and Truth is oppressed We may lawfully appeal to God by War and consequently pray to him for success and desire him to abate the Pride and confound the Devices of the Common Enemy This does not clash at all with the Precept in my Text. For in this case the Enemies are not considered as our Enemies so much as the Common Enemies of God and of his Truth VI. After all if we consider the places singly and separately we shall not find them import so much harm as may be supposed at the first sight That our Enemies should be ashamed and confounded that their way should be dark and slippery in short comes but to thus much that they may be disappointed in their Evil attempts I have not time to descend to particulars Thus much is certain that some places sound harsh and appear very severely in our Version when they do not so in the Original I will give an instance or two Psal lv 16. Let death come hastily upon them and let them go down quick into Hell Here the word we render Hell commonly signifies no more but the Grave or place of the dead And he that looks on the words as they lye in the Hebrew can infer no more than this that the Psalmist predicts the sudden death of men in whose dwellings is wickedness There is nothing farther that the words do import Again where we read of the good man's seeing his desire upon his Enemies The expression is indeed Elliptical but his desire is added to supply the Ellipsis 't is not in the Original Text. Psal cxij. 8. cxviij 7. I shall now proceed to make some application of what hath bin said I. If we stand obliged by the Law of Jesus to love our Enemies c. And Jesus hath in this Law obliged us to a greater extent and degree of Charity and Kindness than the Letter of the Law of Moses How inexcusable are those men who instead of obeying these Precepts of Jesus come short of what Moses requited These men certainly deserve reproof and are very unworthy of the title of Christians There are two sorts of these First Those who are so far from loving their Enemies that they do not love one another They are so far from coming up to the pitch of Charity which Jesus requires that they come short of the lowest measure which was taught by Moses By the Law of Moses the Jews were obliged to love those of their own Nation and Religion tho' otherwise they were Enemies I wish we went thus far I am sure our Saviour goes higher And we must do so too as we hope to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Secondly There are others who are so far from loving their Enemies as our Saviour requires that they are Enemies without any cause at all to their Brethren Instead of loving our Enemies blessing them that curse us doing good to them that hate us praying for our Persecutors there are those who hate who curse who injure who reproach those who have done them no harm They speak Evil of them of whom they know none They contend with those that are for Peace They are so far from obeying Jesus that they have not complyed with Solomon's easie lesson Prov. iij. 30. Strive not with a man without cause if he have done thee no harm These are so far from the Christian and Divine Charity that they come short of the Jewish So far are they from loving their Enemies that they hate the most conspicuous Vertue and the greatest Benefactors to mankind No Vertue can be a security against such as these These men can hardly love those that love them They are so far from the Jewish and Christian that they hardly arrive at the unrewardable Charity of the Publicane Matt. v. 46. These men are in the Gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity God open their eyes and turn their hearts II. Let me exhort you to the practice of the lesson laid before us in the words of my Text. Love your Enemies c. We shall never want an occasion to exercise this vertue Our Saviour that gives us this Rule gave us also the greatest Example of it Hence it is most powerfully commended to us It may be thought difficult but we may be reconciled to it when we consider that He who requires it did Himself practice it also We call him Lord and 't is fit we should obey and follow him We need God's pardon and if we have a due sense of what that imports and that this is the way to obtain it we shall not think much to forgive one another Let me speak in the Apostles words Eph. iv 31,32 v. 1,2 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil-speaking be put away from you with all malice And be ye kind one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you Be ye therefore followers of God as dear Children And walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all honour and praise Amen FINIS BOOKS Writ by RICHARD Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells A Demonstration of the Messias in which the Truth of the Christian Religion is proved especially against the Jews The Judgment of Private Discretion in Matters of Religion defended in a Sermon on 1 Thess V. 21. Preached at St. Paul's Covent-Garden Feb. 23. 86. A Sermon preached before the Lord Mayor at S. Sepulchres Church on Easter Tuesday Apr. 21. 1690. A Sermon preached before the House of Peers on January 30. 1691 2. The Charge of Richard Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells to the Clergy of his Diocese at his Primary Visitation begun at Axebridge June 2. 1692. A Sermon preached before the King and Queen at White-hall March 12. 1692. being the Second Sunday in Lent Newly published Four Sermons concerning the Divinity and Incarnation of our Blessed Saviour by his Grace John Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury in 8o. Of Industry in five Discourses Viz. In General In our General Calling as Christians In our Particular Calling as Gentlemen In our Particular Calling as Scholars By Isaac Barrow D.D. late Master of Trinity-College in Cambridge Published by his Grace John Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury All sold by B. Aylmer
and aggravated Sins against God and the little injuries and trespasses which we do to each other The first are expressed by Talents the other by Pence Matt. 18.24.25 The first by the number of Ten thousand the other of an Hundred 'T is not hard to remit a small Summ when we need the remission of so vast an one He cannot find any difficulty to forgive a small debt that so much needs to be forgiven the greatest In a word to love our Enemies is an imitation of God and our dear Master 'T is an argument of a great and generous Mind 'T is equally our duty and our interest 'T is for the good of this lower World and the way to a better 'T is the Ornament of our Religion and speaks the perfection of our Nature and an high degree and pitch of Vertue As to the latter part of the words of my Text Pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you That will require a more particular and separate Consideration For tho' those words are-easie to be understood and our duty from them was commended by the Example of our Saviour Yet it may still be demanded if all manner of Prayer against our Enemies be there strictly forbid Obj. For we find the Psalmist frequently praying against his Enemies And the book of Psalms makes up a considerable part of our public Service and we commonly bear a part in our Responses therein And yet we find there a great many Curses and Imprecations which we repere in our daily Service without any scruple or remorse Thus we find him praying Psal vj. 10. Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed And x. 2. Let them be taken in the devices Again Psal xxxv 4. Let all them be confounded and part to shame c. xl 8. Let the sentence of guiltiness proteed against him lv 16. And now that he lyeth let him rise up no more Again lviij 6,7 Let death come hastily upon them and let them go down quick into Hell lix 5. Let them be rooted out and consume away like a snail We elsewhere find him speaking of seeing his desire upon his Enemies cxviij 7. To which I answer in the following particulars I. That it is certain that the Hebrews have no such thing in their Language as an optative Mood And therefore we cannot from the bare formation of the Verb conclude the desire or wish of him that speaks For the truth of this I appeal to those who are best skilled in that language II. That however they have a way by which they express their wish or desire that a thing should come to pass This the Psalmist does by two words which express the desire of the speaker 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus Psal xiv 7. liij 6. O that the Salvation of Israel were come out of Sion And lv 6. O that I had wings like a Dove c. After this manner does the Psalmist express his wish or desire But he no-where useth this expression where he is supposed to pray against his Enemies III. That it is very evident that the Psalmist was far removed from that Spirit of revenge supposed in the Objection Psal vij 3,4 O Lord my God if I have done this if there be iniquity in my hands If I have rewarded Evil to him that is at peace with me yea I have delivered him that without cause was mine Enemy Again Psal xxxv 13. They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul But as for me when they were sick my clothing was sackcloth I humbled my soul with fasting and my prayer returned into mine own bosom I behaved my self as tho' he had bin my friend or brother I howed down heavily as one that mourneth for his mother The Psalmist elsewhere tells how he was affected as to his Enemy lv 12. It was not an Enemy that reproached me then I could have born it David might well say so He did with singular meekness bear the Reproaches and Curses of Shimei and the causeless Persecutions of Saul without rendring evil for evil or railing for railing It is not then very credible that he should curse his Enemies in his prayers and solemn devotions and which he wrote by Divine Inspiration IV. That the Verbs in the Hebrew in the places above cited and elsewhere are in the future tense And if some there be of the imperative mood it alters not the Case because the Hebrew Grammarians agree that the imperative is but another future R. Mos Kimchi Grammat cum L'Empereur There is not in any one of these places any Expression that imports any wish or desire And then these Expressions are rather predictions than prayers and tell us what shall come to pass rather than what the Psalmist desires This is no new opinion nor without ground Non optat sed praevidet Prophetia est praenunciantis non votum maledicentis August This agrees well with the Psalmist's manner of speech elsewhere Psal i. 5,6 ix 3. xcij. 9. xciv 23. He tells us that the ungodly shall not stand in judgment that their way shall perish that his Enemies shall fall and that all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered and that He shall cut them off in their own wickedness In these places our Interpreters have kept to the future They had the same reason to have done it elsewhere especially in those words Let his days be few and let another take his office They might as well have rendred them His days shall be few and another shall take his office cix 8. with Act. i. 16. 'T is certain this contains a prediction of the fate of Judas and St. Peter mentions this Scripture as a Prophecy not as a Prayer He tells us that this Scripture must needs be fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David SPAKE BEFORE concerning Judas And if this be so no man can blame the Psalmist for denouncing Evil against Evil men any more than he ought to blame the Prophets for Prophesying Evils against the greatest Sinners and Persecutors of God's Church and People V. It is farther to be considered that many of those places in the book of Psalms are to be understood of the Enemies of God and of his Church Psal v. 10. x. 2. lxix 22. lxxix 12. lxxxiij 13. cix 8. cxxix 5. And therefore the Psalmist is not to be supposed to indulge himself the liberty of Imprecations and Curses against his private and particular Enemies when he denounceth Woes against the Enemies of God and his Truth Besides 't is certainly lawfull to pray against the Enemies of God and of the truth and publick peace and those whom gentle means are not likely to reduce and such there are many times who are incorrigible We have an antecedent obligation to God and to the Community whereof we are members and where our Cause is righteous