their ftoutness against us in the wilderness, are now made our fubjects, our fervants, yea, underlings to pull off our fhoes, and wash our feet. Now I pray you, what uncomely manner of fpeech is this, fo ufed in common phrafe among the Hebrews? It is a fhame that Chriftian men fhould be fo light-headed, to toy, as ruffians do, with fuch manner of speeches, uttered in good grave fignification by the Holy Ghoft. More reasonable it were for vain men to learn to reverence the form of God's words, than to fport at them to their damnation. Some again are offended to hear that the godly fathers had many wives and concubines, although, after the phrase of the Scripture, a concubine is an honeft name; for every concubine is a lawful wife, but every wife is not a concubine. And, that ye may the better understand this to be true, ye fhall note that it was permitted to the fathers of the Old Teftament to have at one time more wives than one; for what purpose ye fhall afterward hear. Of which wives, fome were free-women born, fome were bond-women and fervants. She that was free born had a prerogative above those that were fervants and bondwomen. The free-born woman was by marriage made the ruler of the house under her husband, and is called the mother of the household, the mistress or the dame of the house, after our manner of speaking, and had by her marriage an intereft, a right, and an ownership of his goods, unto whom the was married. Other fervants and bond-women were given by the owners of them, as the manner was then, I will not fay always, but for the most part, unto their daughters at the day of their marriage, to be handmaidens unto them. After such a fort did Pharaoh, king of Egypt, give unto Sarah, Abraham's Gen. xxix. wife, Hagar, the Egyptian, to be her maid; fo did Laban give unto his daughter Leah, at the day of her marriage, Zilpah, to be her handmaid. And to his other daughter, Rachel, he gave another bondmaid, named Bilhah. And the wives, that were the owners of their handmaidens, gave them in marriage to their husbands, upon divers occafions. Sarah gave her maid Hagar in marriage to Gen. xvi. Abraham; Leah gave, in like manner, her maid Zilpah to her husband Jacob. So did Rachel, his other wife, give him Bilhah, her maid, faying unto him, Go in unto Gen. xxx. her, and fhe fhall bear upon my knees: which is as if the had faid, Take her to wife, and the children that she fhall bear will I take upon my lap, and make of them as if they were mine own. These handmaidens or bond women, 2 Pet. ii. Gen. ix. women, although by marriage they were made wives, yet they had not this prerogative, to rule in the house, but were still underlings, and in fubjection to their mafters, and were never called mothers of the household, miftreffes, or dames of the houfe, but are called fometimes wives, fometimes concubines. The plurality of wives was by a special prerogative fuffered to the fathers of the Old Teftament, not for fatisfying their carnal and fleshly lufts, but to have many children; because every one of them hoped, and begged ofttimes of God in their prayers, that that bleffed feed, which God promifed fhould come into the world to break the ferpent's head, might come and be born of his ftock and kindred. Now of thofe which take occafion of carnality and evil life, by hearing and reading in God's book, what God hath fuffered, even in those men whofe commendation is praised in the Scripture: as that Noah, whom St. Peter calleth the eighth preacher of righteousness, was fo drunk with wine, that in his fleep he uncovered his own privities. The juft man, Lot, was in like manner Gen. xix. drunken, and in his drunkennefs lay with his own daughters, contrary to the law of nature. Abraham, whofe faith was fo great, that for the fame he deserved to be called of God's own mouth, a father of many nations, the father of all believers, befides with Sarah his wife, Gen. xvi. had alfo carnal company with Hagar, Sarah's handmaid. Gen. xxix. The patriarch Jacob had to his wives two fifters at one Gen. xvii. Rom. iv. time. The Prophet David, and king Solomon his fon, had many wives and concubines, &c. Which things we fee plainly to be forbidden us by the law of God, and are now repugnant to all public honefty. These and fuch like in God's book, good people, are not written that we fhould or may do the like, following their examples, or that we ought to think that God did allow every of these things in thofe men: but we ought rather to believe and to judge that Noah in his drunkennefs offended God highly. Lot, lying with his daughters, committed horrible inceft. We ought then to learn by them this profitable leffon, that if fo godly men as they were, which otherwise felt inwardly God's holy Spirit inflaming their hearts with the fear and love of God, could not by their own ftrength keep themselves from committing horrible fin, but did fo grievously fall, that without God's great mercy they had perifhed everlaftingly; how much more ought we then, miferable wretches, which have no feeling of God within us at all, all, continually to fear, not only that we may fall as they did, but alfo be overcome and drowned in fin, which they were not; and fo, by confidering their fall, take the better occafion to acknowledge our own infirmity and weakness, and therefore more earneftly to call unto Almighty God with hearty prayer inceffantly, for his grace to ftrengthen us, and to defend us from all evil. And though through infirmity we chance at any time to fall, yet we may, by hearty repentance, and true faith, speedily rife again, and not fleep and continue in fin, as the wicked doth. Thus, good people, should we understand fuch matters expreffed in the divine Scriptures, that this holy table of God's Word be not turned to us to be a fnare, a trap, and a ftumbling-ftone, to take hurt by the abufe of our understanding: but let us esteem them in fuch a reverent humility, that we may find our neceffary food therein, to ftrengthen us, to comfort us, to inftruct us, as God of his great mercy hath appointed them, in all neceffary works, fo that we may be perfect before him in the whole courfe of our life: which he grant us, who hath redeemed us, our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift: to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghoft be all honour and glory for evermore. Amen. The Second Part of the Information for them which take. Offence at certain Places of the holy Scripture. YE have heard, good people, in the Homily last read unto you, the great commodity of holy Scriptures; ye have heard how ignorant men, void of godly underftanding, feek quarrels to difcredit them: fome of their reafons have ye heard answered. Now we will proceed, and fpeak of fuch politic wife men, which be offended, for that Chrift's precepts fhould feem to deftroy all order in governance, as they do allege for example, fuch as thefe be: If any man ftrike thee on the right cheek, turn Matt. v. the other unto him alfo. If any man will contend to take thy coat from thee, let him have cloak and all. Let not Matt. vi. thy left hand know what thy right hand doth. If thine Matt. xviii. eye, thine hand, or thy foot offend thee, pull out thine eye, cut off thine hand, or thy foot, and caft it from thee. If thine enemy, faith St. Paul, be an hungered, give him meat; Rom. xii. if he be thirsty, give him drink: fo doing, thou shalt heap hot hot burning coals upon his head. Thefe fentences, good people, unto a natural man feem mere abfurdities, con1 Cor. ii. trary to all reason. For a natural man, as St. Paul faith, underftandeth not the things that belong to God, neither can he, fo long as old Adam dwelleth in him. Chrift therefore meaneth, that he would have his faithful fervants fo far from vengeance, and refifting wrong, that he would rather have them ready to fuffer another wrong, than by refifting to break charity, and to be out of patience. He would have our good deeds fo far from all carnal respects, that he would not have our nigheft friends know of our well doing, to win a vain glory. And though our friends and kinsfolks be as dear as our right eyes and our right hands; yet, if they would pluck us from God, we ought to renounce them, and forfake them. Pfalm i. Thus if ye will be profitable hearers and readers of the holy Scriptures, ye muft firft deny yourselves, and keep under your carnal fenfes, taken by the outward words, and fearch the inward meaning: reafon must give place to God's holy Spirit; you must fubmit your worldly wisdom and judgment unto his divine wifdom and judgment. Confider that the Scripture, in what strange form foever it be pronounced, is the word of the living God. Let that always come to your remembrance, which is fo oft repeated of the prophet Efaias, The mouth of the Lord, faith he, hath Spoken it; the almighty and everlasting God, who with his only word created heaven and earth, hath decreed it; the Lord of Hofts, whofe ways are in the feas, whofe paths are in the deep waters, that Lord and God, by whofe word all things in heaven and in earth are created, governed, and preferved, hath fo provided it. The God of gods, and Lord of all lords, yea, God that is God alone, incomprehenfible, almighty, and everlafting, he hath Spoken it, it is his word. It cannot therefore be but truth, which proceedeth from the God of all truth: it cannot be but wifely and prudently commanded, what Almighty God hath devifed, how vainly foever, through want of grace, we miferable wretches do imagine and judge of his most holy word. The Prophet David, defcribing an happy man, faith, Bleed is the man that doth not walk after the counfel of the ungodly, nor ftand in the way of finners, nor fit in the feat of the fcornful. There are three forts of people, whofe company the prophet would have him to flee and avoid, which fhall be an happy man, and partaker of God's bleffing. First, he may not walk after the counfel of the ungodly. Secondly, he may not ftand in the way of finners. Thirdly, he must not fit in the feat of the fcornful. By these three forts of people, ungodly men, finners, and fcorners, all impiety is fignified, and fully expreffed. By the ungodly he understandeth those which have no regard of Almighty God, being void of all faith, whofe hearts and minds are fo fet upon the world, that they ftudy only how to accomplish their worldly practices, their carnal imaginations, their filthy luft and defire, without any fear of God. The second fort he calleth finners; not fuch as do fall through ignorance, or of frailnefs; for then who fhould be found free? What man ever lived upon earth, Chrift only excepted, but he hath finned? The juft man falleth feven times, and Prov. xxiv. rifeth again. Though the godly do fall, yet they walk not on purposely in fin, they ftand not ftill to continue and tarry in fin, they fit not down like careless men, without all fear of God's juft punishment for fin; but defying fin, through God's great grace and infinite mercy, they rife again, and fight against fin. The prophet then calleth them finners, whofe hearts are clean turned from God, and whofe whole converfation of life is nothing but fin; they delight fo much in the fame, that they choose continually to abide and dwell in fin. The third fort he calleth fcorners, that is, a fort of men, whofe hearts are fo ftuffed with malice, that they are not contented to dwell in fin, and to lead their lives in all kind of wickednefs; but also they do contemn and fcorn in other all godlinefs, true religion, all honesty and virtue. Of the two first forts of men, I will not fay but they may take repentance, and be converted unto God. Of the third fort, I think I may, without danger of God's judgment, pronounce, that never any yet converted unto God by repentance, but continued ftill in their abominable wickedness, heaping up to themselves damnation, against the day of God's inevitable judgment. Examples of fuch fcorners, we read in the fecond book of Chronicles: 2 Chron. When the good king Hezekiah, in the beginning of his ***. reign, had deftroyed idolatry, purged the temple, and reformed religion in his realm, he fent meffengers into every city, to gather the people unto Jerufalem, to folemnize the feaft of Eafter, in fuch fort as God had appointed. The pofts went from city to city, through the land of Ephraim and Manaffes, even unto Zabulon. And what did the people, think ye? Did they laud and praise the name of the Lord, which had given them fo good a king, fo zealous a prince, to abolith idolatry, and to restore |