prayer for the house of Onesiphorus for like good service done to the Offices of Gods House The Lord saith he grant unto him that he may finde mercy of the Lord in that day that is the day of Judgement which is Tempus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when every one shall receive according to his work The controversie therefore between the Romanists and us is not whether there be a reward promised unto our works we know the Scripture both of the Old and New Testament is full of testimonies that way and encourageth us to work in hope of the reward laid up for us We know that in keeping of Gods Commandements there is great reward Psa. 19. 11. And that unto him that soweth in righteousnesse shall be a sure reward Prov. 11. 18. We know our Saviour saith Mat. 5. 12. Blessed are ye when men revile and persecute you for great is your reward in heaven Also that he that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward And whosoever shall give a cup of gold water only to one of his little ones in the name of a Disciple shall not lose his reward Mat. 10. Again we read Luk. 6. 35. Love your enemies Do good and lend and your reward shall be great and ye shall be the children of the Highest we know also what S. Iohn saith 2 Ep. v. 8. Look to your selves that ye lose not those things which ye have wrought but that ye may receive a full reward But the Question is Whence this Reward commeth whether from the worth or worthinesse of the work as a debt of Justice due thereto or from Gods mercy as a recompence freely bestowed out of Gods gracious bounty and not in justice due to the worth of the work it self Which Question me thinks Nehemiah here in my Text may determine when he saith Remember me ô Lord for my good deeds according to thy great mercy And the Prophet Hosea Chap. 10. 12. when he biddeth us Sow to our selves in righteousnesse and reap in mercy And S. Paul Rom. 6. 23. where though he saith that the wages of sin is death yet when he comes to eternall life he changeth his style But saith he eternall life is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gracious gift of God through Iesus Christ. For as for our works they are imperfect and whatsoever they were we owed them to him in whom we live and have our being whether there were any reward or not promised for them Neither do we hereby any whit detract from that Axiome That God rewardeth every man according to his work For still the question remaineth the very same Whether there may not be as wel merces gratiae as merces justitiae that is Whether God may not judge a man according to his works when he sits upon the Throne of Grace as well as when he sits upon his Throne of Justice And we think here that the Prophet David hath fully cleared the case in that one sentence Psa. 62. 12. With thee ô Lord is mercy for thou rewardest every one according to his work Nay more then this we deny not but in some sense this reward may be said to proceed of Justice For howsoever originally and in it self we hold it commeth from Gods free bounty and mercy who might have required the work of us without all promise of reward for as I said we are his creatures and owe our being unto him yet in regard he hath covenanted with us and tied himself by his word and promise to conferte such a reward the reward now in a sort proveth to be an Act of Justice namely of Iustitia promissi on Gods part not of merit on ours Even as in forgiving our sins which in it self all men know to be an Act of Mercy he is said to be Faithfull and Iust 1 Ioh. 1. 9. namely of the faithfull performance of his promise for promise we know once made amongst honest men is accounted a due debt But this argues no more any worthinesse of equality in the work towards the obtaining of the reward then if a promise of a Kingdome were made to one if he should take up a straw it would follow thence that the lifting up of a straw were a labour of a work worth a Kingdome howsoever he that should so promise were bound to give it Thus was Moses carefull to put the children of Israel in minde touching the Land of Canaan which was a type of our eternall habitation in heaven that it was a Land of promise and not of merit which God gave them to possesse not for their righteousnesse or for their upright heart but that he might perform the word which he sware unto their Fathers Abraham Isant and Iaacob Whereupon the Levites in this book of Nehemiah say in their prayer to God Thou madest a Covenant with Abraham to give to his seed the Land of the Canaanites and hast performed thy word because thou art just that is true and faithfull in keeping thy promise Now because the Lord hath made a like promise of the Crown of life to them that love him S. Paul sticks not in like manner to attribute this also to Gods Justice Henceforth saith he 2 Tim. 4. 8. is laid up for me a crown of righteousnesse which the righteous Iudge shall give me at that day and not to me only but to all them that love his appearing Upon which S. Bernard most sweetly as he is wont Est ergo quam Paulus expectat corona Iustitiae sed justitiae Dei non suae Iustum quippe est ut reddat quod debet debet autem quod pollicitus est Lastly for the word merit It is not the name we so much scruple at as the thing wont now adays to be understood thereby otherwise we confesse the name might be admitted if taken in the large and more generall sense for any work having relation to a reward to follow it or whereby a reward is quocunque modo obtained In a word as the correlatum indifferent either to merces gratiae or justitiae For thus the Fathers used it and so might we have done still if some of us had not grown too proud and mistook it since we think it better and safer to disuse it even as Physitians are wont to prescribe their Patients recovered of some desperate disease not to use any more that meat or diet which they finde to have caused it And here give me leave to acquaint you with an Observation of a like alteration of speech and I suppose for the self-same cause happening under the old Testament namely of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 changed into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Righteousnesse into that which findeth mercy for so the Septuagint and the new Testament with them render the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iustitia not only when it is taken for beneficience or alms as in that Tongue it is the ordinary word in which use we are wont
darknesse in this world against spirituall wickednesse in high places Thus then having seen the marshalling of these two Armies which are at so deadly an enmity let us at last see the successe of their skirmishes and of the stratagems which they practise one against the other these are described on the Devils part very terrible that his head should be mauled But on Christs side the losse should be very small the Devil prevailing but to the wounding or bruising of his heel But what is this Head of the Serpent and what the Heel of the womans seed Those who understand the seed of the woman singularly of the person of Christ only make his head to be the Godhead against which the Serpent could prevail nothing but his heel to be the manhood which the Serpent so bruised at his Passion that the grave became his bed for three days together This indeed is true and no marvell for the head is as it were the whole bodies epitome But we who have expounded the seed of the woman collectively of Christ and his Members must also in this mysticall body find a mysticall head and a mysticall heel and so in like manner for the Serpent and his seed The Head therefore or if you had rather Headship is nothing else but Soveraignty The Serpents head is the Devils Soveraignty which is called â—rincipatus mortis the Soveraignty of death namely both objectivè and effectivè that is such a Soveraignty as under which are only such as are liable to death both temporall and eternall and such a Soveraignty whose power consists not in saving and giving of life but in destroying and bringeth unto death both of body and soul. Under the name also of death understand as the Scripture doth all other miseries of mankind which are the companions of this double death I speak of This is that damnable head of the Serpent the Devillish Soveraignty of Satan Now the Sword whereby this Soveraignty was obtained the Scepter whereby it is maintained or as S. Paul speaks the sting of this Serpents head is Sin This is that which got him this Kingdome at the first and this is still the right whereby he holds the greatest part thereof Imporium iisdem artibus conservatur quibus acquiritur This Soveraignty of the Devil which once overwhelmed nigh all the world the womans seed should break in pieces and destroy which according to this Prophecy we see already performed in a great measure and the grounds laid long ago for the destruction of all that remaineth As saith S. Iohn Ep. 1. c. 3. v. 8. The Son of God is revealed for this purpose that he might destroy the works of the Devil And Christ himself said that the time was come that the Prince of this world should be cast out and bade his Disciples be of good chear for he had overcome the world If you would see what a wonderfull victory he hath long ago gotten of the Serpent when after a terrible battell he overcame and destroid the Soveraignty of the Serpent in the Romane Empire see it described in the 12. of the Revelation where a Michael that is Christ and his Angels fought against the great Dragon and his Angels till the Dragon with all his Army was discomfited and their place found no more in heaven that is he utterly lost his Soveraignty in that state whence there was a voice in heaven Now is come salvation strength and the Kingdome of our God and the power of his Christ. And what he will at the length do with the remainder yet of the Devils Soveraignty you may finde in the 19. and 20 of the Revelation For he must reign as S. Paul saith untill he hath put all his enemies under his feet untill he hath destroyed all power rule and authority adverse unto him And then last of all destroying death by giving immortality to our raised bodies shall surrender up his Kingdome unto his Father as it is 1 Cor. 15. But Satan saith my Text shall prevail something against him for the Serpent shall bruise his heel What is this heel Those who understood the seed of the woman singularly as I told you made it Christs Manhood But how we expound the seed Christs mysticall body what shall we make the heel thereof I could say that by it were only meant a light wound or the Devils assaulting the Body of Christ ex insidiis at unawares for that is his fashion since the great overthrow which our Michael gave him to work his feats underhand and to undermine our Lord in his members But this though true is not full enough It may seem therefore the fittest to make hypocriticall Christians who professe Christ outwardly but inwardly are not his to make those the heel of his mysticall body for against such the Devil we know prevaileth somewhat and by them annoyeth the rest of the Body with his venome though he be far enough yet from impeaching our Lords Headship and Soveraignty But will you give me leave to utter another conceit If the blessed souls in heaven be the upper part of Christs mysticall Body the Saints on earth the lower part of the same may not the bodies of the Saints deceased which lye in the earth be accounted for the heel for I cannot beleeve but they have relation to this mysticall Body though their souls be severed from them and yet must that relation be as of the lowest and most postick members of all If you will admit this then it will appear presently what was this hurt upon the heel when Christ had once mauled the Devils head for the Text seems to intimate that the Devil should give this wound after his head was broken I will hold you in suspence no longer read the 13. of the Revelation and see what follows upon Michaels Victory over the Dragon what the Devil did when he was down He forms a new instrument of the wounded Roman Empire by whose means under a pretence of the honour given to the precious reliques of the Saints and Martyrs he conveyed the poison of Saint-worship and Saint-invocation into the Kingdome of Christ with which wound of the heel the Devil comming on the blinde side the true Church had been long annoyed and limpeth still THE Christian Sacrifice OR The Solemne VVorship in the EVCHARIST Foretold by the Prophet Malachi Taught by our blessed SAVIOUR AND Practised by the Primitive CHVRCH BY JOSEPH MEDE B. D. and late Fellow of Christs Colledge in CAMBRIDGE LONDON Printed by M. F. for JOHN CLARK and are to be sold at his Shop under S. Peters Church in Cornhill MDC XLVIII THE Christian Sacrifice MALACHI 1. 11. Abortu solis usque ad occasum magnum erit nomen meum in Gentibus in omni loco offeretur Incensum Nomini meo Munus purum quia magnum erit nomen meum in gentibus dicit Dominus exercituum THIS place of Scripture howsoever now in a manner silenced and forgotten was once and
observation of those precepts whch the Hebrew Doctors call the precepts of the sons of Noah namely such as all the sons of Noah were bound to observe These precepts are in number seven recorded in the Talmud Maymonides and others under these following titles First the precept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to renounce Idols and all Idolatrous worship Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to worship the true God the Creator of Heaven and Earth Thirdly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bloodshed to wit to commit no murder Fourthly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 detectio nuditatum not to be defiled with fornication incest or other unlawfull conjunction Fiftly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rapina against theft and robbery Sixtly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning administration of Justice The seventh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Membrum de vivo so they call the Precept of not eating the flesh with the blood in it given to Noah when he came out of the Ark as Maymonides expresly expounds it and addes besides Quicunque haec sep tem praecepta exequenda susceperit ecce is est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex piis gentium mundi habetque partem in seculo futuro Note that he saith ex piis Gentium for this kinde were still esteemed Gentiles and so called because of their uncircumcision in respect whereof though no Idolaters they were according to the Law unclean and such as no Jew might converse with wherefore they came not to worship into the Sacred Courts of the Temple whither the Jews and circumcised Proselytes came but onely into the outmost Court called Atrium Gentium immundorum which in the second Temple surrounded the second or great Court whereinto the Israelites came being divided there-from by a low wall of stone made battlement-wise not above three Cubits high called saith Iosephus from whom I have it in the Hebrew Dialect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Lorica close by which stood certain little pillars whereon was written in Latin and Greek Letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In atrium sanctum transire alienigenam non debere And this I make no question is that which Saint Paul Ephes. 2. alluded unto when he saith That Christ had broken down the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the partitionwall namely that Lorica which separated the Court of the Gentiles from that of the Circumcision and so laying both Courts into one hath made the Jews and Gentiles Intercommoners whereby those that were sometime far off were now made nigh and as near as the other unto the Throne of God But in Solomons Temple this Court of the Gentiles seems not to have been but in the second Temple onely the Gentiles formerly worshipping without at the door and not coming within the Septs of the Temple at all This second kinde of Proselytes the Talmudists call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proselyti portae or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proselyti inquilini because they were under the same condition with those Gentile strangers which lived as inquilini in the land of Israel For all Gentiles dwelling within the Gates of Israel whether they were as servants taken in war or otherwise were bound to renounce their false Gods and to worship the God of Israel but not to be circumcised unlesse they would nor farther bound to keep the Law of Moses then was contained in those precepts of the sons of Noah These are those mentioned as often elsewhere in the Law so in the fourth Commandment by the name of the Stranger within thy gates whereby it might seem probable that the observation of the Sabbath day so far as concerneth one day in seven was included in some one or other of those precepts of the sons of Noah namely in that of worshipping for their God the Creator of heaven and earth and no other whereof this consecration of a seventh day after six dayes labour was a badge or livery according to that The sabbath is a signe between me and you that I Iehovah am your God because in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth the sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day vide Exod. 31. 16 17. Ezek. 20. 20. From the example of these inquilini all other Gentiles wheresoever living admitted to the worship of the God of Israel upon the same terms were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proselyti Portae or Proselyti inquilini of which sort there were many in all Cities and places of the Gentiles where the Jews had Synagogues and used to frequent the Synagogues with them though in a distinct place to hear the Law and the Prophets read and expounded But in the New Testament they are found called by another name to wit of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Worshippers so often mentioned though not observed in the Acts of the Apostles For first these are those meant in that of the Acts 17. 4. alleadged at my entrance into this discourse where it is said that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great number of the worshipping Greeks beleeved and adhered to Paul and Silas which the Vulgar rightly translateth de colentibus Gentilibus multitudo magna taking the name of Greeks here as elsewhere in the New Testament to be put for Gentiles in generall And this place will admit of no evasion For that they were Gentiles the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 betokeneth expresly being given them by way of distinction from the Jews then and there present also That they were worshippers of the true God the God of Israel their coming into the Synagogue their name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their capablenesse of S. Pauls discourse which was to prove out of the Scriptures that Messiah was to suffer death and that Iesus was he argues sufficiently yea abundantly For who could have profited by such a Sermon as this but those who already had knowledge of the true God and beleeved the reward of the life to come This place therefore may serve as a key to all the rest of the places in this Book where these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are mentioned To that in the same Chapter ver 17. where it is said that Saint Paul in the Synagogue at Athens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disputed with the Iews and the worshippers To that Acts 16. 14. where Saint Paul preaching the Gospel in the Jews Proseucha or Oratory at Philippi a woman named Lydia a seller of purple of the City Thyatira 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A proselyte worshipper was converted unto the faith and baptized with all her houshold In the like manner to Acts 18. 4. when S. Paul is said at Corinth to have reason'd in the Synagogues every Sabbath and to have perswaded the Jews and the Greeks For these Greeks were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what did they in the Synagogues else so regularly every Sabbath day True the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is here wanting But it
there to his son is good with fasting and with alms and righteousnesse A little with righteousnesse is better then much with unrighteousnesse It is better to give alms then to lay up gold 9. For alms doth deliver from death and shall purge away all sin Those that exercise alms and righteousnesse shall be filled with life Here in the Greek copy alms and righteousnesse are exegetically put the one to expound the other but in the Hebrew there is but one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for them both that being the word in that language for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hence in the Syriack Translation of the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iustitia and so in the Arabick Hence Mat. 6. 1. for Take heed that you do not your alms before men as we reade it the vulgar Latine and some Greek Copies have Attendite ne justitiam vestram faciatis coram hominibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Namely as the word charity with us though in the larger sense it signifies our whole duty both to God and man is restrained to signifie our liberality to the poor so is the word Righteousnesse in the Orientall Languages If Righteousnesse therefore signifie Beneficence and Bounty then is the righteous according to this notion the bountifull man or as we speak the charitable And that it is so taken in my Text both the generall scope of the Psalm and the connexion with the words before and after is proof sufficient for before goes this A good man sheweth favour and lendeth he will guide his affairs with judgement Surely he shall not be moved for ever Then come the words of my Text The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance After it follows this He hath dispersed he hath given to the poor his righteousnesse remaineth for ever which S. Paul alledgeth 2 Cor. 9. to promote their collection for the poor Saints at Jerusalem For illustration of this and our further information it will not be amisse I hope to commend to your observation some other places of Scripture where the word righteous is thus taken as namely Psal. 37. 21. The wicked borroweth and payeth not again but the righteous sheweth mercy and giveth Again Psal. 25. 26. I have been young and now am old yet have I not seen the righteous for saken nor his seed begging their bread He is ever mercifull and lendeth and his seed is blessed Here the righteous is the mercifull and bountifull to whom namely this blessing that his seed shall not want is proper and peculiar The same use is Prov. 10. 2. Treasures of wickednesse profit nothing but righteousnesse delivereth from death The same is repeated again cap. 11. 4. Riches profit not in the day of wrath but righteousnesse delivereth from death Where righteousnesse to be taken for alms is apparent out of Tobit 12. where it is so applied and rendred namely Alms doth deliver from death I could adde also another place Prov. 21. 28. but these shall be sufficient Hence appears their error who conceive of the nature of Alms as of an arbitrary thing which they may do if they will or not do without sin as that which carries no obligation with it but is left freely to every mans discretion And this makes some contend so much to have the Priests maintenance granted to be eleemosynary that so they might be at liberty to give something or nothing as they listed But if that were so yet if Alms be Iustitia in the Hebrew tongue and the language which our Saviour spake If our Saviour call'd them Iustitia when he mentioned them who dare affirm then that Iustitia implies no obligation or that a man may leave it undone without sinne So much for the subject The Righteous The next is the Praedicate shall be in everlasting remembrance In remembrance I said with God and men with God in the life to come and this life Let us consider the first The world to come It is certain that at the day of Judgement we shall receive our doom according to our works of charity and mercy and that of all the works that a Christian man hath done these alone have that peculiar priviledge to bee then brought in expresse remembrance before God Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the world For I was an hungred 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 c. For asmuch as ye have done thus unto the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me Matth. 25. What doth my Text say The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance God remembers our good deeds when he rewards them as he doth our prayers when he hears them If to remember then be to reward an everlasting reward is an everlasting remembrance 'T is remarkable that this priviledge which the works of Bounty and Mercy shall have at the day of Judgement was not unknown to the Jews themselves for so we read in the Chaldee Paraphrast upon Ecclesiastes Futurum est ut Dominus mundi dicat omnibus justis ante se constitutis Vade gusta cum gaudio panem tuum ut statutum est pro pane quem dedisti pauperibus obscuris qui esuriebant bibe corde bono vinum quod repositum est tibi in horto Eden id est Paradiso pro vino quod miseuisti pauperibus obscuris qui sitiebant quia ecce modò accepta sunt opera tua bona coram Domino The reason of this prelation of works of mercy at that great day is because all we can expect at the hands of our heavenly Father is meerly of his mercy and bounty we can hope for nothing but mercy without mercy we are undone according to that of Nehemiah in his last Chap. Remember me ô Lord concerning this and spare me according to the greatnesse of thy mercy Now in those that are to be partakers of mercy the divine wisdome requires this congruity that they may be such as have been ready to shew mercy unto others judging them altogether unworthy of mercy at his hands who have afforded no mercy to their brethren for so the Scripture tels us that they shall have judgement without mercy that have shewn no mercy The tenour of our Petition for forgivenesse of sins in the Lords Prayer runs with this condition As we forgive them that trespasse against us And who can reade without trembling the Parable of the unmercifull servant in the Gospel to whom his Lord revoked the Debt he meant to have forgiven him because he shewed no mercy to his fellow-servant who owed him a far lesse Debt Shouldst thou not saith he have shewed compassion to thy fellow-servant as I shewed compassion unto thee