that they should be taken from their own and sent to another Countrey This their affliction is set out by a childes being taken from its owne mothers brest it could not expresse what it intended except it were to imitate thus much unto us that it is an evil thing for a childe to be taken from its own mothers bresâ— It is unnatural then for mothers out of daintinesse and curiosity to deny the fruit of their wombes the comfort of their breasts It is true in time of weaknesse and danger when it may be dangerous to themselves and the childe God permits it But when it is meerly I say out of daintinesse and curiosity certainly it is an evil that is against nature it self Hannahs care of her sonne Samuel is recorded by this it is mentioned by the holy Ghost in her commendation that she gave him suck 1 Sam. 1. 23 The woman abode and gave her sonne suck untill she weaned him saith the Text. It is said of the Ostrich Iob. 39. 16. That she is hardned against her young ones as though they were not hers and this Ostrich is reckoned among the fowles that are unclean And Lam. 4. 3. Even the sea-monsters draw out their breasts they give suck to their young ones yet the daughter of my people is become cruel like the Ostridges in the wildernesse more cruel then the very sea-monsters themselves that draw out their breasts and give suck to their young ones The instruction of the son belongeth to the father the nursing of the son belongeth to the Mother The Mothers milke is the most profitable and wholesome for any one saith Plinie except it be in some extraordinary case We read in 2 Tim. 3. 3. that in the latter day when evil times should come some should be without natural affection that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is here spoken of is the affection of the parents to the children as well as of the children to the parents But enough of this if not too much to such that are so pleased with their curiosity and daintinesse the children of their own fancies that they neglect the fruit of their wombes natures duty to the children of their bodies But further observe here That the Lord staies for the weaning of the child he staies till Lo-ruhamah was weaned before Lo-ammi was conceived And there is much to be known in this Why doth God stay This is to shew the great patience of God toward his people For God was now about to reject his people utterly from being his people God was about to come with the height of his wrath to declare that they were no more his people and here God makes a stop stays till Loâ—ruhamah was weaned I have read of the Jewes that their manner was to be a long time three yeeres sometimes before they weaned their children God then it seemes stayed long here before he would have the third childe that is Lo-ammi born before he would come with that dreadful sentence you are not my people and I will not be your God First when Jezreel was born then they are scattered up and down yea but they are not all carried away captive yet Then Lo-ruhamah is born and then they are gone carried away captive never to return again But for all this God may yet own them in their captivity This is not so bad as for God to say I will have no more to do with you as my people Lord though we be under affliction under the power of our enemies own us still acknowledge us to be thine though we be in the fiery furnace yet let us have thee to be our God No saith God you shall not onely be scattered but you shall be all carried away captive and I will not own you neither I will cast you off you shall not be my people neither will I be your God Now before this God makes a stop Hence observe first That God stops in his anger for a while as long as he pleaseth God is called Nah. 1. 2. The Lord of anger so are the words though translated otherwise We may apply it at least thus God is the Lord of his own anger he can let it out as far as he will he canstop it when he will he can command it to come in when he pleaseth It is not so with us our anger our passions are Lords over us if we once let our anger our passions arise we cannot get them down againe when we would we cannot still them when we please if we let our affections run we cannot call them in when we will but are sometimes slaves to our own passions and they lord it over us This is that frame of spirit that we should all labour for to be like to God though angry yet sin not so as we can stop when we will and command our anger as we please As it is said of God that he sayes to the proud waves Hitherto shalt thou go no further Oh that we were able to say to those proud waves of our passions Hitherto are you gone but you shall goe no further Againe mark here God stoppeth in his anger for a while When this dreadful judgement was come to be executed God is even ready to say as he saith afterward in this Prophesie How shall I give thee up Oh Ephraim How shall I deliver thee O Israel Teaching us thus much That those that have been once the people of God must not be suddenly rejected from being Gods people but when we are about any such thing either to reject any particular man or woman who have made profession of Religion from being Gods or to reject a Church from being Gods we had need make a stop we had need pause we had need examine the matter very well yea and when we have examined and are ready to doe it to make a stop againe and to bethink our selves what we doe We must not be too sudden in rejecting those that have been once the people of God from being the people of God now It is Gods way you see here Many men are too hasty in this point in rejecting both particular servants of God and particular Churches from belonging to God assoone as they see some few things amisse in them especially if there be any thing grosse presently they are no Churches at all they are altogether Antichristian they belong to the Beast and so while they strike at the Beast they wound the Lamb. Certainly there is to be acknowledged much of Christ not onely in particular Saints but in regard of the Church Ordinances of many particular congregations in England we must take heed therefore of too sudden rejection of them from belonging to God to be his people in that way of Church fellowship We come now to the conception of the third childe It was a sonne and his name was Lo-ammi The second childe a daughter but the third
will be convinced I suppose of it that it is fit for children to plead with their parents when they go from God Thus we see it was with Jonathan 1 Sam. 19. 4. there you shall finde that he pleaded with his father when he saw him so furious and in such a passionate mood as he was in and in such a cruell way toward poor David Let not saith he â—he King sinne against his servant Let not the King he gives him very respectufll words and sheweth his due honour to his father Let not the King sinne against his servant and then goeth on and tells his father of the good service David had done and that David did not deserve such ill usage from him Thus when children shall see their Fathers or Mothers to be in a fâ—â—ous rage or passion it is fit enough for them if they come in an humble and submâ—ssive way in a beseeching way I be seech you father or mother consider that by these distempered passions in stead of helping your self you sinne against God you have known it by experience that you have often in such passion so broken out that many sinnes have broken from you and you have grieved for it afterwards oh doe not againe that which your Conscience hath so often checked you for If children should come thus in an humble and submissive way to plead with their parents they doe no more then their duty and their parents are bound to hearken to them in it I confesse they should be very carefull in keeping their due respect to their parents and not speake mallapertly but with all reverence and submission to them and to speak privately too if possibly it can be not to divulge their parents weaknesses You know Cham was cursed for discovering his fathers nakedness though he was drunk he did not shew his due respect at that time to his father but if he had sought to cover his fathers nakednesse and after had come and pleaded the case with him certainly he had not beene cursed but received a blessing Yea and there is a great deale of reason that children should pleade with heir parents and that you should give them leave so to doe because you know children are the worse for your sinnes God thrâ—tneth to visit the sinnes of the parents upon the children unto the third and fourth generation there are many threatnings against children for the sinnes of their parents therefore it concerns your children that they should plead with you and that you should suffer them For you say Sirrah what have you to do with me What doth it concern you Yes the child if he doth it in modesty and humility may say O father it doth concern me I may fare the worse for your sinnes God may come upon me for them therefore give me leave I beseech you to pleade the cause of God with you And if you will not give your children leave in this they may rise up as witnesses against you another day If children in an humble and submissive way plead with their parents and they will not hearken unto them then a very good pleading will be for them to burst out into teares before their parents and it is a very sutable and powerfull pleading that when children cannot prevaile in an humble and submissive way then to burst out into teares before them We read in the story of King Edward the sixth when Cranmer and Ridley came to him and were so earnest to let him give way to his sister the Lady Mary to have Masse he stood out and pleaded the case with them told them it was a sinne against God they used many carnall arguments to perswade the King but hee withstood them a great while at length when King Edward who was but a childe about 15 years of age saw hee could not prevaile with pleading against those grave men he burst out into teares and that so prevailed with them that they went away and concluded that the King had more Divinity in his little finger then they had in all their bodies and so yeelded to him Certainly in such pleadings the heart of a parent must needs be much hardned if hee will not breake and yeeld to his child You that are parents looke upon your childrens pleading with you and consider with your selves what doth God send one out of my loins out of my own wombe to come and plead the cause of God with me to draw me from the wayes of sinne and to do good to my soul for ever surely it is a mercy to have one out of my owne bowels to stand for the cause of God surely God is in it I see this child in other things walks humbly and obediently unto me As indeed you that are children that plead with your parents you need be carefull so much the rather to be obedient to them and not take upon you in an unseemly manner to check and reprove them and then it cannot but convince the heart of a parent What a blessing will it be to your children if you that have received your naturall life from your parents should be a means of the spiritual and eternal life of them Thus much for the expression Plead with your Mother Now for that which is chiefly aimed at Plead with your mother that is the Church and State Hence the Note is Those that are Godly should not onely sacrifice themselves to do good to themselves or friends in private but they are to labour to doe good to the publique too Not onely say to your sisters and to your brethren but pleade with your mother There are many narrow spirited men who if they can discharge as they think their consciences with their families and can plead with their servants and children or some of their own neere acquaintance perhaps they have done enough though for the publique they take no care at all Hence it is apparently implyed that all those that are members of any Church ought to be men of knowledge why because they are such as are called upon to plead with their Mother It is not for an ignorant Sot to plead with a Church of God and yet such should be all the members of every Church as in some cases they should plead with their mother Lastly which indeed is the maine Observation of all God giveth liberty to some private members of Churches yea it is their duty in some cases to plead with the whole Church This we must speak unto a little more Gods wayes and his Cause are so equal that private Christians though they be very weak yet they may be able to plead it with a Church It is true there is a great deale of disadvantage that a poore weak private Christian hath when he is to deale with a whole Church where there are many godly and learned but where as there is a disadvantage one way so the advantage is as much the other way in regard that the
ever he can in all lawfull things and then when he commeth to plead against an evil he is not suddain he is not rash and he pleads not against every light evil neither but when he comes he comes with a great deale of trouble in his spirit and carrieth it with all quietnesse and humility It is your rigidnesse and that spirit which doth not beseeme a Christian that is not the spirit of Christ in this thing for to judge of this to be pride For certainly under this false judge ment the cause of God hath suffered exceeding much You will say How can it be imagined that one man should see more then many more then others that are able To that I answer In a community where there are many though they should be godly yet many of them may have their spirits biased with prejudice vvith selfe-ends and so not come to see the truth though they be more able Again perhaps though they may be moreable in most things yet in some one God may leave them Yea though they may be more able at other times yet for some one time God may leave a man in a thing that he is very able in it another time And perhaps a great many of them for the present may have so much distemper of spirit as they may not speak according to what they think themselves Therefore it may be usefull for some one man to be pleading with many others I beseech you consider of this it is very usefull Men must not think that God doth dispence the knowledge of his truth alwayes according to natural 〈…〉 For want of this consideration many are led into much evill For thus they think with themselves If a man have more abilities to understand natural things then others have therefore he must needs have more abilities to understand spirituall things then others have There is a mistake in this A great learned man that hath great abilities understands the rules of nature yet a poor weake man may have the mind of Christ more then he hath For the promise is to them that feare God Psal 25. 14. The secret of the Lord is with them that feare him It may be another man hath more abilities but this spirit may be more soild may be more distempered then the poor weake mans I thanke thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes even so Father for it seemed good in thy sight If multitudes had beene an argument against the truth then in the Primitive times when Christian Religion began certainly very few should have followed JESUS CHRIST Yea and there is not more disadvantage and disproportion between one or two private members of a Church and the whole Church then there was at that time disadvantage and disproportion between the whole Church then and all the world And if we mark Saint Iohn We know saith he that we are of God and that the whole world lyeth in wickednesse We know What a singular spirit was here here was singularity indeed if you talke of singularity you are afraid you should be counted self-conceited and singular in differing from others We know that we are of God and that the whole world lyes in wickednesse Thus we see the thing a little cleared as this point had need be but we have not done with it we must not let it go so There must be some rules given for this or otherwise we should wrong the point in naming it Christians may plead private members may plead with their Mother yet they must observe these rules First They must not plead with her for every light thing For the Scripture giveth us this rule That Love covereth a multitude of infirmiâ—ies We must not stand pleading for every infirmity with our brother but rather passe by many and cover them much lesse then with the Church But if there be that which is notorious or if I be called unto it that I cannot have communion with them but in my communication with them I shall be wrapped up in the guilt except I testifie the truth Certainly then I am bound to plead The second rule is it must be orderly done that is if possibly it may bee you must make the Officers of the Church to be your mouth in pleading I say if it can be If it come to such a way of rebuking or declaring the evill to the Church it should rather if it can be be by him whom God hath appointed to be his mouth to the Church For you doe it in Gods name therefore the most orderly way to do it if it may be done is by him that is Gods mouth Thirdly It must be so as you must manifest all due respect to that society you are of to that Church shewing in your carriage that you are apprehensive and sensible even at this time of that distance that is betweene you and that whole society whereof you are a member Fourthly You must do it in a very peaceable way so as to manifest that you desire peace and not to be the least disturbance to the peace of the Church but that the peace of it is deare precious to you Therefore when you have witnessed the truth and discharged your conscience in it you must be then content to sit down quiet for so the rule is That the spirits of the Prophets must be subject to the Prophets in that case But if it should prove that the Church should continue if the evill be notorious and great as requires departing and the Church after all means used all patience should continue in it in such a case you may desire to be dismissed from it and depart But in as peaceable a way as possibly can be yet continuing in due respect unto the Church for all that though you should depart onely leaving your witnesse behind you The Papists cry out against us for pleading against them and say it is an ill bird that will defile its own nest and they tell us the curse of Cham is upon us for discovering our parents nakednesse They are to know this that there is more liberty for a member of a Church to plead with a Church then for a childe to pleade with his parent Though there be liberty for a child yet there is more liberty for the member of a Church For a parent though he should be never so evil yet hee doth not lose his right over his childe Though your parents should be very wicked yet know that their wickednesse doth not discharge you of your duty that all children should take notice of But a Church may so fall off from God as the members of it may be free from their duty to it and therefore may have more liberty to plead then a child with his parent That but onely in answer to them And certainly so far have they
condition and we see it that many men that have beene raised from a low estate to an high are so afraid of returning to a low estate again that they will venture soule and conscience and God and all rather then they will endanger themselves in the least degree in their estates Hence it is very observable that the chiefe curse that God threatneth the people of Israel with is that they should returne to Egypt again that the Lord would bring them back to the condition wherein once they were You shall finde that whole Chapter Deut. 28. is spent in denouncing most dreadfull curses upon the people now for the conclusion of all as the chiefe curse of all the rest saith the Text there ver 68. The Lord shal bring thee into Egypt again with shippes and there you shall be sold unto your enemies for bond-men and bond-women and no man shall buy you Were it not a sad thing for us who have been acquainted with the glorious light of the Gospel and with the blessed priviledges that come in thereby for us to be brought into Popish bondage and thraldome again As Ezra 9. 8. we may use his words Now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the Lord our God to leave us a remnant to escape to give us a nayle in his holy place that our God may lighten our eyes and give us a little reviving in our bondage And shall we as in ver 14. again breake thy commandements and joyne in affinity with those abominations As for our selves who have had now of late a little tast of the sweetnesse of our outward priviledges and our liberties for us to be brought into the bondage that wee not long since were in it would be a very sad thing Who could endure to be under that bondage that he was in three or foure years agon under every Parator Promoter Pursevant Commissary Chancelour and tyrannical Prelate as formetly we could not have met together and enjoyed the liberty of such exercises as these no you could not have met in your families to pray but one or other would have been upon you and indangered your estates The bondage was intollerable we may well complaine it was a yoke that neither we nor our fathers could beare The last Observation and the way to prevent all is When God hath delivered a people out of misery and bestowed upon them great mercies it is their duty often to thinke of the poor condition which once they were in to use all the means they can that they may not be brought thither again God loveth this that we should remember and seriously take to heart what once we were so it is here Lest I strip her naked and set her as in the day wherein she was borne as if he should say I would have you consider what condition you were in when you were borne what a low condition it was and consider of the danger you are in to be brought thither again and to looke about you and to seeke to prevent it if you have the hearts of men in you This we shall finde in Deut. 26. 1. 2. When thou art come into the land which the Lord giveth thee for an inheritance and possessest it thou shalt take of the first of all the fruite of the earth and thou shalt put it in a basket and shalt goe unto the place which the Lord thy God shall chuse and ver 5. Thou shalt speake and say before the Lord thy God A Syrian ready to perish was my father and he went down into Egypt and became there a nation and the Egyptians evil intreated us and afflicted us and layed upon us hard bondage And Isa 51. 1. Looke to the rocke whence you are hewen and to the hole of the pit whence you are digged It is very usefull for us to consider of our former low condition It was a speech Master Deering in a Sermon that he preached before Queen Elizabeth hee hath this bold expression to her If there were a time that you thought your self Tanquam ovis as a sheepe ready to be slaine take heed that the words of the Prophet be not now true that you be not Tanquam indo mita Iuvencula as an untamed heifer You may note the difference between the spirits of men in former times in their plainness and boldness and if there were an excesse that way how far the other way are our Court Sermons now Qeen Elizabeth was once in a very low condition indeed and she thought her selfe to be as a sheepe appointed for the slaughter It is usuall for men raised up from a low condition to forget God and themselves and to grow proud scornfull Nothing is more sharpe then a low thing when it getteth up high so there is none that have more proud and scornfull spirits then those that are raised from the dunghil and gotten up high they know not then where they are As the Proverb is Set a beggar on horse backe and he knowes not how nor whether to ride Thus it was with Saul the vvay to humble Saul was for him to consider what he once was and that is the way to humble us all who are subject to be proud of our prosperity that God hath raised us unto When thou wast little in thine own sight then thou wert made the head of the tribes of Israel There was a time that he was little in his own eyes and I beseech you observe the difference between the spirit of Saul when he was in a low condition and his spirit vvhen he vvas raised When Saul was in a low condition his spirit vvas low therefore 1 Sam. 10. 27. you shall finde that though there vvere some children of Eelial that would not have Saul to reigne over them What say they how shall this man save us and they despised him and brought him no presents But Saul the Text saith held his peace And Chap. 11. 12. When Saul had gottensome credit and honour by his victories some of the people said where are they that said shall Saul reine over us Bring the men that we may put them to death No saith Saul There shall not a man be put to death this day O how meeke was Saul what a quiet spirit had he before he got up high But afterward when he got up and had many victories then vvhat a furious and outragious spirit had Saul You know the story of the four-score and five Priests that must be slaine in the City of Nob and the whole Citie men women and children sucklings Oxes Asses and sheep must be put to the sword Why because one of them did but give a little refreshing unto David What a strange spirit is here in Saul different to that he had when he was low Is it not so with many of you when God hath brought you low you seeme to be humble and meek and quiet then and then you are content with
I speak it the rather because I was an eye and eare witnesse of it living not far from the place A godly man desiring his friends to meete to blesse God for his blessings in a plentifull Harvest after dinner was done comes in a little child who was indeed a very lovely child Oh saith the father I am afraid I shal make a God of this child by and by the child was missing and presently they went to looke him and hee was found sprawling drowned in a pond Consider this ye parents who have your hearts inordinately set on your children Againe I will take away my corne and my wine and my wool and my flaxe Marke before they made them their own in the former verse they said they are theirs now God challenges them for his here we have My My My repeated on Gods side as frequent as before it was on theirs Fourthly God keepes the propriety of all that we have though God gives all yet he keepes the propriety of all in his own hand God hath another propriety in our estates then any Prince in the world hath Subjects have propriety in their estates and enjoy them with as true a right as their Soveraignes but no creature hath any propriety in what it hath in reference to God this great Soveraign of all the world holds the propriety of all his hands not onely what we have but what we doe and what we are is all Gods yea sayes Luther even our thanksgiving to God for gifts is a gift of God It is therefore a very vile thing to attribute to our selves what is Gods when God hath enriched us we adde this odious particle sayes Luther I have done it yea sayes he men do so often say Feci Feci I have done I have done it that Fiunt faeces they are as dregs before the Lord By this you may see they are not your goods that you abuse it is a great argument to be bountifull and free for good uses because what wee have is Gods I will give you a notable Text for this 1 Chron. 29. 14. For all things come of thee and of thine own we have given thee David thought not much of his bounty towards the Temple because all was Gods Therefore I will take away This Therefore hath not onely reference to the abuse of them but to that in the 7. ver and she shall follow after her lâ—vers but shall not overtake them c. then shall she say I will goe and return to my first husband for then it was better then now God makes this to be a meanes of working that frame of spirit in them of returning to their first husband And from hence the note is Fifthly The taking away those good things we enjoy is a meanes of making us returne to God it is a speciall meanes of conviction to convince us of sinne when God comes with some speciall worke of his against us it workes more upon us when we see some reall expression of Gods displeasure when God takes his mercies from us then when we heare the threat now wee come to be sensible of our sinnes You that are tradesmen and runne into debt and your Creditors tell you they will come upon you yet you goe on till the Bailife comes into your shop and seizeth upon all and goes into your house and takes away your bed from under you and all your goods when you see all goe out then you thinke of your negligence and then the husband and wife wring their hands So though God threaten you for the abuse of the creature that hee will take it away yet you are not sensible of it till God indeed takes away all and then conscience begins to be awakened and fly in your faces VVhen David saw God taking away his people then his heart smote him for numbring them hee was told of the evill of that way of his before by Ioab but he goes on in it VVhen Samuel prayed for raine in wheat harvest and there came thundring and lightning then the people feared exceedingly and acknowledged their sin in asking a King Those who have abused their estates in these times when the enemy comes what gratings of conscience will they have Then these thoughts will arise Have I used my estate for God have I done that I might doe have I not satisfied my lusts with those things God hath now taken from me There is usually a grating of conscience for the abuse of any thing when God takes it away When God takes away a wife if the husband hath a tenderness of conscience his first thoughts are Have I performed the duties of my relation to my wife as I ought have I not neglected my duty towards her and this causeth sad thoughts And when God taketh away a child Have I done my duty towards this child have I prayed for it and instructed it as I ought Againe I will take away your corne in the time thereof and your wine in the season thereof This presents this truth to you That there is an uncertainty in all things in the world Though they promise faire yet they are ready to faile us when they promise most A husbandman that hath a good seed time promiseth much to himselfe it comes up and thrives and yet at harvest it is all blasted Habak 3. 17. Though the labour of the olive faile The phrase is Though the Labour of the olive lye that is the olive promised faire it grew up and looked very faire and ripened but it did lye that is it did not performe what it seemed to promise for in the time thereof it vanished and came to naught I had certain information from a reverend Minister of a strange work of God this way The thing was in his owne Towne there was a worldling who had a great crop of corne a good honest neighbour of his walking by his corne saith he Neighbour you have a very fine crop of corne if God blesse it Yea saith he I will have a good crop speaking contemptuously and before he could come to get it into the barne it was blasted that the corn of the whole crop was not worth six pence Here we see the uncertainty of the creature in the time thereof when it seemes to promise never so faire when wee are ready to take it into the barne it depends on God as well as when it is under the clods Oh the blessednesse of Gods servants who are sure of their good for time to come We may promise our selves certainty even for the future in the things of Christ but for outwards they are never sure no not when men have them in their hands Many things fall out betweene the cup and lip as we have it in the proverb I will take away my corne in the time thereof and wine in the season thereof Hence Observe God lets out his displeasure many times to those that provoke him when they make
I am afraid of you leâ—t I have bestowed upon you labour in vaine It appeares by this that peoples hearts are mightily set upon their Feasts their dayes and months and yeeres they were loath to be taken off from them so that the Apostle speakes with a deale of bitternesse of spirit I am afraid of you that I have lost my labour and indeed when godly Ministers take paines amongst people whose hearts are set upon such things as these for the most part they loose their labour little good is done Yea will some say to observe the Jewish dayes after they were abolished by God that was sinfull and dangerous but we doe not keepe Jewish days But mark what these men say God abolisheth his owne and yet they thinke hee gives liberty to man to set up others If this were so that upon Gods abolishing his own men should have liberty to set up theirs then the Christians are under a more heavy bondage and grievous paedagogie then ever the Jewes were for it is better to have a hundred days of Gods appointing then one of mans it is more honourable Further if God appoint there needs no scruple as there is if man appoint yea if God appoint wee may expect a speciall blessing and efficacy and presence of God we cannot expect such things in mans appointment Now if this were so when God hath taken away Jewish Ceremonies man might lawfully appoint others as he pleaseth and when God hath taken away Iewish dayes man might appoint other dayes we may pray to God with good reason to bring us under the pedagogie of the Law again rather then to be thus under mans power Thus farre we grant that upon any speciall work of God the very revolution of the yeare hath a naturalnesse in it to put me in mind of such a thing and so farre as there is a naturalnesse in it there is good in it I may make use of it Therefore I dare not say that is altogether unlawfull at such times to have some outward rejoycing when God doth not call for mourning some other way except the argument from the extraordinary abuse there hath been of it may be of force Nay that there may be advantage taken of the peoples leasure to preach the word and to heare Sermons upon such dayes we deny not Wee know that Christ was in the Porch of the Temple at the feast of Dedication which was one of the dayes of their owne appointing not that he was there to countenance or honor the Feast but because he had been there before at another Feast of Gods appointment Now there being a multitude of people at that time also gathered together he takes advantage of the concourse of the people to come to the out-porch to preach to them So much therefore as we may grant we will not deny For the understanding of this point the setting apart days I suppose there are these two things will be questioned First Why may not governours of the Church set apart dayes as well as appoint times for preaching or as well as others of themselves will appoint such times as once a week so much time set apart for a Lecture Secondly VVe may appoint fast dayes and dayes of thanksgiving these are set apart by man how cometh it to passe then that this can bee cleare that a man may appoint a time for preaching constantly once a weeke and he may appoint times of fasting and dayes of thankesgiving and yet not have this liberty to make a day that may be properly called a holy-day VVe must cleare that point from this objection or else we do nothing and for the clearing this wee must know there is a great deale of difference in these three things the right understanding of which will cleare all the matter Between deputation and dedication and sanctification of a thing I may depute a creature to be made use of to help me in holy things and yet still this creature is not sanctifyed by its deputation and so we do a time for a Lecture such an houre in such a day deputed but the time is not made holy by it the place is deputed but is not made holy by it Yea I will appoint such a garment that I have when I am in such a service such a day to weare but yet the garment is not made holy by it A creature is not made holy meerely by being made use of at holy exercise or in a holy thing As thus suppose I goe to reade the holy Scripture I make use of a candle to reade it by I doe not make the candle holy by this because I make use of it If the making use of a creature in a holy duty did make the creature holy then it would fall out generally in all creatures I make use of the very light and the ayre when I am reading and speaking holy things in publicke assemblies I do not make the light and ayre holy because I make use of them in holy things so I make use of this houre to preach in though I make use of it in a holy duty I make it no further holy then a man doth his spectacles that he useth to reade the Scripture by A deputation is this when such a creature as I shal think most commodius for such a service shal be put a part for such a service or when such a creature as I have use of for such a service will be a naturall and usefull help to me to appoint it for that service upon that ground The second is dedication that is when I give a thing out of my own power for a pious use that I cannot make use of for any thing again As when a man hath given so much of his estate to build a School or an Hospitall it may be said to be a kinde of dedication he hath devoted given so much of his estate to that end so that hee cannot make use of it himselfe to another end Now we doe not so set apart the time of preaching as that we cannot make use of this time for any other end wee may as wee see cause alter it where it is from 9. to 11 we make it from two to four whereas if it were a thing that we had dedicated that is given out of our own power then it cannot be changed by us That is a second degree this is not sanctifying yet Now sanctification is beyond dedication that is when any creature or time is so set apart for holy things as it must not be used in any thing but that that is holy and though the same holy actions be done at another time and with the use of another creature they shall not be accounted so holy as at this time and when this creature was made use of This is the proper sanctification and the setting apart of any day thus that is such a day God giveth to me to make use of for my occasions