sacrifices for expiation and cleansing of sin whereas in the New he writes his Law only upon the Soul and Spirit in that he now stipulates only the service of Faith which is an action of the inward man and not of the outward not of the hand or bodily members but of the Soul within For by Law here I suppose is meant the condition which God stipulates in the Covenant and through which he makes good his promise unto us Not as though this spiritual condition was not also required under the Law in the Covenant of Grace then but because it was not only nor so openly therefore is it made as a formal difference of the New Covenant and the Old Secondly On God's part the Scripture shews the difference of the Covenants thus The Old Covenant was a Covenant of worser promises the New a Covenant of better Promises and so a better Covenant Heb. 8. 6. Indeed they in the Old Covenant had the same Spiritual Promises we have and so it was one and the same Covenant but they had them not open and uncovered as we have and so our Covenant is not the same but a better Covenant So S. Paul makes his comparison in the same argument 2 Cor. 3. 11. If that saith he which is done away was so glorious much more that which remaineth As if he had said If the Cover seemed so glorious much more shall the Iewel within so seem when the cover is taken from it as now it is For all the open Promises in the Old Covenant seem to be no other than Temporal blessings as for Spiritual they had them only as enwrapped in them so that they could look for them no otherwise but in and through the Temporal which they had as Pledges of the Spiritual veiled under them But in the New these are all revealed and no longer hid from us by such curtains the veil is taken from the face of Moses and we behold with open face the glory of the Lord as the Apostle speaketh 2 Cor. 3. 14 18. Remission of sins Reconciliation with God Everlasting life these are our Promises not deliverance from Temporal enemies worldly prosperity nor the land of Canaan or long life in the land the Lord hath given us So the case here is quite altered For then Earthly blessings were as Pledges of Spiritual but now unto us Spiritual are Pledges of Temporal so far as God sees good for us For the tenour of the Gospel now is Seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you And it is now time we should say with S. Paul Rom. 11. 33. O the depth of the riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! and with David Psal. 40. 5. Many O Lord my God are thy wonderful works which thou hast done and thy thoughts which are to us-ward and Psal. 92. 5. O Lord how great are thy works and thy thoughts are very deep THUS I come to a second Observation which these words afford us namely If the Fathers ate the same Spiritual Meat and drank the same Spiritual Drink which we do then eat we not the real Body nor drink the real Bloud of Christ For the Manna they ate was the same Manna still though a Sacrament of Christ the Water of the Rock was verily Water still though a Sacrament of his Bloud If then we eat the same Spiritual Bread we eat Bread still though Spiritual Bread If we drink the same Spiritual Drink our Drink is Wine still though Spiritual Wine Yea S. Paul himself calls them as they are 1 Cor. 10. 16. The Bread we break is the communion of the Body of Christ Ergo That which is the communion of the Body of Christ is Bread still And unless it should be so how could there be a Sacrament which must consist of a Sign and a thing signified of an Earthly thing and a Heavenly thing For if the Sign once becomes the thing signified it is no more a Sign and so then is no more a Sacrament If it be urged That Christ himself saies plainly of the Bread Hoc est corpus meum This is my Body of the Wine Hic est sanguis meus This is my Bloud I answer He saies also I am the Door and in my Text is as expresly said The Rock was Christ. If therefore it be absurd from hence to infer the Rock left being a Rock and was made the real Person of Christ so will it be of our Spiritual Bread and Wine For the manner of these speeches is nothing but a Figure of certainty or assurance He that receiveth the Bread as assuredly receiveth Christ Body as if the Bread were his Body He that receiveth the Wine as assuredly enjoyeth the Bloud of Christ as if this Wine were his very Bloud indeed A predication in casu recto is a predication of sameness and therefore is used properly in things which are in a manner the same as Genus and Species Homo est animal but in things which are disparate and of several natures we speak usually in concreto or obliquo and from hâ—â—ce arises a Scheme or Figure of speech when we would express a most near union of things even different yet to speak them in casu recto which is the predication of sameness as it were to express they were as nearly link'd together as if they were the very same So we are wont to say a man is Virtue or Piety it self meaning they are throughly link'd unto him And because of all other things the things in the Sacraments are so assuredly and throughly link'd together the Holy Ghost used this Scheme for a Sacramental speech Hoc est corpus meum and Hic est sanguis meus that is a Sign so sure as if it were the very same AND so I will come to a third Observation The Fathers saith my Text ate the same Spiritual Meat and drank the same Spiritual Drink therefore is our Sacrament also to be eaten and drunk of us and not only offered for us Except we eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his bloud we have no life in us And very fitly For as our Bodies are nourished by eating of corporal meats so our Souls are nourished by the Spiritual feeding upon Christ. This condemns that lurching Sacrifice of the Mass where the Bread and Wine are offered as a Sacrifice for the people but they receive no one jot thereof they are invited to a Banquet but eat never a bit Even like the unbelieving Ruler spoken of 2 Kings 7. 19. who saw all the plenty foretold by Elisha but ate no whit thereof And what is it but as Christ said to light a Candle and put it under a Bushel Matt. 5. 15. They think it is enough if the Priest eats all himself though he gives no body else any with him But it is no less absurd to affirm that another should receive good by the Priest's receiving
the Definition of the Synod at Constantinople have preserved it which else had utterly perished as the Acts thereof have done Now judge whether Constantine and his Council were guilty or not of what the Idolatrous Faction charged them with But we may wonder the leâ—s at this notorious impudency of lying companions seeing we have experience of the like calumnies fastened upon our selves this day though there be so many thousand eyes and ears and writings too which confute them AND thus you have seen what manner of Times they were about the end of which our Simeon Metaphrastes lived Was it not high time think you for him and those hands to which he was beholden for I will not charge him with all to ply the old craft and re-inforce the Legends with new Lies when the credit of Saint-worship lay thus a bleeding It is not credible they would be so much wanting to themselves And it is as apparent that those Tales of the new strain which we had out of Simeon were coined in this age and not before For if any such thing had been known or delivered from elder times how came it to pass no notice thereof was given us by any Writer of Ecclesiastical story by any Father by any Compiler or forger of Martyrs Lives and Miracles till now Certainly so miraculous and wonderful things as Voices from Heaven and Christ descending thence in a cloud and the like had been worth the telling But alasâ— they could tell us but little of these Martyrs save only the names and time of their suffering And thus I end my Digression which yet I hope hath not been altogether impertinent to the present argument CHAP. VI. That Saint-worship was promoted by Counterfeit Writings under the name of Antiquity That Image-worship and the Idolatry of the Mass-God were advanced by the Hypocrisy of Liers This illustrated from several fabulous Narrations A foul Story made use of by the second Council of Nice in the behalf of Image-worship THE last particular of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Hypocrisie of Liers I made to be Counterfeit Writings under the names of the first and best Antiquity S. Peter's Liturgy the Liturgy of S. Iames of Matthew of Mark The Apostles Council at Antioch Foisted works under the names of Iustin Origen Cyprian Athanasius and others Through which we need not doubt but the Doctrine of Daemons was promoted when we see some not ashamed still to maintain it by these counterfeit authorities Thus you see how the first-born and the most ancient part of the Doctrine of Daemons the Deifying of Saints and Martyrs was advanced by the Hypocrisy of Liers The same you shall find to have been verified also in the advancing of the next-born Daemon-changling Image-worship and of the third the Idolatry of the Mass-God all brought in and established by the means and wayes aforenamed I need not spend time in historical allegations they are well enough known and Primum in unoquoque genere est mensura consequentium by that I spake of the first you may judge of those which follow yet for Images I will tell you a Story or two for a tast Bale our Countrey-man Script Illust. Britan. Cent. 1. c. 91 99. relates that about the year 712 one Egwin of Worcester published in writing certain Revelations yea express Visions he had seen wherein he was enjoyned to set up in his Diocese of Worcester the Image of the Blessed Virgin for the people to worship which Pope Constantine the first having made him confirm by oath not only ratified by his Bull but caused Brithwald the Arch-bishop to hold a Council of the whole Clergy at London to commend them to the people In that Idolatrous Council of the second of Nice one of their proofs among many other the like for worshipping of Images is a tale quoted out of I know not what Sophronius of a certain Recluse who using to worship an Image of the Virgin Mary holding Christ in her arms had been a long time tempted by the Devil to fornication whereat on a time the old man being much aggrieved the Devil visibly appearing told him in plain terms but under an oath of secrecy that he would never cease to vex him until he left worshipping the Image of the Blessed Virgin The Monk notwithstanding the Devil had made him swear by the most High he should tell no body yet acquaints one Abbot Theodore with the business who not only allows of his perjury in revealing it but gives him this ghostly resolution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It were better be frequented all the Stews in the City than not to worship Christ and his Mother in an Image I am afraid some of this Monk's successors still observe this wholesome counsel I must tell you also some of the Miracles and Lies for laying the foundation of Transubstantiation and thence advancing the Idol of the Mass. A certain Monk reports that he saw Iesus Christ in form of a Child sitting upon the Altar Another saith yea more than that one That Witikind King of the Saxons entring disguised into a Church and diligently observing the Christians fashion of receiving the Communion saw them put a little pretty smiling boy into their mouths These wonders and other the like of apparitions of flesh and bloud began not till about the end of the eight-hundredth year But that they might seem ancienter Simeon Metaphrastes hath a forged Legend of Arsenius the Eremite and some body counterfeited the life of S. Basil under the name of Amphilochius his companion which now they begin to be ashamed of And for fear the people might suspect that these were Illusions they keep yet some of the flesh and bloud which was thus transubstantiated for a monument in many Churches To these apparitions to make all compleat they tell us of a hive of Bees seen in Saint Gervais his Monastery in Paris which built a Chappel of Wax in honour of the Host which some body put into their hive and a miracle of an Ass that left his provender to worship the Host and many other the like But I have stayed too long amongst them and therefore let here be the conclusion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the hypocrisie of Liers that we may pass on to that is yet behind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. CHAP. VII That by these two Characters Forbidding marriage and commanding to abstain from meats are chiefly decyphered Monks and Friers That Prohibition of Marriage and Abstaining from meats are inseparable characters of Monastick profession That the Renouncing of possessions or the having no propriety in any thing another Principle in Monkery may be included under the Abstaining from meats That the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated Meats implies all things needful for maintenance of life proved from several places of Scripture I Come now unto the last particular of the Description of the Means whereby the Doctrine of Daemons was to be
advanced viz. Through the Hypocrisie of such as forbid marriage and command to abstain from meats Who are these The wonderful correspondence of the Event makes me verily believe that the Holy Ghost intended here at least chiefly to decypher unto us Monks and Doctors of Monkery by two such marks as are the chief points and grounds of that Singularity of life For Prohibition of marriage and Difference of meats are inseparable Characters of Monastical profession and therefore common to all that crew of Hypocrites whether Solivagant Eremites or Anchorites which live alone or Coenobites which live in Society And if we take them joyned together as our Apostle doth I think they can befit no other kind of men by way of Rule and Precept but these alone 'T is true all Antichrist's Priests are forbidden marriage generally and absolutely but meats they are not but only upon certain daies and times which is not their case alone but the people also partake with them in the like restraint But Monks are bound by the vowed Rule of their profession to abstain from both absolutely and perpetually Concerning the first hear S. Chrysostome speak Hom. 7. in Matth. Nobis Monachis saith he omnia mandata Legis sunt communia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All the Commandments of God's Law are common to us with Monks besides Marriage Wherefore in the Council of Chalcedon is an express Canon cap. 16. Vt nec Deo dicata Virgo nec Monachus nubant That no Nun or Monk should marry i. e. they might not forsake their profession For the second the Abstaining from meats S. Bennet can tell us best who is the Father and founder of well-nigh all the Monks of the West His Rule which they all bind themselves to observe saith A carnibus omnes abstineant Let all abstain from flesh Again Carnium etiam quadrupedum omnino ab omnibus abstineatur comestio Let all abstain altogether from the eating of flesh even of four-footed beasts Hence is that Decree of Bishop Fructuosus in Gratian Dist. 5. Carnem cuiquam Monacho nec gustandi nec sumendi est concessa licentia No Monk hath leave granted him to take or so much as to tast a piece of flesh And these were the two principal observations of the first Monks before they came to be gathered into a Society of a common life under certain set Rules Paulus Thebaeus the first pattern of this kind of life abstained as from Marriage whereof there is no question so from all meats save bread and dates Anthony the next ate nought but bread and salt and both drank no other drink but water Epiphanius in his Anchorato tells us of differing observations in this kind Some ate no flesh but fish some neither of both but only fruits and herbs some are flying creatures but abstained from all besides But if you will take Meats in this place in a larger sense you shall have a full Definition of Monkery and take in that other Monastical principle of Renouncing possessions and having no propriety in any thing which they account the Second fundamental principle next to the Vow of chastity or single life Now may not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Meats be expounded in this sense We know the word Bread in Scripture signifies all things needful for maintenance of life omnia vitae subsidia and therefore we ask them all in the Lord's prayer under that name Give us this day our daily bread Mark the words of David to Ziba 2 Sam. 9. 10 Thou and thy Sons and thy Servants shall till the land for him Mephibosheth and thou shalt bring in the fruits that thy Master's son may have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Food to eat Here Bread or Food is taken for Mephibosheth's whole maintenance the whole profit of the Lands which Ziba tills Matth. 10. 9 10 Provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in your purses Nor scrip for your journey neither two coats nor shoes nor yet staves for the workman is worthy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his meat Here gold silver brass clothes and staves and all come under 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is meat In stead whereof S. Luke chap. 10. vers 7. putteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his hire Prov. 30. 8. Agur saith Give me neither poverty nor riches Feed me with Food convenient for me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By all which appears that Food and Meat in Scripture is often taken for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Iames speaks chap. 2. vers 16. for all provision of things for the use of the body and this life maintenance revenue estate possession Why may not then Abstaining from meats in this Prophecie mean or include Abstaining from possessions Votum paupertatis the Vow of Poverty and renouncing of the world as the Hypocrites call it to which the following words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are every way as pliable as to the stricter sense and may be read thus which God hath created to be injoyed with thanksgiving of them which c. Let us hear S. Bennet's Rule speak for all Nemo aliquid proprium habeat nullam omnino rem neque codicem neque tabulas neque graphiarium sed nihil omnino Let no man have any thing proper or as his own no kind of thing neither book nor writing nor Inkhorn nor any thing at all And those who had once imposed upon themselves this law were prohibited for ever to return to the world again Monachis non licere ad seculum redire saith the Canon of a great Council Hear a Story out of S. Hierom Epist. ad Eustochium A certain Monk being dead was found to have been so good a Husband as to have had lying by him an hundred Solidi which he had gotten by weaving of linen hereupon great doubt there was what it should be done withal whether given to the poor to the Church or to what use But Pambo Isidorus and the other Fathers of the Monks laying their heads together decreed it should be buried with him with this blessing Pecunia tua sit tecum in perditionem Thy mony perish together with thee The like sentence gave Gregory the Great against Iustus a Monk for the like fault Dial. l. 4. c. 55. I conclude therefore That these words are a Description of Monkery by such notes as are fundamental which way soever we take them either containing Single life and Discrimen ciborum the Differencing meats or the two Vows of Chastity and Poverty or all three of them Chastity Poverty and Abstaining from meats As for that other Vow of Obedience it was not from the beginning nor common to all not to Eremites and Anchorites but such as lived in common under an Head And these are the men through whose Hypocrisie and by whose means the Doctrine of Daemons should be brought in and advanced among Christians in the Latter times CHAP. VIII That Monastick life and Saint-worship began much about the same time That Monks and Friers
Gospel was also spred among the Gentiles the Apostles were so careful to make Collections in all the Churches for the relief of the poor Saints at Ierusalem even those who at the first had disfurnished themselves of all and at whose charges as may be supposed the Gospel was at the beginning preached among the Gentiles Rom. 15. 26 27. 1 Cor. 16. 1. 2 Cor. ch 8 and ch 9. And seeing I have entred thus far into the question of Monkery I will take leave to examine two more Examples which they bring to that purpose though not so near to the matter of my Text as the former Thirdly therefore The Patrons of Monkery alledge the Example of the Rechabites of whom we read Ier. 35. 6 7. that according to an Ordinance wherewith their Father Ionadab bound them they drank no wine built no houses sowed no seed neither planted nor possessed vineyards or fields but lived in tents all their days Which singularity of life seems not only to resemble but to warrant that of Monkery in those two main points of forsaking possessions and abstaining from meats seeing God himself in that place commended those Rechabites for observing this Ordinance of Ionadab their Father But I answer This of the Rechabites was no matter of Religion as that of Monks is but a mere civil Ordinance grounded upon a National custome For the Rechabites were of the race of the Family of Hobab the Kenite Moses's Father-in-law as you may read 1 Chron. 2. 55. Now the Kenites were Midiâ—nites and the Midianites were dwellers in Tents from the beginning This I prove 1. Becauâ—e the Arabiâ—ns of those parts were such both then and still are at this day 2. The Ishmaelites and Midianites dwelt together insomuch that their names are consounded in Scripture or interchangeably used the one for the other For Gen. 37. 25 28. those Merchants to whom Ioseph was sold are promiscuously called sometimes Ishmaelites sometimes Midianites as if they were both one people as indeed they both descended of Abraham the one by his handmaid Hagar the other by his second wife Keturah So Iudg. 8. 24. the Midianites which Gideon vanquished are called Ishmaelites They had saith the Text golden ear-rings for they were Ishmaelites Now it is apparent in Scripture that the Ishmaelites or Hagarens used to dwell in Tents whence 1 Chron. 5. 10. it is said the Reubenites in the daies of Saul made war with the Hagarites who fell by their hand and they dwelt in their tents throughout all the East-land of Cilead Besides of the Ishmaelites were those famous Scenite-Arabians mentioned in Scripture so oft under the name of the Tents of Kedar Such therefore as the Ishmaelites were may we deem the Midianites also to have been who dwelt with them and to put it quite out of doubt we have so much told us in Scripture in the prayer of Habakkuk cha 3. 7. I saw saith he the Tents of Cushan or Arabia in affliction and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble This custome of their Nation and Countrey did that Midian Tribe of the Kenites of which was the Father-in-law of Moses still observe after they came to live in Canaan with the Israelites So we read Iud. 4. 11. that Hober the Kenite which was of the children of Hobab the Father-in-law of Moses severed himself from the Kenites and pitched his tent unto the plain of Zaanaim which is by Kedesh See 1 Chron. 2. 55. according to Hierome And this manner of living they seem to have retained partly for to be a Badge and Cognizance of the Nation whence they were descended and partly to live the more securely in the land where they were strangers either from the envie of the Iews at home or danger of enemies abroad to whom by this means they should be the less subject as having neither houses to fire nor lands to be taken from them but only cattel wherewith they lived and tentsâ— which they removed hither and thither as opportunity served for pasture to feed them Even as Abraham lived while he sojourned as a stranger in the land of Canaan and in imitation of whom being their Ancestor perhaps this custome was derived to the Midianites his children Howsoever at length it seems these Kenites allured by the more pleasant living of the Israelites began to change this custome of their Ancestors which occasioned Ionadab the son of Rechab a famous Kenite to renew it again and bind his posterity to observe it and to that end he forbad them altogether to drink any Wine lest desire thereof might occasion them to plant Vineyards and so to build Houses as the Iews did and so to forsake the custome of their Nation as perhaps licorousness of Wine before had caused many of them to do For certain it is that Ionadeb renewed but that which their Ancestors had observed long before he was born And thus you see it was no order of Religion which they bound themselves unto but a maintenance of a Civil custome And therefore the wild Arabians and Tartars who at this day live in like manner are as good a Pattern to warrant Monkery by as they But there is another Example yet wherein they put great confidence as being established by God himself and that is of the Nazarites in the Law who bound themselves by a solemn vow to a singularity of life not much unlike that of Monks especially those of the ancient form as to separate themselves unto the Lord to drink neither wine nor strong drink nor suffer a razor to come upon their heads and to be accounted in a special manner holy unto God above other men I answer If this be the sample from which Monkery is derived there needs no other Argument utterly to overthrow it and therefore it is as ill chosen as could be For this Law of Nazarism is one of the things expresly named which the Apostles decreed at the Council of Ierusalem should not be imposed upon the Gentiles who believed in Christ. Look Acts 21. where S. Paul having made a Nazarite's Vow at Cenchrea for a certain time according to the manner Iames and the Elders of the Church at Ierusalem advised him to joyn himself with four others who had the like Vow upon them and the time thereof also as Paul's was then to be fulfilled for they were seldom perpetual and to take and purifie himself according to the Law with them that the Iews might take notice he was conformable to the Laws and Orders of his own Nation till God should dissolve the same But as touching the Gentiles saith Iames verse 25. we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing Is not this plain enough If therfore Law of Nazarites be the Pattern of Monkish Orders the Apostles decreed the Gentiles should observe no such thing And for the Iews God hath now also dissolved their Temple and all their Legal Worship THUS much for the first Observation
obnoxious to the rage of troublesome times being looked upon aâ— a booty by such as are able and find advantage to seise upon them Only the Mean estate is most free from such perillous Extremities being as below Envy so above Contempt If then our good and gracious God hath given us a convenient measure of means to maintain our condition let us think our line hath fallen unto us in a pleasant place as the Psalmist speaks Psal. 16. 6. and that we have a goodly heritage He that hath once a Competency let him be assured he hath all the Contentment which is to be found in these temporary things and Experience will tell him Though Riches may encrease yet after a Sufficiency once attained Contentment will encrease no more though Riches encrease never so much THUS much of that which Agur requested Now follows The Reason of his Request Lest I be full and deny thee and say Who is the Lord c. Out of which before we come to handle them particularly let us make this General Observation That the Rule of our desires and endeavours in the getting and enjoying of these outward things ought to be our Spiritual welfare and the bettering of us to God-ward This was Agur's Rule He desires such a measure of outward means as might neither through fulness make him forget God nor through want tempt him to sin both against him and his neighbour This is the Compass we ought to sail by if we would avoid shipwrack This is the Pole-star and Heavenly mark whereon our eyes in all our thriving courses should be fixed and by it our desires and aims measured That proportion of outward things and provisions for this life which may the besâ— stand with our improvement to God-ward which may the most further and enable us and the least endanger and hinder us in our religious devotions to God and charitable duties to our neighbours this should be the stint of all our worldly desires and endeavours under the Sun More than may stand with this is so far from being wished or sought for that we ought with Agur to pray against it and say Lord lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil But alas we set the Cart before the Horse we make not the Worship of God and our Spiritual advantage the Rule of our aims in getting and enjoying of these Temporal things But on the contrary we use to serve God and keep his Commandments so far as may stand with our profit with our covâ—tous and ambitious desires and no farther And this was Ieroboam's sin who forsooth would serve the God of his Fathers so as he thought might stand with the safety of his kingdom but no farther But alas what would it profit a man to win the whole world and lose his own soul But Ieroboam lost his kingdom too which else God had promised to entail unto his posterity But let us be wiser and as S. Paul bids us whether we eat or drink or whatsoever we do else let us do all to the glory of God Let this be the End of all our actions and then we shall be sure to thrive here and be blessed for ever in the world to come So much for the General Observation Now to the particular handling of the words Lest I be full and deny thee and say Who is the Lord The words are plain and their meaning of Impiety and Irreligion Give me not Riches lest I become ungodly and irreligious For as to know God in Scripture is to worship and serve him with fear and reverence so to deny him is to be devoid of Religion toward him to live as if there were no God So it is said of the sons of Eli that they were sons of Belial they knew not the Lord that is they acknowledged him not by love fear and obedience but lived as if they had said Who is the Lord Now that men who abound in Wealth and Superfluity are much subject to this malady is so manifest by other places of Scripture that Agur's fear was not without a cause Deut. 6. 12. is a Caution given to Israel when God should bless them with Prosperity When thou shalt have eaten and be full them beware lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt Again Deut. 8. 10 c. When thou shalt have eaten and be fullâ— Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his Commandments and Iudgments and his Statutes Lest when thou hast eaten and art full and hast built goodly houses and dwelt therein And thy herds and thy flocks multiply and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied and all that thou hast is multiplied Then thine heart be lifted up and thou forget the Lord thy God which brought c. Vers. 17. And thou say in thine heart My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth Whence it appears not only how dangerous Prosperity is to Piety but what it is to forget God which is in my Text to deny him and to ask Who he is namely to break his Commandments Statutes and Iudgments to be unthankful for his Blessings and to attribute all to our own power and wisdom Again in Deut. 32. 15. Moses prophetically sings of Israel Iesurun waxed fat and kicked Thou art saith he waxed fat thou art grown thick thou art covered with fatness Then he forsook God which made him and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation Vers. 16. They provoked him to jealousie with strange gods with abominations they provoked him to anger And Hosea 13. 6. the Lord complains of the event of this prediction According to their pasture saith he so were they filled and their hearts were lifted up therefore they have forgotten me Rarae fumant felicibus arae I think it is sufficiently proved and Experience doth every where make it good 1. The cause hereof is the weakness of our Nature through sin not able to wield the Blessings of God if they abound Even as the Physitians say that a Plethora or full state of body is dangerous in respect of health even though it be without impurity of bloud because Nature if weaker then it cannot wield it or if a while she be of equal strength yet is soon and sometimes suddenly overturned Even such is the case here with our life and health spiritual 2. Religious Devotion springs from Humility and Lowliness of mind but Abundance usually pusseth up with pride as the Lord even now complained in Hosea that the heart of his people was exalted and therefore they forgot him So in the quotation Deut. 8. 10 c. Lastly A full belly is unfittest for Devotion and Prayer and therefore in our devoutest Supplications we use Fasting Even as it is in plenteous feeding so is it in the very outward injoyment of plenty whence ye heard even now the Spirit of God to express this Abundance of outward things by Feeding
Ashteroth the Gods of the Sidonians Rimmon the God of the Aramites Where is now Dagon of the Philistines Milcom of the Ammonites Chemosh of Moab and Tammuz of the Egyptians Even these also whose names we hear so frequent in Scripture are perished with their very names from this earth and from under these heavens And the Nations which once worshipped them worship now the great God Creator of heaven and earth once all of them and yet the most of them truly and savingly in Christ Iesus the Saviour and Redeemer of the world The beginning of this strange and wonderful Change was about the Birth and Incarnation of Christ our Saviour at which time the Gods of the Gentiles grew speechless in their Oracles or if at any time they answered it was to testifie the nearness of that time wherein they were to be cast out and the presence of him who should do the same As it is reported of Augustus who consulting the Oracle of Apollo who should reign after him received this answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The meaning whereof is this The Hebrew child which rules the blessed Gods bids me leave this house and presently pack to hell From henceforth depart thou with silence from our Altars Whereupon it is said that Augustus reared an Altar in the Capitol with this Inscription ARA PRIMOGENITI DEI The Altar of the First-begotten of God Porphyrie though an enemy of Christians reports three farewel Oracles of Apollo The first whereof is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In English thus O wo is me lament ye Tripods for Apollo is gone he is gone he is gone For the burning light of heaven that Iupiter which was is and shall be O mighty Iupiter he compels me Ah wo is me the bright glory of my Oracles is gone from me And to the Priest which last consulted him his demand being Which was the true Religion he answered in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In English thus Thou unhappiest of the Priests oh that thou wouldst not have asked me being now at my last of the Divine Father and of the dear begotten of that famous King nor of the Spirit which comprehendeth and surroundeth all things For wo is me He it is that will I nill I will expel me from these Temples and full soon shall this dividing seat become a place of desolation And if at any time he were extremely urged by inchantments and exorcisms to break off this uncouth silence he answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apollo's voice is not to be recovered it is decayed through length of time and locked up with the keys of never-divining silence but do you as ye were wont such sacrifices as it beseemeth Phoebus to have The ceasing of Oracles in ancient times so frequent made the Heathen wonder what the cause should be for being grown very rare as the coming of Christ drew near and at the time of his being upon the earth the chiefest of all the Oracle of Delphos grown speechless as Strabo living at that time witnesseth before the end of that Age all the Oracles of the world in a manner held their peace Plutarch as ye all know at that time writ a Tract of the decay of Oracles wherein he labours to find the cause of their ceasing and after much search and many disputes he concludes the Reason partly to be from the absence of his Demoniacal spirits who by his Philosophy might either die through length of years or flit from place to place either exiled by others more strong or upon some other dislike and partly from the alteration of the soil where Oracles were seated which might not yield such Exhalations as in former times they had done This is the Summe of the Reasons in that Discourse But as we embrace this Testimony of Plutarch for the use and decay of Oracles so we are better enabled to give a true reason thereof than he was or could be namely As Meteors and smaller lights vanish and appear not when the Sun begins to rise So did these false lights of the Heathen vanish when the Sun of righteousness Christ Iesus arose unto the world As Dagon fell down when the Ark of God was brought into his Temple so when the true Ark of God Christ Iesus came into the world all the Dagons of the Nations fell down The time was come when as our Saviour saith Iohn 12. 31. the Prince of this world was to be cast out The night was past and the day was come and therefore such Bats and Birds of darkness as these were not any longer to play such reaks as in times past they had done Now began that War in heaven between Michael and the red Dragon whereof we read in the Revelation Michael and his Angels fought against the Dragon and his Angels that is Christ our Lord and his undaunted souldiers fought with the Devil and all his Ethnick forces led by the Roman Emperors Which War though it lasted long and cost the bloud and lives of many a thousand valiant Martyrs yet in the days of Constantine the Dragon received so great an overthrow that he never could recover it and though in the days of Iulian he made head again and kept the field a while yet was he soon fain to quit it and leave the victory unto Michael's army Which defeature of his was accompanied with an ominous sign of his utter overthrow his Throne or Temple at Delphos with earthquakes thunder and lightening being utterly ruined For as by the rending of the veil of the Temple was signified the abolishment of Legal worship so by the prodigious destruction of the chiefest Temple the Devil had in all the world was as it were sealed the irrecoverable overthrow of Ethnicisme which in the Event immediately following proved true For though he retained some strength under Valens in the East by still enjoying his wonted sacrifices yet in the days of Theodosius he was utterly and finally vanquished when his last champion Eugenius who threatned to be another Iulian and to restore Ethnicisme again with his whole Army was discomfited by the prayer and prowess of Theodosius about the year of our Lord three hundred and ninety For after this time Ethnicisme was never publickly maintained in the Roman Empire nor any open attempt made for restoring it again whereby it seems the red Dragon was cast down to the earth and that now was perfected the Triumph of Michael's victory when the Gods that made not the heaven and the earth were fully perished as concerning their Empire from the earth and from under
when there is no benefit by it but if it chance to be once beneficial to our selves then we love it Here is the trial of a Loyal heart to God to prefer vertue before vice then when in humane reason vertue shall be the loser vice the gainer This note discovered Iehu who destroyed the worship of Baal with a great shew of zeal but when it came to Ieroboam's Calves he dispensed with them lest it might prove dangerous to his Kingdom if the Israelites should go worship at Ierusalem 4. To conclude A Loyal heart is that which the Scripture calls in the old Testament A perfect heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not perfect in respect of degrees for such a perfection is not attainable in this life but perfect in respect of parts Cor integrum a heart wherein no part is wholly wanting howsoever weak and a great deal short of due proportion 1 Kings 11. 4. when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other Gods and his heart was not perfect with his God as was the Heart of David his Father not because he served not the Lord at all but that he served him not only and intirely Ioshua 24. 14. Now therefore saith he fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and truth Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in perfectness and truth and put away the Gods which your Fathers served which was as much as to say Serve the Lord wholly and quite renounce all service to others 2 Kings 20. 3. Hezekiah prayes in his sickness Lord I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight He saith not he had done perfect Actions or performed perfect service for who can do such but yet that he walked with a perfect heart that is with a loyal heart before God So 1 Kings 15. 14. it is said That though Asa failed in his Reformation and the high places were not removed nevertheless his heart was perfect that is loyal with the Lord all his dayes THUS much shall suffice to have spoken of the Act Keep and of the Heart the Object of our keeping which are the two first things I considered in this Admonition The Third remains which is the Manner or Means how our heart is to be kept viz. with all diligence or above all keeping saith the Text that is with the best the surest the chiefest kind of keeping which is not only now and then to look unto it but to set a continual guard about it Nature hath placed the Heart in the most fenced part of the body having the Breast as a natural Corslet to defend it If the Heart be in fear or danger all the bloud and spirits in the body will forsake the outward parts and run to preserve and succour it If Nature be so provident for that which is but the Fountain of a natural life what care should the spiritual man have to keep his heart and soul guarded and fortified against all annoiances spiritual The life we lose if this be wounded or poisoned is inestimable the other of Nature is of no great value Yea but perhaps a natural man's heart is liable to more natural dangers than the heart of a man that lives to God-ward is to spiritual annoiances I answer The contrary is true For the Heart we speak of whence the Issues of the life of grace proceed is like a City every moment liable both to inward commotion and outward assault Within the fountain of original Impurity is continually more or less bubbling with rebellion Without the World and the Devil continually either assault it or lye in Ambuscado to surprise it The world batters it with three great and dangerous Engines of Pleasures Riches and Honours wherewith she endeavoureth to lay it waste and rob it of all heavenly treasure The Devil watcheth every opportunity to hurl in his fiery darts to cast all into a combustion and thereby farther to invenome and enrage the already-too-much impoisoned vitiousness and impetuousness of our corrupt nature How needful a thing is it therefore to follow this precept of Solomon to keep our hearts with all diligence or above all keeping to keep them with a continual guard to keep a continual watch and ward left the enemies surprise them Watch and pray saith our Saviour Matt. 26. 41. that ye enter not into temptation Watch in all things saith S. Paul to Timothy 2 Tim. 4. 5. Be sober be vigilant saith S. Peter 1 Pet. 5. 8. because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour If the heart be to be kept with all diligence or above the keeping of any thing else then is this Watch we hear commanded and this Guard of Prayer and this is a strong Guard to be chiefly and above all applied unto it But for a more particular direction of this guarding of the Heart we must be careful to observe this order following 1. As those who keep a City attempted or besieged by an Enemy have special care of the Gates and Posterns whereat the Enemie may get in So must we in this Guard of the Heart watch especially over the Gates and Windows of the Soul the Senses and above all the Eye and the Ear whereat the Devil is wont to convey the most of those pollutions wherewith the Heart is wasted First concerning the Eye David's example may warn the holiest men to the world's end to keep a watchful jealousie over it What a number of Cut-throats did one idle glance upon Bathsheba let in who made that Royal Heart whose uprightness God so much approved to become a sty of uncleanness and robbed it of those heavenly ornaments wherewith it was so plentifully adorned For the Ear take heed of obscene and wanton talk which by those Doors or Windows entring like Balls of Wild-fire inflame the Heart with lust We must beware also of the slanderer's mouth and backbiters tongue whose lying reports and malicious tales if they get in would sow in thine heart the seeds of heart-burning spight and mental murther which in that sinful soil will fructifie very rankly And think them no small sins which make thee guilty of innocent bloud for thine heart and tongue may kill thy brother as well as thy hand 2. As those who keep and defend a City make much of such as are faithful trusty and serviceable and if any such come will entertain and welcom them with much kindness but a Traitor or one of the enemie's party they presently cut short as soon as they discover him So must we make exceedingly much of all good motions put into our hearts by God's Spirit howsoever occasioned whether by the Word of God mindfulness of death good Admonition some special cross or extraordinary mercy any way at any time These are our Hearts friends we must cherish encrease and improve them to the
Angel's message from heaven to devout Cornelius was Thy prayers and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God whereupon S. Peter inferred That in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him Acts 10. 4 35. In 1 Tim. 6. 17 18 19. saith S. Paul Charge them that are rich in this world That they do good that they be rich in good works ready to distribute willing to communicate Laying in store a good foundation against the time to come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut accipiant nanciscantur that they may receive or obtain eternal life Hence it is that we shall be judged and receive sentence at the last day according to our works Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world For I was hungry and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in naked and ye clothed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in prison and ye came unto me For inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of my brethren ye have done it unto me Lord how do those look to be saved at that day who think good works not required to Salvation and accordingly do them not Can our Saviour pass this blessed Sentence on them think they he can If he should they might truly say indeed Lord we have done no such matter nor did we think our selves bound unto it we relied wholly upon our Faith in thy merits and thought we had been freed from such services What do they think Christ will change the form of his Sentence at that great day No certainly If the Sentence for Bliss will not fit them and be truly said of them the other will and must for there is no more Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels For when I was hungry ye gave me no meat c. This must be their doom unless they suppose the righteous Iudge will lie for them And it is here further to be observed That the Works named in this sentence of Iudgment are works of the second Table and Works of Mercy and Charity feeding the hungry clothing the naked visiting the sick all Almsdeeds which men are now-a-days so much afraid of as if they looked toward Popery and had a tang of meriting for now-a-days these costly works of all others are most suspicious But will it be so at the day of Iudgment True it is they merit not the Reward which shall be given them but what then are we so proud we will do no works unless we may merit Is it not sufficient that God will reward them for Christ's sake though they have no worth in themselves And thus much of the second Motive why we should do good works Because howsoever they merit nothing yet are they the means and way ordained by God to attain the Reward of eternal life The third and last Motive to works of righteousness is Because they are the only Sign and Note whereby we know our Faith is true and saving and not counterfeit For 1 Iohn 1. 6. If we say we have fellowship with Christ and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth Chap. 2. ver 3. Hereby we know that we know him viz. to be our Advocate with his Father and the Propitiation for our sins if we keep his Commandments And Chap. 3. 7. Little children let no man deceive you He that doth righteousness is righteous even as Christ is righteous The same almost you may find again Chap. 2. 29. For if every one that believeth in Christ truly and savingly believes that Salvation is to be attained by obedience to God in him and not otherwise and therefore embraceth and layeth hold upon him for that end how can such an ones Faith be fruitless How can he be without works who therefore lays hold on Christ that his works and obedience may be accepted as righteous before God for his sake and so be rewardable It is as possible for the Sun to be without his light or the Fire to want heat as such a Faith to be without works Our Saviour therefore himself makes this a most sure and never-failing Note to build our assurance of Salvation upon Luke 6. 46. where the mention of the words of my Text gives the occasion Why call ye me Lord Lord saith he and do not the things which I say 47. Whosoever cometh to me and heareth my sayings and doth them I will shew you to whom he is like 48. He is like a man which built an house and digged deep and laid the foundation on a rock And when the floud arose the stream beat vehemently upon that house and could not shake it for it was founded upon a rock 49. But he that heareth and doth not is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth against which the stream did beat vehemently and immediately it fell and the ruine of that house was great Whom these three Motives or Reasons will not perswade to good works let not my Soul O Lord be joyned with theirs nor my doom be as theirs must be A SECOND Observation out of these words and near a-kin to the former is That it is not enough for a Christian to live harmlesly and abstain from ill but he must do that which is good For our Saviour excludes not here those only who do against the will of his Father but those who do not his Father's will It is doing good which he requireth and not the not doing evil only This is an error which taketh hold of a great part of men even of those who would seem to be religious He is a reformed man and acquits himself well who abstains from fornication adultery who is no thief no couzener or defrauder of other men who will not lie or swear or such like But as for doing any works of Piety or Charity they think they are not required of them But they are much deceived For God requires some duties at our hands which he may reward not out of any merit but out of his merciful promise in Christ. But not doing ill is no service rewardable A servant who expects wages must not only do his Master no harm but some work that is good and profitable otherwise the best Christian would be he that should live altogether idlely for none doth less harm than he that doth nothing at all But Matth. 25. 30. He that encreased not his Master's Talent though he had not mis-spent it is adjudged an unprofitable servant and cast into outer darkness where is weeping and gnashing of teeth So also Matth. 3. 10. The tree that beareth no good fruit is hewn down though it bore none that was evil The axe is laid to the root of the tree Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down
Fathers my Text saith was That they fell or were overthrown in the Wilderness In the back or outside of which words appeareth only a Temporal Punishment which kind seemeth not so appliable in the times of the Gospel as it was in time of the Law Howsoever we see in the general That it is true that the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain Iudgment shall selfe either here or at least hereafter upon all prophaners and misreceivers of those Sacred pledges upon which is called the Name of Christ our Saviour and Redeemer But for the kinds of these punishments whether Temporal only or Eternal or both I answer The Fathers under the Law had Temporal as well as Eternal we in the Gospel chiefly Eternal and yet sometimes Temporal That ours are chiefly eternal or of the life to come the words of our Apostle elsewhere shew evidently Whosoever eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh his own damnation This is certain and this is more than all the torments pains and miseries that this world hath though Phalaris and his Craftsmaster were alive again to invent new ones No tongue is able to express no heart is able to conceive the woe and miseries which the damned Soul in Hell is subject unto which are as endless as they are easeless And though this be great enough yet hath not nor is the unworthy Receiver always been freed from suffering something even in this life We know the Apostle would have the Corinthians take notice of the Wrath of God upon divers of them for receiving the Sacrament unworthily For this cause saith he are many sick and weak amongst you and many are fallen asleep Indeed Fathers correct not their children at riper years after the same fashion they did when they were young and little So hath God not the same Discipline under the Gospel which he had under the Pedagogiâ— of the Law as Chrysostome saith he doth not so often scourge offenders with the rods of Temporal chastisements but rather reserves for them Eternal torments yet who doubts but the hand of God is upon many unworthy Communicants even by sorrow sickness death and sundry other chastisements of this life But for the times under the Law the words of my Text speaking of being overthrown in the Wilderness would seem to imply there was no further thing which befell the unworthy eaters of Manna in the Wilderness and so our Apostle's argument from hence should infer no more to us in the times of the Gospel For answer hereunto I must call to mind something which I have spoken heretofore namely That under the Law Spiritual blessings were enwrapped in corporal and conveyed under and with them as it were in pledges which made the Iew so highly to esteem of worldly prosperities and of those who enjoyed them as accounting them God's special Favorites So also were Spiritual and Everlasting plagues hidden under the curtains of Temporal judgments which were to those upon whom they fell as woful pledges of them and therefore made the Iew account them accursed who were overwhelmed with worldly adversities To come therefore to the words of my Text Canaan was a Type and Pledge of the Heavenly habitation The Wilderness signified our Pilgrimage in this wild ragged rocky and barren world To fell in the Wilderness was a wofull sign of falling short of the Heavenly Canaan and deprival of Eternal life those who fell there especially upon occasion of sin being such as to whom God sware in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest as it is in the Psalm we say every morning Thus we see how the unworthy eaters of the holy Mysteries in the Wilderness were not only liable to plagues in this life but that those plagues served them as Seals of their condemnation in the world to come and therefore if we also eat the same Spiritual meat and drink the same Spiritual drink unworthily we shall eat and drink our own condemnation Having thus seen the wretched condition and woful danger of those who come unworthily to this Spiritual Table the serious consideration hereof may stand up like the Angel with the flaming sword to keep every Adam from eating of the tree of Life It should make every one tremble who approacheth the Lord's Table with unwashed hands I mean a foul conscience whose hearts are full of wickedness whose heads full of ungodly imaginations and their hands defiled with wicked actions how unworthy are they to come at this holy Banquet As Iehu said to Iehoram What hast thou to do with peace So may I say here What have those to do with the Sacrament the Mystery of peace Indeed the Sacrament is a Robe to cover the repenting sinner but no cloak to a prophane Receiver of it such a one shall find it like the forbidden fruit of Paradise the bane of the Eater and like a fair bait swallowed with a deadly hook the death of the Receiver Who being guilty would drink of that cursed water Numb 5. 22. which made the thigh to rot and the belly to swell and who being guilty of gross sin will dare without Repentance to take that Sacrament which shall make him guilty of the Body and Bloud of Christ and become an occasion of his condemnation It is a pitiful thing when the Psalmist's curse befalls any Let their Table be a snare But that this holy Table should become a snare to a Christian soul is more than lamentable Our Saviour said of Iudas It had been good for him if he had never been born and so may we say of such It had been better they had never been Receivers of this holy Sacrament for alas they have eaten and drank their own damnation they had better have eaten some venemous thing or drank some deadly poison for it would only have killed the body but by eating and drinking the Sacrament unworthily they have damned and destroyed both soul and body for ever Lastly This danger may admonish every one of us to come worthily unto this Sacrament For as Manna was unto evâ—â—y man's taste according to his will as S. Austin will have it so is the Sacrament to every one according to his worthiness As therefore the Chamber was trimmed wherein our Saviour kept his Passeover and ordained his holy Manna so should be Chamber of every Christian soul be cleansed from wickedness and adorned with Grace that comes to receive Christ in this Sacrament The washing of the Disciples feet afore Supper what doth it else call for but a cleansing of our hearts before we communicate We are unwilling that men should see us come to this Table with foul hands and should we not be more careful lest God should see us come with foul hearts It will not be enough to say to our Saviour with them in the Gospel We have eaten and drank in thy company we have been at thy Table We must come thither
words of the Chaldee Paraphrast Ionathan upon Exod. 38. 8. concerning the women that assembled at the door of the Tabernacle The Women saith he which came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pray stood at the door of the Tabernacle by their Oblation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they praised and confessed afterwards they returning to their husbands brought forth righteous children It is further confirmed for Invocation in general by that which the Scripture so often reports of Abraham and Isaac That they built Altars where they came and there they called upon the name of the Lord But the Altar was a place for Sacrifice In stead therefore of the slaying of Beasts and burning of Incense whereby they called upon the Name of God in the Old Testament the Fathers I say believed our Saviour ordained this Sacrament of Bread and Wine as a Rite whereby to give thanks and make supplication to his Father in his Name The mystery of which Rite they took to be this That as Christ by presenting his Death and Satisfaction to his Father continually intercedes for us in Heaven so the Church on Earth semblably approaches the Throne of Grace by representing Christ unto his Father in these holy Mysteries of his Death and Passion Veteres enim saith Cassander in hoc mystico sacrificio non tam peractae semel in Cruee oblationis cujus hîc memoria celebratur quà m perpetui Sacerdotii jugis sacrificii quod quotidie in Coelis sempiternus Sacerdos offert rationem habuerunt cujus hîc Imago per solennes Ministrorum preces exprimitur The Ancients did not in this mystical Sacrifice so much consider and respect the Oblation once made upon the Cross the memory whereof is here celebrated as the everlasting Priesthood of Christ and the perpetual Sacrifice which he our High-Priest for ever doth continually offer in Heaven the resemblance whereof is here on earth exprest by the solemn prayers of God's Ministers This a Reverend and famous Divine of blessed memory once of this Society and interr'd in this place saw more clearly or exprest more plainly than any other Reformed Writer I have yet seen in his Demonstratio Problematis and Title de Sacrificio Missae where he speaks thus Veteres Coenam Domini seu totam coenae actionem vocârunt Sacrificium variis de causis quia est commemoratio adeâ—que repraesentatio Deo Patri sacrificii Christi in cruce immolati The ancient Fathers used to call the Supper of the Lord or the whole action of the Supper a Sacrifice and that for divers reasons Because it is a Commemoration and also a Representation unto God the Father of the Sacrifice of Christ offered upon the Cross. He goes on Hoc modo fideles etiam inter orandum Christum offerunt Deo Patri victimam pro suis peccatis dum scilicet mente affectúque ad sacrificium ejus unicum feruntur ut Deum sibi habeant faciántque propitium In this sense the Faithful in their prayers do offer Christ as a Sacrifice unto God the Father for their sins in being wholly carried away in their minds and affections unto that only and true Sacrifice thereby to procure and obtain God's favour to them That which every Christian doth mentally and vocally when he commends his prayers to God the Father through Iesus Christ making mention of his death and satisfaction that in the publick service of the Church was done by that Rite which our Saviour commanded to be used in Commemoration of him These things thus explained Let us now see by what Testimonies and Authorities it may be proved the ancient Church had this meaning I will begin with S. Ambrose because his Testimony is punctual to our explication Offic. lib. 1. cap. 48. Antè saith he Agnus offerebatur offerebatur Vitulus nunc Christus offertur sed offertur quasi homo quasi recipiens passionem offert seipsum quasi sacerdos ut peccata nostra dimittat hîc in imagine ibi in veritate ubi apud Patrem pro nobis quasi advocat us intervenit Heretofore under the Law was wont to be offered a Lamb and a Bullock Exod. 29. But now under the Gospel Christ is offered but he is offered as a man and as one that suffered and he also as a Priest offers himself for the forgiveness of our sins Here on earth this is done in a resemblance and representation there in Heaven in truth where he as our Advocate intercedes for us with his Father An Author which Cassander in his Consultations quotes without name expresses this mystery fully Non impiè à nobis saith he Christus occiditur sed piè sacrificatur hoc modo mortem Domini annunciam us donec veniat hoc enim hîc per eum humiliter agimus in terris quod pro nobis ipse potenter sicut filius pro sua reverentia exaudiendus agit in Coelis ubi apud Patrem pro nobis quasi advocatus intervenit cui est pro nobis intervenire carnem quam pro nobis de nobis sumsit Deo Patri quodaemmodo pro nobis ingerere Christ is not wickedly slain by us but piously sacrificed and thus we shew the Lord's death till he come For we by him do that here on earth in a meaner way which he as a Son to be heard for his reverence or piety doth for us in heaven powerfully and prevailingly where he as our Advocate mediates for us with the Father whose office it is to intercede for us and to present that flesh which he took for us and of us to God the Father in our behalf My next Author shall be Eusebius Demonstrat Evangel lib. 1. cap. 10. where mentioning that of the 23. Psalm Thou hast prepared a Table before me c. Thou anointedst my head with oyl Herein saith he are plainly signified the Mystical unction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the venerable Sacrifices of Christ's table he means the Symbols of the Body and Bloud of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereby propitiating God we are taught to offer up all our life long unto the Lord of all unbloudy and reasonable Sacrifices most acceptable to him by his most glorious High-Priest Iesus Christ. Here Eusebius affirms that Christians are taught to offer unto God reasonable and unbloudy sacrifices that is Prayer and Thanksgiving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propitiating or finding favour with God through the venerable mysteries of Christ's Table For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is litare i. e. propitiare or placare Numen votum impetrare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gratum facere Next I produce Cyril of Ierusalem or more likely Iohn his successor Author of those five Catecheses Mystagogicae In the last of which relating and expounding the meaning of that which was said or done in the celebration of the Eucharist according to the use of his time amongst other things he says thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after that Spiritual Sacrifice that unbloudy
chiefly intended in the Text by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. were the main authors and advancers of Saint-worship proved from the Testimonies of Chemnitius S. Austine Gregory of Tours as also Eunapius a Gentile Writer That Monks and Friers were the Ringleaders and chief advancers of Image-worship appears in that during the Iconomachicall Controversie in the East the greatest part of the Storm fell upon those of the Monastick profession That the Idolatry of the Mass-God was promoted by the same persons NOW let us see and behold with admiration the truth of this part also of this Prophecie Where first observe that this Singular kind of life began even just at the time when the Doctrine of Daemons was to enter For Paulus Thebaeus and Anthony the first patterns thereof died the former in the reign of Constantine the latter a little before the year 360 whence or near unto which we began our reckoning before of the first entrance of Saint-worship into the Church About that time Monks till then having been confined to AEgypt Hilarion brought them into Syria and presently S. Basil gave them a certain rule to live together in form of a Polity and with the assistance of his brother Gregory Nyssen and Gregory Nazianzen who all entred this new kind of life dispersed them over all Asia and Greece whose encrease was so wonderful that almost in an instant they filled the World and their esteem was so great that there was scarce a man of note but took upon him this kind of life Though therefore it be most true that our Apostle's prophecie will be verified which soever of the two either such as themselves entred the Restraint of a Monastick life or those who approved taught and maintained the holiness of that Profession as the rest did were the Ringleaders and Foster-fathers of this Defection for both come within the verge of such as forbid marriage and command to abstain from meats yet we will not content our selves with so loose an application but see what an hand Monks and Friers themselves chiefly I suppose intended by the Holy Ghost had in this business And first in the first Doctrine of Daemons Adoring of Reliques and Invocation of Saints Where that which I first speak of shall be in the words of Chemnitius lest some more tender of the honour of our Fathers upon earth than of the glory of our Father in heaven might take exception Hear therefore not me but Chemnitius in his Examen Concilii Tridentini About the year of our Lord 370 per Basilium Nyssenum Nazianzenum in publicos Ecclesiae conventus occasione orationum Panegyricarum Invocatio Sanctorum invehi incepit eodem tempore cùm ab iisdem authoribus Monachatus ex AEgypto Syria in Graeciam introduceretur Et videtur saith he haec sive portio sive Appendix Monachatûs fuisse By Basil Nyssen and Nazianzen upon occasion of Panegyrical orations Invocation of Saints began to be brought into the publick Assemblies of the Church at the same time when by the same Authors the Profession of Monastical life was brought out of AEgypt and Syria into Greece and it seems saith he that this was either a part or an appurtenance of Monkery c. Again speaking of S. Ambrose when he had once turned Monk howsoever he was before Non tamen nego inquit Ambrosium tandem cùm Monachatum à Basilio mutuò sumpsisset etiam ad Invocationem Sanctorum inclinare coepisse ut patet ex libro De viduis I deny not saith he but Ambrose at length when he had once borrowed Monkery from Basil began also to incline to the Invocation of Saints as appears in his book De viduis Thus Chemnitius And that you may yet further see how operative Monks were in this business hear S. Augustine De opere Monachorum cap. 28. Tam multos hypocrit as sub habitu Monachorum usquequaquam dispersit Satan circumeuntes provincias nusquam missos nusquam fixos nusquam stantes nusquam sedentes Alii membra Martyrum si tame◠Martyrum venditant omnes petunt omnes exigunt aút sumptus lucrosae egestatis aut simulatae pretium sanctitatis The Devil saith he hath dispersed in every corner such a crew of Hypocrites under the habit of Monks gadding about every Countrey sent no whither staying no where every where restless whether sitting or standing Some sell the limbs of Martyrs if so be of Martyrs and all are asking all exacting either the expences of a gainful poverty or the hire of a counterfeit sanctity These were those surely which occasioned that Rescript of Theodosius the Emperor Nemo Martyrem distrahat nemo mercetur Let no man sell let no man buy a Martyr whereby we may gather what honesty was like to be used amongst them We know Laudat venales qui vult extrudere merces Merchants use to commend their commodities Gregory of Tours who lived and died somewhat before the year 600 tells us this Monachos quosdam Roman venisse ac prope Templum Pauli corpora quaedam noctu effodisse qui comprehensi fassi sunt in Graeciam se ea pro Sanctorum reliquiis portaturos fuisse That certain Monks came to Rome and near unto S. Paul's Church in the night-time digged up certain bodies who being apprehended confessed they meant to have carried them into Greece for Reliques of Saints The same Author l. 9. c. 6. Hist. Franc. relates a Story of another counterfeit a Monk who pretended to come out of Spain with Martyrs Reliques but being discovered they were found to be Roots of certain Herbs Bones of Mice and such like stuffe and he tells us there were many such seducers which deluded the people And he said true there were many indeed and many more than Gregory took for such even those he took for honest men For though it must not be denied but God had some of this Order which were holy men and unfeignedly mortified notwithstanding their errour in thinking God was pleased with that singularity of life yet must it be confessed that the greater part were no better than Hypocrites and Counterfeits and that the lamentable Defection of the Christian Church chiefly proceeded from and was fostered by men of that profession as in part we have heard already And if you can with patience hear him speak I will add the testimony of Eunapius Sardianus a Pagan Writer who lived in the dayes of Theodosius the first about the year 400. In the life of AEdesius most bitterly inveighing against the Christians for demolishing that renowned Temple of Serapis at Alexandria in AEgypt he speaks in this manner When they had done saith he they brought into the holy Places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those which they call Monks Men indeed for shape but living like Swine and openly committing innumerable villanies not to be named who yet took it for a piece of Religion thus to despise the Divinity he means of Serapis For then saith he whosoever
City taken by Totilas and a third part thereof demolished and the rest left for a while memorandum Fortunae ludibrium without an inhabitant and lastly the Ostrogothish Kingdom which a while as a blaze continued the light of the dying Caesars in Italy by Narses utterly extinguished WOE WOE WOE The Fifth Trumpet is the First Woe and brings the Saracen Locusts upon the world proceeding out of the smoaky and darkning Seduction of Mahomâ—t conjured up by the Angel of the bottomless pit who though a warlike people and well armed yet had not power to destroy either the State of Caesars in New Rome or the Papal Principality sprung out of the Empire 's ruine in the Old but only Scorpion-like to torment and vex them as their Tail or hindermost Troups out of Africk did Italy and Western Rome 150 years The Sixth Trumpet is the Second Woe and brings upon the Roman Provinces the barbarous and dreadful â—nâ—ndation of the Turks loosing them from the great River Euphrates where they had been long before prepared and now let go as a plague for the Idolatry of Christians 〈◊〉 only as the Saracen Locusts to plague and torment the Roman State buâ— in part tâ— utterly slay and destroy it as they have done in the Empire of Greece which the Saracens had no power to do The Seventh and Last Trumpet is yet to come the entrance whereof is the Last Woe wherein all the Reliques of the Roman Beast with the last Principality of the City of Rome yet surviving shall together with the rest of the enemies of Christ be utterly abolished in the Great Day of Armagedden that all the Kingdoms of the world may become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. Ch. 11. 15. Note that when the Angel comes at the Seventh Trumpet because the Event thereof is the common issue to both Prophecies he therefore suspends it a while till he hath fetch'd up Chap. 11. a transcurrent and through-running Vision of the Second Prophecy unto it and then joyns them together in one and the same close The Kingdoms of the world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. The Second Prophecy The Opened Book containing Fata Ecclesiae I. By the Inmost and Measured Court of the Temple I understand the Church in her Primitive Purity whenas yet the Christian Worship was unprophaned and answerable to the Divine Rule revealed from above By the War between Michael and the Dragon about the Woman 's manly Off-spring contemporary with the Measured Court I understand that long and bloudy Combate which Christ our Lord animating with his Spirit his undaunted Souldiers fought with the Devil possessing and reigning in the Ethnick Roman State that is the Times of the Primitive Persecution by the Heathen Emperors a War lasting long and costing the lives of many a valiant Martyr yet at 300 years end when a Christian was installed in the Imperial Throne the old Dragon was dismounted and overthrown and the Souldiers of Christ our Lord prevailed For they overcame him by the bloud of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony and loved not their lives unto the death Note that the Description of this Vision is double in the Text 1. more General The Dragon's endeavour to destroy the Woman's Off-spring from ver 1. to the 7. verse 2. more Particular of his Battel with Michael the Woman's Champion For that these two Descriptions are of the same thing and same time is manifest in that one and the same Event The Woman's escape into the Wilderness is the Consequent to them both II. 1. By the Second or Outward Court trampled by the Gentiles and not to be measured I understand the Apostasie under the Man of Sin when the Visible Church being possessed by Idolaters and Idolatry like that of the Gentiles became so inconformable and unapt for Divine measure that it was to be cast out and accounted as prophane and polluted For the Apostasie of the Church is Ethnicismus Christianus 2. By the Witnesses in sack-cloth I understand the mournful Prophecy of God's true Ministers during all that time who when toward the end of their days of mourning they should be about to put off their sack-cloth and leave their lamentation seeing the Truth they witnessed beginning to take place by publick Reformation the Beast which ascends out of the Abyss shall slay them and rejoyce over them as dead three days and an half that is so many years 3. By the Woman in the Wilderness Ch. 12. I understand the condition of the true Church in respect of her Latency and Invisibility to the eyes of man As the Israelites when they had escaped the rage and gotten out of the reach of the Egyptian Pharaoh yet lived a long time after but in a Wilderness an infrequent and barren place where they could not have lived without being extraordinarily fed with Manna from Heaven Such was the condition of the Apostolical Woman and Church of Christ when she had escaped the rage and fury of the Dragon persecuting in the Seven-headed Empire 4. By the Virgin-Company of the 144000 Sealed ones I understand the opposite State of the unstained Church unto the Kingdom of Apostasie in their sincerity of Service and faithful adherence to their Lord and Master whilst the rest worshipped the Beast and his Image These are those who when the Trumpets were to sound were secured by the Mark of Divine protection lest their Society should have been extinguished in those Calamities which then fell upon the Empire How could this Holy Company else but have perished in such Confusions In that place they were represented by the Tribes of Israel for the present Church of the Gentiles is but Israel surrogatus and so by God accounted until the Fulness of the Gentiles come in 5. By the Seven-headed Ten-horned Beast the Two horned False-Prophet and Babylon the Mother of Harlots I understand the State and Kingdom of Apostasie according to three subordinate parts thereof 1. The Body 2. the Head 3. the Seat For Kingdoms especially of the ancient form consisted of three parts Regnum Rex Metropolis Regni So in the Kingdom of Apostasie for such it was to be are Regnum Apostaticum Rex Apostaticus Metropolis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Kingdom of Apostasie was to be the Roman Empire upon a deadly wound of the Caesarean Sovereignty shivered into a Plurality of Kingdoms yet all joyntly as one Body anew acknowledging the Motherdom of the Roman City This is that Seven-headed Beast with Ten crowned Horns upon the Seventh Head whereof S. Iohn speaks Chap. 13. whose description there I understand as if he had said I saw a Beast with Seven Heads and Ten Horns with Diadems which upon the recovery of a deadly wound in one of his Heads arose out of the Sea and succeeded in the Throne Power and
the Events in Scripture 889. Iehoiakim not carried captive into Babylon Pag. 890 Ieremy's Prophesies not digested in order 834 Iews had a Second tender of Christ and upon their refusing it were cast off 164 though some of them believed yet the Body or Nation of the Iews rejected Christ and was therefore rejected 750. the manner and external means of their Conversion to be by Vision and Voice from Heaven 761. This argued from the manner of S. Paul's Conversion 761 891. and from the story of a miraculous conversion of many Iews as a Praeludium to their General Conversion 767. why God gave the Iews peculiar Rites and Observations 181 Ignatius his Epistles 327 Images were at first made for Daemoâ—s to dwell in c. 632 Image-worship brought in and promoted by lying stories 687. the great Opposition in the Greek and Eastern Churches against it for the space of 120 years 683 c. Impotency pretended doth not excuse us from our duty 308 Iohn Baptist a forerunner of Christ in his Nativity Preaching and Suffering 97 Isaac a Type of Christ. 50 51 Islands not taken always in Scripture for Countries encompassed by the Sea 272. Countries divided from the Iews by Sea were called Islands ibid. c. what they signifie in the Apocalyps according to the Prophetick style 450 Iudgment The description of the Great Iudgment when Christ shall sit on his Throne 841. a farther description of the Great Day of Iudgment 762 c. whence Christ and his Apostles received that term 754. the precise time thereof not to be known 895. K. KEri and Kerif See Hebrew Text King or Kingdom sometimes in Scripture put for any State or Polity 667 711 911. Kings of the East in Apocal. 16. 12. who are meant thereby 529 Kingdom of God or Heaven sometimes in Scripture signifies the Kingdom of Messiah 103. why it is so called 104. whence the Iews gave this term to the Kingdom of Messiah 103. a twofold state of Christ's Kingdom 104 the first state thereof called Regnum Lapidis the second Regnum Montis 743. the Time designed and prefixed for the coming and beginning of Christs Kingdom 104. it was to be set up in the Times of the Fourth Kingdom 745 754 c. That the Kingdom of Christ and the Saints in Dan. 7. is the same with that of 1000 years in Apocal. 20. 763. a twofold Kingdom one whereby Christ reigns in his Saints the other whereby they reign with him 573 Kingdoms 4 Kingdoms represented by Nebuchaduezzars Image of 4 sundry metals Dan. 2. and by 4 Beasts Dan. 7. the purport of them 743 c. why these 4 are singled out 712 713. That the Fourth is the Roman proved by 3 Arguments from p. 712 to 716. That these 4 Kingdoms are a Prophetical Chronology and the Great Kalendar of Times 654 The Kiss of Peace why so called 96 Kissing of the Pax whatâ— ibid. L. LActantius vindicated from the Antichiliasts 812 836 Lake of Fire and Brimstone why Hell so described 33 Lamps That the 7 Lamps in the Temple signified the 7 Archangels 833 Larvati why Mad-men so called 29 Last hour or time the End of all are meant of the End of the Iewish State and Service and not of the End of the World 664 Last times a twofold acception of them in Scripture 652. That the times of the Fourth Beast or Roman Kingdom are the Last times 654 c. their Epocha or beginning 656. their duration and length 655 Latter times of the Last times are the times of the Apostasie under Antichrist 653 655 Law may be considered either 1 as a Rule or 2 as a Covenant of works how Believers are not under the Law 114 In what respects the Law is dissolved or not dissolved by Christ 12 How Gods Law alone binds the conscience 208 209 Lawenus his Stricturâ— in Clavem Apocal. 541. the occasion of his writing them 783. his way of interpreting the Apocalyps 754 782. a full answer to his Stricturâ— 550 Law-giver why Christ so called in Genes 49. and what is meant by that phrase Law-giver from between his feet 35 Lay-Elders See Elders Legends Fabulous Legends their grosseness and the design of them 678 681 c. Levi what the name signifies 178. why Levi was chosen for the Priesthood 179 180. why called Gods Holy one 180 181. his Favoured one 181 Locusts what they signifie in the Prophetick style 467 c. Lords-day why observed by Christians 57. a Testimony for it out of Euseâ—ius 851 Lords-prayer twice delivered by Christ 2. intended not only for a Pattern but a Form of Prayer ibid. Lords-supper See Christian Sacrifice Lying unto the Holy Ghost what is meant thereby 118 M. MAgog See Gog. Mahuzzim in Dan. 11. the word signifies Fortresses Bulwarks Protectors Guardians c. That Saints and their Reliques were so called at the beginning of Saint-worship 673 c. Manna why so called 245. how it differed from the Apothecaries or the Arabian Manna 245 246. how it was Spiritual meat and a Type of Christ. 247 Mark To have the Mark of the Beast in the right hand or in the forehead Apocal. 〈◊〉 what it means 509 511 Marriage the Roman laws for it discountenanced by Constantine 672. Prohibition of Marriage a character of Monastick profession 688 Martyrs their privilege to riâ—e first 604 771 775. their Reign misinterpreted to an Idolatrous sense 759 why Christians anciently kept their assemblies at their Monuments 679. Martyrium Omeritarum 768 Mass Reasons against the lurching Sacrifice of the Mass wherein the Priest receives alone 253 254. In the Mass the ancient Offering of Praise is turned into an Offering of Expiation 293. How the Oblation of the ancient Church differed from that in the Mass 295. The Blasphemous Oblation in the Mass justly taken away 376. That the ancient Church never intended any Hypostatical oblation of Christ. 376 c. Meat put in Scripture for all necessaries of life 689. Abstinence from meats a character of Monastick profession 688 Meekness in the Scripture-use is of a larger signification than in Ethicks 161 Melancholia and Mania how they differ 29 Memorial why that which was burned upon the Altar was so called 342 Memorial of Gods Name what 341 Merit the word abused and in what sense tolerable 176 Messiah the Prince in Dan. 9 meant only of Christ. 700 Methodius Bishop of Tyre a passage out of him touching the Millennium 843 Michael in Apocal. 12. who 495 Middle estate or a Competency the best and safest condition 129 Millennium or the 1000 years Reign of Christ not to be understood in any gross carnal sense 603 836 837. to be asserted modestly and warily so as not to clash with any Catholick Tenet of the Christian Faith 603. to be propounded generally not particulatim seu modatim 571. a General description of it 603. no necessity of asserting Christs visible converse upon Earth Ibid. this Opinion of Regnum Christi Sanctorum was universally held by the
Cor. 11. 22. Have ye not Houses to eat and drink in or despise ye the Church of God and verse 34. If any man hunger let him eat at home c. c In answer to that Question Whether may the Holy Oblation or Eucharist be celebrated in a common house he affirms That as the Word doth not allow that any common vessel or utensil should be brought into places that are Sacred carried through the Temple Mark 11. 16. so likewise doth it forbid that the Holy Mysteries should be celebrated in a common house For neither would the Old Testament permit any such thing to be done nor our Lord who said There is here one greater than the Temple Matth. 12 6. nor the Apostle saying Have ye not Houses to eat and drink in c. Whâ—nce we may learn That we ought not to take our common supper in the Church nor should we dishonour the Lord's Supper by eating it in a private house But if one be necessitated to communicate in private let him then chuse out the most clean and decent house or room for such a purpose and withal see that he do it in the fittest and most seasonable time d Despise ye the Church of God e Making it a place for common feasts and banquettings f Behold a fourth charge That not the poor only but also the Church it self is injur'd For as hereby thou makest the Lord's Supper a private Supper so thou dealest no better with the Place in that thou usest the Church as a private and ordinary house g If ye come together to feast it do this in your own Houses for to do thus in the Church is a manifest contempt a plain dishonour done to the Church For how can it but seem a thing wholy indecorous and absurd for you to fare deliciously in the Temple of God where the Lord himself is present who hath prepared for us a common table when at the same time those Christians that are poor are hungry and out of countenance by reason of their poverty * Isidorus Pâ—lusiota lib. 2. Ep. 246. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whâ—â—â— note that of two câ—p 〈…〉 place the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 Copy are deficient in the first them but to bâ— supplied out of this the second or repetition of the same thing as the Reader that considers it will observe the Antithesis requires * Coenacula dicuâ—tur ad quae sâ—â—â—â— ascenditur lest Inde Ennio Coenacula maxima coeli a The Upper room of Sion * For these Traditions see Adricomius ex Nicephor c. and 〈…〉 infra de locis sanctis Iohn 20. 6. Acts 6. Acts 15. Epist. 27. Psal. 87. 1 2. a Her foundations are in the holy mountains the Lord loveth the gates of Sion more than all the dwellings of Iacob Acts 4. 34 35. b In the upper plain of Mount Sion there are cells of Monks encompassing that great Church which was founded there as they say by the Apostles because that there they received the Holy Ghost and there also is to be seen the venerable place of the institution and first celebration of the Lord's Supper 〈…〉 c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The breaking of the Eucharist 1 Cor. 10. 16. a And he came down to Caesarea and went up into the House of the Christians that is the Church and saluted them and departed thence to Antioch Hist. Eccl. l. 2. cap. 17. b Philo having described what kind of habitations they had proceeds to speak of their Churches which were frequently to be met with in several places of their Country How that the Sacred House was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Worshipping-place and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Monastery wherein these solitary livers perfomed the Mysteries of a severely-religious life bringing in thither not meat nor drink nor any other necessaries for the use of the Body but the Books of the Law the Prophets the Psalms or Hymns and the like things of Sacred use whereby Divine knowledge and Piety might be encreased and advanced to great perfection * 〈◊〉 Const. 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. 〈…〉 David 〈◊〉 canat populus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extremitates versuum non versuum initia ut male interpres Bovius * He mentions it Hist Eccl. l. 5. cap. 1. * Lib. 7. c. penult a They were so eminently religious as that they converted their own House into a Church Or else it is said The Church at their House because all of their houshold were Believers and faithful Christians so that their House or Family was a little Church b He was a person of great esteem for he turned his House into a Church * Or whosoever else were the Author thereof under Trajan whose then fresh success in subduing the Parthians and Arabians contrary to the unlucky presages of some his scope seems to have been to gratulate See Iacobus Miâ—yllus in Argumento a We passed through iron gates and over brazen thresholds and by many winding ascents we came at last to the house or room whose roof was overlaid with gold not unlike to what Homer makes Menelaus his house to have been And now I beheld and observ'd all things therein but I could see no Helena there but on the contrary a company of persons with their bodies bowed down and pale countenances * Pag. 52. See this of Clemens quoted in Greek and translated by the Author in the next Discourse Sect. 1. toward the end Ab Ann. 100 ad 200. a This passage out of Ignatius is thus translated by the Author in another M S. copy of this Discourse All of you meet together for prayer in one place let there be one prayer common to all one mind one hope in love in the immaculate faith in Iesus Christ than whom nothing is better All of you as one man run to the Temple of God as to one Altar to one Iesus Christ the High-Priest of the unbegotten God b One Altar to every Church and One Bishop with the Presbytery Deacons my fellow-servants 1 Tâ—m 2. 5. c On Sunday all that live in towns or in the country meet together in one place d To set up another Altar e One Altar to all the Church and One Bishop with the Presbytery and Deacons a Let the Door-keepers stand at the entries of the men looking well to them the Deaconisses at the doors where the women were to enter * Holy Porches * Lib. 6. c. 14. al. 21. Vid. Graec. a In Graeco 27. b In Graeco 12. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid. Epiphan Exposit Eidâ—i cathol c. 21. De duobus ulâ—imis Const. Apol. l. 8. c. 24 26. b See Act. 11. 26. Sâ—cr lib. 6. c. 8. Tâ—â—od l. 2. c. 24. 2. * In Tom 1 Biblioth Patrum edit Parisâ—â—ns ex Ardâ—ivo Viennensi * The word Missa seems to have been long used in Italy before it was elsewhere a As in
chiefly that Commandment That no man should appear before the Lord empty that is Let no man that comes to pray before the Lord appear empty-handed But because the first was very ordinary among the Iews my Text by a Trope only names it in stead of the whole kind of Euctical offerings Pay thy Vows that is when in praying before me thou shalt vow a gift to me or mine if I shall hear thee or at thy prayer dost exhibit the same before me that thou mightest find favour in my sight such Offerings are well pleasing unto me such Offerings will I accept at thine hands Offer therefore unto me praise and pay thy vows unto the most High This last word most High will serve us in stead of a Reason why God should require this kind of service at our hands Because he is the most High God Offer unto God an Offering of Thanksgiving because he is the most High God that is the chiefest and highest Cause of all that thou hast received Offer unto God when thou hast a suit unto him because he is the most High God that is the Lord of Lords the highest Lord and therefore it doth little beseem thee to appear before him without a present when thou wouldest do it unto thine earthly Lord if thou hadst a suit unto him Now also the Lord as he is the most High God so lie ever was and ever shall be the most High and therefore this kind of Offering is due unto God naturally and perpetually Therefore both Iew and Gentile must offer unto God Praise and make and pay their Vows unto the most High For these are Offerings made to God for a cause unchangeable our Subjection and his Greatness our receipt of daily benefits and his daily showers of blessings These therefore even among the Iews and under the Law he did accept without any regard of Type simply and for themselves and these among the Gentiles he only accepts when all the rest are quite abolished Those other he rejects because Christ who was then to suffer and to be offered is not now to be offered any more These he will still accept because the most High God then is the most High God still and shall be evermore HAVING briefly shewn the scope and meaning of these words and what these Offerings of Praise and Votal offerings are which God did chiefly accept in the Law and will only admit in the Gospel there remain yet in my purpose these things to be treated of 1. To distinguish this Moral kind of Offerings from the rest in use under the Law I will take a short Survey of all the Offerings then used 2. I will give some infallible marks whereby we may know this kind of Offerings from those whose End was to figure and represent things to come 3. I will bring some Reasons to prove That the main End of those Offerings I call Eucharistical and Votal was not Ceremonial but Moral 4. Lastly I will shew how far and in what sort these Eucharistical and Votal Offerings have been used in the first ages of the Church specially about the holy Sacrament and at the celebration of the Lord's Supper and how the blind ignorance of after-times turned them into â—xpiatory Sacrifices which were only a real Thanksgiving and a kind of real Praying unto God To begin therefore with the First All the Offerings in the Law were either Oblationes Sanctae simply Holy or Sanctae Sanctarum most Holy or Holy of holies This division is founded in the Scripture it self and without this division it is impossible either to bring the multitude of Offerings into method or to understand the End Scope and Use of them aright The Holy Offerings are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Terumoth which we translate Heave-offerings the Holy of holies or most Holy Offerings are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Corbanim And the Scripture is so precise in these words as I dare affirm though one of them be used sixty times they are never confounded but Terumoth is only given to Offerings simply Holy and Corbanim only to those who were Sanctae Sanctarum or Holy of holies Now for the reason of this difference of Holy and Holy of holies it is this The Heave-offering is called simply Holy because it was only consecrate to God and had no other Holiness but this The Corban is called Holy of holies because it was not only consecrate to God as was the other but was also a Shadow and Type of Holy things to come and hence it had a priviledge that whatsoever it should touch that should be Holy also as we may see Exod. 29. 37. chap. 30. 29. Which was a Mystery of that Holy one who by the union of Faith should one day sanctifie us and whatsoever is ours as it is Heb. 10. verse 10 14. The Corban therefore or the most Holy Offering I define An Offering of fire figuring the satisfaction which Christ was one day to perform to God for us And therefore the faithful Iew was to present this Corban before God and lay his hand upon it as it were presenting unto God Christ who was to come and apprehending him by the hand of Faith But the Priest alone was to offer it and to eat up whatsoever remained from the fire and that in the Holy place that so the Sacrifice it self being turned into the Sacrificer might foreshew that our great Priest and great Sacrifice should be one and the same that is that Christ should offer himself for us to God his Father and that he should do it in the Holy City whereon the name of God was called Now every Corban or most Holy Offering was of two parts or if you will two kinds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zebach I define a Corban or a most Holy Offering where by the slaughter and shedding of the bloud of Beasts was figured the Expiation of sin to be wrought by the death and passion of Christ to come For our Expiation could not be wrought but by death and the effusion of bloud and therefore God here made choice of Beasts for Types because they were capable of death and shedding of bloud This Offering is by a special name called The bloudy Sacrifice and the LXX in Amos 5. 22. turn it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both properly and alluding to the word Zebach the Latines well call it Hostia and Victima Mincha was a Corban for the most part joyned to a Zebach or Bloudy Sacrifice where by the burning and ascending of inanimate things as Meats and Drinks was shadowed the Obedience and Merits of Christ to come which God would accept for our want of Obedience By Obedience here I understand Christ's Active obedience whereby he fulfilled the Law for us not by his unvaluable Death but by a blameless Life for which of you saith he convinceth me of sin Here therefore was no
need of Beasts for Types but Meats and Drinks for godly works are as it were Meat and Drink to preserve that life which is according to Godliness This Corban we turn the Meat-and-Drink-offerings others Munus the Gentiles called it Libum But I said This Offering was commonly adjoyned to the Zebach or Bloudy Sacrifice for sometimes it is separate from it For to this Mincha I refer the holy Incense which was within the Temple which figured that continual sweet favour and Incense of the Merits and Obedience which Christ presents unto his Father in a Temple not made with hands that is in Heaven Again both Zebach and Mincha the Bloudy Sacrifice with its Meat-and-Drink-Offering were of differing kinds and for differing Ends. For either kind was Simple or Diverse Simple I call that which all of it was most holy and the whole was to shadow out the Satisfaction of Christ. And this was either for Internal sins or for External For Internal sins that is the sins of our Hearts Thoughts and Affections was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holocaust or Burnt-offering For External sins or evil deeds were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sin-offering and the Trespass-offering as we call them the one if I am not deceived for Sins against the First Table to wit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Trespass-offering the other for sins of the Second Table But because our Internal sins or sins of Infirmity are peccata jugia continual and daily sins therefore the Holocaust or Burnt-offering was continual and daily offered the Sin-offering and Trespass-offering were not so and yet whensoever they were offered they were offered with a Burnt-offering to shew that our Evil works cannot be expiated and made pure unless the Heart the fountain whence they spring be also purged A Diverse Sacrifice or Varium Sacrificium I call that which was not wholy most Holy neither was all of it to figure the Offering of Christ to come So that it was partly holy and partly most holy Such a one was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Peace-offering which I define A Corban part whereof was burnt upon the Altar as in other Sacrifices but the remainder and greater part was eaten by the faithful people who brought it that so their Sacrifice by being turned into their bodies nourishment might be a Sign of their incorporation into Christ to come who was the true Sacrifice for sin Here that which was eaten by the People was not most Holy for then had it belonged only to the Priest but it was a Sacrament and a Communion of that Sacrifice which was offered and signified Christ whose Bloud was to be shed and Body broken for their atonement Rightly therefore was it called a Sacrifice of Peace as being a Ceremony or Sacrament of Peace and Communion with Christ Iesus and by him with God the Father The Greeks commonly call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Eucharistical sacrifice it being to be celebrated with both oral and real Thanksgiving to God as for the same reason our Sacrament of Peace is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Eucharist which our Saviour Christ hath ordained in stead of that Eucharistical Sacrifice under the Law And of this kind were the ordinary Sacrifices of the Gentiles of which the Christians were forbidden to eat because they who in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper had communion with Christ already come as the Iews in the Peach-offerings had communion with Christ who was to come might have no peace and communion with Devils as the Greeks had in their sacrifice as S. Paul after he had compared these three together concludes 1 Cor. 10. 21. Ye cannot drink the Cup of the Lord and the Cup of Devils ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's Table and of the Table of Devils Out of which place and the Epistle to the Hebrews you may gather all that I have said hitherto of the Vse and Ends of the Corbanim or most Holy Offerings This affinity of the Eucharistical sacrifice with the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper moved the ancient Christians to frame the Office of the Lord's Supper as near as could be unto the Office of the Eucharistical Sacrifice as might be easily shewn in most particulars BUT now will I leave The most holy Offerings and come to Those which had but a single holiness which I said before were called Terumoth or Heave-offerings more seldom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tenuphoth or Wave-offerings both from the manner of offering them which was not by Fire as in the most Holy but by holding up or shaking them before the Lord. A Terumah therefore or Heave-offering I define thus An Offering made unto God of that we have received in way of thankfulness or acknowledgement of his dominion over the whole earth or thus more shortly An Offering made only unto the praise and honour of God and therefore it is Levit. 19. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sanctum laudationum an holy thing of praise or an offering of praise And to this purpose are those words of David unto God 1 Chron. 29. 11 12 13 14. whenas himself and the Princes of Israel had offered an huge Terumah of Gold and Silver for the building of the Temple Thine O Lord saith he is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and majesty for all that is in heaven and in earth is thine Thine is the Kingdom O Lord and thou art exalted as Head above all Both riches and honour come of thee and thou reignest over all Now therefore our God we thank and praise namely by this Heave-offering thy glorious Name For all things come of thee and of thine own hand we have given thee Now the Terumah or Heave-offering was either Definite or Indefinite A Definite Heave-offering was the Tenth of all increase and this alone was certain both in regard of the things to be offered and the measure according to which they were to be offered The Indefinite Terumah was either Commanded or Free That which was Commanded was either General as the First-fruits or Special as the Heave-offering of the breast and shoulder of the Peace-offerings and of one loaf of the Meat-offering of the same and these the Greeks call fitly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Freewill-offering or voluntary Heave-offering was either more or less solemn The most solemn and usual was that which the Hebrews call Terumah-gedola which indeed was ordinary but I think no where absolutely commanded Voluntary Heave-offerings less usual were the Offerings of Gold Silver Land and whatsoever else they might give unto the use of the Lord his Temple and Ministers AND thus have we seen all the Kinds of the Offerings in the Law both holy and most holy and I think there is no Offering to be found but it belongs to some of these I have named either