Discipline and that of the severest kind for a King to be depos'd and sent to a Monastery as Childerick was And the power by which this was done is said by Bellarmine to be acknowledg'd communi catholicorum sententiâ and I think that he understood their Doctrine as well as any other BUT the Genius of this Sect among the Jews will appear 2. IF we consider the Prejudices wherewith they were blinded and which kept them from believing our Saviour to be the Messias Now lest I should seem to make up an account of their prejudices against our Saviour that is purely imaginary I shall confine my Narration only to the New Testament And 1. THE Pharisees valued themselves on the Authority of Moses Chair And this they magnify'd to that height that they impos'd their dictates on all men for infallible Oracles The People they thought should receive their Opinions without scruple or hesitation They only understood the Law and the true meaning of it and if any had been at any time so daring and presumptuous as to question their Skill and Integrity he was presently Excommunicated This was the severest Tyranny over Mens Consciences not to see with those Eyes that God gave them was very hard And yet those very Men that valued themselves on the Authority of Moses Chair declar'd sitting in Council from that very Chair that our Saviour was an Impostor So we have the Church in her Soveraign representatives erring with a witness BUT our blessed Redeemer reasoned men into the belief of his Doctrine It was with an eye to this pretended Infallibility that our Saviour sorbad his Disciples to be called Rabbi Father or Master upon the Earth We cannot think that ever he design'd to take away the distinctions of Order and civil Dependance for there is no institution that establishes the subordination of inferiour degrees upon such sure and lasting Foundations as Ours doth Yet in the place lately cited he reproves the imperious Vanity of them that requir'd a blind and implicite Obedience to their Command that would oblige the People to receive all that they say without Examination or Tryal and if any of his Disciples would set up for a Rabbi or Master in that sense he tells them plainly that it was inconsistent with the weakness and dependance of humane Nature for one was their Master even Christ A SECOND Prejudice against our Saviour and his Doctrine was the Opinion of their own Tradition which they affirmed to have been deriv'd from Moses together with the written Law and these Traditions they multiply'd unto infinite fancies and scrupulosities So that their Religion now became an intolerable burthen to their memories When any ventur'd to transgress their Traditions they persecuted him with spite and indignation S. Paul tells us of himself that when he was a Pharisee he was zealous of the Traditions of the Fathers and that he thought himself obliged to do many things against the name of Jesus WHEN they saw the Disciples of our Saviour transgressing their little rules and observances they rudely quarrel with him and asked Why do thy Disciples transgress the Tradition of the Elders And our Saviour answered why do you also transgress the Commandment of God by your Tradition And with the same severity he again reproves their Superstition For laying aside the Commandment of God ye hold the Tradition of men As if he had said you pretend by your Traditions to explain the Law but your Commentaries make it not only more dark and intricate but entirely overthrow it and instead of solving one difficulty you create a thousand And such Reproofs as these are frequently mixt with our Saviour's Sermons We are not to understand the universal Traditions of the Jewish Church than which there cannot be a better evidence of a matter of Fact but we are here to understand the particular Doctrines that creep'd into the Church in its last and more degenerate periods by which men promoted their private Ambition and impos'd their peculiar Tenents with no other design than to raise their own Reputation upon the ruins of Gods Law and Authority A THIRD Prejudice was their Doctrine of Dispensations And this was indeed one of their most pernicious maxims by which they weakened the strength of the Law upon Mens Consciences Our Saviour took notice of this gross abuse obliquely in the verse before my Text And more directly reproves it in the Gospel of S. Mark Their Doctrine of the Corban was the most unnatural and hellish contrivance that ever was hatched under the pretence of their Vow and Religion to desert their Parents as if the obligations of Nature were to be shaken off and evacuated by the ties and engagements of Religion as if we could not be Religious in an eminent degree unless first we renounc'd humanity and tenderness When Religion undermines its own foundation then it becomes the saddest and most incurable Disease Christianity rectifies the disorders of our Nature and yet some Christians pretend Religion to authorize the most barbarous villanies and have invented little arts and knavish subterfuges to hide their hypocrisie and design under the vizor of Religion 4. A FOURTH Prejudice against the Simplicity of our Saviour's Doctrine and Appearance was the splendor of their outward Worship and Ceremonies They doated on the Temple of Jerusalem and thought that God had confin'd his favour peculiarly to that place So they look upon the Fabrick of it with Transport and Admiration The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord are these And it seems that our Saviour's Disciples looked on the the Temple with more than ordinary fondness when he told them that there should not a stone of it be lest upon another There were three things in this Religion that dazl'd mens eyes and inchanted their affections 1. The outward Pomp and Splendor of it 2. The Severities of some outward observances And 3. Their corrupt Maxims by which they forc'd their Religion contrary to its original purity to comply with their Lusts and all these things made it a Religion wholly opposite to the Christian I MIGHT name their pride and uncharitableness towards all that differ'd from them their superstitious niceness in little things in tithing Mint Annise and Cummin and their mighty Zeal to make Proselytes All which are over and over again reprov'd in the New Testament NOW when they stood upon such unreasonable prejudices and defended their Doctrines by little distinctions and maxims of their own invention They could not but be proof against the Doctrine and Miracles of our blessed Saviour 1. They taught that if men obeyed the Law externally they needed not trouble themselves with the reformation of the heart And with regard to this pernicious Maxim our Saviour tells us in the Text that except our righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees we shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven We could not exceed the Pharisees in
learn That there is nothing so amiable as true Religion Nothing else resembles the Divine Nature He that is born of God committeth no sin he that committeth sin is of the Devil and the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil The Text that I have hitherto discours'd of is the abridgement of the Gospel Let us remember our miserable condition by Nature and enquire what effectual remedies there may be to knock off our fetters to procure unto us the Liberty of the Sons of God to restore us to his Image and how glorious our Victory must make us when we are made partakers of the Divine Nature when we live in a purer Air and feed our Souls with the prospect of Immortality when we are got above the Enchantments of Sense when by our comfortable experience we taste and see that God is good and in the meditation of such things let us commit our souls unto him as into the hands of a faithful Creator To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Glory Power and Dominion for ever Amen A SERMON Preach'd before the Bishop and Synod April 1687. in S. Giles's Church Edinburgh ON CANTICLES iv V. 15. A Fountain of Gardens a Well of Living Waters and Streams from Lebanon THE Song of Solomon that is the most Elegant and Divine Composure of all his Poems the Song of Songs by an usual Hebraism the most Excellent and Seraphick Poem of all that Solomon ever wrote and deserves to be so called as Grotius hath it ob multas elegantias quae in alium sermonem translatae non idem sapiunt they are like Aromatick Spirits that cannot so easily be conveyed from one vessel to another 'T IS in its kind a Dramatic Poem full of art and delicious harmony that under the Chast and Sacred Metaphor of Marriage sets off the Love of Christ to his Church in the most ravishing strains and flourishes And this is laid down as the first foundation of expounding this Book by the best Interpreters both Antient and Modern and the Jews themselves most unanimously conclude that it hath an immediate reference to the glories and felicities of the Messias and this Metaphor of Marriage to express the Mystical Vnion of Christ to his Church is frequent in the Writings of the Prophets Hosea 2.19 I will betroth thee unto me for ever yea I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness and in judgment And it is no less usual to the Apostles when we look into the New Testament Ephes 5. and 32. This is a great Mysterie but I speak concerning Christ and his Church 2 Cor. 11 and 2. I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chast Virgin to Christ Revel 19.7 and 9. For the marriage of the Lamb is come and his Wife hath made her self ready and to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linnen clean and white for the fine linnen is the righteousness of the Saints NOW when we apply to the Church the Characters of Beauty and the Passions of Sacred Love that are scattered up and down through this Book we but follow and trace the footsteps of the Prophets and the Apostles S. Bernard in his first Sermon on the Canticles gives this Epitome of the Works of Solomon that are extant In the Book of the Proverbs superfluous self love is banished in the Book of Ecclesiastes the vain love of the World is rejected but in Cantico Canticorum praescribitur castus Amor Dei the whole Book being nothing else but the strongest efforts of the Divine Love to be united in the closest Bonds to Christ our Head AND this Chapter out of which I have read this Verse breaths the same air and is wholly taken up in commending the incomparable Beauty of the Spouse Behold thou art fair my Love behold thou art fair i. e. thou art fair beyond thought or expression And again thou art all fair my Love there is no spot in thee The fifteenth Verse is but the repetition of or a further Paraphrase upon the twelfth A Garden inclosed is my Sister a Spring shut up a Fountain sealed and here a Fountain of Gardens a Well of Living Waters and Streams from Lebanon How fitly this gradation of Epithets becomes the Church I shall endeavour to explain as I go forward Fons Hortorum qui multis hortis rigandis sufficiat And by those Waters we are to understand the pure and heavenly Doctrine of the Church that waters the withered and parch'd Inhabitants of the Earth with its streams without which they had been long e're now burnt up with the fire of Gods wrath and indignation 'T is usual with the Prophets to express the heavenly Oracles under the Notion of Dew and Rain and Living Waters Deut. 32. 2. My Doctrine shall drop as the Rain my speech shall distil as the Dew as the small Rain upon the tender Herb and as the Showers upon the Grass and our Saviour himself in his Conference with the Woman of Samaria tells that the Waters that he shall give shall be in him to whom they are given a Well of Waters springing up unto eternal life The highest pitch of temporal prosperity is expressed in Holy Scriptures by Dew God give thee of the Dew of Heaven and Fatness of the Earth And Psal 133. and 3. David compareth the Unity of Brethren dwelling together in love to the Dew of Hermon and that which descended on the Mountains of Sion as a token that there the Lord commanded his blessing and Prov. 10. 12. the Kings favour is likened to Dew on the Grass SINCE then what is most excellent and desireable is expressed by it and that in the Old and New Testament the Sacred Oracles are particularly signified by Streams and Living Waters we offer no violence to the Jewish Idiom and Prophetical Phrase when we expound this Verse and its parallel places of the Church under the Messias especially diffusing the streams of their heavenly Oracles over the habitable World and converting men from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to the living God In speaking to these words I shall confine my self to three particulars following the natural order and position of the Words and Metaphors as they lye before us First WE have the use of those Waters a Fountain of Gardens Secondly THE Purity of them a Well of Living Waters Thirdly THE first Rise and Origine of these Waters they are Streams from Lebanon First I SAY We have the use of those Waters Fons hortorum a Fountain of Gardens so conveniently situated in the middle that by its Conduits and Canals it may water and refresh the neighbouring Gardens The Church looks with tenderness and compassion on the right and on the left hand as our Saviour looked upon Jerusalem before her approaching ruine and says in his very words How often would I have gathered you She wisely and
Well of Living Waters Dilherus renders it Puteus aquae viventis a deep Well non collectitiae clausae atque stagnantis sed ultrò scaturientis that by its copious frequent and uninterrupted ebullitions waters all the neighbouring Regions they are the only Waters can quench the Thirst of reasonable Souls this is the Well after which they pant and breath As the Hart panteth after the Water-brooks Psal 42. HERE Interpreters take care to distinguish betwixt a Fountain and a Well Every Well is a Fountain but every Fountain is not a Well So the Well implies great depth and profundity and this Phrase added to the former does insinuate that the Waters of the Sanctuary are not only pure clear and serene but very deep they are not a puddle nor a standing Lake not like the Waters of Gomorrha where Fishes cannot live but the smooth and deep Rivers of Paradise THIS Metaphor then duly considered does imply the Purity Profundity and free Communication of these Oracles First I SAY the Purity of these Waters The Church of Christ is not to be fed with Dreams and Fancies and corrupt Doctrines not with noise ostentation and popular tricks but with Words of Eternal Life 2 Tim. 1.13 Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in Faith and Love which is in Christ Jesus We are to take heed 1 Tim. 4.16 to our selves and to our doctrine for this is the way to save our selves and them which hear us THE Hereticks of all Ages have been proud and subtile and indefatigable and there is no Antidote against their Poyson but to adhere to the Simplicity of the Gospel the pure Canon of the Scriptures the antient Creeds and Liturgies of the Church the faith which was delivered to the Saints the Doctrines that have been received uno ore apud omnes Christianos the Golden Rule of Vincentius Lirenensis quod apud omnes quod ubique quod semper This is certainly the Rule of Faith and by this Standard were the antient Heresies examined baffled and confounded Reason Scripture and Universal Tradition were the Weapons by which they defended the Truth For the Apostle foretells 2 Cor. 4.2 3. That the time would quickly come when men could not endure sound doctrine but after their own lusts they should heap teachers to themselves and turn their ears from the truth and follow after fables They did so in a little time and the offspring of Simon Magus covered the Church as the Frogs did Egypt This occasioned the Heresiologies of Irenaeus Epiphanius S. Augustine Many forsook the Simplicity of Faith and mixt the Waters of Life with the putrid Streams that they drew from their own Cisterns THE Credenda of our Religion are but very few and the Constitution of Human Nature did require that they should be few For since our Saviour did calculate his Religion not for any particular Sect or Party but for the whole Body of Mankind it cannot be thought that he design'd that it should be spun out into Nice Decisions Metaphysical Distinctions odd and Barbarous Words When the School Divinity began to be the Learning of the Western Church and Aristotle's Philosophy gave Laws to their Theology how miserably was the Christian Religion mangled and broken into airy Questions uncertain Conclusions and idle Problems that eat out the Life of true Learning and Devotion And Articles imposed on the Belief of the Church neither necessary in their Nature nor revealed by Christ nor taught by the Apostles nor founded in Reason nor consisting with the Analogy of Faith The Christian Religion thus ratified unto nothing became feeble and dry lost its force and primitive vigour And the truth is since the Thirteenth Century in which that kind of Learning domineered in all Schools Colleges and Monasteries all Discourses even the Homilies that exhort the People to Repentance and a Holy Life were all blended with that bombast Jargon But our Religion was first plainly delivered and loves perspicuity and fixes its residence in the most ingenuous Souls and if it be covered and mantled in darkness who can distinguish it from Nonsense and Vanity AND therefore since Christ by us conveys these Waters to his Church let us not sully them with Chimerical Guesses and Uncertainties but let us pour them out in their original Purity and Simplicity without alteration corruption or addition How often doth the Apostle exhort to this 2 Tim. 7.8 In doctrine shewing uncorruptedness gravity sincerity sound speech that cannot be condemned And Titus 1.9 holding fast the faithful word as thou hast been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convince gainsavers AND this is not done by Passion or reviling Language for where did you ever hear that a man was recovered from Heresie or Schism by heaping reproaches upon him Our Arguments may be intrinsecally strong but if they are set off with venom rancour and personal aspersions they may well irritate the Disease but they shall never reclaim the Erroneous and therefore when we deal with any such either on the right or left hand let us state the Controversies fairly else we but beat the Air neither must we multiply them needlesly nor are we to toss and bandy those Questions to serve the designs of Fame Ostentation of Learning or Popularity but with a sincere resolution to edifie the Church to fight under the Royal Standard of Christ to preserve his Church his chast and dearly beloved Spouse Secondly THIS Metaphor implies the profound Nature of Gospel Mysteries 't is puteus profundus aquae viventis The Woman of Samaria said to our Saviour of Jacobs Well that it was very deep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how much more profound are the Wells of Salvation The Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven the deep things of God the Mysteries kept hid from Ages and Generations Great is the Mysterie of Godliness God manifested in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels believed on in the the World received up into Glory We are taught by the Gospel to speak the Wisdom of God in a Mysterie The illuminated Apostle of the Gentiles in contemplation of these Mysteries fell in a transport of admiration O the depth of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God how unsearchable are his Judgments and his Ways past finding out THOUGH there be nothing in the Gospel that overthrows Reason or subverts its Principles yet its Mysteries and Revelations are beyond it The whole Contrivance of our Redemption is a Mysterie and then certainly we ought to approach the administrations of his House with pure hearts and clean hands Let us wash our hands in innocence when we compass his Altar They were to look to their feet that came to the Temple of Jerusalem much more should the Sons of Aaron the immedidiate Servants of the Sanctuary prove the keenest enemies to all prophanation of holy things I am no friend to Superstition and as little to Giddiness and
Therefore they must needs invent a Religion that is calculated to serve their designs and to silence the troublesome alarms of their mind But be not you deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap Our Saviour set himself to undeceive the World in this great affair and to remove the Pharisaical paint and varnish from the Law and to let us understand that our God is not an Idol that he values no Sacrifices but such as resemble his Nature For he is a Spirit and must be worshiped in Spirit and in Truth 2. A SECOND part of our Saviour's design was to give true repose and tranquillity to the Spirits of Men. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest The inward disorder of our Spirits is the cause of all our trouble when the Light of the Gospel removes our Errors and by its beams warms our affections the day-star from on high ariseth in our breasts our fears and dreadful apprehensions are over and there is a perfect calm and tranquillity One great instruction in our Saviour's Commission was to bind up the broken hearted The Souls of Men are at variance with themselves until they are united unto God He fixes their Spirits in their operations and choice and creates within them that harmony and peace which the World cannot give them Then they are arm'd against all events and disasters they are like a Rock of Adamant immoveable against the most tempestuous waves and storms the winds may blow and the storms may threaten and beat upon the Rock with the loudest roarings but they are quickly beat back into froth and disappointment The righteous are like mount Zion which cannot be mov'd THAT it was a part of our Saviour's design to establish this tranquillity of Spirit appears from this very Sermon on the Mount where he endeavours by so many arguments to fortifie us against all fears discouragments and solicitude The Wisdom of God levell'd the strongest arguments against the most desperate diseases and therefore the Doctrine of the Gospel in all its branches hath an admirable tendency to create this peace When we believe that all things are ordered and dispos'd by an universal infinitely wise unlimited and active Providence With what acquiescence and serenity of Spirit may we give up all things to his conduct and government Not a hair of your head falleth to the ground without his pleasure The nature and frame of all the Graces of the Spirit the whole spiritual furniture of the Gospel naturally lead to peace love joy and meekness We are assured that all things work together for good to them that love God Even our light afflictions that endure but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory And the belief of this establishes the mind against all the shakings of adversity And we may add to all the former considerations that we are frequently exhorted to place our affections on the things that are above to leave this World ' its hurry and noise and to get above it in our affections and to view with satisfaction and ease amidst our lowest depressions that Country that is above 3. ANOTHER part of our Saviour's design was to unite us together in the straitest bonds of humane society In order to which he hath made Love the badge and character of his profession So exactly fulfilling the Prophecies concerning the Messias that in his days the Wolf should dwell with the Lamb the Leopard and the Kid should ly down together i. e. that the fierceness of human Nature should be banish'd and all the rugged and uneven excrescencies of passion the boisterous swellings of humour should be filed off John the Baptist told that every valley should be fill'd and every mountain brought low the crooked should be made straight and the rough ways should be made smooth i. e. All injustice fraud and oppression all pride hypocrisie and violence should give place unto everlasting righteousness every one should keep his own post and move in his own Orb with contentment and sobriety Hence Servants are exhorted not to repine at their condition for as the members of the body natural must hold their distance and situation so must the members of the body political 4. ANOTHER part of his design was to liberate us from the Yoke of Moses Law I only name this particular I will not insist on it at present Now if the design of Christian Religion was to restore true morality the image of God humility patience the love of God and contempt of the World and to discover the hypocrisie and wickedness of the Pharisees Let us then enquire In the Second place IN what instances the Pharisaical Religion did cross the Christian and we shall discover the manifest opposition of the one to the other When we consider 1 THE Vices that they were most addicted to 2. THE Prejudices that they were blinded with 3. THE Maxims and shifts that they espous'd into their Doctrine to defend their wickedness and immoralities 1. Do but consider the Vices that they were most addicted to Pride contrary to the humility of the Gospel Avarice in opposition to that contempt of the World that our Saviour taught Hypocrisie that overthrows the ingenuity recommended and enjoyn'd by our Religion Revenge Cruelty and Rebellion contrary to the Loyalty Meekness and Obedience of our most holy Faith We are inform'd by Josephus though he was himself much addicted to the Sect of the Pharisees that they were a crafty and subtile generation of men and so perverse even to Princes themselves that they would not fear many times openly to affront them They had a mighty ascendent over the People and by their long prayers superstitious tricks and disfigur'd faces they got the Rable once of their side and by their interest in the multitude they became terrible to the Governours Alexander Jannaeus when he lay a dying advis'd his Queen not to irritate and displease the Pharisees and told her plainly that this was the very thing that deriv'd the Odium of the Nation upon him that he had comply'd so little with that restless and pragmatick Generation IF the Vices of the Pharisees prevail amongst the Christians what a reproach is it unto us and to our Religion When we remember that we are to obey for Conscience sake We may easily see that there is nothing more opposite to Christianity than Rebellion And this very Sect amongst the Jews strove to advance their Religious Tyranny above the Highest Powers as if they had been bred near the Infallible Chair or a General Assembly Many Popes declar'd it to be of necessity to Salvation to every humane Creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff and the instances are many as they are undeniable Therefore we are smoothly told by some of them that this is not matter of Faith but Discipline I confess it is