incorruptible What is Musick but an harmony or consonancy of various discordant sounds What 's health but a temper or accord of the elements and parts of the body Some write that the stone Tuces if broken though then lesse weighty sinketh but so long as it is one whole and intire then and so long it swimmeth and keeps from sinking under water and the like power hath love and unity in all other bodies Consider and know that if the Almighty Architect of the world had not breathed or infused a spirit of unity into the upper and celestiall parts with the inferiour elementary that these had soon been scorched and indeed consumed by those Again the inferiour parts ever stand in need and crave the help benefit or influence of those above them as the earth of the water the water of the aire the aire of the fire and the fiery element of the Heavens in which if one Sphere should thwart and not gently yeeld to the others influence or motion they as the inferiour world would suddenly perish and be consumed The great Creator of these and all things in and under them Genesis 1.31 gave not the high praise and title of very good unto them untill himself by his most admirable power and goodnesse Gen. 1.31 had united them by love and so made them all one I cannot but acknowledge the saying of that Philosopher to be good and wise who called this kinde of love the Soul of the world For as the soule gives life and motion unto the body so doth love unto all other things and as the soule cherisheth and enlightens the bodie so doth love beautifie and inrich the world In a word there is no creature nor part of the world either great or small but hath if not all yet the greatest part of its perfection subsistence or continuance from this love But besides this kinde of love hitherto spoken of which in unreasonable creatures may more strictly be called inclination there is a love properly so termed which hath its working in the will both of God Angels and men Parmenides though an Heathen could say That love in God preceded the Chaos or the creation of the world as causing and making both Take this love as in man and then hear another Philosopher call it the Pilot a second the Sun a third the guide and director of the will of man and of all his choice actions CHAP. II. What love is and how it is the cause of all passions THings high and immense having some resemblance to infinity hardly come under the limits of a strict definition which hath caused the ancients to set forth love by Emblemes and Hieroglyphicks Yet so that some have in generall described it by negatives as that it is a thing which is I know not what affecteth and worketh I know not in what manner and which hurteth I know not how S. Gregorie calls it the fire in mans heart which according to the working thereof either cherisheth or destroyeth the Tabernacle of its residence and it may well be conceived that when the holy Ghost descended in the figure or shew of fire Act. 2.3 that that fire signified the love and accord to be amongst the holy Apostles being assembled together in one place which is the complement and blessing of all good Assemblies when they are all of one minde and one heart in a godly innocent love The fire which came from Heaven to consume the Sacrifice God commanded ever to be continued Levit. â— 13 that so it might never be extinguished or put out Isaiah saith Isa 31.9 That God hath his fire in Sion and his furnace in Jerusalem each Symbols of Gods love burning in the temple of our souls Now Philosophy teacheth that love is a passion both of complacency and such as fasteneth the thing or person beloved in the heart of the lover and it addeth That this love is the originall cause of all other passions in man according as they please or displease suit with or are contrary to our love and desire For the soule of man hath two great powerfull faculties called by Philosophers the concupiscible and the irascible In that are love hate desire fear joy and sorrow arising from the presence or absence of something or other which is either truly or apparently good And according as the concupiscible part is affected with grief want or losse of that which is desired so more or lesse the irascible part is inflamed or incensed to the prosecution or revenge of the affronts or bereavings of the souls desire S. Basil compared this passion unto the Shepherds dog more valued by him then many of his sheep not for that the dog hath any wooll or gives any milk but because by his watchfulnesse and barking he defendeth the flock from the wolf and so the concupiscible faculty or part of the soule proposeth to it self matter of delight and content and the irascible removeth or converteth the inconveniences and difficulties which crosse or oppugne this desire And these are the two wings wherewith mans soule flyeth in the pursuit of great Acts and without which she appears as a Galley unoared and a bird unwinged each unable to move or help it self A certain Philosopher hath compared the body of a man to a Coach drawn with two horses Conceive them to be love of good and hatred of evill But considering that they are disorderly and oft-times unruly God hath assigned them a discreet guide that is reason to rule and govern them Seneca the Philosopher calleth this the Guardian and S. Augustine termeth it the Author and Mover of all our actions be they good or evill as having tied at its girdle the keyes of all our wills and affections Betwixt love and concupiscence some put this difference 1. That concupiscense aimeth at a supposed good that is absent but love both at the absent and present 2. Concupiscence after the having and enjoying the thing desired as being satisfied groweth cold or ceaseth for the present to desire whereas love by possessing and injoying increaseth and is more ardent towards the thing beloved For the possession or enjoyment of the thing beloved serveth as fuell to continue and increase the flame or fire whereas things desired by a concupiscence being injoyed die and are often resolved into the smoak of disgrace or the ashes of hate CHAP. III. The power and force of Love SOlomon saith Love is strong as death But if we examine the strength of each we shall finde love to be the stronger â—antic â— 6 T is true that all earthly things submit to the power of death the young as the old the King as the Peasant the rich as the poor the wise as the fool Scepters and spades are both alike to death All know this truth would we did but half so well consider and prepare for it And as the jurisdiction of death so is that of love universall None ever escaped the
himself under the Law and the Gospell Deut. â— 5 Thou love him with all thy heart and with all thy soule with all the strength and faculties thereof For as a great Prince coming to an Inne takes up all the rooms in the house not holding it to stand with his state to have any stranger a sharer with him so is it and much more with God And that again because as S. John saith 1 John 3.20 God is greater then thy heart so that all is too little for him though he hath all And if he will not endure that one Temple shall receive both his Ark and the Idoll Dagon will he be content 1 Sam. 5 in his bed-chamber which is mans heart to endure his enemies the World the flesh and the Devill to have their abode or to lodge there No one saith Christ cannot serve two Masters I am sure not two such that are so contrary and opposite as God is to the Devill the World and the Flesh neither saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 6.14 can light dwell with darknesse nor Christ with Belial The Prophet Elijah saith unto the people 1 Kings 18.21 How long halt ye between two opinions if the Lord be God serve him but if Baal then follow him God will not cannot endure any corrivall much lesse any bedfellow with him in the heart of man Moses tells Pharaoh Exod. â—â— that God will not suffer him to leave so much as an hoof behinde in Egypt when he goes to sacrifice to God for the least possession is a kinde of engagement against God The world or the Devill like the counterfeit mother cries divide it let me have a part t is no matter which living or dead so God hath not all to himselt alone whereas the true mother of the living child â— Kin. 3. will admit of no division but she will have all or none and such is Gods desire for if the heart be divided as Hâ—sea speaks of Israel â—os 10. it is as the childe divided which cannot live to the true Parent But O man consider how reasonable and just God is in requiring thy whole soule and how unjust and unreasonable thou art in denying it him entire or dividing it in parts betwixt him and his enemies Consider I say when he created the goodly universe of this world and so gloriously adorned and furnished it not onely with the fruitfull plants and fragrant flowers but with those bright Lamps in Heaven that he made all this and gave it entire to thee alone making thee the sole Lord thereof in respect of any other creatures over all which also he gave thee temporall power and dominion and as though in this he had shewed but half or indeed but the least part of his love consider that God himself gave himself wholly to thee was incarnate suffered died rose and all onely for thee and not for any other And is not this argument sufficient that the least thou canst return in gratitude should be thy heart entire not to be cut into parcels or shreds some whereof to be given to the giver of all and the rest to his and thine own enemies But some perchance may say though this is just and reasonable which is required yet it is most difficult for man clothed with flesh to performe this duty so strictly commanded to love God with all the affections and thoughts of the soul and these ever to be fixed on him and nothing else neither on parents friends or things of this life In answer hereunto I must tell you that God knoweth what we are and whereof we are made and therefore in this strict command or absolute request of all our love he prohibits us neither to love parents children friends no nor the things of this world so we love them with these two rules or cautions 1. That we love neither friends nor things on earth with such a degree of affection as may alienate or divide our fouls from God And therefore God himself hath not onely commanded us to love our neighbours all our neighbours of what rank or distance soever so they be men and to seek in the second place things necessary for the life and well being of our selves and those who depend on us and for whom we are to provide but hath figured the fame in proportioning our heart which though it hath a large and broad superficies upward to look and dilate it self to Heaven yet it hath but a cone or small point downwards to the things beneath The second caution in our love to any thing besides God is that whatever we thus love it must virtually tend and move to the service and glory of God And in this our love resembles the point of the needle in the Sea-mans Card or the Geometricians paire of compasses the former of which though it be ever moving and as it were casting about to severall parts yet it still returns and reteins its whole setled course to the true pole star and the latter though the one foot of the Compasse circuit and surround the circumference or globe of the earth yet the other stands ever firm and constant to the point which point here as that star before in this our application is God So that God who without any shew of covetousnesse in himself or wrong to thee might require all thy substance all thy actions and all thy time wholly to be dedicated and spent on his immediate holy service yet grants rhee the fruits of thy honest labour thy wealth and bids thee give his poore onely th t which thou mayest well spare and of the fruits of thy increase he takes onely a tenth and from thy worldly travails onely a seventh part and that Love which he wholly and entirely calls for is the affection and love of thy heart Shall I summe up all There is none so ungodly in this world but assents to this generall doctrine that God is to be so loved as he requires but all the question and difference lies in the performance and manner of loving for the most wicked in some sort may be said to love God But how and why for it is but with a carnall or worldly minde and to their own end and behoof as by him to enjoy life health wealth pleasure and delight and so they love God for these things that if he would confirm his letters patents unto them that these they might perpetually enjoy they would readily release unto him all the grant and interest made to them in Heaven On the other side the true lovers of God so love the world as that thereby and therewith they may the better serve him and promote his glory without which they desire neither the things of the world nor long to continue in it They love these things so as a man doth his horse his cloak or garment the one to carry him through his journey to his Inne and the other to keep him warm and
Tabor did but typically prefigure the glory of his passion so that here not there the standers by and since that the Christian world proclaimed him Mat. 27.54 what before was believed but by few that he was truly the Son of God Men on earth study to blazon their coats with Dogs Hogs Cats and the like and by these means think to traduce their names as famous to posterity though themselves never in their lives did an act worthy of a Dogs-taile whereas our most blessed Lord Christ who acted all things worthy the Son of the most high God and all for the good of mankind had no other coat-armour but the Crosse which his love procured and wrought and hath thereby made him justly to be adored and worshipped as the God of the whole world CHAP. VII Love transformeth the Lover into the thing beloved NOT onely some choice Philosophers but learned Fathers of our Church have deemed and called a friend a second self the half of the soule or the same And among them one saith he that loveth intirely is dead as to his own body and liveth in that body which he loveth for that love carrieth with it if not the whole substance yet the principall vigorous acting faculties of the soule This position in some sense is made good in the divine Lover by that of S. Paul when he saith Your life is hid Col. 3 3â— with Christ in God where love to God hath mortified the Lover as to the body and to the world and makes him live by and in Christ for truly the soule cannot be thought or said to live but where it appears to move or work Hereupon some wittily have pronounced that the beloved is become an homicide and guilty of murder if he return not love for love but robs the Lover of his soul not returning his again to the Lover And some Philosophers have conceived that the soul of a dead friend by a strange transmigration hath been secretly conveighed into the body of a friend living and there kept alive and operating and all this to be effected and brought to passe by the spirituall power of love S. Augustine comes somewhat neer to these conceits when he saith My love is as the weight in a clock or the magnetick virtue in the load-stone for whithersoever I am moved or caried that it is which carieth or moveth me and my soule Every one therefore it strongly behoveth seriously to consider before he setleth upon what he intends to set his love for if on earth he becomes earthly if flesh fleshly if heaven heavenly which agreeth well with those terms given in holy Scriptures to severall kinds of affectionate lovers Our most blessed Saviour prayeth for us that we may be in him and be one with him Joh. 17.21 as Christ is in and with his Father which holy residence and blessed union must be next to Gods goodnesse the work of love S. Paul saith of himself that he is crucified with Christ Gal. 2.20 neverthelesse saith he I live and yet he adds it is not I that live but Christ liveth in me if you ask him how this can be he tells you in the words following the life which I now live I live by faith this is the instrumentall mean if you enquire into the cause of this life it is there mentioned when he saith by the son of God who loved me and gave himself and all his merits and benefits to work for and in me Our carnall and prophane loose lovers usually court their mistresses with these and the like unhallowed speeches You are my life my heart my soul which oft-times is more true then godly Divinely spoke King David O that we would imitate him God is my light and salvation Plato said that a friend is like a good looking-glasse in and by which the other friend may see himself and be seen by others for so it was in Jonathan and David that who saw the one discerned the other Or you shall find two friends united by true love to be like the mother and the child where if the child smile or weep the mother doeth the like and as the Chamelcon appeareth to be of that colour with the thing to which it is joyned so is it with good and true lovers who like Hippocrates twins looked laughed cried each as the other and were of like colour condition and passion each as other so that the union of friends made by sincere love is well compared and presented by inoculating a bud into another stock whereby it is made one with it Now in man there be three unions and each of them caused or bottomed on love the first is that of the soule and body matched together by a naturall love The second is the union of soules whether as among ordinary friends or as among Christs disciples Act. 2.1 who were of one heart and mind endevouring to keep the unity of the spirit as S. Paul speaks in the bond of peace Eph. 4.3 the former of these is wrought by a naturall the other by a spirituall love The third union is that which is betwixt God and mans soule when as S. John saith God is in the righteous 1 Joh. 4.16 and they in him and the efficient cause of this union is Divine love Which union as of all other and above all things in this world it is to be most desired estemed and preserved so is the separation or divorce the most to be feared grieved for and most carefully to be prevented for as by that blessed union we are made partakers of all the best things that earth or heaven can afford so by that separation we not only lose all the blessings by that union acquired but we purchase to our selves all the miscries vexations and torments that hell the Devils and our owne conscience can afflict us with the cutting off a finger from the hand is painfull of the hand from the arm painfull and damagefull and of the head from the body painfull grievous and deadly but the dividing or divorcing the soule of man from God the life of the soule is a pain grief and losse not to be expressed no nor to be imagined fully no not by them that suffer and feel it Of all separations and divorces O my soule be fearfull and carefull to avoid this and O thou the God of my soule be gracious and mercifull unto me that through blindnesse of understanding or hardnesse of heart I never incurre the dreadfull sentence of such a divorce or separation CHAP. VIII Vehement love causeth extasies making the Lover besides or to rob himself of himself LOve saith the Wise man is strong as death and in this comes neer to death Cant. 5.6 in that it makes the Lover oft-times not to see what he fixeth his eye on not to answer what he hears or what he is demanded and indeed oft-times to put him into such trances as that he seems
no God or with the Epicure he regardeth not our works below but that we may for all him eat and drink and die These and such like are the great causes of all our sinnes S. Paul professedly hath exprest so much when he saith The Gentiles have given themselves over unto all lasciviousnesse Ephes 4.19 to worke all uncleannesse with greedinesse Whereof the cause is exprest in the verse before when he saith this they did having their understandings darkened through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindnesse of their hearts And the Prophet Hosea saith there is no knowledge of God in the land Hos 4. â— and what then follows but ver 2. swearing lying killing stealing adultery so that blood toucheth blood I may adde another cause or the ingenderer of love which is likeness Like will to like is seen among the beasts among whom sheep flock not with woolves nor will Harts heard with Lions And the like to this in man some Philosophers have attributed it to the complexion in men among whom we finde the company gesture voice and looks of some to be displeasing and distastfull to others for which the person disaffecting at first happily can give no sufficient reason Others and more neerly to reason and truth have given the cause of this love betwixt men to be the likenesse of their qualities and dispositions as the sinner hateth the righteous whatever the alliance is as it was seen in Cain to Abel Ismael to Isaac Esau to Jacob so on the other side the good just and wise love each other S. Paul hath determined this piece when he saith Be ye not unequally yoaked for what fellowship hath righteousnesse with unrighteousnesse 2 Cor. 6.14 and what communion hath light with darknesse and what concord hath Christ with Belial The Pythagorean and Platonique Philosophers were of opinion that the soules of men had a kinde of harmonious concent each to other so that as in musick one string being struck another will quaver and offer to give the like sound though not touched so say they and not improbably fareth it with the souls of many men S. Ambrose giveth another cause or parent of love which is conversation when as he tells us that to this end God walked with man in Paradise and that it is said of Enoch that he walked with God and though God had given Adam all the goods of the aire earth and water yet with none of these or any or all of the Beasts took he any delight but onely in that consort which God gave him as a companion to his body and solace to his soule and to her he cleaves and so of two they are made but one by a loving converse and agreement If any aske how this comes to passe that likenesse and conversation should thus beget continue and increase love the reason is easie and plain for seeing every man naturally loves himself and the rather because he is ever conversant with himself therefore it must needs follow that whatever is neerest to or most like him that he most neerly loveth and most desireth Can any give any other reason why man or woman delights to see their face in a glasse but because it represents them and makes them as it were to see and know themselves by this representative whereby the imagination apprehends it self CHAP. XI Love is onely conquered and repayed with Love LOve that is the inward affection of the heart is the soul as it were of the soul of man yea of the whole world for by it the world continueth and without it it could not stand as was shewed before We thank not the water nor the aire nor any inanimate or animate thing for doing us good it this good proceed from a naturall disposition in themselves without an affection of doing good to us For this latter is it which truly is called love and he that thinks ro requite this with gold or other gifts of price returns scarce drosse for gold Our Saviour and his Apostles have summed up all the Law in this kinde of Love and after all their precepts and counsels call for this love as the fulfilling of all For he that hath this cannot but believe and endeavour to work according to what is required or desired by Christ and his Apostles Our blessed Saviour promiseth heaven to him that gives but a cup of cold water in his Name Mat. 10 4â— and for his sake and can any imagine that heaven is of so mean a value or water so much worth as that heaven should be given for a cup of water no not the cup of water nor all the waters under heaven can be valued with heaven but the cordiall love and affection of the heart this is that God esteems and therefore calls to every one for it when he saith My Son take all earth heaven and all as my gift and for all onely give me but thy heart Prov. 23. â— It was not Abels sacrifice nor the widows mite cast into the Treasury that God so highly prized and commended but the love of the sacrificer and giver which he esteemed more than all the worlds good For all these are his The earth is the Lords Ps â—4 1 and the fulnesse thereof And when we have these or any part thereof we receive and hold them as his gift and for all he onely requires our love which onely is ours to give If you tell me Prov. 21. â— the heart of Kings and so of all men is in the hand of the Lord he turneth it whither soever he will And that without God 2 Cor. 3.5 we cannot so much as think a good thought and therefore not love I answer that though all things in man are of him through him Rom. 11.36 and to him as the Apostle speaks yet of all things in man mans will is most his own and this so lest by God to man that for it when it freely loves God it may return him in recompence as it were his love again The free present of a paire of pigeons with man is more esteemed than the return of 100 l. which was lent and the borrower bound to repay God often expresseth his regard to the love of his servants when he asks them Am I delighted with the sacrifices of goats and bullocks Ps 50.9 and who requires these things at your hands Isa 1.12 and by his Prophet Jeremiah I spake not to your fathers Jer. 7.22 nor commanded them when I brought them out of the Land of Egypt concerning sacrifices to be satisfied or served therewith Save onely by these as outward testimonies of your inward affections which indeed as to me are the onely sacrifice and service And from hence iris that God and man repay love with love For love hath an Adamantine power that is able to draw the hardest heart of iron unto it self by a mutuall love For the very apprehension of
which will and desire each studieth the others good as earnestly and affectionately as his own yea and so far oft-times than he preferreth the outward good of his friend before his own And that such friendship hath been found they tell us of Pylades and Orestes Damon and Pythias Theseus and Pirithous who took upon them to be the persons of their friends imprisoned and in danger of life thereby to hazard their own liberties and lives for the freedome and preservation of their friends To the setling and confirming of this friendship I shall lay down some conditions as necessarily requisite First that there be a kinde of equality betwixt friends which though the learned Roman Tully allows not yet with some Grecians it passed as a Proverb that Amity is Equality which is to be understood not so much in the outward estate and place of wealth honour and office as in the condescension and submission of the reason and will of the one to the other with a due observation to the place and dignity of the other And so Jonathan though the eldest Son of King Saul became a friend to David a shepherd for saith the Text the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David 1. Sam. 1â— and Jonathan loved him as his own soul and in this respect may a King be a friend to his Subject for Christ himself thus calleth his disciples and true followers friends Joh. 15. â—4 15. who although he never did nor could devest himself of the glorious Deity yet to the making good his friendship he became in all things as man sin onely excepted yea as he called these his friends Servants in the Text before so that he might prove himself the more their friend he not onely was found in fashion as a man and as they to be a man of no reputation but more he took upon him the form of a servant â—hil 2. and accordingly shewed it before his passion when he humbled himself to the washing his Apostles feet A second condition requisite to this confirmation of friendship is a community of all communicable goods Plato the great Philosopher held this so necessary not only for friendship betwixt private men but for the general peace in a State that he banished from his Common-wealth this thing called Mine and Thine as the onely bane both of friendship and publick peace which opinion some wise men have approved with this small distinction of possession and use So that though the one friend according to the Law be the Lord and Proprietary of his Lands and Moneys yet the use and benefit thereof in case of necessity or conveniency shall be enlarged to his friend And surely as the Apostle speaks if we have Christ with him we have all things for all things are his so he that hath the soul and the heart of a friend with and by these he cannot but command for his necessary use his temporal goods which as before he that shall deny in so doing he denies himself to be a friend And this condition hath a great part of its ground from this That betwixt friends there must be as before I spake of Jonathan to David but one soul or the soul of the one so knit to tho other that each loveth the other as it were with the same soul This love is exprest to be betwixt the bridegroom and the bride Christ and his Church where she saith My beloved is mine Cant. 2.16 and I am his where first he is made hers by the love of his soul and then I am my well-beloved c. 6.3 and my beloved is mine she first returns her soul and love to him and confirms his to her self and when love hath thus united their souls all the affections and actions of the soul to say will and do the same thing will follow It is storied of two twins That when the one laughed or cried or the like the other did the same and so it should be betwixt friends and such friendship or love is commended unto us in holy Writ not onely by the example of Christs disciples who were said to be of the same minde Acts 2. 4. Rom. 12.15 but by their precept to us as when it is said Rejoyce with them that do rejoyce and weep with them that weep and then in the next words which causeth this mutual compassion Be of the same minde one towards another And not onely have we this precept but Christ hath prayed that we be enabled to the performance hereof when he speaks to his Father Holy Father Joh. 17.11 keep those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we are one and thus the heart of friends being made one in an honest holy love the one shall not will nor ever bear the sway but they will in some things so submit to the judgement and will of the other that neither shall seem to over-rule the other but at the most they shall seem to rule by turns And love being thus preserved by the unity of an holy soul the fourth condition must take its place That friends must will and desire nothing but that which is just and honest Just betwixt man and man and from man to God and honest that is of good report I have read of one Pericles who being desired by his friend to speak in his cause more then was truth he answered True I am your friend but no further then to the Altar which afterwards become a Proverb among the Grecians and had this sense that when they spake as Witnesses they laid their hands on the Altar which no friend should dare do no not for his friend in a matter of untruth 'T is true that many held this too strict in friendship when they say So much you will do for every man and will you do no more or have you not a case for a friend To which I must briefly say He deserves not to be accounted a friend who of a friend requires more then what is honest and just And from hence ariseth another condition in friendship That the acts and desires of a friend must not solely tend to his own interest and behoof for this is not just but equally or by turns mutually to the good and benefit of each other A picture well drawn looks from its self casting his eyes and countenance and as it were with them following the beholder which way foever he turns and a friend being the image or picture of his friend should in all good desires wishes and actions shew himself like this picture for otherwise he that loves another for himself loves himself and not the other for the end of his love looks inward to himself and not outward to him whom he professeth to love To the better cherishing friendship this sixth condition is somewhat requisite That there should be as much and as often as well may be a mutual interview and conference between friends The
being beloved directs the soul without any force to a return of a love reciprocall And as love mollifies the heart of the beloved drawing from it a return of love so this return of love gives ample satisfaction and reward as it were for that love that was bestowed And so the Spouse in the Canticles Can. 1.2 for her love to her beloved desires some kisses as testimonies for the assurance of his love to her again And neither the first nor the second neither an inviting nor the return'd love are purchased wonne or procured by gifts greatnesse or power These have no force on a generous heart to cause love which is onely begotten by it self through love and this may be well called the mysterie of love that the same thing and nothing else should beget it self And this love being of so rare an extraction so amiable and so much to be desired we shall finde God of all things desiring it and in comparison of it nothing else but our love and therefore useth it as a conjuration to the effecting his will and commands as when he saith John 21.16 If ye love me keep my commandments to Peter thee times as it were in a breath lovest thou lovest thou lovest thou me Peter and then follows three times Peter feed feed feed For this thou canst not chuse but do and keep my 〈…〉 Love as we say breaks through stone walls intimating that nothing is hard to a loving heart but that this tender love as is said of the milke of the Goat is able to mollifie and soften the hardest Adamant God willing to draw man to himself first used his power shewed in the great deluge of the world after that he used his goodnesse bringing his people out of Egypt into a goodly and plentifull Land but when neither power nor goodnesse prevailed he takes the ready course if any could prevail to shew his love unto them in sending his onely Son into the world there to suffer so ignominious a death for them And if this did not he never meant to use other means to draw them to him For if love such love could not then nothing in heaven earth or hell can work or move their conversion Charit as Christi urget nos saith S. Paul 2 Cor. 3 14. the love of Christ this this or nothing doth or can with a sweet delightfull force as it were constrain us Christ sheweth this in the parable of the Creditor and Debtor concluding that to whom most was forgiven that he should and must love most For love freely shewed to the well beloved may be resembled to the depositing or trusting a great Treasure in a friends chest or Cabinet which friend if he return it not when desired deserves the note and estimation not of ungratefull alone but of a false and most wicked man and no friend CHAP. XII The Love of God is not to be parallel'd THe essence or being of God is pure and simple and the infinity of his attributes and perfections are single so that his omnipotency is his mercy his mercy is his justice his justice his goodnesse his goodnesse his love neither is there in these any distinction reall or formall onely mans apprehension conceiteth a variety in this simple unity Now the love of God differeth from the love of man as in many other things so in this that mans love oft times wants power to effect what it loves and desires whereas Gods love is both operative and effective it both works and accomplisheth whatever it will so that to love with God is the same thing as to do us good And this is so large as to do that beyond which nothing more can be done Isaiah expresseth this in Gods person saying Isa â— 4 What could have been done more that I have not done so that if we would enter into and consider all the works of Gods love in creating redeeming sanctifying and glorifying man how can they be fathomed mans soule cannot apprehend it in the least degree To help mans weakensse in this and by shadows as it were to make some appearance of this love Isa 49.15 the Prophet Isaiah tells us of the love of a mother to her childe when he asks the question Can a mother forget her sucking childe that she should not have compassion on the sonne of her wombe Which can she is as much as she cannot but saith God If she could yet such is my love to man that I will not I cannot my love is my self and therefore I may be said as well to forget my self as to forget or deny my love to mine own Image man The Prophet Isaiah seems to go a little farther by a similitude to set forth Gods love when he compares it to the love of a Bridegroome 〈◊〉 62.5 married to a Virgin in whom he is delighted and rejoyceth saith the text where it addeth and so shall thy God rejoyce over thee Nay the Prophet Jeremiah goes farther yet saying If a man put away his wife for her lewdnesse and adultery shall he return unto her again â—eâ— 3.1 But thou Judah lift up thine eyes unto the high places and see where thou hast not been lien with in the waies thou hast sate for them and thou hast polluted the Land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickednesse and yet heare the husband of this wife which is God notwithstanding all this crying out and proclaiming thou hast played the harlot with many lovers yet returne againe to me saith the Lord. Tell me now whether a greater love can be exprest than this in God As the love of God is infinite so might I be in the prosecution of this argument but I contract my self and wish you to remember that as God in holy Writ is parabolically called King Father Husband Physician Shepherd Head of his Church so under all these and many other names and notions his love is manifest unto us for as the head he governs as the Shepherd he leads us to good pastures and defends us from destroying beasts as the Physician he cures and heals our infirmities and soares as an husband he imbraceth and delighteth in and rejoyceth over us as a Father he nourisheth and provideth for us and as a King he not onely protects us from oppression and danger but gives us honours yea makes us heires with his onely begotten Son Christ Jesus to reigne with him in his heavenly Kingdom for ever And is there any love that can be compared to this All that I will adde for close is this love requires love And O my soule though thou wilt not love this thy Father this thy King first yet when he hath so super abounded in his love to thee too flinty hearted I must needs say thou art if thou shalt refuse to return all the love thy heart can affoord or conceive to him again for that infinite and endlesse love which he hath bestowed on thee Chap. XIII By the
Texts may be understood these or such Angels as God had especially appointed as helps for them and yet not that thence it should necessarily and generally follow that every man hath and is to have his particular Angel But in this I will not be peremptory but submit my opinion to the judgment of the better learned and so from the love of God and Angels I will follow mine Author to speak of the love of man to man CHAP. XXI Of the love which man oweth to his neighbour WHen the Pharisee demanded of our Saviour Christ which was the great commandement in the law Jesus said unto him Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart Mat. 22.36 c. This is the first and great commandement and the second is like unto it Thou s halt love thy neighbour as thy self on these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets whence it appeareth that the love of our Neighbour is next unto and a declaration of that former of our love to God And that it is so farre necessary that when the Pharisee only asked which was the great commandement Christ not only answered him directly to that but thought it requisite to adde what the hypocriticall Pharisee least cared for to know or practise namely what God had commanded touching his neighbour yea and S. Chrysostome addes that in some respects preachers have more cause to inforce this doctrine of love to our neighbour then that of our love to God for that all things which we see feel have and enjoy prompt and move us to this whereas there are many and severall occasions daily offered through our words bargains transactions and private interest to divert or lessen our love to our neighbour and therefore I shall set you down some reasons moving to and confirming the necessity of this duty And the first shall be that our Saviour Christ gave us this commandement which indeed is in the nature of an inestimable legacy even then when he was to depart this life and to leave the world and we usually say and hold it true that the charge or gift of a dying friend sticks and works most in the heart of the friend living and therefore Christ at the last point as it were before his passion speaks unto his disciples and in them unto us saying My time is short and I finde death approaching Joh. 13.34 before which I have one especiall remembrance to give you that you love one another and that in no ordinary way or according to the course of this world but so to love one another even as I have loved you who conversed with you kindly communicated all to you friendly and have truly laid down my life for you Therefore my last Will and Legacy to you is that as I have loved you that even so yee love one another And to strengthen yea to sweeten this gift of command Christ in the words following gives a good reason for saith he by this kind of love among you as by a cognizance or badge all men shall know that yee are my disciples and I this will prove if not in the eyes and estimation of the world yet I am sure in the hearts of all good men in the esteem of Saints and Angels and in the eyes of my heavenly Father a peece of great honour unto you to be know through your mutuall love to be my disciples The brethren of Joseph fearing that he might call to minde and revenge the injuries done unto him by his brethren Gen. 50.16 they sent a messenger unto Joseph who said unto him Thy Father did command before he dyed forgive I pray thee now the trespasse of thy brethren and their sinne which words of his dying Father when Joseph heard he wept faith the text and spake kindly unto them and not only exprest his love by words and tears but he comfortted and nourished them and their little ones and the like love with Joseph if we have any bowels toward so dear a friend our Lord and Master as Christ was we will shew for his sake who dying commanded us so to love one another as he loved us who gave his life for us And yet lest as Christ foresaw and foretold that in the last days as iniquity should increase so charity would wax cold and thereby both our love to such a dead friend and for his sake to our neighbour would grow faint and dye he therefore gives us a second reason to love our neighbours which with man may happily work more then the former because it contains in it the unspeakable benefit and reward acquired by this love to our neighbour and this benefit is no lesse then the kingdome of heaven with the full fruition of all the unutterable and unconceivable joyes with Christ for ever All which are evidently and expresly promised and annexed to this love for when God in the Law and our Saviour in the Gospel have pronounced life and the kingdome of heaven to those that keep and fulfill the law and their commands the Apostle as the Embassadour of God hath plainly pronounced and proclaimed that love is the fulfilling of all this law Rom. 13.10 indeed our Saviour himself spake no lesse and from it this our Apostle might take his Commission when he said Mat. 22.40 on love depends all the Law and the Prophets Neither doeth the reward of our love to our neighbour terminate and end in this great blessing declared but it works before it comes to that and produceth singular and infinite blessings therefore our Saviour before he commends the keeping of this commandement of love to his disciples Joh. 14.14 he prefaceth what ever yee shall aske of God in my name that will I doe then in the next words he subjoyneth as the means to obtain this wonderfull grant and blessing saying v. 15. this is to be performed if yee love me and keep my commandements that is to love one another And yet as though this were not the halfe of that blessed reward which Christ annexeth to this love he goes on saying it you love v. 16. I will give you the Comforter who may abide with you forever even the spirit of truth intimating hereby and that plainly that as by love we receive the comfort of the holy Spirit and truth so without it neither truth nor comfort will or can dwell or abide with us And which is a third reason to incite and stirre us to this love nature it selfe infuseth this love into the heart of man which in this sympathiseth with the sensitive creatures that all so love and agree together according to their severall kindes that they not only fall not out among themselves to hurt each other but feed nourish flock and herd together helping and defending each other against the assaults and hurts of other enemies to their kind And this reason of love drawn from common reason is and
Leviticall Law we read that God finding the Jews to be hard hearted and merciless to incline them to better and more loving dispositions he gave them severall Laws wherein he forbids them to eate bloud and to boyle the kid in the milke of the damme and injoyns them to leave the gleanings after harvest for the poor and some grapes for the passenger and that every seventh year the land should have rest and the benefit thereof to accrew unto the poor And although Christ was a zealous and strict observer of the Sabbath as consecrated to Gods service Mat. 12.27 yet for the necessary reliefe of man he is content to dispense with some part of that days service and therefore concludes that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath And according to this law of God and Christ Moses under the law and S. Paul under the Gospel were so zealous in their loves to their brethren that the former desires to be blotted out of Gods book rather then his countreymen should be destroyed Exod. 32 and the latter rather then his brethren in the flesh should not be saved he could wish himself to be separated from Christ Rom. 9. or excommunicated from the Church Some ancient Fathers are of opinion that when Elijah laboured to draw the Israelites from their Idolatry to God 1 King 17.6 and that himselfe was there involved and driven near to famme that God sent Ravens a kind of bird which leaves her young featherlesse and meatlesse to feed him that thereby he might mollifie the heart of the Prophet to be more tender to his countrey-men and by his prayer to obtain rain and the fruits of the earth for them And without conjectures the text is plain that the widow of Zarephah her compassionate love in feeding the Prophet out of her small remainder of her little meal and oyle is recompensed with such an increase 1 King 17.16 that neither her oyle nor her meal failed so long as the famine continued So true is that of our Saviour Be mercifull as your heavenly Father is mercifull and Give Luke 6.37 38. and it shall be given unto you good measure as to the widow last mentioned pressed down shaken together and running over for with the same measure that you mete with all it shall be measured to you again A sixt reason for this law of love is drawn from the end of all good laws which are made that we may live in security enjoy our peace which is accomplished principally by this love to our neighbour The old law given to the Jews by which they conceived that they might hate and kill their enemies Gal. 5.1 S. Paul calls servitude or bondage but the law of grace which commands love to all he terms liberty because as by that law slavery so by this liberty is acquired to every state Again S. Paul building upon the same foundation raiseth his work by bowels of mercies Gol. 3.12 kindnesse humblenesse of mind forbearing one another if any man have a quarrell against any even as Christ also forgave you even so doe ye and above all these things put on Charity which as it is the foundation of all so it is the bond of all perfection S. Jerome writes of S. John that being through age grown so weak that he was carried by his disciples to the Church he ever and anon repeated this saying of our Saviour Love one another and being asked by them why so often he commemorated this text rather then any other he answered that in this they should fulfill the whole law insomuch as none could love God unlesse he loved his neighbour In which others agree saying that the love of God is the center of all our true love on which the heart as on a point of the Compasse being set the other point moves about the whole circumference of the world and indeed he that carefully observeth the tenor of the Epistles of that beloved and loving disciple S. John he shall finde this often insisted upon that the love of God and of our neighbour are so inseparable that he that doth the one cannot but doe the other for that the love of God necessarily produceth the love of our neighbour And therefore when our Saviour before his departure out of the world would set a mark of distinction whereby his disciples should be known from all others the note or mark was not preaching or prophecying for happily Judas Hymeneus Philetus Diotrephes or others might say as those of whom Christ speaks Lord Lord have not we prophecied in thy name Mat. 7.21 22 23 nor was the note of distinction the working miracles or casting out devills for Simon Magus and others in Christs name did the like and of those and such like Christ saith I take you not for my disciples Depart hence I know you not Joh. 13.35 for my mark is love and by this men shall know that ye are my disciples and such as for whom I have prepared a place in my kingdome CHAP. XXII The manner how we are to love our neighbour THe Scripture hath given us three rules by which we are taught how to love our neighbour The first is that of our Saviour Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Mat. 22.33 the second is that which Christ likewise prescribes as I have loved you Joh. 13.34.1 Cor. 12 12. so shall ye love one the other the third is that of S. Paul comparing the members of Christs mysticall body to the parts of mans body naturall The loving our neighbour as our selfe is to be understood first as desiring the same graces spirituall and eternall to thy brother as to thy selfe secondly wishing in all things else the like to be done to thy neighbour as thou wishest to be done to thy self And against this first rule of love we find in the world two offenders the one in the excesse the other in the defect and among the former besides some others whom I might touch I may not amisse place some preachers in our times who as some Physitians through covet of gain or other respects so much intend the cure of others that they neglect the health of their own bodies so these by their preaching raise others and lye still themselves in their own sins of whom and such like I may use S. Pauls words Thou art inexcusable O man Rom. 2.1.21 for thou that teachest another teachest thou not thy self ' and likewise wise that of our Saviour Physitian thou that professest to cure others heal thy self The Defective Lover hath one scale wherein to weigh himself and another for his Neighbour which Moses tells us is an abomination before God yet too many such there are Deut. 25. who looking into their neighbors vertues or miseries they see them with diminishing-glasses whereby they seem little or not considerable the first as not to be commended and the latter as not
that all things considered as premised I would not wish the man to marry that woman that is confident of her wit beauty or birth nor the woman to match with him that presumes on his wisdome honour or power for where these are overvalued in either man or woman each is apt to undervalue the other to contempt or discontent In a word the durable contractor in marriage is the harmonious consent of soul manners and love and this will make and continue the mariage happy always provided that as in purchasing land or lending your money you look well to get good security and the best is the honesty of the person with whom we deal and good sureties that will see all performed as it is agreed Now the first part of this security in marriage is the grace and virtue of the espoused man or woman of which the wise Salomon speaks Prov. 18.22 He that findeth a good wise findeth a good thing which good thing is her inward goodness and this as in the words following is the favour of the Lord. And of all the virtues in a woman most to be desired Prov. 19.14 prudence and discretion are the chief for this will keepe her chast and modest this will teach her reverence to her husband and to give every one their due both within and without dores And this prudence saith the wise man here is the gift of the Lord. therefore let the wise sell all as the Merchant in the Gospel to purchase this pearle For without this jewell wealth beauty and such like are as I before cited but as a ring of gold in a Swines snout The other part of the security for a good wife or husband rests on the Surety and this is he that is the only best match-maker God the Lord. Therefore be sure before and at the consummating the mariage to invite and get Christ as he was at Cana to the wedding and then be as sure that if all the vessels be filled up to the brimme with water which in Scripture signifies afflictiton and sorrow yet this guest Christ will miraculously turn them all into wine that makes the heart merry which is consolation Which great change is instrumentally wrought by that great Mystery Ephes 5. v. 31. as S. Paul calls it where the conjunction is such that t is said the man shall be joyned the Greek is as much as he shall be glewed to her so that they two shall be as it were made into or be but one flesh and this is a great mystery or secret that as Christ and his Church so man and his wife shall of two be made one The Philosophers went further in their expressions when they said man and wife are not only one flesh 1 Cor. 7.4 so that each hath power over the others body but that they are but as one soul and but one fortune common to them both one fortune in good and bad insomuch that the Civill law holds that if the husband prove bankrupt and be cast into prison the wife may be sold if she be worth it to pay and release her husband and as it was in the primitive Christian Church Acts â— so here especially between husband and wife all things are to be common and this is partly signified on the mans part who is the chief proprietor when in our leiturgie the husband tells her with all my worldly goods I thee endow where we must note that although the Apostle and our Church speake it only of the man that he shall be so joyned to the woman and he shall endow her with all yet this is as truly and more necessarily intended to be true of the woman who is as it were a subject to her Lord her husband But expresly charged on the husband to take away all scruple from Jew and Gentile who gave themselves a greater liberty and indulgence herein then Christ doth But yet the greatest spirituall mystery in this mariage is that between the man and his wife who shall be but one soul that is though two in substance to animate two bodies yet but one in affection and desire or but one to desire and dislike to will and to nill the same things so that what the Holy Ghost spoke and made good of the Apostles Acts. 2. Râ—m 12. v. 10.15 16. that they were of one minde and what the Apostle commands Christians to be kindly affectionate one to the other in love and to rejoyce and weepe together and to be of one minde each to other this and more if more can be is here required in this conjunction and mutuall love betwixt man and wife and this completes the great mystery spoken of S. Paul in marriage which mystery though it held good and true from the beginning of the creation in the law and gospel and so is to continue as long as there shall be man and wife on earth yet as at the beginning that Envious one so he is called in the Gospel the Devil seduced our firsts parents so soon after the Sun-shine of the Gospel and to this day afresh he works both on man and wife infusing into them foul and dangerous doctrines which S. Paul therefore called doctrines of Devils For in the Apostles times be taught Simon Magus Acts 10. and in and by him he taught all Simons scholars therefore called Simoniani that women may be used promiscuously and without difference or respect had to Gods precept relating to man and wife after which filthy sect succeeded the Saturninians followers of Saturninus who profest and practised the like then followed the Nicolaitans Rev. 2. who used each others wife in commune then came the Gnosticks living among and glanced at by the Apostles after these the Adamites who both male and female read prayed and administred the Sacraments all naked Soon after the Apostolicks called by themselves Eucratites or Abstinents who admitted none into their assemblies who had wives After these were the Manichees called also Catharists the Eunomians Priscillianists Jovinianists and the Paternians who holding that the lower parts of man and woman were â—â—de by the Devil indulged to themselves all licence of uncleanness in those parts These and some more though professors of Christ grosly and filthily erred either in the prohibition of marriage or in the allowance of a beastly usage or gross community of women wives or single persons insomuch that I cannot say that there have been so many severall sects or heresies since the Apostles times erring so grosly about any one subject as these named about marriage and fleshliness such and so great a power the Devil hath over man tempting him in his weakest and most sensuall part of the flesh which in the most is so predominant that some Divines think that this was that which S. Paul meant by the thorn in the flesh and for that cause he bewayled his estate in those words Wretched man that I am 2 Cor. 12.7 who
if he love her he wisnes her well he doth well for her he gives her what in justice and reason she â—n desire he suffers for her more then she would he is carefull not to displease and most willing to give her honour and all good content God when he gives lawes and precepts to man he concludes them all in this Love the Lord thy God and S. Paul Rom. 13 10. love is the fulfilling of the law And to this love as portrayed the husband is bound so saith S. Paul men ought so to love their wives Eph. 5.28 and this expresly proves it to be the husbands duty to love his wife Which S. Paul barely saith not it is his duty though his word as from God were a law and there needed no other confirmation for it but he proves it For the man to his wife is as Christ to his Church and Christ loved his Church and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so ye husbands ought to love your wives Secondly the wife is not flesh of thy flesh but is made one flesh and one body and as it were one person with thee Eph. 5.28 so Ephes 5.28 and therefore man ought to love his wife And if you ask me how he ought to love her this the Apostle expresseth too and most plainly saying 1. as Christ loved his Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so ye husbands ought to love your wives Where note that the Apostle means not by this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so to tell the husband that he ought to love his wife in that high measure and degree as Christ did love his spouse the Church this is not possible for man to do but as Christ did truly and heartily love the Church so ought mâ—n to love their wives And a second 〈…〉 should love his wife the Apostle adde in the same place when he saith he ought to love her as hit own and as himself and be it that the man love his wife so the woman covets too much that would desire more then that her husband love her as he doth himself for no man v. 29. except a mad one saith S. Paul hateth but rather cherisheth and nourisheth his own flesh Now S. Basil taking it for granted that the man according to this duty and rule loves the wife more then the wife her husband demands the reason for it and answers it thus That woman was made subject to the guidance of the man and therefore to make a compensation as it were the man by his love is made in some sort subject to his wife so that the husband though he be in his naturall capacity a Lord to his wife as Sarah called her husband yet in a sweet manner he is through his love become her servant so that though God gave the woman long haire which might be as reynes in the mans hand to guide her yet God gave her an eye that her husband may say as Christ to his spouse Cant. 4.9 thou hast ravished or taken away my heart with one of thine eyes and be the man the head of the wife yet the wife by her ravishmâ—nt of the man is become according to the place or part whence she was first taken the heart of the man and hereby it comes to pass that as Christ taught the man is to leave father and mother and cleave to his wife and all this is wrought by mans love to his wife Well therefore did S. Paul Ephes 5. speaking of this loving subject call it a mystery a mystery in nature and a mystery in grace and each applied by the Apostle to the husbands love for as Eve was taken out of Adam so the Church from Christ she from Adam cast into a sleep the Church from Christ sleeping in Death Eve was from the side opened the Church from Christs side pierced Adam therefore was to to love Eve as his flesh and bone Christ his Church as his blood and life and hereupon the Apostle concludes Men therefore love your wives as Adam did Eve and as Christ did the Church For man and his wife are coupled as in the bond of nature so in the covenant of grace and this is the mystery which S. Paul calls the love of man to his wife And another mystery there is couched in the words of the Apostle when be saith that the man and wife being two subjects or persons are made and become one for though two yet but one body and two but one soul and affection to love each other as himself Eph. 5.28 v. 33. so that two should be one in and by love and yet by the power of the same love this one to become two to help each other against all enemies adversaries or opponents and here is the mysterie and such a mysterie as love onely under God can and should make between man and wife Which love as it is strong as Death Can. 8.6 so it feares not nor stoopeth to death but undauntedly encountered for the object be it the wife or the spouse beloved S. Paul tells us it was so in that most divine love of Christ to his Church who gave himself even to death for her and so hath it been in many a man naturall love to do the like for his beloved He touch but one example of Tiberius who finding two snakes in his bed-chamber was told that if he killed the female his wife must die if the male himself whereupon to preserve his wife he chose rather to kill the malâ—â—â—nd himself to die and happy is that conjunction which is so cemented by love that each can say as Castor and Pollux as brethren vive tuo Coujux tempore vive meo live ô my spouse thy terme and live thou mine The Greeks though most abundant in expressions by words yet in this case of husband and wife seem defective and scanty For as Ephes 5. and Col. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 5. Col. 1. which is in generall a man stands for husband so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is in generall a woman signifies in the Apostle a wife which defect if it may be so called is supplied by our English when we translate that man and woman by husband and wife and not unfitly from the first creation of both for as the woman was made for the man to be a comfort unto him as a wife Gen. 2.18 so the man being alone and wanting any under God on whom to place his love and delight is to settle these on the woman his wife therefore saith the Apostle husbands love your wives Eph. 5.22 these being the objects of your solace and delight and as they were made helps to the husband Which word husband as it notes the man to be the band of the house and all therein so primarily and principally of his wife by which he is put in minde to keep her from shattering as the band in sheaves or as the band of
then Esau the elder I and Jacob affected his two youngest Joseph and Benjamin more then his first born Reuben and Simeon and King David placed the crown on the head of Salomon contrary to the Jews law and custome though he had six sons elder then Salomon and a great part of this act in King David we may ascribe to the affection policy and power of Batsheba the mother as that other the like act of Isaac in preferring Jacob to Esau may be attributed to Rebecca Now from this root of love in the parents shoot out the branches of their care in nursing breeding and providing for their children all which are so naturall and necessary that who neglects the performance of these duties deserves not the name of father and mother nor yet so much as to be called Syre or Damme for beasts and birds generally performe these cares for their young untill they are able to provide for themselves for did we ever know or read that an Ewe a Doe or a Sow put out her young to nurse or would suffer any other to give their young suck but themselves so long as themselves were able to do it and must we conceive that nature hath less power or works less in a woman which hath reason then in a beast or will ye have me think that reason and grace which add unto and strengthen the gifts of nature do both weaken nature in the woman and if not which indeed cannot be thought by any indued with grace or reason why then think we that nature hath given the mother breasts and fountains of milk if not to suckle her young or why think ye that a strange womans milk should be so naturally and properly good for the child as the mothers which brought it into the world and why rather consider you not that as children with the milk draw that humour which makes for the good or ill of their bodies so many by sucking cruell drunken unchast women have become such in quality and condition as their nurses were It may be instanced in Tiberius Commodus Emperors of Rome and divers others but not to be long on this subject remember that Sarah is said to have given her son suck from which act I shall draw no other inference but that of S. Peter 1 Pet 3.6 whose Daughters ye are as long as ye do well doing as she did who gave suck to her child But the mothers duty ends not in this but that she with the husband and each and both must labour with the soonest to administer the spirituall milk of the knowledge and fear of God thereby to nourish the childs soul to everlasting life and this duty lies more straightly and strongly upon the parent in as much as the soul the Temple of God is more excellent of greater esteem then the body which is but an house of clay The father and mother of Samson inquire of the Angell of the Lord saying Judge 13 12. How shall we order the child and bow shall we do unto him and that the child Samuel may be ordered aright his mother brings him very young to the house of the Lord and she lent saith the text or returned him to the Lord 〈◊〉 1 2â—.8 to be his as long as he lived and what follows so good an entrance and beginning I Sam. 2.11 as in the very next chapter that the child according to his matriculation did ever after minister unto the Lord. And what the further duties of parents are in this kind S. Paul intimâ—â—es in one place when he saith I Thes 2.11 I exhort and not only so but I charge you as a father doth his children that ye walk worthy of God who hath called you to his Kingdome and in another text he expresseth it more plainly as a precept to parents fathers bring up your children in the nuâ—ture and fear of the Lord. and if you will have a more especiall and particular account of the severall lessons to be taught this child you may read them set down by the wise man in his Proverbs â—â—ov 4. where that whole chapter contains the full instruction of a child in the ways of godliness and the fruit thereof the parents shall find in the same book where it is said Prov. 23. â—4 The father of the righteous shall have great joy and be shall rejoyce that hath a wise son And that Parents may receive this joy Prov. 22. â— the wise man counsels them Train up or catechise the child in his youth in the way he should go Prov. 23.13 14. and with hold not correction from the child for if thou beatest him with the rod he shall not die but thou shalt deliver his soul from hell Prov. 29. â—5 Whereas a child left to himself brings his mother to shame I have read of a son who on the Gallows called to speak with his father where he bit off his eare telling him that if he had done the part of a Father in training him up with due correction he had never come to that end And was not Eli to blame suffering his sons to behave themselves wickedly when all the correction he gave them was Why do ye so my sons And what was it leste if not more in Lot to drink immoderatâ—ly with his daughters whereby he came to uncover both their nakednesse and Jacob himself deserved to be reprehended for suffering his daughter Dinah to ramble among the strange young men whereby she caught that clap which caused so much bloud-shed the Apostle therefore saith what son is he whom the father chastneth not Heb. 12.7 8 9. yea and if the son be without chastisement then is he a bastard and no son but if chastned he gives his father reverence and the mother saith S. Paul 1 Tim. 5.10 that hath brought up her children in the faith is well reported of whereas the Prophet tells us that it became a proverb Ezek. 16.44 as is the daughter so is the mother which appeared true in David whose children after himself had committed folly and murder were found loose rebellious and murderers And yet to this admonition lest Parents grow too severe and rigid I must give this caution that Parents be not like Rehoboam to threaten or use scorpions that is whips having sharp thongs like points of thorns or stings of Serpents but ever that they remember the counsell of the Apostle Eph. 6.4 Fathers provoke not your children unto wrath lest that as himself speaks they may be discouraged Col. 3.21 correction with discretion and moderation is the chastisement required in a father to his child for that as S. Gal. 4 â— Paul speaks the heir as long as he is a childe differeth not from a servant And yet the duty of the Parent ends not here but extends it self to a further point that he provide for his child the Apostle is expresse herein when he saith