Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A79475
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A plot for the good of posterity. Communicated in a sermon to the Honorable House of Commons for the sanctifying of the monthly fast. March 25. 1646. / By Francis Cheynell.
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Cheynell, Francis, 1608-1665.
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1646
(1646)
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Wing C3814; Thomason E329_11; ESTC R200698
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45,495
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60
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Subiection to him by commanding our wives children servants in the Lord and for the Lord 2. Order is the cause of peace where there is no order in a family there can be no peace and it is impossible that there should be any happy Order without the highest Order I meane a Religious Order which sets God uppermost in the family and keepes the whole Houshold Master Mistresse and all in subjection to the God of Order the God of Peace the truth is Religion puts a family in Order and then keepes it so Policy may helpe to furnish an house with worldly accommodations for the support of our outward man but when men seeke temporall advantages with a neglect if not contempt of God and godlinesse Policy is but a kinde of subtile disorder and demure foolery Achitophell sets his house in order but you know what followed because he had not set either his heart or house in a religious order though he was esteemed an Oracle of God for wisedome he lived an ungodly life and died a desperate and shamefull death and all Polititians may learne by his fall that Policy without Piety can never give a man satisfaction whilest he lives nor comfort when he dyes Thirdly Families are the first roote of humane consort and communion for Government was first setled in those little Nurseries now if the roote be rotten what will the branches be A Kingdome consists of so many families united by one common Covenant for the Common good and if the families be poysoned and corrupted what will become of the townes and the cities and how will the Kingdome flourish Fourthly How can we expect a blessing upon our family or hope to convey Gods blessing to our Posterity if we doe not labour to set up God by setting up of godlinesse in our family Abraham had the promise of a blessed Seede but Abraham was to command his children and servants to walke in the way of Jehovah that the blessing of Jehovah might be upon them Ob. But you will say that in Abrahams time there was no setled Ministery and therefore Masters of families were to catechise their children and servants but there is not the same reason now c. Sol. I answer that when there was a setled Ministery under the Law there was a speciall Command for men to teach not their sonnes onely but their sonnes sonnes Deut. 4. 9. and to whet the Precepts of God upon their children to sharpen their wits and settle their mindes by diligent instruction Deut. 6. from the fourth verse to the seventh Hezekiah looked upon those as dead and buried who neglected this duty The grave saith he cannot prayse thee nor they that goe downe into the pit hope for thy truth the living the living he shall prayse thee the father to the children shall make knowne thy truth Isai. 38. 19. Parents are or may be better acquainted with the disposition and capacity of their owne children then any Minister can be with the disposition and capacity of all the children in the Parish children doe commonly learne more prophanesse at home then they can learne good at Church or schoole the negligence or ill example of their parents or some in the family doth usually bring a curse upon the sad paines of the most laborious Minister Parents then and Ministers must be helpers to one another in Jesus Christ godly Parents catechise their children in private that their mindes and hearts may be prepared for the receiving of those truthes which shall be taught them in the Publique Ministery Parents repeate Sermons in private Ministers presse catechisticall points home in publique and so there is a sweete correspondence betweene both for the edification and salvation of all those that are committed to their charge There is a Prophesie Psal. 72. 17. that there shall be as it were a Succession of Christs name from generation to generation His name shall passe from Father to Sonne as the phrase imports every Father then must by Christian instruction and godly example hold forth the name of Christ to his sonne that so the name of Christ may passe from Father to sonne This Prophesie concernes the dayes of the Gospell and you know that in the New Testament Parents are encouraged to bring their children unto Christ and commanded to bring them up in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord Ephes. 6. 4. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in Discipline as well as Doctrine for the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} tells you that you must put more understanding into them by instruction and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} may signifie Correction every father will challenge the Power of Correction but he must consider that he doth likewise stand obliged to the duty of Instruction Meere Naturalists will tell you that correcting without instructing is like snuffing of the Lampe without pouring any oyle into it If you doe but consider what a difference there is betweene children whose education is different I neede adde no more Absolom for his beauty and Adonijah for his comely stature were more cockered by David then Salomon they had more liberty and Salomon more learning being more hardly and religiously bred but you know how Absalom and Adonijah miscarried and Salomon was the Crowne of his Fathers joy and the heire of his Crowne Bethel was a superstitious place and therefore the children no doubt had learned of their superstitious parents to revile the most powerfull Ministers of God for they that affect a kinde of blinde and apish devotion are most apt to scoffe at the power of religion The children of Bethel scoffed at Elisha and are torne in peeces 2 King 2. 23 24. But those children who had no doubt beene tolde that Christ was the Sonne of David Math. 21. came into the Temple and cried Hosanna to the Sonne of David Bestow religious education upon your children and you shall see that when other mens children that are basely bred scoffe at the zealous Ministers of God your children will sing Halleluiahs in the highest to the Lord Jesus Christ The Use of this Point is to teach us all in our severall places callings relations to command for God First Every man hath an houshold within himselfe Secondly Governours of families have an houshold Thirdly You that are Parliament men are Members of an Honourable House and the onely way to preserve your Honour is to walke in the way of Jehovah Fourthly The Kingdome is your Houshold the Common-wealth is your Family and by doing Justice and Judgement you may not onely command but perswade the Kingdome to walke in the way of Jehovah First Every man hath an houshold within himselfe a little world and therefore sure a great houshold within the Circuit of his inward and outward man Our first and greatest command is over our owne selves and the truth is that we are not fit to rule others no noâ— to rule
their hearts wils consciences to the Will and Pleasure of Jehovah the mighty God the great Creatour the high Possessour and glorious Commander both of Heaven and Earth Secondly His Prudence he laide no unnecessary burthen upon them his Commands were not a Cabala of his owne Invention God did first catechise Abraham and then Abraham was the Doctor of his family and catechised his houshold there is no doubt but he did advise his houshold in Prudentials but he did command them in Points of Faith and Worship to walke in the way of Jehovah It is the most imprudent thing in the world not to distinguish betweene Prudentials and Articles of Religion Articles of Faith Thirdly His Love to the pretious soules of his children servants slaves O happy thrice happy slaves who by the Care and Instruction of a godly Master were brought home to God and made the free-men of the great Jehovah Fourthly His Diligence It was no easie matter to instruct children and bond-slaves with line upon line and precept upon precept Fifthly His Faithfulnesse For all his Commands were Regular Abraham kept close to the rule and therefore neither sonne nor servant could pretend Liberty of Conscience to depart from that Rule which Jehovah who gives Lawes to the Conscience had commanded them to set up for a Rule in their very Conscience No man can grant a licence or give liberty to depart from the Rule for that were to grant an Irregular Liberty an Vnconscionable Liberty Liberty is a Priviledge Irregularity a Sin and no man hath a Priveledge to sinne Observe the Command in the text it is To keepe the way of Jehovah to dâ—e Justice and Judgement It is the Scripture phrase to expresse Religion under the Notion of a way to teach men to make a constant progresse in Religion By way is meant the way of Faith Worship and Obedience Acts 18. 25 26. Luke 1. 6. Nay the way of inward worship as well as the parts of outward worship Deut. 10. 12. Enoch and Noah walked with God Gen. 5. 22. 24. Gen. 6. 9. It is not meant of obedience onely but of Faith I must not be a Selfe-mover I must not be my owne Rule my owne way or my owne righteousnesse Christ is Jehovah my way and as I have received Christ so I must walke in him and by the grace of Christ I must walke in those good workes which God hath prepared that I might walke in not in the way of the old world the way of Cain the way of Balam any wicked way Divers learned men conceive that Abraham did catechise his houshold in these weighty points Concerning God Creation Providence Concerning the innocency and happinesse of man in his first estate Concerning the Fall Sinne and misery of man Our losse and corruption by the Fall Our danger if we continue in that corrupt estate I change the persons that I may speake to you and my selfe Others there are that adde many more necessary points concerning the Law of nature the Immortality of the soule but the Mortality of the body the Day of Judgement Eternall life and Eternall death And O that we would consider that our soules must certainely have an everlalasting Being either in glory or in torments That we may in this our day consider those things which belong to our everlasting Peace least hereafter they be hid from our eyes But it is out of question that Abraham did communicate many other pretious and saving truths to his beloved family Concerning the rich mercy and free grace of God Concerning salvation by faith in the promised seede Concerning Prayer Vowes Sacrifices the Covenant of Grace and Circumcision the Seale of the Covenant Moreover the Commands of Abraham were not onely Regular but Practicall Commands he did not onely command them to know the way of Jehovah but to walke in it nor were they onely to talke of Judgement and Justice but to dâ—e it Judgement and Justice are here taken in a strict and practicall notion the 22. Chapter of Jeremiah from the thirteenth to the twentieth verse is an excellent Comment upon my text Jehoiakim the sonne of Josiah and King of Judah was buried with the buriall of an Asse because he did not learne of his Father to doe Judgement and Justice ver. 15. and to judge the cause of the poore and needy ver. 16. If the greatest of men remaine unjust they will have no blessing upon them all their life no honour at their death I shall not so much as examine whether those precepts which some say were delivered to the sonnes of Noah were not onely pressed upon Abrahams family but upon all those that were thought worthy of humane society by this little that hath beene saide it is cleare and evident that Abraham did not goe about to set up himselfe but to set up God in his family by a kinde of Theocracy the best of Goverments But the Jesuites tell us that Abraham had no written Catechisme to communicate to his Posterity and therefore they conceive that they may vent their unwritten lyes upon the Credit of some doating Pope Our answer is briefe The Scriptures have beene necessary * ever since it pleased God to expresse his minde in writing and will be so even to the end of the world We must not expect such unwritten Revelations as were vouchsafed to Abraham because the whole Counsell of God his Royall Will and Pleasure doe now stand upon record as his perfect Law full Testimony Compleate and Supreme Testament nothing is to be added to it or taken from it To say the Scriptures are not perfect is not to dispute but blaspheme and if the Scriptures were not perfect it is for certaine that they could never be perfected by humane traditions which are so full of imperfection A Synod is a solemne Ordinance of Jesus Christ and I looke upon that Counsell Acts 15. not onely as a Precedent but as a Warrant for the Examination of matters of Fact as well as Doctrines of Faith And such a determination of both as doth not onely direct but oblige severall Congregations to doe their duty by vertue of that Ministeriall Authority which is stamped upon such a Synod or Counsell by an Ordinance of Jesus Christ And yet unlesse it were in that Counsell Acts 15. the Church did for about three hundred yeares together convince and condemne Heretiques by scripture before any generall Councels were gathered or the Popes throne erected I have beene at paines to remove a great deale of rubbish that lay in my way but now I shall beginne to build 1. Governours of families are Gods Deputies they must command for God and give an account to him all the power that any man can challenge in his family as an Husband Father Master is a subordinate and limited power not an Independent or Absolute power for we must testifie our dependance upon God and