bosome This Mercy we should pray so for and long-after even from the heart-root we should long For if the curse was heavy and sore which we reade of Psal 109. 14. then is the mercy great and greatly to be sought after from the Lord Let not the iniquitie of the Father be remembred with the Lord against the Childe and let the sinne of the Mother be blotted out Whensoever the Lord visits the Childe for Sinne certainly it should call the sinne of the Parent to remembrance o 1 King 17. 18. and so it will doe if the conscience be not asleepe or seared Then he will discerne that there was a great and weighty reason that made the Woman of Canaan thus to petition Christ p Matt. 15. 22. Have mercy on me O Lord thou Sonne of David my Daughter is grievously vexed with a Divell She counted the Childes vexation hers so would she the mercy We have filled our Childrens bones with sinne which will fill their hearts with sorrow It is our engagement to doe all we can though that All be two little to roote that sinne out which we have beene a meanes to roote so fast in I shall in another place the Second Part q Chap. 2. speake more unto this roote of bitternesse and the fruits springing thence whereby all are defiled Here I have onely pointed unto it as it engageth the Parent upon this so necessary and principall a service touching the good culture and breeding of the Child And we see what an engagement it is the greatest and strongest that can be thought of And so much as an Induction to Duty what this Duty is comes now to be handled A CHILDES PATRIMONY Laid out upon the good Culture or tilling over his whole man CHAP. I. Wherein the Parents dutie doth consist and when it begins Of Infancy A Parents dutie begins where the childe had its beginning at the wombe There the Parents shall finde that which must busie their thoughts about it before they can imploy their hands And this work lyeth specially in considering Gods worke upon the childe and how their sinne hath defaced the same First they consider Gods worke and the operation of His hands how wonderfull it is and how curiously wrought in the secret parts of the earth so the Prophet calls the Wombe because Psal 137. curious pieces are first wrought privately then being perfected are exposed to open view It was He that made the bones to grow we know not how then clothed them with flesh He that in the appointed time brought it to Chap. 1 sect 2 the wombe and gave strength to bring forth Here they acknowledge an omnipotent hand full of power towards them and as full of grace and they doe returne glory and praise both But here it ceaseth not Now they have their burden in their armes they see further matter of praise yet in that they see the childe in its right frame and feature not deformed or maimed Some have seene their childe so that they had little joy to looke upon it but through Gods gracious dispensation it is not so and for this they are thankfull And upon this consideration they will never mocke or disdaine nor suffer any they have in charge so to do a thing too many do any poore deformed creature in whom God hath doubly impaired His Image This they dare not do for it might have been their case as it was their desert Deformitie where ever we see it admits of nothing but our Pitie and our Praise 2. Thus they see Gods handy-worke and it is wonderfull in their eyes but still they see their owne Image also and cause enough to bewaile the uncleannesse of their Birth What the Pharisees once spake of him whose eyes Christ had opened is true of every mothers Childe Thou wast altogether borne in sinnes which should Joh. 9. 34. make every Parent to cry out as that mother did Have mercy on me O Lord thou sonne of David my Childe is naturally Matth. 15. 22. the childe of wrath Except it be borne againe of water and of the spirit it cannot enter into the kingdome of God Joh. 3. The Parents see evidently now that they are the channell conveying death unto the childe The mother is separated for some time that shee may set her thoughts apart and fixe them here The father is in the same bond with her and in this we may not separate them God hath made promise to restore this lost Image this not tooke but throwne-away integritie And this now their thoughts run upon and they pray That the Lord would open their mouthes wide and enlarge their hearts towards this so great a Mysterie They have a fruit of an old stocke it must be transplanted and out they carry it and into the Church they beare it as out of old Adam whence was transmitted to it sinne and death into the second Adam whence it may receive Righteousnesse and Life Then at the fountaine they hold it blessing God Who hath opened it for sinne and for Uncleannesse And there they present it not to the signe of the Crosse but to Blood Sacramentally there that is Righteousnesse purchased by the death of Christ and now on Gods part appropriated and made the childes And the Parents blesse His name and exalt His mercy who hath said at such a time as this Live Who hath found out Ezek. 16. 6. a Rausome to answer such a guilt A righteousnesse to cover such a sinne so big and so fruitfull A life to swallow up such a death with all its issues This the Parent sees in this poore element Water appointed by God set apart fitted and sanctified for this end With it the childe is sprinkled and for it the Parent beleeves and promiseth Then home againe they carry it It is a solemne time and to be remembred and the vaine pompe takes not up much time where wiser thoughts from truer judgement take place Friends may come and a decency must be to our place sutable but the Pageant like carriage of this solemne businesse by some speaks out plainly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A fancie Act. 25. 23. that the heart is not right nor is that vaine pompe forsaken which yet is now upon their lips to say They who have better learned Christ do better understand the nature and solemnitie of the action they are about so their great businesse is with God before whom they spread themselves and their childe Who can worke by meanes as secret as is the way of the spirit and can set this water closer to the soule then He hath set its bones which yet no man understandeth nor can tell when or how To Him they offer it before Him they lay it praying That this water may ever lye upon the heart of theirs as a fruitfull seed quickning renewing sanctifying That that water may as the Rocke ever 1 Cor. 10. 4. follow the childe The rocke removed not
then sufficeth the contrary Chrysost ad Heb. cap. 12. Hom. 29. temperate use of the creatures so as they may refresh Chap. 4 § 15 not oppresse this will be their care And they will looke to it also that the broken meat be taken up that the least crum which can be saved be not lost no not a crum § 15. We that are by nature children of wrath have in our nature so much fiercenesse as that we cannot credit nor beleeve it though another should shed teares over x 2 King 8. 11. Virtutes vitia non sunt priusquam lacessantur it untill the foundations of our natures are discovered The occasion offered and the restraint taken off A swine will keep clean in a meadow Lime will not smoake till you put water to it A Lion sleeps waking with his eyes open and wakes sleeping with his eyes shut To look to he is as gentle as a Lambe but if you pluck him by the eare he will pluck you by the arme though he seemes to wink stirre him or let him loose then you shall know what he is y Solve Leonem senties I meane by all this That we know not our natures how fierce they are till we are tempted by the occasion and so tried Therefore we should looke to it betimes and be jealous over our own hearts and restraine in children whatsoever leads that way I meane to crueltie and fiercenesse And then we shall not suffer children to delight themselves as commonly they do in the vexation and paine of the creature which the more it is in their power the more children will vexe the creature to shew their power in the torture and paine thereof witnesse that rude custome on Shrove-tuesday witnesse also our flyes birds Cats and Dogs tossed up in blankets or set on furiously to encounter mangle and enter-teare each other Children consider not by how weake supports mans life is upheld nor how serviceable the flesh of some of them is the blood of othersome and the excrements of a third the most approved remedy for a sore throat This children consider not nor can they think what ill blood such bloody exercises do breed They consider not that such sports leade to crueltie whereby we come neerest to the Divell who delights in the paine of the creature It is a knowne story and to be observed That a very proud King delighted much in his childe hood to put out the eyes of Quailes This King carryed himselfe afterwards with such pride and insolency that he had his denomination from it and delighted himselfe so much in crueltie and bloud that the people expelled him out of their Citie and Countrey with protestation never to receive any King againe so they changed the name of their Government An Emperour after him delighted as much to see the entralls of flies he killed as many as he could catch and tooke his times for it So the proverb was The z Ne musca quidem Suet. Dom. Emperour had not so much as a flye neere him This man or rather beast in shape of a man delighted as much in the shedding of Christians blood and as cruelly abused Gods Image which he had shamefully cast off Indeed there are some men who are cruell to Christians and kinde to Beasts But they have but the shape of men they are a Lege Dialog de bello sacro p. 339. Beasts indeed and therefore do they esteeme more of Beasts then of Christians It is b Lo. Ver. Essay 13. p. 67. reported that a Christian Boy in Constantinople Had like to have been stoned for gagging in a waggishnesse a long billed fowle b I would perswade but this from hence That children be not suffered to bathe their recreations in bloud as Mr. Bolton phraseth it Not to refresh their tyred mindes with spectacles of crueltie nor inured to behold rufull objects without horrour No beast they say takes content in the hurting of any other except in the case of hunger or anger They satisfie their appetite and rage sometimes with crueltie and bloud but their eyes and fancies never It is a debasing of humanitie below beasts to please the eye I say not in beholding one man teare and mangle another but to see poore beasts encountring each other and mangling each other being set on by man we must not make Gods judgements and punishments of sinne for we made the beasts wild our sinne put the enmitie betwixt the Woolfe and the Lambe c Quis seras fecit nisi tu Mor. de verit religionis cap. 12. the matter and object of our recreation Alas sinfull man it is Mr. d Direct 156. Boltons patheticall expression what an heart hast thou that canst take delight in the cruell tormenting of a dumbe creature Is it not too much for thee to behold with dry eyes that fearefull brand which only thy sinne hath imprest upon it but thou must barbarously also presse its oppressions and make thy selfe merry with the bleeding miseries of that poore harmlesse thing which in its kinde is much more and farre better serviceable to the Creator then thy selfe Yet I deny not but that there may be another lawfull use of this Antipathy for the destroying of hurtfull and enjoying of usefull creatures so that it be without any taint or aspersion of crueltie on our part or needlesse tormenting of the silly beasts It is a sure note of a good man He is mercifull to his beast And it is worth our marke That the Lord commands a mercy to a creature perhaps not worth two farthings and for this He promiseth a great mercy the like blessing which is promised to them who honour their father and mother Deut. 22. 6 7. If thou finde a birds nest c. Thou shalt in any wise let the Dam go and take the young to thee That thou mayest prosper and prolong thy dayes This is to lead to mercy and to take out of our hearts crueltie saith Mr Ainsworth It is the least of all in Moses law and yet such a promise is annexed thereunto as we heard so true is that which the learned Knight hath The debts of mercie and crueltie shall be surely paid Think we on this so we have our duty and we shall teach our children theirs and then though the bloud of the creature be not spared for we have dominion over it yet it shall not be abused nor shall we delight our selves in the pain of it which tends to much evil which we must by all means and all too little prevent and at the first while the minde is tender and doth easily receive any impression 15. It is not possible to point at all the evils whereof our corrupt nature is fruitfull nor at all the meanes whereby to prevent the growth of the same I remember how e Ad Dâ—m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. ω. Isocrates concludes his oration so full of instructions With all our
government set up there sin breaks out and Satan breaks in without controule This is a sacred Truth not to be doubted of Beleeve me now in what follows I have known many but more there have been whom I have not known who neglecting this single charge and casting off the government of themselves have poysoned all their springs of comfort at the very head o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eurip. Her Fur. p. 46. and blasted their hopes in the very blossome and blocked up their own way to the comfort they greedily catched at but in a very shadow Nay which is more I have known them who have kindled a fire in their youth that hath consumed them in their age and some remaining coales have singed the childe not then born Know it a truth not to be doubted and so plain that it needs not explication therefore what is possible keep thy heart as a chaste Virgin unto Christ even to thy marriage day and ever Thy posteritie and the blessing upon them depends upon it And so much touching this so necessary a charge this so prime a duty The looking well to our selves our single charge Which cannot be to purpose unlesse these single persons look up constantly to God who is the chiefest Overseer Parents and others are but deputies under Him who leades us on and holds us in every good way and hath said I will not leave thee nor forsake thee * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Five negatives surely I will not verily verily I will not Heb. 13. 5. And this so great a businesse they must commend unto Him for it is a chief point of their charge with the same earnestnesse as they desire to succeed and prosper in it Our Lord Christ spent that whole night in prayer before He chose His disciples Thereby teaching us weak and frail creatures who have no subsistance of or in our selves but all from and in God what we ought to do at all times but more especially then when matters of importance are in hand It is of great importance how and in what manner matters of importance are entred upon and begun where we may note that nothing shall prove a blessing to me which I have not commended to the Lord and gained it from Him by prayer so then the young persons must look up to that hand that disposeth all things and to that hand they must submit They must leave God to His own time they must not tie Him to theirs He is wise and wonderfull and accordingly doth He work for those whose hearts are stayed upon Him I have observed those who have waited Gods time which is ever best He doth all things well and in their season so preferred in their match at the last that it hath quite exceeded their own expectation and the expectation of their friends and this at such a time when they least expected and had the least hope I have certainly observed it so They that wait on the Lord shall once say they are remembred and in a fit season But they who like an unserviceable piece of Ordinance flie off before they are discharged they who will put out themselves before their time have broken themselves with haste and proved like proffered wares of the least esteem quite disregarded They must wait on God herein whose hand leadeth into every good way and gives a blessing in it And they must wait His time also which is a chief point of their duty 3. The younger folk must leave this weighty businesse in their hands who are deputed under God to take the cure over them and the care thereof And this if the single parties shall do they have then discharged their double duty before mentioned which consisted first in the well ordering themselves and so discharging their single cure And then in leaving the rest for the changing of their condition wholly in their hands whose charge it is and whose duty also it is faithfully to discharge the same and now followeth for it is necessary I should adde something thereof I mean touching the overseers duty They that are overseers of the childe Parents or deputed so to be must be earnest with the Lord at this point for it is a main duty house and riches are the inheritance of Fathers and a prudent wife is from the Lord p Prov. 19. 14. Parents may give a good portion but a good wife is Gods gift a great mercy and greatly to be desired This is their first duty The next is 2. They must choose the man we regard not sexes I say a man not a boy not a girle before the face can discern the sex parents must avoid the inconveniency of haste in so important a businesse which helps to fill the world with beggery and impotency q See Censure of Travell sect 7. And they must choose the man I say the man not his money It is well where both meet and then they may choose and wink but that is not very ordinary and therefore they must be the the more watchfull so where there is a flush of money an high-tide of prosperitie there is commonly a low ebbe of better matters which indeed denominates a man prosperitie is a great snare the greater when the young heire begins at the top first at the same peg or height where the Father ended and it is many times accompanied with some idlenesse of brain * Ad omne votum fluente fortuna lascivit ocium Quint. Dec. 3. p 32. I need not feare this but yet I say in way of caution choose the man and then the money when I say a man I mean such an one who can finde meat in a wildernesse who carries his riches about him * Cic. Parad. Sen. ep 9. 2 Chron. 25. 9. when he is stript of his money who hath his chief comelinesse within and yet not uncomely without such a man they should choose If this man be wanting the childe shall not set her eyes upon him the parent must not If some money be wanting no great want it is easily supplied it is certain if other things answer some want that way I mean in money is not of sufficient value to hold off or make a breach As it was said of the talents The Lord is able to give much more then this r But if goodnesse be wanting it is a greater want then is in a light piece of gold which in a great paiment will passe not withstanding as many great wants passe currant where there is a great portion Parents must shew their wisdome here else they fail in a prime duty They must choose goodnesse and not account it an accessary Better want the money then the man Å¿ See Chrysost of the choice of a wife Ser. 28. Tom. 5. Non sum ex insano amatorum genere qui vitia â—iam exosculantur ubi semel formâ capti sunt Haec sola est quae me delectat pulchritudo c. Calv. ep 16.
tongue but speaks not eares two but hears not no more then the deafe l In Scotland Heylyne Geogra pa. 503. stone we read of or then if there were seven walls betwixt him and the speaker ask him and him who hath no hands or but one or if two yet no use of either ask him and him who hath no feet or but one or if two yet walks not ask him Ask we this man and that and the other and say we what we are assured these defective persons would all say Oh what mercies are these of what use and account how pretious should these be everie one in respect of both their use and esteeme How do these organs these instruments adorn beautifie honour the outward man how serviceable are they thereunto Oh how should we serve our Creator who hath made us so how should we not give all and every part to serve Him and to advance His glory And so much so little rather to the outward frame of body and to the great and many instructions therefrom The inward frame of spirit comes now in the second place to be treated of CHAP. II. Chap. 2 Our inward frame of spirit how naturally depraved THou must now take a view of thy inward frame the frame of thy revolting heart revolting I say from Him who hath done all this for thee whereof thou hast heard who summes up all things in Himself being all sufficient the fountain and Ocean of all our happinesse from Him are we parted and to cisternes we are come to creature-comforts which emptie faster then they fill yet after them our hearts wander from creature to creature for so our comforts here lie scattered like the Bee from one flower to another seeking fulnesse but finding emptinesse for our owne findings are sinne and death Such a generation we are and so degenerated even from the day that we were born for Grace makes the difference and separates not the wombe polluted in our owne blood to the loathing of our persons and the magnifying of His grace who regarded so low an estate making it the object of His pitie So here in this Chapter I can make no division for though I am to speak of a Body which hath many members of a Root which puts forth many branches yet is it but a body of death a root of bitternesse And so spirituall it is in working so speedy and quicke and with such consent and agreement also that I can see no more reason to divide here then Abraham did to divide the Birds But them he divided a not It is sufficient to shew this body as in b Gen. 15. 10. a glasse darkly how filthy and lothsome it is And for this purpose we will look on the 16. Chapter of Ezechiel which gives the clearest reflexion and as fully sheweth a man to himself as any glasse in the world But then the eye must have a property which the outward hath not to look inward and to see its self which imployeth it hath received an anoynting from above But whether we have it or have it not Ezek. 16. a fit glasse it is to see our selves in If we could lay our selves close up on it as the Prophet applyed himself to the child the proud heart would fall the haughtie looks would down And therefore That thou mayst take shame to thy self as thy just portion and the more advance God and the riches of His goodnesse m Here is ground of coÌ„fort and for firme resolution said Staupitius to Luther in that you stand for that Doctrin which gives All to God to Man nothing at all for this is according to the Truth of the Gospel And in sure confidence hereof I shall set my face like a flint said Luther Comâ—oâ— Galat. 1. 12. ch 2 6. according to the doctrin of the Gospel God is never exalted till man is laid low nor is Christ precious till we are vile Consider thy selfe well and begin there where thou tookest thy beginning There thou shalt finde the first Corner-stone in thy foundation was laid in bloody iniquities in which thou wast conceived The very materialls of soul and body whereof thou dost consist were temper'd with sinne like the stone in the wall and beame out of the timber so as they cryed out even the same moment thou wast born rase this building rase it even to the ground And the cry had been heard and thou hadst been sent before this time to thy own place but that mercy came betwixt even the cry of that bloud which speaks better things then the bloud of Abel And that cry was heard so thou wast graciously spared and behold what riches of grace here are shew'd unto thee for thou wast then as wholly naked and stript of all goodnesse as thy body was being newly born and as wholly invested with the worst filthinesse for it is expressed by such things which are not comely to name as thy body was with skin and thy bones with flesh So thou camest in n Tantillus puâ—r tanâ—us peccaâ—or a very little childe but a very great sinner not after the similitude of Adams transgression for sinne was actuall in him breaking a Commandement Originall in thee for thou brought'st it into the world with thee And a world of wickednesse it is defiling thy Body setting on fire not thine own only but the whole course of nature for thou hadst an hand to use Mr. Boltons words in that fire-work which blew up all mankinde he means in Adams transgression in whose loins thou wast as a branch in a common stock which brought forth such a bloudy sea of sinne and sorrow into the world I will hold thy thoughts at the wombe so may'st thou the better know thy selfe for ever after From thence thou cam'st into the world a sinke a Sodome of all filth and impuritie Thou hast inherent in thy bowels secret seeds and imbred inclinations of all sinne The principles of Hazaels bloudy cruelties of Athaliahs treasons and Iezebels lusts The wombe the seed of all the villanies that have been acted in the world which Saint Paul hath sum'd up together in his first chapter to the Romanes 1 Tim. 1. 2 Tim. 3. Thou hast within thee the spawn the fomenter the formative vertue of all that hellish stuffe All those flouds of ungodlinesse have no other originall fountain from which they issue then this sinne thou art now taking a view off Thy Heart is the Treasury of all that wickednesse and if the Lord shall rip up the foundations of thy nature as He may and in mercy also then wilt thou know I do not speak parables But if thou canst not follow sinne to its first originall if thou could'st so do thou would'st feare it more and flie from it faster then Moses from the serpent for more active it is and hurtfull if thou hast not learnt so much yet then learne now and follow the streames they leade to the Spring-head
But hereof in the first part which I will not recall here The same we may say of riches If thou wouldst keepe them forsake them deny them Get thine heart from off them then they can be no snare It is notable which Augustine saith y De Civit. lib. No man holdeth Christ but by confessing Him no man keepeth his Gold but by denying the same If I lay up 1. cap. 10. money as a Treasure I shut out Christ and in so doing I cause a rent in my soule as wide as Heaven a breach like the Sea z Lam. 2 23. The World stands in a Diametrall a direct opposition to Christ as two contrary Masters we cannot leane to the One but we must turne from the other We cannot imbrace the One but we must hate the other the heart cannot hang betwixt heaven and earth in an Equilibrium like two scales equally poysed if the world be at our foote and under it then Christ is exalted and so on the contrary With all thy care then keep the earth and the things of the earth in their place under foote Bee in the world but embrace it not hug it not Vse the world as travellers and pilgrimes such are we they use things in their passage as they may further them towards their journeys end They see many goodly houses and much good land but they fixe not on them they suffer them to passe because their minde is on their countrey the place where they would be I remember what is storyed of a People whose countrey we only read of as we do of Platoes common-wealth It is a fiction but I intend the use They had of gold and silver good store to make their necessary provision with all but none for ostentation or shew to adorn their cubbords what could be spared from their very necessaries they must make thereof vessells of dishonour such as we set at our foot in plain English Chamber-pots or the like And there was this good in it said the merry Knight * Vâ—opiae Th. Mori lib. 2. pag. 160. when their silver and gold should be required they could not be unwilling to part with that which before they had set so low as their foot This gives us the very reason whence it is That some are so well contented when they are disposessed of their possessions when they had them they had them as if they had them not They kept them at their foot farre enough from their heart And being taken from them they loose but what before they counted losse a Phil. 3. 7. and so are able to take joyfully the spoyling of their goods b Heb. 10. But this is but halfe the reason the other necessarily followes For if we would not have our riches a snare unto us then as they must be set at the foot so Christ must be embraced as the onely Treasure and so laid to heart And this will be if we consider this to purpose which followes He made himselfe poore to make us rich he emptyed himselfe to fill us he stript himself to cloath us he was wounded that by his stripes we might be healed He was made a curse that we might be made a blessing He died that we might live If we think on this nothing can seeme too much to do nor too heavy to suffer for Him I remember a lovely answer of a Wife to her Husband And because a story depends upon it I will set down the whole relation which is this c Xenephon de Iustâ—tut Cyri. l. 3. pag. 203. Tigranes and Armenias the husband and the wife the father in law also All lay at Cyrus his mercy and when he might have taken away their libertie and their lives he dismissed them with honour granting them both So home they went well apaid When they were returned they began to commend Cyrus one for this and another for that what doest thou think said Tigranes to his wife Was not Cyrus a goodly person Truly Sir said she I cannot tell that for I looked not upon him No where were thy eyes woman on whom were they fixed On thee my deare husband said she who in my hearing didst offer thine own life a ransome for mine This gives us the reason why a good man and his goods are so easily parted whence it is that he breaks so easily through those snares his affections are more endeared to Christ Then hers were to her husband and the cause wherefore much more binding Aske then those who may properly be called the Spouse of Christ and demand of them What think ye of your possessions your livings your libertie your life They will answer They are lovely things for they are Gods blessings they came from His hand they must not be slighted in ours and they have made many wise men look backe as our Ieuell d Apol. 2. pag. 227. saith even as many as had not their faces stedfastly set toward Christ e Luk. â— 51. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But now that their eyes are fixed upon Him they see no beautie in them at all The strength of his love who poured forth His soul unto death and the brightnesse of that glory wherein Through Him they are sharers so holdeth their eye and so stedfastly that it cannot look downward to those things though otherwise very lovely with an adulteresse eye And so much to prevent snares from plentie the briefe of what was said therein is this If we deny not our riches they will cause us to deny the Lord and to say Who is Hee f Prov 30. 9. If then we would prevent a taking in that snare keep we earth and things thereon in their proper place at the foot g Psal 8. 6. If we exalt it it will presse us downeward lower then the place is where we dig it If we thinke of outwards above what is meet we shall thinke of our selves above what is comely And then our riches will be a strong Tower in our conceit h Prov. 18. 11. and we shall be so conceited of them so bottomed upon them so earthed in them that we shall say as before mentioned We are Lords we will come no more unto thee i Iere. 2. 31. And then we shall so pride our selves that we will contemne disdaine and scorne others better then our selves and so bring not our selves onely into a snare but the whole City nay we shall be as those who set a City on fire who blow it up as with Gun-powder k Prov. 28. 9. Inflammant sufflant Trem. So much for prevention of snares from Riches in a generall way now somwhat more particularly Riches have many snares where there is fulnesse and plenty there is plenty of them But one daughter there is of plenty and fulnesse which like the horseleach still cryeth give give but is never satisfied This a great snare and fitly called the great inchantresse of mankinde we commonly call it
borne blind So it was that the workes of God Iohn 3. 9. should be made manifest in him So we may say we have our eyes eares tongues hands which others have not That we might the more ptaise the Lord for His goodnesse and declare His workes toward the children of men These are the questions but upon the point it is but this single question and the very same and to the same purpose which the King makes to that I doe allude touching Mordecay What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecay x Esther 6. 3. for this So let this be the question What honour what service hath been done to the Lord He hath so honoured thee he hath so served thee be hath so and so preserved thee from the Paw of the Lyon and jaw of the beare so delivered thee Through his strength thou didst leap over such a wall He brought thee out of such a strait He supported thee in such weaknesses He supplyed thee in such a Wildernesse He gave successe to thee in such businesses What shall I say for we are confounded here He is the God not of some but of all consolations the Father of mercies And we can no more number them then we can the drops of the raine or of the dew or the Treasures of the snow and baile but we know who is the Father of them and out of whose Bowels these mercies come whereby thou hast been fed all thy life long and redeemed from evill we know the price of them too the very least of them is the price of bloud What honour hath been done for all this What peculiar Service that 's the single question If now thy heart make answer as we read in the foregoing place There is nothing done no peculiar service at all instead of being the Temple of His praise thou hast been the grave of His mercies They have been buried in thee they have brought forth no fruits if this be the answer of thy heart and so it condemne thee the Lord is greater then our hearts He will condemn much more And therefore it is high time to look into the Register of Gods mercies into the books of record And if these mercies have laine as things cast aside and of no account as dead things out of minde if so long and to this day forgot then now it is high time that thy rest should be troubled and sleep should not come into thy eye till thou hast looked over this Register and recorded the mercies of the Lord and so pressed them on thy conscience That it may answer out of a pure heart that something at the length is done some sacrifice of praise and thanks is returned to the Lord for all this This is the first thing to be done now and it is high time to do it Considering the season It is supposed that gray haires are upon thee here and there they are sugared now and like the hoary frost The Almond tree flourisheth thou art in the winter of thine age It is high time now to look about thee and to consider That is the first ground of consideration 2. That time is hasting whose portion and burden from the Lord is but labour and sorrow And then though we have time for our day lasteth while life lasteth yet no time to do any thing in it to purpose for then the Grasse-hopper is a burden So I make two periods of this age And each a ground to presse on unto a timely consideration The one I call declining age when we have lived almost to threescore yeares The other when we are drawing onward to fourescore c. extreame old age of both in their order 1. Both the one as well as the other is an age not more desired then complained of They knew best why that feele the burden of it I have not lived unto it It is likely that person complained not without cause who being willed to hasten her pace told them who were so quick with her That so she could not do for she carryed a great burden on her back And whereas no burden at all appeared to the eye she replyed again that threescore years were passed over her head and that was the burden Plaut And so it may well be with those whose spirits are much spent and strength wasted even at those yeares And then age it self alone is a burden I can speake little here out of experience But this I can say If God be pleased to stretch out my day so long I shall know no cause to complain of the length for that is a blessing Length of dayes is from the right hand Prov. 3. 16. Riches and honour from the left Only we must note here That if the Lord be pleased to shorten the day of this life to any person as sometimes He doth to His dearest and most obedient children their dayes are not long upon earth why yet if He eek out this short day here with an eternitie of dayes and pleasures at His right hand when they are taken hence if so that partie shall have no cause to complaine of a short day on earth so abundantly recompensed in heaven This is a note by the way If I say God be pleased to stretch forth my dayes so long I know no cause why I should complaine of a blessing I may complaine and just cause why I should and that bitterly but not for the accession of yeares If any thing sower them it is of mine owne Leaven and of my owne putting in Complaine of my selfe I may of them I may not Old age is a calme quiet and easie time if youth have done it no disservice in filling its bones before hand Nor no intemperance hath weakned its head or feete If so Old age hath just cause to complaine of the Man not the man of Old Age. There is no Guest in the world that is more desired and expected and yet when it comes worse welcomed and entertained then Old Age is still with sighes and complaints which we know argues bad welcome I would have my Child make good provision for it against it come and when it is come to give it good welcome Welcome I say I doe not say ease Good welcome doth consist we say in shewing a good and chearefull countenance to our guest not in giving him too much ease or feeding him too daintily Let it appeare thou hast laid up store against thy yeares come and now they are come thou canst welcome them and art glad they are come but doe not make too-much of them in giving them too much ease I may warne thee of it againe for Old Age is very craving very importunate that way though they may be importunate If thou yeeldest to a lithernesse and a listnesses whereto Old Age inclineth us very much and so to spare thy body thy activenesse will decay more in one moneth then otherwise it would in twelve It s observable what the Heathen
some who send their prayers and their praises after Soules departed But all helpes no more then doth the crying after a Bowle rub or runne now throwne out of the hand The hand sets the Bias and gives the bowle an impression and where the strength of that impression ceaseth there the Bowle lyeth all our running and calling and crying helpes nothing at all but to evidence clearely as the Anticke and ridiculous trickes of the Bowler so the vanity and unprofitablenesse of our after labours now that the soule is departed For then it is night with the Soule in respecâ— of any further worke the pit is open where there is no praise Then it either rests from his labour or is restlesse in paine There teares are wiped of or else they begin never to have end Weeping for evermore And this I note in passage that when we speake of Death we may be serious It was well answered by a Father to his Sonne who being Crossed in his humor wished hee were dead learne first what it is to live he that so lightly wisheth to dye is as he that flyeth from an yron weapon and a bow of steele striketh him through as Iob speaketh l Job 20. 24. Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord to what end is it for you m Amos 5. 18. Jer. 48 48. 43. 44. The day of the Lord is darknesse and not light as if a man did flee from a Lyon and a Beare meet him c. So the Prophet reprooved those who were dispisers of Gods Words and Workes and scoffed at His judgements It may instruct us to sobriety that we doe not for the avoyding of an inconvenience runne into a mischiefe It is dangerous to live in discontent to dye in it or to wish so to do is much more dangerous We ought to wish rather we may live and to count it a great mercy that we are spared till we can give a better account of our Time and are better fitted to dye Death indeed is the Churches portion and part of her joynture All are yours n Cor. 3. 21. 22 23. and amongst those severall parcels Death is yours and therefore it may be wished for and desired as lawfully as a Childe may desire to goe to bed or to his Father For the nature of Death is changed to the godly It is harmelesse now and hath lost its venome It is a passage to a better place a gate to Glory It is the accomplishment of Mortification and the end of labour Thus death is but not in its owne nature so it is a destroying hostile thing and so to our nature the most terrible of all Terribles And therefore not to be desired till we are assured that both the nature thereof and our nature also is changed And then also our desires must not be immoderate we must not long for it nor rejoyce exceedingly when we can finde the grave o Job 3. 21 22. This argueth too much shortnesse of spirit and some impatience under Gods Hand and more unwillingnesse then becometh to waite upon Him any longer we must patiently waite Gods Time remembring Eternity is a space long enough for God to shew mercy unto His when their faces shall waxe pale no more they shall rest for ever And therefore no matter if yet longer they waite His Time and abide His pleasure though with some griefe and paine to the flesh pleasures at His right Hand for evermore will abundantly recompense what ever pressures are from below But whether we dye sooner or later it is then safe dying when we can yeeld up our spirits as David did and with the same confidence Into thine Hand I commit my Spirit p Psal 31. 5. Thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of Truth It is safe casting a mans selfe upon God when he can say as Paul did whose I am and whom I serve q Acts 27. 23. We may then wish for Death when with old Simeon we can with the Armes of faith claspe and embrace Christ the fountaine of life Now lettest Thou thy Servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seene thy Salvation Then there is a peaceable departure when the soule hath such a vision And therefore pray thou and pray againe that the Lord would spare thee yet and yet longer till by a conscionable improvement of life health strength peace ordinances corrections also c. Thou hast got some good assurance certaine and stable That do depart hence is much better for thou shalt be ever with the Lord whose Thou art and whom Thou servest And which is the second lesson do not trifle away time nor delay here in a matter of so great consequence Let me remember here for we cannot think of any thing more to our purpose how the learned Knight complaineth of and convinceth the true unhappinesse of our condition and the dark ignorance which covereth the eyes of our understanding we onely saith he prize pamper and exalt Hist of the World 1 Book chap. 2. sect 3. p. 24. See preface pag. 19. this vassall and slave of Death and forget altogether the imprisoned immortall soul till the soul be going from out of one prison into another for when is it that we seriously think of death when examine we the great account which then we are to give up Never while we have one vanitie left us to spend we plead for titles till our breath fail us digge for riches whiles our strength enableth us exercise malice while we can revenge and then when time hath beaten from us both youth pleasure and health and that Nature it self hateth the house of old age we remember with Iob that we must go the Job 10. 21. and 17. 13. way from whence we shall not return and that our bed is made ready for us in the dark and then I say looking over late into the bottom of our conscience which pleasure and ambition had locked up from us all our lives we be-behold therein the fearfull images of our actions past and withall this terrible inscription That God will bring every Eccles 12. 14. work into judgement that man hath done under the Sun But what examples have ever moved us what perswasions reformed us or what threatnings made us afraid we behold other mens Tragedies plaid before us we heare what is promised and threatned but the worlds bright glory hath put out the eyes of our mindes and these betraying lights with which we onely see do neither look up towards termlesse joyes nor down towards endlesse sorrows till we neither know nor can look for any thing else at the worlds hands But let us not flatter our immortall souls herein For to neglect God all our lives and know that we neglect Him to offend God voluntarily and know that we offend Him casting our hopes on the peace which we trust to make at parting is no other then a rebellious presumption and that which is the