much mistaken Text saith that they do so Prov. 24.16 But Nabal is his Name and Folly is with him that leaps into ruinous Troubles Notorious is the Reason of our common Saying That the greatest Leapers break most Bones And the most exquisite Dancers on the Rope die by the Rope Providence is no safeguard to Desperateness The Ruines of many Rich Families be sad Witnesses I do compassionately warn you and yours adding but this memorable word Most commonly they be Judasses that do hang themselves I mean covetous as that Son of Perdition and treacherous as he was Where Kindness makes one Surety Avarice and greedy expectation of Gain makes twenty And we see that it 's scarce one of twenty who betrays not the Creditor the Debtor or himself Wherefore if you will be Sureties take good Advice first remembring that Judas who was his own Judg was his own Executioner also Direct IX Load your Parents soundly So is the Hebrew Text in the fifth Commandment load them with Honour Give them Measures of Reverence Love Gratitude and Obedience pressed down and running over It is a Commandment of express Promise and that Promise of greatest temporal Good It is the first Commandment of the second Table next and immediately to his own Honour God stands for the Honour of Parents His Zeal for it appears in Threats for Sin against it Prov. 20.20 Whoso curseth his Father or Mother his Lamp shall be put out in obscure Darkness that is he shall live in Misery and die with Disgrace The Eye that mocketh at his Father and despiseth to obey his Mother the Ravens of the Valley shall pick it out and the young Eagles shall eat it Prov. 30.17 that is he that scorns and derides Parents tho it be but with a Look and Gesture and without one Word uttered he shall die untimely and ignominiously and after Death be denied a Burial lying exposed to Birds of Prey Have you been guilty of Disobedience Be as eminent for your Repentance Have you been Dutiful to your Parents continue to be so to your last Breath Fathers be Kings and Mothers be Queens unto you their Children Next and immediately under God Christ and Conscience they be your supream Moderators and Governours Sweeten you their Lives and God will sweeten yours Honour you them God will honour you Scripture and Providence say of this Duty Length of Days is in its right Hand and in its left Hand are Riches and Honour Prov. 3.16 Direct X. Marry to none but Heirs of the Crown Heirs of the Crown incorruptible Poor Matches be the notorious Seminary of Beggars The King of Heaven is not Childless in England and he provides as becometh a King for his Children All be Heirs of God Rom. 8.17 and Heirs of the Kingdom James 2.5 All of them he blesseth and his Blessing maketh rich and addeth no Sorrow with it Prov. 10.22 A rare Portion is it not A godly Man is the Son of the King of Kings a godly Woman is his Daughter The ungodly of both Sexes be the Devil's Children and outlawed Rebels The Wrath of God abideth on them John 3.36 God's Curse is on their very Blessings Malach. 2.2 Will ye marry Rebels then bear you Hunger and wear Rags They deserve to be stung that chuse a Serpent for their Bosom And they cannot look for God's Blessing who prefer such Vermine before his Children liking better to have Satan than to have his divine Majesty for their Father-in-Law Would you secure an Estate do not burn nor marry a Child of his who hath no Estate but the Lake of Fire Lust consumeth many single Persons and ill Yoke-fellows starve many married Ones But while the Earth is the Lord's and the Fulness of it you need not to fear Famine if you marry into his Royal Family If you take a Child of his and that for his Glory 1 Cor. 10.31 and by his Will expressed in the Rule of his Word Gal. 6.16 which is that which the Apostle nameth marrying in the Lord 1 Cor. 7.39 This I judg they do not who take such a Husband or Wife as a good Minister should not dare to take unto the Lord's Supper And my Advice is that you hold this Rule refusing Marriage-Covenant with those that renew not their Baptismal-Covenant Direct XI Make Battlements for the Roof of your House That is make such Provisions against Sin in your Families as shall make it hard for any to be wicked therein Make and keep good Rules of Government So that none shall fall headlong into destructive Courses for want of the Fence thereof Nor perish unless they will wilfully leap into Perdition notwithstanding all your Means of their Salvation See the Law Deut. 22.8 When thou buildest a new House then thou shalt make a Battlement for thy Roof that thou bring not Blood upon thine House if any Man fall from thence Blessed are the House-keepers that do their best to make all their House blessed But how few of these are to be found Hence more than from our War with France cometh Poverty Prov. 3.33 The Curse of the Lord is in the House of the Wicked but he blesseth the Habitation of the Just Wicked you are and not Just if God gives you a House and you rule not for God therein but against God Not to rule for him is to rebel against him and then what wonder if he eject you But do you Rule for God that make not all your Family hear his Word as daily as eat his Bread as daily pray together as work or eat together And to discern by your Words and Behaviour that they cannot offend God without offending you or any way so much please you as by care to please God Yea to find that there is no abiding in any known Sin in your Families without Reproof to them and Reformation by them Psal 101.7 He that worketh Deceit shall not dwell in my House O that these words were written on House-keepers Hearts Abraham 's Family-government will bring all Family-blessings Gen. 18.19 The House of the Righteous shall stand Prov. 12.7 The Tabernacle of the Vpright shall flourish When Family-Piety revives the Evil shall bow before the Good and the Wicked at the Gates of the Righteous Prov. 14.11 19. Direct XII Take special care of the King's Children The King of Heaven calleth yours his own God hath given me a Child saith every Parent But God so giveth them to every Parent as that he himself remaineth still the Proprietor He gives them unto you but only to educate for him Your Children are still his Children and so he expresly calls them My Children Ezek. 16.21 whom thou hast born unto me vers 20. You are but Nurses chosen by the grand Parent the Father of Spirits Heb. 12.9 and the Fashioner of Bodies Psal 139.16 His they are and he it is that saith of every Babe unto you as Pharaoh's Daughter said of Infant-Moses unto the Hebrew Woman Take thou this Child and nurse
Chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant Riches The Riches which are not always to Men of Understanding are such as can be very well spared by Men of Understanding that is for the time that they are without them and upon the occasions Even David was once fain to ask Supplies from Nabal and our blessed Saviour had not where to lay his Head But ordinarily Wisdom enricheth and when for a short season it receiveth it rejoiceth in Tribulations As well it may for its Poverty is glorious No Martyr is a Beggar There is a very reigning with Christ in suffering for him Direct VII Watch against your five Enemies Such are your five Senses See to it and keep those Bears in Chains They are as wild Creatures and if not warily and strongly kept in subjection will tear and destroy your Temporal with your Spiritual Interests He was a Monster that in this London spent his whole Patrimony of many thousands of Pounds as I hear in one Treat of his five Senses But he was a Brother of yours by Father and Mother's Side And your Blood hath the like Brimstone in it beware that it take not fire If your Lusts kindle your Substance is quickly in Ashes For Wool will not be soft enough then for your Backs nor any but the most sumptuous Silks No Dishes will relish except Dainties no Table please unless it be spread with Snares nothing but what 's above your Estate will please your Palat. Necessaries will be loath'd without Superfluities One Lust shall stand you in more by the Year than all Nature More will be spent extravagantly in a Day than necessarily in a Week So chargeable things are sensual Delights Its bewitching Epilepsies require so much to maintain them Alas our Bodies are sinful as truly as our Souls and need Sanctification 1 Thess 5.23 They are rebellious against God and our Souls their Senses sway more powerfully than the unrenewed Soul's Reason doth And regenerated Men have enough to do to controul and keep them down 1 Cor. 9.27 If they prevail and act us we cease to be Christians yea Men we are as Beasts that perish Psal 50. ult They cease not to war in us for that prevalency they are restless Tempters and Seducers within us as Devils are without us The Eye the Ear and the rest of them crave for what Grace and Reason forbid And O how commonly are immortal Souls damned to gratify those perishing Brutes How also are Names and Estates devoured that these Senses may be humoured Damned Angels are less Destroyers and without these could not be so easily destroyers of us Prov. 21.17 He that loveth Pleasure shall be a poor Man he that loveth Wine and Oil shall not be rich That is he that loveth them for more than their proper Use for Lust as most do Adam and Noah our two great Parents fell by Eating and Drinking millions of their Children are undone thereby The Senses were given to maintain natural Life but Sin makes them destroy rational Life and Natural too full often Would you see good Days and many This you must do Day by Day Let religious Reason rule you and so that your Eye shall not see nor your Ear hear nor your Mouth taste nor your Finger touch what Conscience doth not warrant No though as oft-times they will be they be very troublesome and importunate for their unwarrantable Objects Though you be put to vex and crucify your Flesh in this Combate as you must do Gal. 5.24 This is what the Apostle speaks in those emphatical Phrases 1 Cor. 9.27 I keep under my Body and bring it into subjection Such a mortified Body will not be forsaken nor its Seed beg Bread But of those that are pampered multitudes come to be famished Epicures do so eat up themselves as well as their Friends As commonly do we see those unclean Fowls go barefoot as other Geese and almost as unpitiedly Yet mistake me not all sensual Pleasure is not sinful Some doth whet and not let Body and Mind for their Services And so much is lawful needful and laudable It is Sin and Folly to prefer Money above the Body as to prefer the Body above the Soul and very oft this Folly is conjunct It 's seldom any value their Flesh more than their Spirit but they take far greater care to preserve their Estates than their Lives Many are the Misers that die to save Charges Solomon when he was returned to God commanded eating with joy and drinking with mirth Eccles 9.7 Enoch while he walked with God begat Sons and Daughters Gen. 5.22 Sordid withholding and stingy tends unto Poverty Prov. 11.24 They that pinch their Families Bellies to cram and swell their Bags do not so certainly die rich as they live poor but do together sin against Body and Estate It is not the Holy Spirit that leads any Man to hate his own Flesh though it is most certain Whosoever indulgeth the Luxury and Lechery of the Flesh he is a Stranger and an Enemy unto that Heavenly Spirit Temperance stands between Scylla and Charybdis it 's equally distant from Luxury and Penury Hold that golden Mean and shun both of these Rocks you need not fear Shipwrack Never waste a Penny you shall never want a Shilling said Dr. Harris to his Children It is because Epicures and Misers do swarm among us that the Poor we have always with us otherwise Beggars would be as rare in England as Frogs and Spiders in Ireland Direct VIII Lay not violent Hands on your selves The Murder of many Mens Estates is by their own wicked Hands and Seals They do run into Danger in hopes of coming out with Safety Without just forelooking they leap into perilous Projects and mortal Suretiships But take you this Divine Counsel Do not ever hang your selves in hope the Cord will break Do not forget or slight God's Word so much his Word put into the Bible to give Wisdom to the Simple Prov. 6.1 If thou be Surety for thy Friend thou art snared thou art taken with the Words of thy Mouth Prov. 11.15 He that hateth Suretiship is sure Prov. 20.16 Take his Garment that is Surety for a Stranger that is Trust not such a Fool without a Pawn no take the Coat from his Back It is true Suretiship is in some Cases lawful and necessary Gen. 42.37 Gen. 43.9 Philem. v. 18 19. But always unlawful it is to oblige you to pay for another more than you have right to dispose of and a sincere Will and Purpose to pay for him if need require It is I suppose wisdom alway to give unto needy Men as much as we can spare and not bind us at any time to pay for them any more The Divine Wisdom brandeth ordinary Sureties for Fools Prov. 17.18 A Man void of Vnderstanding striketh Hands and becometh Surety in the presence of his Friend Wise Men may fall into Evils of Affliction seven times and rise up again The Royal Preacher in that
c. then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord have pleasure and comfort in all Kindness of his to thee I will cause thee to ride in the high Places of the Earth I will put thee above the reach of Danger I will feed thee with the Heritage of Jacob Thou shalt have from me Milk and Honey The Mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Direct XVIII Lastly Wrestle all the Week The highest Master of Language calleth Praying a Wrestling Happy they that are not only Jacobs but Israels not only VVrestlers with God but Prevailers They that have and do well use the Skill given by God's Spirit which never fails never lets God go without giving the Blessing for which we come Is the Holy Ghost your Advocate then he gives you this rare Art An Art the World knows nothing of having scarce heard whether there be any such or no therefore seek they not after it But I am speaking to Christians professed Temples of the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Supplication Consequently a People that have this Art and Skill VVrestlers that if they use their Art and as becomes them strain hard every Vein therein may gain all they want from him with whom they have to do Ask and ye shall receive Every one that asketh receiveth Mat. 7.7 8. Receiveth yea commonly receiveth more than he has the Faith and Face to ask Let an Abraham ask a Son he has one and the Promise of an Off-spring as numerous as the Stars Let a Jacob ask but Food and Raiment he has it and two Bands also Let a Solomon ask VVisdom he has it and hath VVealth and Honour thrown in with it Let a Canaanite ask but a few of the Dog's Crumbs she hath given her the Childrens best Bread There is no end of Examples Whence is it then that you want any promised Good of the Covenant the Covenant is your Charter for Temporals as well as Spirituals remember Sirs Either you wrestle not or not so well as you are able You receive not because you ask amiss James 4.3 Deny it not doubt it not for VVhatsoever you the weakest Christians ask the Father in Christ's Name with all the little Skill you have he will give it you John 16.23 And here shut you my Book sit down a little and think stand up then and say if you can really imagine that these Texts do signify nothing Or do less than assure us of this that The poorest Christian alive may have a Supply of his VVants if he will but fetch it upon his Knees Holy Mr. Carter told his Neighbour who complain'd that he did not Thrive though he worked hard and fared hard he would surely Thrive if he also prayed hard Hear this O you that scarce have from Hand to Mouth as you speak and are at your Wits end to think how you shall get through the next Winter's Cold Tho God may not keep you from the Cross he has bound himself to maintain you under the Cross to give you Bread if he deny you Trade to sweeten Water if he bring you to drink it in short to give you your Heart's-desire or to bring your Heart's-desire to what he gives you If you wrestle not amiss to this he hath bound himself You are your own Thieves if you go without Maintenance for you may surely have it for asking And of the two rather would I ask and not receive than receive and not ask There is such a Bread and VVine in Prayer it self Spiritual VVrestling doth get one such a comfortable Heat But fear you not where no Fear is these Promises be God's blessed Bonds given you Psal 50.15 Call upon me in the Day of Trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me Psal 34.10 The young Lions do lack and suffer Hunger but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing Jer. 29.12 Ye shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you Direct XIX Get well acquainted with your Father's Will and Testament The Holy Bible is no other if Jesus Christ be your Father Vast and immense are his Riches and in and by this said Will he hath bequeathed all unto you For which Cause he is named a Testator and his Word a Testament Heb. 9.15 16 17. The Testament wherein you are to read the Inventory of the Goods you are to receive and the Sum of the Debts you are to pay to your Supream King and to your Fellow-Subjects Let your Hearts be like the Ark Repositories of the Divine Word and see if you ever want Bread This take also for your Encouragement It was a less Honour to the Virgin Mary to bear Christ in her Womb than it shall be unto you to carry his Testament in your Hearts Luke 11.27 28. Blessed is the Womb that bare thee But he said Yea rather blessed are they that hear the Word and keep it Indeed Wills and Testaments are not easily understood by raw Babes nor do their Memories soon retain great and numerous Legacies But your tender Father hath provided good Help for your Infirmities He hath chosen for you such an Executor of his Will as is able to teach you all things And that being done to bring all things to your remembrance Nor is he more able than willing to receive of Christ's and show it unto you provided that he be duly sought unto Sought unto in Prayer and in all other his instituted Means This blessed Executor you know is the Holy Ghost God by Eternal Essence and Sanctifier and Comforter by Office Need I say what a frequent loss to Children the Ignorance of their Father's Will is the World well knoweth But your unacquaintedness with Christ's Testament is a Sin more hainous and a Loss more horrible than I am able to say Such an Affront is it displeasure condemn thee to thousands by the Year In Judgment he may give thee all Comforts besides the Comfort of the Scriptures And remember it that the World throughout where Christ's Word is not to be had there be few good Meals made People have bare Feet or but wooden Shoes and bitting Salt Where it may be had and it is not used even as the Day-light for constant Walk and Work Chastisements or Curses are at the Door And flatter we not our selves France conquered and Turkie and India-Trade exalted be nothing to enrich us if our Saviour's Will and Testament lay neglected But if young Men and Maidens old Men and Children duly ply that there shall be no complaining in our Streets But Corn shall make the young Men chearful and Wine the Maids Zech. 9.17 Direct XX. See that your Meat be not your Poison Good Works be the Meat of good Christians Their Lord said of himself and in their Measure they say after him My Meat is to do the Will of him that sent me and to finish his Work John 4.34 But Conceit of Merits is the Poison of Asps If this Poison get into your Head you
it for me and I will pay thee thy Wages This Father of the Children you call yours is a great King and as kind a Father God is a mighty lover of Children You may compare Snow and Fire as well as your Love and his unto Children Expect no other his Wrath the fierceness of his Wrath cometh on such as neglect these Objects of his Love A Neglect that is of Sins sinfullest the Sin that next to Original Sin doth most to the corrupting of the World and the filling of Hell And a Sin whereto Poverty and all Judgments are extreamly owing Children be choice Gifts of God rich Rewards of his Grace Psal 127.3 5. Write this Man Childless is in effect write him Comfortless Indeed Africa is not the only Country of Monsters ours beareth many that wish to be Childless to save Charges Egregious Wisdom to wish one may have no Lands for fear of the Cost of Tillage Well-cultivated Children enrich their Fathers as well-tilled Lands enrich their Owners Truly good Breeding is the Parent 's Blessing as well as the Child's From Children as from Land we do ordinarily and we may expect alway to Reap as we Sow A rich People we should soon be if generally the Culture of our Minds were as well followed as that of our Grounds Were they as painfully Plowed Sown Fenced Watered Weeded the ill-natured Phrase of a Charge of Children would be dismissed we should take to say a Stock of Children and count it a most valuable One Wherefore let past Neglects be throughly repented and utmost Diligence be henceforth used Let not vain Mens Hawks Race Horses and Setting Dogs have more Care and Cost bestow'd on them than their Childrens Souls Let not any lay out more Time and Pains to teach their Children a Game of Folly or a Trade for a Penny than you lay out on yours to teach them their Baptismal Covenant and the glorious Art of living unto God Train the King's Children in the King's Way Prov. 22.6 Bring them up therein Ephes 6.4 Let Heaven ring of your Prayers for them O that Ishmael might live Provoke not chide not the King's Children without Cause or above it Ephes 6. Provide for them and give them all that you are able without countenancing them in Evil or making them a Way to it 1 Tim. 5.8 Lay up for them as well as lay out upon them though you be put to deny your selves useless Ornaments and unnecessary Pleasures to compass it 2 Cor. 12.14 Dispose of them in Marriage wisely and tempt them not to Folly 1 Cor. 7.38 Let it be seen you are as much afraid of their Poverty as of your own and more afraid of their want of Grace than of their want of Money This do and see if the great lover of Children do ever starve their Nurses No he will not but He will feed them with the finest of the Wheat with Honey out of the Rock will he satisfy them Psal 81.16 Direct XIII Let not Arsenick be your Salt So it is when an ill Man is chosen for your Companion You are sociable Creatures Company you must and will have Unto the Company of your Love and Choice you are very Bondmen Invisible Chains of theirs hold you even unawares It 's your Life to have them good you are dead Men if they be evil Ones Good ones our Saviour nameth Salt that seasons you Matth. 5.13 Ill ones are as very Arsenick to poison you Of your Company much is at your Choice and there are but these two sorts for you to chuse That the latter doth poison and undo you is sure A Companion of Fools shall be destroy'd That the former doth season and better you is as plain He that walks with wise Men shall be wise Prov. 13.20 Yet how few are so nice of their Company as they be of their Food or Sauce Unadvised how much depends on it for temporal Good and Spiritual Though it be rare for any at the Gallows and on the Dunghil not to exclaim against ill Company for bringing them thither robbing them of their Time their Vnderstandings their Hearts their Names and their Money altogether There is no fear of Want where these Texts are observed Prov. 14.7 Go from the presence of a foolish Man when thou perceivest not in him the Lips of Vnderstanding q. d. endure not his poisonous Breath Psal 119.63 I am a Companion of all them that fear God and keep his Precepts q. d. others be my Eye-sores these be the delight of my Eyes Religious Friends stick as close as Brothers and are as full of good Offices to us Their Prayers will be of unknown Worth so will be their Counsels and if we shall deserve them their Commendations of us to Persons that will be most helpful to us What we are most likely to deserve and to need their Reproofs will be of excellent use to bring us to Repentance and from thence to Innocence and beyond it too Whereunto their holy Example conduceth more than a little For this Cause said David They that fear thee will be glad when they see me Psal 119.74 In a word a Man is always burnt with the Fire or blacked with the Smoak of bad Company And always he is refined or at least refreshed with Company that is good Reputation and Safety Comfort and Profit are got in good Company and lost in Evil. Direct XIV Kindle huge Fires on your Enemies Heads Be they hardned in their Enmity made hard as Iron Fear them not Coals of Fire heaped on it melts down Iron And true Kindness giving and forgiving from the Heart will work as much on cruel Hearts There is a Charity as well as a Faith of Miracles It is your Fault if its Miracles cease Feed your Hungry give Drink to your thirsty Enemy my clothe your naked One you shall see strange Effects Rom. 12.20 We have known many undone by exasperating their Enemies and by being overcome of their Evil by flashing Wild-fire in their Faces But never heard we of a Man that proved not his own Friend by kindness to his Foe Sacred Fire as Love's is is always profitable Monsters there be whose Evil cannot be overcome of its Good but then doth the overflowing Grace of God otherwise reward it He shall never be a miserable poor Man who giveth no place to Wrath and leaveth all Vengeance unto God Rom. 12.19 Direct XV. Trust not your Door without a Watch. There is a Door of yours out of which come Legions of Evils to you A Door that needs Watch and Ward as much as the Gate of any besieged City A Door to which David sought to Heaven for a Watch Psal 141.3 Set a Watch before my Mouth O Lord keep the Door of my Lips And well he might for we are told Prov. 13.3 He that openeth wide his Lips shall have Destruction The Tongue is a Fire a World of Iniquity it defiles the whole Body sets on fire the Course of Nature is set on