A MONITOR OF MORTALITY THE SECOND SERMON OCCASIONED By the Death of Mrs Harpur a grave and godly Matron wife to Mr. Henry Harpur of the City of Chester and of the death of their Religious Daughter Phoebe Harpur a child of about 12. yeares of age By Iohn Ley Minister of Great-Budworth in Cheshiere GEN. 30.1 Give me children or else I die Parcamus lachrymis nihil proficientibus faciliùs enim illi nos dolor iste adijcret quam illum nobis reducet Senec. Consolat ad Polyb. c. 23. LONDON Printed for Christopher Meredith at the Crane in Pauls-Church-yard M.DC.XLIII To my much HONOVRED AND WORthy Friends Thomas Standley Esquire and to Mrs Elizabeth Standley his most loving and beloved wife I.L. wisheth increase of grace here and the accomplishment of grace and glory hereafter THere is none example of any one dead but may be an admonitor of the mutability of mans estate to any one alive Since death is not the limited lot of particular persons but the common doome of all living creatures of mankind especially as having alwayes a desert of the sentence of death by the guilt of sinne in his soule and a condition of body ever capable of the execution of that sentence But for these two memorandums of Mortality now presented by the Presse to publike use the one of a godly Matron the other of a gracious maid her daughter whom I bring in both together because there was a time when the mother and the child by their bodily union were reckoned but for one person and when their bodies were divided their souls were as was said of the soule of Jacob and Benjamin as it were bound up in one bundle Ge. 44.30 31. they areso much more meet to be commended to your memory as they were the better known unto you and the more frequent and familiar reciprocations of respect have passed betwixt you they have bin usually such and so many that in mine observation for divers years together seldome hath your house bin without some guest of theirs or theirs without some of your Family and this amicable entercourse hath been mutually exercised with such cheerfulnesse of affection as came neare in conformity to the communion of the Primitive Christians so farre as the distance of your ordinary dwellings would permit and they as St. Luke sheweth in his Story of the Acts had all things common Act. 2.44 and this Community like that professed by Ruth to Naomi Ruth 1.16 hath held on from life to death from death to buriall For the daughter whose death through the dearnesse of motherly love was an occasion of her Mothers translation from a mortall to an immortall life spent her last dayes as one of your houshold dyed under your roofe and lyeth buried in the Church of your both Parish and Patronage And that neither of them might be buried in oblivion I have now published that of both to common view to which I have bin divers times sollicited by such as were neare enough to them to discerne a meere colour of sanctitie from the solid truth of it and who have too much integrity in them by straining their owne consciences to scrue up the credit of others to an over high commendation the just elevation whereof in reference to those two whom death parted for a while but now hath joyned in their better part for ever is so well knowne to you both that if what I have written of them were to come to a legall proofe I might for very much of it produce you two as witnesses above exception of their well deserving and of my true speaking of them which is one reason of my Dedication of their Funerall Remembrance to your names Another is the request of him who had a peculiar right in the Mother as an husband a primary right in the daughter as a Father and a very great Interest in me as an ancient familiar and an affectionate friend But that which hath moved memost unto it is a desire I have since besides all your former favours in our own Country you will needs be so kind as to importune me so often to the entertainment of your house where you are now a sojourner to trafficke with you upon the tearms of the Apostle by commerce and exchange of spirituall things for things carnall Ro. 15.27 1 Cor. 9.11 and the spirituall things wherein for the present I am desirous to make some returne for your favours are an advice and a prayer mine advice is that while your conjugall amity is visibly such as those that observe it doe very well perceive you are both very well pleas'd in your choyse you would now and then by meditation of a mortall divorce prepare not only for courage to encounter the pangs of death but which to either of you may haply prove a more difficult taske for patience to beare the sadnesse of a surviving life For a parting there must be betwixt you and yours as well as others and it will cost you the more in griefe when it commeth if you doe not prepare and fore-cast for it by serious study of the hard lesson of Self-denyall of what is most deare and delightfull to you before hand And this I meane not only for the affection communicated betwixt your selves but for that also which in common as you are Parents descends from you upon your hopefull children and which I wish may be moderated to such a measure as may become the children of an heavenly Father professing to pray for the fullfilling of his will according to the prescript of the Lords Prayer before your owne so shall you be sure to be gainers by the greatest losse that can be fall you Now my prayer is that God will be pleased so to unite your heartiest devotions and affections in himself that in his favour you may find a Soveraigne Antidote against all the discomforts of this life and that after it you may meet in a blessed fruition of him in a better world wherof there is none end This shall be a part of the daily intercession of him who desireth to be From my lodging in Pauls-Churchyard June 3. 1643. Really and will be sincerely serviceable to the welfare of you and yours John Ley. Errata in the first Sermon PAg a Epistle Dedicatory in the marg for Tzere write Tzere In the verses p. 1. lin 2. for breake reade breath lin 21. for Graces r. Iewels lin 26 for cinst reade rinst p. 2. lin 24. for Elisha reade Elijah In the Sermon p 2. lin 7. for Phylosopher reade Philosopher So also p. 21. lin last p 2. lin penult blot out the word your p 3. lin 8. marg alter Applic. blot out 1. p. 4 lin 7. marg blot out the word Vse p. 5. lin last but two marg blot out Vse 1. p. 15. lin 31. afâ—er the word sometimes reade is p 19 after the last lin blot out the last word deadly and reade it after the word no. p. 20
a man and bring downe a storme of vengeance from above upon him From this sinne we shall be disposed to keepe a further distance if we consider the Law in case of killing Deut. 21. from the first verse to the ninth inclusively where we reade That if a man were slaine in the field and the Man-slayer were not knowne the Elders of the next City to the slaine man which if it were not apparent otherwise must be tryed by measure from the place of the dead round about must offer Sacrifice ver 4. And though neither their hands did shed the bloud nor their eyes see it vers 7. by which is meant that they were altogether innocent and ignorant of it yet must they deprecate the imputation of the bloud-shed in this manner Be mercifull O Lord unto thy people Israel whom thou hast redeemed and lay not innocent bloud unto the people of Israels charge and the bloud shall bee forgiven them ver 8. So shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent bloud from among you when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the Lord v. 9. Secondly If by the killing of one man a whole City though neither consenting to it nor knowing who did it must thus farre professe their clearnesse from it and yet offer Sacrifice and pray that they may not be accounted as guilty of it how deepe is their guilt how dangerous their State who make no scruple to make a * Parisiensis horrenda la â—iena in nuptijs Henrici Regis Nâ—varrae Luc. Osiaâ—d Epit. Cent. â—600 l. 3. c. 69. part alt p. 832. City a Shambles of bloud-shed And thinke it their greatest glory when they wade deepest in blood not of Turkes and Infidels but of Christians especially of those whose bloud next unto the bloud of Christ is most precious in the eyes of God wherein they revell with such a bold and boundlesse bloud-guiltinesse as if they might and meant to heare some comparative acclamations of themselves and some other man of bloud and Beliall like that in the first of Samuell the 18. Saul hath slaine his thousands and David his ten thousands verse 7. But most unlike it in this for that Davids valour was exercised upon the enemies of God their violence rageth against his dearest favourites for whose security he hath entred a Caveat in the Courts of Kings Psal 105. He suffered no man to doe them wrong yea he reproved Kings for their sakes ver 14. saying Touch not mine annoynted and doe my Prophets no harme ver 14 15. which they that dare disobey When he maketh inquisition for blood he will remember them and not forget the cry of the humble Psal 9.12 whose bloud will cry as Abels did Gen. 4.10 for vengeance against theirs and God will heare it and avenge it too Rom. 19.2 and his vengeance will be such as if they did apprehend it as God will inflict it would put them into the extremity of Belshazzar when he saw the fingers of a mans hand-writing the doome of his ruine upon the plaister of the wall which made his countenance to be changed his thoughts to be troubled the ioynts of his loynes to be loosed and his knees to smite one against another Dan. 5.5 6. but it may be Hee that was a murtherer from the beginning Joh. 8.44 whose slaughter-men they are and a jugling impostor too who blindeth the minds of them that believe not 2 Cor. 4.4 will not suffer their blood-shotten eyes to see the guilt of their cruell hearts and hands untill they feele the weight of Gods revenging hand upon them After this Observation of the words taken together wee must take them apart and so take notice of two remarkable examples The one is of Iudahs care of the life of his Father Iacob The other of Iacobs danger of death by the losse of his son Beniamin The former I shall dispatch in briefe intending more copiously to prosecute the latter as being more pertinent to our present purpose noting it as a disposition worthy of praise in him fit to be a patterne for the practice of Children towards their Parents viz. to be charie of their lives and so was Joseph as well as Judah and having more power he sheweth it more then Judah did or could do and in that wherein Judah might have equalled him hee suffered Joseph to go beyond him the five last Chapters of Genesis conteine an excellent story which may both instruct Children in their filiall duty and if they marke it as they ought will much induce them to performe it for which the grounds are laid in nature and upon them may be built considerations of Religion For that Children should be chary of the lives of their Parents is Natures immediate instinct without any exercise of reason or discipline of Religion and thus all the world over the bruite creatures not excepted yea some of them are noted for example of very kind and tender love and care of their parents for the young Storkes as * Plin. nat bist l. 10. c. 24. Pliny observeth will keepe and feed them when they are old as they themselves were nourished by them when they were young Secondly The dictate of naturall reason requires it that Children should be carefull to prolong the lives of their Parents for First They are under God the meanes of the beginning of life and being unto them Secondly They are under God againe the meanes of the continuance of their life and well-being And for Religion God calleth for this care in the fifth Commandement where under the word Honour all filiall duties are commanded and under the prohibition of killing in the sixt whatsoever may tend unto it is forbidden and the contrary is virtually injoyned that is whatsoever may conduce to the preservation of life especially of those to whom by divine and humane law we are most obliged Applic. This I could wish Children would apply unto themselves whether their Parents be dead or alive if they be dead to examine their own precedent carriage towards them whether they have not given them any cause or been an occasion to hasten their deaths and if they have to mourne more for their own sinnes in secret then they seemed to doe at their Parents funerall in publike if they have them yet alive seriously to recount what causes they have to desire their life and to doe their best indeavour to prolong their dayes cherishing them in their old age as they were cherished by them in their infancy so did good Joseph by his aged Father Jacob for he nourished him and his bretheren and all his houshold for his sake with bread or as some reade the words as a little child is nourished Gen. 46.12 or according to the Hebrew even to the mouth of the little one that is from the greatest to the least or with such tendernesse as that wherewith a Nurse feedeth her little one or with as little care or pains to Jacob
professed opposite to Stoicall opinions * Plutarch in the life of Tiber and Cajus Gracchio pag. 841. saying of her as in her praise that she used to report the untimely death of her two worthy Sonnes as a Story without a teare for therein me thinkes she shewed more of the pride of an high-spirited Lady then of the pitty of a kind hearted Mother But what an absurdity is that for which some are taxed by ¶ Plutarch in the life of Cicero p. 878. him in the life of Cicero who while others tooke on for the death of a dogg or an horse for children or friends shewed no sorrow at all The want of this naturall affection is the ground of many fearfull temptations which sometimes proceed to unnaturall executions whereof we may reade many crimson Characters both in forraigne and domestick Stories but we began not with vineger to end in bloud Now for the oyle if such an Arch-Patriarch as Jacob for he was the Father of the Patriarchs were so dearly affected to his Sonne Beniamin that his death would kill him that begate him to life this may be as oyle to mollifie the misconceit of some who are too rigorous in censures of such as are of a tender and an affectionate Nature and like unto holy Jacob or his best beloved Rachell apter to drink deepe of the bitter potion of sorrow then to take a taste of the cup of comfort against it when it is with them as * Partem maliputant audiresalutem Senec. consolat ad Martiam c 5. Seneca wrote to Martia made as a part of the griefe to heare any thing of the Consolations of life And if I would make choyce of an extreame it should rather be of that which is neare of kinne to naturall kindnesse then of that which cometh so neare to a Stoicall Apathy for not only good men but as wise men as any of that Sect have shewed themselves most tenderly and affectionately disposed towards their children both living and dead and we see by the Testimony of a grave ‖ Plutarch ubi supra Authour concerning Cicero who upon the death of his daughter by child-birth though he were visited by Philosophers and learned men that came on all sides to comfort him tooke her death so sorrowfully to heart that he put away his second wife because he thought she did rejoyce at her death Wherein we allow him rather as a Father then as an husband for his mourning for his daughter was an Argument of good nature but the casting off his wife upon that occasion might be a signe of too much suspition of her and of too little of that affection which was due to a wife But for that love which is naturall yet such an enemy to Nature as by too much favour to the object afflicts the Subject unto death though wheresoever it is found in such a degree of excesse it must be acknowledged for a fault yet such is the priviledge of Gods children that even faults whosoever they be their own especially may be of useful consideration to themselves and to others to themselvs for their humbling to others for their warning and for their comfort that though their kindnes to another should prove so cruell as to kill their owne bodies yet that the conceit of that killing may not through distrust or dispaire endanger their soules For the first though as a Mother the affections of the pious Matron whose death hath spread a black cloud upon a great part of this Assembly were so strong as a Christian her understanding was not so weake as not to discerne the errour of her love for she tooke notice of it and accused her selfe for it and had the more spirituall sorrow because her carnall sorrow for her daughter if we may call it carnall which was set upon her rather as Gods child then as her owne was so immoderate whereof though I were an eare-witnesse I tooke no exception at her accusation of her selfe because I saw her sorrow was a godly sorrow working repentance to salvation not to be repented of as the Apostle speaketh 2 Corinth 7.10 Yet now she heares me not that none may mistake her state with injury to her or misery to themselves as if to die of griefe were a sinne A sinne unto death 1 John 5.16 of such a selfe-killing guilt as consist with the safety of the soule me thinkes I may thus resolve touching the reciprocall operation of the distemper of her mind and body First Though in the weekly Bill of mortality we find few that die of her disease yet there are every where examples of divers who expedite their owne deaths either by intemperance of dyet or pursuit of pleasures by intempestine Studies and too laborious employments and many when they thinke to cherish nature doe by too much case charinesse and curiosity weaken it and sometimes finally overthrow it yet none of them no not they whose excesse is most faulty if they dyed true Penitents were ever by any judicious Divine or Christian doomed to the second death Secondly If any excesse be capable of defence it is that of love especially when it is set upon an object amiable not only in the eyes of naturall Parents but of our spirituall and heavenly Father and for hers in particular if we compare it with Jacobs love to and his griefe for Beniamin in case he had miscarried it is more capable of excuse then his could be For these reasons First The Female Sex out of a naturall tendernesse attending upon it is more disposed both to love and compassion then the Male and therefore where God setteth forth his singular affection to his people he doth it by comparison of himselfe with a woman not with a man Isai 49.15 and what is more consonant to nature is more capable of pardon if it somwhat exceed Secondly Iacob had many sonnes at least twelve and all twelve alive at the last when he blessed them upon his death-bed of which he loft not one by death but one in his conceit and that but for a time whose absence was recompenced with comforts beyond expectation even to admiration they were so many for number so rare for degree but she having had divers children was by their death deprived of them all Thirdly of Iacobs Beniamin we reade no great matter of Commendation either for piety or any other vertue and there is somewhat said of him even by him who loved him so dearly and that in the last words he spake of him which implyeth rather matter of reproach then of praise Benjamin shall ravine as a Wolfe in the morning he shall devoure the prey and at night he shall divide the spoyle Gen. 49.27 But our Rachels Phebe was an innocent and harmlesse lambe A child of about 12. yeares old as like him for piety who when he was but twelve yeares old was found in the Temple hearing the Doctors and asking them Questions Luk. 2.42 46. as any
lin 1. p. 20. lin 6 for come to passe which cannot reade which cannot come to passe p. 21. marg for Plin. Nat. Hist c. 53 reade l 7 c. 7. p 29. lin last after the word full adde Gen 15 16. p. 30 lin 23. for notion reade motion p. 33. lin 27 over against the word divers adde in the marg I. H. Hist of the 3 Norman Kings p 117 118 119 120. p. 34. lin 3. blot out the word So and lin 35 for their life is reade the lives of their Popes are p. 37. lin 11. for Deut 3 reade 13. Errata in the second Sermon Page 1. lin 1. for Solicisâ—e reade Soloecisme p. 3 lin 5 for this reade the lin penult blot out he p 5 lin 10 from the bottome after the word them adde Nor the innocence of those whom they have hated without acause as I have * In my Fast Sermon pag. 30. els where observed p 7 l. penult blot out owne p. 9. lin penult for 22. reade 20 p. 13. lin last but one after the word who adde tooke and lin last blot out upon p. 14. lin 2. blot out tooke her death p. 14. lin 14. for whosoever reade whosesoever p. 14 lin last but two after the word were blot out a sin p. 16. lin 27 after the word and reade that p. 17. lin 11. begin the Parenthesis next after the word well The principall Contents of the first SERMON INstruction profitably ministred by way of question Pag. 2. The profitable use of Catechizing p. 3. Too much neglected by some and by others too much urged to the disreputation of a suppression of after-noons preaching p. 4 A Catalogue of profitable questions for self-examination every day p. 6 7 8. The Luxury of Vitellius having 9000. dishes at a meale p. 7. A Reproofe of 1. Impertinent Questionists p. 9. 2. Trifling Questionists p. 9. 3. Curious and presumptuous Questionists p. 10. 4. Distrustfull Questionists p. 10. 5. Blasphemous Questionists p. 11. Luthers censure of the Popish Schoole-Divines for their ignorance of the Bible p. 9. Erasmus his comparison of Luther and Aquinas and his preferring of one page of Luthers books for profitablenesse before all Aquinas works p. 9. Some ordinary things more worthy of serious consideration then many extraordinary p. 12. The shortnesse of mans life with the causes of it the primary cause of it p. 13. Secundary causes 300 severall sorts of diseases named above 2000 yeares agoe Ibid. Their different manner of working unto death p. 14 Pherecides eaten up with lice Ibid. Immoderate passions and affections of the mind no lesse deadly then diseases of the body particular instances thereof p. 14 15 16 17. The sent of lime and snuff of a Candle deadly to some p. 17. Malignant hostility how deadly p. 18. Cruell Malignity in little children Ibid. The deadly cruelty of the Sword p. 19. The vale of the red-Horse why so called p. 19. Strange accidents deadly to some p 20. 606 Houses in London blowne downe at one tempest p. 21. One choaked with a Reyson stone another with a Fly and another with an haire p. 21 Many signes of certain death none of certaine continuance of life p 21 22. Neither kingly prerogatives nor physicall cordials of force against death p. 22. Application The consideration of a short and uncertain life may serve for 1. A spurre unto diligence p. 23 2. A whip or scourge for our negligence p. 25 26 27. 3. A check to vain confidence p. 27. 4. A curbe to concupiscence p. 30. In the desire of 1. Riches p. 31. 2. Honour p. 32 33 34 35. Alexander the great wanted a buriall place 30 dayes after his death p. 33. William the Conquerours buriall often interrupted Ib. None more unhappy then the Pope with his triple Crowne p 35 A Pope hardly saved by the judgement of a Pope p. 35 3. Pleasures p. 35 5. A prop to patience against anger or envy at the welfare of the wicked and against immoderate sorrow for deceased friends p. 36 37. A narration of the condition and course of Mr. I. A. p. 38. His travell and returne from Rome without corruption in manners or cooling in Religion p. 39 40 His escape from dangers and dying where he was thought most safe p. 41 His disease p. 42. The Devill busiest with the best when they are at the worst 43. Examples of such as have had fearfull conflicts in their faith and doubtings of salvation out of which they have bin comfortably delivered p. 43 44 46. But if they had not we must judge of the godly by their regular life not by the distempers of their sicknesse or death p. 45. The pious and comfortable conclusions of the life of M. I. A. p. 45 46. The principall Contents of the second Sermon DEath and Divinity make no difference of Sexes p. 1. Every one should be chary of the life of any man p. 3. Murder destroyeth the Image of God as well as a member of the common-weale and therfore is a breach of the first Table as well as of the second p. 3 4. A whole City in danger by the slaughter of one man though they know it not p. 4. The cruelty of the wicked against the godly p. 4 5. Children should be chary of the lives of their Parents why p. 6. A good son to his Parents below is a favourite of the father above p. 7. A bad child a parracide or murtherer of his Parents p. 7 8. Whence it is that Parents love their children better then children do their Parents p. 8 9. Why Jacob was so loving to Beniamin above the rest of his brethren p. 9 10. The best sort of persons most kindly affected to their kindred p. 10 11 12. A reproofe of the want of naturall affection p. 12 13. Some lament more for the losse of a dog or an horse then others for their neare kindred or friends p. 13. Of two extreams better to be too kind then too hard-hearted p. 13. Yet a fault to exceed moderation in sorrow for deceased friends or kindred p. 14. To die for sorrow is not to be guilty of a sin unto death p. 14 15 A young Saint an old devill one of the devils proverbs p. 16. Signes of saving grace in a young child p. 16 17. An historicall passage touching dancing on the Sabbath day to save life whether lawfull to do so to escape such a danger p. 17 The charity of Ph. H. answerable to her piety and both rare in a child of her age p. 18. Parents more honoured by good children then children by good Parents p. 18. The good disposition and religious life of Mrs H. her mother p. 19 20 21 22. Godly examples to be set forth for others imitation p. 22 Wicked men believe not Gods children to be indowed with such gifts and graces as they have p. 22 23. An acknowledgement of the gift and power of prayer in a mean man by a great Prelate p. 23.
Yet all have not the gift that take it upon them p. 24. No example of meere man a perfect patterne of imitation p. 24. Considerations for the patient bearing of crosses first from God both in regard of his authority over us and of his intention towards us and ours p. 24. God cals away our friends to call our sins to our remembrance p. 25. Our sin towards them may be idolatry and the cure of idolatry is to take away the I doll Ibid The godly taken away from the evill to come p. 26. The case worse with the surviver then with the decedant p. 26. THE MONITOR OF MORTALITY The second SERMON GEN. 44. v. 3. It shall come to passe when he seeth that the Lad is not with us that he will die IT is no Solicisme in preaching to bring in the Example of a Father and his sonne linked in love together even unto death for the ground of our Commemoration of a Mother and her daughter betwixt whom there was as neare kindred not only of bloud but of affection for neither death maketh difference of Sex as every one knoweth nor yet Divinity since both Religion and the reward of it belongs unto both Sexes by an equall right and though Christ were of the male-kind in Christianity there is no difference There is neither Jew nor Greeke there is neither bond nor free there is neither male nor female for ye are all one in Christ Jesus Gal. 3.28 It is all one then as to that we intend to present you with Jacob loving his sonne so much that he could not live without him as if we tooke for our Text Rachel Weeping for her children and would not be comforted because they were not Math. 2.18 and in some respects as we shall shew before we have done Jacobs example is more considerable then Rachels and withall more pertinent to our purpose which that you may the more perspiculously perceive some precedent passages of this verse must be observed which may come in with good due coherence to the Text thus There was a generall Famine over all the face of the Earth Gen. 41.56 except in Aegypt so farre as was knowne to the Aegyptians thither did Jacob send all his sonnes he had with him except Beniamin for him he would not send Gen. 42.4 for a supply of food against the famine comming to Aegypt their brother Joseph not known as a brother and honoured as a Prince furnisheth them with provision but with condition to come againe and to bring Beniamin their but especially his owne brother with them and untill hee come hee requireth one of them to stay with him as a pledge for his appearance and he was Simeon Returning to their Father without him they related to him what Ioseph required and treated with him that they might bring his dearely beloved Benlamin with them with much adoe especially by the prudent importunity of Iudah he yeelded to send him and so they went all together into Aegypt There Ioseph having power to act any part he pleased whether in jest or in earnest put a fallacy upon them which troubled them all for be caused his Steward to steale his Cup into Beniamins sacke and when they were in their way to follow them with hue and cry who having overtaken them and charged them with felony they plead not guilty and yeeld to have their sacks searched and that he in whose sack the Cup should be found should be his servant Beniamin is the party who for the present is taken for a Theefe and now for ought he knoweth is for hereafter to be used like a slave Iudah having deeply engaged himselfe to his Father for his safe returne for said he I will be surety for him of mine hand shalt thou require him If I bring him not unto thee and set him before thee let me beare the blame for ever Chap. 43. ver 9. pleaded earnestly with Joseph for his release that he may restore him to his Father according to his former undertaking And the Argument he most pressed to this purpose was that unlesse this good mans heart be upheld by this sonne of his right-hand for that is the signification of his name it would sinke downe into the grave and so he would prove a Benoni as his mother called him that is a Sonne of sorrow not only to her who dyed in labour of him Gen. 35.18 19. but to his Father who if he saw him not with them would suppose he was dead and the apprehension of that would be the shortening of his life by excessive sorrow for his death for as Iudah said His life was bound up in his sonnes life and being bound together they were both safe in the same security or both lost by one mishap at least Iacob's life so depended upon Beniamins that if Beniamin did not live Iacob must die Having brought in the Coherence of the words of the Text with the precedent Story we must now consider them first together then a part For the first since Iudah pleading with Ioseph as a great Courtier and a Stranger to him both in blood and Religion for ought he knew perswadeth the deliverance of the Son for the prevention of the death of the Father we may thence observe That every man should be chary of the life of any man For every man in this case was as much bound to regard the person of another as Ioseph was and Iacob was no more to him in Iudahs apprehension then any other man And the reason is for that to hinder or * Si non paveris occidisti with-hold any preservative of life is to make a man guilty of anothers death and that is murder and murder is a sin not only against humane society but against divine Majesty That it is against the first is easily confest by all I need not prove it And that it is against the second is shewed in the ninth of Genesis where God enacting a penall law for a capitall punishment against a Man-slayer in these words Who so sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed he giveth this reason for such retaliation For in the Image of God made he man Gen. 9.6 So that he that killeth another not only destroyeth a member of the Common-weale but defaceth the Image of God and so though the prohibition of killing be sorted to the negative precepts of the second Table the guilt of it is as a breach of the first Commandement of the first Table Because the point is but covertly implyed Applic. not plainly exprest I will not be long in prosecution of it and in short it may serve for Caution to all that they be not any way guilty either by committing of violence against the life of another or omitting any Act of benevolence which may serve to preserve it for the least degree of guilt which hath any affinity with that crying crime may raise the tempest of a troubled conscience within
and those of his family as little children use to take in providing for themselves and while they shew such a chary disposition towards their health and welfare they shall thereby get themselves an interest in that gracious promise of the Father of Spirits annexed to observation of the fift Commandement which is length of days for to that precept Honour thy Father and thy Mother is annexed this promise that thy dayes may be long in the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee and if from children they grow up to the degree of Parents and have children of their own they shall repay them the observance and succour which they have performed to their Progenitors before And on the contrary the praise of such good sonnes must serve to the reproach of such bad children as wickedly requite the blessing of their Parents by wishing for their death who were the meanes to bring them to life and to preserve them alive by their tendernesse over them in the time of their ignorant and impotent minority thence was the observation of the heathen Prophet so the Apostle calls a Poet Tit. 1.12 * Filius ante diem patrios inquirit in anno◠the Sonne inquires into his Fathers yeares before his time thinking it long before he be wrapt in a white sheet and himselfe clad in a black suite that he may have a merry heart under a mournfull habit Such as have so little both of Grace and good-nature as to desire the dispatch of their Parents commonly do somwhat which may be like to lesson the measure of their owne lives as their yoking themselves unsutably without their Parents consent or against their minds the thought of such a thing was so great a griefe unto Rebecca as caused her passionatly to say I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth such as these which are of the daughters of the Land what good will my life doe me Gen. 27.46 and such a griefe as makes one weary of life weares out the life before the time In this respect many children become Parricides of their own Parents by such heard-hearted stubbornesse in wicked wayes as makes them worthy of stoning to death by the Law of God Deut. 21. ver 20 21. whose want of grace and good nature with their grosse ungratitude returning for all their Parents tendernesse and indulgence towards them nothing but what may offend and afflict them is so much more grievous as in relation and affection they were more neere and deare unto them Of the 23. wounds given to Caesar in the Senate-house whichsoever was most deepe and deadly surely that was most grievous to his heart which he tooke from the hand of Brutus when he said unto him * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sueton. in Jul. Caesar cap. 82. and thon my sonne art thou one to kill me who have loved and cared for thee as a Father forhis sonne And howsoever the fore-cited penall Statute Deut. 21. be not in use among the Christians yet it is no more a meere Jewish Law then the sinne is meerely Jewish God seldome suffers a very rebellious sonne unlesse he become a gracious convert which is very rare to passe unpunished in this life and many times his punishment is of that kind which may bring his own sinne to remembrance his child revenging upon him his owne miscarriage towards his Parents Thus much of Judahs care of the life of his Father Jacob. Now of Jacobs danger of death by the losse of Benjamin It shall come to passe c. the reason of this great danger of Jacob was his deare love to Benjamin very deare doubtlesse if it had cost him his life which is commonly greater in the Father to the child then is reciprocated from the child to the Father haply First because the child is better and longer knowne unto the Father then the Father to the child both for certainty of truth and continuance of time Secondly Because naturall affection as the Lawyer speakes of inheritance rather descends from the Parents to the children then ascends from the children to the Parents Thirdly the discipline of Parents is many times grievous to their children crossing their wills and wayes and sometimes severely chastising them for their failings of duty or transgressions against it all which are commonly as unpleasing unto them as profitable for them Fourthly Parents expect in their children to live when themselves are dead and to be perpetuall in their succession while themselves are but temporall and transitory and children take their Parents too many times to be impediments if not to their lives yet to their comfortable living in keeping Inheritance Honours Offices from them and restraint of their liberty which they cannot expect in a full fruition untill they be dead And for Jacobs love to Benjamin it appears to be more then to the rest of his sons by the saying of Judah he loveth him saith he Gen. 44.20 and so he did all his other children but his words imply that he loved him in an especiall manner and measure above his bretheren so that they as not beloved or little beloved in respect of him are not named as partakers of his love and he sheweth his love to Benjamin by being so fearfull of his life for he would not let him goe lest death should befall him in the way Gen. 42.4 any of the rest might have dyed as well as he but his care his feare and his love were all for benjamin in a very eminent degree and that made him so stiffe against the intreaties and undertakings of Judah and of Ruben who when he had offered his two sonnes for security for one yea and as for sacrifice also for he said slay my two sonnes Gen. 42.37 if I bring him not againe he could obtaine none other answer but this My sonne shall not goe downe with you ver 38. hee would have that son never go downe or set but alway to shine within his horizon And the reason of this love if such an heate and height of affection were not rather an aberration from reason may be because he was the sonne of his most beloved wife Rachel for whom he served seven yeares which yet such was his love unto her seemed unto him but a few dayes Gen. 29.22 Secondly Because he was deare bought for while she laboured boured to give life and liberty to him she lost her own Gen. 35.19 In other cases whosoever is the cause occasion or instrument of a friends death is commonly distasted sometimes detested but here innocency pleades against all imputation of guilt and blood and kindred and neerenesse of blood apprehends the mishap at first with griefe not with grudge and after a time when sorrow is asswaged concerning the dead pitty and compassion love and delight doe exercise their operation upon the living with so much more tendernesse as the losse is the greater not only