A09376:1544
A cloud of faithful witnesses, leading to the heavenly Canaan, or, A commentary upon…A cloud of faithfull witnesses, leading to the heauenly Canaan, or, A commentarie vpon…
A cloud of faithful witnesses, leading to the heavenly Canaan, or, A commentary upon the 11 chapter to the Hebrews preached in Cambridge by that godly, and judicious divine, M. William Perkins ; long expected and desired, and therefore published at the request of his executors, by Will. Crashawe and Tho. Pierson, preachers of Gods Word, who heard him preach it, and wrote it from his mouth.A cloud of faithfull witnesses, leading to the heauenly Canaan, or, A commentarie vpon the 11 chapter to the Hebrewes preached in Cambridge by that godly, and iudicious divine, M. William Perkins ; long expected and desired, and therefore published at the request of his executours, by Will. Crashawe and Tho. Pierson, preachers of Gods Word, who heard him preach it, and wrote it from his mouth.
London: printed by Humphrey Lownes for Leo. Greene, 1607London: printed by Humfrey Lownes for Leo. Greene, 1607
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
In this preservation of Rahab, we may learn sundry points: first, whereas she is saved alive, because of the oath of the spies, we see what special care every one ought to have for the doing of those lawful things whatsoever they are, whereto he binds himself by an oath. Joshua knowing this bond of the spies to Rahab (as we may read) gives special charge for her preservation. Hence David saith,1 If a man bind himself with an oath, he must keep it, though it be to his own hinderance, Psal. 15.4. Every single promise binds a mans conscience, if it be lawful: But when an oath is adjoined, then there is a double bond. And therefore the Author to the Hebrews saith, that God, to make known the stableness of his counsel promised, 2bound himself with an oath; that by two immutable things (to wit, Gods promise, and oath) we might have strong consolation: so that an oath binds a man double to the performing of his promise. And that this conscience is to be made of a lawful oath, appeareth ⟨p. 484⟩thus: If a man make a lawful oath, and yet be induced to do it by fraud; he must perform it, and not fail: as appeareth by Joshua's fact to the Gibeonites, Joshua 9.19. For, when they came to the Jews craftily, as though they had been men of a far country, and had brought them to swear that they would not hurt them: though the host of Israel murmured at it, when they came to their cities; and though they might have reasoned thus, that they got it of them by fraud, and therefore they would not keep it: yet, this is the answer of Joshua and the Princes unto the people, That they had sworn unto them, by the Lord God of Israel, and therefore they might not touch them. And when king Saul, in zeal to Israel, had broken this oath of Joshua, and the Princes, by destroying the Gibeonites, 2. Sam. 21. there came a plague upon the Land, for three years space; and was not stayed, till seven of Sauls sons were hanged, for Sauls fact. So, that the breach of an oath is a most dangerous thing; and therefore, he that hath bound himself thereby, must have great care to keep it.