seeketh to be justified before God by doing this and by his owne working Now of a man that is thus righteous there are three sure plaine and evident signes 1. Hee desireth to know and doe all that God revealeth to him out of his Word I have lifted up mine hands unto thy testimonies which I have loved and O that my heart were directed to keepe thy righteous judgements then shall I not be confounded when I have respect to all thy Commandements 2. Hee confesseth and bewaileth before God his failings and errours that breake forth in him quite contrary to his purpose and desire Against thee have I sinned and He that confesseth his sinnes c. And if you turne to mee I will turne to you for If wee say we have no sinne wee deceive our selves But if wee confesse our sinnes hee is faithfull c. 3. He resteth wholy upon the mercy of God in Christ for pardon of his failings and acceptation of his indeavours So saith Iohn If any man sinne wee have an Advocate with God Iesus Christ the righteous and hee is the Propitiation for sinne and Abraham beleeved in God that justifieth the ungodly S. Paul would have the righteousnesse which is by the faith of Jesus Christ I beseech you looke that you be so righteous men as Abel was else you shall never be saved For even Balaam saw that only the righteous should be saved and therefore he wisheth Let mee die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his Now we have the good of Abel we should speake of his evill but wee have none to speake of For the Holy Ghost hath not told us of any evill that hee committed not because he had none but because his life was so short and withall so good that the Lord saw it not fit to make mention of any and surely though the Scripture doe report the faults of other godly men yet it seemes here to set forth Caine and Abel as the two seeds the one of the Woman the other of the Serpent and therefore of the good seed mentions no faults because in him God saw none that is would not impute any Now let us consider the things that befell him 1. Good 2. Bad. The good are two first God had respect unto his gifts Secondly God gave witnesse and testimony of his gifts He had respect unto them for the present he gave testimony to them both at that time and also after by the pen of Moses and by the tongue of our Lord Jesus calling him righteous Abel We cannot affirme any thing concerning the meanes by which the Lord did expresse the liking of Abel and his Sacrifice but that it was by some sensible and evident signe discoverable by Caine as well as by himselfe Caines doggednesse stirred up by it doth clearely evince The Lord hath respect unto his true hearted servants that worship him in truth and in faith and are truely righteous he hath respect unto them and to their Services he likes their persons loves their workes The prayer of the upright is his delight saith Salomon The righteous Lord loveth righteousnesse God doth to his faithfull children sooner or later evidently discover his approbation and liking of them and their workes as David prayeth Accept the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart yea he doth make knowne this his favourable acceptation by which as it is in the Psalme he accepts their burnt Sacrifices that is all their holy services he makes it knowne by the comfortable testimony of the Holy Ghost as Paul saith This is my glorying the testimony of my conscience that in simplicity c. When Gods people walke in Gods waies he causeth his Spirit to witnesse with their spirits and their spirits to witnesse to them that themselves and their waies please God by which their spirits are refreshed and comforted against all the taunts and opprobries of sinners and scoffers And this is a sufficient recompence to all our labours and for all our sufferings that God accepteth us If hee accept us what need wee care though the world deride and scorne and hate us O let those that have seene God thus vouchsafing to respect them comfort themselves in that yea I shall not need to give them such advice this apprehension of Gods gratious accepting us is a thing so sweete and delightfull that the people of God which have enjoyed it will preferre it before the approbation of all men For whom he thus respecteth them will hee likewise approve in the face of all the world and therefore beare testimonie to their workes even at the last day yea the light to which he that doth well delighteth to come that will make it knowne that his workes be wrought of God Iohn 3.11 If Gods Spirit within if Gods Word without doe testifie of your deeds that they bee wrought in God how easie a thing is it to sleight and despise the false and foolish censures of the world But now come we to the evills that he suffered for Gods people must suffer evill for well-doing his Brother hated him laied a traine for him slew him Abel was the first Martyr the first man that died for goodnesse hee was Gods first Witnesse as Steven was Christs Those that will live godly in Christ must suffer persecution and of whom even of the dearest friends they have in the flesh and how farre even to the lying in waite for their lives and taking the same away The Lord would have the first bloud that was spilt spilt in his quarrell in his holy quarrell in standing for righteousnesse sake that we which follow after might learne to stick close to this cause and not to feare to lay downe our lives for it S. Iohn tells us no wonder if the world hate us The world is the number of unsanctified men in the world these will hate such as Abel the righteous yea if Father be unrighteous and Sonne righteous Brother righteous and Brother unrighteous Husband righteous and Wife unrighteous the Father Brother Wife will hate and maligne the childe the Brother and the Husband God hath put enmity betwixt the seed of the Woman and of the Serpent good and bad are of two contrary natures what the one loveth the other hateth and contrarily this contrariety in disposition will breed contrariety in affection Hee that is Caine a formall Hypocrite and satisfieth himselfe with a bare outside service will hate him that worshippeth in spirit and in truth They that are after the flesh will persecute them that are after the spirit and all that will live godly must suffer for it Prepare your selves to meete with the same measure that Abel met withall you had need of patience saith our Saviour Be not discouraged at the hatred and ill usage of wicked men but have respect to the recompence of reward looke to the end of your faith set
goodnesse in Christ making you know that he will fulfill to you the blessing of Abraham If he have give hearty praises to him take unspeakable comfort in him account all your other crosses nothing Rejoyce in him evermore that hath translated you from the power of darkenesse to his owne Kingdome Happy is he that is made the childe of God though he be in great calamity for outward things Know the incomparable greatnesse of his favour that you may rejoyce in it in despight of all crosses And labour to get more and more assurance of your interest unto God and happy estate this way that you may be more and more comforted But if you have not these spirituall good things doe not account your selves happy because of the outward thinke not that you are in a good estate whatsoever you possesse if you possesse not Gods Spirit to make you Gods childe to seale you to the day of redemption to comfort you in all times with making himselfe more and more assuredly knowne unto you What is it to enjoy a dreame of prosperity in this sleepe of naturall life and then to spend ones eternall being in endlesse and irremediable and unsufferable misery Rest not your selves satisfied in outward things count not your selves happy in having them never thinke you have any thing till you have grace till you have Christ till you have interest into Heaven that eternall land of promise and set your selves in feeling of the want of these things to seeke them in Gods ordinances Prayer the Word Sacraments and you shall have them for you want them not that live in the Church but for want of care duely to seeke them Againe consider Isaacs temporall blessings he had a very good wife Rebekah that carried her selfe well towards him and was carefull to keepe him from offending in translating the blessing contrary to Gods pleasure wherein though shee used deceit yet shee brought him into the right way afore he knew of it and caused him to doe well when her thought to doe evill Againe he had one very gracious and godly childe Iacob and another though not so godly as we can assuredly say he feared God yet one that respected him that did thrive in the world and was of commendable outward carriage among men for so was Esau he shewed regard to Isaac grew great in worldly greatnesse and had a name among men Thirdly hee had a greate measure of wealth and was a man of great state and esteeme so that King Abimelech desired his friendship and though some envied and wronged him yet they could not hinder Gods blessing from attending him especially one yeere God gave him a singular blessing for he sowed and reaped and as by Faith he beleeved that God would so God did make him roomth and he became fruitfull in the land And last of all he lived a long time in this world to enjoy all these things and lived to continue with his wife Rebekah shee lived as long or neere as long as he which could not but be a great comfort to him So you see hee had all abundance of outward contents for his children wife state c. Now I bâ—eseech you reckon betwixt God and your selves hath not God beene as favourable to some of you as to Isaac so that you have good vertuous and dutifull and religious wives which will helpe your errors and cherish your bodies and doe you all the good they can Hath not hee given some of you good and godly children at least some or one and the rest civill and thriving Hath not he given you a wealthy estate not so rich as Isaac but even rich enough I meane so much as will inable you to enjoy your selves in the world and to passe thorough the world with comfort Hath not he prospered the worke of your hands and given you roomth and made you increase yea hath hee not made you live a long time to enjoy all these things If so let these benefits become matter of praise let them become arguments of obedience labour to be truly thankfull for them that you may finde them truly beneficiall make a spirituall use of temporall blessings And if any want these things let him see how rich God is and let him even trust in him for sufficiency in outward things and count it enough that it pleaseth God to give him better things as I exhorted before And if any of Gods people finde not these things so granted to himselfe let him not take Gods dealing with him in the worst part let him not ascribe it to want of love to him but to his wisedome that seeing him not so capable of these things doth withdraw from him that thing which hee sees would be hurtfull unto him Wee must not misconster Gods forbearing to give outward things Yea now let all men encourage themselves to bee obedient to God and to feare him as did Isaac for you see in him that God is ready to reward his servants with great commodities and comforts in this life too Hee will not alone save them but so farre as is good make their estate prosperous here below That godlinesse which hath the promise shall also have the performance of good things for this present life and that which is to come I know that these bee common benefits but when they come sweetened with Gods blessing then they are truly comfortable and so shall they be to him that interests himselfe to them by getting into Christ and walking in him in holinesse and godly conversation So wee have done with Isaacs benefits now his crosses for neither could hee nor can any man in this life scape but that more or lesse hee shall meete with afflictions First in respect of his body 2. His state 3. His children For his body hee was blinde many yeares for hee was married at forty at sixty hee had Esau and Iacob Iacob was about seventy six yeares when he came to Laban so then Isaac was a hundred thirty sixe yeares and at that time hee could not discerne Esau and Iacob one from the other by sight and he lived in all 180 yeares from which if you subtract 136 then will remaine forty foure yeares so long did Isaac live without the use of his eyes Therefore learne you to bee thankefull that God hath given you your eye-sight even to your lives end so that you want not this sence at all till death or at least want it not so long a space of time Sight is a great comfort it is pleasant to see the Sunne and to bee able with our eyes to behold and discerne our friends and all other creatures of GOD. Let us praise God for the use of this and other sences Secondly let us prepare to suffer the same crosse who can tell how soone his eyes may grow dimme let us use them well whilest wee have them and withdraw them from looking after vanity and all other abuses for
forth his griefe before God in these words If thou wilt deale thus with me kill me now kil me if I have found favour in thine eyes and let me not see mine evill Sometimes you finde good men desirous to escape death and crying Lord save me from the hands of mine enemies and sometimes againe even covetous of it and crying with vehemency again and again kill me Lord kill me and if thou lovest me kill me Iob was exceeding desirous to die and said He would seek for it as for gold yea and fine gold So you perceive that mans nature is prone to waxe weary of living because of affliction and that this is a fault and a weaknesse is evident It is an act of ingratitude because a man considers not as well the good he enjoyeth as the evill for if he would reckon well he doth alwaies receive more good at Gods hand in this life than evill but as one bitter morsell causeth that the mouth tasteth nothing almost but bitternesse though it have before received many dainty morsels so it is with us in this case Againe it is a fruit of hopelesnesse and despaire the soule doth not expect the favourable goodnesse of God to strengthen and deliver in due time but thinks it will never be better with mee till I die and therefore wisheth it selfe out of the world Hope would hold the heart up from these faintings but it is a kinde of despaire that casts it into such swounes as Iob said As for mine hope where is it Thirdly pride is one great cause of this disposition men consider not with themselves how unworthy they be of any good how much they have deserved far greater evill and therefore are immoderately vexed with those they feele and therefore count their beeing a burden But is it not a fruit of great pride in a man that as if he were his own maker preserver disposer will be no longer then he may have his own will and may see things to go along with him after his owne wishes Further a man wrongs himselfe exceedingly by suffering himself to grow weary of life for first he makes the misery greater by makeing himselfe weaker to beare it If a man be to beare a great burden it doth him much hurt to scratch the skin of his shoulder for that will adde much to the pain of bearing A gauled place will smart of it selfe how ill doth be provide for himselfe that rubs off the skin from his shoulders when he is put to carry a thing So doth he that will needs give way to so much impatiency as to be weary of life yea he exposeth himselfe to the danger of becomming a self-murtherer that yeeldeth to this wearinesse of life For it will not be very hard to perswade any man to cast away that which is his burden So it is evident that this was an offence in Rebekkah And now come you men and women of all rankes looke into your selves Have not you also been weary of life and that upon a very small occasion A maide is crossed in her desires by her parents for her good and she sees no likelihood of having what shee would have then she pules and takes on and wisheth she were dead and buried she would forgive him that would knock her on the head A man hath met with somewhat a froward woman which vexeth him with her words then he will be dead in a chafe I would I were out of the world never man was so pestered with a shrew as I so it is with wives too Come now recount you owne passions are you not ashamed of these drunken distempers what is life a thing so dog cheape with you that upon every occasion you would cast it away Are your selves things of so little value that so small a matter should make you weary of your selves You wrong God exceedingly in such distempers for you make it appeare that you think of him as of an angry governour that cares not how unreasonably he laies upon his servants in his anger Either these corrections are sufferable or not I meane such as by wisdome and discretion you might compose your selves to beare with gentlenesse or they be not if they be why do you chafe thus If they be not who hath sent them Verily you provoke God to send unsufferable crosses that will make easie crosses unsufferable What saith the Father to the froward childe doe you cry for nothing take you that then to make you cry for something and so doubles and redoubles his blows with a strong arme till the childe feeling the smart of his Fathers anger begins to compose himselfe to a little more sufferance Brethren let us repent of this folly there scarce liveth a man that hath not overshot himselfe in this fashion O let us repent of it and let us diligently resist such disorderly passions hereafter Let nothing make us weary of life but sin and not that so excessively as to make us intemperately wish death Of sin we should be weary but of life for sins sake I know not whether we may allow our selves at all to be weary But for crosses be they what they will we should not be so weak and impatient as to grow weary of life For God is able to deliver us out of all crosses and will do it and he will so sanctifie them to us that it may be more for our profit than if it were removed and can give as in Iobs case he did so blessed an issue that our selves shall confesse it was but our folly not to be willing to continue under them according to his will Had not Iob cause to unwish his former wishes when the Lord did make so large an addition of happy dayes unto him Above all we must consider of our worthinesse to be damned that we may not thinke much of crosses and labour so to rest upon God for the escape of damnation that afflictions which are but for a short season may not seeme unto us extreame Looke upon our Lord Iesus Christ what sufferings were comparable to his Yet we never meet with any wearinesse of life or wishing of death in him Looke upon S. Paul too Never man had feeling of greater tribulation and he tels us that hee tooke pleasure in necessities afflictions tribulations but that he wished himselfe dead that hee might be free from his crosses wee never reade Let us follow the vertues of godly men but let their weaknesses be our warnings And that we may not distaste life for any crosses that befall us therein let us often renew our faith in Gods gracious promises to give us an happy issue out of all and to bring us safely to his heavenly kingdome Moreover if sometimes these fainting fits doe gather upon us and our mindes be overtaken with this tirednesse of spirit let us learne though to be humbled yet not to be discouraged We conclude not against Elias Moses Rebekkah Iob that they were not truly
more sin to hide and conceale that which they have already committed as it did Iacob and David and others because feare of shame or danger disturbeth the minde and turneth away the thoughts from considering the mischief of sinning Therefore let us all take heed of entring into the path of evill for if we be once in no man can tell what lying dissembling and other evils the devill will draw us into by meanes of that sin He intangles himselfe as a sheepe in the bryers that run into any grosse or shamefull sin and he can hardly come off with one wound alone And if you have thus covered sin with sin bewaile it as a great fault but yet take heart to repent and turne to God for favour for it is no new thing with God to forgive such trespasses only doe not embolden your selves of purpose to sin because you know how to conceale it and hope to keepe it close for then shall the same become a presumptuous sin and so much more hardly pardoned I have shewed you Rachels faults Her good deeds be but few yet some First she was one of her Fathers sheep-keepers and did not disdaine to drive them to the water at least when the Shepheards were otherwise imployed So it is a commendable thing in a young maide to be ready to take paines and doe service in domesticall businesses such as accord to her Fathers state But an idle coy finish maide is so much the more disdained of wise persons by how much she doth more disdaine labour in any profitable businesse for which God did make men Further Rachel at last saw God in her barrennesse and fell to prayer for it is said God hearkened to her and opened her wombe This gives us some hope that she was humbled and sought God which is good in our wants of any good thing by it to be drawne to God in fervent prayers Then be they graciously supplyed when our need of them makes us supplicate to his bounty Rachel got nothing by chafing envying or giving her maide to her husband all that time the womb is not opened but when she remembred God God remembred her and when she prayed he hearkened and gave her a son Let us in all our necessities make all the hast we can to this remedy comfort and deliverance will never come halfe so happily by other meanes without this They be our prayers that must sanctifie other meanes and procure Gods co-operation with them for our good successe Iacob was Rachels husband before but prayer had not made her fruitfull till now God is the ruler of all things learne to call upon him and trust in him He can remove any crosse as well as barrennesse Againe it was a good thing in her to desire children and when she had one to see God and blesse him and say God hath taken away my reproach When we have gotten things by prayer we must also see God in them and give him thankes yea she saith God will give me yet another son the thankfull receiving of one benefit may assure us of another God will adde to mercies if we take notice of his goodnesse after we have called upon him in hearing our request Every benefit gotten by prayer may and should be called a Ioseph Another good thing was that her envy to her sister did not so prevaile with her but that she would aske her for her sons Mandrakes Though the humour of envy was sharpe in her yet it may seeme to have waxed a little milder after a while and she could both request a kindnesse from her and returne a kindnesse to her Let us looke that envy doe not continue in its height so as sometimes it doth to make us grow bitter enemies And she did well in granting to Iacobs motion to returne into Canaan for a wife is to forsake Father and Mother and cleave to her husband Shee shall doe farre amisse that prefers not her husband before her Parents and goes not with him rather than tarries with them So you have what is good and bad in her now looke upon her crosses we can finde but few and one which at last too was removed she was barren This barrennesse God sent of purpose to keepe her downe because she should not too much sleight her sister but she made this a great crosse though it be no great one in it selfe you see that barrennesse is a crosse and to some people a great crosse because of their earnest desire of issue on some or other consideration But it is needfull that God tame and humble us with some or other crosses and either make them great or make use of our folly to our further humbling by giving us over to our selves to make them great that else would not be so Wee must pray God to sanctifie crosses and then we shall never repent of them when they be past many a man hath repented for other things but sanctified crosses were never yet bewailed afterwards Perhaps one may esteeme it a crosse that she was faine to leave her Fathers house but indeed that was a benefit for by that meanes she was quite we hope freed from the Idolatry of her Fathers house from which so long as she lived there she was not quite purged But her crosses that she felt with her husband in respect of her childrens ill carriage were heavy for a good woman cannot bee sencelesse of her husbands sorrows only death shut up her eyes from beholding that crosse which in likelihood would have killed her quite seeing it went so neare to Iacob she was dead afore Ioseph was taken away from them But her benefits were common benefits of health strength maintenance and the like and she had beauty and her husbands love and after her prayers were heard and a son given her and it pleased God to hide her fault which she committed in stealing her Fathers Idols which if it had come to light would have much provoked her Fathers anger and her husbands We must observe even such mercies to be thankfull to God that hath not dealt with us after our sins And wee hope that shee was a godly woman too because shee prayed to God and it is said God remembred her and heard her but her death was an heavy death she dyed in childbed or in travell and tooke it heavily calling her son The son of her sorrows whom after Iacob called The son of his right hand Women with childe should even prepare for death they passe through the danger of it And me thinkes notwithstanding whatsoever hath been to the contrary delivering out of childbed-perils is a mercy that may well be acknowledged with a publique and solemne giving of thankes and a feast The equity of Iewish ceremonies remaining though the ceremonies be abolished and though there be no legall uncleannesse yet there is a reall danger escaped and a reall benefit attained and that should me thinks crave an
and Sonne concurre in this fault A common fault it is religion is made of the by it serveth some other Mistresse It is a stalking horse for policy on both sides Wickedly doe Iacobs sonnes seeme to stand on religion for their secret ends and it was not well done of them to take a religion up for meere private ends but such is the custome of the men of this world they can embrace any ordinance for their profit and any religion O looke that you bee intire in imbracing Gods Ordinance and Gods Truth take heed that sinister ends doe not marre and destroy your seeming religiousnesse and make that you shall seeme to God not the better men but the worse Hypocrites Againe something was ill done of him we see no sharpe correction nor reproofe of his sonne for his wrong done to Dinah and that provokes the maides friends O how indulgent are Parents to their childrens crimes scarce with a word will they checke them at most but with a word for that which deserveth many blowes yea the stroake of death This indulgence of theirs often makes children bold to sinne as in Adoniah and Absalom is seene and so doth make them at length correctors of their Parents that should have corrected them Let Parents take heed to themselves that they shew not themselves to love God lesse then their children by loving their children so much as to put out or smother the hatred of sinne and let Parents at last learne to make naturall affection give place to justice You have his faults his vertues are 1. To his Sonne he is willing to satisfie him in point of marriage so farre as was fit and so should all wise Parents be If the affections of their children carry them not to matches too inconvenient they should gratifie them for feare of those mischiefes which often come by crossing them and that because nothing is more likely to procure the welfare of children then when they be matched to whom they love Unlesse their folly be such as to make too too foolish choises let Parents learne to shew themselves milde and gentle here if in any other thing Further he deales well with the Shechemites his Subjects whom he seeketh not to force but to perswade to accept circumcision In things of this nature a good Prince must not compell but allure Subjects and let them see reason rather then feele violence but his reason is taken from the profit of the people That is the wisest argument which will most prevaile with him to whom it is used and so it sped accordingly Further he dealt well with Iacob too for in all plainenesse he seekes his daughter for his sonne and is willing to yeeld to any equall conditions Plaine dealing is commendable in an Heathen how much should it be commended to us Christians Now see his prosperity He had a sonne indifferent good that at least sought his consent and shewed himselfe orderly though at the first he had beene rude It is a comfort to have a sonne not altogether rude and misgoverned that if he over-shoote himselfe in some things yet will keepe his order and reforme himselfe Be you such children O ye sonnes and daughters and be thankefull ye Parents that have such children He had also good Subjects that would be perswaded by him and such Subjects let us learne to be so that we use prudence as well as subjection But his crosse was great he was over-reacht by crafty heads and himselfe and all his Family and City butchered by bloudy hands O how could you brooke such a crosse and why will not you stand prepared to loose life goods children friends and all seeing you perceive in the Shechemites how soone all these may be lost even then when you thinke your selves secure and why doe you not thanke God for preserving you from such both craft and outrage hitherto Now I proceed to speake of some others The Adullamite Hiram is a better friend then a man indeed a good friend but a bad man His friendship appeares to be morally good in its kinde because first it was lasting secondly it was serviceable thirdly it was secret Lasting for it continued to Iudah so long till his third sonne was marrigeable and began before his marriage You cannot conceive it under some twenty yeeres standing though you should thinke that Iudah married about sixteene or seventeene yeares of age Friendship is like wine the elder the better the longer it lasteth the more it is to be praised Learne to be durable friends let not a yeare or two see you changed and estranged but be like Christ in that respect whom you love love to the end unlesse they doe even too too unfriendlily cast you off and breake the lawes of friendship And those that have beene fickle friends let them be ashamed for it is too too evident that they were false seeking themselves alone and not their friends Againe his friendship was serviceable stooping to somewhat a base office to helpe Iudah out with his whoredome as secretly and undiscernedly as might be Indeed a true friend must be serviceable to his friend not alone with his cost and labour but sometimes also with a little blemish not by helping him to sinne nor lying or so forth but by doing what may honestly and lawfully be done for the secret carrying of his faults and saving him from blame even carnall friends are forward enough this way take heed that you denie not good offices to your inward acquaintance and take no lesse heed that you gratifie them not with bad For here you see the secrecy of this Adullamite no body knew by him of that fault which he himselfe knew onely by Iudah Nothing becomes a friend better then secrecy of his friends faults and he that hath once played the blab in this kinde hath no wrong if hee be never trusted after Nay verily this may seeme a most just cause of dividing friendship therefore so farre as may be without sinne against God and against the Countrey and Superiours every friend must affect this trustinesse Surely had not Iudah found him faithfull in this kinde hee would never have ingaged himselfe so farre So was Hiram a good friend but yet he was not a good man for we finde not that he did rebuke Iudah for his fault at all which he must have done if he had beene as good a man as a friend And doe you learne to add that to other good fruits of friendship even to reprehend them for their faults though you doe not divulge them that so friendship may not be a mutuall infecting of one another but a mutuall healing So much for the Adullamite Iudahs friend now for Er and Onan Iudahs sonnes The first of them was so wicked a man that God in his justice would not let him live to staine that good family O let him be a a warning to all you children that you
is a most disbecomming vice it causeth hard censures from every mouth that doth heare he that hath practised it in himselfe cannot but condemne it in another as David did his owne fault in a third person forget not to blame your selves for having so forgotten And now be taught to use your memory vertuously to remember those that are indistresse and under injuries and those that have suffered with you and those that have beene instruments of comfort to you in the common sorrowes that befell both Memory cannot be better exercised next after the remembrance of God and his benefits and our sinnes then in remembring the miseries of others with whom once our own selves were joyned in the same misery and the kindnesses we have received of them in our miseries And so much of the faults of these men Now of their crosses they both were imprisoned and sure imprisonment is a crosse To be limited to one chamber to be denied the common benefits that bruit creatures enjoy drawing in the fresh aire and a free beholding of Heaven and Earth to want the benefit of ones friends company and be so restrained that neither he can goe to them nor they can come to him to have one wall one chimney one window for his prospect and either none or but a few and those disconsolate persons as himselfe to talke withall this is a crosse I say so tedious as none can judge of it but by experience yet many persons both of high place and of great vertues have suffered it O now therefore let mee counsell you to be thankefull for liberty and to praise God that hath not laid you fast in some place of custody that hath set you at large and given you liberty to be with whom and where you would your selves in your owne houses or in your friends houses or where you desire to be where you have no doores locked upon you no keeper to shut you in and let you forth no controler to take you up with surly words none to finde fault with you in that kinde or to exact upon you I say thanke God for liberty and know the benefit by having which would seeme great unto you if you wanted it And secondly use your liberty well keepe your selves from ill company and ill courses runne not into places worse then prisons then when you be out of prison Moderate your selves in your freedome that you may not be abridged of your freedome especially take heede of running into such crimes as should cause you to deserve imprisonment Harmefull creatures are chained or tied up so must harmefull men let your behaviour be such that you may not inforce Governours to lay you fast let not Satan get you into his bondage be not prisoners to your lusts and in this sence also I may use Peters words Abuse not your liberty as a cloake of maliciousnesse or as an occasion to the flesh the abuse of mercies doth forfeit them and addeth bitternesse to the want of them If there be not a grosse fatnesse growne over the heart of a man he will call to minde with anguish his unbridled walking in his liberty that now is bound to one place But howsoever learne to prepare for imprisonment and for that purpose keepe friendship with God in your owne consciences with whom you may comfortably conferre when the prison doores be shut and your other friends are kept out from you And labour to get the knowledge of the Word of God the meditation of which may be sweete unto you when solitarinesse would else cast you into your dumpes He that can powre out his soule to God in prayers and in supplications and in thankesgivings may make his prison comfortable to him he that can heare peaceable answers from his conscience may sing Psalmes in the stockes and he that can meditate of Gods Word can never languish with solitarinesse when he lieth under lock and key and that himselfe alone also And another crosse is to the Baker alone he lost his life violently disgracefully and it may seeme deservedly for on the third day the King tooke them both out of prison and then putting them to triall hanged the one and acquitted the other restoring him to his place To die an unnaturall and shamefull and violent death is a misery a crosse a punishment death at what doore soever it carry a man out of the world is grimme enough to looke upon but to hale a man out of the world by violence and disgrace makes his approach more terrible Nature hates its owne destruction the soule and body cannot well indure their separation but so much the lesse by how much the destruction is more violent and the parting more contumelious Let us be thankfull to God therefore that hath taken our friends out of the world by faire and naturall deaths and let us abhorre and shunne those capitall sinnes that may cause the Lord to bring us into the like misery and to pull us out of the world before our time and with much contempt also and let us be alwaies ready not for death alone but for such a kind of death A man is to brooke reproach with death and as well as death If onely malefactors did fall in this manner it were our duty to care for no more but to prevent crimes but seeing the innocent also have beene oppressed witnesse above all exceptions our Lord Jesus Christ and his blessed Prophets and Martyrs now it is requisite for us to prepare for a violent death onely praying to God that wee may not pull it on our selves by our sinnes and then bearing it quietly though it should befall us without doing ill and most comfortably if it should befall us for having done well And so much for the crosses of these men Now their benefits First they were both officers under a great King enjoying places of honour and like by too if they wanted not good husbandry of wealth To have preferment and riches or to be in the way of both by attending upon a mighty Prince is such an outward thing as men make great account of O how much more worthy a thing is it to be an attendant on God and a speciall officer as it werein his Court They know not God and his service that cannot see an excellency in being admitted so neere to the King of Kings But secondly they had in the prison an excellent person to attend them and one of such endowments that was ready by diligence to minister any thing unto them and by wisdome to advise counsell and informe them It is a great happinesse in misery to meete with a person able and ready to comfort and cheere up a sad heart by cheerefull serving and by hearty counsell Hee is as happy as one can be in prison that hath a Ioseph to be with him or to waite upon him God can give this benefit to us we must supplicate for it and learne to make
wirh him 2. Dealeth plainely with him 3. Hee dealt bountifully with him Abrahams good carriage to strangers Heb. 13.2 Abrahams faults before his calling James 3.2 His first fault idolatry Abrahams faults after his calling 1. Weakenesse of faith 1 Sam. 27.1 Exod. 6.12 2. A carnall feare of death Psal 118.6 Psal 23.4 3. He dissembled 4. He drew Sarah to sinne so farre as to indanger her chastity A double ignorance 5. Abraham had two wives 3. Abrahams benefits 1. Temporall 1. For himself 1. A good wife 1 Pet. 3 6. A good wife a great blessing Prov. 18. â—2 Prov. 9.14 Prov. 31.10 11 2 He had children Psal 127.5 3 He had good servants especially one 4. Abraham had good kinsmen 1. Lot 2. Nahor 5. Abraham had faithfull friends Prov. 18.24 5. Abraham had a good name Eccles 5.13 A great and famous victory Isa 41.2 3. 2. God did doe good to others for Abrahams sake 1. Blessed Lot and delivered him 2. Blessed Isaac giving him goods and goodnesse He gave also abundance of outward things to Ishmael Shewed favour to him after his death Psal 112.6 Abrahams spirituall blessings 1. He was called from a false religion to the true Gal. 3.8 2. Spirituall blessings 1. God made him gratious promises 2. Appeared to him many times to renue those promises 3. He entred into a covenant with him and his seede after him Abrahams crosses 1. He changed his countrey and left his fathers house Psal 45.10 Mat. 10.36 2. Was uncertaine where he should dwell 3. Suffered crosses 1. In Lot his kinsman 4. His wife Sarah was twice taken away from him 5. Sarah was barren 6. There fell out a great jarre betwixt him and Sarah 7. Sarah died before him Gen. 23.3 8. He suffered in Hagars ill carriage to Sarah and in her running away being with-child 9. Hee was made to divorce Hagar and send her quite away 10. Hee was forced to thrust Ishmael out of his family 11. Hee was crossed in Isaac many wayes Heb. 11.19 Abrahams death 1 Pet. 3.6 Sarahs birth Her life 1. Her vertues 1. Her faith Heb 11.11 2. Shee obeyed her husband Gen. 18.6 1 Pet. 3.1 1 Pet. 3.6 3. Shee reverenced her husband A double feare Gen. 18.12 1 Cor. 11.3 7 â— Shee was a loving Mother and nursed Isaac her selfe Gen. 21.7 5. Shee apparelled her selfe modestly 1 Pet. 3.5 1 Pet. 3.3.4 1 Tim. 2.9 10 Sarahs faults 1. Shee was weake in faith Gen. 18 12. Ver. 11. Ver. 14. Heb. 11.11 2. Shee being â—ngry â—alâ—ely accâ—sed her husband Gen. 16.5 Verse 6. 3. Shee was somewhat too rough with Hagar 4. She dissembled at her husbands request 5. She lyed Sarahs benefits 1. Shee vvas a holy vvoeman 2 Shee had a godly and rich husband that was well esteemed 3. Shee had a godly childe 4. God delivered her twice out of a misery into which she had cast herselfe Sarahs crosses 1. She was barren a long time 2. Shee was sleighted by her maide 3. She was taken from her husband into the house of Pharaoh and Abimelech Her death Her age onely of all women is mentioned in Scripture Hagar nothing in Scripture of her birth or death It is probable she feared God and why Her life 1. Her Vertues 1. Shee was obedient to her governours 2. Shee told the truth Gen. 16.8 3. Shee submitted her selfe to her Mistresse aâ— the Angels commandement 4. Shee was thankfull to God for his goodnesse in bringing her home to Abrahams family 5. Shee was patient 6. Shee was carefull to provide her sonne a convenient wife Sarahs faults 1. Shee grew proud 2. Shee ranne away from her Mistresse Her benefits 1. She was one of Abrahams servants 2. Shee had the favour of her Master and Mistresse Ephes 6.3 Tit. 2.9 Pro. 14 35. 27.18 3. She received great mercies from God 4. Shee had Ishmael and a promise concerning him Her crosses 1. Sarah used her hardly 2. Shee and her son were cast out of Abrahams family 3. Shee saw her sonne ready to die with thirst Gal. 4.21 Ver. 22. Ver. 23. Ver. 24. Ver. 25. Ver. 26. Gal. 4.29 Keturah Ishmael His Vertues 1 He was outwardly conformable and obedient to his father 2. He submitted himselfe to his father to be banished out of his house 3 Hee ioyned with Isaac in his Fathers funerall 4. He was ruled by his mother in marriage His faults 1. He mocked his brother Ephes 5.4 2 Was a wilde man 3. Hee was a quarrellsome fellow Gen. 16.12 His Benefits 1. Deliverance from two great dangers 2. God provided water for him when hee was ready to die for thirst 3. God himselfe gave him his name Gen. 21.17 Joh. 9.31 4. He prospered much in the world His death See Ainsworth on Gen. 25.17 Eliezer The Scripture saith nothing of his Birth and Death nor of his faults His vertues 1. He proceeded warily to an oath 2. Carried himselfe well to Abraham 1. Hee used speed in performing his oath The iourney was about 300 miles Mat. 5.33 Psal 15.4 2. He served his Master religiously 3. He praised God for his good successe 4. He was discreete 5. He had a care of his Camels 6 Was diligent and made hast about his businesse Col. 3.22 Ephes 6.5 His benefits 1. God gave him a godly Master 2. He had his favour 3. He was a true Christian 4. God prospered him His crosse Hee was a bond-man Abrahams Contemporaries Lot His death is not mentioned in Scripture His vertues He was a righteous man 2 Pet. 2.8 A twofold righteousnesse Gal. 3.21 22. The righteousnesse of the Gospell is twofold Lots particular vertues 1. He left his owne Countrey and Fathers house 2. Hee was troubled at the evill conversation of the Sodomites 2 Pet. 2.8 Psal 119.136 So in drunkennesse 3. Hee was hospitall Heb. 13.2 1 Pet. 4.9 Christmas 4. He intreated the Sodomites to desist from their villany 5. He sought to deliver his sons in law 6. For a good while he kept close to his Unkle Abraham His faults 1. He chose to dwell in a fertile place among sinfull men 2. He continued to dwell in Sodome among great sinners 3. He offered his two daughters to the Sodomites Rom. 6.2 4. He lingred in Sodome till the Angels tooke him by the hand Job 2.4 6. Hee was twice drunken His benefits 1. God gave him repentance 2. He and his were delivered out of the burning of Sodome His afflictions were foure Lots wife Her benefits 1. Delivered from Captivity 2. Delivered out of the burning of Sodome Her sin shee looked back to Sodome Her punishment Lots daughters had no vertues their vices 1. They agreed together about two grievous crimes Gen. 19.31 Qui semel verecundiae limites transiluerit graviter impudentem esse oportet Their owne sinne they make their Father drunken Their speciall sinnes Abrahams confederates Their vertues 1. They were friends to Abraham It is a good thing to be a a friend to the godly Prov. 13.20 Mat. 10.22 Acts 28. 2.
PROTOTYPES OR THE PRIMARIE PRECEDENT PRESIDENTS OVT OF THE BOOKE OF GENESIS Shewing The Good and Bad things They did and Had Practically applied to our Jnformation and Reformation By that faithfull and painefull Preacher of Gods Word William Whately late Pastour of Banbury Together with Mr. WHATELYES Life and Death Published by Mr. Edward Leigh and Mr. Henry Scudder who were appointed by the Authour to peruse his manuscripts and printed by his owne Coppy Vivitur Exemplis Praecepta ducunt Exempla trahunt 1 COR. 11.1 Be yee followers of me even as I also am of Christ EXOD. 23.2 Thou shalt not follow a multitude to doe evill 1 COR. 10.11 Now all these things happened unto them for Ensamples And they are written for our admonition LONDON Printed by G. M. for EDVVARD LANGHAM Booke-seller in Banbury MDCXL TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVLL THE MAIOR THE VVORSHIPFVLL THE ALDERMEN AND BVRGESSES AND THE REST OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE TOWNE AND PARISH OF BANBVRY Right Worshipfull c. AS I could not but congratulate my owne and your happinesse in the injoyment of your worthy Pastours labours so both I and many other Christians do now condole your misery in the losse of the good Authour The greater your happinesse was the greater now is your misery and I feare many of you prized not the blessing so much as you should have done and that you knew not the greatnesse of the benefit so well by the fruition as now by the want of it At Banbury even amongst you was your Pastour borne and bred and there he lived and died Ministers are called Incumbents so was he being diligently resident in his place they are stiled Lights so was he like a candle or lampe which spent himselfe to give light to others He spent his means and strength amongst you and as himselfe in his sicknesse said He sought not yours but you Of all the Ministers that ever I knew so experimentally he was the most unblameable in his conversation I had the happinesse to live almost a yeare with him in his house neare foure yeares under his Ministry and to be esteemed by him one of his faithfullest friends I have cause to blesse GOD for him whilst I live since it pleased him by his meanes not onely to reveale many saving truthes unto mee but also to set them on with such power as I hope I shall never forget them Oh with what life and zeale would hee both preach and pray and how strict and watchfull was hee in his whole life being as every good Minister should be Blamelesse Sober Just Holy Temperate of good Behaviour given to Hospitality apt to teach a lover of good things and good men Hee studied to approove himselfe unto GOD a workeman that needed not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of Truth He propounded to you the Examples of holy Writ and was himselfe whilst he lived an Example and Patterne of all good works If that saying therefore of Austins be true So many as a man shall edifie by a good Example for so many he shall receive a reward of a blessed life than surely he hath now received a full reward for all the good hee did by his holy life unto those with whom he conversed In a word hee was a most pious and accomplisht Divine for his ministeriall parts and paines as one of his neare Friends said truely hee might sooner bee envied than matcht and equalled being in this like Saul higher than his brethren by the head He was well skilled in both the Originall tongues being able to render the Text out of his Hebrew Bible or Greeke Testament to another in our mother tongue as familiarly almost as if it had bin English For the Arts he was a good Logician as his exact Analysis of the ten Commandements sheweth a good Philosopher as his Sermons in manuscript on the 104. Psalme doe witnesse a good Rhetorician or Oratour as his printed Treatises aboundantly testifie Hee had words at will and could readily and aptly expresse himselfe in his Sermons which gift of Elocution is requisite if not necessary for a compleate Divine He had by long Experience gotten the art of preaching and he wrote a tract concerning that subject hee had an excellent faculty in characterizing or fitly describing a vertue or vice or any other thing and though he had no common-place-booke of his own yet he could treat of any subject I might also extoll his other indowments and without danger of exceeding magnifie him for his strong naturall parts his solid judgement and tenacious memorie and commend some vertues wherein hee excelled to your imitation as his Humility Mercifullnesse Beneficence Laboriousnesse and Diligence in his Calling and then also shew how comfortably he died being full of heavenly speeches and godly Exhortations Therefore I passe from himselfe to this Opus posthumum this first worke of his which since his death came to light viz. Sermons on all the Examples or Historicall part of Genesis which Booke containeth a briefe and short Story of the things done from the beginning of the world to the death of Joseph for the space as it is thought by some of 2309. yeares by Doctor Willet of 2368. yeares Examples are not unfitly compared unto looking-Glasses wherein one may behold as well what to eschew as what to follow So you should follow the Faith of Abraham and Obedience of Isaack but shun their lying and dissembling follow Noah and Lot in their Righteousnesse and Zeale but shunne their drunkennesse and incest And because an Example of a Person living amongst you may bee more prevalent with some then the Examples of others though singularly holy whose vertues they onely read of as a Sermon delivered Viva voce doth more affect then the same reade out of a Booke So walke therefore as you had him for an Example and bee you followers of him as hee was of CHRIST in the Graces before mentioned and all holy conversation Remember him who had the rule over you who hath spoken unto you the Word of GOD whose Faith follow and Charitie too for Master Whately was the most bountifull Minister to the poore I thinke in England of his meanes your Consciences will witnesse that hee hath often pressed and urged this Dutie upon you and as hee was earnest in perswading his Hearers to beneficence so hee practised the same Himselfe entertaining some poore widdowes or necessitous Persons weekely at the least at his Table and giving the tenth of all his Estate that way and see how GOD blessed him for the same his Estate as himselfe told mee prospered the better after hee tooke that course and in his sickenesse hee comforted himselfe with that Promise Psalme 41.1 3. Blessed is hee that considereth the poore the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing O follow him therefore who by Faith and Patience inherits the Promises let
and of all that die in the Faith of our Lord Jesus to whom bee ascribed all Might Majestie Dominion and Glorie both now and for ever more Amen This Man of God and faithfull Minister of Christ departed this life upon Friday the 10. of May Anno Domini 1639. neare the end of the six and fiftieth yeare of his age Feb. 25. 1639. Imprimatur THOMAS WYKES Banburies Funerall teares powred forth upon the Death of her late pious and painefull Pastour Mr. William Whately deciphered in this Sympathizing Elogy I am that Orbin which of late did shine An heav'n enlightned starre with raies divine Which did arise within mee and dispence Light life heate Heav'n-infusing influence And went before me steering right mine Eye Vnto the very place where CHRIST did lye He was a Cynosura in my motion To Heaven's bright haven on this worlds vast Ocean Or as the Aegyptian Pharos to descrie The rockes of sinne and errour to mine Eye Hee was my Glorie Beautie Consolation My very soule I but the Corporation I would goe on with bleedings to recite His and mine owne sad fall but I can't write Throbs shake mine hand and griefe my sight destroyes And when I speake ah teares doe drowne my voice Yet will I sigh and give my sorrowes pent Within my breast by mournefull breathings vent Come then speake sighs write teares and sadly storie The dark Ecclipse that hath befell my glorie My Starre is falne and Heavens did so dispose That there he fell where he at first arose The Starres above us thus their races runne Returning thither whence they first begunne But did I say hee 's fallen Stay me there He is translated to an higher spheare Where though to th' world he is obscur'd he may Shine forth unvailed in a purer ray Fixt to an endlesse rest in heavens bright throne Above all starry Constellation But ah alas Death hath dispos'd it so That his rise prooves my fall his weale my woe His weale my woe strange what a change is this My welfare was but now in wrapt in his But thus Death innovates and did he not Tell me that he Commission hath got And warrant for his fact from heavens great King I would have brought him into questioning Ah death what hast thou done Dost thou not care To make a breach which ages can't repaire So rare a Frame in peeces for to take VVhich Heav'n and nature did combine to make A Master-peece For who did ere behold So sound a spirit in so strong a mold Heaven's treasure which within his breast abode VVas by his liberall tongue disperst abroad All Graces gave a meeting in him even To make his breast a little map of Heav'n His lips distilled Manna and he stood Not so for Church-goods as the Churches good His voice it was a trump whose sound was made VVith breath divine which it from Heaven had His life a dayly Sermon which alas Methinkes was measur'd by too short a glasse Ah Death though Painters give thee holes for eyes Yet thou canst see to take the richest prize To hit the fairest mark yet I suspect It was my sinne which did thine hand direct My light had I improov'd it well for gaine VVould have remaind els lights sha'nt burn in vain Yet sure he is not dead for why I find Him still surviving in my breast enshrin'd And who can say that he 's of life bereaven That lives in 's works inpious hearts in Heaven He 's but a sleepe by death undrest not dead Or hath but changd his dresse for he in stead Of these sin-staind ragges of mortality VVeares a pure robe whose length's eternity M. B. EXAMPLE I. OF Adam and Eve AS all other knowledges are conveniently taught by Precepts and Examples so is that best of knowledges the art of living holily Hence it is that as I have instructed you to my poore ability in the Law and the precepts of good life so I doe now intend to set before your eyes the Examples recorded in Scripture of Men both good and bad that by observing the swervings of the one and the right walking of others you may better keepe your owne feete in the streightest paths Onely concerning Examples you must know this thing in generall that no Example at all hath the force of a precept either to binde the consciences of men to any thing as a duty or to restraine from any thing as a sinne because the knowledge of sinne is from the Law and where there is no Law there is no transgression and our care must be to walke in Gods waies not in the waies of any man whatsoever But Example prevaileth alone to perswade the will as a fit argument of Exhortation or Dehortation not as an argument to proove a thing needfull or sinfull Seeing then my duty is to perswade you to all goodnesse and to disswade you from all evill and the Examples of Scripture are undoubted and certaine and they offer themselves as it were unto the sences and so more worke on the will to allure or deterre I thinke it a convenient meanes of helping you in all righteousnesse and against the contrary to make a collection of those Examples of good or bad things which are left us upon record by a divine pen and I will range these Examples according to the order of time wherein they lived so farre as I can informe my selfe thereof by the Word of God And I will begin with Adam and Eve and put them both together because their good and evill was put togeher in practise thereof The Method I intend to take in each person is this I will consider his Birth Life and Death and in his Life I will looke to his carriage and behaviour in respect of the deeds he did good bad indifferent and doubtfull and the things that befell him either prosperously or adversely in benefits or afflictions Now for Adam and Eve because they were the first fountaines of mankind and therefore could not be borne in the same manner as others be for he that is borne must have a Parent and he that hath a Parent was not the first man or woman because his Parent was before him therefore I cannot tell you any thing of their Birth but of their entring into the world by another way which was to them the same in effect that our begetting and birth is to us I will informe you according to the Scriptures for it much concernes us to understand our originall and to know certainely how mankinde came into the world Know then in summe That God made Man of the dust of the earth and breathed into him the breath of life and man became a living soule Here is in briefe the Creation of Adam now Adam signifieth red Earth because his body was made of such kinde of Earth and concerning Woman it is noted that God caused a deepe sleepe to fall upon Adam and then tooke one of his ribbes
soveraigne Lord over him and had full power and authority to forbid him what he saw good to forbid and to command what he saw good to command So the Lord did here call Adam to a profession of his absolute subjection to God his Maker and of Gods absolute right to himselfe and all other creatures and to this prohibition he subjoynes a threat of death In the day that thou eatest it thou shalt certainely die in dying thou shalt die Doubtlesse the Lord meant this of both deaths naturall and spirituall and it is to be interpreted thou shalt become subject to a naturall and to an eternall death thy body and soule both shall be made in their kind mortall Thy body subject to such putrefaction and distemper as shall cause it to be an unfit receptacle for the soule and thy soule subject to such sinfullnesse and distemper in its kind as shall make it unfit to hold any fellowship with God and so thy soule shall be separated from thy body and both from God the life of thy life in this same phrase is the wicked man threatened by the Prophet at Gods appointment O wicked man thou shalt die the death that is most surely die and be damned The Lord did not meane that naturall and eternall death should instantly follow upon their eating but obnoxiousnesse to both and some degrees of both should follow instantly and at last the consummation of both with an implicite exception of his grace in Christ in pardoning him Lo now Adam had from Gods own mouth an expresse and plaine Commandement wherein he was directly forbidden one and but one tree with warrant for the use of all the rest and a plaine and expresse threat of death to begin to insue immediately upon his eating And this Commandement either God himselfe or else Adam had made knowne to Evah for you heare that shee doth both alleadge it and oppose it to the Serpents temptation at the first Now this Commandement so plaine so easie so equall that hee could not be ignorant of it nor incurre any inconvenience by yeelding to it nor picke any exception against it This Commandement which both of them knew full well did they transgresse and that very speedily How long they continued free from the sinne I know not because I find it not revealed and will not conjecture because the not revealing it by God makes mee thinke it is not to much purpose to know If the first act of eating were that of the forbidden fruit it is a great aggravation of their sinne that they transgressed Gods Law in a manner afore they did any other thing if they stood any while it is a great aggravation that after much experience of Gods bounty they would be bold to offend him and taste of the forbidden fruit after the feeling of the sweetnesse and goodnesse of other fruits but it was not long afore they did eate and it was likewise done upon a poore motive the temptation of a base Worme and it was yeelded unto without much resistance for not many words passed them before Eve had condescended You have the Storie of this sinne in Gen. 3.1 c. where is first the Tempter a Serpent the most naked or subtilest of all beasts then the temptation in the matter of it and the successe The matter The Serpent said to the Woman hath God indeed said you shall not eate of every tree of the garden in which hee would make Eve either doubt of Gods Commandement or else be discontent with it as if hee had dealt niggardly with them in not permitting them to eate of every tree or as if the forbidding of this were as much as if hee had prohibited them all the trees intimating that this was as good as all the rest and the not giving them this as much as the deniall of all the rest Then the Womans answer telling him that he had allowed them all the rest and forbidden this alone and that on paine of death then the Serpents reply in which he contradicteth Gods threat that the Woman might not give credit unto it for he tells Evah that they should nor certainely die yea not onely so but that God knew well enough how eating of that tree would procure to them an increase of knowledge then the successe of the Temptation is that shee beleeving the Serpent and conceiving that shee should gaine knowledge by the eating and considering the beauty and pleasantnesse of the fruit did not alone eate of it her selfe but also gave her husband perswading him also to feed of it which he at her perswasion did Thus was the first Commandement utterly transgressed which so soone as it was done they began to have sence of their nakednesse and sewed figleaves together to make them aprons for the covering of their nakednesse which now began to appeare shamefull unto them This was their first sinne upon this followed divers other sinnes viz. their running away from God and hiding themselves among the trees as if it had beene possible for them so to have escaped his sight and then excusing their fault he by laying the fault partly on Eve which gave him and partly upon God which gave her to him and shee upon the Serpent which had seduced and beguiled her So they had done evill and sought to hide their sinne instead of confessing it and humbling themselves for so sinne blindes the minde hardens the heart drives a man from God and sets all the minde out of frame estranging the soule from God and causing a man to be filled with slavish feare that makes him flie from his presence This sinne brought terrour of conscience from whence of necessity followed sinfullnesse and mortality This is their bad carriage Doubtfull and indifferent may seeme to have beene their making of them aprons of leaves for that shewed some shame and desire to hide their shame Now follow the things that were good in them viz. their imbracing of Gods goodnesse and turning to him by Faith and Repentance after the promise intimated in the giving Eve the name of Evah or Mother of all living as much as if he had said though we be all dead by this sinne yet wee shall live by the promised seed which Evah shall bring forth and then Evah giveth the name of Caine to her first sonne saying I have obtained a sonne the Lord or of the Lord perhaps expressing her hope that Caine was that sonne the Lord which should bruise the Serpents head and after calling the second sonne by the name of Abel to signifie their submitting themselves to the crosses and miseries which they felt and after bringing up their sonnes in a calling the one a Shepheard the other a Husbandman and in teaching them to worship God and to bring gifts and sacrifices to him the one of his sheepe the other of the fruits which the land did affoord Now consider we the benefits God had bestowed upon them before their
servnig sinne as sure as hee had power to abstaine from committing sinne Say to your selves Adams sinne shall not damne mee if in sence of the misery which it brought upon me I can fully seeke to Christ the promised seed Further let us follow him and her in that was good in both How did Adam accept his wife saying This is flesh of my flesh and shee shall be called Evah and a man shall forsake Father and Mother and cleave to his wife O you husbands love your wives as your owne flesh cleave to them above all and forsaking all other keepe you onely to them You wives be content to be subject to your husbands as it is sure Evah was before her fall at least and probable after too for we reade of no braules betwixt them O joyne together to bring up your children well first in some honest calling then in the knowledge of the true God and care of worshipping him I say teach your sonnes and daughters things necessary for their profitable and holy living in the world bring them not up in idlenesse and ignorance but so carry your selves to them that it may not be imputed to you if they prove wicked and be thankfull to God for your children and learne to rejoyce especially in their goodnesse as Adam and Evah did in Seths Learne of your first Parents to be good Parents and follow all the things that were good and commendable in them Againe from their afflictions learne to prepare for afflictions and to make a good use of them when they come if you thinke to live in this world without briers and thornes without sweat and labour you are much deceived Crosses are assigned to us as just chastisements for our sinne we must to dust let us expect misery and death and labour to make our selves fit for crosses It was Gods great goodnesse that he would not suffer Adam to remaine in Paradise and to joy the tree of life For had hee lived in so much pleasure as that place would have affoorded and had he found all the creatures as good and comfortable to him now after his fall when his nature was made sinfull as when it was sinlesse O how greatly would his sin have growne through the fatnesse of that over delightfull estate even as weedes doe in a rich and unmanured soyle Sure had not God sent a curse on the earth and inflicted griefe and misery upon man hee would never have repented never have conceived of his spirituall misery never have turned to God and sought God so that as it is a mercy in the Physitian to make the patient sicke with a medicine so it was in God to send these afflictions on us Let us not therefore flatter our selves in vaine conceits of living merrily but let us prepare for afflictions which all must in some degree meete withall in their severall callings It was the voice of an Epicure in the rich man that said eate and drinke and take thine ease we should say to our selves rather sinne hath made mee subject to divers crosses and I will labour to receive them patiently from Gods Almighty hand if he thinke it fit to exercise me with them Especially you that are Parents of children looke for crosses in your children thinke this boy may proove not an Abel not a Seth but a Caine a wicked and a sinfull Caine a hater of goodnesse and fugitive from God Let mee take heed therefore that I doe not over-love him that I doe not cocker him and as it were marre and kill his soule by over-cherishing his body If wee finde our selves apt to over-prize and over-love our children wee must moderate those passions by such meditations and if we finde our selves apt to over-grieve for their death wee must tell our selves Ah might not their lives have prooved much more bitter to mee then their death can who would not rather bury a sonne young then live to see him proove a Cain and who can tell but his sonne for whose death he takes on with so much excessive sorrow may not fall out to be as wicked as Caine. If any say I hope not so I answer him where be the grounds of his hope did not our first Parents hope as much thinke you Sure Evah giving Caine a name shewed that shee had good hopes of him when he was borne yea those that have good and godly children must prepare to be crossed in their afflictions Hast thou an Abel a godly child O make thine heart ready to heare that some wicked hand hath knockt him on the head perhaps his owne Brother that some violent death hath seized upon him and taken him away before his time and labour to be willing to yeeld to Gods hand if he will so crosse thee for why shouldst not thou stoope to as heavie a burden as that which Adam and Eve did beare in the beginning of the world For the death of good children yea their miserable and untimely death and for the wickednesse yea the notorious and unnaturall wickednesse of other children let every man prepare himselfe by looking upon the example of Adam and Eve that suffered these crosses yea let every godly man learne to prepare for persecution from all Caines but that wee shall treat on when we come to Abels example But Brethren we must not onely prepare for crosses of this kinde but we must also make a good use of them when they come that is wee must turne them into medicines as Physitions doe some poysons causing the sorrow which they will worke in us to become a medicine against our sinnes of which they be the proper and naturall effects When you meete with crosses and calamities say now I see Gods Justice and Gods Truth now I see the hatefullnesse and hurtfullnesse of sinne and therefore now I will mourne not because I am crossed but because I have deserved this crosse and a worse too and so frame to confesse and bemoane the sinne and to supplicate for pardon and helpe at the hand of God in the name of Christ especially looke to those sinnes to which your crosses have some reference and respect Are you crossed in your goods thinke if you did not over-love them and get them unjustly or if in your children see if you did not over-love them and cocker them and so in all things of like kinde In what God smites you see if you have not in that sinned against him and so frame to lament your sinnes and to seeke helpe against them This will helpe to make your crosse easie and quickly to remove it this will cause that you shall be gainers even by crosses When wee see the ill deservings of sinne and the perfect righteousnesse yea the goodnesse of God in calling thus to repentance happy are they that be so afflicted and so taught in Gods waies And Brethren let mee yet make one use of Adam and Eves great sinne to warne you that you take heed of presuming of
other and so persists impenitently For that is the last of all his sinnes he goes away quite from God and his Father ceaseth to continue a member of that family and of that Church gives over all outward shewes of religion turnes meere worldly and earthly and seekes to ease the smart of his conscience by building and busling in the world declaring a piece of vaine glory too by calling his City after the name of his first-borne as it were boasting of it that hee should have his sonne the Lord of a City of his owne name Henoch of Henoch A fearefull offence to persist still in impenitencie to cast of all shew of religion to excommunicate himselfe out of the Church and burie himselfe in vanity and worldlinesse so to stifle his owne conscience and deaden his owne heart more and more Now I have done with Caines carriage good and bad I come to the things that befell him good and bad First good you see God gave him a sonne and sonnes sonne and continued his life along time to give him space of repentance and set a mark upon him to save him from the violence of all men threatening to punish him seven-fold that is seven times as much as he had hurt Caine if any should kill him Seeing it pleased not God to tell us what this marke was with which hee noted this prime murtherer it is fondnesse in us to weary our selves with conjectures some think it was visible to all men but what I know not nor I am sure can any man else tell but it was the goodnesse of God to secure him of life who had deserved death for the Law of putting the murderer to death was not yet and God would not put Adam to so hard a taske as killing his owne sonne but would shew himselfe to be above Law in forbearing to doe that which he will not suffer a Magistrate to forbeare even putting to death of a wilfull murderer yea it was the great goodnesse of God to give him health and many children and childrens children and to grant him riches and prosperity in the world abundantly if it had beene possible to have drawne him to repentance yea it was a great benefit that God came gently to admonish him of his inward malice if it might have beene to have hindred the breaking of it out into murder and after it was done to come againe with this gentle second admonition if it had beene possible to have melted him and have drawne him to submissive humiliation So God vouchsafed him meanes to keepe him from sinne and to draw him out of sinne and time long enough to make use of those meanes and many benefits to allure him to make use of them thus good is God even to sinners and impenitent sinners to offer them meanes of repentance and acceptation upon their repentance and vouchsafe them store of good things for a long time notwithstanding their obstinatenesse in refusing to repent Now lastly let us consider Gods punishments viz. the evill things he met withall The first is sentencing him for his fault and laying open the greatnesse of it in saying What hast thou done thy Brothers blood cryeth to mee from the earth which hath drunk it in at thine hand Secondly hee curseth him from the earth that is in respect of the earth which shall not be halfe so fruitfull to him as before nor yeeld its increase as it had done for he doth not meane simply it shall yeeld no fruit but nothing so much nor so easily Lastly thou shalt be a fugitive a runnagate that is a man full of unquietnesse and terrours that canst have no rest nor peace in thine heart nor any content any where yea it signifieth a giving him over to cast off all goodnesse and leave him to himselfe to forsake his Fathers house and so a selling him over to profanenesse and utter impenitency Thus we have done with Caines life and for his death the Scripture vouchsafes not to mention it nor how long he lived but he lived a long time even to see the sonnes of Lamech who was the sixt generation from him and vaunted that if God would so avenge Caine he would be avenged more by which speech it is very probable that Caine was then alive So we have spoken all we have to speake of Caine. Now I will make some use of all First from that that was good in Caine I pray you learne at least to be as good as so bad a man was and therefore may sure be attained by naturall indeavours You see Caine did not give himselfe to runne idling about the world but submitted to his Fathers government so farre as to give himselfe to Husbandry O let no man turne himselfe into a cipher nay into an excrement that lives in the world to no purpose yea to bad purpose for hee shall not but doe naughtily that will doe nothing set your selves therefore to have and to follow some calling and employment Live not like those playfull creatures imperfect pictures of men but of such men the fitrest emblemes like apes and monkeys onely to skip up and downe and to make sport but live to bestow your selves in some profitable vocation for your owne and the common good If any say Caine was necessitated to it because there were no other to till the ground for them he being Adams first-borne I answer first I desire you should live somewhat better then Caine and doe good out of choice which perhaps he might doe out of necessity Secondly I answer that though you be not necessitated to any calling by want yet wisdome and a good conscience binde you for must you not submit to that of God In the sweate of thy browes shalt thou eate and to that of the Psalmist he shall eate the labour of his hands and to that of Paul which condemnes the inordinate walkers which wrought not at all and is it not wisdome to forbeare walking on a thorne hedge which Salomon saith the idle man doth and to prevent many occasions as the having no calling and being carelesse of it will surely bring I say againe then be as good as Caine have and follow some calling Againe looke that there be some at least outside of religion in you worship God and be not so much lovers of money as not to give him something even to be at cost for his worship in such kind as cost is now needfull as they were to performe a worship then required the cost notwithstanding Be not profane to neglect Gods Worship out of sleighting it be not niggards to put of God with as little as you can but give him of the fruits of your ground and now know that that is given to God which is given to the maintenance of his Ministers which performe his Worship and other instruments necessary to the performance of it as a fit place and the like O be as good as a
the joy before your eyes and feare not any of these things that you may suffer An over-tender spirit is not fit to be Christs Souldier if you will raigne with him you must be crucified with him Arme arme my Brethren arme you are in the battell you must expect knocks but be not dismaied the victory shall be yours God will so stablish you that you shall not be driven out of the way of righteousnesse by any thing that Satan can do by the world and hee conquers that keepes close to the waies of righteousnesse what ever he suffer Wee have done with Abels life wee bring him to his death at what age we cannot shew you but in what manner and by whose hand we can tell you Here is a tragicall narration the murderer a bad man and a Brother the murdered a good man and a Brother and the quarrell goodnesse and the manner sodaine and unexpected and violent Flesh and bloud perhaps would finde fault with God why did not God protect Abel when the world had so few Inhabitants was it not pittie that one should be taken out of it so untimely and in such a manner and much more was it not pittie that the more godly and the more usefull should be so soone bereft of life It is a thing that a shallow wit is ready to impleade God for But God is such a ruler that will order things according to his owne perfect wisedome It shall be worse in outward respects with the good then with the bad the sinner shall out-live the Saint and flourish in the world when the other is rotting in the grave and why so that God may teach them hereby to looke for happinesse in another world that is to come that they may expect a better and induring substance in Heaven If in this life onely wee had hope wee were of all men the most miserable but We are dead with Christ and our life is hid with God in Christ When Christ shall appeare then shall wee also appeare with him in glory We must not therefore be offended at the miseries which befall the godly in this life but cause our mindes to look beyond the world unto the future recompence God were not just towards his people if there were not another world where they shall have their portion as the worldly minded have their portion in this life Now concerning Abels death consider we that it was violent and suddaine whereby we must be taught to walke alwaies ready for death and to looke for it in every place by such violent meanes as our selves cannot foresee in particular Who knowes when or where he shall die how soone and by what meanes he must leave this world afore he be aware Labour therfore to prepare for death every day get faith get repentance get new obedience get your sinnes pardoned and your selves sanctified that if death come sodainely yet it may not be sodaine to you because you have made your selves ready for it if we be thus fitted for death happie are we though it come without giving warning but if we have not so fitted our selves we shall be most miserable though our death be long and lingring and come not with any violence Yea we must learne to be thankefull to God for his goodnesse in protecting us against the rage of evill men that they be not able to cut us off in the midst of our daies as they would do if God did permit us to fall into their hands No good man that liveth but some Caine or other would soone dispatch them out of the world and doe the same thing for them that Caine here did for Abel for the sinner hateth the righteous and gnasheth against him with his teeth but the Lord will not give him into his hands It is a divine providence that maketh the godly dwell in safety in the midst of their enemies and walke in a fiery furnace and yet not be burned and lie in the den of Lions and yet not be touched by them Now therefore let Abels example put you in minde to be ready alwaies for death and to observe the goodnesse of God in saving you from the hands of sinfull men and spirits that they cannot destroy and devoure as their malice and might would cause them to doe if God did not incompasse you with his favour as with a shield We have done with Abel the next to be spoken of are Caines posterity of whom little is spoken because the Lord intended a very short story Caine begat a Sonne and called his name Henoch at the same time he was building a City and called it Henoch The word signifieth to initiate dedicate or teach perhaps because hee left the City to his Sonne to finish and to dedicate himselfe not being able to doe it because of his distempered conscience which made him wander as a fugitive This Sonne begat a Sonne also and called him Irad the word signifieth I thinke a City of one that ruleth of the Hebrew words Gnir that signifieth a City and Rad that signifieth to beare rule because belike he had finished that City and hoped to leave it to his Sonne to rule in it And this Irad begat a Sonne and called him Mehuiael which signifieth one that is destroyed or blotted out by the Lord God perhaps because God had laid sore punishments upon them at that time their sin increasing against him This Mehuiael begat Methusael which signifieth one that asketh after or requested his death it may be because then men were so afflicted that they grew weary of life * ⎠* THE FOVRTH EXAMPLE OF LAMECH c. THE roote of Woman-kinde were Adam and Eve The branches were 1. Bad Caine and Caines posterity 2. Good The first stocke Abel the second Caine and his posterity Now the linage of Caine is set downe in the sixth generation mentioning onely the eldest in a direct line Adam had Caine Caine Irad he Methuiael he Methusael he Lamech Lamech had two wives one Adah the other Zillah Adah had Iabal and Iubal Zillah had Tubal Cain and a daughter called Naamah shee is the first woman named after Evah perhaps because shee was a woman of great power and name in her time for her name signifieth faire or sweete or pleasant or beautifull and it seemes that in those times beauty began to be much set by Now for Lamech we must observe his faults I meane of his behaviour and the benefits he enjoyed and the misery that befell him His faults are 1. He corrupted the ordinance of marriage by taking two wives God at first made but one man and one woman and joyned them together and Adam said they shall be one flesh signifying that hee conceived it to be the will of God that one woman should serve for one man and addes A man shall forsake Father and Mother and cleave to his wife not wives But this man would not satisfie himselfe with Gods
causing us never to see the second death though we must not be freed from the first for that was the speciall priviledge of Enoch and Eliah and was never granted to any other that we read Labour therfore to hold fast in your soules a firme perswasion of Gods love to you in Christ and withall a firme purpose of pleasing him in all things Let sincere truth of obedience be joyned with a firme perswasion of Gods love and the firme perswasion of Gods love be joyned with a sincere indeavour of obedience then death shall never come amisse then you are alwaies ready for it So David faith I have hoped in thy salvation and done thy Commandements So then if we would be ready for God we must doe two things Turne to him and walke with him To turne is to begin to walke with God to walke with God is to continue to turne to him O ye that have not begun to turne doe it to day turne now call to mind your former evill waies to judge your selves for them to lament them to seeke of God in Christ forgivenesse of them and power against them and labour to rest your selves upon his goodnesse in Christ for pardon and helpe and so have you made your peace then keepe your peace by a constant indeavour to please God in holinesse of life and a constant renewing of your assured perswasion of his love O happy man he that can so fit himselfe for his latter end Brethren let the mention of the deaths of so many aged persons make you carefull to prepare for death you that be young doe it because death takes away young men as well as old and you that be old doe it because you may meete with it very suddenly and must needs meete with it afore it be long Againe you see these long-liv'd men here wrestling with the corruptions of the world and their owne some a longer time and some a shorter but all in comparison of our selves a great while The longest lived man for number of dayes was Methuselah who lived nine hundred sixty nine yeares but for perfection of life Adam who lived a perfect man nine hundred and thirty yeares The shortest lived of all the Patriarkes was Noahs Father Methuselahs Sonne Lamech for he lived seven hundred seventy and seven yeares and died the yeere before the floud a little before his Father Methuselah who lived till that very yeare that the floud came and drowned all and was taken away that he might not see the floud Now why did God lengthen out the daies of the Patriarkes I answer chiefely to maintaine the knowledge of God and true religion in the world that by the long life of one godly man the truth which then was not put in writing but by word of mouth delivered from man to man might be kept more pure and undefiled Adam lived till Methuselah was two hundred forty and three yeares old Methuselah lived till Sem the Sonne of Noah was one hundred yeares lacking two so that Sem talked with him that had talked with Adam who could acquaint him with all things concerning the creatures the fall and the promised seed out of his certaine knowledge and experience he had beene made of nothing he had seene all perfections and Methuselah could tell it to Sem and Sem lived to see Isaac borne and a Father So that Isaac might speake mouth to mouth with him that had spoken with him that had spoken with Adam the first man that ever was Was not this a notable confirmation of his Faith THE FIFTH EXAMPLE OF The Old World WEe have propounded particular Examples unto you hitherto as also the Scriptures have done Now following them wee must set before your eyes the Examples of an whole multitude even of an whole World full of men and women that gave themselves to worke wickednesse before the Lord. It is called in Scripture the old World and the world of ungodly In the space of a 1656. yeares the generation of mankind was growne to that height and exorbitancie of wickednesse that the patience of God could no longer endure them Now concerning this Old World we will shew you three things 1. Their sinnes 2. The goodnesse of God to them notwithstanding their sinnes 3. The severe punishment that fell upon them at the last and so will make use of all First for their sinnes the Holy Ghost sets them out in generall and more particularly In generall the sinne of man is said to be great and that every imagination of the thought of his heart was evill and onely evill and that continually Secondly it is said that all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth So their naughtinesse was remarkeable in these two respects it was exceeding hainous and grievous in that they committed great and fowle sinnes in great abundance with great wilfullnesse and gave themselves to add sinne to sinne doing nothing but plodding and contriving wickednesse and then all men gave themselves over to the same bad course you could not finde a man that made scarce a shew of goodnesse out of Noahs house When all consent together to sell over themselves to worke iniquity and grow past shame or feare running into most grievous and notorious sinnes with greedinesse and wilfullnesse this is very offensive to Almighty God and will certainely provoke his wrath to bring upon them some fearefull and heavie punishments Divers reasons may be thought of that caused this exceeding great growth of sinne in those times 1. The long life of men for let an unsanctified man continue long and he will grow more and more sinfull the longer he continues Sinne by frequent exercise growes more and more violent and head-strong So living a great space of time they grew above measure naught 2. They had strong and able bodies together with health and ability to enjoy the things of this life 3. They had great peace in regard they all lived under a paternall governement the agedst in the family still being acknowledged the governour of the family and they had all one language and so no great cause of controversie and one religion too it is like seeing the Patriarkes lived so long that they were immediately taught of God save that they degenerated to prophanenesse and the most became of no religion and so did not warre with the contrary little partie unlesse it were with jests scoffes and contumelies Long life great strength great peace begat great wickednesse But more particularly the Lord takes notice here of their 1. Unlawfull and carnall marriages 2. Of their violence and oppression And our Saviour telleth of their great worldlinesse that did sell over themselves to temporall dealings and cared nothing for better things and S. Peter tells of their obstinacy in sinning and their not beleeving nor regarding they were disobedient whilest the long suffering of God waited in the daies of Noah Yea our Saviour
excessively to the world and put your selves in minde of a world that is to come and minde the things that are above and set your affections on them If you so performe workes of Gods Worship as that they weane you not from the world you doe them but hypocritically you have alone the forme and not the power of godlinesse Though a man use not violence yet if hee be excessively worldly the Word of God is choaked in him and will not bring forth the fruit of eternall life unto him Another sin of the old World is they abused Gods long-suffering and Noahs preaching and gat no manner of knowledge of the long threatned floud nor no care of amending their lives This is a fearefull thing to get nothing by Gods patience or by the labours of the Ministers whom he sends to teach and warne us This shewes that the Divell haâ—h blinded their eyes that sinne hath hardened the heart and that a man hath given over himselfe to the servitude of some lust this is a great wrong to Gods goodnesse and authority both and it brings severe punishments for in aggravating the sinnes of men it must needs aggravate the punishment also O brethren consider of your selves if you be not guilty of this sinne How long hath God beene striving to pull you out of your sinnes How much patience hath he shewed how much teaching have you heard and yet alas the old World got as much by Gods kindnesse to them as you doe and you no more then they Many of you know nothing of your miserable estate As little be you acquainted with the truths you are taught every day as they were with the floud that came upon them as little doth our preaching prevaile to worke you to amendment as did the preaching of Noah with them We may well comfort our selves in this that our successe is no worse then Noahs and also lament that it is no better Indeed you have not had so many yeeres preaching as the old World had but consider it with the proportion to your lives and you have more Then men used to live some seven eight or nine hundred yeeres Loe God gave them a Preacher a long time and at length determined the very yeere of the floud it shall be a hundred and twenty yeeres hence and so from yeare to yeare lesse as the yeeres went up Yee have lived and died many of you that be dead under the Ministery Indeed we cannot tell you the yeere of your death or bring you tidings of a floud of water to overflow you altogether but of a river of fire and brimstone to overflow and overwhelme you one after one wee can tell you from God and you feare this floud of brimstone no more then they did that floud of water O repent of your long impenitency and miserable unbeleefe and wilfull ignorance of Gods threats and other things that are continually taught you out of the Word And now cease to imitate this world of ungodly men but apply your selves to flie from the wrath to come and from the vengeance that must overtake all wilfull sinners I beseech you lay to heart the things you heare take notice of them beleeve them and set your selves to amend your lives and cast away all your sinnes which this old World did not but should have done be better I say be better then they were and let their wickednesse teach you some goodnesse When will it once be that you will know and beleeve the threats of God and his promises when will it once be that you will submit your selves to those that are as Noah was Preachers of righteousnesse and seeke to get the righteousnesse of faith which Noah would not have gotten himselfe if it had not beene the same that hee preached to others Now I pray you at last to exceede this generation of wicked men And these uses you must make of their wickednesse Now of Gods patience towards them in giving them all outward prosperity and long deferring the execution of his wrath and sending Noah by preaching and building the Arke to draw them to repentance learne first to praise God for the like long-suffering to us and using the like meanes to bring us to repentance and to life eternall It is the same God that ruled the world at those times who ruleth us also at this time and he discovers the same vertues in his governing O how patient is God now also how great care doth he take to leade us to repentance also How many outward benefits have wee This goodnesse of God towards them that perish whereby he tooke such order and care for them that they might have escaped perdition if they would have made use of his meanes is not sufficiently heeded nor observed Might not the world then have escaped both drowning and hell too if they would have hearkened to Noah and beleeved him and followed his instructions Did any thing but their owne wilfullnesse and heedlesnesse shut them out of the Arke and out of Heaven and thrust them downe into the Deluge and into Hell Brethren God magnifies his mercies to the vessells of wrath he doth labour to bring them out of their ill estate he hath not ceased for many yeares to intice them to repentance by his long-suffering Certainely this should magnifie Gods goodnesse to us and make us to applaud him exceedingly and acknowledge the brightnesse of his Justice in their future destruction O how just was God in the drowning of these men is hee not as just in the damning of the sinner now Lord be thou praised for thy mercy and forthy justice and let the one serve to cleare the other and both to commend thee Againe I pray you now the the second time to make a good use of Gods clemencie to you He sent but one Noah to all the world who yet is said to condemne the world He sends amongst you to every towne almost one to tell you of the judgement to come and to stirre you up to repentance Now be intreated to hearken and obey and to get you to the Arke Brethren wee doe here in Gods name offer you assurance of pardon of sinne and freedome from hell and death if you will accept it O let not our preaching be in vaine Come come into the Arke come into Christ by true faith into whom you are come by Baptisme in respect of outward profession The Arke was a figure of Christ and Baptisme is as it were the Arke O labour for the true Baptisme with the Spirit that you may shunne and escape the Deluge of Gods eternall wrath and vengeance Let us not preach to you in vaine as Noah did to the old world And present to your selves the hideousnesse of that plague O how did mens hearts ake within them how did horrour take hold upon them when they saw the waters rage so furiously O now did they find that in experience which they would not beleeve by Noahs preaching
The most probable opinion is as I thinke that because he was a Preacher of righteousnesse and did more largely and plainely denounce Gods wrath against sinners and his blessing to the godly for a Preacher of righteousnesse must needs doe both these things therefore he gave much refreshing to the soules of the godly and made all their labours easie Even as now if Gods people have a painefull Minister amongst them that ceaseth not to acquaint them with Gods mercy and justice and to revive the remembrance of Heaven and all the Promises in their hearts they live much more comfortably then any outward thing without this helpe could make them to live So it was in those times also with those godly Patriarkes Againe as it would be a great comfort to good men now if any man were sent by God to assure them of the last day of judgement for they would even lift up their heads and rejoyce so Noah in telling of the floud which to that world was a kinde of judgement-day did greatly solace the spirits of the good against all their sorrowes Now this Noah was the sonne of Lamech the sonne of Methuselah in the 1056. yeare of the world He was the tenth after Adam inclusively borne after Adams and Seths death and Henochs translation and lived to see the death of Enos Kainan Mahalaleel Iared Methuselah and Lamech This is all we have to say of his Birth or entrance into the world Now concerning his life I pray you consider foure things 1. His goodnesse 2. His bad deeds 3. The sorrowes and miseries he met with 4. The benefits God gave him And let us make use of all as we goe along and so come to his death last of all First for his goodnesse it is set forth in the Scripture generally and particularly In generall these three things are affirmed of him Gen. 6.9 He was a just man and upright or perfect and walked with God Before it is affirmed of Henoch that hee walked with God and the Scripture told us also of Abel that hee obtained a divine testimony that hee also was just and Iob is said to have beene a perfect man yea it is added by way of amplification to his goodnesse that hee was a just man and perfect in his generations that is in his owne time in those most sinfull daies when all were naught Noah was good when all had corrupted their waies he was sincere and upright in his waies For this is the truest commendation of vertue when it keepes a man unspotted of those evils which are every where practised in the world Let us now request you to consider of your selves every man whether he be a Noah Surely none but Noahs shall be admitted into the Arke and escape the waves of destruction none but Noahs shall finde favour with God and be delivered from eternall death Whosoever cannot approve himselfe to be such a one as this good man let him never dreame of comming to Heaven But who is a just man who a perfect who walketh with God I answer A just man is first he that renounceth his owne justice which is of the Law and imbraceth the righteousnesse of faith even the righteousnesse which is of God by faith relying wholy upon the merits of Christ and Gods mercy in Christ for pardon of his offences and acceptation of himselfe and his indeavours to salvation The Scripture witnesseth that Noah was an heire of this righteousnesse Heb. 11.7 And this is that that must be first found in every man He must see and confesse his owne unrighteousnesse and utterly disclaime his owne righteousnesse as knowing that it is no better then a menstruous rag in respect of his justification Doe you this my Brethren Are you made to see your selves grievous sinners such as in your selves must needs be damned and cannot possibly bee saved by the worth and merit of your owne goodnesse Secondly a righteous man must stay rest depend on beleeve in the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ labouring to build up in his own heart a particular perswasion and assurance that the Lord of Heaven will accept him as perfectly righteous in the name and mediation of Jesus Christ his Sonne and that alone for so was Abraham made partaker of that blessednesse which stood in the imputing unto him of righteousnesse without workes and Abraham is the Father of the faithfull as he was justified so must all we be justified and no otherwise See into your selves doe you rely upon our blessed Saviour the Lord Jesus for pardon of your sinnes or doe you waver from him or stay upon any other besides him Lastly a righteous man must himselfe also worke righteousnesse and give himselfe to be a servant of righteousnesse that is to say he must resolve and indeavour to leave every sinne by Gods Word condemned and to doe every duty by Gods Word commanded and that also for Gods sake with reference to him and out of a desire to please him that is to keepe his favour This is a righteous man He strives in all things to please God according to his Word but finding his defects bewailes them and resteth alone on Gods goodnesse in Christ for pardon and salvation If you be such then are you Noahs indeed and shall surely bee saved if not you bee but dissemblers and no shew of religion shall save you from destruction Therefore all of you that are not such I pray you feele your unhappinesse you are not good enough to goe to Heaven yet whatsoever you have imagined of your selves Therefore also now seeke to be such begin with lamenting your unrighteousnesse before God and craving pardon and helpe and so proceed to pray for and indeavour after all the things before prescribed Be the better for Noahs example Let not this story be preached unto you in vaine you know Noah was one whom God loved whom God hath saved study to be such as Noah What riches he had the Scripture takes no notice of but righteous he was studie you to be such and be happier then all riches can make you And especially I pray you labour to follow Noah in this onething to be good in your generations in those things I meane wherein your present times take generall liberty to be nought that so you as Noah may at once glorifie God and condemne the world What evill things all doe commit those doe you forbeare what good things all doe neglect those be you more carefull to performe Many things are growne into common fashion swearing pride in apparell formality in religion covetousnesse monstrous fashions mishapen long haire O be yee in these things carefull to avoid the corruption which is in the world Many good things are growne quite out of all fashion almost constant reading Gods Word holy conference keeping a treasure or purse for God in your houses meditation of Gods Word and carefull sanctifying of the Lords day O strive to performe these duties He
did shew his goodnesse to Noah and gave him dominion over all creatures and power to eate flesh which before God had given them no warrant to doe and therefore I suppose the godly did not usually unlesse in sacrifice if then And herein the Lord was gratious to Noah that for his sake he made a covenant And he was a figure of Christ in whom the Lord did make a covenant with all mankind then the second time not to destroy them with eternall destruction if they would trust in his mercy and repent of their sinnes For this temporall covenant was a shadow of that eternall into which all mankind was againe admitted through Christ that was to come But they did soone cast of this covenant in running to other gods which may seeme to be the onely sinne that then did cast the committers quite out of the covenant other sinnes did keepe them from injoying the good things of the covenant but this did cast them out of it altogether so that having runne into that they were no longer in the covenant Now see Gods grace more fully to us that hath renewed this covenant which is in Christ more evidently and take we heede of casting our selves out of it againe by following strange Mediators and Jesusses as I thinke the Papists doe Whosoever doth seeke to any other merits but only those of Christ thrusts himselfe out of the covenant of grace and Christ is become of none effect unto him Lastly Noah had two Godly sonnes and this is a singular favour to give a man a Sem and Iaphet if he have a Cam and that all his sonnes be not discoverers of their Fathers shame Lastly after 950. yeares Noah died and so must we all after not so long a life O therefore prepare wee for the comming of death that it may not take us away in the midst of our impenitency * ⎠* THE SEVENTH EXAMPLE OF HAM NIMROD Babilonians I Have offered to your consideration the Examples of the Old World I proceede to speake of the World that now is as S. Peter calles it 1. from the floud to Abraham and then from Abraham to the death of Ioseph for there the Booke of Moses called Genesis is concluded Now here first I will set before you the bad examples of bad men then the good examples of good Of the bad we have Cam Nimrod particulars and the builders of Babel in an heape as it were and of the good wee have Sem and Iaphet and the godly posterity of Sem whose geneologie is noted to shew the age of the world till Abram First J will begin with Ham and note his parentage and life for of his death in particular Moses hath made no mention For his parentage he was the son of Noah borne to him before the floud after his 500. yeare for to that age lived he before he became a Father and after that in the whole time of his life hee had no more children God of purpose it may seeme giving him but few children because his minde was to begin the present world with a few as he did the first with one man that so his blessing in the large increase of mankinde afterwards might be more evidently discovered But the youngest sonne was this Ham. Now for his life I marke three things in it First the great benefits God bestowed upon him Secondly the great sinnes he committed Thirdly the great punishments which God inflicted upon him for his sinnes First God vouchsafed to save him in the Arke from the Deluge of waters so that he perished not with the world but escaped with his Father and Brethren It was a speciall and singular favour to make him one of the few that is eight persons that were delivered from the raging waves and enjoyed the benefit of a miraculous preservation of that little handfull of men whereof the Church visible did then consist Wee see that one was an Hypocrite a dissembler a wicked unsanctified man who though he continued a professour of the true religion and worshipper of the true God with his Father and Brethren yet was destitute of true piety and continued gracelesse a servant of sinne voide of due reverence and charity towards his aged Father Gods Minister and the most holy man of all those times and served God with them alone in outward forme and fashion For had he beene truly good he would not have run into so foule a sin at least he would not have persisted in it without repentance as he did See then that the Lord shewes a great deale of patience long-suffering and goodnesse to hypocrites in the Church and maketh them partakers of all outward benefits and priviledges which are bestowed upon the Church so did Ishmael live in Abrahams family a long time and Esau longer in Isaacs So Core Dathan Abiram and the rest of those rebels and murmurers were brought out of Egypt passed thorough the sea saw the miracles and did eate Manna and drunk water out of the rock and were shadowed with the cloud and conducted by the pillar of fire among the rest of the sons of Iacob And I pray you to take heed by this warning of priding and pleasing your selves in this that you be members of the Church escape divers punishments enjoy many mercies live in good esteeme among the godly and carrie away as great credit as any other men in the Church All this befell Cham a wicked Hypocrite and at last a damned Reprobate It is a dangerous thing to flatter our selves in a bad estate and to couzen our selves with false arguments making our selves to trust upon a false conclusion and to judge our selves Gods children and in the state of salvation upon such reasons as have no verity nor stability in them You live in the true Church so did Cham you live amongst godly men have beene borne of godly parents have beene instructed in the doctrine of godlinesse so was Cham you have escaped great punishments enjoyed great benefits and beene well reputed of by godly men all this befell Cham and all this notwithstanding Cham was cursed and damned and so may you In after times the Jewes bragged of the Temple of the Lord and the Temple of the Lord are we and yet the Lord rejected them and cast them out of his sight In Christs daies the Jewes bragged that Abraham was their Father for Iohn Baptists warning would not serve the turne to make them forbeare such idle boasting of their Pedigree but our Saviour telleth them that the Divell was their Father yea Iudas himselfe was one of Christs Familie and Disciples and Apostles and trusted with the bag and yet a Divell O therefore beguile not your selves with ill grounded hopes and build not upon a rotten foundation If you say unto mee why then you leave us in uncertainty and affoord us no sure pillar upon which to ground our hopes I answer not so but I will turne you to
effect the world did call that Citie Babel or confusion so instead of great honour and a great name they gate shame and confusion and were thence dispersed from whence they expected safety from dispersion Thus God catcheth the wicked in their owne devices brings mischiefe on them from that wherein they trusted for safety and shame from that from which they expected glory Yea see here that God hath strange and unwonted punishments to lay upon sinners for who would have ever had a dreame of such a thing as this viz. to have them made unable to speake their mother languages and all of a sodaine to speake gibrish one to another So powerfull is God over man that he can take from him his tongue his wit his soule all things in a moment It was an heavie chastisement making way to much ignorance and barbarisme and to much warre and bloudshed and to a great estrangement among mankinde and to great toile and labour for the getting of all learning and causing much errour and mistaking in all Arts and Sciences chiefely in Religion so that next to our casting out of Paradise and to the floud it deserveth the name of the heaviest punishment that the world hath felt yea in respect of the succession of men it was worse then the floud that onely drowned the men who lived in the present time this hath drowned in ignorance and errour all succeeding times Let us feare the Lord our God who onely doth wonderfull things and can tell how to plague his enemies with heavie scourges We have now finished the Examples of these bad men Looke to the good Sem and Iaphet and Sems posterity to Abram Of Sem note his good deed his reward and his death for his good deed it was common with him and Iaphet they went backward and so covered their Fathers nakednesse that they might not see it partly out of modesty and partly out of filiall reverence and respect which they bare unto him Thus thus should all good children doe even refuse to see their Parents nakednesse or any thing that might withdraw a due regard and feare of them any sinnes or weakenesses of theirs notwithstanding yea all men should be so truly loving one towards another as to use the mantle and veile of love to cover a multitude of sinnes so as to goe backward as it were and not see them Wee should what in us lies and so farre as duty will suffer conceale the faults of all men further then the necessity of healing them and of preventing the mischiefe that may else follow of them will permit us Every man would be so dealt withall himselfe Who doth not praise the vertuous carriage of these two Brethren Imitate it I beseech you chiefely towards Parents Magistrates Ministers keepe secret if you can their secret faults and hide their shame from breaking forth Nothing is more fit to be covered then sinne It is like a carkasse which doth least hurt when it is buried under ground so farre therefore as duty will suffer you bury bury it under ground with it and let it lie hid under the garment of silence See it not if you can choose say nothing of it more then you must needs Now consider the blessing with which their goodnesse was rewarded Sem had God for his God and the dominion of Canaan given him that is the true Religion was to continue in his posterity the Messiah to come of him and his seede to have the possession of the land of Canaan and Iaphet at last was to be brought to the participation of the same Religion with him by the perswasion of the Gospell So it is a great mercy to have the true Religion continued in a mans posterity and to be brought from errour unto the truth Whether Iaphets selfe were a godly man it is not certaine but in doubtfull things it is good to incline to the best side and to take things in the best part therefore we will hope that he was so and with Sem did inherit the blessing in his person as well as after his seed was admitted unto it And let us now blesse God that hath performed this Prophesie for it is likely that we of these Countries are of Iaphets posterity and now we see the Lord of Heaven be blessed that God hath perswaded us to accept and imbrace Christ and so to dwell indeed in the tents of Sem. But now for the seede of Sem they were these Arphaxad who lived 438 yeares almost 200 fewer then his Father Sem as Sem did 350 fewer then Noah Selah who lived 433 yeares the halfe alone of the lives of men before the floud for at the floud God did shorten mens lives by halfe to keepe them from so great a height of wickednesse as in that long lived age they came unto and to shorten the toile of the godly upon earth Heber lived 464 the longest of all but Sem after the floud it is likely he was a very worthy man from him the name Hebrewes came to his posterity and endured for many yeares after Peleg lived 239 yeares about the building of the Tower of Babel so you see then God shortened mans life one halfe seeing them againe to grow so exorbitantly wicked Reu lived also 239 yeares just as long as his Father which is not found in any other that I remember Serug lived 230 yeares Nahor lived 148 yeares it may seeme that he was the first of the Patriarkes that fell to Idolatry for Laban sware by the gods of Nahor therefore his life is almost by halfe as short as any of his predecessors Then Terah lived 205 yeares he fell to Idolatry but repented afterwards and went with his sonne Abraham towards the land of Canaan dying in the way and buried his eldest sonne before himselfe which had not befalne any Patriarke before that we reade of * ⎠* THE EIGHT EXAMPLE OF ABRAHAM IT is agreed upon by all that from Adam to the floud there passed 1656 yeares inclusively I meane from the beginning of Adams Creation Noah was the tenth from Adam inclusively Abraham the tenth from Noah exclusively I meane not reckoning Noah as one How many yeares passed betwixt the floud and Abrahams birth it is uncertaine because the relation of Abrahams birth Gen. 11.26 is set downe in such words as have ministred occasion of difference to the Reader Terah begat Abraham Nahar and Haran but at what age he begat each of them it is not manifested Some thinke that Abraham was the first-borne begotten at his fathers 70 yeare some thinke that hee was the youngest begotten at his 130 yeere so there is difference of yeeres in the account by this meanes 60 yeares but I rather incline to them that thinke Abraham was the eldest sonne at his Fathers 70 yeare for surely if Abrahams Father had beene able to become a Father at 130 yeares it would not have beene said of Abrahams selfe that he was as
yea it doth appeare often that riches are laid up for the owners thereof for hurt And these be the benefits temporall which Abraham had for himselfe a good wife good children in their kinde and one religious good servants good friends good name good favour and great wealth to which add one particular benefit a great and famous victory over foure great and conquering Kings as the Holy Ghost telleth us Gen. 14.15 he pursued them he divided himselfe against them he and his servants by night and smote them and pursued them to Hobah and brought backe all the goods and Lot his brother and his goods and the women and his people An absolute victory was obtained by Abrahams wisedome and valour God gave him the wisdome God gave him the valour God gave him the successe The Prophet Esay sets forth Gods goodnesse to Abraham in generall as a sure argument that God will shew the like mercies to his people in after times bidding them looke unto Abraham and Sarah and saying Isa 51.2 I called him I blessed him and increased him and 41.2 3. He setteth forth this very benefit in magnificall phrases saying who raised up the righteous man from the East called him to his foot gave the nations before him and made him rule over Kings gave them as dust to his sword as driven stubble to his bow hee pursued them and passed safely by the way that he had not gone with his feete God would have his people take notice of this mercy in saving Abraham and making him victorious to assure them of his like love in defending them and giving them victory over all their enemies even the whole Church and each particular member thereof He that sheltered Abraham was with him gave Kings before him shall not he declare his love as much in future ages to his people Surely he is the same for ever Let this comfort us against all those that rise up against us But what did God for others for Abrahams sake First he blessed Lot the more for Abrahams sake and as it is noted Lot that went with Abraham had heards and after when God destroyed Sodome he thought of Abraham and delivered Lot also So God for a good mans sake will blesse and helpe even his friends and well-willers and those that belong to him shall be much the better for him according to the promise that he had made saying I will blesse them that blesse thee And for Abrahams children he blessed Isaac and gave him great outward things yea gave him also grace and made him heire of the Covenant and continued the Church in his house giving him a sonne in the life time of Abraham For Abraham had Isaac at a hundred and lived 175 yeares and Isaac married at forty and had Esau and Iacob at sixty so Abraham lived to see those two sonnes about five yeares old and gave outward things to Ishmael and abundance to him that Princes came of him in likelihood during Abrahams life time and he sent away his sonnes by Keturah with great riches and you know that even after Abrahams death God honoured him still by calling him his friend in many places and for his sake did great things for his sonnes after him in many generations Thus you see how worth the while it is to serve feare and obey God what abundant blessings he grants what honour and same even after death though all Gods people have not all these outward things in like manner bestowed upon them yet they have that which is sufficient for them and those that finde their friends and children happy in outward respects must observe Gods hand to be thankfull Yea we must all take notice of Gods like dealing with many of his people whose posterity flourish when they be dead some in goodnesse as well as goods and some at least in earthly respects and leave a good name behinde them so that many yeares after their decease their names are honourably mentioned and all men count them good and faithfull servants of God The name of the righteous is had in everlasting remembrance whilst they live and when they die God shewes himselfe gratious and bountifull to them even in temporall blessings oftentimes as well as spirituall But if any want these outward benefits they must consider of themselves whether their sinnes doe not deprive them thereof For sometimes such mercies are denied to Gods people to chastize and keepe downe and roote up some vices in them David was crossed in his children to correct his fondnesse and to chastize his adultery and murder Salomons posterity was brought low to chastize his Idolatry If in outward things the Lord seeme carelesse of his people they might easily finde by searching that some evill carriage of theirs hath caused him to chastize them in this life that by being brought to repentance they might not be destroyed and perish in another world and so much for these temporall benefits Now for spirituall blessings the first was that God called him out of his Countrey and Fathers house from the Idols of his Fathers house for they served false gods there Iosh 24.2 and acquainted him with himselfe the onely true God No greater blessing can befall a man here then to be called from a false religion to the true religion so that his heart be inclined also to the practise of the true religion and that he be effectually sanctified as was Abraham Wee must looke that wee have this mercy of effectuall calling Indeed from Idols and such kinde of false gods wee are called or rather we have beene kept from following them at all but ah are we called to walke before God in holinesse and righteousnesse not alone turning from darkenesse to light from a false religion to the true but from the power of Satan unto God that is from serving the Divell in a wicked life to serve God in an holy life If we be not so called we are not sonnes of Abraham and outward blessings will doe us little good If we be then wee have cause to rejoyce before the Lord our God with exceeding great joy for he that is so called happie is he This is a mercy of mercies to be a Saint by calling one whom God hath so wrought upon by his Spirit that his outward call hath wonne him from the state of corruption to the state of grace And if any finde not himselfe so called or finde it doubtfull to himselfe whether he have beene so called yea or not let him earnestly seeke to God for it and if wee would know whether we be called yea or not compare our selves with Abrahams Call Gen. 12.1 God had said meaning before his Fathers death before he dwelt in Charran saith Steven for though because Terah was the Father the departure is ascribed to him yet God gave the call first to Abraham and he acquainted his Father with it and so his Father went out and he with
used due speede in fulfilling his oath for without more then necessary deferring hee addressed himselfe to the performance of his oath having thoroughly understood it for knowing his Masters will to be that he should fetch the woman and not bring Isaac backe againe thither and that if they would not give him a wife for Isaac without his owne comming then he should be free from the oath and withall being incouraged by Abrahams words that God would send his Angell before him and prosper his journey he made all good speede to take his journey about that weighty service and went unto Mesopotamia to dispatch it taking to that end ten Camells with all other things necessary seeing all his Masters estate was at his command Here learne that when you have sworne you must not delay the performance of it but so soone as shall be convenient and as you have power must settle to doe the thing sworne to All you that have sworne any lawfull and possible thing looke on Abrahams godly servant and be mindfull of your oathes consider the greatnesse of God to whom you are tied and put not off the worke from time to time seeke not needlesse delayes make not fearefull or sloathfull excuses but free your faith and pull your selves out of the danger of Gods displeasure by a conscionable fulfilling of your oathes The Pharisees could say thou shalt not forsweare thy selfe but fulfill thine oathes to God Let us shew our selves at least as wise and conscionable as a Pharisee could teach us to be But what if we perceive the oath to have beene of an unlawfull thing I answer then we must repent of our naughtinesse in taking it and so forbeare to add a second sinne in doing that which is unlawfull For it is impossible that an oath should be of more force to binde a man to a thing then Gods Commandement is to restraine him from it Nothing can have more force to binde conscience then Gods Commandement But what if it proove impossible I answer if that impossibility might have beene foreseene our rashnesse in not foreseeing it must be repented of but if it could not have beene foreseene we must rest our selves satisfied in this that our minde was faithfully to have fulfilled it if God had not cast in our way such an impediment but no hazard no cost no labour must stand betwixt us and the accomplishing of our oathes for David saith that a good man sweares to his hinderance and yet fulfills 'T were better for a man to be undone in the world or to loose this naturall life then to breake his oath for feare of losse or death So much of this mans conscionablenesse in regard of taking and keeping an oath Now see his vertuous carriage in the thing 1. His great diligence in the maine worke 2. His discretion 3. His piety and religiousnesse To begin with the last he served his Master religiously First he thanked God for his good successe 2. He prayed to God for good successe His prayer is Gen. 24.12 13 14. Wherein he besought God to cause him to meete with a fit wife for Isaac We must all learne specially servants for of such a one we speake now to commend our Masters businesses to God praying him to prosper us A good and godly servant when he imployeth himselfe in his Masters worke must shew himselfe to be Gods servant and to have faith in his providence trusting in his goodnesse and blessing more then in his owne ability Indeed such a particular begging of such and such occurrents to shew us Gods minde was peculiar to him and is not required of us for he did it by the peculiar inspiration of Gods Spirit but in generall to beg Gods assistacce that belongs to all good Servants You that would be counted godly servants have you thus sanctified your indeavours by prayer have you thus called on his name to guide and speed you if you have you have done well take comfort in it it is a testimony that you serve for conscience sake not as men-pleasers and that you serve the Lord in serving your Masters if you have not be humbled and lament it as a matter of prophanesse and a cause of many crosses and a meanes to make you proud of your selves if good successe attend you And now tread hereafter in the steps of this godly Servant Pray pray to him for his assistance and blessing upon your selves and the workes you take in hand for your Masters that so it may appeare you doe all in faith and obedience to God Againe this man finding that God did answer his requests blesseth God verse 26 27. Where is his reverent behaviour outwardly hee bowed and then the matter of his thankes he said blessed be the Lord you must learne with all humble behaviour of body and consequently of mind and with all sincerity and heartinesse to praise God for your good successe and so it will appeare that you ascribe all to God and not to your selves If you have beene thus thankfull it is an excellent thing in which you must take comfort nothing is a truer proofe of true goodnesse then a constant care to blesse and praise God for his perpetuall goodnesse in prospering us if not lament the want of it as a manifest proofe of pride and want of faith And now let us all learne to be particularly thankfull to God for particular benefits yea even such outward benefits much more for inward This is the way to continue to sanctifie and increase benefits God loveth thankfullnesse as men also doe If we improove his benefits to so good a purpose we shall not want them in due time onely see that your thankes be not alone verball You have seene his piety now his discretion shewes it selfe first in setting downe what a woman he would have for Isaac viz. a courteous and laborious woman one that came out to draw water and one that would respect a stranger and give him to drinke and his Camels also truly a woman courteous of disposition and of body strong and healthy and painefull is a fit woman to make a wife Againe he proceeds discreetly in his carriage to winne her and her Parents he gives her gifts and them also and truly relates the prosperous estate of his Master all which tend to perswade them to yeeld her and her selfe to give her selfe to Isaac for a wife So must every servant use discretion and prudence in his Masters affaires taking the best course he can to make them sort well in the end Another part of his good behaviour is care of his Camels to which he lookes to give water and provender in due time So should a good servant and every good man in his travells have a due care of his beasts and looke that they have things fit for them Yea first should hee looke to them unlesse necessity compell otherwise and then to himselfe not like to them
that tie their horses to the rack-staves and fill themselves with drink or victuals Then his last good deed is he makes hast about his businesse to tell it and set it a foot for he would not eate till he had done his errand and then he effects his businesse fully for he rose up betimes in the morning and would not stay one day but with all speed returnes to let his Master see his good successe O that you servants would all be such servants faithfull diligent in your Masters affaires religious devout prayerfull thankfull on all occasions and carefull of the beasts and other goods committed to your charge and returne home when your businesse is dispatched Now faults in him the Lord shewes none as I said before for the cause then mentioned Benefits he had foure very great 1. That God gave him a godly Master 2. That God gave him favour in his eyes so that he trusted him with all he had 3. That God made him a true Christian for bond and free are all one to God And lastly that he prospered him and brought him safe and with good successe to his Masters house You that be servants pray for these blessings Beseech God to make you his free men and if God grant you favour and good successe in your journeys learne to be very thankfull for it And for his crosse it was this he was a servant to be a bond-man is a lesse desireable condition as Paul intreateth saying if thou maist be free use it rather but it is an easie crosse if a man can meete with so godly a Master and be accepted with him hence S. Paul saith care not for it you that must live by service grumble not at this crosse For your service is not a bondage for life but alone as apprentices for a certaine time or as hired servants from yeere to yeere murmure not at the meanenesse of your estate but frame as this man to be faithfull and godly and you may live as happily here and get as much glory in Heaven hereafter as your Masters * ⎠* THE ELVENTH EXAMPLE OF LOT his VVife and Daughters AFter the Example of Abraham and his Family wee come to those that lived in the same Age with him particular persons and whole Cities and peoples Among particular persons I will begin with Lot and then speake a word of his wife and daughters For himselfe when and of what Mother he was borne it is not recorded but wee have notice of his Father who was Haran the brother of Abraham who died before his Father in the Countrey of Mesopotamia The death of Lot is also concealed in Scripture so that we cannot acquaint you when he ended his daies nor where But in his life we must observe what good is found in him and what evill and secondly what things he met withall in his life both good and bad First for his goodnesse in generall he hath the testimony of the Holy Ghost by the pen of S. Peter that he was a righteous man It is said there that God delivered just Lot as also that righteous man dwelling amongst them vexed his righteous soule This is proofe enough of his goodnesse and it was necessary for the cleering of his name that the New Testament should testifie of his righteousnesse because the narration of his life in the old leaves him in such a case as would make the Reader afraid least hee had quite falne away from all goodnesse but Peters testimony is proofe enough that the committing of that great sinne did not take him of from the number of the righteous No sinne is so great but repentance wipeth it so cleane away that the offender is righteous and must be so esteemed notwithstanding the grievousnesse of his crime Now let each of us labour to get true righteousnesse that though this title be not bestowed upon him by the undeceivable pen of some Author of holy Writ yet hee may heare it pronounced by our blessed Saviour at the last day when standing on the right hand he may be blessed with the blessing of the righteous And let me be bold to turne my speech unto you that have beene and are the grievousest sinners If you lament your unrighteousnesse rest on Christs righteousnesse and hereafter studie righteousnesse in your lives you shall enjoy the happinesse of righteous men at last There is a seeming righteousnesse a meere Pharisaicall paint when a man carries himselfe blamelesly to men ward at least in respect of the grosser acts of evill This will save no man at the last nor comfort him in time of temptation there is a true and reall righteousnesse which will undoubtedly save them which can be so happie as to get it and of this true righteousnesse there are two sorts one of the Law it standeth in a perfect conformity of heart and life unto the exact rule of Gods Law And if there had beene a Law given which could have given life doubtlesse righteousnesse should have beene by the Law but now the Scripture hath concluded all under sinne that the promise by the faith of Iesus Christ may be given to them that beleeve So now we must have a righteousnesse by promise that is by the Gospell for that of the Law is too high for us And the righteousnesse of the Gospell is twofold one without us performed by our blessed Saviour for us as a surety paies the debt for the debters use and benefit by which we stand just before God and have our sinnes pardoned and are accepted to salvation When we have so seene our own misery as to goe quite out of our selves and rest alone upon Christ for all good things according to the promise The other is within us it is a gift bestowed upon and wrought in us by the Spirit of God alwaies and inseparably joyned with the former by which we are manifested to our selves and to others to be just and it standeth in a true desire and indeavour to know and leave every sinne forbidden by God and to know and doe all good workes required so that we still continue to humble our selves for our failings and to seeke unto God for pardon and helpe in and by Christ and his Spirit This righteousnesse of faith which denominates him in whom it is righteous you must all get else you shall never attaine eternall life It is a thing appointed of God in such perfection of goodnesse and wisdome that it cannot be found in any Hypocrite seeme he never so good and will surely be found in any upright hearted man be he never so weake never leave striving till you have gotten it and gotten certaine knowledge that you have it Dost thou in thy heart see and acknowledge thy selfe to be a cursed sinner by reason of thy corrupt nature that is derived to thee from Adams loynes and thy wicked life whereby thou thy selfe hast actually
provocation to him How many miseries might wee escape by so speedy an observation of Gods hand and purpose and a ready yeeldance to him Pray we to God to give us such a quicke sight such a stooping disposition He that gave it to an Heathen man will much more give it to a Christian And if any of you have beene stoute against God Pharaoh-like let him abhorre himselfe that hath shewed lesse piety then this Pharaoh did It is a proofe of some softnesse of heart to be driven from sin even by great plagues Another vertue in him was that he used Abraham kindly for his sisters sake so was she reputed then and by that meanes he grew in riches abundantly Favourable dealing with a man for his friends sake especially for a faire sister a kinswomans sake is a kinde of bastard curtesie and may befall a man given to lust yea many times the kindnesse of such is more wonne by such a motive then by any better deservings Let us doe the same thing but on better grounds let the beauty of vertue make us esteeme and countenance those that shew it more then a beautifull Sister or Kinswoman but better be loving to a good man even upon such a sinister respect then not at all to be courteous to him Another thing wherein this man dealed well was that he dealt not over harshly with Abraham but lets him goe without offering injury unto him in anything hee had He doth not take his life from him as Abraham feared he would have done nay nor his servants nor his goods nor any part of them but takes order for his safe passage and conduct out of his Countrey Let us at least so moderate our anger that if it draw us to a little unkindnesse and sourenesse of carriage which is one degree of revenge yet it may not cause us to leape over the pale of justice and to use unrighteousnesse and cruelty against those from whom we have received injury So Pharaoh was not so farre transported with anger though perhaps he might have beene able to have done it and it may seeme at first sight that he had cause of doing so But it seemeth that the sence of Gods great plagues had made him begin to see that God was a deare friend of Abrahams and that he should have incurred further wrath for wronging him in other things wittily whose injuries God did prosecure so severely even when it was done ignorantly and unwittingly We ought to have more feare of God before us then any King of Egypt Deale justly therefore let men goe from us with all they have make not bold to wreake your teeme on any man by sending him away without his owne But it is to be noted that God plagued Pharaoh for his doing hurt to Abraham though beyond his knowledge even with great plagues you see that sometimes unwitting sinnes make God very angry with men when done against his deare and faithfull servants in things neere and deare unto them for he is a Father to them and full of compassion and pittieth their case when they sigh and mourne before him O with how much heavier evills will he plague them who wittingly and of set purpose doe wrong them How shall his anger burne against presumptuous and wilfull sinners when such heate ariseth upon occasion of sinnes of meere ignorance Take you heed of causing his wrath to arise against you for such crimes sure his sword will cut of for such faultes if it wound and cut deepe for the farre lesser And againe see that even plagues sometimes are sent to doe a man more good then hurt even to keepe a man from such sinnes as but for them he would have committed and to make him see and leave those which he did live in before and not observe It was a benefit to Pharaoh that he was so scourged I conceive that this Pharaoh was not a man sanctified for then God would have warned him by dreame or some other way as hee did Abâ—melech rather then by severity of plagues but it is a kind of favour to any man to be kept from sin even by heavy plagues Surely the Lord will doe as much for his owne people as for the Egyptians rather drive them out of their sins by sharpnesse of blowes then that they shall live and die in them and perish Happy is that smart or paine that prevents a greater hurt The Lord had rather his people should suffer any thing then continue in sinne to their destruction their outward fame troubles him not so much as their inward wickednesse Therefore if you find by experience that Gods hand hath restrained you from much evill and your owne soules can say such and such a sin I should never have seene never have left if God had not by his scourges and blowes even forced me to open mine eyes and see them and to cast them away even as it were against my will be you thankfull to God for such chastisements learne to say as David It was good for me that I was afflicted that I might learne thy righteous judgements Will not men pay well for a plaister that hath a vertue to cure the sore though it put the member to smarting paine Surely he doth not hate sin according to its hatefulnesse that hath not learned to be glad of any affliction which keepeth him from sin or drawes him out of it And now if any of you doe lie under heavy plagues let him become an humble suiter to God to vouchsafe him as much goodnesse as he pleased to grant unto this Pharaoh even to shew him the cause for which he smiteth and to give him notice of his faults and power to reforme them we might hasten our deliverance out of calamities if we would turne them to this purpose * ⎠* THE THIRTEENTH EXAMPLE OF ABIMELECH ANother man is mentioned living in Abrahams time with whom also Abraham had occasion to converse Hee was a King ruling over a city called Gerar in the countrey of the Philistins In his countrey Abraham sojourned you have the story of him Gen. 20. 21. v. 22. ad finem Of his birth and death nothing is recorded But in his life we must observe First His fault Secondly His good deedes Thirdly His crosses Fourthly his Benefits One fault alone of his wee reade of viz. that he tooke Sarah to him minding to make her his wife we see him offending in the same kinde that Pharaoh King of Egypt was noted before to have offended in Hee was too too libidinous and over-taken with an inordinate affection to beauty Hee had wives enough before yet when one stranger singularly faire did come into his countrey he would needes take her to himselfe and that not so much by perswasion and intreaty as by violence and strong hand for so much seemeth to be signified by the word hee tooke her hee sent and tooke her hearing of a beautifull person and having
and that not out of a kind of forced necessity because in the boyling of their unruly appetite there was not a woman to be had but meerely out of the sinnefulnesse of their desires which made them take more delight in that which was against nature and leaving the naturall society of the woman they flamed in their lusts towards man-kind and as they had no question wrought villanie one with another so now they would have violently committed the same outrage upon others This is an horrible sinne forbidden by God in the Law under paine of death Lev. 20.13 the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 9. that abusers of themselves with man-kinde shall not inherit the kingdome of God If there be any light of nature left in a mans minde he cannot but see the wickednesse of this fact for seeing the Lord ordeined the conjuction of man and woman for the impeopling of the world and multiplication of man-kind it cannot but be against nature altogether to power out lust in such a foule fashion as that it becommeth utterly impossible to attaine the proper end of such meeting wherefore they are carried brutishly after sensuall pleasure with aversenesse from the fruit that God and nature intend which doe give themselves over to this filthinesse This is the crime of Sodomitry so entitled from these Monsters of men that were the first publike committers of it But how ordinary it was in Athens and Rome among both Latine and Grecian even Philosophers and men accounted worthy and excellent the Stories will not suffer us to be ignorant And S. Paul affirmes that the Lord of purpose to avenge himselfe upon their impiety in not finding out his true worship but changing the Image of the incorruptible God into an image made like 〈…〉 o a corruptible man and worshipping the creature besides the Creator did give them up unto uncleanenesse in their owne hearts lusts to dishonour their bodies amongst themselves and those that changed the truth of God that truth which concerned God and the knowledge of him into a lie and set up images of him did after put out the light of nature into darknesse and the naturall use into that which was against nature Now how should it come to passe that any one indued with reason should grow so utterly unreasonable as to preferre this filthinesse before that which is agreeable to the course of nature Surely because when lust hath once taken possession of a man and that he doth not finde his expected satisfaction therein then the Divell inflameth his fancies to try new and strange wayes of contenting himselfe untill he have multiplied his sinnefull inventions to the utmost and spent himselfe in a fruitlesse pursuing of what he cannot overtake Now consider the severall aggravations of their sinne First in regard of the persons to whom they intended to offer this villanie even men that came within their gates to lodge and seeke shelter from wrongs Had they not filthy persons enough among themselves to please their libidinous fancies withall but they must force honest and vertuous men to suffer such an indignity Lust is ever the more blameworthy in exercising it selfe by how much it useth more violence to effect its desire It prevaileth by force worse then by perswasion although wickedly enough either way for here is a double wrong done to the same person one of polluting another forcing to suffer Abhorre you all manner of impurities but especially loath to give lust such an headstrong command over you that it should compell you by force and strength to compell others to suffer your unchast offers And if any man hath by wrestling and striving and might even overcome a resisting person let him bewaile the sinne the more because it is the greater else the Lord will violently punish him that violently abused another Againe beware of offering hard measure to a stranger the more helplesse any man is the more charity commandeth to pity him the lesse to wrong him especially to be so madded with lust as that a man should impure one with filthy assayes whom he never saw before this is to shew a most licentious and unsatisfiable humour that is not contented unlesse beast-like it may have any it sees at any time That lust will know no bounds which is carried after every stranger and it is the property of lust when it hath overlashed more then it ought to disdaine all bounds and limits Perhaps these Angels appeared in the forme of very beautifull young men and that might cause the filthy Sodomites to cast libidinous lookes upon them but howsoever it was lust doth not confine it selfe alwayes to beauty it is of a raunging humour and loveth variety and might it have all in the world but one it would not be pleased without that one also as other desires in their kindes are infinite and insatiable Another aggravation of their wickednesse is from the persons that committed it not one vile fellow or three or foure companions in villany consented together to act such a hideous part but all the men of the city ould and young all from every quarter assembled together by which it is manifest that the City was universally corrupted and that there was not a civill honest man left amongst them but all were turned abhominable buggerers and did take pleasure either to act that filthinesse themselves or to see it acted by others It is a fearefull thing when such grievous crimes grow common when all commit them or like of them none reproveth none opposeth them but every one makes another worse then he would be and no man will thinke that wicked which is done by each man in the towne or countrey as well as by himselfe Men follow sinne amaine when they swimme downe the streame of example unto it they make themselves bold to doe what all doe and can hardly make themselves beleeve they offend in going with the heard as it it were O let us resist the overgrowing of sinne the overspreading of all that it be not as a spreading fretting leprosie Seldome is it that hideous sinnes grow common but that some common vengeance followeth and yet you see the nature even of the worst sinnes to be such that they will spread themselves by little and become universall diseases and when every man hath them none knowes how to be ashamed of them or careth to cure them But see here the old decrepit goates that were now scarce able to see or heare or wag abroad yet these had as lustfull mindes as the youngest there and what they could not act because of weakenesse yet the strength of their unmortified lusts did make them delight to behold and attempt to performe so farre as they could It is not age that will quench lust this fault striketh in the fancy and will not be cured by bodily inabilities they can love to speake wantonly and to attempt this worst of evill that yet are impotent through age But ah it is
scornefull speeches comparings revilings upbraidings If he deale with friends he is unthankefull they must be his slaves still to humour him in every thing also all former good turnes are forgotten towards his enemies he is infinitely revengfull cares not what ill he doth them in requitall and will scarce ever forget an imaginary wrong I meane such a one as doth seeme none to any but himselfe and those whom he hath made crooked by a false and partiall relation Thus in respect of persons For estates give him adversity he is sullen dogged impatient cannot stoope to it blames every body for it and cares not what shifts he useth to get out Give him prosperity he abuseth it and doth mischiefe with it at least doth no good with it but makes it an instrument of serving his pride and other lusts so that hee is good for nothing in any place he can stoope to no burden nor buckle to no service being just like a goutie legg well neither lying still nor stirring or a sicke body neither well a bed nor up For qualities the good qualities of others he knowes how to vitiate traduce calumniate and make them seeme vices and will have somewhat to say to blemish them For bad qualities he makes them worse then they be aggravates them by mis-relating and turnes them into a jest and laughter scorning rather then pitying him in whom he thinkes they be as the Pharisee did the Publican His owne ill qualities he will not see he will not confesse he will not mend but hides them excuses them defends them and many times boasteth in them His good qualities he marres and corrupts and doth so lift himselfe up for them that most times they be even troublesome to others and reproachfull to himselfe he knowes them so too well and makes so too much of them that no man else can finde any commendablenesse in them they be but matter for bragging and boasting and telling gay tales of himselfe what he hath done or can doe so it makes his vices worse and turnes his vertues even into vices Can that be other then a most hatefull and filthy vice that bringeth forth so many bad effects and yet all these and many more that I cannot reckon up doe most apparantly follow from pride in what degree it selfe is suffered to prevaile in men Now I pray you beloved search into your selves and looke about if you cannot see this vice abroad in your neighbours Let me propound this question to each of you doe you know never a proud man in the Towne and doe you see never a one in the Church whom you judge to be full of pride you would answer this question in your owne hearts Doe you see or know a proud man or woman in the place where you dwell I am afraid you that be poore will looke upon the gayer cloathes of the wealthie and say without doubt they be monstrous proud that must weare such gay things about them when others of as good earth as themselves goe almost naked or so simply clad And I feare least you that are wealthy will finde cause to blame such a one and such a one for pride because their carriage is so and so many of you can see pride I doubt not peeping out of the poore mans rags and crawling like a vermine out of his meane garment yea you that be poore I feare will finde a great deale of pride abroad you will not returne without finding it for in truth it is a fruit of pride to finde pride every where but in ones selfe Therefore I recant this speech now and I pray you leave that forreine inquirie and come you home every soule to himselfe and search at home each in his owne bosome house carriage And tell mee or rather God who speakes to each art not thou thy selfe somewhat a kinne to the generation of Sodome a vessell in whom the Divell and flesh hath laid up a deale of pride You may perhaps aske me how any man may know whether he be proud or no I meane over-come with pride full of it over-ruled by it I speake to thee that art poore and coursely clad Doe not you thinke that you are as good men and women as those that are finelier clad and if you had as good suites and ornaments as they you should be never a whit inferiour to them have you not these kinde of vying buzling thoughts in you in truth this is nothing but pride And you that are richer doe you not count these poore snakes almost nothing the mudde the scumme three-halfe-penny creatures lesse then dust almost to you mushroms shrubs verily these thoughts proclaime you to be monstrous proud and if you goe away with them on either side and find them not stop them not blame them not it is certaine this vice hath a strong partie in you and in very deed doth over-master you 'T is pride of heart we seeke for and 't is nothing but pride that sets up these bristling thoughts in you But yet I shall give you another note nothing is a surer proofe of over-ruling pride then this that a man sees no pride in himselfe neither will confesse it to his owne heart It is certaine this vice is as naturall to all mankinde as it is to be borne with eyes in their heads with a mouth with an heart with a liver with braine The vitall parts of our body doe not more surely come into the world with us then this vitall part of the body of death and of corruption Now if you have never seene it nor could meete with it in the effects of it so as to know it it is onely because you are ignorant and blinde and the more ignorant of your corruptions the more proud When vices be not seene they be not lamented nor resisted with spirituall weapons nay not with naturall good considerations neither and the lesse they be resisted the more they grow and the more they grow the stronger and bigger they be and the more they rule in him in whom they be If it were not therefore for want of understanding by this time a great number of you might perceive that you deserve to be called sonnes of pride for your selves cannot denie but that you have in a manner alwaies denied your selves to be proud you never saw it in your hearts nor confessed before God with secret sorrow for it Lord I am very proud such and such effects proove mee to be very proud And without doubt hee that never did thus strive to mortifie his pride cannot but be a very proud man Loe now I have shewed you how to finde out your pride by not finding it out and this is the surest way of finding it where it is most it hides it selfe most from his eyes in whom it is like the foundation of a building that is underground though it beare up all that is above the ground or like some secret distemper in the inwards that shewes not
have in any kinde offended him our hearts should even quake to thinke of his displeasure till it have made us fall downe before him and renew our repentance and seek out for a pardon But he that hath a bold audatious fearelesse heart that when he hath done evill feeleth no stirring of feare no awe no dread sees no danger or perill in the sinne perhaps abusing the promise to make himselfe bold surely cannot say that he sanctifieth God in his heart and maketh him his dread and his feare Strive therefore to get and strive to nourish and exercise this feare in you The last thing to be noted in Isaac was his obedience to the Commandement of God given him by vision spoken of Gen. 26.6 the story runneth thus there was in his daies a great famine in Canaan Abraham had gone downe to Egypt to sojourne therein a time of dearth for it seemes to have beene a place of more constant plenty then Canaan Isaac had in his minde some thoughts of imitating his Father God saw it not fit for him to travell thither and therefore God appeared to him in some vision and bad him not to descend into Egypt but to dwell or sojourne in that land and promiseth him a blessing accordingly Isaac stoppeth his journey continues in Gerar and goeth not downe to Egypt This was an act of true obedience hee would not goe to the place which God forbad him to go too though it might seeme to have beene fitter for his profit and advantage at that time We also Brethren must learne to dwell where God would have us and not to make worldly profit pleasure ease or the like the choosers of our habitation yea we must learne universall obedience for if in point of habitation I must follow God then in all other things besides See what God saith in his Word unto us and that is now insteede of all visions therein now he maketh himselfe to appeare unto us doe such or such a thing doe not such or such a thing promising a blessing as alwaies he doth unto the obedient We must not consult with flesh and bloud nor aske counsell of profit and pleasure but must resigne our selves to his Commandement and instantly set about the one and relinquish the other He that is so disposed he is an Isaac let him take comfort he is a true beleever and a godly man but he that in such case refuseth to obey and will rather condescend to his carnall reason arguing from losse or commodity danger or safety or the like how can hee call himselfe an obedient childe He that refuseth the plaine directions of Gods Word for earthly respects is not one of the race of Isaac He that causeth all such respect to stand bare unto Gods Commandement and to give way unto it his heart is upright with God and he is a holy man as was Isaac And so much for this good mans carriage toward God Looke now in what sort he behaved himselfe in regard of men and in regard of his estate and the things of this life For men he had Parents a Wife Children Neighbours See his manner of living with them all For his Father he was to him a most dutifull sonne as is manifest in two things 1. He yeelded himselfe to him to be bound and killed Indeed here was more obedience to God then to Abraham and yet a great measure of obedience to Abraham also He bare great respect to his Father Abraham in that hee would be perswaded by him that God had commanded him so strange a thing he shewed himselfe dutifull to God and his Father both in being content to be killed by his Father at Gods appointment You see how children should yeeld to their Parents in all things in the Lord. It was extraordinary that Isaac must yeeld to be slaine when God would have it so and had extraordinarily required it And in this particular without the like warrant which will never be againe in all the world no childe should yeeld to let his Father kill him but should flie away and oppose himselfe so farre as he might without hurting and striking his Father yea or so much as rayling at him for these being things forbidden a man should rather choose to die even by the rage of his Father then make bold to doe them But if in an extraordinary Commandement obedience must be given to Parents in such an extraordinary thing then without doubt in every ordinary thing a Parent must be obeyed in all things in the Lord even though the commandement should be so heavie as death it selfe would not be heavier The Apostle hath said Obey your Parents in all things in the Lord and this is well pleasing to God and this is just Where are you rebellious children Where are you stubborne and disobedient daughters Come lay your selves in the ballance with Isaac see how unlike him you be he would yeeld to death you will not yeeld to leave those things which are forbidden you onely because they will procure you death undoing destruction O you rebels and wretches you are farre enough from being Isaacs You set light by Father and Mother and therefore against you ought all to take up a curse and ratifie the same with Amen Woe woe unto you undutifull children who deale with your Parents as Israel dealt with God they have brought up and nourished children which have rebelled against them God shall cut you off from the land of the living his hand shall be against you to destroy you and the Eagles of the valley shall picke out your beastly eyes that are bold to despise sleight and disobey your Parents and wilfully refuse to obey their lawfull commandements But I beseech you repent of this sinne and prevent this judgement and now let all children be followers of Isaac acknowledge your Parents authority submit to their lawfull commandements and crosse your selves rather to death then be found undutifull Doe it I say the great benefits you have received of them requireth it you have your very being from them in your hild-hoods education and the Law of God requireth the same of you which requireth all reasonable things and you cannot else be saved at last for he that obeyes not that Parent whom he sees daily how shall he obey him whom hee never saw And all you dutifull children be encouraged praise God that hath bound your hearts to respect your Parents and intreate him to continue the same affection in you still and know that the Lord will blesse you as he blessed Isaac and will raise you good Iacobs to require your submissivenesse to your Abrahams But Isaac submitted himselfe to his Father in another thing even when he was now growne to be about forty yeares of age he gave himselfe over to his Father to be ruled by him in marriage he did not set his affections upon any woman without his consent nor draw away any womans affections nor
married any without the liking and privity of his Father but took the right and due course gave up himselfe to his Fathers authority and direction and therefore God gave him a good Rebekah indeed a comfortable wife and vertuous woman In this therefore all children are bound also to imitate him Children must take their Parents counsell and direction in matter of marriage and not bestow themselves without their good liking and consent that they may have Gods blessing attending them in their marriage when they honour at once both God and their Parents in obeying Gods Commandement and shewing due respect unto their Parents So did even Ishmael though otherwise a wilde man for it is said of him that his Mother tooke him a wife So did Iacob afterwards His Father blessed him and sent him to Padan Aram to take him a wife of the daughters of Laban his Mothers brother And when Sampson saw a woman of Timnah that pleased him well he spake to his Father and Mother to take the Maide for him who went downe thither and made the match for him Indeed the Parents have more discretion and understanding then the children by reason of their age and experience and therefore it is for the childes good to follow their advice And to whom must the children goe for comfort and helpe in case that any crosse befall them in marriage but onely to their Parents of which comfort and helpe they deprive themselves if they venture upon marriage without them wee know that those God hath not joyned in marriage whom he doth not unite in that estate Now God hath made the Parents his Deputies in this behalfe saying unto them give your daughters in marriage and take sonnes for your daughters and againe you shall not give your daughters to them in marriage nor take their sonnes to your daughters Now how can it be said that God joyned them if their Parents whom hee hath made rulers over them in his steed do not joyne them seeing immediately hee doth joyne none in these our daies Also the children are the goods of the Parents as a part of their possession insomuch that they were also to be sold to pay their debts Wherefore as no bargaine is firme in other kindes of goods without the consent of those that have right unto those goods so neither can this covenant be good without the consent of Parents which have as much right from God in their children as in any other of their goods Wherefore those sonnes and daughters are much to be blamed who have neglected this part of their duty to their Parents and have suffered their blinde and strong passions so farre to transport them that against their Parents consent and counsell they have bestowed themselves in Matrimony and so have transgressed against the plaine commandement of God Such must heartily repent of their sinne and humble themselves before God with much sorrow for their great and wilfull disobedience Parents would not have their children thus to slight and dishonour them yea they take it grievously and are much perplexed with sorrow for their children in this case therefore children should bee much grieved themselves if they have given this occasion of griefe unto their Parents To satisfie mens owne desires and affections without regard to Gods ordinances is a notorious disobedience and bringeth the guilt of a great offence upon the soules of them that have so offended All you that have married in this disorderly manner see that you doe unfaignedly repent of the sinne before God and confessing the fault before him seeke to prevent the curse that must else fall upon you and your children after you for so dishonouring your Parents And you young men and women that be not yet married see that you binde your consciences and resolve your wills to obey this commandement Follow God in your Parents and be not so rash and selfe-willed as to crosse them and follow your owne heads and passions This duty will be easie if you looke carefully to your passions at first and suffer them not to be undiscreetely fixed upon any person untill you have acquainted your Parents with your desires and crav'd their allowance and consent But if a man or maide doe inthrall themselves and intangle others by a disorderly placing of their affections then shall they make this otherwise easie duty hard and impossible to themselves Keepe your selves therefore Masters of your owne hearts and sell not away your liberty through an over-hasty yeelding of your selves to your unruly passions Suffer not your mindes to be drawne away by any meanes but pray God to keepe your hearts in order It is a sinfull love as well as a sinfull passion in any other kinde which troubles an house and makes the children contrary to their Parents and to proove the greatest crosse that may be to them to whom they ought to have beene the greatest comfort Lastly Isaac shewes his due respect unto his Father by joyning with Ishmael his brother in burying his Father for so it is said his sonnes Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machphelah This is the last office that childeren can performe and they must shew their love and duty to them in the honourable performance of this last act as to testifie their love to their Parents so to declare their faithfull hope of the resurrection from the dead For therefore are men with due solemnities committed to the bosome of the earth because they expect their glorious rising againe and they shall not utterly perish and fall as doe the bruite and unreasonable creatures Now see Isaacs carriage towards his mother There was no love lost betwixt them but as Sarah did tenderly love Isaac so did he requite her love with love againe as is manifested in his sorrowfull taking of her death though she lived with him to a great age For so it is written that after Rebekkah was brought unto him and he was married unto her Gen. 24 ult Isaac was comforted after his mothers death intimating that even untill then he was grieved for the losse of her It is a fault therefore in childeren oversoone to forget their dead mothers and to let their remembrance quickly to slip out of their mindes how much more to be weary of their over-long lives and to be glad when the time comes that they must put them into the dust in respect of some paultrey gaine of money of land that they shall possesse when the Father and mother is dead All that desire their parents death for their goods sake which they shall enjoy after them and are glad when they shall change their parents for their goods must needes be called wicked and ungratefull childeren See therefore that you children love even your mothers heartily moderately lamenting their death that you may make it appeare their life was not a burden unto you And so have we seene Isaacs goodnesse towards his parents Looke into his carriage
betake your selves unto any sinfull meanes of escape but rather choose to die then to sinne against God as knowing death to be no great matter but sinne to be an hatefull thing and worse by farre then death And how should this undaunted and spirituall fortitude be attained but by conversing with death often in your thoughts so as to get some good assurance that it shall not be able to carry you to the region of darknesse to eternall death but alone to let you out of this dungeon into a roome farre more lightsome and blisfull He that thinkes much of death so as to make himselfe carefull by frequent renewing of his repentance and amendment of his life to get his salvation assured to himselfe shall at last be happily armed against the feare of death and shall be made so resolute as to choose rather to die then sinne Againe if you finde so much weakenesse in any of Gods Saints with whom you live as you finde recorded in the story of Isaac I pray you be no harsher so them then you be to him Tell mee what thinke you of Isaac was hee a godly man or not if you say no you contradict the Scripture if you say yea then you must learne not to deny to another the name of a good man because you meete with the like disorders in him that are here noted in Isaac if hee feare too much if hee hath used some sinfull meanes to escape death or other danger Nay a man ought not to deny himselfe the name of a man truly sanctified because hee findeth the same imperfections in himselfe To call in question ones being sanctified in respect of the hanging on of such weakenesses is to nip and discourage the worke of grace and to hinder the growth of it no lesse then a cold frost doth hinder fruites from growing But Isaac telleth a manifest lie Lying is a sinne and the lying tongue will bring destruction but to bee so transported with some present passion as to be thrust into the mire of lying is such a thing as may befall a godly man Come and take heede that you doe not imbolden your selves to lie by abusing this and the like Examples but rather resolve and pray against it as knowing in how much danger you stand of falling into it For though to bee over-taken with this sinne in hast doe not disproove the truth of sanctity yet to be a lier one that makes account that this is so small an offence that hee will not be so precise as to forbeare to helpe himselfe by it if need be this is a proofe of a man that hath not yet gotten any sanctity Lying is a sinne so plaine that scarce is it possible to be ignorant of it but through wilfullnesse because a man refuseth to be willing to know that fault which hee is not willing to leave For no man can choose but blame it in another and therefore his inward soule doth plainely tell him that it is also naught in himselfe Now to live purposely in a knowne sinne resolving that hee must and will doe it if occasion serve this is to be a worker of iniquity Remember therefore the word of S. Paul Put away lying seeing you have put off the old man intimating that hee hath not cast off any part of the old man that hath not throwne away this rag of it Lying will breed boldnesse to sinne hard-heartednesse in it impudency after it Therefore you must determinately conclude with your selves to put away lying and speake the truth one to another In these two things Isaac sinned against GOD and himselfe But his sinne against Abimelech was in that hee was like to have drawne him occasionally into a great sinne hee did that which might easily have hazarded him to thinke of making Rebekah his wife that is of committing adultery It is a sinne to become a stumbling blocke to another by doing that which may make him bold to doe a thing that is sinfull as Abimelech complained to Abraham and also to Isaac take heede that you become not stumbling blockes in a more palpable fashion by inticing perswading exhorting giving evill example or the like Be carefull not to partake with other mens sinnes and if you can call to minde any thing done by your selves in the like nature viz. such an act as might have pulled another to wickednesse though the ill effect have not followed yet you must repent of your uncharitablenesse and rashnesse herein Another fault of Isaacs is this that he had too great respect to good fare he loved his tooth and palate a little too much he was an aged man and hee gave himselfe a little more then enough to savoury meate and his love to good fare carried him so farre awry in his affections that he loved Esau more then Iacob Gen. 25.28 Surely it was too great a love to Venison that caused him to love a worse sonne above a better This is a weakenesse against which it is needefull to strive our sensuality inclineth us unto it wee are apt to thinke it no sinne may not a man use Gods benefits and enjoy the comforts of this life in good measure why should not hee fare well that hath much given him by God But sure to be so over-ruled by ones palate that any disorders be bred thence in ones life towards any person or thing cannot but be a sinne for all these excuses Doe not wee know that cockering of the body doth likely depresse the soule and the feeding of the belly and pleasing of the taste doth breed an aptnesse to be lesse delighted with better things Thus you have Isaacs faults First Forgetfulnesse of Gods promise Secondly Carnall feare of death Thirdly Lying to prevent danger Fourthly Scandalizing Abimelech Fiftly over-loving his worser sonne and Sixtly Over-loving good fare We will goe on now to consider what blessings he enjoyed First Spirituall God pleased to make his covenant in him and to bestow the birth-right and blessing upon him and therefore also did appeare to him and blessed him Gen. 25.3 4. and after Vers 24. It is a singular favour of God to give a man spirituall blessings to make him his childe to appeare to him and comfort him by giving him assurance that hee is his childe and confirme his Faith in his gracious promises This is the greatest favour to blesse us with spirituall blessings Ishmael had the terrene but Isaac had the spirituall blessings these were given also to Iacob as a singular prerogative It is an admirable favour indeede to enjoy these for they will not cease at the end of this life but will continue till another life and will bee perfected in another life eternally I pray you consider whether God have vouchsafed these unto you hath he caused you to feare his name hath he made you to beleeve his promises hath he appeared to you in his word and ordinances and given you some happy apprehension of his
nothing will grieve us more when wee have lost them then that wee have abused them nor comfort us more then to remember that wee have kept them in order and bestowed them holily And indeed they bee things apt to bee abused a 1000 waies Prevent all these abuses and put on a contented minde if God see it fit to be deprived of them getting such a clearenesse of inward sight that the comfort of that may supply the want of outward eyes Hee that hath an understanding given him to see God and Christ to see Heaven and things spirituall may easily misse the sight of other things but ah how comfortlesse is a blind body joyned with a blind minde Take heed that this great darkenesse fall not upon you for what can this bee but even a fore-runner of utter and everlasting darkenesse Further Isaac in his state met with divers crosses the Philistins envied him chased him from them wronged him by stopping his Fathers Well and by unjust striving with him for those he himselfe had digged these bee crosses and such as trouble the nature of man and seeme hard to beare but this good man wrestled with them Prepare your selves therefore to be envied and wronged and to have enemies that will contend and quarrell with you causelesly and be carefull to get Gods favour that the malice and injuriousnesse of men may not be able to hurt you but that God may blesse you the more by how much men doe more envie you wrong you and contend against you as it befell to Isaac For God prospered him and comforted him the more by how much the world did more grudge at him and seeke to disquiet him Labour therefore to get Gods favour that you may have a patient a cheerefull minde the in middest of the greatest injuries In the meane time expect such evill usage and strive to be able to beare it without vexation and discontent which are things more troublesome then the crosses themselves Further learne to be thankfull to God if hee have pleased to keepe you from spight wrong and strife that either you bee not envied or else those that envie you have not had ability to wrong you and contend against you It is a great goodnesse of God so to hedge about a mans estate that no man hath beene able to breake in upon him to hurt him and it is neither mens wit nor greatnesse that can procure unto them this safety but it is God alone that maketh them to dwell in safety Let our hearts be lifted up to praise him that hath so incompassed us with his favour as with a shield But next Isaac was crossed in his children First in that hee continued long without issue whereas God had promised him issue and the hope of his salvation depended upon the performance of his promise for out of his loynes was that seede to proceed in whom all Nations were to bee blessed and yet hee was married twenty yeeres afore this promise was fulfilled So long did God exercise his faith with delay Learne to beare with patience Gods deferring of his promises and not to let your hopes slip but still to trust on God and waite for him who will come in due time though hee satisfie not our hastie and over-eager desires Hold to the promise of God it shall be fulfilled at length though wee bee made to tarry somewhat long for it that wee may bee better fitted to receive it with thankefullnesse The longer a good thing is desired and deferred the more abundant comfort it yeeldeth when it is come But secondly Esau prooved a crosse to him in two things First that hee tooke into the house two such ill conditioned Maides as were a griefe of heart to Isaac and Rebekah Gen. 26. ult This is a bitter crosse to bee pester'd with unquiet froward unruly and wicked daughters in Law that shall make one weary of his life and like evill and bitter sauce take away the sweetnesse of all other comforts Learne to bee thankefull if you have escaped this crosse and if God have provided such yoake-fellowes for your children as by their dutifull and loving carriage doe make the comfort of your lives more abundant framing themselves to content you in all good and lawfull things as if they were your owne sonnes or daughters It is a great satisfaction to see ones children so happily matched Let not this benefit bee sleighted and passed over without particular thankes And now prepare for this crosse or if you bee under it labour to beare it so as not to bee made weary of life but enjoy the rest so thankefully that the bitternesse of this may bee sweetened and allayed And pray to God to direct your selves and your children so in their choice or yours for them that they may not stumble upon a torment unawares and learne in choosing to choose for grace rather then sinister respects so may you hope to bee directed aright and to get a true benefit Againe Esau was a crosse to his Father in his malice against his Brother whom hee purposed to kill and would not keepe the thought to himselfe so but that it uttered it selfe If Isaac knew not of it hee was not afflicted with it but if hee did hee could not but take it heavily Thanke God if hee have not given over your children to such malice one against the other and if you lie under this misery make it as easie as may bee by telling yourselves it was Isaacs crosse and yet God kept it from ever comming to execution But Isaac was crossed in Iacob too for hee lived a stranger from him twenty yeeres so that hee did not enjoy him Is it not a griefe to have a good childe as it were banished and restrained from dwelling with his Father for so long a time whose company his love makes him to desire every day But Isaac lived to see much rudenesse in his Grand-children for hee out-lived Iosephs selling into Egypt and was afflicted in Iacobs uncomfortablenesse under that crosse Blesse God if it have not happnend so to you and if it have mutter not for what are you that you may not be put to as much hardnesse as Isaac And lastly Isaac died at 180 yeeres a long life indeed for those times but it ended in death and buriall and so must each of yours even a great while sooner O therefore study to bee prepared for it THE SIXTEENTH EXAMPLE OF REBEKKAH REbekkah was the wife of Isaac of her birth and death the Scripture is silent We are therefore to look into her life wherein observe the good shee had and did the evill she did and suffered The good she did First whilest she lived young in her Fathers house She was a Virgin untouched by man Gen. 24.16 No man knew her It behooveth young women to behave themselves so modestly and shamefac'dly that they may bring themselves unto their own husbands undefiled Therefore the holy
unprofitably brought up to the knowledge of himselfe such a one shall be much more to seeke how to live religiously than another that hath some imployment for in not knowing what course to take he is made to stand distracted and doubtfull of his course and so full of vexation and unquietnesse Now all you Parents that have neglected your children very much and suffered them to trifle out all that golden season of youth in which they should have fitted themselves for a profitable and comfortable life in elder dayes be ashamed you have been so foolish as not alone to transgresse the duty of Christians but even that which the heathens have done You have been causes of your childrens misery and the Common-wealth too and if it proceed not from some other cause then from wisdome your children must be but burdens and diseases to themselves and the world Rich Parents are sometimes guilty of this fault for they thinke they shall leave them sufficient to maintaine them though they doe nothing and therefore intend them not to any vocation not considering how soon the Lord can empty a full Vessell and make the River Iordan yea the red Sea dry as dry ground and then what will become of their children Yea as not considering that to leave children much wealth and not some sufficiency for good imployment of themselves is to leave them furnished to doe themselves hurt and others and to bring all to nought quickly But many of the poorer ranke are guilty of this fault too who give themselves so to unthriftinesse that they cannot bestow so much as reading and writing on them much lesse some higher calling to which these should fit them If any mans unpreventable poverty disable him we blame him not for that to which necessity compels him only so that he pull not that necessity on himselfe but he that in a poore estate hath not some care to bring up his children to worke and if he cannot effect it himselfe doth not herein seeke help of the publique and able persons is not so good a Parent as nature will teach him that he should therefore now I commend Iacobs patterne to your eyes and pray you to cut out your lives according to his scantling Be not wanting to your childrens welfare the common prosperity and your owne comfort Let not others have cause to bestow upon you the reproofe of Solomon A childe left to himselfe maketh his Mother ashamed and what is hee but left to himselfe and the devill that is not acquainted with any profitable employment in a calling And let me speake something to children in this behalfe If Parents take never so due care and children will cast off the yoake what can the Parents doe Therefore you must learne you selves to practise subjection to your Parents as in all other things so in this Be carefull in the callings wherein your Parents have thought fit to place you that you may get ability in them to doe good to your selves and others The inconveniences that else will presse you hereafter shall prove more burden some unto your consciences when you shall be upbraided with these thoughts ah I might have done well but for mine owne wilfulnesse had I answered my Parents care and cost it would not have been thus evill with me But now to a second duty performed to them all Hee blessed them all according to their severall blessings as is noted of him that is he pronounced in Gods name and by way of promise from him what good things God would doe for each of them in his posterity that was to come after him For a mans selfe is blessed when hee is assured that benefits shall be granted to his childrens children in future generations Now in this way of blessing we cannot imitate him because wee want the Spirit of prophesie to foretell future events but there is a way of blessing which lyeth upon each of us we must pray for a blessing to our children and to our posterity after us and must carry our selves so religiously and righteously that we may procure a blessing to them by vertue of Gods promise to the seed of the righteous A good man walketh in his integrity and his children shall be blessed after him and Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord his children shall be like Olive plants Loe how you must blesse your children feare God walke uprightly and then shall you conveigh a blessing to them And so it is said He is ever mercifull and lendeth and his seed is blessed There cannot be a better Counsellor than Gods Spirit see the way of blessing your children and you that have cursed your children as many a Father hath done both with bitter curses in word and also by walking in a way of cursednesse abhorre your selves that have walked into a way quite contrary to that wherein Iacob did walk The Lord hath appointed that the Son which curseth the Father should die the death Although the Parent owe not so much respect reverence and gratitude to the childe as on the other side yet sure hee doth owe as much love and this cursing contradicteth love because to love is to wish well and to curse is to wish ill therefore God will punish him severely also that curseth his children I doe not meane him that in Gods name doth pronounce a curse against them but him that in his fury doth make some ill wish against them O how unnaturall is that man who doth worse than ever it was heard that any bruit beast hath done yet that is in a rage teareth his owne children in pieces If it be a proofe of an unsanctified man that His mouth is full of cursing and bitternesse then sure he is extreamely unsanctified that curseth his owne children for that mouth is full of cursing to the very brim that will dash over against the fruit of ones owne body But you that have not yet cast off all so much as likenesse to Christianity I pray you learne of so holy a man Blesse your children in your kinde as he did in his live not in so wicked courses as may curse your seed and root them out to destruction If you desire that God should grant prosperity to your off-spring walke in the wayes of his Commandements Interest your selves into his promises by being upright and mercifull and following every good way But I proceed to let you see what Iacob did to some of his children in particular First Simeon and Levi that had committed a great murder hee reproved them although indeed I thinke with too much lenity sayin Ye have troubled me c. In which words he aggravates the fault from the mischiefe it was like to bring upon himselfe not mentioning the sinfulnesse against God perhaps because he saw their temper to be such that they would little regard the sin but would be somewhat moved with the danger but on his death-bed he is justly severe
priviledge is it and this is a mercy promised to all Saints For so saith our Saviour If my mords abide in you and you abide in me aske what you will and you shall have it And againe S. Iohn telleth us This is our confidence that whatsoever we aske according to his will he heareth us Therefore let us keepe our interest into this mercy by not having respect to sinne in our hearts and by constant endeavour to walke holily before the Lord. And if we have found and doe finde God favourable to us in this kinde so that we lose not our prayers which wee make unto him let us then comfort our selves in this benefit and be carefull to yeeld as obedient an eare to his word as hee doth yeeld a patient eare to our supplications And now of Iacobs temporall benefits First he was blessed with a large estate in the world according to his profession being a Shepheard his flocks did thrive he had cattell and servants in abundance God blessed him in Labans house and made all the stronger cattell to bring forth just such kinde of young as Laban had consented to give him for his wages so that he could not but see a Divine hand taking Labans goods and giving them to him as himselfe noteth Riches are do great matter but when God giveth them as tokens of his love and tender respect they are desirable Let those that enjoy them be sure that they come to them from God as fruits of his goodnesse or else the worst men may be wealthier than the best And let those that are upright with Iacob learne to trust God with their estate and to know that what shall be good for them shall be seasonably provided for them Secondly God delivered him out of all adversity as himselfe saith on his death-bed The Angel that redeemed me from all evill His three greatest dangers were first from Esau both when hee went unto Padan Aram and when hee returned at the former time God brought him safe to Padan and so restrained the minde of Esau that then hee put off the thought of killing him to his Fathers death and at the later time God so melted him that hee shewed himselfe exceeding kinde and fell upon his neck and kissed him instead of killing him which hee had intended and therefore hee tels Esau that hee had seene his face as the face of GOD. Laban pursued him too with a purpose to strip him of all and to send him empty home and he had power in his hand to doe it as himselfe saith but God appeared to him and rebuked him that he durst not handle him amisse The Inhabitants of the Countrey were much insenced against him in respect of that outragious murder and rapine committed upon the Sichemites and by his Sons in so much that Iacob feared much that they would pursue him and cut him off but God cast a feare into their hearts so that they did not offer any violence unto him as is noted by the Story These three great deliverances God vouchsafed Iacob O let us learne to turne to God and to walke before him in truth and then we shall have God ready to help us in all our necessities and at that time and in those exigents to provide for us meanes of escape by his providence when our owne wit and strength faileth as we finde him dealing with Iacob What could he doe against Esau Laban or the Inhabitants of the Countrey Let us cleave to God that hee may be out Buckler also and our strong Tower and Rocke of defence and if we have found so much favour with God as to rescue us out of such dangers as seemed unpreventable let not us attribute the deliverances to any other secondary causes but even see God in them ascribe them to him and learne thence to feare honour and praise him Those deliverances are indeed profitable that are cords of kindnesse to tie us nearer to God Hee that improveth not such benefits to that end loseth the most desirable fruit of them Further Iacob had a large off-spring of children twelve sons and one daughter this is a favour to give a man store of children of these sons all had wealth enough Ioseph was very religious in his youth and Benjamin civill and orderly at least and at the end all of them turned home and became godly men O happinesse to have so many children some good betime all holy at last all prosperous in outward things and one much advanced Another mercy of God was the providing of Ioseph as a man before to maintaine him and his family in Aegypt and bringing him to see Ioseph and enjoy his preferment for seventeen yeares together where he lived in as great a fulnesse of prosperity and concluded his dayes as happily as ever man did living in Iosephs bosome as it were seeing all his children godly and prosperous and feeling no considerable adversity having Iosephs oath also to bury him in Canaan This is a singular favour of God to make ones old age prosperous and to cause his eyes to see so much happinesse as he can wish when now he is ready to leave the world Marke the righteous man in the Psalme it is said The end of that man is peace Study righteousnesse that you may inherite this blessing and never threaten your selves how miserable you shall be hereafter God can provide wayes that you know not to make you safe and comfortable beyond your thoughts O be faithfull with him and trust in him and feare nothing So much for Iacobs life Now for his death It was a most seasonable death after a large time of life a most peaceable death in the midst of his Sonnes a most religious death blessing them and confirming their faith with his last words a most comfortable death so soone as he had ended his blessing he pulled up his legs and gave up the Ghost and then he had also an honourable embalming and buriall as at large is set downe in the Story Who would not wish such a death And yet more after death he hath an honourable name on earth and liveth in eternall glory in heaven Now let us imitate Iacobs vertues and labour to be upright and then notwithstanding many sins we shall have at last eternall happinesse and so much happinesse in this world also as is needfull for us Now we will shew you what calamities he suffered for the people of God must looke to suffer much tribulation in this world as it is foretold them both because their owne need requireth it to make and keep them good and cause them to grow in goodnesse as also because the Lord sees it fit thus to magnifie his power justice wisdome and goodnesse in sustaining and delivering them His chastisements then were these First that his Father did not love him so well as his brother but did manifestly prefer hunting Esau before
him in his affections and afforded him no great signes of love but this was somewhat mitigaed because God inclined his mothers heart to him who at least in this matter was better than her husband Now if it be the lot of any childe to be neglected of his Parents and to have irreligious brethren preferred before him let him beare it patiently it was Iacobs lot and let him not be discouraged from good wayes for at last God may change his Parents hearts unto him It could not but grieve Iacob that his Father should so disaffect him as to give away the blessing from him But let children to whom it befalleth beare the crosse quietly for it is easie with God to make all end well Another crosse that befell him in his Fathers house was this his brother Esau was bitter against him and resolved to kill him A miserable calamity to be hated of his owne brother and to have his own brother yea a twin borne at the same time to hate him so sharply as to intend his death You must looke for such a crosse and beare it if it come and blesse God if he have pleased to keep you from suffering it so that your brothers and kindred agree well with you and rather shew you kindnesse A third crosse was his flight into Padan Aram and being benighted in the way in a solitary and desert place all alone which yet was mitigated by the goodnesse of God appearing to him in a dreame To be driven out of one Countrey and forced to hard and solitary travell and to meet with such kinde of accidents as benighting and the like be calamities we must even prepare for them that we may beare them without discouragement as seeing God in them and considering that he is with us when we want other company Now in Labans house he met with great crosses 1. His Father deceived him in his wife substituting Leah in Rachels stead then which how could a man more beguile another for by that meanes hee was compelled to adde seven yeares service more Againe he sought to deceive him in his wages and changed it many times being angry that God gave him so large and plentifull a recompence then he grumbled at him and looked discurteously upon him as also did his sons And last of all he pursued him with an intention to take all from him and there falsly accuseth him of stealing his gods See here from his Father in Law and Vncle most unjust and discurteous usage you that have found at least with your nearest friends just and kinde dealing acknowledge Gods goodnesse in it The contrary would tast very sowre let this drive you to most hearty and humble thanksgiving It should be confessed a very great mercy to escape very great crosses and if you pehaps meet with the same crosses be quiet for did not Iacob beare them and why not you Wee must not thinke never man was so used as I am and by that counterfeit aggravation flatter our selves in our impatiency and make our selves beleeve wee have cause to be disturbed but rather informe our selues of that which fell to other of Gods Saints and so bring our passions to a reasonable calmnesse But in his journey he was like to fall into a great danger for his brother Esau came against him with foure hundred souldiers intending to kill him and that affrighted him exceeding much but you see what end God made Learne to stand alwaies ready for death and yet alwaies confident in God though you see not how to escape the same but now see his crosses in his children First Reuben deflowred his Concubine Dinah his daughter was deflowred His sonnes used fraud and deceit to couzen the Sichemites and then most barbarous cruelty in killing all the men and spoiling the women children and goods and when he reproved them for it they made him a surly answer Shall they abuse our sister as a Whore Then Rachel dyed in childbed or travell then Ioseph was sold into Aegypt but as he thought slaine even Ioseph his most beloved and towardly son After Iudah went from him and his two sons were naught and himselfe defiled his daughter in Law and had two sons by her A great griefe and disgrace to Iacob Then Simeon was detained in Aegypt and Benjamin must needs travell downe to the great feare and doubt of the old man and this was the last of his crosses save that he lived in a grievous famine for two yeares till he came downe to Aegypt So have I briefly run over Iacobs miseries but they lay hard and heavy upon him Of all which you must make these uses First be thankfull for escaping the like prepare for them hereafter beare those that doe come patiently And take heed of provoking God for he is not a fond Father but Will scourge every son whom he receiveth For the first you have heard how many miseries this godly man was exercised withall Let me propound one question unto you Thinke you that your selves have more wit than he had or more goodnesse or more of both I presume I may make answer for you that you will not be so over conceited of your selves as to affirme either of these things Now if you be neither wiser nor godlier than he how commeth it that you have so long lived in the world and yet have not met with divers of those crosses that followed him No nor any in all your lives so pinching or grievous Sure if it be not to be attributed to your understanding and piety as it is not if you doe indeed acknowledge your selves to be not superiour or rather not equall unto Iacob therein who yet did meete with them then must you ascribe the same to the wisdome and goodnesse of God that hath disposed of things so by his wakefull providence as that such miseries have not way-laid you and seized upon you Therefore you must learne to be humbly thankfull to him and praise his holy name acknowledge his bountifulnesse graciousnesse and tendernesse that hath spared you from such smarting stroakes as these that fetched blood and teares as it were from good Iacob so holy a man If we be preserved from crosses that other men feele wee begin to lift up our selves to commend and prefer our selves above them that are heavier laden and to flatter our selves as if we were more loved of God than they then our ease is our bane and it shewes that we have not grace to make a good use of ease but if we confesse that we have deserved as much and more and had as little ability to shun them only God tendering our weaknesse hath used us with more clemency and so make this clemency an argument of praising him and of being more carefull to please him who would not strike us though he had both provocation from us and ability in himselfe this is an holy use of the absence of the
crosse Say then wast thou ever driven out of thine owne habitation to serve in a strange place and an hard master that wronged thee and used thee discurteously Wast thou ever in danger to have all thy goods taken from thee by an enraged man stronger than thy selfe and pursuing thee with a revengefull minde nor wast thou never in perill of thy life by a revengefull person armed with foure hundred souldiers nor wast thou never tormented with seeing thy sonnes murderers couzeners and robbers nor hast thou never lost a deare childe and thought him slaine by a violent death nor did never no son of thine commit incest with his mother in law if not see how favourable God hath been to thee above Iacob and praise love an honour him and make his gentlenesse an argument of turning and obeying for if thou compare thy sins with Iacobs there need be no doubt but that thine have been as great as his and thy repentance as little But it is our good not our sins that God lookes to in correcting as a Father corrects not a little childe for as great a fault so much as he doth a stronger Againe learne to beare the crosses thou hast with more patience and quietnesse of minde by comparing them with Iacobs crosses which have been more in number and more weighty and grievous Why doth any of you my Brethren take the matter so heavily that some childe of his is somewhat stubborne and ill disposed When none of them have committed murder incest rapine and such sins as Iacobs sons did commit Why doe you make such a stir at wrongs When none of you were ever so pursued by any foe as Iacob was by his brother and Father in Law Why doe you take on so for the ordinary and naturall death of a childe seeing none of you hath had such a childe torne by wilde beasts or some other like violence as Iacob conceived Ioseph to have miscarried Why doe you complaine of famine and of want When none of you hath suffered such a famine as compelled him to send so far as Iacob sent to Aegypt for Corne which is thought to be not much lesse than two hundred miles We complaine of ease If our so much lamented afflictions were laid in the ballance with Iacobs we should finde them very light and trifling businesses in comparison Want of looking about and observing the burdens that are fastened unto other mens shoulders causeth us to aggravate our owne so much in our owne conceits as that by making them seeme extraordinarily heavy wee even wilfully cast our selves into excessive sorrow for them But againe you that are yet at ease and have not tasted any so bitter a cup as Iacob did many must bee perswaded to take some paines with your owne hearts to make your selves thinke that some such crosses may befall you and therefore to prepare for them by resolving to beare them and praying God to sit you for them and sanctifie them to you Mans self-loving minde is willing to flatter it selfe with good hopes rather then to forewarne it selfe with wise warnings O I hope I shall never see my children my wife so naught I shall never finde such ill usage I hope Come hither vaine man and either give a good reason of thine hopes or else confesse them to be fruits of thine extreame folly and doting self-love Hath God ever promised thee that no such thing should befall thee I am sure thou canst shew no such promise Hast not thou deserved as much as Iacob to be severely chastened of God I am sure thou oughtest to say yes Doth not thy body soule name children lie abroad in as open a Sea and as tempestuous Here also thou oughtest to say yes and therefore shouldest also condemne these silken soft hopes of thine and say Well God may make me as afflicted as Iacob and therefore I will even expect the same or as bad and if they come I will beare them all seeing God and my ill deservings in them Yonder is a very towardly boy I love him dearely what if I should heare he were torne of beasts Lord if it be thy will let it not be so but if it be make me to beare it with quietnesse and why should I not so stoope to thy will in every thing yea I will doe it by thy grace If thou say I see many escape such crosses I answer and thou seest many afflicted with them and why maist not thou be amongst the number of those that suffer them as well as of those that escape them But lastly take heed of making over-bold with Gods favour as a wanton childe that presumes he shall not be whipt and therefore cares not almost what wanton and evill prankes he playes Doe you not see here that the Lord of heaven knowes how to whip his owne children throughly and to purpose You have not to deale with a foolishly pittifull Father that cannot finde in his heart to heare his children cry and see them smart and bleed No he can strike he can lay it on soundly he can make you roare and cry and bleed hee can doe it yea and he will doe it too if he finde that your conceit of his love and gentlenesse brings forth no better fruit in you than this that by presuming of it you are made more wicked Wherefore say to thy selfe if such abominable fancies arise foolish man that I am doe I so requite the Lords kindnesse Doe I put his clemency to this use Did he not cut and wound Iacobs soul Did he not handle him roughly even though we never reade that he did entertaine such presumptuous conceits How then will hee deale with me if I doe so exceedingly provoke him by so exceedingly abusing his goodnesse And so frame to condemne and blame thy wickednesse in having such motions and pray to God to worke in thine heart a reverend awe of his Majestie by making his justice and anger so terrible to thee as to make sin abominable that would insence that wrath and justice against thee * ⎠* THE TWENTIETH EXAMPLE OF IACOBS Wives FRom the Story of Iacob I proceed to his Wives and Children and so to other his contemporaries Iacob had foure Wives It was not his own seeking that his Wives grew to such a number for he was painfull and laborious and a chaste man that would very contentedly have satisfied himselfe with one woman But he was drawne into this way of Polygamy by severall occasions Now of his Wives the true and lawfull Wife was Rachel for her he agreed with her he espoused himselfe as it is like for we cannot thinke but that after his Father had promised to give her to him upon seven yeares service he would acquaint her with it and desire her good will and unlesse he had attained it the marriage would not have proceeded and been as it was solemnly celebrated to her hee bare singular affection and her alone he looked for Now for Rachel you
know whose daughter she was viz. Labans the brother of Rebekkah here Cousin-germans married without scruple but no marvell for they made no question of nearer matches A man might marry his Fathers daughter his sister as Abraham did Sarah A man might marry with two sisters as Iacob did Rachel and Leah The Lord had not yet abridged the liberty of contracting mariage as with any more remote so with them that were nearest in blood and alliance Therefore their examples must be no president for us in this matter But of Rachel let us consider after her Parentage her life and death and in her life 1. Her faults 2. Her vertues 3. Her crosses 4. Her benefits and so to her death First then her faults She was a woman of great imperfections these are plainly noted in her First she was envious towards her sister as you see Gen. 30.1 It vexed her not alone that she had no children but that her sister had Envy is a sin much to be blamed you may see in this Example what it is such a vexing at anothers having what I have not as doth estrange my minde and work a degree of hatred towards the person that hath it The first and most remarkable example of this vice is found in Cain it shewes it selfe here againe in Rachel Let us consider what a loathsome vice it is that we may the better shun it The Word of God hath given us frequent warning of it in blaming it so often it shewes how apt we are to it and how diligently we should oppose it and preserve our selves from it our Saviour is pleased to reckon it among the evill things that come out of the heart and doe defile the man and giveth it the name of an evill eye because it shewes it selfe presently in the eye and countenance and causeth a dejected countenance and a vile looke towards the party envied as it is seen in Cain and Saul It is a passion that will not be kept in but will bewray it selfe in odde lookes and casts of the eye S. Paul reckons it up among those sins wherewith the Gentiles were full viz. of Envy murder c. and you see with what companions he joynes it murder debate for these indeed be the fruits that follow from it as in Saul Cain and the Pharisees is evident S. Paul also reckons it amongst the number of the things which are fruits of the flesh and which he that doth shall not inherite the kingdome of heaven envyings murders where you see likewise how he fellows it with murders as he had done before In the same Epistle he forbids it saying Let us not bee covetous of vain-glory provoking one another envying one another Saint Iames saith that Where envying and strife is there is confusion and all manner of evill workes It is thought to have been one of the first sins of the devill For what could move him to seeke the overthrow of our first Parents Adam and Eve but together with an hatred of God from whom himselfe had fallen an evill affection towards them that stood entire in that good estate which himselfe had lost viz. the favour of God and true happinesse Now this vice is injurious to God to the party envyed to the enviers selfe and to the societies of mankinde First to God to whom it will not grant the freedome of disposing his owne gifts according to his owne good pleasure Envy against him that excels us carries with it by way of implication at least and sometimes expresly blaming condemning muttering against him that hath granted to another what he hath denied unto me They murmured against the housholder in the parable that were troubled to see those of the eleventh houre to have equall wages with them at the first Now what an audaciousnesse is this in the creatures to set rules to the Creator and to binde him that he shall not shew himselfe more bountifull to another than to ones selfe Are not we discontented if one childe grudge because another hath a bigger or better thing than himselfe We cannot endure that our inferiours should set lawes to us and appoint us what to give to others what to them We must know our selves to forget our selves much if we will prescribe to God and it is nothing else but a very prescribing to God when we take occasion from his bounty to repine For if it be well done why are we vexed If not upon whom is the blame laid Further it is a wrong to the party envyed for it is to measure such measure to him as we would not have measured to our selves by another Who doth not blame another for vexing at his prosperity and for having a grudge against him because God hath done him good Would we not that all should rather love us respect us more and rejoyce with us Therefore we doe injury to our neighbour in doing what we would not have done to our selves The envious wrongeth himselfe both because he doth vexe and eate out his owne heart to no purpose for neither shall another prosper lesse nor he more because of such his inordinate distempers as also because he makes himselfe lie open to most grievous sins of detracting slandering and practising all injuries yea and murder at the last He is in the high way that will lead him to many sins yea to the shedding of innocent blood that entertaineth this diabolicall humour of envy And he wrongeth the whole society because he is distempered at that which maketh for the common good even the distribution of Gods gifts differently as himselfe sees fit and in that he is broody of quarrels which all hinder the common welfare of the places where they be Besides this is a fruit of pride and uncharitablenesse and must needs be hatefull to God who loves only the humble and charitable Envy is a vice unto the making of which many vices concurre Ignorance folly pride uncharitablenesse self-love and the like It is a vice which bringeth forth many other vices contention strife swellings tumults whisperings back-bitings murders and all evill deeds Therefore let us finde it out and chase it away You shall easily perceive that it is a weed which growes in our corrupt nature How soon doe children begin to shew it how doth it grow stronger by continuance increasing in strength as the body increaseth yea how doth it live in old men too and vexe them also that should have more understanding as experience sheweth Indeed the elder can use more craft to hide it but many times they have no more wisdome to subdue it than the younger I pray you finde it out each one in himselfe and fight against it as one of the most loathsome fruits of the flesh And strive you to get such a measure of humility and charity as may not alone preserve you from this vice but make you rejoyce with them that rejoyce and turne the prosperity of others into matter
acknowledgement If you would learne that all things are pure unto the pure you would not bee hindred from so good a service by any scruple or abuse But I am afraid niggardlinesse hath as great a hand in breaking of such feasts as any thing else Whether you feast or not be it at your choise but mee thinks againe I repeat it safe escaping the danger that tooke away Rachel may well call for even a publicke and thankfull acknowledgement So much of Rachel whom we leave by her husband solemnly interred unner a monument erected upon her grave which kept her name up long and occasioned the calling of all the mothers dwelling thereabouts by her name When it is said Rachel weeping for her children because they were not Now of Leah she was a wife of Iacobs the first he had given though not promised Of her vertues we have not much noted but she shewed her selfe patient and loving to her husband somewhat quiet to her envious sister and thankfull to God for her children though her husband loved her lesse than was meet yet we read of no brawles either with him or her sister She entertained him very lovingly when he came home from field and she had hired him of her sister She consented also to goe with him into Canaan she was desirous of children and had many but a fault or two she slipped in First she went to bed to her sisters husband at her fathers persuasion which she ought not to have done In him that thought she was Rachel there was no sinne in her that knew she was not Rachel it was a great fault but excused by the fathers authority but she wronged Iacob much and made her owne life full of affliction Another little fault she had shee seemed a little too unkind to her sister in not being willing to impart some of her sonnes mandrakes but often unkindnesses and wrongs breed such an estrangement betwixt them who are otherwise neerly joyned as that they sticke at small curtesies We must take heed it doe not so with us but Leah had a little anger with her she could upbraid her sister with an injury when she came for a curtesie O that she had not too many followers in this weaknesse Her benefits were these she had a good husband and many children and was matcht into the Church and we hope went to Heaven for her carriage in respect of her children shews some goodnesse Indeed she was faulty in imitating her sister and giving Zilpah to Iacob much more faulty in thinking that God gave her the next sonne for a reward of that fault But so weake we are and ignorant of sin somtimes that we verily thinke God is pleased with our sins and recompenceth them with benefits And for her crosses they were want of her husbands love and comfortable cohabitation and all the miseries shee underwent with her husband besides her Father was something unkinde as it may seeme for she saith He counted them strangers and she also had an imperfection in her visage for she was bleare-eyed I hope you will all learne to imitate her vertues flie her sins be thankfull for the like mercies and patient under the like crosses and then you shall not be losers of time by hearing her story Now the two handmaidens Zilpah and Bilhah Zilpah hath nothing said of her but that Shee bare Iacob two children Gad and Asher So called of Leah that would needs imitate her sisters weaknesse and call them hers Bilhah is taxed of a grievous sin she suffered her selfe to be polluted with incest by Iacobs first borne If he offered her violence or surprized her by any device it was his fault not hers but it is not likely to have been so because God doth not report it so For God would not wrong any in reporting their acts to the worst but if there had been any excuse of her fault the Lord would have done her right in rehearsing it he should not else doe the office of a good writer of a Story O let all women take heed of adultery and chiefly of incestuous adulteries with their husbands son in law or brothers or a like neare of blood where the offence is made much more heinous by that aggravation and if any have committed any such crime let the mentioning of it in this woman bring it to their remembrance and provoke them to repentance that they may not have so fearefull a crime to answer for upon their sick-bed in the houre of death Likely such grosse crimes will cry out then if they have been smothered before but a conscience purged from them by sincere repentance performed in health may enjoy quiet and peace in death notwithstanding the remembrance of them For a sin repented of shall be pardoned and a pardoned debt cannot hurt at all not so much as terrifie if the pardon of it be knowne But something there was in it that God saw it fit to have his Church stored with the seed of bond-women for two of Iacobs wives were such because he would have us know that hee doth not much stand upon nobility and being free borne and the like One third part of his people Israel were seed of bond-women Though he would not let Hagars seed inherite yet that was not because he did looke to her condition but that he might figuratively set forth his aversnesse from them that will needs be in bondage under the Law when the Gospell brings them liberty and therefore now he doth equally take into the Church Dan and Nephthali Gad and Asher as well as Reuben and Levi Simeon and Iudah These earthly considerations vary nothing with God nor is the one any more acceptable with him than the other Let not those which enjoy the priviledges of this world in these matters sleight or despise such as want them and let not those that are meanlier borne trouble themselves at that depression Spirituall priviledges may belong to those that are of no reckoning in the world and those that are of high esteeme in it may be deprived of them The Tribes that came of the bond-woman were admitted into the possession of Canaan and to the fellowship of the Tabernacle as well as the rest It were a misery indeed to be outwardly mean if that would impeach our spirituall estate but seeing no such thing will follow let us shew our high esteeme of the soul above the body by not regarding the things of the body so that the soul be wel * ⎠* THE ONE AND TWENTIETH EXAMPLE OF LABAN WE have spoken of Iacobs selfe and of his Wives now I will goe on to speake of his Vncle and so of his Children His Vncle and Father in law was one Laban of Padan Aram of whose birth and death the Scripture takes no notice at all and indeed it is scarce worth the while to mention the birth and death of wicked men It is no great matter when they
to be made as Laban was worldly minded Now for crosses Wee reade little of Labans affliction it may bee it was a griefe to him that his daughters and grand-children went so farre from him but such a crosse even a naturall wise man may make easie to himselfe by considerations of reason that the good of their children so requires and that their comfort in their children stands not so much in seeing them as in their well-doing Onely Laban did make Iacobs prosperity a crosse to himselfe in suffering his minde to bee alienated from Iacob because Iacob did thrive a great deale faster than himselfe and to his hinderance which cannot bee done without a great deale of vexation It is an ill disease to bee sicke of another mans prosperity take heed you suffer not covetousnesse or other distempers to bring such sicknesse upon you With farre lesse vexation may a man lose halfe hee hath than beare the torment which such estrangement of heart will bring with it And now for Labans death we heare nothing of it onely hee lived and dyed so farre as wee see like a carnall man and he had no grace in him but after a little time here spent in earth prosperously enough at last so far as we can see he perished eternally for no footsteps of faith and true piety appeare in him O my brethren take heed that you doe not carry your selves so foolishly as to live in a meere worldly fashion scraping together a great heap of muck and dung on which the much deceived world doth falsely bestow the name of goods and then with the rich glutton and him that said Soule eate and drinke and be merry for thou hast much riches laid up in store for many yeares have your soule taken away and carried into the place and state of eternall death for our Saviour hath said that So is every one which is rich in the world and is not in GOD. * ⎠* THE TWO AND TWENTIETH EXAMPLE OF IACOBS Children AFter Iacobs Wives and Father in Law wee will proceed to his children which were twelve sons and one daughter Concerning his sons they were sixe of Leah Reuben Simeon Levi Iudah Issachar Zebulun two of Bilhah Dan and Nephthali two of Zilpah Gad and Asher two of Rachel Ioseph borne in Padan Aram and Benjamin borne in the Land of Canaan The daughter was Dinah of Leah of the birth and names of each of these the Scripture takes speciall notice Reuben signifies Behold a son for his mother tooke it as a great favour of God whereby he would mitigate her sorrow yea and help to remove it too by winning her husbands love to her the want whereof was her greatest trouble as you shall finde Simeon signifies the hearing of God because she said God heard that she was hated and hath given me this son too It was a good thing in Leah to give her sons such names as might minde her of Gods goodnesse in considering her affliction and when shee saith that God saw first and then heard her affliction the last speech is a proofe that she made her moane and complaint to God and so this mercy came to her as a fruit of her prayers The next son is called Levi for said she Now my husband will be united to me or cleave to me for the word Levi signifieth as much as cleaving She was earnestly desirous of her husbands love and would as it were minde him of her hopes and desires that he would recompence her paines of bringing him three sons with the increase of his affection A wife is not good if she be not very covetous of her husbands love some probably say that he meaning Iacob hearing Leahs word to comfort her called him Levi and the originall seemes to leade us to that opinion for the former word translated called is of the feminine gender and is plainly referred to the woman spoken of before but the latter is of the masculine and so may very likely note the husband of whom she had immediatly spoken And if so it was well done of Iacob at last to speak some word of comfort to his drooping wife and to let her see that the riches of three sons had made him forget that great wrong she did him of obtruding her selfe upon him against his will and without his knowledge which shee ought not to have done though at her Fathers command The fourth son is Iehudah in short Iudah as much as praise of the Lord or the Lord be or is praised to expresse her thankefulnesse for she said Now I will praise the Lord which hath caused mine husbands affections somewhat more to incline unto me by making me a mother of foure sons For so it may seeme they did and that also maybe justly accounted one cause of her sisters envy because shee saw Iacob begin to love her more heartily than before These foure were borne one after another yeare by yeare without long intermission then she ceased bearing till Iacob had foure children by the two handmaids then she had two more sons Issachar the fifth sonne signifying there is a reward for giving her maide to her husband but in this she was much mistaken God is not wont to give rewards for our bad deeds and though it was of ignorance yet it was a sin in her to give her maid to her husband therefore we must take heed of imitating her in conceiting that God is well pleased with our faults Such is the blindnesse of our mindes that we are apt to run into such errours The last son was Zebulun signifying dwelling because God had given her so goodly a dowry as six sons she now begins to hope not alone that her husband will love her more but so much now as to affoord her more of his company and dwell with her which it seemes before he accustomed not to doe but with Rachel For love is never satisfied unlesse it enjoy the presence and company of the person loved these are Leahs sins envy at her maide Rachel so far plaid the foolish woman that she gave her handmaiden Bilhah to be her husbands Concubine and she had two sons which Rachel would needes take as her owne rather than those that her owne sister brought forth and the first she called Dan which signifies He hath judged for saith she God hath judged me and hath heard my cause and hath given me a son She bewrayes a distempered passion and would needes interest God into her folly as if now God in great favour seeing how shee was wronged had come to right her Fond Rachel no body wronged her but her selfe by entertaining the bone-rotting vice of envy into her bosome and yet she will needes take this as a righting of her wrong from above for so the word judging signifies so foolish we be that we will count our selves either to be wronged by men when we have received none at
as great account of such in prosperity as in adversity Now it might have beene to the Baker a benefit if his want of due knowledge had not unfitted him to make it usefull that he had three dayes warning to fit him for death There is no man that can promise himselfe life for the space of three dayes but so easy are we to make and beleeve promises of life to our selves unlesse we see the time of our life most inevitably determined that we will hardly set our selves to prepare heartily for death unlesse we be made to see that now before such a time we must needes die But it is our duty to looke for that and walke prepared for it that may come every houre must come within a short time for what is the longest life when once the conclusion of it is come upon us Againe it was a benefit to the Butler he both knew he must be delivered and was delivered out of prison and retured to his place of honour againe To have a comfortable deliverance out of crosses is a benefit that we can easily discerne to be great who doth not desire it rejoyce in it pray for it and applaud others for it It is therefore a great goodnesse of God to grant it indeed if one have beene caught by some affliction through wrongfull meanes when nothing worthy thereof hath beene done by him it is a favour of God to make his innocency knowne and so to grant him a happy escape but howsoever it is a mercy But you see here it is a common mercy be thankfull for it walke capable of it by being such as God hath ingaged himselfe unto to deliver them out of all adversity And most of all make a good use of your crosses and deliverances both that you may be better after a crosse and that your deliverance may deliver you also from sinne Hee that getteth not some more grace in adversity then he had before it came and doth not use that grace after to shew himselfe to have profited by his crosse comes out of a crosse none otherwise then a beast may scramble out of a ditch and to such an one a worse thing shall befall afterwards And so much for this couple Now we proceed to Pharaoh himselfe King of Egypt we consider in him the same things his good and bad deeds the good and bad occurrents that befell him First for his good deeds Pharaoh was indeed an Heathen and an Idolater but he seemeth to have beene a man of good wisedome and morall parts the good deeds recorded of him in Scripture are these First having dreamed a divine dreame I meane a dreame sent to him of God for some speciall purpose he used all the waies he could to come to the knowledge of it and was much troubled when he saw that he could not attaine the interpretation of it For a dreame was but a kind of riddle or similitude offered unto a man in his sleepe which did darkely and yet truely represent some truth necessary for him to know Indeed sometimes God did appeare to his servants in dreames without any such darke and obscure revelations and in expresse and plaine termes did tell them the things which they were to know as in the dreames of Abimelech and of Abraham but many times he appeared to them alone in similitudes yet so that he made them know the meaning easily as in Iosephs dreames and in Iacobs dreame of the ladder now such an enigmaticall dreame being offered unto Pharaoh he sought all meanes of getting the interpretation of it surely we should much more seeke to attaine the knowledge of the Scripture and desire to have some to interpret the same unto us where it is doubtfull and obscure And if we neglect to seeke the meaning of it we shall doe as much wrong to our selves as Pharoah should have done to himselfe if he had sleighted this dreame for then should his land have beene consumed by famine as well as other lands Therefore since God hath appointed you his written word for your instruction in matters concerning salvation as then he pleased by dreames to reveale what hee saw fit unto men see that you seeke to know the word of God as he sought to know these dreames Onely know this that often the wise men and men of repute in the world cannot tell you these things but some poore imprisoned and neglected Ioseph This is Pharaohs first good deed Nex when he heares of Ioseph he contemnes him not because hee was a poore servant and of low degree but is carefull to send for him and to consult with him and by this meanes attaineth to the knowledge of that which all his inchanters wise-men and diviners could not helpe him unto Surely it is a point of wisedome not to sleight men because of their outward meanenesse but without prejudice to conferre with them if we heare good of them and to be ready to hearken to their wise words Can any good come out of Nazareth saith Nathaniel prejudice against the meanes of Christs birth and education would have kept him from Christ if he had not followed Philips advise who bid him come and see It pleaseth God to triumph over the folly of men that will measure things by worldly greatnesse and to give them over to undoe themselves In Ieremies time the Priests and men of note were opposite to him so Christ was therefore neglected because he was the sonne of a Carpenter Take heede that you measure not men by their high place and worldly accoutrements God is often pleased to sleight great ones and to respect the meaner In this case learne wisedome of Pharoah and judge not by the appearance Thirdly when he saw the high wisedome that God had given to Ioseph he prefers him and makes him chiefe ruler of his Kingdome next under himselfe and commits into his hand the care of gathering corne in the yeeres of plenty to serve against the yeeres of famine Oh how desirable a thing is it in Princes to commend men to high place for their worth sake And how happy is that nation when not a mans either friends or money or flattery or ambitious insinuations of himselfe but his parts the abilities God hath given him and fitnesse to discharge an high place is the rule which the Prince doth follow in advancing men It shall procure a world of welfare to the state and comfort to the Prince to whom the Lord giveth so much wisedome as thus to dispence places of preferment But I speake to subjects wee must be helpefull to our Soveraigne Lord with our prayers that is all which our hands can reach unto A fourth thing is Pharaoh continued to favour Ioseph all his life long and for his sake shewd great respect unto his bretheren and to his Father sending for him willingly and saluting him curteously and planting him and his in the fruitfull place of his Kingdome and fittest for cattle
her hate him Their hatred made him a slave her hatred made him a prisoner bondage and imprisonment brought him acquainted with the chiefe Butler made himselfe known to Pharaoh and so brought him up to this exceeding height of place Blessed be God for his goodnesse to his people no man shall hazard himselfe to temporall misery for conscience sake but God will requite him with a hundred fold at least more comfort here as well as with life eternall hereafter Let Iosephs wages make you not afraid so farre as you are called to it to doe Iosephs worke that is to say and doe good and forbeare evill though you incurre hatred and danger and much affliction thereby Lastly Ioseph was blessed too in his posterity to make his wellfare up fully he lived to see the sonnes of Manasseth and Ephraim his two sonnes and he lived to see the part of the birth-right even the double portion conferred upon his children and that by the mouth of his Father inspired by God when he made his last will Iacob adopted his two sonnes to himselfe to make two Tribes and God made them both great but especially the younger he made him a principall Tribe for possessions and command afterwards and this also is some satisfaction to a Father if he know that his children after him shall flourish for many generations O that we could feare God and follow true vertue and piety as Ioseph did that he might blesse us also as he did him in our selves and posterity in our state and our name in our bodies and in our soules and in all that pertaineth to us according to his promise And let all that feare God be assured that so farre as is good for them the Lord will give them prosperity in these things for he made the same promises to all his people and will confirme them so farre as they are capable and it may stand with their spirituall good Now you have heard of Iosephs life conclude we with the conclusion of his life his death For neither honours nor favours nor grace nor any thing could keepe death away and it must befall me and you and all that now live and are to live hereafter onely marke that he dyed a godly and comfortable death for in the cloze of his life he made profession of his being an Hebrew not an Egyptian by taking an oath of them for the carrying of his bones into the Land of Canaan gave them a promise of their returne thither which was also an exercise of his faith to demonstrate his comfortable expectation of life eternall whereof the Land of Promise was a figure You are not ignorant Brethren that within the compasse of an hundred yeares a minute being compared to eternity the whole number of you must be as well as Ioseph dying and dead men Be intreated to divorce your hearts from sinne the cause of death from the world which at death you must leave and from men which cannot helpe you neither in nor after death and labour to get righteousnesse which will deliver from death some assurance of heaven that ye may have a place of comfort after death and interest into Christ who can save you from the hurt of death And these things if you attaine you may triumph over death with Pauls question Death where is thy sting else death will triumph over you with the question of Christ Whose then shall be these things of which thou gloriest So much of Ioseph THE TWENTY SEVENTH EXAMPLE OF IOSEPHS STEVVARD ONE person alone remaineth to be spoken of whom wee cannot name to you for the Scripture giveth him no name at all He hath a good name a good report in Scripture for a good man but no name that is no particular surname or proper name by which he was usually knowne and distinguished from other men of his Country or progenitors of his birth or death we have nothing but he is set forth by his relation to Ioseph he was Iosephs Steward for as Ioseph sowed so did he reape what a kind of servant and Steward himselfe was to Putiphar such a kind of Steward in some degree did God provide for him He himselfe was a good servant to his Master and himselfe being a Master enjoyes a good servant to himselfe many times the Lord sees fit to bring a mans good deeds into his owne bosome a good child to his Parents hath good children himselfe a good servant hath good servants and so in the rest Let this incourage you that be in the place of servants to performe your duties diligently unto your domesticall Rulers your Masters for by this meanes you may lay up for your selves a comfortable hope of being served with like care and diligence your selves God no doubt hath a speciall hand in disposing of servants to every Master it is he that ordereth things so as such a man hath good and such a one bad servants men often use great care to choose a servant and meete with a very bad one contrary to all their hopes and care againe sometimes by meere casualty almost men light upon a very good servant More particularly his carriage was good to his Master and to the strangers brethren to his Master but not by him knowne so to be 1. Teachable they learnt some knowledge of the true God from him The God of your Fathers saith he and your God hath given you this treasure How came this man to know a distinction of Gods How came he to know that they had a God of their owne peculiar to them and to their Fathers which was not then acknowledged to be the God of all the world Egypt had many Gods this man acknowledgeth one God and that one God which was acknowledged and worshipped by these men and by their Forefathers It is not likely that Ioseph told his Steward that these were his brethren but it is undoubtedly manifest that they were some such as he knew to be worshippers of the true God which hee knew by some few men to be worshipped in the Land of Canaan Therefore you see how kindly he speakes to them that a man may even perceive by his words that they were so much dearer to him because they pertained to that God This was the more observable because he was an Egyptian servant O that all you which be servants to godly Governours would learne some goodnesse from them even to know and serve God you all have some knowledge of that one God but learne also the feare and love of that God the sincere and carefull worship of that God from your Governours that would fain teach it you and would count themselves happy if you would learne it from them But for a servant to live in the family of a Ioseph that laboureth to teach godlinesse unto him by word and example and yet declares no sense nor feeling of God no knowledge or respect of him how great a sinne is this and how
twinnes 2. Caines bad carriage 1. In generall He was a wicked man Caines faults in particular 1. He was an Hypocrite What an Hypocrite is 2. Was vexed at his punishment The governement of the World domesticall Envie a great evill Gal. 5 26. 3. Did not mend his fault though he was gently admonished by God himselfe 4. Murthered his Brother But with what weapon is uncertaine 5. Did not repent of his murder 6. He muttered and despaired 7. Persists impenitently in his sinnes 3. His prosperity and adversity 1. His benefits had posterity and lived a long life and was preserved from the violence of all men 2. God vouchsafed him meanes to keepe him from sin and to draw him out of sinne 2. His crosses 1. God aggravates his fault and sentenceth him for it 2. Curseth the earth to him 3. He was full of terrour Caines death not mentioned The use of all The signes of an Hypocrite Abel what it signifieth His Birth His vertues 1. Was painefull in his calling It is good to have a calling and be faithfull in it 2. Was religious 3. He offered in faith 4. Was righteous A twofold righteousnesse of the Law and Gospell Gal. 2.16 Rom. 3 10. Job 9 31. Gal. 2.21 Gal. 3.22 Gal. 3.21 Psal 143.2 A double righteousnesse in the Gospell 1. Imputed Rom. 4.3 2. Inherent Rom. 6.11 Verse 13. Verse 19. Via ad regnum non causa regnandi Bernard Gal. 3.21 Rom. 3.23 Phil. 3.9 Gal. 5.4 Three signes of a righteous man Psal 119.48 Psal 119 5 6. Psal 51.4 Prov. 28.13 Zach. 1 3. 1 Joh. 1.8 9. 1 Iohn 2.1 Numb 23.10 No sinnes of Abel mentioned in Scripture and why 3. His prosperity 1. God had respect unto his gifts 2. Gave witnes and testimony of his gifts Pro. 15.8 Psal 11.7 Psal 19.14 2 Cor. 1.12 4. His adversity was hated and killed by his Brother 2 Tim. 3.12 Gal. 4.29 His death 1 Cor. 15.19 Col. 3.3 4. Abels death was violent and sodaine Caines posterity Irad what it signifieth Naamah why so called the first woman named after Eve and why Lamechs faults His Polygamy the first beginner of it Luke 16.18 2. His revengefullnesse What it is to revenge His benefits he had children 2. His crosses hee led an unquiet life by reason of his wives The uses of all Revenge is a great sin Mat. 18.22 Lamechs three sonnes inventers of Arts. Jer. 35. The uses of all Gen. 5.3 Seth little said of him Gen. 4.25 Gen. 4.26 Henoch Heb. 11.5 Psal 119.166 Why the Patriarkes lived so long 2 Pet. 2.5 The sinnes of the old world 1. In generall Gen. 6.5 Verse 11. They all were given over to sinning except some in Noahs house Why sinne was so great then 2. In particular Mat. 24.37 38. 1 Pet. 3.20 Mat. 24.38 Gods mercy to them 2 Pet. 2.5 1 Pet. 3.20 Their punishment The Deluge The uses of all Violence what it is A great sin Prov. 28.3 4 Disobedient 1 Pet. 3.20 The floud came upon them and they knew nothing * 120. 2 Pet. 2.5 Gen. 9.11 2 Pet. 3.6 7. Jude verse 14. 2 Pet. 3.10 Noah what it signifieth His Birth His life In which 1. His vertues 1. In generall Was a perfect man and walked with God Gen. 5 22. Heb. 11.4 Who is a just or righteous man Rom 4. 2. His vertues in particular 1. Was a Preacher of righteousnesse 2 Pet. 2.5 Isa 49 4. 2. Had faith Heb. 11.7 What faith is Heb. 11.7 Gal. 3.10 3. He was moved with feare Heb. 11.7 A double feare 2 Cor. 5.11 Rom. 8.13 1 Cor. 6.9 Col. 3.6 Prov. 8.13 Psal 34.9 4. He built an Arke as God bad him Noahs goodnesse in the floud 1 Pet. 3.6 Noahs goodnesse after the floud Noahs sinnes 1. Hee was drunke Noahs crosses 1 No man regarded his preaching 2 Hee lived to see all mankind destroyed 3 Hee had a wicked son 4. Lived to see his ofspring naught Josh 24 2. His benefits 1 He found favour with God 2. Hee was directed by God to a way of saving himselfe from the floud with his family Psal 46.2 3. 3 The Lord accepted his sacrifice 4. He had two godly sonnes Noahs death Ham. His birth His life In which 1. His benefits he was saved in the Arke from the Deluge 3. Epist of Iohn 11. ◠His sinnes 1. He was a Hypocrite 2. He saw the nakednesse of his Father Gen. 9 22. 1 Cor. 13.6 He acquainted his Brethren with his Fathers nakednesse Whispering is a great sin 3. His punishments 1. God cursed him in his son Canaan Gen. 10. Nimrod What his name signifieth The first that strove to erect a Monarchie Was as a tyrant and ambitions The Babylonians Their faults Vaine-glory Carnall confidence Obstinacie Vaine-glory a sinne 2. Carnall confidence is a sin 3. Obstinacie is a sin Their punishment The punishment of strange languages is a heavie punishment Sem and Iaphet their vertues they covered their Fathers nakednes Gen. 9.23 Their benefits true religion was continued in their posterity The seede of Sem. Gen. 11.10 Abrahams Birth His Life His vertues toward God 1 His faith Heb. 11.8 James 2.23 What faith is Heb. 11.1 Three acts of faith 1. Faith of God which hath foure acts 2. Faith to God Gal. 3.8 3. Faith in God Rom. 4 3. Psal 32.2 2. He feared God Gen. 22.12 3. Was obedient Some speciall acts of Abrahams obedience 1. Left his Countrey at Gods Commandement 2. Lived in tents at Gods Commandement Heb. 11.9 3. Circumcised himselfe and all the males of his family 4. He expelled his wife Hagar and sonne Ishmael 5. Hee would have sacrificed his sonne Isaac at Gods commandement Heb. 11.18 The excellency of Abrahās obedience 4. He was religious 1. His vertuous carriage toward men 1. He was truely humble Phil. 1.7 2 Cor. 12.11 1 Sam. 24.14 Luk. 14.11 2. Trained up his Family in the knowledge and feare of God The Hebrew word is ambiguous Eph. 6.4 3. Was loving and gentle to his wife 1 Pet. 3.7 Posse nolle nobile 4. He loved his two sonnes very well 5. He provided a good wife for Isaac Another grace in Abraham toward God his Patience He mourned moderately for Sarah Abrahams good carriage toward his servants to Eliezer his principall servant Gen. 15.3 A good servant should be respected Deut. 15.12 13 Prov. 27.18 Abrahams carriage to his kinsmen He was peaceable 2. He rescued Lot and redeemed him out of his enemies hands He was loving to Lot He was couragious What courage is Meanes to get courage Abrahams carriage to the Sodomites Hee prayed for them 1 Tim. 2.1 2. He shewed humanity and kindnesse to the Sodomites he had taken His carriage to the King of Sodome hee would receive nothing from him Abrahams good carriage to the Cananites Planting of wood is a commendable thing Hee shewed lowly and respective carriage toward the Hittites Abrahams carriage to Hephron His carriage to Aner Eshcol and Mamre Abrahams carriage to Abimelech 1. Maketh a covenant
partake with your selves of any good fare which you provide for your selves These be the things commendable in Rebekkah Now I come to her faults First she used deceit and fraud to conveigh the blessing unto Iacob and sought rather to hooke it to him by a fleshly device then to compasse it by a convenient and lawfull way You shall reade the Story Gen. 27.1 and 17. She knew her husband was blinde therefore she spake to Iacob to get the blessing by a cunning device she sends for a Kid makes such a dish as was pleasing to Isaacs palate uses meanes to make his hands and neck seem rough like unto Esaus by covering them with the skins of the Kids as handsomely as shee could and so sends him in to Isaac having before emboldned him to say though falsely that he was Esau the eldest Son This was a sin in her the matter of it was fraud and fashood the aggravations of it were first she drew Iacob into the sin of lying and shifting even contrary to his own temper for the Scripture witnesseth of him that He was a plain man Secondly she was set upon it that though Iacob objected he should get a curse rather then a blessing by seeming to his Father a deceiver and a mocker yet she found a meanes to encourage him in his lying by a trick to beguile his Father well enough that he should never finde him out and so drew him to go thorough with the crafty device this was practised even against her husband also to whom it least of all becommeth a wife to use deceit and lying Only there was one mitigation and extenuation of her fault she did aime at a good end but a good intention cannot justifie unlawfull means that are used to accomplish it We have in her then a fault of craftinesse and deceit and lying There is a great difference betwixt wisdome and fraud wisdome will alwaies hold it selfe to the side of justice not alone in the thing it mainly seekes but also in the path which it chooseth to walk in to that end But fraud is as it were a rotten wisdome and cares not to follow equity and truth in the way it takes and neither many times in the end Abhorre fraud that is the carrying of a thing wilily with lying and falshood whether it be good or bad but most of all if it be bad It is a sin to do evill that good may come of it as S. Paul teacheth Rom. 3. It is a sin to lie even for Gods cause and to defend even his justice with false tales and figments As Iob admonisheth his frinds that did so and that they might not seeme to impute unrighteousnesse to God in so sore punishing of Iob they did impute hypocrisie to him that was punished It is a sin to lie even for a purpose otherwise good for we are commanded to put away lying Wherefore consider of your selves if you have not lyed and beguiled if you have not allured and encouraged others to joyne with you in lying and beguiling that else would not have done it If you have done it against those that were neare to you to whom you should have used more respect And worst of all if you have done it for a sinfull end too that is not to get what was due to you as here Iacob but what was not due by over-reaching your neighbours in bargaining and the like not to keep a man from sin as here but rather to draw him to sin as in case of unjust complaints to a superiour to make him punish when he should not punish Not to do your selves good as here Iacob but to do another a mischief as Davids false accusers to Saul and if your consciences accuse you of such fraud repent of it before God blame your selves for it seek pardon resolve to put it away for hereafter and intreate the Lord to fortifie you against all such wickednesse that so you may be pardoned else great is the danger of such wickednesse The bread of deceit shall be gravell in the belly and wealth gotten by lying shall prove but vanity tossed to and fro of them that seeke death I pray you consider how God chastised this guile in these two good persons and that though they had a good end in it For this occasioned the rage of Esau which made him threaten yea and after attempt to kill Iacob and so drove Iacob from Isaacs family and kept them from that comfortable enjoyment each of other which else they might have had for twenty years together And be you now lovers of plainnesse abhorre shifting and falshood trust God with the successe of all your affaires and trust not to your own hearts and heads he that seekes to effect his desires by honest and just meanes he puts confidence in God and not in himselfe he that useth lying and cousinage he puts not his hope in God but in his own wit and heart Shew true and well grounded confidence in God by keeping your selves within the paths of equity and truth lovely pathes faire pathes straight pathes which shall surely lead you to more happinesse and comfort at last than lying and fraud hatefull dirty and crooked paths can possibly do Learn as David saith Psal 119. To hate lying and to love Gods Law love to be guided by God who is the God of truth and hate to follow lies which are of the devill the author of lying Doe not object that you cannot possibly escape such and such mischiefe bring about such and such a good businesse unlesse you turne a little aside to a little lying I answer first trust God with successe beleeve above hope let faith guide you not naturall reason Cannot he doe that which reason will call impossible Hath not be said Rowle thy self upon God and thy waies and he shall bring it to passe Will you not rest upon him for the performance of so evident a promise And secondly I answer that the greatest evill must be suffered rather than the smallest sin committed and the attaining of the greatest benefit cannot countervaile the committing of the least sin and that man doth not truly know either God or sin or the world or himselfe that doth not yeeld to these truths So you have this fault of Rebekkahs another is that she was too much troubled at her evill daughters in law and was weary of life because of them This is a fault to make crosses too too heavy our selves to be so distempered with them so as to become weary of life because of them yea it is a fault found in those that were truly religious and godly Eliah would fain have parted with his soul because of the troubles which he met withall he desired to die saith the Story and said It is enough Now Lord take away my soule from me for I am no better than my Fathers Moses would fain have dyed too when the people murmured against him and he poures
were borne or when they died seeing both their comming into the world and their departure out of it do perish for they come to nothing and both come in and go out as it were in an evill time But we have something to say of his parentage and life For his Parentage we learne Gen. 22.26 and 24.29 that he was the sonne of one Bethuel who was the sonne of Nachor the brother of Abraham who did not leave his Countrey and Fathers house with Abraham when he travelled at Gods Commandement into the land of Canaan but abode still in Padan Aram the land of his Nativity and there continued to follow strange gods and commit Idolatry of which all the world and by name the countrey was then full So hee was the Idolatrous son of an Idolatrous Father and Grandfather which did as most men doe take up the religion of his forefathers without more adoe not looking whether hee served God aright but counted it sufficient to serve God as his Progenitors had done before not at all considering whether it were the true God or the false whom they served or whether it were true or false worship which they performed Now in his life wee must consider his deeds good and bad and the things that befell him good and bad First then for his good deeds for even a bad man may have some civill vertues found in his life out of a common worke of Gods Spirit who will not suffer men to be so farre over-runne with vices but that for the preservation of humane societies they shall have some shadows of vertues seene in them These good deeds of his looke partly to men and partly to God His good deeds to men-ward are first to Abrahams servant Secondly to Rebekkah his sister Thirdly to Iacob his kinsman Fourthly to his Daughters and Grandchildren First let us consider his carriage to Abrahams servant Eliezer of Damascus who was sent by his master Abraham to fetch a wife for his son Isaac out of Padan Aram because he would not match him with the cursed seed of the Canaanites The first thing commendable in him is that hee vouchsafeth curteous entertainment unto him for when the servant meeting with Rebekkah had found great kindnesse from her in watering his Camels as well as giving himselfe drinke out of her pitcher and that hee had rewarded her with precious gifts Gen. 24.22 viz. with a golden eare-ring of halfe a shekel weight and two golden bracelets of ten shekels weight for her hands and that shee had invited him to her Fathers house and comming home had told Laban her brother of the man who hee was and what hee had bestowed upon her presently Laban goes forth to the man ver 31. and invites him to the house with very kinde words saying Come in thou blessed of the Lord wherefore standest thou without for I have prepared the house and roome for thy Camels and so bringing him home they ungirded the Camels and hee gave him straw and provender for them and water to wash his feete and the feete of those that were with him and then set meate before him that hee might eate Loe here an example of curteous hospitality hee gave him good and loving words and provided and ministred to him all things necessary for his cattell and companions and himselfe Thus should men use kinde and liberall hospitality towards such friends as upon occasion doe repaire unto their houses and this is a kinde of vertue which may bee found in men that are destitute of all true grace and piety For even nature it selfe teacheth men to shew love and humanity to men that are of the same nature with themselves because they looke to finde the like gentlenesse themselves from others upon like occasions Here is one thing in Laban worthy praise and imitation another is that hee gives him an honest and good answer when hee had declared unto them his errand For the man refusing to eate till hee had related his businesse unto them being very faithfull to his master and diligent in the matter committed to his trust up and told them all that had fallen out why hee came thither and how hee had by a speciall providence of God met with Rebekkah at the fountaine of water requested to know their minde and what hee must trust unto in this matter and from Bethuel the maides Father and Laban of whom wee are speaking her Brother hee received this just and discreete answer That the thing proceeded from God and they were able to say neither good nor bad unto him that is not to crosse his motion by any allegation one way or other concluding that Rebekkah was before him and that hee might with their good consent take her and goe that shee might bee his Masters sons wife as God had spoken ver 50 51. of the same Chapter In this passage you see a great deale of honest plainnesse seeing God had directed him by his speciall hand to this maiden they would bee no hinderance unto him but would give their willing consent to the marriage It is a good thing for men to consent unto honest and good motions chiefly when they see God himselfe by his good providence going before them and as it were leading the way unto them A third good thing in Laban was that hee doth speedily dismisse the man and hindered not his present returne unto his Master with a wife for his son For so it is written ver 59. that when hee rising betimes in the morning was earnest to returne that very day and that they at first required ten dayes stay for Rebekkah but hee requesting them not to hinder his expedition seeing God had prospered him they called the Damsell and asked her consent viz. Whether shee was willing to goe with the man and finding her very forward they sent her away without further lingring It is a good thing when wee have entertained any one in our house and his desire is as his occasions shall require to make haste home to further him by all meanes and not to stop his proceedings with delayes For many times such deferring proves very unpleasing and sometimes dangerous to the party to whom wee would seeme to shew love and good will as wee see it did in case of the Levite whose Father in Laws importunity caused him to stay a day or two beyond his desire in the later end of the Story of Iudges Thus hath Labans carriage beene good to this servant of Abrahams We must follow the goodnesse of all men even Idolaters and Heathens Now consider how hee behaved himselfe to his sister to whom he discovers good affection and love by a curteous dismissing of her ver 60. They blessed her and said thou art our sister bee thou the mother of thousands of millions and let thy seed possesse the gates of them which hate them that is prevaile mightily against all their enemies and conquer them