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A33548
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Jacob's vow, or, Man's felicity and duty in two parts / by John Cockburn ...
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Cockburn, John, 1652-1729.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing C4813; ESTC R10808
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214,296
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486
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upon the back of another so that he hath no Rest or Security Such an one may learn by what hath been said also where the fault lies and who is to be blamed for it 't is perhaps because he hath never sought the LORD nor studied so to order his Wayes as to Please GOD he hath trusted too much to himself His Wit and Industry his Wealth Power or Friends because of these he hath thought with himself that it should be alwayes well with him and therefore he hath not cared much for GOD and therefore GOD hath set himself to vex and trouble him For as the Eyes of the LORD are upon the Righteous and his Ears are open unto their cry so the Face of the LORD is against them that do eVil to cut off the remembrance of them from the Earth Psal. 34. 15 16. Because DaVid displeased the LORD in the matter of Uriah therefore 't is said That He raised him up many Enemies Let every Man therefore Try and Examine himself let him search his wayes and see what sin lyeth at his door and repent of it and let him turn unto the LORD and He will cause His Face to shine Favourably upon him happy shall he be and it shall be well with him Make GOD thy Friend and He shall preserVe thee from all eVil He shall preserVe thy Soul The LORD shall preserVe thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth and eVen foreVermore Psal. 121 7. 8. CHAP. IV. Jacob's third Request considered in respect of himself Though the generality of Men ask more yet all wise Heathens and Iews have preferred this Portion to all Others The confining our Desires to this is shewed by seVerall instances to be Wise and Reasonable and that therefore eVery one ought to content himself with his Competency All Mens Competency is not the same What is the Duty of him who hath got his Competency what of him who hath less and what his who hath more JAcob's third Request which he here makes is for Maintenance this is the last thing about which he conditions with GOD And in this particular he was not Immodest and Exorbitant His Desires were far from being Inordinate and unreasonable for he craves only what was simply necessary and Requisit for the Support of his Life He askes no more but that GOD would give him Bread to eat and Raiment to put on without these he could not live and having these he thought he had enough all that was Needful or Sufficient as to his Present State and Condition And that Iacob confined his Desires to this Sober Measure of Food and Raiment is the more observable seeing we find a little before GOD making him large Profer's and great Promises of the whole Land in which he was It might been thought that he would at lest taken in GOD'S own Promise unto him as one of the Conditions of his Vow and that he should have said well if thou wilt indeed give me all this which Thou hast Promised and do all these things to me which Thou hast spoken and make me so Great and so Rich a Man then Thou shalt be my GOD But he takes another Method and Proceeds after another Manner he passes by all these large Profers of Wealth and Greatness and pitches only upon a meer simple Sufficiency of Food and Raiment thinking it Improper and Unreasonable and a peece of Immodesty for him to seek more than was necessay for him If GOD gave more it was an Act of His Bounty if his Wisdom and Goodness thought fit to bestow a larger Allowance and a greater Measure of these Temporal things it might be matter of Praise and Thankful acknowledgment But it did not become him to prescribe and set down Rules to the Soveraign LORD of Heaven and Earth he knew his Happiness was not tied to these outward things and that Man's life did not consist in the abundance of these things which he possessed Food and Raiment was sufficient for the support of his Life and therefore he craved no more The generality of the World are otherwise minded their desires are not bounded with Iacob's they are not satisfied ordinarily with the portion of Food and Raiment however sufficient it be of it self they are not contented with meer necessary Supplies but greedily covet a Superabundance which is both their Folly and their Sin We have shewed how wise and understanding the Patriarch was in the two former Particulars and have proposed him as our Patern and if we will consider it we shall find him to be no less Wise in this and no less Worthy of our Imitation Wherefore let us set this holy Mans Example before us and let us moderat our Desires after the things of this Life according to this Measure and Model which he gives and sets to himself and to which all Wise Men have ever proportioned their Desires Thus Agur prayed Give me neither Poverty nor Riches feed me with food Convenient for me Prov. 30 8. And as Solomon Contemned Riches and much Wealth so far as that he would not ask them from GOD when he had it in his choice what to ask so he hath Advised us â—…o Despise them and not to seek after them Labour not saith he to be rich Cease from thine own Wisdom Prov 23 4. As if he had said thou art not wise thou understands not they self sufficiently if thou think it a fine or a good thing to be Rich and to have great abundance St. Paul judged this which Iacob here required sufficient matter of Contentment having food and raiment saith he Let us be therewith content 1. Tim 6 8 And we might instance even in many Heathens who sought no more than a meer Competency and in their Judgement preferred that to the greatest affluence of Worldly Wealth and Grandeur Horace calls this Auream mediocritatem a Golden Competency because it is the best of Conditions and elsewhere he saith Bene est mi Deus obtulit Parca quod satis est manu Thrice happy he to whom the wise indulgency of Heaven With sparing hand but just enough hath given Plutarch in his Banquet of the seven Wise Men brings in this Question Which is the happiest Family Which one of the Sages answers thus Where Necessaries are not wanting and Superfluities are not sought How much Seneca speaks in the commendation of a Moderate State and how much in the contempt of Riches is known to all who have seen any thing of his Writings and the following lines speak out his sentiments thereof Fata si liceat mihi Fingere arbitrio meo c. Tuta me media vehat Rita decurrens via If all my Wishes I could have I for Felicity No other thing would crave then Mediocrity It is a saying of Cicero in his book de Officiis Nihil est tam angusti animi tamque parvi quam amare divitias that is Nothing doth more bewray ignorance meanness of Spirit than the
Ioshua 24. Some perhaps will say that these Passages of Scripture do only strike against plurality of gods or the Worshipping of false gods with a neglect or contempt of the True or the Substituting any in his Room but not at all against the Worshipping of Subordinate Beeings while one Supreme LORD and GOD the Creator of all things is owned and worshipped But to this it is answered that certainly all is to be included in the Prohibition which derogates from the Glory of the True GOD and is inconsistent with the Worship and Service due to Him and therefore among other things this of paying Divine Worship to any besides For who doth this does not Glorify GOD as GOD nor acknowledge that Infinit distance which is betwixt him and all other Beeings They are guilty of Lese Majesty and commit Treason against the Person of GOD who either level Him with others or exalt others to a parity with him and yet this is done when GOD is not Honoured above others and that Creatures are honoured with all the Acts of Worship and Testimonies of respect proper to the Creator In the Scripture a Covetous man is called an Idolater not that he sets up his Money as an Idol falls down before it makes Prayers and counts it his Creator but because it enhanceth his Affections is the Ground of his Confidence and that he cannot be more earnest to Please GOD then he is to get Money and keep it Now is he not much more an Idolater who designedly and of set purpose payes all that homage and Worship to others which he owes only to GOD is not this to return to the Idolatry of the Gentiles for their Crime was that they did service unto them which by nature are no Gods as St Paul tells us Gal. 4. 8. And in that he saith they did it when they knew not GOD it clearly implies that they who know him aright as the Gospel manifests him ought not to do it otherwise they walk contrary to the Gospel and dishonour GOD. To guard men against this crime God hath in Scripture declar'd himself a Iealous God like a Iealous Husband who cannot suffer with patience the least appearance of dishonesty in his wife or any the least inclination to strange embraces And indeed as a Woman would be guiltie of Adulterie though she did not quite abandon her husband if she did but prostitute her self to another and entertain him with the affection and kindness due to her own husband So they are guilty of Spiritual whorrdom and adulterie who honour with divine worship any besides the true God though they do not cast him off As the Husband is not content unless he have his wife's whole heart and intire affection so neither is God unless those who pretend to worship him do it without reserving any homage or service for another And as she comes at last to have her heart wholly enstranged from her husband who hath been too familiar with another So they who allow themselves to perform Divine Homage and service to creatures are at last altogether alienated from the Creator when men are drawn to worship any other then God they prove wholly forgetfull of him they let those whom they intended at first only to be Co-partners to turn absolut Proprietors of their hearts and service Wherefore who would take the Lord to be their God must resolve to devote themselves intirely to him and to have none other beside him Lastly who would worship the true GOD and have their service find acceptance with him as they must not dishonour God by giving him Co-partners so they must not make their adress to him by the means of Images or such sensible or external objects but must direct their worship immediatly to God himself without application to any other thing for the conveyance of their worship for this he hath expresly forbidden and that worship which he hath forbidden and declared his displeasure with can never be said to terminate in him That He hath forbidden it is evident from the second Commandement where all sort of similitude and resemblances are discharged And that there is forbidden not only Images and similitudes design'd for honour of false Gods but even also such as might be intended for the honour of the true GOD appears clearly from Deut 4. 15. where Moses saith take ye good heed unto your selves for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire least ye corrupt your selves and make you a graven image the similitude of any figure the likeness of Male or Female the likeness of any beast that is on the Earth the likeness of any winged foul that flieth in the Air the likeness of any thing that creepeth on the Ground the likeness of any Fish that is in the Waters beneath the earth and least thou lift thine eyes up to Heaven and when thou seest the Sun and the Moon and the Stars even all the Host of Heaven should be driven to worship and serve them In this passage not only particular Resemblances but all kinde of similitude whatsoever with a design to worship it is absolutely forbidden So that there is not the least shadow of pretence for the thinking any lawfull to be made use of And that God not only prohibits the use and worship of Images themselves and for themselves that is to say when the worship is made to terminat in the Image or materiall object it self but also when the same is used as a means of honouring and worshipping God is clear both from the due consideration of what hath been already said and likewise from the instances of the Golden Calf which Aaron made and the two Calves in Dan and Bethel which Ieroboam set up For they who worshipped these Calves were not so gross as to terminate their worship in the Calves themselves but used only the Calves to stir up their remembrance of the true God and their devotion for him as appears by their saying these be thy Gods O Israel which brought thee up out of land of Egypt Exod. 32. 4. 1 Kings 12 28. The reason why God discharg'd the worshipping of him by Images and external Resemblances or any kind of visible objects and which makes this still unlawfull is because it is a very improper and disagreable thing in it self and that which begets dishonourable thoughts of God and which seldom or never faileth to make men guilty of the grossest Idolatrie What an improper and unsutable thing is it to studie to make him visible who by nature cannot be seen and by materiall and corruptible things to represent him who is Spirituall and Incorruptible nothing which we can make or fancie bears any proportion to God neither hath any resemblance of him the glory of the best and chiefest creatures is far below the glory of God and therefore it would be but a dishonouring of him to Resemble him to them