married any without the liking and privity of his Father but took the right and due course gave up himselfe to his Fathers authority and direction and therefore God gave him a good Rebekah indeed a comfortable wife and vertuous woman In this therefore all children are bound also to imitate him Children must take their Parents counsell and direction in matter of marriage and not bestow themselves without their good liking and consent that they may have Gods blessing attending them in their marriage when they honour at once both God and their Parents in obeying Gods Commandement and shewing due respect unto their Parents So did even Ishmael though otherwise a wilde man for it is said of him that his Mother tooke him a wife So did Iacob afterwards His Father blessed him and sent him to Padan Aram to take him a wife of the daughters of Laban his Mothers brother And when Sampson saw a woman of Timnah that pleased him well he spake to his Father and Mother to take the Maide for him who went downe thither and made the match for him Indeed the Parents have more discretion and understanding then the children by reason of their age and experience and therefore it is for the childes good to follow their advice And to whom must the children goe for comfort and helpe in case that any crosse befall them in marriage but onely to their Parents of which comfort and helpe they deprive themselves if they venture upon marriage without them wee know that those God hath not joyned in marriage whom he doth not unite in that estate Now God hath made the Parents his Deputies in this behalfe saying unto them give your daughters in marriage and take sonnes for your daughters and againe you shall not give your daughters to them in marriage nor take their sonnes to your daughters Now how can it be said that God joyned them if their Parents whom hee hath made rulers over them in his steed do not joyne them seeing immediately hee doth joyne none in these our daies Also the children are the goods of the Parents as a part of their possession insomuch that they were also to be sold to pay their debts Wherefore as no bargaine is firme in other kindes of goods without the consent of those that have right unto those goods so neither can this covenant be good without the consent of Parents which have as much right from God in their children as in any other of their goods Wherefore those sonnes and daughters are much to be blamed who have neglected this part of their duty to their Parents and have suffered their blinde and strong passions so farre to transport them that against their Parents consent and counsell they have bestowed themselves in Matrimony and so have transgressed against the plaine commandement of God Such must heartily repent of their sinne and humble themselves before God with much sorrow for their great and wilfull disobedience Parents would not have their children thus to slight and dishonour them yea they take it grievously and are much perplexed with sorrow for their children in this case therefore children should bee much grieved themselves if they have given this occasion of griefe unto their Parents To satisfie mens owne desires and affections without regard to Gods ordinances is a notorious disobedience and bringeth the guilt of a great offence upon the soules of them that have so offended All you that have married in this disorderly manner see that you doe unfaignedly repent of the sinne before God and confessing the fault before him seeke to prevent the curse that must else fall upon you and your children after you for so dishonouring your Parents And you young men and women that be not yet married see that you binde your consciences and resolve your wills to obey this commandement Follow God in your Parents and be not so rash and selfe-willed as to crosse them and follow your owne heads and passions This duty will be easie if you looke carefully to your passions at first and suffer them not to be undiscreetely fixed upon any person untill you have acquainted your Parents with your desires and crav'd their allowance and consent But if a man or maide doe inthrall themselves and intangle others by a disorderly placing of their affections then shall they make this otherwise easie duty hard and impossible to themselves Keepe your selves therefore Masters of your owne hearts and sell not away your liberty through an over-hasty yeelding of your selves to your unruly passions Suffer not your mindes to be drawne away by any meanes but pray God to keepe your hearts in order It is a sinfull love as well as a sinfull passion in any other kinde which troubles an house and makes the children contrary to their Parents and to proove the greatest crosse that may be to them to whom they ought to have beene the greatest comfort Lastly Isaac shewes his due respect unto his Father by joyning with Ishmael his brother in burying his Father for so it is said his sonnes Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machphelah This is the last office that childeren can performe and they must shew their love and duty to them in the honourable performance of this last act as to testifie their love to their Parents so to declare their faithfull hope of the resurrection from the dead For therefore are men with due solemnities committed to the bosome of the earth because they expect their glorious rising againe and they shall not utterly perish and fall as doe the bruite and unreasonable creatures Now see Isaacs carriage towards his mother There was no love lost betwixt them but as Sarah did tenderly love Isaac so did he requite her love with love againe as is manifested in his sorrowfull taking of her death though she lived with him to a great age For so it is written that after Rebekkah was brought unto him and he was married unto her Gen. 24 ult Isaac was comforted after his mothers death intimating that even untill then he was grieved for the losse of her It is a fault therefore in childeren oversoone to forget their dead mothers and to let their remembrance quickly to slip out of their mindes how much more to be weary of their over-long lives and to be glad when the time comes that they must put them into the dust in respect of some paultrey gaine of money of land that they shall possesse when the Father and mother is dead All that desire their parents death for their goods sake which they shall enjoy after them and are glad when they shall change their parents for their goods must needes be called wicked and ungratefull childeren See therefore that you children love even your mothers heartily moderately lamenting their death that you may make it appeare their life was not a burden unto you And so have we seene Isaacs goodnesse towards his parents Looke into his carriage
unprofitably brought up to the knowledge of himselfe such a one shall be much more to seeke how to live religiously than another that hath some imployment for in not knowing what course to take he is made to stand distracted and doubtfull of his course and so full of vexation and unquietnesse Now all you Parents that have neglected your children very much and suffered them to trifle out all that golden season of youth in which they should have fitted themselves for a profitable and comfortable life in elder dayes be ashamed you have been so foolish as not alone to transgresse the duty of Christians but even that which the heathens have done You have been causes of your childrens misery and the Common-wealth too and if it proceed not from some other cause then from wisdome your children must be but burdens and diseases to themselves and the world Rich Parents are sometimes guilty of this fault for they thinke they shall leave them sufficient to maintaine them though they doe nothing and therefore intend them not to any vocation not considering how soon the Lord can empty a full Vessell and make the River Iordan yea the red Sea dry as dry ground and then what will become of their children Yea as not considering that to leave children much wealth and not some sufficiency for good imployment of themselves is to leave them furnished to doe themselves hurt and others and to bring all to nought quickly But many of the poorer ranke are guilty of this fault too who give themselves so to unthriftinesse that they cannot bestow so much as reading and writing on them much lesse some higher calling to which these should fit them If any mans unpreventable poverty disable him we blame him not for that to which necessity compels him only so that he pull not that necessity on himselfe but he that in a poore estate hath not some care to bring up his children to worke and if he cannot effect it himselfe doth not herein seeke help of the publique and able persons is not so good a Parent as nature will teach him that he should therefore now I commend Iacobs patterne to your eyes and pray you to cut out your lives according to his scantling Be not wanting to your childrens welfare the common prosperity and your owne comfort Let not others have cause to bestow upon you the reproofe of Solomon A childe left to himselfe maketh his Mother ashamed and what is hee but left to himselfe and the devill that is not acquainted with any profitable employment in a calling And let me speake something to children in this behalfe If Parents take never so due care and children will cast off the yoake what can the Parents doe Therefore you must learne you selves to practise subjection to your Parents as in all other things so in this Be carefull in the callings wherein your Parents have thought fit to place you that you may get ability in them to doe good to your selves and others The inconveniences that else will presse you hereafter shall prove more burden some unto your consciences when you shall be upbraided with these thoughts ah I might have done well but for mine owne wilfulnesse had I answered my Parents care and cost it would not have been thus evill with me But now to a second duty performed to them all Hee blessed them all according to their severall blessings as is noted of him that is he pronounced in Gods name and by way of promise from him what good things God would doe for each of them in his posterity that was to come after him For a mans selfe is blessed when hee is assured that benefits shall be granted to his childrens children in future generations Now in this way of blessing we cannot imitate him because wee want the Spirit of prophesie to foretell future events but there is a way of blessing which lyeth upon each of us we must pray for a blessing to our children and to our posterity after us and must carry our selves so religiously and righteously that we may procure a blessing to them by vertue of Gods promise to the seed of the righteous A good man walketh in his integrity and his children shall be blessed after him and Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord his children shall be like Olive plants Loe how you must blesse your children feare God walke uprightly and then shall you conveigh a blessing to them And so it is said He is ever mercifull and lendeth and his seed is blessed There cannot be a better Counsellor than Gods Spirit see the way of blessing your children and you that have cursed your children as many a Father hath done both with bitter curses in word and also by walking in a way of cursednesse abhorre your selves that have walked into a way quite contrary to that wherein Iacob did walk The Lord hath appointed that the Son which curseth the Father should die the death Although the Parent owe not so much respect reverence and gratitude to the childe as on the other side yet sure hee doth owe as much love and this cursing contradicteth love because to love is to wish well and to curse is to wish ill therefore God will punish him severely also that curseth his children I doe not meane him that in Gods name doth pronounce a curse against them but him that in his fury doth make some ill wish against them O how unnaturall is that man who doth worse than ever it was heard that any bruit beast hath done yet that is in a rage teareth his owne children in pieces If it be a proofe of an unsanctified man that His mouth is full of cursing and bitternesse then sure he is extreamely unsanctified that curseth his owne children for that mouth is full of cursing to the very brim that will dash over against the fruit of ones owne body But you that have not yet cast off all so much as likenesse to Christianity I pray you learne of so holy a man Blesse your children in your kinde as he did in his live not in so wicked courses as may curse your seed and root them out to destruction If you desire that God should grant prosperity to your off-spring walke in the wayes of his Commandements Interest your selves into his promises by being upright and mercifull and following every good way But I proceed to let you see what Iacob did to some of his children in particular First Simeon and Levi that had committed a great murder hee reproved them although indeed I thinke with too much lenity sayin Ye have troubled me c. In which words he aggravates the fault from the mischiefe it was like to bring upon himselfe not mentioning the sinfulnesse against God perhaps because he saw their temper to be such that they would little regard the sin but would be somewhat moved with the danger but on his death-bed he is justly severe
saying Cursed be their rage for it was fierce and their fury for it was cruell as in the former verse he had said O my soule come not thou into their secret therefore also doth he disinherite them saying I will divide them c. They shall be but a poore and despised Tribe and not inherite an intire portion So likewise for Reuben who had defiled his bed we reade of nothing he said to him before yet on his deathbed he deprives and disinherites him for it Thou shalt not excell meaning shall not have the double portion and preheminence that belongeth to the first-borne because thou wentest up to thy Fathers bed Doe you not thinke that it did put Simeon Levi and Reuben the three eldest sons unto sorrow and shame when they heard these words from their now dying Fathers mouth you have been incestuously lewd Reuben therefore you shall not be mine heire and you Simeon and Levi were furiously revengefull therefore neither shall the blessing bee yours All Parents must learne to admonish and reprove their children for their faults and to chastise them also and shew their dislike of their faults though for some necessary circumstances wee bee not bound to follow Iacob yet for the matter of the duty wee must follow him If our children give themselves to sinfull courses wee must call them to us chide them shew our displeasure against them diminish the testimonies of our love which else wee should shew and by that meanes helpe forward their repentance so much as may be Especially when a man lies on his death-bed hee should not forget then to leave some such words sticking in his childrens mindes as may cause them more seriously to bee humbled that if they have not yet been duly sorrowfull they may then begin to be humbled at the consideration of a Parents dying words if they have yet they may make their humiliation more deep and piercing But for Ioseph and Benjamin he loved them both exceedingly more than any of their brethren Partly because they were the sons of his best beloved wife partly because they were his youngest children dillings as we call them and chiefly because they were the best of his children at least Ioseph was and for Benjamin he was the least evill if he did not shew any great vertue What affection grew towards these in those two former respects is but a thing naturall It is naturall to love the youngest because when they bee young no expectation of more is left and because the elder being growne up have not so much present occasion of being still in hand and of receiving of those kinde of testimonies of love and because the youngest being least able to helpe themselves doe call the Parents heart more towards them It is also naturall to love the children of them very well whose owne selves one hath so loved If therefore one doe follow nature in these particulars he is not to bee blamed Onely this you must observe that Iacobs love to Rachels children made him not neglect Leahs quite or be carelesse of doing for them what became him to doe Take heed you Parents that have had or may have more wives successively though not together that the present wife who if her ill carriage hinder not must needs be best beloved because she is present to receive love and to requite it I say that the present wife make you not neglect or wrong the dead wives children If it doe God may crosse you in the children of the living God hath expresly taken order for this case and given this Commandement in the Law If a man have two wives one beloved the other hated that is comparatively hated lesse loved and children by them both he shall not give the birth right from the sonne of the lesse loved if he be first borne to the sonne of the more loved but shall acknowledge him for the heire which is so though his mother finde lesse favour in his eyes It is a great fault and shewes a man is led by passion not by reason when he suffers his affections to be misguided by such respects as in true judgement should not over-rule them But to love the childe the better for the mothers sake is no way unwarrantable so that it be not with such an excessive love as produceth injury or neglect against the rest Only one thing common now amongst us I must not let passe without a kinde of wondring how it should come to passe that many with us hate the Mother yet dote of the childe or hate the Father yet be fond of the Son Surely either the bad carriage of the Parent quencheth affection or else to loath the roote and love the fruit is a thing no way conformable to right reason But Iacob is much to bee commended for that be loved Ioseph most for his goodnesse Hee was his best sonne and hee amongst all that were come to any growth did shew forth the feare of God early That should rule the love of Parents to their children most of all where they see most holinesse and feare of God there should they beare most affection For as any thing is most lovely so with due reservation of other respects most love should bee shewed as if I have five children all being children and one having most grace should be most loved because grace makes most lovely seeing it proves a man to bee loved of God therefore must that childe be loved more than any of the rest and so in other like respects The most gracious kinsman the most gracious neighbour the most gracious poore man They therefore are even rotten in naughtinesse that love the most godly children least yea that hate such and they are but weake in goodnesse sure whose loves are drawne more by base attractives than by grace Surely the liker we be to God in our love and hatred the better we be and the more unlike the worse Therefore Iacob gave the double portion of Land to Iosephs stock which was one of the dignities attending the first borne and the preheminence of government he gave to Iudah because he knew that Christ the Ruler of the Church was to come of him and so was led by due reason in both his bequests And of Iacobs vertues to his Domesticks you have heard now how he is to strangers We have but two passages of his carriage that way which come to my minde First those that he met withall at Padan Aram when he came thither They were Shepheards men of his owne profession and he curteously saluteth them and carrieth himselfe with a kinde of familiarnesse towards them for he calleth them brethren demands where they dwell enquires of them about his Vncles welfare and gives them husbandly counsell about their cattell and so should every man stand disposed to men as they be men though dwelling many miles distant from him he should shew himselfe amiable meeke loving ready to salute them
our selves and scorne and contempt against them to gaze upon the faults and ill carriages of the godly men with whom wee live which is also so much the more aggravated if the reverence which we owe them in regard of their places and love in regard of their neerenesse to our selves have not beene able to withdraw us from such injuriousnesse This is one sinne of Ham cursed Ham the Father of Canaan come and examine yourselves if none of you have acted Hams part against your Parents against the Magistrate against the Minister against any Christian or neighbour Have you not beheld the faults of any such with content and gladnesse in it have you not beene willing to stand thinking of that fault and to make your hearts thereby bold to despise and sleight them to laugh at them and to censure them If this have beene to a person neere and eminent the fault receives great aggravation by that circumstance but if it have beene done to any Christian man though not of such worth or neerenesse or to any man at all it was a wickednesse to be abhorred shewing a most uncharitable disposition for charity rejoyceth not in iniquity that is is not glad to see another commit sinne and withall an heart that is willing to hide its owne sinnes and make them seeme little or nothing and make it selfe bold to commit them still by beholding other like sinnes in other men chiefely such as are bound in duty to be and in reason should be expected to be better then ones selfe hee alwaies sees the faults of others to some mischievous intention and with some evill affection that lookes upon them with an open and earnest eye as taking king some content in this that such and such also be bad as well as himselfe Now if you have runne into such a fault call it to minde and repent of it and know that how great soever the crime was your crime was as great or greater in so beholding Hams thus beholding his Fathers nakednesse was worse then his Fathers discovering himselfe And now I require you to make Ham your warning doe not as he did but as your owne consciences tell you that he should have done Aske thy selfe if thou beest a reasonable man of any judgement what should this sonne have done in such a case should he not have turned away his eyes from looking on such a spectacle should he not have sighed and mourned and said alas alas how hath this befalne my poore aged and godly Father O how was he overtaken with wine that was never wont to exceed himselfe in foode or the like Should he not have prayed God to forgive him and have told himselfe in this wise ah doe thou learne O Cham how weake a thing a man is and how apt to fall into sinne that thy selfe maist learne to be more watchfull and so have cast some garment over the old man to have saved him from further disgrace if any other person might have had occasion to approach him Sure you cannot but yeeld that Chams duty had beene to have carried himselfe thus respectively and pitifully towards his Father doe you as duty bound him to doe not as leudnesse and naughtinesse prompted him to doe Mend his faults and imitate them not be reformers and not followers of what was amisse in him Commiserate the sinnes and falls of other men chiefely Parents Magistrates Ministers Aged men and men of former godly conversation and of vertuous and religious carriage in other things I say commiserate them pray for them lament their weakenesse and their slips take notice of your owne dangers and so wake your selves by their offences But whosoever will contemplate such dolefull sights with gladnesse and insultations saying Aha aha as David speaketh of his Adversaries that man will collect boldnesse to sinne and impenitencie in sinne and a sleighting of righteousnesse and righteous men from such offences and so will stumble and fall and destroy himselfe against those blockes as they may be termed But I come to another fault of Chams He contented not himselfe to see but must also blab abroad what he had seene and tells it not alone to one but to his two Brethren that were without and did not see it He left his Father still uncovered and gets him out of doores to finde Sem and Iaphet and so soone as he met with them reports no doubt laughingly and fleeringly what he had seene like enough adding also words to this purpose to draw them to the like and bid them goe in and they should see such a thing as they would little have thought ever to have seene But let us satisfie our selves to take the fault as it is set downe He told the fault and told it to his two Brethren that were without and needed not to have beene acquainted with their Fathers nakednesse if hee wretched whisperer could have commanded himselfe silence So you have in him that foule sinne of whispering of another mans faults behind his backe aggravated with the consideration of the persons against whom he sinned his Father and towards whom his Bretheren both of them and where even without It is a sinne and wickednesse to scatter abroad the faults of others and to divulge those matters of disgrace against them which a man might easily keepe close if he were master of his mouth and is not bound by any duty to reveale and especially to blab them to such as else would not know them and such as might be most grieved and hurt by hearing them This J say is a sinne it proceedeth either from a twatling laxative humour causing that a man must vent all he knowes and be talking of many things or else from an uncharitable disposition to the party whose name one tenders not his person one loveth not It is hurtfull to the speaker feeding his hypocrisie making him ready to commit the same or the like sinnes and hurtfull to the hearer to infect him or to grieve him and to him of whom report is made to reproach and discredit him and withdraw the heart of the hearers from him It is much aggravated when the thing reported is false and uncertaine taken up upon meere hearesay and the person of whom J speake either my Parent Brother Friend or Superior my Magistrate Master or of note in the Church as a Minister or eminent in goodnesse as this just Noah This was the fault of Cham. I call upon your consciences to find out your sinnes in the like kind if not degree have you not spoken of the faults of your governours or of others to others meerely to disgrace or else meerely to hold up talke when other matter failed Bretheren do not count this a small offence a talebearer a whisperer a revealer of secrets is no small offender Hee doth not walke according to the plaine rule of our Christian Religion doe as you would be done to he doth not bridle his tongue he doth not
and bee submissive that will shew humility and winne favour with God and man Further it was well done of Hagar and is some good proofe of her piety that shee considered of this vision Gen. 16.13 and called the name of God thou God seest mee confessing that now shee took notice of Gods seeing and observing her waies and that shee said moreover have I also here looked after him that seeth mee as if shee should say Doe I live after the Lord hath come thus to take notice of mee and to reproove mee and send mee home againe and so the name was called it may be by Abraham to whom when shee returned she related this vision the well of him that lived and him that saw because the Angell looked upon her and shee lived or because the living God pleased to see her and looke upon her Shee was thankfull to God for his goodnesse in looking mercifully upon her and bringing her home againe to Abrahams family We must be thankfull if the Lord daigne us that favour to meete us in our wandrings and turne us backe againe from them Further it was a good thing in Hagar that shee yeelded her selfe to Abraham to goe away without murmuring and distemper when hee sent her away and her sonne in such poore fashion patient bearing of such hard and severe usage was no little proofe of goodnesse And when her sonne was like to die for thirst she shewed her selfe patient for shee went a good way off because she would not see him die and there shee sate and wept shee might have done better to have prayed with her weeping but to sit and mourne not to hang her nose over him weeping and roaring was some signe of patient discretion shewing her love to him And lastly shee tooke care of him afterwards to provide him a convenient wife for so it is said Gen. 21.21 this is a duty of Parents to make fit provision for the timely bestowing of their children in marriage whereof to be negligent is a part of one that regardeth not to keepe his childe in good order and to make too much haste is to make them hasten to misery So Hagar was a good servant and a good wise Mother and a good woman her carriage except in a few things was good See her faults now First shee grew proud because shee was with childe by Abraham and despised her Mistresse The Maidens of Leah and Rachel may shame Hagar in this for neither of them is accused for any such misdemeanour Take heede yee servants that you grow not insolent and contemptuous against your governours you see how much it distempered Sarah and it is a grievous sinne to put your rulers into passion by your ill carriage When the Angell met Hagar he commands her to goe and humble her selfe to her Mistresse It is apparant therefore her carriage to her was amisse There be some servants that having beene over-familiar with the Master take occasion soone to sleight their Mistresse So they add sinne to sinne and are found double offenders If any of you have offended in contempt much more in so ill grounded a contempt do that which the Angell bad Hagar humble your selves before God if not to your Mistresses Follow what was good in Hagar not what was bad Another fault of hers was that she ran away from her Mistresse which the Angell also shewes to have beene sinfull by sending her backe againe Let not the Divell make any of you play the fugitive by running away from your governours if they be somewhat sharpe to you rather strive to pacifie them by submission then to cast off the yoke by betaking your selves to your heeles These be her onely faults for I am loath to charge her with having an hand in Ishmaels mocking of Isaac for Ishmael was then upon the point of sixteene yeares old for Abraham was eighty sixe when Ishmael was borne and 100 when Isaac was borne and Isaac sucked some while like enough above a yeare and so Ishmael must be neere about sixteene that shee may thinke he was so sensible of being Abrahams heire as to laugh at the stirre made about the young childe as if by his comming into the world he should be dis-inherited Now see her crosses and comforts First shee was so happy as to be a servant in Abrahams house and so a member of the true Church within the Covenant of grace by vertue of her being a member of that domesticall Church It is a very good benefit when the Lord vouchsafeth to place a servant in a good family under good and Christian Governours which will affoord them all good usage for their bodies and all needfull helpes also for the salvation of their soules They may enjoy as much comfort in this as in any one thing that can befall them in respect of their habitation and dwelling to have good Governours in a good house For in being under the roofe and custody of a godly man they be under the custody of God himselfe and guard of holy Angels Wherefore let all those that have children and must dispose of them to be servants be principally carefull of this matter Let your care be to provide for yours Masters not alone of good estate with whom they may live comfortably for their bodies having good attire good fare good diet and the like but by whose meanes the may be helped to knowledge faith obedience graces of all sorts and to life eternall hereafter Seeing your children be made after Gods image have a soule as well as a body and have neede as much of things profitable for the soule since that is the farre better part and if that be well the good estate thereof will easily countervaile and make amends for the evills which the body suffered but if it be in bad estate all the bodily benefits will nothing at all advantage it therefore I require you in the first place to respect this most necessary thing in placing out your children And all you servants that have beene directed either by Gods providence or by the carefull indeavours of your good friends unto such households wherein you have all good usage for your outward man and over and above the comfortable helpes of domesticall duties to bring you unto goodnesse take notice of this mercy and thanke God for it and take heede that you grow not weary of those holy duties and shew not your selves so prophane as to be troubled at that which should be your greatest content Yea I pray you so many as live in good families strive so to conforme your selves to the goodnesse of the household as that you may have goodnesse by the meanes of goodnesse there used for otherwise that which should have procured life to you shall serve to make your destruction more terrible Learne to pray learne to heare Gods Word learne to be good by the precepts and examples of your Governours else as our Saviour telleth that
according to S. Pauls phrase Rom. 4. So Gods blessing is able to make our soules fruitfull in all good workes though of our selves wee be utterly barren and unfruitfull And thus we have done with Abrahams wives Now let us speake something of his contemporaries beginning with his sonne Ishmael Ishmael was sonne of Abraham and Hagar his maide servant borne unto him at his 86. yeeres as saith the Holy Ghost Gen. 16. ult He was the sonne of a godly Father but whether himselfe were godly or not it is uncertaine But in his life we must note First his Vertues Secondly his Faults Thirdly his Benefits Fourthly his Crosses and then shall we come to his death His vertues First he lived in his fathers house in outward conformity and obedience for he submitted to his father at 13. yeares to be circumcised Gen. 17.25 and so had the outward seale of the covenant but yet he was not the promised seede nor had the covenant made with him nor had the Church and true religion continuing in his family So we must learne not to satisfie our selves with being in the Church outwardly but must labour to become true members of it and to enter into the covenant indeed It will not profit us to have the Sacraments outwardly administered to us for he is not a Jew which is one without neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh but wee must indeavour after the inward circumcision even to get the righteousnesse which is by faith that that faith may purifie our hearts and purge away from us all filthinesse of flesh and spirit And if we make use of the outward seale thereby to be made to see and feele our uncircumcisednesse of heart and heartily acknowledge Gods will and power to make us partakers of the inward circumcision so putting forth our selves to beg for and labour after that inward circumcision the Lord will surely bestow it upon us Againe all children must learne to submit themselves to their parents at least to an outward performance of such holy duties as by their parents they shall be instructed in else they are worse then Ishmael and will become matter of anguish and vexation to their godly parents Would Ishmael accept circumcison and wilt not thou accept instruction learne the principles of Christian religion and settle thy selfe to some shew of goodnesse then shall Ishmaels example rise up in judgement against thee and condemne thee And parents must observe Gods goodnesse in their childeren if they find them even in such a degree tractable and ruly for this is farre better then to be wilde and furious and to cast of all semblance of goodnesse and yet such would the best mans childeren prove if the hand of God did not restraine them But another good thing in Ishmael was that he submitted himselfe to his Father to be banished out of his house no question but Abraham that loved him would informe him of the necessity which lay upon himselfe so to expell his sonne and would furnish him with all good counsell who then being some 16. yeares old was capable of good advice and so did he without murmuring or wilfull refusing to go yeeld himselfe to that punishment It is a good thing in childeren to take quietly their parents chastisement even though they should be somewhat severe But to oppose them or to rebell against them or fall to clamorousnesse and impatiency is a great sinne even though the correction should be causelesse and unjust how much more if they be righteous and deserved Learne of Ishmael this submission how will you hope that you be Gods childeren if you do not equall such a one as Ishmael in goodnesse Againe Ishmael did another good office in the conclusion of his Fathers life for it is noted of him that he came to Isaac and joyned with him in his Fathers funerall Gen. 25.9 by which it is manifest that he bare no grudge against his Father for casting him out of his house but bore that respect towards him which was due to a Father and therefore did him the best honour he could at his latter end yea that hee did not harbour in his minde any envious and malicious thought against Isaac and therefore would come unto him and unite his paines to burie his Father Learne so much good of him I pray you as to forget that severity which perhaps Parents may have shewed to any of you and not put off the dutifulnesse of childeren because you have met with something that flesh and bloud would call hard measure The lesse inducement any man hath from a parents kindnesse to love and honour him the more commendable it is if hee performe all honour to him but he that will be so transported with discontentment against a parent for some sharpenesse as even to hate and contemne him most of all if his owne folly have inforced his parent to such proceedings is without all doubt a gracelesse and a wretched childe I pray you learne also by Ishmael not to suffer envy to rise against your Bretheren if in any thing they be preferred before you to your detriment Love not them lesse then the name of a Brother or Sister doth require because you may thinke that they have stood betwixt your parents love and bounty and your selves and so as it were overshadowed you and kept the sun-shine from you but behold the hand of God in so disposing of things and resolve to love still as Bretheren Further Ishmael did one good act of honour and duty toward his mother Hagar For it is said Gen. 21.21 that his mother tooke him a wife out of the land of Egypt so he was ruled by his mother in marriage having her liking and consent yea giving himselfe to be guided by her as did also Isaac to Abraham and Iacob to Isaac It is a needefull thing for childeren to take the consent and assent of their parents yea if it be but of the mother supposing the father to be dead or absent and not to rush into this estate against their willes and privity No comfort can come to the conscience in such a match for whosoever is joyned together otherwise then Gods Word alloweth can have no ground of comfort as those are that are joyned without the good will of those whom God hoth made his deputies in this businesse The Lord saith to Parents take wives for your sonnes and give your daughters plainely putting them into his roome in that behalfe wherefore having not consent from them they live in an unlawfull matrimony untill such time as by humble repentance before God and submissive intreaties to their parents they have attained that good leave of their parents which they ought to have gotten before If therefore any amongst you have so offended they must see the fault and be humbled and seeke pardon Most times the Lord doth sensibly crosse such matches make use of those crosses to increase your godly
upon their consciences in that by their sinfulnesse they have even pulled misery upon themselves If you be well matched the comfort will be doubled when you shall perceive that it is a fruit of Gods goodnesse unto you in blessing your care of observing his commandements and directions and if a crosse come it will be far more easily borne when you have your parents and friends ready to comfort you and helpe you because you have followed their directions in bestowing your selves Thus you shall provide best for your own perpetuall welfare for that inordinate passion which is called love will soon be quenched like a fire of thornes and then it is not the fulfilling of irregular desires that will minister comfort unto you It is evident by experience that discord and dissention do quickly fall out betwixt them that followed passion rather then duty and discretion in placing themselves with a husband Now you shall be well able thus to perform your duty both to God and your Parents if you keep your selves owners of your own hearts and suffer not your unruly passions to make you slaves unto themselves and so to make your duty difficult and tedious He that keeps his feet and legs free from shackles and chains can easily go about any businesses that are needfull for him to do But whosoever will lade himself with irons and fetters shall finde it grievous to stir when it is requisite for him to go any whither Therefore shackle not you soules with the chaines of unruly affections that you may chearfully yeeld your selves to your parents disposall as both nature and religion do require at your hands Give not away your selves before hand commit not that vile Idolatry of making some one man a false god unto you and let not your hearts be inslaved to any one before your Parents have given you who have interest from God to dispose of you according to the rules of discretion for your own good For Parents looke to the constant good of their children in bestowing them but their own green heads do likely regard nothing else but the pleasing of their eye and fancies which likely doth end in misery and discontent And so you have seen Rebekkahs good carriage while she was a maiden living under the government of her Eather in his Family Now see how she carries her selfe afterwards 1. To God 2. To her husband 3. To her children 1. To God She joyned with her husband in prayer for children and therefore she had faith in God and trusted in him for issue not barely to the course of nature for it is said Gen. 25.21 Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife because shee was barren shee was present with her husband and joyned her owne supplications with his for the obtaining of fruitfulnesse by him A good woman ought to bee prayerfull and both to unite her devotions to her husband and also to call upon God by her selfe alone See therefore you wives that you be ready to shew piety in the same kinde pray to God with your husbands yea pray to him for your selves husbands and children and for all good things The blessings are doubled that are gotten not alone by naturall endeavours but by fervent prayers unto God for this is a proofe that they be granted by God in favour and so they become tokens of his love to men and by that meanes are much more comfortable then of their own nature they could be Those wives therefore are too blame that scarce are willing to pray themselves or to joyne with their husbands but by their backwardnesse interrupt their praying together a thing condemned by S. Peter when it is procured by discontents falling out betwixt and consequently also by any other meanes Mend this fault O ye wives and you that are husbands if the fault have been in you mend it and see that you joyne together calling upon God If you have children yet there be enough of other things for which you ought to visite the Throne of grace The graces of Gods Spirit are much more desirable then the fruit of our bodies and I am sure that our hearts are all barren of such fruit and cannot be made fruitfull but by Gods Spirit working in our hearts and prayer will cause him to make a barren heart fruitfull as well as a barren wombe but without prayer the heart will never bring forth true grace Naturall benefits children and the like doe fall into the laps of men and women though they doe not seeke them from God by this exercise of prayer but spirituall blessings cannot be obtained by any other meanes if this be not also joyned to the meanes to sanctifie them You have therefore cause enough to pray together as well as Isaac and Rebekkah even though you have not barren bodies yea and if you have children yet it is requisite to crave Gods favourable blessing upon them without which they may prove afterwards the greatest crosses you have instead of the greatest comforts see therefore that you be not slack in this service of God Again Rebekkahs duty is seen in that she went to God to enquire when she found a more then ordinary striving in her wombe wee must all learne of her to keep our peace with God and to be alwaies ready to seeke to him if any thing befall us that puts us to feare or trouble as you see the people of God have done at all times It becomes the children of God still to enquire of him and seeke to him in all occurrents Indeed it pleaseth him to send such occasions unto us that by them we may be drawne nearer unto him and visit him more often and more cheerefully They therefore that are strangers to God and run any whether rather then to him for help and direction when troubles doe come unto them are much too blame themselves for profanenesse They acknowledge God alone in word but deny him in deed that are thus estranged from him Mend this fault now and that you may with more assurance run to God when crosses and cumbers befall you be sure to pray without ceasing and to keep your hearts in with him by calling upon him at all times It is a most happy thing to have the Throne of grace alwaies open to ones prayers and it is kept open by continuance and daily exercising ones selfe in this service If any say how shall we enquire of God now seeing we are now destitute of extraordinary Prophets by whose meanes we may seek unto him I answer we have his Word wee have his Name we have his Ministers and faithfull people to go unto and by those we may as sufficiently seek unto him as by any extraordinary Prophets Wherefore as Rebekkah feeling that busling in her wombe said why am I thus And went to enquire of God Gen. 25.22 So must we in all occasions of disquietment either of body or of minde thinke with our selves why is it thus with me
in the yeare 2168. and after the flood as some thinke 512. and as others 562. for there is 60. yeares difference in chronologie because of the doubt about Abrahams birth Now the manner of his birth was this as the Scriptures relate Gen. 25.25 He came out first in colour red and all over rough as an hairy garment for which cause his name was called Esau which signe made as one that was stronger than ordinary children be and all over covered with haire In him the Lord shewed the freedome of his election as the Apostle notes Rom. 9. For Before the children were borne or had done good or evill it was said The elder shall serve the younger God chose not him but Iacob though they were borne both of the same Parents and at the same burden Now concerning his life we must consider 1. That which was good therein 2. That which was evill 3. His prosperity 4. His crosses and miseries For the first some things he did that for matter were good and commendable as even a bad man may have some good things found in him The first good thing was that he did shew good respect unto Isaac his Father For he was glad to gratifie him in his diet bringing home the Venison that he caught of which was made dainty meat which the old man loved to feed upon and when he came to him to present his Venison according to his Fathers appointment that he might receive the blessing from his Father he spake reverently unto him For when he brought the meate ready prepared for his eating he said thus to him Let my Father arise and eat of his sons Venison that thy soule may blesse mee Chap. 27.31 and after ver 34. Blesse me even me also ô my Father and ver 38. Hast thou but one blessing my Father blesse me even me also ô my Father Though his Father had given the blessing to Iacob his brother yet he doth not rage and grow into passionate expostulations but with gentle and reverent termes and with teares and with prayers seekes to get some blessing from him This proveth evidently that he carried a reverent esteeme of his Father in his heart and honoured him duly The same love and respect he shewed to Isaac after for when his wrath was kindled against his brother Iacob and that he minded to revenge himselfe by killing Iacob Yet he resolved to forbeare till Isaac was dead that he might not procure too much griefe and sorrow to him in his old age and therefore it is recorded that he said The dayes of mourning for my Father are at hand then will I kill my brother Iacob ver 41. He would not have deferred the murder of his brother for Isaacs sake till after his death but that he bare some respect and good will unto his Father And hee shewed the same respect unto him after Chap. 28.6 For when hee perceived his Father had blessed Iacob and sent him to fetch a wife from Padan Aram and not to take any Canaanitish woman and that the daughters of Canaan which he had married displeased his Father he went to his Vncle Ishmael and tooke his daughter Mahalath to wife seeking as well as his wit could serve to please his Father in that latter match although indeed he went not rightly to work in that marriage neither Some care you see he shewed to give his Father content though he had not wisdome enough to order himselfe rightly for that end Thus this Esau though he wanted grace and feared not God yet he bare love and reverence in some degree as a carnall man could unto his Father Isaac who loved him dearely and so he requited his love againe with such a kinde of love as might be found in an unsanctified person Now all you sons and daughters that have Parents living with you or have had come and lay your selves in the ballance with Esau and consider if you have so much as equalled him in this kinde of imperfect dutifulnesse towards your Parents He out of a kinde of naturall inclination or out of hope of being still kindly used and blessed of his Father shewed much respect unto him divers wayes Hath nature have carnall ends prevailed so much with you to encline your hearts to your parents as they prevailed with Esau If so yet boast not of this thinke not much the better of your selves these kinde of shadows of vertues cannot prove you to be godly children nor afford you sound comfort because themselves be not sound and perfect You have no great reason to please your selves because you are as good as Esau an unsanctified man and one of whom we can give little hope but that he was a casta-way I say therefore satisfie not your selves be not good in your own eyes because of this painted and counterfeit goodnesse But if otherwise it be and that it is evident you come far short of Esau and have not declared so much regard of your parents as he hath done then how bad must you account your selves that are much more sinfull even than an Esau might have been And it is cleare that divers children be far worse than this bad son of Isaac for they shew no reverence no submission to their aged Parents but apparently sleight them in word and deed grumble at them chafe against them carry themselves cuttedly and currishly towards them if at any time they be crossed by them will not be held from following their own evill desires as Esau was from killing his Brother by a desire not to grieve them but wilfully run on in their wicked courses even though they see and know that their wicked carriage doth greatly afflict and torment their Parents but purposely some do things to torment them O sin hath a greater sway and dominion in such childrens hearts than it had in Esaus and they are far more wicked than he was Yea when they see their Parents displeased with their wayes yet they have not so much desire to give them content as Esau had nor do not so much as labour in any manner though never so poorely to give them any satisfaction at all Woe woe unto such children what can he expect from God that is a viler son than Esau was Let such shame themselves by his example and now receive reproofe with meekness and greatly repent of their undutifulnesse if ever they purpose to attain pardon And now let all children that desire to enjoy in themselves the comfort of being the children and chosen of God strive to outstrip Esau in filiall obedience and duty Let them for conscience sake to God put on a largor measure of love and a greater reverence to their Parents labouring to please them in all things in the Lord out of conscience to submit themselves unto them honor them because God hath required it at their hands and to labour to forbeare all sin as in an holy regard to God so in part also out of a
cause to speake and that it bee the certaine truth they speake before they speake to any Thirdly while Joseph was young hee shew'd himselfe obedient to his Father for when he called him to send him to visit his Brethren hee was ready to obey him and did the office of a dutifull Sonne addressing himselfe to the appointed businesse although it was to take a journey of two or 3 dayes on foot Come young men and young women and learne of this good youth how to carry your selves to your Parents if they call you come and give them dutifull and mannerly answers if they send you goe and preferre the doing of their will in lawfull things before your owne ease and pleasure You know how precisely the Lord hath imposed this duty upon the consciences of children Children obey your Parents in all things You must make no restriction of the largenesse of this Commandement but by adding that word Lawfull which out of other Scriptures must needes bee understood and hee gives a reason saying this is the first Commandement meaning of the second Table with promise and with promise of welfare saying that it may bee well with thee As ever you desire to finde prosperity from God so you must bee dutifull to your Fathers and Mothers the instruments of your beeing and bringing up and the most immediate Deputies of God and you which hee hath set in his stead to take care of you and to rule you Now you that are sinfull and disobedient Sonnes and Daughters whose carriage doth farre differ from that of Josephs see the foulenesse of your Vice by opposing unto it the fairenesse of his Vertue Doe not your hearts within you say that it was very well done in Joseph to say to his Father here am I when hee called him to goe on his errand and when his father had told him his work by and by to set about it doe you not thinke that Joseph did the office of a godly childe and that which his duty bound him to and wherwith God was well pleased If he did as your selves must needes affirm he did be you grieved ashamed within your selves of your quite contrary carriage whose consciences can tell that instead of answering here I am have retained some surly answer and instead of going on the businesse have gone a quite contrary way Let your hearts smite you to Repentance that you may comfort your Parents with obedience hereafter whose hearts you have formerly vexed by your gracelesse stubbornesse Fourthly when Iosephs Brethren used him exceeding injuriously and hardly viz. selling him to forrainers for a Bond-man what did he but even intreat and beseech them to deale better with him as themselves tell of his carriage when they were touched with some remorce for their cruelty Gen. 42.21 He besought us and we would not heare Loe how it behoves a good body to behave himselfe to his equals or betters or any that being too strong for him when they doe offer hard measure unto him even intreat pray beseech use all submissive gentle quiet and milde words and carriage Learne that of S. Paul who saith being defamed we intreat You know Abigals carriage toward David when she found him in a great chafe against her husband and ready to doe violence to her family she intreated him and caused his passion to stoppe it selfe by her faire words Solomon hath told us that gentle words pacifie wrath and if any thing in the world will asswage the fury and mollifie the hardnesse and remove the cruelty of an enemy it is this kinde of language and behaviour If therfore any of us be guilty of betaking our selves in such case to railing bitternesse and violence giving all the vile tearmes that wrath would put into our mouthes against our Superiours when they wronged us and dawbing them with most foule names let us take notice of our folly in being wrathfull This was not the course that naturall discretion much lesse that Christian Religion would prescribe to a wronged man this shews him to be as proud and bitter that suffers as they that offer the wrong S. Peter saith we should not render reviling for reviling if we must not raile on him that abuseth us in words neither then on them that abuse as in actions Now then learne meekenesse of Ioseph learne to frame your tongues to this kinde of humble speech when you be wronged Perhaps you may say that Joseph did this because he durst doe no otherwise I answer if he feared his Brethren are not you to feare God if hee durst not speake wrathfully to them that hee might not the more provoke and move them should not you take heed of provoking GOD with the licentious use of your evill tongue But secondly I answer that it is very probable Ioseph did not this out of bare feare for then when he saw that the matter grew desperate and hee could not prevaile by intreaty he would have fallen to bitternesse at last wherefore follow his mildnesse beseech when you are wronged but doe not rayle and revile This is all I have noted of Iosephs private life in his Fathers house now we will follow him into Egypt and see how he carryed himselfe there 1. in private in the house 1. of Putiphaer 2. in prison 2. more publikely Iosephs carriage in Putiphars house deserveth praise 1. because he was a diligent and faithfull servant unto him Ioseph had beene bred up tenderly as the free sonne of a noble and great man Iacob of a sodaine God by his providence made him a bondman he frames himselfe to such dutifulnesse and fidelity that he winnes his Master and gaineth greater favour with him then any other servant as you may reade Gen. 39. ad 7. For had not he beene faithfull and painefull God had not beene with him nor prospered him as he did Let me commend his example to you that be servants to imitate it labour you to be good servants faithfull diligent in your Masters businesse and respective towards their persons that so God may be with you too and prosper you and you also may draw the loves and good wils of your Masters Your service is not bond service but free service at the worst it is but a service of eight or nine yeares likely See the commandement of God lying upon you as much as it did upon Ioseph and doe that which you see in him is possible to doe this is the way to make your service most easie and comfortable to your selves and most acceptable and pleasing to God you are servants now you may be Masters or Governours hereafter so frame your selves in the function of servants that God may blesse you with good servants Carry your selves towards your Masters as you would wish your servants to carry themselves to you and for the most part you shall find that in this as well as in other things the Lord will returne a mans owne measure into
to Abraham that Sarah should have given children suck for I have borne him a sonne in his old age as if shee confessed that giving a childe sucke should not be separated from bearing him And indeed nature doth manifestly call upon women for this duty for to what purpose hath God given them brests as it were bottles at that time replenished with such a fit and well pleasing foode for the babe surely not to milke out on the ground not to draw it backe by medicines and devices but to give it to the new inhabitant of the world with whom it came into the world So soone as a woman hath a childe in her wombe ready to bring forth shee hath also milke in her brests fit for its feeding and is not this as much as if the Lord should speake unto her and say I would have you take care to bring up this childe which thou hast brought forth with this nourishment which I have laid up in store for it for surely God and nature make nothing in vaine This loving part of Sarah is more considerable in respect of her age and her greatnesse of estate and household for shee was ninety yeares old and might in that respect have seemed warranted to have given her selfe a dispensation from this service and to have said should a woman of mine age endure the labour of watching and waking and looking to a childe and induring all its froward fits and a number of attendance why may I not set it to a younger woman stronger and better able to doe it then my selfe Shee was wife to Abraham a man of great place and state fellow to a King with whom Kings sought to be in covenant and should such a woman as I might shee have objected submit my selfe to this meane and laborious office may not I hire another to doe it for mee mine husband might shee have said is a great man and withall hospitall If he bring in men of place and fashion must I be hindred from intertaining them by dandling a childe and being made unhandsome and unfit for company with tending a babe might not another doe this as well as I of whom such intertaining would not be expected Againe have I not a very great household must I leave the care of looking to them for suckling of a childe which another ordinary body may doe as well as my selfe that will not perform the duty of over-seeing mine house Sarah made no such excuses but when she had borne Abraham a sonne shee would also give the childe sucke And truly this duty is a very good duty and grounded upon very good reason For who doth not see that it is a very great meanes of causing Mothers to grow in tendernesse of love to their children and so of making children afterwards more dutifull to them Last of all Sarah in regard of her selfe did apparell her selfe with modest and not over-costly attire for S. Peters words propound her to bee imitated by the good women in that particular saying so did the godly women that feared God in former time attire themselves as Sarah and shee is manifestly brought in for a patterne of this vertue even decent not flaring nor over-chargeable garments The Holy Ghost hath given women warning in two places of this duty both by the pen of S. Paul and S. Peter whose adorning saith he let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the haire wearing of gold and putting on of apparell but let it be the hidden man of the heart in the ornament of a meeke and quiet spirit and S. Paul saith Not with braided haire or gold or pearles or costly attire but as beseemeth women professing godlinesse with good workes meekenesse quietnesse good workes these must be the jewels and ornaments of a good woman gaudie and wanton tricks of frizling platting curling the haire and sumptuosity in gallant things and chargeable must not be looked after by good women This tricking and trimming doth nothing but allure the eyes of beholders and call wanton eyes to play with them It doth nothing but speake forth their haughtinesse and selfe-conceit I know it is lawfull for women of rich estate and high place to weare jewels silke purple scarlet gold silver but women must be sure not to be given to such things nor to be more costly then their husbands purses and places will beare nor to be sumptuous this way that if their costes about workes of mercy were laid in ballance against their cost in attire the former would proove in a manner nothing to the latter For most times it prooves true no women more niggardly and pinching to any good worke of bounty or mercy then those that are most costly and finish in their coates Those that are so curious and costly in attire are hard and neere in good workes and so doe gaine to themselves reproach and contempt in steed of that credit and good esteeme which they thinke their garments doe bring them You see Sarahs vertues compare your selves with her now And those that finde themselves like her in some degree viz. faithfull in beleeving Gods Word especially his promises obedient and reverent to their husbands that have nursed their owne children and doe not curiously and sumptuously set up themselves in their attire Let them be commended let their consciences approove them and give them comfort in being found like to this godly Matrone It is an excellent thing to tread in the paths of those women Gods owne pen hath renowned for gratious and vertuous and hath borne witnesse of their uprightnesse and salvation We may with some good warrant promise our selves to obtaine favour of God and eternall life with them whose godly conversation we have followed Shee that looking her selfe in this glasse of Sarah findes her selfe to resemble her in faith in obedience and reverence toward her husband in doing such good offices to her children and in comely and not over-costly arraying her selfe must blesse the name of God that hath fashioned her carriage according to the mould of so excellent persons But those that insteed of these vertues shall finde themselves deformed and disguised with the contrary vices are to be greatly ashamed and humbled and admonished to repent And all the women that would have the comfort of being daughters to Sarah must labour to get these graces and to abound in them See that you be dutifull and good wives and pray to God to make you such as was Sarah And now let us consider the weakenesses of Sarah First shee was weake in faith for this caused her to give Hagar to Abraham her husband and so to bring the sinne of Poligamy into the Church of God wherewith it may seeme it was not polluted before Shee doubted least her selfe should not be fruitfull and therefore brought Hagar to him to trie whether the promised seed might come of her and yet once more shee bewrayed more unbeleefe when the Angell of God
sorrow for sinne And let those children that are yet unmarried take heed of intangling their affections without the privity of Parents or of seeking to draw the affections of one another untill such consent have gone before for feare they make this duty very difficult unto them or thrust themselves out of the way of duty and obedience by their headstrong passions So much of Ishmaels good deeds now of his bad First at some 15. or 16. yeares he mocked Isaac this mocking was a degree of persecution and a fault in him I cannot conceive that he did it out of any dislike of Isaacs piety who being but a new weaned childe could not discover any piety unto him at least any such act of piety as should stirre up disdaine and derision but seeing such a great gladnesse and a merry feast at the weaning of Isaac he made a sport of him as it were disdaining that Isaac should seeme to thrust him out of the inheritance Now it is a great sinne to mocke any one out of envy and scorne that they should be preferred before them Mocking shewes a great deale of pride in him that useth it nothing but overvaluing of our selves makes us undervalew others Mocking is a tedious thing to suffer the good esteeme wee have of our selves and those that are neere unto us makes the contrary carriage of others unsufferable therefore is mocking a great offence Take heed I pray you of using it toward your bretheren or neighbours It is an act that tendeth strongly to provoke and we must not provoke one another It is then most loathsome when it comes from envy and malice make not a may game at your bretheren floute them not breake not jests upon them this jesting is that which S. Paul forbids especially laugh not at their miseries and at their sinnes but most of all mocke not at them for well doing Mocking is any carriage by which a man expresseth his contempt of another and seekes to make him also contemptible and despicable unto others He that can set light by a man for goodnesse sake which should procure honour how blind a minde how perverse a judgement hath he Be penitent if your folly have carried you to such a sinne and now bridle your selves from such ill carriage hath not God shewed his dislike of it sufficiently by punishing it in Ishmael with banishment out of Abrahams house Another fault of Ishmael is that which was foretold of him that he was a wilde man a kind of Asse-colt that would not be subject to any almost nor ruled by any This is a grievous fault indeed when he that hath the face shape and faculties of a man and should have wisedome to submit himselfe to such as have authority over him will yet know no governour submit to no authority be kept within no boundes but leape over hedge and ditch as it were and runne about after his owne fancy and live as he lists himselfe that is to say will evertake upon him the qualities of a wild Asse-colt to man-ward will never carry himselfe as a sheepe dutifully to God-ward Beware of being such wild fellowes that now follow their owne humours and care not what trickes they play not heeding any admonition or any reason If any of you have shewed your selves such formerly bewaile it before God pray him to pardon you pray him to turne you by shewing you your sinnes and miserable estate by nature and pray him to make you at length to learne to take the yoake of obedience and cast of all wilde courses live like men not like wilde Asses The wilde Asse runnes up and downe in the wildernesse and will not be led nor driven but will be where her fancy carryes her Be not you such but let the directions and admonitions of your parents and governours like bounds keepe you within compasse He that will live wildly shall surely procure a world of miseries to himselfe at last hardship shall tame him whom nothing else will tame or else at the end of his wilde race he shall stake himselfe as it were upon the vengeance of God and eternall death Yet another fault Every mans hand was against him and his against every man The meaning is he was a quarrelsome fellow still brawling and falling out one that would easily take and give matter of strife and debate apt to speake and doe that which would give distaste to others and apt to distaste the things that others said and did to him so as to make it the matter of a fray or grudge or both This is the fault that is described in these words Now a sore sinne it is that makes a man troublesome to himselfe and all his neighbours and causeth his life to be like the life of a Cocke of the game that is still bloudy with the bloud of others and himselfe I pray you examine your selves whether you be not such froward contentious men still in suite in contestation in opposition with some or other that will take no shew of wrong but will doe enough that cannot long keepe out of some brabling matter If it be a legall kind of quarrelling it is a signe of much folly much pride or both much more if it be a kind of martiall quarrelling that tends to stroakes and bloudshed Repent repent of this evill humour and seeke to God to give you a meeke and quiet spirit able to beare and forbeare able to shew kindnesse and to passe by unkindnesse for surely it is a kind of diabolicall life to live so unquietly and it will cause Gods hand to be stretched out against him whose hand is against every body And these are Ishmaels faults Now his benefits are First deliverance from two great dangers one before hee was borne when his mother was taking a course to undoe both her selfe and him God was so favourable to both as to meete her in the way and turne her backe from her wandering that returning home againe Ishmael might be borne in Abrahams house and by him brought up in all good order till his 17. yeere or thereabouts A great benefit it was and the foundation of his future worldly greatnesse This mercy must be confessed if God have prevented danger from us whilest we were in our mothers wombes and it were fit that Parents should acquaint their children with such mercies that they might learne to inlarge their thankesgiving by mentioning of them also We cannot shew our selves too exact and diligent in reckoning with God for his benefits Secondly God himselfe vouchsafed to meete him againe when he was banished and to provide water for him and refresh him when he was now ready to die for thirst How great was Gods care of him that sent an Angell to open his Mothers eyes and cause her to see a Well neere hand which either griefe of minde or weakenesse of sight thorough faintnesse had disabled her from seeing or else made a Well for the
is a Spirit of prayer and a man carelesse of praying to God doth not trust in God but in himselfe doth not acknowledge his providence nor live by faith in him Let mee quicken you to this duty follow Isaac call on the name of God intreate God for your selves your wives your children the Church the Common-weale all Saints I say recommend all persons and all things to God by servent prayer that he may give you his blessing and all things may be sanctified to you doe this duty daily and constantly We must attaine sprituall strength every day from the workes of the day by daily prayer as we attaine naturall strength daily by the foode of the day Pray well and live well pray ill and live ill By this we have fellowship with God by this we become acquainted with him and make him as it were acquainted with us by this we are made like unto him and draw grace from him and are more and more translated into his image O resolve to be constant in this service and let no temptation of Satan drive you from it or interrupt you in it let no backwardnesse of the flesh cause you to omit it but doe it so well as you be able and whatsoever objections arise breake thorough the same and tell your selves I will doe it heard or not heard accepted or not accepted whatsoever I be what sins soever I shall have I will continue to call on the name of the Lord I will doe my duty let me speede as pleaseth the Lord. Againe it is noted of Isaac Gen. 24.63 that he went out into the field to meditate in the evening This also is an excellent service of God wee are commanded to meditate on Gods Law continually and to meditate on all his wondrous workes For the circumstances of time place manner every man is left to his owne choice but the substance of the duty must be done We must meditate we must exercise our selves in the serious considerations of Gods Word and workes that wee may raise our selves to a fuller knowledge of them and cause our wills and affections to be more subject unto our knowledge Meditation is that which maketh all truths profitable to us without this our knowledge will be but speculative and talking 't will not be practicall and effectuall without this we shall finde no more benefit by our knowledge then by meate undigested that cannot yeeld good nourishment to the body This must increase our knowledge and improove it this must bring it downe from the head unto the heart and so into the life Consider what I say saith S. Paul to Timothy and in other places hee that will a little withdraw himselfe from all other businesses and give himselfe to muse of holy things and take notice of the truth and certainety of them and so confirme his faith in them and then labour with himselfe to be affected with them and draw from them firme and stable resolutions for the well ordering of his life shall finde more progresse in one moneth in the life of godlinesse then he that without meditating doth barely reade and heare for many yeares together you must cover the spiritual seede with earth you must binde the Word to the tables of your hearts you must hide the Word in your hearts If you be slacke and carelesse of this duty your growth in grace will proove exceeding slender Imitate Isaac in this service I know not how a man should come to any stedfast knowledge of his sincerity if he be not one that meditateth on Gods Law So many as are guilty of utter omitting this duty let them bewaile and confesse this sinne of omission and now learne all that would build up themselves in godlinesse to be constant in it Be not discouraged at your imperfections and manifold distractions and great aversenesse All things of this nature are most difficult at the first who reades well at the first going to schoole who writes well at the first setting of pen to paper It is exercise that must perfect our abilities in all such things begin and continue and be not out of heart for failings which the Lord will easily and gratiously passe by and you shall finde the thing more and more easie and more and more comfortable Another particular thing in Isaac was that he was one which feared God his heart stood in awe of God he durst not offend nor crosse him nor oppose himselfe unto his good pleasure So it is noted Gen. 27.33 that when he had unwittingly blessed Iacob and Esau came in after him he feared exceedingly and would not reverse that blessing but said I have blessed him and he shall be blessed and therefore Gen. 31.53 Iacob sweareth by the feare of his Father Isaac that is that God whom his Father feared as in his whole life so especially at that time when he had newly blessed him Isaac calling to minde that God had given the blessing to Iacob saying the elder shall serve the younger and that he had carelesly and fondly gone about to transferre the blessing to Esau out of his carnall indulgence unto him because he was the elder was much afraid to think what a sin he had committed against God and so was restrained from being bold to persist in that carnall purpose but submitting his will to Gods he ratifies that blessing which he had ignorantly pronounced therefore it is said Heb. 11.20 that by faith he blessed Esau and Jacob as concerning things to come It was faith that wrought this feare in him and made him resolute in the blessing given to Iacob the story of this feare you see Gen. 27.33 he trembled exceedingly So it is a good thing to have such an high and reverent esteeme of Gods greatnesse as to make us even tremble very much when we perceive wee have offended him in going about to doe things contrary to his will as Isaac had in attempting to blesse Esau which now hee bethought himselfe of when God had unwittingly directed the blessing to Iacob which himselfe intended to misplace This is a proofe of a soft and tender heart and of an heart uprightly disposed to serve God It is a fruit of a good conscience to check us for sin and stirre up feare in us when we have done amisse so as to stop us from proceeding in our sinnes Demand of your selves have you this feare in your hearts if you have not where is any other grace for it is the beginning of wisdome and without it no grace can grow no corruption can be truly subdued If you have it be thankfull for it and labour to grow in it and to set it on worke more and more particularly as just occasion is ministred If you have sinned if you be about to sinne labour to feare and so to fulfill and worke out your salvation in feare and trembling The Lord our God is a great God and a consuming fire and if we finde our selves to
towards his wife Rebeccah and that also in two things mentioned in Scripture First it is said that hee loved her Gen. 24. ult This is a thing required of all husbands they must account themselves and their yoake-fellowes but one flesh one body as S. Paul commands yea they must love them not with an idle and meere verball love but with such a love as they beare unto themselves that causeth them to love and cherish themselves so as above all things they must not be bitter against them as S. Paul informeth the Collossians Indeed because the Lord hath knit man and wife together in the neerest bond causing them to be but one flesh therefore should their loves be most fervent and abundant A man must therefore love his wife above all other persons hee must forsake father and mother and cleave unto his wife as Adam said at first yea in respect of matrimoniall love he must love her alone and none other but her You therefore that are husbands and have wives come and answer before God how doe you love your wives how doe you cherish them with all comfortable maintenance and kindnesses how are you carefull to shun all tartnesse and bitternesse all froward peevish words and gestures all discurteous quarrellings with them and rating revelling and upbraiding tearmes If your consciences accuse you of unlovingnesse and bitternesse you are great sinners before God and must apply to your selves that of S. Iohn hee that loveth not his wise whom hee seeth daily how shall he love God whom hee never saw Lay not the blame of your want of love upon your wives in respect of their ill qualities and carriage men love their childrens persons above all other mens children though they be neither so personable nor well conditioned and should they not know how to doe the same also to their wives No man is dispensed withall from doing his owne duty because of another persons failing in his duty for we must doe our duty every one out of conscience to Gods Commandements not alone because of other inducements It is therefore a great offence in an husband not to beare a tender and constant love unto his wife And now all you husbands profit by Isaacs example and humbly pray to God to frame your hearts to the unfaigned love of your wives This is the way to make you like comfortably and chastly a man shall be happy if he enjoy what he loveth and love what he must enjoy They live with great peace in themselves that for conscience sake to God have their soules knit unto their wives but hee whose affections are disjoyned and divorced from his wife doth live in perpetuall vexation because he hath not subjected his affections to the commandement of God and fixed his heart on her to whom God would have it united And he that loveth not his wife honestly is in perpetuall danger to bee caught with the unchast love of another woman therfore Salomon bids one wander in the love of his owne wife for why saith hee shouldst thou be taken with a strange woman This duty therefore is very requisite and every good man must heartily crie to God to worke in his heart this vertuous affection towards his wife that love may make him able to performe all other duties without which he must needs be defective in all other matrimoniall offices Another thing very commendable in Isaac towards his wife was this that hee contented himselfe with Rebekah alone and did not take that unlawfull liberty which yet the common custome of those times did make to seeme lawfull to many otherwise godly men of having more wives then one as had Abraham the Father of Isaac and Iacob his sonne A man should keepe himselfe wholly to the wife of his youth and not divide himselfe betwixt two remembring that God at first made them male and female and created but one for one as Malachie 2.15 noteth though hee had abundance of spirit because hee sought a godly seede yea hee said a man shall cleave to his wife not wives and they two as our Saviour interprets it shall bee one flesh The custome of our times inforceth men to this duty but it is a fault when they doe it not heartily but rather for custome then for conscience yea many that shame will not suffer to keepe more wives then one yet secretly give themselves to other women and so violate their covenant of marriage and defile themselves with great pollutions Lastly Isaac was ready to hearken to his wife Rebekahs counsell and when she complained of Esaus wives evill and froward behaviour telling how bitter her life would prove if Iacob also should bring in such ill nurtured wives he sends him away according to her desire to take a wife in Padan-aram So should every good man be ready to hearken to his wives advice and counsell and to gratifie her in those things that are fit not to crosse and contradict her This is a part of due kindnesse to your wives see that you neglect it not to the procuring of mutuall and continuall discord betwixt you So have we considered Isaacs good carriage towards God and his parents Father and mother and towards his wife hee was a parent and had children even two sonnes Esau and Iacob Now he blessed both of them and that out of Faith for his blessing was not a bare wishing and praying for a blessing upon them but a propheticall prediction of a blessing in Godsname whereof if he had not received a promise from God and also beleeved that promise neither he nor his children would have made so great account of it All of us cannot blesse our children in this manner for the gift of prophecie is wanting unto us but all of us must in Faith blesse our children that is pray for a blessing at Gods hand upon our seede as well as our selves Yea wee must all apply our selves to the sincere obedience which hath an ample promise of blessing annexed and cannot faile to procure a blessing since God will not faile to fulfill his word Why is a propheticall blessing of some valew surely because it is a certaine thing as having its originall in Gods fidelity who having said it shall be so must either accomplish it with his hand or else falsifie his word which is impossible Now it is as impossible that God should neglect to keepe his promise as to fulfill his predictions wherefore seeing all blessings are plentifully promised to him that walketh before God uprightly and constantly doe this O yee Fathers this is to blesse your childeren in faith but if you follow your owne hearts and leave the wayes of God and goe forward in pathes of impiety and unrighteousnesse then doe you curse your selves and your children and worse then pronounce a curse even pull downe a curse upon your selves and them Further Isaac did conferre the principall blessing upon Iacob to whom God had
feare to vex and kill their godly Parents whose tender affection to them cannot but cause that their wicked carriage shall prove a mighty corrasive unto their soules Be as good as Esau yea in this matter be you far better than he content not thy selfe to be even with a miserable Esau in dutifulnesse to your Parents Another thing in Esau we have recorded in Scripture which is commendable and that towards his brother Iacob for though he went against him with foure hundred men intending to take a sharp revenge by killing him at least if not his wives and children too yet when he saw his brothers loving and kinde and humble carriage in sending him a rich present and in bowing down and saluting him with his face to the ground seaven times his naturall affection prevailed against his former unruly passion and he handled him very curteously and ran to him wept on his neck kissed him gave him kinde words invited him to his countrey and would have left off his servants with him to do him service and so returned and did him no hurt at all Every man sees that this was well done of Esau Come and imitate him and if you have been transported with rage against any specially against a brother for any true or imaginary iniquity yet when submissivenesse and curtesie is shewed unto you let it melt you let it win you pacifie appease you and cause your passion to depart and though you have intended attempted and begun to use violence yet cast out such thoughts forbeare the execution of such evill purposes and turn your violence into kindnesse and humanity Be better than Esau and do this to any man as he to a brother and without such gifts and submission which be did by such inducements and shew love and kindnesse for very conscience as he did out of naturall passion striving in him Yea if any man have been imbittered against another for any cause and hath so far yeelded to his own fury as to begin to do naughtily in seeking revenge O let him do as well as Esau did go back in the middest of his enterprise and not suffer himselfe to be so confirmed in wickednesse as to go through with sinfull designes Let the feare of God the checks of conscience the apprehension of Gods displeasure against the doers of such things even reclaime you in the middest as naturall kindnesse did this sinfull man Be not satisfied to do as well as Esau in this case but exceed him and doe far better than he that you may shew your selves to have that grace of which Esau was destitute Farther Esau for matter of goods shewes himselfe not to be extreamly greedy and worldly minded for when his brother bad sent unto him a great drove of cattle even a gift of great value Gen. 32. 14 15. Two hundred shee Goates and as many Ewes with twenty hee Goates and as many Rams with thirty milch Camels and their Colts and forty Kine and ten Buls and twenty shee Asses with ten Foales I say a rich and gay booty he did earnestly and heartily refuse the same saying Chap. 33.9 I have enough my brother keep that which is thine owne and would not take it but upon urgent pressing First it is said ver 11. He urged him and he took it Now will you not shew your selves as good men as Esau in this case Know when you have enough be not greedy of gifts and when your state is already rich and abundant seek not to get into your hands though it be by receiving a gift that which is anothers O that Esau should be able to say I have enough keep that which is thine and many that be Christians in shew should not be able to discerne when they have enough but should be as eager to get even by worse meanes or as bad as this even by taking gifts and bribes for doing but even justice or which is worse for doing injustice and should by oppression and harsh dealing even with poore and needy men their Tenants and underlings seek to get even more than enough If any man amongst you finde himselfe so earthly disposed let him earnestly condemne himselfe and say alas what a slave am I to riches that have not yet so far denyed the world but that I am more covetous and unjust than Esau shewed himselfe If any say yea Esau did this towards a brother I answer doth not Christianity teach us to love our neighbours as our selves If any say but though Esau said he had enough yet it may be that he thought not so I answer In saying so he shews he thought he was so at that time and knew he should be so therefore should a good man that would be counted far better than Esau set himselfe to be so indeed and at all times Come then you that have estates large enough to afford you all due content come I say and learne of Esau to know when you have enough and not strive to get more by any greedy unjust and oppressive course Let others enjoy their owne and be you content with your owne yea goe yet farther and be content to lose some of you owne to those that are poore and in necessity and far lower and meaner than your selves But last of all Esau joyned with his brother Iacob in burying his Father Isaac and so at once shewed his respect to his Father in doing that last duty and his perfect reconciliation to his brother in joyning with him to doe it Learne you to shew honour to your Parents in the last act and let not an old grudge stick so in your stomacks as to hinder you from doing any good work because you cannot bring your hearts to be partners with those that have offended you Esau Esau shall rise in judgement against you if you continue still to have such a coare against them from whom you have received injury as that their presence will keep you from doing good workes with them in their company and in their society And these be all the good things which I can call to minde that the Scripture tels of this evill man Let us therefore passe on to the consideration of his faults which are more and greater And first in generall though he lived more than forty yeares in his Fathers house a religious man and a carefull worshipper of God yet he lived there as an hypocrite and got no true goodnesse as appeares by that he was not kept from fratricide or brother-murdering by any conscience to God but alone by a kinde of love and respect to his Father Look to your selves I pray you you that be children of godly Parents and have been trained up by them as well as they knew how look to your selves that you continue not sinfull and wicked and hypocrites at the last such I meane as care not to get the true knowledge of God but continue still lovers and servants of sin though you
deceit and other unjustice is sweete yet Solomon saith It shall prove but gravell in the mouth a thing troublesome and unsavoury Yea Solomon saith The riches gotten by lying are but vainly tossed to and fro of them that seek death and that The deceitfull man shall not roast what he tooke in hunting and that An inheritance may be hastily gotten at the beginning but the latter end thereof shall not be blessed for he that getteth goods and not by right shall leave them in the midst of his daies and in his end shall prove a foole Wherefore that we may attaine the blessing of God upon our estates let us put away all kindes of unrighteousnesse especially take we heed that we doe not take our advantage upon other mens oversights or imperfections by misreckonings false measures or any kinde of encroaching If one leave in anothers hand any thing and forget let not his forgetfulnesse cause him to take it as his owne If one lend us and take no witnesse or security let not his inability to prove the debt make us bold to detaine it Let not the love of riches and immoderate desire of gain so blinde our eyes as to make us unable to perceive the unequalnesse and sinfulnesse of our course nor yet so harden our hearts and dull our consciences that we should be emboldened against our knowledge to enrich our selves by such devices So much for Iacobs vertues respecting himselfe Now see his carriage towards others First those that were neare to him Then strangers And first of his kindred his Superiours Equals Inferiours for his Superiours they be his Parents Isaac and Rebekkah to whom hee was loving and obedient his obedience he shewed in travailing to Padan Aram at his Mothers advice Fathers perswasion for a wife It behooveth children to shew all good subjection and that particularly in this point of being ruled by their discreet and religious Parents in choice of a wife or husband so as to make them their guiders and directors in this weighty businesse and they must not suffer their hearts to be set upon any person in that respect without the knowledge and consent of their Parents nor hearken to motions made to them without the good liking of their Parents If it be said how if Parents will crosse their children in their affections I answer The world is full of examples by which it is manifest that many come together in great heate of love and within a few yeares grow so froward discontented and carelesse either of other as none can be more And againe others come together with discretion not in such vehemency of Love and their hearts afterwards doe cleave each to other in singular love and deernesse Therefore it would become a childe to crosse his affection rather than his Parents But what if Parents will force their Children either not at all to marry or else to marry with such as are unfit for them in regard of Age Religion and in respect of evident deformities of Body or disorders of Life I answer I know no such unlimited authoritie granted to Parents as to compell their children upon inconveniences in any of these respects Parents are bound to tender fit yoake-fellowes to their Children as God did to Adam else the Children in not following their advice do forbeare to be ruled not by their authority but by their lusts For if Parents may not provoke their Children to wrath lest they be discouraged surely they may not thrust them upon other miseries and distempers But what must be done in such a case I answer By patience and long suffering and intreaty of common friends and like meanes the Children must seeke to win their Parents to reason which if they cannot doe they must referre themselves to the Governours Magistrates or Ministers and if these will not or by the Lawes cannot provide for their help they must even follow the advice of vertuous and wise Friends and Neighbors But suppose that in such case the Parents frowardnesse be such that they will not yeeld to reason and that they will rather drive their Children to an inconvenient match or yeeld their good liking to none what must the childe doe then I answer If God vouchsafe that gift he must forbeare Marriage esteeming himselfe called of God to the single life But if hee cannot by all good wayes so farre overcome himselfe but that his minde is conquered by desires of Marriage hee hath a plaine rule from S. Paul It is better to marry than to burne Yea but then the Parents displeasure followes and losse of such meanes or portion as else he might have had I answer Every good Christian must resolve to take up his crosse and follow Christ therefore I require you sonnes that have not troden in Iacobs steps for this matter to be humbled for it with true and hearty repentance Sinne will hazard a good man to some severity of punishment I meane that of knowne sinnes such as a man doth or would bee carefull might understand to bee sinnes untill particular repentance come betwixt to stop or remove that same but when a man hath and doth conveniently at fit times humble himselfe for a fault it ceaseth to make him liable to temporall evils further then they be needfull to increase and make up what would be wanting in his repentance and he that will at Gods reproofe turne unto him in humiliation and amendment shall finde the Lord a gracious Father and such a one as will not proceed to smarting corrections if loving and earnest admonitions may prevaile Againe all you children to whom God hath vouchsafed such Parents as have dealt wisely and mildly with you in this matter presenting unto you fit yokefellows and such against whom no exception might be justly made or have yeelded you to your owne choice and that hath so guided you too that you have pleased your Parents in your matches and so with good will and approbation on both sides have entred into this estate be you thankfull to God that hath ordered this affaire so properously for you and take heed of ascribing this comfort to your owne wit and goodnesse without giving the whole honour to God that gave the wit and the goodnesse and the successe without whose favourable providence neither wit nor goodnesse would have brought the businesse If benefits be perverted to nourish our good conceits of our selves not to encrease our thankes and praises to God they be but unsanctified benefits such as at last will make our state more miserable than the want of them would have done But all you young and yet unmarried folke looke to your selves pray to God to subdue your passions to reason and both to your Parents take notice it is your duty to give this honour to your Parents and resolve that by Gods assistance you will performe it Hearken to no enticements let no beauty or other allurement winne ground upon your hearts but still keepe your selves free
withholden from thee the fruit of the wombe As Iacob tempered his anger towards his Father in Law so towards his wife he is indeed moved with some passion but it doth not carry him to any violence or to inordinate sharpnesse Here husbands must learne to follow this vertuous man if there be just cause of being angry at the wife in regard of some great over-shooting her selfe towards themselves or others they may be angry but their anger must be so kept downe by love that they may not be bitter which the Apostle doth precisely forbid to husbands they must blame the fault but not admixe words to shew alienation of heart for the faults sake Two things husbands must looke to in respect of this anger towards their wives First that it arise not but from some plaine and evident fault such as you see here in the Text she began to fall out with him for want of children as if it had been his fault that shee conceived not as her sister did Secondly that it produce not tartnesse and reproachfull speeches and a constant sowrenesse but alone a due and fit reproofe as here also Happy men that can so guide anger and their tongues in anger So hath Iacob done the office of a good housholder in generall and of a good husband See now what a kinde Father he was and what good he performed towards his children 1. To all of them then to some He did two things to them all First he brought them up in a calling to be Grasiers as we call them to breed Cattell Sheep Oxen Camels Goats and the like wherein himselfe abounded This he might the more easily doe because himselfe living in the quality of a servant to Laban his Father in Law and having them borne to him in the time of his service he had fit opportunity to acquaint them with that businesse in which himselfe was so totally imployed Herein all good Parents are to imitate him for the duty is necessary for the childrens sake and for the Common-wealth and for the Parents owne sake too Traine up a childe in the way he should goe He doth not meane it alone Catechize him in matters of religion and good conversation but also in affaires of this world too because it is a part of his way to live in the world as well as to know the things that belong to his soules health Wee need not the authority of Scripture for that for which nature it selfe is sufficient If God command men to walke orderly and to eate the labour of their hands their Parents must inure their children to such a walking and see that they observe that Commandement of God If they must provide for them food and raiment for the present much more the things that are needfull for their well-being for ever Now a calling an ability to doe some profitable thing by which they may maintaine themselves with the publique advantage is necessary for their well-being in the whole course of their lives But this duty is requisite as I said First for the Fathers owne sake who shall finde them so much more dutifull to himselfe by how much they have been trained up more painfully and been more serviceable and under command even beasts if they be much in hand and have a kinde of acquaintance with the master so that hee come neare to them and accustome to doe something about them and to have them doe and suffer for him are much more tame and gentle than those that are never handled never approached unto So it must needs be also with men they grow rude and barbarous if they be left to themselves but more affable and orderly when they are held in and accustomed to walke by rule as they be when they are trained up in a calling Indeed some kinde of creatures are so fierce that no use of handling will quite tame them but even those are far lesse fierce than if they were never medled withall So some children are very masterfull and disobedient even though they be set under government and brought up in service and labour but how much more violent would they have proved if such care had not a little tempered them It concernes the Parent to have his children subject and apt to be ruled bringing them up in a calling conduceth much this way wherefore it is his part not to be wanting to his owne welfare and theirs Secondly this is exceeding commodious to the Commonwealth promoting the publique good very much for far fewer persons degenerate to scandalous courses and such as trouble the peace of the Common-wealth of those that have been brought up to take paines in some vocation than of those that have been loosly and idly brought up and if any of those that were accustomed to some vocation doe degenerate they are far more easily reclaimed seeing the Magistrate hath some foundation to work upon The person so educated can doe something if he will for his maintenance so that here is a possibility of redressing his disorders finde him employment and over-rule his will and he is amended But those that have lived over loosly and are not able to doe any thing are almost desperate the Magistrate knowes not which way to turne himselfe to the procuring of his reformation but by using great extremities for how shall he be compelled to doe any thing that can doe nothing and to make him learne some faculty when he is old how extreamly difficult is that So now nothing remaineth but an house of Correction or Gallies or the like whereby to force men which should goe much against the hearts of Governours if any other course may suffice Wherefore it concernes Parents as they love the Common-wealth not to deliver over into the Magistrates such crosse and crooked pieces as cannot be made fit for any use without so much hewing And for the benefit of the childes selfe it helpeth much to his comfortable living in respect of outward abundance and not being burdensome to others and to his civill and orderly living in vertuous manner and to his religious living when God shall call him to true piety for if he be skilfull in some way of maintaining himselfe and will apply himselfe to his calling he shall finde the accomplishment of Gods promises He that tilleth his ground shall be satisfied with bread and againe In all labour there is abundance but being destitute of this ability how shall he but want unlesse a very great portion of goods or lands be given him Yea he that having lands and goods hath not skill to imploy them growes far sooner wastfull and unthrifty and consumeth his great estate and then is put many times to base many times to sinfull shifts which had he a good calling he might escape Besides labour in a calling subdues vice and he that hath a calling may be painfull in it he that hath none cannot Yea if God call any person that hath been
her hate him Their hatred made him a slave her hatred made him a prisoner bondage and imprisonment brought him acquainted with the chiefe Butler made himselfe known to Pharaoh and so brought him up to this exceeding height of place Blessed be God for his goodnesse to his people no man shall hazard himselfe to temporall misery for conscience sake but God will requite him with a hundred fold at least more comfort here as well as with life eternall hereafter Let Iosephs wages make you not afraid so farre as you are called to it to doe Iosephs worke that is to say and doe good and forbeare evill though you incurre hatred and danger and much affliction thereby Lastly Ioseph was blessed too in his posterity to make his wellfare up fully he lived to see the sonnes of Manasseth and Ephraim his two sonnes and he lived to see the part of the birth-right even the double portion conferred upon his children and that by the mouth of his Father inspired by God when he made his last will Iacob adopted his two sonnes to himselfe to make two Tribes and God made them both great but especially the younger he made him a principall Tribe for possessions and command afterwards and this also is some satisfaction to a Father if he know that his children after him shall flourish for many generations O that we could feare God and follow true vertue and piety as Ioseph did that he might blesse us also as he did him in our selves and posterity in our state and our name in our bodies and in our soules and in all that pertaineth to us according to his promise And let all that feare God be assured that so farre as is good for them the Lord will give them prosperity in these things for he made the same promises to all his people and will confirme them so farre as they are capable and it may stand with their spirituall good Now you have heard of Iosephs life conclude we with the conclusion of his life his death For neither honours nor favours nor grace nor any thing could keepe death away and it must befall me and you and all that now live and are to live hereafter onely marke that he dyed a godly and comfortable death for in the cloze of his life he made profession of his being an Hebrew not an Egyptian by taking an oath of them for the carrying of his bones into the Land of Canaan gave them a promise of their returne thither which was also an exercise of his faith to demonstrate his comfortable expectation of life eternall whereof the Land of Promise was a figure You are not ignorant Brethren that within the compasse of an hundred yeares a minute being compared to eternity the whole number of you must be as well as Ioseph dying and dead men Be intreated to divorce your hearts from sinne the cause of death from the world which at death you must leave and from men which cannot helpe you neither in nor after death and labour to get righteousnesse which will deliver from death some assurance of heaven that ye may have a place of comfort after death and interest into Christ who can save you from the hurt of death And these things if you attaine you may triumph over death with Pauls question Death where is thy sting else death will triumph over you with the question of Christ Whose then shall be these things of which thou gloriest So much of Ioseph THE TWENTY SEVENTH EXAMPLE OF IOSEPHS STEVVARD ONE person alone remaineth to be spoken of whom wee cannot name to you for the Scripture giveth him no name at all He hath a good name a good report in Scripture for a good man but no name that is no particular surname or proper name by which he was usually knowne and distinguished from other men of his Country or progenitors of his birth or death we have nothing but he is set forth by his relation to Ioseph he was Iosephs Steward for as Ioseph sowed so did he reape what a kind of servant and Steward himselfe was to Putiphar such a kind of Steward in some degree did God provide for him He himselfe was a good servant to his Master and himselfe being a Master enjoyes a good servant to himselfe many times the Lord sees fit to bring a mans good deeds into his owne bosome a good child to his Parents hath good children himselfe a good servant hath good servants and so in the rest Let this incourage you that be in the place of servants to performe your duties diligently unto your domesticall Rulers your Masters for by this meanes you may lay up for your selves a comfortable hope of being served with like care and diligence your selves God no doubt hath a speciall hand in disposing of servants to every Master it is he that ordereth things so as such a man hath good and such a one bad servants men often use great care to choose a servant and meete with a very bad one contrary to all their hopes and care againe sometimes by meere casualty almost men light upon a very good servant More particularly his carriage was good to his Master and to the strangers brethren to his Master but not by him knowne so to be 1. Teachable they learnt some knowledge of the true God from him The God of your Fathers saith he and your God hath given you this treasure How came this man to know a distinction of Gods How came he to know that they had a God of their owne peculiar to them and to their Fathers which was not then acknowledged to be the God of all the world Egypt had many Gods this man acknowledgeth one God and that one God which was acknowledged and worshipped by these men and by their Forefathers It is not likely that Ioseph told his Steward that these were his brethren but it is undoubtedly manifest that they were some such as he knew to be worshippers of the true God which hee knew by some few men to be worshipped in the Land of Canaan Therefore you see how kindly he speakes to them that a man may even perceive by his words that they were so much dearer to him because they pertained to that God This was the more observable because he was an Egyptian servant O that all you which be servants to godly Governours would learne some goodnesse from them even to know and serve God you all have some knowledge of that one God but learne also the feare and love of that God the sincere and carefull worship of that God from your Governours that would fain teach it you and would count themselves happy if you would learne it from them But for a servant to live in the family of a Ioseph that laboureth to teach godlinesse unto him by word and example and yet declares no sense nor feeling of God no knowledge or respect of him how great a sinne is this and how
to offer his soone or of Isaac in yeelding up himselfe to be offered were greater for a man doth likely love his life as well as he loveth his childe Now Abraham subdued his love of his sonne unto God and Isaac subdued the love of his life to God both notable patternes of sincere obedience This example you reade in Gen. 22.9 when Abraham and Isaac came to the place which God had appointed Abraham built an Altar laid on the woode and stretched forth his hand and tooke the knife to slay his sonne Isaac at that time was of such an age that he might have resisted his Father being old or have got himselfe free by flight from him but he gave up himselfe into his Fathers hands or rather into God hand and yeelded his throate to the stroake of the sacrificing knife Hereby it is apparent that he began to feare God betime in that he would not withhold himselfe from God as his Father did not withhold his sonne O that we could approve our Faith by the like effects of it even by a willing yeelding of our lives to him when he doth call for them and not refuse to die if he should call us unto it for his commandements sake God is the author and Lord of our lives and nothing is more agreeable to reason then that we should be content to give up life and all into his hands from whom we have received life and all things And surely in this case it shall be proved true which our Lord Jesus telleth in the Gospell whosoever will loose his life shall save it As Isaac was partaker of that great blessing wherewith the Lord rewarded Abraham for his obedience in offering of his sonne saying in blessing I will blesse thee and in multiplying I will multiply thee Neither Father nor sonne you see were loosers by yeelding up the one his sonne the other his life into the hands of God But contrarily hee that will save his life shall undoubtedly loose his life for he must necessarily die at some other time as all other men and then his soule shall be lost together with his life because he loved not God better then his life and he that hateth not his owne life in comparison of God shall not be counted worthy of him Let us therefore see that our soules be so thoroughly subjected unto God if ever we desire to be counted the seede of Abraham and the brothers of Isaac But oh how farre short do very many of us come of this obedience for how should any man beleeve that we would readily part without lives for God which will not part with honour or goods or pleasure yea any of our sinnes at his commandement You be not Isaacs if you cannot be content to give up your lives to God how much lesse if you stand with him for other matters farre lesse then life This is the first part of Isaacs goodnesse to God-ward he became obedient to death Secondly he was devoute and religious given to all holy exercises by name to meditation and prayer principall exercises of piety and religious services of God for so it is noted Gen. 26.25 Hee builded an altar there and called on the name of the Lord. Loe here he worshipped God publikely by sacrifices and prayers and though it be not mentioned that he offered or prayed before an Altar at any other time as I remember yet this once naming of his piety is set downe to signifie his constant care in this duty his Father brought him up in it therefore he could say Where is the lambe Indeed the Lord hath abolished such kinde of Altars and such kinde of sacrifices now since the comming of Jesus Christ into the world and offering himselfe once for all as a propitiatory sacrifice to take away the sinnes of the world but yet now also we have an Altar whereof they have no right to eate that partake of those sacrifices Christ Jesus is our Altar who sacrifieth all those services which we offer up unto God by him and our sacrifices are spirituall sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ The offering of a contrite and broken heart God doth much esteeme the offering of praises and prayers the calves of our lips done unto God in the name of Christ are very pleasing unto him the presenting of our selves soules and bodies to him is exceeding delightfull yea with doing of good and distributing as with sacrifices God is greatly contented as S. Paul saith these are an odour of sweete savour a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God If a man retire himselfe and considering the death of Christ for sinne doe humbly present himselfe before God confessing his sinnes and judging himselfe for them and labour to lament them with hearty griefe before God as causes of the death of his sonne this is a gratefull sacrifice If hee praise God in the Name of Christ as for all other benefits so for the great blessing of redemption wrought by Christ this also doth give a sweete odour unto God if he even consecrate himselfe to God resolving to walke before him in all upright obedience praying for the Spirit of God to sanctify him that in all things he may please God no Bullocke or Ram can please the Lord so well If he set apart some portion of his wealth to God and give it to releeve the necessities of the Saints this is very sweete incense so that hee trust not in the merit of the worke as if it could deserve any thing for the worthinesse of it but trust alone in Christ for the acceptation of himselfe and it and all his services Would you confirme to your owne consciences that you be true Isaacs Aske your selves then doe you offer these burnt offerings if not you be not as Isaac childeren of the promise if yea you may assure your soules that you be O then study to abound in these services Againe it is noted that he called on the Name of God there and so it is noted Gen. 25.21 that Isaac intreated the Lord for Rebeccah his wife because shee was barren Hee prayed constantly to God for a childe in this also testifying his religiousnesse and his Faith So wee must be carefull to pray to God for all good things we neede for childeren if we want them for good successe in our callings and whatsoever else we neede or desire For God is the giver of all good things and hath commanded us in all things to make our requests knowne unto him and biddenus to pray continually and in all things give thankes so we are bound to pray as much as Isaac Therefore those that are carelesse of worshipping God in this duty according to that description of a wicked man written by David in the fourteenth Psalme they call not on the name of God are not surely the children of God as was Isaac but the children of Satan rather for the Spirit of God