a piece or crosse-bow but it is hard to take the flying bird It is easie for Satan to intangle with his temptations the Idlesbee but hard to fasten on the man of imployments The Lord commends and rewards diligence in a calling and bids know the state of thy flocke and bids men goe and learne of the Pismire and discommends idlenesse and sluggishnesse and threatens him that followes the idle Let good Abel teach you faithfullnesse in your calling Cast away sluggishnesse and unthriftinesse wearing out your bodies in vanities and worse then vanities and set your selves to some such worke as may make you able to answer the question of God and your Master when hee shall call you to account for the laying out of so pretious a thing as time But secondly hee was religious and devout hee brought of the fruit of his flocks yea of the firstlings and of the fat thereof He did bring to God one of the best and fattest of his Rammes or Ewes for Weathers were not for Sacrifice and no maimed thing was to be offered on Gods Altar It is not observed of Caine that hee brought of the first fruites and best of his corne or other graine It is likely that the Holy Ghost would have done this office of a faithfull Historian and have given Caine his due by telling the quality as well as the matter of his offering if it had beene as well qualified in this respect as his Brothers Wherefore when he commends Abels offering because it was of the choice and fattest of his flock it may be well thought in forbearing to say any thing in like commendation of Caines that hee tooke no great care whether it were of the best or not and therefore wee may well conceive that one cause of Gods rejecting Caines Sacrifice was because hee did not bring of the best of his fruites as one cause of his accepting Abels was because hee did bring of the choicest of his flock not that God looketh to these outward things but to the minde of the doer which for the most part if necessity hinder not doth shew it selfe in the valew and worth of the gift He that loves God will bring him as full a Sacrifice as hee can hee that loves him not will give him as leane a Sacrifice as it may stand with his credit to give A man whose heart is not upright with God will be at as little cost with him as is possible A man that is upright with him will inlarge his bounty towards him you shall see in Mal. 1.13 that God refuseth the Sacrifices because they were halt and blinde the worst and refuge of all and he curseth the deceiver that hath in his flock a male and voweth and sacrificeth to the Lord a corrupt thing and verse 8. he saith Offer it now to thy governour will hee be pleased with thee and accept thy person saith the Lord The Lord knowes that niggardlinesse towards him shewes want of love and faith but freenesse and bounty shewes truth of love and of faith and because he looketh to the heart therefore hee liketh that gift which comes from a loving and faithfull heart and hates that which comes from a contrary heart Learne therein to imitate Abel bring to God the best things you have he must have the fat the fat I say of your heards or flocks The chiefest of your affections must be his and your affections must shew themselves in action You must be willing to serve him with a costly service and be ever of Davids mind that said I will not serve God without charge Now these two things you have in the Text of Abel two other things you have in another place Heb. 11. He offered a better Sacrifice then Caine by faith Hee offered in faith and that caused him to bring a better that is I suppose he meanes there a more costly Sacrifice of better worth and valew of more price and cost not the cost but the faith that made him willing to be at the cost and the cost alone as it was a fruit and signe of the faith did content God and made the Sacrifice acceptable Let us learne therefore to doe all wee doe in faith The faith that good Abel had was the same that after is commended in Henoch hee was perswaded that God was and was a rewarder of them that diligently seeke him it was such as that which the Apostle there describeth it was the evidence of things not seene and the substance of things hoped for It was such an apprehension of Gods being and goodnesse to true Converts and such a perswasion of his will to give him the future invisible things hoped for as made Abel serve God in the course of his life in righteousnesse and not alone for a time to come to the Altar and offer Sacrifice Sacrificing was a profession of their owne guiltinesse submitting themselves to the Justice of God as men worthy to die and be burnt as that beast or other thing to be burnt but withall of their hope that God would pardon them for his goodnesse sake through that true Sacrifice which was to come And hee that offered Sacrifice without this faith of Gods accepting him for his mercy sake and without acknowledgement of his worthinesse to perish did not please God and all our Sacrifices must be done in faith now more distinct because we have a fuller revelation wee must doe all wee doe in faith not alone a perswasion of the lawfullnesse of what we doe but also an indeavour to trust particularly for our acceptation both of persons and Sacrifices in Christ not in the worthinesse of our selves or of our workes He that hath this faith he and his services shall please God hee that hath it not cannot please God whatsoever he doth Let mee therefore commend unto you the care of searching into your hearts whether you have this faith or no viz. that you beleeve your selves in your selves to be miserable sinners but confesse that Christ Jesus is a perfect Saviour and therefore even trust upon Gods mercie in him for grace and salvation But the Scripture saith that Abel was righteous and saith that he obtained witnesse that hee was righteous Where hath hee that witnesse Partly in that God testified of his gifts by accepting them for he accepts nothing but that which comes from a righteous man he heareth no sinners or more fully from the mouth of our blessed Saviour who calleth him righteous Abel Note therefore that Abel was a righteous man The Scriptures give infinite comfort and commendation to the righteous man Now there is a righteousnesse of the Law and of the Gospell A righteous man by the Law we shall finde none in all the world for S. Paul telleth us that by the workes of the Law no flesh shall be justified before God and that there is none righteous no not one and Iob saith of himselfe in this sence that if hee went to
respect of God man and her selfe For God shee is commended for her faith for the Author to the Hebrewes telleth us That by faith shee received strength to conceive seede and was delivered of a sonne when shee was past age because shee was perswaded that hee was faithfull which had promised where you see the nature of faith it is an acknowledging of Gods faithfullnesse a giving him the honour of his faith and setting to ones seale that God is true Faith causeth the minde of a man to submit it selfe to the Word of God and to be assured that hee can and will keepe promise for to the promise of God it looketh principally and this faith will cause a man to receive power from God to doe those things which otherwise of himselfe he wanted all power to doe This faith will make a weake man strong it will put fruitfullnesse into a barren wombe and life and strength into a dead body it will make a barren soule fruitfull in good workes and make the heart to conceive the Word so as to bring forth the fruit of good living whereto of it selfe it is as unable as a body past age is unapt to bring forth a childe Consider therefore whether you have gotten such a faith into your hearts as makes you fruitfull of good workes If we beleeve Gods promises faithfully it will sub-minister strength to produce all sorts of good workes which otherwise the heart of it selfe would never produce For he that beleeveth Gods promises shall obtaine strength from God to obey his holy Commandement and according to the strength of it to abound in good workes of all sorts Faith is a strong grace and puts a new power into the soule by which it shall be fit to doe good workes We have more largely discoursed of the nature of faith in the Example of Abraham who is also commended for faith Then Sarah in respect of Abraham her husband had two worthy vertues First shee obeyed Abraham her husband Secondly shee reverenced him and that in her heart and tongue too for shee called him Sir when shee thought of him in heart Her obedience shewed it selfe in a cheerefull forwardnesse to prepare things necessary to entertaine Angels that came unto her in the likenesse of men for it is said Abraham hasted into the Tent to Sarah and bad her quickly make ready three measures of fine flower and make cakes upon the hearth which shee did accordingly without grumbling or deferring Shee did not oppose her husband and demand husband you know not what these men be nor whence they come why should you make such care to prepare for them but without any more adoe at her husbands commandement shee gate all things ready according to his desire This is a commendable thing in a wife and is to be followed by all you godly women who would be counted daughters of Sarah if your husbands wish you to doe things honest and lawfull you must addresse your selves not to make your objections but to yeeld your cheerefull obedience according to S. Pauls commandement that saith Wives bee subject to your husbands in all things If any say that this was but a small matter I answer true but it is reported as it were a taste of her good disposition in this matter and a signe of her dutifull obedience the glory whereof the Holy Ghost giveth her more generally saying that shee obeyed her husband meaning constantly and generally shee submitted her selfe and was obedient Secondly it is noted of her that shee reverenced her husband which is also commanded to wives by S. Paul saying Let the wife see that shee feare her husband Loe it is earnestly charged upon women they must looke to it that they yeeld it Let the wife that is every wife see that is carefully looke to it and not make shifts or pretend excuses but see that shee doe it even feare her husband There is a double feare one which maketh one tremble and flie from the thing feared as hurtfull and mischievous so as men doe feare a Lyon or Beare to runne from him as fast as they can that hee may not teare us in pieces such a feare as this is not required Another feare is feare of offending wronging or grieving the person feared flying and shunning all such things as would displease him and make him conceive with dislike an irrespectivenesse of him This is the feare of the wife not to dare to displease her husband or anger him not so much least he should flie upon her with reproofes and blowes as least shee should be an instrument of griefe to one whom shee loveth and honoureth by her undutifullnesse and rudenesse And it must be noted that shee did so reverence him as to call him Lord. And how did shee call him Lord not in speaking to him or in speaking of him before others by whom it might be told him againe what shee had said but when shee thought of him or spake of him with the inward speech of her heart which none could relate againe but God who hath related this to her praise For that title shee gave him even in her inward cogitations when she said in her selfe at the hearing of the Angels promise that she should have a son Shall I have pleasure after I have waxed old my Lord being old also So the reverence of a good wife should be hearty and cause her when shee doth but thinke of her husband even then to give a title of due respect Wherefore to give rude and undecent termes to an husband such as would but become a Mistresse speaking to her bondman Ned Iacke Dick Tom Robbin is even a little too much familiarity in a wife favouring of some degree of contempt The ground of these two duties reverence and obedience is the image of God in the husband For he doth stand in Gods roome over her because as Christ is the Head of his Church so is the husband the wives head and the woman is the glory of the man meaning one that is made to bring some glory and honour to him Now by this fruit of Sarahs obedience which the Holy Ghost hath noted it is prooved that Sarah was huswifely in her house even as a woman that could stirre about in her family and looke to the dispatching of necessary affaires by her servants and them in her family For had shee beene a coy and nice or idle and sloathfull dame shee would neither have dressed meale nor kneaded it nor made cakes of it nor seene to the baking of them nor yet have followed her maid-servants and looked that they should have beene diligent in this businesse Further in respect of her sonne Isaac shee was a very loving Mother and nursed him with her owne breasts and thought it a duty for her so to doe for so it is noted of her that shee said by way of thankefull wondering at the benefit who would have said
it not to mee When the rich man refused to sell all and give to the poore upon an extraordinary command from him he lets him goe and admits him not to follow him nay by his words spoken immediately after it is as possible he excludeth him from Heaven for he must needs be understood of that rich man and such as he was Now if not giving of all upon an extraordinary occasion will shut a man out of the Kingdome then the not giving of some convenient quantity upon an ordinary occasion must needs procure the like punishment because the disobedience is equall in both cases The reason is first this is a flat disobedience to most expresse plaine and frequent Commandements There is scarce a duty of the second Table which God hath more plainely laid downe more often repeated more earnestly pressed then this of giving to the poore He therefore that liveth in perpetuall negligence of this dutie and either will not acknowledge it or will not practise it lives in a wilfull and constant rebellion against God Thinke not my Brethren that it sufficeth to proove a man upright if hee doe not live in a sinne of commission that is in the continuance and allowed doing of something forbidden by God Nay if he live in a sinne of omission i. e. in the continuall and allowed neglect of a duty commanded this is not to obey God in all things this shewes ones heart is not universally subject to God This prooveth that some vice hath dominion in him and that he loveth and respecteth something more then God which cannot stand with uprightnesse yea beloved this hypocrisie which is so much over-awed as it were by cleerenesse of knowledge that it scarce dares discover it selfe by taking boldnesse to commit sinnes of commission but knowes how to hold in with sinnes of omission and to give them allowance enough is so much the more dangerous by how much it is lesse discernable For hee seemeth to himselfe to have much to say for himselfe why this duty should not at this and this time binde him because no affirmative precept bindes to all times and so hee will shift it from himselfe in such manner as not to take notice that hee offendeth whence groweth the greatest perill of all Therefore know you that this unmercifullnesse to the poore as prooving that obedience is but partiall and so that the heart is not upright is sure a very great sinne But secondly it declareth that a man beleeveth not the promises of God and so that his faith is not unfained It is sure that as hee which obeyeth not all Gods Commandements obeyeth none so he that beleeveth not all his promises beleeveth none For if we submit to his truth because it is a perfect truth wee must grant that hee cannot lie nor be deceived in any thing and if wee build not our consenting to his words upon his truth that cannot be called faith at all Now God hath made so many so evident so full promises to those that are mercifull to the poore as no other duty almost can alledge for it selfe A promise throughly beleeved must needs produce obedience to the Commandement whereto it is annexed because every man is so truly desirous of his owne welfare that what hee doth stedfastly perswade himselfe will procure good unto him with the paines and cost for that hee will surely put himselfe to the paines and to the cost Hee theerefore that is not mercifull doth not beleeve these promises because hee doth not obey the Commandements to which they be joyned How then doth hee beleeve any other promise So we have prooved him by this argument to be voide of faith and is not that a great sinne which convinceth him to be void of faith in whom it is Further no man hath true charity that hath not a heart to confirme the hand of the poore for S. Iohn makes the conclusion thus Hee that loveth not his Brother whom hee hath seene how doth hee love God whom he hath not seene And hee doth but lie that saith hee loves a man unlesse he be ready to releeve him for S. Paul saith that love is bountifull wherefore S. Iohn is peremptory in this conconclusion saying He that hath this worlds goods and seeth his Brother hath neede and shutteth up his compassion against him how dwelleth the love God That therefore is a great offence which prooveth that a man hath either none or none but counterfeit charity I have shewed you what a grievous offence this is of the Sodomites afore I passe from it let mee shew unto you a necessary distinction of poore men Some are Gods poore as I may terme them some the Divels Gods poore are they whom his hand crossing them or some naturall meere indiscretion of their owne or abundance of charge want of worke or the like hath brought into and doth keepe in poverty The Divels poore are those whom idlenesse wastfullnesse and unthriftinesse doth make poore because either their hands refuse to labour or else they consume it all up superfluously when they have gotten it The former kinde of poore you ought to strengthen and the not strengthening of them is a sinne To strengthen the hands of the latter is to strengthen their sinne and therefore their hands must not be strengthened for S. Pauls Canon is against it He that will not labour shall not eate Now consider every man of himselfe may it not be justly said of you that you doe not strengthen the hands of the poore Are not a number of you in your owne consciences convinced or if you would not winke might bee convinced that you doe not strengthen the poore mans hands When have you with any willingnesse given to any poore man any reasonable quantity Yea how backward are a number of you to give any thing at all Here is such complaining amongst you of your being seised too much one and too much another that it is more then evident you have little will to part with your money to his purpose I know not what skill to use for the fastening of a reproofe upon a niggard I will not so much as strive to doe it therefore But I call upon each of your consciences to become a just and true Judge against you and to finde one your guiltinesse and to give you no quiet till it have made you confesse the fault and blame you for it But I call upon conscience in vaine I feare for the conscience of a niggard is alwaies a bad conscience so inthralled to the love of money that he will not want excuses to make himselfe thinke he need not do that duty by which he should lessen his heape But these excuses shall one day aggravate the sinne therefore whosoever is an offendor in neglecting this duty of strengthening the hands of the poore I pray you give your consciences leave to passe a right sentence upon you viz. that your faith love obedience
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
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
that concerne him in his life If godlinesse and religion be not of force to command us in this thing it cannot be conceived that we have any sound knowledge of it and if outward things sway us most here they have the soveraignty and dominion of our hearts Shew your selves spirituall in choice of yoke-fellowes if you will enjoy the comfort of being so in good earnest and in sincerity And if any have done otherwise O let them be much humbled it is a great fault an hazarding of ones selfe to destruction or of his children a signe that one doth not rightly know neither sinne or goodnesse if in this matter wickednesse cannot disgrace all other things and vertue over-ballance all other and therefore if God have made such a match very dismall and unhappie to any one and that they have found these things unable to give content and with these they have beene turned aside from the right way let them acknowledge the justice of God and turne the punishments into a meanes of unfained repentance for the sinne It is just with God to crosse mens false opinions of things and make them meete with wretchednesse where they did falsely and unwarrantably promise to themselves contentment as they doe most times in such kinde of ill made marriages If any good man have so transgressed he is now called to repentance for it by Gods hand crossing and Gods Word warning him Againe beware I pray you of the next sinne viz. unjustice and violence that is taking away the goods of others by strong hand whether by manifest violence or by violent wresting and abusing of law through strength of wit or purse or both To take away that from another by any manner of strength which is his in right that is violence God hath often in his Word spoken against this for the waters of the floud have not yet washed it out but it hath place in the world still Those that are stronger then others will wrench and pull and make a shift to tug all they can unto themselves though they have no right unto such things covetousnesse and greedy desires beget oppression to satisfie such an unsatisfiable desire David complaines Psal 55.9 that hee hath seene violence in the citie and Psal 11.5 Him that loves violence his soule hateth By violence men tread underfoot the light of nature and bury their reason in passion and under it It is the property of beasts to be lead by will and passion what they desire to have if they can possibly get it by any device or power they will have it rules of right they acknowledge none nor can acknowledge because they want reason which is the sole distinguisher betwixt right and wrong But man that hath reason which can set downe limits and bounds to every mans possessions and benefits should follow his reason and not take so much as his hand can reach and pull unto it selfe but alone that which he findes the rules of equity to give him He that doth otherwise doth infinitely trespasse upon Gods Royalty over the whole world for he doth not carrie himselfe in this great family according to the will of him that is the sole maker and master of it and so lives as if himselfe were Master and chiefe Lord and not bound to any rules but those of his owne will Violence therefore is a grievous sinne It will bring Gods curse and anger and hatred upon the committer A violent man is odious in the world and in Heaven too his love of himselfe makes him iâ—jurious to all and therefore also loathsome Flie violence therefore either of hand or head and take nothing but what in true right you can prove to be your owne and if you have gotten any thing by violence repent of it and rid your hands of it else the hand of God shall be heavie upon you for it he will bring your violence upon your owne pates And know I beseech you that as there be two sorts of violent beasts so of men You know there be Lions and Beares and Tigers and great creatures that prey upon the weaker as upon the Sheepe the Cowe c. and then there be little beasts too that prey upon the lesser as the Weezle on the Mouse and on Chickens and such like that be lesser then themselves So there be two sorts of violent men too the great and wealthie man and the poore and meaner man The one can beare out his violence openly and doth it in greater things The other doth it more closely and in lesser things but both will have what equity doth not give them by one or other shift or wile or act of his hand And truly as great wickednesse is found in poore men this way as in the wealthier He that is as bad as his place will suffer is as wicked a man as another that in higher place is more apparantly wicked Give the Weezle the fangs and limmes of a Lion hee will doe as much mischiefe as a Lion Therefore the poore robbing the poore is compared to a sweeping raine that leaveth no food and none more violent then these little violent ones when they can tell how to make way and beare out their violence will not you see it evidently in the boldnesse of the poorer sort to steale corne at this time of the yeare He that will pull a piece of ones sheafe from him if hee were a great Prince of name and power would pull his whole living from him Beware therefore of those unjust waies of getting which are under your hands and in your powers incident to your places repent of them shun them and forbeare them for conscience sake that you may not provoke Gods wrath against you Further the men of this time were extreamely worldly as our Lord Jesus noteth they sold over themselves to the world and cared not for Noahs preaching nor for any thing that might concerne their soules but sold over themselves to earthly dealing as you reade in Luke 17.26 27. O be not many of you such are not your hearts fully possessed with all earthlinesse Doe not you set your selves altogether to the things of this life with the meere neglect of that which concernes a better Surely those that doe so are in heart Atheists they doe not thoroughly beleeve that immortality of the soule nor the being of another world For were every mans heart fully perswaded that his soule should continue for ever in another world either in eternall weale or woe it were not possible for him not to consider of the estate to come as well as of the state present if we did as well know and beleeve that there is an Hell and Heaven as that there is an earth and in it misery and welfare we could not but be as studious to get the future happinesse and escape the future misery as the present I pray you therefore strive against that sinne of the old World viz. giving up your selves
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
Bible they make no reckoning that that good or evill will come ever a whit the sooner Now I pray you see and lament your unbeleefe it is the roote of all sinne neither can any sinne be found to rule farther then this ruleth and I pray you cry to God to worke faith in you by the Word you reade and heare for no good at all can it doe you if it be not mixed with faith And if any man have such faith in Gods Word indeed and not alone in profession and shew happy is that man for hee shall be sure to find the like acceptance of God that Noah hee that hath this faith must needs be in Christ and Christ in him for where Gods Word dwells there himselfe dwels and the Word of God dwells in men by faith A third thing in Noah is noted by the Author to the Hebrewes that he was moved with feare you see he feared Gods threats he was afraid least he should be drowned with his family among the rest if he did not obey God and live vertuously and build the Arke at Gods Commandement and indeed if he had not done so he should have perished with the world as whosoever lives wickedly shall be damned this is a threat he that hath true faith will not deceive himselfe with vaine words and say I am elected I am a beleever I shall be saved though I take liberty to sinne but he will feare and depart from evill and use those meanes of escaping destruction which God hath appointed So true faith will undoubtedly worke such a feare of Gods threat as will make a man depart from evill because it brings a lively apprehension of danger and much evill before his eyes if he sinne and therefore cannot but worke feare I meane a feare of caution as they call it whereby a man is made warie to shunne and escape the evill There is a passionate feare whereby the heart is perplexed the joynts shake and such naturall bodily accidents doe follow it This feare ariseth from the bodily presence or imminent danger of some sensible evill and Noah did not so feare the floud There is another rationall feare as I may well name it by which a man apprehends an evill thing to come so as he is made carefull to shunne prevent and dares not bring it upon himselfe And this feare lookes on things a great way off long before they offer themselves to the sences and such was Noahs feare And such a feare faith will evermore bring with it It will cause that a man shall not dare to doe the things forbidden out of an apprehension of the greatnesse and extremity of the danger that will arise Now looke to your selves my Brethren doe you feare Gods threats doe you feare the curse of the Law the wrath of God hell fire damnation with such a feare as makes you use the meanes to escape these evills and makes that you cannot be bold to doe the things against which the Lord speaketh these things If you brag of faith in Gods promises and have not faith in his threats your faith is a vaine fancie and a meere painted or dead faith for no man can credit any thing which God speaketh if he doe not credit all so farre as he knowes and considers it because God cannot be deceived in any thing And if you say you beleeve Gods threats and doe not feare I say againe be not moved through feare to doe the things by which you might escape those evills threatned even to forsake the sinne and repent certainely you deceive your selves and doe not beleeve Now it is most evident that most men entertaine Gods threats without any feare They are not affected at all with the heare-say of these evills therefore it is sure they have no faith See your want of faith by the absence of this never failing effect thereof and cousen your selves with a shadow of faith no longer And now pray God to plant in your hearts such a feare of his threats as hath beene said It is a most wholesome thing to have the soule over-awed with apprehension of the evills which God denounceth against evill-doing and to be thereby kept downe so that it hath no courage to lift it selfe up to naughty deeds Blessed is he that thus feareth alwaies O that you would worke out your salvation in this feare and trembling O that the same minde might be in you that was in godly Iob who said that terrour from God did keepe him from doing any wrong to his servant and that of the holy Apostle S. Paul who said that knowing this terrour he did perswade men and was made manifest to God Let those threats if you live after the flesh you shall die and those that doe such things shall not inherit the kingdome of God and for these things sake the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience and many the like be often in your mindes let them awe you and hold under the strength of your corruptions causing you to denie your selves all unlawfull profits pleasures and effects of sinne and to crosse your owne wills and to set your selves to do the things that are most contrary to flesh and bloud The feare of the Lord is to depart from evill this feare of the Lord is the beginning of true saving wisdome to them that thus feare are all the promises of the Gospell made yea it is in one word said those that feare the Lord shall want nothing Never thinke that your faith is right and good if it do not produce this feare for faith must acknowledge God to be faithfull in all his words threats as well as promises and this grace is that which being planted in the heart of man doth keepe him from falling away from faith doth preserve the soule to salvation by working in it this good and vertuous feare of damnation as faith kept Noah from drowning by making him holily to feare drowning Now the last vertue of Noah is that he built an Arke as God bad him and furnished it with all foode and went into it at the time appointed and received in with himselfe and family all manner of Beasts and Birds that could not live but on drie ground two and two male and female of the uncleane that were not fit for foode and Sacrifice and 7. and 7. of those that were cleane that is fit for foode and Sacrifice at least for the last Here is his faith which brought forth obedience to the word of God in such things which seemed ridiculous to the world and made him a laughing stocke unto all the world almost Noah forsooth the youngest of the Patriarkes hee will needes be thought to have better acquaintance with God then either Henoch or Methuselah or Lamech or any of his Grandfathers that have lived or do live None of them could see a floud comming none of them had a fancy of the worlds being drowned none
it if you have it not yet get it if you have it labour to increase and nourish it by considering his great excellencie and great terriblenesse A third vertue Abraham had obedience that is his will was thoroughly subject to Gods will in all things so that he held this resolution within himselfe that whatsoever God bad him doe that he would doe for which God praised him saying because thou hast obeyed my voice and the Apostle saying he obeyed and went out Obedience is a resolution and indeavour to doe all that God bids because he bids Let us take some speciall acts of obedience wherein Abraham did crosse his reason and his affection and his credit and his profit and all to performe the will of God even therefore onely because God bad him whom he durst not out of feare and would not but out of love follow in all things First God gave him Commandement to leave his Countrey and Fathers house to goe out into a land which he should shew him A strong Commandement leave all thy kindred and goe into a Countrey thou knowest not whither but goe from place to place as I shall shew thee Here seemed no reason in this Commandement but Abraham obeyed it Gen. 12.1 Secondly when he came into the land of Canaan he did not build a Citie nor an house there but dwelt in tents as the Apostle noteth as a pilgrim and a stranger not having possession in it at all so much as a foot God gave him no place of abode but caused him to wander as himselfe telleth Gen. 20.13 This seemed an unhappy and unsetled life and flesh and bloud could not take content in such a kinde of living but because God injoyned Abraham so to live He submitted himselfe and did live so save that onely he bought a place to burie in as being still mindfull of his death A third heavie Commandement he received from God Gen. 17. 10. and 26. God made him to circumcise himselfe and all the males of his family and all that should after be borne when they were eight daies old and he made no question of it To circumcise was to cut off the top of the uppermost skinne of the secret part This seemed the foolishest thing in the world a matter of great reproach which would make him as it made his posterity after to seeme ridiculous to all the world It carried an appearance of much undecencie and shamefullnesse to cause all his servants to discover themselves unto him Much more might have beene alledged against this ordinance what good could it doe what was any man the better because he had wounded himselfe and put his body to that torment yet for all this Abraham disputed not objected not made no contrary allegations but presently the selfe same day tooke himselfe and his sonne Ishmael and all his servants in his house and circumcised them according to the commandement of Almighty God Yet a fourth commandement more tedious and contrary to reason and affection then all these which was of it selfe exceeding grievous in his sight as the Holy Ghost witnesseth that is the expulsion or excommunicating of his sonne Ishmael and of his mother Hagar yet when God commanded him to doe it Gen. 21.12 hee rose up the next morning betimes v. 14. and sent away both the mother and the sonne But last of all he obeyed a commandement that seemed to contradict nature and religion and Gods promise and his owne salvation and the salvation of all men and the truth and honour of God himselfe so that God was said to try him to the utmost in that commandement It was in sacrificing Isaac as the Spirit of God notâ—th Heb. 11. and Gen. 23. God bad him take Isaac and not instantly kill him in the place but goe three dayes journey and not knocke him on the head and there an end but offer him for sacrifice But what was this sonne the sonne of his old-age the sonne of his love which was so deare unto him yea the promised seede in whom it was said In Isaac shall thy seede be called and this sonne he offered after a most melting conference betwixt himselfe and Isaac his sonne all alone Here was an obedience incomparable and unparalable no man ever did the like except our Lord Jesus Christ who offered up himselfe which must needes be dearer to himselfe then Isaac was to Abraham So now marke the excellency of Abrahams obedience hee was obedient for the matter in hard and difficult things for the manner promptly and readily without gaine-saying speedily and presently without deferring and universally without excepting without picking and choosing If you be able to produce such obedience to justifie your faith that it may appeare your faith is a working faith then have you faith indeed and not in word alone but if your faith be not accompanied with an obedience of the same kind though not in the same degree whereby you are able to yeeld your selves to God resolving in all things readily and without delay or murmuring to yeeld unto him how are you obedient how have you faith such a faith as was Abrahams All therefore that say they beleeve as Abraham did but yet obey not as Abraham did yea are wilfull against Gods Commandements refusing to doe knowne duties and to leave knowne sinnes that will not circumcise the foreskin of their hearts nor leave their countrey and Fathers house nor cast out their Ishmaels nor offer up their Isaacs all such are beleevers alone in shew and not in deed Compare your selves with Abraham and if your obedience be not like his I say as before having the same ground extent and properties it is but a counterfeit faith whereof you boast and no true faith Therefore now be earnest with the living God to worke in you true subjection to him and to make you like Abraham his servant for God that wrought his heart to such flexiblenesse will and can performe the same for you Pray him to incline your hearts to his statutes beseech him to write his law in your hearts and to cause you to keepe his Commandements and judgements and doe them And if you find such an obedience though not so great yet that which hath the same ground and strives to attaine the same extent and properties then take comfort and be not afraid to call your selves sonnes and daughters of Abraham for Zacheus was the sonne of Abraham when leaving his greedinesse hee could make restitution and give to the poore Now a fourth vertue in Abraham was religiousnesse for it is said of him that hee built an Altar to God and that hee worshiped God and that he called on the name of God and that he payed tithe of all he had to Melchisedech and this is for our learning We must call upon God we must professe and practise true religion we must offer reall sacrifices on Christ the Altar we must also
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
his Father as a sonne in the family and house-hold of his Father and bids him leave kindred and Fathers house and goe into a Countrey which God should shew him promising him large off-spring great blessings and that the promised and blessed seed should come of him for S. Paul saith that God preached the Gospell before to Abraham when he said in thee shall all Nations be blessed so that he was more largely instructed by God of remission of sinnes and salvation everlasting by one that was to be borne of him Now God caused him also to beleeve these promises so that he left his Fathers worship and obeyed God If any of us have had the Word of God preached in our eares and by name the promises of the Gospell and hath found his heart so affected with those promises and the true beliefe of them that it hath made him follow God in a holy conversation of life and leave his former sinnes travell towards the land of life that land which God had shewed him in the paths of righteousnesse and true holinesse this is effectuall calling happy and blessed is this man Rejoyce in this calling and blesse God for it more then for all earthly things whatsoever And if any of you be not as yet so called let him see his misery and now call upon God so to call him till he finde his prayers granted for if we turne to God he will turne to us and if we seeke to him for the performance of his gratious Covenant in putting his Spirit of Sanctification in our hearts he will not faile to doe it But a second spirituall blessing was 1. He gave him most gratious promises 2. He appeared to him many times to renew those promises 3. He entered into a Covenant with him and his seede after him 4. He gratiously accepted his prayers and after this life he saved his soule First he made him gracious promises Gen. 12.2 I will blesse thee and make thee a great Nation and thou shalt be a blessing and I will blesse them that blesse thee and will curse them that curse thee Againe he appeares to him to renew this blessing and these promises Gen. 13.4 promising him a large off-spring againe and the possession of the land of Canaan understood by Abraham to be a figure of an heavenly inheritance for he sought a Citie to come saith the Author to the Hebrewes Againe Chap. 15.1 and in the whole Chapter hee confirmeth the promise againe by another vision I am thy shield and thine exceeding great reward so to comfort him against the doubts which hee might have that the vanquished Kings might prepare an army and returne upon him and there also againe he renues the promise of giving him a sonne yea giving him a multitude of children after him and by a signe confirmes it to him Looke up to Heaven saith hee and count the Starres c. yea gave him faith to beleeve it and assures him that hee was justified and that hee accepted that faith of him for righteousnesse accounting him by meanes of that faith for the sake of him in whom hee beleeved as perfectly just as if hee had perfectly fulfilled the Law And yet more fully assuring him of his goodnesse by entring into a covenant with him in a vision and by sacrifice And in Chap. 17. hee renewes the same covenant with him againe and confirmeth it by the seale of circumcision and by changing his name assuring him also that he should have the sonne of the promise by his most beloved wife Sarah and telling him also what name hee should be called by Isaac from his laughing at the promise not by way of distrust and unbeleefe but of faithfull joy and gladnesse in it And in Chap. 18. hee appeareth unto him againe in forme of a man and tells him the particular time of the childs birth and acquaints him with his purpose concerning the overthrow of Sodom And last of all after he had offered Isaac hee appeares unto him againe and by an oath confirmes to him the former blessings Gen. 22.16 which hee had never done before This is a singular mercy to Abraham to give him so many promises to renew them so often to him and confirme them so strongly to him And you must looke whether God vouchsafe to shew himselfe thus to you even to bring home to your soules in the reading and hearing of his word and exercises of religion the gracious promises of his word giving you by his Spirit assurance that hee admittteth you into the covenant is your God pardons you blesseth you and will give you all needfull things for soule and body and make you partakers of eternall felicity All Gods servants that are the seed of Abraham have this holy communion with God in his word in prayer in his ordinances which Abraham had in these dreames and visions for to the Fathers God shewed himselfe by those meanes to us by these and Christ saith that his Father and hee will come and shew themselves unto those that love him and keepe his commandements and suppe with them O if you find this spirituall familiarity with God how happy are you If not truly earthly blessings are of no great valew they be common to good and bad And now seeke you seeke you these spirituall blessings Gods assuring you of pardon of sinne and appearing unto you more and more to confirme your faith in the promises of the Gospell and to make you assured of your eternall happinesse and that he is your God untill at length he do even as it were sweare it unto you and make you certaine of it And Bretheren be you incouraged to answer Gods call to repent to live holily to cast of your sinnes and become obedient as was Abraham for though perhaps you may not be so rich as he nor have so many childeren nor have so great outward favours yet will God be your God he will be your shield he will be your reward hee will blesse you in all things he will give you the inheritance of life eternall as sure as he did to Abraham he will heare and accept your prayers and he will bring you safe to the land of rest to Heaven that true rest where you shall have no more unquietnesse inward nor outward Into Abrahams bosome will he receive all those that be the true sonnes of Abraham Learne to esteeme of these spirituall blessings though perhaps they may be separated from the temporall God therefore alone divideth them because he sees you be not fit for both but would be hindered from injoying the one and growing in the one by the overfull enjoyment of the other But the better I say you shall surely have as well as Abraham God will more and more assure you of his favour and of his kingdome and shew himselfe more and more graciously unto you in confirming to you his comfortable promises more and more This is better then all
told Abraham in her hearing that he should have a sonne by her at the time of life shee laughed at the promise of God as at a thing ridiculous and impossible saying After I am old shall I have pleasure and my Lord being old also for the Scripture saith Shee was old and it ceased to be with her after the manner of women See how when God promised a thing in nature and reason utterly impossible shee so farre forgat the Omnipotent power of God as to think sure it could never come to passe though God had promised it and the Angell reprooved her saying Shall any thing be impossible with God Thus the people of God doe sometimes stagger at the promise of God through unbeleefe when God saith one thing and reason saith the contrary they consult with flesh and bloud and credit their owne reason above the authority of God which speaketh to them This is a great fault and tendeth much to the dishonour of God as if his power were limited by the rules of reason or by the course of nature and did not exceede our reason and stand quite above the power of nature Wee must see this sinne in our selves labouring to be humbled at it but not discouraged for this weakenesse of faith may well stand with the truth of faith not he hath no faith at all who is many times troubled with doubting but he which yeelds to it and is overcome by it Wee must also strive to waxe strong in faith by putting our selves in minde of Gods Omnipotency and faithfullnesse as Sarah did at length for the Apostle witnesseth that shee judged him faithfull which had promised and those promises which we must labour stedfastly to beleeve are the promises of God to pardon our sinnes and write his Law in our hearts and to make us able to walke in his waies and crowne us at last with life and glory nonwithstanding our sinnes and imperfections Though the performance of these promises seeme to us as impossible as that a dry woman should be a mother yet we must labour to rest upon them because of the fidelity of him that hath promised to perfect his power in our weakenesse Another fault of Sarahs was this that once shee forgat her selfe to her husband and was full of anger and discontent wrongfully charging him to take her maides part against her saying My wrong he on thee for I have given my maide into thy bosome and now I am despised in her sight It was true that Hagar did sleight her too much but that Abraham was guilty of this fault by bearing out Hagar in it that was altogether false as his answer prooveth plainely for hee saith thy maide is in thine hand doe with her what thou wilt So Sarahs anger made her use false accusations against her husband Be humbled yee wives if you have chafed with your husbands and carried your selves injuriously towards them in words Sarah did this but she did it not oft it was this one time alone so farre as we read in other things shee behaved her selfe meekely and reverently O looke to your selves that you offend not continually in that thing wherein this good woman offended once alone and no more for this once was even too much keepe downe anger therefore and let it not breake out against your husbands And you husbands learne though your wives doe transgresse sometimes not to be harsh with them againe but heale their errours with the spirit of meekenesse as Abraham also did Shee must blame her selfe but shee may bee indued with grace for all this But another weakenesse of Sarah is that shee was somewhat too rough with Hagar insomuch that Hagar could not indure it for if shee was so violent in words with Abraham what doe you thinke her carriage was to the maide yea shee was something too earnest against Ishmael and her too when nothing would serve her but that she must have them both together cast out of doores For though God bad Abraham doe according to her words it followeth not thence that she was not overpassionate in it God for a misterie would have it done and yet Sarah might offend in doing it So good people are apt to be overharsh to them that wrong them and exercise too much bitternesse against them Another fault of Sarahs was that shee dissembled at her husbands request and that two severall times saying shee was his sister and so saying it that those to whom shee spake might thinke shee was none of his wife for that was the intention both of Abraham and Sarah It is a weakenesse in wives sometimes to be led by their husbands to doe that that is evill and to joyne with them in sinne Here Sarah hazarded her chastitie to content her husband to satisfie his feares she was like to have brought her selfe and others into a fearefull sinne This fault must be reformed by good wives amongst others and they must resolve not to sinne against God for their husbands sakes fearing his displeasure more then the danger of their husbands or their anger Indeede in laying nay to such motions of their husbands they must use reverence and do it in a calme and quiet manner but refuse they must being warned by the example of Sarah Sarahs last fault was that shee denied her laughter to the Angell when shee had sinned in laughing To lye in a passion for feare of blame denying that one hath done a thing which indeed one hath done that so one may escape reprehension or correction is a sinne to which mans nature is very subject springing from the want of the feare of God and from an excessive carnall love to ones selfe and desire of his owne temporall safety This fault you may reade Gen. 18.15 Reade it not to doe the like but to amend it and to be moved to repent of it if you have committed it Now then let us reflect upon our selves and consider of our owne carriage both to condemne the like faults in our selves and to beare with them in others without bitter censuring and so we shall profit by the knowledge of their evill deedes Now let us consider the benefits that Sarah enjoyed Shee had all those common benefits of health and strength and the like which God doth usually bestow upon all men but besides she enjoyed excellent benefits The first that God gave her faith and saving grace pardoned and passed by her offences and sanctified her and hath saved her soule notwithstanding her faults This is the mercy of mercies that God pleaseth to sanctifie and pardon and save a man for if he be sanctified he is pardoned and shall be saved what profit hath any one of other things if he want this and so be damned for ever after a little content enjoyed here Let us therefore labour to finde this goodnesse of God to us let us humbly pray him that made Sarah godly to make us so
that tie their horses to the rack-staves and fill themselves with drink or victuals Then his last good deed is he makes hast about his businesse to tell it and set it a foot for he would not eate till he had done his errand and then he effects his businesse fully for he rose up betimes in the morning and would not stay one day but with all speed returnes to let his Master see his good successe O that you servants would all be such servants faithfull diligent in your Masters affaires religious devout prayerfull thankfull on all occasions and carefull of the beasts and other goods committed to your charge and returne home when your businesse is dispatched Now faults in him the Lord shewes none as I said before for the cause then mentioned Benefits he had foure very great 1. That God gave him a godly Master 2. That God gave him favour in his eyes so that he trusted him with all he had 3. That God made him a true Christian for bond and free are all one to God And lastly that he prospered him and brought him safe and with good successe to his Masters house You that be servants pray for these blessings Beseech God to make you his free men and if God grant you favour and good successe in your journeys learne to be very thankfull for it And for his crosse it was this he was a servant to be a bond-man is a lesse desireable condition as Paul intreateth saying if thou maist be free use it rather but it is an easie crosse if a man can meete with so godly a Master and be accepted with him hence S. Paul saith care not for it you that must live by service grumble not at this crosse For your service is not a bondage for life but alone as apprentices for a certaine time or as hired servants from yeere to yeere murmure not at the meanenesse of your estate but frame as this man to be faithfull and godly and you may live as happily here and get as much glory in Heaven hereafter as your Masters * ⎠* THE ELVENTH EXAMPLE OF LOT his VVife and Daughters AFter the Example of Abraham and his Family wee come to those that lived in the same Age with him particular persons and whole Cities and peoples Among particular persons I will begin with Lot and then speake a word of his wife and daughters For himselfe when and of what Mother he was borne it is not recorded but wee have notice of his Father who was Haran the brother of Abraham who died before his Father in the Countrey of Mesopotamia The death of Lot is also concealed in Scripture so that we cannot acquaint you when he ended his daies nor where But in his life we must observe what good is found in him and what evill and secondly what things he met withall in his life both good and bad First for his goodnesse in generall he hath the testimony of the Holy Ghost by the pen of S. Peter that he was a righteous man It is said there that God delivered just Lot as also that righteous man dwelling amongst them vexed his righteous soule This is proofe enough of his goodnesse and it was necessary for the cleering of his name that the New Testament should testifie of his righteousnesse because the narration of his life in the old leaves him in such a case as would make the Reader afraid least hee had quite falne away from all goodnesse but Peters testimony is proofe enough that the committing of that great sinne did not take him of from the number of the righteous No sinne is so great but repentance wipeth it so cleane away that the offender is righteous and must be so esteemed notwithstanding the grievousnesse of his crime Now let each of us labour to get true righteousnesse that though this title be not bestowed upon him by the undeceivable pen of some Author of holy Writ yet hee may heare it pronounced by our blessed Saviour at the last day when standing on the right hand he may be blessed with the blessing of the righteous And let me be bold to turne my speech unto you that have beene and are the grievousest sinners If you lament your unrighteousnesse rest on Christs righteousnesse and hereafter studie righteousnesse in your lives you shall enjoy the happinesse of righteous men at last There is a seeming righteousnesse a meere Pharisaicall paint when a man carries himselfe blamelesly to men ward at least in respect of the grosser acts of evill This will save no man at the last nor comfort him in time of temptation there is a true and reall righteousnesse which will undoubtedly save them which can be so happie as to get it and of this true righteousnesse there are two sorts one of the Law it standeth in a perfect conformity of heart and life unto the exact rule of Gods Law And if there had beene a Law given which could have given life doubtlesse righteousnesse should have beene by the Law but now the Scripture hath concluded all under sinne that the promise by the faith of Iesus Christ may be given to them that beleeve So now we must have a righteousnesse by promise that is by the Gospell for that of the Law is too high for us And the righteousnesse of the Gospell is twofold one without us performed by our blessed Saviour for us as a surety paies the debt for the debters use and benefit by which we stand just before God and have our sinnes pardoned and are accepted to salvation When we have so seene our own misery as to goe quite out of our selves and rest alone upon Christ for all good things according to the promise The other is within us it is a gift bestowed upon and wrought in us by the Spirit of God alwaies and inseparably joyned with the former by which we are manifested to our selves and to others to be just and it standeth in a true desire and indeavour to know and leave every sinne forbidden by God and to know and doe all good workes required so that we still continue to humble our selves for our failings and to seeke unto God for pardon and helpe in and by Christ and his Spirit This righteousnesse of faith which denominates him in whom it is righteous you must all get else you shall never attaine eternall life It is a thing appointed of God in such perfection of goodnesse and wisdome that it cannot be found in any Hypocrite seeme he never so good and will surely be found in any upright hearted man be he never so weake never leave striving till you have gotten it and gotten certaine knowledge that you have it Dost thou in thy heart see and acknowledge thy selfe to be a cursed sinner by reason of thy corrupt nature that is derived to thee from Adams loynes and thy wicked life whereby thou thy selfe hast actually
spoken with Abraham and finding her to be his sister alone and not his wife for the former both of them affirmed the latter he did not inquire of so diligently as to learne the truth from them he resolved to have her to himselfe God himselfe after doth seeme to acquit Abimelech of any adulterous intention for when hee alledged that he had done this in the integrity of his heart God himselfe beareth witnesse to his uprightnesse in that respect saying I know thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart meaning that he thought verily that she was onely sister not yoake-fellow to Abraham and that if hee had knowne her to have beene a wife he would not have taken her so that he was free from intending to commit adultery but from an excessive desire of beauty hee is not free for why should a man be so carried after women that if he see any beautifull Virgin hee must needes enjoy her and not satisfie himselfe with such wives as he had taken before This verily must needes be a sinne for God did not appoint the society of man and man for pleasures sake that a man might seeke to satisfie himselfe in the delight of imbracing so many faire women as he could get but for the increase of and storing of the world with people Let us learne vertue out of other mens vices This is the sole fault which the Holy Ghost noteth in this man not because he had not more but because this alone was that wherein hee wronged Abraham and Sarah of whom the Holy Ghost intended principally to make his history Now for his Vertues divers good things are told of him First in respect of God Secondly of his own servants Thirdly of Abraham and Sarah First in respect of God When the Lord appeared unto him in a vision vers 3. and told him that he was but a dead man meaning was worthy of death and so should certainely die unlesse he reformed himselfe because the woman he had taken was another mans wife he did defend his innocency before God truely alledging that he did no way suspect her to be a married woman because both her selfe and Abraham said she was his sister and would not be knowne of their being joyned together in matrimony which also the Lord confesseth to be true Yet so soone as God had commanded him to restore the woman backing his commandements with promises and threats presently he obeyes the Lord and returneth the matron to her husband It is a worthy vertue and a proofe of integrity speedily and readily to obey the word of God and amend those sinnes which before we did not know when once the Lord doth vouchsafe to make them knowne unto us This proveth that the soule is uprightly desirous to avoid all sinnes when it will instantly reforme the fault once manifested To linger and put of from time to time and strive to make ones selfe blinde and to winke and not see the sinne or not addresse to a speedy reformation that is a fruit of guilefulnesse but to yeeld to God and ones conscience and without further delayes to leave of the sinne and put it away and the occasions of it that is a proofe of sincerity at least in that particular When God declareth a fault to us bids us mend promiseth life if we doe mend threatens death if we will not reforme if we beleeve his promises and threats and submit to his Commandements we shew integrity Abimelechs Example must teach us this effect of uprightnesse If any of us be guilty of the contrary fruit of hollownesse that we have neglected to acknowledge a fault beginning to be revealed to us and out of love to the sinne in respect of any profit credit pleasure it flattered us withall have rather indeavoured to shut out the light by false reasonings then to receive the knowledge of the truth when it began to shine out of the cloud of ignorance wee must greatly blame our selves for such hypocriticall behaviour This is that S. Paul accuseth the Gentiles of saying that Gods wrath is manifest from Heaven against all ungodlinesse and unrighteousnesse of men who detaine the truth in unrighteousnesse who doe as it were imprison and suppresse truth and hold it downe that it may not shew it selfe unto them out of a love they beare to sinne and wickednesse And sure Gods wrath shall appeare evidently against all that in such manner shall play the dissemblers with him how much more then if when a man cannot so darken himselfe with fained pretences but that he must needs see and confesse the truth in his conscience shall he be guilty of a great sinne if still he uphold in himselfe a will and resolution to commit the sinne that he could not but see to be a sinne or if he doe not come to a present resolution of amendment but put it off till afterwards and purpose to continue offending once or twice or a little time longer Shall not Abimelechs example condemne our disobedience before God if we shew our selves so much inthralled to sin Two things shew dominion of sinne in a man one where he refuseth to know though he have due meanes of knowledge and a certaine working of knowledge offering to convince his conscience another when though he doe know yet he resolves to persist in all evill or at least remaines irresolute and doth not determine to leave but stands as it were unsetled in his will at least for some time If any of you finde himselfe so disposed it is certaine that sinne ruleth in him and he is not under grace Wherefore you must diligently proove your hearts in this respect if you desire ever to enjoy the comfort of knowing your selves to be upright Now then learne to lend a dutifull eare to the Word of God and see the sinnes that it beginnes to shew you and put on a full and setled resolution of not adventuring to commit them any more And if any finde himselfe so subdued to the authority of God in all things that he seeme ready to entertaine the light of truth and to obey it and will not struggle and strive against the light in any thing then may he assure himselfe that his heart is true within him and that the Lord will surely accept him and forgive his unpurposed offences and sinnes of meere weakenesse and frailty Indeed in some one or two things that are too too grosse as adultery here a man may be prepared to yeeld to truth and yet not have an honest heart to God but he that in all things doth thus submit himselfe is surely good before the Lord. And so much for Abimelechs obedience to God in that he receiveth his commandements here with faith and present obedience which wee shall also doe if we seriously consider his promises of life to the obedient and threatenings of death to the disobedient till we worke our hearts to a firme and stedfast beleefe of them
to be a fearefull offence the hatred of which must needs arise from the feare of God It is blamed in an Heathen Nation Ier. 48.29 Wee have heard of the pride of Moab he is exceeding proud his loftinesse arrogancie and pride and the haughtinesse of his heart The Prophet saith of the Iewes too Chap. 13.13 that hee will weepe in secret places for their pride And our Saviour reckoning up that abhominable litter and broode of sinnes which have their originall in mans heart that is his corrupt inward disposition amongst the rest nameth pride Marke 7.22 And how much God hateth this vice is evident by the threats which in his Word he hath thundred against it S. Peter saith â— Epist Chap. 5.5 God resisteth the proud hee sets himselfe against him as in an armie ordered for the battell he is alwaies in the field as it were with his troopes ranked and ready to give the onset and take every advantage of doing him mischiefe Salomon saith Prov. 11.2 When pride commeth then commeth a fall a man is apt to runne into most shamefull faults and so to bring upon himselfe the greatest of all reproaches when once hee giveth pride the possession of his heart and after Prov. 16.28 Pride goes before destruction This sinne is a necessary forerunner of ruine it is an Harbenger to note our a lodging place for misery and calamity and Chap. 29.23 A mans pride shall bring him low truly low enough even as low as hell it selfe for must it not needes cast him low and low that maketh God his utter enemy It must be a loathsome vice if wee consider the causes whence it comes and the fruits which it produceth The roote of it is nothing but ignorance or follie or both Ignorance is the not knowing of what one should know Folly the not usefull considering of what one doth know and were not the heart made starke blinde with one or both of these vices it could never rush into pride For so meane is a man in his very Creation that he comes of dust and nothing and in his sinfull corruption now much more meane when he is of his Father the Divell as the Scripture saith nothing but the spawne of Hell and a very bastard mis-begotten by the Prince of darkenesse and subject to so many miseries here and to such a weight of eternall misery hereafter that if he were duely informed of this basenesse and did rightly beleeve it and consider of it hee could not possibly be puffed up with a good conceit of himselfe But his high fancies are ever strong and working in him when his heart is so filled up with darkenesse and blindnesse that either he doth not at all or not certainely know these things A drunken beggar will carry himselfe like some Emperour and he cares for no man because he hath not the wit to take notice of his owne basenesse So it is with the proud man so very a foole hee is that hee cannot instruct himselfe of his owne contemptiblenesse and therefore he is apt to be lifted up in himselfe now folly and ignorance be so vile things themselves that no naturall issue of them can choose but be like themselves even sinfull and wicked Againe the effects of it are exceeding hurtfull the punishments it causeth the Lord to lay upon men are great as you heard before he is a professed enemy to him hee hath threatned to pull him downe Hee that exalteth himselfe shall be abased God will marre the pride of men and staine their excellencie and he plagues them often in their bodies and states by giving them up to such absurd carriages as doe pull ruine upon themselves and alwaies in their soules by giving them up to the hardnesse of their hearts so that they be of all the most impenitent and irreformable and therefore it is said that when God will convert a man he covers his pride by chastisements and when Ieremy chargeth the people to amend and give glory to God before his judgements come upon them hee saith if you will not heare my soule shall weepe in secret for your pride noting that this filthy pride doth even stop up the eares against all wholesome advertisements O how fearefull a vice is that which cuts off the way to all amendment by turning away the eare from receiving instruction the principall instrument of working amendment But it produceth many sinfull carriages in all respects First in respect of all persons Secondly of all states Thirdly of all qualities For persons it makes him in whom it ruleth and so farre as it ruleth rebellious against Gods precepts carelesse of his promises and regardlesse of his threats so that hee despiseth and contemneth all the authority of God and will not be guided by his counsell Caine was a proud man you all know hee would never else have killed his Brother on that quarrell whereof you heard Now when God himselfe came to admonish him and disswade him from that murder it was all in vaine hee would not hearken to God but continued to harbour malice till it brake forth into bloudshed In respect of men for ones selfe it makes him selfe-ish all for himselfe not regarding who be hurt so himselfe be pleased selfe-willed and heady so that no counsell will rule but hee will head strongly like a madded beast runne on in his owne race as the Captaines that came to Ieremy for counsell because they were proud men and as the Scripture notes would not accept of his counsell And it fills him full alwaies of discontent fretting and vexation nothing no person can please him he is still finding faults just like one that hath a swelling upon his hand something or other toucheth it still and drives him to out-cries And for others towards his superiours he is undutifull and will not heed their words nor be ruled by them He thinkes himselfe too good to receive their correction or reproofes or chastisements and growes worse rather then better For his inferiours he is likely tyrannicall and Lionlike and cares not how he disgraceth and wrongeth and over-punisheth them rating and striking and laying about him even for nothing or as good as nothing For those that are more prosperous then himselfe and excell him in any thing he is ever envious and spitefull and malignes them for it For those that are below him he is scornefull and disdainefull and insolent in deriding and sleighting them for his equals hee is arrogant and insolent too still lifting himselfe above them and preferring himselfe before them If he meete with men in a good estate he grudgeth at them if with miserable men he scornes them and passeth by them pittilesly if not scoffingly And towards all in generall he is contentious and froward ready to picke and prosecute quarrells to make the worst of every thing and to take all with the left hand ready to work in proud wrath quickly angry and apt to vent his anger in lofty and
and such When in these things hee doth not as S. Paul biddeth equall himselfe with them of the lower sort but of the higher When though God have humbled his estate yet he maust still keepe up his port and by hooke or crooke make a shift to be as gallant as ever This prooves a proud heart for noe man would bestow so much garnishing upon himselfe if he did not count himselfe some body and did not desire to be so accounted of others Therefore Isaiah among other fruites of proude vanity speaketh of the many gewgawes of the women of his time by which they sought immoderately to set out themselves A number of you thinke your selves farre the better when you have set up your selves with a deale of gaudinesse such lace such ruffes so in the fashion If it be sutable to your place and meanes it is no great discredit but if above surely it is as great a discredit as can be for it is as if you should weare a paper upon your heads or backes in which were written in great letters as in some other crimes hath beene done Bee it knowne unto all men that here goes a proud man and a proud woman It is even a Proclamation of your pride and folly and a telling tales against your selves which I am sure you would not doe if you did well thinke of it yea it is more then that for it brings your names into question about your truth and if you be females about your honesty there is such a mans servant she is exceedingly sleeked up see what a wase-coate what a gowne what a ruffe what a dresse shee hath it might well beseeme a mans daughter that would give her a large portion what hath this wench to maintaine it Is her father able to doe much for her no well then I wish she get it by honest meanes I wish that either a false finger or an over-curteous lip do not helpe her to it I am afraid all is not well that she is so fine This is all the good this haughtinesse doth you and will you not leave it The Sodomites punishments First they were taken captives blesse God that you have not felt this misery Secondly God sent fire and brimstone and destroyed them all at once Ezek. 16.49 They were set forth for an example Iude. v. 7. Sodome was turned into ashes 2 Pet. 2.6 The ground is now turned into a salt sea called the Dead Sea no fish will live in it the bird that flee over fall downe dead Thirdly they were cast into the lake that burnes with fire and brimstone Let us feare the sinnes of Sodome God is able to punish us in the same manner * ⎠* THE FIFTEENTH EXAMPLE OF ISAAC HItherto of Abraham and those that lived with him now we come to Isaac the sonne of Abraham not of his body so much as of his Faith for hee was the sonne of the promise the sonne of the free woman not of the bond-woman which was borne as S Paul saith not by the flesh nor by a meere naturall power but by promise by vertue of that gratious promise which God had made with him for this was a word of promise at that time I will come and Sarah shall have a sonne and in Isaac shall thy seede bee called and wee bretheren saith the Apostle as Isaac are sonnes of promise Now Isaac signifieth laughter or hee hath laughed or shall laugh a name given to him by God himselfe upon occasion of his Fathers laughter when he heard the promise not out of unbeleefe as Sarah once laughed but out of the joy which he conceived from the assured hope which hee had of the performance of the promise and because God filled both Abraham and Sarah with gladnesse and laughter at his birth when they were both olde and in course of nature were now past all possibility of having children Concerning Isaac we must shew his birth life and death For his birth he was borne in the hundreth yeere of his Father and the 90. of his mother His Father was Abraham his Mother Sarah both as good as dead but by faith they received strength to have a Sonne at that age For Faith will make a barren body fruitfull and also a barren heart In in his life consider First his Virtues and goodnesse Secondly his faults and weakenesses Thirdly his prosperity and benefits Lastly his afflictions and crosses For his Virtues in generall he was a true godly man and was endued with Faith without which no man can please God This Faith the Author to the Hebrewes taketh notice of in him saying By Faith Isaac blessed Iacob and Esau as concerning things to come This vertue of Faith is that by which a man beleeveth God in all that he speaketh barely by vertue of his truth and indeceiveable authority And as it apprehendeth the truth of all Gods word so particularly the truth of his promises and by name that great promise of remission of sinnes and salvation for the sake of Jesus Christ the true Messiah and promised seede in whom all spirituall blessings are conferred upon the sonnes of men for it is said in him shall all the nations of the earth be blessed Consider your selves therefore Bretheren whether you also have this same vertue of Faith in your hearts beleeving all that God speaketh to you because he speaketh it and specially all his promises and by name that principall promise of grace and salvation by Christ for without this Faith you cannot be the children of God If you have it not you are strangers from God and from the covenant of grace If you have it you are his sonnes and daughters justified before him and accepted in his sight through him the Beloved in whom the Father is well pleased And therefore labour to get it and to grow in it more and more that it may exceedingly abound in you as S. Paul saith it did in the Thessalonians But beware you deceive not your selves in a bare conceite of Faith saying you beleeve when indeed you doe not so but let your Faith be a working Faith approoving it selfe by love and by obedience that so you may indeed be the children of Abraham and children of promise as Isaac was and If you can thus approove your Faith then rejoyce in it above all things knowing that you are rich in Faith though you want all outward things for he that hath Faith hath God to bee his and that is sufficient to make him happy in the absence of all other things More particularly Isaacs Faith shewed it selfe by many excellent effects in regard of God For first he submitted himselfe to God to be offered on the Altar by his Father according to Gods commandement not making any resistance because his Father made it manifest unto him that God had given him a commandement so to offer him Hard it is to say whether the obedience of Abraham in being willing
but this affecting of it shewed that he had been taught by his mother this his interest and that he was possessed with an earnest desire of getting it which is the first fruit of his faith Secondly he desired also and highly esteemed the blessing as is seen in his condescending to his mothers motion of getting it according to her advice Here also weaknesse discovered it selfe but the desire of attaining the blessing shewed it selfe in this weaknesse and the fruit of faith is to be allowed though the corruption joyned with it be blame-worthy Indeed Esau also had a desire of the blessing as appeareth by his earnest entreaty and teares to his Father but Iacobs desires looked more to spirituall things Esaus to earthly So the ones was a fruit of faith in Gods promises the other a fruit of meere naturall love to ones selfe by which every man would faine attaine that which hee thinkes would prove beneficiall A third note and fruit of Iacobs faith was his gratefull accepting of Gods promises when he appeared to him in a dreame as hee was going on his way for he presently tooke notice that Gods was there and began to be reverently affected towards God and was carefull to erect the stone for a Pillar and to poure oyle upon it which was nothing else but a thankfull expression of his faith in Gods promises which also caused him to make the Vow following unto God as you have it Gen. 28.10 to the end A thankfull and comfortable receiving of Gods promises being cheared with them as with things most certaine proveth faith to the promise maker and to the promises shewing that a man is perswaded they shall be performed without faile Further Iacob shewed his faith in making choice of his wayes when Laban would have him to continue looking to his sheepe after the fourteene yeares of service were past for his two daughters for he desired to have the spotted speckled and browne cattell that should fall after for his wages Shewing that he looked to God whose hand alone could dispose of this so abstruse and hidden a thing in the course of nature Hee was willing to stand to Gods kindnesse and love rather than to any certain agreement with Laban which hee would not have done had he not beleeved Gods promises to blesse him and to encrease him as was told him in his dreame forementioned And therefore he tels his wives that the Angell came to him in a dreame and bad him looke on the Rammes leaping the Ewes which brought forth the Lambes spotted and grizled and so it was of God that he used the meanes of laying pilled sticks in the troughes at the time when the stronger cattell went to the Males Let any man make triall of the same course now and he shall not finde the same successe Such a sight before the ingendring cattell will hardly cause the yong to be spotted but that be did in faith as having been I guesse guided to it by the Angel which bid him look and see the cattell bringing forth Lambes and Goats of that colour And here is a good proofe when a man can rest himselfe upon God for his wages and for his meanes even in this world and not upon his owne wisdome or any such like outward thing A man would have thought this a very uncertaine match but Iacob staying on Gods promise was desirous of this way rather than any other to receive his reward by it Lastly he shewed his faith in blessing the two sons of Ioseph yea and all his owne as a sensible declaration to his children that he did not make any doubt of their possessing that Land according to Gods covenant with Abraham and promise to himselfe often renewed Now brethren I pray you let us labour to give credit unto that which God speaks to us and rest upon his goodnesse for the gracious performance of his faithfull promises which is the roote of all graces and will cause us to live holily if we once get it confirmed and strengthened in our hearts and let us labour to shew our faith by the same fruits that are to be seen in Iacob as was before noted Let us highly esteeme those signes of his goodnesse and meanes of attaining his spirituall benefits as Iacob did of his birth-right Let us make great account of his blessing especially spirituall blessings in things concerning our salvation whereof the Land of promise was a figure Let us receive his promises with reverend joyfulnesse and thankfulnesse Let us trust upon him for our reward of any faithfull service in any kinde that we performe labouring to bee perswaded that he will see us requited abundantly if men should neglect us A good man must trust to Gods blessing on his labours in things that depend upon his gracious providence and the disposition of things by it rather than to any other course wherein his wit may seeme to make matters more certaine Let us shew our faith by trusting also on God to blesse our children and by leaving proofes even at our dying that we be mindfull of heaven and that we make no doubt but God will performe his promises If our faith shew it selfe by these good effects it is true and wee must more and more see our weaknesse in faith by the contrary effects and more and more labour to prove the truth and strength of it too by its more and more producing those and the like effects Iacob also shewed his faith by running to God when Esau came against him and by praying to God to give his sonnes favour in the fight of the man and by offering to God when his sons sent for him for to have recourse to God still in our needs and make his name our refuge is an excellent proofe of our faith in his promises Now secondly Iacob was a religious and devout man that was carefull to serve the true God in the true exercises of religion as appeared in the particular duties of religion which hee performed First he was prayerfull and ready to call upon Gods name on all occasions when his brother Esau met him hee presently framed himselfe to call upon the name of God as you have it Gen. 32.9 Where is also an excellent forme of prayer for first he layes downe the grounds of his boldnesse to come to God in prayer saying God of my Father that is thou art my God in Covenant with me therefore seeke I helpe of thee and Thou saidst unto me returne as if hee should say I have thy word of Commandement and promise guiding me to this journey therefore I seeke to thee And secondly hee humbleth and abaseth himselfe before God as unworthy any benefit saying I am lesse than the least c. Then he makes his request Deliver me I pray thee c. and confirmes it by the greatnesse of the danger and his inability to save himselfe procuring great feare Whom I feare c. and next from the promise made
safe to heaven at the length Seeke this blessing of God If you feare God and walke in his wayes hee will blesse you if you faithfully beleeve in Christ and rest upon him alone you shall be blessed for Christ hath freed us from the curse and prepared the blessing for us if we be under the workes of the Law we are under the curse but if we be of the faith of Abraham we shall be blessed with faithfull Abraham as S. Paul tels us Labour to beleeve labour to goe out of your selves and to stay alone upon the righteousnesse of Christ by faith made yours and then you shall inherite the blessing and then you shall inherite the blessing and then you shall receive the promise of the Spirit through faith then God will keep his Covenant of grace with you pardon your sins give you his Spirit and make all worke together for good Through faith and patience you must inherite the promises and the blessing which Esau was excluded from though he would have inherited it because he sought it not of God but of Isaac his Father And you that have right unto Gods blessing because you are faithfull take comfort in it and be thankfull for it Gods blessing is a rich thing it is more than all honours it is fruitfull of all comforts he that is blessed of God shall want no good thing shall have earth and heaven and all things that his heart can desire If any say but we see that such men meete with evill enough in the world The answer is that if we looke with the eye of flesh alone wee thinke that we see it so but we thinke falsly for if wee would look with the eye of faith we should see it otherwise for the blessing of God causeth crosses to worke for our spirituall good for our increase of holinesse and happinesse and it is the efficacy of Gods blessing that it turneth evill things unto good for them to whom it is granted as it is the efficacy of Gods curse that it turneth all good things to hurt in them that lie under it You may therefore be assured you are under the blessing whereof you may be assured if by a firme faith you cleave unto God But further the Lord did often appeare to Iacob to confirme and establish his faith and to comfort his soule and fill him full of spirituall joy and peace First he appeared unto him when he was benighted in a desolate and solitary place when hee fled from his brother and gave him large and comfortable promises that he would be his God give that land to him and his seed multiply his seed as the dust and in his seed blesse all Nations and would keep him and bring him againe and never leave till he had fulfilled his good word Doe but thinke what a cheating this was to Iacobs heart in this exigent that God himselfe tooke care of him and came to him in such an excellent vision to comfort him Secondly God appeared to him againe when he lived in Labans house and received very hard measure from Laban about his wages and gave him gracious promises to sustaine his drooping spirit bidding him looke on the Rammes leaping on the cattel ring streaked and bade him returne home to his Fathers house promising him that he would be with him no doubt but though the grumbling of Laban and the discurteous carriage of his sonnes as well as himselfe did make the soule of Iacob sad and pensive yet the visions of God cleared up his sad countenance and enlivened his drooping spirit againe and made him able to take comfort notwithstanding all those injuries Thirdly God appeared againe unto him after Laban was departed from him causing an whole host and army of Angels to attend him making him know that he should be safe enough in his Church how weakly soever he seemed to goe provided for these two hosts of immortall spirits would serve him against any rage of man And againe God himselfe appeared to him a little before his brother Esau met him after he was informed of his comming and though he wrastled with him to try his faith yet at last he blessed him and called him Israel and told him that He had power with God as a Prince and with man too and should prevaile How did this chase away all his feares and fill his soule with confidence and joy A fifth time God appeared unto him and blessed him and renewed the name of Israel to him and promised to multiply him and give the land of Canaan to his seed after him This also was a great consolation to him and confirmed him against the feares he conceived lest the men of the Countrey might be insenced against him for the wickednesse of his sons Yet a sixth time God appeared unto him when he was about to goe downe to Aegypt at his son Iosephs sending for him and told him he was his God bid him not feare told him he would make him a great Nation c. as you may there reade which was a most joyfull and comfortable thing unto the old mans soule Here now is a great favour which God affoorded to this good man he appeared to him oftner than ever he had done to any of his Forefathers that ever we reade of If any say what is that to us to whom God useth not now to appeare in dreames and visions and like kindes of apparitions I answer It is much to us and we must consider whether God vouchsafe to appeare to us also For now he appeareth more spiritually but not lesse comfortably to his servants when we come to his Word and finde him there in his Ordinances confirming our faith strengthening our soules now he appeareth to us So when we come to his Sacrament and by it feele an increase of faith and in ward joyes now we see God So in meditations and soliloquies O labour to carry your selves so that you may see God in his Sanctuary as David saith in the Psalme and that your hearts may be filled with spirituall joy These spirituall visions are the comfortablest things in the world when we labour to walke humbly with God then will hee come to us and shew himselfe to us as our Lord promiseth and suppe with us even make us to feele his favour in sensible manner And if God doe appeare to us so you are to esteeme highly of his favour and to study to requite his mercy by a more carefull endeavour to walke holily before and with him Lastly a great spirituall blessing it was that God heard his prayers when he prayed to him in his severall necessities and that hee was able to prevaile with God as you have heard before that he did That a poore meane worme should have accesse unto the Throne of grace with confidence and should no sooner aske any thing of God but that the Lord opens his eare and grants it what a singular
and undefiled and forbearing to mixe ones selfe with any person not allowed by God according to his Ordinance especially when strong temptations are offered to inflame libidinous fancies deserveth great praise for it shewes that the heart is fully resolved not to doe evill Indeed if the not entertaining of such motions arise from inability of body and unfitnesse to satisfie them this cannot be called castity but debility Wee must consider how much the Apostle disgraceth uncleannesse and fornication he saith it is injurious to Christ to the holy-Ghost to a mans owne body to Christ if he be a professour of Christianity that doth it for it takes one that is joyned to him and to his mysticall body as a member thereof and makes it the member of an harlot which is a great indignity to the holy-Ghost for it takes a Temple dedicated to him such is the body and soule of every Christian and makes it a hog-sty to lodge filthy lusts in to a mans owne body for he that doth it sinnes against his owne body in making-that the very instrument of committing that soule sinne Now as much as may be said in the reproach of the sinne so much on the contrary maybe said in prayse of continency by it a man keeps Christs members and the holy-Ghosts Temples and his owne body free from so great basenesse of being made subject to an harlot The way is first to plant in ones owne heart a reverend feare of Gods all-seeing eye yea to pray much to God to bestow a good measure of this grace upon him The second is to count the sin a great wickednesse for so hee saith this great wickednesse The holding fast in ones mind an apprehension of the grievousnesse of a fault is a great preservative against it but if one once yeeld to fancy that it is no great matter then will it prove no great matter to draw us to it And indeed this sinne of Adultery must needs be a great wickednesse because it sinnes against a cleare light and is contrary to a solemne vow and Covenant made betwixt the marryed 3. A man must often ponder on the threats of God made against this sinne and presse them upon his owne soule and pray to God to make him beleeve and feare Fourthly he must prevent the occasions and fly from them even that occasion of being present especially in solitary places and alone with those to whom his heart is inclined or indeed with any with whom such a sinne may be committed but upon just grounds and causes And lastly a man must not trust upon his owne strength but constantly supplicate to God keep downe his inordinate passions or else he shall find them too unruly for him Labour you that be young and you that be elder and all to attaine this power over ill desires God that wrought it in Ioseph can worke it in any other as well you shall doe well to produce Iosephs Example unto God and beseech him to shew his Spirit and his feare in you as he did in him Why are godly mens worthy deedes set up before our eyes in Scriptures but that we may strive and pray and hope to be made like unto them But as all must bee exhorted to get Chastity so chiefly those which have beene overtaken already with the contrary crime of Adultery or fornication or both It is more easie to forbeare a sinne the first time then the second the second then the third and so forth unlesse great care be used to get the heart throughly healed If Joseph had lived in Fornication with any other he could never have resisted his mistresses inticements They that have yeelded to this sinne shall more hardly save themselves from it then those that have never yeelded but if a man doe frequently and unfainedly repent of this as well as of other sinnes it will bee made so loathsome to him that by Gods assistance he shall prevaile against it yea even though it be his darling corruption I goe on to shew how Joseph behaved himselfe in the house of his Prison and that to his Master there the Jaylor and also to the Kings Officers that were committed thither First he fell to his old trade of diligence and faithfulnesse carrying himselfe in so vertuous a manner that the Jaylor did affect him and liked him more and more till at last he intrusted him with all the charge of the prison This was a great trust for you know what extreame danger a Jaylor chiefely of such prisoners doth put himselfe in if his prisoners escape there againe therefore let all inferiours be perswaded to seeke to winne their Superiours by good and vertuous carriage especially meekenesse submissivenesse painefulnesse and trustinesse This will worke a man into favour even with an hard master but I spake of that matter a little before I will shew you his carriage to the prisoners to whom he was an Attendant it is commendable in these three respects First he shew'd himselfe desirous to comfort them when they were sad and dejected asking them why they were sad had hee not bin of a kinde and tender disposition he would not have heeded how a person to whom himselfe had no more relation had fared whether sorrowfully or merrily but so kinde was hee that hee seekes to comfort them by asking them the cause of their sadnesse and seeking to remove it We should all learne to practice this courteousnesse to all men chiefly to such as are in affliction otherwise even helpe to raise up their hearts with good words and so much as we can to become instruments of cheering them as you see Joseph intreating to know their Dreames and diligent to interpret the same It is an excellent vertue to be ready to comfort the afflicted and to revive the spirits of them that bee cast downe so farre as we be able but a churlish carelesse temper whereby a man cares not whether men cry or laugh be merry or sad is a proofe of much pride and stupidity of spirit and must be abhorred Againe you see him faithfull in interpreting their dreames not seeking to flatter the Baker in regard of the likenes of the dreames You must learne to deale truely with men telling them as the thing is not falsifying your words to please them and to prevent their sorrowes Most of all must men deale truly in interpreting and applying Gods Word and you must learne to be so wise as to accept such true and plaine dealing Lastly Ioseph was so wise and so prudently carefull of redeeming himselfe out of prison that he would not let slip the opportunity of speaking to the Butler to remember him It is very lawfull for any man to use good meanes of getting out of a crosse and to take all such advantages as God shall afford of suing and supplicating unto such as may be helpefull to him in that behalfe as Ioseph doth but still wee must take heed that
we be not overapt to accuse and disgrace others whilest wee seeke to gaine friends to our selves Ioseph spake nothing sharply against his brethren no nor yet against his Mistresse the more to prevaile in his request to the Butler that might speed him Hitherto of Iosephs private life now of his more publike carriage 1. To strangers 2. Towards his owne kindred and Fathers house First towards the Egyptians both to Pharaoh and then to the Communalty of Egypt First in his carryage to Pharaoh 1. Before his preferment then after Before his preferment 1. he deales plainely faithfully with him as before in interpreting his two dreams After he had shaved himselfe changed his garments he came in speedily to the King and told him the meaning of his dreams fully shewing what was signified by the seven fatte and leane Kine and what by the seven full and leane Eares of corne and then what by the seven leane Kine and leane Eares which devoured the fat ones viz. By the former seven most plentifull yeares in which the earth should bring forth corne and all fruits in great abundance and by the latter seven most scant and penurious yeares of great famine in which the earth should yeeld none increase at all so that the plenty should be utterly forgotten and the Land should be consumed with scarcity and the doubling of the dreame he saith did shew that the thing was certaine to be accomplished without all faile and also the speednesse of the thing which should begin presently to be accomplished Thus Ioseph tells the things to come with all plainenesse and most fully Dreames were one of Gods ordinances by which hee did in those times reveale those things to men which he intended they should know and the interpreter of Dreames was to shew the true meaning of God plainely without adding or diminishing and without any doubting or ambiguity Hence all those to whom the interpretation of Gods will revealed unto men shall be committed must learne to deale plainely fully and truly They must with all evidence and perspicuity shew the things which God hath told them and must not not hide or alter any thing at all what God declareth they must declare making manifest also the certainty and speedinesse of the things both that they shall surely come to passe and presently in the due time appointed Oh that the Lord would thrust out into his Church able faithfull and painfull men that might search diligently into the meaning of his Oracles and fully declare his will unto his people carefully stirring them to believe the things and to expect them and make use of them now you see his faithfulnesse Secondly marke his wisedome and prudence joyned with love and good will for he perswades Pharoah to appoint fit persons to gather up the abundance of the plentifull yeares and keepe the same in store against the penurious and scant yeares that so he may prevent the misery which else would have fallen on the land So those that are to interpret Gods Word to his people must adde counsell advice perswasions and exhortations to provide them to make good use of their knowledge even to provide against the danger to come and to make use of all those good helpes which God shall affoord them for that purpose We have now plentifull times of spirituall provision by which wee may get knowledge how to prevent the danger of eternall death who can tell what scant and thinne times may come hereafter in which we may feele a sore famine of the Word and not be able to get instruction and exhortation which now wee have in abundance Let us store our heart with knowledge now in these times of plenty that our soules may not perish for want of true knowledge then when the means of knowledge shall be diminished make use of Gods goodnesse that you perish not for want of true knowledg Yea the Lord in his Word hath plainely revealed his minde concerning the damnation of impenitent sinners and salvation of the penitent O now labour to get repentance in these happy seasons of Repentance wherein God offers grace unto you and put not off these great workes till after uncertaine times when no more meanes of repentance shall be granted then the Aegyptians had of getting corn in the seven yeeres of deadly famine use the opportunity of getting grace as Pharaoh did of getting Corne. Now it is the day time now the light shineth now the Lord continueth to stretch out his hand oh turne to him feed of the Word of life heare the Word reade it and ponder upon it obey it and turne to God and believe and obey whilst it is called to day that you may not hereafter labour in vaine about so necessary a businesse Thirdly you shall see in Josephs carriage great humility lowlinesse of heart hee brags not of himselfe and his owne skill and ability hee doth not lift up himselfe because this rare gift of interpreting of Dreames was given unto him from God but saith it is not in me God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace Wee see the same humility in Daniel when he did likewise interpret the dreames of Nebuchadnezzar for he saith expressely as for mee this secret is not revealed unto me for any wisedome that I have more then any living Loe he depresseth himselfe and gives the glory to God wee must learne to bestow Gods gifts humbly not vaine-gloriously and with ostentation setting up our selves but humbly acknowledging our owne meanenesse must give God the honour and labour our selves to be made instruments of good to men by those indowments wherewith the Lord shall enrich us Humility adorneth and beautifieth all graces it is this Vertue that addeth lustre to all graces and commendeth him in whom it is more then all his abilities besides but vaine glory and ostentation and selfe conceitednesse and vaunting ones selfe and being pussed up doth as it were soyle and sullie and defile and dawb all gifts and maketh him in whom they worke this effect as loathsome and contemptible as if he wanted all of them learne not to exalt your selves that God may exalt you Another thing to be noted in Joseph hee shew'd all reverence and due respect to the King as Daniel also did giving him dutifull words and carrying himselfe submissively so must we doe whensoever we approach before Rulers and Kings our words and gestures must bee decent and respective tending to expresse an honourable esteeme of them because of the Image of Gods Majesty and greatnesse which shineth in them Joseph would not come before Pharaoh in the sordid garments of his prison house nor with the haire of the dungeon but polleth himselfe and getteth on better attire and sets himselfe in all his carriage to honour the King saying God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to doe and God will answer for Pharaohs peace Oh that we could learne mannerly and dutifull and respective
Fathers death every one would have said he had but dissembled before so we must continue doing good when naturall and carnall motives are gone and not resemble Ioash who served God onely as long as good Iehojadah was alive Now followeth Iosephs good behaviour to his Father He did those 3 things which children are taught in their infancy viz. To love honour and succour their Father 1. He enquired of his health and welfare as soone as he saw his brethren Gen. 43.7 and in 45. 3â— 9. and 46.29 he did gratifie him in his request 47. chap. 29 30.2 Visited him in his sicknesse Gen. 48.1.3 He shewed great love to him after his death Gen. 50.5 If you do thus to your Parents the Lord will prosper you if not curse you all the people were to say Amen When a curse was pronounced against a wicked child 2. He shewed his honouring of him by these effects 1. He sent honourably for him Gen. 45.21 He presented him to Pharaoh Gen. 47.7 and used him respectively when he was with him Gen. 48.12 He bowed downe to the ground to him and afforded him a very honourable buryall Thus he honoured him in private in publike alive and dead The eye of him saith Salomon that despiseth Father or Mother the Eagle of the valley shall picke out Cursed is Cham to the worlds end for slighting his old Father 3. He succoured his Father readily and aboundantly hee promised it Gen. 45.11 And accordingly performed it 47. Gen. 12. Honour is required expressely in the Commandement and love followeth necessarily from this And 1 Tim. 5.4 the other is injoyned If I must either see my Father starve or my sonne I must releeve my Father first His faults are few there is nothing spoken of any thing done amisse by Mordecai Nehemiah Ester little by Iosiah Moses Ioseph 1. He swore Gen. 42.15.16 Undoubtedly it was a sinne 1. The matter did not require an oath 2. He should not however have sworne by the life of Pharaoh yet there were some things to extenuate it 1. He was out of the Church 2. He had not such meanes then to reveale this to be an oath so catching a thing as a rash oath may befall a good man Learne therefore to take heed of committing faults ordinarily practised fashion not your selves according to this world 2. In speciall takeheed of this common fault an oath Secondly he did trench a little too neare upon an untruth you are spies saith he and to see the nakednesse of the Land are you come This was spoken of him meerely by way of probation and not with an intention of accusing them but trying them it was a long ironie Now follow the crosses and benefits which Ioseph had His afflictions were many 1. The hatred of his brethren which proceeded from envy 2. They consulted to take away his life Gen. 35. Saying You comes the Dreamer come let us kill him and then shall wee see what will become of his dreames but God raised up Reuben at that time to shew him favour for his Fathers sake because he knew how deare he was to Iacob and he perswaded them not to be so unnaturally as to imbrue their hands in their brothers blood bur rather to cast him into a pit to deliver him out of their hands for the present intending himselfe after to pull him out in due season 3. They sold him for a bond-slave to Midianitish Merchant 4. Hee served as a slave in the house of Puriphar and toyled and moiled there like some base person though God shewed him some favour by inclining his Mistresses heart towards him but all was over turned againe by meanes of his lewd Mistresse Fiftly he was cast into prison by his Mistresses false accusation and there he lay at least for two yeares Psal 105. till the iron entred into his soule that is he was so laden with chaines that his flesh was eaten with them Sixtly He was forgotten by the chiefe Butler Be ye thankful to God if you have escaped many of these crosses make your crosses easie by laying them by the hard ones of Joseph who was better then you then learne to prepare for crosses forget not what you may be slaves accused of foule crimes prepare for the hatred of your Brethren Secondly his Benefits The Lord bestowed upon him a great number of Benefits First spirituall Secondly Naturall First for spirituall The Lord was exceeding gracious to his soule not only giving him the outward Ordinances which he enjoyed in his Fathers house then the Church of God for then the forme of the Church-Governement was domesticall where hee had sacrifices circumcision and teaching by the Prophets of God viz. His Grand-Father Isaack and his Father Iacob for Isaack lived till he was of yeares fit for teaching but also vouchsafing by these Ordinances to worke Faith and true holinesse in his heart so that he was an heire of the righteousnesse of faith and partaker of the promises made to his Fore-fathers And this is the greatest of benefits that can be granted a man in this life even to cause him so to live in the Church as to become an holy man that is a true member of the same So God dealt with Isaac and with Iacob and at last also with other Patriarchs Iacobs sonnes and Josephs Brethren but he sanctified Ioseph betime and let his Brethren runne on a longer time in the course of unregeneracie Wherefore beloved brethren let each of us so looke upon the goodnesse of God to Ioseph as to consider whether himselfe have attained the same favour even to bee sanctified and to bee made a true believer an holy man a Saint of God wee must bee Saints in this life if eVer we hope to come to these fellowship of Saints hereafter If any of you finde himselfe to bee converted and see that GOD hath dealt very favourably with him as with Ioseph and that perhaps also in his Childe-hood and Youth let him enlarge himselfe in thankes and stirre up his heart to blesse the great and Holy Name of GOD for this benefit and the greatest of all benefits and let him prize and esteeme this goodnesse of God at a high rate Secondly the Lord having made him good did confirme him in his goodnesse for that hee was not turned out of the wayes of Righteousnesse by all the changes and alterations that befell him His fathers indeed excessive and somewhat fond affection did not make him waxe conceited and so decline to evill wayes and waxe worse than before The envy and hatred of his Brethren could not make him forsake the trade of piety and joyn with them in their disordered courses His service in Putiphars idolatrous house nor his preferment there could not alter him His Mistresses love and solicitations did not change him nor the irons eating in his soule did not diminish goodnesse in him nay his high and sudden
was to seeke Christ and that they had an aime to know God aright and to serve him in sincerity Notwithstanding all this good which according to the truth hath beene said of him it must be remembred that hee was a man and not without his imperfections and frailties For what man is he that liveth and sinneth not And as it is also said In many things we sin all It is usuall with God that men of the greatest parts and gifts should be exercised with some or other inordinate affection to bee mortified and some strong temptations to have some thorne in the flesh or some or other messenger of Satan as the Apostle had to buffet them Else they would be exalted above measure to the sleighting contemning and condemning of their Bretheren and other men would have too high an opinion of them halfe deifying them despising those vvho are no lesse holy but not so excellently gifted as they There was nothing which did more evidently discover truth of Gods grace in this man then that which was occasioned by his slips and strong temptations For these made him more watchfull over himselfe then otherwise hee would have bin It made him more humble and more to loath his originall corruption and sinfull nature and bewailingly to cry out with the Apostle O miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this Death And that because hee was as other the deare servants of God are most sensible of the captivitie and bondage which sin would strive to hold him under sith that when he would doe well evill was present with him and made him sometimes to doe some things which in the bent of his soule he would not have done This served to make him more humble in himselfe more earnest in prayer to God and more pittifull towards others in whom this sinne remaineth and dwelleth even after conversion which as the Apostle saith is a weight and doth easily beset them to hinder them in their Christian race And this I am assured off that hee would be the first espier of those faults of his when the world could not nor did take notice of them having no peace in himselfe untill he had with all speed and earnestnesse sought and regained pardon and peace with God He may be a patterne to all in receiving admonition from any that should in love mind him of his fault Hee was glad when any of the righteous smote him and would take it well not from his Superiours onely but from his equalls and farre inferiours Hee had learned with David to blesse God that sent them and to blesse the advice to follow it and to blesse the party and thanke him that gave it Hee would intreate such as hee hath done me in particular not to be wanting to him in this Christian office of Love and hee would really shew more testimonies of his love to such afterwards then ever formerly which is a sure argument of uprightnesse A most reverend Divine who had knowne him from his infancy and had often conversed with him gave testimony of him to this effect unto me and others when lately he spake of him by occasion of the mentioning of his sicknesse His latter daies were his best daies for in the judgement of those who could judge spiritually hee grew exceedingly in humility and in spirituall and heavenly mindednesse his last works were his best works arguing him to be of Gods grafting and planted in the house of the Lord. Lastly hee had a most happy and comfortable successe of his conflicts against sinne For a good while before his sickenesse and death he did with Comfort and Joy make knowne to his dearest friend that God had given him victory against his greatest corruptions vvhich had for a long time kept him in continuall exercise About eight weekes before his death a great fit of inward and short coughing and extreame shortnesse of breath did cease upon him in so much that those who came about him feared that hee would presently have departed This fit beeing over much weakenesse continued yet hee preached divers times untill that his encreasing weakenesse did disable him In the time of his sickenesse and weakenesse hee gave heavenly and wholesome counsell to his people neighbours and friends that came to visit him giving particular advise to his wife children and servants respectively according to their place and condition as they oft came about him thus hee did oft so long as hee was able to speake unto them His Christian speeches that concerned all tended to this that they would be carefull to redeeme the time and to bee much in reading hearing and meditating of the Word of God That they would be much in Prayer much in brotherly love and communion of the Saints And that they would be carefull to hold fast that which he had taught them out of the Word of Truth And that while the light and meanes of Salvation was to be had they should not spare paines nor cost to enjoy them He was oft in his sickenesse upon the painefull racke or torture of inward snatchings and convulsions which sometimes left him but three or foure dayes before his death they returned and increased upon him all which hee bare exceeding patiently Hee was much in ejaculations and short prayers and lifting up his heart to God in the behalfe of the Church and State and for himselfe allso which hee was most frequent and earnest in a little before his death In the time when a brother of his not onely in the common bonds of Christianity but allso by alliance and a brother in the Ministery was praying with him and for him to this effect that if his time was not determined or expired that God would be pleased to restore him for the good of his Church or if otherwise that hee would put an end to his paine if he saw good at the hearing thereof hee lift up his eyes stedfastly towards Heaven and allso one of his hands hee being not able to lift up the other and in the close of that prayer gave up the ghost shutting downe his eyes himselfe as if hee were fallen into a sweet sleepe Hee lived much desired and died much lamented Thus a great a good and mercifull man a chariot and horse-man of Israell is by Gods owne hand fallen and taken away from the evill to come and is entred into peace and rest in his bed of everlasting pleasures and joyes enjoying the fruit of his Faith in Christ and of his walking with God in uprightnesse Pretious in the sight of the Lord is the death of the Saints though the wicked regard it not but are glad of their absence But the living indeed they must and they will lay it to heart and will prepare and long for their owne dissolution that they maybe more immediately gathered to Christ the Iudge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect expecting and waiting for a blessed Resurrection of themselves
and of all that die in the Faith of our Lord Jesus to whom bee ascribed all Might Majestie Dominion and Glorie both now and for ever more Amen This Man of God and faithfull Minister of Christ departed this life upon Friday the 10. of May Anno Domini 1639. neare the end of the six and fiftieth yeare of his age Feb. 25. 1639. Imprimatur THOMAS WYKES Banburies Funerall teares powred forth upon the Death of her late pious and painefull Pastour Mr. William Whately deciphered in this Sympathizing Elogy I am that Orbin which of late did shine An heav'n enlightned starre with raies divine Which did arise within mee and dispence Light life heate Heav'n-infusing influence And went before me steering right mine Eye Vnto the very place where CHRIST did lye He was a Cynosura in my motion To Heaven's bright haven on this worlds vast Ocean Or as the Aegyptian Pharos to descrie The rockes of sinne and errour to mine Eye Hee was my Glorie Beautie Consolation My very soule I but the Corporation I would goe on with bleedings to recite His and mine owne sad fall but I can't write Throbs shake mine hand and griefe my sight destroyes And when I speake ah teares doe drowne my voice Yet will I sigh and give my sorrowes pent Within my breast by mournefull breathings vent Come then speake sighs write teares and sadly storie The dark Ecclipse that hath befell my glorie My Starre is falne and Heavens did so dispose That there he fell where he at first arose The Starres above us thus their races runne Returning thither whence they first begunne But did I say hee 's fallen Stay me there He is translated to an higher spheare Where though to th' world he is obscur'd he may Shine forth unvailed in a purer ray Fixt to an endlesse rest in heavens bright throne Above all starry Constellation But ah alas Death hath dispos'd it so That his rise prooves my fall his weale my woe His weale my woe strange what a change is this My welfare was but now in wrapt in his But thus Death innovates and did he not Tell me that he Commission hath got And warrant for his fact from heavens great King I would have brought him into questioning Ah death what hast thou done Dost thou not care To make a breach which ages can't repaire So rare a Frame in peeces for to take VVhich Heav'n and nature did combine to make A Master-peece For who did ere behold So sound a spirit in so strong a mold Heaven's treasure which within his breast abode VVas by his liberall tongue disperst abroad All Graces gave a meeting in him even To make his breast a little map of Heav'n His lips distilled Manna and he stood Not so for Church-goods as the Churches good His voice it was a trump whose sound was made VVith breath divine which it from Heaven had His life a dayly Sermon which alas Methinkes was measur'd by too short a glasse Ah Death though Painters give thee holes for eyes Yet thou canst see to take the richest prize To hit the fairest mark yet I suspect It was my sinne which did thine hand direct My light had I improov'd it well for gaine VVould have remaind els lights sha'nt burn in vain Yet sure he is not dead for why I find Him still surviving in my breast enshrin'd And who can say that he 's of life bereaven That lives in 's works inpious hearts in Heaven He 's but a sleepe by death undrest not dead Or hath but changd his dresse for he in stead Of these sin-staind ragges of mortality VVeares a pure robe whose length's eternity M. B. EXAMPLE I. OF Adam and Eve AS all other knowledges are conveniently taught by Precepts and Examples so is that best of knowledges the art of living holily Hence it is that as I have instructed you to my poore ability in the Law and the precepts of good life so I doe now intend to set before your eyes the Examples recorded in Scripture of Men both good and bad that by observing the swervings of the one and the right walking of others you may better keepe your owne feete in the streightest paths Onely concerning Examples you must know this thing in generall that no Example at all hath the force of a precept either to binde the consciences of men to any thing as a duty or to restraine from any thing as a sinne because the knowledge of sinne is from the Law and where there is no Law there is no transgression and our care must be to walke in Gods waies not in the waies of any man whatsoever But Example prevaileth alone to perswade the will as a fit argument of Exhortation or Dehortation not as an argument to proove a thing needfull or sinfull Seeing then my duty is to perswade you to all goodnesse and to disswade you from all evill and the Examples of Scripture are undoubted and certaine and they offer themselves as it were unto the sences and so more worke on the will to allure or deterre I thinke it a convenient meanes of helping you in all righteousnesse and against the contrary to make a collection of those Examples of good or bad things which are left us upon record by a divine pen and I will range these Examples according to the order of time wherein they lived so farre as I can informe my selfe thereof by the Word of God And I will begin with Adam and Eve and put them both together because their good and evill was put togeher in practise thereof The Method I intend to take in each person is this I will consider his Birth Life and Death and in his Life I will looke to his carriage and behaviour in respect of the deeds he did good bad indifferent and doubtfull and the things that befell him either prosperously or adversely in benefits or afflictions Now for Adam and Eve because they were the first fountaines of mankind and therefore could not be borne in the same manner as others be for he that is borne must have a Parent and he that hath a Parent was not the first man or woman because his Parent was before him therefore I cannot tell you any thing of their Birth but of their entring into the world by another way which was to them the same in effect that our begetting and birth is to us I will informe you according to the Scriptures for it much concernes us to understand our originall and to know certainely how mankinde came into the world Know then in summe That God made Man of the dust of the earth and breathed into him the breath of life and man became a living soule Here is in briefe the Creation of Adam now Adam signifieth red Earth because his body was made of such kinde of Earth and concerning Woman it is noted that God caused a deepe sleepe to fall upon Adam and then tooke one of his ribbes