Stocks or Roots conveying different fruit unto their branches As the new Adam Christ Jesus grace and life to all that are engraffed in him so the old Adam sin and death In Adam all dye 1 Cor. 15.22 in Christ shall all be made alive Sin is the seed of death And it is apparent an Infant is no sooner born but he hath in him these seeds I was shapen in iniquity Psal 51.5 and in sin did my mother conceive me I presently got the infection of sin and so a subjection unto death I was even warmed in sin in my mothers wombe Eâ lege nascimur Sence An Heathen called death Exitus communis And true it is death hath both young and old in bonds alike inviolable As a Genesis so an Exodus for all A time to be borne and a time to dye Hence a certaine Philosopher Sciome mortalem genuisse hearing that his only Son was dead makes answer I am very sensible I did but beget a mortall creature like to my selfe Lastly If Children be an holy seed within the Covenant their upon their decease consider even felicity Sooner shall Gods right hand forget his cunning than he will ever be unmindfull of any little one in Covenant with him Indeed if our Children should come to maturity and then dye unnaturall and murtherous Absaloms incestuous Amnons riotous and roaring Prodigals c. If this evill were concomitant with our Orbity it might be written a mourning in good earnest Planxit merito David super parricidâ filio cui perpetuo sciret obstructum exitum c. Bernard As Bernard speakes most fearefully of the case of Absalom and David lamenting his death But Children that are justified from originall sin by Christs bloud and cleansed by the Baptisme of the Holy Ghost are in Abrahams bosome They wish not themselves againe with their Parents as sometimes the murmuring Israelites Would to God we were in Aegypt againe but rather they say as the Disciples did on Mount Tabor Lord it is good for us to be here Vita hominum caepit esse miserabilis debuit dari finis malorum ut mors restituerit quod vita amiserat Ambr. Job 5.7 Indeed here they find sad entertainment being courted with calamities so soon as they enter the world Their very teares seeme to presage their sorrows Launching into such troubled seas where stormes will never cease till they arive in heaven It is their gaine therefore as well as ours to be freed from the burden of the body Neither let it trouble us that they are nipt in their tender yeares and taken away in their minority for those that dye in the state of grace dye in a full age Eph. 4.13 and are perfect men What they want in time is made out in happy eternity David tels us we shall go to them 2 Sam. 12.23 but they shall not returne to us And a very Heathen could say Praemittimus Scnec non amittimus we lose not our friends but send them before us Why then should we immoderately bewaile the death of those whom we must shortly follow There is great joy in the meeting of friends when Moses and Aaron met in the mount for joy they kissed one another Yet the joy of these meetings may be dashed and will have an end But O what joy will it be when we meet one another in the glorious Mount of heaven never to depart any more Let us then moderate our mourning and prepare for that meeting 1 Thes 4.17 When we shall meet Christ in the aire and ahide with him for ever But I adde further lest this griefe should overwhelme you do ye overwhelme it with the consideration of a greater Suppose your Children should live â—o be a griefe to you as Adam Emperour of the whole world had his heart sadned with one Son killing another and David In like manner Rebekah who had a double desire at once hath it imbittered with feare of a murderous emulation That she confesseth I am weary of my life Gen. 27.46 and what good shall my life do me Nay suppose ye should have brought forth to the sword Seen your little ones spitted upon Pikes Their tender limbs rent like kids by cruell hands Or pluckt from their mothers breasts and have their braines dasht against the wall Whilest the affrighted mother is halfe dead with astonishment Or to see your selves so straightned by famine as to devoure the fruit of your bodies your little Infants of a span-long Being forced against nature Parturire Deglutire to turne your tender kisses into cruell bitings and suck their bloud that sucked your breasts O tender hearted Fathers and Mothers who knoweth how far this fire which is kindâ—ed among us may burne before it be quenched Seeing it hath such combustible matter to feed upon and such bellows to blow it up All ye have hitherto seen may be only the beginning of sorrows Suppose ye should live to see women with child ript up your daughters ravished your Sons captivated slaves not knowing what destiny may befall them but most likely to live abused and dye without buriall Nay which is saddest of all have the Gospell taken from your Children Would you not much rather commit them to Christ in their Infancy and lay them up with him The Vse in the last place counselleth us to keep close unto him Use 4 the enjoyment of whom supplies every want and sweetens every Crosse The summe is if we cannot keepe our children yet let us have a care to keep our God Though you part with your own seed yet be sure you have the seed of God And this child in you will cause you at the full birth to forget all the sorrow Say to thy selfe I now see the worth of Grace and emptinesse of all things else Nay I foresee a time when nothing will stay by me but Grace Therefore if I can make nothing sure 2 Pet. 1.10 I le endeavour to make my Calling and Election sure This high piece of spirituall wisdome the good Spirit of God did dictate unto Job He could not keep his goods Oxen and Sheep Camels and Asses were gone He could not keep his Servants they were slaine He could not keepe his Children Sons and Daughters were dead But yet Job will have a care to keep his God Say to God as sometime that great wrestler Jacob Gen. 32.26 I will not let thee go He would hold his God though he lost his limbes his life We will be hold-fasts of our estates and money we will not let them go Oh that we could be so of our God It is said Sir Walter Rawley that when the Persians were defeated and fled one of the Grecian Commanders followed them to the Sea and tooke hold of one of their Galleys with his right hand which being cut off he laies hold with his left hand and being deprived of both with his teeth so
unwilling he was to let them go Dentibus Vnguibus O that we could lay hold on our God as he did on the Galley even with tooth and naile and hold him as our life This is the doctrine of wisdome Pro. 4.13 Take fast hold let him not go keep him for he is thy life Cant. 3.4 And thus the Church deales with Christ So soons as she had found him whom her fouls loved she held him and would not let him go Having now obtained her beloved she would not part with him againe upon any termes whatsoever She came by him hardly and will not part with him lightly She knows nothing in the wide Universe comparable to such a Jewell Take all only leave her this pearle of price and she hath riches enough to make her fully happy Psal 73.25 Whom have I in heaven but thee and on earth there is none that I desire in comparison of thee Christ is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Come now and let us reason together Hast thou lost thine estate Here is a full Portion Lam. 3.24 The Lord is my portion saith my soule Hast thou lost thy Goods Here is a God that may satisfie Gen. 15.1 Nim is avarus cui Deus non sufficit He is an exceeding great reward Hast thou lost or rather lent a child unto God Here 's a Christ in lieu Hast thou parted with a first-borne Here is the first-borne among many brethren Indeed Children are an Heritage but God is the goodly heritage Psa 16.5 6. So saith David The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places yea I have a goodly heritage Micha of Mount Ephraim he thought it was sufficient cause of complaint when he was deprived of his Gods Judg. 18.24 Ye have taken away my Gods saith he and what have I more I allude to it we may lose all we have in the world and yet have more but if we lose our God what have we more Many things may yea all we have in the world will one day give us a Vale and depart from us But we are never spit in the face with a woe untill God depart from us Hos 9.12 We to them when I depart from them O then get closer Communion with God Crave familiarity Beg some smiles When the Creature-comforts hoise saile and make away entreat that the loving-kindnesse of the Lord may tarry with thee A smile in Gods face is better than a world from his hand Imitate holy Job Job 1.20 when God is taking away be humbling your selves before him praying worshipping If we do but keep God our losses cannot be very considerable What is the losse of a withered Nosegay when we may smell to the flowers fresh in the stem Or the want of a Puddle when we may draw water out of the Fountaine Injoying God we have all freshly and fully 1 Sam. 1.8 God is better unto us than many Sons Waters of Marab RUTH 1. Part of the twentieth ver Call me not Naomi call me Marah for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me THe high and holy one of heaven and wise disposer of all things is a most free Agent owing unto no Creature an account of his actions Psal 135.6 Whatsoever the Lord pleased that did he in heaven and in earth and in all places This God doth all in righteousnesse and there is alwaies a most wise reason of his will though unto us his will must be a sufficient reason His actings are like unto himselfe Rom. 11.33 deepe and mysterious How unsearchabblâ— are his judgements and his waies past finding out As soone may a man wade through the Sea as passe through his bottomlesse depths Or hold all the water of it in his hand as comprehend his proceedings They are such as can neither be expressed in words nor fathomed with man's reason Higher above us than the spangled heavens and deeper below us than the Center of the earth If then it be Gods part to act his will it is surely ours to submit to that will as holy just and unerring Reverently adoring what we are unable to comprehend To this end I here present you with a pious patterne the imitable example of this holy Matron Naomi The last time I appeared in work of this nature since when a poore pittance hath passed we did instead of sweet spices pound galls I meane preach of bitter griefe And being now called upon the like occasion I know nothing more seasonable than the like Subject Suffer me therefore once more to requite my bay and sweet water with a sprig of wormewood That we may a little sit down by the Rivers Psal 137. and hang our Harpes upon the Willows Yea that our Harpe may be turned into mourning Job 30.31 and our Organ into the voice of them that weep Call me not Naomi call me Marah for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me The Chapter presents us with a Tragical story concerning the great affliction that befell a good woman in all which she was supported by God and left as a patterne of faith and patience to succeeding Ages The Series of Gods providence concerning her runs thus A Famine is sent upon the whole Land of Israel Annot. in loc occasioned as our Divines conceive and is very pregnant by those plundering and spoyling Tyrants the Midianites who wasted the Country for many yeares together Ver. 1. Whereupon Elimelech a man of Bethlehem-Judah with this Naomi his Wife and Mahlon and Chilion their two Sons are forced to flee from the mouth of this meager devourer Ver. 1 2. and seek sustenance in the Land of Moab There she had not long so journed but meets with a tart dispensation being in a manner stript at once of all her outward helps and bereft of her chiefest and choicest friends Her Husband and both her Sons dye and she poore widdow remaines in a desolate and disconsolate condition Ver. 3 5. being left to the wide world in a strange and heathenish Countrey Yet so soon as she heares God had visited his people with plenty she endeavours some mitigation of her misery by returning to her native place accompanied with the two yong widdows her daughters in Law Ver. 6 7. By the way she useth some disswasive Rhetorick as one desirous to dismisse them And whether she speake seriously out of her love towards them as loath to bring them into an afflicted condition by living with her in extreme poverty Or because she would try the truth and constancy of their affection towards her I leave to others But this is the effect Ver. 8 9 c. the one is disswaded the other is not Herein Orpah is the embleme of a temporary professour but Ruth beares the resemblance of a resolved Saint It is our duty to follow the Lambe whithersoever he
these Cockle-shells and toyes upon the sea-shore as to forget the tide which sweeps away all on a sudden Say to thy selfe I know not how soone God will bereave me of my only beloveds and take away from me the pleasure of my heart and that which is precious in mine eyes At present I have plenty and prosperity my belly is fully fed and my back warmly cloathed Now my house is richlyfurnished and my Vine and Olive branches wife and children sit round about my table But I know not how soone stripping times may come that mine eyes shall behold none of all these These things may give us the slip and salute us with an abrupt Vale when we least expect it Commonly when we thinke our selves most exempted from trials then are they at our heeles It is our wisdome to suspect our selves when our path is most pleasant I read of Nero that Tyrant who having a beautifull Lady to his Empresse would sometimes salute her with these words O goodly face and neck but when I list it shall be cut off Say to thy sweetest outward comforts O faire mercies but when God will ye must all be cut off Nay secondly Sit loose from your own selves Selfe-deniall was our Saviours Doctrine Mat. 16.24 and is the very institution of a Christian One way or other sooner or later God will try what you will do God will see if he can prevaile so far with you as to and câ—eave cling unto him when all is gone Beleeve it God will not harbour such as he knows not what to make of I speake after the manner of men None shall want their trialls Soule under colour of Religion thou maiest retaine a great deale of selfe in thee and God will put thee to it Selfe-deniall is of large extent Thinke not alwaies to carry thy course even and faire and to go on smoothly with peaceable living and formall praying and hearing God will surely take a course further than thus to try what is in thine heart The wind may blow long and loud upon the sound side of a tree and the tree make a shift to stand But when it gets into the hollow of the tree and affronts it on the rotten side then it puts it hard to it ten to one to lay it under feet O know that smooth and unblameable walking will not serve your turne there is a greater worke lies upon us to stick and stand to our tacklings when the Lord effectually tries us Now soule see and consider well what thou hast to do If it be so brought about thou canst not both hold God and thine enjoyments God and thy Children God and thy Life canst thou close with God be faithfull unto him and content with him without these Here thou art put to it indeed Mat. 16.25 Whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it And this may serve for them that are free The Use in the next place is to the afflicted Use And to them also it speakes two things The first is comfort It is said of the waters of Marah that when they were so bitter as the people could not drinke Exod. 15. upon Moses his crying unto the Lord the Lord shewed him a tree which when he had cast into the waters the waters were made sweet The Doctrine is a bough of that tree The Lord may deale very bitterly with his beloved ones And so it is Lord Joh. 11.3 behold he whom thou lovest is sicke which is also applicable to all other sufferings Lord behold he whom thou lovest is bereaved of his Children deprived of all Heb. 〈…〉 c. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth That is into his love and favour in this life and into his Kingdome in the life to come And yet the scope of that Scripture marke the place speaketh unto us lovingly as unto Children 2 Sam. 23.5 This was Davids comfort Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my hope although he make it not to grow The meaning is though my Family have not that flourishing prosperity but there are many enemies against my house and my Children mutiny amongst themselves yet all this shall not frustrate the free promises of God made unto me and grounded on the Messiah And this was his comfort and his hope in the want of outward prosperity Besides they come from a Father not an Avenger out of love not rigour and he that hath one hand upon us hath another under our heads and the one is not more stretched out to smite than the other is to consolate When by reason of sin and suffering the whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint Christ laies down himselfe as a Pillow for the soule to be refreshed upon by the application of his own righteousnesse and the consolations of the spirit And though all should be taken away yet there can be no want where there is Gods love in Christ The second thing which this Use speaketh is counsell and that in some particulars viz. If the Almighty have dealt very bitterly with any Be sensible of it Not only of the smart of the suffering but who sends it and for what end Be not like senselesse Ephraim Hos 7.9 whose strength strangers devoured but he knew it not and though gray haires were sprinkled upon him yet he knew not It is the Lord that giveth being to all things actions and motions both in the decree and in their actuall existence Amos 3.6 Malum culpae poenae Shall there be evill in a City that is not the evill of sin but of suffering and the Lord hath not done it He formeth light Isa 45.7 and createth darkenesse he maketh peace and createth evill As we see by the motion of the Celestiall bodies the aire becomes either light or darke even so by the change of Providence we meet with prosperity or adversity peace or trouble God is the ruler of the whole Universe wisely ordering it partly by his direction and partly by his correction in both which we ought to see a divine hand Job 19.21 Therefore saith Job The hand of God hath touched me And this good woman Ver. 13. The hand of the Lord is gone out against me Christians look neither to the right hand nor to the left but upward Know that afflictions spring not out of the dust Blame not chance blame not instruments blame not secondary causes The Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me The Scripture is Lex loquens and speaketh this Language My Son despise not the chastening of the Lord neither be weary of his correction Whence we learne that when trialls are laid upon us and we saile in bitter waters we must be carefull to steere