"the Earth, for the Earth was full ❝of Violence, and that forely grieved "the Spirit of the Lord; fo that he "faid, I will deftroy Man whom I "have created," Gen. vi. 5. 7.

Now when Things were come to this Pafs, the People of God having caft off his Yoke, and fallen in with the World and its Spirit (which they openly declared, by their entering into the nearest Affinity by Marriages with them) and had their Hearts thereby drawn away more and more from following the Lord, and "all "Flesh having" by this Time "cor

rupted his Way upon the Earth;" then did the Lord determine to deftroy all Flesh by a Flood, Noah and his Family only excepted.

If nothing more could be alleged against these mixt Marriages, this Confideration, one would think, were of itself enough to manifeft how great a Sin it is, and to deter all confiderate Men and Women from entering into it, that it appears to have

been

been a great Step towards the Deftruction of the old World, the Door that gave the Inlet to thofe Corruptions and Violence which filled the Earth, and provoked the Lord, not only to repent that he had made "Man," but to pour down his Wrath in a Flood, which destroyed both Man and Beaft.

We have feen the Mischief the

Ungodly brought upon Mankind by those mixt Marriages before the Flood. Now let us obferve the great Care the Godly took, after the Flood, to prevent the like Evil and Danger.

After the general Overthrow of ungodly Men by the Flood, from which only Noah with his Family, eight Souls in all, were preferved in the Ark (which was a Figure of Chrift) was born Abraham, whom God called out of his own Country, and from his Father's House, with Sarah his Wife, to make of them a distinct and peculiar People to himA 5 felf.

felf. And he established his Cove nant with Abraham (and his Bleffing upon his Seed) who faw Chrift's Day, and was glad; and in the Faith thereof walked before the Lord with a perfect Heart: In which Faith also he offered up his Son Ifaac unto the Lord, as the Lord had commanded him. Such was the Obedience he added unto his Faith; which "was "accounted unto him for Righte"oufnefs," Gal, iii. 6.

Now when Ifaac, the Child of Promife, was grown up to a marriageable Age, fo great was the Care of his godly Father for him, that he might not be unequally yoked, or joined in Marriage, that calling his eldest Servant to him (who had the Charge and Overfight of all that he had) he made him fwear by the Lord, the God of Heaven, and the God of the Earth, that he fhould "not take a "Wife unto his Son of the Daugh"ters of the Canaanites, amongst "whom he dwelt. But thou shalt 66 go

go, faid he, unto my Country, "and to my Kindred, and take a "Wife unto my Son Ifaac," Gen. xxiv. 3, 4.

This fo ftrict a Charge, fo folemnly given, and fo firmly bound, fhews that this good Man did not look upon this Matter of mixt Marriages with an eafy Eye, as an indifferent Thing; but was earneftly and heartily concerned, that his Son might not be joined with one of a different Worship And as his honeft Care was thus exercifed, in fending his Servant to Abraham's Kindred, to the Family of Bethuel; fo the providential Hand of God was apparently with him in the Choice of Rebekah, and the Confent they gave to it, faying, "The Thing pro

:

"ceedeth of the Lord: Let her be

thy Master's Son's Wife, as the "Lord hath fpoken." And, in Conclufion, they bleffed her, and fent. And as Ifaac was walk

her away.

ing, and meditating in the Fields at

A 6

Evening

Evening-tide, he met Rebekah coming with his Father's Servants, and took her to be his Wife: And she, after twenty Years Barrennefs, bare him two Sons, Efau and Jacob; whofe different Practice, in the Case of Marriage, let us now obferve.

What Efau was, is well known, both by his felling of his Birth-right, and other Characters given him in the Holy Scriptures. When he was forty Years of Age, he took him two Wives, and both of them Unbelievers, Daughters of the Hittites; which Thing forely grieved his godly Parents, and is left upon Record, as a Mark of his Undutifulness and Difobedience, in not advifing with, and being ruled by them, in that fo weighty Affair. And may it be a Caution unto all fuch as profefs themfelves to be Chriftians, and fo of the righteous Line, "that they follow "not the Example of profane

"Efau !"

But