I spake unto them but they would not heare Hier. 35.17 I cryed unto them but they would not answer Samuel tels us that it is as the sinne of witchcraft And Ezekiel cap. 8.16 that to turne our backes rebelliously upon the Lord is an abomination which admits no parallell Yet nothing more naturall to man The brests of Eve gave no other Milke than perversenesse to her children neyther did Adam bequeath to his posterity any other patrimony But he that hath beene principled in the schoole of grace will never appeare like Othos souldiers who according to the Historian Iussa ducum interpretari quam exequi malebant delighted more in commenting upon the directions of their leaders than performing them but like the Centurions Bid him goe and he goeth come and he commeth doe this and he doth it Hee stands not to enquire after the nature and scope of that which is enjoyn'd him nor yet to search upon what reasons motives and inducements it is grounded Ambros Offic. lib. 1. cap. 17. but borne as it were Daedaliis remigiis upon the wings of diligence he cuts through all incumbrances to doe it He knowes it is his fathers will and here he finds his rule Children obey Secondly this obedience consisteth in learning what their parents teach them The feare of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge but fooles despise wisedome and instruction My sonne therefore saith Salomon Pro. 1.8 heare the instruction of thy father and forsake not the law of thy mother For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head and chaines about thy necke Pro. 31.1 Lemuel a potent King gloried in the practise of that prophesie which his mother taught him Thirdly they must amend whatsoever they reprove And behold the eye that mocketh at his father and despiseth to obey his mother in this the Ravens of the valliâ—s shall â—icke it out Pro. 30.17 and the young Eagles shall eaâ—e it This for the matter For the manner how this obedience is to be tendered It must bee with all internall and externall reverence Internally they must conceive a holy estimation of their parents and externally bee ready with all dutifull behaviour to accept of their commands The fift precept in the Decalogue is Honour thy father and thy mother but the Apostle useth the word Obey First to taxe a fault whereof children for the most part are usually guilty For many will give all due respect and reverence to their parents who yet in the fashioning of their lives will deny them their obedience and with a refractary eare put by their counsell and advise Secondly because obedience is the chiefest part of that honour whereunto children by Gods divine injunction are obliged For vaine is the pretence of honouring them where there is not a readinesse to obey them as may be seene by that parable of the two sonnes propounded by our Saviour Christ himselfe to the Priests and Elders of the people Mat. 21.30 3. Because such as are not obedient to their parents cannot be obedient unto God He is the supreme father of all ab illo omnis paternitas Eph. 3.16 of him the whole family in heaven and earth is named Our carnall parents are but as it were his deputies and vicegerents Lactantius therefore stiles them onely generandi ministros Lib. 5. c. 19. the instrumentall causes of our being But will the King thinke himselfe honour'd when his delegate is disobeyed Questionlesse no. Let children then obey their parents for this is well pleasing to the Lord. And so from the matter which is here required Obedience I come to the persons to whom it must be tendered Parents Children obey your Parents He doth not say Obey your Fathers but your Parents 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under which word both fathers and mothers are equally comprehended and that not without just cause For the childe takes his originall from both and therefore owes obedience and reverence unto both Hearken to thy father that begot thee saith Salomon Pro. 23 22. and despise not thy mother when she is old Againe there is couched in this word a very forcible argument or rather many and all of them sufficient to stirre up children to obedience For the very name of parents can no sooner sound in the eare of a child but it must put him in mind that these are they from whom he hath received not onely life but for the most part foode also for the preservation of that life and good education for the bâ—ttâ—ring of the same Now as concerning the first If from them hee have derived his corporall being then is hee bound by the law of nature to subject his will in all things unto theirs The little Lambe runnes at the call of the damme and the younger Elephants are alwaies plyable to the directions of the old Secondly If from them this being hath beene preserved by a daily supply of foode and nourishment then lyes there a morall tye upon him and by the law of gratefulnesse hee is to tender unto them all observance and to this the very Storke may instruct them For when his parents by reason of their age ly bed-rid as it were upon their nest and are wholly stripped of their plumes he doth not onely bring them foode wherewith to nourish them but spreads his pinions forth upon them and makes his owne Feathers a cover for their nakednesse returning that love to them in their enfeebled state which inbred gratitude puts him in minde to have received from them in his A retribution so generally admired of all antiquity that the requitall of a benefit even amongst men was ever entitled Antipelargosis of the word Pelargos which is the usuall appellation of this foule As if nature could not have produced a more lively precedent of piety than this Thirdly and lastly If by good discipline and godly education they have bettered this his being hee is then obliged out of a consideration of his owne utility and gaine to doe the like The greater our debt the greater mâ—st bee our duty Christ had done much for Saint Mary Magdalene and shee loved much Every Christian is to be respected though no other Bond should tye us thereunto but that of Christianitie But if to this bee added others we must then grow in our affections Let the Elders 1 Tim. 5.17 saith the Apostle who rule well bee counted worthy of double honor especially they who labour in the Word and Doctrine and why a double honor but because of a double desert which doth require and exact it Now to whom can a man be more especially and particularly bound than to his Parents by whom hee hath received what ere he hath and what ere hee is I but will some say the things which are enjoyned me by my Parents are base and such as if I under-went them would expose mee to disgrace and make mee derided of the world O consider not what
of the second TOME Fathers provoke not your Children to anger least they be discouraged TOM II. LIB II. The duty of parents to their children THE Apostle still carries the scales in an even hand and as in the first combination belonging to the constitution of a family having principled the wife he came to direct the husband that neyther might bee defâ—ctive in the p rformance of such offices as by vertue of the nuptiall tie were mutually to passe from one to the other So here in the second which is betwixt the parent and the child he doth the like Fathers saith he provoke not your children least they be discouraged In the words we may observe two things First A prohibition Fathers provoke not your Children Secondly the cause of this prohibition least they be discouraged In the former we may consider First the persons to whom the prohibition is directed Fathers Secondly the act prohibited Provocation Thirdly the persons in whose behalfe it is prohibited Children Fathers As touching the first It may be demanded why the Apostle doth here make mention of Fathers onely not retaining the word Parents which hee had used before in exacting the obedience of children considering that fathâ—rs and mothers both are comprehended under it I answer that children are usually deficient in the tender of this duty towards their mothers 'T was necessary therefore in prescribing of the same that mothers should equally be included But very seldome or never is the tendernesse of their affections so farre exasperated against the fruite of their wombe as to looke upon it with an austere and sowre eye 'T was sufficient therefore here that fathers onely should be named as principally lyable to this Interdiction The offence of a mother is to bee more cockering than cruell Moses his wife Exod. 4.25 cal'd him a bloudy husband because he put her childe to paine though in a way which God had commanded And therefore Fathers provoke Fathers The very name implies an Argument For when he saith Fathers provoke not 'T is no other than if hee should have sayd Forbeare the doing of that which so ill beseemes the person and ought to be so farre removed from the practice of a father 'T is a title which sounds not any thing but mildnesse The Poet therefore speaking of one in whom this vertue was exceeding eminent sayth thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was as milde and loving as a father And doe we not see that the very creatures are instructed by nature to be kinde and courteous towards their young Plutarch writes of the male Partridg that hee shares with the female in hatching of her egges and is the first when they come out of the shell that brings them meate The Beare and the Woolfe for want of hands wherewith with to stroke their whelps are still licking them with their tongues Yea the Dragons how pernicious so ever unto others looke smilingly upon their owne And shall we that are indued with reason bee froward and perverse to those of our owne loynes Omnes honesti mores in bestiis congregantur in homine Man is an universall Pandect and in him are congregated what ever vertues are in all the creatures Ishmael was a gibing bratte Esau a surly child and Absalom a trayterous sonne Abraham was yet loving to the one Isaac tender over the other and David most affectionate towards the third witnesse the care he had to preserve him while he lived and the lamentation which he made for him being dead In a word then having such a precept together with such pâ—eâ—edents Fathers provoke not your children And thus from the persons to whom this prohibition is directed I come to the act prohibited and that is Provocation The word in the originall is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifies to provoke to anger which may happen many waies to children from their fathers by abuse of their paternall power as first by words and secondly by deeds By words three manner of waies First by burdening them with precepts eyther unlawfull or unmeete unlawfull 1 Sam. 20.31 as Saul when he commanded Ionathâ—n his sonne to fetch David his innocent and harmelesse friend unto him that hee might deprive him of his life And likewise when Herodias enjoyn'd her daughter to aske of Herod who had promised with an oath to give her whatsoever shee demanded the head of Iohn the Baptist Math. â—4 8 we reade not yet that this dancing daughter was any way displeased with the bloudy mandate of her mother but had she harboured in her brest so much as a graine of piety 't would have griev'd her very soule to heare such an unjust request Againe unmeet as when the father no necessity urging him thereunto shall binde them to such servile and base imployments as beseeme not an ingenuous nature to undergoe For according to the Philosopher The rule of a father over his children should be like that of a King over his subjects grounded rather upon love than feare He should not out of an insul ing tyranny abuse their labour as the Aegyptians did that of the Israelites by tyring out their strength in workes of drudgery but make that use of it which may tend to the good of eyther Secondly fathers may provoke their children by thundering upon them undeservedly with rayling and reproachfull words For these have usually with them so sharpe a sting as will goe neere to wound the soule of the most setled patience and in this kind also was Saul injurious unto Ionathan when in his anger hee sayd unto him Thou sonne of the wicked and rebellious woman doe not I know that thou hast chosen the sonne of Ishai to thine owne confusion and to the confusion of that shamefull and ignominious wombe which brought thee forth For what should more provoke a sonne than to heare not onely himselfe reviled and disgraced but his mother likewise to bee scandalized with base invectives and made in reputation inferiour to a common Courtisan Thirdly and lastly parents may provoke their children in words by traducing their workes and weakning their desart to others and that eyther before their faces or behind their backes And indeed it hath often hapned that the father hath suspected vertue even in his childe and hath therefore laboured to weaken the reputation of it in the opinion of such as were thought to admire it or sought by bloudy practises utterly to extinguish it Solyman the fourth Emperour of the Turkish Monarchy commanded his sonne Bajazet to bee strangled by Hassan Aga together with his foure youâ—g sons one of which lying in the cradle was there murdered by an Eunuch the childe smiling in the villaines face And that which moved him to this unnaturall cruelty was onely the noblenesse of their sire which in his ambitious apprehension was gazed upon by his subjects with an eye of too much admiration The like jealousie provoked him with no lesse barbarous fury to prosecute the life of Mustapha
when wee shall fall into his 2. That earthly Lords how great soever they may be in power are no way priviledged or permitted to make litter for their ambitious feet of those that are under their authoritie For even they themselves are under God And as the Trigaedian speakes Omne sub regno majore regnum est No power so great but it is subject to a greater All must be countable to God 3. That those men of all others are the most miserable that count it their happinesse to tyrannize over others as Sylla did for they shall receive the wrong they doe 4. And lastly Eye-servers and Men-pleasers such as by a deceitfull shewe of industrie gaine the good opinion of their Masters are here taught that they lie still exposed to the wrath of God For hee who is their heavenly Lord discernes their fraud and their hypocrisie Quaecunque facio ante te facio saith S. Augustine illud quicquid est quod facio melius tu vides quam ego qui facio Whatsoever O Lord I doe I doe it before thee and it is more apparent to thy eyes than to mine that doe it It behoves every one therefore to have a care that what hee doth be well done And thus much of the Commination The Anticipation followeth And there is no respect of persons Masters might object and say Who shall call us into judgement for the ill usage of a slave The very Law affirmes that no injurie can bee done to them But say we should be questioned about them we will evade either by favour out of the hands of Iustice or by force or if not so a Bribe shal charme the uprightnes of the Iudge The Apostle meets with these conceits and shewes that it is otherwise with divine judgement than with humane Earthly Tribunals are like spiders webbs the harmelesse Flie sticks fast while the hurtfull Hornet breaketh through But this great judge of heaven and earth will not be terrified by any power of the wicked nor yet made flexible by favor Hee accepteth not Iob 34.19 as Elihu speakes the persons of Princes neither regardeth hee the rich more than the poore for they bee all the workes of his hands And sutable to this is that of S. Ambrose Iustus Index est dominus causas discernit In Eph. 6. non personas The Lord is a righteous Iudge and regardeth not the Person but the Plee Hee heares the complaints of the prisoners and hath a listening eare to the cries of those that are appointed unto death nor shall the wrong they suffer scape the fury of his vengeance I reade in profane Story of one Autronius Maximus Macrob. l. 1. Saturn who having first of all most inhumanely whipped one of his slaves did afterwards fasten him to a Gibbet and on a solemne Festivall before the beginning of their shewes did cause him in that miserable plight to bee carried up and downe the place as if hee had intended him like an Antick to a Maske the Comicall praeludium to their ensuing sports A cruelty so barbarous and void of all humanity that Iupiter offended with the spectacle appeared in the night to one Annio willing him to let the Senate understand that hee did much abhorre it and without some speedy expiation of the crime would visit them and their state with extraordinary judgement which hee neglecting the one and onely Son he had was taken from him by sodaine death afterwards being warned hereof againe for the like carelesnesse himselfe was strucken with a weaknesse throughout his whole body so that in the end by the advise of his friends he was carried in a Litter to the Senate-house where he had no sooner related what had beene discovered unto him but his health was presently restored and hee went on foote out of the Court backe to his owne home out of which he came not but by the helpe of other It is attributed to Iupiter but was the Act of the true God whose eyes and ears are alwayes open to the afflicted the remembrance of it may serve as a Bridle to curbe the arrogance of masters and to keepe them from all insolent oppression Againe servants might likewise object and say What though we obey not our earthly Masters heartily And what though wee deceive them sometimes as occasion shall bee offered will GOD take vengeance for it upon us poore silly soules Great is the burthen of our sorrowes and many be the miseries which wee endure by reason of their imperious haughtinesse God will not therefore surely adde unto our griefe by any exercise of his severity but will rather make us taste of his mercy The Apostle therefore to cut off this vaine hope likewise even in them shewes that God is just and will not be moved out of pity to favour the poore nor out of envy to detract from the rich Hee hath expresly prohibited this respect of Persons in others and cannot therefore practise it himselfe In Exod. 23.3 Thou shalt not esteeme saith he the poore man in his cause And in Levit. 19.15 Ye shall not doe uniustly in iudgement Thou shalt not favour the person of the poore nor honour the person of the mighty but thou shalt iudge thy neighbor iustly So that with him there is no respect of Persons From hence then wee may learne 1. That not onely the wrongs and iniuries which are done to Kings and men of high preheminence but likewise those which are offered to subiects I to the basest slaves have God for their revenger It behoves therfore the king the subiect the master and the slave to demean themselves â—prightly one toward the other considering that both are equally lyable to Gods divine examination 2. Magistrates such as are Gods Vicegerents upon earth have here a patterne for their imitation teaching them all respect of persons being laid aside to give unto every one his due Astrea whom the Poets feigned to be the Goddesse of Iustice being forced by the iniquity of men to forsake the earth did fly immediately to heaven and there tooke up her seat inter Leonem Libram betwixt those two of the twelve Signes which are called the LYON and the Ballance where shee sits as the EgyptiaÌ„s painted her with her head hidden amongst the Starres to shew that Magistrates in the administration of Iustice should like the Areopagites have their eyes canopied up froÌ„ all such obiects as might sway their iudgment beyond the rule and line of equity a Iudge and an Altar said Architas are both one Men flie to both in case of danger and necessitie That hee may be therefore both he must know it is his duty to protect the Pesant as wel as the Peere the slave as well as the superiour And thus I here breake off the thred of this discourse in which if any chance to taxe mee for the length I must unburden my selfe upon the Apostles method which gave mee the occasion It was my
resolution at the first fully to ponde and examine every word of his that from them I might derive the greater weight unto mine owne In handling therefore of the two first combinations I followed his concisenesse and here where hee tooke a larger field I was forced to doe the like But why may some demand was hee so briefe in those and did so much enlarge himselfe in this I answer the reason may bee threefold 1. Because the property of Pagan servants was to cozen and defraud their Masters and in their absence like so many traitors as Cato termed them feloniously to curse and speake evill both of their persons and proceedings Witnesse that speech of one in the Comedie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He thought him selfe overjoy'd whâ—n hee could get but any opportunity to raile in secret upon his Master and howsoever they to whom he theÌ„ spake were converted to Christianitie it was but newly yet and any little discontentment offered them by their Masters might have made them with the dâ—g retuâ—ne to their vomit for the prevention whereof hee seekes by strong enforcements to tie them to their dutie A second reason may bee to expresse the riches of Gods mercy who despiseth not the very slave that is despised of all but seeks to make even him a lively stone for the building up of his most glorious Hierusalem and because husbands are willing to enforme their Wives parents carefull to teach their Children whereas Masters utterly neglâ—ct their Servants God to supply the defect doth here afford them a large Volume of instructions The third reason is for the comfort of servants who by this pressing of their duty may well resolve themselves of Gods affection The lover never thinkes his minde sufficiently vented and is therefore still courting the Object of his love And so it is here with God hee doth dilate himselfe in drawing them to shew that he doth much desire them A fourth and last reason may bee the intimation of his owne humanity The Physitian when hee meets with a needy Patient tels him in briefe that Kitchin physick must bee his onely remedy And so the Lawyer when hee lights upon a Thred-bare Client to shake him off the sooner makes him beleeve his cause will not bee worth the triall S. Paul teacheth them charity venting his counsell and advise more freely more fully in the behalfe of those whose inheritance in this world was nothing but the extremitie of misery than hee had done for theÌ„ that were of better qualitie as if the saving of one of those had beene a thing more meritorious than the other And thus having apologized for my tediousnesse in this point I leave the servant and come to the Master The Ground of the second Booke of the third TOME Masters give unto your servants that which is iust and equall knowing that yee also have a Master in Heaven TOM III. LIB II. THis VERSE which is made the first of the fourth Chapter I cannot liken better than to a Tree that by the violence of some earth-quake is removed out of one mans ground into an others For it should bee the period of the former and so not onely the matter of it which is oeconomicall and the fame with that in the eight Verses immediately going before but that likewise of the Verse following which is of a differing straine doth plainly shew it Chrysostome therefore Aquinas Hugo Illyricus Musculus Zanchius c. dispose of it no otherwise and we subscribing to their opinion will assume it as a part and parcell of the precedent thus then it divideth it self into two branches In the former hee shewes how Masters are to carry themselves towards their servants Yee Masters saith he do unto your servants that which is iust and equal In the latter he alleageth a Motive to induce them thereunto Knowing that yee also have a Master in heaven As touching the first In that he doth apply himselfe now to masters wee are taught that every true dispenser of Gods Word should not onely bend his endeavours to the fashioning of servants those of Inferiour ranke but should also instruct exhort and edifie Masters and Magistrates together with all those that have submitted their neckes to the yoke of Christ Againe howsoever it bee usuall with Superiours and that not without just cause to complaine of the faults of their inferiours themselves yet are seldome free from taint and from corruption The Apostle therfore would have neither Masters nor servants to upbraid each other with their imperfectioÌ„s but every one to ameÌ„d his own 2. Concerning the persons in whose behalfe this duty is here prescribed servants They may observe to their endlesse comfort the great sollicitude and care which God hath of their well-fare Hee respecteth both their soules and bodies For touching their soules No Monâ—rch hath a greater interest in the Kingdome of heaven than they if in Singlenesse of Heart they discharge those duties which hee in his diviner wisedome thought good to impose upon them As faire a recompence attends the one as the other and therefore the Apostle delivereth it with a kinde of Emphasis Servants bee obedient to your masters knowing that yee also shall receive Againe as if he were enamoured of the one hee seemes to Court their affections with the profer of his choisest Treasure and so to draw them to his Will whereas the other if yee reade and marke the Scriptures are usually driven thereunto by his most grievouâ— plagues and deadliest punishments Esay must tell the King that Tophet is prepared for him of old and it is deepe and large that the burning of it is fire and much wood and the breath of the Lord like a River of brimstone doth kindle it Eliiah must threaten Ahab that the Dogges shall eate him of his Stock that dyeth in the City and him that dyeth in the fields shall the Foules of the aire devoure He cals to the one in storme and tempest but in a soft still voice to the other Boanerges the Sonnes of Thunder are sent to shake the Cedar but Barionah the sonne of Consolation must hearten up the Shrub The state and condition of a servant in the Apostles time was enough to bruise the very heart God therefore seekes not to breake it but to binde it up Servants saith he be obedient to your masters knowing that yee also shall receive Againe to comfort servaÌ„ts in their distresse a little farther as hee shewes himself there tender over their soules so doth he here over their Bodies And because it is an easie thing for any man to abuse the power and authority which he hath over another and that there is not a more pernicious Creature than a tyrannicall and cruell master he limits even their proceedings with his precepts charging them to use those that are under their government with Iustice and Equity Yee masters doe that which is To come then to the duty it selfe it consisteth of two particulars