violent Greg. lib. 1. dialog Saint Gregory commendeth one Libertinus who having a stool thrown at him by his Abbot with which his face became blew and swelled he took it so patiently confessing it to be his own fault and not his masters cruelty which patient carriage of his so wrought upon the abbot that he became a very milde man and so saith Saint Gregory humilitas discipuli magistra facta est magistri the patience of the schollar became the successful instructor of his hmaster Lastly let it be remembred by servants that when upon correction they flye away they add but one sin to another and if they think to be revenged on their masters this way it is worse and what a poor revenge is it to hurt ones own soul to be revenged on another this was the practice of Thamar towards her father in law Fearful it is when we will revenge our selves nay hurt our selves yea our souls to hurt anothers body such wrath worketh not the righteousness of God One other Use of it And that is to us all we censure servants for impatience under their corrections I would we would reflect upon our own carriage towards God when we are in the way of sin we are told of the judgments of God that will inherit it we regard it not we will do what seemeth good in our own eyes and yet when we suffer for it we murmur and repine and take on as if we had hard measure we are apt to expostulate with God why am I thus and wherefore is this come upon me and our hearts boyl up with tumultuous and discontented thoughts against him Thus what we finde fault withall in servants we practise in our selves we despise Gods comminations and yet are vexed when we suffer for our transgressions we might have prevented it and yet angry when punished for it But more of this hereafter We come now to the third part of this Chapter from the beginning of the seventh Verse to the fifteenth wherein is contained the Angels meeting with Hagar being fled from her mistress Secondly his questioning with her about the cause of her flight Thirdly the direction he gives unto her upon the discovery of that cause Fourthly his prediction concerning the childe that she went withal In the first of these laid down in the seventh Verse we may observe two things First that the Angel of the Lord found her Secondly where he found her by a Fountain of water in the wilderness by the Fountain in the way to shur S. Chrysostom on the place For the former that the Angel found her Saint Chrysostome would have us here observe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the kindness of God that he overlooks not or despiseth any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though she were but a servant yet saith he this was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not so much in regard of her as of just Abraham by whom she was with childe God would take care of her out of respect to him and this is a truth Observ 2. Wicked persons oft fare the better for their relation to the righteous That the servant fares the better for the masters sake and the childe for the fathers sake God is good to Solomon for Davids sake yea to Rehoboam yea even to Hezekiah long after for he faith he will defend Jerusalem even for David his servants sake the whole company for one good mans sake as we see in the ship where Saint Paul was Act. 27. A neighbour for a neighbours sake and as spiteful as the wicked of the world be against the Godly that come amongst them and as desirous as they are to be rid of them they fare the better for them and were it not for their sake they should be soon be consumed and whensoever God shall gather these flowers the weeds will soon be rooted up whensoever he removes these pillars the building will be ruined Application When Lot is gone out of Sodom we know what followeth it might make the wicked so wise as to make much of godly people for whose sake they fare the better they are pledges of their peace and the pawnes of their tranquillity when they persecute and hate them they like mad men wrong their best friends and they cut off the right hand with the left and they hasten but their own judgment by seeking to extirpate them they are a blessing wheresoever they come by their presence by their prayers they do good and stand in the gap to divert Gods wrath But I stand not upon it Observ 3. Of the good offices the good Angels do us touching guardian Angels and the duties we are to return them Psal 34.7 and 91.11 The Angel of the Lord found her If this were a created Angel we see what good offices those blessed Spirits do for men First they doe reveal things unto them as we see in Daniel and Saint John in the Revelation and so to Saint Paul Act. 27. Secondly they direct men what they shall do as we read the Angel did Philip Act. 8. Thirdly they protect them from danger they pitch their tents about Gods people as we read Psal 34. and Psal 91 and they carry them in their hands that they hurt not their foot against a stone Fourthly they bring them out of danger as the Angel did Saint Peter out of prison Act. 12. Fiftly they comfort them after troubles as we see Luk. 22. Sixthly they revenge them on their enemies Exod. 12. and so the Angel of the Lord slew in the Hoste of Sennacherib an hundred four sure and five thousand in one night Seventhly they convey the souls of Gods people to happiness as the Angels carried the soul of Lazarus into Abrahams bosome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Chrysostom and a sweet burthen too S. Chrysostom an acceptable service unto them yea they take care of their dead bodies as Moses there was a contestation between Michael and the devil about the body of Moses In a word they are ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them that shall be heires of salvation Heb. 1. It is not to be said what good offices they do for Gods people Heb. 1.10 both privately and positively For the Use of this First Application it lets us see the happy and honourable condition of Gods servants David having said Psal 34.7 that the Angel of the Lord pitched his tent about them that fear him he addeth Verse 8. Taste and see how gracious the Lord is to wit in allowing of his children so glorious an attendance It is accounted a great matter of state in the world to have a large train of followers in silks and gold chains alas this is but beggary to the attendance of Gods people It was a great favour to poor Mordecai to have Haman the Kings favourite to wait upon him when he rode through the city what honour then for a poor man that is the childe of
next Clause is His hand shall be against every man that is He shall be given to fighting and contention to war and bloud as he shall be fierce and cruell in his own nature so he shall exercise this cruelty And we may here observe Observ 2. Wicked minds are full of cruelty and that an infallible symptome of an Ishmaelite Ioh. 8.44 That wicked minds are full of cruelty We may fetch this as far as the Devill himself of whom our Saviour saith that he was a murderer from the beginning Iohn 8. from the beginning that is Non Creationis sed Defectionis not of his Creation but Defection as soon as he was faln he sought the ruine of mankind So that Natales in Diabolo as the Father saith in another case we find the first beginning of cruelty in Satan and from this evill one was Cain saith St. Iohn 1 Epist 3. who slew his brother 1 Ioh. 3.12 And such an one was Nimrod who is said to be a mighty hunter before the Lord Gen. 10 9. a man of bloud that neither feared God nor man Such were the Aegyptians that oppressed and killed the bodies of the Israelites with hard labour and throwing their children into the River it is called cruell bondage Exod. 6. Ezod 6.9 Esau was a bloudy-minded man He was resolved upon the killing of his brother Jacob and when he returned from Mesopotamia came with a purpose to have effected it if God had not taken off his edge and we see how that malignity ran in a bloud for the Edomites that were of Esau were heavy enemies to the Seed of Jacob and in the day of Jerusalem encouraged the Adversary and said down with it even to the ground yea stood in the waies to cut off those that escaped as it is in the Prophecie of Obadiah How bloudy was Saul and how did he pursue the life of David Charging his Servants to kill him and sending some to kill him in his bed David speaketh of the enemies of Gods people that bloud and destruction was in their waies and the way of peace they had not known What think we of Ahab and Jezabel What think we of Amaleck Of Herod the great Of Antiochus Epiphanes who besides the sacrificing of so many innocent lives to his proud ambition in the slaughter of the Children even when he was a dying as if he would have his Sun go down fiery red and in bloud gave order that when he should dye so many of the prime of the Jews whom he had cooped up might be cut off that so whether they would or no the day of his death might be a day of Lamentations The next Herod was a bloudy man and made nothing of the bloud of the Baptist to content a wanton and Herodias was worse whose thirst could not be satisfied without bloud And the third Herod was bloudy also as appeareth by the killing of Saint James with the sword and his apprehending of St. Peter Were not the Jews bloudy whose hands were dyed in the bloud of the Lord of Life Acts 9.1 And was not St. Paul full of cruelty before his Conversion Acts 9.1 He breathed out threatnings and slaughter against the Disciples of the Lord himself confesseth that he was even mad against them and did persecute them to strange Cities Acts 26.11 Gen. 49.27 Acts 26.11 Some would have that Prophecie of Jacob Gen. 49. concerning Benjamin That He should be a ravening Wolf to allude to St. Paul for he was of that Tribe Into this Catalogue of cruell ones we may reckon those Emperours after the time of Christ One of them writh is Laws in bloud Another wishing even while he lived to see the world mingled with fire and that Rome it self had had but one neck that he might cut it off at a blow What should I speak of Nero that man of bloud and of Domitian that when he was not killing of men must be killing of flies to keep his hand in ure And so of Severus and Decius and Diocletian under whom that issue of bloud stopped for a while but was again opened by Julian that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that grand Tyrant that according to the stamp of his Coine which was the Bull did goare the world I might be infinite in the instances of succeding times how cruell many people have been even this Posterity of Ishmael the Turkes how cruell have they been in all times and continue to this day He is that great Senacherib that if God did not keep a hook in his nostrils doth earnestly desire to make all Christendom an Acheldama a field of bloud And I could speak of some people in the world that have been so bloudy-minded that they have taken a complacency and contentment in it As Hannibal who seeing a Pit filled with humane bloud cryed out O formosum spectaculum O most pleasant shew And Valesus the Proconsul in Asia under Augustus having caused three hundred men to be slain walked among the dead bodies and said O rem regiam A stately act indeed And these times want not those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Hebrew Phrase is men of blouds whose feet are swift to shed bloud who make no more of taking away mens lives then of cutting off the heads of Poppies Yea will not stick to brag and boast of their shedding of bloud as of a Trophee of their valour Yea I might speak of such as out of their desire to give their bloudy minds contentment and their wrathfull hearts satisfaction have done what injuries malice could invent to encrease the torments of others to make them dye twenty deaths in one vt sentiant se mori as he said of old make them feel themselves to dye by spinning out their lingring torments one being to dye desired that he might be quickly dispatched it was answered by him that had him in his power nondum redij tecum 〈◊〉 gratiam nay soft saith he we are not friends yet he made it good Prov. 12.10 what Solomon saith Prov. 12. The very mercies of the wicked 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their very bowels are cruel and what then are their cruelties But it may be you are tyred with this sad narration if you be not I am and therefore I will turn my self to matter of exhortation And for the application of this point Application be we all exhorted to take heed of bloody mindedness it is a thing unbeseeming us as men God sendeth man into the world as harmless a creature and as unapt to offer any injury as any creature whatsoever and sure he did intend in it that Homo should be homini Deus non Lupus that one man should be a God as it were unto another and not a wolfe He never meant that a man should be afraid to fall into the hands of men as David was 2 Sam. 24. But that one man 2 Sam. 24.14 should be an Asylum and a
never did hurt to the body of any man though Moses plagued Egypt and Elijah called for fire from Heaven and Elisha for the Bears and Peter smote Ananias and Paul Elymas with blindness yet he never hurt any when they fell backwards that came to apprehend him he suffered them to rise again and healed the eare of one of them He came not to destroy but to save as he telleth his Disciples who would have had him given way unto them to call for fire from heaven upon those in hospitable Samaritans and should we not learn of him to be humble and meek Should not the same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus Fourthly think we how cruelty staines the soul it maketh it of a Scarlet of a Crimson dye that many tears will not cleanse it yea it woundeth the soul in that manner that much Prayer and Fasting will not be enough to heal it When David hath this to answer for he cryeth out Amplius me lava Domine Wash me throughly O Lord more and more and he prayeth again Deliver me from bloud-guiltiness O God Lastly Often think of the Judgement to come at what time the meek in spirit shall be much set by and the mercifull shall find mercy but a Judgment merciless to such as have been cruell And now in the close of this Exhortation Let us know that it is directed to us all neither is it needless to those that are very forward in Religion for as they have naturally the seed of all sin in them so they are apt upon Temptation even to be cruell It was Simeon and Levy whose anger their Father cursed because it was fierce and their wrath because it was cruell Gen. 49.7 Gen. 49. And how was David hurried into a cruell way And so Jonah could have been content that all Nineveh should have been destroyed nay took it ill it was not so And Theodosius an excellent Prince and no vertue in him so eminent as compassion Beneficium se accepisse putabat cum regaretur ignoscere That he thought he had received a favour of any one that desired him to forgive And yet upon an occasion of an uproare at Thessalonica wherein one of his Servants was slain he commanded an universall Massacre to pass upon the City without distinction so that in a short time there were seven thousand butchered which cost him deare before he could wipe it out as they know that have read Saint Ambrose his dealing with him Even the Godly are subject to fierce and intemperate affections and had therefore need to keep the stronger watch over themselves lest they do that in their haste which they must repent at leasure And so I leave the Point with craving of pardon for my length in it which the badness of these last times hath driven me to which are times of blood and cruelty of rage and fury and but a few there are that tread the ways of love peace and sobriety There is another thing to be observed in that his hand is against every man he giveth the quarrel And this is the nature of wicked and fierce men that they are so restless that they will provoke not stay till they be provoked Psal 35.20 Such David speaketh of Psal 35. They speak not peace but devise deceitful words against them that are quiet in the land Observ 3. Impious spirits are always apt unto Contention as truely religious hearts to Peace Such were those enemies of Jeremiah that did devise devices against him and smote him with the tongue Jer. 18.18 when he gave them no cause and those again Jer. 20.10 that did watch for his halting yea sought to entice him that so they might take revenge upon him And so it is said of some that provoked our Saviour to speak of many things willing to pick a quarrel Such an one was Alexander of whom it was said that he would fight with stones and mountains if he had not men to fight withal And so of one Coelius who was of so turbulent a spirit that he would not be quiet except he were in quarrels and was angry if he were not provoked his Motto was Dic aliquid ut duo simus Say or do something that we may be two And we want not those swaggering ruffians and roaring monsters that walk the streets meerly to quarrel These are compared to the Sea that cannot but cast up mire and dirt and rageth not because it is provoked but because it is unquiet They are compared unto asps and vipers and those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that not being wronged yet do hurt It is as natural for the wicked to do evil as for the fountain to run or the fire to burn And the cause of this motion of the wicked is not from without but from a principle within A Watch will not go but by means of the spring but the wicked heart worketh from it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of its own accord and stayeth not no more then the pulse in the body The wicked needs not the devil to tempt him for he can tempt himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzen Sin is ever ready at hand Nazianzen Now for the Use of this First it may let those that be of such tumultuous spirits see Application what a fearful case they are in God would have men live in peace and behold they are enemies to peace yea they wilfully break it Are the peace-makers blessed then certainly the peace-breakers are cursed Shall the peace-makers be called the sons of God then certainly the peace-breakers shall be called the children of the devil Is there not a wo to him by whom the offence cometh and do they dare to give offence to provoke others and to begin a quarrel Men should consider one another to provoke to love as the Apostle saith and these consider their brother to provoke him to hostility and they will wrong him to provoke him to strike again It is required of men that being provoked they should forgive it for it is the glory of a man to cease from strife but these provoke others and are willingly and wittingly de industria contentious * Contentiosi Words in osus intimate vitious habits Aulus Gellius Now are not such an abomination to the Lord Is it not just with God that he that loveth contention should be clothed with rags that he should want inward peace and at the end of his days should go to his own place where there is nothing but tumult and confusion In the second place I wish we might be provoked by a people that are not Gods people as it is in Deuteronomy Deut. 33.21 that we could be as forward to good as they are to evil They are ready to quarrel and to offer injury and their sword like Joab's is ready to fall out of the scabberd upon every occasion yea upon no occasion Oh that we were as ready Titus 3.1 to every
by Urim nor by prophecie shall he seek out for a woman that hath a familiar spirit and enquire of her For the Use of it Let us take heed of this If we suffer want in our estate Application let us not use unlawful means to better it As Abraham would not be enriched by the King of Sodom so much as a shoe-satchet so let us scorn to be beholding to the ways of fraud for increasing our means There is no comparison between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Peleusiota Peleusiota between Poverty and Impiety better be poor to a Proverb as Job was then that it should be said Satan hath made us rich Want we meat though I confess that is a great exigent yet let us not steal to satisfie hunger Our Lord though he was an hungred would not hearken to Satan to make bread of stones neither would he fall down and worship him to gain the whole world Have we lost our goods or are we in great want of health Shall we run to Wizards and Wise-men as they falsly call them to be helped or use Spirits and Incantations Oh no! This is to cast out the devil by Beelzebub when God hath wounded us to make Satan our physitian Are we in terrour of conscience and shall we betake our selves to drinking and swilling and unlawful kindes of sports Will this help us Is this the harp that will conjure that ill spirit Will not this be bitterness in the conclusion Will not this be as cold water taken in the height of a hot Fever which maketh the broyling drought after a while the greater Why but will some say what would you have us do when comfort and ease bloweth from no corner I answer Be dumb before the shearers and still wait upon God and remember that power and soveraignty that he hath over us how all things that he giveth us he giveth them and taketh them from us and taking but his own must he lose a friend of us Secondly It may be God keepeth us under the hatches for our future good and to do us good in the later end as Moses saith Thirdly Let us know that all the means that we can use without God may soon prove unavailable nay not onely so but pernitious both increase our sin condemnation I say finally let us use no unlawful means but wait the issue that he will give to our temptation Again observe here how quick ones wit is to the invention of that which is evil Sarah hath in a readiness that if God fail her she knoweth presently what to do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Gregory Nazianzen evil is ever at hand S. Gregory Nazianzen it requireth no long study nay in this case can act ex tempore So Lots daughters being alone with him in the cave they have a sudden but a fearful invention Gen. 19. to make their father drunk Gen. 19. and to make use of him in that intemperance Rachel hath no children she hath a present invention she saith to her husband Behold my maid Bilhah go in to her Gen. 30. Gen. 30.3 When the steward is like to be discharged Luke 16.4 his wit quickly serveth him what to do that when he shall be cast out he may finde favour among the debters Were we as nimble at that which is good how happie a thing were it But there we are dullards and to seek and our wit serveth us not to light upon it It is true of us Jer. 4.22 which the Prophet speaks Jerem. 4. They are wise to do evil but to do good they have no knowledge Why but may some man say why doth she propound this that he should go in to the maid How did she know but the maid might deny such a service as this was It may be thought that she was perswaded of her servants obedience in this kinde and she might presume upon that command that she had over her being her servant Observ 4. Evil instruments are never wanting unto evil actions Instruments shall not be wanting if evil acts be to be done I confess it is a gross abuse of that dominion that God hath given to masters and mistresses over servants to engage them into sin and make them serve them in base ways to make them panders or bauds to their lust to make them oppressors of their tenants to make them lye and swear and forswear in their behalf to make them executioners of their unjust revenge And it is no less fearful on the other side when servants lose all sense of conscience towards God to shew their obedience toward their masters for they are tied onely to obey in Domino in the Lord so to serve their earthly masters as they may answer it to their Master in heaven And therefore for the Application Application Let them look to it let them obey no further then Gods Word will license them Pharaoh is full in his charge to the midwives but they obey him not Saul biddeth his guard fall upon the Priests that wore the linen Ephod but they do it not it is true that Doeg did it and Absalons servants slay Amnon because their master bids them But that great Tribunal before which these facts must be answered will not admit of this plea I did as I was commanded I told you the last day the Apostle flatly prohibiteth being servants unto men that is serving them in sinful courses and being subservient unto them in their lusts Art thou a Governour Do not require any thing of thy servant that is unlawful for thou drawest a great sin upon thy score and a wo upon thine head because by thee the offence cometh Art thou a servant and an unlawful thing is enjoyned thee Remember Saint Peters rule It is more fit to obey God then man Thy master cannot secure himself from vengeance and how can he help thee And do not tell me If thou wilt not do it another will thou oughtest to be most sollicitous for thine own soul Josh 24.15 Be of the minde of that holy man Let others chuse what God they will serve but thou wilt serve the Lord thy God Further There is an Expositor upon my Text that observeth the modesty of the phrase here used Go in unto my maid I will go in unto my wife saith Samson Judg. 15. Judg 1◠1 Isai 8.3 and David is said to have gone in unto Bachsheba And so Isai 8. He went unto the Prophetess and she conceived Amos 2. A man and his father go in unto the same maid Amos 2.7 Deut. 23.13 It is said Adam knew Eve Gen. 4. So when the Spirit speaks of the privie and unseemly part it calleth it our nakedness Gen. 9.22 and the flesh Gen. 17.13 and our shame Isai 47.3 And speaking of the necessary evacuation of the body he calleth it a sitting down and a covering of the feet Judg. 3.24 and so 1
Sam. 24.3 The Spirit of God is a pure Spirit and cannot endure filthiness On the other side Satan is called the unclean spirit Matth. 12.43 that delighteth in filthiness and as the serpent feeds upon the dust so Satan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens He feedeth upon obscenity and corruption Now for the Use of this How should it teach us to abhor all filthiness yea that it should not be once named among us as becometh Saints Eph. 5. Eph. 5.3 as he which hath called us is holy so should we be holy in all manner of conversation 1 Pet. 1.15 Our thoughts should be clean I made a covenant with mine eyes why then should I look upon a maid Job 6.31 Our very speculative and contemplative uncleanness is the lusting of the heart the unclean roving thoughts of men are sins before God 2. Our looks and aspects should be free from filthiness for the Apostle speaketh of eyes full of adultery 2 Pet. 2. 3. Our apparel should be modest 1 Tim. 2.9 2 Pet. 2.14 Let women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefac'dness and sobriety And that woman Prov. 7.10 is said to have the attire of an harlot 4. There should be modesty in our speech Col. 4.6 Let your speech be always with grace seasoned with salt and Eph. 4.29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearers And why First our tongue is our glory so called more then once by David in the Psalms and it is that member above all that is given us to glorifie God withal and David saith he will praise God with the best member that he hath Secondly there is great force in broad and unclean speech to corrupt the heart and set it on fire with filthy lust Be not deceived 1 Cor. 15.33 saith the Apostle evil words corrupt good manners 1 Cor. 15. and therefore they be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is rotten communication Eph. 4.29 because they are apt to corrupt and putrifie those that hear them The Naturalist telleth of one creature that conceiveth by the ear and so it falleth out that by the ear wickedness is conceived and the soul tainted I would this were well remembred for we may say as Isaiah we dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips People speak most filthily so that they are a burthen to any civil eare and they will call for songs that are full of nothing but ribaldry which is all one as if they spoke them themselves and what will they say for themselves Though they speak thus yet they meane no hurt their hearts are as good as the best but this not possible for those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart and defile the man Mat. 15. Mat. 15.18 and Mat. 12.34 Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh Is the fountain sweet that sendeth forth stinking water Secondly They say they speak but in mirth but I say this is a fig-leafe too narrow to cover that nakedness for cannot man be merry without offending God Foolish talking and jesting are not convenient saith the Apostle Eph. 5.4 Eph. 5. and is it to be matter of merriment that grieveth the holy Spirit of God Eph. 4.30 Thirdly say they if we speak a little idlely and vainly and do no worse is is no great matter No when the Apostle had spoken of such language Eph. 5.6 Let no man deceive you saith he for such things among others commeth the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience Mat. 12.36 And what saith our Saviour Math. 12. Of every idle word that man shall speak c. Et si de otioso Quid de pernicioso If every idle word how much more every evill one according to its several qualifications to be accounted for at the day of judgment Observ 5. The most dangerous tentations are in the neerest correlations Lastly to shut up for this time consider who it is that moveth and adviseth this and then see that temptations may lie in those that are neerest to us The servant tempteth the master as we see in Peter disswading Christ from his passion insomuch that he saith unto him Come behinde me Satan thou art an offence unto me The master tempteth the servant and perswadeth him to ill as we see in in the examples of the last point save one And in David perswading his servant to fetch him Bathshebah One friend perswadeth an other Deut. 13.6 and tempteth him to evill the Lord supposeth Deut. 13. That a friend that is as is own soul may entice to Idolatry The mother may tempt the daughter as we see in Herodias that putteth on her daughter to ask John Baptists head in a platter And so the daughter the mother as it is likewise supposed in that place of Deuteronomy The husband may tempt the wife as we see in Ananias Acts. 5. that worketh Sapphira to tell the same lie he had told Acts. 5. And the wife the husband who tempted Adam to eate the forbidden fruite but his wife who tempted Solomon to Idolatry but his wives who provoked Ahab to sin so desparately but his wife Jezabel who tempted Job to curse God and die and upbrayded him with his constancie in his uprightness but his wife who was relicta in tentationem saith Saint Ambrose when the devil had strip'd him of all he left him her to be a snare unto him The Historian telleth of Agripina that she mingled the poyson for her husband in that meat which he loved best and satan layeth his snares for us in those persons we affect most and whom our love will not suffer us to deny any thing Now for that Use which concerneth the susteiners of such temptations I shall spâ—â—â— of it when I come to speak of Abrahams yielding to this motion of his wife in the meane time this application shall serve Application That we have our eyes in our heads as the wise man speaks that we be very vigilant and circumspect for there may lie a snare where we least suspect danger and danger may grow from the corner where we least dreamed of it who would think of any danger from a friend a child a father a mother a wife that lyeth in the bosome And yet even these may betray us into sin There was one was praying unto God to deliver him from his enemy an other over-hearing him did correct him and bid him pray that he might be delivered from his friends for his enemies he might easily beware of them but they that made semblance of friendship might soonest do a man a mischief I think they might be both corrected and a man fittingly taught to pray to God to deliver him from himself for such is a mans corruption that he is the greatest enemy to himself and as the spider worketh her web out of her own