carryed like a horse that hath cast his rider and he will abuse his Tongue also vilifying that which should have honored him and in so doing he will liken himselfe to the most stinking place that we can passe by and to the most odious name that is named under the Sunne and so in the end will fall lower then a Beast can A Beast can fall no lower then the Earth nor doth it apprehend any evill till it feele the same and when it comes it is soone over and there 's an end Which remembers me of Pyrrhoes Hog that did eate his meate quietly in the Ship almost covered with waters when all the men there were halfe dead with feare But now reasonable Creatures are sometimes perplexed with unreasonable fears A mans apprehension may present evils that are not as impendent which may make his knees smite together and with all the apprehension of the time that is past and of that which to come may torment him too before he come to the place of his torment Bee not like the horse and mule then which have no understanding for then thy condition will bee much worse and lower then theirs in the latter end It may be I shall never call thee to an account nor live to see how thou hast thriven But consider this first what an Heathen o Plut. de fraterno amore spake it is very worthy a childs consideration We are charged that we doe ill to none much lesse to a parent but it is not enough for a child not to hurt his parents he must doe them all the good he can his whole deportment must be such such his words and deeds that thereby he may glad the heart of his parent else it is wicked and unjust Marke it for thus much it implyes It is not enough that the child doth not actually or positively give the parent cause of sorrow that were monstrous he or she must not privatively rob them of their comfort or stop them of their rejoycing even this were impious and unjust It is not enough not to grieve the parent not to give them matter of sorrow the childe that doth not more doth not his dutie he must give them matter of comfort and gladding of hearts This a childes dutie let a childe thinke of it and that an Heathen spake it from whom a lesson comes double to a Christian Consider again what the Lord saith It is a people of no understanding therefore He that made them will not have mercy on them p Esa 27. 12. Consider with that Scripture what the Apostle saith q 2 Thes 1. 8. In flaming fire taking vengeance of them that know not God c. If this and that be considered Thou wilt cry r Prov. 2. 3. after knowledge and lift up thy voyce for understanding wisdome is the principall thing therefore thou wilt get wisdome and with all thy gettings thou wilt get understanding ſ Prov. 4. 7. which only consolidates a man making him like armour of proofe or like a rocke for it fixeth the heart on Him in whom is everlasting strength Thou must consider also That an account must be given and the greater thy receits have been the greater thy accounts must be Line upon line and precept upon precept fills up the score apace A man looks to reape liberally where he sowes liberally And as God did bountifully reward the faithfull servant so did He severely punish the unfaithfull and negligent In the last place consider this and it sufficeth That a worthy name is called upon us even the name of Christ of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named t Eph. 3. 15. A name which will honour us if we honour it which will highly exalt us if we exalt it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Nazian Orat. 21. p 378 And this we do when our conversation is honourable and as becommeth in heaven though amidst the things of the earth If there be a precise walking a good and suteable conversation worthy that name u The Scripture acknowledgeth them Christians or the anointed of the Lord who live Christian-like according to Christ then the Christian is the honourable person as the fruitfull vine the best amongst the trees or as those which were very good x Jer. 24. 5. But if we defile y Read page 36. that name by an unworthy conversation then are we the basest of men like the barren vine z Ezech. 15. 4. fit for nothing but the fire or unsavoury salt very bad and to be cast out a Christians are the worse the better they should be the more sacred their name the more accursed their guilt c. Read Salv. de Guber l. 3. ω. the end and Li. 4. within two leaves of the end Christiani deteriores sunt c. Reatus impii est pium crimen It is a good conversation which commends a Christian and that only and which proves him so to be not miracles if a man could work them not revelations if a man could see them not signes and wonders if such a power were given from above It is the conversation which is all in all and justifies before men If I do not the works of my Father beleeve me not b John 10. 37. Our Lord said thus of Himself His work should testifie of Him c Luk. 7. 21. and be a foundation of their faith works are the standard by which we must be measured also whether we are in Christ and Christ in us If we do not the works of Christ such as He hath proposed for our example It is a vain beliefe a conceit only To think we are Christians Our works tell the world what we are for those the world sees and heares and by them we either glorifie our Father in heaven or give cleare evidence that we have denied the Lord That bought us d 2 Pet. 2. 1. Redeeming from a vain conversation e 1 Pet. 1. 18. Chrysostome speaks usefully to this point where he speaks concerning the title of Lukes f Tom. 5. second Treatise Thus he speaks It will not profit though we could say In thy name we have prophesied cast out divels cleansed Lepers wrought miracles c. neither this nor that commended the Apostles but their Acts their Doings And these are To be chaste modest temperate meeke gentle kinde pitifull To bridle our anger to subdue our passions to mortifie our affections In a word to exercise all grace This is Action this Doing this tells us we are Christians in deed living Christians And it takes of that great objection which is put in our way saith the same Father and it is of infinite use when we stirre up our people to follow Paul as he followed Christ we say unto them ye must imitate Peter ye must follow Paul ye must be like Iohn and ye must doe as Saint Iames did What even so just to that Coppy
bosome This Mercy we should pray so for and long-after even from the heart-root we should long For if the curse was heavy and sore which we reade of Psal 109. 14. then is the mercy great and greatly to be sought after from the Lord Let not the iniquitie of the Father be remembred with the Lord against the Childe and let the sinne of the Mother be blotted out Whensoever the Lord visits the Childe for Sinne certainly it should call the sinne of the Parent to remembrance o 1 King 17. 18. and so it will doe if the conscience be not asleepe or seared Then he will discerne that there was a great and weighty reason that made the Woman of Canaan thus to petition Christ p Matt. 15. 22. Have mercy on me O Lord thou Sonne of David my Daughter is grievously vexed with a Divell She counted the Childes vexation hers so would she the mercy We have filled our Childrens bones with sinne which will fill their hearts with sorrow It is our engagement to doe all we can though that All be two little to roote that sinne out which we have beene a meanes to roote so fast in I shall in another place the Second Part q Chap. 2. speake more unto this roote of bitternesse and the fruits springing thence whereby all are defiled Here I have onely pointed unto it as it engageth the Parent upon this so necessary and principall a service touching the good culture and breeding of the Child And we see what an engagement it is the greatest and strongest that can be thought of And so much as an Induction to Duty what this Duty is comes now to be handled A CHILDES PATRIMONY Laid out upon the good Culture or tilling over his whole man CHAP. I. Wherein the Parents dutie doth consist and when it begins Of Infancy A Parents dutie begins where the childe had its beginning at the wombe There the Parents shall finde that which must busie their thoughts about it before they can imploy their hands And this work lyeth specially in considering Gods worke upon the childe and how their sinne hath defaced the same First they consider Gods worke and the operation of His hands how wonderfull it is and how curiously wrought in the secret parts of the earth so the Prophet calls the Wombe because Psal 137. curious pieces are first wrought privately then being perfected are exposed to open view It was He that made the bones to grow we know not how then clothed them with flesh He that in the appointed time brought it to Chap. 1 sect 2 the wombe and gave strength to bring forth Here they acknowledge an omnipotent hand full of power towards them and as full of grace and they doe returne glory and praise both But here it ceaseth not Now they have their burden in their armes they see further matter of praise yet in that they see the childe in its right frame and feature not deformed or maimed Some have seene their childe so that they had little joy to looke upon it but through Gods gracious dispensation it is not so and for this they are thankfull And upon this consideration they will never mocke or disdaine nor suffer any they have in charge so to do a thing too many do any poore deformed creature in whom God hath doubly impaired His Image This they dare not do for it might have been their case as it was their desert Deformitie where ever we see it admits of nothing but our Pitie and our Praise 2. Thus they see Gods handy-worke and it is wonderfull in their eyes but still they see their owne Image also and cause enough to bewaile the uncleannesse of their Birth What the Pharisees once spake of him whose eyes Christ had opened is true of every mothers Childe Thou wast altogether borne in sinnes which should Joh. 9. 34. make every Parent to cry out as that mother did Have mercy on me O Lord thou sonne of David my Childe is naturally Matth. 15. 22. the childe of wrath Except it be borne againe of water and of the spirit it cannot enter into the kingdome of God Joh. 3. The Parents see evidently now that they are the channell conveying death unto the childe The mother is separated for some time that shee may set her thoughts apart and fixe them here The father is in the same bond with her and in this we may not separate them God hath made promise to restore this lost Image this not tooke but throwne-away integritie And this now their thoughts run upon and they pray That the Lord would open their mouthes wide and enlarge their hearts towards this so great a Mysterie They have a fruit of an old stocke it must be transplanted and out they carry it and into the Church they beare it as out of old Adam whence was transmitted to it sinne and death into the second Adam whence it may receive Righteousnesse and Life Then at the fountaine they hold it blessing God Who hath opened it for sinne and for Uncleannesse And there they present it not to the signe of the Crosse but to Blood Sacramentally there that is Righteousnesse purchased by the death of Christ and now on Gods part appropriated and made the childes And the Parents blesse His name and exalt His mercy who hath said at such a time as this Live Who hath found out Ezek. 16. 6. a Rausome to answer such a guilt A righteousnesse to cover such a sinne so big and so fruitfull A life to swallow up such a death with all its issues This the Parent sees in this poore element Water appointed by God set apart fitted and sanctified for this end With it the childe is sprinkled and for it the Parent beleeves and promiseth Then home againe they carry it It is a solemne time and to be remembred and the vaine pompe takes not up much time where wiser thoughts from truer judgement take place Friends may come and a decency must be to our place sutable but the Pageant like carriage of this solemne businesse by some speaks out plainly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A fancie Act. 25. 23. that the heart is not right nor is that vaine pompe forsaken which yet is now upon their lips to say They who have better learned Christ do better understand the nature and solemnitie of the action they are about so their great businesse is with God before whom they spread themselves and their childe Who can worke by meanes as secret as is the way of the spirit and can set this water closer to the soule then He hath set its bones which yet no man understandeth nor can tell when or how To Him they offer it before Him they lay it praying That this water may ever lye upon the heart of theirs as a fruitfull seed quickning renewing sanctifying That that water may as the Rocke ever 1 Cor. 10. 4. follow the childe The rocke removed not
thirsty spirit no clothes to keep me warm no house to harbour me c. for the earth is the Lords and the fulnesse thereof I may have from man my warrant here in earth that my house is mine and my land is mine and he is a thief and a robber that taketh it from me But all the men in the world cannot give me my possession before the living God but onely his Sonne Christ who is Heire of all Then that our lands may be our own our goods our own yea and our meat ours let us be Christs that in Him we may have the good assurance of all our substance Take not thy meat but as the gift of Christ who hath sanctified it unto thee nor any thing thou hast but with thanksgiving to Christ that hath sanctified it for thee †4. And the consideration hereof should be a meanes to lift up our hearts as well as our hands and eyes to Him that spreadeth our table prevents the snare feeds us with the finest wheat when others are fed with the bread of affliction and water of affliction or if our bread be course or not that but pulse instead of bread yet He can nourish by it and make the countenance z Dan. 1. ruddy whereas the more daintie fare may tend to leannesse So the parent must teach the childe not to eat with common hands or mouth that is not before the hands be lifted up and the mouth opened to Him Who opened His hand to the parent first before the parent could open his to the childe And now onely commands a blessing and gives the bread power to nourish making it a staffe of bread both to parent and childe which must minde the parent that it is not a childes work to blesse the table but according to the ancient custome the masters duty to pray for a blessing who should best understand that all things are sanctified by the word of God and prayer And so much to raise our hearts before we take our meat towards Him who onely commands a blessing upon our meat and strengtheneth with strength in our souls Psal 138. verse 3. 5. And now that we suppose we are set down to feel and taste how good the Lord is who hath so furnished our table we must consider well what is set before us else we are as he who puts a knife to his throat a Alioquin Trem. Prov 23. 2. Lege Clem. Alex. paed lib. 2 cap. 1. saith the wiseman What meaneth he by that If we do not moderate our selves in a sober temperate use of the Creatures as men not given to our appetites we do then turn that which was ordained to maintain life and to refresh the spirits the clean contrary way as a meanes to destroy life and to suppresse and damp the spirits which is a great provocation for thereby we fight against God with His own blessings and against our selves with our own weapons and so are as they who instead of putting their hands to their mouthes to feed them put both to their throat to cut it For by intemperance this way in meat and drink by feeding without fear we transgresse the set bounds b Chrysostomes observation touching the use of wine is very usefull for it telleth us the use of all the creatures given for our nourishment wine glads the heart there you have the use of it saith he gladding and refreshing is the very bound and lâ—mit set unto us in the use of the creatures if we transgresse that bound we abuse them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ad Rom. 15. Hom. 28. ω. and our heart thereby is made as heavy as a stone our spirits quite flat and dead whence the proverb is An intemperate man digs his grave with his fingers so that although life be within him yet his body is his prison and the grave of Gods mercies and his life serves him to little other purpose then to dishonour that God who hath provided so bountifully for him And this kinde of intemperance I mean this lifting up the heel in our full pasture and exalting the heart this unkinde requitall of the Lord puts man that reasonable creature one degree below the c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Tom. 5. de Lazâ—ro concio 1. unreasonable The ox the horse and the asse These saith the Father usefully when they are fed go on their way carrying their burdens and performing their service but man so overchargeth himself that his meat proves his burden if not this surfeit and makes him unfit to return any service but such as sheweth him to be a debter onely to the flesh which indeed we must nourish that it may be serviceable but further we owe it neither suit nor service Think then how ill we do requite the Lord when fed by Him we spurn against Him loaded with His mercies we load Him with our sinnes refreshed with His comforts we grieve His Spirit by a contrary and unsavorie walking Here then is a fit place and season to teach and learn abstinence one of those vertues so much commended and that may help much to the learning of the other patience so I invert the order d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiâ—t Aul Gell lib. 17. cap. 19. He that hath gotten command over himself at his Table in moderating his appetite and can deny himself what his stomach eagerly craves will be able to command himself in great matters and bear hard things It is unseemly for a man the Lord over the creatures to be brought under the power of the creature and if he would not which is his wisdome he must consider as well what is expedient as what is lawfull e 1. Cor. 6. 12. And so he teacheth his childe by his own example as well as by precept and much better and now is his season for abstinence is best taught and learnt at the first and no where better then at our meat f Comeditur quantum ad famem bibitur quantum satis pudicis castis sunt omnia quasi comed rint biberint disciplinam Tert. in Apoll cap. â—9 It is Mr Perkinâ— g On Gal 5. 2â— p. 181. rule That man must deny his desires at the table he musâ— command himself there as one under his own power and not under the power of the creatures if he look to be able to deny goods good-namâ— wife children selfe and all All which must be parted with when they stand in competition with the truth else we lose our selves These are sweet bits indeed and he that cannot deny himself his sweet biâ—s at his table wtll very hardly h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark 8. 34. deny himself in these If a man must needs swallow that bit bâ—câ—use it is sweet and that cup of wine because it is pleasant if he hath so farre lost the command over himself that this he must needs do when yet his stomach needs it not It is
which is offensive to Him no not in our hearts wherein no creature can hinder us It is an argument that we feare as we ought before the God of Heaven when we forbear the doing of that which if we should do it were not possible that man should understand or condemne it as h Lev. 19. 14. is the cursing of the deafe which the Deafe man heares not and the putting a stumbling block before the blinde which the blinde perceiveth not But the Lord heares and He sees for He made the Eare and the Eye and Him shalt thou feare for His eyes behold His eye-lids try the children of men i Psal 11. 4. And this is the Law which stands charged upon us and through Him by whom we can do all things we can keep the same Law with our whole heart in an acceptable manner checking the first motions of sin discerning not beams onely but moats also light and flying imaginations and abasing our selves for them and by degrees casting them out as hot water the scum and as the stomack doth that which is noysome And because they presse upon the true Christian as Flies in Summer incumbring alwayes over-powring him sometimes therefore is he moved to renew his interest daily in the perfect righteousnesse of His Saviour The deceitfulnesse of his heart still inciting and drawing back from God and His perfect Law and his readinesse to break covenant makes him the more watchfull over his heart and carefull to binde himself daily as with new cords To k Jude 2â— build himself up in his most holy faith to pray in the holy Ghost and to keep himself in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ unto eternall life for it is a standing Rule That Gods commands are not the measure of our power but the Rule of our duty the summe of our debt the matter of our prayers the scope of our strife l Mouline See Hist of World B. 2. Ca. 4. Sect. 13. p. 240. But we must ever note this which is that there is in the heart of every true Christian a disposition answering every Iota and tittle of Gods m Salv. d Eccles Cathol ω. Law They have the same Spirit in their hearts which is in the Law so soone as that Spirit made a change in them they could not but then exceedingly love the Law and where love n Chrys in Rom. cap 4 ω Si amor est vincit omnia c. Chrysost de past bono Serm. 40. Haec omnia dura videbuntur ei qui non amat Christum Amemus Christum facile videbitur omne difficile Brevia putabimus universa quae longa sunt Nisi vim feceris coelerum regna non capies Hier. Ad Eustocâ—ium Ep. 17. l. 2. p. 207. Prima regula in culta Dei ut ipsumdiligamus non potest Deus verè diligi quin sequatur hunc affectum membra omnia omnes partes c. Calâ—â—n Dan. c 9. v. 4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys in c. 29. Gen. Hom. 55. is that great Commander there is diligence and activenesse in all the wayes of obedience joy also and peace in obeying For in case they are opposed and persecuted for their love and ready obedience they have gentlenesse goodnesse faith meeknesse all armour of proofe whereby they are made resolute and patient to beare according to their wise choice affliction rather then Job 36. 21. iniquity For this we must adde to the rest and note it God communicates His common gifts diversly and scatteringly this man hath the gift of tongues that man a gift of prophecie one man hath this another that he that is lowest cannot say but the Lord hath dispenfed unto him some grace and he that is highest cannot say he hath all But now for these graces which make a man well pleasing to God they are all freely bestowed these as one said love neighbour-hood Mr. G. are in a continuall conjunction They are freely bestowed and altogether as it were in one lumpe not scatteringly as the Sporaâ—es Islands in the Sea scattered here and there here a little â—ye of Land and there all Sea again Sponsa Christi â—rca est Testamenti c. Hier. ep 17. li. 2. p. 205. this man hath not faith and that man hope one hath not love and another patience But he that hath one he hath all and he that hath not all hath none These graces put or spring forth together though all may not have equall growth nor shew themselves alike operative It is certain he that hath a grounded hope hath a lively faith an unfained love he hath patience meeknesse gentlenesse or if any of these be missing thâ—re is weeping and mourning and hanging down the head for the lack of this grace as there was when there was a Tribe lacking in Israel o Judg. 21. 3. There is no chasme or gaping in the life of a true Christian It cannot be that he should be one while like firme land which cannot be moved and then again as weake as water or like the raging Sea which fometh out miâ—e and dirt it cannot be that he should one while glory in the Name of Christ and another while defile pollute and dishonour that worthy Name by which he is called These gifts of the Spirit though many yet are called in the singular number a Fruit because they have but one root and do put forth like grapes in clusters and come or draw together like the rings in a Chaine It is a report concerning our Spice that all proceeds from one Tree one kinde is the root another the bark a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Galat. 5. 22. third is the fruit inclosed within a fourth so they say but so it is not it is fabulous yet the morall is good all the fruits of righteousnesse in what kinde soever are from one root of righteousnesse and though divers in kinde yet so one as but one fruit as was said This may kindle our desire to be rooted in Christ then we cannot be barren or unfruitfull And this may teach thee childe how strait a Band Religion is and the solemnesse of that covenant we entred into by Baptisme How compleat a true Christian is and how fully armed and furnished every way answering that worthie Name which is called upon him If we looke a few leaves backe we may gather up the summe of all under these three heads 1. The greatnesse of our miserie by sinne which we have followed to its strong hold or first originall 2. The abundant grace of God through His Sonne Iesus Christ stopping that bloudy Issue and pardoning iniquitie transgression and sinne 3. The Band of our Duty all figur'd out in Baptisme So farre we are gone CHAP. IIII. Chap. 4 An Introduction thereto Though the Branches of sinne are lopped in Baptisme where it receives its deaths wound yet the live Root remaineth what the bitter fruits there
borne blind So it was that the workes of God Iohn 3. 9. should be made manifest in him So we may say we have our eyes eares tongues hands which others have not That we might the more ptaise the Lord for His goodnesse and declare His workes toward the children of men These are the questions but upon the point it is but this single question and the very same and to the same purpose which the King makes to that I doe allude touching Mordecay What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecay x Esther 6. 3. for this So let this be the question What honour what service hath been done to the Lord He hath so honoured thee he hath so served thee be hath so and so preserved thee from the Paw of the Lyon and jaw of the beare so delivered thee Through his strength thou didst leap over such a wall He brought thee out of such a strait He supported thee in such weaknesses He supplyed thee in such a Wildernesse He gave successe to thee in such businesses What shall I say for we are confounded here He is the God not of some but of all consolations the Father of mercies And we can no more number them then we can the drops of the raine or of the dew or the Treasures of the snow and baile but we know who is the Father of them and out of whose Bowels these mercies come whereby thou hast been fed all thy life long and redeemed from evill we know the price of them too the very least of them is the price of bloud What honour hath been done for all this What peculiar Service that 's the single question If now thy heart make answer as we read in the foregoing place There is nothing done no peculiar service at all instead of being the Temple of His praise thou hast been the grave of His mercies They have been buried in thee they have brought forth no fruits if this be the answer of thy heart and so it condemne thee the Lord is greater then our hearts He will condemn much more And therefore it is high time to look into the Register of Gods mercies into the books of record And if these mercies have laine as things cast aside and of no account as dead things out of minde if so long and to this day forgot then now it is high time that thy rest should be troubled and sleep should not come into thy eye till thou hast looked over this Register and recorded the mercies of the Lord and so pressed them on thy conscience That it may answer out of a pure heart that something at the length is done some sacrifice of praise and thanks is returned to the Lord for all this This is the first thing to be done now and it is high time to do it Considering the season It is supposed that gray haires are upon thee here and there they are sugared now and like the hoary frost The Almond tree flourisheth thou art in the winter of thine age It is high time now to look about thee and to consider That is the first ground of consideration 2. That time is hasting whose portion and burden from the Lord is but labour and sorrow And then though we have time for our day lasteth while life lasteth yet no time to do any thing in it to purpose for then the Grasse-hopper is a burden So I make two periods of this age And each a ground to presse on unto a timely consideration The one I call declining age when we have lived almost to threescore yeares The other when we are drawing onward to fourescore c. extreame old age of both in their order 1. Both the one as well as the other is an age not more desired then complained of They knew best why that feele the burden of it I have not lived unto it It is likely that person complained not without cause who being willed to hasten her pace told them who were so quick with her That so she could not do for she carryed a great burden on her back And whereas no burden at all appeared to the eye she replyed again that threescore years were passed over her head and that was the burden Plaut And so it may well be with those whose spirits are much spent and strength wasted even at those yeares And then age it self alone is a burden I can speake little here out of experience But this I can say If God be pleased to stretch out my day so long I shall know no cause to complain of the length for that is a blessing Length of dayes is from the right hand Prov. 3. 16. Riches and honour from the left Only we must note here That if the Lord be pleased to shorten the day of this life to any person as sometimes He doth to His dearest and most obedient children their dayes are not long upon earth why yet if He eek out this short day here with an eternitie of dayes and pleasures at His right hand when they are taken hence if so that partie shall have no cause to complaine of a short day on earth so abundantly recompensed in heaven This is a note by the way If I say God be pleased to stretch forth my dayes so long I know no cause why I should complaine of a blessing I may complaine and just cause why I should and that bitterly but not for the accession of yeares If any thing sower them it is of mine owne Leaven and of my owne putting in Complaine of my selfe I may of them I may not Old age is a calme quiet and easie time if youth have done it no disservice in filling its bones before hand Nor no intemperance hath weakned its head or feete If so Old age hath just cause to complaine of the Man not the man of Old Age. There is no Guest in the world that is more desired and expected and yet when it comes worse welcomed and entertained then Old Age is still with sighes and complaints which we know argues bad welcome I would have my Child make good provision for it against it come and when it is come to give it good welcome Welcome I say I doe not say ease Good welcome doth consist we say in shewing a good and chearefull countenance to our guest not in giving him too much ease or feeding him too daintily Let it appeare thou hast laid up store against thy yeares come and now they are come thou canst welcome them and art glad they are come but doe not make too-much of them in giving them too much ease I may warne thee of it againe for Old Age is very craving very importunate that way though they may be importunate If thou yeeldest to a lithernesse and a listnesses whereto Old Age inclineth us very much and so to spare thy body thy activenesse will decay more in one moneth then otherwise it would in twelve It s observable what the Heathen
reproof the hearing whereof we cannot endure And such a like reproof must he or she heare even such an one as will make their hearts like a stone within them if being preserved so and so long they have so unkindely requited the Lord if having so long a time of gathering and of exercising their talent they have gained nothing if having passed over so many yeares they have carelesly passed over also the observations which so many yeares would have yeelded very many For this we must still remember That the unthankfull man the better he is the worse he is That is the more good the Lord hath been to him the heavier his account will be and then the worse it will be with him Better the Lord had been a wildernesse unto him then that he should be a wildernesse to the Lord who had so watered him that he might be fruitfull That we may escape this great condemnation labour we to acquaint our selves betime with the Lord and to grow up more and more in the knowledge of Iesus Christ and the power of his grace for according to our increase and growth herein will our strength be for in Christ Iesus the decayes of age are repaired so as there shall be no more an infant of dayes nor an old man that hath not filled his dayes as Mr Calvine expoundeth the place e Esay 65. 20. Let us heare now how sadly Clemens of Alexandria complaineth at this point we will heare his counsell also for that is of use indeed but his complaint first which is this Ye have been infants then children then grown-men after grave-men but yet good men never Now reverence your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. ad gentes pag. 50. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Châ—ysost Tom. 6. in vet Test pag 543. old-age this is the counsell give this honour unto it of being wise of doing vertuously give it as you would have others give you honour and due reverence You are hastening now towards your grave set your face the more stedfastly towards your countrey which is above Your feet are almost stumbling upon the dark mountains pluck them up now as a Traveller that hath slept out his time and yet hath farre to go and walk on the faster in the wayes of peace so redeeming the time Put that crown upon your gray head upon your declining age the Sun of the day is neare the setting that now at length now you are dying you may begin to live A man cannot be said to live truly till he lives godlily holily till then he is dead though he lives that the end of your life may be the beginning of your happinesse Oh! farre be it that ye should be delivered and delivered again and yet again that you should be spared and spared and yet to commit more abominations h Jer. 7. 10. far be it that ye should be i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ioid. pag. 40. Alex. as some have been by so much the more wicked the more kinde and gracious the Lord hath been You pity blinde men k 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Ibid. pag. 49. and deaf men because they cannot see the works of God which ye see nor heare the works of God which ye heare O pitie your selves for ye are both both blinde and deaf Ye have seen much ye have observed little ye have heard many things and those great things but ye understand not what ye heard Now heare and hearken now see and perceive now while it is called to day and know that there is a great deale of mercy l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. p. Ibid. 41. that yet the day is and is yet continued still every day to this present repeated a great mercy this provoke the Lord no longer grieve His good spirit no more lest He swear in His wrath as He will do if we continue to turn grace into wantonnesse m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Ibid. While it is yet to day heare His voice and turn unto Him This is the counsell I will adde but this to it That He and He onely turns the heart who opened the eyes of Him that was born blinde and made a man every whit whole therefore the Church saith convert me and I shall be converted c. It is He who gives a seeing eye and an hearing eare even both these is a speciall mercy from the Lord and greatly to be begged for This then we must note for close hereof that as there may be a childe in n Noli annorum nos aest mare numero nec sapientiam canos reputes sed canos sapientiam Hier. ad Paul 14. p. 180. yeares and a man in understanding so also may there be an old man in yeares and a childe in understanding For understanding comes not by yeares but by meditation in Gods law o Psal 119. 99. 100. Noli fidem pensare temporibus Ibid. I have more understanding then my teachers for thy testimonies are my meditation I understand more then the Ancients because I keep thy precepts A man may run out many yeares and more houres and yet be never the wiser by all that time because he hath not learnt from whom every good and perfect gift commeth even from the Father of lights He that worketh all our worke in us and for us before whom the Elders fell down and worshipped casting their crowns before His Throne acknowledging themselves to be in point of grace but Almes-men p Exuentes omne propriam benignitatem se benefictarios ejus agnoscunt ante cujus thronum coronas abjiciunt Brightman Rev. 4. 10. or sitting at the receit of a free mercy He it is that giveth wisdome not length of yeares nor number of dayes out of His mouth cometh knowledge q Prov. 2. 6. and understanding God iustructs unto discretion r Esay 28. 18. The Husbandman can neither sow nor reap c. without assistance and instruction from God much lesse can he sow righteousnesse and reap the same without speciall instruction from His mouth Who knoweth the heart therefore it is said Who teacheth like Him Å¿ Job 38. 22. And he that is old and stricken in yeares yet hath learnt so much as hath been said That the Lord giveth wisdome that His word or law instructs to discretion This mans case is not to be despaired of though it be towards the last houre for while breath is within the nostrils for ought we know there is a doore of grace and mercy open But yet this is a very sad and lamentable case For the longer a man walks on in the wayes of ignorance the more unwilling and unable he will be to return and be reformed custome in sinning exercising still more and more tyranny his understanding will be more darkned his judgement more perverted his will more stubborn
and Protection both He is all to us and will be so when we are nothing in our selves And so much touching my Wildernesse and Gods providing for me even there though I tempted him ten times I call it a wildernesse for so I may because so my foolishnesse in my wayfare made it And Gods provision for me was very remarkable and therefore to be remembred for the Parents sake and Childrens too of great use and concernment to both Indeed he that can say no more of his Travels but that he passed through a Wildernesse hath said little to commend his Pilgrimage but much to magnifie the power of That Hand whereby he had a safe Convoy through the same It is a poore and worthlesse life such mine is that hath nothing worthy to be remembred in it but its Infirmities But yet there is nothing so magnifies Gods power * 2 Cor. 12. 9. as mans weaknesse doth When I shall give account of my life and cast up the summe thereof saith Iunius k Miserationes Domininarrabo quumrationes narrabo miserae vitae meae ut glorificetur dominus in me qui fecit me vitâ Junii affix Oper. Theol. and so he begins I shall tell of the mercies of the Lord and His loving kindnesse to me ward And then he goes on reckoning up the infirmities of his body some of his minde too but that he puts a Marke upon is what extremitie he was in at Geneva and how graciously the Lord disposed thereof for that was remarkable indeed Beza also spareth not to tell us nay he fills his mouth with it how troublesome the Itch was to him not so easily cured then Deut. 28. 29. as now and what a desperate way the Smart the Chyrurgeon put him to and bad Counsell put him upon Such it was that there was but a step betwixt him and death but God wonderfully put to His Hand inter Pontem fontem Beza could not but confesse that Mercy as we finde it in his Epistle before his Confessions And so farre That the Parent and Childe both may learne to account Gods works and if it might be to call His mercies by their names and to rest upon Gods providence as the surest inheritance Now I come to give the reason of my paines in all this which follows and what ingageth a Parent unto this Duty 1. I considered my yeers declining apace When the Sunne is passed the Meridian and turned towards its place where it must set then we know the night approcheth when man ceasing from his work lyeth down in the Darke It is the Wisemans Counsell l Eccles 9. 10. and it is his wisdome to do that which is in his hand with all his might m Prima Actionum Argo Committenda sunt extrema Briareo de Aug. l. 6. 41. before he goes hence for there is no working in the grave The putting off this Day and the next and halfe a day cost the poore Levite and his Concubine very deer as we read Iudg. 19. And it teacheth us in our affairs concerning our selves or ours in setting our house in order That it is dangerous triflng away the Day-light I cannot say with Isaac I am old or mine eye is dimme but I must say in the following words I know not the day of my Death God may spare me among mine yet longer for my building is not so old but it may stand And yet so unsound the foundation is for it is of Clay it may sinke quickly as my good Father before me I may lye down turne to the Wall and to the earth all at once though yet I have scarcely felt and so also my Father before me the least distemper If this consideration come home and proves seasonable I shall then set all in a readinesse and in order that when Death comes I may have then no more to doe but to welcome it and shut the eye and depart tanquam Conviva Satur as one that hath made an improvement of life and hath hope in Death That was my first consideration 2. I considered my Children all three young the eldest but peeping into the World discerning little the second but newly out of the armes the youngest not out of the Cradle I considered also they are not so much mine as the Lords Whom thou hast borne unto me saith the Lord Ezek. 16. 20. And therefore in all reasonable Construction to be returned back againe unto Him by a well ordered education as himselfe hath appointed These thoughts so over-ruled me at length for I am not easily drawn to take my Pen in hand and prevailed with me to pen some instructions which might treat with them at more yeers and tell them their Parents Will concerning them in case either he or she should be taken from them before they were grown up It is but a dead letter yet somewhat it may worke through Him That worketh all things being as I said the Parents last Will and Testament concerning the Childe My Will otherwise is almost as quickly made as Luthers was wherein he could commend nothing to Wife and three Children but Gods blessing and Melch. Adam vita Luth. ◠134. protection And that is a rich legacy indeed a mighty portion but it is not transmitted from the Parent to the Childe This portion the Parent cannot bequeath the Childe cannot receive And yet the Parent and Childe must intend this above all things even the committing all unto God and expecting all from Him so as to say and to say heartily Thou art my Portion saith my soule Thou art a God in covenant with us with ours our God and the God of our seede Children I have for thou hast given them me They are Thine more then mine I was a meanes to bring them into the World and by Thy appointment to be as a Nurse unto them here They are thy Charge for provision and protection I beseech Thee Answer this Trust now specially when it is Thy pleasure so that I can take no care of them my selfe Thou slumbrest not Thou dyest not I must So Luther teacheth us to draw our will and so another as precious hath put it into See Dr. Sibs P. 647. S. C. forme And we are sure the Lawyer can finde no flaw here There is no errour in the Draught And though this may make the Parent rest secure for he hath chosen a faithfull Over-seer or Executor of his will yet it must not make him carelesse and negligent I have according to my rule and Gods gracious supply layed-up for my Children though very little in comparison of what some may thinke I might have done considering my time of gathering yet something it is and I wonder that little is so much A little riches are hardly got a great deale easily i Essayes Facilis ad divitias via quo die poenituerit bonae mentis Sen. nat Quest lib. 4. cap. 1. It is the Lord Ver. Riddle but easily read He
then sufficeth the contrary Chrysost ad Heb. cap. 12. Hom. 29. temperate use of the creatures so as they may refresh Chap. 4 § 15 not oppresse this will be their care And they will looke to it also that the broken meat be taken up that the least crum which can be saved be not lost no not a crum § 15. We that are by nature children of wrath have in our nature so much fiercenesse as that we cannot credit nor beleeve it though another should shed teares over x 2 King 8. 11. Virtutes vitia non sunt priusquam lacessantur it untill the foundations of our natures are discovered The occasion offered and the restraint taken off A swine will keep clean in a meadow Lime will not smoake till you put water to it A Lion sleeps waking with his eyes open and wakes sleeping with his eyes shut To look to he is as gentle as a Lambe but if you pluck him by the eare he will pluck you by the arme though he seemes to wink stirre him or let him loose then you shall know what he is y Solve Leonem senties I meane by all this That we know not our natures how fierce they are till we are tempted by the occasion and so tried Therefore we should looke to it betimes and be jealous over our own hearts and restraine in children whatsoever leads that way I meane to crueltie and fiercenesse And then we shall not suffer children to delight themselves as commonly they do in the vexation and paine of the creature which the more it is in their power the more children will vexe the creature to shew their power in the torture and paine thereof witnesse that rude custome on Shrove-tuesday witnesse also our flyes birds Cats and Dogs tossed up in blankets or set on furiously to encounter mangle and enter-teare each other Children consider not by how weake supports mans life is upheld nor how serviceable the flesh of some of them is the blood of othersome and the excrements of a third the most approved remedy for a sore throat This children consider not nor can they think what ill blood such bloody exercises do breed They consider not that such sports leade to crueltie whereby we come neerest to the Divell who delights in the paine of the creature It is a knowne story and to be observed That a very proud King delighted much in his childe hood to put out the eyes of Quailes This King carryed himselfe afterwards with such pride and insolency that he had his denomination from it and delighted himselfe so much in crueltie and bloud that the people expelled him out of their Citie and Countrey with protestation never to receive any King againe so they changed the name of their Government An Emperour after him delighted as much to see the entralls of flies he killed as many as he could catch and tooke his times for it So the proverb was The z Ne musca quidem Suet. Dom. Emperour had not so much as a flye neere him This man or rather beast in shape of a man delighted as much in the shedding of Christians blood and as cruelly abused Gods Image which he had shamefully cast off Indeed there are some men who are cruell to Christians and kinde to Beasts But they have but the shape of men they are a Lege Dialog de bello sacro p. 339. Beasts indeed and therefore do they esteeme more of Beasts then of Christians It is b Lo. Ver. Essay 13. p. 67. reported that a Christian Boy in Constantinople Had like to have been stoned for gagging in a waggishnesse a long billed fowle b I would perswade but this from hence That children be not suffered to bathe their recreations in bloud as Mr. Bolton phraseth it Not to refresh their tyred mindes with spectacles of crueltie nor inured to behold rufull objects without horrour No beast they say takes content in the hurting of any other except in the case of hunger or anger They satisfie their appetite and rage sometimes with crueltie and bloud but their eyes and fancies never It is a debasing of humanitie below beasts to please the eye I say not in beholding one man teare and mangle another but to see poore beasts encountring each other and mangling each other being set on by man we must not make Gods judgements and punishments of sinne for we made the beasts wild our sinne put the enmitie betwixt the Woolfe and the Lambe c Quis seras fecit nisi tu Mor. de verit religionis cap. 12. the matter and object of our recreation Alas sinfull man it is Mr. d Direct 156. Boltons patheticall expression what an heart hast thou that canst take delight in the cruell tormenting of a dumbe creature Is it not too much for thee to behold with dry eyes that fearefull brand which only thy sinne hath imprest upon it but thou must barbarously also presse its oppressions and make thy selfe merry with the bleeding miseries of that poore harmlesse thing which in its kinde is much more and farre better serviceable to the Creator then thy selfe Yet I deny not but that there may be another lawfull use of this Antipathy for the destroying of hurtfull and enjoying of usefull creatures so that it be without any taint or aspersion of crueltie on our part or needlesse tormenting of the silly beasts It is a sure note of a good man He is mercifull to his beast And it is worth our marke That the Lord commands a mercy to a creature perhaps not worth two farthings and for this He promiseth a great mercy the like blessing which is promised to them who honour their father and mother Deut. 22. 6 7. If thou finde a birds nest c. Thou shalt in any wise let the Dam go and take the young to thee That thou mayest prosper and prolong thy dayes This is to lead to mercy and to take out of our hearts crueltie saith Mr Ainsworth It is the least of all in Moses law and yet such a promise is annexed thereunto as we heard so true is that which the learned Knight hath The debts of mercie and crueltie shall be surely paid Think we on this so we have our duty and we shall teach our children theirs and then though the bloud of the creature be not spared for we have dominion over it yet it shall not be abused nor shall we delight our selves in the pain of it which tends to much evil which we must by all means and all too little prevent and at the first while the minde is tender and doth easily receive any impression 15. It is not possible to point at all the evils whereof our corrupt nature is fruitfull nor at all the meanes whereby to prevent the growth of the same I remember how e Ad Dâ—m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. ω. Isocrates concludes his oration so full of instructions With all our
the Highest is our protection He is our Sun and shield He kept us this night which is now past But behold His goodnesse yet further He hath renewed the face of the earth unto us given us a new resurrection with the day lengthened and stretched out yet further our span of time renewing our strength and making us fresh like the â—agle crowning us with loving kindnesse and tender mercies such mercies as whereby our hearts are cheered to see the light which thousands cannot say great reason we should call upon all to praise the Lord and this right early for now praise is comely †2. We must now every one to his work in his lawfull calling or to that which fitteth for the same if children we are not made as it is said of the Leviathan to take our pastimes in the world and to passe our dayes in vanity The Sun riseth and man goeth to his labour every man his severall way and in those severall wayes so many snares great cause to fence and guard our hearts and as was said to perfume our spirits from above that we may avoid these snares from below e The first fruits of our lips and hearts are to be offered unto God Amb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why wilt thou suffer thine adversary to surprise thy castle or strong holds first in the morning Basil de jejunio p. 285. for we shall meet with them it is not possible to be otherwise We draw along with us such a concatenation a chain of businesse as that we must needs be fettered and puzled with them if a gracious hand leade us not the way into them and help us out of them In the commerce betwixt man and man which drives the great trade of the world There sinne sticks as close as a naile sticketh betwixt the joyning of the f Ecclus. 27. 2. stones which consideration engageth us to feare alwayes and to walk close with God that our wayes may be established lest going beyond our brother in bargaining we exchange the favour of God for some poore advantage from the world †3. Now that we are going every man his way as the way of our calling leads us now we must know that God and He onely openeth our way to all our occasions leades us unto them and gives us an issue out of them we labour in the fire if God restrain His influence from above we â— Endeavour without prayer is presumption prayer without endevour is temptation may be early up and never the neare as the proverb is we may gather and put our gatherings in a broken bag Therefore as in all our gettings we must get wisdome so in all our wayes we must seek to and for wisdome so shall our wayes be establishedg. It is the strength of the Almighties hand that inables us It is His wisdome that instructs us His blessing that crowns all with successe To Him we must go in all conditions of life for direction and guidance And in all our necessities for supply as being the fountaine and spring-head of every good and perfect gift Iam. 1. He that would obey well must seeke to God He subdueth the spirit and makes it subject He makes the mountaine a valley and the rough way smooth He that would governe well must seeke to Him He gave Salomon an understanding heart 1 King 3. 12. He that would carry himselfe valiantly in a just quarrell must seek to God as that victorious h Ante bellum in oratione jacuit ad bellum de oratione surrexit priusquam pugnam manu capesseret supplicatione pugnavit Salv. dâ—guber lib. 7. p. 251. Commander did who alwayes rose from off his knees to go to fight for He teacheth our hands to warre and our fingers to fight Psal 18. 34. He that would have understanding and knowledge in his Trade must binde himself a servant unto God for He enableth us this way Exod. 31. 3. And this we must know for our incouragement That there is no greater glory no not to His Angels then that they serve before Him If the husband-man would k 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. Strom. lib. 7. pag. plough and sow and thresh c. and all i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. They who think they can doe or speake any thing without God think also that they can goe without feet Clem. Alex. ad Gentes p. 36. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys Lâ—ge orat 1. 2. de precatione Tom. 1. in season ordinary things we think and yet the more prayerfull he is the more successefull he will be for this God doth teach him He instructs to discretion Esay 28. 26. We must not ascribe any thing to our own power Remember we must the Lord God still for it is He that gives power to get wealth Deut. 8. 17. And for our wants there is a sweet comfort Phil. 4. 19. My God shall supply all your need no good thing shall He with-hold c. That man is as bold as he is ignorant who dares attempt the smallest businesse without acquainting God with it and craving His assistance in it and blessing upon it It is very notable which we reade Nehem. 2. vers 4. Then the King said for what doest thou make request so I prayed to the God of heaven Marke here we would have thought that Nehemiahs answer was easie and in a good readinesse and yet before he gave it his heart was lifted up to the God of heaven from whom the answer of the tongue is l Prov. 16. 1. It teacheth us very much and what it teacheth is very plaine which is I must not onely begin the day with prayer so perfuming my spirits for it is the key that unlocks the Treasure of heaven and earth It is as the morning starre it must usher in the day And as the evening starre too it is one and the same it locks up the night not only I say begin the day with prayer but have my eyes intent to Him as I look to prosper in my private and speciall affaires for what I have not gained as well by my prayers as my paines will not prove a blessung to me Looking up to God gives me power to imploy my parts and to improve them it gives a better slde into businesses For Application of all this I know these things may seeme somewhat sublime and too high for the conceits of children But I intend not their information onely I know also that prayer being one of the great engines whereby to raise the dead heart and to effect great and marvellous things is an instrument too grave and weightie for a childe to manage But yet we must be dropping into children as we can A drop makes the stone hollow not with once but with often dropping The Ant m Silices itinere earum attritos videmus in opere semitam sactam nequis dubitet qualibet in re quid possit quantulacunque
creature when they shall have it and puts a price upon the same when it is in their hand It is rare amongst those that are grown up to finde a stomack full of meat and an heart as full of praise The emptie stomack feeles the comfort and is in likelihood more enlarged Let the childe abstain from all sometimes but not often it is their growing time yet sometime altogether from all at all times from part They must not taste of every dish nor look so to do it is not good for the Å¿ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cl. Al. Paed. 2. 1. pag. 103. parent lesse wholsome for the childe there is a drunkennesse t Plures cum sint vino sobriae ciborum largitate sunt ebriae Hier. lib. 2. ep 17. in eating as in drinking Accustome children to waite now they will waite with more patience hereafter But more specially teach them a fit and reverent behaviour both before and at the table Though they sit at a common table yet it is Gods table He spread it for the parent and the childe Though there we receive common blessings yet we must not put upon them common esteeme nor return for them common thanks children must not by their rude and uncivill deportment before and at the table make it a stable or an hogs-stye nor must they drown themselves there in an eager fulfilling their appetite like beasts u 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cl. Mex Pop. 2. 7. pag. 127. at their manger or swine in their trough like beasts I say that have their manger before x 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Loco laud. pag. 128. them and their dung-hill behind them hereof Clem. of Alex. makes very good use and that is all I tend to here 6. And now that we have eaten we must remember to return praise Our great Master is our great example Before He gave common bread He gave thanks and when He administred the Sacrament of His blessed body and bloud He concluded with an Hymn * Matt. 26. 30. Hearken to this saith Chrysostome y 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. upon those words all ye that goe from your common table like swine whereas ye should give thanks and conclude with a Psalme And hearken ye also who will not sit out till the blessing be given Christ gave thanks before He gave to His disciples that we might begin with thanks-giving And He gave thanks after He had distributed and sung a Psalme that we might do so likewise so Chrysostome Now then that we are filled it is the very season of thanksgiving saith the y 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrys de Laz. Ser. 1. Tom. 5. Father And he that is now to addresse himselfe to return thanks is supposed to have fed temperately and to be sober They that have fed without feare and are filled with their pasture are more like to kick with the heele then to return praise and in so doing are worse then the most savadge creatures who to shew their thankfulnesse will be at the beck of those that feed them We must remember that with us men every favour requires a z Omne beneficium exigit officium Lege Chrysost in Gen. cap. 12. Hom. 32. Man must not be like his belly what it receives to day it forgets to morrow and when it is full it thinks of temperance Translated out of Basil de jejunio p. 281. Psal 154 10. returne much more when we receive these comforts of meat and drink from Gods hand we must return in way of homage our thankfulnesse If it should be thrice asked as one in another case what is the speciall dutie or grace required in a Christian I should answer thrice also supposing the season Thankefulnesse Thankfulnesse at our sitting down Thankfulnesse at our receiving the blessing Thankfulnesse when we are refreshed Thankfulnesse is as good pleading in the Common Law the heart string a Lord Cooke Pref. Littlet thereof so of Religion It is the very All of a Christian if it be with all the heart And heartie it should be for as it is for beasts to eate till they be filled so is it beast-like to look downward when they are filled If God had made me a Nightingale I would saith on have sung as a Nightingale doth but now God hath made me a man I must as a man sing forth His praise All Thy works blesse Thee and Thy Saints praise Thee Now that we have received mercies we must think to make return else every bit we have eaten will be an inditement against us There is a vanitie in our natures for sometimes we stand upon exactnesse of justice as one saith in answering petty D. 5. 563. courtesies of men and in shewing our selves thankfull for favours received there when yet we passe by substantiall favours from God without taking notice of them But we can easily consider that if it be a sinne in civilitie carelesly to passe by the favours from men much more in Religion to receive from Gods hand and not to returne our thanks b Iâ—a semper â—omedendum est ut cibum oratio sequatur Lectio Hier. epist lib. 1. ep 35. pag. 47. And if it be a rude and uncivill fashion to rise from our common tables where we receive common bread to play much more then so to rise from our seat at Church where the bread we are fed withall is so much more precious as the soule is above the body We suppose then we are now rising from our common table where every man hath put in his thanks as into a common stock and so joyntly offered unto God Cyprians words are seasonable here I finde them in Vrsinus touching the order and connexion of the fourth with the fift petition After our supplication to God for supply of food and sustenance Give us we say forgive us that is we pray for pardon of sinnes and offences That He who is fed by God may live to God c Vt à Deo pasti in Deum vâ—vant Thankfulnesse and that is the spring of a kinde obedience must presently follow the receipt of mercies It is good to take the advantage of the freshnesse of a blessing He will not be thankfull anon who is not thankfull now he hath newly felt and found the sweetnesse of a mercy what we adde to delay we take from thankfulnesse If the heart be closed now that the Lord hath so newly opened His hand toward it it is like it will be as hard and dry as a flint afterwards And what an unkinde requitall is it when in stead of being Temples of His praise we become graves of His benefits They lye buryed in us It is an old tradition but instructs very much which is That every creature hath a three-fold voice to man take returne beware In more words the meaning is this when we take the creature into our hands be it bread or be it water
d Isa 33. â—â— Calv. under these two all is contained saith Calvin we must remember that it speaks thus unto us 1. Take the benefit and comfort which the Lord hath ordained thee from me 2. Returne the duty of praise and thanks which is due to the Lord for me 3. And beware thou forget it not least the Lord deprive thee of me or curse His blessings Our goodnesse e Job 35. 6 7 8. is nothing to the Lord nor can we adde unto His glory by making returne of our thankfulnesse any more then we can give to the fountaine f where at we Aug. de civit 10. 5. drinke or to the Sun whereby we see but yet we must note That there is a taxation or impost set upon every thing we enjoy which is this God the supreame Lord must have His tribute of glory out of the same And from man who hath these things to trade withall God must have the tribute of thankfulnesse It being the easie taske tribute or impost which the supreame Lord of All layeth upon all the goods we possesse and blessings we receive and if we be not behinde with Him in this tribute of our lips He will see that all creatures in heaven and earth shall pay their tributes unto us But if we keep back His homage we forfeit and endanger the losse of all Man will not sow his best seed but in a fruitfull ground God intends His glory in every mercy g Lâ—ge S. Basiâ— in Heâ— Hom. 7. ω. and he that praiseth Him glorifies Him Remember then we must â—hen we receive Gods mercies what we reade Deut. 10. 12. And now O Israel what doth the Lord thy God require of thee All errors saith one h Bp. And. who said much in a little are tolerable save two about the first beginning and the last end we erre against the first when we derive things amisse not acknowledging all to come from God Against the second we erre when we referre things amisse when we returne not all to Him giving Him the tribute of praise I must remember here-with the memorable words of Clemens which are these Behold O man i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Proâ—reâ—t p. 53. for how small a matter the Lord doth give thee land to till water to drink another water whereby to send forth and to returne thy commodities ayer wherein to breath A house to cover thee from the injury of the weather fire whereby to warme thee and where at to imploy thee A world wherein to dwell all k 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loco laud. these things so great so many Thy Lord hath as it were rented out unto thee at a very easie rate a little faith a little thanks so it be true so they be hearty And most unkinde thou if thou denyest Him that rent The earth is the Lords and the fulnesse thereof if then thou dost not acknowledge thy Lord being compassed round with His blessings He will then say unto thee l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. loco laud. p. 48. Get thee out of my land and from out of my house Touch not my water partake not of my fruits If I have rented these out unto thee for so small a matter a little thanks and thou dost deny me that little thou hast in so doing forfeited the whole and I shall require the forfeiture at thy hands So usefully spake Clemens of Alexandria worthy all mens knowledge This Theame is large I will conclude it with a story which I finde related by Mr. Downam in his Guide to Holinesse m Lib. 3. â—a 24. pag. 281. which is this If the Lord curse His blessings for our ingratitude we shall either have no power to feed upon them or in stead of nourishing us they will be the cause of weaknesse sicknesse and death it selfe of the former not long since my selfe with many others saw a fearefull example in one whom I visited in his sicknesse of which he dyed whose strength being little abated and his appetite very good to his meat would often and earnestly desire to have some brought unto him but no sooner did it come into his sight but presently he fell into horrible shaking and trembling distractions and terrible convulsions of all his parts so as the bed would scarce hold him whereon he lay all which presently ceased as soone as the meat was taken away And this was done so often till at length he grew weary of so many attempts in vaine and prepared himselfe for death giving unto us all many signes of earnest repentance Among others he penitently confessed that this punishment was justly inflicted upon him for his abuse of Gods good creatures especially because he would neither of himselfe nor by the perswasion of his friends give thanks unto God when he received his food which he conceived to be the cause why now God would not suffer him to have the use of his creatures which he had so often abused by his grosse ingratitude and earnestly desired that he might be an example unto all men in this Chap. 7 § 3 fearefull judgement that they might escape the like by shunning his sinne Remember this story when thou sittest down to meat and forget it not when thou risest up for remembring such an example as was this we cannot forget to return our tribute of thanks and praise So much to the second season And now having so done and being risen from our table we may take a walke and view the fields with the creatures there This season follows and the observations therefrom CHAP. VII The third season The method in reading the Book of the creatures Essayes or Lectures there-upon I. The earth and creatures thereon II. The waters and creatures therein III. The Aire and creatures therein IIII. The firmament and wonderfulnesse thereof 3. WHen thou walkest Here is a large field to run over and hard it is to keepe within compasse Which way soever we looke we have the great Book of the creatures in our eye and from every one more then one instruction If we walke no further forth then into our garden we see what varietie that yeelds and the same varietie of instructions If in our grove we may remember what the Father said thereof That he learnt more Divinity more of God in his walk therein then in his study amongst his paper-books Which way soever we looke whether below Leg. Chrysost ad popul Antioch Hom. 9. or above or about us we may behold those Texts which Iob Ionah Paul made choice and great use of The Rooke of the creatures every man may come by and he that runs may reade it Their language is easie to be understood They open as I may say the freest schooles and are the fittest to give instruction of any My scope or intent here is 1. First to deliver this kinde of knowledge which the book of the creatures helps to furnish us withall
earth which we see not And whether in the waters or no I cannot tell but this we know that the fishes which we perceive not to breath do dye without it Of all the works of Gods hand it is the most admirable both for the wayes thereof and operations there-from I know not which we could want of all the creatures of God but I am sure we cannot want aire My veines arteries nerves all are quickned by it it is the soul of our breathing If I had all that heart could wish all were nothing if I wanted aire and aire must be good and wholesome too or else all would be as good as nothing Therefore it is Gods great doale to the world all share in it And it hath a kinde of ubiquitie It is every where and yet we cannot see where it is so like it is the likest of any to a spirit for it is the most bodylesse body by which name it is sometimes called As we call that for which we have no name to expresse its strange vertue and efficacy If I could go to the furthest parts of the earth or sea there it is If I could climbe up to the uppermost region there it is also If I could descend into the lowest vaults and caves of the earth there it would be found It is as inseparable from a man as his conscience is shut the windows barre the doores draw the curtaines all close yet you can as easily shut out your conscience as it The aire will come in it will visit us in what condition soever And if this may be said of the creature what then of the Creator He that hath given the creature so large a circuit three regions of the world hath yet appointed it its bounds But take we heed we limit not the Holy One of Israel By this creature we ascend neerer to the Creatour then by any other but yet we come infinitely short we must not compare God to any creature for to Him nothing is like The aire is pure and cleare of it self and in its own nature but if it were so to us it would not be agreeable to ours it would be then too rare and thin and not agreeing to our earthy and compounded bodies therefore for our benefit and comfort sometimes for our punishment too it receives alteration from beneath or from above or from about it thence it is that most times the aire refresheth and sometimes poysoneth sometimes temperately cooling sometimes again with heate scorching Sometimes it candies the herbs and trees and hideth the waters as with a stone d Job 38. 30. and then who can stand before His cold e Psal 147. 17. who casteth forth His yee like morsels for so we must resolve the Lords f Job 38. 29. question out of whose wombe came the yce And if it be said who can stand before His cold hou much more then who can stand before Him when He is angry for our God is a consuming fire 1. Here the winds have their circuit but where there treasure is we cannot tell I know what the Poets faigne and what the Philosopher of the greatest experience that our part of the world had doth write hereof But the sacred Scripture saith That the Lord causeth it to blow g Psal 127. 18. 104 3. He raiseth the stormy winde for He hath appointed them their work their circuit as He hath the treasures h Job 38. 22. for the snow and haile And we heare their sound and feele them too but the place whence they come we know not nor whither they will so secret is the way of the winde And as secret is the way of the spirit but more admirable in working it casteth down strong holds too it levells high and exalted things But I am too high This we may conceive The same wind which now shaketh the leafe and maketh the feather to move being charged against a mountaine would have turned it up from the foundation And the same strength that bloweth up the dust if it came against the earth would shake the bottoms of it And this should make us feare before Him that whatsoever He hath done whether it seeme great or little we should confesse His handy worke and according to His greatnesse so we should honour Him that whatsoever He hath commanded whether it seeme weightie or little all our obedience should be streight unto it These are Mr Dearings words i Heb. 1. vers 3. Lect. 2. Tranquillus domâ—aus tranquillat omnia quietum assicere quicscore est Cal. I adde this All the winds without though never so raging and boisterous shake not the earth which is of ordinary use If a man have peace within no matter what troublesome blasts without they shall not remove him 2. Here likewise is the kingdome of the winged Creatures where they have more scope then the greatest Monarch on the earth and more aire-roome then the ship hath sea-roome when it rideth on the widest Ocean And more secure these creatures are then we for their provision though they sow not neither do they reape nor carry into their barn for your heavenly Father feedeth them And doth He so even the young raven a forsaken creature thrice mentioned in the sacred Scripture the more fiâ—mly to establish us in a providence for the Naturalists say the old raven forsaketh her young till they be feathered but our heavenly Father feedeth them how much more then those who trust in Him and roule themselves upon Him for provision They are of more worth then the ravens How great should be the securitie of the Righteous that the Lord will provide He will take care for their orovision as He doth for their protection Oh be thou saith Chrysostome as secure as the birds k are that thy heavenly Father will feed â— â—ves sine paâ—â—â—onio vivunt M. Fâ—lix in fol. p. â—â— liâ— 1◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys ad Pop. Ant. Hom. 12. thee too Here also I mean in the aâ—rie regiment we see the great vessels of water rouling over our heads and it should be wonderfull in our eyes for we cannot understand the ballancing thereof He that upholdeth all things by His mighty power upholdeth the clouds and divideth a course for their rain making small the drops thereof so as they distill upon man abundantly and in a way of mercy He it is who maketh strong the bond of the cloud who gives it a retentive facultie whereby the water is bound up within it as with a swadling cloth for so we must resolve the Lords question Who l Job 36. 16. and 36 27. hath bound the waters in a garment Even thou ô Lord hast done it we know Thy Name and Thy Sonnes Name for thou art wonderfull m Prov. 30. 4. Isa 9. If the Lord should unloose this bond of the cloud this retentive facultie then would the water fall as through a floud-gate or from a spoute not breaking
and humble us to the dust that from thence we may present this great request To the Hearer of prayers Lord that we might receive our sight Å¿ Mark 10. 51. Lord that thou wouldest give unto us the spirit of wisdome and revelation in the knowledge of Him the eyes of our understanding being enlightned that we may know what is the hope of His calling and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the Saints c. Ephes 1. 17 18 c. 4. It is considerable how small a thing doth make the place about us light supplying the want of that great body which is now with the other side of our globe What the Sun cannot do saith Chrysostome a little candle can t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ad Ephes Hom. 12. for not to speake of the starres those great lights which then shew clearest when the night is darkest a rush-candle a Glow-worm the bones of a fish a rotten piece of wood will dart you out a light which though the faintest all the power of that darknesse we properly call night cannot withstand But here we must remember a darknesse which we reade of so thick and palpable that it over-powered the fire and candle it put both out neither could burne the while As Philo Iudeus tells us as well as the Apocrypha u Wisd 17. 5. This tells us first that He who is the God not of some but of all consolations can take away some comforts and supply us with other-some which may not be so full in our eye but yet as satisfying more contentfull He can put our acquaintance farre from us He can suffer the divell to cast some into prisons and into dungeons where the enemy thinks there is no light to be expected so wise they are in their generation and so prudently they have contrived But the enemy is mistaken for He who formeth light and createth darknesse He that made the light to shine out of the wombe of darknesse He that makes a candle supply the want of the Sun He that turneth the shadow of death into the morning He that doth these great and wonderfull things He it is that gives His children light in darknesse and songs in their night As Peter found it for behold to him a light shined in the prison x Act. 12. 7. so shall it be with all that truely feare the Lord A light shall arise to them in darknesse * Isa 58. 10. Psal 112. There is some cranny left whereby to let in light and a way open with the Lord for deliverance from all the expectation of the enemy though all the wayes be blocked up to man both in respect of the prison and the Iron-gate y Act. 12. 11. The children of Israel children of the day and of the light ever had in despight of the enemy and ever shall have light in their dwellings z Exod. 10. 23 though these dwelling are prisons caves and dungeons which the enemy calleth and indeed seeme to be like the shadow of death This meditation may be more enlarged for if nature be so solicitous as was said * Preface p. 19. in recompensing what is wanting much more then so will the God of nature do He takes from Moses a distinct and treatable voice He Himself will be a mouth to Moses He takes away Iohn a great light to His Church He gives the Lord Christ The Light of that Light He takes away Christ His bodily presence He leaves them not orphans comfortlesse He gives His Church a fuller measure of His Spirit He takes away strength of body He gives strength of faith establishment of heart He takes away a deare childe by that sorrow as by a sanctified meanes He formeth Christ in the heart It is of high use to consider how God doth supply in one kinde what He takes away in another as He doth make the little candle to supply the absence of the great Sun Lastly when we lye down we are to be taught as to recount the mercies of the day so to call to minde the dangers of the night Houses are marked out in the day-time and broke open in the night houses also are fired in the night And how helplesse is man amidst these casualties and dangers If a sleep the theefe findes him bound to his hand and if fire take his chamber he is fewell for it such sad examples we have known our eyes have seene The destroying angel but one of Gods guard hath set forth in the night and before the morning hath executed his commission our adversary wil do that to us sleeping which he cannot waking many have gone to bed well and before morning have made their appearance before the Iudge of the whole world and then as they lay down so they rise up and so provided or so destitute there is no time for provision then when we are summoned to appeare Naturally all things seeme black unto us in the night and if we see no danger nor see any reason of danger yet our fancy can create dangers unto us The Lords second comming is often mentioned in the sacred Scripture and as often in the night which defines not the time but shews the manner of His coming As a thiefe in the night as a snare suddenly when by the most least expected All these considerations should teach us to watch over our hearts and to take a strict account of our wayes at our lying down and to lift up our eyes to the Keeper of Israel that His eyes may be upon us for good appointing a sure Guard about us in the night As we cannot tell what a day may bring forth so nor can we know how our feares may increase before the next morning we cannot no not the wisest of men look forward a few houres to tell what may happen before the day-dawn a Imminentium nescius Tac. de Paeto 15. 2. which should engage â—ur heart to Him who changeth not And that it may be so we must remember our prayers and our praises these being performed in a right manner do secure us touching protection in the night prayer will help us against carefulnesse notwithstanding our dangers are so many as we have heard it will suck out the heart of our feares and sorrows b Preces hirudo curarum Melanch so as they shall not hurt us nor dismay us but that we may lye down in peace But then we must remember what prayer is It is saith Luther The unutterable groaning of those who despaire of any strength in themselves c Precatio est gemitus inenarrabilis desperantium de se Luther in Gen. It is not every prayer which secureth us there is a prayer which more provoketh uttered only from the lips in such a manner as would not be accepted before our Governour d Melac 1. 8. We must remember our tribute of praise too great reason That we should praise
look up to Him till thou art loosed from that spirit of infirmity and filled with His goodnesse with His Image which onely can fit and fill up which onely can satisfie thine § 4. There is yet another remnant of Gods goodnesse towards this Image of thine and thou must remember it to His praise for it makes up the summe of His mercies to thy outward man and very much it makes for che beauty and comelinesse thereof which consisteth but in the full number of parts and in their comely order wherein they are placed holding conformity and proportion with the whole For the beauty and comelinesse of the body stands in an onenesse and fit agreement of many parts to one I call this goodnesse of God a remnant of His mercy or fagge-end thereof not that it is so for the mercy I shall remember thee of is the verie beauty of His work the excellency of thy outward glory it sets it off to the eye and declares the excellent skill of the Worker But it is as a remnant or fagge-end in our esteeme we look upon it as the list of a fine piece of cloth we too commonly either behold it not at all or account not of it at all and all because we have this mercy we want it not Assuredly the commonnesse of a mercy and the not knowing the want of that mercy is the cause we set no estimate upon it at all Had the Lord dealt thus with thee as He might there are many monstrous births in the world many in whom His Image at the first not taken but cast away is doubly defac'd Had He made any part of thee double which is single or single which are double Had He for one face which no creature in the world hath but a Facies homini tantum Plin. Nat. Hist li. 11. ca. 37. man given thee two for one tongue two or for two eyes two eares two hands two feet but one I will not instance in those so beautifying ornaments Had the Lord for two eye brows which are but a few haires and they excrements of the body yet had He of them given thee but one that want had taken nothing at all from the bulke of thy body but very much from the ornament thereof so much that Si unum radatur supercilium c. August de Civit. Dei li. 11. c. 22. thou canst not well think or imagine But thou canst imagine that if any thing might have been spared then an excrement might and if not an excrement but deformitie would have followed then much more if thou hadst wanted some excellent or more usefull part Thou hast thy parts childe in weight and in number and in their order too and due place comelinesse and proportion in all Thou art not wanting And why think'st thou David that King and Prophet tells thee Because the Lord had written all thy parts in Psal 139. 16. Our book is our Remembrancer Fidelissimus adjutor memoriae Brightm Revel â— 1. pa. 91. His common place book He speaks to informe man and therefore to his capacity for he is dull and slow to understand That which we will not have forgotten nor omitted nor slipt over we will note in a book and set it before our eye In thy book all my members were written Had the Lord left out of His book thy eye thou hadst wanted it and then thou wouldst have said Oh what a mercy it is to have windows to look out of for now my body is to me a dungeon and the world a prison Had he left out thy tongue thou hadst wanted it and then as thou maist use it thou hadst wanted thy glory though otherwise and by abuse it is a world of wickednesse But had'st thou wanted it thou wouldst have said Oh what a mercy is it what an happinesse to have whereby to expresse my self Whereas now a Shepheard takes more content with his dogge then with me one that cannot deliver my meaning a Aug. de Civ Dei l. 19. c. â— It is so with the eare too had it been left out thou hadst stood amidst the people like a Statue or walked with them but converse thou couldst not In His book were all thy members written and thou mayest say as follows How great is the summe of them how great thinkst thou put them all together as they are and behold them and thy self an epitome of the whole world the Index of all the creatures and therefore well mayest thou take the following words speaking them to His praise How great is the summe of them Nay should I call Man the great world and the visible world before us the little world I should say no more but what a Greek Father Nazianze hath said before me So excellent and beautified a creature is man when he hath all his parts comelinesse and proportion in all I could be large here but praise would be the summe of all and praise is comely Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodnesse and the wonderfulnesse of his works even in this behalf touching our outward frame Consider now and so I conclude this also Hath God written all thy members in His book not one is left out Hath He set them in a comely and decent rank and posture And is this order and uniformity comely and goodly to behold as Souldiers well disciplined or as an Army with Banners We must needs grant it is so it is gracefull in the eyes as the contrary an inconformity and disorder in parts would have been as unseemly as to see Souldiers breaking their Ranks or an Army routed Then consider but this what then is the beauty of a well-ordered soule Think but so and certainly thou wilt think that nothing in this world is of sufficient worth to put us out of frame This thought set home may carry the soul like the Sunne which worketh upon all inferiour things but is not wrought upon by them above forms and stormes too in an uniform way in a constant course and tenor like it self sutable to its own dignitie and keeping its distance We take a view now of the way we have gone and of the observations in our passage This first that it was the Lord who curiously formed thee in the wombe He brought thee thence and yet thy engagement to thy parents no whit the lesse He gave thee a being amongst the creatures and those of the highest ranke He put thee into an house like a rich Heire ready furnished a See Chrysâ—st Hom 8. in Gen. He crowned thee with honour and gave thee dominion over the works of his Hands In His book were all thy members written thou doest not want one of them and how great is the summe thereof so great that thou art the epitome of this great world the Index of all the creatures which sets deep upon thy score thou hast much to return unto the Lord if thou doest return according to that thou
hast received So God hath exalted thee so shouldst thou exalt the Lord and all this from thy outward frame the site and posture thereof And so farre we are gone and before we go further we must take fuller notice of things we have passed briefly over for they are observable § 1. We are Gods workmanship His building wonderfully were we made by b Isa 45. 11. Him accordingly should we strive to live unto Him if we ask more grace He will not deny us it A strong argument it is c Psal 138. 8. We are the workmanship of thy hands and as strong is this Created in Christ Iesus unto good d Ephes 2 10. works †1. 2. He brought us forth thence where many miscarried because there was no power that our praise might be alwayes of Him And He gave our parents charge over us and them a strong affection to discharge that trust though we were froward and like perverse children which engageth mightily to honour the parents to obey them in the Lord. And to do what possibly we can and all too little for their good if they shall need it and for the promoting their comfort in the childes well-doing the very garland of their hope and sore travell under the Sunne and a very cordiall to their drouping spirits § 2. His exceeding patience to us ward in sparing us so long and His good providence over us all this time but specially then when we could have none for our selves when we foresaw nothing not not a pit before us For mark I pray you that little thing such an one I was so wast thou and let us not carelesly behold him If now he be out of the cradle and the armes and can do more then creep by the wall we shall see it still in harmes-way now puâ—dering in the fire then in the pot of seething liquour then up the stairs it will creep and down again it tumbles with little or no harm And if it can break the mother prison we shall see it marching in the streets presently in the Carts way or under the horses heels perhaps as his strength is upon their backs or upon some Ladder or some Tree where he ventreth his necke for an apple or a lesse matter Like a Lapwing it is Squerill headed still skipping into danger not so quicke to get from it Such like and many more dangers attend that silly age So that this is a sure thing which I shall tell you It was not the care of the earthly Father though he was carefull with all his care nor the tender hand and eye of the Mother though both still helpfull and wakefull neither this nor that was it which provided for the childe and secured its safety but the providence of the Almighties eye 2. Kin. 4. 13. His good hand upon the childe that kept it That that was it and to that we must sacrifice that we have been preserved where so many have fallen and escaped those snares and dangers wherein so many have been taken Make this use we must of the casualties And forget we must not the many diseases this vile body is subject to which we have been kept from or delivered in Plinie reckons no fewer then 300. from top to toe I mention but two and they be capitall ones the Evill and the Falling sicknesse very incident to children and makes their life but a death to themselves and friends That we have been preserved and delivered thus and thus what a mercie herein what praise therefore 3. He hath ranked us in His highest form amidst His chiefest creatures that our thoughts should be on high and our wayes on high Noble creatures we are of an heavenly stamp impresse and superscription that our carriage and deportment should be answerable Oh then how is it that the horse and the mule which have no understanding should teach their Lord and this Lord so brutish that he will not be taught by them We put bits in our horses mouths and they obey us The dogge follows our foot and will be struck by our hand the d Jer. 8. 7. Storke the Crane the Swallow know their season The e Isai 1. 3. Ox knoweth his Master and the Asse his Crib but man is become brutish he considers not Every f Jam. 3. 7. kinde of beasts and of birds and of Serpents and things in the Sea is tamed and have been tamed of mankinde But man is the unruly creature the ungoverned person yet hath he reason to guide him Reason I say the crown and dignitie of a person when the naturall powers and noble faculties are entire and sound a great good mercy go to Bedlam else and enquire we there but that we need not do we need but go sit down and hearken there and then we must needs say Oh what a blessing is it what a mercy that we have the use of reason that our understanding part is sound and perfect He hath reason I say to guide him the fear of the Lord to awe him His word to instruct him and if he be not guided reclaimed taught he will have no excuse no pretext for himself for saith g In Gen. Hom. 9 p. 85. Chrysostome man tameth the Lion and he leads the Beare and he frays the Serpent that he hurts him not thou art unexcusable then O man if thou art an uâ—â—overned creature so the Father reproves man made in 〈◊〉 image And Elihu to h Job 35. 10. 11. Iob gives us as full a reproofe and concludes the use saying But none saith where is God my Maker who giveth songs in the night Who teacheth us more then the Beasts of the earth and maketh us wiser then the fowls of heaven 4. Lastly he hath given us our parts proportion and comelinesse in all nothing wanting what praise therefore we have the candle of the body whereby we escape the pit under us and the rock before us a great mercy ask him else who at noon-tide gropes his way as in the night We have tongues whereby we may make our thoughts known and eares we have whereby we understand what others say to us The nose beautifies the face we must not forget that for a great ornament it is as the want thereof defaceth and disfigureth nothing more the Virgins thought so who saith the i Barthol Anat. li 3. c. 10. p. 143. ω. Anatomist and out of our Chronicles too cut off their noses that they might prevent both love and lust from their amorous but bloudy conquerours This organ we have a great comelinesse to the face and the stomacks taster it is of as great use also We have hands both the instrument k Putean Epi. 17 of instruments an excellent instrument We have feet two whereby we can walk and go and as occasions are run all these instruments we have and exceeding great mercies all these Ask him else who hath eyes but sees not a nose but smels not a
tongue but speaks not eares two but hears not no more then the deafe l In Scotland Heylyne Geogra pa. 503. stone we read of or then if there were seven walls betwixt him and the speaker ask him and him who hath no hands or but one or if two yet no use of either ask him and him who hath no feet or but one or if two yet walks not ask him Ask we this man and that and the other and say we what we are assured these defective persons would all say Oh what mercies are these of what use and account how pretious should these be everie one in respect of both their use and esteeme How do these organs these instruments adorn beautifie honour the outward man how serviceable are they thereunto Oh how should we serve our Creator who hath made us so how should we not give all and every part to serve Him and to advance His glory And so much so little rather to the outward frame of body and to the great and many instructions therefrom The inward frame of spirit comes now in the second place to be treated of CHAP. II. Chap. 2 Our inward frame of spirit how naturally depraved THou must now take a view of thy inward frame the frame of thy revolting heart revolting I say from Him who hath done all this for thee whereof thou hast heard who summes up all things in Himself being all sufficient the fountain and Ocean of all our happinesse from Him are we parted and to cisternes we are come to creature-comforts which emptie faster then they fill yet after them our hearts wander from creature to creature for so our comforts here lie scattered like the Bee from one flower to another seeking fulnesse but finding emptinesse for our owne findings are sinne and death Such a generation we are and so degenerated even from the day that we were born for Grace makes the difference and separates not the wombe polluted in our owne blood to the loathing of our persons and the magnifying of His grace who regarded so low an estate making it the object of His pitie So here in this Chapter I can make no division for though I am to speak of a Body which hath many members of a Root which puts forth many branches yet is it but a body of death a root of bitternesse And so spirituall it is in working so speedy and quicke and with such consent and agreement also that I can see no more reason to divide here then Abraham did to divide the Birds But them he divided a not It is sufficient to shew this body as in b Gen. 15. 10. a glasse darkly how filthy and lothsome it is And for this purpose we will look on the 16. Chapter of Ezechiel which gives the clearest reflexion and as fully sheweth a man to himself as any glasse in the world But then the eye must have a property which the outward hath not to look inward and to see its self which imployeth it hath received an anoynting from above But whether we have it or have it not Ezek. 16. a fit glasse it is to see our selves in If we could lay our selves close up on it as the Prophet applyed himself to the child the proud heart would fall the haughtie looks would down And therefore That thou mayst take shame to thy self as thy just portion and the more advance God and the riches of His goodnesse m Here is ground of coÌ„fort and for firme resolution said Staupitius to Luther in that you stand for that Doctrin which gives All to God to Man nothing at all for this is according to the Truth of the Gospel And in sure confidence hereof I shall set my face like a flint said Luther Comâ—oâ— Galat. 1. 12. ch 2 6. according to the doctrin of the Gospel God is never exalted till man is laid low nor is Christ precious till we are vile Consider thy selfe well and begin there where thou tookest thy beginning There thou shalt finde the first Corner-stone in thy foundation was laid in bloody iniquities in which thou wast conceived The very materialls of soul and body whereof thou dost consist were temper'd with sinne like the stone in the wall and beame out of the timber so as they cryed out even the same moment thou wast born rase this building rase it even to the ground And the cry had been heard and thou hadst been sent before this time to thy own place but that mercy came betwixt even the cry of that bloud which speaks better things then the bloud of Abel And that cry was heard so thou wast graciously spared and behold what riches of grace here are shew'd unto thee for thou wast then as wholly naked and stript of all goodnesse as thy body was being newly born and as wholly invested with the worst filthinesse for it is expressed by such things which are not comely to name as thy body was with skin and thy bones with flesh So thou camest in n Tantillus puâ—r tanâ—us peccaâ—or a very little childe but a very great sinner not after the similitude of Adams transgression for sinne was actuall in him breaking a Commandement Originall in thee for thou brought'st it into the world with thee And a world of wickednesse it is defiling thy Body setting on fire not thine own only but the whole course of nature for thou hadst an hand to use Mr. Boltons words in that fire-work which blew up all mankinde he means in Adams transgression in whose loins thou wast as a branch in a common stock which brought forth such a bloudy sea of sinne and sorrow into the world I will hold thy thoughts at the wombe so may'st thou the better know thy selfe for ever after From thence thou cam'st into the world a sinke a Sodome of all filth and impuritie Thou hast inherent in thy bowels secret seeds and imbred inclinations of all sinne The principles of Hazaels bloudy cruelties of Athaliahs treasons and Iezebels lusts The wombe the seed of all the villanies that have been acted in the world which Saint Paul hath sum'd up together in his first chapter to the Romanes 1 Tim. 1. 2 Tim. 3. Thou hast within thee the spawn the fomenter the formative vertue of all that hellish stuffe All those flouds of ungodlinesse have no other originall fountain from which they issue then this sinne thou art now taking a view off Thy Heart is the Treasury of all that wickednesse and if the Lord shall rip up the foundations of thy nature as He may and in mercy also then wilt thou know I do not speak parables But if thou canst not follow sinne to its first originall if thou could'st so do thou would'st feare it more and flie from it faster then Moses from the serpent for more active it is and hurtfull if thou hast not learnt so much yet then learne now and follow the streames they leade to the Spring-head
Know then whatsoever vanitie ignorance or darknesse is in our minde whatsoever swarmes of foolish thoughts whatsoever insensiblenesse in our conscience whatsoever disabilitie or enmitie is in our Will whatsoever unfaithfulnesse o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 2. 1. leaking or running-out in our memory whatever leaven or corruption in doctrine or manners whatsoever bitternesse dissentions wars devouring words To conclude whatsoever we have found in our selves or observed from others to breake out of the mouth at the eye like the purging of a corps now the soule is out All this is but the issue of this body of sinne which thou carryest about thee All that hath no other originall fountain from which they issue then this sinne When we let our tongues and eyes and eares loose and at libertie keeping no watch over the one nor making no covenant with the other when I say we doe thus set the doores windows and all open we then commonly excuse our selves thus That though we speake merrily yet our minde is good And though our eyes wander yet our heart walkes not after our eyes p Job 31. 7. And though we let in vanitie by the eare as the wooll sucks in water yet we can keepe the inward man cleane and pure this is our excuse and we would be pardoned But the excuse is worse then the fault for we must know That the tongue the eare and the eye these doores and windows of the soule The feet and the fingers there is a q Prov. 6. 13. speaking with the one and a teaching with the other All these are but as a little Comentary upon the great Text of the heart they do but serve to make plaine so as he that runs may read what lewdnesse and frowardnesse lyes in that depth involved there in more hid darke and obscure characters Or to use a plainer metaphor and according to the sacred Scripture The heart is the treasury the ever going mint wherein our thougbts r Fabricatur Prov. 6. 14. hammer mischiefe Out of that aboundance the mouth so of the rest filleth and emptyeth it selfe If there be a little vanitie upon the tongue we must conclude there is much in the heart if the eyes be full of adultery then the measure of the heart * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Tom. 6. Relig. p. 597. What wickednesse will they stick at in secret who proclaime their folly openly c. saith Isid Pelusit lib. 2. ep 153. is pressed down running over That vanitie which is shewed openly by the outward members is but like the money a rich man carryes in his purse to be laid forth upon all occasions compared with that which is in the bag or chest there is the store The mouth is but as the cistern the heart is the well that fills it The aboundance is in the heart there is the treasury And this thou carryest about thee Nay it is within our earth more inwrapped within our nature then the Ivy within the wall as fast as with a band of Iron and Brasse And it is as was said the acting sinning brooding sinne the fountaine and inlet of all we can call evill The first matter of all our misery The tinder of lust disposing us to evill and causing an aversnesse to all good This is the treasury thus we have look'd into the aboundance that is in the heart of every mothers childe In all it doth not breake out alike God in mercy to mankinde and for preservation of society restraining the dominion and over-ruling it in some And some again having received more grace prevailing over the same with the wrestling of God strong wrestlings ſ Gen. 30. 8. But within us this aboundance is I meane this sinne dwels within the best of men The life thereof is prolong'd t Dan. 7. 12. though the dominion is taken away And its kingdome to allude to that place is partly strong and partly broken u Dan. 2. 42. And hence is that which ever hath and ever will make the people of God vile in their own eyes and to loath themselves witnesse their low and base account of themselves Dust * Gen. 19. 27. and ashes saith Abraham we may say that and more even what was said of a bloudy persecutor we are earth mingled with bloud and to the same fiercenesse we should proceed were we not renewed or restrained x Gen. 32. 10. Lesse then the least of Gods mercies said Iacob What am I a dog fit to lye under the table a dead y 1 Sam. 24. 24. dog fit for the ditch It was the lowest expression of humilitie and we know whose it was It is Thy z Lam. 3. 22. mercy we are not consum'd so the Church makes her acknowledgement when she was brought even to the dust of death Though the Church be smitten to the place of Dragons yet if it be above hell it is mercy so she accounts Nothing saith Paul not worthy to be accounted an Apostle a 1 Cor. 15 9. And to mention but one neerer our own times a true b Antipapa◠Bright on Rev. 2. 13. Antipas a faithfull witnesse a holy-man yet thus vile and abased in his own eyes and feeling I am as dry as a stone a most miserable hard-hearted man an unthankfull sinner Thus subscribed he his letters Humble Iohn Bradford And this is the reason why I would have thee childe look back to the rock whence thou wast taken and stay thy thoughts there even to humble thee and to make thee see how vile thou art that thou mayst exalt Christ Certainly there is no such ground for humiliation that can be thought of Search then this nature of thine and search in to the bottome There is no quick flesh till we come as low in our search as David did to our conception and birth The plough must go so deep as to strike at that root whereto sinne is fastned else we sow among thornes Slight not sinne here b S. C. pag. 226. Corruption the lesse we see it and lament it the more it is sighes and groanes of the soule are like the pores of the body out of which the sick humours spend and become lesse Here thou must begin thy repentance for this sin thou must be humbled more then for actuall sinnes for this is the acting brooding sinne this as was said is that which breeds and foments all our trouble It is c Soules conflict pag. 192. good to follow sinne to the first Hold and Castle which is corrupt nature Indeed the most apparent discovery of sinne is in the outward carriage we see it in the fruit before in the root as we see grace in the expression before in the affection But yet we shall never hate sinne throughly untill we consider it in the poysoned root from whence it ariseth That which least troubles a naturall man doth most of all trouble a true Christian A naturall man is
we may walk worthy of His calling us and the equity hereof that we should glorifie Him whose purchase we are How should we live in sinne that lay so heavie upon the soul of Christ and could not be purged but by the bloud of God And how should we not be wholly consecrated to that Lord who so dearl bought us in whose Name we were all baptized and that is to consecrate our selves up as not our own but anothers and whose Name is called upon us It is b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 500 a worthy and honourable Name indeed and it must be honourably answered It was a sad and wise reproofe which the Father gives to one who walked not decently nor in order Why doest thou defile that good and honourable name of Christianisme c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But I must not insist upon this though nothing except Him who leads into all truth can be more flexanimous more perswading then is this worthy Name which is call'd upon us we who carry Gods Name how exactly should we carry our selves what manner of persons ought such to be choice persons for we have a choice Name There is not a more naturall request then what we would be such to be what we would be in Name such in deed that is that having obtained so excellent a Name we would be even what our Name importeth even such That the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ may be glorified in us and we in Him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sâ—r. lb. 6 p. 485. 2. Thes 1. 12. This is our engagement and by the solemnest vow that ever was taken And therefore it is called The answer of a good Conscience towards God for then we entred into covenant as God with us of grace and salvation so we with Him of faith and repentance as He to be our God all-sufficient so we to walke before Him and be perfect We have by Christ a right to an interest in a much better covenant and now we must looke to ours we cannot thinke that God is bound and we loose Religion is nothing else according to the denotation and meaning of the word but a gathering-up and binding of us fast to God If we look that God should stand fast to us we must cleave to Him If we breake our bands and cast away our cords we must look to be broken There was never any covenant more solemnly made and ratified then this in Baptisme nor in breaking whereof there is more danger And yet an oath despised and a covenant broken with man hath been severely punished as we reade Ezek. 17. 15 16. And as the whole Christian world feeleth at this day for it smarteth yet for that breach of league long since made with the Turke whereby they both lost the day and their honour in both an irrecoverable losse And can we think to prosper or escape that do such things or shall we breake the covenant of our God and be deliver'd keep we covenant here through Christ we can and if we do it in sinceritie that mantle will cover many defects And we are the more likely to do it the more we see how false our hearts are how ready to breake all bands and to cast away all cords for this our impotencie truely apprehended will make us feare alwayes and cleave the faster to Him in whom our strength is keeping our selves as the Apostle counselleth in the e Jude 20. love of God building up our selves in our most holy faith praying in the Holy-Ghost Such a prayer will as the Horsleech sucks out corrupt f Preces perâ—inacissima curaâ—um birudo M l. vit Luth. p. 139. c. bloud it is Luthers comparison consume our cares our feares our sorrows our sins This by the way My chiefe scope is here to put to our consideration what a straight and binding cord Religion is and better we cannot see it then in Baptisme wherein we are wholly consecrated g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. Prâ—â—râ—pâ— pag. 30. to the Lord that bought us 1. There we professe our selves made the members of Christ How can the thoughts thereof but stirre us up to give our members weapons of righteousnesse unto holinesse shall we take the member of Christ and give it to our lust There is great weight in those words And if members of Christ then members one of another h Eph. 4. 25. And then we suffer as members when we suffer not in our own bodies we suffer in compassion as others in their passions such a sympathy and fellow-feeling there is In Saint Pauls i Heb. 10. 13. Heb. 13 3. Lege Chrysost in 1 Cor. c 8. ω. in ep Ad Colos cap. 4. Hom. 12. remember my bonds Verse 18. Perniciocissime la buntur quòd fratrum infirmitatem nullius pensi habent Cal. Inst lib. 3. c. 19. sect 10. construction it is ever thus If â—his brothers back be pinched it is my back I am piâ—châ—d too If his eye be offended it is as the apple in mine I am offended too If his heart is sadded it is my heart I am sadded too ye are members one of another and then ye are pitifull and mercifull As we have received so we must return according to our measure mercy for mercy bleâ—â—â—ng for blessing nay blessing for cursing knowing that we are thereunto called that we should inherit a blessing k 1 Pet. 3. 9. I know said Luther l Ignorantiam meam facilè feret ignoscet mihi Ecclesia Dei Regina illa misericordiae cujus viscera sunt merae remissiones peccatorum Luth. Prae fatio in postilla◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysâ—n Act Apost ca. 21. Hom. 44. ω. my ignorance the Church will beare with and my faults she will pardon being the Queen of mercy and nothing else but bowels and forgivenesse of sins so like the Body is unto her Head for she hath the Spirit of Christ And so we know the true distinguishing property of the true Church In this are the children of God known They love the Brotherhood They shew bowels of mercy towards all 2. In Baptisme we are made the sonnes and daughters of God and inheritors of the Kingdome of Heaven Behold saith the Apostle what manner of love m 1 Joh. 3. 1. here is our thoughts are too short We are now the sonnes of God and it doth not appeare what we shall be but when He shall appeare we shall be like Him our thoughts cannot reach to this brightnesse our eyes are dazled with the very conceit of this glory so exceeding it is But this is clearly evident He that hath this high prerogative here to be called the sonne of God that hath this hope to be changed hereafter as from glory to glory and to inherit a Kingdome which shall never have end the glory whereof as much exceeds the glory of all other kingdomes as doth the light of the Sunne exceed
down in sorrow t Thy glory will be thy shame Thy confidence is as in an unfaithfull u Esay 50. ω. friend who in time of trouble will deceive like a broken tooth and a foot out of joynt x Prov. 25. 19 Our own righteousnesse y Job 6. 17. We are in Gods hand as the pen in the writers he makes it puts ink into it directs it along the paper The pen doth nothing of it self but blot and blurre Nothing properly our own but sinne Cal. dealeth deceitfully like the streames of brooks when it is hot and there is need of them they are consumed out of their places and we shall be confounded because we hoped We never heard of any that durst trust to it I mean this self righteousnesse on their death-bed when they were making ready for their appearance and knew themselves to be but men Then though before they were content to live in a righteousnesse of their own yet they are glad to die in the righteousnesse of another a See the excellent Epistle of our Divines before Luther coment Galat. See Mr Hookers Disc of Just. 502. But to help us against this monster so Luther calls an opinion of self righteousnesse pray we that the Lord would rip up before us the foundations of our nature shew us the Rock whence we were taken and what an hard rockie stone the heart is which no ministerie nor miserie no braying in a morter no judgements though made sick with smiting nor mercies though made new every morning none of all these can possibly break can possibly mollifie The consideration of such an heart would surely humble if we could consider it heartily I will conclude this in Mr Hookers words b Disc of Just p. 494. which are these It may seem somewhat extreame which I shall speak but let every one judge of it I will onely make a demand If God should yeeld unto us not as unto Abraham If fifty forty thirtie twenty yea or if ten good persons could be found in a Ctie for their sakes that Citie should not be destroyed but and if he should make us an offer thus large search all the generations of men sithence the fall of our Father Adam finde one man that hath done one action which hath past from him pure without any stain or blemish at all and for that one mans onely action neither man nor Angel shall feel the torments which are prepared for both Do you think that this ransome to deliver men and Angels could be found to be among the sonnes of men The best things which we do have somewhat in them to be pardoned How then can we do any thing meritorious or worthy to be rewarded And so much to fortifie us against this monstrous conceit of self-righteousnesse In the last place the strange judgements of God upon the proud should be still in remembrance how c Job 4 10. He hath decked Himself with Majestie and cast abroad the rage of His wrath for in effect He telleth Iob that so He doth He doth abase the proud and bring him low d Acts 12. 23. Worms have consumed them They have with the Serpent e Dan. 4. Reade Hist of the World book 3. § 11. p. 17. licked the dust Nebuchadnezzar is a great example hereof so is Herod He also who was a great f Zâ—ch 4. 7. Mountain before the Lutherans and quickly made a plain He bent his hand against the Apple of g Zech. 2. 8. Gods-eye and he both commanded and armed that hand which thrust forth the Apple of his hereon a story depends which for some reason I relate not here he that can may reade it at large or very little abridged Epitomies h Advanc 2. p. 3 are as the Noble Advancer saith but mothes corruptions and cankeâ—s of Historie by O siaander cent 16. lib. 3. cap. 34. But we may look into a place nearer hand and a fitter looking glasse for a woman where we may see how the Lord did retaliate those proud dames Esay 3 proportionating their punishment to their sinne and to the severall parts wherein they offended verse 24. Thus childe I have been more particular touching this sinne The causes The workings of it The remedies against it That in something or other some instruction or other may take hold and perswade with thee That thou mayest take heed of pride and vain glory as all is vain that is in and of the Creature That glory is not good Glory belongs to God Souls i Anima sexum non habet have no sexes in the better part male and female they are both men to man shame and confusion God will not give His Glory to another if man do take it it will be his destruction Thankfulnesse must be our return to God for His blessings whether of body minde or goods If they lift us up we provoke God highly fighting against him with His own weapons which will be as a sword in our bones Consider again by what hath been spoken how true it is and what reason there is for it That the proud the fool and the sinner are convertible terms through the whole sacred Scripture The Lord make us wise by it purge out all pride in self-pleasing and self-seeking That in whatsoever we do and in whatsoever we have in all and for all we may give all the honour and glory to the onely wise God to whom all honour belongs and is due Take heed of taking from God to set up thy self put not that to thy account which belongs to Him take heed of sacrificing to thy strength or parts acknowledge that all the excellence of all thy actions is of Him God is very jealous of His honour and oftentimes leaves His people to feel their own weaknesse because they honoured not His strength If the faculties of thy soul bring in willingly and plentifully offerings unto God say with David when so much store with much freenesse was brought-in by the people to build the Temple Now k 1. Chron 29 14 16. Lege Cal. Inst 2. â— 1. sect 11. our God we thank Thee for all things come of Thee and of Thine own hand have we given Thee All things come of Thee we give-back but what Thou gavest first Without Thee nothing we have and nothing we can do This acknowledgement befitteth us who have spent and cast away all our stock and do sit now at the receit of a free-mercie And this debasing of our selves so low that we can go no lower even to a l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cal. â—â—st 2. 5. 13. ω. nothingnesse in our selves is farre from being a base thing This abasement if it be in truth and sinceritie is an excellent grace the very root of grace springing-up and so setting out and adorning the whole man All the parts powers faculties of all But a root it is which groweth not in our own soil No As every
it is for our example For when the stain of This Bloud was fresh on their hands and hearts too yet being pricked at their hearts for it even for the shedding of that Bloud they cryed to that Bloud and were pardoned And so having premised this I come to the question which hath two branches and so shall have a double answer briefly first to the first branch If these graces be wanting may I go Quest 1 It is not safe If thy case be so wanting upon the ballance Answ thou mayest more safely go to other ordinances for supply others there are appointed by God to cast down the loose and presumptuous as this serves to raise up the humble to nourish the faithfull Soul For tell me what communion hath a proud haughty person with an humbled Lord What hath an unbroken heart to do with a broken Christ What relish can a dead man take in the sweetest dainties What pardon can an implacable man expect from the Lord who paid our debt to the utmost farthing What comfort can that soul fetch from seeing bloud poured out for him who cannot at least poure out his soul in confessions before Him Answer thy self at this point for if I answer I must needs say though to the confusion of my own face that certainly there is required of every communicant that there be some Analogie proportion conformitie or agreement betwixt our hearts the frame of them and the great duty or imployment we are upon I mean thus That we bring mortified lusts before a crucified Lord a bruised spirit before a broken Body a soul fitly addressed to such a feast Some drops of mercy in a free and full forgivenesse of trespasses against us before such an Ocean of mercy swallowing up the guilt of so many trespasses against Him And surely though I define nothing at this point yet truth there is in what I say For I remember Chrysostome saith Å¿ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Discipleâ— onely are to come to this holy Table such who are taught from Christs mouth and live according to what they are taught And the danger of not being such an one and yet coming to this feast is certainly very great too for the Father addes in that same place t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he would rather suffer his own heart bloud to be spilt then that he would give the bloud of Christ to a man of unclean hands of an impure life and known so to be to an unworthy Communicant and discovered to come unnworthily u 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If the danger be such in giving then much more is the danger great in Receiving though indeed an impenitent person cannot be said properly to receive Christ but rather to reject Him But yet in proprietie of our speech we say he receives whereas so none can do truly and properly but a Disciple Therefore the Father resumes it again saying he must he a Disciple that comes to this feast If not I give and he receives but it is a sharp sword in stead of bread x 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matt. 26. Hom. 83. ω. So I leave it upon examination and passe to the second branch Thy worthinesse Do I come as a worthy guest No sure But this is the great enquiry what worthinesse If Quest 2 I had such a degree of sorrow such a measure of faith such a Answ length of charitie then I should think I had some worthinesse in me then I could approach with some comfort This is the conceit and deceit too Indeed we must know there is a worthinesse in acceptation But we will make no mention thereof at this time none at all but for thy better instruction of His worthinesse onely for whose sake our unworthinesse is not imputed unto us For suppose thou haddest all Grace Repentance first Thou couldest gird thy self with sackcloth and as the Lord commands wallow in dust so loathing thy self and haddest all faith too even like pretious faith and all charitie which thou canst extend like the heavens as the Father expresseth and I cannot mention it too often suppose all this couldest thou then think thy self a worthy Communicant I trow not If thou wert worthy what shouldest thou do there It is a feast designed for the halt the lame the blinde for the faint for those that have no strength no worthinesse in themselves none at all If thou haddest not wants very many why shouldest thou come thither where is such a fulnesse Thou comest thither as to a well of salvation which never drains it self but into empty vessels mark that And therefore the more thou art wanting the more likely nay out of all doubt thou shalt be filled He filleth the hungry the empty soul but the rich He sendeth empty away Therefore open not thy mouth mention not thy worthinesse but the worthinesse of the Lord Iesus Christ for He onely was found Worthy I remember Luthers words upon this point of Catechisme they are to this purpose This thought I am not prepared for this Supper I am an unworthy guest for this Table will make a man sit down astonished and keep him off for ever from approaching thereunto When we consider our worthinesse and the excellency of that Good which is offered there at that Table and then compare them together our wrothinesse is like a dark lanthorne compared to the cleare Sun Therefore let this be thy tryall here saith he Thou wantest a broken contrite heart but doest thou not in thy prayer pray * that is pray earnestly y 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tom. 6. de oratione a man may but James 5. 17. speak or prate in prayer as was said and so speak he may that he heares not himself and expects he that God should heare him saith Chrysostome doest thou not I say pray earnestly that the Lord would bruise it give thee a tender spirit sensible of all appearances of evill of all that may offend Thou feelest thy heart dedolent and hard the greatest of all evills but is it not thy burden and thy greatest sorrow that oppresseth thee that such a heart thou hast Doth not thy stone in thy heart It is in every ones heart more or lesse lye as a burdensome stone upon thee Thou wantest faith but doest thou not cry out Lord work it Lord encrease it in me Thou wantest love But doest thou not pray Lord spread abroad that Grace in my heart that it may abound and overcome all wrath iâ—placablenesse self-seeking self-pleasing all in me while I am my self being by nature the childe of wrath Hast thou wants I know thou hast and more then thou knowest of but come to Him who promiseth to supply all wants y Phil. 4. 19. No matter how many wants there be so thou art pressed and loaden with them so thou hast a true sense and feeling of them Bring all thy wants hither where is a fulnesse a full Treasury and that ordained
lookes to it that they doe theirs as she is diligent so she will have them to be m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. Str. lib. 1. pag. 201. she will not suffer an idle person in her house such an one consumeth like a Canker It was Luthers n Minus nocet ignavus fur quam segnis minister observation it is of use in higher matters A sloathfull Theefe who hath not the slight of conveyance is not nimble that way doth lesse hurt then doth a negligent servant And it agreeth well with that wee read Hee that is slothfull in his worke is brother to him that is a great waster o Prov. 18. 9. An idle person is the barrenest piece of earth in the world Remember alwayes that wicked and sloathfull stand together in the same line p Matt. 25. 26. Acts 20. 31. So now in this great point of houswifry thou hast heard thy duty which engageth thy Tongue First that it be apt to teach to instruct to warne and that with teares Secondly Thy eyes that they looke well to the wayes of thy houshold that there bee no backe-way of consuming nor bad way of gathering Thirdly Thy hand that it be open and diligent working the thing that is good else wee cannot doe good to others for the present nor in quietnesse and rest depend on a providence for afterwards This is the summe of what was last said And now drawing to a conclusion I will put all together Children and Servants for there is no difference in point of care and instruction and so read over once more for that is not said enough which is not learnt enough The chiefe point of thy charge which is this It is not enough to bee vertuous thy selfe but thou must teach others so to be * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrys in Ephes Hom. 21. thou must lead others along with thee in the same good way both children and servants and all by thy owne example to walke holily before God Wee cannot else expect they should walke righteously with man If they be unfaithfull in the great matters they cannot be faithfull to thee in small so as thou canst orderly expect a bâ—essing upon them or from their labours If thou sufferest them to steale from the Lords service especially on the Lords day to give unto thy service or their owne pleasures They are Sacriligious to their Master in heaven they cannot be trusty to their Master on earth Therefore here looke well to thy selfe and them Considering still that there is right government where Christs government is set up and maintained * See Chrysost in Gen. cap. 16 ω. Where his service hath the prime and most honourable place both in the house and heart then things are done decently and in order Herein indeed is the beauty of society and nothing is more beautifull then a family thus ordered and then Persons so ordering This order in thy family shall gaine thee the commendations which they had whose Praise is in the Gospel that is praise indeed and worth the having it is the praise from God and goodmen And a family so ordered will be the Church in thy house which is the honourable title the Apostle gives to some families in a very bad time And this like a comely Nurcery sends forth hopefull plants to the City and Countrey Church and Common-wealth And as this Nurcery is maintained so are they supplyed for from this fountaine of society two in one house arise families and from them Common-wealths And now we have againe the blocke in our way though we have remooved it before I know well that a family may be so governed as we heard and as it should be It is required that these two in one house should bee one in one house with one soule with one mind with one heart serving the Lord. This blessing and gift from above for a good husband as a good prudent wife are both the gift of God and a speciall favour q Singulari modo Trem. Prov. 19. 14. Chap. 18. 22. my prayer is that thou maist receive But if not thou hast heard thy charge and withall how patient thou must bee under that want Thou must waite when God will give Repentance and use all meanes that may hasten the same as the Common adversary doth our destruction and never dispaireth of it while there is place for hope as the Father sweetly and elegantly shewing Chap. 7 § 1 the duty of Ministers But it concernes all in these Chrysost de Lazar Conc. 1. α. cases wives especially that the unbeleeving husband may be wonne by the chaste conversation of the wife and so I leave thee now and thy charge in this supposed condition as I would have thee and them under thee found thee sweetly commanding in the Lord and they willingly obeying and in the Lord still I leave thee I say in thy family like a little Common wealth r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. A good housewife is an excellent ornament in an house she is â— grace to her husband and her self In that house all rejoyce children in their mother husband in the wife the wife in children and husband all in God Clem. Alex. Paed. lib. 3. cap. 11 p. 183. reverencing thy husband ruling thy Children commanding thy servants and all in and for the Lord which will finde thee worke enough to keepe thee waking in the season for it and to imploy the strength of thy parts and most pretious time and so both thy time and parts will be well spent in so behoovefull a service Now passe on to the last stage of our life which is Old age CHAP. VII Old Age. Two periods thereof pressing to dutie both Comfort in death whence distilled AND now we are come like a ship from out of the maine Sea of the world which lyeth open to stormes and gusts and rideth at Anchor under the Leeside where the passengers may looke out and see their harbour Wee must now doe in the first place as Sea-faring men should doe in such cases they tell what they saw and what they felt even His wonders in the deepe and they declare these workes of the Lord with rejoycing Å¿ Psal 107. 22. So they who are brought safe to this port or stage of time Old-Age must recount and record the Mercies of the Lord and what deliverances Hee hath wrought for them in their way thitherward This is the first thing to be done even to sacrifice the sacrifice of thankesgiving and to declare his works also with rejoycing And Child I began the Register of Gods Mercies towards thee where thou tookest thy beginning and first entrance into the world at thy Birth and Baptisme There I considered thy outward frame of Body and inward frame of minde where I left off then there I begin now to teach thee to recall to minde and record the mercies of God to thee ever since that
time And though this recording of Mercies be proper to every person that is growne up to the yeares of understanding and not to every Age only but to every yeare and month and weeke and day therein yet this is a duty which seemes more to presse upon us the more and the faster yeares doe presse on And therefore though it doth concerne All in generall and every age and person in speciall yet being specially intended because that which is spoken to all is counted as spoken to none I shall bend my words to Thee whom I must suppose now stricken in yeares the Sun of thy day farre passed the Meridian and its shaddow gone downe many degrees towards the place where anon it must set Thou must then consider how wonderfully the Lord hath maintained thy life and preserved the same ever since thy comming into the world and that this consideration may presse the more thou must consider what this life is and that of so small a bottome the Lord should spinne out solong a thred Had he not drawne it out of his owne power as the Spider doth her web out of her owne bowels it had been at an end the second minute The maintaining the Radicall Moysture that Oyle which feeds the Lampe and light of thy life is as great a miracle as was the maintaining the Oyle in the Cruse of the poore widow But He did not maintaine this life only and at His owne proper cost But defended and protected thee also tooke thee under His Wings as the hen doth her chickens to shelter thee from those many dangers thy life hath been exposed to We cannot tell how many but this thou must know that there are principalities and Powers both in the plurall number to shew they are Legions and in the Abstract to shew they are armed with power as they are swelled with malice And to this their malice and power thou wast liable every moment of thy life and thou hadst felt both their malice and their power as quick and fierce against thee as Iob and others have done if the Lord had not charged them concerning thee Touch her not and how canst thou be sufficiently thankfull for this Againe consider how many dangers and casualties thou hast scaped from the Earth the severall creatures on it from the Water from the Fire from the Aire also how often have the Arrowes of Death come whisking by thee Tooke away those next thee and yet have missed thee perhaps thou hast seene some Deare yeares of time as thy forefathers have done When a thousand have falne at thy right hand and ten thousand at thy left When Gods Arrests have seized upon some walking talking and yet have spared thee And if not so yet consider thine owne body and the humours thereof They had every day overflowne and drowned thee as the waters the earth if God had not said unto them stay your proud Waves In a word if thou consider what thy life is and the dangers thou art subject to thou must acknowledge that the preservation thereof is as great a wonder as to see a sparke maintained alive amidst the waters So Chrysostome speakes of Noah t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tom. 5. ser 6. As great a wonder as to see a glasse that hath been in continuall use gone through many hands and hath had many knocks and fals to be kept for forty fifty sixty yeeres whole and unbroken As great a wonder as to see a Candle in a paper lanthorne in a strong windy night kept from being extinct when as we often see in many that a little cold comes but in at a little cranney and blowes their Candle out as â—ob speakes Thus hath God kept thee and as it were in His hand carryed thee And in thy way how hath He crowned thee with His goodnesse and filled thy yeares with comforts so as they are more innumerable then are the Minutes of thy life Only thus thou must summe them up in the grosse That what ever comfort thou hast had in thy life time from Him thou receivedst it who puts in all the Sugar and delight we finde in or from the Creature as Ayre lights not without the Sunne nor wood heats without fire so neither can any condition comfort without God and with Him every condition is comfortable though seemingly never so discomfortable for He moderateth the discomfort it is like thou hast found it so so as we are not swallowed up of sorrow and He fashioneth the heart to that disconsolate condition and that condition to the heart so much it is very likly thou hast found also and it requires thy sad and serious consideration But more especially this thou must consider what have been the effects and fruits of all this goodnesse What thou hast returned to the Lord for all these All these what are these Nay it is not possible to reckon them up They that keepe a Register of Gods mercies some doe cannot set downe all the Receits of one Day much lesse of all their dayes so great is the summe of every particular day that we cannot reckon up the specialties thereof and call them by their names as God doth the Starres But put it to the Question and let thy heart make answer before him who tryeth the heart and searcheth the reines and will bring every secret thing to judgment The Oyle and radicall Balsome of thy life we spake of hath it been fuell to thy Thankfulnesse or hath it increased the fire of thy lusts Thou hast been preserved and delivered so long and so miraculously as thou hast heard and seene How hath Gods patience and longsuffering wrought upon thee Hath it brought thee nearer to repentance and so nearer to God Or hath thine heart been hardned thereby because sentence against an evill worke is not presently Eccles 8. 11. executed So as with that stubborne people whose sonnes and daughters naturally we are thou mayst say I have been delivered to doe more abominations n Ierem. 7. 10. Thou hast had mercies upon mercies they have been new unto thee every morning and for thy Sorrowes they have been mitigated too and so mixed that there was much mercy in them many ingredients of comfort to take of the sharpnesse and allay the bitter relish thereof What strong workings hast thou found herefrom How hast thou been inclined to love the Lord for His goodnesse to feare Him for His Mercies How hast thou been melted thereby to obedience and engaged upon his Service Aske thy selfe againe for in that Method we went Thou hast two hands another hath but one or perhaps none what more worke hast thou done Thou hast a Tongue and the use of the same there is another thou knowest who hath a Tongue but speakes not wherein hast thou glorified thy Maker more then the other hath done Thou hast two eyes thy Neighbour is darke Aske the same question over againe For as it was said of him who was
his memorie more stuffed with sensuall notion his affections will become more rebellious his thoughts more earthly his heart more hardened his conscience more seared And so much considering the season that gray hairs are mingled with the black no time for delay now when before it be long there shall be no more time We must account that the long suffering of the Lord is salvation t 2. Pet. 3. 15. And let the conclusion hereof be an earnest prayer to the God of all grace that as His promise was unto His Church to u Joel 2. 25. restore the yeares that the locusts had eaten the Cankerworm and the Caterpiller So he would restore unto us the yeares which the ignorance of childehood the vanities of youth the negligence of age have consumed There is another period of this age the burden whereof is labour and sorrow Barzillai lived to those yeares full fourescore and what saith he I 2. Sam. 19. cannot taste what I eat or what I drink a question in the sacred tongue is a strong affirmation I heare not the voice of singing wherefore then should thy servant be yet a burden how long have I to live a question we should often put to our selves which would answer all solicitations from the world and flesh and put them to silence how long have I to live That is how very short is the remnant of my mortalitie yet a very little while y 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 10. 37. and I must hence what should I think of now but of my death and of my grave what are pleasures or earthly contentments unto me so feelingly spoke that old man The many decayes infirmities that accompany this age are fully set down by the preacher Eccles 12. Amongst those many one expression there is very full and significant as our English renders it verse 5. The grashopper shall be a burden In the Originall the words imply no more but the curvature of the back which with men of such yeares stands bent like a Grashopper and that makes an old mans gate the more burdensome The words may imply also according to the common construction that every thing even the lightest to an old man is burdensome If he creep up to his bed and down from it though to repaire his decayes yet even this is burdensome even delights to others to him are tiresome he takes no delight in the Grashopper nay it is a burden that is saith Tremellius that pleasant season of the yeer when we heare the Grashopper yeelds no pleasure to him none at all he hath quite lost his taste and relish now in those things which to others are pleasurable c. And yet if the grave meet us not in our way hitherto as commonly it doth before we come so farre and prevent our expectation it is larger in nothing then in the issue of this age and in the account we hope to give up at that time This is our greet folly For how bad stewards soever we have been of our fore past time yet at this time we hope to lay our reckonings even and so to give up our account with joy Though we have turned from God all our dayes yet we have a sure and certain hope in our conceit that we shall turn unto Him and He will turn unto us at this time when indeed we are not able to turn our selves upon our bed And naturally for it is but Nature seeking its own preservation naturally I say and usually men do make fair offers essayes and promises this way at such a time as this when they see themselves dropping into the grave But we must note as one before us and for our use z B. Andrews on Psal 78. verse 34. that this time is the time when all Hypocrites Atheists tag and rag come in and seek Him For who is it that will not look out for a dwelling when he sees his old house dropping down upon his head Who will not cry out for mercy mercy when he seeth the doore shutting upon him and if he speaks not now he must hold his peace for ever Who will not desire that earnestly to live for ever with the Lord now that he sees he must die So true it is that this is the time when all even the worst of all do seek unto God and will turn unto Him But we must note also that this is not our time nor is it the time when God usually opens unto us 1. It is not our time to seek when we are not in case to seek any thing else It is not our time to turn to Him when we are not able to turne our selves in our bed not our time to rise earely to seek Him so we must if in an ordinary way we look to finde Him when we are not able to rise at all not our time to enquire after Him when breath faileth us and we are not able to speake three words together What ever our words are and how pious soever whatever offers we make towards heaven it will be suspected to be slavish and extorted for feare of the Pale horse and that which follows It is not to be doubted but at such a pinch as this something we would say and something we would do which might do our selves good But what or how can we do to purpose when our strength is gone our spirits spent our senses appaled the shadow of death upon our eyes This time is not our time 2. Nor is it Gods time to heare In the Law the Lord forbad that torne flesh should be offered unto Him it was allotted for the dogs a Exod. 22. 31. Mal. 1. v. 13. But such a like sacrifice are our prayers and our praises at such a time as this as torne flesh broken divided and interrupted they must needs be when our heart within us is as Lead and our sighes beat as thick as a swift pulse The Lord ever refused the torne blind and the lame for a sacrifice It was not beseeming our Governour b Mal. 1. v. 8. a man like our selves In case to Him it was offered he would not accept of the same much lesse will God accept our torn divided sacrifice our refuse our Lees or dregs bottome dotage That which was dogs meat that which our selves and friends are weary of We had a male in our flock that is we had strength of body and minde and then of that best or male we should have offered unto the Lord But now that our best or male is spent now that we have cast away our precious stock of time and parts upon the service of sinne and Satan how can we now thinke that our torne blinde and lame sacrifice can be accepted how can we think the Lord will accept a corrupt thing against which He hath denounced a curse c Mal. 1. 14. It is not the Lords time He heareth not those persons who d Prov. 28. 9.