This is a worke for Him and peculiar to Him Who turned Iordan back Who made the Iron Swimme Makes the Clouds those massie bodies to hang in the Aire as if they had no weight Who makes Mountaines Vallies and rough things even Raiseth children of stones stony hearts and made dry Bones live And the Parents worke in this case is to sit still I meane not any slacking of their endeavour that is to goe into his closet and spread this Peremptory bent of nature he sees in his Childe or not subdued in himselfe as the King the Letter before the Lord c 2 King 1â— 14. and to say it is Luthers Counsell d Poeaitendum mihi praecipis sed talis sum ego miser quod sentio me nolle neque posse quare this prostratus pedibus c. Concio de poenâ—tent Anno Dom. 1518. Here is an Heart that cannot turn that will not turne turne it Lord it is Thy Worke Thine onely Turne it as Thou didst the Rivers in the South Thus where Nature is Peremptory and what we are to do in that case Nothing but look up to Him Who caused the Sunne to goe back and so the shadow in the Diall But it is otherwise in things wherein nature admitteth a latitude for we may see that a straight glove will come more easily on with use And that a wand will by use bend otherwise then it grew and by use of the voice we speak lowder and stronger and that by use of induring heate and cold we indure it the better e See a Treatise of Vse and Custome p. 26. and 39. and 69. And here in the God of Nature Who onely can change Nature and supply what man cast away and is wanting would have Man active and stirring and admits him as a fellow-worker with Himselfe By this I would gaine but thus much That I might evince the necessitie of a vertuous education and inhance the worth of the same I meane that we might set a price upon it and no ordinary one neither It were an easie taske here to enter into a common place and to give a Laudative hereof which would fill the margent and the lines Sufficeth it to know first f Reade Hist of the World first Book 4. Chap. Sect. 11. p. 14. Quint. declaris Orat. Isocrat Areopag 217. in sol That Nothing after Gods reserved power doth so much set things in or out of Square and Rule as education doth Secondly That we have no other means to recover our sickly and crasie nature I know my words are too short but I mean not in things that are high concerning God for in them she is not sick but dead no other meanes to pull it out of the Rubbish of Adams and of our own Ruins and to smooth over the face of it againe beautifying the same and making it comely no other means I say left us then to apply the Georgicks g p. 236. of the minde as that Noble Scholler Phraseth it he means the husbandry and Tillage thereof The effects we see in the husbanding our grounds and they are great and admirable The good Tillage of the minde produceth as great effects and concerneth man more as he thinks himselfe of more worth then a clod of earth It hath such a forcible operation as hardly any length of time or contention of labour can countervaile it afterwards we remember the old saying the truth whereof is more ancient then is the verse Ingenuas didicisse fideliter artes c. This Culture and manurance of the minde taketh away the wildnesse and barbarisme and fiercenesse of mens mindes it subdueth savage and unreclaimed desires But then as the great Scholler noteth also The accent had need be upon fideliter h p. 82. that is The Culture and manurance of the minde must not be superficiall We deale not so with our ground but it must be laboured in faithfully heartily coÌ„tinually so the husbandman doth in his ground it findes him work all the yeer long And he doth his work throughly he doth not plant here a spot and there a plat of ground but he tils the ground all over that what he can and as the nature of the ground is capable he may make all fruitfull And so we must intend this businesse as we would that thing which concerns the Parent and the Childe more then any thing in the world besides yea more then a World is worth Being confident of this That all things by labour and industry may be made better then Nature produced them And that God so ordained it That the industry of man should concurre in all things with the Works of Nature both for the bringing of them to their perfection and for the keeping of them therein being brought unto it i See Dr. Hack. Apol. lib. 2. cap. 9. Sect. 3. p. 143. Having now concluded the worth of a vertuous education and the necessitie of the same it followes That my own practise be somewhat answerable to the Rule Therefore have I penned mine own Duty with mine own hands which may serve for a parent at large to direct and teach him his This I have digested into two parts each entire of themselves but yet as different in the subject matter and manner of handling as is the subject I would informe In the first part a Childe in its minoritie and younger yeers the second a Childe growne up Both the one and the other the subject of a Parents care and charge which in the first part is largely treated on with the manner or way how he may discharge the same The way is to make the Childe know himselfe then to know that which may be known of God k Rom 110. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is manifest for God hath shewed it unto him by that he sees and feeles of Him so haply he may feele after Him and finde Him l Acts 17. 27. This then is my subject now even The good culture of the Childe an old Theame whereto little that is new can be added either for forme or matter Yet because it is a work daily repeated and of Infinite concernment to the Childe And being a parent my selfe I obtained of my selfe naturally very indisposed to my pen to set downe out of some continued experience and some conversation with Children and Books concerning that Theame what I thought pertinent to that businesse The furthering and improving that great worke What now remaines as an introduction thereto I branch under these heads First making this my scope the good Culture of the Childe and being to note some wants and Deficiencies therein I shall first briefly observe such defects as my riper yeers have discerned in my own education the trayning up my younger yeers which may be of some use to others for prevention Secondly I shall note a naturall defect which troubled me very much For I thought it the greatest crosse in the world but it proved no
no more for present there for it will fall in my way againe in a fitter place but that from thence I was sent to the Vniversitie soon enough and raw enough So my Master advised and then my Mother was perswaded for he was counted an Oracle It remembers me how Iunius his Grandfather did sometimes indorse his letter to his sonne who he thought at that time might have spent his time to better purpose To t Dionysio dilecto filio misso ad studendum pro eo quod alii vulgò inscribunt studenti Vita Junii praefix Oper. Theol. Dionisius my beloved sonne sent to study And to study I was sent also as a means tending to a farther end which failed and though little I did yet I sate at it what awed me so for there was a providence in it I shall tell anon And such was the good providence also I was disposed to a Tutor the ablest amongst many and most conscientious of his duty and as skilfull to teach his Schollers theirs Touching some Tutors and their proceeding with their Pupils then and now if according to the old and most ordinary fashion as I think it not a patterne for imitation so I know it to be above my Censure I shall note a Defect which I may be bold to censure A fundamentall one it is yet not so properly mine as that it is not common to the most now as it was then sent to the Colledge as I was before I was fitted There we shall finde helps from other Arts which will give Forme to Matter But if we want Matter what should we do with our Forme I was put to Logick and Rhetorick before I was prepared or fitted for either Those grave Sciences as the Noble Scholler u 2 Book 99. lat pag. 75. saith the one for judgement the other for ornament doe suppose the Learner ripe for both else it is as if one should learne to weigh or measure or to paint the winde Those Arts are the rules and Directions how to set forth and dispose Matter And if the minde be empty and unfraught thereof if it hath not gathered that which Cicero calleth Sylva supellex stuffe and variety to begin with those Arts it doth work but this effect That the wisdome of those Arts which is great and Universall will be made almost contemptible and degenerate into Childish Sophistry So said that noble Scholler who hath not a word too light But empty and unfraught though I was yet to these Arts I was put and my benefit there-from was answerable so little as that I shall never recover those Defects For Defects which grow up with us in youth are as hardly amended in after time as the errour in the first concoction is corrected in the Second And yet if I should say that many were then and now are sent to the Universitie more empty and unfraught then I was I should say but the truth I did not cast away my howers there though for want of good order and method in my studies I spent not my time there to much purpose I fleeted Read the L. Cokes advise before his second part of Reports which he borrows part of it out of Sen. ep 108. and flutter'd from book to book variously tasting off many but digesting none some rude notions I had of the Arts but was not acquainted at all with the bodies of Disciplines I gathered some ends together so as that my collections that way and provision of learning was as our Advancer x pag. 222. compareth it like a Frippers or Brokers shop that hath ends of every thing but nothing of worth I have noted this also as my owne Deficiency for so it was more there are who proceed as inorderly as I did and that they may be better advised and directed I have noted it A defect they shall finde it and no ordinary one The next defect I shall note for there is use in it also is this I lost the fruit of disputation quite The benefit whereof is no little to a Boy if he be not through the default of the Moderator a right Sophister contending about Goats haire which is Childish Sophistry a vaine jangling about nothing and of nothing comes nothing or if they contend not with blows and bad language I mean as once it was with hard iron in stead of solid arguments Let the folly and abuses hereof be prevented by the wise over-sight of the Governours so shall the dispute be wisely carried and then assuredly much Advantage shall accrew thereby both to them that dispute and them that heare I durst not put my selfe forth therein for then my tongue was very imperfect when I was not ready in what I was to speak as in Disputations I could not be but in other exercises Declamations and the like I was best because most exercised therein and those I had so perfect that I could see my selfe speake Another defect there was and deserveth Censure I charged my paper book with many notes my memory with few or none at all had I gone on so The Scholler had lost if not quite his Treasurer yet he had put it out of office The most faithfull Servant in the world if it be called to an account constantly if not the very worst a very Slug a Nihil aequè vel augetur curâ vel negligentiâ intercidit Qâ—intil l. 11. cap. 2. Let there be a Recognition of what we heare or reade a chewing of it againe for as conference with others is the life of studie so meditation is the life of reading then we may book it we may and must take some briefe heads of it at first b Certissimum est quod in librum refâ—rtur sidel sâ—imum adjutorem memoriae cum id quod sola recordationenitatur facile possit dâ—uturnitate temporis vel penitùs extingui vel saltem corrumpi Bright in Revel cap 5 I allow not of those who make memory their store-house for at their greatest need they shall want of their store L. Coke ep 1. before his first part but charge the memory rather then the book Call it to an account so may a man prove as famous for memory as our Iewell c Read his life was who had the Artindeed or if not so for that was extraordinary and there is a different strength of memory as of other faculties not in all alike yet this recalling of things and charging of memory so as it may be par oneri not overcharged will prove a sure Art and most usefull d Si quis unam maximamque a me artem memoriae quaerat exercitatio est labor Quintil. ibid. I could give here a full Tale of my Defects for I know many and I could censure them too none better but I shall reserve them for a fitter time and place these are fittest for publike and serve best to correct others for from these I had most disadvantage as others shall
A SONS PATRIMONY AND DAVGHTERS PORTION Payable to them at all times but best received in their first times when they are young and tender Laid-out without expence of money only in the improving time and words with them Contained in an answerablenesse to their Ages in two VOLUMES In the first The PARENT is taught his duty to teach it his child betimes To heare To speak To doe when and where to put him to schoole after that to a Calling which must be fitted to his inclination as a garment to his back for the childes inclination makes the surest indenture to binde him to his Trade In all this he may be taught in a way if the Parent will apply his minde to understand and to put the more observation upon it as plaine easie and familiar as the way hee walkes in In the second The CHILDE is taught to know himselfe and God To take direction from His mouth for his safe passage here through all his Ages and therein how to answer all his relations that when he ceaseth to live here he may live for ever with the LORD PSAL. 34. 11. DEUT. 12. 28. Come ye children harken unto me I will teach you the feare of the Lord that it may goe well with you and with your children after you for ever when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord thy God CHRYSOST As our Seminaries or seed plots are such are the Land and Nation As the Parents house and schoole are such are the Town and City Published in the yeare of hope and expectation that the private house and schoole shall be reformed much out of order now and quite besides the Rule Printed for T. Vnderhill and are to be sold at the Bible in Woodstreet 1643. A Premonition to the PARENT TO undeceive you herein for we hate deceit in any thing know That this book was published 3 yeers ago but through a mistake in the Author not acquainted with the mysterie of Stationing or selling books it was pent up in a chamber ever since there it had lain still had not he been moved about it by a zealous well-wisher to the good of parent and child both To give the purpose and intendment of all that in the Title which is largely treated on in the book This the Author hath done in truth sincerity not making shew in the Title of more then is not truly in the book Some passages there are in the book perhaps too high raised above thy reach capacitie but wherein thy duty lies and that is all along there it is as plain as is the beaten way if you come with a resolution to observe and mark it if not I know not what is easie but our own way and that tends directly to destruction Truly to speak my mind what I think this is it That this time is the season for this book for probable it is we wil harken to it now because we smart now pain and sorrow is upon us from what we fear yea frō what we feel too likely it is we will harken now or never And if we do so we must needs learn That all this evill is from our little house within the breast and the greater house without Let every man doe his own work his duty reform there where God hath made him overseer then the work is done the sword will be still And this is the scope and purpose of the book A word is enough to the wise especially such who are made wise by blows VVEE whose names are under-wrirten well acquainted with the scope and purpose of this Book Tending to an an orderly proceeding in a well-Timed Reformation of our selves first and our children betimes doe give our attestation thereunto heartily and in all faithfulnesse Edm Calamy Iohn Goodwin Ioseph Caryll Ier. Burroughes Will. Greenehill A CHILDES PATRIMONY LAID OVT VPON THE GOOD CVLTVRE OR TILLING OVER HIS WHOLE MAN The first Part Respecting a Childe in his first and second Age. Whom thou hast borne unto me Ezek. 16. In the feare of the Lord is strong Confidence and his Children shall have a place of refuge Prov. 14. 26. Filium pater c. A Parent must offer his Childe to the Lord he must not deferre that as he hath been a means to give it a life here he may conferre something toward the obtaining for it a better life hereafter Chrysolog Serm. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianz. orat 20. p. 323. London printed by I. Legatt 1640. Imprimatur Iune 28. 1639. Tho. Wykes TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVLL AND MUCH HONOURED Knight Sr. ROBERT PYE. SIR A Triviall Businesse hath made an Intrusion upon yours of weight A very Schoole point so in account but worthy a very Wise Mans Consideration even yours I need say little of it it is big-enough and can speake for it selfe An old and ordinary subject it is but newly handled and in no ordinary way I will say no more of it but this and it is enough It concerns a Parent Infinitely Infinitely yes It directs a Parent To Tender the Childe Seasonably To love it Truely To Resigne it Humbly To Traine it up Faithfully so as it may be of much use In and To his Generation promoting the Glory of his Great Master as becometh heartily That Parent and Childe may rejoyce together here and here-after for ever with the Lord of high and Infinite use this for it leads to an happy Eternity The doubt is how you will take the prefixing your Name hereunto I cannot resolve that But what induced me thereto you shall heare and I hope allow It is not to seek your patronage as the manner is for it hath licence to go abroad and whether it finds kinde entertainment or no is not the Burthen of my Care Nor is it to beg your hand as the great Ambition is to set me higher in the World wherein when Time was and my thoughts were much above my worth you shewed your readinesse and I forget it not The Truth is I have lived in so low a Station and so long and I thank God heartily for it that it is so low and for that known weaknesse which forced and moulded my minde to it and at length framed my minde so contentedly in it for a great providence concurred here that I have not so much as a thought or minde had I the opportunitie to rise higher Nay I ever thought since I could think to purpose but it was once a sad thought that I was as uncapable of preferment here in the World as a piece of Earth is to become a Starre so I thought and it was no vaine thought for it made me I hope the more ambitious after that world where if my weight keep not down I may be above the Starre in Glory It was not then either This or That what then I am now telling you I am a worthlesse parcell of that house whose chiefe Supporter fell first
Childe cannot skill at all We must deale with our Children as with our fingers it is Plutarchs e De fraterno Amore. p. 360. comparison and he saith it makes much for maintaining the bonds of love betwixt brethren at writing and at our musicke whether of voice or instrument so likewise in other employments we bring all five fingers All doe helpe and the very least finger comes in with its grace and hath its share as well as the formost though it hath not the like strength nor can it adde much to the furthering the worke Just so with Children and then we have the scope of the similitude which tends but to this That we use all gentlenesse towards the weake Childe and that we give it no discouragement but praise and incouragement rather above its proportion This is the third lesson We have observed both from former and latter experiences That Parents and Children both are great troublers of themselves because great projectours and able well enough they thinke to guide their owne course He that will tell his observation must say thus That Parents doe ordinarily designe their Children being yet young whereof more in a fitter place one to this profession and another to that The third and youngest the weakest also both for Nature and parts to the Ministry as if it were as easie a matter to make the Childe a Minister I speake in the Parents Dialect as to teach him the art of cobling shooes But so he hath designed them and accordingly projects for them and ordinarily as crosse as he ordered his Dinner who put his pottage into a Sieve and his bread into a platter not according to their nature and ingeny which must be looked unto but as the Parents purse is and the way towards preferment leadeth The Childe also will be but little behinde the Parent short spirited and all for the present He hath been drawing Maps of his desires and hath calculated his owne inclination and sees his fitnesse for that condition of life his Parent hath cut him out and designed him unto And if all things were as ready as the Childe thinks himselfe if the place whereof the Parent hath the Advousion were but vacant that he might step in how well he could fit it and discharge it also in his conceit Such bubbles these young folke are specially if they have tasted of the Arts and are put into good Clothes then they think all things else are answerable to the vanity of their mindes which fills them and pleaseth them making them think of themselves above that which is meete That they are some great ones Act. 8. 9. This is the folly which we may too ordinarily observe both in the Parent and the Childe both imitating Children For what else are these things which they have fained to themselves and drawne such faire pleasing Maps of but like clay-castles and Pies which Children have set up now and will downe anone And yet about these follies these windy speculations doth the Parent perhaps the Childe too pierce himselfe with many dividing distracting cares And all this †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disquieting in vaine is because they think they are able to order their own steps to cut their own course Note we this then for this is the lesson 4. He that sits in the Heaven and whose eyes runne through the earth He it is Who is the great Pilot Who steers our course through the Sea of this World And though we think least of Him because we thinke our selves wise enough and Some-thing yet when we have thought all we can think and wearied our selves out with thoughts and tumbled about the batches yet our course must be as He that sits at the Sterne will have it And assuredly they that can look up to that Hand not slacking their endeavours nor letting their hands hang down d Descriptio hominis inertis animum despondentis Jun. Heb. 12. 12. If we can be patient God will be profitable but the Times and meanes we must leave to Him not chalenge to our selues Felth. Res 60. p. 186. they who can quietly resigne themselves to that all disposing eye they shall at the end arrive if not where they desired yet where they shall say is best for them For He onely knows His compasse and will steere such a course as shall be best for the Parent and Childe both if they can expect and waite the Lords time and Answer And for the better staying the Parent from making haste and perswading with him to pluck downe these high and vaine thoughts like Castles in the Aire without any foundation wherewith he troubles and disquieteth himselfe in vaine touching his Childe Let him take these Directions which are brought to my hand touching this point 1. We who are Parents must take speciall care about our Generall Calling how we answer that great and honourable name which is called upon us so likewise for our Children Thoughts heereof must busie us And herein we should remember this rule Christianity is a matter rather of Grace then of Gifts of Obedience then of Parts Gifts may come from a more common work of the spirit and more for others then our selves Grace comes from a peculiar favour of God and specially for our owne good And so if the Parent direct the Childe also he shall teach it a Trade which is surer then house or Land 2. For a particular Calling we must be very wary as in behalfe of our selves so of our Children That we walke not above the parts and Graces we see in them for then we shall put them into another condition then ever God ordained them for The issue whereof will be discouragement in themselves and disgrace from others As a warranted Calling warranted I meane by the Word of God where of in a fitter place is no small warrant for comfort so the fitnesse of our parts for this Calling what ever it be is the best warrant that any man hath that he is Called thereunto And he must remember That no Calling is so meane but a man may finde enough to give account for And meane though it be yet faithfulnesse will commend a person in the lowest condition of life And unfaithfulnesse will poure contempt upon the height of Dignity as a spewing upon that Glory Our Master in Heaven regards not how high a man is but how faithfull he is e God hath given thy Brother a great gift to thee a little one He hath proportioned the work accordingly and so spares thee Blesse His Name therefore and be faithfull in thy little so maist thou receive a great Reward His great and thy little came out of the same Treasury and was dispensed by the same Hand Doe not call God to an account why He gave thee little and thy Brother much but labour thou to be accountable for thy Measure Chrysost 1 Cor. 12. Hom. 29. The maine work then of a Parent with his Childe at
but the waters there-out followed them so the Parents pray That this water may ever follow the childe as a fresh spring still Ch. 1. sect 3. quickening washing refreshing untill the day of refreshing shall come This is their dutie now and this is all they can do beside the tending of it and this their dutie and their life must end together Now the childe lyes at the mothers breast or in the lap she is the nurse without question or so she should be though it is a resolved case that in some cases she cannot and in some she may not mercy must be regarded before this sacrifice But looke we still That mercy be not the pretence and ease the thing that is pleaded for that alters the case very much and will not prove a sufficient excuse wherewith to put off so bounden a dutie The * Aul. Gel. lib. 12. cap. 1. Macrob lib. 5. cap. 11. Erasm puerp Heathen have spoke enough to this point and more then all the Christians in the world can answer for the deserting and putting off unlesse in the cases before pointed at this so naturall and engaged a service At the mothers breast then we suppose the childe is and the eyes are open abroad it looks nothing delights it they shut againe as if it would tell the Parent what they should be now and it selfe hereafter both crucified to the world and the world to them 3. The childe is yet so little that here is little for the father to do yet All that is and it is no little worke is in his closet But besides that for it is the mothers worke too here is work for the mother enough It must be tended though it sleepe much more when it is awake And here is the observation It is hard to say which is more the mothers tendernesle or the childes frowardnesse and yet how they agree how they kisse one the other as if the parent were delighted with it It is an affection somewhat above nature implanted for the preservation of man so the Heathen could say by the God of mercy otherwise it might not be so for the more froward it is the more she tenders the little thing And it much encreaseth the childes score which he can never pay The Parent and the childe can never cut scores or strike tallies for they will never lye even 4. Infancy is a dreame we say The most part of it is Ch. 1. sect 4 5. spent in the cradle and at the breast the remainder in dressing and undressing Little can be said to it And yet something may be done even the first two yeers for the framing of the body as Nurses know best but something it is and the fashioning of the minde too and the younger it is with the better successe I have read of a great Conquerour yet not so great as that he could overcome his passions or an ill custome it is a second nature he learnt an unbeseeming gesture at the brest and shewed it on his throne If I remember his Nurse was blamed for it for she might have remedied it while the parts were tender Some-thing may be done also for the fashioning of the minde and preventing of evill It is much what they who are below Christians have spoken and practised this way which I passe over Note we The first tincture and dye hath a very great power beyond ordinary conceit or my expression And therefore observe well what they do who are about this childe not yet three yeers old and what the childe doth It may soone learne some evill and that evill may grow past helping quickly Looke to the eye and eare all goes indifferently in as well as at the Mouth and you shall smell the Caske presently just what the liquor was Keep the inward and hid-man as you should do the outward neat and free from contagion and corruption as young as it is it may receive a bad tincture and that entreth easily now which will not depart without difficultie 5. I have heard a childe sweare before he could creepe Qui jurat cumrepit quid noâ— adultus faciet Quin. Aug. Confess lib. cap. 7. hereupon the heathen man hath asked what will such an one do when it is grown up I have seene a childe threaten yet it could not strike and scratch before it could hurt and pale with anger it was Augustines observation because another did partake of its milke And this corruption which so soone will shew it self is strangely furthered by a foolish practise Give me a blow childe and I will beat what hath offended This teacheth revenge betime that daring and presumptuous sinne for it disthrones God and puts the law out of office I say that practise leades unto it as we might Chap. 1 sect 5 easily observe if we would observe any thing Many thinke that the Time is not yet it is yet too soone to be so watchfull over the childe But by this neglect and putting off we suffer matter of trouble to be prepared We neglect not a sparke because it is little but we consider how high it flies and how apt things about it are to take fire There is no greater wisedome said that great Scholler then well to Lord Verul Essayes 21. 125. Time the Beginnings and on sets of things Dangers are no more light if they once seeme light Our dutie is to looke to small things they leade to great Is custome no small matter said one who was short of a Christian Shorten the childe in its desires now specially if it be hasty and cry and will have it Then say some the childe must have it say I no but now it should not Shorten it here and the rather because it cryes if he have it give him it when it is still and quiet Correction rather when it cryes Let it not have its will by froward meanes Let it learne and finde that they are unprofitable and bootlesse A childe is all for the present but a Parents wisedome is to teach it to waite Much depends on it thereby a Parent may prevent eagernesse and shortnesse of spirit which else will grow up with the childe and prove a dangerous and tormenting evill We shall helpe this hereafter and soone enough say some Let the childe have its will now it is but a childe And be it so but that is the way to have a childe of it as long as it liveth As Sr. Thomas More said to his Lady after his manner wittily but truely They might as well say they will bend the childe hereafter when it is as stiffe as a stake though they neglect it at the present when it is as tender as a Sprig I will tell my observation I have knowne some children who might not be shortned least it should shorten their growth what they would have they should have for they were but children these have lived to shorten their Parents dayes and their own and to fill all with
knows he is in darknesse and is sensible of the danger Therefore it falls out ordinarily that he scapeth and preventeth danger because he is so sensible of the same what I feare most is like to do me least hurt for it is likely I am prepared for prevention It is not so with a man walking in ignorance and darknesse of minde He goes on boldly and confidently according as the proverb is he discernes no danger he cannot fear it The former by his carefulnesse may not fall The latter by his ignorant carelesenesse must needs fall it is not possible to be otherwise The former if he fall he will surely rise again for he knoweth he lieth not where he would The other falling lieth still and can never rise again till a light appeare unto him the one knoweth where he is and what he doth the other knoweth nothing as he ought to know There is one we may call that one as Satan called himself Legion for that one is many who holdeth ignorance to be the mother of devotion but that one is the mother of fornications and thence it is that she prevaileth with them and deceives so many for as she hath gained so she holds all she hath gained by the tenure of ignorance There is a farre greater difference betwixt a well knowing and conscientious man and an ignorant person then is betwixt a man walking in the Sun and working by it and another walking in the night when neither Moon nor Starre appeares The one clearely setteth forth the other he that worketh by the Sunne seeth all cleare about him where he is and what he doth and why he doth it he that is in darknesse discerneth nothing nor can do any thing as he ought to do and yet which is much worse living in the darknesse of ignorance he discerneth not his danger He that doth in any part understand what ignorance is and the fearfull effects of the same this ignorant man doth not will pray for himself and his as they who were upon the sea and in great danger They wished for the day m Acts 27. 29. Send forth Lord thy light and thy truth through thy tender mercie let the Day-spring from on high visit us Thus he wisheth for the day And now This Day-spring from above hath visited us we that once walked in darknesse have seen a great light and the glory thereof we have seen as the glory of the onely Sonne of God upon us who dwelt in the shadow of death hath this light shined Oh happy are the people then that are in such a case how blessed are they to whom the Sun of righteousnes hath appeared they are children of the day and of the light it is day with them alwayes day though neither Moon nor Starres appeare that is though they finde no influence from the earth or regions bordering thereupon But clean contrary it is with them to whom this Sunne of Righteousnesse appeareth not or against whom they shut their eyes as some will do though as the proverb is we should shew them the n Lact. 7. 1. Nec si Solem in manibus gestemus fidem commodabunt ei doctrine Sun in our hands seeing but will not see How miserable are the people that are in such a case they sit in darknesse as they do on the other side of the globe when the Sun is with us nay worse then so they dwell in a land dark as Aegypt was even in the land of the shadow of death For though they have the Moon and Starres upon them I mean the confluence of all outward things yet they sit in darknesse in deep darknesse For as the Sun is to this outward world so is the Lord Christ the Sun of Righteousnesse to the world of beleevers without Him it is all dark with Him it is still light like the land of Goshen happy are the people that are in such a case blessed are the people whose God is the Lord Send forth thy truth Lord and thy light and through the tender mercy of our God let the Day-spring from above visit us This may take up our thoughts very seasonably when the darknesse of the night is past and the comfort of the day is come And it may set an edge upon our desires after the principall thing o Eccles 2. 13. knowledge wisdome understanding For wisdome excelleth folly as light excelleth darknesse And the wise-mans eyes are in his head but the fool walketh in darknesse Knowledge in the minde is as the eye in our little world or as the Sun in the great Thus much by way of Analogie or agreement betwixt the eye or great light of the world and the true light Note we now wherein they disagree and their operation is contrary for it yeelds a great lesson The great eye of the world doth lighten those who have eyes and by a naturall power can apprehend that light They whose eyes are dark have no benefit by it But the true Light lightneth them p Lege Cal. Inst 2. 2. 25. who have no principle of light within them them and them onely who are all darknesse and know themselves so to be and for such who think themselves lightsome and seeing men they are left to the vanitie of their own thoughts If q John 9. 41. ye were blinde ye should have no sinne but now ye say we see therefore your sinne remaineth It is of high g use and specially requires our consideration 2. The day is come and the sunne appeareth so the Creatour thereof hath appointed that it should know its rising and thereby to renew and and refresh the face of things The instruction is touching the might of His power and the riches of His grace creating light in the Soul who at the first brought it out of the wombe of darknesse and causing the light of comfort to arise unto His servants in the darkest night of affliction for it is He also that curneth the shadow of Death into the Morning r Amos 5. 8. And this affordeth a righteous people an hint for a glorious dependance they know that as sure as the morning follows the night so the Sun of righteousnesse will appeare with healing under his wings for if the Sun know his appointed time much more the Lord knoweth His and the Sun of righteousnesse His season when and how to comfort those that wait for Him as they that wait for the morning 3. The appearance of the Sun instructs us touching the glory of His appearance and the exceeding joy the righteous shall be filled with all at that Day For if it be so comfortable to see the light how comfortable will it be to see Him that is the Light of that light If this elementary Sun be so glorious and full of light what then is the Sun of Righteousnesse And if it be so comfortable to see this light how ravishing Å¿ Lege Basil Hex Hom. 6. will that joy be
same Noble scholler saith for us to make a perfect discovery of the more remote and deeper parts of knowledge standing the while but upon the flat or levell of this naturall knowledge There is another sort and they are the most who stumble at the other extreame They behold the creatures the works of nature of God rather but do no more but behold them they stay and dwell upon the superficies or out-side of the work further they passe not either to what is within or to what it tends unto There are two most simple and primitive trades of life ancient and once honourable trades both though now as was said * Preface pag. 21. Cooks are of more esteem because the old simplicitie of life and livelihood are out of fashion Two trades I say and they maintain the state of the world The one of shepheardie the other of husbandrie They who are versed herein should be if they are not truants well instructed men for their books which are full of instruction are still in their eye and they are still poring upon them They live still in the view of heaven and of the earth the one tending his sheep the other driving his oxe and horse and yet though thus they do yet have they gained no more true understanding from their observations in either then the sheep or oxe have which they tend and drive Experience tells us that the shepheard and the husbandman are the most ignorant persons in the world Though yet I know very well that both these do know what sheep and which ground yeelds them most profit and the way they know how to make them most serviceable that way and all this they may know and yet remain most ignorant notwithstanding as for the most part they are no more understanding have they in those chief things and lessons which the beholding the earth and the heaven might yeeld them then the oxe or the horse have which they follow which was Mr Dearings complaint long since And whence this stupiditie or grosse ignorance There can be no other reason hereof but this that they do behold the creature and no more as so saith the proverb An oxe looketh on a gilded gate Their senses report no more to the minde but that they have seen it no more A fault carefully to be avoided for he that is unfaithfull in earthly things shall never have greater matters committed unto him and he who carrieth a negligent eye or eare towards the works and voice of nature gathering no instructions thence though the characters are most legible there and her voice cleare and audible shall finde no more capacity in himself for higher truths There is a place in the Apocrypha which is worth our taking notice of it will help to lead us the way betwixt those extreames it meets also with that stupiditie even now mentioned and corrects the same The wise man in the 38 chapter of his book verse 26. I Eccles. 38. vers 26. â—â— Eng. 25. reade after Iunius his translation for our English verse 25. may deceive us puts a grave and weighty question and it is concerning him who holds the plough and such persons who maintain the state of the world the question is Whereby shall a man be made wise At the last verse of the chapter in the Latine Translation he answers By nothing unlesse Vers 39. nisi qui adjâ—cerit animum suum c. he be such an one who will apply his minde and meditation on the Law of the most High It is a place not lightly to be passed over The husbandman in that place may seem to have as he reades and so pleades his ease a dispensation for his grosse ignorance but it is nothing so That Scripture tells us thus much and it is worth the noting that though he holds the plough which sheweth him the r Luke 9. 62. constancy of an holy profession for he looks straight before him he doth not look back much lesse take off his hand though he ploweth up the ground which sheweth him as in a glasse the sorenesse of afflictions how the wicked plow upon the Å¿ Psal 129. Micah 3. 12. backs of the righteous and what pains he should take with his own t Jer. 4. 3. heart also So preparing it for the true seed the word of life though he casteth in the seed still in the season and that he might understand his own season lookes to see again the very same seed which he sowes the very same u Job 4. 8. Hosea 8. 7. chap. 10. vers 12. 13. Galat. 67. 8. and with a large encrease but it rots and dies in the earth x 1. Cor. 15. 36. John 12. 24. Chrysost in locum Hom. 41. α. first which answers the great objection and cuts the knot as I may say with its own sword The body cannot rise again because it dies and rots in the earth nay because it dies and rots therefore it shall rise and he is a fool in the Apostles sense who seeth not so much in the sowing and reaping his grain Though this husbandman seeth all this yet he seeth not he understandeth nothing thereby he is not made the wiser by it By what he speaks we may know what his heart doth indite no songs of praise unto his God He will notwithstanding glory in his goad all his talk will be of bullocks for he giveth his minde to make furrows and all his diligence is to give the kine fodder all is for the earth there on he layeth out the pretious stock of time and strength thither to he bends himself he entertaineth not a thought whereby to raise himself higher and it must needs be so unlesse he shall apply his minde another way and meditate on the law of his God when he shall do so then every thing shall instruct him and make him wise and not before Here now we have our lesson and the way to make our walk profitable we must apply our minde to that we see and we must meditate on the Law of our God That is the man who will learn by every thing that hath inured and accustomed his heart to compare earthly things with heavenly to trade his spirit to heavnely things by earthly occasions He shall be made wise who hath a gift it must be given from above to be heavenly that is to make every creature which is the work of a sanctified fancy a ladder to heaven to turn ordinary properties of the creature or common occasions to heavenly meditations This I say is the man who will profit by his walk being now in the open view of the heaven and the earth and observing Gods great works in both To conclude and to instance so making the thing plain that man shall gain much by his observations who hath but so much understanding as seeing a sheep before the shearer to see also the meek-abiding and patience of the Saints seeing an
note our perfection here is our strife after perfection And after this ye strive too as the Apostles wish was even your perfection d 2 Cor. 13. 9. O how good and blessed a thing it is to stirre up to encourage one the other the husband the wife the wife the husband the Parent the Childe the Childe the Parent c. Let us go on to perfection e Heb. 6. 1. ye doe I doubt not but ye doe strive after this ye doe labour it is a grave word but it f 2 Cor. 5. 9. looseth of its weight in our Language for it implieth such paines as a man will take to climbe up to the pinnacle of honour g See the Book page 9. lesse labour will not serve for we intend an higher place so ye strive That ye may be accepted of the Lord that ye may live for ever with Him Oh it is good to strive here and not to faint It is for eternitie and for a crowne lasting so long and unlike other crownes still flourishing even to everlasting Gird up your loines That is put to all your strength and the Lord strengthen your hands to lay hold hereon and strengthen you the more the more feeble Age hath made you and the nearer you are to the putting it on Be as ye have been and be more abundant Eies h Job 29. 1◠to the blinde feete to the lame that the blessing of them that are ready to perish may come down upon you as the Dew upon the grasse and your praiers may ascend as Incense coming up in remembrance before the Lord. But above all look to the root of all Faith Gods great work i John 6. 29. and gift restore that may be filled with joy in the Lord. Yee see now the full scope of my words even to leade you to hopes on high for they will send your thoughts on high they will purge quicken stirre up they will elevate and advance the soule to a wonderfull height And now that my words have attained this end as I hope they have even to set your affections hearts heads hands all a work ye labour to be accepted of the Lord my words shall here end also so soone as I have onely mentioned the Apostles fare-well I commend you to God and the word of his Grace n and have subscribed my selfe Your worships in a double obligation EZEKIAS WOODVVARD THE PREFACE PREPARING THE EARE OF him or her who is a Childe in understanding My deare Childe HItherto thou hast been an hearer onely growing up as my papers fill'd and as an accession of yeers through Gods goodnesse gave some addition to thy growth and capacitie so did I to the strength weight of my Instructions I suppose thee now growne up and thy knowledge answerable to thy yeers for though a Childe is made a patterne yet we must not be like it in understanding When we were Children we did and we spake as children and all was comely but when we out-grew Childe-hood we out-grew Childishnesse a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex Strom. p. 51. We had need of Milke and not of Strong Meate for we were as Babes unskilfull in the Word of Righteousnesse but now our stature is increased it were a shame that we should be Dwarfes in the Inward man the man indeed They can have no Apologie or excuse for themselves who are growne up to full yeers yet have a Childes understanding b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chry sost Tom. 4. quod nemo laedit c. I suppose thee then of full Age even such an one as I would have thee who by reason of use hast thy Senses exercised to discerne both good and evill c Heb. 5. 13. 14. Childehood and youth are the Parents seed-time when they must look to their dutie The after-Age is the season of fruit when Parents expect an harvest of their paines Children then must look to their dutie that Parent and Childe may rejoyce together But alas how many Parents are deceived here even they who have not neglected their seede-time They think upon the Instructions they have given the Intreaties they have used what my son and the sonne of my wombe and what the sonne of my vowes d Prov. 31. 2. These they think on but how many are quite lost how few or none take what may make for ease and delight that Children learne quickly so will the Horse the Mule the Asse and the Oxe put any of these to the Wheele they will quickly finde out the number of their Rounds and never after can be deceived in their Account e Charron of wisdome This is nature still and her field is fruitfull But no Earth there is that requires more labour and is longer before it yeelds fruit then Mans nature so decaied and wilde it is growne and so rightly compared to the Sluggards field as the person is to a Colt an Asse-Colt a wilde Asse-Colt The Philosopher reasons this case very pithily f Plut. de amore prolis pag. 157. He that plants a Vineyard quickly eates the Grape So in other graines some few Moneths bring them to our hands againe and the fruite of our labours to our Eie and Taste Oxen Horses Sheepe c. they quickly serve for our use and much service they doe in Lieu and recompense for a little cost But Mans education is full of labour and cost The increase is slow the fruite and comfort farre off not within Eieshot perhaps the Parent may kenne this comfort perhaps he may live to see it and to rejoyce perhaps also he may discerne little hope he may live to heare of the miscarriage of his Childe and see that which like a back winde will put him onwards towards the pit hastening him with sorrow to the grave But In hope the Parent must doe his dutie herein also like the husbandman whose worke is never ended something he findes still that requires his eie and must command his hand or like the Painter who cannot withdraw the hand from the table before he sees his work fully perfected But herein the Parent and the Painter are very like In all his pictures saith Pliny more is to be understood then is expressed although the skill be great yet there is alwaies more in the minde g In omnibus ejus operibus intelligitur plus semper quà m pingitur cum Ars summa sit Ingenium tamen ultra Artem est Pliny l. 35. 10. of the Workman then the pensill could expresse to the eie of the beholder His Ingeny or Idea the proportion he hath framed in his mind is beyond his Art It is so with a Parent his care may be great and his skill somewhat and the Childe may observe both and much of both But the Childe must understand more then it can see and yet understand it cannot the yearning of the Spirit the turnings of the bowels the desire of the heart towards
childe can say and left it farre in her books so farre that it can never get out death only cancells that bond The parent and the childe can never cut scores or strike tallyes for they can never lye even And so much that thou mayest honour thy Mother for then thou art as a Ecclus. 3. 4. one that layeth up a blessing Mark that for by the rule of contraries he that dishonours the Mother is as one that layeth up a curse Honour thy Mother and forget it not †2. Thy Father too look to it thou dost not set light by A se migrat ab homine totus transit in bestiam paternae pietatis immemor gratiae genitoris oblitus Chrysol de prodigo Ser. 2. him so thou dost do iâ— thou dost set light by his admonitions For that is a sinne which calleth down a curse from the Almightie And though I should not plead my right and thy dutie yet the Lord would do both Nay if I should pray against the curse as God forbid I should forbeare to do yet would it according to Gods ordinary dispensation certainly fall the arme of flesh being too short to keep it off He is the God of Recompences He looks up on the breach of that sacred band betwixt parents and children â— Si gravaris auscullare parentibus esto dicto audiens carnifici quod si neque huic obedire sustines obedito 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Catachis Lutâ— and will require it That which Luther speaks is very notable and may winne much upon a stubborn childe if any thing will If thy neck be so stiffe that thou wilt not bow nor bend nor relent by all the perswasions entreaties of thy parents then expect that the Executioner shall bend thee If thou wilt not heare what thy parents say for thy instruction thou art like to heare what the Hangman saith for thy cutting off and destruction b Prov. 17. 11. Carnifex Trem. Ephes 6. 1. Sicut post Deuâ— dâ—ligere parentes pietas est sic plus quà m Deum impietas Chrysost in Mat. Lat. tantum Hom. 26. A cruell messenger shall be sent to a Son of rebellion If thou wilt not put thy necke under the yoke thy parents would put upon thee which is no other but what God enjoyneth and for thy good annexing a large blessing thereunto If thou wilt not submit to this easie and sweet yoke In the Lord for this is right thou must then submit to an iron yoke in putting thy neck into the executioners halter for that is but just So Doctor Lu. speaks in our plain English and addes thereto That the experience of all Ages have evidenced the Truth thereof And for the yet clearer evidensing the same This I adde further I have been young and am not farre from being old but never saw I a dutifull childe that went away without his blessing nor a childe stubborn and undutifull to prosper a Hist of the World 2. 13. 5. pag. 361. The debts of crueltie and mercy are never left unsatisfied saith one in another case we may say the same in this case Disobedience to parents ever receives its due punishment No lesse then a thousand witnesses give in cleare evidence hereunto and it is worth our giving our eare unto them and our eye also For therefore are judgements wrought in the earth that they might be had in continuall remembrance like a great mountain still in the Travellers Eye It was written for our Instruction That he who rose up against his father left behinde him no other then an heape of stones a monument of his shame and a pillar the onely 2 Sam 18. 17 18. memoriall of his name Examples there are an heape of them of more fresh and bleeding memory which I shall passe over and recall to minde Times further off and give instance only in two who because they are very great examples examples are rules and yeeld us the shortest plainest and most certaine Instruction being persons of the highest ranke and qualitie are I conceive the fuller of use to those of the meanest The first is concerning Robert Duke of Normandy eldest sonne to William the first of England so famous for his conquest there This sonne was stain'd saith my Author with this only fault Disobedience to his father if I forget not he tooke up Armes against him thrice and once un hors'd his father and wounded him in his arme ignorantly saith the Author not knowing him to be his father for when he did he hasted to remount him humbly craving pardon this now requires our mark This Roberts younger brothers S. Daniel p. 41. succeeded in their Fathers Throne William the second and Henry the first Robert puts hard for the Crown against King Henry his youngest Brother and obtains the payment of three thousand Marks by the yeer and the reversion of the Crowne a succession in his Brothers Throne in case he survived Thus they capitulated and on these termes they stood for the present Robert safe in Normandy and Henry in England But contentions betwixt brothers and betwixt them for a Crown are like the Barrs of a Castle once two never one again Quickly after the fire of contention raked under cold Embers burnt out again betwixt the two brothers Kings love not to know their heire unlesse he come out of their own bowels and consumed divers worthy men in a mightie battell whereby England won Normandy and one the same day such are the turnings in humane affaires whereon fortie yeers before Normandy overcame England And here Robert who stood in a faire possibilitie of two Crowns of England and Ierusalem was deprived of his hopes there in both places and of his Dutchy also of all he had But there ended not his Tragedy Out of Normandy he was brought prisoner into England and committed to the Castle of Cardiffe where to adde to his misery he had the misfortune of a long life surviving after he had lost himselfe twentie six yeers whereof the most part he saw not having his eyes put out whereby he was only left to his thoughts A punishment barbarously inflicted on him for attempting an escape but wherein we may see the righteous Acts of God withering those armes which were reached forth against the hands which embrac'd him in his swadling clothes as the old Father speaks to his Andronicus See Turkish Story pag. 158. and suffering those eyes to be pickt out that set so light by him out of whose loynes he descended Gods ludgements are as the great deepe and we are too shallow to conceive of them but what lyeth on the top or surface as it were we may take for our use and that we have heard The next is concerning Edward the third of England He stept over his Fathers head to his Throne That was not the Sons fault saith the Author for he had the Crown by resignation from his Father But Crowns are
from how kept under from spreading too farre and running forth wilde AND now leaving this inward frame of our revolting heart I meane the fountain of originall impuritie or the body of death as Paul calls it to our most retyred thoughts that so it may stirre up to continuall watchfulnesse and humiliation I say leaving that fountain or body of sin I come to the members issuing thence as the streame from the fountain or as branches from the root For though the current thereof be in a good measure stayed and stopt in Baptisme by the sanctifying power of Christs saving bloud yet it doth more or lesse bubble up in our rebellious nature Though the branches are hew'd and lop't yet they trust out again from their bitter root Though the body of sinne be mortified so as the power and dominion thereof is subdued yet the life thereof is prolonged a Dan. 7. 12. and the power thereof is as the kingdome spoken of by Daniel b Dan. 2. 42. partly strong and partly broken So as here is still matter of our strife and combate as against an enemy dwelling within our Land like the Canaanite in the border of an Israelite to vexe exercise and prove us I cannot reckon up the least part of that wilde fruit which springs forth of this our so fruitfull stumpe bound up fast within our earth as with a band of Iron and Brasse But some three or foure or more branches I shall point at which run most wild to the dishonour of our outward man and disturbance of our inward peace And these I shall discover unto thee that thou may est be most wary of them and ever well provided and armed against them as followeth The first is §. 1. Pride Chap. 4 §. 1 § 1. I meane not that privy pride springing up from a secret and unsuspected fountaine even from an holy zeale godly duties good actions not properly ours yet flesh and bloud will lay claime unto them And hath its seat in a sanctified soule making it proud that it is not proud even of its humilitie And therefore doth the same soule make its watch the stronger I meane that pride whose root is discernable and whose fruit soonest shooteth forth and declareth it selfe defiling our outward members and inward faculties lifting us up so much the higher in a windy conceit the emptier and lighter we are upon the ballance and the more wanting And this some call the Womans sinne Indeed it is most unworthy and unbeseeming a man the truest testimony of weaknesse and vanitie But yet Sith there is as one noteth c L. Verulam Essayes Act. 12. 63. in humane nature more of the foole then of the wise we must grant it to be the Mans sinne also perhaps not so generally his nor in the same degree For if we do grant as ordinarily it seemes so and is so concluded That the inward powers of Iudgement and Reason are weaker in women then in men we must needs grant That pride as it is till of late more ordinarily discovered in that sex then in the other so it is for the same reason more incident unto them They may have lesse inward worth and beautie to commend them and therefore do they the more paint and adorne the outward Likely it is that they do not so well discerne the simple and naked truth of things and therefore delight themselves in feathers toyes flattering conceits false valuations They are not so well able to study nature as men may and can therefore may they it is not proper to say they may and yet more excuseable it is in them then in men they may please themselves with polished Art at the best but natures Ape rather then with that which is simple and naturall with very appâ—arances affectation and pompe rather then with reality and substance rather with that which is borrowed then with that which is proper and naturall Lastly they may not be so able to study themselves The principles they consist of The foundation they stand on The vilenesse of the body The excellent worth and dignitie of the soul The faculties of both body and soul The excellency of that end for which they received them Where these defects and wants are as in all they are for naturally in all as was said there is more of the fool then of the wise and the more or lesse they are in man or woman accordingly will he and she more or lesse reckon and account of falshood and outward appearances before verities Lying and base vanities before realitie and substance and so are pay'd accordingly with winde and counterfeit ware instead of currant commoditie for these vain conceits and false valuations will prove but poore and shrunken things in the end For from hence it is and so we may go through all things that do lift up man and blow up that bubble hence it is That our clothes made for necessity and ornament yea to make us humble and thankfull humilitie and thankfulnesse still go together do prove so contrary to those ends priding us up in our own conceits and dishonouring us in the eyes of others Hence it is that we are such Fashionists so phantastick and changeable that way That the Taylor can as hardly fit us as the d Plut. Conv. 7. sapient man so goes the fable could fit a garment for the Moon Hence it is That our haire made to cover our scalp doth in a windy humour to a base fashion cover our face and that part of it which of any should not be covered So that which was made for an ornament and we should finde it so if we wanted but an eye-brow is so nourished and let to spread out so that it makes the person look like afurie Hence it is that we do tread like the Antipodes if the word were proper clean contrary to nature hiding that which should be covered and covering that which should be hid Hence it is That our eyes feet fingers our whole gesture and deportment do make so plain a Commentary upon the heart That if I may apply it so he that runnes may read the present humour and state of the minde and will so great a discovery of our dissimulations the gesture is for that speaks to the e Many have secret hearts and transparent countenances Essayes 21. p 128. eye as the tongue to the eare Hence it is That the inward beauty is so neglected and the outward so set out and highly prized when as beauty and strength will be much wasted by one fit of an Ague yea f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Basil in Hex Hom. 5. quite gone in one night Hence it is That Knowledge doth puff up That Learning makes proud which is not Knowledge indeed nor Learning but our ignorance and going back wards a windie and flatuous conceit of both True Learning the more it is and the truer it is the more it humbles the closer it lies the
quando peâ—istos introitus sur in greditur super eum idâ—ò vigilare debet clâ—udere omnes illos imroitus Oâ—narrationibus sanctis aurâ—s auditionibus piis oculos consideratione mirandorum operum Dei mentem cogitationibus occupare coelestibus c. Chrys in Matt. hom 22. lat tantum The delivering of Ioseph out of the hands of his mistresse giving the occasion was as admirable every whit as the rescuing of the three children from the fire And this that we may avoid the occasions the harbingâ—rs and spokesmen for sinne Chrysost ibid. And if I must avoid occasion I must avoid idlenesse for It is the devils occasion I must not sit slothfully at home or walk negligently when others are gone forth or else preparing for battell q 2. Sam. 11. if I would not sleep I must not sit down Idlenesse is the very houre of temptation The devils tide time when he carrieth the soul downward and with ease We must up and be doing Labour is the pickle of Vertue it keeps our faculties of body and minde sweet and fresh as the pickle keeps fish and flesh but hereof before But it may be we cannot possibly avoid the occasions As it is said of offences occasions will be how then Then we must avoid them what is possible It is a great r Lege Isid Pelus lib. 4. ep 2. 3. 4. 12. 24. mockery but God is not mocked we are deceived to pray Lead us not when we leade our selves into temptation by making desires and matter of trouble to our selves It is as if we should pray to the Lord to keep our house while we leave Å¿ Januae â—untos aurâ—s senestrae autem oculi Chrysost Hom. 51. in Matt. lat tantum pâ—ne seram januae tuae sivis esse securus id est legem Divini timoris c. Ibid. Sed quoniam fragiles sunt nostrae serae nisi Deus c Ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The eyes our guardians are first corrupted We had better wander with our feet then with our eyes Clem. Alex. Paed. lib. 3. cap. 11. p. 1841. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 windowes doores gates all open Therefore in the second place though I cannot alwayes avoid the occasion yet alwayes I must look to my covenant and the keeping the watch strong over my outward senses especially my t eye which is the light of the body And I must be very carefull to look unto my imagining facultie or fancie for that hath great power to darken and put out my inward light of Reason and Iudgement first then 1. I must keep a strong watch over my senses especially my leading sense u 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrys ad Pop. Ant. Hom. 15. for that is a gadding instrument and loves to be looking into every corner of the x Prov. 17. 24. Inconstantes vagi sunt adeo uâ— animorum instaâ—ilitatem indicent vacuâ—tatem sapiâ—â—â—iae Trem. world I must shut the windowes at which sinne enters And as there is great reason I must suspect my succours within for there is the Sinon I mean the Traitor The eie is a sense of the greatest certaintie that it is of the greatest deceit too There began the first temptation from thence evil hath had its first rise ever since There are two maine reasons of this deceit The Opticks reckon 20 1. The object is full of deceit A thing may seeme crooked and be strait so may a thing seeme right and be evill 2. This organ or instrument may have its suffusions and then it will be deceived sure for it is in no case to judge Our charge then is and it concludes our rule too Ye shall do that which is right according to your rule Gods will revealed in His word ye shall not do that which is right in your own eyes y Deut. 12. 10. for that stands most crooked to your rule There is no sense you can worse trust then your eye specially when pleasure hath corrupted it cast dust into it and it is full of it even quite over cast with it We must then with all our observation observe our eye for it is pleasures great Leader and Commander And from the roofe he saw z 2 Sam. 11. 2. I will not looke up on that which I may not touch said one who made good use of Eves eating the forbidden fruit And Achans taking the accursed thing a Joh. 7. 21. If I restraine not mine eye it is likely I cannot restraine mine hand nor my heart for now that sinne like a teare b Strad Proâ—u 3. p. 119. hath dropt from my eye to my breast it is likely it hath though not by force yet by cunning and plausible perswasion and subtle complying taken that fort or framed it to a readinesse of yeelding ere long He must be more then a man whose heart doth not walk after his eyes c Job 31. 7. It is very evident That our senses do deceive reason and beguile the understanding Great authoritie they have over us else we would not turne them away when we are to be let bloud or launced And the falls of great men have told us That the sense being left at randome hath vanquisht and quite overcome all former resolutions of vertue and patience Therefore looke to those out windowes d Lege Chrysost in ep Ad Rom. cap. 7. Hom. 12. and keep out from entring there An enemy is better kept out then driven out It is a point of wisdome to make our selves strong against the first encounter but a point of vanitie and folly to open the doore upon his enemy to try masteries upon the threshold There is a kinde of honey saith Zenophon which works according to the degrees of comparison A little maketh drunk more maketh mad the most killeth Beware of this little it will draw on to the tasting of more and if more the working thereof will be very like this we heard off deadly This letting in of this little by the eye or eare is like the letting in of a little thiefe by a little window who opens the doore and gates for the greater theeves to enter and to make spoyle Looke we carefully to this covenant with our eyes or else all former resolutions will be broken for the eyes are Panders for pleasure Purveyers and Caterers for lusts As in some cases our eyes watch for us so in this case we must watch our eyes 2. And we must look well too and keep a strong watch over our imagination That is a gadding facultie also and we must follow it with our best observation as a mothers eye doth her little childe which is newly out of her armes full of action and still in harmes way so we must observe our fancy That works day and night when the eye is bound up that is waking and busily employed This imaginative facultie is the souls first wheele ever turning
a feather in the one it may be as heavy as a stone in the other it was Nabals m 1 Sam. 25. case Let me ever finde out something even in the midst of my mirth Christian-like to leaven it so I may more likely finde something in my sorrow to sweeten that also The maine and principall lesson is That we sawce our earthly joyes with godly sorrow so should all our worldly sorrow be mixed with spirituall joy We must not let earthly contentments take up all the roome in the heart for then sorrow when it comes will look for the like freedome commanding there and stopping up the least cranny for comfort to enter in at So much to temper and moderate our mindes in the sudden flushes of joy There is a more constant running out of our affections in a more constant tenour of earthly things which some at sometimes may finde if so and our affections are enlarged beyond their bounds such like sad and sober thoughts as these may call them in if they take place Is my estate prosperous And do I over greedily seeke or highly esteeme or intemperately joy in the comforts which prosperitie affords Let me think now that the wicked have these things too and more abundantly and Gods dearest children often want them And what are they that my heart would close withall Nothing for nothing they avayle in the day of wrath n Prov. 23. and Prov. 10. 10. Trem. when we most need them they stand farre from our help Are they pleasures my heart would relish let me consider they are but for a moment but the torment of sinne is everlasting o Breve momentaneum quod delectat aeternum quod cruciat Have I contentments on every side peace round about all things as my heart can wish Then I must stirre up and quicken my self the more standing waters gather mud and dirt wines not racked gather Lees. I must suspect my way that it is not right for in the world ye shall have afflictions we have our Masters word for it and that is as much as the earth and heavens have for their continuance Can I expect two heavens all contentments here and pleasures for ever more hereafter can I expect to triumph in heaven and yet not to performe any worthy service in the Lords Battell upon earth against His and our enemies Can I expect a weight p 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tom. 5. Ser. 33. of glory when I go hence and no weight from the crosse here Can I think it reasonable that the Captain should beare all the brunt and endure all the hardnesse and the Common souldier endure nothing These considerations and such like may give some sharp taste to allay the lushiousnesse of our contentments that we may not over-joy our comforts § Discontent 7. We are as prone sometimes to overlook our blessings also and overgrieve our crosses when our minde is overshadowed with discontent that great disturber of our peace and quiet It is an unreasonable passion what else to call it in proprietie of speech I know not but this know it makes a man complain he knows not for what and to quarrell with his estate be it never so good Like a thorn in the foot or an arrow in the side it makes all places and conditions uncomfortable It puts a man out of conceit with his own estate which a wise man thinks the best and into a good opinion of an others condition be it farre meaner for what matters it what my condition be if to me it seems bad q Si cui sua non videÌ„tur amplissi ma licèt totius mundi Dominus su tamen miser est sen ep 9. Sapiens neminem videt cum quo se commutatatum velit Stulâ—ilia laborat sastidio sui Quid resert qualis fit status tuus si tibi videtur malusi Sen. ep 9. if so I must needs walk most unquietly with my self and most unthankfully towards God Those sonnes of Eliab enjoyed no small priviledge but yet that seemed nothing unto them Aegypt where they served in clay and brick was now esteemed farre beyond all when their present discontent like dust cast into the eye had taken from them the sight of all their good things r Numb 16. They are a sad example to us that we murmure not as they did and it tels us also how unreasonably a discontented minde will reason It was an answer worthy our marking which a servant gave touching his master he was asked What he left his Master doing I left him said he seeking out cause of complaint many blessings standing round about him the while Å¿ Plut. De tranquil Hor. lib. 2. ep 3. it is the case and manner of many and it is saith the same Authour as if a man should seale up his hogshead of good liquour and drink that which is sowre and hurtfull Thus disquieting an humour discontent is the remedies against it are First that we suffer not our minde too much to fix upon our grievance for this were like a foolish patient to chew the pill and then we shall so much taste the bitternesse of one crosse that we shall disrelish the comfort of twenty blessings 2. It is good to look to those below us It is certain no mans estate is so happy but if his discretion be not so much the more he may finde something in it which would sowre all nor is any mans condition so low but he may finde something which will sweeten the meanesse of it Thus then I may reason I live not so high as others do nor am I acquainted with others temptations Great gates give room enough for great cares to enter in at I am sure great temptations I am not so rich as others nor am I disquieted with their cares and feares As the rich have advantage of the poore in possessing so have the poore advantage over the rich in parting I carry not that pomp and state which he or she do who ride in their coach nor perhaps am I in so mean a condition as he that drives it I have not so much ease as he or she who sit in their Sedan and yet that you cannot tell for some bodies sit there that have little ease but this I am sure of that in respect of bodily toyl I go at more ease then they who sweat at so unbecoming and beast-like a burden t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luc. Cynicus p. 8â—3 Legâ— Clem. Alex. paed 3. 11. p. 185. I have not anothers velvet nor their fare nor their ease nor have I their stone or their gout I must set one thing against another u 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrys de Lazaro conc 1. lege Diod Sicul. bib lib. 12. α. it may much quiet me And thus farre the Heathen have carried us by their false light for to this purpose they have reasoned the case and so satisfied themselves in their present
mean if being so unlawfully knit it cannot be lawfully undone then whether our provision of laws in Church or Common-wealth are not too short for the pulling out of these cankers These be matters too high for me but I am sure of these two things which I speak very feelingly as one who knows the heart of a Parent 1. That my childe is a much more valuable commoditie then is my purse my horse or my mare A childe is a fathers earthly treasure the other are trifles in comparison and being lost may be made up again It is not so with a child if a ruffian-like-hath stolen her affections or her away and another alike person or Priest hath married them this losse is unreparable the Parent cannot recover or make it up again And what can recompence this losse A childe is stolen away she is unequally yoaked for eternitie for life I am sure The Parent now may complain sadly and that is all for help he cannot 2. This I know also That those of that sacred order for so their orders have ranked them deale herein most dishonourably and unworthily and do offer such an affront to Church and Common-wealth as in no one thing more or a greater opprobrie I think now of the Institution of Marriage how sacred that was the honour and dignitie of the same and how this Minister hath abased himself and vilified this sacred ordinance and now I commend him to the eye of the civill Magistrate and from his hand to the hand of his fellow Minister the hang-man I mean for I pray for him That he may suffer as a notorious malefactour Because he doth most notoriously abuse his office scandalize his sacred order and which is yet worse doth more hurt to the Common-wealth then hath the most notorious Rogue in Newgate I am very sensible and sure of what I say The servant before spoken of must be remembred too the Cart or Bride-well is a fit punishment for her but too easie a punishment for such an one who for a trifle will hazard the casting away her Masters jewell I have done with the pandar and his fellow Minister both 3. Sometimes I have observed that the Parents on the one side have been well pleased and contented to wink and give secret allowance to an unwarrantable proceeding the Childe they think will choose better for it self then they could have done And here I must tell also what I have seen and observed further which is That crosses have presently followed the conclusion of the match which one side gave secret allowance unto in hope of advancing their Childe either a present separation hath followed The sonne hath been posted away into some forrein Countrey else some strangenesse of affection for such love is quickly cold bird like as Clemens h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ◠10. pag. 144. saith it cannot be fixed Some thing or other hath happened that crossed and blasted all their hopes 4. I have observed some also being at their own libertie to make their own choice not so carefull and upright this way They have carryed things in a cloud some things they have made more then were some things lesse some things they have concealed which should have been made known and some things have been presented under a colour and shew and all to compasse a poore end some wealth and repute amongst neighbours but things have proved contrary they have embraced a shadow and lost the substance They preferred a poore accessory before the principall and so have been paid with winde with counterfeit coyne instead of currant I could instance in some now widows and widowers who at this present do smart openly and in the eyes of others for their reservednesse their secret and cunning contrivance and imposture this way nor could it be otherwise for it is not Gods way we cannot expect a blessing in it What I compasse by guile and cunning doth but serve to increase my after discomfort A foundation i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Piad Nem. od 8. layed in unrighteousnesse will be like a tottering wall at the best but like a house built upon the sands and tending to ruine And therefore this should be a warning to those who have any hand in this so weightie and fundamentall a businesse the issues whereof are so great And hence follows their rule which is this Look wherein a man expects the greatest good and his expectation is larger in no other thing then in marriage being most ancient important fundamentall to a sweet societie of life and a great number of mutuall obligations and profitable offices flowing thence therein now in a businesse of so high concernment Let a man proceed in the greatest evidence and clearenesse of dealing not swerving one jot or haires breadth from the wayes of sinceritie and truth This is the direction and I would have it evidence my minde when my tongue cannot And now childe to make application of all to thy self and way for thy better provision considering the premises That marriage is a businesse of such and so great consequence and concernment That the band is so strait that nothing can dissolve it but death or that which is to be punished with death that if there be an errour at first it is hardly recoverable afterwards considering all this I that might command thee do intreat thee by that worthy name called upon Thee and thy sacred vow then given By all the engagements of a childe such be all thy parents travell for thy good By all the comforts thou canst hereafter look for Be well advised first before thou doest proceed in this great businesse which requires such and so much deliberation Be I say well advised first By whom not by thine own heart aske not counsell there it may be and is in such cases strangely corrupted nor by thine own eare there is prejudice nor eye that is blinded nor affections they are troubled and can give no certain answer Nor by thy self for now thou art not thy self Thy judgement and reason are quite steeped in affection k Affectiones facile faciunt opiniones Yeeld thy self wholly up to those who have the oversight and charge over thee that is my charge There leave this great businesse and submit Here shew thy obedience as thou lookest to prosper All thy deportment from the yeares of understanding and onward thy gesture thy words thy actions should all at all times sweetly and child-like speake out and shew forth thy dutie to due observance of thy parents So as all that look on thee may heare and reade it in thy whole carriage and all short enough to answer thy debt But here is the principall businesse wherein they that have the charge over thee look to be observed And as thou doest observe them here so look to prosper I will read a short story here wherein we shall see a great example of a childes dutie at this point The greater the
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
but it is beyond expression and this is the portion of them that feare Him not nor in their season and Day of Visitation call upon His Name even this is their Portion from the Lord saith the Lord Almightie But there is a sweet peace in Death to all such as painfully serve the Lord in life they are the words of him who relateth the last words of that excellent servant of the Lord Mr. Dearing And they were these It is not to begin for a moment but to continue in the A comfortable death ever followes a conscionable life Dr. Ayeries Lectur p. 715. feare of God all our dayes for in the twinckling of an eye we shall be taken away dally not with the Word of God blessed are they that use their tongues so every other faculty well while they have it So he spake lying upon his Death bed neare the time of His dissolution and having spoken somewhat touching His Hope and Crowne of rejoycing He fell asleepe This instructs us in this high point of Wisdome more then once pointed at before but can never be sufficiently pressed till it be thoroughly learnt which is to make use of the ptesent Time to know the Day of our visitation o Iob 22. 21. to acquaint our selves now with the Lord to number our Dayes God only teacheth the heart that Arithmeticke that is to consider how short how transitory how full of trouble our dayes are And yet such though they are but as a span yet thereon dependeth Eternity The thought whereof might stirre up to the well improovement of them The Hebrewes have a proverbe which they deliver in way of Counsaile Good friend remember to repent one Day before thy Death By one Day they meant the present Time the Day of Salvation So the words tend but to this to perswade to a wise and Christian improovement of that which is our Time the present There is no mans Will but when he comes to that point he bequeatheth his Soule to God But let him see to it that hee set his house in order while there was a fit season that Hee committed His Soule to God when He had perfect memory and strength of minde and well understood what He did which in time of distresse a man doth not q Few men pinched with the Messengers of Death have a dâ—sposing memory saith a great sage of the Law the L. Coke in his tenth epistle where he adviseth to set our house in order while we are in perfect health weighty counsell every way else all is in vaine for we know all is voyde if the Will be forced or if the minde and understanding part be wanting and out of frame The Lord will be as strict in examining our Will upon this point as man is what strength there was of understanding what freedome of Will And therefore the sure and certaine way is to evidence our Will in our health by double diligence as by two sure witnesses else the Lord may answer us as Iepthah to the Elders of Gilead r Iudg. 11. 7. Thou despisest me all thy life why committest thou thy Soule unto mee now in thy distresse at thy Death It is not to begin for a moment but a continuance in the feare of God all our dayes It is not to use our tongue well at the point of death but to use it well while we have it and strength to use it We must not think to leap from Earth to Heaven not think at the point of Death to live for ever with the Lord when all our life time we cared not to be made conformable to Christ in His Death We cannot thinke to Raigne with Christ who when we were living men did not Crucifie one Lust for His sake We cannot think to Rest with Him for ever in Glory who never sanctifyed one Sabbath to Him on Earth We cannot think to shine after Death as the Sunne in his strength yea to be like Him who never tooke paines to purifie our hearts nor to rub off the sully and filth of a vaine Conversation We cannot look for pleasures at Gods Right Hand forevermore who in our life and strength preferred a vaine perishing and now a tormenting pleasure before them But great peace have they that keep thy Law and nothing shall offend them Psal 119. verse 165. Great peace have they in death who painfully served God in life Their hope shall not make them ashamed for they commit their spirit into His hand Who hath redeemed them the Lord God of Truth they go to Him whose salvation their eyes have seen and whose they are and whom they served What can dismay them now can death can the grave No they are both swallowed up in victory They put death on the one side and immortalitie on the other worms on the one side and Angells on the other rottennesse on the one side and Christ Iesus on the other and now they are bold and love rather to remove out of the body and to dwell with the Lord Christ with Him together with the Father and the Holy Ghost to have continuall fellowship and everlasting communion Such honour have all the Saints Death is no other thing to them now then as the flame to the Angell Å¿ Judges 13. 20. for thereby though clean contrary to the nature thereof they ascend to their everlasting mansions there to see the good of His chosen to rejoyce in the gladnesse of His Nation and glory in His inheritance There to take possession of that crown of Righteousnesse which the Lord the Righteous Iudge shall give them at that day when with all the Patriarchs t Patriarcharum consortium Prophetarum societatem Apostolorum germanitatem Martyrum dignitatem c. Calv. Ad eccles cath lib. 2. p. 398. Prophets Apostles all the Antipasses those faithfull witnesses not yet made perfect u 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrysost in ep ad Heb. cap. 11. hom 28. α. they shall be made perfect There to make up that tribute of praise wherein while they lived on earth they were wanting bearing part for ever in that heavenly quire saying Blessing and glory and wisdome and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be unto our God for ever and ever Amen Revel 7. 12. Thus my deare Children I thought it meet while I was in this tabernacle to stirre up your mindes by putting you in remembrance knowing that I and you must put off this walking tabernacle we must lay down this piece of breathing clay I know my self must before long and we all know not how soon and the good Lord grant that ye may be able after my departure to have these things alwayes x 1. Pet. 1. 13. in remembrance It is my charge unto you my last will look unto it and be acquainted with it for it is agreeable to Gods will My hearts desire concerning you is that ye would acquaint your selves with God for that is the
way to be at peace y Job 12. 2. and good shall come unto you Friends though they live yet can do you no good without God but He can do you good without them acquaint your selves with Him and be at peace and good shall come unto you All that is written is as y Deut. 4. 40. Deut. 6. 24. chap. 10. 13. Esay 48. 18. the Lord presseth the observance of His own law for your good Therefore feare God and keep His commandments for this is the whole duty of man so shall your peace be as the river still flowing your righteousnes as the waves of the sea everlasting for in the keeping of them is a sure reward as in the casting of them behinde the back a certain recompence of wrath If at this point we turn to God the back and not the face then in the day when we shall call upon Him to make haste for our help He will turn to us also the back and not the face for so saith the Lord. And indeed how reasonable is it that so it should be For into what reasonable minde can it sink that I should serve one man and demand my pay of another That a man for having obeyed the orders of the great Turk should ask a reward of the Christian Emperour with what colour can I who have offended a man ask him a reward They who think to comply with their own proper affections and with the love also of the Lord are mightily deceived The pearl must be bought with the selling the dearest affections of our hearts and let this be the conclusion That Heaven did never cost deare No man can finde friendship with that soveraigne King but onely such a man as will confesse that heaven is had very cheap though it should hap to cost him his life Scatter not then your hearts upon varietie of things but recollect them to the unitie of one desire and of one love Seek God but not in an ordinary manner but like them who seek a Treasure which alone is sufficient It will be highly enough to possesse God And let us not loose time for it was not given us to be lost but let us live to the end we may live ever This is my Conclusion and my counsell and you have heard all But God forbid I should cease to pray for you it being my duty also while I am in this tabernacle to bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ Of Ephes 3. 16. whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named That He would grant you according to the riches of His glorie to be strengthened by His Might in the Inner-man That Christ may dwell in your hearts by saith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye may be filled with all the fullnesse of God c. Amen Amen FINIS Insert this page 48. last line but one The season fits very well For I suppose thee grown up and in the strength and vigourof thy Age a slippery Vicina lapsibus adolescentia season subject to falling therefore never more need of the greatest circumspection and watchfulnesse Weeds through corruption of nature spring-up apace while we are children and if we suffer them now to gather strength and to take yet deeper root they will domineere Infelix lolium steriles dominantur avenae over the good seed that is sowen in us and choake it Thinke now on the evill dayes that are coming the winter of thy life let the Ant instruct thee Prov. 6. 6. What thou sowest now thou shalt reape in Age. If thou layest in good provision now for now is the Time to store up and furnish thy inward house such will be the benefit and comfort of it hereafter Now study this Art of improving time meanes graces Thou canst not imagine how rich it will make thee how the increase will come in upon thee as one saith A plea for age use upon use in this only lawfull kinde of usury Profusissimi in eo cujus unius honesta avaritia Sen. de brevit vitae cap. 3. Now put forth thy strength and pluck up thy feet and run the race that is set before thee with all thy might And the Lord put forth His Arme even His mightie Arme and carry thee in His right hand even His strong and high hand Psal 89. 13. that thou mayest have power against thy enemies in thy way for they are mightie and without divine assistance will over-power thee for they are the enemies of thy own house What they are how mighty how ensnaring I shall now shew unto thee and treate of them in thy eares as followes An insertion to the second part pag. 188. line 16. To put a full period hereunto it will be necessary to take of an unjust imputation cast upon Old-Age by pleading her cause and informing against her informers These are the precedent Ages for thus they accuse and deride this withered and decayed Age telling us It is like a weather-beaten house dropping down wherein none would dwell under such Ruins True it is such a kinde of thing Old-Age may seeme to be but she retorts the blame and cause thereof upon her predecessors it is they who have thrust her into such a decayed house and now they aggravate their fault very much in that they blame the old-building which themselves have made so ruinous They have been as violent winds and stormes often beating upon this house of clay and so have brought it out of reparations Youth will please his appetite that he will come what will come he will satisfie his youthfull desires though in so doing he doth exhaust Nature and spends upon the principall stock of life which yet he thinks not of for youth can beare it out but it will fall to the Lot of the old man to want and smart for this profuse Erigere durum est qui cadit juvenis senem A hard thing it is to make him stand firme in old age that fell in youth Quis ullam spem habebit in co cujus primum tempus aetatis fuerit ad omnes libidines divulgatum who can have hope of any good in him whose first yeers have been spent in all manner of lusts and luxury Cic. ad senatum post reditum spending The Man Nusquam pejus quà min sano corpore aeger animus habitat A corrupt heart dwelleth no where worse or more dangerously then in an healthy Body him I mean who is in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the vigour and May-tide of his life this man is as profuse and lavish of his spirits as the youth was as if there would be no need of them hereafter he puts forth his strength and doth evill things as he can Jer. 3. 5. and when he doth so then he rejoyceth Ita