This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. Searching, reading, printing, or downloading EEBO-TCP texts is reserved for the authorized users of these project partner institutions. Permission must be granted for subsequent distribution, in print or electronically, of this text, in whole or in part. Please contact project staff at eebotcp-info@umich.edu for further information or permissions.
VVHo knows not, that the method which men used in removing, was, first to send away their VVifes and Children, (as being their greatest
treasure); next to them, their Writings of con∣sequence, such as Books of accompt, Bills, Bonds, and others of great moment; and after them, their first and greatest care was, to secure their Jewels (such as had any), their Cash, their Plate, and such like precious things. Next to them, their care was for their Shop-goods, and first for those that were of greatest price. In a word, what things men did most value, those they did labour in the first place to secure, deferring the removal of their lumber to the very last, so that for want of time much of that was consumed. So Jacob, prizing Ra∣chel and her Children above the rest of his family, took the greatest care to secure them, by putting them in the rear of his Company, when he went out to meet his Brother Esau, coming against him in a hostile way; but the handmaids and their Children he put in the front (and, as it were, in the forlorn∣hope) exposing them to most danger, for whom he had least love and respect, Gen. 33.2. Alas! that men should use a worse method in reserence to spiritual things, than they naturally fall into in re∣lation to temporals. For how ordinary is it with men, in matters of Religion, to commit 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which our English Proverb doth phrase, Setting the Cart before the Herse, or, setting that first which should be last? How many take care to save the lumber of Religion, as I may call it, whilst, mean time, that better part of it which is like Plate and Jewels, is in danger to be ••ost? So did those Scribes and Pharisees, who ••ook great care to pay tithe of mint, anise, and cummin, and omitted the weightier matters of the Law, viz. Judgment, Mercy, and Faith, Mat. 23.23. There are some Truths unspeakably greater, and of more conse∣quence,
than others. Those should most of all be contended for.
There are some enemies to our Religion, which would not onely build with hay and stubble, but even lay another Foundation besides that which is laid, viz. The Lord Jesus Christ, though other Foundation, that will bear, can no man lay, 1 Cor. 3.11. Such should most of all be contended against. For, others are but dispa∣rately opposite to us, as Green to Yellow, and other intermediate colours are to White; but such, are as quite contrary to us, as Black can be to White. Some Duties there are, the performance whereof are, as it were, the very Pillars of a Church, which it cannot stand without. Others again, are for their nature more disputable, for their use more indifferent and lesse necessary. God forbid, but the first of these should alwayes take place of the last, and that we may more regard those things of which Christ saith, These things ought you to have done; and then those other, of which he speaketh more diminutively, saying, And the other you should not have left undone.
There are certain sins, which, S••mpson-like, do take hold upon the Pillars of the House, I mean, Church and State, and threaten to pull it down. How preposterous would it be to punish peccadil∣lo's with Scorpions, and let such crimes of the first magnitude scarce be punished with Rods? What men did in relation to the Fire, may ever teach them, to mind those things in the first place, which are of greatest consequence. If men had Iron∣ware and Gun-powder in the same Shop, did they not strive to remove their Gun-powder before their Iron, because that would do most hurt. It
is the Apostle's rule, that all things should be done decently and in order. To begin with those things which are most necessary, and then proceed gra∣dually to those which are of less consequence, is one of the most necessary pieces of Order that can be observed. It is a good rule, that we should first do those things that must be done, and afterwards those that may be done. Joseph was overseen in presenting Ephraim to his Father's left hand, and Manasseh to his right; and Jacob observing it, laid his right hand upon Ephraim, and his left upon Manasseh, Gen. 48.14. In like manner, there is frequent cause for us to cross our hands, and place our right where we are moved to place our left; nothing being more incident to us, than to mind those things in the last, which we ought to regard in the first place. By as good reason as men secured their Wives and Children before their goods, their Gold and Silver before their lumber, ought men, who know their souls to be more worth than all other things, first of all to secure them from that worm that never-dyes, from that fire that never will go out.