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
of her Sex and that age within the compasse of my acquaintance Her piety and charity were commendable in any age admirable in one so young as she was I will give a briefe touch of both since they are the principall qualifications of a Christian and the rather because though * In Chester here she was borne and lived to honour God with a singular example of sanctity for one so young yet here she dyed not and therefore had not here that commendable mention made of her which in this place was due unto her whereof I will give you such a report as is like unto an Eccho resounding back a few sillables for many words of her ¶ Preached at Alderley where she dyed and was buried Funerall Sermon and this for yours and your childrens sakes that they may be induced to become godly betimes and feare not the saying a young Saint an old devill for that is one of the old devills Proverbs and prophecies as false as himselfe who never speakes truth but to make way for beliefe of a lye and the contrary is regularly true A young Saint an old Saint a young Devill an old Devill First for her Piety it was such for a child as must needs argue her the child of God and by such evidences as these First she set her selfe an holy and daily taske for prayer and reading of the Scripture wherein if by any occasion she were interrupted she was very much troubled and this she did not formally but affectionately which may appeare by these particulars 1. By her serious enquiries and questions of the sense and meaning of that she read 2. By her constant care to keepe close to the rules of it for feare least in any thing she should doe contrary unto it 3. By her scruple and trouble of mind if in any thing she digressed from her duty to God or man commanded in the word Fourthly if any doubt or case of conscience arose where in favour to her selfe and honour to God by way of competition came in for preheminence as whether she should abridge her selfe of lawfull liberty on the Sabbath day or make a breach upon it by a prophane imployment of any part of it she was much more ready to be injurious to her selfe then sacrilegious to God Wherof I shall relate unto you a strange but a true Story which I know very well for it was in a passage of conference betwixt her and me yet in the presence of divers others who may yet remember it It was thus Upon some speeches against the violation of the religious rest of that day by carnall recreations she shewed her dislike of dancing on the Sabbath so farre as to say she would rather die then doe it I told her with commendation of her Christian care and zeale to keepe it not only holy for the manner but wholly for the measure that so she might make her selfe more guilty of the breach of the sixt Commandement by her rest then of the fourth by her motion for if her dancing were not an exercise of delight unto her selfe but done as a worke of mercy for preservation of her life and so professed to such as would compell her to doe it it was no breach of piety but an act of charity as lawfull as the labour bestowed to lift up an Oxe out of the pit least he should die there Luk. 14.5 which is allowed by our Saviour and so much more warrantable as the life of a Christian is of more worth then the life of a beast Against which though she could say little I found somewhat to doe to free her from the fetters of her former opinions so deeply did Doctrines of selfe-deniall sinke into her heart though she were yet but of that age which useth to make scruple of nothing and to deny nothing to it selfe which hath any savour of sensuall delight 2. Secondly for her Charity let her Piety stand for an abridgement of the first Table and her charity will serve for the same in the second she was kind and courteous towards all tender hearted to the distressed desirous if any breach were made betweene any of the family to make it up quickly by hearty reconcilement And to the poore she was exceedingly pittifull interceding for them giving of her own unto them For which purpose she got a little stock before hand for her Parents seeing she was so well-minded would not suffer her to be empty handed and that stocke sometimes she adventured all at once as goods in a weather-beaten Barke by way of loane to some poor person in extreame necessity where may we find so much upon record of Iacobs Beniamin On these two points Piety and Charity hang all the Law and the Prophets and these two were so habitually setled in her that in the exercise of both so farre as others could judge she took much delight How could it be but a delight to any godly Parents to have such a child How but a great griefe to be deprived of her who was like if she had lived to have been an excellent patterne to both Sexes and every age to which she attained And the better she was the more lovely in the eyes of God and of all that are good and her goodnesse doubtlesse was that which so united the soule of her good mother to hers that they could not part but as Iacob and Beniamin with the perill of life By this child you may make some conjecture of her Mother for children especially in their minority owe much unto their Mothers for their godly education so did King Lemuel to his Prov. 31.1 and Timothy to his Mother and Grand-mother both 2 Tim. 1.5 And though grace be of God it is regularly conferred by meanes and religious instruction of children and exemplary conversation of their Parents is a meanes which God many times blesseth with gracious effects So that wheras most make boast of their Parents as * Iosephus in the beginning of his life written by himselfe Iosephus of his Know therefore that I am not basely but nobly descended being both on the Fathers and Mothers side derived from the line of the Priests in reason there is cause rather for Parents to glory in good children since God many times maketh them usefull instruments of their goodnesse But seldome on the contrary is the Parents goodnesse effected by any means either of example or instruction of their children Howsoever she this grave Matron I meane had not bin so happy as to be the Mother of so religious a daughter she was in her self well worthy both of our commendation and of others imitation First as a Woman Secondly as a Wife Thirdly as a Mother Fourthly as a mistresse Fiftly as a friend Sixtly which is the chiefest of all as a Christian Under these particular Titles we might make discourse for a whole houre but I will wind up all as many long threds into a little clew First as a