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
saith or doth to them that have angered him Secondly When you finde them to fall upon them with sorrow and lamentation arraigning and judging your selves for them before God and labour to make your selves seeme base in your owne eyes because of them Thirdly To pray heartily against it and to beg the Spirit of God to humble you and cast you downe There is a thing that looketh somewhat like humility and it is nothing but a heart a little kept downe with crosses or with education and good instructions this may be found where the Spirit of sanctification is not but true humility is an effect of Gods Spirit thoroughly sanctifying the heart A man by being conscious to himselfe of his owne naturall imperfections and defects may be kept a little under so that his pride will not so boldly lift up it selfe but no man deposeth pride from raigning but by the Spirit of God you must therefore intreat the Lord by the operation of his Spirit to subdue your pride Lastly You must exercise your selves in good meditations concerning First your naturall misery and meanenesse Secondly your spirituall The naturall seene in our birth life death entrance into the world continuance in it departure out of it First how little and meane are we in respect of our entrance what did we come from at first and originally but very nothing there was a time when we were not having alone a potentiall being that is a being not yet in being but alone lockt up as it were in the causes of it yea there was a time when wee were not in any secondary causes but alone in the omnipotency of God who was able to make us of nothing And surely that which comes from nothing can be no exceeding excellent thing in it selfe and if it have any excellency it hath it from another to whom all the glory of it is due Yea what was the matter of which God made us at the first not gold silver brasse iron wood or any more then common thing but even the dust of the earth for you have heard how Adam was formed Doubtlesse the Lord did this of purpose to minister matter of humbling men unto their meditations for if I came from dust I shall surely savour of mine originall a thing made will have a relish of the matter whereof it is made unlesse it receive an exceeding great change therefore Abraham confessed unto the Lord I am dust and ashes Call we our selves by that name seriously and often and dust cannot swell it may be blowne away it cannot be puffed up But let us looke upon a man in the course of his life and that with reference to the good he hath and can doe and to the evill he hath or is able to doe The good he hath first is exceeding little compared to that which God and Angels have as no man will deny that shall make the comparison Now he ought if he were wise to compare himselfe with his betters and not with his inferiours Set a man in ballance to a beast he is some body he hath reason wisedome and the like set him in the ballance with God he is a meere foole a compound of weakenesse and vanity all he doth know all he can know is lesse then nothing Yea compare him with an Angel how silly is he how feeble one Angell is able to know more then all men and to doe more one Angell can beguile all men and destroy all men yea if you compare him with beasts he hath a little more wit then most of them but they have stronger bodies perfecter sences are able to teare him in peeces and can live without him many of them better then he without them so that he is more beholding to them then they to him So his good is little little knowledge in respect of what God and Angels have and in respect of that he once had and might have had still but that himselfe deprived himselfe of it Little strength even in comparison of beasts and must continue here but for a little time Againe this little is all borrowed it is none of his owne he hath it of meere curtesie and from the goodnesse of another so that he is not to be counted better for it but alone more indebted who swelleth for a borrowed thing or if he doe who doth not befoole him for it If a man that hath no horse be friended with a good one shall he be proud of it and is not all we have borrowed Nay thirdly must we not be accountable for all we have so that we are but as servants which have charge of their matters goods and and must answer how they have ordered it shall such a person bee proud And lastly what we have is uncertaine too 't is moveable 't is fleeting wee may loose it we know not how soone we are like tenants at will that cannot challenge so much as a quarter nay not a weeke or minute it ill becomes so meane a thing to thinke well of it selfe Now for the evill we have that is much and our owne that is inseperable and inavoideable it is great O to how many and sore crosses is every man subject to diseases to casualities for goods to madnesse to injuries and to a 1000. unhappinesses from which neither wisedome nor strength nor riches nor high places can fence and save him especially to the vexation of his owne heart which is enough to make him miserable though he were rid of all other evils And these evils are come unto him as due punishments of his owne sinnes as fruits of his ill deservings and as effects of his owne folly and misery is shamefull as well as bitter when it is justly imputable to the persons ill carriage that suffers it because his faults have brought it on himselfe and this evill is properly his owne because he owes it to none properly but to himselfe neither can any care of his prevent it but he shall be so during life and ever as he lives longer so shall he be subject to more misery Indeed some men scape in this world with more ease then divers others but every man hath his portion enough to make him know himselfe to be nothing and enough to dash pride out of countenance if he would not hide his owne eyes from taking notice of it Now looke to him in his end how little a thing will kill him a haire or a stone of a raisin the least thing going awry How little a place will hold him when he is dead a poore winding sheete a coffin a little hole in the earth how little can he doe then nothing but feede wormes and yeeld forth a stinking smell Looke upon a man lying upon his death-bed groaning and panting for life looke upon him in his winding sheete and coffin bound hand and foote and imprisoned in that narrow stockes Looke upon him in his grave rotting and smelling and putrifying and I hope you will easily confesse he
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
sinned surely in forgetting himselfe so farre as to resolve in his minde to blesse his sonne Esau whereas God had said the elder shall serve the younger He should have beene mindfull of that propheticall answer which was given concerning those two sonnes even when they strove in their Mothers wombes unlesse wee shall say that the whole passage was so carried as it was concealed from Isaac but that is nothing probable it can hardly be conceived that Rebekah would not acquaint her husband both that shee felt so strange a striving in her wombe which made her seeke to God to know the matter as also what answer shee received from God Taking that for granted which is so probable that there is no reason to doubt of it I say wee may note a fault in good Isaac yea good old Isaac hee forgate the Word of God which had beene spoken some yeares before and that so utterly as hee determined to have crossed it and gone directly against it It is a fault from which the bed men alive are not exempted even so to forget Gods Word as to be ready out of forgetfullnesse to transgresse it This forgetfullnesse ariseth many times from heedelesnesse and many times from continuance and length of time and sometimes from very strength of passion and distemper which doth cast out the remembrance of good things from the minde David and all the Priests had forgotten that which at least some of them had read concerning the not carting of Gods Arke but carrying it upon the Priests shoulders Iacob after had little lesse then forgate the vow hee made unto God in his affliction I pray you take heed of such forgetfullnesse meditate often that you may remember seasonably pray God to write his Lawes in your hearts and to make his holy Spirit to become your remembrancer that your knowledge be not made unprofitable through forgetfullnesse for that which is not fitly called to minde is in a manner as if it were not And if you meete with such a weakenesse as this in your selves looke that you be duely abased in the sight of it but be not out of heart as if you were destitute of all grace because you are imperfect in it but take comfort to seeke and hope for pardon upon your humble confession when the Lord pleaseth to put you in remembrance againe If Peter had remembred Christs words before hee might perhaps have escaped his great sinne of denying his Master but hee remembred it after to make him weepe bitterly It were a comfortable thing to call to minde those things that should preserve us from sinne so timely that we might be so preserved by them But if wee have done otherwise it behooveth us to put our selves in minde of them after to worke godly sorrow and then turning to God wee must not suffer our selves to doubt but that hee will vouchsafe to accept us Now Isaac offended something against men In respect of his two sonnes at first he loved Esau better then Iacob and that for carnall respects because Esau by his hunting supplied him with such kinde of meate as was contentfull to him It was without doubt a weakenesse in him and deserveth taxing Should Isaac beare favour to a gracelesse sonne for venisons sake rather then to a godly sonne for vertue sake Should our passions fancies appetites carrie us away and over-rule our affections Surely as David wished those that feared God to come unto him and he would choose them for his companions so should every man make godlinesse the rule of his affections so as when other things be even to give piety the preheminence and cause godlinesse to cast the scale as it were It is a fault in any man to love a worse childe above a better for any sinister respect Abraham loved not Ishmael above Isaac to prevent that it may be thought that God commanded Ishmael to be cast out that hee might not be thought a meete person at least to partake with Isaac in his inheritance And as to be carried away in our affections to children by affecting them most that deserve it least in carnall respects is a sinne so likewise towards other persons also servants neighbours or any other Therefore hee that hath done so or findes himselfe so inclined must be humbled in his folly and labour at last to rectifie his love as wee shew'd you before that Isaac did when God discovered his weakenesse to him Now in respect of Abimelech Isaac offended by lying out of feare when the men of Gerar began to question with him about his wife he began to suspect that they meant no good in such inquirie and fearing some ill usage from them if hee should have professed himselfe her husband helped the matter with a sudden lie and said shee was his Sister Gen. 26.7 you see hee inheriteth here his Fathers carnall feare and carnall shift of lying to prevent the evill feared Here wee have two plaine faults his immoderate feare and his lying to helpe himselfe at a pinch to be afraid of death so that there appeare some likelihood that it will come upon us suddenly and violently we suffer our selves to be drawne into sinne for the escaping of it is a sin and such a sin it is as hath often discovered it selfe in good men Wee noted it in Abraham twice upon the same occasion that is here mentioned So it befell David when hee came first to Achish King of Gath so to Peter and others The inordinatenesse of the feare of death ariseth from weakenesse of faith both in that a man doth not so stedfastly rely upon God for defence and safeguard of life as also for salvation of his soule after death or because hee is not so well versed in the meditations of death and Heaven as to become sufficiently heavenly-minded For if wee did fully perswade our selves that God would stand by us in perill that hee would be our shield and buckler then it would befall us according to that of David The Lord is on my side I will not feare what man can doe unto mee but in the best this confidence is often weakened and they are taken unprovided through the suddennesse of the danger or the like occasion or it is likely that the soule which so feareth death as by sinne to shun the same doth not so thoroughly assure it selfe of salvation or hath not so clearely and fully apprehended the excellency of salvation for doubtlesse death would be welcome to him rather then terrible that did apprehend it as a darke entrie leading to the glorious palace of glory and had well considered of the greatnesse of that glory I beseech you take paines to helpe your selves against the feare of death and to worke in your hearts so truly couragious a temper that though it should present it selfe to you naked and without disguise and that suddenly and that in shew unpreventably yet you might be so constant and so setled as not to
and our wonder at him but such was our pride he gained our envy of him His Father whether because he was not resolved what calling to breed him to or for what other cause I know not after that hee had with credit proceeded Bachelour of Arts hee took him home where he abode some good time yet applying himselfe unto his studies While hee remained at home with his Father hee married the Daughter of one Master George Hunt the sonne of that tryed and prepared Martyr Iohn Hunt mentioned in the Book of Martyrs who was condemned to be burnt for Religion but was saved from the execution thereof by the death of Queene Mary This Master George Hunt was bred up in the Famous fâ—ee Schoole of the Marchant-Taylers in London and afterward by the incouragement of Master D. Humfry by occasion of a visit of that Schoole and by the furtherance of M George and Mr. Iohn Kingsmells and by the exhibitions of Bishop Pilkinton all which for their honour sake I name he was called unto and mainetained in that worthy Foundation of good Learning Magdalen Colledge in Oxford till hee was Fellow of that House where hee continued till hee had borne the offices of Deane of Arts and Deane of Divinity Afterwards by the meanes of those worthy Master Kingsmells hee was preferred to the Church of Collingborn-ducis in the County of Wiles where for the space of fifty and one yeares and five moneths he lived a sound and constant Preacher of the Word and was of an unblameable and holy life even untill the oyle of his radicall moysture was spent and the candle of his life of it selfe went out in a full and good old-age after a long and joyous expectation and longing for his blessed change which was in the eighty and third yeare and fift moneth of his age This Master George Hunt after that by importunity hee had got this his sonne in law to make tryall of his ability to preach he overperswaded him to intend the ministery And thereupon he entred himselfe into Edmund Hall in the famous Vniversity of Oxford and tooke his Degree of Master of Arts. Not long after hee entred into the Ministery and hee was presently called to be a Lecturer at Banbury which he commendably performed above the space of foure yeares and then was called to be Vicar of the same Church which office hee faithfully discharged neare thirty years till he died The abilities wherewith God had indued him for his work of the Ministery were more then ordinary For hee was of a quicke understanding of a cleare and deepe Iudgement of a most firme memory and of a lively spirit Hee was naturally eloquent a master of his words having words at will Hee had a most able body and sound lunges and till some yeares before his death he had a most strong and audible voice And according as his matter in hand and his auditory needed he was both a terrible Boanerges a sonne of Thunder and also a Barnabas a sonne of sweet consolation And which was the crowne of all God gave him an heart to seek him and to aime at the saving of the soules of all that heard him His speech and preaching was not with entising words of mans wisedome but in demonstration of the spirit and of power He was an Apollos not onely eloquent but withall mighty in the Scriptures He like some of the Ancient Fathers was as occasions fell out sometimes an every dayes Preacher He preached ordinarily in his owne Church twise each Lords-Day and catechized for above halfe an houre before evening Prayer examining and instructing the youth and once a weeke he preached the ordinary Lecture Hee was much against all such preaching as was light vaine scenicall impertinent raw and indigested His preaching was plaine but as much according to the Scripture and also to the rules of Art and of right Reason as any that ever I heard or have heard of In conference he hath told me what hee aimed at and what use he made of the Arts and what rules hee set to himselfe in the studying of his Sermons which was as followeth That he might better understand his Text hee made use of his Grammer learning in Greeke and Hebrew in which tongues the Scripture is written Also hee would use the helpe of Rhetoricke to discover to him what formes of speech in his Text was to be taken in their primary and proper signification and what was elegantly cloathed and wrapped up in tropes and figures that hee might unfold them and see their naked meaning Then well weighing and considering the context hee would by the helpe of Logicke finde out the scope of the Holy Ghost in that Scripture Hee would endeavour when he began to enter upon the preaching of any Chapter to Analise and take the Chapter into its severall branches and parts Then he would if it were a doctrinall Text note the Doctrine as it lay in the Text and so prosecute it Or if the Text consisted of illustrations or circumstances of some principall truth there prosecuted hee would then gather from some notable part or branch of his Text an apt Doctrine or Divine Truth which should so immediately follow that the Truth observed in the Text should be the argument or middle terme wherby in a simple Sillogisme he could conclude his Doctrine Next hee would seeke for apt proofes out of Scripture to confirme it Fewer or more as hee thought best which done because other arguments according to Scripture and right Reason are forcible to convince and confirme reasonable men in any truth hee would find out Reasons of his Doctrine but he aimed that they should bee strong Arguments or middle termes by which hee might likewise Sillogistially conclude his said Doctrine Then according to the nature of the Doctrine and the need and aptnesse of his Auditory hee would as from an infallible consequent of his Doctrine by way of Application confirme some profitable Truth which yet by some might happily bee questioned or else convince men of some errour or reproove some vice or exhort to some Dutie or resolve some doubt or case of conscience or comfort such as needed Consolation In all which sorts of Applications hee did make use of more or fewer of them as there might bee cause and hee would bee carefull that his Doctrine should bee the Argument or middle terme whereby hee might sillogistically conclude the maine Proposition of any of his said uses And if the reproofe or exhortation did need pressing home upon the conscience then hee would study to enlarge his Speech shewing motives to induce to such a duty and allso disswasives from such a vice taking his Arguments from dutie to God decency or shamefullnesse pleasure or paine gaine or losse And here again he would use the help of Rhetorick but all for the most part in a concealed way without all affectation And sometimes he would shew the effectuall meanes of attaining of the Grace and
power to performe the duty to which he exhorted And sometimes likewise he would shew the remedyes against such or such a vice from which he disswaded as may bee seene by his Sermons already extant Also when hee thought it was needefull to discusse and handle any common place or head of Divinity hee would doe it very judiciously fully and most profitably Though hee had but an ordinary study of books for such an accomplisht Divine yet hee was one who had read very much For hee would read most swiftly yet not cursorily for he could give an account of the substance and most remarkable particulars of what hee had so read Hee had allso allwayes when hee pleased the benefit of a Booke-sellers shop which caused him to forbeare to buy many Bookes Though hee preached so often yet what hee preached was before well studied and premeditated Hee usually did pen his Sermons at large and if before he preached hee had but so much time as to read over what he had written and to gather it up into short heades hee was able if hee thought it fit to deliver it in publike well neare in the same words It pleased God to put a seale to his Ministery in the conversion confirming and building up of many thousand soules by his meanes in the whole course of his Ministery Hee was a most diligent visitor of the sick people that were under his charge without respect of Persons after that it came to his knowledge that they were sicke He was a ready Peace-maker amongst his flocke that should happen to be at variance He abounded in works of Mercie hee was a truely liberall man one that studyed liberall things for hee would seeke out to finde objects of his mercy rather then to stay till they were offered Hee did set apart and expended for the space of many yeares for good uses the tenth part of his yearly commings in both out of his temporall and ecclesiasticall meanes of maintenance Hee had an heavenly gift in Prayer both for aptnesse and Fullnesse of Confessions Petitions Supplications Intercessions and Prayses as allso for readinesse and copiousnesse of apt words together with Fervency of Spirit to poure them out unto God in the name of Christ in the behalfe of himselfe and of all those who in Prayer joyned with him He had this singular abilitie that in his Prayer after Sermon he could collect into a short Sum all which hee had delivered to his Hearers and make it the matter of his Prayer to God to the end they might be inwardly taught of God and become Beleevers and doers of what was taught them Likewise when hee had read a Psalme or Chapter in his Family hee was so well seene in the Text and of so good a Judgement and of so choice a memory that though the Chapter was part of the Ceremoniall Law or in the bookes of Numbers Chronicles and hardest Prophecies he in his Prayer would discover the scope and meaning and chiefe notes of Observation and their use in such sort that oft-times when I have heard him I have much longed that I could call them all to minde For I found the matter of his Prayer to be a better Commentary of that Chapter with apt observations and applications for use then I could finde in any Authour that I had read who had vvritten thereupon His manner was daily Morning and Evening to call his Family together and to reade a Psalme or Chapter in the Scriptures and to pray with them and oft to catechize them besides his constant Prayer Morning and Evening with his wife and also constantly alone by himselfe He did set a part private dayes of Humiliation for his Family upon speciall occasions and oft times before their preparation for their due receiving of the Lords-Supper At which times he did exceed himselfe in powring out his soule to GOD in most aboundant and most free Confessions of sinne and expressions of Sorrow for sinne with teares and with earnestnesse of Petition for pardon and grace and for the good of the Churches of God but for our whole State and Church of England more specially and particularly He was much in dayes of private Fasting and humbling himselfe before God alone that hee might make and keepe his peace with God and obtaine more Grace to keep more close to him and to walke more evenly with him and that hee might the better keepe under his body and bring it into subjection following the Example of the Apostle least having preached to others hee himselfe should not live answerable to his Doctrine without reproofe knowing that Ministers ought to be unreproveable He was so much in this that it is thought by such as knew him best that it impaired the health of his body though it made much for the good of his soule He was very able and very ready to conferre with and to resolve the doubts of those many who in love and desire of information came unto him He bare a tender love unto and had a conscionable care of that great people over which God had made him over-seer For although his mainetenance from them was but small in comparison and unkindnesses and discouragements many and his offers of greater preferment in the Church in respect of outward mainetenance were oft and importunate yet he would not be perswaded to leave them Yea though once for reasons which suddenly tooke him he did promise to accept of another charge yet within a while hee intreated mee to tell that Person to whom he had promised that hee had better thought of it and did desire to be released of his Promise and that out of Consideration of that great people which he should leave saying that if he should accept of that lesser charge when he should come into the Church amongst them his heart would in yerning towards his other people aske him what he did there He was duely inquisitive after the affaires of Gods Church and people and according as hee received true intelligence of their weale or woe so hee had his sympathies and Fellow-feelings with them in either of their conditions Hee was much grieved and troubled when hee saw that difference of opinions and thereupon strangenesse distractions and rends to arise and bee made in the Church amongst Bretheren professing for the maine and in fundamentalls the same Truthes Hee signified so much to mee with bewayling many times Hee was judiciously charitable to any that should differ in some opinions from him so long as he saw that they agreed with him in the maine and Fundamentall Points of Religion and were diligent to enquire after the Truth and saw allso that they did indeed shew the Power of Godlinesse in their lives Hee could and did highly esteeme them love them and converse Christianly and familiarly with them and that because although hee thought they were in an errour and hee would in private and publike endeavour to reclaime them yet he was perswaded that their desire
was to seeke Christ and that they had an aime to know God aright and to serve him in sincerity Notwithstanding all this good which according to the truth hath beene said of him it must be remembred that hee was a man and not without his imperfections and frailties For what man is he that liveth and sinneth not And as it is also said In many things we sin all It is usuall with God that men of the greatest parts and gifts should be exercised with some or other inordinate affection to bee mortified and some strong temptations to have some thorne in the flesh or some or other messenger of Satan as the Apostle had to buffet them Else they would be exalted above measure to the sleighting contemning and condemning of their Bretheren and other men would have too high an opinion of them halfe deifying them despising those vvho are no lesse holy but not so excellently gifted as they There was nothing which did more evidently discover truth of Gods grace in this man then that which was occasioned by his slips and strong temptations For these made him more watchfull over himselfe then otherwise hee would have bin It made him more humble and more to loath his originall corruption and sinfull nature and bewailingly to cry out with the Apostle O miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this Death And that because hee was as other the deare servants of God are most sensible of the captivitie and bondage which sin would strive to hold him under sith that when he would doe well evill was present with him and made him sometimes to doe some things which in the bent of his soule he would not have done This served to make him more humble in himselfe more earnest in prayer to God and more pittifull towards others in whom this sinne remaineth and dwelleth even after conversion which as the Apostle saith is a weight and doth easily beset them to hinder them in their Christian race And this I am assured off that hee would be the first espier of those faults of his when the world could not nor did take notice of them having no peace in himselfe untill he had with all speed and earnestnesse sought and regained pardon and peace with God He may be a patterne to all in receiving admonition from any that should in love mind him of his fault Hee was glad when any of the righteous smote him and would take it well not from his Superiours onely but from his equalls and farre inferiours Hee had learned with David to blesse God that sent them and to blesse the advice to follow it and to blesse the party and thanke him that gave it Hee would intreate such as hee hath done me in particular not to be wanting to him in this Christian office of Love and hee would really shew more testimonies of his love to such afterwards then ever formerly which is a sure argument of uprightnesse A most reverend Divine who had knowne him from his infancy and had often conversed with him gave testimony of him to this effect unto me and others when lately he spake of him by occasion of the mentioning of his sicknesse His latter daies were his best daies for in the judgement of those who could judge spiritually hee grew exceedingly in humility and in spirituall and heavenly mindednesse his last works were his best works arguing him to be of Gods grafting and planted in the house of the Lord. Lastly hee had a most happy and comfortable successe of his conflicts against sinne For a good while before his sickenesse and death he did with Comfort and Joy make knowne to his dearest friend that God had given him victory against his greatest corruptions vvhich had for a long time kept him in continuall exercise About eight weekes before his death a great fit of inward and short coughing and extreame shortnesse of breath did cease upon him in so much that those who came about him feared that hee would presently have departed This fit beeing over much weakenesse continued yet hee preached divers times untill that his encreasing weakenesse did disable him In the time of his sickenesse and weakenesse hee gave heavenly and wholesome counsell to his people neighbours and friends that came to visit him giving particular advise to his wife children and servants respectively according to their place and condition as they oft came about him thus hee did oft so long as hee was able to speake unto them His Christian speeches that concerned all tended to this that they would be carefull to redeeme the time and to bee much in reading hearing and meditating of the Word of God That they would be much in Prayer much in brotherly love and communion of the Saints And that they would be carefull to hold fast that which he had taught them out of the Word of Truth And that while the light and meanes of Salvation was to be had they should not spare paines nor cost to enjoy them He was oft in his sickenesse upon the painefull racke or torture of inward snatchings and convulsions which sometimes left him but three or foure dayes before his death they returned and increased upon him all which hee bare exceeding patiently Hee was much in ejaculations and short prayers and lifting up his heart to God in the behalfe of the Church and State and for himselfe allso which hee was most frequent and earnest in a little before his death In the time when a brother of his not onely in the common bonds of Christianity but allso by alliance and a brother in the Ministery was praying with him and for him to this effect that if his time was not determined or expired that God would be pleased to restore him for the good of his Church or if otherwise that hee would put an end to his paine if he saw good at the hearing thereof hee lift up his eyes stedfastly towards Heaven and allso one of his hands hee being not able to lift up the other and in the close of that prayer gave up the ghost shutting downe his eyes himselfe as if hee were fallen into a sweet sleepe Hee lived much desired and died much lamented Thus a great a good and mercifull man a chariot and horse-man of Israell is by Gods owne hand fallen and taken away from the evill to come and is entred into peace and rest in his bed of everlasting pleasures and joyes enjoying the fruit of his Faith in Christ and of his walking with God in uprightnesse Pretious in the sight of the Lord is the death of the Saints though the wicked regard it not but are glad of their absence But the living indeed they must and they will lay it to heart and will prepare and long for their owne dissolution that they maybe more immediately gathered to Christ the Iudge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect expecting and waiting for a blessed Resurrection of themselves
of them bethought himselfe of making an Arke but this fellow hath gotten some new revelation and hee is a building a huge thing like a Chest almost so long c. So you think the man is not in his right wittes Bretheren you easily perswade your selves that this good man was laden with these scoffes and the like behind his backe and like also before his face and to his very teeth For wicked wittes will never cease gybing at those good things that crosse their sence and reason Yet Noah obeyed went on built the Arke that is was obedient to God in a thing that made him ridiculous to the world So will true Faith do it will make a man obey the Lord in those actions by which hee shall make himselfe a derision to all men almost and more then a derision a prey and spoile too The Obedience of Faith is such an Obedience as will make all men to be at Gods becke in acts of that nature as will cause him to be blamed and despised of all the world as we see in Abraham in Moses and in all those almost that are reckoned up in the 11. of the Heb. Because it makes a man firmely and stedfastly to apprehend greater good things and greater evill then those that are seene and so those visible ones do not sway him and rule on him for hee that sees a greater danger or evill will easily cast himselfe upon a farre lesse to shun the greater so contrarily a good thing And so much for Noahs goodnesse before the floud Now see in and after the floud how he carried himselfe Hee entred into the Arke as God bad him and committed himselfe to Gods protection trusting on him for safety Here was no mast oare rudder canvasse or marriners to steere and guide this vessell a wonder it was that the billowes did not cast it over and over that they did not breake the barres by their continued rage and that it had not perished with all its burden But in went Noah taking all the Beasts with him assuring himselfe to be safe for so God had told Here is an excellent act of faith even to use Gods meanes of attaining the good things promised and there rest himselfe without any further carking and perplexity of mind This was the act of Noahs faith all the floud time hee heard it raine as if Heaven and Earth would come together he perceived the cloudes to be in a fury with the sonnes of men the waters raged and roared and through the windowes hee might see how all was changed into a Sea yet there he kept himselfe quiet and made account that himselfe and his houshold should do well enough in all this confusion of nature Hee had Beares Lions Tigers Wolves and all manner of devouring beasts within the Arke hee was never a whit afraid of such neighbours but rested himselfe peaceably upon Gods promises O Beloved that we could do so for our soules for our estates for every thing use Gods meanes and then promise our selves the wished effect and trouble our selves with no further feare and dismayednesse as S. Peter saith doing well and not being dismayed with any feare O how happy would our lives be in the midst of a deluge of dangers if we could thus enter into our closets as it were and shut the doore I meane use Gods meanes and rest on him Againe Noah continued in the Arke till God bad him come out hee perceived the waters to cease raging hee discovered the tops of the mountaines hee sends out the discoverers the Raven and the Dove and learnes by them great abatement and he sees with his eyes all day when he had removed the top of the Arke yet hee stirres not out till God bad him goe out who had bidden him goe in So must you do my Bretheren you must tarry in the Arke as it were so long as God sees fit and not make hast out of it of your owne heads Be so long in affliction as God will have you goe not out till hee leade you out you may wish the time of deliverance and send out the Raven and the Dove use the best meanes you can to helpe your selves especially by prayers to God and you may remove the covering of the Arke you may looke round about by faith and with joy see your deliverance comming forward but keepe this as a certaine conclusion not to stirre out of any estate though never so troublesome till you have good warrant from God going before and guiding you Now at last see what good Noah did after the floud hee built an Altar to God and offered sacrifice in thankes for his deliverance and in a desire to frame his houshold to true piety and to establish the worship of God amongst them O let each of us learne carefully to acknowledge Gods goodnesse in great deliverances and to offer him the sacrifice of praise if hee have safe guarded us from the raging flouds of adversity and calamity And let us be carefull to establish and set up the worship of God in our families and amongst our people publikely and privately every way Build Gods altar offer Gods sacrifices I meane exercise Gods religious worship pray heare read meditate come to the Sacraments set not Gods ordinances at variance Doe not picke quarrells with anyone of them exalt not one to depresse another let them all goe together in their times and especially performe the true meaning of these sacrifices Offer up the sacrifice of Christ in a perpetuall renewing of the memoriall thereof in your soules to God and renewing of your faith in it offer up the sacrifice of a contrite spirit and broken heart sighing daily for daily sinnes and infirmities offer the sacrifice of earnest prayers for all good things and of hearty praises for what wee have received already and offer up your selves to God by him to be sanctified to doe him faithfull service in all holy obedience to all his holy lawes Be truely heartily uprightly religious and devoute in your whole lives But next Noah planted a vineyard hee fell to husbandry for my part J doubt not but that God had made vines from the first and that though wee heare of no vineyard yet there might have beene store of them But howsoever Noah set himselfe to his calling to husbandry O let us every man follow him and give himselfe to his husbandry and his vineyard the tradesmans trade is his vineyard every mans calling is his vineyard be like Noah fall to planting and dressing this vine Abhorre idlenesse have some vineyard O how miserable is hee that hath nothing to do O how unhappy a thing is it to be in the world as a cipher in Arithmeticke But lastly Noah is a faithfull Prophet and pronounceth Gods curse even against his owne sonnes herein he becomes to us a patterne of fidelity in the calling of a Minister even to denounce all things that God puts into our mouthes against all
some Texts of Scripture that shall give you sure arguments of comfort from which if you can conclude your selves Gods people that you are so indeed and not alone in shew your comforts will hold water as it were in the day of death and judgement Ierem 7 5. the Prophet bids them thoroughly amend their waies and their doings and not trust in lying words Loe thorough and universall reformation of heart and life that that is the onely sufficient proofe of being Gods children and such as shall inherit his Kingdome all that can be alledged without this is no better then lying words which will deceive So Iohn did after teach the Jewes Mat. 3.9 Say not wee have Abraham for our Father that Allegation will prove fruitlesse if it goe alone but what must they doe more Bring forth fruits meete for repentance that is frame your selves to a thorough reformation of your hearts and lives and so S. Iohn teacheth Hee that doth good is of God hee that doth evill hath not seene God whosoever he be that makes so good use of those helpes which God hath for that end provided in his Church as to attaine true repentance true amendment of life that is a constant and upright care and endeavour to cast away all transgressions and make him a new heart and a new spirit resolving in nothing to sinne but in all things to walke according to the direction of Gods Word and where he faileth still continuing to lament and confesse it before God judging himselfe and craving pardon and helpe in the name of Christ that man shall be saved that man is a solid Christian that man is not a Cham let him rejoyce in God as a true member of the Church but whatsoever else may be either had or done without this bringing forth fruits worthy of repentance is no more then may be alledged by some Cham or other Therefore againe I beseech you satisfie not your selves with other things but apply your selves to this amendment of heart and life with all speed and with all diligence Let Cham be your warning trust not in lying words And further now that you see in the Arke among the eight persons one Hypocrite who did afterwards evidently discover his hypocrisie learne to know that there will be such in the Church to the worlds end as were also in the family of Abraham Isaac Iacob David Hezekiah and other good men even tares among the wheate and goates among the sheepe and unfruitfull branches in the vine that you may learne as to feare your selves so especially to satisfie your owne hearts and not to be offended by the like accidents in your owne times If a man that hath long lived in an orderly course of life and gotten himselfe the name of a good man and enjoyed many benefits in the Church shall afterwards fall quite away from goodnesse and manifest himselfe to have beene no better then a Cham let not this trouble you nor dismay you neither take you occasion from their wickednesse to condemne either goodnesse it selfe or good men as to say that they be all dissemblers there is never a better in the pack but improve their fall to the making of your selves more watchfull over your selves and prayer-full for your selves and still love and honour Gods Church though some that professe themselves to be lively members of it doe manifest their guile by their utter falling away at the last We have done with the goodnesse of God to Cham in suffering him to live in the Arke Now follow his sins The first sinne which we gather from that which succeeded is this that he was an Hypocrite one that contented himselfe with a bare outward shew of goodnesse and did not labour for the power of it to humble him to discover his secret faults to him and to heale his soule by bringing the Image of God even the divine nature to him which was also the sinne of Caine before and after too of Esau and of Iudas and Achitophel and many others Take you heed of this Brethren take you heed of this Beware that you be not Hypocrites satisfied with some externall shew of religiousnesse joyned with civill conversation of life freedome from grosse sinnes and orderly living to the world-ward but seeke after the soule-spirit of godlinesse which consists in finding out and reforming the corruption of your natures and the secret disorders of your inward man He that so prayeth and heareth that these ordinances make him see and be humbled in the sight of the filthie quagmire of sinne that is within him by which he is carried from God to himselfe and to sinne and the world for his owne sake and labours to have his inside more and more cleansed and reformed and drawne up to God and the things of God this man is a true Christian But he that satisfies himselfe in an outward forme of holy duties and of civill honest conversation not diving to the depth of his heart this man may proove and if he mend not will proove a guilefull Cham at last But now his next sinne is and Ham the Father of Canaan saw the nakednesse of his Father If he had suddenly and occasionally come into the place where Noah lay uncovered and his eyes before he was aware had lighted on that object and he had presently turned away his countenance from it with griefe for his old Parents fault and out of tender compassion that seeing had beene no sinne But the meaning is he gave himselfe to stand and gaze upon his Fathers unbeseeming carriage and unseemely parts so as to delight in it and thereby to stirre up and nourish in himselfe a contempt and slight esteeme of his Father Hee did not see it with pitie and remorse and make the best of it as of a matter of infirmity into which the good old man fell unawares but he beheld it with gladnesse laughter derision jesting sporting at his Fathers nakednesse and misdemeanour This is a great fault to behold the sinnes and offences chiefely of Parents and other superiours and most of all of godly and holy men Fathers of the Church and of Religion as well as of our persons I say to behold their faults with an over-open and a greedy eye with scorne and scoffes and contempt of them and of piety and of goodnesse in and thorough them For this certainely comes from nothing else but a secret dislike and aversnesse from goodnesse it selfe against which we are glad to pick a quarrell and are willing to have somewhat to object against it that wee may hinder our selves from imbracing it and from a gladnesse also to have somewhat to alleadge in excuse of our owne naughtinesse and for the imboldening of our selves to persist in it still without feare It is nothing but hypocrisie I meane a being contented with a false counterfeit goodnesse yea willingnesse to favour and allow our selves in our owne sinnes that maketh us with joy and delight in
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
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
used due speede in fulfilling his oath for without more then necessary deferring hee addressed himselfe to the performance of his oath having thoroughly understood it for knowing his Masters will to be that he should fetch the woman and not bring Isaac backe againe thither and that if they would not give him a wife for Isaac without his owne comming then he should be free from the oath and withall being incouraged by Abrahams words that God would send his Angell before him and prosper his journey he made all good speede to take his journey about that weighty service and went unto Mesopotamia to dispatch it taking to that end ten Camells with all other things necessary seeing all his Masters estate was at his command Here learne that when you have sworne you must not delay the performance of it but so soone as shall be convenient and as you have power must settle to doe the thing sworne to All you that have sworne any lawfull and possible thing looke on Abrahams godly servant and be mindfull of your oathes consider the greatnesse of God to whom you are tied and put not off the worke from time to time seeke not needlesse delayes make not fearefull or sloathfull excuses but free your faith and pull your selves out of the danger of Gods displeasure by a conscionable fulfilling of your oathes The Pharisees could say thou shalt not forsweare thy selfe but fulfill thine oathes to God Let us shew our selves at least as wise and conscionable as a Pharisee could teach us to be But what if we perceive the oath to have beene of an unlawfull thing I answer then we must repent of our naughtinesse in taking it and so forbeare to add a second sinne in doing that which is unlawfull For it is impossible that an oath should be of more force to binde a man to a thing then Gods Commandement is to restraine him from it Nothing can have more force to binde conscience then Gods Commandement But what if it proove impossible I answer if that impossibility might have beene foreseene our rashnesse in not foreseeing it must be repented of but if it could not have beene foreseene we must rest our selves satisfied in this that our minde was faithfully to have fulfilled it if God had not cast in our way such an impediment but no hazard no cost no labour must stand betwixt us and the accomplishing of our oathes for David saith that a good man sweares to his hinderance and yet fulfills 'T were better for a man to be undone in the world or to loose this naturall life then to breake his oath for feare of losse or death So much of this mans conscionablenesse in regard of taking and keeping an oath Now see his vertuous carriage in the thing 1. His great diligence in the maine worke 2. His discretion 3. His piety and religiousnesse To begin with the last he served his Master religiously First he thanked God for his good successe 2. He prayed to God for good successe His prayer is Gen. 24.12 13 14. Wherein he besought God to cause him to meete with a fit wife for Isaac We must all learne specially servants for of such a one we speake now to commend our Masters businesses to God praying him to prosper us A good and godly servant when he imployeth himselfe in his Masters worke must shew himselfe to be Gods servant and to have faith in his providence trusting in his goodnesse and blessing more then in his owne ability Indeed such a particular begging of such and such occurrents to shew us Gods minde was peculiar to him and is not required of us for he did it by the peculiar inspiration of Gods Spirit but in generall to beg Gods assistacce that belongs to all good Servants You that would be counted godly servants have you thus sanctified your indeavours by prayer have you thus called on his name to guide and speed you if you have you have done well take comfort in it it is a testimony that you serve for conscience sake not as men-pleasers and that you serve the Lord in serving your Masters if you have not be humbled and lament it as a matter of prophanesse and a cause of many crosses and a meanes to make you proud of your selves if good successe attend you And now tread hereafter in the steps of this godly Servant Pray pray to him for his assistance and blessing upon your selves and the workes you take in hand for your Masters that so it may appeare you doe all in faith and obedience to God Againe this man finding that God did answer his requests blesseth God verse 26 27. Where is his reverent behaviour outwardly hee bowed and then the matter of his thankes he said blessed be the Lord you must learne with all humble behaviour of body and consequently of mind and with all sincerity and heartinesse to praise God for your good successe and so it will appeare that you ascribe all to God and not to your selves If you have beene thus thankfull it is an excellent thing in which you must take comfort nothing is a truer proofe of true goodnesse then a constant care to blesse and praise God for his perpetuall goodnesse in prospering us if not lament the want of it as a manifest proofe of pride and want of faith And now let us all learne to be particularly thankfull to God for particular benefits yea even such outward benefits much more for inward This is the way to continue to sanctifie and increase benefits God loveth thankfullnesse as men also doe If we improove his benefits to so good a purpose we shall not want them in due time onely see that your thankes be not alone verball You have seene his piety now his discretion shewes it selfe first in setting downe what a woman he would have for Isaac viz. a courteous and laborious woman one that came out to draw water and one that would respect a stranger and give him to drinke and his Camels also truly a woman courteous of disposition and of body strong and healthy and painefull is a fit woman to make a wife Againe he proceeds discreetly in his carriage to winne her and her Parents he gives her gifts and them also and truly relates the prosperous estate of his Master all which tend to perswade them to yeeld her and her selfe to give her selfe to Isaac for a wife So must every servant use discretion and prudence in his Masters affaires taking the best course he can to make them sort well in the end Another part of his good behaviour is care of his Camels to which he lookes to give water and provender in due time So should a good servant and every good man in his travells have a due care of his beasts and looke that they have things fit for them Yea first should hee looke to them unlesse necessity compell otherwise and then to himselfe not like to them
leaves the land of Canaan and of his owne accord goes away to Mount Seir from Iacob because he found it not so commodious an habitation He and his brother could not dwell together there he would not dwell in Tents as Isaac Iacob to shew himself an heir through hope of the same promises so this was an utter forsaking of all care of true religion turning meer worldly and earthly O take heed that none of you suffer profaneness to take so strong a hold and settle so deep rooting in you that you should quite and cleane give over all shew of piety and follow the world wholly altogether and professedly He is profane that hath no great care of heaven at least not at all to get grace and therefore first makes no great reckoning of next despiseth and after relinquisheth and casteth off the signes and meanes of grace that God hath appointed O let not any of you be such perish not after the example of Esaus naughtinesse but let his badnesse teach you to feare to be bad in the same kinde and labour to be devout holy and religious that you may be saved Yet more faults must be spoken of towards his Father and Mother he did not shew that due respect which he ought unto them for he married Cananitish wives against their good liking you may be sure which proved an heart-breaking unto them and when he thought to mend the matter in super-adding the daughter of Ishmael he went yet in the same roade that before not craving their advice and counsell but did it of his own head which though be were now married hee should not have done so long as he lived as then it may seeme he did live under their roofe Beware you children of this sin of Esau wrong not the authority of God and your parents both by marrying without their consent liking or privity whether is it safe better more desirable to be Iacobs imitators or Esaus but of that I have spoken already Another rank of faults see towards his brother First he accuseth him for beguiling him of his birth-right which was a false accusation for he could not couzen him of that but himself out of a profane ignorance and contempt of the worth thereof sold it away for a poore price a messe of pottage But man is ever ready to cast the blame of his faults upon others if they have any colour so to do it were better plainly to confesse and take the blame unto ones self than to double the fault by covering it with falshood springing from self-love Let no man say that another hath deceived him of that which he hath fondly cast away or the like But when Iacob had indeed beguiled him of the blessing which I cannot tell how to excuse then he hated him It is a grievous offence to be so imbittered specially against a brother or kinsman as to entertain hatred against him Thou shalt not hate thy neighbour in thine heart Love your enemies do good to them that do evill to you saith our Saviour This is far from being like God and so from being a fruit of the Spirit of Christ who loved his enemies Should not the Image of God in a man prevaile more to make one love than his own injury to make him hate If any of you be an Esauite in this thing an hater of one that hath done him wrong let him be assured that it is a great sin and if he excuse it defend it deny it will not see it not carefully resist it let him be assured that his sin is not pardoned He that saith he loveth God and hateth his brother is a lyar and hee that saith he is a childe of God and is not a lover of God is a lyar too You may ask me what it is to hate ones brother I answer There is a passion of hatred and a habit of hatred and both work in two degrees The passion of hatred is a kinde of aversnesse and rising of the heart against a man when one sees him so that hee cannot away with him nor can speake unto or looke curteously or peaceably upon him but ones countenance fals when he sees him and he even turnes away and by his goodwill would have nothing to doe with him To be so disposed to a man in respect of his soule and wicked carriage is not a sin but to be affected in respect of an injury is this sinfull hating of him But the habit of hatred is when the heart is so setled in this alienation and estrangement that it grows to wish and desire and seeke his hurt now sometimes these passions and these grudges be seen lamented resisted and by degrees overcome here hatred ruleth not sometimes a man will not see his sin in such hatred and taketh no paines to chase this sowre leaven out of his heart This over-ruling hatred is a sinne that cannot stand with true charity to God O take heed of it see it amend it and be no longer like Esau Next he not alone intends to kill his brother but comforts himself in that thought as you may reade Gen. 27.44 It is a fearefull thing to resolve upon murder and that with delight and pleasure so that the heart concludeth to commit it so soone as such and such a let is removed or fit occasion offered and that so setledly as not conscionable obedience to God but alone some meere respect to men doth hinder the accomplishment So the Pharisees resolved to kill Christ only fearing the people they forbeared it was glad newes to them when Iudas offered his service to betray him This is to give ones selfe over as a servant to sin and cannot be found in any childe of God at least not usually or often Doe any of you sinne thus in any kinde What should I call you but Esaus and I beseech you to take heed of malice that it may not produce murther and of all the inward motions to evill with allowance for feare they produce the grossest acts of evill Nay Esaus malice strived twenty yeares in his breast for he went out against his brother when he returned from Padan Aram Gen. 22. with foure hundred men after him minding to destroy him but that God vouchsafed to stop him by putting a passion of kindenesse upon him A great sin it is to attempt greivous offences though one be stopped in the middest yea though the stoppage grow from some inward motion in himselfe for this shewes that the heart was once fully bent unto it but if some outward hinderance alone have been the cause of its not being done then the thankes of forbearance is lesse Repent therefore of such purposes and attempts and shew your selves truly sorrowfull and penitent by confessing to God the sin of attempting and blessing his name for not permitting you to follow your wicked desires His benefits they were all temporall The dew of heaven and the fatnesse
worke at all or else will not work for your Families but your lusts to spend it on them I pray you at length be ashamed of such worse than brutish distemper of minde and more than beast-like misdemeanour what account can you give to God when he shall call you to an account Where was your naturall affection to your owne bodies and bowels where was your dutifull obedience to the Law of God and Nature and the Lawes of well ordered Common wealths where were your wits and your consciences and where be they that you live more sinfully and scandalously than the ignorant Goe home I beseech you with shame and sorrow in your hearts and countenances be not hardened against this reproofe after so many former reproofes but fall downe before God condemning your selves to the pit of Hell for such your unthriftinesse and confessing your owne extreme slavery to sinne and unfitnesse to mend that or any other fault beseech the living God to reforme you by his Spirit and to pardon you by the bloud of his Sonne and even beleeve his promise that he will grant your prayers and heale your Soules and forgive your sinnes for his Sonnes sake and so in Faith to his promises and Obedience to his Commandements set about the reformation of this and other faults and cease not praying repenting striving and you shall prevaile unthriftinesse will prove a disease of exceeding difficult care but not uncurable and you whom God hath pleased to make good and provident and thrifty husbands blesse him for it indeed and withall pray him to order you so in labouring for your families that it may shew it selfe to be a good Floure growing up as a Fruit of Gods Spirit not as a Weed springing up from a corrupt though restrained Nature by going into excesse making you so eager in providing for your houses as that you become niggardly unjust or otherwise excessive For the worldly minded man though hee live in better reputation on Earth hath no better reputation in Heaven than the waste-good nor shall have lesse torment in Hell seeing the worldly minded are enemies to God as well as the sensuall minded So Iacob provided for his family Now hee prayes for them as you see hee did when Isaac came against him Save me for I feare lest he come and strike the Mother with the Children Parents must blesse their children and in this sence also the whole families and cry to God for prosperity and peace If the Apostles bee bidden to pronounce peace surely then wee must pray for it If S. Paul prayed for the houshold of Onesiphorus were it not a wonder that Onesiphorus should not pray for his owne houshold You Governours shew your selves religious as well as thrifty call upon God for the people committed to your charge If publque supplications must be made for all men surely then even man must privatly pray for them that are his owne Be not prophane content not your selves alone to labour and toyle for your families but visit the Throne of Grace in their behalfe and call earnestly upon God to save them chiefly from sinne and wickednesse Further Iacob purged his family as you have it Gen 35.2 to the requiring them to put away the false gods and to bee cleane and change their garments and then having received of them all their idolatrous and superstitious trinkets hee buried them under the Oake mentioned there O that all Parents would be carefull to clense all vices out of their houses as well as Idolatry and this as well as other vices But Parents are most times too too carelesse of their families and see and winke at their sinnes their undecent behaviour ryot idlenesse disguised attire and any naughtinesse that doth not bring forth great discredit in the World Purifie your houses and so see the faults as to chase them out and call your people to amendment to cleannesse to changing their garments if they be proud vaine foolish as well as if they be superstitious Lastly Iacob instructed his people here and called them to the worship of the true God telling them that he would goe to Bethel and make an Altar to God that had fulfilled his vow and met him when he fled from Esau Wee should all call upon our families and bring them to Gods Worship and labour to instruct them therein that they may be able to performe it holily and fruitfully Surely had not Iacob taught his people what Duty they did owe to God in these sacrifices and how to performe them in spirituall manner he must have endeavoured onely to make them hypocriticall abusers of Gods service So much for Iacobs regard to his whole family Now see how he shewed himselfe in particular to his Wives and Ghildren To his Wives Hee was undoubtedly a very kinde Husband to them all for we read of no jarres or brawles O that Husbands would live void of contention with their Wives O that their houses might be peaceable It is a forerunner of ruine when an house is divided against it selfe But specially towards Rachael it is noted how hee loved her Gen. 29.30 that is very much more than the rest Indeed he had cause she was his true Wife for whom hee first agreed Leah was forced upon him he might lawfully have refused her yea and had not the custome of the times tolerated poligamy hee must have refused her and taken Rachael for whom hee made his agreement and so in a sort contracted himselfe too Now the light that hath shewed it selfe amongst us causeth that poligamy is banished therefore every one amongst us is bound to love his Wife as Iacob did Rachael which is also the speciall commandement Woe unto those Husbands therefore that what shew of love soever they make unto their Wives at first yet within a while are so sowre and churlish unto them that they shew an extinguishment of love to have befallen them So farre as any man faileth of loving his Wife he must also faile of loving God It is possible to love the Wife and not God but to love God and not the wife is impossible Therefore now you husbands strive to love your wives and you Wives carry your selves so respectively and humbly as to win love at your husbands hands Nothing but this can make you live happily together all riches honours pleasures be no farther soundly comfortable than the husband and wife are loving each to other Now God can give love to them that aske as well as wisdome and let him that would love his wife pray for it and withall withdraw his heart from strange women But againe Iacob could be duly angry with his wife and reprove her for her fault for when she in a great rage cals to him for children and would die if she had none He is angry at her but with such moderation that he gives her a due reproofe but no distempered language saying Am I in Gods stead that hath
blessing was this that he made him a godly man giving him true faith so that he did unfainedly beleeve in God and was a right godly and religious man For it is noted of him that he beleeved in God and was an heire with Abraham of the same promises both concerning the land of Canaan as a Type and heaven it selfe the thing figured by the land of Canaan So Iacob was a true servant of God and member of Christ and inheritour of heaven and from him the Church is many times called by the name of Iacob and Israel And this is the greatest good that can be found in this life in comparison of which all other benefits are of no value and without which other things are not sufficient to make a man happy though he should possesse them in never so great abundance for what will it advantage a man to win the whole world and lose his owne soule Now therefore we must learne most earnestly to seeke this benefit which God is ready to give to us as well as to him For Iacob was not godly by nature nor by any power of his owne but by the free grace of God and the mighty and saving worke of his owne blessed Spirit which Spirit he hath promised to all that aske even as undoubtedly as any tender hearted Father will give food unto his hungry childe that shall crave it at his hands Let no man be discouraged because of the corruption and naughtinesse of his nature for the same bad and depraved nature was found in Iacob that in himselfe seeing Iacob also was a son of Adam by corrupt nature a childe of wrath and heire of death as well as any other but God did circumcise his heart as well as his flesh and made him partaker of the divine nature by which he prevailed against the corruptions that are in the world through lust Wherefore let each of us take notice of his owne wickednesse and inability to make himselfe good and of his manifold sins and inability to procure pardon of them to himselfe and let him earnestly call upon God to worke true repentance and unfained faith in him and the Lord will graciously worke these things in him as well as in Iacob and will pardon his sins and sanctifie his soule and make him an inheritour of his heavenly Kingdome I beseech you therefore bury not your selves in the world and in the study of earthly things but Seeke first the Kingdome of God and his righteousnesse and labour to come into the state of grace by meditating on the Gospell seeing your misery in your selves and endeavouring to turne unto the Lord. For in the Church no man is left destitute of grace but through his own default in neglecting the great salvation that is there offered unto him Againe those to whom the Lord hath pleased to shew the same goodnesse working in them true faith inabling them to beleeve in his mercy through Christ and to walke in his wayes with truth and uprightnesse of heart must learne to shew themselves exceeding thankfull to God for this mercy and strive to take comfort in it and to walke worthy of it Blesse God with constant and daily blessings that hath blessed thee with spirituall blessings in Christ and rejoyce in the riches of that inheritance to which thou are interessed and shalt possesse whatsoever wants afflictions crosses thou maist bee exercised withall yet be glad in the Lord and count thy selfe an happy man because the Lord hath granted thee that which may abundantly satisfie thy soule in the want of all outward things and support thee in all afflictions and miseries and countervaile and more then overweigh all manner of calamities Let not the rich man rejoyce in his riches nor the wise man in his wisdome nor the strong man in his strength nor any man in any terrene thing he hath but Let him that rejoyceth rejoyce in this that he knoweth me saith the Lord. It is our duty to raise up our hearts so that no earthly adversity may coole or damp our prayers and dismay our hearts and fill us with anguish and grief and that no outward benefits may glut and satt our hearts and turne us away from taking comfort in this true and everlasting mercy God hath made us his owne given us faith sanctified us by his Spirit united us to his Son and caused us to see beleeve and embrace his promises What though we want wealth honour pleasure and these sensuall benefits He hath given us Wheate What though he feed us not with huskes He hath given us Gold What though he lade us not with dirt Hee hath given us himselfe and his Son What though he give us not the vanities of this life It is a sin for a godly man to be out of heart and comfortlesse because of any other want and any other crosse If God have granted you this chiefe benefit glory in it and thinke that you have gotten a good portion though your estate in the world be never so low and poore only be sure that your faith bee true by causing you to abound in those fruits of it which we shewed you before that it brought forth in Iacob Now I come to some lesse principall mercies flowing from this First he gave him the priviledge of the first-borne that Christ should come of him and that the visible Church should continue in his posterity That part of the dignity of the primogeniture to have Christ the blessed seed come of him cannot be bestowed upon any of us neither that to have a great Nation flow from our loines that shall be also the Church of God and a Nation in which true religion and piety shall be continued But to have our children godly and become members of the Church that we must earnestly desire and seeke for and that we may hope for and attaine if we pray earnestly for it and make our children as good as we can by bringing them up in the true knowledge and worshipping of God Further Iacob had the blessing given him First by his Fathers mistake when he tooke him for his eldest son Esau to whom he intended the blessing then after by his Fathers witting and deliberate pronouncing it upon him by the direction of Gods Spirit The former you may see pronounced upon him in Genesis where he saith God give thee of the dew of heaven and after God Almighty blesse thee and give thee the blessing of Abraham This blessing is the bestowing upon him all temporall benefits so far as they are subordinate to his spirituall and then spirituall benefits viz. all sorts of graces by which he may be happily guided to the possession of life eternall This is an excellent mercy to be freed from the curse of the Law and to be made partaker of the blessing of Abraham even that God shall love one take care of him and prosper him in all things hee takes in hand and conduct him
earnestly strive to disswade or perswade a Ruler in such things It is weakenesse enough in a Governour on such an occasion to say nay but to chafe and bee angry is a double fault wee finde noe such distemper in Iacob This is the good of Reuben His afflictions so farre as is recorded were not many indeed none but what was common with his other Bretheren except we may count that a crosse that hee was suffred to sinne so farre and doubtlesse it was a corrasive to him all his dayes after and that his fore-mentioned griefe as it was in some sence an act of vertue so it was a suffering of evill For to be grieved for some misery like to befall our friends is a great misery to him that so grieveth But one crosse hee had that his Father did minde him of his fault on his death-bed before all his bretheren and did then and there dis-inherit him he tooke it well and made no angry reply It is an affliction to bee dis-inherited or otherwise deprived of any benefit which else wee should have had because of our sinnes And wee must learne when such a crosse is laid upon us to beare it quietly and fruitfully too I meane so as not to breake forth in anger and discontent against him that doth withdraw such things from us nor yet to passe it over sleightly and carelesly as not regarding the hand of God but to accept it as a just punishment of our faults and make it a meanes of renewing and increasing our Repentance Of the benefits of Reuben besides the common we read of his fruitfullnesse for hee had divers sonnes when they went downe to Aegypt and so hee made one of the twelve Tribes Wee have noted this mercy afore in others let us take heed that the commonnesse of this mercy make us not disvalew it A benefit is no whit lesse to be esteemed because the Lord vouchsafeth to communicate it to many and it is nothing but our folly that takes occasion to sleight such favours Now I come to Simeon and Levi we have their speciall sin and the punishment of it noted The sinne is double First They were the Actors of that bloudy and ragefull murder and spoyle committed on the Sichemites in killing Hamor Shechem and all the Males They drew their swords and went in boldly on the third day when all were sore and slew all the men they met withall Iacob doth curse their rage and anger and doth abominate the same It is a grievous sinne to kill men in a wrathfull passion without just warrant and calling from God indeed to kill one particular person is sinne enough and calleth for the Sword of the Magistrate to cut of the sinner how much more to fill ones hands with bloud and kill as here a whole city or towne Murder is a sinne against the light of Scripture and of Nature against the Lawes of GOD and every well ordered Common-weale a grosse sinne and palpable a mischievous sinne wronging the Person murdered in his life the pretiousest thing hee hath with an irrecoverable wrong wronging his Friends wronging the Common-weale and wronging GOD extreamely in presumptuous incroching upon his prerogative to be the taker as hee hath beene the giver of life O be thankfull to the living God that hee hath kept you from this red and crimson sinne especially if any have beene so inflamed with rage as once David that he hath even desired and resolved and intended and attempted to commit murder as it fell out to David and he hath kept him from it either by preventing the occasion or some counsell comming betwixt or some diverting of the blow or the like O let him be thankfull that he hath escaped the fact of murder as well as be humble that he hath desired to commit the fault Wee must not ascribe to our selves the immunity from grosse sinnes and please our selves in our estate because of it but we must give God the glory and loath and abase our selves and our bad nature that should fall into them if wee were left to our selves chiefely if nothing have stopped us from them but want of opportunity And now ever mortifie anger and wrath and revengefull boyling of heart for he that nourisheth wrath malice envie in his spirit within shall at last be carried away so farre with that inward distemper that if occasion offer it selfe he shall flame forth into the grosse act of murder All corruptions being fed in the heart within doe gather such strength that if there be fitnesse of occasion they will breake out indeed O bring not your selves into such a temper that the Divell shall have you in readinesse to make murderers of if ever hee can fit you with time and place and other circumstances Beware of blouds beware of blouds this sinne teares the conscience in an hundred peeces when once it is made sensible This sinne leaves a deepe staine it begets grievous horrors and makes the soule still fierce in pronouncing evill against it after it hath beene fierce in doing so great an evill unto others Pray to God to preserve you from it and get meeke gentle quiet patient spirits which may keepe you from being provoked with wrongs And if any of you have transgressed in this kinde though not in so high a degree let the example of these two incourage him to repent and make him flie to the throne of grace that God would worke in him true repentance and both pardon and heale him You see two young men here drowned in a river of bloud most innocent bloud by them most causelesly and groundlesly spilt you see them yet pardoned Nay they were stained with their brothers bloud whom they consented to kill and actually sould for a slave and yet they be pardoned Runne to God hee can pardon many murders as well as one angry word and will doe it if you submit and convert He that judgeth himselfe for his sinnes past resolving thoroughly by Gods helpe to reforme his heart and life and takes boldnesse to aske remission and sanctification at Gods hand in Christs name shall be pardoned although the guilt of the bloud of God the son did sticke to his fingers But another fault they committed when their Father in the bitternesse of his soule and his great feares told them of their fault and their danger they shewed no repentance no feare at all either of God or men but returned him a surly kinde of foolish excuse saying should he abuse our sister as a whore If you frame this answer into a due forme of reasoning and apply it to the justifying of their murder for to that purpose they alledged it it must runne thus If any man wrong us notoriously wee may and will kill him and there is no cause of reprehending us but hee hath done so for he hath abused our sister as an whore wherefore we doe not deserve to be reprooved for killing them First if
and undefiled and forbearing to mixe ones selfe with any person not allowed by God according to his Ordinance especially when strong temptations are offered to inflame libidinous fancies deserveth great praise for it shewes that the heart is fully resolved not to doe evill Indeed if the not entertaining of such motions arise from inability of body and unfitnesse to satisfie them this cannot be called castity but debility Wee must consider how much the Apostle disgraceth uncleannesse and fornication he saith it is injurious to Christ to the holy-Ghost to a mans owne body to Christ if he be a professour of Christianity that doth it for it takes one that is joyned to him and to his mysticall body as a member thereof and makes it the member of an harlot which is a great indignity to the holy-Ghost for it takes a Temple dedicated to him such is the body and soule of every Christian and makes it a hog-sty to lodge filthy lusts in to a mans owne body for he that doth it sinnes against his owne body in making-that the very instrument of committing that soule sinne Now as much as may be said in the reproach of the sinne so much on the contrary maybe said in prayse of continency by it a man keeps Christs members and the holy-Ghosts Temples and his owne body free from so great basenesse of being made subject to an harlot The way is first to plant in ones owne heart a reverend feare of Gods all-seeing eye yea to pray much to God to bestow a good measure of this grace upon him The second is to count the sin a great wickednesse for so hee saith this great wickednesse The holding fast in ones mind an apprehension of the grievousnesse of a fault is a great preservative against it but if one once yeeld to fancy that it is no great matter then will it prove no great matter to draw us to it And indeed this sinne of Adultery must needs be a great wickednesse because it sinnes against a cleare light and is contrary to a solemne vow and Covenant made betwixt the marryed 3. A man must often ponder on the threats of God made against this sinne and presse them upon his owne soule and pray to God to make him beleeve and feare Fourthly he must prevent the occasions and fly from them even that occasion of being present especially in solitary places and alone with those to whom his heart is inclined or indeed with any with whom such a sinne may be committed but upon just grounds and causes And lastly a man must not trust upon his owne strength but constantly supplicate to God keep downe his inordinate passions or else he shall find them too unruly for him Labour you that be young and you that be elder and all to attaine this power over ill desires God that wrought it in Ioseph can worke it in any other as well you shall doe well to produce Iosephs Example unto God and beseech him to shew his Spirit and his feare in you as he did in him Why are godly mens worthy deedes set up before our eyes in Scriptures but that we may strive and pray and hope to be made like unto them But as all must bee exhorted to get Chastity so chiefly those which have beene overtaken already with the contrary crime of Adultery or fornication or both It is more easie to forbeare a sinne the first time then the second the second then the third and so forth unlesse great care be used to get the heart throughly healed If Joseph had lived in Fornication with any other he could never have resisted his mistresses inticements They that have yeelded to this sinne shall more hardly save themselves from it then those that have never yeelded but if a man doe frequently and unfainedly repent of this as well as of other sinnes it will bee made so loathsome to him that by Gods assistance he shall prevaile against it yea even though it be his darling corruption I goe on to shew how Joseph behaved himselfe in the house of his Prison and that to his Master there the Jaylor and also to the Kings Officers that were committed thither First he fell to his old trade of diligence and faithfulnesse carrying himselfe in so vertuous a manner that the Jaylor did affect him and liked him more and more till at last he intrusted him with all the charge of the prison This was a great trust for you know what extreame danger a Jaylor chiefely of such prisoners doth put himselfe in if his prisoners escape there againe therefore let all inferiours be perswaded to seeke to winne their Superiours by good and vertuous carriage especially meekenesse submissivenesse painefulnesse and trustinesse This will worke a man into favour even with an hard master but I spake of that matter a little before I will shew you his carriage to the prisoners to whom he was an Attendant it is commendable in these three respects First he shew'd himselfe desirous to comfort them when they were sad and dejected asking them why they were sad had hee not bin of a kinde and tender disposition he would not have heeded how a person to whom himselfe had no more relation had fared whether sorrowfully or merrily but so kinde was hee that hee seekes to comfort them by asking them the cause of their sadnesse and seeking to remove it We should all learne to practice this courteousnesse to all men chiefly to such as are in affliction otherwise even helpe to raise up their hearts with good words and so much as we can to become instruments of cheering them as you see Joseph intreating to know their Dreames and diligent to interpret the same It is an excellent vertue to be ready to comfort the afflicted and to revive the spirits of them that bee cast downe so farre as we be able but a churlish carelesse temper whereby a man cares not whether men cry or laugh be merry or sad is a proofe of much pride and stupidity of spirit and must be abhorred Againe you see him faithfull in interpreting their dreames not seeking to flatter the Baker in regard of the likenes of the dreames You must learne to deale truely with men telling them as the thing is not falsifying your words to please them and to prevent their sorrowes Most of all must men deale truly in interpreting and applying Gods Word and you must learne to be so wise as to accept such true and plaine dealing Lastly Ioseph was so wise and so prudently carefull of redeeming himselfe out of prison that he would not let slip the opportunity of speaking to the Butler to remember him It is very lawfull for any man to use good meanes of getting out of a crosse and to take all such advantages as God shall afford of suing and supplicating unto such as may be helpefull to him in that behalfe as Ioseph doth but still wee must take heed that
too If when we reade of this worke of his grace to others we praise him for it he will graunt it to us as well as to them The Lord is able to make any other man or woeman godly as well as Sarah Shee had as bad a nature and as unable to make her selfe good as wee have for she also was a daughter of Adam Therefore if you find your selves yet not to be indued with faith and holinesse take notice of these wants and goe to the throne of grace for grace beseeching the Lord to fulfill his covenant to you in giving you his Spirit to make you his children and it shall be unto you according to your constant and humble supplications And those whom God hath beene pleased to deale so graciously with let them heartily and constantly praise him labouring to make all crosses seeme nothing to them in comparison of this benefit Say though I bee poore despised afflicted yet God hath given mee some faith and some holinesse and begun to sanctifie and will preserve me in this estate to life eternall What cause have I to be discouraged at crosses to make one truely godly though they be not without their faults is the worthiest of all mercies In Heaven the Saints rejoyce in God and are not interrupted in his service by remembrance of former afflictions we one earth should labour so to be glad in hope of that eternall weight of glory that neither feeling of present miseries nor feare of future should much hinder us therein Secondly Sarah had a godly husband and did partake with him of his riches honours credit and all the good things which hee enjoyed This is a great favour to a wife if she be married to a good and holy man and a man also of convenient estate and good esteeme that she may be comforted by his goodnesse shewing it selfe in good carriage towards him and may taste the sweetnesse of his good and of his credit To have an yoake-fellow that can patiently beare with ones wants that is diligent and trusty and so provideth for his family that nothing is wanting to her selfe and family that lives in so good repute as she for his sake is better respected in a word such a one as is a comfort and credit to her a saviour of his body as indeed the husband should be is a singular benefit She hath a great blessing that hath such a husband and must not forget to be much and often thankfull yea though in some things he may be faulty to the hurting and hazarding and bringing crosses both upon himselfe and her as twice Abraham did though an excellent man Take notice of his favour and learne to be carefull in doing your duties so much the rather because your husbands be vertuous But next she had Isaac at length if God give a woman children and good children godly and holy partakers of the blessing of God in their soules that is a benefit to the wife as well as to the husband She shall have joy of such a child as well as hee both the parents of righteous children shall have joy of them Let woemen as well as men acknowledge this mercy wee see that those which are crossed in children are much troubled at it should not those whom God doth free from that little crosse giving them the contrary mercy learne to praise and rejoyce in him for it But further God did vouchsafe to deliver her twice out of that miserie into which twice she had cast her selfe by her owne fault If any one by their owne unbeleefe carnall feares or other evill behaviour have thrust themselves into the brambles and God by his speciall providence and care hath granted them an happy issue and escape they must even admire and applaud Gods goodnesse that hath so undeservedly pittied them and passing by their faults hath carried himselfe fatherly to them Sarah by saying I am Abrahams sister procured that she was taken by Pharaoh to be his wife God hindered Pharaoh from comming neere her and after by a dreame warned him of the matter and so hee dismissed Sarah untouched After she offended in like manner againe and againe the Lord in like manner delivered her what a graciousnesse of God was this She knew not in the world what to doe she had intangled her selfe in a snare and could not get out now God hee sets in hee breaketh the snare and sets her at liberty Without doubt Sarah and Abraham both were exceeding glad of this escape and praised God for it If by the meere providence of God without any fault of our hand miseries breake in upon us and then we crie to God and be rescued we have cause to acknowledge it as a great favour How much more then when he drawes us out of the evills into the which we have sinnefully thrust our owne selves sending some such meanes of helpe as we could never conceive of or procure to our selves Call to mind such deliverances to praise God with great fervency and humility for them and learne both to trust upon his goodnesse after the more stedfastly especially if more then once wee have thus insnared our selves and more then once the Lord hath pittied us and helped us we must never cease wondering at his goodnesse resolving also to take heed of ever provoking him by like folly for he that can open the doore of danger when we our selves by seeking sinnefully to escape some other evill have locked it upon our selves can surely yea and will keepe us if we doe cast our selves upon him and refuse to take up sinnefull and unlawfull shifts Could not the Lord have found a good and holy way of saving Abrahams life and Sarahs chastitie of restraining the cruelty of these men as well as their wantonnesse If God can helpe out of reall and present danger beyond our hopes he can surely keepe us out of feared and imaginary dangers aboue our thoughts And if any of Gods people have wound themselves into crosses they must not be dismayed from seeking to God for helpe by aggravating their crosses with this thought O foolish and sinnefull man I have pulled it upon my selfe by my folly how can I expect helpe from him but most humbly acknowledge their owne folly and yet take boldnes to sue to him for mercy both to pardon and to helpe them These be the speciall benefits given to Sarah Now her crosses must be considered First She was barren a long time this was a crosse to her no doubt because of her earnest desire to have childeren and because as I said of Abraham the hope of her salvation did hang upon the fruit of her wombe Barrennesse is such a crosse you see as hath befallen a godly woeman Let them therefore that are exercised with it learne to beare it with patience and labour to get hearts so much more fruitfull of good workes that such spirituall fruitfulnesse may make amends for the want of the
fruit of their bodies If God make not a woeman to beare children but make her pious and godly able to bring forth the fruits of the spirit in that spirituall marriage betwixt Christ and her she hath cause to be so thankefull for this fruitfulnesse as easily to brooke the trouble of the other unfruitfulnesse And those whom God doth not afflict with this affliction must learne to praise him for their fertile wombe It is a sinne not to prize even these temporall benefits but to grumble at abundance of fruit of the body is so foule a fault of ingratitude and unbeleefe that a man or woeman should greatly blame themselves for turning a thing beneficiall in it selfe into a distresse and misery unto themselves Another crosse was that she was sleighted by her maide yea that she bare the crosse somewhat impatiently must be reckoned in the number of her sinnes Doubtlesse it is a trying affliction to be assaulted with rude saucy and contemptuous words and gestures of a disobedient and undutifull servant Hardly shall the spirit of a governour be able to hold it selfe in patience when it shall see a servant or inferiour to looke too disdainefully or arrogantly or heare them utter surly and scoffing words Pride in an inferiour shewes it selfe by undutifulnesse and it will prove an hard thing to the superiour not to thinke it equall that pride should encounter pride againe with passionate resistance of it You must learne that have servants most times as most times Hagar was dutifull to be thankefull for it and must take heede of doing any thing by which you may give your servants occasion to sleight and contemne you for their corruption will quickly lay hold upon any occasion of such misdemeanour A third crosse was this to be taken from her husband into the house of Pharaoh and after of Abimelech 'T is true she could blame none but her selfe and her husband for that crosse but that did not make it lesse a crosse as hee is no lesse wounded that woundes himselfe by mischance then he whom an enemy should purposely wound and this crosse was made a little the more bitter by this that she was though gently and with milde wordes yet duely chidden for it by Abimelech too who tels her plainely of it saying Gen. 20.16 I have given thy brother this name hee gives Abraham ironically with somewhat a tart rebuke as much as if he had said whom thou wouldest have had us thinke to be onely thy brother a 100. shekels that is of our money some 72. lb. od money neere upon a 100. markes and addes behold hee is to thee a covering of thine eyes and to all that are with thee and with all other thus shee was reprooved She was sensible of the rebuke this was somewhat bitter that a stranger should chide her for not sufficiently covering her eyes Sure it was a griefe to her to come under just reproofe we must take heed that our evill carriage make us not subject to just reprehension We shall be ashamed to heare of what we were not carefull to shunne And so much of Sarahs life Of her death we reade Gen. 23. She lived a 127. yeares and died at Hebron and was buried in the cave of Makphela which Abraham bought for money of Ephron the Hittite for that use upon that occasion She is the onely woeman so farre as my memory serves me whose time of living is registred in Scripture whither it have any mistery in it I cannot tell no woemans age is recorded but Sarahs alone the mother of Isaac doubtlesse God intended to grace her in it above other woemen And so we have done with Sarah too It will not be amisse to add Hagar to her of whose birth we have nothing recorded in Scripture and as little of her death but by that which the Scripture speaketh of her there is some good probability that she was a woeman fearing God First because of all woemen in Sarahs house who having above 300. men-servants must needes have many maide-servants also she made choice of her to give unto her husband Abraham to the end that some seede yea the promised seede might be taken from her Sure Abraham and Sarah would not have preferred her above all the maidens in the house if they had not thought her also a good and godly maiden I suppose therefore that seeing her matter and mistresse thought her good we should goe against the rules of charity though we reade of some faults she had if we thinke not so too Let us consider of her life and see her vertues and faults benefits and crosses First it was a great vertue in her that all the time of her dwelling with Abraham before shee carried her selfe very dutifully and respectively to Sarah else she would never have given her into Abrahams bosome Let all servants learne of her to shew all reverence and dutifull behaviour to their governours and not onely to the rich and wealthy but to the poore also nay as S. Peter saith not onely to the good and curteous but also to the froward for so is Gods commandement to them expressely Ephes 6. Col. 4. 1 Pet. 2. and if any servant doe otherwise they do not garnish and adorne but disgrace and discredit true religion The servant is no further godly then hee or she shewes reverence and honour to the master and governesse Looke therefore that you set your selves to please and content your governours with all obedience and duty if you will have God and your owne consciences to approve of you Secondly when the Angell met her and asked her whence she came and whither she went she answered plainely and said I flie from the face of my Mistresse Sarah she told truth without lying and that is a good thing and commendable to speake truth though it be to ones owne shame but to have told a lie to an Angell might have procured her great reproofe and herein you may see that Hagar exceeded her Mistresse for when the Angell charged Sarah with laughing shee denied it but Hagar being examined confesseth the truth without lying We shall doe better in this case to follow the maide then the Mistresse Another good thing in her was that when shee was commanded by the Angell of God to goe and humble her selfe to her Mistresse shee did so Here all you inferiours must learne of her nay rather of the Angell which taught her what you should doe if you have by frowardnesse or ill carriage provoked your Governours so that they doe use perhaps a little too much rigour towards you yet you must submit and humble your selves acknowledge your owne faultinesse and patiently stoope to their words of reproofe yea or blowes of correction This submission is the best way to pacifie wrath and to settle peace Afterwards we reade of no falling our betwixt Hagar and Sarah Learne therefore all yee servants to stoope
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