yet gaue good gifts vnto their children Mat. 7. Yea the cruell beasts doe loue their own The Dragons draw out their breasts and giue sucke to their young Lament 4. and 2. Tim. 3. It is reckoned for one of the signs of the latter day that men shall bee without naturall affection Now the reason why men do naturally loue their children is not because they bee wittie or faire or forward though these things may encrease their loue but because they be theirs The reason why good men loue their children is not onely because they bee theirs but because as they thinke they bee heires begotten vnto God But the reasons why Kings doe loue their children are many more and more peculiar First because they see all the people loue them which Saul saw in Jonathan when they reskewed him out of his fathers hands and deliuered him from death 1. Sam. 14. Secondly because the royall seed and name is preserued in them which was promised to Dauid in this Salomon 2. Sam. 7. Thirdly because Kings of all men being subiect to plots and practises while they liue and also to ill fame and censure when they are gone their sons stand vp not only as heires to inherit their crownes and kingdomes but as Champions to maintaine their honours and to auenge their quarrels whereof the former was performed by Jotham the sonne of Gideon Iudg. 9.17 The latter by Amaziah the sonne of Joash 2. King 14.5 Fourthly the King loueth his sonne the more for a diuine mysterie hi him for as Kings themselues are Gods so is the sonne of the King as the sonne of God God ruleth he world by Christ his sonne Iohn 3.35 So did Dauid yet liuing set Salomon vpon his owne Mule yea vpon his owne Throne 1. Kin. 1. God pronounceth his sonne the onely mediator to himselfe 1. Tim. 2.5 He in whom he is well pleased Matth. 3.17 So did Dauid worke himselfe peace with Saul a while by the mediation of Jonathan his son 1. Sam. 19. 6. and as the sonne of God is the wisedome of the father 1. Cor. 1.24 So saith Salomon heere that his father taught him that is put wisedome to him and he did not only teach him but also prayed for him in that behalfe Giue thy iudgements to the king O God and thy righteousnesse to the kings son Psalm 72. and thus was Salomon his fathers sonne But to his mother what Tender and deare or as some translate it Tender and only in the sight of his mother To his father a sonne barely and without addition His fathers sonne but to his mother her tender son her deare her onely sonne So the father setteth downe the Substantiue but Tender and onely the Adiectiues or Epithetes come from the mother and why so because Salomon should shew that his father loued him but his mother loued him more euen as commonly wee say that men abound in reason but women in affection Thy loue to me was wonderfull passing the loue of women said Dauid to Jonathan 2. Sam. 1. A wonderfull loue no doubt which passeth the loue of women Or else Salomon would shew that his fathers loue was in discretion hid as in the text it is but vnderstood but his mothers loue was Tender and deare and onely flaming out like fire which hath no power to hide it selfe for Can a mother forget her child saith Esay yea can a mother hide her affection from her child yes iust as Salomons mother hideth hers VVhat my sonne and what the son of my wombe and what O sonne of my desires Prou. 31. See how shee hides her loue Her sonne and the sonne of her wombe and the sonne of her desires as if shee had said O thou my sonne whom once I bare in my wombe and whom I euer beare in my heart borne of my body by course of nature but still vnborne by strength of loue the father saith Sonne thou art euer with me Luk. 15. The mother saith Sonne thou art euer within me and so is it heere Tender and onely in the sight of his mother Tender in respect of his age as Chron. 1.29 Salomen my sonne young and tender but more in respect of her affection as mothers are euer tender that is fearefull and carefull of their children Samuel was not in his mothers keeping but in the custodie of the high Priest much better sure then in his mothers keeping yet see how mothers nature workes for though hee wanted neither meate nor clothes yet shee makes him and brings him euery yeere a little coat 1. Sam. 2.19 lest too much wind should blow vpon him and when the Shunamites sonne was sicke she set him on her knees till he died 2. King 4.20 but when Jeroboams son was sicke the Queene her selfe runs out to the Prophet for him 1. King 14.4 Againe Salomon was his mothers Onely sonne not onely begotten for shee had three sonnes beside 1. Chron. 3.5 but onely beloued or if not the onely beloued yet the onely beloued in that degree for though she loued them all well yet shee wisht and procured the kingdome to him and when she heard that Adonijah was vsurping it she steps in to Dauid 1. King 1. and makes sure worke for him And all this Jn her sight or before her Tender and onely in her sight for Vbi amor ibi oculus Loue is euer looking Samuels mother went vp euery yeere to Shiloh 1. Sam. 2. Yea true shee did so but that was to offer sacrifice yea and withall to sacrifice a little to her eyes that is to see Samuel too for if the sonne be but a little missing or out of sight Siseraes mother lookes and lookes out at a window and why tarrie the wheeles of his Chariots and why is his Chariot so long a comming Iud. 5. But if the son be dead or gone A voice is heard in Ramah Rachel weeping for her children and will not bee comforted Ier. 31. Now Lord that wee were but halfe so tender of our soules as our mothers are of our bodies But Salomons mother was tender of his soule too for she was a Prophet to teach him for so is the chapter 31. stiled The prophesie which his mother taught him She tels him what a King should doe To iudge righteously to iudge the afflicted and the poore and shee tels him what a King should not doe Not giue his strength to women not giue himselfe to wine euen as Monica the mother of Austin Toties parturiens filios c. So oft as she saw her son to do amisse so oft she was in pains of trauell with them And thus to loue is the tender deare and onely loue But this appeareth better in the next part of the text He taught me and said vnto mee c. Which followes out of the former not as oft in this booke of Prouerbs after a loose and independent manner but it followes with a speciall force as if hee had said Though I was my fathers sonne
quakes to looke vpon the danger so wee when wee looke backe to our birth and thinke on the dangers in it onely we can say with Dauid Thou O God and not our selues thou art he that tooke me out of my mothers wombe Psal 22. When we are borne what then we fall if not hand hold vs to the feete of her that bare vs that is wee fall from the wombe to the ground from one earth to another So naturally at the first doe wee finde the way to o r last home euen as God said to Adam at the first Out of earth wast thou taken and to earth thou shalt returne Gen. 3. And oh that wee might see or could we but remember with what pompe and glory wee are borne into the world Naked as wormes crawling like snakes that there is not amongst the creatures so weake and helplesse a creature as man the mother a misery to thinke the mother that hath newly borne vs lieth by vs indeed but halfe slaine by our birth and least able to helpe vs so we are borne like Beniamin with hazard of her life that gaue vs life and we seeme halfe murtherers so soone as we are borne when wee are taken vp what then we fall a crying as either repenting of our change or wishing our selues vnborne againe or as if we did foresee the sequell of the text the troubles which ensue In the middest of this our moaning wee are as Ezechiel speakes chap. 16. of his prophecy we are washt and bathed and swadled in clouts No doubt goodly gallants and great cause to bee proud if wee thought of our selues in our first pollution when wee are thus swadle and prankt vp like puppets a dainty lump of liuing earth What pleasure feele wee nay what feele we what sense or feeling haue we saue now and then of weakenesse and sicknesse the pangs and smart of the parents sinne We are then brought to the mother to looke vpon and she as a theefe when he is pardoned lookes backe to the gallowes or to the halter that had like to hangd him so lookes shee on her son on her sonne as on her death if God in great mercy had not preuented it when the mother hath lookt and kist we are brought to the father too and to looke vpon too and while the father looks euery one cries out Behold the father looke vpon the child see see and behold how like they looke while indeede they looke more like then they should and it were well for the child if it were not so father-like or mother-like as it is and what get both father and mother by looking but to looke as Salomon saith of the rich man and his money Eccles 5. VVhat good comes to the owners thereof but the beholding of it with their eyes So looke the carefull parents on a wofull child sometime laughing with hope of that it may be sometime distressed with feare of that it may bee watching in the day wakeing in the night somtime merrie somtime sorrie sometime angrie that it were not possible for them to passe through so much patience if God had not infused animpregnable affectiō of loue to ouercome it thus are we borne in teares and sorrow to our selues in perill and sorrow to her that beares vs in nakednes and shame to all that looke vpon vs here is nothing yet to boast on But is our case amended or is our birth magnified by her that bare vs Man that is borne of what of a woman as much as to say like nest like bird like mother like child but why not as well Man begot of a man as Man borne of a woman perhaps because the woman is the weaker vessell and the meaning chiefly was to abase man in his owne might or perhaps because sinne was first inuested in the woman and since wee stand so much vpon our antiquity wee are only sinners by antiquity rebels by prescription and rebellion rooted in our first blood sinners by the father but first by the mother as by the surer side or perhaps it is because sinne hath more vniuersally preuailed ouer women Eccles 7. for Salomon counting a thousand women one by one by that account to finde one good one found one good man indeed but that man was Christ but not one good woman among them all And whether by the woman wee vnderstand the first woman the mother of mankinde or else the mother of euery seuerall man it comes all to one end Iob 25. for how can hee bee cleane saith Bildad which is borne of a woman If wee looke to Eue our great grandmother what haue we to pleade for her Adam was called Pater viuentium the father of al men liuing and Abraham was called Pater credentium the father of the faithfull or of all the beleeuing but Eue might as well bee called Mater peccantium the mother of all sinners and what receiue we by right of such a mother but blushing at her pride and feare of her confusion If wee looke backe to her that last bare vs the rocke whereout wee are hewen oh how little are wee amended by her for Jn iniquity was J borne saith Dauid and in sinne hath my mother conceiued me Psal 51. Sinne came from Eue A longe the date is so old as wee haue forgot how we came by it but the mother that last bare vs shee hath stampt it anew with her owne hands shee hath powred it out into vs more naturally then milke out of her paps yea euen as a poyson new tapt and fresh out of the vessel so by our grandmother wee haue sinne translated and giuen as at the second hand but by our mother wee haue sin reuiued and newly incarnate in vs and haue we not great cause then to be proud of her that bare vs euery man thinkes deepely what good hee hath receiued by his parents what inheritance what countenance what blood hee hath by them yea the very name of our ancestors seemeth precious to vs but yet no man considereth that all this is poysoned with sinne and that the whole summe of the good doth not counteruaile the least part of the euill which commeth by them You will say you were borne of a woman but what had you by her you receiued life by her true a temporall life but you receiued withall the reward of sinne eternall death and it were better neuer to be borne then to bee borne to such a death you sucked and receiued your foode from her so did you your poison too you receiued your wrapping your clothes and raiment by her so did you your nakednesse your shame and sinne too summe vp your gettings with your losse and see vpon the account what cleerely you haue gained therefore vainly said the Iewes wee haue Abraham to our father and idly say you you haue a princesse a Countesse or a Lady to your mother Sonnes of men in Scripture are neuer spoken of but with
reproch The sonnes of men are vanity the chiefe of men are liers Psal 62. and the harts of the sons of men are fully set in them to do euil Eccles 8. Thus we glory in our shame yea if we consider wel what sinners our parents were we shall be as much ashamed of them as Adam and Eue were a shamed of themselues wee haue nothing to boast of but the grace of God By the grace of God saith Saint Paul J am that J am 1. Cor. 15. though otherwise of the tribe of Beniamin an Hebrew of the Hebrewes c Though he had fought with beasts at Ephesus and was rapt vp into the third heauens yet he was nothing of himselfe but all by the grace of God yea as hee that findes a young Serpent killes it for his very kind though it haue done yet no harme so may we feare damnation euen by our parents though wee had done yet no actuall sinne of our owne euen as the sonnes of the wicked Saul were hanged for the cruelty of their father vpon the Gibeonites 2. Sam. 21. albeit they were not guilty of it Well here is our sicknesse that wee are borne of a woman what is the remedy that we be borne anew by Christ for as the woman with the bloodie issue being ill handled by her Physitians came vnto Christ to be physiqued anew so we who be ill borne and base borne at the first must come vnto Christ to be borne anew Naturally saith Saint John we are borne of blood supernaturally therefore wee must be borne of water ordinarily wee are borne of flesh extraordinarily therefore we must be borne of the spirit Iohn 3. for except a man bee borne of water and of the spirit hee cannot enter into the kingdome of God Where by new birth wee must not grosly fancy a retiring into our mothers wombe againe as Nicodemus did our mothers wombe gaue the matter of our first impurity but wee must become new men Ephes 4. that is we must haue new affections another spirit a better will a loathing of the world and a loue to God but this wee haue onely by the worke of God and nothing at all from our mothers wombe After our lamentable entrance comming into the world the next thing noted is our speedy passage and going out Short in continuance or as it is originally Short in daies In which three words foure things are to be considered first that the daies of our life are short secondly how they come to bee so short thirdly how being short yet they seeme by errour to bee so long and fourthly what vse is to bee made of the shortnesse of our daies The life of man is short whether by the life of man we mean he life of nature the age of euery particular man or whether wee meane the life of fame that life whereby wee liue euen when wee are dead or whether else wee meane the life of all mankind which is the age of the world If wee speake of the life of nature it is not here measured out vnto vs by yeeres nor by monethes nor yet by weekes or Sabbaths but onely by daies Short in daies lest with the rich man Luk. 12. wee take our measure too long and make account to liue out many yeeres when the reckoning is Hac nocte no longer to liue but to make an end at night Euery mā can tell how many moneths go to a yeere how many weekes to a moneth and how many daies to a weeke but no mā knoweth iustly how few or how many be the dates of his life My daies are but a span saith Dauid yea my daies are nothing in respect of thee Psal 39. yet let vs go to it by yeeres and imagine from God a lease of the longest date and see how we are deceiued in that Psal 90. The time of our life is threescore yeeres and ten saith Moses or set it vpon the tenters and racke it to fourescore though not one in euery fourescore ariue to that account yet can we not bee said to liue so long for take out first ten yeeres for infancie childhood which Salomon calles the time of wantonesse and vanity Eccles 11. wherin we scarce remember what wee did or whether wee liued or no and how short is it then Take out of the remainder a third part for sleepe short in daies saith Job hee speakes not of the night the time of sleepe wherein not like beasts but like blocks wee lie senselesse if not liuelesse and how short is it then Take out yet besides the time of our carking and worldly care wherein we seeme both dead and buried in the affaires of the world and how short is it then And take out yet besides which must not haue the least allowance our times of wilfull sinning and rebellion for while we sinne we liue not but we are dead in sinne Ephes 2. and what remaineth of that yea how short is it then so short is that life which nature allowes and yet wee sleepe away part and play away part and the cares of the world haue a great part and sinne the greatest part that the true spirituall and Christian life hath a thing of nothing in the end If we speake of the life of fame the Memoriall life whereby euen dead men are said to liue fame hath her wings not onely to flie about the world but suddenly to vanish and fly cleane away for how many haue there been of wonderfull note in their times yet now not remembred so much as by name that no man now can say heere was their trace here haue they trod or set a foot Where are they now that led the world in a string they at whose becke both men and beasts both sea land did bow they that subdued kingdome after kingdome and set one crowne vpon another they that pitcht vp their Pyramyds and Images of fame vpon the earth and set vp for perpetuall memory their brazen pillers in the sea they who while they liued were adored as God and thought when they were dead to bee Calendred among the Gods yet time and enuie hath eaten out their very names and where are they now This is it we call eternall and euerliuing honour yet how soone doth it die and we are gone nay let worldly fame go and let vs bee sought but in the mouthes and thoughts of our best and dearest seeming friendes and good God how soone are we forgotten when we are once gone that euen they who seemed while we liued to loue and honour vs yet now haue buried their loue with our bodies while you liue oh how wise how worthy how wonderfull are you yea it is your matchlesse wisedome your incomparable valour your equitie piety and Princely Maiestie your excellence and immortall honour but when the Lion once is dead then euery Hare dare dance vpon his carkase and dogs dare barke and Poets then dare raile and rime with pen
people lie vpon the King Rex non modò peccat sed peccare facit a King doth not onely sinne himselfe but also makes the people to sin either by sufferance as Aaron did or by example as Salomon did or by tyrannous compulsion as Jeroboam did of whom it is said seuenteene times in the bookes of the Kings that he sinned and made Jsrael to sin how then why then as when the people first began the making of the golden Calfe yet Aaron was first called in question about it Exod. 32.21 VVhy hast thou brought so great a sinne vpon the people so Kings Princes must account to God not onely for their owne sinnes but also for the sins of the people and were there no other trouble then this yet this very point of accounting to God is a troublesome and fearefull thing to thinke of Besides what art and great labour haue Kings in the very act of gouernment It is an art of all arts saith Gregory Nazianzen to gouerne man who is so wild a beast and vntamed of himselfe Exod. 18. Moses sat from morning to euening to heare and determine causes that Jethro pitied much to see him so wearie and so tired and it was truly said of Maximinus one of the Romane Emperours Quo maior fuero eo magis laborabo The greater I am the greater labours I see will stil befall and lie vpon me and the Lion which is king of the beasts is said to sleepe with his eyes open to shew that it is no sleepie life to be a king Besides what perturbations of feare are in the mindes of Kings more then of other men who may feare euery cup and euery bit and euery gift who feare their enemies and feare their friends because they know not their enemies from their friends for neither the habit be it neuer so religious nor behauiour of men be it neuer so humble can promise security to Princes witnesse the last but one of France Henry 3. slaine by a Frier Iacobine euen crouching and kneeling on his knee yea are not Kings more subiect to violent death then the common sort of men Of the Kings of Judah from Rehoboam down to Zedekiah there were in number twentie and six of them that is almost a third part slaine Againe of the Kings of Israel from Jeroboam downe to Oshea there were also in number twentie and tenne of them that is a iust halfe slaine Yea looke into our owne stories and our English Chronicles are all bloody from the Conquest downeward which is better known of three and twentie deceased Princes eight that is more then a third part slaine besides the Tragicall reports of France other countries Now sure it were a most fearefull thing amongst the common sort of men if one in euery three were subiect to violent death And whether shall a man turne but the higher still the more troublesome and more infortunate Oh therefore value nothing too high which death doth abolish dote not too much on death and troubles and golden misery Let not men set their hearts on that which cannot profit them or if it please a little yet it will not long stand by them If here wee seeke for peace it wil be answered as the Angels said of Christ Resurrexit non est hic Indeed it is often promised heere the world the flesh make promise of it and wee like false Prophets cry Peace peace and promise it to our selues but the true peace is gone vp with Christ and is not here Mat. 28. and Saint John was commanded to write it for assurance Write◠from hence forth blessed are the dead for they rest from their labours Reuel 14.13 they rest hence forth but they rest not here and therefore since wee haue no rest but sorrowes and warres and troubles here let vs not seeke our rest here lest if we spend our time in seeking where it is not wee faile to finde it where it is God of his mercy draw our mindes from the deceit of this vaine miserable and sinfull world and lift vp both our hearts vnto the hope and our endeauours vnto the pursuit of eternity euen for Iesus Christ his sake To whom with the father c. THE KINGS HIGH WAY TO IMmortalitie A SERMON PREACHED this present yeere Ann. Do. 1614. Ian. 16. TO THE HIGH AND MIGHTY Prince CHARLES at his house and Chapell of S. Iames. PRO. 4.3.4 For I was my fathers sonne Tender and deare in the sight of my mother When he taught me and said vnto me Let thy heart hold fast my words Keepe my Commandements and liue MOst renowned and excellent But that sorrowes make short times seeme long it is not long since at vnawares and not knowing what I did I made vnto your deceased and now immortall brother a Sermon of Mortality or of death It is now fallen out by Gods prouidence and which God himselfe being witnesse I did not thinke of when I chose the text that I must make vnto your Highnesse a Sermon of life but as I had then no special illumination or prophecy that death was so neare to him so haue I now no absolute promise of life to you but vpon the conditions heere annexed Let thy heart hold fast my words Keepe my Commandements and thou shalt lieu which are the words of Dauid the speech of a King and therefore of weight and moment and it is a speech made to Salomon the sonne of a King and therefore pertinent and it is a speech taken from the mouth of the King the father by the pen of the King his sonne and therefore not lost or let fall to the ground as good counsell oft times is but recorded as a thing for euer permanent And wee may distinguish in it two things which diuide it into two parts for first Salomon sheweth what tender loue his parents bare vnto him He was his fathers son Tender and deare in the sight of his mother and then hee sheweth next by what testimonie they expressed their loue vnto him They taught him and said vnto him Let thy heart hold fast c. For the first that Salomon was to his father thus and to his mother thus and thus it is a tale vndoubtedly true but how agreeth it with Salomons wisedome to tell it They say a chiefe point of wisedome is to keepe counsell especialiy to conceale the secrets of a King but most especially to keepe secret what Kings and Queenes doe in their chambers and among their children It may bee that Dauid loued Salomon exceeding much how then It may be likewise that his mother loued him exceedingly more and what of that perhaps when he was swadled in clouts and lapt vp in a mantle shee might take him in her armes and talke like a mother to him perhaps when he was able to goe vpon his feet yet shee might set him on her knee and dance him yea and it may bee too that when hee was able to