hadst no care of thy self yet thou shouldst have been regardful of the childe thou goest withal for what hath the poor infant deserved that it should through thy passion be deprived of all the comforts it might have had in so good a place And what wrong hast thou done to Abraham that did solace himself in thy conception and comforted himself in the hope of this issue We see then Observ 6. The want of usual comfort occasioneth a sensibleness of sin Gen. 3. The way to humble people in the sense of their evil is to make them know the good they have deprived themselves of by their irregular courses God in questioning with Adam Gen. 3. makes him see what an happiness he had lost by hearkening unto the voice of his wife and she unto the serpent Satan had told her that their eyes should be opened to know good and evil and so they were indeed for they saw the good that they had lost and the evil that they had plunged themselves into Samuel laboureth to bring Saul to remorse for his fault by shewing unto him how he had lost himself out of Gods favour besides the loss of his Kingdom And so Jeremiah worketh upon the people Jer. 5. he telleth of the former and later rain Jer. 5.25 and the fruitful seasons that they had formerly had but their iniquities had turned away these things and their sins had withholden good things from them vers 25. What is the reason that Israel returneth to her first husband She remembreth that it was better with her while she continued with him By wandering in her affection toward strangers she found the miss of the comforts she formerly enjoyed Hosea 2. Hosea 2.7 And the Prodigal began to be humbled when he thought of the abundance of his fathers house and how fully he fed there where the very hired servants have bread enough Luke 15. The Church of Ephesus Rev. 2. Luke 15. Revel 2.5 is wished to remember from whence she is fallen and to repent The liberties that Gods people had enjoyed in Jerusalem humbled them insomuch that they say Psal 137. Psal 137.1 By the waters of Babylon we sate down and wept when we remembred Sion Miserrimum est fuisse foelicem the most miserable thing in the world to have been happie And therefore for the Use Let this be practised to bring men to be humble Application let us make them sensible of what they have lost I dare appeal to the sad experience of many a Christian who having been carried into some evil course by the strength of tentation and there kept by the power of Satan how when he hath come to recollect himself he hath mourned for the comfort he hath formerly enjoyed he apprehended Gods favour now he seeth his face clouded towards him he had joy in his spirit now there is heaviness he took delight in God service now he is dead unto it he could come with boldness to the throne of grace now he is afraid to appear before God he had peace in himself now nothing but disturbance Had he not known so much of Gods comforts this present state could not have been so troublesom but now he mourneth and weepeth and crieth out with David to be restored to his former joy and he will never more return to folly The second Quere is Whither goest thou What way canst thou make for thy self in this desolate place in this vast wilderness Nay certainly the Angel knew that she was minded to return into Egypt her own country and therefore in the Quere he would insinuate the danger that she casts her self into as if he had said Thou hast ill provided for thy body by thy forsaking of thy mistress house for there is nothing to be expected here but hunger and death But thou hast worse provided for thy soul Hast thou left the Church of God to return to that wicked place again Wert thou in mercy rescued from that idolatrous country to return to thy former vomit Dost thou mean to ruine both body and soul together They that will draw people from their ill counsels Observ 7. The discovery of torments the best disswasion from evil courses as the courses must acquaint them with the fearful issues of them So did Noah by the old world and Lot by the Sodomites so did Moses by Gods people laid before them all those judgements that should inherite their transgression So did Jonah by the Ninevites and the rest of the Prophets to those to whom they preached So did the Baptist tell them of the wrath to come and that every tree that brought not forth good fruit should be hewen down and cast into the fire So did the Apostles make their hearers see that if they persisted in their wicked courses their souls would be everlastingly lost For the Use of it Application You must give us leave that are the Ministers of God and his Angels in our way to acquaint you with the fearful conclusion of your sinful premises It is not onely your body and estate and name and good of wife and children and family that are in danger but your precious souls they are in the high-way to be lost by your walking in the broad way the leadeth to destruction And how lost Non ut non sint sed ut semper male sint S. Gregory saith Gregory Not that they should cease annihilation were in that case a felicity but be for ever miserable You love not to hear of this black train of sin but we must be faithful and still cry unto you in the Angels words to Hagar Whither go you Why do you make such haste to hell Why will you lose your souls in the errour of your lives You had need have a good bargain of sin that must pay so dear for it even your souls I wish you could better brook these warnings Pathetical Dehortations from sin and from my soul I desire that every of you would say to your selves when you are tempted to this or that wickedness Whither go I When I am tempted to the Brothel-house whither go I Even to the place that Solomon tells me leads to the chambers of death When I am led by excessive company whither go I Even to that place where I shall deform my body and besot my soul and ruine both I am tempted to an idolatrous place whither go I Even thither where I shall infect my soul Shall I leave God and the ways of holiness to tread the paths of wickedness will not this be bitterness in the later end Shall I not have infinite thousand years of sorrow for my few hours of pleasure Shall I be able to return when I have run out my race Oh no! Oh let us be so wise as to foresee the issues of our sinful courses and whither we are going before we go hence and be no more seen and sure we will not dare to damn our souls for
the midst of the sea and then take them off Oh let us all pray that when our foot slippeth the mercy of God may hold us up and keep us from falling Psal 94. for we being tempted unto evil and inclineable in our nature not onely to resolve upon it but to pray that we may be kept by his grace and that the knife may be taken from us with which like mad-men we would wound our selves We now come to the direction it self which consisteth of two things First she must return to her mistris Secondly she must humble her self under her hand First she must return Musculus moveth the question Musculus in locum why the Angel would have her return seeing after a while she was to be cast out of Abrahams house And he answereth that first it was a considerable time that she stayed in Abrahams family even till her son was grown he was fourteen years older then Isaac and after Jsaac was born his mother and he staid so long till Isaac and he could play together and he could mock Isaac as appears Gen. 25. Gen. 25. which was the cause of his ejectment For the injunction there might be something observed out of it if it had not been before touched Observ 5. Dominion and servitude stand well with christian liberty As first That he would have her return therefore he condemns her flight This we spoke of before and shewed that the flight of servants upon ill usage by their masters or mistresses was unlawful Secondly He saith here return to thy mistris as justifying the order that God hath set in the world A briefe reflection on Serm. j. Observ 6. of government and subjection Some must be masters and others in the condition of servants of this we have spoken heretofore largely and shewed that by the commandement that God hath given to masters to govern their servants both in the old and new testament by the many directions he hath given both to masters and servants for their carriage as appeareth in Moses Solomon's And the Apostles writings by the examples of Saints and holy men that have been some masters some servants by the rewards propounded both to masters and servants upon the conscionable performance of their duty it appeareth that God approveth of the condition of servants and therefore the Anabaptists are but vain in their objections against it They say that it is against nature for one to be servant to another servuus nomen non naturae sed culpae saith Saint Augustin Servant is a name not of nature but of sin and punishment be it so that it is against perfect nature and the state of innocency wherein there should not have been That dominium despoticum that masterly power that is now exercised yet it is not against that course of nature wherein God hath now setled man God hath turned some punishments of sin into bounden duties as subjection of the wife to the husband and mans eating his bread in the sweat of his browes But again say they it is against grace and that liberty which Christ hath purchased but I say it is not for Christ hath set us free from the ceremoniall law and from the curse and rigour of the morall law and from Satan sin death and damnation but not from that order and those degrees which he hath established in the world But we are all one in Christ say they there is neither bond nor free True as they are members of Christs spiritual Body but not as they are members of a politick Body a politick inequality is not against a spirituall equality Onesimus is as good as Philemon in Christ yet Onesimus is Philemons servant this kinde of reasoning was in the very Apostles time servants presumed upon their liberty by Christ and therefore they would shake off the yoke of subjection especially to the aliens But we shall see how earnest the Apostles are to put strength in This and tell them that their spirituall estate may not dissolve civil order but they must be subject to their masters whether christian or heathen so long as they were servants even for conscience sake but no more of this Secondly humble thy self under her hand This is harsher then the former Gods commands lye not alwayes in smooth wayes they charge that which is contrary to our corrupt disposition but they must be obeyed though it be to the pulling out of the right eye and to the cutting off of the right hand but we will defer this till we come to shew how Hagar performed This which the Angell injoyned her In the mean time we must observe that she had been guilty of faults First flying from her mistress Secondly insolency towards her mistress Now the Angell fitteth the medicine unto both these maladies First she must make amends for her flight by her returning Secondly she must humble her self under her mistresses hand Observ 6. Satisfaction for offences how to be rendred both to God and man to make amends for her insolency and here might be observed that satisfaction is to be given to such whom we have offended we must confess our fault and crave their pardon and carry our selves fairly towards them for after time we see it was done by Josephs brethren and Aaron and it is that which our Saviour approveth that if our brother have any thing against us we should be reconciled unto him which cannot be done without confession and submission And Saint Paul undertaketh for Onesimus that he shall return and deprecate his fault and be ever after a faithfull servant This is a bitter pill to many men when they have done wrong they are loath to confess it or to seek pardon for it but if they shall not do it they shall finde that as they are still debtors to men so they are to God also and incur his wrath by not obeying this commandement of God But I will conclude with that which is required of men in regard of God as they have gone away from him by their sin so they must return unto him and as they have lifted up themselves in the pride of their hearts against him 1 Pet. 5.6 so they must humble themselves under his hand 1 Pet. 5. First we must return How often are sinners call'd upon by the Prophets Return unto the Lord the Father allegorizeth that place of the wise men returning into their country another way the sinner that hath gone out by the way of uncleanness he must return by the way continency if by the way of excess he must return by the way of temperance if by the way of pride he must return by the way of humility Return we must for the longer we keep off from God the worse we are like to Absalon who having offended his father fled to Geshur and there stayed three yeares 2 Sam. 13.38 2 Sam. 13. But we must return to our father as the prodigall did Secondly we must
it an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth a wound for a wound sic juvat ire per umbras they think they shall have more content in their death by this means yet such wrath worketh not the righteousness of God and they shall finde when they come before him that must judge all that they have wronged their souls in taking revenge But now I must tell you that some Expositors make this an Imprecation as if she desired God to judge him for her carriage in this business and to punish him for fomenting and nourishing the handmaid in her malapertness and insolency for so she conceived it And thus the Septuagint render it as if it were a prayer for vengeance But now I must tell you that some Expositours make this an imprecation as if she desired God to judg him for her carriage in this business and to punish him for fomenting and nourishing the handmaid in her malepertness and insolency for so she conceived it And thus the Septuagint rendreth it as if it were a prayer for vengeance Imprecations are fearful Observ 4. The impiety and danger of rash oaths and impreâ—ations for they grow usually out of Passion and distemper and that impotency that is in people to brook injuries and subdue their tumultuous thoughts As we see in those Israelites who when they conceived Moses his motion to Pharaoh for their dimission to prove the means of their vexation they break out into an imprecation Exod. 5. Exod. 5.21 The Lord look upon you and judg in that you have made us abhorred of Pharaoh and his servants and have put a sword into their hands to slay us The mother of Micah was in such a rage for the silver that was taken from her that she cursed Judg. 17. Judg. 17.2 1 Sam. 17.43 Thus the uncircumcised Philistins in their pride and disdain and rage cursed David 1 Sam. 17. Thus Shimei cursed him also out of a rancorous spirit 2 Sam. 16.5 And Jeremy saith the people cursed him Jerem. 5. Why but will some say Jer. 15.10 we finde the holy servants of God in Scripture to have used imprecations against others It is true but the Fathers will tell us First that they are not so much curses as prophesies Secondly that they did it not in their own cause but in Gods and not ex livore invidiae but ex Zelo justitiae they did it not out of any gaul of envy but meerly out of zeal of justice Thirdly that they were led by an extraordinary spirit and by that spirit they also discovered those whom they cursed to be incorrigible Why but will some say again do not ministers use curses against drunkards and blasphemers and other gross sinners yes but they do declarativè only declaring what shall come upon them if they repent not but they have no quarrel of their own and they do it or should do it as out of faithfulness so with compassion that any should deserve that heavy doom For the Use then of this It should teach us to take heed of imprecations Application and that we may avoyd those the better we should labour to subdue our Passion of anger for it is that which bringeth forth direful curses it discovereth it self not only in looks and gestures but in dreadful curses Where can a man goe that his soul shall not be vexed with the hideous execrations of men that they send out against their brethren the Plague the Pox We have not the less of both those at this time Cursings and imprecations horrid sins for this wicked practice Yea they desire the confusion of others and whom do they spare not servants not children not wives not the brute creatures no not their own souls how commonly do people wish God to forsake them to judg them to damn them In the fear of God let us take heed of these imprecations if God should not be more merciful to our brethren and us then we are to them and ourselves what should become of us And let us bridle our anger the Apostle quickly addeth after that be angry and sin not neither give place to the divel Eph. 4.26 27. Eph. 4.26 as if that were a door that he entred by as soon as any and when he getteth in how doth he put on people to cast out words of death deadly curses which are unfit for the mouth of any man much more of a christian who is called to be an heir of blessing 1 Pet. 3.9 1 Pet. 3. and seemeth to desire to be accounted the childe of God which cannot be if he be given to cursing Mat. 5.45 He pretendeth to bless God with his tongue and will he curse his brother with the same tongue Doth a Fountain send forth sweet and bitter waters Jam. 3.11 Jam. 3. Oh bless and curse not saith the Apostle Rom. 12.14 Yea though they be thine enemies If you do delight in cursing you may have enough of it for your curses against others may return upon your own head it may come into your own bowels like water Psal 109.18 and like oyl into your bones Psal 109. And God oweth you yet more because you have loved to curse and not to bless at that great day of account you shall hear that dreadful sentence Depart from me you cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels Observ 5. Against light and frivolous attesting God and irrevereut usurpation of his name Again here is one thing further as there was want of charity to her husband in this her wish so there may seem also to be some defect of piety towards God for being only suspitious and having not yet examined the truth of things nay out of a long experience of her husbands respect to her having reason to think the best to call upon God to judg him or to be judg may argue want of reverence of that dreadful Majesty of God they must be severe occasions and of which we are well assured that must make us appeal to God and call him to be a witness unto and revenger of Every light Passion or suspition must not make us summon him as it were and engage him to our quarrel There is a too frequent use amongst us a rude and ungodly familiarity not only with the Name of God foisting it up and down in common communication and oathes so the very Jews with their superstition shall rise up in judgment against us They held it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not expressible and would not utter it and we prophane and sully it with common use but also with God himself and upon every trivial occasion we call him to witness and we call him to judg and revenge and to be the executioner of our wrath we will have him to judg where we distaste and lay on those judgments that we have wished upon our brethren nay we will be judges Isa 43.24 and he must be
God prescribing a course how sinners should make their atonement he saith When a man or a woman shall commit any sin to trespass against the Lord then they shall confess their sin which they have done So Jer. 3.12 13. Return thou back sliding Israel saith the Lord but how must they return and make themselves capable of Gods mercy it followeth in the next words only acknowledge thine iniquity And we shall finde that the Lord hath bound himself by promise unto them that sincerely confess their sins that they shall finde mercy Levit. 26. If they shall confess their iniquity Levit. 26.40 and the iniquity of their fathers with their own trespass which they have trespassed against mee and that they have walked contrary to me then will I remember my covenant that I have made with Jacob and my covenant that I have made with Isaak and my covenant that I have made with Abraham and 1 Joh. 1. 1 Joh. 1.9 If we confess our sins and leave them God is faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness And this have Gods people found by experience David Psal 32. did but say he would confess his iniquity and God forgave it and when he had confessed Nathan telleth him that God had put away his sin he should not dye the Prodigal found it so and so did the Publican after he had cryed God he merciful to we a sinner he went away justified Now the qualification of this confession is evident in many places of scripture as First that it must be hearty that is with a feeling of the burthen of sin as David Psal 38. My sins are gone over mine head Psal 38.4 and are too heavy a burthen for me to bear yea with a bleeding heart Ezra 9.6 as the same David Psal 51. yea with sorrow and indignation as Ezra 9. O my God! I am ashamed and confounded to lift up my face unto thee for our iniquities are increased over our heads so did Job abhorr himself and repent in dust and ashes Job 42.6 and the Publican for shame durst not lift up his eyes to Heaven and in indignation against himself he smote his breast Luk. 18.13 Saul will say he hath sinned but yet he seemeth not so much to have a sence of his sin as of his discredit honour me saith he before the people Secondly confession must be with an honest heart that is joyned with unfeigned hatred of sin and resolution to leave it Shekaniah saith Ezra 10. Ezra 10.2.3 We have trespassed against our God and taken strange wives now let us make a covenant with God to put away these strange wives What have It do with Idols any more saith Ephraim Prov. 28.13 Hos 14. and Prov. 28. He that confesseth his sins and forsaketh them shall finde mercy Some men confess their sins and yet continue them Pharaoh maketh an ample confession Exod. 9.27 Exod. 9. and yet at the 34. Vers It is said He sinned yet more and hardened his heart And Saul confessed his sin against David 1 Sam. 24. and yet pursueth him as eagerly as before And so many of those of the Church of Rome after confession renew their sins yea even by confession are emboldened unto it even as the Drunkard vomiteth that he may take in the more drink Thirdly confession must be in faith and confidence of Gods mercy not as the fellon to the judg knowing he shall dye but as the Patient to the Physitian Dan. 9.9 hoping for cure So Dan. 9. To thee O Lord God belongeth mercy and forgiveness though we have rebelled against thee and Ezra 10. Ezra 10.2 We have transgressed against God and have taken strange wives yet there is hope in Israel concerning this thing So the Prodigal Cain confesseth his sin but despairing of mercy Gen. 4.13 My sin is greater then can he forgiven and Judas confessed he had sinned in betraying innocent blood but yet it seems he distrusted pardon and therefore went out and hang'd himselfe All these might be stood upon and it is probable all these were in Hagar She did confess with shame and sorrow and she did resolve never to run into the same errour again and she hoped to finde mercy upon her confession and submission But that which is for our purpose is a fourth qualification of confession and that is that it must be full without mincing of the business or byting in any thing there is regard in this confession unto God not only a confession in gross but a particularizing as we see in Paul 1 Tim. 1 a Blasphemer 1 Tim. 1.13 a persecutor an oppressour Secondly an aggravating of sins Solomon supposeth that the people will say 1 King 8.47 1 King 8. We have sinned we have done perversly we have committed wickedness as who should say we cannot express how heinous our sins are Act. 26.10.11 c. So Paul Act. 26. Many of the Saints did I shut up in prison and when they were put to death I gave my voyce against them I punished them often in their Synagogues and compelled them to blaspheme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And being exceedingly mad against them I persecuted them unto strange cities So Dan. 9.5 6. We have sinned we have committed iniquity we have done wickedly and have rebelled So Ezra ch 9. Aggravateth the sin of the people as having been committed against the manifold experiments that they had both of the severity and mercy of the Lord. Mark 14.10 And it is said of Saint Peter Mark 14. Weighing that with himself he wept weighing the circumstances by which his sin was aggravated he was soon melted into tears This full confession some understand by that phrase Lam. 2. Lam. 2.19 of pouring out the heart like water before the face of the Lord pouring out and that the heart and that like water Not like oil for then some of the substance would remain nor like milk for then some of the colour would remain nor like wine for then some of the taste and rellish would remain But like water where every drop goeth out and not so much as the colour is left but the vessel is even as though nothing had been in it But now for the Use of this How far first Application are people from this ingenuous confession of their sins They will deny flatly that they have done such or such things God asketh Cain where his brother is that he might bring him to confession and he saith he knoweth not There is in his answer 1. Defectus veritatis a defect of the truth he lyeth 2. Charitatis the want of charity he is not bound to be his brothers keeper 3. Humilitatis a failure of humility mark how peremptory he is to the face of God himself to retort an interrogation Am I my brothers keepe Thus Sarah denied that she had laughed and Gehazi when his master asketh him whence he came he
follow them with good Advice They must set them a good example and they must pray for them they must correct them when occasion is and unbind the bundle of Folly that is in them that so their Sons may grow up as the young Plants and their Daughters may be as the Polished corners of the Temple If there be a defect on their part in this and that the Children grow wild through want of their cultivating and care they have much to answer for And secondly If notwithstanding their care the Children shall grow bad they must rest contented they have freed their own souls and the Childrens bloud shall be upon their own heads They may plant and water but it is God that must give the encrease Grace is the gift of the Father of Spirits and not of the Father of the Flesh Thirdly It should teach Children to labour for a goodness of their own for their Parents holiness shall not make them holy nor their Faith justifie them Some have a conceit that it is goodness enough for them that their Parents were good The Jews boasted that they had Abraham to their Father Iohn 3. but St. John Baptist taketh them off from this and biddeth them bring forth fruits worthy of life And when our Lord perceived the same humour in them He denieth them to be of Abraham and saith They are of their father the devill Ioh. 8.44 John 8. Rom. 11.6 1 Cor. 7.14 Why but will some say doth not the Apostle say Rom. 11. That if the root be holy the branches are holy and 1 Cor. 7.14 The seed of the Faithfull is said to be holy I answer That holiness is to be understood only in regard of the Covenant by vertue whereof they are members of the visible Church and have right to the Sacraments and partake of the outward Priviledges These be Foederati i.e. within the Covenant God is the God of Abraham and of his seed but they be not Regenerati not thereby regenerated in the Spirit Why but yet they will say The Promise is made to you and to your children Acts 2.35 Acts 2. I answer Yes but what followeth As many as the Lord our Goal shall call So in the second Commandement He sheweth mercy unto thousands but of them that love him and keep his Commandements Let the child then labour to imitate the vertue of his Parents and have a stock of Grace of his own for else the Piety of the Parent shall be so far from profiting him that it shall adde unto his condemnation But now to make an entrance on that first particular Clause Observ 5. The strange Metamorphosis of sin He will be a wild man The Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Onager a wild Asse a man like a wild Asse or as the Chaldee A wild Asse among men the Septuagint render it only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of the field or wood a wild man This was accomplished in Ishmaels person Gen. 21.20 who dwelt in the wilderness Gen. 21. and so in his Posterity they were as wild Asses The wild Asse liveth in the wilderness is a beast of an untamed nature and unserviceable to man Iob 39.8 9.10 as we shall see him described Job 39. Therefore the Prophet likeneth rebellious Israel unto a wild Ass Jer. 2.24 Ier. 2.24 So was Ishmael in regard of his Ferity Fierceness and Savageness Whence we may see how sin un-manneth men and makes them brutish brutish in themselves and towards each other whereof there being every where too much proof already among us almost in all professions and for all brutish qualities I shall here only add this Caution Let each one know and remember that it were better to be a Beast then like a Beast Preached Ian. 5. 1641. THE SIXTEENTH SERMON GEN. 16.12 And he will be a wilde man and his hand will be against every man and every mans hand against him I Must acquaint you with one thing further Ishmael was the Son of Hagar and the Apostle maketh her a figure of the covenant of the Law given in mount Sinai and of the earthly Ierusalem As Sarah the free woman figureth that Ierusalem which is above and the Covenant of the Gospel as appeareth by the Apostle Gal. 4. Gal. 4. Now in that Ishmael is a wilde asse it argueth the wilde and fierce nature of man which by the Law cannot be tamed but is made more rebellious Man as an unbroken horse when he is curbed and kept in flings the more This is that which the Apostle saith Rom. 7.8 9 13 Observ 1. How sin is irritated and provoked by the Law yet that remaining good and holy Rom. 7. Sin taketh occasion by the commandement and vers 9. When the commandement came sin revived and vers 13. By the commandement sin became exceeding sinfull sin is irritated and provoked by the law not only because as Origen saith quae prohibentur magis desiderantur such things as are forbidden are more eagerly desired nitimur in vetitum 'T is a great piece of the corruption of our depraved nature to ambiate things most prohibited And some say Eve did not so much long for the fruit quia pomum as quia vetitum for that it was pleasant to behold as for that it was prohibited but also because when sin findeth it self universally restrained and meets with death and hell at every turn and can have no subterfuge or evasion from the rigour and inexcusableness of the Law like a river that is stopped it riseth and foameth and swelleth and thus the Law is said to strengthen sin not per se aut ex intentione legis not by it self or through its own intention but by accident irritating and provoking that strength which was in sin before though undiscerned and less operative for as the presence of an enemy doth actuate and call forth that malice which lay habitually in the heart before so the purity of the Law presenting it self to that concupiscence that lay before undiscerned doth provoke it to fiercenes and rebellions and maketh it more outragious even as a mad dog is the madder for his chayn a strange wildness and fierceness and stubbornness there is in us naturally we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and will endure no rule nay Tit. 1.10 that which should hinder us inflameth and enrageth us and oftentimes we are the worse for being reproved For the Use We must labour to be recovered Application and to be subject to the Law of God for if we will not suffer the law to be froenum it will be Flagellum if it be not our Bridle to keep us from sin it will be our Scourge to lash us for sin and so it hath been to many wild ones the conscience being awakened the terrours of the Law have brought them even to the brink of Hell that they have seen nothing but Damnation before them But I go on The
from these precipices for thou hast the same root of bitterness in thee that those monsters have Prov. 27.19 as face answereth to face in the water saith Solomon Prov. 27. so the heart of man to man Every man may see in another the compleat image deformity and unrighteousness of his own heart and may truly say such an one should I be if Gods grace did not prevent it 2. Hereby God will exercise the grace of wisdome and circumspection for when such wicked ones be in the world the children of God according to the counsel of their Lord must be wise as serpents and innocent as doves i. e. they must carry themselves so 1 Cor. 10.32 that they do not provoke those malitious ones against them give none offence saith the Apostle neither to Jews nor Gentiles 1 Cor. 10. they must do nothing to irritate them it may be they may be offended at their profession and practice of religion but that is Scandalum acceptum non datum and offence taken but not given and in that case melius est ut scandalum oriatur quà m ut veritas relinquatur better it is that such an offence should arise then that the truth should fall and be forsaken but else they must be so wise as to carry themselves harmlesly and give them none offence Tertul. in Apol. whereby their still glowing wrath that fire on Satans Altar may be stirred against them and thus wise were those Christians Tertullian speaks of in his Apology They lived peaceably and quietly in the midst of their enemies and they were ready to do all offices of humanity for them but it could not be justly laid to their charge that they were injurious unto them insomuch that they could say bonus vir sanus sed malus quia Christianus Such an one is a good man but evill only in that he is a Christian Thirdly God by suffering such men will exercise the patience of his children for being apt to be wronged by those violent men though they offer no wrong there is an imployment of their patience as likewise of their cofidence in God who is an harbour to put into in all storms Fourthly Of their love to God for by a kinde of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and contrariant operation the coldness of the charity of men maketh their love more intense towards God it doth also stirr up in them the Spirit of prayer and supplication and make them more earnest with God for the protecting of them for the girding up and restraining of the fury of wicked men yea further it is the stirring up of their compassion towards those wicked men for we are even bound to pitty them who are so miserably enthralled under the power of sin and Satan and to pray for them that their eyes may be opened that they sleep not in death and the rather because we see this is the effect of corrupt nature which would break out in us as well as in them if God did not restrain it Titus 3.3 The Apostle maketh this an argument to provoke meekness Tit. 3. We our selves were in times past unwise disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures hateful and hating one another Lastly God suffers such wilde and fierce men and such cruel people in the world for the punishment of men while they take liberty to sin against him He maketh a rod of the malice and cruelty of the wicked to scourge them withall God gave his people into the hands of such as oppressed them because they had provoked him by their foul sins and though it is true that afterwards he threw those rods into the fire as we see in the King of Assyria and others yet for the present he doth use them to chastise his own people withal and they are very fierce against them Give me leave to adde one word more concerning this instance in our Text. The ferity and fierceness and savage diposition of Ishmael and his posterity was a part of the punishment which God laid upon Sarah for advising and Abraham for yeelding to take Hagar to wife Gal 4. They lived in part to see it for Ishmael mocked yea persecuted Isaac saith Saint Paul Gal. 4. and therefore was east out with his mother Psal 83.6 but after their death it fell out that the Hagarens were reckoned among the enemies of Sarahs seed Psal 83. They were amongst those that sought to cut them off from being a nation and that the name of Israel might be no more in remembrance unwarrantable courses treasure up punishment for after time Observ 5. The messages of Gods faithful ministers are his own word and Embassages I have made it good heretofore in manifold examples and given sufficient Reason for it for how should a blessing be expected upon any project wherein God is not advised withall Nay how just is it with him to render such actions vexatious unto the parties that have undertaken them And therefore let us ever ask counsell of God and look that the grounds of our actions be justifiable And amongst other wayes let people take heed of unlawfull mixture such as was Abrahams with Hagar a punishment of that fault may lye in the issue and they may grow up to be an hearts grief to those from whom they are sprung besides their being standing monuments 3. Part of his Histo c. 18. Tit. 6. as it were of their sin and shame if they shall prove good as Iephtah and divers others have done and not fly out as Ishmael yet that ought to be matter of humiliation as long as they live Antonine telleth of the mother of those three famous men Petrus Comestor the Author of the Scholastical History Peter Lombard the Master of the Sentences and Gratian the Compiler of the decrees having had them all in an unlawfull way that she told her Confessour that she could not be so sorry for her sin as she should because they proved such eminent men but he bad her to bewaile also her want of sorrow Though such children prove never so excellent yet the fault is to be mourned for and the judgment if it lye not in the childe to be a grief to the parents while they are living or a shame when they are dead as is said of Dionisius poenas quas vivus effugit mortuus in filio exolvit the punishments which he escaped living he suffered in his Son after his decease it may lye in some other thing for certainly God will punish it one time or other as he did in Augustine himself for his Adeodatus Let us take heed of this or any other unlawful course which though it seem never so pleasurable or profitable in the contriving or acting yet will have a sting in it and vex as much as ever it contented for God must be just and men must reap the fruits of their own way And so I have done with this verse I come now to the next Verse