works most wonderfully for and speaks the sweetest comfort to the heart in a wildernesse Note we this then and so I conclude There is much uncertainty in the Certainty of man and all Certainty in the uncertainty of God I tearme it so by allowance of the Spirit i 1 Cor. 1. 25. in respect of mans apprehension There is no uncertainty in God but all Certainty as in Him is all Wisdome all Strength We apprehend that there is a Certainty in man and an Uncertainty in God for if we observe our hearts we Trust Him least but that is our Foolishnesse and Weaknesse There is all uncertainty in men even in the best of men in Princes place no Certainty there There is all Certainty in God as in Him is all Wisdome and Strength put we confidence there Cast we Anchor upwards Commit we all but in well-doing all we have and all we are into his everlasting Armes Then assuredly we shall finde a stay for our selves and a portion for ours Provision and Protection both He is all to us and will be so when we are nothing in our selves And so much touching my Wildernesse and Gods providing for me even there though I tempted him ten times I call it a wildernesse for so I may because so my foolishnesse in my wayfare made it And Gods provision for me was very remarkable and therefore to be remembred for the Parents sake and Childrens too of great use and concernment to both Indeed he that can say no more of his Travels but that he passed through a Wildernesse hath said little to commend his Pilgrimage but much to magnifie the power of That Hand whereby he had a safe Convoy through the same It is a poore and worthlesse life such mine is that hath nothing worthy to be remembred in it but its Infirmities But yet there is nothing so magnifies Gods power * 2 Cor. 12. 9. as mans weaknesse doth When I shall give account of my life and cast up the summe thereof saith Iunius k Miserationes Domini narrabo quum rationes narrabo miserae vitae meae ut glorificetur dominus in me qui secit me vitâ Junii affix Oper. Theol. and so he begins I shall tell of the mercies of the Lord and His loving kindnesse to me ward And then he goes on reckoning up the infirmities of his body some of his minde too but that he puts a Marke upon is what extremitie he was in at Geneva and how graciously the Lord disposed thereof for that was remarkable indeed Beza also spareth not to tell us nay he fills his mouth with it how troublesome the Itch was to him not so easily cured then Deut. 28. 29. as now and what a desperate way the Smart the Chyrurgeon put him to and bad Counsell put him upon Such it was that there was but a step betwixt him and death but God wonderfully put to His Hand inter Pontem fontem Beza could not but confesse that Mercy as we finde it in his Epistle before his Confefsions And so farre That the Parent and Childe both may learne to account Gods works and if it might be to call His mercies by their names and to rest upon Gods providence as the surest inheritance Now I come to give the reason of my paines in all this which follows and what ingageth a Parent unto this Duty 1. I considered my yeers declining a pace When the Sunne is passed the Meridian and turned towards its place where it must set then we know the night approcheth when man ceasing from his work lyeth down in the Darke It is the Wisemans Counsell l Eccles 9. 10. and it is his wisdome to do that which is in his hand with all his might m Prima Actionum Argo Committenda sunt extrema Briareo de Aug. l. 6. 41. before he goes hence for there is no working in the grave The putting off this Day and the next and halfe a day cost the poore Levite and his Concubine very deer as we read Iudg. 19. And it teacheth us in our affairs concerning our selves or ours in setting our house in order That it is dangerous triflng away the Day-light I cannot say with Isaac I am old or mine eye is dimme but I must say in the following words I know not the day of my Death God may spare me among mine yet longer for my building is not so old but it may stand And yet so unsound the foundation is for it is of Clay it may sinke quickly as my good Father before me I may lye down turne to the Wall and to the earth all at once though yet I have scarcely felt and so also my Father before me the least distemper If this consideration come home and proves seasonable I shall then set all in a readinesse and in order that when Death comes I may have then no more to doe but to welcome it and shut the eye and depart tanquam Conviva Satur as one that hath made an improvement of life and hath hope in Death That was my first consideration 2. I considered my Children all three young the eldest but peeping into the World discerning little the second but newly out of the armes the youngest not out of the Cradle I considered also they are not so much mine as the Lords Whom thou hast borne unto me saith the Lord Ezek. 16. 20. And therefore in all reasonable Construction to be returned back againe unto Him by a well ordered education as himselfe hath appointed These thoughts so over-ruled me at length for I am not easily drawn to take my Pen in hand and prevailed with me to pen some instructions
which might treat with them at more yeers and tell them their Parents Will concerning them in case either he or she should be taken from them before they were grown up It is but a dead letter yet somewhat it may worke through Him That worketh all things being as I said the Parents last Will and Testament concerning the Childe My Will otherwise is almost as quickly made as Luthers was wherein he could commend nothing to Wife and three Children but Gods blessing and Melâ—h Adam vita Luth. p. 134. protection And that is a rich legacy indeed a mighty portion but it is not transmitted from the Parent to the Childe This portion the Parent cannot bequeath the Childe cannot receive And yet the Parent and Childe must intend this above all things even the committing all unto God and expecting all from Him so as to say and to say heartily Thou art my Portion saith my soule Thou art a God in covenant with us with ours our God and the God of our seede Children I have for thou hast given them me They are Thine more then mine I was a meanes to bring them into the World and by Thy appointment to be as a Nurse unto them here They are thy Charge for provision and protection I beseech Thee Answer this Trust now specially when it is Thy pleasure so that I can take no care of them myselfe Thou slumbrest not Thou dyest not I must So Luther teacheth us to draw our will and so another as precious hath put it into See Dâ— Sibs p. 647. S. C. forme And we are sure the Lawyer can finde no flaw here There is no errour in the Draught And though this may make the Parent rest secure for he hath chosen a faithfull Over-seer or Executor of his will yet it must not make him carelesse and negligent I have according to my rule and Gods gracious supply layed-up for my Children though very little in comparison of what some may thinke I might have done considering my time of gathering yet something it is and I wonder that little is so much A little riches are hardly got a great deale easily i Essayes Facilis ad divitias via quo die poenituerit bonae mentis Sen. naâ— Quest lib. 4. cap. 1. It is the Lord Ver. Riddle but easily read He that is in employment and lives as a parcell of the World cut off from k Lucullus caenat cum Lucullâ— others l Nemini fructuosa Trem. Hos 10. 1. bearing fruite to himselfe and m Indulgeas Psal 49. 18. Trem. making much of himselfe such a one may lay up more then his heire shall have cause to joy in They who know me well will say I was not the worst husband of my time or purse I disposed of both so as one who was not wholly ignorant that I must be accountable to God for both I had no Friar-like contempt of outward things nor could I much esteeme them though perhaps too much for the more we have of them the more our Cares and the more we love them the more our sorrow will be n Quo plus amas plas dolebis when we must leave them or they us Too little pincheth too much ensnareth the meane betwixt both is the safest proportion o In rebus necessariis est salus in superfluis laqueus c. Salv. de Eccles Cathol lib. 2. p. 404. Lege Isid pelus lib. 2. cp 146. They that are in a depending Condition waiting upon God for their daily bread having neither Barnes nor Coffers nor Cupboards to goe unto as some such there are they can speake of Gods provision for them His strange wayes to bring things about when they knew not which way to turne and they can trust perfectly whereas they who have all the fore-mentioned full stored do pray for their daily bread but trust theÌ„selves and Sacrifice to their owne nets God will provide is more to a faithfull heart then all the treasure in the World for that provision comes forth of a Treasury that will never be exhausted It is good to be at Gods finding and to waite upon him which we cannot doe but by using all diligence in our lawfull Callings And this I mention here That we may not neither the Parent nor the Childe spend our strength as usually we doe even all our stock of time parts in seeking great things Call them by what name we will Honours Preferments c. and hasten we after them as fast as we can They that spake as they were inspired by the Holy Ghost doe tell us under the metaphor whereby they use to set out the nature of all things under the Sunne That what we so hastily runne after runs away as fast from p 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—am 3. 6. 1 John 2. 16. us And the Wiseman q Prov. 23. 5. gives this censure of them They are nothing or presently they will be as if they had not beene We cannot say properly That Riches Are r See Hist of the World B. 2. C. 3. Sect. 4 for now they are and straight-way they are not It is but a mans own and earthly wisedome that makes him think better of them then indeed they are for they are Nothing and he is of no account who maketh account of nothing Å¿ Nihil est qui nihil amat Plaut pers Cease from thine owne wisedome Wilt thou let thine eyes flie with such greedinesse upon that which is nothing Nothing Are Riches nothing Rather a man is nothing without them or nothing accounted of he lives in obscuritie which is the Death of his name and Parts and burieth a man alive as one saith t Dr. Featley And so it is indeed and hence such strugling after riches as for life there being in humane nature more of the foole then of the wise It is then but the fruit of our owne wisdome which must be Ceased from If we stay a little we shall see plainly Riches are not For when a man is brought to a straight and that may be before next morning and when these should prove something and come in for his helpe then they are not They are as farre from his helpe as an Eagle soaring in the Aire out of his reach They were in the eye but now and now againe they are Passed as some Rocks Steeples or Castles on a Pageant and the heart is empty more unsatisfied then the eye with seeing I might remember here and it might be to great purpose even to take us off from our eager pursuit after the World That they who were the greatest purchasers of Land of any we read of could hardly by their Executors purchase so much earth as to interre their bodies in witnesse Alexander V. Patercul and Pompey both great and the richest in Land And William the Conquerour who of all He killed one man after he was dead with the stench of his
but our Pitie and our Praise 2. Thus they see Gods handy-worke and it is wonderfull in their eyes but still they see their owne Image also and cause enough to bewaile the uncleannesse of their Birth What the Pharisees once spake of him whose eyes Christ had opened is true of every mothers Childe Thou wast altogether borne in sinnes which should Joh. 9. 3â— make every Parent to cry out as that mother did Have mercy on me O Lord thou sonne of David my Childe is naturally Matth. 15. 22. Joh. 3. the childe of wrath Except it be borne againe of water and of the spirit it cannot enter into the kingdome of God The Parents see evidently now that they are the channell conveying death unto the childe The mother is separated for some time that shee may set her thoughts apart and fixe them here The father is in the same bond with her and in this we may not separate them God hath made promise to restore this lost Image this not tooke but throwne away integritie And this now their thoughts run upon and they pray That the Lord would open their mouthes wide and enlarge their hearts towards this so great a Mysterie They have a fruit of an old stocke it must be transplanted and out they carry it and into the Church they beare it as out of old Adam whence was transmitted to it sinne and death into the second Adam whence it may receive Righteousnesse and Life Then at the fountaine they hold it blessing God Who hath opened it for sinne and for uncleannesse And there they present it not to the signe of the Crosse but to Blood Sacramentally there that is Righteousnesse purchased by the death of Christ and now on Gods part appropriated and made the childes And the Parents blesse His name and exalt His mercy who hath said at such a time as this Live Who hath found out Ezâ—k 16. 6. a Raâ—some to answer such a guilt A righteousnesse to cover such a sinne so big and so fruitfull A life to swallow up such a death with all its issues This the Parent sees in this poore element Water appointed by God set apart fitted and sanctified for this end With it the childe is sprinkled and for it the Parent beleeves and promiseth Then home againe they carry it It is a solemne time and to be remembred and thâ— vaine pompe takes not up much time where wiser thoughts from truer judgement take place Friends may come and a decency must be to our place sutable but the Pageant like carriage of this solemne businesse by some speaks out plainly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A â—ancie Act. 25. 23. that the heart is not right nor is that vaine pâ—mpe forsaken which yet is now upon their lips to say They who have better learned Christ do better understand the nature and solemnitie of the action they are about so their great businesse is with God before whom they spread themselves and their childe Who can worke by meanes as secret as is the way of the spirit and can set this water closer to the soule then He hath set its bones which yet no man understandeth nor can tell when or how To Him they offer it before Him they lay it praying That this water may ever lye upon the heart of theirs as a fruitfull seed quickâ—ing renewing sanctifying That that water may as the Rocke ever 1 Cor. 10. 4. follow the childe The rocke removed not but the waters there-out followed them so the Parents pray That this water may ever follow the childe as a fresh spring still quickening washing refreshing untill the day of refreshing shall come This is their dutie now and this is all they can do beside the tending of it and this their dutie and their life must end together Now the childe lyes at the mothers breast or in the lap she is the nurse without question or so she should be though it is a resolved case that in some cases she cannot and in some she may not mercy must be regarded before this sacrifice But looke we still That mercy be not the pretence and ease the thing that is pleaded for that alters the case very much and will not prove a sufficient excuse wherewith to put off so bounden a dutie The * Aul. Gel. lib. 12. cap. 1. Macrob lib. 5. cap. 11. Erasm puerp Heathen have spoke enough to this point and more then all the Christians in the world can answer for the deserting and putting off unlesse in the cases before pointed at this so naturall and engaged a service At the mothers breast then we suppose the childe is and the eyes are open abroad it looks nothing delights it they shut againe as if it would tell the Parent what they should be now and it selfe hereafter both crucified to the world and the world to them 3. The childe is yet so little that here is little for the father to do yet All that is and it is no little worke is in his closet But besides that for it is the mothers worke too here is work for the mother enough It must be tended though it sleepe much more when it is awake And here is the observation It is hard to say which is more the mothers tendernesse or the childes frowardnesse and yet how they agree how they kisse one the other as if the parent were delighted with it It is an affection somewhat above nature implanted for the preservation of man so the Heathen could say by the God of mercy otherwise it might not be so for the more froward it is the more she tenders the little thing And it much encreaseth the childes score which he can never pay The Parent and the childe can never cut scores or strike tallies for they will never lye even 4. Infancy is a dreame we say The most part of it is spent in the cradle and at the breast the remainder in dressing and undressing Little can be said to it And yet something may be done even the first two yeers for the framing of the body as Nurses know best but something it is and the fashioning of the minde too and the younger it is with the better successe I have read of a great Conquerour yet not so great as that he could overcome his passions or an ill custome it is a second nature he learnt an unbeseeming gesture at the brest and shewed it on his throne If I remember his Nurse was blamed for it for she might have remedied it while the parts were tender Some-thing may be done also for the fashioning of the minde and preventing of evill It is much what they who are below Christians have spoken and practised this way which I passe over Note we The first tincture and dye hath a very great power beyond ordinary conceit or my expression And therefore observe well what they do who are about this childe not yet three yeers old and what the childe doth
like an Ape wholly by example The Parents practise I meane the Parent at large him or her that hath the oversight of it is the childes booke it learnes by it so it speaks so it heares it is fashioned after it it is chatechized by it It is its Schoole and the Church The Parents house must promote the childe in point of information more then can Schoole or Church though well provided in both yet Parents be too ready to referre all thither and so put all off from themselves Assuredly it is the cause of much mischiefe and sorrow in the world that the parents think themselves discharged of their duty towards their childe when they have charged the School with it Yet thus it is commonly for so experience tels us which is the Oracle of Time and makes all wise that observe it The mother thinks that the School must look to the washing her childs hands putting on the girdle its attendance at the table and his manners there and if there be any other faults as there will be many then we know who shall heare of them all and we know as well that none will be mended when there is no better care at home But so the mother thinks that she shall do her part for she is resolved that to the Master or Mistresse she will go and the childes arrand she will do and she sweares it too if she live to the next morning If it please God I relate her words being well acquainted with them the Master shall know the rudenesse of the childe how unmannerly and undutifull it is and how slovenly too Nay the Master shall know it will neither give God thanks nor say its prayers This is her errand and when that is done she takes it that she hath done her duty In the mean time I mention no other decay the childe grows so nasty that you would scarce take an egge out of its hand So much the Mother commonly neglects the childe whom she loves so dearly well and so much desires its well doing And for the Father he is upon such designes as may enlarge his heaps or possessions which he means to cast upon the childe like so many loads of Muck thrown together L. Ver. Essay 15. â—5 upon an heap though money as one saith is like muck indeed not good except it be spread But so the Father enlargeth his desires and his means he knows not well for whom and so he intends his minde and for himself onely Essay 8. 37 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Gen. 33 Hom. 59 a. he intendeth it For Charity will hardly water the ground when it must first fill a poole And little doth the Parent think how much he doth in so doing crosse the rule and the end he seems to carrie in his eye his comfort in his childs well-doing For those designes do trouble and hurt the wel-fare of the childe they do not serve it at all That wherewith the parent would load himself now and his childe after him usually makes the childe forget it self and the parent both The bladder is so blown with the windie conceit of that inheritance the Father hath purchased and is the childe 's in reversion that he can think of nothing but that and his Fathers yeers which he can roule in his minde betime as a piece of sugar under his tongue His minde is so stuffed with the thoughts of what he is heir to that by his looke speech gesture he shews plainly that he is not tractable not counsellable The Father hath laid up enough for it as he thinks and the childe takes it as the Parent means it for portion and proportion both And what folly there is in the childe which must needs be a great deale Stultitiam patiuntur opes â—uvenal Nimiâ— felicitate socors Tacit. de Scjano Annal. 74. cap. 9. where no means hath been used to let it forth Riches will cover well enough Folly will not appeare under a rich Covering But this will appeare which is more unnaturall yet too ordinary such is the corruption that the childe is well content that the same head should be laid low which contrived so much to set the childes head so high I observed a childe once so he was though a man grown and I know him now a rich mans sonne and his onely heire who could not frame and set his countenance for that was as much as was lookt for for so short a time Haeredis luctus sub larvâ risus as while he prepared his hood he was close mourner and it was wel he was to follow his Fathers corps to Church I was present the while A sad but just judgement upon those parents who are sad and serious almost in al their designes excepting this one which is the maine the well ordering and good education of their childe Herein that which is at the best but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Châ—ys Tom. 4. Vit. Monast lib. 3 cap 6. an accessary liberall maintenance is made a principall and that which is a principall the childes good and wholesome nurture is made an accessary and scarce that And this is To sell the horse to get some hay as Charron phraseth it In every thing else the Parent is wiser he will not build in a Citie or in a place which is instable ruinous ready to fall nor will he lay a foundation upon a sand And yet so he builds and contrives for himself and his childe even where he knâ—ws there is no continuing or abiding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost in Epist ad Heb. ca. 12. Hom. 32. City And this is a folly exceeding that of the simplest idiot in the world for it is as if the Parent should lay out all his whole stock of wealth and wit to purchase and furnish a chamber for his childe in a thorough faire and provide it no house in the City where it is for ever to dwell Again the Parent is so wise that he will till and manure the field he loâ—ks to reap a good crop from but here he thinks to reap though he sow not and that the childe will â—e good how bad soever the fathers example be or how little soever his care which he takes in the well nurturing of his childe It is a soloecisme in Power saith the Lo. Ver. but we are sure it is an inordinate rude and perverse conceit that prevails with the most parents against all sense and reason To thinke to command the end yet not to endure the Esâ—â—y 19. 108. meane They will expect comfort ye cannot beat them off from it but for the way they take they may as well expect a grape from a thorne or a figge from a thistle for look upon the childe they expect it from observe its looks speeches gesture mark it from the head to the heel and you shall see it like the sluggards field and in no better plight to yeeld
have any thing else what it will it is at its own choice and then we know What it will chuse that which will most hurt it self in the end so provident the childe is ever carelesse of to morrow prodigall of the present And yet it is commonly left to such a self-pleasing humour that it is sensible of every restraint so that it goes neere to think its girdle and garters to be bonds and shackles It s palate is better instructed also then its mouth so that it can make better choice of dishes then of words 2. And now we may easily reade without the book what hurt this fondnes doth this strange cockering of children It is a strange expression I shall use but the experience of twenty yeers tells me it is true the devill doth not so much hurt I know he will do as much hurt as he is suffered to do to the very utmost extent of his chain but so much hurt he doth not to poore children as doth this fond indulgence It choaks their naturall parts otherwise very Corperis cura mentem obruerunt Quintâ— l 1. ca. 11. good and hopefull so that no more can reasonably be exspected from them then from a marish ground we know what grows there It undoes the family Town and City A foolish pity may we call it rather a cruell pity like yvie it kils and makes barren the tree that it embraceth or like the ape it killeth the young with hugging them it lets the childe rather sink under water then it will hold it up by the haire of the head for fear of hurting it Indulgence is the very engine of the Devill like that I have read of made See Hist of the world B. 5. Ch. 4. Sect. 10. p. 532. onely to torment poore creatures with those very Arms which opened towards them as it were for embracement The experience of all ages tells us that this indulgent cockering hath turned many children up the hill or the Caus de â—loq li. 3. ca 8. hedge to beggery or worse And hence their complaints the same now as we reade they were in Cyprians dayes a Parentes nostros sensimus paâ—ricidas Illud grave quod iâ— aeternitate jugulabit Salv. ad â—â—cl li. 2. â— Our Fathers and Mothers have proved our murtherers soul-murtherers worse then they who murther the body as Chrysost saith usefully in his 3. book of Monastick life Chap. 4. 3. We have seen this strange humour of cockring what it is and whence it groweth what mischief it causeth These considerations following may help and fortifie us against so destroying an evill The first is 1. Then parents take aready way to rob themselves of their children when they idolize them and dote upon them The heart shoâ—ld be kept as a chaste Virgin espoused to one husband That should lie closest there which can satisfie the creature cannot there is a vanity upon it no more then ashes or the East-winde can satisfie the stomack till the soul be pointed to God as the needle to the North Pole it is still in a shaking trembling posture much like an inhabitant in the Land of Nod still as the waves of the sea in agitation Gen. 4. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrys Ibid. Agitatio vexatio Trem. tossed between hope and fear for being turned from God to the creature it lies open as a faire mark for every incomfortable accident to strike it at the heart for from thence the heart shall finde the sorest griefes where it placed its chiefest joy and contentment being not placed where it should be in God that which we make our God besides the true one that will prove our tormentor the heart and the creature do close together too well and agree they do as two friends too inwardly as if they could fill up and satisfie each other whereas the better agreement there was and the more compleate riviting of the one with the other the more falling out and bitternesse there will be when the parting day comes which we must look will be quickly if we set up the gift in our heart instead of the giver certainly if God loves us He will hide from us this idoll which we so much dote upon He feeleth the pulse of our affection where it beateth most strongly and to what part the humour is carried most fully and eagerly and there we shall certainly bleed for He can strike us in the right veine If a Parent be inordinate in his affection if his Ioseph and his heart lie like a bundle close wrapt up together then it is very likely that Ioseph must leave his Father that the Parent may learn to sacrifice the childe in affection which is the readiest way to keep the childe for commonly it fals out that the Lord snatcheth away that comfort which we made such store of locking it up too close Peter saw the glory of Christ in His transfiguration It is Luk. 9. 33 34. very observeable that while Peter was speaking of building Tabernacles for some continuance a cloud over-shadowed them and they feared If God shew us that which doth content and please us we would presently build Tabernacles upon these outward comforts I meane the heart would settle and fix upon them it is so good being with these comforts but now while we are projecting and providing for this continuance then commonly comes some cloud and over-shadows this comfort and sometimes then when we are but speaking and thinking of it then the cloud comes and then follow feares In the story of Ionah it is read That the Lord God prepared a Gourd that it might be a shadow over Ionahs head and deliver him from his griefe So Chap. 4. Ionah was exceeding glad of the gourd Exceeding glad marke that I pray you and that which follows But God prepared a Worme the very next morning and it smote the gourd that it withered The Lord is graciously pleased to grant unto us some comforts here whereby to sweeten our sorrows and to refresh us in our weary pilgrimage But if we shall be exceeding glad of them being but of the same nature and constitution as was Ionahs gourd then look we to it for then commonly the Lord is preparing a worme which will quickly smite that gourd so that it shall wither and then which is next to be considered †2. We shall be troubled as much at the withering of our gourd as we were joyed before in the having of it which was Ionahs case exceeding glad of our gourds exceeding Quicquid mirabere pones invitus Hor. epist lib. 1. 10. sorrowfull and disconsolate at the smiting and withering of the gourds It ever follows by the rule of proportion b Ipse ut lâ—titiae ita maeroris immodicus egit Tacit. Of Nero burying his beloved daughter Augusta An. 15. Psal 30. 6 7. We are apt to thinke that our gourds do cast a greater shadow then indeed they do
or can And answerable is our delight in them and our sorrow for them when they wither Therefore we should know what ever our mountaine or gourd is I meane our comfort in what kinde soever it is Gods favour His influence through it that gives strength unto it and us comfort in it And if He withdraw His favour and restraine His influence as doubtlesse He will if we are too confident of our setling and firme standing thereon as if we could never be mooved then trouble follows and the more our trouble will be the stronger our confidence was and our contentment in the same It is the greatnesse of our affections which causeth the sharpnesse of our afflictions They that love too much will alwaies grieve too much a The presence of a comfort is not more comfortable then will be the absence thereof grievous If we suffer the childe that is the creature we are now upon to shoot too farre into our hearts when the time of severing cometh we part with so much of our hearts by that rent Oh how good is it and how great a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz epist 125. point of wisedome to carry the creature as we do a loose garment apart and loose from the heart easily parted with That when God calls for it as He may with more libertiâ— then we may fetch our childe from nurse yet we take libertie there we may willingly part with it saying here Lord thou gavest it to me Thou maist fetch it from me Blessed be thy name in taking as in giving The Heathen gives a Rule and it is of easie construction Love so as thou maist hate Ama tanquam osurus That is Love your friend so that if hatred should grow betwixt you yet no hurt can follow for you have not so unbrested and opened your self unto him that he can hurt you It is a good rule for a Parent Love thy childe so as one Amatanquam amissurus that is parting with it That is love thy childe so that if thou losest it yet thou doest not lose thy treasure nor thy heart Thou hast not so opened thy self towards it nor is it laid up so close Then thou canst be content with thy losse and submit to His mightie hand That tooke it from thee He was a wise Heathen and one instruction from him comes double to a Christian I kisse my childe to day and then I think it may M. Aâ—â— Aâ—â— Med. lib. 11. 21. 30. p. 148. be dead to morrow It is ominous some will say No that remembrance keeps it loose and apart from the heart and the surer in our possession whereas the common conceits and opinions that our comforts shall not be taken from us nor we moved are as one saith the common lamiae or bug-beares of the world the cause of our trouble and sorrow That we may not be carried by conceits and opinions our desire should be the same that Agurs was That God Prov. 30. Soules conflict pag. 48. would remove from us vanitie and lyes That is from a vain and false apprehension pitching upon things that are vaine and lying and promising that contentment to our selves from them which they cannot yeeld Confidence in vaine things makes a vaine heart and fills it with sorrow for vexation ever follows vanitie when vanitie is not apprehended to be where it is This the second consideration The third this †3. That childe whom we do inordinately set our hearts upon doth seldome or never answer our wished for expectations no not in any measure As the Parent hath widened and opened his heart towards it in a largenesse of expectation and hope so doth that childe commonly contract straiten and close up it self towards the Parent God doth often strike that childe of whom we fondly conceive the greatest hope with the greatest barrennesse Cain proves lighter then vanity and Abel a possession I have observed and much I have observed when the parent hath carelesly neglected one childe and like the ape hugged and fondly cockered another I have observed too that the hated childe proved fruitfull and the fondling barren and withall that childe which the parent did tender most regarded the parent least God ever shortens our account when we reckon without Him and as He commonly blasteth our bold and confident attempts so doth He wither extraordinary hopes in earthly things That we may open our mouthes wide towards Him that can fill them We may note the connexion we finde Gen. 29. 30 31. Iacob loved Rachel more then Leah When the Lord saw that He made Rachel barren The more love the more barrennesse To make differences betwixt childe and childe is not safe a Gen. 37. 3 4. Accedebat invidia quod mater promptior Neroâ—â— esset Tacit. An. 4. 13. It causeth great differences and to make fondlings of any is a dangerous presage That this fondling is the childe who will prove as a barren soile like a parched heath or a salt land I could wish that were the worst It is commonly much worse for which is the last consideration 4. It commonly falls out That the childe we so doted upon proves the heaviest crosse That 's the childe commonly which like a backe winde hastens the Parent to the pit making him speake in very bitternesse of soule Why dyed Job 3. 11. it not from the wombe c. They whose experience is but as yesterday can tell us That the bloudy knife it is Mr. Boultons expression of Parents unconscionable and cruell Direct p. 19 20. negligence in training up of their children religiously doth stick full deepe in their souls Nay they can tell us more then so even that these childreÌ„ so loosely train'd up have cut their parents hearts with sorrow yea and their throats too they have stuck the knife in their own parents bowels such bloudie and unnaturall acts might be instanced in and urged I shall onely relate three examples two whereof fell under mine own observation I could relate two and twentie so ordinary they are as we in our way finde them the third example is extraordinary and yeelds a sad story The first was the mothers onely childe therefore her darling as fondly handled by her and disordered as we need imagine To schoole he came that he might be out of the dirt So the rod was spared the mother had her desire and expectation The childe proved accordingly not answerable to the mothers hope but very answerable to her manner of breeding About a yeere after the childe angred the mother and the mother struck the childe he runs to the fire and up with the fire forke and at the mother he makes at least he threatned The mother hastens to me as much displeased with the childe as ever before she was pleased with it It was well for the childe for it made him stand in awe though in no great feare of the mother More depends on it but I must
will soone be most severe and violent in their correction as if they had that absolute and universall power over their children which once the Parent had and much power yet they have all the craft is in the wise using of it But they doe not use it well now in their passion they will miscall the childe strangely and strike they know not where and kick too I set down what mine own eyes and eares have told me They do punish perhaps not Laudabaâ— se non sine causa sed fine modo without cause as was said of one in another case but without all measure as if they were not children but slaves And then as was said in the other extreame we may reade without booke that no good can be done but much hurt rather while the Parent is so eager upon the childe it is not then teachable not counsellable for as was said feare betrayeth all its succours nor is the Parent in a fit case to teach or counsell it for what can be expected from a man in a frensie Anger is fitly called so A Parent carryed in a passion cannot mingle his corrections with instructions and where that mixture is not there is no Discipline for that is true Discipline when the childe smarts from the hand and Siâ— ul sunt â—aec duo conjungeÌ„da Argutio castigatio Inutilis est castigatio ubi verba silent verbera saeviunt unde rectè vocatur castigatio Disciplina quâ delinquens unâ— dolet discit Bright on the Revelat. chap. 3. vers 19. p. 72. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not possible to put out fire with fire Chrysost in Gen. 32. hom 89. learnes from the tongue We must first convince a childe of his fault and then punish the same if the fault deserve it These two must ever goe together correction and instruction Correction is to no purpose where words are silent and stripes outragious Correction is truly called Discipline because the dilinquent smarts and learnes both together This then is my conclusion wherein I shall a little enlarge my selfe That roughnesse and fiercenesse doth not help in the rooting out of evill though there it doth best but much hurt it doth in the planting in of good there it lets exceedingly It furthers not in the unrooting of evill but rather sets the work back and roots it more in That is the first thing I shall make cleare 1. Man is a noble creature and lord-like of a good house as we say though falne into decay But this remainder or relique there is yet of his noblenesse you may easily lead him when you cannot drag him you may perswade when you cannot force and the more force the lesse good Mildnesse and Meeknesse and sweetnesse in carriage wins much 1. Voluntas cogi non vult doceri expeâ—it A soft tongue breaketh the bone Prov. 25. vers 12. 15. to be observed both even sometimes with a crooked disposition when as roughnesse hardneth It is not the way to plucke down a stubborn heart nor to fetch out a lye though in these cases a Parent must be very active and if he spares his childe he kills it It is a great fault in parents saith one for fear of taking down of the childs spirits not to take down its pride and get victory over its affections whereas a proud unbroken heart raiseth us more trouble then all the world beside And if it be not taken down betimes it will be broken to pieces by great troubles in age I shall consider this evill and some others in fit place now in this place I am removing that which hindreth The parent is bound to teach the childe how to bear the Lam. 3. 27. yoke from its youth This duty the parent is engaged upon But the parent must use a great deale of discretion in the putting on this yoke The parent must not stand in a menaâ—ing posture before the childe as ready to strike as to speak and giving discouraging words too When we would back our Colt or break a skittish Heifer to the yoke the comparison holds well we do not hold the yoke in one hand and a whip in the other but we do before them as we know the manner is else there would be much ado in putting on the yoke and in breaking or backing the Colt they would be both more wilde and lesse serviceable It is much so with children if our carriage be not ordered with discretion before them we may make them like those beasts more unruly and perhaps all alike or if they learn any thing by such froward handling it will be frowardnesse When we would work upon a childe our carriage before it should be quiet and as still as might be just in the same posture that a man stands in before the live mark which he would hit he doth not hoot and hollow when he takes his ayme for then he would fright away the game by his rudenesse but so he stands as we well know the manner like one who means to hit the mark Our ayme is the good of the childe we must look well to our deportment before it else we may fright away our game There are some natures saith Clem. Alex. like yron hardly flexible but by the Pad li. 2. c. 10. pag. 97 fire hammer and anvill that is as he expounds it by reproofs threats blows and all this may be done and must if done well in termes of mildnesse and pleasing accent with force of reason rather then hardnesse of blows and if it might be in the spirit of meeknesse remembring still Mr. Tindals Letter Martyr pa. 987. words As lowlinesse of heart shall make you high with God even so meeknesse of words shall make you sink into the hearts of men I have observed a childe more insolent and stout under a rigorous and rough hand but calmed after the heat was over on both sides with a milde gentle perswasion that workt force and violence hardens when as a loving and gentle perswasion wins upon the heart thaws and melts the same Harshnesse loseth the heart and alienates the affections 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Hom. 26. in 1. Cor. 11. but mildnesse gaineth all Proud flesh as experience tells us is taken down by lenitives the most gentle and soft applications So the pride and roughnesse of our nature is subdued by lenitives and not by another roughnesse as the Father speaketh elegantly We may note too the more rigour the childe apprehends and the more the rod is threatned which is the onely thing a childe feares the more the childe will hide it self like that unwise man who standing at the entry of an unlawfull but too much frequented place and finding himself eyed by a friend whom he would not should see him there shrunk in his head and in he went If a man had â— Non sum adeò aetatum imprudens ut instandam teneris protinus acerbè
putem c. Quint. lastit l 2. cap. 1. no more wit what expect we from a childe He was ashamed to be seen at the doore he helpt himself well to go within the doores then as his friend said he was within indeed and the further he was so much the more within so a childe will do he will hide himself in the thicket at least he thinks so further and further if he apprehend much rigour there is much wisedome to be used here and mercy also and great reason there is to incline us to both as we shall hear in due place For the present that which hath been said may assure us that fiercenesse helps not in the unrooting of evill it hinders much the implanting of good There it hurts very much which is the second 2. If ever mildnesse gentlenesse calmnesse and sweetnesse of carriage do good and do become then more especially when we would winne upon the affection and sink into the understanding when we would lodge some precepts in the minde draw the heart and set it right Now while we are instructing handle the childe freely and liberally in a sweet and milde way speak kindly to it we must now and then we may have its heart for ever if we be rough and harsh now we fright away our game The instruction which we inforce into the minde by a kinde of violence will not long continue there but what is insinuated and fairly induced with delight and pleasure will stick in the mind the longer Trem. Preface before Iob. If Moses be to instruct he is commanded to speak not to smite and it teacheth us That a sweet compellation and carriage wins much upon the heart but we suppose we are dealing with children It is a mad behaviour and no better to suffer the hand to move as fast as the tongue and to strike at the head too the seat of understanding The head is to our little world as man is to the great world the verie abridgement or epitome of a man spare the head of any place else you may drive out that little which is and stop the entrance for coming in of more The Lord make all teachers understand this truth and pardon our failings herein and the Lord teach parents also whose duty more peculiarly we are upon to correct and instruct their children in all meeknesse That we may all learn I will set down some considerations which may calm the parent and take off from his hastinesse when he would unroot evill a great enemy to that good he ows and doth really intend the childe 3. I suppose now such a parent who hath beene fierce and eager upon the childe striking flinging kicking it as the usuall manner is because of its stomack towards the parent which he will pluck down and because it stands in a lie which he is resolved to fetch on t such a Parent I suppose for such there are and this I would have him consider it may make him wiser against the next time First †1. Who is that upon whom he hath bestowed so many hard blows both from hand and foot too I tell but my own observation who is it he hath used so disgracefully with such contumelious words It is no other then the image and glory of God A strong consideration to cause the 1. Cor. 11. 7. parent to carry himself comely and reverently before the childe which he may do and yet make the childe both to know and keep its distance else it cannot know its dutie A Parent cannot conceive the childs condition to be more Maxima debetur pueris Reverentia Iuv. Major è longinquo Reverentia Tacit. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. de prosper Adver Hom 5. â— deplorable then was the Rich-mans in the Parable yet saith Chrysost and he makes it very useful Abraham called him Sonne a compellation still befitting a Father so also words and actions well becoming that sweet name a Jud. 9. α. and most likely to winne upon and to convince the childe whereas bitter and vilifying words become not though we did contend with the Devill a Jud. 9. α. Kinde words make rough actions plausible The bitternesse of reprehension is answered with the pleasingnesse of compellations Sonne let that be the name for so he is though never so bad And as a childe hath no greater argument to prevail with a Father then by that very name of love so nor hath a parent any stronger argument whereby to prevail with his childe then by that very name of dutie whether we respect his Father on earth whose childe he is or in heaven whose image and impresse he beares though now much defaced This is the first †2. And it is his own image too that 's the second consideration his very picture even that childe whom in the rage and rore of his anger he hath thrown and battered so He is a mad man that will kick and throw about his picture specially if the picture doth fully and lively shew forth his proportion This childe is the parents picture right and never so fully the parents image as now that it is in a stubborn fit It is a certain truth a parent never sees his own revolting and stubborn heart more expressed to the life then he may do in a stubborn childe then he may see it as plainly as face in water answers face this is a weighty consideration if it be put home A Parent must consider whence had the childe this who put this in which the parent would now in all haste fetch out Sinfull peremptory nature runnes in a bloud it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Pet. 1. 18. by tradition the childe received it of the father This the Parent must not forget and then his carriage will not be such as may lose the childes heart and alienate his affections such an effect harshnesse and roughnesse may work it may make the childe think that the parent hates his own flesh a In â—mendando nâ— acerbus c. quidam sic objurgant quasi oderint Quint. 2. 2. 3. Is the childe thus stiffe and stubborn thus confirmed in evill Doth it stand against all the parents knocks and threats like a rock immoveable Consider then he must whence was that Rock he wen The parent is the quarry or pit whence it was taken and whence it contracted this Tanquam dura siiâ—x aut stet Vâ—g rockinesse It cannot be too often considered but it was the former consideration the parent must consider this here and it sufficeth to calme and quiet him to take off from his eagernesse that the time was when the childe was not so stiffe and so though it was tâ—nder like a twig so as a twig or the sight of it would have moved and stirred it but then the parent would not it was too soon the time was not yet afterwards would be soon enough Now if it be too late he must thank himself
unapt we were when we were children learning something now would make it fresh again though the difference is much betwixt a man and a childe and it must be considered What we understand fully we think a childe might understand more readily and hence proceeds more hastinesse then is fitting which shews the Teacher to be the verier childe 4. Lastly let the Parent consider how long he hath been a disciple and how little he hath learnt It may be an Elephant or some imitating creature may be taught more in one moneth then he hath learnt in a whole yeer in matters most necessary this consideration if it be put home would calme him sure enough And so much for the removing of the Lets CHAP. IIII. Our nature like a soil fruitfull of weeds What her evils are How unrooted or prevented NOw we look to the preventing of evils which while they are but in the seed may be crushed as it were in the egge before there comes forth a flying Serpent or Cockatrice and I begin with that which is most radically in us and first sheweth it self that is †1. Pride it is the sinne of our nature and runs forth to seed rank and luxuriant the soonest of any It is the first sinne which declares its life in a childe and last dies in a man We read a Judg 9. 34. that Abimelechs skull was broke with a milstone thrown down upon him by the hand of a woman then he called out hastily unto his Armour-bearer Slay me that men say not A woman slew him Observe saith Chrysostome a Tom. 6. sâ—r 1. The man was dying yet his pride would not die Indeed it is the very heart-string of our corrupt Nature cut it and that beast will die but like the heart in the body it will hold out the longest I shall speak more hereof in my second part where we shall see the root of this sinne and the fruit of it too In this place being upon the dutie of a parent I shall onely shew how farre we parents fall short at this point and what our folly is for what we should soonest suppresse in children we first cherish and maintain Indeed all that are imployed about them b Quint. de claris Orat. are for the most part teachers of vanity unto them but of nothing more then of priding themselves and over-valuing their worth which is nothing whereto I conceive this makes a way verie ready and compendious †1. If a childe have some portion in the world above its fellows then it is presently a master or mistresse and others its servants He I include both sexes is taught to command when he should learn to obey and hath titles of respect given unto him before he knows how to deserve them or give them where they are due he hath others under him when he should be under others and not differ from a servant c Gal 4. 1 2 in point of subjection and obedience it is the old and standing rule though Lord of all This inhanceth our nature above the worth of it and makes the childe think it self some body d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 8. 9. some great one when it is a very little one to that he thinks himself a very nothing I have observed they that have been masters when they were but Boyes and in theâ—â— season to learn subjection have proved the basest servants afterwards and boyes all the dayes of their life †2. Another way there is to blow up this little bladder which is by putting on the childe such ornaments so the parent intends them as serve neither for necessitie nor ornament nor decency and then bidding the childe looke where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrys 〈◊〉 41. m Gen 18. it is fine An ordinary custome and very effectuall to lift up the minde To teach the childe so much to looke on it selfe that afterwards it cannot looke of I remember a merry fellow if he did intend hurt to any person would then give him a rich sute of apparell A 〈◊〉 cui 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vestimenta dabat 〈◊〉 Hor. strange kinde of injury a man would thinke but he found it a sure way and certain to hurt He should finde his enemy looking work enough he would so looke upon his fine costly cloathes that he would forget the vilenesse of his body And for the minde of this man so prancked-up now it would be as new and as gay as his cloathes and then he would hurt him sure enough For this is a compendious way to take hurt or a fall To looke upon the cloathes and forget a mans selfe and his first principles Sr. Thomas More tells us of a countrey wherein the men went very plaine but the children were as gay as jewells bracelets and feathers would make them It was his fiction but it findes some realitie and truth amongst us with whom children are so decked up and some also who passe for and walke as men of whom we may say as the Prophet in a case not very different for they also lavish gold out of the bag to adorne their Idoll Remember this and shew your selves men But sure enough Isa 46. 8. our rule teacheth us otherwise touching our children That they are worse trusted with superfluities till they have learnt from us the nature use and end of apparell why it was first put on and since continued In the meane time an handsome neat but plaine dresse doth best and is the safest garb A wise man can see his way here and guide himselfe and his childe between a cynicall affected plainnesse scanting themselves and a pageant like ostentation fomenting pride and strange conceits Reade Chrysost upon 〈◊〉 3. 1 vers 21. Hom. 18. Abusing that most fearefully to most contrary ends which God hath given to make us humble and thankfull Our Proverbe forbids us to stirre up a sleeping dogge and the Greeks have another to the same purpose We must not cast up fire with a sword Both the one and the other teacheth us not to foment or stirre up corrupt nature but by all fitting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. de Educat meanes to keep it down so may we prevent this evill But we see the contrary is practised we doe stirre fire with a sword we doe foment corrupt nature by vain and phantasticall fashions such as if the Divell were in mans shape they were the words of a grave and learned Divine he D. G. could not be more disguised then now in mans cut and garb A great and a provoking evill this our dutie is to prevent it what may be and betimes Here is a fit place to plant in the Grace of humilitie lowlinesse of carriage how the viler a man is in his own eyes the more gracious he will be in every mans eye besides The lower his deportment is so it be in truth and sinceritie and not below himselfe the higher he is
in true judgement With the lowly is wisedome and the eye of the Lord is towards him for good More fully this in the second part But here let the childe have some old lessons with his new cloathes for that is all besides his sports he takes delight in It may be told That as the man must honour the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrys ad pop Am Hom. 19. VVe commend not an horse for his trappings nor must we a man for his clothes what availeth a body well clad and a soul naked 1 Pet. 3. 3. Aug. confess lib. 1. cap. 7. house not the house the man so the person must put a grace upon his apparell not the apparell upon the person It is a poore ornament and not worth the looking on which is put-on and off with the cloathes The inward ornament is the grace indeed And if the Parent shall intend principally the beautifying of the inward man his own and his childes he shall reap the comfort of both And so much to the first which sheweth my scope to propose a way onely not to determinate the same 2. There is a spice of this pride which shews it selfe in children before their teeth in a froward stubborn carriage The Parent must be as speedy in observing what signes the childe gives hereof either in words or gesture thereby it is declared very much And he must leave nothing remaining so farre as he can help of this yron sinew out with it and spare him not The childes future good and the Parents comfort depend upon it Let him see and feele that it is very unprofitable and bootlesse to be sullen froward obstinate leave him not till he be as soft as a pumpion that is the counsell and the way to prevent this evill which will make him as unfit to rule hereafter as he is to obey now The Parent must be very watchfull and active here but now remembring he looks upon his owne picture as was said his own Image right Now heart answers heart as face to face in water or in Chrystall And therefore we shall the lesse feare the fathers passion All compassion will be used which is necessary and required And so the stubborn spirit which worketh all our woâ— as was said may be taken down through Gods blessing who is lookt up unto for that which is crooked no man can make straight And the contrary grace may be instilled and inforced I meane gentlenesse of carriage meeknesse of behaviour oh how winning how commendable it is Love is the whet-stone of Love an attractive thereof a Vt ameris ama Mar. I will tell thee said one how thou maist make another love thee without a love-potion a Ego tibi monstrabo amatorium sine medicamento c. Si vis amari ama Senec. epist. 9. If we would be beleeved we must â—â—ve honestly If we would be beloved we must lovel caâ—tily Isid 〈◊〉 lib. 2 epist 148. Be pleasing and loving to others and thou shalt have love againe A meeke and loving carriage will win the love and draw the eyes of all unto us as a cleare Sun-shine upon a faire Diall where as a rough stout and boysterous nature doth thrust out a rough and hasty hand against every man and will finde every mans hand as boisterous and rough against him but gentlenesse sinks into the heart and wins it makes the clearest Demonstration of a Gentle-man Others may assume the name but it is the Gentlemans right his whom gentlenesse calmenesse sweetnesse of carriage doth denominate There are other meanes to work and mould the spirit this way which I cannot thinke of but we must remember still that there is no way like this The looking up to the Lord the spreading this crookednesse and peremptory bent of nature before Him who onely can subdue it and set it straight But the Parent must do his part else God is lookt-up unto in vaine He must set the 21 chapter of Deut. before the childe there to reade the punishment of a stubborn childe He must informe him how unsociable a Nabal-like disposition is a 1. Sam. 25. 17. Latrant non loquuntur Cic. Brut. pag. 161. fol. Stridet non loquitur Cal. epist 339. How b 2. Sam. 23. 6 7. Vt spina ex quacunque parte con spâ—xeris habet aculeos Sic servus Diabol Chrysost in Matt. 7. Hom. 9. lat aut untractable such a person who is of the nature of thorne But above all things the Parent must bid the childe behold how God raiseth valleys and takes down hills Represseth the presumptuous and giveth grace to the modest 3. Spare not the childe for his lye children are strangely addicted to it because they are children and understand not he is a childe though a man threescore yeers old that useth it It is the winding crooked course the very going of the serpent which goeth basely upon the belly and eats the dust There is no vice doth more uncover a man to the world and covers him with shame It out-faces God and shrinks from man and what can be more childish It unmans a man debasing his glory and making it his shame It makes a man most unlike God most like the Divell I know not how a Parent can dispose of a lying childe he is unfit for any societie We take more content with our Dog then with one whose language we understand not saith De Civil liâ— 18. cap. 7. Austin I adde And then with one whose words we cannot trust A Parent must labour hard for the rooting out of this evill He may tell the childe That God is truth And that He commands and loves the same in His creatures and in our converse one with another That He sees the secrets of mans heart and will bring every secret thing to judgement The Parent may shew the childe as on a theater Gods judgements on lyers how quick and sharpe God hath been against this abuse of the Tongue punishing it with Leprosie and sudden death And that He hath allotted to lyers a place without amongst Dogs because they have abased themselves Reve. 22. 15. below men c. But perhaps the rod is the onely thing ' which yet the childe feares and understands and let him feel it now for the preventing of this great evill but yet so handle the childe that it may not run further into the thicket and shift the more as he we spake of did into the house Thereby the childe will be the more hardened against the next time A childe hath no more wit but to think as too many old folk do That an evill is cured with an evill which as one saith is a most absurd conceit there being no remedie against Isid Pelus lib. 2. epist 145. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Isid the evill of sinne this specially but confession and repentance Therefore handle the child with great discretion at this point And let the
make their servants drunk whom they called Ilotae and to bring them in before their children that to their children might beware of that distemper which takes away the Man and leaves a Swine in the roome The Author Censures this custome and that in the observation We do not think this an humane correction of a vice which is so preposterously taken from so depraved a fashion and distemper It cannot become a man It is not a man like conceit to thinke that a childe will learne temperance by observing intemperance so farre out of Plutarch Wickednesse is both more insâ—â—â—ative and more plausible then vertue especially when it meets with an untutored Iudge c. saith Bishop Hall It is certain A bad a Censure of Travel sect 3. seâ— sect 4. example hath much more strength to draw unto sinne then a good example hath to draw unto vertue as one will draw faster down-hill then fourâ— can draw up which tells us the reason also our naturall bend and weight tends and doth Bias us that way b Omne in praecipiti viâ—iâ—m stetit Juv. And thence it is that one bad companion which was the old complaint teacheth more evill then foure instructors good c Plâ—s noâ—et Gorgias quam prodest Crâ—tippus Our nature is like unto fire which if there be any infection in a roome draws it strait to it selfe or like jâ—t which omitting all precious objects gathers up straws and dust Dr. H. Censure of Travell sect 21. Corrupt dispositions out of a naturall fertilitie can both beget and conceive evill alone but if it be seconded by examples precepts incouragements the Ocean it selfe hath not more spawn Ibid. Vt aqua in areoâ—â digitum sequitur praecedentem ita aetas mollis flexibilis quocunque duxeris trahitur Hier. lib. 2. epist 16. p. 201. Vix arâ—ibus honestis pudoâ— reâ—iâ—tur nedâ—m inter certamina vitiorum Tacit. An. 14. 4. Servants teach children much hurt I mean such for I have no low esteeme of any office in an house be it never so low and drudging who cast off their Lords service and serve the basest master in the world such who as Sr. Tho. More saith are worse then old lumber in an house They do not fill up a roome only but do much ill service A childe with such foule companions fits as ill as the Fuller with the Collier it will be blackt with them They will be alwaies opening their rotten wares before it so impoysoning the childe with language as black as Hell The childe is not safe in the Kitchin with these bâ—t if the servant he or she be good and faithfull of a grave and wise deportment Then the parent hath a Treasure and a good Spyall He shall the better watch over his childe and see into his disposition 6. There is a sicknesse of the fancie as well as of other faculties and the distemper thereof is quickly shewen by the tongue which is but one member but a world of wickednesse it quickly runnes out and commits a riot and leaves us to wishing that we could recall our selves which now the word is out is as impossible as to recall a bird upon her wing It is good to look to this betimes in children and because it is a childe and cannot speak teach it silence And this the parent may teach himself and the childe under these notions †1. That the tongue is called a mans glory and that it may be as it is called he must make his watch strong He must examine his words before they have leave to passe their barres pale or inclosure a minute after is too late to what purpose they would out †2. God must be looked up unto here man hath made wilde creatures tame but the tongue no man can tame It is the Lord that must shut and seal this graves mouth the throat is naturally an open sepulcher it is He that makes the watch strong if He keepe not the mouth as well as the City a Psal 141. 3. See Trem. then the watch is set in b Fragiâ—â—s sunt nostrae serae nisi Deus illas servaverit c. Chrys in Matth. 24. Hom. 51. lat tantum vain †3. And as we must look up to God so must we into our selves this abundance is in the heart as we read after c Second part Pro. 4. 23. the heart is the well or cistern whence the mouth fils and emptieth it self The heart must be kept with all diligence We must keep that spring-head cleane as we would do the fountain whence we do expect pure and wholesome water d Psal 141. 3. Tâ—em as the heart is the fountain of life so is it of well-living and of well-speaking with all observation keep the heart †4. And this considering how quickly a mans tongue ensnares him exposeth him to trouble even to the will of the adversary who lieth at the catch and layeth snares and makes a man an offender for a e Isa 29 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eâ—râ—p Bac. pag. 14. word that man who hath no command of himself here will be still in the f Prov. 19. 19. Trem. reades it otherwise bryars if you help him out to day saith the wiseman and it deserved our mark he will need your help again to morrow If you deliver him yet thou must do it again Such snares our words are which must be considered The wise mans saying is to be noted g Prov. 14. 3. Trem. In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride that is a foolish man carrieth still about him his feruler or lash which will put him to paine enough because he will speak in the pride of his heart And it is observable which follows A fools mouth is his destruction Chap. 18. 7. â— and his lips are the snare of his soul A slip with the foot doth not offend us so much as may a slip with the tongue And yet a slip of the foot hath slipt the legge out of joynt and caused much pain but a slip with the tongue hath caused shame and sorrow both Therefore he wrote well to his friend that told him You had better fall in your floore or pavement â— Isâ—d Pelus 1. Epist 459 then by your tongue An hurt by a sudden fall may be quickly cured but a fall by a rash word hath so broken a man that he could never be restored set straight and in joynt again his rashnesse hath been his ruine not his rod onely as we heard but his destruction as we have read and known which may be wisely considered by the wise in heart for it is not in the Philosophy of fools to consider that an unbridled tongue is storme-like sudden violent and devowring which sinks our ship quickly or precipitates us upon the rock of offence It is an ordinary expression in Homer but of no ordinarie use What a word hath passed the barres rampier or pale
imployment the serving of God as becommeth with reverence and feare and then our selves and our brethren in love These are the services which must take up the whole day But more especially in the morning we are fittest for them when we are wholly our selves as the saying is The powers and faculties of the outward and inward man being awakened and refreshed But first we must addresse our selves to God and set our soules in order before Him that we may strengthen and perfume our spirits with some gracious meditations specially of the chiefe end and scope wherefore we live here and how every thing we do may be reduced and ordered to further the maine This is first to be done and a necessitie there is that it be done first else that which follows to be done will be done to little purpose It follows now That we consider briefly how we stand ingaged to this principall service even to â—all upon all to awake as the Prophet saith All without us and within us to return unto the Lord according as we have received and to give praise unto His Name for now praise is comely †1. It is He that kept us when we could not keep our selves He kept our houses which the watch did not keep from those who y Job 24. 16 17. marked them forth in the day-time Our security is as Noahs was in Gods shutting our doores He it was who preserved that spark of mankinde alive in the midst of the waters as the Father z 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys Tom. 5 Ser. 6. in medio elegantly for so we reade And the Lord shut him in a Gen. 7. 16. The Lord shut in our doores upon us also kept us in safety kept out danger else we had not been alive The destroying Angel I mean danger in any kinde waiteth but his commission from the Almighty and when he had it we heard what havock he makes From this destroyer the Lord kept us though our hearts were not so besprinkled as they should have been nor did we keep our selves according to our b Exod. 11. 22. See Mr Ainsw charge under the safe and secure protection of that Bloud as we should have done yet notwithstanding the Lord kept us The Lord is the great wing of our protection our castles towers houses doores chambers c. but the small feathers thereof These nothing without Him He All without them We may reade of c Athanasius Cenâ— 4. one who had a safe convoy himself alone through a troop of enemies five thousand in number all and every one appointed for his destruction And of another d H. 3 Charâ—oâ— we may reade murdered by a Monk when he lay entrenched with an Army of friends about him 40 thousand strong Safety is from on high from the Highest is our protection He is our Sun and shield He kept us this night which is now past But behold His goodnesse yet further He hath renewed the face of the earth unto us given us a new resurrection with the day lengthened and stretched out yet further our span of time renewing our strength and making us fresh like the Eagle crowning us with loving kindnesse and tender mercies such mercies as whereby our hearts are â—heered to see the light which thousands cannot say great reason we should call upon all to praise the Lord and this right early for now praise is comely †2. We must now every one to his work in his lawfull calling or to that which fitteth for the same if children we are not made as it is said of the Leviathan to take oâ—r pastimes in the world and to passe our dayes in vanity The Sun riseth and man goeth to his labour every man his severall way and in those severall wayes so many snares great cause to fence and guard our hearts and as was said to perfume our spirits from above that we may avoid these snares from below e The first fruits of our lips and hearts are to be offered unto God Am◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why wilt thou suffer thine adversary to surprise thy castle or strong holds first in the morning Basil de jejunio p. 285. for we shall meet with them it is not possible to be otherwise We draw along with us such a concaâ—enation a chain of businesse as that we must needs be fettered and puzled with them if a gracious hand leade us not the way into them and help us out of them In the commerce betwixt man and man which drives the great trade of the world There sinne sticks as close as a naile sticketh betwixt the joyning of the f Ecclus. 27. 2. stones which consideration engageth us to feare alwayes and to walk close with God that our wayes may be established lest going beyond our brother in bargaining we exchange the favour of God for some poore advantage from the world †3. Now that we are going every man his way as the way of our calling leads us now we must know that God and He onely openeth our way to all our occasions leades us unto them and gives us an issue out of them we labour in the fire if God restrain His influence from above we may be early up and never the neare as the proverb is we may gather and put our gatherings in a broken bag Therefore as in all our gettings we must get wisdome so in all our wayes we must seek â—o and for wisdome so shall our wayes be established g Endeavour without prayer is presumption prayer without endevour is temptation It is the strength of the Almighties hand that inables us It is His wisdome that instructs us His blessing that crowns all with successe To Him we must go in all conditions of life for direction and guidance And in all our necessities for supply as being the fountaine and spring-head of every good and perfect gift Iam. 1. He that would obey well must seeke to God He subdueth the spirit and makes it subject He makes the mountaine â— valley and the rough way smooth He that would governe well must seeke to Him He gave Salomon an understanding heart 1 King 3. 12. He that would carry himselfe valiantly in a just quarrell must seek to God as that victorious h Ante bellum in oratione jacuit ad belâ—um de oratione surrexit priusquam pugnam manu capesseret supplicatione pugnaâ—it Salv. dâ—gâ—bâ—â— lib. 7. p. 251. Commander did who alwayes rose from off his knees to go to fight for He teacheth our hands to warre and our fingers to fight Psal 18. 34. He that would have understanding and knowledge in his Trade must binde himself a servant unto God for He enableth us this way Exod. 31. 3. And this we must know for our incouragement That there is no greater glory no not to His Angels then that they serve before Him If the husband-man would k 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. Strom. lib.
t Jer. 4. 3. heart also So preparing it for the true seed the word of life though he casteth in the seed still in the season and that he might understand his own season lookes to see again the very same seed which he sowes the very same Job 4. 8. Hosea 8. 7. chap. 10. vers 12. 13. Gâ—lat 6 7. 8. and with a large encrease but it rots and dies in the earth x 1 Cor. 15. 36. John 12. 24. Chrysost in locum Hom. 41. â— first which answers the great objection and cuts the knot as I may say with its own sword The body cannot rise again because it dies and rots in the earth nay because it dies and rots therefore it shall rise and he is a fool in the Apostles sense who seeth not so much in the sowing and reaping his grain Though this husbandman seeth all this yet he seeth not he understandeth nothing thereby he is not made the wiser by it By what he speaks we may know what his heart doth indite no songs of praise unto his God He will notwithstanding glory in his goad all his talk will be of bullocks for he giveth his minde to make furrows and all his diligence is to give the kine fodder all is for the earth there-on he layeth out the pretious stock of time and strength thither-to he bends himself he entertaineth not a thought whereby to raise himself higher and it must needs be so unlesse he shall apply his minde another way and meditate on the law of his God when he shall do so then every thing shall instruct him and make him wise and not before Here now we have our lesson and the way to make our walk profitable we must apply our minde to that we see and we must meditate on the Law of our God That is the man who will learn by every thing that hath inured and accustomed his heart to compare earthly things with heavenly to trade his spirit to heavnely things by earthly occasions He shall be made wise who hath a gift it must be given from above to be heavenly that is to make every creature which is the work of a sanctified fancy a ladder to heaven to turn ordinary properties of the creature or common occasions to heavenly meditations This I say is the man who will profit by his walk being now in the open view of the heaven and the earth and observing Gods great works in both To conclude and to instance so making the thing plain that man shall gain much by his observations who hath but so much understanding as seeing a sheep before the shearer to see also the meek abiding and patience of the Saints seeing an ant a lillie a raven to think on a providence seeing an â—xe knowing his owner and his crib to think what is the duty of a reasonable creature observing the stork and the swallow and our houshold cock all exactly observing their season and I think the last observing it almost to a minute To learn from these and to get as was said of the children z 1. Chron. 12. 31. of Issachar understanding in the times and to know what Israel ought to do He that can do so much through Him that strengtheneth all and in all he can he shall be made wise by his observation of the creatures for he sets his minde to the thing and the Law of God is in his heart he will receive profit by every thing and teach others how to profit also so I come to the third particular How to teach the childe to spell nature c. 3. Childehood and youth are ages of fancy Therefore the Father I mean a father at large master or teacher he hath the relation of a Father must make great use of the childes senses for they have the best agreement with its fancy hereunto the book of the creatures is very subservient They speak to the senses and the senses make report to the minde So in this way every place will be the childes school for every where it will meet with its lesson and no lesson plainer and more legible to a childe then what he findes in the volume of the Creatures This is a truth not to be doubted of That parent teacheth best and soonest attaineth his end the promoting his childe who verseth the childe most in the open view of the creatures So he cannot alwayes do but this he must do alwayes as he intends his childes profit When he cannot carry his childe abroad to view the creatures he must what he can bring the creatures home to the childe so shall he make the book in the childes hand what ever it be more legible For this the parent shall finde that where he comes short in making representations to his childes eye there the childe will fall short in his apprehension Nothing comes into the understanding in a naturall way but through the doore of the senses If the eye hath not seen that we are speaking of it can make no report of it to the minde The spirit of the childe as I may say is fashioned and moulded to the pattern and modell of that it looks upon And note we then the childe goes on with ease and delight when the understanding and the tongue are drawn along like parallel lines not one a jot before another It is Comenius his rule the ablest man in that way that yet the world hath taken notice of And this also the parent shall the more easily effect and with quicker dispatch if when he hath laid the book of the Creatures before the childes eye and is reading the lecture from thence he shall put the lecture into questions and make the childe not an hearer onely that is the old manner but a party in the businesse It will much enliven and quicken the childes fancy to see it self joyned as a party in the work though its little it can do A parent must question his childe and in a faire way take an account of him speaking wholly is lost labour The Tutour in Xenoph. a Lib â— de Inst p. 34. for a lecture to his scholler Cyrus proposeth this question A great youth having a little coat gave it to one of his companions of a lesse stature and took from him his coat which was the greater upon which he demanded his judgement Cyrus answered that it was well because both of them were thereby the better fitted But his master sharply reprehended him for it because he considered onely the fitnesse and convenience thereof and not the justice which should first and especially be considered that no man may be enforced in that which was his own And this no doubt is an excellent manner of instruction saith Charron and it is probable this was the manner which the Iewes took for the instruction of their children b Deut. 6. 20. And when the childe shall aske thee thou shalt say thus and thus But how if the
will the day and night and never consider Him who made all these things Let us not be like unto them but as we have hearts able to comprehend better things so let us use them that we may fill our wayes with perfect peace Let us wisely meditate in all the works of God for they are the wisdome of God in which we should know God and glorifie Him and give thanks unto Him So we reade when Eliphaz would perswade Iob the feare and reverence of Gods Majestie he biddeth him behold the starres how high they are The Prophet Isaiah when he will assure the Church of the mercy of God that He will according to His mighty power fulfill all His promises he saith thus who hath measured the waters in His fist and counted heaven with His span and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in a weight and the hills in a ballance In meditation of these great works of God the Prophet would teach them to feare no man but put their onely trust and confidence in God So the prophet Ieremie setteth out the constant course of the day and night for us to consider and in it to know how unchangeable the love of God is to all His Saints So our Saviour Christ by the goodly colours of the flowers of the field He would have us learn what a fatherly providence God hath over His children to cover their nakednesse Who clotheth so gloriously the fading flower The Prophet David in many places and especially Psal 104 doth make a goodly rehearsall of the providence of God in ruling the whole world thereby exhorting us to obey God to hate iniquitie Thus should we by these exhortations and instructions teach all our senses our eyes to see and our eares to heare so that in the creatures of God we may see His glory love His goodnesse feare His Majestie expresse His Image in all our conversation So farre Mr Dearing Lectur 19. on Heb. 4. 34. c. where he informes us touching the Sabbath the works thereof and the perpetuitie of the same But I may more fitly shut up this in the words of S. Basil upon the same subject y Hom. 8. in Hex ◠p. 94. When I look back to behold the varietie of things I have spoken of then I think I have spoken a great deale and too much But then again when I consider the admirable wisdome of the Creator in them all I may very well begin my speech again for indeed I have said nothing nothing to the incomprehensible Power unsearchable wisdome exceeding riches of goodnesse which the Lord hath manifested in all His creatures and towards man the Lord of them all What remaineth then but as He is great and wonderfull in working so He is greatly to be praised as His power is wonderfull so should our feare be as His mercy exceedeth so should our thankfulnesse in our measure though indeed His mercies exceed all thanksgiving and praise So much when thou walkest by the way And now that the Sun is departed from us we have done with our walk The night succeeds and the instructions there from follow CHAP. VIII In this world the day and night have their course when they cease it will be alwayes day or alwayes night How that instructeth What darknesse teacheth How we are engaged to lie down with serious thoughts of God and His goodnesse 4. AT night c. I suppose now the Sun set upon us when the beasts go out to prey and man retires from his hard labour under the Sun It is a fit time for a man now to retire into himself also and to consider not so much his little world the severall parts powers and faculties of the same Though that is a point of great consideration and would fill another book but how he hath employed these in the day-time to the glory of the Giver and the good of them amongst whom he lives This is a strong argument to presse home this consideration even this That the longest day will have his night § 1. Let that man who hath spent the day in the may-game of the world and as the most do who make no account of time nor think themselves to be accountable for it let him ask himself what contentment he findes in the pleasures so eagerly pursued all the day before and what comfort they now give unto him now that the night is come and his doores shut upon him He must needs answer that they are gone and passed and most likely they have left but a sad relish behinde But yet if he be resolved when he is wakened to tread the same wayes again of sin and death he must needs consider withall if he have the consideration of a man that though now through Gods gracious dispensation towards him the night is and the morning will dawn yet a night will come which shall never have morning A night when our pleasures and profits and honours all that we call good things and so dote upon when all shall set and returne no more While we live here in this world As the morning cometh so cometh the night and as sure as the night followeth day so sure sorrow follows our pleasures which may teach us not to over-joy or over-prize our worldly contentments when the candle of God shineth upon our tabernaele for they are short and momentany of small continuance As sure as the night cometh so sure a change will come And here also when it is night we know the day will dawn again in its apponted time And though sorrow may abide for a night yet joy may come in the morning It is easie with Him to make it so Who turneth the shadow of death into the morning a Amos 5. 8. And the darkest time here below may cleare up again comfort may return as the morning doth and when troubles do usher in comforts they make comforts more comfortable It is said of the Sirens that they weep in calme weather and sing in a storm b Aug. de Civit. lib. 12 cap. 20. for they know that after a calme they shall have a storm and after a storm they shall have fair weather The Morall teacheth us this point of wisdome in the time of adversitie wisely to consider and to look back c Respice Trem. Eccles 7. 14. to the change of things to call to minde the time past how it hath been God hath set prosperitie and adversitie one against the other Now the day is but it will be night anon now the night is and anon the morning will be And thus I say it is while we live here just like travellers as the father spake very usefully d Basil in primum Psal p. 113. This life is a way-fare here we meet with some things which do delight us but they will away we must passe by them And here we meet with some thing which will annoy and offend us
from glory to glory o Cor. 3. 18. 3. It is of use to consider what darknesse is and what the bounds of the same the resolution is short we shall finde it to be no positive thing but a meer privation and as boundlesse it is as the light was for it is but the absence thereof If I take a candle out of a room I do not put darknesse into the same room but in taking away the candle I leave the room dark Thus of the great candle of the world it doth not make this side of our globe dark but withdrawing it self from our side it leaves us in darknesse This is of use to informe us That there is no efficient cause of darknesse either in our great world or in our little but a deficient altogether p Vide Augusâ—de civit lib 12. cap. 6 7. which cause is understood by the same way that darknesse is seene or silence is heard we heare silence by hearing nothing so we see darknesse by seeing nothing Shut the eye and behold darknesse Our enquiry is nought touching the efficient cause of an evill will or of a dark minde saith Mornaeus q Male quâ—ritur unde malâ—m efficiatur for there is no such cause thereof If light withdraw it self either from our world without or from our world within there needs no more to leave all darke r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Basil Hâ—x Hom 2 pag 18 19. yea and to expose us to the power of darknesse and to lead us to the houre of temptation The usefull enquiry then is Who is that fountain of Light Which lighteth every man that cometh into the world And we must acknowledge here if there be truth in us and say contrary to that which the Fathers of old said in an opinion of themselves we see not nor can we see Nay we shall ever sit in darknesse and in the very shadow of death untill this Light this Day-spring from on high shall visit us who at the first caused the light to shine out of darknesse and made the aire light before He gave the Sun And this is that Sun of Righteousnesse We must acknowledge farther That as we have many wayes to shut out of our roomes this light in the aire but no way to shut out darknesse so there is an heart in us which can oppose this fountain of Light shutting our eyes against it and thrusting it from us so resisting the Holy Ghost but for darknesse we are held and chained in it and against that we have no power A consideration if put home that will hide pride from us and humble us to the dust that from thence we may present this great request To the Hearer of prayers Lord that we might receive our sight Å¿ Mark 10. 51. Lord that thou wouldest give unto us the spirit of wisdome and revelation in the knowledge of Him the eyes of our understanding bring enlightned that we may know what is the hope of His calling and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the Saints c. Ephes 1. 17 18 c. 4. It is considerable how small a thing doth make the place about us light supplying the want of that great body which is now with the other side of our globe What the Sun cannot do saith Chrysostome a little candle can t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ad Ephes Hom. 12. for not to speake of the starres those great lights which then shew clearest when the night is darkest a rush-candle a Glow-worm the bones of a fish a rotten piece of wood will dart you out a light which though the faintest all the power of that darknesse we properly call night cannot withstand But here we must remember a darknesse which we reade of so thick and palpable that it over-powered the fire and candle it put both out neither could burne the while As Philo Iudeus tells us as well as the Apocrypha Wisd 17. 5. This tells us first that He who is the God not of some but of all consolations can take away some comforts and supply us with other-some which may not be so full in our eye but yet as satisfying more contentfull He can put our acquaintance farre from us He can suffer the divell to cast some into prisons and into dungeons where the enemy thinks there is no light to be expected so wise they are in their generation and so prudently they have contrived But the enemy is mistaken for He who formeth light and createth darknesse He that made the light to shine out of the wombe of darknesse He that makes a candle supply the want of the Sun He that turneth the shadow of death into the morning He that doth these great and wonderfull things He it is that gives His children light in darknesse and songs in their night As Peter found it for behold to him a light shined in the prison x Act. 12. 7. so shall it be with all that truely feare the Lord A light shall arise to them in darknesse * Isa 58. 10. Psal 112. There is some cranny left whereby to let in light and a way open with the Lord for deliverance from all the expectation of the enemy though all the wayes be blocked up to man both in respect of the prison and the Iron-gate y Act. 12. 11. The children of Israel children of the day and of the light ever had in despight of the enemy and ever shall have light in their dwellings z Exod. 10. 23 though these dwelling are prisons caves and dungeons which the enemy calleth and indeed seeme to be like the shadow of death This meditation may be more enlarged for if nature be so solicitous as was said * Preface p. 19. in recompensing what is wanting much more then so will the God of nature do He takes from Moses a distinct and treatable voice He Himself will be a mouth to Moses He takes away Iohn a great light to His Church He gives the Lord Christ The Light of that Light He takes away Christ His bodily presence He leaves them not orphans comfortlesse He gives His Church a fuller measure of His Spirit He takes away strength of body He gives strength of faith establishment of heart He takes away a deare childe by that sorrow as by a sanctified meanes He formeth Christ in the heart It is of high use to consider how God doth supply in one kinde what He takes away in another as He doth make the little candle to supply the absence of the great Sun Lastly when we lye down we are to be taught as to recount the mercies of the day so to call to minde the dangers of the night Houses are marked out in the day-time and broke open in the night houses also are fired in the night And how helplesse is man amidst these casualties and dangers If a sleep the theefe findes him bound to his hand and if
out of the way in a preposterous designation of their children The lesson is But stay a little while we heare how a man h Asch Toxoph p. 58. 2d. side of much learning and of no lesse judgement hath lessoned parents in this point and this fourescore yeares ago his words require our marke these they are This perverse judgement of fathers as concerning the fitnesse and unfitnesse of their children causeth the Common-wealth have many unfit Ministers And seeing that Ministers be as a man would say instruments wherewith the Commonwealth doth worke all her matters withall I marvell how it chanceth that a poore Shoo-maker hath so much wit that he will prepare no instrument for his Science neither Knife nor Aule nor nothing else which is not very fit for him The Common-wealth can be content to take at a fond fathers hand the riffe-raffe of the world to make those instruments of wherewithall she should work the highest matters under Heaven And surely an Aule of Lead is not so unprofitable in a Shoo-makers shop as an unfit Minister made of grosse metall is unseemely in the Common-wealth Fathers in old Time among the noble Persians might not do with their children as they thought good but as the judgement of the Common-wealth alwayes thought best This fault of fathers bringeth many a blot with it to the great deformitie of the Common-wealth and here surely I can praise Gentle-women which have alwayes at hand their glasses to see if any thing be amisse and so will amend it yet the Common-wealth having the glasse of knowledge in every mans hand doth see such uncomelinesse in it and yet winketh at it This fault and many such like might be soone wiped away if fathers would bestow their children on that thing alwayes whereunto nature hath ordained them most apt and fit For if youth be grafted streight and not awry the whole Common-wealth will flourish thereafter So the Author goes on very usefully and that which we reade in the side of the leafe before is as notable but I omit it and returne now where I brake of The Lesson then is Parents must first discerne their childrens fitnesse before they designe them to any calling And they must discerne Gods good hand pointing them and fitting their childe more peculiarly for that great work they speake so slightly of before they must have thoughts to designe them thereunto or any other way whereof as follows As there is a great varietie of callings so is there a great varietie of dispositions diversly inclined thereunto We cannot think any childe equally inclined to this and that all alike There is a speciall bent and byas of nature and thence a fitnesse and more peculiar aptnesle to this rather then to that in the most children A proprietie very hard to finde out Therefore we must follow nature i Consuctudo contra naturam Tyrannis quaed◠est citò ac levi occasione corruit De Aug. 6. 10. as close as we can and use all the helps this way to make discovery of the childes inclination which being well understood brings in a very pretious commodity The childe discovers himself best when he thinks the Parent observes him least The more carelesse the parents eye seems to be it should never be carelesse though sometimes seemingly so the more serious the childe is and the more discovers his inclination Or if the childe be more reserved as it is cunning enough to deceive it self and others too in that which most concerneth its good then note the childe well in the kitchin I mean in such a place he suspects not his Parents eare or eye then he may be understood Therefore there is great need that some wall should have an eare and some open place a spiall as much need there is of some trusty servants with whom the childe will be open and plain for if he or her be faithfull to God and the Parent they may do and in nothing more very good and faithfull service this way The Cautions here are these 1. That Parents do not give too much heed and credit to the light divinations and conjectures they take from the motions of childehood or youth which are as unstable and uncertain as the water and may deceive the Parent exceedingly and commonly do 2. Nor must the Parent credit what children say they are very subtil to hurt themselves and very cunning for their own ends Nature teacheth them A childe will ever seem to bend to this or that so farre as he in his fore-sight which is none may think it makes for his ease and libertie which he thinks a change may bring as the asse in the fable and if he may to the writing-school then he is sure of it the Latine school is too close for him he is for his good too much pent up there Here we may observe how the childe will turn and winde himself in to the Parent The childe will make the Parent beleeve that he can no way skill of the book but of any course else very well what the Parent will for that way his ingenie doth bias him so the childe will say and so the Parent beleeves him whereas his bent is onely that way which he thinks may give him more libertie scope and elbow-room in the world Therefore the Parent must be as wise as a serpent for the childe is not so innocent as a dove It is the very master-piece of a childes cunning to deceive and hurt it self A Parent then must not hearken to the childe but to his own discerning of the childes parts and accordingly he must fit him with generall instructions making him as capable as he may and ready girt for any course But for the designing the childe to this or that calling requires a clearer insight unto the childes inclination and abilities that way then the Parent can attain unto by his own strength and therefore the Parents work in this case is more specially and peculiarly with God He looks up to that Hand which wisely ordereth all things and which is never looked up unto in vain He remembers that the Lord Christ prayed all the night before He chose His Disciples which teacheth man what to do in matters of weight and difficultie even to wait upon a secret and invisible Hand which way that points and directeth And if the Parent do look up earnestly to This Hand which cannot be in vain it will easily be discerned thus That Parent whose eye is to God carrieth the same single towards His glory He thinks not what advantage may come what preferment may be had he thinks not thereon as on a Principall But how the childe may receive most good he means that which is good indeed how he may do most service most promote Gods glory This is the very life of the Parents life and it must be the very soul of his actions it was the end wherefore God gave them the childe and for that end they must
yeers for though a Childe is made a patterne yet we must not be like it in understanding When we were Children we did and we spake as children and all was comely but when we out-grew Childe-hood we out-grew Childishnesse a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex Strom. p. 51. We had need of Milke and not of Strong Meate for we were as Babes unskilfull in the Word of Righteousnesse but now our stature is increased it were a sname that we should be Dwarfes in the Inward man the man indeed They can have no Apologie or excuse for themselves who are growne up to full yeers yet have a Childes understanding b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Tom. 4. quod nemo laedit c. I suppose thee then of full Age even such an one as I would have thee who by reason of use hast thy Senses exercised to discerne both good and evill c Heb. 5. 13. 14. Childehood and youth are the Parents seed-time when they must look to their dutie The after-Age is the season of fruit when Parents expect an harvest of their paines Children then must look to their dutie that Parent and Childe may rejoyce together But alas how many Parents are deceived here even they who have not neglected their seede-time They think upon the Instructions they have given the Intreaties they have used what my son and the sonne of my wombe and what the sonne of my vowes d Prov. 3 l. 2. These they think on but how many are quite lost how few or none take what may make for ease and delight that Children learne quickly so will the Horse the Mule the Asse and the Oxe put any of these to the Wheele they will quickly finde out the number of their Rounds and never after can be deceived in their Account e Charron of wisdome This is nature still and her field is fruitfull But no Earth there is that requires more labour and is longer before it yeelds fruit then Mans nature so decaied and wilde it is growne and so rightly compared to the Sluggards field as the person is to a Colt an Asse-Colt a wilde Asse-Colt The Philosopher reasons this case very pithily f Plut. de amore prolis pag. 157. He that plants a Vineyard quickly eates the Grape So in other graines some few Moneths bring them to our hands againe and the fruite of our labours to our Eie and Taste Oxen Horses Sheepe c. they quickly serve for our use and much service they doe in Lieu and recompense for a little cost But Mans education is full of labour and cost The increase is slow the fruite and comfort farre off not within Eieshot perhaps the Parent may kenne this comfort perhaps he may live to see it and to rejoyce perhaps also he may discerne little hope he may live to heare of the miscarriage of his Childe and see that which like a back winde will put him onwards towards the pit hastening him with sorrow to the grave But In hope the Parent must doe his dutie herein also like the husbandman whose worke is never ended something he findes still that requires his eie and must command his hand or like the Painter who cannot withdraw the hand from the table before he sees his work fully perfected But herein the Parent and the Painter are very like In all his pictures saith Pliny more is to be understood then is expressed although the skill be great yet there is alwaies more in the minde In omnibus ejus operibus intelligitur plus semper quà m pingitur cum Ars summe sit Ingenium tamâ—n ultra Artem est Pliny l. 35. 10. of the Workman then the pensill could expresse to the eie of the beholder His Ingeny or Idea the proportion he hath framed in his mind is beyond his Art It is so with a Parent his care may be great and his skill somewhat and the Childe may observe both and much of both But the Childe must understand more then it can see and yet understand it cannot the yearning of the Spirit the turnings of the bowels the desire of the heart towards the Childe It is the Parent he and she onely who know the Heart of a Parent And this as one speaks very feelingly h Chrysolog de Archâ—sy Serm 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hec. to her son Hector Hom. Iliad 22. p. 814. Should work very much with the Childe what Care and Cost and Labour and Feare he hath put his Parents too But alas Children consider it not for if so they would give all diligence to render back their so due service But if all this work not upon the Childe it should work upon the Parent very much To consider What a barren wild nature his Childe hath taken from him Barren to every seed of Instruction and which is the griefe but not the wonder the more precious the seed is the more barren the nature is unto it the more hard to receive it And yet if this precious seed be not received and the nature of the soyle changed by it Man will sinke lower into misery then a Beast can And in ordinary matters here a Beast may as farre exceed him as he thinks he exceeds a Beast Take a man in his pure Naturalls and we finde it ordinary That a Beast exceeds him which might be further exemplified For many have written very usefully thereof I will take that which I know is of most use and this it is Defects of Reason in Beasts is supplyed with exquisituesse of sense saith Basil i Hex hom 9. pag. 100. Nay there is something more then sense in Beasts and then vegitation in Plants saith he in the same place And so saith the learned Geographer k II. Book cap. 4. sect 6. pag. 229. in his History of the world It is not sense alone which teacheth beasts at first sight and without experience or instruction to flye from the enemies of their Lives Seeing that Bulls and Horses appeare to the sense more fearefull and terrible then the least kinde of Dogs And yet the Hare and Deere feedeth by the one and flyeth from the other yea though by them never seene before and that as soone as they fall from their Dam's c. The truth is and there is great use of it for it tells us what a blow or wound we received by our fall Beasts have many excellencies and much perfection of outward sense And which is of use indeed to hide pride from our eyes they can make good improvement thereof for their safetie and some of them for their Lords-service Only man in his pure naturalls is herein below the beasts as brutish as the Swine l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Clem. Alex. Protrep p. 44. Fishes cannot be tamed nor taught Basel Hex Hom. 7. which is the most brutish creature As unteachable as a fish and that is a creature which you can neither tame nor
thou maist be very good upright in thy wayes hot fervent in prayer zealous of good workes else better thou wert cold key cold for a middle Temper as it is most deadly so it is most abominable Thus as a learned man writeth to his great friend I could have written unto thee things more pleasing nothing more profitable But what I have or shall write nothing will profit unlesse the feare of God awes the heart and inclines it unlesse He teacheth inwardly words cannot outwardly Waxe takes an easie impression from Iron Iron not so but very hardly an Adamant takes no impression at all by all our force because of its hardnesse so Nazianzen Epist 130. And such hearts we have understand but so much and it will humble thee it will hide pride from thine eyes and then thy eare is prepared and heart too And so much as a preparative to the eare but the Lord bore it and to incline thy heart to understanding but the Lord open it This is all the parent can doe and his maine duty at this point even to spread this peremptory bent of nature as was a Preface to the first part said before the Lord whose worke it is to turne the heart and to open the eare to instruction which now followes THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. GOds Goodnesse in framing us in the wombe in bringing us thence ascribed to His hand though yet the sore pain of childe birth no whit lesse engageth the Childe to the Mother how great that engagement is to pag. 5. duty to the Father enforced by a pressing-speech out of Luther and from two very great examples who brake that sacred bond and were remarkably punished to page 9. Gods patience in sparing and reprieving us His goodnesse in ranking us in the highest forme of His Creatures here below how that engageth and teacheth to page 13. His mercy in giving us all our parts or members and proportion in all a great engagement A recognition thereof and use therefrom to page 20. CHAP. II. OVr frame of spirit how depraved A glasse to look our selves in What seeds of corruption within us how it humbleth those that can look into it to p. 24. How to bottom our corruptions where its strong hold how we may fathom the depth of miserie The law of the leper to pag. 28. The love of the Father and the obedience of the sonne how figured out unto us to page 30. CHAP. III. BAptisme Outward Inward The secret work of the Spirit to page 31. We must not pry into this His secret if that work be not wrought Luthers counsell is to be followed Gods will holy and just Man willeth his own destruction to page 34. at this point reade the first part page 139. c. Lips de Constant lib. 1. cap. 20 c. lib. 2. cap. 15 c. Cent. 1. Ep. 58. Two things figured in Baptisme 35. 36. Our engagement from both How sacred our Christian name how strait our covenant 37. A feeling expression we are members and mighty to engage us that we are sons daughters heirs Solders who our enemies what their strength 39. A paradox against all conceit and reason Basil's complaint 40. A great question proposed and usefully answered 43. who the great tempters We must keep our watch strong 44. Our covenant Gods covenant Christ His obedience hath not abated an ace of ours Gods law broad and perfect The use a true Christian makes thereof One Root of grace and but one fruit to page 47. CHAP. IIII. THe root of sinne remaineth How the branches are kept from spreading 48. § 1. Pride why called the womans sinne whence it is that clothes haire c. do pusse up Whence we may fetch help against this â—ympany or swelling disease What considerations most prevalent and abasing from page 48 to page 61. applyed to the childe The grace of humilitie to page 64. § 2. Our darling sinne why so called what a snare it is and how it becomes so How we may keep our foot from being taken in that snare Beginnings must be withstood Chrysostome's words very notable thereupon to page 67. Occasions must be prevented a watch kept over our senses Over our fancy That it may be ordered and must else all will be out of order to pa 73. What may awe our thoughts 74. What the soveraigne help next to the awfulnesse of Gods eye to page 79. the summe and use thereof to the Childe to page 81. § 3. Of profit how unsatisfying what doth satisfie indeed to page 82. § 4. Anger What it is whence it ariseth who most subject unto it How we may be armed against this passion and overcome it Chrysostome's note notable and Melanchthons practise Gods patience towards us mighty to perswade us thereto Abraham and Isaac how meek and yeelding this way of the tongue from page 83. to page 92. § 5. Of Censure Charities rule her mantle how largely we may stretch it according to Chrysostomes and Mr Perkins rule A rule in Herauldry of great use to pag. 95. § 6. Affections sometimes the stormes of the soul sometimes the sweet gale or winde thereof like moist elements Who boundeth them Considerations of use to moderate our feare sorrow c. to page 100. § 7. Of Discontent how unreasonable it is Considerations teaching us content in present things Chrysostomes short story very notable so are the Philosophers words with Mr Bradfords concluded to page 107. CHAP. V. THe Sacrament of the Lords Supper Graces required in those who present themselves at that Table If wanting what is to be done Note Chrysostomes words and Dr Luthers at that point The close of the chapter very notable so is Mr Raynolds meditation to page 121. CHAP. VI. MAriage A solemne ordinance I. Our well and orderly entring into that honourable estate Abuses very many and great touching that point in young and old Whose abuse most notorious and how justly punishable c. to page 125. Our rule in treating about a match application thereof to the childe A childe no match-maker A notable story to that purpose to page 127. The duty of every single person threefold of infinite concernment to page 131. The Parents or overseers duty at this point five-fold The last of the five least thought on and worse answered but of infinite concernment page 138. II. Our well ordering our selves in that state as becometh the honour thereof Affections at the first strongest how to guide their streame in a right channell sinne hath put all out of frame Chrysostomes note notable Page 140. Good to count our Cost and forecast trouble Page 142. Equality inequality hard to draw even The man the leading hand how he stands charged the weight of the charge If the head be surcharged or so headlesse it cannot lead or drawâ—s backward what the wives duty The head hath a head a grave consideration 148. A consideration which may helpe to make up all breaches and silence all differences betwixt man and
thee †1. And thou childe I suppose thee the eldest though I would make no difference here for whether the next in yeers or the youngest it will fit very well and instruct alike in the maine for which I intend it hast as much cause toconsider this as any other because of the sore travell thy mother had with thee I will not mention the travell of her soul for thee that Christ might be formed in thee though a travell it was also she was in hard labour with the greatest danger of her own life before thou didst such in the ayre of this She might have called thy name Iabesh 1. Chron 4. 9. because she bare thee with sorrow Such were the pains upon her and so heavy was that burthen which was laid of old upon that Sex that it pressed her out of measure above strength as if she must first go out of this world before thou couldest come in A strong engagement this to look up to Him with thankfulnesse who brought thee to the She sickned the 17. of August and died the 30. at 9. in the morning 163 1 when thou wast 4. yeers and 7. dayes old wombe and took thee thence and to thy parent in all due observance and it is as strong as ever though thy mother is not here I suppose thee the eldest she was taken from me and thee when thy fift yeer was currant and yet not seven dayes runne out of it Me thinks a childe grown up and reflecting on it selfe lying in the wombe and taken thence should observe a love in the mother as strong as Death All these turnings of stomack part of the mothers sorrow those throwghs afterwards as so many deaths such waters could not quench this love nor such floods of sorrow drown it nay all these were but like the Smithes water cast upon his fire which makes it burn the hotter and the clearer for all these sorrows are out of minde when the childe is in sight and serve but to encrease the love and to inhance the price of that sweet commodity the mother hath so dearly bought In one place of sacred Writ the mother is placed before the father Feare every man his mother and his a Lev. 19. 3. father It may be because the Mother is generally so neglected or because she so neglects her self I may not hit upon the true reason but I can tell a strong reason why at sometime the mother may be put as it were upon the right hand and why she should at all times be of high and honorable account with the childe for she hath bought it deare as they use to say so deare that evâ—n for her sorrow in Child-birth the childe must ever be her debter Suppose we the most dutifull and observant childe standing forth that ever yet was clothed with sinfull flesh telling the reciprocation of his duty and mutuall workings thereof towards The name and nature of the Stork Heb. his mother that he hath done towards â—er as the young Stork to the old the same say the Naturalists which once the old did to the young suppose all this the Mother could 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesiod c. Quinta aetas Homer Iliad 4. Lege Hex Baâ—ilii Hom. 8. answer all in few words Remember childe if thou canst the turnings of my stomacke not the least part of my sorrows the pains I felt every one as so many daggers to the heart sinking my spirits and throwing up my tyred breath as if I should never take it in again Should the mother say no more but this what she suffered for the childe though much sâ—e did for it afterwards And there is more then nature in it say some that so much she did unto it when it lay like a b Hom Odys l. 6. â—â—cretius man after a shipwrack cast up upon the shoare the most forlorne and helplesse creature that can be thought of in the world Should she I say but tell what she suffered for the childe when in the wombe and bringing thence she hath answered all the childe can say and left it farre in her books so farre that it can never get out death only cancells that bond The parent and the childe can never cut scores or strike tallyes for they can never lye even And so much that thou may est honour thy Mother for then thou art as a Ecclus. 3. 4. one that layeth up a blessing Mark that for by the rule of contraries he that dishonours the Mother is as one that layeth up a curse Honour thy Mother and forget it not †2. Thy Father too look to it thou dost not set light by A se migrat ab â—â—mine totus transit in bestianâ— patâ—â—â— pietatis â—â—memor gratiae gâ—aitoris oblius Chrysol de prodego Ser. 2. him so thou dost do it thou dost set light by his admonitions For that is a sinne which calleth down a curse from the Almightie And though I should not plead my right and thy dutie yet the Lord would do both Nay it I should pray against the curse as God forbid I should forbeare to do yet would it according to Gods ordinary dispensation certainly fall the arme of flesh being too short to keep it off He is the God of Recompences He looks up on the breach of that sacred band betwixt parents and children a Si gravaris â—â—scultare paâ— ontibus esto dicto audious carâ—sici quod si neque haic obedire suâ—â—â— â—bcâ—liâ—o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Cataâ—hâ—s Lutâ— and will require it That which Luther speaks is very notable and may winne much upon a stubborn childe if any thing will If thy neck be so stiffe that thou wilt not bow nor bend nor relent by all the perswasions entreaties of thy parents then expect that the Executioner shall bend thee If thou wilt not heare what thy parents say for thy instruction thou art like to heare what the Hangman saith for thy cutting off and destruction b Prov. 17. 11. Caâ—nâ—fâ—x Trâ—m Ephes 6. 1. Sicut â—ost Dâ—â—â— deligere parâ—â—tes 〈◊〉 est sic pâ—â—s quà m Deum impietas Châ—ysâ—st in Mat. Lat. tantum Hom 26. A cruell messenger shall be seâ—t to a Son of rebellion If thou wilt not put thy necke under the yoke thy parents would put upon thee which is no other but what God enjoyneth and for thy good annexing a large blessing thereunto If thou wiâ—t not submit to this easie and sweet yoke In the Lord for this is right thou must then submit to an iron yoke in putting thy neck into the executioners halter for that is but just So Doctor Lu. speaks in our plain English and addes thereto That the experience of all Ages have evidenced the Truth thereof And for the yet clearer evidencing the same This I adde further I have been young and am not farre from being old but never saw I a dutifull childe that went away
without his blessing nor a childe stubborn and undutifull to prosper Hist of the World 2. 13. 5. pag. 361. The debts of crueltie and mercy are never left unsatisfied saith one in another case we may say the same in this case Disobedience to parents ever receives its due punishment No lesse then a thousand witnesses give in cleare evidence hereunto and it is worth our giving our eare unto them and our eye also For therefore are judgements wrought in the earth that they might be had in continuall remembrance like a great mountain still in the Travellers Eye It was written for our Instruction That he who rose up against his father left behinde him no other then an heape of stones a monument of his shame and a pillar the onely 2 Sam 18. 17 18. memoriall of his name Examples there are an heape of them of more fresh and bleeding memory which I shall passe over and recall to minde Times further off and give instance only in two who because they are very great examples examples are rules and yeeld us the shortest plainest and most certaine Instruction being persons of the highest ranke and qualitie are I conceive the fuller of use to those of the meanest The first is concerning Robert Duke of Normandy eldest sonne to William the first of England so famous for his conquest there This sonne was stain'd saith my Author with this only fault Disobedience to his father if I forget not he tooke up Armes against him thrice and once un-hors'd his father and wounded him in his arme ignorantly saith the Author not knowing him to be his father for when he did he hasted to remount him humbly craving pardon this now requires our mark This Roberts younger brothers S. Daniel p. 41. succeeded in their Fathers Throne William the second and Henry the first Robert puts hard for the Crown against King Henry his youngest Brother and obtains the payment of three thousand Marks by the yeer and the reversion of the Crowne a succession in his Brothers Throne in case he survived Thus they capitulated and on these termes they stood for the present Robert safe in Normandy and Henry in England But contentions betwixt brothers and betwixt them for a Crown are like the Barrs of a Castle once two never one again Quickly after the fire of contention raked under cold Embers burnt out again betwixt the two brothers Kings love not to know their heire unlesse he come out of their own bowels and consumed divers worthy men in a mightie battell whereby England won Normandy and one the same day such are the turnings in humane affaires whereon fortie yeers before Normandy overcame England And here Robert who stood in a faire possibilitie of two Crowns of England and Ierusalem was deprived of his hopes there in both places and of his Dutchy also of all he had But there ended not his Tragedy Out of Normandy he was brought prisoner into England and committed to the Castle of Cardiffe where to adde to his misery he had the misfortune of a long life surviving after he had lost himselfe twentie six yeers whereof the most part he saw not having his eyes put out whereby he was only left to his thoughts A punishment barbarously inflicted on him for attempting an escape but wherein we may see the righteous Acts of God withering those armes which were reached forth against the hands which embrac'd him in his swadling clothes as the old Father speaks to his Andronicus See Turkish Story pag 158. and suffering those eyes to be pickt out that set so light by him out of whose loynes he descended Gods Iudgements are as the great deepe and we are too shallow to conceive of them but what lyeth on the top or surface as it were we may take for our use and that we have heard The next is concerning Edward the third of England He stept over his Fathers head to his Throne That was not the Sons fault saith the Author for he had the Crown by resignation from his Father But Crowns are not easily parted with The sonnes of Zerviah were too hard for him The Father was over-powred so just was Gods judgement upon him that before gave up his power to the lusts of others who quickly set that under-foot which is every mans The Law is every mans master M. Aâ—rel Ant. lib. 10. Medâ—t 25. pag. 171. master and so made their King and people miserable and then he must resigne what he could not keepe so the Sonne was put in the Throne and the Father thrust out And persons of such eminency seldome finde a meane betwixt the highest floud of honour and the lowest a No meane between highest and nothing Tacit. supple p. 8. ebbe of disgrace If they â—all from their pinnacle seldome do they meet with any stop till they fall to the bottome The Father now unking'd was most miserably contemned most despitefully used and then in a most hideous manner murdered He was forc'd such instruments defac'd Majestie meet with-all to sit on a Mole hill whilst he was shaven and washed with cold water out of a ditch but indeed he told them that in despight of them he would have warme water at his Barbing and therewith shed aboundance of teares Other vile reproaches were put upon him as if he had not been anoynted with oyle b 2. Sam. 1. 21. and quickly after his savage â—aylour muthered him by thrusting up an hot Iron into his bowels thorow an hollow instrument whereby no outward note might appeare to bewray how he came by his death so they gave out that he dyed of extreame griefe and so he did indeed and of paine to boote Though this were not the sonnes fault so saith the Relatour and it needs not our debate yet the sonne had a punishment and in a most high kinde which requires our marke for having so plentifull and able an Issue-Male as none before him or since seven sonnes whereof five lived to have issue he had not yet a sonne of his own to sit upon his seat He left his kingdome worse then he found it and a great Inheritance like a large summe divided into Fractions all was rent from him before he died excepting onely the poore Town of Calais So concludeth the storie and his life which secureth those of the highest degree a Gen. 41. 32. That their Throne is established in righteousnesse a conclusion doubled twice as the dreame b Prov. 20. 28. 25. 5. 29. 14. because of its certaintie And it instructeth those of the lowest degree That they be subject to the fathers of their bodies and that the sonne thrust not into his fathers place before he be fairely removed and cold in his grave It teacheth the childe to honour the father and to seâ— to it That no despight be done unto him which the childe can possibly keepe off And so much that thou mayest learn to honour thy mother and thy
we have it or have it not Ezek. 16. a fit glasse it is to see our selves in If we could lay our selves cloâ—e up on it as the Prophet applyed himself to the child the proud heart would fall the haughtie looks would down And therefore That thou mayst take shame to thy self as thy just portion and the more advance God and the riches of His goodnesse m Here is ground of coÌ„fort and for firme resolution said Staupitius to Luthâ—r in that you stand for that Doctrin which gives All to God to Man nothing at all for this is according to the Truth of the Gospel And in sure confidence hereof I shall set my faceâ—â—kâ— a flâ—nt said Luther Com. â—â— Galâ—â— 1 12. ch 2. 6. according to the doctrin of the Gospel God is never exalted till man is laid low nor is Christ precious till we are vile Consider thy selfe well and begin there where thou tookest thy beginning There thou shalt finde the first Corner-stone in thy foundation was laid in bloody iniquities in which thou wast conceived The very materialls of soul and body whereof thou dost consist were temper'd with sinne like the stone in the wall and beame out of the timber so as they cryed out even the same moment thou wast born rase this building rase it even to the ground And the cry had been heard and thou hadst been sent before this time to thy own place but that mercy came betwixt even the cry of that bloud which speaks better things then the bloud of Abel And that cry was heard so thou wast graciously spared and behold what riches of grace here are shew'd unto thee for thou wast then as wholly naked and stript of all goodnesse as thy body was being newly born and as wholly invested with the worst filthinesse for it is expressed by such things which are not comely to name as thy body was with skin and thy bones with flesh So thou camest in n Tanâ—â—llus pâ—â—r â—aâ—â—us peccâ—â—or a very little childe but a very great sinner not after the similitude of Adams transgression for sinne was actuall in him breaking a Commandement Originall in thee for thou brougâ—t'st it into the world with thee And a world of wickednesse it is defiling thy Body sâ—tâ—ing on fire not tâ—inâ— owâ— only but the whole â—ourse of nature â—or thou haâ—st an hanâ— to â—se Mr. Boltons words in that fire-work which blew up all mankinde he means in Adams transgression in whose â—oâ—â—s thou wast as a branch in a common stock which brought forth such a bloudy sea of sinne and sorrow into the world I will hold thy thoughts at the wombe so may'st thou the better know thy selfe for ever after From thence thou cam'st into the world a finke a Sodome of all filth and impuritie Thou hast inherent in thy bowels secret seeds and â—mbred inclinations of all sinne The principles of Hazaels bloudy cruelties of Athaliahs treasons and Iâ—zebels lusts The wombe the seed of all the villanies that have been acted in the world which Saint Paul hath sum'd up together in his first chapter to the Romanes 1 Tim. 1. 2 Tim. 3. Thou hast within thee the spawn the somenter the formative vertue of all that hellish stuffe All those flouds of ungodlinesse have no other originall fountain from which they issue then this sinne thou art now taking a view off Thy Heart is the Treasury of all that wickednesse and if the Lord shall rip up the foundations of thy nature as He may and in mercy also then wilt thou know I do not speak parables But if thou canst not follow sinne to its first originall if thou could'st so do thou would'st feare it more and flie from it faster then Moses from the serpent for more active it is and hurtfull if thou hast not learnt so much yet then learne now and follow the streames they leade to the Spring-head Know then whatsoever vanitie ignorance or darknesse is in our minde whatsoever swarmes of foolish thoughts whatsoever insensiblenesse in our conscience whatsoever disabilitie or enmitie is in our Will whatsoever unfaithfulnesse o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—eb 2. 1. leaking or running out in our memory whatever leaven or corruption in doctrine or manners whatsoever bitternesse dissentions wars devouring words To conclude whatsoever we have found in our selves or observed from others to breake out of the mouth at the eye like the purging of a corps now the soule is out All this is but the issue of this body of sinne which thou carryest about thee All that hath no other originall fountain from which they issue then this sinne When we let our tongues and eyes and eares loose and at libertie keeping no watch over the one nor making no covenant with the other when I say we doe thus set the doores windows and all open we then commonly excuse our selves thus That though we speake merrily yet our minde is good And though our eyes wander yet ouâ— heart walkes not after our eyes p Job 31. 7. And though we let in vanitie by the â—are as the wooll sucks in water yet we can keepe the inwâ—rd man cleane and pure this is our excuse and we would be pardoned But the excuse is worse then the fault for we must know That the tongue the eare and the eye these doores and windows of the soule The feet and the fingers there is a q Prov. 6. 13. speaking with the one and a teaching with the other All these are but as a little Comentary upon the great Text of the heart they do but serve to make plaine so as he that runs may read what lewdnesse and frowardnesse lyes in that depth involved there in more hid darke and obscure characters Or to use a plainer metaphor and according to the sacred Scripture The heart is the treasury the ever going mint wherein our thoughts r Fabricatur Prov. 6. 14. hammer mischiefe Out of that aboundance the mouth so of the rest filleth and emptyeth it selfe If there be a little vanitie upon the tongue we must conclude there is much in the heart if the eyes be full of adultery then the measure of the heart * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is pressed down running over That vanitie which is shewed openly by the outward members is but like the money a rich man carryes in his purse to be laid forth upon all occasions compared Chrysost Tom. 6. Relâ—g p. 597. What wickednesse will they stick at in sâ—cret who pâ—oclâ—ime thâ—ir folly openly â—â— saith Isâ—â— Pelâ—sit lib. 2. p. 153. with that which is in the bag or chest there is the store The mouth is but as the cistern the heart is the well that fills it The aboundance is in the heart there is the treasury And this thou carryest about thee Nay it is within our earth more inwrapped within our nature then the Ivy within the wall as fast as with a band of Iron
themselves with haste and proved like proffered wares of the least esteem quite disregarded They must wait on God here in whose hand leadeth into every good way and gives a blessing in it And they must wait His time also which is a chief point of their duty 3. The younger folk must leave this weighty businesse in their hands who are deputed under God to take the cure over them and the care thereof And this if the single parties shall do they have then discharged their double duty before mentioned which consisted first in the well ordering themselves and so discharging their single cure And then in leaving the rest for the changing of their condition wholly in their hands whose charge it is and whose duty also it is faithfully to discharge the same and now followeth for it is necessary I should adde something thereof I mean touching the overseers duty They that are overseers of the childe Parents or deputed so to be must be earnest with the Lord at this point for it is a main duty house and riches are the inheritance of Fathers and a prudent wife is from the Lord p Prov. 19. 14. Parents may give a good portion but a good wife is Gods gift a great mercy and greatly to be desired This is their first duty The next is 2. They must choose the man we regard not sexes I say a man not a boy not a girle before the face can discern the sex parents must avoid the inconveniency of haste in so important a businesse which helps to fill the world with beggery and impotency q See Censure of Travell sect 7. And they must choose the man I say the man not his money It is well where both meet and then they may choose and wink but that is not very ordinary and therefore they must be the the more watchfull so where there is a flush of money an high-tide of prosperitie there is commonly a low ebbe of better matters which indeed denominates a man prosperitie is a great snare the greater when the young heire begins at the top first at the same peg or height where the Father ended and it is many times accompanied with some idlenesse of brain * Ad omne voâ—um fâ—â—ente â—ortuna 〈◊〉 ocium Quint. Dec. 3. p. 32. I need not feare this but yet I say in way of caution choose the man and then the money when I say a man I mean such an one who can finde meat in a wildernesse who carries his riches about him * Cic. Parad. Sen. ep 9. when he is stript of his money who hath his chief comelinesse within and yet not uncomely without such a man they should choose If this man be wanting the childe shall not set her eyes upon him the parent must not If some money be wanting no great want it is easily supplied it is certain if other things answer some want that way I mean in money is not of sufficient value to hold off or make a breach As it was said of the talents The Lord is able to give much more then this r 2 Chron. 25. 9. But if goodnesse be wanting it is a greater want then is in a light piece of gold which in a great paiment will passe not withstanding as many great wants passe currant where there is a great portion Parents must shew their wisdome here else they fail in a prime duty They must choose goodnesse and not account it an accessary Better want the money then the man Å¿ See Chrysost of the choice of a wife Ser. 28. Tom. 5. Non sum ex insano amatorum genere qui vitia etiam exosculantur ubi semel formâ capti sunt Haec sola est quae me delectat pulchritudo c. calv ep 16. Religion t Mâ— Bolton direct p. 236. and the feare of God as it it is generally the foundation of all humane felicitie so must it in speciall be accounted the ground of all comfort and blisse which man and wife desire to finde in the enjoying each of other There was never any gold or great friends any beauty or outward bravery which tied truly fast and comfortably any marriage knot It is onely the golden link and noble tie of Christianitie and grace which hath the power and priviledge to make so deare a bond lovely and everlasting Mendax est omnis secularis amicitia quae divini timoris vinculo non est ligata Chrys Hom. 24. in Matth. â—atin tantum which can season and strengthen that nearest inseparable societie with true sweetnesse and immortalitie So farre Mr Bolton and so much touching the Over-seers duty in making the choice 3. There is another main point That they give the childe leave to approve of the choice As the Childe offers the greatest affront to Parents in giving her consent without their leave and privitie so shall Parents offer the greatest wrong to the childe that can be thought of in concluding a match without or against the childes allowance we have an old example hereof and a standing rule We will call c Gen. 24. 57. 58. To use constraint and force here is the greatest piece of injurie that is done in the world yet so injurious have some Parents been and so they have compassed their end some estate for their childe but quite forfeited the comfort of estate and childe both The parents care was for that the childe least cares for and neglected the main the childes liking of the choice This is most injurious dealing nay more not unlike his and that was most inhumane who joyned the living to the dead y Vâ—g AEâ— 7. Smithfield and other places have told us the sad sequells of such matches So then this is the next thing belonging to the Parents charge They will not proceed without the childes consent But it will be said as many times it falls out The Parents have made a fit choice and have asked the childes consent but cannot have it nor any reason except a womans reason why it refuseth And indeed so it may well be for the elder sort cannot alwayes give reason of what they like or dislike and when they can their reason is unreasonable in such cases no better then folly See first part chap. 4. 13. 4. P. 55. much lesse sometimes can the younger And if so then the childe must be drawn on by all faire meanes and the plainest Arguments such as true wisdome and discretion can suggest whereby to win upon it and sweetly to incline the will And if after some time of tryall they cannot by such faire means prevail then the worl is wide enough they must make another choice they must not use force oh by no means I think now of the sad and heavy consequences herefrom So long as my childe hath a principle of life to carry her to Church let her not be borne thither as upon others shoulders for she matches for her self principally
〈◊〉 Chrys â—â— Matt. Hom. 25. prayer asking of Him who is the Father of lights who leades into all truth And if He joyn himself to our charriot we shall go on and encrease mightily for it is in the strength and with the encrease of God I can but point at what I would say For thy instruction this is the chief Take counsell from this word and from this Great counsellour then thou shalt be taught indeed to answer thy worthy name worthily and all those relations thou standest in as becometh first to children The chief burden of our charge as they are the chief of our possessions The rules are what was mentioned before I shall not recall 1. Thou must not set thy heart upon them as was said but keep a watchfull eye over them thereby keeping them in awe and begin betimes sit close here children are like a wilde asse colt if thou dost not over-rule them they will overthrow thee and themselves It is a pretty observation I know not how true That great mens children learn nothing by order and rule but to mannage their horse well and the reason why they are so carefull therein is because they know their horse is neither flatterer nor Courtier he will not stick to cast First part p. 253. them as soon as a meaner person if they hold him not strait in and themselves close to his back It is so here if thou doest not sit close upon them upon servants also holding a strait hand neither slacked nor strained if not they will runne headlong What ever honour is due none will be payed unlesse it be honourably commanded I mean with authoritie and with a countenance commanding a respect and a reverence Let this bridle loose once and they will let loose the bridle before thee i Job 30. 11. Essrenatè in me invâ—cti sunt quâ—si immissis vel excussis habenis Trem. first part that is they will speak unreverently and scornfully as if they were not children nor thou their Mother and the order will be inverted the childe will be above and the parent shall be below And therefore hold fast here Thus much or this little rather for I have spoken to it before that thou mayest maintain thy authoritie over them if thou loosest that thou wilt adventure thy comfort in them Covet after the best callings but be not ambitious to make them great here below It had been a good ambition in the Mother if it had been spirituall to be an earnest sutour for the preferment of her children to Christs's kingdome k Hoc praecipuum est uti piè sanclâ—que vivant dixit uxor Calv. epist 101. No preferment in the world comparable Do thy best here Grace is a sure commoditie and however the world go the trade of godlinesse cannot fail Make sure of that for thy self and thine what thou canst trade heaven-ward the world and trading here will fail l Reade Chrysost in Gen. Hom. 66. â— Put up thy prayers for them be not wanting at the Throne of Grace thy prayers may return when thou thinkest not and with much more advantage then thy cares Mark that We suppose thou hast servants too a great part of thy care and charge and then there is work enough for thy tongue thy eye and thy hand thou being a leading hand in All. 1. Work enough for thy tongue I mean not therewith to trouble thy house as some do filling it with winde as with smoak which is the abuse of the tongue but to instruct to exhort to reprove to correct also thereby to bring all to know and serve God There must be no difference none at all between children and servants It is not said m Gen. 18. 19. Abraham and his Isaac Lydia n Acts 15. 16. and her daughters but Abraham and his houshold Lydia and her houshold All alike in point of information though a difference in affection This is the praise in the Gospell that some private families were particular Churches The Church in thy house Philem. 2. And hence saith the Father o Chrysost in ep ad Cor. Hom. 12. If we observe so much it sufficeth hence all our evils which break out in Citie and Countrey ever from the neglect of this family or household We think it saith he sufficient to excuse our neglect when he or she walk in their own way the way of sinne and death That they are our servant or handmaid as if servants had no souls and we no charge over them or to use the same Fathers words as if in Christ Iesus there were either bond or free All one in our care But now heare the same Fathers reproof we do not so neglect our horse or our asse for we would have them good as we do our servants For the same may be said of us the Father p In epist ad Cor. Hom. 8. puts it down as a Caveat in way of prevention which was said of a people in Ieremiah's time q Jer. 7. 18. The children gather wood and the fathers kindled the fire and the women knead their dough So of us children and servants run after their pleasure Fathers as fast after their profit thâ— women make provision for a temporall life onely none seek the things of Christ but all their own things whence must needs follow disorder in the family confusion in the Common-wealth And so much may teach thee so to use thy tongue that it may be thy glory in the setting up and maintaining the Glorie and service of God in thy family which was the grace and glory of those families whose praise is in the Gospell and the praise of that vertuous woman She openeth her mouth with wisdome and in her tongue is the law of kindenesse Prov. 31. 26. 2. There will be much use of the eye too many servants riotously waste much children wantonly spill much be wakefull herein see that nothing be riotously abused as the swinish manner is in some families worse then brutish nor needleslly spent nor carelesly spilt Set an honourable price upon Gods gifts for thou receivest them from God opening His hand What comes from His hand must not be slighted in ours The least crum of His blessings should have its due regard And as He doth open His hand so do thou open thy heart Thou canst not open at all till He open first much lesse so wide but yet pray as the one is enlarged towards thee so the other may be enlarged towards Him in thy measure and thy hand also open to others according as He hath blessed thee If He doth give thee to eat of the fat and to drink of the sweet and to be clad with the wool Nehem. 8. 10. Remember them for whom none of all is this provided And remember withall it is one of the properties of a vertuous woman Prov. 31. 20. She stretcheth out her hand to the poore yea she reacheth out her hands to
in one house arise families and from them Common-wealths And now we have againe the blocke in our way though we have remooved it before I know well that a family may be so governed as we heard and as it should be It is required that these two in one house should bee one in one house with one soule with one mind with one heart serving the Lord. This blessing and gift from above for a good husband as a good prudent wife are both the gift of God and a speciall favour q Singulari modo Trem. Prov. 19. 14. Chap. 18. 22. my prayer is that thou maist receive But if not thou hast heard thy charge and withall how patient thou must bee under that want Thou must waite when God will give Repentance and use all meanes that may hasten the same as the Common adversary doth our destruction and never dispaireth of it while there is place for hope as the Father sweetly and elegantly shewing the duty of Ministers But it concernes all in these Chrysost de Lazar Conc. 1. â— cases wives especially that the unbeleeving husband may be wonne by the chaste conversation of the wife and so I leave thee now and thy charge in this supposed condition as I would have thee and them under thee found thee sweetly commanding in the Lord and they willingly obeying and in the Lord still I leave thee I say in thy family like a little Common wealth r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. A good housewife is an excellent ornament in an house she is a grace to her husband and her self In that house all rejoyce children in theiâ— mother husbâ—nd in the wife the wife in children and husband all in God Clem. Alex. Pâ—d lib. 3. cap. 11 p. 183. revâ—rencing thy husband ruling thy Children commanding thy servants and all in and for the Lord which will finde thee worke enough to keepe thee waking in the season for it and to imploy the strength of thy parts and most pretious time and so both thy time and parts will be well spent in so behoovefull a service Now passe on to the last stage of our life which is Old-age CHAP. VII Old Age. Two periods thereof pressing to dutie both Comfort in death whence distilled AND now we are come like a ship from out of the maine Sea of the world which lyeth open to stormes and gusts and rideth at Anchor under the Leeside where the passengers may looke out and see their harbour Wee must now doe in the first place as Sea-faring men should doe in such cases they tell what they saw and what they felt even His wonders in the deepe and they declare these workes of the Lord with rejoycing Å¿ Psal 107. 22. So they who are brought safe to this port or stage of time Old-Age must recount and record the Mercies of the Lord and what deliverances Hee hath wrought for them in their way thitherward This is the first thing to be done even to sacrifice the sacrifice of thankesgiving and to declare his works also with rejoycing And Child I began the Register of Gods Mercies towards thee where thou tookest thy beginning and first entrance into the world at thy Birth and Baptisme There I considered thy outward frame of Body and inward frame of minde where I leâ—t off then there I begin now to teach thee to recall to minde and record the mercies of God to thee ever since that time And though this recording of Mercies be proper to every person that is growne up to the yeares of understanding and not to every Age only but to every yeare and month and weeke and day therein yet this is a duty which seemes more to presse upon us the more and the faster yeares doe presse on And therefore though it doth concerne All in generall and every age and person in speciall yet being specially intended because that which is spoken to all is counted as spoken to none I shall bend my words to Thee whom I must suppose now stricken in yeares the Sun of thy day farre passed the Meridian and its shaddow gone downe many degrees towards the place where anon it must set Thou must then consider how wonderfully the Lord hath maintained thy life and preserved the same ever since thy comming into the world and that this consideration may presse the more thou must consider what this life is and that of so small a bottome the Lord should spinne out so long a thred Had he not drawne it out of his owne power as the Spider doth her web out of her owne bowels it had been at an end the second minute The maintaining the Radicall Moysture that Oyle which feeds the Lampe and light of thy life is as great a miracle as was the maintaining the Oyle in the Cruse of the poore widow But He did not maintaine this life only and at His owne proper cost But defended and protected thee also tooke thee under His Wings as the hen doth her chickens to shelter thee from those many dangers thy life hath been exposed to We cannot tell how many but this thou must know that there are principalities and Powers both in the plurall number to shew they are Legions and in the Abstract to shew they are armed with power as they are swelled with malice And to this their malice and power thou wast liable every moment of thy life and thou hadst felt both their malice and their power as quick and fierce against thee as Iob and others have done if the Lord had not charged them concerning thee Touch her not and how canst thou be sufficiently thankfull for this Againe consider how many dangers and casualties thou hast scaped from the Earth the severall creatures on it from the Water from the Fire from the Aire also how often have the Arrowes of Death come whisking by thee Tooke away those next thee and yet have missed thee perhaps thou hast seene some Deare yeares of time as thy forefathers have done When a thousand have falne at thy right hand and ten thousand at thy left When Gods Arrests have seized upon some walking talking and yet have spared thee And if not so yet consider thine owne body and the humours thereof They had every day overflowne and drowned thee as the waters the earth if God had not said unto them stay your proud Waves In a word if thou consider what thy life is and the dangers thou art subject to thou must acknowledge that the preservation thereof is as great a wonder as to see a sparke maintained alive amidst the waters So Chrysostome speakes of Noah t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tom. 5. ser 6. As great a wonder as to see a glasse that hath been in continuall use gone through many hands and hath had many knocks and fals to be kept for forty fifty sixty yeeres whole and unbroken As great a wonder as to see a Candle in a paper lanthorne in a
Braines S. I. H. he attained to by his sword after Death had not a roome to containe his Corps in without being purchased at the hand of another Men esteeming a living Dog more then a dead Lion saith Sam. Dan. I might remember also how Philip the Second of Spaine lessoned the Prince his sonne when he thought of a great Treasure spent and when his owne spirits were spent also And how Charles Grimst Hist of the Netherl the Father in the Waine of his greatnesse left alone and carrying the Candle before his Embassadour instructed the same Embassadour The instruction Medull Hist prophanae p. 899 is but short Goe speake of what thou hast seene me doe who had so many Princes waiting on me and learne the state of humane things The summe of all riseth to this Those things which we so greedily graspe after and lay out our precious stock of time and wit upon are no enduring Substance But yet that is not the worst They are passed and gone and many times there remaineth but Sighs behinde when a man remembers the getting and expending of them that he was unrighteous in both But take them at the best They cannot keepe the heart from trembling or the knees from smiting one against another All outward strength cannot keepe out shall I say an Armed-man nay not a silly frog out of the Chamber where the God of Hosts will bid it goe The greatest Pompe cannot prevent a Consumption by the basest Vermine of which truth Pharaoh Herod more lately Philip of Spaine before mentioned and others neerer home are very great Examples The serious consideration whereof may prevent the bewitching of profit the great Enchantresse of Mankinde so as we shall not be ensnared by deceitfull riches which make us beleeve that they can satisfie and stay the heart in the day of wrath whereas they are no strong Wall v Prov. 11. 4. but onely in a mans owne conceit But righteousnesse delivereth from death x Chap. 18. 10 11. All things are nothing without this This is all without them Therein is the substance the Kernell the quintessence of all The y 1 John 2. 16. World passethaway and the lust thereof but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever fast like mount Sion an everlasting foundation Godlinesse a 1 Tim. 6. 6. and 4 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrysost in Gen. 48. Hom. 66. ◠is great gaine it is profitable for all things having the promise of the life that now is and of the life that is to come And therefore if the Parent had but one request to put up for the Childe it should be That the Lord would be its portion That He would blesse him indeed for whom He blesseth are blessed b 1 Chron. 4. 10. And if he had but one instruction it should be for the getting the principall thing Get Wisedome and withall thy getting get understanding c Prov. 4. 7. The last Consideration containeth in it the very pith of reason and equitie and mightily engageth the Parent to give All diligence at this point touching the good Nurture of his Childe when I have cleared so much I have done 3. A Childe is the Parents Image right A branch from a sinfull stock An off-spring from a corrupted fountaine The Parent is the Channell which conveyeth unto it Sinne and Death This is that hereditary evill which is truely and really stated and fëoffed upon every Childe of Adam But if we will see the first originall of the conveyance we must descend as low as Adam who was the sonne of God made as every thing else very good with this excellency and prerogative royall above other things in Gods Image that is in Holinesse and righteousnesse But being in this honour he understood not but sought out many inventions d Eccles 7. 29. that is They would finde out something beyond God and so for it was not possible to be otherwise they found on t their owne finddings Sinne and Sorrow They reached forth their hand unto the forbidden fruit and did eate so they fell from their stedfastnesse and glory Then they knew both good and evill Good if they had obeyed Evill that they obeyed not Now they had experience and feeling of their good they lost and the evill they brought upon themselves Thus sinne entred into the World and by sinne death that is more evils and weightier then we can think them For we must note That the Actuall sinne of Adam determined not the bound of Misery but brought a second Misery with it the Misery of our whole Nature While Adam stood we stood in him his obedience kept his whole estate and Nature entire But when he fell we fell in him for though the sinne were a limited thing in act of eating yet it was an unlimited excesse in respect of the Committer and the frame of his revolting heart and therefore it was just with God to plague his whole Nature for that sinfull Act. So then The same hand that was reacht forth to this fruite reacht it also to the fruite of their loynes wherein that fruite was seminally as branches in a common stock And thus the Childrens teeth were set on edge so the next verse tels us And Adam begat a sonne in his owne likenesse his owne indeed that is With that generation Sinne was also derived for he begat now not the Body onely but a Man in his receptivenesse of the soule and in those bands and ties which knit body and soule to wit these spirits of reasonable Nature and by the infection of these spirits the soule is also corrupted We cannot with sobriety enquire further into this thing I know the dispute how this sinne is propagated from the Father to the Childe is very large But we may say of it as the Philosopher of that Dispute touching that supposed voide place It is an empty and vaine Dispute c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist phys de vacuo voide of use and to none effect It was a wise and seasonable reproofe which a Mariner in a dangerous tempest gave to the Philosopher troubling him with a Dispute touching the Windes We f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aul. Gell. lib. 1. cap. 2. ◠are at the point of sinking and you trifle out the time with a vaine discourse Enquiries touching this point have blotted much Paper and spent much precious Time and all to little purpose for so we give time to a growing mischiefe It is as if while the fire rageth on the sides and tops of houses a man should hold his hand and moove his tongue not joyne force to quench it but onely aske how it begunne where and when It was a good answer to one who would know by what Chinke sinne entred into the Childe g Hist of the Couns of Trent l. 2. p. 174 That Chinks were not to be sought where a gate stood wide open The Apostle