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
partake with your selves of any good fare which you provide for your selves These be the things commendable in Rebekkah Now I come to her faults First she used deceit and fraud to conveigh the blessing unto Iacob and sought rather to hooke it to him by a fleshly device then to compasse it by a convenient and lawfull way You shall reade the Story Gen. 27.1 and 17. She knew her husband was blinde therefore she spake to Iacob to get the blessing by a cunning device she sends for a Kid makes such a dish as was pleasing to Isaacs palate uses meanes to make his hands and neck seem rough like unto Esaus by covering them with the skins of the Kids as handsomely as shee could and so sends him in to Isaac having before emboldned him to say though falsely that he was Esau the eldest Son This was a sin in her the matter of it was fraud and fashood the aggravations of it were first she drew Iacob into the sin of lying and shifting even contrary to his own temper for the Scripture witnesseth of him that He was a plain man Secondly she was set upon it that though Iacob objected he should get a curse rather then a blessing by seeming to his Father a deceiver and a mocker yet she found a meanes to encourage him in his lying by a trick to beguile his Father well enough that he should never finde him out and so drew him to go thorough with the crafty device this was practised even against her husband also to whom it least of all becommeth a wife to use deceit and lying Only there was one mitigation and extenuation of her fault she did aime at a good end but a good intention cannot justifie unlawfull means that are used to accomplish it We have in her then a fault of craftinesse and deceit and lying There is a great difference betwixt wisdome and fraud wisdome will alwaies hold it selfe to the side of justice not alone in the thing it mainly seekes but also in the path which it chooseth to walk in to that end But fraud is as it were a rotten wisdome and cares not to follow equity and truth in the way it takes and neither many times in the end Abhorre fraud that is the carrying of a thing wilily with lying and falshood whether it be good or bad but most of all if it be bad It is a sin to do evill that good may come of it as S. Paul teacheth Rom. 3. It is a sin to lie even for Gods cause and to defend even his justice with false tales and figments As Iob admonisheth his frinds that did so and that they might not seeme to impute unrighteousnesse to God in so sore punishing of Iob they did impute hypocrisie to him that was punished It is a sin to lie even for a purpose otherwise good for we are commanded to put away lying Wherefore consider of your selves if you have not lyed and beguiled if you have not allured and encouraged others to joyne with you in lying and beguiling that else would not have done it If you have done it against those that were neare to you to whom you should have used more respect And worst of all if you have done it for a sinfull end too that is not to get what was due to you as here Iacob but what was not due by over-reaching your neighbours in bargaining and the like not to keep a man from sin as here but rather to draw him to sin as in case of unjust complaints to a superiour to make him punish when he should not punish Not to do your selves good as here Iacob but to do another a mischief as Davids false accusers to Saul and if your consciences accuse you of such fraud repent of it before God blame your selves for it seek pardon resolve to put it away for hereafter and intreate the Lord to fortifie you against all such wickednesse that so you may be pardoned else great is the danger of such wickednesse The bread of deceit shall be gravell in the belly and wealth gotten by lying shall prove but vanity tossed to and fro of them that seeke death I pray you consider how God chastised this guile in these two good persons and that though they had a good end in it For this occasioned the rage of Esau which made him threaten yea and after attempt to kill Iacob and so drove Iacob from Isaacs family and kept them from that comfortable enjoyment each of other which else they might have had for twenty years together And be you now lovers of plainnesse abhorre shifting and falshood trust God with the successe of all your affaires and trust not to your own hearts and heads he that seekes to effect his desires by honest and just meanes he puts confidence in God and not in himselfe he that useth lying and cousinage he puts not his hope in God but in his own wit and heart Shew true and well grounded confidence in God by keeping your selves within the paths of equity and truth lovely pathes faire pathes straight pathes which shall surely lead you to more happinesse and comfort at last than lying and fraud hatefull dirty and crooked paths can possibly do Learn as David saith Psal 119. To hate lying and to love Gods Law love to be guided by God who is the God of truth and hate to follow lies which are of the devill the author of lying Doe not object that you cannot possibly escape such and such mischiefe bring about such and such a good businesse unlesse you turne a little aside to a little lying I answer first trust God with successe beleeve above hope let faith guide you not naturall reason Cannot he doe that which reason will call impossible Hath not be said Rowle thy self upon God and thy waies and he shall bring it to passe Will you not rest upon him for the performance of so evident a promise And secondly I answer that the greatest evill must be suffered rather than the smallest sin committed and the attaining of the greatest benefit cannot countervaile the committing of the least sin and that man doth not truly know either God or sin or the world or himselfe that doth not yeeld to these truths So you have this fault of Rebekkahs another is that she was too much troubled at her evill daughters in law and was weary of life because of them This is a fault to make crosses too too heavy our selves to be so distempered with them so as to become weary of life because of them yea it is a fault found in those that were truly religious and godly Eliah would fain have parted with his soul because of the troubles which he met withall he desired to die saith the Story and said It is enough Now Lord take away my soule from me for I am no better than my Fathers Moses would fain have dyed too when the people murmured against him and he poures
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
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
them offer violence to them and take heed much more that they be not allured to such an evill as nothing but the violence of the doer can free them from the imputation of a grievous sin if they suffer Let their care be to keepe themselves out of places inconvenient what did Dinah with this young man in so secret a place as might encourage him to offer force Sure he would not have forced her in the midst of the streetes he was not so debausht and brutish as to compell her in an house before many Nay scarce any man so lewd that hee will attempt such a thing but when no person is present If she were ravished yet she was somewhat guilty of her owne rape because shee would be enticed to goe into an house with a stranger Had shee beene of his long acquaintance had hee beene a suitor to her before with the good consent and allowance of both Parents had she beene allowed to set her minde upon him so as to intend to become his wife then it had not beene so blame-worthy to have so farre trusted her selfe with him But when her businesse was nothing but to see and be seene to suffer her selfe to be led by a stranger into such a place as might give him opportunity to do her violence was a signe that her carriage was scarce modest not at all discreet For to excuse her by her age seemeth no just excuse seeing it appeareth by the young mans suit for her afterwards that shee was now marriageable Now therefore let her example make you maidens civill and sober and modest in your carriage and so prudent discreet and bashfull as not to venture your selves into the company of young men at such places and times as may produce as bad inconveniences to you as this that befell Dinah And so much for this daughter for after this we heare no more of her but that her brethren tooke her out of Hamors house after they had committed the execrable murder whereof we shall have cause to speake after Now come we to the sonnes and first I will handle the things that were common to them all viz. their sinnes their good deeds their miseries their benefits First it is common to them all save Ioseph and Benjamin that they were men of no goodnesse nor conscience They had a good Father and Grandfather and they professed a good religion but their conversation was naught and scandalous so that Ioseph being young could not in his conscience choose but acquaint his Father with their evill deeds O this is a grievous thing that children which have godly education by godly Parents and have knowledge of the true God and are members of the true Church should be yet of manifest ill behaviour should runne into palpable and grosse naughtinesse openly to the torment of their Parents hearts and disgrace of true religion Be not some of you youthes whose Parents though they must not be compared to Iacob yet are such as have feared God and affoorded you the best helpes they could to vertue and piety as lewd and sinfull in your carriage as Iacobs sonnes Yes yes some of you are as guilty of evill demeanour as these youthes though you have the same furtherances to goodnesse Now for the living Gods sake whose name you take upon you for your owne soules sake which else will one day rue this naughtinesse and rudenesse and for your Parents and friends sake that are ashamed and vexed with your ill report be intreated at length to consider how great a wickednesse it is to live naughtily when God hath vouchsafed you so many meanes to make you good and turne you from your evill wayes and frame you to such a conversation as will beseeme and comfort your selves and your Parents O let not a Iacobs sonne be a drunkard a gamester a wanton a night-walker and ill company keeper a quarreller let not such nettles grow upon a garden learne to shunne what was loathsome in the sons of Iacob But secondly they were all guilty of beguiling Hamor and the Sichemites with purposed fraud and guile yea and with pretending conscience and respect of religion You know the story it selfe Shechem after he had defloured Iacobs daughter continued yet to bee strongly enamoured of her and sued for her to her Father and Brethren offering any dowry They would seeme to be hindered from granting the suit by religion They were circumcised of the true religion a religion sleighted and neglected in Canaan and it was not a safe thing in conscience and would be a reproach to them to make marriages with persons uncircumcised but if they would embrace their religion and testifie it by being circumcised then they would willingly condescend Now all this talke of circumcision tended but to bring the Sichemites to such a case that they might the better accomplish revenge O miserable fault to cover hatred with deceitfull words A Potsheard covered with silver drosse To speake one thing and meane the contrary to pretend a good purpose to cover a bad and the more easily to effect it by covering Here was a mixture of impiety in making religion a cloake to revenge and of fraud in harbouring and intending and yet disguizing revenge So dealt Absalom with his Father David and the shame of such shall breake forth in the Congregation hee is a foole though hee thinkes himselfe wise Now I beseech you take heed of deceit and guile the deceitfull shall not live out halfe his dayes To hate and yet dissemble with his lips laying up deceit within him is a loathsome thing It is a part of the description of an unsanctified man With their tongues they have used deceit Nature teacheth men to blame this sin in others therefore nature gives light enough to discover it in ones selfe Shame it therefore and hate it It is bad to have used this fraud for covetousnesse or ambition sake to get wealth or honour by over-reaching others but it is worst of all when it is joyned with revenge and with bloodinesse that a man make himselfe a bloody and deceitfull man It is naught when only good will is pretended but when religion is made the cloake of cruelty and villany this is to abuse the noblest thing in the world by making it a drudge to the basest Now if any of your consciences be guilty of abusing pretences of religion for the compassing of revenge of goods of lust of any other villanous end he hath sinned the sin of Iacobs sons Let him be induced to repent and let us all be induced to abhor so great a wickednesse he that doth compasse any unlawfull end by deceit makes the sin twice as grievous as else it would be He shews that he commits it with almost a full consent of will he makes his reason a slave to his appetite and serves sin willingly most willingly and deliberately Let us love true plaine and just dealing and abhorre cousenage and
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
earnestly strive to disswade or perswade a Ruler in such things It is weakenesse enough in a Governour on such an occasion to say nay but to chafe and bee angry is a double fault wee finde noe such distemper in Iacob This is the good of Reuben His afflictions so farre as is recorded were not many indeed none but what was common with his other Bretheren except we may count that a crosse that hee was suffred to sinne so farre and doubtlesse it was a corrasive to him all his dayes after and that his fore-mentioned griefe as it was in some sence an act of vertue so it was a suffering of evill For to be grieved for some misery like to befall our friends is a great misery to him that so grieveth But one crosse hee had that his Father did minde him of his fault on his death-bed before all his bretheren and did then and there dis-inherit him he tooke it well and made no angry reply It is an affliction to bee dis-inherited or otherwise deprived of any benefit which else wee should have had because of our sinnes And wee must learne when such a crosse is laid upon us to beare it quietly and fruitfully too I meane so as not to breake forth in anger and discontent against him that doth withdraw such things from us nor yet to passe it over sleightly and carelesly as not regarding the hand of God but to accept it as a just punishment of our faults and make it a meanes of renewing and increasing our Repentance Of the benefits of Reuben besides the common we read of his fruitfullnesse for hee had divers sonnes when they went downe to Aegypt and so hee made one of the twelve Tribes Wee have noted this mercy afore in others let us take heed that the commonnesse of this mercy make us not disvalew it A benefit is no whit lesse to be esteemed because the Lord vouchsafeth to communicate it to many and it is nothing but our folly that takes occasion to sleight such favours Now I come to Simeon and Levi we have their speciall sin and the punishment of it noted The sinne is double First They were the Actors of that bloudy and ragefull murder and spoyle committed on the Sichemites in killing Hamor Shechem and all the Males They drew their swords and went in boldly on the third day when all were sore and slew all the men they met withall Iacob doth curse their rage and anger and doth abominate the same It is a grievous sinne to kill men in a wrathfull passion without just warrant and calling from God indeed to kill one particular person is sinne enough and calleth for the Sword of the Magistrate to cut of the sinner how much more to fill ones hands with bloud and kill as here a whole city or towne Murder is a sinne against the light of Scripture and of Nature against the Lawes of GOD and every well ordered Common-weale a grosse sinne and palpable a mischievous sinne wronging the Person murdered in his life the pretiousest thing hee hath with an irrecoverable wrong wronging his Friends wronging the Common-weale and wronging GOD extreamely in presumptuous incroching upon his prerogative to be the taker as hee hath beene the giver of life O be thankfull to the living God that hee hath kept you from this red and crimson sinne especially if any have beene so inflamed with rage as once David that he hath even desired and resolved and intended and attempted to commit murder as it fell out to David and he hath kept him from it either by preventing the occasion or some counsell comming betwixt or some diverting of the blow or the like O let him be thankfull that he hath escaped the fact of murder as well as be humble that he hath desired to commit the fault Wee must not ascribe to our selves the immunity from grosse sinnes and please our selves in our estate because of it but we must give God the glory and loath and abase our selves and our bad nature that should fall into them if wee were left to our selves chiefely if nothing have stopped us from them but want of opportunity And now ever mortifie anger and wrath and revengefull boyling of heart for he that nourisheth wrath malice envie in his spirit within shall at last be carried away so farre with that inward distemper that if occasion offer it selfe he shall flame forth into the grosse act of murder All corruptions being fed in the heart within doe gather such strength that if there be fitnesse of occasion they will breake out indeed O bring not your selves into such a temper that the Divell shall have you in readinesse to make murderers of if ever hee can fit you with time and place and other circumstances Beware of blouds beware of blouds this sinne teares the conscience in an hundred peeces when once it is made sensible This sinne leaves a deepe staine it begets grievous horrors and makes the soule still fierce in pronouncing evill against it after it hath beene fierce in doing so great an evill unto others Pray to God to preserve you from it and get meeke gentle quiet patient spirits which may keepe you from being provoked with wrongs And if any of you have transgressed in this kinde though not in so high a degree let the example of these two incourage him to repent and make him flie to the throne of grace that God would worke in him true repentance and both pardon and heale him You see two young men here drowned in a river of bloud most innocent bloud by them most causelesly and groundlesly spilt you see them yet pardoned Nay they were stained with their brothers bloud whom they consented to kill and actually sould for a slave and yet they be pardoned Runne to God hee can pardon many murders as well as one angry word and will doe it if you submit and convert He that judgeth himselfe for his sinnes past resolving thoroughly by Gods helpe to reforme his heart and life and takes boldnesse to aske remission and sanctification at Gods hand in Christs name shall be pardoned although the guilt of the bloud of God the son did sticke to his fingers But another fault they committed when their Father in the bitternesse of his soule and his great feares told them of their fault and their danger they shewed no repentance no feare at all either of God or men but returned him a surly kinde of foolish excuse saying should he abuse our sister as a whore If you frame this answer into a due forme of reasoning and apply it to the justifying of their murder for to that purpose they alledged it it must runne thus If any man wrong us notoriously wee may and will kill him and there is no cause of reprehending us but hee hath done so for he hath abused our sister as an whore wherefore we doe not deserve to be reprooved for killing them First if