Callings will be Recreations After you have educated your Children and trained them up in some honest Calling provide timely a suitable Match for them 'T is the Parents duty to dispose of their Children in Marriage as appears plainly by these Scriptures Deut. 7.3 Exod. 34.16 1 Cor. 7.38 Where observe saith my Author that the Commandment touching the Marriage of the Child Mr. Perkins is given to the Parent not the Child Thus Abraham took a wife for his son Isaac and Isaac suffer'd himself to be disposed of by his Father afterwards Isaac commanded his son Jacob to marry in the house of Laban Gen. 28. and Jacob obeyed I do not mean that Parents may absolutely command their Child to marry this or that person but to marry one thus or thus qualified according to Rules of Scripture and right Reason and Prudence I say they may Great is the power of Parents over their Children In some Countrys Parents have power of life and death over their Children Amongst the Jews the Parents might sell their Children to free themselves out of debt and in case Children were disobedient and incorrigible their Parents might bring them forth to be stoned to death by Gods Law And this brings us to treat of the next Head or Argument viz. The duty of Children towards their Parents Honour thy Father and Mother saith the Law Which is the first Commandment with promise saith the New Testament Ephes 5. Parents must have a double honour namely of Reverence and of Maintenance Thou shalt fear thy Mother and thy Father And again according to our Saviour's Interpretation the Pharisees Corban non obstante Children were bound to provide for their Parents 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to do or shew kindness to their Father and Mother yea those Christians who do not provide for their own Parents are worse than Infidels It is sad to think of what Luther observes That one Father will more willingly maintain ten Sons than ten Sons will maintain one Father but where Children are unnatural to their Parents God in just judgment suffers their Children to retaliate their unkindness unto themselves 'T is memorable the Story of the Father who being drawn by his Son to the threshold of the house by the hair of the head cryed to him to draw him no further for that he had drawn his Father no further v. Robinsons Essays p. 548. 'T is observable that Children are apt to slight their Mother most and her especially in her old age We are apt to break over the hedge where 't is lowest but the Law of God is a Mound and a Hedge in this Gap charging us not to despise our Mother when she is old Prov. 23.22 And there is a curse denounced against him that setteth light by father or mother and all the people were to say Amen to it Deut. 27.16 How terrible is that place Prov. 30.17 The eye that mocketh at his father and despiseth to obey his mother the Ravens of the Valley shall pick it out and the young Eagles shall eat it And he that slights his Parents for the infirmities that accompany their old age or for their wrinkles or hoary hairs is very unreasonable The natural affection and kindness of the Stork to its Dam may be a witness against such Children such worse than unreasonable men and women Aeneas is call'd Pius Aeneus by the Poet and why because he carried his Father Anchises upon his back at the destruction of Troy We must do what we can to hide our Parents nakedness Remember Chams or his son Canaans curse who some say first saw his Grandfather Noah and went and told his Father and is therefore cursed We must think reverently of them we must shew outward reverence to them bow down to them or rise up before them we must speak awfully to them and respectively of them We must obey their just and lawful commands if they say Go we must go if Come we must come if Do this we must do it We must provide necessaries for them if they want afford them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we must thus honour or reward them for their kindness to us The Jews have a saying What honour is to be given to Parents the answer is To give them meat and drink and to cloath them and cover them Let 's endeavour to procure their hearty prayers for blessings to God upon us and ours and dread the thoughts of their ill Wishes Curses or Imprecations 'T is memorable what St. Austin in his Civ Dei b. 22. cap. 8. relates namely Often Children that being cursed by their Mother went about quaking and trembling from one place to another like Vagabonds And I have been very credibly told of a Son that stamping on his Mothers grave for madness because she had given him no more thereby broke his leg Though a man must love his Wife more than his Mother yet he must reverence his Mother rather than his Wife We should honour our Parents living and dead with Civil honour and respect so Joseph fell on Jacob his Father and kissed him when dead Give them decent burial so Jacob and Esau too buried their Father Ifaac and weep or mourn over them David speaking of great sadness saith he bowed down heavily as one thâ—â— mourned for his mother Psal 35.14 and Joseph when he buried his Father it was with a great and solemn mourning and of a long continuance Gen. 50.10 If the widows made great lamentation for the death of Dorcas and shewed the Coats that she had made for them Acts 9.39 how much more should Children weep and mourn for their deceased Parents from whom under God they had their Beings their Lives Education Food and Cloathing and Portion and all CAAP VI. Of the loss of Children IF God have given you Children and taken them away again yet be not like Rachel weeping for her children because they are not Rather with Job say The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord Job 1.21 Better I think to have had Children though we see them go before us to their grave than to have been always Childless for hereby God hath taken away the reproach and curse of Barrenness and hereby you have helped to fill Heaven and your Children are not lost but gone or sent thither before you Job who had all his other goods doubled had not a double number of Children and this reason some give of it because these were not lost Job should meet with them again in Heaven If your Children dye in the womb and never see the Sun the Sun in the visible Heavens yet may they for ever see the Sun of Righteousness in the highest Heavens and surely 't is a pleasant thing always to behold this Sun in the vision and fruition of whom consists so much of our happiness What though your children dye in the womb or go out of the world presently after they are born into it
life and were not married but also by married persons as Patriarchs Apostles Martyrs and innumerable others 1 Thess 4.17 'T is observed that there is nothing said of these Virgins which agreeth not to all the faithful 1. They have all the name of the Lamb his Father and written in their foreheads and all God's servants are sealed in their foreheads Rev. 7.3 2. All God's servants are to sing the new Song Rev. 5.9 10. all are redeemed from the earth by the blood of the Lamb chap. 5.9 The believing Jews they are all a kind of first-fruits unto God James 1.18 Lastly The Jesuites at Rhemes confess that these are the same number of the Elect that were sealed chap. 7. where in the Margent they note That by the number there spoken of are understood all the Elect both of the Jews and of the Gentiles vid. T. C. in loc These Virgins then are those that would not be polluted or defiled with the Idolatry or Spiritual Fornication of the Whore of Babylon mentioned in Verse 8. of the 14 Chapter of the Revelations Whatever Papists or old Hereticks say against the lawful Conjugal society of man and wife as if it were a work of the flesh the holy Apostle Paul doth not rank or condemn it for a work of the flesh in that black Catalogue of the works of the flesh on Record Gal. 5.19 20 21. But on the other side 't is observable that those who decry Marriage without a just cause and cry up single life more than they have cause as the Papists do they are verily guilty of Idolatry which is Spiritual Adultery or Fornication witness their worship of the Cross with Religious worship their worship of Images of Saints and particularly of the B. Virgin their worship of Angels with Invocation with Adoration They tell us a story that at the Synod held at Winchester when there was a difference 'twixt the married Clergy and the Monks and Archbishop Dunstan had a mind to introduce the Monks The Cross spake humano more with mans voyce against the married Priests This was in the days of King Edgar who began his Reign 959. It seems then that there were married Priests in England in those days If it be Objected That many Ancient Councils have ordained Celibacy for Priests as the first Elibertine Council an 310. or 311. Can. 33. The second Council of Cartharge about the year 396. Can. 2. Concilium Agathense Can. 9. about the year 506. The third Council of Orleans Can. 1. about the year 537. The fourth Council of Orleans an 547. Can. 17. c. My Answer is That we have the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament for the lawfulness of Priests or Presbyters marriage the Canons of the Apostles Can. 5. and the General Council of Nice rejecting the Proposal about prohibiting of it as also the sixth General Council of Constantinople c. in the year 692. and the Council of Toledo an 400. chap. 4. 7. which testifies that the Clergy had wives I might also have alledged Concilium Gangrense cap. 4. in or about the year 324. which Anathematiseth those who held it unlawful to receive the blessed Sacrament at the hands of a married Priest and many Councils which forbid Priests second Marriage or to marry a widow c. All which supposed it lawful for him to marry Whatever the Canons decreed certain it is that the Greek Church unto this day allow of a married Clergy and that divers Nations and Countreys for a long time in the West did not admit of this necessary Celibacy but tolerated their Clergy to be married In England they had their wives for above a thousand years almost twelve hundred years after Christ So in Ireland till the days of Henry the second of England who began his Reign 1155. Pope Pius II. who sate about the year 1458. was a great man in the Council of Basil his saying was That Marriage was better for the Clergy than single life and turned out divers cloystered Nuns to take their liberty De facto many Priests were married of old So Novatus a Priest permitted by Cyprian to live with his wife Tertullian was married as appears by his Book written to his wife Gratian tells of the Sons of Presbyters and Bishops that were promoted to the Papal Dignity Dist 56. So was Bonifacius the Pope the Son of Jucundus the Presbyter Foelix the Pope the Son of Foelix the Presbyter Agapetus the Pope Son of Gordianus the Presbyter Theodorus the Pope Son of Theodorus the Bishop and many more he saith there were and addeth we are not to understand them as born out of lawful Marriages which were lawful to Priests before the Prohibition ibid. Chrysostom agreeth with Athanasius and Clemens Alexandrinus in 1 Tim. 3. and saith That Marriage is in so high a degree honorable that men with it may ascend into the Episcopal Chairs and yet live with their wives For though it be a hard thing yet it is possible so to perform the duties of Marriage as not to be wanting in the performance of the duties of a Bishop Sozomen saith of Spiridion that though he had a Wife and Children yet he was not therefore any whit the more negligent in performing the duties of his Calling and of Gregory Nyssen it is reported that though he was married he was no way inferior to his worthy Brother that lived single And howsoever in Thessaly Thessalonica Mandonia they did not admit into the Ministry any single persons yet all the Bishops of the East besides were then left unto their own liberty and though some went about to take away their liberty in some places yet the worthiest men the Church had stood in defence of it So Synesius when they of Ptolemais would needs have him to be their Bishop which thing he little desired he made them acquainted with his present condition and resolved purpose for the time to come God saith he the Law and the sacred hand of Theophilus have given to me a wife I therefore tell all men aforehand and testifie unto all that I will neither suffer my self to be altogether estranged and separated from her neither will I live with her secretly as an Adulterer for the one of these is no way pious and godly and the other no way lawful But I will desire and pray unto God that exceeding many and most good and happy Children may be born unto me Neither will I have him that is chief in ordaining of me to be ignorant hereof Synesius ad fratrem Ep. 105. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. This liberty the Council in Trullo impeached in respect of Bishops but in respect of Presbyters it continueth in all the East Churches of the world unto this day Greek Armenian and Ethiopian warranted unto them by the Canons of the Apostles judgement of Bishops Canons of councils c. Dr. Field of the Ch. l. 5. p. 708. Some attempts were made in the East by Eustathius
Leah which two did build up the house of Israel and I may say also Which two did build up the Church of God And if they built up God's Church on Earth they made ready a people prepared for the Lord in Heaven And as Jerusalem which is above is said to be the Mother of us all so in another respect Jerusalem that is below I mean the Church on Earth doth bring forth Sons and Daughters to God and is the Mother of all the Children of men that are indeed also the Children of God and Members of the new Jerusalem in Heaven or above CHAP. V. Of the Education of Children CHildren of themselves a blessing prove a cross and a curse too unto their Parents if not cultivated or well managed by a good Education Teach a Child the way he should go and he 'll not forsake it when he is old Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit â—dorem Testa diu Although ragged Colts prove often good horses yet let the horses run till they are six or seven years old wild and unbroken it will be a hard matter to tame and manage them 'T is good that a man bear the yoke in his youth Blaspheme not saying A young Saint will prove an old Devil rather a young Devil is like to prove an old Beelzebub You may bend the Oak as well as the Osier whilst it is young and tender Now now is the time the season the very nick article and joynt of time when you may turn your Children which way you please Oh then now teach them mind them to remember their Creator in the days of their youth bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Let God have the first-fruits of their time the flower of their age dedicate them to God betimes by engaging them to him and his service in the first place God would have Children presented to him in the Temple at forty days old our Saviour saith Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not for of such is the kingdom of God And our Lord was pleased with the Childrens Hosanna's as he rode in Triumph to Jerusalem Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast ordained or perfected praise saith the Psalmist Psal 8. God of old call'd to young Samuel again and again whilst he was a Child rather than to old Eli. We keep a day to Commemorate the young Infants of about two years old that were murthered for the cause of Christ as well as of St. Stephen the Protomartyr and of St. Paul the aged that were put to death for the name of the Lord Jesus God of old seal'd the males amongst the Israelites at eight days old for his own his peculiar Treasure And if God will own your Children why do not ye Parents present them to him Children within the pale of the Church God looks on as his Children And if ye take his Children your Sons and Daughters which you brought unto him and offer them to Molock to Baal to Idols or bring them forth and up to the Murtherer or the Abaddon the Destroyer of souls by evil or careless Education a thousand times better had it been they had never been born How will Children in Hell curse their Parents that by their evil counsel or evil example or want of good Precepts and good Paterns brought them to the place of torment Oh therefore teach them by instilling good Principles into them betimes and guide them by your good example always be able to say to them Be ye followers of us as we are of Christ or Walk so as ye have us for an example drop good and precious instructions daily into these narrow mouth'd Vessels and when they are old they will retain the good infused into them in their young days Chasten them if they offend if you love them but in measure that it may appear you love them Correct them but not in anger lest they be discouraged lest you provoke them to wrath also lest your bitterness to them imbitter their spirits towards you Teach them Affability Courtesie Gentleness Humility that as you love them so may every body else that so they may pass their time in peace and quietness both at home in their own bosoms and abroad in the world Next after they are fitted by a competency of Learning for some honest and suitable Calling be sure you dispose of them accordingly considering what Bishop Sanderson hath left on Record in one of his Sermons that Idle Gentlemen and idle Beggars are the pests of the Commonwealth Let yours therefore be careful to maintain some honest Trades or Callings that they be not unfruitful These things are good and profitable unto men Whereas the Grecians would have all Children to be bound to keep their Parents when old the Athenians put in this Exception Vnless their Parents had taught them no Trade whereby to get their living Every man saith Mr. Perkins besides his general Calling as a Christian must have some personal particular Calling to walk in either publick or private either in the Church or Commonwealth or Family Adam his personal Calling assigned him by God was to dress and keep the Garden and Christ the second Adam lived with Joseph saith Mr. Perkins in the calling of a Carpenter And hereupon it was that the Jews said Is not this the Carpenter the son of Mary Mark 6.3 Nor is it a calling to devote your Sons and Daughters to be Monks and Nuns in the Monasteries beyond Seas The ancient Church saith the same Author condemned all Monks for Thieves and Robbers that besides the general duties of Prayer and Fasting did not withal employ themselves in some other Calling for their better maintenance Give your Children then Callings If you ask what Callings I answer 1. according to their Natural inclinations And secondly according to their Natural parts and gifts Those Children which excel in the gifts of the body bring them up to Mechanical Arts those Children which excel in gifts of the mind bring them up to the Liberal Sciences to Academical Learning that they may be serviceable thereby in Church or Commonwealth Athanasius that famous Bishop was first put to Learning because he was found by the Sea side doing the part of a Minister amongst a company of little Children like himself examining and baptizing them according to the solemn Order used in the Congregation The Athenians before they placed their Children in any Calling did first bring them into a Publick Place where Instruments of all sorts were laid and they observ'd with what kind of Instrument they took delight to the like Art after did they apply them with good success Christians may do well to follow the example of the Heathens in this so rational a practice Choose Callings for your Children for which they are fitted and to which they are inclined they then will delight in ther Employment and their lives will be comfortable to them their very