SON XVIII. LAW TO THEMSELVES. OME sixty years since, in the university of Cambridge, it was solemnly debated betwixt the heads, to debar young scholars of that liberty allowed them in Christmas, as inconsistent with the discipline of students. But some grave governors maintained the good use thereof, because thereby in twelve days they may more discover the dispositions of scholars than in twelve months before. That is a vigilant virtue indeed, which would be early up at prayers and study, when all authority to punish lay asleep. Vice, these late years, hath kept open house in England. Welcome all comers without any examination. No penance for the adulterer, stocks for the drunkard, whip for the petty larcener, brand for the felon, gallows for the murderer. God all this time tries us as he did Hezekiah, that he might know all that is in our hearts.* Such as now are chaste, sober, just, true, show themselves acted with a higher principle of piety than the bare avoiding of punishment. XIX. A NEW DISEASE. HERE is a disease of infants (and an infant disease, having scarcely as yet gotten a proper name in Latin) called the rickets; wherein * 2 Chron. xxxii. 31. the head waxeth too great, whilst the legs and lower parts wain too little. A woman in the west hath happily healed many, by cauterizing the vein behind the ear. How proper the remedy for the malady I engage not, experience ofttimes outdoing art, whilst we behold the cure easily effected, and the natural cause thereof hardly assigned. Have not many nowadays the same sickness in their souls? their heads swelling to a vast proportion and they wonderfully enabled with knowledge. to discourse? But, alas, how little their legs, poor their practice, and lazy their walking in a godly conversation? Shall I say that such may be cured by searing the vein in their head, not to hurt their hearing, but hinder the itching of their ears. Indeed his tongue deserves to be burnt that talks of searing the ears of others; for faith cometh by hearing. But I would have men not to hear few sermons, but hear more in hearing fewer sermons. Less preaching better heard (reader, lay the emphasis not on the word less, but on the word better), would make a wiser and stronger Christian, digesting the word from his heart to practise it in his conversation. MEDITATIONS ON ALL KIND OF PRAYERS. B I. NEWLY AWAKED. Y the Levitical law, the firstling of every clean creature which opened the matrix was holy to God. By the moral analogy thereof, this first glance of mine eyes is due to him. By the custom of this kingdom there accrueth to the landlord a fine and heriot from his tenant taking a farther estate in his lease. I hold from God this clay cottage of my body (a homely tenement, but may I in some measure be assured of a better before outed of this). Now, being raised from last night's sleep, I may seem to renew a life. What shall I pay to my landlord? even the best quick creature which is to be found on my barren copyhold, namely, the calves of my lips, praising him for his protection over me. More he doth not ask, less I cannot give; yea, such is his goodness and my weakness, that before I can give him thanks he giveth me to be thankful. *Exod. xxxiv. 19. L II. FAMILY PRAYER. ONG have I searched the scriptures to find a positive precept enjoining, or precedent observing, daily prayer in a family; yet hitherto have found none proper for my purpose. Indeed I read that there was a yearly sacrifice offered at Bethlehem for the family of Jesse ;* but if hence we should infer household holy duties, others would conclude they should only be annual. And whereas it is said, Pour out thine indignation on the heathen, and on the families which have not called on thy name; the word taken there in a large acceptation, reproveth rather the want of national, than domestical service of God. But let not profaneness improve itself, or censure family prayer for will-worship, as wanting a warrant in God's word. For where God enjoineth a general duty, as to serve and fear him, there all particular means (whereof prayer a principal), tending thereunto are commanded. And surely the pious households of Abraham,+ Joshua, and Cornelius,§ had some holy exercises to themselves, as broader than their personal devotion, so narrower than the public service, just adequate to their own private family. * 1 Sam. xx. 29. + Gen. xviii. 19. K III. SELF WITHOUT OTHER SELF. OME loving wife may perchance be (though S not angry not angry with) grieved at her husband for excluding her from his private prayers; thus thinking with herself: Must I be discommuned from my husband's devotion? what, several closetchapels for those of the same bed and board? Are not our credits embarked in the same bottom, so that they swim or sink together? May I not be admitted an auditor at his petitions, were it only to say Amen thereunto? But let such a one seriously consider what the prophet saith: The family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart:* Personal private faults must be privately confessed. It is not meet she should know all the bosom sins of him in whose bosom she lieth. Perchance being now offended for not hearing her husband's prayers, she would be more offended if she heard them. Nor hath she just cause to complain, seeing herein Nathan's wife is equal with Nathan himself; what liberty she alloweth is allowed her, and may as well as her husband claim the privilege privately and apart to pour forth her soul unto God in her daily devotions. Yet man and wife at other times ought to communicate in their prayers, all other excluded. * Zech. xii. 12. |