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
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
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