in all our wandrings from it We shall find little reward at the Evening of Life for sitting all the day Idle in the Market-place of the World. 'T is a sad and unanswerable End of our Lives to Eat and Drink and rise up to Play. The Epilogue of that Comedy will be spoken in Hell. Idleness is but One of Hagars crimes Folly marches after and Misery brings up the Rear of both Camest thou from Abraham's Family the happiest in all the Earth and made only unfortunate by thee Canst thou forsake the Houshold of Faith and be safe Art thou Stealing away with the Fruit of thy Masters Loins to give it a Birth in Egyptian Aire and Robbing thine own Child of all the Blessings that an Heir of Abraham may hope to Inherit And whether wilt thou go to those again that sold thee out for a Slave Canst thou expect to render thy condition any where better than there from whence thou camest The stubbornness of thy Heart was the cause of the bitterness of thy Life 'T was thine own Pride that justly incensed thy Mistress Nor canst thou look down on thy swelling Womb without blushing at thine own Ingratitude Return therefore and pay her the Honour her Merits and thine own Duty requires from thee All the World will be but Bush and Brake to thee a very barren Wilderness to the Comforts of thy Masters House Hagar as once that Woman of Samaria by a discovery of her private Concerns discerning the Blessed Angel to be more than Man doth not Impiously pin her own Guilt on her Mistresses Sleeve nor dares to Impeach her in the least shew as too conscious of her own Crimes to conceal them from him that she saw very well knew them already This Modesty and the tacite Confession of her own Imprudence fits her for Mercy and sets her free from further Rebukes But this glorious Messenger had another Errand He came not from Heaven only to return her back to her Mistress however to Encourage her to it he will be so favourable to give her a Light into the dark Cells of her Womb and discover to her what lay concealed there And as Abraham had a Vision into all the Contingencies of his Family so shall his Concubine be blessed above Women in the Knowledge of the Sex Nature Condition and Fortunes of her yet unborn Child The Angel is Godfather indeed and gives him a Name A name that shall live and flourish in the Mouths and Memories of a numerous and durable Posterity whose condition and manner of Life he Prophesies shall be strange and different from all the World. A generation of Men that shall delight to Rove as a wild Ass in the Wilderness to keep a-part by themselves in the Desarts of the Earth Fierce Cruel and Warlike such are the Saracens and Arabians and such is their Quality and kind of Life to this day Hagar devoutly returns the Glory of his grace unto God who had beyond all Expectation regarded her in Affliction by so glorious a Legate The Beams of whose Majesty were so kind to her to leave her the Light of her Eyes which she admires was not lost by so dazling an Object and Baptizes the very Well with its own Water giving it an everlasting Name that still bears the Memoire of the Mercy of being Able to live after she had seen the Lord. With a glad Heart and full resolutions of better Conformity she returns back to her Lady and doultless very humbly submits her self to her Grace who receives her in obedience to the order of Heaven which seldom sends ill Members to the Church after the Convictions of Conscience upon them We are never good in our Callings till God meet and directs us Onesimus was All Hands for Philemon when God had changed his Heart Grace qualifieth us for universal service to God and Men. Abraham to whom doubless the transaction with the Angel in the Wilderness was very accurately repeated by Hagar provides like himself for the Birth of his Child and hath great hopes of the Son that an Angel had already given Name to Who when he came into the World finds a Father that had already passed Eighty Six years on the Earth CHAP. VII The Covenant of Grace renewed and confirmed to Abraham and the Spiritual Heirs of his Faith for an Everlasting Testament that neither Sin nor Death shall ever be able to dissolve â—TWas in that Chilly and Withered Age when now Time had snowed upon him and he was ready to stumble upon the dark Mountains and the Grave waited for him and his Hopes of Sarah's Body were as desperate and cold as his own Blood and Spirits that the Lord made his Fifth Visit and Appearance to his beloved Abraham He is so far from casting him off in his Old Age or for saking him when his strength faileth that behold he cometh with such Cordials in his Hand as shall brisk up and invigorate his fainty Soul and renew his strength as an Eagle He shall have new Eyes that shall pierce deeper into the Mystery of the Godhead and enable him to see more clearly He shall have new Feet to Walk on before his God more firmly one would have thought he had come already at this Age to the end of his Course but now he must walk on still He shall have new Ears to hear Himself and his Lady called by other Names He shall have new and better Promises for his Faith and Hopes to build on more strongly A new Sacrament to establish and confirm those hopes more Infallibly A Wife who shall no more be called Barren A new Heir that shall make him the Father of Kings A Family that shall bare a new Mark and Impress And all these in the very despair and evening of his Days to let all the World see the Almighty Power of Him who from the beginning hath wrought all things out of Nothing and can make things to start up and be which do not yet Appear to give Life to our Hopes and Souls God thinks it but a small thing that he had already confirmed to Abraham and his Children all the Kingdoms of Canaan for a Possession by his Oath And tho' he foresaw well enough that there would be but too many of them whose Affections would be incorporate into those fruitful Fields and Pastors and all their utmost desires centred in the exuberant Productions of them yet had he given ample Testimony of his kindness to Abraham in making so rich and noble Provision for the worst of his Family whose Ingratitude to himself and Apostacy from their Great Fathers Faith and Principles might perhaps in time raise the Stomack of that very Land against them which had gotten a custom of Vomiting out her Inhabitants Those whom she saw making so ill use of her Bounty as so surfeit on her Dainties and abuse them to the dishonour of her great Lord for whom therefore having made Portions so perfectly connatural to themselves
in the Infallible Decision that instead of submitting to the Holy Decree it flies to Arms and Smites through the Loins of Truth it self whose Innocency God is oblig'd to clear up and defend The Fountains are broken up and the Waters appear already which in time shall swell into a mighty Deluge to overwhelm the whole Posterity of the Murderer The miserable Parents are drowned in a Flood of Tears which are hardly dried up on the discovery of that happy Spot of Earth which God substitutes to fill up the Vacancy of the Holy Martyr So easily can he baffle the Plots of Hell in polishing up a new Pillar of Righteousness to support his tottering Church 'T was the brave Seth that started into Life with the very Lineaments of his Brothers Piety and Goodness upon him and which afterwards Survive and Illustriously Shine in the incomparable Enoch the very Glory and Flower of the Old World whose Records though drawn with a sparing Hand and very hasty Pencil yet shall the Memory of this Saints mighty Namâ— and Excellencies be surely Immortaliz'd foâ— though others did Vertuously yet he exceeded them all And the Blessed Pen-man could noâ— justly pass from Him whose History would haâ— furnished a Volume when yet he Posts froâ— others with the short Dash of a long Life and a late Death only as if Eight or Nine hundred years were too little time to ripen them up to any Memorable Perfection but here he stops to transmit the Memoirs of the Great Enoch's unparallell'd Life and miraculous Translation to all Posterities for evermore For if the Treasure of a Pious Education into the Knowledge and Faith of the Messias If the mighty Effluxes of the Blessed Spirit Hallowing that Knowledge into an unreserved Dedication of his Heart and Life unto God If an irradiated Mind a resigned Will and right ordered Affections If Hatred and Abhorrency of Sin a valiant Opposition of others Impiety aâ—d a blessed Walking and Communion with the Holy Trinity be Furniture enough to Adorn and Dress up a Saint surely all these unitedly met and concentred in Him. No wonder then that some whose Eyes are dazled in the Brightness of his Holiness mistake him for an Angel Incarnate but others more modestly the Friend and Familiar of God. View him enriched with a Prophetical Spirit and the Eye of his Soul divinely illuminated to foresee at the many Thousand years distance the Glorious Procession of the blessed Jesus with the Myriads of his Holy Ones passing down from Heaven to keep the Great Assizes of the General Judgment and to execute Vengeance upon all the Vngodly of both Worlds whose Blasphemous and Vngodly Speeches whose Profanenesses and Vngodly Practices his Chast Soul so heartily abominated and so passionately lamented and against which the flaming Zeal of his Heart issued forth in so constant Menaces of the Wrath and Judgment that That Fearful Day would bring upon them That his Prophetick Soul foresaw the Deluge is not to be questioned since his very Son was a Pillar on whose Name that Judgment was very legibly Inscribed And in Truth an easier Augury might Prophesie the Overflowing of Wrath as but the Natural Effect of the Inundation of Sin which in His days by the unhappy Commixture of the Two Families had spread its contagious Streams over all the World. History tells us that it was his Custom to Congregate the People in order to the deprecating so direful an Execution And to assure them that the World was of no longer Duration than the Life of his Son and that whensoever he died the Bloody Blow will come upon them which answerably happened for though some say that the Flood came not till six years after Methuselah's Death yet others averr more truly in the very same year and others again but seven days God it seems giving in that Week also to the hundred years allowed for Repentance but not a day longer when now after the Decease of this Good Patriarch they might according to his Fathers Prediction expect the Judgment to fall upon them every hour Doubtless the Holiness of Enoch as the very shining of the Sun is a Torment to Sore Eyes had contracted upon him the General Odium of the Wicked but while he laboured under this Burden and the Danger of their Persecutions the Almighty God mounts him up into the Securities of his own Bosom 'T was not fit indeed that the Phoenix of the whole Creation should be liable to the Gun-shot of its Malice To prevent which and lest they should offer Indignity to his Sacred Dust after Death the very Qualities of his Body by a sudden and admirable Change are rendred connatural with those of his Soul He is all Spiritual and made a fit Inhabitant for the Celestial Kingdom whose Translation hath caused a World of different Opinions many voting him to be still Alive but cannot agree where to find or where to fix him whether on Earth or Air in Adam's Paradise or Gods. They tell us he feeds on Angels Food and his very Cloaths are preserv'd from wearing as theirs in the Wilderness leading a Life of perpetual Contemplation and Joy in God and is reserv'd with Elias to the Service of the Confusion of Antichrist in the last times But enough of this While the Eye of the Soul is Watchful to keep it self fixt and Intent on the Beauty of Holiness that is Ten thousand times enough to compleat up a perfect Happiness to Angels and Men Inferior Suitors may despair to Lure away the Affections that are infinitely delighted in that Ravishing Object yet no sooner is it averted from the Fountain of Complacencies but an Army of Temptations break in upon it and offer their several Contributions to patch up a Satisfaction that is only to be found in God. Thus the Unconstant Family of Seth Blessed and secure in their Virgin Love while they persevered in Fidelity to their first Amours Now alas grown weary and tir'd with a Spiritual Husband employ their Traiterous Senses to cater a-new after fresh Provisions which must fill up the Vacuities of their Squeamish Appetites when lean Kids are dress'd up into Venison and serve well enough to delude the undiscerning Stomach Thus their First Father exchang'd a God for a Wife of Dust and mistook an Apple for a Deity And these degenerous Sons of God unworthy of that high Relation while they gaze on the Beauty of the Daughters of Men are bewitch'd to write the Bill of their own Divorce from their Chaster Nuptials to Marry themselves to everlasting Ruine The Ties of Friendship that long Acquaintance and Familiarity have contracted between Men have been often so Sacred and Strong that the Violation of them have occasioned great Commotion of Heart and can we think that these Gentlemen could so chearfully pass from the purer Flames of Divine Love into the Embraces of Vanity without some Check and Allay to the Fury of their hot Desires There is something within that is ever
of some Thousands of Years have given too clear a Testimony of that dismal Truth yet she might comfort her Self in this That his Care should constantly attend them too he will ever be ready to administer to Them also and to all but such whose outragious Madness would leave them utterly uncapable of his healing Prescriptions and whose Infection would work to so high a Pitch as to cause them desperately to slight the Remedies that his Wisdom and Goodness had prepared for them No Bounds no Rampires could hinder the Flood-Gates of mine Eyes from flowing out into the deepest Streams at the hearing the Account of this rueful Massacre All the World destroyed at one blow in their Great Representative Not a Birth but what should add a Rebel against Heaven and a Subject to Sin That 's a Triumph with a Witness that insults over the Ruine of the whole Race T was but a Left Wing of the Angels that Pride had unhappily cut off but here the whole Progeny of Adam lye mortally bleeding to Death and not one escapes to tell the sad Story of their own Defeat Nay God Himself wounded in the Rout Necessitated to take the Field and fall in it too be Buried in the Common Grave and had there seen Corruption had not his Divinity reliev'd him Come Reader let us conferr a while There is a passage lately dropt from that Great Physician who upon view of his Patients corrupted Blood seem'd to shake his Head and pity her whole Progeny It would be worth a little pains to search out the Truth and make some Experiment in our selves Sure he meant not that Bedlam her first Production who so barbarously kill'd his Brother in the Field where the Mad Blood boil'd up so hotly within him and the poor Innocent fell by his Bloody hands from no provocation at all but loving him who had wrought so good a Cure upon him and was growing up towards perfect Recovery No no 'T is the whole Posterity and our selves are surely included Come let us try out the matter Hast thou never felt her Mad Blood frolicking in thine own Veins and the Distemper gotten up into thy Head too How often have the Felicities of a Deity been presented by Pride upon the Stage of thy Fancy And how brave it would be to drink thy fill of Nectar with the Gods Hast thou never walked with thy Trident as Neptune and commanded the Sea to own thy Authority How many Rags of thy Poverty hath Imagination dipt into Purple and hung them up as the Ensigns of thy Royality How many Staves hast thou gilded into Scepters and holden them forth to thy Subjects to kiss What was in the Brain of that Emperour that set him awork to out-thunder Jupipiter And what are the dreadful Claps of thine Oaths and Blasphemies but desperate Charges upon God Himself which none but a perfect Frantick would adventure at What account canst thou give of thy Time and Life which is lent thee but a Moment for Eternity when that Eternity will be short enough to curse thine own Madness in trifling away Time Art thou fooling still with Feathers and Straws and idly knitting Knots in the Grot of thy Misery when with thy unhappy Father thou art thrust out of Paradise and hast no Acquaintance in that Holy Court where once he was so perfect a Favourite and which shews thee wholly distracted thou desirest none Hast thou seen other Light than what hath darkly glimmered through the Windows of thy Melancholly Cell or other Excellencies than what have Dazled thine Eyes in the Glories of Life Art thou priding thy Self in the very Shackles of thy Mournful Captivity and never knewest a greater Liberty Alas thou art lockt up in Bedlam still and Rovest about in thy Fancy when as the true Light and Life and Freedom are as far as Heaven from thee What maketh thee judge of the earnest Pursuits of a few here and there after an Invisible Happiness to be perfect Weakness and breach of Discretion and hast wondred they should look after another Heaven than that thou enjoyest already on Earth How hast thou preferr'd a Persian Devotion that is happy in a Visible God that shines upon his Votaries every day A perfect Stranger to that Faith that is the Evidence of things not seen Alas Man as a dangerous Frantick thou art close shut up in the Dungeon of Unbelief where thy Brain works upon a thousand Chimera's which evaporate all into Air and Nothing Come let us lay these things to Heart Is it nothing to thee that the same Pride which first infected Beelzebub the Prince of flyes hath Blown upon thy Great Mother and from her have issued those Swarms which overrun her whole Posterity From this Serpent hath come forth a Cockatrice whose fruit is a fiery flying Serpent in thine own Bosom These Cockatrice Eggs hatch every day in thine Heart and break out into ten thousand Vipers there Dost not thou feel them passing in and out as Wasps out of an Hive and ready to sting thee to Death Thy Saviour hath forewarned thee of the killing danger of them that are all bred in the Heart Mat. 15.18 Out of the heart proceed c. They have eaten into thy very Nature and like Sampson's Bees made their Nest in thy very Carkass and because they yield a sweetness thou lovest to have it so Unhappy Creature not knowing with Jonathan that the Curse is gone out and 't is present Death but to dip the top of thy Rod and taste of this Honey 1 Sam. 14.43 Yes Man 't is thine Heart is the Cage of the Vnclean birds That the very Stye of these filthy Swine That the Habitation of these Evil Spirits We pity the poor Creature that had a Legion within him at once but hast thou any less These are they that Metamorphise some into Dogs some into Swine others into Vipers the Jews into Serpents Herod into a Fox Nero into a Lyon Judas into a Devil and thy Self into all These have been the Elames that have burned into perpetual Desolations turning the whole Earth into a Field of Blood and ruinous heaps When the Son of God appeared from Heaven with design to asswage and allay their Fury they took Courage and made Head against him and never ceas'd till they sent him back to complain what an Hell he found upon Earth Indeed these Canaanites are left in the Land to Vex and Trouble the very Israel of God and he sees it best it should be so for Causes well known to himself but to grow so Audacious so far from fearing any Writ of Ejection to get them out that the very Blind and Lame of them as those in the Fort of Zion so impudently boast their security that they laugh at the Spear of the fiercest Opposition These Swarms like the Egyptian Frogs so violently invade us that as Guests of their own bidding they make themselves welcome and will feed on nothing but the very best in
those tougher Bits which tormented them into the Fret of a tedious Digestion Had their Women no Alimbecks to bless them into the Felicities of the Quintessence Had they never dissolv'd an Oxe into a Mess of Jelly And what were so many Flocks given them but to Elixirate all into Broth whose subtile vertue they should find frolicking in their capering Veins And as to Drinks she fears the Vicinity of their Streams had but bewitched them into the Judgment of too frequent Draughts from them Or if they were arriv'd at the knack of improving them a little by a small Infusion of the Spirits of their Acres with them this she believes is their extreamest Happiness when now she was come to acquaint them That the Jolly Grape was proud to shed his Blood in their Service and offers himself to be press'd to Death to give them a greater Pleasure in Life Why was the Experienc'd Noah so careful to prune up his Vines but that he might leave behind him the Honour of bequeathing so great a Blessing to the World But if hitherto that Nectar had been enviously detain'd from them by the Policy or Power of their Princes and made a Monopoly to their own Palats she will take care to break the Damm and make it run down into every Corner of their Streets But then they must promise her to enjoy that Happiness in the proper Season which would double its Pleasures to them and that is by Night they would never arrive to any great Proficiency in the Noble Practice of Drinking Al-a-mode till they muffled up day in their Curtains and Lighted up Night with their Tapers 'T was a Glorious Adventure to baffle the Orders of Nature and to begin to Chime up their Consorts of Musick and Dancing when the drowsie World lay fetter'd in the Charms of a breathing Death and themselves alone Alive unto Jollity and Mirth They could never think to mount the high Flight of Pleasure indeed till they had tamed Nature by Watching as Hawks are fitted for the Game she fears they will slight her Advice as to this since she never observ'd a People more chain'd to their Beds taking care with the Sibarites to kill their Cocks in order to secure their Naps in the Morning There are many other things she would gladly see redressed but she is willing for the present to dismiss them on condition they will evidence a fair Respect to her Counsels for the future 'T is true there was one thing more she would be glad to whisper in their Ears faining here a Politick backwardness to discover it yet such as she knew would but whet their desires into longing expectation to know it which they fancy too above all the rest would help to compleat up their happiness but she desires to be excused for the present till she see to what Measure of Obedience they would pass in a dutiful Conformity to her Dictates given out at this Meeting And besides she fears the disobliging of their Wives whose company she expected too and who might equally need her Instruction since what she had further to impart might be expounded at least Misprision of Treason against the Female Interest and whenever she reveals it it must be under the sacred Seal of Secresie They depart with all the Expressions of Joy and Satisfaction in her admired Condescention and obliging Nature and assure her that nothing shall be wanting on their part to Honour her Directions by a ready Obsequiousness and Respect and all in an Extasie of Ravishing Delight they lowly take their leave and pass away Memory that is ever a faithful Treasurer to lock up every thing that casts but the least shadow of a promising Happiness fail'd not these Citizens to make a very punctual Repetition of all the Branches of this goodly Oration to the greedy Ears of their attentive Wives whom they soon raise into equal Raptures with themselves in the Imagination of the prescribed Felicity till anon unfortunately One of them more Vxorious than the rest and who wanting the prudence of Retention would make but an ill Privy Counsellor chanced to blurt out that last clause so imperfectly delivered and broken off Abruptly which seem'd to grate upon them a little too nearly This takes Fire and from a little Spark in the Bosom of One too hot to hold there long spreads into a Flame over all the City A Convention of the Sex is holden to debate of the matter each one vents her private Conceptions which blow up the rest into a greater Fire The fury of Jealousie incenses them and they cast about how to prevent an Evil that seemed to bear so ill a Face and Omen towards them They universally Vote a Conspiracy hatching and resolve to stand off and bid defiance to their Enemy What knew they but she might bring up some new Laws of Divorce and endeavour to preferr her own Drabbs of Honour into their Beds For their parts their Spirits were as high as her Own and they scorn to crouch for Advice or Directions from her They needed none of her Imperious Impositions and were Bred sufficiently already into all the Decorums of State. What can she add more to them than what they enjoyed already Could she teach them other Fashions than what themselves had invented They had not studied the Arts of Dressing so long to be corrected now by a Stranger The World was mistaken in them if they were not Notorious already They thought she had come to Town to have improved her self rather by them and added to her happiness in their Company than thus mischievously to Plot against them Besides 't was rudely done of her not to give them the Priority of the Invitation They like not she should be so great with their Husbands The Empress was of too sensible a Spirit to pass by the Affront without the just Revenge payable to it She will make them know that she hath not so low a Soul to put up such an Affront to her Honour so tamely as they imagin And is very glad that themselves give the first Occasion of the Breach they shall quickly feel the effects of their stubborn Folly and Rebellion If the Spirit of Purity hath drawn a Curtain over that Obscene Advice that once was whisper'd by the Cursed Sorcerer into Balak's Ears and hath modestly hinted the time only when the wicked Counsel was given which prov'd so fatal to the poor Children of Abraham Marvel not Reader if my Pen blush to describe the unnatural Revenge which the Sorceress dictated to the Men of Sodom whose hot pursuit of her pernicious Orders was the Torch that lighted the Flames of their Ruine and stamped upon them the black Character of Exceedingly Wicked 'T is enough if thou know that God gave them up to the most villanous Exorbitancies and the fury of unnatural and unaccountable Lusts to Charge an Incubus and Ravish Pluto while Nature it self recoils at the Horrour of so Infernal a Courtship Pride
checkles at the happy success of her Project and finds her Disciples so tractable that she resolves to raise an Academy in the City to train up Youth to Succession Her self will sit in the Chair and Read daily Lectures of Debauchery and the blackest Arts and those so Publick that none shall pretend the want of Opportunity to pass into the greatest Proficiencies in them She designs them all for Epidemical Profit and therefore shall be performed in open School She celebrates Impudence as a glorious Vertue and to be found Blushing is present Expulsion tho' few were found in Sodom of that Maidenly Complexion Epicurus hath but stollen his principles from her She assures them that the Soul dies with the Body and there is nothing better than to Eat and Drink They must contemplate nothing but Sensuality and the Palate protesting to them how great a God the Belly was and that nothing would satisfie this Deity better than when they made much of themselves The more they Offer to him the sooner should they experience the Blessing to whose Sacrifices their Fields and Herds yielded them so cheap an Assistance that they would be the ungratefullest Persons living should they not load his Altars with their frequent Victims This Doctrine sounded so sweetly in their Ears and was suited so fitly to their natural Constitutions that you might have seen the Furniture of their stately Plains taken off and devoted to the Voratious Gulph of Gluttony Each Park and Forrest send in their liberal Contributions the Luscious Venison is immur'd in Pales of Paste The stately Taurus dress'd up with Gilded Horns and Flowery Garlands presenting himself in Sacrifice to the great Colon. Beasts lie mangled on every Stall and more Shambles ordered to be presently built a general slaughter is proclaimed The innocent Inhabitants of the Air cannot flie in peace for them and the Scaley Nations are made to swim in Ponds of Butter Dishes march in Battel Array and Jolly Boles go Round while Gomorrah Smoaks too and the Five Cities are all but one Kitchen Hogsheads bleed and the Conduits run with the Blood of Noah's Vintage Musick and Songs Good Cheer and Wine and Wine and Songs and Musick and Good Cheer an Health and an Health and Ten thousand Healths to her who had made Sodom happy and brought a perpetual Holy-day with her Teaching them the true end and use of Life and merrily to pass their Time away When before her Arrival their days were spent in carking Cares and solicitous Thoughts for the World which basely Captiv'd them in the Chains of a sordid Bondage and made them very Slaves to their own degenerous Humours from all which she had so happily freed them and open'd the Gates of that grateful Liberty that makes every Mortal so Happyâ— Pride Fulness of Bread and abundance of Idlenesâ— was in her The poor Women finding how the Game raâ— began to relent and think it folly to stand ouâ— any longer They fall in with the Humour oâ— the Time and see Coyness and Stiffness growâ— quite out of Fashion They found themselveâ— losers already by an unprofitable Haughtiness which if they persisted in might in a little time render their whole Sex but needless and immodish since there was no standing against her who swayed all the Town They are willing therefore to yield a little and out of Policy to be more tractable since very necessity drave them to it They think upon Terms of Accommodation with the Empress who they hope is not so Implacable by Nature but may be by some means appeased again while themselves will give her those fair Demonstrations of future Conformity which may work her to better Apprehensions of them To this end they let loose all the Reins of Modesty and Chastity by which they think they had been Restrained too long already to run in a full career the Race of all Licenciousness and Lust Vertue grows a very Burden and hateful to them Pleasure the only brave Goddess they Adore in whose Service they are so superstitious and severe that they devote their whole Time and Studies to approve themselves her most Bigotted Votaries The snares of Temptation are weaved by every Hand they dress themselves up into all the Advantages of Love and have Exchange of Complexions that suit with the several Fancies of every new Admirer That day is lost that is not bless'd with fresh Assignations of to Morrows Joys and they awake to nothing but renewed Acts of Yesterdays Frolicks They take care not to appear too frequently in the same Garb Ridiculing those of meaner Fortune whose Abilities supply them not to the same Variety of Dress They look with scorn on those that Retire themselves to the Inner Rooms with the Torment of keeping at Home who have not the Invitation to Gallant it abroad or be blessed with the Courtships of a secret Love. They are Mad that Nature had not lodg'd upon them the most killing Charms of Lust which they strive to supply by Artificial Means and the bewitching Arts of Language and Wit. They But alas My very Ink blushes to pass any further and the humour of our Age needs little Instruction into courses they Imitate already so much to the Life When the great Ninive was ripe for Judgment God sent them a Prophet to give them notice of their approaching Ruine and gâ—ve them Forty days to consider of the Message the Breath of whose Mouth blew them All to the Ground in the deepest Agonies of Terror and Sorrow Proclamations issue out for a General Fast and the whole Court for Example to the People are wrapt in Sack-cloth and the Ashes on their Heads very happily prevented the whole City from being turned all into Cinders When God himself drew Arguments of Pity from their present Penance the Tears of the Children and the very Looing of the Cattle turns his Heart and prevails to revoke the Decree But such was the fearfull Defection of Sodom that the Inhabitants there were more Brutish than the Beasts so Pamper'd and Shining so ready and fit for the Slaughter that he resolves now by an Immutable Decree to Offer up an Holocaust of them all to the honour of his Justice and the Eternal Memorial of the Sacrifice so Great and Exceeding were their Provocations that he will not deal with them aâ— with other Sinners and summon them severally to Judgment as they are taken and Arrested by Death But a Commission of Oyer and Terminer shall be sealed for their immediate Tryal and Execution Giving all the World notice by their Pre-damnation what themselves must expect for the same Guilts at the General Conflagration And now Sodom the last Scene of thy Tragedy is just upon Acting and the merry Banquet of thy Luxury is hastening to an End Wrath and Destruction bring in the Voider Tables and Guests are hurried away together Thou hast enjoyed a long and pleasant Day to Act the Comedy of thy Mirth but now it 's dying into an Eternal
its speculations with so great Authority or Success to work any powerful Impression upon it but rather taking up with the senses by the way it finds so pleasing Entertainment there that Man minds nothing more than what he sees and the glory of the invisible God becomes perfectly lost in the dazle and crowd of his visible Creatures The Mind of this Great Man was wholly immers'd in them he admires no Deity but that of his Countrey 'till by a Miracle of Mercy the Clouds of his Natural Darkness are dispell'd by an extraordinary light of Divine Revelation that makes Day in his Soul. Illumination from the Father of lights is so bright and influential upon the Faculties as fully secure from the danger of Delusion There is not only light but Assurance attending all the manifestations of God to the Mind Abraham was no Fanatick to be led by false Fires from his dearest Interests From this time the flames of VR burn darkly in his Eye he loaths to sacrifice any longer to the Fire when himself is enkindled by a diviner Spark Tradition tells us how true I know not that being now turned from their Religion his Countrey-men in rage threw him into the Fire for refusing to own their god but by miraculous escape he baffled the impotent Deity and discovered to its Votaries a greater that had bridled up his natural fury from singeing one Hair of his Head. This poor Element had the good fortune to be promoted to Honour from the gross mistake of some who had either heard or seen it fall from Heaven to consume the Sacrifices of the true Church these pass home and Vote it into (b) (b) (b) Chaldaei Persae cum vidissent Olim igne caelitùs delapso Patriarcharum sacrificia consumi putarunt esse Deum Godship perhaps on less improbable Errour than others since who contrary to all reason have promoted Meal to the same Worship and Deifie Bread instead of a Saviour Indeed the true God hath since fallen from Heaven in immaterial Fire on those holy Tapers who being first illuminated themselves were to pass over all the World to enkindle others baptizing them into Refinedness and Purity These Flames feed on nothing but Corruption and Ignorance they burn invisibly and this was the holy Fire which now God himself had kindled on the Alter of Abraham's Heart See from what mighty grounds of Reason and Truth our kind Mother the Church hath faithfully instructed us into the Necessity of God's preventing Grace which puts an effectual stop to the course of Sin even while with Saul we are posting on in a full career towards Death and Ruine Artic. 10. Divine Wisdom knows with what Heifer Man's Heart is best plowed 't is a selfish thing and plods on little else but its own Interests God pitying his Infirmities gratifies his weakness and falls in with him upon the terms that he sees best please him He knew this would make good Musick in the Ears of Abraham I will bless thee and I will make thee great Man will not serve God for nought though he owes all that he hath and is to Him for his Being Abraham though pretty well stricken in Years was yet but a Child in Experience of spiritual Grace therefore God dandles him on the Knee and allures him with the tickling Arguments of a Great Name and Estate We arrive to the Knowledge of Him by degrees and from a taste of his Goodness in the Creatures are afterwards brought to live upon Himself in the greatest abundance or want of them He knows by what Methods to train us up to perfection Abraham was no vulgar Person he stood already under very considerable Circumstances in the World But he that had much should yet have more and he that held his Estate but by the uncertain Tenure of general Providence shall now have his Copy enlarged to hold all in Fee-simple from a special donation of Grace God will hereafter add Sauce to his Meat and sweeten all his Messes with the Honey of Canaan 'T is a small thing to be Great if we hold that Greatness from our selves and derive it not from the great God who can make even Death it self that would else unstrip us into nothing to be the Porter to convey the Robes of a finite Honour into the next World with us where himself will overlay them with the Embroideries of an Infinite Glory But Abraham lived among his own People in all the delights of Security and Peace therefore God forestalls his Objection of Danger and offers him Articles (c) (c) (c) Mira Dei benignitas quod tam familiariter paciscitur cum Abrahamo haec enim solennis est foederum inter Reges alios formula ut communes habeant Amicos Hostes Vatabl. of Alliance wherein he makes over to him the whole Militia of Heaven for a Life-guard which we shall shortly find him making use of when he charged the Camp of the four Kings as Lightning and routed them these were to be commanded by his Faith at any time and that not for himself only but his Allies too Abraham should have the Aid of a God to lend at his pleasure to his Friends I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that curse thee In what desperate Estate then are the Enemies of the Church with all their Confederates of Hell who unite together unto certain Ruine and band themselvess unto Death Thus shall it be done unto Abraham whom God delighteth to Honour Tho' Reputation Riches and Long life be all that humane Nature can well wish for that Ignorantly closes her desires in the supposed felicity of them yet Abraham whose Soul should relish a greater Sweetness in God would not think himself sufficiently happy unless to all these there be superadded a blessing of that quality which might secure to him the lasting fruition of that Spiritual pleasure We bitterly part from Creature Joys but who that is Wise would want a God Temporal things grow Thredbare in the wearing and wither as Flowers in our Hands they abate of their Fragrancy and put us to the Blush for our too great confidence in them We are obliged to others for our Honour and Melt away our Treasures to purchase the Aire of their Mouths Life wasts away its self and grows ungrateful with long keeping If Abraham will be truly happy he must have something more than these There were Princes already in the World that glittered in all the Grandeurs of State it were a poor thing if a God should put off his Favourite with the fading Flowers of a Crown No an Honour shall be contrived for him brighter than the Sun which shall display its Beams as far as He and shed his influences over all the Universe to make it a fruitful Seminary for Heaven For in thee Abraham shall all the Families of the Earth be blessed As if God had said There shall arise a Glorious Person into the World compleated
Temper and perfect Serenity of Soul. Fear not Abraham I am thy Shield and thine exceeding great Reward See I have already given thee an Experience of my Power and Protection that shall ever be continued for thy future Preservation and Safety I have covered thine Head already in the day of Battle and hid thee in the Hollow of mine Hand from the rage of thine Enemies So will I ever be a Wall of Fire round about thee they shall but scorch themselves that approach to hurt thee No weapon formed against thee shall prosper yea tho' the whole Earth should gather themselves together to injure thee Do not dread the united strength of the Arm of Flesh thou hast a God that will ever arise up for thy Defence He that toucheth thee shall as prosperoâ—sly hope to pâ—il out the Apple of mine Eye and to defeat all the Hosts of Heaven that shall ever be Armed as thy Life-guard so soon shall thine Enemies prevail to baffle Omnipotent power and Strength as to pull one Hair from thine Head much less to sheath a Sword in thy Heart Wrap up therefore thy self securely within the Folds of my Invincible Power by an unquestionable Confidence in my Watchfulness and Care that shall ever attend thee thrô all the most dangerous Accidents of thy Life Fear not Abraham for I am thy Sâ—ield And whereas in this Affair of the King of Sodom thou hast accquited thy self with so Noble Respect to mine Honour and so full a Dependence on my Power and Alsufficiency to enrich thee so as thou hast despised the means of a Ditation by an Addition of those contemptible Spoils to thine Estate Know this for thine Encouragement and Joy Thou shalt be so far from being a loser by so generous a preferring my Glory beyond thine own Interests that instead of them I will give thee my Self a God who have all the Treasures of Earth and Sea at mine own Power to Dispose of and if need were could command them all to meet in thine Exchequer to enrich thee And who am in my self so inexhaustible a Fountain of more Durable Riches and Honour than what are drawn from the poor Mines of the Earth and with these will I Ennoble thee for ever Be not Jealous that I intend thee no further Honours than what thou hast Atchieved from the Glory of thy Conquest when mine Own hand shall weave thee an Immarcessible Crown that shall sit fast on thy Head and never Wither or Die. And tho' the ungrateful Canaanïtes pay thee not the Homage and honourable Acknowledgment of their own deliverance by thine Hand or maliciously Envy thee the Glory of it yet shalt thou have little cause to complain When I make over my self to thee who am infinitely more than all Things and who could as easily make thee Lord of the Vniverse as to bestow these Kingdoms of Canaan upon thee but that I reserve to thee a Portion in mine own most glorious Essence and thou shalt not run to the Creatures for a Recompence for I my self will be thy Reward and thou shalt every day find how Great how exceeding great a Reward thy God will be unto thee But mighty Jehovah hast thou sitted the Shield of thy Protection to the Body of thine Abraham only Is the Promise made to him alone And wilt thou leave all the Heirs of his Faith and Spirit naked and bare to the Cruelties of their Enemies Hast thou but one Shield of Defence shield us even us also O our Father Yea we know well that thou art a Sun and a Shield to all them that walk uprightly as Abraham God hath expanded the Buckler of his Protection as the Heavens over all the Body of his dearest Church Haypy art thou O Israel who is like unto thee O People saved by the Lord the shield of thine Help and the sword of thine Excellency thine Enemies shall be found Lyars to thee and thou shalt tread upon their high places Come ye Angels one of you is enough and smite the blasphemous Host into dead Corpses Come ye Starrs and sight in your Counses against the Tyrannous Sisera Come ye mighty Waters and prepare Graves for the Obdurated Pharaoh and all his Army within the vast gulph of your own Bowels Come forth ye poor Worms and take your Repast on the Carkass of the Mortal that would fancy himself to be a God. Come thou little Stone cut out of the Mountain that shall break in pieces all the Kingdoms of the Earth that oppose thee Come near ye Nations hear and bearken ye People for the indignation of the Lord is upon you and his fury upon all your Armies he hath utterly destroyed them he hath delivered them to the slaughter For his sword is bathed in Heaven behold it shall come down upon Idumea and upon the People of his Curse unto Judgement And come thou blessed Son of Abraham the Invincible King of the Church With the Spiritual Sword of thy might enter into the Confines of Hell Invade the Territories of the Infernal Powers dash in pieces all the Gates of thine Dominion break their Iron Barrs asunder Iade away the Spoils of those cursed Principalities the Trophies of their Eternal Honour Sin and Death Make a shew of them openly to all the World expose them to the derision of Angels and Men as the baffled Captives of thy Power Fasten them to the Wheels of thy Chariot drag them after thee when in the day of thy Triumph thou shalt enter into thy Kingdom thence let them receive the dreadful Sentence of everlasting Ignominy and Contempt Come hither Christian and view thy self Secure as Infinite Power and the Strength of a God can make thee If thou wilt negligently hang up thy Shield to the Walls and walk naked thrô all the Quarters of thine Enemies and promise thy self safety in the midst of Devils and Men almost as Bad as they without this Coat-Mail of the Divine Promise girt about thee or but loosely put on what can be expected but thy certain fall even by these baffled Straglers of the routed Army who lye lurking to make their Prey upon thee and to lead thee with themselves into the Eternal Prisons To dye by a Noble and Victorious hand would yet be somewhat honourable but for these disarmed Troops of Hell to triumph in thy ruine and fix thee in perpetual Chains of darkness and this only from thy carelesness and neglect of carrying thine Arms about thee and wearing the Shield of thy Defence this will be matter of indelible Shame and Confusion This is that special piece of Spiritual Armour that shouldst thou be so vain to leave the rest behind yet of this art thou cautioned by no means to be forgetful but Above all to rake with thee the Shield of Faith And what is this but the close-buckling this Excellent Promise about thine Heart Come my Son let not Mercy and Truth forsake thee bind them about thy Neck write them apon
Sighs to have that Promise more particularly express'd Generals in Religion leave the Affections Dull and Cold and are but as the Embers upon the Hearth which more explicite Revelation blows up into Flames of Spiritual Heat and Joy. All the rich Legacies of the New Testament do but meanly Affect us till they are translated into the Heart by the Finger of God. Then O how I love thy Law 'T will never be well with us till we Pray and Sigh too with Abraham for a more express Illumination and accomplishment of the Promise I will write my Law in their inward parts General Promises satissie well enough a dead and General Faith all whose Hopes are on the Paper but a Lively Faith is ever Restless till they be transcribed thence and engraven in legible Characters within The Law of his God is in his heart That is the Fleshly Table upon which it is fairly written Salvation is secure to all whose Names are written in the Book of Life but 't is a Lamp from the Sanctuary the Spirit of Revelation that must clear up the Evidence to the Soul of its own Name being there inserted Abraham's true Faith Sighs after more explicite Demonstration 'T is a dreadful thing to leave the Concerns of Eternity under Fear and Doubts Give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure Abraham's Soul was at stake and longed till he were better secured of the promised Seed which should make himself and all the Nations of the earth happy He Pants (*) (*) (*) Quodnam donum oblectationi aut consolationi mihi erit quâ—â—diu non video prâ—missionem tuam completam de semine meo ex quo Messias est procreandus till he see that natural Root from whence the Blessed Branch of Righteousness should in Gods good time be most happily derived What could he beg less than this In vain would all other Blessings be heap'd on his Head. But to pass down into the Chambers of death Childless and all the Memoirs of his Faith and Obedience to be buried with him in the same Sepulchre This is matter of Grief to him under all the Royal Largesses of Divine Bounty towards him Progeny is the natural desire of Man whose Ambition is to see himself survive in others springing from him and Children are but the living Images of their deceased Parents who so long as They live are not altogether dead Besides Abraham foresees his great Name might be interred in Oblivion if God should not inscribe it on a more lively Monument than his Steward Eliezer of Damascus was like to make who although he were a good Man and by being adopted his Heir might be raised to bear some Figure and Resemblance of his State in the World yet he sears he would prove but a dark Representative of the Great Abraham's Spirit and no Express Image of his Masters Person Too dark a Region for his Illustrious Vertues to shine in The Sence of this Infelicity lay so heavy upon his troubled Spirits that now he sights for Life and reduplicates his stroaks The Roâ—k had not yet yielded him one comfortable Drop which in an instant shall gush out in Floods of living Water he renews the complaint and piteously laments his condition To me hast thou given no Seed None yet appears though thou tellest me of a numberless One. I find no Accomplishment of thy Promise God sometimes makes as if he did not hear and seems to shut his Ears while yet his Heart is open He loves to put a Value on his own Mercies which we so much the more esteem as they cost us dear in purchasing and waiting for Blessings too cheaply gotten are too meanly priz'd Abraham's Soul is in Travel for an Heir he must not hope to be delivered by one poor single Pang In vain do we knock at Heavens Gates without watching there till Answer comes and if that be delayed our Requests are to be enforced by new Arguments and more pathetick workings of Heart And though our Prayers be answered before we cry yet must we call again and again for that Answer And Jesus taught us a Parable to this end that we ought always to pray and not to faint Let Abraham hold out but one throw more and the Child shall come to the Birth Christian thou hast been in long Labour for a Saviour the next Groan may bring him from the Womb of Gods Decree and thine own Prayers into thy joyful Arms wilt thou dye before thou see thy Saviour Born in thy Heart Christ in thee the hope of Glory Behold God this very Moment appearing to cancel all the Evidences of the Strangers Pretensions and breaking for ever the Heart of Eliezer's Hopes See the Seals of those despairing Conveyances making over thine Estate and Soul to the Forreigner all lying on the Ground torn off and himself sneaking away in utter Desperation at the first breaking out of the true Isaac Go Father Abraham and teach all the World the profit of patient waiting at the Throne of Grace for by thine Importunity and Perseverance hast thou prevailed with God. Since the pains of thine Heart have turned even Gods within him and caused his very Bowels to roll in the Sounding whereof thou hearest the joyful Tidings of a Son which shall issue from those very Bowels that have stirred in so violent Motions against which his pity hath no strength any longer to withstand thee and hath all this while made but a feigned Resistance while thou hast been shewing a Tryal of thy Skill how well thou canst manage thy Shield and how prosperously God himself may be attack'd when it shall please him to yield up himself to be conquered by his Creature Abraham hath been in Travel and Behold a Troop cometh What a prolifick Grace is Prayer which brings forth Thousands and ten Thousands in our Streets and makes Parents of an Incomprehensible Seed The Off-spring of that Grace are all the Innumerable Productions of Eternity which all the Arts of Arithmetick must for ever despair to sum up Can the Great God give any thing little Hath Abraham wrought all this while but for one Son Come all ye glittering Lamps of Heaven your mighty Creator sends you a Summons to make your Appearance here in your clearest Shine not the One thousand three hundred twenty five chief Commanders that seem to exceed the rest in Glory but give your Orders to the Minor Lights to make up all the Force and with all your united Numbers make some Figure to the Great Abraham of the infinite Issue that I will bless him in who from one Son shall multiply into Myriads to bespangle the lower Firmament of my Church For so shall his Seed be God had employed him before â—o the endless work of accounting the numbers of the little Dust of the Earth Now will he have him to enumerate the Stars of Heaven with the like impossible Imposition Some critically observe that by the former God pointed out
own which would entitle them to Divine Favour and Protection surely this would Terminate his Desires and compleat up all his Happiness Abraham is content to go Issueless still rather than be the miserable Parent of Rebels against Heaven The Arrows that are shot by wicked Children against the Honour of God pierce by the way through the hearts of their wounded fathers and make them bleed God is so well pleased with the Workings of Abraham's thoughts and took it so kindly from him that he had honoured him by so absolute Resignation of his Faith on the bare word of his Promise That from hence forth he shall have little cause to question the Performance of all his future Engagements for now he resolves to confirm them all by stronger Bars than those that Heaven and Earth are environed with He is content to enter into a Sacred Covenant with him that shall oblige his Holiness Honour and Truth in such irrefragable Tyes that Abraham's Heirs may Sue him at their pleasure upon the Violation of them and shall have liberty to plead the Breach of Articles against him in the Court of Honour should he fail in any point of Performance Nor were they backward as Vatablus tells us for notwithstanding themselves were so careless in keeping the Counter-conditions that obliged them to Obedience and Duty And by their continual Violations had evacuated the whole Covenant and wrenched off all the Seals yet would they be so Impudent to reproach him with a Failure on his Part and frequently twit him with it when their Treacheries had at any time provoked him to bring in an Enemy upon them or put them into Banishment and Sufferings Recordare foederis inter segment a initi Remember the League made with Abraham our Father when the Heifer was cut in twain and thou passedst through the parts thereof There was a Custom as elsewhere so in Chaldaea whereof therefore Abraham could not be ignorant That for confirming Covenants these Ceremonies passed amongst them A Beast was killed and divided into two equal Parts which Parts were brought forth and laid at some distance over against each other the Federates passing between them and solemnly imprecating on themselves the same Death and Ruine so to be killed and cut in pieces as the Beast if they should first break the Covenant and Agreement made between them The equal Division of the Beast seeming to represent the Vnity of Will in both Parties and their mutual satisfaction in the Conditions of the League In Conformity to this Custom Abraham is ordered to get ready his Heifer and with that a Goat and a Ram all of three years Age and to these a Turtle Dove and a young Pigeon to prepare and place them in order against such time as the Lord would please to come down to pass thorough them In that the Beasts were multiplied it signified a surer Ratification of the Covenant The Conditions on Gods part were That he would surely give unto Abraham for his Posterity the whole Kingdoms of Canaan for a Possession Abraham Conditions for his Children That they therefore should keep the Laws of the Lord and walk in his ways as himself would give them Example Gods Passing thorough the divided parts in the Appearance of Fire and Smoak and Abraham's walking through the midst of them confirmed the Covenant and finished the Transaction Now must this be unto Abraham an infallible Assurance God could not deny Himself nor his Covenant He may cease disputing for the future How shall I know that I shall inherit it There are Authors that make Critical Observations first on the Age of the Beasts which were All to be three years Old and signified that this Covenant related only to the Carnal Posterity of Abraham for there follows another for his Spiritual which was to endure for evermore who should enjoy Canaan during Three Remarkable Terminations of time The first from Abraham himself to Moses The second from Moses to David The third from David to Christ when by their bitter Usage and Cruelty towards Him the whole Articles were torn to pieces and themselves sent packing out of their good Land having no longer a Promise of it The Miracle of Gods Condescention in binding Himself up to his Creatures is a Subject for Angels to pry into and for Saints to praise him for ever Yet is not this all that Abraham shall be gratified in there is still a farther Honour God will confer on his Favourite He shall be admitted into his own Privy-Council of Heaven and the Arcana Imperii the Mysteries of State that are lock'd up in the secret Cabinet of his Bosom shall be disclosed to him He shall here have a perfect Prospect into all the Occurrences of his Family for many hundred years after which first he shall discover in a Type and then in clearer words First The Beasts and the Birds do more generally shew him the different Natures of his Children some bearing brutish Affections creeping upon the Face of the Earth as Beasts others Soaring in a more Spiritual Element All their aims aspiring after Heaven Again more particularly The very Heifer a Laborious Slave subjected to the Collar shall Prophesie to him the Servitude of his Children under the Egyptian Yoke the very Age of her shall shew him the term of that Slavery for Three Generations together But then the Turtle a Solitary Bird that delights in the Desart shall shew him also their Removal thence and wandring in the Wilderness for Forty years And the Pidgeon a Fowl that loves to be Hous'd shall lead him to the sight of his Family fixedly settled in the Cities of Canaan The very Sleep he fell into is Prognostick of his last End and the horrour of Darkness that came upon him Prophesied the grievous Troubles and dismal Afflictions his Children would fall into as hardly should they discover any Light of hope for deliverance from them God having foreshewn all these future Events unto Abraham expounds them afterwards in a plain Declaration of Words wherein he is comforted against all the Sorrows of his Posterity by their certain Redemption from them and his own long Life ending in a Quiet and Blessed Death The Ceremony being ended Abraham is confirmed for ever Observe here how the whole Scene of all contingent Emergencies befalling the Creatures and issuing upon Kingdoms Families and Persons throughout all Ages of Time hang all up in One fair Table Open and Naked in the Light of Gods Omniscient Eye unalterably fixed by his firm Decrees and all unavoidable by any Power or Wisdom of Men. How vainly then doth Humane Weakness Plot to break the Links of his Providences which his own Mighty Arm hath so undissolvably chain'd together That all the Combinations of Men or Devils do but weary themselves while they Idlely endeavour to break them Take also a View of the Road to the Heavenly Canaan The Land is confirmed to Abraham and his Heirs with all the Assurances that a
God And whatsoever I am in my Self that will I be to thee I will be a God to thee Secondly As I am God I am Almighty and Alsufficient both for my self and all my Creatures that shall close with me I will make over the Fulness and Alsufficiency of my Godhead to thee There is nothing in it communicable to the Creature but what shall be secured to and imployed for Thee and Thine on all occasions Thirdly The very same Priviledge shall be secure to all the Children of thy Faith for evermore I will be their God and I do hereby firmly and unalterably Covenant with thee to be a God unto Thee and Them. To do and be whatsoever a God can do and be to his People in Covenant with him Fourthly I will confirm my part of these Covenants to thee and thy spiritual Seed by mine Oath which shall never be broken And they shall be one day further Ensured and Sealed in the Blood of my Son. Now on the other side what I require of thee Abraham and all thy Seed that shall enter into this Covenant after thee is no more than what every Woman engageth to her Husband to be faithful and Loyal I will be wholly to thee and thou shalt be wholly to me I am the Lord thy God thou shalt have no other Gods but me This is my Covenant therefore thou shalt Walk before me in Vprightness with a Perfect Heart and a willing Mind Thine Eye and Heart shall be ever upon me to admire thine own Happiness in all my Perfections Thou needest not hunt after Creatures with expectation of other Good than what is secured to thee in my Self Didst thou know what a Portion thou hast in a God thou wouldst disdain to turn aside after Idols Thou hast mine Alsufficiency made over to thee out of which as from an inexhaustible Fountain thou mayst draw out all thy Supplies What need they run to Streams that have a Command of the Spring-head Let thy Children be but Faithful and Constant to me and give themselves up by an adequate measure of Trust and Confidence in my Truth and Covenant relying wholly on my Wisdom and Goodness in providing for them and casting all their cares upon Me they shall ever reap the sweet Effects of that Recumbency while they give me the Glory of their Faith I will never leave them I will never forsake them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will not no by no means I will not While they keep up entire Affections towards me I will delight to do them good with all my Heart and with all my Soul But if they run Whoring from me for I am a Jealous God I shall soon discover the least Aberration of their unfaithful Hearts and have Wayes enough tho' Sharp and Thorny to Hedge up their wandring Steps and reduce them again to their First Husband But Integrity of Soul will be their greatest Glory and the higher their Affections shall arise by perfect Dependance upon me the more sweetly will all the streams of my Love and Goodness flow out upon them I will fill their Souls wit◠Joy and Peace in Believing They shall taste Angels food and feast themselves with the Bread of Heaven The very Marrow and Fatness of my Bounty shall be their daily Repast They shall not envy the Prosperities of the Wicked that are feeding themselves to an Eternal Slaughter When the ravishing sence of my Love alone shining in upon them shall furnish out all Varieties of ineffable Pleasures to them they shall pity those that are walking in the Shadows of Death and See with none other but Brutish Eyes when the Beams of my Presence shall Gild all the Chambers of their Souls and make a continual Goshen there When the World shall reproach and reject them because of their Fidelity to my Covenant and they complain how much they suffer for me I will extend the Arms of my tender Mercies to receive them into mine own Embraces and safety And should some of them as my Witnesses be delivered up to the Malice of their Enemies and they Mercilesly kill them all the day long and lead them as Sheep to the slaughter yet shall Death be so far from separating them from my Love that themselves shall be more than Conquerours over all while all the surviving of them may prepare their Eyes to see the Vengeance and their feet to be washed in the Blood of their Enemies Is not this laid up with me and sealed among my Treasures Treasures of Wrath which shortly shall be poured on them and fall down in whole Cataclismes of Judgment on their Guilty Heads and Souls who have eaten up my People as Bread. The dread of Death must not tempt them to recede one Inch from their Sincerity since they have a God who is a Fountain of Life and that little little of it they breath out in the World is not a Drop compared to the River of Life they shall Swim in to Eternity But that little how little soever it be when Offered to my Glory is so pleasing a Sacrifice as cannot fail to draw from mine Exchequer the singular Retributions of my Favour on those happy Souls who so valorously surrender up their All to my Truth and Honour in assured Confidence of an happier Being in my Self 'T is the Triumph of my Justice to render unto every Man according to his Work As to their Executioners the hotter Fires of my Wrath and double Portions of my Plagues so more resplendant Crowns for the Loyal Heads of those who failed not to write the Evidences of their Integrity and Love in the dearest Blood of their Hearts How preeious then in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints Whose Souls are so securely bound up in the Bundle of Life with the Lord their God that all their Enemies on Earth that all the Devils in Hell cannot slacken the Knots of that Vnion by which they are fastened to Himself Life is Theirs to fit them for and Death is Theirs to bring them to his Glory and blessed Fruition of his Endless Love. And in nothing could God have manifested a greater Love to his Abraham than by prescribing a Duty so perfectly agreeable to his own Holy Nature which is Pure Simple and Unmixt He is what He is and cannot be any thing else than what he discovers Himself to be the only True and Faithful God keeping Covenant and Mercy with them that love him and keep his Commands And 't is Sincerity alone Truth in the inward Parts the Service of a real and perfect Heart that he requires He hath shewed thee O Man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee more than to do justly as Himself will to love mercy as Himself doth and to walk humbly before him To be holy as he is holy perfect as he is perfect looking towards Him with the simgle Eye of Fidelity and Love and directing all thy Devotions to him with
of his holy Government transacted in the Court of Conscience where Himself sitteth Judge or the blessed Spirit his Vicar over every Thought of the Heart and Action of the Life Not a vain Imagination but is brought down and humbled not an idle thought but what is captivated to the obedience of Christ 'T is he that strikes the stony Rock and the Waters gush out such a Rock was Peter whom he smote but with a glance of his Eye the Sun dissolving the Ice melted him all into Water He went out and wept bitterly He sheddeth his Love into the Soul and cold Mary is all in a Flame He pours in his Spirit of Joy and Paul and Silas sing in the Stocks He opens the Prison doors and the Shackles of Sin and Death flie off from the whole World lying in spiritual Captivity He Prophesies over the dry Bones and they come together take Life rise up and follow him as well thro' all Tribulations Sorrows Sufferings from Men Temptations Buffetings Persecutions raised by the Devil Fears Disquietments Dejections of their own Hearts Infirmities Weaknesses and Imperfections of their Duties As Comforts Encouragements Spiritual strength present Sence of his Love and secret Testimonies of his Spirit which is ever present with them to Illuminate Strengthen Comfort Establish and Direct them and therefore whosoever hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of His. This holy King rules not immediately only by his blessed Vicar above but mediately also by his Subordinate Officers here below Whether 1. Civil whom His Subjects Obey for his Sake and for Conscience Sake from a right Principle and not Brutishly in all their Lawful Impositions agreeable to his Glory they are ever Praying and Praising God for them yea tho' they be Persecuted by some of them Or 2. Ecclesiastick whom they Receive Honour Love and Obey as his Ambassadours and such as are sent by Him to break to them the Bread of Life whom they therefore follow and yield themselves up to their Lord by a gracious Conformity to the holy Doctrine brought them by his Ministers and Adorning that Doctrine by a suitable conversation in all things Abounding in every good word and work and approving themselves the faithful Servants of God in all the duties of both Tables having an equal Respect to all the Commandments of their Lord and approving themselves to Men by every Act of moral Righteousness and Daty They shall be at the last day approved by him to be no Hypocrites vain Pretenders proud and empty Professors self-seeking Designers or troublesome dividers of his Church and People but the True Hearty Sincere Rooted Living and Fruitful Members of his Mystical Body passing here the time of their Sojourning in filial fear and love and persevering in all Fidelity and Constancy of Obedience to all the revealed Laws of their great King as their Fore-father Abraham did they at last receive the end of their Faith and everlasting Salvation in Heaven where with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the Heirs of their Covenant they are blessed and happy in and with God and the Lord Jesus for evermore Come Reader hast thou no Heart to accompany the blessed Communion of Saints to this glorious Home Why dost thou then bear about thee the Seal of the same Covenant and art Crossed for the Holy Land and hast received the sacred Name of Christ upon thee and thou pretendest to be a Candidate for Heaven and wilt rage against any that will dare to sweep away the Cobweb of thine Hopes when alas it hangs by a slender Thread and the lightest hand breaks every Cord of it away and down it falls and thy self with it into utter despair and Ruine See whether thine Anchor have better hold than theirs whose Dooms the great Heir himself pronounced The Children of the Kingdom shall be cast out Matt. 8.12 So little will it avail thee to walk for a while alas for a Moment on the Borders of the blessed Land if thine own Infidelity and thy treacherous Heart shut thee out at last Either Rend off the Title and wipe away the drops of that holy Water issuing from the Wounds of the Crucified Saviour wherewith thou wert once Baptized into that sacred Name and renounce the hopes of that glorious Profession Or else be Faithful to thine Articles and give thy self wholly to him who hath given himself to thee Nothing less than the Hearty devotion of thy whole Soul and Life unto God can baer any reasonable Proportion with his Royal Bounty or give any convincing Demonstration of thy Real Gratitude less than this God will not Take less than this thou canst not Offer Every Imperfection and falling short of this must be lamented with bitter Tears wherein the poor Heart swims back again to better Duty and stricter Watchfulness and the broken Bones are jointed in to greater strength and Establishment made fit to walk with a more direct and even Progress in the holy Path rejoycing in their own Integrity But if instead of this thou be found wandring in the Wilderness of Error and Vanity walking after the imagination of thine evil Heart according to the course of the ungodly World and not after God know that thy Covenant is Sealed with melting Wax and thou thy self art holding it to the Flame in the light whereof thou mayst read thy despairs and find thy self in no better condition than those Sons of Abraham whose Unbelief and Obduration hath cancel'd the whole Effects of it and walking up and down in the Earth as the Deplorable Monuments of divine Indignation with Antipathies as great as ever against the blessed Person and Doctrine of the mighty Redeemer Thou maist indeed as some of them have a goodly Portion and Heritage here below Consolations suitable to thine own poor carnal Heart and God will not break the first Articles of a plentiful Canaan in the World thy Belly shall be filled with hidden Treasures But remember then that thy Tenure is but for Life and an uncertain Lease which may expire e're to Morrow comes and the Morning Sun may find thee a Carkase the Fearful case of him in the Gospel who went to Bed well but awaked in Hell. God hath reserved no second Portion in the next World but that of Fire and Brimstone The Heavens shall reveal thine Iniquity and the Earth shall rise up against thee the Increase of thine House shall depart and thy Goods shall flow away in the day of his Wrath There is the portion of a wicked Man from God and the Heritage appointed him by God. Away vain Man to thy Closet with David and consider the deplorable condition of These Make hast to the Sanctuary and there understand their latter end It may be when thou seest the Slipperiness of their Steps and how soon they are brought to a fearful end thou wilt pour out at least a sigh for a better Portion and to enjoy a more lasting Inheritance in God. Remember me O Lord with
Peace and Joy While holy Paul triumphed in the Testimony of his Conscience that gave him the Assurance of his Truth and Sincerity how little did he value the censure of those that impudently branded him for a Reprobate 2 Cor. ult Let God himself draw up the Certificate of Jobs Integrity That there was none like him in all the Earth Yet will the very Devil undertake to disprove him in it and his Three Friends are all drawn in to close with him and by many Arguments labour to asperse him with the foul Imputation of Hypocrisie till that mistaken Counterfeit is accepted only to pray away the guilt of that Ignorance and then they look on him with the Eyes of God. 'T is no matter how thick these stones of Persecution â—lie upon us while with the Protomartyr the Heavens open to us and our Eyes are blessed with the glory of Jesus How little would Abraham have felt the smart of Reproaches from scandalous Mouths whose Ears had heard that blessed Encomium from God himself Now I know that thou fearest me Not but that God knew it before but Abraham must know it too that he might rejoycingly walk in the pleasant light of Gods Love and his own Integrity together He that hath not passed Abraham's tryal and given the same proof of Fidelity cannot reasonably expect to feel the same reward of Joy. Let no Man think himself free from a Temptation of the same Magnitude since under the Gospel not Isaac thy Son but thou thy Self art called on to be Sacrificed on the same Mount And he is accounted unworthy to be a Disciple that hates not his Own Life for the sake of his Master The great Saviour hath abounded in Votaries proud of the Honour of writing their Love in the Blood of their Hearts and have been reduced into Ashes with as burning Affections to his Glory and hath every where Those that hold their All at the only pleasure of his Will and who can at all times pass not only into Poverty and loss of Estate but also of Life for his Truth They loved not their lives to the Death and should they never be called to climbe the Mount and suffer the fatal stroke yet since the Sacrifice is ready and the Hand list up God doth accept the ready mind and Isaac is Sacrific'd tho' yet alive He is dead for Christ on God's account who is willing to die 't is the Heart and not the Blood that he requires If Isaac the Fruit of the Body be refused shall the Ram in the Thicket be taken Will the Lord be pleased with Rams with thousands of them Sacrifices and Burnt-offerings thou wouldest not but God himself will provide the Sacrifice and prepare the Body of another Son of Abraham yet behind he is the only Lamb of God that must take away the sins of the World him will God accept tho' Isaac be not taken In the despair of Abrahams Age must Isaac be called into Life in the despair of his Hopes must he be saved from Death When the Knife is at the throat of the whole Church and Posts are every where flying with orders to give the Blow then shall Salvation break out God is seen in the Mount still When all means of deliverance fail below and his people brought into the extreamest streights then doth enlargement come from himself that all the World may know that He is God alone and besides him there is no Saviour CHAP. XI Sarah's Death Abraham's Purchase of a Grave for Her. ABraham's Affections were not so strongly rooted as the Trees of his pleasant Grove into the Soil of Gerar but he can easily pluck them up to be transplanted from Beersheba into his Canaan again The Heart that is fixed unto God doth ever hang loose from the Earth It is he that makes all places a-like delightful to us by the Gracious Shine of his Presence Fear not Jacob to go down into Egypt for I will go with thee Abraham who not long since enjoyed God in the Mount and had the Life of a Son given him must now as contentedly pass down into the Valley of Tears and suffer the Death of a Wife Six and thirty years enjoyment had God given her of the delight of her Heart she that so long had patiently waited for him should not too hastily be hurried from him but now must she pass from her Abraham and Isaac together to the God of both The great Sarah dies Twice already had she been sent for and taken from her Husband by Kings but now never to return more she is once for all sent for to the King of Heaven who provides her a place in his Own till Abraham comes to lay her again in his Bosome The Angels she had entertained in her Tent give her welcome into Glory and furnish her Lodgings suitable to the Quality of the Great Mother of all the Faithful and Wife to the Friend of God. That all Generations may know what respect God himself bore unto Sarah she alone of all her Sex hath the peculiar Honour to have her Age registred in the Rolls of Heaven who notwithstanding all her Labour and Travel ever moving from one Nation to another from one Kingdom to another People kept up an unwearied Courage and Faith till God in Pity put an end to all her Toils and sent her a Writ of Ease in the Hundred twenty and Seventh year of her Life Holy David hath well observed that our whole Life is but as a Tale that is told and God knows the Lives of too many make up a very Inconsiderable and sad one This great Lady the very Mirrour of Women and Wives for her incomparable Piety unspotted Purity unparallel'd Patience exemplary Subjection and incessant Persâ—verance in all makes up an History and when all the Memories of the great Princesses of the World are devoured by Time and buried in Oblivion the smallest Circumstances of Her Life must survive them all and Her story exactly Chroniâ—led in the everlasting Volums Sarah may not laugh but all the World must know it she may not pay her dutiful Respect to her Husband by giving him his Title of Lord but that Obedience must be recommended to the imitation of all her Daughters above Two thousand years after with a gracious design to keep up her Honour and Memory for ever Abráham receives the tydings of her Death with lamentable Resentment and passes in a grave and solemn Procession into her Tent as the House of Mourning to pay her the just Tribute due to the merits of so incomparable a Consort There instead of a Wife he finds a Corps whose cold Cheâ—ks and wan Lips he bedews with his warmer Tears which yet give some little ease to his heavy Heart from the oppression of that Grief that is ready to break it Here the remembrance of all her Goodness and Vertues crowd in upon his Mind and Memory which while he reflects on together with his own loss of them
arises and makes them a Genteel Bow in Acknowledgment of their great Civility and Kindness to him in that Offer Yet while they were all so courteous 't was Ephron alone that must gratifie his desires and all the Kindness the rest can do him was but to Intercede for him that on valuable consideration his Field and the Cave in it might be secured to him and his Heirs for ever But when the brave Hittite perceives himself concern'd in Abraham's Choice and that He only hath the desired Cave that must be honoured in becoming the Repository of these precious Ashes how proudly doth his Liberality contest with Abraham's Justice and is hardly conquer'd from Resolutions of giving that Freely which Abraham desires only at a Price What pity is it that sweet Disposition and Generosity should go to Hell while sordid Niggardliness and base Selfishness hope for Heaven Can bare Nature so easily depart from her Rights on Earth which hath no pretence for others in Heaven while those who pretend an Interest there have their very Souls cleaving to the Dust below and their feet sticking fast in the Mire are so far from yielding up the least shadow of a Title to what they have of their Own that they greedily invade and flye upon the Properties of Others Abraham tho he minds not to accept the noble proffer yet is so greatly affected with it that once again he repeats his grateful Sence of Ephron's and all their Reverence towards him by an yet more humble Obeysence than before He bowed himself down before the people of the Land. Who can see this Great Prince and Friend of God twice together paying his Duty of civil Respect and Honour to the very Heathen by the External Demonstrations of it without pity towards those Rude and Unmannerly Professors of our Age whose very Religion hath no other Test of Distinction but Surliness and Inhumanity Abraham while he is treating about a Grave takes great Care that he may lye down in it with a peaceable Conscience He hath been hitherto a mighty Pattern of Holiness in all his Transactions with God Here we shall find him an Example of Righteousness in all his Affairs with Men That all his Children may know that Commutative Justice and the Duties of the Second Table were written by the same hand that will require as exact Observation of them as of all the other of the First In vain do we pretend Sanctity to God if we are not Righteous to Men. He that doth Righteousness is of God and he that loveth his Brother See how Strait the Lines of Abraham's Righteousness run thro' all the management of this Compact with Ephron First He will by no means take advantage of his Neighbours Good Nature against his Profit he will neither defraud him nor suffer him to defraud himself by an easie Disposition Hear me I pray thee I will give thee money for the Field take it of me c. Secondly When he hath the equitable Value of the Land set to him he undervalues it not in hopes to beat down the Price It is Naught it is Naught saith the Buyer but when he is gone his way he boasteth Thirdly He makes present Payment for what he Buyes and purchases not with Paper and Wax Abraham weighed out the Silver c. Fourthly He Buyes not Good Land with Bad Coin but all is Currant Money with the Merchant Lastly The Conveyances are Sealed and Witnesses taken to prevent all Causes of future Debate The Field was made sure unto Abraham in the presence of the Children of Heth and before all c. And now is Abraham as pleased with a Grave as ever was Prince of a Palace How many Mens Estates are their Graves while they live and never think of another Their very Souls are buried in their Acres below wherein if they might they would lye for ever They Live and Rot in their Pleasures and are Dead while they seem to Live Life to any thing but God is but very Death This is the only Joynture that we find ever settled upon Sarah which the Heirs of her Body against their coming to Age shall find enlarged into a Kingdom for by the purchase of this little Field which cost not much more than Two and twenty Pounds or thereabouts he had given Security to the Faith of his Posterity That God would one day give them the Inheritance of that whole Land where Abraham Isaac and Jacob with Sarah Rebekah and Leah lay close together to keep possession for them until themselves should come And sure there is a better Security given to us also by his Great Heir Jesus Christ who is gone before us and entred into the Heavens as a Forerunner to prepare places for us That where he is we may be also And is not his Spirit lying Leiger in us as the Earnest of our Inheritance until the Redemption of the purchased Possession to the praise of his Glory 'T is observable That after Sarahs Death God makes no more Appearances to Abraham from Heaven having now performed the Great Promise of a Seed he leaves him to walk in the Light and Comfort of those he had already made To teach us that the Great Heir being now come into the World in whose coming all the Promises are perfectly secure to the Faithful the Church is not to expect any Extraordinary Revelations of any farther Truths than what he hath already sent into the World by his Son. He hath now sealed up the whole Canon and will hereafter be silent for ever To these received we ought to trust in the Hope of these we ought to Live in the Comfort of these we ought to dye For this cause God in the close of his whole Book hath carefully contrived the Prevention of Alterations Additions or Diminutions by the Menace of an Eternal Curse imposeable on that Guilt and the multiplying Plagues upon Him that shall add any thing to it There being enough Written if well believed to make us Blessed and Happy for ever CHAP. XII Isaac 's Marriage FOr Three full years together had Isaac mournfully lamented the Death of his Mother now will God make up that loss to him in a Wife Eliezer the Steward of his Fathers House is dispatched as Legate with an Angel Attendant into Mesopotamia and takes with him his Masters Orders where and from whom to choose him a Daughter Abraham before his Journey Swears him to Fidelity in an Affair of so grand Importance and he as cautiously Swears that he might the more Religiously keep his Oath When he draws near the place he Invocates his Masters God for Prosperity and good Success and begs that the first Match may be made up between the Decrees of Heaven and his own Endeavours that they might not thwart each other but happily Marry together He humbly resigns up his own Discretion to the wise Council of God which he knew had determined already in the fittest Choice of a Wife for so