Stocks or Roots conveying different fruit unto their branches As the new Adam Christ Jesus grace and life to all that are engraffed in him so the old Adam sin and death In Adam all dye 1 Cor. 15.22 in Christ shall all be made alive Sin is the seed of death And it is apparent an Infant is no sooner born but he hath in him these seeds I was shapen in iniquity Psal 51.5 and in sin did my mother conceive me I presently got the infection of sin and so a subjection unto death I was even warmed in sin in my mothers wombe Eâ lege nascimur Sence An Heathen called death Exitus communis And true it is death hath both young and old in bonds alike inviolable As a Genesis so an Exodus for all A time to be borne and a time to dye Hence a certaine Philosopher Sciome mortalem genuisse hearing that his only Son was dead makes answer I am very sensible I did but beget a mortall creature like to my selfe Lastly If Children be an holy seed within the Covenant their upon their decease consider even felicity Sooner shall Gods right hand forget his cunning than he will ever be unmindfull of any little one in Covenant with him Indeed if our Children should come to maturity and then dye unnaturall and murtherous Absaloms incestuous Amnons riotous and roaring Prodigals c. If this evill were concomitant with our Orbity it might be written a mourning in good earnest Planxit merito David super parricidâ filio cui perpetuo sciret obstructum exitum c. Bernard As Bernard speakes most fearefully of the case of Absalom and David lamenting his death But Children that are justified from originall sin by Christs bloud and cleansed by the Baptisme of the Holy Ghost are in Abrahams bosome They wish not themselves againe with their Parents as sometimes the murmuring Israelites Would to God we were in Aegypt againe but rather they say as the Disciples did on Mount Tabor Lord it is good for us to be here Vita hominum caepit esse miserabilis debuit dari finis malorum ut mors restituerit quod vita amiserat Ambr. Job 5.7 Indeed here they find sad entertainment being courted with calamities so soon as they enter the world Their very teares seeme to presage their sorrows Launching into such troubled seas where stormes will never cease till they arive in heaven It is their gaine therefore as well as ours to be freed from the burden of the body Neither let it trouble us that they are nipt in their tender yeares and taken away in their minority for those that dye in the state of grace dye in a full age Eph. 4.13 and are perfect men What they want in time is made out in happy eternity David tels us we shall go to them 2 Sam. 12.23 but they shall not returne to us And a very Heathen could say Praemittimus Scnec non amittimus we lose not our friends but send them before us Why then should we immoderately bewaile the death of those whom we must shortly follow There is great joy in the meeting of friends when Moses and Aaron met in the mount for joy they kissed one another Yet the joy of these meetings may be dashed and will have an end But O what joy will it be when we meet one another in the glorious Mount of heaven never to depart any more Let us then moderate our mourning and prepare for that meeting 1 Thes 4.17 When we shall meet Christ in the aire and ahide with him for ever But I adde further lest this griefe should overwhelme you do ye overwhelme it with the consideration of a greater Suppose your Children should live â—o be a griefe to you as Adam Emperour of the whole world had his heart sadned with one Son killing another and David In like manner Rebekah who had a double desire at once hath it imbittered with feare of a murderous emulation That she confesseth I am weary of my life Gen. 27.46 and what good shall my life do me Nay suppose ye should have brought forth to the sword Seen your little ones spitted upon Pikes Their tender limbs rent like kids by cruell hands Or pluckt from their mothers breasts and have their braines dasht against the wall Whilest the affrighted mother is halfe dead with astonishment Or to see your selves so straightned by famine as to devoure the fruit of your bodies your little Infants of a span-long Being forced against nature Parturire Deglutire to turne your tender kisses into cruell bitings and suck their bloud that sucked your breasts O tender hearted Fathers and Mothers who knoweth how far this fire which is kindâ—ed among us may burne before it be quenched Seeing it hath such combustible matter to feed upon and such bellows to blow it up All ye have hitherto seen may be only the beginning of sorrows Suppose ye should live to see women with child ript up your daughters ravished your Sons captivated slaves not knowing what destiny may befall them but most likely to live abused and dye without buriall Nay which is saddest of all have the Gospell taken from your Children Would you not much rather commit them to Christ in their Infancy and lay them up with him The Vse in the last place counselleth us to keep close unto him Use 4 the enjoyment of whom supplies every want and sweetens every Crosse The summe is if we cannot keepe our children yet let us have a care to keep our God Though you part with your own seed yet be sure you have the seed of God And this child in you will cause you at the full birth to forget all the sorrow Say to thy selfe I now see the worth of Grace and emptinesse of all things else Nay I foresee a time when nothing will stay by me but Grace Therefore if I can make nothing sure 2 Pet. 1.10 I le endeavour to make my Calling and Election sure This high piece of spirituall wisdome the good Spirit of God did dictate unto Job He could not keep his goods Oxen and Sheep Camels and Asses were gone He could not keep his Servants they were slaine He could not keepe his Children Sons and Daughters were dead But yet Job will have a care to keep his God Say to God as sometime that great wrestler Jacob Gen. 32.26 I will not let thee go He would hold his God though he lost his limbes his life We will be hold-fasts of our estates and money we will not let them go Oh that we could be so of our God It is said Sir Walter Rawley that when the Persians were defeated and fled one of the Grecian Commanders followed them to the Sea and tooke hold of one of their Galleys with his right hand which being cut off he laies hold with his left hand and being deprived of both with his teeth so
off two extreames 1. We must not faint under them breaking forth into passionate or desperate speeches Never was any so afflicted as I oh this is greater than I can beare 2. Neither must we despise them or set light by them for it is God that chasteneth whatsoever the rod or instrument be which he useth In the second place be humbled under it Sad affliction ought to worke the heart unto serious humiliation Thus Peter 1 Pet. 5.6 Humble your selves therefore marke therefore under the mighty hand of God And David Psa 32.4 5. Thy hand is heavy upon me I acknowledged my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid I said I will confesse my transgressions unto the Lord. O let the weight of Gods hand upon you or your Families bring you to your knees Let the force of it make you fall down before him in the confession of sin This is another bough to make sweet these bitter waters The Lyon of the Tribe of Judah spareth a poore prostrate creature There is no other way to breake the violence of a divine stroake from God but humbly to run under his hand They have humbled themselves 2 Chr. 12.7 therefore I will not destroy them Nay more this is the only meanes to get the breach repaired God himselfe will dwell in the humble heart he will take up his quarters there O happy exchange O rich supply O gainefull losse I have parted maiest thou say with an Estate a Child c. But I have a God in reserve Blessed are those afflictions which fit a soule to be Gods second heaven In the next place take revenge upon sin When Gods hand is upon us it is good our hand be upon sin When God falls upon us by bitter affliction we should fall upon sin by bitter sorrow repentance mortification c. God eyes most of all what effects afflictions do produce We ought in a special manner to consider the death of those which are neare and deare unto us Son or Daughter It may be God hath deprived us of them for the punishment of our sin it may be they are taken from us because we were unworthy of them or because we gloried too much in them or were not so thankfull for them as we ought Such use as this the widdow of Sarepta made upon the death of her only Child 1 King 17.18 Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my Son upon a due search you will find Sin is the Achan that hath caused all this trouble do execution upon it When Jesabel heard that Elijah had slaine all Baals Prophets she takes a profound yet profane oath So let the Gods do to me and more also if I make not thy life as the life of one of them O say Sin hath opened the birter fountaine Sin hath brought this bitter griefe and if I suffer it will bring me more Sin hath bereaved me of my Children Sin hath wrought me all this mischiefe by the grace of God I will forth with labour the death of sin Pluck it out though it seeme a right eye cut it off though it seeme a right hand or foot spit it out though it be a sweet morsell out with it though it be a beloved Sin Constantine the Great hearing that nothing would cure his Leprosie but the bloud of an Infant ript out of its mothers wombe the good Emperour abhorred the very mentioning of it But sin is so cruell as it would have both the bloud of our Seed and of our Souls It is reported of the Bezor the creature which hath that cordiall stone being hunted and knowing by instinct the cause leaves the stone to the Pursuers to save his life Let the credit of that lye upon the affirmers But Brethren I le tell you afflictions are sent out from God and do pursue us to this end to get from us a stone And it is no precious but a most perniâ—ious stone the stone in the heart Ezek. 11.19 Surely it is not worth keeping O cast it away with your sins and lusts that these Beagles may not too sorely seize upon you Say O Lord discover unto me this sin which engageth thee against me and makes thee contend with me Tell me what it is and take it away that thou mayest withdraw thine hand and be at peace with thy poore Creature We must cast the head of this Sheba over the wall before ever bitter afflictions will make a retreat Againe Justifie God Sore afflictions do lay us open to strong temptations And as a learned man sheweth in his Exposition upon Job Anonymus it is the Devils defigne under such dispensations to provoke us to have hard thoughts of God and to be suspitious of his love and good will towards us How apt are men in affliction to say as that wretched Prince did Behold this evill is of the Lord It is a thing very connaturall with the Sons of Adam to lay their bastard-brats at other mens doores nay rather than faile to lay the fault upon God himselfe Gen. 3.12 The woman whom thou gavest to be with me she gave me of the tree and I did eate O Adam a neat evasion but this Sophistry will not serve your turne Know therefore by sad experience the fault was not mine in giving you the woman but your own in taking the fruit from her hand and eating it against the expresse prohibition you received from God And by this time where are you Adam Whose now is the fault Adam And thus mortall man would seeme more just than God Job 4.17 and more pure than his Maker O have a Care Get to be grounded in this Principle that God is essenally just justice and purity are his very nature he cannot be God and be unjust Therefore under the bitterest crosse give glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession unto him saying Jer. 12.1 Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee Psal 51 4. Be thou justified when thou speakest and clear when thou judgest And lastly Submit quietly to God Do not as Israel of old murmur at Marah When Sampson had burnt up the Philistines corne they asked Judg 15 6. Who hath done this Soule when thou art under affliction make inquiry not into the lower but higher causes Tolerare est patientia necessitatis amare tolerare patientia virtutis and thou wilt conclude God hath afflicted me God hath bereaved me of my Children the Almighty hath shewed me much bitternesse Let this quiet thine heart and silence thy spirit under Gods stroakes The snared bird the more she struggles the more she intangles her selfe God hath thee in a snare struggle not It will be but as one taking the Chaine from his leg and tying it to his neck It is no striving against the streame of divine appointment Art thou or thine under a mournfull estate Submit Cast up thine
word It is very probable the Allegory of the wretched Infant was grounded upon some known custome Ezek. 16. Nay experience hath spoken how many poore Infants have tasted death from the cruell hands of their Strumpet-mothers who have twice dipped their soules in sin making amends for uncleannesse by committing murder But Such is the affection of Parents in the flesh that Scripture useth it as some short measure and scantling of the love of him who is the Father of Spirits to his adopted ones Psa 103.13 Like as a father pittieth his children so the Lord pittieth them that feare him Mal. 3.13 And I will spare them as a man that spareth his own Son that serveth him Surely none except Parents know or can be sensible how deare a child is Nay further when God would give a full and affectionate answer to his peoples lamentable but groundlesse complaint he corrects their distrust by this fit similitude Isa 49.15 Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the Son of her wombe Yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee O sweet comfort to Saints Parents which are otherwise of perverse natures yet they will not neglect their Children and is it possible that the Lord the fountaine of mercy should empty himselfe of his fatherly affection and neglect his people Quantò mollior sexus tenerior affectus Ambr. Duplex est causa physica moralis Weemes Great is the love of a Father but far more tender is the affection of a mother Hence it is rendred by some as one cause why God hath placed the womans dug in her breast That she might impart her affection more to her child by giving it suck with her dug which is so neare her heart The love which she beareth to the little one that she nourisheth and suckleth at her breast is almost unutterable What care doth she use What restlesse nights doth she endure Nay love to her little one maketh her cleane forget her selfe So neare are Children to Parents that they are called Children of their loynes and are said to proceed out of their bowels So said David of his vip'rous Son Absalom 2 Sam. 16. Behold my son which came firth of my bowels seeketh my life So that we may call our spirituall children Philem. 12. as Paul doth his spirituall Son Onesimus nostra viscera our bowels I read that upon a turbulent sedition in Thessalonica Theodosius commanded that seven thousand should be put to death A Merchant there having two Sons put into the Calender of those that should be executed their good old Father put up a supplication for his two Sons The Souldiers pittying him told him they could not save both for then the Emperours number would not be fulfilled but they would spare one choose which he would The poore Father almost like a distracted man looking rufully on both could not tell which to choose So that while he delayed both were slaine Thus the naturall mother though an harlot seeing her Child in danger to be divided 1 Kin. 3.26 her bowels were hot and yearned upon her Son And David about Absalom after all his unnaturall villany yet Absalom is a Child 2 Sam. 18. Deale gently for my sake with the young man even with Absalom and againe Is the young man Absalom safe And it is very observable in Job that he sate still and did abide the boisterous blasts of all those lossefull tidings as being not very much moved untill he heard of the death of his children But O then Children dead So soone as the report of this touched his eare it struck him to the heart Ten children in the morning and now a child esse man Oh now he startles now he stirs now the poore pale father is brought to his knees Then Job arose and rent his mantle and shaved his head and fell downe upon the ground Other losses may go skin-deep but these go heart-deepe Children are unto Parents like unto Teeth painfull both in breeding and parting Reason 3 Thirdly Psal 49.11 It is most naturall to have an eye to the preservation of Posterity Although that ought not to take up our innermost thoughts This care we see not only in the reasonable creatures but in the unreasonable also yea even in birds of Prey and wild beasts who are yet carefull in this behalfe howsoever otherwise they be of cruell and animosious natures Psal 84.3 Thus the Sparrow finds her an house and the Swallow a nest for her selfe where she may lay her young Likewise the Eagle stirreth up her nest fluttereth over her young spreading abroad her wings taketh them and beareth them on her wings That is she carrieth them with such tendernesse and at such an height as none may reach them to do violence unto them Nay further see the force of natures instinct even the sea-monsters draw out the breast Lam. 4.3 they give suck to their young ones What piteous out-cries and cheating circuits makes the poore Lapwing And all is to divert the Passenger from her young So carefull are creatures to preserve the products of their own kind And this care must needs be more superlative in the reasonable Creature unlesse horribly degenerated Moreover God threatens this to a wicked man as a very great judgement to put out his light and expunge his name from among the living Job 18.16 17 19. As Bildad in Job very elegantly His roots shall be dried up beneath and above shall his branch be cut off His remembrance shall perish from the earth and he shall have no name in the street He shall neither have Son nor Nephew among his people nor any remaining among his dwellings And the Psalmist Psal 34.16 The face of the Lord is against them that do evill to out off the remembrance of them from the earth And againe Psa 109.13 Let his posterity be cut off and in the generation following let their name be blotted out And Solomon threatens him not with a rotten house or body but a rotten name Pro. 10.7 The name of the wicked shall rot Marke shall rot The rot we say is an evill disease where ever it lights whether amongst herds or flocks But never so ill as when it lighteth on mens names or memories that either they are mentioned with disgrace as a rotten thing or not remembred at all Also God promiseth this to his people as a grand favour and great incouragement to obedience that he will multiply and keepe alive their off-spring Abraham the friend of God is blessed with a numerous Posterity like to the Sand upon the Sea shore or Stars of heaven It was no small piece of King Davids happinesse that he saw his Son Solomon sit upon the Throne of Israel before his death And that promise made unto Christ is one of the glorious things of the Gospell He shall see his seed Isa 53.10 And
13.26 Against me Against whom Job who or what are you Be pleased to take Gods own testimonie if heavens witnesse may passe I passe A perfect and upright man one that feareth God and escheweth evill Cap. 1.8 Nay further One that speakes of God the thing that is right and is accepted of God in prayer Cap. 47.7 8. both for himselfe and others and yet He writeth bitter things against me We find in that Golden Psalme Psal 60.3 where David personates the Church she thus bespeakes God Thou hast shewed thy people hard things thou hast made us to drinke the wine of astonishment Indâ— Pallor membrorum vino madentium tremor Senec. or trembling It is an allusion to men addicted to drunkennesse the effect of which being long practised oftentimes ends in a continuall and habituated trembling Thou hast mingled us such a bitter potion of providence as possesseth us with a Palsie making us to tremble in every joynt to reele to and fro and stagger like drunken men And this thou hast done not to strangers but to thine own people We must needs yeeld that Zion is the Mountaine of Gods Holinesse Psal 48. beautifull for scituation the joy of the whole earth the City of the great King and God is known in her Palaces for a refuge That she is the Orbe wherein God appeares glorious to the Sons of men Out of Zion Psal 50.2 the perfection of beauty God hath shined Psal 76. Nobile illustre nomen propter inaudita miracula That it is the Theater upon which God comes forth to act his terrible and wonderfull workes In Judah is God known his name is great in Israel In Salem is his Tabernacle and his dwelling place in Zion There brake he the Arrows of the Bow the Shield and the Sword and the Battell And the Lord hath chosen Zion he hath desired it for his Habitation This is my rest for ever Psal 132. here will I dwell for I have desired it And yet the Daughter of Zion sits down weeping by the Rivers of Babylon bemoaning her selfe in this Language and blubbering out her complaint thus I am in bitternesse Lam. 1.4 And againe Cap. 3.5 He hath builded against me and compassed me with gall and travell And Verse 15. He hath killed me with bitternesse he hath made me drunken with wormwood And Verse 19. I remember my affliction and my misery the wormwood and the gall Here I stop I might be endlesse Having thus seen the truth of this Conclusion let us in the next place make some enquirie when and in what cases God may be said to deale very bitterly with his beloved ones which we may mainly demonstrate in these following particulars viz. When God smites in with an affliction Job felt the least finger of Gods hand far heavier than all his other massie and multiplied Crosses Job 6.4 The arrows of the Almighty are within me the poyson whereof drinketh up my spirit the terrours of God do set themselves in aray against me And it was not so much Babylonish Captivity as the apprehension of Gods displeasure that so deeply wounded the Churches heart Lam. 3.3 Surely against me is he turned he turneth his hand against me all the day As the love of God is better to a soule than the best things of this world Corne Psal 4.7 and Wine and Oyle nay better than life it selfe Psal 63 6. So the displeasure of God is worse than the worst things in this life nay than death it selfe One frown from God is more grievous than all the smiles in the world are joyous Eph. 6.12 The Apostle saith We wrestle not against flesh and bloud but against principalities against powers c. Whence I infer if it be so terrible to have the powers of hell how dreadfull is it then to have the powers of heaven engaged against us Here is God and not Man Spirit and not flesh It was once Eli's disswasive Argument to his Sons 1 Sam. 2.25 If one man sin against another the Judge shall judge him but if a man sin against the Lord who shall entreate for him In our contendings with men we may have Seconds but who dare joyne issue with us against God Man may deale it out with man nay in the strength of Christ man with devils But who can stand before Omnipotencie Psal 38.2 Thine Arrows stick fâ—st in me and thine hand presseth me sore This is very bitter Hidden afflictions When God hides from a soule the particular cause of an affliction Psal 42. Why art thou cast down O my soule and why art thou disquieted in me It was no little aggravation of Rebekah's trouble when she had those struglings in her wombe that she knew not the reason And therefore she goes to enquire of the Lord Gen. 25.22 Why am I thus Foelix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas A disease found out is halfe cured but till then very hopelesse Alas saith the poore soule if I knew the speciall and particular cause why God so and so testifieth against me I would remove it that the effects might cease But seeing I am ignorant of this What hope I may walke in bitternesse all my daies Inward afflictions Such as are not only skin-deep but heart-deep Sinking down to the soule and weighing upon the Spirit These are very heavy and bitter For as those joyes which are kindled in the heart by the Holy Ghost are unspeakable So those afflictions which wound the soule and dart the conscience are intollerable Pro. 18.14 The spirit of a man will sustaine his infirmity but a wounded spirit who can beare Not huge Atlas himselfe Corporis vita statumen est anima animae columen est Deus Cart. in loe No Herbalist could ever yet shew me amongst all those varieties of simples in nature the medicine that cureth a wounded soule No no in this all are Physicians of no value None can do it but the balme in Gilead and the Physician there Sudden afflictions are much disgusted and become very bitter When afflictions give us a surprize like a whirlewind or storme at Sea When we have our eye upon one point or quarter and afflictions come in at another Our expectations are from one end evils come in at another When they throng in at our back-doores then and there as we never expected them Suddennesse or unawares contributes very much to the bitternesse of afflictions Thus the wicked are threatned Pro. 1.27 that their destruction shall come as a whirlewind And Moab to be destroyed in a night Isa 15.1 And this renders Christ's comming to judgement more terrible That he will come as a Thiefe in the night suddenly and unexpectedly It is reported that the Basilisk and Man shoot such venenation at each other from the eye at a distance that whether hath priority of aspection is destructive to the other