and all then they would tumultuously rise in armes make sedition take corne by force and strong hand O that we could see our duty in theirs and learne to submit our selves so conscionably to our Governours that nothing may drive us to sedition or rebellion A man might have brought great shew of reason why the Egyptians should have refused to sell themselves and their lands if he would have given leave to wit and words but these men are content to stoope so farre rather then to forget that they were subjects Why should not religion make us able to keepe our stomacks downe from all disloyall practises as well as nature taught it the Egyptians Now for the faults of Egypt I have one to marke it is said they were faint with famine Gen. 47.13 or mad with famine so some translate if and better great crosses put men almost out of their wits and drive them into a certaine kinde of fury they know not what to doe We must pray to God for such a measure of wisedome and patience that crosses may not worke so distemperedly upon us But another good deed They shew themselves very thankfull to Ioseph and acknowledged that he had saved their lives It is a good thing to confesse the good we have received from others and thankefully to acknowledge to whom we owe our lives or any great office of love Also the Egyptians had a great crosse for they were utterly impoverished by famine But they had great benefits First seven very plentifull yeeres and secondly a man of wisdome that provided for them before hand thirdly a man of equity that made them tenants upon due and easie rates viz. they paid the fifth part of their increase to Pharaoh and had foure parts to themselves then which what Tenant can desire a more equall rent Who could wish to have a better bargaine So they had you see an interchange of good and evill as most times the Lord doth please to send unto the sonnes of men Let us see our mercies to make us more patient under our crosses and let us see our crosses to make us more thankefull for our mercies and let not either passe from us without a good use Now for Pharaohs Servants and Counsellours and Princes we reade not of any envie they had against Ioseph but that they applied themselves to him in all kindnesse and spake to Pharaoh to suffer him to go into the land of Canaan to bury his Father and accompanied him thither with great pompe He was an Hebrew yet his graces and good carriage caused that they all loved and honoured him It is a commendable thing so to respect excellent vertues as not to be mooved with envie at their prosperity whom vertue doth advance yea to love esteeme and honour them the more because they have shewed themselves worthy the highest dignities that have befalne them The Court of Cyrus was filled with men of another temper then Pharaohs Court How did they practise against Daniels life through envie Let us be liker the Egyptian Lords here then the Persian * ⎠* THE TWENTY SIXT EXAMPLE OF IOSEPH AT last we have passed through the persons that lived with Iacob and Ioseph and now must speak of himselfe First in generall Ioseph was a godly man full of Vertue who began betime to shew himself good and continued so to his last for hee was sold into Aegypt not long after seventeene yeeres of age before then he began to walke holily and God began to reveale future things unto him by Dreames a signe of his speciall favour and love and by name his owne future prosperity and advancement The same goodnesse continued to his end for when he was about to dye he gave commandement concerning his bones as the Author to the Hebrews noteth O let us labour to be followers of so good a patterne as this there bee among you some young youths of the age of 16 17. or thereabouts Iosephs age when God began to shew himselfe to him To you let me use the words of the Psalmist Come Children let me teach you the feare of the Lord. Here is an example which will teach it to you if you will follow it I beseech you to begin betime to entertaine true piety you are not so young but that God can worke grace in your hearts you may come to Gods Ordinances and doe come you have meanes to make you good and your age bringeth with it to Church such abilities of wit and memory as are fit to be instruments of working Grace in your hearts Marke now I will shew you good reasons why you should apply your selves unto Godlinesse even so early and then I will shew you meanes by which you may be so For the first the Lord speaketh to young men and saith Remember thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth Loe God desireth to have you come unto him in the prime of your age There be some persons so young that scarce any man will entertaine them for his servants for they be not sufficient yet to doe service but God who entertaineth servants not to gaine by their service but to make them gainers he will admit them into his house and make them his servants that are willing to be his Apprentices as it were at 7 8 9 yeeres he rejecteth none because they bee yet but children nay you shall see how desirous he is to be served with such for when his disciples prohibited those that brought young Children he reproved them and commanded to suffer young Children to come unto him because of such meaning not alone of those that be like young children in humility but even of young Children themselves is the Kingdome of Heaven Why should you be so unwilling to serve so great a Master who is willing to accept you so young into his service Againe the Lord Jesus in Baptisme hath made a Covenant with you and taken you into a Covenant with himselfe so that you are as I may so say even bound unto him as covenant servants doe not now prove run agates and breakers of your covenant Further the sooner you take Christs yoake upon you the more grace you shall get here and the more Glory hereafter in that you shall both doe and receive more good and avoid and shunne more sinnes therefore set your selves to his service as soone as possible Contrarily the longer you tarry out of his service the harder will it be for you to enter into it for the continuance of sinnes as of sores doth make them more incurable Further your life is uncertaine and it is a doubtfull thing whether you shall continue in this World till old age or till middle age make use therefore of the present time which God doth give you And lastly GOD is as able and willing and ready to give Grace to you as to any other yea and hee hath set before your eyes besides the Example of Isaack
they had slaine onely the ravisher it might seeme to have beene justified by this reason had it beene good but Hamor and the other Citizens knew nothing of this abuse at least they were not guilty of it none of them had abused their sister Secondly who ever made this law that a man greatly wronged should kill him from whom he had received wrong so their reason is naught and if it were good yet would it not reach farre enough to justifie their deedes Here we have two faults to answer their Father surlily and impenitently justifying the fault in a kinde of angry muttering at the reproofe this is a common fault amongst inferiours if they be reprehended they goe away grumbling some sorry excuses or other being angry within and shewing it as farre as well they dare by mumbling out some fond words so as they cannot be distinctly heard This is a kinde of replying to Governours and is a sinne shewing that there is no sparke of true repentance for the fault at least that then that sparke is even raked up But if after the heate of passion that carried one to commit the fault a man be told mildly of his fault and then mumble out such foolish excuses sure he is not penitent and in very deede such mutterers would have their mouthes stopped and stomacke taken downe with smart and blowes This shewes a sleighting of the Governour as well as not repenting of the fault I pray you inferiours now you are quiet consider how undecent a thing it is and how ill beseeming your places that you may blame it in your selves and condemne it for the future and seeke to get it pardoned And now learne to doe better give such an answer as these young youthes should have done but did not that is confesse your offences humble your selves resolve upon and unfaignedly promise amendment and pacifie the anger at once of God your Governours and your owne consciences And see in them a second fault in this one answer a bearing out of themselves in their sinnes without feare shame or remorse and that upon so fond a pretext as this that they had received a wrong first To continue heardned in a sinne such a sinne not to be able to see the hatefulnesse of it not to feele the weightinesse of it not to feare the just judgements of God and due punishments of men but in steede of sorrow to shew stiffenesse as much as to say if it were to doe againe I would doe it and I am not sorry that I have done it this is a great badnesse and to beare ones selfe thus in sinne upon meere false conceits that have no probability of truth in them argues a most blinde minde and a stupid conscience and makes the sinne much more offensive to God as shewing that the mind is not carried to sinne on a suddaine temptation but gives it selfe to sinne out of the place it hath given to the beleefe of false principles as these had concluded with themselves that it was reason to kill him that abused their sister and therefore deliberately had resolved to doe it Let us take heede to our selves that we be not thus hardened by the deceitfulnes of sinning Now the punishment of this sinne is this that they were minded of it by Iacob and had not that part of the birth-right setled upon them though the next in age that Reuben had forfeited but were scattered and divided in Israel and made to be two of the smallest and meanest tribes not fit either to command and rule or else to have the double portion because of their small number God did afterward turne this to Levi to a blessing but in it selfe it was a punishment God causeth that for murder and such insolencies toward the Father the whole posterity after them doth fare the worse in earthly things for their fault and just it is that he should doe so for hee lookes upon Parent and childeren as upon roote and branch making but one common bodie where each is a part and therefore in smiting the roote doth bring misery upon the branches too and contrarily O let us take up this argument to fortifie our resolutions against sinne shunne earnestly the doing of those evils which may provoke God to scatter and disperse thine ofspring after thee And so much of Simeon and Levi onely we have mention of Levies death too how long he lived and then he died Exod. 6.15 that he lived 137. yeares Now of Iudah in severall consider his faults and vertues benefits and crosses His faults were these besides what was common in the matter of of Ioseph and the rest First that he seperated himselfe from his Fathers house and went and lived with a certaine Cananite called an Adullamite because he lived neere a place called Adullam and out of I know not what occasion there grew a great and inward friend with him This was to get out of Gods blessing into the warme sunne to leave the family of Iacob and table with Hiram this was to excommunicate himselfe out of the Church what in him lay and to bid adue to God and all his spirituall blessings It must be noted as a great fault for any worldly respect whatsoever voluntarily to transplant a mans selfe out of the visible Church into a profane and unhallowed place where the Church is not There where you have Gods Word Gods Sacraments Gods Name and Gods people and finde your selves spiritually edified there abide though it be with some inconveniences to your estate and be willing rather to suffer outward dammage then inward shew more love of goodnesse then Iudah did when he was a prophane young man After you see he returned home to his Fathers house it had beene better not to have departed thence at all A second fault being there he is led by his eye to marry a Cananitish woman It is likely without consent or privity of his old Father it is scarce like he would goe to him to aske counsell whose family he had forsaken Beware young men of erring with Iudah and marrying your selves to prophane and idolatrous persons of your owne heads for sinister respects least the Lord punish you as he did Iudah The youth of Iudah doth a little excuse for he was very young when he had his first childe as appeares because his childe by Tamar viz. Pharez had two sonnes at the time of their going downe to Aegypt when Ioseph was but 39. yeares for he was 30. before the yeares of famine came when he stood before Pharaoh and there had beene 7. yeares of plenty past after his preferment and two of famine Now Iudah was Iacobs fourth sonne borne about the fourth or fifth yeare of his being in Padan and Ioseph the last borne there about the 14. yeare so there was some 10. yeares space betwixt that therefore Ioseph being 39. he could be at most but 49. Tamar by whom he had Pharez was married to
to Abraham that Sarah should have given children suck for I have borne him a sonne in his old age as if shee confessed that giving a childe sucke should not be separated from bearing him And indeed nature doth manifestly call upon women for this duty for to what purpose hath God given them brests as it were bottles at that time replenished with such a fit and well pleasing foode for the babe surely not to milke out on the ground not to draw it backe by medicines and devices but to give it to the new inhabitant of the world with whom it came into the world So soone as a woman hath a childe in her wombe ready to bring forth shee hath also milke in her brests fit for its feeding and is not this as much as if the Lord should speake unto her and say I would have you take care to bring up this childe which thou hast brought forth with this nourishment which I have laid up in store for it for surely God and nature make nothing in vaine This loving part of Sarah is more considerable in respect of her age and her greatnesse of estate and household for shee was ninety yeares old and might in that respect have seemed warranted to have given her selfe a dispensation from this service and to have said should a woman of mine age endure the labour of watching and waking and looking to a childe and induring all its froward fits and a number of attendance why may I not set it to a younger woman stronger and better able to doe it then my selfe Shee was wife to Abraham a man of great place and state fellow to a King with whom Kings sought to be in covenant and should such a woman as I might shee have objected submit my selfe to this meane and laborious office may not I hire another to doe it for mee mine husband might shee have said is a great man and withall hospitall If he bring in men of place and fashion must I be hindred from intertaining them by dandling a childe and being made unhandsome and unfit for company with tending a babe might not another doe this as well as I of whom such intertaining would not be expected Againe have I not a very great household must I leave the care of looking to them for suckling of a childe which another ordinary body may doe as well as my selfe that will not perform the duty of over-seeing mine house Sarah made no such excuses but when she had borne Abraham a sonne shee would also give the childe sucke And truly this duty is a very good duty and grounded upon very good reason For who doth not see that it is a very great meanes of causing Mothers to grow in tendernesse of love to their children and so of making children afterwards more dutifull to them Last of all Sarah in regard of her selfe did apparell her selfe with modest and not over-costly attire for S. Peters words propound her to bee imitated by the good women in that particular saying so did the godly women that feared God in former time attire themselves as Sarah and shee is manifestly brought in for a patterne of this vertue even decent not flaring nor over-chargeable garments The Holy Ghost hath given women warning in two places of this duty both by the pen of S. Paul and S. Peter whose adorning saith he let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the haire wearing of gold and putting on of apparell but let it be the hidden man of the heart in the ornament of a meeke and quiet spirit and S. Paul saith Not with braided haire or gold or pearles or costly attire but as beseemeth women professing godlinesse with good workes meekenesse quietnesse good workes these must be the jewels and ornaments of a good woman gaudie and wanton tricks of frizling platting curling the haire and sumptuosity in gallant things and chargeable must not be looked after by good women This tricking and trimming doth nothing but allure the eyes of beholders and call wanton eyes to play with them It doth nothing but speake forth their haughtinesse and selfe-conceit I know it is lawfull for women of rich estate and high place to weare jewels silke purple scarlet gold silver but women must be sure not to be given to such things nor to be more costly then their husbands purses and places will beare nor to be sumptuous this way that if their costes about workes of mercy were laid in ballance against their cost in attire the former would proove in a manner nothing to the latter For most times it prooves true no women more niggardly and pinching to any good worke of bounty or mercy then those that are most costly and finish in their coates Those that are so curious and costly in attire are hard and neere in good workes and so doe gaine to themselves reproach and contempt in steed of that credit and good esteeme which they thinke their garments doe bring them You see Sarahs vertues compare your selves with her now And those that finde themselves like her in some degree viz. faithfull in beleeving Gods Word especially his promises obedient and reverent to their husbands that have nursed their owne children and doe not curiously and sumptuously set up themselves in their attire Let them be commended let their consciences approove them and give them comfort in being found like to this godly Matrone It is an excellent thing to tread in the paths of those women Gods owne pen hath renowned for gratious and vertuous and hath borne witnesse of their uprightnesse and salvation We may with some good warrant promise our selves to obtaine favour of God and eternall life with them whose godly conversation we have followed Shee that looking her selfe in this glasse of Sarah findes her selfe to resemble her in faith in obedience and reverence toward her husband in doing such good offices to her children and in comely and not over-costly arraying her selfe must blesse the name of God that hath fashioned her carriage according to the mould of so excellent persons But those that insteed of these vertues shall finde themselves deformed and disguised with the contrary vices are to be greatly ashamed and humbled and admonished to repent And all the women that would have the comfort of being daughters to Sarah must labour to get these graces and to abound in them See that you be dutifull and good wives and pray to God to make you such as was Sarah And now let us consider the weakenesses of Sarah First shee was weake in faith for this caused her to give Hagar to Abraham her husband and so to bring the sinne of Poligamy into the Church of God wherewith it may seeme it was not polluted before Shee doubted least her selfe should not be fruitfull and therefore brought Hagar to him to trie whether the promised seed might come of her and yet once more shee bewrayed more unbeleefe when the Angell of God
store yet we have sufficient to keep our selves and ours from pining away with want O that we could be as full of thanks when we are freed from wants as we have beene of complaints even for small crosses And now use moderately your abundance that God may not strip you of all and bring you to such extremity and why should we forfeit our selves and ours to famishing when wee see that God is tender to us and willing to satisfie us with good things And lastly let every man prepare for this crosse think of it tell himselfe it may befall him and resolve if the wisedome of God shall bring it upon him that he will labour patiently to undergoe it not so as to be sorrowlesse that were no way commendable but so as to be moderate in grieving and to turne his griefe into spirituall griefe and powre it forth before the Lord in humble and penitent confessions and lamentations for sinne Before I depart from handling of Hagars Example I must say something of Sarah and her which I knew not how so fitly to speake of in the life of either viz. that these two Mothers and the children borne of them were Allegories as S. Paul calls them that is figures of some other thing mystically signified by them For this we have the authority of S. Paul Gal. 4.21 In these words Heare you not what the Law that is the writings of Moses commonly called the Law because the Law was the principall part thereof doth say for it is written that Abraham had two sonnes one of the bond-woman another of the free-woman and the son of the bond-man was borne after the flesh that is by a bare naturall power of generation as any man naturally may beget a child of a woman without any power above nature concurring to the work But she that was borne of the free-woman was borne by promise that is not so much by any naturall strength of the Parents as by vertue of Gods promise which bound his truth to set his Omnipotency a worke above nature otherwise Abraham that had so long lived with Sarah in her youth and could never become a Father by her should much lesse have beene so by her now when her body was quite dried with age which things saith S. Paul are an Allegory according as I told you before For these are Testaments or Covenants the one from Mount Sinai which came thence being there published and promulgated it is the Law the Covenant of workes whereof it is said The Law came by Moses and this is said to gender unto bondage that is to beget and make not sonnes and daughters of a free and ingenuous spirit loving God and out of love doing him service and meerely of his grace love free favour and promise expecting their reward but bond-slaves which out of a feare of punishment or hope of reward doe service and expect the reward for the worthinesse sake of their workes and this Covenant is Hagar meaning is signified by Hagar for saith he this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia meaning is so by signification and representation and answereth in signification and Type to Ierusalem which now is and is in bondage meaning to the Law and to the curse and rigour of it being debtors to the whole Law to doe it or if they doe it not to the curse to suffer it But this Ierusalem which is from above that is the Heavenly Ierusalem the Church the number of true beleevers that doe indeed seriously imbrace the doctrine of the Gospell which began by Christ and his Apostles to be preached at Ierusalem not hoping to be justified and saved by the merit or worth of their owne workes but by the free promise of God in Christ those are free from the curse and rigour of the Law and shee is the mother of all true Christians of us all that is of my selfe and all those which with mee looke for righteousnesse and salvation alone through the merits of Christ and mercy of God in Christ through faith in his name and after he saith As then he that was after the flesh persecuted him that was after the Spirit even so saith he it is now Here you have the full Allegory two Mothers a bond-woman and a free-woman two manners of begetting after the flesh and after the Spirit two kindes of children bond-men and free-men and the bond still persecuting the free The Mothers are the two Covenants that of the Law and that of Grace The two manners of begetting one of the promise the other by the flesh two kindes of children bond-men to good and free-men The matter is this Those that bring nothing but their owne naturall power to the Law and so seeke by it to be justified they are but of a slavish disposition and have nothing but the reward of slaves but those that looke to the goodnesse of God in the Covenant of Grace having the power of Gods Spirit are made to love God as children and admitted to the inheritance of sonnes Let us take heed of being sonnes of the bond-woman for many be such still The Papists will needs challenge salvation as due by the merits of their owne workes and so in very deed doe exclude themselves from it by challenging it on a wrong ground And the multitude are in this respect no whit better then the Papists for their owne good deeds are still in their mouthes as if they would be saved by workes which yet cannot save them yea some reliques of this ignorant and foolish pride was found in the Saints who if they finde not which they will never finde perfection in themselves are still apt to question their estate as if it were their owne goodnesse that should bring them to Heaven not the goodnesse of God in Christ rewarding them freely with that undeserved crowne because they are become the children of God by faith in Christ Now let us take heed of being the sonnes of Hagar but let us acknowledge still our owne sinfullnesse and unworthinesse yet still rest on his mercy in Christ and strive to obey him in love as children doe their Father and so much for Hagar * ⎠* THE TENTH EXAMPLE OF KETVRAH ISHMAEL ELIEZER NOw Abraham had a third wife her name was Keturah The Scripture bringeth her in as it were a dumbe person tells nothing of her parents life nor death but mentioning her bare name alone shewes that shee was Abrahams wife as I conceive and what children shee had by Abraham we are told Gen. 25.1 her sonnes were sixe as you may reade in that place Now the Lord seemeth to tell us this little of this woman and her sonnes because we should the more acknowledge the blessing of God upon Abraham in restoring him to a second youth as it were and making him so fruitfull as to beget six sonnes in his old-age after Sarahs death whereas before at an 100 he was as good as dead
is not sensible of the contrary both in it selfe and others too and it is but little sensible of it that is but little grieved for it If you say our land is not like Sodome that wee should live in it so as Lot did there I answer God be thanked in some things it is not and in publike the faults breake not out that there were done openly but many of the sonnes of Sodome are bare-fac'd amongst us and wee looke upon them without remorse You must be sorry that you have not beene more sorry for the publike iniquity Surely if a scourge come it shall take you away with the rest because you have not shewed your zeale of Gods glory and detestation of sinne in the rebellions of the rest And now set you to it set you to it it is said that Lot did put his soule upon the racke he was an actor in this sorrow he put himselfe upon it I say he was even willing to exercise himselfe in grieving for their naughtinesse and he strove to make his sorrow piercing O you must labour to doe this as well as any other good worke to chafe and grudge and be furious against such a sinner and such a sinner to jest scoffe and gird or raile and bitterly inveigh against such and such sinnes be such straines and flashes of wit and anger as may be found in men of no true holinesse but to get alone and even sell over himselfe to sighing mourning and lamentation for the common sinnes that are every where runne into this can hardly be ascribed to any thing but true piety if the sinnes be such as doe not in any particular respect touch a mans selfe in way of wrong and injury Indeed to grieve for such sinnes of others may seeme in some respect as a more difficult thing so a more sure signe of truth then to grieve for ones owne sinnes you shall see men driven to teares for their owne offences in respect of shame or losse and sometimes terrour of heart but grieving for the common sinnes can hardly proceed from any thing but charity to them as they be men and hatred against sinne as it is sinne If a meere friend of our owne have offended wee are so tender of his reproach because it is somewhat linked with our owne that many men can blubber for it exceedingly O let us love the Common-wealth so well and the state of mankinde as to yeeld some of our sorrow to quicken us in prayer against their sinnes And now a third good deed of Lots is hee was hospitall in that unhospitall Citie you know hee entertained the Angels Herein he did follow the steps of his Unkle Abraham it is a good thing when a man carries the vertues which hee hath seene amongst his friends as it were home with him or about him whethersoever hee goes and becomes a practitioner of them in all places Of Lots hospitality you may reade Gen. 19.2 3. he intreated the Angels whom he tooke for men to lodge in his house and gave them the best entertainement he could yea and hazarded himselfe to defend them from the insolent attempt of the brutish Sodomites This is a worke worthie to be imitated to be given to hospitality forget not to entertaine strangers use hospitality one to another without grudging Gajus hath this commendation that he was the Host of the Church Rom. 16.23 and a Minister is expressely commanded to be hospitall This is a rich mans duty I meane his that hath some indifferent proportion of wealth he that hath but one bed or roome must lie abroad himselfe or sit up all night if he lodge strangers But of those that have to spare the Lord requireth a free communicating of what they have to others May not wee be strangers may not our children and neere friends be strangers will not our hearts tell us that it would bee a very ill part in them that should in such case neglect us But I am to commend unto you a kinde of hospitality somewhat of another nature a stranger of any fashion by meanes of Innes which it seemes that age did not know is able to be hospitall to himselfe with his money even to buy all things needfull but alas you have poore neighbours and kinsmen in the same Towne or neere hand inhabiting O invite them to your houses make them cheerefull with a good meale now and then that have little provided at home This Hospitality hath beene formerly much practised at this season of the yeare and certainely it is a fit season to practise it If wee would shew our selves glad for our Lords comming into the world let us refresh his poore members that they may rejoyce with us Some men be not rich enough to invite many of their wealthie neighbours but many be of so much ability that they may well invite those of lower ranke to whom their owne ordinary provision will be better then a banquet to some wealthier persons Let Lots example commend unto you this hospitality Another good deed we have of Lot He went out and earnestly yet lovingly and gently intreated the Sodomites to desist from their villany My Brethren I pray doe not so wickedly and againe to these men doe nothing for therefore came they under my roofe Gen. 19.7 8. He would faine have stopped these miscreants from their abominable attempt If we see men rushing into sinfull courses wee shall doe a good office of charity if with all good termes and gentle language we disswade them from wickednesse If wee must reproove after a sinne sure wee must disswade aforehand Eli disswaded his sonnes from persisting in evill Abigail disswaded David from murder what sinne wee hinder not to our best power that we cause to be written in our owne score and inwrap our selves within the guilt of it Who would not intreate his neighbour hard not to drinke a cup of poyson If therefore any man have done the contrary instigated others to sinne and egged them forward rather then held them back surely his offence is great he hath beene not alone a helper but a father of the fault and unlesse hee repent must answer for it as much as the principall But though you have not forgotten your duty in so high a degree as to moove others to evill yet if you have so much neglected your duty as to forbeare to disswade and hinder them either out of carelesnesse or feare you are to be humbled for it as an effect of want of love and zeale And now I pray you doe this good office often if you see a man going about an evill thing take up Lots words and say I pray you Brethren doe not so wickedly intreate him to forbeare the doing of the like for the future A loving intreaty will sometimes proove of great efficacy Had they beene any but Sodomites Lot should not have beene so churlishly rejected If you say I shall but loose my labour I answer
to that promise for God hath tied himselfe as well to all Abrahams sonnes even all the faithfull as well as to himselfe you see the profit of such association with good men Wherefore they must be reprooved that are imbittered against godly men and are enemies to those that love God hating men even for goodnesse sake and persecuting them for righteousnesse sake without doubt these provoke God to fight against them and to become an enemy unto them joyning in the quarrell of the Saints which indeed for his sake they have taken up against them It is an evill thing to be a foe to those that feare God and it shewes not alone an absence of goodnesse but also a great strength of wickednesse He is surely carried by Satan at his pleasure and a slave in a great degree to the Divell that cannot endure the image of God in a man And yet our Lord tells his servants that they shall be hated of all men for his names sake But now let every man learne of these three wise men to make choice of godly men for friends familiars and allies If a man be not himselfe a worshipper and servant of God yet let him at leastwise like and love those in whom goodnesse shineth The Centurian Iulius by being courteous and friendly to Paul who was then his prisoner gate his life and the life of his souldiers for a reward for God gave unto Paul all the prisoners that were in the ship with him So many blessings as a naturall man is capable of he shall assuredly obtaine from God by the prayers of his servants who cannot choose according to the precept of our Saviour but pray for their persecutors much more for their friends and favourers Now another good thing in these three brethren is this that according to their covenant and confederation they did affoord helpe to Abraham and joyned their strength with him to fight against the foure Kings for the recovering of Lot Abrahams Cousin and performed their part with so much courage that Abraham got the victory and wonne his brother and all the spoile of Sodome for which also Abraham was carefull that they should have a full reward in taking their part of the booty which himselfe forbare to take This Example must be followed of all good men when they have made a covenant they must so stand unto it and be ready to affoord such helpe and performe all such offices as by covenant they have obliged themselves unto Covenants and agreements must be duly kept though the things be such which come to be done as require labour cost and hazard for this is a practise of that excellent vertue of truth or fidelity then which nothing is more needfull for the common prosperity of humane societies for unlesse men may trust one anothers words what living can there be together in the world and without trustinesse in those that make promises there is no beleeving their promises and so the sinewes of the world are as it were cut asunder or cracked Therefore in the 15. Psalme it is indeed a signe of a godly man that when hee hath sworne in covenant or otherwise he will not change though it should fall out to be for his hurt Faith requires that the thing be done which hath beene spoken and how can hee challenge the name of a good man in whom faithfullnesse is not found or how should it be expected that hee will be faithfull with God whom hee never saw that is not faithfull to his neighbour whom hee sees daily Wherefore let every man compare himselfe with these civill righteous men and see whether himselfe hath carried himselfe as honestly and justly as the very light of nature instructed them to doe I meane whether he hath faithfully kept his covenants for how shall hee be able to justifie his right and interest unto the honourable name of a true Christian man that falleth short of those vertues which many of the Gentiles have carefully practised And if any mans heart accuse him of unfaithfullnesse and slipperinesse in this kinde let him humble himselfe and be much ashamed of it Should we not blush to see Heathens exceed us in good conversation and that our righteousnesse is not greater then that of the Pharisees who did at least equall the Heathen in righteous dealing Surely they shall never be admitted into the Kingdome of Heaven before whom the Gentiles have gone in good behaviour of life yet many there be professing to be Christians whose untrustinesse this way filleth the mouthes of all that deale with them with just and grievous complaints They be so possessed with selfe-love that when they have made a covenant promise or compact the least disadvantage will make them use the craftinesse of wit to winde themselves out and neglect their covenants They know how to tie others hard and leave themselves loose through the loosenesse of an evill conscience These are men that be guilty of neglecting justice judgement and faithfullnesse and if they streine never so much at gnats and swallow these camells our Saviour will be bold to intitle them as he doth the Pharisees and pronounce a woe against them saying Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites Learne now to be very sorrowfull if you have carried your selves more unrighteously in this kinde then the honester sort of those have done who lived out of the confines of the Church and be carefull to repent by their example that their goodnesse may not rise up in judgement against you and condemne you And resolve with your selves I pray you now to preferre your credit before any other thing in this earth and to put your selves upon losse and hazard rather then incurre the deserved reproach of men faithlesse and dishonest It is not wittie tricks and devices that will save you from reprehension before the Lord and your owne consciences and other men your name shall rot and stinke and become loathsome if you deale untrustily though you paint your evill deeds over with never so faire and trim excuses Wit is never more abused then when it is made a patron and a protectour for falsehood and evill dealing Be righteous therefore in this particular and put your selves in minde of your promises and covenants to keepe them you cannot but know that this is a duty your consciences require you to doe to others even as you desire that they should deale with you and therefore must needes condemne you for such falsitie which your selves with open mouth are ready to cry out against in others And so much for these three men Now for Ephron the Hittite he is named alone once Gen. 23.10 and in his carriage we observe three things deserving commendation and fit to be imitated by us First he salutes Abraham with honourable and courteous language saying my Lord heare mee and againe my Lord heare mee Secondly he was liberall and kinde to Abraham and offered freely to give him
unto him Thou saidst Loe here a sweet patterne for our prayers to God when we feare any crosse First remember the Covenant and promise of God and declare the misery then humble our selves in acknowledgement of our unworthinesse So make our suits boldly and make our moane to God of our dangers and feares and helplesnesse and againe urge him with his promises Had not Iacob been accustomed to pray hee could not have sollicited the Lord after this manner in this extremity Againe in the end of the same Chapter when Christ appeared unto him in an humane likenesse ver 24. He wrastled with him all night for a blessing and would not give over till he had a promise from him though he went limping away the Angel giving him such a crush on the hollow of his thigh in wrastling as made him draw his legs after him by the dislocation or dis-joynting of his hip bone it may seeme it was through the shrinking of the sinew which had that bone in the socket Ah it is an excellent thing as it were to wrastle with God and though hee seeme angry with us and ready to lame us and maime us as yet still to minde our selves of his promises and continue fervent and constant in prayers till at last hee please to answer us and make us know that wee shall prevaile with him If Iacob had not been a devout man well skilled in calling upon Gods name hee could never have maintained in his heart such an invincible resolution as this I will not let thee goe till thou blesse me even then when instead of blessing he had such a wrench as might seeme rather to testifie anger against his importunity then any minde to yeeld unto it Again when he was to send Benjamin unto Aegypt Gen. 43.14 He followed him with his prayers saying God Almighty grant you favour before the Man that he may send away your brother and Benjamin You must not thinke that hee contented himselfe with this short ejaculation but he made his request to God for this great thing in more words and oftner So you see Iacob was a prayerfull man this is one part of religiousnesse O that wee could bee prayerfull O that wee could also make Gods name our refuge at all times which they that doe not can hardly take any true comfort in their estate nor account themselves true Israelites and those that doe shew themselves to bee guided with the same Spirit that Israel Especially let us learne to wrastle with God resolving to continue earnest and importunate and to take no nay in begging for the performance of his promises and for his blessing though we seeme to gaine nothing but that the Lord carries a shew of being angry with us at length wee shall prevaile if wee continue fervent and refuse to give over as our Lord also teacheth by his Parables in the Gospell of a childe a friend and the poore Widdow towards the unjust Iudge Againe you shall see Iacob vowing a vow to God Chap. 28.20 21. verses the summe of which is this that if God would provide him necessaries and preserve him safely in his returne home to his Fathers he would 1. make God his God by adhering to him and worshipping him alone and not imbracing any false God whereof the world was every where full in those dayes Secondly That the Pillar should bee Gods house that is a place of publike worshipping God where hee would openly and solemnly serve him with prayers sacrifices and all fit services And lastly that he would give his tenth to God of all that God should give him Loe you must learne the use of a vow which is required in the Psalme Vow and pay to the Lord. A vow is a binding ones selfe in an oath to God to doe some lawfull thing which is in his power that he may the better attaine to his suits And the use of it is in afflictions to confirme our faith for the attaining of Gods help or in prosperity to testifie our thankfulnesse for a benefit Let us be cautelous what we vow and let us as need and occasion shall offer make vowes to God especially the use of a vow may be to tie our selves from things otherwise lawfull that have been occasions of sins to us or to quicken us to such good duties as we finde our selves most slack in only take heed of vowing rashly and vowing perpetually any thing but what we be bound unto by duty for it is not unfit to binde our selves to needfull and commanded things by a vow as here Iacob voweth that God shall bee his God I say therefore use vowes as just occasion shall serve but not hastily nor in passion for such vowes likely prove mischievous And especially be carefull to doe the things vowed that is to make God your God sticking close to him and abhorring all forreine gods And seeing now the danger is not so great a running after heathenish false gods beware of going after those heart-Idols pleasure profit credit ease Make not the belly your God by loving riches wealth good fare c. more than God and caring for these things more than for the favour and honour of God These bee the most dangerous Idols of our times many a man that abhorres to worship an Image a Saint an Angel doth yet worship Mammon and make the world his God take heed of this Idolatry labour to know love feare trust in obey God to remember him to choose him c. to give him that whole and inward spirituall most needfull most acceptable worship of the heart which shall not cease to be worship even in heaven The other Commandements continue in force during this life of praying reading hearing Sacraments no use in heaven of oath vowes and such a manner of sanctifying Gods name as now in heaven there is no use So in the rest But to know love feare delight in obey there is alwayes use and make God your God in this manner Againe prepare God an house let him have a place of publique service and worship That you have provided to your hands I need but request to keep it in handsome and decent fashion to maintaine it comelily as beseemeth Gods house not as if it were a barne or some out-house Former times you see built goodly and faire houses for God will not you keep them fairely so that they shall be sweet and dry and sightly not in such plight that would bring the imputation of basenesse upon your selves if any of your houses should lie so Can you be at cost to adorne and furnish your owne houses and not Gods For assure your selves these places separated for religious meetings be Gods houses sacred to him dedicated assigned given to him hee hath interest into them If an Idols-Temple be an Idols-Temple that is such an house as an Idoll hath interest in and is sacred with a false and unholy kinde of sacrednesse sure then a Church to God
deceit and other unjustice is sweete yet Solomon saith It shall prove but gravell in the mouth a thing troublesome and unsavoury Yea Solomon saith The riches gotten by lying are but vainly tossed to and fro of them that seek death and that The deceitfull man shall not roast what he tooke in hunting and that An inheritance may be hastily gotten at the beginning but the latter end thereof shall not be blessed for he that getteth goods and not by right shall leave them in the midst of his daies and in his end shall prove a foole Wherefore that we may attaine the blessing of God upon our estates let us put away all kindes of unrighteousnesse especially take we heed that we doe not take our advantage upon other mens oversights or imperfections by misreckonings false measures or any kinde of encroaching If one leave in anothers hand any thing and forget let not his forgetfulnesse cause him to take it as his owne If one lend us and take no witnesse or security let not his inability to prove the debt make us bold to detaine it Let not the love of riches and immoderate desire of gain so blinde our eyes as to make us unable to perceive the unequalnesse and sinfulnesse of our course nor yet so harden our hearts and dull our consciences that we should be emboldened against our knowledge to enrich our selves by such devices So much for Iacobs vertues respecting himselfe Now see his carriage towards others First those that were neare to him Then strangers And first of his kindred his Superiours Equals Inferiours for his Superiours they be his Parents Isaac and Rebekkah to whom hee was loving and obedient his obedience he shewed in travailing to Padan Aram at his Mothers advice Fathers perswasion for a wife It behooveth children to shew all good subjection and that particularly in this point of being ruled by their discreet and religious Parents in choice of a wife or husband so as to make them their guiders and directors in this weighty businesse and they must not suffer their hearts to be set upon any person in that respect without the knowledge and consent of their Parents nor hearken to motions made to them without the good liking of their Parents If it be said how if Parents will crosse their children in their affections I answer The world is full of examples by which it is manifest that many come together in great heate of love and within a few yeares grow so froward discontented and carelesse either of other as none can be more And againe others come together with discretion not in such vehemency of Love and their hearts afterwards doe cleave each to other in singular love and deernesse Therefore it would become a childe to crosse his affection rather than his Parents But what if Parents will force their Children either not at all to marry or else to marry with such as are unfit for them in regard of Age Religion and in respect of evident deformities of Body or disorders of Life I answer I know no such unlimited authoritie granted to Parents as to compell their children upon inconveniences in any of these respects Parents are bound to tender fit yoake-fellowes to their Children as God did to Adam else the Children in not following their advice do forbeare to be ruled not by their authority but by their lusts For if Parents may not provoke their Children to wrath lest they be discouraged surely they may not thrust them upon other miseries and distempers But what must be done in such a case I answer By patience and long suffering and intreaty of common friends and like meanes the Children must seeke to win their Parents to reason which if they cannot doe they must referre themselves to the Governours Magistrates or Ministers and if these will not or by the Lawes cannot provide for their help they must even follow the advice of vertuous and wise Friends and Neighbors But suppose that in such case the Parents frowardnesse be such that they will not yeeld to reason and that they will rather drive their Children to an inconvenient match or yeeld their good liking to none what must the childe doe then I answer If God vouchsafe that gift he must forbeare Marriage esteeming himselfe called of God to the single life But if hee cannot by all good wayes so farre overcome himselfe but that his minde is conquered by desires of Marriage hee hath a plaine rule from S. Paul It is better to marry than to burne Yea but then the Parents displeasure followes and losse of such meanes or portion as else he might have had I answer Every good Christian must resolve to take up his crosse and follow Christ therefore I require you sonnes that have not troden in Iacobs steps for this matter to be humbled for it with true and hearty repentance Sinne will hazard a good man to some severity of punishment I meane that of knowne sinnes such as a man doth or would bee carefull might understand to bee sinnes untill particular repentance come betwixt to stop or remove that same but when a man hath and doth conveniently at fit times humble himselfe for a fault it ceaseth to make him liable to temporall evils further then they be needfull to increase and make up what would be wanting in his repentance and he that will at Gods reproofe turne unto him in humiliation and amendment shall finde the Lord a gracious Father and such a one as will not proceed to smarting corrections if loving and earnest admonitions may prevaile Againe all you children to whom God hath vouchsafed such Parents as have dealt wisely and mildly with you in this matter presenting unto you fit yokefellows and such against whom no exception might be justly made or have yeelded you to your owne choice and that hath so guided you too that you have pleased your Parents in your matches and so with good will and approbation on both sides have entred into this estate be you thankfull to God that hath ordered this affaire so properously for you and take heed of ascribing this comfort to your owne wit and goodnesse without giving the whole honour to God that gave the wit and the goodnesse and the successe without whose favourable providence neither wit nor goodnesse would have brought the businesse If benefits be perverted to nourish our good conceits of our selves not to encrease our thankes and praises to God they be but unsanctified benefits such as at last will make our state more miserable than the want of them would have done But all you young and yet unmarried folke looke to your selves pray to God to subdue your passions to reason and both to your Parents take notice it is your duty to give this honour to your Parents and resolve that by Gods assistance you will performe it Hearken to no enticements let no beauty or other allurement winne ground upon your hearts but still keepe your selves free
even in the land of Goshen Thus it behoveth a good King yea and a good man to favour still whom he hath begun deservedly to favour and for his sake to shew all good esteeeme to his friends and kindred so farre as they shew not themselves unworthy to be favoured Constancy in loving and honouring a worthy man becomes Kings and largenesse of love even a kind of royall love beseemeth their persons and places for a worthy servants sake to advance his Father Bretheren and kindred This is a right Kingly love and such as can sort alone with men of such high quality Meaner persons want meanes to shew their favourable respect in such a spreading manner Indeed to preferre unworthy persons because they be of kinne to a man of great worth and much favoured is not agreeable to the rules of wisdome but let them be men capeable of favour and he doth not love a man thoroughly that for his sake doth not also love those that are neere unto him And if Princes have such a Princely love to their vertuous favourites how much more hath the living God to his These be things commendable in Pharaoh For his faults God hath beene pleased to reveale none but that common fault hee continued an Heathen though he had a Ioseph in his Court and highly preferred by himselfe It is a hard matter to get out of darkenesse and to come into light a divine spirit must joyne with the meanes or else the meanes will prove ineffectuall Let us pray to God to leade us into the knowledge of his truth or else we may live long with them that know it and yet learne nothing of it It is in our nature to settle our selves in the religion of our forefathers and not to consider whether it be true and good yea or not A kind of slitenesse in matter of religion doth raigne in the world men will not be at the trouble to examine that which they find in use they will not hazard themselves in crossing the common-voice so they swimme downe the streame and runne into perdition for company Let us be carefull to examine the things that we finde and seeing God hath vouchsafed us the happy guidance of his word let us learne to try all things and hold fast the good Onely in crying we must take heede that we be not of a kind of crosse humour that will strive to goe in a single way and will refuse things upon sleight grounds as if they were glad to find occasion to goe alone And so much for Pharaohs faults too Now his prosperity was great First God warned him of the Famine before hand that hee might prevent the danger of it to his people a great mercy to be made to understand evills long before that a man may hide himselfe from the evill of them the wisedome of man can alone guesse of future things and of some it cannot so much as guesse O how great favour doth God shew to men when he will lend them a little part of his Wisdome and tell them what mischiefes are comming on the world So God told David how Saul and the men of Keilah would have conspired against him Christ foretold his Disciples of the ruine of Ierusalem and made them able to save themselves out of that destruction Now wee must learne to esteeme it a greater mercy that we are forewarned of the evill to come in another world and acquainted with the onely meanes of flying from that unsufferable wrath Let us be as carefull to beleeve those predictions and to follow that counsell for escaping the mischiefe foretold as here Pharaoh was to beleeve Ioseph and to take his counsell and then shall we as assuredly escape the misery of eternall destruction as he and his Countrey escaped the unhappinesse of Famine A second benefit God gave Pharaoh a Ioseph a worthy servant a man of excellent Wisdome and faithfullnesse fit for that high honour of being Second to Pharaoh who in all things behaved himselfe as became a wise and godly man The Lord cannot give a greater benefit to a King and a Kingdome then by preferring a Ioseph by providing such a man and inclining the hearts of Kings to favour such this is a mercy which our prayers must obtaine for our King and for our selves Lord send Iosephs to the Court and guide the heart of his Majesty to love and advance Iosephs A third mercy he grew exceeding wealthy and a mighty Prince possessor in a manner of all the land of Egypt and had all the people as his servants to plow the ground for him so that he was a rich and mighty Prince But when Princes or other men become very great and high many times their weakenesse and corruptions turne that benefit into a misery and occasion of much mischiefe learne so to receive this benefit as to be earnest for grace to use it well that it may not turne to your destruction But of Pharaohs crosses we reade nothing he was so prosperous a King that no adverse accident is recorded to have befallen him Even to escape great crosses must be accounted a great mercy and if the Lord have caused any mans life amongst us to runne with so even a threed as it were that no adversity hath interrupted it he is so to take notice of this mercy as to take heed withall that he flatter not himselfe with vaine thoughts as if he were therefore much in Gods favour because of such immunity from outward evills Not so but we must ever remember that in the Psalme That the wicked are lusty and strong that they have no bonds in their death and that they be not in adversity as other men Hitherto of Pharaoh now of the Aegyptians both the land in generall and the chiefe officers about Pharaoh The land of Egypt was a rich land and fertile the Holy Ghost doth not speake much of their idolatry in Genesis But in after times they were infamous for it and there did Israel learne to be Idolatrous If God leave a people to themselves they will soone degenerate either into prophanenesse and a meere contempt of God or into false worship and Idolatry How thankfull ought wee to be to whom the Lord hath pleased to reveale his truth and to keepe us farre from worshipping a false god or embracing a false religion But we have an example of some good in these Egyptians and a great vertue it was they submitted themselves to their Governours with a very great submission The Famine lay upon them they were content to buy corne of Ioseph for money and when that failed to pawne their cattell and when that meanes was gone to sell their lands and themselves and did not rebell and with strong hand take corne to themselves whither Pharaoh and Ioseph would or not This was a most commendable thing in the Egyptians they would rather sell themselves to the skinne yea sell themselves