fall the making of them after his owne Image in knowledge righteousnesse and true holinesse with a most beautifull strong swift healthie and comely body free from all danger of sicknesse death or other misery giving them dominion over all creatures planting so excellent a place for them as Paradise and granting them the use of all the trees and that of life and putting on them so pleasant a service as that of dressing and keeping the Garden besides the hope and assurance of Eternall life upon condition of their obedience of which Paradise it selfe and the tree of life were signes unto them For if wee should live the life of glory by obeying the Law so should they have done seeing they also were under the same Covenant of workes that we be under Now after their sinne God bestowed divers benefits on them The chiefe was the promise of a Saviour viz. The seede of the Woman to tread on the Serpents head that is to destroy the Divell and the workes of the Divell and to deliver them from the mischiefe which Satan sought to bring upon them By which words he did make the Covenant of grace with them and their Posterity providing a remedy equall to the disease and the meanes of revealing it to all in that be manifested it to them that they might teach it to their children and so one to another till all knew it and then making them Breeches and continuing their life and granting them children These be the benefits The miseries they felt were pronouncing a curse upon them adjudging them to an inavoidable necessity of naturall death to much sorrow in their life he by tilling the ground which should bring forth ill things to him and that with sweat and labour and shee by bearing children in sorrow and by being compelled by subjection to her husband then by casting them out of Paradise debarring them the tree of life and giving Caine over to kill his Brother better then himselfe which must needs be an heavie crosse to them which God did somewhat mitigate by giving them another godly sonne even Seth. This is their life their death followes Adam lived 900. yeares and for Eves death it is not mentioned how long shee lived for God hath not thought it fit to tell us the length of the life of any woman except Sarah in Scripture upon what consideration it is hard to guesse but sure it is to humble womankinde that because they were first in bringing in death deserved not to have the continuance of their lives recorded by Gods pen. So have I briefely runne over the first man and the first woman And now I will make use of all First from their Creation and the benefits bestowed upon them in and after their Creation let us learne to acknowledge God to be our Creator the Fountaine of our being and to submit our selves wholy to him in all things seeing we have received our being from him for in making them he made us in them and whatsoever benefits he gave him in Creation he gave them to us in him seeing if he had not cast them away we should not have wanted them Wee must not lesse praise God and be lesse thankefull for that happy estate because Adam forfeited it for his naughtinesse in sinning cannot diminish the goodnesse of God in granting to him and his so great a heape of pleasures here with certainty of Eternall life after Doe you not see that God made us all to happinesse and life in our first Parents fitting all things so that he might have stood and delivered over all those benefits unto us Let us not murmure against God for the punishment justly inflicted upon us in them and on them for the sinne committed by them especially wee must praise God for the promise of the seed of the Woman which now God hath performed to us by whom salvation and life was offered and tendered to all so that by the second Adam all might have received happinesse as they lost it by the first if the fault had not beene and were not meerely in themselves that have beene and are carelesse of Gods goodnesse neglecting to consider of his mercy to beleeve in him and to turne to him Secondly in Adams sinne let us all see our owne sinfullnesse and our mortality and misery in his misery For by one man sinne came into the world and by sinne death and so death passed over all This sinne is our sinne after a sort we must lament it and bewaile it and be humbled for it and in the sence of our wretchednesse runne to the promised seed to deliver us from sinne and death and to repaire the Image of God in us by the mighty worke of his Spirit which is as easie for him to doe as to create us just at the first and which he will as certainely performe for us if we seeke it as hee did then in our first making Againe let us learne to hate and loath sinne and Satan not to hearken to his suggestions but to beleeve Gods threats and submit to his Commandements let the husband resolve not to obey the voice of his wife against God let the wife take heed of drawing her husband to sinne let the husband rather reforme her then be corrupted by her O beware of thinking to get any thing by doing wickednesse disobedience will bring nothing in conclusion but misery and unhappinesse Let us take heed of flying from God and of excusing our faults and casting the blame upon others chiefely upon God himselfe as Adam did but let us rather confesse lament and trust in his mercy and implore it then dawbe and dissemble and thinke to escape by frivolous shifts and extenuations and especially learne not to be proud of apparell which is no better then a badge of our wicked rebellion and of our shamefull nakednesse Let us be the better for the things we know concerning Adam and Eve our first Parents Againe let us be carefull to follow them in all good deeds which they did O let us repent and beleeve in Christ hoping for life by him according to the Covenant of grace as they did when they had broken the Covenant of Workes For by trusting in Christ we shall goe to Heaven in the way of Evangelicall obedience standing in a resolution and indeavour not to sinne and a carefull humbling our selves and seeking pardon when we faile as sure as they or we should have done in the way of Legall obedience if they and we had remained innocent and God will as surely inable us to this Evangelicall obedience if we seeke to him for grace and the renewing of his Image in us as hee had inabled him to Legall and exact obedience In truth Christ hath made the way to life eternall as easie to us in the path of the Gospell as it was to him in the path of the Law for wee have grace to keepe us from loving and
have a little forme of godlinesse to forbeare some sins and doe some good things for your Parents sake This is to be an Esau even to enjoy the meanes of grace and salvation in a godly house and there to conforme a little outwardly and to abstaine from some sins out of respect to the Governours though you have no true conscience to God Search your hearts you wives children servants that are educated and live under the roofe of good men in the Church of God under good meanes and see your misery if you be no better than this man was And now labour to profit by the means of grace to get the truth of grace causing you to stand in awe of God and to depart from all wickednesse out of due obedience to his Majesty that it may be said of you these and these and all sins you resolve to leave not for sinister respects of this or that person or thing of a Father or the like but out of love to God and a true desire to honour him that hath taken you to be his people Thinke not well of your selves because some self respect or humane consideration keeps you from running into grosser sins but drive to imprint such a filiall regard to the living God in your hearts that may cause you to shun all wickednesse for the Lords sake and then you may comfortably say in your selves now I know I am a true member of the Church and not as Esau was at least then a rotten and a withering and a fruitlesse branch that bringeth forth leaves alone and no good fruit But let us more particularly search into Esau First in respect of his carriage of himselfe in respect of outward things then of his carriage for matters of religion and the things of God Thirdly His behaviour to his Parents Lastly to his brother For the first his life was very faulty in the manner of his orders for the world for in his younger time he gave himselfe wholly to hunting as it is said of him Gen. 25.27 The boyes grew up and Esau was a cunning Hunter a man of the field He meaneth a gallant fellow that gave himselfe to little else but the sport of hunting and was still in the field following that sport He was a rich mans son and his Father had great meanes and allowed him enough wherefore he cared not for any usefull kinde of living but followed sports and jollity and by name was a great hunter still in the fields to please himselfe in that humour Is not this also the common sin of many richer persons who as they had wealth given them to be fewell to idlenesse and voluptuousnesse give themselves over to sports and some to this of hunting and regard not to profit in any good study or profitable trade of life Esaus hunting may seeme not to have been according to our present custome with kennels of bounds but with bow and quiver as it is noted Chap. 25. But howsoever he was set wholly upon sports and sold himselfe to that kinde of delight leting goe other things of better note and use Surely then it is a sin to live voluptuously to have none other calling but pastimes and vaine sports to make that ones occupation that should be alone his recreation and to spend himselfe in such a trifling vaine thing that should be used as a triflle alone to refresh our selves after matters of greater consequence Nimrod was an hunter Ishmael was an archer Esau a field man you reade no such thing of Sem Abraham Isaac Iacob Why should you follow the patterne of those men whom the Scripture speaketh of with disgrace and not theirs rather who have an honourable name in the book of God I pray you call your selves to an account for your expence of time must we not answer to God how we have lived how we have bestowed our dayes and houres will this be a good answer I spent the day in hunting hawking carding dicing and so I did from time to time one day at one sport or merry meeting another at another but all in such toyes Can you bee so fond as to imagine or beleeve that God for this cause gave you wit sences lives health strength wealth and other like meanes of doing good See this fault now so many as are guilty and set your selves to a more profitable kinde of living or else the day will come when you shall bootlesly wish that you had never been O so lay out your life that the world and your selves may be the better for it Live as Abraham and Iacob did not as Esau follow some study follow some good husbandry Live as those that know there is another life after this and that there be more weighty and honourable things to doe than playing and sporting Take heed of bringing your selves into the number of those that are Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God If you say why Then do you condemne all use of sports as hunting fowling or the like I answer no. I doe not but I say let not this in a manner be the totall summe of your employment Have figures as well as cyphers in the number of your dayes let these kindes of exercises have some small quantity of time for your refreshment but spend your selves in better things or else you shall be censured with S. Iames his censure You have lived in pleasure upon earth and then I am sure you shall live in torment when you must leave the earth But another fault we have in Esau for the manner of his hunting ver 29. He came from the field and was faint he followed his pastime over-eagerly and excessively and knew not how to breake it off in due time till very hunger and faintnesse brought him home Sure reason will conclude that it must needs be folly and a sin to be so bound to some sport that one knowes not a due season of leaving it off but must run after it a long time together till faintnesse or hunger follow To be eager after pastimes and stay so long at them as if they were great matters even till extreame wearinesse and hunger take one off and rather compell than perswade him to leave this is an inordinate using of sports For these recreations are in the very wisdome of nature appointed alone to cheere up the minde when it is wearied with great imployments that it may be fitted the better for them afterwards and they are not to be followed for their own sakes as not being worthy to bee made any part of the end of a wise mans life Now he that follows them with so immoderate eagernesse and so long together makes it appeare that he doth not use them as their nature requireth and instead of fitting himselfe for better actions by them doth altogether unfit himselfe for any good action For what can he performe well that hath toiled himselfe in a toy till hee bee quite spent Learne I pray you
servnig sinne as sure as hee had power to abstaine from committing sinne Say to your selves Adams sinne shall not damne mee if in sence of the misery which it brought upon me I can fully seeke to Christ the promised seed Further let us follow him and her in that was good in both How did Adam accept his wife saying This is flesh of my flesh and shee shall be called Evah and a man shall forsake Father and Mother and cleave to his wife O you husbands love your wives as your owne flesh cleave to them above all and forsaking all other keepe you onely to them You wives be content to be subject to your husbands as it is sure Evah was before her fall at least and probable after too for we reade of no braules betwixt them O joyne together to bring up your children well first in some honest calling then in the knowledge of the true God and care of worshipping him I say teach your sonnes and daughters things necessary for their profitable and holy living in the world bring them not up in idlenesse and ignorance but so carry your selves to them that it may not be imputed to you if they prove wicked and be thankfull to God for your children and learne to rejoyce especially in their goodnesse as Adam and Evah did in Seths Learne of your first Parents to be good Parents and follow all the things that were good and commendable in them Againe from their afflictions learne to prepare for afflictions and to make a good use of them when they come if you thinke to live in this world without briers and thornes without sweat and labour you are much deceived Crosses are assigned to us as just chastisements for our sinne we must to dust let us expect misery and death and labour to make our selves fit for crosses It was Gods great goodnesse that he would not suffer Adam to remaine in Paradise and to joy the tree of life For had hee lived in so much pleasure as that place would have affoorded and had he found all the creatures as good and comfortable to him now after his fall when his nature was made sinfull as when it was sinlesse O how greatly would his sin have growne through the fatnesse of that over delightfull estate even as weedes doe in a rich and unmanured soyle Sure had not God sent a curse on the earth and inflicted griefe and misery upon man hee would never have repented never have conceived of his spirituall misery never have turned to God and sought God so that as it is a mercy in the Physitian to make the patient sicke with a medicine so it was in God to send these afflictions on us Let us not therefore flatter our selves in vaine conceits of living merrily but let us prepare for afflictions which all must in some degree meete withall in their severall callings It was the voice of an Epicure in the rich man that said eate and drinke and take thine ease we should say to our selves rather sinne hath made mee subject to divers crosses and I will labour to receive them patiently from Gods Almighty hand if he thinke it fit to exercise me with them Especially you that are Parents of children looke for crosses in your children thinke this boy may proove not an Abel not a Seth but a Caine a wicked and a sinfull Caine a hater of goodnesse and fugitive from God Let mee take heed therefore that I doe not over-love him that I doe not cocker him and as it were marre and kill his soule by over-cherishing his body If wee finde our selves apt to over-prize and over-love our children wee must moderate those passions by such meditations and if we finde our selves apt to over-grieve for their death wee must tell our selves Ah might not their lives have prooved much more bitter to mee then their death can who would not rather bury a sonne young then live to see him proove a Cain and who can tell but his sonne for whose death he takes on with so much excessive sorrow may not fall out to be as wicked as Caine. If any say I hope not so I answer him where be the grounds of his hope did not our first Parents hope as much thinke you Sure Evah giving Caine a name shewed that shee had good hopes of him when he was borne yea those that have good and godly children must prepare to be crossed in their afflictions Hast thou an Abel a godly child O make thine heart ready to heare that some wicked hand hath knockt him on the head perhaps his owne Brother that some violent death hath seized upon him and taken him away before his time and labour to be willing to yeeld to Gods hand if he will so crosse thee for why shouldst not thou stoope to as heavie a burden as that which Adam and Eve did beare in the beginning of the world For the death of good children yea their miserable and untimely death and for the wickednesse yea the notorious and unnaturall wickednesse of other children let every man prepare himselfe by looking upon the example of Adam and Eve that suffered these crosses yea let every godly man learne to prepare for persecution from all Caines but that wee shall treat on when we come to Abels example But Brethren we must not onely prepare for crosses of this kinde but we must also make a good use of them when they come that is wee must turne them into medicines as Physitions doe some poysons causing the sorrow which they will worke in us to become a medicine against our sinnes of which they be the proper and naturall effects When you meete with crosses and calamities say now I see Gods Justice and Gods Truth now I see the hatefullnesse and hurtfullnesse of sinne and therefore now I will mourne not because I am crossed but because I have deserved this crosse and a worse too and so frame to confesse and bemoane the sinne and to supplicate for pardon and helpe at the hand of God in the name of Christ especially looke to those sinnes to which your crosses have some reference and respect Are you crossed in your goods thinke if you did not over-love them and get them unjustly or if in your children see if you did not over-love them and cocker them and so in all things of like kinde In what God smites you see if you have not in that sinned against him and so frame to lament your sinnes and to seeke helpe against them This will helpe to make your crosse easie and quickly to remove it this will cause that you shall be gainers even by crosses When wee see the ill deservings of sinne and the perfect righteousnesse yea the goodnesse of God in calling thus to repentance happy are they that be so afflicted and so taught in Gods waies And Brethren let mee yet make one use of Adam and Eves great sinne to warne you that you take heed of presuming of
other and so persists impenitently For that is the last of all his sinnes he goes away quite from God and his Father ceaseth to continue a member of that family and of that Church gives over all outward shewes of religion turnes meere worldly and earthly and seekes to ease the smart of his conscience by building and busling in the world declaring a piece of vaine glory too by calling his City after the name of his first-borne as it were boasting of it that hee should have his sonne the Lord of a City of his owne name Henoch of Henoch A fearefull offence to persist still in impenitencie to cast of all shew of religion to excommunicate himselfe out of the Church and burie himselfe in vanity and worldlinesse so to stifle his owne conscience and deaden his owne heart more and more Now I have done with Caines carriage good and bad I come to the things that befell him good and bad First good you see God gave him a sonne and sonnes sonne and continued his life along time to give him space of repentance and set a mark upon him to save him from the violence of all men threatening to punish him seven-fold that is seven times as much as he had hurt Caine if any should kill him Seeing it pleased not God to tell us what this marke was with which hee noted this prime murtherer it is fondnesse in us to weary our selves with conjectures some think it was visible to all men but what I know not nor I am sure can any man else tell but it was the goodnesse of God to secure him of life who had deserved death for the Law of putting the murderer to death was not yet and God would not put Adam to so hard a taske as killing his owne sonne but would shew himselfe to be above Law in forbearing to doe that which he will not suffer a Magistrate to forbeare even putting to death of a wilfull murderer yea it was the great goodnesse of God to give him health and many children and childrens children and to grant him riches and prosperity in the world abundantly if it had beene possible to have drawne him to repentance yea it was a great benefit that God came gently to admonish him of his inward malice if it might have beene to have hindred the breaking of it out into murder and after it was done to come againe with this gentle second admonition if it had beene possible to have melted him and have drawne him to submissive humiliation So God vouchsafed him meanes to keepe him from sinne and to draw him out of sinne and time long enough to make use of those meanes and many benefits to allure him to make use of them thus good is God even to sinners and impenitent sinners to offer them meanes of repentance and acceptation upon their repentance and vouchsafe them store of good things for a long time notwithstanding their obstinatenesse in refusing to repent Now lastly let us consider Gods punishments viz. the evill things he met withall The first is sentencing him for his fault and laying open the greatnesse of it in saying What hast thou done thy Brothers blood cryeth to mee from the earth which hath drunk it in at thine hand Secondly hee curseth him from the earth that is in respect of the earth which shall not be halfe so fruitfull to him as before nor yeeld its increase as it had done for he doth not meane simply it shall yeeld no fruit but nothing so much nor so easily Lastly thou shalt be a fugitive a runnagate that is a man full of unquietnesse and terrours that canst have no rest nor peace in thine heart nor any content any where yea it signifieth a giving him over to cast off all goodnesse and leave him to himselfe to forsake his Fathers house and so a selling him over to profanenesse and utter impenitency Thus we have done with Caines life and for his death the Scripture vouchsafes not to mention it nor how long he lived but he lived a long time even to see the sonnes of Lamech who was the sixt generation from him and vaunted that if God would so avenge Caine he would be avenged more by which speech it is very probable that Caine was then alive So we have spoken all we have to speake of Caine. Now I will make some use of all First from that that was good in Caine I pray you learne at least to be as good as so bad a man was and therefore may sure be attained by naturall indeavours You see Caine did not give himselfe to runne idling about the world but submitted to his Fathers government so farre as to give himselfe to Husbandry O let no man turne himselfe into a cipher nay into an excrement that lives in the world to no purpose yea to bad purpose for hee shall not but doe naughtily that will doe nothing set your selves therefore to have and to follow some calling and employment Live not like those playfull creatures imperfect pictures of men but of such men the fitrest emblemes like apes and monkeys onely to skip up and downe and to make sport but live to bestow your selves in some profitable vocation for your owne and the common good If any say Caine was necessitated to it because there were no other to till the ground for them he being Adams first-borne I answer first I desire you should live somewhat better then Caine and doe good out of choice which perhaps he might doe out of necessity Secondly I answer that though you be not necessitated to any calling by want yet wisdome and a good conscience binde you for must you not submit to that of God In the sweate of thy browes shalt thou eate and to that of the Psalmist he shall eate the labour of his hands and to that of Paul which condemnes the inordinate walkers which wrought not at all and is it not wisdome to forbeare walking on a thorne hedge which Salomon saith the idle man doth and to prevent many occasions as the having no calling and being carelesse of it will surely bring I say againe then be as good as Caine have and follow some calling Againe looke that there be some at least outside of religion in you worship God and be not so much lovers of money as not to give him something even to be at cost for his worship in such kind as cost is now needfull as they were to performe a worship then required the cost notwithstanding Be not profane to neglect Gods Worship out of sleighting it be not niggards to put of God with as little as you can but give him of the fruits of your ground and now know that that is given to God which is given to the maintenance of his Ministers which performe his Worship and other instruments necessary to the performance of it as a fit place and the like O be as good as a
justifie himselfe his owne cloathes would defile him This righteousnesse standeth in an exact conformity to the Law of God in that a man hath not committed neither is prone and inclined to commit any of the things which the Law doth forbid nor hath not omitted nor is not prone to omit any of the things which the Law doth command but is utterly free from all sinne of omission and commission and hath perfectly fulfilled the Law in all points and degrees Such a righteousnesse since Adams fall was never found but in our blessed Lord Jesus Christ Therfore the Apostle saith If righteousnesse were by the Law Christ were dead in vaine he meaneth that if God appointed us now to come to Heaven for Christs sake upon condition of our perfect fulfilling the Law it would be to no purpose for we should not be saved by his death and after he saith that the Law concludeth all under sinne that the promise through the faith of Iesus Christ may be given to them that beleeve and before he had said If there had beene a Law given which could have given life righteousnesse had beene by the Law so that there was not a Law given that could give life and therefore the Psalmist confesseth that in Gods sight there is no flesh righteous and S. Paul durst not stand to this righteousnesse which was his owne by the Law This Legall righteousnesse it would justifie if we had it but wee have it not for wee lost it in our first Parents in whom all sinned and all died all were made sinfull and mortall creatures and a sinfull mortall creature cannot possibly performe such a Law as was given to a sinnelesse and immortall creature Therefore wee must finde out another righteousnesse by which some men may be called righteous and by which Abel was righteous seeing that by this righteousnesse the Scripture testifieth that neither hee nor any other can be made righteous This is the righteousnesse of faith the righteousnesse of the Gospell the righteousnesse of God the righteousnesse which is by the faith of Jesus Christ even the righteousnesse of God without the Law and the righteousnesse which is by the faith of Jesus Christ Now there is a double righteousnesse taught in the Gospell The one is made ours by imputation and is not ours by inherencie wee never performed it our selves but another performed it for us and we have it imputed to us It is by S. Paul described thus A righteousnesse without workes imputed to the happy man not simply without workes for that is impossible because the Law cannot be fulfilled but by working according to its direction and unlesse the law be fulfilled there is no perfect righteousnesse but a righteousnesse without any workes of ours and therefore without the Law too for the Law accepteth of no righteousnesse but that which is wrought by our selves as it is said of Abraham that hee wrought not but did trust in him that justifies the ungodly Abraham wrought diligently and plentifully how then can it be said that he wrought not hee meaneth that he did not worke that by his owne workes hee might attaine this righteousnesse By this righteousnesse alone we are justified It is the perfect and exact righteousnesse of our Lord Jesus Christ accepted for us and put to our reckoning For he was our surety he tooke our nature hee bare our sinnes hee fulfilled our duty and bare our punishment and so satisfied Gods justice in our roome and is become The Lord our righteousnesse This is the one righteousnesse commended to us by the Gospell To this and this alone we must cleave for the obtaining of remission of sinnes and life eternall at the hands of God By merit of this are we pronounced just by God at his heavenly Tribunall and in the judgement of our owne consciences and hereafter shall be so pronounced openly at the last day to this S. Paul cleaved This the Gospell taught for therein is declared the righteousnesse of God from faith to faith But the Gospell telleth of another righteousnesse that is a companion of this alwaies at the same time and by the same meanes given that this is given and it is a quality inherent in us and wrought in us by the Spirit of God and floweth immediately from our faith The Apostle S. Paul doth describe it plainely saying that Wee must count our selves dead unto sinne but alive unto God and then saith Wee must not yeeld our members as weapons of unrighteousnesse unto sinne but as weapons of righteousnesse to God and saith Wee are become servants to righteousnesse and that wee must yeeld our members servants unto righteousnesse and againe must raigne by righteousnesse unto life eternall It is not the cause of our life but the way to it It is a vertue wrought in us by which we are made able to strive and indeavour and desire to keepe the Law A man till he be justified by faith and reconciled to God is estranged from the Lord and from the life of God and is an enemy in his minde and is dead in sinnes and loves sinne and will not leave it and out of a stiffe and strong bent of will to sinne cannot but serve sinne and will and resolve to continue serving it in one kinde or other Now this is also a righteousnesse of the Gospell and it differs from that of the Law in two things 1. In regard of the degree it is imperfect and defective failing in many things but it is upright and sincere allowes not its failings but with an upright desire striveth to perfection and is still labouring against its imperfections 2. It differs from the righteousnesse of the Law in use for the Law doth require this righteousnesse as an accomplishment of the Covenant of workes to justifie us before God by the merit and worth of it but the Gospell requireth this as an act of obedience alone to shew our thankfullnesse and to proove us truly justified before God because as it is said There is not a Law given which could give life seeing that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and whosoever goes about to put this righteousnesse into the use of justifying him before God I meane of attaining eternall life and remission of sinnes from God by vertue and worth of it that man cannot but be damned because he cannot have the imputed righteousnesse and the inherent both for that purpose If he trust to Christs righteousnesse he cannot trust to his owne if to his owne he cannot trust to Christs seeing S. Paul opposeth them as things contrary saying not having mine owne but Christs which were weakely spoken if a man could have both to the use of justifying yea he saith He that will be justified by the Law is fallen from grace and Christ is become of none effect unto him and by the Law he seekes to be justified that
causing us never to see the second death though we must not be freed from the first for that was the speciall priviledge of Enoch and Eliah and was never granted to any other that we read Labour therfore to hold fast in your soules a firme perswasion of Gods love to you in Christ and withall a firme purpose of pleasing him in all things Let sincere truth of obedience be joyned with a firme perswasion of Gods love and the firme perswasion of Gods love be joyned with a sincere indeavour of obedience then death shall never come amisse then you are alwaies ready for it So David faith I have hoped in thy salvation and done thy Commandements So then if we would be ready for God we must doe two things Turne to him and walke with him To turne is to begin to walke with God to walke with God is to continue to turne to him O ye that have not begun to turne doe it to day turne now call to mind your former evill waies to judge your selves for them to lament them to seeke of God in Christ forgivenesse of them and power against them and labour to rest your selves upon his goodnesse in Christ for pardon and helpe and so have you made your peace then keepe your peace by a constant indeavour to please God in holinesse of life and a constant renewing of your assured perswasion of his love O happy man he that can so fit himselfe for his latter end Brethren let the mention of the deaths of so many aged persons make you carefull to prepare for death you that be young doe it because death takes away young men as well as old and you that be old doe it because you may meete with it very suddenly and must needs meete with it afore it be long Againe you see these long-liv'd men here wrestling with the corruptions of the world and their owne some a longer time and some a shorter but all in comparison of our selves a great while The longest lived man for number of dayes was Methuselah who lived nine hundred sixty nine yeares but for perfection of life Adam who lived a perfect man nine hundred and thirty yeares The shortest lived of all the Patriarkes was Noahs Father Methuselahs Sonne Lamech for he lived seven hundred seventy and seven yeares and died the yeere before the floud a little before his Father Methuselah who lived till that very yeare that the floud came and drowned all and was taken away that he might not see the floud Now why did God lengthen out the daies of the Patriarkes I answer chiefely to maintaine the knowledge of God and true religion in the world that by the long life of one godly man the truth which then was not put in writing but by word of mouth delivered from man to man might be kept more pure and undefiled Adam lived till Methuselah was two hundred forty and three yeares old Methuselah lived till Sem the Sonne of Noah was one hundred yeares lacking two so that Sem talked with him that had talked with Adam who could acquaint him with all things concerning the creatures the fall and the promised seed out of his certaine knowledge and experience he had beene made of nothing he had seene all perfections and Methuselah could tell it to Sem and Sem lived to see Isaac borne and a Father So that Isaac might speake mouth to mouth with him that had spoken with him that had spoken with Adam the first man that ever was Was not this a notable confirmation of his Faith THE FIFTH EXAMPLE OF The Old World WEe have propounded particular Examples unto you hitherto as also the Scriptures have done Now following them wee must set before your eyes the Examples of an whole multitude even of an whole World full of men and women that gave themselves to worke wickednesse before the Lord. It is called in Scripture the old World and the world of ungodly In the space of a 1656. yeares the generation of mankind was growne to that height and exorbitancie of wickednesse that the patience of God could no longer endure them Now concerning this Old World we will shew you three things 1. Their sinnes 2. The goodnesse of God to them notwithstanding their sinnes 3. The severe punishment that fell upon them at the last and so will make use of all First for their sinnes the Holy Ghost sets them out in generall and more particularly In generall the sinne of man is said to be great and that every imagination of the thought of his heart was evill and onely evill and that continually Secondly it is said that all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth So their naughtinesse was remarkeable in these two respects it was exceeding hainous and grievous in that they committed great and fowle sinnes in great abundance with great wilfullnesse and gave themselves to add sinne to sinne doing nothing but plodding and contriving wickednesse and then all men gave themselves over to the same bad course you could not finde a man that made scarce a shew of goodnesse out of Noahs house When all consent together to sell over themselves to worke iniquity and grow past shame or feare running into most grievous and notorious sinnes with greedinesse and wilfullnesse this is very offensive to Almighty God and will certainely provoke his wrath to bring upon them some fearefull and heavie punishments Divers reasons may be thought of that caused this exceeding great growth of sinne in those times 1. The long life of men for let an unsanctified man continue long and he will grow more and more sinfull the longer he continues Sinne by frequent exercise growes more and more violent and head-strong So living a great space of time they grew above measure naught 2. They had strong and able bodies together with health and ability to enjoy the things of this life 3. They had great peace in regard they all lived under a paternall governement the agedst in the family still being acknowledged the governour of the family and they had all one language and so no great cause of controversie and one religion too it is like seeing the Patriarkes lived so long that they were immediately taught of God save that they degenerated to prophanenesse and the most became of no religion and so did not warre with the contrary little partie unlesse it were with jests scoffes and contumelies Long life great strength great peace begat great wickednesse But more particularly the Lord takes notice here of their 1. Unlawfull and carnall marriages 2. Of their violence and oppression And our Saviour telleth of their great worldlinesse that did sell over themselves to temporall dealings and cared nothing for better things and S. Peter tells of their obstinacy in sinning and their not beleeving nor regarding they were disobedient whilest the long suffering of God waited in the daies of Noah Yea our Saviour
persons how neere and deare soever they be and so of all Governours to punish their inferiours without partiality whatsoever their offences be And thus you have Noahs goodnesse of his badnesse we have something related too First that hee dranke of the wine which he had planted so over-liberally as that hee was drunken in his drunkennesse discovered his nakednesse being besides himselfe with excesse of wine he had not care to keepe those parts covered which nature would have to be concealed So his Sonne C ham finding him lying in this immodest fashion was scandolized and drawne into a great offence Here we learne to take heed of drunkennesse and of all immodest carriage which being bad in case of drunkennesse must needs be worse when a man is sober and hath ability to consider better what he doth and to refraine from such unseemely deeds Brethren if any of you have beene drunken if any have in his drinke or otherwise perpetrated immodest and leud acts I beseech you learne of Noah to repent of it and be assured that upon your repentance you shall finde pardon And I pray make not your soules bolder to persist in drunkennesse by abusing Noahs example for he offended but once this way and through weakenesse it may seeme in that being desirous to refresh himselfe after so long pensivenesse in the floud he was freer then was fit Let not his once offending out of weaknesse make you bold to doe the same sinne 100 and 100 times yea be you more carefull to avoid that trespasse which sped so ill with Noah Drunkennesse will make every man discover his nakednesse if not of body yet of minde There is no crime so notorious but the drunken man will cast himselfe into it if occasion offer it selfe as we may see also in Lot Wherefore know yee that a good man may be overtaken through infirmity with some such grosse sinne but he will not wallow in this mire he will not allow himselfe in the practise of it and give over himselfe to be drunk day by day weeke by weeke And as for these grosse externall acts of evill you are to be so much more carefull to avoid them by how much God hath given you more power to forbeare them for a man hath power if he will to forbeare drinking and therefore if he doe not leave this fault it is because hee will not and the custome of sinning doth make the will so inthralled to evill that a man will needs doe it not needs must doe it whither he will or no which is so farre from excusing the fault that it aggravates it exceedingly Yea beloved take heed of all immodest and undecent carriages by discovering the shamefull parts for if this were a sinne in a drunken man that had not understanding to know he did amisse how much more in a man that is sober which knowes he doth evill and will doe it Now you have Noahs faults and his vertues Looke upon his crosses and his benefits His crosses were besides the common miseries of mans life which he suffered together with others First he spent his time in vaine Preaching and no man regarding it Secondly he lived to see all mankinde destroyed and to behold a fearefull deluge and for a whole yeere and more for the floud began on the second moneth and seventh day of his 600 yeere and he came not out of the Arke till the twenty seven day of the second moneth of his 601 yeare he was as it were imprisoned in the Arke shut up amongst the beasts and other creatures Thirdly he had a gracelesse wicked sonne and was put himselfe to pronounce a curse against him with his owne mouth in the name of God for he did it not out of anger or distemper but as a Prophet in the Name of God and by his instigation and authority Lastly hee lived to see his ofspring after the floud grow very naught and suffer fearefull punishments Hee saw the building of the tower of Babel the dispersion of men from Babel the halving and quartering of mens ages the universall overspreading of idolatry in so much that Abrahams father Nahor and Terah did not escape it These crosses did Noah suffer Buckle your selves to crosses and be thankfull if you have not felt so grievous evills and universall as those of Noah Wee should make our owne miseries more tollerable by comparing them with the greater miseries of better men then ourselves that have gone before us in the like and worse Have you lead children so had Noah Doe you labour in vaine in your places so did Noah Doth the world run all to wickednesse so did it in Noahs dayes Againe let us feare to fall into those sinnes of his which did bring upon him great miserie Be not drunke least you become a scandall to many through your evill carriage and least God set you to some worke as contrary to your good like as it was to Noah when hee was faine to pronounce a curse against his owne child Now goe and thinke of the crosses of Noah to fright thy selfe from sin And last of all consider his benefits 1. Hee found favour with God that is God made knowne his love and kindenesse to him made him know that he loved liked and accepted him to life so it is testified of divers others Now labour to be good incourage your selves in piety with God you shall find favour hee will make manifest his love and kindenesse to you though men seeme to disfavour you and the love of God is a thing so pretious and comfortable that it may well overweigh all the anger wrath and displeasure of men Jf God favour you no matter who hateth you and this all Gods people may be said to find by walking in the wayes of righteousnesse with Noah for God is not an accepter of persons Againe Noah was directed by God to a course of saving himselfe from the floud with his family and many other creatures and accordingly did escape the common destruction This is a speciall favour of God to deliver his people from common calamities especially that eternall destruction of hell fire that must overwhelme the world This benefit God will give to all his Saints and safety also from common calamities when the time serves and so farre as is fit if they strive against the common sinnes by mourning and oppose the same God will be an arke unto them in the midst of a deluge and they may triumph as David I will not feare though the waters rage and though the mountaines he cast into the midst of the sea as then they were Let all Gods people set themselves resolutely against common sinnes and God will preserve them from common judgements Thirdly The Lord accepted his sacrifice and resolved hee would not drowne the world anymore and made a covenant with Noah and all creatures confirming it by the raine-bow as a signe thereof So God
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
effect the world did call that Citie Babel or confusion so instead of great honour and a great name they gate shame and confusion and were thence dispersed from whence they expected safety from dispersion Thus God catcheth the wicked in their owne devices brings mischiefe on them from that wherein they trusted for safety and shame from that from which they expected glory Yea see here that God hath strange and unwonted punishments to lay upon sinners for who would have ever had a dreame of such a thing as this viz. to have them made unable to speake their mother languages and all of a sodaine to speake gibrish one to another So powerfull is God over man that he can take from him his tongue his wit his soule all things in a moment It was an heavie chastisement making way to much ignorance and barbarisme and to much warre and bloudshed and to a great estrangement among mankinde and to great toile and labour for the getting of all learning and causing much errour and mistaking in all Arts and Sciences chiefely in Religion so that next to our casting out of Paradise and to the floud it deserveth the name of the heaviest punishment that the world hath felt yea in respect of the succession of men it was worse then the floud that onely drowned the men who lived in the present time this hath drowned in ignorance and errour all succeeding times Let us feare the Lord our God who onely doth wonderfull things and can tell how to plague his enemies with heavie scourges We have now finished the Examples of these bad men Looke to the good Sem and Iaphet and Sems posterity to Abram Of Sem note his good deed his reward and his death for his good deed it was common with him and Iaphet they went backward and so covered their Fathers nakednesse that they might not see it partly out of modesty and partly out of filiall reverence and respect which they bare unto him Thus thus should all good children doe even refuse to see their Parents nakednesse or any thing that might withdraw a due regard and feare of them any sinnes or weakenesses of theirs notwithstanding yea all men should be so truly loving one towards another as to use the mantle and veile of love to cover a multitude of sinnes so as to goe backward as it were and not see them Wee should what in us lies and so farre as duty will suffer conceale the faults of all men further then the necessity of healing them and of preventing the mischiefe that may else follow of them will permit us Every man would be so dealt withall himselfe Who doth not praise the vertuous carriage of these two Brethren Imitate it I beseech you chiefely towards Parents Magistrates Ministers keepe secret if you can their secret faults and hide their shame from breaking forth Nothing is more fit to be covered then sinne It is like a carkasse which doth least hurt when it is buried under ground so farre therefore as duty will suffer you bury bury it under ground with it and let it lie hid under the garment of silence See it not if you can choose say nothing of it more then you must needs Now consider the blessing with which their goodnesse was rewarded Sem had God for his God and the dominion of Canaan given him that is the true Religion was to continue in his posterity the Messiah to come of him and his seede to have the possession of the land of Canaan and Iaphet at last was to be brought to the participation of the same Religion with him by the perswasion of the Gospell So it is a great mercy to have the true Religion continued in a mans posterity and to be brought from errour unto the truth Whether Iaphets selfe were a godly man it is not certaine but in doubtfull things it is good to incline to the best side and to take things in the best part therefore we will hope that he was so and with Sem did inherit the blessing in his person as well as after his seed was admitted unto it And let us now blesse God that hath performed this Prophesie for it is likely that we of these Countries are of Iaphets posterity and now we see the Lord of Heaven be blessed that God hath perswaded us to accept and imbrace Christ and so to dwell indeed in the tents of Sem. But now for the seede of Sem they were these Arphaxad who lived 438 yeares almost 200 fewer then his Father Sem as Sem did 350 fewer then Noah Selah who lived 433 yeares the halfe alone of the lives of men before the floud for at the floud God did shorten mens lives by halfe to keepe them from so great a height of wickednesse as in that long lived age they came unto and to shorten the toile of the godly upon earth Heber lived 464 the longest of all but Sem after the floud it is likely he was a very worthy man from him the name Hebrewes came to his posterity and endured for many yeares after Peleg lived 239 yeares about the building of the Tower of Babel so you see then God shortened mans life one halfe seeing them againe to grow so exorbitantly wicked Reu lived also 239 yeares just as long as his Father which is not found in any other that I remember Serug lived 230 yeares Nahor lived 148 yeares it may seeme that he was the first of the Patriarkes that fell to Idolatry for Laban sware by the gods of Nahor therefore his life is almost by halfe as short as any of his predecessors Then Terah lived 205 yeares he fell to Idolatry but repented afterwards and went with his sonne Abraham towards the land of Canaan dying in the way and buried his eldest sonne before himselfe which had not befalne any Patriarke before that we reade of * ⎠* THE EIGHT EXAMPLE OF ABRAHAM IT is agreed upon by all that from Adam to the floud there passed 1656 yeares inclusively I meane from the beginning of Adams Creation Noah was the tenth from Adam inclusively Abraham the tenth from Noah exclusively I meane not reckoning Noah as one How many yeares passed betwixt the floud and Abrahams birth it is uncertaine because the relation of Abrahams birth Gen. 11.26 is set downe in such words as have ministred occasion of difference to the Reader Terah begat Abraham Nahar and Haran but at what age he begat each of them it is not manifested Some thinke that Abraham was the first-borne begotten at his fathers 70 yeare some thinke that hee was the youngest begotten at his 130 yeere so there is difference of yeeres in the account by this meanes 60 yeares but I rather incline to them that thinke Abraham was the eldest sonne at his Fathers 70 yeare for surely if Abrahams Father had beene able to become a Father at 130 yeares it would not have beene said of Abrahams selfe that he was as
good as dead at a 100 yeares old It is improbable that there should have beene so great difference of bodily strength betwixt the Father and the Sonne Now from Abraham forward the Holy Ghost maketh his story more large then that of former times We shall follow Gods pen and propound unto you this Father of the faithfull that by doing his workes you may shew your selves his children In him looke to his 1. Birth 2. Life 3. Death For his Birth he was the sonne of Terah borne as some thinke about the 200th yeere of the world some 352 yeeres after the floud but as some thinke 60 yeeres sooner about 1948 of the world and after the floud 298. For his life we will consider his carriage good and bad and the things that befell him good and bad Let us begin with his vertues and good deeds and observe him as an excellent patterne of all vertues and goodnesse that we may profit the better by considering his life more particularly Let us see what vertues and good deeds he practised towards God first and then towards man First for God hee is commended for faith Abraham saith the Author of the Hebrewes by faith called of God c. and Abraham by faith offered up so that faith he had and was called the friend of God as the Apostle S. Iames witnesseth now without faith no man can possibly please God or be his friend So had Abel as we shewed you before so had Noah so had Henoch so had all the godly at all times This grace is the cardinall grace the radicall grace that upon which all other graces grow as on their roote and on which they move as the doore upon its hinges Therefore you that would be called the children of Abram heires of the blessing of Abram come and compare your selves with him and see whether you be faithfull as he was to that end know that faith is the grace by which we beleeve things invisible and supernaturall concerning another life hereafter So the Apostle distinguisheth walking by faith from walking by sence or sight and Faith is said to be the Evidence of things not seene and ground of things hoped for Reason and naturall discourse will informe of things sensible and naturall concerning the present life but the things that are above sence and reason concerning a future life hoped for hereafter nothing doth informe us but faith and faith is that grace by which the soule beleeveth such things It hath three sorts of acts in regard of which it is stiled by three titles Faith of God Faith to God Faith in God Faith of God is that by which we beleeve that there is such a God as indeed he is All conceits of God are not of faith but those apprehensions of him which agree to his being and conceive him to be such as himselfe doth set forth himselfe to be and you shall see what Abraham beleeved concerning him 1. He beleeved that this God was one and but one as the Scripture witnesseth of him He worshipped God he called on the name of God he builded an Altar to God not to gods or more gods but to one God JEHOVAH 2. He beleeved that this one God was True Omnipotent able and willing to doe any thing that he should speake viz. that he was All-sufficient and faithfull as S. Paul witnesseth being fully perswaded that what he had spoken he was able also to performe and Heb. 11. that he was able to raise him from the dead 3. He beleeved that this one God was possessor and judge and therefore also Maker of Heaven and Earth And 4. That he was righteous and would doe righteousnesse in punishing the wicked that lived in sinne and in sparing and being favourable to the righteous man that did study to walke before him in a good conversation Now these be the principall things to be assented unto concerning God Secondly Abraham had faith to God that is he gave consent to all those things that God said because he said them which necessarily followeth from his acknowledgement of the truth power and All-sufficiency of God So doth the Author to the Hebrewes note that it was a land which after he should receive for an inheritance He beleeved that God would give him that land according to his promise and he beleeved above hope in hope that he should be Father of many Nations and it is said that God preached the Gospell unto him saying in thy seed which is Christ shall all Nations be blessed He beleeved that of his seed should come the Messiah which should free mankinde from the curse and make them partakers of the blessing So he beleeved Gods threats against Sodome that God would destroy it with fire Thirdly he believed in God 1. He trusted upon his mercy in the promised seede that for his sake not for the worth of his owne righteousnesse God would be mercifull to him and save him He beleeved in God and this faith was counted unto him for righteousnesse He was justified by this faith as the instrument he did not worke meaning in respect of justification he did not thinke to be pardoned and accepted for the workes sake but beleeved in him that justified those which in themselves be ungodly by justifying he meanes pardoneth their sinnes as it is said Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sinne for the promise was not made to him by the workes of the Law but the righteousnesse of faith that is the righteousnesse without workes as he described it before Now if you have this faith and all these acts of faith then you are Abrahams sonnes if not in vaine doe you lay title to his inheritance Therefore trie your selves and if you have this faith then know your selves happy if not you are farre from blessednesse you are still under the curse But secondly Abraham feared God True faith will bring forth the feare of God not the passion of feare nor slavish feare nor feare of flight but the feare of caution and warinesse a not daring to offend God as the Lord himselfe witnessed of him saying Now I know that thou fearest mee when thou hast not spared thine onely sonne Loe the feare of God is such a disposition of heart to God-ward out of the apprehension of his excellency and greatnesse and justice that will cause a man not to be bold to dare to omit any worke that Gods Commandement injoyneth him unto and so not to commit any thing that God condemneth I pray you consider have have you this vertuous feare of God Doe your hearts stand in awe of him so that you flie from the offending and displeasing of him as from the greatest of all evils those that have Gods feare before their eyes they are godly like Abraham those that have it not they are wicked as Abram thought the men of Gerar and Egypt to be O labour for
yea it doth appeare often that riches are laid up for the owners thereof for hurt And these be the benefits temporall which Abraham had for himselfe a good wife good children in their kinde and one religious good servants good friends good name good favour and great wealth to which add one particular benefit a great and famous victory over foure great and conquering Kings as the Holy Ghost telleth us Gen. 14.15 he pursued them he divided himselfe against them he and his servants by night and smote them and pursued them to Hobah and brought backe all the goods and Lot his brother and his goods and the women and his people An absolute victory was obtained by Abrahams wisedome and valour God gave him the wisdome God gave him the valour God gave him the successe The Prophet Esay sets forth Gods goodnesse to Abraham in generall as a sure argument that God will shew the like mercies to his people in after times bidding them looke unto Abraham and Sarah and saying Isa 51.2 I called him I blessed him and increased him and 41.2 3. He setteth forth this very benefit in magnificall phrases saying who raised up the righteous man from the East called him to his foot gave the nations before him and made him rule over Kings gave them as dust to his sword as driven stubble to his bow hee pursued them and passed safely by the way that he had not gone with his feete God would have his people take notice of this mercy in saving Abraham and making him victorious to assure them of his like love in defending them and giving them victory over all their enemies even the whole Church and each particular member thereof He that sheltered Abraham was with him gave Kings before him shall not he declare his love as much in future ages to his people Surely he is the same for ever Let this comfort us against all those that rise up against us But what did God for others for Abrahams sake First he blessed Lot the more for Abrahams sake and as it is noted Lot that went with Abraham had heards and after when God destroyed Sodome he thought of Abraham and delivered Lot also So God for a good mans sake will blesse and helpe even his friends and well-willers and those that belong to him shall be much the better for him according to the promise that he had made saying I will blesse them that blesse thee And for Abrahams children he blessed Isaac and gave him great outward things yea gave him also grace and made him heire of the Covenant and continued the Church in his house giving him a sonne in the life time of Abraham For Abraham had Isaac at a hundred and lived 175 yeares and Isaac married at forty and had Esau and Iacob at sixty so Abraham lived to see those two sonnes about five yeares old and gave outward things to Ishmael and abundance to him that Princes came of him in likelihood during Abrahams life time and he sent away his sonnes by Keturah with great riches and you know that even after Abrahams death God honoured him still by calling him his friend in many places and for his sake did great things for his sonnes after him in many generations Thus you see how worth the while it is to serve feare and obey God what abundant blessings he grants what honour and same even after death though all Gods people have not all these outward things in like manner bestowed upon them yet they have that which is sufficient for them and those that finde their friends and children happy in outward respects must observe Gods hand to be thankfull Yea we must all take notice of Gods like dealing with many of his people whose posterity flourish when they be dead some in goodnesse as well as goods and some at least in earthly respects and leave a good name behinde them so that many yeares after their decease their names are honourably mentioned and all men count them good and faithfull servants of God The name of the righteous is had in everlasting remembrance whilst they live and when they die God shewes himselfe gratious and bountifull to them even in temporall blessings oftentimes as well as spirituall But if any want these outward benefits they must consider of themselves whether their sinnes doe not deprive them thereof For sometimes such mercies are denied to Gods people to chastize and keepe downe and roote up some vices in them David was crossed in his children to correct his fondnesse and to chastize his adultery and murder Salomons posterity was brought low to chastize his Idolatry If in outward things the Lord seeme carelesse of his people they might easily finde by searching that some evill carriage of theirs hath caused him to chastize them in this life that by being brought to repentance they might not be destroyed and perish in another world and so much for these temporall benefits Now for spirituall blessings the first was that God called him out of his Countrey and Fathers house from the Idols of his Fathers house for they served false gods there Iosh 24.2 and acquainted him with himselfe the onely true God No greater blessing can befall a man here then to be called from a false religion to the true religion so that his heart be inclined also to the practise of the true religion and that he be effectually sanctified as was Abraham Wee must looke that wee have this mercy of effectuall calling Indeed from Idols and such kinde of false gods wee are called or rather we have beene kept from following them at all but ah are we called to walke before God in holinesse and righteousnesse not alone turning from darkenesse to light from a false religion to the true but from the power of Satan unto God that is from serving the Divell in a wicked life to serve God in an holy life If we be not so called we are not sonnes of Abraham and outward blessings will doe us little good If we be then wee have cause to rejoyce before the Lord our God with exceeding great joy for he that is so called happie is he This is a mercy of mercies to be a Saint by calling one whom God hath so wrought upon by his Spirit that his outward call hath wonne him from the state of corruption to the state of grace And if any finde not himselfe so called or finde it doubtfull to himselfe whether he have beene so called yea or not let him earnestly seeke to God for it and if wee would know whether we be called yea or not compare our selves with Abrahams Call Gen. 12.1 God had said meaning before his Fathers death before he dwelt in Charran saith Steven for though because Terah was the Father the departure is ascribed to him yet God gave the call first to Abraham and he acquainted his Father with it and so his Father went out and he with
to offer his soone or of Isaac in yeelding up himselfe to be offered were greater for a man doth likely love his life as well as he loveth his childe Now Abraham subdued his love of his sonne unto God and Isaac subdued the love of his life to God both notable patternes of sincere obedience This example you reade in Gen. 22.9 when Abraham and Isaac came to the place which God had appointed Abraham built an Altar laid on the woode and stretched forth his hand and tooke the knife to slay his sonne Isaac at that time was of such an age that he might have resisted his Father being old or have got himselfe free by flight from him but he gave up himselfe into his Fathers hands or rather into God hand and yeelded his throate to the stroake of the sacrificing knife Hereby it is apparent that he began to feare God betime in that he would not withhold himselfe from God as his Father did not withhold his sonne O that we could approve our Faith by the like effects of it even by a willing yeelding of our lives to him when he doth call for them and not refuse to die if he should call us unto it for his commandements sake God is the author and Lord of our lives and nothing is more agreeable to reason then that we should be content to give up life and all into his hands from whom we have received life and all things And surely in this case it shall be proved true which our Lord Jesus telleth in the Gospell whosoever will loose his life shall save it As Isaac was partaker of that great blessing wherewith the Lord rewarded Abraham for his obedience in offering of his sonne saying in blessing I will blesse thee and in multiplying I will multiply thee Neither Father nor sonne you see were loosers by yeelding up the one his sonne the other his life into the hands of God But contrarily hee that will save his life shall undoubtedly loose his life for he must necessarily die at some other time as all other men and then his soule shall be lost together with his life because he loved not God better then his life and he that hateth not his owne life in comparison of God shall not be counted worthy of him Let us therefore see that our soules be so thoroughly subjected unto God if ever we desire to be counted the seede of Abraham and the brothers of Isaac But oh how farre short do very many of us come of this obedience for how should any man beleeve that we would readily part without lives for God which will not part with honour or goods or pleasure yea any of our sinnes at his commandement You be not Isaacs if you cannot be content to give up your lives to God how much lesse if you stand with him for other matters farre lesse then life This is the first part of Isaacs goodnesse to God-ward he became obedient to death Secondly he was devoute and religious given to all holy exercises by name to meditation and prayer principall exercises of piety and religious services of God for so it is noted Gen. 26.25 Hee builded an altar there and called on the name of the Lord. Loe here he worshipped God publikely by sacrifices and prayers and though it be not mentioned that he offered or prayed before an Altar at any other time as I remember yet this once naming of his piety is set downe to signifie his constant care in this duty his Father brought him up in it therefore he could say Where is the lambe Indeed the Lord hath abolished such kinde of Altars and such kinde of sacrifices now since the comming of Jesus Christ into the world and offering himselfe once for all as a propitiatory sacrifice to take away the sinnes of the world but yet now also we have an Altar whereof they have no right to eate that partake of those sacrifices Christ Jesus is our Altar who sacrifieth all those services which we offer up unto God by him and our sacrifices are spirituall sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ The offering of a contrite and broken heart God doth much esteeme the offering of praises and prayers the calves of our lips done unto God in the name of Christ are very pleasing unto him the presenting of our selves soules and bodies to him is exceeding delightfull yea with doing of good and distributing as with sacrifices God is greatly contented as S. Paul saith these are an odour of sweete savour a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God If a man retire himselfe and considering the death of Christ for sinne doe humbly present himselfe before God confessing his sinnes and judging himselfe for them and labour to lament them with hearty griefe before God as causes of the death of his sonne this is a gratefull sacrifice If hee praise God in the Name of Christ as for all other benefits so for the great blessing of redemption wrought by Christ this also doth give a sweete odour unto God if he even consecrate himselfe to God resolving to walke before him in all upright obedience praying for the Spirit of God to sanctify him that in all things he may please God no Bullocke or Ram can please the Lord so well If he set apart some portion of his wealth to God and give it to releeve the necessities of the Saints this is very sweete incense so that hee trust not in the merit of the worke as if it could deserve any thing for the worthinesse of it but trust alone in Christ for the acceptation of himselfe and it and all his services Would you confirme to your owne consciences that you be true Isaacs Aske your selves then doe you offer these burnt offerings if not you be not as Isaac childeren of the promise if yea you may assure your soules that you be O then study to abound in these services Againe it is noted that he called on the Name of God there and so it is noted Gen. 25.21 that Isaac intreated the Lord for Rebeccah his wife because shee was barren Hee prayed constantly to God for a childe in this also testifying his religiousnesse and his Faith So wee must be carefull to pray to God for all good things we neede for childeren if we want them for good successe in our callings and whatsoever else we neede or desire For God is the giver of all good things and hath commanded us in all things to make our requests knowne unto him and biddenus to pray continually and in all things give thankes so we are bound to pray as much as Isaac Therefore those that are carelesse of worshipping God in this duty according to that description of a wicked man written by David in the fourteenth Psalme they call not on the name of God are not surely the children of God as was Isaac but the children of Satan rather for the Spirit of God
have in any kinde offended him our hearts should even quake to thinke of his displeasure till it have made us fall downe before him and renew our repentance and seek out for a pardon But he that hath a bold audatious fearelesse heart that when he hath done evill feeleth no stirring of feare no awe no dread sees no danger or perill in the sinne perhaps abusing the promise to make himselfe bold surely cannot say that he sanctifieth God in his heart and maketh him his dread and his feare Strive therefore to get and strive to nourish and exercise this feare in you The last thing to be noted in Isaac was his obedience to the Commandement of God given him by vision spoken of Gen. 26.6 the story runneth thus there was in his daies a great famine in Canaan Abraham had gone downe to Egypt to sojourne therein a time of dearth for it seemes to have beene a place of more constant plenty then Canaan Isaac had in his minde some thoughts of imitating his Father God saw it not fit for him to travell thither and therefore God appeared to him in some vision and bad him not to descend into Egypt but to dwell or sojourne in that land and promiseth him a blessing accordingly Isaac stoppeth his journey continues in Gerar and goeth not downe to Egypt This was an act of true obedience hee would not goe to the place which God forbad him to go too though it might seeme to have beene fitter for his profit and advantage at that time We also Brethren must learne to dwell where God would have us and not to make worldly profit pleasure ease or the like the choosers of our habitation yea we must learne universall obedience for if in point of habitation I must follow God then in all other things besides See what God saith in his Word unto us and that is now insteede of all visions therein now he maketh himselfe to appeare unto us doe such or such a thing doe not such or such a thing promising a blessing as alwaies he doth unto the obedient We must not consult with flesh and bloud nor aske counsell of profit and pleasure but must resigne our selves to his Commandement and instantly set about the one and relinquish the other He that is so disposed he is an Isaac let him take comfort he is a true beleever and a godly man but he that in such case refuseth to obey and will rather condescend to his carnall reason arguing from losse or commodity danger or safety or the like how can hee call himselfe an obedient childe He that refuseth the plaine directions of Gods Word for earthly respects is not one of the race of Isaac He that causeth all such respect to stand bare unto Gods Commandement and to give way unto it his heart is upright with God and he is a holy man as was Isaac And so much for this good mans carriage toward God Looke now in what sort he behaved himselfe in regard of men and in regard of his estate and the things of this life For men he had Parents a Wife Children Neighbours See his manner of living with them all For his Father he was to him a most dutifull sonne as is manifest in two things 1. He yeelded himselfe to him to be bound and killed Indeed here was more obedience to God then to Abraham and yet a great measure of obedience to Abraham also He bare great respect to his Father Abraham in that hee would be perswaded by him that God had commanded him so strange a thing he shewed himselfe dutifull to God and his Father both in being content to be killed by his Father at Gods appointment You see how children should yeeld to their Parents in all things in the Lord. It was extraordinary that Isaac must yeeld to be slaine when God would have it so and had extraordinarily required it And in this particular without the like warrant which will never be againe in all the world no childe should yeeld to let his Father kill him but should flie away and oppose himselfe so farre as he might without hurting and striking his Father yea or so much as rayling at him for these being things forbidden a man should rather choose to die even by the rage of his Father then make bold to doe them But if in an extraordinary Commandement obedience must be given to Parents in such an extraordinary thing then without doubt in every ordinary thing a Parent must be obeyed in all things in the Lord even though the commandement should be so heavie as death it selfe would not be heavier The Apostle hath said Obey your Parents in all things in the Lord and this is well pleasing to God and this is just Where are you rebellious children Where are you stubborne and disobedient daughters Come lay your selves in the ballance with Isaac see how unlike him you be he would yeeld to death you will not yeeld to leave those things which are forbidden you onely because they will procure you death undoing destruction O you rebels and wretches you are farre enough from being Isaacs You set light by Father and Mother and therefore against you ought all to take up a curse and ratifie the same with Amen Woe woe unto you undutifull children who deale with your Parents as Israel dealt with God they have brought up and nourished children which have rebelled against them God shall cut you off from the land of the living his hand shall be against you to destroy you and the Eagles of the valley shall picke out your beastly eyes that are bold to despise sleight and disobey your Parents and wilfully refuse to obey their lawfull commandements But I beseech you repent of this sinne and prevent this judgement and now let all children be followers of Isaac acknowledge your Parents authority submit to their lawfull commandements and crosse your selves rather to death then be found undutifull Doe it I say the great benefits you have received of them requireth it you have your very being from them in your hild-hoods education and the Law of God requireth the same of you which requireth all reasonable things and you cannot else be saved at last for he that obeyes not that Parent whom he sees daily how shall he obey him whom hee never saw And all you dutifull children be encouraged praise God that hath bound your hearts to respect your Parents and intreate him to continue the same affection in you still and know that the Lord will blesse you as he blessed Isaac and will raise you good Iacobs to require your submissivenesse to your Abrahams But Isaac submitted himselfe to his Father in another thing even when he was now growne to be about forty yeares of age he gave himselfe over to his Father to be ruled by him in marriage he did not set his affections upon any woman without his consent nor draw away any womans affections nor
all or righted of God when his Majesty meaneth no such matter O ignorant and self-deceiving and self-conceited creatures that we be let us beg more wisdome and unpartialnesse to our selves at Gods hand The second son of Bilhah is Nephthali which signifies wrastling because saith she I have wrastled with great wrastlings with my sister and have prevailed Certainly she playes the unwise woman here too and makes too bold with Gods name in saying With wrastlings of God and doth her sister great injury Poore Leah used no meanes to keepe her from fruitfulnesse she neither did keepe her husband from her nor any other thing by which to hinder her from being a mother therefore her wrastlings were only conceited wrastlings and shee proved that envy will cause one to thinke hee is opposed when indeed he is not let us take heed of dreaming that we bee wrastled withall and prevaile when in very deed it is neither so nor so The two sons of Zilpah are next borne the first Gad which signifies a troupe whereby Leah shewes that her desires or hopes were yet raised to looke for a many more children as indeed shee had three after this by Iacob of her owne body and one more whom her imitation of her sisters weaknesse made her to account her owne too The next son is called Asher for now saith she The daughters will count me happy and the name signifies happinesse sure for ought that I can judge no body ever applauded Leahs happinesse in this matter yea she would rather have been judged happy if she could have counted it happinesse enough to have borne sons her selfe and not followed her sisters folly in giving her maide to Iacob Wherein yet she is lesse excusable than her sister who might seeme to have more reason for her fact because shee her selfe was childlesse But you may see what fond things wee bee many times to count that a great matter of happinesse and take great content in it which of it selfe verily is nothing for our good But the children of Rachel come at last Ioseph which signifies hee will adde or give mee another son here Rachel begins to shew some goodnesse some faith the receiving of one benefit upon her prayers makes her hope that God will give her another Then followes Benjamin called by her Benoni The son of my sorrow and Iacob not willing to have a sonne of so ill and ominous a name yet comes to the name as neare as he can saying hee shall bee called Benjamin as much as if hee had said One whom I will love as my right hand and never suffer to depart from me for his mothers sake that bare him And these bee all Iacobs sonnes His daughter was Dinah Leahs seventh childe the word signifies judgement and why shee was so named because the Scripture affirmes not I will not trouble you with my conjectures In speaking of them we will begin with the maiden of whom wee have nothing at all noted that good is Some thinke she was Iobs wife whose life they cast into the time of Iacob I have nothing to alleadge either for or against this opinion It is a conjecture take it as you see good but it is probable that Iob might live about this time but of that no more till we come to speake of Iob. Now we goe on with Dinah of whom we reade as I said nothing but evill Gen. 34.1 Shee would needes walke into the City of Shechem when Iacob lived thereabouts forsooth To see the daughters of the Countrey whether they were faire maidens what garments they wore of what carriage what garbes and fashion they had A folly to which many of you maides be too subject you let your eyes looke over wistly upon the daughters If you did alone take up your selves in contemplating the fashions at the Market or as you walke in the streets or the like yet it were a spending of time worse than you need to spend it sure it is not good to goe abroad idlely when there is nothing to doe but gaze here and there when the minde hath no imployment or businesse to set it selfe about A gazing eye shewes in empty heart and tempts the devill to come thither one tempting to fill the heart with evill fancies that is empty of God I pray you Virgins take warning by Dinah be not you gadding abroad hither and thither to see and bee seene alone Dinahs successe may give you cause of fearing your selves in such occasions But especially let me exhort you to teach your eyes more piety than to bestow themselves in looking abroad to see fashions then when you come to the house of God there to doe service unto God Then I say doe not shew your selves so disregardfull of God so very hypocrites such persons as let their hearts wander for that wanders if the eye wander when the body approacheth him When you should be marking what is read or what is prayed or what is sung or what is preached A wandring eye at Church is a very bad thing and is the devils instrument to steale away all you heare and to make you unprofitable hearers I feare that this is the truest cause why many of you learne just nothing and cannot answer what you heare your eye carried away your mindes that they could not attend by the eare to what was spoken Maidens let me propound Dinahs example to you and warne you to take heed of being desirous to goe abroad to see fashions But a second thing is a young man saw her and tooke her and lay with her and humbled her you see what hurt followed here Shee went to see the daughters but one of the sons saw her and worse than that lusted after her and tooke her and abused her body whether by solicitation and enticement or by force and strength or whether by a mixture of both partly striving and partly soliciting I cannot say the words are such as may carry the sence of soliciting as well as of ravishing but we are willing to take things at the best for poore Dinah and because the Scripture useth these phrases to describe a Rape Deut. 22.28 29. calling it a humbling her as here we will in charity thinke that the same misery befell her in the City for it was the Kings sonne who might easily bring her to such a roome in an house as might cause that her crying voice might not be heard or she might be loath to cry knowing what hee was and that she was a stranger But if it were so I am fearefull that her more light carriage than was fit gave occasion to the young man of such fancies and imboldened him to offer such a kinde of violence as he thought would not be resisted Let maides take heed least their wanton eye and over-light countenance and promising lookes doe not enflame the beholder and offer such violence to their corruption as it were to make
be wondrous thankfull that God hath not so farre left us to our selves as to be drawne to such enormous offences He that can looke upon the worst men that have beene and the worst deeds so as to accuse himselfe of the same bad nature and to confesse himselfe obnoxious to the same crimes and therefore labours to be more humble in himselfe because of the badnesse of his nature and to be thankfull to God for the goodnesse he shewes in restraining that bad nature he makes a singular use of other mens sins But if we heare or see other mens faults onely to brag of our selves that we have not so offended nor will not so offend it is a testimony of much blindnesse and unacquaintednesse with our selves and may justly cause the Lord to make us know our selves by giving us over to our owne selves in like manner But now a word of the common goodnesse of all first to their Father they all gathered together to comfort him when he was in his great and exceeding sadnesse This was well done though they had wronged him in being a cause of his sorrow yet it may seeme they were greatly troubled to thinke of their naughtinesse and were carefull to to use all meanes of restoring him to contentment againe But ah what bitter accusations must those their words reflect upon their owne selves which they used to comfort their Father How could they choose but almost bewray themselves by blushing one while and palenesse another through the cheekes of their owne consciences when ever they heard him as often no doubt they did heare him name the name of Ioseph But howsoever it was commendably done that now they sought to asswage his sorrowes All good children should strive to minister matter of comfort to their grieved Parents and it is an hainous and unnaturall hardnesse to doe otherwise Further they were all dutifull to him in going downe to Egypt and not taking Benjamin with them secretly or against his will and shewed much love and honour in burying him and lamenting him and shewed themselves carefull of their families and very penitent to Ioseph at last and called to minde this sin in their troubles at Egypt and declared by their submission to Ioseph that they had truly repented besides in their behaviour to Ioseph before they knew him they shew lowlinesse and good discretion So in one word they grew better and better as fruits by time grow ripe and mellow and at last unfainedly repented and all turned godly men O that you which have beene rude wilde debaushed in youth would be carefull now in your more stayed time to be truly penitent and become truly godly There is a kinde of amendment by age which is nor sufficient to salvation though it something recover the credit It is to lay aside the practise of ones grosser faults and to frame to a civill carriage and to a creditable behaviour though still the heart remaine vaine and earthly and bee not humbled duely by the sight of these faults which were formerly committed Such a kinde of morall amendment is better then none but I pray you that be old doe not satisfie your selves with that but mend throughout See and lament your badnesse as well as your bad lives lament and bewaile in secret and frequently the former disorders Be base in your owne eyes because of them and labour to get them pardoned and your corrupt natures healed and to shine in piety and holinesse and all goodnesse so much the more by how much your youth was more sinnefull All you that have beene grievous sinners in youth take this counsell learne this lesson of Iacobs sonnes And you young men that have too too much broken forth O take your selves to taske betime and begin to amend betime Let your Parents have the happinesse to see you reformed in their life time to behold your change that they may rejoyce in your reformation and blesse God for his goodnesse in hearing their prayers and granting their desires and you may cause them to live so much longer and more cheerefully by seeing so happy and desireable a sight It will add a new youth to an aged Parent if he may see his much offending children returned quite backe to the waies of God and goodnesse most comfortably will they leave earth and goe to Heaven when they leave their children in such plight as they may hope to meete them there at last But let us looke into the benefits which the Lord bestowed upon them First they had a godly Father and Progenitors and were themselves members yea and pillars of the Church of God of them came a most populous and flourishing nation in whom the visible Church continued then when all the nations of the world besides did lie in darknesse A greater mercy then this the world cannot have to be the Church of God to have the Church continue in a mans posterity this is a singular favour and God pleased to take all these sonnes and to make them heires of his promise Isaac had but two sonnes Iacob and Esau God tooke Iacob and refused Esau Abraham had but two sonnes God cast out Ishmael and gave the blessing and promise to one alone even to Isaac but see the great favour shewed to all these they be all taken into the Church all partake of the blessing all are made heires of the promise If we consider their carriage Ishmael never committed so great and monstrous a fault against the second Table as Iudah for he never fell into incest but hee scorned Isaac Esau never did so foule a fault as Simeon and Levi but he despised his birth-right and hated Iacob So God did not take these for their goodnesse but of his mercy though they were of rude carriage hee suffered them not to despise and contemne the truth and so still kept them within the Church Furthermore foure of these were borne of hand-maidens as well as Ishmael and yet the Lord rejected them not This is the first benefit we must learne to esteeme it a choice mercy that God vouchsafeth us the same in making us members of his Church and in planting the true Church amongst us Further God saved them all from a great danger over-awing the Canaanites that they did not pursue and destroy them for that insolency they shewed at Shechem It is a great mercy if God represse the wrath of men towards any so that when they have both provocation and power yet they be restrained from taking vengeance God hath the hearts of men in his hand and can if he pleaseth and often doth over-rule and over-awe them in this manner Thirdly they had riches and wealth in abundance this is a common benefit learne not to over-esteeme it nor abuse it and be confident that if we feare God he will not denie us necessaries Lastly they had a good friend sent downe to Egypt to provide for them that their families and themselves
as great account of such in prosperity as in adversity Now it might have beene to the Baker a benefit if his want of due knowledge had not unfitted him to make it usefull that he had three dayes warning to fit him for death There is no man that can promise himselfe life for the space of three dayes but so easy are we to make and beleeve promises of life to our selves unlesse we see the time of our life most inevitably determined that we will hardly set our selves to prepare heartily for death unlesse we be made to see that now before such a time we must needes die But it is our duty to looke for that and walke prepared for it that may come every houre must come within a short time for what is the longest life when once the conclusion of it is come upon us Againe it was a benefit to the Butler he both knew he must be delivered and was delivered out of prison and retured to his place of honour againe To have a comfortable deliverance out of crosses is a benefit that we can easily discerne to be great who doth not desire it rejoyce in it pray for it and applaud others for it It is therefore a great goodnesse of God to grant it indeed if one have beene caught by some affliction through wrongfull meanes when nothing worthy thereof hath beene done by him it is a favour of God to make his innocency knowne and so to grant him a happy escape but howsoever it is a mercy But you see here it is a common mercy be thankfull for it walke capable of it by being such as God hath ingaged himselfe unto to deliver them out of all adversity And most of all make a good use of your crosses and deliverances both that you may be better after a crosse and that your deliverance may deliver you also from sinne Hee that getteth not some more grace in adversity then he had before it came and doth not use that grace after to shew himselfe to have profited by his crosse comes out of a crosse none otherwise then a beast may scramble out of a ditch and to such an one a worse thing shall befall afterwards And so much for this couple Now we proceed to Pharaoh himselfe King of Egypt we consider in him the same things his good and bad deeds the good and bad occurrents that befell him First for his good deeds Pharaoh was indeed an Heathen and an Idolater but he seemeth to have beene a man of good wisedome and morall parts the good deeds recorded of him in Scripture are these First having dreamed a divine dreame I meane a dreame sent to him of God for some speciall purpose he used all the waies he could to come to the knowledge of it and was much troubled when he saw that he could not attaine the interpretation of it For a dreame was but a kind of riddle or similitude offered unto a man in his sleepe which did darkely and yet truely represent some truth necessary for him to know Indeed sometimes God did appeare to his servants in dreames without any such darke and obscure revelations and in expresse and plaine termes did tell them the things which they were to know as in the dreames of Abimelech and of Abraham but many times he appeared to them alone in similitudes yet so that he made them know the meaning easily as in Iosephs dreames and in Iacobs dreame of the ladder now such an enigmaticall dreame being offered unto Pharaoh he sought all meanes of getting the interpretation of it surely we should much more seeke to attaine the knowledge of the Scripture and desire to have some to interpret the same unto us where it is doubtfull and obscure And if we neglect to seeke the meaning of it we shall doe as much wrong to our selves as Pharoah should have done to himselfe if he had sleighted this dreame for then should his land have beene consumed by famine as well as other lands Therefore since God hath appointed you his written word for your instruction in matters concerning salvation as then he pleased by dreames to reveale what hee saw fit unto men see that you seeke to know the word of God as he sought to know these dreames Onely know this that often the wise men and men of repute in the world cannot tell you these things but some poore imprisoned and neglected Ioseph This is Pharaohs first good deed Nex when he heares of Ioseph he contemnes him not because hee was a poore servant and of low degree but is carefull to send for him and to consult with him and by this meanes attaineth to the knowledge of that which all his inchanters wise-men and diviners could not helpe him unto Surely it is a point of wisedome not to sleight men because of their outward meanenesse but without prejudice to conferre with them if we heare good of them and to be ready to hearken to their wise words Can any good come out of Nazareth saith Nathaniel prejudice against the meanes of Christs birth and education would have kept him from Christ if he had not followed Philips advise who bid him come and see It pleaseth God to triumph over the folly of men that will measure things by worldly greatnesse and to give them over to undoe themselves In Ieremies time the Priests and men of note were opposite to him so Christ was therefore neglected because he was the sonne of a Carpenter Take heede that you measure not men by their high place and worldly accoutrements God is often pleased to sleight great ones and to respect the meaner In this case learne wisedome of Pharoah and judge not by the appearance Thirdly when he saw the high wisedome that God had given to Ioseph he prefers him and makes him chiefe ruler of his Kingdome next under himselfe and commits into his hand the care of gathering corne in the yeeres of plenty to serve against the yeeres of famine Oh how desirable a thing is it in Princes to commend men to high place for their worth sake And how happy is that nation when not a mans either friends or money or flattery or ambitious insinuations of himselfe but his parts the abilities God hath given him and fitnesse to discharge an high place is the rule which the Prince doth follow in advancing men It shall procure a world of welfare to the state and comfort to the Prince to whom the Lord giveth so much wisedome as thus to dispence places of preferment But I speake to subjects wee must be helpefull to our Soveraigne Lord with our prayers that is all which our hands can reach unto A fourth thing is Pharaoh continued to favour Ioseph all his life long and for his sake shewd great respect unto his bretheren and to his Father sending for him willingly and saluting him curteously and planting him and his in the fruitfull place of his Kingdome and fittest for cattle
his good Example and wholesome Instructions provoke you to all holinesse that you allso may partake with him in that happinesse of which hee is now fully possessed Your true Christian Friend Edward Leigh TO THE CHRISTIAN READER Reader AMidst the numberlesse number of Bookes wherwith in this scribling age the presses are oppressed there is scarcity enough of such as are usefull and profitable As therefore the Art of Printing was a happy invention for the propagating of learning so surely wee are beholding to those who write such things as are worthy to be published Since as one saith Hee that speaketh profiteth for an houre but he that writeth profiteth for ever This subject thus handled by this worthy deceased Authour is an unbeaten tract few if any having gone over the Exsamples of Scripture in such a doctrinall and practicall way both It seemed to me in the preaching both pleasant and profitable pleasant in regard of the explaining of divers stories profitable in respect of the particular application of all Hee being according to his manner large and lively therein Had it pleased God to have continued him in life untill hee had finished all the Examples of either Testament such a worke from so able a Divine would have beene of singular use But he was Frumentum Dei as Ignatius said by Mortification and Selfe-denyall Hee was made cleane bread for Christ who was the bread of life for him God therefore hath gathered this wheate into his garner and he now rests from this and all other labours We thinke fitting also to give others to understand which be M. Wheatelyes owne workes done by himselfe and such as they may account genuine viz. those onely which come forth either in our names viz. EDWARD LEIGH HENRY SCUDDER or with an Epistle at least from one of us You may observe in the beginning of this Treatise what was M. Wheatlies constant method in handling the Examples In each person hee considered three things His Birth Life and Death In his Life he observed his carriage and behaviour in respect both of the deeds hee did good bad indifferent and doubtfull and the things which befell him either prosperously or adversly in benefits or afflictions This shall suffice in briefe to premise concerning this Worke and so wishing thee much benefit by the same I rest Thy hearty Well-wisher EDWARD LEIGH THE LIFE AND DEATH OF Mr. WILLIAM WHATELY LATE Minister of the Word at Banbury in the County of Oxford written by Henry Scudder Minister of the Word at Collingborne-ducis in the County of Wilts IT hath beene a commendable use in the Church of God from the Primitive times downe to us that the lives of some or other especially of the more famous Ministers and lights therein have beene written by men who best knew and had learned what their lives and conversation was This they did not onely to vindicate their names from the slanders of the wicked who will speake evill of all that oppose their evill wayes and also that the dead might bee duely honoured but chiefly that the living by their good Examples might glorifie God for them and be edified This writing and printing the lives of worthy men is like the engravings with the point of a diamond raising up for them an everlasting monument upon which the light of their Faith and good workes is made to shine before men that seeing their Faith and holinesse they may follow them and may also praise God for his graces in them and for the good which hath bin done by them and so glorifie their Father which is in Heaven I have beene earnestly intreated to write the Life and Death of M. William Whately late Pastour of the Church of Banbury I was made choice of the rather because of that intimatenesse of Friendship which was betweeene us and because of our long acquaintance being of the same time in the famous Vniversity of Cambridge and of the same Colledge and Chamber and having the same Tutor and afterward when wee were both placed in the Ministery wee lived sometime together in one house and a great while neare one another and were also nearly allyed I know none that had like meanes to know him more thoroughly then I. I have therefore not unwillingly set pen to paper and doe here in all plainenesse and sobriety of truth reckon up and report his life and death in a short summe that those who will may read and make their use of it For in many things hee may bee a lively patterne to us his Bretheren in the Ministery of the Gospell of Christ and the like in many things for the imitation of all that desire to live godly in Christ Iesus This M William Whately was borne at Banbury a burrough Town very well known in Oxfordsbure His Parents were both of them forward professours of the Gospell of Christ and of the power of Godlinesse and Religion according as it is now mainetained in the Church of England They were both of chiefe note and place in the Towne his Father being oft Major and a long time a standing Iustice of Peace in that Burrough His Mother was a rare woman for naturall parts but chiefly for Piety Diligence in her Calling Frugality and Mercifullnesse to the poore She was a right Lois or Eunice in breeding up this her Son as shee did her other Children in the Knowledge of the holy Scriptures from a child His Parents trained him up in his yonger daies to learning settiâ—g him to the best Schooles that were in those parts where he profited in learning as also hee did in the Vniversitie above most of his equalls in yeares This hee did by reason of the Excellency of the naturall parts which God had given him namely a quicke apprehension a cleare judgement and a most happy memory His ripenesse in Grammer learning in Latine Greeke and Hebrew was so earely that about the fourteenth yeare of his age he was sent to Christs Colledge in Cambridge where God provided him and me a Tutor one of a thousand for Pietie Learning Diligence in reading unto and in a most loving and wise care of governing and godly instructing of his pupils In the Vniversity he was an hard Student and quickely became a good Logician and Philosopher a strong disputant and an excellent Orator He delighted much in the study of Poetry and the Mathematiks Hee was a constant hearer of M. Doctor Chaderton and of Mr. Perkins who at that time were famous Preachers in Cambridge And it was our Tutors manner to cause all his Pupills to come to Prayers into his Chamber every evening and hee called all the under graduates to give account of what they had heard upon the Lords day and when any of us were at a stand and non-plus hee would say Whately what say you then hee would seldome faile but repeate as readily as if he had preached the Sermon himself By this he did win our Tutors love
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
seeke to God for pardon or for grace to repent Wherefore I say againe looke on thy first Parents that how bad soever thou beest were causes of thy being so bad and promise thy selfe pardon upon repentance because they are pardoned and hope to be penitent if thou indeavour and seeke it because they were helped which were as vile sinners as thy selfe THE SECOND EXAMPLE OF Caine. NExt after Adam and Evah the Scriptures propound unto us the Examples of Caine and Abel two sonnes of those Parents First wee must speake of Caine who being the elder Brother was yet the worser man for the Lord hath never accustomed to give his graces according to the priviledges of age that the gift may appeare to be free and gratuitous not at all deserved by any thing that the man may finde in himselfe Now speaking of Caine we must handle his Birth and Life for it hath not seemed good to God to tell us any thing of his death His Birth wee have Gen. 4.1 Adam knew Evah his wife and shee conceived and bare a sonne and called his name Caine or a possession saying I have obtained a man of the Lord or as it may be translated a man the Lord perhaps expressing her conceit to be that this sonne of hers must be that man who was also to be God that should redeeme her selfe and all men from the mischiefe which the Serpent had brought upon them but if shee had any such hopes shee had much deceived her selfe for God doth seldome make such hast in granting so great things immediately after the promise he chooseth rather to exercise the faith and patience of his people in waiting some good and large space of time for the performance of the promise Now concerning this man we will note first his carriage and behaviour then the things that befell him In his carriage some things are for mattrer good some things altogether evill That which is good is that at his Fathers appointment and education he betook himselfe to a needfull trade of life for so it is said Caine was a tiller of the ground that is he gave himselfe to Husbandry This calling as it is very usefull for even the King is served by the land that is tilled so it is you see a very ancient calling it is full of paines and full of profit much increase saith Salomon doth come by the labour of the Oxe but where no Oxe is the crib is empty You see it hath the precedencie of the Shepheard for the elder sonne was assigned to this trade as the most necessary Wherefore mee thinkes they doe not shew themselves to be of the same minde with Adam that are still ready to pull downe tillage and set up pastorage as I may call it Indeed pastorage gives most private gaine to one or two men and therefore they that are led more by selfe love then by charity or the love of mankind are more affected to it but surely Gods pleasure was in making the World to make provision for a multitude to live in convenient abundance rather then for a few to live in excessive riches Howsoever you see this is good in Caine he imbraced a calling and lived painefully therein for hee was tilling the ground he did not alone take upon him the name of a Husbandman but did exercise himselfe in the workes of that calling Secondly Caine was religious too at least in respect of the outward acts for in processe of time hee brought a gift to the Lord of the fruit of the ground hee worshipped God by offering something to him of that which by his goodnesse and blessing the earth did bring forth unto him The Lord will be served even with our costs with gifts with rendring him backe againe something of that which himselfe hath given us He commanded Israel not to appeare before him emptie but to bring free-will-offerings and heave offerings of their hands God loves not an empty worshipper he is liberall to us he would have us also liberall to him wee receive much from him he lookes to receive something of us that so we may actually acknowledge him to be the giver of all He is not contented that the mouth worship him in prayers and praises nor the eare in hearing and attending to him nor the body in bowing it selfe to him nor the hands in lifting up themselves but he will be honoured with our goods as Salomon saith Prov. 3.9 even with our substance For though he hath not now commanded any thing to be burnt upon the Altar having abolished all Sacrifices by sending his Sonne to offer up himselfe in Sacrifice for our sinnes that he might take away our sinnes by that one offering once for all yet now he hath appointed such a worship as cannot be maintained without cost in regard of the persons attending it and the instruments of it and hee hath now appointed them to reape our earthly things in his steed which in his steed doe sowe unto us spirituall things Marke this then as a thing in it selfe good to worship God and to worship him with giving a gift unto him as also in the Psalme hee saith bring presents to him that ought to be feared Further it was a lawfull and good thing in Caine even after his great sinne committed that he built a City for surely to take order for the replenishing of men with people and the commodious habitation of men borne into the world is a good and commendable thing in it selfe though men may easily and often doe transgresse much in the manner of doing it Therefore the Lord saith Esay 58. 12. in commendation of his people and in way of promising a great benefit and honour There shall be of thee that shall build the old waste places Thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations and thou shalt be called the Repairer of the breach the restorer of paths to dwell in Surely if to build old wasts and repaire decaied places that they may stand to many generations be a praise as you heare from the Prophet then to build new that were not built before that also is a good thing and laudable This therefore must be noted as a good thing in Caine that hee gave himselfe to build a City Lastly that is good in him that he was the husband of one wife and did content himselfe with the first institution of marriage not corrupting it with taking variety of women to one and the same man at the same time as God had made but one Eve for Adam and said a man shall cleave to his wife not to his wives and they shall be one flesh meaning theâ— two not three or foure Some are of opinion that in the beginning Evah at every burden bare twinnes and so there came into the world together a man and a woman whether this was so or not I cannot affirme but it may seeme probable because the Holy Ghost makes
it but rather grew worse shewing that envie carried him away still and hee did nourish and foster not oppose and resist it For God came and shewed him good reason both that hee should not be angry at his not being accepted and also that he should not have a grudge against his Brother because he was accepted for if thou doe well saith the Lord shalt thou not be accepted that is not thy Brother is an impediment to any respecting of thy selfe and thy Sacrifice but thine ill doing Thou servest mee with outward service but thou art a bad man and livest not well therefore must not I regard thy service for I tell thee my pure nature is such that if men be of sinfull lives and wicked their prayers and oblations are so farre from pleasing me that they be abomination to me therefore doe I not care for thee nor thy religion so long as thou continuest impenitent and a wicked liver but if thou frame thy selfe to doe well to repent and amend thy life and live holily then also shalt thou be accepted as if hee had told him that hee ought to amend his life and might so set himself about it as to obtaine help and power to do it For even to any reprobate may any man say as much as God to Caine here there is no necessity of thy being cast off by God set to amend thy life and he will take thee into favour and then should he also be taken into favour and his gifts regarded For though the Sacrifice of sinners be odious to God yet the prayer of the upright is his delight So no cause of Caines wrath and envie seeing the cause of his Brothers being preferred before him is his owne naughtinesse not any partiality in God nor trickes that his Brother had used Againe there is no cause he should hate his Brother who should still continue an inferiour in subjection to him All this notwithstanding uttered by God himselfe yet Caine continued his sower lookes and bitter thoughts against his Brother onely because his Brother was better than himselfe and had received more approbation and acceptation from God then himselfe Note this fault he would not be amended by words he hardned himselfe against an admonition A fourth and a worse fault was he spake to his Brother and gat him into the field out of company for no doubt there were more men and women in the world though wee doe not reade of any more and there he knocks him on the head with what weapon it is folly for us to enquire but sure his tooles of husbandry yeelded him fitter helpe to doe it then the jaw-bone of an Asse which some will needs thinke to have beene used So his envie and hatred boyled so long and prevailed so much in him that it makes him dip his finger in blood and in the blood of his own Brother notwithstanding the greatnesse of the sinne in it selfe and great torment that would ensue thence unto his Parents Moreover Murder that is Caines sinne and with this sinne of murder is joyned fraud and guile and fearing man more then God for he spake to him and gat him out and then rose up against him when they were together alone in the field so it was a pretended and premeditated murder he used words of kindnesse at least which did not shew forth any ill intention for then would not Abel have gone with him and having him in a solitary place where no man could see him to discover or hinder him there not regarding Gods presence hee tooke away his life and spilt his blood on the ground You see Caines fourth sinne The fifth was he did not repent of the sinne when hee had done it nor of himselfe ranne to God with humble confession nay when God came to bring him to repentance then hee stood in deniall of his fault and was angry with God for going about to charge him with his Brother for when the Lord came and asked him where his Brother was he made answer that he could not tell lying to God himselfe you see and shewing himselfe to be altogether ignorant or at least heedlesse of his All-seeing eye and in a kind of discontent asking the Lord why he should aske of him where Abel was seeing no man had ever appointed him to be Abels keeper Here is a fearefull sinne not to confesse a sinne committed but to lie and seeke if he could to hide it from God by deniall So that Caine was growne worse then Adam he onely excused the fault he denies saying he could not tell what was become of him whom himselfe had murdered so denying in his heart that God was present in all places and saw all things So his heart was hardned in wickednesse and he was growne a despiser of God a denier of his Omniscience and he had made himselfe quite impenitent Impenitencie in his sinnes that was another of Caines faults Instead of falling downe and saying I have sinned he saith I have not done it thou dost unjustly in asking me such a question like the Pharisees that after they had killed Christ were so farre from repenting that they seemed to take it in high disdaine that the Apostles would seeme to bring that mans bloud upon them Marke this sinne I say marke it he hides his sinne denies it will not goe to God with humble confessions and supplications This is to be a Caine to commit great sinnes and continue remorselesse and unrepentant not regarding to confesse no not to God himselfe though God use meanes to make him see and confesse Now another fault is that after God had censured him for his offence he grumbled and despaired for his speeches carry an impression of both these vices and are uttered so that they will beare both renderings My sinne is greater then can be pardonad or My punishment is greater then I can beare So Caine was possessed with a mixture of desperatenesse and murmuring he denies God the honour of his mercy in not conceiving him able to forgive that sin therfore he thought it in vaine to confesse and aske pardon and so forbare to doe it and he thought the punishment unjust and too severe as being more then hee could beare as if God in punishing an unpenitent sinner should looke not what the sinne did deserve but what the sinner could undergoe Whereas punishment must be proportioned to the greatnesse of the fault not the strength of the offendor He should have cryed out of the greatnesse of the sinne not of the punishment hee should have confessed the greatnesse of Gods mercy but he mutters against him as both unjust and unmercifull and so repents not but repines complaining that God had laide him open to all mens injuries now so that every one might kill him This is a Caine a man so hardned with sinne that he can neither submit to Gods justice nor implore his mercy but denies the one and calumniates the
seeketh to be justified before God by doing this and by his owne working Now of a man that is thus righteous there are three sure plaine and evident signes 1. Hee desireth to know and doe all that God revealeth to him out of his Word I have lifted up mine hands unto thy testimonies which I have loved and O that my heart were directed to keepe thy righteous judgements then shall I not be confounded when I have respect to all thy Commandements 2. Hee confesseth and bewaileth before God his failings and errours that breake forth in him quite contrary to his purpose and desire Against thee have I sinned and He that confesseth his sinnes c. And if you turne to mee I will turne to you for If wee say we have no sinne wee deceive our selves But if wee confesse our sinnes hee is faithfull c. 3. He resteth wholy upon the mercy of God in Christ for pardon of his failings and acceptation of his indeavours So saith Iohn If any man sinne wee have an Advocate with God Iesus Christ the righteous and hee is the Propitiation for sinne and Abraham beleeved in God that justifieth the ungodly S. Paul would have the righteousnesse which is by the faith of Jesus Christ I beseech you looke that you be so righteous men as Abel was else you shall never be saved For even Balaam saw that only the righteous should be saved and therefore he wisheth Let mee die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his Now we have the good of Abel we should speake of his evill but wee have none to speake of For the Holy Ghost hath not told us of any evill that hee committed not because he had none but because his life was so short and withall so good that the Lord saw it not fit to make mention of any and surely though the Scripture doe report the faults of other godly men yet it seemes here to set forth Caine and Abel as the two seeds the one of the Woman the other of the Serpent and therefore of the good seed mentions no faults because in him God saw none that is would not impute any Now let us consider the things that befell him 1. Good 2. Bad. The good are two first God had respect unto his gifts Secondly God gave witnesse and testimony of his gifts He had respect unto them for the present he gave testimony to them both at that time and also after by the pen of Moses and by the tongue of our Lord Jesus calling him righteous Abel We cannot affirme any thing concerning the meanes by which the Lord did expresse the liking of Abel and his Sacrifice but that it was by some sensible and evident signe discoverable by Caine as well as by himselfe Caines doggednesse stirred up by it doth clearely evince The Lord hath respect unto his true hearted servants that worship him in truth and in faith and are truely righteous he hath respect unto them and to their Services he likes their persons loves their workes The prayer of the upright is his delight saith Salomon The righteous Lord loveth righteousnesse God doth to his faithfull children sooner or later evidently discover his approbation and liking of them and their workes as David prayeth Accept the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart yea he doth make knowne this his favourable acceptation by which as it is in the Psalme he accepts their burnt Sacrifices that is all their holy services he makes it knowne by the comfortable testimony of the Holy Ghost as Paul saith This is my glorying the testimony of my conscience that in simplicity c. When Gods people walke in Gods waies he causeth his Spirit to witnesse with their spirits and their spirits to witnesse to them that themselves and their waies please God by which their spirits are refreshed and comforted against all the taunts and opprobries of sinners and scoffers And this is a sufficient recompence to all our labours and for all our sufferings that God accepteth us If hee accept us what need wee care though the world deride and scorne and hate us O let those that have seene God thus vouchsafing to respect them comfort themselves in that yea I shall not need to give them such advice this apprehension of Gods gratious accepting us is a thing so sweete and delightfull that the people of God which have enjoyed it will preferre it before the approbation of all men For whom he thus respecteth them will hee likewise approve in the face of all the world and therefore beare testimonie to their workes even at the last day yea the light to which he that doth well delighteth to come that will make it knowne that his workes be wrought of God Iohn 3.11 If Gods Spirit within if Gods Word without doe testifie of your deeds that they bee wrought in God how easie a thing is it to sleight and despise the false and foolish censures of the world But now come we to the evills that he suffered for Gods people must suffer evill for well-doing his Brother hated him laied a traine for him slew him Abel was the first Martyr the first man that died for goodnesse hee was Gods first Witnesse as Steven was Christs Those that will live godly in Christ must suffer persecution and of whom even of the dearest friends they have in the flesh and how farre even to the lying in waite for their lives and taking the same away The Lord would have the first bloud that was spilt spilt in his quarrell in his holy quarrell in standing for righteousnesse sake that we which follow after might learne to stick close to this cause and not to feare to lay downe our lives for it S. Iohn tells us no wonder if the world hate us The world is the number of unsanctified men in the world these will hate such as Abel the righteous yea if Father be unrighteous and Sonne righteous Brother righteous and Brother unrighteous Husband righteous and Wife unrighteous the Father Brother Wife will hate and maligne the childe the Brother and the Husband God hath put enmity betwixt the seed of the Woman and of the Serpent good and bad are of two contrary natures what the one loveth the other hateth and contrarily this contrariety in disposition will breed contrariety in affection Hee that is Caine a formall Hypocrite and satisfieth himselfe with a bare outside service will hate him that worshippeth in spirit and in truth They that are after the flesh will persecute them that are after the spirit and all that will live godly must suffer for it Prepare your selves to meete with the same measure that Abel met withall you had need of patience saith our Saviour Be not discouraged at the hatred and ill usage of wicked men but have respect to the recompence of reward looke to the end of your faith set
appointment his lust in all likelihood it was his lust for what other cause should move him I cannot conjecture would not be contained within the bounds of lawfull matrimonie He dares adde a second wife and so bring into the world a painted whoredome a guilded adultery a pretended marriage but indeed a very breach of wedlock For our Saviour Christ telleth us that he which putteth away his wife and marrieth another commits adultery and if that be true as we must confesse for his authority sake that spake it then without all question hee that keepeth his former wife still and will needs take another to her is guilty too of committing adultery The reason is cleare and cannot be denied For if it were not adultery to have more women then one at one time then the taking of another wife upon a causelesse divorce should not deserve that odious title and if it be so poligamy must needs take the same title to it selfe This was therefore a grievous audaciousnesse in this wicked man that hee would leape over the poles as it were which God had fixed The thing was naught and his doing it first before others made it worse in him and made him guilty of their faults that after followed it upon his example For indeed it was quickly taken up and practised in the world insomuch that it continued to the time of Abraham and was practised also by him as a thing not reputed sinfull For when sinne hath gotten yeeres and examples upon its backe it doth many times cease to be counted what it is and goes under the repute of a lawfull thing though it be in it selfe even somewhat evidently unlawfull because partly the minde of man corrupted by the pleasing or profitable effects of it is willing not to thinke it sinne and the judgement is easily sweyed by the will and partly because the example of men doth worke too much to draw unto evill as an heavie thing is easily cast downeward Now to polygamie he addeth a notorious revengefullnesse Having married a couple of women it seemes he found some distempers in them and therefore to calme and over-awe them a little hee falls to breath out revenge with violent threats saying that he would kill a man in his wound or for his wound hee meanes because of wound received and a young man for his hurt or bruise he meanes because of a bruise or stripe given him yea he goes farther and adds that if Caine should be avenged seven-fold then hee seventy times seven fold If any man whosoever he were should hurt him hee should die for it yea were he never so young and lusty a fellow that should offer to smite him it should cost him his life and he would proceede to an higher degree of revenge then that which God himselfe had appointed to Caines murderer viz. hee would be revenged seventy times seven times more that maketh in all almost five hundred times as much more here is passion and pride in all extremity To revenge is to render evill for evill to revenge a thing seven times is to inflict a thing seven times more grievous upon a wrong doer then that which he did to another to revenge seventie times and seven is to lay an evill 490 times more heavie then that received The Lord of Heaven hath cause because hee hath authority to inlarge his punishing justice and to execute a threat of seven times revenge because after such a threat to commit the fault makes it seven degree more faulty as being an audacious despising of his anger and a very setting his threats at naught but for any man to exceede measure so farre in punishing though he were a lawfull Magistrate punishing the malefactor at the complaint and instance of the wronged person it were a great offence How much more then for a private man so farre to exceede all degrees in respect of a wrong done to himselfe Sure he that threatens to be revenged 400 times more then Caine conceived himselfe to be more excellent than Caine 400 times for according to the measure of the parties worth that was wronged must the revenge be increased O how proud a man was hee that durst so farre preferre himselfe above his great grand-fathers Father for so was Caine who being then alive and departed from under the governement of Adam was now the King of all the sonnes that descended from him during his life and the Priest too for Kingdomes and Priest-hoods in those first times went to the eldest of the family by succession These were chiefe Rulers in matters civill and religious He was therefore a very haughty minded man and a very passionate angry man and so a very revengefull man which springeth from pride and and passion These be his faults yet see how good and patient the Lord shewes himselfe unto such a wretch for hee had two sonnes by one wife and a sonne and daughter by the other God gave him the fruit of marriage though he were the first that so shamefully abused marriage for God doth not instantly stretch forth a punishing arme against an offender and these sonnes of his too were very active and profitable men of good parts and account as appeares by their inventions mentioned in the Text. But yet he is not left quite unpunished for his life was unquiet as appeareth by his threatning and bragging what he would doe for such kinde of threats be but boastings of the future time It is not to be doubted of but that his two wives what by the brawles which would fall out betwixt them and their children and what by the stirres that they would make with him each to have him take her part against the other made his life uncomfortable so that hee was faine to see if hee could make the matter a little better by big and violent words to keepe them in awe by feare whom duty could not order Now this is Lamech Let us make some use of his Example even to blame our selves for having committed if wee have committed the like sinnes to his that we may be drawne to repentance which he was never so happy as to performe Secondly to arme ourselves against those sinnes and to abound in the contrary vertues for so it is our duty as Bees doe honey out of weeds to gather good out of bad Examples Come hither then and let mee examine you in Gods name Is there not any amongst you that hath violated marriage worse then Lamech He did sinne by taking two wives The Lawes would punish you for following him in that and would not suffer you to keepe two women under the name of wives have not you therefore falne to flat and downe-right adultery If so repent of this enormity The Lord will not suffer the transgressors of his Covenant to beare it free if repentance doe not stay his hand Yea have not some of you beene Lamechs in making the first breach into a sinne
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
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
What crying what roaring what lamentation did fill the Cities and Villages they did not die of a sudden as in the overflowing of the Sea but they died by degrees they had time to get up upon hills and trees and to foresee and fore-feare their choaking by waters afore it came and to see the Beasts many perishing before them many looking for the same ruine with them Doth not this floud pertaine to you Doth not it pertaine to you also Doe you not here see 1. The Omnipotent power of God and his absolute and soveraigne command over all creatures The Sea and Springs are his and will breake out upon us The Cloudes and Waters above are his and will fall downe upon us to revenge his quarrell He is Lord of Hosts O plant in your selves an holy feare of him and say to your selves shall he threaten and not performe who hath the whole world at hand to be serviceable unto him If we would represent the Lord before our eyes according to his fearefull greatnesse so as to make us tremble and depart from sinne happie were wee Doth not Christ send us to the old World and doth not Peter also minde us of this destruction by water Surely the Lord is a terrible God still he is now as terrible as he shewed himselfe then in the overthrow by waters Againe you must in this plague see the justice of God his will to punish sinners by inflicting great evill upon them that so you may yet make the feare of him the more stedfast and more effectuall for as hee is of power to crush the highest and stoutest and those of greaest power in the world so he is resolved upon this course and will surely declare his excellency by making them smoake with most heavie calamities that dare advance themselves against his authority See here how severe God is he will not spare the wicked he will not hold them innocent though he deferre many daies yet will the heavinesse of the stroake answer the delay The floud was long a comming but being come it 's furious and irresistible and wipes out all the sonnes of men sparing none The Lord can finde in his heart to execute hideous evills upon sinners Let them if they please fancie a God wholy consisting of mercy they shall find him such as his Word describeth not as they themselves have counterfeited hee will recompence vengeance on his Adversaries hee will not pitie their cries nor groanes Hee will not be melted with their complaints but utterly destroy them according as his Word hath spoken Behold also the equity of Gods proceeding hee answers their sinnes with the kinde and measure of punishment Great sinnes and great waters All flesh corrupted with sinne and all flesh cut off for sinne the earth filled with violence and now filled with waters None tooke care to forbeare almost any sinne but Noah and none escapes but Noah No multitude of sinners can save them out of his hand as all sinned so all perish This great and heavie judgement should be often in our thoughts we should thinke thus if God spared not the old World neither will bee spare us It is S. Peters inference and it is a great sinne in us that we doe not often put our selves in minde of these things to frame our selves to humble obedience If any say but God hath promised never againe to destroy the world by water I answer true but he hath never promised not to drowne sinners neither hath he promised not to punish them with punishments as fearefull as this of perishing by waters God hath great variety of weapons to wound his enemies if he hath renounced the use of one he hath others enough to take up for that purpose And Brethren I pray you take notice of what S. Peter tells us of That as the world that then was did perish being drowned in the waters so the world that now is shall perish by fire for he telleth us that it is by the same word reserved for fire kept in store against the time to come The Prophet Enoch foretold of that great day before Noah foretold of this deluge That day is longer before it come but it shall be more terrible when it comes for the heavens shall passe away with a noise as the holy Apostle tells you Now as the righteous Noah shewed a way how to escape that water even repent and get into the Arke so we shew away how to escape that fire repent and turne unto the Lord otherwise when he shall come in flames of fire you shall receive the judgement of eternall destruction from before the presence of his glory Brethren I beseech you so to ponder upon that great misery which fell upon the old World that you may be the better for knowing all the passages of so strange a story It was the first remarkeable judgement No generall calamity that we reade of did come upon the world till then The first and last acts of justice will be most severe and the last likely severer then the first The Lord gave to the men of this old World a very long life and very great outward benefits and shewed to them exceeding great long-suffering why so but because he would first as he delighteth to do proove men with benefits As if he should have said I will proove Adams sonnes with the fruites of my favour They shall have time enough to repent some eight or nine hundred yeares and they shall be allured by all prosperity nothing but comforts shall come upon them for a long time but if they will not profit by this gentlenesse I will shorten their lives by halfe having taken away all those fearefull sinners by a floud of waters You see Gods displeasure against sinne O at last profit by it and learne to be righteous there is no way to escape Gods judgements but by following after righteousnesse this course take and you shall be safe * ⎠* THE SIXTH EXAMPLE OF NOAH ONe godly man is worth a whole million of sinners as appeareth in that the Lord made more reckoning of one Noah then of all the world of the ungodly Having laid before you the bad Example of that most wicked generation which lived before the floud I will now speake of one godly man which lived in the same times with them and saw them all swept away with the besome of destruction His name was Noah the word signifieth rest and we have a reason given us of imposing that name by his Father Gen. 5.29 This same shall comfort us concerning our worke and the toyle of our hands because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed It is somewhat doubtfull how Noah was a comforter to the godly Patriarckes In respect of their troubles of all kinds both those they tooke in striving against the bad men of their times and the common labours of life in regard of the curse that was gon out against mans sinne
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
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
fruit of their bodies If God make not a woeman to beare children but make her pious and godly able to bring forth the fruits of the spirit in that spirituall marriage betwixt Christ and her she hath cause to be so thankefull for this fruitfulnesse as easily to brooke the trouble of the other unfruitfulnesse And those whom God doth not afflict with this affliction must learne to praise him for their fertile wombe It is a sinne not to prize even these temporall benefits but to grumble at abundance of fruit of the body is so foule a fault of ingratitude and unbeleefe that a man or woeman should greatly blame themselves for turning a thing beneficiall in it selfe into a distresse and misery unto themselves Another crosse was that she was sleighted by her maide yea that she bare the crosse somewhat impatiently must be reckoned in the number of her sinnes Doubtlesse it is a trying affliction to be assaulted with rude saucy and contemptuous words and gestures of a disobedient and undutifull servant Hardly shall the spirit of a governour be able to hold it selfe in patience when it shall see a servant or inferiour to looke too disdainefully or arrogantly or heare them utter surly and scoffing words Pride in an inferiour shewes it selfe by undutifulnesse and it will prove an hard thing to the superiour not to thinke it equall that pride should encounter pride againe with passionate resistance of it You must learne that have servants most times as most times Hagar was dutifull to be thankefull for it and must take heede of doing any thing by which you may give your servants occasion to sleight and contemne you for their corruption will quickly lay hold upon any occasion of such misdemeanour A third crosse was this to be taken from her husband into the house of Pharaoh and after of Abimelech 'T is true she could blame none but her selfe and her husband for that crosse but that did not make it lesse a crosse as hee is no lesse wounded that woundes himselfe by mischance then he whom an enemy should purposely wound and this crosse was made a little the more bitter by this that she was though gently and with milde wordes yet duely chidden for it by Abimelech too who tels her plainely of it saying Gen. 20.16 I have given thy brother this name hee gives Abraham ironically with somewhat a tart rebuke as much as if he had said whom thou wouldest have had us thinke to be onely thy brother a 100. shekels that is of our money some 72. lb. od money neere upon a 100. markes and addes behold hee is to thee a covering of thine eyes and to all that are with thee and with all other thus shee was reprooved She was sensible of the rebuke this was somewhat bitter that a stranger should chide her for not sufficiently covering her eyes Sure it was a griefe to her to come under just reproofe we must take heed that our evill carriage make us not subject to just reprehension We shall be ashamed to heare of what we were not carefull to shunne And so much of Sarahs life Of her death we reade Gen. 23. She lived a 127. yeares and died at Hebron and was buried in the cave of Makphela which Abraham bought for money of Ephron the Hittite for that use upon that occasion She is the onely woeman so farre as my memory serves me whose time of living is registred in Scripture whither it have any mistery in it I cannot tell no woemans age is recorded but Sarahs alone the mother of Isaac doubtlesse God intended to grace her in it above other woemen And so we have done with Sarah too It will not be amisse to add Hagar to her of whose birth we have nothing recorded in Scripture and as little of her death but by that which the Scripture speaketh of her there is some good probability that she was a woeman fearing God First because of all woemen in Sarahs house who having above 300. men-servants must needes have many maide-servants also she made choice of her to give unto her husband Abraham to the end that some seede yea the promised seede might be taken from her Sure Abraham and Sarah would not have preferred her above all the maidens in the house if they had not thought her also a good and godly maiden I suppose therefore that seeing her matter and mistresse thought her good we should goe against the rules of charity though we reade of some faults she had if we thinke not so too Let us consider of her life and see her vertues and faults benefits and crosses First it was a great vertue in her that all the time of her dwelling with Abraham before shee carried her selfe very dutifully and respectively to Sarah else she would never have given her into Abrahams bosome Let all servants learne of her to shew all reverence and dutifull behaviour to their governours and not onely to the rich and wealthy but to the poore also nay as S. Peter saith not onely to the good and curteous but also to the froward for so is Gods commandement to them expressely Ephes 6. Col. 4. 1 Pet. 2. and if any servant doe otherwise they do not garnish and adorne but disgrace and discredit true religion The servant is no further godly then hee or she shewes reverence and honour to the master and governesse Looke therefore that you set your selves to please and content your governours with all obedience and duty if you will have God and your owne consciences to approve of you Secondly when the Angell met her and asked her whence she came and whither she went she answered plainely and said I flie from the face of my Mistresse Sarah she told truth without lying and that is a good thing and commendable to speake truth though it be to ones owne shame but to have told a lie to an Angell might have procured her great reproofe and herein you may see that Hagar exceeded her Mistresse for when the Angell charged Sarah with laughing shee denied it but Hagar being examined confesseth the truth without lying We shall doe better in this case to follow the maide then the Mistresse Another good thing in her was that when shee was commanded by the Angell of God to goe and humble her selfe to her Mistresse shee did so Here all you inferiours must learne of her nay rather of the Angell which taught her what you should doe if you have by frowardnesse or ill carriage provoked your Governours so that they doe use perhaps a little too much rigour towards you yet you must submit and humble your selves acknowledge your owne faultinesse and patiently stoope to their words of reproofe yea or blowes of correction This submission is the best way to pacifie wrath and to settle peace Afterwards we reade of no falling our betwixt Hagar and Sarah Learne therefore all yee servants to stoope
and bee submissive that will shew humility and winne favour with God and man Further it was well done of Hagar and is some good proofe of her piety that shee considered of this vision Gen. 16.13 and called the name of God thou God seest mee confessing that now shee took notice of Gods seeing and observing her waies and that shee said moreover have I also here looked after him that seeth mee as if shee should say Doe I live after the Lord hath come thus to take notice of mee and to reproove mee and send mee home againe and so the name was called it may be by Abraham to whom when shee returned she related this vision the well of him that lived and him that saw because the Angell looked upon her and shee lived or because the living God pleased to see her and looke upon her Shee was thankfull to God for his goodnesse in looking mercifully upon her and bringing her home againe to Abrahams family We must be thankfull if the Lord daigne us that favour to meete us in our wandrings and turne us backe againe from them Further it was a good thing in Hagar that shee yeelded her selfe to Abraham to goe away without murmuring and distemper when hee sent her away and her sonne in such poore fashion patient bearing of such hard and severe usage was no little proofe of goodnesse And when her sonne was like to die for thirst she shewed her selfe patient for shee went a good way off because she would not see him die and there shee sate and wept shee might have done better to have prayed with her weeping but to sit and mourne not to hang her nose over him weeping and roaring was some signe of patient discretion shewing her love to him And lastly shee tooke care of him afterwards to provide him a convenient wife for so it is said Gen. 21.21 this is a duty of Parents to make fit provision for the timely bestowing of their children in marriage whereof to be negligent is a part of one that regardeth not to keepe his childe in good order and to make too much haste is to make them hasten to misery So Hagar was a good servant and a good wise Mother and a good woman her carriage except in a few things was good See her faults now First shee grew proud because shee was with childe by Abraham and despised her Mistresse The Maidens of Leah and Rachel may shame Hagar in this for neither of them is accused for any such misdemeanour Take heede yee servants that you grow not insolent and contemptuous against your governours you see how much it distempered Sarah and it is a grievous sinne to put your rulers into passion by your ill carriage When the Angell met Hagar he commands her to goe and humble her selfe to her Mistresse It is apparant therefore her carriage to her was amisse There be some servants that having beene over-familiar with the Master take occasion soone to sleight their Mistresse So they add sinne to sinne and are found double offenders If any of you have offended in contempt much more in so ill grounded a contempt do that which the Angell bad Hagar humble your selves before God if not to your Mistresses Follow what was good in Hagar not what was bad Another fault of hers was that she ran away from her Mistresse which the Angell also shewes to have beene sinfull by sending her backe againe Let not the Divell make any of you play the fugitive by running away from your governours if they be somewhat sharpe to you rather strive to pacifie them by submission then to cast off the yoke by betaking your selves to your heeles These be her onely faults for I am loath to charge her with having an hand in Ishmaels mocking of Isaac for Ishmael was then upon the point of sixteene yeares old for Abraham was eighty sixe when Ishmael was borne and 100 when Isaac was borne and Isaac sucked some while like enough above a yeare and so Ishmael must be neere about sixteene that shee may thinke he was so sensible of being Abrahams heire as to laugh at the stirre made about the young childe as if by his comming into the world he should be dis-inherited Now see her crosses and comforts First shee was so happy as to be a servant in Abrahams house and so a member of the true Church within the Covenant of grace by vertue of her being a member of that domesticall Church It is a very good benefit when the Lord vouchsafeth to place a servant in a good family under good and Christian Governours which will affoord them all good usage for their bodies and all needfull helpes also for the salvation of their soules They may enjoy as much comfort in this as in any one thing that can befall them in respect of their habitation and dwelling to have good Governours in a good house For in being under the roofe and custody of a godly man they be under the custody of God himselfe and guard of holy Angels Wherefore let all those that have children and must dispose of them to be servants be principally carefull of this matter Let your care be to provide for yours Masters not alone of good estate with whom they may live comfortably for their bodies having good attire good fare good diet and the like but by whose meanes the may be helped to knowledge faith obedience graces of all sorts and to life eternall hereafter Seeing your children be made after Gods image have a soule as well as a body and have neede as much of things profitable for the soule since that is the farre better part and if that be well the good estate thereof will easily countervaile and make amends for the evills which the body suffered but if it be in bad estate all the bodily benefits will nothing at all advantage it therefore I require you in the first place to respect this most necessary thing in placing out your children And all you servants that have beene directed either by Gods providence or by the carefull indeavours of your good friends unto such households wherein you have all good usage for your outward man and over and above the comfortable helpes of domesticall duties to bring you unto goodnesse take notice of this mercy and thanke God for it and take heede that you grow not weary of those holy duties and shew not your selves so prophane as to be troubled at that which should be your greatest content Yea I pray you so many as live in good families strive so to conforme your selves to the goodnesse of the household as that you may have goodnesse by the meanes of goodnesse there used for otherwise that which should have procured life to you shall serve to make your destruction more terrible Learne to pray learne to heare Gods Word learne to be good by the precepts and examples of your Governours else as our Saviour telleth that
it shall be easier with the Sodomites then the Capernaites at the day of judgement so shall it be for the servants of profanest Masters then for you that serve good and holy Masters and Mistresses Secondly Hagar had the favour of her Mistresse very much else you may assure your selves that shee would never have made her a Concubine to her husband neither would Abraham have taken her to be Concubine wife if hee had not thought some good of her This therefore was a benefit to her that she was well reputed of both by Abraham and Sarah both the Governours of the family were well affected unto Hagar and this is a great comfort unto a servant that their Rulers entertaine them with good liking approoving well of them and of their services for by that meanes they be made capable of enjoying much comfort in their lives and of receiving such curtesies and rewards from their Governours as they be capable of and of escaping much hard usage which else they should likely feele This should teach all servants to doe their uttermost indeavour that they may to winne the love of their Governours by submissivenesse and obedience performing the commandement of the Apostle who commandeth to doe service with good will and to please them well in all things and to serve with feare and to doe the will of God from the heart remembring that they serve the Lord Christ and if God will as he hath promised give them reward of inheritance he will much more cause the hearts of their Governours to favour and accept them Thus Ioseph gat his Masters good will and was great in his house this is the right way to procure favour take this course and God shall be with you but put away farre from you all crossing and thwarting and idlenesse and eye-service and answering againe and the like evill carriages which will alienate your Rulers hearts from you and make you seeme hatefull to them and if any of you doe not finde your Governours good liking take heed that your own naughty behaviour have not beene the cause of it And if you have it take heed of abusing it to wrong both them and your selves and all you Governours learne to shew favour to your servants unlesse their sinfullnesse hinder it For the favour of a King shall be to a good servant saith Salomon and hee that waiteth on his Master shall be promoted to honour as he that tendeth a figtree shall eate of the fruit of it Furthermore Hagar received great mercies from God for he gave her to conceive by Abraham and when she ran away met with her and directed her to goe backe againe which shee acknowledged with great thankes for he gave her also a heart to goe backe and submit to her Mistresse This is a great favour of God if he finde us in our out-strayings and give us both direction and will to come into the right way againe Pray to God that he would thus guide you and not suffer you to continue and perish in your out-strayings Another mercy of God to Hagar was that shee had Ishmael and a promise that God would be with him and blesse him and make him a great man and that he made Ishmael after dutifull to her for he was guided by her in taking a wife which she had chosen for him If children have not grace yet if they prosper in the world and yeeld themselves dutifully to their Parents to be guided by them they must acknowledge it as a great favour from Heaven Againe it was a speciall goodnesse of God to her that when shee wandred in the wildernesse and the water was spent and her sonne was ready to die for thirst God pitied both him and her and shewed her a Well whereby shee gat water to give him and promised to blesse him and so he revived and lived and prospered All these favours Hagar had Consider what crosses she felt for some bitter things she met withall as well as these comfortable and pleasing things First the hard usage of Sarah was tedious to her and so much the more tedious by how much she was more guilty of pulling it on her selfe by her disobedience stubbornenesse rude and contemptuous carriage All you that be servants if you finde your Governours sharp and rigorous consider with your selves whether your irreverent and disobedient behaviour have nor provoked them against you and exposed you to this affliction and if so humble your selves before God first and after to them But if any have escaped this crosse let them blesse the name of God that hath kept them from stubborne and undutifull courses and given their governours wisedome and meekenesse not to be sharpe as some governours be without just cause Now another crosse to Hagar was this that she and her sonne were both sent out of Abrahams family in such a poore and ill provided manner as the story telleth us This is a misery very heavy to beare to be cast out of ones countrey and place of habitation where they lived comfortably and forced to want all those benefits being deprived of them all at once Wherefore take heed least by abusing these kinde of benefits you provoke not the Lord to cast you out of the Church or out of your houses and dwellings but make you a good use of such mercies that they may be continued to you and learne if such a crosse should befall you yet not to be disheartned and discouraged but to humble your selves before God knowing that in such extremity the Lord is ready to helpe and succour you The last crosse of Hagars was that she saw her sonne Ishmael spent with thirst and ready to die and she was utterly destitute of all meanes to helpe him not being able farther to ease him or her selfe but by getting out of sight and hearing and sitting downe to weepe and mourne This is a lamentable heart-breaking to a Parent if they be destitute of things needfull for this life whether by occasion of travell wandring out of the way or of penury and necessity at home How most heavie a heart hath a Father or Mother if they see their children ready to be famished through hunger and have no bread to breake unto them or are almost choaked through thirst and have no drink to bestow upon them neither know what to doe for them but to conveigh themselves out of sight and sitting downe to empty their griefes in teares This is a misery that God sent upon the Parents of Ierusalem by reason of famine and scarcity their children sowned in the streetes and no man could supply them with bread Lament 4.4 Wee must learne to blesse the name of God most heartily that hath freed us from this misery and hath not caused us to behold such a lamentable sight by one occasion or other but hath given us abundance of things necessary yea if he have not furnished us with great
purpose and then shewed it her Hath not God succoured some of us in dangers almost as great by sending us or shewing us some present meanes of helpe which it was not possible for any wit of ours to provide Let not such a benefit be forgotten and let us learne to trust upon him ever after and not to be carkingly troubled with casting dangers before hand and disquieting our selves with feares because we see no way out God will have a Well in store and shew it us at the exigent Againe it was a great mercy of God that himselfe vouchsafed to give him a name and so sweet a name as that of Ishmael which signifieth God will heare and may seeme to point out the deliverance whereof I spake last for then it is said I have heard the cry of the lad O that we could labour to be Ishmaels in this sence such as have interest unto this mercy of being heard of God Such we shall be if we depart from iniquity and study to please God for if any man doe the will of God him will God heare Lastly God blessed Ishmael in outward things and made him to prosper so much in the world that he became a great man and had twelve Princes issuing from his loynes and after a great nation Why should the Saints doubt of things needfull seeing even those of whom we are not sure that they were Saints enjoyed so great abundance or why should any man boast himselfe of these things which an Ishmael may have as well as an Isaac And why should not we be incouraged to serve God in uprightnesse who vouchsafeth so liberally to reward his servants as to blesse their children so much for their sakes And so much for the life of Ishmael Now for his death which is set downe Gen. 25.17 These are the yeeres of the life of Ishmael 137 yeeres and then hee gave up the ghost and died and was gathered to his people He lived ten yeeres more then Sarah for she lived 127 and he an 137 and this is to be noted of him that the yeeres of his life are reckoned which is not done to any wicked man in Scripture againe whereby some probability is given that he was a good man seeing it is also said that He was gathered to his people a phrase not used of any but good men signifying that he went among the Congregation of the good men which went before him But howsoever we must learne by his death to prepare for ours that we may be gathered unto our people If we live as Gods people we shall die as Gods people and be gathered amongst them and shall be raised up also with them at the resurrection of the just But if we live with the wicked we shall die with the wicked and be gathered together with them to shame and torment at the last And so much of Ishmael Abrahams sonne by Hagar Now of others that lived at the same time Eliezer of Damascus the Steward of his house into whose hands hee committed all that he had so it is told us Gen. 15.2 and 25.2 Hee was his eldest servant and ruled over all that he had of his Birth and Death we reade nothing in Scripture but of his Life some passages are related 1. His vertues and good deeds for of his bad deeds no mention is made not that he was altogether free from sinne for if Abraham and Sarah were in some things found faulty it cannot be thought that this man a servant of theirs was faultlesse but because the Lord did not write an entire story of his life but would set him before the eyes of servants as an example for them to imitate Now of him therefore wee must note his good carriage his benefits and his crosses First for his good deeds when Abraham called him and would have him put his hand under his thigh a gesture used to the godly Patriarkes by such as bound themselves to them by an oath perhaps to signifie their subjection to them and faith in the promised seed which was to come out of their loynes he would not hastily and hand-over-head take that oath which was ministred unto him but with due caution and warinesse that he might not thrust himselfe into the danger of forswearing himselfe by rashnesse but might have a quiet conscience by seeing clearely how farre his oath bound him and to what that so he might know himselfe able to performe his oath and might accordingly fulfill it In him therefore we learne to be warie in swearing and to sweare in judgement that is advisedly and with good consideration informing our selves fully of the thing sworne too that it might not be either impossible or unlawfull to the intangling of our soules in the perill of falling into that hainous offence of perjury No man must proceede to an oath hastily and inconsiderately but must ponder upon the thing sworne too that he may have a full resolution to accomplish the same Looke to your selves that you shew the like religious respect to the great name of God An oath is a strong bond in which a man laies his soule as it were in pawne to God so that the breach of his oath is a forfeiture of his pretious soule to the hands of Gods judgement so great a bond must not be taken upon us without great cautelousnesse They therefore that have sworne on a suddaine not deliberating seriously of it must know that they have even offered contempt to God because though perhaps the thing was just and possible yet it was so by chance alone and as it fell out and if it had beene otherwise yet they would have taken it so that no thankes was due to any religious care of theirs if it were otherwise Repent therefore of your hastinesse and heedelesnesse in swearing this is to shew your selves such as doe not feare an oath and so doe not duely reverence and honour the great Majesty of God whose name in swearing you invocate against your selves Therefore also those that minister an oath must not be displeased at such cautelousnesse but must readily satisfie the doubts and scruples of those that sweare that with good conscience and a quiet minde they may take it upon them for seeing they be carefull before they sweare to understand what they sweare unto it giveth good hope that after they have sworne they will be as carefull that they keepe it and so their oath shall be to some purpose which should very much content and satisfie him that gives them the oath But he that will speedily and without considering take an oath will also be as ready to breake it alledging his former ignorance or mistaking as an excuse of his not fulfilling it Hitherto of his devotion to God in respect of his wary entring into an oath Now comes to be handled his good carriage towards Abraham in the businesse by oath committed unto him First he
used due speede in fulfilling his oath for without more then necessary deferring hee addressed himselfe to the performance of his oath having thoroughly understood it for knowing his Masters will to be that he should fetch the woman and not bring Isaac backe againe thither and that if they would not give him a wife for Isaac without his owne comming then he should be free from the oath and withall being incouraged by Abrahams words that God would send his Angell before him and prosper his journey he made all good speede to take his journey about that weighty service and went unto Mesopotamia to dispatch it taking to that end ten Camells with all other things necessary seeing all his Masters estate was at his command Here learne that when you have sworne you must not delay the performance of it but so soone as shall be convenient and as you have power must settle to doe the thing sworne to All you that have sworne any lawfull and possible thing looke on Abrahams godly servant and be mindfull of your oathes consider the greatnesse of God to whom you are tied and put not off the worke from time to time seeke not needlesse delayes make not fearefull or sloathfull excuses but free your faith and pull your selves out of the danger of Gods displeasure by a conscionable fulfilling of your oathes The Pharisees could say thou shalt not forsweare thy selfe but fulfill thine oathes to God Let us shew our selves at least as wise and conscionable as a Pharisee could teach us to be But what if we perceive the oath to have beene of an unlawfull thing I answer then we must repent of our naughtinesse in taking it and so forbeare to add a second sinne in doing that which is unlawfull For it is impossible that an oath should be of more force to binde a man to a thing then Gods Commandement is to restraine him from it Nothing can have more force to binde conscience then Gods Commandement But what if it proove impossible I answer if that impossibility might have beene foreseene our rashnesse in not foreseeing it must be repented of but if it could not have beene foreseene we must rest our selves satisfied in this that our minde was faithfully to have fulfilled it if God had not cast in our way such an impediment but no hazard no cost no labour must stand betwixt us and the accomplishing of our oathes for David saith that a good man sweares to his hinderance and yet fulfills 'T were better for a man to be undone in the world or to loose this naturall life then to breake his oath for feare of losse or death So much of this mans conscionablenesse in regard of taking and keeping an oath Now see his vertuous carriage in the thing 1. His great diligence in the maine worke 2. His discretion 3. His piety and religiousnesse To begin with the last he served his Master religiously First he thanked God for his good successe 2. He prayed to God for good successe His prayer is Gen. 24.12 13 14. Wherein he besought God to cause him to meete with a fit wife for Isaac We must all learne specially servants for of such a one we speake now to commend our Masters businesses to God praying him to prosper us A good and godly servant when he imployeth himselfe in his Masters worke must shew himselfe to be Gods servant and to have faith in his providence trusting in his goodnesse and blessing more then in his owne ability Indeed such a particular begging of such and such occurrents to shew us Gods minde was peculiar to him and is not required of us for he did it by the peculiar inspiration of Gods Spirit but in generall to beg Gods assistacce that belongs to all good Servants You that would be counted godly servants have you thus sanctified your indeavours by prayer have you thus called on his name to guide and speed you if you have you have done well take comfort in it it is a testimony that you serve for conscience sake not as men-pleasers and that you serve the Lord in serving your Masters if you have not be humbled and lament it as a matter of prophanesse and a cause of many crosses and a meanes to make you proud of your selves if good successe attend you And now tread hereafter in the steps of this godly Servant Pray pray to him for his assistance and blessing upon your selves and the workes you take in hand for your Masters that so it may appeare you doe all in faith and obedience to God Againe this man finding that God did answer his requests blesseth God verse 26 27. Where is his reverent behaviour outwardly hee bowed and then the matter of his thankes he said blessed be the Lord you must learne with all humble behaviour of body and consequently of mind and with all sincerity and heartinesse to praise God for your good successe and so it will appeare that you ascribe all to God and not to your selves If you have beene thus thankfull it is an excellent thing in which you must take comfort nothing is a truer proofe of true goodnesse then a constant care to blesse and praise God for his perpetuall goodnesse in prospering us if not lament the want of it as a manifest proofe of pride and want of faith And now let us all learne to be particularly thankfull to God for particular benefits yea even such outward benefits much more for inward This is the way to continue to sanctifie and increase benefits God loveth thankfullnesse as men also doe If we improove his benefits to so good a purpose we shall not want them in due time onely see that your thankes be not alone verball You have seene his piety now his discretion shewes it selfe first in setting downe what a woman he would have for Isaac viz. a courteous and laborious woman one that came out to draw water and one that would respect a stranger and give him to drinke and his Camels also truly a woman courteous of disposition and of body strong and healthy and painefull is a fit woman to make a wife Againe he proceeds discreetly in his carriage to winne her and her Parents he gives her gifts and them also and truly relates the prosperous estate of his Master all which tend to perswade them to yeeld her and her selfe to give her selfe to Isaac for a wife So must every servant use discretion and prudence in his Masters affaires taking the best course he can to make them sort well in the end Another part of his good behaviour is care of his Camels to which he lookes to give water and provender in due time So should a good servant and every good man in his travells have a due care of his beasts and looke that they have things fit for them Yea first should hee looke to them unlesse necessity compell otherwise and then to himselfe not like to them
provocation to him How many miseries might wee escape by so speedy an observation of Gods hand and purpose and a ready yeeldance to him Pray we to God to give us such a quicke sight such a stooping disposition He that gave it to an Heathen man will much more give it to a Christian And if any of you have beene stoute against God Pharaoh-like let him abhorre himselfe that hath shewed lesse piety then this Pharaoh did It is a proofe of some softnesse of heart to be driven from sin even by great plagues Another vertue in him was that he used Abraham kindly for his sisters sake so was she reputed then and by that meanes he grew in riches abundantly Favourable dealing with a man for his friends sake especially for a faire sister a kinswomans sake is a kinde of bastard curtesie and may befall a man given to lust yea many times the kindnesse of such is more wonne by such a motive then by any better deservings Let us doe the same thing but on better grounds let the beauty of vertue make us esteeme and countenance those that shew it more then a beautifull Sister or Kinswoman but better be loving to a good man even upon such a sinister respect then not at all to be courteous to him Another thing wherein this man dealed well was that he dealt not over harshly with Abraham but lets him goe without offering injury unto him in anything hee had He doth not take his life from him as Abraham feared he would have done nay nor his servants nor his goods nor any part of them but takes order for his safe passage and conduct out of his Countrey Let us at least so moderate our anger that if it draw us to a little unkindnesse and sourenesse of carriage which is one degree of revenge yet it may not cause us to leape over the pale of justice and to use unrighteousnesse and cruelty against those from whom we have received injury So Pharaoh was not so farre transported with anger though perhaps he might have beene able to have done it and it may seeme at first sight that he had cause of doing so But it seemeth that the sence of Gods great plagues had made him begin to see that God was a deare friend of Abrahams and that he should have incurred further wrath for wronging him in other things wittily whose injuries God did prosecure so severely even when it was done ignorantly and unwittingly We ought to have more feare of God before us then any King of Egypt Deale justly therefore let men goe from us with all they have make not bold to wreake your teeme on any man by sending him away without his owne But it is to be noted that God plagued Pharaoh for his doing hurt to Abraham though beyond his knowledge even with great plagues you see that sometimes unwitting sinnes make God very angry with men when done against his deare and faithfull servants in things neere and deare unto them for he is a Father to them and full of compassion and pittieth their case when they sigh and mourne before him O with how much heavier evills will he plague them who wittingly and of set purpose doe wrong them How shall his anger burne against presumptuous and wilfull sinners when such heate ariseth upon occasion of sinnes of meere ignorance Take you heed of causing his wrath to arise against you for such crimes sure his sword will cut of for such faultes if it wound and cut deepe for the farre lesser And againe see that even plagues sometimes are sent to doe a man more good then hurt even to keepe a man from such sinnes as but for them he would have committed and to make him see and leave those which he did live in before and not observe It was a benefit to Pharaoh that he was so scourged I conceive that this Pharaoh was not a man sanctified for then God would have warned him by dreame or some other way as hee did Abâ—melech rather then by severity of plagues but it is a kind of favour to any man to be kept from sin even by heavy plagues Surely the Lord will doe as much for his owne people as for the Egyptians rather drive them out of their sins by sharpnesse of blowes then that they shall live and die in them and perish Happy is that smart or paine that prevents a greater hurt The Lord had rather his people should suffer any thing then continue in sinne to their destruction their outward fame troubles him not so much as their inward wickednesse Therefore if you find by experience that Gods hand hath restrained you from much evill and your owne soules can say such and such a sin I should never have seene never have left if God had not by his scourges and blowes even forced me to open mine eyes and see them and to cast them away even as it were against my will be you thankfull to God for such chastisements learne to say as David It was good for me that I was afflicted that I might learne thy righteous judgements Will not men pay well for a plaister that hath a vertue to cure the sore though it put the member to smarting paine Surely he doth not hate sin according to its hatefulnesse that hath not learned to be glad of any affliction which keepeth him from sin or drawes him out of it And now if any of you doe lie under heavy plagues let him become an humble suiter to God to vouchsafe him as much goodnesse as he pleased to grant unto this Pharaoh even to shew him the cause for which he smiteth and to give him notice of his faults and power to reforme them we might hasten our deliverance out of calamities if we would turne them to this purpose * ⎠* THE THIRTEENTH EXAMPLE OF ABIMELECH ANother man is mentioned living in Abrahams time with whom also Abraham had occasion to converse Hee was a King ruling over a city called Gerar in the countrey of the Philistins In his countrey Abraham sojourned you have the story of him Gen. 20. 21. v. 22. ad finem Of his birth and death nothing is recorded But in his life we must observe First His fault Secondly His good deedes Thirdly His crosses Fourthly his Benefits One fault alone of his wee reade of viz. that he tooke Sarah to him minding to make her his wife we see him offending in the same kinde that Pharaoh King of Egypt was noted before to have offended in Hee was too too libidinous and over-taken with an inordinate affection to beauty Hee had wives enough before yet when one stranger singularly faire did come into his countrey he would needes take her to himselfe and that not so much by perswasion and intreaty as by violence and strong hand for so much seemeth to be signified by the word hee tooke her hee sent and tooke her hearing of a beautifull person and having
married any without the liking and privity of his Father but took the right and due course gave up himselfe to his Fathers authority and direction and therefore God gave him a good Rebekah indeed a comfortable wife and vertuous woman In this therefore all children are bound also to imitate him Children must take their Parents counsell and direction in matter of marriage and not bestow themselves without their good liking and consent that they may have Gods blessing attending them in their marriage when they honour at once both God and their Parents in obeying Gods Commandement and shewing due respect unto their Parents So did even Ishmael though otherwise a wilde man for it is said of him that his Mother tooke him a wife So did Iacob afterwards His Father blessed him and sent him to Padan Aram to take him a wife of the daughters of Laban his Mothers brother And when Sampson saw a woman of Timnah that pleased him well he spake to his Father and Mother to take the Maide for him who went downe thither and made the match for him Indeed the Parents have more discretion and understanding then the children by reason of their age and experience and therefore it is for the childes good to follow their advice And to whom must the children goe for comfort and helpe in case that any crosse befall them in marriage but onely to their Parents of which comfort and helpe they deprive themselves if they venture upon marriage without them wee know that those God hath not joyned in marriage whom he doth not unite in that estate Now God hath made the Parents his Deputies in this behalfe saying unto them give your daughters in marriage and take sonnes for your daughters and againe you shall not give your daughters to them in marriage nor take their sonnes to your daughters Now how can it be said that God joyned them if their Parents whom hee hath made rulers over them in his steed do not joyne them seeing immediately hee doth joyne none in these our daies Also the children are the goods of the Parents as a part of their possession insomuch that they were also to be sold to pay their debts Wherefore as no bargaine is firme in other kindes of goods without the consent of those that have right unto those goods so neither can this covenant be good without the consent of Parents which have as much right from God in their children as in any other of their goods Wherefore those sonnes and daughters are much to be blamed who have neglected this part of their duty to their Parents and have suffered their blinde and strong passions so farre to transport them that against their Parents consent and counsell they have bestowed themselves in Matrimony and so have transgressed against the plaine commandement of God Such must heartily repent of their sinne and humble themselves before God with much sorrow for their great and wilfull disobedience Parents would not have their children thus to slight and dishonour them yea they take it grievously and are much perplexed with sorrow for their children in this case therefore children should bee much grieved themselves if they have given this occasion of griefe unto their Parents To satisfie mens owne desires and affections without regard to Gods ordinances is a notorious disobedience and bringeth the guilt of a great offence upon the soules of them that have so offended All you that have married in this disorderly manner see that you doe unfaignedly repent of the sinne before God and confessing the fault before him seeke to prevent the curse that must else fall upon you and your children after you for so dishonouring your Parents And you young men and women that be not yet married see that you binde your consciences and resolve your wills to obey this commandement Follow God in your Parents and be not so rash and selfe-willed as to crosse them and follow your owne heads and passions This duty will be easie if you looke carefully to your passions at first and suffer them not to be undiscreetely fixed upon any person untill you have acquainted your Parents with your desires and crav'd their allowance and consent But if a man or maide doe inthrall themselves and intangle others by a disorderly placing of their affections then shall they make this otherwise easie duty hard and impossible to themselves Keepe your selves therefore Masters of your owne hearts and sell not away your liberty through an over-hasty yeelding of your selves to your unruly passions Suffer not your mindes to be drawne away by any meanes but pray God to keepe your hearts in order It is a sinfull love as well as a sinfull passion in any other kinde which troubles an house and makes the children contrary to their Parents and to proove the greatest crosse that may be to them to whom they ought to have beene the greatest comfort Lastly Isaac shewes his due respect unto his Father by joyning with Ishmael his brother in burying his Father for so it is said his sonnes Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machphelah This is the last office that childeren can performe and they must shew their love and duty to them in the honourable performance of this last act as to testifie their love to their Parents so to declare their faithfull hope of the resurrection from the dead For therefore are men with due solemnities committed to the bosome of the earth because they expect their glorious rising againe and they shall not utterly perish and fall as doe the bruite and unreasonable creatures Now see Isaacs carriage towards his mother There was no love lost betwixt them but as Sarah did tenderly love Isaac so did he requite her love with love againe as is manifested in his sorrowfull taking of her death though she lived with him to a great age For so it is written that after Rebekkah was brought unto him and he was married unto her Gen. 24 ult Isaac was comforted after his mothers death intimating that even untill then he was grieved for the losse of her It is a fault therefore in childeren oversoone to forget their dead mothers and to let their remembrance quickly to slip out of their mindes how much more to be weary of their over-long lives and to be glad when the time comes that they must put them into the dust in respect of some paultrey gaine of money of land that they shall possesse when the Father and mother is dead All that desire their parents death for their goods sake which they shall enjoy after them and are glad when they shall change their parents for their goods must needes be called wicked and ungratefull childeren See therefore that you children love even your mothers heartily moderately lamenting their death that you may make it appeare their life was not a burden unto you And so have we seene Isaacs goodnesse towards his parents Looke into his carriage
goodnesse in Christ making you know that he will fulfill to you the blessing of Abraham If he have give hearty praises to him take unspeakable comfort in him account all your other crosses nothing Rejoyce in him evermore that hath translated you from the power of darkenesse to his owne Kingdome Happy is he that is made the childe of God though he be in great calamity for outward things Know the incomparable greatnesse of his favour that you may rejoyce in it in despight of all crosses And labour to get more and more assurance of your interest unto God and happy estate this way that you may be more and more comforted But if you have not these spirituall good things doe not account your selves happy because of the outward thinke not that you are in a good estate whatsoever you possesse if you possesse not Gods Spirit to make you Gods childe to seale you to the day of redemption to comfort you in all times with making himselfe more and more assuredly knowne unto you What is it to enjoy a dreame of prosperity in this sleepe of naturall life and then to spend ones eternall being in endlesse and irremediable and unsufferable misery Rest not your selves satisfied in outward things count not your selves happy in having them never thinke you have any thing till you have grace till you have Christ till you have interest into Heaven that eternall land of promise and set your selves in feeling of the want of these things to seeke them in Gods ordinances Prayer the Word Sacraments and you shall have them for you want them not that live in the Church but for want of care duely to seeke them Againe consider Isaacs temporall blessings he had a very good wife Rebekah that carried her selfe well towards him and was carefull to keepe him from offending in translating the blessing contrary to Gods pleasure wherein though shee used deceit yet shee brought him into the right way afore he knew of it and caused him to doe well when her thought to doe evill Againe he had one very gracious and godly childe Iacob and another though not so godly as we can assuredly say he feared God yet one that respected him that did thrive in the world and was of commendable outward carriage among men for so was Esau he shewed regard to Isaac grew great in worldly greatnesse and had a name among men Thirdly hee had a greate measure of wealth and was a man of great state and esteeme so that King Abimelech desired his friendship and though some envied and wronged him yet they could not hinder Gods blessing from attending him especially one yeere God gave him a singular blessing for he sowed and reaped and as by Faith he beleeved that God would so God did make him roomth and he became fruitfull in the land And last of all he lived a long time in this world to enjoy all these things and lived to continue with his wife Rebekah shee lived as long or neere as long as he which could not but be a great comfort to him So you see hee had all abundance of outward contents for his children wife state c. Now I bâ—eseech you reckon betwixt God and your selves hath not God beene as favourable to some of you as to Isaac so that you have good vertuous and dutifull and religious wives which will helpe your errors and cherish your bodies and doe you all the good they can Hath not hee given some of you good and godly children at least some or one and the rest civill and thriving Hath not he given you a wealthy estate not so rich as Isaac but even rich enough I meane so much as will inable you to enjoy your selves in the world and to passe thorough the world with comfort Hath not he prospered the worke of your hands and given you roomth and made you increase yea hath hee not made you live a long time to enjoy all these things If so let these benefits become matter of praise let them become arguments of obedience labour to be truly thankfull for them that you may finde them truly beneficiall make a spirituall use of temporall blessings And if any want these things let him see how rich God is and let him even trust in him for sufficiency in outward things and count it enough that it pleaseth God to give him better things as I exhorted before And if any of Gods people finde not these things so granted to himselfe let him not take Gods dealing with him in the worst part let him not ascribe it to want of love to him but to his wisedome that seeing him not so capable of these things doth withdraw from him that thing which hee sees would be hurtfull unto him Wee must not misconster Gods forbearing to give outward things Yea now let all men encourage themselves to bee obedient to God and to feare him as did Isaac for you see in him that God is ready to reward his servants with great commodities and comforts in this life too Hee will not alone save them but so farre as is good make their estate prosperous here below That godlinesse which hath the promise shall also have the performance of good things for this present life and that which is to come I know that these bee common benefits but when they come sweetened with Gods blessing then they are truly comfortable and so shall they be to him that interests himselfe to them by getting into Christ and walking in him in holinesse and godly conversation So wee have done with Isaacs benefits now his crosses for neither could hee nor can any man in this life scape but that more or lesse hee shall meete with afflictions First in respect of his body 2. His state 3. His children For his body hee was blinde many yeares for hee was married at forty at sixty hee had Esau and Iacob Iacob was about seventy six yeares when he came to Laban so then Isaac was a hundred thirty sixe yeares and at that time hee could not discerne Esau and Iacob one from the other by sight and he lived in all 180 yeares from which if you subtract 136 then will remaine forty foure yeares so long did Isaac live without the use of his eyes Therefore learne you to bee thankefull that God hath given you your eye-sight even to your lives end so that you want not this sence at all till death or at least want it not so long a space of time Sight is a great comfort it is pleasant to see the Sunne and to bee able with our eyes to behold and discerne our friends and all other creatures of GOD. Let us praise God for the use of this and other sences Secondly let us prepare to suffer the same crosse who can tell how soone his eyes may grow dimme let us use them well whilest wee have them and withdraw them from looking after vanity and all other abuses for
nothing will grieve us more when wee have lost them then that wee have abused them nor comfort us more then to remember that wee have kept them in order and bestowed them holily And indeed they bee things apt to bee abused a 1000 waies Prevent all these abuses and put on a contented minde if God see it fit to be deprived of them getting such a clearenesse of inward sight that the comfort of that may supply the want of outward eyes Hee that hath an understanding given him to see God and Christ to see Heaven and things spirituall may easily misse the sight of other things but ah how comfortlesse is a blind body joyned with a blind minde Take heed that this great darkenesse fall not upon you for what can this bee but even a fore-runner of utter and everlasting darkenesse Further Isaac in his state met with divers crosses the Philistins envied him chased him from them wronged him by stopping his Fathers Well and by unjust striving with him for those he himselfe had digged these bee crosses and such as trouble the nature of man and seeme hard to beare but this good man wrestled with them Prepare your selves therefore to be envied and wronged and to have enemies that will contend and quarrell with you causelesly and be carefull to get Gods favour that the malice and injuriousnesse of men may not be able to hurt you but that God may blesse you the more by how much men doe more envie you wrong you and contend against you as it befell to Isaac For God prospered him and comforted him the more by how much the world did more grudge at him and seeke to disquiet him Labour therefore to get Gods favour that you may have a patient a cheerefull minde the in middest of the greatest injuries In the meane time expect such evill usage and strive to be able to beare it without vexation and discontent which are things more troublesome then the crosses themselves Further learne to be thankfull to God if hee have pleased to keepe you from spight wrong and strife that either you bee not envied or else those that envie you have not had ability to wrong you and contend against you It is a great goodnesse of God so to hedge about a mans estate that no man hath beene able to breake in upon him to hurt him and it is neither mens wit nor greatnesse that can procure unto them this safety but it is God alone that maketh them to dwell in safety Let our hearts be lifted up to praise him that hath so incompassed us with his favour as with a shield But next Isaac was crossed in his children First in that hee continued long without issue whereas God had promised him issue and the hope of his salvation depended upon the performance of his promise for out of his loynes was that seede to proceed in whom all Nations were to bee blessed and yet hee was married twenty yeeres afore this promise was fulfilled So long did God exercise his faith with delay Learne to beare with patience Gods deferring of his promises and not to let your hopes slip but still to trust on God and waite for him who will come in due time though hee satisfie not our hastie and over-eager desires Hold to the promise of God it shall be fulfilled at length though wee bee made to tarry somewhat long for it that wee may bee better fitted to receive it with thankefullnesse The longer a good thing is desired and deferred the more abundant comfort it yeeldeth when it is come But secondly Esau prooved a crosse to him in two things First that hee tooke into the house two such ill conditioned Maides as were a griefe of heart to Isaac and Rebekah Gen. 26. ult This is a bitter crosse to bee pester'd with unquiet froward unruly and wicked daughters in Law that shall make one weary of his life and like evill and bitter sauce take away the sweetnesse of all other comforts Learne to bee thankefull if you have escaped this crosse and if God have provided such yoake-fellowes for your children as by their dutifull and loving carriage doe make the comfort of your lives more abundant framing themselves to content you in all good and lawfull things as if they were your owne sonnes or daughters It is a great satisfaction to see ones children so happily matched Let not this benefit bee sleighted and passed over without particular thankes And now prepare for this crosse or if you bee under it labour to beare it so as not to bee made weary of life but enjoy the rest so thankefully that the bitternesse of this may bee sweetened and allayed And pray to God to direct your selves and your children so in their choice or yours for them that they may not stumble upon a torment unawares and learne in choosing to choose for grace rather then sinister respects so may you hope to bee directed aright and to get a true benefit Againe Esau was a crosse to his Father in his malice against his Brother whom hee purposed to kill and would not keepe the thought to himselfe so but that it uttered it selfe If Isaac knew not of it hee was not afflicted with it but if hee did hee could not but take it heavily Thanke God if hee have not given over your children to such malice one against the other and if you lie under this misery make it as easie as may bee by telling yourselves it was Isaacs crosse and yet God kept it from ever comming to execution But Isaac was crossed in Iacob too for hee lived a stranger from him twenty yeeres so that hee did not enjoy him Is it not a griefe to have a good childe as it were banished and restrained from dwelling with his Father for so long a time whose company his love makes him to desire every day But Isaac lived to see much rudenesse in his Grand-children for hee out-lived Iosephs selling into Egypt and was afflicted in Iacobs uncomfortablenesse under that crosse Blesse God if it have not happnend so to you and if it have mutter not for what are you that you may not be put to as much hardnesse as Isaac And lastly Isaac died at 180 yeeres a long life indeed for those times but it ended in death and buriall and so must each of yours even a great while sooner O therefore study to bee prepared for it THE SIXTEENTH EXAMPLE OF REBEKKAH REbekkah was the wife of Isaac of her birth and death the Scripture is silent We are therefore to look into her life wherein observe the good shee had and did the evill she did and suffered The good she did First whilest she lived young in her Fathers house She was a Virgin untouched by man Gen. 24.16 No man knew her It behooveth young women to behave themselves so modestly and shamefac'dly that they may bring themselves unto their own husbands undefiled Therefore the holy
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
amongst them from their lusts that war in their members You see the loathsomenesse of this vice from the bad causes and effects of it Take notice therefore of your owne hearts and lives and see if none of you bee a quarellous and contentious person that is ready upon every occasion to strive with his brother and to breake forth into brawles and suits challenging that which is none of his and disquieting his brethren and himselfe A man may use legall meanes to get and keepe that which is rightfully due to him but he must not doe this in a froward manner with bitternesse and rage against his adversary but for the things that appertaine not to him in equity hee must make no striving at all otherwise he is a contentious man And because selfe-love maketh us so blinde that wee are apt to deceive our selves and to imagine we have good title to that which indeed belongs not to us wee must bee content to referre our selves willingly to other mens judgements and not stand upon our owne opinions I mean to other indifferent and uninterested persons whose judgements are like to bee clearer than our owne in things wherein themselves be not ingaged Let me therefore commend peace and concord let nothing bee done of strife in an humour to crosse and oppose another or to vexe and anger him If covetousnesse or envy rule in a mans heart hee will boile with contention and flame forth into debates and strifes but if he have an heart contented with his estate and charitably disposed to his brethren hee will then insue peace and follow after it For a just controversie may bee carried in a quiet and peaceable manner and so ought to be but be the cause of striving never so equall if the thing be carried tumultuously with bitter words and behaviour with railings swellings whisperings backbitings mutuall disgracing and upbraiding one another this is a signe of a naughty heart in whom the wisdome that is from below doth rule and beare sway Resolve therefore to follow peace with all men not striving but upon just cause and then also in a loving gentle and milde manner And so much for Isaacs contemporaries with whom his occasions gave him cause of intermingling I proceed now to Isaacs heire and successor that is to say Iacob * ⎠* THE EIGHTEENTH EXAMPLE OF IACOB THE word Iacob signifieth he holds the heele the reason of which name you may reade Gen. 25. 26. He and Esau were Twins born at one birth Esau was the first borne and when he was borne his brother came out after him and held him by the heele whence this name was given him Of Iacob we must shew three things as in former Examples His birth life and death Concerning his birth the time and parents were the same which we noted before of Esau the manner was as you have heard as if hee had wrestled with his brother for the birth-right even in the birth in which may seem to be signified the great stir that should be betwixt their Successours as well as themselves yea and betwixt the good and bad in all ages even those that are heires of the promise and those that be contemners of the promise For the Lord had foretold that two Nations were in Rebekkahs wombe which should be separated one from the other and in them the Lord did manifest the freedome of his Election seeing he chose the younger before the elder to inherite the promises and that before they had done good or evill that the purpose of God according to election might remaine or be firme not of workes but of him that calleth meaning that Gods intention of saving by his grace who freely calleth not of any workes in any person whether repenting beleeving or any other workes might be stedfast and stable No workes cause God to call one or to purpose to call one or not to call another but alone his good pleasure whereof though it be sure that God hath in himselfe just reason for he is a reasonable agent and doth all things and most understandingly yet he sees it not good to reveale to us any reason because he would make us see what subjection we owe to him that is to say to rest in his will as a sufficient reason to satisfie us God might have purposed to call and also have called all without any picking or choosing or preferring one before another but his purpose was according to election or choice he intended not to raise up all out of the miserable estate into which Adam brought all but alone some and in his choosing he might have left whom he tooke and contrarily but he would take some not all and these not those because in his wisdome he saw it fit and so great is his power and soveraignty that we ought to be contented with this reason God would have it so Gods Election is his purpose to call such and such leaving the rest and of this purpose we can give no other cause but this so it seemed good unto him though himselfe have such grounds of his choice within himselfe as it is fit for a wise agent to have for the ground of all his actions He that will not quiet himselfe thus in the matter of election shall entangle himselfe so that he will never bee loosed And so much of Iacobs birth Now for his life we will consider his vertues faults crosses benefits For his vertues we will speake of them first in generall and here two things are noted in him Gen. 25.27 Iacob was a plaine man and did dwell in Tents The word translated a plaine man signifieth a perfect or upright man It is of larger signification than that phrase of ours A plaine man for that in common speech noteth one that is simple and dealeth squarely and eavenly without fraud deceit guile or any tricks in his actions so may one be and have no great goodnesse in him But this word is used to denote an upright hearted man a truly and intirely godly man a perfect man that is good within as well as without and good in all things at all times and in all places one as well as another one that carefully follows all the Commandements of God not giving himselfe leave to swerve from any of Gods wayes at any time Perfection is that property in things by which they have all which is requisite for their due constitution There is a double perfection one of degrees unattainable in this life and it is when a man hath all the parts of obedience in the highest degree that the Law requireth of him this is a legall perfection without which no man can be justified before God by the Law and because no man can attain it therefore By the Law shall no flesh be justified but beleevers have it in Christ in whom they are made the righteousnesse or God and to whom righteousnesse without workes meaning workes of their own
crosse Say then wast thou ever driven out of thine owne habitation to serve in a strange place and an hard master that wronged thee and used thee discurteously Wast thou ever in danger to have all thy goods taken from thee by an enraged man stronger than thy selfe and pursuing thee with a revengefull minde nor wast thou never in perill of thy life by a revengefull person armed with foure hundred souldiers nor wast thou never tormented with seeing thy sonnes murderers couzeners and robbers nor hast thou never lost a deare childe and thought him slaine by a violent death nor did never no son of thine commit incest with his mother in law if not see how favourable God hath been to thee above Iacob and praise love an honour him and make his gentlenesse an argument of turning and obeying for if thou compare thy sins with Iacobs there need be no doubt but that thine have been as great as his and thy repentance as little But it is our good not our sins that God lookes to in correcting as a Father corrects not a little childe for as great a fault so much as he doth a stronger Againe learne to beare the crosses thou hast with more patience and quietnesse of minde by comparing them with Iacobs crosses which have been more in number and more weighty and grievous Why doth any of you my Brethren take the matter so heavily that some childe of his is somewhat stubborne and ill disposed When none of them have committed murder incest rapine and such sins as Iacobs sons did commit Why doe you make such a stir at wrongs When none of you were ever so pursued by any foe as Iacob was by his brother and Father in Law Why doe you take on so for the ordinary and naturall death of a childe seeing none of you hath had such a childe torne by wilde beasts or some other like violence as Iacob conceived Ioseph to have miscarried Why doe you complaine of famine and of want When none of you hath suffered such a famine as compelled him to send so far as Iacob sent to Aegypt for Corne which is thought to be not much lesse than two hundred miles We complaine of ease If our so much lamented afflictions were laid in the ballance with Iacobs we should finde them very light and trifling businesses in comparison Want of looking about and observing the burdens that are fastened unto other mens shoulders causeth us to aggravate our owne so much in our owne conceits as that by making them seeme extraordinarily heavy wee even wilfully cast our selves into excessive sorrow for them But againe you that are yet at ease and have not tasted any so bitter a cup as Iacob did many must bee perswaded to take some paines with your owne hearts to make your selves thinke that some such crosses may befall you and therefore to prepare for them by resolving to beare them and praying God to sit you for them and sanctifie them to you Mans self-loving minde is willing to flatter it selfe with good hopes rather then to forewarne it selfe with wise warnings O I hope I shall never see my children my wife so naught I shall never finde such ill usage I hope Come hither vaine man and either give a good reason of thine hopes or else confesse them to be fruits of thine extreame folly and doting self-love Hath God ever promised thee that no such thing should befall thee I am sure thou canst shew no such promise Hast not thou deserved as much as Iacob to be severely chastened of God I am sure thou oughtest to say yes Doth not thy body soule name children lie abroad in as open a Sea and as tempestuous Here also thou oughtest to say yes and therefore shouldest also condemne these silken soft hopes of thine and say Well God may make me as afflicted as Iacob and therefore I will even expect the same or as bad and if they come I will beare them all seeing God and my ill deservings in them Yonder is a very towardly boy I love him dearely what if I should heare he were torne of beasts Lord if it be thy will let it not be so but if it be make me to beare it with quietnesse and why should I not so stoope to thy will in every thing yea I will doe it by thy grace If thou say I see many escape such crosses I answer and thou seest many afflicted with them and why maist not thou be amongst the number of those that suffer them as well as of those that escape them But lastly take heed of making over-bold with Gods favour as a wanton childe that presumes he shall not be whipt and therefore cares not almost what wanton and evill prankes he playes Doe you not see here that the Lord of heaven knowes how to whip his owne children throughly and to purpose You have not to deale with a foolishly pittifull Father that cannot finde in his heart to heare his children cry and see them smart and bleed No he can strike he can lay it on soundly he can make you roare and cry and bleed hee can doe it yea and he will doe it too if he finde that your conceit of his love and gentlenesse brings forth no better fruit in you than this that by presuming of it you are made more wicked Wherefore say to thy selfe if such abominable fancies arise foolish man that I am doe I so requite the Lords kindnesse Doe I put his clemency to this use Did he not cut and wound Iacobs soul Did he not handle him roughly even though we never reade that he did entertaine such presumptuous conceits How then will hee deale with me if I doe so exceedingly provoke him by so exceedingly abusing his goodnesse And so frame to condemne and blame thy wickednesse in having such motions and pray to God to worke in thine heart a reverend awe of his Majestie by making his justice and anger so terrible to thee as to make sin abominable that would insence that wrath and justice against thee * ⎠* THE TWENTIETH EXAMPLE OF IACOBS Wives FRom the Story of Iacob I proceed to his Wives and Children and so to other his contemporaries Iacob had foure Wives It was not his own seeking that his Wives grew to such a number for he was painfull and laborious and a chaste man that would very contentedly have satisfied himselfe with one woman But he was drawne into this way of Polygamy by severall occasions Now of his Wives the true and lawfull Wife was Rachel for her he agreed with her he espoused himselfe as it is like for we cannot thinke but that after his Father had promised to give her to him upon seven yeares service he would acquaint her with it and desire her good will and unlesse he had attained it the marriage would not have proceeded and been as it was solemnly celebrated to her hee bare singular affection and her alone he looked for Now for Rachel you
know whose daughter she was viz. Labans the brother of Rebekkah here Cousin-germans married without scruple but no marvell for they made no question of nearer matches A man might marry his Fathers daughter his sister as Abraham did Sarah A man might marry with two sisters as Iacob did Rachel and Leah The Lord had not yet abridged the liberty of contracting mariage as with any more remote so with them that were nearest in blood and alliance Therefore their examples must be no president for us in this matter But of Rachel let us consider after her Parentage her life and death and in her life 1. Her faults 2. Her vertues 3. Her crosses 4. Her benefits and so to her death First then her faults She was a woman of great imperfections these are plainly noted in her First she was envious towards her sister as you see Gen. 30.1 It vexed her not alone that she had no children but that her sister had Envy is a sin much to be blamed you may see in this Example what it is such a vexing at anothers having what I have not as doth estrange my minde and work a degree of hatred towards the person that hath it The first and most remarkable example of this vice is found in Cain it shewes it selfe here againe in Rachel Let us consider what a loathsome vice it is that we may the better shun it The Word of God hath given us frequent warning of it in blaming it so often it shewes how apt we are to it and how diligently we should oppose it and preserve our selves from it our Saviour is pleased to reckon it among the evill things that come out of the heart and doe defile the man and giveth it the name of an evill eye because it shewes it selfe presently in the eye and countenance and causeth a dejected countenance and a vile looke towards the party envied as it is seen in Cain and Saul It is a passion that will not be kept in but will bewray it selfe in odde lookes and casts of the eye S. Paul reckons it up among those sins wherewith the Gentiles were full viz. of Envy murder c. and you see with what companions he joynes it murder debate for these indeed be the fruits that follow from it as in Saul Cain and the Pharisees is evident S. Paul also reckons it amongst the number of the things which are fruits of the flesh and which he that doth shall not inherite the kingdome of heaven envyings murders where you see likewise how he fellows it with murders as he had done before In the same Epistle he forbids it saying Let us not bee covetous of vain-glory provoking one another envying one another Saint Iames saith that Where envying and strife is there is confusion and all manner of evill workes It is thought to have been one of the first sins of the devill For what could move him to seeke the overthrow of our first Parents Adam and Eve but together with an hatred of God from whom himselfe had fallen an evill affection towards them that stood entire in that good estate which himselfe had lost viz. the favour of God and true happinesse Now this vice is injurious to God to the party envyed to the enviers selfe and to the societies of mankinde First to God to whom it will not grant the freedome of disposing his owne gifts according to his owne good pleasure Envy against him that excels us carries with it by way of implication at least and sometimes expresly blaming condemning muttering against him that hath granted to another what he hath denied unto me They murmured against the housholder in the parable that were troubled to see those of the eleventh houre to have equall wages with them at the first Now what an audaciousnesse is this in the creatures to set rules to the Creator and to binde him that he shall not shew himselfe more bountifull to another than to ones selfe Are not we discontented if one childe grudge because another hath a bigger or better thing than himselfe We cannot endure that our inferiours should set lawes to us and appoint us what to give to others what to them We must know our selves to forget our selves much if we will prescribe to God and it is nothing else but a very prescribing to God when we take occasion from his bounty to repine For if it be well done why are we vexed If not upon whom is the blame laid Further it is a wrong to the party envyed for it is to measure such measure to him as we would not have measured to our selves by another Who doth not blame another for vexing at his prosperity and for having a grudge against him because God hath done him good Would we not that all should rather love us respect us more and rejoyce with us Therefore we doe injury to our neighbour in doing what we would not have done to our selves The envious wrongeth himselfe both because he doth vexe and eate out his owne heart to no purpose for neither shall another prosper lesse nor he more because of such his inordinate distempers as also because he makes himselfe lie open to most grievous sins of detracting slandering and practising all injuries yea and murder at the last He is in the high way that will lead him to many sins yea to the shedding of innocent blood that entertaineth this diabolicall humour of envy And he wrongeth the whole society because he is distempered at that which maketh for the common good even the distribution of Gods gifts differently as himselfe sees fit and in that he is broody of quarrels which all hinder the common welfare of the places where they be Besides this is a fruit of pride and uncharitablenesse and must needs be hatefull to God who loves only the humble and charitable Envy is a vice unto the making of which many vices concurre Ignorance folly pride uncharitablenesse self-love and the like It is a vice which bringeth forth many other vices contention strife swellings tumults whisperings back-bitings murders and all evill deeds Therefore let us finde it out and chase it away You shall easily perceive that it is a weed which growes in our corrupt nature How soon doe children begin to shew it how doth it grow stronger by continuance increasing in strength as the body increaseth yea how doth it live in old men too and vexe them also that should have more understanding as experience sheweth Indeed the elder can use more craft to hide it but many times they have no more wisdome to subdue it than the younger I pray you finde it out each one in himselfe and fight against it as one of the most loathsome fruits of the flesh And strive you to get such a measure of humility and charity as may not alone preserve you from this vice but make you rejoyce with them that rejoyce and turne the prosperity of others into matter
were borne or when they died seeing both their comming into the world and their departure out of it do perish for they come to nothing and both come in and go out as it were in an evill time But we have something to say of his parentage and life For his Parentage we learne Gen. 22.26 and 24.29 that he was the sonne of one Bethuel who was the sonne of Nachor the brother of Abraham who did not leave his Countrey and Fathers house with Abraham when he travelled at Gods Commandement into the land of Canaan but abode still in Padan Aram the land of his Nativity and there continued to follow strange gods and commit Idolatry of which all the world and by name the countrey was then full So hee was the Idolatrous son of an Idolatrous Father and Grandfather which did as most men doe take up the religion of his forefathers without more adoe not looking whether hee served God aright but counted it sufficient to serve God as his Progenitors had done before not at all considering whether it were the true God or the false whom they served or whether it were true or false worship which they performed Now in his life wee must consider his deeds good and bad and the things that befell him good and bad First then for his good deeds for even a bad man may have some civill vertues found in his life out of a common worke of Gods Spirit who will not suffer men to be so farre over-runne with vices but that for the preservation of humane societies they shall have some shadows of vertues seene in them These good deeds of his looke partly to men and partly to God His good deeds to men-ward are first to Abrahams servant Secondly to Rebekkah his sister Thirdly to Iacob his kinsman Fourthly to his Daughters and Grandchildren First let us consider his carriage to Abrahams servant Eliezer of Damascus who was sent by his master Abraham to fetch a wife for his son Isaac out of Padan Aram because he would not match him with the cursed seed of the Canaanites The first thing commendable in him is that hee vouchsafeth curteous entertainment unto him for when the servant meeting with Rebekkah had found great kindnesse from her in watering his Camels as well as giving himselfe drinke out of her pitcher and that hee had rewarded her with precious gifts Gen. 24.22 viz. with a golden eare-ring of halfe a shekel weight and two golden bracelets of ten shekels weight for her hands and that shee had invited him to her Fathers house and comming home had told Laban her brother of the man who hee was and what hee had bestowed upon her presently Laban goes forth to the man ver 31. and invites him to the house with very kinde words saying Come in thou blessed of the Lord wherefore standest thou without for I have prepared the house and roome for thy Camels and so bringing him home they ungirded the Camels and hee gave him straw and provender for them and water to wash his feete and the feete of those that were with him and then set meate before him that hee might eate Loe here an example of curteous hospitality hee gave him good and loving words and provided and ministred to him all things necessary for his cattell and companions and himselfe Thus should men use kinde and liberall hospitality towards such friends as upon occasion doe repaire unto their houses and this is a kinde of vertue which may bee found in men that are destitute of all true grace and piety For even nature it selfe teacheth men to shew love and humanity to men that are of the same nature with themselves because they looke to finde the like gentlenesse themselves from others upon like occasions Here is one thing in Laban worthy praise and imitation another is that hee gives him an honest and good answer when hee had declared unto them his errand For the man refusing to eate till hee had related his businesse unto them being very faithfull to his master and diligent in the matter committed to his trust up and told them all that had fallen out why hee came thither and how hee had by a speciall providence of God met with Rebekkah at the fountaine of water requested to know their minde and what hee must trust unto in this matter and from Bethuel the maides Father and Laban of whom wee are speaking her Brother hee received this just and discreete answer That the thing proceeded from God and they were able to say neither good nor bad unto him that is not to crosse his motion by any allegation one way or other concluding that Rebekkah was before him and that hee might with their good consent take her and goe that shee might bee his Masters sons wife as God had spoken ver 50 51. of the same Chapter In this passage you see a great deale of honest plainnesse seeing God had directed him by his speciall hand to this maiden they would bee no hinderance unto him but would give their willing consent to the marriage It is a good thing for men to consent unto honest and good motions chiefly when they see God himselfe by his good providence going before them and as it were leading the way unto them A third good thing in Laban was that hee doth speedily dismisse the man and hindered not his present returne unto his Master with a wife for his son For so it is written ver 59. that when hee rising betimes in the morning was earnest to returne that very day and that they at first required ten dayes stay for Rebekkah but hee requesting them not to hinder his expedition seeing God had prospered him they called the Damsell and asked her consent viz. Whether shee was willing to goe with the man and finding her very forward they sent her away without further lingring It is a good thing when wee have entertained any one in our house and his desire is as his occasions shall require to make haste home to further him by all meanes and not to stop his proceedings with delayes For many times such deferring proves very unpleasing and sometimes dangerous to the party to whom wee would seeme to shew love and good will as wee see it did in case of the Levite whose Father in Laws importunity caused him to stay a day or two beyond his desire in the later end of the Story of Iudges Thus hath Labans carriage beene good to this servant of Abrahams We must follow the goodnesse of all men even Idolaters and Heathens Now consider how hee behaved himselfe to his sister to whom he discovers good affection and love by a curteous dismissing of her ver 60. They blessed her and said thou art our sister bee thou the mother of thousands of millions and let thy seed possesse the gates of them which hate them that is prevaile mightily against all their enemies and conquer them
that hee was forcibly driven out of Gods Inheritance and wished nothing more then that he might have liberty to dwell in Gods Tabernacles Let us if we have banished our selves from such habitations be carefull to returne with speed from our voluntary wandring Secondly Iudah shewes himselfe somewhat humbled for his sinne with Tamar for seeing the tokens he had left with her and knowing his fault hee confesseth his fault and saith shee is more righteous then I. For Shelah was growne up and was not given unto her So must wee doe if wee have sinned and beene an occasion of others sinnes let us justifie them above our selves and condemne our selves more then them and not bee possessed so with the partiality of selfe-love as still to stand in our owne light denying the fault or laying the blame upon another True repentance will be ready to blame it selfe but an impenitent heart is witty to cast the blame still from it selfe upon another Againe it is said hee knew Tamar no more afterwards and wee reade not of any other wife or childe he had afterwards so that he forbare her because shee was his daughter in Law and forbare to take another wife voluntarily it is like in humiliation for this unbridled fact he had committed If any have sinned in unlawfull deeds of this kinde his care must be with Iudah to offend so no more and to be so humbled with his former offence that the consideration of it may make him temper himselfe for the future Further Iudah carried himselfe well towards his Father for hee was earnest to get him send Benjamin with them to the Governour in Egypt and at last prevailed by interposing his faithfull promise to bring him backe againe as you reade in the Story It is a good thing in an Inferiour to turne away his Superiour from stiffenesse in an indiscreet purpose and he hath performed a worthy office that hath so farre prevailed with his superiour for the good of himselfe and of others wherefore doe this good deed with humblenesse and discretion as occasion serveth The last good deed of Iudah and most commendable was his faithfull keeping of his promise with Iacob in offering himselfe to be a bondslave in Benjamins roome whose absence he knew would even kill his old Father so that hee was content to take the punishment of anothers fault upon himselfe rather then falsify his word of presenting the Lad againe unto his Father How was love and faithfullnesse joyned both in one act We must learne to practise even so to love a Parent so as if it be possible to prevent his griefe with our owne so great a misery as perpetuall bondage during life How much are they to blame that occasion their Parents misery by their wilfull sinnes and can well enough be content to see their Parents goe mourning to the grave even for their incorrigible naughtinesse Sure the affection of good children is farre otherwise And now children have a loving pittie to your Parents and frame your selves rather to suffer any misery then the sight of your Parents pining away in griefe especially then the procuring of it by your owne misdemeanours Againe he shewed here great fidelity for having given his Word to his Father that he would bring Benjamin againe to him he preferres the performing of his promise before his owne liberty and would rather keepe his promise with his Father then live at home with him in freedome Let us learne to shew the like care in keeping our promises even to doe what wee have said chiefely in matters of weight though wee cannot doe it without great inconveniences to our selves let us keepe promise though it be to our hurt Againe Iudah makes a most pithy and rhetoricall speech to Ioseph for affection will make a reasonable wit to doe the office of a good Orator This was a commendable thing in Iudah to beare so sudden and terrible an accident with so much strength of minde that he could apply himselfe to take that course which was fit and behoofefull notwithstanding his griefes Let us labour to be of so well compact a spirit that extremity of sudden blowes may not disable us from carrying our selves discreetely even in such unexpected accidents This is a gift that we must beg at Gods hands and the best way to get it is as Iudah did to see God in it and be humbled before him for our sins that procured it And so much for Iudahs particular good deeds Now his crosses were first that he had two sonnes so wicked that God himselfe could not brooke them but even slew them for their extreame wickednesse It is a crosse that hath befallen many a Father to have very lewd children Labour what you can to prevent it by being good your selves and carry not your selves so wickedly as to pull this crosse upon your selves as Iudah did in running to Hiram and marrying a Canaanitish woman for what could he looke for but that the sonnes of such a woman and brought up in such a place should proove wicked And if it doe befall any of you or have befalne you be indeed humbled by it but not put quite out of heart Let it helpe to make your selves better if your children be wicked Another crosse was that his daughter in Lawes discontent drew her to prostitute her selfe to him in the disguize of an Harlot and so drew him to incest when he thought but to have committed fornication It is a misery to be drawne into a more grievous sinne then one intended to commit Let us resolve to commit none at all that such an addition of faultinesse may not be put upon our sinnes beyond our owne knowledge and if it have befalne us let us learne to be humbled very much It is just with God to give a man over to a worse sinne then he thought of that is bold to take liberty to commit some sin which he ought not to have done Lastly God did cause the sinne of Iudah to breake forth to his shame as you know though hee feared the shame more then the sinne And this is surely a great punishment to make ones evills knowne which he hoped should have beene kept still in secrecy And a just thing it is with God to dishonour a man before men when hee will dishonour God by sinning boldly in secret And if God have buried any mans faults in darkenesse let him bury them by repentance else they shall breake out more reproachfully at last day to his utter confusion But if God have cast the dirt of any mans sin upon his face and layd his grosse crimes open to all the world he must make this use of it to be more humbled before God and improve the griefe that shame and reproach will stirre in him to the more hearty bewailing of the sin that deserved it otherwise to be greatly grieved for the shame is nothing else but a carnall and unsanctified
and Sonne concurre in this fault A common fault it is religion is made of the by it serveth some other Mistresse It is a stalking horse for policy on both sides Wickedly doe Iacobs sonnes seeme to stand on religion for their secret ends and it was not well done of them to take a religion up for meere private ends but such is the custome of the men of this world they can embrace any ordinance for their profit and any religion O looke that you bee intire in imbracing Gods Ordinance and Gods Truth take heed that sinister ends doe not marre and destroy your seeming religiousnesse and make that you shall seeme to God not the better men but the worse Hypocrites Againe something was ill done of him we see no sharpe correction nor reproofe of his sonne for his wrong done to Dinah and that provokes the maides friends O how indulgent are Parents to their childrens crimes scarce with a word will they checke them at most but with a word for that which deserveth many blowes yea the stroake of death This indulgence of theirs often makes children bold to sinne as in Adoniah and Absalom is seene and so doth make them at length correctors of their Parents that should have corrected them Let Parents take heed to themselves that they shew not themselves to love God lesse then their children by loving their children so much as to put out or smother the hatred of sinne and let Parents at last learne to make naturall affection give place to justice You have his faults his vertues are 1. To his Sonne he is willing to satisfie him in point of marriage so farre as was fit and so should all wise Parents be If the affections of their children carry them not to matches too inconvenient they should gratifie them for feare of those mischiefes which often come by crossing them and that because nothing is more likely to procure the welfare of children then when they be matched to whom they love Unlesse their folly be such as to make too too foolish choises let Parents learne to shew themselves milde and gentle here if in any other thing Further he deales well with the Shechemites his Subjects whom he seeketh not to force but to perswade to accept circumcision In things of this nature a good Prince must not compell but allure Subjects and let them see reason rather then feele violence but his reason is taken from the profit of the people That is the wisest argument which will most prevaile with him to whom it is used and so it sped accordingly Further he dealt well with Iacob too for in all plainenesse he seekes his daughter for his sonne and is willing to yeeld to any equall conditions Plaine dealing is commendable in an Heathen how much should it be commended to us Christians Now see his prosperity He had a sonne indifferent good that at least sought his consent and shewed himselfe orderly though at the first he had beene rude It is a comfort to have a sonne not altogether rude and misgoverned that if he over-shoote himselfe in some things yet will keepe his order and reforme himselfe Be you such children O ye sonnes and daughters and be thankefull ye Parents that have such children He had also good Subjects that would be perswaded by him and such Subjects let us learne to be so that we use prudence as well as subjection But his crosse was great he was over-reacht by crafty heads and himselfe and all his Family and City butchered by bloudy hands O how could you brooke such a crosse and why will not you stand prepared to loose life goods children friends and all seeing you perceive in the Shechemites how soone all these may be lost even then when you thinke your selves secure and why doe you not thanke God for preserving you from such both craft and outrage hitherto Now I proceed to speake of some others The Adullamite Hiram is a better friend then a man indeed a good friend but a bad man His friendship appeares to be morally good in its kinde because first it was lasting secondly it was serviceable thirdly it was secret Lasting for it continued to Iudah so long till his third sonne was marrigeable and began before his marriage You cannot conceive it under some twenty yeeres standing though you should thinke that Iudah married about sixteene or seventeene yeares of age Friendship is like wine the elder the better the longer it lasteth the more it is to be praised Learne to be durable friends let not a yeare or two see you changed and estranged but be like Christ in that respect whom you love love to the end unlesse they doe even too too unfriendlily cast you off and breake the lawes of friendship And those that have beene fickle friends let them be ashamed for it is too too evident that they were false seeking themselves alone and not their friends Againe his friendship was serviceable stooping to somewhat a base office to helpe Iudah out with his whoredome as secretly and undiscernedly as might be Indeed a true friend must be serviceable to his friend not alone with his cost and labour but sometimes also with a little blemish not by helping him to sinne nor lying or so forth but by doing what may honestly and lawfully be done for the secret carrying of his faults and saving him from blame even carnall friends are forward enough this way take heed that you denie not good offices to your inward acquaintance and take no lesse heed that you gratifie them not with bad For here you see the secrecy of this Adullamite no body knew by him of that fault which he himselfe knew onely by Iudah Nothing becomes a friend better then secrecy of his friends faults and he that hath once played the blab in this kinde hath no wrong if hee be never trusted after Nay verily this may seeme a most just cause of dividing friendship therefore so farre as may be without sinne against God and against the Countrey and Superiours every friend must affect this trustinesse Surely had not Iudah found him faithfull in this kinde hee would never have ingaged himselfe so farre So was Hiram a good friend but yet he was not a good man for we finde not that he did rebuke Iudah for his fault at all which he must have done if he had beene as good a man as a friend And doe you learne to add that to other good fruits of friendship even to reprehend them for their faults though you doe not divulge them that so friendship may not be a mutuall infecting of one another but a mutuall healing So much for the Adullamite Iudahs friend now for Er and Onan Iudahs sonnes The first of them was so wicked a man that God in his justice would not let him live to staine that good family O let him be a a warning to all you children that you
proceed not to such a height of wickednesse in your blossoming bud as to force God to destroy you before the midst of your daies How sure is his punishment in Hell whom God in his just wrath would not suffer to live on earth And O yee Parents be thankfull if God have not crossed you with such wicked children so notoriously so unsufferably naught or if hee have learne to prepare for some untimely end of theirs for often the Lord doth so at once correct the Parent and destroy the childe And take heed that you take not that course to bring the same evill on your children even to have God give them over to naughtinesse and destroy them for it How is that you will say Marry not sinfull wives Idolatresses and the like be not inward with bad men live not in bad places What could Iudah looke that Er should see other in the Family of Hiram and in that place and from that Mother and Grandfather but that which should make him very wicked Had he lived in Iacobs family and taken a better wife he might perhaps have had a better sonne let us not make our selves guilty of our childrens naughtinesse by choosing bad yoake-fellowes bad friends bad places of habitation Now as for Onan he was also a wicked man and cut off by Gods hand in his youth So much of Iudahs two sonnes Now of his daughter in Law Tamar who was a very bad and lewd woman it may seeme else shee would never have invented such a revenge upon Iudah as to way-lay him in the habit of an Harlot where shee knew he must goe and that of purpose to try if shee could intice him to commit folly with her and you may be sure that shee did use all the art shee could to draw him to this sinne seeing shee placed her selfe there for that purpose Indeed shee handled him subtilly that shee might be able to convince him if hee should as else no doubt he would have denied it For he would never have beene made to beleeve that this woman was Tamar Instead of hire shee askes his signet staffe and handkercheefe tokens that were past all gaine-saying Here is revenge and filthinesse and fraud and a number of naughts put together to make each other worse Why had shee not rather expostulated the wrong with her Father in Law and besought him to give her Shelah her husband If shee were ashamed to speake for a husband why was shee not more ashamed to entice her Father in Law by such a trick But herein marke the wickednesse into which revenge will draw them that harbour it even to hurt themselves that they may hurt another also and take heed you women of following her in a fact of so much impudency onely note Gods justice against Iudah that would punish him by giving him up to this disgracefull fact for his other sinnes that were not joyned with so much reproach So doth God oftentimes deale with men both good and bad Iudah cared not to goe from his Fathers house he cared not to deale falsely with Tamar and loe now God will shame him for all by suffering him to be catched in Tamars trap Beware that you sell not over yourselves to such sinnes as he world doth not intertaine disgracefully least God give you over to such as will bring disgrace We will proceed next to the Midianitish Merchants that bought Ioseph they were part Midianites part Ishmaelites an intermingled company and therefore are in the story called by both names here you must note a speciall providence of God over-ruling the journey of these Midianites to the saving of Iosephs life and conveighing him downe to Egypt God hath you see store of meanes to effect his owne purposes which men cannot finde out He goes beyond our thoughts and beyond the intentions of those which are his instruments as a man makes his horse serve his turne for the dispatch of those businesses whereof the horse is ignorant Therefore we must learne to trust his promises even then when our eyes can see no way how to have them accomplished it pertaines to him that makes a promise to finde meanes of making it good If another have given his word to pay mee money hee not I must take care to provide it We wrong God and take his office to our selves if wee be sollicitous about the meanes If hee give us any we may use them but if none wee should trouble our selves no further but waite upon him and let him alone with his owne workes Againe the Midianites and Ishmalites for the whole troope consisted of both were carrying the precious things of another countrey into Egypt that they might sell them there and so by commerce inrich themselves and profit the whole world It was well done of them that they employed themselves in Merchandize transporting by land the commodities of one place to another for the common good and their owne convenient maintenance Buying selling traffiquing transporting of commodities from place to place are necessary actions without which the inhabitants of the world could not partake of each others benefits nor supply each others wants and so should not be knit together in so neere bonds but by this meanes the severall parts of the world or of any Nation doe interchangeably communicate whatsoever necessary or delightfull thing they have either to other The more pitty it is to see men so besotted with pride and vanity that they thinke it a braver and gayer life to live idling at home and following base pastimes then to give themselves to a commodious and serviceable imployment But certainely no calling nor paines in my calling can so much dis-become a man or reproach and abase him before God and men that are not charmed with the same witchcraft that themselves then this of having no calling Better a mender of shooes then have nothing to doe better be the meanest member of the body then a boyle or ulcer such as the idle man is But let men that professe the name of Christians look to themselves that they shunne the vices with which mans corrupt nature doth polute trading and Merchandize in respect of many particular abuses Make not riches the end of your labour so saith Salomon Labour not to be rich shunne all injustice in your dealing shunne greedinesse of gaine that makes one troublesome to all about him and use justice equity and moderation Buy as if thou boughtst not sell as though thou soldst not Use the world as not abusing it and then the following of an honest trade doth leade you as readily to Heaven as those callings that carry a more glittering shew in the world Further we must consider their buying of Ioseph here we must speak a little of that custome of buying and selling men how it may seeme to have come into the world It may seeme to have entered either by warre or else by debt In warre the conquering side
cause to speake and that it bee the certaine truth they speake before they speake to any Thirdly while Joseph was young hee shew'd himselfe obedient to his Father for when he called him to send him to visit his Brethren hee was ready to obey him and did the office of a dutifull Sonne addressing himselfe to the appointed businesse although it was to take a journey of two or 3 dayes on foot Come young men and young women and learne of this good youth how to carry your selves to your Parents if they call you come and give them dutifull and mannerly answers if they send you goe and preferre the doing of their will in lawfull things before your owne ease and pleasure You know how precisely the Lord hath imposed this duty upon the consciences of children Children obey your Parents in all things You must make no restriction of the largenesse of this Commandement but by adding that word Lawfull which out of other Scriptures must needes bee understood and hee gives a reason saying this is the first Commandement meaning of the second Table with promise and with promise of welfare saying that it may bee well with thee As ever you desire to finde prosperity from God so you must bee dutifull to your Fathers and Mothers the instruments of your beeing and bringing up and the most immediate Deputies of God and you which hee hath set in his stead to take care of you and to rule you Now you that are sinfull and disobedient Sonnes and Daughters whose carriage doth farre differ from that of Josephs see the foulenesse of your Vice by opposing unto it the fairenesse of his Vertue Doe not your hearts within you say that it was very well done in Joseph to say to his Father here am I when hee called him to goe on his errand and when his father had told him his work by and by to set about it doe you not thinke that Joseph did the office of a godly childe and that which his duty bound him to and wherwith God was well pleased If he did as your selves must needes affirm he did be you grieved ashamed within your selves of your quite contrary carriage whose consciences can tell that instead of answering here I am have retained some surly answer and instead of going on the businesse have gone a quite contrary way Let your hearts smite you to Repentance that you may comfort your Parents with obedience hereafter whose hearts you have formerly vexed by your gracelesse stubbornesse Fourthly when Iosephs Brethren used him exceeding injuriously and hardly viz. selling him to forrainers for a Bond-man what did he but even intreat and beseech them to deale better with him as themselves tell of his carriage when they were touched with some remorce for their cruelty Gen. 42.21 He besought us and we would not heare Loe how it behoves a good body to behave himselfe to his equals or betters or any that being too strong for him when they doe offer hard measure unto him even intreat pray beseech use all submissive gentle quiet and milde words and carriage Learne that of S. Paul who saith being defamed we intreat You know Abigals carriage toward David when she found him in a great chafe against her husband and ready to doe violence to her family she intreated him and caused his passion to stoppe it selfe by her faire words Solomon hath told us that gentle words pacifie wrath and if any thing in the world will asswage the fury and mollifie the hardnesse and remove the cruelty of an enemy it is this kinde of language and behaviour If therfore any of us be guilty of betaking our selves in such case to railing bitternesse and violence giving all the vile tearmes that wrath would put into our mouthes against our Superiours when they wronged us and dawbing them with most foule names let us take notice of our folly in being wrathfull This was not the course that naturall discretion much lesse that Christian Religion would prescribe to a wronged man this shews him to be as proud and bitter that suffers as they that offer the wrong S. Peter saith we should not render reviling for reviling if we must not raile on him that abuseth us in words neither then on them that abuse as in actions Now then learne meekenesse of Ioseph learne to frame your tongues to this kinde of humble speech when you be wronged Perhaps you may say that Joseph did this because he durst doe no otherwise I answer if he feared his Brethren are not you to feare God if hee durst not speake wrathfully to them that hee might not the more provoke and move them should not you take heed of provoking GOD with the licentious use of your evill tongue But secondly I answer that it is very probable Ioseph did not this out of bare feare for then when he saw that the matter grew desperate and hee could not prevaile by intreaty he would have fallen to bitternesse at last wherefore follow his mildnesse beseech when you are wronged but doe not rayle and revile This is all I have noted of Iosephs private life in his Fathers house now we will follow him into Egypt and see how he carryed himselfe there 1. in private in the house 1. of Putiphaer 2. in prison 2. more publikely Iosephs carriage in Putiphars house deserveth praise 1. because he was a diligent and faithfull servant unto him Ioseph had beene bred up tenderly as the free sonne of a noble and great man Iacob of a sodaine God by his providence made him a bondman he frames himselfe to such dutifulnesse and fidelity that he winnes his Master and gaineth greater favour with him then any other servant as you may reade Gen. 39. ad 7. For had not he beene faithfull and painefull God had not beene with him nor prospered him as he did Let me commend his example to you that be servants to imitate it labour you to be good servants faithfull diligent in your Masters businesse and respective towards their persons that so God may be with you too and prosper you and you also may draw the loves and good wils of your Masters Your service is not bond service but free service at the worst it is but a service of eight or nine yeares likely See the commandement of God lying upon you as much as it did upon Ioseph and doe that which you see in him is possible to doe this is the way to make your service most easie and comfortable to your selves and most acceptable and pleasing to God you are servants now you may be Masters or Governours hereafter so frame your selves in the function of servants that God may blesse you with good servants Carry your selves towards your Masters as you would wish your servants to carry themselves to you and for the most part you shall find that in this as well as in other things the Lord will returne a mans owne measure into
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
ability would deale thus wisely not alone for their privat but also for the publike good the pismire layes up in summer man should bee wiser then a silly creeping thing oh how foolish and naught be those that when they get much spend all and reserve nothing for harder times You have some men can earne much in health but lay up nothing against sicknesse can get much in youth but reserve nothing for age Most just it is that they should be pinched in a deare yeare which lavished and surfetted in a plentiful Brethren you must not alwayes have such yeeres as will bring forth by handfuls be wise therefore for our estates I wish you not to be niggardly and defraud your selves but to bee discreet and lay up for yourl selves if God send no more then is needfull spend it and trust his providence if he send an overplus so much I mean as will serve for the present and some to spare waste not all at the present but know that now he calleth to storing up remember Salomons Proverb in the house of the wise is treasure and oile but the foole consumeth it up Be not fooles but in plenty remember dearth as in dearth you wish for plenty you know that by well husbanding of plenty a wise man should take such an order that he may feele no dearth The love of riches is a banefull thing but the wel-husbanding of abundance is not alwayes a fruit of loving riches but of a wise fore-sight And so much for one part of Josephs care diligence and fidelity in gathering corne Now he is in like manner faithfull in bringing out the corne in due time for when all the corne of private men was spent and that Aegypt also began to be affamished Gen 41.55 and the people cryed unto Pharoah and he sent them to Joseph it is noted that Joseph opened the store-houses and sold unto the Aegyptians one would have conceived that the Aegyptians having heard of Pharaohs dreames the interpretations as such a rare thing must needes flye throughout all the Kingdome speedily as having occasioned the strange preferment of Ioseph a prisoner and an Hebrew which could not but fill the mouthes of people with discourse should each man have provided of his owne abundance to serve their turn in hard times for they were informed both how long and how strange the plenty would be and how hard and of what continuance the dearth but it is apparant that most of them were so foolish that they did not so therefore now the publike store-houses must supply them or else they must dye See in them the fault of improvident carelessenesse whereof we spake before but note Josephs faithfulnesse hee doth open the store-houses now that pinching want began to bite them and sels them Corne. It is fit that men in dearth should bring out and sell Corne if they have it and not to suffer their neighbours to starve for want of that which themselves have in their possession We must not love gaine more then the lives of men yee see that Joseph sold to strangers too and not alone to Aegyptians so that our charity in this case must exercise it selfe as ability will serve to men of other Nations as well as our owne countrey men The Natives must not mutter because forreiners are helped with some of the abundance of their owne countries see here Josephs charitablenesse to put you on the like good disposition when time shall call for it and if you have store of corne bring it forth The people shall curse him saith Solomon that hoordeth up corn but they shall blesse him which doth Sell it To that purpose his Proverbe is doe not bring a curse upon your selves but a blessing for when God saith they will curse or blesse his meaning is not only that the people shall doe thus but that the thing shall fall out accordingly they shall so curse and blesse that neither shall be in vaine Againe it is noted that Joseph by his meanes got all the money in the Land you may see here that it is lawfull to make a gaine of ones providence and by deare selling of what he bought in plentifull times to enrich himselfe much so did Joseph I thinke his example is a due warrant indeed care is to be taken that oppression be avoided and then it is lawful to make ones selfe a gainer not by other mens losses but by his owne providence for by this meanes Joseph did gaine also the land and persons for the King it is not contrary to equity to sell things at a great and dear rate when there is great want of them A thing must bee esteemed worth so much and may bee sold for so much as the present dearth doth make it worth and in such case he doth not wrong that takes the present times onely note that Joseph did not oppresse the poore but they had of him as well as the rich the one gave all and the other could give but all and both had necessaries so should it be done in hard times by publike charity The poore must be provided for as well as the rich but note also Josephs faithfulnesse no doubt himselfe was not wanting to his owne inriching how else could hee have maintained his Fathers houshold with necessaries but he contented himself to take what was allowed him and brought the money to Pharaohs house not to his owne and made the Cattle and land sure to Pharaoh not to himself Oh that all Officers would learn to enrich the King above themselves and themselves but in such a proportion as is fit under the King but in our times it hath bin noted that often the Officers rise and the King is indebted would we had Josephs under his Majesty and then hee could not want for money And last of all note his Justice as well as his wise dealing for to assure the land to the King hee removes and translates the inhabitants so that wise care may lawfully bee used to assure a mans title to that which is his owne and then hee makes this order that Pharaoh shall have a fift part of the encrease and they foure parts to live on Hee lets the land out unto them againe at a reasonable rate whereby themselves might live comfortably of it and this is the duty of all Land-lords that have such things to set they ought not to raise rents to so high a rate that the people shall toyle the hearts out and get nothing but remember that themselves be Gods Tenants who hath commanded all men to doe as they would be done to and that we should not seeke every man his owne things onely but the things that are anothers they must as well looke that the people have to live of chearefully as that themselves be made rich But how unconscionable men be now a dayes in ordering themselves to those that must live upon them whether by taking lands from them or being set a
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
twinnes 2. Caines bad carriage 1. In generall He was a wicked man Caines faults in particular 1. He was an Hypocrite What an Hypocrite is 2. Was vexed at his punishment The governement of the World domesticall Envie a great evill Gal. 5 26. 3. Did not mend his fault though he was gently admonished by God himselfe 4. Murthered his Brother But with what weapon is uncertaine 5. Did not repent of his murder 6. He muttered and despaired 7. Persists impenitently in his sinnes 3. His prosperity and adversity 1. His benefits had posterity and lived a long life and was preserved from the violence of all men 2. God vouchsafed him meanes to keepe him from sin and to draw him out of sinne 2. His crosses 1. God aggravates his fault and sentenceth him for it 2. Curseth the earth to him 3. He was full of terrour Caines death not mentioned The use of all The signes of an Hypocrite Abel what it signifieth His Birth His vertues 1. Was painefull in his calling It is good to have a calling and be faithfull in it 2. Was religious 3. He offered in faith 4. Was righteous A twofold righteousnesse of the Law and Gospell Gal. 2.16 Rom. 3 10. Job 9 31. Gal. 2.21 Gal. 3.22 Gal. 3.21 Psal 143.2 A double righteousnesse in the Gospell 1. Imputed Rom. 4.3 2. Inherent Rom. 6.11 Verse 13. Verse 19. Via ad regnum non causa regnandi Bernard Gal. 3.21 Rom. 3.23 Phil. 3.9 Gal. 5.4 Three signes of a righteous man Psal 119.48 Psal 119 5 6. Psal 51.4 Prov. 28.13 Zach. 1 3. 1 Joh. 1.8 9. 1 Iohn 2.1 Numb 23.10 No sinnes of Abel mentioned in Scripture and why 3. His prosperity 1. God had respect unto his gifts 2. Gave witnes and testimony of his gifts Pro. 15.8 Psal 11.7 Psal 19.14 2 Cor. 1.12 4. His adversity was hated and killed by his Brother 2 Tim. 3.12 Gal. 4.29 His death 1 Cor. 15.19 Col. 3.3 4. Abels death was violent and sodaine Caines posterity Irad what it signifieth Naamah why so called the first woman named after Eve and why Lamechs faults His Polygamy the first beginner of it Luke 16.18 2. His revengefullnesse What it is to revenge His benefits he had children 2. His crosses hee led an unquiet life by reason of his wives The uses of all Revenge is a great sin Mat. 18.22 Lamechs three sonnes inventers of Arts. Jer. 35. The uses of all Gen. 5.3 Seth little said of him Gen. 4.25 Gen. 4.26 Henoch Heb. 11.5 Psal 119.166 Why the Patriarkes lived so long 2 Pet. 2.5 The sinnes of the old world 1. In generall Gen. 6.5 Verse 11. They all were given over to sinning except some in Noahs house Why sinne was so great then 2. In particular Mat. 24.37 38. 1 Pet. 3.20 Mat. 24.38 Gods mercy to them 2 Pet. 2.5 1 Pet. 3.20 Their punishment The Deluge The uses of all Violence what it is A great sin Prov. 28.3 4 Disobedient 1 Pet. 3.20 The floud came upon them and they knew nothing * 120. 2 Pet. 2.5 Gen. 9.11 2 Pet. 3.6 7. Jude verse 14. 2 Pet. 3.10 Noah what it signifieth His Birth His life In which 1. His vertues 1. In generall Was a perfect man and walked with God Gen. 5 22. Heb. 11.4 Who is a just or righteous man Rom 4. 2. His vertues in particular 1. Was a Preacher of righteousnesse 2 Pet. 2.5 Isa 49 4. 2. Had faith Heb. 11.7 What faith is Heb. 11.7 Gal. 3.10 3. He was moved with feare Heb. 11.7 A double feare 2 Cor. 5.11 Rom. 8.13 1 Cor. 6.9 Col. 3.6 Prov. 8.13 Psal 34.9 4. He built an Arke as God bad him Noahs goodnesse in the floud 1 Pet. 3.6 Noahs goodnesse after the floud Noahs sinnes 1. Hee was drunke Noahs crosses 1 No man regarded his preaching 2 Hee lived to see all mankind destroyed 3 Hee had a wicked son 4. Lived to see his ofspring naught Josh 24 2. His benefits 1 He found favour with God 2. Hee was directed by God to a way of saving himselfe from the floud with his family Psal 46.2 3. 3 The Lord accepted his sacrifice 4. He had two godly sonnes Noahs death Ham. His birth His life In which 1. His benefits he was saved in the Arke from the Deluge 3. Epist of Iohn 11. ◠His sinnes 1. He was a Hypocrite 2. He saw the nakednesse of his Father Gen. 9 22. 1 Cor. 13.6 He acquainted his Brethren with his Fathers nakednesse Whispering is a great sin 3. His punishments 1. God cursed him in his son Canaan Gen. 10. Nimrod What his name signifieth The first that strove to erect a Monarchie Was as a tyrant and ambitions The Babylonians Their faults Vaine-glory Carnall confidence Obstinacie Vaine-glory a sinne 2. Carnall confidence is a sin 3. Obstinacie is a sin Their punishment The punishment of strange languages is a heavie punishment Sem and Iaphet their vertues they covered their Fathers nakednes Gen. 9.23 Their benefits true religion was continued in their posterity The seede of Sem. Gen. 11.10 Abrahams Birth His Life His vertues toward God 1 His faith Heb. 11.8 James 2.23 What faith is Heb. 11.1 Three acts of faith 1. Faith of God which hath foure acts 2. Faith to God Gal. 3.8 3. Faith in God Rom. 4 3. Psal 32.2 2. He feared God Gen. 22.12 3. Was obedient Some speciall acts of Abrahams obedience 1. Left his Countrey at Gods Commandement 2. Lived in tents at Gods Commandement Heb. 11.9 3. Circumcised himselfe and all the males of his family 4. He expelled his wife Hagar and sonne Ishmael 5. Hee would have sacrificed his sonne Isaac at Gods commandement Heb. 11.18 The excellency of Abrahās obedience 4. He was religious 1. His vertuous carriage toward men 1. He was truely humble Phil. 1.7 2 Cor. 12.11 1 Sam. 24.14 Luk. 14.11 2. Trained up his Family in the knowledge and feare of God The Hebrew word is ambiguous Eph. 6.4 3. Was loving and gentle to his wife 1 Pet. 3.7 Posse nolle nobile 4. He loved his two sonnes very well 5. He provided a good wife for Isaac Another grace in Abraham toward God his Patience He mourned moderately for Sarah Abrahams good carriage toward his servants to Eliezer his principall servant Gen. 15.3 A good servant should be respected Deut. 15.12 13 Prov. 27.18 Abrahams carriage to his kinsmen He was peaceable 2. He rescued Lot and redeemed him out of his enemies hands He was loving to Lot He was couragious What courage is Meanes to get courage Abrahams carriage to the Sodomites Hee prayed for them 1 Tim. 2.1 2. He shewed humanity and kindnesse to the Sodomites he had taken His carriage to the King of Sodome hee would receive nothing from him Abrahams good carriage to the Cananites Planting of wood is a commendable thing Hee shewed lowly and respective carriage toward the Hittites Abrahams carriage to Hephron His carriage to Aner Eshcol and Mamre Abrahams carriage to Abimelech 1. Maketh a covenant
incest Laban The Scripture saith nothing of his birth or death His Parentage His life His civill vertues 1. He vouchsafe curteous entertainment unto Eliezer 2. He gave him an honest and good answer Neither by faire meanes nor by soule 3. He speedily dismissed him 4. Was loving to his sister made a feast to his neighbours and friends Gen. 29.21 22. 5. He lovingly entertained Iacob when he came unto him 6. Of his own accord he offered Iacob wages for his worke 7. He was willing to bestow his daughters upon him 8 He quickly laid downe his anger and made a covenant with him 9. He sheweth himselfe loving and kind to his daughters and grandchildren 10. He made a feast at the marriage of his daughter 11. He tooke notice of Gods blessing as the cause of his prosperity 12. He forbore what God forbad His faults 1. He was an Idolater 2. He loved Iacob in a worldly manner 3. He cousened Iacob 4. He looked doggedly upon him because he hindred his wealth though without any wrong 5. He pursued Iacob with an hostile minde 6. He falsely chargeth Iacob with stealing his Idols 3. His benefits 1. He had a good son in law 2. He was rich 4. His crosses 1. His daughters and grand children went far from him 2. He was troubled at Iacobs prosperity His death Iacobs children Reuben what it signifies Gen. 29.3 Simeon what it signifies Levi what it signifies Iudah what it signifies Gen. 30.18 Issachar what it signifies Zebulun what it signifies Dan what it signifies Nephthali what it signifies Gad what it signifies Asher what it signifies Ioseph what it signifies Benjamin what it signifies Dinah what it signifies Who she was No good thing is spoken of her Her faults 1. She went into the City to see the daughters of the countrey 2. A young man saw her and lay with her The sonnes Their common faults 1. All of them were bad except Ioseph and Benjamin Gen. 37.2 2. They all beguiled Hamor â—he Sichemite Gen. 35. Deceit is a great sin Prov. 6.10 18. 26.26 Rom. 3. 3. They all consented to the murder of the Sichemites 4. They hated their brother Ioseph 5. They lied cousened their old Father The use of all Their common goodnes 1. They all strove to comfort their Father in his great sadnesse 2. They were dutifull to him in going down to Egypt and not taking Benjamin with them 3. Their benefits 1. They had a godly Father and themselves were pillers of the true Church 2 God saved them all from a great danger 3. They had store of riches 4. Ioseph nourished them in the famine Their crosses 1. In danger from Esau when children 2. In danger at Shechem 3. Felt a famine and were roughly handled by Ioseph Reuben 1. His faults Gen. 35.22 1. He committed incest with his Fathers Concubine Incest is a great sin 1 Cor. 5. 2. His vertues 1. He wisely disswaded his Brethren from killing of Ioseph 2. He was fully minded to restore Ioseph to his Father againe 3 He grieved to see his hopes disappointed and Ioseph taken out of the pit 4 He sought to remove his Father from his stiffenes in refusing to send Benjamin into Aegypt His crosses His Father minded him of his incest on his death-bed 3. His benefits hee had divers sons Simeon and Levi their sinne double 1. The murder of the Sichemites Murder is a great sinne 2. They shewed no repentance when their Father told them of their fault Their punishment They lost part of the birth-right Levies death Iudah His faults 1. He left his Fathers house 2. He was led by his eye in marriage 3. He committed incest with his daughter in law Heb 13 4. 1 Cor. 6.9 4. He dissembled with his daughter in Law 5. He forgat his owne naughtinesse would have had Tamar burnt 6. Repented not of his whoredome but sought to redeeme his pledge His vertues 1. He returned at last to his Fathers house 2. He was somewhat humbled for his sinne 3. He carried himselfe well to his Father Gen. 43. 4. He faithfully kept promise with his Father 5. He did couragiously beare an evill accident His crosses 1. He had two very wicked sonnes His daughter in Law drew him to incest when he intended fornication onely 3. His sinne brake forth to his shame His benefits 1. He had very good naturall parts 2. Hee had a part of the birth-right setled upon him Potipher and his wife Shechem His faults 1. Hee looked lustfully on Dinah Gen. 34. Job 31.1 Mat. 5 29. 2. He enticed or forced her to naughtines or both 1 Cor. 6.18 2. What was good in him 1. He continued to affect her when hee had defloured her Deut. 22.28 29. 2. He acquaints his Father with his love to her and in treates him to speake to her Father for him 3. He stood not over-much upon matter of portion 4. He would have all things agreed upon before marriage 5. He was constant in his love to the end What betrothing is 3. His benefits He was his Fathers heire who was a great man His crosses 1 He prooved an occasion of the overthrow of his Father and his whole family and the Citie Hamor His faults 1. He was willing to be circumcized for a by end 2. He did not reproove nor correct his son for the wrong done to Dinah His vertues 1. He is willing to satisfie his sonne in point of marriage so farre as was fit 2. He deales well with his Subiects perswading them to be circumcised 3. Hee dealt well with Iacob plainely seeking his daughter and yeelding to equall conditions 3 His prosperity 1 His sonne was indifferently good 2. His Subiects were good 4. His crosse Himselfe and all his Family and City were murthered Hiram Hee was a good morall friend His friendship was 1. Lasting 2. Serviceable 3. Secret Yet he was a bad man Er and Onan the first was so wicked that God cut him off Onan was also wicked and cut off by God in his youth Tamar a very bad woman The Midianitish Merchants Gen. 37.25 Merchandize is commendable Pro. 23.4 Buying and selling of men the originall of it The iustice of it Potiphar Potiphar a great man His faults Chap. 39.6 1. Hee gave himselfe wholy over to his ease having a good steward James 5.1 2. He beleeved his wives cunning slander against his servant His good deeds 1. He observed his servants faithfulnesse and good successe nd loved and rewarded him for it Deut. 15.1 14. Prov. 27.18 Col. 4.1 Gal. 3.28 2. He did not take away Iosephs life in a rage His benefits Hee had an honourable office His crosses He had a lewd woman to his wife Potiphars wife No good in her Her faults 1. Shee was an adulterous woman 2. Impudent and earnest in her filthinesse 3. Most malicious Pharaohs Butler and Baker 1. Their good deeds 1. They bare their imprisonment patiently and cheerefully Gen. 40.7 2. They despised not Iosephs youth or meane
his name And this seemeth the rather to be the meaning because there is little reason to thinke that Adam and Seth did not long before this apply themselves to the carefull worshipping of God in their assemblies and to take all good meanes to save themselves from the corruption of the Kaynites Or it may be rendered then it was begun to call by the name of Lord that is men began then to have that name given them of the sons of God and this I like best of all the three because in the beginning of the sixt Chapter which continues the story and the fift Chapter is but a digression put in to shew the age of the world at the floud it is said the sonnes of God saw the daughters of the sonnes of men Whereby it is apparent that to the men that professed true religion with Adam and Seth the name of the sonnes of God was given and to the rest the name of the sonnes of men The professors of the true religion were called sonnes of God that did worship the true God after the manner that God taught by Adam The other were called sonnes of men that gave themselves over to worldlinesse and vanity and prophanenesse for my part I suppose that before the floud there was no Idolatry because the Holy Ghost would not have omitted the taxing of that sinne as well as those it doth taxe if it had beene then used in the world But let us take the words to meane then it was begun to call on the name of the Lord and then it shall be added as a commendation of Seth that in his daies religion began to flourish more then ever before by his diligence joyning with his Father Adam much more respect was had to piety and greater numbers of men imbraced the profession of piety And this ought to be the care of every good man to further the progresse of true religion and to cause the name of God to be faithfully called upon of many Now of the rest of Adams seed there is a Catalogue made in the fifth Chapter of all the ancient Fathers from the first man Adam to Noah in whose daies the floud fell out by which it appeares of what standing the world was when it was growne so corrupt that the Lord could no longer endure the manners of it And in this Catalogue the Holy Ghost takes this order 1. He shewes of what age every one was when he begat his eldest sonne How many yeares he lived after the birth of that sonne 3. How old he was when he died The number of the persons are in all ten Adam Seth Enoch Cainan Mahalaleel Iared Enoch Methuselah Lamech and Noah Adam at a hundred and thirty yeares begat Seth and after lived eight hundred yeares and had more children in that time and died aged nine hundred and thirty yeares Adam was in truth the eldest man all things considered for though Methuselah out-lived him thirty nine yeares for he was nine hundred sixty nine yeares and Adam but nine hundred and thirty yet Methuselah was borne an infant Adam was made a perfect man the first day and in those times a man was but a child at thirty nine yeares for no question they would give their mindes to marriage in that newnesse of the world paucity of men and plenty of ground so soone as they were fit for it So Adams perfect estate at the first countervailed the living of forty yeares and more Seth he lived a hundred and five yeares and begat Enos and living eight hundred and seven yeares begat divers more children and ended his daies at nine hundred and two Enos lived ninety yeares and begat Cainan c. as you may reade in the story Nothing is mentioned of any one but the length of his life the time when hee had his first sonne and that hee had more sonnes Onely of Henoch it is noted that he walked with God that is lived a most holy life and that he died not at all but was translated after hee had lived three hundred sixty five yeares The Lord shortned the daies of his pilgrimage and rewarded his singular piety with taking him up to Heaven soule and body immediately without dying He was changed without any separating of his spirit from his body and in him we have an example what should have beene the course that God would have taken with all men if man had continued in the state of innocency viz. he should not have died soule and body should never have departed one from the other but after a man had proceeded in godlinesse till hee had gotten so large a measure of it as in this life hee could for though Adam were perfect habitually yet not actually I meane though hee had an ability to attaine perfect knowledge of God and the creatures yet hee had not yet actually gotten all such knowledge as hee was to get both of God and of the creatures then should he have beene translated into Heaven to see God immediately and to know him better then in this life he could be knowne Sinne entring caused death had not that come in we should have gone to Heaven without death as this Henoch did Now out of all these things written concerning these Ancients the direct parents of our Lord wee gather this that death is common to all and how long soever a man lives at last hee must leave the world and therefore we learne two things principally First to prepare for death that whensoever it befalleth wee may change for the better not for the worse and this preparation for death must be not alone a little before it comes or at the houre of its approach but in the whole course of our life by beginning early to repent and continuing daily to turne and renew our repentance that so we may get an assurance of our being taken from earth to Heaven for he that begins unfaignedly to turne to God and so continues hee shall surely be saved and for the most part shall obtaine before his departure hence an assured apprehension of his salvation Therefore hee must as Henoch did walke with God in a continuall care of obeying him and labouring to hold fast a constant perswasion of his favour and love to him in his Sonne for it is testified of Enoch that he pleased God so that what in Genesis is called a walking with God that S. Paul calls pleasing of God and also that by faith he was translated that he should not see death even by his beleeving and resting upon Gods mercy for so it is said he beleeved that God was and was a rewarder of them that diligently seeke him which finding himselfe to do he resolved that God would reward him So must each of us walke with God constantly resolve and indeavour to please God in all things and retaine in our selves an assured peaswasion that God will graciously accept and reward us in Christ with giving us life eternall and