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
pull the same upon our selves hereafter Lastly from Caines benefits I pray you learne to see the bounty of God which gives great outward benefits to the worst men thereby assuring your selves that hee will provide well enough for you that are his owne people Will he preserve Caine from being slaine and not mee that desire to feare him Did he offer mercy to Caine if hee would doe well will hee not accept mee that desire to doe well and to turne to him Did hee give Caine a City and children will hee not give to mee things needfull for mee and mine Gods mercy to the worst must make his people certaine that no good thing shall be wanting to them Againe you must learne not highly to esteeme these earthly things Did not Caine even after his cursing and casting off yet flourish in worldly things beget children build a City see his childrens children gallantly maintained in the world growing in arts and riches Surely there is no cause of being good in our owne eyes because wee have gotten that which a Caine may get Wee must not be so foolish as to flatter our selves in a conceit that God is our God because wee meete with such drossie benefits and meane favours as a very reprobate and a fugitive may have in abundance Indeed if God give these things with an heart to make use of them to doe good to others to be thankefull to God to be mooved to repentance and to grow better and be drawne neerer to God and more carefull of obeying and worshipping him this is a signe of his speciall favour otherwise to have such things as these and still continue in impenitencie and to grow worse by them rather then better is a proofe that a man is fatted to destruction rather then God the giver of these things doth favour him * ⎠* THE THIRD EXAMPLE OF ABEL I Have done with Caine the elder Brother I come to Abel the younger Brother and as it is likely the next after him His name signifieth vanity which is all one with unprofitablenesse or inability to make happy It is the same that Salomons long experience made him to impose on all earthly things which he calls vanity of vanities as well he might because in seeking to finde felicity in them hee was utterly disappointed and after a long inquisition met with nothing but vexation of spirit By this time like enough Eve had learned the vanity of all earthly things and by name of a sonne which before shee called a possession but now calls vanity for that children also be but a possession of vanity as well as other things Of Abel let us consider his birth life and death His Birth is plainely set downe by the authors of it Eve and Adam for shee conceived againe and bare a sonne and called his name c. but the time of it as also of the elder Brothers is uncertaine We know not how long they lived without children whether shee began to be fruitfull instantly upon the fall or that God held them a little under barrennesse to make them beget a child by their prayers to God for that blessing as well as by the faculty of generation planted in nature I cannot affirme but such a sonne shee had Concerning whose life observe wee 1. His virtues and good deeds 2. His faults 3. His benefits and afflictions His good deeds are here set downe he was painefull in the calling of a Shepheard for so it is said Hee was feeding a flocke meaning not alone that hee had undertaken this vocation but that he did also painefully discharge it The Shepheards calling is now a necessary calling as well as the Husbandmans though not equally necessary but wee finde in experience that it is a calling subordinate to Husbandrie for that the profitable sheepe is not alone beneficiall for her flesh and skinne but also for her soyle and that in such degree profitable as in many places they could scarce have any corne growing by their art and paines in Husbandry if the sheepes dung did not fat the ground And this is I conceive one of the best uses of the sheep when she becomes attendant to the place O that this simple and harmelesse creature might not be changed into a most ravenous and devouring creature thorough the rapine and avarice of those men which thinke all too little for themselves and had rather dwell alone or amongst beasts then amongst a number of Tenants and as the members of a Towne-ship or a Church Now the world is turned quite upside downe in this time Caine killed Abel spake to him and having him in the field rose up against him and slew him but now Abel killeth Caine speaks to him roughly or fairely I cannot tell but drives him quite out of the places where he did once inhabit I meane the Shepheard doth eate out the Husbandman But you see that as well Abel as Caine was painefull in his calling and was brought up in some externall and worldly businesse wherein he might serve God advantage the world and exercise and profit himselfe Surely true piety and godlinesse will very well accord with diligence in a calling and it is but mens mistake if they thinke that their vocations hinder them from the true Worshipping of God Abel as well as Caine had his trade of life The miserable corruption of our nature will turne all things into occasions of hurt and mischiefe and make them meanes of interrupting us in good waies but else a calling duely followed by exercising the graces of Gods Spirit and humbling and taming the flesh and well imploying the thoughts and preventing many temptations and opportunities of sinning doth greatly further our growth in piety and is farre from being any just hinderance unto it we must therefore marke this in Abel as well as Caine and be carefull to imitate it All you that have children to educate bring them up to some calling Let them be as members not excrements in the body of humane societies All you that are already come to such a state as you can discerne betweene good and evill apply your selves to some calling some worke of body or minde some constant and setled imployment in some lawfull actions tending to the common good and your own that you may be sure as S. Paul saith to labour if not with your hands yet with your heads the thing that is good that you may have to give and that you may not be counted inordinate and unruly walkers not working at all but being busie bodies workers round about as the word signifieth do nothing but fetch friskes and vagaries through the world O expose not your selves and yours to so much misery as to have nothing to do An empty vessel is fit to receive any liquor that is powred into it the Divell will put you on evill imployments if you do not bestow your selves on good A bird that sitteth still on a tree is easily hit with
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
it by renewing our meditations of Gods promises and putting our selves often in minde of the power and truth of God the promise-maker which are the pillars and foundations of our faith For if Abraham when these doubts began to stirre in his minde had called to minde Gods promise of giving him seede and had reasoned with himselfe thus hath not the living God possessour of Heaven and Earth undertaken to give mee a seede to inherit this land after me How then can I be killed by the Philistins How can they take away my life whilst this promise is not yet fulfilled Surely God both can and also will give mee life and preserve me from the hands of these godlesse Philistins for how else should he fulfill his promise to me of giving me seed after me If Abraham I say had thus stirred up his faith by serious consideration of Gods power and truth he had not beene foyled so as he was Let his weaknesse and failings be our warning that we may escape the evills which he fell into Againe as Abrahams faith was weake and yeelded a little to doubtings so was he possessed somewhat strongly for the time with a kinde of carnall feare of death Gen. 12.12 and afterwards Gen. â—0 13 He said they will slay mee for my wives sake So you must note another weakenesse in Gods people flowing from the former imperfection of faith They are apt to be over-fearefull of dangers and by name of death even to be so much terrified with the apprehension of danger especially of loosing their lives that they cannot must upon God and rest upon him for safety as they should doe This feare was found in David it was found also in Peter and in divers others of Gods people The ground of it is as I said partly the weakenesse of their faith and partly the terriblenesse of death which is the terriblest of all terrible things as being a separation of the soule from the body and a stripping a man at once of all those things that are most deare unto him and conveighing him out of this world into another concerning his happinesse herein he is not alwaies so full of assurance as he should be For when these feares doe suddainely seize upon a man upon occasion of some sensible object that threatens him they pull out of the minde for the time the thought of Gods promises and hold the soule alone in the apprehension of the greatnesse and inevitablenesse of the danger which looketh him in the face Let us therefore learne not to be heartlesse our selves because we hare have beene so transported with feare as was Abraham nor yet be censorious to others whom wee shall see thus for a fit even shaken and almost overcome of feare It is a fault indeed and we must blame our selves for it and be humbled but it is such a fault as may stand with truth of grace and which doth not give just reason to conclude ourselves unsanctified or not to be Gods true children And let us learne to beware of feare to resist and oppose it at the beginning by the opposition of Gods love and protection yea let us labour to worke in our mindes such a true apprehension of the harmelesnesse of death and other crosses that we may learne not to be afraid of them though we must needs suffer them For why should we feare that which cannot hurt yea that which shall be an advantage to us Feare none of those things that you shall suffer saith the Lord and David saith I will not feare what man can doe unto mee and againe I will not feare though I walke in the valley of the shadow of death It is an excellent thing and very comfortable when our heart is so setled that feare may not dismay us And the way is to get assurance of Gods favour and of eternall life and that all things shall worke for our good and speedily to set this faith on worke when dangers shall offer themselves unto our sight But further Abraham to avoid this danger consulted with flesh and bloud and used deceit and shifting and falsehood for though his words were in some sence true as he telleth Abimelech because Sarah was his sister by one side yet in the meaning which he would have those to interpret his words to whom he spake them they were not true For his intent was to make them conceive that she was so his sister as not his wife He resolved to use false speeches and draw his wife likewise to joyne with him in these false speeches yea they agreed upon it before hand as he tels Abimelech Gen. 20.13 Abraham said to her this is the kindnesse thou shalt shew mee at every place whether wee shall come say he is my brother You see they agreed before hand to dissemble and to continue dissembling yet sure dissembling is a sinne and ought not to be done as Abraham heares even from Abimelech himselfe verse 9. Thou hast done deeds unto mee that ought not to be done So it may befall a good Abraham out of inconsideratenesse and heedlesnesse in not pondering their pathes nor thinking of their waies or in a suddaine to dissemble and deale falsely for the preventing of danger as may be seene also in David and in Peter when he denied Christ and when he withdrew himselfe from communion with the Gentiles for feare of them which came from Iames to Antioch For a thing not considered of is for present as uselesse as if it were not knowne at all Therefore here also we must learne not to be utterly discouraged if we have run into such a fault when we bethinke our selves after of such offences we must be humbled bewaile them confesse them condemne and judge our selves for them but we must not be fearefull of asking pardon and of intreating mercy to forgive them must not conclude that there was no truth of grace in us because of such palpable failings yea we must take boldnesse to goe to the throne of grace renewing our repentance and earnestly suing for pardon And we must also take heed of censuring others and bitterly and harshly for such offences though they be grosse even Abimelech did not esteeme Abraham a dishonest and naughty man because he had found him tripping in this matter onely take heed least we misuse this Example and the like to build upon them a boldnesse to such sinnes that were a great wickednesse They must imbolden us to repent and crave mercy after we have through weakenesse offended they must not imbolden us before hand to resolve on a sinfull deed Yea when we behold their stumblings it should make us to be earnest in our prayers to God for a great measure of strength that we may escape such offences and to be more frequent and firme in renewing our purposes of not finning in the like kinde Resolve therefore that nothing shall make you lie or dissemble and if you doe resolve you will seeke
grieved Abraham he tooke her alone for desire of of-spring not to satisfie lustfull desires and now when she promised seede and his heart was raised up with expectation of a sonne to have all his hopes dashed by the quarrels that Sarah had with her she being gone away and hee knowing not where to have her nor how to procure her returne nor what was become of her nor of his child wherewith she went and which was deare unto him even now before he saw it in the world This surely put him to much griefe and sorrow This crosse is not very usuall to have a great bellied wife runne from a man but if such a kind of desertion shall befall any either hee must be very respectlesse of his wife or else it would be a corrasive unto him But a worse crosse or as bad befell him after for at last the Lord made him to divorce Hagar and to send her quite away never againe to live with him This was as bad and worse then to burie her If God do even separate a mans wife from him either his affection to her is little or else his griefe for her will be much but hee had Sarah his first wife and that served to mitigate the putting away of his superadded woeman So you see his domesticall afflictions in his wife now consider what hee suffered in his childeren 1. In Ishmael whom hee had first hee was faine to banish him or excommunicate him whether you will or both this was an hard thing to him hee had but two sonnes and now hee must thrust one out of his family for ought that hee knew never to see him againe Hee must adventure him to the wide world and send him abroad with his mother in all probability of reason to starve or begge hee knew not whether Would it not grieve and trouble any of you to send a pretty youth about a douzen or ten yeares old out of his house without any thing but a bag and a bottle not knowing what hee would doe or whether hee must goe yet God tried Abraham thus hee must learne to trust Gods word without meanes and above hope The promise was that God would make him a great man and now God began to performe promise by seeming to make him a begger If God seeme to threaten us with beggerie in our posterity wee must consider that such a crosse seemed to bee rushing upon Abraham but God found meanes to make that sonne great to whom hee was not suffered to give any thing that it might be made evident that it is easie with God to inrich a man cast out and destitute of all friends But Abraham had another sonne see the crosses that befell him in Isaac First hee waited long for him before hee had him To be long deferred from enjoying a thing promised and hoped for is a burden somewhat tedious if a man have not faith and patience in some good measure and quantity Thus God tried Abraham hee lived twenty five yeares after the promise of a large ofspring before he imbraced the same which the promise pointed to How could wee brooke the deferring of a promise twenty five yeares But when hee had him was the last triall and worst of all hee must take him and ride with him a long journey of three dayes to a certaine mountaine and there hee must offer him up to God for a burnt offering here God tried Abraham to the quicke Hee must denie naturall affection in killing a sonne so deare unto him and that at this age If God see fit to have him why did hee not call for him when hee was a young childe before hee had filled his heart with so intense love and earnest expectation If hee will have him now why cannot hee send some disease to fetch him but the Father must murder the sonne so nature must give place to Gods commandement Hee must also denie his credit in the world and expose himselfe to most harsh and in shew just censure of all men yea of his familie and of his wife Sarah too whose griefe for her slaughtered sonne must needes cause her to lade her husband with grievous complaints and in appearance also righteous Yea hee must in some sence contradict and crosse even faith it selfe by slaying him in whom the Lord had said unto him In Isaac shall thy seede be called Thus faith must conquer nature conquer credit and conquer it selfe which also it did in Abraham For hee considered that God was able to raise him up againe from the dead from whence in a figure hee had received him So it seemeth good to God to put his servanrs hard to it and to require such things at their hands as cannot but bee very difficult unto them Thus you have heard of Abrahams life now at last hee died in peace and in a good old-age after he had lived 175. yeares not so long as his Fathers and fore-fathers God still shortening the age of man usually that he might put them and us in minde of our latter end and make us carefull to prepare for it continually * ⎠* THE NINTH EXAMPLE OF SARAH HAGAR AS Abraham is called the Father of the faithfull so it is also said to Godly woemen concerning Sarah whose daughters yee are as long as yee doe well c. So that shee is honoured with this title of being the mother of beleevers as hee was the Father Having therefore set before you the example of Abraham wee proceede to consider the example of Sarah his wife Let us see 1. Her birth 2. Her life 3. Her death Concerning her birth her Father is knowne her Mother is not knowne Shee had the same Father with Abraham not the same Mother for so he telleth Abimelech saying Gen. 20.12 Shee is indeed my sister the daughter of my Father not the daughter of my mother and shee became my wife For as yet God had not forbidden to marry with any of the kindered of ones flesh as after hee did so that as yet hee might lawfully take his sister by the one side to be his wife the consort of his bed and shee was borne 10. yeares after Abraham for it is noted that when Isaac was borne shee was 90. yeares of age and he a 100. So was she 10. yeares younger then himselfe and he exceeded her in age 10. yeares as it is meete though not necessary that the husband be somewhat elder then his wife Gen. 21.5 Abraham was a hundred yeares old when his sonne Isaac was borne to him Gen. 17.17 Shall Sarah that is ninety yeares old beare so it is manifest that there was the difference of ten yeares betwixt Abraham and Sarah And this is all we have to say of her Birth Now concerning her life wee will looke into her carriage good and bad and then to the things that befell her good and bad First then for that which was good in her in
fell upon her The benefits shee received were two first shee was redeemed from the Captivity of the Kings that had taken her selfe Husband Daughter and whole Family prisoners in the Conquest of Sodome where they dwelt at that time and upon their deliveance neither shee nor her husband had the grace to consider of it and to remoove from Sodome and dwell againe in some better place neerer Abraham Secondly shee was delivered out of the burning of Sodome together with her Husband and Daughters saving that shee made the benefit unprofitable to her selfe by her sinning And her sinne though it seemed little in respect yet indeed was very great The matter was small the transgression was great as in great poyson fullnesse may be found in a small quantity of liquor even in a drop or lesse then a drop Shee was forbidden by the Angell that sent her forth to looke backe to Sodome and yet expressely against that charge shee did looke backe the cause of that prohibition may seeme to have beene this the Lord knowing her too eager affection to the goods shee left behinde her would have her now cast off that inordinate passion and accepting the goodnesse of God in giving her her life for a prey not so much as to turne and looke towards Sodome but trust God for goods who had now vouchsafed them life but shee belike thinking as many of us would have thought as good die as be sent away a beggar and destitute of all things could not keepe her heart constant in taking notice of the great benefit of escaping the fire but out of griefe to leave house and all after her turned backe to salute them once againe with her eye This sinne was compounded of disobedience to God speaking in the Angell and dis-esteeme of the present mercy and over-grieving the losse of her wealth Take heed you give not your selves leave to commit a thing expressely forbidden for usually much naughtinesse concurreth to produce such an act so the Lord that searcheth the heart accounteth that great which your blindnesse maketh you to esteeme nothing and so to punish it many times with some heavie punishment As it befell this woman her punishment was to be turned into a Pillar of salt The Lord instantly smote her with death and taking her soule from her body changed the body into a pillar which whether it be called a pillar of salt because it was of that matter or because of the everlasting continuance of it as an everlasting Covenant is called a covenant of salt I cannot determine The latter seemeth to mee the more probable howsoever shee is set forth to us for an example by which wee may informe our selves thus much that when God hath chastened us and by our chastisements taken pittie upon us and granted us deliverances and yet wee profit so little by both as to continue faulty in the same faults wee shall then finde his hand more heavie upon us by some exemplary blow as it is noted by David that though the Lord brought the people out of Egypt yet hee did after destroy them in the wildernesse that did not beleeve Let us feare least the Lord set us up also as Monuments of his just severity when hee findes us not reformed by former goodnesse and gentlenesse * ⎠* THE TVVELFTH EXAMPLE OF LOTS Daughters and others of that time WEE have finished the things that are recorded of Lots selfe and his Wife Next let us tell you what is recorded of his two Daughters Their names their birth their death the Lord vouchsafeth not to mention and of their life not much is written and that which is tends all to their reproach First good deeds we have none for which to commend them or in which to follow them but bad deeds too many considering how great they were Their first sinne was that they consulted together and agreed about a most abhominable sinne nay a paire of grievous crimes at once In which the first-borne did make the motion and the younger gave her consent In the consultation about it see what reason induced and what it is to which they were induced by that reason The reason is 1. Their Fathers age who being now shortly to leave the world they would not have his off-spring perish in themselves 2. The want of other men to company with them there is not a man in all the earth to come in unto us after the earth They wanted other husbands to beget children of them in lawfull matrimonie Surely their late abode in Zoar might cause them to know that the whole world was not destroyed if they meant that there was never another man left with whom they might joyne themselves they did beguile themselves too too palpably for onely Sodome and Gomorrha and Admah and Zeboim foure Cities of the plaine were consumed with fire from Heaven the rest stood in their former estate Zoar they had seene standing and left it with their Father and seeing they dwelt upon a Mountaine they could not but discerne other Cities round about for that Countrey was full of Townes and people It is like therefore that they meant none neere unto us none of our blood and kindred But why should they make doubt of marrying any other besides their owne kindred They had beene betrothed to husbands in Sodome might they not as well marrie any other Cananite as a Citizen of Sodome It is apparant that their reasons were frivolous and vaine yet upon them they build a full resolution of committing two fearefull offences for they agree together saying Come let us make our Father drinke Wine and then let us lie with him to preserve seed of him They would seeme each to other to be carried with libidinous fancies as if lust led them but that a desire of preserving seed was the motive to the villanous designe Wee see how mans nature is easily drawne by weake and poore grounds to runne into very loathsome and foule crimes Better the world should have wanted continuance and ended in their persons then have it stored with an incestuous off-spring No other meeting together of man and woman if it had beene in the way of Matrimony is simply and of it selfe unlawfull but onely that of Parents and children for there was a time when the Brother married the sister without fault as in the beginning when the world had no other persons in it but brethren and sisters but never at any time was it lawfull for the daughters to have the Father or the Mother the sonne This therefore was the most unlawfull mixture in the same kinde and of different Sexe that possibly could be Yet upon a slender pretext that they knew not how to come by any other man and so their Fathers posterity should perish they consent to accomplish it Had they not beene made more then ordinarily immodest with the conversation of impure Sodomites they would have beene restrained with shame and
sinned surely in forgetting himselfe so farre as to resolve in his minde to blesse his sonne Esau whereas God had said the elder shall serve the younger He should have beene mindfull of that propheticall answer which was given concerning those two sonnes even when they strove in their Mothers wombes unlesse wee shall say that the whole passage was so carried as it was concealed from Isaac but that is nothing probable it can hardly be conceived that Rebekah would not acquaint her husband both that shee felt so strange a striving in her wombe which made her seeke to God to know the matter as also what answer shee received from God Taking that for granted which is so probable that there is no reason to doubt of it I say wee may note a fault in good Isaac yea good old Isaac hee forgate the Word of God which had beene spoken some yeares before and that so utterly as hee determined to have crossed it and gone directly against it It is a fault from which the bed men alive are not exempted even so to forget Gods Word as to be ready out of forgetfullnesse to transgresse it This forgetfullnesse ariseth many times from heedelesnesse and many times from continuance and length of time and sometimes from very strength of passion and distemper which doth cast out the remembrance of good things from the minde David and all the Priests had forgotten that which at least some of them had read concerning the not carting of Gods Arke but carrying it upon the Priests shoulders Iacob after had little lesse then forgate the vow hee made unto God in his affliction I pray you take heed of such forgetfullnesse meditate often that you may remember seasonably pray God to write his Lawes in your hearts and to make his holy Spirit to become your remembrancer that your knowledge be not made unprofitable through forgetfullnesse for that which is not fitly called to minde is in a manner as if it were not And if you meete with such a weakenesse as this in your selves looke that you be duely abased in the sight of it but be not out of heart as if you were destitute of all grace because you are imperfect in it but take comfort to seeke and hope for pardon upon your humble confession when the Lord pleaseth to put you in remembrance againe If Peter had remembred Christs words before hee might perhaps have escaped his great sinne of denying his Master but hee remembred it after to make him weepe bitterly It were a comfortable thing to call to minde those things that should preserve us from sinne so timely that we might be so preserved by them But if wee have done otherwise it behooveth us to put our selves in minde of them after to worke godly sorrow and then turning to God wee must not suffer our selves to doubt but that hee will vouchsafe to accept us Now Isaac offended something against men In respect of his two sonnes at first he loved Esau better then Iacob and that for carnall respects because Esau by his hunting supplied him with such kinde of meate as was contentfull to him It was without doubt a weakenesse in him and deserveth taxing Should Isaac beare favour to a gracelesse sonne for venisons sake rather then to a godly sonne for vertue sake Should our passions fancies appetites carrie us away and over-rule our affections Surely as David wished those that feared God to come unto him and he would choose them for his companions so should every man make godlinesse the rule of his affections so as when other things be even to give piety the preheminence and cause godlinesse to cast the scale as it were It is a fault in any man to love a worse childe above a better for any sinister respect Abraham loved not Ishmael above Isaac to prevent that it may be thought that God commanded Ishmael to be cast out that hee might not be thought a meete person at least to partake with Isaac in his inheritance And as to be carried away in our affections to children by affecting them most that deserve it least in carnall respects is a sinne so likewise towards other persons also servants neighbours or any other Therefore hee that hath done so or findes himselfe so inclined must be humbled in his folly and labour at last to rectifie his love as wee shew'd you before that Isaac did when God discovered his weakenesse to him Now in respect of Abimelech Isaac offended by lying out of feare when the men of Gerar began to question with him about his wife he began to suspect that they meant no good in such inquirie and fearing some ill usage from them if hee should have professed himselfe her husband helped the matter with a sudden lie and said shee was his Sister Gen. 26.7 you see hee inheriteth here his Fathers carnall feare and carnall shift of lying to prevent the evill feared Here wee have two plaine faults his immoderate feare and his lying to helpe himselfe at a pinch to be afraid of death so that there appeare some likelihood that it will come upon us suddenly and violently we suffer our selves to be drawne into sinne for the escaping of it is a sin and such a sin it is as hath often discovered it selfe in good men Wee noted it in Abraham twice upon the same occasion that is here mentioned So it befell David when hee came first to Achish King of Gath so to Peter and others The inordinatenesse of the feare of death ariseth from weakenesse of faith both in that a man doth not so stedfastly rely upon God for defence and safeguard of life as also for salvation of his soule after death or because hee is not so well versed in the meditations of death and Heaven as to become sufficiently heavenly-minded For if wee did fully perswade our selves that God would stand by us in perill that hee would be our shield and buckler then it would befall us according to that of David The Lord is on my side I will not feare what man can doe unto mee but in the best this confidence is often weakened and they are taken unprovided through the suddennesse of the danger or the like occasion or it is likely that the soule which so feareth death as by sinne to shun the same doth not so thoroughly assure it selfe of salvation or hath not so clearely and fully apprehended the excellency of salvation for doubtlesse death would be welcome to him rather then terrible that did apprehend it as a darke entrie leading to the glorious palace of glory and had well considered of the greatnesse of that glory I beseech you take paines to helpe your selves against the feare of death and to worke in your hearts so truly couragious a temper that though it should present it selfe to you naked and without disguise and that suddenly and that in shew unpreventably yet you might be so constant and so setled as not to
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
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
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
incest Laban The Scripture saith nothing of his birth or death His Parentage His life His civill vertues 1. He vouchsafe curteous entertainment unto Eliezer 2. He gave him an honest and good answer Neither by faire meanes nor by soule 3. He speedily dismissed him 4. Was loving to his sister made a feast to his neighbours and friends Gen. 29.21 22. 5. He lovingly entertained Iacob when he came unto him 6. Of his own accord he offered Iacob wages for his worke 7. He was willing to bestow his daughters upon him 8 He quickly laid downe his anger and made a covenant with him 9. He sheweth himselfe loving and kind to his daughters and grandchildren 10. He made a feast at the marriage of his daughter 11. He tooke notice of Gods blessing as the cause of his prosperity 12. He forbore what God forbad His faults 1. He was an Idolater 2. He loved Iacob in a worldly manner 3. He cousened Iacob 4. He looked doggedly upon him because he hindred his wealth though without any wrong 5. He pursued Iacob with an hostile minde 6. He falsely chargeth Iacob with stealing his Idols 3. His benefits 1. He had a good son in law 2. He was rich 4. His crosses 1. His daughters and grand children went far from him 2. He was troubled at Iacobs prosperity His death Iacobs children Reuben what it signifies Gen. 29.3 Simeon what it signifies Levi what it signifies Iudah what it signifies Gen. 30.18 Issachar what it signifies Zebulun what it signifies Dan what it signifies Nephthali what it signifies Gad what it signifies Asher what it signifies Ioseph what it signifies Benjamin what it signifies Dinah what it signifies Who she was No good thing is spoken of her Her faults 1. She went into the City to see the daughters of the countrey 2. A young man saw her and lay with her The sonnes Their common faults 1. All of them were bad except Ioseph and Benjamin Gen. 37.2 2. They all beguiled Hamor â—he Sichemite Gen. 35. Deceit is a great sin Prov. 6.10 18. 26.26 Rom. 3. 3. They all consented to the murder of the Sichemites 4. They hated their brother Ioseph 5. They lied cousened their old Father The use of all Their common goodnes 1. They all strove to comfort their Father in his great sadnesse 2. They were dutifull to him in going down to Egypt and not taking Benjamin with them 3. Their benefits 1. They had a godly Father and themselves were pillers of the true Church 2 God saved them all from a great danger 3. They had store of riches 4. Ioseph nourished them in the famine Their crosses 1. In danger from Esau when children 2. In danger at Shechem 3. Felt a famine and were roughly handled by Ioseph Reuben 1. His faults Gen. 35.22 1. He committed incest with his Fathers Concubine Incest is a great sin 1 Cor. 5. 2. His vertues 1. He wisely disswaded his Brethren from killing of Ioseph 2. He was fully minded to restore Ioseph to his Father againe 3 He grieved to see his hopes disappointed and Ioseph taken out of the pit 4 He sought to remove his Father from his stiffenes in refusing to send Benjamin into Aegypt His crosses His Father minded him of his incest on his death-bed 3. His benefits hee had divers sons Simeon and Levi their sinne double 1. The murder of the Sichemites Murder is a great sinne 2. They shewed no repentance when their Father told them of their fault Their punishment They lost part of the birth-right Levies death Iudah His faults 1. He left his Fathers house 2. He was led by his eye in marriage 3. He committed incest with his daughter in law Heb 13 4. 1 Cor. 6.9 4. He dissembled with his daughter in Law 5. He forgat his owne naughtinesse would have had Tamar burnt 6. Repented not of his whoredome but sought to redeeme his pledge His vertues 1. He returned at last to his Fathers house 2. He was somewhat humbled for his sinne 3. He carried himselfe well to his Father Gen. 43. 4. He faithfully kept promise with his Father 5. He did couragiously beare an evill accident His crosses 1. He had two very wicked sonnes His daughter in Law drew him to incest when he intended fornication onely 3. His sinne brake forth to his shame His benefits 1. He had very good naturall parts 2. Hee had a part of the birth-right setled upon him Potipher and his wife Shechem His faults 1. Hee looked lustfully on Dinah Gen. 34. Job 31.1 Mat. 5 29. 2. He enticed or forced her to naughtines or both 1 Cor. 6.18 2. What was good in him 1. He continued to affect her when hee had defloured her Deut. 22.28 29. 2. He acquaints his Father with his love to her and in treates him to speake to her Father for him 3. He stood not over-much upon matter of portion 4. He would have all things agreed upon before marriage 5. He was constant in his love to the end What betrothing is 3. His benefits He was his Fathers heire who was a great man His crosses 1 He prooved an occasion of the overthrow of his Father and his whole family and the Citie Hamor His faults 1. He was willing to be circumcized for a by end 2. He did not reproove nor correct his son for the wrong done to Dinah His vertues 1. He is willing to satisfie his sonne in point of marriage so farre as was fit 2. He deales well with his Subiects perswading them to be circumcised 3. Hee dealt well with Iacob plainely seeking his daughter and yeelding to equall conditions 3 His prosperity 1 His sonne was indifferently good 2. His Subiects were good 4. His crosse Himselfe and all his Family and City were murthered Hiram Hee was a good morall friend His friendship was 1. Lasting 2. Serviceable 3. Secret Yet he was a bad man Er and Onan the first was so wicked that God cut him off Onan was also wicked and cut off by God in his youth Tamar a very bad woman The Midianitish Merchants Gen. 37.25 Merchandize is commendable Pro. 23.4 Buying and selling of men the originall of it The iustice of it Potiphar Potiphar a great man His faults Chap. 39.6 1. Hee gave himselfe wholy over to his ease having a good steward James 5.1 2. He beleeved his wives cunning slander against his servant His good deeds 1. He observed his servants faithfulnesse and good successe nd loved and rewarded him for it Deut. 15.1 14. Prov. 27.18 Col. 4.1 Gal. 3.28 2. He did not take away Iosephs life in a rage His benefits Hee had an honourable office His crosses He had a lewd woman to his wife Potiphars wife No good in her Her faults 1. Shee was an adulterous woman 2. Impudent and earnest in her filthinesse 3. Most malicious Pharaohs Butler and Baker 1. Their good deeds 1. They bare their imprisonment patiently and cheerefully Gen. 40.7 2. They despised not Iosephs youth or meane
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
fall the making of them after his owne Image in knowledge righteousnesse and true holinesse with a most beautifull strong swift healthie and comely body free from all danger of sicknesse death or other misery giving them dominion over all creatures planting so excellent a place for them as Paradise and granting them the use of all the trees and that of life and putting on them so pleasant a service as that of dressing and keeping the Garden besides the hope and assurance of Eternall life upon condition of their obedience of which Paradise it selfe and the tree of life were signes unto them For if wee should live the life of glory by obeying the Law so should they have done seeing they also were under the same Covenant of workes that we be under Now after their sinne God bestowed divers benefits on them The chiefe was the promise of a Saviour viz. The seede of the Woman to tread on the Serpents head that is to destroy the Divell and the workes of the Divell and to deliver them from the mischiefe which Satan sought to bring upon them By which words he did make the Covenant of grace with them and their Posterity providing a remedy equall to the disease and the meanes of revealing it to all in that be manifested it to them that they might teach it to their children and so one to another till all knew it and then making them Breeches and continuing their life and granting them children These be the benefits The miseries they felt were pronouncing a curse upon them adjudging them to an inavoidable necessity of naturall death to much sorrow in their life he by tilling the ground which should bring forth ill things to him and that with sweat and labour and shee by bearing children in sorrow and by being compelled by subjection to her husband then by casting them out of Paradise debarring them the tree of life and giving Caine over to kill his Brother better then himselfe which must needs be an heavie crosse to them which God did somewhat mitigate by giving them another godly sonne even Seth. This is their life their death followes Adam lived 900. yeares and for Eves death it is not mentioned how long shee lived for God hath not thought it fit to tell us the length of the life of any woman except Sarah in Scripture upon what consideration it is hard to guesse but sure it is to humble womankinde that because they were first in bringing in death deserved not to have the continuance of their lives recorded by Gods pen. So have I briefely runne over the first man and the first woman And now I will make use of all First from their Creation and the benefits bestowed upon them in and after their Creation let us learne to acknowledge God to be our Creator the Fountaine of our being and to submit our selves wholy to him in all things seeing we have received our being from him for in making them he made us in them and whatsoever benefits he gave him in Creation he gave them to us in him seeing if he had not cast them away we should not have wanted them Wee must not lesse praise God and be lesse thankefull for that happy estate because Adam forfeited it for his naughtinesse in sinning cannot diminish the goodnesse of God in granting to him and his so great a heape of pleasures here with certainty of Eternall life after Doe you not see that God made us all to happinesse and life in our first Parents fitting all things so that he might have stood and delivered over all those benefits unto us Let us not murmure against God for the punishment justly inflicted upon us in them and on them for the sinne committed by them especially wee must praise God for the promise of the seed of the Woman which now God hath performed to us by whom salvation and life was offered and tendered to all so that by the second Adam all might have received happinesse as they lost it by the first if the fault had not beene and were not meerely in themselves that have beene and are carelesse of Gods goodnesse neglecting to consider of his mercy to beleeve in him and to turne to him Secondly in Adams sinne let us all see our owne sinfullnesse and our mortality and misery in his misery For by one man sinne came into the world and by sinne death and so death passed over all This sinne is our sinne after a sort we must lament it and bewaile it and be humbled for it and in the sence of our wretchednesse runne to the promised seed to deliver us from sinne and death and to repaire the Image of God in us by the mighty worke of his Spirit which is as easie for him to doe as to create us just at the first and which he will as certainely performe for us if we seeke it as hee did then in our first making Againe let us learne to hate and loath sinne and Satan not to hearken to his suggestions but to beleeve Gods threats and submit to his Commandements let the husband resolve not to obey the voice of his wife against God let the wife take heed of drawing her husband to sinne let the husband rather reforme her then be corrupted by her O beware of thinking to get any thing by doing wickednesse disobedience will bring nothing in conclusion but misery and unhappinesse Let us take heed of flying from God and of excusing our faults and casting the blame upon others chiefely upon God himselfe as Adam did but let us rather confesse lament and trust in his mercy and implore it then dawbe and dissemble and thinke to escape by frivolous shifts and extenuations and especially learne not to be proud of apparell which is no better then a badge of our wicked rebellion and of our shamefull nakednesse Let us be the better for the things we know concerning Adam and Eve our first Parents Againe let us be carefull to follow them in all good deeds which they did O let us repent and beleeve in Christ hoping for life by him according to the Covenant of grace as they did when they had broken the Covenant of Workes For by trusting in Christ we shall goe to Heaven in the way of Evangelicall obedience standing in a resolution and indeavour not to sinne and a carefull humbling our selves and seeking pardon when we faile as sure as they or we should have done in the way of Legall obedience if they and we had remained innocent and God will as surely inable us to this Evangelicall obedience if we seeke to him for grace and the renewing of his Image in us as hee had inabled him to Legall and exact obedience In truth Christ hath made the way to life eternall as easie to us in the path of the Gospell as it was to him in the path of the Law for wee have grace to keepe us from loving and
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
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
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
Inventers of evill things S. Paul cals them which are the first which doe them that runne into them not induced by any former examples but carried by their owne corruptions and so by going over the hedge induce others to follow them such sinners be the more grievous before God by how much they shew a more impudent disposition that dare leade the way to wickednesse and make themselves captaines and ring-leaders to so vile and mischievous a thing and such sinnes doe call for a larger measure of sorrow and humiliation Againe have none of you beene passionate angry and full of threats working in proud wrath as Salomon calls it and as here you may see wicked Lamech doing with an angry voice and a countenance sutable thereto You may be sure he calls upon his wives to leave their brawling and let him speake and then blusters out these words that he would kill the man whosoever should wrong him Are not there some men among you so mad and furious that they threaten bloud and death to any that shall wrong them O this wrathfull and angry roaring as I may call it is a signe of much folly and pride and therefore doe not please your selves in it as they doe most times that are given to it but abhorre it and judge your selves for it and humbly acknowledge to God that you have deserved his wrath for shewing your owne wrath so immoderately And lastly consider have you not beene revengefull men that would take no wrong but returne death and slaughter for a stroke a wound and seven yea twenty and if you were able an hundred blowes for one yea death for a word speaking and a great evill for a little Brethren revenge is a fearefull sinne there are two waies of revenge some doe compasse it by maine strength presently and openly if one wrong them they raile or strike and lay about them as it were an angry Dog or Beare or other Beast others be more still in their revenge they lay it up in store and set it on the score till a fit opportunity come and then they pay him home with the like and more that hath wronged them both these revenges be naught and it is hard to say whether is the worse of the twaine the one hath more craft the other more furie both shew an heart destitute of all meekenesse and charity and faith If you have found your selves so disposed untill you repent you shall be sure to finde God as bitter against you He will be revenged of the revengefull He will be an enemy to him that will fight and keepe a stirre if he be touched or wounded Doe not count it valour to give stroke for stroke or wound for wound or blow for blow it is an hellish valour it is not man-hood it is dog-hood or I may terme it beare-hood it is brutish so will a Lion or a bruit creature It is not courage but outrage it is not fortitude but meere furie And yet alas where shall you finde breasts that doe not beare the stampe of Lamechs words within them that perhaps be not come to such an high degree as he was to revenge 490 times but are come to that that they resolve and purpose if a man wound them they will wound him againe if they can if any man strike they will doe the best they can to strike him againe Beloved hee in whom this sinne raigneth is a wicked man though it be not of so high a growth in him as it was in this wretch He that holdeth this purpose I will requite blow with blowâ— wrong with wrong he is not a true Christian for he doth not overcome evill with good but is overcome with evill He is a man that lives allowedly in a sinne as bad in Gods account as theft or whoredome Revenge in Gods account is a sinne as foule and fouler then lust or injustice I beseech you examine your selves and if you have found your selves carried away with revenge and resolve to be so still take notice that you be too like to Lamech to be the children of God Our Saviour commands us if our neighbour offend to forgive him till seventy times seven times I thinke alluding to this very speech of this here in the Text and intending to teach you to labour to abound in patience meekenesse and forbearance as much as he abounded in proud revengefullnesse If any say why then I shall expose my selfe to all manner of wrongs I answer first if one should doe so better suffer all manner of injuries from man then to have God enter into judgement with him for all his sinnes Secondly I answer that God hath the rule of things and as the sheepe must dwell in safety not by their owne sturdinesse but by the care and diligence of the Shepheard so must Gods people enjoy freedome from wrongs not by their owne violence but by his protection and wisedome And lastly I say if the wrongs be notorious and such as it is not fit to suffer God hath put the sword of revenge into the Magistrates hands and so farre as the heart is not imbittered with Malice but seeketh alone his owne defence and safety without triumphing in the smart of an enemy it is very lawfull to seeke him for rescue So have we done with Lamech we goe on to his three sonnes that were profitable persons and inventers of good arts at the least perfecters The one perfected that part of husbandry which consists in feeding cattell and making tents to shelter both the Shepheards and the sheepe that with those moveable habitations they might be able to drive their cattell from place to place for the best pasture It is likely that before his time they were faine to be content with the shade of the trees or with some cave under ground or a few turfes put upon some sticks of wood which they had made a shift to get into the ground or some such like But he considering better of the matter invented the way of making linnen cloath and so with fitting that upon poles with peggs and stakes to keep of great stormes and heat yea by this meanes they could carrie their houses with them whither soever they had occasion to travell for pasture sake and this kinde of fleeting life dwelling in tents and following cattell continued to Abrahams time and long after yea it was the commandement of Ionadab to the Rechabites that they should alwaies live so This therefore was a commodious and beneficiall invention and it is for his praise that first devised it much is owing him by those that comming after have enjoyed the benefit of his devices Iubal the next Sonne of Lamech he was a man not given so much to toilesome profit as to merriment and sport he was a lover of musicke and he perfected the art of making Organes and you must understand playing upon them too for to what purpose would hee finde them out but to play
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
men with blindnesse a kinde of giddinesse of braine and dazeling of eyes like to those that have fed of some kinde of roote that makes them little lesse then wilde and mad for the time they could not finde the doore by groping and yet continued still to wearie themselves by groping after it Here is the greatest obstinacy and wilfullnesse in sinning that could be imagined when not alone no loving disswasion could withdraw their mindes from such a shamefull attempt but even the heavie and immediate hand of God was unable to pull them backe from continuing in their horrible and outragious onsets God might by force hold them from doing the evill but from indeavouring to doe it nothing would hinder to be so hard-hearted in a sinfull course that neither words nor blowes will so much as interrupt a man in his naughtinesse or cause him to turne a little aside or make a little stop in it but that he rusheth like a horse into the battell plunging himselfe in it like a madman running to drowne himselfe and with violence striving to rid himselfe of them that seeke to hinder him from working his mischiefe this may seeme as high a degree of sinning as that of the Sodomites O take heed that sinne lay not so fast hold upon you let it not be so absolute and mighty a commander I pray you examine your selves whether you have not sinned grossely boldly wilfully and obstinately in some other kinde as the Sodomites in masculine lusts at least whether you have not discovered the same faults in lesser degrees and know that more deepe remorse and wounding of heart is necessary to be sought after by all men for sinnes that have so many weights at their heeles to make them heavier They must rend our soules more which are laden with such considerations Was not the sinne grosse Yes Did I not commit it presumptuously Yes Did I not commit it shamelesly Yes Did I not commit it wilfully Yes Did I not persist in it against dehortaions Yes Was I so furious that some strong hand of God befalling in the instant could not hinder mee Yes O then how Sodomiticall was this sinne and how should I wonder that I should so farre surpasse all bounds and breake all bands as to commit such a crime in such a manner But here is one fault particularly to be noted in Lots sonnes in Law their Father sought to get them out of that place and so out of that plague and therefore by commission from the Angels went forth to them acquainted them with the perill and besought them to save themselves they count his words no better then the doating dreames of an old man and will not be mooved at all unlesse it be to laugh at him and so they burne with the other Sodomites because they would not beleeve their danger Thus doe men yet still pull perdition on themselves the Ministers of the Gospell preach to us to the same purpose that Lot did speake unto his sonnes in Law Come out of such and such a sinne for God will surely destroy the committers of it and what successe doe we meete withall After many an houre bestowed in seeking to make men see that if they doe such things they shall not inherit the Kingdome of Heaven but shall fall into the Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone wee have no other fruit our words appeare to them as if they were the words of one that mocked or were in jest they will not be made to thinke that any such danger is neere them Tell mee I beseech you what you thinke might not Lots two sonnes have escaped this fire of Sodome if they would What was the cause of their perishing but because they would not beleeve their Father in Law also they might have left the City with him and escaped the brimstone Surely beloved you shall be able to alledge nothing at the last day to make your destruction more tollerable for why doe you perish but because you will not give credit to the threats of God and labour to leave all sinne which you may as well indeavour to leave if your wilfullnesse did not hinder as Lots sonnes might have left Sodome If you say we could not beleeve those words I answer true but even as these wretches could not beleeve their Father because by hardening themselves in evill they had made themselves obstinate against every thing that crossed their carnall desires It is a fearefull sinne Brethren to be no otherwise affected to the threats denounced against your sinnes by Gods Ministers then as these gracelesse young men even to thinke them but words of sport counterfeit words which have no truth nor substance in them but were very mockery and scoffage so thought these foolish fellowes but in the morning they were made to feele what they would not beleeve at midnight when they scorched in the flames they in vaine repented their ill entertainement of their Father in Lawes speeches and perswasions and to no purpose wished that they had beene over-intreated by him A number of you live in the selfe-same sinne hee that threatens hell-fire and destruction against you for your drunkennesse filthinesse revenge worldlinesse is counted a mocker an idle fellow that knowes not what hee saith but must say something when he is gotten into his Pulpit and no more reckoning doe you make of it but when death hath carried your soules to hell then you shall too late accuse your owne folly and wish you had hearkened with more beliefe O accept these threats with faith that they may draw you out of sinne and save you out of hell The sinnes of Sodome related by Moses you have heard of The Prophet Ezekiel by way of upbraiding Iudah relates some other sinnes together with this as you may reade Ezek. 16.49 Pride fullnesse of bread and abundance of idlenesse were in her and in her daughters and they strengthened not the hand of the poore and needy and they were haughty and committed abhomination before mee First the Holy Ghost telleth us of their pride this is a grievous vice pride of heart is a fearefull sinne 'T is like a great swelling in the body which unfitteth it for any good service and is apt to putrifie and to breake and runne with loathsome and foule matter So doth this pride disable the soule from any good duty and at left breakes forth into most odious and filthy deeds that cause it to be tedious to God and man The Scripture often condemneth it and pronounceth heavie threats against it Psal 73.6 a wicked man is blamed because pride compasseth him as a garment he weareth it upon himselfe as some faire and gorgeous robe of which hee is so farre from being ashamed that he rejoyceth in it and thinketh himselfe to be made more comely and honourable by it and Prov. 8.13 hee saith the feare of God is to hate pride amongst other things there named It must needs be concluded
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
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
blessing was this that he made him a godly man giving him true faith so that he did unfainedly beleeve in God and was a right godly and religious man For it is noted of him that he beleeved in God and was an heire with Abraham of the same promises both concerning the land of Canaan as a Type and heaven it selfe the thing figured by the land of Canaan So Iacob was a true servant of God and member of Christ and inheritour of heaven and from him the Church is many times called by the name of Iacob and Israel And this is the greatest good that can be found in this life in comparison of which all other benefits are of no value and without which other things are not sufficient to make a man happy though he should possesse them in never so great abundance for what will it advantage a man to win the whole world and lose his owne soule Now therefore we must learne most earnestly to seeke this benefit which God is ready to give to us as well as to him For Iacob was not godly by nature nor by any power of his owne but by the free grace of God and the mighty and saving worke of his owne blessed Spirit which Spirit he hath promised to all that aske even as undoubtedly as any tender hearted Father will give food unto his hungry childe that shall crave it at his hands Let no man be discouraged because of the corruption and naughtinesse of his nature for the same bad and depraved nature was found in Iacob that in himselfe seeing Iacob also was a son of Adam by corrupt nature a childe of wrath and heire of death as well as any other but God did circumcise his heart as well as his flesh and made him partaker of the divine nature by which he prevailed against the corruptions that are in the world through lust Wherefore let each of us take notice of his owne wickednesse and inability to make himselfe good and of his manifold sins and inability to procure pardon of them to himselfe and let him earnestly call upon God to worke true repentance and unfained faith in him and the Lord will graciously worke these things in him as well as in Iacob and will pardon his sins and sanctifie his soule and make him an inheritour of his heavenly Kingdome I beseech you therefore bury not your selves in the world and in the study of earthly things but Seeke first the Kingdome of God and his righteousnesse and labour to come into the state of grace by meditating on the Gospell seeing your misery in your selves and endeavouring to turne unto the Lord. For in the Church no man is left destitute of grace but through his own default in neglecting the great salvation that is there offered unto him Againe those to whom the Lord hath pleased to shew the same goodnesse working in them true faith inabling them to beleeve in his mercy through Christ and to walke in his wayes with truth and uprightnesse of heart must learne to shew themselves exceeding thankfull to God for this mercy and strive to take comfort in it and to walke worthy of it Blesse God with constant and daily blessings that hath blessed thee with spirituall blessings in Christ and rejoyce in the riches of that inheritance to which thou are interessed and shalt possesse whatsoever wants afflictions crosses thou maist bee exercised withall yet be glad in the Lord and count thy selfe an happy man because the Lord hath granted thee that which may abundantly satisfie thy soule in the want of all outward things and support thee in all afflictions and miseries and countervaile and more then overweigh all manner of calamities Let not the rich man rejoyce in his riches nor the wise man in his wisdome nor the strong man in his strength nor any man in any terrene thing he hath but Let him that rejoyceth rejoyce in this that he knoweth me saith the Lord. It is our duty to raise up our hearts so that no earthly adversity may coole or damp our prayers and dismay our hearts and fill us with anguish and grief and that no outward benefits may glut and satt our hearts and turne us away from taking comfort in this true and everlasting mercy God hath made us his owne given us faith sanctified us by his Spirit united us to his Son and caused us to see beleeve and embrace his promises What though we want wealth honour pleasure and these sensuall benefits He hath given us Wheate What though he feed us not with huskes He hath given us Gold What though he lade us not with dirt Hee hath given us himselfe and his Son What though he give us not the vanities of this life It is a sin for a godly man to be out of heart and comfortlesse because of any other want and any other crosse If God have granted you this chiefe benefit glory in it and thinke that you have gotten a good portion though your estate in the world be never so low and poore only be sure that your faith bee true by causing you to abound in those fruits of it which we shewed you before that it brought forth in Iacob Now I come to some lesse principall mercies flowing from this First he gave him the priviledge of the first-borne that Christ should come of him and that the visible Church should continue in his posterity That part of the dignity of the primogeniture to have Christ the blessed seed come of him cannot be bestowed upon any of us neither that to have a great Nation flow from our loines that shall be also the Church of God and a Nation in which true religion and piety shall be continued But to have our children godly and become members of the Church that we must earnestly desire and seeke for and that we may hope for and attaine if we pray earnestly for it and make our children as good as we can by bringing them up in the true knowledge and worshipping of God Further Iacob had the blessing given him First by his Fathers mistake when he tooke him for his eldest son Esau to whom he intended the blessing then after by his Fathers witting and deliberate pronouncing it upon him by the direction of Gods Spirit The former you may see pronounced upon him in Genesis where he saith God give thee of the dew of heaven and after God Almighty blesse thee and give thee the blessing of Abraham This blessing is the bestowing upon him all temporall benefits so far as they are subordinate to his spirituall and then spirituall benefits viz. all sorts of graces by which he may be happily guided to the possession of life eternall This is an excellent mercy to be freed from the curse of the Law and to be made partaker of the blessing of Abraham even that God shall love one take care of him and prosper him in all things hee takes in hand and conduct him
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
exasperated them and hastened the execution of their evill plot but by a kinde of artificiall discreet and gentle way disswading from the unnaturallnesse seeing hee was their Brother and propounding a way lesse unnaturall in it selfe to seeme too and yet not lesse fit for their purpose kill him not with your hands but cast him into a pit and let him starve there His meaning was not to let him perish but he knew that hee could not by force take him out of their hands now yet he had good hope secretly and in their absence to pull him out of the pit and deliver him safe to his Father You see here respect to his Brother mixed with tender love to his Father also whose affection to Ioseph hee well knew and could not but foresee that which fell out after how most heavily and indeed over-heavily he would take the losse of Ioseph So a good Brother should pittie his Brother being a man fit to be pittied and save him from wrong A good sonne should pitty his Father and Parents and strive to prevent the things that will be grievous to them Especially the more any man hath once sinned against his Parent as Reuben had the more carefull hee should be as it were to make amends for his former wickednesse by seeking to doe them good the more afterwards And in opposing our selves to evill counsell and deeds we should learne of Reuben to use wisedome and prudence and when wee want power to doe a good thing openly directly and by strong hand then to doe it artificially and indirectly and under hand propounding to the contrivers of such counsell some other way lesse evill which wee may be able to crosse more easily It is not a fault to seeme to yeeld to some smaller fault with a purpose and resolution of preventing the whole matter by making a shew of yeeldance to some degree or part of it and here you see some appearance of evill is not to be disliked as Salomon also seemed to intend the dividing of the living childe for the finding out of the true Mother When for a little space a man onely seemes to allow a fault that shortly after hee may the better manifest his dislike by effecting some good this is not to doe evill that good may come of it but to doe good in a prudent manner Let us take care to hinder other mens faults and to doe it wisely that over-earnestnesse may not hinder our successe Secondly as he sought to prevent his death and hurt so was he fully minded to restore him to his Father againe So we must intend and seeke out fit meanes of bringing our intentions about to do good unto those men whom we so causelesly pursued by ill men and to set them in safety and prosperity especially to those that are neere unto us and when wee may bring comfort also to others by procuring the safety of such as are deare to them as Iudah after would have beene a bond-man to Ioseph in Benjamins stead that he might send him home in safety which would have beene lesse to his Fathers griefe because he was more able to loose Iudah then Benjamin When such cases fall out we must take fit opportunities of doing good Lastly it grieved Reuben exceedingly when he found his hopes disappointed and saw Ioseph taken out of the pit for then though he did not know what they had done with him yet he conjectured that it was not for good that they had remooved him and therfore he rends his cloathes saying in a dolefull complaint the Lad is not yonder and I whither shall I goe He could not thinke I suppose of incurring his Fathers anger for not preserving Ioseph for he might well enough conceive that the matter should never come to his Fathers knowledge but sorrow for his former fault by which he had grieved him very much made him exceedingly heavie that now a new crosse should fall out to poore Iacob which he knew would crush him much more then his fault had done So that consciousnesse and penitent sorrow for his former evill made him much more loving now to his Father much more desirous to prevent his griefe and much more discontented and troubled when he found himselfe prevented of the thing he desired All men must learne to be grieved if any occasion fall out against their wills and knowledge by which they be hindred from doing such good as they intended Indeed it can hardly be thought that one did seriously purpose to crosse an evill plot if the thing being of weight he be not seriously troubled that he is disabled from crossing it But the matter which I would most commend to the imitation of children is this The more they have by their offences grieved their Parents already the more carefull they must bee to shew their love and respect unto them afterwards by all meanes and to take heavily those things which they know will grieve them But most wicked and impenitent and gracelesse must they be counted that still adde wrong to wrong and persist in a continuall course of vexing and tormenting their Parents hearts by their misdemeanours breaking forth still more and more Further Reuben did a good worke when hee sought to remoove his Father from his stiffenesse in resolving not to send Benjamin to Aegypt and if it were possible to winne him to that which was so behoovefull for them all yea and doing it with much earnestnesse too saying Slay my Sonnes if I bring him not to thee againe hee did not meane to expose his Sonnes to the danger of death by his Fathers and their Grand-fathers hand for hee knew him to bee a farre more loving Grand-father then that hee could finde in his heart to take such a fruitlesse and bootlesse revenge but his meaning is to deale most effectually with his Father to perswade him to a needefull thing and disswade him from an harmefull peremptorinesse as much as if hee had told him that hee would use as much care and diligence for Benjamins preservation as if the life of his two sons did lye at stake for him It is a good thing even very vehemently to strive to remoove our friends from ill and unreasonable resolutions and this may well bee done even to Parents and Governours so that still wee observe such a manner as may not discover any dis-regarding or sleighting of them Let no man therefore abstaine from doing such a good office to his Governour though it seeme not so pleasing for the time for at the last it shall so commend it selfe to him that finds the benefit of it as that dislike will bee turned into favour onely so that an over-rough manner of doing doe not adde to the bitternesse of the thing as it did in Ioab when he perswaded David to go out and speak unto his servants And let not Governours bee offended with their Inferiours for taking upon them so farre It is no transgression of duty even
they had slaine onely the ravisher it might seeme to have beene justified by this reason had it beene good but Hamor and the other Citizens knew nothing of this abuse at least they were not guilty of it none of them had abused their sister Secondly who ever made this law that a man greatly wronged should kill him from whom he had received wrong so their reason is naught and if it were good yet would it not reach farre enough to justifie their deedes Here we have two faults to answer their Father surlily and impenitently justifying the fault in a kinde of angry muttering at the reproofe this is a common fault amongst inferiours if they be reprehended they goe away grumbling some sorry excuses or other being angry within and shewing it as farre as well they dare by mumbling out some fond words so as they cannot be distinctly heard This is a kinde of replying to Governours and is a sinne shewing that there is no sparke of true repentance for the fault at least that then that sparke is even raked up But if after the heate of passion that carried one to commit the fault a man be told mildly of his fault and then mumble out such foolish excuses sure he is not penitent and in very deede such mutterers would have their mouthes stopped and stomacke taken downe with smart and blowes This shewes a sleighting of the Governour as well as not repenting of the fault I pray you inferiours now you are quiet consider how undecent a thing it is and how ill beseeming your places that you may blame it in your selves and condemne it for the future and seeke to get it pardoned And now learne to doe better give such an answer as these young youthes should have done but did not that is confesse your offences humble your selves resolve upon and unfaignedly promise amendment and pacifie the anger at once of God your Governours and your owne consciences And see in them a second fault in this one answer a bearing out of themselves in their sinnes without feare shame or remorse and that upon so fond a pretext as this that they had received a wrong first To continue heardned in a sinne such a sinne not to be able to see the hatefulnesse of it not to feele the weightinesse of it not to feare the just judgements of God and due punishments of men but in steede of sorrow to shew stiffenesse as much as to say if it were to doe againe I would doe it and I am not sorry that I have done it this is a great badnesse and to beare ones selfe thus in sinne upon meere false conceits that have no probability of truth in them argues a most blinde minde and a stupid conscience and makes the sinne much more offensive to God as shewing that the mind is not carried to sinne on a suddaine temptation but gives it selfe to sinne out of the place it hath given to the beleefe of false principles as these had concluded with themselves that it was reason to kill him that abused their sister and therefore deliberately had resolved to doe it Let us take heede to our selves that we be not thus hardened by the deceitfulnes of sinning Now the punishment of this sinne is this that they were minded of it by Iacob and had not that part of the birth-right setled upon them though the next in age that Reuben had forfeited but were scattered and divided in Israel and made to be two of the smallest and meanest tribes not fit either to command and rule or else to have the double portion because of their small number God did afterward turne this to Levi to a blessing but in it selfe it was a punishment God causeth that for murder and such insolencies toward the Father the whole posterity after them doth fare the worse in earthly things for their fault and just it is that he should doe so for hee lookes upon Parent and childeren as upon roote and branch making but one common bodie where each is a part and therefore in smiting the roote doth bring misery upon the branches too and contrarily O let us take up this argument to fortifie our resolutions against sinne shunne earnestly the doing of those evils which may provoke God to scatter and disperse thine ofspring after thee And so much of Simeon and Levi onely we have mention of Levies death too how long he lived and then he died Exod. 6.15 that he lived 137. yeares Now of Iudah in severall consider his faults and vertues benefits and crosses His faults were these besides what was common in the matter of of Ioseph and the rest First that he seperated himselfe from his Fathers house and went and lived with a certaine Cananite called an Adullamite because he lived neere a place called Adullam and out of I know not what occasion there grew a great and inward friend with him This was to get out of Gods blessing into the warme sunne to leave the family of Iacob and table with Hiram this was to excommunicate himselfe out of the Church what in him lay and to bid adue to God and all his spirituall blessings It must be noted as a great fault for any worldly respect whatsoever voluntarily to transplant a mans selfe out of the visible Church into a profane and unhallowed place where the Church is not There where you have Gods Word Gods Sacraments Gods Name and Gods people and finde your selves spiritually edified there abide though it be with some inconveniences to your estate and be willing rather to suffer outward dammage then inward shew more love of goodnesse then Iudah did when he was a prophane young man After you see he returned home to his Fathers house it had beene better not to have departed thence at all A second fault being there he is led by his eye to marry a Cananitish woman It is likely without consent or privity of his old Father it is scarce like he would goe to him to aske counsell whose family he had forsaken Beware young men of erring with Iudah and marrying your selves to prophane and idolatrous persons of your owne heads for sinister respects least the Lord punish you as he did Iudah The youth of Iudah doth a little excuse for he was very young when he had his first childe as appeares because his childe by Tamar viz. Pharez had two sonnes at the time of their going downe to Aegypt when Ioseph was but 39. yeares for he was 30. before the yeares of famine came when he stood before Pharaoh and there had beene 7. yeares of plenty past after his preferment and two of famine Now Iudah was Iacobs fourth sonne borne about the fourth or fifth yeare of his being in Padan and Ioseph the last borne there about the 14. yeare so there was some 10. yeares space betwixt that therefore Ioseph being 39. he could be at most but 49. Tamar by whom he had Pharez was married to
They helped Abraham and kept their covenant Ephron His vertues 1. He courteously saluteth Abraham 2. He was liberall and kinde to Abraham 3. He was just and true in his word 1 Cor. 11.14 15. Pharaoh His faults 1 He was lustfull Pro. 6.25 2. He carried himselfe over-churlishly to Abraham His vertues 1. He dismissed Sarah presently when hee knew her to be married 2. He used Abraham kindly for Sarahs sake 3. He lets Abraham depart without offering any inâ—ury to him Psal 119.71 Abimelech nothing is said of his birth and death His fault he was too lustfull Gen. 20.6 His Vertues 1. He speedily and readily obeyed God Rom. 1.18 2. He acquaints his servants with Gods pleasure 3. He admonisheth Abraham and Sarah of their fault 4. He not onely restored Sarah but also satisfied Abraham in some sort 5. He granted Abraham liberty to dwell in his countrey in any place 6. He takes notice of Gods goodnesse to Abraham His benefits 1. God made him a King Pro. 22.29 James 5.3 2. God kept him from committing a sinne which else he would have committed 3. God revealed himselfe unto him in a dreame by night 4. God speedily removed his chastisement Job 11.14 15. His crosses God stroke him with sicknes and weaknesse and his women with barrennesse Foure Kings They were violent Their maine sinne was taking Lot among the Sodomites The Sodomites had no vertues Their faults in generall Their sinnes in particular 1. They rebelled Prov. 24.21 2. They mended not by their chastisement Prov. 29.1 Isa 1.5 Jer. 2 30. 3. They were unnaturally filthy 1. The crime of Sodomitrie it selfe Rom. 1.23 24. 2. The aggravations of this sinne 1. In respect of the persons to whom they would have offered this villany 2. In respect of the persons that committed it 3. From the manner of doing it Isa 3.9 The sinne of Lots sonnes in Law they would not be ruled by their Father Other sinnes of the Sodomites 1. Pride Pride is a great sinne It s nature fully discovered Ignorance what Folly what Luke 18.14 Isa 23.9 Jer. 13.17 Pride what it is Gal. 6.3 The meanes to subdue pride 2. Fulnesse of bread Luk. 16.19 James 5.5 3. Abundance of idlenesse Idlenes a great sin and why 2. Thess 3.10 Verse 11. Prov. 26.26 Prov. 23.21 6.11 28.19 20.4 What Idlenesse is Prov. 31.21 4. They strengthened not the hands of the poore Mat. 25. Mar. 10. 1 Joh. 4.20 1 Joh. 3.17 Two sorts of poore men 1. Gods poore 2. The Divels poore 2 Thess 3.10 5. They committed abhomination 6. They were haughty How pride and haughtinesse differ 1 Joh. 2.16 Psal 13 1.1 Psal 101.5 Foure things discover pride in the outward carriage 1. The lookes 2. The gate 3. Words 1 Sam. 2 3. 4. Cloathes Rom. 12.16 Isa 3. 16 c. The Sodomites punishments 1. They were taken captive 2. They were burned with fire here and in hâ—ll Jude 7. Isaac Rom 9. Gal. 4.28 His Birth His Vertues towards God 1. His Faith Heb. 11.20 Gal. 3.8 Mat. 10 39. Gen. 22.17 2. He was religious Heb. 13.10 Heb. 13.16 Phil. 4.18 3. He prayed to God for all good things Phil. 4.6 Eph 6.18 4. He meditated Gen. 24.63 2 Tim. 2.7 5. He feared God 5. He obeyed the Commandement of God 2. His vertuous carriage in regard of men and his estate He was obedient to his Father 1. In being ready to be killed Ephes 6.1 Pro. 30.7 2. Was ruled by him in marriage Children should not marrie without their Parents consent Gen. 21.21 Gen. 28.1 2. Judg. 14.2 2. He buried his Father Gen. 25.9 3. He loved his mother dearely 4. He loved his wife tenderly Ephes 5.28 29 Col. 3.19 Gen. 2.24 Prov. 5. 5. He contented himselfe with Rebekah 6. He hearkened to Rebekahs wise counsell 7. Hee blessed his children out of faith Heb. 11.20 8. He conferred the principall blessing upon Iacob to whom God had given it He accepted Abimelechs reproofe 10. He made Abimelech and his company a feast 11. He was a good husband 12. He made a spirituall use of earthly commodities His faults 1. He forgat the Word of God 2. Hee loved Esau better then Iacob and that for carnall respects 3. He did lie out of feare Psal 118.6 Ephes 4.25 4. He scandalized Abimelech 5. He loved good fare too much His Benefits 1. Spirituall God made his covenant with him 2. Temporall 1 Had a good Wife 2. One godly childe and a nother that respected him 3. Was very rich Gen. 26.12 4. He lived long Isaacs crosses 1. He was long blinde 2. Met with divers troubles in his state 3. Was long without issue 4. He was crossed in Esau 2. In Iacob His death Rebekkahs neither birth nor death is mentioned in Scripture Her vertues 1. She was chaste while a Virgin 2. She was painfull and curteous My Lord said she Sir as you would say in English 3. She was willing to be ruled by her friends in marriage Her good carriage when married 1. She joyned with her husband in prayer for children 2. She inquired of God when the children strived in her wombe 3. She was dutifull to her husband 4. She loved her best son most 5. She provided such food for her husband as he liked Her faults She used fraud to conveigh the blessing to Iacob 2. She was too much troubled at her evill daughters in law 2 King 19.4 To desire death because of misery is a sin and why 3. Her prosperity She was effectually called Gen. 24.16.20 2. She was beautifull healthy strong had a rich and godly husband and a good childe 4. Her afflictions 1. Her husband was blinde and weake 2. Her husbands affections were set too much on the worser sonne 3. Esaus resolution to kill Iacob 4. Iacob was banished from her as it were 5. She was vexed with the frowardnesse of her daughters Esau his birth 1 His good quality 1. He shewed good respect unto Isaac his Father 2. He was melted with his brothers loving kinde humble carriage 3. He was not greedy of gifts 4. He joyned with his brother in burying his Father His faults 1. In generall he was an hypocrite 2. His particular faults 1. He gave himself wholly to hunting 2. He followed his hunting over-eagerly 3. He made himself great by war 4. He was a prophane man which prophannesse shewed it selfe in 3. acts 1. In selling his birth right 2 In despising it 3. In leaving the land of Canaan 5. He shewed not due respect to his Parents 6. He falsely accused his brother 7. He hated his brother 8. He comforted himselfe in the thought of killing his brother 3. His benefits all temporall His afflictions His death is not mentioned in Scripture Gen. 26 1. Abimelech his vertues 1. He tooke not Rebekkah from Isaac though he affirmed her to be his sister Ver. 8. 2. He construed Isaacs sporting with Rebekkah in the best sence Ver. 9. 3. He told Isaac plainly of his fault Ver. 10. 4.
store yet we have sufficient to keep our selves and ours from pining away with want O that we could be as full of thanks when we are freed from wants as we have beene of complaints even for small crosses And now use moderately your abundance that God may not strip you of all and bring you to such extremity and why should we forfeit our selves and ours to famishing when wee see that God is tender to us and willing to satisfie us with good things And lastly let every man prepare for this crosse think of it tell himselfe it may befall him and resolve if the wisedome of God shall bring it upon him that he will labour patiently to undergoe it not so as to be sorrowlesse that were no way commendable but so as to be moderate in grieving and to turne his griefe into spirituall griefe and powre it forth before the Lord in humble and penitent confessions and lamentations for sinne Before I depart from handling of Hagars Example I must say something of Sarah and her which I knew not how so fitly to speake of in the life of either viz. that these two Mothers and the children borne of them were Allegories as S. Paul calls them that is figures of some other thing mystically signified by them For this we have the authority of S. Paul Gal. 4.21 In these words Heare you not what the Law that is the writings of Moses commonly called the Law because the Law was the principall part thereof doth say for it is written that Abraham had two sonnes one of the bond-woman another of the free-woman and the son of the bond-man was borne after the flesh that is by a bare naturall power of generation as any man naturally may beget a child of a woman without any power above nature concurring to the work But she that was borne of the free-woman was borne by promise that is not so much by any naturall strength of the Parents as by vertue of Gods promise which bound his truth to set his Omnipotency a worke above nature otherwise Abraham that had so long lived with Sarah in her youth and could never become a Father by her should much lesse have beene so by her now when her body was quite dried with age which things saith S. Paul are an Allegory according as I told you before For these are Testaments or Covenants the one from Mount Sinai which came thence being there published and promulgated it is the Law the Covenant of workes whereof it is said The Law came by Moses and this is said to gender unto bondage that is to beget and make not sonnes and daughters of a free and ingenuous spirit loving God and out of love doing him service and meerely of his grace love free favour and promise expecting their reward but bond-slaves which out of a feare of punishment or hope of reward doe service and expect the reward for the worthinesse sake of their workes and this Covenant is Hagar meaning is signified by Hagar for saith he this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia meaning is so by signification and representation and answereth in signification and Type to Ierusalem which now is and is in bondage meaning to the Law and to the curse and rigour of it being debtors to the whole Law to doe it or if they doe it not to the curse to suffer it But this Ierusalem which is from above that is the Heavenly Ierusalem the Church the number of true beleevers that doe indeed seriously imbrace the doctrine of the Gospell which began by Christ and his Apostles to be preached at Ierusalem not hoping to be justified and saved by the merit or worth of their owne workes but by the free promise of God in Christ those are free from the curse and rigour of the Law and shee is the mother of all true Christians of us all that is of my selfe and all those which with mee looke for righteousnesse and salvation alone through the merits of Christ and mercy of God in Christ through faith in his name and after he saith As then he that was after the flesh persecuted him that was after the Spirit even so saith he it is now Here you have the full Allegory two Mothers a bond-woman and a free-woman two manners of begetting after the flesh and after the Spirit two kindes of children bond-men and free-men and the bond still persecuting the free The Mothers are the two Covenants that of the Law and that of Grace The two manners of begetting one of the promise the other by the flesh two kindes of children bond-men to good and free-men The matter is this Those that bring nothing but their owne naturall power to the Law and so seeke by it to be justified they are but of a slavish disposition and have nothing but the reward of slaves but those that looke to the goodnesse of God in the Covenant of Grace having the power of Gods Spirit are made to love God as children and admitted to the inheritance of sonnes Let us take heed of being sonnes of the bond-woman for many be such still The Papists will needs challenge salvation as due by the merits of their owne workes and so in very deed doe exclude themselves from it by challenging it on a wrong ground And the multitude are in this respect no whit better then the Papists for their owne good deeds are still in their mouthes as if they would be saved by workes which yet cannot save them yea some reliques of this ignorant and foolish pride was found in the Saints who if they finde not which they will never finde perfection in themselves are still apt to question their estate as if it were their owne goodnesse that should bring them to Heaven not the goodnesse of God in Christ rewarding them freely with that undeserved crowne because they are become the children of God by faith in Christ Now let us take heed of being the sonnes of Hagar but let us acknowledge still our owne sinfullnesse and unworthinesse yet still rest on his mercy in Christ and strive to obey him in love as children doe their Father and so much for Hagar * ⎠* THE TENTH EXAMPLE OF KETVRAH ISHMAEL ELIEZER NOw Abraham had a third wife her name was Keturah The Scripture bringeth her in as it were a dumbe person tells nothing of her parents life nor death but mentioning her bare name alone shewes that shee was Abrahams wife as I conceive and what children shee had by Abraham we are told Gen. 25.1 her sonnes were sixe as you may reade in that place Now the Lord seemeth to tell us this little of this woman and her sonnes because we should the more acknowledge the blessing of God upon Abraham in restoring him to a second youth as it were and making him so fruitfull as to beget six sonnes in his old-age after Sarahs death whereas before at an 100 he was as good as dead
according to S. Pauls phrase Rom. 4. So Gods blessing is able to make our soules fruitfull in all good workes though of our selves wee be utterly barren and unfruitfull And thus we have done with Abrahams wives Now let us speake something of his contemporaries beginning with his sonne Ishmael Ishmael was sonne of Abraham and Hagar his maide servant borne unto him at his 86. yeeres as saith the Holy Ghost Gen. 16. ult He was the sonne of a godly Father but whether himselfe were godly or not it is uncertaine But in his life we must note First his Vertues Secondly his Faults Thirdly his Benefits Fourthly his Crosses and then shall we come to his death His vertues First he lived in his fathers house in outward conformity and obedience for he submitted to his father at 13. yeares to be circumcised Gen. 17.25 and so had the outward seale of the covenant but yet he was not the promised seede nor had the covenant made with him nor had the Church and true religion continuing in his family So we must learne not to satisfie our selves with being in the Church outwardly but must labour to become true members of it and to enter into the covenant indeed It will not profit us to have the Sacraments outwardly administered to us for he is not a Jew which is one without neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh but wee must indeavour after the inward circumcision even to get the righteousnesse which is by faith that that faith may purifie our hearts and purge away from us all filthinesse of flesh and spirit And if we make use of the outward seale thereby to be made to see and feele our uncircumcisednesse of heart and heartily acknowledge Gods will and power to make us partakers of the inward circumcision so putting forth our selves to beg for and labour after that inward circumcision the Lord will surely bestow it upon us Againe all children must learne to submit themselves to their parents at least to an outward performance of such holy duties as by their parents they shall be instructed in else they are worse then Ishmael and will become matter of anguish and vexation to their godly parents Would Ishmael accept circumcison and wilt not thou accept instruction learne the principles of Christian religion and settle thy selfe to some shew of goodnesse then shall Ishmaels example rise up in judgement against thee and condemne thee And parents must observe Gods goodnesse in their childeren if they find them even in such a degree tractable and ruly for this is farre better then to be wilde and furious and to cast of all semblance of goodnesse and yet such would the best mans childeren prove if the hand of God did not restraine them But another good thing in Ishmael was that he submitted himselfe to his Father to be banished out of his house no question but Abraham that loved him would informe him of the necessity which lay upon himselfe so to expell his sonne and would furnish him with all good counsell who then being some 16. yeares old was capable of good advice and so did he without murmuring or wilfull refusing to go yeeld himselfe to that punishment It is a good thing in childeren to take quietly their parents chastisement even though they should be somewhat severe But to oppose them or to rebell against them or fall to clamorousnesse and impatiency is a great sinne even though the correction should be causelesse and unjust how much more if they be righteous and deserved Learne of Ishmael this submission how will you hope that you be Gods childeren if you do not equall such a one as Ishmael in goodnesse Againe Ishmael did another good office in the conclusion of his Fathers life for it is noted of him that he came to Isaac and joyned with him in his Fathers funerall Gen. 25.9 by which it is manifest that he bare no grudge against his Father for casting him out of his house but bore that respect towards him which was due to a Father and therefore did him the best honour he could at his latter end yea that hee did not harbour in his minde any envious and malicious thought against Isaac and therefore would come unto him and unite his paines to burie his Father Learne so much good of him I pray you as to forget that severity which perhaps Parents may have shewed to any of you and not put off the dutifulnesse of childeren because you have met with something that flesh and bloud would call hard measure The lesse inducement any man hath from a parents kindnesse to love and honour him the more commendable it is if hee performe all honour to him but he that will be so transported with discontentment against a parent for some sharpenesse as even to hate and contemne him most of all if his owne folly have inforced his parent to such proceedings is without all doubt a gracelesse and a wretched childe I pray you learne also by Ishmael not to suffer envy to rise against your Bretheren if in any thing they be preferred before you to your detriment Love not them lesse then the name of a Brother or Sister doth require because you may thinke that they have stood betwixt your parents love and bounty and your selves and so as it were overshadowed you and kept the sun-shine from you but behold the hand of God in so disposing of things and resolve to love still as Bretheren Further Ishmael did one good act of honour and duty toward his mother Hagar For it is said Gen. 21.21 that his mother tooke him a wife out of the land of Egypt so he was ruled by his mother in marriage having her liking and consent yea giving himselfe to be guided by her as did also Isaac to Abraham and Iacob to Isaac It is a needefull thing for childeren to take the consent and assent of their parents yea if it be but of the mother supposing the father to be dead or absent and not to rush into this estate against their willes and privity No comfort can come to the conscience in such a match for whosoever is joyned together otherwise then Gods Word alloweth can have no ground of comfort as those are that are joyned without the good will of those whom God hoth made his deputies in this businesse The Lord saith to Parents take wives for your sonnes and give your daughters plainely putting them into his roome in that behalfe wherefore having not consent from them they live in an unlawfull matrimony untill such time as by humble repentance before God and submissive intreaties to their parents they have attained that good leave of their parents which they ought to have gotten before If therefore any amongst you have so offended they must see the fault and be humbled and seeke pardon Most times the Lord doth sensibly crosse such matches make use of those crosses to increase your godly