unto him Thou saidst Loe here a sweet patterne for our prayers to God when we feare any crosse First remember the Covenant and promise of God and declare the misery then humble our selves in acknowledgement of our unworthinesse So make our suits boldly and make our moane to God of our dangers and feares and helplesnesse and againe urge him with his promises Had not Iacob been accustomed to pray hee could not have sollicited the Lord after this manner in this extremity Againe in the end of the same Chapter when Christ appeared unto him in an humane likenesse ver 24. He wrastled with him all night for a blessing and would not give over till he had a promise from him though he went limping away the Angel giving him such a crush on the hollow of his thigh in wrastling as made him draw his legs after him by the dislocation or dis-joynting of his hip bone it may seeme it was through the shrinking of the sinew which had that bone in the socket Ah it is an excellent thing as it were to wrastle with God and though hee seeme angry with us and ready to lame us and maime us as yet still to minde our selves of his promises and continue fervent and constant in prayers till at last hee please to answer us and make us know that wee shall prevaile with him If Iacob had not been a devout man well skilled in calling upon Gods name hee could never have maintained in his heart such an invincible resolution as this I will not let thee goe till thou blesse me even then when instead of blessing he had such a wrench as might seeme rather to testifie anger against his importunity then any minde to yeeld unto it Again when he was to send Benjamin unto Aegypt Gen. 43.14 He followed him with his prayers saying God Almighty grant you favour before the Man that he may send away your brother and Benjamin You must not thinke that hee contented himselfe with this short ejaculation but he made his request to God for this great thing in more words and oftner So you see Iacob was a prayerfull man this is one part of religiousnesse O that wee could bee prayerfull O that wee could also make Gods name our refuge at all times which they that doe not can hardly take any true comfort in their estate nor account themselves true Israelites and those that doe shew themselves to bee guided with the same Spirit that Israel Especially let us learne to wrastle with God resolving to continue earnest and importunate and to take no nay in begging for the performance of his promises and for his blessing though we seeme to gaine nothing but that the Lord carries a shew of being angry with us at length wee shall prevaile if wee continue fervent and refuse to give over as our Lord also teacheth by his Parables in the Gospell of a childe a friend and the poore Widdow towards the unjust Iudge Againe you shall see Iacob vowing a vow to God Chap. 28.20 21. verses the summe of which is this that if God would provide him necessaries and preserve him safely in his returne home to his Fathers he would 1. make God his God by adhering to him and worshipping him alone and not imbracing any false God whereof the world was every where full in those dayes Secondly That the Pillar should bee Gods house that is a place of publike worshipping God where hee would openly and solemnly serve him with prayers sacrifices and all fit services And lastly that he would give his tenth to God of all that God should give him Loe you must learne the use of a vow which is required in the Psalme Vow and pay to the Lord. A vow is a binding ones selfe in an oath to God to doe some lawfull thing which is in his power that he may the better attaine to his suits And the use of it is in afflictions to confirme our faith for the attaining of Gods help or in prosperity to testifie our thankfulnesse for a benefit Let us be cautelous what we vow and let us as need and occasion shall offer make vowes to God especially the use of a vow may be to tie our selves from things otherwise lawfull that have been occasions of sins to us or to quicken us to such good duties as we finde our selves most slack in only take heed of vowing rashly and vowing perpetually any thing but what we be bound unto by duty for it is not unfit to binde our selves to needfull and commanded things by a vow as here Iacob voweth that God shall bee his God I say therefore use vowes as just occasion shall serve but not hastily nor in passion for such vowes likely prove mischievous And especially be carefull to doe the things vowed that is to make God your God sticking close to him and abhorring all forreine gods And seeing now the danger is not so great a running after heathenish false gods beware of going after those heart-Idols pleasure profit credit ease Make not the belly your God by loving riches wealth good fare c. more than God and caring for these things more than for the favour and honour of God These bee the most dangerous Idols of our times many a man that abhorres to worship an Image a Saint an Angel doth yet worship Mammon and make the world his God take heed of this Idolatry labour to know love feare trust in obey God to remember him to choose him c. to give him that whole and inward spirituall most needfull most acceptable worship of the heart which shall not cease to be worship even in heaven The other Commandements continue in force during this life of praying reading hearing Sacraments no use in heaven of oath vowes and such a manner of sanctifying Gods name as now in heaven there is no use So in the rest But to know love feare delight in obey there is alwayes use and make God your God in this manner Againe prepare God an house let him have a place of publique service and worship That you have provided to your hands I need but request to keep it in handsome and decent fashion to maintaine it comelily as beseemeth Gods house not as if it were a barne or some out-house Former times you see built goodly and faire houses for God will not you keep them fairely so that they shall be sweet and dry and sightly not in such plight that would bring the imputation of basenesse upon your selves if any of your houses should lie so Can you be at cost to adorne and furnish your owne houses and not Gods For assure your selves these places separated for religious meetings be Gods houses sacred to him dedicated assigned given to him hee hath interest into them If an Idols-Temple be an Idols-Temple that is such an house as an Idoll hath interest in and is sacred with a false and unholy kinde of sacrednesse sure then a Church to God
on This is a lawfull invention and good and comfortable Cheerefullnesse and Mirth so that it be moderate and well guided for the circumstances is a lawfull thing whether Musicke by voice or instrument whether winde instruments or other hand instruments It is a very good and lawfull thing to solace ones selfe with musicke and a warrantable recreation so that it be not abused and hee that first found it out is to be counted a benefactor to mankinde But the last named he was the most profitable inventer he that found out the art of iron worke he was an excellent Smith This was Tubal Caine thought to be the same that the Heathens called Vulcane Smiths are a necessary calling Their art is helpefull to all other Sciences both for peace and warre to them belongeth the making of all the necessariest instruments of husbandry of all sort of tooles for other trades and of armes also for the Souldier No part of mans life can be without iron worke A knife a key an hatchet a forke a saw a mattock a sythe a raking hooke a chezill a sword a speare a shield an helmet who can reckon up the things that Smiths do make for mans use This was therefore an exceeding fruitfull invention so much the more to be commended by how much it is more wearisome and laborious for it is you know a strong labour in some things and a curious in other things and much of it is much annoyed with heate about the fire And thus hath God stored the world with needfull arts by meanes of Lamechs sonnes that were it seemeth unsanctified men We must make some use of all this first to be thankefull unto God that hath imparted to some men such good wits and understandings that they were able to finde out and perfect those severall Sciences and Callings for how toylesome and uncomfortable would our lives be if we did not enjoy these helpes and comforts Even this naturall ability is from God and deserveth thankes from us Againe men must set themselves to be profitable to the world by either inventing or adding to the inventions of others in any kinde It is good to doe something for which the world may be the better and not to come into the world meerely as rats and mice onely to devoure victuals and to runne squeaking up and downe Be you followers of such if you cannot invent and perfect an art yet learne and follow some that is already invented These men were not idlesbees doe naughts O be you as good at least as these sonnes of Lamech onely labour to be so moderate in following and using all these earthly things that you be not earthly minded thereby but may become carefull of things that pertaine to the soule and to another life as well as of those that belong to this present life and to this body of clay It is good to use the world but not to love it to set our hands on worke about the things of it but not to set our hearts upon it This is a baiting place and not a place of habitation we make a journey through this world we do not dwell in the world O let our mindes and desires and wishes be in Heaven and let us doe those outward things with reference unto Heaven that by profiting men and serving God in a calling we may make our way to Heaven the easier and our wages there the greater And so much for the linage of Caine. Now we come to another off-spring of Adam If is not to be thought that he remained childlesse till the birth of Seth or that God would smite him in that newnesse of the world with so long a barrennesse or that he so long forbare society with Evah As it is said that he lived an hundred and thirty yeeres and begat Seth so it is said hee lived long after and begat sonnes and daughters therefore it is likely also that in that hundred and thirty yeeres before he begat sonnes and daughters but because the Lord intended to draw out the linage of Christ therefore he lets all the rest goe and fastens alone upon Seth of whom the promised seed was to come in a direct line Of Seth then we must speake His Birth gladded Evah and Adam too no doubt because they understood by revelation from God that he should be a godly man Therefore hee is called Seth that is he hath appointed because saith Evah God hath appointed mee another seed instead of Abel whom Caine slew Loe it is an hundred and thirty yeares after and yet shee hath not forgotten the murder of Caine. The infamy of a sinne will cleave long to a mans name and the griefe of a crosse if it be a stinging crosse indeed as this was will lie long upon the soule But why saith shee a seede instead of Abel it may be it was because shee saw little piety and goodnesse in the other sonnes and daughters none of them was like Abel in religion and godlinesse But for Seth shee understood that God would make him as good a man as Abel and therefore shee rejoyceth in him for a good Parent is little gladded in children if they proove not pious and godly children Gods children as well as his or hers wherefore those children that would glad the hearts of their Parents must see themselves to follow the waies of vertue that their aged Parents may have joy in them Now of Seth nothing is said but that he begat a Sonne at an hundred and five yeares old as the next Chapter shewes calling him Enosh that is sorrow or griefe because of the many griefes and sorrowes to which men are subject in this life Well may man have the name of sorry given to him so full of miseries is he as Iob spake long after Onely it is added that in Seths daies men began to callon the name of the Lord. It may be rendred some thinke the name of God was prophaned in calling on that is men grew then very prophane in a carelesse abusing Gods publike Service and Worship Others thus then it was begun to call on the name of the Lord that is men began more publikely and religiously and openly to call on the name of God to professe true piety more carefully in publike assemblies It notes in the former sence a growing worse of the times in the latter a growing better I am in doubt whether sence to fasten upon I thinke rather of the twaine it is a taxing of the publike profanation of God in abusing his worship because it followes immediately upon the giving of the name Enosh sorrowfull miserable mortall man as a reason of that name why did his Father call him so because Gods name then began to be prophaned in calling upon men grew more and more carelesse and remisse in Gods service and did it in so bad and negligent and indevout a fashion as it was rather a profaning then a worshipping or honouring of
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
excessively to the world and put your selves in minde of a world that is to come and minde the things that are above and set your affections on them If you so performe workes of Gods Worship as that they weane you not from the world you doe them but hypocritically you have alone the forme and not the power of godlinesse Though a man use not violence yet if hee be excessively worldly the Word of God is choaked in him and will not bring forth the fruit of eternall life unto him Another sin of the old World is they abused Gods long-suffering and Noahs preaching and gat no manner of knowledge of the long threatned floud nor no care of amending their lives This is a fearefull thing to get nothing by Gods patience or by the labours of the Ministers whom he sends to teach and warne us This shewes that the Divell haâ—h blinded their eyes that sinne hath hardened the heart and that a man hath given over himselfe to the servitude of some lust this is a great wrong to Gods goodnesse and authority both and it brings severe punishments for in aggravating the sinnes of men it must needs aggravate the punishment also O brethren consider of your selves if you be not guilty of this sinne How long hath God beene striving to pull you out of your sinnes How much patience hath he shewed how much teaching have you heard and yet alas the old World got as much by Gods kindnesse to them as you doe and you no more then they Many of you know nothing of your miserable estate As little be you acquainted with the truths you are taught every day as they were with the floud that came upon them as little doth our preaching prevaile to worke you to amendment as did the preaching of Noah with them We may well comfort our selves in this that our successe is no worse then Noahs and also lament that it is no better Indeed you have not had so many yeeres preaching as the old World had but consider it with the proportion to your lives and you have more Then men used to live some seven eight or nine hundred yeeres Loe God gave them a Preacher a long time and at length determined the very yeere of the floud it shall be a hundred and twenty yeeres hence and so from yeare to yeare lesse as the yeeres went up Yee have lived and died many of you that be dead under the Ministery Indeed we cannot tell you the yeere of your death or bring you tidings of a floud of water to overflow you altogether but of a river of fire and brimstone to overflow and overwhelme you one after one wee can tell you from God and you feare this floud of brimstone no more then they did that floud of water O repent of your long impenitency and miserable unbeleefe and wilfull ignorance of Gods threats and other things that are continually taught you out of the Word And now cease to imitate this world of ungodly men but apply your selves to flie from the wrath to come and from the vengeance that must overtake all wilfull sinners I beseech you lay to heart the things you heare take notice of them beleeve them and set your selves to amend your lives and cast away all your sinnes which this old World did not but should have done be better I say be better then they were and let their wickednesse teach you some goodnesse When will it once be that you will know and beleeve the threats of God and his promises when will it once be that you will submit your selves to those that are as Noah was Preachers of righteousnesse and seeke to get the righteousnesse of faith which Noah would not have gotten himselfe if it had not beene the same that hee preached to others Now I pray you at last to exceede this generation of wicked men And these uses you must make of their wickednesse Now of Gods patience towards them in giving them all outward prosperity and long deferring the execution of his wrath and sending Noah by preaching and building the Arke to draw them to repentance learne first to praise God for the like long-suffering to us and using the like meanes to bring us to repentance and to life eternall It is the same God that ruled the world at those times who ruleth us also at this time and he discovers the same vertues in his governing O how patient is God now also how great care doth he take to leade us to repentance also How many outward benefits have wee This goodnesse of God towards them that perish whereby he tooke such order and care for them that they might have escaped perdition if they would have made use of his meanes is not sufficiently heeded nor observed Might not the world then have escaped both drowning and hell too if they would have hearkened to Noah and beleeved him and followed his instructions Did any thing but their owne wilfullnesse and heedlesnesse shut them out of the Arke and out of Heaven and thrust them downe into the Deluge and into Hell Brethren God magnifies his mercies to the vessells of wrath he doth labour to bring them out of their ill estate he hath not ceased for many yeares to intice them to repentance by his long-suffering Certainely this should magnifie Gods goodnesse to us and make us to applaud him exceedingly and acknowledge the brightnesse of his Justice in their future destruction O how just was God in the drowning of these men is hee not as just in the damning of the sinner now Lord be thou praised for thy mercy and forthy justice and let the one serve to cleare the other and both to commend thee Againe I pray you now the the second time to make a good use of Gods clemencie to you He sent but one Noah to all the world who yet is said to condemne the world He sends amongst you to every towne almost one to tell you of the judgement to come and to stirre you up to repentance Now be intreated to hearken and obey and to get you to the Arke Brethren wee doe here in Gods name offer you assurance of pardon of sinne and freedome from hell and death if you will accept it O let not our preaching be in vaine Come come into the Arke come into Christ by true faith into whom you are come by Baptisme in respect of outward profession The Arke was a figure of Christ and Baptisme is as it were the Arke O labour for the true Baptisme with the Spirit that you may shunne and escape the Deluge of Gods eternall wrath and vengeance Let us not preach to you in vaine as Noah did to the old world And present to your selves the hideousnesse of that plague O how did mens hearts ake within them how did horrour take hold upon them when they saw the waters rage so furiously O now did they find that in experience which they would not beleeve by Noahs preaching
some Texts of Scripture that shall give you sure arguments of comfort from which if you can conclude your selves Gods people that you are so indeed and not alone in shew your comforts will hold water as it were in the day of death and judgement Ierem 7 5. the Prophet bids them thoroughly amend their waies and their doings and not trust in lying words Loe thorough and universall reformation of heart and life that that is the onely sufficient proofe of being Gods children and such as shall inherit his Kingdome all that can be alledged without this is no better then lying words which will deceive So Iohn did after teach the Jewes Mat. 3.9 Say not wee have Abraham for our Father that Allegation will prove fruitlesse if it goe alone but what must they doe more Bring forth fruits meete for repentance that is frame your selves to a thorough reformation of your hearts and lives and so S. Iohn teacheth Hee that doth good is of God hee that doth evill hath not seene God whosoever he be that makes so good use of those helpes which God hath for that end provided in his Church as to attaine true repentance true amendment of life that is a constant and upright care and endeavour to cast away all transgressions and make him a new heart and a new spirit resolving in nothing to sinne but in all things to walke according to the direction of Gods Word and where he faileth still continuing to lament and confesse it before God judging himselfe and craving pardon and helpe in the name of Christ that man shall be saved that man is a solid Christian that man is not a Cham let him rejoyce in God as a true member of the Church but whatsoever else may be either had or done without this bringing forth fruits worthy of repentance is no more then may be alledged by some Cham or other Therefore againe I beseech you satisfie not your selves with other things but apply your selves to this amendment of heart and life with all speed and with all diligence Let Cham be your warning trust not in lying words And further now that you see in the Arke among the eight persons one Hypocrite who did afterwards evidently discover his hypocrisie learne to know that there will be such in the Church to the worlds end as were also in the family of Abraham Isaac Iacob David Hezekiah and other good men even tares among the wheate and goates among the sheepe and unfruitfull branches in the vine that you may learne as to feare your selves so especially to satisfie your owne hearts and not to be offended by the like accidents in your owne times If a man that hath long lived in an orderly course of life and gotten himselfe the name of a good man and enjoyed many benefits in the Church shall afterwards fall quite away from goodnesse and manifest himselfe to have beene no better then a Cham let not this trouble you nor dismay you neither take you occasion from their wickednesse to condemne either goodnesse it selfe or good men as to say that they be all dissemblers there is never a better in the pack but improve their fall to the making of your selves more watchfull over your selves and prayer-full for your selves and still love and honour Gods Church though some that professe themselves to be lively members of it doe manifest their guile by their utter falling away at the last We have done with the goodnesse of God to Cham in suffering him to live in the Arke Now follow his sins The first sinne which we gather from that which succeeded is this that he was an Hypocrite one that contented himselfe with a bare outward shew of goodnesse and did not labour for the power of it to humble him to discover his secret faults to him and to heale his soule by bringing the Image of God even the divine nature to him which was also the sinne of Caine before and after too of Esau and of Iudas and Achitophel and many others Take you heed of this Brethren take you heed of this Beware that you be not Hypocrites satisfied with some externall shew of religiousnesse joyned with civill conversation of life freedome from grosse sinnes and orderly living to the world-ward but seeke after the soule-spirit of godlinesse which consists in finding out and reforming the corruption of your natures and the secret disorders of your inward man He that so prayeth and heareth that these ordinances make him see and be humbled in the sight of the filthie quagmire of sinne that is within him by which he is carried from God to himselfe and to sinne and the world for his owne sake and labours to have his inside more and more cleansed and reformed and drawne up to God and the things of God this man is a true Christian But he that satisfies himselfe in an outward forme of holy duties and of civill honest conversation not diving to the depth of his heart this man may proove and if he mend not will proove a guilefull Cham at last But now his next sinne is and Ham the Father of Canaan saw the nakednesse of his Father If he had suddenly and occasionally come into the place where Noah lay uncovered and his eyes before he was aware had lighted on that object and he had presently turned away his countenance from it with griefe for his old Parents fault and out of tender compassion that seeing had beene no sinne But the meaning is he gave himselfe to stand and gaze upon his Fathers unbeseeming carriage and unseemely parts so as to delight in it and thereby to stirre up and nourish in himselfe a contempt and slight esteeme of his Father Hee did not see it with pitie and remorse and make the best of it as of a matter of infirmity into which the good old man fell unawares but he beheld it with gladnesse laughter derision jesting sporting at his Fathers nakednesse and misdemeanour This is a great fault to behold the sinnes and offences chiefely of Parents and other superiours and most of all of godly and holy men Fathers of the Church and of Religion as well as of our persons I say to behold their faults with an over-open and a greedy eye with scorne and scoffes and contempt of them and of piety and of goodnesse in and thorough them For this certainely comes from nothing else but a secret dislike and aversnesse from goodnesse it selfe against which we are glad to pick a quarrell and are willing to have somewhat to object against it that wee may hinder our selves from imbracing it and from a gladnesse also to have somewhat to alleadge in excuse of our owne naughtinesse and for the imboldening of our selves to persist in it still without feare It is nothing but hypocrisie I meane a being contented with a false counterfeit goodnesse yea willingnesse to favour and allow our selves in our owne sinnes that maketh us with joy and delight in
viz. that passing through the countrey Eastward from the place where Noah lived and meeting with a very fruitfull plaine in the land of Shinar that is of Chaldea they consulted to make brickes for that the countrey afforded not hewne stone and to use a kind of naturall mortar or slime that abounded in that place in steed of artificiall mortar and so to build a City and a Towne that should reach up to Heaven mooved thereto partly out of an ambitious desire of a great name and credit to continue long afterwards and to spread farre and neere for the present to prevent dispersion which their guilty consciences caused them to feare though no such thing was yet begun to be executed upon them Here we must informe you of their sinne which was not simply the building of a City nor building of it of such matter but ambition and vaine glory and carnall confidence and then the punishment of their sinne in the dividing of their tongues and scattering them abroad First then their sin is a vaine-glorious erecting of a strong City and an exceeding high tower joyned with a confident perswasion that they should save themselves from any mischiefe and calamity by meanes of their City The occasion that did further them to this worke is that they were all of one language and so would easily agree upon a bad thing and that they met with a fit place and had fit matter bricke and slime and that they were so fully bent upon it to finish this their tower that no meanes was left to stop them but Gods comming downe upon them with some heavy chastisement I conceive that they had finished or neere finished their City and were now setting apace and eagerly about the tower afore the Lord did crosse them by that punishment For seeing Babel was the beginning of Nimrods Kingdome and that he could not have finished it after the division of tongues if he had not done it wholly or for the most part before it will follow in likelihood that they were permitted to settle therealong while and to finish their City But when they grew so mad that with a City they would have a Tower as it were to outface God and save them from dispersion in despight of him then it was high time for the Lord himselfe to oppose them Here there are 3. sinnes 1. Vaine-glory 2. Carnall confidence 3. Wilfulnesse and obstinacy Vaine-glory for they sought a name by an exceeding strong City and high Tower 2. Carnall confidence for they imagined to make themselves safe from dispersion and misery by meanes of that City and Tower 3. Obstinacy because that God himselfe witnesseth they were so fully bent upon their projects that except by violence there was no way to stop them in their attempts Here be 3. sinnes in the Babel builders Tower They gave themselves to earthly mindednesse in hunting after a name and this they would get forsooth by such a building as the world had never seene the like for greatnesse and height and never should see Be not you vaine-glorious studying to doe some earthly vaine thing for which you may be talked of farre and neere and for a long time This is vaine-glory the vice by which men affect to be famous and much talked of and magnified in the world for some great earthly matter that they have gotten for getting a great deale of riches together for raising their family for a fine house for being the first that did such or such a thing or the like Be not I say vaine-glorious let not your hearts affect this foaming froth of mens tongues Care not for such kinde of praises and commendations but set your hearts upon better things to get you a name in Heaven and in earth to be good holy just Praise is a thing which the Apostle commandeth us to follow but by praise he meaneth praise worthy things not praise it selfe further then it is a necessary effect and companion of things praise-worthy Be good for conscience sake to God that so you may have though you seeke not after it good esteeme of men and their good reports This vaine-glory will so choake all true desire of goodnesse and all true goodnesse that at last it will make you to fall into that high degree of Hypocrisie as with the Pharisees you shall doe all your deeds to be seene of men and if you doe any good thing shall even loose your reward in Heaven But againe take heede also of carnall confidence that is promising your selves safety from any affliction in respect of any outward thing That is carnall confidence to make ones selfe beleeve that he shall continue secure from all earthly dangers in respect of a Citie a Tower a friend a great estate or the like Alas all these things be vanity and lies they are the arme of flesh Trust not in Princes trust not in Horses or in Chariots trust not in wisedome trust not in man The Holy Ghost doth every where disswade men from this vaine confidence and pronounceth a curse against them that trust in flesh and tells them that they withdraw their hearts from God He that conceiveth so well of any earthly thing as to promise himselfe safety from that is made carelesse by that of seeking Gods favour and is so earnest after that as hee will not have leasure to thinke of pleasing and obeying God and seeking to him and trusting on him It is a fearefull sinne and yet a common one hardly can men keepe their hearts from committing this idolatry you must humbly pray to God to discover to you the vanity of all earthly and terrene things and to shew his Omnipotency and All-sufficiency that so he may be your confidence and your dread Lastly beware of that sinne of wilfullnesse and obstinacie that are so bent upon an evill course as no words nor other like meanes will turne you from your ill courses this was the sinne of Elies sonnes of Pharaoh of Israel of Amaziah This is a fore-runner of mischiefe Hee that hardens his heart against a reproofe shall surely come to mischiefe let no man stay him When the Lord sees that words will not serve the turne he comes with rods and if the rod will not divert men from their evill paths then swords must Wherefore put you on a flexible and tractable disposition and an heart that will easily be disswaded from an evill way Pray to God pray to him to give you a minde full of light that may quickly discerne evill and an heart full of softnesse that may quickly be withdrawne from it Now consider the punishments God comes downe to see that is takes notice of their sinne and wilfullnesse in it and therefore consults with himselfe the Father with the Sonne and Holy Ghost to goe downe by the powerfull worke of his hand and to confound their languages and by that meanes to stop their worke and scatter them thence from which
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
a strange countrey those that shall as heartily love us and as faithfully cleave to us as any kinsmen in the world Feare not to forsake friends for Gods sake for hee can easily cause you to find as good in a strange countrey if need so require as any you may leave behind you in your owne countrey And if any have in his owne countrey or abroad met with such friends he must attribute it to the wise and good providence of God over him and with solid and sincere praises acknowledge it carrying himselfe friendly also to them and shewing himselfe as willing to grant a benefit to them in fit season as ever he was to receive a benefit from them for hee that hath friends saith Salomon must behave himselfe friendly Let us yet consider another mercy Abraham had good esteeme and reputation an honest and honourable name amongst the men of Heth where he lived so that they all loved and respected him as appeareth Melchisedech loved him and came out to meet him and blessed him and gave him bread and wine for himselfe and for his troupes Abimelech used him curteously and though Abraham and Sarah both had somewhat too grossely overshot themselves in dissembling that Sarah was his wife and that way indangered him to a great sinne and brought some heavy hand of God upon him and his house yet he shew'd himselfe affable and bountifull restoring him his wife and not so alone but giving him gifts and commanding his people to forbeare all injurious carriage to him and his wife and granting him leave to dwell where he would in his countrey and after repairing to him desiring his friendship he acknowledged that God had blessed him and was with him and requested that a Covenant might be made betwixt them two and that in the solemnest manner Was not this a signe of great respect and love in him to Abraham and was it not a singular comfort and credit to Abraham and a signe of Gods great favour to him to incline the heart of such a person to him Yea in what repute and credit he lived appeareth in that the Hittites honoured him called him a Prince of God and were ready to give him leave to make use of any of their choisest Sepulchers to burie his wife in and Ephron the Hittite a man of good esteeme amongst them at first word did frankely offer to give him his field which he desired and at first condiscended to sell it him for a reasonable price So God gave Abraham good will and credit where he came and amongst all even high and low Let this also encourage all men to serve and obey God He can give them a good name and good favour every where vertue piety and goodnesse shall winne good esteeme and kindnesse from men that be not utterly slaves to sinne so farre as it is good for Gods people to enjoy They must indeed if God see fit to try them by that crosse endure disgrace and hatred and causelesse malice and reproach but so farre as Gods Wisdome judgeth it beneficiall for them he both can and will incline the hearts of all to respect and regard them to love and honour them He will make them to be honoured and favoured of all with whom they live Feare not therefore to serve God but cleave to him and obey him you see his bounty how he can and will requite his faithfull servants And those that finde the good hand of God going with them in this kinde that they be respectfully and kindly entertained that they have a good name and loving kindnesse with all men except perhaps some vile and base persons that they be cordially and heartily loved that men speake well of them wish and doe well to them and are glad and ready to gratifie them they must acknowledge Gods goodnesse in this mercy and rejoyce in his love that doth turne the hearts of men unto them and praise honour and love him the more for the praise honour and love they receive in the world We must prepare our selves to meete with ill usage ill will ill language but when wee meete with good then we must confesse that the Lord our God is the ruler of all hearts and blesse his name that causeth us to finde favour with men as David did with Saul at first with all Israel and with Achish one of the Philistine Lords King of Gath that gave him honourable entertainement in his Court. Now another temporall blessing we observe to be granted to this good man and it is three or foure times noted in Scripture Gen. 13.2 Abraham was very rich in silver cattell and gold So Gen. 24.35 The Lord hath blessed my Master greatly and he is become great and hee hath given him flockes and heards and silver and gold and men servants and maide servants and Camells and Asses and 25.6 Abraham gave gifts to the sonnes of his Concubines He could not have inriched them if he had not beene rich himselfe So God fulfilled his promise to Abraham and he was a very rich man as well as very good Riches are in Gods hand hee hath them in abundance He is able and ready to grant them to his servants Indeed they be but doubtfull blessings if a man have not power to use them well they will be more hurtfull to him then profitable But so farre as the perfect wisedome of God sees that they will be beneficiall to them wisedome shall bring them also in her hand and fill the houses of her admirers with them also Let Gods people learne therefore to trust upon him for their outward estate for though he make not all his children rich for it is not good for all yet he will not see the meanest of them to starve for then he should not answer that bountifull and mercifull title of a Father by which he loveth that his servants should call him and call upon him Incourage your selves therefore in all holinesse righteousnesse and vertues for sure the Lord that filled the house of Abraham and made him so wealthie and great a man will not neglect to give you foode convenient for you and to supply you with necessaries And let those that have houses goods and wealth in abundance learne to use them well to see it is Gods gift and to use them as stewards to praise God for them to make them a meanes of knitting their hearts more sure and fast to him in love and obedience and to imploy them bountifully liberally and mercifully as Abraham no doubt did that they may lay up treasure for themselves in Heaven and that by well-doing they make them friends of the riches of iniquity Wealth honestly gotten mercifully and bountifully used and moderately enjoyed is a great mercy of God If God make you rich doe you shew your selves to be good as well as rich or else riches doe not make a man the better that hath them neither can they make his life much more comfortable
the riches of the whole world If Abraham had enjoyed this whole world and not this sweete entercourse with God his life would not have beene halfe so comfortable and happy but if his estate had bin never so poore and meane in outward things yet would this sweete fellowship with his Maker have made him happy and blessed enough Spirittuall good things are the chiefe and principall blessed is the man whom God pleaseth to take for his owne to call to himselfe to strengthen in faith to make more and more certaine of his salvation This is the blessing of Abraham that comes unto the Gentiles by faith in Jesus Christ This poore and afflicted Saints enjoy as well as rich This seeke this labour for by indeavouring to walke with God and by being upright If any say But alas I want this I find not God shewing himselfe to me in his ordinances I find him not setling my heart I Answer If hee have called thee out of sinne to a good life and that thou indeavourest to follow him he will in due time shew himselfe unto thee feare it not and the longer he seemes to deferre the revealing of himselfe the more abundant and exceeding great shall the comfort be at last God will not faile to blesse his people with spirituall blessings and comfort them with spirituall comforts if they walke before him in sincerity I proceed to tell you of good Abrahams crosses which if you compare them with Isaacs were much greater then his if with Iacobs they seeme in some respects much lesse But if you consider them simply they were some of them exceeding heavy to beare Wee will ranke them into a certaine order First God put him to suffer an heavy crosse at his first call as many times also he doth many of his servants His kindred and his Fathers house were all Idolaters and God saw that he should have had much adoe to have maintained himselfe and the truth of his religion if he should have continued amongst them Wherefore hee caused him to leave that place and those persons and to goe into another land which he should shew him according as in the Psalme the Prophet speakes to Pharaohs daughter forsake thy kindred and thy fathers house and this affliction often assaileth the Saints of God at their looking towards true piety when they begin to forsake sinnefull courses and to looke towards Heaven though they change not their countrie for a new habitation nor leave their fathers house to goe into a region farre distant yet their fathers house falleth out with them they cease to be friends to them and they feele that which sometimes our Lord hath foretold a mans enemies shall be those of his owne house yea father hates the sonne and the sonne the Father For a mans inward and neerest friends are more weary of him then then any other because having occasion of conversing with him they more see his piety else as Owles are more offended with the light and because wanting that commerce in evill and vanity which once they had they are more displeased at the change We must learne therefore whosoever mindeth to follow Christ and be his Disciple learne to love him above all persons yea as himselfe teacheth us to hate Father and Mother even to hate them I say that is to be willing to part with them as if we hated them for Christs sake And as here the Lord so provided for Abraham that he wanted no friend in any place where ever he came a forreine countrey afforded him as much welfare as his native soile could have done so whosoever shall loose any such thing for Christs sake shall be sure to receive in this life an 100. fold that is an hundred times more good and comfort then those things or persons could have afforded yea many times also a larger measure and greater number of outward things and outward friends This was the first crosse of Abraham leaving his countrey see next what he met with in Canaan another countrey in respect of his estate and the persons that were dearest to him First for his estate God gave him no possession no not the bredth of a foote but made him travaile up and downe in tents without either certaine house or any inheritance This is a crosse too and a thing little pleasing to flesh and bloud to be of a fleeting condition not knowing where he shall dwell next month or next yeare to be without house or home that he can call his owne by which God taught Abraham to use the world as though he used it not and to set his heart more upon the things above because he had so little setlednesse in the things below The people of God must be content to be rowled as it were up and downe from place to place to be in the Earth as in a Sea in which they shall be tossed now hither now thither and have no fixed dwelling almost and our Lord Christ after he was a Preacher was accustomed to such a kind of Pilgrims life now in Iudea now in Galilee now in Caesarea now in Cana now in Decapolis hee had not an house to lay his head in S. Paul was likewise accustomed amongst other miseries to beare this of having no certaine dwelling place If God call any of us to such a condition it must not seeme much to us to eate the bread of such worthy men nor to pledge them in the same cup. Hee whose soule is not glewed to the world can well endure this kind of tumbling none other will unlesse hee be a man that loves to wander Now for the persons neere to him first his Kinsman then those of his family One and onely one Kinsman he had with him that wee reade of Lot In him he suffered two troublesome crosses First upon occasion of a trouble that fell out betwixt the servants of Lot and of Abraham they were faine to part habitations Their riches were so great that the land affoorded not roome for both their herds and flockes hence the herdsmen and shepheards on both sides had occasion of jarring about places of pasture One would have his cattle here another would have his and so variance grew Abraham saw that this variance would proceed farther and farther and to prevent mischiefe gives Lot his choice where hee would dwell so saith the Scripture they were separated a man from his brother This no doubt was tedious to Abraham that Lot and he might not be neere neighbours at once for the event after made it appeare how deare Lot was unto him and therefore after Lots departure the Lord appeared unto Abraham to comfort him as taking notice what a trouble it was unto him And this kinde of crosse doth fall out to men either increase of riches or want of it or some thing falleth out that causeth they must be separated from their speciall friends or some unkindnesse and jarres grow betwixt them that their
Ghost appointed the Parents to be carefull of preserving the tokens of the maidens virginity that they might be able to prove it against the slanders of her husbands evill tongue if he should after report that he found her not a maide but withall he appointed that if the woman could not prove her selfe to have been a Virgin she should be brought out and publiquely stoned at her Fathers doore Deut. 22 13. You see that God would have the daughter put to death which should be bold to prostitute her selfe to any other men and then deceive one that had not knowne her and thrust her selfe upon him as if she had been a Virgin as much as if he had ordered that such a defiled maiden should not marry any other but him that had defiled her unlesse first she had made the matter knowne unto that other Now what care should be taken to preserve chastity the heathens may teach us who for meere credit sake used diligence in this matter and it should be a shame for Christians not to exceed Pagans in any point of goodnesse Let me therefore speake unto you young maidens and require you to follow Rebekkah in this kinde keep your selves pure suffer not your selves to be won away with any solicitations for all occasions of sin Be not haughty in conceit of your own strength to withstand any allurement but feare God and beseech him to keep you by vertue of his feare else many a boasting maiden hath been forced out of her own experience to confesse that this offence cannot be prevented by braging I say therefore let the feare of God and an humble heart and a carefull shunning of evill opportunities be the preservers of your chastity And if any of you have been corrupt and vitiated though it be knowne to none but God and your selves see that you be greatly humbled and truly penitent for it The custome of many is if they can conceale themselves in this kinde and that they prove not with childe to the publique reproaching of themselves before men not at all to grieve for the sin committed though it be neverthelesse abominable in Gods sight because of such concealing it yea some there be that adde murder also to filthinesse using meanes of abortion to themselves or of hindering themselves from conceiving by wicked reaches and devises But the all-seeing eyes of God do discover their lewdnesse and will make their offences knowne to all the world and that so much the more to their disgrace and destruction by how much they have declared themselves to be more wicked in fearing men and not God Indeed if the matter come to open knowledge they weep and take on shewing evidently that ignominy goeth nearer to their hearts than sin and that they care not how lewd they be if their lewdnesse come not to light But I say be you carefull to prevent secret sins in this kinde and tender the health of your soules more than the credit of your names and undoe that sin by unfained repentance which will else make you odious to God though you hide it never so closly from men And let Parents also cary a watchfull eye upon their daughters not giving them liberty to range up and down at unfit times to unfit places lest it befall them as it did Dinah Iacobs daughter when shee gave her selfe leave to gaze abroad to see the fashions of the daughters of the countrey And I must also speake to young men which goe a wooing to young maidens that they suffer not themselves to be so far transported with unlawfull and unruly desires as to pollute those before marriage or assay to solicite them whom they pretend to love so as to make them their wives If they love them let them keep them so worthy to be beloved and enter not into Gods Ordinance through the devils Portall as I may call it O be not so wicked so injurious to the maid and the friends of the maid with whom you seek to make affinity as to lay a snare and blot upon your selves and the kindred and parents of your selves and of the Virgin to whom you pretend love and good will but enter purely into Matrimony that the blessing of God may accompany you in Matrimony And so much for Rebekkahs chastity she came an unspotted Virgin to the bed of marriage Now further she was a painfull and a curteous maid for she came out with her pitcher on her shoulder to draw water at a common Well and did not think so much of her labour but that she was ready to draw water and fill the troughes till a number of Camels had drank their fill and curteously let down her pitcher to give the man that was a stranger to her to drink and of her own accord offered her service to water his Camels too Learne you maidens to be painfull learne to be curteous by labour you should keep your bodies in good health and your mindes also free from vices and evill desires and by curtesie you shall shew your selves to be of a good nature willing to be serviceable and so shall win love credit and good esteeme but an idle churlish person that makes her selfe sick by her sloathfulnesse and by her backwardnesse to do service shewing that she is good for nothing but to trick up and pride her selfe becomes loathsome to God and man Be not idle be not nice and dainty be not sowre and churlish these things will cause you to inherite as much disgrace as Rebekkah did inherite honour and good will Let me commend unto you the vertuous example of good Rebekkah dresse your selves as it were at her glasse and adorn your selves with her vertues This Story you may reade at large Gen. 24.15 and so forward reade it consider of it and take it forth into your lives and learn to live according to the worthy presidents which the word of God commendeth unto you The custome of the world and the corruption of nature will perswade you rather to pride nicenesse sloathfulnesse and discurtesie but we must take heed of following our own naughty nature in the sinfull fashions of the world She is a Christian indeed that is wiling to live according to the Scriptures Now consider another vertue of Rebekkahs she was willing to bee ruled by her friends in marriage and when they had given their consent to Abrahams servant for the marrying of her to Isaac she also consented and said I will go with the man Gen. 24.58 So should all maidens yeeld themselves to the government of their parents and friends in this matter that they may with more assurance comfort expect the blessing of God to make their lives comfortable in mariage by giving them love favour in their husbands eyes and bestowing upon them good husbands at least if they meete with such as be not what they ought they may with more contentednesse patience undergo the crosse when it comes not with a sting
forth his griefe before God in these words If thou wilt deale thus with me kill me now kil me if I have found favour in thine eyes and let me not see mine evill Sometimes you finde good men desirous to escape death and crying Lord save me from the hands of mine enemies and sometimes againe even covetous of it and crying with vehemency again and again kill me Lord kill me and if thou lovest me kill me Iob was exceeding desirous to die and said He would seek for it as for gold yea and fine gold So you perceive that mans nature is prone to waxe weary of living because of affliction and that this is a fault and a weaknesse is evident It is an act of ingratitude because a man considers not as well the good he enjoyeth as the evill for if he would reckon well he doth alwaies receive more good at Gods hand in this life than evill but as one bitter morsell causeth that the mouth tasteth nothing almost but bitternesse though it have before received many dainty morsels so it is with us in this case Againe it is a fruit of hopelesnesse and despaire the soule doth not expect the favourable goodnesse of God to strengthen and deliver in due time but thinks it will never be better with mee till I die and therefore wisheth it selfe out of the world Hope would hold the heart up from these faintings but it is a kinde of despaire that casts it into such swounes as Iob said As for mine hope where is it Thirdly pride is one great cause of this disposition men consider not with themselves how unworthy they be of any good how much they have deserved far greater evill and therefore are immoderately vexed with those they feele and therefore count their beeing a burden But is it not a fruit of great pride in a man that as if he were his own maker preserver disposer will be no longer then he may have his own will and may see things to go along with him after his owne wishes Further a man wrongs himselfe exceedingly by suffering himself to grow weary of life for first he makes the misery greater by makeing himselfe weaker to beare it If a man be to beare a great burden it doth him much hurt to scratch the skin of his shoulder for that will adde much to the pain of bearing A gauled place will smart of it selfe how ill doth be provide for himselfe that rubs off the skin from his shoulders when he is put to carry a thing So doth he that will needs give way to so much impatiency as to be weary of life yea he exposeth himselfe to the danger of becomming a self-murtherer that yeeldeth to this wearinesse of life For it will not be very hard to perswade any man to cast away that which is his burden So it is evident that this was an offence in Rebekkah And now come you men and women of all rankes looke into your selves Have not you also been weary of life and that upon a very small occasion A maide is crossed in her desires by her parents for her good and she sees no likelihood of having what shee would have then she pules and takes on and wisheth she were dead and buried she would forgive him that would knock her on the head A man hath met with somewhat a froward woman which vexeth him with her words then he will be dead in a chafe I would I were out of the world never man was so pestered with a shrew as I so it is with wives too Come now recount you owne passions are you not ashamed of these drunken distempers what is life a thing so dog cheape with you that upon every occasion you would cast it away Are your selves things of so little value that so small a matter should make you weary of your selves You wrong God exceedingly in such distempers for you make it appeare that you think of him as of an angry governour that cares not how unreasonably he laies upon his servants in his anger Either these corrections are sufferable or not I meane such as by wisdome and discretion you might compose your selves to beare with gentlenesse or they be not if they be why do you chafe thus If they be not who hath sent them Verily you provoke God to send unsufferable crosses that will make easie crosses unsufferable What saith the Father to the froward childe doe you cry for nothing take you that then to make you cry for something and so doubles and redoubles his blows with a strong arme till the childe feeling the smart of his Fathers anger begins to compose himselfe to a little more sufferance Brethren let us repent of this folly there scarce liveth a man that hath not overshot himselfe in this fashion O let us repent of it and let us diligently resist such disorderly passions hereafter Let nothing make us weary of life but sin and not that so excessively as to make us intemperately wish death Of sin we should be weary but of life for sins sake I know not whether we may allow our selves at all to be weary But for crosses be they what they will we should not be so weak and impatient as to grow weary of life For God is able to deliver us out of all crosses and will do it and he will so sanctifie them to us that it may be more for our profit than if it were removed and can give as in Iobs case he did so blessed an issue that our selves shall confesse it was but our folly not to be willing to continue under them according to his will Had not Iob cause to unwish his former wishes when the Lord did make so large an addition of happy dayes unto him Above all we must consider of our worthinesse to be damned that we may not thinke much of crosses and labour so to rest upon God for the escape of damnation that afflictions which are but for a short season may not seeme unto us extreame Looke upon our Lord Iesus Christ what sufferings were comparable to his Yet we never meet with any wearinesse of life or wishing of death in him Looke upon S. Paul too Never man had feeling of greater tribulation and he tels us that hee tooke pleasure in necessities afflictions tribulations but that he wished himselfe dead that hee might be free from his crosses wee never reade Let us follow the vertues of godly men but let their weaknesses be our warnings And that we may not distaste life for any crosses that befall us therein let us often renew our faith in Gods gracious promises to give us an happy issue out of all and to bring us safely to his heavenly kingdome Moreover if sometimes these fainting fits doe gather upon us and our mindes be overtaken with this tirednesse of spirit let us learne though to be humbled yet not to be discouraged We conclude not against Elias Moses Rebekkah Iob that they were not truly
should not need to be slaves to Dice and Wine and Harlots and Sports if they would be servants to God in some worthy vocation or other But Iacob dwelt in Tents that is lived as a Pilgrim or stranger professing himself an heire of the Promise made to Abraham Though we be not all bound to dwell in Tents and to be Pilgrims in that sence yet we else are all bound to have our hearts withdrawne from earthly things and set on heaven to count this world and the things of it no better than a Tent or a Tabernacle weake fickle and uncertaine and so to carry our selves towards it and to be in it even as in a strange countrey not as in an habitation of our owne in which wee meane to settle our selves To behave our selves in the world as strangers and to the world and things thereof as to a strange place through which we are travelling to our own country This is a noble thing a divine a celestiall thing A most remarkable difference betwixt a true a false hearted Christian because one hath the right and the other contents himselfe with counterfeit goodnesse Thus did our Lord Iesus Christ live thus Paul thus all the Saints and thus are we commanded to live even as Pilgrims and strangers And it stands in this that we make no reckoning of earthly things in comparison of heavenly and that we desire earthly things none other way but in order to heavenly and use earthly things only so as to be furtherances to our earthly beeing and doe not suffer them to steale away our affections from heaven nor to hinder our diligent and constant practising of all those things that doe directly concerne our heavenly estate Thus to minde not the things below but the things above is a sure proofe of a man truly enlightned and sanctified and made conformable to the death and Resurrection of our Lord Iesus Christ In a word it stands in esteeming all earthly things as vanity and vexation of spirit and using them all as furtherances to our spirituall well-being otherwise making none account of them at all For so doth a stranger use the countrey wherein he travelleth and all the things and persons that he doth meet withall therein Now let us make use to our selves of this great vertue by blaming our owne selves for being so far unlike to Iacob in this matter How farre we are from dwelling in Tents and from behaving our selves as Pilgrims in the world is it not more than manifest O how much esteeme doe we make of worldly things and persons how are our hearts set upon them how eagerly doe we follow them how overmuch doe we rejoyce in them Certainly this argueth a great deale of folly For to mistake the worth and prices of things is a speciall point of folly we doe for the most part live like men of the world that are not acquainted with any things more excellent than the vanities of this life We thinke not of our mortality and uncertainty of earthly things wee have our consolation in earth rather than heaven This worldly mindednesse is to be observed confessed lamented refused we must blame our selves for it as for a great fault and must oppose it with serious meditations of earth and heaven and of our mortality We must earnestly pray to God to divorce us from the world and to pull our hearts upward that we may not be glued as it were to this dirt and dung To see this fault is a signe of some true grace for the world will not see it to be a fault that they are over earnestly bent unto the world as the Fish findes it not troublesome to live in the waters And now let me call upon you to be heavenly minded hereafter to use this world as though you did not use it to set it lower than spirituall graces and than the hope of heavenly things A childe is wedded to his gawdes so long as his childishnesse prevaileth but when he hath gotten more mature understanding he rejecteth them and mindes other things so must we if we will shew our selves to be perfect men in understanding If a master sets his servant to gather chips he doth it and should doe it diligently in obedience to his master but still he takes not the chips for excellent things but reckons of them as of chips so for conscience sake to God must we labour in the world yet still so that we account the world as a vaine shadow and must shew that we so esteeme it by being satisfied even with a small portion if God see it fit to give us no more and by being well contented if we have food and raiment yea and patient too if we be put to suffer need and want them And so much now for Iacobs vertues in generall He was a perfect man and dwelt in Tents Now let as consider them more particularly First let us see his carriage to God-ward then to men-ward both himselfe and others both those that were neerer to him and those that were further from him First then Iacob had true faith in God a common grace which is found in all Gods people and he shewed this faith by many comfortable and worthy fruits of faith viz. these which the Story of the Bible noteth First by his desire to get the birth-right and to buy it of his brother who despised it for if it was a testimony of prophannesse and unbeliefe in Esau to sell and sleight his birth-right then must it be also a proofe of holinesse and faith in Iacob to desire it and buy it Indeed they were both young and so Iacob gets it in a childish way by giving his brother a messe of broth on that condition that he would resigne up to him all interest right and title unto it that he had or might have But yet in the main matter Iacob beleeved Gods promises for the spirituall benefits annexed to the birth-right else he would not have sought it in that manner Graces worke in men according to the age and ability of discretion that is found in the party which hath them There be certain childish and imperfect expressions of grace mixed as it were with the weaknesse of head that is in children yet be these true proofes of grace and such as the Lord accepts for the substance of them though the weaknesses mixed with them deserve no acceptation and for the love of the good he passeth by those weaknesses Sure had not Iacob beleeved the promises of God concerning the land of Canaan and the rest he would never have tooke any care of the birth-right but in that he doth long for it and in such a fashion as a young man could doe contracts for it with his brother it argues his faith which caused him so to esteeme of it Indeed it was not that bargaine betwixt them that made it his but Gods promise before made to his mother The elder shall serve the younger