parents Death with open mouth to gape That their estates may come to his possession He gapes that his friends may sleep Parentalia are rites Verie welcome he delights At a fathers grave to weep Poore hare-brain'd fool Perhaps thou may'st go first This night thy younger soul may be requir'd Thy Death may frustrate that ungodly thirst Whose then is that estate thou hast desir'd If these gallants were not blind Sure they could not choose but see That a thousand children be Dead their parents left behind Of any kind of sinne to speak the truth That Satan can beget upon the soul Most commonly man 's guilti'st in his youth Our youthfull nature is beyond controll Some examples are afforded In whose historie appears Loosenesse in our yonger years These the Scriptures have recorded The verie first that e'r suck'd mothers teat Because his works were naught his brothers good Did boil his choler to so strong a heat That he must slake it in his brothers bloud How much rancour did he show So much harmlesse bloud to spill And a quarter-part to kill Of all mankind at a blow Unnaturall accursed gracelesse Cham Never did grieve nor sigh nor blush but he Laugh'd at and mock'd his drunken fathers shame A sober fathers curse his portion be Prophane Esau did make sale Of 's birthright for 's bellie-full As mongst us there 's many a gull That sells heaven for pots of ale And Absalom was most deform'd within His head-piece had more hair then wit by ods His beautie went no deeper then his skinne He fear'd not mans law nor regarded Gods In him David had a sonne Beastly and ambitious too He did wrong his bed and do What he could to steal his throne Incestuous Amnon dotes upon his sister And in his own bloud cools his lawlesse fires That brother should have sinn'd that had but kiss'd her If mov'd unto it by unchast desires But he makes a rape upon her And so furious is his lust That it cannot hold but must Rob a virgin of her honour And I could tell you of a number more Most sinfull vitious vile exorbitant Whose courses are upon the Scriptures score As if their youth had sealed them a grant To be neither wise nor holy But to runne into excesse Of all kind of wickednesse And do homage unto follie The sage Gymnosophists who first did give The wilder Indians good and wholesome laws The Magi by whom Persia learn'd to live In order the Chaldei whose wise laws The Assyrians justly rul'd And did guide in everie thing Numa Romes devoutest King Who the elder Romanes school'd That famous Solon whom th' Athenians ow For all their statutes and Lycurgus he Whose wisdome taught the Spartanes how to know What to omit and do and more there be That have publish'd wholesome laws To curb all indeed but yet Chiefly 't was to put a bit In mens wild and youthfull jaws It is a signe that colt is wild that needs So strong a bridle Ground that doth require So much manuring sure is full of weeds It is because she wallows in the mire That we need to wash a sow Men in youth must needs be bad To curb whom those laws were made Which we told you of but now 'T was a commanded custome that the Jews Should once in ev'rie two and fiftie weeks Visit their temple no man might refuse To worship there Each fourth year the Greeks Their Olympian sacrifice Orderly performed and Th' Egyptians us'd to stand Lifting up devoutest eyes Unto their Idole ev'ry seventh yeare Within th' appointed temple And 't is said Once in ten years the Romanes did appear To sacrifice then was Apollo paid His great Hecatomb and then Unto Delphos many went With their gifts for thither sent Presents ev'rie sort of men And of the Samnites authours do relate That th' ancient'st of them did most solemnly Once in five years their Lustra celebrate But 't is delivered by Antiquitie That the youth of all these nations Strictly all commanded were To these places to repair Oftner to make their oblations What doth this intimate but that the crimes Of youth are great and frequent and their vices Exorbitant that they so many times Have need to purge them by such sacrifices By experience we do find What bad courses men do follow In their youth and how they wallow In base lusts of ev'rie kind And if you ask these brainlesse hot-spurres why They dedicate themselves to such lewd courses They yet are young these gallants still replie And youth must have its swing but no remorse is Wrought at all in any heart For this lewdnesse there remains Not a thought within their brains That the youngest may depart Lord take possession of my heart betimes My youth is fittest for thy service take it Unto thy self make white those crimson crimes That fain would soil it let me never make it A pretense as many do To be lewd but think that I In the height of youth may die May die and be damned too Meditation 3. PArents methinks betime should strive to make Their children good that heaven may receive them If God should send an early Death to take Them from the earth it cannot choose but grieve them And fill full with bitter woe Any parents heart to see That their children wicked be And Death come and find them so Those fruitfull couples whom the Lord hath blest With children should take greatest care to breed them Religiously In this more love 's express'd Then in their care to cloth them or to feed them Or what else they can bestow For their life or livelyhood And to do their children good In the things that are below You must instruct your children in their way That 's double Civil and Religious too They must be taught Gods precepts to obey And to their neighbours give what is their due If you do not strive to set them By that rule which God hath given In the way that leads to heaven You did wrong them to beget them There 's such a powre and force in education That justly we may call 't a second nature Nature finds matter nurture gives the fashion And turns a man into another creature If a youth in 's manners halt On his parents we do lay All the blame and use to say That his breeding is in fault The heathen who did see but by that light Which purblind nature lent them ever caught At all occasions they conceived might Be helps to have their youth in goodnesse taught In their bodies would they find For no where but in the book Of the creatures did they look Lessons to instruct the mind It is observ'd that Socrates let passe No wayes nor means at all that might conduce To their amendment often to a glasse He brought them and that shadow had its use By his means their faces bred them For however their complexion Did appear by that reflexion From 't a lecture would he reade them That fair ones
work of Gods To make them better then at first they were Glorious immortall sound Nimble beautifull and so Splendid that from top to toe Not a blemish may be found What begger weeps when 's rags are thrown away To put on better clothes Who is 't will grieve To pull a rotten house down that it may Be fairer built Why should we not receive Death with both hands when he comes To pull off those rags that hide us To unhouse us and provide us Richer clothes and better homes The griping pangs of Death do not affright My heart at all I have deserved mo And if upon no other terms I might Enjoy my God I to my God would go Through hells self although a throng Of an hundred thousand juries Of the black'st infernall Furies Claw'd me as I went along Nor can those inward terrours make me quake Which Death-beds often on the soul do bring I have no Death-bed-reck'nings for to make 'T was made while I was well and every thing Was dispatch'd before that I Nothing in the world now save Home-desiring longings have Then to do but just to die Nor doth it trouble me that Death will take me From those delights that are enjoy'd below Alas I know that none of them can make me One jote the happier man nor can bestow Any comfort Carnall gladnesse Mirth delight and jollity This worlds best felicitie All is vanity and madnesse Mere empty husks Had I as many treasures In my possession as the muddiest wretch Did ever covet and as many pleasures As from the creature fleshly men can fetch Had I this or if I were Supreme Monarch onely Lord Of what earth and sea afford Yet I would not settle here To be dissolv'd is better Death doth bring A fairer fortune then it takes away It sets us in a world where every thing Is a happinesse a full and solid joy Not to be conceiv'd before We come thither but the blisse Which exceedeth all is this That there we shall sinne no more Lord grant a copious portion of thy Spirit The more I have of that the lesse I fear What Death can do for sure I shall inherit All joy in heaven if I am holy here Nought suits with heaven but sanctitie Let my God thy Spirit and grace Fit me for that holy place And that holy companie Meditation 5. IF Death will come what do men mean to sinne With so much greedinesse me thinks I see What a sad case the godlesse world is in How fast asleep in her securitie Fearlessely in sinne men live As if Death would never come Or there were no day of doom When they must a reck'ning give Observe a little yonder black-mouth'd swearer How 's tongue with oathes and curses pelts the skies 'T would grieve the heart of any pious hearer But to bear witnesse of his blasphemies He darts wounds at God on high Puts on cursing as his clothes And doth wrap his tongue in oathes To abuse Eternity In lawlesse lust the fornicatour fries And longs to slake it 'twixt forbidden sheets Ne'r sets the sunne but his adulterous eyes Observes the twilight and his harlot meets That which follows when the night Draws its curtain o'r the air To conceal this goatish pair Modesty forbids to write And I could shew you were it worth the viewing In that room three or foure drunkards reeling In this as many more that sweat with spewing Some that have drunk away their sense and feeling Men of all sorts in their wine And their ale sit domineering Cursing railing roring swearing Under every baser signe 'T is said so vile is this big-belly'd sinne That in a day and lesse some foure or five Of lustie drunken throats will swallow in More then hath kept two families alive A whole forthnight yet made they Merrie with 't Had I my wishes Such gulls should not drink like fishes But their throats should chāge their trade The covetous man with his usurious clutches Doth catch and hold fast all the wealth he may He leans on 't as a creeple on his crutches The miser studies nothing night and day But his gain he 's like a swine Looking downward like a mole Blind and of an earthen soul Minding nothing that 's divine These and beside these other sorts of sinners In every parish you may dayly see As greedy at their sinnes as at their dinners And wallowing in all impiety Sure these miscreants do never Entertein a thought of dying Nor yet are afraid of frying In hell flames for altogether Thou God of spirits be pleas'd to aw my heart With death and judgement that when I would sinne I may remember that I must depart And whatsoe're condition I am in When I sink under Deaths hand There 's no penance in the grave Nor then can I mercy have So must I in judgement stand Meditation 6. Lord what a thief is Death it tobs us quite Of all the world great men of all their honours Luxurious men of all their fond delight Rich men of all their money farms and mannours Naked did the world find us And the world will leave us so We shall carrie when we go Nothing but leave all behind us Let Death do 's worst ambitious men do climb By any sinne though it be ne're so foul Gold-thirsty misers swallow any crime That brings gain with it though it kill the soul Here for gain is over-reaching Cosening cheating lying stealing Knavish and sinister dealing All arts of the devils teaching Whilst I am well advis'd I 'll never strive T' increase my wealth if 't will increase my sinne I will be rather poore then seek to thrive By means unlawfull all 's not worth a pinne When mine eye-lids Death doth close What I sinned for must be Shak'd hands with eternally But the sinne that with me goes I 'll not wast love upon these lower things Nor on the choicest of them doting sit For when sad Death a habeas corpus brings To take the world from me and me from it 'gainst which I have no protection To spend love in what I may No where but on earth enjoy Were to loose all my affection The longest lease of temporalls God doth make Is but for life I 'll patiently behave My self though from me God be pleas'd to take In middle age that which his bounty gave Neither discontent nor passion Shall make me repine or grumble 'T is a way to make me humble And takes from me a temptation Thou mad'st my heart Lord keep it for thy self Lest love of dust eternally undo me Vouchsafe that this vain worthlesse empty pelf May never win me though it daily woo me If 't were lovely yet 't is gone When I dy Lord make me see That there is enough in thee To place all my love upon Meditation 7. I Am a stranger and a pilgrime here The world 's mine inne 't is not my dwelling-place In this condition all my fathers were The life I live below is but a race
sincere in all his actions And for a pious mans Astronomie What if he cannot tell the sev'rall motions Those orbs have which do roll about the skie Starres names site bignesse and such other notions What if he know not how soon The sunne will eclipsed be Nor hath wit enough to see The new world that 's in the moon Yet he doth know the milkie way that leads Unto the palace of the highest King Whose presence the whole host of heaven dreads Who made the starres the spheres and everie thing Steers the course that each orb runnes Binds starres influence looseth the bands Of Orion and his hands Guide Arcturus with his sonnes For Geometrie what if he cannot tell How many miles the vast earth is about Yet doth his pious art by farre excell In finding many greater matters out Matters that exceed the strength Of best wits the full extension Of Christ 's love in each dimension Height and depth breadth length For Grammar he can wickednesse decline His supernaturall Philosophie Is wisdome to salvation Most divine His musick is That God that dwells on high Is pleas'd with no other tone There is nothing he can heare Makes such musick in his eare As a sanctified grone For Physick his most admirable knowledge Hath found out a Catholicon This ranks His skill deservedly above the Colledge Above French or Italian mountebanks There 's no sicknesse he is sure Be it ne'r so strong or foul That affecteth any soul But the bloud of Christ can cure The greatest Clerk is but a learned fool If 's learning be not mixt with godlinesse The greatest Scholar's he that goes to school To learn of Christ the wayes of holinesse Thus if learning be a treasure That doth please or skill in arts Or to be a man of parts He that 's holy finds this pleasure Doth toothsome and delicious chear delight The godly have it once a week at least Our bounty-handed Saviour doth invite His servants to a rich and sumptuous feast Where his own self is our server Such a feast of fattest things As if all the guests were Kings Where faith may be her own carver Do riches please A godly mans estate Surpasseth that of Croesus he hath more Then out of Christ is had at any rate God hath endow'd him with a blessed store Better then a heap of gold Which nor thief nor moth nor rust Can steal eat or turn to dust His are bags that ne'r wax old Gods rich and precious promises are his Which by a precious faith he makes his own Gods richest mercy there 's no wealth like this Christs precious bloud whereof a drop alone Was of higher valuation Then all men and Angels be Or what e'r the sunne did see Ever since the first creation Doth rich apparel please Christs righteousnesse Clothes all his members to conceal their shame Ne'r was Kings daughter in so pure a dresse Unlesse she were adorned with the same 'T is a robe that God doth please Angels that on God do wait And ne'r lost their first estate Are not cloth'd like one of these For all delights the cheating world hath none So good by half mongst all her painted store As those the soul finds in religion With purest joy the pious heart runnes o'r Let the world diversifie Her delights a thousand wayes Yet they come short of those joyes That are found in pietie When I must die my joy that 's naturall Forsaketh me that which is secular Takes leave assoon as ever Death doth call Joyes that were criminall converted are Into most tormenting fears Onely that which is divine On a Death-bed will be mine And what if when Death appears It cannot shield me from that fatall blow I would not it should do me so much wrong For if I were immortall here below I were not happie yet 't will go along With me when I do depart Carnall joyes Lord from me banish Let divine delights replenish Ev'rie corner of my heart Sect. 4. Friends cannot protect us from the stroke of Death IF I were great rich prosperous secure Successefull in the world I should be sure That more time-servers would my friendship woo Then I could reckon in a yeare or two As greedie Eagles to a carcase hasten And with sharp tallons on their prey do fasten So would they flock about me Or if I Could learn the art of popularity I might be rich in friends yet all my store Would not know how to keep Death out of doore Meditation 1. OF Proteus 't is fained that he could Transform himself to any kind of shape Into a Dove or Lamb and when he would Into a Tiger Lion Bear or Ape Or a Mountain Rock or Spring Or Earth Water Fire Air Into any forms thaâ— are Stampt in any kind of thing And Aristippus could exactly flatter He had the art of winning gainfull friends And that his fortune might be made the fatter Had all behaviours at his fingers ends He could grone when 's friend was sickly And could weep when he was sad Any humour good or bad Did become him very quickly Did I believe that metempsychosis Pythagoras did dream of I should swear That Proteus ghost to this day neither is In hell nor yet in heaven but doth wear Now a body and the base Ghost of Aristippus dwells In a thousand bodies else How could thousands have the face To personate so many humours act So many parts at once and balk no sinne Yea perpetrate with ease the basest fact That hell e'r punished to wind them in-to great friendships though they misse Heavens favour all the while Dreaming that a great mans smile Is on earth the onely blisse And yet when that last enemie shall come And grind their aching bones with griping throes To bring their bodies to their longest home There 's not a man mongst all their friends that knows How to take away their pain In comes ghastly Death among The midst of that friendly throng And turns them to dust again Meditation 2. THere 's none among the sacred troup of Saints Yet militant below but doth desire Gods favour most and most of all laments When it is lost and alway sets a higher Estimate upon the rayes That are darted from above By the God of peace and love Then on all he here enjoyes Ne'r doth the chased hart in hottest weather When horse and hound pursue him o'r the plains And hunt him sweating twentie miles together That all his bloud is boil'd within his veins When he 's to the hardest driven Pant so much for water-brooks As a soul deserted looks For a kind aspect from heav'n Once did Elias zealous prayers climb To heav'n and made the windows there so fast This came to passe in wicked Ahabs time That one and twentie months twice told were past E'r there fell a showre of rain Or a drop of morning dew In the meadows nothing grew Nor was any kind of grain Fed by the parched mold How do ye think
That thirstie drie and barren land did yawn And gape to heav'n-ward for a draught of drink Just so whene'r Gods favour is withdrawn From a soul it doth distresse her Ne'r earth thirsted more for rain Then doth she for God again To relieve her and refresh her Have you not seen a mothers wofull tears Embalm the carcase of her onely sonne How to all comfort she stops both her eares Wrings both her hands and makes a bitter moan Fain in sorrow would she swim Or be drown'd it is so deep She hath heart enough to weep Heaven full up to the brim But this is nothing to that matchlesse anguish That breaks in pieces ev'rie pious heart And makes the soul with darkest sadnesse languish If from 't a sense of Gods good will depart O how strangely David 's troubled When God hid away his face Though but for a little space See how his complaints are doubled How long for ever Lord wilt thou forget me How long wilt thou thy gratious visage hide How long be angrie wilt thou never let me Enjoy thy face again shall I abide Thus for evermore bereft Of all comfort joy and peace Shall my soul ne'r dwell at ease Hast thou Lord no mercy left O once again be pleas'd to turn and give My soul a relish of thy wonted grace There 's nothing can my sadded heart relieve If thou dost hide thy comfortable face Thou in tears thy servant drown'st Thou dost fill my cheeks with furrows And my soul with ghastly sorrows Whensoever Lord thou frown'st The world doth value at a precious rate Things here below Some highly prize their sport Some jewels some a plentifull estate And some preferments in a Princes court But for life we so esteem it Above whatsoe'r is best That with losse of all the rest We are ready to redeem it But none of these Gods children do regard So much as Gods love by a thousand parts Feel they but this to entertein 't is spar'd The best and highest room in all their hearts They affect no wordly pelf In comparison of this Kindnesse yea to them it is Better farre then life it self Have they no reason for this eager thirst After Gods love and friendship sure they see Gods favour and his kindnesse is the first And chiefest good all other friendships be Most deceitfull trustlesse vain When the pangs of Death do seise us Mortall favours cannot ease us God can rid us of our pain But grant he do not yet these pains shall send Our souls to him that loves us to enjoy A painlesse life that ne'r shall see an end He whom God loves can on a death-bed say I know my Redeemer liveth For me there 's laid up a crown When this clay-built house is down God a better mansion giveth I 'll never woo the smile of man whose breath Is in his nostrils by sinister wayes 'T will not advantage at the houre of Death All my supportment on these carnall stayes At the length will but deceive me 'T is to have a friend above 'T is Gods favour and his love Or else nothing must relieve me Lord make thy graces in my soul appear My heart from ev'rie lothsome blemish cleanse That I may clearly see thine image there For that 's an undeceived evidence Of thy favour which when I Once am certain to obtein I 'll not faint for any pain Nor will care how soon I die Sect. 5. Youth cannot protect us from the stroke of Death A Young man may die but an old man must This may die quickly that cannot live long Often are graves fill'd full with youthfull dust Though youth be jocund lustie merrie strong Yet is it subject unto Death-bed-pains 'T is mortall bloud that runnes along their veins In all appearance old mens halting feet are Mov'd to the grave-ward with the greatest speed Like that disciples which did outrunne Peter But sometimes younger men step in indeed And peradventure twentie years or more Sooner then those that looked in before Graves gape for ev'rie sort The butcher 's seen Often to kill the youngest of the flock Some long to pluck those apples that are green Death crops the branches and forbears the stock Children are wrapp'd up in their winding-sheets And aged parents mourn about the streets Jobs children di'd before himself for after The death of ten he liv'd to get ten other We sigh out Ah my sonne or Ah my daughter As oft as Ah my father or my mother The first that ever di'd resign'd his breath Nine hundred yeares before his fathers death Yea many times Deaths gripings are so crucl Before the groning mothers child-birth-pain Is past the infant 's buri'd like a jewel But shewn and presently shut up again Perhaps within a minute after birth Is forthwith sent to cradle in the earth Perhaps he is not born at all yet dies And dies a verie thriftie Death to save Fun'rall expenses he in 's mother lies Entombed both lodg'd in a single grave And with him lies in one poore narrow room His swadling-clouts nurse mother cradle tomb Meditation 1. SOme sinnes there be as holy writ doth teach That interrupt the current of our dayes He that 's found gultie of them cannot reach That length of life which he that 's free enjoyes Sinne you know and Death are twins Or Death is Sinnes progeny Many of us if we die In our youth may thank our sinnes One sinne is disobedience to that pair Which did beget us If I shall despise My parents lawfull precepts if my care Be not to do what 's pleasing in their eyes If I willingly neglect Any thing which I do know Is a duty that I ow I may Death betimes expect Another sinne is unprepar'd receiving That blessed Supper which doth feed and heal And in and to a soul that is believing A full release of sinnes doth freely seal Where that body and that bloud Is presented on the table Which are infinitely able To do hungri'st sinners good If I come hither an unworthie guest Or if before my heart I do not prove Or if I come as to a common feast Or come without Thanks Knowledge Faith and Love If I carrie any crime Thither with me unlamented Or go ere I have repented Death may take me hence betime Another is Bloud-thirstinesse when we To do a mischief are so strongly bent That we sleep not unlesse our projects be Contrived to insnare the innocent When we are so like the Devil Everie way satanicall That tongue brains heart hands and all Are imploy'd in what is evil These sinnes and others like them do procure Untimely Deaths Lord purifie my heart From everie sinne but chiefly Lord secure My soul from these that I may not depart Hence too soon Lord my desire Is not to live long but I Onely pray that I may die In thy favour not thine ire Meditation 2. THere is a sinne that seldome doth escape A rich mans heir yet 't is a foul transgression For
must take heed they did not soil That comely outside with deformititie Within to have an inside foul would spoil The choicest beautie that their symmetry Just proportion of parts And their comlinesse of face Was not worth a jote if grace Did not beautifie their hearts And that deformed ones should have a care That vertuous endowments of the soul Might recompense those blemishes that were By nature plac'd to make the bodie foul That the mind and nothing else Makes us either foul or fair Out-side beauties nothing are To a mind where vertue dwells Of any age their youth is fitt'st to take The print of vice or vertue 't is a clean Unwritten table where a man may make What characters he will If e'r you mean To make straight a crooked tree You must do 't while 't is a twig When your children are grown big They will not reformed be Sometimes if need require you shall do well To use the rod if duly you correct them 'T may be a means to whip their souls from hell From many sinnes may prudent stripes protect them No such physick as the rod There 's health in a loving scourge It will childrens manners purge And will make them fit for God But whensoe'r you fasten any blows Let sinnes against the holy name of God Be first corrected for a child that knows To give his due to heav'n on him the rod Will prevail with little labour To correct him how to live Civilly and how to give What he ows unto his neighbour And yet you must be moderate in strokes You may not make a trade of chastisements A parent that corrects too much provokes His child to wrath so pious documents Will be cast away in vain Too much mercie is not fit Neither too much rigour yet Mercie 's better of the twain That high and great Jehovah whom we find Adorn'd with mercie goodnesse justice wrath Is evermore to mercie most inclin'd Of all the rest that most employment hath He that suffered near mount Sion And whatever he did hallow By his practice we should follow Was a Lamb as well 's a Lion And e'r you strike observe their dispositions Those foure complexions in mans grosser part Are but a few the finer part 's conditions Are many more Some at a look will start Others will but make a mock At the lash it self and never Will expresse the least endevour To amend with many a knock The Nat'ralists can tell you of a stone Extremely hard which bloud or milk will soften But with the strongest hammer there is none Can do it though he beat it ne'r so often The sea yields a certain weed Which if gently grip'd will flie Roughly will yield presently Rigour such stout natures need Some childrens dispositions are like nettles The gentl'er you do handle them they sting The more fair means in them no vertue settles Some are like thorns the harder you do wring The more deeply will they pierce Mark their natures and you shall By due chastisements recall Both the gentle and the fierce But it must be 'bove all your chiefest care To shine before your children by the light Of good example for examples are Of most prevailing natures What the sight Can be master of appears To be more convincing farre Then all other truths that are Onely objects of the ears A high perfection did the heathen deem it To imitate their Jove were it but in His close adulteries they did esteem it A commendable passage not a sinne In a wrong way or a right Samplers lead I know not how If King Alexander bow Not a courtier stands upright If Cyrus nose be bad or if a scarre Chance to disfigure his imperiall face If Plato 's learned shoulders be too square One 's subjects th' others scholars are so base As to draw 't into a fashion And if Aristotle stammer All his boyes will lisp and hammer Out their words in imitation If cruel Dionysius tyrannize Each man grows fierce and if Antiochus Be lustfull he is not accounted wise That will not be effeminate and thus Ptolemeus Philadelph Loving letters by example Egypt underfoot did trample Ignorance as did himself With scholars like himself Augustus fill'd The Romane Empire and Tiberius he Stor'd it with such as were exactly skill'd In fair dissimulation and could be Leaders in the hatefull train Of those monsters who by heart Had learn'd perfectly the art To dissemble lie and feigne Good Constantine's example fill'd the land With Christians like himself and Julian's did Beget a troup of Atheists such command Examples have In holy writ we reade That examples either way For God or against him for Great Jehovah's worship or Baalim's did the people sway If Israel's or Judah 's King were good The people presently destroy'd their groves Scarce in the land a graven image stood High places owls did rest in each man loves At the least in shew that Jealous God that in the desert fed them And from Egypt 's bondage led them For him onely are they zealous If Israel's or Judah 's King were bad So were the people Altars straight were rear'd To senselesse Idoles not a house but had Their graven Images and no man fear'd Unto Baal to bend his knee Men live by similitude More then law and most conclude Upon what their Princes be If Nebuchadnezzar the mightie King Be pleas'd to fall down to a golden image Thither with speed do their devotions bring People of ev'rie kingdome tongue and linage Three excepted all adore him There 's not one enough precise To refuse it doth suffice That the King did so before him Thou art a King if thou a parent art Each family 's a pettie kingdome and The parents Monarch 't were a kingly part To make thy little subjects understand How in vertue to excell By thy practice that 's a skill 'Bove all other children will No way else be taught so well Look how the primum mobile doth move Accordingly do move the other spheres As in a Jack the wheel that is above With its first mover just proportion bears In a familie 't is so Look what way the parents take That the rest their rule will make Chiefly there the children go Not any godly precept so exact is Which you shall teach your children to obey But that if you shall thwart it by your practice Thus will your junior houshold-members say At least they will whisper thus If vertue be good then why Do not you live vertuously If not why d' ye presse 't on us If by these wayes you strive to educate Whom God hath blest with fruitfull progenies Your children well their early Death or late Shall not a jote augment your miseries A childs death is not a rod To afflict a parents heart He that dies well doth depart Hence that he may live with God Lord if thou make my wife a fruitfull vine Make it withall my chiefest care to dresse The branches well the glorie shall be thine
And if they die my grief shall be the lesse A childs death 's a precious savour In thy nostrils that was here Taught to live Lord in thy fear For he dieth in thy favour Meditation 4. IF youth it self may drop into the grave When children die methinks they should bequeath Surviving parents comforts Sure they have No cause were not affection strong to grieve Overmuch as many do For Death is impartiall By his stroke all ages fall Both the old'st and youngest too Think duly on 't Why should your eyes runne o'r For what you have no way to remedie If you should heav'n eternally implore It would not send them back But you 'll replie 'Cause there 's no way to be found That may help us to recover Them again our eyes runne over And our tears do so abound Nor ever will your highest floud of sorrow Transport them back into the world again Your selves may follow them before to morrow Those deep-fetch'd sighs are smok'd out all in vain So are all those drops you mourn Shed in vain hap'ly you may Soon go after them but they Are too happie to return Is it your love that doth produce such grones How easily alas is love mistaken Methinks you cannot love and grieve at once To love were to rejoyce that they have shaken Hands with miserie to dwell In a world of blisse above Grief at this is farre from love It seems not to wish them well Or is 't because that they are dead you weep I do not think that when they were begotten You dream'd them death-free or had hopes to keep Them here for ever that they would be rotten In their graves you could not choose But consider for a span To be quickly ended can Never go for any news Nor with good reason can you lay the blame On Death at all but on your selves that did Beget them mortall for the very same Matter wherewith they were begot and fed Fits them for an alteration By the hand of Death If you Grudge that Death hath ta'n his due You may blame their generation Or do you grieve because they di'd so soon If wayes be foul and journeys perillous Who taketh up his lodging e'r 't be noon Is best at ease 'T is like God loveth those Whom he takes betime away Sad experience lets us know That the happi'st here below Have a miserable stay Or is your onely child deceas'd that passion Doth domineer so here I could allow Methinks your tears a free immoderation But that on better ground then Jephtha's vow I remember what was done By that parent who is penn'd Down for great Jehovah's friend In case of his onely sonne Ev'n when 't was dead a miracle did fill His Sarahs womb but it was fill'd but once Isaac was all Yet Abraham must kill This all himself God did it for the nonce That he might his graces prove Yet the man made no denyall But did by so strange a triall Manifest his faith and love This case must needs strike nearer to the heart Then yours yet he doth presently submit Love I confesse is very loth to part With what it loves but grace doth put a bit Into natures mouth that she May not grumble nor repine At what 's a decree Divine But subscribe it chearfully Just like the Autumn-sap of fruitfull trees So love descends and it is ardent when Dispersed but by infinite degrees More ardent when it is contracted men That have but an onely sonne If Death take him hence their losse Is a great one but this crosse Must be born Thy will be done Is what your selves do pray for every day And when this will of God 's declared you Greatly offend if you do murmure May Not God and Sinne and Nature claim their due Very ill you do behave you If you give not heav'n leave Thankfully for to bereave You again of what it gave you Lord if thou please to stock my table round About with children yet I will be glad Nor shall my sorrow overmuch abound Though I do see them in their grave-clothes clad For the sooner are they blest And within the shortest space Whom thou help'st to winne a race They the sooner are at rest Meditation 5. VVE do not die by chance nor yet by fortune But how and when the Lord will have us die He numbers all our dayes we cannot shorten Nor lengthen them a minute Destiny Neither spinnes nor cuts the thread God a certain period sets No man shorter falls or gets Further then the bounds decreed If God vouchsafe to number out the hairs That do adorn and cloth our sinfull heads Who doubteth that his providence forbears To count our dayes If not a sparrow treads On the earth 's face thus or thus But his providence awaketh For to note it sure he taketh Greater care by farre of us If any godlesse wits so curious be To talk of Hezekiah's fifteen years His sentence God did change not his decree The answer is yet Esay 's tongue appears To speak not a jote the lesse Truth 't was with a supposition God doth threaten with condition Either tacit or expresse When Pestilence that lothsome dreadfull hag Bepatch'd with botches wanders up and down And into ev'ry houshold drops the plague Scarce any Turk in an infected town But will wife and friend afford Daily visits and imbraces They flie no contagious places Nor fear either bed or bord Their reason is Gods providence doth write Their fortunes on their foreheads neither can Their day of life be longer nor their night Of Death come sooner then God wills it Man Must yield 's ghost when God will haveit For health and life if God will Save it 't is not plague can kill If not 't is not they can save it Such block-heads have not brains enough to think That as the time so God withall decrees The means of life as physick meat and drink Clothes recreations and what else he sees Needfull They themselves destroy And are to their safety strangers That runne into mortall dangers And not shun them when they may Howe'r imploy'd Lord grant I may have leisure Religiously to meditate that thou My dayes dost number and my life dost measure And make me think Lord that this very now That this twinkling of an eye Is the period thou hast set Lord grant I may ne'r forget That this moment I may die PART III. Of Deaths suddennesse THough sometimes Death doth stay till it be late At night untill our most decrepit years And when he comes doth like a King in state Send harbingers before yet Death appears Sometimes unlook'd for early in the morning And takes us up before he gives us warning When at full tide our youthfull bloud doth flow In every vein and when our pulses dance A healthfull measure when our stomachs know No qualms at all as we would say by chance Snatch'd are our bodies to their longest homes And Death is past before a sicknesse comes How