6. The Lord Jesus doth often give out demonstrations of his power and providence. Partly in protecting, strengthening, assisting his people, and prospering their just endeavours for the advancement of his kingdom, so that all the machinations of the wicked against them
SERMON UPON GENESIS III. 15, 261
come to nought. Partly in making fearful havoc and destruction in Satan's kingdom. In protecting his people, sometimes he destroyeth their enemies: Isa. xxvii. 4, 'Who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle ? I would go through them, I would burn them together.' Sometimes infatuateth their counsels : Job v. 12-14, ' He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot per- form their enterprise : he taketh the wise in their own craftiness, and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong. They meet with dark- ness in the daytime, and grope in the noonday as in the night.' Sometimes he hideth his people in the secret of his presence : Ps. xxxi. 20, 'Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man ; thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strifes of tongues.' He smiteth his enemies by an invisible curse : Job xx. 26, ' All darkness shall be hid in his secret places ; a fire not blown shall consume him ; it shall go ill with him that is left in his taber- nacle.' He divideth them : 2 Chron. xx. 23, ' The children of Ammon and Moab rose up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them ; and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir every one helped to destroy another.' Christ is the assailant, and makes fearful havoc in the devil's kingdom. The word of truth is come into all the world, and pulleth down idolatrous and false worship : Col. i. 6, ' The word of truth is come unto you, as it is in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day you heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth.
SERMOiNS UPON GENESIS XXIV. 63.
SERMON I.
And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the even-tide^ — Gen. xxiv. 63.
The context is spent in describing the journey of Eebekab. with Abra- ham's servant, and the text showeth the occasion of the first inter- view between Isaac and Eebekah ; he goeth out into the fields to meditate, and of a sudden he seeth the camels coming.
I cannot pass by this accident without some remark and observation. Isaac goeth to meet with God, and he meeteth with God andRebekah too Godliness hath the promises of this life and that which is to come ; there is nothing lost by duty and acts of piety and worship. Seneca said the Jews were an unhappy ])eople, because they lost the seventh part of their lives, meaning the time spent in the sabbath. This is the sense of nature, to think all lost that is bestowed on God. Flesh and blood snufleth and crieth, What a weariness is it ! and what need all this waste ? Oh ! let me tell you, by serving God you drive on two cares at once. Worldly interests many times are cast into the way of religion, and, besides the main design, these things are added to us. Wonderful are the providences of God in and about duties of worship. Some have gone aside to pray, and escaped such as lay in wait to destroy them ; and Luther tells a story of one that balked a duty and fell into a danger, passed by a sermon, and was presently surprised by thieves. Others there are that thought of nothing but meeting God in his worship, and God hath made their duties an occasion of advancing their outward comforts. Certainly it is good to obey all impulses of the Spirit ; there may be somewhat of providence as well as grace in it : * Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the even-tide ; and he lift up his eyes and saw, and beliold the camels were coming.'
In the words you have several circumstances : the person, ' Isaac ; ' his work, ' He went out to meditate ; ' the place, * In the field ; ' the time, ' At even-tide.
1. For the person, Isaac, I need not say much, because I would not digress. He was Abraham's son, and God said of Abraham, Gen. xviiL 19, ' I know him, that he will command his children, and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that
2G4 SERMONS UPON GENESIS XXIV. (53.
which he hath spoken of him.' Good education leaveth a savour nnd tincture upon the spirit, at least an awe and a care of duties and exer- cises of religion ; and therefore it is no wonder to hear of Abraham's son that liad been trained up in the way of the Lord, to go out to meditate ; it is a seal of the blessing of education, again Isaac was now in his youth ; certainly he could not be very old. Sarah was ninety years old when the promise was first made to her of a son : Gen. xvii. 17, ' Then Abraham fell upon his face and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old ? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear ? ' Now Sarah was but one hundred and twenty-seven years old when she died. Gen. xxiii. 1, and this match was immediately after her death ; for just as he received Rebekah he left off his mourning for Sarah : Gen. xxiv. 67, ' And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife ; and he loved her : and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.' Probably Isaac was now a little above thirty. Isaac, a young man, that was now entering into the world, goeth out to meditate. Usually we make religious exercises the work of grey hairs, and after we have spent the heat and flower of our spirits in the vanities of the world, we hope to make amends for all by a severe and devout retirement. Young and green heads look upon meditation as a dull melancholy work, fit only for the phlegm and decay of old age ; vigorous and eager spirits are more for action than thoughts, and their work lieth so much with others that they have no time to descend into themselves. But the elder world was more innocent ; the exercises of Isaac's youth were pious ; he went out into the fields to meditate.