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
some who send their prayers and their praises after Soules departed But all helpes no more then doth the crying after a Bowle rub or runne now throwne out of the hand The hand sets the Bias and gives the bowle an impression and where the strength of that impression ceaseth there the Bowle lyeth all our running and calling and crying helpes nothing at all but to evidence clearely as the Anticke and ridiculous trickes of the Bowler so the vanity and unprofitablenesse of our after labours now that the soule is departed For then it is night with the Soule in respecâ— of any further worke the pit is open where there is no praise Then it either rests from his labour or is restlesse in paine There teares are wiped of or else they begin never to have end Weeping for evermore And this I note in passage that when we speake of Death we may be serious It was well answered by a Father to his Sonne who being Crossed in his humor wished hee were dead learne first what it is to live he that so lightly wisheth to dye is as he that flyeth from an yron weapon and a bow of steele striketh him through as Iob speaketh l Job 20. 24. Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord to what end is it for you m Amos 5. 18. Jer. 48 48. 43. 44. The day of the Lord is darknesse and not light as if a man did flee from a Lyon and a Beare meet him c. So the Prophet reprooved those who were dispisers of Gods Words and Workes and scoffed at His judgements It may instruct us to sobriety that we doe not for the avoyding of an inconvenience runne into a mischiefe It is dangerous to live in discontent to dye in it or to wish so to do is much more dangerous We ought to wish rather we may live and to count it a great mercy that we are spared till we can give a better account of our Time and are better fitted to dye Death indeed is the Churches portion and part of her joynture All are yours n Cor. 3. 21. 22 23. and amongst those severall parcels Death is yours and therefore it may be wished for and desired as lawfully as a Childe may desire to goe to bed or to his Father For the nature of Death is changed to the godly It is harmelesse now and hath lost its venome It is a passage to a better place a gate to Glory It is the accomplishment of Mortification and the end of labour Thus death is but not in its owne nature so it is a destroying hostile thing and so to our nature the most terrible of all Terribles And therefore not to be desired till we are assured that both the nature thereof and our nature also is changed And then also our desires must not be immoderate we must not long for it nor rejoyce exceedingly when we can finde the grave o Job 3. 21 22. This argueth too much shortnesse of spirit and some impatience under Gods Hand and more unwillingnesse then becometh to waite upon Him any longer we must patiently waite Gods Time remembring Eternity is a space long enough for God to shew mercy unto His when their faces shall waxe pale no more they shall rest for ever And therefore no matter if yet longer they waite His Time and abide His pleasure though with some griefe and paine to the flesh pleasures at His right Hand for evermore will abundantly recompense what ever pressures are from below But whether we dye sooner or later it is then safe dying when we can yeeld up our spirits as David did and with the same confidence Into thine Hand I commit my Spirit p Psal 31. 5. Thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of Truth It is safe casting a mans selfe upon God when he can say as Paul did whose I am and whom I serve q Acts 27. 23. We may then wish for Death when with old Simeon we can with the Armes of faith claspe and embrace Christ the fountaine of life Now lettest Thou thy Servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seene thy Salvation Then there is a peaceable departure when the soule hath such a vision And therefore pray thou and pray againe that the Lord would spare thee yet and yet longer till by a conscionable improvement of life health strength peace ordinances corrections also c. Thou hast got some good assurance certaine and stable That do depart hence is much better for thou shalt be ever with the Lord whose Thou art and whom Thou servest And which is the second lesson do not trifle away time nor delay here in a matter of so great consequence Let me remember here for we cannot think of any thing more to our purpose how the learned Knight complaineth of and convinceth the true unhappinesse of our condition and the dark ignorance which covereth the eyes of our understanding we onely saith he prize pamper and exalt Hist of the World 1 Book chap. 2. sect 3. p. 24. See preface pag. 19. this vassall and slave of Death and forget altogether the imprisoned immortall soul till the soul be going from out of one prison into another for when is it that we seriously think of death when examine we the great account which then we are to give up Never while we have one vanitie left us to spend we plead for titles till our breath fail us digge for riches whiles our strength enableth us exercise malice while we can revenge and then when time hath beaten from us both youth pleasure and health and that Nature it self hateth the house of old age we remember with Iob that we must go the Job 10. 21. and 17. 13. way from whence we shall not return and that our bed is made ready for us in the dark and then I say looking over late into the bottom of our conscience which pleasure and ambition had locked up from us all our lives we be-behold therein the fearfull images of our actions past and withall this terrible inscription That God will bring every Eccles 12. 14. work into judgement that man hath done under the Sun But what examples have ever moved us what perswasions reformed us or what threatnings made us afraid we behold other mens Tragedies plaid before us we heare what is promised and threatned but the worlds bright glory hath put out the eyes of our mindes and these betraying lights with which we onely see do neither look up towards termlesse joyes nor down towards endlesse sorrows till we neither know nor can look for any thing else at the worlds hands But let us not flatter our immortall souls herein For to neglect God all our lives and know that we neglect Him to offend God voluntarily and know that we offend Him casting our hopes on the peace which we trust to make at parting is no other then a rebellious presumption and that which is the
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
tell a man of any dish which he liketh that there is poyson in it and he will not meddle with it So tell him that death is in that sinne which he is about to commit and he will abstain if he beleeve it to be so if he beleeve it not it is his voluntary unbelief and Atheisme If there were no will there would be no hell as one saith And this is the confession which goes to the core of sinne and it must not be in word and in tongue but in deed and in truth for it is the truth And if we can thus spread our selves before the Lord if we can willingly and uprightly t Read our second Reinolds on Rom. 7. p. 262. own damnation as our proper inheritance to that the heart must be brought and it is the Lord that meekneth it so farre if we can willingly resigne our selves for nothing is left to man but duty and resignation of himself it is not u Opâ—rtet pium animum velle nescire Dei secre tum superse c. Impossibile est eum perire qui Deo gloriam tribuit eum justificat in omnâ— opere voluntate suâ Lut. Psalm 22. Christus faciet poenitentes quos jubet poenitere supplebit de suo quod dâ—est de nostro Lut. de Poenitent 1. Pet. 18. possible then that we should perish He will make supply of His strength what is wanting in ours He will give what he commands He will give clean waters He wil create peace He wil strengthen our hand to lay hold on rich and precious promises And then we cannot possibly be barren or unfruitfull in the knowledge of the Lord Iesus Christ we cannot but gird up the loins of our minde giving all diligence x 1. Pet. 1 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Shew me a man that ever leaâ—nt an ordinary Trade or lived upon it with ordinary diligence point me to a man that was bad yet laboured to be good or who was good yet took no pains to be better Chrysost in 1. Ep. Ad Tim. cap. 1. Hom. 1. About ordinary things very easie matters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we take extraordinarie paines but great and extraordinary things we think we may attain sleeping Chrysost 4. Tom. de Vita Monast cap. 7. ordinarie diligence will not get ordinary preferment much lesse will it a Crown The Scripture saith Giving all diligence waiting the sealing and testimony of the Spirit and walking in all the wayes of righteousnesse whereto the Apostle presseth at the end of everie Epistle for whom the Lord justifieth He sanctifieth and if we finde no fruits y For the certaintie of faith search your hearts if you have it praise the Lord. But if you feele not this faith then know that Predestination is too high a matter for you to be disputers of untill you have been better schollers in the School-house of Repentance and Justification I wade in Predestination in such sort as God hath opened it Though in God it be first yet to us it is last opened De electâ—one judicandum est à postâ—riore c. Mr Bradford to some friends who were too scrupulous in point of Election ascending up to Heaven to know when as they should have descended into themselves Mr. Fox p. 1505 and p. 1506. thereof we have cause to suspect that the Stock is dead if no glimpse from that shining light of our sanctification so as men may see our good works which justifie before men then we do ill to boast of a burning light which is our justification and more hid within Nor is it a point * Non est bone solidaeque fidei sic omnia â—d voluntatâ—m Deireserre ita adulari ad unumquemque dicendo Nihil fieri sine voluntate ejus ut non intellâ—gamus aliquid esse in nobis ipsis of sound faith to put the weight of our salvation upon what shall be shall be nothing can be done without Gods will That 's true but this is Gods will too a 1. Thes 4. 3. even our sanctification and this belongs to us even subordinately to serve Gods providence with our own circumspect fore-sight care and labour knowing that His providence doth not alwayes work by miracle I do not blame them nay I commend them who say still If God will and referre all thither but I blame them much who say If God will He will perswade me He will convert me in the meane time they do just nothing A faire speech this to say If God will but a soule practise in the meane time to do our own will we must labour we must endeavour our utmost then say we If the Lord will if so we do not Gods will will be done upon us we shall never do His will To this purpose Chrysost very excellently in his first Tom. thirteenth Sermon towards the end And so much touching the inward Baptisme made by fire and the Holy Ghost The secret working of it in our hearts and what way we are to take in case we feele not that inward power Now I come to that in Baptisme which speaks to our Eye and Eare. We had our Sureties in Baptisme who stood and promised in our steeds which solemne custome and the fitnesse of it I leave to the discission of the Church whereunto we may see reason to yeeld z Mr. Hooker Eccles Pol. l. 5. Sect. 64 p. 336. leaving that these two things are clearly figured out unto us in Baptisme a death unto sinne a life unto righteousnese and both these in the death and resurrection a Rom. 6. 2 3. of Christ which are the two moulds wherein we are to be cast that we may come forth like Him and there is a virtue and power from both to cast us in and mould us thereto for if in the dayes of His flesh there went virtue out from even the edge of His garment to do great Cures then much more from His owne self and from these most principall and powerfull actions of His own self His death and resurrection there issueth a Divine power from His death a power working on the old man or flesh to mortifie it from His resurrection a power working on the new-man the spirit to quicken it a power able to roll back any stone of an evill custome lie it never so heavy on us a power able to drie up an issue though it have runne upon us twelve yeers loâ—g these are Bp. Andr. words not one grain too light We see in that Element the price paid for â— Realus impii est pium nomen Salv. 4. de Guber p. 145. See li. 3. p. 95. The Church is a choice people picked out and paled up from these whom the Apostle placeth without but there is yet a more choice and peculiar people as Clemens â— calleth them after whom we must walke more peculiarly which we cannot do but by offering violence b to our selves that
y Nos sumus qui nullis annis vacationem damus canitiem galea premimus c. Senec. de otio sapientis cap. 29. said and it may instruct Christians We allow no vacation to our long tearme of yeares we can put an head-piece upon our hoary-scalp We will rest when we are dead life is for action Keep then thy body in breath and in ure with exercise else it will quickly grow unprofitable and a Burden Vse strength and have it it is a sure proverbe and if ever we will use expedition it is then seasonable when gray haires are upon us It is dangerous to burne the Day-light and to trifle out this pretious time The putting off this day and the next and halfe a day cost the poore Levite and his Concubine very deare as we may read Iudges 19. The evening hasteth on a pace and the Sun is neare the setting now put on the more earnestly because night is comming and thou must to Bed in the darke now gather twice as much I meane now pray heare read twice as much For the great Sabbath is comming when thou lookest for ever to Rest for ever to be with the Lord. This Sabbath Day is comming which shall never have night Now gather spirituall Manna thy Homer full twice as much as formerly If in thy youth thou didst by hearing reading conference c. gaine thirty-fold now gaine sixty Now bestirre thy selfe and put to all thy strength for the laying in store of provision in this thy day that thou mayst rejoyce in that great Day the Day of the Lord or the particular Day of thy Death Let it appeare thou art going out by the clearnesse of thy light and that the night is comming by the hasting of thy pace It is strange to consider what old men have done and how fit they have been for the best actions I meane of the minde I know outwards must decay because they kept their minde like a bow so they said alwayes bent I forbeare to put them down here The holy Scripture Heathen Authors our own observation doth reckon up not a few But remember still that there are none recorded in the sacred Register after the terme of life was shortened for old men but their old age was a crown unto them being found in the way of righteousnes z Senibus vita productior à deo tributa est in eum finem ut insiginum aliquorum operum in Ecclesiaesuae emolumentum organa essent Mardochaeus ad liberaudam Ecclesiam sub Artaxerxe vixit annos 198. Jehoshua ut pâ—pulum è Babylone cum Esdra Zorobabele reduceret vixit annos 130. Philo Ammiâ—nus in breviario temporum Tobit senior ut populi calamitas sub Salmanasare levaret vixit annos 158. Eâ ipsâ causa Tobit junior vixit annos 127. Judith ad liberandum patrium sub Holoferne vixit annos 105. Sixâ—us Senensis Bibliothec. lib. 8. They that are planted in Gods house bring forth much fruit in their age He that is fruitlesse in his latter yeares may be much suspected how he spent the former But I am sure there can be little comfort in it It is a sad thing to be an old man in yeares and a childe in understanding To grow like a Leeke greene fresh and lively towards the earth flag and saplesse upwards towards heaven To have the eye of the body dim and the eye of the soule as dim To have the body bending towards its earth and the spirit no more elevated To have one foot in the grave and the other tending to the place of utter darknesse To have the outward man quite decayed and the inward dead or fainting To be hasting toward the pit and to have the heart within like a stone A dying spirit in a dying body what a woefull conjunction is this I consider thy sex childe and thy charge but whatever it be thou wast never so fit as now thou shouldest be to serve it Now admonition correction instruction counsell all are in season before they might be suspected Now thou hast the advantage of all thy former past dayes and every following day is the disciple of the preceeding day a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pind. ol od 1 Here is Master after Master and lesson upon lesson thou art a very bad proficient if thou art not now an old Disciple b Acts 21. 16. I shall never examine thee upon this point but be assured He that numbers out thy yeares unto thee will take an account of thee how thou hast spent them what provision thou hast laid up for their coming what store thou hast treasured up against a deare yeare against a time of spending Old-age is like our winter a time of expence we must get and lay up in youth what we must use and lay out in age c Juveni parandum Seni utendum Senec. And here we must use the more diligence because it is not with man in his winter as with the earth the trees and fruits thereon in theirs If they look dead and saplesse in their winter the Sunne will return unto them and renew their face they will spring out again but man decayeth and reneweth not he must not look in a naturall way to renew his youth like an eagle If the Lord hath lengthned out thy span and thread of life unto old-age thou must needs say the Lord hath been gracious and full of patience to thee ward and then thy heart must needs answer Render again praise and obedience to Him that is so good unto thee So thou wouldest expect from thy childe from thy servant so a Prince from his Subject Great favours are great engagements between man and man betwixt God and man much more for He is the fountain and well-head of mercies The mercie which man sheweth is but as a drop derived to us from that fountain Gods mercies are all strong cords to binde unto obedience which ever is the fruit of true thankfulnesse David said very much in a few words against Nabals churlishnesse Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow had in the wildernesse d 1. Sam. 25. 21 So David argued or rather reproved Nabals churlishnesse And had not Abigail seasonably stopped David in his way Nabal had heard more touching his churlish dealing and answer This instructs us to sobrietie and watchfulnesse that the Lord may not have the same controversie against us when we come to our declining age Surely in vain have I kept this man this woman and all that they have so as nothing is missing of all that pertained unto them In vain have I lengthened out their dayes in vain have I fed them all their life and redeemed them from evill in vain have I preserved their inward and outward faculties both of soul and body all sound and entire for all this have they so and so churlishly requited me for all they have returned evill for good This is a
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.
Prov. 1. turn away their eare from hearing his Law we must heare God first if we look that God should heare us at the last If He cryeth and He cannot be heard We shall cry and we shall not be heard for the Lord hath spoken it more then once e Zach. 7. 13. Quid enim justius c. Sal. De Gob. lib. 3. pag. 86. Non audivimus non audimur ibidem All our stretching and crying and howling will be in vain We should have stretched and inclined our eares and have lifted up our voice on high when Gods time and ours was I mean the ordinary time that he hath appointed to be called upon and we are commanded to seek Him in What time is that it is called the Day of Salvation the acceptable Day And when is that time The Apostle answers Now is the accepted time now is the Day of Salvation now this present time f 1 Cor. 6. 2. And it is but a day Time is all the yeare long but your sowing time and your reaping time both these have their seasons Time is all the day long but tide-time hath See first Part. pag. 71. its appointed houre and we observe it as the poore man the stirring of the water Now this present time while the male is in the flock while breath is and strength is while the season is of knocking and opening Now is the time when we must seeke Now the time when God usually opens There is a pretty fiction touching the shell fish and the Serpent And because it instructs us touching a speciall point of practise we thus read it The Shell-fish and the Serpent sometime lived together and conversed the Shell-fish very harmelesly with the Serpent the Serpent very crookedly with the Shell-fish After many faire means and thereby prevailing nothing the Shell-fish watched his opportunitie and while the Serpent slept gave him a blow on the head which is deadly The Serpent feeling himself wounded to death began to stretch out himself it is the manner of all creatures so to do but most remarkable in the Serpent because he lyeth in a ring and goeth in folds or doubles The Shell-fish observing the Serpent so stretching Chap. 7 § 2 out and straightning himselfe told him Thou shouldest have done so before Thou shouldest have walked even and straight with Me when we conversed together so it might have benefitted thee but now nothing at all This is a fiction but it tels us our folly in good eatnest and instructs us in a speciall point of wisdome we have this property of the Serpent we are content to walk crookedly all our life in the crooked wayes of sinne and Death our owne wayes and we doubt not but to make all straight and even when we dye But ordinarily it profiteth us not our Thoughts deceive us and that is a fruit of our folly Our wisdome is to set all straight and even before hand to put our soules in order and our feete in straight pathes while there is yet Time this hath been the wisdome of the Saints If we read the sacred Register we shall observe all along That they whose yeares are numbred to be many were fruitfull in their lives and faithfull in their Deaths their Old age was their crowne of glory for it was found in the way of righteousnesse And for that great and waighty worke Their setting their house in order Their making all straight and even This was not a worke to be done then when strength and heart and breath faileth but already done When they came to that point there was no more to be done but to close the eye and fall asleep quietly in the Lord. Remember Lord said that good King when death was in his eye Remember how I have walked in truth g 2 Kin. 20. 3. how I have done the thing which is good in thy sight He assureth and giveth large testimony touching the Time past I have I have It was not large promises concerning the time to come when it was threatned That time should be no more as the manner of the most is I will doe thus and thus hereafter if thou wilt be pleased to spare me now many have said so and so promised and recovered and falne backe strangely to commit greater abominations For that is a Time as the learned Knight noteth h Hist. of the world 2. B. Chap 3. Sect. 4. pag. 212. When we remember God perforce and when we stand upon no condition with Him It was not what he would doe but what he had done Remember Lord how I have walked how I have done I have fought a good fight I have kept the faith i 2 Tim. 4. 6 7. said Paul the Aged when the time of His departure was at hand That is not a time to fight when commonly the heart faints the head is light the backe pained the sides weakned that is the time to have the Crowne put on which we have so long striven after a Time to have our sanctification perfected which before we have heartily laboured in It is not the Time to fight but to overcome and to be more then conquerers I have fought that good fight I have kept the faith When when was Paul such a Champion so valiant for the Truth contending for the Faith and keeping it when was this when his bow abode in strength then he played the Soldier so fighting so contending And hence Pauls ground of confidence Henceforth there is laid up for me a crowne Thus touching the wisdome of the Saints They have understanding of the times And they know what they ought to doe k 1 Chron. 12. 32. that is they doe all in season Two lessons I shall draw hence for the Childs use and instruction and then anend First from hence I would give warning and put in a Caveat against some bold and presumptuous words and for ever hereafter prevent them We heare some and it is ordinary To wish for Death in a Passion before they have well thought of it and prepared for it if we may beleeve them they are well content to dye in a discontent They wish for that which they never before thought of in sobriety and good earnest Know they what they say doe they consider what death is and the consequence of the same when once death hath made its last conquest over the Body in that very instant Time the soule enters into a condition never to be altered it enters into eternity a gulfe of Time which all the figures in Arithmeticke cannot fill up For when we have reckoned a thousand thousand yeares we Read Drexclius 4. 2. have not the fewer remaining We are swallowed up in the thought of Eternity as a drop in the Ocean It is not possible to finde any bottome there we want a thought to measure it but if we should thinke of it to purpose we should be well advised what we doe or say I know there are