professed opposite to Stoicall opinions * Plutarch in the life of Tiber and Cajus Gracchio pag. 841. saying of her as in her praise that she used to report the untimely death of her two worthy Sonnes as a Story without a teare for therein me thinkes she shewed more of the pride of an high-spirited Lady then of the pitty of a kind hearted Mother But what an absurdity is that for which some are taxed by ¶ Plutarch in the life of Cicero p. 878. him in the life of Cicero who while others tooke on for the death of a dogg or an horse for children or friends shewed no sorrow at all The want of this naturall affection is the ground of many fearfull temptations which sometimes proceed to unnaturall executions whereof we may reade many crimson Characters both in forraigne and domestick Stories but we began not with vineger to end in bloud Now for the oyle if such an Arch-Patriarch as Jacob for he was the Father of the Patriarchs were so dearly affected to his Sonne Beniamin that his death would kill him that begate him to life this may be as oyle to mollifie the misconceit of some who are too rigorous in censures of such as are of a tender and an affectionate Nature and like unto holy Jacob or his best beloved Rachell apter to drink deepe of the bitter potion of sorrow then to take a taste of the cup of comfort against it when it is with them as * Partem maliputant audiresalutem Senec. consolat ad Martiam c 5. Seneca wrote to Martia made as a part of the griefe to heare any thing of the Consolations of life And if I would make choyce of an extreame it should rather be of that which is neare of kinne to naturall kindnesse then of that which cometh so neare to a Stoicall Apathy for not only good men but as wise men as any of that Sect have shewed themselves most tenderly and affectionately disposed towards their children both living and dead and we see by the Testimony of a grave ‖ Plutarch ubi supra Authour concerning Cicero who upon the death of his daughter by child-birth though he were visited by Philosophers and learned men that came on all sides to comfort him tooke her death so sorrowfully to heart that he put away his second wife because he thought she did rejoyce at her death Wherein we allow him rather as a Father then as an husband for his mourning for his daughter was an Argument of good nature but the casting off his wife upon that occasion might be a signe of too much suspition of her and of too little of that affection which was due to a wife But for that love which is naturall yet such an enemy to Nature as by too much favour to the object afflicts the Subject unto death though wheresoever it is found in such a degree of excesse it must be acknowledged for a fault yet such is the priviledge of Gods children that even faults whosoever they be their own especially may be of useful consideration to themselves and to others to themselvs for their humbling to others for their warning and for their comfort that though their kindnes to another should prove so cruell as to kill their owne bodies yet that the conceit of that killing may not through distrust or dispaire endanger their soules For the first though as a Mother the affections of the pious Matron whose death hath spread a black cloud upon a great part of this Assembly were so strong as a Christian her understanding was not so weake as not to discerne the errour of her love for she tooke notice of it and accused her selfe for it and had the more spirituall sorrow because her carnall sorrow for her daughter if we may call it carnall which was set upon her rather as Gods child then as her owne was so immoderate whereof though I were an eare-witnesse I tooke no exception at her accusation of her selfe because I saw her sorrow was a godly sorrow working repentance to salvation not to be repented of as the Apostle speaketh 2 Corinth 7.10 Yet now she heares me not that none may mistake her state with injury to her or misery to themselves as if to die of griefe were a sinne A sinne unto death 1 John 5.16 of such a selfe-killing guilt as consist with the safety of the soule me thinkes I may thus resolve touching the reciprocall operation of the distemper of her mind and body First Though in the weekly Bill of mortality we find few that die of her disease yet there are every where examples of divers who expedite their owne deaths either by intemperance of dyet or pursuit of pleasures by intempestine Studies and too laborious employments and many when they thinke to cherish nature doe by too much case charinesse and curiosity weaken it and sometimes finally overthrow it yet none of them no not they whose excesse is most faulty if they dyed true Penitents were ever by any judicious Divine or Christian doomed to the second death Secondly If any excesse be capable of defence it is that of love especially when it is set upon an object amiable not only in the eyes of naturall Parents but of our spirituall and heavenly Father and for hers in particular if we compare it with Jacobs love to and his griefe for Beniamin in case he had miscarried it is more capable of excuse then his could be For these reasons First The Female Sex out of a naturall tendernesse attending upon it is more disposed both to love and compassion then the Male and therefore where God setteth forth his singular affection to his people he doth it by comparison of himselfe with a woman not with a man Isai 49.15 and what is more consonant to nature is more capable of pardon if it somwhat exceed Secondly Iacob had many sonnes at least twelve and all twelve alive at the last when he blessed them upon his death-bed of which he loft not one by death but one in his conceit and that but for a time whose absence was recompenced with comforts beyond expectation even to admiration they were so many for number so rare for degree but she having had divers children was by their death deprived of them all Thirdly of Iacobs Beniamin we reade no great matter of Commendation either for piety or any other vertue and there is somewhat said of him even by him who loved him so dearly and that in the last words he spake of him which implyeth rather matter of reproach then of praise Benjamin shall ravine as a Wolfe in the morning he shall devoure the prey and at night he shall divide the spoyle Gen. 49.27 But our Rachels Phebe was an innocent and harmlesse lambe A child of about 12. yeares old as like him for piety who when he was but twelve yeares old was found in the Temple hearing the Doctors and asking them Questions Luk. 2.42 46. as any
and those of his family as little children use to take in providing for themselves and while they shew such a chary disposition towards their health and welfare they shall thereby get themselves an interest in that gracious promise of the Father of Spirits annexed to observation of the fift Commandement which is length of days for to that precept Honour thy Father and thy Mother is annexed this promise that thy dayes may be long in the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee and if from children they grow up to the degree of Parents and have children of their own they shall repay them the observance and succour which they have performed to their Progenitors before And on the contrary the praise of such good sonnes must serve to the reproach of such bad children as wickedly requite the blessing of their Parents by wishing for their death who were the meanes to bring them to life and to preserve them alive by their tendernesse over them in the time of their ignorant and impotent minority thence was the observation of the heathen Prophet so the Apostle calls a Poet Tit. 1.12 * Filius ante diem patrios inquirit in anno◠the Sonne inquires into his Fathers yeares before his time thinking it long before he be wrapt in a white sheet and himselfe clad in a black suite that he may have a merry heart under a mournfull habit Such as have so little both of Grace and good-nature as to desire the dispatch of their Parents commonly do somwhat which may be like to lesson the measure of their owne lives as their yoking themselves unsutably without their Parents consent or against their minds the thought of such a thing was so great a griefe unto Rebecca as caused her passionatly to say I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth such as these which are of the daughters of the Land what good will my life doe me Gen. 27.46 and such a griefe as makes one weary of life weares out the life before the time In this respect many children become Parricides of their own Parents by such heard-hearted stubbornesse in wicked wayes as makes them worthy of stoning to death by the Law of God Deut. 21. ver 20 21. whose want of grace and good nature with their grosse ungratitude returning for all their Parents tendernesse and indulgence towards them nothing but what may offend and afflict them is so much more grievous as in relation and affection they were more neere and deare unto them Of the 23. wounds given to Caesar in the Senate-house whichsoever was most deepe and deadly surely that was most grievous to his heart which he tooke from the hand of Brutus when he said unto him * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sueton. in Jul. Caesar cap. 82. and thon my sonne art thou one to kill me who have loved and cared for thee as a Father forhis sonne And howsoever the fore-cited penall Statute Deut. 21. be not in use among the Christians yet it is no more a meere Jewish Law then the sinne is meerely Jewish God seldome suffers a very rebellious sonne unlesse he become a gracious convert which is very rare to passe unpunished in this life and many times his punishment is of that kind which may bring his own sinne to remembrance his child revenging upon him his owne miscarriage towards his Parents Thus much of Judahs care of the life of his Father Jacob. Now of Jacobs danger of death by the losse of Benjamin It shall come to passe c. the reason of this great danger of Jacob was his deare love to Benjamin very deare doubtlesse if it had cost him his life which is commonly greater in the Father to the child then is reciprocated from the child to the Father haply First because the child is better and longer knowne unto the Father then the Father to the child both for certainty of truth and continuance of time Secondly Because naturall affection as the Lawyer speakes of inheritance rather descends from the Parents to the children then ascends from the children to the Parents Thirdly the discipline of Parents is many times grievous to their children crossing their wills and wayes and sometimes severely chastising them for their failings of duty or transgressions against it all which are commonly as unpleasing unto them as profitable for them Fourthly Parents expect in their children to live when themselves are dead and to be perpetuall in their succession while themselves are but temporall and transitory and children take their Parents too many times to be impediments if not to their lives yet to their comfortable living in keeping Inheritance Honours Offices from them and restraint of their liberty which they cannot expect in a full fruition untill they be dead And for Jacobs love to Benjamin it appears to be more then to the rest of his sons by the saying of Judah he loveth him saith he Gen. 44.20 and so he did all his other children but his words imply that he loved him in an especiall manner and measure above his bretheren so that they as not beloved or little beloved in respect of him are not named as partakers of his love and he sheweth his love to Benjamin by being so fearfull of his life for he would not let him goe lest death should befall him in the way Gen. 42.4 any of the rest might have dyed as well as he but his care his feare and his love were all for benjamin in a very eminent degree and that made him so stiffe against the intreaties and undertakings of Judah and of Ruben who when he had offered his two sonnes for security for one yea and as for sacrifice also for he said slay my two sonnes Gen. 42.37 if I bring him not againe he could obtaine none other answer but this My sonne shall not goe downe with you ver 38. hee would have that son never go downe or set but alway to shine within his horizon And the reason of this love if such an heate and height of affection were not rather an aberration from reason may be because he was the sonne of his most beloved wife Rachel for whom he served seven yeares which yet such was his love unto her seemed unto him but a few dayes Gen. 29.22 Secondly Because he was deare bought for while she laboured boured to give life and liberty to him she lost her own Gen. 35.19 In other cases whosoever is the cause occasion or instrument of a friends death is commonly distasted sometimes detested but here innocency pleades against all imputation of guilt and blood and kindred and neerenesse of blood apprehends the mishap at first with griefe not with grudge and after a time when sorrow is asswaged concerning the dead pitty and compassion love and delight doe exercise their operation upon the living with so much more tendernesse as the losse is the greater not only
to the Father but much more to the child since it is more like that his losse may be supplied by another wife then the childs by another mother Thirdly Because his brother Joseph who was dearely beloved of his Father was supposed to be dead and so Benjamin surviving was heire to the love that belonged to him and so he loved him the more in that he was not only Rachels sonne but Josephs brother and in whose Name and right he was to inherit an high degree of love for Jacob loved him more then all his children Gen. 37.3 Fourthly The Reason of Jacobs great love to Joseph was because he was the son of his old age as is noted in the forenamed vers which hath so much the more force on Benjamins part as he was younger then Joseph and Iacob consequently so much elder when he begate him and to give a reason of this reason the old Father delights so much more in his young child as to be a Father in old age is an argument of more favour from God in supporting his bodily ability so farre or making supply of it by his own power where it is deficient Fiftly Though naturall strength be more feeble and faint towards the end of life naturall affection is more vigorous in its course the longer it lasteth and therefore the love of old age towards young ones is many times a meere dotage whereby he that was once a man growes the second time a child and the more childish the more like to exceed in the love of children But we will abstract from the particular considerations of Iacobs love to Benjamin and propound an observation of more generall use which is this That the best kind of persons are most kindly affected to their kindred Of this you have had evidence enough in Jacob already and the next remarkeable instance is Joseph who though he personated an Egyptian Prince and pretended rigour towards his bretheren while they know him not for he accused them for spies sent after them as thieves put them all together three dayes in ward yet all that while his heart was tenderly affected towards them and turning his face from them he wept Gen 42.24 he tooke upon him to act the part of a sterne Governour but his kind heart put him out of it and he was faine to turne aside that he might not bewray it and for that time he suppressed his compassion but his kindnesse broke out againe and his bowels yearned upon his brother and he sought where to weepe and he entred into his chamber and wept there Chap. 43.30 and when he revealed himselfe unto them he manifested his love very freely and fully for he fell upon his brother Benjamins neck and wept and Benjamin fell upon his neck and he kissed all his brethren and wept upon them Gen. 45.14 15. There be many vigorous reasons of the vehement affections of such as are linked to others in this kind of love especially of Parents to their children which is the track we must take for our way at this time First An impression of Nature which we may observe in a descending as we have done before in an ascending operation in unreasonable creatures for the Sea-monsters hold forth their breasts unto their young Lament 4.3 which by the way shames many nice Ladies and Gentlewomen that are not so kind as to give suck to their owne children and the Beares robbed of their whelpes are extremely enraged 2 Sam. 17.8 and rage towards those that take them is an effect of loving affection to those that are taken from them Secondly But where rationall knowledge is added to naturall affection there it groweth to an higher degree of good-will For the things we know not at all as the vulgar * Ignoti nulla cupido Proverbe saith we have no desire of If we know them but little we like them but little though they be never so good and if our knowledge of them be much our liking of them will be according to the proportion as much And if nature begin and good acquaintantance goe on it takes degree from favour to friendship and the affection of friends is the marriage of soules Deut. 13.6 so far it seemeth did the love of Jacob proceed for it is said in the originall that his soule was bound to his soule that is to the soule of Benjamin Thirdly there is yet a further incentive to this affection if there be any good parts in the party beloved whether of the body as beauty which made David so kind if we may not say fond to his beautifull Absalom as to wish that himselfe had dyed that he might have lived 2 Sam. 19.33 or of minde which is a more generous object of love because mentall endowments are more excellent then corporall Fourthly If with all this Religion come in with its operation and interest and both parties be uniformely pious then is love most accomplished and cometh neere to perfection How many of these causes of love concurred in Jacobs case we cannot tell but sure we are where they all meete in one object they must needs be very potent and the griefe of losse of the party so beloved especially if it be sodaine and unexpected will be answerable to it for love is the standard to all the affections or as the mould whence they take both figure and measure The Application hereof we must serve in with severall sawces of vineger and oyle according to the different temper of those that have need of it Some are sharpely to be reproved some softly and gently to be dealt withall the first are such as the Apostle bringeth in in his bead-roule of offenders by name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without naturall affection 2 Tim. 3.3 as if their hearts were hewed out of the rock or at least might be said to be hearts of Oake It is a part of the discipline of the Stoicks to cast off all passions and perturbations as being the distempers of such as are weake and unwise rather then the qualifications of those that are established by prudence and ruled by reason and to dry up that humidum radicale of kindnesse which is apt to melt into teares of tendernesse and they argue themselves into a Stock-like stillnesse and drynesse by this * Neminem flebo laetum neminem flâ—ntem ille lachrymas meas ipse absterfit hic suis lachrymis effecit ne illis dignus sit Seneca de Tranquil l. 1. c. 15. p. 147. Dilemma if a man be merry he prevents the use of teares if he weepe his own teares doe make him unworthy of mine and some be hard-hearted enough of themselves without any discipline or instruction who can part with friends kindred Parents partners in the state of marriage or children and yet not to be moved at all for any of them and for such a disposition as this the mother of the Gracchi is commended by Plutarch which I marvell at since he was a
the creator alone and if so we are spirituall adulterers and adulteresses James 4.4 and God is a jealous God Exo. 20.5 who discovering a decay of our love that we might love him better will take away the impediment betwixt him and us which was as a curtain or screene to intercept our sight and the heate of our hearts towards him As a discreet Lady if she should perceive that her Waiting-woman stole any part of the Nuptiall affection of her Husband from her would find some meanes to put her away And God very well knoweth that our hearts are narrow our love but little and faint a great deale too little for himselfe if it went all one way and therefore if he love us he will take away that which steales away our affections from him that our love being set upon him more intentively he may returne more kindnesse to us againe and so his end may be to crosse us in our way that he may blesse us in the end that he may doe us the more good at our latter end as is promised Deut. 8. v. 16. Thirdly Gods intent in taking away may be in favour to the deceased parties to set them safe out of perill the Righteous is taken away from the evill to come Isa 57.1 and of this the cause is so evident in reason that he that never saw the Bible nor read that sentence of the Prophet could say who knoweth that God hath not taken away in favour to man-kind from the evill to come So * Plutarch consolat ad Apoâ—on pag. 528. Plutarch in his Consolations to Apolonius And this cause is especially considerable in these times wherein many good people have of late been taken away and we may have cause to conceive from the evill to come there may come much evill without any preface or premonition at all but we see nothing but dismall clouds gathering in our horizon and as it were preparations for terrible stormes Our sinnes doubtlesse are come to a very great height and who knoweth whether their guilt be not more clamerous for vengeance then our prayers are importunate for pardon We see things grow worse and worse with us a few grow better and better to pacifie Gods displeasure by due reformation And therefore for such of the better sort as are taken away in those times as this vertuous Matron after the course of an holy life on earth wee may conceive it is done that they may live in rest and peace and joy and glory with God for ever There is cause then to give thankes to God for their happy change since they are set up so safe that they shall never feele nor feare the evill to come and to mourne not for them but for our selves that we are left below in a state of subjection to all sorts of sorrowes which may the sooner overwhelme us because they are taken away as Lot out of Sodome for whose sakes haply hath the judgement been suspended hitherto And hitherto having had your presence and I hope your attentions also to what I have delivered I shall now commend you to the gratious favour of the Lord of life and death Deut. 32.29 beseeching him to teach you to number your dayes that you may apply your hearts unto wisedome Psal 90.12 and to give you wisedome to consider your latter end Deut. 32.29 and all the while that you are in the way unto it that you may by an holy life get sound assurance to your soules that when your mortall bodies are laid asleepe in the dust of the earth they may be received to a most happy conabitation with God in Heaven in his presence to be possessed of the fulnesse of joy and of the pleasures at his right hand for evermore Ps 16.11 Amen FINIS