displeased against man that nothing but the death of his own Son could asswage his wrath Besides the contrary is so necessary a property to be continued ed in all conditions that the world cannot subsist without it However I may boldly say this latter age hath not onely created strange thoughts concerning this duty but almost hourely produceth wonderful examples against the maxime however we shall set down only three common duties of this kinde proceeding from the first infancy of the world which have been made good eversince both by the Commandments of God and all Moral Documents We will first begin with that obedience that is due from Children to their Parents which setting aside Gods own immediate Precepts is an obligation challenged by way of natural right for having brought us into the world that else should have been nothing Children are bound to afford their Parents at all times and upon every fitting occasion an obsequious reverence though never so much under anothers jurisdiction as also another duty of gratitude for their education and preservation in their infancy which neverthelesse is to be esteemed more or lesse according to the care was had of their persons when they were not able to provide for themselves insomuch as no deficiency of the Parents part in my opinion can take away altogether that humane respect and honour that is due by nature As for example When a daughter is bestowed in marriage although by that means she becometh under anothers jurisdiction and in that regard cannot dispose of her self without her husbands leave towards their service yet certainly she is still obliged to afford them upon all convenient occasions a dutiful reverence neverthelesse I must confesse in these times we hold it sufficient satisfaction if children become not wholly reprobates to their own destruction without having any consideration of their Parents particular The next obligation of obedience is due from servants to their Masters which however it be limited to time and contract is not onely to be observed in Conscience according to the conditions agreed upon but also there is a civil duty of respect to be observed after the time is expired unlesse some just cause hath been given to the contrary But for that I intend to speak something more hereof in another place I shall mention onely now the last obedience which is due from the Subjects to their Prince instituted as I may say in the beginning of the world which may be divided into three kinds The first was that purchased by Nimrod being wholly usurped and therefore might have been cast off again upon the first opportunity however the continuance did perhaps render it lawful to posterity The second was domestick or voluntary verified in the person af Abraham over his pious and godly family which was approved no doubt by God Almighty when he commanded them to fight with those who had taken unjustly Lot prisoner again Abrahams Dominion was justified when he tyed his servant by an oath to provide a wife for his son and the last is that of compact and agreement which makes subjects by their own consent become under the power of rule as may be testified by Pharoah and his people which work was brought about by Ioseph when his subjects changed their liberty for subsistence and livelihood And this being contracted for and afterward confirmed by proscription could not again be cast off without incurring the penalties belonging to Rebellion For the Jews could not have avoided the lawfulnesse of the jurisdiction notwithstanding their cruel persecution and slavery but that it was the declared will of God revealed particularly to Moses this by that means they should be freed from their misery under whose power are rightly contained all the governments of the earth Ingratitude is not onely another effect of Pride but may be said to be a most ignoble property since it doth not onely defraud goodnesse of its due but seems not willingly to encourage vertue in any kind which was the reason that the wise and brave Romans ranked it amongst the worst of vices and to that purpose appointed punishments for the offehders God Almighty first fell out with Cain for his ingratitude though he afterwards condemned him for his hypocrisie Truly I may affirm this vice appears to have gotten a particular jurisdiction in this Nation at present since many of those most obliged prove the greatest Traytors to their benefactors neither is this done covertly and in the dark but most commonly is owned as a piece of excellent wit and so consequently esteemed a kinde of vertue for servants to be unfaithful in their duty or friends to deceive trusts committed unto them and so far hath private interest taken possession of honour good nature and conscience that every person that walks according to these old maxims is either esteemed a fool or a Heretick Certainly God punished the devils with the greater indignation for that in their thoughts they were unwilling to be thankful for his benefits whereas man had a condition annexed to his condemnation because it was frailty rather then an intention of ingratitude that caused him to offend however he seemed more really and punctually to have broken his Commandment For my part I hold those as worthy that raise monuments to vertue as those which good fortune hath made famous since however they may have wanted the opportunity and conveniency of acting yet neverthelesse they retain in their minds a certain intention of honour The next appetite of Pride is ambition however it is onely it but by accident or intention since nothing renders that name unlawful but either too much passion in the prosecution or over much desire by way of private interest yet some perhaps will quarrel with the name onely which I cannot but except against for as the too much coveting of honour and preferment out of a personal respect renders the desire unjustifiable and so by consequence proves to be a meer ambition so of the other side a moderate seeking of a just esteem is no more then a natural indulgency warrantable in our humane condition since without this hope for the most part our noble endeavours should want recompence whereby mens vertuous intentions would cool in the prosecution before they could come to a ripenesse fit for use or example For if our frail natures had no other object to behold then barely that reward we are to expect in the next world it is to be much feared that people would grow so slack in endeavouring of laudable nay I may say necessary things that at last all honour and vertue would be in danger to be wholly neglected by which means unworthy persons should com to be of equal Authority with the best and no priviledge at all given to industry As for example What souldier would expose himself willingly to the hazard of the Cannon without some expectation of recompence from his General or if a baser man then he were to be esteemed
power of tyrannical Princes over the world until at last we may behold these great Monarchs of the the earth forced to submit themselves to the belief and jurisdiction of that seeming contemptible Church in the beginning which they had most maliciously persecuted insomuch as at this present there is not to be found any Nation or persons of the Pagan Religion any where however that opinion was wont to entertain the pens and actions of multitudes of great and learned Philosophers for many hundreds of yeers together accompanyed with the delusions of their false gods which now are all vanished into smoak and the Christian Faith alone dilated amongst the Gentiles everywhere to the wonder of all humane consideration again we may reflect upon that saying of holy Scripture as a further testimony to this Truth against the Jewes I have no will in your offerings nor gifts will I receive at your hands for from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same my Name is great among the Gentiles and in every place there shall be sacrificing and a pure offering offered to my Name Which intimates no other then that the Jewes were to be despised and turned off and the Gentiles introduced into their places A Prophecie so plainly verified in these dayes that we do not onely see the Jewes and their Religion laid aside with the general calling of the Gentiles but also this oblation every where offered by the Christians consisting onely in one thing and performed after one manner though in many places whereas the Sacrifices and Ceremonies of the Jews were divers both in matter and form as well as the performing thereof was confined to one place besides we might bring not onely the Confessions of the heathen Oracles themselves for the Divinity and Godhead of our Saviour but the ancient prophecies of the Sibyls allowed approved and preserved with a great deal of veneration by the Roman Monarchy and other Commonwealths if there were any need either to strengthen our Testimonies or confute other opinions to which we may adde these considerations that it is not probable that so poor a beginning as had first the Christian Religion against the sense and appetite of humane nature persecuted with violence in the very infancy of the Church countenanced by none but despicable people and the belief of it self grounded only on imaginable fruition her mysteries in a manner not being conceiveable almost by the highest capacity should so suddainly increase and so long continue notwithstanding all the oppositions from time to time sustained both from Craft and Tyranny if this sacred Truth were not supported by an omnipotencie not to be contended against by all the power of earth and Hell Wherefore I must conclude that as these proofs are sufficient to any indifferent understanding whereby to convince all men of Infidelity touching the Divinity of our Saviour and the truth of his suffering for our offences so are we obliged to observe his precepts in particular if we hope to receive benefit by his death as they are declared in the same holy Scriptures And consequently ought under the pain of a most terrible condemnation to abate in us if not the appetites yet at leastwise the practice and violence of sin that seems in this corrupt age to take so much possession of our persons and actions as if Religion were turned onely to a vast Chaos of confused liberty without temper or morality In which wild exercise of preposterous sensuality perhaps many are confirmed out of some presumptuous hope that God Almighty doth not readily look upon the transgressions of guilty offenders The punishment of the Angels against all vain Presumption AGainst which pernicious fancie may be brought this Discourse First we will begin with the Angels before the creation of the world as it may be believed according to some opinions who were the perfectest of all creatures in whom God intended not only to shew his power goodness but his Justice and hate of sin for as he made them in the highest degree of happiness to express his Majesty so he punished their single offence to shew his equity not in any kinde pardoning them in regard of the sublimity of their making since knowing him best in doing any thing against his Divinity they could not but offend him most wherefore he as I say neither put limitation nor condition to their punishments for as his omnipotency was by them more cleerly discerned by reason of their excellent nature so was the eternity of their unhappiness to be without redemption for abusing so much that knowledge the more justly inflicted upon them both for our future examples that we might not too much presume and for the declaration of his own glory who will be always just each appearing as well in the blasphemies of the damned as in the adoration of the blessed since all creatures actions are alike to his Godhead neither rendring him more nor less then he is for as by the participation onely of his goodness we receive benefit according to that obedience we shew in performing his Commandments so of the contrary if we do not fullfil his will we must not think to escape correction because he never goes from himself for he can no more comply with sin then he can lay down his Divinity being both attributes of his eternal essence and therefore as he spared not these excellent spirits meerly out of his justice though it were but onely in one single thought of pride we must not think to be protected by his mercy committing dayly so many crimes In the next place we must reflect upon the punishment of man for his transgression who as he had less knowledge of his Creator in his sinning so was he more gently used in Gods indignation for notwithstanding he deserved also a perpetual condemnation for his offence in regard of the eternal majesty against whom he rebelled yet by reason of the natural frailty of his condition by which he was more subject to erre in being made of earth God was pleased to annex certain conditions and provisoes to the sentence nevertheless with so high a consideration of his own justice that he would no otherwise give him any hope of pardon then by the assurance of the death of his onely son having decreed in his eternal wisdome that no lower a price could make satisfaction to appease his divine wrath conceived against man for having broken his Commandments then an omnipotent pawn since as man had offended his Creator no less then a Creator was to redeem the offence by reason of his heavenly justice that necessarily seemed to exact so high a condition wherefore as I say there was no other way left but for the Son of God to take upon him our flesh and blood because as God in his own nature could not suffer so our nature onely could not satisfie without some divine conjunction which are most convincing Arguments to shew the extream
his own particular person might not seem freer from danger then the rest of the people which shewed a most excellent indifferency and justice in his nature against the ordinary affections of man that use to carry us too violently to our own concernments and particular interests And was the more to be admired in regard that God Almighty had chosen him from a poor shepheard to be a most great and glorious King and so by consequence allowed him to enjoy what felicities could possibly be lawful in this world as a testimony to other Nations that he not onely intended him private favours but also to honour his fame in strange Countries amongst the Gentiles for the greater majesty of his own power and yet I say this good Prince had alwayes so much care to please God and such a continual remembrance of his own condition that as he declareth himself his pennances were exceeding great and his afflictions in minde in a manner perpetual insomuch as according to his true writings he washed by night his Couch with tears and eat his bread by day mingled with ashes professing himself to resemble a Sparrow solitary upon the house top or a sad Pelican in the Desart In fine if we consider those vast volums which he wrote of his own sorrowes cares and troubles in Spirit though darkly figuring therein our Saviours Passion Sufferings and eternal kingdom we may easily believe he spent not much time in the pleasures and delights of this world however his youth condition and opportunities were sufficient enticements to all earthly vanities and onely his wisdome temper and goodnesse withheld him from those unnecessary and vain passions which he knew entertained would neither secure his own salvation or satisfie Gods justice The constant Martyrdome of old Eleazer NExt we will come to Eleazer one of the chief of the Scribes being fourscore and ten yeers old in the time of Antiochus who was not onely excellently learned in holy Scriptures but extraordinarily versed in all divine and humane knowledge and in the cruel persecution of this wicked Tyrant against the Jewish Religion suffered a most glorious Martyrdom because he would not prejudice his profession by any manner of seeming hypocrisie for being apprehended and brought before the Judge he absolutely denyed to obey that peremptory command or Injunction of eating Swines-flesh rather choosing to undergo the worst of torments then to displease his God either by act or example however being loved and favoured by some of those bloody executioners by reason of his age Nobility and commendable conversation they promised him that if in private he would but seem to comply with the Kings desire they would bring him other lawful flesh to eat instead of that which was so strictl y enjoyned by publique Edicts and by that means if he would he should not onely save his life but obtain honour and reward unto which motion he quickly replyed that he would rather chuse to suffer death since he held it not convenient for a man of his age to dissemble for a little time of a corruptible life whereby many young people might come to be scandalized and deceived for although at the present I may said he be delivered from the punishments of men yet neither alive nor dead shall I escape the hand of the Almighty but in departing manfully out of this life I shall appear worthy of my old age and leave a constant example to youth if with a ready and stout minde I suffer an honest death for the most grave and most holy Law which being said he was forthwith drawn to execution and they that led him who had been before more milde and courteous were turned into wrath by reason of those words he had uttered which they thought proceeded out of arrogancy so that when he was a killing with strokes he groaned and said O Lord who hath the holy knowledge thou knowest manifestly that whereas I might have been delivered from death I do sustain sore pains of the body but according to the soul for thy fear I do willingly suffer these things This man certainly in this manner departed this life leaving not only to young men but also to the whole Nation the memory of his death for an example of vertue and fortitude And thus have we the cleer relation of this glorious Martyrdome drawn out of the second book of the Machabees which in some sort may teach duty and resolution to all manner of conditions since neither age nor honour can be priviledged much less ought any to give up their faith or corrupt their manners under what pretence soever either of pleasure or conveniency those being nothing else but the Divels golden bait to draw people to hell in luxurious Chariots in testimony of which we will relate one of the most remarkable Martyrdoms that ever was recorded either by divine or prophane writer since not onely Sexâ—s but very nature it self seemed to contend for a prerogative in the service of Almighty God in despight of horrour and all the appetites of flesh blood affection and any other humane inclination or worldly satisfaction whatsoever and with so high and religious a magnanimity that my own thoughts I must confesse are confounded in the relation with wonder and admiration however I know the same duty of suffering belongs to every person if God be pleased to call such to the tryal though of the otherside I am again comforted and encouraged with these sayings that he will at no time tempt any beyond his strength and therefore we may be confident by his divine grace we shall be able to do all things though this grace cannot be procured unlesse our selves diligently comply with our best endeavours which made one say it was harder for God Almighty to save a soul then to Create a new world for man himself must concur in the one and God alone could perfect the other by his omnipotency Strange sufferings of a woman and her seven sons THere was as the Holy Scripture saith seven brethren with their mother apprehended by the commandment of King Antiochus to be compelled to eat Swines flesh by whips scourges and other torments But the first of them said What seekest thou or what wilt thou learn of us we are ready to dye rather then to transgresse the lawes of God coming from our fathers Wherewith the King being inraged appointed frying pans and brazen pots to be heated and the tongue of him that had spoken first to be cut out as also the skin of his head to be drawn of with his hands and feet to be chopped off the rest of his brethren and mother looking on And now when he was made in all parts unprofitable he commanded fire to be put to him that breathing as yet he might be fryed in the frying-pan wherein when he was long tormented the rest together with their mother exhorted one another to die manfully saying Our Lord God wil behold the truth wil take