Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: JACOB'S VOW: OR THE MODESTY AND REASONABLENESS OF JACOB'S DESIRE GEN. XXVIII. 20. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, if God will be with me, and will keep me in the way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God, (-r. The only thing that I intend to consider upon this place of holy Scripture, is the modesty and reasonableness of Jacob's Desire. He doth not desire great, ness of wealth, or honor, or power, or splendor, or great equipage in this world ; but all that he desires in reference to this world, is, 1. That the comforta. ble presence and the sense of the favor and love of God should be with him : If God will be with me. 2. That the protection of the Divine Providence may be continually over him : and will keep me in the way that I go : 3. That he would supply him, not with curiosities or delicacies, but with necessaries ; and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on. And the truth is, this should be the rule and measure of every good man, in reference to this life, and the enjoyments of it, and the desires of them, until he come to his Father's house in peace ; that house wherein there are many mansions, that the great fa. ther, of whom all the family in heaven and earth is named, hath provided for such as fear, and love, and obey him. Indeed the two former of these, though they be no more than what the bountiful God freely affords to all that truly love him, and depend upon him, are of a strange and vast extent. First, the comfortable presence of God supplies abundantly all that can be desired by us, and abundantly countervails whatsoev. er else we seem to want; it is better than life itself. And when the ancients would express all that seem, ed ...