And for the Youth it knowes â—o other Law but the Law in his members leading him captive to the Law of sinne So we may know these Ages to be more unhappy and lesse innocent then the former Age for so the usuall saying is and we finde ours as we were unhappy children it is not to be doubted So I am slipt into another Age and what is the just period and limit thereof I cannot define The time of Child-hood and Youth is much as the Parents can time the beginnings as was said As they order and handle the childe so they shall finde it As it is disciplined it may quickly and seasonably with Gods blessing out-grow Childishnesse and then Child-hood and as it may be neglected you may know that by its Childishnesse it is a Boy still So the limits of this age I count are in the Parents hand according as their care is more or lesse according will this time of child hood be longer or shorter It matters much therefore how the childe is disciplin'd and taught 2. Here then is worke for the Father also whom we have not hitherto exempted and for the Mother no lesse worke then she had before Father and Mother both little enough and for the fathers spare houres a full employment but none more necessary or whereunto he can be more engaged The childe is now out of hand as we say and quickly out of sight and as busie as an Ant in the Summer but it is not out of minde The Mother is quickly calling after it and seeking for it for she knows the childe will be in harmes-way for though it be a little more out of the Mothers hand it was never lesse in its own 3. I cannot question the Parents care concerning the childes out-side the body and there care doth well but there may be too much and preposterous that care may be and inordinate We adorne the out-side commonly saith Clem. of Alexandria as the Egyptians their Temples outwardly Paed. 3. cap. 2. very specious and beautifull but if you looke inward Ch. 2. sect 3. there was an ugly beast so we adorne the body when the soul the All of a man is neglected The soul calls for its due also we cloth the childes body the soul should not be naked we feed the body and cherish it the soul should be cared for and cherished also and in the chiefe place for the soul is the cause that the body is regarded suppose the soul taken from the body but one houre and how loth are we to cast an eye toward the body which before was so lovely in our eye A great reason this though there is a greater then that as the preciousnesse of the soul and the price was paid for it why the soul should be regarded and in the first place All is then what the Parents care is concerning that which is the man indeed And therein the care is commonly too little no way answerable to the hopes they have of their childe They will say yes They intend the childes good nothing more and the way they intend also conducing thereunto But what ever they say it must appeare by what they do for good intents are no better then good dreames except they be put in execution So their care is upon tryall what they do in way of promoting the childes good must evidence it as the surest witnesse Now that the childe can go and speake it can imploy its minde and body now the faculties of both are awakened and declare themselves Now must the Parents be doing if they will evidence their care and they must consider well what they do The childe imitates strangely it is taken like an Ape wholly by example The Parents practise I meane the Parent at large him or her that hath the oversight of it is the childes booke it learnes by it so it speaks so it heares it is fashioned after it it is chatechized by it It is its Schoole and the Church The Parents house must promote the childe in point of information more then can Schoole or Church though well provided in both yet Parents be too ready to referre all thither and so put all off from themselves Assuredly it is the cause of much mischiefe and sorrow in the world that the parents think themselves discharged Ch. 1. sect 3. of their duty towards their childe when they have charged the School with it Yet thus it is commonly for so experience tels us which is the Oracle of Time and makes all wise that observe it The mother thinks that the School must â—ook to the washing her childs hands putting on the girdle its attendance at the table and his manners there and if there be any other faults as there will be many then we know who shall heare of them all and we know as well that none will be mended when there is no better care at home But so the mother thinks that she shall do her part for she is resolved that to the Master or Mistresse she will go and the childes arrand she will do and she sweares it too if she live to the next morning If it please God â— relate her words being well acquainted with them the Master shall know the rudenesse of the childe how unmannerly and undutifull it is and how slovenly too Nay the Master shall know it will neither give God thanks nor say its prayers This is her errand and when that is done she takes it that she hath done her duty In the mean time I mention no other decay the childe grows so nasty that you would scarce take an egge out of its hand So much the Mother commonly neglects the childe whom she loves so dearly well and so much desires its well doing And for the Father he is upon such designes as may enlarge his heaps or possessions which he means to cast upon the childe like so many loads of Muck thrown together L. Ver. Essay 15. 85. upon an heap though money as one saith is like muck indeed not good except it be spread But so the Father enlargeth his desires and his means he knows not well for whom and so he intends his minde and for himself onely Essay 8. 37 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Gen. 33 Hom. 59 a. he intendeth it For Charity will hardly water the ground when it must first fill a poole And little doth the Parent think how much he doth in so doing crosse the rule and the end he seems to carrie in his eye his comfort in his childs well-doing For those designes do trouble and hurt the wel-fare of the childe they do not serve it at all That Ch. 1. sect 3. wherewith the parent would load himself now and his childe after him usually makes the childe forget it self and the parent both The bladder is so blown with the windie conceit of that inheritance the Father hath purchased and is the childe 's in reversion that he
left to himself when he is least himself when he is in the most slipperie age and place y 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrys in Gen. Hom. 44. ω. Reade Ascham schol p. 13. I mean when the furnace of concupiscence is most heated as the Father speaks when affections are strongest from within and provocations more stirring from without Therefore till the childe hath some good understanding of himself and book till he can command the one and well use the other what should he do abroad either at the Vniversitie Innes of Court or in a farre Countrey We can neither teach nor learn how to weigh measure or point the winde as the Noble Advancer speaketh against the sending of children abroad too soon and too unripe Humanitie will not down nor Logick neither and Littleton worse then either of the former They that go too unripe to those places quickly grow rotten In all probabilitie and we cannot easily conceive otherwise youth will leave that they understand not and can finde no sweetnesse in And they will to that which they can do and their natures must needs relish They will to such companions their books they understand not whose language they can skill off and when they cannot draw at the fountain they will to the sinke in those places and you may sent them as strongly that there they have been as if they had fell into a vessell wherein is no pleasure There is great cause we should labour to set our children as upright as we can and to fix their carriage before we send them forth from us else there is great danger of miscarrying considering what our natures are as was said z Pag. 44. The summe then touching this point is That there be a Graduat proceeding with the childe as up a paire of staires That the childes seed-time be improved to the utmost And for the daughter that she have generall instructions all qualities the parent can bestow which may set off and yet stand with decency and sobrietie more specially that she be accustomed to the essentialls of huswifery unto all that may make her rejoyce in time to come And when the Parent in his house and the Master in the Schoole shall have thus fully discharged this care touching the childe then may the Parents have thoughts touching the disposing of it to some lawfull calling whereof as followeth CHAP. X. Chap. 10 Of Callings what the dignitie of some what the main end and use of all how to judge of their lawfulnesse Our faithfulnesse and abiding therein Doing the proper works thereof Designing the childe thereunto THE Lord hath disposed us in the civill Body as He hath the members in the naturall one needing another and serving for the good of another and all for the common good The foot saith not if I had been the hand I had served the body nor saith the hand if I had been the head I had served the body every member in his proper place doth his proper office for therefore hath the wise Disposer placed it so God hath set the members every one of them in the body as it hath pleased Him a 1 Cor. 12. 17. 19 20 21 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrysost Ibid. Hom. 32. juxta cap. α. And if they were all one member where were the body But now are they many members yet but one body And the eye cannot say unto the hand I have no need of you Nay much more those members of the body which seeme to be more feeble are necessary The Lord so tempering the body together that there should be no schisme in the body Even so in the body politique God hath given to some the preheminence and principalitie of the head They must look to their influence They are resembled to the head for weightie causes who can conceive the manifold instruments of the soul which are placed in the head the consideration whereof instructeth very much It is an high point of honour to be head and Lord over others so is it an high point of service It will not be impertinent to remember the words of a great Divine and devout Spaniard to his great Lord b Avila's Spirituall epistles 15. pag. 130. which are these Looke upon the Lord of men and angels whose person you represent He that sits in the place of another it is but reason that he have the properties of Him Whose place he represents A Lord of vassals is a Lieutenant of God There is nothing to which great Lords ought to attend so much as truly and cordially and like men who live in the presence of God to remaine ever faithfull and firme to Him without hanging either to this way or to that And this will be easily performed by that great man who shall attentively consider That he is but the Minister of God as one who but meerely executes and must not exceed the Commission which is given to him God places not great Lords in the world to the end that they may do and undo what they list but to execute the laws of His holy will And though they may account themselves Lords yet are they still under the universall Lord of all in comparison of whom they are more truly vassalls then their vassalls are theirs and their power is as truly limited as their vassalls power is for as much as concernes the dispensing with what they ought to do So much to his dutie whose office is to be the head of the body how great that office is and how strong the engagement for the answerable discharge of the same Others He hath made Seers as the eyes of the body such grace and excellency He hath given them They must look to it that their eye be single single towards their Masters glory These considerations will help much hereunto first That they are called His holy ones upon whom the Lord hath put the Vrim and the Thummim such excellencies we can neither expresse nor conceive c Exod. 28. 30. Quae qualâ—a fuerint non constat 2. That the higher their place is the lower their service The eye must observe how the feet walk The more proper and peculiar their persons are the more common servants they are They must observe how the hands work nor so only they are a leading hand look on me and do likewise d Judg. 7. 17. for they are as the Ship-Admirall that carryeth the Lanthorn but of this a little after The third consideration is That the Apostles were sent forth as if they had neither bellies to feed nor backs to cloath yet neither did want as men of another world divided betwixt two and faithfull Stewards for both Their Lord and His Church Publique persons these are they must serve others not themselves the eye sees not for it self not yours but you e 2 Cor. 12. 14. is a standing rule At that instant saith that devout Spaniard doth that person cease to
sometimes troubled with the fruit of his corruption and the consequents of guilt and punishment that attend it but a true-hearted Christian with corruption it self this drives him to complaine with Saint Paul O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me not from the members only but from this body of death We must be humbled for actuall sinne but that is not low enough he that goes no lower doth but as if a man should rub his nose to make it leave bleeding As in good things the cause is better then the effect so in ill things the cause is worse There is more heat in the furnace then in the spark more poyson in the root then in the branch more bitternesse in the spring then in the streame It is not actuall sinne that only or primarily defiles me I must look back to my first originall I was tainted in the spring of my Nature that is worse then any of those filthy streames that come from it my Nature is subject to break out continually upon any upon all occasions pray we then Lord strike at the root dry up the fountain in me Oh d Dr. S. S. C p. 195. 196. if we could but one whole houre seriously think of the impure issue of our hearts it would bring us down upon our knees in humiliation before God But we can never whilst we live see so throughly as we should into this depth nor yet be humbled enough for what we see How should it humble us that the seeds of the vilest sinne even of the sinne against the holy-Ghost is in us And to heare of any great enormous sinne in another man considering what our own nature would proceed unto if it were not restrained we may see our own nature in them as face answering face If God should take His Spirit from us there is enough in us to defile a whole world We cannot see the Dregs in the bottome before we see the vessell shaken Sinne may lye dormant like a dog asleep for want of an occasion to jog it and all that while we may keep clean as a swine in a faire meadow We know not our own hearts till an occasion be offer'd nor then neither unlesse we plough with Gods Heifer till His spirit bringeth a light to ours I hold thee the longer at this point Because it is the maine point The more we consider the height the depth the breadth the length of this misery the more shal we be humbled in our selves and magnifie the height the depth the breadth and the length of Gods mercy in Christ e Pag. 213. The favourers of Nature are alwayes the enemies of Grace This which some thinke and speake so weakely and faintly off is a more enemy to us then the divell himselfe a more neere a more restlesse a more traiterous enemy for by intelligence with it the divell doth us all the hurt he doth and by it maintains forts in us against goodnesse Therefore slight not sinne here nor thy misery by sinne According to those steps thou canst go down into this depth of thy misery by sinne thou shalt rise upward again to the greatnesse of Gods love in Christ and so fetch happinesse out of that depth also Here it is most true one depth calleth unto another depth If every step or Article in the first which is misery by sinne do not more and more humble us in the sight of our misery no Article in the second part which is our redemption by Christ can comfort us Enlarge thy sinne to the uttermost that thou may'st magnifie the grace of Christ Lessen not mince not sin in hope of pardon Little sinne to forgive will make Christ little loved The height and depth of mercy cannot be sounded but by the measuring line of misery We must be brought to Davids acknowledgement f Psal 38. 7. There is no soundnesse in this flesh no part of health or life in our sinfull nature which was most fully signified in that which was most remarkable saith Mr. Ainsworth g Ainsw Levit 13. 15. Plurimum profâ—cit qui sibi plurimum displicere didicit Cal. Inst 3. 3. 20. in the Law of Leprosie That quick or sound flesh in the sore should be judged leprosie and the man uncleane whereas if the leprosie covered all his flesh he was pronounced clean Hope not then in small sinne but in great mercy and that it may not seeme small for that is the feare think thus Can that pollution be small which hath past through so many Iordans yet cannot be cleansed Can that root be any other then a root of gall and bittâ—rnesse which hath defiled all and all parts and faculties of All Can that Stump be small that hath thrust out such strong branches and those so often cut and he wed at and yet growing again Can any sparke be little that comes from such a Treasury Think on this and think seriously whether here be not cause of loathing take it actively that thou shouldst loath thy self or passively that thy person should be loathed Cause of loathing there is of despairing also in thy self but not in another Cause to go out of thy self for mercy no cause to despaire of mercy A great sinner hath a mighty Redeemer but he wil not roul himself upon Him That is mighty till he feeles himself to be such a sinner as we heard a great sinner which consideration will drive the soule upon another rock if we observe not how the Prophet pleads for mercy upon this very ground Because his sin is great h Psal 25. 11. The glory of God is great in the salvation of great sinners And by putting confidence in Him Who is mightie we lay Glory and Majesty upon Him for to those words we may properly allude i Psal 21. 5. His glory is great in thy salvation honour and Majesty hast thou laid upon Him Our thoughts are straitened now yet think we on the riches of His mercy Who when we were as out-casts to the loathing of our persons in the day that we were born when we lay polluted in our own bloud said unto us at such a time as that Ezek. 16. Live If we think k on this we think on a Love which passeth knowledge on a mercy whose height and depth and breadth cannot be measured but if we can spread it upon our sinne as the the Prophet himself upon the childe we shall finde it equall to all dimensions And this is the Love of Him who gave His Sonne and the obedience of that Sonne who gave Him self for our ransome a price that cannot be valued for it went to the worth of souls And this He did being made as Luther said well the greatest sinner in the world suffering what was due to such a sinner eternall wrath not in respect of its duration for it was of a short continuance but yet eternall in respect of the excellent dignitie of the
We may allude here to what we reade spoken of the Leviathan r Job 41. 21. An angry-mans breath kindleth coales and a flame goeth out of his mouth But if God meekens the spirit if He humbles the heart all this fire will be quenched or if not so yet so kept in this fire shall be that no burning lamps no sparks shall leap out I meane nothing shall be done or spoken which may kindle wrath but much yeelding there will be much forbearing in the spirit of meeknesse as we learne by the example of Abraham who yeelds unto the younger rather then difference shall arise And the true sonne of a gracious father will yeeld not to Abimelech only but to the Heardsmen of Gerar though the place shall carry a memoriall of the contention there and injury done Chrysost Ibid. to Iacob there the taking from him that which God and nature makes common yet rather then there shall be any contention Isaac yeelds and accepts of an apologie or defence afterwards though never a word thereof true And this is meeknesse and patience indeed mildly to yeeld not to superiours only against whom perhaps we cannot stirre and be safe but to yeeld to inferiours such we would have disdained as Iob saith ſ Chap. 30. 1. to have set with the dogs of our flocke This is a point of a meeke spirit indeed And this is a spirit of Gods own framing even His to whom these two things do of right belong To subdue iniquitie and pardon sinne Marke it The Lord He it is who subdueth every distemper of the soul which vexeth there and pardons all the iniquity t Micah 7. 18 19. there from casting it as into the bottome of the Sea therefore to Him we must seeke I conclude with the wise mans lessons u Prov. 16. 23. 24. Verse 32. The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth and addeth learning to his lips Pleasant words are as an honey-combe sweet to the soule and health to the bones He that is slow to anger is better then the mightie and he that ruleth his spirit then he that taketh a citie I know That before I came off from this point I should have spoken more concerning the tongue and the government thereof But the subject is so large and so largely Chap. 4 § 5 handled That we cannot say a little of it It is me thinks observeable That he who wrote a booke thereof was a whole yeare so himselfe saith bethinking Drexelius himselfe what to call his booke which if I remember he was ten yeares in composing At the length he intituled his booke Phaeton and we know what is faigned of him as we do know what was the originall of that fiction But the Title fits very well and the Spirit gives good warrant to it For the tongue is a fire a world of iniquitie x Jam. 3. 6. it defileth the whole body and setteth on fire the course of nature and is set on fire of hell Great cause to look unto it to guard it well as nature teacheth us with all our care But he that can master his passion and this master passion can master his tongue also that is supposed For the tongue as we heard is but angers first weapon And if we can binde the strong-man we can spoile him of his weapons that 's out of question for it is first done I will say but this then for I have spoken to it before in the first part It is the wisdome of a man to see himselfe speake That is well first to observe the way his tongue is travelling in That he may be sure and certaine that the way is safe Remembring still what was said too That a man hath falne more 1. Part. dangerously by his tongue then he hath by his foot § 5. Of Censure I would charm the tongue here before I leave it but so it is hard for man to do nay impossible yet I will lesson it in point of Censure Which is a bold libertie the tongue takes as if it had a a K. I. Daemonolog lib. 3. cap. 1. patent for prating or had received another edict that all the world should be taxed The lessons are these 1. Take no evidence from heare-say It is the greatest liar in the world Report will fully the whitest name upon earth and when it hath done and you would finde the authour you cannot he walks as undiscerneable as if he had his head in the clouds b Caput inter nubila condit vide Scal. Poet. lib. 5. cap. 3. pag. 524. Report nothing upon bare report especially nothing touching any ones good-name which the purer it is like a white ball the more fullied with tossing 2. Where thou wantest certaintie judge charitably the best and leave that thou canst not know to the Searcher of hearts Indeed sometimes a mans out-side actions words gestures do make an easie and plain Commentary upon the heart we may expound the heart by them There is a speaking with the feet and a teaching with the c Prov. 6. 13. 14. fingers The organ or instrument of speech is the tongue What can the feet speak What can the fingers teach why the feet can speak and the fingers can teach what is in the heart Their commentary is so plain that a man may reade frowardnesse is there But now when a mans actions his meaning and intent are of as doubtfull construction as some old Characters worn out and decayed Take we heed now that we reade them not according to our sense unlesse it be most agreeable to charitie It is a good rule d Ampliandi sunt favores We must shew all the favour that may be We must stretch out charities mantle as wide as we can that is as wide as heaven is wide saith e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Acta Apost 21. Hom. 44. ω. Chrysostome and we must note it We are bound to give the fairest and most candid interpretations of actions and meaning as possible may be It is Mr Perkins rule and but the rule of charitie Be as tender of a mans meaning as with his eye so of his actions as perhaps he did not so as it is suggested if he did it then not with a minde to do me hurt or if with that purpose then by some temptation which might have carried my self too and upon a worse evil Still deale tenderly we should with our brothers Name with his Conscience with his meaning as tender of all this we must be as we are of our eye or of a glasse of Chrystall 3. Speak well of the dead or nothing at all It is for such to trouble them that are at rest who are of his generation who did pursue his brother with the sword and did cast off all pitie and his anger did tear perpetually and kept his wrath for ever f Amos 1. 11. Mark well how sadly and confidently Job speakes touching the
an inhabitant in Ch. 3. sect 1. the Land of Nod still as the waves of the sea in agitation Gen. 4. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrys Ibid. Agitatio vexatio Trem. tossed between hope and fear for being turned from God to the creature it lies open as a faire mark for every incomfortable accident to strike it at the heart for from thence the heart shall finde the sorest griefes where it placed its chiefest joy and contentment being not placed where it should be in God that which we make our God besides the true one that will prove our tormentor the heart and the creature do close together too well and agree they do as two friends too inwardly as if they could fill up and satisfie each other whereas the better agreement there was and the more compleate riviting of the one with the other the more falling out and bitternesse there will be when the parting day comes which we must look will be quickly if we set up the gift in our heart instead of the giver certainly if God loves us He will hide from us this idoll which we so much dote upon He feeleth the pulse of our affection where it beateth most strongly and to what part the humour is carried most fully and eagerly and there we shall certainly bleed for He can strike us in the right vâ—iâ—e If a Parent be inordinate in his affection if his Ioseph and his heart lie like a bundle close wrapt up together then it is very likely that Ioseph must leave his Father that the Parent may learn to sacrifice the childe in affection which is the readiest way to keep the childe for commonly it fals out that the Lord snaâ—cheth away that comfort which we made such store of locking it up too close Peter saw the glory of Christ in His transfiguration It is Luk. 9. 33 34. very observeable that while Peter was speaking of building Tabernacles for some continuance a cloud over shadowed them and they feared If God shew us that which doth content and please us we would presently build Tabernacles upon these outward comforts I meane the heart would settle and six upon them it is so good being with these comforts but now while we are projecting and providing for this continuance then commonly comes some cloud and over-shadows this comfort and sometimes then Ch. 3. sect 1. when we are but speaking and thinking of it then the cloud comes and then follow feares In the story of Ionah it is read That the Lord God prepared a Gourd that it might be a shadow over Ionahs head and deliver him from his griefe So Chap. 4 Ionah was exceeding glad of the gourd Exceeding glad marke that I pray you and that which follows But God prepared a Worme the very next morning and it smote the gourd that it withered The Lord is graciously pleased to grant unto us some comforts here whereby to sweeten our sorrows and to refresh us in our weary pilgrimage But if we shall be exceeding glad of them being but of the same nature and constitution as was Ionahs gourd then look we to it for then commonly the Lord is preparing a worme which will quickly sinite that gourd so that it shall wither and then which is next to be considered †2. We shall be troubled as much at the withering of out gourd as we were joyed before in the having of it which was Ionahs case exceeding glad of our gourds exceeding Quicquid mirabere pones invitus Hor. epist lib. 1. 10. sorrowfull and disconsolate at the smiting and withering of the gourds It ever follows by the rule of proportion b Ipse ut laetitie ita maeroris immodicus egit Tacit. Of Nero hury ing his beloved daughter Augusta An. 15. Psal 30. 6 7. We are apt to thinke that our gourds do cast a greater shadow then indeed they do or can And answerable is our delight in them and our sorrow for them when they wither Therefore we should know what ever our mountaine or gourd is I meane our comfort in what kinde soever it is Gods favour His influence through it that gives strength unto it and us comfort in it And if He withdraw His favour and restraine His influence as doubtlesse He will if we are too confident of our setling and firme standing thereon as if we could never be mooved then trouble follows and the more our trouble will be the stronger our confidence was and our contentment in the same It is the greatnesse of our affections which causeth the sharpnesse of our afflictions They that love too much will alwaies grieve too much a The presence of a comfort is not more comfortable then will be the absence thereof grievous If we suffer the childe that is the creature we are now upon to shoot too farre into our hearts when the time of severing cometh we part with so much of our hearts by that rent Oh how good is it and how great a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz epist 125. point of wisedome to carry the creature as we do a loose garment apart and loose from the heart easily parted with That when God calls for it as He may with more libertie then we may fetch our childe from nurse yet we take libertie there we may willingly part with it saying here Lord thou gavest it to me Thou maist fetch it from me Blessed be thy name in taking as in giving The Heathen gives a Rule and it is of easie construction Love so as thou maist hate Amatanquam osurus That is Love your friend so that if hatred should grow betwixt you yet no hurt can follow for you have not so unbrested and opened your self unto him that he can hurt you It is a good rule for a Parent Love thy childe so as one Amatanquam amissurus that is parting with it That is love thy childe so that if thou losest it yet thou doest not lose thy treasure nor thy heart Thou hast not so opened thy self towards it nor is it laid up so close Then thou canst be content with thy losse and submit to His mightie hand That tooke it from thee He was a wise Heathen and one instruction from him comes double to a Christian I kisse my childe to day and then I think it may M. Aur. Anâ— Med. lib. 11. 21. 30. p. 148. be dead to morrow It is ominous some will say No that remembrance keeps it loose and apart from the heart and the surer in our possession whereas the common conceits and opinions that our comforts shall not be taken from us nor we moved are as one saith the common lamiae or bug beares of the world the cause of our trouble and sorrow That we may not be carried by conceits and opinions our desire should be the same that Agurs was That God Prov. 30. Soules conflict pag. 48. would remove from us vanitie and lyes
the Sun from whence nothing can come but light as from a dung-hill an unsavoury smell which is the more sensible and offensive the clearer and more piercing that light is or as if a man through inconsideratenesse taking a fall should fret against the stone If God leaveth us to walke in our own wayes or recompenseth our wayes upon us we ought not to charge Him foolishly but to charge our selves with folly and if we have learnt so much we have learnt a short but a great lesson For it will make us continually to walk humbly with our God and a continued humilitie is a continued adoration of His Majestie and the ground-work of an holy life which is a continued prayer i Vera humilitas perpetua adoratio pia vita perpetua oratio 3. We may note again That these beames of the Sun in its circuit do passe through many pollutions and yet not polluted therewith but remaine pure and cleane The Sun worketh upon inferiour bodies and cherisheth them by light and influence yet is not wrought upon by them but keepeth its owne lustre and distance The Father maketh this use hereof How much more then saith he could the Sun of righteousnesse dwell with flesh and pitch His tabernacle with us k 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 1. 14. and yet not be polluted by us How-much more could that Son of righteousnesse communicate with man and take unto Him the infirmities of mankinde I mean such which accompany the whole nature As hungring thirsting wearinesse griefe paine and mortalitie yet without any touch or tincture of sinne from all these because what ever were the effects here-from were in Christ like the stirring of Chrystall water in a Chrystall glasse whereof we have no sedament no dregs in the bottom l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Tom. 5. Ser. 31. Chrys ω. This shews us also who are heavenly and the beautie of a well ordered soul It thinks nothing in the world of sufficient worth to put it out of frame such a soul is instructed what it should be It should rule over things beneath and not be ruled by them like the Sunne it should be under the power of nothing beneath it self But this intire estate this freedome from pollution is reserved for an higher place where all corruption shall be done away for now the soul having so much earth about it and so much of earth within it which is the cause of defilement it cannot mixe with things of the earth and not be polluted it cannot but receive some tainture there from But yet still the soul that is heavenly striveth after perfection and in desire would be in some proportion like the Sun in his race which works upon inferiour things but is not wrought upon by them It desires to carry it selfe like the Sunne above formes and stormes in an uniforme way in a constant course and tenour like it self sutable to its own dignitie and keeping its distance Thus we are instructed by the Sun-beames 3. The brightnesse and splendour of the Sun instructs also for it is admirable and the more admirable it is the lesse my eye is able to behold it But such is his brightnesse which I do see that I have a fulnesse in my vision and from thence comfort and satisfaction if I behold it wisely and as I am able But if I should be prying into it and gazing on it I shall then see nothing at all The Sun is the cause that I do see but it will not give me leave to see into it The clearnesse of that great eye will darken mine and put it cleane out m Solem qui videndi omnibus causa est videre non possumus radiis aciâ—â— submovetur obtutuâ— intuentis hebetatur si diutius in spicias omnis visus extinquitur M. Minut. Felic pag. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. ad Gentes p. 39. We must not measure an infinite God by a finite understanding Lege Cal. Inst lib. 1. cap. 13. sect 21. And this leads me into a great secret and high and commands me not to search it out nor to stand and gaze thereon for thus I reason from that I do see How little a part of the Sun is it which I see yet is it so bigge as we have heard and yet we see it but so bigge as we see and the more I see and pry into it the lesse I see and if I will yet pry further I then shall see nothing at all for I shall be darke with light What then can I discerne of God or how small a part of His wayes yet if I will enquire with sobrietie I may know so much as will satisfie and comfort me but if I enquire further and beyond my bounds which the Lord hath set as sacred as the Mount n Exod. 19. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Vol. 5. ad eos qui scand 862. 865. I shall finde that which will confound me And if I will gaze there I must perish Chrysostome gives me a good rule In all the dispensations and works of God give the same silence to thy Maker as the clay to the Pottero. Again the light of the Sun is in some part hid from us by the interposition of the Moon sometimes of the clouds often in the day and halfe of our naturall day quite intercepted by the interposition of the earth as in our night But what then though I am dark the Sun is light though I I see not its lustre yet it is the same in our night as it was in our day when we had a cleare sight of it For this we know and reason gives it to be so that the Sun hath shone forth clearely and like it self without any diminution to its light unlesse when the Creator thereof suffered ever since first it was created and set to run its race though the earth and the Moon and the clouds do eclipse the lustre thereof from our sight This may teach us not to judge of heavenly things with earthly eyes for they are not fit judges sometimes in earthly matters we know the Sun doth shine when we have not the least glimpse thereof and we must acknowledge that God doth shine forth in glory though we have no discerning thereof He doth raigne most gloriously in the middest of His enemies though we perceive no such thing There is a way wherein God sometimes doth walk and more undiscerneable it is then the way of an Eagle in the aire or of a serpent upon the rock p Prov. 30. 15 As is the path which no soule knoweth and which the Vultures eye hath not seen q Job 28. 7. And here our way is mark it not to pry and to gaze for it is as sacred as the mount r Exod. 19. but to have recourse to this and to be fully resolved of it The Lord is righteous in all His wayes Å¿ Psal 125. 18. What
be publique when he hangs never so little towards the particular he must stand like a stalke of a ballance no wayes bending Lastly then I will remember for it is very usefull how that grave Divine f Avila's Spirituall epist Ibid 131. writes to him whom God had set as an eye in the body Your Lordship must consider that as you are set as an eye in the body so hath He placed you in the eyes of many who take that to be a rule of their lives which they see you do make account that you are seated in a high place and that your speech and fashions are seen by all and followed by the most men Take it for a point of greatnesse to obey the laws of Christ our Lord without doubt inferiour men would hold it an honour to do that which they saw practised by great persons And for this reason I beleeve that the Prelates of the Church and the Lords of the world are a cause of perdition to the most part of souls I beseech your Lordship that as you are a particular man you will look into your self with a hundred eyes and that you will look into your self with a hundred thousand as you are a person upon whom many look and whom many follow And take care to carry both your person and your house so orderly as the Law of Christ requires that he who shal imitate your Lordship may also imitate Christ our Lord therein and may meet with nothing to stumble at The vulgar is without doubt but a kinde of Ape Let great men consider what they do for in fine that will be followed either to their salvation if they give good example or for their condemnation if it be evill I will adde one thing more and it shall be the speech of Sarpedon to his brother Glaucus it is worth all mens knowledge Come on brother we are Lords over others accounted Gods upon earth Let us shew that we are so indeed and not in name Our work must evidence our worth They who are the highest Lords must in point of good service to their countrey be the lowest servants They that are above others in place must shine before others in vertue They that eat of the fattest and drink of the sweetest and so have the best wages must by the rule of propertion do the best work And this that our underlings such who are inferiour unto us may have cause to say these are honourable persons and they walk honourably they are prime first and principall men amongst us and they are as their preheminence in place imports the first and formost in every good and honourable action So Sarpedon g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Hom. Iliad μ. 12. encourageth his brother That as two worthy persons they might do worthily and it is worthy every mans knowledge that hath preheminence above others And so much to assure us what the dutie of those great officers is who are set as the head over the body and as guides and lights thereunto They guide all They must be be well able well to guide and command themselves for as they guide so the people follow their example is a command h Cogi eos dicit qui exemplo Petri Judaizabanâ— Galat. 2. 14. Bez. if well they follow well Being like sheep a wandring cattle which will drive well in a flock but not single and alone i Advance B. â— 272. And as this may instruct us touching the dignity of those persons who are as the head and eyes in the body so may it informe us touching our obedience to both for from this little empire in this world obedience to the head is strongly inforced The beginning of all motion all the knots and conjugations of sinews are in and from the head they have their head there which teacheth that the bodies motion is by law from the head And for the eye it is notable which one observeth how observant all are of it and to it k Asâ—h Fox p. 62. A curious and delicate fabrick so precious for use that it seemes to be made of finer mould then the rest of the body But that it should be made of the same matter wherof Bricks and Tyles are sheweth that God is admirable in working Chrys to the people of Antioch Hom. 11. So much to those principall officers so fitly resembled to those principall parts in the body Others the Lord hath set as hands to the body as feet others every one in his proper place and station In the body naturall the eye hath the gift to see not to go The foot to go not to see In the great body of the world it is still as it was Hirams countrey yeelded excellent timber and stone Salomons countrey good wheat and oyle so in the body politique one needs another one supplyeth the need of another ones aboundance the others want Hereto we are called and stand bound as our callings are And to this end according to the diversitie of callings God hath given diversitie of gifts for the discharge of the same and better correspondence each to other and all this that there should be neither lack nor schisme in the body but that the members should have the same care one of another It were a monstrous thing said the Oratour if one arme should seek the strength and spirits of the other that it self might exceed its proportion in both and leave the other arme shrunk and withered so were it for one man to graspe unto himself the good and livelihood of another not caring so himself be increased how faint feeble and impoverished the other be This were monstrous in nature it is as monstrous in politie We may recall here the words of that Divine before mentioned There is no state but would perish and be undone if publique businesse should be lead after the pace of particular affections Our relation I mean our callings wherein we are placed should be a great meanes to sodder us together and to make us look as the Cherubins l Exod. 25. 20. with our faces one towards another for the good each of other for we are members one of another m Eph. 4. 25. a feeling expression there is much in that nay all to make us seek the peace and well-fare each of other We are all born to be fellow-workers and fellow-helpers as the feet hands and the eye-lids as the rowes of the upper and under teeth saith the Philosopher n M. Aut. medit B. â— sec 15. pag. 14. Societas nostra lapidum fornici similima Sen. epist And to the same purpose saith another Humane societies makes us like Arch-buildings wherein one stone holding up another makes the whole frame to stand fast and steddy But there is no such feeling consideration as this That we are members one of another and so placed in the body politique The same Philosopher could make a true and sound use thereof for thus
speciall notice of two main and principall points whereon so much depends 1. Thy outward frame of body 2. Thy inward frame of spirit Of the outward frame here § 1. Here take notice of God first and of His goodnesse laid out upon thee when of nothing thou wast made something some few dayes before thou wast a meere nothing That which never shall be was in as great a possibility of being as then thou wast And when thou wast something Iob tels thee what it was that something was as much as Mar. Au. Ant. Medit. li. 10. Sect. 26. p. 171. nothing to the producing of such an effect so an Heathen could say from such a beginning Of that nothing wast thou limmed or framed thence this curious work not the work of nature but of an Almighty-hand quickning Nature and actuating the same And in seven dayes for so experience tells us saith Hier. Fabricius the Physitian that frame had its proportion of all parts And one half of that work P. 686. but the better part indeed is more worth then a whole world thy soul so He saith who went to the price of soules § 2. And as thou must take notice of the hand that covered thee in thy mothers wombe so must thou take notice of the same hand for the same Hand it was that brought thee thence and none other but that If this hath not been told thee nor hast thou yet considered so much then beleeve me that the most curious searchers into Nature and the powers thereof which are great and strange in their extent and latitude they who have ascribed too much unto it even they have yet acknowledged at this point when the childe is brought to the birth and no power to bring forth that this is the finger of God this is the work of His hand And yet this sorrow in child-birth is not the same in all nor is the danger the Lord so dispensing therewith though the curse be common We know what the Mid-wives say touching the Hebrew women and common experience tels us also that some women there are who in this case speed better then their betters We read what our Geographer and Historiographer for he is both writeth concerning the Spanish women and what he citeth out of Strabo touthing History of S. George Histo of the Sab. Geog. p. 32. a woman there who rose from one labour to another from labour in child-birth to labour in the field She was rather an Hedge-woman then a child-bed woman and it is with them many times as we heard But this we are sure of that this is that burthen which is laid upon that Sex In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children and so wonderfull the Delivery is that we may say with the Prophet Thou art Psal 71. 6. He that took me out of my mothers bowels my praise shall be continually of thee †1. And thou childe I suppose thee the eldest though I would make no difference here for whether the next in yeers or the youngest it will fit very well and instruct alike in the maine for which I intend it hast as much cause to consider this as any other because of the sore travell thy mother had with thee I will not mention the travell of her soul for thee that Christ might be formed in thee though a travell it was also she was in hard labour with the greatest danger of her own life before thou didst suck in the ayre of this She might have called thy name Iabesh 1. Chron. 4. 9. because she bare thee with sorrow Such were the pains upon her and so heavy was that burthen which was laid of old upon that Sex that it pressed her out of measure above strength as if she must first go out of this world before thou couldest come in A strong engagement this to look up to Him with thankfulnesse who brought thee to the She sickned the 17. of August and died the 30. at 9. in the morning 1631 when thou wast 4. yeers and 7. dayes old wombe and took thee thence and to thy parent in all due observance and it is as strong as ever though thy mother is not here I suppose thee the eldest she was taken from me and thee when thy fift yeer was currant and yet not seven dayes runne out of it Me thinks a childe grown up and reflecting on it selfe lying in the wombe and taken thence should observe a love in the mother as strong as Death All these turnings of stomack part of the mothers sorrow those throwghs afterwards as so many deaths such waters could not quench this love nor such floods of sorrow drown it nay all these were but like the Smithes water cast upon his fire which makes it burn the hotter and the clearer for all these sorrows are out of minde when the childe is in sight and serve but to encrease the love and to inhance the price of that sweet commodity the mother hath so dearly bought In one place of sacred Writ the mother is placed before the father Feare every man his mother and his a Lev. 19. 3. father It may be because the Mother is generally so neglected or because she so neglects her self I may not hit upon the true reason but I can tell a strong reason why at some time the mother may be put as it were upon the right hand and why she should at all times be of high and honorable account with the childe for she hath bought it deare as they use to say so deare that even for her sorrow in Child-birth the childe must ever be her debter Suppose we the most dutifull and observant childe standing forth that ever yet was clothed with sinfull flesh telling the reciprocation of his duty and mutuall workings thereof towards The name and nature of the Stork Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesiod c. Quinta aetas Homer Iliad 4. Lage Hex Basilii Hom. 8. his mother that he hath done towards her as the young Stork to the old the same say the Naturalists which once the old did to the young suppose all this the Mother could answer all in few words Remember childe if thou canst the turnings of my stomacke not the least part of my sorrows the pains I felt every one as so many daggers to the heart sinking my spirits and throwing up my tyred breath as if I should never take it in again Should the mother say no more but this what she suffered for the childe though much she did for it afterwards And there is more then nature in it say some that so much she did unto it when it lay like a b Hom Odys l. 6. â—â—cretius man after a shipwrack cast up upon the shoare the most forlorne and helplesse creature that can be thought of in the world Should she I say but tell what she suffered for the childe when in the wombe and bringing thence she hath answered all the