of the Light that shines there and now in other respects by the Shew-bread The analogy to this appears in four things 1. In that as many Grains make up one Loaf so many Believers make up one Church 1 Cor. 10.17 for we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread One person is not a Church how few and how small a number the Church may be reduced unto we need not here dispute In Noahs time they were reduced to 8 persons The first Church and the beginning and foundation of the Church in all after times was when God himself preached the Gospel to our first Parents in Paradise and then Adam and Eve and their Seed were the Church of God There must be divers there must be more then one to make up a Church 2. The analogy appears in the number for as there were twelve Tribes of Israel so there were twelve Loaves These twelve Tribes were often and divers ways represented as by the twelve Stones in the Brest-plate of the High Priest Exod. 28.21 and by the twelve Stones which Joshua did pitch in Jordan and the other twelve which he took out of Jordan and pitched them in Gilgal for a memorial of the 12 Tribes passing thorough Josh 4.9 20. so Canaan was divided into twelve parts that people coming of twelve Patriarchs to which answers the twelve Apostles of the New Testament and the new Jerusalem is built upon those twelve Foundations Rev. 21.14 so in these twelve Loaves there is the like mystery they represented both the Old and the New-Testament-Israel 3. These Loaves were to stand before the Lord all the week upon the Golden Table This was the chief action about them and which holds forth the principal scope of the Institution therefore called Panis facierum or Propositionis Matth. 12.4 which our Translators have fitly rendred Shew-bread The Apostles phrase is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the meaning is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lev. 24.6 thou shalt set them upon the pure Table before the Lord. This signified his continual eye and care over his people they are never out of his sight never out of mind his eye and his thoughts are continually upon them from one end of the week to another Isai 49.16 behold I have graven thee upon the Palms of mine Hands and thy Walls are continually before me Though he seems to forsake and forget them yet he remembers them still Jer. 31.20 for since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still therefore my Bowels are troubled for him 4. There is Frankincense set upon the Loaves and offered up for a memorial before the Lord Lev. 24 7. This speaks the Lords remembrance of them with acceptance for the Incense made a sweet smell a savour of rest A man may remember a thing with hatred and abhorrence but the Lords remembrance of his people is with dearest affection with everlasting loving kindness he hath a precious remembrance of them These twelve Loaves the twelve Tribes of Israel are by Faith in Christ a sweet odour to him as 2 Cor. 2.15 And as the Lords eye is over upon them so should theirs be to the Lord and that continually See Psal 123.1 2. As the Lord saith of the Angels Matth. 18.10 they do always behold the Face of my Father which is in Heaven so the Saints even here below they should set the Lord alway before them And this is Happiness and Heaven begun 1 Kings 10.8 happy are thy Men happy are thy Servants which stand continually before thee and that hear thy Wisdome The Lords eye upon them in a way of constant care and love and their eye upon him in a way of continual dependance This is a blessed condition Thus you see the first mystery of the Shew-bread how it was a Type of the Church 2. A second mystery of the Shew-bread is the Food and spiritual Provision that is in the Church of God that is Christ in the Word and Ordinances The Word is compared to Bread Amos 6.11 False Doctrine to leavened or sowred Bread Matth. 16.12 It hath the properties of Bread Psal 104.15 Bread which strengtheneth mans heart ver 16. the staff of Bread This Bread is Christ He is the Bread of Life as Joh. 6.48 Christ is typified also by the Manna and the Golden Pot thereof reserved in the Holy of Holies But some distinguish the mystery of these two Types thus That the Manna in the Oracle was the Type of Christ personal this Bread upon the Table in the Sanctuary was a Type of Christ doctrinal or Christ in the Word opened and applied to hungry Souls The analogy will appear further in these particulars 1. They were to set the Shew-bread upon the Golden Table in the Sanctuary every Sabbath Lev. 24.8 Every Sabbath shall he set it in order before the Lord continually that is in the Sanctuary which was a Type of the Church This then speaks thus much That the Ministers of the Gospel are to set Christ the Bread of Life as it were upon the Table every Lords day There is and ought to be a weekly provision of this Food in the House of God every Sabbath As every week there was new Bread so Christ is to be afresh held forth 2. The Priests were to feed upon this all the week after Lev. 24.9 And it shall be Aarons and his Sons and they shall eat it in the holy place so in the Church they that hear the Word and have Christ preached and held forth therein should live all the week long upon the Provision that is made upon the Sabbath Then the Bread is set before Lord but in the week time it is eaten It is a great neglect when the Bread is not eaten when the Word is not digested meditated fed upon But people think it is enough to come to some good Meeting and there to hear the Word But do you eat it and feed upon it all the week do you meditate and ruminate upon it 3. None but the Priests were to eat the Shew-bread It shall be Aarons and his Sons and they shall eat it Lev. 24.9 though in an extraordinary case others might as when David and his Men did to save their Lives in hunger 1 Sam. 21.6 which Christ allows and justifies Matth. 12.3 4. for ceremonial Rules must give place to Moral God will have mercy rather then Sacrifice But the ordinary Rule was none but Priests were to eat the Shew-bread And who are spiritual Priests under the Gospel All Believers they are a royal Priesthood 1 Pet. 2.9 This then teacheth us that none but Believers have a right unto Christ and to the Promises and do or can feed upon him Unbelievers do but intrude and usurp that which is none of theirs when they challenge a part in him They are but Dogs that snatch at Childrens Bread 4. It is the Priests that set this Bread in the Sanctuary and they eat it We may
323. 5. The Sin-offerings buth the Bullock and the Goat must be burnt without the Camp ver 27. This also is explained upon the Sin-offering Lev. cap. 4. pag. 321 322. that Christ suffered without the City as a Malefactor with whom we also should suffer bearing our reproach and being content to be accounted as Malefactors yea as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the offscouring and sweeping of the world 6. On this great day of Atonement was the Jubile to be proclaimed by sound of Trumpet Lev. 25.9 This speaks that after the performance of the whole work of our Redemption by Jesus Christ he did cause the Trumpet of the Gospel to sound to publish and proclaim the glad tidings of our Salvation throughout the world Isai 61.1 2. so that this day of Atonement is like that famous week prophesied of by Daniel cap. 9. He shall confirm the Covenant with many for one week In the midst of the week Messiah shall be cut off This week is interpreted by some concerning that seven years the first part whereof Christ preached suffered in the middle of the week and in the other three years and an half the Apostles preached at Jerusalem after which they were dispersed by persecution and so the Gospel published to all the world It is the performance of the work of our Redemption that was the foundation and groundwork of the preaching of the Gospel the Jubile is proclaimed upon the day of Atonement 7. And lastly this day of Atonement is a day of Humiliation and afflicting their Souls by an everlasting Ordinance ver 29 to the end Days of Humiliation are days of Atonement and Reconciliation Not that our Humiliation merits or deserves any thing it is not the afflicting our Souls that doth make atonement but it fits us to receive the Atonement Humiliation prepares the Soul for Christ and makes it capable to receive the Mercy and the Pardon that Christ hath purchased and that God is willing and ready to bestow upon all that will receive it by Faith THE MANIFOLD SINFULNESS OF THE POPISH HOLY DAYS Discovered in sundry Reasons against them and the most material Objections answered AMongst the several ways wherein the Superstition of the hearts of men works out and vents it self this is one the observing of Days and Times wherein the Church of Rome hath abounded filling the Kalender with superstitious Holy days many of which are still retained and continued by the Church of England But let these Reasons against them be considered Reason 1. Nothing can be holy to the Lord which is not made holy by the Lord but God the Lord of time hath not sanctified nor set apart these times We find indeed before the Ceremonial Law was instituted yea before the Fall of Man that God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it Gen. 2.2 3. and therefore the Observation of a weekly Sabbath one day in seven is moral and perpetual But other Holy days are things which the Lord never commanded and which never came into his heart and of which he will say at the great Day who required these things at your hands The strength of which argument will appear the more if we consider what miserable poor shifts it puts the Patrons of these Holy days to when they go about to grapple with it 1. Sometimes they are so confounded in themselves as to deny that they place Holiness in these days the Church keeps them they say not as more holy and sacred then other days and parts of divine Worship but only for Order and Policy So Bishop Lindsey Perth Ass part 3. p. 5. But the rest of his Fellows have dealt more truly and more sincerely then he in this particular for not only Bellarmine tom 2. de Cultu Sanctorum lib. 3. cap. 10. prop. 2. asserteth Festa Christianorum non solum ratione Ordinis Politiae sed etiam ratione mysterii celebrantur suntque dies festi vere aliis sanctiores sacratiores pars quaedam divini cultus But Hooker Eccles Pol. lib. 5. sect 69. pag 375. also saith they ought to be with all men that honour God more holy then other days Downham in Praec 4. refers them to the fourth Commandment and will have them consecrated as Sabbaths to the Lord. Bishop Andrews in his Holiday Sermons on Luke 4.18 on Matth. 12.39 40. apud Gillesp Eng. Pop. Cerem part 3. cap. 1. pag. 15. hath found out many profound mysteries in them yea in the very order of them and distances of time between them as there be fifty days between Easter and Pentecost because fifty is the number of the Jubile one day between Easter and the Resurrection because Jonas was but one day in the Whales belly with many other pretty tales which are not worth transcribing And the thing it self speaks for why do they call them Holy days if they put no holiness in them nay why do they prefer them above the Sabbaths of God 2. Sometimes they labour to escape in the mist of blind distinctions so when Bishop Lindsey Perth Ass part 3. pag. 28. saith that the Holy dayes are not consecrated to holy mystical uses but to holy political uses Wherein as Mr. Gillespy Eng. Pop. Cer. part 3. cap. 1. pag. 7. well observeth he doth but labour to plaister over his Superstition with the untempered mortar of this quidditative distinction and uncouth speculation of which I dare say the Bishop himself comprehendeth it not 3. Sometimes they say God hath sanctified them by the great works he hath done upon them Thus Bellarmine de Cult Sanct. lib. 3. cap. 10. Christus nascens consecravit locum id est praesepe moriens consecravit Crucem resurgens consecravit Tuntulum unde exivit cur non etiam consecravit Tempus id est Dies illos quibus natus vel passus vel rediturus fuit nobis devictâ morte Which his Disciple Rich. Hooker a most Papistical Writer borrows from him and thus expresseth it Eccl. Pol. lib. 5. § 69. p. 375. No doubt as Gods extraordinary presence hath hallowed and sanctified certain Places so they are his extraordinary works that have truly and worthily advanced certain Times for which cause they ought to be with all men that honour God more holy then other days Thus he But it is not meerly the extraordinary works of God that will sanctifie a day for then all the six days of the week should be holy for God created the World in six days so that there is not one day of the week wherein there was not some work of wonder wrought It is rather the Lords resting from his works then his working that sanctifieth Time and makes it holy as Gen. 2.2 3. Exod 20.11 Upon this ground the seventh day was sanctified in old time because on that day God rested from the work of Creation and upon the same ground the first day of the week being the rest-Rest-day of the Lord our God from the great work of Redemption his
former Rest being disturbed and spoiled by the Fall and Sin of Man is our Christian Sabbath But these Popish Holy days are not the Lords resting days nor is any such thing pretended 4. They commonly put it upon the Church and say the Church hath set apart these times but this is not enough to make them holy for all that the Church can do towards the sanctifying of any time or thing is only to present it and offer it to the Lord but if the Lord do not accept them but refuse such Presents and cast them down as dung in their faces they are not Holiness to the Lord but an abomination to him As suppose the Church of the Jews had offered Swines flesh unto God would this have made Swines Flesh holy no verily because the Lord not did not accept it So here the Church dedicates these days to the Lord but there must be some Word of God to evidence his acceptance of them or else they are not indeed holy times but superstitious times of which the Lord will say at the great day who required these things at your hands whatsoever is not of Faith is sin Isai 1.12 Rom. 14.23 Reason 2. There is not only no warrant in the Scripture for them but clear and sharp reproofs and testimonies against them It was one part of the Superstition of the Pharisees in our Saviours time to fast twice a week Luke 18.12 Those old Papists the Pharisees and our new Pharisees the Papists being men of the same Spirit and acted by the same Principle and walking in the same ways of Superstition And it was the brand set upon Jeroboam 1 Kings 12.33 that he ordained a Feast unto the Children of Israel upon the fifteenth day of the eighth month even the month which he had devised of his own heart which he had lyed or feigned as the word signifies asher bada millibbo quem mentitus est de corde suo And though it was like unto the Feast that was in Judah v. 32. and though he pretended the Glory and Worship of that God that brought them up out of the Land of Egypt as well as the ease and accommodation of the People v. 28. yet all this would not excuse him And what is Christmas and Easter and all the rest of them but days which the Jeroboam of Rome hath devised of his own heart And the Pope had them from the Jews and from the Pagans for what is Christmas but the old heathenish Bacchanalia It is kept at the same time of the year and after the same profane manner only the Pope hath varnished it with a new name But how ill it becomes a Christian to keep the Pagan Festivals hear what Tertullian de Idol cap. 14. saith Nobis saith he quibus Sabbata extranea sunt neomenia feriae aliquando à Deo dilectae Saturnalia Januariae Brumae matronales frequentantur munera commeant strenae consonant lusus convivia constrepunt and is not this as lively a description of Christmas as if it had been purposely intended for it but thus he inveighs against them O melior fides nationum in suam sectam quae nullam solennitatem Christianorum sibi vendicat non Dominicum diem non Pentecosten etiam si nossent nobiscum non communicâssent timerent enim ne Christiani viderentur nos ne Ethnici pronunciemur non veremur We that do not own nor observe the New Moons and other Jewish Festivals appointed of old by God himself do we keep the Heathenish Bacchanalia and other Winter and Summer Feasts of theirs feasting and revelling and making merry as the Heathens do O how much more true are they to their Religion then we to ours For they do not observe any day that Christians observe as Pentecost or the Lords day for they would be afraid lest they should seem to bee Christians in so doing but we are not afraid lest we be pronounced to be Heathens Thus he It is true he alloweth Pentecost as a Feast observed by Christians in those times but how this can be defended and all the rest of the Jewish Feasts cashiered let the Christian Reader judge The Apostle makes no difference but condemns the observation of all the Jewish Festivals alike one as much another Col. 2.16 Let no man judge you in meat or drink or in respect of an holy day or of the New Moon or of the Sabbaths which are a shadow of things to come Judicare hic significat culpae reum facere vel Religionem injicere ita ut amplius liberi non simus saith Calvin in Col. 2.16 Such weak and rudimentary Instructions were fit for those darker and weaker times of the Churches nonage when under the Tutorage and Pedagogy of Moses before the coming of Christ But now after that ye have known God or rather are known of God how turn ye back to the weak and beggarly elements whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage ye observe days and months and times and years I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain Gal. 4.9 10 11. It is a sign the preaching of the Gospel hath had but small success in such a place and in the hearts of such a people And whereas it is objected both by Papists and Prelates that the Apostle speaks here only against the Jewish Festivals loqui ibi Apostolorum de Judaeorum tantum festis so Bellarmine de Cultu Sanct. c. 10. the Rhemists Annot. in Gal. 4.10 and Bishop Lindsey Perth Ass part 3. pag. 43. This will not take off the force of these Texts For 1. The Armory of Christians against Heresies and Errors should be quickly empty i◠the Weapons which are hung up in the Scriptures should serve only for the persons places and times wherein and against which they were used of the Prophets and Apostles and therefore your shift that the Apostle speaks only against the Jewish Feasts and Fasts is vain saith Mr. Cartwright in Col. 2.16 2. Some of the Popish Feasts are originally Jewish yea which is worse Paganish 3. These Texts do condemn the Popish Feasts as much and in some respects more then the Jewish as Hospinian observes against Bellarmine and Mr. Cartwright in Gal. 4.10 and in Rom. 14.5 gives the same answer to the Rhemists If Paul saith he condemn the Galatians for observing the Feasts which God himself instituted and that for his own Honour only and not for the Honour of any Creature the Papists are much more laid open to this Condemnation which press the Observation of Feasts of Mens devising and to the Honour of Men. For do you think it likely that God should by Christ discharge his people of the yoke of the Law of Moses to bring in another yoke of Mans Ordinances and is there any likelihood that he should abrogate the Festival days consecrated to himself and to his own Majesty to bring in those that are consecrated and set apart to
the Honour of Saints and that the Lord should ease his people of the burthen of a few Festival days to lay upon them an heavier burthen by a greater number of them So that we see the Scripture doth abundantly and clearly condemn and testifie against these superstitious observations of days and times Reason 3. Consider further the deep dishonour that is done to God by these days every manner of way The common pretense is that they do it for the Honor of Christ but it is not good Intentions that will excuse bad Actions Jeroboam pretended very good Intentions 1 Kings 12.28 so did they in Exod. 32.5 they proclaimed an Holy day to Jehovah though they kept it in a rude manner but what saith the Lord to them even after all the Prayers of Moses for them ver 34. in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them He will not regard their vain pretenses for the truth is these days are celebrated rather in dishonour and as it were in despite of Christ then for any Glory to him For 1. They are a dishonour to his Holiness as if Christ were a God that delighted in Profaneness and Wickedness for he is dishonoured as some have well observed by letting the reins loose to all manner of Profaneness as much in the twelve days and in some respects more then in all the twelve months of the year beside Hence Mr. Perkins most truly and justly complains that the Feast of Christs Nativity commonly so called is not spent in praising the Name of God but in Revelling Dicing Carding 〈◊〉 Mumming and in all licentious liberty for the most part as 〈◊〉 it were some Heathen Feast of Ceres or Bacchus Perk 〈…〉 Creed Art of Christs Birth apud Gillesp Engl. Pop. Cerem p. 〈…〉 cap. 9. page 48. 2. It is an unspeakable dishonouour to his blessed Sabbaths for men to set their Days by his Days their Posts by his Posts their Altars by his Altars as Jeroboam devised a Feast of his own heart like unto the Feast that was in Judah 1 Kings 12.32 yea as Dr. Ames observes they were from their first use not only equalled unto but extolled above the Lords day Fresh Suit part 2. p. 84. Those Prelates saith Mr. Gillespy that will not abase themselves to preach upon ordinary Sabbaths think the high Holy days worthy of their Sermons Engl. Pop. Cerem part 3. cap. 1 pag. 13. Yea they can write Books against the Sabbath as Heylin White Pocklinton and others have done to pluck away that Crown of Glory and Preeminence which God hath set upon that day which he hath chosen and they set up their own devised days in stead thereof Common experience proveth saith Reverend Mr. Dod on the second Commandment p. 68. that all they which stand most for superstitious Holy days are greatest profaners of the Lords Sabbath and contemners of his Word 3. They do dishonour the Wisdom and Word of Christ for Christ the Lord of Time and the Lord of the Sabbath hath sanctified and instituted the first day of the week whereon he arose from the dead for the Commemoration of the great work of our Redemption by him and what can the man do that comes after the King and in those things that have been already done as Eccles 2.12 It is a bold and deep reflection upon the Wisdom of Christ to add thus to his appointments as if the Lord Jesus Christ himself were not wise enough to appoint days and times sufficient to keep his own Nativity Death Resurrection Ascension and all the great things he hath done for us in everlasting remembrance in the hearts of his Saints but the Devil and the Pope must help it out It is therefore in plain terms a profane speech of Dr. Hammond that when the Festivals are turned out of the Church it will not be in the power of weekly Sermons on some head of Religion to keep up the knowledge of Christ in mens hearts View of Direct and Vindic. of Liturg. pag. 31. What are not the Institutions of Christ powerful to attain his own blessed ends unless they be pieced out with the additions of mens Inventions surely there is no Christian that hath found the experience of the saving Power and Blessing of Gods Ordinances to his own Soul but will detest and abhor to entertain such base and vile thoughts of them unless he hath forgotten that he was purged by them from his old sins 4. These superstitious Holy days introduced and brought in many other corruptions along with them as bad or worse then themselves like the unclean Spirit with seven Devils more sundry whereof are thus expressed by Dr. Ames Fresh Suit against Cerem part 2. pag. 84. They were saith he from their first rise not only equalled unto but also extolled above the Lords day Easter brought in a superstitious Lent to attend upon it made Baptism wait for her Moon and conformed our Lords Supper to the Jewish Passover in unleavened Bread It was the first Apple of Contention amongst Christians The Latin and Greek Churches striving contending fiercely about the time of it and Victor Bp. of Rome desperately excommunicated those that were not of his opinion in this frivolous Question So that it was the first Weapon wherewith the Bishop of Rome played his Prizes against other Churches and after slew so many Britains with by Austin the Monk Holy days devised by men in honour of Christ invited and drew on Holy days to Saints with many other mischiefs more then can be now numbred up And therefore upon all accounts God is dishonoured by them And so much for that third Reason Reason 4. The true yearly time for the Celebration of these Festivals is not certainly known but much disputed among Chronologers and Divines so that Holiday-keepers cannot affirm that they do commemorate opus diei in die suo the Lord having hid it as he did the Body of Moses to prevent Idolatry The fierce contention for the space of two hundred years or thereabout between the Greek and Latin Churches about the time of celebrating Easter is famous in Ecclesiastical History the Eastern Churches kept it on the fourteenth day of the first month when the Jews kept their Passover from whence they were called quarto-decimani But the Western Churches kept it upon the Christian Sabbath in commemoration of Christs Resurrection who rose upon the first day and both sides pretended Apostolical Tradition for their different practice The difference grew so hot that Victor Boshop of Rome being full of the spirit of Antichrist excommunicated all the Asian Churches as being Fourteeners and as Judaizers Afterwards Constantine the Great called the Council of Nice to compose these differences in the Churches who thought it best to keep it upon the day of Christs Resurrection but they had done better if they had utterly abolished it as the great reforming Parliament did in England But thus we see what a bone of Contention
Easter hath been And as for Christmas it hath been clearly evinced by many learned men that there is a wide mistake in the common account which placeth the Birth of Christ upon the five and twentieth of December Mr. Allin Chain of Scripture Chronology Period 7. Num. 60. pag. 233. gives these Reasons against it 1. Because it is not probable that the Shepherds were abroad all night long keeping of their Flocks in the very deep of Winter Luke 2.8 2. Neither is it like that Augustus would by his Decree enjoin all his Subjects to travel at that time of the year to their chief City to be taxed Luk. 2.1 Nor 3. is it probable that John did go into the River Jordan with the People that were baptized of him in the very coldest part of the year for he baptized in Jordan when Jesus was entring upon his thirtieth year Luke 3.23 It is therefore much more probable that the Birth of Christ was in the month of September So Scaliger de Emend tempor conceives for which he reasons from the Conception of John the Baptist And Mr. Allin also is of the same Judgment which he gathers from the half week which the Angel Dan. 9.27 seems to hold out to be between the Baptism of Christ and his Death for if there was just so much between them his Death being just at the Passover which was about the end of our first month called March then his Baptism must needs be about the latter end of September Thus Mr. Allen ubi supra Which argument indeed to me is very satisfying being grounded upon such clear Testimonies of Scripture For that Christ was baptized and entred upon his Ministry at thirty years old we find recorded Luke 3.23 and that he preached three years and an half besides other arguments may be gathered from that in Dan. 9.27 in the midst of the week shall the Messiah be cut off which is meant of a Prophetical week containing seven years therefore there must be half a week that is half a year above the three and thirtieth whereas the common account makes but a quarter of a year between the Nativity and Easter Of which much more might be said but this is enough to shew that the Festivals are grounded upon a very mistaken and uncertain foundation which is a further evidence that they are not of God Reason 5. It is a great infringement of our Christian Liberty when God hath given us six days wherein to serve him in our Callings Six days shalt thou labour for men to contradict the Lord and say thou shalt not labour six days Why may they not as well controll the other part of the Command and say thou shalt not rest upon the Sabbath day For as Mr. Cartwright First Reply p. 152. hath well observed If the Church may restrain the Liberty that God hath given us it may take away the yoke also that God hath put upon us But as it is profaneness to call that common which God hath sanctified and made holy so on the other side it is tyrannical Superstition and Presumption to make that holy which God hath made common And this is one of the Apostles arguments in this very case Col. 2.16 20. Let no man judge you in respect of an Holy day if you be dead with Christ from the Rudiments of the world why as though living in the world are ye subject to Ordinances so likewise Gal. 4.9 10. ye desire again to be in bondage ye observe days and months and times and years Si quisquam mortalium saith Calvin in Col. 2.17 judicis officium hâc in parte sibi usurpet ne obsequamur quum Christus legitimus Judex nos absolvat It tendeth to no good policy nor wealth of the people or preservation of good order that there should be so many days wherein men should cease from work being a thing that breedeth idleness and consequently poverty besides other disorders and vices which always go in company with idleness saith Mr. Cartwright First Reply p. 155. And upon this account King Henry the Eighth did abrogate sundry of them as Mr. Fox sheweth in the Book of Martyrs Act Mon. vol. 2. p. 386. Obj. But then days of Humiliation and Thanksgiving as also week-day Sermons and Lectures are unlawful Answ It followeth not for there is clear Scripture ground and Warrant for occasional days of Humiliation or Thanksgiving when there is any present emergency of Providence calling thereunto For Jehosophat proclaimed a Fast 2 Chron. 20.3 so did the King of Nineveh Jonah 3.7 Joel 1.14 and 2.15 From whence some have not unaptly said that God hath left as it were a Warrant dormant with the Magistrate and with the Church for such days neither indeed could all the particular causes and occasions and times thereof be particularly set down in the Scripture because they are infinite And Christ allows also private Fasts Matth. 6.17 18. and so the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.5 but there is no colourable consequence from such occasional days to these annual stated Popish Festivals for which we have neither a general Warrant in the Scripture nor a particular Call of Providence And as for week-day Lectures they are most impertinently objected seeing as some have well observed Re-exam Art of Perth pag. 144. These are not hours sanctified or consecrated to Gods Service but only the most convenient times when most may resort to the hearing of Sermons so that time is only designed occasionally not dedicate or sanctified Time is made to serve Gods People and not Gods People made to serve the Time or to serve God because it is an holy time Ministers do not then preach with any respect at all to the time as more holy then other times that were superstitious The work is not done for the times sake but the time appointed for the works sake They do not preach with respect to any supposed holiness of the time but appoint the time so as may be most convenient for doing the work Obj. 2. Some object the days of Purim which were anniversary Festivals Esth 9. Ans This hath been 700 years since objected by Papists unto the Waldenses as Amesius Fresh Suit part 2. p. 315. observes and since by all Papists that have written against Protestants about Ceremonies as Gregorius de Valentia Bellarmine Suarez and we need not seek for new Answers about it for that which our Divines have answered to the Papists is sufficient in two words 1. That it cannot be evinced that those days of Purim were religious Feasts Junius in Bell. de Cultu Sanct. lib. 3. cap. 10. saith Praeceptum fuit politicum they were only days of civil rejoycing and as another learned Writer Re-exam Art Perth pag. 191. observes They are only called the Days of Purim not the Holy days of Purim they are not called Chaggim No peculiar Sacrifice was appointed nor any holy Convocation of the people enjoined the Ordinance required but Feasting Joy and sending
this typical Ladder an express Figure of the Ministration of Angels through Jesus Christ unto the Saints which is a Fruit of that great priviledge of Adoption For they ascended and descended in the Vision by this Ladder To wicked men the Angels are Enemies as if the King frown upon a man all the Court does so too and fight against them as they did against Senacheribs Army when they slew an hundred eighty five thousand in one night 2 King 19.35 so Psal 35.5 6. Let them be as Chaff before the Wind and let the Angel of the Lord chase them let their way be dark and slippery and let the Angel of the Lord persecute them The blessed Angels are ever chasing and persecuting Reprobates and wicked men But through Christ they minister unto us for our good Zach. 1.9 they appeared behind him and ver 10. these are they whom the Lord hath sent forth and ver 11. they give up their account tâ— him 4. Jacob sees God at the top of the Ladder renewing his Covenant with him ver 13. So it is through Christ that God enters into Covenant and renews his Covenant with us through Christ the Promises are Yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1 20. God could never have spoken words of peace to Sinners but by the Mediation of Jesus Christ 5. Where was this Ladder seen At Bethel which signifies the House of God ver 19. he called the name of the place Bethel So Christ is seen in the Church Ephes 3.10 and through the Church made known to Principalities and Powers c. If you would have a Vision of Christ go to Bethel into the Churches of his Saints and People Cant. 1.8 if thou know not go thy way forth by the footsteps of the Flock There be several steps of this Ladder some apply it thus Several degrees of Grace as many Rounds of the Ladder so many Graces The lowest Round is poverty of Spirit the highest is Perfection Thus you see how Jacobs Ladder represented and shadowed forth something of Christ and of the Gospel to him and us and so much for this spiritual Ladder which Jacob saw 2. A second typical thing in those typical days was the burning Bush which the Lord shewed to Moses Exod. 3. in the ten first verses a very memorable Dispensation therefore largely repeated by Stephen Acts 7 30. to 35. The Bush burnt and was not consumed A most lively Emblem of the Churches subsisting in the Fire of Persecution through the presence and good will of him that dwelt in the burning Bush That is the Instruction we should learn out of it As Israel in the Iron Furnace in Egypt for it related both ways both to shew the state of Israel in Egypt and of the Church of God on earth afterwards So the three Children Dan. 3. in the fiery Furnace were not consumed no nor hurt by the Fire So in the times of Antichrist Rev. 11.3 the Lord hath his Witnesses prophesying all the thousand two hundred and threescore days God hath his two Witnesses all the while though they prophesie in Sackcloth yet prophesie they do and bear witness to him The Lord doth not leave himself without Witness when his Church and Interest is in the lowest and most aflicted condition and indeed all along under the New Testament this Bush hath been burning in several Fires and yet not consumed There was first the fire of Pagan Persecution during the three first Centuries Then the fire of Arrianism and Contention in the Church c. set forth under that prophetical representation of Fire in the first and second Trumpets Rev. 8.7 8. Then the fire of Antichristian Persecution a thousand two hundred and threescore days And then lastly the Persecution of three days and an half in the last part of his Reign But yet still the burning Bush is not consumed the Church of God subsists and lives and outlives all opposition it cannot it shall not be consumed They have power over the Fire Rev. 14.18 It is understood by some Interpreters not unfitly concerning the Martyrs that suffered by Fire but were not overcome by it their Faith and Patience was not overcome but did triumph and conquer through Jesus Christ and all this through the Presence of God with them For he that dwelt in the burning Bush dwells in the midst of his Church Deut. 33.16 Acts 7.35 The Son of God was in the Furnace Dan. 3.25 And under the New Testament he walketh in the midst of the seven Golden Candlesticks Rev. 2.1 He hath promised Isai 43.2 when thou walkest through the Fire thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the Flame kindle upon thee These two typical things were presented to particular persons namely the mystical Ladder to Jacob and the burning Bush to Moses The other five were more publick to the whole people of Israel namely the Pillar of Cloud and Fire the Manna the Rock and Water out of it the Brazen Serpent and the Pool of Bethesda 1. The Pillar of Cloud and Fire Exod. 13.21 22. As to the nature of it it seems to have been not unlike those things which are called in Scripture Pillars of Smoke Joel 2.30 which the Apostle renders Vapour of Smoke Acts 2.19 which the Lord did now create and in a miraculous way and by the Ministration of his Angels who are the Instruments of his Providence and Ministers to his Church did carry it and move it to and fro from place to place It is called a Cloud because it had something of that appearance but it was not an ordinary and natural but a supernatural and miraculous Cloud and differed from other ordinary Clouds in many respects It was of such an height and bigness as was and might be seen by all the House of Israel Exod. ult ult other Clouds are soon dispersed and dissipated But this remained firm for the space of forty years together till they came into the Land of Canaan the lower part of it rested upon the Tabernacle after that the Tabernacle was erected and from thence it ascended and went up like a Pillar of Smoke as we read of Pillars of Smoke Judg. 20.40 Cant. 3.6 it was one and the same substance which was a Cloud by day and Fire by night It was not real natural Fire therefore called the appearance of Fire Numb 9.16 It was not Ignis urens but only Ignis lucens it was no burning but only shining Fire For it sate upon the Tabernacle which was made of boards and other combustible matter It kept its form and was not moved by the Wind or by any other ordinary and common Cause but by the Lord himself and it moved and walked no faster than the whole Camp could follow Out of this Cloud the Lord spake and delivered his Oracles to Moses And there the Glory of the Lord appeared to the people Exod. 16.10 and 33.9 and 34.5 Levit. 16.2 Psal 99.7 Numb 11.25 and 12.5 Deut. 31.15 Thus for the History of it Now
least mutable about the time of Christs Death Joh. 11.49 51. Act. 4.6 when as by the Law of God it ought to have been during life unchangeable And thirdly if both these were granted or could be as firmly proved as they are strenuously supposed yet we are still in the dark unless we can certainly and demonstratively fix the beginning of our reckoning of the Succession of the Courses of the Priests both to a year and to a month yea to a very day precisely But whether this Computation of the Succession of the Courses of the Priests must begin from the first ordaining of them in the later end of Davids Reign or from the finishing and Dedication of the Temple in Solomons or from the erecting of the Altar at the first return from Captivity in Cyrus his Reign or from the re-building of the Temple in the Reign of Darius or from the cleansing and new Dedication of it after its Pollution and Profanation by Antiochus of which we read in the Maccabees is still subject to endless undeterminable Controversie and Dispute Fourthly if we could attain convincing clearness in all the former yet there will arise a further unresolvable Question touching the Rule of the proceedure of this Computation namely whether it must begin with the lot of Joarib which came out first in Davids ordering of them and doubtless at their first entring on the execution of their Attendance by courses was the first or whether it must begin where at the interruption it left off or whether at the course to which it would have fallen at the restauration had no such interruption intervened Lastly if all these snarling intanglements were extricated unravelled and made plain yet we are never the neerer to our business of finding out the time of Zacharias Ministration either as to month or year much less as to the day unless we could certainly make out how many years there are from the time that we begin our reckoning at to the year of that Ministration of Zacharias But this lies involved under so much darkness and so many perplexities that the most learned Chronologers who have set themselves with greatest industry and most advantages to make out the year of the Birth of Christ have given so little satisfaction to others that there are almost as many several years fixed on for it as there are Chronologers Some have reckoned up forty several Opinions of learned men about it and perhaps more might be added Mr. Perkins placeth it about the three thousand nine hundredth year of the World Others seven and twenty years later Yea several years between that and the four thousandth are fixed on by several Chronologers Others again go beyond the four thousandth year some one others two others forty others fifty years yea there are that bring it down below the five thousandth year and some below the six thousandth yea neer to the seven thousandth year of the World Yet must all these things which are so altogether uncertain and left by God in such a latitude be punctually determined and taken for true and certain if the grounds of this vulgar Opinion concerning Christs being born on the five and twentieth of December have any strength in them A consideration this is which doth sufficiently shew the non-cogency invalidity and utter weakness of that reasoning which some learned men use from the Courses of the Priests to find out the time of Christs Nativity a way of reasoning it is which hath so little of evidence and strength in it that several learned men make use of it to establish their several different Opinions in this point Some there are that do from hence argue for the five and twentieth of December Another makes use of the same way of arguing to prove that Christ was born on the sixth of January Others take the same course of arguing to cast the Nativity of Christ on the later end of September or beginning of October and there is a very learned man who useth the very same way of reasoning to prove the Birth of Christ fell on the Ides that is on the thirteenth of November An ingenious and elaborate way of arguing this must be confessed to be in the making out of the whole Contexture whereof several Authors have shewn a great deal of useful Learning But nevertheless by what hath been briefly hinted it is apparent that there are so many weak parts and uncertainties throughout the frame and contexture of the argumentation that the whole of it is rendred uncogent and unsatisfactory to one that looks for firm and solid footing to build his Judgment on from such strength of Reason and clearness of Evidence as may constrain assent Vse See the unwarrantableness of the Observation of these Festivals amongst Christians The Passover is that we commonly call Easter Pentecost is that we call Whitsuntide and for the Feast of Tabernacles the Pope hath ordained Christmas If these days were shadows of good things to come and that the Body is of Christ as the Text is express then now the Substance is come these shadows are ceased and vanished away the Substance being come the shadow must needs fly away and vanish Moreover these Feasts these days and times since the abrogation of them have not been attended and accompanied with the Blessing of God but rather with the visible tokens and expressions of his dislike and displeasure For as there is a Blessing of God upon his Ordinances so he is wonted to imprint his Curse upon the Inventions of men Easter was the first Ball of Contention that ever was amongst Christians the Eastern and the Western Churches contending sharply about the time of it for above two hundred years together so that Victor the Bishop of Rome excommunicated many Churches for not observing Easter at his time The thing in difference was whether to keep it on the fourteenth day of the first month the day on which Christ began his Sufferings or on the next Lords day after viz. the day of Christs Resurrection The Eastern Churches observed Easter on the fourteenth day of the first month according to the time of the Passover The Western Churches on the contrary said this was to Judaize and it was more Christian-like to celebrate the day of his Resurrection c. and this Opinion carried it For in the Council of Nice it was concluded that it should be kept on the day of the Resurrection This was the fruit of Gods Displeasure against the Observation of such a time when he had testified in his Word Let no man judge you in respect of Holy days c. And as to Christmas they have greatly mistaken in their computation of the time as hath been shewed partly through the ignorance and unskilfulness which God was pleased to leave them to as it were to rebuke them for their Superstition and partly through their carnal compliance with the Pagans which made the Bishop of Rome take the old Saturnalia and Bacchanalia
Prefiguration of the Rest of the Body of Jesus Christ in the Grave that whole day which was indeed the only whole day of his resting or cessation from the actions of a bodily life For he was in the Grave only some small part of the sixth day and of the first day but he rested the whole Jewish Sabbath So then as they had other legal days and times that pointed them to other things about the Messiah so the Sabbath points to his resting in the Grave And he did not only rest in the humbling of himself under the guilt of our Sins but in his Resurrection from the dead The day of his Resurrection was the day of his entring into his state of rest from his Sufferings but on the Sabbath he rested from the actions of his bodily life therefore the seventh day Sabbath is abrogated and the Lord hath substituted the first day of the week for the Sabbath is moral And there is a ground too for the changing of the day that there should be one day in seven to attend on the Worship of God this is moral and perpetual that it should be the last day in seven this is by Gods Institution made legal and typical Christ entred into his rest of Glory into the state thereof at his Resurrection and into the place thereof when he ascended into Heaven but his resting in the grave was on the seventh day From all which you may see the morality of the Sabbath considered as in general together with the shadowy nature of the Jewish Sabbath of the seventh day having these typical respects relations annexed to it and so therein you see the grounds of the abrogation of it and of the substitution of the Christian Sabbath instead therereof And so much may serve for the typical respects and use of the Jewish Sabbath Now as for the Rites and Observations thereof 1. There were more Sacrifices that day then upon other days Numb 28.9 10. The reason was because there were more Mercies given and commemorated that day as the Creation their Deliverance out of Egypt and their Sanctification by the Spirit It shall be a sign between me and them that they might know that I Jehovah do sanctifie them Exod. 31.13 Ezek. 20.12 20. Here learn that the more Blessings God gives to any people the greater thankfulness he expects again It reacheth also that special Holiness that should be upon the Sabbath more exercise of Grace and duties of Worship to be performed upon that day then ordinarily upon any other day there should be that among us on the Christian Sabbath that should answer their double Sacrifice upon their Jewish Sabbath But in Ezek. 46.45 there is appointed for the Sabbath six Lambs for one under the Law to teach us that there should be more Holiness now under the Gospel then there was under the Law 2. They might not kindle a fire on that day Exod. 35.3 as some think to put them in mind of their absolute freedom from their Egyptian Bondage and the fiery Brick-works there or from the fire of Gods Wrath in the world to come when entred into that none of these fires should ever be kindled upon them or hurt them though others think that restraint respected only kindling a fire for the building of the Tabernacle nor is it unlikely 3. They were to abstain from building the Tabernacle that day Exod. 31.12 13 14 15 16 17. and 35.2 to teach them that the six days that is the time of this life is the only time wherein God will build the Tabernacle of his Church this life is the only day of Grace and opportunity of Salvation 4. They might not gather Manna on that day Exod. 16. In this life Christ is offered but in the Sabbath of eternity no Manna no means of Grace no offers of Christ then none could have Manna upon the Sabbath but they that had stored it up upon the week day so none can have Christ in Heaven but they that have stored him up in their hearts on earth These things shew the rigor of the Law as to Sabbath-rest but the Pharisees being deeply possest with the spirit of the Law did strain it a peg or two higher that to do a miraculous work of mercy or works of necessity was unlawful 2. They had also a Sabbatical year viz. every seventh year a Sabbath of the seventh year every seventh year was a Sabbatical year as every seventh day was a Sabbatical day Exod. 23.10 Deut. 15.9 This was celebrated by letting the Land rest from its usual culture and husbandry Levit. 25.4 5. Some alledge a political and philosophical reason for this that the Land by resting one year might be the more fruitful the other six quod caret alternâ requie durabile non est This Sabbatical year was celebrated by giving rest unto the Land from tillage and manuring the hungry ground This was a shadow of things to come this signifies something of Christ and Gospel mystery in which observe four things There was a fourfold Instruction in this Sabbatical year 1. This Sabbatical year told them plainly that both they and their Land was the Lords Lev. 25.23 For the Land is mine 2. This taught them to depend upon Providence without worldly care and trusting to the Creature for supply and support For they must not now sow nor till the Land this year for the sixth year was to bring forth the Fruit of three years both for the seventh year and for the eighth and for the ninth till the Harvest time See Lev. 25.20 21 22. and ver 6. the Sabbath of the Land shall be meat for thee The Land of its own accord that year was to produce sustenance enough both for man and beast It is not enough for us to depend on the ordinary course of means God can over-rule them and over-work them as he doth here 3. The Lord hereby teacheth them and us that great Gospel-lesson and duty of mercy and bounty to the poor Exod. 23.10 11. the Land must rest that the poor may eat and Deut. 15.1 2. Creditors must release their Debtors every seventh year Lev. 25.5 6. there is an Equity a Chancery a bountiful condescension to the necessities of the poor that men exact not their own right in all things but rather remit and abate something thereof Not but that men may take their course and use means to get it especially when persons are able and wilful but in case of poverty there should be mercy shewed in such a case 4. This Sabbatical year was a special season and time of instruction in the Law of God Deut. 31.10 11 12. the Lord would have them instructed and taught to know his Mind and the true Religion and the ways of his Worship Therefore he appointed so many times and seasons for it weekly and monthly and yearly and moreover one year in seven as you see Beside the mystery of spiritual rest by Christ of which further in
must all of them be accounted for unto God one day by you that sat under their Ministry Dr. Winter thought the Joy and Glory of Saints in Heaven receives some addition there as their Works while they were on earth do bring forth fruit here below grounding this his Judgment on Jer. 32.19 and the like Scriptures see his Epistle before Mr. Murcots Sermons And there are that think godly Ministers shall at the day of Christ have the presenting unto him those that have been converted and savingly wrought upon by their Ministry The Apostle Paul seems to have an expectation that he should present the Corinthians unto Christ as a chast Virgin espoused unto the Lord by him 2 Cor. 11.2 and he look'd on the Thessalonians as his Joy and Crown of glorying before God not only in this world 1 Thess 3.9 but also hereafter in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming 1 Thess 2.19 20. If the affectionate remembrance of your former Teachers which still lives in your hearts and ought so to do shall stir you up to make a fruitful improvement of such monuments of their labours as are yet with you whatever advantage shall accrue to them who are now above a thankless world and cloudy sky certainly you will be gainers unspeakably Those Exhortations of the Apostle do speak unto you Remember those that have had the Rule over you and have spoken to you the Word of God whose Faith follow considering the end of their conversation Jesus Christ is the same yesterday to day and for ever He will be the same to you that he hath been to them You have not yet resisted unto blood but how soon you may be called forth unto it is with him in whose hand are all our times The Churches of the Hebrews in Judaea had stood when the Apostle so wrote to them much what about the same time that you have been in the fellowship and order of the Gospel And as they then might and did see a day of National Calamity approaching Heb. 10.25 so may you discern black threatning Prognosticks Wherefore forsake not the assembling of your selves together as the manner of some is but exhort incourage one another to it and that so much the more as you see the day approaching lift up the Hands that hang down let the feeble Knees be strengthened and make streight paths for your feet lest that which is lame be turned out of the way but let it rather be healed Follow Peace with all men and Holiness without which no man shall see the Lord looking diligently lest any man fail of the Grace of God lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled c. For ye are not come unto the Mount that might be touched ye are not under the old dark legal Dispensation which was full of terror but you are come to Mount Sion and to the City of the living God you are under a far more glorious Gospel Dispensation and have in these Discourses the Gospel and spiritual Glory of that old Dispensation shining out upon you the veil being taken off from it by the Ministry of this Servant of Christ for your sakes For what your Ministers are they are for you Epaphras was a faithful Minister of Christ for the Church at Coloss This Author was inlightned by Christ for you The influences that the Ministers are the Subjects of are for their people If their Consolation abound thrô Christ it is that they may be able to comfort others with the Comforts wherewith they themselves are comforted of God 2 Cor. 1.4 6. If they be enabled to walk exemplarily in Gospel-simplicity holiness justness and unblamableness through variety of singular and sore tryals it is for your sakes 1 Thess 1.5 with chap. 2.2 3 4 5 6 7 9 10. their Light and Gifts are yours and for you 1 Cor. 3.22 These Sermons in the preaching of them were in a peculiar manner for you so are they now in this making of them yet more publick So are those that now labour among you in the Word and Doctrine your Servants for Christs sake The Blessing of Heaven go along with both this Book and their Labours Amen And let every one also that reads say Amen ERRATA BEsides some literal and lesser faults mispointing omission or redundancy or transposing of a small word using the Italick letter for the Roman a great for a small or vice versa which the Reader who observes will not be stumbled by and therefore it would be needless exactness to give a catalogue of there are these which the Reader may do himself a kindness to correct Two pages misnumbred page 327 is printed 307 and pag. 511 is printed 411. pag. 9. the two last lines instead of Objection that read Objection viz. that p. 32. blot out the last line p. 39. l. 2. of mind r. of his mind p. 43. l. 19 20. Hebr. 5.10 r. 12. p. 120. l. 18. Soul of r. Soul out of p. 201. l. 15. unto r. under p. 280. l. antep Wheat Quemach r. Wheat but Quemach ibid. blot out but ibid. l. ult r. bread-corn p. 308. blot out viz. in l. 10. and put it in l. 11. p. 384. Hamans r. Hemans p. 421 l. penult ye in r. ye do in p. 422. l. 23. to the r. of the p. 432. l. 5. aforesaid r. aforehand p. 433 l. 30. yenury r. penury p. 434. l. 17 blot out in the foundation p. 445. l. 10. inner cap. 8. r. inner Court cap. 8. p. 460. l. 13. perfect r. perfecting p. 479. l. 26. thou shalt r. thou shalt not p. 511. l. 26. ark in which r. ark on which p. 532. l. 21 22. bring Wheat r. bringing the Wheat ibid. blot out ing the p. 445. l. 7. God to get r. God get p. 447. l. 7. indeed that this was r. that this was indeed p. 557. l. 22. saith it r. saith of it p. 566. l. antep on the day r. on the tenth day l. penult the great r. that great p. 572. l. 7. have r. having p. 625. the r. our p. 639. l. 14. Saints are that r. Saints that are ibid. l. 21. indeed r. indowed p. 668. l. antep blot out any Pag. 204. read lin 17. before l. 15. p. 573. read the fifth and sixth lines before the third and fourth The Date of the Sermons omitted in the former part of the Book may be thus supplyed pag. 1. March 23. 1666. p. 27. June 27. 1667. p. 43. July 4. p. 56. July 11. p. 65. July 18 p. 79. July 25. p. 90. Aug. 8. p. 115. Aug. 32 and Septemb. 5. p 123. Sept. 5. THE TYPES OR FIGURES OF THE OLD-TESTAMENT BY WHICH Christ and the Heavenly things of the Gospel were preached and shadowed to the People of God of old Hebrews 4.2 For unto us was the Gospel preached as well as unto them but the word preached did not profit them not being mixed with faith in
the divine Authority of the Scripture Yea the Lord raiseth them to an higher pitch of Reformation than ever Nehem. 9. They kept the Feast of Tabernacles so as it had not been kept from the days of Joshua Doubtless David and other reforming Kings had kept it but that part of the Ordinance the dwelling in Booths had been as it may seem omitted and neglected by them another Corruption was the mixture of the Church with Heathens by strange Marriages Ezr. 9 and Nehem 10. and the Samaritans those Mongrels would have intruded but were rejected Ezra 4. Thus they purged and reformed themselves from both these corrupting mixtures in the matter of the Church 5. And lastly the Old Tetament was concluded by the Prophet Malachy who was the last of all the Prophets The Lord would have no Prophet beyond the first times of the second Temple nor no Writings of men in the age immediately after the Apostles immediately following the Gospels Promulgation That it might manifest it self more clearly by its own own Light to be supernatural This Period viz. that of the second Temple continued four hundred and ninety years Dan. 9.24 seventy Prophetical weeks is four hundred and ninety solar years Now such a people thus delivered and restored twice delivered out of Bondage first out of Egypt and then a second time out of Babylon one would think they would have abiden with the Lord for ever after And one thing they did learn viz. to forsake gross Idolatry and this was all But they grew more rigidly formal and exquisitely hypocritical than ever and Religion ran out into Sects and Parties and Factions amongst them There were Pharisees and Sadduces and Galilaeans and Herodians amongst them Names which the Scripture mentions and Histories speak of another Sect called the Essenes And thus it was with them when our Lord Jesus came in the Flesh The inward and spiritual part of Godliness and the Practice of that which is truly so was in a very great measure lost amongst them being eaten out partly by their Sects and Divisions partly by their rigid Formality and Hypocrisie And thence at last the Lord sending his Son their Messiah so long promised and longed for by them they reject and crucifie him So the Lord having by all these various Dispensations and turnings of his hand mended the old House as it were seven times over he resolves now at last to pull it down for all these legal Dispensations were but the mending as it were and repairing of the old House but the Gospel pulls it quite down and builds a new one Thus I have led you thorough the several times and seasons wherein the Lord spake unto them of old you have seen the gradual progress of the Light and Work of God among them in those seven pieces of the Old Testament Dispensation which have been briefly run thorough That which follows next to be spoken to is the Reasons of the Point why the Lord spake and revealed his mind in such divers ways and manners and in these several pieces and parcels neither in one way only nor at one time Quest What may be the Reasons of the Point The Lord could have spoke his whole Mind at once in one way and at one time therefore why did he speak in such divers manners and in so many several pieces and parcels Answ Although it is a sufficient general account to say that this or that is best because God wills it For he doth all things well and his Will is the Rule of Goodness and it is not for us to call him to an account of what he doth yet we may humbly and modestly inquire into the reason of things not to contend him with for doing so for that were Prophaneness but to understand something of his Wisdom therein The Reasons therefore may be referred to two heads 1. In regard of our Weakness 2. For his own greater Glory I shall speak briefly unto both these adding but a little unto what others have said upon this Subject Reas 1. In regard of our Weakness The Lord herein condescends and accommodates himself unto us You may see his Condescention in four things 1. In that we are dull and slow of understanding to apprehend the Truth Therefore the Lord illustrates the same things several ways like the Light shining into the House at several Windows that in such a plenty of Light some of all those Beams may shine into our Hearts Luk. 24.25 we are slow of Heart to believe 2. We are but narrow-mouth'd Vessels not able to receive much at once As we are slow to receive any thing at all so we are uncapable to receive much at once Therefore the Lord teacheth us here a little and there a little a little to Adam a little more to Noah and a little more to Abraham and yet more fully and copiously to Moses leading them on by degrees as they were able that so men in several ages might know what their Fathers did and something more Isai 28.9 10 13. Geneva Note in loc They must have one thing oftentimes told 3. By this various and gradual proceeding God did prepare and fit his People by weaker and lower Dispensations for further and higher Dispensations As a Child by learning his A. B. C. and his Primmer is fitted to go into an higher harder Book so the Church of God by those immediate Revelations and Visions c. so frequent in those first times when they wanted the written Word was fitted to receive the Scriptures with the more Desire and Reverence and Faith Exod. 19.9 Lo I come unto thee in a thick Cloud that the People may hear when I speak with thee and believe thee for ever And they did believe him ever after so Joh. 9.29 We know that God spake unto Moses So the Church of God being exercised under the Mosaical Pedagogy so long together they were thereby prepared to welcom the Gospel more gladly when it came How gloriously and joyfully was it entertained when they had waited for it about four thousand years with what Triumphings in God! that now they saw that which Kings and Prophets and righteous men have desired to see but it had not been granted to them see Luk. 10.23 24. That which all the Prophets had spoken of since the World began Luk. 1.70 Act. 3.24 The Mystery that had been hid from Ages and Generations Col. 1.26 4. A fourth Condescention of the Lord herein is this By these varieties of Dispensation the Lord provides to have his Truth set on with all kind of Arguments yea with Arguments of peculiar concernment and suitableness to take with us As Moses to the Jews The Lord made not this Covenant with our Fathers but with us Deut. 5.3 And Manna which thy Fathers knew not Deut. 8 16. So Christ Joh. 13.34 A new Commandment give I unto you And the Apostle 1 Joh. 2.8 A new Commandment I write unto you It was an old Commandment but set
a sweet smelling savour Eph. 5.2 God was so pleased with Noahs Sacrifice that he promised to destroy the world by Water no more So God is well pleased with Christs Sacrifice he is so pleased with it that he will be gratious unto sinners for the sake thereof so as not to destroy them but save their Souls 5. Noahs Covenant and the Rainbow the sign thereof was a Type of the Covenant of Grace Gen. 9.12 13. It is a question whether there was any Rainbow before it may seem not Because it had been small comfort and assurance to the new World to see that which they had seen before and to have such a sign of the Covenant Therefore some think that the Rainbow was not from the beginning but as the Lord gave a new Promise so he created a new thing for a Sign thereof Confer on Heb. 1.1 2. of Noah 's Dispensation But how may it appear that the Covenant of Grace was here held forth See Isai 54.9 10. This is unto me as the Waters of Noah c. Ezek. 1. ult As the appearance of the Bow thot is in the Cloud in the day of Rain so was the appearance of the Brightness round about Revel 10.1 and 4.3 Vse From all that hath been said of Noah Here is ground of unspeakable Comfort to the Church and People of God in all their troubles Afflictions are often compared to deep Waters Psalm 42.7 but God will provide for the safety of his people Psal 18.16 17. he sent from above he took me and drew me out of deep Waters Isai 43.2 the Waters shall not overflow thee The Rainbow appears when there hath been rainy weather the Rainbow in a Cloud in a day of Rain Ezek. 1. ult So when the Church hath been in Floods of great Waters Christ appears with a Rainbow Revel 10.1 And as he promised there shall be no more a Flood to destroy the Earth so there is a time coming when there shall be no more floods of Persecution to overwhelm his Church I have sworn I will not be angry with thee nor rebuke thee any more Isai 54.9 So for particular Souls that have been overflown with the Wrath of God and the Waters have gone over their Soul there is a time coming when Christ will appear with a Rainbow about his Head To some he gives such an inward Seal and Testimony of their Adoption that they never loose it but carry it in their bosoms to their dying day keep their Assurance all their days And though I know it is otherwise with some of his Children yet at last when they dye and come to Heaven he will never overflow the soul any more with his Anger 4. The fourth personal Type we named was Melchizedek his Story is in Gen. 14. That he was a Type of Christ is clear from Psal 110.4 where speaking of and to the Messiah he saith The Lord hath sworn thou art a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedek as also from that which the Apostle saith Heb. 7.3 that he was made like unto the Son of God and abideth a Priest continually Assimilatus or gerens similitudinem Some Controversie there is who this Melchizedek was and different Opinions there are The Papists have very roving conjectures about it He was not Christ himself because he is said to be made like unto the Son of God Heb. 7.3 but no man is said to be like himself For similitude is between two That he was not an Angel or an appearance of God but a true and real Man may be proved by this Argument because every Priest is taken from amongst men Heb. 5.1 but Melchizedek was a Priest And the Scripture speaks of him as a Man For it mentions the place where he dwelt viz. at Salem which must needs be understood historically because there is no reason to constrain us to run a to metaphorical sense And whereas some object there was no man then superior to Abraham in Faith and Holiness But Melchizedek was greater than Abraham Some answer it thus Non sanctitate sed dignitate praefertur Abrahae For that Abraham was but an inferior person whereas Melchizedek was King and Priest in Salem But we may answer further That there might be some more eminent than Abraham some of his godly Ancestors who were aged and experienced Saints as Sem for instance might towards the end of their lives be more eminent than Abraham was in his youth of whom it is certain by the Genealogies Gen. 11. that he was yet living and he was the greatest person then in the world yea greater than Abraham as being one of his Progenitors and Ancestors Therefore many do conjecture that Sem was this Melchizedek and indeed the conjecture is not improbable though for any certain demonstration it is not to be expected because the Lord hath purposely concealed who he was to the end he might be a more illustrious Type of Christ appearing as it were like a Man fallen down from Heaven and destinated to that end Quest Wherein was Melchizedek a Type of Christ Answ In regard of the Eternity and Excellency of his Person and Office both as King and Priest There be four particulars here included He was a Type 1. In regard of his Kingdom He is called Melchizedek which the Apostle interprets King of Righteousness Heb. 7.2 So Christ is King of his Church and King of Righteousness Psal 45.6 7. King of Salem which signifies Peace It is thought to be the same City which was afterward called Jerusalem so Christ was King of Jerusalem Zach. 9.9 and King of Peace Isai 9.6 My Peace I leave with you Joh. 14.27 Mic. 5.5 This Man shall be our Peace Peace that passeth all understanding and Righteousness first then Peace Isai 32.17 the Fruit of Righteousness shall be Peace Otherwise thou shalt have no Peace from Christ unless he give thee Righteousness first both imputing his own Righteousness for Justification to thee and infusing the inherent Righteousness of Sanctification into thee He will not create Peace for thee 2. In regard of his Priesthood Melchizedek was Priest of the most high God Gen. 14.18 Heb. 7.1 so is Christ both King and Priest This was extraordinary in Melchizedek that he might be the more glorious Type God did not ordinarily allow it the House of Aaron had not the Kingdom the House of David had not the Priesthood they might not intermeddle in the Priests Office King Vzziah was smitten for it but Melchizedek was both 3. In that shadow of Eternity which the Story in Genesis doth cast upon him He is there brought in as a greater person than Abraham the Father of the faithful but neither his Birth nor Death mentioned neither his Father nor Mother without either beginning or end of days Heb. 7.3 It is not meant that he was so really but only in sacred History and in a Type or Shadow For it is impossible for any Creature to be without beginning
that there was a Mystery in this Pillar of Cloud and Fire is clear from Isai 4.5 6. for there never was a literal Cloud and Fire upon Mount Sion This fiery Pillar did cease when they were entred into Canaan Isaiah therefore intends a spiritual thing under those expressions So it is here mentioned by the Apostle in the Context as representing a Gospel-mystery They were all baptized unto Moses in the Cloud 1 Cor. 10. ver 2. It signified and shadowed forth 1. Something of Christ himself 2. The Benefits of Christ 3. The Ordinances of Christ 1. Christ himself some have noted a shadow both of his Deity and Humanity There was a fiery Brightness in the Cloud which yet was but a dark shadow of the Glory of his Deity which was often in Visions so represented But his divine Nature was veiled and overclouded by his humane as in this shadow there was a Pillar of Cloud as well as Fire In Revel 10.1 Christ is represented as clothed with a Cloud and his Feet as Pillars of Fire Expressions notably answering this antient Type and Shadow 2. It holds forth something of the Benefits of Christ What Benefits had they from this Pillar of Fire and Cloud They had three 1. Light and Direction 2. Defence and Protection 3. Ornament and Glory All which we have in an higher manner in Christ by the Gospel 1. Light and Direction in the way that they should go in those Arabian Desarts where no man dwelt and which no man passed thorough where there was neither Path nor Guide But they had the Lord himself to guide them So it is said of this Cloud in Exod. 13.21 where it is first mentioned that it was to lead them the way by day and by night to give them Light and more fully and with much emphasis Numb 9.17 18. and to the end of the Chapter So doth Christ direct and conduct his people in their travels through the Wilderness of this world to Heaven the true Canaan He is the true Light Joh. 1.9 who coming into the world enlighteneth every one that is enlightned For so that place may be fitly rendred He is the way the truth and the life Joh. 14.6 There is a directing Light they are under the everlasting conduct of his Word and Spirit He doth not leave his people in the dark as to things absolutely necessary for their Communion with him here in this world and for their Salvation with him in the world to come we must follow Christ as they followed the Cloud 2. A second Benefit they had by this Cloud was Safety and Protection both from the heat and scorchings of the Sun in those burning Sands and Desarts of Arabia For the Cloud covered and overshadowed them therefore it is said of it Psal 105.39 he spread the Cloud for a Covering And likewise from their Egyptian Persecutors and Enemies For the Cloud went behind them when their Safety so required Exod. 14.19 20. as if the Lord should say You shall not hurt them till you have stricken thorough me first Yea the very same Dispensations which are directing and protecting to his people are dark and destructive to his Enemies as here the same Cloud was light to the Israelites but darkness to the Egyptians Vpon all the Glory shall be a Defence and a Covert from the Storm Isai 4.2 last There is a protecting presence of God in his Church we do experience the truth of this at this day in all our solemn Assemblies there is a wonderful protecting Providence over us Every Church of Saints is a spiritual Army of Jesus Christ and these Armies are terrible Cantcles 6.10 glorious as the Sun terrible as an Army with Banners It is a terrible thing to offend or trouble them a man had better fight against all the power the great Turk can raise than oppose or offend one Church of Christ and there were more hope of Success For the Lord himself is a Wall of Fire round about them Zach. 2.5 as well as the Glory in the midst of them Therefore it is written Isai 54.17 no Weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn Some allude thus upon these two Benefits they had by the Cloud That Truth is as a Pillar of Fire to go before us and Peace as a Pillar of Cloud to overshadow and refresh us 3. This fiery Pillar was exceeding glorious it was an honour and glory to them so in the Church Christ is the Glory of his Church See Isai 4.2 We would think if we could see a company of Kings and Princes and Nobles and great men walking together in the Ways and Ordinances of Christ this were glorious but Deus maximus in minimis There is a Glory in the meanest of the Assemblies of his Saints though spiritual that carnal eyes are not able to discern it When you come to the meetings and Assemblies of Gods People you should endeavour to see this divine Glory you should by Faith discern and see a Pillar of Cloud and Fire over the places where they meet and a Guard of Angels and fiery Chariots round about them God is present there in his Temple doth every one speak of his Glory Psal 29.9 Thus the Pillar of Cloud and Fire did figure and exhibit to them the Benefits of Christ Light and Direction Safety and Protection Ornament and Glory 3. It figured also the Ordinances of Christ and his Presence in and with them For the Ordinances are the outward and visible tokens of Gods Presence with his people as this fiery Pillar was of old And therefore when the Tabernacle was made and set up it rested upon the Tabernacle Exod. 40.38 There be some Duties are secret which the world sees not nor may see as Alms-deeds personal and secret Prayer But the Ordinances of Institution are things that ought to be practised with all the publickness that may be They are outward and visible tokens of Gods Presence particularly that great Ordinance of Baptism as in this Chapter 1 Cor. 10.2 The Cloud it seems had a refreshing moisture in it to shade and to refresh and cool them from the burning heat And they were bedewed with it as we are with the Water of Baptism whereby this legal Cloud became a Type of Gospel-Baptism And so you see how it represented something of Christ himself and something of his Benefits and something of his Ordinances under the New Testament So much for this third typical thing this Pillar of Cloud and Fire 1 Cor. 10.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 April 16. 1668. A Fourth typical thing amongst them of old was their Manna or Bread from Heaven And a fifth was the Rock that followed them and gave them Water Here was spiritual Meat and spiritual Drink Of these two the Lord assisting at this time They are both mentioned above in the 3 and 4th verses of this Chapter And they did all eat
Zerobabel others afterwards with Ezra and others lastly with Nehemiah So is the Reformation out of Popery The first Reformers were not infallible therefore could not reform all things at once 2. It met with much opposition and was carried on through great difficulties and of all their Enemies the Samaritans did most obstruct them of whom you read 2 Kin. 17. that they served the Lord and other Gods and Ezra 4.1 2. When rejected then they brake out into open opposition and again in the New Testament Joh. 4.9 whereby it appears that they did believe and expect the Messiahs coming as well as the Jews Joh. 4.20 and again Rev. 3.9 they are there described The Sum is they had a kind of mongrel Religion made up partly of Judaism and partly of Paganism So now when the Church of God under the New Testament is coming forth out of spiritual Babylon There is a mongrel Generation risen up whom some have fitly called Calvino Papistas Calvinian Papists who are for the Protestant Doctrine and for Popish Worship I refer it to every ones Conscience to judge whether it may not be fitly applied to our late Innovators who are for a Linsey-woolsey Religion a mixture of sound and wholsome Doctrine with Antichristian popish worship their Wine is mixt with Water the Protestant Faith with popish Ceremonies and Superstitions they build Hay and Stubble upon the Foundation The Foundation of our Church is right which is Jesus Christ and Justification by Faith in his blood but the Superstructure they build upon it is humane Inventions and Superstitions which is not Gold and Silver pure Worship and wholesome Discipline but Hay and Stubble and the day will discover it 1 Cor. 3. 2. Typical vengeance and destruction upon the Enemies of his people For as the Jews were a typical people and did prefigure and represent the whole Church of God under the Gospel So the neighbour Nations with whom they had to do were also Typical of Gospel Enemies to the Church and their Sins and Judgments did prefigure and shadow forth something Analogous under the New Testament I shall refer them to 2. sorts Typical Prefigurations 1. Of Rome and 2. Of Hell it self 1. Types of Rome There be 5. places and people in the Old Testament that seem to be Types of Rome and Antichristian abominations 1. Sodom Rev. 11.8 for their monstrous Lusts and unnatural filthiness and uncleanness 2. Egypt for their Idolatry and cruelty to Gods People Therefore the Plagues of Rome are described with allusion to the Plagues of Egypt Rev. 16. Here is noisome boyles and Rivers of blood and darkness and Locusts c. 3. Jericho Hence that Curse of Joshua upon the Rebuilders of it Josh 6.26 27. This City was the first that stood out against the People of God which Curse was not in vain 1 Kin. 16.34 This seems to have had a further meaning to hold forth the irreparable ruines and everlasting destruction of all the implacable Enemies of God and his People and especially Rome and Antichrist which is to perish like a Milstone cast into the Sea never to rise more Rev. 18. Vid◠on Joshua among the personal Types This Curse of Joshua will come upon all such as shall attempt to Rebuild Rome and restore Popery when the Lord hath cast it down 4. Edom and Bozra the chief City thereof that is Italy and Rome therefore the same expressions which belong to Babylon and are spiritually understood of Rome Isa 13.19 21. are also used concerning Edom. Isa 34.11 and vers 4. The ruine of Idumea is set forth with expressions like unto those Rev. 6.12 13. The land shall become burning Pitch vers 9 10. the meaning is dreadful vengeance hideous indignation Isa 63.1 Who is this that cometh from Edom with dyed Garments from Bozra Christ is there set forth as cloathed with Garments dipt in the blood of his Enemies 5. Babylon For this the Scripture is express Rev. 17.5 and vers 18. From all which we should learn both to know and to take heed of Antichrist seeing the Lord hath so many ways declared and foresignified him unto us Shall we look back toward Sodom Remember Lots Wife Shall we return into Egypt again Shall we Rebuild Jericho Would we be found in Bozra or Babylon in the day of the Lords fury 2. Types of Hell For as they had Types of Heaven and spiritual Glory so they had likewise of Hell and spiritual Torment and Misery They had all things taught and represented to them by things outward and visible And the visible expressions of divine vengeance upon Wicked Men of old led the People of God further to see and take notice of that eternal Wrath that is to come I shall instance therefore in 4. Prefigurations of Hell 1. The Deluge or destruction of the Old World by Water The Apostle parallels this and the destruction that shall be by Fire at the great Day together 2 Pet. 3.6 7. Hence Hell is called in the Old Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quahal rephaim Coetus Gigantum Prov. 21.16 Prov. 2.18 Isa 14.9 10. It stirreth up the Rephaims for thee God that hath overthrown the Gyants of the old World and cast them upon their backs in Hell Those men of Renown are now roaring and wailing under the Waters as the vulgar Latine reads that place Job 26.5 6. Gigantes gemunt sub Aquis he hath conquered those Gigantine Sinners who were cut down with a Flood as Job 22.16 He is able to deal with other Rebels Never any hardened himself against God and prospered Job 9.4 2. Sodom Therefore Hell is called the Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone Rev. 20.10 and 21.8 3. Egypt when under the ten Plagues especially that of darkness Exod. 10.21 22. For Hell is a place of utter darkness Mat. 25.30 In stead of darkness the Psalmist doth not mention that but saith He sent evil Angels amongst them Psal 78.49 A lively prefiguration of Hell wherein there is utter darkness but yet light enough to see affrighting apparitions of Devils and evil Angels 4. Tophet an horrid and cursed place wherein they were wont to Sacrifice their Children in the fire to Molech It was in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom Hence Hell is called in the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi Vallis Hinnom This Tophet was a place every way execrable both for the hideous Wickedness there committed and for the hideous Plagues and Judgments there executed There they did Sacrifice their Children to the Devil with an hideous noise to drown their Crys and Skreetchings Vid. my Notes on the Creation Gen. 1. Mede Disc 7. For an external detestation whereof King Josiah polluted it and made it a place execrable ordaining it to be the place where dead Carcasses Garbage and other unclean things should be cast out for the consuming whereof to prevent annoyance a continual Fire was there burning Yea the Lord himself as it were Consecrated this
of those former Dispensations therefore how shall we escape if after so many ways of teaching we do not receive Instruction see Heb. 2.3 4. THE GOSPEL OF CIRCUMCISION October 30. 1666. Acts 7.8 And he gave him the Covenant of Circumcision and so Abraham begat Isaac and circumcised him the eighth day and Isaac begat Jacob and Jacob begat the twelve Patriarchs THis excellent Sermon and Apology of Stephen the first Martyr of the New Testament the Scope of it is to shew them the variety of Gods Dispensations towards his people together with the various Rebellions and Oppositions of the Sons of men against him and so to convince them that the scope and tendency of them all was to lead to Jesus Christ and that as former Dispensations had been despised so was this which was the Glory of all the rest He goes over the History of the Church from Abrahams time to the time of Christ in sundry most eminent and principal Dispensations of God towards his Church In this Verse he is speaking of the Dispensation of God to Abraham He had shewed before how he had called Abraham out of his own Country how he had promised him a Possession the Land of Canaan how he had foretold the affliction of his Seed for four hundred years and their Deliverance afterward how the Lord had given him the Covenant of Circumcision and how under the influence of this Covenant Isaac was born and Jacob and the rest of the Patriarchs And he gave him the Covenant of Circumcision I shall give you no other Doctrine but the words themselves Doct. That God gave to Abraham the Covenant of Circumcision that is the Doctrine That which I do design and intend is a little explanation of Circumcision and of the Covenant thereof for that is the Phrase here and that in reference to our attendance upon God in this Ordinance of the New Testament Circumcision which we are now to wait upon him in To open to you the nature of Circumcision You know there is an outward and an inward part of it as there is in all other Signs and Sacraments whatsoever Something must be spoken 1. Of the Sign the nature of the external Ordinance 2. Of the Covenant that it relates to and 3. What those respects are wherein it doth relate to that Covenant 1. For the external part of this Ordinance of Circumcision It was the cutting away the Foreskin of the flesh of Abraham and his Male seed upon the eighth day The first institution of this Ordinance is recorded Gen. 17.10 11. This is my Covenant which ye shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee every man child among you shall be circumcised And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin c. The Lord did appoint the Seal of this Covenant to be in that part of the body in his infinite Wisdom and Soveraignty a thing which carnal Reason would despise There seems to be two principal accounts of it 1. Because those Members of the Body are so much abused to sin in the way of uncleanness and filthiness therefore the Lord would now sanctifie them and separate a Seed and Generation to himself and usually the greatest Wrath of God to the Souls of men is expressed by giving them up to abuse those parts of the Body The World was grown very degenerate and the Lord was resolved to leave a Monument an everlasting Monument of his Wrath for those sins in all Ages and therefore destroys Sodom Gen. 18. and before this Destruction he appoints this Seal and Ordinance 2. Another account of it is this that it might be a sure and a strong Wall of Partition between the Jewish and Gentle Nations of the World It made the Partition Wall the surer because carnal Reason could not but despise such an Ordinance Those that know not God have no spiritual sense of the thing therefore we find the Heathens scoff at it as Horat. Curtosque Judaeos Credat Judaeus Apella because by their carnal Reason they could not see the reason of it Therefore when the Lord would have both united to Jesus Christ in one Body he abolishes Circumcision This Ordinance was dispensed to the Males the Females were included and comprehended in the Males and as fully and clearly comprehended in them as the Land and the Trees are said to be Circumcised so are all the Daughters of Abraham as they came of circumcised Parents and married to circumcised Husbands and their Sons were circumcised so that it was a circumcised Nation and People It was to be done upon the eighth day after the Birth of the Child and so in this Text He gave him the Covenant of Circumcision and so Abraham begat Isaac and circumcised him the eighth day The reason of this limitation might be partly because of the Infant state of the Church in those times therefore the Lord teacheth them and limiteth them even in such small particulars which are now left to be determined only by the general Rule of the Word even the particular time and season of our Circumcision It s thought also this might have some further mystery in it in reference to the Christian Sabbaoth which is the eighth day in one respect the first in other ways of numbering and to respect a new state and life after that the compleat and full number of the days of this life here are gone through after the Week is ended the Week of this life here we come to Heaven and Glory which was one thing intimated in Circumcision as you will hear afterwards But so much for the external part of this Ordinance the cutting off the foreskin of Abraham and his Male seed and that upon the eighth day 2. To speak a little to the mystery of this Ordinance the meaning of it the spirit of this external Dispensation For besides the Shell there was a Kernel besides the letter of the Law of the Ordinance there was much spiritual mystery intended and aimed at in it Now then what is the mystery of Circumcision the inward part of it that is the Covenant And he gave him the Covenant of Circumcision So that Circumcision is the Covenant and it is the same expression where this Ordinance is first instituted You shall have my Covenant in your flesh Gen. 17. It is called a Covenant as other Signs and Sacraments are it is a sacramental Phrase the Lamb is called the Passover the Bread the Body the Wine the Blood of Christ so Circumcision is the Covenant of it But what Covenant is it that Circumcision doth relate to This is the great Question You know there be two Covenants that of Works and Grace Now Circumcision was not the Covenant of Works but the Covenant of Grace That it was not a carnal Covenant and a Covenant of Works take these five Considerations to make good that ground before we proceed any further for if it be the Covenant of Works it cuts off all that is
I shall prove each Particular out of plain Scripture 1. That great Seed that was not only the Seed of the Woman but the Son of God this was the first and chief Seed here intended Gal 3.16 He saith not as to Seeds but to thy Seed which is Christ such a Seed in whom all Nations are blessed Now it is in Christ only that all Nations are blessed therefore he was this promised Seed The Lord had not before limited the Seed Messiah to any particular Family but left it at large so far as appears among the whole Race of Mankind It was said to Adam the Seed of the Woman there was then no further limitation till Noahs time and then in Abrahams time the Lord limits the Covenant to his Seed It was afterwards confined to Judah one of the twelve Tribes at last the Lord went further to one Family in Judah namely Davids but here he limits it to Abraham that of him should come that great and blessed Seed This was the main thing indeed as without which all other Promises could never be bestowed and fulfilled but through him they are Yea and Amen Abraham saw my day and rejoyced he saw the Messias was to come of his Loyns this was the Seed in whom he believed and by which he was saved 2. There was a Church-seed promised the meaning is this That the Church of God should be continued in his Race and Posterity the true Religion should be setled there There were other godly persons before and after we read of Melchisedech and Job and his Friends and it is very like there might be others and when God had setled Salvation to Abraham it was the duty of all others to joyn themselves to that Church The Lord entailed by Covenant all his Ordinances to Abraham and his Posterity He gave them his Statutes and Judgments he chose them to be a peculiar People a People to the Lord and that is a Church a Society intrusted and invested with the Ordinances and thus he dealt with them he shewed his Statutes to Israel this is no small priviledge and mercy to enjoy the Ordinances this is called the Kingdom of God This Christ threatned the Jews that it should be taken from them and given to other people Mat. 21.43 that is God would settle his Church among the Gentiles and give them his Ordinances And that this is a Priviledge we see by that expression of the Apostle to the Ephesians wherein he mentions it as a part of the dreadful misery of the Ephesians that they were Aliens to the Common Wealth of Israel 3. There was a third thing intended and that is a believing Seed such as should be truly Godly and of this the Apostle speaks in Gal. 3.7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith are the Seed of Abraham so that all true Believers are his Seed in that sense He is called the Father of the Faithful all Believers are his Posterity There were Multitudes that were truly Godly of Abrahams Seed and all that are Godly are his Seed they walk in his steps they are the Seed of the Covenant they are spiritually related to him He was the Pattern and typical Head of that Covenant in which we do all believe the Pattern of Faith to us He is called our Father It is said of him that he believed against sense and reason this was not writen for his sake alone but for us also that we might follow his steps 4. There was included in this Covenant an ingrafted Seed it is the Apostles expression in Rom. 11.17 I mean a Seed not only of the Jews but of the Gentiles God did not only engage to Abraham that there should be Church of his own natural Seed and that there should be Saints of his natural Seed but that the Gentiles should be ingrafted into his Covenant and so become his Seed Thou being a wild Olive Tree wert grafted in among them and partakest of the root and fatness of the Olive Tree God did above and beyond the ordinary course of things ingraft the Gentiles into that Covenant that he had once made with Abraham And thus you see what the Seed is which the Lord did promise in the Covenant whereof Circumcision was the Seal He did promise to give to Abraham that Seed firstly and chiefly that Seed who was the Son of God and a Church Seed and a believing Seed and not only a Seed of the Nation of the Jews but a Seed ingrafted into that Grace and Covenant from among the Gentiles We have gone through two Branches of the Covenant the third is this 3. That God would give an Inheritance to him and them this was the third part of Gods Covenant with him It is the greatest desire in nature to have Children and it is a good desire it is of God And what do Parents desire next a comfortable Inheritance for them and this did the Lord promise to Abraham And in that Text which hath been so often alledged God first promises to make him exceeding Fruitful and then I will give to thee and thy Seed after thee the Land wherein thou art yet a Stranger The Lord promised an Inheritance and that Inheritance was the Land of Canaan Now the Question is whether this was a temporal or spiritual Inheritance Doubtless the Lord did not promise to Abraham Canaan meerly as a temporal Inheritance but as a spiritual Inheritance Canaan was not as other Lands are a meer outward thing but it was a typical Land it was the Land of Emmanuel it is the Land of Glory Canaan was a Type of Heaven and in that respect it was that they did so earnestly prize it and look upon it as being Heaven in an earthly Shadow therefore Jacob and Joseph must needs be buried there therefore the Apostle assures us they did seek a better Country they professed themselves Strangers and Pilgrims here upon Earth They that say such things declare plainly they seek another Country which is an heavenly one wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God It is a heavenly City whose Builder and Maker is God so that under that Shadow the Lord did promise Heaven to Abraham and this was the third part of this Covenant This Land of Canaan is called the Mountain of Holiness what expression can be higher Dan. 11. and therefore the Saints did look beyond that to another Country You see what the Covenant was and what were the principal things and Branches of it That God should be his God that God should give him a Seed and that God should give an Inheritance to him and them You see what the Covenant is that Circumcision doth relate to Now the last thing that was propounded was this what respect it is that Circumcision hath to this Covenant He gave him the Covenant of Circumcision For this Note these five things 1. Circumcision respects the Covenant as the Seal or Sacrament of Initiation into the Covenant The reason of
and the Wave-Offering a thankful frame of spirit to dedicate and give up our selves unto the Lord to be owning God acknowledging and admiring God in every thing receiving it as from his hand and returning it to him again by using it to his Glory Vse 2. We see here the rise and withal the sinfulness of divers of the Popish Superstitions they borrow many of them from the Jews and from the Ceremonial Law As when they talk of a Sacrifice a propitiatory Sacrifice in the Mass for Quick and Dead and so to call the Communion-Table an Altar It is true we have an Altar and a Sacrifice under the Gospel but this Altar is the Deity of Jesus Christ this Sacrifice is the blood of Christ this is the true Atonement between God and sinners whereof the blood of Bulls and Goats was but a weak and low and shady representation So the Priest his lifting up the Host over his head as if it were an Heave-Offering and that late Abomination that they must do it on the north side of the Communion Table or Altar as they love to have it called To reintroduce these old legal Ceremonies and to talk of literal Sacrifices under the Gospel is to dig Moses out of his Grave and to deny Jesus Christ there is more evil in such things then many do imagine or will believe Vse 3. Exhortation to keep close to the Command of God in all the matters of his Worship Consider the 38 Verse of this Chapter This is the Law of the Burnt-Offering and of the Meat-Offering and so of all the rest of their Offerings which the Lord commanded Moses in Mount Sinai in the day that he commanded the Children of Israel to offer their Oblations to the Lord in the Wilderness of Sinai The manner of Worship is under a Command as well as the matter the Mode of Worship hath a Law which must be attended and observed and kept close unto Let me press this Exhortation that you would in all your Worship keep close unto the Rule of the Word with these four Motives 1. It hath been the great design of Satan in all times and Ages to defile and corrupt the Worship of God if he cannot perswade men to be downright Atheists and to say there is no God he labours then to drive them into the other extream of Idolatry and Superstition and to impose upon them with an Image with an Idol in stead of God and the hearts of men are like Tinder to the fire of these temptations The Stratagem hath been I think as successful and as advantageous to the Devils Kingdom as any that ever came into that Old Serpents head When or how soon this delusion came into the world I need not here dispute Certain it is it was very early for we have express mention made of it amongst Abraham's Ancestors Josh 24.2 Now the Call of Abraham was but four hundred twenty-seven years after the Flood or thereabout as you will find if you compute and put together the Ages of those ten Patriarchs recorded Gen. 11 with Gen. 12.5 So that mankind having been cut down with a Flood but a little before for Atheistical profaneness and wickedness they were lost again and the whole world in a manner overwhelmed and drowned as it were with another and worser Deluge of Idolatry within that short space of four hundred years or thereabouts for unto that Period as I conceive the Rise of Idolatry must be referred And what was the great sin amongst the Jews Was it not this And amongst the old Heathens and Pagans and amongst the Papists and other superstitious Christians at this day What is the great Design and Work of Christ in this Age the work of this Generation but to bring forth his Worship into purity that the new Jerusalem may come down from Heaven This therefore Satan studies chiefly to oppose and so to countermine the Lord Jesus in his great Work And will you take part with him and be on his side against the Lord 2. It will be varnished over with fair colours and plausible pretenses departing from the Will of God revealed in his Word in the matter of his Worship hath ever been so The Image that fell down from Jupiter cryed they Act. 19.35 this was given out for that Ephesian Diana so the Whore of Babylon gives the Wine of her Fornication in a golden Cup. Rev. 17.4 And as the Light increaseth so the Crafts and Methods of Satan are more refined and more subtile and spiritual In the first times of the New Testament he did appear almost like himself in the shape of a great Red Dragon in the Roman Pagan Emperors but when Michael and his Angels overcame and overthrew him in this appearance Rev. 12. Then he puts on a new Vizard and appears in another shape of two wild Beasts Rev. 13. but still pursues the same design though under new pretences and by other Instruments viz. by the Church and Pope of Rome For he hath made it his business ever since the time of Constantine the Great to revive the old Heathenish Idolatry under other names that the world might not be said Idola relinquere but simulacra mutasse that whereas before they worshipped the Devil under the names of Jupiter Diana and Apollo c. now they commit the same Idolatry and worship the same Devil still but under the names of popish Saints Now it is not Jupiter and Diana any more but St. Francis and St. Becket and the Vicar of Christ and the holy Catholick Church of Rome thus doth that Harlot paint her face so the prelatick Superstitions at this day those Reliques of Popery are painted over with those glozing pretences of Antiquity Fathers Councils Order Decency Edification the Peace of the Church and such like 3. If once you leave the Rule of the Word the will of God revealed there and begin in a way of Superstition you will never know where to stop or stay nor where to make an end but you will multiply your Idols and increase your Idolatries and grow worse and worse As in those sensual lusts of drunkenness and uncleanness the poor Creature saith I will seek it yet again so in these spiritual lusts they are unsatiable Ezek. 16.28 because thou wast unsatiable It is an endless sin If you do but wear a Surplice for peace sake why not as well admit the Sign of the Cross in Baptisme or bow to an Altar And then within a little while the same reason is as strong for bowing to an Image to a Crucifix and why not as well say Mass too for the peace of the Church And then at last swallow down every thing submit your Consciences to the Pope worship the Beast and so be damned and go to Hell and all for the peace of the Church O there is no end here but like a man that is tumbling down a steep Hill that cannot stop till he come to the bottom Popery came
up the Leper seven days And Mat. 5.24 Leave thy gift before the Altar And Mat. 18. The Church must be told of his sin and of his obstinacy under the former steps of proceeding with him and it must appear that he doth not hear the Church before he may be made an Heathen and a Publican Quest But how long must they delay the sentence of Excommunication Answ There cannot be a particular time limited because of the infinite variety of particular Cases Circumstances Therefore whether an Offender should lie under suspension a week or a month or a longer or shorter time God hath left it to Christian wisdom It is dangerous to limit and make particular Rules when God hath made none The general Rule which is sufficient to guide and give light in all particular cases is this That till it do appear that the Offender sins presumptuously the Church should not proceed to Excommunication If the Case be dubious and uncertain whether he be a leprous a presumptuous sinner or no as Levit. 13. then shut him up seven days more till it do appear that he is a Leper and a Presumptuous sinner The same Rule is given concerning lesser private offences in Mat. 18.15 16 17. If thy Brother offend thee tell him between him and thee If he will not hear thee take with thee one or two more And if he shall neglect to hear them then tell it to the Church Tell it What is meant by the word it It must needs relate to the private offense before mentioned This Text therefore speaks not of publick Scandals but of such Offenses as are private till the Offenders impenitency necessitate the making of them publick The same Rule is given in case of corrupt Opinions Titus 3.10 There must be a first and a second Admonition before Rejection The Reason is because it may be hoped in these Cases that the mans sin may have been for want of Conviction and therefore not of Presumption unless he resist light when means and matter of Conviction is held forth And in private Offences the matter may possibly be healed privately Rule 2. In other cases there is no need of such delatory proceeding If it be evident and apparent that the Sinner doth not sin for want of Light but presumptuously against Light And if the thing be already publick so that it cannot be hid nor healed privately as in the case of publick scandals When the Offense is so hainous that it cryes to heaven for vengeance wasteth the Conscience and is generally scandalous the Censures of the Church may proceed with more expedition See Scobels Collect of Acts and Ordinance an 48. cap. 118. pag. 119. Thus ordained that great reforming Parliament by the advice of that Assemby of Divines that sate at Westminster upon their Call The Reasons to prove this viz. that the proceedings with Offenders ought to be more speedy and summary in Cases of atrocious wickedness are such as these Reas 1. From Lev. 13. The Priest is directed to suspend or shut him up seven days if the Case be doubtful But if it be evident that the man is a Leper and presumptuous sinners may well be accounted Lepers the Rule is to shut him out of the Camp not to suspend him seven days but shut him out immediatly See vers 3 and 46. Reas 2. From the Case of the Incestuous person in 1 Cor. 5. The Apostle doth not warn them to take heed of Excommunicating him and to suspend him first and then to wait meekly and mercifully for him till he repent No but he declares he had already determined the Case that he should be delivered to Satan vers 3 4. And indeed there is a general silence throughout the Scripture concerning such gradations and delays in case of publick flagrant scandals There is no Caution no direction given for such previous Admonitions to be given to such persons in order to the preventing of Excommunication Reas 3. From the strange impenitency and hardness of heart that is in scandalous sinners To instance in the sin of Uncleanness which is the Case that now lyes before us it is a very blinding hardning sin Prov 9.18 But he knows not that the dead are there and that her Guests are in the depths of Hell It is the fruit of a seared Conscience a Conscience past feeling Ephes 4.19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work uncleanness This meets with that Objection should the Church censure a repenting sinner I will not now dispute that question whether Repentance be always enough to prevent Church Censures Some think it is not for doubtless Aaron and Miriam repented Numb 12.11 12. See how Aaron there confesseth and bewails the sin and he speaks in the plural Number for them both But here was a very scandalous sin insolent and seditious speeches against the chief Magistrate and Prophet of God who was exceeding faithful in his place for which God smites her with Leprosie and notwithstanding their own confessions and Moses his Intercessions for them the Lord would have her shut out Vers 14. And the Lord said unto Moses if her Father had spit in her face should she not be ashamed seven days Let her be shut out from the Camp seven days So we may say of Fornicators or of any other flagitious sinner if his Father had but spit in his face should he not be ashamed seven days And shall he not be shut out of the Church at all for Fornication But there is no need to debate that for all scandalous sinners are impenitent persons and are so to be accounted by all that fear God till full proof and evidence do appear that they have forsaken those scandalous and wicked ways And this neither doth nor can appear ordinarily till after there hath been a sufficient space and time and tryal and experience how they walk Confession of a publick Scandal when the Evidence of the Fact is undeniable is no sufficient Evidence of repentance for Pharaoh and Saul and Judas did this And no man that hath the use of his Reason can or will do otherwise for to what purpose is it to deny that which all men know Or to seek to conceal that which cannot be hid In the Confessions of such persons it is observeable That they are either meerely forced and extorted by the hand of God upon them as Pharaohs was when he confessed the Lord is righteous but I and my people are wicked and Judas his by the horror of his Conscience Matth. 27.3 4 5. Or else their Confession is extorted by the undeniable Evidence of the Fact and mingled with manifest discoveries of Pride even when they seem to be taking shame to themselves as Saul 1 Sam. 15. Or which is worst of all their Confessions are mingled sometimes with Invectives against those which reprove them As Matth. 7.6 They turn again and rent you Instead of an humble broken hearted Confession you
the Arrows of the Bow the Shield the Sword and the Battel Psal 76.2.3 It is spoken of temporal Deliverance and may be applied to the Church there is a protecting Presence of God there But it is true in an higher sense concerning Christ Christ is the true Sanctuary from whence all our strength and help cometh Thou therefore my Son be strong in the Grace that is in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 2.1 Nay in all these things we are more then conquerors through him that loved us Rom. 8.37 This is the reason you conquer not but Sin and Lust prevails and you are worsted by Corruption and Temptation from time to time There is a secret distance by unbelief from Jesus Christ did you come to the door of the Tabernacle the Lord would send you help from the Sanctuary and strengthen thee out of Sion but men are loth to leave their own home or loth to break through difficulties they faint and tire by the way before they get thither and so never come to receive those blessed influences those reviving Soul-strengthening Soul-refreshing influences See Psal 84.5 6 7. It is a description to the people in their journeys to the Temple They went through thick and thin as we use to say through drought and heat till they came before God in Sion and there they found what they went for They met with God there ver 10.11 better a day there than a thousand elsewhere for there the Lord will give Grace and Glory Instruct 3. Remember that there is a Church-worship As there was a moral Worship which they were to perform every where for it was personal and not meerly publick so they had their publick Church-worship viz. their Sacrifices and other Institutions which were limited to the Tabernacle as it was a Type of the Church As no Service is to be offered out of Christ so some Services are not to be offered out of the Church for the Tabernacle as you have heard was a Type of the Church And therefore as Gods end in this Institution was to lead out their thoughts and desires and expectations to Jesus Christ and so to prevent Idolatry and Unbelief in that respect so likewise to prevent Schism and to keep them in the unity of that Church which he had then instituted and appointed So now in Gospel-times look that you partake of the Ordidances in Gospel-Churches for these are the New Testament-Tabernacles wherein God dwells and vouchsafes his blessed Presence It is often noted as a great corruption of Worship among the Jews that they sacrificed in the high places yea though they did it to the Lord their God only So in Manasseh's time 2 Chron. 37.17 Nevertheless the people did sacrifice still in the high places after some beginnings and degrees of Reformation yet unto the Lord their God only And the reason they were not taken away is sometimes noted to be the perversness of the people so in Jehosaphats time 2 Chron. 20.33 howbeit the high places were not taken away for as yet the people had not prepared their hearts unto the God of their Fathers Yea there were some good people in those times who were unconvinced of this truth that they ought to sacrifice only at the Temple and Tabernacle though they were against the Worship of Baal yet they were not against the high places so we have some in our days that are against Popery but they are not against mixt Communions They are not convinced that they ought to present their Services and Sacrifices their publick Worship unto God in Gospel-Temples that is in pure Churches and not among profane people It is strange to see the supine carelesness and scepticism of some mens spirits in this particular they regard not they care not with whom they join whether it be a true Church or a false Church whether a pure or an impure Church whether a Church or no Church Search the Scriptures and you will find no instance that ever the Lords Supper was dispensed but in Churches Gospel-Churches pure Churches The first Institution of that Ordinance was in the first Gospel-Church sounded by Christ himself the chief Pastor who did dispense this Ordinance himself to the twelve Apostles who were the Foundation stones of the first Gospel-Church at Jerusalem then again Acts 2.42 they continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of Bread and in Prayers Breaking of Bread is there mentioned amongst other Ordinances and therefore not to be understood of common but sacred Bread Acts. 20.7 it is said of the Church of Troas that they came together on the first day of the week to break Bread The same Ordinance also was observed in the Church of Corinth 1. Cor. 11. and whereas corruptions and corrupt members were crept in the Apostle spends a whole Chapter in exhorting them to purge out the old Leven 5. ch of 1. Epistle Professors that lie amongst the Pots never joyning themselves as fixed members in any particular Church though they have opportunity for it do live in the neglect of a duty a known duty yea such a neglect as doth infer and carry along with it the neglect of many other duties also For how can Church-Discipline be exercised but in the Societies of Gods People therefore tnis neglect it exposeth the Ordinances of Christ to contempt and prostitution It is as great a sin to receive the Lords Supper in an Assembly of ignorant and profane people as it was to offer Sacrifices in the high places yea it is indeed the very same thing For let thy Conscience speak Are such Assemblies the Temples of the Holy Ghost Are they the Tabernacles of the most High Doth God dwell there Is this to go to the door of the Tabernacle with thy Sacrifice when thou knowest thou goest into a dunghill of Profaneness into a dungeon of Ignorance into an Assembly of wicked and ungodly men Art thou a Soul that desirest communion with Christ Then take his own direction for the obtaining of it Cant. 1.7 8. Go forth by the footsteps of the flock this is Church society Feed thy Kids by the Shepherds Tents Make use of the Ministry and Ministers of the Word who are set in particular Churches Instr 4. Labour every one that his own Soul may be an habitation for the Lord a Temple of the Holy Ghost For the Temple signified not only the whole Church in general but every Saint in particular as hath been shewed Let not thy own Soul be as it is said of Rome Rev. 18.2 It is become the habitation of Devils and the hold of every foul Spirit and a Cage for every unclean and hateful Bird. But let the Spirit of God dwell there be restless in thy self give God in Heaven no rest nor thy own Heart within thee any rest till thy Soul be an habitation of the Holy Spirit Say as it is said of David Psal 132.4 5. I will not give sleep to mine eyes nor slumber to
1668. Coloss 2.16 17. Let no man therefore judge you in Meat or in Drink or in respect of an Holy day or of the New Moon or of the Sabbath-days Which are a shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ THere are three Doctrines in the words 1. That the Jewish Holy days are of three sorts or may be referred to three general heads Feast days New Moons and Sabbaths 2. That these their holy seasons were shadows of things to come but the Body is of Christ 3. Therefore no Christian should suffer any man to judg him or condemn him for not observing these Jewish times and seasons We are endeavouring to open the substance of these shadows and what were those things to come those things about Jesus Christ and the Gospel which were shadowed forth in them We began first with their Holy days or their Feast days that is their annual Festivals whereof we heard they had five 1. The Passover 2. Pentecost 2. The Feast of Tabernacles 4. The Feast of Trumpets 5. The Feast of Expiation These three the Passover Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles were the three great Festivals which were more solemn then the rest because then all the Males of Israel were to assemble together out of the whole Nation and to appear before the Lord in the place that he should choose in a general Church Assembly We heard something that these things pointed to The Passover did point them to the Death and Sufferings of Jesus Christ as the true Paschal Lamb who fulfilled this Type even as to the very season and holy time it self for he suffered at the Passover The Pentecost pointed at the time of the effusion of the Holy Ghost after his Ascension The Feast of Tabernacles pointed them to the Birth and Nativity of Jesus Christ when he should come to tabernacle and pitch his Tent in our Nature We heard indeed that this was the time of Christs Birth and not as it is commonly computed to be in December in the depth of Winter It is not like the Shepherds would be watching their Flocks all night then and that Augustus would command his Subjects to travel to their own Cities to be taxed at such a time and that John would choose that time to baptize in There be two more of the Jewish Feasts to be spoken to which were great and solemn Feasts yet not so great as these three because the people were not all bound to come up to Jerusalem to the Temple namely the Feast of Trumpets and the Feast of Expiation they were both in the seventh month as was also the Feast of Tabernacles the Feast of Trumpets on the first day of it the Feast of Expiation on the tenth day and the Feast of Tabernales on the fifteenth day and from thence to the two and twentieth day which is therefore accounted the greatest of all their Feasts being in the seventh month which was also the first in their old account the chiefest of all the months in the year and called by some the Sabbath of months as the seventh day is the Sabbath of days 4. This month began with the Feast of Trumpets which was upon the first day of the seventh month The first Institution of it we have in Lev. 23.23 24 25. and the Lord spake unto Moses saying c. It was celebrated as a Sabbath they were to do no servile work therein This Feast also had its peculiar Sacrifices appointed for it as in Numb 29. the six first verses It was also solemnized with the blowing of Trumpets which being the special Rite of this Festivity it had its Name from thence Here therefore the old legal Musick may fitly be considered this being as it were their Feast of Musick The Institution of these Trumpets we read in Numb 10. the ten first verses mentioned long after as a very solemn Ordinance in Psal 81.3 4 The first mention we have of Musical instruments in the Worship of God is in Exod. 15.20 21. where we read that Miriam used Timbrels and they praised God therewith and they sang the Song of Moses when they were delivered from Pharaoh And Miriam the Prophetess the Sister of Aaron took a Timbrel in her hand and all the Women went out after her with Timbrels and with Dances And Miriam answered them Sing ye to the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously the Horse and his Rider hath he thrown into the Sea Moses afterwards by order from God appointed these Trumpets to be made and we read of a further increase of such Instruments in after times As to the use and signification of them there be many Gospel Instructions to be considered in this legal shadow we shall mention seven 1. The general scope of them was to signifie and shadow forth the sound of the Gospel the blessed sound of the Gospel which is called the joyful sound Psal 89.15 the Gospel is called glad tidings it is a joyful pleasant sound indeed Hence the Ministers of the Gospel are said to lift up their voice like a Trumpet Isai 58.1 the Tongue of the just is as choise Silver Prov. 10.20 these Trumpets were of Silver the faithful discharge and execution of their Office is expressed by blowing of the Trumpet Hos 8.1 Ezek. 33.3 4 5. it is said in the day when the Jews shall be converted in that day the great Trumpet shall be blown and they shall come which were ready to perish c. Isai 27. last when God shall gather them one by one ye shall be gathered one by one ver 12. in that day the great Trumpet shall be blown c that is saith Calvin the Silver Trumpet of the Gospel to the conviction and conversion of the Jews God will have his Church instructed not by sight only but by voice not by the eye only but by the ear Even under the Law the Lord would not have his people always to look for miraculous and immediate Guidance but they were to order themselves according to the sound of the Trumpet both in War Peace according to the rule of the Word so according to the rules of the Gospel according as that Trumpet sounds so are you to act This is the first namely the joyful sound of the Silver Trumpet of the Gospel 2. The Joys and Graces of the Spirit of God is another thing intimated by this Trumpet and instrument of Musick that spiritual melody of the Joys and Graces of the Holy Ghost in the hearts of Gods people Psal 98.6 with Trumpets and sound of Cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord the King Ephes 5.18 19. There is a melody and joyful voice in the Consciences of Believers the Spirit of God both sanctifying and comforting of them so the Apostle Col. 3.16 Grace and Joy the fruit of Grace so this Musick remains in the Antitype of it the heart-strings of Believers making melody suitable to the profession of their Lips and to the gracious and peaceable
the Feast of Expiation Answ They had no more of Gods appointment that were perpetual and religious Feasts It is true we read of some others both in Scripture and in the Jewish Writers but either they were not perpetually recurring every year but meerly occasional upon present emergencies of Providence or else they were not holy and religious Feasts but only civil and political or else lastly they were sinful and unwarrantable as 1. There was Solomons Feast that solemn Feast at the Dedication of the Temple as in 2 Chron. 5. but this was extraordinary and occasional and not a standing yearly Festival 2. They had also those Fasts of the fifth and of the seventh month which are mentioned in Zech. 7 3-5 but these also were but temporary and occasional upon occasion of the calamities of their Captivity in Babylon the Land being laid desolate Jerusalem taken the Temple destroyed Hence they had these Fasts only during the time of their sorrow but they ceased and were turned into rejoycing 3. There was the days of Purim mentioned in Esther 9.21 22. that they kept in the month of Adar on the fourteenth and on the fifteenth day of the month yearly for then it was turned from sorrow to joy and from mourning to a good day This seems not to be a religious but a political constitution so our Divines conclude against the Papists who plead this for their Popish Holidays For there were peculiar Sacrifices appointed for all the holy Festivals Numb chap. 28 and 29. but there was none for this and there is nothing mentioned but civil rejoycing days of Feasting and Joy and sending portions to the needy ver 22. Of this nature is our fifth of November Not but that there may and ought to be upon such times holy rejoycing in God as upon any providential occasion but there ought not to be a religious abstinence from the works of our Callings as upon the Lords day and upon occasional days of Fasting or Rejoycing that ought not to be on any such days Had they been religious Feasts and days wherein they were bound to abstain from the works of their Callings after the nature of religious Feasts we then are to suppose that Mordecai Nehemiah c. had instruction from God about it else they durst not have done it they that had such Light and Holiness 4. We read of two Feasts more appointed in the time of the Maccabees one for the Dedication of the Altar 1 Maccab. 4.56 so they kept the Dedication of the Altar eight days offered Burnt-offerings with gladness and offered sacrifices of deliverance and praise And the other for the Purification of the Temple 2 Maccab. 1.18 we are now purposed to keep the Purification of the Temple upon the five and twentieth day of the month Chesleu Now if these had been only particular and occasional Feasts these things God had left with the Church to appoint but seeing the Jews say they were yearly Feasts they were thererefore superstitious and unwarrantable things for they had no such extraordinary persons amongst them that could give them authority from God for such a thing Thus we have gone through the first word Feast days their Holy days or Feast days Their holy times we referred to three heads their Holy days New Moons and Sabbaths Now a word concerning their New Moons Let no man judge you in respect of the New Moons 2. New Moons 2. The second word in the Text is New Moons of which we read in Numb 28.11 in the beginnings of your months ye shall offer a Burnt-offering unto the Lord c. and Numb 10.10 in the beginnings of your months ye shall blow with the Trumpets over your Burnt-offerings c. To open this a little that so you may understand the mind of the Holy Ghost in it you must observe that their computation of the year was not as ours is meerly Solar but partly Lunar for their month always began with the New Moon and the days remaining to fill up their Solar year which are eleven they were wont to intercalate at the appointment of their High Prests and Rulers at the years end Or as some write after the second or third year in an intercalatory month which they called Veader consisting of eleven or one and twenty or three and thirty days Their month still began with a New Moon and the Lord did appoint that it should be a season religiously observed by them you shall offer such and such Sacrifices ye shall blow with Trumpets c. There were four things observable in the solemnizing the New Moons for they did solemnize this season with such religious Rites and Observations as these 1. A holy Convocation and abstaining from the works and business of their Callings Therefore in Amos 8.5 they are brought in as saying when will the New Moons be gone that we may sell Corn c. 2. By repairing to the Prophets for Teaching and Instruction to inquire of God and to hear his Word 2 Kings 4.23 3. With sounding or blowing of Trumpets every New Moon as well as the New Moon of the seventh month Numb 10.10 4. With peculiar Sacrifices yea a greater number of Sacrifices then on the Sabbath day They had peculiar Sacrifices then to be offered on the first day of the month Numb 28.11 Some add fifthly the keeping solemn Feasts of Love and Amity 1 Sam. 20.5.6 Now this Solemnity doubtless had some Divine mystery in it it aimed at some good thing to come something of Christ in the Gospel for the Text saith expresly they were a shadow of things to come And the Worship of God in Gospel-times is expressed under this phrase Isai 66.23 from one New Moon to another so Ezekiel in his Vision of the Temple-worship under the Gospel speaks of it under the name of New Moons Ezek. 46.1 6. But what then did it signifie what was the meaning of all these things Doubtless they were written for our Instruction there was a Gospel-mystery in these legal Institutions In these things principally lay the substance of these shadows 1. Their acknowledgment of God in the Creature that God must be acknowledged in the renovation of the Creatures in the course of Providence as when the Moon begins increases and is renewed then Gods Providence is acknowledged and taken notice of he renews the course of nature and every mercy we enjoy There is no Light to be seen at first in the Moon but it increases till it come to the full Moon Thus God renews every creature and every comfort in the way of his Providence Psal 104.30 thou sendest forth thy Spirit and they are created and thou renewest the face of the earth They must not bless God in this Solemnity for the Moon when it was at the full then more of the Creature is seen but when there is least of the Creature then God must be owned even in the least of mercies 2. The Renovation of the Church in a way
of portions to one another The Rest mentioned Esth 9. was only from their enemies so much Work as might stand with a Feasting day was not forbidden Bishop Andrews Serm. on Esth 9.31 his Arguments to prove that they were holy days and not days of civil joy and Solemnity only are fully answered by Mr. Gillespy Engl. Pop. Cerem part 3. c. 6. p. 99 100 who shews that the most of them are meerly grounded upon the Corruptions of the vulgar Latin Translation which the Bishop chooseth to follow And for that one argument from the Hebrew that they took it in animas vers 31. from whence the Bishop infers they made a Soul matter of it the Hebrew word nephesh hath no such emphasis but signifies corpus animatum as well as anima and is commonly taken not for our souls but for our selves as Gen 46.26 all the souls that came with Jacob that is all the persons Yea that it may appear how far the word is from any such emphasis as the Bishop would put upon it it is often used even for a dead carkass as in Numb 9.6 Hagg. 2.13 and in sundry other places 2. Neither can it be evinced that this Feast of Purim was meerly of human Institution if we suppose it to be a religious Feast Mordecai did it saith Dr. Whitaker de Sacram. p. 206. God inspiring him and peradventure by order from some Prophet as we find in Zech. 8. they changed their Fasts into Feasts by the mouth of the Lord by the Ministry of the Prophet And though we do not read expresly that the Lord gave Commandment to them by any of his Prophets for this Feast of Purim yet forasmuch as it stands approved in Scripture there is no doubt saith Mr. Cartwright but it was done by warrant from God Rest of second Reply pag. 193 194. Obj. 3. The Feast of Dedication Joh. 10.22 23. Answ This also hath been objected from the time of the Waldenses But. 1. It is not certainly known what Feast of Dedication this was and whether meerly of human Institution some take it for that which Solomon appointed others ascribe it to Ezra others to the Maccabees See Ames Fresh Suit part 2. p. 318. And it is observed by learned men concerning those declining times that the latter Jews appointed many Fasts and Feasts as may be seen in their Kalender which they had no warrant for out of the Word of God So Mr. Weems vol. 1. concern the Scripture Prolegom cap. 3. pag. 60. 2. Neither is there any evidence that Christ approved this Feast of Dedication The Text only saith that he walked then in Solomons Porch which he might do without observing or approving the Feast Those circumstances of time and place being noted by the Evangelist for evidence to the Story as Mr. Gillespy Engl. Pop. Cerem par 3. cap. 6. p. 103. well observeth and not for any mystery If this Feast was nothing but a Tradition of the Elders we may be sure that Christ who testified against other Inventions of men did never observe this Object 4. The Apostle say some seems to speak of it as a thing indifferent and lawful to regard a Day to the Lord. Rom. 14.5 6. Answ The scope of that place is not to assert the truth of their Opinion who made a difference of Days and Meats for it is evident from many Scriptures that they were in an error but to forbid and reprove an unbrotherly spirit one against another for such differences of Opinion which Reproof falls heavy upon the greatest Patrons and Assertors of these Popish Holy days for they have used much unbrotherly Violence against Dissenters Moreover there was a greater latitude of Christian Charity and Indulgence due to the weak Jews in their adherence for a time to Moses then can be claimed by such as adhere to the Church of Rome Object 5. Some distinguish between the Superstition and the Hospitality of Christmas and the superstitious part they condemn but plead hard for the hospitable part as they call it Answ The Feasting and Sporting is an appendix to the Worship or rather to the Superstition and therefore stands or falls together with it The Apostle therefore calls them Idolaters even for their Feasting and Sporting 1 Cor. 10.7 neither be ye Idolaters as were some of them as it is written the people sate down to eat and drink and rose up to play And if we read the Story of that Idolatry of the Calf Exod. 32. we shall find that it was celebrated much after the same manner that Christmas is or rather somewhat better for they rose up early on the morrow and offered Burnt-offerings and Peace-offerings so that it seems they went to Church and said their Prayers most devoutly in the morning and then they sate down to eat and drink and rose up to play v. 6. and there was shouting and singing and dancing and a great deal of mad mirth amongst them v. 18 19. Sober mirth and the temperate use of the good Creatures of God is lawful at any time of the year and there never was any Minister that preached or spake against that But to have better cheer upon a Popish Holy day then at another time meerly upon this account because forsooth it is an Holy day this is superstitious And the revelling and rioting and luxury which is usual at those times is every way an hinderance to Hospitality and not a furtherance to it that which might and ought to be bestowed in a way of liberality to the poor being mispent and lavishe'd away in vain prodigality and luxury Obj. 6. I meet with one who disallows those days that are dedicated to Christ but hath a better opinion of the Saints days His words are these Nor for my part saith he do I make any scruple to keep a day in remembrance of any eminent Servant of Christ or Martyr to praise God for their Doctrine or Example and honour their memorial but the hardest part of the question is whether it be lawful to keep days as holy in celebrating the memorial of Christs Nativity Circumcision Fasting Transfiguration Ascension and such like Mr. Ric. Baxt. of Ch. Gov. and Wors disp 5. p. 413. Answ This learned man is very singular in this Opinion as well as in many others and it is contrary even to the common Sense and Reason of most Christians yea of most men to think the days dedicated to Saints more allowable then those in remembrance of the actions of Christ himself Our Divines against the Papists condemn the Saints days as much more intolerable inexcusable then the other Si pium bonum esset saith judicious Ames Bell. Enerv. tom 2. l. 6. c. 10. thes 12. instituere dies festâ—s tota haec pietas melius collocaretur in tot commemorationibus factorum Christi quot Ecclesia ferre posset quam ut ad Sanctos iretur Dicare diem Deo in memoriam hominis ne Judaei quidem in suâ paedagogiâ
docebantur ne dum convenit spirituali cultui novi Testamenti If it were saith he a good and pious thing to appoint Holy days this Piety were better imployed in so many Commemorations of the actions of Christ as the Church could bear then in turning aside to the Saints To dedicate a day unto God in remembrance of a man is a thing which the very Jews were never taught to do in those weak and childish times much less doth it agree to the spiritual Worship of the New Testament And though it were lawful saith Mr. Cartwright First Reply p. 153. for the Church to ordain Holy days to our Saviour Christ or the blessed Trinity yet it is not therefore lawful to institute Holy days to the Apostles and other Saints or to their remembrance As to that pretense of honouring their memorial I remember this is alledged by Bellarmine for the keeping of Reliques and Dr. Ames Bellarm Enerv. tom 2. l. 6. c. 6. thes 25. his answer to him De istiusmodi conservatione nihil traditur in Scripturâ ubi tamen omne genus honoris virtuti defertur may be applied here this is such a way of honouring the memorial of Saints departed as the Scripture knows not wherein yet all due honour is given to virtue and holiness For as we reason against the Popish Purgatory saith Mr. Cartwright First Reply p. 153. that it is therefore nought forasmuch as neither in the Old Testament nor in the New there is any mention of Prayer at any time for the Dead so may it be reasoned against these Holy days ordained for the remembrance of the Saints that forasmuch as the old people did never keep any Feast or Holy day for the remembrance either of Moses or Daniel or Job or Abraham or David or any other how holy or excellent soever they were Nor the Apostles nor the Churches in their time never instituted any neither to keep the remembrance of Stephen or of the Virgin Mary or of John Baptist or of any other notable rare personage that the instituting and erecting of them now and this attempt by the Churches which followed is not without some note of presumption for that it undertaketh those things which the primitive Church in the Apostles times having greater gifts of the Spirit of God durst not venture upon And what though some of these Corruptions crept in some what early they are but old sins and grey-headed errors That Antichristian violence of Victor Bishop of Rome for Easter was about the year of Christ one hundred ninety eight but Christmas is not so ancient Pezelius refers the first establishment of it to the Council of Constantinople in the year of Christ five hundred fifty three Celebrata est saith he Constantinopoli Synodus Oecumenica quinta circa annum Christi 553. In eadem Synodo dies natalis Christi dies Purificationis Mariae primum sunt instituti ut solenniter quotannis celebrarentur Pezel Mellific Hist par 2. Justinian 1. pag. 326. But be their antiquity more or less they have been abundantly testified against by the faithful Servants of Christ both in former and later times Socrates who wrote the History of the Church above twelve hundred years ago hath a whole Chapter concerning Easter wherein he hath many notable arguments against those that contend so much for it He saith that as many other things crept in of custom in sundry places so the Feast of Easter prevailed amongst all people of a certain private custom and observation seeing not one of the Apostles hath any where prescribed any thing about it He sheweth also that the Apostles have set the Churches free from the yoke of bondage by their Letters to them Acts 15. But some neglecting these things account of Fornication as a thing indifferent yet they contend about Holy days as it were for life and death they despise the Commandments of God and establish them Canons of their own they set at nought they make no account of the Law published by the Apostles but raise a foul stir about Days and Months c. Thus Socrates Hist lib. 5. cap. 22. Which Testimony of his is so plain and punctual that Bellarmine knew not how to rid his hands of it but by flying out upon Socrates and calling him a Novatian Heretick Bell. de Cultu Sanct. l. 3. c. 10. which is but a poor shift instead of answering his Arguments to reproach his Person But the Book he hath written I mean his Ecclesiastical History is evidence enough for him that he was a man of an excellent spirit It was one of the Articles held and owned by the Waldenses as Mr. Fox sheweth five hundred years ago Constrained and prefixed Fasts bound to days and times difference of Meats superfluous Holy days and all the rabblement of Rites and Ceremonies brought in by Man to be abolished Fox Acts and Mon. vol. 1. p. 300. art 6. It was Luthers desire no less then seven score years ago in his Book de Bonis Operibus set forth anno 1520. that there were no other Festival days amongst Christians but only the Lords day Beza saith Superstitiosum esse docemus arbitrari unum aliquem diem altero sanctiorem Bez. Confes c. 5. art 41. And Reverend Mr. Dod condemns it as Idolatry against the second Commandment either to pray unto the Saints or to swear by them or to dedicate set days and times to the honour of them either by Fasting or Feasting Dod on the second Commandm p. 67 68. In Scotland they were laid aside in the first Reformation and have been witnessed against by the Godly there ever since They were revived indeed by those backsliders in the Assembly of Perth in the year 1618. For one of the five Articles of that Assembly was concerning Festival days but they found little acceptance with such as adhered to the Reformation of Religion as appears by the Books and Writings of many godly learned men against the Acts of that Assembly Yea King James himself before his Apostasie bore witness against them Right excellent was that Speech of his to a National Assembly in Scotland anno 1590. He praised God that he was King in the sincerest Church in the world sincerer then the Church of England for their Service was an ill said Mass in English sincerer then Geneva it self for they observed Pasche and Yoo le that is Easter and Christmas and what warrant said he have they for that I find this Speech of his recorded in Didoclavius his Altare Damascenum pag. 666. and in the Book intituled Perth Assembly the Proceedings the Nullity thereof c. printed 1619. pag. 64. and in the Re-examination of the five Articles of Perth printed 1636. pag. 340. How far he did sin against these enlightenings and convictions and how the Bishops did poyson him and pervert his Spirit in his declining times it is needless here to discourse But these were his Principles in his first which were his best times
Scripture recommendeth and Nature teacheth and directeth to his Distinction is lame and defective and his Rule false For it is not natural Reason but Divine Institution that is the foundation of religious Ceremonies as is most apparent in the two Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper Doth natural Reason teach these neither will his Rule stand that nothing is proper to the Jews but only such Ceremonies as signifie some future thing For a plenteous Induction of instances might be given in sundry legal Burthens and Ordinances of those times which we all account our selves delivered from though we do not well know what typical signification to assign unto them It will be hard to demonstrate what typical signification there was in that restraint of the initiating Seal precisely to the eighth day or in that Law that a man shall marry his deceased Brothers Wise to raise up seed unto his Brother with many other things of the like nature which yet are not now in force And upon this account also this instrumental Musick is rejected by many judicious Writers as being a burthen laid upon the Jews or an Indulgence allowed unto them in that estate of infancy but now the time of Gospel Freedom is come Galat. 4.4 5. Judaeis fuerat permissum propter infirmitatem cordis sui saith Chrysostom in Psal 150. Quia populus erat magis durus carnalis Aquin secund secundae qu 91. art 2. ad 4. Veteri durae cervicis stupidae mentis populo Deus olim indulsit Pareus in 1 Cor. 14.7 Suppose saith Mr. Cotton singing with Instruments were not typical but only an external solemnity of Worship fitted to the solace of the outward Senses of Children under age such as the Israelites were in the Old Testament Galat. 4.1 2 3. yet now in the grown age of the Heirs of the New Testament such external pompous solemnities are ceased and no external Worship reserved but such as holdeth forth simplicity and graty nor is any Voice now to be heard in the Church of Christ but such as is significant and edifying by signification 1 Cor. 14.10 11 26. which the Voice of Instruments is not Mr. Cotton of singing of Psalms cap. 1. p. 6. 5. If that Institution under the Law be binding to us in Gospel-times I do not see how it will be avoided but it will bring in the whole Jewish Musick as well as some part of it And then why should we not have Trumpets in the Worship of God as well as Organs for the Jews had Trumpets also And why must we have them only in Cathedral Churches and in the Kings Chappel seeing there is no preeminence or difference of places under the New Testament If Organs be too dear for every poor Parish yet as Mr. Calderwood observes they might get Citherns or Bagpipes Haec instrumentalis Musica saith he si apta cultui divino in Ecclesiâ Christianâ cur denegatur singulis paraeciis conceditur tantum Cathedralibus Ecclesiis Sacellis Regis si sumptuosum sit Organon sufficiet Tibia utricularis aut Cythara Didoclav Altar Damasc c. 8. p. 494. Or they might follow the example of some superstitious Christians at Jerusalem mentioned by Sir George Sandys who instead of Musical instruments have Sawcers of Brass which they strike one against another set about with Jingles Sir G. S. Relation of a Journey in 1610. lib. 3. pag. 173. And would not this be very grave and solemn Worship And why should there not be Dancing in the Worship of God as well as Piping for those old Idolaters in Exod. 32.6.19 of whom these in our times are the genuine offspring and posterity did not only shout but also danced and plaid before their Idol or if they like not that example which nevertheless they imitate and follow they may read of Davids leaping and dancing before the Ark and that with divine acceptance and approbation 2 Sam. 6. as also Miriam the Prophetess Exod. 15.20 which if they think it was not a precedent for Gospel-times let them give any reason for it which may not be applied as well against the Jewish Musick 6. I need not say what a troop of Church Officers this kind of Worship introduceth of whom the Scripture is wholly silent and hath left no Direction to us how they should be qualified how called how maintained nor what the work and duty of their Office is Those Musitians of old among the Jews as Mr. Hildersham observes were all Levites and had a special Function and Calling in that Church by Gods appointment whereupon they were wholly to attend and whereunto they were enabled by special Gifts received from God Hild. on Psal 51. lect 1. p. 3. Of their diligent attendance upon the work see 1 Chron. 9.33 And these are the Singers chief of the Fathers of the Levites who remaining in the Chambers were free for they were imployed in that work day and night And 2. for their gifts and abilities see 1 Chron. 15.22 Chenaniah he instructed about the Song for he was skilul And 1 Chron. 25.7 the number of them that instructed in the Songs of the Lord even all that were cunning were 288. Yea 3. they had also special Maintenance appointed and provided for them hence we read of a certain portion for the Singers due every day Nehem. 11.23 and all Israel in the days of Zerubbabel and of Nehemiah gave the portions of the Singers and the Porters every day his portion Nehem. 12.47 But Christ hath left no direction to us about any such Officers in the Churches of the New Testament we read of Pastors Teachers Elders and Deacons but of Choristers and Singingmen nothing And if we say the Church may appoint them this will open a gap for all humane Inventions Prelates Popes and Cardinals came in at this door And being not appointed by Christ they must needs be a great burthen to the Church Hence Erasmus justly complains Operosam quandam theatricam Musicam in sacras aedes induximus tumultuosum diversarum vocum garritum qualem non opinor in Graecorum aut Romanorum Theatris unquam auditum fuisse In hunc usum magnis salariis aluntur puerorum greges quorum omnis aetas in perdiscendis kujusmodi gannitibus consumitur Tantis sumptibus oneratur Ecclesia ob rem pestiferam c. We have brought saith he a tedious and theatrical Musick into the Church a tumultuous noise of many voices such as I think was never heard in the Greek or Roman Theaters For which purpose whole flocks of Boys are maintained at a great charge whose age is wasted in learning this gibble gabble as Dr. Ames renders it such Charges is the Church loaden with for such a pestiferous thing Erasm in 1 Cor. 14. apud Ames Fresh Suit part 2. cap. 4. p. 405. But this may suffice to that first Objection from the use of them under the Law These six Considerations may suffice to shew that nevertheless they are no part
which is sinful are not unlike the Laws made by King Henry the Second in the times of Popish Profaneness and Darkness for the Regulation of Stews and Whorehouses as that no Stewholder should receive any mans Wife nor keep any Woman against her Will if out of remorse of Conscience she would leave that leud life c. upon which a late Historian well observes that such Canons and Constitutions could not make them who were bad in themselves to be good though they might happily keep some who were bad Dr. Fullers History of the Church book 5. pag. 240. from being worse For though natural Poysons may by art be so qualified and corrected to make them cordial yet moral Poysons viz. things sinful of themselves can never be so ordered and regulated but that still they will remain sinful and unlawful the only way to order and amend being to remove and extirpate them And therefore King Henry the Eighth did utterly suppress those Brothel-houses And the like course those two and thirty grave learned men who were chosen in King Edwards days to reform Ecclesiastical Laws and Observances thought fit to take with this superstitious Musick which the Church of Rome hath gone a whoring after Vibratam illam operosam Musicam quae figurata dicitur auferri placet It likes us well say they to have this quavering and curious kind of Musick quite taken away De Divino Officiis ca. 5. apud Amesium ubi supra And the reformed Churches abroad have laid it aside with one consent as hath been shewed whereby it is evident that they did not account it a good thing abused but a thing sinful and evil in it self So likewise the great Parliament in their Ordinance of May 9. 1644. in Mr. Scobells Collection Anno 1644. Ch. 38. thus reject them The Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament the better to accomplish the blessed Reformation so happily begun and to remove all Offences and things illegal in the Worship of God do ordain that all Organs and Frames or Cases wherein they stand in all Churches and Chappels shall be taken away and utterly defaced and none others hereafter set up in their places whereunto all persons within this Kingdom whom it may concern are hereby required at their peril to yield due obience I have now examined all that I can meet with that hath been objected in this Cause and I know not what can be objected further unless being driven from all their other holds they will fly for refuge to the Authority of the Church as their manner is which if they do we may easily retort the Argument upon themselves and beat them with their own weapons If I held any Opinion according with the Church of Rome but contrary to the concurrent Judgment and Practice of all the choisest Saints and purest Churches I would even desire the Lord to write it in Stars and Sun-beams But such is the Musick now in question It is borrowed from the Church of Rome and they who write for it borrow their Arguments from Bellarmine who disputes for it against Peter Martyr as hath been shewed so that Papists and Semi-Protestants are almost the only Sticklers for it but the reformed Churches have cast it off which though it is not in it self a demonstrative or cogent Argument neither do I so intend it fot the Scripture is the only infallible Judge yet it is enough to confound and stop the mouths of such Objectors as pretend the Authority of the Church for this Chaunting Idol-Service For they take part with the Church of Rome in this particular against all the Reformed Churches To the Reader WHereas the Author in the foregoing Discourse asserts that the Reformed Churches have with one consent laid aside Instrumental Musick in the Worship of God that word Reformed Churches is not to be understood as including either the Lutheran Churches abroad or our Prelatick ones at home And moreover the Reader must consider that he therein speaks according to the declared Judgment of the chief and generality of their Writers For though it appears by learned Voetius Pol. Eccles part 1. l. 2 tr 2 sect 1. c. 3. that some Churches in Holland have Organs yet the Reader may there find the Judgment of the Netherland Synods to have been against them and that they were brought in among them but of late and that too not by any publick Authority but only on the private affection of some particular persons here and there besides a great cloud of witnesses against them not only from amongst Protestant Writers but many of the very Papists themselves and some in the elder ages of Christianity Moreover this Discourse of our Author was written in or neer the time of his unhappy leisure after the memorable Bartholomew 1662. and therefore before that Book of learned Voetius came forth Moreover it is certain that this Musick in the Worship of God is a much later Invention then many other Popish Corruptions are An Organ was long unknown in France or Germany the first of them being brought to King Pipin by Stephen Bishop of Rome and other Embassadors from Constantinus Copronymus as that excellent Historian and Antiquary Aventinus hath it Res adhuc Gallis Germanis incognita Organon appellant Annal. Boior lib. 3. pag. 300 Edit Ingolst 1554. which is seconded by Amoinus who adds that afterwards one George a Grecian Presbyter undertook to make one for Lewis the Emperor His words are these Adduxit vero Baldricus Domino Imperatori Presbyterum quendam Georgium nomine bonae vitae hominem qui se promitteret Organum more posse Graecorum componere Quem Imperator gratanter suscepit quia Deus illi quae ante se inusitata erant Regno Francorum attribuebat gratiarum actiones reddidit ac Tanculfo sacrorum scriniorum Praelato commendavit publicisque stipendiis curare jussit ea quae huic operi necessaria forent praeparare mandavit de Gest Franc. lib. 4. cap. 64 cap. 114. This is placed by Calvisius in the year 826. and that sent to Pipin was about threescore and ten years before Though withall I know some Writers give them somewhat an older standing The Centurists of Magdeburg have these words Cent. 7. cap. 6. Tandem anno 666. in pleno numero Bestiae Apocalypsis 13. cantum latinum cum Organis Ecclesiae â Vitaliano Pontifici susceperunt missamque deinde c. At last in the year 666. in the full number of the Beast in the 13th of the Revelations the Churches they speak of the Churches in England received Latine Singing with Organs from Pope Vitalian and thereafter began to say Latine Mass and set up Altars with idolatrous Images from whence followed both Prayers to the Dead and Exorcisms and other prodigious practices of the Papists For which they there cite Bale For my part I suspect they and he were therein deceived both because of what is before mentioned from Aventinus