remembred his Covenant for ever the word which he commanded to a Thousand Generations which Covenant he made unto Abraham and his Oath unto Isaac and confirmed the same unto Jacob for a Law and to Israel for an everlasting Covenant saying Vnto thee will I give the land of Canaan the lot of your Inheritance And when God blessed Jacob I will pour my Spirit on thy seed Isa 44.3 and my blessing on thine Off-spring Now as these are the Promises and Blessings of God on the one hand so 't is the Parents Duty on the other to express their Obligations and Thankfulness in the Education and Care of their Children Prov 20.3 like Solomon's Just man who walketh in his Integrity and his Children are blessed after him How does he consult all wayes and methods to make his Children truly happy By Integrity we may understand that faithfulness a Father oweth to his Children in giving them a religious and sober Education Nurture is as necessary for Children as Nourishment which if Parents neglect they are Peremtores potius quam parentes Qûo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem testa diu Prov. 22.6 rather Paricides than Parents but the good Father takes Solomon's Advice and trains up his Child in the way he should goe and with that wise Spartan Prince when he was asked what he should teach his Children made Answer Agesilaus Xenoph. Those things that they should make use of when they became men For Youth is like soft Wax Tanquam abrasa tabula takes any Impression therefore it ought to be season'd with Religion and Learning as the Spring is the fittest seed-time for Grain and Planting so Youth is the most convenient season to scatter the Seeds of Knowledge upon the ground of the mind And this Integrity also takes in the good Example of the Parent for good Examples are very prevalent with Children It is recorded for the honour of Joshua Magis intuentur quod fecit Jupiter quam quid docuit Plato that he took care of his Children and 't was his good resolution That he and his House would serve the Lord Lycurgus commanded all his Citizens to dine publickly where their Children heard no idle Speeches but grave discourse about the Government of the Common-wealth The good Parent is an utter Enemy to evil Customs he well knows what arguments are brought from thence to support ill actions for Custome as the Lord Verulam calls it is the dumb Idol of the world Idolum Theatri the great Mart of Error wherein Men unthriftily take up on trust and at last break by too much relying on the bankrupt security of a Fashion the Ignis fatuus and blaze men play about as Flies about a Candle 'till they burn their wings He will therefore be sure to give his Children a good Example and abolish bad Customes Virgil brings in Aeneas advising his Son Ascanius Lib. 12. Disce puer virtutem ex me verosque labores Virtue and Patience learn of me my Son So Homer represents Hector Praying for his Son Let it be said here 's a good Son indeed That did his noble Father far exceed And if Heathens profest this sort of Piety how much more should Christian Parents bring up their Children in the Admonition and Fear of the Lord How much was it to the honour and glory of Abraham when God gives this Testimony of him For I know him Gen. 18.19 that he will command his Children and his Houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord and do justice and Judgment that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him Which was that in him should all the Families of the Earth be blessed As if God should argue How shall I fulfill my promise to Abraham unless Abraham instruct his Children and what Parent will Wilfully obstruct his own and Childrens happiness 1 Kings 2.2 3. So David charged Solomon Be thou strong therefore and shew thy self a man And keep the charge of the Lord thy God to walk in his ways to keep his Statutes his Judgements and his Testimonies as it is written in the Law of Moses and that he might the rather embrace his charge he adds the reason that thou maist prosper in all thou doest Majori sollicitudine me parturiebat Spiritu quam peperat carne parturiebat carne ut in hanc temporalem nascerer corde ut in aeternam lucem re nascerer Aug. Lib. 2. confes ch 3. and whithersoever thou turnest thy self And St. Austin reports of his Mother Monica that she ceased not do her endeavours every way that he might be truly religious and as well Gods Child by Grace as hers by Nature This is that Domestick care that is incumbent on all Parents to teach their Children their Duty to God himself to Honour their Parents to reverence their Superiours be courteous to their Equals and that in all their Actions they should have Oculi in Metam and so be recti in curiâ the Wise-man also tells us what Instructions he received from his Parents Prov. 4. To study Wisdom and to shun the path of the Wicked and further tells us that whoso loveth Wisdom rejoyceth his Father chap. 29. and this Wisdom is the fear of the Lord as we find afterwards The fear of the Lord Prov. 9.10 that is Wisdom and the Knowledge of the Holy is Vnderstanding The good Parent well considers Religion as most essential to his Childrens Happiness that in the end of their days when all other things fail then God may be the strength of their Heart and their Portion for ever That Antistes Sacrorum the Reverend Dr. Vsher used prayer in his Family four times a day and on Frydays Cathechized them as remembring that charge which God commanded the old Israelites These Words which I command thee this day shall be in thine Heart Deut. 6.6 7. And thou shalt teach them diligently to thy Children and thou shalt talk of of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up And next after Religion his care is manifest to learn them Arts and Sciences knowing that Ignorance brings Idleness Idleness brings ill Company which the Devil useth as an Engine to Dethrone men from the safe and honourable seat of Virtue to the precipice of ruine and destruction and so enchanting their Understanding their Misery attends them incognito whereas good and wise Associates are our second Genius to goodness Phil. de Comines Ab. 34. or as another expresseth it 'T is an Indication of a good and virtuous disposition to choose learned and virtuous Companions which made Alexander so highly esteem Aristotle Themistocles his Anaxagoras and Scipio his Canutius And he recommends virtue to them as the complement of a happy life and only Immortal thing that belongs to Mortality and represents it to
reward of his Incontinence And how remarkable was Gods judgment upon the Levites Wife Judg. 19.20 21. that plaid the Adulteress and we have an account how she was cut and divided into twelve pieces and sent into all the Coasts of Israel And it would be too tedious to relate what misery and destruction it brought to Anthony and Cleopatra Augustus Caesar Mary of Aragon Rodolphus of Lombardy and others And one wittily expresses it Non est è terris mollis ad astra via the passage to Heaven is all the way up-hill and the unclean Adulterer with his rotten lungs cannot climb it up Sampsons strength was enervated by a Woman And Solomons Wisdom nigh extinguished in the fire of Lust What a blot and dishonour was it to Amnon and how was his Sin aggravated in the case of Thamar Neither does it terminate in personal destruction but affects Families nay Kingdoms and Empires what misery did David bring on himself and family by Adultery with Bathsheba and how terrible the Divine Judgment against him The Sword shall not depart from thine house 2 Sam. 11.10 11 12. because thou hast despised the Lord and taken the Wife of Vriah the Hittite and it must needs prick him to the Heart when Nathan so pathetically expostulates the case and summs up Gods great goodness to him after he had killed Vriah Ver. 7 8 9. and done evil in the sight of the Lord And we find that Idleness was a great step to this Sin David walking on the top of his House saw that Beautiful Woman The soul wanting the Salutiferous food of business preys upon evils as the Poet tells us of Aegistus his Adultery Quaeritur Aegistus quomodo sit factus Adulter In promptu causa est Desidiosus erat It was Idleness administred the occasion of his Sin We would therefore more especially recommend Imployment and Business as a great preservative against those Sins they preserve the mind against those sensual sollicitations and Syren Inchantments and fortifie the soul against those fatal Poysons that kill us in our delights and so preserve it invulnerable from the Arrows of a Lais or Cleopatra obstruct those peccata in deliciis which otherwise might storm and conquer our best resolutions and like a Coat of Male which preserves the body so business preserves the mind from those fatal Inchantations Homines ni hil agendo malè agere discunt but if we give up our selves to Idleness a hundred to one but some evil attacks us As a match takes fire so Lust overtakes Idleness hence the Poets represent all Shepheards lascivious and effeminate because generally Idle persons so Theophrastus defines it Otiosi animi affectus And Seneca is in the right when he tells us Juventâ gignitur Luxû nutritur feriis alitur otioque inter laeta fortunae bona Youth begets it riot maintains it Idleness nourishes and continues it How lustful and effiminate was Alcibiades Sardanapalus Nero and others Whereupon St. Hierom observes That wherever Security and Idleness prevails there wantonness and lust reigns Vbicunque securitas ibi libido dominatur And that it affects Kingdoms and States we find it in the case of Sodom God rained down Fire and Brimstone from Heaven and destroyed the Sodomites as Pererius notes on the Place Ex eo quod relatione ad Deum sub nomine Tetragrammaton dicuntur valde male peccatores significatur eo contra jus naturae valde peccâsse Pere in Locum Giving themselves over to Fornication and going after strange flesh they sinned against the light of Nature wherefore the Passion and Indignation of Lactantius is commendable when he sayes That no Indignation against this Sin of Sodom is enough and as their punishment was by fire so it was suitable to the Nature of their Sin and burning Lusts as Gregory expresseth it There was Lusting without measure and excess of riot Sulphure significatus punitus fuit peccatorum foetor igne libidinis ardor Greg. in locum and as their Sins were of a crying and aggravating Nature so the execution of their punishment was by Fire which is accounted most afflictive to Sense and a suitable punishment for the greatest offenders And this fire was a miraculous fire the Text says The Lord rained Fire and Brimstone from the Lord Pererius renders it E Nostris it came not from the Strength of natural causes but immediately from God himself God wrought a miracle to punish those Sodomites and to put a difference between the ordinary Generation of fire and Sulphur produced from natural causes His verbis significatur quod praeter naturalem rerum cursum miraculum operatus est puniendo iniquos ad differentiam enim naturalium causarum naturali ordine occurrentium ad generandum sulphur ignem adjunctum est illud A Jehova it is superadded in the Text in terminis è Jehovah from the Lord and this is the sence of the best Interpreters as Tostatus Calvin Musculus Paraeus and Rivet And what but the Adultery of Paris with Hellena occasioned the Trojan War the Ruin of that famous Kingdom the Death of Paris and Hellena and King Priamas himself And Sextus Tarquinius for the Rape of Lucretia for which she slew her self was both expelled his Kingdom and slain by the Sabines and the Romans very properly Solemnized their Funeral Rites at the Gate of the Temple of Venus to let the World know that Lust and Incontinence was an Hastener and Harbinger of Death Epiphanius relates sad Stories of the Impurities of the Gnosticks and Clemens Alexandrinus of the Carpocratians therefore let us all remember that Poetical Admonition Corpus opes animam famam vim lumina Scortum Debilitat perdit necat aufert eripit orbat And let us seriously consider the Royal Observation of the Wisest King Prov. 7.25 and 26. She hath cast down many wounded yea many strong men have been slain by her Her house is the way to Hell going down to the Chambers of Death We will only just touch at the manner of the Nuptial Celebration and so proceed to consider the Effects of Marriage The Ancients Solemnized those Sacred Obligations with such Care that God himself might be an apparent Witness of that holy Covenant and several Nations have observed several sorts of Ceremonies and we may suppose them wisely and judiciously instituted as the Representatives of that great Mystery The Hebrews had first their Betrothings then their Conjugal Rites There was a distance of time between their Espousals and the Consummation which is observable from the Answer of Rebecca's Mother unto Abraham's Servant that she might remain with her at least ten dayes after the Espousals Several Friends assisted at this Ceremony and they had an Epithalamium or Nuptial Song sung by some particular Friends styled the Children of the Bride-Chamber Mat. 9.15 And that this Hymeneal Song was no other than a Form of Blessing pronounced on the new Married
Intreat the Lord your God to turn away this death only That is pray unto God for me and the prayers of Saints are very acceptable God would not hear Job's Friends Job 42.8 but says God My servant Job shall pray for you 2. This praying for one another does not terminate in personal Obligations but comprehends praying for Christs Church and People for the Propagation of his Gospel that God would give him the Heathen for his Inheritance and the utmost part of the World for his Possession and how pathetically did the Jews in Captivity express their zeal for the welfare of Jerusalem By the Rivers of Babilon Psal 137. there we sat down yea we wept when we remembred Zion and so to the end and for Nations it is St. Pauls exhortation 1 Tim. 2.1 That first of all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men For Kings and all that are in Authority that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty Nay further we are commanded to pray for our Enemies Mat. 5 44. and Christ prayed for them that crucified him Luk. 23.34 Acts 7.60 Father forgive them and that Protomartyr St. Stepâ—â—â— prayed for them that stoned him And 't is the noble and heroick design of a gracious Heart to be serviceable to Church and State by prayer either to deprecate Judgments or obtain Mercies 1. To deprecate Judgements How did Abraham intercede with God for Sodom and God was pleased to answer him Gen. 9.32 That if ten righteous were in it he would not destroy it for tens sake And how Gracious was God to Jerusalem And I sought for a man among them Ezek 22.30 that should make up the Hedge and stand in the gap before me for the Land that I should not destroy it but I found none It implies Gods great respect for the righteous which Solomon styles fundamentum seculi an everlasting Foundation publick Spirited Persons are like Pillars to bear up Gods Wrath from the place they live in 2. To obtain Mercies so Elijah prayed for Rain in the days of Ahab and obtained it after three years Intermission and so Moses that great Master in Israel after God had reveal'd his will to him he cryed unto God for the Children of Israel and could bid them Stand still and see the Salvation of God and we all know what a glorious Victory followed Inf. Let us therefore upon the whole Pray for each other Gods Church and People that by the fervency and continuance of our Prayers we may either stand in the gap with Abraham or prevail with Jacob at least be found among the righteous that when Gods Judgments are in the earth God may say unto us as he did to Noah Come thou and all thine house into the Ark Gen. 7.1 for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation Observ 4. Prayer is the only way to obtain Mercies or divert Judgments How great Priviledge is it to be admitted into the Presence of some great Monarch but how much greater Prerogative hath the devout Christian that by fervent Prayers and ardent effusion of his Tears and Wishes may freely conferr with the King of Kings this penetrates the Clouds and Sphears and mounts us to the bosome of the great Benefactor and a Charm that if rightly performed prevails on Omnipotency Oratio pura coelos penetrans vacua non redibit St. Austin this Dove sent to Heaven often brings an Olive-leaf in his Mouth This fervent Prayer sayes St. Austin as it pierceth Heaven so it will not return without effect And not only our Duty but our daily wants put us upon this undertaking we are helpless Creatures of our selves and Prayer is our only refuge there is an admirable Oeconomy in the Divine Wisdome to bring man to his Duty and Happiness God tells us Ezek. 36.37 That for this he will be enquired of by the House of Israel to do this for them And 't is but highly rational to confess our dependance upon him that gave us being The Kingly Prophet elegantly describes Gods goodness to those that call upon him in 145th Psalm from the begining to the the end And certainly 't is no Mercy that is not worth seeking to God for but when sought and obtained it makes the blessing the more acceptable and obliges us to improve it with the greater thankfulness and sobriety we can never lose any thing by prayer for we are never out of Gods reach to relieve us if God please to answer us the Blessing is the more safe and sweet and if denyed we are the more humble and patient and content that God should be Master of his own bounty We have the Practice of Gods People recommended to our Imitation and the admirable effects of their Prayers recorded for our encouragement here good Eliezer prayes unto God for good speed he would not venture on it without Petitioning the Lord God of his Master Abraham and the good success he met with was the effect of Prayers Abraham tells him God would send his Angel before him and prosper his way which implies the strength of Abraham's Faith and his Servant after he had prayed V. 13 14. in the very next verses gives us a kind of Prophetick hint of what would come to pass and resigns himself up to the conduct of Providence Behold I stand here by the Well of Water and so on Non tentat Deum cujus instinctu ad hoc motus fuerat Junius in loc Junius observeth he did not tempt God because God prompted him hereto for such manuductory passages of Providence are but Preliminary to success and antecede the effects of our Prayers Signum quod statuit congruum fuisse erat enim signa bonae uxoris indolis affabilis hospitalis strenuae qualem noverat placiturum Isaaco Abrahamo St. Chrys in loc And St. Chrysostome well observes The sign sayes he which Eliezer pitcht upon was very agreeable for those things as affability and courtesie are the indications of a good Wife and such as would please Isaac and Abraham also David alludes to such antecedent Providences sayes God I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go and I will guide thee with mine Eye and such gracious dealings of God with his People are our great encouragement and the effects of Prayer's miraculous James 5.17 as if Elijah could shut and open Heaven at his pleasure Jacobs Prayer turned away the Indignation and Wrath of Esau and his four hundred men after Moses had cried to the Lord for the Children of Israel the Egyptians were drowned in the Red-Sea And after David had prayed unto his God 1 Sam. 17.37 That delivered him out of the paw of the Lyon and the bear he also delivered him out of the hands of the Philistine And when Elijah prayes unto God That the meal shall