misery Lent is a season for sorrow this Week is the suburbs of Lent this day the leader of this weeke Shrove-Sunday antiently used for penitents confessing of their sinnes Wherefore what doctrine more needfull in it selfe more usefull to us more suitable to the Season then to shrive our selves to God on Shrove-Sunday joyning with David in his paenitentiall devotions Remember not O Lord the sinnes of my youth 5. Which words containe Davids Petition to the King of heaven that he would be pleased to passe an ACT OF OBLIVION of the sinnes of his youth Premise we this that God cannot properly be said either to remember or forget because all things alwayes present themselves as present unto him But in Scripture phrase God is said then to remember mens sins when he doth punish them then to forget mens sins when he doth pardon them Thus as Moses vailed his face that he might be the better beheld so God to allay the purity of his imcomprehensiblenesse with meaner mettall namely with expressions after the manner of men to make it work to our capacities let us praise God for his goodnesse herein that whereas we could not ascend to him he doth descend to us and let us pray him that as here he doth cloud the object to make it fitter for our eyes so hereafter he would cleare our eyes to make them fitter for the object when in heaven we shall see him as he is 6. Before we come to the principall point we must first cleare the Text from the Incumbrance of a double objection The first is this it may seeme may some say very improbable that David should have any sins of his youth if we consider the Principalls whereupon his youth was past The first was Poverty We read that his Father Jesse passed for an old man we read not that he passed for a rich man and probably his seaven proper sonnes were the principall part of his wealth Secondly painefulnesse David though the youngest was not made a darling but a drudge sent by his father to follow the Ewes big with young where he may seeme to have learned innocence and simplicity from the sheep he kept Thirdly Piety Psal 71. 5. For thou art my hope O Lord God thou art my trust from my youth And again in the 17 verse of the same Psalme O God thou hast taught me from my youth David began to be good betimes a young Saint and yet crossed that pestilent Proverb was no old devill And what is more still he was constant in the fornace of affliction Psal 88. 15. Even from my youth up thy terrors have I suffered with a troubled mind The question then will be this how could that water be corrupted which was daily clarified how could that steele gather rust which was duly filed How could Davids soule in his youth be sooty with sinne which was constantly scoured with suffering 7. But the answer is easie for though David for the maine were a man after Gods own heart the best transcript of the best copy yet he especially in his youth had his faults and infirmities yea his sinnes and transgressions Though the Scripture maketh no mention of any eminent sin in his youth the businesse with Beersheba being justly to be referred to Davids reduced and elder age I will not conclude that David was of a wanton Constitution because of a reddy Complexion It is as injurious an inference to conclude all bad which are beautifull as it is a false and flattering consequence to say all are honest who are deformed Rather we may collect Davids youth guilty of wantonnesse from his having so many Wives and Concubines But what goe I about to doe Expect not that I should tell you the particular sins when he could not tell his own Psal 19. Who can tell how oft he offendeth Or how can Davids sinnes be knowne to me which he confesseth were unknowne to himselfe which made him to say O Lord cleanse me from my secret sinnes But to silence our curiosity that our conscience may speake If Davids youth which was poor painfull and pious was guilty of sinnes what shall we say of such whose education hath been Wealthy Wanton and Wicked and I report the rest to be acted with shame sorrow and silence in every mans conscience 8. The second objection hath more difficulty in it which is this this may seeme but a superfluous prayer of David For whereas in Charity it may and must be presumed that David long since had beg'd pardon for his youthfull sinnes that upon his begging God had granted it that upon his granting God never revoked it What need now had David to preferre this petition for pardon of antiquated sinne time out of mind committed by him time out of minde remitted by God 9. To this Objection I shape a foure-fold answer First though David no doubt long since had been truly sorrowfull for his youthfull sinnes yet he was sensible in himselfe that if God would be extream to marke what was done amisse though he had repented of those his sinnes yet he had sinned in that his Repentance Secondly though God had forgiven Davids sinnes so farre forth as to pardon him eternall Damnation yet he had not remitted unto him temporall affliction which perchance pressing upon him at this present he prayeth in this Psalme for the removing or mitigating of them So then the sence of his words sound thus Remember not Lord the sinnes of my youth that is Lord lighten and lessen the afflictions which lye upon me in this mine old age justly inflicted on me for my youthfull sinnes Thirdly Gods pardon for sinnes past is ever granted with this condition that the Party so pardoned is bound to his good behaviour for the time to come which if he breaks he deserves in the strictnesse of Justice to forfeit the benefit of his Pardon Now David was guilty afterward in that grand transgression of Beersheba and Uriah which might in the extremity of Justice have made all his youthfull sinnes to be punished afresh upon him Lastly Grant David certainly assured of the Pardon of his youthfull sinnes yet Gods Servants may pray for those blessings they have in possession not for the obtaining of that they have that is needlesse but for the keeping of what they have obtained that is necessary Yea God is well pleased with such prayers of his Saints and interprets them to be praises unto him and then these words Remember not the sinnes of my youth amount to this effect Blessed be thy gracious goodnesse who hast forgiven me the sins of my youth However here we may see that in matters of Devotion too much caution cannot doe amisse in the point of Pardon for sinnes we cannot seek too oft shut too safe binde too sure And therefore David who prayes elsewhere Lord remember David in his Troubles he could well be contented God would remember Davids Person to protect it Davids Piety to reward it Davids Misery to remove
it wrong done to David to revenge it but as for Davids sinnes and especially the sinnes of his youth here he lyes at another Guard Remember not Lord the sinnes of my youth 10. Come we now to the principal point which is this youth is an age wherein men are prone to be excessively sinfull By youth I understand that distance of age which is interposed betwixt infancy and the time wherein nature decayes all the time that a man in his strength is in his owne disposing Now the reasons why youth rather then infancy or old age should be prone to wickednesse are these First because that in youth they first breake loose from the command of their masters Gal. 4. 1. Now I say that the heire as long as he is a child differeth nothing from a servant though he be Lord of all but is under Tutors and governours untill the time appointed of the Father which time though long a comming when it comes at last is very welcome to young men Esay said in his heart the dayes for the mourning for my father Isaac will come shortly then will I slay my brother Jacob. Thus young men plot project and promise to themselves The dayes will come when my Father or Master or Tutor will die either naturally or legally will decease either in his person or power over me and then I 'le roare and revell and gad and Game and Dice and Drink and what not In a word young men thinke that they justly may have an action against their parents for false imprisonment because they have unjustly curbed and confined their wills and though they dare not lay their action against their Parents yet to make the best amends they may to themselves whom they conceive heretofore wrong'd with too much restraint they will hereafter right with too much liberty 11. Secondly because youth is an age wherein mens passions are most head-strong violent and impetuous so that it may be called the Midsommer Moone or if you will rather the Dog dayes of mans life 12. Thirdly because as in youth mens mindes are most strong to desire so their bodies are most able and active to performe any wickednesse 13. Lastly because young men put the day of death farre from them For there is nothing that more frights men from profanesse and into piety then the serious apprehension of death appearing with the Arrerages thereof eternall damnation in case the party dieth not in the faith and favour of God Now whereas old men see death in plano as under their eyes death is represented to young men in Landskipt as at a great distance from them And when old men discourse to young men of death young men are ready to answer them as the High Priest did Judas in a different case what is that to us looke you unto it The dayes of a man saith David are threescore yeares and ten Now what some men possibly may live to young men thinke they certainly must live to they will not abate a day nor a minute nor a moment of threescore and ten they have calculated their owne Nativities and so long they are sure they shall live 14. As for the sinnes whereof youth is most properly guilty they are these First Pride and indeed though they and none else have any just cause to be proud yet they have the best seeming cause to flesh and blood For young men have health and strength and swiftnesse and valour and wit and wisdome too as they thinke themselves though indeed the more fooles because they thinke so themselves 15. Secondly Prodigality for they begin where their Fathers did end and are the eldest sonne especially in matter of Worldly wealth as good men at their starting as their fathers were at the ending of their Race And commonly it commeth to passe that where the father like Logick had his fist contracted the sonne like Rhetorick hath his hand expanded 16. The third sinne of youth is Rashnesse For as old men because they are acquainted with the Changes and chances of the world when they goe about any great Action start all doubts dangers and difficulties probable and possible whereby sometimes it comes to passe that by their tedious tarrying on causelesse caution they lose the advantage of great Actions which are made to goe off with a spring of speedy execution so on the other side young men who know litle and feare less being loath to confesse the poverty of their experience by borrowing councell from others rashly runne on often to their hurt alwayes to their hazard as if successe was bound out of duty to attend their most desperate designes Yea David himselfe cannot be excused from this sinne of Rashnesse witnesse his words to Abigail the 1 of Sam. 25. 34. As the Lord God of Israel liveth except thou hadst hastned and come to meet me surely there had not been left unto Nabal by to morrow light any that pisseth against the wall A precipitate project what if the master was wilfull must all the servants be wofull what if Nabal had been too niggardly of his meate must David be too prodigall of his sword Yea and he bindes it too with an oath so that either he tooke Gods name too vainely in jest or the innocent blood too sadly in earnest Rashnesse is the third sin of youth 17. Disobedience to Parents followeth in the fourth place a great sin to which young men are much subject especially if their parents be feeble and froward and foolish too perchance as doting by age then they are ready to despise them 18. The fift and last sinne we insist on is wantonnesse the proper and paramount sinne of youth and therefore S. Paul writing to Timothy 2 Tim. 2. 22. Flee youthfull lusts One might thinke this precept to Timothy might well have been spared considering that Timothy had a weake body subject to often infirmities and such sick folke are likely to thinke rather of a Winding sheete then Wantonnesse Secondly Timothy was temperate in his dier daily drinking nothing but water and such cold liquor was likely to quench all heate of lust and yet because Timothy though a good man though a weake though a temperate man yet but a man and a young man S. Paul thought the precept not improper for the person Flee youthfull lusts Lust is the fift sinne of youth 19. All these five are the sinnes of youth Would I could say but as truly these five are all the sinnes of youth But alas youth is capable of and subject to all sinnes whatsoever And yet though youth be too bad in it self let us not make it worse then it is With the fashion of the World when an offender is guilty of more then he can answer to charge him with more then he is guilty Youth may commit all sinnes yet all sinnes are not the sinnes of youth A young man may be covetous yet Covetousnesse is no young mans sinne Old men would be angry if they might
the delight thereof then is it gone with the danger thereof As hereafter your carnall delight will be the lesse so your spirituall joy will be the more if the fault be not in your selves 25. Secondly desire not that as the Sun went back ten degrees on the diall of Ahaz so that thou mightest be ten dayes ten Weeks ten Moneths ten yeares younger then thou art Such wishes I am sure are vaine I suspect are wicked What Souldier having escaped a desperate fight desireth himselfe againe in the midst of it What sea-man having escaped the Sands and Shelves wisheth himself there again and seeing ye have passed salum juventutis as Tully termes it the troublesome Sea of youth why should you wish your selves in it again Neither thinke to say within your selves O if we were young againe the time which formerly we mispent in riot we would hereafter improve in piety The truth hereof will plainly be perceived by your well husbanding the life which is left you to Gods glory For he that will not be faithfull in a little will not be faithfull in much He will not be a good husband on the Remnant would be a bad one if he had the whole Cloath It is therefore to be suspected that in your desiring to be young againe you only make the pretence of Piety the Pander to your owne Profanenesse 26. Beware therefore that in your old age ye be not guilty of the sins of youth Gardiners can tell you that when Rose-trees are clipt in the moneth of May so that then they cannot bring Roses they doe commonly bring them in the Autumn spring in the month of September And it is possible if you have been restrained either by sicknesse of body or naturall modesty or want of opportunity or restraining grace from the excrescencies of youth when you are young I say it is possible that you may be visited with such guests in your old age and make them welcome at your own perill 27. And this let me commend unto you when you survey the sinnes of your youth take heed of mistaking your Oblivion for Innocence and thinking your selves free from committing those sinnes which ye cannot remember For were we at this instant arraigned for some sinnes we have done we would plead Not guilty Not that we would be so impudent as to deny them if we did remember them but we have as clearly forgot them as if we had never committed them Lord thou layest such a sinne to my charge there is some error some mistake some other may be guilty of it but it is not I. But O what is said Rev. 20. 12. in the description of the Generall judgement And the books were opened The bookes wherein every ones faults are registred and recorded the persons who and with whom the place where the time when and in this point midnight is as cleare a witnesse as noon day concurring with the Testimony of our guilty consciences 28. Another place of Scripture also deserves your observation Psal 50. 21. these things hast thou done and I kept silence thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy self but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes I will set them in order Alas when we sin we jumble and confound and heap and huddle all together without any order or method But God in his Book will reduce it into a method Imprimis such a sin when thou first didst awake Item such a one before thou didst rise Item such a one before thou wast ready Item such a one before thou eatedst thy breakfast Or else thus I le set them in order according to their several matter The first leaf in the Book is Originall sin and then Actuall sins against God actuall sins against our selves actuall sins against our neighbours then truly shall we be in the case of Judah Gen. 44. 16. when the cup was found in his brother Benjamin's sack and may say with him What shall we say unto my Lord what shall we speak or how shall we clear our selves God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants 29. One word more and I have done and I hope none will censure my Sermon to be too long for this passage that remains though our sinnes be set in order and though the books be opened be the books never so big be the volumes never so vast it matters not how big the books be of the debts we have owed if all be crost If therefore we have true interest in the mercies of God and merits of Christ we may confidently come and may comfortably pray and shall be certainly heard with David in my Text Remember not O Lord the sins of my youth Amen A Corolary THe Soule of Man as conjoyned with his Body is in Scripture compared to a Candle Non although omnes animae sunt aequales all souls are equall in essence yet both in operation wherein they must ask the body leave to exercise it self by its proper organs as also in duration whilst conjoyned here with the body there is great difference betwixt them And we may in humble prosecution of the Scriptures Metaphor observe seven Candles in relation to their continuance in this life 1. The first and least size is of those who have life in them but never see light without them 2. The second size is of such who are born into this world but die before the concurrence of their Will with their Judgment and therefore before their possibility of committing Actuall sinne with the Babes of Bethlehem murthered by Herod 3. The third is of those who arrive at an ability of Actuall sinne yet expire before they have attained unto the Perfection of Youth with the Children that mocked the Prophet Elisha 4. The fourth size succeeds of those who are in the height and heat of their Youth the proper subject of our foregoing Sermon 5. The fift is of those who cannot be so foolish and fond in flattering themselves but that they must confesse Youth is past with them though as yet they are not sensible of any decay in Nature These are my Pew-fellowes in age God grant we may beware the Atheisticall inference of those in the 2 Pet. 3. 4. denying the Day of Judgment because all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation We are subject to commit the same dangerous mistake in our Microcosme as they did in their great World and to conclude Death will never surprise because we finde not in our selves any evident and eminent diminution of our strength being as able and active as ever we have been in our remembrance 6. The sixt size is of those whose Almond-tree doth flourish though the budding thereof be no signe of Spring but Autumn in them God grant they may understand the summons of Death though at distance listen to and make good use of them 7. The seventh and last size is of such who cannot appear in this place nor
Corruption that it hindreth the spirituall breathing of all our affections Yet God is pleased to take our Widows Mite of Sorrow in good worth knowing it proceds from poverty yea which is more Heaven can smile to see a sinner grieve that he cannot grieve for his sins and God is pleased to see him squeeze the bottles of his eyes though he can wring no moisture out of them Twist these severall Cords together into one Cable of comfort which tied to the Anchor of hope will keep the pensive soule from sinking in despaire though he cannot weep so bitterly for his sinnes as he doth for outward afflictions 19. However seeing it is the bounden duty of all to endeavour to sorrow for their sinnes this serves to confute the jollity of this Age. Wherein instead of weeping bitterly we have laughing heartily and quaffing constantly and faring daintily and talking wantonly and lying horribly and swearing hideously and living lazily and dying desperately In those dayes the Lord began to cut Israel short 2 Kings 10. 23. And God now begins to cut England short short in men short in meat short in money short in wealth so that it is to be feared that Great Britain will be Little Britain and remain great onely in her Sins and Sufferings And is this a time for men to lengthen themselves when God doth shorten them Is this a time for people to affect fond fashions when it is to be feared we shall be all brought into the same fashion of Ruine and Desolation A strange People who can dance at so dolefull musique as the Passing-bell of a Church and Common-wealth Take heed Atheisme knocks at the doore of the hearts of all men and where Luxury is the Porter it will be let in Let not the multiplicity of so many Religions as are now on foot make you carelesse to have any but carefull to have the best 20. O Beloved take the Fruit though you should throw away the Basket though you should slight the Preacher embrace his Counsel Think not that Christ will call each of you immediately from Heaven as he did Saul Saul why perscutest thou me or that with S. Austin you shall here a voice saying to you tolle lege take up thy book and read or that with St. Peter before wee repent the cock must literally crow and Christ Corporally look upon us Every reproofe of the Preacher is the crowing of the Cock every check in your Conscience is the crowing of the Cock every spectacle of Mortality presented before you every affliction inflicted upon you every motion to Repentance arising within you is the crowing of the Cock These you must listen to and obey And yet we read of the Sybarites a luxurious people in Graecia who that they might better enjoy their case and quiet commanded that no Cocks should be kept in their City that so they might sleep the more soundly not having their heads troubled with the proclamations of those Heraulds of the Morning So I am afraid there be some that could wish that there were no more Preachers in England then at one time there were smiths in Israell no Cocks to crow no wayes to waken them out of the sleep of their carnall security 21. But I hope better things of you and such as accompany salvation Neitherneed I to use any other motive to incite you to spirituall sorrow then the very words of our Saviour Mat. 5. 4. Blessed are those that mourn for they shall be comforted Peter was comforted afterwards yea he had an expresse of Comfort dispatch'd and addressed to him in particular Mark 16. 7. But goe your way and tell his Disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Gallilee 22. Yea all Gods Saints shall taste of spirituall comfort As Joshua when he entred to Jericho was carefull to spare her house at whose window the Red Lace did hang out so God will be carefull to preserve such at whose windows at whose eyes Rednesse made by their mourning as a signe of their sorrow doth appeare and at the last day as it is Isaiah 25. 8. The Lord God will wipe away teares from all their faces The Papists have a tale that as our Saviour sweated with carrying his Crosse a worthy woman one Veronica met him and gave him a handkerchief therewith to wipe his face Which ragge they say still remaines at Rome fit therein to wrap up the rest of their Apocraphal Traditions Grant it a tale that this Saint gave a handkerchief to him it is a truth that he will give one to every good Saint to take away their teares and he will wipe the face of that Magdalen who wiped his feet 23. It is reported of Aristotle that great Philosopher that being unable to unriddle that mystery of nature the motion of the Sea impatient of his ignorance he wilfully drowned himselfe in that water which Posed him with these words Quid ego non capio te tu capias me because I cannot conceive thee thou shalt containe me no little foolish deed of a great carnall wise man But seeing that the happinesse Heaven mounteth so High that it cannot enter into the heart of man to conceive it let us labour so to live here that in due time going hence we may enter into those Joyes which cannot enter into us and be received by that Blisse which cannot be conceived by our braine Where amongst many other worthy Saints we shall meet with S. Peter though not in the Pensive posture wherein we find him my Text then Singing sweetly who in my Text went out and wept bitterly Amen FINIS THE BEST ACT OF OBLIVION ECCLES 12. 1 Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth LONDON Printed for JOHN STAFFORD at Fleet-bridge 1655. The best Act of Oblivion PSAL. 25. 7. Remember not Lord the sins of my youth IN these foure Psalmes which immediately follow one another we may find the soul of David presented in all the several postures of Piety lying standing sitting kneeling In the 22. Psal he is lying all along falling flat on 's face low groveling on the ground even almost entring into a degree of dispaire Speaking of himselfe in the History of Christ in the Mystery My God my God why hast thou forsaken me 2. In the three and twentieth Psalme he standing and through Gods favour in despite of his foes trampling and triumphing over all opposition The Lord is my sheepherd therefore shall I lack nothing 3. In the 24 Psalme he is sitting like a Doctor in his Chaire or a Professor in his place reading a Lecture of Divinity and describing the Character of that man how he must be accomplished who shall ascend into the holy hill and hereafter be partaker of happinesse 4. In this 25 Psalme he is kneeling with hands and voice lifted up to God and on these two hinges the whole Psalm turneth the one is a hearty beseeching of Gods mercy the other a humble bemoaning of his own
suretyship undone by the prodigality of their friends for whom they were bound Let them reflect their eyes on their own faults and know that though they be innocent in this particular yet they have deserved this punishment of God for some other sin And God may justly take advantage at his own pleasure to inflict the punishment However let them know themselves for sinners in an high degree who involve others within the very and latitude of their owne punishments As drunken Husbands who by their prodigality drown'd their whole Family in a sea of want making their Wives Children Servants Cattle pinch and pine through their riot and excesse For our parts let us labour to attain to true piety that so we may rather be a Ioseph whose goodness may make a whole family to prosper Rather one of those ten Righteous for whose righteousnesse a whole Sodome might be saved then an Achan for whose sins an Army may be routed or a Ionah for whose fault a whole ship full of men was like to be broken Verse 5. Then the Mariners were afraid and cryed every man unto his God and cast the wares that were in the ship into the Sea to lighten it of them But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship and he lay down and was fast asleep Then the Mariners were afraid These words afford an harder than Sampson's riddle Out of the Bold came Fear Out of the Prophane Piety Out of the Covetous came Casting away of goods Mariners they are the hardiest of all people so alwayes in danger that they are never in danger as if their hearts were made of those rocks amongst which they use to sayle yet see they feared They are accounted a prophane kinde of people a-kin'd unto the unjust Judge Luke 18. 2. They are esteemed the Nazareth of the world out of which cometh no good Yet see they pray They are generally covetous venturing their lives for lucre yet see they cast away their goods Whence we may learn that afflictions are able to affright most prophane men into piety whether really inflicted as unto Pharaoh or certainly denounced as unto Ahab Wherefore let us labour that we be as good when afflictions are removed as when they are inflicted as pious in wealth as in want as well affected in health as in sicknesse that in prosperity we prove not Apostates from those pious resolutions which we made in adversity When David had appointed Solomon King 1 Kings 1. 36. Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered AMEN And the Lord God of my Lord the King say AMEN So when in afflictions we have made any vowes of future piety if we have deliverance let us pray to God to ratifie and confirm our resolutions and to give us strength to fulfill and perform them Lest otherwise we take but a lease of piety during the term that the tempest doth last relapse to our former wickedness when the calm begins And cryed every man unto his God Generall punishments must have generall prayer and humiliation otherwise the plaister will be too narrow for the sore To his God The ship was fraught with a Miscelanie of all Nations It was a Babel and contained a confusion of as many Religions as that of Languages None were at a losse for a Deity to pray to So an unnaturall sin was Atheisme Yet wofull then was the estate of the World when one could not see GOD for Gods But let us now be thankfull that as the true Serpent of Moses eat up and devoured the seeming Serpents which Iannes and Iambres the Aegyptian Inchanters did make So now in the civillized world the knowledge of the true God hath devoured and done away all fancies and fables of faigned Gods Neverthelesse as the Heathens in this ship so every Christian may still pray to his proper GOD. My Lord and my God saith Thomas I thank my god 1 Cor. 1. 4. The same is God to all in generall and to each in particular And cast the wares that were in the ship into the Sea Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life Act. 27. Now if life be so dear how dear is the life of our life the eternall happinesse of our soules What shall a man gaine if c Therefore when it cometh in competition whether we shall lose our soules or our goods let us drown our outward pelfe lest it drown us let us cast it away lest we be cast away by it Woe be to him that loadeth himself of thick clay Hab. 2. 6. Rather as Ioseph saved himself from his Mistris though he left his garment behinde him So it matters not though we lose the clothes of our souls our earthly possessions so be it our souls themselves still remain safe and entire And if in such a case we must forgoe our goods much more must we forsake our sins which are good for nothing but to sink us down to destruction Heb. 12. 1. Le ts lay aside every waight and the sin that doth so easily beset us And not onely pray to God to assists us but with the Mariners in the Text back and second our prayers by using all lawfull means for our own safety But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship I here reade a contradiction in Jonah's actions He went down into the sides of the ship this favours of flight and of fear And there he slept this of confidence and security Yet wonder I not that I cannot make sense of Jonah's actions who surely at this time could scarce make sense of his owne Sin distracts men and makes them at the same time imbrace contradicting purposes So that their resolutions fight as the twins in Rebecka's womb and are as contrary to themselves as to God's lawes See Jonah at one instant Formidat audet And lay down and was fast asleep An Emperour hearing of the death of one of his subjects who was deeply indebted sent to buy his bed supposing there was some opium or soporiferous vertue therein that he could sleep so soundly thereon and be so much ingaged Surely this Emperour would have proved a 〈◊〉 Chapman to have purchased Jonah's ship who notwithstanding he had so many things within without about above beneath to disturb him yet as if the rossing of the waves had been the rocking of this cradle and the roaring of the windes Lullabyes in his ear was fast asleep Learn first it is a great sin with Jonah to be drowsie when the rest are at their devotion and yet many such Separatists and Non-conformists we have who by their sluggishnesse divide themselves from the whole Congregation Indeed Eutiches had some plea for his sleeping because S. Paul's Sermon was continued untill mid-night But we may say to our people as our Saviour to his Disciples What can ye not watch with me one hour Secondly it is a great sinne with us with Jonah to be secure whilst we with others are in a
common danger and calamity Consider the present estate of the Christian Church Is it not tossed with the tempest of warre as bad as Jonah's ship It lost an Anchor when the Palatiuate was lost It sprung a Leake when Rochel was taken One of the main Masts thereof was split when the King of Sweden was kill'd Though we in this Island be safe in the sides of the ship yet let us not be sleepy as Ionah but with our prayers commend to God the distresses of our Beyond sea brethren and thank God that we like Gedeon's Fleece are dry when the ground round about is wet with weeping steep'd in teares bedew'd with mourning Thirdly persevering in sinne besots men and makes them insensible of the greatest dangers It makes men like Nabal their heart dyes within them and they become like a stone so frozen in their sinnes that no fear of Hell-fire can thaw them Thus David when he kill'd Uriah seem'd to kill his own conscience How was he berest of sense of sinne and punishment for nine moneths together yea the time of Bathsheba's deliverance was come but the time of David's repentance was not come Who ever saw the Sun so long in an eclipse Let us therefore stop sinne in the beginning For prophanenesse as well as piety is advanced by degrees and in the progresse thereof hath certain stages before it comes to the journeys end Crush it therefore in the first motion before it comes to be a setled thought in the thought before it break forth into action in the action ere it become a disposition in the disposition ere it be an habit in the infant-habit before it become inveterate and another nature And here also we may see how desperate security in wicked men hath by usurpation intituled it selfe to be true valour Men count wicked men full of sortitude which run on Gods drawn sword without any feare when alas it is nothing but a sottish security arising from a seared conscience Will any say that it is true valour in a Bedlem that he feels no pain whose limbs are benumm'd and past sense Verse 6. So the Ship-master came to him and said unto him What meanest thou ô sleeper Arise call upon thy God if so be that God will think upon us that we perish not So the Ship-master The Ship-master that was but now no Master of it the Tyranny of the tempest Commanding both it and him begins to bestirre him Great men must not thinke to be priviledged from danger by the eminencie of their place Mordecai to Hester Think not thou shalt escape in the Kings house more than all the Iewes Yea sometimes Great men are in the greatest dangers they are most aimed at Fight neither against small nor against great save onely against the King of Israel 1 Kings 22. 31. Now sithence there was a Governour in a ship it teacheth us that no company can long subsist without order and superiority one above another From the Courtiers to the Prisoners Gen. 39. 22. Ioseph had all the Prisoners in the Prison committed to to his hand Ten is but a small number yet Moses made Governours over ten Exod. 18. 21. Yea as there is Michael the Archangel in heaven so is there Beel Zebub the Prince of Devils in Hell So much order there is in the very place of confusion Away then with the Anabaptist who would set all men at odds by making all men even For a Common-wealth to want Chiefe it is the chiefe of all wants every man will doe what he list few what they should too much liberty would make men slaves to their own self-will Let us therefore be subject to the higher powers knowing that there are no powers but of God Came unto him and said Every one in authority ought to look unto those which are under their command otherwise they shall answer to God for such faults as those commit which are under their charge through their over-sight and neglect Christ is said to have baptized Iohn 3. 23. And yet it is said Iohn 4. 2. That he himself baptized not but his Disciples We see that the deed of the Servants being done by the countenance and command of the Master is attributed and ascribed to his Master as his own proper work If the Master hears of his Servants drunkennesse and punisheth it not it is the Masters drunkennesse If the Master hears of his Servants prophaneness and reproves him not for it it is his prophanenesse Blame-worthy then are those Magistrates who would have the profit not the pain the credit not the care of their place and charge so that they deale with those that are under them as David did with Adoniah they will not so much as trouble themselves to say to Offenders Why doest thou so What meanest thou ô sleeper See here the Gentile teacheth the Jew the Pagan preacheth to the Prophet and he is content to hear him How faulty is their pride who count it an imbasing of their knowledge to listen to the advice of others who in any respect are their inferiours Ioh. 9. ver 34. Yet David hearkned to the advice of Abigail Abraham to the counsell of Sarah Apollos to the instruction of Aquila and Priscilla yea Solomon the wisest of earthly Kings had a Council of Aged men which stood before him Neither need any man think much to learn of the meanest of men who may be taught by Pismires and Lillyes Yet when inferiours on just occasion adventure to counsel those that are above them that their counsell may better relish Let it be seasoned with these three ingredients first Secrecie This alone was good in Peter's reproving of our Saviour Mat. 16. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He took him aside Secondly Seasonablenesse Abigail 1 Sam. 25. 36. told drunken Nabal neither more nor lesse till the next morning she thought her physick would work the better if she gave it him fasting Thirdly Humility Naaman's Servants Father if the Prophet had bid thee some great thing wouldst not thou have done it 2. Kings 5. 13. They brought not onely good Logick reasoning from the greater 〈…〉 but also good Ethicks Father These cautions observed meaner persons by Gods assistance with hope of successe may take upon them to advise their betters Arise and call upon thy God He doth not onely reprove him for what he had done amisse but also directeth him in what he should doe well They are miserable Guides that tell the wandring Traveller that he hath lost the way but tell him not how to finde it Arise Men must put away all lazinesse when they prepare themselves to prayer Indeed when in sicknesse we are Gods prisoners then we can only rouse up our souls and not arise in our bodies then with Hezekiah we may lye on our bed and pray pleading to God as Mephibosheth to David that his servant is lame But otherwise Cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord negligently The first fruits of the Asse was